Fun Facts from the "Newspaper of the Twin Cities"

1. From Monday's Star Tribune story about a Search Institute study on youth and spirituality:

• 82 percent of people aged 12 to 25 believe in God or a higher power
• 41 percent of the same young people believe that there is a purpose in life

So... half of the young people who believe in God or a higher power believe there is no purpose in life. Hmmm.

2. From Tuesday's Star Tribune "Have You Heard?" front page item:

• Total spent on the 2008 presidential and congressional contests: $5.3 billion
• Total spent this year in the U.S. (during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, no less) on Halloween candy, costumes and decorations in the U.S.: $6 billion

How is that even possible?

3. Thursday's Star Tribune included a really nice full page of maps summarizing the national and state election outcomes. The presidential race was shown county by county, while the state was broken down by precinct for both the presidential and senate races. Each county or precinct was colored a shade of blue or red, depending on the margin between the Democrat and Republican candidate. (Dark blue or red = 20 percent and over, medium blue or red = 10 to 20 percent, light blue or red = 0 to 10 percent.)

Some interesting facts: Two states gave a majority of their votes in every single county to McCain (Alaska and Oklahoma). Six states gave a majority of votes in every county to Obama (Hawaii, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut).

Unfortunately, it appears the Strib has not put the maps on their website. You can see a similar map on the New York Times site if you select the County Leaders option; the Minnesota precinct maps might be a bit harder to find. They make interesting viewing, because they show pretty clearly how much better Obama did in Minnesota than Al Franken.