Maxwell Palmer
Political scientist at Boston University. Institutions + local politics + voting rights.
www.maxwellpalmer.com / www.housingpolitics.com
- It's only two weeks into 2026, but I'm pretty sure The Raven Scholar is going to be the one of the best books I read this year.
- Is there an incompleteness or impossibility theorem about this? It's impossible to prevent hallucinations, and any model that reviews models to detect hallucinations is also vulnerable to hallucinations?
- "In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
- How to fix America's gerrymandering problem? @benschneer.bsky.social and I wrote in Time today about a solution we developed (with @cantstopkevin.bsky.social). time.com/7309565/amer...
- This piece builds on our paper in Political Analysis, “A Partisan Solution to Partisan Gerrymandering: The Define-Combine Procedure.” cup.org/471aVyW
- The redistricting battles evoke the cold war: "unilaterally disarm," "nuclear option," "mutually assured gerrymandering." We call our solution "mutually assured representation." bsky.app/profile/atru...
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View full threadSee our website, www.definecombine.com, for more, including an article summary and an interactive simulation where you can try DCP yourself.
- Really?
- Local politics is the best politics. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
- I am confident that this will be the best thing I read today.
- This is not helping my productivity on a day when I need to finish a report with PDF graphs.
- I just completed all 25 days of Advent of Code 2024! #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com
- I just completed "Hoof It" - Day 10 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/10
- I just completed "Red-Nosed Reports" - Day 2 - Advent of Code 2024 #AdventOfCode adventofcode.com/2024/day/2
- The Thanksgiving stuffing waffle is the platonic ideal of leftovers.
- Nothing says "climate emergency" like "policies to slow down addressing the climate emergency."
- Not sure how anyone could see @maxwellpalmer.bsky.social @davidmglick.bsky.social and my research on public meetings in MA and think that more community input will produce better development outcomes. www.housingpolitics.com/research/nei...
- How much money is going to be spent from the "Intervenor Trust Fund" on lawsuits brought solely to delay clean energy infrastructure?
- Great callout from @bostonglobe.com from our new report with The Boston Foundation:
- Excited to see @maxwellpalmer.bsky.social and my research in this @bostonglobe.com op-ed this morning. The use of public money to actively block much-needed affordable housing is appalling, and shows the strength of opposition to new housing in Greater Boston. www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/25/o...
- Here are the thirteen cases we've found over the last ten years. If you know of more, please share them with @katherineeinst.bsky.social and me!
- Our full report is here: www.tbf.org/-/media/tbf/...
- The Boston Foundation released the 2024 Greater Boston Housing Report Card today, including a report on the potential use of publicly owned land for building housing by me and Katie Einstein. www.tbf.org/-/media/tbf/...
- The state and municipalities own a huge amount of land in greater Boston - almost 1/4.
- About 1/3 of this public land is vacant. If just 5% of the vacant, non-conservation land was used for multifamily housing, more than 85,000 units could be built.
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View full threadWhat can be done about this? The state can streamline the public land procurement process; reform state funding programs so they can’t be used to block the development of housing; and provide technical assistance to municipalities seeking to dispose of surplus land…
- There's no better way to procrastinate than trying out a new task manager.
- New Job: BU Political Science @bupolisci.bsky.social is hiring a tenure-track AP in Environmental Politics. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/28327 #APSA2024 #polisky
- Has anyone seen my HDMI adapter? Last seen in May. #FirstDayOfClass
- Thanks @ispsyale.bsky.social for a great summary of my work with Ben Schneer and @cantstopkevin.bsky.social on partisan gerrymandering. isps.yale.edu/news/blog/20...
- Excited to share that "A Partisan Solution to Partisan Gerrymandering: The Define–Combine Procedure" is now out at Political Analysis. With @cantstopkevin.bsky.social and Ben Schneer. t.co/sc5Tt5wpYq
- We develop a new method to reduce partisan gerrymandering that doesn't require independent commissions, judges, or tiebreakers.
- Great NYT crossword theme today for #polisky. “Political pun-ditry.”
