Taking my winnings. With the latest Morgan Poll still showing Labor in a healthy and winning position, I will be taking the opportunity to cash in and take my winnings on my small investments, made last year when price was much longer than the current $1.20, on the Rudd government to be returned at the next election.

It is not that I think Morgan is wrong in putting the two-party preferred vote at 58.5% or 60% depending on how you allocated the third-party preferences. (See Possum Comitatus for an interesting discussion on this difference). It is just that I sense Labor will not have the courage to call an early double-dissolution election and a lot can happen twixt now and the likely polling day in August.

I doubt that things are going to get any better for the government before then and that the odds will begin moving a little in favour of the Opposition.

And investing again. With the ill-gotten gains, I will be having a little something on Labor to be returned in New South Wales. Not that I think it is  likely to win the election in March 2011. Again it is simply a matter of thinking that a year is a long time in politics and that the new Premier is doing decidedly better than her two immediate predecessors. I sense the opportunity is there for a little crushing, and hence profit taking, a few months down the track.

Don’t worry about the patients. The ABC should get out that old Yes Minister episode about the North London hospital with no patients and play it to mark the performance today of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in officially opening the cancer ward at the Darwin Hospital, which will not have any patients until March.

Getting noticed on a dating site. At last some proper and practical advice for all you poor desperates wanting to be noticed on a dating site. The OK Cupid blog, recently described by a serious Washington Post political  columnist as perhaps the best blog on the internet, has just published the results of “dark months of data mining” involving more than  7000 photographs on OkCupid.com, analyzing three primary things:

Facial Attitude. Is the person smiling? Staring straight ahead? Doing that flirty lip-pursing thing?

Photo Context. Is there alcohol? Is there a pet? Is the photo outdoors? Is it in a bedroom?

Skin. How much skin is the person showing? How much face? How much breasts? How much ripped abs?

The result is advice on how to get noticed and increase your number of responses. One example will give the flavour:

It’s better to smile

One of the first things we noticed when diving into our pool of photos is that men and women have very different approaches to the camera.

100122smiling1

Women smile almost twice as often as men do and make that flirty-face four times as often.

100122smiling2

Now, you’re always told to look happy and make eye contact in social situations, but at least for your online dating photo, that’s just not optimal advice. For women, a smile isn’t strictly better: she actually gets the most messages by flirting directly into the camera, like the centre and right-hand subjects above.