These maps by the website BDistricting show two ways of dividing the Garden State into Congressional voting districts with roughly equal population. (Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, each State is apportioned a number of federal representatives which approximately corresponds to its share of the aggregate population of the 50 States, although every State is constitutionally guaranteed at least one House seat.) The map on the left shows the work of a computer algorithm designed to draw the Congressional voting districts in New Jersey in a logical and “optimally-compact” way. The map on the right, by contrast, shows the State’s current Congressional districts, which are drawn by flesh-and-blood people with vested political interests in “gaming the system,” in deciding how voters are apportioned. Look up your State’s voting map here.
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By the way, who do you trust more to draw up fair voting districts: computers or humans? … That’s what we thought!
(Hat tip (again) to the amazing Max Ehrenfreund.)
A very 21st century swearing in: Suzi LeVine becomes the 1st U.S. Ambassador to take the oath over an electronic device. pic.twitter.com/5E4bjIRQ2xFrom today’s NY Times: “The lone American prisoner of war from the Afghan conflict, captured by [the Taliban] nearly five years ago, has been released to American forces in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at [the US military prison in] Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Obama administration officials said Saturday.” According to some sources, the released POW, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, had “allegedly abandoned his post after growing disillusioned with America’s wars and the potentially illegal deal struck by the White House to free him.” [Temporal typo, anyone?] By the way, how would you model the top-secret negotiations between the US Government and the Taliban? As a Game of Chicken, a Prisoner’s Dilemma, or a Coordination Game?
The perfect gift for … the Taliban!
Check out this cool video (in Spanish) supporting the Chilean National Team and see one of the many reasons why we love the World Cup …
Do blacks commit more crimes (statistically-speaking) than people of other races, or is the US criminal justice system a racist system? How else to explain these disgraceful numbers? Hat tip to Max Ehrenfreund of the Wash. Post for bringing this powerful chart to our attention.
Is he hiding somewhere in Moscow, or is he in plain sight in Washington, D.C.? US Secretary of State John Kerry recently called out our man in Moscow, boy-wonder Edward Snowden, for being a “traitor” (for divulging an unconstitutional mass surveillance program) AND, get this, a “coward” (for not returning to the US to face the trumped-up charges against him). Forgive us for asking, but isn’t this the same John Kerry who burned other soldiers’ Purple Hearts (but not his own P.H.) to protest the war in Vietnam?
This photo, in a nutshell, tells you what the news media–except for The Daily Nexus (UCSB’s student paper)–are not reporting. Photo credit: Kenneth Song, John Clow, or Eric Swenson (we aren’t sure which)/The Daily Nexus.
Given the increase in demand to visit Disneyland, are Disneyland ticket prices too high … or too low? By the way, what do these data above tell us about the price elasticity of Disneyland tickets?
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