wrote in message
...
On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:03:46 -0700, mb wrote:

Here's a wild prediction
- if the election were tomorrow, Obama would take Florida and Georgia,
but McCain would take...are you ready, NY, NJ, and sorry, Tom, but PA.

Hm (redux)........

Then again, through the much neglected (in these latter days) expedient of
assigning to the alphabet a simple rising scale of integer values, starting
with A=1 and proceeding through Z=26, and applying the fundamental
principles of gematria to the names of the candidates we see that "Barack
Obama" = 68 while "John McCain" tips the scale at a whopping 90! Gadzooks!

However, it is naive to suppose that the obvious approach taken above is
necessarily the RIGHT one. After all, if divination were as simple as that,
EVERYBODY would be doing it and there would be no basis at all for the
establishment of a defensible hierarchy among practitioners. No, there
simply HAS TO be more to it than that! Thus, reversing the order of the
assigned of numerical values (a perfectly legitimate technique given that
solutions to knotty problems are rarely perfectly linear and immutable in
all dimensions) yields: "Barack Obama" = 229 and "John McCain" = a paltry
178.

But, again, reason alone (never mind experience) tells us that putting the
cart before the horse will likely result in no greater advantage than doing
it the other way around if no means have been made available to link the two
in one way or another. Let us provide a (provisional) link. Adding the
sums; 68+229 and 90+178 gives a ratio of Obama:McCain = 297:268. Still not
particularly revealing one might suggest, but a moment's reflection reveals
that the numbers in this ratio, when combined, approach to something close
enough to the number of electoral votes available in the upcoming election.
Hm........

Suggestive......highly suggestive. But still not conclusive. What else can
we do?

Well, in fact there are innumerable (if you will pardon the feeble attempt
at humor) other things we can do, with varying degrees of applicability and
resulting in correspondingly variable degrees of revelatory value, but
simply plugging numbers into formulae memorized by rote (or provided on a
"cheat sheet") is hardly the way to teach the neophyte the principles
involved in any complex discipline which requires an ability to assess the
nature of the problem and the available pathways to solution.

Thus, I eagerly await readers' input of ideas about what might qualify as a
next logical step in a series of permutations which could shed light on this
fascinating and potentially economical alternative to all the fuss and
bother of holding elections.

Wolfgang
lambda lemma ding dong.