Any question answered...

I've actually had all three answered comprehensively so you can stand down.

Why is the Democrat/Republican split by state so overwhelmingly geographical, with the exception of two anomalies, all of the central states are red and without exception all of the coastal states are blue. Why?

2008 United States presidential election results by county, on a color spectrum from Democratic blue to Republican red
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Gastner_map_purple_byarea_bycounty.png

The makeup of the electoral colleges skews this too this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Simple2008PresElections-USA-states.png/800px-Simple2008PresElections-USA-states.png

This one shows

Cartogram of the United States, showing each county with a size proportional to its population. The colors reflect the 2004 presidential election results

what's australia got to do with anything?

Why is the Democrat/Republican split by state so overwhelmingly geographical, with the exception of two anomalies, all of the central states are red and without exception all of the coastal states are blue. Why?

Look up map/data showing the average educational level attained per state. High education level in coastal states, low elsewhere.

Draw your own conclusions.

Sorry, should have been ^^^ not ^^

Yes, is that such a strange question?

Look up map/data showing the average educational level attained per state. High education level in coastal states, low elsewhere.

Draw your own conclusions.

Really ? I would've thought it similar to the UK, where the concentrations of population tend to = Labour, apart from leafy suburbs sometimes, and the Shires = overwhelmingly Tory.

Republicans always win all those areas where hardly anyone lives such as Montana, Dakotas.

There is that too, although I have seen comparisons with educational level.

The point about urban versus rural states leads to the US looking like a strongly republican majority country when you look at it on a state by state bases. But the big middle states which the repubs get and hold are basically empty - only a couple of million people in some of them, but huge - the size of the whole of the rest of the world in total.

So what you need is a map with the states scaled by electoral college points, with a key next to it listing the population-to-college-points ratio for each state.

Something like that.

I have seen a map to map comparison, but it was probably on some left-leaning site (or I would not have been reading it) so tbh it would not have been a surprise that they came to the conclusion "we are more clever than the other lot". Anyhow, just looked now and was not able to find a reasonable pair of maps to compare.

^^ errr, it might not necessarily be college points - I said level of education (OK, I also said "attained"). So I was saying college grads vote lefter than high school grads, not that high achieving college grads vote lefter than low achieving college grads.

But it could be either/both. I was running from memory.

My cousin wants a bike a she's really got into Boris bikes. She pretty much wants a Boris bike of her own, and step through, mudguards, internal gears and a basket. Only problem is that she's 6'3" does anyone make a bigger ladies bike that isn't one of those very heavy gas pipe Dutch bikes?

mielec? and build up with parts off here? still end up being pretty expensive id imagine though

It's a present from her parents they'll want to get it as a whole thing

My cousin wants a bike a she's really got into Boris bikes. She pretty much wants a Boris bike of her own, and step through, mudguards, internal gears and a basket. Only problem is that she's 6'3" does anyone make a bigger ladies bike that isn't one of those very heavy gas pipe Dutch bikes?

hire a boris bike and don't return it.
pay non-return fee
bike like boris bike for under £400

Bobbin Bikes go up to 21" and aren't massively heavy. 14kg according to Evans.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bobbin-bicycles/birdie-womens-hybrid-bike-ec029499

^^ errr, it might not necessarily be college points - I said level of education (OK, I also said "attained")

Sorry, I was addressing the "are basically empty" line, most of the midwest consists of single-digit electoral colleges, whereas California constitutes 55.

This is the 2012 college-scaled map with the 2008 numbers filled in:

Sorry, I was addressing the "are basically empty" line, most of the midwest consists of single-digit electoral colleges, whereas California constitutes 55.

Yeah, I'm with that, totally agree with your post, just playing with the details.

^^ the map is good work. Apart from Texas, most of the red states are tiny (in terms of population or electoral college seats - which is based on population, right?). It makes more sense now that the blues got it.

The other thing is, let's see some stats/maps on average education level. I'm going to have a look.

OK, not education level, but fun/interesting nonetheless (requires Java): IQ by state.

Here is educational level, but it appears to be at the level of county or some other administrative unit, and so does not tie across to the state level voting map: Here.

Bobbin Bikes go up to 21" and aren't massively heavy. 14kg according to Evans.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bobbin-bicycles/birdie-womens-hybrid-bike-ec029499

14kg is the weight of two bicycles.

That's about a quarter of my weight...

4 Bobbin bikes = 1 NurseHolliday

Where should I post this (contains reference to fixed wheel bikes - or something like that) ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_5uVdy5YmA
.

14kg is the weight of two bicycles.

Or one boris bike. I bought a bobbin dutch bike for my missus years ago. It weighted a metric tonne and she was physically unable to lift it up even a few stairs. It went shortly thereafter and was replaced with something more manageable.