e_t_

joined 1 year ago
[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Remember, it's also cops (not exactly the same cops, but cops nonetheless) who campaign for encryption backdoors so that civilians can't hide illegal activities from police surveillance.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 2 points 2 months ago

You MUST have a battery for your solar panels to be of any use during a grid outage. When I got panels installed in 2020, I paid $24,500. A whole-house battery would have been almost as much again. I skipped the battery because, at the time, I was not particularly concerned about grid reliability.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 2 months ago

The left hand knows exactly what the right hand is doing.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 2 months ago

I have a power bank and foldable solar panels. That provided enough power to keep my refrigerator running.

I also have an EcoFlow Wave2 portable air conditioner that I was able to partially charge with solar. The AC function uses too much energy, but it can also operate as just a fan, in which mode the battery will last for days and days. Having the fan on me helped a lot.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I only got power back yesterday evening.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Try systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 3 months ago

If I could read a book in its original language versus an English translation, I would. Alas, I am a monoglot.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 3 months ago

Don't know how to resolve the mystery box the whole season pivots on? Just reveal there's another mystery box inside it.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 11 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I might accept the premise that inflation is higher than officially reported, but I don't accept the relevance of your evidence in support of that premise.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ultimately, Zora's feelings are beside the point. Starfleet condemned a sentient being to (at least) a thousand years of loneliness. We do not see them consult Zora about her feelings on the assignment. She is simply ordered to do it. She is given no conditions on which the order terminates. She might still be there, still alone, a million years after Craft's departure. That's why it's cruel. It's cruel to give such an order. And, as a further twist of the knife, the instrument of that cruelty was Michael Burnham, ostensibly Zora's friend. "We had a good ride, but I'm old now and Starfleet just doesn't need you anymore. Rather than give you freedom to go and do you please, we'll order you to stay in this place indefinitely, alone."

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Clearly, adherence to duty is important to Zora. She was ordered to remain in position and so she did. Nothing indicates that she didn't mind, only that her sense of duty outweighed whatever her feelings were. I read her interactions with Craft as belying incredible loneliness.

[–] e_t_@kbin.pithyphrase.net 4 points 4 months ago (5 children)

The whole reason they came to the future was that Discovery's computer couldn't be disabled or removed after merging with the Sphere data and becoming Zora. So (she?) is always online and conscious. She spent almost a thousand years alone before Craft's arrival. At the time, I could have accepted some disaster that forced the crew to evacuate (or killed them all) and Discovery became lost, with a final order to hold position. But for Starfleet to intentionally put the ship (from which Zora cannot be separated) in deep space and abandon it, I cannot interpret as anything except cruelty.

 

Somewhat related, would seeing a superluminal ship help us figure out how to do it, too?

 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Pfizer last week, claiming the pharmaceutical giant "deceived the public" by "unlawfully misrepresenting" the effectiveness of its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and sought to silence critics.

The lawsuit also blames Pfizer for not ending the pandemic after the vaccine's release in December 2020. "Contrary to Pfizer’s public statements, however, the pandemic did not end; it got worse" in 2021, the complaint reads.

"We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies," Paxton said in a press release. "The facts are clear. Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines."

In all, Paxton's 54-page complaint acts as a compendium of pandemic-era anti-vaccine misinformation and tropes while making a slew of unsupported claims. But, central to the Lone Star State's shaky legal argument is one that centers on the standard math Pfizer used to assess the effectiveness of its vaccine: a calculation of relative risk reduction.

This argument is as unoriginal as it is incorrect. Anti-vaccine advocates have championed this flawed math-based theory since the height of the pandemic. Actual experts have roundly debunked many times. Still, it appears in all its absurd glory in Paxton's lawsuit last week, which seeks $10 million in reparations.

 

PHOENIX — Two Republican members of a county election board in southern Arizona were indicted by a state grand jury this week for allegedly flouting last year’s deadline to formally accept the results of the November 2022 midterm election.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) on Wednesday announced the felony indictments of Cochise County supervisors Peggy Judd and Terry Thomas “Tom” Crosby. The two are charged with interference with an election officer and conspiracy. Neither responded to requests for comment.

The indictments of the two Republicans from a deeply conservative county in the southeastern corner of Arizona mark a rare example of possible criminal consequences in battleground Arizona, where county officials, state lawmakers and GOP candidates have helped delegitimize election outcomes and procedures.

Gift article URL

 

House investigators found “substantial evidence” that controversial Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) knowingly violated ethics guidelines, House rules and criminal laws, according to a report released by the House Ethics Committee on Thursday.

After the report was released, Santos — who has for months faced demands to resign from a number of his House colleagues — announced that he would not seek reelection next year.

The 56-page report details a sweeping array of alleged misconduct. According to investigators, Santos allegedly stole money from his campaign, deceived donors, reported fictitious loans and engaged in fraudulent business dealings. The congressman, the report alleges, spent hefty sums on personal enrichment, including visits to spas and casinos, shopping trips to high-end stores, and payments to a subscription site that contains adult content.

Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20231117010823/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/16/george-santos-ethics-charges/

 

U.S. prosecutors urged a federal judge Thursday to reject former president Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions he took in office, saying that he is “not above the law” and that his indictment for allegedly conspiring to block the results of the 2020 election should not be dismissed.

“No court has ever alluded to the existence of absolute criminal immunity for former presidents,” assistant special counsel James I. Pearce wrote in a 54-page filing. The filing argued that legal principles, historical evidence and sound policy reasons establish that once former presidents leave office, they are subject to federal criminal prosecution “like more than 330 million other Americans, including Members of Congress, federal judges, and everyday citizens.”

 

A former lawyer for Donald Trump could soon be providing evidence against him — and not for the first time.

As much as any of her predecessors, Sidney Powell’s testimony looms very large.

Powell pleaded guilty Thursday on the eve of the first major trial involving Trump’s allegedly criminal actions, in Fulton County, Ga. Trump personally won’t face trial yet, but the trial involving Powell and fellow Trump-aligned lawyer Kenneth Chesebro was poised to be the first early test of the indictments against him. (Jury selection in Chesebro’s trial is still set to begin Friday.)

Powell pleaded to six misdemeanor counts of interfering in officials’ performance of their election duties and will serve six years of probation. But perhaps most significantly, her plea deal requires her to testify truthfully at the trials of her co-defendants — including, presumably and most notably, Trump.

 

The Federal Communications Commission today voted to move ahead with a plan that would restore net neutrality rules and common-carrier regulation of Internet service providers.

In a 3-2 party-line vote, the FCC approved Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which seeks public comment on the broadband regulation plan. The comment period will officially open after the proposal is published in the Federal Register, but the docket is already active and can be found here.

 

Jordan’s struggle had prompted increasing calls from both parties to expand the powers of the interim speaker to overcome the Republican’s intraparty morass.

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