Haver you ever received an email message like this one?
It's that time again! Yes, it's that magical time of the again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us. Here then, is the glorious winner:
Darwin Award winners:
1. When his 38-caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked..... And now, the honorable mentions: ....
Did you think it was a true story? Unfortunately, these stories are about as accurate as the ones that tell you about your lottery winnings or your long-lost relative who just died and left you $350,000.
Go to snopes.com to get the inside story on the 2005 Darwin Awards and all the others.
Contrary to common belief, there is no panel of distinguished judges weighing each potential Darwin Award entry then sagely reaching agreement as to which deserves an official accolade. Darwin Awards e-mails have been circulating on the Internet at least since May 1991, with the earliest e-mails and newsgroups posts of this nature setting before posterity inventive works of fiction that had been labeled by their authors as true accounts of actual deaths. Years after the term "Darwin Award" was being used in connection with text descriptions of deaths by misadventure, a number of web sites sprung up to archive the variety of Darwin Award tales then in circulation. Those sites not only collected the fictional offerings then making the online rounds but also on their own dug up numerous true accounts of death by stupidity, thus building a vast body of such tales, some true and some not. While other sites have since faded into obscurity, one has emerged as the clear winner: www.DarwinAwards.com, a site owned and maintained by Wendy Northcutt. Ms. Northcutt has since authored three highly successful books based on her site.
The various "Annual Darwin Awards" e-mails (such as the one which is the topic of this article) do not originate with DarwinAwards.com; they are put together by unknown persons.
The cover of one of Wendy Northcutt's book is shown above. (It's the first volume.) The book lists hundreds of Darwin awards, Honorable Mentions, Urban Legends, and Personal Accounts. Many, but not all, of the valid Darwin Awards are marked "Confirmed by Darwin" to indicate that Wendy Northcutt has checked them out and they actually happened. Unfortunately, confirmation often consists of just tracking down a newspaper account that repeats the story. We all know that newspaper reporters can often be taken in by made-up stories.
They may be fake but they're still amusing. Here's one of the latest from www.DarwinAwards.com.
(21 June 2007, Philippines) Three enterprising individuals tried to make a buck by selling metal to the scrap heap. They entered a former US military complex in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines. Before them stood the prize: an abandoned water tank! Bedazzled by the profit to be made, the three gleefully abandoned logic, and began to cut the metal legs out from under the water tank. Guess where the tank fell? Straight onto the thieves. They have not yet been identified, as their bodies were severely flattened.
Chlamydomonas is a single-cell green alga with a prominent chloroplast and cilia. It normally lives in the soil or in lakes and streams. Green algae are members of the division Chlorophyta, which includes all green algae. The complete genome sequencs of two other green alga, Ostreococcus tauri and Ostreococcus lucimarinus, have been published. Chlamydomonas is distantly related to Ostreococcus.
Interest in Chlamydomonas stems from the fact that it has long been a model organism and has a well-established genetic background. Furthermore, the relationship between the green algae and plants (mosses, liverworts, ferns, angiosperms etc.) is well established. The green algae share a common ancestor with all plants and this relationship is more recent than the relationship between plants and any other protists. (Red algae are the next closest group.)
The nuclear genome is 121 Mb (121,000,000 base pairs) in size and it's divided into 17 linkage groups (chromosomes). This is a draft genome sequence representing about 95% of the complete sequence with 13x coverage of the sequenced regions. The remaining 5% consists mostly of repeat regions and it's unlikely that they will ever be sequenced.
The preliminary analysis predicts 15,143 protein-encoding genes; three ribosomal RNA clusters; and 259 transfer RNA genes (tRNA). This is about the same number of genes as Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) but fewer than the number in mammals (~22,000). In most cases, the original estimates of gene number are inflated so we can expect this number to drop to about 12,000 as annotation continues. So far, 8631 genes have been confirmed.
There are 61 classes of simple repeat sequences; about 100 families of transposable elements; and 64 families of short interspersed elements (SINEs) that appear to be derived from tRNA genes. Most of the protein-encoding genes have introns (avg. 8 introns/gene). There are more introns and longer introns than in most unicelllar species.
Assuming 2Kb of coding region per gene, it looks like genes and their associated regulatory sequences make up about 30% of the genome. The remaining DNA (mostly junk) is evenly distributed between introns and intergenic regions.
The authors identified about 350 genes that are associated with chloroplast function. Most of these are genes that originally resided in the chloroplast DNA. Over time they have been transferred to the nucleus. These genes are easily recognized because they are related to genes from cyanobacteria, from which chloroplasts are derived, and they are only found in species that have chloroplasts.
The known genes in this group encode the proteins of the photosynthetic apparatus [A Simple Version of Photosynthesis] and the metabolic pathways found in the chloroplast (e.g., Rubisco, The Calvin Cycle). Surprisingly, over 200 of these genes have unknown functions and only half of those genes (100) belong to larger gene families from which putative functions can be surmised. This suggests that there may be some unknown pathways or functions in chloroplasts.
There are about 125 genes involved in assembly and function of the cilia (flagella) and most of these have been previously identified. Note that many different species of eukaryote contain cilia but they have been lost in plants. The only other sequenced genome from green algae is that from Ostreococcus and it's interesting to note that although Ostrecoccus does not have cilia its genome still retains half of the genes required for cilia assembly and function.
There are several other interesting features of Chlamydomonas that can now be studied with the aid of the genome sequence. For example, Chlamydomonas has a small eyespot that can detect light and trigger a phototactic response. The eyespot is related to plastids (chloroplast) except that the thylakoid membrane is packed with red pigment molecules. The specific genes involved in eyespot assembly are similar to genes found in mammalian retina and they probably interact with heme groups. The availability of a genome sequence should help to decipher the molecular architecture of this eyespot.
(The authors are from 63 different departments and institutes in the following countries: USA, France, China, Belgium, United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Czech Republic, and Italy.)
Merchant, S.S. et al. (117 authors) (2007) The Chlamydomonas Genome Reveals the Evolution of Key Animal and Plant Functions. Science 318:245-250.
[Photo Credits: The phylogenetic tree is part of Figure 2 in Merchant et al. 2007. The diagram of Chlamydomonas is from this website. It is probably taken from a textbook. The photograph of living Chlamydomonas is from this website.]
There are a lot of studies suggesting that a substantial percentage of the genome is transcribed even though less than 5% is known to be functional. This leads to the idea that it encodes some unknown function. The argument is that these regions would not be transcribed unless they were doing something useful.
One objection to these studies is that the workers are looking at artifacts. The so-called transcripts are just noise from accidental transcription. This ties in with the idea that the EST database is full of examples of "transcripts" that don't make any biological sense.
There's another possibility. The regions of junk DNA could be transcribed regularly but the transcripts are rapidly degraded. They do not have a biological function. They are junk RNA.
Arthur Hunt has just posted an article on Panda's Thinb that supports this idea [Junk to the second power]. He describes the work of Wyers et al. (2005) in yeast cells. They show that there is a large class of junk RNA. The take-home lesson here is that you can't assume that some region of genomic DNA is functional just because it's transcribed. It's a lesson that many people need to keep in mind.
Wyers, F., Rougemaille, M., Badis, G., Rousselle, J.C., Dufour, M.E., Boulay, J., Régnault, B., Devaux, F., Namane, A., Séraphin, B., Libri, D. and Jacquier A. (2005) Cryptic pol II transcripts are degraded by a nuclear quality control pathway involving a new poly(A) polymerase. Cell 121:725-37.
The 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Gerhard Ertl "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces." The prize is really for working out the mechanisms of catalysis on metal surfaces [Press Release].
Gerhard Ertl has founded an experimental school of thought by showing how reliable results can be attained in this difficult area of research. His insights have provided the scientific basis of modern surface chemistry: his method-ology is used in both academic research and the indust-rial development of chemical processes. The approach developed by Ertl is based not least on his studies of the Haber-Bosch process, in which nitrogen is extracted from the air for inclusion in artificial fertilizers. This reaction, which functions using an iron surface as its catalyst, has enormous economic significance because the availability of nitrogen for growing plants is often restricted. Ertl has also studied the oxidation of carbon monoxide on platinum, a reaction that takes place in the catalyst of cars to clean exhaust emissions.
It's interesting that this award comes almost 100 years after Wilhelm Oswald got the Prize for his work on catalysis in solution. See yesterday's Nobel Laureate [Nobel Laureate: Wilhelm Ostwald].
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is one of seven Research Councils sponsored through the UK Government’s Office of Science and Innovation and invests around £336 million per annum in the biosciences.
BBSRC sustains a world-class bioscience research community for the UK. Its mission is to fund internationally competitive research, provide training in the biosciences, foster opportunities for knowledge transfer and innovation and promote interaction with the public and other stakeholders on issues of scientific interest.
Pretty impressive, eh? With a mission like that you'd expect a world-class press release, right? Let's see how they do ...
Embryologists at UCL (University College London) have helped solve an evolutionary riddle that has been puzzling scientists for over a century. They have identified a key mechanism in the initial stages of an embryo’s development that helps differentiate more highly evolved species, including humans, from less evolved species, such as fish. The findings of the research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC), were published online today by the journal Nature.
Undergraduate students in my university are taught that humans and fish share a common ancestor. They have both evolved for the same length of time from that common ancestor, therefore you cannot say that one is more evolved and one is less evolved. People who say that are demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of evolution.
Early on in development, the mass of undifferentiated cells that make up the embryo must take the first steps in deciding how to arrange themselves into component parts to eventually go on to form a fully developed body. This is a process known as ‘gastrulation’. During this stage, the cells group into three layers, the first is the ‘ectoderm’ which then in turn generates the ‘mesoderm’ and ‘endoderm’ layers. In higher vertebrates, such as mammals and birds, the mesoderm and endoderm are generated from an axis running through the centre of the embryo. However, in lower vertebrates, such as amphibians and fish, the two layers are generated around the edge of the embryo.
Using the terms "higher vertebrates" and "lower vertebrates" is just as bad as using "more evolved" and "less evolved."
Scientists have been speculating for over a century on the difference between the embryonic development of higher vertebrates and lower vertebrates, to help answer how the simple cell structure of an embryo goes on to form the various highly complex bodies of different species. Research leader Prof Claudio Stern explains: “This is a significant find as it is a clear difference between the embryonic development of more advanced species and less advanced species. It suggests that higher vertebrates must have developed this mechanism later on in the history of animal evolution.
Scientists who use terms like "more advanced" and "less advanced" to distinguish modern species are demonstrating their ignorance. They should not be publishing papers about evolution.
The article can be found on the Nature website [Voiculescu et al., 2007)]. Some of the authors are well-known experts with impeccable reputations in the field of development biology (e.g., Lewis Wolpert). Thus, it is surprising that the press release is so bad. What does the paper actually say?
The paper describes the process of gastrulation and formation of the primitive streak in chicken embryos. It present results that support the involvement of a particular signalling pathway in this process. The data is supported by supplemental movies [Stage XIII].
The authors go on to compare the chicken pattern of cell movement and differentiation to that in Xenopus, an amphibian. Birds and mammals are amniotes and amphibians and fish are not (= anamniotes). The paper ends with a single paragraph that mentions evolutionary implications.
We propose that local intercalation in the epiblast is responsible for positioning and shaping the primitive streak and can also explain the polonaise movements without the need for long-range gradients. Convergent extension of the axial mesoderm and neural plate in anamniotes is almost certainly conserved in amniotes, but our study reveals an additional, much earlier (pre-gastrula) cell intercalation, required for morphogenesis of the primitive streak independently of mesendoderm specification. This is apparently unique to amniotes and provides a possible answer to the classical question of how evolution converted the equatorial blastopore or shield of Anamnia into the radially oriented primitive streak of amniotes.
There's nothing wrong with this. It does not claim that amniotes are "higher" than fish or amphibians and it does not claim that fish have stopped evolving.
The disconnect between the emphasis in the paper and in the press release is disconcerting. The differences in the language used to describe evolution is very troubling. The wording of the press release perpetuates the false concept of a "ladder of life" and that's not a way to advance the education of the general public. The fact that the press release quotes the senior author making the same conceptual error suggests that the errors in the press release may not be the fault of science journalists in the media department—although in an ideal world they should have been able to correct the scientists!
Voiculescu, O., Bertocchini, F., Wolpert, L., Keller, R.E. and Stern, C.D. (2007) The amniote primitive streak is defined by epithelial cell intercalation before gastrulation. Nature (advance online pubication: doi:10.1038/nature06211).
It wasn't even close. Yesterday the voters of Ontario soundly rejected the Mixed Member Proportional voting system in favour of the status quo. I'm disappointed, but not discouraged. Next time we need to do a better job of explaining the proportional system and countering the fears and misconceptions. Given the circumstances, 38% ain't that bad. We'll try again in 2011.
"How and Where Did Life on Earth Arise?" is one of the top 25 questions from the 125th anniversary issue of Science magazine [Science, July 1, 2005]. The complete reference is ...
Zimmer, Carl (2005) How and Where Did Life on Earth Arise? Science 309:89. [Text] [PDF]
I've criticized many of the other articles in this series because they either misrepresented the science or blew it up out of all proportion. It should come as no surprise that Carl Zimmer's piece does not do that.
The question—how did life originate?—is without a doubt one of the top 25 questions facing us today. The subject is complex but Carl covers it in a single page without resorting to hype or misrepresentation. He mentions the fossil evidence then discusses the idea of an RNA world and how it might have formed. Then he turns his attention to the controversial field of prebiotic chemistry. Here's an example of science writing at its best.
Just where on Earth these building blocks came together as primitive life forms is a subject of debate. Starting in the 1980s, many scientists argued that life got its start in the scalding, mineral-rich waters streaming out of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Evidence for a hot start included studies on the tree of life, which suggested that the most primitive species of microbes alive today thrive in hot water. But the hot-start hypothesis has cooled off a bit. Recent studies suggest that heat-loving microbes are not living fossils. Instead, they may have descended from less hardy species and evolved new defenses against heat. Some skeptics also wonder how delicate RNA molecules could have survived in boiling water. No single strong hypothesis has taken the hot start's place, however, although suggestions include tidal pools or oceans covered by glaciers.
Research projects now under way may shed more light on how life began.
A few months ago I began a series of postings on the top science questions as posed by SCIENCE magazine back in 2005. The idea was to discuss the questions and also to examine how they were chosen. Are the editors of Science able to recognize the important questions in the biological sciences? So far, the results are not encouraging.
This survey was also a survey of science journalism since each of the article has been written by a different science writer. Read the postings below to get a sense of the results. There seems to be a lot of room for improvement.
"in recognition of his work on catalysis and for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibria and rates of reaction"
Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on reaction rates and catalysis. His Nobel Lecture On Catalysis is one of the most fascinating and most bizarre Nobel Lectures that I have read. It's worth a look. My impression on Ostwald is that he had lost his edge and was very much aware of it. (There are references in the speech.) Does anyone know the story behind that lecture and the mysterious references?
The presentation speech provides insight into the ways scientists though about biology in those days. The idea that enzymes were catalysts was just coming into favor and it was hoped that their reactions could be followed in the same way chemical reactions were measured.
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen.
The Royal Academy of Sciences has resolved to award the former professor at Leipzig University and Geheimrat, Wilhelm Ostwald, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1909 in recognition of his work on catalysis and associated fundamental studies on chemical equilibria and rates of reaction.
As early as the first half of last century it had in certain cases been observed that chemical reactions could be induced by substances which did not appear to participate in the reaction themselves and which at all events were not altered in any way. This led Berzelius in his famous annual reports on the progress of chemistry for 1835 to make one of his not infrequent brilliant conclusions whereby scattered observations were collated in accordance with a common criterion and new concepts were introduced in science. He termed the phenomenon catalysis. However, the catalysis concept soon came up against opposition from another eminent quarter as allegedly unfruitful and gradually fell utterly into discredit.
Some 50 years later Wilhelm Ostwald carried out a number of studies to determine the relative strength of acids and bases. He sought to solve this extraordinarily important matter for chemistry in a variety of ways which all yielded consistent results. Amongst other things he found that the rate at which different processes take place under the action of acids and bases can be used to determine the relative strengths of the latter. He performed extensive measurements along these lines, and in so doing laid the foundations for the entire procedure for studying rates of reaction, all the more essential typical cases of which he examined. From that time onwards the theory of the rate of reaction has become increasingly important for theoretical chemistry; these tests, however, were also able to throw new light on the nature of catalytic processes.
After Arrhenius had formulated his well-known theory that acids and bases in aqueous solution are separated into ions and that their strength depends on their electrical conductivity, or more accurately, on their degree of dissociation, Ostwald tested the correctness of this view by measuring the conductivity and hence the concentration of the hydrogen and hydroxyl ions with the acids and bases which he had used in his previous experiments. He found Arrhenius' theory corroborated in all of the many cases which he himself investigated. His explanation why he consistently found the same values for the relative strength of the acids and bases whichever method he used was that in all these cases the hydrogen ions of the acids and the hydroxyl ions of the bases acted catalytically and that the relative strength of the acids and bases was determined solely by their ion concentration.
Ostwald was hence led to undertake a more thorough study of catalytic phenomena and he extended its scope to other catalysts, as they were called, as well. After consistent, continuous research he successfully formulated a principle to describe the nature of catalysis which is satisfactory for the present state of knowledge, namely that catalytic action consists in the modification, by the acting substance, the catalyst, of the rate at which a chemical reaction occurs, without that substance itself being part of the end-products formed. The modification can be an increase, but also a decrease of the reaction rate. A reaction which otherwise proceeds at a slow rate, taking perhaps years before equilibrium is attained, can be accelerated by catalysts to such an extent that it is complete in a comparatively short time, in certain cases within one or a few minutes, or even in fractions of a minute, and conversely.
The rate of a reaction is a measurable parameter and hence all parameters affecting it are measurable as well. Catalysis, which formerly appeared to be a hidden secret, has thus become what is known as a kinetic problem and accessible to exact scientific study.
Ostwald's discovery has been profusely exploited. Besides Ostwald himself a large number of eminent workers have recently taken up his field of study and the work is advancing with increasing enthusiasm. The results have been truly admirable.
The significance of this new idea is best revealed by the immensely important role - first pointed out by Ostwald - of catalytic processes in all sectors of chemistry. Catalytic processes are a commonplace occurrence, especially in organic synthesis. Key sections of industry such as e.g. sulphuric acid manufacture, the basis of practically the whole chemical industry, and the manufacture of indigo which has flourished so during the last ten years, are based on the action of catalysts. A factor of perhaps even greater weight, however, is the growing realization that the enzymes, so-called, which are extremely important for the chemical processes within living organisms, act as catalysts and hence the theory of plant and animal metabolism falls essentially in the field of catalyst chemistry. As an illustration, the chemical processes involved in digestion are catalytic and can be simulated step by step using purely inorganic catalysts. Furthermore the ability of various organs to transform nutrients from the blood in such a way that they are suitable for the specific tasks of each organ can indubitably be explained by the occurrence of various kinds of enzymes within the organ capable of catalytic actions adapted to their particular purpose. That apart, it is strange that such substances as hydrocyanic acid, mercuric chloride, hydrogen sulphide and others which act as extremely potent poisons on the organism have also been observed to neutralize or "poison"even pure inorganic catalysts such as e.g. finely dispersed platinum. Even from these brief references it should be clear that a new approach to the difficult problems of physiological processes has been possible with the aid of Ostwald's theory of catalysis. Because they are related to the actions of enzymes in the living organism, the new field of research is of an importance for mankind that cannot as yet be fully gauged.
Although the Nobel Prize for Chemistry is now being awarded to Professor Ostwald in recognition of his work on catalysis, he is a man to whom the chemical world is indebted also in other ways. By the spoken and the written word he, perhaps more than any other, has carried modern theories to a rapid victory and for several decennia he played a leading part in the field of general chemistry. In other ways too he has furthered chemistry by his versatile activity with numerous discoveries and refinements in both the experimental and the theoretical spheres.
[Photo Credit: The photograph of Ostwald's lab is from Ostwald]
Monday's Molecule #46 was the chemical reaction shown above. This is an historically important reaction that contributed to our understanding of catalysis.
The reaction shows the hydrolysis of sucrose to glucose and fructose in an acid solution. The reason why this was such an important reaction 100 years ago is because it is accompanied by a change in the direction of rotation of polarized light. Sucrose is an optically active compound, which means that it causes polarized light to rotate when you shine it through a solution of sucrose. The rotation is measured in a polarimeter. In the case of sucrose, light is rotated to the right. We call this dextrorotatory or "d" (lower case) from the latin prefix for "turning to the right". In modern chemical terminology it would be (+)-sucrose.
In the presence of acid, sucrose breaks down into D-glucose D-fructose. Both of the sugars are optically active. The "D" forms (Upper case "D" or small caps) are identified by the orientation of the CH2OH group (red oval) in the ring structures shown above. In both cases the group is above the plane of the sugar so these are the "D" forms of the molecule. In L-glucose and L-fructose those groups would be below the plane of the sugar ring and all the -OH groups would be flipped as well.
Now here's the tricky part. The original determination of the "D" and "L" structures was related to the optical rotation properties. It was thought that all carbohydrates with the "D" configuration were dextrorotary ("d") and that's why they were named "D". The "L" forms were thought to be laevorotary (Latin: "turning to the left). However, it turns out that this assumption isn't correct and D-glucose and D-fructose are good examples. They both have the "D" configuration but D-glucose rotates the plane of polarized light slightly to the right and D-fructose rotates it strongly to the left. The way to identify this property in modern terms is D(+)-glucose and D(-)-fructose. There's a good description of these properties on the Biochemical Howlers website.
That's all very interesting but why was it important back in 1900? It was important because if you treated a solution of sucrose with acid it "inverted" polarized light from rotating to the right to rotating to the left because D-fructose affected rotation more strongly than D-glucose. This meant that you could follow the reaction in real time by carrying it out in a test tube placed in a polarimeter. This was one of the few reactions of this sort that were amenable to kinetic studies back then.
Many workers discovered that the rate of the reaction was increased by increasing acid concentrations and it led to detailed studies of reaction kinetics with large molecules. (There were plenty of inorganic reactions that could be followed by watching changes in color.) An modern example is shown in the accompanying figure from Shalaev et al. (2000).
As you can see, the kinetics of the reaction are easy to follow and the results lead to simple mathematical interpretations of the rate and extent of the reaction. It was experiments like this that led to a theory of catalysis in the early 1900's and the awarding of a Nobel Prize to Wilhelm Ostwald in 1909.
Shalaev, E.Y., Lu, Q., Shalaeva, M. and Zografi, G. (2000) Acid-catalyzed inversion of sucrose in the amorphous state at very low levels of residual water. Pharm. Res. 17:366-70.
I'm very proud of the Ontario Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. That's the group who examined many electoral systems and selected the mixed member proportional (MMP) system for Ontario. We will vote on it in a referendum tomorrow. It won't win this time around.
I think the Citizen's Assembly should be a model for many decision making processes in a democracy. In fact, I think it could be a model for grappling with complex problems in other situations as well.
Today I went to hear the President of the University brief us on long term strategic planning for the University of Toronto. I pointed out that the process was doomed from the beginning because the five major task forces were filled with appointed members of the Board of Governors and senior administrators (and former administrators). No ordinary faculty members, no students, no ordinary staff members. Nobody is going to listen to a group like that telling us what a university should be like in 20 years.
The response was that we need experienced people on these committees and that means people who have served in administrative positions in the university. I disagree. Watch this video to see another way of doing things.
What in the world are they afraid of? Last week the editors of the Toronto Star came out against the mixed member proportional (MMP) system that voters will decide on in tomorrow's referendum [Electoral reform a backward step].
The editors were widely criticized for misinformation and fearmongering in that Sept. 30th editorial (e.g. The Toronto Star Endorses First-Pass-the-Post and links therein). They attacked the MMP system for giving more power to party bosses when the experience in other countries indicates that this is not a valid concern in the MMP system. Furthermore, all party leaders in Ontario are committed to a fair an open system for selecting list members. It turns out that the list will almost certainly contain only candidates who have been nominated in individual ridings.1. Indeed, the parties have little choice but to commit to a fair and democratic process if they hope to attract voters. Read the statements of the party leaders on the Vote for MMP website [Party Leaders Quote].
Today, the editorial in the Toronto Star attacks MMP once again [Electoral reform fraught with risk]. The editors seemed to have heard part of the criticism because in this latest attack they avoid any mention of party lists. However, they return to another of the fears they raised earlier; namely, the fear of unstable government.
While some see this as a "fairer" system that produces a Legislature more closely aligned with the popular vote, it has one major drawback.
Countries that have gone this route, including Israel, Italy, Germany, and Belgium, have become notorious for chaotic, horse-trading minority governments and legislative gridlock.
Now let's think about this logically for a minute. The editors would have us believe that the Ontario Citizen's Assembly of 103 Ontario voters simply overlooked this major "problem" when they did all their research. The editors would have us believe that all 80 countries that use a proportional system have chaotic governments. Does that make sense? Of course not.
Germany, Belguim, Italy and Israel are hardly examples of failed governments in spite of what the fearmongers would have you believe. The MMP campaign refuted most of the points raised by the first Toronto Star editorial including the claim that Germany, Italy, Israel, and Belgium are in chaos because of MMP. (Belgium and Israel don't even use the MMP system.)
So why do the Toronto Star editors repeat the same false claims that were refuted 10 days ago? Why do they say the following even though they've been told that it misrepresents the experience in other countries?
Granted, some minority or coalition governments do manage to deliver solid, progressive government. But they are rarities. More commonly, governments in proportional systems are divisive, unstable, short-lived and paralyzed by conflict. Too often, the leading party is forced to align with small, sometimes radical, special-interest parties. That can badly skew the policy-making process.
Is that the kind of government that Ontario voters really want? Will it be good for Ontario? We don't think so.
Wouldn't you expect the editors to do their homework and look at the stability of comparable governments with proportional systems? Countries such as Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, and Austria. Is is fair to say that all these countries have governments that are "divisive, unstable, short-lived and paralyzed by conflict"? Of course not. It's a stupid thing to say. (Incidentally, all those countries use a full proportional system that's even more likely to produce "chaos" than the MMP system according to the reasoning of the fearmongers.)
In light of their previous attempts at misinformation wouldn't you expect the editors to be embarrassed? After all the Toronto Star like all newspapers prides itself on accuracy. Right?
Wrong! It's almost as though the editors have been completely oblivious to the serious attempts by the Ontario Citizen's Alliance to educate them and correct their misinformation. They repeat the same flawed argument they made ten days ago.
When people spread misinformation and fear for the first time you can put it down to ignorance. When they do it a second time there's something more serious going on. Why do the Toronto Star editors fear MMP so much that they have to publish an editorial the day before the vote? This is really strange given that all the polls show that MMP will be soundly defeated tomorrow.
It's a difficult question. As far as I can tell, the main problem is the fear of minority viewpoints—or "fringe" parties as the editors prefer. The editors are comfortable with the present first-past-the-post (FPTP) system because they know that minorities in our society have no chance of being represented in the legislature under that system.
Take the Green Party for example. Under FPTP their chances of electing a member to parliament are close to zero. Under MMP they will get four seats (out 0f 129) if 3% of the population votes for them. (The Green Party is the only "small, sometimes radical, special-interest" party that has a decent chance of electing members.)
This could lead to chaos if you believe the editors because parties with less than a majority of seats would have to negotiate with the other parties in order to get legislation passed—just like the current federal government under Harper and the previous one under Martin. Is that the "chaos" that the Toronto Star fears?
I don't think the editors and their allies are afraid of minority governments so much as they're afraid of giving minority citizens a voice in parliament. In other words, what they really want is a system that blocks out the views of minority groups. That's exactly the flaw that MMP is designed to overcome. It would be more honest if the opponents of MMP would simply come right out and what they're really afraid of instead of making up stories about unstable governments in countries with proportional voting.
Perhaps we could reach a compromise? We could have a mixed member proportional system but then ban all those parties we don't like? The editors and other concerned citizens could draw up a list of minority groups who would be specifically excluded from parliament, like the environmentalist extremists. The sitting members of Parliament would then pass a law preventing these undesirable parties from running candidates in the next election. That way we could have the best of both worlds, a proportional system that excludes all those undesirable minorities who might cause chaos if we let them have a voice in Parliament. That's how democracy is supposed to work, isn't it?
Do you think the fearmongers would go for this? I doubt it, it makes their motive a little too obvious. It's so much better to hide behind the unfair FPTP system on the grounds that it produces "stable" government. Those of you who laughed at this video should watch it again now that the anti-MMP side has triumphed. It pretty much sums up the logic of their arguments.
1. The reason why the list will contain candidates who have been nominated in ridings—and who will run in those ridings—is because if a party wins an election they will not have any members chosen from the list. Thus, a party who hopes to win would be foolish to put candidates on the list who they want to be in parliament but who don't seek election in a constituency. Since no party will want to be seen to anticipate losing it will probably be standard practice to put people on the list who are running for election in a riding. Thus, the MMP system will end up being similar to FPTP and fears about party bosses choosing favorites are unfounded.
Haver you ever received an email message like this one?
The cover of one of Wendy Northcutt's book is shown above. (It's the first volume.) The book lists hundreds of Darwin awards, Honorable Mentions, Urban Legends, and Personal Accounts. Many, but not all, of the valid Darwin Awards are marked "Confirmed by Darwin" to indicate that Wendy Northcutt has checked them out and they actually happened. Unfortunately, confirmation often consists of just tracking down a newspaper account that repeats the story. We all know that newspaper reporters can often be taken in by made-up stories. 
