LanyrdSkynrd
9h ago
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100%
I think the problem is being able to find work there without in-demand skills to get an employer to sponsor a work visa.
I know someone who moved to Mexico and lived off their social security money. They lived pretty well, but they had trouble dealing with social security remotely and their benefits were cut off. Even in the wealthyish expat community they were in they couldn't find enough off the books work to live.
LanyrdSkynrd
1d ago
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100%
Clickspring has an amazing series where he builds a replica of this using techniques from the era. He makes the drill, vise, files, etc from raw materials, its really interesting.
In the process he actually discovered a key detail about what it's purpose was and helped write a paper about it.
LanyrdSkynrd
3d ago
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100%
There's a really good podcast episode that dives into how photography rarely captures reality as it exists, but instead is the expression of the photographer. I came away from it with a greater appreciation of the art of photography, and also a more nuanced view on these kinds of staged photographs.
This photo was staged, but is it not expressing real feelings about the great depression? I get why people get angry when they feel like photographs lie, but I think the right response is the realize that all photographs lie to some extent. The photographer is showing you what they want you to see, framed and focused how they want it, chosen from dozens of similar shots to express the reality that they chose.
I wish I had more time to better explain myself, but I'll drop the podcast link in case anyone wants to listen.
LanyrdSkynrd
3d ago
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100%
Electron microscope image of an ant:
...when landlords are absolutely perishable. 
LanyrdSkynrd
6d ago
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100%
It might have hissed before I got outside, but I didn't hear it. It tried to run away from the direction I was coming from and got stuck in the corner between a fence and my garage.
I used to think that move was a silly adaptation until I saw it in person. I think opossums are absolute cuties, but this one was pretty freaky looking, I get why it works now.
LanyrdSkynrd
6d ago
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100%
My indoor cat escaped one time(he's fine) so I set food out and aimed a cheap ip camera at it hoping to see him. One night I saw something on it, and when I got out there I had cornered an opossum. It was frozen completely still with it teeth bared and froth in its mouth. It was pretty freaky looking.
LanyrdSkynrd
7d ago
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100%
Every time someone says this, they should get the opportunity to become more resistant to public flogging
LanyrdSkynrd
1w ago
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100%
If it's a smart TV, and connected to internet, you can probably use one of those remote apps to control it.
Otherwise, a harmony remote can probably control it. You can check your model number this webpage to see if they have support for it. Harmony are discontinued, but the software still works, and there are a lot available on eBay. The harmony 650 is ~$25 and should work with any device on their compatibility list
LanyrdSkynrd
1w ago
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100%
It's probably never going to exist anyway. They made these 2 prototypes, but even Elon is saying they won't start manufacturing until 2026. He also prefaced it by saying he has a tendency to overpromise on dates, so they've probably not even started working on it.
LanyrdSkynrd
1w ago
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100%
I didn't see the ad, but yeah he's a lib as far as I know, and sometimes gives an overly charitable view before the evidence is out.
I will say that at least he brings a lot of attention to stuff like this and he does bring civil rights actions against the police for a living.
LanyrdSkynrd
1w ago
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100%
Cumtown was on a list of leftists podcasts I saw before I'd ever heard of it. I got some clips of it in my YouTube feed and it was all racial jokes and jokes where the punchline is someone is gay.
LanyrdSkynrd
1w ago
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100%
There were people going crazy for this in that unveiling clip I saw posted here. One dude yelled, "Fuck yeah" and another was going, "What is that?!?", like he was personally meeting Jesus. Made me sick.
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
As much as I'd like to see big tech die, and bazinga billionaires to lose money, I'm afraid of what a market crash would do to regular people. Lots of pension funds and retirement savings are tied up in the stock market.
The very rich always find a way to come out of market turmoil with a larger share of the wealth, even if the total wealth is smaller. That'll be another opportunity to do layoffs to "discipline the labor market" and jack up prices, and the working class will once again pay the price for the hubris of the rich.
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
I think the broader tech market can escape the AI crash if it abandons or significantly scales back on its investments in this garbage. If they continue on the road they're on, I can see a tech stock crash on par with the dotcom bubble popping in the early 2000s.
If the tech stocks crash like they did back then, it will cause a lot more damage to the whole economy, though. Tech companies are seen as a whole lot less speculative than they were back then, a lot more "safe" investment money is tied up in companies like Amazon and Google.
Unfortunately, I think these companies are pretty incompetent and desperate to get back that exponential growth. I think it's more likely than not that they'll try to ride AI off the cliff.
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
Insurance as a private industry is so stupid. They extract profits to protect people from catastrophic losses, but then when something catastrophic happens, the government has to step in to save the industry. We've seen it with the risk pools that states have had to create to keep health insurers from pulling out of rural areas, with last resort programs for home insurance and flood insurance, the AIG bailout, and the built in bailouts of Obamacare.
Why do they get to collect the profits if they don't cover the risks?
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
It's kind weird to have a 2 gang receptacle just for a coax cable, isn't it? It's not like an electrical box where you might need space for wiring. I'm not surprised they don't stock that on the truck. I guess they should have some of those build kits, though.
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
I saw an article about how rich people build museums attached to their homes. They get a tax deduction from the building costs, and don't have to pay property taxes on that part. They use them for private parties, weddings, etc.
They're supposed to be open to the public, but of course nobody from the government checks into that. The reporter wasn't able to get into any of them.
I'm assuming that's what the "philanthropy wing" is about.
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
I wish we could execute people who modify their diesel trucks to pollute more. It's the most selfish asshole move that literally kills people with asthma. Those coal roll trucks put out hundreds of times more nox emissions, and thousands of times more hydrocarbon emissions.
There's a shop in my area that removes emissions controls so dickheads that buy a 7.2 liter diesel truck can drive to their prison guard job and look like a big tough man without having to buy diesel emission fluid. I can tell that a lot of trucks have had this done, because the exhaust has a very distinctive stank, just like a really old diesel truck.
Maine put out a report that said 15% of diesel trucks on the road that had DEF filters to meet pollution standards have had them illegally removed, resulting in added pollution equivalent to 9 million extra diesel trucks on the road.
LanyrdSkynrd
2w ago
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100%
Maybe try something low in fiber, like white rice and veggies? Sautee some lower fiber veggies, like romaine lettuce, asparagus,mushrooms, green beans, or spinach. Make a sauce with soy sauce, maple syrup, garlic and ginger, thicken with cornstarch.
web.archive.org
It's a long article, so I put the most relevant excerpts below, but the whole article is interesting and infuriating. There is a lot more details about the case and lack of evidence. >Richardson and Claiborne's plight is as unique as it is complex. Since they were accused in April 1998 of shooting and killing Officer Allen Gibson, they've faced charges in both the state and federal court systems, and seen their cases go up and down on appeal while seeming to skirt some of the judicial system's most basic rules regarding double jeopardy and the disclosure of exculpatory evidence. >Despite state prosecutors initially charging them with capital murder, the charges were drastically reduced thanks to what court records say was a lack of physical evidence. The two men ultimately pled guilty in 1999 to manslaughter and accessory after the fact, and served little to no time in prison. >Federal prosecutors, however, went on to try them again for the same killing under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in 2001. In the federal trial, jurors found Richardson and Claiborne not guilty of the murder, but did convict them on drug possession and distribution charges. >Even though they were cleared of the murder, the federal judge overseeing the case sentenced both men to life in prison under U.S. Supreme Court precedent that allows judges to consider conduct for which a defendant has been acquitted to impose a longer sentence. And in making the call to put both men behind bars for life, the judge pointed to their guilty pleas in state court. >"The court is just leaning on the guilty plea instead of trying to find out what happened that day," Adams said. "And the reason, I believe, is they are not looking to find out what happened, because they already know. And what they know is that it ain't Terence and Ferrone." >The Guilty Plea >Nearly a year after the killing, prosecutors reduced the charges against the two defendants from capital murder to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for their guilty pleas. According to the report that attorney general Herring prepared years later in response to Richardson's innocence petition, a state prosecutor had admitted to the press that the case was weak and that "the risks in going to trial with a jury were just astronomical." >"My family ran out of money," Claiborne said. "They were talking about giving us the death penalty. When our attorney came to us and said that this was the best deal, what else was I supposed to do in order to stay alive?" >Richardson said his lawyer told him that, "even though they know that it may not have been y'all that did it, they're going to make somebody wear this case. And it's going to be y'all. You're going to get the death penalty." >"I said, 'Man that's crazy. You're trying to tell me I got to go to prison for something I didn't do?" Richardson said. >The Federal Case >Richardson and Claiborne took the plea deal in December 1999, with Richardson admitting to involuntary manslaughter and Claiborne agreeing he had served as an accessory after the fact. >Richardson was sentenced to 10 years with five suspended based on good behavior, while Claiborne was sentenced to time served. >Adams said there was public outrage at the outcome. >"If you're in D.C. and you're reading that, out of Waverly, Virginia, a cop was killed by two Black guys and they plead guilty, but [one is] given time served, you're going to be like, 'What the hell man?'" Adams said. "You've never seen such concessions made for Black men accused of killing a white guy. It just doesn't happen." >So in December 2000, amid pressure from Gibson's family and others, federal prosecutors indicted Richardson and Claiborne under the RICO Act for one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, one count of use of a firearm to commit murder during drug trafficking, and one count of murder of a law enforcement officer during drug trafficking. >"These drug charges came out of nowhere. It was a loophole," Adams said. "They couldn't just say, 'We're trying to get to the murder of this officer.' There would have been some sovereignty issues with that. But this way they could do it and say, 'I'm charging you with a RICO case where your drug dealing resulted in the death of an officer.'" >As with the state case, the federal case included no physical evidence in support of the charges.
I found someone had uploaded them all to YT, so I ripped them and uploaded a zip file with mp3s. If you have trouble with the link, let me know and I can upload them somewhere else. Obviously, support them if you can afford it.
Guy unloads a truly impressive string of verbal abuse on a cop. Predictably cops don't let that go unpunished
Excellent video about the real reason ADHD drugs are in short supply. Spoiler: it's about profits
www.independent.co.uk
>The National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) has cited the infamous 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which stated that enslaved people weren’t citizens, to argue that Vice President Kamala Harris is ineligible to run for president according to the Constitution. >The group also challenged the right of Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley to appear on Republican primary ballots. >The Republican group’s platform and policy document noted that “The Constitutional qualifications of Presidential eligibility” states that “No person except a natural born Citizen, shall be eligible, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President >“An originalist and strict constructionist understanding of the Constitution in the Scalia and Thomas tradition, as well as precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court cases ... have found that a ‘Natural Born Citizen’ is defined as a person born on American soil of parents who are both citizens of the United States at the time of the child’s birth,” the document states. >The group then cites six cases including Dred Scott v Sandford. The 1857 ruling came a few years before the 1861 outbreak of the US Civil War over the issue of slavery, stating that enslaved people could not be citizens, meaning that they couldn’t expect to receive any protection from the courts or the federal government. The ruling also said that Congress did not have the power to ban slavery from a federal territory. I thought this was some kind of op, like someone making a fake Republican org and putting out an unhinged policy paper. Citing Dred Scott is crazy, especially since it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the argument that she's not a citizen. Archive link: https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Famericas%2Fus-politics%2Fkamala-harris-president-supreme-court-b2601364.html
My cat Pepper has been on a diet for about 9 months. He was definitely overweight and has lost about 2 pounds, but I'm starting to worry he's being underfed now. He just seems more stressed when he goes to check his food bowl and it's empty and will wait for the machine to dispense for hours before his feeding times. He's a bombay, and I found some info online that says they should be under 15 pounds and some that says under 12. He's 12.6 now, and he still looks kinda chubby, but it's hard to tell because he has a big primordial pouch(loose skin in the belly area). I know I should ask a vet, but I can't afford a vet visit.
New Hampshire's school funding system is the worst that exists in the US. This image is pretty self-explanatory, but I want to add that this is not a cherry-picked example. There are other communities that could be compared that would show significantly larger disparities, but this example was chosen because they are 30 miles apart.  This disparity exists because most of the school funding comes from local property taxes. Property rich towns have plenty to spend on schools, while property poor communities must raise their tax rates. This causes businesses to leave, which lowers tax revenues, which forces them to raise tax rates even more. This also eliminates local jobs, which causes people to leave, which drives down property values, which drives down tax revenue. It's a vicious cycle that destroys communities. One of the aspects of this that enrages me the most is that the NH constitution requires the state to fully fund an adequate education. There was a series of lawsuits starting in 1998, where the NH Supreme Court ruled that the state must fund a study to determine the costs and fund that amount. As a result, the state legislature created SWEPT, a statewide education property tax. The funds would be passed to the state, and the state would be required to divide it out based on an equalization formula. This satisfied the court, despite the fact that the amount would not satisfy the cost of an adequate education established at trial. Just 2 years later, the legislature passed a law allowing communities to retain the SWEPT funds, as long as they spent them on education. Property rich towns reduced their local property taxes to 0% and tried to spend as much as possible even though their schools were already well funded. Despite their best efforts, equalization funds still flowed to the poor communities, they just couldn't spend it all. Then the rich towns discovered they could set a negative local property tax rate. Most of the richest towns did it, bringing their contributions to the SWEPT fund to 0. Over the years since there have been other lawsuits, most targeted at aid for students with disabilities. Some of those resulted in some targeted funding and adequacy aid, but today the funding looks like this(SWEPT in this chart is the amount kept locally, so it's a local tax as well):  This whole situation also makes the entire NH tax system regressive, meaning poor folks a larger share of their income in taxes than the rich. There's no personal income or sales tax and the interest and dividend tax was recently eliminated:  This is a system designed to keep poor people poor. Give them a terrible education, eliminate any chance of jobs in their communities, and tax them more than everyone that has a higher income. There is currently another lawsuit going that the state has lost, but judgement is delayed until after the next legislative cycle. Despite the fact that the state lost, and didn't even contest that they aren't properly funding an adequate education, I'm not hopeful. The current chief justice is a big proponent of private education and represented the state in a previous school funding lawsuit. They also have the roadmap of how to allow the state to continue to violate the constitution. Let them delay, pass small reforms and then undo them, forcing another 5 years of funding studies and litigation.
People talk about social media algorithms as if they're something disconnected from the decisions of the companies that make and control them. "The Algorithm" is not making YT push shitty content on your home page, YouTube is making that happen. It's a combination of ignoring certain trends and actively promoting others. For starters, these companies made the algorithms, they tweak them constantly. When Elsagate happened, YT made changes the reduced the amount of that very specific type of garbage that was shown. When advertisers stop advertising, they suddenly have great influence over the recommendations. That to me proves they have to ability to control with pretty fine detail what is recommended by their sites. It's been revealed that TikTok has a manual "[heater](https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/01/20/tiktoks-secret-heating-button-can-make-anyone-go-viral/)" function that allows them to force certain videos to appear in recommendations. They use this to set the tone of the site, lure influencers, and make brand deals. That exposure causes heated channels to gain subscribers, further amplifying the effects. YT trending is manually chosen as well, 10 main videos, 10 gaming videos and 10 shorts, updated every 15 minutes. When videos end up on the trending page, they get more views, which makes them get recommended even more. This gives them a constant source of influence over the recommendations. One mistake I see people make is to assume that recommendation algorithms are simply a reflection of the audience; "The algorithm is bad because we are bad". My counterpoint to that is that when the recommendations hurt the bottom line of the business, these companies change them. At the very least it's social media companies choosing not to fix bad recommendations and at worst intentional manipulation. Sure, people choose to watch a lot of gross stuff, but let's not act like YouTube couldn't get rid of, for example, misogyny for children content(Andrew Tate etc) quickly if they wanted to. The other is to treat it as a sentient creation that nobody has control over, "We're just chasing what the algorithm wants". It's one of the things tech bros dream of with regard to AI. They want to be able to put an algorithm in charge of the orphan crushing machine and say, "Sorry, I don't know why the algorithm keeps choosing to crush the orphans". Tldr: The purpose of a system is what it does.
I'm doing my part 
www.podbean.com
A collection of Parenti speeches in podcast format. The audio is cleaned up, but some are still a little rough.
www.aljazeera.com
>Joshua Bowles, 29, repeatedly stabbed the unnamed woman, who was working at British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), in March near its base at Cheltenham, England. >Following his arrest, Bowles told the police, “The target was selected for employment at the NSA.” >“Due to the size and resourcing, American intelligence represents the largest contributor within the intelligence community, so made sense as the symbolic target. I consider GCHQ just as guilty.” >Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said on Monday that Bowles had carried out a “politically motivated attack” that was driven by “anger and resentment” towards GCHQ and women. >He had researched the attack online beforehand, including studying the American “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, who mounted an anonymous bombing campaign from 1978 to 1995. >Bowles also looked up attacks on women and white supremacy. >In one of his police interviews, Bowles said: “The system is rigged. I believe the intelligence community helps ensure this rigging, this view has been reinforced by my time working at GCHQ.” >Penny also said Bowles described himself as a “terrorist” after the attack, saying to one witness: “I make a pretty s*** terrorist, don’t I?”