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https://www.themarysue.com/the-needle-is-back/
If there’s anything that sums up the nightmare-level stress and ping-ponging emotions of 2016’s election night, it’s the New York Times’ needle. Even now, just thinking about that semi-circular chart with its prediction needle swinging wildly from red to blue every time some new precinct data was made available makes my chest contract and my jaw lock up. (The only thing worse is the memory of when the needle stopped bouncing.)
if you show me an election needle i will fucking kill you
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) November 2, 2020
The needle will be back in 2020 but, luckily, with one big difference: There will be no national needle. Instead, there will be needles for only three states: Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. These are three states that, according to the Times, have experience counting absentee ballots quickly, their polls close relatively early, and they report their results “in unmatched detail.”
As major battleground states, these three also offer a pretty solid idea of where the election as a whole is likely to end up, says the Times. Basically, if Biden wins even one of them, his chances of winning overall are really high. If Trump wins all three of them, it’s a toss-up.
That’s because this election will see a massive number of mail-in ballots that will dramatically change whatever results come in from in-person voters. (That’s also the reason why the New York Times isn’t subjecting us to a national needle–there’s just too much that’s going to change.)
And since the majority of people who have voted early either in person or by mail are expected to lean heavily toward Biden, that means that if he also wins any of these battleground states in terms of in-person day-of voting, it’s pretty much a lock in his favor. If Trump wins, those mail-in votes could still flip everything on its head.
Which is, of course, exactly why Trump and his supporters are working so hard to make sure those mail-in ballots aren’t counted.
(via New York Times, image: NYT)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
If there’s anything that sums up the nightmare-level stress and ping-ponging emotions of 2016’s election night, it’s the New York Times’ needle. Even now, just thinking about that semi-circular chart with its prediction needle swinging wildly from red to blue every time some new precinct data was made available makes my chest contract and my jaw lock up. (The only thing worse is the memory of when the needle stopped bouncing.)
if you show me an election needle i will fucking kill you
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) November 2, 2020
The needle will be back in 2020 but, luckily, with one big difference: There will be no national needle. Instead, there will be needles for only three states: Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. These are three states that, according to the Times, have experience counting absentee ballots quickly, their polls close relatively early, and they report their results “in unmatched detail.”
As major battleground states, these three also offer a pretty solid idea of where the election as a whole is likely to end up, says the Times. Basically, if Biden wins even one of them, his chances of winning overall are really high. If Trump wins all three of them, it’s a toss-up.
That’s because this election will see a massive number of mail-in ballots that will dramatically change whatever results come in from in-person voters. (That’s also the reason why the New York Times isn’t subjecting us to a national needle–there’s just too much that’s going to change.)
And since the majority of people who have voted early either in person or by mail are expected to lean heavily toward Biden, that means that if he also wins any of these battleground states in terms of in-person day-of voting, it’s pretty much a lock in his favor. If Trump wins, those mail-in votes could still flip everything on its head.
Which is, of course, exactly why Trump and his supporters are working so hard to make sure those mail-in ballots aren’t counted.
(via New York Times, image: NYT)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Halloween and stop motion go hand in hand in most of our minds, thanks to movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Mad Monster Party. Now, there’s a new stop-motion addition to your Halloween viewing list this year. Thanks to Boing Boing, we’ve discovered this delightfully quirky stop-motion music video from Boston’s indie rock darlings Hallelujah the Hills for their song “The Memory Tree.”
The whole music video was made in quarantine. It tells the story of a spooky lil’ ghost on an existential journey of self-discovery through the multiverse. You can watch the full video for “The Memory Tree” above.
Hallelujah the Hills’ singer Ryan Walsh spent several months making all these miniature handcrafted ghost puppets. As well as the teeny tiny ghost homes they inhabit. All in order to create a world for this little spook and his friends to live in. Or, as the case may be, to not live in. The attention to detail in the ghost house is pretty great, especially the Ouija board the ghosts use to contact the living. There is some live-action mixed in to the proceedings as well, towards the end of the video. Once the ghost seemingly makes it to our reality, he becomes a dude in a sheet.
AllThisPaperwork
The aesthetic of the video is that of an old silent film from the ‘20s. The main narrative of the six-minute short is that of a ghost traveling through the many layers of reality, until he makes it out his world into the land of the living. The video is also eerily relevant. It starts with a title card that says “tired of more misfortune, he has not left the house in a full year.” In 2020, those words are all too relatable for most of us.
Featured Image: AllThisPaperwork
The post This Ghostly Stop-Motion Music Video is Eerily Delightful appeared first on Nerdist.