Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics
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Election07: Trilogy edition
*Announcements*: The Coalition has a [Hoons policy](http://liberal.org.au/about/documents/Hoonspolicy.pdf). And the ALP has a [trade policy](http://alp.org.au/media/1107/mstra210.php) and an [aged care workforce policy](http://alp.org.au/media/1107/msage210.php). *Polls*: No new polls, [but a couple of new markets to bet on the TPP and seats result](http://andrewleigh.com/?p=1710). Just three more days to go!
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Follow up to the word of the year
[Eating local is bad for the environment](http://www.reason.com/blog/show/123584.html). This isn’t very surprising. Economies of scale are very, very powerful. Plus the word ‘locavore’ makes me want to hurt things.
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Just two full days of caretaker left
[So you’ll have to work quickly to get a good high score on this game of throwing paper into a trashbin](http://www.jupitercolour.co.uk/dvdf/throwpaper.swf). Poor public servants, soon they’ll all have to work again…
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Celebrity Apprentice
[The cast for Celebrity Apprentice has been announced](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071119/ap_en_tv/tv_celebrity_apprentice_2;_ylt=AsBUhPjnDhlJRT0fF3FM0ToE1vAI). Including Gene Simmons of Kiss, Nadia Comaneci, boxing champ Lennox Lewis and a playboy playmate. The show itself will be dreadful, but the personality conflicts should be hilarious.
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Cost of Copyright Law
[A US Professor estimates that he could have $4.5 billion in copyright liability in a single year](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071119-overly-broad-copyright-law-has-made-us-a-nation-of-infringers.html). And that’s without trying very hard. He’s probably overstating his case a little (it’s not *that* typical a day he uses for his calculations). But the basic point is clear – copyright law is insane and massively out…
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Clever thinking
If you ask for an insurance quote from [AAMI](http://www.aami.com.au), they offer to email you another quote for the same details in 12 months time. Clever, shows that they’ve been thinking about the use case.
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Election07: Fantastic Edition
*Announcements*: [ALP regional policy](http://alp.org.au/media/1107/sperd200.php) and a couple of small packages of older policies from the coalition ([Water](http://liberal.org.au/about/documents/UrbanWater.pdf) and [Clean Energy](http://liberal.org.au/about/documents/CleanEnergy.pdf)). *Polls*: [Galaxy marginals](http://www.pollbludger.com/731) ALP 52 (a swing of 5.5). [Newspoll](http://www.pollbludger.com/729) ALP 54. Probably only one Newspoll before the big day now. *Other*: Some fuss over [the eligibility of 13 ALP candidates](http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22791352-601,00.html). Four days to go.
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It’s meant to be a metaphor
[Taking the computer desktop metaphor too far](http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/11/turn_your_walls_into_a_de.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890). It’s a nice image, but I doubt it would be very practical – you’d continually be shuffling folders on and off the wall.
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Useful knowledge
[Who would win in a fight, a penguin or a lemur](http://kev.elbowroomdesign.com/26/who-would-win-in-a-fight-between-a-penguin-and-a-lemur/). What’s most impressive is the length of the analysis here. Well, that and the correctness of the conclusion…
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Australia of the Rings?
[A map of Australia like the ones in the front of the Lord of the Rings books](http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/204-one-ring-to-rule-them-all-mate/). I take slight exception to the ‘Witch Realm of Canbrar’ bit, but given that it’s just about the clverest adaptation on the map I’ll let it go.