Comments on: So how hard would it be… http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/ Karl Fogel's blog Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:22:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4-alpha-19620 By: Karl Fogel http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/comment-page-1/#comment-37855 Karl Fogel Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:31:55 +0000 http://www.rants.org/?p=105#comment-37855 At the risk of sounding embarrassingly hand-wavy, I think producing these maps gets harder for finer granularities due to a sort of geometrical analog of the reason it's hard to construct a file that contains its own checksum as a substring. Hmm. Yup, it <em>is</em> embarrassingly hand-wavy! I mean, you're pulling on the boundaries of one state (county, whatever) in order to get it sized right relative to the other states... some of whom border the state you're currently adjusting! You can see why it's not a <a href= "http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/SMOP.html" rel="nofollow">SMOP</a>, and why it might get worse for finer granularities (the feedback loop gets worse the more separate entities border the entity you're currently adjusting). At the risk of sounding embarrassingly hand-wavy, I think producing these maps gets harder for finer granularities due to a sort of geometrical analog of the reason it’s hard to construct a file that contains its own checksum as a substring.

Hmm. Yup, it is embarrassingly hand-wavy!

I mean, you’re pulling on the boundaries of one state (county, whatever) in order to get it sized right relative to the other states… some of whom border the state you’re currently adjusting! You can see why it’s not a SMOP, and why it might get worse for finer granularities (the feedback loop gets worse the more separate entities border the entity you’re currently adjusting).

]]> By: So how hard would it be… http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/comment-page-1/#comment-37852 So how hard would it be… Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:01:20 +0000 http://www.rants.org/?p=105#comment-37852 [...] http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/ asks Hoosgot, [...] [...] http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/ asks Hoosgot, [...]

]]> By: Jim Blandy http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/comment-page-1/#comment-37845 Jim Blandy Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:15:32 +0000 http://www.rants.org/?p=105#comment-37845 I'd read (but not understood why) that it's computationally difficult to produce these for finer granularities (counties, say). fivethirtyeight.com did have some cartograms up a while back, but took them down. I think he had a hard time finding one that was legible, and it seems that Excel (which is what he apparently uses for all the computations on the site) can easily generate the ordinary maps, but not cartograms. I’d read (but not understood why) that it’s computationally difficult to produce these for finer granularities (counties, say).

fivethirtyeight.com did have some cartograms up a while back, but took them down. I think he had a hard time finding one that was legible, and it seems that Excel (which is what he apparently uses for all the computations on the site) can easily generate the ordinary maps, but not cartograms.

]]> By: Karl Fogel http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/comment-page-1/#comment-37833 Karl Fogel Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:59:45 +0000 http://www.rants.org/?p=105#comment-37833 <p>Okay, it's been done for the 2004 election, see:</p> <a href="http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/</a> <p>and</p> <a href="http://www.santafe.edu/~mgastner/" rel="nofollow">http://www.santafe.edu/~mgastner/</a> <p>Actually, this one that includes Alaska and Hawaii might be the best:</p> <a href="http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/statecartredblueakhi.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/statecartredblueakhi.png</a> <p>That is:</p> <a href="http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/statecartredblueakhi.png" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/statecartredblueakhi.png" alt="population-proportional electoral map of 2004 US election"/></a> Okay, it’s been done for the 2004 election, see:

http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/

and

http://www.santafe.edu/~mgastner/

Actually, this one that includes Alaska and Hawaii might be the
best:

http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/election/statecartredblueakhi.png

That is:

population-proportional electoral map of 2004 US election

]]> By: Karl Fogel http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/comment-page-1/#comment-37832 Karl Fogel Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:49:49 +0000 http://www.rants.org/?p=105#comment-37832 Perfect! Thanks so much. And the first page has a link at the bottom to free software that does the transformation, too. Perfect! Thanks so much. And the first page has a link at the bottom to free software that does the transformation, too.

]]> By: Michael Haggerty http://www.rants.org/2008/09/09/honest_electoral_map/comment-page-1/#comment-37787 Michael Haggerty Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:11:11 +0000 http://www.rants.org/?p=105#comment-37787 The following sites have world maps distorted by various criteria, and some information about how the maps were generated. Very eye-opening! http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/cartograms/ http://www.worldmapper.org/ The following sites have world maps distorted by various criteria, and some information about how the maps were generated. Very eye-opening!

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/cartograms/

http://www.worldmapper.org/

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