Disqus - Latest Comments for perfectlyGoodInk

Re: LA Charter Reform Commission Considers Council Expansion, Proportional Ranked-Choice Voting, and Election Cost Savings

Felix L. — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:48:13 -0000

Awesome news!

Not only would this save money from runoffs, but proportional representation is also the best solution for 1) the rampant gerrymandering that's going on right now 2) toxicity and spike in political polarization and violence and 3) underrepresentation of minorities in government.

Re: US protonmail

Felix L. — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 17:25:36 -0000

Sorry, last sentence should say, "The app seems able..."

Re: US protonmail

Felix L. — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 16:34:40 -0000

Can't login on the browser, getting: "Something went wrong
We couldn't load this page. Please refresh the page or check your internet connection.
Error: Servers are unreachable. Please try again in a few minutes."

The seems able to login but unable to retrieve mail.

Re: Spotify Playlist Randomizer Built by Steven Aleong

Felix L. — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 13:54:01 -0000

Great tool, thanks! Yeah, it'd be nice if it automatically spaced out artists, but I've been fine tweaking the shuffled order manually to achieve that.

Re: US twitter

Felix L. — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 12:26:29 -0000

I can currently log in just fine, but the signal to noise ratio of the whole site continues to nosedive, and BotSentinel still doesn't work anymore. My user experience at BlueSky tends to be significantly better.

Re: US spectrum

Felix L. — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 12:22:30 -0000

Landline internet from the company formerly known as Time Warner (I hate how easy it is for companies to "rebrand" to step away from bad reputations) was down for me in Southern California for a few minutes, but it's back up again now.

Re: US twitter

Felix L. — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:19:19 -0000

More successful businesses do a better job of staffing. *Before* they they fire or lay off somebody, they either hire a replacement or at least make sure the remaining staff can handle the increased workload.

Re: US twitter

Felix L. — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:43:27 -0000

Ah yes, it actually was. After trying a bunch of things to no avail (e.g., clearing cache), I looked at the above map and realized that I could easily connect from a place without an outage using my VPN (e.g., Ashburn, VA), and everything works again now!

Re: US twitter

Felix L. — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:08:37 -0000

Can't switch nor login to the accounts of the nonprofits that I tweet for in my volunteer work, and have tried multiple browsers.

Well, what else would we expect from the dumpster fire that used to be Twitter?

Re: PR and Presidentialism: Yes, We Can

Felix L. — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 12:32:45 -0000

As someone who's long been concerned about the combination of #ProRep and our presidential system due to the work of Scott Mainwaring, I am thrilled to see his name on this piece.

For others interested in the evidence that the combination works fine, also see Power & Gasiorowski's 1997 paper, "Institutional Design and Democratic Consolidation in the Third World." Contact me if you want a copy.

Re: I’m Your Biggest Fan!

Felix L. — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 17:08:07 -0000

Candidates do not have to win a majority under plurality voting (thus the name), and so a common tactic is for a candidate to try and *reduce* their opponent's vote totals. With ranked choice voting, you need to win a majority, and so that tactic doesn't work. And as Nate said, candidates that reach beyond their base to win 2nd and 3rd rankings are more likely to win than those that just make their loyal fans happy, so plurality seems like the electoral system more likely to inflame partisanship.

I agree that there should be an episode devoted to voting systems. I suggest inviting some comparative politics scholars as your guests.

Re: Advocates for Ranked Choice Voting Argue it Will Attract More Qualified, More Cooperative and More Representative Candidates

Felix L. — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:42:00 -0000

Great to know, thanks!

Re: Advocates for Ranked Choice Voting Argue it Will Attract More Qualified, More Cooperative and More Representative Candidates

Felix L. — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 14:10:14 -0000

Should winning 40% of the vote win 0% of the seats or 40% of the seats? Fair representation means proportional representation, and that requires multi-member districts. Every winner-take-all system (including single-seat RCV, which I do also support) opens things up to gerrymandering.

And the Single Transferable Vote (aka Proportional RCV) has plenty of real-world usage from Cambridge, MA since 1941 and several other US cities (not to mention Australia and Ireland). It speaks volumes that opponents of this measure (such as Mingus Mapps) are less than truthful about this fact.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker®

Felix L. — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 10:20:12 -0000

The problems in our voting system have been laid bare for all to see for many years now, and I firmly believe that Ranked Choice Voting has the potential to unite us again.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker®

Felix L. — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 12:07:17 -0000

With political polarization threatening to tear this country apart, there simply is no more important topic to discuss than possible reforms that have the potential to halt this downward spiral.

Re: US gofundme

Felix L. — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:44:51 -0000

For the past two days, I've been unable to make a payment, both through PayPal and with a credit card. It keeps reporting, "There was an error with your request, please verify your information and try again."

Re: f1-news-asterisk-after-max-verstappens-wdc-f1-journalist-provides-solution-to-fia-admission-of-lewis-hamilton-neglect

Felix L. — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 13:20:32 -0000

This clearly seems to be an admission by the FIA that Masi made the wrong decision at Abu Dhabi, but whether or not Max goes on to win more titles will be what settles the debate of whether he was deserving. Remember, Lewis faced similar questions after his first title even though it was weather instead of a race director that handed him that one. But hardly anyone talks about it anymore because he proved it wasn't a fluke.

Re: Both parties extol competition — until it applies to them

Felix L. — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 08:42:14 -0000

"There is a way to at least mitigate this: Independent or nonpartisan commissions, taking redistricting away from partisan legislatures."

Yes, that does mitigate it. There is also a way to fix gerrymandering: multi-seat Proportional Representation, where 40% of the vote wins 40% of the seats, 60% of the vote wins 60% of the seats, etc.

After all, when close wins result in fewer seats than large wins, line-drawing becomes a moot point. It would also provide both parties with more competition because it opens the door to third parties in a way that no winner-take-all election can ever do.

No Constitutional Amendment needed, as we'd just need to repeal a 1967 Federal Law, and it can work within a presidential system, which would allow coalitions to be more fluid and flexible per vote (instead of a single time after an election as in parliamentary systems).

For more information go to FixOurHouse or FairVote.

Re: Prisoners Of Narrative - The American Conservative

Felix L. — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 11:58:59 -0000

For that matter, the US also ranks well above Hungary on the World Press Freedom Index (although clearly not as high as it ought to).

https://rsf.org/en/ranking

So, I think my original point about narrative more likely to be controlled in Hungary than in the US stands. But as it is clearly an unpopular view among conservatives here who seem to like Orban despite his decade of pro-Putin messaging, I can take a hint and take a hike.

Re: Death toll nears 6 million as pandemic enters its 3rd year

Felix L. — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 18:42:30 -0000

The best source of media bias and factual accuracy in my experience is Media Bias / Fact Check, and it gives the NY Post and the Sun a factual rating of "Mixed." The MIT source is much more reliable, but it is again a story (March 2021) that came out before the two above papers.

https://mediabiasfactcheck....
https://mediabiasfactcheck....

Re: Death toll nears 6 million as pandemic enters its 3rd year

Felix L. — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 17:15:06 -0000

Again, that is because the report came out before either of the two papers I mentioned above. It also seemed to me that you believed it was intentionally designed instead of accidentally causing it when you said, "you might wonder if China developed a Virus that's more deadly to caucasians."

Also see WSJ's earlier coverage of Worobey's paper:

https://www.wsj.com/article...

"In a paper published Thursday in the academic journal Science, Michael Worobey concludes a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan, China, where live mammals were sold is very likely to be the site of the origin of the pandemic.

The precise role of the Huanan market in the pandemic has been debated by scientists. Dr. Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who previously unearthed clues about the origins of the 1918 pandemic flu and HIV, showed that most of the known Covid-19 cases in December 2019 had a direct or indirect link to the Huanan market. These infected people worked at the market, visited it, had contact with someone who was there or lived nearby, he found by piecing together genetic data, reports and accounts of early patients.

Among his conclusions are that a man believed to be the first case actually got sick later, when the virus was likely spreading in the community. The man’s case has been used to question the importance of the market because he hadn’t visited it.
...
Dr. Worobey’s work adds to mounting evidence of a natural, or so-called zoonotic, origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. While many virologists and others who study epidemics say a laboratory accident in Wuhan can’t be ruled out, they believe it’s far more likely that the new virus’s origin occurred in nature."

Re: Death toll nears 6 million as pandemic enters its 3rd year

Felix L. — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:51:10 -0000

According to your source on page 4, "We remain skeptical of allegations that SARS-CoV-2 was a biological weapon because they are supported by scientifically invalid claims, their proponents do not have direct access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), or their proponents are suspected of spreading disinformation."

Also, this report came out in August 2021, before either of the two papers I mentioned above.

Re: Death toll nears 6 million as pandemic enters its 3rd year

Felix L. — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:19:19 -0000

Link, please?

Re: Death toll nears 6 million as pandemic enters its 3rd year

Felix L. — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 15:09:13 -0000

Although we may never know the full story of the origin, the latest data strongly indicate that covid-19 originated in a market and not in a lab. The Economist talks about two new papers (albeit both preprints):

https://www.economist.com/s...

The first one "found that the market is in the region where the first covid-19 cases were most densely packed—a result that remains unchanged even when cases with no known link to the market are plotted. Second, they employed photographic evidence... to show that the market... was selling animals susceptible to the virus... prior to December 2019.

Third, they analysed the distribution of almost 600 environmental samples taken from the market.... Combining this analysis with a recreation of the market layout, the authors showed that samples containing the virus were associated with stalls selling live animals, particularly in the market’s south-western corner.

The second paper... examines the evolution of the virus in its earliest days in humans. At this time two forms, known as lineages a and b, predominated...

This suggests that lineage a was the original form and lineage b a subsequent mutation. However, the first known human cases involved lineage b....

This analysis showed that, while both lineages were present in cases in the vicinity of the market, no samples contained either any transitional form or any shared common ancestor. It therefore seems likely that the lineages made independent leaps into human hosts: lineage b on or around November 25th 2019, and lineage a a week or so later....

All that the researchers felt they needed to make their case watertight was evidence of lineage a at the market. When they started work, all samples from there had contained only lineage b. This changed shortly before their papers went online.... In a reanalysis of samples, this group discovered the first market-linked evidence of lineage a—on a discarded glove. 'This really seals the deal,' says Dr Worobey. 'Beyond all reasonable doubt we now know what happened.'"

Besides, it doesn't make sense that people in Asian countries would continue to wear masks everywhere if they have nothing to worry about. Also, African Americans are dying at a much higher rate from covid-19 than caucasians.

Re: Death toll nears 6 million as pandemic enters its 3rd year

Felix L. — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 11:01:12 -0000

Yes, agreed that the lockdowns were counterproductive. The Swedish model didn't work very well either. Many of the countries that did the best are mostly in Southeast Asia and already had near-universal masking due to their experience with SARS (e.g., Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan). Note, this doesn't mean mandates, as Japan never had one. I think mandates are counterproductive as well, particularly in a country like the US. Gentle peer pressure by example seems to work best.

https://perfectlygoodink.co...