The kid is learning about exponents, and I’m trying to help.

One trick I think useful is to suggest he define, say, 4^3 not as 4 x 4 x 4, but as 1 x 4 x 4 x 4. Of course the two expressions amount to the same thing. But if you get into the habit of including the 1, it becomes obvious why 4^0 is just one.

And since for positive exponents, subtracting an exponent corresponds to dividing by the base, you can just subtract past the zero exponent to define negative exponents.

“Part of Trump’s genius is being bad in so many ways that no particular way stands out and it seems like he must not be that bad.” #ScottAlexander https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/acx-endorses-harris-oliver-or-stein

ouch.

[new draft post] Private firms, public industries https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/11/01/private-firms-public-industries/index.html

@PRW Yes, exactly. Not understanding Duverger’s Law (which, to be fair, would not be propounded until almost two centuries later) is how they inadvertently created a two-party system their own justificatory logic abhors.

James Madison in Federalist No 10 writes a virtue of a large republic is “the greater security afforded by a greater variety of parties, against the event of any one party being able to outnumber and oppress the rest”.

Though they inadvertently produced one quite quickly, the “founding fathers” never favored a two-party system. A two-party system is repellent to the logic and aspirations of the Constitutional system.

https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/federalist-no-10

they say success is hard work, but i contend that failure is more exhausting.

@admitsWrongIfProven @joe For Musk, nothing really matters. He has multiple citizenships, I believe. He has infinite wealth, relative to his own living requirements. I’m not worried about any injustice to Musk. I’m worried about reinforcing an institution that a miserable political institution openly intends to accelerate and abuse, that both from a practical and philosophical perspective should not exist at all.

@joe @admitsWrongIfProven It’s USCIS’ job to perform due diligence, to catch material misstatements before granting citizenship. If you try to lie your way to an immigrant visa to Canada, they should check your claims and summarily reject you.

In my view, once a person is a citizen of a country, that should be a rock, a foundation. Citizens can be held accountable, punished for their crimes. But a person’s citizenship is like a person’s humanity, should never be at issue.

@joe @admitsWrongIfProven I’d like to see Musk punished for a bunch of crimes. He should go to jail for flagrantly violating election and lottery laws, for example. Perjury is a crime, and we can attach as steep a penalty as we wish to perjury for the purpose if obtaining citizenship. There’s no need for denaturalization as a remedy, and its existence renders a foundational aspect of people’s lives uncertain, reversible, and privileges natural-born over naturalized citizens.

@joe @admitsWrongIfProven I do want the law changed so that denaturalization is not a thing! What did I say happened that did not happen? Between 2008 and 2021, there were 228 denaturalization cases. 40% of those were 2017 to 2020, due to the Trump administration. Even with that acceleration, it averages less than 18 cases a year, out of 7-ish hundred thousand naturalized in an average year. It is a very rare event. https://www.aila.org/library/featured-issue-denaturalization-efforts-by-uscis

@joe @admitsWrongIfProven No it is not. People can be prosecuted for perjury. The logic of this thread is that citizenship is foundational, that denaturalization is not an appropriate form of accountability, for anyone. You can put people in jail with their citizenship intact if that is what accountability demands.

@joe @admitsWrongIfProven It’s not the norm. It is extraordinarily rare.

doing bad things may not be the best strategy to restore our innocence.

@kentwillard I sure try not to. Usually if I tweet anything other than the links I syndicate, it’s criticism of the site’s dear leader and of people who remain. I do reply to people who contact me, but do my best to move it elsewhere.

@carrideen (looks good!)

i feel like spam from 1997 is calling.

is FileMaker Pro still in widespread use?

@joe @louis It is not common, at least not in the United States. It does exist. It should not. It is liable to tremendous abuse, like back in the day when you’d get sick and your insurance company would scour your application for any arguable misstatement to justify rescission and nonpayment.