Fun with maps

It seems you can map all kinds of information, such as:

Geographic support for Supreme Court nominees over the years. Of interest is support for Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg -- solid support except in the Old South.

Ways to visualize Global Warming. These images came from Global Warming Art which has charts of temperature rise.

A map that shows the progress gay marriage and civil unions have made in the last year. Alas, the map makes no distinctions for the reverse -- between states that have marriage protection amendments, only anti-gay marriage laws, or neither (are there any?).

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The Human Development Index is a blend of factors (life expectancy, education, etc.) that show widening personal options and greater opportunities. Perfect score is 1.000. Top national score is .968 in Iceland. USA as a whole is at .950 (Michigan at .951). Russia is at .806, Turkey at .798 (ranking 76th).

Put them on a national map and the states Oklahoma to West Virginia and Louisiana to Alabama stand out as the ones with the lowest scores -- Mississippi ranks, at .799, just above Turkey.

Contrast that with a map colored (by county) according to how much the vote shifted between parties from 2004 to 2008. Most of the country is blue -- more votes for Democrats in 2008 than in 2004 (even if not enough votes to actually elect Dems). There are some counties that voted more strongly GOP in 2008 -- and the ones with the most change are mostly in the states with the lowest HDI scores.

Yes, that implies many of the poorest areas strongly increased their support for the party less interested in helping the poor. And that implies "traditional values" are more important than economics and the GOP was able to exploit that.