Weird Analogy

ok so there’s a game me and my friends play called “don’t get me started” and basically someone gives another person a random topic and they have to go on an angry rant about it and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us at parties and car rides so I highly recommend playing sometimes with your friends

I love runoff voting because it combats many of the problems that lead to a less responsive two party system that doesn't meet the needs of the people it is meant to serve. I think this would be a step in the correct direction if we were willing to implement it and work towards higher voter turnout and fair boundaries for voter districts.

Something fascinating is happening in Maine.

This year, Republican Bruce Poliquin sought reelection, having served in the House of Representatives for two terms.  He ran against the Democrats’ candidate, Jared Golden. 

Poliquin got 46.2% of the votes.  Golden got 45.7% of the votes.

So Poliquin got more votes… right?

What if I told you that Golden is expected to be the new Representative?

You’ll notice that 46.2% + 45.7% = 91.9%, not 100%.  

See, Poliquin and Golden weren’t the only candidates, there were also Independent candidates like like Tiffany Bond and Will Hoar.   

Normally in America, if you vote for someone that’s “kinda like a Democrat, but not a Democrat” you run the risk of having a Republican win (and if you vote for someone “kinda like a Republican” it can be seen as helping the Democrats).

For example, over in Arizona it looks like the Democratic candidate for the Senate might have won… except some people voted for a liberal “Green Party” candidate.  More than twice as many people than were needed for the Democrat to win.  So the Republican candidate goes to the Senate.

The election was won by the candidate that less voters liked.

Back to Maine.

In 2016, Maine became the first state in America to vote in favor of having their federal elections be decided by ranked choice/instant runoff voting.  

Under this type of voting, people fill out a ballot to say which candidate they like the most… and which candidate would be their second choice, their third choice, and so on.

If no candidate gets a majority of the votes, then officials look at the ballots again and say “okay which candidates got the fewest votes? Who did their supporters say was their second choice?”

The votes for the candidates that got nowhere near a majority are given to whichever candidate was the “Second choice” of those voters.  The goal is to ensure that the winning candidate is someone that a majority of the population is at least okay with.

And that’s why Poliquin, with his 46.2% is expected to lose to Golden and his 45.7%.  Because the people that ended up voting for an Independent mostly said “well, Golden wouldn’t be my favorite… but he’s better than Poliquin!”

The end result still isn’t perfect, but it’s a vastly more democratic process, that has the potential to elect officials far more representative of the population. 

People can vote for an Independent freely instead of holding their nose and voting for the “lesser evil.”  Independent parties can have a chance to grow instead of being demonized as taking away votes. 

And candidates can look at the results and say “huh, a lot of the people that got me elected really liked that Independent.  Maybe I should see what were the policies that made the Independent popular?

Americans need to look to Maine and ask “why aren’t we doing it like that?” (and maybe head over to https://www.fairvote.org/ to try and get the ball rolling in their State)

This is the dream show. Congrats Jeff and Bless Nat Geo for making this happen

I am psyched

Cannot wait

Why I love my best friends in one quote. Great friends are the ones you can be yourself with. They're the people who love who you are but also won't sit back and let you stagnate. They want you to be you, but the best version you can be

“That’s who you really like. The people you can think out loud in front of.”

—John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

Whenever I have a ton of assignments coming up first thing I do is pick up a new book completely unrelated to all of my work

📚 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 📚

I thought this was beautiful

We See Seashores Shifting with Satellites

If you’re like us, as soon as the summer Sun is out, you start feeling – well, just beachy, sand you very much. 

Lots of our favorite beaches are inside protected marine areas, which are regulated by governments to keep their ecosystems or cultural heritage intact. If you beachcomb at Cape Cod, swim in the Florida Keys or learn about Hawaiian culture at Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, congrats! You’ve visited a protected marine area.

But time and tide haven’t been kind to some protected beaches.

Beaches are constantly changing, and science teams are using our 30-year record of Earth images from the NASA/USGS Landsat program to study what’s happening.

Overall, the sum total of sandy beaches has increased a bit over the last 30 years. But time and tide haven’t been as kind to our protected beaches – the team found that more than 1/3 of sandy beaches in protected marine areas have been eroding away.

Some of these areas were designated to protect vulnerable plant and animal species or connect delicate ecosystems. They are home to humpback whales and sea turtles, reefs and mangroves that protect the land from erosion and natural disasters, and species which are found in only one habitat in the world. Losing land area could upset the balance of these areas and endanger their future.

Next step: Looking for pearls of wisdom to save the beaches!

Right now, we aren’t sure which beaches are eroding due to natural processes, and which are due to humans – that’s the next step for science teams to investigate. Once we know the causes, we can start working on solutions to save the beaches.

Those 30 years of Landsat data will help scientists find answers to these questions much faster – instead of using airplanes or measuring the beaches by hand, they can use computer programs to rapidly investigate millions of satellite photos spanning many years of change.

By tracking beaches from space, scientists can help keep our summers sandy for years to come.

And that makes us as happy as clams.

Read the full story HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.  

This is freaking hilarious