What did he go on to do?
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mercredi 31 juillet 2019
SBRT - what is the wavelength of the radiation?
As in Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, used to kill the cancer cells in small-ish tumors. It's a pretty amazing application of technology, designed to deliver pretty lethal doses of radiation to the tumors themselves while delivering less-than-lethal doses to surrounding tissues, as little as mm away.
The heart of the various machines (there are at least two manufacturers with big market share) is a lineac, a linear accelerator (of electrons). In striking a target inside the machine, the electrons produce a quite narrow beam of photons.
But what is the wavelength of those photons?
Some sources say it's "x-rays", some that it's gamma radiation. But no source that I've been able to find says what the wavelength (or, more likely, wavelength range) acutally is! :jaw-dropp
Yes, you can find the radiation dosage (in greys), and even mention of energies (of the beam), in kV and (sometimes) MV.
To be clear, there is no precise definition of the boundary between x-rays and gammas, and different branches of physics (and related fields, e.g. astronomy) seem to use different definitions. But in all you can fairly easily get values for the wavelength(s) being studied (OK, the units are not all that friendly; Angstroms (0.1nm, a unit of distance) and keV/MeV (a unit of energy) are both used, but at least there's no trouble converting them).
Maybe you, dear reader, have better DDG-foo than I have?
The heart of the various machines (there are at least two manufacturers with big market share) is a lineac, a linear accelerator (of electrons). In striking a target inside the machine, the electrons produce a quite narrow beam of photons.
But what is the wavelength of those photons?
Some sources say it's "x-rays", some that it's gamma radiation. But no source that I've been able to find says what the wavelength (or, more likely, wavelength range) acutally is! :jaw-dropp
Yes, you can find the radiation dosage (in greys), and even mention of energies (of the beam), in kV and (sometimes) MV.
To be clear, there is no precise definition of the boundary between x-rays and gammas, and different branches of physics (and related fields, e.g. astronomy) seem to use different definitions. But in all you can fairly easily get values for the wavelength(s) being studied (OK, the units are not all that friendly; Angstroms (0.1nm, a unit of distance) and keV/MeV (a unit of energy) are both used, but at least there's no trouble converting them).
Maybe you, dear reader, have better DDG-foo than I have?
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Country Girl Goes From Ticket to Felony in 3...2...1...
[yt]BrgMgw8Sql0[/yt]
Original viral source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsuc...felony_in_321/
The commenters mostly agree that the cop was professional and the woman was a piece of work. I'll share my own opinion later, but for now I'll admit that I laughed. Multiple times.
Original viral source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsuc...felony_in_321/
The commenters mostly agree that the cop was professional and the woman was a piece of work. I'll share my own opinion later, but for now I'll admit that I laughed. Multiple times.
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Do clever people outsmart themselves?
I know a lot of people on this forum are very clever, and might be described as intellectuals, but does that mean they cannot understand wisdom that is available to simple people. I think it was probably the Buddha who said,
"the mind is the great slayer of the real".
If there is a God he would hardly make it impossible to realize him without a high functioning intellect. Most religious people accept their beliefs on faith not by reasoning. Religious doctrines may serve only to pacify the mind so that a person can open their heart to spiritual experiences. It may not matter if the doctrine is absolutely true. A simple person of faith can experience much comfort and inner peace from believing in doctrines that sharper intellects find fault with.
So I put it to the forum that you may be outsmarting yourselves.
"the mind is the great slayer of the real".
If there is a God he would hardly make it impossible to realize him without a high functioning intellect. Most religious people accept their beliefs on faith not by reasoning. Religious doctrines may serve only to pacify the mind so that a person can open their heart to spiritual experiences. It may not matter if the doctrine is absolutely true. A simple person of faith can experience much comfort and inner peace from believing in doctrines that sharper intellects find fault with.
So I put it to the forum that you may be outsmarting yourselves.
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mardi 30 juillet 2019
Trump vs Elijah: Baltimore, BLM and urban decay
The city of Baltimore is back in the news again due to the tweet storm between President Trump and Representative Elijah Cummings. Let's focus on this specific debate and discuss the conditions of our large urban centers and what has happened to them.
The Black Lives Matter movement became prominent in 2014 over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York City. It became a very powerful movement during the last few years of the Obama administration. Let's assess the results in a few cities.
1) Baltimore: The murder rate exploded in 2015, the year of Freddie Gray and the riots.
Year | Murders | Rate
2013 233 37.4
2014 211 33.8
2015 344 55.4
2016 318 51.4
2017 343 57.8
2018 309 50.5
The Baltimore riots occurred on April 27, 2015 and there is a sharp increase in homicides right after this point.
2) St Louis: The murder rate exploded in 2014, the year of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Year | Murders
2013 120
2014 159
2015 188
2016 188
2017 205
3) Chicago: The murder rate exploded in 2016, the year after Laquan McDonald and the ACLU victories over the CPD.
Year | Murders
2013 421
2014 416
2015 485
2016 764
2017 650
2018 555
Note: The murder rate in Chicago jumped 57 percent in one year, 2016!
In 2015, the U.S. experienced the largest single year increase in its homicide rate since 1990, according to the most recently available data from the FBI.3 In that year, cities like Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C. saw their homicide rates grow at least as fast as Chicago’s did in 2016.
University of Chicago Crime Lab
The total number of homicides nationally in 2016 was 20% higher than in 2014. This increase was primarily concentrated in a few urban areas. So there was an additional 4,450 murders over the base year of 2014. This is more than the number of Americans killed on 9/11 and roughly the same as the number of Americans killed in Iraq.
This sudden and sharp increase in the murder rate has been dubbed the Ferguson effect, the Black Lives Matter effect or simply Late Obama Age collapse. It is a striking indication of what happens when the Left takes over and subverts law enforcement.
But who was held accountable for this disaster? No one as far as I can tell. The Left will call you a "racist" for simply pointing this out. Trump deserves credit for not bowing to the outrage mob.
The wages of Liberalism is death.
The Black Lives Matter movement became prominent in 2014 over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York City. It became a very powerful movement during the last few years of the Obama administration. Let's assess the results in a few cities.
1) Baltimore: The murder rate exploded in 2015, the year of Freddie Gray and the riots.
Year | Murders | Rate
2013 233 37.4
2014 211 33.8
2015 344 55.4
2016 318 51.4
2017 343 57.8
2018 309 50.5
The Baltimore riots occurred on April 27, 2015 and there is a sharp increase in homicides right after this point.
2) St Louis: The murder rate exploded in 2014, the year of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
Year | Murders
2013 120
2014 159
2015 188
2016 188
2017 205
3) Chicago: The murder rate exploded in 2016, the year after Laquan McDonald and the ACLU victories over the CPD.
Year | Murders
2013 421
2014 416
2015 485
2016 764
2017 650
2018 555
Note: The murder rate in Chicago jumped 57 percent in one year, 2016!
In 2015, the U.S. experienced the largest single year increase in its homicide rate since 1990, according to the most recently available data from the FBI.3 In that year, cities like Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C. saw their homicide rates grow at least as fast as Chicago’s did in 2016.
University of Chicago Crime Lab
The total number of homicides nationally in 2016 was 20% higher than in 2014. This increase was primarily concentrated in a few urban areas. So there was an additional 4,450 murders over the base year of 2014. This is more than the number of Americans killed on 9/11 and roughly the same as the number of Americans killed in Iraq.
This sudden and sharp increase in the murder rate has been dubbed the Ferguson effect, the Black Lives Matter effect or simply Late Obama Age collapse. It is a striking indication of what happens when the Left takes over and subverts law enforcement.
But who was held accountable for this disaster? No one as far as I can tell. The Left will call you a "racist" for simply pointing this out. Trump deserves credit for not bowing to the outrage mob.
The wages of Liberalism is death.
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NRA, Grades and Trump
I belonged to the NRA years ago to obtain rifle range membership, then I let it slip. I find myself a member again as the only local gun club requires it. One thing that is consistent is the NRA's ability to consistently let me down in every way possible.
Anytime I've lobbied for a bill in Olympia I've tried to get the NRA to support it by sending their lobbyist to the hearings, but they never show. While they tend to send their regional representative to hearings when there is a gun ban proposal, they do not give us the time of day when a pro-gun bill appears on the calendar. When a police officer murders a black gun owner, the NRA comes an inch away from blaming the victim.
Their telemarketers keep pestering me about the Democrat menace in Congress but refuse to acknowledge the GOP menace in the White House. They also broke their promise to stop calling me.
This is not the real reason they suck though. :) As you all may know, the NRA gives grades to various politicians. Bernie is proud of his D; he wants to get an F in the future. Good for him.
Trump on the other hand still enjoys a favorable NRA rating despite the fact that he has grabbed more guns than any other recent president, favors seizing guns without due process and is appears to be eyeing more firearm restrictions. Trump even gets a warm greeting from the NRA crowd at their annual meeting. https://www.nraila.org/articles/2019...annual-meeting
So, do NRA ratings mean anything at all anymore? I think not.
Ranb
Anytime I've lobbied for a bill in Olympia I've tried to get the NRA to support it by sending their lobbyist to the hearings, but they never show. While they tend to send their regional representative to hearings when there is a gun ban proposal, they do not give us the time of day when a pro-gun bill appears on the calendar. When a police officer murders a black gun owner, the NRA comes an inch away from blaming the victim.
Their telemarketers keep pestering me about the Democrat menace in Congress but refuse to acknowledge the GOP menace in the White House. They also broke their promise to stop calling me.
This is not the real reason they suck though. :) As you all may know, the NRA gives grades to various politicians. Bernie is proud of his D; he wants to get an F in the future. Good for him.
Trump on the other hand still enjoys a favorable NRA rating despite the fact that he has grabbed more guns than any other recent president, favors seizing guns without due process and is appears to be eyeing more firearm restrictions. Trump even gets a warm greeting from the NRA crowd at their annual meeting. https://www.nraila.org/articles/2019...annual-meeting
So, do NRA ratings mean anything at all anymore? I think not.
Ranb
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NY Fire Commissioners Call for New 9/11 Investigation, Citing ‘Overwhelming Evidence
Here we go again.
https://www.wakingtimes.com/2019/07/...of-explosives/
https://www.wakingtimes.com/2019/07/...of-explosives/
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Do-not-call registration.
I just updated my information, though nothing has changed, I have the same basic information, but it had been about 4 years since I last registered online.
Lately, the calls are beyond irritating. There have been up to 15 a day, often starting around 7am. I never answer.
My question is, does having yourself registered really make a difference?
Lately, the calls are beyond irritating. There have been up to 15 a day, often starting around 7am. I never answer.
My question is, does having yourself registered really make a difference?
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Obama Presidential Center -‘adverse impact’ to Jackson Park, federal review concludes
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/7/...view-lightfoot
The finding by the Federal Highway Administration puts pressure on the Obama Foundation to find a way to “resolve adverse effects” and turns up the heat on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to order the foundation to make those changes.
“The Obama Foundation has yet to show any interest in compromising on any of this. It may take [Lightfoot] to bring them to the table,” said Margaret Schmid, co-president of Jackson Park Watch.
The finding by the Federal Highway Administration puts pressure on the Obama Foundation to find a way to “resolve adverse effects” and turns up the heat on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to order the foundation to make those changes.
“The Obama Foundation has yet to show any interest in compromising on any of this. It may take [Lightfoot] to bring them to the table,” said Margaret Schmid, co-president of Jackson Park Watch.
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WalMart Shooting
This time in Missouri, sounds like a disgruntled employee. So that's good at least. It's not a white supremacist, Antifa, or something politically motivated. Just good ol' "can't live without my job, got fired, so time to shoot some people."
A police officer was hit, but sounds like he'll be fine. The shooter may or may not be alive.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by CNN
A shooting at a Mississippi Walmart left two people dead, an officer wounded and a community in shock.
The gunfire broke out Tuesday morning at a store in Southaven, the third largest city in Mississippi. |
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lundi 29 juillet 2019
Calling Trumpistas "Stupid" May Be a Kindness They No Longer Merit
Now that the other shoe has dropped and the GOP and its anointed leader have gone full bore racist in a throwback to the Anti-Immigration Era, it's time to come to the reality that is 21st Century US Politics.
Up 'til a couple of weeks ago, the kindest interpretation one could give to Trump supporters was "They're probably decent folks down deep, they've just fallen for the long-game con and are too stupid to realize it". With every passing miscreant deed, it became harder and harder to keep excusing Trumpistas. We really wound up with the charitable explanation, "Well, they're just really stupid!"
And it was charitable. Charitable because the alternative, which is becoming too apparent, is that they are evil. So, if you're one of the deplorable minority of actual supporters of Donald J. Trump, there's good news and bad news... The good news is that you're no longer considered stupid. For many of you that may be a lifetime first. The bad news is that you're an out-and-out bigot.
The Trump campaign, the RNC, and any GOP candidate who doesn't stand up and condemn the latest round of bellicose racism from the White House are bigots. Dems who continue to pander to "good people on both sides" rhetoric are in the same group.
The GOP has done away with the camouflage. They sit around and discuss whether Trump's latest bigot-speak was good or bad for the campaign. You see and hear the comments of the Apologia. "Well, he's working to his base because motivating them is important." No!!! Bigotry = Bad. Dividing the country along racial lines = Bad. If you can't see this, you are one of the remaining stupid ones. But you can see it. And if you approve of it, you're evil. Old-fashioned Brothers Grimm wicked witch evil. Not some post-modernist angst-y misunderstood good-intentioned person gone astray. Just plain damned evil.
Up 'til a couple of weeks ago, the kindest interpretation one could give to Trump supporters was "They're probably decent folks down deep, they've just fallen for the long-game con and are too stupid to realize it". With every passing miscreant deed, it became harder and harder to keep excusing Trumpistas. We really wound up with the charitable explanation, "Well, they're just really stupid!"
And it was charitable. Charitable because the alternative, which is becoming too apparent, is that they are evil. So, if you're one of the deplorable minority of actual supporters of Donald J. Trump, there's good news and bad news... The good news is that you're no longer considered stupid. For many of you that may be a lifetime first. The bad news is that you're an out-and-out bigot.
The Trump campaign, the RNC, and any GOP candidate who doesn't stand up and condemn the latest round of bellicose racism from the White House are bigots. Dems who continue to pander to "good people on both sides" rhetoric are in the same group.
The GOP has done away with the camouflage. They sit around and discuss whether Trump's latest bigot-speak was good or bad for the campaign. You see and hear the comments of the Apologia. "Well, he's working to his base because motivating them is important." No!!! Bigotry = Bad. Dividing the country along racial lines = Bad. If you can't see this, you are one of the remaining stupid ones. But you can see it. And if you approve of it, you're evil. Old-fashioned Brothers Grimm wicked witch evil. Not some post-modernist angst-y misunderstood good-intentioned person gone astray. Just plain damned evil.
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The Great Stink of 1858 (London)
From the YouTube channel "Today I Found Out"https://youtu.be/uXm0IGQ5PZY.
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The great 2019 international Hamburger debate
This probably needs it's own thread
It started from a post I made on the other thread
And continued
It started from a post I made on the other thread
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by cullennz (Post 12769405)
Lol
Off topic, but question to Americans. How come you sometimes call burgers sandwiches and sometimes burgers? What makes a burger with chicken from for instance KFC (on their website) a sandwich in the US? They are called burgers in NZ and most other places (and on our kfc site). Yet you seem to call beef patties in a burger bun burgers Basically anything in a burger bun is a burger every else I know and a sandwich is sliced bread And a filled roll is like a baguet (french stick) Is it burger if beef, sandwich if not beef? |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Checkmite (Post 12769884)
In the US, anything between bread can be called a sandwich. Burgers are a type of sandwich, and can be called either-or. But in the US, a "burger" will always be one or more beef patties (i.e., hamburger meat), or a non-meat substitute designed to mimic beef patties, on a bun; chicken or other meats are never called burgers here despite that usage in Commonwealth countries. All non-beef sandwiches are just sandwiches.
Things on long rolls are a little more complicated - in some specific localities they might be called hoagies, grinders, "po' boys", or hero sandwiches (with special rules for what concoction qualifies for which name), but throughout most of the US they're typically referred to as submarine sandwiches, or "subs". A cheesesteak is a specific recipe of sub featuring the titular ingredients. The only exception to the "anything between bread is a sandwich" rule I can think of is hot dogs/wursts. |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by plague311 (Post 12769914)
It's like the "soda" or "pop" argument.
For the life of me I can't understand how chicken between a bun is called a "burger", since in our neck of the woods a "burger" refers to the hamburger between the bun. Chicken isn't hamburger, it's chicken. A sandwich covers pretty much anything outside of a burger on a bunch. Even on our menus there is a "Burger" section, and a "sandwiches" section. Sandwiches include clubs and everything in between up to and including Philly Cheesesteaks. |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by mgidm86 (Post 12770227)
I've never heard of anything other than bread with hamburger in it called a burger. Never really heard a burger called a sandwich either. A burger is the meat, bun or not. If you're Curly from The Three Stooges you'd call it a boygah ;)
I find this discussion more interesting than the OP. |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by cullennz (Post 12770257)
But a hamburger isn't the meat patty
The origin of the word hamburger is the whole thing. Meat and bun. Which was then just shortened to burger Hence here a hamburger is a beef patty burger Chicken is chicken burger etc |
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by isissxn (Post 12770259)
Then there's veggie burgers, making the whole thing even more complicated!
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by carrps (Post 12770271)
But the meat patty without the bun is called a burger. :confused:
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by cullennz (Post 12770327)
Maybe its a geographical thing
We call them "hamburger patties" You have a hamburger bun and a hamburger patty |
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Childless [strike]Europeans[/strike] Americans
Since at least one active member of the ISF is preoccupied with childlessness, I am surprised that we don't have a thread that deals specifically with this, and it occurred to me again when I was watching a recent episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah:
A Toddler Rides an Airport Conveyor Belt and America’s Fertility Rate Plummets:
[yt]1RG85FaEf_Y[/yt]
For some reason it didn't get as much attention when it was reported on NBC in May:
The Daily Show refers to this article from CNN:
Births and Natality (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
This is what Wikipedia has to say about people who are childless/childfree:
Could this be the reason why some states in the USA seem to be hellbent on putting a stop to abortions and also don't seem to be very interested in promoting education?
A Toddler Rides an Airport Conveyor Belt and America’s Fertility Rate Plummets:
[yt]1RG85FaEf_Y[/yt]
For some reason it didn't get as much attention when it was reported on NBC in May:
Quote:
|
The numbers are part of a decadeslong trend toward fewer and fewer babies being born each year — which means we’re getting further away from the possibility of having enough children to replace ourselves, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birth rate in U.S. falls to lowest level in 32 years, CDC says (NBC News, May 15, 2019) |
The Daily Show refers to this article from CNN:
Quote:
|
When examined by race, the data showed that fertility rates declined 2% for white and black women, and 3% for Hispanic women, between 2017 and 2018. The data also showed that the teen birth rate, for ages 15 to 19, fell 7% from 2017 to 2018. When examined by race, the data showed that teen births declined by 4% for black teenagers, and 8% for white and Hispanic teens. US fertility rate falls to 'all-time low,' CDC says (CNN, July 24, 2019) |
Quote:
|
On average, women had 1.2 biological children and men had fathered 0.9 children. Fertility of Men and Women Aged 15–44 in the United States (National Health Statistics Reports, July 11, 2018) |
This is what Wikipedia has to say about people who are childless/childfree:
Quote:
|
Overall, researchers have observed childless couples to be more educated, and it is perhaps because of this that they are more likely to be employed in professional and management occupations, more likely for both spouses to earn relatively high incomes, and to live in urban areas. They are also less likely to be religious, subscribe to traditional gender roles, or subscribe to conventional roles. Being a childfree, American adult was considered unusual in the 1950s. However, the proportion of childless adults in the population has increased significantly since then. The proportion of childlessness among women aged 40-44 was 10% in 1976, reached a high of 20% in 2005, then declined to 15% in 2014. In Europe, childlessness among women aged 40-44 is most common in Austria, Spain and the United Kingdom (in 2010-2011). Childlessness is least common across Eastern European countries, although one child families are very common there. From 2007 to 2011 the fertility rate in the U.S. declined 9%, the Pew Research Center reporting in 2010 that the birth rate was the lowest in U.S. history and that childfreeness rose across all racial and ethnic groups to about 1 in 5 versus 1 in 10 in the 1970s. The CDC released statistics in the first quarter of 2016 confirming that the U.S. fertility rate had fallen to its lowest point since record keeping started in 1909: 59.8 births per 1,000 women, half its high of 122.9 in 1957. Even taking the falling fertility rate into account, the U.S. Census Bureau still projected that the U.S. population would increase from 319 million (2014) to 400 million by 2051. The National Center of Health Statistics confirms that the percentage of American women of childbearing age who define themselves as childfree (or voluntarily childless) rose sharply in the 1990s—from 2.4 percent in 1982 to 4.3 percent in 1990 to 6.6 percent in 1995. Voluntary childlessness: Statistics and research (Wikipedia) |
Could this be the reason why some states in the USA seem to be hellbent on putting a stop to abortions and also don't seem to be very interested in promoting education?
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dimanche 28 juillet 2019
Police officer confronts McDonald's manager after he finds bite missing from sandwich
An Indianapolis police officer was livid earlier this month when he discovered a bite had been taken out of his chicken sandwich. The officer ordered his food prior to the beginning of his shift and placed the bag in a refrigerator when he arrived at the county prison. Several hours later, he retrieved his food only to discover some of his sandwich already eaten. He reasoned that a McDonald's employee must have tampered with his food out of spite because he is a police officer:
However, an investigation revealed that the officer himself had eaten part of his sandwich at the prison just before putting it in the refrigerator, a fact he says he must have forgotten prior to complaining to the news about the unknown rogue McDonald's employee.
Quote:
|
"I started to warm up my McChicken and I noticed several small bites. I know I didn't eat it. No one else was around. I said, 'You know what? I am going to the McDonald's to see if they can get that taken care of," said DJ, a local law enforcement officer. "I went to the McDonald's and talked to the supervisor. She offered me some free food I didn't care anything about. I just wanted to find out who the person was and they deal with that person in an appropriate way." |
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Can someone explain this
The people making the video are trying to prove a rocket can’t work in a vacuum. The balloon car they use works, what I can not figure out is why it does
Not work when they put a cone around the exhaust. It should work, but there is something happening that I can’t figure out. Can anyone explain it for me please.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_con...&v=Gasaz2-HmBs
Not work when they put a cone around the exhaust. It should work, but there is something happening that I can’t figure out. Can anyone explain it for me please.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_con...&v=Gasaz2-HmBs
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Senate moves bill with up to $15,000 fines for sharing memes online
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/sen...-memes-online/
A bi-partisan bill working its way through Congress could drastically change how copyright claims are processed, and would create a system to impose up to $30,000 in fines on anyone who shares protected material online.
A bi-partisan bill working its way through Congress could drastically change how copyright claims are processed, and would create a system to impose up to $30,000 in fines on anyone who shares protected material online.
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Tulsi, Tulsi, Tulsi :(
I had so much hope, was willing to forgive her past transgressions, as she really showed that she was hearing what was going on with the tech monopolies, even to the point of appearing on Rogan.
Like all the good, bipartisan parts of McCain, without the ....well, McCain part of it
Around here our biggest concerns with Tulsi weren't the anti-gay stuff she did as a teen (at the time you wouldn't last 5 minutes on the street gay bashing in hawaii, and probably wanted to be able to go outside sometime), it was the fact that she pandered
HARD
She would pander to the anti-science crowd again and again to the point where even the pro science people had to vote republican
She pandered to the anti-evolution side in education
She pandered to the anti-vaxxers. The legacy of that on Maui for instance, is insane
She pandered to the anti-GMO nuts to the point where they got hawaiians to vote to make their traditional foods illegal
Its not even like she was pandering to her local base, the people whipping this stuff up were your typical california, seattle left wing science deniers, the typical anti-gmo anti science nuts.
Hawaii has a conformity problem that most people wouldn't believe unless they've been here, where the people most reliant on the federal government for food march in lock step with whatever their "cultural leaders" (actually no such thing, as again ,most of these are from california) say....If one guy wears a shirt, they ALL wear that shirt. If the one guy punches someone, they ALL mob him.
The latest dustup has these californians telling the gullible mobs that someone is going to put nuclear powered telescopes on a mountain and use "the aquifer" that everyone drinks from (there is no one aquifer, only oahu is like that) for cooling and all the water will be poisoned.
First they just blocked the roads....nevermind that hawaii is 50th in education or any measure of intelligence, we NEED as much science as we can get. Then the violence, as usual, just like in the cases of vaccines and gmos started.
And now Tulsi has endorsed and pandered to them
I am sooooo bummed. Like betrayed. She really felt right.
Lets hope they let Yang run
Like all the good, bipartisan parts of McCain, without the ....well, McCain part of it
Around here our biggest concerns with Tulsi weren't the anti-gay stuff she did as a teen (at the time you wouldn't last 5 minutes on the street gay bashing in hawaii, and probably wanted to be able to go outside sometime), it was the fact that she pandered
HARD
She would pander to the anti-science crowd again and again to the point where even the pro science people had to vote republican
She pandered to the anti-evolution side in education
She pandered to the anti-vaxxers. The legacy of that on Maui for instance, is insane
She pandered to the anti-GMO nuts to the point where they got hawaiians to vote to make their traditional foods illegal
Its not even like she was pandering to her local base, the people whipping this stuff up were your typical california, seattle left wing science deniers, the typical anti-gmo anti science nuts.
Hawaii has a conformity problem that most people wouldn't believe unless they've been here, where the people most reliant on the federal government for food march in lock step with whatever their "cultural leaders" (actually no such thing, as again ,most of these are from california) say....If one guy wears a shirt, they ALL wear that shirt. If the one guy punches someone, they ALL mob him.
The latest dustup has these californians telling the gullible mobs that someone is going to put nuclear powered telescopes on a mountain and use "the aquifer" that everyone drinks from (there is no one aquifer, only oahu is like that) for cooling and all the water will be poisoned.
First they just blocked the roads....nevermind that hawaii is 50th in education or any measure of intelligence, we NEED as much science as we can get. Then the violence, as usual, just like in the cases of vaccines and gmos started.
And now Tulsi has endorsed and pandered to them
I am sooooo bummed. Like betrayed. She really felt right.
Lets hope they let Yang run
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samedi 27 juillet 2019
Trump using Dr. Oz has a health advisor?
https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/05/04...-live-tv-12925
This just caught my eye, though I see that the article is a year old.
Does anyone have any more recent information? I would really like to know if Oz gives Trump National health advise, personal advise, or is symbolic. It is nasty symbolism. Con, liar, mentally ill. An anti-vaxxer, holistic nut-cake is not representing me in any way.
(I wasn't sure which forum to put this.)
This just caught my eye, though I see that the article is a year old.
Does anyone have any more recent information? I would really like to know if Oz gives Trump National health advise, personal advise, or is symbolic. It is nasty symbolism. Con, liar, mentally ill. An anti-vaxxer, holistic nut-cake is not representing me in any way.
(I wasn't sure which forum to put this.)
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Mother who lost suit against emancipated trans daughter now suing school and doctors
A Minnesota woman who previously sued her transgender daughter for transitioning and lost at the District level is now taking her case against the girl's former school and medical provider to the Supreme Court.
Anmarie Calgaro's teenage daughter was declared legally emancipated at 15, before she began receiving hormones and transition support at 17. Despite the emancipation, Calgaro's suit, which insisted upon gendering her child as male, insisted she still had a veto right over her child's medical decisions. Obviously she lost her suit in the district court, whose ruling was upheld by the 8th Circuit on appeal. She's now moving to the Supreme Court level, although her lawsuit apparently no longer names her daughter and instead focuses on the teachers and doctors who supported her transition, along with the county judiciary that granted the emancipation. Her Supreme Court brief, which was filed by the Thomas More Society who is pushing her case, seems to be disputing the legal basis of the concept of emancipation and states' ability to grant it to children, expressing apparent shock that it's actually a thing.
Anmarie Calgaro's teenage daughter was declared legally emancipated at 15, before she began receiving hormones and transition support at 17. Despite the emancipation, Calgaro's suit, which insisted upon gendering her child as male, insisted she still had a veto right over her child's medical decisions. Obviously she lost her suit in the district court, whose ruling was upheld by the 8th Circuit on appeal. She's now moving to the Supreme Court level, although her lawsuit apparently no longer names her daughter and instead focuses on the teachers and doctors who supported her transition, along with the county judiciary that granted the emancipation. Her Supreme Court brief, which was filed by the Thomas More Society who is pushing her case, seems to be disputing the legal basis of the concept of emancipation and states' ability to grant it to children, expressing apparent shock that it's actually a thing.
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Bill Casey & Ralph Rene books
I found both there books are available on Amazon, my question is who gets the royalties. Is it remaining family members or has some one bought the rights. If it is the latter I will pass on the purchase.
Dean
Dean
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Can the Republican party be saved?
Recently I posted this in another thread where it was off-topic. Minor editing to remove the first and last lines and correct a redundancy.
I forgot the party of conspiracy theories. Birtherism. Pizzagate. Omar married her brother. QAnon. Hillary's health. Etc.
ETA: And DEATH PANELS!
Oh, and they also hate poor people, while convincing some of them to vote for them.
I'm currently reading Everything Trump Touches Dies, by @TheRickWilson. He's a longtime Republican consultant who hates Trump. It's a frustrating read, because like the poster I was responding to above, he can't see the forest for the trees. He blames Trump, when in fact he's spent years CREATING the kind of party that could nominate Trump. I probably won't finish it.
Quote:
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I come from a long line of Republicans. I proudly wore my I Like Ike button when I was in elementary school. I'd have voted for Nixon in '68 had I been eligible, and did so in '72. Which was a mistake, but I continued to vote for Republicans after. I didn't leave the Republican Party, it left me. For the past forty years or so, it's become: The party of fiscal irresponsibility, repeated tax cuts for the rich generating extreme deficits. Thank you so very not-much, David Stockman. The party of war. Ok, Nixon inherited VietNam. And lost it. Panama? Granada? Serisously? I supported going into Afghanistan, but they bungled it. Iraq was based entirely on lies. Republican lies. And it's turned out SO very well. The party of hate. Hatred of gays, hatred of transexuals, hatred of anyone not lily white, hatred of foreigners, hatred of women who don't know their place, hatred of non-Christians. And of the wrong kinds of Christians. Oh, but it was the Democrats who supported slavery! Yeah, that was 160 years ago. Give me a break. And all those Southern Dems who were against civil rights in the '60's are Republicans now. Trump is NOT an aberration. He's what the Republican Party has been moving toward for the past 50 years. If you support that party, you support Trump whether you think so or not. And I pity you for it. |
ETA: And DEATH PANELS!
Oh, and they also hate poor people, while convincing some of them to vote for them.
I'm currently reading Everything Trump Touches Dies, by @TheRickWilson. He's a longtime Republican consultant who hates Trump. It's a frustrating read, because like the poster I was responding to above, he can't see the forest for the trees. He blames Trump, when in fact he's spent years CREATING the kind of party that could nominate Trump. I probably won't finish it.
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US Teens 'confess' to murder of cop in Italy
In a case which has caused outrage in Italy, in which a 40-ish newly married cop was stabbed to death when he tried to intercept a planned handover of a rucksack stolen by disgruntled teens who, feeling cheated in a drug deal, had responded to a phone call from the alleged dealer offering to let him have his bag back in exchange for apx €100 and a gram of cocaine.
A search of the tourists' hotel revealed what is alleged to be the 'murder weapon', a very large knife. Two 19-year-old American citizens were arrested and it is being reported that one or both has 'confessed' to have committed the crime.
<snip>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/27/w...americans.html
Is this the real murder weapon? Are the police simply picking on the two kids, as they did Amanda Knox (her supporters claim) and did they really confess or were they 'interrogated for 53 hours" like Amanda Knox (as claimed by her supporters) which forced them to blurt out a 'false confession' as happened to Knox (so claim her supporters)?
Will Trump intervene to demand Italy release the two US citizens?
A search of the tourists' hotel revealed what is alleged to be the 'murder weapon', a very large knife. Two 19-year-old American citizens were arrested and it is being reported that one or both has 'confessed' to have committed the crime.
Quote:
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The teenagers, identified as Finnegan Lee Elder, 19, and Gabriel Christian Natale Hjorth, 18, both born in San Francisco, were accused of stabbing the officer, Deputy Brig. Mario Cerciello Rega of Italy’s military police, or carabinieri, on Friday morning. The officer had tried to recover a backpack the two men were accused of stealing a few hours earlier, officials said. The suspects have admitted to the crime, according to a statement by the carabinieri press office. |
Quote:
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The two Americans were arrested at a four-star hotel room in the Prati neighborhood of Rome on Friday as they were getting ready to leave the country, according to the carabinieri press office. The statement said that officers found “a knife of considerable size,” believed to be the weapon used to kill Brigadier Cerciello Rega, hidden behind a panel in the hotel room ceiling, along with clothes that the men had apparently worn during the attack. |
Is this the real murder weapon? Are the police simply picking on the two kids, as they did Amanda Knox (her supporters claim) and did they really confess or were they 'interrogated for 53 hours" like Amanda Knox (as claimed by her supporters) which forced them to blurt out a 'false confession' as happened to Knox (so claim her supporters)?
Will Trump intervene to demand Italy release the two US citizens?
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Female teacher ... groomed 13-year-old female student for years
Apologies for editing the 'Daily Fails' headline, but it was too long for the title.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...old/ar-AAEWzxy
Quote:
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A teenager sexually groomed by her teacher says she does not hate her abuser and it hurts to know the woman will likely spend years in a West Australian prison. The teacher, who cannot be named, was aged 25 and 26 when she sexually abused two students, aged 13 and 17, between September 2015 and December 2016. The woman has pleaded guilty to 44 charges, including indecent dealing and sexual penetration of a child under her care |
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...old/ar-AAEWzxy
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Man gets 18 years for being a fantasist
What do people think about the Carl Beech and 'Operation Midland' affair.
To summarise from wiki:
<snip>
He is obviously a disgusting specimen of a human being, initially blaming his 14-year-old son for the child abuse images found on a laptop by the police. In addition, he ruined the lives of many people, especially those in high-profile positions who were named by the press as being 'under investigation' for running alleged paedophile rings which involved raping and abusing young boys at parties.
There is no denying Beech was correctly convicted.
However, ISTM this all started when he joined a forum to discuss how he had been abused by his adopted father, who was quite high up in the military and indeed, his mother, Charmian divorced him because of his heavy drinking and poor treatment of her.
I wonder whether in fact, if Beech was abused by his stepfather (although there is no suggestion he was) then it is possible his father could have passed him around his boy-loving friends. From there, Nick was encouraged by a journalist who saw what he wrote on the forum describing his abuse, to be interviewed for an article and this developed into tv producers - including BBC's Panorama - running documentaries with him as a 'witness' on high-up paedophile rings. This is against a back drop of a real paedophile ring discovered (Cooke) and extensive exposure of PIE rings.
ISTM Beech was merely being encouraged to fantasise and he duly obliged, enjoying the attention and possibly even believing some of his nonsense.
It was surely the Met Police who ruined the reputations of top politicians (for example, Ted Heath and Nigel Lawson) and top military brass (for example Lord Bramall and Janner)?
Beech's stach of child porn certainly deserved a lengthy prison sentence.
However, nobody was killed. He didn't ask the BBC or the police to focus attention on him or say his claims were 'true and credible'.
He is a sad pathetic man. Yet his sentence seems to be even longer than some heinous murderers who get out in nine years. It seems a bit over the top to me.
To summarise from wiki:
Quote:
|
In November 2014, Operation Midland was set up by the Metropolitan Police in London to examine allegations of child sexual abuse and homicide,[1] later extended to cover allegations of three murders and activities at the Dolphin Square development in Pimlico and elsewhere;[2] on 21 March 2016, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Operation Midland had been closed without any charges being brought.[3] An inquiry found that those investigated by police were victims of false allegations and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner subsequently apologised to them.[4] The primary accuser, Carl Beech, was convicted of charges related to making up the allegations in July 2019. |
Quote:
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In July 2018 it was announced that Beech had been charged with twelve counts of perverting the cause of justice and one of fraud.[23] After the lifting of reporting restrictions in December, Beech was publicly identified by name, as a 50-year-old former National Health Service manager from Newcastle. Beech is accused of obtaining £22,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority by submitting a false claim of abuse.[24] In May 2019, Beech was placed on trial; he denied the charges against him.[25] During the trial, it was revealed that Beech had previously been convicted of voyeurism and making and possessing indecent images of children, relating to offences committed while he was still making allegations to the police.[26] Beech was convicted of all charges on 22 July and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on 26 July.[27] |
There is no denying Beech was correctly convicted.
However, ISTM this all started when he joined a forum to discuss how he had been abused by his adopted father, who was quite high up in the military and indeed, his mother, Charmian divorced him because of his heavy drinking and poor treatment of her.
I wonder whether in fact, if Beech was abused by his stepfather (although there is no suggestion he was) then it is possible his father could have passed him around his boy-loving friends. From there, Nick was encouraged by a journalist who saw what he wrote on the forum describing his abuse, to be interviewed for an article and this developed into tv producers - including BBC's Panorama - running documentaries with him as a 'witness' on high-up paedophile rings. This is against a back drop of a real paedophile ring discovered (Cooke) and extensive exposure of PIE rings.
ISTM Beech was merely being encouraged to fantasise and he duly obliged, enjoying the attention and possibly even believing some of his nonsense.
It was surely the Met Police who ruined the reputations of top politicians (for example, Ted Heath and Nigel Lawson) and top military brass (for example Lord Bramall and Janner)?
Beech's stach of child porn certainly deserved a lengthy prison sentence.
However, nobody was killed. He didn't ask the BBC or the police to focus attention on him or say his claims were 'true and credible'.
He is a sad pathetic man. Yet his sentence seems to be even longer than some heinous murderers who get out in nine years. It seems a bit over the top to me.
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Extremely annoying Netflix issue
Any help would be appreciated
Have been using for ages to cast to TV from laptop Netflix site to chromecast on TV, worked fine
Can still cast from phone using netflix app', which is annoying and do "screen" cast from laptop so knows it is there.
Not the most important thing in the world obviously, as it ain't like I am dying but geezes.
Long story short.
Laptop Dell
Win 10
Browser Chrome - Extension - Chrome 1080p
Now when trying to play videos on Netflix site get this.
https://imgur.com/8eayR7X.jpg
Tried clearing history and cache. Tried uninstalling Chrome and re-installing and adding extension. Tried wiping computer to factory (but keeping files). Tried running DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and sfc /scannow to check registry.
I am at a loss
Any ideas welcome.
Edit: Should add. videos play on IE and Edge on the Netflix site, just not chrome, but they have no cast function
Have been using for ages to cast to TV from laptop Netflix site to chromecast on TV, worked fine
Can still cast from phone using netflix app', which is annoying and do "screen" cast from laptop so knows it is there.
Not the most important thing in the world obviously, as it ain't like I am dying but geezes.
Long story short.
Laptop Dell
Win 10
Browser Chrome - Extension - Chrome 1080p
Now when trying to play videos on Netflix site get this.
https://imgur.com/8eayR7X.jpg
Tried clearing history and cache. Tried uninstalling Chrome and re-installing and adding extension. Tried wiping computer to factory (but keeping files). Tried running DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and sfc /scannow to check registry.
I am at a loss
Any ideas welcome.
Edit: Should add. videos play on IE and Edge on the Netflix site, just not chrome, but they have no cast function
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House Impeachment Inquiry
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1154820023631962113
I thought it was probably worth this having its own thread for related news, updates, discussion, etc. as it's not wholly related to any other thread and will likely be ongoing for quite a while.
Quote:
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Here’s the petition formally announcing in DC federal court the impeachment inquiry in which the House is now engaged. No ifs ands or buts. No ambiguity. The eagle has taken flight. https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/de...20PETITION.pdf … |
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vendredi 26 juillet 2019
How a literal grassroots movement can Heal the Land.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
Why, because we have so much time before it is needed?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
Difficult when some are so into denial that AGW is even a thing.
What problem? No matter how much you want a bottoms-up solution, it won't get anywhere without buy-in that it is a problem. |
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
Oh, those fancy-shmancy "scientists." What do they know? /sarcasm
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
Despite your optimistic blueprint I don't share your assessment that there is plenty of time to reach this consensus you cherish.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
Yeah, I hope I'm wrong. But I don't see how you get there without any give so far on the part of people who hate science and accept as an article of faith that the short-term profits of monoculture trump stewardship.
|
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
This is not the thread for that discussion. But I am interested in how to bring about this global epiphany you believe is, or least can be, right around the corner, without any top-down influence.
What would we call the split thread? "Toward a new paradigm: Widespread support for permaculture can solve AGW in one generation," maybe. "How a literal grassroots movement can reverse catastrophic climate change." |
And that's just the ground up back-up plan should me and thousands of others be unsuccessful in our top down strategies.
I cant possibly detail the whole thing here anyway but as a general outline there is a highly profitable business model that I propose we use to organize disparate sectors already present to form a grassroots coalition. They claim that it only takes 10% of the population to cause a revolution if they are dedicated, organized, and funded. I don't know if that true, but we have an actual majority, so if we organize and fund it correctly, it should work.
So because it is a business plan the profit potential can attract investors, and if the business embedded 20 farm to forks in each of the top 50 US cities, with each business seen as a "demonstration farm" for the local sectors and farmers already present that represents 1000 hubs dedicated to building the infrastructure required to accomplish this profitably even if the government still resists. Each of the hubs educating both other farmers and local customers by the 100's and 1000's each. More importantly, it is 1000 millionaire business people in the local chamber of commerce of their respective local cities, using exactly the same tactics to sway local politicians...and since organized nationally....national politicians. Once we have "captured" the US with good food, we can push for international.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Minoosh (Post 12767201)
I'm really interested on how you can boil your position down to 20 words or so. It must be simple to reach simpletons. Not farmers; the GOP.
|
"If all farmland was a net sink rather than a net source for CO2, atmospheric CO2 levels would fall at the same time as farm productivity and watershed function improved. This would solve the vast majority of our food production, environmental and human health ‘problems’." Dr. Christine Jones
That one is not bad from a scientific POV.
To the anti-science hard core religious right I would say it differently by using the language that means exactly the same thing, but in a way that communicates this dynamic which emphasizes good stewardship of the land doctrine.
2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
IMHO a coalition could be formed if we take this approach. There is even a top climate scientist who brings both these to the table, Katharine Hayhoe
She is even on public TV.
[yt]yc3rYFcAyeI[/yt]
As for me the best one I personally was capable of figuring out was this:
Quote:
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There is more carbon missing from our soils worldwide than the additional carbon in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial age. So yes we can reverse Global Warming. It does not require huge tax increases or expensive untested risky technologies. It will require a three pronged approach worldwide.
I am an organic farmer. I am not afraid of change. I am the change. - |
So to pull it all together We take a profitable conservative business model and creatively repeat and use it to affect biophysical, political, and cultural change.
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Record Heat in UK
I know ISF has many British members and I was hoping to find some commentary here about this week's record heat in the UK, France and other parts of Europe. Here in the US, NBC News reported:
Paris got to 105°F, Gilze-Rijen airbase in the Netherlands recorded a high of 104°F, while in Belgium "the Kleine Brogel air base, roughly 55 miles east of Antwerp, broke national records reaching 105°F." The past week the New York City area had a heat wave, with people wilting as the mercury climbed to the high 90s but this puts us to shame.
What I'm wondering about, is Boris Johnson a climate change denier? Climate change as the earth warms, does this engender the same kind of controversy in Britain and other parts of Europe as it does in the US?
Where is this headed? :(
[** - Bear with me please, Yanks still express temps in Fahrenheit.]
Quote:
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The United Kingdom recorded its hottest day ever on Thursday in a heat wave that also shattered temperature records in France, the Netherlands and Belgium. Temperatures reached 101.66 degrees [**] at Cambridge University Botanic Garden, according to new provisional data released by the U.K.'s Met Office on Friday. If verified, it would make Thursday the hottest day ever on record in the country. The country's previous record high of 101.3 degrees was set in 2003. Link |
What I'm wondering about, is Boris Johnson a climate change denier? Climate change as the earth warms, does this engender the same kind of controversy in Britain and other parts of Europe as it does in the US?
Where is this headed? :(
[** - Bear with me please, Yanks still express temps in Fahrenheit.]
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Supreme court allows Trump billions in military funding for wall
Scotus is conservative and will be for a long time deal with it
https://apnews.com/5d893d388c254c7fa83a1570112ae90e
"Elections have consequences" - Obama
https://apnews.com/5d893d388c254c7fa83a1570112ae90e
"Elections have consequences" - Obama
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Marianne Williamson - Antidepressants Are Overprescribed for Normal Human Despair
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...ntidepressants
"Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson told BuzzFeed News’ AM to DM that she believes antidepressants are overprescribed by doctors and that they aren’t needed to treat situations she categorized as instances of “normal human despair” instead of a mental illness."
this should go over well
"Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson told BuzzFeed News’ AM to DM that she believes antidepressants are overprescribed by doctors and that they aren’t needed to treat situations she categorized as instances of “normal human despair” instead of a mental illness."
this should go over well
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A$AP Rocky and the Swedish justice system
I haven't seen a thread about it here, but it's big news in Sweden and I have heard various people on US talk shows talk about it, so I'd say it's worth a thread.
A$AP Rocky was arrested (gripen) by police after a concert in Sweden, accused of assault during an altercation earlier in the day. He was then detained by police (anhållen) awaiting a court hearing, where he was detained and remanded to jail (häktad) until trial. He's been there since the beginning of July, about three and a half weeks, and the court has set a date for his trial next week.
The issue is special in part due to who the accused person is, and in part because the US President has attempted to get Swedish politicians to meddle in the independent justice system to secure A$AP Rocky's release. Needless to say, this has not been successful.
A brief overview of the Swedish judicial system:
A person accused of a crime can be arrested (gripen) by police and held for up to a maximum of 12(6+6) hours. Then a prosecutor can detain (anhålla) the accused for up to 72 hours. During this time, the accused is held in police custody.
After 72 hours, in order to keep the accused locked up, a court must order the person remanded to jail (häktad), a decision that must be reviewed during a new hearing every two weeks until the prosecutor presents a completed investigation and a formal charge. There are some requisites that allows the court to keep the accused remanded to jail. These include risk of residivism, risk of interfering with the investigation in a few ways, and risk of flight. In the case of A$AP Rocky, in part due to the fact that the rapper was booked for a tour and was due to leave Stockholm very soon, it was the third requisite that went into effect.
Now, there are clauses ensuring that a person cannot be remanded in jail for a length of time that would impose unproportional damage on the accused. However, a 4 week period from alleged crime to trial is a very quick process, so such a clause cannot come into effect here.
The maximum sentence for the crime A$AP Rocky is accused of is 2 years in prison. Scuttlebutt is that the prosecutor has very good evidence, and personally I think a guilty verdict is likely. That said, I very much doubt a maximum sentence, as that would not be praxis in a case such as this. I expect some form of probation combined with a fine and probably damages to be payed to the victim. Possibly, there could be a brief prison-sentence, with time served taken into account.
I'd like to know how people are talking about this in the US. Do you think Swedish authorities should bend to pressure and just let the guy go?
A$AP Rocky was arrested (gripen) by police after a concert in Sweden, accused of assault during an altercation earlier in the day. He was then detained by police (anhållen) awaiting a court hearing, where he was detained and remanded to jail (häktad) until trial. He's been there since the beginning of July, about three and a half weeks, and the court has set a date for his trial next week.
The issue is special in part due to who the accused person is, and in part because the US President has attempted to get Swedish politicians to meddle in the independent justice system to secure A$AP Rocky's release. Needless to say, this has not been successful.
A brief overview of the Swedish judicial system:
A person accused of a crime can be arrested (gripen) by police and held for up to a maximum of 12(6+6) hours. Then a prosecutor can detain (anhålla) the accused for up to 72 hours. During this time, the accused is held in police custody.
After 72 hours, in order to keep the accused locked up, a court must order the person remanded to jail (häktad), a decision that must be reviewed during a new hearing every two weeks until the prosecutor presents a completed investigation and a formal charge. There are some requisites that allows the court to keep the accused remanded to jail. These include risk of residivism, risk of interfering with the investigation in a few ways, and risk of flight. In the case of A$AP Rocky, in part due to the fact that the rapper was booked for a tour and was due to leave Stockholm very soon, it was the third requisite that went into effect.
Now, there are clauses ensuring that a person cannot be remanded in jail for a length of time that would impose unproportional damage on the accused. However, a 4 week period from alleged crime to trial is a very quick process, so such a clause cannot come into effect here.
The maximum sentence for the crime A$AP Rocky is accused of is 2 years in prison. Scuttlebutt is that the prosecutor has very good evidence, and personally I think a guilty verdict is likely. That said, I very much doubt a maximum sentence, as that would not be praxis in a case such as this. I expect some form of probation combined with a fine and probably damages to be payed to the victim. Possibly, there could be a brief prison-sentence, with time served taken into account.
I'd like to know how people are talking about this in the US. Do you think Swedish authorities should bend to pressure and just let the guy go?
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jeudi 25 juillet 2019
iphone SE keeps shutting down
For the last week, my iphone SE has been behaving very strangely, suddenly shutting off, where sometimes the only way to turn it back on is to hold the power button and the home button at the same time.
In the last two days, it basically shuts down like every 2 minutes, and sometimes restarts automatically. Sometimes you still have to force it to turn back on.
I went to an apple store and they did a diagnosis on the phone and determined that it's not the battery, but some software issue (typically an app that is causing the malfunction). They told me to try to back up all my stuff and reset the phone to factory mode.
So I did..... and it still keeps shutting off every couple minutes.
I'm out of ideas here. Anyone have a clue of what the hell is wrong with this phone? It's about 2 years old so it baffles me that it's already behaving like such a piece of ****.
In the last two days, it basically shuts down like every 2 minutes, and sometimes restarts automatically. Sometimes you still have to force it to turn back on.
I went to an apple store and they did a diagnosis on the phone and determined that it's not the battery, but some software issue (typically an app that is causing the malfunction). They told me to try to back up all my stuff and reset the phone to factory mode.
So I did..... and it still keeps shutting off every couple minutes.
I'm out of ideas here. Anyone have a clue of what the hell is wrong with this phone? It's about 2 years old so it baffles me that it's already behaving like such a piece of ****.
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AG Barr directs Federal Government to resume capital punishment.
Quote:
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(CNN) Attorney General William Barr directed the the federal government Thursday to resume capital punishment after nearly two decades and has directed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule the execution of five inmates after adopting an updated execution protocol. Barr has directed the head of the Bureau of Prisons to execute "five death-row inmates convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society — children and the elderly," according to a statement from the Department of Justice. At Barr's direction, the Bureau of Prisons has adopted the Federal Execution Protocol Addendum which "replaces the three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions with a single drug—pentobarbital," the Justice Department announced. |
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mercredi 24 juillet 2019
North Sydney council bans smoking in all public places
The last gasp: Australian council bans smoking in public places
Do you support this kind of action in the name of public health? Would you agree to such a ban in your home town? I'm an ex-smoker, and I'd say this goes a little too far. There should be spaces where smokers can still light up - we all know that nicotine addiction causes cravings that can be hard to resist for a full work day, and planning for that avoids criminalising what in the end is a substance dependence disorder. But at the same time, this sends a strong message that it is probably time to quit for your own health.
What's your opinion?
Quote:
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Vote hailed as long overdue by mayor of North Sydney, but greeted with despair by area’s dwindling number of smokers The lunchtime smokers of North Sydney gathered under a cloud this week after their local council became the first in Australia to vote to ban smoking in all public places within its CBD. Speaking after the decision the local mayor, Jilly Gibson, said the move was long overdue. “I believe it is the time of the non-smoker,” she declared. The ban doesn’t come into force for a few months and Guardian Australia managed to find a few smokers furtively lighting up in the doorways of fire escapes, or hidden in the shadow of alcoves. A large group of them took refuge in an alleyway behind an Aldi supermarket; in these troubled times, there is safety in numbers. “We were just talking about it,” Terry Lee, a vaper, says when I ask him if he’s heard the news. “We’re sad mate, we’re sad,” his colleague Bosco Dcosta tells me. |
What's your opinion?
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9/11 Paper Accepted to Major Conference
So it seems that they need cash for a German mathematician to show his paper to the engineering world in New York.
http://action.ae911truth.org/o/50694...st_KEY=1402270
The article has several links going to the donation page, but not a single link to the site of the Conference. I wonder why... Also no link to the paper.
I did find some other papers which he wrote.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.06207
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.06183
He is not one of the speakers.
http://www.iabse2019.com/showcontent.aspx?MenuID=9140
He is also not an engineer, else AE9/11 would have called him that, so he also wont be speaking at the Young engineers program.
http://www.iabse2019.com/showcontent.aspx?MenuID=7915
So not sure when they are going to let him speak tbh..
https://venuewest-my.sharepoint.com/...%2010,2019.pdf
And how can a paper be accepted to a congress btw? Or am I missing something?
http://action.ae911truth.org/o/50694...st_KEY=1402270
Quote:
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German mathematician Ansgar Schneider was pleased to learn last month that his new paper, “The Structural Dynamics of the World Trade Center Catastrophe” — which refutes the official theory of the Twin Towers’ total destruction — was accepted to one of the most prestigious engineering conferences in the world: the annual congress of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), being held in New York City. This hugely positive development has created a major problem for Ansgar — a “good problem,” that is. If he doesn’t attend this conference in person, he cannot present his findings and won’t be included in the congress journal. The conference is little more than a month away, and the cost of attending is simply too much for this young academic. |
I did find some other papers which he wrote.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.06207
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.06183
He is not one of the speakers.
http://www.iabse2019.com/showcontent.aspx?MenuID=9140
He is also not an engineer, else AE9/11 would have called him that, so he also wont be speaking at the Young engineers program.
http://www.iabse2019.com/showcontent.aspx?MenuID=7915
So not sure when they are going to let him speak tbh..
https://venuewest-my.sharepoint.com/...%2010,2019.pdf
And how can a paper be accepted to a congress btw? Or am I missing something?
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RIP Paul Krassner
Not a commonly known character nowadays, Paul Krassner was credited by some as being the founding father of Yippies, a satirist and publisher of a sometimes amusing little underground paper called The Realist. Often good for a laugh, he tended to be irreverent about just about everything including himself.
Somewhere (I'm away from home so can't find it anyway) I still have a little clipping from The Realist from around 1966, in which it's noted that the Russians had just sent a rocket to the surface of the moon, where it had inserted a rod into the surface. Krassner noted that he'd heard many times the suggestion that someone take a flying **** at the moon, but this was the first time he'd seen it done.
Somewhere (I'm away from home so can't find it anyway) I still have a little clipping from The Realist from around 1966, in which it's noted that the Russians had just sent a rocket to the surface of the moon, where it had inserted a rod into the surface. Krassner noted that he'd heard many times the suggestion that someone take a flying **** at the moon, but this was the first time he'd seen it done.
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What's the harm in magical thinking?
Bangladesh rumours of human sacrifice to build bridge lead to murder of eight people
Quote:
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Eight people have been killed in vigilante lynchings in Bangladesh sparked by rumours on social media of children being kidnapped and sacrificed as offerings for the construction of a bridge, police have confirmed. The victims, which include two women, were targeted by angry mobs over the rumours, spread mostly on Facebook, that said human heads were required for the massive $3 billion project ($4.3 billion), police chief Javed Patwary said. "We have analysed every single case of these eight killings," Mr Patwary told reporters in Dhaka. "Those who were killed by lynching mobs, no-one was a child kidnapper." More than 30 other people have been attacked in connection with the rumours. |
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"ONE SQUAD UNDER GOD!" chant at Trump rally
This kind of fell below the radar the last couple days (what with the Congressional Mueller hearings and all) but when I saw the clip I was damn near horrified.
The entire transcript follows (link) and even just skimming through it makes my heart sink. (sorry, couldn't find a video clip)
Transcript - remarks-president-trump-turning-point-usas-teen-student-action-summit-2019/
After a clip I got the impression that he thought they were calling him God.
The entire transcript follows (link) and even just skimming through it makes my heart sink. (sorry, couldn't find a video clip)
Transcript - remarks-president-trump-turning-point-usas-teen-student-action-summit-2019/
Quote:
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So, above all else, we know this: That, in America, we don’t worship government, we worship God. (Applause.) Right? (Applause.) AUDIENCE: One squad under God! One squad under God! One squad under God! THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m not disavowing that. They’d like me — “Would you disavow that?” No, thank you. (Laughter and applause.) The squad. No, it’s very good. Very true. |
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Girls protesting boys who identify as girl using their restrooms and showers.
I don't blame them. Having to see male private prats is not something a young girl should have to experience.
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Harvard Law Professor's Modern Family Implodes
You may have some trouble believing this incredibly insane story. In a nutshell, Harvard law prof meets lesbian in hardware store, gets picked up, has intercourse with her but doesn't ejaculate (medical issues) hears from the gal a few months later that she's pregnant. Oh, and she's living with a trans woman and they are already raising two kids together.
Now, the Harvard law prof is already living in a modestly unconventional relationship with his ex-wife, with whom he had one child while they were initially married, and two later children after their divorce. But hey, they aren't technically married and she probably won't mind if he fools around a little bit, and who knows--maybe they could all end up sharing his $3.5 million home in Cambridge. He would hit the diversity lottery, living with a hetero woman, a lesbian woman and a trans woman.
Or, you know, the trans woman and her lesbian partner could end up nearly stealing that home from him and his ex. It's a fascinating story. Just to add a little schadenfreude, the law prof (although ultra-liberal) had clerked for Antonin Scalia years ealier (apparently Scalia liked having a Devil's Advocate on his staff). But when Scalia died, the law prof wrote an article for Slate, talking about all the people his former boss had kept down:
As you can probably guess, the prof wasn't aware yet that he was actually one of the victims of Mischa's con operation.
There are some things so stupid only a Harvard law professor could believe them.
Now, the Harvard law prof is already living in a modestly unconventional relationship with his ex-wife, with whom he had one child while they were initially married, and two later children after their divorce. But hey, they aren't technically married and she probably won't mind if he fools around a little bit, and who knows--maybe they could all end up sharing his $3.5 million home in Cambridge. He would hit the diversity lottery, living with a hetero woman, a lesbian woman and a trans woman.
Or, you know, the trans woman and her lesbian partner could end up nearly stealing that home from him and his ex. It's a fascinating story. Just to add a little schadenfreude, the law prof (although ultra-liberal) had clerked for Antonin Scalia years ealier (apparently Scalia liked having a Devil's Advocate on his staff). But when Scalia died, the law prof wrote an article for Slate, talking about all the people his former boss had kept down:
Quote:
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I am close to one of the victims of his operation, a transgender woman named Mischa Haider, whom I got to know during the course of her work on a Ph.D. in physics at Harvard. She’s an extraordinary polymath — gifted violinist, writer and novelist; fluent speaker of a half-dozen languages; math genius. And physicist. Her intellect would have made our brilliant Justice want to hide his head in a bag, to borrow his charming words from last year’s marriage equality ruling. Those who have any doubt about trans mothers should meet Mischa’s children. |
There are some things so stupid only a Harvard law professor could believe them.
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"Moving Naturalism Forward" conference
In 2012 a unique conference brought together scientists and philosophers to discuss naturalism and, I suppose, where to go from here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju4C...SdS8uafdh0kmDL
[yt]Ju4C_ITlBsU&list=PLrxfgDEc2NxYQuZ5T6CSdS8uafdh0kmD L[/yt]
I put the full youtube link there for convenience of those who like fullscreen. :)
To quote the youtube description:
There are a few names in there that some of you may recognise and enjoy. Personally I found Steven Weinberg's contributions particularly insightful, though of course I don't agree with him about everything.
Sadly, while Dawkins does have few good comments, he doesn't participate nearly as much as I would have hoped. The philosophers tend to talk more than the scientists. :boxedin:
The conference took place over, I think, 3 days, with a morning and an afternoon session on each day. For those who aren't quite as into this as I am, here's a playlist which breaks bits of the discussion down by topic instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnX4...95gEya&index=3
[yt]PLrxfgDEc2NxYOtBzdyMXBpj-1Jl95gEya&index=3[/yt]
I thought people here might find this interesting as a discussion of understanding the philosophical implications of a naturalistic worldview from a naturalistic perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju4C...SdS8uafdh0kmDL
[yt]Ju4C_ITlBsU&list=PLrxfgDEc2NxYQuZ5T6CSdS8uafdh0kmD L[/yt]
I put the full youtube link there for convenience of those who like fullscreen. :)
To quote the youtube description:
Quote:
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Discussion at the Moving Naturalism Forward workshop, October 2012. Participants include Sean Carroll, Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, Terrence Deacon, Simon DeDeo, Daniel Dennett, Owen Flangan, Rebecca Goldstein, Janna Levin, David Poeppel, Massimo Pigliucci, Nicholas Pritzker, Alex Rosenberg, Don Ross, and Steven Weinberg. |
Sadly, while Dawkins does have few good comments, he doesn't participate nearly as much as I would have hoped. The philosophers tend to talk more than the scientists. :boxedin:
The conference took place over, I think, 3 days, with a morning and an afternoon session on each day. For those who aren't quite as into this as I am, here's a playlist which breaks bits of the discussion down by topic instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnX4...95gEya&index=3
[yt]PLrxfgDEc2NxYOtBzdyMXBpj-1Jl95gEya&index=3[/yt]
I thought people here might find this interesting as a discussion of understanding the philosophical implications of a naturalistic worldview from a naturalistic perspective.
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mardi 23 juillet 2019
Cops on fire get doused with water, only they aren't on fire...
So is this where we are now? Openly attacking cops in broad daylight? Oh sure, it's just buckets of water, where's the harm in that, right?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-do...em-2019-07-23/
Looks like there were arrests made later.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/us/ny...age/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-do...em-2019-07-23/
Looks like there were arrests made later.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/23/us/ny...age/index.html
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Finally diving into smartphone world: picking a phone
My phone for years has been the kind with half the face taken up with a non-touch screen and the other half with physical phone buttons, with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard hidden behind. I'm finally taking seriously the idea of getting a non-sliding-or-flipping touchscreen with all them fancy-shmancy extra programs in them. But how do I narrow it down beyond that? Looking at the collection of phones that one carrier offers as compatible with their services, Cricket for example, I see prices from $10 to $800 on the same page (HTC Desire 550 & Samsung Galaxy S10). What causes people to want phones that cost more?
Is there any real difference in the user's experience between iOS and Android? (I have an Android tablet and have had no problem figuring out how to use it, but I've never tried an Apple.)
Cameras... I don't care. But I presume there's more to these differences than that.
Pictures of the different models are usually from the front, but they seem to have different combinations of buttons around the edges. Do some manufacturers/models feature different physical buttons that you'd want to make sure you have (or don't have)?
Size, or screen size... I can see the relevance, but most of them don't announce their sizes. Is this the main driver of price, so price could be used as a proxy of size, or would I need to chase down their specifications wherever they might be hiding in order to really compare them? (Also, the most expensive I've seen lately, the Samsung Galaxy S10, has the screen covering so much of one surface that there's not much room left for the speaker & microphone, which seems like a bad idea for phone call quality. Are we to think they've found a way around that, or just that having such a vast screen is worth the sacrifice in sound (at least if your use for it is more pocket-computer than portable-phone)?)
What else is left? Is it just some being faster or having more memory or such than others, like with computers? Are there any specific tricks that some up their sleeves and others just don't at all no matter how smoothly they might handle everything else?
Is there any real difference in the user's experience between iOS and Android? (I have an Android tablet and have had no problem figuring out how to use it, but I've never tried an Apple.)
Cameras... I don't care. But I presume there's more to these differences than that.
Pictures of the different models are usually from the front, but they seem to have different combinations of buttons around the edges. Do some manufacturers/models feature different physical buttons that you'd want to make sure you have (or don't have)?
Size, or screen size... I can see the relevance, but most of them don't announce their sizes. Is this the main driver of price, so price could be used as a proxy of size, or would I need to chase down their specifications wherever they might be hiding in order to really compare them? (Also, the most expensive I've seen lately, the Samsung Galaxy S10, has the screen covering so much of one surface that there's not much room left for the speaker & microphone, which seems like a bad idea for phone call quality. Are we to think they've found a way around that, or just that having such a vast screen is worth the sacrifice in sound (at least if your use for it is more pocket-computer than portable-phone)?)
What else is left? Is it just some being faster or having more memory or such than others, like with computers? Are there any specific tricks that some up their sleeves and others just don't at all no matter how smoothly they might handle everything else?
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Beans destroy a nice old bridge
Way too many beans here. Next time fewer beans please!
Big rig carrying 43 tons of beans collapses historic 100-year-old bridge that had a weight restriction of just 14 tons
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-14-tons.html
Big rig carrying 43 tons of beans collapses historic 100-year-old bridge that had a weight restriction of just 14 tons
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Daily Mail
An overweight semi-truck carrying beans completely crushed a historic bridge on Monday.
Michael Dodds was transporting dry beans in a 2005 Peterbilt truck in Northwood, North Dakota when he decided to cross the Goose River by bridge. Around 1.15pm, Dodd attempted to navigate the 56-foot-long bridge before it collapsed under the truck's weight. The back end of the truck became stuck on the 'west abutement', officials said in a post of Facebook. Grand Forks County Sheriff's officials say the historic, 113-year-old bridge has a 14 ton restriction and this is information is marked on the structure. At the time of the incident, Dodd's truck weighed a whopping 43 tons, or 86,750 pounds, making the large vehicle 29 tons overweight. Nobody was injured in the crash, but Dodd's has been hit with an overload citation of $11,400... Police officials say the cost to repair the bridge is substantial, running anywhere from $800,000 to $1,000,000. The bridge was built in 1906 and is featured in the National Register of Historic Places... |
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Russian stooge in Downing St
He's literally called Boris; you couldn't make it up.
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"Executive", in Government, Business, and Language
I found myself thinking about the separation of powers in government. Within that thought, I was thinking of the executive branch. The executive branch in America consists of the President, and other such functionaries that assist the President (i.e. the Cabinet Secretaries, and all the federal workers who actually do the work of the executive branch.
More or less, the executive is the big cheese. The head honcho. The guy in charge. We see the same thing in business. The Chief Executive Officer is the guy who runs the business.
Whether in government or in business, the buck stops at the chief executive's desk.
I find that kind of ironic.
I strongly suspect that the very name, executive, was chosen specifically to indicate a certain subordination of that branch to the legislative branch. They could have used some other term for the branch. It could have been the chief branch, the managerial branch, the controlling branch. (All of those were given as synonyms for "executive" in an online dictionary.) Why executive?
I think they chose that word to emphasize that the executive branch executed the instructions of the legislature. My suspicion is that at the time Locke and Montesquieu were publishing, the word "executive" probably wasn't even synonymous with those other words, about managing and controlling. I suspect they chose that word to indicate that important decisions about how the country would be run originated in Parliament , the legislative branch, and were merely put into action by the executive branch. It's more like an administrative position than a controlling position. I suspect it was actually a specific intention to call it "executive" in order to emphasize that the king had to do (execute) what Parliament told him to do.
However, that doesn't seem to fit very well with the way that we think. We expect there to be a "guy in charge", and that guy is the most important, the most powerful, the one who calls the shots. At most he might be constrained in some ways by legislative action, but they certainly don't make the rules. Surely some committee with Nancy Pelosi as chairman doesn't exist to the Donald Trump what he has to do, does it? Over the decades and centuries, the very meaning of the word itself has morphed. The word "executive" is now listed as synonymous with "controlling", where it once was more likely to mean "controlled" or "directed". We, as humans, seem drawn to the idea of a leader, a guy in charge, and if we have to change the meaning of language to make that happen, so be it.
More or less, the executive is the big cheese. The head honcho. The guy in charge. We see the same thing in business. The Chief Executive Officer is the guy who runs the business.
Whether in government or in business, the buck stops at the chief executive's desk.
I find that kind of ironic.
I strongly suspect that the very name, executive, was chosen specifically to indicate a certain subordination of that branch to the legislative branch. They could have used some other term for the branch. It could have been the chief branch, the managerial branch, the controlling branch. (All of those were given as synonyms for "executive" in an online dictionary.) Why executive?
I think they chose that word to emphasize that the executive branch executed the instructions of the legislature. My suspicion is that at the time Locke and Montesquieu were publishing, the word "executive" probably wasn't even synonymous with those other words, about managing and controlling. I suspect they chose that word to indicate that important decisions about how the country would be run originated in Parliament , the legislative branch, and were merely put into action by the executive branch. It's more like an administrative position than a controlling position. I suspect it was actually a specific intention to call it "executive" in order to emphasize that the king had to do (execute) what Parliament told him to do.
However, that doesn't seem to fit very well with the way that we think. We expect there to be a "guy in charge", and that guy is the most important, the most powerful, the one who calls the shots. At most he might be constrained in some ways by legislative action, but they certainly don't make the rules. Surely some committee with Nancy Pelosi as chairman doesn't exist to the Donald Trump what he has to do, does it? Over the decades and centuries, the very meaning of the word itself has morphed. The word "executive" is now listed as synonymous with "controlling", where it once was more likely to mean "controlled" or "directed". We, as humans, seem drawn to the idea of a leader, a guy in charge, and if we have to change the meaning of language to make that happen, so be it.
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Artificial Intelligence thinks mushroom is a pretzel
The mushroom that AI thinks is a pretzel
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49084796
Of course AI doesn't "think" that a mushroom is a pretzel because it doesn't think anything and it has no intelligence. Further, AI doesn't understand what it means to be wrong and that there are consequences for making mistakes. Artificial intelligence doesn't understand anything and what is troubling is that it can't care about anything.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by BBC News
Butterflies labelled as washing machines, alligators as hummingbirds and dragonflies that become bananas.
These are just some of the examples of tags which artificial intelligence system have given images. Now researchers have released a database of 7,500 images that AI systems are struggling to identify correctly. One expert said it was crucial to solve the issue if these systems were going to be used in the real world... The researchers from UC Berkeley, and the Universities of Washington and Chicago, said the images they have compiled - in a dataset called ImageNet-A - have the potential to seriously affect the overall performance of image classifiers, which could have knock-on effects on how such systems operate in applications such as facial recognition or self-driving cars... |
Of course AI doesn't "think" that a mushroom is a pretzel because it doesn't think anything and it has no intelligence. Further, AI doesn't understand what it means to be wrong and that there are consequences for making mistakes. Artificial intelligence doesn't understand anything and what is troubling is that it can't care about anything.
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Making Staff up While Black
Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas was left in a right old state after she blatantly ignored the 10 items or less instruction in a local store and was called out on it.
She was called a "lazy bitch" by Eric Sparkes then went on to claim he told her to "go back to where you came from." She later appeared on video visually upset.
Except he didn't and strenuously denies it. In fact the only person that was told to "go back" was Sparkes..... by Thomas!
She was on camera when;
Once she was outed as not only lazy but a liar she said;
She adamantly refuses to backtrack.
This is a lawmaker?
She was called a "lazy bitch" by Eric Sparkes then went on to claim he told her to "go back to where you came from." She later appeared on video visually upset.
Except he didn't and strenuously denies it. In fact the only person that was told to "go back" was Sparkes..... by Thomas!
She was on camera when;
Quote:
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The following day, as Thomas spoke to reporters about her claim, the accused man confronted her in front of the store while the cameras were rolling. The man, Eric Sparkes, claimed that Thomas was using him to manipulate a political stunt and that he was in no way 'racist,' as Thomas had alleged. Sparkes, an outspoken Democrat of Cuban heritage, admitted that he did confront the pregnant lawmaker in anger after she violated the store policy of bringing too many items to the express checkout lane, but never told her to "go back" to where she came from. |
Once she was outed as not only lazy but a liar she said;
Quote:
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"I don't know if he said 'go back,' or those types of words ... I don't know if he said 'go back to your country' or 'go back to where you came from,' but he was making those types of references is what I remember." "So you don't remember exactly what he said?" a reporter asked Thomas. "No, no, definitely not. But I know it was 'go back' because I know I told him to 'go back,'" the lawmaker responded. |
This is a lawmaker?
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The Trump Deficit
The US deficit is rising (both total and as a ratio to GDP) since Trump took office.
The total deficit for 2018 was $779 billion.
As of May 2019, the deficit for the year is $739 billion.
Projections for 2019 total are $1.1 trillion.
Since that would definitely break the debt ceiling, Dems and the GOP have agreed to raise the limit the US can borrow.
Trump and Republicans (as always), claimed that the economic stimulus would pay for the tax creaks - but despite the economy chugging along, tax revenue is falling further and further behind spending.
This can only be called the Trump Deficit, as the President is doing exactly what he has done all his life: spending other people's money.
The total deficit for 2018 was $779 billion.
As of May 2019, the deficit for the year is $739 billion.
Projections for 2019 total are $1.1 trillion.
Since that would definitely break the debt ceiling, Dems and the GOP have agreed to raise the limit the US can borrow.
Trump and Republicans (as always), claimed that the economic stimulus would pay for the tax creaks - but despite the economy chugging along, tax revenue is falling further and further behind spending.
This can only be called the Trump Deficit, as the President is doing exactly what he has done all his life: spending other people's money.
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Drug mastermind
This is one of the funniest stories I’ve seen for some time:
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/nsw...ng-b881268522z
Darwin Award winning quality for sure. I reckon this guy would have taken, what? five minutes before disclosing the identity of the organisers. Who in turn would be worthy winners of the Darwin Award themselves “now listen son, you will have $200m worth of ice in the van. Stay sober and clean and it might be a good idea not to go past police stations. And whatever you do, don’t crash into a police car”.
Priceless.
https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/nsw...ng-b881268522z
Quote:
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A van packed with more than $200 million worth of drugs has crashed into several police cars parked outside a police station in Sydney. Police say a 26-year-old man was driving the van when it hit the cop cars outside Eastwood Police Station about 10.30am on Monday. Officers pursued the van, stopping it in the nearby suburb of Ryde where a search uncovered several boxes containing 273 kilograms of the drug ice, NSW Police said in a statement on Tuesday. |
Priceless.
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lundi 22 juillet 2019
Think I got away with that...
Just to show that other countries don't have the monopoly on reely-dum crooks.
There is even video, so it was obviously a rather secure location.
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...ed-police-cars
Think he was doing a little QA while driving? Or dropped his burner phone?
Gawd... $200 million. His boss is gonna be SO pleased about this. :rolleyes:
Quote:
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Van carrying 270kg of ice worth $200m crashes into parked police cars in Sydney A Sydney driver, who allegedly crashed a van carrying $200m worth of the drug ice into parked police cars outside a station in Sydney’s north-west, has been locked up. |
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...ed-police-cars
Think he was doing a little QA while driving? Or dropped his burner phone?
Gawd... $200 million. His boss is gonna be SO pleased about this. :rolleyes:
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Puerto Rico
Corruption. Arrests. Resignations. Possible impeachment proceedings. Vulgar and insulting text messages. It's quite a shocking political scandal.
Massive protests held in Puerto Rico after governor refuses to step down
'He must resign': Thousands shut down Puerto Rico streets demanding Gov. Ricardo Rosselló step down
Impeachment committee forms in Puerto Rico as protesters call for Gov. Rosselló to resign
Massive protests held in Puerto Rico after governor refuses to step down
Quote:
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Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Puerto Rico to demand the resignation of the island's embattled governor, Ricardo Rosselló. It comes a day after Mr Rosselló said he would not step down over a leaked online chat in which he and top aides exchanged obscenity-laced messages. The texts included homophobic slurs as well as insults about victims of the deadly Hurricane Maria in 2017. Monday's protest is expected to be the largest in the US territory's history. |
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The controversy began less than two weeks ago with the arrest of Rosselló associates on corruption charges. The next day, the texts began emerging, and a few days later Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism published 889 pages. Rosselló's targets included former New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. Rosselló, upset that Mark-Viverito had challenged Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez's support for statehood for Puerto Rico, called her a "whore." And when a colleague texted that he was "salivating to shoot" the mayor, Rosselló responded that he would consider it a favor. Rosselló and his associates made light of the suffering Maria imposed on island residents and used vulgar language regarding a federal board overseeing the island’s finances. Even island musical star Ricky Martin was not spared: A Rosselló associate used tasteless language to describe Martin's homosexuality. . . . "They mocked our dead, they mocked women, they mocked the LGBT community," Martin said in a Twitter video. "They made fun of people with physical and mental disabilities, they made fun of obesity. It's enough. This cannot be." Rosselló also has drawn ire on the mainland; “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda was among protesters gathered last week in New York. Also, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of Congress, Jenniffer Gonzalez; Sen. Rick Scott of Florida; and New York Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez have demanded Rosselló step aside. |
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San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN)As thousands of people crowded the streets calling for Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to step down, the president of Puerto Rico's House of Representatives created a special committee on Friday to advise him on whether the governor committed impeachable offenses. . . . While Rosselló has refused to step down, two Cabinet members who participated in the chats resigned July 13. And on Friday, one of his aides -- press secretary Dennise Peréz -- also stepped down. . . . The leak came the same week that two former officials from Rosselló's administration were arrested by the FBI as part of a federal corruption investigation. |
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Another roku question?
I am seriously considering getting rid of my cable, and buying a Roku box. I am looking for opinions as to whether this is a good choice, and if so, how to buy a good one?
My cable had gone up to $104. over the past few months, and I caught it late. They reduced it by $20., to $84., and removed several good channels! So I really want out! Thanks.
My cable had gone up to $104. over the past few months, and I caught it late. They reduced it by $20., to $84., and removed several good channels! So I really want out! Thanks.
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UK’s Greatest Health threats will come from abroad, England’s top doctor warns
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-h...ds-top-doctor/
The good doctor is (naturally) very careful with her words but is simply stating the obvious.
You import tens or hundreds of thousands of people from "developing" countries and you import a whole lot else with them.
The good doctor is (naturally) very careful with her words but is simply stating the obvious.
You import tens or hundreds of thousands of people from "developing" countries and you import a whole lot else with them.
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