Pirate Party Gains Seats In Iceland's Election (bbc.com) 105
The BBC reports that Iceland's Pirate Party "has tripled its seats in the 63-seat parliament, election results show. It is in joint second place with the Left-Greens -- with 10 seats each."
An anonymous reader quotes USA Today:
Iceland's hacker-led, upstart Pirate Party failed to make the nation's powerful Independence Party walk the plank after all. The Pirate Party -- led by a former WikiLeaks collaborator -- rode the populist movement sweeping Europe to make big gains in Saturday's election, but returns on Sunday gave the largest bloc of seats to the center-right Independence Party...
Pirate Party co-founder Birgitta Jonsdottir, who became involved with WikiLeaks in 2010 after its leader Julian Assange visited Iceland, said she was satisfied with the Pirate plunder at the polls. "Our internal predictions showed 10 to 15%, so this is at the top of the range."
Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign in April after the Panama Papers suggested his family had sheltered its personal wealth outside the country.
Pirate Party co-founder Birgitta Jonsdottir, who became involved with WikiLeaks in 2010 after its leader Julian Assange visited Iceland, said she was satisfied with the Pirate plunder at the polls. "Our internal predictions showed 10 to 15%, so this is at the top of the range."
Iceland's prime minister was forced to resign in April after the Panama Papers suggested his family had sheltered its personal wealth outside the country.
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Meh, thanks to forestry efforts we'll probably be self-sufficient on lumber in a decade or two. We're never going to win any awards for forestry extent, but we do have some lovely ones.
Then again, there is the old joke that every person in Iceland over the age of six knows.
Q: "How do you find your way out of an Icelandic forest?"
A: "Stand up."
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Re: Arrrrrrrr (Score:2)
We've got no shortage of ice either ;)
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So Iceland is green, and Greenland is full of ice? What depraved times do we live in!
Actually, the naming of Greenland was an intentional lie by Erik the Red to make it sound better for settlers he tried to recruit. He lived in 10th century.
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That's not exactly true either. The sagas say that he did pick the name because he wanted it to be appealing. But he wasn't exactly asking people to go settle on a glacier, either. "Grænland" was pastureland in the southwest that wasn't all that different from his home in Vestfirðir.
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Rei, I spent 4 years in Iceland thirty years ago, and I have been in some of those forests. At that time, they could have been measured in square yards, and I don't think any of the trees were over 15 feet tall, most being under 5 feet tall. I am glad to hear that some reforestation is being done, and I hope it goes well, but most of the trees that (used to be) planted there grow pretty slowly, so I don't see the "self-sufficient on lumber in a decade or two" claim as being accurate (but we can hope). I
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An established sitka spruce here grows at about half a meter a year. So yes, the forests have grown quite a bit since then. And forestry efforts have significantly increased since then. Our largest tree is now 22 meters tall (72 feet). Even in Reykjavík we have some decent ones growing - for example, this [staticflickr.com] is Öskjuhlíð, by Perlan. They're bigger / more extensive right outside of town, in Heiðmörk [wordpress.com] - althoug the biggest forests are in northeast Iceland (and the biggest trees
Anti-establishment (Score:1, Troll)
The anti-establishment Pirate Party, which was founded in 2012, won 10 of 63 seats.
Oddly enough, the anti-establishment candidates here in the US (Bernie and Trump) are also hugely popular, although I guess also not quite enough to win, especially with the backstabbing from the establishment.
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the polls (if you want to believe ANY of them now)
Is there any particular reason to not believe the polls?
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the polls (if you want to believe ANY of them now)
Is there any particular reason to not believe the polls?
Other than the polls rarely being right, no.
Re:Anti-establishment (Score:4, Interesting)
Polls are almost always right.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/944... [gallup.com]
http://www.foxnews.com/politic... [foxnews.com]
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Polls are almost always right.
Not the most "newsworthy" ones -- especially when they show a surprising victory for their favored politician.
Re:Anti-establishment (Score:4, Insightful)
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No, it is most definitely not a mere average of polls. It's a weighted average, and almost every poll was given 0.00 weight. In most cases, that is to reflect the fact that "that was then, this is now" but in many others it is to reflect the fact that the authors of the poll were flaming idiots.
http://projects.fivethirtyeigh... [fivethirtyeight.com]
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Just to note, the "accurate" polls available in your first link are not available until November 6 (Final Gallup Poll seems to be 2 days before the election)... and are wildly inaccurate if you measure by predicted victory margin (which would be the most interesting aspect on the topic of election), rather than by percentage of support (just predicting 50% support would be almost as accurate). ... and that's for Gallup polls, rather than talking head polls.
Still, they did more often than not correctly predi
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They are flipping around—a clear sign that Hillary Clinton is a poor candidate for office, just like she was against Sen. Obama 8 years ago. As much as she and her supporters insist Trump is more dangerous and must be defeated, she has never managed to establish the commanding lead over Trump she needs to make it clear the country believes that rhetoric.
However, as much as Jill Stein presents a cogent, ethical, and realistic set of policy changes, I doubt the Green Party will win enough electoral vote
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Re:Anti-establishment (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think many people in the US are pro-establishment right now; even those who are voting for Clinton dislike that aspect of her.
When it comes to the final election it seems to be almost every aspect is irrelevant. If they made it through the primaries the two reasons for voting are (D) and (R), they could make Nixon and Bozo the clown the candidates and people would vote for them. Oh wait, they did... And to be honest, I hope the clown wins because he'll have the most problems convincing Congress to play along so despite the entertainment I doubt he'll be able to do too much damage as commander-in-chief. And it'd give Bernie or someone else the chance to try again in four more years, if Clinton wins now she'll almost automatically be the candidate next time too. At least the first female President will be good for equality, otherwise I don't see much positive about it.
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Oh wait you meant Trump? Nobody's actually accused him of rape.
Someone has accused him of that [snopes.com].
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Yeah i guess non-consensual grabbing women by their pussy isn't considered rape... or wait, actually, I'm pretty sure it is.
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Exactly, he boasted that they would willingly let him do that.. If they willingly do it then it's consensual rather than rape.
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I guess if you don't care about health care, women's rights, equality under the law, etc, then yeah, I guess you wouldn't see any difference between the candidates.
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As a complete outsider to the US elections, I shouldn't really offer my opinions, I suppose, but like a lot of the fiercer critics, I do love America, and it pains me to see the mess you guys are in.
I would invite people to take a step back from the furore and think a bit wider about the issues. The problem isn't just that you now have to choose between two unpalatable candidates; it is important that the US starts working again as a nation, both for its people (and here I mean all of its people, not just
Re: Anti-establishment (Score:2)
The fact that out government is corrupt isn't up for debate. The last term has been one long stream of selling off state assets to friends and family of politicians at a fraction of their market value, media buyouts (and purges of critical journalists) with background money deals, routing money through shell companies in Panama, etc.
Re:Anti-establishment (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Bernie had way more support than a sixth of the people. Sadly, in a first-past-the-post world this means jack shit.
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Oddly enough, the anti-establishment candidates here in the US (Bernie and Trump) are also hugely popular,
Trump is not Anti-establishment at all. He might say that to win over stupid people too dumb to actually think about it, but what he really is for more extreme establishment than even the current system.
Anti-establishment means transferring more power from the elite establishment to the people. Trump is about transferring more power from the elite establishment to himself. He's taking it even further away from the people, which is why the comparisons to Hitler. He is extreme authoritarian which mean the po
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To put it more accurately, the establishment hates Trump's guts, which, to many people, is a large portion of his appeal. And another portion of his supporters are from the "wrecking ball" theory of anti-establishment. And another group support him because they think Congress will block his every move.
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Let me know when Minnesota has a seat in the UN, is a member of NATO (aka, their consent required for decisionmaking), has an EEZ that takes up half the area between Norway and Greenland, etc.
There are advantages to being a nation, even a small one.
Re: Let me know when they get elected somewhere me (Score:5, Interesting)
You know we had three Cod Wars with the UK... and won each time, despite them being vastly larger, right? In each case, it was by virtue of Iceland being a country. The third time was the most extreme - the UK sent two dozen frigates, versus Iceland's piddly couple of coastguard vessels Iceland ultimately won by threatening to give the NATO base at Keflavík to the Soviets, causing the US to pressure the UK.
Think that would fly in Minnesota during a dispute? Being a nation gives an entity asymmetric bargaining power. Certain aspects of power are based on economic or military might, while others are based simply on status and sovereignty. Iceland's ability to defeat the UK in the Cod Wars is considered a textbook example of expression of soft power. On the international stage, when claims between two nations are evaluated on their merits in non-military, non-economic contexts, both entities are treated as being on equal footing, and their arguments are listened to equally. More powerful nations may try to apply hard power, but that doesn't always play out well in a modern multipolar world; you can end up looking like a bully and losing out in other fields that make the overall cost not worth the effort.
As for Iceland, what's wrong with it? Iceland's name is ~1150 years old, how old is your country's name?
Re: Let me know when they get elected somewhere m (Score:1)
Oh please, a fisheries dispute is a war? No, try fucking Argentina, they fought a war. You just wigged out over trawling rights. Which you are lucky they decided it was cheaper to give away.
Seriously, you'd have lost if they'd scheduled a test match with Liverpool and gave all their hooligans free plane tickets.
But you'd better be careful you don't do the same thing to your fisheries that you did to your forests.
Otherwise, the only victim of your wars was Arthur Treacher, they had to switch from Cod to p
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When they send frigates (hard power), and you defeat them with soft power? The discussion is about the power of nations versus states, and it's a clear demonstration of soft power that states do not have. A state can't just threaten to switch sides to the Soviets. A state can't get an even hearing in the UN or international legal institutions.
Ahem. [youtube.com]
Touri
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big whoop (Score:2)
I can hack you through an exploit in the Akashic records.
I'm so envious (Score:4, Interesting)
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That is clearly up for debate.
Their (Canada, et all) system allows for quicker change, but that isn't always good.
Our (States) system, allows for many more people to block change, but that isn't always good.
However, change isn't always good.
TLDR: Government sucks no matter how you roll. But it's better than anarchy.
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Canada basically has three electoral states, on the federal level:
1: A party has a majority. They can do what they want, basically unimpeded.
2: A party has a minority. This is basically a way of the populace to tell the party 'watch it, you're getting a bit out of hand.'
3: The other party suddenly wins majority. This happens on a regular basis. Basically, once a party has had a majority for, oh, eight to twelve years, either it gets complacent, or the usual corruption and cronyism gets too bad to ignore
I'm not after quicker change (Score:2)
I'd also completely disagree with your assertion that gov't sucks. Gov't, like most things, is exactly what you put into it. Below a certain level of material wealth everything sucks. Above that point (which we've been at for years) it's up to you and me.
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of you nord's parliaments. Canada's too. It's not a prefect solution but it is a _hell_ of a lot better than what I got here in the states.
Except Sweden is a democrature where the media and politicians lie about immigration and call everything refugees, call it good, hang out and isolate and kick out anyone who dare to say otherwise, can't say the truth, hide identity, think the government have the right to choose the people and voters rather than the other way around, think the will of the people (it's in this article too with "populism" is bad.)
Complete tax pressure isn't all that far from 50% of GDP with the public sector and influence whic
Re: I'm so envious (Score:2)
Huh? Winters in Iceland are milder than in Sweden, what are you talking about?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Four months of average highs above 10 degrees C, 13.3 in July, lows below 0 for five months but worst one just -3 degrees in January.
I dislike the lack of trees, in Sweden you can get the whole range of farming landscapes (though the EU wants that to happen in more productive regions and Sweden be even more full of trees), lots of trees but also regions with few trees and mountains and grass instead of that's your thing, a few large lakes and plenty of smaller ones too and s
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You're talking about summers. I was talking about winters. Our winters are milder than Sweden. And winter temperatures are usually what bother people in northern countries.
You do have bigger / more extensive forests, but we still have some lovely ones, contrary to popular myth. On the other hand, the areas without trees also exposes the geology, which here is often very dramatic. Mountains aren't just rolling canopy, you see their individual lava flows, ash deposits, dikes, all of the columnar basalt,
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I can't say I know all that much about Iceland in general. One guy in our board-game club is from Iceland and he spoke about corruption and then I've watched images much of it of course is grassland so to say and I think I read 7% was covered with forests?
Since you are out in the sea milder winters make sense put possibly also colder summers. I don't really need the 25+ degrees C but it's nice to experience summer and while winter is my least preferred season I guess having snow sometimes is ok (but you do
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It's so weird that our national day is kinda celebrating the end of the Kalmar union.
WTF is that to celebrate? The problem with a union is that Sweden have the largest population and that our politics risk influence yours rather than the other way around.
Hence I would kinda be ok to include all Baltic nations and maybe Poland (and Hungary, Austria and Ukraine too?) ;D to make the land-mass have more natives and native voting power against the anti-white globalist Marxists, also more white people to mate wit
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So that's what it looks like when a Swedish Democrats supporter enters full-on rant mode. Window dressing for your racist views.
Why do you try to make your argument by measuring the size of the Swedish economy in USD? All currencies are currently in a race to devalue the fastest, given that there is too much slack production and debt in the world. http://www.scb.se/en_/Finding-... [www.scb.se] gives a view less distorted by currency manipulation.
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Window dressing for your racist views.
Where was the dressing?
Refugee immigration is trash - get over it.
If there would be any dressing of it it would be that I think the actual variation in the world is nice and that I would be totally fine with each people being their own and having their tradition and they being a contribution to the diversity of the world and experiences one can get by going to different places but I definitely don't want them here to replace and destroy my people and society.
Why do you try to make your argument by measuring the size of the Swedish economy in USD?
Because measuring GDP in something more fixed and
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Ok, so you are out and out racist. It is sad that you have such prejudice against others.
USD is a fiat currency, so measuring Swedish GDP in USD does not produce a measurement that is more fixed. It simply highlights noise from currency fluctuations.
Of course the race to devalue is negative for people with assets - it is being done to buy the votes of those in debt. They are the majority.
Actually, supporting immigration does buy something for Swedes in the long term - diversity. Even if the 1st generation p
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Do you really think there has been no immigration to Sweden in that time?
imagine the u.s. (Score:1)
with a dozen or more viable political parties, none ever getting a majority by itself, "coalition" governments, instant runoff voting, and strict campaign finance rules.....
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The system here still needs to be improved. Votes in the countryside can count for up to double those of Reykjavík. And people voting for small parties can still be throwing their votes away if they don't make enough to get a seat (plus rounding errors can ). The system would be greatly improved if we could get rid of the kjördæmi (regions?) altogether and just vote nationwide, but the conservatives like the advantage that the current system gives them, and they generally dominate our polit
Re: imagine the u.s. (Score:2)
Wow, where to even start?
* "Foreigners" can't vote, only citizens
* Citizenship takes 7 years
* Temporary workers can't get it, only permanent
* Foreign workers work more and pay more in taxes
* Ef (th)à ert Ãslendingur þà farÃu à rassgat.
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with a dozen or more viable political parties, none ever getting a majority by itself, "coalition" governments, instant runoff voting, and strict campaign finance rules.....
...And a smaller population than Mesa, AZ. Of course such a country will be quieter. I'm about to get a firsthand look, now that I will be hiking there next spring.
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What do you call "spring"? Be aware that a lot of the highlands will be closed. Don't be one of those stupid people who sees a closed road and thinks, "Meh, I'll get through". Likewise don't try to drive on a highlands road in a regular car. You will not make it. People try every year. Never drive offroad; you'll have people very mad at you. Lastly, while you technically can legally wildcamp, wildharvest, and hike anywhere within limits (no crossing fences, no ignoring posted signs, not near houses,
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Thanks for the detail on conditions. I will be on a guided hike program near the end of May, staying in the south, and as in NZ nothing on glacier ice. The road advice sounds a lot like our northern Arizona advice, where bringing a hiking party in on the forest roads network requires a main battle SUV. We will be seeing lots of geothermal features but the guide knows where we can safely stand.
You have canyon flash floods too? This is one of our favorite ways of getting rid of tourists. And yes, a lot of wha
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No, we don't usually get flash floods (except volcanic flash floods, which are HUGE ("Larger than the Amazon river"-level huge), but thankfully rare ;) ). Iceland is wet, not desert (well, some parts in the north/northeast are borderline desert due to rainshadowing, but not most of the country). The main problem with walking at the bottom of canyons is just finding yourself at a dead-end after having walked a good ways - it almost invariably happens if the canyon is deep / steep enough. The canyon cont
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Yes, Landmannalaugar is on the itinerary. Also Jökulsárlón, Skaftafell, Gullfoss, Fjardargljufur, Systrastapi and Systrafoss. There will also be a day at a geothermal power plant. In all, it's nerd heaven.
I hope the Slashdot community becomes educated (Score:2)
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The Icelandic Pirate Party aren't exactly arguing for abolishing copyright. They just want to reform it a bit-
And while the election is done with we have yet to see if they will be part of the government or the opposition.
Re:I hope the Slashdot community becomes educated (Score:5, Informative)
Copyright reform isn't really a major issue for us, although it is something we support. There's much bigger issues on hand. Namely, there's a lot of issues that the public overwhelmingly supports - 65-85% - that the conservatives have derailed. Pirates are all about giving power to the citizenry. There's also a huge amount of corruption that desperately needs to be taken on.
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Luckily the Swedish PP platform says 5 years, renewable three times 5 years each if you register your works in a database. (This to avoid orphaned works).
20 years should be enough even for you.
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As a software developer (who has released a lot of personal open source code as well as writing stuff that people paid me to write) I can see that 20 years is plenty.
Any open source software that is 20 years old is unlikely to be of value today (Linux may be 20 years old but I doubt anyone is going to be using 20 year old code anymore, they will be using recent source trees that are a lot newer than that)
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Is your latest version more than five years old?
Each update you do will have new code, which would be a new copyright. The freeloaders would have to use a five year old version.
This is a good incentive for you to keep working.
Re: I hope the Slashdot community becomes educated (Score:1)
Wow, you went five years from public beta to release without updating anything? Why did you wait so long?
Iceland once had a good thing going... (Score:1)
they should have kept it. [daviddfriedman.com]
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Seriously, you Libertarian nuts are praising the situation that led to the Sturlung era , and even the Sturlung era itself, of all things? The bloody Age of Terror, which led to Iceland's complete collapse and takeover by Norway? That's what you want society to become? Except with guns this time around? Why not just say, "Vote Libertarian: Because Turning The World Into A Mad-Max Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland Sounds Like Fun!"
"Pirate" Party? (Score:2)
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Are we in the Carribean? Why is it not named the Viking Party, anyway?
The word 'Viking' means something akin to 'maritime raider' in Scandinavian languages which makes it more or less synonymous with 'pirate' and I say more or less because vikings tended to be large amphibious raiding parties or even armies while pirates operated as single ships or small fleets. Your ship or village got robbed by pirates, your entire country could get invaded and occupied by Vikings. Unfortunately the word 'Viking' has also become synonymous with 'medieval Nordic person' so 'Pirate' party is
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The word 'Viking' means something akin to 'maritime raider' in Scandinavian languages which makes it more or less synonymous with 'pirate'
Which was kind of the point of my comment.
Re: "Pirate" Party? (Score:2)
The Icelandic name is PÃratapartýiÃ. "PÃrati" is not Icelandic for pirate (that's "sjÃræningur") and political party is not "partý" (it's "flokkur"). PÃrati is a reference to the international pirate movement and partý is "party" as in an event where you have fun.