Interesting Links for 11-07-2024

[andrewducker]

1. Can someone explain why train companies use overtime so much, rather than employing enough drivers?

(tags:trains scotland )

2. How would the election have gone if Reform hadn't stood?

(tags:UK elections politics )

3. What Labour's strategy was in the election, and how it depended not just on how many votes it got, but what kind

(tags:voting UK Labour Conservatives politics )

4. China's Batteries Are Now Cheap Enough to Power Huge Shifts

(tags:batteries china )

5. These rats could be the future of search and rescue

(tags:rats disaster )

Comments

[pseudomonas]

The assumption that if Reform hadn't stood their votes would have gone 100% to the Tories is not really credible - protest votes don't work like that. Sure, some would, but I suspect that a lot of the voters would have stayed at home, some would have voted for Labour, and some would have voted for other fringe parties. Probably not a lot would have voted for LD/Green/SNP but who even knows.

[andrewducker]

It doesn't assume they would. The vote is split by the way they said they'd vote if there was no Reform candidate: https://x.com/lunaperla/status/1810978018539528299

[pseudomonas]

Ah. I assume it said that in a thread which I can't read because I deleted my X account after one or other of Musk's bigoted outbursts.

[andrewducker]

Yup.

Very annoying that it doesn't show threads now.

(Normally I use Threadreader to share them, but it was only really the map I wanted to share here, the discussion beneath wasn't really that interesting, other than this bit in the comments)

[pseudomonas]

The threadreaderapp link https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1810883861275914737.html doesn't show the methodology in the thread either.

IMO Twitter should now be considered like IRC; it's a medium for conversation but not a medium of record.

[andrewducker]

That's because, as I said, no interesting discussion in the thread, and this was in the comments.

And I agree. But unless people post their stuff elsewhere, there's not much that can be done about it.

[pseudomonas]

I do wonder what response you'd get if you replied to comments saying "would you mind posting a copy of this somewhere else so I can link to it for people off Xitter?" (not saying you should go to the trouble, just wondering if people would in general be amenable or not)

[andrewducker]

Some people care, some people don't. The ones that don't want it generally block ThreadReader after a while.

But ThreadReader also isn't going to be around forever.

And *I'm* not about to start creating posts manually on my own site for everything on X I want to share.

[calimac]

Well, now I'd like to figure out how the election would have come out if the Reform vote had gone 100% to the Tories.

[andrewducker]

Me too! If I bump in to that I'll let you know.

[calimac]

I could easily enough figure it out for myself, but that would require tabbing through hundreds of constituency results and I just don't want to take the time and effort.