W.T.F.!? Let us hope this is just a temporary thing. Let us hope the disappearing data will resurface again at some point. Let us hope this isn't driven by ideological motivations. Sigh.
Uh, I’ve got some really bad news.
CDC data are disappearing
401–410 of 656 posts
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
Data isn't the ultimate fact check - it's just numbers waiting to be twisted. Bias, bad sources, and cherry-picking turn 'facts' into fiction. Real fact-checking needs brains, not just bar graphs.
> Data isn’t the ultimate fact check But it is. Numbers can be twisted, but it they can easily be verified. Bias, bad sources and cherry picking can allow you to tell stories, but the data will allow you to verify those stories are indeed facts. Brain can’t really fact check things that don’t have any data.
I'm not sure I agree.
Even if the numbers are accurate, nearly any situation has a nearly infinite number of potential data points, and deciding which ones are relevant isn't as straightforward as people act like it is.
This is easy to see play out; you can look at the same stories being reported on both Fox News and MSNBC. Usually both sources' raw facts will be basically "correct" in the sense that they're not saying anything explicitly false, but there can be bias in determining which facts are actually useful or how they're categorized.
You can see how the reporting of the January 6th stuff varied between news outlets.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Data can be missing, incomplete, biased, skewed, and even just plain wrong. All true of course. The solution for that is more data, not less.
Maybe. It needs to be the right data, and interpreted correctly. More of the wrong data isn't particularly helpful. I think what I'm arguing is that just having data isn't good enough, and it's dangerous to accept data at face value. It needs to be the right data, and interpreted correctly.
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Re: CDC data are disappearing
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although true, it isn't a very useful observation. "How do I find someone impartial to this matter?" is one of the great unsolved questions that the lawyers have to deal with. Up there with "what is true?". If anything that is one of the big promises of AI systems. Maybe we can have adjudication that is both extremely intelligent and provably biased towards consistency, facts and evidence. SHA256sum-ed and torrented…
> Although true, it isn't a very useful observation. "How do I find someone impartial to this matter?" is one of the great unsolved questions that the lawyers have to deal with. Up there with "what is true?". Although true, this isn't a particularly useful observation either. It turns out we can define "true" very well for a lot of really useful stuff. We know the sky is blue. We know the sun rises. We know that two…
A lot of those are technically not true - the sky is frequently not blue, the sun doesn't actually rise and there are number systems where 2+2 does not equal 4 (eg, 2+2 = 1 in a mod 3 arithmetic).
That sounds pedantic until people start disagreeing or implementing legal requirements that result in people needing to use the definitions. Eg, if there is a legal requirement to recognise that 2+2=4, is it ok to teach modular arithmetic? Especially if someone has a grudge against the teacher. Lawyers are more than happy to punish someone over a technicality.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Dickey amendment in 1996 made it extremely difficult to study gun violence at the federal level. That only started to change in 2013 and then was finally fixed in 2019. This is one issue where there is no pendulum. The pro-gun lobby has owned censorship of gun research for a generation and is likely to keep it from being an active and honest research area.
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I’m not sorry, but the narrative that the 2nd amendment keeps the government in check is beyond naïve in the 21st century, its celebration of stupidity.
Perhaps in a world where armed combat between civilians and the military only involves muskets this holds true, but exactly how do you expect to “exert your second amendment rights” when a squad armed with M16s, grenade launchers, body armor, and night vision goggles shows up to your door? A 9mm pea shooter?
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#406Re: CDC data are disappearing
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would just like to point out that Musk is the richest man in the world and is now directing critical areas of the U.S. government. Surely he doesn't have ulterior motives and is looking out for the average person?
If you look back at Germany in the 19th century, nations like Prussia and Austria had this sort of power struggle between the merchant class and the nobility at the advent of steam power. in this case the de-facto US nobility (rank-and-file career politicians) are being usurped by the bourgeouise (billionaires like Musk) at the advent of AI and tech by promising the working class a combination of culture war policy a…
> the question will be, after four years, will they abdicate their power or concentrate it?
Musk, Thiel, and their friends clearly intend to consolidate power, and the people they associate with openly advocate for the creation of independent corporate fiefdoms with authoritarian control over society. There is no doubt at this point. These are not good people. They are oligarchs. They are the bitter nerds that just want power for themselves so they can be the bullies.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#408Earlier quoted context omitted.
Suicide is more common than homocide. By a factor of 2 to 1. Murder is more common than self defense. By a factor of 10 to 1. In all cases you are highly likely (>90%) to be on a first name basis with the person that kills you.
It should also be noted that uses of guns in self defense (e.g. “pulling a gun”) not involving any injuries or deaths are not well-tracked (though they’re estimated to be much more frequent than instances involving bodily harm).
Interesting, an unloaded or even fake gun would be just as effective in "defense" then. (And is not going to be used for either suicide or used against you.)
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#409LLMs have already been trained on all of that data, so it's probably an empty gesture.
Re: CDC data are disappearing
#410Where have I seen this before? Oh right, I remember now...
"The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others."