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Watcha Doin' - 2016.1
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Sandra, Moderator
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Jun 28, 2016 05:38AM
I totally understand your frustration, Sarah. Unfortunately it happens everywhere. People do not understand the importance and responsibility of their vote. Many people think that just one vote won't make a difference, so it doesn't care what they vote or the reasons why they vote it. Maybe we should all be better educated on this from a very young age.
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I have always said that we should be taught basic politics at school. I voted way before even knowing or understanding about right wing/left wing parties, how the voting system and government is structured etc. I guess it might be difficult to get teaching which is impartial but it's so important. My first ever vote was for a party who were campaigning to get rid of tuition fees. No idea what their other policies were like!
I couldn't believe, but yet could totally believe, that people were googling afterwards.I'm currently trying to teach a workmate before the weekend how to vote in the Australian election. She's 10 years older than me. She's always submitted a blank paper (as we all have to rock up to vote here). We cannot fathom that at my work, so the office is trying to teach her how it works and where her vote goes, and then leave her to vote how she wishes before the weekend.
It's a compulsory course in Yr 6 (11-12) here, we all have to learn about voting and the parliamentary process. But then we all hit teenagehood, and forget it all before we're 18. We're talking about reducing the age of voting to 16, but we need to push up learning about the parliamentary process to high school before we do that.
With regards to the whole Brexit saga, I read a comment online where the poster said they were talking to a 19 year old relative who voted 'Remain' because they thought the UK's geographical position would change if we voted to leave and they wouldn't be able to catch the Eurostar to France anymore because the UK would float away and end up in the middle of the ocean somewhere. I had to laugh, not at how they voted but their reasoning behind it. I mean, you just couldn't make it up.
Oh my Lisa, was that serious? We learned about politics and the government too during primary school. Not sure which grade, I think I was 10 years old, so 8 years before you actually get to vote.
A lot of people vote based on not good reasons. I know people who have voted for the same party all their lives without even knowing what they stand for. I mean, their ideas in the 70s are for sure different from their ideas now. I also know people who vote for a certain party only because their parents always did so.
Peggy wrote: "Oh my Lisa, was that serious? We learned about politics and the government too during primary school. Not sure which grade, I think I was 10 years old, so 8 years before you actually get to vote...."
I thought it was a joke at first but sadly, I think it was deadly serious.
It reminds me of this film clip I saw on facebook, where a guy asked a girl to imagine she ordered her favourite pizza, a large one, and the pizza-guy asked her whether she wanted it in 8 or 12 slices. She had to say what she would choose, and why. She decided on 8, because 12 was too much for her. She could finish 8 slices, but not those 4 extra.
/head deskJust wow Lisa. Not surprised in some ways, but in others, baffled!
I'm tempted to say that this is why not everyone should be allowed to vote. Harsh I know. Better education is the key though. Great to hear you guys are taught politics at school. That may be the case now here but wasn't when I went through school. I think the voting age should be lowered to 16 here too.
Lisa wrote: "With regards to the whole Brexit saga, I read a comment online where the poster said they were talking to a 19 year old relative who voted 'Remain' because they thought the UK's geographical positi..."That's as bad as the pizza video, where a girl is asked if she bought a large pizza, would she want it cut into 8 pieces or 12. She said 8 because she couldn't eat the other 4 pieces.
ETA - I see Peggy has seen the same video. (Helps to read all the comments before making my own.)
I have quite honestly been staying away from the news lately. It just gets so frustrating and I'm so tired of hearing about Trump and Hillary. So, for the most part, I've stayed out of the loop. I've heard about Brexit, but I'm not up to date on the deets. I should be a better world citizen and get up to date, I just don't have the desire right now. LOL.I have been paying attention to some local news (or possibly gossip). Two weeks ago a black man fled from a white police office during a routine traffic stop because he has an open felony arrest warrant against him. The man ran and hid underneath a house. The K-9 unit was called out to help locate him, which they did. The whole fiasco ended up with a severely injured dog, a moderately injured police officer, and a dead fugitive. It is a very sad situation for all involved.
The news has reported the family lawyers are requesting the officer be fired, the state flag be taken down from local gov't building, and a monetary settlement. They have 72 hours to comply with the families demands or they are filing a federal lawsuit. The potential rumor side of this is that people are saying there is going to be a Black Lives Matter protest Thursday and they are bringing people in from the Ferguson protests/riots. The potential for riots in what is typically a fairly peaceful small town is what scares me. Those sorts of things aren't supposed to happen here, that happens in the far off "big cities."
I fully support peaceful protests, but anyone who turned on the news during the Ferguson debacle knows there was nothing peaceful there. I really hope these are just rumors, or if there is a protest, it is a peaceful one.
#AllLivesMatter
It really sounds sad, Kimey. I hope the protests go peaceful and smoothly.
I am waiting at work for a phone call from Shanghai so that I can finish some work before I leave for vacation. I will probably be off line for the next week, unless I can catch some free Wi-Fi from McDonalds on my iPod (I don't have a smart phone). I am driving down to southern Oregon to visit my sister. She has no internet access at her house. We are going to be on the road much of the time anyway. We are going to meet my youngest daughter and her two teenagers on their way back from their California road trip to Death Valley and visit Crater Lake. I have to get groceries tonight and make sure everything is ready for my live-in granddaughter to take care of the house and my parrots. Laundry and sleep is on the agenda after that.
If I do not get back on-line before Monday - I hope all of the USA YLTO'ers have a safe and happy 4th of July!
Have a great and safe trip, Cherie!
Have a great trip, Cherie!
Sounds fun, Cherie. Crater Lake is amazing. Have a great time : )
Have a good trip Cherie!I too am off on a short trip tomorrow. My partner is going away for 2 weeks. He has volunteered on a youth project in which he, among others, are taking 20 kids on narrowboats from Wolverhampton up to Manchester. So I'm taking him part way so he can catch a train the rest of the way. That's not my trip though. My parents are coming to stay on the boat tomorrow and we're going on a trip in our boat. I've planned a little itinerary for us so I hope the weather improves. I felt like I needed to put the heating on yesterday. Then in a week, I'm off up North to join my partner for the second week of bringing the boats back on the return journey (and the kids will have gone home by then). I'm looking forward to that as we'll be going on 4 canals that we've not been on before and were not likely to get our boat up there anytime soon. We'll both be knackered by the end of the 2 weeks though. Boating daily takes it out of you, especially when there are a lot of locks.
Have a wonderful time, Cherie & Sarah! Sounds like you both have nice trips planned.
Sometimes working with students I really want to hit my head against a wall. I'm second assessor of a student's bachelor thesis, and she committed plagiarism from one of MY papers. And she knows I'm the second assessor. Seriously? Perhaps she didn't make the link between my name and the name on the paper, or perhaps she has a whole different definition of plagiarism, but these things can be so tiring sometimes.Thankfully only today and tomorrow and then I'm off for 3 weeks!
Sounds like a great plan, Sarah. I hope everyone has fun. Take your parents for a trip is an awesome idea. Peggy, I can't believe she plagiarized your paper! What a stupid thing to do!
Good luck and have fun, Cherie and Sarah! Travelling with family is always interesting. I just put in a weeks leave in today in November for doing the same with Lexx's family.Oh Peggy, that's pretty funny. One of the things we have problems with here is plagiarism in Asian cultures. We have the problem here that we teach citing and acknowledging ideas that come before with references and pointing out problems. Some cultures teach that you can't question and should adopt elders teaching and ideas as your own. So it poses a huge problem for plagiarism here in Aus. Particularly as it's the one thing you can be kicked out of uni for here.
But after dealing with a pretty big plagiarism case this week, throw the book at them is my advice ;)
Oh dear Peggy. That is dumb of her. I had something similar about 10 years ago after I first launched my website for my business. Another therapist at the same place I worked basically copied and pasted the whole of my site and put it on hers. Google doesn't like duplicate content and reduces your ranking so it's not good for either party. I emailed her, asked her to remove the text from her site. She did thankfully. Also something similar happened with my Hypnotherapy website a few years back. This time a friend lifted text off my site without asking. Although she asked me to give feedback on her website. That's how I found out. I think people don't realise that they'll get found out, it will be noticeable amongst all the other text, or that it's a bad thing. That said, it is repeated a lot at uni so your student should know better.
Yes holidays with parents can be tricky. I've not done it for a while. And we'll be in much smaller quarters than usual with being on the boat. I might have to take the canoe out in the evening if it gets too much ;-)
We experience cultural issues with Asian students too. This was a Dutch girl though :) She did cite me, but she just copy/pasted chunks of text, and they are taught again and again and again and again that they should always rewrite in their own words. It probably won't have severe consequences for her, but people who do this repeatedly can get kicked out as well.I'm glad your issues from a few years back got solved Sarah :)
KimeyDiann wrote: "I have quite honestly been staying away from the news lately. It just gets so frustrating and I'm so tired of hearing about Trump and Hillary. So, for the most part, I've stayed out of the loop. I'..."Kimey, I hope things settle down for you over there with no violence. It's definitely a scary sounding situation.
Cherie & Sarah, it sounds like you both will be having a lot of fun over the next couple of weeks. Safe travels to you both!That hast to be like a slap in the face to see your own work being plagiarized, Peggy! Especially when it is by someone that knows you will be reading it. I think a lot of people don't realize how big of a deal plagiarism can be. I've been out of the college environment for several years now, but some of my friends that are still in school or have went back to school have told me that the universities now load all of their student's papers into a software that searches for plagiarism. If an instance is found, it is an automatic failing grade on the assignment and possibly even the class, or you can be kicked out altogether. One of my friends got a failing grade because the software found plagiarism, but the content she supposedly copied was her own work from a few years prior. She appealed the decision and was eventually given the grade she deserved. But I guess that is a concern when you are taking classes in the same field and have to write reports on the same subject multiple times.
We use similar software Kimey. It scans the document, and you are automatically flagged if you score less than 80 (out of 100) on the scale. So it builds in some ability to miss a reference or stuff it up some what (hey, you're learning!). But you need to have a good reason after that point.
Oh geez, Peggy! Not smart of her at all!
Peggy wrote: "Sometimes working with students I really want to hit my head against a wall. I'm second assessor of a student's bachelor thesis, and she committed plagiarism from one of MY papers. And she knows I'..."That is not very smart of her, Peggy! No wonder you feel like banging your head against a wall sometimes!
That must have been a hassle for your friend, KimeyDiann. Haven't heard of this happening before - being caught for plagiarizing oneself. Some kind of metaphysical infraction it sounds like ; )Have a great time on your family trip, Sarah, and then on your excursion to bring boats home. Sounds like a great youth project. Btw, i wanted to thank you again for recommending the I Can Make You Sleep book and cd. That has really helped me turn the tide in my insomnia issues. It's like i've successfully hit the reset button. It's so helpful to be getting good sleep!
I think auto-plagiarism is a type of plagiarism too. Maybe it is more tolerated, but it is not seen with good eyes.
That is great to hear TJ. I'm really pleased the book/CD has been helping you :-)
Sandra wrote: "I think auto-plagiarism is a type of plagiarism too. Maybe it is more tolerated, but it is not seen with good eyes."I understand its serious implications, but was having a bit of a jest -- thinking along the lines of is cloning a form of self-plagiarism? Humor is difficult to convey online i find.
:) Yes, I got it, TJ. I was replying more Kimey's comment than yours. :)
Election eve here tonight. Spent the evening researching parties I have to vote for tomorrow. We have compulsory voting here, and the simple version of our voting rules is that you get a ballot paper with all candidates on it, and we have to number all of them with 1 from most wanted, to least wanted.Lexx and I were going through and realised we had 4 parties we were happy to give votes to, but the other 8 not... and then it was a night of looking at websites and videos trying to establish who was less crazy than others. My head hurts with anti-immigration, anti-vax, anti-young people (yes, it's a thing), anti-EVERYTHING (also a thing), party policies.
Reviewing books to make me feel better. We've got 3 hours of handing out "How to Vote" cards for our party tomorrow (pieces of paper that say "VOTE FOR US!" and then how to distribute your votes afterwards in case you're undecided. I'm not a huge fan, but I understand the need).
So I'll either be all for the democratic process tomorrow (especially if I get my democracy sausage (none of that, a sausage cooked on a bbq on a piece of white bread with fried onions and tomato sauce - a sausage sizzle every other day in 3 years, but not on election day), or lamenting mankind. Part of me knows it can't be as bad as the UK, but you never know, we may end up with half the parliament full of the equivalent of UKIP.
P.S. Our ballot paper is small. We have 12 parties. Friends in Victoria and NSW have over 40, and their ballot paper is just under a metre long (3 feet). Just trying to work out who is for what does your head in.Health party = anti vax
Sustainable Australia = nothing to do with climate change, are a racist anti-immigration party.
The whole thing is a lesson in real life double-speak
Wow, Rus. As daunting as having that many options and having to number them from favorite to least-favorite sounds, I wish we had something more like that here in the States. When it comes to presidential elections, there may be other parties in the running, but it is almost like they don't even exist. I think since the first dozen or so US presidents, the only two parties that have been elected are the Republicans or Democrats. I find it very frustrating that the smaller parties don't get the attention they deserve, which basically takes them out of the running. I'm sure some great leaders are overlooked simply because they don't get the publicity that the Dems and Repubs get.
We have a lady in our office who just moved over from Philadelphia a few weeks before the election campaign started, and we've been having some great convos re: the differences between the two systems.Sorry, this should be said it's just for the Senate. I have another ballot paper tomorrow (much smaller) for the House of Representatives. And then our Prime Minister is then the leader of the party that has the most votes in the House of Reps. So by 10pm tomorrow night (only 20 hours away) hopefully we will know what is going on here.
You have to sort ALL names on the ballot?! Wow... Can imagine a lot of people will do it randomly (except maybe the top and bottom), if it's compulsory but you can't really be bothered. I actually like the Dutch system :)
I agree, Peggy. I'm pretty sure I would know my top couple of favorites and bottom couple of least favs and just do the rest randomly, especially if the ballot is 3 feet long. That could really mess up the election I imagine, but I know most people are lazy and, unfortunately, I must admit to being lazy too. You've probably said before, but how does the Dutch system work?
There are 150 seats in the House of Representatives, and you vote on one party and one person in that party. The number of seats a party gets is a direct translation from the number of votes, and if a party gets 40 seats then the 40 people who received the most votes will get a seat. There are usually 10-15 parties (from very right-wing to very left-wing) that receive enough votes to get seats.The party with most votes takes the lead in forming a coalition with other parties (can be 1 other, but sometimes also 2 or 3 or 4) so that they have a total of at least 76 seats together. The other parties are the opposition. So there's never one party that has all the power, they always have to work together with some of the others.
Edit: oh, and the number 1 person of the party with most votes (who is basically always already the leader of that party) becomes our prime minister.
I'm sure this system has disadvantages too but overall I'm satisfied :)
I've heard of that system before Peggy. I can see it working. Here we're voting for who gets our seat to represent our geographical area which is split by number of people. Each seat represents X number of Australians.The thing is that I love it, as it means I choose exactly where my vote goes. If my 1 doesn't get enough votes to be elected, then my vote goes to number 2, and so on. I choose exactly the order of whom my vote elects. My Senate paper is only 22 boxes, but that is because we're not a State (Senators represent the whole State, not your smaller area). States have the long ballot papers. Then there is the House of Representatives paper where you have to number every box but then they are usually only up to 12 people long. Mine's 4 today.
There are shorter ways of voting, where you only number 6 or 12 boxes, but they are more complicated to explain.
A lot of people just vote for the person they know (or know of) and guess the rest. Others research every single party and what they stand for. And with the internet, that has helped a lot. A friend of mine and his mates have a website they've set up that looks at every single party on the Senate ballots in Australia and written short blurbs, likes and dislikes of all parties with links to their websites (http://www.donkeyvotie.org/ and with a literary pun). So with that you can get an idea of those you've never heard of and see what you need to research more for example.
And you do that as you don't want to accidentally vote for crazies. That's really important, as it's happened lots before, so if you're politically engaged, you want to help balance out those not. But it does do your head in a bit, a friend of mine put it perfectly on Facebook this morning "It's the moment when you're trying to differentiate between to overtly racist options as against the covertly racist and incidentally racist options that the depression sets in."
Right. Enough of that. Off to participate in democracy, help convince people to vote for people I like, and find a democracy sausage.Then maybe some tequila so if everything goes to hell in a handbasket like the Brexit vote, I still have margaritas. See you on the other side.
Taking a look to that website, Rusalka, I can see how difficult the decision is.
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