https://www.haveyoursay.mfat.govt.nz/

I’ve been seeing ads for this page show up in my news feed, so I was finally intrigued enough to go check it out. Turns out the NZ government is not just making statements like “we need to understand how free trade agreements have harmed some sectors of the workforce” and waving their hands around as they have been in the US and the UK. They are asking regular people to weigh in on trade issues and incorporating that information into a new comprehensive trade policy.

Policy from the bottom up. What a concept!

Last week I got email from Reddit saying thousands of accounts had been compromised, my own amongst them, and asking me to change my credentials.

When I went to the Reddit site I found that my account has been banned. I assume that whomever used my credentials had posted entries contravening the terms of service of the site.

I used Reddit’s contact form to explain my dilemma, and asked that they reinstate my access and remove all the postings ever made in my name. So far, no response.

At this point, I can only assume that I look like an ass on Reddit. I ask again that they simply remove my account and any postings associated with it. Come on, spez, take care of this.

UPDATE: my bad. They asked that I reset my password; I did and all seems well. I should read the instructions a bit more closely.

https://boingboing.net/2018/08/29/aid-workers-use-computer-model.html/amp

Modeling storms and temperature let’s aid workers in Yemen know where to focus vaccines for weeks in advance. Amazing.

Every time identity politics has been used by any faction in human history for any reason violence eventually follows.

(from “Unpacking Peggy McIntosh’s Knapsack”, William Ray, https://quillette.com/2018/08/29/unpacking-peggy-mcintoshs-knapsack/)

The Democratic platform http://scripting.com/2018/08/29/132634.html

Simple and correct. Let’s not mess it up.

After upgrading to 18.04LTS, I’m finding that the Wayland screen compositor is faster and shows much less screen tearing than the new XOrg default. Canonical says XOrg is more stable and feature-rich; maybe true, but it’s visibly worse on my laptop (Lenovo X1 Carbon)

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-polarization-contagion/567422/

If this is right, we are screwed. The third branch of the government gets eaten by the same factional disease as the other two have been.

In combination with reading Dan Rather’s post on the wars against the fourth estate, it’s hard to see how we get out from under.

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Beat-the-Seattle-heat-by-going-to-Whidbey-13110958.php

“Savvy staff” at Moonraker Books …

https://memetician.livejournal.com/201202.html

Brilliant. Calculate Arch loads from an inverted model with string and weights.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/scott-lloyd-refugee-resettlement_us_5b58cd0fe4b0fd5c73cb3c1a

Wow. One low level bureaucrat imposing his personal morality on hundreds of innocent kids. Shine the light on the guy.