ToaKraka
Dislikes you
User ID: 108
Assassin's Creed
Allegedly, the first game in the series is not that good and many people prefer to skip it, while 2 and Brotherhood are the peak of the series, and Revelations, 3, and later titles devolve into repetition—with the arguable exception of 4: Black Flag, which may be called "a good game but not a good Assassin's Creed game". (I personally have played only 2, Brotherhood, and 3. Regarding the other games, I am only relaying what I have seen others say.)
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4hr ago
They are something like 20 miles off the coast, counting from the edge of the city.
It's actually more like 50 miles, counting from the edge of Greater London to the edge (baseline) of the UK's "internal waters", which are basically the same as the UK's territory.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
5hr ago
It might be a prior conviction
It isn't. His only prior convictions were for theft and marijuana possession in the 1970s, and those were minor enough to carry no jail time.
His case was borderline, but this seals the deal for me. Unless I'm missing something, I think this guy is a dirtbag and deserved 40 years for literal child rape.
The 40-year sentence was solely for the porn. He was not charged with or convicted of rape in this proceeding.
As far as I can tell from a quick Ctrl-F of the court documents, the only mention of actual rape is in this transcript (starting at page 18 line 21), where an FBI agent testifies that a third party told him that she was raped as a child by the defendant. This third party did not herself testify in court.
I haven't played it, but nobody else has responded, so I will make a comment. I watched a playthrough of the entire game, and it looked extremely annoying to play. Not only are the boss fights a hassle with your limited mobility and short melee range, but for the puzzles you have to take copious notes outside the game. The soundtrack is worth buying, though. (All this also applies to the sequel.)
Not on international waters. It would have to either annex several districts of Essex or Kent, or negotiate free passage through UK internal waters.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
12hr ago
I fail to see how school shooters can be "shamed, mocked, and bullied" much harder than they already are. Nobody outside shitposters on 4chan and Kiwi Farms⁎ celebrates school shootings, and even the shitposters celebrate only the deaths of Chads/Stacies or nonwhites, not the deaths of random bystanders.
⁎And maybe the truly insane people on niche websites like Wizardchan and incels.is, but I don't read those, so I can't say anything about them.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
I can't imagine a pretty feminine woman like Zendaya ever really being a school shooter
Come on. I'm sure there are a thousand 4chan shitposters who, after watching this movie, shouted "I could fix her" and started frantically directing their decensored local LLMs to generate erotic literature with that premise.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
I just would have zero care that someone told me she thought about and planned to do a school shooting but didn’t. It’s not like she was stopped—she just didn’t do it.
This particular situation is more than mere fantasy or contemplation, though. The character actually obtained a gun, practiced with it, and had concrete plans to use it. Under the "substantial step" doctrine, that's enough for her to be convicted of attempted murder in a trial.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
SPOILER
SPOILER
SPOILER
This website does have spoiler formatting.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
The overall observed decline in CRC [colorectal cancer] mortality was 26% for 1975–2000. The model predicted that, with only changes in risk factors, CRC mortality would have decreased by 9%, explaining 35% of the observed mortality decline. Screening was estimated to have decreased mortality by another 14%, explaining 53% of the mortality reduction, while treatment added another 3% decline, explaining the final 12% of the observed decline in CRC mortality.
These modeling results strongly suggest that approximately 50% of the decline in CRC incidence and mortality between1975 and 2000 could be due to CRC screening. We have now used a similar analysis for the time period up to 2010 and again estimated that CRC screening likely accounts for about 50% of the reduction in CRC mortality over the more recent period.
| Proportion with favorable/ unfavorable views (%) | All USAians | Age 18–29 | Democrat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communism | 21/55 | 38/36 | 24/57 |
| Socialism | 37/37 | 53/23 | 50/28 |
| Capitalism | 52/23 | 45/32 | 52/29 |
The UN Secretary-General is still submitting reports on "the threat posed by ISIL (Da'esh)".
The threat from Da’esh and its affiliated groups waned in some theatres, as they were hindered by leadership disruptions, including the geographic dispersal of senior figures, and sustained counter-terrorism efforts. The killing of Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Mainuki (not listed) on 16 May during a joint Nigeria-United States of America operation in Metele, Borno State, Nigeria marked a significant setback for the group. He had held several key positions, including deputy leader of Da’esh and head of the General Directorate of Provinces, as well as the head of the Al-Furqan “office” of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP, QDe.162). His death is likely to affect Da’esh’s ability to coordinate across its global network.
Despite these developments, ISWAP remained the most active Da’esh affiliate, carrying out more attacks than any other affiliate in the first half of the year. Member States reported that ISWAP had acquired several commercial drones, some of which were assessed to have been used in operations across both the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
Second, see this paper.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
5d ago
Direct quote:
Here, it is uncontested that DOT could not meet its burden of proving that Licensee had been driving the vehicle involved in the accident while under the influence of alcohol or controlled substance because Trooper Moran truthfully testified that he did not know when the accident involving Licensee’s vehicle occurred. As it is possible that Licensee consumed the half bottle of Jägermeister after his accident, DOT concedes that it did not satisfy its burden. Accordingly, the only issue before this Court is whether Licensee’s wheelchair is a vehicle within the meaning of the Implied Consent Law.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
5d ago
Item 1 of 4
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A person is observed wheeling himself along a road in a manual wheelchair away from the scene of a single-vehicle car crash. He is drunk, and refuses to submit to a blood-alcohol test when a police officer accosts him.
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Whoops! Overwhelming evidence indicates that the person was the driver of the car. But there is no indication of when the crash occurred, so the officer had no grounds to suspect that the person was drunk when he crashed the car (as opposed to crashing the car and then getting drunk off the half-empty bottle of liquor that was found in the car), and therefore no grounds to demand a blood-alcohol test in the first place. No problem! The prosecutor argues that the officer had grounds to suspect the person of driving the manual wheelchair drunk, and on that basis charges the person with refusing a blood-alcohol test. On that basis, he is found guilty, and his driver's license is suspended for 18 months.
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The appeals panel reverses. It is illegal to refuse a blood-alcohol test if the officer has grounds to believe that you have driven a "vehicle" while drunk, where "vehicle" is defined to exclude both "self-propelled wheelchairs" and "electrical mobility devices". The prosecutor interpreted "self-propelled wheelchair" to mean propelled by the wheelchair, so that a manual, human-powered wheelchair is not self-propelled, and the trial judge accepted this interpretation. But this interpretation would lead to the absurd result of making the blood-alcohol test law applicable to a driver of a manual wheelchair but not to the driver of a more powerful electric wheelchair.
Item 2 of 4
Continuation of last week's lawnmowing shenanigans:
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Sunday: I bring my corded electric lawnmower from home, and rent a gasoline generator from Home Depot. In three hours, I manage to cut the less-overgrown front one-third of the lot. This effort leaves me quite sore (which is why I don't try again until Thursday), and the more-overgrown back two-thirds still remains to be mowed.
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Monday: The contractor claims once again that it "is getting someone to get it done".
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Thursday (one day before govt.-imposed deadline): The contractor still hasn't cut the grass. I rent the generator again. This time, I've brought from home both a lawnmower and a string trimmer. However, (1) the lawnmower has some internal wiring that I previously fixed come loose in a weird way that I can't correct immediately⁎, and (2) the string trimmer is extremely inefficient, eating up two spools of string in cutting only a small area of grass. At this point, the owner of an adjacent lot (where he is constructing a house much larger than mine) suggests that I pay him 100 dollars to get the grass cut by the Friday deadline. I accept this offer.
Hopefully, at least one of these two contractors will not flake out and leave me on the hook for a 300-$/d govt. fine.
⁎I previously put three wires into a wire nut. But I guess the wire nut was too small or something, because not only did one wire come loose, but the exterior plastic part of the wire nut also detached from the internal metal part. I'll have to cut the wire nut off entirely, re-strip the ends of the wires, and add a new wire nut (or maybe one of those fancy Wago connectors).
Item 3 of 4
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A person files for bankruptcy in the Northern District of Iowa. Among his debts is a 190-k$ loan from a bank. The Northern District's nearest courthouse is 10 miles from the debtor's house, 60 miles from the debtor's lawyer, 10 miles from the bank's headquarters, and 160 miles from the bank's lawyer (as measured by me "as the crow flies" in Google Maps; the measurements made by the judge in the opinion linked below are slightly different).
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The bank points out that the person actually lives in the Southern District of Iowa, and moves for a change of venue. The Southern District's nearest courthouse is 60 miles from the debtor's house, 70 miles from the debtor's lawyer, 70 miles from the bank's headquarters, and 160 miles from the bank's lawyer.
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The bankruptcy judge's "general practice is to retain improperly venued cases absent an objection from an opposing party". He is frustrated by the bank's motion here, since "all factors related to convenience and cost savings for all parties favor venue in this district" (emphasis in original), and "in other cases, like this one, the bank or its attorney appears to simply want to make things harder for the debtor". But the statute gives him no discretion, so he cannot avoid transferring the case to the Southern District.
Item 4 of 4
Absolute saga:
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2017-04: Kevin dies intestate. His estate is split evenly between his four children, including Kareem. The estate includes a property on which property taxes of 7 k$ are owed.
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2017-06: The municipal govt. sells a "tax-sale certificate" for the property to a company for 25 k$.
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2019-10-01: The municipal govt. deems the property abandoned. The notice of abandonment is mailed only to the property itself, even though the govt. literally just said that it is abandoned and no one is living there. No one files a challenge to the decision.
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2019-10-14: The company files a foreclosure complaint. Most of the possibly-interested parties are served personally (with letters addressed to them). However, "served" merely by publication (with an advertisement in the newspaper) are Kareem and his mother (not married to Kevin) Shadeerah (who has a child-support judgment against the property).
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2020-06: No one redeems the tax-sale certificate for the govt.'s price of 47 k$, so the company successfully forecloses on the property.
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2020-08-12: Kareem and Shadeerah move to vacate the foreclosure, arguing that they were not served properly. Shadeerah claims that all four heirs have authorized her to enter into a contract to sell the property for 185 k$, which would be more than enough to satisfy all debts.
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2020-08-28: The trial court finds that the company was sufficiently diligent in trying to find addresses for Kareem and Shadeerah before giving up and serving them by publication. In particular, Shadeerah's abrupt move from her previous address just a few days before personal service was attempted, and her failure to leave a forwarding address with the landlord or the post office, thwarted the business's use of three different address-lookup services.
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2022: The appeals panel vacates and remands in part. The trial judge failed to make any findings regarding the diligence of the business's search for Kareem, and must do so on remand.
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2023: The trial judge finds that the company was sufficiently diligent in trying to find an address for Kareem. At the time, he was in jail, so in theory he should have been easy to find. However, in practice, (1) the aforementioned three address-lookup services showed no criminal activity for him, so the business had no reason to check the electronic court records, and (2) even if they had shown criminal activity, the electronic court records would have revealed only a bunch of people with the same first names and last names but different middle names.
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2024: The appeals panel affirms on the topic at hand, but remands so that the trial judge can consider whether, under the federal Supreme Court's new ruling on "equity theft" and new state laws on the same topic, the foreclosure here was excessive.
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2025: The trial judge finds that (1) the 2020 foreclosure was an invalid taking of property since it extinguished Kareem's excess equity on the basis of unpaid property tax, and must be vacated, but (2) the 2019 determination of abandonment remains valid, since it was based on the property's need for rehabilitation rather than on Kareem's failure to pay taxes.
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2026: The appeals panel vacates and remands, reinstating the 2020 foreclosure. Kareem asked only for the return of his "stolen" excess equity. He didn't ask for the entire foreclosure to be overturned, and his three sibling co-owners definitely didn't ask for it! And the trial judge failed to properly investigate whether the municipal govt.'s determination of abandonment was appropriate in the first place.
So this court case is still going on, nine years after the tax-sale certificate was sold.
Astral Codex Ten's latest Bay Area House Party comedy article may be of interest.
Something clicks. “Tran, are you talking like an AI?”
“You’re absolutely right,” says Tran. “I was tired of being socially anxious and tripping over my own tongue. I started out by reading Dale Carnegie, but taking his advice made me sound like a bad salesman—and that underscores how much norms have changed since the 1930s. The pivot was realizing that we already know what the best-liked speaking style is. AI companies ask human raters to judge their models’ outputs in RHLF, and the highest-rated style survives as the well-known ‘voice’ of the AIs. That’s not an an accident—it’s a testament to people genuinely preferring it. The average member of the population thinks it sounds polished, thoughtful, and sophisticated. And here’s the part most people find striking—in only one month, I’ve gone from being a friendless wallflower to having dates almost every night. That’s something that human-style supremacists genuinely need to sit with.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought Cluely was back in business or something.”
“You’ve put your finger on the natural misconception that people have when first encountering this area,” said Tran. “But talking like an AI isn’t the domain of one company. It’s a vibrant treasure trove of neologisms available to anybody. Would you like to hear more about how copying AI tics helps me keep conversations going?”
“Uh, sure— Wait! No!” You break off and turn around as fast as you can.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
According to Gallup, only 20 percent of USAians view lawyers as having above-average "honesty and ethical standards", vs. 7 percent for members of Congress, 37 percent for police officers, and 57 percent for doctors. And, according to Ipsos, only 31 percent of people globally view lawyers in their respective countries as "trustworthy", vs. 15 percent for politicians, 38 percent for police officers, and 58 percent for doctors. But are perceived "honesty and ethical standards" and "trustworthiness" the same thing as "cultural respect"? I feel doubtful. IMO, cultural respect is more like "are lawyers cool?" than "are lawyers trustworthy?".
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
I can't say I remember what exactly happened (did our stewards ever outright list what the Reddit overlords demanded of them in the end?), but I was under the impression that it was about much more than that, and there were specific demands from admins to ban particular opinions (content, not tone).
According to others (1 2 3), the specific straw that broke the camel's back was the admins' failure to understand the use–mention distinction: somebody was banned by the admins for explaining the difference between «guillemets» and ((("echo" triple parentheses))).
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
Just curious, where did you grow up?
I am a nigger of Caribbean descent (so technically not in the narrowest definition of "American descendants of slaves") who has lived in New J*rsey all his life (plus college in western Pennsylvania).
Not being able to tell the difference between South American mestizos and Europeans (even heavily tanned Europeans) is just wild to me. Like, bordering on willfully obtuse.
Look at prominent Bolivian Evo Morales as one example. Is he darker than a default European? Yes, obviously. But, other than that moderately darker skin, does he really look that different from, say, Jay Leno? IMO, no. In comparison, East Asians have wildly different eyes, South Asians have skin dark enough that no white could ever tan to match them, and blacks have both super-dark skin and wildly different hair.
Again, this is all my personal opinion. But to me indigenous Americans seem very similar to whites.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
I was just making a half-joking reference to the US federal government's recent race/ethnicity reshuffling.
I personally can't see much difference between indigenous Americans and heavily tanned Europeans, so all Hispanics look basically white to me. But that obviously is my problem, not Primaprimaprima's.
I guess, but that still would require a treaty at the pleasure of the UK—it isn't automatic like an easement by necessity.
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