Gongol.com Archives: March 2014
America's electoral system means we form our coalitions before the general election
In many other representative democracies -- especially those with proportional-vote systems and weak executives -- they wait to form governing coalitions until after the general election, in which it's every party for itself. Our first-past-the-post approach and strong executive branch naturally wedge us into a two-party system -- so we get factions within two mainstream parties, rather than lots of highly-differentiated parties that form temporary governing coalitions. Is it better for America's Republican Party to have primary fights between "Tea Party" types and "Main Street" types than to face a chaotic German-style vote in which direct votes and proportional votes are mixed, with 34 individual parties in the chase? We just form our coalitions earlier than our more parliamentary counterparts.
What might make Google worry about smartphones
In general, Google will have to make an incredible number of right decisions over the next ten to fifteen years if it wants to match any of the success of its first decade and a half. That's going to be a really, really tall order...and the chances of them making it without major pain aren't great.
Experian may have let loose an incredible amount of consumer data to a crook
A word about 80s awareness
(Video) Kevin Bacon shows up with an important public-service announcement
"We left the keys in it..."
(Video)
