graphical viewer for pro-Prop 8 political donations

I just read about eightmaps.com, a site that maps pro CA Prop 8 donors and donation amount on a google map.  For an example, here is a screenshot of a golf course community in Southern Orange Co, CA and my neighborhood in Berkeley, CA with the same zoom level.  It would be easy to write a post slamming golf course communities for seemingly conservative beliefs or praising my home-town, but that is not why I’m blogging about this.

[Orange County golf course community]

[Berkeley, CA]

Historically, political donation information and other human data is used by social scientists and other academics and not web-activisits.  The former groups holds themselves to the ethical standards of their respective fields.  So I wonder if this type of project would get IRB approval?  Can anybody who serves on IRB panels comment?  I understand that sometimes “you’re either for us or against us” and pushing the pendulum one direction (towards LBGT rights) is needed, but at what cost.  In a democracy, individuals who donate to pro-Prop 8 campaigns are entitled to do this, and shouldn’t be harrassed by eightmap users.

Could the data be aggregated by zipcode or neighborhood block (like census), or coded to strip donor names while still maintaining the main themes of the project.  I know pin-points on a map are sexy, but what about a gradient density plot?  The maps I presented probably have tenfold different populations in the same size image, which isn’t accounted for.  This grouping could lead to its own problems… with community profiling of red neighborhoods and blue neighborhoods similar to red states and blue states.

To be fair, Eightmaps may want to populate a map with anti-Prop 8 donors too.  And what if we could link neighbors who have opposing prop 8contribution types, so that they can talk about their differences and come to some resolution, or not.

read NYT article on this topic

Message in a bottle

While at a Berkeley, CA beach I found a message-in-a-bottle washed ashore. The beach looks across the bay to downtown San Francisco, and with an incoming tide that may be where it came from.

After I pulled out the cork, inside were two cloves, some seeds, a shell and this note:

I’m guessing a “fourplex” is a 4-apartment duplex?  Good luck with your list and I hope you have injury free dancing!

Here is song is for you and all the other dreamers…

“Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what’s on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it’s done so far.
What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell,
we know that it’s probably magic….

Have you been half asleep
and have you heard voices?
I’ve heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.
I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it.
It’s something that I’m supposed to be.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.
La, la la, La, la la la, La Laa, la la, La, La la la”

- by Paul Williams and used by Kermit the Frog, of The Muppets, Jim Henson Productions