booly @ booly @sh.itjust.works

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2 yr. ago

Prosecutors are generally somewhat accommodating of victim/witness preferences, because being subpoenaed to testify in open court can be intimidating in even low profile cases. And forcing a person to testify against their will generally isn't a good trial strategy for winning cases.

if it's immediately rewarding

Hell of a caveat there.

Anywhere strangers tend to be around each other long enough to where small talk might be a welcome distraction: waiting in lines for something, sitting at a community table or bar/counter with mixed groups (especially while waiting for the rest of your respective friend groups to show up), sitting next to each other at a public event like live sports or a concert with downtime, volunteer events where you might be set up next to strangers doing the same thing, etc.

It's easier when there's a natural end to the interaction (your turn in line, the start of the sporting event), too.

Smartphones and headphones have made it harder, but there are still opportunities when people are bored and sitting around.

You're getting mixed up between the requirements for "American Cheese" and "American Cheese Food," which are distinct.

"Pasteurized Process American Cheese" is a cheese that follows a government regulatory definition, where the inputs are mostly cheddar and Colby cheese, and the milkfat requirements make it a little more difficult to try to make it with too much non-cheese ingredients.

Kraft Singles are the less strict "Process American Cheese Food" which only has to be 51% cheese by weight. But the labeling makes clear that it's not just cheese. Kraft Deli Deluxe slices are labeled with the stricter definition of "Process American Cheese," and pretty much any brand will have to stick with the label requirements.

If you you blow the guts out and faces off Russian soldiers by more traditional means they are just as dead

I (and all the people and organizations that have worked throughout the last century to get incendiary weapons banned as anti-personnel weapons) generally feel that the method of killing matters, and that some methods are excessively cruel or represent excessive risk of long term suffering.

The existing protocol on incendiary weapons recognizes the difference, by requiring signatory nations to go out of their way to avoid using incendiary weapons in places where civilian harm might occur. Even in contexts where a barrage of artillery near civilians might not violate the law, airborne flame throwers are forbidden. Because incendiary weapons are different, and a line is drawn there, knowing that there actually is a difference between negligently killing civilians with shrapnel versus negligently killing civilians with burning.

There are degrees of morality and ethics, even in war, and incendiary weapons intentionally targeting personnel crosses a line that I would draw.

The moral high ground is absolutely critical in war. War is politics by other means, and being able to build consensus, marshal resources, recruit personnel, persuade allies to help, persuade adversaries to surrender or lay down their arms, persuade the allies of your adversaries not to get involved, and keep the peace after a war is over, all depend on one's public image. There are ways to wage war without it, but most militaries that blatantly disregard morals find it difficult to actually win.

In this case? The entire military strategy of Ukraine in this war is highly dependent on preserving the moral high ground.

The United States and the UK successfully blocked attempts to outlaw all use of incendiary weapons, and all use of incendiary weapons against personnel, and all use of incendiary weapons against forests and plant cover.

This is an area where it's perfectly reasonable to disagree with how the US watered down this convention, to push for stricter rules on this, and to condemn the use of thermite as an anti-personnel weapon and the use of incendiary weapons on plants that are being used for cover and concealment of military objectives.

So pointing out that this might technically be legal isn't enough for me to personally be OK with this. I think it's morally reprehensible, and I'd prefer for Ukraine to keep the moral high ground in this war.

Wait is there a way to invent awful things and then patent troll so that nobody can actually bring them to market?

I think the problem is more that many Americans are very focused on their own culture to the exclusion of every other culture

Of course, this position directly contradicts the other dominant criticism in this thread, that Americans don't have any culture of their own and just take from others.

Americans are a remix culture, and take in influences from elsewhere (especially through 200+ years of immigration) and make it our own.

Yeah, American Christmas is pretty much entirely derived from German tradition: Santa, gifts, Christmas trees, lights, carols, etc.

So much of American food derives from German food: hot dogs, pretzels, hamburgers, modern beer (hopped beer and bottom fermentation of lagers were both invented by Germans, and are now the dominant form of beer globally).

And as America exported all of these cultural traditions, those still derive from German immigration to America to begin with.

The English language itself still has strong Germanic influence.

She was born into money, she wasn't self made.

I would argue that someone who turns $1 million into $1.001 billion is self made, in that there is a billion dollars of gain attributable to that person's actions.

Yes, the opportunities available to someone who is allowed to pursue a dream at a young age without worrying about money is an advantage in show business (or really, any career field). But a lot of people seem not to realize just how many rich people there are. Something like 1 out of every 5 American households is worth more than $1 million in net worth, or 1 out of every 8 is worth more than $1 million without counting their primary residence.

In the end, Taylor Swift's wealth is pretty much entirely tied up in the intangible personal brand, which she can monetize basically at will, and the valuable intellectual property that she owns, a song/recording catalog that is worth probably over a billion in itself. She built it with help, yes. But she built it.

That's in contrast to people who own wealth that they didn't themselves build at all, like inherited equity or cash flow in valuable companies that they aren't actively working at, or that are valuable without their own involvement.

On the one hand, there's no such thing as totally self made. On the other, if there's a spectrum of how much wealth is actually earned through work, Taylor Swift's net worth is probably more self made than the typical billionaire.

The escalation of Starlink not complying comes from that, not the other way around.

I've looked closer (at other articles, too). You're right - the freezing of the SpaceX accounts came from the same order that ordered that Twitter be blocked, and before SpaceX announced it would refuse to comply.

The proper thing to do is to recognize the legally distinct personhood of SpaceX, which isn't part of Twitter, even if Twitter/X itself is wrong on the law.

Twitter has accounts that Brazil says violates Brazilian law.

Brazil took steps to shut down those accounts in Brazil.

Twitter refused to cooperate, going as far as to fire all of its Brazilian staff, so that it can't be reached by the Brazilian courts.

The Brazilian courts ordered all of Twitter be blocked until they comply with local law that they designate a corporate representative who can be served by court processes.

Brazilian ISPs complied with the court order to block Twitter.

Starlink did not comply, and Brazilian courts froze SpaceX's Brazilian assets, including bank accounts, and started making moves towards de-licensing Starlink, including its 23 ground stations located in Brazil.

The issue escalated to the full Brazilian Supreme Court, who ruled that the assets should remain frozen until Starlink starts complying with court orders.

Now Starlink says it will comply with the court order.

The order to block Twitter went to all Brazilian ISPs, and Starlink is the only one that didn't comply on Saturday. So the escalation stems from the disregard of an order that everyone was required to obey, but the intertwined nature of both companies being controlled by Musk is both part of the reason why SpaceX would even consider not complying with local law in a country it operates in, and why the Brazilian courts seem to be willing to aggressively enforce their own orders.

Edit: I'm convinced. This comment as originally written presented the facts out of order.

There's a paper from 1984 that worked out the math for a two-sail system that could get a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, and slow down and end up in that gravity well, with a 41-year mission time. It would do so by discarding a reflector that points backward at the actual payload with its own sail. The paper also proposes a mechanism for a round trip mission, too, using 3 sails.

What's fun about these is that the mass of the actual vehicle can be much smaller if it doesn't need to carry rocketry and fuel on board. So even though they'll never compete with rockets for power (energy used over a specific length of time), starting at a lighter weight and never running out of fuel means that these systems could theoretically exceed the top speeds (relative to the earth) of our fastest rockets, given enough time.

Michael Scott : I am a victim of a hate crime. Stanley knows what I'm talking about.

Stanley : That's not what a hate crime is.

Michael Scott : Well, I hated it, a lot, okay.

Why are you sticking with a specific spectrum? You made it hard to read in service of a requirement that doesn't make any sense.

The whole conversation from the vegan side has been that those proteins and other substances essential to cats are already commonly synthesized for things like animal feed or even human energy drinks. Your own source says it's impossible without synthetic supplementation, but the deleted comments from that dumpster fire were specifically about synthetic supplementation.

I'm not an expert in this stuff but I can see when comments aren't actually engaging with arguments from the other side, which is why I think that the vegans have the better argument in this whole saga.

Are you under the impression that the water is recycled back in, like in a closed loop?