(This is intended to be our system for checking in on imaginary friends, so that we know whether or not to be concerned if you go offline for a while.)

Clearly I cannot keep this simple thing together. Maybe I'll just aim to keep one on the front page at all times.

Episode 51.

We got a yard sign. I love it, but I assume it will get stolen pretty soon after we put it outside.

Is it worth it to cover it with, say, cat pee and capsaicin powder, just for the consolation prize when it goes?

I don't want to alarm anyone, but we have a president who is publicly praising an extra-judicial killing.

Trump: We sent in the US Marshals, took 15 minutes and it was over... They knew who he was, they didn't want to arrest him and 15 minutes that ended pic.twitter.com/fJA5BsJVeF

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) October 15, 2020

Hate on everything Barrett-related here.

Ok, so there's a re-infection case that's gotten traction in the news. (I personally believe there were already verified cases, but whatever.) On the basis of local conversations, it seems this freaks people out.

It seems like this should not freak anyone out, and should in fact be reassuring. If it took 10 months and nearly 40 million worldwide cases to get a few sparse reinfections here and there, shouldn't we be delighted by how robust the immune protection seems to be so far? Like I said, we should really be teaching more stats.

Three weeks to go.

What do you think should be added or subtracted from a basic high school curriculum? My answer is that we should ditch algebra and add in statistics. Algebra is fine if you're interested in a science that requires math, but I'm having trouble seeing why it needs to be universal. Whereas some basic statistical literacy should definitely be universal.

I would also like a mandatory course in general media literacy and how to detect bullshit in the current technological and political realm.

Lw writes: Wikipedia is a miracle, even if there are some systematic deficiencies (currently controversial topics, occasional unfortunate editorial perspective)

Here's a page I looked at recently that was pretty interesting-- I was curious about how deep the foundations of Vedic intellectual culture were in the kingdom where Buddha was born a prince when he was alive.

Not sure how widely known this is, but it's easy to look at any page's traffic: page->History->External tools->pageviews

There's a definite failure mode when there are more writers for some material than there are interested readers.

Math pages used to be unfriendly to non-expert visitors, but lots of them have gotten better in the last few years IMO.

Pretty interesting also from an archival perspective-- the whole thing, all the edit history included, is not that big and hostable with open source tools.

Heebie's take: Oooh, yes! I'm interested to read these and others that you all have to share.

I have no appetite to wade into the stories about the degree to which Trump profited off the presidency. I'm glad it's being covered in great detail, and I'm glad it's being published three weeks before the election.

We're three weeks out from the election and there's so little that I have any appetite for discussing. Nothing is new and interesting. I don't find it interesting to discuss that Republicans are ramming Barrett through. Enraging and important to know about, yes. Interesting, no.

My rule for posting is just to post impulsively and not overthink it, lest it grinds to a stop. So I'm just sharing my interior monologue for today. But if you all have guest posts, feel free to send them in.

Actually, here's some questions I'm wondering:

- how cautiously are you all weighing the polls? If this was any other year, the polls would have us ecstatic, but we all have collective PTSD from 2016.

- Are people up north re-secluding themselves for winter? Or are they taking riskier choices to be social due to Covid fatigue? Recently I heard of two weddings, one in Colorado and one in upstate New York. Based on Instagram photos, there were all ages gathered indoors and windows weren't open, and masks weren't on. It didn't look good.

- Are there any 11th hour causes where donations would go the farthest?

Ok, I'll stop here.

(This is intended to be our system for checking in on imaginary friends, so that we know whether or not to be concerned if you go offline for a while.)

Clearly I cannot keep this simple thing together. Maybe I'll just aim to keep one on the front page at all times.

Episode 50.