h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A weird system left over from the pre-Jackson "oligarchy". Every now and then they talk about altering it, but apparently that's even more complicated. Jordan probably can tell you more about it than I, but since nobody mentioned that part, I thought I'd drop in my

The electoral college? Because I find the electoral college to be pretty simple, if unnecessary and undemocratic. I don't know anyone personally who's in favor of keeping it, but it requires a Constitutional amendment, which is a messy process. Maybe if Barack, Hillary or McCain or someone campaigned on the issue, it might get the necessary attention, but they won't.

If anyone was ever going to do anything about the electoral college, then they should have done it after the travesty that was the 2000 election.

Yes but how do you change the electoral college once the people who enjoy that system are in power? Originally, the electoral college was a rather snobby thing, instituted because the founding fathers didn't want the illiterate and uninformed to be able to directly elect an official. My major problem with it is that all electors for any given state vote for only one candidate regardless of the split in the general election. So if California is a 60/40 split between candidates, the winner gets all 52 (or however many it is now) electoral votes.

Emee, that's not always the case. In many instances delegates are proportionally awarded.

I was working the polls in California yesterday. We had a lot of non-party-affiliated people very confused because the Democratic primary is open, but the Republican primary is closed. We had to explain to them that they could cast a Democratic ballot or a nonpartisan ballot (which doesn't have presidential candidates, just state initiatives) but could not cast a Republican ballot. At this, one young woman ran out of the polling place in tears.

It's such a Byzantine system, really.

The only question I really have about the electoral college is:

Why?

I read somewhere something about it being a good thing that tiny states are over represented and large states under represented ?

Good for what? Good for ensuring political hotheads who don't want to live in DC (the home of democracy, but somewhat lacking in representation) all move to Wyoming (beautiful scenery, the Tetons, the Rockies, Yellowstone, but very few people, presumably every vote counts)?

Meanwhile, looks like the Democratic race is going to remain interesting for a fair old while yet....

I was commenting on the electoral college, not the delegates. During the general presidential election, we choose a list of electors who have pledged to cast their vote for the candidate of your choice.

Representation is by population. Every state has 2 senators and at least 1 representative. They also have an equivalent number of electoral college votes during the presidential election. For example, Oklahoma where I live has 2 senators and 5 representatives because we are not a heavily populated state. So we have 7 total electoral college votes. Confused yet?

Oh and we have closed primaries so to vote in a primary you have to register for one of the two main parties.

If reform of the electoral college was going to happen, it could have happened after the elections of 1800 or 1876 (both of which were a total mess) as well as after 2000. The election of 2000 exposed problems with the electoral college, but the lesson that the US learned had more to dow with problems with voting problems and voting irregularities, rather than the structure in which people were casting their ballots.

There are several reasons why the electoral college exists. It's related to the great compromise, where a bicameral legislature was formed (one based on equal representation of the people, one based on equal representation of the states). In the electoral college, less populous states get a disproportionately large say in choosing the President, but very populous states get a bigger say. So everyone's happy, and no one is happy

There was an element of distrust of the people in making the Electoral college, as was pointed out. There was only one half of one (of three) branch of the Federal government directly elected by the people originally. But today, Electoral votes might as well be called 'Electoral Points' or something like that. Rarely to electors act like human beings. They do what they're told. It's rare for them to do otherwise (though it happened as recently as 2000, when one elector from DC refused to vote (I think) in protest of DC not being admitted as a state.)

And by the way, there is some movement to change the electoral college. A few states have signed a pact that says that once all of the states join it, they will all simply award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. New Jersey just joined this, I think. It would be an elegant way to get around the electoral college without a Constitutional amendment.

Which is presumably what the constitution is for right? Avoiding via loopholes

KWDave here. Before I got interesting enough to live in Key West, I grew up in deepest South Alabama. I have been told I have a distinctive Southern accent, although I don't hear it.

The dialect test you mention about halfway through this post placed me squarely in Massachusettes, so I think you might want to view their results with a grain of salt or three. I did not attend Harvard.

Anyway, if I can help you with your project, please holler. Uh, let me know. I have access to some good AV equipment here.

Hey folks. Has been a while I know, but plans are still afoot to AV Jodan's US dialect project.

As most of you probably know, since the AV idea was first mentioned in this thread, TRiG and Skankyrich quietly went and revolutionised how the AViators can go about their business, and the new Aviators site means we are able to host any sort of audio-visual content we like. This makes the Aviation of this project much easier, and potentially, a lot more effective:

Instead of a linear youtube-like AV clip of limited duration, we can make the AV of this project in the form of a Flash presentation. We could thus sort out the minor conflict which was going to occur in organising the youtube clip with the factual content of Jodan's entries, and the accent-comparison phrases we were hoping to have:

NB: The following is a suggestion only, please feel free to criticise/come up with even better idea:


We have our clickable map of the USA, and thanks to the power of Flash, we can have a toggle switch above it, which users can use to choose between the following two modes (exact phrasing, as ever, to be hammered out later): "US Regional Dialects Explained" and "Comparisons".

The Explained mode will split the map into the sections outlined in Jodan's project, clicking on a particular area will zoom in on that region, and an audio summary of the h2g2 entry (preferably read by a suitably accent-endowed US researcher) will start up. Visually, the map could include a few graphical links to any h2g2 entries about the region, but the main point here is to have the linguistic and historical content of Jodan's awesome project available in audio.

The Comparisons mode is where having a clickable flash map will really come into its own - instead of being split into the regions Jodan identified in his entries, this will be the full US map (although a zoom level or two may be required, depending on the success of this idea).

This will also have some sort of toggle switch, to go between "Regional phrases" and "Stock Expressions". The map will feature lots of wee pins, located wherever our US researchers come from.

With "Stock Expressions" on:
Click on the Ohio-located pin and hear Jodan say "he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts" (or whatever, obviously), click on the New York-located pin, hear Leo saying the same thing.

With "Regional Phrases" on:
Click on the Texas-located pin, and hear Stevie K or Count Zero say some crazy local colloquialism, with possibly a very short explanation of what it means. Visually, not sure how good flash is at this sort of thing, but it should be possible to have the text pop up over the pin fairly easily.


Summary:
The two Comparisons modes will allow direct dialect comparison and local flavour to be effectively communicated, and the Explained mode will of course allow all the content of Jodan's project to be presented in an easily navigable manner.



The real advantage of this idea over the single linear AV clip idea is that we can add regions and researchers as time goes by - if WickedSmart wants to write a Hawaii pidgin entry, then we add the content to the Flash presentation, no hu-hu, and no matter how many Midland-accented researchers we have, they can all appear on the comparisons map to highlight some of the subtle differences Jodan mentions. Imagine a map with hundreds of pins in it in a few years time. Might be kinda cool.

The future-proof updatability of the Flash presentation makes it fit much better into the ethos of the EG in my not very humble opinion.




Meanwhile, trying unsuccessfully to keep track of who may be on board for audio duties so far:

Southern Drawlers:
Count Zero - Texas
Stevie K - Texas
KWdave - Alabama

Noo Yawk Tawkers:
Leo - not noo yawker???
Some friend Leo mentioned as New Yorker

Wicked Good People:

Philly and Pittsburgers:

Midwesterners:
Jodan - Ohio
EMR - South Calfornia
brolean
Amy P
Happy Nerd - Minnesota???

Chicago:
pyschocandy

Else:
WickedSmart - Hawaii examples???


Again, for those project entries we don't currently have researchers for, no problem, they can be easily added in later (although would be nice to have full set from the start of course, and might be necessary for italics to be happy linking to the map from the EG).

So what do you guys think of my somewhat altered AV plans?
vp

I'd love to help if I could, but I'm not a native Minnesotan. I'm from Northern California, and I'm back in Northern California and hope never to leave again. (Of course that's what I said last time too.)

I might be able to persuade a McKinleyville California native to record his drawl that's so thick I can't understand it. I also work with a native son of Tennessee that might find this interesting. His metaphors are something else!

Keep in mind that California is not the Midwest, vp. We Californians can get touchy about that.

This sounds like an ambitious, but awesome, plan.

I think as far as the dialect's concerned, we are

*Native Oregoninan, 2nd-mid-4th-grade in and around Reno, in northern California since 1993*

Midland accent is the preferred term, to avoid calling Californians "Midwesterners".

I don't really have time to do any of this right now, by the way. I'm really sorry about that.

Sounds like a great plan!

I think it sounds like a great plan, too. The map idea sounds fantastic! I'm still happy to participate and help out whenever that time comes.

Sounds awesome. I'm a New Yawker, but I don't have much of an accent. However, I can dig up someone who does pretty easily. Count me in.