Another question: can I find a data file that will tell me which census-defined "urban area", if any, contains a given block group (or block, if it has to be that)?  Again, I just can't find this.  It doesn't seem to be contained in any of the geography files; the census website just gives shapefiles and maps of urban areas.

Thanks, Jim!

Yeah, bgwah, I would've done that, but the census tables don't include density either, at least for block groups.

I've been searching the census website for a couple hours and I can't find this data.  (They do have a nice website for downloading pretty much any other census-related data, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DownloadDatasetServlet?_lang=en.)  I found a website that displays the area of a single block group when I ask it to (like this) so the data must be somewhere, but I can't find a way I can download all the land areas of census block groups (or any other geographical areas for that matter) for, say, an entire county.

Does anyone know where to find this?  Or, say, has it and can email me a copy?

So did anyone bother to add everything up and get a total?

The announcers are having a really great time saying 'irrrreversible' every few seconds.

Saying irrelevant stuff about thanking voters and poll workers and so on...

Turnout 66.45%

Folks with the courage to uproot themselves, and go far away to find work (and in a place with the most unfriendly social safety net perhaps in the nation), are not a random sample of the population.

You mean, they have less conservative personalities?

... Yeah, OK, who knows how this reflects on political ideology (I certainly don't presume to) but that was too easy.

I mean, there are four possible components to this phenomenon that I can think of.  One is that the redder states tend to have more bureaucracy and therefore are more expensive to exist in.  The second is that the bluer states make life cheaper by externalizing problems to their neighbors and into the future.  The third is that the redder states tend to value certain things (e.g. rich culture, open space, social services, catering to NIMBYs) more than they do purely efficient spending.  The fourth is that people in economically depressed states tend to vote for the party that promises more for the poor -- just look at Nevada's swing from '04 to '08.

So yeah, the formula calculates essentially the amount of choice voters have.  If you have $n$ parties which each get $1/n$ of the vote, then you get $1/(n(1/n^2))=n$ for the effective number of parties.  If the parties are significantly imbalanced, that decreases the effective number.  E.g. if there are two parties but one wins 2/3 of the vote, the effective number is $1/((2/3)^2+(1/3)^2)=9/5=1.8$.  If anything, this overestimates this effective number, since if one party wins two-thirds of the vote, that's essentially a one-party system.  Or if there are three parties which get 1/2, 1/4, and 1/4, we get $1/(1/4+1/16+1/16)=8/3$, even though that's essentially a two-party system.  But maybe there's some sort of theory that makes this formula meaningful.

Btw, I suspect, Xahar, that you're hobbling yourself by claiming to be unable to do math.

(Edit: oh how fail I at counting!)

What did Straha do to get banned?  I never understood this, probably I was absent from the forum when it happened.  I always thought him abrasive, but amusing and worth having around.

Relative to expectations, Labour did better, of course.  But that just shows how polarized the US is.

http://jakegarland.tumblr.com/post/499903503/you-know-youre-a-bunch-of-assholes-when

Why is D66 losing so much support?  I liked the polls better when GL and D66 together were getting a third of the vote.

However, I would illegalize a drug called salvia.  This drug is known for inclining teenagers to commit suicide.  Its effects are like LSD or Heroin.  Teenagers buy it because they think it will give them the same effects as Marijuana, but the effects are far worse.  I had a friend who had to be sat for an hour by another friend because he wanted to jump out a third story window.  He was apparently yelling, "Please kill me, please kill me.  I want the pain to stop.  When will this end.  Please kill me."  I've heard this story told many times. 

That is incredibly incoherent.  The pressure to make salvia illegal is largely based on the case of one teenager who wrote about salvia in his journal and several months later committed suicide.  LSD is nothing like heroin, and salvia is nothing like either.  Salvia trips only last about 15 minutes, and yes, the effects are unpredictable and it's wise to have a sober trip-sitter, but as far as we know the drug isn't dangerous physiologically or in terms of long-term psychological effects such as addiction.

where you wrote "loggers", add "Twilight tourism" -- I was stuck in Forks for several hours because I missed a bus, and it was full of women who looked exactly like this and signs like "BLAH HOTEL - TWILIGHT ROOMS."  This may explain why Forks doesn't vote like Port Angeles or even Sequim.  Or maybe I'm overthinking it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem integrated over time, if BRTD checks this kind of thing a lot

FC, based on the quality of music that you can hear on the main street on a Thursday night in July.

http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=90179.0

Chinchilla!  May I suggest a new theme for Lewis's signature?

Obviously Betty Boop:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFPVCfQ7uxM

No to both.

CA-14, CA-29, or IL-1

that Joan Baez song that plays with the start of each new episode of Weeds

Malvina Reynolds, sorry.  Though I've only heard it in the Pete Seeger version.  It was actually inspired by the stuff around 280 in Pacifica or thereabouts.

Haha, I think I just out-olded Torie.  Must be all that turning 22 getting to me.

I like all those Grant counties there.

3 Grants and 2 Garfields.  Impressive.

[14. Taos County, New Mexico (Obama 81.82 - McCain 16.97 = D + 64.85)]

14. Taos County, New Mexico (Obama 81.82 - McCain 16.97 = D + 64.85)
Majority (57.94%) Hispanic/Latino.

More importantly, though, an artsy/resort community.

30. Silver Bow County, Montana (Obama 68.51 - McCain 28.27 = D + 40.24)
Contains Butte. Is this a liberal city? Universities? Read somewhere about labor unions?

Semi-defunct mining area, IIRC.

46. Summit County, Utah (Obama 56.34 - McCain 41.11 = D + 15.23)
Not too sure on this county, either, but it has the second lowest percentage of Mormons in the state - was also one of two counties that voted against against the gay marriage ban.

Another ski resort area.

As for the Kentucky and West Virginia places, Al will have plenty to say there.

If its not the massive, out of control fires every year,

Southern California, not here.

     Not to mention they tend to happen in the more rural areas (Oakland Hills fire aside), no?

Yeah, but they make the air unbreathable everywhere.  So glad I wasn't in Pasadena during the Station fire.  I kind of wish I were there for this rain though... sounds fun.  The weather in Chicago has been boring and annoying lately, weaving up and down around freezing, all the snow has half-melted into icy crap.

Any reason Yuschenko did so well in Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk?  (I typed "Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk", then considered editing to "Lwów".  Does that make me a bad person?)  He doesn't appear to be a favorite son or anything.

Wow, Ukrainian is hilarious.  (If you're Russian, of course.)  The word for "independent [of party]" appears to mean something like "beyond parties", sort of in a spatial way, like what you see to your left when you've walked past all the parties.  And the word for "nominated by [a party]" is cognate to a Russian word meaning "stick out [e.g. your tongue]".

Guess, what čerstvý chléb means in Czech. And, for that matter, how do czechs rank the roots for Russian smells: pakhnut', voniat', smerdet'

I've read about the first, yes.