Dominik Peters
dominik-peters.de
Dominik Peters
@dominik-peters.de
CNRS researcher (Paris) on computer science & voting theory. I travel by train a lot.

From 🇩🇪, studied in 🇬🇧, worked in 🇺🇸 and 🇨🇦, now live in 🇫🇷.

Side interests in urbanism, effective altruism, theme parks, roller coasters, U.S. appellate law.
Résultats de la votation de la Ville de Paris ("Pour ou contre végétaliser et rendre piétonnes 500 nouvelles rues dans Paris ?") par arrondissement. www.datawrapper.de/_/2HKVf/
March 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
@dividedargument.bsky.social @williambaude.bsky.social @epps.bsky.social Was just relistening to an old episode and it turns out to include a timely side discussion about auto pen.
March 17, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Der Grund, warum der Bundestag in letzter Zeit angewachsen ist, ist der fallende Zweitstimmenanteil der CSU in Bayern (wobei die CSU bei den Erststimmen weitenteils stärkste Kraft geblieben ist). Aber nur 3 der 23 Wahlkreise ohne Direktmandat befinden sich in Bayern!
February 24, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Die Wahlkreise ohne Direktmandat sind genau diejenigen, die am meisten umkämpft sind, häufig mit einem Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen, wie hier in Frankfurt, wo der CDU-Kandidat knapp gewonnen hat, aber dann doch kein Direktmandat zugeteilt bekommen hat. Das wirkt problematisch.
February 24, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Um Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, und Mannheim gibt es eine Ansammlung von Wahlkreisen ohne Direktmandat -- in diesen Städten haben Bürger also keine Bundestagsmitglieder, die speziell für sie zuständig sind. Link zur Karte: www.datawrapper.de/_/bsCzu/
February 24, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Das deutsche Wahlrecht gibt jedem Wähler zwei Stimmen: für einen Direktkandidaten und eine Liste. Aber das Wahlrecht wurde für dieses Jahr geändert, um den Anwuchs der Sitze im Bundestag zu stoppen. Das führt aber dazu, dass 23 Wahlkreise diesmal kein Direktmandat erhalten. 🧵
February 24, 2025 at 9:39 AM
The underlying reason why the number of Bundestag members was rising in recent years was the falling popularity of the CSU party in Bavaria (in terms of % but not in terms of districts won). But only 3 of the 23 districts without a representative are in Bavaria!
February 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
The unrepresented districts are those where the local representative got the lowest % of votes, which tend to be the most competitive districts, such as this one in Frankfurt where the CDU candidate narrowly won -- but then actually lost and got no seat. This seems problematic.
February 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
There is a sort of cluster where this happened around Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Mannheim, and Heidelberg -- major cities where people will not have a local representative in the Bundestag that they can call. Link to map: www.datawrapper.de/_/H6dRv/
February 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
The German election system lets people vote for both a local representative and a party. But it changed this year: to stop the number of Bundestag members from fluctuating, some candidates that would've become local representatives lost if their party got too few votes. This happened in 23 districts
February 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Feels so good to be able to vent to someone wise and well-read and who tends to agree with you. I have been procrastinating returning this page proof for months now because I get pissed off everytime I open the PDF.
February 23, 2025 at 10:27 AM
They put palm trees all over Place de la Concorde — Paris Plage in February!
February 16, 2025 at 2:43 PM
How many conversations I have with different LLMs, per month. Peaks in months where I've paid for the plus versions (e.g. 2024-04 for Claude 3 Opus, 2024-09 for o1-preview, 2025-01 for o1). Surprising that there is no clear growth since Summer 2023.
February 16, 2025 at 12:56 PM
That vegan meal sounds pretty good! Better than the previous veggie burger (pictured) for sure
February 4, 2025 at 11:42 AM
It will definitely be possible from January 2026: the tickets for UK visitors are already on sale. Quite a bit pricier than what it cost in prior years without Epic Universe!
ukstore.universalorlando.com/park-tickets
February 3, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Not a one-off either, last week I posted an issue at 23:41 and they marked it as fixed at 1:55.
January 25, 2025 at 8:36 PM
16:31: I notice a pedestrian signal facing the wrong way, open an issue in the Paris DansMaRue app.
18:36: The city emails me a photo of having fixed it.
@paris.fr 👏🔥
January 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM
New application for LLMs: if you generate a list of counterexamples, you can ask it which one is the nicest looking.
January 23, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Some nighttime photos
January 17, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Academics are slowly starting to get back to work, judging from how often they check the documentation of TikZ (a figure drawing package for LaTeX)
January 10, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Glad you're back! It was indeed your longest ever hiatus:
December 17, 2024 at 9:41 PM
Amazing that there is still a pharmacy in the same place as back then in 1877, even if the signage is less tasteful nowadays.
December 15, 2024 at 8:04 PM
In May, I was on the first train to ever depart from this station.
December 15, 2024 at 4:31 PM
La Défense Grande Arche
December 15, 2024 at 4:31 PM
Today, the €5bn RER E extension in Paris took up full service, after its first 7 months only having limited shuttle service. I went yesterday to enjoy the last day of seeing a brand-new massive station completely deserted in the middle of the afternoon.
December 15, 2024 at 4:31 PM