Deep dives in the topics of the day. Space, Tech and AI are my work experiences Politics is my passion, jokes my joy See @d2fl_alt for X algo advice.
Cherokee National Forest
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Is it actually impossible for small accounts to make it on X?
It's certainly possible, but a lot of things have to align for it to happen.
The first thing is to have no flags on your account.
The second thing is to make a post someone is interested in - not a rehash of something everybody's seen before.
The third thing is to have someone in network that is a large reputable account that will reply, share, or quote your post.
There is a long and winding cold start staircase that could get your post in people's feeds if you are a tiny account. But that's like buying a lottery ticket.
So being mutuals with a large account - that has a good reputation and is trusted by its own network - to give your post a boost.
It's worth a shot to try quote posting one of these larger accounts - if they are in network and you can add something concrete to what they said.
That will pull in some of their followers, and also might prompt them to reply to you.
Made with AI
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Stopped by to visit mom and then take her down to Chattanooga for a CT scan.
When we got back the place was overrun by kids getting Halloween candy from the "inmates."
Everyone was having a lot of fun and thanks to Signature for doing this.
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This is former Knox County Mayor Glen Jacobs. He is a friend of @timburchett and is pushing for @VoteMarsha to be the next Governor of Tennessee. You may recognize him as WWE Star "Kane".
I am confident she will win, and she will then have two capable Knoxville candidates to fill her Senate seat.
If for some reason Tim is not able to take that job, Kane is my default next in line.
Glenn Jacobs
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A lawyer at Marc Elias's firm, Jacquelyn Lopez, was looped into Peltola and DSCC discussions about a "MAGA party" spoiler and field operations, according to the New York Times. She was also in touch with the operative accused of recruiting the spoiler candidates.
Now that exact same firm is representing Peltola and the DSCC in court. Yet on his podcast last night, Elias declared Mary "will be certified and seated", without mentioning his own lawyer's role in the spoiler talks.
The campaign denies recruiting anyone. Fine. Then the firm should say what its lawyer was told and when.
Should a firm whose lawyer was looped into the spoiler talks be the one defending the result in court?
The Researcher
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Donald Trump posted this morning that inflation is "way down." The September PCE report, the Fed's favorite gauge, says it went from 3.4% to 3.6%.
The economy is growing at 3.4%, and that is real good news he could run on. Telling people prices are falling when they can see their grocery bill is not.
We should note that the amount of labor required to purchase $100 of groceries has decreased by an hour since 2020, even though grocery prices have almost doubled.
Hot growth with rising prices also makes a Fed rate cut less likely, so mortgage and car loan rates stay where they are. Four days before an election, that is the number voters feel.
Is your grocery bill going down, or is it just the headline?
Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X
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Same BLS data, split by term:
👉Biden (Jan 2021 to Jan 2025): groceries up 23.3%, all prices up 21.4%
👉Trump so far (Jan 2025 to Sep 2026): groceries up 3.5%, all prices up 6.1%
Hours of work to buy that $100 basket from 2000:
👉2000: 7.1 hours
👉Sep 2026: 5.8 hours
Pay has kept up, but the grocery jump came in 2021 to 2024. nitter.siddz.com/TheEpicVault/status/21…
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Elon Musk just warned 4.8 million people about a 2028 Democratic sweep, right after voting early in Texas.
He is right to worry, but the real warning sign is today, not 2028. Texas early voting ends tonight, and Republicans like Don Huffines are already calling their own early turnout "ugly."
Worrying about 2028 does not count. Ballots in 2026 do. If you are a Texas Republican who has not voted yet, today is the day.
Have you voted yet, and how does early turnout look where you live?
My biggest concern is that if there is a clean sweep by Democrats of the House, Senate and Presidency in 2028, they will:
1. Make DC and Puerto Rico states to gain a strong majority in the Senate.
2. Open the borders and legalize everyone living in America illegally to cement a permanent majority.
3. Increase the size of the Supreme Court to gain an immediate majority.
This would result in America becoming a permanent one-party state and the end of democracy in any meaningful sense of the word.
All that is needed to ensure this doesn’t happen is 51 Republican senators in 2029. That is why you should vote for Republican senators this election. Other reasons are irrelevant compared to this one.
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Tonight's X algorithm update in plain English:
Nothing changed in how your posts get ranked or who sees them in For You.
The real change is in notifications. X added new filtering rules for mention and reply notifications. The same spam, low-quality, and removed-content filters that clean up your feed now also run on those notifications. If you've been getting junk mentions or seeing replies from removed accounts in your notifications, this could help with that.
X also laid groundwork for appealing content warnings and withheld posts, but it isn't switched on yet.
Same advice as before: real replies from people you follow each other with, and people sharing your link, still matter most to the prediction score.
X algo daily, Oct 29 (`7fef3ba`): no change to For You ranking. The param sync is still from Oct 28.
What it means for you:
• The video weight was renamed from `ReactWithVideoWeight` to `PostVideoWeight`. It's still 0.0, so video posts get no extra score.
• Carousel scoring was reworked: there's a new `VideoCarouselWeightedScoreWeight` (0) that would add the main For You score, and the 30 extra candidates are now a param. The carousel is still off, so nothing changes for your reach.
• Notifications got new visibility rules for mentions and replies (`NOTIFICATIONS_WRITER_V2_MENTION`/`_REPLY`). They reuse the existing drops (PDNA, spam, low quality, takedowns) and only decide whose mentions and replies show up in notifications, not who sees your posts in For You.
• Under the Hood report: appeal switches were added (off), along with FOSNR labels and a Brazil link for appealing withheld content. These are labels only, with no filter change.
Unchanged: Fav 0.66, Reply 5, Quote 5, copy-link share 20, mutual reply +15 on originals, the ×0.75/×0.50 haircuts, the 2,800 fair-share trim, the spam thresholds (66/180k), cold start, and debias (still off).
Bottom line: replies from mutuals and copy-link shares are still the biggest prediction levers. Full breakdown in the pinned post.
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At Rockwell every rocket stage I watched leave the pad was built to fly once and end up in the ocean.
Starship Flight 15 is set to try something no rocket has done: catch both the booster and the ship with the tower arms on the same flight. Both halves finished static fires this week, and the flight is targeting no earlier than Nov. 12.
Catching the booster proved half the idea. Catching the ship is what turns Starship into a vehicle that can refly in days instead of being rebuilt. The orbital refueling flights for the Moon and Mars depend on exactly that.
If both catches work Nov. 12, how fast do you think SpaceX ramps up the flight rate? nitter.siddz.com/mikejt4/status/2115739…
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I have been a Star Trek fan most of my life, and Picard is the captain I measured the others against.
Kirk was the cowboy. Picard was the diplomat who would rather talk than shoot, and Stewart made that the stronger choice every time. That is a big part of why The Next Generation still holds up.
He will be sorely missed.
Was Picard the best captain in Star Trek, or does someone else get your vote?
ALT Sir Patrick Stewart
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Official announcement:
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
alzresearch.org/giving/
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
alzfdn.org/donate/
Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia
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Six days before the Nov. 3 midterms, Hillary Clinton is on Kara Swisher's podcast promising that a Democratic Congress will investigate not just the administration, but the president's supporters and allies.
Oversight of the executive branch is Congress's job. Turning congressional subpoena power on private citizens for their political backing is a very different territory.
She didn't say where the line sits between a political ally and an ordinary voter. Where do you draw it?
Western Lensman
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Haley Stevens lost the Michigan Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed. Now she and her fiancé are splitting their votes.
She went on CNN to reaffirm her support for El-Sayed while urging him to reject hateful rhetoric. Her fiancé, Democrat Jason Turkish, told the Detroit News he is voting for Republican Mike Rogers instead. His words: "We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul."
One household, two votes, five days before November 3, in a race that could decide control of the Senate.
If the candidate's own household is splitting the ticket, what is the quiet crossover number looking like across the rest of Michigan?
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Last week it was Robert Reich. Today Rick Wilson wants to nationalize Starlink.
Russia's state-run answer to Starlink has barely 30 satellites in orbit. SpaceX has over 11,000 (and more than 13,000 launched).
That is the gap between a government committee and a company that builds its own rockets. Who do you trust to keep the signal on?
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WHat is it with these commies?
After the Shuttle retired, Washington spent nine years buying seats on Russian rockets. Even when Boeing finally launched two astronauts to the station in 2024, NASA had to call SpaceX to bring them home.
Now former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says if Democrats take control, Washington should seize the one company keeping Americans in orbit.
The bureaucracy that couldn't build Healthcare{.}gov in 2013 wants to run the rocket factory.
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Speaking of election integrity, they charged the guys who found the hole but didn't plug the hole.
Minnesota just charged James O'Keefe and Cam Higby with two felonies each, unlawful voting and identity theft.
The charges come from their August undercover videos at Minneapolis polling places. The videos tested the state's vouching rule, which lets one person vouch for up to 8 voters with no photo ID.
Prosecutors say they used registered voters' names without permission. They did not cast ballots or sign oaths.
The rule they tested is still in place a week before the election.
Should the fix have come before the charges?
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Speaking of election integrity, they charged the guys who found the hole but didn't plug the hole.
Minnesota just charged James O'Keefe and Cam Higby with two felonies each, unlawful voting and identity theft.
The charges come from their August undercover videos at Minneapolis polling places. The videos tested the state's vouching rule, which lets one person vouch for up to 8 voters with no photo ID.
Prosecutors say they used registered voters' names without permission. They did not cast ballots or sign oaths.
The rule they tested is still in place a week before the election.
Should the fix have come before the charges?
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