Faithless electors update

There  were no faithless electors in the Electoral College for this year's US Presidential Election. 

Vote totals were exactly the same as were certified after the vote on December 3rd:

Biden - 306

Trump - 232

The only hurdle remaining to be overcome is the joint session of Congress on January 6th, at which it is theoretically possible for there to be challenges to the results in certain states. That possibility has receded significantly with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's acceptance of, and congratulations to, Biden as President-Elect yesterday. Apparently McConnell is also advising his fellow Republicans not to challenge any results on January 6th.

If there are any recalcitrant Republicans still wanting to appease President Trump - or shore up their voter base ready for a 2024 challenge, perhaps - they will be swiftly shot down [probably not literally, I'd guess] and Joe Biden will be finally confirmed as the winner of the election by Congress on January 6th.

Phew!

Join me again in 2024.

Faithless electors

Did you think that the votes had been cast in the US election? Well not quite. As I write this, at least a day before you read it, the members of the Electoral College are meeting in each state and casting their votes for President and Vice President. If you were a voter in Tennessee, you would have cast your vote for your preferred candidate; the party with the most votes in Tennessee then nominates its electors to the Electoral College and they will today cast all their votes for the candidate of that party.

States have a number of Electoral College votes equal to the number of members of the Senate and House of Representatives that state has. Each of the 50 states has two Senators. The number of Representatives for a state is based on its population, as a % of 435, the total number in the House. The District of Columbia (home of Washington D.C.) has 3 Electoral College votes. So a total of 538. California is the most populous state and has 55 Electoral College votes. Wyoming is the smallest and has 3. Tennessee has 12.

These electors are supposed to vote for the candidate of the party which received the most votes in the election. Donald Trump won 60.7% of the vote in Tennessee and so should receive their 12 votes to the Electoral College. They will do so because Tennessee state law requires them to do so. As do a further 28 states and the District of Columbia.

Which leaves 21 states where there is no legal obligation on the electors to cast their votes according to the "result" of the general election in their state. Which leads us to: Faithless Electors. Phew, got there!

It should be said that is normal and entirely conventional for those votes to be cast as though they were mandated by law. Each election year though, there are seem to be a few mavericks (my word, not a term recognised in US electoral law) - the faithless electors. So, given that Joe Biden won 306 electoral college votes and Donald Trump 232, it is not certain that those will be the final numbers. What is certain, however, is that they will be as close as doesn't make any difference. There has been no election when the winner was changed by faithless electors.

In 58 elections since the drafting of the US constitution, there have been just 165 instances of faithlessness, 63 of which occurred in 1872 when Horace Greeley died after Election Day but before the Electoral College convened. So ignoring 1872, an average of around two per election.

In 2016, there were seven faithless electors:

• Texas (Trump won): one vote for John Kasich, one for Ron Paul
• Washington (Clinton won): three votes for Colin Powell and one for Faith Spotted Eagle (a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation, an activist and politician and the first Native American to receive an electoral vote for President of the United States)
• Hawaii (Clinton won): one vote for Bernie Sanders

(in the same cases, there were faithless votes for the Vice Presidential candidates)

So although the "result" of the 2016 election, in terms of electoral college votes, was Trump 306, Clinton 232 (the exact reverse of the 2020 election), the final vote was respectively 304 to 227.

2020? Wait and see, but expect some shenanigans.

So will that be the end? Technically no, because the electoral college votes have to be certified by a joint session of Congress on 6 January. This is a formal reading of the votes, followed by the final declaration of the winner. It is pertinent only if there is an indecisive election, in which case Congress can decide the winner. This happened only in 1800 and 1824.

Rest easy, folks.

Civics lesson over; back to your comics.

Is this the most beautiful fish?

The giant manta ray is an endangered species.

This beautiful fish is on the Red List of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. As of 10 December, there are now 128,918 species on the IUCN Red List, of which 35,765 are threatened with extinction. These are extraordinary and frightening numbers. Their latest newsletter lists 31 species now declared extinct. They include the Lost Shark and three Central American frog species.

The giant manta ray has a wingspan of up to 29 feet, which is bigger than any bird. Although only half the size of a Quetzalcoatlus. The largest population is in Ecuador, particularly in marine reserves. Global populations are declining, partly due to the Chinese belief that the gills have medicinal benefits. Also due to the fact that they give birth to one pup only every two or three years. According to oceana.org:

"Mantas have huge brains — the biggest of any fish — with especially developed areas for learning, problem solving and communicating. The giant rays are playful, curious and might even recognize themselves in mirrors, a sign of self-awareness [Only a few species, including great apes and bottlenose dolphins, can recognize their own reflections, rather than attacking or ignoring a mirror]. A manta’s brain can be ten times larger than a whale shark’s. Not only is the brain physically big, it’s also large relative to the ray’s body. That’s another sign of super smartness, true of elephants, dolphins and people too."

If you want to know where you can see one of these magnificent fish in an aquarium, mantarayadvocates.com tells us:

"We know of four places around the globe that have mantas in huge aquariums:

Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, GA, USA

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa, Japan

Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island Bahamas

S.E.A Aquarium in Singapore"

When Covid-19 is done, I'll be off!

Ethiopian calendar

It's 2013 in Ethiopia. For some reason, their calendar operates seven years behind our (Gregorian) calendar. Which is proof that time travel exists; on your next trip there, you will travel seven years back in time: Lily Allen is top of the charts, Barack Obama is US President, there has been no Brexit referendum, Britain has just exported pig semen to China. There's a chance to change the future!

Wait! You can't book your emigration flights on that flimsy evidence. It's not as simple as that.

theculturetrip.com tells me "Owing to its complexity, Ethiopians call the method used to calculate the calendar Bahere Hasab, or ‘sea of thoughts’. The calendar system starts with the idea that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden for seven years before they were expelled for their sins" [justice was slow in  those days]. So they date their calendar from the end of that seven years, whereas Pope Gregory XIII went for the earlier date.

The only other countries which do not use the Gregorian calendar - at least that I could discover - are Afghanistan, Iran and Nepal. Countries which use their own calendars alongside the Gregorian calendar are Bangladesh, India, Israel, Japan and Thailand. These have the same dates as the Gregorian calendar with different religious holidays.

North Korea and Taiwan seem to be, along with Ethiopia, outliers in the world's calendar fraternity.

The North Koreans date their Juche calendar from 1912, the year of Kin Il Sung's birth. Of course. Thankfully they also recognise the Gregorian calendar. uritours.com tells me "For any date including or after 1912, the date must be written in either of two formats: May 22, Juche 109 (2020), or simply as May 22, Juche 109. There is no Juche 0. Years prior to 1912 (Juche 1) continue to be written as per the Gregorian calendar, there is no ‘before Juche’ or similar concept.".

I'm glad we sorted that out. I hope you're still awake.

I'm told that there will shortly be a new calendar in use in half of the United States. The Trump Calendar dates from 1946, the year of Donald J. Trump's birth. For any date including or after 1946, the date must be written in either of two formats: May 22, Trump 74 (2020), or simply as May 22, Trump 74. There is no Trump 0. Years prior to 1946 (Trump 1 [as distinct from "Trump won"]) continue to be written as per the Gregorian calendar, there is no ‘before Trump’ or similar concept.

In Taiwan the Minguo Calendar has one thing in common with North Koreans - it begins in 1912, in this case because that was the year of the establishment of the Republic of China. Similarly the days of the calendar match the Gregorian but are referred to as 民國元年 (Mínguó Yuánnián) for 1912 and 民國一百零九年, 民國109年 for 2020, the "109th year of the Republic", or simply 109. Simples.

Check out forvo.com to hear these Chinese words pronounced.

The first day of the Ethiopian calendar year is September 11. Or September 12 (in  the year before the Ethiopian leap year). Back to theculturetrip.com for the final, encouraging word: "The calendar offers foreign travellers the perfect excuse to hold two different celebrations for New Year’s and Christmas."

Do you feel you need two Christmases every year? Kids, you know what to do.

We are known by our initials

Everyone who is anyone now refers to Her Excellency Mrs Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the EU Commission, as VDL. Apparently. You heard it first here (I pick up these titbits hanging around Brussels in these heady days).

There are numerous examples of famous people commonly referred to by their initials. Among those most well-known are US Presidents FDR and JFK.

Less familiar, perhaps, is Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince MBS - Mohammed bin Salman.

Personally, I often thought of myself as NFG. Not so famous, obv.

I thought it might be time for another quiz. It's been a while. So how many of these can you identify? I'll give you one clue: their most familiar names include a middle name (hence three initials). I suppose that's obvious but a little help goes a long way. Some middle names are maiden names. It's possible some should technically be hyphenated.

Answers in the Comments, please (even those who rarely comment - I'm begging here). There is no prize, other than the honour of seeing your winning name in lights.

IKB

HRC

LBJ

DLG

ALW

CZJ

EAP

GBS

MLK

UBL (or OBL)

I'll post answers in a week - unless someone has the lot, in which case I'll just congratulate you and move on.

Pluto

Many years ago, when I was at school, I was taught that there are nine planets in our Solar System.

One day, slightly fewer years ago, the Interplanetary Council met. On Jupiter, not because they are the biggest but because it's their turn. A motion was presented by the Chairthing, to the effect that "Pluto is too small to be part of our club. Our next meeting is due to be there and it's just too cold. They should  be relegated to the Second Division". "And it is 3,638.5 million miles away" piped up the little Mercuryling "and I wouldn't get back in time for Neighbours". "Best keep quiet, little Mercuryling" croaked Saturnbeast, "you'll be next in line".

"Wait a minute, we orbit the Sun don't we?" spluttered the Plutothing. "Once a day [that's a Pluto day; 248 earth years]. That's what planets do, isn't it? In any case, it only took us 20 earth-minutes to come here today." Now Pluto is the only one of the planets with teleport technology, so that's why they got there quickly. You might have thought to ask "how did you get here so fast" but the real question is "why did it take you so long?"

You would have thought that the other planets would have cosied up to the Plutonians, to do a trade deal - maybe some of our nice plutonium deposits in exchange for your teleport tech? "Don't be silly, we have our own plutonium - why do you think we are called Pluto?" "I thought you were named after Mickey Mouse's dog" whined the Marsling.

"Enough; we should vote" the Earthling intoned. Of course, ever the diplomats of the Solar System. They voted: 8 to 1 for the relegation of Pluto. Now there are only eight planets. But who will be next? The Mercuryling is keeping quiet on that one.

The Second Division is now a club of five planets - Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake [that's a name? Did someone makemake that up?]. They are known as dwarf planets. I don't think that's a politically incorrect term, as dwarfism is a known medical condition. Except for Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt, these small planets are located in the Kuiper Belt. That's just around the Kuiper Waist and holding up the Kuiper Pants.

Pluto is not even the biggest of these. That's Eris, whose diameter is 1,445 miles against Pluto's 1,430. Close.

Space.com tells me that the debate over Pluto's status continues:

The debate started anew after the New Horizons mission passed by Pluto in 2015, revealing a world of surprising geological complexity. As of 2017, delegates from the mission [wait! They've travelled more than 5 million km to get here? Wow] are trying to get Pluto's planethood status back. 

The primary concern stems from the requirement for a planet to clear out its local neighborhood [ah, those pesky plutonium dealers on the street corners, that's the problem?].

'In no other branch of science am I familiar with something that absurd," New Horizons principle[sic] investigator Alan Stern told Space.com in 2011. "A river is a river, independent of whether there are other rivers nearby. In science, we call things what they are based on their attributes, not what they're next to.'

Yep, I'm with you, Al. #GetPlutoBack

How does a mere blogger know this esoteric stuff? Research, mate, that's how. With a bit of help from NASA.