Mastodon has roughly 1% as many active users as Twitter. But it feels like much more than 1%. Why is that?
Because we're not a random 1%. People in some communities are much more likely to find Mastodon appealing. For example, at least 30% of the people I follow on Twitter are on here, based on their Twitter bios.
This "homophily" makes it easier for communities to reach critical mass. The downside is that it makes Mastodon more of an echo chamber (on top of the other reasons that make it so).
By my estimates, ~150,000 more Trump voters died of COVID between the 2020 & 2022 elections than Biden voters. #JustSaying #xp
https://acasignups.net/22/09/17/elephant-room-final-edition
35% of U.S. of parents now oppose mandates that children receive routine immunizations in order to attend school, a survey found. The shift appears to be less about rejecting the shots than a growing endorsement of the so-called parents’ rights movement.
https://nyti.ms/3V4pWu3
It's been five months since my last attempt to estimate a grim but vitally important number: Just how many Trump voters vs. Biden voters have become fatal victims of the GOP/FOX News coordinated anti-vaxx/anti-mask campaign to date, and what sort of impact might this end up having on the midterm elections this November? As I said at the time, I'm not going to attempt to justify this cynical bean counting anymore...the evidence is now overwhelming that Republican leadership, in coordination with outlets like FOX News and other right-wing outlets, made a conscious decision in spring 2021 to push hard against Americans getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for purely cynical political math reasons. 815,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the 2020 election, but assuming the death rate is similar among adults who voted and those who didn't, only around 70% of them actually voted in the 2020 general election. Besides children under 18 and undocumented immigrants, the sad reality is that there are tens of millions of American adults who are eligible to vote but either aren't registered or are registered but don't cast a ballot every election cycle.
Just tried ChatGPT. I asked it a series of specific Qs about areas I've studied in detail.
On all Qs, it gave answers that are plausible sounding but wrong. Not obviously wrong: wrong in subtle ways that need deep domain knowledge to grasp.
The ways humans will be practically misled by this kind of tech if trusted with, say, doling out medical, legal or business advice is horrific.
Letting this tech loose on the world will further destroy search engines that are already riddled with SEO BS.
Arvind Narayanan
Gabor Heja
Charles Gaba
Tom Morris