How many polls does it take to screw in a lightbulb? That could be an increasingly difficult question to answer as political polls are becoming less accurate at the very moment when their results are having more influence. According to one political analytics expert: “It’s a little crazy to me that people are still using the same tools that were used in the nineteen-thirties.” From The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore: Politics and the New Machine.

+ Faulty polls can alter our perception. And so can popular memes. Consider the faux-controversy about the Starbucks cup that stole Christmas. The alleged boycott by Christian groups spread through social and reporter-driven media. Sure, in part we’re just having fun and sharing a joke. But it’s easy to forget that most Christians don’t actually care about Starbucks cups.

+ Besides, when it comes to the Starbucks cups, they forgot about Drei.