A thoughtful analysis of why Merrick Garland is not the best investigative target.
A good infographic can summarize an area of information better than almost anything else. Wait, erase that “almost;” I can’t think of any candidates for something better. Anyway, here’s a compilation of the best infographics (charts) of 2024. The most interesting insights, IMHO:
• Inflation is global, not a US phenomenon
• Blue states don’t have higher tax rates than red states (unless you’re in the 1%)
• Political extremists resorting to murder are, in the US, right-wingers
• Overdose deaths in the US are falling, and so is drug use among younger people.
Funny thing about collecting actual data, particularly in economics (something too many economists never bother to do): surprisingly often it shows that the conventional wisdom is not only wrong, but has things completely upside-down. This example: Wal-Mart makes everyone poorer (except, of course, Wal-Mart). You’ll often be closer to reality if you think in terms of systems. Like, people in a given area have money; when they use it to buy things, where does the money go? Does it stay in that area, or is it immediately moved to corporate coffers far away?
Here’s a great summary of “what we learned about AI” (the LLM variety) in 2024. After quite a few tries I’ve found two LLMs that are pretty good at assisting with programming: Cody and Claude. Cody is from SourceGraph and Claude is from Anthropic. I’ve also learned that writing effective prompts really is a skill worth learning. It’s oddly similar to technical writing.
Bullionaires. As Cory Doctorow has pointed out, “rich people are dumb, even when it comes to money.“
A good old-fashioned list of weird links. I hadn’t seen one of these in a long time – and it even mentions a “web ring” at one point. Look at that, the web has lasted long enough to evoke nostalgia.
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