Magere Hein

We already knew, we use modern communication technology.

AFAIK you are not from across the pond so stop using shitty Yank expressions. He's been doing that from the get-go, LFN... You really knocked the ball out the park with that joke tmib!! I stepped up to the plate, didn't I? All gung-ho, I see.

This is a question particularly intended for RadGuy, but others may know an answer as well. I've recently become interested in the Polish language. I encounter it regularly in my part of town. I searched on the web for a newbie course. There's quite a lot out there, but much of it is basic conversation; very useful, but not quite what I'm looking for. My primary aim is being able to read a Polish newspaper. Understanding spoken Polish and conversation are secondary targets. Any suggestions?

On 26 March Dutch baseball player and football player Hugo Walker died, aged 81. For millions of Dutch this face is unfamiliar, but Walker's voice isn't. He did football commentary on the Sunday evening TV sports programs Studio Sport. He's probably best known for his phrase "Komt dat schot!" ("There's the kick!"). komtdatschot.mp3

Hehe. I imagine that line used by manufacturers of fire arms.

Good find, IDIOT. I'm afraid not. That's "bbc.news.uk.com", not "bbc.co.uk/news". Only the latter is the real thing written by Auntie.

Sectator: onlooker in need of a pee.

I recall steam coming from somewhere, but not the ears. It's a SFW metaphore metaphor. Not that metaphores metaphors are SFW, but it's a Sunday. There, FTFY. Thank you, mr Josco. I'm sorry, mr Josco, my little sister distracted me.

I recall steam coming from somewhere, but not the ears. It's a SFW metaphore. Not that metaphores are SFW, but it's a Sunday.

I do; Dutch spelling interfered. I've been writing Dutch all day, with some English here for replacement activity. One of the things I wrote was a translation of a German Wikipedia page to Dutch. Ja! Bijherhond dat of de flipperwoudt gerspoet! Some Dutch are. The constitution (Grondwet art 53) mandates PR, but the actual system is part of the Election Act (Kieswet 1989), so it can be changed by simple majority in both Houses of Parliament. A few parties, particularly small ones (D'Hondt gives large parties more seats per vote by a few percent), put electoral reform on the political agenda regularly, but it's not a hot campaign issue. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing that I really like about Dutch parliament: many parties are represented, 16 currently, although 5 of those have split from other parties since the 2012 general election.

Since a lingering chest complaint, later cured by a skillful pulmonologist, saved me from the draft, I applaud the choice of charity. Have a cigar.

Oh, forgot about Stompe. He does looks like heart attack material to me, but not soon.

Yes, of course, that is an exact reflection of me now Didn't the Visigoths grow into Vandals?

Oh, now that I think of it: perhaps it's a good idea to specify a default entry time, e.g. noon UT, as a tie breaker in case of close finishes. Sam Simon got me into some pain with that.

25 April 2015, 3 am UT

I'm amazed as you are MH, sadly in the UK unless you are a footballer or darts player, I think it less rather than more likely for a qualifying obit. (Ooh, darts players for next year...*makes note*). There are a few more categories: royalty, very old former prime ministers, Nobel Prize winners, ESC winners, Rutger Hauer. The problem with darts players is that the oldest and unhealthiest of the Dutch crop is RVB. Obit assured, but nowhere near death. I don't expect RVB to live well past retirement age; I tried him on my theme team a few times, with disappointing results.

Some people write more than they read. In her genre that's not too difficult.

Does this work well? That question is a bit tricky to answer. The differences with FPtP are large in effect. Since the proportion of seats a party gets roughly represents the proportion of the vote it attracts, rather than the proportion of constituencies it wins, it's very hard for any party to win an absolute majority. A 'hung parliamnent' is the natural state of things. The system has both advantages and disadvantages: Advantages: Representation of parties attracting small proportions of the vote Just a few percent of the vote is not represented Easy access to representation for new parties Disadvantages:Representatives are selected by their parties, not the electorate (with some refinements); there's little personal contact between voter and representative. Permanently hung parliament, so always a coalition government/executive Winning the election doesn't necessarily mean being part of that coalition Coalition negotiations can take very long. Several weeks is normal, several months not uncommon Junior parties find few of their polling issues realised in coalition agreements Neutral or both:Electoral change rarely results in major policy changes Government coalitions rarely hold for the full parliamentary term of 4 years, early general elections are pretty normal Polls rarely have the drama UK general elections have, which is a bit of a shame. The statistical models analists use are so good, that after a few municipalities have declared results, they predict the final result to within on or two seats of the eventual result. Often the outcome is pretty clear an hour after the polling stations close. In the Netherlands a cabinet position is incompatible with being an MP. This also means that cabinet members can be recruited from outside parliament and often are. Occasionally parties push useless dweebs1 in cabinet positions and some coalitions fall apart soon after formation. Junior parties in the coalistion often have a disproportionately large influence on policy. I think it all works reasonably well. There's room for improvement, but it seems to suit the Dutch quite well. 1After coalition formation this regularly leads to hilarious situations. Especially parties new to government, but the established ones as well, often fail to screen their candidates well. This has led to several occasions in which cabinet members resigned, hours after being sworn in, because the press dug up ugly facts about them, such as porkies on their CV. ETA: Can somebody shoot the person who programmed the new IPB editor? It screws up my edits

PR, D'Hondt method.

Much as I deplore the fate of my theme team picks this season, I rather like the current DDP obit approval rule. It's part of the challange. Now that I think of it, I wonder how many Low Countries dead get a DDP approved obit each year. I'd be surprised if the number would pass 20.

Perhaps the "Derby" bit in DDP gives a clue.

I was a bit surprised at the number of seats that's being contested in this election. So I copied some numbers from Wikipedia and did the arithmatic. Ignoring senates, upper houses and such fluff: |ISO| population | MPs | proportion | UK | 64,100,0001 | 6502 | 98,615 | NL | 16,912,6403 | 1504 | 112,751 For comparison: | DE | 80,716,0005 | 6316 | 127,918 | IS | 325,6717 | 638 | 5169 | IN |1,210,193,4229 | 55210 | 2,192,379 It turns out the proportion of MPs to total population is pretty close to the one in the Netherlands. 12013 estimate 2House of Commons 32015 estimate 4Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 52014 estimate 6Bundestag since the German federal election of 2013. The number of seats in the Bundestag is not fixed 72014 estimate 8Althing 92011 census 10Lok Sabha

It's right at the bottom of Ben Nevis, so when it rains there's a lot of water to drain down that way. Yes, that's true. I also see that Fort William receives an average annual rainfall of 1883 mm. That's more than double the amount Rotterdam gets (856 mm).

Seems like a good place for swimming races. Bit nippy, perhaps.