What Would Google Decide? 40
Gary Stock, the guy who invented the Googlewhack, tried a bit of Google election predicting last night. Using a methodology that is entirely indefensible, and which he does not try to defend, Stock asked Google to call the results on Michigan's five referendum questions. The result: Google's answers to two questions were spot-on, two questions were answered correctly but underrepresented the 'yes' vote, and one question was reversed. An 80% accuracy rate has got to beat any number of the pollsters and pundits who have been shouting at us since last August, no?
Re: Monkey Dart Stocks (Score:2)
Voting in the e-age (Score:5, Funny)
No surprise... (Score:5, Funny)
What -- you thought the election was fair and square and only determined when the ballots were counted last night?
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Re:No surprise... (Score:4, Informative)
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Not really (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I think voting shouldn't be a single day but should last for eleven days; for example: from the first Friday in November until the end of the Monday eleven days hence, with "the count so far" results being published at noon on days 4 (Monday), 7 (Thursday), and 10 (Sunday), with final (as much as possible, anyway) number
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99.99% voting rate, here we come!
What is whack... (Score:1)
I tried it for Massachusetts' questions (Score:2)
"vote yes on question 1" 2006 massachusetts
as here in Massachusetts, that is how we refer to ballot initiatives.
Brilliant idea (Score:5, Interesting)
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Damn kid Luddites these days. Get off my lawnmower!
KFG
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And boy, are you going to be in for a rude awakening when the new longevity therapies come out. I got lucky, my Father-in-law is already dead. He was computer technology savvy, but caught a bad case of Luddite technology.
Fireplace poker upside the head. Sometimes the old ways are very effective.
KFG
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KFG
Errata: (Score:1)
There's a dyslexia joke in there somewhere; and I'm it.
KFG
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Not Surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
This surprises me not at all. Usually the vote follows wherever the majority of marketing money is spent. Marketing works, that's why people spend so much money on it. Google results probably mirror the amount of marketing pretty well, although if one group ignored online marketing or concentrated on one other form, it might be off.
I'm actually very discouraged by the Michigan elections, not because I think all the votes went the wrong way, but because 99% of the people I talked to about an issue could repeat what they heard in a television ad, but had obviously not thought the issue through at all beyond that. I was 100% right in my predictions of the election, based simply on the TV ads.
"Better Know A District" predicted it (Score:2, Insightful)
> An 80% accuracy rate has got to beat any number of the pollsters and pundits who have been shouting at us since last August, no?
No. Stephen Colbert noted last night that everyone who was featured on his segment "Better Know A District" won last night. I think a humorous 100% is better than an indefensible 80%.
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"Couldn't be bothered" is not an accurate characterization. Many politicians are afraid to go on Stephen Colbert. Nancy Pelosi has advised Democrats not to appear. Similar admonitions have gone out on the Republican side. These people don't really understand the show, or the younger-than-them generations which watch it, so all they see is people being made fun of an
Way to cook up a new t-shirt catchphrase... (Score:1)
(shudders and skulks off into dark corner to tie socks into noose)
I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy (Score:1)
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I could always throw darts at a stock-ticker but how will I know if that's random enough?
Probability that 4 out of 5 is random guessing (Score:2)
http://ff123.net/abx/abx.php [ff123.net]
favor betting markets (Score:2)
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Dick DeVos spent a LOT more than Jennifer Granholm on his ad campaign, and lost by a fairly large margin...
Do you have numbers on this? Do they include the $150 million of state funds Granholm basically handed to Ford as a PR move?
I also saw many more commercials against the MCRI (the amendment to ban affirmative action by the state, for you non-Michiganders) and that passed by an even stronger margin.
Again, I'm not sure of the numbers on this one, but I saw quite a few ads in both directions with re