Mine
Showing posts with label united states. Show all posts
Showing posts with label united states. Show all posts
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Monday, November 28, 2016
This Is How To Fix The Electoral College
We all know its purpose. It's to "even-out" the vote, so that all of the giant metropolitan areas across the country don't dominate the election.. blah blah blah.
Rolling Stone is certainly not a source I would usually cite, and/nor proudly expect positive consequences for pretty much anything - especially rock 'n' roll - but here's a good article from them I ran across a week or two ago... and I'll quote the most important part below, you know, for the lazy.
"Wyoming, the nation's lowest population state, has just over 560,000 people. Those people get three electoral votes, or one per 186,000 people. California, our most populous state, has more than 37 million people. Those Californians have 55 electoral votes, or one per 670,000 people. Comparatively, people in Wyoming have nearly four times the power in the Electoral College as people in California. Put another way, if California had the same proportion of electoral votes per person as Wyoming, it would have about 200 electoral votes." (Source)
Yep, it's just simple math, people. Each state's electoral vote total needs to be proportional to the population of each state. That was the intention some 240 years ago, anyway. However the simple fact that each state (regardless of population) has exactly two senators, and that the number TWO helps to determine the number of electoral college votes for each state, is absurd!
So here's the fix:
Click it to enlarge!
Original Content (Data from Wikipedia)
And it needs to be edited before every election. I'm pretty sure the government has several statisticians employed, who can accurately project the population growth of each state based on the last census each time. If not, there are probably a few available. It's not that difficult.
By the way, with that fix I also just created 1,105 extra jobs (and growing).
Rolling Stone is certainly not a source I would usually cite, and/nor proudly expect positive consequences for pretty much anything - especially rock 'n' roll - but here's a good article from them I ran across a week or two ago... and I'll quote the most important part below, you know, for the lazy.
"Wyoming, the nation's lowest population state, has just over 560,000 people. Those people get three electoral votes, or one per 186,000 people. California, our most populous state, has more than 37 million people. Those Californians have 55 electoral votes, or one per 670,000 people. Comparatively, people in Wyoming have nearly four times the power in the Electoral College as people in California. Put another way, if California had the same proportion of electoral votes per person as Wyoming, it would have about 200 electoral votes." (Source)
Yep, it's just simple math, people. Each state's electoral vote total needs to be proportional to the population of each state. That was the intention some 240 years ago, anyway. However the simple fact that each state (regardless of population) has exactly two senators, and that the number TWO helps to determine the number of electoral college votes for each state, is absurd!
So here's the fix:
Click it to enlarge!
Original Content (Data from Wikipedia)
And it needs to be edited before every election. I'm pretty sure the government has several statisticians employed, who can accurately project the population growth of each state based on the last census each time. If not, there are probably a few available. It's not that difficult.
By the way, with that fix I also just created 1,105 extra jobs (and growing).
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Fixing The American Election Process
Long-time No-see!
Well, with these stupid cauci going on, I had to bring this up one more time. I'll explain to you later why caucuses (cauci) are stupid, but for right now, I wanna show you how we fix one of the main flaws of our government -- the voting process.
(Aside: Many forms of proof that American elections are, in fact, rigged, have been produced for years. That computer programmers can do it with ease is believable. If you're interested, watch this, or at least acknowledge it for a few minutes.. I just happened to run across that video today.)
Anyway on to the point!
I. First Past The Post
Here is the Wikipedia entry for First-Past-the-Post (FPTP). I'm pretty sure I have posted CGP Grey's explanation of FPTP voting before. The United States and several other nations have exclusively "used" this system for many years. The reason for the parentheses in the prior sentence is that FPTP is more of a phenomenon than a method, much less a chosen or preferred method. (And it's even more far-fetched to claim that it is a GOOD method.) Anyway, ^^^watch it again. It's a great video, and it's only 6:30.
I'll go let the dog out while you do.
II. Gerrymandering
Moving on.. One of the main problems (cheats) with FPTP voting, as he pointed out, is Gerrymandering. "In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan-advantaged districts." (Source) Continuing: "The resulting district apportionment is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process. When used to allege that a given party is gaining disproportionate power, the term gerrymandering has negative connotations."
A recent Chicago electoral districts map:
(Image Source) ^^^..A perfect example of bogus alignment.
Here is CGP Grey's awesome explanation of gerrymandering. Once again it is a fantastic video, and is also only 5:26.
III. Shortest Splitline
Now (drumroll), here is how you fix it! But first I must say that in order for this FIX to work, it is imperative that those who draw such lines of electoral districts, do so under absolutely no influence of any party-affiliation. Centrist mathematicians with a strong knowledge of geography (like myself) would be perfect for the job! Seriously though.. it's definitely not rocket surgery, nor brain science, so I'm pretty sure each and every electoral district in the United States, is able to find 1 (ONE) person to perform this task. There are 435 of these districts in the United States!!
This concept is called Shortest Splitline, and it's a concept most of us probably learned before fourth grade. Granted there are some high school freshman level mathematics in progress here, but again, we're talking about just 435 people. The U.S. population (as of 2014) is approximately 320 million people. I would think it would be pretty easy to find these 435 qualified individuals among a population of 320,000,000. Wouldn't you?
Finally, here you go. This is CGP Grey's 3-minute explanation of Shortest Splitline (3:37).
-- By the way, the "Iowa Caucus is an electoral event in which residents of the U.S. state of Iowa meet in precinct caucuses in all of Iowa's 1,681 precincts,* and elect delegates to the corresponding county conventions. There are 99 counties in Iowa, and thus there are 99 conventions. These county conventions then select delegates for both Iowa's Congressional District Convention and the State Convention, which eventually choose the delegates for the presidential nominating conventions. About 1% of the nation's delegates are chosen by the Iowa State Convention." (Source)
* Seriously? The population of Iowa is 3.107 million (again 2014) ...I wonder how many dozens of these precincts' cauci contain about 11 people?
CGP Grey's Entire YouTube stream
Monday, June 17, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Saturday, December 15, 2012
12 Facts About Guns & Mass Shootings in the United States
~ a super Washington Post/Wonkblog article by Ezra Klein
Image Source
When we first collected much of this data, it was after the Aurora, Colo. shootings, and the air was thick with calls to avoid “politicizing” the tragedy. That is code, essentially, for “don’t talk about reforming our gun control laws.”
Let’s be clear: That is a form of politicization. When political actors construct a political argument that threatens political consequences if other political actors pursue a certain political outcome, that is, almost by definition, a politicization of the issue. It’s just a form of politicization favoring those who prefer the status quo to stricter gun control laws.
Since then, there have been more horrible, high-profile shootings. Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, took his girlfriend’s life and then his own. In Oregon, Jacob Tyler Roberts entered a mall holding a semi-automatic rifle and yelling “I am the shooter.” And, in Connecticut, at least 27 are dead — including 18 children — after a man opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
If roads were collapsing all across the United States, killing dozens of drivers, we would surely see that as a moment to talk about what we could do to keep roads from collapsing. If terrorists were detonating bombs in port after port, you can be sure Congress would be working to upgrade the nation’s security measures. If a plague was ripping through communities, public-health officials would be working feverishly to contain it.
Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. “Too soon,” howl supporters of loose gun laws. But as others have observed, talking about how to stop mass shootings in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t “too soon.” It’s much too late.
What follows here isn’t a policy agenda. It’s simply a set of facts — many of which complicate a search for easy answers — that should inform the discussion that we desperately need to have.
1. Shooting sprees are not rare in the United States.
Mother Jones has tracked and mapped every shooting spree in the last three decades. “Since 1982, there have been at least 61 mass murders carried out with firearms across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii,” they found. ...Cont'd...
Click here to continue to the rest of the article..
The article linked above ("tracked and mapped") is also very, very good!
When we first collected much of this data, it was after the Aurora, Colo. shootings, and the air was thick with calls to avoid “politicizing” the tragedy. That is code, essentially, for “don’t talk about reforming our gun control laws.”
Let’s be clear: That is a form of politicization. When political actors construct a political argument that threatens political consequences if other political actors pursue a certain political outcome, that is, almost by definition, a politicization of the issue. It’s just a form of politicization favoring those who prefer the status quo to stricter gun control laws.
Since then, there have been more horrible, high-profile shootings. Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, took his girlfriend’s life and then his own. In Oregon, Jacob Tyler Roberts entered a mall holding a semi-automatic rifle and yelling “I am the shooter.” And, in Connecticut, at least 27 are dead — including 18 children — after a man opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
If roads were collapsing all across the United States, killing dozens of drivers, we would surely see that as a moment to talk about what we could do to keep roads from collapsing. If terrorists were detonating bombs in port after port, you can be sure Congress would be working to upgrade the nation’s security measures. If a plague was ripping through communities, public-health officials would be working feverishly to contain it.
Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. “Too soon,” howl supporters of loose gun laws. But as others have observed, talking about how to stop mass shootings in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t “too soon.” It’s much too late.
What follows here isn’t a policy agenda. It’s simply a set of facts — many of which complicate a search for easy answers — that should inform the discussion that we desperately need to have.
1. Shooting sprees are not rare in the United States.
Mother Jones has tracked and mapped every shooting spree in the last three decades. “Since 1982, there have been at least 61 mass murders carried out with firearms across the country, with the killings unfolding in 30 states from Massachusetts to Hawaii,” they found. ...Cont'd...
Click here to continue to the rest of the article..
The article linked above ("tracked and mapped") is also very, very good!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Friday, October 12, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
We Have a Lot of Guns!
Source
Americans have a lot of guns. There are a lot of data showing that Americans have a lot of guns. The Guardian put together some such data – on world firearms murders and ownership. USA is #1 when it comes to gun ownership. America is also near the top when it comes to percentage of homicides by firearm, though not so far out in the lead as with average ownership. (Source)
Clicking on the image above takes you to the interactive map reported by the above article from Forbes. Here is the original Guardian post of the interactive map, and here is the article from Forbes, which also contains a link to go directly to the data.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
US Government Considering Using Super-Scanners
Apparently these new scanners are able to instantly discover everything there is to know about you - from 164 feet away - without your knowledge, and it does it all in real time! These are new laser-based molecular scanners, called Picosecond Programmable Lasers, that our government is considering placing in our airports to replace the TSA's current methods of body-frisking and -scanning.
Here is the full story at Gizmodo, and here is the product's website.
Source
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Wind Map
(Screen-capped from hint.fm/wind)
"An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us — energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US.
Read more about wind and about wind power." (Source)
Click the banner image to go see your Wind Map.
Via - (NSFW)
Friday, February 10, 2012
U.S. Homicide vs. Suicide Rates State by State
Click to enlarge! Via - (NSFW)
SOURCES: Suicide data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report Volume 58, Number 19, May 2010, Table 29.. Available HERE. Homicide data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, Expanded Homicide Data 2007, Table 20.. Available HERE.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Visualizing The U.S. Debt
Click the image above to see the entire visualization - it's pretty impressive, and depressing at the same time..
Via
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
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