Grinning Cat's definitions
The specific quality of the blur in out-of-focus areas of the picture; "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Small highlights, especially, in the blurry areas of a photo can be rendered dramatically differently by different lenses (or "faux bokeh" photoshopping techniques).
Some examples of different types of bokeh are at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
Some examples of different types of bokeh are at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh
by Grinning Cat March 6, 2010
Get the bokeh mug.A device that records the choices of voters in an election. It can take several forms:
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1. (Becoming less and less common in the U.S.)
A mechanical device, where the voter flips small levers next to the candidates' names to indicate their choices, then pulls a big lever to record the votes. Very difficult to tamper with.
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2. (Very common in the U.S.)
A direct-recording electronic (DRE) machine. May print vote totals on paper, but there is no way for a voter to verify that his/her votes were accurately recorded.
Unlike mechanical voting machines, DRE machines are EXTREMELY VULNERABLE TO FRAUD. In addition to outright tampering with the records, malware can be used to steal a percentage of votes, reassigning them to the rigged candidate. The purported verification mechanisms -- logs, audit trails, "snapshots" of individual voters' choices -- can be manipulated to leave no evidence, corresponding perfectly to the rigged results.
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3. (The way to use technology for elections we can have confidence in)
An electronic machine that lets the voter make choices (preventing overvotes and highlighting undervotes), then PRINTS AN ACTUAL FILLED-OUT PAPER BALLOT, which the voter can review and either discard (and start over) or cast.
THE PAPER BALLOT IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE VOTE. (Voters could also choose to fill in a blank ballot by hand.)
Ballots can be quickly counted by optical scanning technology. Importantly, ballots can be RECOUNTED, by hand if necessary.
Counts from the voting machines need not be trusted as anything more than quick estimates or "exit polls". This system makes it difficult to commit the large-scale fraud so easy to do invisibly with paperless DRE machines.
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1. (Becoming less and less common in the U.S.)
A mechanical device, where the voter flips small levers next to the candidates' names to indicate their choices, then pulls a big lever to record the votes. Very difficult to tamper with.
---
2. (Very common in the U.S.)
A direct-recording electronic (DRE) machine. May print vote totals on paper, but there is no way for a voter to verify that his/her votes were accurately recorded.
Unlike mechanical voting machines, DRE machines are EXTREMELY VULNERABLE TO FRAUD. In addition to outright tampering with the records, malware can be used to steal a percentage of votes, reassigning them to the rigged candidate. The purported verification mechanisms -- logs, audit trails, "snapshots" of individual voters' choices -- can be manipulated to leave no evidence, corresponding perfectly to the rigged results.
---
3. (The way to use technology for elections we can have confidence in)
An electronic machine that lets the voter make choices (preventing overvotes and highlighting undervotes), then PRINTS AN ACTUAL FILLED-OUT PAPER BALLOT, which the voter can review and either discard (and start over) or cast.
THE PAPER BALLOT IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE VOTE. (Voters could also choose to fill in a blank ballot by hand.)
Ballots can be quickly counted by optical scanning technology. Importantly, ballots can be RECOUNTED, by hand if necessary.
Counts from the voting machines need not be trusted as anything more than quick estimates or "exit polls". This system makes it difficult to commit the large-scale fraud so easy to do invisibly with paperless DRE machines.
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A number of Diebold electronic voting machines have been in the news, first for criminally incompetent software and database design, leaving vote records wide open to undetectable tampering, more recently for vulnerability to "computer virus" style malware that can spread from machine to machine through the data cards used to collect voting data.
Making such electronic voting machines widespread is the perfect way to lay the groundwork for large-scale, invisible voter fraud.
There's plenty of information on this on the Web. A good place to start: the Coalition for Voting Integrity, www.coalitionforvotingintegrity.org .
Making such electronic voting machines widespread is the perfect way to lay the groundwork for large-scale, invisible voter fraud.
There's plenty of information on this on the Web. A good place to start: the Coalition for Voting Integrity, www.coalitionforvotingintegrity.org .
by Grinning Cat April 18, 2008
Get the voting machine mug.A slip, mistake, or unintentional move, followed through with confidence and panache as if it were intended all along. Cats are masters of this: a cat might leap and miss, then calmly look at you as if to say "Yeah, I meant to do that."
"What's the band doing? That's weird... and interesting!"
"I've never heard them play it that way before; maybe it's a feline maneuver."
"Think they'll do it that way on the CD?"
"I've never heard them play it that way before; maybe it's a feline maneuver."
"Think they'll do it that way on the CD?"
by Grinning Cat January 6, 2008
Get the feline maneuver mug.by Grinning Cat January 8, 2013
Get the ain't mug.A model of culture and human relations based on hierarchy, ranking, power, and control. Masculinity is equated with control, conquest, and violence: men dominating women and children.
Opposite to Partnership Culture.
In a domination system...
Humans are flawed and dangerous.
Difference is equated with superiority or inferiority.
Power is used to control and destroy through hierarchies of domination.
Competition means "dog eat dog"; "every man for himself".
People cooperate to dominate others.
Huge gaps between haves and have-nots
Nature is a resource to be dominated, depleted and polluted.
Morality of insensitivity, control, and coercion.
(Based on the Center for Partnership Studies' summary of points from Riane Eisler's _The Power of Partnership_ and David Korten's _The Great Turning_)
Opposite to Partnership Culture.
In a domination system...
Humans are flawed and dangerous.
Difference is equated with superiority or inferiority.
Power is used to control and destroy through hierarchies of domination.
Competition means "dog eat dog"; "every man for himself".
People cooperate to dominate others.
Huge gaps between haves and have-nots
Nature is a resource to be dominated, depleted and polluted.
Morality of insensitivity, control, and coercion.
(Based on the Center for Partnership Studies' summary of points from Riane Eisler's _The Power of Partnership_ and David Korten's _The Great Turning_)
Dominator culture teaches all of us that the core of our identity is defined by the will to dominate and control others. We are taught that this will to dominate is more biologically hardwired in males than in females. In actuality, dominator culture teaches us that we are all natural-born killers but that males are more able to realize the predator role. In the dominator model the pursuit of external power, the ability to manipulate and control others, is what matters most. When culture is based on a dominator model, not only will it be violent but it will frame all relationships as power struggles.
(bell hooks)
(bell hooks)
by Grinning Cat March 28, 2013
Get the Dominator Culture mug.Someone who's intensely, happily sated, such as after great food or sex, to the point that they can't do anything more than flop around.
(As used by Elsa Moriarty in cracked.com's "The 6 Most Counterproductive PSAs of All Time")
(As used by Elsa Moriarty in cracked.com's "The 6 Most Counterproductive PSAs of All Time")
"You're spent after most anything fun, from sex to exercise to an intense round of Mega Man 2. That satisfied, post-coital and -foodal period is one of the best parts of the experience -- when every desire has been sated, and you're so happy you can do nothing but flop around like an endorphin walrus."
by Grinning Cat March 7, 2012
Get the endorphin walrus mug.The custom or practice of having one mate at a time. Each relationship may be serious and committed, or not. The term is used in contrast with strict "monogamy", which can imply just one partner over a lifetime.
Not to be confused with cereal monogamy.
Not to be confused with cereal monogamy.
People who remarry (and who have exclusive relationships, and who don't cheat) are practicing serial monogamy.
by Grinning Cat January 19, 2015
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