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Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by ss108 on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:40PM (#34949789)
Why useless? People have to attempt to predict the outcomes of elections, and have to do their best.
Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by afiori on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:47PM (#34949856)
I would guess that the vast majority of the population do not take meaningful actions based on election prediction (other than "I might [not] need to actually vote").

There are good reasons to have polls and predictions but they are far from necessary.

Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by hermiod on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:55PM (#34949937)
Just because something isn't useful to everyone, doesn't mean it isn't useful to someone.

The original claim was that election prediction is useless -- are you willing to concede that election prediction isn't useless?

Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by nradov on Sunday February 26, 2023 @09:40PM (#34952306)
I made no such claim. I merely stated that this particular election prediction was useless.
Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by ss108 on Sunday February 26, 2023 @04:55PM (#34949935)
People who work for political campaigns need to know, businesses and investors might like to plan, etc.
Re:Lab Leak Most Likely Origin of Covid-19 Pandemic, U.S. Ag... by afiori on Monday February 27, 2023 @01:58AM (#34953827)
Yes, but it is not "needed" in the current form. It is needed the same way you need to predict how global trends will be in 6 months: very important for a lot of people, but not an actionable information for most.