[Split Thread] Canadian Parliament Honours Former Nazi Fighter

The first 29 posts of this thread were originally posted in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine thread, but it is clearly a separate, albeit related, topic. It is possible that in splitting the thread, some posts that should have been moved were not, and some posts were moved that should not have been. Please report any posts that you consider fall into either of those categories.

Posted By:Agatha

Whoops

Quote:

Speaker of Canada's House of Commons Anthony Rota on Sunday apologized for paying tribute to a man who fought for a Nazi military unit during World War II. The bungle occurred shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the House of Commons on Friday. Canadian lawmakers then gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation when Speaker Anthony Rota called attention to him. Rota introduced Hunka as a war hero who fought with the First Ukrainian Division. This division was also known as the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.

https://www.dw.com/en/canada-house-s...ran/a-66912302

Part of a longer trend, which goes back well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, of certain elements of the Canadian political establishment engaging in apologism and historical revisionism on behalf of the Ukrainian Waffen-SS division.

Canada (in concert with a broader British effort) famously offered refuge to some 2,000 members of the Ukrainian SS unit in the 1950s, who presumably were in fear of being rightly prosecuted as Nazi collaborators after the war by the USSR.

All SS units were declared criminal organizations in the Nuremberg trials.

Canadian MPs are tripping over themselves to distance themselves from the elderly Nazi they just honored.

Quote:

The Speaker has made it clear that he was responsible for inviting this individual to the House. The government played no role. It did not know he would be there. The PM did not meet him. I am deeply troubled this happened. I urge MPs to avoid politicizing this incident.

https://twitter.com/karinagould/stat...59696400892330

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Not sure where to put this image but I love it.

A seed for harvest

Quote:

A seed for harvest, this is how I titled this photo playing with the name as this Moon is known (Harvest Moon), which was the one that inspired me to create this sequence of photos creating this story that I, personally love and that I have had to wait 2 years to make it since I thought about it in my mind. Details: Canon 5D MK IV, lens Sigma 150-600mm. 1/250 exposure, 2500 ISO, F/6.3, 450mm Photographer's website: https://www.instagram.com/astrocoy_/

He's placed the Moon in a wheelbarrow, then in his arms, and then in the ground where another in the image waters it.

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Were you homeschooled?

I'm not asking about your kids, but about adults here who were schooled at home. What was it like, and how are things going now?

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Emotional support alligator denied entry to baseball game

Harmless 5' reptile not allowed in. The heartless beasts!

So cute!



link

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Dianne Feinstein passes at 90

Breaking News, Senator Dianne Feinstein has passed away at 90.

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School Rules

We're at the stage where we are looking at high schools for second born.

Talking to other parents has revealed some interesting insights into modern schools, in terms of rules:

• One school insists that kids carry their planner in their right hand when walking through school
• School uniform - have to wear tie (an outdated concept for most of real world), among other strict rules for uniform (cost being an obvious downside). I mean really strict rules.
• One way corridors (unless you're 6th Form), so you have to go round the whole building to get to a next class nearby, even when its quiet.

This isn't a modern phenomenon:
When I was at school in the 80s, we had a teachers path, that ran between the two main buildings. We had to walk on the road.

Is there any benefit to the kids for these stupid rules? I recall finding uniform uncomfortable, and a distraction as a result. Polo shirts seem the way forward, but many schools don't seem to go for them.

What stupid rules did you have at school?

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Jordan Peterson U

DR Jordan Peterson announces his (not accredited) school for the (i'm assuming) mentally ill this year

he's announcing this stuff on the roganverse podcast circuit. if you ask me it looks a lot more like his daughters meat diet scam, that she learned from andrew tate by the way, than a school. but yeah, maybe it'll be great

-edit-

oh, and it looks like he has all his stuff on daily wire now. that's not weird.

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Famous Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall had been deliberately cut down

Quote:

A historic sycamore tree which stood in a dramatic dip in Hadrian's Wall appears to have been felled overnight, the national park has said. Police are investigating after the tree in Sycamore Gap - known as Robin Hood's Tree - seemed to have been cut down. Northumberland National Park Authority officials said it believed it had been "deliberately felled" and asked people to stay away from the site.

Absolutely shocking!

It's one of the symbols of the wall and the national park.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-66947040

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Tree down

The not-completely-unknown sycamore at a depression on Hadrian's Wall had stood for a few hundred years, until it was discovered today, fallen.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-66947040

Reports suggesting it was deliberately felled; the stump does look remarkably smooth. I wouldn't rule out stormy weather, not being an arborist personally, but if humans were involved: bastards.

The location is rural, but not difficult to access, albeit involving about a twenty-minute walk from the nearest road.

Picture is from my visit on Monday afternoon.

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No falling up

In the crossing all the T's box, the long-anticipated result from the ALPHA-g is that antimatter accelerates in a gravitational field approximately the same as matter does.

https://home.cern/news/news/physics/...ity-antimatter

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06527-1

If you were hoping to make an anti-matter, anti-gravity drive now that your EM Drive no longer works, you're out of luck.

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Mass of Milky Way revisited

https://phys.org/news/2023-09-revisi...cosmology.html

Quote:

The total mass of the Milky Way is estimated to be only two hundred billion times that of the sun (2.06 x 1011 solar masses), marking a significant downward revision—approximately four to five times lower than previous estimates.

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Just the second Republican debate

Who's watching it?

It's on Wednesday 27 September 2023.

https://apnews.com/article/46ce9209b...5ff361522f6bed

Appearing:

Nikki Haley
Ron De Santis
Vivek Ramaswamy
Chris Christie
Mike Pence
Tim Scott
Doug Burgum

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If Climate Change Doesn't Get Us...

Colliding Continents will..

Supercontinent could wipe out humans in 250 million years, study says

Actually, the resulting effect will be climate change, so it will be climate change after all.

Quote:

The altered terrain, coupled with increased solar energy and higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, will likely render conditions on Pangea Ultima "inhospitable to mammals," the study predicts, noting that the forecast carbon dioxide levels combined with a brighter sun "will probably lead to a climate tipping point" that causes the "mass extinction" of Earthly mammals, humans included.

Maybe we will have moved on by then.

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[Merged] Don't Tweet while drunk! / TIMES columnist mocked for his airport meal tweet

Or X, or Xweet, or what the hell ever it's called today.
Current example: David Brooks, NYT columnist. As noted in the Biden thread.

"OMG, it's all Biden's fault that a burger and fries costs $78!!!"
Reality: Burger and fries cost $18, the rest was booze.
Don't post while drunk. Or stoned, even.
I'm sure we can all find other examples.

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TIMES' Columnist Mocked for his 'Airport Meal' Tweet

New York Times columnist David Brooks -- the Times' resident conservative -- is taking some heat after Tweeting the below.



As others were quick to discover and point out, the restaurant was the Smokehouse at Newark Airport where a burger and fries cost $17.00. The restaurant posted on their Facebook page, Brooks' bar tab was 80% of the bill. How has Brooks reacted?

He guesses he probably shouldn't "write any Tweets." I would agree that he shouldn't post Tweets while he's knocking back $60 worth of Bourbon in one sitting. ;)

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Predictions: Result of Trump's NY fraud lawsuit

Trump has his upcoming New York lawsuit scheduled to start October 2. (This case was brought by Attorney General Leticia James, over Trump and his company committing Fraud by overvaluing property values when Trump was trying to borrow money).

A judge has already ruled that Trump is liable in a ruling earlier today, and has suspended some of Trump's business licenses. (See: Reuters).

It is a civil (not criminal) lawsuit, so Trump won't be going to jail over it. But, the lawsuit is for $250 million. (Furthermore, Trump could be barred from doing business in New York as a result.) So, it could definitely hurt, given the fact that he still has substantial business interests in New York.

So what do people think will be the ultimate result of the trial?

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Shutdown 2023

The White House has begun advising federal agencies to prepare for a government shutdown as Republican lawmakers have shown no signs of progress in negotiations to keep the government funded beyond this week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/u...-android-share

p.s. I didn't see another thread on this, but admittedly I was searching on my phone. Mods feel free to merge.

ETA: The numbers nerds over at Metaculus already have a prediction market on how long this one will last. Personally, I think they are being overly optimistic.
https://www.metaculus.com/questions/...ment-shutdown/

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"New" iPhone! :)

My iPhone 7 finally stopped working coherently enough, so that it required replacement :(

To be exact it stopped having the ability to place or make phone calls, or any function that needed the microphone. My Guru at the local repair facility said just get a new one!

I wanted an outright unlocked purchase since 90% of my mobile phone usage is in wifi, I can save money by switching to a 'pay as you go" plan with no fixed monthly payments ...That part is coming soon, so far I just swapped SIM Cards and am using my 'NEW" ...

... iPhone 12 :) on my old plan, It's SOOO much better than the 7 !! $509 from a popular Amazon seller, "Renewed" ... It's like bran new not a scratch and 88% battery functionality (it was guaranteed to 80% only)

I got a nice case for $9 that included a flexible, (fairly thick) tempered glass screen saver, that applied by hand with ZERO bubbles!

Just wrestling with my songs transferring over to it, it doesn't like the ones entered by CD on my old iMac (RIP) ... So I downloaded iTunes .. that apparently will do it .. Trying next week again some time.

My next accessory will be the MagSafe recharger, so I can charge and use (wirered) earbuds and recharge at the same time.

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What's going on at fivethirtyeight.com?

Now it redirects to https://abcnews.go.com/538. And now everything is branded "538" (just the numbers). I presume there's been some kind of buyout. Is Nate Silver still calling the shots?

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The Diagonals of Pascal's Triangle

I'm looking for some feedback about 2 methods I've found for generating the sequences of numbers in the diagonals of Pascal's Triangle. The first one is something I came up with about a year ago, while ensconced in a nursing facility recuperating from a heart attack. Once I'd read all of the books they had that were of any interest, I quickly grew bored with the TV, so I asked a friend of mine to bring me a calculator so I could play with numbers, which I sometimes enjoy doing. I am not a mathematician, but I sometimes enjoy playing with numbers the way children play with toys.

I spent a couple of weeks finding the prime numbers and the prime factors of the composite numbers up to 5,000, which was about as far as I wanted to go with that particular project.

So next I turned my attention to Pascal's Triangle, which I had enjoyed reading about before, since it's among the most interesting number patterns I've come across.

I knew how to build the Triangle row by row using addition, and I knew it had many interesting patterns within it. I spent some time reacquainting myself with those, and then decided to see if I could find a method of generating the sequences of numbers in the diagonals of the Triangle.
I didn't really expect to succeed, but I knew that the only things worth doing are the hard things.

So I got busy, and I was right about the difficulty - it was a bit hard.

But then I actually succeeded!

Let me show you what I found:

The first two diagonals are pretty trivial, and don't need an algorithm to generate them, so I'll begin with the third diagonal, which is composed of the triangular numbers:

1×3/1=3
3×4/2=6
6×5/3=10
10×6/4=15
15×7/5=21
21×8/6=28
28×9/7=36
36×10/8=45
45×11/9=55
55×12/10=66
66×13/11=78
78×14/12=91
Etc.

Next, let's look at the diagonal that contains the tetrahedral numbers:

1×4/1=4
4×5/2=10
10×6/3=20
20×7/4=35
35×8/5=56
56×9/6=84
84×10/7=120
120×11/8=165
165×12/9=220
220×13/10=286
286×14/11=364
364×15/12=455
Etc.

The next diagonal consists of the 5-simplex numbers:

1×5/1=5
5×6/2=15
15×7/3=35
35×8/4=70
70×9/5=126
126×10/6=210
210×11/7=330
330×12/8=495
495×13/9=715
715×14/10=1001
1001×15/11=1365
1365×16/12=1820
Etc.

OK, I'll just do one more, because I expect that by now you can see the basic idea:

This diagonal is composed of the 6-simplex numbers:

1×6/1=6
6×7/2=21
21×8/3=56
56×9/4=126
126×10/5=252
252×11/6=462
462×12/7=792
792×13/8=1287
1287×14/9=2002
2002×15/10=3003
3003×16/11=4368
4368×17/12=6188
Etc.

See how simple and easy that is?
I could go on, but I don't want to bore y'all to tears, so I'll stop here.

I came up with that about a year ago, but just last week I found a completely different method for doing the exact same thing!

This one uses combinations, which are pretty easy to do with the calculator I have, a TI-30XS MultiView. It has a "table" button, which allows me to input an expression with one variable (x), and it returns a list of the appropriate "y" values.

The first diagonal, composed of a potentially infinite sequence of 1s, is arrived at this way:

x nCr 0

The next diagonal, composed of the positive integers, is arrived at with

x nCr 1

Next, the triangular numbers:

x nCr 2

Then, the tetrahedral numbers:

x nCr 3

Then the 5-simplex numbers:

x nCr 4

Then the 6-simplex numbers:

x nCr 5

Etc.

This works for all of the diagonals of the Triangle.

I've been searching on Google and YouTube for any hint that someone else has come up with these two methods, but I haven't been able to find anything like them.

So I'm hoping that someone here can help me find out whether or not anyone has done either of these methods before or if I'm the first to discover them.

Also, are they as beautiful as I, a non-mathematician, think they are, or are they just too trivial to care about?

I really need some feedback on this!

Thanks for your time!

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Cocaine

I first heard of the drug in Sherlock Holmes.
Watson scored a wife in Study in Scarlet and Holmes reached for the cocaine.

Is cocaine addictive?

Should it be a class A drug?

I am curious as I have seen plenty of it but of course never touched it.
Is it still the city drug of choice?
It is organic produce rather than lab created as I understand it.
Methamphetamine has destroyed many lives around me. Is cocaine a totally different beast?

And so on.

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Senator Bob Menendez and Wife Indicted for Bribery

US Senator Menendez charged with bribery, says he will not resign

Quote:

The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan said Menendez, 69, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and gold bars in exchange for using his power and influence as New Jersey's senior senator to benefit the government of Egypt and interfere with law enforcement probes into the businessmen. Menendez has been an important ally to fellow Democrat Joe Biden as the president has sought to reassert U.S. influence on the world stage, rally support for congressional aid to Ukraine, and push back against a rising China.

This isn't the first time Menendez has been charged with bribery. The last time it ended in a hung jury. Menendez issued the following statement:

Quote:

"It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere," he said in a statement late Friday.

He's actually suggesting that Joe Biden's justice department is targeting him because he's Latino! Doesn't make an iota of sense politically.

Senator Menendez's wife of three years at center of bribery allegations

Quote:

In return for Menendez's promise to help Egypt benefit from U.S. military sales, Hana rewarded [Menendez's wife] Arslanian with a no-show job at his company and $23,000 to get her home out of foreclosure proceedings, the indictment said. In June of 2022, officials searched the apartment Menendez and Arslanian shared in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and found more than $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in cash. Arslanian's safe deposit box contained another $70,000. Arslanian, a registered Republican, according to voting records, is accused of setting up a company called Strategic International Business Consultants with Menendez's help to receive bribery payments. She would tell an unidentified relative, according to the indictment: "Every time I'm a middle person for a deal, I am asking to get paid and this is my consulting company."

His wife wasn't very good at op-sec it seems. She blabbed about it to the wrong person. Anyway, that's a hell of a lot of cash. Who keeps such sums of money lying around in cash? Someone who doesn't want it showing up in financial statements like tax returns perhaps?

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I. Am. Back. Boys.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO



First things first. You MUST read my old thread. It is required. That is the only way you will know what's going on.

link to old thread on this same account on this website - http://www.internationalskeptics.com...d.php?t=252529

I last logged 24th October 2014 at 12:26 AM. I remembered my password after a few tries.

I think I originally made that thread on the JREF forums? Or this was its own separate forum at that point, not sure. But it is great that the thread is archived. I knew it was possible it existed.

It's always interesting to get glimpses of myself back then. I don't have much written record of this. I was curious to how much it changed over the course of things. A little surprising to see how accurate I think I could be about some specific things, but also how I was wrong about others. And definitely some large pieces of the puzzle I was completely missing back then. And also the way I came across, my general ability to form coherent sentences, how I just definitely seemed mentally disturbed. But in terms of me being mentally disturbed I'm also surprised it remained as civil as it did.

I'm not sure if anyone from the original thread is still around, if so, cheers

So let's just get into it?

I still do in fact believe that I am the victim (lol) experiencer of some unique and odd phenomenon that ultimately defy our current understandings and limitations in science.

And honestly, of the many ways of doing this, I think it's almost best to just leave it at that at this point. Now I just need to let you guys do the asking, and me the answering.

A few things I could say.
Feel free to ask any of the same questions as the last thread, you will see that my understanding is different. And at that, anything you read in the last thread could be different, don't assume it's exactly the same.
It was surprising how I made a mention of self harm but please do not worry about that as I will never desire to hurt myself or anyone else.
There were comments in that thread that came across as rudely poking fun of (my) mental health. I am not bothered by those comments. I will answer all questions, nothing is off limits. It is a topic of conversation of course.
It is actually cool to see the other commenters in that thread who were positively wise of mental health issues back then, especially relating to the similarities to my situation.
I hope this thread doesn't turn out a way it might. I'm not going to be trying to just one up everyone. I don't want this to leave a stale taste in my mouth. Hopefully something meaningful can come of this.
I wanted to sleep on this post overnight to think about it but honestly i'm too excited so i'm just going to send it.
(mods pls dont remove this)

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Expel indicted members of Congress?

George Santos has been indicted.

Now Bob Menendez.

The evidence against both of them seems pretty overwhelming.

Should they be expelled or should Congress wait till they have been convicted?

Trials can take years, but the feds are known for not indicting someone unless they have a ton of evidence that they committed the crime.

I say if you are indicted by the federal government, you should resign or be expelled.

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[Continuation] The Biden Presidency (4)

Continued from here.

Posted By:Agatha

Republicans have won ONE popular vote for President in the last 35 years.

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Ground News - news aggregator

I've recently subscribed to Ground News - a website that aggregates news sources and categorises them according to their truthfulness and political bias. It's sort of like Google News meets MediaBiasFactCheck. For each article you can see which news outlets are reporting it and what their political bias is. You can get a summary of the article generated (presumably by AI) from Left, Centre and Right sources and can easily compare them.

It's a paid subscription, but the basic package is not expensive. There are additional features for additional cost - one such is what they call Blindspots. Blindspots highlights articles that one side of the political spectrum is not reporting on.

It's an interesting approach to news aggregation, and I'm finding it pretty interesting, though most of the topics I've highlighted as interests aren't reported by very many nonspecialised outlets. :)

Worth a check, in my opinion.

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Is the United States in a dystopian malaise?

Just a question to the smart people here.

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Sleepy backwater called New York City discovers the trash can

People are often shocked to learn that in many parts of New York City, the officially sanctioned way to put out trash for collection is to throw loose bags of garbage directly on the sidewalk, where they inevitably become fodder for rats and other vermin.

After a herculean scientific endeavor not seen since the Manhattan Project, New York seems to be moving forward with the revolutionary piece of new technology. They call it a "dumpster"

Quote:

New York City, where sidewalks have long been overrun by foul-smelling heaps of garbage bags that force passers-by to yield to oncoming rat traffic, is about to try a not-so-novel idea to solve the problem. The concept, known as trash containerization, seems simple enough: Get trash off the streets and into containers. The strategy has been used successfully in cities across Europe and Asia, like Barcelona and Singapore.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/n...nyc-adams.html

Not all are pleased though. Let me introduce you to the most ridiculous NIMBY on Earth (a fiercely contested title) who bemoans the loss of character that will come with not piling up loose garbage on the sidewalks:

Quote:

Residents of historic buildings on a tree-lined section of Upper Manhattan found a new feature in their neighborhood last week: large wheeled bins labeled "Trash." The sanitation department installed the shared dumpsters on residential streets in West Harlem as part of a pilot program inspired by operations in cities like Barcelona and Paris, where residents throw away trash in communal bins instead of leaving bags on sidewalks for collection. Officials say the goal is to reduce the city's exploding rat population by eliminating the rodents' access to food sources in household trash. Caroline Miller, who lives with her husband on West 149th Street, said the dumpsters were set up outside her first-floor apartment without community input. “I hate them so much. It is ridiculous. We got no notice, we got no say,” said Miller, a 36-year-old opera singer. “You pay a certain amount of rent for, like, a pretty, cute neighborhood feeling. Now it's like I'm living in the back alley of a school building.”

https://gothamist.com/news/west-harl...historic-block

The world waits with bated breath as New Yorkers bravely extend the limits of mankind's knowledge.

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Johnny Kitagawa's posthumous cancellation

Most people outside of Japan have probably never heard of this man, but there is currently a sex abuse scandal around him that is like a cross between Harvey Weinstein and Jimmy Savile.

Johnny Kitagawa died in 2019 at the age of 87 and was eulogized by celebrities at a public event held at the Tokyo Dome where a message of condolence was sent by the Prime Minister himself. Basically, he died with his reputation intact, even though accusations were already known.

In this sense, he is like Jimmy Savile. You can google Jimmy Savile obituary and find that the obituaries printed on the occasion of his death, at the age of 84, did not hint at anything unsavory. He had "a flair for good works" and was known for his charity work. He had been knighted.

Like Weinstein he was a producer, not of movies, but of boy bands. Like Weinstein he had the power to make or break careers in the entertainment industry. And people were afraid to speak out against him because of it.

Johnny Kitagawa and the Code of Omerta in Japanese Entertainment

Some TV producers even seemed to be proud of the fact that they didn't care about allegations of abuse:

Quote:

Senior TV producers pronounced themselves thankful for the company’s professionalism and uninterested in much else. “As a producer I’m not interested in rumors of sex scandals. It doesn’t concern people like us who are making programs,” said Tamon Andrew Niwa, a former producer with TBS in a story I wrote for Newsweek Japan (2005). “His stars can sing and dance, they’re well mannered, remember their lines and are never late,” he said. “They run a tight ship. If someone quits (the agency), I always assume there must have been a problem with that performer because it is so professional.”

Now, finally, years after his death, it's like a switch has been thrown and suddenly everyone is rushing to distance themselves from his agency (although Johnny himself is dead, the talent agency he founded still exists).
Johnny Kitagawa: Japan firms cut ties with boyband agency over sex abuse

Quote:

Major Japanese brands are cutting ties with the country's biggest talent agency after it was engulfed by a sexual abuse scandal. Firms including Nissan, Asahi and Suntory say they will not renew any contracts with Johnny and Associates. Toyota, which previously had a contract with one of its top stars, told the BBC it had no plans to sign any more deals featuring Johnny talents. Japan's agriculture ministry has also said it would stop hiring the stars. Johnny and Associates is Japan's biggest J-pop and boyband talent agency. Last month, an independent investigation into the agency found its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, had abused hundreds of boys and young men over a six-decade career as one of the most powerful entertainment figures in Japan.

It may partly be because this agency is no longer needed, or to be feared, so that there is no longer any price to be paid for publicly disassociating with the agency. Funny how that is. People were happy to turn a blind eye to it in the past, but suddenly they are all rushing for the door at once.
He abused hundreds of boys over the years and got away with it till the day he died. Its only his successors who are now finally paying any price for it.

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[Continuation] The thread for stupidity from GQP politicians who don't have their own thread Part II

Continued from here. As is usual, the split point is arbitrary and participants are free to copy & paste from the closed thread.

Posted By:Agatha

The biggest piece of trash was was removed by theater staff

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Ethnic cleansing of Armenians within Azerbaijan

After months of blockading the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has created a humanitarian crisis, the Azerbaijani military has begun shelling the territory.

Quote:

Ethnic Armenians in Karabakh appealed on Tuesday for a ceasefire and for talks to start. But it was clear from the Azerbaijani ultimatum that Baku's aim was to complete its conquest of the mountainous enclave. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of starting a ground operation aimed at "ethnic cleansing". Hundreds of Armenian protesters, frustrated by their country's response, clashed with police outside parliament in Yerevan, condemning their leader as a traitor and calling on him to resign. Both Russia's foreign ministry and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, to cease military action immediately. Azerbaijan said talks could start in the town of Yevlakh, some 100km (60km) north of the Karabakh regional capital of Khankendi, called Stepanakert by ethnic Armenians. ... Russia's foreign ministry said it had been warned of the Azerbaijani offensive only minutes in advance and urged both countries to respect a ceasefire signed after the war in 2020. The EU's regional special representative, Toivo Klaar, said there was "urgent need for immediate ceasefire". UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to fighting on Wednesday morning and for "stricter observance of the 2020 ceasefire and principles of international humanitarian law".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66851975

Seems to be another Kosovo type ethnic cleansing situation unfolding. Unclear at this time if anything will be done to stop the aggression of Azerbaijan.

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Senate strips... dress code.

Senate dress code

I think it's of course appropriate for Senators to wear non-traditional clothing if there is a medical or other reason. But I still think shorts and a hoodie is a bit much. Sen. Raskin with the head scarf? Looks a bit odd but again there was a reason.

I have no doubt that within a day or two, certain GOP members will abuse the laxity, saying "Hey, they said we could do it!"

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First Visual Survey of the IJN Akagi by EV Nautilus, September 10, 2023

I know a few of you will find this fascinating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTBDn3-AfVM

They re-surveyed USS Yorktown and Kaga a few days earlier. The Battle of Midway wrecks are at extreme depth, making them difficult to reach.

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Is the era of free email coming to an end?

Australia is now seeing companies that provide free email for clients now dropping that product. Their email address will now be transferred to a company that charges for the service.

Telstra is now charging for email.

Google is going to start trimming and dropping old email accounts.

That's fair enough. The hardware and energy required to provide email is not getting any cheaper. (Unlike the good old days of falling hardware costs)


Most email is worthless junk that people can't be arsed cleaning up. Or has all these attachments that are a huge waste of space.

It used to be that email providers were collecting customers to act as a future source of revenue. Well, the future may have arrived.

So I guess it's one more cost the consumer will beat directly.

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Aliens!

Came across this weird bit of news about this presentation about aliens, apparently made right in the Mexican Congress, complete with claims of actual bodies of said aliens, and photographs as well:

Links:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/w...ss-mexico.html

-----

I guess:

(a) The debunking thing. Easy enough to throw claims out, and easy enough to doctor a photograph or two: but clearly this guy had enough cred to power through right to Mexico's parliament (presumably a high bar, I guess --- or maybe not, I don't really know). And actually debunking something like this takes time and effort --- at the armchair level, as well as at the boots-on-ground level. The first of those two is what we used to see a lot of, in old threads from the million-dollar-challenge days. So if people are interested enough to dig further, then go!

(b) Why would someone do something like this? Is the guy literally crazy? He's sure to be outed, sooner or later, so what's the point? Or maybe he's hoping to get enough fame/notoriety/celebrity-of-a-kind to make some money?

(c) Or... (dramatic whisper) ...are those actually aliens?!

-----

NASA weighs in (simply in terms of asking for clear data, what else can they say after all if they're to be strictly objective):

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-66791954

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Why do we still keep dogs bred to kill?

There is a lot in the UK news about a rise in dog attacks and kills, primarily by American Bully XLs. In the past there were issues with other breeds such as Japanese Tosa and Pit Bulls, which were subsequently banned.

Certain dogs were bred to defend livestock and humans and even for attack. The UK bans people from carrying knives and guns as a means of defence, even people who can be trusted to be safe and responsible with weapons. So why allow breeds of dog that have the same purpose as a knife or gun?

There is no place for dogs like the Bully XL, or any dog whose original purpose is to kill.

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'Empty shelves with absolutely no books'

I'm pretty sure this was not what the drafters of the Ontario DEI plan intended.. But then as they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Quote:

Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Those are all examples of books Reina Takata says she can no longer find in her public high school library in Mississauga, Ont., which she visits on her lunch hour most days. In May, Takata says the shelves at Erindale Secondary School were full of books, but she noticed that they had gradually started to disappear. When she returned to school this fall, things were more stark. "This year, I came into my school library and there are rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books," said Takata, who started Grade 10 last week. She estimates more than 50 per cent of her school's library books are gone. In the spring, Takata says students were told by staff that "if the shelves look emptier right now it's because we have to remove all books [published] prior to 2008."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...ding-1.6964332

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Russell Brand accused of rape and sexual assault

Four women have made accusations against Russell Brand, and he denies them.

"The investigation is published in the Sunday Times, while the Dispatches documentary, Russell Brand - In Plain Sight, aired on Channel 4 on Saturday."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66831593

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MSN Retracts Insane AI-Generated Obit Calling Dead NBA Player ‘Useless’

MSN Retracts Insane AI-Generated Obit Calling Dead NBA Player ‘Useless’

Quote:

Microsoft’s move to fire its human news division and lean into the use of artificial intelligence for its news services is apparently continuing to yield utterly disastrous results. MSN—Microsoft’s news aggregation site—hosted and then deleted an obituary for former NBA player Brandon Hunter that sported the headline “Brandon Hunter useless at 42.” Hunter passed away earlier this week. The entirety of the obit is filled with AI-generated gibberish. “Throughout his NBA profession, he performed in 67 video games over two seasons and achieved a career-high of 17 factors in a recreation in opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2004,” one paragraph reads. The article has since been pulled from the site, but archives show the AI-driven nonsense that was briefly pushed seemingly as real news on Microsoft’s site by the publication “Race Track.” MSN reportedly fired all 27 of its journalists in 2020, replacing them with “artificial intelligence software,” The Guardian reported at the time.

It's bad enough that they fired all their writers, but at least they could have an editor to look at this stuff before it goes live! A deceased person deserves better than this, and there should be an apology to his family.

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16 years later, FDA acknowledges that popular OTC decongestant is totally ineffective

Quote:

Decongestant ingredient in popular products does not work, FDA concludes Advisory panel reviewed studies of phenylephrine, an active ingredient in Benadryl, Mucinex, Sudafed PE and Tylenol A common decongestant ingredient of numerous popular over-the-counter cold and flu remedies does not work, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded on Tuesday. An advisory panel spent two days looking at studies of phenylephrine, an active ingredient in well-known medicines including Benadryl, Mucinex, Sudafed PE and Tylenol, and reported to the FDA that it is no more effective than a placebo. The announcement raises the likelihood of the medicines disappearing from shelves this fall while manufacturers scramble to formulate alternative formulas without it, according to the New York Times, which first reported the development.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-phenylephrine

Science Based Medicine blog covered this earlier in March. While intravenous and other non-oral phenylephrine is effective, not enough of the drug (at current dosages) survives passing through the gut to be therapeutically useful.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the...ugs-dont-work/

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Good News: They Got the Lead Out of Turmeric

Turmeric in Bangladesh was being intentionally adulterated with lead chromate in order to give it brighter colors and make it more attractive to consumers or disguise poor quality turmeric.

Jenna Forsyth, originally in Bangladesh to study water safety and sanitation, was put on to a puzzle about why lead levels in people there were much higher than they should be, particularly given lack of traditional avenues of pollution. Eventually she discovered the adulteration of turmeric and began a campaign to stop it.

With the collaboration of Bangladeshi regulators and charitable organizations like Givewell, that effort seems to have succeeded.

Saw this story here:
https://marginalrevolution.com/margi...-turmeric.html

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Crashed UFO? Spy Balloon Component? Nope it's a . . . .

. . . battery

Hiker stumbles across mysterious object in Yukon's Tombstone Territorial Park.

Quote:

"I was like, 'well, that's it — I found the space balloon payload, or whatever,'" Beaudoin told CBC News. "I don't think that's it, but it would be pretty cool if it was."

Quote:

Many speculations arose, from an excavator battery, to a flux capacitor.

And then an expert checks in:

Quote:

Biernaski is the manager of NAPA Auto Parts in Dawson and he thought he knew what it was as soon as he saw it. "I think that's a battery," he said. "With the plates and the connections between the plates — that's what I would think. It's just missing its case."

Nothing to see here folks. That way to the egress.

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Women doctors are snowflakes who need to toughen up

A letter to today's Times newspaper, from a retired Doctor who writes;

"Sir,
this "snowflake generation" of young doctors, largely female and selected mainly on academic excellence, clearly did not do their homework.
Medical training and practice is brutal and demanding, with long hours, and bullying happens. Sexually inappropriate comments and actions do occur. It is stressful. All I can say is that if they want to make a success of this rewarding career then they should toughen up. Perhaps four A*s at A-level are not the answer to all the problems they will face.
Dr Peter Hilton
Consultant anaesthetists/intensivist 1986-2020; Haverfordwest."

The Times is pay to access, the letter has been reproduced on twitter by multiple accounts.

https://twitter.com/rosieICM/status/1701843650680930415

It comes after a report that shows horrific levels of misogyny and criminality against female surgeons;

https://www.medscape.co.uk/viewartic...t-2023a1000lgd

"Around two-thirds of female surgeons have experienced sexual harassment from colleagues, and almost one in three has been sexually assaulted by a colleague, according to a new report, described as "harrowing" and "horrifying" by NHS Providers and the British Medical Association."

Where do you even start, when faced with a man who tries to excuse and normalise such behaviour?

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[Continuation] Prostitution part 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by catsmate (Post 14160522) Compared to USAia countries with decdent sex education and access to contraception (here it's available free to anyone under 30) have low abortion rates. I rather suspect professions would take greater care than the majority.

That has little to do with human emotional response to sex.

Discussion continued from here. You can quote and reply to any post from that part here.

Posted By:zooterkin

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Biden Impeachment

“This impeachment inquiry highlights the authoritarian danger presented by the MAGA movement. The GOP is willing to destroy the rule of law by manufacturing an investigation into President Biden without any known evidence to continue lying to the American public and give Donald Trump a better chance of winning the election.”

https://lincolnproject.us/the-lincol...tarian-danger/

Curious to see what evidence McCarthy & co. put up as an excuse to move thing this forward.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

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[Continuation] Roe v Wade overturned - this is some BS part II

Continued from here

Posted By:Agatha

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beerina (Post 14160131) I support abortion rights, but also like rhetoric. What you say is like predigested protein from a tub. Is a person against murder horrible because poor people saved from murder are still poor? Should people who halt murders support poor post-not-murdered support funds?

I too like rhetoric. As a sales rep, it is the bread and butter of my industry. It is also the bread and butter of the GOP. They are good at oversimplifying issues. It might sell well to those who agree with them. But for everyone else it is transparent deception. The label is meaningless.

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School Boards and their constant baffingly wars against student hair styles

Texas student suspended over his loc hairstyle days after state’s Crown Act takes effect

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/11/us/ba...ion/index.html

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Liberals turn on New Mexico governor over gun suspension

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lib...s-constitution

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is coming under fire from members of her own party after temporarily suspending open and concealed carry across Albuquerque under an emergency health order.

"I support gun safety laws. However, this order from the Governor of New Mexico violates the U.S. Constitution. No state in the union can suspend the federal Constitution. There is no such thing as a state public health emergency exception to the U.S. Constitution," California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu tweeted.



Well this is interesting. Democrat mayor temporarily suspends the right to carry handguns in public and liberal politicians and others are condemning the move. On the grounds that it clearly violates the Constitution and you can't use a so-called public health emergency to suspend the Constitution. At least not unless you are a dictator.

Fascinating.

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Thousands dead in Morocco earthquake

Morocco earthquake death toll rises above 2,000

Quote:

The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Morocco has soared to more than 2,000, with a similar number of injured. The interior ministry says more than 1,400 have serious injuries, and the heaviest casualties are in provinces just south of Marrakesh. King Mohammed VI declared three days of national mourning and ordered shelter, food and other help for survivors. Many people are spending a second night out in the open. The magnitude 6.8 quake hit Marrakesh and many towns on Friday night. In remote mountain areas, entire villages are reported to have been flattened. The epicentre was in the High Atlas Mountains, 71km (44 miles) south-west of Marrakesh - a city with world heritage status which is popular with tourists. But the tremors were also felt in the capital Rabat, some 350km away, as well as Casablanca, Agadir and Essaouira.

I'm sure the death toll will go much higher. :(

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The general hardware torture thread

Why should software and customer service afficionados get all the attention. Hardware is worth a big whinge too.


I boughy myself a new six port USB 3 hub with a 2.5 amp power supply. Nothing but problems. I could hook something up and a USB disk just disconnects and reconnects. A camera connects and doesn't work.


I had bought a USB current/voltage monitor and plugged it in.


The voltage would not rise above 4.8V and would drop to 4.2V. No wonder only the miniature keyboar and mouse transmitter worked.


I had a spare power supply and hooked up that instead after hacking the power wires.


Now it works. The other power supply rates itself at up to 4 amps. The voltage now starts at 5.1V and doesn't drop below 4.8V. Things just plug in and work now.


I have read comments about supplied USB power supplies being junk. Now I have had one myself. It was pathetic. Never even supplied 5V at zero load.

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Planet Nine: Scientists research possible 'Earth-like' planet in our Solar System

Quote:

Astronomers in Japan, including those from the country's National Astronomical Observatory, published their research which suggest this possible Planet Nine, could be hiding in the Kuiper Belt, much closer than previously suspected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/66727365.amp

Get ready for Nibiru stories

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Pet peeves in novels, novellas, short stories, and other literature

We've got this thread for movies, videogames, and the Internet. I figure it's time to give literature it's due.

I'll start with: Jackals. Specifically, jackals in westerns. I have recently come across two titles, A Congregation of Jackals and The Hangman Feeds the Jackal, that are set in the "wild west" period of North America.

But jackals are not native to North America. Their presence in the narrative, whether literal or figurative, makes no sense. Native American legends would not speak of them. Cowboys, gunslingers, homesteaders, and stagecoach drivers would not be concerned about them.

There are three species of jackal, and even today none of them has a range that extends to the new world. Yet somehow, in two cases, an author and their editor have conspired to place them front and center in a story about the American West.

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Mass Shooting? No, Yoga.

Police called to yoga class mistaken for ‘mass killing’

Quote:

A member of the public in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, called emergency services to report people lying on the floor A yoga class was cut short after a member of the public called the police to report a “mass killing” after seeing several people lying on the floor. Participants in the class, which was being held at the Seascape cafe, inside the North Sea observatory in Chapel St Leonards, Skegness, Lincolnshire, were in the midst of meditation when officers turned up on Wednesday night. In a Facebook post, the cafe said someone had “reported a mass killing” after seeing people on the floor inside the building. They wrote: “If anyone heard the mass of police sirens in Chapel St Leonards at 9.30pm last night then please be reassured … “They were on their way to the observatory after someone had reported a mass killing in our building, having seen several people laying on the floor … which actually turned out to be the yoga class in meditation. “Thank you to Lincolnshire police for their prompt response. I can’t imagine for one moment what would have being going through their minds on the way.”

Shavasana, aka savasana, is referred to as "Corpse Pose" or "Dead Body Pose". Looks like someone took it a little too literally.

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Are you ready for another Trump Presidency?

The polls show Trump and Biden currently neck & neck. This means that Trump could indeed win again.

Lackluster and boring debate and campaign performance by Biden could make this more likely, along with any sudden victories at any of Trump's 4 trials.

So are you ready for another 4 years of Trump?

I am not. I dread it. Will raise my blood pressure and anxiety. Will mean 4 years of policies against the environment, LBGT rights, civil rights, voting rights, fighting climate change, women's rights. More pulling back from international institutions and commitment. Russia will overrun Ukraine.
More battles over a wall and gutting federal agencies.

Sigh...

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Is there anything Trump CAN'T do?

Trump once said in 2019 that Article II of the Constitution gives him the right to do whatever he wants. Well, reactionary-dominated social media is doing it's best to boost Trump again. The propaganda is working. The deflection is working. The political persecution angle seems to be working.

The recent WSJ poll said 59 percent of Republican primary voters favor Trump for 2024, up from April.
A large majority think his actions after the 2020 election were legitimate to ensure a fair election.

I have some morbid thoughts about how far Trump can take this.

Can he win 2024 from jail?
Can he flat out avoid jail even if convicted?
Can he implement his 2025 plan to expand executive power?
Can he indeed pardon himself?
Can he stand on the steps of the Capitol and tear up the Constitution in front of cameras and demand loyalty from Congress?

What do you think is the realistic limit to his power?

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UK switching off the phone system in 2025

in December 2025 the phone system in the UK is switching to VOIP and the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) will close.
All existing two wire phone lines will stop working and phones will work over broadband connections.

This won’t just affect voice services, it may also mean you need to upgrade your broadband.
Any equipment that currently uses the PSTN will stop working as well. That includes alarms, EPOS machines, door entry systems, CCTV, faxes, and the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) will also stop working.

A lot of people and businesses are going to get a shock

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The problem of teaching for political purposes.

[yt]https://youtu.be/KJ7ztcnSwJA?si=ke9TBTs0MHZfrKiW[/yt]

This could have been posted in the political or current event sub forums. History fits it best. We have had threads before about editing books to make them correct for the current era. That is covered here. But we see both the cause and effect on education spelled out quite clearly.

Metatron is mostly a source of info on historical warfare. He is a teacher by profession. This video has lessons for both the political left and right in it.

First time I ever wanted to give a youtube video a standing ovation.

Link seems to not work. Likely I mangled something but not sure what it is. A direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ7ztcnSwJA

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Is the universe finite or infinite?

This seems to be a simple question because I recall someone reflecting on the notion of when a transition from finite to infinite might occur.
Obviously it can't happen.
Therefore, the universe is perpetually finite, or perpetually infinite. If the latter, plank time and distance were infinite but otherwise always finite. We know with complete certainty the universe is bigger than the observable universe that we can all claim to be at the precise center of.
How much bigger, especially if infinite?
There are serious practitioners on this forum who may well be capable of confusing me further.
In essence, I am captured by the impossibility of a hypothetical transition from finite to infinite at a presumed point in time.

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Climate scientist admits he slanted his paper to fit mainstream narrative

Quote:

The first thing the astute climate researcher knows is that his or her work should support the mainstream narrative—namely, that the effects of climate change are both pervasive and catastrophic and that the primary way to deal with them is not by employing practical adaptation measures like stronger, more resilient infrastructure, better zoning and building codes, more air conditioning—or in the case of wildfires, better forest management or undergrounding power lines—but through policies like the Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So in my recent Nature paper, which I authored with seven others, I focused narrowly on the influence of climate change on extreme wildfire behavior.

https://www.thefp.com/p/i-overhyped-...-get-published

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Waterfox web browser—what is this crap?

Waterfox is a web browser that advertises itself as a "Fast and Private Web Browser. Get privacy out of the box with Waterfox."

So I thought I'd give Waterfox a spin on Windows to see how well it works for a local web page. I had problem, though, in that the Windows system doesn't have access to the web, so I had to download it from another computer. That was my Linux system.

The Download links (there are 4 of them on the main page) only supplied a download for the detected operating system. I tried to find the download page for Windows, but didn't see anything on the usual set of links available at the bottom of the web page.

So I thought I'd let them know about their sub-optimal page setup. There isn't a contact us page in the site.

I checked the documentation to see what it had to say. All I got was "Pardon the emptiness. We’re still working on updating the docs for the new site."

W T F ? ? WHO PUTS CRAP LIKE THIS ON THE WEB? Why do people make their idiot web pages so bloody difficult to find things? And why is no one interested in feedback? It's almost as if they're living in their own little lala land.

I finally found the main download page for the browser—it's hidden behind the stupid hamburger menu! Sorry, but on a desktop page I shouldn't have to check a bloody unintuitive web interface widget to navigate the site. That's what text menus and links are for!

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Burning Man

Looks like it's turning into a Fyre style debacle. Flooding, lack of supplies, non-working toilets and one dead.

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We don't need no education

Lots of kids have failed to return to school after the pandemic.

https://metro.co.uk/2023/09/03/why-m...ories_home_top

"Since the coronavirus lockdowns, persistent absenteeism is up 117%, equating to nearly a quarter of of all pupils in primary, secondary and special state schools – or 1,615,772 pupils."

Frankly, I don't blame them. School is hell for many kids and after they got to stay away during the pandemic, making their lives better, it is no surprise many have refused to go back.

Furthermore, many see their parents getting the option not to go back to work and keep on working from home. They saw how remote learning works. So, why force them back?

Why not have blended schooling, like blended working? As classes A and B setting down with a teacher in a classroom, class C are logging on with their teacher, from home. Maybe the pupils from class C go into school one morning a week. Maybe other pupils from classes A and B join class C, if there is a reason they are not going to school that day.

My child was at college, having left school early because he hated it so much. He found college easier, but still a challenge. The pandemic sent him home and he is now doing a remote degree through the Open University, happily studying and enjoying life at home. He has friends with jobs who work from home, at least some of the time.

Why force kids into school? Why not embrace home learning and make it part of schooling?

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No, You Can't Have That Disability Ramp - But

Canadian Paralympian: I asked for a disability ramp - and was offered euthanasia

Quote:

She continued: “And I said, I just can’t keep going like this. I can’t keep living like this. Like, this has to be done. This has to be resolved.” “And the person stated, ‘You know, Madame Gauthier, if you really feel you can’t go on like this, if you feel that you can’t do it anymore, you know, you have the right to die?’”

I just don't know what I can add at this point, except I wouldn't want to take bets on whether or not the ramp is on the way.

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