Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Deep dive into Australia's election results

Arthur Chrenkoff has some interesting observations.

Update

Wow! I didn't know Australia was the country that pioneered the secret ballot. On the other hand, Australia also pioneered Vegemite.

12 comments:

Gregoryno6 said...

"If the Greens want to win more House of Rep seats, they should – in an appropriately collectivist manner – forcibly resettle their voters to concentrate them in two or three dozen key seats, which would then give them sufficient seat by seat heft to win."
That would certainly sort the true believing wheat from the chaff. And there'd be far more chaff than wheat.

bruce said...

We also invented the Donkey Vote.

I remember Chrenkoff as a blogger, was he also in Blairistan?

45 years the left has been blaming a Murdoch conspiracy when they lose, but when Murdoch got Gough (Australia's Pierre Trudeau) elected they kept quiet. Murdoch goes wherever he sees an opening where he can make money, that's all.

Skeeter said...

Australia also pioneered the Torrens Title system of property law where the holder of the registered certificate can use it to show surveyed boundaries and proof of ownership. The system was developed in the colony of South Australia in 1857, adopted by all the other colonies (now states) by 1875 and has since spread worldwide.
I believe the reason Americans hate Vegemite is that Kraft never taught them how to use it correctly. I have seen them trowelling it on so thickly that even I would gag on it. The thinnest possible smear on buttered bread or hot toast is how we do it. Tastes a lot better than peanut butter, doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth, is rich in Vitamin B1 and is made from brewers yeast. How could it not be good for growing kids?

Paco said...

I'm sure Vegemite is fine stuff, once you get used to it - and, no doubt, the volume one uses in applying it to toast is key, as Skeeter says. Still, it does rather look like Vaseline mixed with gun powder. Maybe I'll buy a jar and "discover" this unique taste sensation, myself.

bruce said...

To be fair, local Vegemite was created to replace imported British Marmite which was apparently invented by a German in the 1890s. That stuff saved lives before proper understanding of nutrition so it was seen as a wonder food. Apparently the US version is known as Vegex. Not popular it seems.

I used to work in a lab with a bunch of USA-ians on Fulbright scholarships, where they grew E-coli cultures in bottles of yeast powder (ah the smell). We locals would entertain them at lunch time by eating our vegemite. Oh how they squirmed, 'You're eating that same stuff!'

Skeeter said...

I started to make a mental list of Australian inventions that I knew about and decided to google the topic to make sure I didn't miss any.
This link found 60 for me including, surprisingly, Google Maps.
https://www.weekendnotes.com/60-great-australian-inventions/
It missed a few more important ones have come to mind, for example the discovery that stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium and easily cured. Also 'freestyle' swimming (previously known as the Australian crawl).
Bruce and Gregory, makes you wonder how the rest of the world would have survived without us, eh?
Mr Paco, you may have trouble finding it in USA. In the 1970s I had an Aussie colleague based in San Francisco who could not buy it there. So I regularly delivered a 1 pound jar of Vegemite to my friend. He didn't need that much for his kids, but a lot of their schoolmates had become hooked on it. Let me know if you would like me to send you a jar.

bruce said...

Reminds me of a word I grew up using but now not heard, 'skite'. I was always warned against being too much of a skite, Skeeter old mate. We may have to dub thee Skiter! :-)

Paco said...

On behalf of the world, I say to Australia, much obliged!

The ulcer thing is particularly interesting. Old Paco, while still a relatively young man, suffered from ulcers before the connection to the bacterium - is it h. pylori? - was discovered. He wound up eventually having a third of his stomach cut out.

RebeccaH said...

Hey! Easy on the Vegemite. I happen to like the stuff, although I did have to learn the hard way how much to put on toast. You can get Vegemite through Amazon, actually, which is where I got mine.

Tried Marmite too, not so fond of that one.

bruce said...

It's nice on crumpets with melted butter.

Veeshir said...

We'll have to thank the Brits for tossing y'all out of their country!

Now I have to try vegemite. Skeeter's comment reminded me of when I had a huge slab of prosciutto my cousin made.

I didn't have a slicer so at first I cut it thick for a sandwich and it tasted like urine. Ugh.
Sliced thin it's great, sliced thick it's not good at all.

bruce said...

Vegemite is a by-product of beer making! Very bitter in raw form. Yeast - a wonderful thing which made civilization possible when used properly.