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Archive date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 12:41:03
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Article 24242
From: Filksinger
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:52:11 -0800
Subject: Get the Claus!
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
In Switzerland, the big present-giving day apparently isn't Christmas,
it is St. Nicholas Day, 19 days prior. In the small town of Kuessnacht
in the Swiss Alps, they have mixed this with old pagan traditions of
driving out evil spirits. The results are, to say the least, unusual.
On St. Nicholas Eve, they have the Klausjagen, or "Claus Hunt". Young
men (the festivities are strictly stag) get horns, bells, two-handed
sheep whips, and "Iffelen" or "Infuln", six-foot tall, three-foot wide
lit-up hats that look like a cross between a bishop's mitre and a
stained-glass window. (These elaborate hats are made by hand starting as
early as the previous May.) They then run through the town chasing St.
Nick (who, no dummy, is nowhere to be found), occasionally stopping to
drink. They continue until the next morning at about 6 AM, whereupon the
entire town is then neatly cleaned up (they are Swiss, after all).
See:
http://tinyurl.com/4dwfy
and
http://www.klausjagen.ch
(Click on the appropriate flag in the upper right corner to get a
version you can (mostly) read. To see the accoutrements described above,
click on "Instruments".)
--
Filksinger
AKA David Nasset, Sr.
Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24243
From: David M. Silver"
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 05:38:14 -0800
Subject: Re: Get the Claus!
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
In article <41c7e437.0@news.sff.net>,
Filksinger <filksinger@earthling.net> wrote:
> http://www.klausjagen.ch
> (Click on the appropriate flag in the upper right corner to get a
> version you can (mostly) read. To see the accoutrements described above,
> click on "Instruments".)
If you click on "Procession" you get a fairly long and pretty neat video
of the festivities. Thanks, David.
--
David M. Silver
http://www.heinleinsociety.org
"The Lieutenant expects your names to shine!"
Robert Anson Heinlein, USNA '29
Lt.(jg), USN, R'td
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Article 24244
From: JT
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:59:22 -0500
Subject: Re: Get the Claus!
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:52:11 -0800, Filksinger
<filksinger@earthling.net> wrote:
>occasionally stopping to
>drink. They continue until the next morning at about 6 AM, whereupon the
>entire town is then neatly cleaned up (they are Swiss, after all).
>
I knew when I started to read that "stopping to drink" had to be in
there somewhere. And I bet as the night goes on there's more stopping
and less chasing. ;)
JT
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24245
From: Filksinger
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:24:24 -0800
Subject: Here We Go Again!
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
King County and the Democrats got their wish. The over 700 ballots that
were mistakenly rejected are now being reconsidered. The State Supreme
Court ruled unanimously that the ballots should be counted. They also
clarified the previous ruling that had been cited by the lower court in
ruling against counting the ballots.
Now it appears that the vote will be, at most, no more than a dozen
votes one way or another. The Democrats are projecting an eight vote win
for Gregoire.
If the Republicans lose, they claim that there are over 500 ballots in
other counties that they carried that weren't recounted. They claim that
the same misinterpretation of the prior Supreme Court decision had been
used to reject these ballots, and they are ready to sue to ensure they
are counted, too.
I like the suggested solution of Ken Schramm, local commentator. He
suggests that they actually do as has been suggested, hold a new
election, and, due to voter disgust with both of the lead candidates,
watch the first Libertarian governor of Washington take office.
--
Filksinger
AKA David Nasset, Sr.
Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24246
From: Filksinger
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:54:36 -0800
Subject: It's Over! (Yah, Right.)
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
After counting the votes in King County, Gregoire won by only 10 votes,
even without the additional 700+ that the state Supreme Court ordered
counted. With them, she wins by 130. The Democrats were required by
state law to pay $730,000 for the hand recount, and now get reimbursed,
since the recount reversed the result.
Officially, every county has certified their votes, thought the
Washington Secretary of State isn't expected to finalize the
certification for the state until the 30th. He has indicated that he
will certify it "as-is", making Gregoire the winner.
This would be the end, but the Republicans don't want to accept it, so
they are organizing protesters and preparing their law suits. There are
a number of votes that were rejected under the rules, but which the
Republicans argue are valid anyway and should still be counted.
The state Supreme Court had ruled that "recanvassing" was forbidden,
meaning that, once properly rejected, you couldn't go back and look at a
vote again to see if maybe you could use it anyway. (This is essentially
what was decided by the US Supreme Court in 2000, and I firmly agree.)
The Democrats and King County then found the over 700 votes. These
votes, which were accounted for every step of the way, went through one
step of the rejection process and failed (computer-scanned signatures
didn't find a match in the database), but not the second step (humans
read the signatures and look at the actual records). A Superior Court
judge ruled that the previous ruling said the votes couldn't be counted.
The State Supreme Court clarified that "recanvassing" and "correcting
mistakes in procedure" were not the same, and ordered the votes counted.
(Again, I agree.)
The Republicans claim that this clairification allows them to include
their rejected ballots. The ballots that they have were rejected _by
procedure_, but the Republicans then took the rejected ballots and went
hunting for people whose ballots were rejected (people who voted for
Rossi only, I believe.) They found some 200+ such people, and are
insisting that these votes be counted.
Note that this is the very definition of "recanvassing", and
deliberately biased recanvassing, at that. I'm no lawyer, but, frankly,
I believe that not only is their argument pure bullshit, but that they
(at least their lawyers) know it is.
They are also claiming possible "irregularities" in how the votes were
handled (read "vote fraud") in King County. The Elections Board
unanimously disagrees. Even the lone Republican member insists that
there were no such "irregularities", and that the rules for handling the
ballots to ensure no tampering were properly followed. (Again, I agree.
The ballots were, as best I can determine, handled much better than many
others across the country. Those votes can be traced back every step of
the way, and King Count took pretty good care of them. All the evidence
is that those 700+ votes were put in the wrong cage, not added later in
secret.)
There is disagreement as to whether the law says any such suit by the
Republicans should be heard by the state legislature or the state
Supreme Court. If the Republicans don't win there (or do and reverse the
results again) I now think this thing will go all the way to the United
States Supreme Court.
Personally, like it or not (I don't care, actually) I have to side with
the Dems on this one, not that their hands are clean (they tried similar
recanvassing earlier). The first recount was mandatory. It came up with
43 votes difference. A manual recount, at that point, was not
unreasonable, though I'll admit that the public relations hit might not
have been worth it. The votes in King County that were improperly
rejected should have been counted.
And the Republican's attempt at recanvassing, well, they can take those
votes, fold them until they are all sharp corners, and....
--
Filksinger
AKA David Nasset, Sr.
Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24247
From: Filksinger
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:57:09 -0800
Subject: Martian Car Wash
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6824
--
Filksinger
AKA David Nasset, Sr.
Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24248
From: Ed Johnson
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 21:54:12 -0500
Subject: Re: Martian Car Wash
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
FS: I guess that they didn't see anyone begging for money after the
'free' solar panel cleaning? ;-)
Ed J
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:57:09 -0800, Filksinger
<filksinger@earthling.net> wrote:
>http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6824
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24249
From: Ed Johnson
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:59:25 -0500
Subject: Re: Martian Car Wash
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
Filksinger: Do you think that some of those killed in the Tsunami
could have been saved by an early warning system? Tens of thousands
of people were killed more than an hour after the 8.9 (later
upgraded to: Richter 9.0) quake was recorded at stations around the
world.Pleanty of time to have reached some number of vacationers on
the beach. I tuned into the news late and heard that tidal waves had
killed thousands near India. My first thought was that a meteor had
impacted the water. The repeat broadcast then mentioned the huge
underwater earthquake.
Ed J
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 22:57:09 -0800, Filksinger
<filksinger@earthling.net> wrote:
>http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6824
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24250
From: Filksinger
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 21:47:59 -0800
Subject: Tsunami (was Re: Martian Car Wash)
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
Ed Johnson wrote:
> Filksinger: Do you think that some of those killed in the Tsunami
> could have been saved by an early warning system? Tens of thousands
> of people were killed more than an hour after the 8.9 (later
> upgraded to: Richter 9.0) quake was recorded at stations around the
> world.Pleanty of time to have reached some number of vacationers on
> the beach. I tuned into the news late and heard that tidal waves had
> killed thousands near India. My first thought was that a meteor had
> impacted the water. The repeat broadcast then mentioned the huge
> underwater earthquake.
>
> Ed J
An early warning system would be bound to have saved _some_ people, but
how many is a big question. People in the area really had no idea what
to do about the tsunami. There hasn't been a significant tsunami that
hit land in the Indian Ocean in 100 years.
The early warning system here in the Pacific Northwest has saved lives,
but we have two advantages. The first is we have a history of
earthquakes and tsunamis, so anybody who lives on the coast presumably
knows about the threat. The second is that our terrain makes a very big
difference. We have a very rugged coastline. The distance from sea level
to too high for even that tsunami to hurt is often measured in tens of feet.
However, I would love to see a decent worldwide system. It might help
the US a lot, too. As I understand it, the Pacific is the only ocean
with a good warning system for most of its coastline. The Atlantic could
use one, too, as well as the Indian and Mediterranean. Some scientists
are actually predicting that the Atlantic may, in the next 100 years or
so, have a tsunami which will reach as much as 50 meters when it hits
Florida, and 100 meters in parts of Africa. The Indian Ocean tsunami was
only 15 meters, for comparison.
--
Filksinger
AKA David Nasset, Sr.
Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24251
From: Filksinger
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 22:15:01 -0800
Subject: Reboot the Election
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
Dino Rossi and the Republicans are officially calling for a new election
in the Washington gubernatorial race. Frankly, I don't think they have a
leg to stand on. They claim the new election would benefit even a
Democratic winner, by removing the "cloud of suspicion" from this election.
Near as I can tell, the only "cloud of suspicion" around is them
claiming that they are suspicious. Among the other "suspicious"
circumstances they point to ballots that weren't always locked up in
cages. They know this, because the video tape from the surveillance
cameras shows that the ballots were left out, unwatched except for armed
security guards who are on the tape, and the video tape itself.
--
Filksinger
AKA David Nasset, Sr.
Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
Article 24252
From: Lorrita Morgan"
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 12:05:29 -0800
Subject: Re: Reboot the Election
Newsgroups: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
This is going to be an interesting four years. If they do succeed in
getting a "revote" can we write in Franz Kafka? (someone else must have
read that story that I can't find the bib data for.)
--
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
`rita
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
"Filksinger" <filksinger@earthling.net> wrote in message
news:41d39ce4.0@news.sff.net...
> Dino Rossi and the Republicans are officially calling for a new election
> in the Washington gubernatorial race. Frankly, I don't think they have a
> leg to stand on. They claim the new election would benefit even a
> Democratic winner, by removing the "cloud of suspicion" from this
election.
>
> Near as I can tell, the only "cloud of suspicion" around is them
> claiming that they are suspicious. Among the other "suspicious"
> circumstances they point to ballots that weren't always locked up in
> cages. They know this, because the video tape from the surveillance
> cameras shows that the ballots were left out, unwatched except for armed
> security guards who are on the tape, and the video tape itself.
>
> --
> Filksinger
> AKA David Nasset, Sr.
> Geek Prophet to the Technologically Declined
------------------------------------------------------------
============================================================
Archive of: sff.discuss.heinlein-forum
Archive desc: The Internet home for the Heinlein Forum
Archived by: webnews@sff.net
Archive date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 12:41:03
First article in this archive: 24242
Last article in this archive: 24252
Oldest article in this archive: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:52:11 -0800
Newest article in this archive: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:13:01 -0500