Who Likes Tony?

Oh dear, it appears Tony's ratings are falling plummeting:

More here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/06/tony-abbotts-popularity-plunges-latest-polls-show?CMP=ema_792

How Australia’s winking Tony Abbott became one of the world’s most unpopular prime ministers

This is how the rest of the world is viewing our Prime Minister:

"Tony Abbott, has quickly become one of the world’s most hated prime ministers. He just unveiled a draconian austerity budget that analysts call the most extreme and least popular of the past four decades in Australia. His approval rating has plunged to 30 percent. And then there’s the irreverent hashtag #MorePopularThanAbbott, which suggests that both toilet paper and flat tires are more popular than the prime minister."

Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/22/how-australias-winking-tony-abbott-became-one-of-the-worlds-most-unpopular-prime-ministers/

Spotted At The Whitehouse Institute Of Design

Alternative Ending To "Titanic"

Liberal Party Phone Sex

Stop The Boats!!!

Game Theory

Game theory is a study of strategic decision making. Specifically, it is "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers".  An alternative term is interactive decision theory.  Game theory is mainly used in economics, political science, and psychology, as well as logic and biology. The subject first addressed zero-sum games, such that one person's gains exactly equal net losses of the other participant(s). Today, however, game theory applies to a wide range of behavioral relations, and has developed into an umbrella term for the logical side of decision science, including both humans and non-humans (e.g. computers).

One of the defining characteristics of Game Theory is that its conclusions ususally appear counterintuitive.  Here's a list:

• People often take aggressive postures that lead to mutually bad outcomes even though mutual cooperation is mutually preferable. Source.
• Even if everyone agrees that an outcome is everyone’s favorite, they might not get that outcome. Source.
• Sometimes having fewer options is better than having more options. Source.
• On a penalty kick, soccer players should kick toward their weaker side more frequently than their stronger side. Source.
• In a duel, both gunslingers should shoot at the same time, even if one is a worse shot and would seem to benefit by walking closer to his target. Source.
• There’s a reason why gas stations are on the same corner and politicians adopt very similar platforms. And it’s the same reason. Source.
• Closing roads can improve everyone’s commute time. Source.
• Fewer witnesses to a crime might be preferable to more. Source.
• You should bid how much you value the good at stake in a second price auction. Source.
• If you pay the value you think something is worth, you are going to end up with a negative net profit. Source.
• Lighting money on fire is often profitable. Source.
• Going to college can be valuable even if college doesn’t teach you anything. Source.
• An animal might be better off jumping high in the air repeatedly than running away from a predator. Source.
• Knowing just slightly more about the value of your car than a potential buyer can make it impossible to sell it. Source.
• Nigerian email scammers should say they are from Nigeria even though just about everyone is familiar with the scam. Source.
• Everyone might mimic everyone else just because two people chose to do the same thing. Source.
• A biased media may be better than an unbiased media. Source.
• Every voting system is manipulable. Source.
• You might want to abstain from voting even though you strictly prefer one candidate to another. Source.
• Unanimous jury rulings are more likely to convict the innocent than simple majority rule if jurors vote intelligently. Source.
• The House of Representatives caters to the median member of the majority party, not the median member of the institution overall. Source.
• Plurality voting leads to two-party systems. Source.
• United Nations Security Council members sometimes do not veto resolutions even though they strongly dislike them. Source.
• Without the ability to propose offers, you receive very few benefits from bargaining. Source.
• Settlements always exist that are mutually preferable to war. Source.
• Fighting wars removes the need for war. Source.
• You might want to shoot to miss in war. Source.
• Nonproliferation agreements can be credible. Source.
• Weapons inspections are useful even if they never find anything. Source.
• Economic sanctions are useful even though they often fail in application. Source.
• Pitchers shouldn’t change their pitch selection with a runner on third base, even though curveballs are more likely to result in wild pitches. Source.
• Sports teams can benefit from a lack of player safety in contract negotiations. Source.
• You shouldn’t try to maximize your score in Words with Friends/Scrabble. Source.
• In speed sailing, competitors deliberately choose paths they believe will be slower. Source.
• The first player wins in Connect Four. Checkers ends in a draw. Source.
• Chess has a solution, though we don’t know it yet. Source. (Or maybe not.)
• Warren Buffett was never going to pay $1 billion the winner of the March Madness bracket challenge. Source.
• Park Place is worthless in McDonald’s Monopoly. Source.
• Losing pays. Source.
• As drug tests become more accurate, they should be implemented less often. Source.

Read the whole article here: http://wjspaniel.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/game-theory-is-really-counterintuitive/

Tony On Keeping Promises (Lying)

Inside the Saudi 9/11 coverup

So you've probably heard all the various loony conspiracy theories but the real conspiracy is that the Saudis officially and unofficially, helped the hijackers both financially and logistically.  Its largely agreed that the redacted portion of the 2002 report, “Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001” directly address' this.  This makes the 9/11 attacks not just an act of terrorism, but an act of war.

Oddly enough President Bush Jr. inexplicably censored 28 full pages of the 800-page report.  Why?  Nobody is really sure except that two days after the 9/11 attacks the President and Saudi ambassador Bandar met in the White House and the two old family friends shared cigars on the Truman Balcony while discussing the attacks.  Hours latter the FBI began evacuating from the United States dozens of Saudi officials, as well as Osama bin Laden family members.

And where will you find these outrageous allegations?  In the pages of the infamously left wing New York Post...

Read the whole article here: http://nypost.com/2013/12/15/inside-the-saudi-911-coverup/

Cat Saves the Day!

Good Advice (Religion)

LP Dividers

Beg, borrow or buy 30 or so old LP's that you have no intention of using.  Drizzle PVA glue (eg: Aquadhere) into the empty cover, and push the record in about half way, or as far as you want the record to stick out, and push together the two sides of the cover so the record sticks. One easy way of doing this is to place other records on top of the dividers so the weight would seal it better. Use cheap discount store adhesive letters and numbers to label the dividers and away you go.

Leunig - Meditation On Two Photographs

A Whale And A Bowl Of Petunias

Economics In A Nutshell

 

Economics is organized common sense. Here is a short list of valuable lessons that  Economics teaches:

1. Many things that are desirable are not feasible.

2. Individuals and communities face trade-offs.

3. Other people have more information about their abilities, their efforts, and their preferences than you do.

4. Everyone responds to incentives, including people you want to help. That is why social safety nets don’t always end up working as intended.

5. There are tradeoffs between equality and efficiency.

6. In an equilibrium of a game or an economy, people are satisfied with their choices. That is why it is difficult for well meaning outsiders to change things for better or worse.

7. In the future, you too will respond to incentives. That is why there are some promises that you’d like to make but can’t. No one will believe those promises because they know that later it will not be in your interest to deliver. The lesson here is this: before you make a promise, think about whether you will want to keep it if and when your circumstances change. This is how you earn a reputation.

8. Governments and voters respond to incentives too. That is why governments sometimes default on loans and other promises that they have made.

9. It is feasible for one generation to shift costs to subsequent ones. That is what national government debts and the U.S. social security system do (but not the social security system of Singapore).

10. When a government spends, its citizens eventually pay, either today or tomorrow, either through explicit taxes or implicit ones like inflation.

11. Most people want other people to pay for public goods and government transfers (especially transfers to themselves).

12. Because market prices aggregate traders’ information, it is difficult to forecast stock prices and interest rates and exchange rates.