Jailed for Facebook Post

A man who suggested a black soccer player should get the "Baboon d'Or" has been jailed for eight weeks.

Unless there's a lot more to this story, it's possibly the most absurd jail sentence in history. It's not inciting violence or racism, and it's not hate speech - it's a poor attempt at a funny put-down.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/footba...er-on-facebook

The defence that autocorrect changed it from buffoon to baboon doesn't stack up - I've tried it in a few programs, and all of them recognise buffoon, so I don't doubt it was intentional. I also don't doubt it was primarily driven by being pissed off at his own team's player.

At least we now know where the line on hate speech is drawn.

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What podcast is everyone listening toright now?

I vaguely remember a recommendations thread for webcomics but not one for podcasts. So here it is.

Wooden Overcoats Podcast Sitcom. It's pretty much what it says, a sitcom (of sorts) set on a fictional UKian island and involving rival undertakers. And a novel writing mouse. I rather like it.
Link.


Post your ideas, suggestions and recommendations.

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MAGA / GOP terrorism

After the assault of the Biden bus and the events of Jan 6th, there was a moment where I succumbed to irrational optimism, thinking that the Republican Party might well fully reject the use of domestic terrorism to further their political goals.

Recent events have helped me to overcome this Pollyannaish POV.

[yt]BpR51VgdyzE[/yt]

I expect more such incidents in the run-up to 2022.

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Windows 10: why is a driver re-install ever necessary ?

So, my civil partner has a new part-time temp job, where she's using a Dell Ultrabook laptop running Windows 10. Yesterday (the third day on the job), starting the system looked completely normal (which also includes the keyboard lights switching on). However, the keyboard was completely non-functional, so it was not possible to enter a username/password (using the On-Screen Keyboard obviously did work).

She engaged IT support, who then did a re-install of the keyboard driver (the keyboard was thereafter functional as normal).

I am a retired IT consultant with a BSc in Computer Science, so not a complete newbie ;)

Could someone with more Windows knowledge/experience than I have please explain to me why a driver re-install was necessary ? What happened to it to cause it to break so that it needed to be re-installed ? It's not as if it's a dynamically changing piece of software ... it's not been updated in many years, as one would expect of a pretty fundamental and relatively simple part of the operating system.

Why do users accept this as a "solution" to a problem ? In my working days in support (VMS and Tru64), I'd never have got away with blithely re-installing a driver for any particular device without actually explaining what had gone wrong to cause a problem. And no, bit-rot is not really an explanation.


Windows ... grrrrrr :mad:

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Mainly for lovers of duck art ... and/or U.S. wetlands

Last Week Tonight's Duck Stamp Art Auction

[yt]bl-ABuxeWrE[/yt]
I like Duck with a Pearl Earring, but it is already out of my price range.

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Podcast "9/12" features Mark Roberts & Dylan Avery

Hey all. Podcast producer and host Dan Taberski (I recommend his "Running from Cops" and "Missing Richard Simmons") has a new seven-part series called "9/12," about some interesting and unexpected societal impacts of 9/11.



All episodes are worth a listen, but in episode four Dylan Avery and me (Mark Roberts) are profiled:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-9...ew-4-86929744/


The podcast begins by describing my tour guiding at the WTC site after 9/11 and ends with my work at the top of One WTC (2015-2019).



There are several moments that made me laugh out loud. Taberski does a good job of covering the absurdity of the subject, but he also ties together different threads related to our need to fill in our gaps in understanding.



I spent 4.5 hours interviewing with a producer, then Taberski, and several more hours providing info to their fact checkers. We went deep into conspiracist psychology, recent research about the subject, how successful 9/11 conspiracists were at spreading misinformation worldwide, and the extent of my involvement. None of that made the cut. Taberski didn't tell me he had interviewed Avery until a couple of hours into his interview with me.



Avery told them that he made four versions of Loose Change, long ago, and that he's offended to still be considered "that 9/11 conspiracy guy." To demonstrate what a lying douchebag Avery is, I provided the producer with my summary of Avery's 9/11 conspiracy movies:

The Versions

• Loose Change (2005)
• Loose Change 2nd Edition (2006)
• Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut (2006)

“The plan is to have the movie done and in theaters by summer, so we don’t compete with Spiderman III. The Final Cut is exactly that – the final cut. I’m done making 9/11 films. I want to punish those responsible and move on with my life.” – Dylan Avery, February, 2007

“In the Final Cut we're going to whittle it down to things that are absolutely provable. We need to make it 100% airtight.” –Dylan Avery, 2006

• Loose Change Final Cut (2007)

"We know there are errors in the documentary, and we’ve actually left them in there so that people discredit us and do the research for themselves." Korey Rowe, Smith Magazine, 8/6/2008

• Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup (2009)
• Loose Change 9/11 (2015, 52 mins)

“So, as we got more and more information, there was more and more to draw on, and more, like, legitimate foundation to lay, for this information, as opposed to, uh, just kinda sticking to the same thing, and kinda repeating ourselves.Like, we always wanted to refine and strengthen our argument, as opposed to weaken it.” – Dylan Avery, 2017

“Loose Change (Second Edition) really is not a fair representation of the 9/11 truth movement.”

– Dylan Avery, 2006

• Loose Change Second Edition HD (2017)

“If I were to make a 9/11 film now, it would, I would focus more on, like, the financial aspect, and who these people are, and how they came into power...Less about, like, arguing about how the buildings came down” – Dylan Avery, 2017

• Seven (2020) A movie about how WTC Building 7 came down, funded by conspiracist Richard Gage’s AE911truth organization.

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Fox News hemorrhaging viewers to further right wing outlets.

Quote:

Traffic to Most Conservative Website Sags in August, While Newsmax Posts Third Straight Month of Gains https://www.therighting.com/august-2...ative-websites September 29, 2021, New York, NY – While almost all major conservative news websites experienced audience declines in August, Newsmax posted its third straight month of year-over-year (YOY) traffic increases according to TheRighting’s exclusive analysis of August 2021 mobile and desktop traffic based on Comscore data. Newsmax attracted 6,067,000 unique visitors in August 2021, up 72% from August 2020 when it drew 3,522,000 unique visitors. The Epoch Times was the only other conservative news outlet that increased its YOY audience in August in TheRighting’s top 20.

Seems Pandora's box is well and truly open. While Fox is still by far the largest right wing outlet, they are steadily losing viewers as more extreme right wing outlets provide the extremist content that the right wing American audience demands.

Fox will have little choice going forward but to either increasingly radicalize with their content or see more and more of their audience lose interest. Tucker Carlson's (the most popular pundit on the network) increasingly overt fascist and ethno-nationalist rhetoric shows where the future of right wing media and politics lay.

ETA: Also noteworthy that once-influential "mainstream" conservative outlets like "The National Review" are faring extremely poorly.

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Transgender pronouns and the 1st Amendment

Question: do penalties for refusing to use "appropriate pronouns" for transgender men & women, on publicly funded school grounds, violate the 1st Amendment?

One could argue that it does. One could argue, that they have the right to believe that someone born a male at birth stays a male till death, reconstructive surgery & hormone treatment be damned. And firing or suspending, or even fining someone for calling a man "he/sir/Mr" when they self-identify as a female, violates the US Constitution.

How do we encourage such people to respect the identity wishes of others? I don't know. This question is about penalties.

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WHO Must Go

The WHO is an international embarrassment and should be disbanded. It may be the sole thing Trump was right about.

WHO should be held accountable for almost the entire total of Covid deaths, with its insane policy of advising against closing borders, when we know for certain that's the one thing that might have stopped the disease in the early stages.

Then, to cover for its laxity in the border fiasco, it didn't declare a pandemic until long after the disease had spread to every corner of the globe.

And today, the final nail for me, its staff have been perpetrating vast amounts of sexual abuse and rape whilst on duty fighting ebola.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-d...omen-and-girls

I believe the money wasted on this organisation would be better directed towards regional agencies than a monolithic organisation which employs thousands of ivory tower dwellers out of touch with reality.

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Woman starts massive wildfire trying to boil bear piss to drink

Quote:

A woman who describes herself as a ‘shaman’ has pleaded not guilty to starting a quick-spreading California wildfire that resulted in the destruction of more than 40 homes. Alexandra Souverneva, 30, is suspected of lighting a fire near where the Fawn Fire started, according to Cal Fire, after reportedly lighting a fire to boil bear urine to drink. Ms Souverneva is a former forestry student who describes her current job as a shaman in her Linkedin profile. According to the Daily Mail, she said during questioning that she had found a puddle containing bear urine and attempted to light a fire to boil the liquid. However, she claimed that she could not light a fire, so drank the liquid anyway and went on with her hike.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b1927676.html

Some people are out there living their best life.

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[Continuation] The One Covid-19 Science and Medicine Thread Part 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puppycow (Post 13612237) "Age Discrimination" is a funny term to use there. I understand what they mean of course, but it's a virus; it doesn't discriminate. It's just that younger, healthier bodies are generally better prepared to survive it.

Headline writers do like clickbait. :)

Seasonal influenza and many other diseases have a similar age gradient though not quite as pronounced as Covid-19.

Continued from here.

Posted By:zooterkin

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Driving while deaf

Deaf man spends four months in jail for not responding to cops' commands.

Quote:

When police in Idaho Springs, Colo., saw a vehicle roll through a stop sign on a September evening in 2019, they followed it into a laundromat’s parking lot and turned on their flashing lights. The driver, Brady Mistic, parked his car and stepped out of the vehicle. He later said he did not understand what was happening, or even that he was being pulled over — Mistic is deaf and communicates primarily through American Sign Language. In the confusion, the situation escalated. According to a new lawsuit filed by Mistic, the officers threw him to the ground, stunned him with a Taser and put him in handcuffs. Unable to fully communicate, he tried to use some of the few words he is able to speak: “No ears.” It seemed to make no difference. After the encounter, Mistic was charged with resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. He was jailed for four months, during which time he said he continued to struggle to communicate the misunderstanding. The charges were later dropped.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...police-arrest/

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Rep. Lauren Boebert used campaign funds for rent and utilities, new filing shows

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/23/polit...ses/index.html

Quote:

(CNN)Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert paid utility and rent bills with campaign funds, according to a new filing the Republican lawmaker made this week with the Federal Election Commission. The report, submitted to the FEC on Tuesday, details a series of four payments this year totaling $6,650 to John Pacheco, whose address is the same as Shooters Grill in Rifle, Colorado -- the gun-themed restaurant that Boebert owns. The payments are described as rent and utilities that had been erroneously billed to campaign. Boebert refused to answer CNN's questions Thursday. In an email, her spokesman Ben Stout said the funds in question "were reimbursed months ago when Rep. Boebert self-reported the error." It is against the law to use campaign funds for personal use. And Adav Noti, a top official with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said using donors' money to pay rent and utilities is a "flagrant violation." "There are some gray areas in campaign finance law, and this is really not one of them," added Noti, a former associate general counsel at the FEC. But how federal regulators respond, he said, depends on the circumstances and whether payments represented an intentional attempt to misuse campaign dollars or were the result of sloppy compliance processes within the campaign.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s campaign has publicly acknowledged that a prior campaign finance report — which raised ethical red flags and led to multiple requests for investigation — was inaccurate. Still, the campaign defended a large payment to the congresswoman.

On Feb. 2, The Denver Post reported that Boebert, a Republican from Silt, was paid more than $22,000 in mileage reimbursements from her campaign account, an unusually large amount that several ethics experts said raised questions. To justify the reimbursement, Boebert would have had to drive 38,712 miles last year during a pandemic that limited travel for several months.

Most of that money was paid on Nov. 11, when Boebert received $21,200 from her campaign coffers for mileage, according to her campaign’s original report, filed in December.

Another huckster.

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My Turing Test: The CGI "first down" line in televised American football

The idea was first patented in 1978.

So my question is this: If you fed an AI all of human history up to 1978, would it see the opportunity? Would it suggest such an innovation?

Or any other commercial innovation. If your AI can't recognize profit opportunities arising from human desire, and invent ways to profit from that desire, on par with actual humans who did recognize and did invent, then it's not much of an AI.

To be fair, most humans aren't on the same level as our greatest inventors and entrepreneurs. But if your can at least match the inventiveness and entrepreneurship of a five year old, that would be a good start.

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No Sex Please; We're Oppiella Nova Beetle Mites

The answer is the Meselson Effect (see Matthew Meselson^WP).

Scientists solve mystery of why some animals are able to survive without sexual reproduction

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/scie...tion-1.5602197

Quote:

"Our results clearly show that O. nova reproduces exclusively asexually. When it comes to understanding how evolution works without sex, these beetle mites could still provide a surprise or two," Jens Bast, junior research group leader at the University of Cologne, said in the press release.

I'm not sure I am any wiser. :o

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Pay frequency

Kind of a weird parallel/related discussion to minimum wage.

Just some general questions to get us started.

- How far apart can your pay periods be before it starts to become unreasonable, even if your pay, averaged out, was acceptable?

- What's the longest pay period you've ever seen/heard of? (Obviously we're talking about structured salaried jobs and not commission/gig work/etc)

- All things being equal would you take a job where you get paid weekly instead of every two weeks?

- Are there any laws in place as to pay frequency?

- Is there a legit business reason to pay your employees less frequently (again assume for the purposes of this discussion the amount paid averages out to acceptable)?

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Ex-French health minister charged over COVID handling

Quote:

Buzyn has been charged with “endangering the lives of others”, the prosecutor of the Republic’s Court of Justice said on Friday, but not for a second possible offence of “failure to stop a disaster”. Ex-French health minister charged over COVID handling (AlJazeera, Sep 10, 2021)

Quote:

Prosecutors looking into government failings are investigating Agnès Buzyn for "endangering the lives of others". Ms Buzyn left the post in February 2020 to run for Paris mayor, saying Covid was low risk. But she later spoke of knowing a "tsunami" was approaching. It is one of the world's first cases of a minister facing legal accountability for their pandemic response. A special court set up in France in 1993 to investigate government ministers accused of misconduct will decide whether to prosecute her. The wording of one of the charges being investigated is "failing to fight a disaster", according to Le Monde newspaper. (...) Le Monde said Ms Buzyn had spoken before leaving her post of "very low risks" of a major Covid outbreak. (...) The court is looking into accusations of negligence in the provision of protective clothing to health staff, and confusion in the issuing of advice over masks. Agnès Buzyn: France ex-health minister under investigation (BBC, Sep 11, 2021)

Quote:

She said initially in January 2020 that there was "practically no risk" of importing Covid-19 from the Chinese city at the origin of the outbreak, Wuhan, and then said the "risk of a spread of the coronavirus among the population is very small". A month later, as she left the ministry to launch a failed bid to become Paris mayor, she claimed that "the tsunami has yet to come", in an apparent contradiction of her earlier statements. French ex-health minister Buzyn under formal investigation over handling of pandemic (France24, Sep 10, 2021)

Considering what politicians and alleged epidemiologists seem to have got away with scot-free in other countries, I am surprised to see one of them actually being held responsible for something.

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Teen "rolling coal" crashes into group of cyclists, hospitalizes 4

Quote:

A group of Houston area cyclists are hospitalized after getting hit by a pickup truck in Waller County Saturday morning. According the Waller County Sheriff, 6 cyclists were hit by the vehicle along old 290, roughly 2 miles west of Waller. In total, four of the cyclists had to be taken to area hospitals, including 2 by helicopter. ... Roughly 75 miles into their training ride, Ferrell says a black diesel pickup truck slowed down near him and accelerated to blow smoke in his lane. Moments later, the pickup trick tried doing the same thing to other cyclists riding ahead of Ferrell. "The reason he couldn’t stop is because he was accelerating to blow more diesel fuel on these cyclists," said Ferrell. "He ended up hitting 3 people before his brakes even started."

2 of the 4 were life flighted out via emergency helicopter.

No arrest as of yet of the 16 year old driver who remained at the scene. Apparently intentional reckless driving resulting in serious injury is not a crime.

https://www.fox26houston.com/news/pi...e-hospitalized

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Some positive news from Switzerland and San Marino

The Swiss voted to legalise gay marriage and in San Marino abortion up to week 12 was legalized, despite vigorous opposition by the Catholic church and far right.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58696604

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58701788

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Paul from Niskayuna solves the mystery of the universe

Well, I guess this wraps it up. Physicists, cosmologists and astronomers can all quit their jobs now.

Niskayuna man believes he solved mystery of the universe

Guess what. It's "tired light" again, and the universe is static.

Quote:

Sitting in the top-floor study of his childhood Niskayuna home, Paul LaViolette puzzles over the deepest questions of the universe.

Quote:

“I disproved the Big Bang theory,” LaViolette said in a phone call last month, adding that he recently published a pair of papers this summer in the International Journal of Astrophysics, a peer-reviewed journal, outlining his definitive takedown of what has been considered the definitive scientific model of the origin of the universe. The first article’s title, “Expanding or Static Universe: Emergence of a New Paradigm,” understates what LaViolette is proposing: scrap the dominant theory of the history of the universe taught in nearly every grade in nearly every school in the country. The Big Bang theory basically holds that the history of our universe traces back to a single point of energy that exploded into existence and over a long period of time expanded into the universe we know today. But LaViolette thinks most scientists are looking at the data from the wrong perspective, misunderstanding shifts on the light spectrum as they observe faraway galaxies as evidence of an expanding universe. Rather, he thinks the so-called “redshift” most scientists point to as evidence of an expanding universe is just a sign of the loss of energy that photons from distant galaxies have as they travel through space. That theory of the redshift, known as the “tired light” theory, has been around for decades. But LaViolette has repurposed it to demonstrate that a static universe, one that is not expanding as is commonly understood, makes a simpler explanation of numerous astronomical phenomena. His paper presents a series of cosmology tests, used to test different theories of the universe against various data sets, and argues that a static model of the universe bests an expanding model of the universe on all of the tests he presents — unless various assumptions are added into the models about anything from the angles of galaxies to factors about their distance. Even then, LaViolette argues, assumptions made to improve the performance of a traditional expanding-universe model on one test worsen the theory’s performance on other tests. “In overview, it is concluded that a static universe cosmology must be sought to explain the origin of the universe,” he declared in the paper’s abstract.

Quote:

If mainstream science ever does adopt LaViolette’s theory of the universe, it will spell doom for many fundamental tenets of physics and astronomy. No black holes, he said. No quantum mechanics (which helps explain physics at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles). No Einstein’s theory of general relativity (which helps explain gravitational physics at a large scale). “You have to throw it out,” he said. “Even the ages of stars change.”

Yeah, that Einstein guy was an idiot!

tl/dr: Local newspaper reporter gives crackpot lots of space to ramble about his great discovery.

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Teen threatened with arrest for social media post

A girl threatened with charges or jail over her COVID social media posts has won a lawsuit against the sheriff.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/...re/5846380001/

Quote:

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a high school girl who said she was threatened with jail if she didn't take down her social media posts about her brush with COVID-19 last year. Cohoon posted on Instagram that she thought she had been infected, had been to hospitals, and though she tested negative, her doctors thought she probably had had it earlier. In a final post, she is wearing an oxygen mask and says she's beaten COVID, and urges others to stay safe. On March 27, Marquette County Sheriff's Sgt. Cameron Klump came to the Cohoon home and said Sheriff Joseph Konrath had ordered the posts be taken down, as he didn't believe there were any confirmed cases of COVID in the county.

The police threatened her father with arrest if the post was not removed. It appears that both sides agreed that the facts were not disputed. The police also tried to claim qualified immunity. The court sided with the Cahoon family.

The judge's decision; https://will-law.org/wp-content/uplo...n-decision.pdf

Steve Lehto made a video in which he takes great exception to the police's lawyer claiming there was no threat of arrest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83L6vZx6OuA

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EU warns Putin about German Elections....

APparently they got wind Putin is up to his old tricks in the German electionand the EU just warned him not to do it. No promises of consquences if he does interfere, just waving their finger at him.
Boy, that is effective. That will sure scare Vlad.

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Stem cell (political football ? ) or legit?

I have a sister critically ill with cancer. Does stem cell research promise help?

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46 Percent of Americans Believe in Ghosts

... up 400 percent over the last four decades

Quote:

Do you believe in ghosts? Turns out a lot of people do in this country … more than 45% of us. That's up almost 400% in the last 40 years! So what happened? What statistics can tell us about Americans' skyrocketing belief in ghosts (CNN, Sep 21, 2021)

Margins of Error Podcast: How The Paranormal Became, Well, Pretty Normal (CNN, Sep 21, 2021)


Pfizer’s Booster Gets Approved & 46% of Americans Think Ghosts Exist (The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Sep 24, 2021 - beginning at 2:02)
[yt]V7MyUpi8wk[/yt]

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Claims of photoshopped ballots in Arizona?

I Saw that there were claims of photoshopped ballots in the Maricopa County
Audit. Anyone want to bet those are Ballots printed by poll workers when they ran out of official Ballots using a Laser Printer on auto Enhance?
Auto Enhance naturally break a document into layers to reduce scan time,
that layering effect producing shorter data runs though the processor by reducing line size, per run.
That can lead to defects in the printed document as some parts of the document might be excluded based on the particular parameters of the program and how it configures the data.
Anyone want to bet that's what's going on here?

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- Cowboys & Aliens -

There is a bit of a stink being made about the Border Patrol, regarding Haitians and agents on horseback.

Why exactly, is this? The agents don’t appear to be doing anything wrong. I get that people might not like the Planet of the Apes imagery. But, that doesn't mean they were acting inappropriately.



There have been plenty of false claims, such as the agents were using whips or that they were trampling the illegals. I don’t see any indication of this in video I have seen. It has pretty much been debunked, at this point.

[yt]rqS3QvFF3TU[/yt]
Of course, this hasn’t stopped Biden from casting judgement:

Quote:

"To see people treated like they did, horses barely running over, people being strapped – it's outrageous," Biden said, making a whipping motion with his hand. "I promise you, those people will pay. There will be an investigation underway now and there will be consequences. There will be consequences."

Full disclosure: I don't give a damn about these aspiring illegals. I have more concerns about the risk to the horses. But, I would be interested in other opinions on the supposed "wrongdoing" shown the videos.

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Putting a new Dell laptop in a bag can void the warranty

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/F...y/td-p/7514448

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dell Under no circumstances should you leave a laptop powered on and in any sleep/hibernate/standby mode when placed in a bag, backpack, or in an overhead bin. The PC will overheat as a result of that action. Any resulting damage will not be covered by the Dell warranty.

It seems that Microsoft Modern Power management is buggy enough that the laptops can overheat and catch fire.

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[Continuation] Cancel culture IRL Part 2

Continuation thread from: http://www.internationalskeptics.com...6#post13608086

Posted By:Darat

Back on topic, cancel culture isn't really a problem for the rich and powerful, its the folks that aren't and that you haven't heard that get screwed by it. Folks like the security guard that got fired for being a racist for telling a Black student at smith college she wasn't allowed in a cafeteria where students weren't allowed. #blanking while working class

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[Continuation] Corona Virus Conspiracy Theories Part III

Continuation thread from: http://www.internationalskeptics.com...6#post13607036

Posted By:Darat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fonebone (Post 13603040) Yeah - I agree, especially in light of this astonishing revelation ! https://twitter.com/i/status/1393022731373973504

:rolleyes:
As has been pointed out that was more than four months ago, when <40% of USAians were fully vaccinated. Contrary to the bollocks promulgated by the conspiracy nutters the FDA (et cetera) staff were not refusing vaccination en-masse.

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For those Interested in Rangeomorphs

Science news just in.

It's for all of you who are interested in Rangeomorphs, particularly those which lived between the Cryogenian and the Cambrian Period.

The developmental biology of Charnia and the eumetazoan affinity of the Ediacaran rangeomorphs

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe0291

Quote:

These data bring competing records of early animal evolution into closer agreement, reformulating our understanding of the evolutionary emergence of animal bodyplans.

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NSA and CIA regard adservers as a security risk

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/...mpression=true

Quote:

Lots of people who use ad blockers say they do it to block malicious ads that can sometimes hack their devices or harvest sensitive information on them. It turns out, the NSA, CIA, and other agencies in the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) are also blocking ads potentially for the same sorts of reasons.

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LA County sheriff has unit dedicated to investigating political enemies

Quote:

On paper, the deputies are scattered around the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in various assignments. One is supposed to be working patrol in Lancaster, another in West Hollywood. A third is assigned to a gang crime unit. In reality, though, the group of nine men and women make up a little-known team of investigators formed by Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other top sheriff’s officials. Much of what they do, by design, is a mystery to the public and even to most within the department. But as some of the investigations handled by the team have come to light, a common thread has emerged: Their targets are outspoken critics of Villanueva or the department.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...-secret-police

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Help Me Understand This Comment

I was surfing r/nosurf on Reddit, hoping to break the universe, when I happened upon a comment that I found supremely interesting. However, because I don't understand the technical subject matter very well at all, I can't tell if the person is crazy, how intrigued I should be, how to look up additional information, etc. I can't message the guy, because I don't actually have a Reddit account.

Can anyone here please help shed any light? I'm always on the lookout for new tech-related doom scenarios to fear.

Comment thread here - https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comm..._old_internet/

Comment (by u/west_pac):

Quote:

Well right now the internet is largely built on the idea that it is at once a repository for human knowledge, a forum for discussion, and a platform for media. My assessment is that the first two are being eroded, and that this will continue to the point that they'll basically be made useless. Once that happens, the internet will be a platform for media and little else, so streaming services basically. Even then, how much of that will you trust? How will you know if it isn't all a deepfake? Because once we get there it really ceases to have any value beyond sheer entertainment factor. We've already seen steps in this direction with the kind of websites that pop up when you search for things like "how do I change the oil in my car?". Instead of getting useful results, you get bot generated clickfarm sites that have essentially made google useless. Right now these scrape info from other websites, but there's a creeping phenomena in which the bots are scraping other bot-created pages because they can't tell the difference. This is what we're going to continue to see with AI, it won't answer the question, it will just either ramble incoherently or it will tell you that you shouldn't drive a car because it's learned that cars are bad. We aren't creating better search algorithms fast enough to deal with this and it's already driving disengagement from the web. People underestimate, or are unaware of the coming crisis with AI. They think it will be this thing that we can use to enhance old WW2 footage or to drive their car for them, but what it will do instead is just make everything fuzzy and ****. AI will write and print books but they'll suck, it will deepfake news broadcasts to the point that there will be no good way to transmit information, it will create newspaper sites that don't actually exist but will have hundreds of AI journalists writing for it all reporting on things that never happened. AI is about to completely eradicate our ability to discern reality on the internet, and that will spill out into the real world. I'm not sure what we're going to do about this, honestly. I don't think anyone is thinking about how it will affect public trust in information. I don't know of any solutions being developed. One way we could potentially fix it is by developing ways to verify that no AI was involved, but it's hard to envision how that would go without being extremely privacy-invasive or potentially exploited by AI. I won't lie, this **** has the potential to push us back into the dark ages as a species. We could well have to go back to machine-printed books and newspapers, distributed by hand only. It may be necessary to physically dumb down our technology so that we can trust it again. Until AI is made illegal globally, there's a good chance that things will get very bad before they get better.

I wasn't really sure where to ask about this, but I figured this section was a good bet, since I'm most interested in the technical stuff the poster is mentioning.

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The Heat death of the Universe

This thread is to discuss all possible processes between now and then.
My idea is that the universe is bigger than the observable universe. It would be a fluke if otherwise.
I try to imagine the epic disintegration over, say, 100 trillion years.
I have on the bookshelf Paul Davies " the last 3 minutes."
Anyway, there are people on this forum who might be able to help ordinary mortals discuss this long term plan.

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Changing the name of New Zealand

There's a debate that's been bubbling away for a few years now on whether NZ should change its name to Aotearoa, the Maori name for the country*. Here's a little background and opinion.

Being an older white bloke, I know quite a few of the same demographic, and there isn't a subject I can think of that garners more gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes than the idea the name of the country could change.

I've always thought we had the world's worst-named country - named after a Dutch province by a bloke who never even set foot in the country - and I would welcome the change to a unique, culturally-appropriate name. No question Maori were here before us and it's a much nicer name than "Nu Zilland".

I think the impetus for change has clearly grown this century, and while there's still a majority in favour of keeping the English name, that's dropping as the old white people die off. As far as I can tell, people under 30 would support the idea.

There's plenty of precedent for countries changing names and I'd be delighted to see us join the club.

*Anyone that interested can check out the name here - there's some dispute as to its origins, but one thing is certain, when approaching NZ by ship, you're going to see a long, white cloud long before you see any land.

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The Debt Ceiling crisis.

I think people here don't get how serious it would get if the US defaults.
It's not going to be just another Government shutdown. It is going to wreck the economy. Don't beleive me, just look at the economic experts. A recession is a best case scenario.
The Dems cannot afford to mess this up. And, so far, they seem to be doing exactly that with the circular firing squad..and I blame the Progressive Wing , and they refusal to compromise with the centrists...for that.

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Vermont AFL-CIO endorses 2nd amendment, arming in response to right wing violence

Quote:

The Vermont AFL-CIO publicized its support for gun rights — and opposition to what it described as the rise of fascism that threatens democracy in the U.S. — in a resolution that group leaders passed Sunday. Vermont AFL-CIO President David Van Deusen cited the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, the passage of voter suppression laws in some states and the rise of right-wing extremism as factors in the state labor group’s decision to officially back gun rights. “We all know that the dangerous, violent, extreme right is armed to the teeth, and there is no law that can be passed on the state or federal level that would reverse that fact,” Van Deusen said Tuesday. And if militant groups become a threat in Vermont, he said, union members and their allies will be prepared to “take reasonable measures” to ensure people are kept safe.

https://vtdigger.org/2021/09/21/stat...tic-extremism/

You love to see it.

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Earthquake in Melbourne Australia

Level 6, epicentre 100km away.

The reason I’m opening a thread about this is that Australia is the most geologically stable place on earth and I have never experiences an earthquake in my 70 years. It was frightening with the house shaking badly for over 10 seconds.

There are a lot of things I thought I would never experience here over the past two years, pandemic, lockdowns, protest riots, but an earthquake would have been the last thing on my list.

How do you guys in earthquake zones cope? I’m still shaking 30 minutes later.

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Missing White Woman Syndrome

With the recent Gabby news the "Missing White Woman Syndrome" has taken on more of a front page news story. I have to admit, it makes a hell of a lot of sense. I decided to dig into a bit this afternoon, and found an NPR article that's covering it.

One thing that stands out:

Quote:

Cara Chambers, chair of the task force that released the report says only 30% of indigenous homicide victims had any media coverage. That number is closer to 51% for whites.

Why is that? No offense to Gabby, but why is her story any more important, or worthy of news time than any of the other missing women. Obviously that's not the case for only NA but for all WoC.

Do you believe it's a thing, or is this just more SJW nonsense?

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People going missing at Mount Shasta

There are many stories about people going missing off the path at Mount Shasta or from a campground nearby. One is about a child who went missing apparently after his parents took their eyes off of him for just a very few seconds.

The very small boy was found in some bushes filthy dirty but other wise unharmed two weeks later.

Upon questioning the little boy said he had been living in a cave with a bear who brought berries for him to eat. This is of course not possible. Bears do not nurture human children so exactly what could have happened? Some kidnapper in a bear suit decided to return the boy?

There are many stories and the thing about the area is the path is very clearly marked and with very little in the way of trees or shrubs to block the view of whoever is walking up the mountain.

Any thoughts as to what is ging on. There are a few youtube videos that address this issue.

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Central York PA bans kids books about Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr

Learning about Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr in elementary school (like, grades 1 - 3) is an example of Critical Race Theory, or something.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/i-am-r...g-history-book


The books are part of Brad Meltzer's "Ordinary People Who Changed the World" series, which includes elementary-level biographies of lots of people including Ghandi and Sonia Sotomayer and Helen Keller and Jim Henson and Sacajawea, I think, and Harriet Tubman (just pulling them off the top of my head - we have all of the first 12 I think)

They are just 2 of 300 or so books that have been banned --- oh wait, "frozen until they can be reviewed"

They just all happen to be about black people.

(I don't know if the piece above talks about the MLK, Jr book, but it's on the list)

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Volcano erupts in Canary Islands - US east coast to be evacuated ASAP

After there were thousands of small seismic events underneath the Cumbre Vieja volcano field on the Canary island of La Palma (off the coast of West Africa), a fissure broke open, as expected, on the flank of the mointain, and lava is spouting from seven or eight vents. Current live images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmyHHm0Pz_4 (From a Spanish TV station).

The second sentence of my title is not true, of course - but it is not entirely bunk:
You may remember that, 20 years ago, some scientists warned that a volcanic landslide in the Atlantic ocean could possibly lead to a tsunami hundreds of feet high reaching the American east coast and causing unspeakable damage and loss of life.
Well, this is the volcano the theory was all about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre...tsunami_hazard

(Spoiler: Subsequent to that 2001 paper, which made sensationalist headlines in anglosaxon media, other seismologists and hydrologists have done more sophisticated analyses and found that the height of possible tsunamis was probably greatly exaggerated. Still, IF that volcano is unstable, and its flank slides into the ocean, that would be a huge catastrophe locally, and pose some danger to coasts around the northern and central Atlantic)

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No More White Saviours, Please!

Is the call of black writer, Nova Reid.

This couplet stood out:

Quote:

There’s an impulsive desire to fix, to be the hero of the story, to swoop in and rescue and, for some, it also comes from a place of superiority and/or a desire to be forgiven. It feeds into something called the “White Saviour Industrial Complex”... ...If someone is in any doubt, they should ask themselves: am I acting because it’s the right thing to do, to centre the needs of others, or am I doing this for myself, to feel better and make myself look good?

I was strongly reminded of people who froth at the mouth about stories alleging racism on the internet, jumping all over anyone who dares disagree with their "analysis".

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The Alfadan inline 4 engine scam

[yt]vuIqSKIujFg&t=8s[/yt]


https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating...outboards.html


My contribution to some old school scepticism.


An inline 4 petrol engine that is 7.4 Litres and produces 650Hp. :eek:



It's open for crowd funding now.



Reading the Hulltruth thread is interesting, as are the YouTube comments.


My take, it's a more believable perpetual motion machine.

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- The Final Frontier -

I am perhaps less of a skeptic than some here. But, I am willing to hear the input of those more skeptical than myself. And, of course, those that are much less skeptical.

My question is, in regards to the concept of the “paranormal”, as we generally address the topic, is there anything left to explore?

Or, are we done with such things, in the opinion of this group?

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- The Dead Ginsburg Effect -

As many of you probably know, 9/18 is the one-year anniversary of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death.

I figured this would be a wonderful time to celebrate and honor her contribution to the GOP and ponder what the future may hold for both parties, after her parting gift.

Of course, you may say, “Ginsburg was hardly a Republican”.

That is true. Ironically, Ginsburg, a champion for women's rights, was nominated for the bench by the serial womanizer and saxophonist, Bill Clinton. However, her greatest life achievement was in her selfish refusal to retire. Apparently, she thought she was going to live forever, or just couldn’t accept the idea of being out of the limelight. Perhaps she was confident that Clinton would win in 2016? Regardless, her vanity and arrogance turned out to be a wonderful blessing for the GOP.

Supposedly, on her death bed, she said, “"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Well as they say, wish in one hand and poop in the other…see which fills up faster.

Republicans did the honorable thing and did not let the court bench sit in tatters. Meanwhile, the butt-hurt Dems whined about Ginsburg, their traitor in death. The exciting result, for everyone, was that yet another Republican ended up on the SCOTUS bench.

So, the question is, how will all of this play out? Will the Dems attempt to twist our Democracy in their favor by packing the court, as threatened? Should they? Will the Republicans be inclined to play the same game further down the line? What other political implications are at play, or have been witnessed, since her incredibly sad passing?

https://newrepublic.com/article/1594...ratic-politics

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Medical Doctor Loses License Over COVID False Claims

A report from MSN/Business Insider:

"A doctor from Oregon who said mask-wearing can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning got his medical license revoked"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-...ocid=Peregrine

I am glad to see this doctor pay a price for medical idiocy. Hopefully, this will set a precedent for people who should know better, but choose to flout established medical practices.

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France recalls ambassadors to US and Australia Following AUSUK

Quote:

America’s oldest ally, France, recalled its ambassador to the United States on Friday in an unprecedented show of anger that dwarfed decades of previous rifts. The relationship conceived in 18th century revolutions appeared at a tipping point after the U.S., Australia and Britain shunned France in creating a new Indo-Pacific security arrangement. It was the first time ever France has recalled its ambassador to the U.S., according to the French foreign ministry. Paris also recalled its envoy to Australia. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a written statement that the French decision, on request from President Emmanuel Macron, “is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements” made by Australia and the United States. He said Australia’s decision to scrap a big French conventional submarine purchase in favor of nuclear subs built with U.S. technology is “unacceptable behavior between allies and partners.” Ambassador Philippe Etienne tweeted the announcements are “directly affecting the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe.”

[yt]eh1J4dz8teI[/yt]

What do we make of the AUSUK?
Australia's scrapping of the French submarine deal, and adoption of nuclear-powered subs?
Will this lead to war with China?
Is Taiwan happy?

Let's have a heated debate!

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Woman Missing, then Fiance Disappears

This story is getting a little darker every day. Woman on crosscountry trip with her fiance goes missing, and he lawyers up and refuses to cooperate with authorities. Now he is missing. Something sketchy going on here, possibly with his mom and dad?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ocid=Peregrine

From the article:

"Gabby Petito's fiancé, Brian Laundrie, has also gone missing, according to reports.
The Laundrie family's attorney told local media that the whereabouts of his client, a person of interest in Petito's missing person's case, are unknown.
Earlier on Friday, law enforcement entered Laundrie's home to speak with his family."

A more extensive article here:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/po...%A9/ar-AAOxymk

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General admits "we made a mistake."

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan admits that the missile launch against "terrorists" that killed 10 people, including seven children, was a mistake.

Quote:

(CNN)A United States military investigation into a deadly Kabul drone strike in August has found that it killed 10 civilians and the driver and the vehicle targeted was likely not a threat associated with ISIS-K, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command, announced at the Pentagon on Friday. McKenzie told reporters at the Pentagon that the strike was a "mistake" and offered an apology.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/polit...hnk/index.html

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PREDICTION,

I predict that Tomorrow's March will be mostly Peaceful as the Marchers know they have no way of getting military support with Biden In the White House. There will. Be protests outside the white house and outside the Pentagon over Fox News rhetoric about the Afghan war, and General Milley's call with China, Antifa and BLM will not show up, but I do expect a larger number of attendees than 1000.
Mostly it will be the Baa Baa of sheered sheep, that would have Been better off saving their money to support the candidate of their choice in the next Election, then Trying to raise the ghost of 20/20 From the dead.

What do you think about it and why?

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Durham Investigation Nets Big Win

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...i-trump-russia

Michael Sussmann is second person to be indicted in William Barr-ordered investigation of the investigators

An attorney who represented Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was indicted on Thursday for lying to the FBI.

The development was part of special counsel John Durham’s ongoing examination of the origins of the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and former US president Donald Trump’s election campaign.

Michael Sussmann, a partner with Perkins Coie who also represented the Democratic National Committee in connection with Russia’s hack of the organization, is accused of making false statements during a 19 September 2016, meeting with the then FBI general counsel, James Baker.


After a year of investigations, how thrilled Trump's rube herd must be after being promised the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton, Peter Strzok, Andrew Weissmann, James Comey, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Susan Rice!

Two guys who no one has ever heard of. Woo hoo!

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Church of the FSM creates letter for religious freedom from COVID

"Your freedom to emit COVID virus particles ends at my nose."

https://boingboing.net/2021/09/15/re...accinated.html

Mods, if this belongs in a different category, please feel free to move it. Mahalo!

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Sir Clive Sinclair dies

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-illness.html

RIP Sir Clive.

I don't know if this is the right place.

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RIP Sir Clive Sinclair, home computer pioneer.

>10 PRINT "RIP SIR CLIVE SINCLAIR"
>20 GOTO 10
>RUN


Sir Clive Sinclair has passed away age 81.

How many of today's developers first coded on a Spectrum?

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The "Best of Jen Psaki" Thread

Gotta love her.

Quote:

‘I don’t think the president is looking for the guidance of members of Congress who stood by while… the leader of their party fomented an insurrection’ — Jen Psaki on GOP criticism of Gen. Milley

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/stat...92781692973059

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Company "Colossal" aims to bring woolly mammoths back to life

"It is the elephant in the genomics room: can extinct species be resurrected? One bioscience firm insists they can, announcing its intent to use emerging technology to restore the woolly mammoth to the Arctic tundra."

"The animals died out about 4,000 years ago. For decades, scientists have been recovering bits and pieces of mammoth tusks, bones, teeth and hair to extract and try to sequence the mammoth's DNA.

"Colossal says it aims to insert DNA sequences of woolly mammoths, collected from well-preserved remains in the permafrost and frozen steppes, into the genome of Asian elephants, to create an "elephant-mammoth hybrid"."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-...ence/100459342

Hmmm. What could go wrong?

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New generation batteries - just add sugar

"Australian researchers say they've opened the path to a new generation of batteries that could allow an electric vehicle to drive from Melbourne to Sydney on a single charge.

"And the crucial ingredient was a spoonful of sugar."

"a team from Monash University say they've found a way of making lithium-sulfur batteries that are robust enough to be recharged 1,000 times."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/...cles/100457492

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Science Denial

Today we are witnessing science denial on steroids as it relates to the Covid pandemic. We have also witnessed the emerging influence of evangelical christian ideas which are clearly also anti science. After 9/11 science denial quickly appeared coming from the 9/11 truth "movement". In both instances the science deniers advance their own professionals and experts... who are lauded as "truth tellers".
It's hard for me to comprehend how intelligent educated people promote unscientific thinking. How can an engineer state that a collapse of the twin towers was impossible without CD? How can they even claim the collapse was at "free fall" or that free fall motion (or near FF) could ONLY mean that there was a CD that destroyed the columns?
A layman does not have the tools to understand a building collapse. They do understand that an explosion can destroyed integrity of a structure. It's not difficult to understand that the layman finds the explosive controlled demolition a good fit for a building collapse. After all.. Tall buildings ARE demolished with explosives and the collapse looks "close enough" to call it a match. For sure, if your observations are not informed my technical knowledge....your mind comes up with an explanation which satisfies them.
We have seen this in how ancient people explain the natural world.
Very few people have seen structural failures and they are extremely rare.
So it's understandable how laymen can be misled as well as misunderstand what they saw.
What is MORE troubling and to me inexplicable are those who ARE educated and CAN understand and refuse to... or reject reason. Witness David Chandler or Gage or McCoy and so on. Why are they deluded? And why are they promoting a false narrative?

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The Sinking of MS Estonia: Case Re-opened Part II

Continued from here. As is usual, the split point is arbitrary and participants are free to quote and respond to posts in the previous thread.

Posted By:Agatha

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vixen (Post 13598159) How can it be a 'simple chain of events' if [list=1][*]There was significant damage to the starboard compatible with a collision

The starboard side crack would not have been visible to divers in 1994 due to the angle of the ship as she rested on the sea floor. The only reason a few years back is because the ship's list had shifted allowing physical access.

The fact the crack is on the seams of the hull plating suggests a stress fracture combined with impact with the sea floor.

Quote:

All fo the senior crew ere missing - the divers saw three bodies on the bridge and could have brought them up for ID, given a diver reporting a ptoential crime scene.

Spolier alert: They're still on the ship.

And though incompetence should be a crime, Estonia was an accident scene.

Quote:

34 out of the 79 passenger survivors describe bangs and sensations of collisions, as of the time of the accident.

Which is compatible with the hood getting knocked loose, and then knocked off by large waves.

Quote:

At least two passengers indicate they noticed something seeming to glide away in the water (Reintaam; Barney.)

Weird, almost as if materials on the Estonia's decks had been somehow washed overboard as the ship rolled in the storm.

Quote:

All of these issues could have been cleared up by the JAIC and then we wouldn't be having all of these frantic rumour mills.

Some people are spreading rumors, most are not. And they're re-investigating the wreck, and all you are doing is help cloud the air with wild speculation that will inevitably set up the next round of conspiracy theories when a certain fringe is not happy with the outcome...as always.

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Discussion: Transwomen are not women (Part 7)

Continued from here. As is usual the split point is arbitrary and participants are free to quote from previous parts of this thread. But please use your best endeavours to stick to your MA when composing and submitting your posts.

Posted By:Agatha

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadmaker (Post 13598265) T As a result, they got rid of the question, and because they got rid of the question, they had to get rid of the answer.

Apparently the interviewer wanted to substitute a different question while keeping the answer, and was unable to see any problem with that. The mind boggles.

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Newsmax fooled by a fake Paul Wolfowitz. Twice. Live on air

Credit to Fark for this:

Newsmax fooled by a fake Paul Wolfowitz. Twice. Live on air

Quote:

It’s embarrassing for a news channel to get tricked by pranksters. It’s really embarrassing when the pranksters run pretty much the exact same prank and the news channel falls for it all over again. That’s exactly what happened to Newsmax, when they told their viewers they were interviewing Paul Wolfowitz, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense for George W. Bush, being a part of the former president’s Cabinet on September 11, 2001.

You have to read it to believe it. Newsmax was fooled twice by a man pretending to be Wolfowitz. They interviewed "Wolfowitz" on August 21, then, not realizing they'd been fooled, called him back for another interview for September 11. The second time, he decided to launch into Newsmax, and this is what happened:

Quote:

Bichlbaum wasted little time once he was live on air, launching into a rant about how “new master terrorists” had arisen that made the 9/1 (sic) hijackers look like “rank amateurs.” “I’ve got to tell you, Newsmax is a much bigger threat to America than the hijackers of 9/11,” said Bichlbaum right before they cut him off.

You'd think they'd by now realize they'd been had. NO, THEY DIDN'T:

Quote:

The Newsmax panel were all shocked by Bichlbaum’s remarks but, somehow, incredibly, still seemed to have not one darn clue that this was not actually Wolfowitz who was making these stunning comments. Watch the clip above starting around the 1:25 mark when they drop his call; they cut him off with “thank you for your service!” and then there are multiple comments about how this was “embarrassing” and “unfortunate” from a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, on a day that was supposed to be about “unity and bringing people together.” “He was at the Pentagon that day and you would think that he wouldn’t chose this moment to be, frankly, hateful and intolerant,” said Basile — who, again, does actually know the real Wolfowitz in real life.

What a bunch of morons!

:dl:

The clips of both interviews are embedded in the link above.

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Wells Fargo, again.

America to Wells Fargo: This is unacceptable

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/10/busin...dal/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_..._fraud_scandal

Ironic headline for sure. The article goes into detail about how Wells Fargo defrauded their clients, were fined and had some of their business practices curtailed.

Fines, the price the wealthy pay as part of doing business.

If Wells Fargo had been fined enough, then it would not happen again. If the people responsible for these criminal actions had been put in prison, they might stop. But no one, GOP or Democrat is willing to do anything about it.

Politicians might complain about the banks, but until they are willing to pass laws that mandate prison time, they are just winking at them while they complain.

Ranb

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The Great Disruption - Rethinking Energy, Transportation, Food & Agriculture

Tony Seba - Aug 17:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj96nxtHdTU

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A thread for collateral damage victims of Covid

Alabama man dies of cardiac event after 43 hospitals with full ICUs turned him away

Quote:

The family of a man who died of heart issues in Mississippi is asking people to get vaccinated for COVID-19 after 43 hospitals across three states were unable to accept him because of full cardiac ICUs. Ray Martin DeMonia died last week in Meridian, Mississippi. He was three days shy of his 74th birthday and a well-known native in Cullman, Alabama, his family said. DeMonia suffered from a cardiac event, and emergency staff at Cullman Regional Medical Center had to bring him to the nearest available bed, which was nearly 200 miles away at a Mississippi hospital.

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Richard Gage no longer President and CEO of AE911Truth

It appears Richard Gage is no longer President and CEO of AE. I got tipped off by this content, which AE linked to from their Facebook page 14 hours ago:

https://wabcradio.com/episode/roland...ERHFi_v8bWJfRU
"Roland Angle, the acting CEO and President of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth..."

On ae's Who we are page, Angle appears as first Board member, Gage last and only as "Founder": https://www.ae911truth.org/who-we-are

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Vaccine mandates

Did you hear about them? What do you think?

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Why tattoos persist

Ever wondered why we renew our skin and other cells and yet tattoos persist? Okay maybe old news to some of you but it's macrophages which keep the ink visible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ya'El Courtney did you know that the reason tattoos remain visible for so long is bc of MACROPHAGES? I thought it was bc the ink stained long-living fibroblasts, but no! dermal macrophages phagocytose the ink and store it in vacuoles, where it is still visible from the surface.

https://rupress.org/jem/article/215/...-explains-both




via Twitter https://twitter.com/ScienceYael/stat...51344939298818

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The county where almost everyone is stupid as ****

Covid-19 is crushing this corner of rural America. Getting the vaccine can still feel like an act of treason

Quote:

(CNN)It felt like Covid-19 was closing in around us during the five days in August this CNN crew spent in Carter County, Missouri. In Van Buren, the county's biggest town, we were sitting next to a 16-year-old when she got a text that masks would be mandated at school because about 20 kids had tested positive after just two days of class. One person we'd wanted to interview had to go to the hospital with a breakthrough infection. Another person found out the night before our interview she'd been exposed to coronavirus by a sick kid at church. People were gossiping about who had it and where they got it and whether there was someone in town who knew they had it but refused to isolate. "Everybody's scared. Everybody's coming down with it. And it's almost like a plague," Brandon Helvey said. Helvey had had Covid-19 three weeks earlier, but he didn't want to get the vaccine yet, he said. He thought it was still unproven.

Quote:

"If you have it, everybody knows it. And they're talking about you," Tara Chitwood said. She was working behind the register at a souvenir shop, subbing in for her mom, who'd gotten sick a few days earlier. It was "more than likely" Covid-19, Chitwood said, because one of her mom's friends tested positive. But her mom probably wouldn't get tested, she said. It was scary, Chitwood said. Her own little girl had to quarantine. But there was "no way" she'd get the vaccine. Her mom had gotten vaccinated, she said, and got sick anyway. "I've survived this long," Chitwood said, and then expressed a fatalism we heard a lot: She was going to die of something, eventually.

Quote:

"They want to hide the fact that they're sick so they can work," Debbie Turley said. "You don't get vaccinated. You don't get tested. You hide your symptoms if you're able to. And you just go out in the community and spread the virus."

Quote:

Last fall, (Wayland) Bland spent seven days in the hospital with Covid-19. He'd had a kidney transplant, and knew he was high-risk. Last year, Rodebush said, "Me and him and Ruth sat here and talked about it, and they both said, 'If we get it, we'll die from it.'" But Bland lived. "What'd you tell 'em, that I'm the toughest bastard there ever was?" Bland said. It was exactly what his friend had said. "I was on everything they had -- steroids, full drip, plasma from people that'd had Covid, drugs that they gave my President, (Donald) Trump. And they finally burned it out of me," Bland said. But he would not get the vaccine. "I ain't taking that sh*t. I ain't taking it!" Bland said. He didn't want to detail why until he was pushed to explain why he'd trust drugs like Regeneron's antibody cocktail but not the vaccine. He turned to Rodebush and asked, "Am I going to have to tell her?" Rodebush laughed and shrugged. "They shafted my President," Bland said. He thought the vaccine was delayed intentionally to hurt Trump, a baseless claim. "They wouldn't give it to him because they know damn good and well he'd be reelected, and there'd be nothing nobody could do. So, they had to swindle around and scheme around and keep it from him, and just as soon as the election was over, Bam! There we got it." "I'm so bullheaded. You shafted me out of my President. I ain't taking your medicine," he said. "I'll take what they gave him, but I'm not taking yours."

You can repeat this in hundreds of counties all across the country. This sheer bull-headed stupidity is why the U.S. will never be rid of Covid. Like flu, it will always be with us, but far worse.

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The New York Times Podcast on the legacy Loose Change

*Legacy of*

Hi everyone,

Just popping in to tell you there is a NYT pod on Loose Change you may find interesting. All the best.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/p...ml?rref=vanity


For years Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The Times, has been spending a lot of time inside bizarre internet cultures. Corners filled with people who believe that the coronavirus is a hoax or the 2020 election was stolen, or even that Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifting lizard.

“The more time I’ve spent there, the more I’ve realized that what unites these groups is their way of finding and processing information,” Kevin said. “This belief that the way to figure out what’s true isn’t to listen to the experts or the mainstream media, but to figure it out for yourself of the internet.”

It’s a way of thinking that can be traced back to the first real internet blockbuster, a 9/11 conspiracy documentary called “Loose Change.”

Today, we explore the film’s impact and the 9/11 truther movement.

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2021 Ig Nobel Prizes

The 2021 Ig Nobels have been announced! Go here for full details, including links.

Here they are:

BIOLOGY PRIZE [SWEDEN]:
Susanne Sch?tz for analyzing variations in purring, chirping, chattering, trilling, tweedling, murmuring, meowing, moaning, squeaking, hissing, yowling, howling, growling, and other modes of cat?human communication.

ECOLOGY PRIZE [SPAIN. IRAN]:
Leila Satari, Alba Guill?n, ?ngela Vidal-Verd?, and Manuel Porcar, for using genetic analysis to identify the different species of bacteria that reside in wads of discarded chewing gum stuck on pavements in various countries.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE [GERMANY, UK, NEW ZEALAND, GREECE, CYPRUS, AUSTRIA]:
J?rg Wicker, Nicolas Krauter, Bettina Derstroff, Christof St?nner, Efstratios Bourtsoukidis, Achim Edtbauer, Jochen Wulf, Thomas Kl?pfel, Stefan Kramer, and Jonathan Williams, for chemically analyzing the air inside movie theaters, to test whether the odors produced by an audience reliably indicate the levels of violence, sex, antisocial behavior, drug use, and bad language in the movie the audience is watching.

ECONOMICS PRIZE [FRANCE, SWITZERLAND, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, UK]:
Pavlo Blavatskyy, for discovering that the obesity of a country?s politicians may be a good indicator of that country?s corruption.

MEDICINE PRIZE [GERMANY, TURKEY, UK]:
Olcay Cem Bulut, Dare Oladokun, Burkard Lippert, and Ralph Hohenberger, for demonstrating that sexual orgasms can be as effective as decongestant medicines at improving nasal breathing.

PEACE PRIZE [USA]:
Ethan Beseris, Steven Naleway, and David Carrier, for testing the hypothesis that humans evolved beards to protect themselves from punches to the face.

PHYSICS PRIZE [THE NETHERLANDS, ITALY, TAIWAN, USA]:
Alessandro Corbetta, Jasper Meeusen, Chung-min Lee, Roberto Benzi, and Federico Toschi, for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do not constantly collide with other pedestrians.

KINETICS PRIZE [JAPAN, SWITZERLAND, ITALY]:
Hisashi Murakami, Claudio Feliciani, Yuta Nishiyama, and Katsuhiro Nishinari, for conducting experiments to learn why pedestrians do sometimes collide with other pedestrians.

ENTOMOLOGY PRIZE [USA]:
John Mulrennan, Jr., Roger Grothaus, Charles Hammond, and Jay Lamdin, for their research study ?A New Method of Cockroach Control on Submarines?.

TRANSPORTATION PRIZE [NAMIBIA, SOUTH AFRICA, TANZANIA, ZIMBABWE, BRAZIL, UK, USA]:
Robin Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen Parry, and Robin Gleed, for determining by experiment whether it is safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down.

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