This map aficionado just found a new place to waste time -- a blog about maps. The one to bring to your attention is a map colored according to the Nate Silver data on when states will vote in gay marriage. The south shows the expected pale pink of late approval. Not only is Utah bright red (as my friend pointed out yesterday), Idaho is much darker (approving early) than I would expect, given its Mormon population. Did the model only consider Evangelicals and not Mormons? If so, a big oversight, considering how much money Mormons pumped into the Calif. battle.
Looking at how red Iowa is, this brings to mind an important point about what it all means (and you thought my mathematical friend and debate partner said quite enough about that). This data is a projection of when various states will be able to have enough of a majority for the voters to approve gay marriage. It is not a prediction of when states will actually have legal gay marriage. The big example at the moment is Iowa, which has gay marriage now and has a good chance of keeping it (unlike Calif.) though an actual voter referendum wouldn't pass until about 2013.
Yup, I spent about an hour exploring maps on the map blog. One map shows unemployment by state using the size of a circle to show the number of jobs lost since the state started losing jobs. The size of Michigan's circle is huge! Alas, it had a head start on all other states. You can click over to the original site for a timeline which shows that quite clearly.
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