The Off Topic Topic

[lustindarkness]

No surprise, at all.

[DGuller]

It looks silly, but there is a logic behind the madness to some extent.  Typically, political policies are not randomly assigned to parties, parties would develop educational policies using the same ideology they develop a lot of other policies.  If you find Republican policies repugnant for the most part, it's a safe assumption that you probably wouldn't like their education plan if you knew all the details.  The real plan, not the randomly assigned plan by researchers.

But you don't have time to make sure that every judgment call you make is based on 100% of knowable information, you have to take shortcuts.  Obviously decisions made with mental shortcuts aren't going to be as good as fully-considered decisions, but usually a quick decision is better than long indecision.

[Valmy]

parties would develop educational policies using the same ideology they develop a lot of other policies.

A carefully constructed ideology they call what-our-donors-wantism

[Admiral Yi]

It looks silly, but there is a logic behind the madness to some extent.  Typically, political policies are not randomly assigned to parties, parties would develop educational policies using the same ideology they develop a lot of other policies.  If you find Republican policies repugnant for the most part, it's a safe assumption that you probably wouldn't like their education plan if you knew all the details.  The real plan, not the randomly assigned plan by researchers.

But you don't have time to make sure that every judgment call you make is based on 100% of knowable information, you have to take shortcuts.  Obviously decisions made with mental shortcuts aren't going to be as good as fully-considered decisions, but usually a quick decision is better than long indecision.

I didn't get the impression from the link that this survey was timed.

[DGuller]

It looks silly, but there is a logic behind the madness to some extent.  Typically, political policies are not randomly assigned to parties, parties would develop educational policies using the same ideology they develop a lot of other policies.  If you find Republican policies repugnant for the most part, it's a safe assumption that you probably wouldn't like their education plan if you knew all the details.  The real plan, not the randomly assigned plan by researchers.

But you don't have time to make sure that every judgment call you make is based on 100% of knowable information, you have to take shortcuts.  Obviously decisions made with mental shortcuts aren't going to be as good as fully-considered decisions, but usually a quick decision is better than long indecision.

I didn't get the impression from the link that this survey was timed.

It probably wasn't, but the inclination doesn't change.  I'm willing to spend more time thinking about predictive modeling competitions than about policies I have epsilon power to change. 

And, in any case, even if you take in all the information provided by researchers carefully, and then make your judgment, you're still not making a fully informed decision.  Making informed decision involves doing your own research, and not taking talking points at face value.

[DGuller]

One more thing:  for all we know, the independents didn't make a more considered decision.  They may have just been split 50/50 between Democrat-leaners and Republican-leaners, and the distribution within the two leaner groups could've still been pretty lopsided.

[Admiral Yi]

Very strange use of the phrase talking points in this context.

Three dead sparrows in the parking lot.  A sparrow massacree.

[Valmy]

One more thing:  for all we know, the independents didn't make a more considered decision.  They may have just been split 50/50 between Democrat-leaners and Republican-leaners, and the distribution within the two leaner groups could've still been pretty lopsided.

Don't worry DGuller. The only thing I took from it was 'well yeah that is why perfectly acceptable policies become HITLER once the other guys get into office'. I never would for a second think Independents are better than you. Perish the thought.

[alfred russel]

It looks silly, but there is a logic behind the madness to some extent.  Typically, political policies are not randomly assigned to parties, parties would develop educational policies using the same ideology they develop a lot of other policies.  If you find Republican policies repugnant for the most part, it's a safe assumption that you probably wouldn't like their education plan if you knew all the details.  The real plan, not the randomly assigned plan by researchers.

But you don't have time to make sure that every judgment call you make is based on 100% of knowable information, you have to take shortcuts.  Obviously decisions made with mental shortcuts aren't going to be as good as fully-considered decisions, but usually a quick decision is better than long indecision.

There are so many problems with this degree of polarization. Lots of issues shouldn't have a strict partisan divide, but they get one just because leaders belong to a party (foreign policy for example).  It breeds corruption: when one side is convinced the other is always corrupt, and the other side is blind to instances of its own corruption--there is little incentive to avoid actual corruption. It makes compromise difficult and radicalizes trivial issues.

[Admiral Yi]

Gmail is blowing up.

Guesses on who is responsible?  I vote Chinks.

[Liep]

Gmail is blowing up.

Guesses on who is responsible?  I vote Chinks.

I vote its own users trying to update all at once after being curious because twitter says it's down.

[Ed Anger]

Canada: keep your wildfire smoke to yourself. Or else.

Regards,

Ed Anger

[crazy canuck]

Shouldn't you be re-enacting the invasion of Normandy about now?

[Ed Anger]

Shouldn't you be re-enacting the invasion of Normandy about now?

Soon.

[MadImmortalMan]

Today I watched five men base jump off this bridge. Which apparently happens daily.




I also saw Evel Knievel's jump site. It looked scary as hell. I mean I didn't even want to drive over that bridge.