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#152 Nov 02 2012 at 11:42 PM Rating: Decent
gbaji wrote:
Almalieque wrote:
Anyone think that this race will be as close as it's being stated? I want to know the who the next president will be before I go to sleep, not find out 3 days later...


IMO, it's either going to be really close or it will be a blowout for Romney.


Incorrect. Even if Romney wins the popular vote by a percent or two, all Obama has to do is take Ohio or Florida and maintain the typical blue states and its a wash. There's no forseeable scenario that would result in a blowout for Romney. Once again, you're delusional.
#153 Nov 02 2012 at 11:51 PM Rating: Good
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The Republicans that are so sure of Romney's victory should buy a ton of shares on Intrade.com. You know, if they actually believed what they espouse.

Edit: Actually I just went to Intrade and tried to buy 10 shares for Obama's victory (betting $66 to win $100). Unfortunately they require a bunch of documentation to verify your account, and then you have to do a bank wire transfer. I'll see if I can manage all that tomorrow.



Edited, Nov 3rd 2012 12:59am by trickybeck
#154 Nov 03 2012 at 12:00 AM Rating: Excellent
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#155 Nov 03 2012 at 4:17 AM Rating: Excellent
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trickybeck wrote:

The Republicans that are so sure of Romney's victory should buy a ton of shares on Intrade.com. You know, if they actually believed what they espouse.

Edit: Actually I just went to Intrade and tried to buy 10 shares for Obama's victory (betting $66 to win $100). Unfortunately they require a bunch of documentation to verify your account, and then you have to do a bank wire transfer. I'll see if I can manage all that tomorrow.



Edited, Nov 3rd 2012 12:59am by trickybeck

If you try to buy shares for Romney, will they still require ID and documentation, or is it only likely Democrats that need a birth certificate?
#156Almalieque, Posted: Nov 03 2012 at 6:18 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Because the average person that I've seen who buys Apple are clueless on technology and will buy whatever is being advertised as the "new hotness". They are accustomed to being told what they can and cannot do by Apple so they go along.
#157 Nov 03 2012 at 6:28 AM Rating: Decent
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crazylegz1975 wrote:
Sandy is going to hand pa to romney.


I wouldn't be so sure.

For one, it's not being reported on so much, which surprises me since past storms have been huge news without much justification, and one of the biggest in recent memory comes and ***** up half of the East Coast, and there's next to nothing(in comparison).

Second, were it being reported on more heavily, Obama would have scored a PR victory due to the fact that he was on the ground in NJ and NY within 48 hours of the storm. On top of that, the federal response has been a fair bit quicker than say, Bush's and the government's response time after Katrina. Hell, FEMA had 1500 people on the ground in the affected areas as of the 29th, many more now.

Addding to this, Romney's statement that he wanted to make major cuts in FEMA can only be biting him in the *** at this point.

If anything, the storm may have handed the election to Obama.
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#158 Nov 03 2012 at 7:46 AM Rating: Good
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Wired Magazine on why predictions and statistical models are necessary and good for democracy
Wired wrote:
“The pollsters tell us what’s happening now,” conservative columnist David Brooks told Politico, trashing Silver. “When they start projecting, they’re getting into silly land.” In the same article, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough added, “And anybody that thinks that this race is anything but a tossup right now is such an ideologue, they should be kept away from typewriters, computers, laptops, and microphones for the next 10 days – because they’re jokes.”

David Brooks is mistaken and Joe Scarborough is wrong. Because while pollsters can’t project, statistical models can, and do … and they do some predictions very well.

We rely on statistical models for many decisions every single day, including, crucially: weather, medicine, and pretty much any complex system in which there’s an element of uncertainty to the outcome. In fact, these are the same methods by which scientists could tell Hurricane Sandy was about to hit the United States many days in advance.

Dismissing predictive methods is not only incorrect; in the case of electoral politics, it’s politically harmful.

Monsieur Driftwood wrote:
crazylegz1975 wrote:
Sandy is going to hand pa to romney.
I wouldn't be so sure.

The most recent aggregate on RCP for Pennsylvania (including polls taken after Sandy) is +4.6 Obama. The aggregate of polls taken since Oct 10th (post first debate) is +4.75 Obama. There has been no movement in PA for the past month and the idea that Romney will flip the state five points in a weekend is ludicrous.

Edited, Nov 3rd 2012 8:49am by Jophiel
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#159 Nov 03 2012 at 8:12 AM Rating: Decent
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gbaji wrote:
Almalieque wrote:
Anyone think that this race will be as close as it's being stated? I want to know the who the next president will be before I go to sleep, not find out 3 days later...


IMO, it's either going to be really close or it will be a blowout for Romney. Depends on whether the weighting issue really is as significant as it appears. If it isn't, it'll be close. If it is, it wont be. Hell, if the weighting issue is as significant as some conservatives are suggesting, Romney will easily win all the battleground states, and pick up several that are currently considered safe for Obama. I don't happen to think it's that huge a factor, but I think it's going to be more of a factor that some think. I suspect that many liberals will be looking at the election results on Tuesday and crying foul because the polls just couldn't have been that far off, so something must have happened.

Believe it. The polls really can be that far off.


gbaji wrote:
Believe it!


Well, now we know why he is always wrong.
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#160 Nov 03 2012 at 8:27 AM Rating: Decent
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Because the average person that I've seen who buys votes Apple are clueless on technology politics and will buy vote whatever is being advertised as the "new hotness".
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#161Almalieque, Posted: Nov 03 2012 at 8:53 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I'm sorry.. you still must be new at this. I'm sure you meant something insightful.
#162 Nov 03 2012 at 9:23 AM Rating: Decent
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Just a small fly in your ointment, Alma. Forget Florida. If the election comes down to Ohio, we may not find out who won the Presidency until 10 days after the 6th. According to the law that is now in effect, anybody who emailed a request for an absentee ballot and decided to either postpone mailing it in or changed their mind and wanted to go to the polling station in person, will be given a provisional ballot to vote with to prevent voter fraud where someone would vote twice-- once online and once in person. The law states that 10 days will pass before these ballots are opened and counted.

The number of possible provisional ballots that may be in play? Up to 350,000 according to the official Ohio election thingamajigger agency. That is a very large statisical segment of Ohio's population. This would make Florida's hanging chads of 2004 seem positively... none-consequencial by comparison.

At this rate our elections are going the route of Third World banana republic's farces.

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#163 Nov 03 2012 at 10:04 AM Rating: Good
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Nate Silver on margins of error, polling bias and Romney's chances on Tuesday.
Quote:
Although the fact that Mr. Obama held the lead in so many polls is partly coincidental — there weren’t any polls of North Carolina on Friday, for instance, which is Mr. Romney’s strongest battleground state — they nevertheless represent powerful evidence against the idea that the race is a “tossup.” A tossup race isn’t likely to produce 19 leads for one candidate and one for the other — any more than a fair coin is likely to come up heads 19 times and tails just once in 20 tosses. (The probability of a fair coin doing so is about 1 chance in 50,000.)

Instead, Mr. Romney will have to hope that the coin isn’t fair, and instead has been weighted to Mr. Obama’s advantage. In other words, he’ll have to hope that the polls have been biased in Mr. Obama’s favor. (I recognize that ‘bias’ is a loaded term in political contexts. I’ll explain what I mean by it in a moment.)
[...]
My argument, rather, is this: we’ve about reached the point where if Mr. Romney wins, it can only be because the polls have been biased against him. Almost all of the chance that Mr. Romney has in the FiveThirtyEight forecast, about 16 percent to win the Electoral College, reflects this possibility.

Yes, of course: most of the arguments that the polls are necessarily biased against Mr. Romney reflect little more than wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, these arguments are potentially more intellectually coherent than the ones that propose that the race is “too close to call.” It isn’t. If the state polls are right, then Mr. Obama will win the Electoral College. If you can’t acknowledge that after a day when Mr. Obama leads 19 out of 20 swing-state polls, then you should abandon the pretense that your goal is to inform rather than entertain the public.

But the state polls may not be right. They could be biased. Based on the historical reliability of polls, we put the chance that they will be biased enough to elect Mr. Romney at 16 percent.


Edited, Nov 3rd 2012 11:05am by Jophiel
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#164 Nov 03 2012 at 10:11 AM Rating: Decent
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People are going to vote anyway and a winner will be selected one way or the other. People aren't going to start preparing for a Romney Ryan regime if predictions say that they will win. They will continue as normal and see what happens on election day. There is no gained benefit.


Businesses, stock traders, and various institutions doe have have a gained benefit, but most organized groups prepare contingency plans.
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#165 Nov 03 2012 at 10:19 AM Rating: Decent
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We saw hurricane Sandy moving in this direction, so while it's still a prediction, it was highly unlikely that it would change course or do something other than what it was demonstrating.


Except that's exactly what it did. It hooked due to intersection with other systems in a way that wouldn't have been predictable 20-30 years ago.
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#166 Nov 03 2012 at 10:24 AM Rating: Good
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Alma's response was just... bizarre. I'm not even sure how to respond to that.
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#167 Nov 03 2012 at 10:26 AM Rating: Good
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Timelordwho wrote:
Quote:
We saw hurricane Sandy moving in this direction, so while it's still a prediction, it was highly unlikely that it would change course or do something other than what it was demonstrating.


Except that's exactly what it did. It hooked due to intersection with other systems in a way that wouldn't have been predictable 20-30 years ago.


Yup, See figure 2...

Jophiel wrote:
Alma's response was just... bizarre. I'm not even sure how to respond to that.


You argue about hurricane prediction software. Smiley: nod


Edited, Nov 3rd 2012 9:26am by someproteinguy
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#168 Nov 03 2012 at 10:50 AM Rating: Good
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Almalieque wrote:
When it comes to voting, we know for a fact that we're only sampling a small fraction of the population and that the unknown factor is huge.

And amazingly, statisticians have methods for determining, with high precision, what that unknown factor is. You actually only need a sample size that's a small fraction of the population to get 99% confidence.

#169 Nov 03 2012 at 11:00 AM Rating: Good
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When the unknown factor is due random error, of course. Errors like not plugging in your cable all the way and announcing you've somehow broken the speed of light aren't covered under the current policy. Smiley: wink

Yes, I need to get out more...
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#170 Nov 03 2012 at 12:47 PM Rating: Excellent
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Alma's flat out rejection of polls is always amusing.

For instance, 538 was right on 49 out of 50 states in 2008. That seems like it should never ever happen if polls are only correct due to random chance.

You can make the argument that all the polls are biased towards democrats, but that's about it at this point.

Edited, Nov 3rd 2012 1:49pm by Xsarus
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#171 Nov 03 2012 at 12:50 PM Rating: Good
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Sir Xsarus wrote:
Alma's flat out rejection of polls is always amusing.

For instance, 538 was right on 49 out of 50 states in 2008. That seems like it should never ever happen if polls are only correct due to random chance.

You can make the argument that all the polls are biased towards democrats, but that's about it at this point.



Tides come in, tides go out. You can't explain that!
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#172 Nov 03 2012 at 12:51 PM Rating: Good
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Samira wrote:
Sir Xsarus wrote:
Alma's flat out rejection of polls is always amusing.

For instance, 538 was right on 49 out of 50 states in 2008. That seems like it should never ever happen if polls are only correct due to random chance.

You can make the argument that all the polls are biased towards democrats, but that's about it at this point.



Tides come in, tides go out. You can't explain that!



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#173 Nov 03 2012 at 12:57 PM Rating: Decent
Samira wrote:
Tides come in, tides go out. You can't explain that!


But we can stop it, right?
#174 Nov 03 2012 at 12:59 PM Rating: Excellent
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Yeah, just use the force. duh.
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#175 Nov 03 2012 at 1:39 PM Rating: Decent
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Sir Xsarus wrote:
Yeah, just use the force. duh.


Thats violation of Disney's trademark right.
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#176 Nov 03 2012 at 2:02 PM Rating: Default
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Quite ironic when a person posts a survey on this site, it gets instantly "nuked" with false answers and then you all turn around and instantly follow every other poll as if the rest of the world isn't as equally bothered to fill out a survey accurately.

Another John Stewart reference...
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-10-2012/frequently-asked-questions-

Timelordwho wrote:
Quote:
We saw hurricane Sandy moving in this direction, so while it's still a prediction, it was highly unlikely that it would change course or do something other than what it was demonstrating.


Except that's exactly what it did. It hooked due to intersection with other systems in a way that wouldn't have been predictable 20-30 years ago.



Except we predicted it and our prediction came true. Once we saw that combination and the path, people braced it and made changes to their lives. NO ONE IS CHANGING their daily lives based on a poll they see on television, therefore the results are pointless. If you're just going to "wait and see", then there's no benefit other than personal interest and curiosity.

Jophiel wrote:
Alma's response was just... bizarre. I'm not even sure how to respond to that.


I would start with explaining how it was bizarre? Read above. The comparison is ridiculous because people aren't affected by these predictions and actions aren't taken in support of them as they are with weather.

trickybeck wrote:
Almalieque wrote:
When it comes to voting, we know for a fact that we're only sampling a small fraction of the population and that the unknown factor is huge.

And amazingly, statisticians have methods for determining, with high precision, what that unknown factor is. You actually only need a sample size that's a small fraction of the population to get 99% confidence.



I never said that you couldn't predict with a sample. I said that it is mathematically impossible to accurately predict an outcome with a sample that is less than 1/2 of 1% of the population. There is a difference between statistics and mathematics.
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