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RT @MattGlassman312
People seriously underestimate the role @FiveThirtyEight played in improving the ratio of data analysis to pundit bullshit in elections reporting. It's hard to remember, but before 2008, media and public discussion was *way* dumber, and @NateSilver538 really helped change that.

@revoluciana There's conflict in them, but it isn't the centerpiece...

#BeckyChambers stories are really wonderful, lovely stories with queer characters, interacting different cultures, and some continuity if that's another thing that you enjoy. (One of the tertiary chars from book 1 has their backstory explained in book 2, which is the continuing story of one of the secondary characters from book 1...but you can enjoy book 2 without reading book 1.)

I'd love to see any of them as movies.

@mhoye "Cheery was aware that Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'."
-Terry Pratchett

The worst thing that ever happened in software engineering was when Kirk asked Scotty how long something would take and Scotty said thirty minutes and Kirk said you’ve got five and Scotty got it done in five and impressionable children watched this and grew up to become managers.

The so-called "decline of the humanities" is such an epically epiphenomenal problem it is almost laughable. It has absolutely nothing to do with the humanities and everything to do with the fact that, as tuition has skyrocketed, students have become more risk averse, and the advice they receive is that humanities degrees won't help them on the job market. Which isn't true, but is besides the point. The real issue is the price of college.

Quiet quitting this, quiet quitting that. But no one talks about quiet pay cuts, which is when your salary isn't adjusted for inflation. So when you've been receiving the same salary for the past 3 years, you're actually taking pay cuts because your money has less value now.

20 years of pickup truck design progress in one photo

If a public agency wants to create an official Mastodon server it controls (or use one the state has set up) — that's great! They should do that. I'd love to see a dedicated National Weather Service instance, for example.

But this shouldn't happen at the expense of having their web sites actually be **useful**. So start putting all this information on the web again. Get that stuff back into those dormant RSS feeds.

Then pipe that information wherever you want (including Mastodon)!

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I am continually frustrated by the number of people on social media who want to change democratic systems in a way that would be an obvious vector for abuse.

Most recent one was to require federally elected officials to pass a security clearance background inspection. They erroneously think that it would only filter out GOP demagogues like DJT and MTG. But lets be honest, would the DoD under Trump have done a fair background check or would any rumor or innuendo have been enough to disqualify all the serious democratic candidates.

Same thing with not allowing indited or convicted felons to run for office. You may thing this is aimed at Trump, but what happens when Pres. DeSantis (it could happen) convicts hundreds of Democratic candidates of illegally facilitating abortions and in that way has them disqualified from standing for office.

In Trump era of politics where honor and integrity no longer matter it is vitally important that our actions not be ones that can be turned against us by populists with no morals.

Could we maybe stop shaming people for reading kids’ books? Adult books are full of sad people having affairs while kids’ books have magic wardrobes and worms driving around in apples; you tell me who’s winning.

“I’ll miss this place,” the graduating senior says.

“You’ll see it again.” I smile. “In dreams, whenever you have anxiety. It won’t be exactly the same… That’s why you’ll be lost. And late for class. Then realize you haven’t attended all year. There’s a test.”

“Wh—“

“You haven’t studied.”

Note to self: It sometimes is useful to read the documentation 😁

Do not seize the day. This will startle the day and may cause it to become aggressive and give you a nasty bite.

Instead approach the day calmly without making eye contact, pet it gently, and slowly enfold it in a careful embrace

If the day shows any signs of resistance to being engaged with, it is likely to turn on you. Back off and return to bed.

Because a friend found this useful yesterday:
Before tackling a problem, figure out whether it's the sort of problem where when you've solved 80% of the problem, you've solved 80% of the problem, or the kind where solving 80% means you've solved 0% of the problem.

This is especially important in security and privacy because that last 5% might be impossible.

My favourite *practical* use of a (non-t xtbook) monad in #haskell is xmonad. What's yours?

(Boosts appreciated)

The problem is a lack of calculus for conditionals. Yes we can easily calculate values from conditional formulas, but we have no way to characterized their behavior. No way to derived proofs when there is an "if" in the formula.

There is a fields medal and 50 years worth of mathematical and scientific advancements locked up behind a calculus for conditionally branching equations.

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