ecureuilmatrix posted:

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

Some tech genius is trying to get this on the CA ballot.

http://www.sixcalifornias.info/

This is a terrible idea for many, many reasons, but this article seems to do a good job of it and includes the proposal. Jesus.

quote:

Plainland

The plains of west Texas are conservative. So conservative that Plainland would be the most conservative state in the United States giving Barack Obama a mere 24% of the vote to John McCain's 75%. If you are not familiar with Texas do not let the geographic size fool you, it is the least populated of the new states. If a Liberal, Progressive or Democrat gets off on getting crushed in elections and wants to put on a token campaign Plainland is the place.

Population: 2,547,860
Demographics: 71% White, 4% Black, 23% Hispanic, 2% Asian
2008 Vote: McCain 75% Obama 24% Other 1%
Major Cities: Lubbock, Amarillo, Witchita Falls
Congressional Seats: 3

East Texas

East Texas is slightly more populated that Plainland. The small population increase may be enough to give East Texas an additional congressional seat. The partisan difference between Plainland and East Texas is minimal. Giving Barack Obama 29% of the vote compared to John McCain's 70%. Don't expect much love for Liberals, Progressives or Democrats here since Plainland would be the second most conservative state in the United States based on 2008 Presidential Election results. East Texas expands down into the greater Houston Metro area and is home, like Plainland, to several of the lesser populated DFW Metro area counties.

Population: 2,775,191
Demographics: 75% White, 13% Black, 10% Hispanic, 2% Asian
2008 Vote: McCain 70% Obama 29%, Other 1%
Major Cities: Tyler, Longview, College Station-Byran
Congressional Seats: 4

Trinity

Names after the trio of major cities which comprise the majority of the states population, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The four county conglomeration comprises the overwhelming majority of the population with the most of the remainder along I-35 running south including the cities of Waco, Killeen-Temple, Georgetown and Round Rock. Dallas and Fort Worth would run the show and I suspect a death match of monumental proportions would ensue to see who gets the title of "State Capitol." At last we have a state where there is a county which voted for Barack Obama. Dallas County gave Barack Obama a respectable 57% of the vote in 2008, also Dallas County has by itself has a population roughly equal to Plainland. However in Trinity Dallas County was the only county to vote for Obama. Based on the 2008 results Trinity would essentially be a smaller version of old Texas mirroring the 55%-44% McCain-Obama results. Given the large population Trinity would be home to 11 congressional seats.

Population: 7,620,736
Demographics: 62% White, 13% Black, 20% Hispanic, 5% Asian
2008 Vote: McCain 55% Obama 44%, Other 1%
Major Cities: Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Waco
Congressional Seats: 11

Gulf Land

With a population of 9,142,795 Gulfland is the most populous of the new states. Austin would remain as the state Capital and the largest city is Houston. Barack Obama would have won Gulf Land in by a slim 3% margin, roughly 73,000 votes. As a slightly GOP leaning swing state Democrats would have to rely on serious get out the vote efforts in Travis, Harris and Hidalgo Counties to pull off wins. One item I have neglected to speak about up to this point is demographics. As seen in Plainland and East Texas they are rather bland, very white, Trinity is a bit more diverse. However Gulfland would join the rank of majority-minority states at 44% white, 38% hispanic, 13% black and 5% asian.

Population: 9,142,795
Demographics: 44% White, 13% Black, 38% Hispanic, 5% Asian
2008 Vote: Obama 51% McCain 48% Other 1%
Major Cities: Houston, Austin, Corpus Christi, McAllen-Edinburg
Congressional Seats: 13

El Norte

This would be a Democratic strong hold. Obama would have won El Norte with a 13% margin, larger than Pennsylvania. The cities of San Antonio and El Paso bring the majority of the population here. However El Norte is not that populous, in fact it's population is only about half a million larger than Plainland. However that may be enough to give El Norte 5 seats.

Population: 3,155,854
Demographics: 28% White, 5% Black, 64% Hispanic, 4% Asian
2008 Vote: Obama 56% McCain 43% Other 1%
Major Cities: San Antonio, El Paso
Congressional Seats: 4 or 5

The congressional seat estimates were done in an incredibly rough manner.

Proposition Joe posted:

The difference between the dashed lines for Western Sahara and Abyei is pretty funny.

computer parts posted:

Similarly, here's a map I found about proposed Texas divisions:



I'm pretty sure the capital of Plainland would be Lubbock and it would have under a million people.

e: here's a slightly different map but with more commentary:

Whorelord posted:

Map of countries by cannabis use by percentage of the population.

Guessing there's ritual significance for the high rates in Papua New Guinea and Ghana?

Found it somewhat amusing at least :P

QuoProQuid posted:

Both during Texas' admittance to the Union and after the Civil War there were numerous proposals to divide Texas. Although most these suggestions were not taken seriously, the following proposals were the most popular:



This map was proposed during the Texan Constitutional Convention of 1866. Eastern Texas was densely populated compared to its western counterpart. The suggestion to divide the state was meant to ensure the interests of Eastern settlers who had little in common culturally, economically and politically with their rural counterparts. It also would have sold the largely empty basin and range region to the United States. This proposal was rejected and countered with the suggestion below.



At the same Constitutional Convention, Elisha Pease proposed that a much larger chunk of western Texas be sold to the federal government, but the rest of Texas remain a united state. The proposal received some mild support and was sent to committee. However, the committee degenerated into fights and when the delegates tried to divide Texas into North, East, South, and West Texas. Further attempts to break the territory down led to the committee's disintegration.



In 1869, Radical Republicans proposed breaking Texas down into two states: Texas and Lincoln. Southern Texas was perceived as far more Unionist and was an attractive destination for northern settlers after the Civil War. This suggestion died in committee.



In 1870, another proposal was made for parts of Texas to be made territories and later admitted as States according to Reconstruction plans. The plan reached the House floor but was voted down by southern Republicans. The plan saw a brief resurgence in popularity in 1914 in a dispute over utilities.



West Texas was constantly neglected for state-level government attention during the early part of the 1900s and its influence minimized because of gerrymandering. After the revival of the 1870 plan, West Texan politicians proposed different solution. It was popularly received by West Texan residents and received significant national coverage. However, state lawmakers negotiated a settlement and the issue died around 1915. It was the last serious proposal to divide Texas.

ecureuilmatrix posted:

It's not all ex-French colonies, but it does look link most of them (AOF+AEF). What the heck is going on here?


Doesn't seem to be a religious thing. Mali/Sénégal VS Congo/Zambia.

Peanut President posted:

I think it's just because there's no law explicitly against it. It doesn't say "marriage" just "consensual relationships".

ecureuilmatrix posted:

Oui, bien sûr, mais là n'est pas la question.

My question is why? Why do those states have legal homosexuality while others don't? It doesn't look like a random distribution, there is a near-complete (SA.za, Bissau) geographic continuity.

If it was clearly AEF+AOF, we might conclude it has to do with the Code Civil. But it's not: the gay-"friendly" zone includes Bel.Congo, Guinee-Bissau and Guinea Equatorial and excludes Cameroun, Togo, Guinée, Sénégambie and Mauritanie. It's similar enough to the french colonial domain to attract notice but not identical enough to conclude with confidence.

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

Where women wear hijab, according to Wikipedia:



Not sure of the sources, or why "quite common" means less prevalent than "common". The meaning of "legal restrictions" also varies between countries.

Minrad posted:

Was discussing American school shootings with a friend, he asked why Colorado has the most shootings and I said it didn't, and found this map to back myself up.




That is... a depressing map. Also interesting in that it's such a ~mostly~ even spread; California's had a lot more school shootings than I would've guessed, but for the most part there's an equal distribution of massacres everywhere.

Link here, with a lot more information. http://www.squidoo.com/school-shooting-statistics-by-state#module92720441

Minrad posted:

Was discussing American school shootings with a friend, he asked why Colorado has the most shootings and I said it didn't, and found this map to back myself up.




That is... a depressing map. Also interesting in that it's such a ~mostly~ even spread; California's had a lot more school shootings than I would've guessed, but for the most part there's an equal distribution of massacres everywhere.

Link here, with a lot more information. http://www.squidoo.com/school-shooting-statistics-by-state#module92720441

Peanut President posted:

That map is wrong because Indiana is listed with 0 even though it's had 7, five since 1960.

edit: or is this just counting widespread Columbine-like shootings? All of them in Indiana have resulted in around 8 deaths total.

computer parts posted:

It's not really related to gun ownership either:



e: example states for percentages (in ascending order) because the colors are weird:

- New Jersey
- New York
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Kentucky
- West Virginia

ecureuilmatrix posted:

My question is why? Why do those states have legal homosexuality while others don't? It doesn't look like a random distribution, there is a near-complete (SA.za, Bissau) geographic continuity.

Carbon dioxide posted:

E: I don't know that much about population density in America (except that most people live in the northeast and southwest),

icantfindaname posted:

So wait are there things in Nevada besides federally owned parks and military installations, or have I been lied to all this time?

computer parts posted:

You probably mean midwest by the way:

marktheando posted:

That map shows the midwest as being the least populated area though? Or does midwest mean something different from what I think it means? (Which is western part of the middle).

computer parts posted:

Midwest is traditionally these states:



As defined by the Census anyway.

Anywhere west of the Texas Panhandle is traditionally considered just the West.

made of bees posted:

It's the Mid-West because it's in between 'us' (the Northeast) and the West. Same as the Middle East. At least that's how it was explained to me.

marktheando posted:

That's almost entirely in the eastern half of the country though! I'm assuming the term has just stuck around from before the US expanded westward?

marktheando posted:

That's almost entirely in the eastern half of the country though! I'm assuming the term has just stuck around from before the US expanded westward?

computer parts posted:

Vegas mostly, it seems.

also, that weird wavy pattern in the north of the state (and elsewhere like in Southern California) is apparently due to the Checkerboarding grants that the feds gave out back when the Transcontinental Railroad was being built:

Disco Infiva posted:

So, if I live in California, I will call it Mid-East? And regarding Middle East, some Europeans (maybe all?) call it Near East.

Riptor posted:

Yep, same reason Northwestern University is in Illinois

Disco Infiva posted:

And regarding Middle East, some Europeans (maybe all?) call it Near East.

Disco Infiva posted:

So, if I live in California, I will call it Mid-East?

Riptor posted:

Yep, same reason Northwestern University is in Illinois

Basil Hayden posted:

The Big Ten Conference it is a founding member of was in its earliest years colloquially referred to as the "Western Conference" (since the official name at the time was "Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives"), even though its westernmost member was in Minneapolis.

(Never mind that conferences in the Mountain and Pacific regions would be founded within ten years... )

quote:

Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan
The leaders and best!
Hail! to the victors valiant
Hail! to the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! to Michigan,
The champions of the West!

icantfindaname posted:

Yeah the area between California/Oregon and Iowa/Minnesota is basically mountainous wasteland and/or extremely flat wasteland. The states I outlined in this picture have slightly less than 20 million people combined, while Illinois on its own has almost 13 million