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ArbitraryValue

@ ArbitraryValue @sh.itjust.works

Posts
8
Comments
1790
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Fake Video of Epstein's Suicide Released by DOJ Then Taken Down

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  • You want to give the FBI a lot more power to choose, unilaterally and without oversight, which parts of the Epstein files to keep from the public than I do.

  • Fake Video of Epstein's Suicide Released by DOJ Then Taken Down

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  • It's not an authentic video of Epstein, but it is an authentic part of their file on Epstein. You seem to be saying that they should not have posted it but my understanding of the law is that they should have posted it and not removed it.

  • Kennedy Center Altered Rules So Only Trump-Appointed Board Members Could Vote on Name Change

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  • The two aren't mutually exclusive. Consider certain graffiti. The person tagging a building doesn't think that he is improving it. Rather, he is showing that he has the power to put his name on places where other people don't want it. In doing so, he asserts dominance. That's what legacy is in a zero-sum mindset where success must mean someone else's failure - a record of whom he defeated.

  • Fake Video of Epstein's Suicide Released by DOJ Then Taken Down

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  • How is it a big deal? We know that it's not real, that it wasn't claimed to be real by its creators, and that the FBI has it because it was emailed to them by someone with an innocent question about it. I can see either including it in the release because it's technically in the FBI's Epstein file, or omitting it from the release because it actually isn't relevant information. It looks like the FBI chose the latter policy once they became aware that they had released the video (presumably as part of a bulk upload) and they Streisand-Effected themselves by removing it. I'm not familiar with the specific text of the law so I don't know which option is more in accordance with it, but either way I don't see any substantive issue at all.

  • Kennedy Center Altered Rules So Only Trump-Appointed Board Members Could Vote on Name Change

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  • I don't think the intent is to make the center look good - it's to humiliate.

  • Important question

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  • They understand dog carriers and cars, so my guess is that they think of an elevator as something like the other boxes used to move them around, but without windows. With that said, a big part of raising puppies is teaching them to just ignore strange things that they don't understand, so I doubt that most dogs think about elevators much. Mine had zero reaction to the elevator on the first time he rode in one, but he was the kind of dog who didn't even mind fireworks as long as he could see that I was relaxed.

  • Does anyone just feels extremely annoyed when other people are playing their videos on loudspeaker?

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  • I can imagine how someone who is still a good person overall might commit certain serious crimes. But the petty stuff like this or littering immediately places whoever does it in the "person I detest" category in a way that, say, robbing a bank would not. The thought of having all that money is a genuine temptation, and maybe the robber needs it for something important. Meanwhile playing audio in a subway car is just completely unjustifiable.

  • Study of men who embodied a young woman in VR finds they felt disgust & anger when catcalled

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  • My guess is that the men who don't think they'd be bothered by cat-calling are imagining a scenario where there are lots of other people around and the risk of being physically attacked is very low. (Something like the stereotypical image of construction workers whistling at a woman walking by them on a busy sidewalk.) Being on a nearly-empty subway platform with the only other guy nearby accosting you is a genuinely risky situation even without pretending that you're a woman.

    One time I was walking on the sidewalk when a car with several young women drove by and one of them leaned out the window and yelled something at me. I didn't hear what she said but I like to think that it was positive and it made my day, but the caveat is that I did not feel like I was in any physical danger at all from them.

  • you're doing ReSeArCh rong!!

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  • But both sides sound as if they have done real science, so a basic understanding of how science is done won't be enough to tell them apart. You can get anti-vaccine books written in an academic tone with citations. They go through the appearance of presenting evidence. The only difference between the two sides that is visible to an ordinary member of the public is that one side represents "the establishment" and the other side doesn't.

    Even professional scientists have to have a lot of trust in the institutions of science - if I read a paper then unless there is something egregiously wrong, I rely on the journal and the scientific community to check that the authors did what they claimed to do and that they got the results they claim to have.

  • you're doing ReSeArCh rong!!

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  • I don't agree with this. The stuff written by, for example, the "vaccines cause autism" people can sound as sophisticated and authoritative as any textbook. A high-school education isn't going to help someone judge it according to its merits. Thus the problem is a collapse of trust in authority rather than a lack of basic knowledge, because ultimately an ordinary person can only decide to trust the scientific consensus without meaningfully verifying it.

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    Permanently Deleted

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  • The World Socialist Web Site? Seriously? This isn't ML.

    Demands made by hunger strikers are not democratic demands because rule by those willing to kill themselves isn't a democracy.

  • sometimes we get lost in the sauce

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  • "Local mom reveals one weird trick that archeologists hate!"

    I'm not saying something like this has never happened but I expect that such claims are simply anti-intellectual urban legends more often than not.

    (How would we even know where pre-Columbian people stored knives? The sort of structure that would survive for centuries seems like it would be a palace or a temple made of stone, rather than a common kitchen. There the blades presumably would serve a ritual purpose.)

  • Trump’s Kennedy Center chief threatens jazz musician with $1M suit over canceled Christmas gig

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  • Enforcing contractual obligations isn't unconstitutional. We don't know what the contract actually says but it might plausibly include damages for cancelling in these circumstances.

    Edit: With that said, the center isn't helping its case by claiming things like

    Your dismal ticket sales and lack of donor support, combined with your last-minute cancellation has cost us considerably. This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.

    Calling the action a political stunt may allow the defendant to argue that the lawsuit is motivated by retaliation against speech even if the lawsuit would otherwise be valid, and admitting that ticket sales were dismal isn't great if you're going to seek damages for lost ticket sales.

  • How often do you change your towels?

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  • New York Post slammed for smearing Ms Rachel after Mamdani inauguration pick

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  • "Controversial" here seems like a basic statement of fact. One might think that she ought not to be controversial, but she is.

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    Don't ruin the magic

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  • It's the Justice League cartoon from twenty years ago. Worth watching if you like superheroes.

  • Oh fuck off Meta

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  • This seems like something they're being legally required to track to "protect the children".

  • The TRUE Christians have arrived! Apparently, their agenda is to... destroy Christmas?

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  • Newly released Epstein file links Trump to murdered newborn baby dumped in Lake Michigan

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  • That's not how it would work even for an ordinary person. This is an accusation about something rather far-fetched happening 35 years before the accusation was made, with no evidence for it except the accusation itself. It wouldn't lead to criminal charges.