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  • I think you should actually read your link:

    This apostrophe form of the possessive remained extremely common throughout the 17th century and was used by the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Jane Austen. The version without the apostrophe only became dominant in the 18th century—probably because it's was taking on a new role, replacing the contraction 'tis.

    It would be simpler, of course, if there were only one form in use, and there's an argument to be made for using it's in all cases; 's serves both purposes just fine for nouns. In the cat's bowl it signals possession, and in the cat's sleeping it represents the contracted verb is.

    The "its" construction espoused by Messrs. Merriam, Merriam, and Webster was a satirical attempt at formalizing an exception to the possessive rule rather than acknowledging a typographical error in an advertisement for their new dictionary. That satire was lost on the general public, and "its" was born.

    Your commitment to their 250-year-old joke is laudable, but the joke itself has run its course. "Its" was never actually a word. It was always a typo.

  • There is no such word as "its". That archaic usage was an exception to the "appostrophe-s" construction used to indicate possession. Deprecating that usage eliminates that unnecessary rule exception. While abandoning this antiquated rule does create a homonym, the contractive or possessive meaning is clear in context, as your criticism clearly demonstrates.

    "It's" is both the contractive form of "it is/was" and the possessive form of "it".

    Only English teachers and similar obnoxious, gatekeeping pedants mourn the loss of "its".

  • Thank you!

    I should stress that my explanation is a gross simplification, and some of my examples might be a little off. Further, the specific role varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

    The key takeaway: The role of the coroner is (generally) closer to that of the prosecutor than it is to that of the medical examiner.

  • I think you're misunderstanding the role of the coroner. The medical examiner looks solely at the corpse to determine cause of death. The coroner examines the broader conditions and circumstances surrounding the death.

    To understand the difference in the various investigative roles: The medical examiner can determine that the fatal injury was a hammer impact to the back of the skull. They are not legally qualified to determine whether that hammer was swung, dropped, or thrown. They aren't even qualified to determine if a particular hammer was the cause of death.

    Forensic pathologists can determine the particular hammer, and whether the hammer was swung or thrown. They are not legally qualified to determine who threw it. They are certainly not qualified to determine why it was thrown.

    The coroner can determine who did the throwing. They are not legally qualified to determine whether the act of throwing the hammer was justified or criminal. (If it was thrown to stop the deceased from attacking a victim, for example. The coroner is not qualified to make this determination.)

    The trial court can legally determine that the hammer was thrown with intent to kill. The criminal trial court can determine if that intention was justified or not; whether the defendant committed a crime. The civil trial court can determine how much harm the victim's family has suffered.

    Another example, this time drawn from real life: in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the medical examiner can determine that the deceased died from smoke inhalation. The medical examiner cannot determine who is responsible for the fire. The coroner can call for an inquest. They can convene a jury. And they can legally determine that responsibility for the fire lies with the owners.

    There is no particular need for a coroner to be medically licensed, provided they are not personally expected to perform an autopsy. Where they are not medically licensed, they cannot conduct their own autopsies, and must instead rely on medical examiners for that one small piece of evidence.

    It would be more appropriate for a coroner to be licensed to practice law, rather than medicine.

  • Which one? Israel or Trump?

  • They can't get around it for private employers, but state and local governments are employers and perform withholding.

    The state could also enact a job placement program, and function as a temp agency: the worker is the employee of the temp agency, not the client company they are contracted to.

  • I understand and agree with the hate for the play store, but why the focus on f-droid in particular? There are a multitude of other repositories, or you can grab the apk from anywhere else.

    F-droid is great, for now. But it is still a centralized resource, and it is perfectly capable of enshittification.

  • The taxpayer is paying their federal taxes. The money is being withheld on their behalf. They are receiving a W2 stating their earnings and withholding. Their employer is properly filing, but they are not sending the money they claim to owe.

    If your employer does all this, the IRS can't blame you for not paying your taxes. You have proof that you did. The IRS can't sue all of the company's employees for the company's failure to pay. They have to go after the company, not you.

    They could even do it legally. If the state won a case saying the federal government illegally withheld Medicaid funds from the state and its citizens, the state could get an order to seize federal assets, including employee withholding from state workers.

  • You're not quite right, but I'll reply there instead of here.

  • Most people don't pay their taxes directly; they are withheld from their paycheck by their employer. State and local governments are employers; they withhold taxes from their employees. They can report that they have withheld those taxes from the taxpayers, but transfer those taxes to the state treasury instead of the IRS.

    The state could create a jobs placement program that operates like a temp agency. Workers participating in the program are employees of the state, not the business they are contracted to.

  • A closer analogy is Copyright Registration. You submit a work to the copyright office, claiming to be the original artist. If there is ever a dispute, the submission serves as evidence as to the date and time you claimed the work. If it predates the claims of another, and they can't prove you transferred the work to them, you win the case.

  • Pretty much. They basically serve the same purpose as Copyright Registration. If there is a question of who holds the rights to a work, I can submit my copyright registration as evidence that I claimed the work at that specific date and time. If you can conclusively prove you had it earlier, my later registration is irrelevant.

    You creating an NFT of the work and putting it on the block chain before my registration with the copyright office would conclusively disprove my own registration claim to being the original creator. NFTs could be used as evidence of prior art.

    NFTs could also be used as evidence of intent to transfer the copyright of a work to another.

    Keep in mind, NFTs are evidence, not proof. I could submit an NFT before a court in a court to support my claim of copyright, but the court is going to weigh my evidence against all the other evidence in the case. My ownership of an NFT of my work is not going to replace my signed and notarized agreement to transfer the copyright of the work to someone else.

  • Taco Bell had it, too. I have never actually completed a purchase with an AI.

    Years ago, I adopted a personal policy of driving off as soon as a restaurant attempted to upsell. The Taco Bell AI always attempted to upsell me. 100% reliable on that offensive behavior. But what really and truly pissed me off was that even if I told it "No" or remained silent to its query, it always added the item to my order.

    I'm happy to tank their KPIs as "reward" for their AI bullshit.

  • If you keep turning left, you're just going to go around and around in circles, LARPing NASCAR.

    Everything else seems right. Do unto the rich what you would like to do unto ICE.

  • Ohio still has non-compliant ID cards. I've yet to need a REAL ID, I don't feel a pressing need to acquire the additional documentation I would need to get a compliant card.

  • Ouch

    Jump
  • He ate his paint chips with salsa.

  • It was hard enough getting new contacts to install it and stay connected.

    Posted notices that I was shutting it down. Added links to a web page and a telegram channel.

  • That's a lot of words you seem to be putting in my mouth there friend

    Nah, I don't think it is your intention to say these things. I think that you didn't consider what you were actually saying when you tried to lay the blame on the voters instead of the candidate.

    My point is that just because action was taken by the voters does not mean fault for that action rests with the voters. Here, the candidate's advocacy for genocidal actions is the cause for her failure to win election.

    This is simultaneously an argument to disenfranchise ourselves from the democratic process

    That's a common error: Abstention is not disenfranchisement. The voter is not capable of disenfranchising themselves. Disenfranchisement is a concept that can only be imposed on the voter against their will.

    Demanding the voters select from two genocidal candidates is disenfranchisement: the only democratic choice remaining is abstention.

  • The fundamental principal of "democracy" requires that "The voters are always right".

    Any argument that the voters themselves are wrong is an indictment of democracy itself. It is a suggestion that We The People are incapable of governing ourselves, and require the external mandate of a benevolent dictator.

    You can argue that a candidate failed to appeal to the voters. You can argue that the voting system failed to accurately reflect voter sentiment. You can argue that third parties unduly influenced the voters. You can point out the paradox of Trump being worse for Palestine than Harris would have been. But in a democracy, the voters are the source of truth. Laying blame on the voters requires rejection of the very idea of democracy.

    To extend your metaphor, you want to go out to the movies with a bunch of friends. You and most of the group want to watch Oppenheimer. But most of the people who want Oppenheimer would rather just download it and watch it at home. We would only go to the theater for candy and soda and popcorn. Knowing that we aren't going to show up without all three, you vetoed two of them, and called us selfish assholes for wanting what we want. Now you're complaining that the people who did show up selected Barbie, and you're trying to blame us, even as you ignore that you're the reason why we didn't bother to go out.

    If Palestine is getting bombed no matter what happens, the only voters who are coming out are the ones who want Palestine bombed.

  • Yep. Summer of '48, '49, or '50. And if you look in the background of this image, you can see the same short, white bollards and chains around the buildings at Chilliwack Municipal Airport. (The flying boat in the right foreground is CF-FJH)

  • No Stupid Questions @lemmy.ca

    Anyone know of any interesting, money-making hobbies or flexible gigs?