Red and Blue States...not so much

[Tisket]

With the upcoming election we've once again started to see references to red and blue states in the political threads. That's all fine and dandy. I just thought it would be interesting to see a different view of reality.

On a regular map the states are their normal size, and we are all familiar with the appearance of this map. Here it is with the red and blue states represented using 2000 census data:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz1.png

Seems pretty clear cut. But it's interesting to see a common map adjusted to represent statistics by adjusting the map itself to make areas larger or smaller according to population densities. This is called a cartogram. Here is the same map rescaled according to its population instead of its topography:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz2.png

Here is one shown scaled by electoral votes:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz3.png

Will have to continue this in a second post since we are limited to four images per post...to be continued:

[Tisket]

Here is a normal U.S. map color-coded by county instead of by state:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz5.png

And a cartogram using the same data:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz6.png

And here is the regular map again, this time shaded with blue, reds, and purples. The purples representing areas where slim margins occurred:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz10.png

And the cartogram using the same statistics:

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz11.png

I just found it interesting and thought I'd share. You can find the information and maps used here:

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

If you like this sort of thing there are more world maps translated into cartograms representing different social and economic views here:

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

[Back]

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz11.png

That looks like some kinda crazy deep sea fish. Very cool.

These were produced a while back. After the ’04 election? Technology is so awesome.

[AestheticDeath]

Pretty...

[Parkbandit]

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w66/Sassy_Photos_2007/zzz11.png

That looks like some kinda crazy deep sea fish. Very cool.

These were produced a while back. After the ’04 election? Technology is so awesome.


Technology is awesome.. if the people looking at it aren't dumb as doorknobs. That pic was already posted right above your post.

[BigWorm]

Technology is awesome.. if the people looking at it aren't dumb as doorknobs. That pic was already posted right above your post.

I think he linked to reference it so that we knew which one he meant when he said "that one".