Request help with ... something

The attached is a window grab of a window that, all by itself, pops up on my system. I just close the window but I'd like to know how to prevent this from happening at all.

Thanks in advance.

ETA: Firefox on Windows 10.

Attached Images

Capture13.jpg (44.6 KB)

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Beating White people while Black

At poker. I love it when Phil Ivey does that.

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An Alabama sheriff pocketed $1.5 million by underfeeding ICE detainees

Quote:

An Alabama sheriff helped himself to at least $1.5 million in federal funds meant to feed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees housed in his jail, the Etowah County Detention Center.

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A Depression-era loophole in Alabama state law allows sheriffs to keep half of all leftover funds meant for feeding inmates, with the other half going to the county’s general fund. By serving ICE detainees spoiled, expired, and donated food, Etowah County sheriff Todd Entrekin was able to generate a $3 million surplus, taking 50% of that for himself.

Quote:

“The law says it’s a personal account and that’s the way I’ve always done it and that’s the way the law reads and that’s the way I do business,” Entrekin said in an interview. “That’s the way the law’s written.”

https://qz.com/1512669/an-alabama-sh...ice-detainees/

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quick Sherman question

OK, so I get that the USA had trouble putting the 90mm in a turret at the time, and they didn't like the British 17 pounder the Brits had put in a Firefly. But was there any reason not to just use the same gun with a longer barrel? Kinetic energy increases with the square of the speed, so surely every bit would have helped?

Edit: just to put things in perspective, the earlier short barreled T-34, which the Russians had already upgunned and obsoleted for poor performance, was 42.5 calibres long. It shot a 6.3 kilo AP shell at 680m/s. The gun on the Sherman was 40 calibres long. It shot a slightly lighter shelll at 619m/s.

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In 2022, what will be the dictionary definition of Trumpian?

“Trumpian”might gain enough usage to be added to the dictionaries. I think that is likely. What will be the most common usage of the word?

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New Year's Eve in Times Square

This is definitely a current event, the passing of the old year into the new. Today is one-one-twenty nineteen. Maybe it's because I live in New York that I think this, but the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration -- the ball drop -- has always seemed like the biggest and best known to me.

Last night's celebration was a wet one, apparently one of the wettest in the history of the Times Square celebration, which began over one hundred years ago. A history of the event says revelers began celebrating New Year's Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, and the ball drop debuted -- from a flagpole atop One Times Square (back then it was the New York Times Building) -- three years later on New Year's Eve 1907. The first ball weighed 700 pounds, was five feet in diameter and was lit by 100 25 watt bulbs. A Times Square New Year's Eve history blog says:

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As part of the 1907-1908 festivities, waiters in the fabled "lobster palaces" and other deluxe eateries in hotels surrounding Times Square were supplied with battery-powered top hats emblazoned with the numbers "1908" fashioned of tiny light bulbs. At the stroke of midnight, they all "flipped their lids" and the year on their foreheads lit up in conjunction with the numbers "1908" on the parapet of the Times Tower lighting up to signal the arrival of the new year. Link

I've never attended the actual event, joining the hundreds of thousands who jam the Square in anticipation of Midnight, though I know many people who have. One sentiment they all seem to have in common is: They would never, ever do it again. Why? To get anywhere close to the ball drop you have to get there by, at the latest, six PM. If you want to get really close, you need to arrive around four-thirty. The problem is, by four-thirty or fiveish the NYPD begin arriving in large numbers and start setting up barricades. They warn those within the controlled zone, if they decide to stay within the barricaded area they will not be allowed to leave. Otherwise, it would be complete chaos. Last night it was wet but most New Year's Eves it's cold. Sometimes very cold. and there's nothing to do for hours except...stand and wait. The novelty wears off real fast, people who've done it have told me.

Below is Ryan Seacrest at last night's celebration. He's soaked!

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Ryan Seacrest Soaked.jpg (146.3 KB)

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Post your 2019 Predictions here

Since no one else has started this thread I did.

What will happen in 2019? My predictions
- Labor government elected in Australia, but the get less than a 12 seat majority. There are also 6+ 'independents' elected to the lower house.
- This forum will have about 800 active members at the end of the year. No change in software.
- Major news about Facebook
- Many mass shootings in the USA. None in Australia

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