The week so far

The flight in was fine. I'm going to have to learn to try take somewhat earlier flights when going west - landing at 10pm my time is a bit much.

Monday night I got together with alicebentley, we each had the chirashi at Fuji Sushi.

Last night I got done at work promptly at 5pm, so I walked down to Pike's Place Market. Most of the stalls were still open, but obviously in the process of closing up. I can see how it could be a madhouse in the morning, especially on weekends. I also investigated the under shops - it's an interesting collection. Then I came back, and had dinner at Thai Taste across from the hotel. Three appetizers - Chicken Satay, Thai Fish Cakes, and a sampler of two Crab Rangoon, three pot-stickers, and three spring rolls (the thin fried kind, not the thick mostly raw kind).

Tonight I'm getting together with Jordin and marykaykare - I'm going to put myself at their mercy for dinner.

Now I have to be at work by 7am for conference call, and then training from 8-12.

Some words on abolishing the Electoral College

Some people campaign for abolishing the Electoral College in favor of a straight popular vote. The most common reason I've heard for this is because it will get rid of swing states where most of the campaigning will happen, and get more widely spread attention.

I believe this is false. The top nine states by population - CA, TX, NY, FL, IL, PA, OH, MI & GA - contain approximately 50% of the US population. If you add in the next eight states - NC, NJ, VA, WA, MA, IN, AZ & TN - you're up to about 69% of the total US population. So, 17 states have over two-thirds of the US population. (BTW, TN is last state that individually has at least 2% of the total US population.) The bottom 33 states have 21% of the US population - how much attention are those 33 states going to get?

Without the electoral college, the vast majority of campaigning - and campaign promising! - is going to be in those top 17 states, mostly in the top 9. Abolishing the Electoral College would just re-define the swing states to be those top nine states, permanently.

There's an interest set of maps at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/ - they include a map where the states are sized proportional to population, and proportional to electoral college votes.