Race Fraud

Happened across "indigenous" scholar Andrea Smith recently, and it lead me down a wiki rabbit hole of people who pretended to be an ethnicity/race other than the one they were raised in, for various reasons. Probably the most famous examples are Ward Churchill^WP and Rachel Dolezal^WP and Elizabeth Warren^WP although I'd say that last one is iffy at best, because DNA. One of my personal favorites is Hilaria Baldwin^WP who faked being Hispanic to a level which is rarely seen even in Hollywood.

Since I hate to start a thread without a question, my question is this: Why?

(Also, which interesting cases did I fail to mention?)

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The Kyrsten Sinema Thread

What is the difference between these two images?



Answer:

There is no difference. They are the same.

https://twitter.com/alohacatss/statu...09449255047168

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Eliminating a slur

The Interior Dept. has removed the word squaw from the names of over 600 federal lands and replaced them with new names, which in many cases are remarkably creative.

Quote:

America’s public lands belong to all of us, and we have a responsibility to ensure that these lands are accessible and welcoming to everyone. However, over the course of our history, many such lands were named using a hateful and derogatory term for Indigenous women. It’s a word that carries with it a history of brutality, misogyny and dehumanization. This month, we succeeded in removing it from the names of nearly 650 federal land units.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...tive-american/
https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/g...icial-sq-names

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Texas AG flees home to avoid subpoena

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton fled his home to avoid being served with subpoena, court record says

Breaking news: Texas Attorney General unclear about how 'service of process' works.

He claims he was fleeing a strange person outside his home.

By leaving his home...

And sent his wife (a state senator, btw) out to get the car...

He tweeted as she drove:

"This is a ridiculous waste of time and the media should be ashamed of themselves. All across the country, conservatives have faced threats to their safety — many threats that received scant coverage or condemnation from the mainstream media.

"It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy involving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family.

Sent from my SM-N970U1 using Tapatalk

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Recommendations for Zoom Recordings Editor?

Can anyone recommend a simple video editor that I could use to edit one of my Zoom recordings?

Zoom allows you to trim off as much as you like from the beginning and end of the recording, but as far as I can tell, it does not have any other editing capabilities.

I'm looking to be able to "snip out" parts of the video and perhaps even blur over some of the video frames for particularly badly aimed parts of the video.

There was a memorial for one of my friends who had passed away and since not all of her friends and family could attend, I offered to record part of it on my cell phone and laptop on Zoom. I did a pretty terrible job and would like to make it a little less awful before I send folks the link.

Thanks in advance!

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'Strong Baltic Sea underwater blasts' - Nord Stream gas pipes leaking

Two underwater gas leaks have been spotted bubbling up to the surface of the Baltic Sea by the Danish Military, near Bornholm island (which has a military base). Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederickson, says it is hard to believe it is accidental.

The Swedish seismology wing of the military now say there were two definite blasts in the region, as measured by their devices.

Quote:

The Swedish national broadcaster SVT is reporting that seismologists registered explosions near the Nord Stream pipelines in the last 36 hours. In a report published in the last few minutes it said: SVT can reveal that measuring stations in both Sweden and Denmark registered strong underwater explosions in the same area as the gas leaks on Monday. “There is no doubt that these are explosions,” says Björn Lund, lecturer in seismology at the Swedish National Seismic Network, SNSN. The first explosion was recorded at 02.03am on the night of Monday and the second at 7.04pm on Monday evening. The warnings about the gas leaks came from the Maritime Administration at 1.52pm and 8.41pm on Monday, respectively, after ships detected bubbles on the surface. SVT has obtained the coordinates of the measured explosions and they are in the same area where the gas leaks were registered.

GUARDIAN

Shipping is being diverted and there is a no-fly zone over the area.

It is a set back for the planned Nord Stream pipelines to Norway and Poland.


It is not known if there is any connection to the Ukraine war or the fact of the Russian military base Kaliningrad, nearby. There have been naval exercises in the area, associated with NATO.

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Split from: [Continuation] The Russian Invasion of Ukraine part 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13911235) Of course not, you're such a Putin apologist that you are unconvincable. Yup, more Russian propaganda from the American right, hardly a surprise. Of course you don't, you're a Russian/Putin apologist and are buying into the Russian lies. I don't think it's self confidence, it's confidence in the Ukrainian military.

Perhaps I could ask you if you have as much confidence in the British pound as you have in the Ukrainian military ;).

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Live Feed from NASA’s DART Spacecraft on Approach to Asteroid Dimorphos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Z1E0mW2ag

12.5 hours from now

Description:

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has one single instrument onboard – the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation, aka the DRACO camera. DRACO serves as the spacecraft’s eye and will guide DART to its final destination: impact with asteroid Dimorphos.

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Keeping a Breast (or maybe two) of an Issue

From the Daily Mail (it's actually the best reporting on the story I could find):

EXCLUSIVE: 'This is a school, not a circus.' Students join protestors outside Canadian school where trans teacher with oversize prosthetic breasts, as authorities consider introducing DRESS CODE to force her to tone down her look

Other reporting here:
https://www.insidehalton.com/news-st...opriate-dress/

and here:
https://torontosun.com/opinion/colum...kville-teacher

Videos here:

[yt]F7NQHfrYAoU[/yt]
[yt]5jFX9hehUNA[/yt]

As of now it is unresolved. But there are an awful lot of opinions!

Disclaimer: One of my grandsons goes to this school and was extremely upset . . . . . . . as they cancelled his football practice because of the bomb threat.

:popcorn6

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Biden - time to ban assault weapons

The POTUS has tweeted

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1573741557110513664

"It's time we ban assault weapons in this country."

I cannot see the point in a policy that will be impossible to enact. It would require

- the virtual ending of the manufacture of many weapons, which will be resisted by the manufacturers.

- the seizure of millions of weapons from people who will resist, possibly resulting in more deaths than are likely to be saved.

- a huge amount of resources to police & control those firearms.

Biden may as well demand that the tide stops coming in.

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Military Coup in China..?

Unconfirmed reports of a PLA military coup in China and President XiJinping under house arrest. Reports say the skies are eerily empty over China, air traffic-wise (flights).

Quote:

#PLA military vehicles heading to #Beijing on Sep 22. Starting from Huanlai County near Beijing & ending in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, entire procession as long as 80 KM. Meanwhile, rumor has it that #XiJinping was under arrest after #CCP seniors removed him as head of PLA

https://twitter.com/jenniferatntd/st...LUz5SyUOQjxzNQ

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USS Bonhomme Richard fire

ProPublica did a deep dive into the 2020 fire that destroyed the US Navy's Bonhomme Richard. Ryan Mays, a low-level sailor, is being charged with arson. Mr. Mays sounds like he was immature and given to bragging about his physical prowess. He had tried out for the SEALS one time and failed, but he hope to try again (three chances may be given). There are good reasons to believe that the fire was accidental, given the conditions aboard the ship. The evidence that it was even arson at all is pretty thin gruel, but even if it were, there is at least one other sailor that should have been a person of interest. A primary evidence against Mr. Mays is a very dubious eyewitness identification.

"Velasco told nobody about this person for days, according to testimony — not even during the fire, when that person could have been in danger of being killed. When Velasco sat down with agents, he told them that someone had walked behind him, “but I’ve never seen him before.” Agents went back to Velasco the day after the interview. This time Velasco said he was “fairly sure” the person was Mays, according to NCIS documents. Velasco told the agents that Mays was cocky and talked too much. The agents then brought Velasco back again: How certain was he that he saw Mays? “90%,” Velasco told them."
EDT
NBC has a story about the ongoing trial.

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Distribute illegal migrants across the country?

The cruel misdeeds of Texas and Florida have brought up a very interesting issue: What to do with all the millions of illegal migrants?

Should they just be the burden of border towns and states, or should the USA all share in the work, burden and cost?

I say the Federal govt. should distribute these folks evenly among the states, to places that have the funds and resources to deal with them. NY, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia, Maryland, etc etc. This is a national problem and the solution is national, not just belonging to the unlucky towns that happen to be on the southern border.

What say you?

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Louisiana 'Career Fair' Turns Into Church Group Telling Teen Girls to Forgive Rapists

Louisiana 'Career Fair' Turns Into Church Group Telling Teen Girls to Forgive Rapists

Quote:

On Tuesday, 2,100 Louisiana students were bussed from their Baton Rouge high schools to what they thought would be a college and career fair. Instead, they were taken to a church, separated by gender, and given two wildly different, disturbingly sexist experiences. The “girl talk” went first and consisted of three speakers, one of whom discussed the importance of forgiving a rapist or abuser. According to a high school student who attended the event, the speaker said that she forgave an ex-boyfriend who attempted to strangle her to death. Alexis Budyach wrote on Facebook that the speaker emphasized if she’d “waited for the man God meant for her,” then the abuse wouldn’t have happened. “She [used] this to essentially shame the concept of ‘dating around’ and took a soulmate-esque approach on the situation,” wrote Budyach. “In addition, she explained that she had forgiven her ex boyfriend for his attempted murder, even if he wasn’t sorry.” Another speaker, a pastor, preached abstinence and talked about how she was proud to have been a virgin throughout high school and college. And a third, a nurse, talked about suicide, according to accounts posted on Facebook by angry students and parents who felt deceived by the event. “They talked about rape, forgiving the offender in life, suicide, prayer leadership, and many more dark controversial topics,” said chaperone Brittney Bryant, a high school teacher with a senior son who attended the event at Living Faith Christian Center. “We had females in the bathrooms crying due to the topics of discussion. Meanwhile, the boys were left outside in the extreme heat.” Bryant said her transgender son was “discriminated against for walking out” of the girl talk.

Quote:

Budyach’s mother spoke with The Advocate and said the flyer she received before the event had a street address, but didn’t mention the religious affiliation, or she wouldn’t have signed the permission slip. The event was hosted with the support of non-profit group 29:11 Mentoring Families. The group’s leader, Tremaine Sterling, told the newspaper the focus was providing “resources and tools to young people as they prepare for their next steps after high school.” Bryant pointed out that as a teacher, she’s not allowed to voice her religious or political views in the classroom, “yet it’s ok for the district’s leader to support and fund an event that could cost me my career.”

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Landfill vs Aquafer.

I know this is probably not the place too ask but are there any Papers available on Modern Landfills Surviving New Madrid Style earthquakes in the Eastern United States or simular Regions in the world?
My local County is proposing a new Landfill in a Zone including a Drinking water Aquifer with several wells, and springs?

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Hurricane!

Fiona is headed our way. We are almost dead center of the predicted track when it arrives in Nova Scotia on Saturday. Currently predicted to be Cat 2. Should be a wild weekend!

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NY AG files civil fraud suit against Trump

New York attorney general files civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, some of his children and his business

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/polit...uit/index.html

Quote:

The New York state attorney general filed a sweeping lawsuit Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former President used to enrich himself. In the more than 200-page lawsuit, Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, alleges the fraud touched all aspects of the Trump business, including its properties and golf courses. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of his properties using misleading appraisals. “These acts of fraud and misrepresentation were similar in nature, were committed by upper management at the Trump Organization as part of a common endeavor for each annual Statement, and were approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization – including by Mr. Trump himself,” the lawsuit states.

They're seeking $250 million. I thought it would have been more than that.

Ranb

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The Dragonfly Project

I was searching for something on Google, probably due to reading the JWT thread, and came across the Dragonfly Project, which uses 48 Canon lenses linked together. Does anyone know how/if this project is progressing? Their site doesn't seem to have been updated since 2019. Though I did find a link to a photography site, which says it has (will be?) extended to 168 lenses.

Seems an interesting use of commercially available lenses.

Oh, and it is to have a baby brother, in Australia.

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Extreme racism in Australian Football League club

Yes, I know that Australian Rules is hardly super popular here, but this latest news has hit the competition like a bombshell. This, if true, will be the biggest scandal seen in almost all our sporting history.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-...view/101452320

Quote:

An external review commissioned by the Hawthorn Football Club will reveal allegations that key figures at the AFL club demanded the separation of young First Nations players from their partners, and pressured one couple to terminate a pregnancy for the sake of the player's career.

By background, Hawthorn is a very rich and successful club, winning four premierships in the past decade or so. But they have a very poor record in recruiting indigenous players, with very few in the 70s and 80s (indigenous players at the elite level are over represented).

Anyway the reports are distressing, but are in extreme detail, with allegations verified by family and partners. Australia has very strong defamation laws, the reporter is very credible and it is certain that the report has been lawyered to death.

That a professional club in modern Australia can demand that indigenous players leave partners and that expected babies be aborted for the player’s career simply leaves me with no words.

All involved must be banned for life from the AFL, but this should go much further. The club must be held responsible for this. I hope Hawthorn are stripped of their recent premierships (there are precedents in other codes), draft picks withdrawn for several years, heavily fined and the club should play for no points next year.

One of my sons is a senior executive with one club (not Hawthorn) and will be feeling physically sick because he knows the people involved. And all this is happening in Grand Final week, where a 100,000 crowd will turn up. It casts a terrible pall.

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[Continuation] Trans women are not women - X (XY?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vixen (Post 13907057) But her physique surely gave her an advantage over the average woman of 5'4" with feminine shoulders and less developed quadriceps. The thing is it is not only transgender men who necessarily have a physical advantage in sport. The average male swimmer could never beat an Olympic swimmer such as Sharon Davies.

No average swimmer can beat an Olympic-class swimmer. What is your point, caller?

It has been shown multiple times that if you match élite athletes in a particular sport, men and women, for height, weight and wingspan, then men are still about 10% better than the women. Across the board.

continued from http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=359425

Posted By:jimbob

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Taupō Volcano

New Zealand raises volcano alert level for Lake Taupo after 700 small earthquakes are detected

Quote:

New Zealand scientists have increased the alert level for a volcano below the country's biggest lake, which caused the largest eruption on Earth in the past 5,000 years when it last exploded about 1,800 years ago. In a statement, geological agency GeoNet said it had detected almost 700 small earthquakes below Lake Taupo, the caldera created by the giant volcano, and had raised the volcanic alert level to 1 — minor volcanic unrest — from 0. The volcanic alert system is based on six escalating levels, but GeoNet notes that eruptions may occur at any level, and levels may not move in sequence as activity can change rapidly. The Taupo volcano spewed more than 100 cubic kilometres of material into the atmosphere when it last erupted around 200 BC, devastating a large area of New Zealand's central North Island in a period before human habitation.

I saw a video on YouTube about this the other day. The last time this one erupted, it was absolutely gargantuan. If it erupts again, it could be an extremely serious threat to human life.

Ah, here it is:

[yt]gAgCnu82RHE[/yt]

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Jewish college bans all clubs rather than allow LGBT club

https://news.yahoo.com/yeshiva-u-blo...ycsrp_catchall

Reads like something out of 1968 Mississippi. "University bans ALL clubs rather than be forced to integrate".

Basically Yeshiva University has decided that if they must allow a LGBT club, then NO clubs will be allowed.

And I thought this was about "religious freedom". I guess they believe "freedom" means the right to be jerks and discriminate.

Sadness.

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DeSantis Martha's Vineyard Stunt

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...rthas-vineyard

I couldn't see a thread on this

Quote:

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, created an “urgent humanitarian situation” in Massachusetts, authorities said, by deporting about 50 undocumented migrants to Martha’s Vineyard with no apparent notice. Two planes carrying mostly Venezuelan and Colombian adults and children landed on the island on Wednesday afternoon, as part of what DeSantis’s office said was “a relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations”.

it's actually worse than that - watch the embedded video

https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status...YI9lY3wsehF_Hw

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- Your Favorite Republican? -

I know, it is hard to choose just one. My favorite was Ronald Reagan. Perhaps it is because my teens were spent in the 80's. I didn't care much about politics back then, but Reagan brought a sense of optimism, strength, and patriotism that was very refreshing. Especially after well-intentioned, but much-maligned Jimmy Carter. I remember the 80's as a fun and prosperous time...to a large extent because of Reagan and the image of the US he promoted. I respected Bush Sr., but I suppose the time for that platform had moved on.

So, while I know most of you are Dems, is there a Republican that you have ever admired, currently serving or otherwise? I know that is a tough question for some to answer, due to partisanship. But I can honestly say that I admire Obama perhaps above all other Dems in my adult lifetime.

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Sex trafficking victim to pay family of rapist she killed in self defence

Related

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-family-150000

Quote:

Appeal raises $150,000 for girl ordered to pay family of accused rapist she killed Judge had ‘no other option’ but to impose restitution on human trafficking victim given probation with risk of 20 years’ prison

Quote:

Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. Officials have said Lewis was a runaway seeking to escape an abusive life with her adopted mother and was sleeping in the hallways of an apartment building when a 28-year-old man took her in before trafficking her to other men for sex. Lewis said one of those men was Brooks, who raped her multiple times in the weeks before his death. She recounted being forced at knifepoint by the 28-year-old man to go with Brooks to his apartment for sex. She told officials that after Brooks raped her yet again, she grabbed a knife from a bedside table and stabbed him in a fit of rage.

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Ken Starr dead

(Wasn't sure where to put this, since it doesn't seem to fit in any of the other threads.)

Noted ass-wipe Ken Starr died from complications related to surgery.

From: PR Newswire
Starr died on September 13, 2022 at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston of complications from surgery.

Starr was the Special Council who was given the task of investigating the Clintons and Whitewater. (This eventually morphed into an impeachment involving oral sex. Ok, technically lying about it. But still... he had to stray pretty far from his original job to end up looking at that...)

Of course, his pro-impeachment stance seemed to disappear when Trump was president, and he had no qualms defending him, because now impeachment was bad.

(He was also noted for having to resign from a position at Baylor university, when the university was found to be negligent in dealing with cases of sexual assault.)

He will not be missed. Well, unless he owed money to someone. Then they might miss him.

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Reparations for Segregation, Redlining, Steering Etc.

I have mentioned my support for this in several threads and it was suggested that the topic deserved its own thread, so here we go.

I'm not a big fan of reparations for slavery. It's far too long ago; nobody living today was a slave, nobody living today's parent was a slave. There may be some grandchildren of slaves living today but for the most part Blacks in America are 6-8 or more generations removed from America's original sin.

On the other hand, there are definitely Blacks (and others) who were deprived of housing opportunities open to Whites in America who are still alive today. In many places it was de jure segregation, in others it was de facto, as realtors know which areas would not accept Black families.

There are studies out there that can establish monetary harm; suburban Blacks did much better after 1980 than urban Blacks although their relative progress had been similar up until then. Those who were shut out of the suburbs by the earlier official segregation and the later, unofficial kind lost out.

Of course there are minor trivial details to be ironed out, such as who pays and who receives, but I think the concept is worthy of discussion.

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Strict biological definitions of male/female

Resolved: Hilton, Wright, & Heying are essentially correct about what makes a mammal either female or male.



Attachment 46972

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Right to self defense with guns?

Basic question: should the American people have a right to defend their homes and themselves with guns?

I say yes, but they must get training and a background check. If you're law abiding, not mentally ill and a danger to yourself and others, you should have the right to protect your home, your family and yourself with a gun.

Not a machine gun with a 100 round magazine, but a semi-auto gun with no more than 10 round magazine.

What say you? Please vote in poll.

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The Russian Invasion of Ukraine part 6, The Counteroffensive!

Without question, the tide has turned in Ukraine...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISW Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive is continuing to have significant impacts on Russian morale and military capabilities in southern Ukraine. Satellite imagery of known Russian positions in Kyselivka, 15km northwest of Kherson City, shows that all but four Russian vehicles have departed from previous forward positions, consistent with rumors that Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) troops have abandoned Kyselivka and moved back towards the Dnipro River.

https://www.understandingwar.org/bac...t-september-12

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Al Qaeda to Publish Book About How They Planned the 9-11 Attacks (Not Confirmed)

Their chief weapon is surprise:

Quote:

he Al-Qaeda terrorist network on Sunday released a book written by a senior member including a detailed timeline leading up to the attacks on several U.S. airliners on September 11, 2001 which left nearly 3,000 people dead in three locations. Marking the 21st anniversary of the attacks, the book was written by Abu Muhammad al-Masri, a senior Al-Qaeda member who was reportedly killed in Iran in 2020. In the nearly 250-page volume, he said that al-Qaeda had been preparing for an attack targeting U.S. interests since it set foot in Afghanistan in 1996, with the goal of dragging the U.S. into a long-term war of attrition. The initial idea came up when an Egyptian pilot suggested flying a civilian plane carrying thousands of gallons of flammable material into “an important and symbolic American building,” according to the book shared online by al-Qaeda’s media arm, As-Sahab.

Sources:

https://gazettengr.com/al-qaeda-rele...er-11-attacks/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...terror-attacks

I cannot find the book itself yet, and it would be nice if there were better sources for this story...but the idea that AL Qaeda is sick of hearing people tell them 9-11 was an inside job made my day

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Paywalled Content.

How can we sensibly post content of high interest to the forum?
For example I would like everyone to have access to this text

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle...FYWWCCBAEB6JM/

It is far from trivial, so is there a way?

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Blog article featuring observations from Colin Scoggins.

The article itself doesn't really have much new, not to those of us who've participated in discussions here in the past. But: The War Zone blog at thedrive.com has a thread today that centers around a lot of Colin Scoggins' observations regarding air traffic control and general aviation procedures and events on September 11th.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-9-11-response

It's really a lot of the same stuff that Gumboot has posted in the past too, but again: It's always nice to see Scoggins get recognized for what positive things he did on that day. And also, to see what he and others have identified as the issues that exacerbated the confusion amongst controllers and others during the event.

---

Also: Checking in for my usual Sept 11th appearance here. I can't tell you how amusing it is to continue to see 1. "They removed the debris too quickly!", 2. That CIT somehow still lives, and 3. More "Here's my video smoking gun!" lunacy. And in a way, how depressing, but the state of societal intellectualism has been painfully revealed as lacking by the internet for decades now. This is just the same stuff, still as devoid of rationality 21 years later.

Ugh.

Anyway, hello again folks!

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Things radio was blamed for.

I think this might be useful for the next time you have to deal with people blaming wifi or mobile phones etc for problems. A list of things radio was blamed for with sources.

Check out this thread at Thread Reader App. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...498948609.html

Original tweet:
https://twitter.com/paulisci/status/1568353623498948609



Mods : feel free to move this.

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The ISF Table of Scientific Curiosities - At CSCICON 2022

Greetings,
This year at CSICON 2022, I intend to host a Table of Scientific Curiosities. One of the few goals of this is to promote this very site, The International Skeptics Forum*!

I am currently collaborating with Ray Hall (who went by "cosmic" on this forum, but he doesn't post much), a fellow science toy collector.

Those of you who were at the final TAM know that Jeff Wagg hosted a similar table, in part, to promote his skeptical travel company.


So, I figured this was worthy of its own thread. We can keep the other CSICON thread open for other, more CSICON-specific stuff.

Of course, we can discuss the "curiosities" I plan to display on the table. But, the first order of business is to get some feedback on the marketing!

I am in the midst of re-working the old flyer I had once designed for this place. I should have a draft of that ready, soon.

For now, I have attached, below, the first draft of the banner I plan to place in front of the table. It is very plain-looking right now. If anyone has any ideas to spruce it up, let me know!




(*Figured I would name it, just in case you're reading this outside of the site.)

Attached Images

ISF Table of Scientific Curiosities Poster 2022 V1.jpg (28.1 KB)

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[Split Thread] Is the term "Moslem" offensive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blue Mountain (Post 13894539) To me, people using the word "woke" to describe a person or an institution are implying the target is the one pointing out the missing capitalization, extrapolating for it and potentially being racist. The target is, in fact, doing nothing of the sort; it's the attacker doing that behaviour. The target isn't being "woke;" the attacker is being a jerk.

The target is raising a red flag, displaying a tell that lets the practitioner of woke know that they just might be dealing with "the enemy" The wokester may or may not engage in call out however they will certainly enter a black mark in their ledger on people to watch out for and bask in the afterglow of their supposed moral superiority.

There's countless other red flags like use of the word lame (ableist). the old school spelling of Moslem...the list goes on.

split from http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=361329

Posted By:jimbob

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Liz Mountbatten's death

Elizabeth Mountbatten died quietly at home surrounded by her family. Her passing is mourned by her family and friends as well as millions of fans around the world.

She was known for her impish sense of humour and for being the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of various Commonwealth countries, a role in which she is generally agreed to have excelled.

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Violence on the Left

To avoid being hoist by my own petard, I'm starting a separate thread for these:

"Top N.J. political operative charged in bizarre murder-for-hire plot"

A Jersey City political operative who worked as a consultant to former New Jersey state Sen. Raymond Lesniak pleaded guilty Tuesday in a grisly plot to kill a long-time associate, whose death had stymied investigators for years.

"Democratic Donor Ed Buck Is Convicted In Deaths Of 2 Men He Offered Drugs For Sex"

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a wealthy California political donor on charges he injected gay men with methamphetamine in exchange for sex, leading to two deaths and other overdoses.

Ed Buck, 66, was found guilty of all nine felony counts in federal court, which could lead to a life sentence. The verdict came exactly four years after one of the victims, 26-year-old Gemmel Moore, was found dead of an overdose in Buck's West Hollywood apartment.

Make of it what you will.

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Political violence from the left

Democrat politician in Nevada stabs a journalist to death, apparently for filing negative reports about him with her newspaper:

https://abc30.com/reporter-jeff-germ...bing/12209262/

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2nd amendment and protection

This quote in another thread got me thinking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponderingturtle (Post 13889678) Exactly none of that antidiscrimination protections, no employment protections and so forth. Really nothing to protect the man in the street from the depredations of the rich and powerful, as god intended.

I sense that there is a large faction in conservative politics that says, "You don't need all those regulations, you have the right to bear arms to protect yourself." But I think the greatest threats ordinary people face from the powerful happen at the stroke of a pen. The ability to present armed resistance, or even, optimistically, a rebellion, misses the development of bulwarks against ever needing to resort to that.

I would rather fight back in courtrooms and town halls and never need to pick up a firearm.

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UK Queen deed? Dying?

Speculation building, not least in this thread

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Luxuries first

So I'm reading elsewhere someone's complaint that an iPhone costs six months of his salary in his third world country. I'm guessing he's looking for sympathy.

Dunno... I'm probably gonna sound like a conservative -- hell, might even be one by now -- but it just makes me facepalm. Rant incoming.

I mean, I'd be up in arms if he said he can't afford food or medicine. But poor him is complaining about the cost of the latest iPhone.

If you'll pardon my Klingon,

Edited by Darat:

Breach of Rule 10 removed.

does anyone need the latest iPhone for? I mean, I'm a well paid programmer in one of the richest first world countries, and even I don't feel like I just have to go buy the latest iPhone. I still have an ancient Android (and I really mean ancient) from a brand you probably didn't even hear about. It makes phone calls and it can browse the web in a pinch, and that's it.

To even register that I might want something costing half a year's salary, and it's not a car, it would have to maybe come with a coupon for free blowjobs for the same half a year ;)

Insert standard complaint about kids, lawn, etc...

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GOP Efforts to Undermine Fair Elections

I can't find a proper existing thread for this so I'm putting this here. If the mods can find a more appropriate thread, feel free to put this there.

We know about gerrymandering, passing restrictive voting laws, etc. but the GOP party in Michigan is going into the "undercover agents" training business declaring that breaking the rules is OK if they can 'get the goods' on the evil Dems:

Quote:

Michigan GOP leaders encourage rule breaking at poll worker training session The evening before Michigan's state primary, Wayne County GOP leaders held a Zoom training session for poll workers and partisan observers -- warning them about "bad stuff happening" during the election and encouraging them to ignore local election rules barring cell phones and pens from polling places and vote-counting centers. "None of the constraints that they're putting on this are legal," former state senator Patrick Colbeck told trainees on the August 1 call. As far as cell phones, "I would say maybe just hide it or something, and maybe hide a small pad and a small pen or something like that because you need to take accurate notes," Cheryl Costantino, the GOP county chairwoman and host of the call, told participants. Some participants raised concerns about being tossed out if they broke the rules. "That's why you got to do it secretly," Costantino replied.

Poll workers have to swear an oath that they will be non-partisan in their work no matter their personal party affiliation or leanings.

Quote:

During the Wayne County training call, obtained by CNN, the presumption that Democrats cheat -- thus justifying Republican rule-breaking -- permeated the discussion. It offers a snapshot of one of the ways Trump-backing, MAGA-minded conspiracy theorists are intervening in the election process across the country, sometimes encouraging poll workers or volunteer observers to violate election rules in hopes of finding evidence that Democrats might be doing the same. It's an approach election experts fear could spur chaos and conflict in November's mid-term elections and in 2024.

Quote:

Like its counterparts in fellow battleground states Arizona and Pennsylvania, Michigan's Republican Party has conspiracy believers pushing for influence over the election process at all levels, from candidates for statewide office down to poll workers and observers. As CNN has previously reported, that's partly due to a strategy by Trump allies of ceaselessly recruiting conspiracy-minded MAGA volunteers for rank-and-file party positions. Earlier this year, unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley called on Michigan poll workers to unplug election equipment "if you see something you don't like happening."

Quote:

Towards the end of the Zoom call, Costantino told the trainees, "So you are all, really, undercover agents. Congratulations. That's undercover training."

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[Split Thread] Period dignity officer role scrapped after abuse over man's appointment

Period dignity officer role scrapped after abuse over man's appointment

"A group in Tayside has scrapped the role of period dignity officer after facing a backlash for appointing a man.

Jason Grant's hiring sparked a heated online debate, with critics saying the job should have gone to a woman."

Split from [Continuation] Trans women are not women (IX)

Posted By:jimbob

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Pay walled news sites

12ft.io accesses the non-paywalled version of websites sent to Google for SEO.

Quote:

Simply insert the URL into 12ft Ladder. All sites have a non-paywall version they send to Google for SEO. 12ft finds the cached, un-paywalled version of the page.

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“Woke”

Is it just me, or do others here when they see the word “woke" to describe people or institutions see it as shorthand for “I don't like people telling me I shouldn't hate on blacks and treat women as sex objects”?

I view the “woke” criticism to be invalid, since to me it implies the person or institution being targeted has simply said “we want to take steps to ensure people feel welcome here instead of being marginalized based on attributes such as gender, gender identification, race, colour, creed, country of origin, or sexual orientation.”

I added “politically correct” as a tag because, in contrast to “woke,” I view it as inclusiveness gone wild, to the degree where it's used a cudgel to shut down discussion because some snowflake somewhere might be offended. Certainly having one's ideas being challenged can sting, but people should be encouraged to separate criticism of their ideas from criticism of their person.

I'm interested in hearing the thoughts of others on this.

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National Republican Senatorial Committee has blown off most of its cash

Report: Rick Scott Blew It

Quote:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee had an astounding run of fundraising. But the money is nearly all gone now and with few returns. Over the last two years, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has had an astounding run of fundraising, raking in millions of dollars. And just as midterms approach, it appears they’ve blown nearly all of it. The committee has spent nearly all the money—as a deeply-reported new New York Times story details—while receiving virtually nothing in return for the cash that was frittered away. Even worse, they have possibly burned donors who might be gone for good, according to the Times. Through the end of July—the latest numbers available—the NRSC, which is supposed to be the fundraising bulwark that pulls together disparate individual Senate campaigns and propels the party to a victory in the Senate, has raised $181.5 million. In 2018, the last midterm election year, the committee raised just $151.5 million in the full two years—$30 million less, and the NRSC this year hasn’t hit the intense final months before the election that usually yields huge fundraising numbers. But the NRSC, which is led by Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, has also spent $172.7 million. That leaves a net of just $8.8 million. Of course, a political action committee isn’t a business, so the net haul isn’t the true metric that its success should be measured by—if that committee has spent the money to lay down a withering barrage of television ads, devastating waves of digital attacks and driven voters to the right, it might be fine that the NRSC is heading into the final months of the 2022 election with just over $23 million in the bank accounts. (The cash on hand reflects the fact that the NRSC started this current election cycle with some cash reserves). But, instead, the NRSC has called television stations to say that ad time it had previously reserved for the next few months should be cancelled. NRSC ads have largely evaporated from Facebook and at least in the Senate. The red tidal wave that six months ago looked unstoppable has ebbed and Democrats seem to have a real possibility of maintaining control of the Senate.

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Today’s Mass Stabbings

Well, if one cannot acquire a firearm, then a blade can suffice.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-nation-weldon

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Yeah, I'm a yellow dog except for. . . .

Do you have any political positions or beliefs which are typically thought to be in line those of a political party or belief system vastly different from yours?

Is the question irrelevant in that you "toe the party line" in all, or most all, cases?

Is the question irrelevant because you have adopted a pragmatic approach which values concrete action over theoretical discussion?

Do you have any examples of politicians or community leaders embracing such a pragmatic point of view?

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The Russian Invasion of Ukraine part 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ziggurat (Post 13891154) That dynamic isn't simply the result of greedy oligarchs, though. It's a dynamic referred to as "Dutch disease" where a natural resource boom almost guarantees a manufacturing contraction. Hard to avoid even without greed and corruption. [yt]Rbh0XYYx04Y[/yt]

Funnily enough, Australia has experienced exactly that by having a capitalist attitude to mining, but Norway with a Socialist policy has avoided it.

continued from http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=359029

Posted By:jimbob

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Which Blood Thinner for You?

I somehow managed to click into this ad for a blood thinning drug.

BRILINTA 90 mg + aspirin was proven to work better than Plavix + aspirin

Some of the facts are:

Quote:

BRILINTA 90 mg + Aspirin: 864 of 9,333 patients had a heart attack or stroke or died from a cardiovascular event Plavix + Aspirin: 1,014 of 9,291 patients had a heart attack or stroke or died from a cardiovascular event

Seems to be a slight advantage there in favor of Brilinta..

But don't rush out and have that prescription filled.

Quote:

More people treated with BRILINTA experienced bleeding compared to those treated with Plavix. Of people given BRILINTA 90 mg + aspirin, 3.9% (362/9,235) experienced bleeding‡ that was serious or sometimes fatal, compared to 3.3% (306/9,186) of people given Plavix + aspirin.

Who would have guessed that a drug that results in fewer clots, also resulted in more bleeding?

I notice they don't give any exact numbers on how many people died on which drug, but I have a feeling if less people died with Brilinta, we would see those numbers in big bold letters if they were the least bit significant..

What were the numbers for a control group that did not take either drug?
it might be buried in there somewhere. I'll have to look closer and get back with you.


Just thought this was interesting with regard to the drug companies fighting for your drug dollars, and the question of how prepared medical professionals are to actually make the best therapy recommendations.

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Russian oil chief dies in 'fall from hospital window'

Ravil Maganov: Russian Lukoil chief dies in 'fall from hospital window'

Yeah, right...

Back in high school I encountered the word "defenestrate", and thought it was one of the funniest definitions I ever read.

Quote:

defenestrate: to throw (someone) out of a window.

I couldn't imagine any scenario where I would see it used. Turns out, over the last 40 years or so, a lot more than I thought!

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Trump victim culture un-American?

Is the Trump victim culture un-American?

Many of us decry the various victim cultures in which self-proclaimed "victims" are incentivized to publicize their grievances, real or imagined, and the insults that they believe caused them.

On other threads I have decried Freemen-on-the-land and sovereign citizens who claim to be victims because they are required to follow the laws of society.

Others have scoffed at the notions of microaggressions saying the targets of what used to be called "petty slights" are simply using those slights to raises their moral status to that of victims.

Does Trumpism and its constant focus its leader's supposed persecution (as well as that of his followers) run counter to America's dignity culture which promotes achievement while teaching that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

Comments are welcomed.

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