Jack William Bell @jackwilliambell@rustedneuron.com

Washington State #COVID19 cases are spiking to the point even the 14-day rolling average is starting to hockey-stick on the charts.

However, deaths are not yet showing the same rate of increase. Part of this is certainly the fact deaths are a lagging indicator, but perhaps another reason is: we are getting better at treating the most ill.

The problem? At this rate the hospitals will start filling up. This means the quality of care must naturally decrease and deaths will then spike as well.

Hey Rudy! How many fingers am I holding up?

There are two important things to remember about the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933:

1. It only took only three months, from Hindenberg appointing Hitler Chancellor to suspending the constitution

2. The German people sat on their ass and let them do it.

Some not so random pics about Nazis.

Two-thirds of U.S. adults say they’ve seen their own #news sources report facts meant to favor one side. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/02/two-thirds-of-u-s-adults-say-theyve-seen-their-own-news-sources-report-facts-meant-to-favor-one-side/

"A growing share of Americans are paying close attention to news about the election, but many are also concerned about the media reporting inaccurate or incomplete information. And that includes information reported by their own most-used news sources, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey."

The Spokesman, Spokane WA's conservative newspaper, has endorsed Trump. Not really a surprise, but they way they go about it can't even be considered 'damning with faint praise'.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/oct/25/editorial-trump-for-president-inslee-for-governor/ (pay-walled, see pic)

It starts out: "Donald Trump is a bully and a bigot. He is symptomatic of a widening partisan divide in the country."

And then it pushes Trump anyway. Because reasons.

The #Seattle Times says this about that: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wretched-human-being-for-president-how-the-spokane-papers-bizarre-plug-for-trump-revealed-a-hard-truth/

Here's the Puget Sound #weather radar right now.

Yeah… Wet…

#Seattle

Today's hot take: That's not how it works! That's not how any of this works!

Fivethirtyeight's presidential election poll average is within 2 tenths of a point of a Biden double-digit lead at 51.9% to 42.1%. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/national/

That's the *average* we are talking about here. For some time now we've seen polls putting Biden up by 15% or more, but there are also polls in the single digits. What there are not, is reputable polls putting Trump in the lead, or even close to breaking even.

The only sure thing? More Trump insanity…

I'm sorry. I'm being too serious today. Here's a black cat riding a unicorn and a cute bunny…

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/what-do-trumps-values-voters-truly-value/

NOTE: the man is wearing a t-shirt reading 'John 8:32' – "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Continuing the thread with *another* dig at dependencies. https://xkcd.com/2347/

One of these things is not like the others. (#Anime screenshot, subtitle #funny.)

Social Media Platforms Need to Flatten the Curve of Dangerous Misinformation. https://slate.com/technology/2020/08/facebook-twitter-youtube-misinformation-virality-speed-bump.html?via=recirc_recent

The basic idea here is to add 'circuit breakers' similar to what stock markets have added to reduce wild swings in stock prices.

It might even work. But, IMHO, the real problems are:

1. The massive size of the big social media players

2. The profit motive and the resulting artificial and toxic incentives baked into the big social media platforms

3. "My God, it's full of assholes!"

Thought I'd round off this thread on single-file solutions with a dig at languages and package management systems encouraging deep dependencies…

Today's hot take: (see pic)

The CoNZealand World SF convention is now over. It had it's ups and downs, but so far as I can tell from the comments the VR Exhibits Hall my team created was an unqualified success. (The closest thing to negative comments I found was people complaining about VR sickness.)

I even gave a virtual tour of the VR Hall to a small group last night. We used audio chat and the mutli-user functionality of the hall.

Took a couple of group pictures at the end.

Almost forgot to mention it, but there is a hidden 'Easter Egg' in the hall, with the team list.

Also? It's multi-user. To reduce poly count I designed a user avatar that looks like a con badge with googly eyes.

So, basically, you aren't wandering around in there on your lonesome.

Of course there's a whole lot more in the hall. We've managed to pack in an enormous amount of content and are adding more as the convention progresses. If you are a member of the convention, check it out!

If you aren't? Well, sorry dude. Member's only.