Odracirys

Statistics Are Interesting! The Wall Street Journal 2012 Election Map This is a brilliant map, showing each county (or county-equivalent state subdivision, seemingly aside from those in Alaska and Hawaii).  You can see that the deeper the blue, the more skewed towards Obama, and the deeper the read, the more skewed towards Romney the counties are. Although there are Red States and Blue States, it easy to see that things aren't so simple as that.  Maps like these tell us that it's mostly urban areas (as well as rural areas with large minority populations) that go for Democrats, and rural areas that go for Republicans. Even looking at New York, California, Washington, and Oregon (among others) you can see that lots of rural counties went Red.  It was the same in recent past elections. Nevada is a Blue state, yet the only Blue areas of the state are Las Vegas and Reno.  All other counties are Red.  Yet the population distribution is such that just ...

How Mitt Romney and Joe Biden Won Their Debates (or How We Are Making Society Worse) I do listen to what others say, but I always apply thought to it and never just follow the herd.  This is what happened during the recent American presidential and vice presidential debates.  And I came to the exact opposite conclusions as were generally announced in the media. Now, the way I determine if someone won a debate is whether I feel they did a good job getting across their message in a good way.  I may not agree with someone's message at all, but if I think that person got it across better, I'll give that person the win.  Such was the case when I saw Thunderf00t (a YouTube atheist) debating certain creationists.  In most instances, I felt that the creationists won...not because they were right, but because Thunderf00t's showing made me feel embarrassed for him.  He just has trouble debating. Now, I watched the debates before I heard any of the ta...