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  1. Seeing a lot of people talking about Germany in response to . Unfortunately, DE has it’s own problems with rising “alt” far-right. Saw this in town today:

    It’s an election poster for the AfD (“Alternative for Germany”). Roughly translated it says “Burkas? We like Bikinis. Trust yourself, Germany!”. They’re growing in popularity, especially in places like this town, historically with strong (10%) NPD (Nazi) voting base. Their posters are either bullshit like this, or cleverly framed statements about borders, pensions, schools, children, “taking back control” etc.

  5. “[Whilst] rational actor models are, in themselves, morally blameless… …the use of such models to change the world is not morally neutral. Rational-actor models are metaphorical human constructions humanly imposed. They are not a feature of the world in itself. They can be used insightfully or not, fruitfully or not. How we choose to use them is not a “rational choice” as defined in the models. Not to understand this is truly irrational” — Lakoff & Johnson, Philosophy in the Flesh

  8. demonstrates poor voter turnout not solved by fancy technology (to “engage the young people”) but by giving people a choice that they feel empowered by.

    Update: more electronic voting skepticism in this report (warning: PDF), also has interesting data on gender in voting.

  12. Unusually large police presence in Reykjavik today (as in, there were 20 of them) and metal fences around Althingi. It seems that even here, new governments are afraid of the people who elected them.