"Forget 'Why?', it's time to get to work."
I remember reading this from Anil eight years ago. He reshared it today and it's still a good read.
I am not going to say today is a good day. But I did just snag the 9 cd set of the dramatization of the Lord of the Rings book trilogy off the free table at work.
Do I have a working CD player? Not at the moment.
The Red Shift
The image comes from the New York Times, and I was looking to find this but for the 2020 election but cannot find it. This election highlights the illusion that was 2020 due to Covid, the decrease in voter turnout is also extremely telling.
The next four years are going to be harrowing.
Added Later
Just found this image online and this is very interesting to see as another visualization of the shift in this election. Fascinating that the only two states to shift more Blue were Washington and Utah.
November 5th, 2024
Automated Archives for November, 5th 2024
This post was automatically generated.
Chess For the Day
Record: 1-0-2
Net Elo Change: -6
Games Played
Blog Posts On This Day
- November 5, 2022 (1 post)
So disappointing this wasn't a sweeping rejection of Trumpism. Even if she manages the win, the fact it continues to be this close is utterly sickening.
Orcas return to Penn Cove for first time in 50 years
I saw some videos about this on TikTok and have been waiting to see any news coverage. But it's a pretty amazing thing to hear about given the story of Penn Cove and why the Orcas have avoided it for so long.
The article talks about their return and delves more into the awfulness of the Penn Cove massacre for the pod.
Ballot etymology
Courtesy of Merriam Webster on social media:
During the Renaissance, people in Venice would vote by dropping little balls into an urn.
The Italian word for “little ball” is ‘ballotta.’
Now any kind of secret voting, by ball, piece of paper, or voting machine, is called a ‘ballot.’*
Eye doctor has suggested I stop wearing my glasses while on the computer. And, breaking that habit after two decades is HARD.
Saw this on Bluesky today and I loved it. I watched the movie once but this quote resonated with me then and still resonates now.
Ezra Klein and Jon Stewart
I listened to most of this interview on the drive into work this morning and quite enjoyed it. One thing that struck me is how Ezra comes into this wanting to discuss the right vs left and Jon multiple times redirects it to be about the capitalism machine and the media businesses which drive the wedge to their benefit.
November 4th, 2024
Automated Archives for November, 4th 2024
This post was automatically generated.
Articles To Read
The following are articles that I saved today. Substance and quality will vary drastically.
- The Americans Prepping for a Second Civil War
- The Real-Life Bank Heist that Reads Like an Oceans 11 Sequel
- Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds
Chess For the Day
Record: 1-0-1
Net Elo Change: -2
Games Played
Blog Posts On This Day
- November 4, 2022 (2 posts)
Captured the first time they shared the couch
To quote a friend when I showed her this photo, "WE STAN THIS SWEET LITTLE BROMANCE"
I'm not going to dive into this internet drama driven by the right wing around the squirrel. I haven't delved into it and it isn't exactly pertinent to this post. But it did make me think of something that was an eye opening moment for me in college.
I had a girlfriend in college who, at our weekly SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, essentially historic-themed LARP) group, argued against us doing our annual charity event for the homeless - to instead be for a cat rescue.
Her logic was "Well, the humans can take care of themselves, the cats can't."
This was a sign to me that this relationship was doomed, because I couldn't fathom this line of thinking. Wild animals are much more capable of caring for themselves. But I think that that highlights a different way of thinking (and I sincerely have no idea her political leanings, I think she was liberal, but I honestly don't know) which is present regarding groups and their abilities to "take care of themselves."
Homeless people should be able to stop being homeless if they just work hard enough. Which, in a vacuum and assuming there are no systemic obstacles, makes perfect sense. But that is very rarely the reality of the situation.
And in terms of the comparative good when the choice has to be binary, then helping people does more potential good long term than helping animals.
Now, all that said, this is not against helping pet rescues and shelters. Animals also face challenges to their lives in the modern world and as animals who may not have any real ability to survive "in the wild." But, if faced with a binary choice between the two, and all other mitigating factors bear out to be a toss up between them -- I'll always choose helping the homeless.
"I Didn’t Do an About-Face on Pete Buttigieg. Buttigieg Did an About-Face on Me."
A really good piece about "Mayor Pete" and the work he's done in his role in the Biden administration. I have also been watching / listening to this video with him debating / talking to undecided voters in Michigan, and I'm just reminded that I think he has a very long and successful political career ahead of him.
If anyone is going to be our first openly gay President, it's Pete.
What European countries would vote for which candidate
Not a big surprise, but on this list, it isnt until you to get the Balkan states that the quantity flips majority to Trump.
"On These Questions, Smarter People Do Worse"
This is a very smart video from Veritaseum, finding a very in-channel way to speak to politics and the divide that exists between the parties.
The study itself is something I think is interesting, but I think the title and take away from the original author may be overly reductive (noting: I am basing this on the video, and not watching the original TEDx talk, or reading the underlying paper.)
Basically, from the videos, the thing I think that gets overlooked is that people with higher numeracy struggle with (based on the clips shown) is that even though it is a fictional scenario, those with higher numeracy are likely to also have additional questions which are very important when parsing these sorts of results. The premise being none of those additional factors matter, just decide based on this.
But that isn't how brains work, especially when presenting them something that they have beliefs or concerns over.
Even on the initial presentation of the skin cream numbers, I immediately had follow up questions to know more about the methodology and relative group sizes, etc. Once I understood the intent was to make a decision based just on the four numbers, I got the correct answer.
But when they showed the gun control example, then it becomes also about things like one of the people said in the video about the types of crimes, and other 'gotchas' which are regularly used in these sort of studies which are real and do get cited by the news.
Ultimately the title of the video is correct, regardless of the reason why they get it wrong, it boils down to being wrong.
"The average age of U.S. homebuyers jumps to 56"
Now the question will be if Kamala wins tomorrow and she can put some of her efforts in to helping alleviate this issue.
The average age of homebuyers in the U.S. has risen by six years since July 2023 — another sign that younger Americans are being priced out of the market due to escalating ownership costs.
The average age of homebuyers is now 56, up from 49 in 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors' annual state-of-the-market report released Monday. That's a historic high, up from an average age in the low-to-mid 40s in the early 2010s.
