Some things that you may have seen on my del.icio.us links, but which really deserve a bit of extra comment.

Firstly

Why the square-root rule for vote allocation is a bad idea
This is a great blog post about the the mechanics of block voting systems, a pretty crucial debate within the EU at the moment that really doesn’t get much space in newspapers because it’s basically about maths.

This debate has real-world importance, in particular because of Poland’s recent lobbying for square-root allocation in the European Union, in opposition to Germany’s support of something closer to proportionality.

Well I found it interesting anyway.

Secondly

Band Logos
This short article is a whistle stop tour of pop music branding, something I first noticed as it crept into festival posters in the early to mid 90s. The use of illustration is brilliant, giving the perhaps-a-bit-on-the-dry-side text a bit extra juice. Loads more wonderfully illustrated mini essays at the authors blog.

It’s interesting, having an iPod touch where the preferd method of music navigation is via the cover flow album browser has made album art more important to me again and made me listen to more full albums, making me think that being able to cram more imagery and text into ID3 tags would be a cool extension.

Thirdly

Be Smart Drive Safe Posters
The last one on the page. It looks nice but I’m not sure that the message is responsible. It seems to me to give the impression that the primary reason not to drink drive is that you’re a danger to yourself rather than that you’re a danger to others (which is the reason I don’t drink drive) i.e. it’s OK to get sloshed if you’re in a tank, whilst clearly the potential for damaging people outside the vehicle is much greater than for someone on a scooter. It also seems to perpetuate the myth that fewer fatalities result from collisons involving SUVs etc. than lighter cars.

Don’t get me wrong the poster looks lovely and is produced by great illustrators but the air of authority confered by the info-graphic style and the copius small print is troubling for me when combined with the frankly irresponsible advice eg. safe alcohol levels for lorry drivers = 15 glasses of wine? I don’t think so.

And Finally…

…and probably least geekily; some articles from Wired magazine. Whilst I have nothing but contempt/ mild irritation for much of Wired hyper-consumerist content they do have some great writers and some great articles like these three…

• La Vida Robot
• An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then the Truth Came Out.
• Gizmondo’s Spectacular Crack-up

I’d seriously reccomend these to anyone, they’re all fascinating. If you only have time to read one though you should go with the first which is seriosuly amazing. Really you should read it now. Or print it out for the bus ride home.