My predictions:

1) Florida goes Democrat, they’ll win.

2) Florida goes Republican, as goes Ohio so goes the country.

Put your predictions here!

EDIT: It’s Thursday November the 8th and no-one has called Florida either way yet. In the end it didn’t matter and my #2 ended up being close enough.

I understand that partisans will argue about things. I understand that partisans need to spin things so that their ‘side’ looks better. But what I don’t understand is partisans jumping on someone for using math.

I know a lot of Democrats are going to be very sad, angry or confused if Nate Silver ends up getting his predictions totally wrong. And I know a lot of Republicans are sad, angry or confused at his predictions, period. But when you look at how Silver has been doing his blog, it’s not a partisan site. It’s a statistical site. Math.

I can understand how pundits (on both sides) would hate the 538 blog. It takes their “I know what I’m talking about, because I know people you don’t” position and basically makes it irrelevant. What high priest wouldn’t hate seeing their basic job being done away by someone with a calculator, instead of with their inside knowledge and goat entrails. Silver already did this whole song and dance with baseball. The smarter baseball reporters figured out they needed to understand stats a bit better, while the ones that refused to adapt were slowly phased out. I’m HOPING this happens for our political reporters as well.

If you don’t like the results of the 538 blog, PLEASE use math to tell people why. Otherwise your argument just sounds hollow. Hell, I’d bet Nate would love to find holes in his algorithms, so he can fix it. He ‘missed’ a bit on the 2010 elections and adjusted accordingly. He’s interested in statistically forecasting national elections accurately. The fact that those forecasts look good for a Democratic president is just a result of these particular elections and not a partisan move on Silver’s part.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by all the attacks on Silver. After all, the mainstream news NEEDS the presidential race to be a horse-race to keep viewership up. But some of the attacks have been downright stupid.

Well my neighborhood got hit hard with tons of kids all dressed up in all sorts of great little costumes. I had to turn the light out a bit earlier than usual (around 8:30) because the candy was running out. I ended up having around 6 pieces left,and that wouldn’t have been enough for some of the bigger groups I was seeing.

I have but one complaint about the holiday this year. Some of the teenagers really weren’t trying very hard. I swear one was just wearing his usual street clothes and carrying a small basketball. WTH kind of costume is that? A couple more were just there wearing a really cheap mask and their normal clothes.

KIDS THESE DAYS! GOT NO RESPECT FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

I would say I’m sad to see them go but honestly I haven’t watched either in over a year. Both shows have disintegrated the longer they went on, much like the channel where they lived. G4 isn’t (and hasn’t) been very good ‘TV for Gamers’ in quite a while now. Other than ‘Ninja Warrior’ I never watch the channel anymore, and I won’t have too much trouble letting that show go either.  G4 will soon be a nothingburger just like most of the other channels on TV/Cable. Honestly, the ONLY thing keeping cable going for me is LIVE Sports, read ‘SEC Football’. I just do NOT need it for my entertainment needs anymore.

Okay, as you’ve noticed, I changed the theme and finally got some of the ‘widgets’ working the way I wanted. That’s all the changes for now. Let me know if you don’t like it, and I can revert back to the old style.

Big thank you to BigJim for the new theme and the fix for the game links.

If someone bought this for me…I think I’d have to ‘do things’ for them.