Off topic thread

1181921232426

Comments

  • I really think some of these trends are attributed to students and young people in general keeping their "home" address at their parents house, mostly in order to keep their parents health insurance until 26. Sure, they could technically answer the census honestly and that data wouldn't be shared but I knew many students and recent graduates at my last workplace that kept everything as if they lived at their parents to keep things simple.
  • I've been under the impression that MSU was still in-person on the date of the Census (April 1), but apparently they were ordered closed on March 11. Did they reopen by the April 20th like they had planned? I don't know how I forgot this; I guess everything was so chaotic. This would make it confusing for students who didn't read the Census questions closely, since you're supposed to mark the place where you spent most of the previous year as of April 1, which for anyone on campus who wasn't a freshman, should have been MSU.
  • From my anecdotal experience many kids put their parents house as their address regardless, enough of the few people that I talked to about it did that to make me think it is a very, very common thing. Given this affects everywhere, but I'd expect it to affect a smaller metro with a higher ratio of out of town students much more. If you were to break down the numbers by age group you could probably get some idea if my theory holds, I'm assuming the detailed tract and block level data isn't out yet?
  • I think it's fairly common, but not very, very common and especially as political organizations have spent money in recent decades to make sure that students switch their voter registration to where they live most of the year: their dorm. And, really, the Census encourages this, too, since that's what "resident" means by their measure (i.e. where you live more than sixth months out of the year). They've usually tried to get their "group quarters" population correct. Unfortunately, COVID made it really hard for the Census to canvass, last year.

    Anyway, the information is available, but currently only in "legacy" format, which requires a kind of complicated process that mostly only tech savvy programmers understand. The data will be available in the current Census Data tool by no later than the end of next month, apparently.
  • I saw Air Force One and the other aircraft that traveled with President Biden to Capital Region Airport fly right over my building in East Lansing. I could see that it was Air Force One by the colors [and it is a 747!] from my patio! The giant cargo plane also flew right over EL later in the afternoon. It was very cool to see and to know it was President Biden visiting us, a wonderful change from this time last year!
  • ...I'm not seeing much of a wonderful change, but I'm not a partisan either. *shrug*
  • Yeah, as an independent who wears by beliefs on my sleeve (civil libertarian, pro-capitalist, foreign policy conservative admittedly sometimes bordering on neocon) who doesn't identify with any party (and loves discussing these things), I'm not seeing wonderful change either. I don't want to go off on a long rant but suffice to say there's some domestic and foreign issues that are really shaking my faith in the future of our society, I'm becoming genuinely concerned.
  • I was thinking the wonderful change was the person who is the President today. He was here to support our state, and gather support for his policies. That stands in stark contrast to the last time Air Force One was in Lansing, last October the former guy was here on one his one man comedy tour, he insulted our Governor, and other state and local officials, called on hundreds of supporters to attend his rally in the freezing rain, all braking local mask and health rules. He praised the gunmen who invaded our State Capitol and made light of the attempt to kidnap and execute our Governor. This criminal held his cult rally one month after my younger brother died from Covid 19 in Florida after the former guy and his bud the FLA gov. convinced my brother it would be just OK to go mask less on a cruise ship filled with foreigners for card tournament. I have a view of all this from that prospective. So take a moment to think about life one year ago and you will forgive for waring my politics on my sleeve I am proud to be a liberal. I think the differences between this October and last are wonderful indeed. BTW I was mainly impressed to see Air force One and the other aircraft fly right over my building
  • I agree that the aircraft themselves are always an impressive sight. But when it comes to covid rhetoric both sides seem to be full of grossly inaccurate views of reality but in opposite directions. I've kept up with science news for years, following those trusted sources it was clear by March of 2020 what the realities of covid were; projected infection fatality of .2%-.5% (looks like it's about 0.27%), it was already known that the young were at very little risk while the old were at a considerably high risk, it was becoming clear that certain pre-existing conditions also greatly increased risk, a vaccine was projected to take at least a year (they beat that already optimistic estimate) and perhaps most importantly, it was already suspected very early that the virus would inevitably become endemic. Rather than broadcasting this information and focusing on protecting vulnerable people and accurately informing the population of their respective risks the bureaucrats and politicians did and continue to use covid as a political football to all sorts of different means. Of particular concern to me is the controlling of speech on social media, from the Wuhan lab leak being banned speech until someone decided it wasn't, to the the silence about natural covid immunity despite clear evidence it's far better than the vaccine by itself, to the experts shut down for answering questions regarding exceedingly rare but very real vaccine side effects. I don't even like the muzzling of the worst among us, to see well respected scientists and researchers be silenced for speaking on things within their field of expertise because it doesn't jive with whatever narrative has been established is concerning, this is an incredibly dangerous direction for society to go in.

    The long term outlook of the country seems incredibly foggy. Internal divisions are worse than I've ever seen in my lifetime and some argue worse than during the civil rights era, inflation is at risk of getting out of control and war with China is almost certainly on the horizon. All this turmoil can certainly lead to better things but it seems likely to be rough path.
  • Perhaps there is a lot of "blame" to go around, and I don't have an option some of the points you bring up, except I am pretty sure Democratic leaders and our local health officials where doing their best to keep us informed with the best and true advice and precautions like the lock down and masking up. I have not heard any sensible thing fall out of the mouth of a repub since this whole thing began. This whole both sides are at fault, both sides lie is baloney, while realizing that yes they are politicians, one side was and has helped the other not so much. The vax was created during the x-administration but not by the x-administration. I think inflation today is a result of the economy restarting and will slow soon. I think someone in China either ate or was bitten by a bat, the same as HIV which came from some infected by eating a monkey or being bitten by a monkey. I don't think China is going to start a war that would destroy their major trading partners and impoverish their own country. I am optimistic about our future here in Lansing and our country. Sorry to bring politics into this page, I should have just talked about the planes. I had never seen Air Force One. Thank you for the discussion.
Sign In or Register to comment.