Daily catch-up: will this be the election result? And other Questions To Which The Answer Is No

All you need to know from around what Gordon Brown called the websphere

1. Windmills at Lambeth, about 1750. Via Londoner Walking.

2. The Political Studies Association has published Chris Hanretty and Will Jennings’s survey of 537 “experts”, which was carried out between 4 and 21 February, asking mostly academics and a few journalists (including me) and pollsters to predict the election. The averaged results are:

Labour 32.3% 282 seats

Conservative 32.6% 278 seats

UKIP 11.2% 7 seats

Lib Dem 9.8% 25 seats

SNP 4.6% 29 seats

Green 5.1% 2 seats

That is about as marvellously paradoxical as the wisdom of crowds can be: Labour winning more seats but fewer votes than the Conservatives. The SNP seats total seems low: although the survey was carried out after Michael Ashcroft’s Scottish polling was published on 4 February, which seemed to move sentiment even if it only confirmed previous Scotland-wide polls.

3. Bumper crop of Questions To Which The Answer Is No in the Daily Mail this week. Mark Burton wanted to know:

“Did Homer Simpson discover the Higgs Boson in 1998?”

Max Dunbar reported that the QTWTAIN generator had been left on “Nazi” setting overnight:

“Are a team of amateur sleuths about to discover one of Adolf Hitler's greatest lost treasures?”

… and then on “Monkey Island” setting:

“Has the White City of the Monkey God been found after 500 years?”

And thanks to John Peters for this:

“Is your satnav harming your brain?”

4. This is from The Washington Post blogs last year, and is interesting: the second largest religion in each state, from Buddhism in the west through Islam to Judaism in the east (click on the link above for a larger version). Thanks to Stewart Wood.

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5. Quotation of the Day, from Buffy Quotes. I’m not totally sure who Buffy is, but you don’t need to know:

Buffy: “Who are you?”

Angel: “Let’s just say I’m a friend.”

B: “Well, maybe I don’t want a friend.”

A: “I didn’t say I was yours.”

6. And finally, thanks (again) to Moose Allain for this:

“My wife feels there’s probably a better title for ‘Educating Rita’. Just call it ‘A Woman’s In Tuition’.”