halcy.de v4 » Version four-point-oh and counting.Two weeks!

So, the german national elections are over, and the results are in: (Graph via NekoMimiModo, thanks for that)

(Black: CDU/CSU [Conservative], Yellow: FDP [Libertarian/Conservative], Red: SPD [Social democratic], Green: Green party, Pink: Left party [Left of the SPD])

The government will be a coalition between the CDU/CSU and the FDP, a very conservative combination. So, here’s what I expect of those parties not part of the government for the next four years.

SPD

The SPD have gotten their worst election resut since 1949, and lost more voters in one election cycle than any party in germany ever before. As one of the members of the JuSos (SPD-affine youth organization) put it, people do not trust the SPD anymore.

This has its reasons. Over the last eight years, the SPD has been sliding more and more to the right. By now, they have become much like a second CDU, with only slight variations in method. This has to stop. The SPD has to return to their social-democrat roots. That includes more democracy from the base up, with members being included in party decicions much more, a formulation of very clear goals and policies and sticking to them, and a general shift back to the left.

Furthermore, the SPD has to hold the CDU to their promise to keep the FDP in check on workers rights, which the FDP wants to dramatically curb in the name of a “free” market.

Green party

The green party has been in the opposition for a while, and needs to continue their work there as before, especially on nuclear phaseout and alternative energies. But, much like the SPD, the green party needs to finally clearly formulate what their policy on such issues as personal liberties and surveillance is, instead of saying one thing and doing another.

Left party

The left party needs to get in a position where it would actually be reasonable for the SPD to enter into a coalition with them. That means, mostly, personal changes. Gysi and other ex-SED folk are just not an option.

Pirate party

The pirate party will have to continue their work outside of the parliament, educating people on the topics they care about. The weeks before the election were great, this work needs to be kept up.

Politically, they need to keep reminding the FDP that they promised to keep the CDU in check on personal liberties and surveillance - sadly, the FDP tends to be a little weak on the liberty part unless the rights of big companies are concerned.

Other than that, the pirate party has to start having an opinion on more topics than it currently has, if it wants to have a chance in further elections. And there certainly are a lot of topics that the established parties tend to overlook that are in dire need of some pirate attention. This, and strong local work, can help bring the pirate party closer to their goals.

I snickered.

Stock quote: AAPL

Google trend: Anal Fisting

Stock quote: MSFT

Google trend: Butts

Stock quote: GOOG

Google trend: Goatse

All in the name of science. (Related: Graphy graphthings, Quota)

Two things, both graph-related:

NEWSDAQLOG

A pretty visualization for a stupid little trading game, plotting the graphs using Ruby and Gruff: NEWSDAQ graphs (Git repository)

Quota

A mashup of google trends and yahoo finance - compare stock values with search volumes: Quota (Git repository). This one uses SVG::TT::Graph for plotting, and is interesting insofar as that I’ve managed to make that module produce really pretty graphs via some stylesheet fumbling.

Also, one can just include those stock/trend graphs in places now by just constructing the right image URL. The parameters are explained on the Quota demo page.