Notices by Edward L Platt (elplatt@greatjustice.net)

@evan Let's talk about the analysis in that article. The 700,000 uncommitted votes were in the primary, not in the general. The 422,000 number is voter demobilization, not Gaza. The article talks about states where elections "have" been won by 10k votes without mentioning that the actual margins were much higher in 2024, between 30k and 187k. The total number of D votes lost in swing states was 78,519 vs a 810,994 gain for Republicans. The article is intentionally misleading.

@evan It's just not true. Look at the swing states. A comparable number of Democrats voted in 2020 and 2024.

@evan Based on the analysis I've read, Gaza didn't split the party last time, at least not in a way that made a difference. In terms of vote counts, Democratic candidates did well in swing states, comparable to 2020, but Republican turnout was significantly higher than usual. Not a defense of the Democratic party or platform though.

@cwebber I'm not sure if it's a direct descendent, but the code for Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics is a beautiful way to do and teach physics

@cwebber OK, hear me out... maybe it's controlled by a single entity, but that entity could have some kind of "offering" to sell shares of the company to the "public". Like, anyone could buy one! Then, naturally, the VCs will celebrate by purchasing billions of slices of avocado toast and lattes, and that wealth will "trickle-down" to everyone else, who will then buy their own shares. I will take my nobel prize in economics now, thank you.

@cwebber Did they buy a bunch of centralization offsets? Maybe there's a mesh network of raspberry pis planted in a rainforest somewhere?

University Staff United, just won recognition for 1800 student and instructional services staff at #UMich, their first bargaining unit and about 10% of the university's staff. Their goal is to unionize all staff not covered by other campus unions. #Solidarity https://aftmichigan.org/university-of-michigan-student-and-instructional-services-staff-unionize/

@evan @mcc It's interesting to talk about "a" connected component for the Fediverse. They emerge when links are assigned randomly, but it's possible we could end up with several similarly sized connected components based on different community standards.

@cwebber I want to be able to speak intelligently enough on the subject, but I only learned enough about Bluesky/ATProto to know that I wasn't interested in using it. Do you think it's worth understanding to be able to explain to people? And/or is there a good brief explainer somewhere?

@evan is this best year for us personally, or for the world at large?

My liveblog of demos/recaps/discussion at the second FediForum @fediforum@mastodon.social @fediforum@a.gup.pe https://citizensandtech.org/2023/10/liveblog-fediforum-september-2023/

@onepict That would be nice, but I don't think we can count on the events to do it themselves. Most of the conferences in my field won't even do the bare minimum like require proof of vax

@alienghic @craigmaloney @skyfaller @onepict @smallcircles @strypey I would really like to see a standard "conference/event public health report card" that we could look up for any particular event before deciding to go

@craigmaloney Appreciate you speaking out. I've been sad and angry to see how conferences are giving up on even the simplest precautions like testing and proof of vax

@fediforum if notes are public it seems like no one would object to live blogging. Always nice for facilities to announce what level of privacy/publication to expect. For sensitive topics, some sessions might want more privacy

@fediforum Is there a policy on liveblogging or posting notes about sessions? (consent, attribution, opt-in/opt-out, etc.)

@aral part of the problem is that work outside large firms or vc-funded startups isn't valued by donors or the media. The director of a tech for "social good' program once told me I didn't have "experience working on real projects" because I hadn't worked for Google (despite their recruiters' best efforts).