George Rebane
Voice from behind the curtain – ‘Pay no attention to the correlation.’
[update] A reader has pointed out that the above crime map is inaccurate and cites and article in the 16nov16 WaPo (here) that claims to present better data in the map below. The article’s conclusion is italicized.
The violent crime map shows clusters of counties with high rates in South Carolina, Florida, the Memphis area and New Mexico. Several of the clusters are in rural areas where a small number of crimes may generate a relatively high crime rate because there are few people living there. … The latest data available is from 2014. Reported crime rates for some large cities have gone up over the past two years. … The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data generates the county-level crime summaries from FBI data that is reported by police agencies. In rural areas, a county may have one police agency. But large urban counties may have several cities with their own police departments, as well as county-wide agencies. And statewide police agencies may also handle reported crimes. The NACJD adjusts the data for agencies that only report for part of the year and distributes incidents from statewide agencies to local counties by population.
With this conclusion and upon closer examination of the WaPo map, I will let my opening statement stand.
Nevada County Voices has dropped RR from its community website listings. Since its inception RR has enjoyed coverage by having its recent posts listed and linked in the site’s ‘Right Wing’ column. The reason for the change is not apparent, especially since RR has always lauded this informative site edited by Dr Anna Haynes. To be frank, the site and its editor are definitely of the Left persuasion – for example, there is no equivalent listing of ‘Left Wing’ sites. Apparently all the remainder of the listed sites have no ideological slant or bias that is apparent to Dr Haynes. Perhaps the removal of RR is part and parcel of the local Left’s perennial call to silence my public voice and involvement as part of their overall crusade to deny opposing opinions and viewpoints a place in the community forum. In any case it was fun while it lasted, and we will continue featuring Nevada County Voices in the Our Links panel on the right. [update] Oops! My tears flowed too soon; RR has been reinstated in its usual slot. Now the only nit I have left to pick is my envy of fellow blogger Mr Todd Juvinall (Sierra Dragon’s Breath) who enjoys having the last ten of his posts being listed while the rest of us are limited to five max. Oh well, Anna always did like Todd the best.
RoboVote – a new tool for capturing group preferences and making group decisions. For years I have designed, purveyed, and used customized decision support systems, especially the kind that help extract useful information from groups of people engaged in some common pursuit. Recently a team of AI researchers at Harvard released RoboVote (more here and here), a free AI-based, online tool to aid in performing such functions in an optimal manner. I am recommending its consideration to organizations to which I belong. Take a look at it and you will want to do the same.
[update] The WSJ reports “U.S. Factories Are Working Again; Factory Workers, Not So Much. Donald Trump plans to reignite industrial job growth, but many low-skilled former factory workers are frozen out.” As has been reported here for years, the return of manufacturing to the US does not mean that an equivalent (to previous years) jobs will be returning. Does no one understand the serious nature of growing systemic unemployment with the acceleration of technology? Why is this always a surprise and a recent discovery by some maven or other?
[19dec16 update] Today’s Union informs us that we now have a permanent group of local progressives organized to become the perennial protesters of the Republican controlled (but liberal bureaucratized) federal government. They call themselves ‘Resistance U.S.’, formed to “promote progressive values and ideas”, and appear visibly uninformed about our Constitution and what happened last month. For example, as a local embodiment of Moonbeam’s Minions, they seek to “Restore Democracy”, a form of government on these shores that never was and wisely was never intended. We will revisit their demonstrations from time to time as they successfully illustrate what divides us. (more here)
[21dec16 update]
rebanesruminations.com 
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