Posted on 10/16/2016 6:31:25 AM PDT by Helicondelta
Evan has a habit. He’s not ashamed of it, but he doesn’t want to reveal too much about himself, lest his colleagues learn how he’s spending so much of his time. Like so many others, the middle-age software developer can’t look away from the presidential election. But his fixation takes a particular form: with every browser refresh, he hopes math will reveal the future.
Evan is a poll obsessive, FiveThirtyEight strain—a subspecies I recognize because I’m one of them, too. When he wakes up in the morning, he doesn’t shower or eat breakfast before checking the Nate Silver-founded site’s presidential election forecast (sounds about right). He keeps a tab open to FiveThirtyEight’s latest poll list; a new poll means new odds in the forecast (yup). He get push alerts on his phone when the forecast changes (check). He follows the 538 Forecast Bot, a Twitter account that tweets every time the forecast changes (same). In all, Evan says he checks in hourly, at least while he’s awake (I plead the Fifth).
...
A compulsion is a repetitive behavior “aimed at preventing or reducing anxiety or distress, or preventing some dreaded event or situation,” according to the clinical definition. In a country as rancorously divided as the US, dread of either a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton presidency is one of the reigning emotions of this election. If the FiveThirtyEight forecast shows the race leaning toward the candidate you support then you likely feel less fear.
(Excerpt) Read more at wired.com ...
Interesting that you mention Omni Magazine. Before Wired came along, that was my monthly addiction.
I was born in ‘68, and I remember getting the first issue of Omni. Some of the articles were probably not age appropriate, but it didn’t screw me up too much.
It seems that the entire run of Omni has been lovingly archived online:
Ah! This isnt well known, but the magazine was published by the same people that published Penthouse. Explaining some of the more risque content!
And thanks for that link! Amazing website.
Thanks for the link to the Omni Magazine back issues. Bookmarked it.
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