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Daily DigestMeetings
The Drury High School Council meets Tuesday, Jan 13, at 6:30 in the conference room. Agenda items include AYP, school grant, laptop initiative and PowerSchool updates. |
Steve Decker cleans up in front of BankNorth on Wednesday.
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More Snow
The Berkshires received several inches of snow this morning, but not enough to close schools, unlike yesterday's sleety mess. Temperatures will drop into the 20s this afternoon. A few more snow showers are expected through the weekend.
We have reports that the roads are very slippery to take care in the evening commute. |
Duff'em If You've Got'em
 North Adams Regional Hospital went smoke-free Monday — so did all its sister sites, from Sweet Brook to Northern Berkshire Family Practice to the Women's Exchange. No ashtrays, no smoking: No butts about it. |
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Like to Write?
 iBerkshires accepts submissions about local events, news and opinion pieces. There are openings for freelance work, too, for qualified candidates. E-mail tdaniels@iberkshires.com to find out more. |
Wanted: Eagle Eyes
 MassWildlife's annual eagle count runs Dec. 31 to Jan. 14. Anyone sighting one of the regal birds in Massachusetts is asked to participate.
Send date, time, location and town of eagle sightings, number of birds, whether juvenile or adult and observer's contact information to Mass.wildlife@state.ma.us. |
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Obama TransitionOther StuffMars Rovers Mark 5 Years
 Spirit and Opportunity have been trekking the red planet for half a decade. Spirit hit the 5-year mark on Sunday; Opportunity will on Jan. 24. |
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Williams College to Get a Look at New Voting Method "Majority Judgement" - October 01, 2008
WILLIAMSTOWN - The results of an election experiment run at Williams College and "The Failure of the United States Electoral System" will be discussed at a free public lecture on Monday, Oct. 6. The lecture is scheduled for 7 p.m. in The Science Center's Wege Auditorium.
Reacting to a growing concern that traditional electoral systems do not necessarily designate the candidates who truly represent the will of the electorates, Michel Balinski '54 of the Ecole Polytechnique and CNRS, Paris, is arguing for a new method of voting, "Majority Judgment."
"With today's electoral system a minority can elect a president (and has)," he says. "A tiny percentage of the population elects half of the members of the Senate, a minority of the electorate can elect a majority in the House of Representatives (an probably has), and the apportionment of Representatives to States is biased."
There is a system of electing one candidate among several - the "Majority Judgment" - that permits voters to express their opinions by evaluating all the candidates, and picks the one that is really designated by the majority of the voters.
In his lecture, Balinski will discuss the Majority Judgment for ranking all candidates and electing one and the results of the experimental vote in the Williams College community.
Students were asked to complete a simple survey to evaluate presidential candidates using "easy, common words, such as 'Excellent,' 'Very Good,' 'Good,' 'Acceptable,' 'Poor,' and 'Reject.'"
Balinski argues that in this way, voters could give their absolute opinions about all candidates, not rank them or choose just one. The final grade of each candidate is the median of all his/her "grades."
Balinski is the director of the Laboratory of Econometrics at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and co-founder and co-director of "Optimization, games and modeling in economics" at the University of Paris.
He has taught mathematics and economics at Yale University and the Scientific and Medical University in Grenoble. Balinski is a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Operations Research Society of America, and the Mathematical Programming Society. He received his B.A. in mathematics from Williams College and his Ph. D. in mathematics from Princeton University. |
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Marvel Comic Features Obama