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Voted

This year the polling place was a church. It was full. The atmosphere was festive, with everybody laughing and talking. There was no electronic voting, but only Scantron-type paper ballots to be marked with provided ballpoint pens.

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Math quiz

Inflation soars to an over 40-year high. These are the ways Americans are coping:

Clay Watkins loves LaCroix brand sparkling water — especially the watermelon flavor.

So the suburban Chicago school teacher was excited when he spotted it on sale at his local grocery store: two packages for $8.

“I went to grab the package and I was like, ‘Wait a second,'” Watkins recalls.

He was surprised to find a package that once held 12 cans of sparkling water had been downsized to 8 — with no change in price — a common practice known as “shrinkflation.”

“I’m not a mathematician,” he says. “I teach science. But I think that’s a 33% price increase.”

What do you think?

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How to fix the AI

Computer Scientist: “Problem, boss. Turns out that new multi-million-dollar AI is outputting racist results.”
Boss: “Well, tell it to knock it off.”
Computer Scientist: “What do you mean?”
Boss: “How did you figure out the results were racist?”
Computer Scientist: “We asked it for a list of candidates to interview, and it returned a list of ten Asian men. ”
Boss: “Instead of?”
Computer Scientist: “Well, instead of a diverse list.”
Boss: “What’s diverse?”
Computer Scientist: “Uh, two Asians, five people of color, and three people of Hispanic heritage.”
Boss: “Tell the AI to return a list of two Asians, five people of color, and three people of Hispanic heritage.”
Computer Scientist: “That makes it sound like the AI is just a computer program.”
Boss: “Don’t tell the customers, but it is just a computer program.”

UPDATE 10 April 2022: Paul Graham on heresy. I’ve saved a copy locally, just in case.