Oh, come on. A poll at a forum for the Minerals, Metals and Materials society that asks, “Which U.S. Presidential Candidate Would Better Advance Science and Engineering if Elected?”, and John McCain is winning 59% to 39%? That poll needs some adjusting.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Done and done.
We’ve already reversed it.
It’s the engineering part of the question that’s throwing everyone…
Is the pointless part the practice for the election?
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Actually, the poll asks which candidate “would better advance the cause of the materials science and technology profession”. That’s a pretty narrow constituency. For all I know, McCain has cronies in that field and might actually send more pork their way than Obama would.
Now if they’d asked who’d be better for advancing the cause of planetarium science and technology, then I’d know which way to vote.
I actually accidentally skewed the heck out of that poll. Apparently if you have what looks like a network freeze and hit the vote button a dozen or so times, you vote a dozen or so times without the poll refreshing.
I think the site is getting Pharyngulated at the moment as it takes forever to load and when I did vote it took an interminable age to update. That’s a good thing, right??
I had to think of the planetarium projector as well.
How could this be in McCain’s favor before being pharyngulated??
Even if McCain decides to send more pork to materials science and engineering than Obama, part of Obama’s plan is to double federal funding for basic research. That’s the kind of thing that has big ripple effects, even if they’re mostly indirect.
I don’t even consider it crashing the poll this time. After all, Obama is the more pro-science candidate. This is a matter of fact, not opinion.
Pharygulization in progress:
Barack Obama
1212 votes 83.53 (%)
John McCain
229 votes 15.78 (%)
Other
10 votes 0.69 (%)
Since we got Obama up so high…Should we also vote for other so that it outpaces McCain?
Is it our fault that the poll has such unbearable lag, or is it due to them being material scientists and not computer scientists??
Obama 1504 votes 85.65 (%)
McCain 230 votes 13.10 (%)
Other 22 votes 1.25 (%)
Oh, come on, McCain’s gonna *love* science soon, ’cause it’ll be the only thing keeping him alive.
Obama 1614 votes 86.26 (%)
McCain 230 votes 12.29 (%)
Other 27 votes 1.44 (%)
This poll has been Pharyngulated. Unbearable refresh time after voting. Incredible. I used to call that “FARKing” a website. It seems I’m going to have to switch my meme references here.
Update:
Looks like “other” is now outpacing McCain
Obama: 1714
McCain: 230
Other: 321
John McCain and Sarah Palin aren’t quite sure what the causes of Global Warming are! How could they ever advocate science?! Oh, lordy, every day it gets worse…
We broke it.
Eit.
That must have been a very small number of misinformed initial voters for McCain to pull ahead… what a confusing crazy random happenstance. I’m glad it is now put back on proper track (with the added bonus of other beating McCain), but unfortunately it won’t let me vote… perhaps it knows I’m Canadian and therefore technically ineligible to vote?
OT:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081009/ap_en_mo/film_fireproof
Gag.
There is a poll on the Bill O’Reilly page on Fox News that seems to be coming to an inaccurate result. Help Bill to predict the result of the election correctly.
The question is: “Who will win the presidential election?”
Well, it’s Minerals, Metals, and Materials, so McCain should be the winner there. Drill baby drill, mine baby mine, extract baby extract.
Obama ain’t about minerals, metals, and materials, he’s more into destroying America with gays, terrorism, and “happy holidays”. I’d come up with some catchy alliteration, but I’m not interested enough.
Vote early, vote often.
Maybe “Engineering” is code for oil drilling infrastructure?
But weapons research and seeking/drilling oil is science. Seriously, Laser shock of materials is pretty cool. It is the sort of science that reduces malacologists and ornithologists to mere curators and custodians of zoo parks and museums, regretfully. And who cares about stem cells as long we can assemble a multifunctional Al-Qaeda sensor?
The site took so long to respond when I voted that I thought we’d killed the server!
That’s how much hurt Team Pharyngula can inflect. Anyway:
Barack Obama 4150 votes 86.68 (%)
John McCain 255 votes 5.33 (%)
Other 383 votes 8.00 (%)
pzwnd
Oh, and Obama is losing 32% to Grandpa McShame’s 68% on O’Reilly’s poll. Come on guys, that needs sorting out ASAP.
BTW, I meant “inflict” not “inflect” above.
Barack Obama 4240 votes 86.90 (%)
John McCain 255 votes 5.23 (%)
Other 384 votes 7.87 (%)
@25: Homos, Hezbollah, and Happy Holidays.
I voted “other”. McCain is too easy. But Obama supporters seem to ignore his recent vote in favor of giving telecoms immunity and that Biden helped write the Patriot act. Sheep all around if you ask me.
Obama 87.34%
McCain 5.03%
Why is it that I always find out about these poll crashings too late to make a difference?
OT and sorry again for introducing a bit of noise into a conversation that appears to be in equilibrium. In an inverted “fitness landscape” ,a random slight disturbance might be the only way out to get over the rim (so go sue Murray Gell-Mann for seeing the connection between a Quark and a Jaguar)
PZ, I just sent you an e-mail that really REALLY needs to get to SOMEONE in the Obama arena that doesn’t grasp why RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) might not be thundering in his direction.
I am so very sorry for doing this PZ and I will continue to insert noise until you do what I want. Get IT (the e-mail) to somebody in the Obama contingent
McCain has less votes than “Other”.
McCain will lose the real election badly. He is now expected to lose in the states he must win, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida.
scott:
But those aren’t related to science and engineering.
I’m not crazy about those points, either, but seriously, do you want me to vote for Nader again? For the fourth time?
foxfire: What makes you think PZ has an in with the Obama campaign?
It would seem that a full 8% of people out there are smart enough to realise that neither McBama or Ocain is going to be good for American science in the next four years.
OB 87%
Mac 5%
Other 8%
Obama is more pro-science.
My first thought was “Let me guess, they’re engineers, right?”
(not to disparage the wonderful engineers who frequent this site)
I have already done my real patriotic duty and voted for Obama by absentee. One of the proudest votes I’ve ever cast.
Carlie (#40): Well, thank you for not disparaging *all* engineers. Actually, this is one of the engineering societies that I’ve actually been a member of. It’s easy to see why McCain got an initial lead from them. Metallurgy and materials science *really* get a big boost from wars and military buildups. If it wasn’t for the military, there probably wouldn’t even *be* a significant market for metallic titanium, for example. That said, McCain appears to have so little regard for any science and engineering that doesn’t have direct military applications that I think he would, at best, be a wash for the materials people this time. Obama might not throw any particular pork to materials, but his support for science in general (including materials science) looks a lot better overall.
WRONG.
That too is Pharyngulation.
See above:
Other was at 10 votes 0.69 (%) before we got to it.
I would also like to add that mining engineers and metallurgists are a very traditional (read: conservative) lot. The field is dominated by older, white males, which is McCain’s base. While materials engineers tend to be slightly more diverse, the younger generation of materials engineers are typically into fields other than metals (nanotechnology, electronics, polymers, biomaterials, etc.) and are usually members of different professional societies beyond the TMS such as the Materials Research Society (MRS), the American Ceramics Society (ACerS), or the American Chemical Society (ACS).
I think the overall number of McCain votes that first had McCain in the lead (230) reflects the lack of interest in web polls from the society. When y’all “Pharyngulated” the poll, you added thousands of votes for Obama while the McCain tally only went up by 25.
Disclaimer: I do retain my membership to TMS, but I don’t really pay attention to what’s going on. I am much more active in the ACS and the Electrochemical Society.
It’s easy to see why McCain got an initial lead from them. Metallurgy and materials science *really* get a big boost from wars and military buildups.
That was my point. If you’re an engineer, you see McCain as being good for your field, and might easily transfer that to thinking he must be good for science in general.
Send it to the campaign yourself. What makes you think PZ has any influence whatsoever over the Obama campaign? PZ’s a good guy, but he’s not the Prince of this world, nor the ruler of the powers of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That’s Warren Buffett.
Seems to have been a dramatic turnaround in the polling, John “overhead projector” McCain is currently losing by a large margin.
Vote early, vote often.
The democrat creed.
It is always a pleasure to obey, Master.
That one still needs work.
“He who casts the vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything.”
—
Kenneth “Katherine” BlackwellStalinwell i for one think that the honor of best for science title should go to john “overhead projectors and grizzly bears are dumb” mccain.
(no, not really)
#49 Strangely enough,after voting myself, those numbers stayed the same…
Carlie #45:
You don’t seem to think much of engineers’ reasoning powers. Just because McCain might be good for the defense industry, it does not at all follow that he would be good for science in general, and I expect most engineers are smart enough to realize this.
In any case, the poll was not about science in general; it was about “who will give my narrow specialty the bigger boost?” You cannot infer anything about science in general from this poll.
A lot of engineers in this country seem to favor the Republican party. Don’t know why. I joined the ASME on the basis that it represented the most mechanical engineers and offered health insurance.
They discontinued the health insurance and still don’t believe in global warming or resource depletion.
Their magazine is hopeless – I will not be renewing my membership this year. European engineering societies and magazines are all onboard trying to fix global warming.
Here’s another poll that needs a bit of adjustment. It’s asking asking if Sarah Palin is qualified.
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/no_questions_please_were.html
It’s a PBS poll which apparently the Republicans knew about in advance and are flooding the voting with YES votes. Anyone want to help out with this?
Barack Obama 9701 votes 84.23 (%)
John McCain 592 votes 5.14 (%)
Other 1224 votes 10.63 (%)
PZ’s listed result must have been very early on in the poll. Currently, even the “other” category is pulling twice that of McCain.
Obama is still winning by a very large margin.
Good for you PZ – you have influence.
Good for us all.