D61
@D61@hexbear.net
- Comment on Problem? 4 weeks ago:
Probably not a good idea to phrase it as “earned” retractions.
It shouldn’t be a competition to see who is the worst.
- Comment on Tough Shit 5 weeks ago:
“Bill Nye, the Endoscopy Guy”
- Comment on From Kursk to Kursk: Putin’s attempt to project an image as Russia’s ‘protector’ has been punctured throughout his 25 years in power 2 months ago:
Funny… either Putin is a coldblooded calculating master manipulator or a bumbling incompetent stumbling through one embarrassment to the next. I guess it just depends on which day of the week it is.
- Comment on Russian missiles strike more than half of Ukraine's regions 2 months ago:
I-am-very-smart: Ukrainian sources “claim” that Russian missiles struck many places in Ukraine. There are no Russian sources regarding this claim. Therefore I conclude that the missile attack didn’t happen.
also
I-am-very-smart: Why yes, my brain is completely smooth, very aerodynamic!
- Comment on They encouraged us to insulate our home. Now it’s unmortgageable 3 months ago:
Spray foam is still legal, so there is no way to gain compensation, and the industry is not regulated – neither the installation nor the removal – so choices are open to abuse by companies supplying these services.”
Homeowners say they were misled by the government, which exempted the insulation from VAT to promote uptake, as well as issuing grants worth up to two thirds of the installation costs. They feel this suggested the insulation was being endorsed.
Sounds like a “well there’s your problem” situation.
- Comment on If 1 million people sign a petition, a ban on rendering multiplayer games unplayable has a chance to become law in Europe 3 months ago:
Hah!
- Comment on They're everywhere!!! 5 months ago:
Imagine this guy trying to explain this discovery to people who spend days reading and responding to articles trying to calculate how many angles can fit on the head of a pin.
- Comment on Georgia president vetoes divisive 'foreign agent' law 5 months ago:
On Tuesday MPs passed the controversial law which requires NGOs and independent media that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign donors to register as organisations “bearing the interests of a foreign power”.
Only independent media though, this doesn’t apply to…umm… non-independent media cough cough.
However, her veto is only symbolic as the prime minister’s Georgian Dream party has enough members in parliament to override it by holding another vote.
- Comment on German star at Cannes condemns ‘madness’ of protective culture for UK child actors 5 months ago:
“It feels a bit off-balance,” said Rogowski, who went on to point out that children already have many other damaging freedoms online where they are more exposed to danger and not protected.
Hey! The internet can abuse children, so I should be able to without anybody watching me!
For Rogowski, though, the efforts now made in Britain are in danger of inhibiting creativity. His scenes in Bird involve several small children and teenagers who are depicted in situations of social neglect and even imminent harm.
If you have to actually neglect and harm your actors to get a depiction of them being neglected and harmed, you’re a very bad film maker who shouldn’t be allowed to have actors who aren’t fully adult aged working for you.
Whybrew believes the issue is to achieve greater compliance with the laws and rules that are already in place. She added that regulation is hard to impose in an industry that relies on short-term contracts and where “a culture of fear” can lead workers to accept longer hours than they should and, in extreme cases, to submit to other forms of bad treatment or abuse.
Money quote of the article.
- Comment on Israel launches strikes across Gaza as U.S. envoy visits region 5 months ago:
non-archive.ph link palestinechronicle.com/mad-dog-diplomacy-cornered…
Moshe Dayan, Israel’s most celebrated general, famously outlined the strategy he believed would keep Israel’s enemies at bay: “Israel must be a like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.”
Until now, most observers had assumed Dayan was referring to Israeli military or possibly nuclear strategy, an expression in his typically blunt fashion of the country’s familiar doctrine of deterrence.
But the Israeli commando attack on Monday on the Gaza-bound flotilla, in which nine activists have so far been confirmed killed and dozens were wounded as they tried to break Israel’s blockade of the enclave, proves beyond doubt that this is now a diplomatic strategy too. Israel is feeling cornered on every front it considers important – and like Dayan’s “mad dog”, it is likely to strike out in unpredictable ways.
- Comment on Community 5 months ago:
Cats prefer licking your sad tears instead of your angry tears.
- Comment on Feel the burn 5 months ago:
“Hellraiser for Teens: Teaching About Your Body”
- Comment on Schools in England send police to homes of absent pupils with threats to jail their parents 5 months ago:
“Are your parents TERFS? Homophobic? Racist? With this one simple trick you can remove them from your life!”
- Comment on Donald Trump wants to control the Justice Department and FBI. His allies have a plan 5 months ago:
Ahh… another, “You better vote for Genocide Joe. If you don’t, Genocide Donald is gonna eat ya!” article.
First: flood the Justice Department with stalwart conservatives unlikely to say “no” to controversial orders from the White House. Second: restructure the department so key decisions are concentrated in the hands of administration loyalists rather than career bureaucrats.
So basically do what any President already does.
Overhauling the Justice Department would allow the Trump administration to pursue conservative policy initiatives such as dismantling hiring programs meant to boost diversity in the workplace and ending federal oversight of police departments accused of racist practices.
So… the only change would be that the employee base would disappear if they were standing in front of a white wall. Its not like there’s much the DoJ seems to be able to do to keep the police in check with their “oversight”.
The general counsel provides legal advice to FBI employees regarding ongoing probes and other matters. Closing it would force the bureau to receive legal guidance from people closer to Trump’s attorney general in the chain-of-command and limit the FBI’s ability to conduct investigations without close political oversight, according to several Trump supporters and legal professionals with knowledge of the department’s workings.
Or the FBI agents will just decide they don’t have to ask anybody permission and act freely.
- Comment on Dresden Peace Prize goes to the late Alexei Navalny 6 months ago:
At the end of the 1990s, in his mid-20s, he became involved in the left-liberal Yabloko party but was expelled in 2007 due to conflicts with the party leadership and his nationalist views. He was subsequently active in a nationalist movement — a reason that he was also controversial in Russian opposition circles.
- Comment on How ‘Zionist’ became a slur on the US left 6 months ago:
Student protesters say that their criticisms of Zionism are rooted in the state of Israel’s displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Pro-Israel activists have responded by defending the term
Defends the term, doesn’t deny the ethnic cleansing.
The Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl launched the First Zionist Congress in 1897. His project for a new homeland for Jews with self-rule came in reaction to the rampant, violent antisemitism in Europe and was shaped by political ideas of that time. He became committed to a Jewish state in Palestine, which he called “an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism”
uhh… The launcher of the First Zionist Congress just out and out being racist against the Palestinians right there.
Today, a generation of students emphasizes what they see as the settler-colonial nature of Herzl’s vision.
No, no… it literally was Herzl’s vision.
The shift in opinions on Zionism has been particularly confusing for many Jewish Americans… a small minority describe it as “privileging Jewish rights over non-Jewish rights in Israel” (10%).
Only 10% actually are correct.
Arguably for the first time, a Palestinian perspective on Zionism is taking center stage
No, its the Israeli AND the Palestinian perspective on Zionism.
- Comment on Pokémon Go players are altering public map data to catch rare Pokémon 6 months ago:
This would be an interesting seed for a horror themed short story.
Somebody finds themself sent to some horrible place when following a computer navigation system and has to survive whatever “horror” scenario and the post script at the end of the story is that the person was sent there because somebody fudged the navigation computer’s map data to cheat at a video game.
- Comment on Telcos keep using “insecure” Chinese gear because of congressional inaction 6 months ago:
Great, the little “poor people get some help to pay for internet” program was canceled this year due to a lack of funding and now here’s an excuse my local ISP gets to have for jacking up my monthly bill.
- Comment on After Raids, NYPD Denied Student Protesters Water and Food in Jail 6 months ago:
The cruelty is the point.
ACAB
- Comment on Students suspended at Yarra Valley grammar school over ‘disgraceful’ spreadsheet rating female classmates 6 months ago:
“When it was brought to my attention, I just could not believe that anyone could A – objectify our young women like that, they’re their fellow students like that and B – be so cruel,” he told ABC News Breakfast on Monday.
A quote from the principal, sounding like they’ve never been around a group of kids, ever.
- Comment on Key aid crossing into Gaza closed after rocket attack kills Israeli soldiers 6 months ago:
The armed wing of Hamas said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base next to … Hamas media quoted a source close to the group as saying the commercial crossing was not the target. Israel’s military said it believed Hamas was targeting soldiers massed on the Gaza border in preparation for a possible Rafah invasion.
Everybody seems to agree that the strike was against legitimate military targets.
The Israeli military… example of the terrorist organisation’s systematic exploitation of humanitarian facilities and spaces, and their continued use of the Gazan civilian population as human shields.”
It isn’t terrorism if a militant group is attacking another militant group that is building up forces for an assault.
Just before midnight, an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians, including a baby,
Can’t keep talking about “hiding behind human shields” if you keep killing the human shields.
- Comment on Israel to shut down Al Jazeera offices after rising tensions 6 months ago:
However, a correspondent at the broadcaster said the order would only affect its operations in Israel and east Jerusalem. Operations in Palestinian territories would not be affected, they added.
Ban them from the places where they can’t be openly killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces or Settler militia, smart. Surprised it took them this long.
- Comment on The new ‘space race’: what are China’s ambitions and why is the US so concerned? 6 months ago:
As the stability of the USA hegemony crumbles it lashes out at any attempts by other nations to do anything as something to be suspicious of.
- Comment on Inside Ukraine’s Killer-Drone Startup Industry 6 months ago:
He expects this technology could, eventually, be connected to AI—exploding only if it registers a nearby tank,
HAHAHA… oh god no. Shit’s been around since the 80’s and nobody wants to use it.
One of Ukraine’s biggest disadvantages, from the start of the war, has been its difficulty in hitting targets inside Russia.
There we go, there’s the terrorism angle i was looking for…
- Comment on Me too 6 months ago:
Computer, show me a realistic version of Mega Man 4’s “Toad Man.”
- Comment on Antybooties 6 months ago:
On one hand… way to be assholes “scientists”.
On the other hand… I didn’t know technology existed that could possibly fix a broken spider leg and I need it.
- Comment on China abducted its own citizens on EU territory, report finds 7 months ago:
Report by “Safeguard Defenders” formerly “China Action”… website here if you want to see a bunch of “HOLY SHIT CHINA BAD” stuff…
Human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders first revealed in 2022 that China operates more than 120 illegal police offices in 53 countries around the world, including around 50 in the EU.
Wasn’t this deemed super false? Those “police offices” were just outreach centers for Chinese nationals needing help filling out paperwork or being tracked down to remind them to fill out paperwork?
China in just one year as part of a special campaign in which the threat of collective punishment was also used as a means of persuasion.
Nowhere in the article does it source any of these claims. Doesn’t even link to the “report”
…Chinese indiciduals who…
heheh… misspelled “individuals”…
From the Safeguard Defenders website where the .pdf for the report is located. The first two sentences reframes things differently from the EuroNews linked article.
Just around Christmas last year, China’s global hunt for “fugitives” hit a new milestone. Since its launch in 2014 as part of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, 10,000 are claimed to have been successfully returned from over 120 countries around the globe under Sky Net (and junior partner Fox Hunt) operations…
Its not JUST Chinese citizens, its people that that the Chinese government is claiming have broken the law and fled the country.
Also… the EuroNews article says the report is 169 pages long, the .pdf from Safeguard Defenders is only 69 pages long.
I mean… sure, if you want to make an argument about how the Chinese government may or may not be following extradition treaties/laws to have people accused of criminal activity brought back to the country to stand trial, you can make that argument. Framing it as “Chinese government kidnaps citizens traveling abroad!!!” is wildly inaccurate.
- Comment on space 7 months ago:
Sounds like one of the asides from “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy”.
- Comment on space 7 months ago:
I have yet to stumble across a sci-fi short story about space travelers finding an entire civilization’s worth of dead bodies floating round in space only to realize that they were all time travelers who only got part of the time traveling math correct. They figured out how to get through time but couldn’t figure out how to get through space, but since all their volunteers died, they never figured it out and just kept sending people to their doom.
- Comment on Starting today, ISPs must display labels with price, speeds, and data caps 7 months ago:
Its not just the cost of the plan, its all the ancillary fees and taxes as well.