Yesterday was election day of course and it was a doozie. I live in Florida and have found that it can be a bizarre state to reside in when it comes to election time.
Like most states there is a rural and urban voting divide. However, this state seems to be fairly even on that split and that results in extremely close elections.
I looked at past data for the state and it looks like 75% of eligible voters vote in the general election and around 50% vote in midterms. I am not sure what drives those numbers, but the election always comes down to less than 100,000 vote difference.
In Florida we are inundated with ads, money and agendas. I am registered independent (thinking it would spare me from phone calls, which it didn’t) and I received calls from campaigns, dozens of text messages and countless mailers.
I tend to tune it all out. I go search the info on the candidates and make a rational decision well before the election. However, I have found that Florida is anything but rational.
Depending on your leanings you believe your guns will be taken, socialist are getting elected, migrants are being rounded up and so on. It seems that only the extreme version of both parties is presented to the public. What is funny though is when you actually listen to the candidates themselves they all seem fairly rational.
What drives us to our political camps? I know for me it was family initially; they all voted a certain way and so did I.
As I have come into my own I have learned to evaluate a candidate on their merits. Not by party or ads. Work and friends are another way. I am in tech and in an urban center. Most of my population is more left. As a result I tend to think most feel the same way. I could not be more wrong. Even in my county when you go to different areas you see a change in mentality.
Where else do you find the influence comes from? Religion and faith can drive it. Education of course. Income. I don’t have one answer but it’s obvious that it’s a cultural driver.
Now that the election is over maybe we can reach across the fence and begin mending it.
We are all in this together and have different ideas on how to get things done, but we gave value as humans.
An identical study was published by YouGov UK last week, and comparing the results reveals that the stereotype of Britons being less enthusiastic generally holds up – except for the very most positive words.
For the 31 words that scored below 8/10 in both countries, Britons gave 28 of them a lower average score than Americans did. However, for the nine highest ranked words Britons rated eight of them more positively.
I’ve written before on the lessons learned from those who ignored the differences.
As a wordsmith myself, I hope this information proves useful to you when you’re crafting your next message — or at the least provides food for thought.
Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
Tomorrow is the most important election in my lifetime. I grew up a target of hate and discrimination and this election will forecast whether I’ll die in a reincarnation of that world.
Tomorrow Americans will choose between inclusion and bigotry; between acceptance and hate.
The conventions may be over, but the rhetoric is still going strong. Did you know it’s a requirement
for politicians to have a PhD—which stands for “piled higher and deeper”— and that’s no bull. Adams and Lincoln never qualified as politicians, but both made it as statesmen.
Ambrose Bierce starts us out with a wonderful definition of politics, just so we’re all on the same page.
Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
Over the years I’ve read many descriptions of politicians and Congress, but John Adams provided my favorite.
In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress
The next quote is from Lincoln.
Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
But times have changed and it would be more accurate to say, “Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the dollar before the man.” Of course, it applies just as easily to Democrats.
Andy Borowitz offers our final insight today. I don’t know for sure when he said it, but it’s been applicable since before I could vote.
It would be nice to spend billions on schools and roads, but right now that money is desperately needed for political ads.
(Did you miss the first two I Hate Politics? You can see them here and here.)
A question was posted on Quora after the last election explaining that the poster had voted for Trump as a joke, was horrified that he’d won and asked how he could change his vote.
That level of ignorance seems well beyond what Socrates had in mind in his comments on voters.
And the image below is meant as a graphic argument against the belief some people have that their single vote doesn’t count for much.
I have found Halloween to be a bellwether of how a company culture truly is.
Is the company relaxed and open to folks coming into work in wacky costumes? Are there team themes that compete for top prize? Or perhaps the company asks that no one dress up at all.
I have found myself in all three and currently find myself in the last group.
At first I was a bit surprised, but now I realize not dressing up might be the best thing ever.
I am a bit reserved and I always found dressing up to be a major chore and distraction.
There is always the task of finding an outfit that is both unique and also work appropriate. Inevitably someone shows up wearing a costume that is deemed inappropriate.
This, of course, is followed by a mandatory HR meeting describing what is and is not appropriate attire in the office.
The big day arrives. Some participate while others sit it out.
You have a party that truly feels like mandatory fun time and then you go home.
Instead, my work day today was sans drama and hijinks.
We came to work and did what needed to be done. Then we left early because our company realizes we have a life outside the office.
I have to say this is probably the best culture fit I have had in quite some time.
I ended a post a couple of weeks ago by asking “when will they ever learn” and answering my own question with “never.”
“They” referred to the millions of people who continue to rely on Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. — in spite of every security breech, hack, lie, prevarication, hedge, and excuse — not to mention buying all kinds of smart devices.
The tech giant is positioning itself in schools as a trusted authority on digital citizenship…
That is the message behind “Be Internet Awesome,” a so-called digital-citizenship education program that the technology giant developed for schools. (…) Google plans to reach five million schoolchildren with the program this year and has teamed up with the National Parent Teacher Association to offer related workshops to parents.
Impressive, considering that historically the NPTA has been dominantly female (although they’re working to change that) and Google is the company that not only protects high ranking abusers, but pays them millions.
Mr. [Andy] Rubin was one of three executives that Google protected over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct. In two instances, it ousted senior executives, but softened the blow by paying them millions of dollars as they departed, even though it had no legal obligation to do so. In a third, the executive remained in a highly compensated post at the company. Each time Google stayed silent about the accusations against the men.
“Portal voice calling is built on the Messenger infrastructure, so when you make a video call on Portal, we collect the same types of information (i.e. usage data such as length of calls, frequency of calls) that we collect on other Messenger-enabled devices. We may use this information to inform the ads we show you across our platforms. Other general usage data, such as aggregate usage of apps, etc., may also feed into the information that we use to serve ads,” a spokesperson said in an email to Recode.
Amazon has submitted a patent application, recently granted, outlining how the company could recommend chicken soup or cough drops to people who use its Echo device if it detects symptoms like coughing and sniffling when they speak to it, according to a report by CNET. It could even suggest a visit to the movies after discerning boredom. Other patents submitted by the company have focused on how it could suggest products to people based on keywords in their conversations.
And, if you have one in the bedroom, just think what Echo could suggest based on what it hears.
Most smart devices cater to “what’s in it for me,” with little concern for their users.
However, some work a bit more for the public good, such as Kinsa smart thermometers, which has a public health focus.
“What this does is help us really target vulnerable populations where we have a clear signal about outbreaks,” Mr. Sarma said.
Mr. Singh, who was an executive vice president at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, said that Kinsa worked only with clients that can help with its mission of preventing the spread of illness through early detection. It made sense to work with Clorox, he said, because of the C.D.C. recommendation about disinfecting.
Since it’s Halloween, we’ll end with a truly terrifying look at Facebook in the detailed review of The Autocracy App by Jacob Weisberg
Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
Experts, Congress, pundits, media and plain people are (more or less) up in arms about the quantity, prevalence and effect of fake news. The upshot for many is the realization that the companies behind the apps can’t be trusted. In reality, they never could be, whether from carelessness, sloppy work or just not giving a damn — the “move fast and break things” attitude made popular by Facebook, and, to be fair, public apathy.
And although trust levels are at an all time low, join me Wednesday for a look at how they are still being handed the keys to the kingdom.
When I was in college, I remember discussing a newspaper story with my aunts. I remember saying that I didn’t believe something and my aunts saying that if something wasn’t true it would not be in the paper.
They really believed that, because in the world they grew up and lived in it was mostly was true.
Fast forward to today and you find the same attitude being applied to the information supplied by the tech they use.
They don’t question the stuff supplied by various apps, especially if it’s from known vendors.
Maxmind identifies IP addresses, matches them to a map and sells that data to advertisers.
Trouble is, accuracy isn’t their strong point.
Back in 2002, when it started in this business, Fusion reports, MaxMind made a decision. If its tech couldn’t tell where, exactly, in the US, an IP address was located, it would instead return a default set of coordinates very near the geographic center of the country — coordinates that happen to coincide with Taylor’s front yard.
Taylor is the unfortunate owner of a farm that sits on one of those catch-all co-ordinates.
And although the info isn’t supposed to be used to identify specific addresses, surprise, surprise, that’s exactly how people do use it, law enforcement included.
The farm’s 82-year-old owner, Joyce Taylor, and her tenants have been subject to FBI visits, IRS collectors, ambulances, threats, and the release of private information online, she told Fusion.
As bad as that is, at least the Taylor’s still have their home, unlike the two families who are homeless because a contractor assumed Google maps was correct, so he didn’t check the demolition addresses.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable that they accepted the tech without checking.
Unbelievable that they first called it a minor mistake.
Unbelievable that the owners aren’t suing.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here.
The mantra of startups is “change the world.”
That slogan seems to be the one thing that startups have in common; they all claim their product/service will do it.
No matter how silly, invasive, unnecessary, or just plain creepy.
One of the creepiest (say the comments) is MobiLimb.
MobiLimb is a robotic finger attachment that plugs in through a smartphone’s Micro USB port, moves using five servo motors, and is powered by an Arduino microcontroller. It can tap the user’s hand in response to phone notifications, be used as a joystick controller, or, with the addition of a little fuzzy sheath accessory, it can turn into a cat tail.
Creativity should be celebrated and innovation can be a wonderful thing — when it isn’t just plain stupid.
My life has been very busy as of late. I recently switched jobs and I also have a new arrival on the way.
My wife will be having what we are calling the grand finale baby. I currently have three girls and am being blessed with a little boy this time around. It’s an exciting and busy time but also hectic.
One item to tend to during this planning period is a name for our son. There are so many choices and feelings associated with names. Should we go traditional? Family oriented? Something unique but not too unique?
It’s been tough. With our girls it seemed to make sense when we came up with their names, with the little man not so much.
I have also begun observing my own actions as a father. With girls I have learned how to act. I feel comfortable and confident. I think that they will be such great companions for their little brother. He will be surrounded by dolls, pink and lots of love.
I think we have figured out a name that carries a legacy, but is also strong. Unique but not too much so.
It carries a family line and honors the past while looking to the future.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
