nickroutley.bsky.social

Google almost died on the vine because a cosmic ray messed their computer chips up and they had to debug by drilling down to binary code. Next time you need to solve a problem, remember this story. newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…

Some pictures really are worth a thousand words.

@USAFacts Instant mood booster: A callout that actually explains something useful on the chart.

Free therapy is looking at a well-labeled line graph.

Trump has fired the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer. Trump's justification was that there were too large and, in his opinion, politically motivated revisions to the American employment figures ("Nonfarm payrolls"). I've taken a look at the historical revisions of the labor market figures. It should be noted that one of the reasons for these revisions is that when the first employment estimate is released, it's based on a smaller data foundation than when the final figure comes out. As more responses come in, the estimate becomes more accurate, but this also leads to revisions. It's essentially a survey of American businesses. BLS simply asks businesses how many employees they have in a given month, and based on this, BLS produces an estimate for total employment in the US. Total employment in the US is around 163 million people. Historically (since 1979), monthly revisions have averaged 57,000 people (in either direction). Out of 163 million, this is practically nothing - about 0.03%. There's also nothing to indicate that this has gotten worse over time - if anything, the opposite. Over the past 5 years, the average data revision has been 55,000 people per month. That's marginally less. And this despite the fact that in 2020 - during COVID - there were very large revisions in certain months. That said, revisions have been increasing again over the past 1-2 years, and it appears that simply fewer businesses are responding to BLS's survey than before - and it's taking longer to get responses in. But to say that the numbers are particularly biased is simply not correct. What one might consider is whether it's even meaningful to make so much of the variations seen from month to month. Is it even meaningful whether employment rises by 50,000 or 200,000 in a given month? Relative to employment of over 160 million people, that difference is minimal. If BLS, instead of publishing a figure showing the NUMBER OF PEOPLE CHANGE in employment, had published the percentage change in employment, there would be almost no story to tell.

The only thing that's surprising is that they made it till June before an incendiary, public blowout occurred.

Every year @VisualCap produces Prediction Consensus, which attempts to foresee how the year will unfold. The easiest possible prediction (imo) was this Trump–Musk feud that's unfolding right now. visualcapitalist.com/prediction-con…

3) Obviously, UBC isn't trying to make the world use woke wood-leather soccer balls. It's a fun object for people to interact with and learn about the material. Are we really dunking on new product lines to support BC's forestry industry?

2) He stopped by the Osaka Expo, which is a pretty obvious thing to do while he was in Japan.

Oh boy. These replies. I swear partisanism wipes out critical thinking skills in people.

@ugnius @alexisohanian 100%. Everyone should have to work in customer service at some point.

@alexisohanian Funny how the jobs people look down on are the ones that actually teach you how to deal with pressure, people, and chaos, all at once.

Everyone in the replies dunking on her for working as a waitress in IHOP would’ve rejected me, too, I guess, for working at a Pizza Hut through high school. Best work experience I got to prepare me as a CEO. I think I turned out OK.

@JarrydJaeger @vancolour Was such a fantastic conversation. One of the highlights of #websummitvancouver, imo

Cenk Uyger tells @vancolour he’ll talk to anyone, regardless of their political leanings — so long as the conversation is productive.

@waitbutwhy In the era of generative AI, looking back at this level of craftsmanship is almost jarring. Extremely cool seeing this from start to finish

Humans are cool

@LessardCreTech @paulg I, too, thought he might hide it better.

@paulg I mean, trump did say he would do all of this. The only thing that wasn’t on my bingo card was the blatant corruption.

"You were so right about Trump." — a founder who voted for him in the last election

Same energy

Yes, the “art of statecraft” was on full display during that 50 minute(!!!) press conference.

@ChristophMontag @FutureFetish007 @OurWorldInData @Noahpinion If I'm understanding this correctly, even if we stopped emissions entirely, SOx would leave the atmosphere first, and CO2 would stick around much longer. (Same situation)

The claim in this tweet misinterprets cause and effect. Reducing SOx emissions didn’t cause accelerated warming—it merely unmasked the warming that was already happening due to greenhouse gas emissions. SOx aerosols had a temporary cooling effect by reflecting sunlight, but they also caused acid rain and serious environmental damage. Their removal was necessary. The real issue remains unchecked CO₂ emissions, which continue to drive long-term climate change.

The world has probably passed “peak air pollution”— Global emissions of local air pollutants have probably passed their peak. The chart shows estimates of global emissions of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (which causes acid rain), nitrogen oxides, and black and organic carbon. These pollutants are harmful to human health and can also damage ecosystems. It looks like emissions have peaked for almost all of these pollutants. Global air pollution is now falling, and we can save many lives by accelerating this decline. The exception is ammonia, which is mainly produced by agriculture. Its emissions are still rising. These estimates come from the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS). (This Daily Data Insight was written by @_HannahRitchie.)

Zuck and Musk strategically seated far apart. I guess they didn’t make any significant progress on setting a date for the cage match.

@GelidPlateau @USMortality @OurWorldInData Projections ≠ predictions.

@USMortality @OurWorldInData Demographic predictions are usually not very good. The UN predictions tend to be too optimistic and think population will be larger than it will end up being

The world has passed “peak child”— The number of children in the world has stopped growing. This moment in time was given the term “peak child” by the late Hans Rosling. The chart shows the estimated number of children under five years old globally up to 2023, with projections from the United Nations out to 2100. The UN thinks the number of under-5s peaked in 2017. The chart also shows the number of young people under 15, which peaked in 2021. And the number of under-25s, which may have peaked last year. “Peak child” is a sign that the world is on course for “peak population”. The UN expects the world population to start falling before the end of the century. (This Daily Data Insight was written by @_HannahRitchie.)

@EU_Eurostat I started doing the math, then saw the footnote 😭

✨COMPETITION TIME! ✨ How many tonnes of toys did the EU export to countries outside the EU in 2023❓📊 Write your guess below and the 3 first closest guesses win Eurostat prizes❗️🏆 Competition closes on 27/12/24 at 12:00 CET. Good luck!

@NY_LBSS @daveweigel @MZanona I thought you were kidding, but that's true. 🤯

@daveweigel @MZanona He’s old enough to remember when the press covered for FDR by not taking his picture in situations like this.

Dem Rep. David Scott, who was being pushed in a wheelchair by a staffer outside the Capitol after votes, reamed out a photographer for taking the congressman’s picture. I saw and heard Scott yell: “Who gave you the right to take my picture, asshole?”