What's in the News? 2.0

[Beorning]

I remember the Toast Jesus... :)

[Oniya]

Apparently, there was also a Grilled Cheese Mary.

(Our local ice cream place does offer the 'Mary St. Grilled Cheese' - but the St. there is 'street', not 'saint'.)

[Missy]

Damn who knew a scam like that could be so lucrative XD

[LostInTheMist]

Fiscal cliff.

I'm sitting here with enough cash for several months of food and fuel (and incidentally answering the question "how much cash can you carry before you start to feel uncomfortable?" for me.)

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and I'm going to be gone until the end of the month. I don't ANTICIPATE the world economy crashing and burning... but it's starting to look like it's a possibility, and I want enough cash money that, should the world economy come crashing down (before we move into a barter economy where my ability to make moonshine will pay for everything) I can still pay for basic utility items like toilet paper, food, clean water, and weapons to defend my toilet paper, food, and clean water.

I'm talking tongue-in-cheek about this because of how terrifying it is to me if the U.S. does default on its debt, which would cause the world economy to collapse. Again, I don't think it's likely, but if it does, I don't want all my money tied up in electronic form where I may not be able to access it.

[GloomCookie]

Fiscal cliff.

I'm sitting here with enough cash for several months of food and fuel (and incidentally answering the question "how much cash can you carry before you start to feel uncomfortable?" for me.)

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and I'm going to be gone until the end of the month. I don't ANTICIPATE the world economy crashing and burning... but it's starting to look like it's a possibility, and I want enough cash money that, should the world economy come crashing down (before we move into a barter economy where my ability to make moonshine will pay for everything) I can still pay for basic utility items like toilet paper, food, clean water, and weapons to defend my toilet paper, food, and clean water.

I'm talking tongue-in-cheek about this because of how terrifying it is to me if the U.S. does default on its debt, which would cause the world economy to collapse. Again, I don't think it's likely, but if it does, I don't want all my money tied up in electronic form where I may not be able to access it.

I'd be careful carrying large sums of cash because of Civil Forfeiture. You get pulled over, police search you, find a large sum of cash, make the assumption you are doing illegal things, and seize it. Then you have to go to court to prove your cash is actually innocent. Unlike a person, the cash is considered guilty, and they make it deliberately hard to get back so that you're less inclined to attempt to get it.

[LostInTheMist]

I'd be careful carrying large sums of cash because of Civil Forfeiture. You get pulled over, police search you, find a large sum of cash, make the assumption you are doing illegal things, and seize it. Then you have to go to court to prove your cash is actually innocent. Unlike a person, the cash is considered guilty, and they make it deliberately hard to get back so that you're less inclined to attempt to get it.

Hence why I drove straight home (less than half a mile) and stashed the money in my money-stashing place. (After one VERY quick stop on the way home, using a small portion of my money to pay for dry cleaning my only decent suit.) My family knows where my stash is, in case something happens to me, so they can recover the funds. My housemates do not know where it is, because I keep a couple hundred dollars there (for emergencies, like when all of the card swipe systems at our local market went down) most of the time, and temptation can be an icky thing. Now that I'm keeping a couple thousand there (not that anyone aside from y'all know that) it could be even worse.

I didn't want to keep it in my car, despite the fact that it's very, very easy to use the simplest form of car security with my car. It's a 1992 Nissan Maxima, almost as old as I am. It has a car alarm, but everyone knows that doesn't work anymore; everyone just tunes it out now. So I just always park it next to a nicer car. Since almost all cars are nicer than it, this is very easy to do. Simple fact is, it's easy to break into a car if you have a few minutes if you have a clue what you're doing, and you're more likely to score cash prizes from better cars.

I once accidentally left my car in the Trader Joe's parking lot with the keys in it and the engine running. No idea how I managed to do that. Came back to find that the car next to mine had been stolen, and that, until I showed up, I was the prime suspect. Because sometimes, I'm an idiot. (I've never done THAT one since.)

[Skyguy]

You're far more likely to get robbed and lose the cash rather than the world economy go boom. The debt ceiling debate is bullshit. The donor class isn't going to let their pet congresswhores tank the economy. It's just there to rile up the proles and grab some headlines.

[Shekinah]

Tina Turner has died

https://www.bbc.com/news/65669653

[Al Terego]

Rest in peace Tina

[Sara Nilsson]

https://www.jta.org/2023/05/24/united-states/the-florida-mom-who-got-amanda-gormans-poem-restricted-says-shes-sorry-for-promoting-the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion

The Florida mom who sought to ban Amanda Gorman’s poem says she’s sorry for promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

That says it all really. But it gets sooo much worse. She admits to not reading the poem, and claiming she isn't very literate. And she has been sharing some.. well disturbing crap (see above) and also claiming she has nothing at all against jews (right).

“I want to apologize to the Jewish community,” Salinas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday. She was saying sorry for a Facebook post she shared in March offering a summary of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a notorious antisemitic forgery written more than a century ago in Russia.

“I’m not what the post says,” Salinas said. “I love the Jewish community.”

I mean.. you posted it! It isn't like the Elders of Zion isn't a known piece of crap used to hurt people for some time now.

Asked why she wanted the books removed in the first place, Salinas said she had just been expressing her “opinion” that they did not “support the curriculum” but declined to elaborate.

She said she had only read parts of the books.  “They have to read for me because I’m not an expert,” she said. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”

Maybe. Just fucking maybe READ what you are protesting against so you can.. you fucking know.. make an informed call on if it should be there or not. You fucking idiot!!

Sorry.. just.. argh this kind of stupidity will be the death of us.

[TheGlyphstone]

It's Florida under the rule of Ron DeSantis. Par for the course, really.

[Sara Nilsson]

I mean you are not wrong.. sadly.

[Al Terego]

And he's running for president.

[Al Terego]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kandiss-taylor-lost-the-ga-guv-race-by-70-points-she-still-wont-concede

[Al Terego]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kandiss-taylor-lost-the-ga-guv-race-by-70-points-she-still-wont-concede

Sorry, wrong link.  Here's the correct one:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/kandiss-taylor-globes-anti-flat-earth-brainwashing-1234741082/

[Al Terego]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1660846689450688514.html

[Beorning]

Poland's current ruling party takes another step toward outright authoritarianism. They just pushed through a bill that allows them to, basically, create their own Inquisition and easily eliminate any opponents from the public life:

https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/05/27/polish-parliament-passes-bill-to-create-commission-investigating-russian-influence/

Some, uhm, interesting points on how this "special commission" would be operating:

1. The ruling party would have an obvious majority in membership. The chairman would be appointed directly by the Prime Minister.

2. The bill doesn't name any specific offenses that would be considered punishable. Which means, the commission could punish people for, more or less, anything it liked.

2. The commission would have the power to ban someone from holding a public office for 10 years. Normally, this kind of punishment is restricted to court verdicts - now, this commission, which is not a court, would be able to hand out such sentences as "administrative decisions".

3. The commission's verdict cannot be appealed to any other instance, including courts. They are absolutely final.

4. The people investigated by the commission would not be granted any access to the materials the commission investigates. So, people investigated by the commission won't be able to prepare any defence.

Overall, the bill is a legal atrocity. I've heard lawyers say that there are at least 13 separate instances of that bill breaching the Polish constitution.

Note that this commission is being created a few months before the next parliamentary elections... So, it's probable goal is to attack and eliminate the most important opposition leader, Donald Tusk.

[Beorning]

Aaaaaaaand President Duda decided to sign the bill. Meaning, this horrible commission is really going to be created:

https://www.politico.eu/article/politics-election-poland-andrzej-duda-russia-law-donald-tusk-pis-civic-platform/

I've long stopped expecting any integrity from Duda, but I had some hopes he'd have some basic decency and veto this bill.

Damn. Even the freaking Orban didn't try doing stuff like that  >:(

[Sara Nilsson]

That is going to cost them a fair amount of EU money I bet. Just.. insane.

[Beorning]

Oh, we're already losing a ton of EU money due to their previous antics! Do you know we still haven't received any money from the EU Covid recovery fund? Solely because they keep messing with the rule of law?

And still, they have the support of 30%... because they keep giving away money... and because a ton of people in this country watch only the state TV, which keeps blasting away: "PiS is great! Everyone else is eeeeeevil!!!"  >:(  >:(  >:(

[Oniya]

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/27/23739913/chatgpt-ai-lawsuit-avianca-airlines-chatbot-research

This case has also been written about in the NYT and Forbes - the gist is that a lawyer (who should know better) used ChatGPT to write a legal brief in a case.  ChatGPT cited six non-existent cases.  The lawyer asked ChatGPT if these cases were real, and ChatGPT replied that they were.

Opposing counsel pointed out that they weren't.

The judge is freakin' pissed.

Fact-check your work, y'all.

[Sara Nilsson]

I mean, don't use the same source to fact check something to start with.

If a friend tells me, oh sure pink teddy bears are more environmentally friendly. I won't be going to him for verification, ill check with another source! And in this case, its literally a google away to check if a case is real or not.

[Beorning]

We've had a somewhat similar AI-related scandal here not too long ago. One small university was paid a hefty sum of money for an an analysis... and, some time later, a researcher at another university put this analysis through a bot-detecting software and the text was flagged as "quite probably written by an AI"...

[Oniya]

Look - all I'm saying is that if an AI doesn't know how many times 'e' appears in 'ketchup', you probably can't rely on it for accuracy.

[Al Terego]

Look - all I'm saying is that if an AI doesn't know how many times 'e' appears in 'ketchup', you probably can't rely on it for accuracy.

AI's right.

I just opened a bottle of ketchup, dumped into in a bowl, and sifted through it very carefully.
I can say with a high degree of confidence that there were no letters in the the ketchup, 'e' or otherwise.