ToaKraka
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User ID: 108
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
17hr ago
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Stephens and Teeter constitute a team of long-haul truck drivers. Generally, while one of them is driving in the front of the truck, the other one is sleeping in the back of the truck.
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Since the truck drivers usually drive for long periods without stopping, they often urinate in bottles, leave the bottles on the floor of the truck, and then throw the bottles into the trash at their next stop. Here, however, Stephens is annoyed at Teeter's practices of (1) leaving his bottles of urine on the passenger seat or on the bed rather than on the floor and (2) using spill-prone fast-food drink cups rather than properly-capped bottles for his urine.
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At a truck-stop restaurant, Stephens confronts Teeter over this issue. Teeter gets angry at being called out in public. When the two drivers return to their truck, Teeter unveils a knife and stabs Stephens multiple times, inflicting life-threatening injuries.
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Teeter is charged with and convicted of multiple crimes, and is sentenced to twenty years in prison (with the possibility of parole after 17 years). The appeals panel affirms.
ToaKraka
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1d ago
I think a different commenter stated several years ago that Ukraine's law was bad because it required the country's many small Russian-language news outlets to print a bunch of Ukrainian copies that nobody would buy, which effectively forced them to shut down by imposing large extra costs on them. An extremely cursory Google search indicates that Canada does not have any similar laws forcing small English-language news outlets to translate all their content into French (or vice versa).
ToaKraka
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2d ago
That started because of the 2022 war
No, it started after the 2014 invasion of Crimea. As far back as 2019, the Council of Europe's "Commission for Democracy through Law" issued a scathing report on Ukraine's oppression of the Russian language.
The Commission notes that the State Language Law submitted to its examination in the present opinion also fails to strike a fair balance between the legitimate aim of strengthening and promoting the Ukrainian language and sufficiently safeguarding minorities’ linguistic rights. On the contrary, the State Language Law extends to other areas the differential treatment that the Commission considered in its 2017 opinion as very problematic from the perspective of non-discrimination. Furthermore, the Commission notes that the State Language Law includes several provisions which impose limitations on the freedom of expression and the freedom of association as enshrined in the ECHR. While limitations to these freedoms may serve legitimate aims, the Commission recalls that all limitations must be proportionate. The Commission in the present opinion has found that several articles of the State Language Law require further clarification in order to be proportionate to the legitimate aim.
Article 25 allows publishing of print media in two or more language versions, one of which must be Ukrainian, provided that all language versions are identical in size, format and substance and are issued on the same day. Exception is made only for media issued in Crimean Tatar or other indigenous languages, and those issued in English or other official EU languages (which do not need a translation into Ukrainian). The Law requires that the print media in Ukrainian constitute no less than 50% of selection in each print media distribution point. These rules will apply to national and regional media in two and a half years from the Law’s entry into force and to the local media in five years (Section IX, point 1).
In addition to the very problematic differential treatment provided for in this Article (see supra §44), these provisions raise the question whether the high administrative and financial burden they impose on editors of mass media will not “cause substantial disruption and could have a chilling effect” (see supra §88) on publishing in minority languages, and if so, whether this limitation of the freedom both to impart and to receive information can be considered to be necessary – i.e. also proportionate – in a democratic society.
In view of crucial importance of the freedom of the press in a democratic society, the Commission recommends that the legislator repeal this requirement.
ToaKraka
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4d ago
The Chinese version of the article explains:
About 900 people were forcibly conscripted [by the central government], and Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were elected as the head of the garrison. In July, the two were on their way to Daze Township (now Liucunji, southeast of Suzhou) in Qi County (now south of Su County, Anhui), but were blocked by heavy rain and could not reach their destination as scheduled. According to Qin law, those who were late for the deadline would be beheaded, and all would be executed, so it would be better to rebel.
ToaKraka
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5d ago
You (plural) could always leave a placeholder "punishment under discussion, no need to make further reports" comment.
ToaKraka
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5d ago
If you think a comment deserves punishment, don't forget to report it yourself.
ToaKraka
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5d ago
I first saw it on Reddit, personally. But I don't frequent 4chan's sports boards.
ToaKraka
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5d ago
Has the actions of New York been ruled against yet in a court of law, and have they continued to keep congestion pricing despite that ruling?
As far as I am aware: The legal action for New York would be obedience to USDOT's termination until the court grants an injunction against that termination. In its lawsuit, New York requests a permanent injunction, which would go into effect after trial. But it does not appear that New York has bothered to seek a preliminary injunction, which would go into effect immediately, prior to trial. Trial obviously will not take place before USDOT's deadline. So it definitely looks like New York is planning to act illegally, though it has not yet actually done so.
ToaKraka
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6d ago
Even parliamentary debate requires only a single person to vouch for you (the "second" to a motion).
ToaKraka
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6d ago
I already posted a response to you, clarifying that New Jersey's requirements are stricter than those of other states, and The_Nybbler falls afoul of those unreasonable requirements.
ToaKraka
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6d ago
To clarify a little more: New York has sued the USDOT in federal court over this termination, claiming that it is arbitrary and capricious. As far as I can see, the lawsuit does not include a request for a preliminary injunction while proceedings are ongoing. Rather, as The_Nybbler states, New York will just refuse to obey it.
IIRC, he's explained it before like this:
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In order to buy a gun in New Jersey, you must get a permit. (NJ Statutes tit. 2C ch. 58 § 3 ¶ a.1)
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In order to get the permit, you must provide, not just two references, but also a list of all psychiatrists that have ever "attended, treated, or observed" you "for any mental or psychiatric condition". (NJ Statutes tit. 2C ch. 58 § 3 ¶ e)
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Filling out any part of the permit application falsely is a felony with strict liability—that is, there is no requirement that you "knowingly" violate the law, and lack of records is not a defense. (NJ Statutes tit. 2C ch. 39 § 10 ¶ c)
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Therefore, if you don't have any records of a psychiatrist that your parents made you visit as a child multiple decades ago (or if your parents have the records but refuse to give them to you), then you're out of luck—you can't buy a gun in New Jersey.
ToaKraka
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7d ago
A cursory Google search reveals that "big if true" has been around since year 2000 at the latest.
ToaKraka
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7d ago
Humble Bundle is offering a DRM-free collection of thirty books in the Vampire Hunter D series for just 18 dollars. Before reading the books, you may wish to first watch the acclaimed movie (loosely based on the third book) in order to get a feel for what you're supposed to be visualizing.
ToaKraka
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7d ago
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In year 1992, Dorothy dies at age 85. She has no descendants, so her only potential heirs are her two brothers, Yale and Zangwill. The probate judge appoints Zangwill's son John as administrator. Harold, a friend of the family for the past thirty years, submits a family tree to the probate judge and testifies to his personal knowledge that Yale, having been born eleven years before Dorothy, died six years ago at age 90, so Zangwill is Dorothy's only heir. Zangwill renounces his interest in Dorothy's estate in favor of John, so John gets the entire estate. The largest portion of the estate is a piece of real property in New York City, worth 280 k$.
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John renovates the property. By year 2018, its value has skyrocketed to 2.3 M$, and he decides to sell it. Whoops! A title search reveals that Yale actually died, not six years before Dorothy at age 90, but one year after Dorothy at the unlikely age of 97. This means that Yale should have gotten half of the estate back in 1992. John sues Yale's ultimate heir—a trust set up by Yale's now-dead brother-in-law, presumably for the benefit of the brother-in-law's children—to confirm that John has obtained full ownership of the building through the doctrine of adverse possession. The trust counterclaims, alleging that in 1992 (1) Harold committed fraud by giving false testimony and (2) John breached his fiduciary duty as administrator by failing to conduct a diligent search for heirs (compare the hiring of a professional genealogist in this other case), so adverse possession does not apply.
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The trial judge rules in John's favor, and the appeals panel and the supreme court affirm.* There is no evidence that Harold did anything but make an honest mistake. And Harold was a disinterested witness who provided both sworn testimony and a family tree, as required by state law, so it was not unreasonable for John to rely on Harold's mistaken facts. John has been in possession of the building for more than twenty years, so he easily meets the ten-year requirement of adverse possession under state law.
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One justice on the supreme court dissents. He thinks that Harold's unresearched testimony and family tree do not count as the "diligent search" for heirs that the law requires of an estate administrator (and for which the law permits three years of time), and therefore John's reliance on those mistaken facts counts as a breach of fiduciary duy. But the other six justices disagree with this view.
*New York's courts confusingly are named (from lowest to highest) "supreme, appeals, appeals", rather than the "trial, appeals, supreme" pattern that is more familiar. I have translated the New York terminology to regular terminology.
ToaKraka
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9d ago
It's annoying, but in the end implementing the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet (or the Schedule D Tax Worksheet) in your preferred spreadsheet program is the work of only a few minutes.
ToaKraka
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9d ago
https://www.themotte.org/comments
Compare https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/comments/ —or, indeed, https://old.reddit.com/r/all/comments/ .
This functionality is sometimes known as the "firehose" view.
ToaKraka
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9d ago
There's a setting to enable or disable "a warning before viewing +18 [sic] content".
The worst game that I've personally enjoyed probably is PS3 launch title Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (called Target in Sight in Europe). In this game, the player participates in various engagements of the ground theater of the One-Year War—not as an ace pilot, but as a grunt who starts with a GM or a Zaku and doesn't get a Gundam or a Gelgoog until late in the campaign.
When it works, it's a reasonably fun game. The mobile-suit models are gorgeously detailed, with multiple paint schemes based on what stat boosts you give to them ("heavy" for better attack and defense, "water" for better wading speed, etc.), unlockable weapons, and even part-specific damage (e. g., if your MS gets its right arm knocked off by too much damage, it will also lose any weapon that it's holding in its right hand, but it still can wield other weapons in its left hand). The music, both in menus and in battles, also is exquisite. However:
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Battles generally run at approximately 15 frames per second (on original hardware; IIRC, emulation is a lot better when it doesn't crash).
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When you've locked onto an enemy MS, your MS will shoot directly at the enemy—without leading the target! There's an alternative aim-down-sights shooting mode, but it's pretty awkward to use, since (1) you can't really move around while aiming in this fashion, and you want to be moving in order to dodge enemy shots, and (2) all your projectiles, whether bullet or beam, are quite slow. Just resign yourself to missing half of your shots. (And, of course, the enemy Guntanks are pretty good at sniping you from their stationary positions at the far side of the map.)
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There are a few GM Sniper variants available for the player to use, but their sniper rifles carry so little ammunition (literally a single magazine), and are so hard to hit anything with, that they are essentially worthless. Why are they in the game if you can't even finish a mission with them?
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During battles, you often can refill your ammunition at supply bases. This is effectively mandatory on longer missions. However, supply bases quite often will glitch out and stop working! This happened to me so consistently on the extra-hard version of the Zeon campaign's final mission on "very hard" difficulty that I never was able to beat it.
ToaKraka
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14d ago
To be fair, this platform does not permit a single comment to include responses to multiple comments (as, e. g., Xenforo and 4chan do), and which workarounds for that limitation are best is not immediately obvious. Maybe you should clarify what your preferred workarounds are—e. g., one long response with a bunch of username alerts at the end, or a combination of one long response and a bunch of short responses consisting of links to the long response.
ToaKraka
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14d ago
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During Jewish synagogue services, a "Torah reader" recites portions of the Torah to the congregation. Since year 1999, Efraim Marcus, a professionally-trained Torah reader, has served as the Torah reader for a synagogue in Harrison, New York.
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Jews are forbidden from using cars or other means of transportation on the Sabbath, so they generally must live within walking distance of a synagogue. In 1999, Marcus lived outside Harrison, so he had to drive to Harrison before the Sabbath, stay overnight at the rabbi's house, and walk to the synagogue on the Sabbath. In 2005, after the birth of Marcus's first child, the synagogue rented an apartment one mile away and allowed Marcus to live there for free. In 2014, after the birth of Marcus's third child, Marcus determined that walking a mile to the synagogue on every Sabbath would be "implausible", so a congregation member bought a house 0.2 mile away and donated it to the synagogue, and the synagogue allowed Marcus to live in the house for free. The house is also used to hold events and to tutor students on Torah-related matters. Marcus also serves as a full-time assistant/substitute rabbi, though he is not "an ordained member of the clergy".
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Under New York law, property used for a religious purpose is exempt from property tax. Is this house, used as a residence for the synagogue's Torah reader, eligible for this exemption? The municipality's tax assessor says no. The trial judge agrees, questioning whether the synagogue needs a Torah reader at all when it could just return to the pre-1999 practice of having a rotation of college students read the Torah at services.
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The appeals panel reverses. This situation is quite distinguishable from a past case where a synagogue bought a house for the use of a part-time janitor. Marcus's ability to walk to the synagogue on the Sabbath obviously is an integral part of the synagogue's religious purpose, so a house that the synagogue allows him to use can be tax-exempt.
One of the more challenging parts of it was diagnosing the issue in the first place. It looked like every application simply refused to launch despite being "open".
Right-click on the taskbar, go to Taskbar Settings, and activate the option to show taskbar buttons on all taskbars (rather than only on the taskbar where the window is). Then you will able to tell when you're missing a window.
ToaKraka
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15d ago
The Supreme Court orders "wrongly" deported man to be returned to the US
That's a gross exaggeration of the order's actual text.
(1) The district judge ordered the government to "facilitate and effectuate" the alien's return by the end of April 7. The government appealed.
(2) Chief Justice Roberts issued an administrative stay so that the Supreme Court could consider the appeal.
(3) The April 7 deadline expired and became moot. The Supreme Court refused to reverse the rest of the order, but instead merely vacated and remanded so that the district jude could clarify what "effectuate" means, since it "may exceed the District Court's authority" (by forcing the US government to negotiate with the El Salvador government).
I have been checking the daily uploads of various courts for multiple years, just for fun.
I think the piss-jug situation is much more interesting than the juror weirdness, personally.
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