ToaKraka
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User ID: 108
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
16hr ago
I have found the relevant code. Apparently, the buttons were always supposed to be right-aligned, but badly written HTML and/or CSS prevented that from happening. @ZorbaTHut fixed the HTML to match the intent.
If you want, you can submit a pull request to undo the change by deleting the text "justify-content-end" from this line of code.
Sea Anenemies (HTF do you pell that I've tried like 6 ways and can't get any spellcheck suggestions) seem fairly plant-like, but does anyone actually eat them?
In southwestern Spain and Sardinia, the snakelocks anemone is consumed as a delicacy. Anemones are also a source of food for fisherman communities on the east coast of Sabah, Borneo, as well as in the Thousand Islands of Southeast Asia and in Taizhou, Zhejiang.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
Canada's immigration policy is so insane that the India's foreign minister himself has formally warned Canada that they're granting visas to the worst of the worst.
[Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam] Jaishankar said Canada has been welcoming people from India with links to organised crime, ignoring warnings by New Delhi.
"Often, when I see for example these kinds of attacks, threats to our embassies, because they concern me very deeply and I tell the foreign minister, suppose if (they) happened to you, if it was your embassy, your diplomat, your flag, how would you react. We have to keep our position strong on this particular report which has come. I also saw it yesterday night, I was coming to Odisha in the morning, somebody may have been arrested, their police may have done some investigation," Jaishankar said at the event.
"But the fact is that a number of gangland people, a number of people with organised crime links from Punjab have been made welcome in Canada. We have been telling Canada, saying, look these are wanted criminals from India, you have given them visas. Many of them have come in false documentation and yet you allow them to live there. If you decide to import for political purposes people with very dubious, actually, very negative backgrounds, there will be issues, they have in some cases created problems in their own country as a result of their own policies. No, why would we fear? If something happens there, it is for them to worry about," he added.
Overstays according to the aforementioned report:
| Source countries | Visas | Absolute | Relative to expected exits for this source–visa combination (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| VWP (Visa Waiver Program) | B-1, B-2 | 99,000 | 0.62 |
| Non-VWP, non-CA/MX | B-1, B-2 | 310,000 | 3.2 |
| Non-CA/MX | F, M, J | 49,000 | 3.7 |
| CA, MX | B-1, B-2, F, M, J | 79,000 | 0.73 |
| All | B-1, B-2, F, M, J | 570,000 | 1.5 |
| Turkmenistan | B-1, B-2 | 142 | 15 |
| Turkmenistan | F, M, J | 45 | 22 |
| Turkmenistan | B-1, B-2, F, M, J | 187 | 17 |
That's just disputing the definition of "third world". IMO, lumping into the "third world" category every country that is not classified as an "advanced/developed market" by the IMF is far from totally unreasonable, though people may complain about the inclusion of Poland and Hungary in such a category. Another definition might be "every country that is not classified by the World Bank as a 'high-income country'", which excludes Poland and Hungary but also Panama and Guyana.
ToaKraka
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2d ago
If your browser window is narrower than 768 pixels (with zoom taken into account), then this website's CSS switches from desktop mode to phone mode. This is called "responsive web design".
As the kids say, "notabug wontfix".
According to the [Fiscal Year 2023] Overstay Report, Turkmenistan had a B-1 [business]/B-2 [tourist] visa overstay rate of 15.35 percent and an F [student], M [vocational], and J [exchange visitor] visa overstay rate of 21.74 percent.
ToaKraka
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2d ago
ToaKraka
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2d ago
this viral Substack series
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
Second Geneva Convention of 1949 art. 3:
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed 'hors de combat' by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict.
Commentary ¶ 489 (applying to the first-quoted paragraph):
The object and purpose of common Article 3 supports its applicability in non-international armed conflict reaching beyond the territory of one State. Given that its aim is to provide persons not or no longer actively participating in hostilities with certain minimum protections during intense armed confrontations between States and non-State armed groups or between such groups, it is logical that those same protections would apply when such violence spans the territory of more than one State.
Commentary ¶¶ 893–896 (applying to the last-quoted paragraph):
This provision confirms that, while humanitarian law provides for equal rights and obligations of the Parties to the conflict in the treatment of people in their power, it does not confer legitimacy on non-State armed groups that are Parties to a conflict.
Furthermore, it serves to underline that, as international humanitarian law applies based on the facts, regardless of whether a State qualifies the members of a non-State armed group as ‘terrorists’ or its actions as ‘terrorism’, humanitarian law applies if and when the conditions for its applicability are met.
The denial that groups that a State has labelled as ‘terrorist’ may be a Party to a non-international armed conflict within the meaning of humanitarian law carries the risk that the non-State armed group loses an incentive to abide by that body of law. This in turn reduces the ability of humanitarian law to serve its protective purpose. Humanitarian law seeks to protect civilians and all those who are not directly participating in hostilities; it does this in part by obliging Parties to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and military objectives.
Nothing since the introduction of common Article 3 in 1949 has altered the fact that the applicability of humanitarian law to situations of non-international armed conflicts does not affect the legal status or enhance the legitimacy of non-State armed groups. This remains as essential today as it was at that time, as any other interpretation will almost inevitably lead States to deny the applicability of common Article 3 and thereby undermine its humanitarian objective.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
Legally binding documents:
International Criminal Court Elements of Crimes art. 8 (2) (a) (i):
War crime of wilful killing
Elements
1. The perpetrator killed one or more persons.
2. Such person or persons were protected under one or more of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
3. The perpetrator was aware of the factual circumstances that established that protected status.
4. The conduct took place in the context of and was associated with an international armed conflict.
5. The perpetrator was aware of factual circumstances that established the existence of an armed conflict.
Second Geneva Convention of 1949 art. 12:
Protection and care
Members of the armed forces and other persons mentioned in the following Article, who are at sea and who are wounded, sick or shipwrecked, shall be respected and protected in all circumstances, it being understood that the term “shipwreck” means shipwreck from any cause and includes forced landings at sea by or from aircraft.
ToaKraka
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3d ago
He used the numbers from MIT's Living Wage analysis for Essex County, New Jersey, in his calculation.
That rather blatantly contradicts his statement in part 1 that he was using "conservative, national-average data".
this viral Substack series
I don't see how he gets his numbers.
Green:
| Expenditure | Size (k$/a) |
|---|---|
| Food | 14.7 |
| Housing | 23.3 |
| Childcare | 32.8 |
| Transportation | 14.8 |
| Healthcare | 10.6 |
| Other essentials | 21.9 |
| Subtotal | 118.0 |
| Taxes (including Social Security tax) | 18.5 |
| Total | 136.5 |
Bureau of Labor Statistics (size of consumer unit by income before taxes: consumer unit of four people with income < 15 k$/a):
| Expenditure | Size (k$/a) |
|---|---|
| Food | 11.1 |
| Housing, excluding personal services | 17.0 |
| Personal services (including childcare)* | 0.3 |
| Transportation | 7.5 |
| Healthcare | 1.7 |
| Apparel and services | 1.8 |
| Personal care products and services | 1.1 |
| Education | 0.6 |
| Subtotal | 41.1 |
| Federal and state income taxes** | 0.0 |
| Social Security and Medicare taxes* | 3.4 |
| Total | 44.5 |
*I have submitted a pull request to fix this nonsensical CSS.
**Tax credit of 2 k$/(child⋅a) × 2 children overwhelms all federal income tax for a couple with taxable income < 37.2 $/a, which implies total income < 66.4 k$/a. I don't care enough to figure out the refundable "additional child tax credit" on top of that, let alone state income tax.
(Totals may not sum due to rounding.)
BBC: [UK] justice secretary wants [English and Welsh] jury trials scrapped except in most serious cases
The plans, obtained by BBC News, show that [Justice Secretary David] Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, wants to ask Parliament to end jury trials for defendants who would be jailed for up to five years.
The proposals are an attempt to end unprecedented delays and backlogs in courts, and do not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland.
The MoJ presentation, produced earlier this month, says Crown Courts are facing record backlogs, with more than 78,000 cases waiting to be completed.
In practice, this means that suspects being charged with serious crimes today may not have a trial until late 2029 or early 2030.
Officials predict in the document that the caseload will grow to more than 100,000 before then, unless there is further action.
Earlier this year, retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson recommended that the government end jury trial for many serious offences, saying they could be dealt with by a judge alone or sitting with two magistrates.
This would be done by creating a new intermediate tier of criminal court, dubbed the "Crown Court Bench Division" (CCBD), sitting in between magistrates' courts and Crown Courts, where juries decide cases.
The CCBD would hear cases involving defendants facing sentences of up to three years, Sir Brian recommended.
The "DPM's [deputy prime minister's] decision", according to the leaked MoJ document, is to "go further than Sir Brian's to achieve maximum impact".
Under current law, only certain "indictable offenses" require trial by jury. This is cognate with the US's indictable offenses, which generally carry sentences of more than one year.
Compare the US's system, in which trial by jury is presumptively guaranteed for any crime carrying potential punishment greater than six months (separate from whether the crime is a felony), but this is sidestepped by pushing more than 90 percent of defendants to plead guilty. Plea bargaining apparently is not common in the UKGBNI.
Sarah Sackman, Minister for Courts and Legal Services: The vast majority of cases in our courts are already heard without juries. Around 90% of all criminal cases are dealt with robustly and fairly by magistrates, with no jury.
Sarah Sackman: I spoke to a victim of child sexual abuse who had waited years for his day in court. A couple of weeks before his trial date, he was given the devastating news that the trial had been adjourned for another year. I regret to say that he sought to take his own life upon hearing that. Luckily, his attempt did not work, but if we ever needed a more graphic illustration of the weight that these intolerable delays place on victims —on real people’s lives—that is it. That is why we have to do whatever it takes to bring down these backlogs.
Jeremy Corbyn: This is, I think, the third attempt by successive Governments to reduce the right to trial by jury. It is a fundamental right in our system that should not be undermined, and particularly not because the Government have a current and, hopefully, temporary problem with capacity. In answer to the hon. Member for Liverpool Riverside (Kim Johnson), the Minister recognised that the Lammy inquiry of 2017 found that jury trials are more objective than judge-only trials, less likely to be racially biased and likely to give a fairer outcome. Is the Minister really content that we should be walking away from the jury trial system because of the current problems? Instead, is the answer not, as other hon. Members have suggested, to invest more in the system to deal with the appalling backlog, which she rightly says we have?
ToaKraka
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4d ago
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
I think he replied to the wrong comment. The comment before yours is on Imgur, which has blocked the UKGBNI.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
The US's IPMC (International Property Maintenance Code) incorporates an equivalent of ¶ b, but not of ¶ a.
Every habitable room shall contain not less than 70 square feet, and every bedroom occupied by more than one person shall contain not less than 50 square feet of floor area for each occupant thereof.
ToaKraka
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5d ago
ToaKraka
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5d ago
@ZorbaTHut did make a change to the HTML template for user pages a few weeks ago. Maybe it had some bugs but wasn't implemented until now.
ToaKraka
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6d ago
I personally find these judge-made standards of sadism and masochism to be very interesting. In this case, the trial judge and one appeals judge think that the insertion of a foreign object into a pubescent minor's vagina is inherently humiliating, while the other two appeals judges think otherwise. What answer would a survey of the general public give to this question? I don't know, but I feel doubtful that it would be a landslide in either direction.
ToaKraka
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6d ago
That quote is from the dissent. "Susceptibility of the minor to the defendant's possible manipulation and control" is not an actual standard that has been used in any cases. The text of the law criminalizes merely "persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years to engage in prostitution or any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense".
Court opinion:
In February 2020, a police officer responds to a medical emergency at a nursing home, and remains in the same room as a coughing person for thirty minutes. "Within days of responding to this medical call, petitioner began experiencing symptoms, including severe migraines, vertigo, lightheadedness, and chest pains, resulting in sick leave from work. Over the ensuing months, he tried several times to return to work, to no avail as his debilitating symptoms persisted. He was eventually diagnosed with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, otherwise known as 'long COVID', and his department agreed he could no longer perform his duties as a police officer." In June 2020, the officer files for "accidental disability" retirement, with payout equal to two-thirds of salary. Both his expert doctor and the state retirement board's expert doctor agree that the officer's disability is the direct result of a coronavirus infection contracted in the February 2020 incident.
In March 2023, the board rejects the application and instead grants "ordinary disability" retirement, with payout equal to only two-fifths of salary (a reduction of 60 percent). The board points out that the officer provided zero evidence of ever actually testing positive for the coronavirus, so he has failed to prove to the required preponderance-of-evidence standard that the February 2020 incident caused his disability. On administrative appeal, in September 2024 the board's administrative pseudo-judge recommends that the board grant accidental-disability retirement, but in November the board rejects the recommendation and once again grants only ordinary-disability retirement.
On judicial appeal, in December 2025 the appeals panel reverses. No coronavirus testing was available in February 2020. In the absence of that hard evidence, the board's rejection of the officer's "overwhelming" circumstantial evidence, with no rebutting evidence of its own, was arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.
Court opinion regarding the persistent, obstinate failure of a tire shop to stop storing 1500 tires in an unsafe manner
Blah blah blah, default judgment, permanent injunction. A whopping 16 months later, the owner moves to vacate the default judgment, claiming that he didn't respond earlier because he was "destitute, in a state of depression, and involved in other kinds of abusive behavior". The trial judge rejects his arguments, and the appeals panel affirms.
A multigenerational household, assuming 25 years per generation and three children per couple:
Great-great-grandparents, age 100–124*: 2 people → 1 couple
Great-grandparents, age 75–99: 3 people → 2 couples**
Grandparents, age 50–74: 6 people → 3 couples
Parents, age 25–49: 9 people → 5 couples
Children, age 0–24: 15 people
Result: Eleven 2-occupant bedrooms and five 3-occupant bedrooms; a 16-bedroom, 37-occupant mansion
*US life expectancy:
This probably is a gross misinterpretation of the linked table, as I haven't taken any statistics classes in about fifteen years. The point is that centenarians are rare, and it is not unreasonable to think that centenarian-helmed six-generation households are too rare to need accommodation. (This goes double for places like the US, where the generation time is closer to 30 years than to 25 years.) If you choose to stick with a five-generation household, you will require six 2-occupant bedrooms and three 3-occupant bedrooms, or a 9-bedroom, 21-occupant mansion.
**I conservatively assume that, of each generation's children, ⌊half⌋ leave the household, while ⌈half⌉ stay inside it and bring in spouses from outside. But feel free to insert an incest (or polyamory or polygamy) joke here.
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