Florida about to ban "deplatforming"

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...orming-rcna784

Basically, the Florida legislature just passed a bill that would make it illegal for social media platforms to ban a political candidate.


I know that this thread will cover lots of ground, including the merits of banning some specific political candidates and office holders that have been banned recently, but I, personally, am not all that interested in that question.

I'm interested in the constitutional angle.

It sure seems like regulation of the press to me. I can't really see it any other way.


On the other hand, if Twitter wants to be "the press", maybe they have to abide by content regulation (read: libel laws). Social media platforms have been arguing that they are not responsible for user generated content. Maybe this is some sort of ploy to back google and Twitter into a corner on that issue.

It just seems rather blatantly unconstitutional. I wonder what supporters of the bill would say on the subject.

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[Continuation] The behaviour of US police officers - part 2

Someone had mentioned that there needs to be laws in order to deal with the specific issue of police brutality.

Perhaps not, seems we just need a willingness to prosecute under existing laws.

Chauvin and his three accomplices have just been charged by the feds for criminal civil rights violations.

Quote:

Leading up to Derek Chauvin's murder trial, Justice Department officials had spent months gathering evidence to indict the ex-Minneapolis police officer on federal police brutality charges, but they feared the publicity frenzy could disrupt the state's case. So they came up with a contingency plan: If Chauvin were found not guilty on all counts or the case ended in a mistrial, they would arrest him at the courthouse, according to sources familiar with the planning discussions.

https://www.startribune.com/feds-pla.../?refresh=true

Seems that this logic could probably apply to any case of police excessive force. While violent crime is often a matter covered by state law, brutality by police is arguably always a federal issue if you look through the lens of civil rights.

I'm guessing that a federal conviction is only going to be a cherry on top though. The bulk of punishment potential comes for the violent crime law itself, which is handled at the state level.

It's noteworthy that Chauvin, in addition to murder of Floyd, is also facing a criminal civil rights indictment for an unrelated incident where he brutalized a 14 year old boy.

Quote:

Prosecutors want to indict Chauvin in connection to two cases: for pinning Floyd down by his neck for more than 9 ½ minutes in May 2020, and for the violent arrest of a 14-year-old boy in 2017. In the latter case, Chauvin struck the teen on the head with his flashlight, then grabbed him by the throat and hit him again, according to court documents.

A much more common story of police abuse. Presumably, many common incidents of police brutality could be pursued by the DOJ. Seems likely that only high profile examples will get this special treatment.

Thread continued from here. You can quote or reply to any post in that thread here.

Posted By:zooterkin

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Rick Santorum says 'there isn't much Native American culture in American culture'

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum drew criticism for comments last week that "there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."

In remarks to conservative group the Young America's Foundation on Friday, Santorum argued that the culture of the United States is largely unchanged since it was birthed by "Judeo-Christian" values.

Santorum, 62, a Republican from Pennsylvania who served in the Senate from 1995 to 2007 and is now a CNN commentator, said there was "nothing here" before European settlers arrived.

"We came here and created a blank slate," Santorum said. "We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans, but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...lture-n1265407

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My latest windows update is 22% and taken 3 hours

Anyone else getting this?

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Dozens killed at religious festival in Israel

Israel stampede: Dozens killed in crush at religious festival

Quote:

Dozens of people have been killed in a stampede at a religious festival in the north-east of Israel. Israel's national emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed the deaths without giving exact numbers, and said dozens more had been wounded. Newspaper Haaretz reports at least 38 people have been killed. Emergency services are evacuating the injured. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as a "heavy disaster", and said he was praying for the casualties. ... Early reports suggested a structure at the site collapsed, but MDA officials later said it was the result of a stampede. Police sources told Haaretz that it started after some attendees slipped on some steps, causing dozens more to fall.

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Trump/DeSantis 2024

Right now these two have my vote. We'll see how all this unfolds.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaig...4-running-mate

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I.T. Tales

We were throwing stories around the office, and given our larger user base here, I figured I could ask this question and get some interesting tales.

How did you end up in I.T.*? Did you go to school for it? Was it a part-time gig that you ended up staying in? Did you dream of it?

I worked in customer support for various technologies. I was working at Amazon and it sucked so bad that I decided I would use all of my time getting a job where I got to choose a job, not just take whatever paid the most. Went to tech for Computer Technology\Networking, and never looked back. Best decision I've ever made.

*By I.T. I mean pretty much anything. Programming, networking, database, etc.

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Human Rights Watch report accuses Israel of crimes against humanity, apartheid.

Quote:

About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/2...d-persecution#

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Te most hated man in Austrlia - Scum basically

Sorry if has already been posted. I did a search on the druggy oxygen thiefs name and nothing came up.

https://news.sky.com/story/most-hate...icers-12289006

Quote:

Most hated man in Australia': Porsche driver jailed for 10 months after filming dying police officers Richard Pusey, an Australian mortgage broker, was told by a judge that his behaviour was "heartless, cruel and disgraceful". A Porsche driver who filmed four police officers as they lay dying after a horrific crash has been jailed for 10 months. Richard Pusey pleaded guilty to a rare charge of outraging public decency and other offences after filming the crash on the Eastern Freeway in the Australian city of Melbourne on 22 April last year. But, having spent 296 days in custody, his sentence could be complete within days. Pusey, a mortgage broker and property developer, had been pulled over for driving at 149kmph (92mph) and the officers had been discussing impounding his vehicle when they were hit by a truck................ ....................Pusey recorded two videos at the scene, a total of three minutes and eight seconds. He zoomed in on the officers' injuries and damaged cars, saying while filming a police car: "That is f***ing justice. Absolutely amazing, that is f***ing amazing." Filming the truck, he said: "Look at that, man, you f***ing c***s. You c***s, I guess I'll be getting a f***ing Uber home, huh."

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Damn You Chrome!

There is always the chance that a Windows update borked something, but why would it mess with Chrome?


What a joy to launch Chrome this morning and find all my bookmarks gone..
Easily a thousand, or more, as well as the cookies that help me log into frequently used sites.

I don't know why this is my browser of choice, but I have gotten use to it and it seems to work well with several Google email accounts..

Googling turned up no simple recovery procedures that worked..

I realized with the frequent back-ups of my system, my Chrome user data from my last back-up should help..

Replaced the current data folder with the old one, and all is good now.


What browsers do you use, and why might they help me avoid this in the future?

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A service provider's take on cryptocurrency

I think this guy nails it.

https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/C...-disaster.html

Quote:

Cryptocurrency is one of the worst inventions of the 21st century. I am ashamed to share an industry with this exploitative grift. It has failed to be a useful currency, invented a new class of internet abuse, further enriched the rich, wasted staggering amounts of electricity, hastened climate change, ruined hundreds of otherwise promising projects, provided a climate for hundreds of scams to flourish, created shortages and price hikes for consumer hardware, and injected perverse incentives into technology everywhere. **** cryptocurrency.

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Federal investigators search Giuliani apartment: reports

Federal prosecutors executed a search warrant at the apartment of Rudy Giuliani, advancing its investigation into former President Trump’s personal lawyer and his dealings with Ukraine, The New York Times and other outlets reported Wednesday.

According to the Times, investigators seized Giuliani’s electronic devices, a significant development into the long-running investigation into whether the former New York mayor illegally lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Ukrainian oligarchs.

Those same officials were aiding Giuliani in his search for dirt on Trump’s political rivals, including then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan and the FBI declined to comment on the matter.

A spokesperson for Giuliani did not immediately respond.

Under Trump, Justice Department officials repeatedly sought to block the office from seeking a warrant for Giuliani’s phones.

The new warrant suggests federal prosecutors believe they have a compelling case. Prosecutors are only able to secure a warrant only if they can convince a judge that a search is likely to produce evidence of a crime.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-...artment-report

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Port Arthur: 25 Years Later

Port Arthur massacre: 25 years on, are gun laws the best they can be?

Quote:

The Port Arthur Massacre changed Tasmania, and the nation, forever. Thirty-five people were killed on April 28 1996, among them mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers and children. But from the harrowing loss came sweeping political change. In just 12 days, the Australian states and territories came together to establish a National Firearms Agreement (NFA), under the pressure of then prime minister John Howard, who had just won the federal election. "We had an enormous amount of authority as a result," he said. "And it was a terrible disaster; it was the largest single death toll from such an event at the hands of an individual ever... and understandably the public wanted something done," he said. The NFA restricted ownership of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and made it harder to obtain a gun licence. It resulted in the destruction of over a million guns. To this day, the impact of Australia's gun reform is still evident. In 1997, Australia had 6.52 licensed firearm owners per 100 people, but by last year that proportion had almost halved, to 3.41. The number of registered guns in the community has risen only slightly, despite the importation of modern firearms and population growth. "[The public] do see the laws as having made Australians a safer country," Mr Howard said. "They are seen around the world as having been a very strong, effective, adequate response to what was a terrible tragedy, and I think that's something Australians can derive a great deal of pride in."

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India going down the Dictaroship road fast...

Modi is now trying to crack down on social media because of the criticism that he has mismanaged the Covid Crisis.
Once again:Put a religious fantatic in office (or someone who built his career pandering to religious fundematlists) in charge, bad things happen, guaranteed.

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[Continuation] Rioters storm and occupy the US Capitol - part 2

There are proposals for a Covid Commission, modeled on the 9/11 Commission, and does anyone doubt that it would be a good idea?

Is there yet, or will there be, a January 6 Commission? Again, does anyone doubt that it would be a good, a very good idea?

And not directed by Henry Kissmyass.

Continued from here. You can quote or reply to posts from that part of the thread here, but do not continue any of the bickering or off-topic derails.

Posted By:zooterkin

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A Few New Photos of the WTC on 9-11

Someone posted these to Reddit. A teenager was going through an album belonging to his great aunt.

The story and pictures are here:

https://nypost.com/2021/04/27/unseen...ign=SocialFlow

The Reddit Link is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/interesting...discovered_in/

Nothing really new, but it has an interesting angle on the collapse of WTC1 that gives a great perspective of how far debris was ejected from the building and a huge chunk is visible falling near WTC7. I've always said there are more photos out there. Someday we will see them all. The story won't change.

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It looks like my iPod just died

20+ years old, charged and I started listen to it today. A few songs in and all I get is “Do not disconnect” on the screen and nothing works. No menu button, nothing.

Any ideas on how to resurrect this beauty? Or is it time for mourning.....

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Woman got life sentence for framing boyfriend

There is a case in Oxford which a woman barrister got life sentence for falsely accusing her boyfriend rape.

How do you think, she is evil for sure but a life sentence? That’s wow:confused:

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What skills does education teach?

Education is the most vital part of a child’s life. It is not only important to get a job and make a career in the future, but it also teaches a great many skills along the process. The environment in which a child learn’s is very important as it needs to be comfortable for the child to open up completely. Having good tutors is also essential as a good tutor can teach skills in a better manner. To hire the best tutors for your children, visit the website https://www.mytutorsource.com/.
Education teaches a child the following 10 skills:
To be respectful
Leadership qualities
Effective communication
How to work in teams
How to multitask
Creativity
Confidence
Dedication
How to resolve conflicts
To be organized
These 10 skills are essential for the growth of the child as they help in every forum of life, whether it is in school, at work, or at home.

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The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef (or how to be a skeptic without using that word)

So, Julia Galef's first book, The Scout Mindset: Why Some See Things Clearly and Others Don't, has now been published. And, I would say it is a remarkably excellent book! 5 stars out of 5!

But, I am NOT just saying that because she is a friend of mine: For several years, I gave myself a thought experiment: If I were to write my own book about critical thinking, what would it be like? I would hope that it would be concise and to the point, would avoid negative-connotation-sounding words like "skeptic", and would try to appeal to a broad range of people, with a broad range of political beliefs. And, I would probably focus a lot on reducing judgementalism, which I see as a significant stumbling block towards better thinking.

I never got around to writing any amount of that book, but it seems I no longer have to: Julia Galef has been nice enough to do all of that work for me! (Thanks, Julia!) Her chapters on the foibles of identity, for example, deliver remarkably similar messages as my theoretical chapters on judgementalism.

There would be some differences, too, of course: I probably inject some more humor into my book, and include a list of logical fallacies somewhere. But, I don't think this book really needs it.

I honestly do think, as objectively as I can possibly muster, that this is a book I would recommend THE MOST amongst all other mind improvement books I have ever come across! Buy your copy today!

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Critical Race Theory

What is your opinion on critical race theory?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critic...6L-P3UoIAQqvCY

https://criticalrace.org/what-is-cri...m8T6XBtGcQB5G0

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United States Census Results Released

Quote:

(CNN)- The US Census Bureau announced Monday that the total population of the United States has topped 331 million people. The Census results found that Texas will gain two seats and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat in Congress. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will all lose congressional seats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/polit...lts/index.html

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Kentucky drivers meet traffic circle

Kentucky drivers fail to grasp the concept of a new traffic circle:
https://slate.com/business/2021/04/r...nfounding.html

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Is this something to worry about or a coincidental nothingberder?

Minutes before Trump departed office, a mysterious Florida company reportedly took over a slice of the Pentagon's internet space

Quote:

A mysterious Florida company is said to have taken control of a substantial portion of the internet owned by the Pentagon, only three minutes before President Donald Trump's official term in office ended. Since then, the company has increased its control to about 175 million IP addresses, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. The Associated Press reported that it controlled more space than some of the world's largest internet providers, including Comcast and AT&T. ... On Twitter on Saturday, the AP posted: "What a Pentagon spokesman could not explain is why the Defense Department chose Global Resource Systems LLC, a company that seems not to have existed until September, to manage the address space."

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Insane laws from an increasingly insane GOP

Hearing of late about such dystopian, anti free speech laws which will criminalize protest (via an expansive redefining of the term "riot") and absolve citizens who run over protesters with their cars, I feel like I'm watching an acceleration into madness of a political party. And as well for too many of their media-silo'd supporters who seem to have sloughed off the inconvenience of dealing with reality.

History has shown the end result of such crazed, irrational flailings in the quest for or retention of power. How far can and will this go? In the states concerned, there should be a mighty and overwhelming protest by every able citizen who cares for democracy. To sit by while such ridiculous laws are promulgated is what makes them dangerous. Raise a mighty howl against such anti-Constitutional scumbaggery. Or grumble in silence at your peril.

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New iMacs

Is anyone else planning to get one of the new iMacs unveiled last Tuesday? My very first Mac was a purple iMac, a G3 model I bought in the Year 2000. I'm planning to get a purple M1 iMac for the end of next month. The new Apple Silicon chips are meant to be marvellous, and having a purple iMac again will be a real blast from the past.

Is anyone else thinking of getting an M1 iMac? What do those with M1 notebooks and Mac minis think of their performance?

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Venous ulcer

Far out.

Way too young to have to deal with this thing. Have compression sock thing, not really doing much, any ideas from doctor people on here?

I am not exactly the sedentry type, but I do still smoke......... Yes. Know I am idiot and that is probably it,

Doesn't help I seem to be allergic to things they put on it.

iodine, innerdine, fine. All the other anti microbrials go a bit ugly, like the wee pad things

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Commemoration Of War Dead

Today is Anzac Day in Australia. It is a day when we commemorate the death of those who died fighting in war. We have one other similar day "Remembrance Day" on the 11th of November (11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month).

Just wondering about similar commemorations in other countries and just wondering how everybody feels about it. Good and wholesome tradition or is it just glorification of war?

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Corona Virus Conspiracy Theories Part II

As the previous thread was getting long, I have opened this continuation thread. Please ensure that you all read and follow the modbox in post #3.

Posted By:Agatha

Quote:

Originally Posted by varwoche (Post 13462214) Ted Nugent before he contracted covid... "They claim five hundred thousand people have died from COVID-19. ********. I believe that medical examiners in all 50 states have gone, ‘I put down on the death certificate that he died of asphyxiation, but they made me put COVID ... It's not a real pandemic and that's not a real vaccine. I'm sorry, I ain't taking no vaccine." After he contracted covid... I tested positive ... I thought I was dying A frothing imbecile learns something, whatever. But then news reports called out Nugent's prior statements. That made Ted mad! "Saying that I claimed COVID-19 was a hoax. False. I’ve always said… We have actually footage of me saying, if not hundreds, thousands of times… Of course there’s a Chinese virus. Hello? Who thinks that I claimed there’s no Chinese… There’s a Chinese virus. They call it COVID-19. I’m well aware of that.” Re-writing history is quite the thing lately.

Sadly, the right-wing crowd has an unlimited supply of gaslight of late.

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Made a slight boo boo

Long story short. Reset computer. Chose English uk keyboard type.

Can't find the. "@" on the keyboard to now finish registering with Windows.

Does someone mind saying what key it is?

Thanks

Sent from my DRA-LX9 using Tapatalk

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The mathematics of evolution

I came across this interesting series of YouTube videos recently. The author describes evolution from a mathematical perspective without bringing up too much maths.

The mathematics that he does introduce (even more complicated concepts) are presented in such a way that even people who are not good with maths can understand them It consists of simple formulas and computer based simulations that bring evolution alive. He starts with the idea of "existence" (things are "born" and things "die").

The YouTubes average about 10 minutes each and are easy to watch. Here is a link to them:

1. Why do things exist? Setting the stage for evolution.
2. How life grows exponentially
3. Mutations and the First Replicators
4. Simulating Competition and Logistic Growth
5. Simulating Natural Selection
6. What's a "selfish gene"?
7. Simulating the Evolution of Aggression
8. Simulating Foraging Decisions
9. Simulating Green Beard Altruism

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How many browser tabs do you have open right now?

I just scanned the bases for new activity since my last visit and have 18 open :)

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Not 'Taking the knee' while White...

I thought this might be worth discussing. When disagreement is increasingly becoming the main cause of social ostracism, it's nice to see someone pointing out the problem.

Quote:

Since kneeling on the playing field first became synonymous with support for Black Lives Matter, many student-athletes have faced backlash for doing so, and FIRE has defended their expressive rights. But Virginia Tech junior Kiersten Hening says she was berated and forced off the women’s soccer team for not taking a knee. Her lawsuit against her former coach, Charles “Chugger” Adair, rightly argues that student-athletes should not be compelled to engage in political expression.

(Emphasis as in original)


https://www.thefire.org/soccer-playe...-on-the-field/

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Largest ever miscarriage of justice?

So some years back the Post Office in the UK installed a new computer system and lo and behold the system revealed a large number of cases of what looked like theft and embezzlement. The accused insisted the computer system was at fault, the Post Office insisted it was perfect and many people were bankrupted, disgraced, convicted and in some cases imprisoned.

What comes next is all too predictable, evidence emerges that the Post Office knew the system was flawed, the post office was sued and forced to payout compensation to those who lost livelihoods. Today it was the turn of those convicted in court and in a single day 39 people had their convictions quashed:

Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared

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National Rape Day

Evidently, there is a hoax wandering the internet (particularly TikTok) claiming April 24th is National Rape Day and it is legal on that day to commit sexual assault. Furthermore, now many many people are frightened and planning to barricade themselves indoors like the Purge.

A link

I'm posting this here instead of in the Conspiracy Theories section because I wanted to discuss why some men think this is a reasonable thing to threaten. This particular instance is evidently a hoax, but it is not at all unusual for a man/boy to wish a woman to be raped, or say she ought to be. I've experienced it myself in less civilized forums than the ISF.

a link about rape culture

Is rape culture a thing, is the "West" in one, how do we fix it if yes, what can we do differently, so on and so forth.

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Kentucky man wrongly imprisoned for 14 months, state demands he pay for his stay.

Quote:

A Winchester factory worker spent 14 months locked in jail on child porn charges before prosecutors agreed to drop the case because repeated searches of his apartment and digital devices failed to turn up evidence against him. But as David Allen Jones finally walked free, his life in ruins, the Clark County Detention Center handed him a bill for $4,008. Citing a 2000 state law, the jail demanded that Jones help pay for the cost of his incarceration. On Wednesday, the Kentucky Supreme Court will be asked to decide if that’s constitutional. Jones is suing Clark County and its jailer, Frank Doyle, to ask that his bill be dismissed.

Link: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politi...tm_source=digg

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New NZ fault findings - Cool, but a tad scary

That will be me not moving back down to the South Island any time soon.

Quote:

Alpine Fault quake risk higher than experts thought Alpine Fault earthquake probability more than doubles after a University-led study builds one of the most complete records of its kind in the world. New research reveals the chances of the South Island’s Alpine Fault generating a damaging earthquake in the next 50 years are much higher than previously thought. A study led by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington senior lecturer Dr Jamie Howarth shows the probability of that earthquake occurring before 2068 is about 75 percent. Until now, it had been thought to be about 30 percent, based on sequences of sediment deposited adjacent to the Alpine Fault in northern Fiordland. Scientists from Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Otago, GNS Science, the University of California, and the United States Geological Survey also calculated there is about an 82 percent chance the earthquake will be of magnitude 8 or higher. The study, funded by EQC and the Rutherford Foundation, has now been published in Nature Geoscience. EQC funds a range of research on natural hazards that helps to better understand New Zealand’s risks. The researchers studied evidence of 20 previous Alpine Fault earthquakes recorded in sediments in four West Coast lakes (Kaniere, Mapourika, Paringa and Ellery) and two swamps over the past 4,000 years to build one of the most complete earthquake records of its kind in the world. “Detailed analysis and careful dating of the sediments in lakes that lie adjacent to the Alpine Fault have led to new insights into the distribution of earthquakes along the fault,” says Professor Sean Fitzsimons, a member of the research team from the University of Otago. One of the researchers’ findings is that a curious “earthquake gate” on the fault south of Jackson Bay, near Martyr River, appears to determine how large an Alpine Fault earthquake gets. Some ruptures stop at the gate, producing “major” earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range; but the ruptures the gate lets through grow into “great” earthquakes of magnitude 8 or more. These passing or stopping ruptures tend to occur in sequences, producing phases of major or great earthquakes through time. The Alpine Fault is a more than 850km-long split in the Earth’s crust marking where the Australian and Pacific crustal plates meet and grind against each other, forcing up the Southern Alps. Dr Howarth, from Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, says this earthquake gate may help with forecasting the size of future Alpine Fault earthquakes. “From the record of past earthquakes, we can determine that the probability of a magnitude 7 or higher event is about 75 percent in the next 50 years. So we now know the chances of seeing a large Alpine Fault earthquake in our lifetime are better than a coin toss. That is a really significant result but we can’t forecast the magnitude of the next event from these data alone.” Dr Howarth says the Alpine Fault earthquake record shows the past three earthquakes ruptured through the gate, producing great (magnitude 8 or higher) earthquakes. “Our modelling shows that if you’ve had a run of three passing ruptures, then the next one will also likely pass through the gate. We are therefore expecting the next earthquake to be similar to the last one in 1717, an estimated magnitude 8.1, which ruptured about 380 kilometres of the fault.” The best forecast is there is an 82 percent probability the next such earthquake will pass through the gate and cause an earthquake of magnitude 8 or higher. “This finding doesn’t change the fact the Alpine Fault has always been hazardous,” says Dr Howarth. “But now we can say the next earthquake will likely happen in most of our lifetimes. We need to move beyond planning the immediate response to the next event, which has been done well through the AF8 programme, to thinking about how we make decisions about future investment to improve our infrastructure and community preparedness.” From space, the fault appears like a straight line on the western side of the Southern Alps. But in reality it has variations in geometry and slip rate and is split up into different segments, says Assistant Professor Nicolas Barth, one of the researchers from the University of California, Riverside. The earthquake gate at Martyr River appears to be due to a slight change in direction of the fault and the angle it is dipping below the surface, he says. The researchers took a physics-based model of how earthquakes behave and applied it to the Alpine Fault, testing it against the paleoseismic data. “If you just run the model on a fault with no geometric complexity, then you just get through-going earthquakes, so they are just magnitude 8 all the time,” says Assistant Professor Barth. “But when you actually include all the geometric complexity that occurs here, then you get the behaviour we have observed, with phases of passing and terminating ruptures.” “The fact that, as a science, we might be getting to the point where we can actually use physics-based models to do forecasting is really interesting,” says Dr Howarth. “This is the first time there has been a paleoseismic data set that spans multiple large earthquakes/seismic cycles of sufficient quality to allow us to evaluate how such models behave.”

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Dershowitz claims KKK style intimidation

Alan Dershowitz Says Maxine Waters Used KKK Tactics to 'Intimidate the Jury' in Chauvin Trial
https://www.newsweek.com/alan-dersho...-trial-1585111

Quote:

Dershowitz said Waters' comments were "an attempt to intimidate the jury" so that it finds Chauvin guilty. "It's borrowed precisely from the Ku Klux Klan of the 1930s and 1920s when the Klan would march outside of courthouses and threatened all kinds of reprisals if the jury ever dared convict a white person or acquit a black person," he said. "And so, efforts to intimidate a jury should result in a mistrial.... The judge, of course, wouldn't grant a mistrial because then he'd be responsible for the riots that would ensue, even though it was Waters who was responsible," Dershowitz continued.

So, if the jury never heard these remarks, were they still intimidated? If they heard the remarks and are not a bunch of wimps or think that Maxine Waters is talking out her ass, are they still intimidated?

I think it's a stretch to claim actual intimidation.

Ranb

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Australian Family, 'The Most Incestuous' in the World?

An isolated family found living isolated in the Australian outback, contains four generations of which fourteen of the children were found to be the product of 'severe incest'. The initial couple, given the pseudonym, 'Colt', were a brother and sister who migrated from New Zealand. Law enforcement officers raided their camp, a series of ramshackle sheds and tents, with beds for 32 people, and were stunned by the appalling conditions, with no toilets or showers for the larger part. The children looked strange, 'with wonky eyes', 'low ears', 'walked with a shuffle' and 'could barely speak legible English'.

DNA test showed that a large number of them were very closely related to each other. A court case revealed that the original Colt had not only fathered a child with his sister but had also raped the child to produce another inbred child that was the half sister and niece of her half-brother.

Quote:

Now research, based on data published by the Children's Court Down Under, reveals how Tim fathered seven children - five girls and two boys - with wife June. The fiend, who died in 2009, also had multiple kids with daughter Betty and his eldest girl Rhonda, the Daily Mail in Australia reports. The 38-member Colt clan were forced to live in squalor in a sickening story of incest, neglect, and paedophilia that shocked the world when their story was first revealed. The children have since been given court appointed pseudonyms to conceal their identities. The news comes after one of the members of the family - Frank Colt - was found guilty last week of sexually assaulting a teen relative during a visit to the family farm near Yass in 2010. The offence occurred two years before shocked police discovered the clan living in an isolated camp and the defendant is now awaiting sentence. The disgusting details of the family - who moved between rural Victoria, Western Australia South Australia and the Northern Territory - have been revealed after a gagging order on their gruesome family history ceased. Their family tree shows there were four known generations who were living together, including four kids who were the great-grandchildren and grandchildren of Tim Colt. His youngest daughter had children to her brother Charlie, a court heard. DNA testing discovered 11 of those children were the product of parents who were closely related to each another, say the shocking reports. Also living in the camp were a dozen second or third-generation family members who were legally adults so not required to undergo DNA testing. Three of the late Tim Colt’s daughters have been dragged through court trials, assaulted in prison, and ostracised in communities due to their inbred children – the products of rape and sexual relations with their own father and siblings.

SCOTTISH SUN


Further details:

Quote:

In one Colt trial, Tim Colt's son Roderick was found guilty of raping his niece, who was also his half-sister. The victim, Petra, was the biological child of Tim and Bettyand was also attacked by her uncle Frank in the back seat of his car during a visit to the family farm in February 2010, for which he was convicted. She told police back in 2013 that she had never gone to school, lived "in a cult" and that "all my aunts, uncles and cousins have all been sleeping together". Betty and Rhonda's sister Martha, who openly shared a "marital bed" with her brother Charlie Colt, gave birth to five children. Their brood were likely fathered by Charlie, her own father Tim and another brother, Roderick, it was revoltingly revealed at her trial. She was slapped with a two-year prison sentence after concealing the paternity of her kids, who were all proven to be the product of sexual relations with a biological relative by DNA tests. Martha gave birth to three sons and three daughters, one of whom died, between 1988 and 2006.

ibid

Family tree here.


How this family escaped the child protection officers' net, is anyone's guess/

It calls to mind the Barrass murders in Shropshire in which a mother killed her sons as they were the products of incest.

It follows on from shock news in 2019 that researchers discovered that over 13,000 British families are the product of 'extreme incest'.

Quote:

Scientists believe that more than 13,000 people in the UK have DNA which indicates they are the result of 'extreme inbreeding'. Analysis of the UK Biobank data-bank by researchers at the University of Queensland uncovered evidence of people with whose parents are considered to be first- or second-degree relatives. This includes children created when parents and their offspring (first degree) have a child.

DM

Then there is, of course, the monarchy in Europe. Academics - unsurprisingly, perhaps - discovered that the more diversely bred the monarch, the more golden the rule.

Quote:

Results show countries 'tended to endure their darkest periods under their most inbred monarchs, and enjoy golden ages during the reigns of their most genetically diverse leaders,' according to The Economist, which analysed Ottinger and Voigtländer's data. Among the best performing were King Henry VIII and Maria Theresa of Austria. Both had relatively genetically diverse ancestry - Henry VIII's parents, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York were third cousins - and were highly regarded by historians. At the other end of the scale is Charles II, King of Spain from 1665 to 1700, who was determined to be the 'individual with the highest coefficient of inbreeding', or the most inbred monarch.

DM

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10 Snobbiest States in The US For 2021

Kinda Interesting, I look at it all in general terms. My state of CA has pockets of wealth and big pockets of poverty. Small % of snobs and a lot of down to earth humans.

Kinda Interesting:

MA, CT, NY, MD, VA

https://www.homesnacks.com/snobbiest-states-in-america/

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Statistical Numeracy

It's no wonder people don't trust statistics. It seems far too many are statistically innumerate.

Measuring Risk Literacy: The Berlin Numeracy Test

http://journal.sjdm.org/11/11808/jdm11808.pdf

The Berlin Numeracy Test was found to be the strongest predictor of comprehension
of everyday risks (e.g., evaluating claims about products and treatments

Fascinating, but scary read that statistical innumeracy is widespread among professionals that presumably should understand this.

But I have a quibble. Take this question on page 46:

Imagine that you see the following advertisement for a
new toothpaste:
Zendil—50% reduction in occurrence of gum inflammation. Zendil is a new toothpaste to prevent gum inflammation. Half as many people who used Zendil developed
gum inflammation when compared to people using a different toothpaste.
Which one of the following would best help you evaluate how much a person could benefit from using Zendil?

1. The risk of gum inflammation for people who do not
use Zendil

2. The risk of gum inflammation for people who use a
different brand of toothpaste for the same purpose

selections 3-6 omitted as ludicrous.

Here's the problem. Answer 1 is best if one assumes everyone brushes their teeth with toothpaste. Answer 2 is best if one assumes a significant number of people do not use toothpaste since the question excludes those. However, it also refers to people that use toothpaste specifically to reduce gum inflammation which may skew results.

So the question seems quite problematic to me. BTW, the "correct" answer is #1

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What imminent technology is going to most alter things as we know them?

I think it's going to be AR glasses. The major companies are going to be releasing them in a few years, and that will make them mainstream. Especially once another few years have passed and the price starts coming down. And I think that the more people that have them, the more it's going to change things.

First there's the obvious things - you'll be able to read and send emails using nothing but voice commands and gestures, and you won't even have to look at your watch to do so, let alone take your phone out of your pocket. But that's not that different to today.

I think you'll also be able to share ID data with other people, which will allow you to set reminders for when you come in to proximity with someone else.

You'll be able to translate foreign text just by looking at it.

Navigation will be easier in that directions can actually be overlaid to what you can actually see. You won't have to look at a screen, but will instead have virtual signposts and arrows drawn on or above the street.

Again, that's just an extension of what you can already do. I mean, that last one you can do exactly like that except you have to be holding your phone in front of your face, which isn't ideal.

But then we get in to things that will change the world more. Once you've got a pair of AR glasses, you don't really need a TV. You can just nominate a wall and have that be your TV. That would work for 3D films and TV, too. You could probably do away with a monitor for your computer, as well.

You can have virtual meetings. Like a zoom call, but instead of looking at someone on a screen, everybody can have an avatar with either their own face/head (if they have some kind of camera set up), or some CGI creation like a memoji or a cat filter.

And I think it's going to change the landscape even more than that. The biggest one will be advertising. I think that billboards will start to stop having actual adverts on and will instead have orientation markers which your glasses recognise and which makes them connect to an ad agency's server which checks your profile and then delivers personalised ads.

Shops will be able to display offers, new products, etc. in the window with minimal effort and cost.

Public transport hubs will be able to display up to date information on virtual boards for less cost than any other method of display.

I think it will fundamentally alter at least urban landscapes. It won't make them unrecognisable, but I think it'll alter them in the same way that, say, the invention of cash machines did, or the phasing out of phone boxes. Except that features that utilise AR glasses will be must more widespread than either of those.

What upcoming technology do you think is going to have the greatest impact on our everyday lives?

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Nandor Fodor: 1930s Spiritualist Buster

This is a wonderful excerpt from a new book titled: The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story -by Kate Summerscale.

Nandor Fodor was an investigator with the Society for Psychical Research in the 1930s in England.

Quote:

He was learning that the golden age of psychical study was also the heyday of supernatural hustle, and that to verify his subjects’ claims he would have to turn sleuth himself. When Lajos Pap materialized a snake and other apports at the International Institute in 1935, Fodor tried to work out whether he could have produced them by normal means. The staff of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington identified the snake as a Central European dice snake, about two years old and not long dead. Fodor rang reptile shops listed in the London telephone directory and found that though the species was available in stores in Merton and Islington, neither outlet remembered serving a man of Lajos or Chengery’s descriptions. He arranged for Irene to be given access to Lajos’s hotel room, where she found a suitcase with a double lining, and he tried to establish whether Lajos really had a medical reason for wearing a whalebone belt beneath his clothing. Fodor hid a pebble on his body, and challenged his colleagues to find it. He put folded sheets of paper in his shoes. On completing his experiments, he concluded that Lajos Pap could have smuggled a live snake over from Hungary in the lining of his suitcase, drowned it in the hotel washbasin and zipped it into his belt. Before the seance he might also have pressed the orphanage documents into the soles of his shoes; lodged a stone in his navel; tucked trinkets behind his false teeth; stored rosebuds in his cheeks; and stuffed a gold coin up his nose. ‘Our verdict is “Not Proven”,’ Fodor told the Institute’s members when the Paps returned to Budapest.

There is a lot of good stuff in this short piece and I'm buying the book.

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American Humanist Association withdraws Richard Dawkins' Humanist Of The Year award

https://americanhumanist.org/news/am...chard-dawkins/

Quote:

Established in 1953, the Humanist of the Year Award is conferred annually by the American Humanist Association (AHA), recognizing the awardee as an exemplar of humanist values. Communication of scientific concepts to the public is an important aspect of advancing the cause of humanism. Richard Dawkins was honored in 1996 by the AHA as Humanist of the Year for his significant contributions in this area. Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values. His latest statement implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient. His subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity. Consequently, the AHA Board has concluded that Richard Dawkins is no longer deserving of being honored by the AHA, and has voted to withdraw, effective immediately, the 1996 Humanist of the Year award.

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Are gendered labels sexist?

We used to have gendered names for all sort of social or professional roles (e.g. aviator/aviatrix, waiter/waitress, actor/actress, steward/stewardess, fireman/firewoman, executor/executrix, hunter/huntress, prince/princess, etc.) but most of these appear to be on the way out in both everyday conversation and formal writing, in favor of gender neutral terms (e.g. pilot, server, flight attendant, firefighter, etc.) while others see usage deferring to the formerly masculine term for both men and women (e.g. actor, hunter).

Are there good reasons to do away with sexed/gendered terms for things that people do, and if so, are there any specific exceptions?

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Walter 'Fritz' Mondale, former vice president under Jimmy Carter, dead at 93

Walter 'Fritz' Mondale, former vice president under Jimmy Carter, dead at 93

Quote:

(CNN)Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale, who served as vice president under then-President Jimmy Carter before waging his own unsuccessful White House bid in 1984, has died, according to family spokesperson Kathy Tunheim. He was 93. Mondale died at home in downtown Minneapolis, Tunheim said, surrounded by family. "It is with profound sadness that we share news that our beloved dad passed away today in Minneapolis, Minnesota," Mondale's family said in a statement. "As proud as we were of him leading the presidential ticket for Democrats in 1984, we know that our father's public policy legacy is so much more than that."

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Make Blasphemy Against Mohammed a Crime

Says Imran Khan, President of Pakistan.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...-against-islam

Aside from the fact that he's a hypocritical git, given that he broke 7 or 8 of the Commandments when he was playing cricket, he can just **** off.

Comparing abuse of a fairytale and a child-rapist with the Holocaust, which killed ~10 million real people, is the real outrage.

I, for one, will continue to abuse and parody their pedophile profit, and Khan's idiotic call for it to be made a crime means that I will today ensure that all of my anti-islamic stuff is posted where it can be easily found.

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Cape Town - Fire on Table Mountain

I was saddened to read about the wildfire on Table Mountain. I hope that any posters that live there or thereabouts are safe.

Quote:

A wildfire on the slopes of South Africa's Table Mountain has spread to the nearby University of Cape Town campus, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of students, officials say.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56793317

I like Cape Town and I particularly like Table Mountain. Back in 2005 I was completely unprepared when I climbed it the first time up the Platteklip Gorge - I didn't even have a bottle of water with me. :o

When I returned with Mrs Don in 2017, we took the ascent more slowly and were much better prepared although our views on this occasion were spoiled by the table cloth. We walked back to the centre of the city through the suburbs which I think have been destroyed by the fire.

AIUI the Western Cape has been very dry for a very long time. Water saving measures were in place back in 2017 (the car hire place apologised for not washing the car) and I don't recall reading about them being lifted to any great extent.

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Does Democracy Fail in the Modern Information, Post-Fact World?

I don't know. I just had that thought.

With the pandemic conspiracy theories and QAnon and all this nonsense that spreads so fast on social media and the internet in general, the impact on elections, and the importance of a well-informed electorate, is the modern world, with its new technologies and the rise of post-fact ideologies, weaken Democracy or even threaten its very existence? And what can we do about it if it does.

Just thought of bringing this one up.

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Charlie Chester not so cheerful

Technical Director confesses to CNN's propagandising.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-Tinder.html

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Questions about GPS and a lost iPhone

This is more a community topic but it's a tech question too. I mislaid my phone again. I think I also turned the sound way down while playing a game, using the volume buttons on the side, which I fear turns down the ringer as well because when I call from the land line I don't hear ringing.

Well, as always my phone seems to know right where it is, though on the cloud locater on my laptop twitches a little bit now and then, but it's generally registering as either just inside or just outside my apartment or the apartment next door. This morning it abruptly seemed to move about 30-40 feet west of my apartment wall, but a search there turned up nothing and all other times it's been hugging the wall.

My technical question is: Could it be somewhere else entirely? I lost it yesterday, and I hate not having my phone, but if I know it must be around somewhere I'll keep looking inside and out until the signal fades. I'm not sure how much precision to expect but in the past it has been very reliable. I am pretty sure GPS is involved but I could even be wrong about that.

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Goldilocks Zone Planets.

When I read about the method used to detect the Goldilocks Zone Planets I am filled with awe.

Given the method can only detect a minute number of the possible planets and the large number that have been found is staggering - 16 of these in the so called Goldilocks zone.

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Preppers & Radio

OK, so I decided to replace my long in the tooth Realistic DX-394 with a Tecsun S-2000 for the purposes of doing a bit of LW/MW DXing. So far the furthest I've managed is RTE-1, which is about 485KM distant, with the Welsh mountains in the middle. The directional antenna is quite useful.

Anyway I decided to Google relevant forums, to get the occasional tip. One of the first I found was this one. Down the list of forums was this one:


Are all Americans into radio also into the end of the world? :jaw-dropp


ETA: Don't know why the image got shrunk and blurred when I uploaded it. Sorry about that.

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Uri Geller in Daredevil

CBR.com just ran an article about Uri Geller appearing in a 1976 issue of the Daredevil comic book, portrayed as having actual superhuman powers that he uses to help Daredevil fight a villain. Writer Marv Wolfman also wrote a long editorial in the issue promoting Geller and his "powers".
James Randi and major comic writer Mark Evanier both wrote letters to Marvel, which got published, criticizing them for promoting his fakery. The letters are included in the article. The article also talks about Randi's history with skepticism and how he helped Johnny Carson prevent Geller's tricks on his show.

Quote:

Dear Mr. Lee, I was shocked to find an episode in DAREDEVIL that featured the Israeli conjurer, Uri Geller. Such exposure of Geller only helps to promote the impression that he has genuine supernatural powers, and I am sure the Marvel folks do not wish to perpetuate the myth that he has built up around himself by means of his sleight-of-hand tricks. Uri Geller claims to be a man with divine powers. In my book, The Magic of Uri Geller, I have shown beyond doubt that he is employing a simple magician's tricks to hoodwink the world. In his own country, he was convicted in court of the same kind of thing we here in the USA have been paying him fortunes to fool us with. Magic, as profession, is an honorable one that I have pursued with distinction for several decades. I resent the Gellers who take money for the performance of supposedly supernatural feats which are only common tricks. I believe that Marvel should set the record straight on this matter. James Randi Rumson, NJ

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USB Detection issue

I've just replaced the motherboard in my 3D printer (Anycubic Mega Zero v1) with a BigTreeTech SKR Mini MZ board, mainly to add a heated bed. In every other respect it seems to work perfectly but I can't connect to it by USB. I tried first with Octoprint which seems to have known issues (which I suspect would have been resolved with an upgrade to custom firmware) but worryingly I can't connect from my laptop either. It's not attempting to recognise the device, install drivers, etc & no unknown devices show in device manager.

My thinking is that it's a hardware fault (everything's gone wrong on this build) but I'd love to be wrong and get it working rather than have to do another swap out. Any ideas anyone?

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Defense Department confirms leaked video of unidentified aerial phenomena is real

CNN)The Defense Department has confirmed that leaked photos and video of "unidentified aerial phenomena" taken in 2019 are indeed legitimate images of unexplained objects.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/polit...ent/index.html

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New GOP Caucus to Promote Anglo Saxon Values....

And Marjorie Taylor Green is one of the founders;;


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...tical-n1264338

Now they have even dropped the euphemisms and the dog whisltes.

Anglo Saxon political values????
There has not been a nation governed by Anglo Saxon Political values since 1066.....

And the Architectural bit is priceless...

That sound you hear is McCarthy and the rest of the GOP house leadership banging it head against the walls. The whole game is to promoet bigotry with denialibitly to con the undecided;this caucus blows that strategy to hell. They now have no chioce but to denounce the new Causus or lose the denaiibiliry factor.

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Renewing your concealed carry permit while Black

Cleveland man denied concealed carry permit renewal after deputies watched a music video he appeared in 3 years ago (video)

Quote:

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Lamont Gist tried to renew his concealed carry permit just out of the city, at a less crowded sheriff’s office with open appointments. Gist started recording his visit to the Portage County Sheriff’s Department because he couldn’t believe he was being denied a CCW renewal. “I got my social; I got both my IDs right here, how can you not establish my identity? You’re not explaining to me why.,” he said to deputies in the cell phone footage.

Quote:

When deputies denied him the permit, one of them held up a picture from a music video Gist was in that had been posted to YouTube in 2018. “What does that have to do with my CCW,” Gist asked. The deputy replied, saying, “a picture says a thousand words.” Gist and his bother appear to be sitting at a table with marijuana and tequila. “I told them I’m a Cleveland rapper. I told them it was props in the video,” Gist said.

Quote:

Gist says he never got an explanation on the day he was denied, and he never received one in writing-- which is required by state law.

However, he went to another county and...

Quote:

However, Gist took A quicker route, getting the renewal in Ashland County instead, after deputies tell us they encouraged him to go elsewhere. When we asked him about whether the experience differed in Ashland County, he said, “Very different, totally different. It was a 10-minute process there. She scanned my ID, fingerprinted me, took my money and my application and said she was going to call me when my id was ready.”

Of course, the Portage County Sheriff’s Department has refused to comment or answer questions.

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Is it rude to be an atheist online?

Hmmm...

[Yt]na7HLFECjRM[/yt]

Personally, I'm sticking w/ no.

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Oh ****

Google deceived some Australian mobile users about collection of location data, court finds

Quote:

Google could face fines in the "many millions" after the Federal Court found the company misled some Australian mobile and tablet users about how it collects location data. The tech giant was taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over on-screen representations it made on Android devices in 2017 and 2018. The case centred on two specific Google settings that affected location data collection; 'location history' and 'web & app activity'. The consumer watchdog claimed Google misled consumers because if 'location history' was disabled but the latter setting was left on, the company continued to collect and use location data. The result represents a partial victory for the ACCC, because the watchdog identified specific user scenarios which constituted contraventions of consumer law. "I am satisfied that Google's conduct assessed as a whole was misleading or deceptive of, or likely to mislead or deceive, ordinary members within the class identified by the ACCC, acting reasonably," Justice Thomas Thawley said in his judgment. "I conclude that Google's conduct assessed as a whole conveyed a representation that having 'web & app activity' turned 'on' would not allow Google to obtain, retain and use personal data about the user's location." ... After an Associated Press (AP) media article covered the location data and settings issue in August 2018, Google urgently held what was internally referred to as the "oh ****" meeting, the court heard. A Google director then circulated documents about what work was being carried out to reduce user confusion. The AP article led to a 500 per cent increase in users disabling both settings, according to internal Google documents.

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“UFO detection site” in Wharton State Forest

UFO detection triggers a bomb scare in New Jersey forest — Breaking U.S News

https://newsus.app/ufo-detection-tri...jersey-forest/

Quote:

State Park police on Friday investigated the discovery of a very low-tech “UFO detection site” in Wharton State Forest. The device consists of a wooden block with a hull cord and a can of soup discovered through hikers near Saw Dust Pile Road in Tabernacle, according to State Park police. A small flag at the “UFO Detector Site 448” reading said DEP spokeswoman Caryn Shinske in New Jersey 101. 5.

A clever disguise obviously. I wonder if the other 447 (or more?) have detected anything). Otherwise why waste the soup?

:boggled:

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The post-Trump fascist creep catch-all thread

Tucker Carlson's White Power Hour continues its steady march into open white nationalism.

This time, Carlson is parroting the elements of "White Replacement Theory", the idea that liberals intend to take political power in this country by importing or outbreeding white Americans.

White nationalists are thrilled to see their talking points on primetime television:

Quote:

White nationalist website calls Tucker Carlson’s ‘replacement’ rant ‘one of the best things Fox News has ever aired’ The Fox News host has won the praise of an officially designated hate group after appearing to endorse the racist ‘replacement’ theory

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1830829.html

You may be familiar with this type of rhetoric from the manifesto of several mass shooters in recent memory. The language that white people are experiencing a soft genocide is exactly the justification at the root of white nationalist and fascistic terrorism that is currently in vogue. You may also recall the chants of "you will not replace us" during the neo-nazi rally held in Charlottesville that ended in a terrorist attack perpetrated by a white nationalist.

Seems the mainstream right is not seeing the Trump loss as a repudiation of their increasingly white nationalist, fascistic politics, but rather are doubling down.

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Us Senator congratulates USAF Reserve on its 73rd birthday

I didn't really know where to put this, US Politics, Social Issues & Current Events, Humour, Puzzles.

Anyway, Senator Cindy-Hyde Smith (R-Ms) - yes, the same Cindy-Hyde Smith who thinks there should be no voting on Sunday but seems quite happy to campaign herself on Sundays - has "sent" the USAF Reserve a Happy 73rd Birthday card via Twitter, and here it is...



Anyone care to spot the glaring mistakes? Answers in the spoiler

1. That not even the USAF Reserve Logo, this is...



but worse

2. Those fighter jets are Sukhoi Su-34s.....Russian fighter jets!

Seriously folks, is there some kind of dumb-**** qualification needed to be a Republican State Senator?

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Trump Flags

Has any other POTUS had a flag with his name on it? I don’t remember one but I don’t remember so well anymore and I don’t usually keep up with political news, but my little town has some people flying this flag and I don’t like it. I wonder if this new 45 brand will be emblazoned on a flag like the ones who flew a 卐 on theirs?

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More missing kids in Idaho

What is it with kids and Idaho, anyway?

The older kid is 17 and went missing last September, the second one is 14 and went missing in October. According to the local news source, they are both considered runaways and have allegedly been in contact with their families. Their last names don't indicate whether they're related at all, and the source didn't specify.

Now a third kid is missing, and she's only 8. She shares a surname with the 14 year old. They were all last seen in the same area, and it's not specified if that's their home, neighborhood, school, or somewhere else.

This one they're actually looking for, with a drone and a dog, but they consider her a runaway too. This is pretty amazing numbers for a town of <7000 people.

I'm torn between hoping these were kids getting out of a really bad situation and banding together, and the fear of another Vallow/Daybell type scenario.

Here's the article I'm sourcing from: Three missing Emmett children are runaways, Gem County Sheriff says

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Bernie Madoff, dead at 82.

Don't know where else to put this, and may the Mods feel free to relocate...

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/bern...ud-was-82.html

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Slot machines

Hi, everyone,

It happened a couple of years ago in Singapore and I've always wondered how they did it. I've always thought the slot machines in casinos uses an algorithm to generate random results. If this is true, how it is then they were able to predict when the next big payout was going to be made?
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapo...nes-to-predict

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Taking a walk while black

https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/st...19550985048068

Short version: Young Black man is out taking a walk and is confronted by some racist douche and his wife for walking through their neighborhood. Racist douche assaults him. Police come but won't charge racist douche with assault, only malicious damage to property for breaking young Black man's phone. Video goes viral, racist douche is outed.

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Can a font be racist?

Even after reading the article, I remain undecided.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1379841589267197954

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Cryptocurrencies and the economy

I realize that there's already a thread about bitcoin, but I wanted to discuss the whole crypto thing on a more meta level, including how they affect the economy more generally.

It does seem weird to me, how volatile they are. I admit, I don't really understand why people think they have value. Bitcoin is over $60,000 now. Ethereum over $2,000. Good luck if want to buy a graphics card for your computer, because crypto enthusiasts are buying every last one they can. Apparently at current prices, it will pay for itself within a fairly short time. Is it sustainable? How much energy does it all consume, anyway?

The popularity of cryptocurrency mining graphics cards may have surprised even Nvidia

Quote:

Nvidia expects its CMP lineup will net $150m in its first three months, three times more than initially expected. In the same breath as announcing a bleak outlook for GPU shortages this year, Nvidia has revealed that its CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processors) lineup is set to make more money than it had first expected. Launched last month, Nvidia had initially expected a return of $50 million from its CMP lineup. In a short period of time, however, it has scaled that up three times, to $150 million for these cards' first three months. Nvidia's CMP lineup is made up of four cards that share some similarities with existing and past GeForce generations from Nvidia. However, they are not one and the same. While they may share some silicon, the CMP cards are said to be built with GPUs unable to deliver what's required for Nvidia's GeForce lineup. They also do not feature any outputs and probably cost a lot more. One major cryptocurrency outfit recently ordered $30 million in CMP GPUs, which accounts for a rather large chunk of Nvidia's new CMP revenue alone. It appears as though scale takes precedent over savings here—the order value could easily see Ampere and Turing chips going for thousands of dollars. It appears as though some of the larger mining operations are desperate for higher hash rates while cryptocurrency value is up, and are willing to pay extra for it.

If you stop and think about it, that's really an incredible amount of real resources being diverted to this. The $150 million is just a drop in the bucket I'm sure.

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Morality and Law in Politics

Not that I am holding him up as an example to follow, but Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas, recently tried to veto a Bill preventing medical intervention with Trans-children on the basis that Government shouldn't be involved in these sorts of decisions. It raises an interesting question.

Should Governments be involved in everything, and especially in making laws that are designed to enforce morality issues?

I'm going to try and start the ball rolling by saying, "No."

So here are my thoughts on this. Governments should be there to do three things. One to manage the Country's international relationships, two, to create and enforce laws on a secular basis to enshrine protections for the rights the society that they oversee has determined that its people have. And finally, three, provide a system for dispute resolution between its citizens or between itself and its citizens.

Laws should not be based on religious or moralistic reasons simply because such things are independent to each individual and no person has the right to push their ideological morality onto any other person, which is what this use of Government is attempting to do.

Change my mind.

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Owner refuses to move after selling house

The owner of a California house refused to leave for 15 months after selling it for cash, protected by California's "no eviction during pandemic" laws.

Quote:

Myles and Tracie Albert, purchased their Riverside, California home in cash in January 2020 for $650,000 just before the coronavirus pandemic, as CBSLA reported. However, after they bought the four-bedroom home, the seller would not leave.

https://www.insider.com/couple-final...o-leave-2021-4

I don't think I understand how this could happen. The seller is not a tenant. He's got his money. How does tenant law apply here? What rights does he have? And isn't an agreement to vacate by a specific date part of the sales contract, if the house isn't already vacant? Wouldn't this be a breach of contract, subject to damages? Could the buyers have charged this guy rent, like maybe $50 grand a month?

I guess the lesson is "Don't buy an occupied house."

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NAS upgrade

I currently have a Synology DS214se which works fine for backups etc. Trouble is it's a bit underpowered for streaming movies which is it's secondary use. My initial thought was to buy a more powerful Synology box, they have a decent range of software etc. But then I thought of the way the box goes into a coma every few months and has to be power-cycled to restart.


Then I wondered if I'd be better buying a small form factor PC and installing a bare bones linux. I could write cron scripts that would do a restart if no network connections are active etc.

I'd definitely prefer to future proof by getting something that can handle 4K even though most of our movies are (for now) stored at around HD levels.


eta: Just found synology dsm supports cron jobs though suboptimally.



Suggestions welcomed.

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