One of the many stupid things about this very stupid discourse: the data on usaspending.gov has been publicly available for years. Anyone could have looked up the cost of the government’s politico pro subscriptions in 2024 or 2022 or 2020.
Timothy B. Lee
107K posts
Timothy B. Lee
@binarybits
Reporting on AI and the future of the economy. CS masters degree from Princeton. Subscribe to my newsletter (Understanding AI) and podcast (AI Summer)!
- Perhaps the most damning thing Trump said in the debate was that they were ready to vaccinate 200,000 people per day. At that rate it would take more than 4 years to vaccinate the population. So either he has a terrible plan or he has no idea what he's talking about.
- I bet people under 30 have no conception of how mind-blowing the concept of an infinitely scrollable and zoomable global map seemed in 2005. There wasn’t anything remotely like it prior to 2005.wow, Google Maps turns 20 in February. In my opinion, it's probably the greatest digital application ever. The consumer surplus associated with it is just off the charts. googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/02/mappin…
- According to the NYT, Facebook knows perfectly well how to slow the spread of misinformation on its platform. It has mostly chosen not to do so because the company is run by a sociopath. nytimes.com/2020/11/24/tec…
- I actually think this illustrates a challenge with the modern-day abundance agenda. What's the expensive thing that rich people today have but isn't "in every home" yet? It's hard to think of anything.Abundance? Don't be so naive.
- I still think it's weird that so many people are like "I was radicalized by policy mistakes the government made in 2020. So in 2024 I voted for the guy who was president in 2020."
- Maybe Twitter should alert it's users that some of the claims in this tweet are disputed.
- Replying to @binarybitsEmail from Twitter spokesperson: "This Tweet is not in violation of our policies." Cc: @jbarro
- It’s an amazing branding decision to have a model called GPT-4o and another one called o4.
- Population of the last 10 states at admission: Montana (1889) 140k Washington (1889) 350k Idaho (1890) 90k Wyoming (1890) 60k Utah (1896) 250k Oklahoma (1907) 1.4M New Mexico (1912) 330k Arizona (1912) 210k Alaska (1959) 230k Hawaii (1959) 650k DC in 2019: 690k PR in 2019: 3.1M
- I think a lot of liberals underestimate how much this kind of behavior erodes the norms of social trust and solidarity that make societies work well.Update: Nearly 40 fare jumpers in five minutes this morning. I asked the Metro attendant if he cared about people stealing. He said, verbatim, “That’s not my job.”
- Maybe blue states should let people build homes.The 2030 reapportionment of congressional seats and EC votes is projected to lead to big changes. States where Trump currently leads could together gain 13 seats, whereas states where Harris leads could together lose 13 seats. (Another forecast puts the number at 14.)
- Guys I really don’t think “scientific studies that can be made to sound ridiculous if you summarize them uncharitably” is a major contributor to government waste.Replying to @TRHLofficialIn 2023, the U.S. government spent: -$500,000 for Dr. Fauci’s transgender monkey study -A portion of $12M went to study dog rectal temperatures -$2.7M on studying cats on a treadmill -$8,400 on a lobster tank for the DOD -A portion of $12M to study monkeys on meth
