From: Dave Long (dl@silcom.com)
Date: Mon Nov 20 2000 - 09:59:59 PST
> The result is within the error bar, systematic and statistical. ...
> So shouldnt Florida be declared a tie and removed from the electoral college.
Looks like well within the noise to me as well, which is why a coin
toss is so attractive; it allows us to substitute a quick easy source
of entropy for a slow difficult one.
> tie. Election is determined by candidates playing a game of poker.
> GOP candidate wins --- with a pair of 10s.
Poker sounds interesting, but to properly play a game of poker (as
opposed to a hand of poker), they ought to have been given stakes,
first one to go bust losing[0]. Poker is not a card game; it's a
cash game that happens to involve cards.
Playing one hand of poker with only two people and no betting is
like playing baseball with one of those big red rubber playground
balls; the rules may not differ, but the game won't be the same.
What was described here was rolling dice, only with cards, and if
one needs to make a binary decision by die roll, a coin toss will
suffice.
Doesn't the Superbowl start off with a coin toss[1]? Seems to me
anything that has the gravity of State Religion behind it ought
to be acceptable to the populace.
-Dave
[0] If judicial intent was to make it a contest of skills, they
ought to have been allowed to deal their own hands -- surely
the ability to deal off the bottom of the deck would be as
important to the professional/hereditary politician as to
the professional/hereditary card sharp.
[1] Team sports where the goals continually swap ends are more
portable; one can play on pretty lopsided fields without
giving undue advantage to any side. Are there any systems
even more fair than half-court basketball?
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