Reading some neglected mail from 2007, I happen to see a quotation from Prof Paz’s speech in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress:

“You might even consider installing the candidates who receive the least number of votes; unpopular men may be just the sort to save you from a new tyranny. Don’t reject the idea merely because it seems preposterous–think about it! In past history popularly elected governments have been no better and sometimes far worse than overt tyrannies.”

Of course, if everyone knows this is the rule, the candidate elected will not be the least popular but the least unpopular, the one who inspires the fewest voters to say “anyone else!”.

But this gives an inappropriate advantage to unknowns. There ought to be a qualifying round of positive voting before the negative vote.

Approval voting takes care of both phases at once, meseems.

I miss the popup menu of recent pages in this tab, that was beside the back/forward buttons in Firefox 3.

The bar at the bottom of the window has gone away, to save space for content; status notices now appear in floaters over content, in the same place. I’m not in love with this behavior.

I watched 27 minutes of The Plainsman (1936) and found it unpromising. Then I looked up Cecil DeMille and was a little surprised that I had never seen any of his work, other than his cameo in Sunset Blvd.

The Big Clock (1948) starts slow but pays off quite well.

I enjoyed the first half of Jekyll (2007) more than the second half.

I have a recurring daydream that a cop asks permission to search my car and I say: “Fine, if I get to search yours.”

Or: “Okay, provided that you do so in the nude. Nothing to hide, right?”

Or: “If you’ll sign this contract accepting personal liability for any damage to my property, and agreeing to pay me $120/hour for my inconvenience. Oh, and I’ll just check your pockets for contraband first.”

Gotta wonder what would happen.

In 1983 and 1989, major earthquakes came when I had a fever; my first reaction was “Am I sicker than I thought?”.

After I fell ill on Tuesday, I joked that I was waiting for an earthquake, but really I wasn’t serious.

(I’m still sore and congested.)

Everyone needs coffee cups, right?

My newest incoming link is from Wendy Krieger, whose site you should definitely see if you’re interested in polytopes, duodecimalism or the letter Þ.