[extropy-chat] The NeoCon Mind-Trick (wasletter concerningpresidential growth)

spike spike66 at comcast.net
Fri Dec 16 22:37:06 UTC 2005


Ja, I am not suggesting this notion as a statistically 
significant study or really anything more than just a 
game.  But we could have some fun with it.  The whole 
SAT-scores-as-a-metric-for-smartness-of-a-state meme
is more interesting to me than which state voted for
whom.  

Consider last election in 2004.  I listened
carefully to the debates but never could tell the
two leading candidates apart.  So I didn't vote for
them.  But even the hard line libertarians among us
will likely admit that our guy last time was not
so impressive either, eh?  So with the one guy we
get four more years, with the other we risked eight,
but other than that, about the same thing, in nearly
identical packaging.

Regarding how to correct for percent participation
in the SAT exams, even that has its difficulties.  Some 
states allow the ACT for college admissions, a test 
similar to the SAT.  Presumably your smarter college
bound seniors would take one test or the other.  In
the ACT states, the SAT participation might be low
but still score relatively low.  Iam not sure how 
to correct for that factor.  Ideas?

spike

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Bloch
> Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 11:31 AM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] The NeoCon Mind-Trick (wasletter
> concerningpresidential growth)
> 
> The Avantguardian wrote:
> 
> >
> >The two population are not identical but it is highly
> >likely that some proportion of the people voted in the
> >2004 Presidential election in the same state they took
> >their SATs in 1998.
> >
> 
> 
> Uhhh... no.
> 
> Older populations vote in much greater numbers than younger ones. Plus
> there are differences between college graduates and non-college
> graduates. Add to the mix the fact that over the course of six years
> (including, presumably, a stint at a college away from home for a
> sizeable percentage) people will have moved from one state to another...
> 
> It's a cute idea, but unfortunately the practicalities are against you.
> 
> Joseph
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