In other news today...
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@dkf said in In other news today...:
@chozang said in In other news today...:
It would have been ironic had he been a veteran of The Big One, but it was just the Korean War.
Blame the simple passing of years for that; someone old enough to have served legally in WW2 (so turned 18 in early 1945, for the sake of argument) would now be about 91.
I did that math before getting out of bed yesterday. It would have been my stepfather's 95th birthday. He was the first man in his town to enter the Army after Pearl Harbor (had already enlisted and his start date was Monday, December 8th, 1941).
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@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
@boner said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor they're made of sterner stuff North of the border.
Mr Salina, 51, who rapidly bled to death, managed to say as he lay dying: “There's no need for that, Tony.”
Pshaw.
paging @Karla
Karate chops are perfectly appropriate..
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@doctorjones said in In other news today...:
@cursorkeys said in In other news today...:
Detectives also searched the students home and found no evidence that he possessed or had immediate access to any type of firearm. Investigators say there was no evidence that the student had any intent to commit harm to students or faculty.
"The student used extremely poor judgment[sic] in making the comment, but in light of the actual circumstances, there was clearly no evidence to support criminal charges," stated on the Allen Parish Sheriff's Office Facebook page.
How the fuck is that poor judgement?
Poor judgement is pausing for a few seconds when the wife asks you "does this make me look fat?".
Poor judgement is using an internet proxy at work to circumvent corporate filtering.
Poor judgement is launching a full police investigation when a kid makes an innocent offhand remark in class.Overreaction much?
Dude, we wig out when kids bite of pieces of Pop Tarts and make them vaguely gun shaped.
https://reason.com/blog/2016/06/16/judge-upholds-suspension-of-the-pop-tart
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@karla said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
@boner said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor they're made of sterner stuff North of the border.
Mr Salina, 51, who rapidly bled to death, managed to say as he lay dying: “There's no need for that, Tony.”
Pshaw.
paging @Karla
Karate chops are perfectly appropriate..
What about confusing Karate with Judo?
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@blek said in In other news today...:
An Airbus 319 took off on Thursday from Vladivostok
Appears to be this incident, then.
That report tones it down a bit:
Following the annoucement of the technical malfunction and return to Vladivostok to passengers a few drunk passengers lit cigarettes in the lavatory [...]
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@da-doctah said in In other news today...:
@dkf said in In other news today...:
@chozang said in In other news today...:
It would have been ironic had he been a veteran of The Big One, but it was just the Korean War.
Blame the simple passing of years for that; someone old enough to have served legally in WW2 (so turned 18 in early 1945, for the sake of argument) would now be about 91.
I did that math before getting out of bed yesterday. It would have been my stepfather's 95th birthday. He was the first man in his town to enter the Army after Pearl Harbor (had already enlisted and his start date was Monday, December 8th, 1941).
My dad was already in the Army, thanks to the pre-War draft. He was due to be discharged in February, but Pearl Harbor slightly postponed that. He was at or near the upper age limit for the draft; he would be 104 if he were still alive.
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@bulb Naw, that's boring. I'll just keep believing that the entire plane threw a massive party and got so drunk they couldn't walk out after landing.
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@blek Every flight should be like that. Without the panic about dying, I mean.
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@dragoon said in In other news today...:
CEO, paraphrased1,2:
Ebooks sales have plateaued, and we expect it to stay that way
Gee, I wonder why?
Random House is just as bad, or even worse. I have a couple lists on Amazon with only ebooks that cost more than the physical books, and they're predominately filled with books published by Random House.
CEO, directly:
It’s not that we’re against ebooks.
Bullshit.
1: "In the US and UK, the ebook market is about 20% of the total book market"
2: "I think the plateau, or rather slight decline, that we’re seeing in the US and UK is not going to reverse. It’s the limit of the ebook format."
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@rhywden said in In other news today...:
@laoc said in In other news today...:
@rhywden said in In other news today...:
@laoc said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
Not a lot that good students who bring guns to school can do in those situations.
Then again, they had plenty of other situations where they could and did do a lot.
And this time they didn't. Or why exactly did they suspend the armed officer who was supposed to prevent this exact thing from happening ... but didn't?
Not the officer, the students (on most of the occasions cited on that page, although it also lists others where it was outsiders) who brought guns to school did what those guns are meant for: shooting.
Yes, exactly what we want at schools: More juveniles with guns.
Guys, there's a reason why people are not allowed to drive a car before you're 18. Just one example for age limits.
This is a very stupid idea. Fix the actual problem, not try to slap bandaids on it which have the very real potential of making things worse.
Actually, it's 16. And the reason you're biased against that is that teens drive recklessly because they're not educated on proper control and US driving tests are shit. If they're properly educated on gun use, do you really think that random people not inclined to violence will suddenly start murdering people?
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@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
Actually, it's 16. And the reason you're biased against that is that teens drive recklessly because they're not educated on proper control and US driving tests are shit. If they're properly educated on gun use, do you really think that random people not inclined to violence will suddenly start murdering people?
No, I'm biased against it because juveniles make bad judgment calls due to their underdeveloped mental faculties. They simply are not fully capable of assessing long-term effects at that age. And male juveniles are particularly bad at it.
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@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
If they're properly educated on gun use, do you really think that random people not inclined to violence will suddenly start murdering people?
Yes. Probably not in large numbers, mostly, but yes. Suicides definitely.
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@rhywden said in In other news today...:
This is a very stupid idea. Fix the actual problem, not try to slap bandaids on it which have the very real potential of making things worse.
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@anotherusername said in In other news today...:
@karla said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
@boomzilla said in In other news today...:
@boner said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor they're made of sterner stuff North of the border.
Mr Salina, 51, who rapidly bled to death, managed to say as he lay dying: “There's no need for that, Tony.”
Pshaw.
paging @Karla
Karate chops are perfectly appropriate..
What about confusing Karate with Judo?
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@boner Seems like someone's discovered America.
It's quite obvious cats can recognize their human's voice. Along with much more significant sounds like sliding of the cupboard that holds the food cans, opening of those cans or opening of the back door. After all, their hearing is much better than that of dogs.
Also it's not true they would chose to ignore their human's calling. They just carefully consider whether there is anything for them in responding to it. For example when their human is calling them for dinner, they'll show up very quickly.
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@boner Also, the way they were domesticated can hardly be considered the original reason for anything, because it was itself result of their former life-style.
DogsWolves lived in packs with strong social hierarchies long before they joined humans, so they readily accepted humans as pack leaders and respond to their commands.But cats never did. They may form prides, when there is more of them on a territory with sufficient food, but while they help each other guard the kittens and sometimes share food, they still hunt alone, because there is no point in hunting mice in a pack. Therefore they never needed to obey commands from others, and never had any reason to start.
And it's not like they were the only domestic animal that didn't. Most farm animals don't either. It's really just dogs and horses (and donkeys and oxen) that do.
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@magus said in In other news today...:
That reminds me, I should buy a new kindle at some point.
The new ones suck. E-paper or bust! Paperwhite can kiss my ass.
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@magus said in In other news today...:
@dragoon That reminds me, I should buy a new kindle at some point.
I kind of regret upgrading my old-ass kindle to the new one. it seems much less responsive, and the thing still can't directly read EPUB files. that plus the fact that any ebooks you buy from amazon are DRMed.
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@blakeyrat said in In other news today...:
@magus said in In other news today...:
That reminds me, I should buy a new kindle at some point.
The new ones suck. E-paper or bust! Paperwhite can kiss my ass.
What's the difference?
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@bb36e said in In other news today...:
@magus said in In other news today...:
@dragoon That reminds me, I should buy a new kindle at some point.
I kind of regret upgrading my old-ass kindle to the new one. it seems much less responsive, and the thing still can't directly read EPUB files. that plus the fact that any ebooks you buy from amazon are DRMed.
Some aren't. Books by Tor, for example, don't have DRM: https://smile.amazon.com/Threads-Fortune-Kindle-Single-Tensorate-ebook/dp/B01N8VP1DZ/
For those that do, have you met Apprentice Alf?
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@dreikin yeah, i've used calibre for years. still annoying to have to strip it though.
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@bb36e said in In other news today...:
@dreikin yeah, i've used calibre for years. still annoying to have to strip it though.
True. OTOH, since the plugin is automatic and I have a bunch of books from outside Kindle anyway it's not much more inconvenient than if it wasn't there these days.
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@blakeyrat said in In other news today...:
The new ones suck. E-paper or bust! Paperwhite can kiss my ass.
I'm confused - though I admit I haven't looked at the new models. My Paperwhite (a little over 4 years old) is an E-Ink one; are the current ones not? The backlight in the Paperwhite is pretty useful in low light conditions, and in general I really like the higher contrast, so I'm quite happy with mine.
I do agree, if it's not E-Ink or similar then it's not worth having. At least if you ever want to use it outside, and if you don't then you probably don't need a dedicated e-reader.
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@bb36e said in In other news today...:
@magus said in In other news today...:
@dragoon That reminds me, I should buy a new kindle at some point.
I kind of regret upgrading my old-ass kindle to the new one. it seems much less responsive, and the thing still can't directly read EPUB files. that plus the fact that any ebooks you buy from amazon are DRMed.
I like the Kobo eReader (at least if you turn off the wifi), but their store seems to often sell you a DRMed version of book when the publisher itself would have non-DRM ePUBs available.
Then again, it could be that publishers only sell non-DRM versions through a select few sites or that the Kobo store wants to avoid litigation. It does require some hunting.
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Hmm, don't remember hearing about this last year:
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@dragoon
Apparently @Polygeekery is practicing his house burning as an independent contractor for the Aussie dept of customs.
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@izzion diversify, diversify, diversify.
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The mess just keeps getting worse...
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@laoc said in In other news today...:
China has launched a fresh crackdown on funeral strippers.
The article said:
In a bid to show off their disposable income and boost numbers, some households pay out more than their annual incomes for strippers, but also actors, singers and comedians, the Global Times reported.
I can understand the impulse to show off, but spending more than your annual income on a funeral seems to be overdoing it just a bit.
@dragoon said in In other news today...:
How did 105 priceless and irreplaceable historical plant specimens, sent here by the French, end up being destroyed by biosecurity officers?
Interesting. Seems to be, in part, a case of working around the system until it bites you in the back.
- Research institutions habitually mark the lowest possible value on such collections to avoid high customs fees; the customs declaration for this collection valued the specimens at $2
- The Australian researcher forgot to specify an additional form that needed to be provided; customs sent an email to a verbally provided address, which seems to have gotten lost (they claim they didn't get a bounce, but nobody is admitting to having received it)
- After 76 days the collection was destroyed, in part because of its low declared value
Oops.
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@scarlet_manuka yeah, but the customs form also said "museum specimens"...
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Back in my day, we had to play outside, in blinding snowstorms, uphill both ways!
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It's like an ex-girlfriend that keeps coming back,even if you don't want her
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@izzion said in In other news today...:
Back in my day, we had to play outside, in blinding snowstorms, uphill both ways!
You grew up in Canada ?
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Article @izzion linked said in In other news today...:
Children need opportunities to develop hand strength and dexterity needed to hold pencils
No, they really don't. Last time someone gave me the opportunity to hold a pencil-like object he ended up incarcerated.
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PC gone mad. These days, if you say you're English, you get arrested and thrown in jail.
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@JBert said in In other news today...:
@Rhywden It looks like that was for Burger King & DHL though:
How much you wanna bet that it's the same managers who "saved costs" for BK, left over the fiasco, then made their way over to KFC's management structure to do the same thing again?
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@timebandit I'm personally tempted to upgrade to that, but I'm not sure Verizon would let me use it. They'd at least require some weird way of extracting more money first.
EDIT: And they're out of stock anyway?
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@Jaloopa said in In other news today...:
@pie_flavor said in In other news today...:
There weren't any school shootings then.
When were these gun clubs?
There are still some around, though the number is dropping:
In 1975, New York state had over 80 school districts with rifle teams. In 1984, that had dropped to 65. By 1999 there were just 26. The state’s annual riflery championship was shut down in 1986 for lack of demand.
It doesn't mention how many there are or were in other states.
Were they before 1966?
A man killed his wife and mother and then shot a bunch of people until he was killed by police.
1960?
A girl shot a boy that she believed had threatened her friend.
1952?
A student shot the school dean instead of relinquishing his pin-up photos.
1898?
Several people were shot in a brawl between two "factions" at a school performance.
Only the first might fit the profile of what most people (I think) would consider to be a "school shooting": indiscriminately shooting people for terror, revenge, or "fame". The next two shootings targeted individuals, and the last one was a gang fight.
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@Bulb said in In other news today...:
they never needed to obey commands from others, and never had any reason to start.
And it's not like they were the only domestic animal that didn't. Most farm animals don't either. It's really just dogs and horses (and donkeys and oxen) that do.
And sheep and goats, and pretty much any herd animal...
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@TimeBandit said in In other news today...:
@izzion said in In other news today...:
Back in my day, we had to play outside, in blinding snowstorms, uphill both ways!
You grew up in Canada ?
Western Colorado would also qualify.
(Colorado has the greatest surface area of any state of the USA; it's just mostly vertical.)
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
@TimeBandit said in In other news today...:
@izzion said in In other news today...:
Back in my day, we had to play outside, in blinding snowstorms, uphill both ways!
You grew up in Canada ?
Western Colorado would also qualify.
(Colorado has the greatest surface area of any state of the USA; it's just mostly vertical.)Also Upstate New York. Lake effect snow is a bitch.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
(Colorado has the greatest surface area of any state of the USA; it's just mostly vertical.)
The state I was born in contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous 48 states. While it is a myth that you can see on of those extreme points from the other, they are close enough that places exist where you can stand and see both.
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@da-doctah You can almost see one from the other, if only the Panamint Range weren't in the way.
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@djls45 said in In other news today...:
@Bulb said in In other news today...:
they never needed to obey commands from others, and never had any reason to start.
And it's not like they were the only domestic animal that didn't. Most farm animals don't either. It's really just dogs and horses (and donkeys and oxen) that do.
And sheep and goats, and pretty much any herd animal...
Sheep don't respond to their owners' command. Why would everybody keep using shepherd dogs otherwise? They are herd animals, but that just means the herd sticks together. It cannot be commanded.
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https://guardian.ng/life/worthless-currency-becomes-arts-of-sorts-in-struggling-venezuela/
Also, this picture: