Where my peeps at? Part 2.

INFO VISUALIZATION: Ok, I'm always a sucker for a nice GIS readout, so here's one -- on the house.







So, Seattle is pretty much Democrat country -- no surprise there. But what's up with that little Republican conclave near Auburn?

Cartograms -- Putting ID, MT, WY, ND, and SD In Their Place

INFO VISUALIZATION: Electoral-Vote.com has become the first site I visit each morning now that the election is getting so close (hey, that's a double-entendre, woot). One thing I hadn't noticed until recently was their inclusion of a US cartogram.







The site doesn't say if the states are proportioned by electoral vote or population, (there is a subtle difference since each state gets two "free" electoral votes -- this means per capita a state like Idaho actually gets more representation in the electoral college then someone in a state like California.) but either way, it gives an interesting comparison to the widely used "block" (Demers) style cartogram.



For a fun, if confusing view of America's change population distribution, check out this animated contiguous cartogram. (If you thought Florida looked a little phallic before, wait until you see it balloon up over the past few decades.)



For more fun with cartograms, check out this awesome primer.

Iraq Attack

INFO VISUALIZATION: The New York Times has an interesting map that charts the chaos happening in Iraq.







In short, avoid all roads and populated areas. You might want to avoid the desert too.

P2P Growing; BitTorrent P2P King

INFO VISUALIZATION: There is some fascinating information on peer to peer networks over at CacheLogic.







Some of the findings:



* P2P traffic outweighs web traffic.



* P2P is not in decline.



* BitTorrent takes up 53% of P2P traffic

* eDonkey2000, 24%

* FastTrack, 19%

* Gnutella, only 4%



Be sure to check out this graphic that shows P2P to be 80% of traffic in Asia. 80%! Http hardly registers!



Also in P2P news:



* Read an interview with BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen. (BitTorrent 2 in the works!)



* The EFF lets P2P developers know what they need to do to keep their software legal.



* Voting for a president based on their P2P stance? Here's the skinny:

President Bush’s campaign says Mr. Bush isn’t in favor of banning peer-to-peer technology because it has legitimate uses, though he wants to vigorously enforce copyright law,” says a September 27 Wall Street Journal story headlined Antipiracy Bill Divides Studios and Tech Companies.



John Kerry’s campaign says he also supports copyright law, and a spokesman says that ‘widespread sharing and downloading of music, movies and software undermines the incentives of individuals and companies to create new content’.” Now you know.

My own take on the issue? Bush and Kerry will both be lap dogs to the content industry for the foreseeable future. However, the next time a teenager loses his or her college fund for downloading the theme song to Full House, I think Kerry is compassionate and reasonable enough to reconsider his stance. Like Clinton. But Bush -- Mr. "I don't understand how poor people think", puts consistency above all else, even commonsense.



(mostly via p2p weblog)

Nobel Laureate Dr. Linda B. Buck

SCIENCE: A Nobel Prize has been awarded to a UW and Fred Hutch CRC scientist. Awesome!

Two American scientists who discovered how people can smell and recall about 10,000 different odors were awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in the category of physiology or medicine today.



The winners were Dr. Richard Axel, 58, a university professor at Columbia, and Dr. Linda B. Buck, 57, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington in Seattle. The two, who will share the $1.3 million award, were cited for a discovery they made in 1991 while working together at Columbia University in Manhattan.

Here is a quote from the email Lee Hartwell -- president and director of the Hutch (also a Nobel Laureate, and a perennial cook at the company picnic) -- sent out today:

I am thrilled to announce that Dr. Linda Buck, a member of our Basic Sciences Division, has won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her groundbreaking work on odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system-the network responsible for our sense of smell.



She shares the prize with Dr. Richard Axel of Columbia University. Their work is the first to define one of our sensory systems in the most detailed manner possible by defining the genes and proteins that control this remarkably complex response. This is a landmark achievement in the study of the nervous system.



The basic principles for recognizing and remembering about 10,000 different odors have long been a mystery. In a series of pioneering studies as a postdoctoral fellow with Axel, Linda clarified how our olfactory system works. She discovered a large gene family, made up of some 1,000 different genes that give rise to an equivalent number of olfactory receptor types. These receptors are located on the olfactory receptor cells, which occupy a small area in the upper part of the lining of the nose and detect the inhaled odorant molecules.



Linda and Richard showed that every single olfactory receptor cell produces one and only one of the odorant receptor genes. Thus, there are as many types of olfactory receptor cells as there are odorant receptors. Most odors are composed of multiple odorant molecules, and each odorant molecule activates several odorant receptors. This leads to a combinatorial code forming an "odorant pattern" - somewhat like the colors in a patchwork quilt or in a mosaic. This is the basis for our ability to recognize and form memories of approximately 10,000 different odors. To read more about Linda's work, visit the Nobel Web site at http://nobelprize.org.



Linda joined the center in 2002 after 11 years as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the recipient of the Gairdner Award, the Unilever Science Award, the Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy Science for Art Prize, the R. H. Wright Award in olfactory research and the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for work in basic medical research.

Cool!

Polls, Polls, Polls

DATA: More data are coming in on Thursday's debate. Here's a poll of 14 states and several urban areas. (pdf warning) Out of 14 states polled, 2 found Bush to be the winner. They are -- surprise -- Texas and Oklahoma. Interestingly, Bush was seen as the winner in Texas by only a 2% lead over Kerry. The margin of error is ±4.9%.



Oklahoma is the only state that was clearly impressed by Bush, with 5% more respondents crowning him the winner over Kerry. But again, the margin of error is ±4.9%. Hardly a resounding victory.







Colorado is a dead heat; Kentucky (like Texas for Bush) only showed a slight victory for Kerry. But beyond that, the 10 other states polled found Kerry to be the clear winner. Most importantly, Florida, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and New Jersey are all on that list.



This is good news for Kerry, but will it effect votes? Here's John Zogby's opinion, written before the debate.

Historically, these televised presidential debates have had a significant impact on the final outcome of several elections. In 1960, a polished and articulate Massachusetts Senator named John F. Kennedy showed that he could compete with a more experienced and older sitting Vice-President, Richard Nixon.

Cookies

INTERFACES: I love firefox.







Not very helpful, but cute. This is cute too.

Tied Polls, Ties, Poles (as in Poland)

DATA: The American Research Group has posted two polls about the debate performances yesterday, and Kerry wins in both by at least 10%.



But putting aside the partisans and focusing in on just the independent voters, Kerry won by 16% and 19% in the two polls. Nice.



But even here I suspect there are some freepers (and of course the equivalent on the democratic side) that are just trying to bump the numbers. If you read the methodology of the polls you see that the data are far from empirical.

Both panels are opt-in Internet panels with responses received between 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on September 30.

Hrmn, yes, opt-in internet panels. I wouldn't put too much into these polls. We'll just have to wait a few days to find out the real reaction to the debates. I don't see how anyone could have been impressed with Bush's performance.



On a lighter note, while chatting with my friend about Bush's and Kerry's ties (which were the wrong colors, Electoral-Vote points out: blue on Bush, Red on Kerry) I ran across this light and interesting article in the Chicago Sun-Times about the new power pink tie.

Ronald Reagan was famous for his red power tie. George W. Bush usually chooses a blue tie -- the better to offset his eyes.



And John Kerry? He's in the pink. [...]



These days, pink equals power.



"It's the tie of the moment," [says JoAnn Young, trend correspondent for Marshall Field's], and it seems to be so. No less a financial force than Donald Trump has picked pink ties, in hues varying from silvery salmon to fuchsia. Even Bill Clinton showed up for his talk with Oprah Winfrey in a pink tie that coordinated with his hostess.

I've had a pink and blue striped tie for a while. Not because it's the "tie of the moment" but because it looks great on us pale white boys.



(Oh gosh, I forgot to talk about Poland in this post. HOW COULD I FORGET POLAND?)

Mount St. Helens

INFO VISUALIZATION: Good friend Andy points us to a few interesting visualizations of recent Mount St. Helens geological activity.







You can also check out the Mount Saint Helens webcam while you wait for the money shot.

1,717,986,918,400 (1.7 Trillion!) Bits For $69.99

INFO TECHNOLOGY: Kevin Rose points us to a great hard drive deal.

200GB Hard Drive only 69.99 after rebate.



Limit one per address. I'm having one sent to work, and one to my house. Great deal.

¢35 a Gig. This defines the word wØØt.