29 July, 2018

Most capital cities are well off, but London is like another country | Larry Elliott | Business | The Guardian

Most capital cities are well off, but London is like another country | Larry Elliott | Business | The Guardian: "That’s because the old industrial towns, which have a combined population of 16 million, double that of London, have never really recovered from the pit and factory closures of the 1980s and 1990s. The share of white-collar jobs is far below the level in the cities, the proportion of the workforce educated to degree level is far lower, and average gross weekly pay was £408 in 2017, 91% of the UK average. In the main regional cities it was £446 and in London it was £599.

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Opinion | Motherhood in the Age of Fear - The New York Times

Opinion | Motherhood in the Age of Fear - The New York Times: "Barbara W. Sarnecka, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, Irvine, and her colleagues presented subjects with vignettes in which a parent left a child unattended, and participants estimated how much danger the child was in. Sometimes the subjects were told the child was left unintentionally (for example, the parent was hit by a car). In other instances, they were told the child was left unsupervised so the parent could work, volunteer, relax or meet a lover. The researchers found that the participants’ assessment of the child’s risk of harm varied depending on how morally offensive they found the parent’s reason for leaving."



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Jesmyn Ward: Why I Decided to Return Home to the South | Time

Jesmyn Ward: Why I Decided to Return Home to the South | Time: "I like to imagine that one day, I will build a home of cement, a home built to weather the elements, in a clearing in a piney Southern wood, riven with oak and dogwood. I’d like a small garden where I could grow yellow squash and bell peppers in the summer, collards and carrots in the winter, and perhaps keep a few chickens. I wish for one or two kind neighbors who will return my headstrong bulldog if she wanders off, neighbors who I can gift a gallon of water in the aftermath of a hurricane. I like to think that after I die, my children will look at that place and see a place of refuge, of rest. I hope they do not flee. I hope that at least one of them will want to remain here in this place that I love more than I loathe, and I hope the work that I have done to make Mississippi a place worth living is enough. I hope they feel more themselves in this place than any other in the world, and that if they do leave, they dream of that house, that clearing, those woods, when they sleep.

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27 July, 2018

Ode to the family minivan, upon its demise - The Washington Post

Ode to the family minivan, upon its demise - The Washington Post: "But let me say this: All you new parents who moan about what you’re giving up if you buy a minivan? Get real. You have no idea how much you’ll love that thing.

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26 July, 2018

The rise of American authoritarianism - Vox

The rise of American authoritarianism - Vox: "MacWilliams studies authoritarianism — not actual dictators, but rather a psychological profile of individual voters that is characterized by a desire for order and a fear of outsiders. People who score high in authoritarianism, when they feel threatened, look for strong leaders who promise to take whatever action necessary to protect them from outsiders and prevent the changes they fear.

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TIL, the U.S is considered by many military experts to be entirely un-invadable due to country's large size, infrastructure, diverse geography and climate : todayilearned

TIL, the U.S is considered by many military experts to be entirely un-invadable due to country's large size, infrastructure, diverse geography and climate : todayilearned: ""Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never!--All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.



 At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."--Abraham Lincoln, 1838"



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25 July, 2018

Georgia Has a Coast? — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

Georgia Has a Coast? — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER:

I grew up on St. Simons Island and have lived here my whole life. I feel extremely blessed to earn a living doing what I love, in a place I love. In 2009, I co-founded a marketing and advertising firm in Brunswick, across the sound on the mainland. I spend my days photographing everything from food to real estate for some fantastic clients. But owning a small business can be draining, and it’s then I really find solace in my art. 
While I’ve photographed on the coast since my early teens, I’ve spent the past 10 years actively documenting the barrier islands of Georgia for a series of books published by the University of Georgia Press.


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24 July, 2018

Departing Facebook Security Officer's Memo: "We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides"

Departing Facebook Security Officer's Memo: "We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides":

We need to change the metricswe measure and the goals we shoot for. We need to adjust PSC to reward not shipping when that is the wiser decision. We need to think adversarially in every process, product and engineering decision we make. We need to build a user experience that conveys honesty and respect, not one optimized to get people to click yes to giving us more access. We need to intentionally not collect data where possible, and to keep it only as long as we are using it to serve people. We need to find and stop adversaries who will be copying the playbook they saw in 2016. We need to listen to people (including internally) when they tell us a feature is creepy or point out a negative impact we are having in the world. We need to deprioritze short-term growth and revenue and to explain to Wall Street why that is ok. We need to be willing to pick sides when there are clear moral or humanitarian issues.



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(3) The Cavaliers- "Africa" by Toto - YouTube

(3) The Cavaliers- "Africa" by Toto - YouTube:







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23 July, 2018

How life has changed for 30-year-olds since the mid-20th century - Axios

How life has changed for 30-year-olds since the mid-20th century - Axios: "The background: Millennials now comprise almost a quarter of the population and are the largest generation participating in the workforce. But their median salaries are lower than the prior generation of 30-year-olds, and the financial burdens they carry are heavier, limiting how much their lifestyle can mirror that of their parents:

"



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Haley tells high schoolers to avoid 'own the libs'-style online behavior | TheHill

Haley tells high schoolers to avoid 'own the libs'-style online behavior | TheHill:


“Raise your hand if you’ve ever posted anything online to quote-unquote ‘own the libs,’ ” Haley asked at the High School Leadership Summit at George Washington University.
The vast majority raised their hands in response, and then erupted into spontaneous applause.
“I know that it’s fun and that it can feel good, but step back and think about what you’re accomplishing when you do this — are you persuading anyone? Who are you persuading?” Haley asked. “We’ve all been guilty of it at some point or another, but this kind of speech isn’t leadership — it’s the exact opposite.”


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22 July, 2018

34 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America | Big Think

34 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America | Big Think: "“What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.” 

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Craig Caplan on Twitter: "FISA Court Judge Rosemary Collyer was nominated by President George W. Bush to be US District Court Judge for DC. She was confirmed by Senate in 2002 by unanimous consent, requested by Majority Leader Reid with Senator Schumer presiding (#1072). https://t.co/2kVE7nNPQt… https://t.co/YwsHgLWVHq"

Craig Caplan on Twitter: "FISA Court Judge Rosemary Collyer was nominated by President George W. Bush to be US District Court Judge for DC. She was confirmed by Senate in 2002 by unanimous consent, requested by Majority Leader Reid with Senator Schumer presiding (#1072). https://t.co/2kVE7nNPQt… https://t.co/YwsHgLWVHq": "FISA Court Judge Rosemary Collyer was nominated by President George W. Bush to be US District Court Judge for DC. She was confirmed by Senate in 2002 by unanimous consent, requested by Majority Leader Reid with Senator Schumer presiding (#1072)."



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Winners of the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest - The Atlantic

Winners of the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest - The Atlantic: "The winning images have been selected from this year’s edition of the National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year competition, with the grand prize being awarded to Reiko Takahashi for her image of a humpback whale calf swimming near Japan’s Kumejima Island. National Geographic was kind enough to share some of the winning entries with us here, gathered from three categories: Nature, Cities, and People. "



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21 July, 2018

Wrongfully Convicted Isaac Wright Jr Returns To The Same Courtroom As An Attorney

Wrongfully Convicted Isaac Wright Jr Returns To The Same Courtroom As An Attorney: "The Newark, New Jersey, law firm of Hunt, Hamlin & Ridley has tapped the legal services of Isaac Wright, Jr. — once wrongfully accused and convicted of being the mastermind behind one of the largest drug distribution networks in the New York/New Jersey areas — to act as co-counsel in the defense of Isaiah Bell.

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20 July, 2018

We Have Always Lived in the House

We Have Always Lived in the House:




It was a good house, the one where we lived together as a family. It was — still is — a white colonial with black shutters in Loudonville, New York, a small suburban hamlet just outside Albany. Built in the 1920s, it was old but solid with a strong foundation and sturdy walls that housed a perfectly wonderful childhood. I was happy there with my parents and my older sister, and we did what most families do in their houses: We built memories. We built them not knowing at the time they would become memories. That someday in the not-too-distant future we’d look back on those times in the house and wonder where it all went. Wonder who we were in that house, and if those people living that life could have in fact been us.
But it was us. In that house.
And the house would be the last place I’d see my mother alive.


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18 July, 2018

Barack Obama’s Nelson Mandela Lecture | The New Yorker

Barack Obama’s Nelson Mandela Lecture | The New Yorker:

Which is why, at the end of the twentieth century, while some Western commentators were declaring the end of history and the inevitable triumph of liberal democracy and the virtues of the global supply chain, so many missed signs of a brewing backlash—a backlash that arrived in so many forms. It announced itself most violently with 9/11 and the emergence of transnational terrorist networks, fuelled by an ideology that perverted one of the world’s great religions and asserted a struggle not just between Islam and the West but between Islam and modernity. An ill-advised U.S. invasion of Iraq didn’t help, accelerating a sectarian conflict.
Russia, already humiliated by its reduced influence since the collapse of the Soviet Union, feeling threatened by democratic movements along its borders, suddenly started reasserting authoritarian control and, in some cases, meddling with its neighbors. China, emboldened by its economic success, started bristling against criticism of its human-rights record; it framed the promotion of universal values as nothing more than foreign meddling, imperialism under a new name.



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17 July, 2018

Why Did Hayek Support a Basic Income? | Libertarianism.org

Why Did Hayek Support a Basic Income? | Libertarianism.org: "If libertarians are concerned to protect the freedom of all, and not just the freedom of most, we will want some mechanism that catches those who fall through the cracks left by imperfect market competition. We will want, too, some mechanism for protecting individuals whose economic vulnerability renders them vulnerable to domination outside the marketplace – the woman, for example, who stays with her abusive husband because she lacks the financial resources to support herself without him.

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14 July, 2018

Why Didn’t America Become Part of the Modern World?

Why Didn’t America Become Part of the Modern World?: "So these great minds set about rebuilding a world — yes, a whole world — which would be free of poverty. The explicit goal was to end war forever. "



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Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans' Trust In Local News : NPR

Russian Influence Campaign Sought To Exploit Americans' Trust In Local News : NPR:



Another twist: These accounts apparently never spread misinformation. In fact, they posted real local news, serving as sleeper accounts building trust and readership for some future, unforeseen effort.




"They set them up for a reason. And if at any given moment, they wanted to operationalize this network of what seemed to be local American news handles, they can significantly influence the narrative on a breaking news story," Schafer told NPR. "But now instead of just showing up online and flooding it with news sites, they have these accounts with two years of credible history.


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'We don't know how it worked': the inside story of the Thai cave rescue | News | The Guardian

'We don't know how it worked': the inside story of the Thai cave rescue | News | The Guardian:

Rasmussen does not have a spiritual explanation, but agrees the timing was eerie. “That everything breaks down as soon as everybody’s safe? It’s just weird,” he said.
The cave is now empty again, flooded and inaccessible. Divers will need to return in five months to collect their equipment.
Rasmussen said he would seek out two particular boulders that had bothered him. “I’m going to find them and spit on them,” he said. “They spent the week banging my toes and head.”


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The death of truth: how we gave up on facts and ended up with Trump | Books | The Guardian

The death of truth: how we gave up on facts and ended up with Trump | Books | The Guardian: "For decades now, objectivity – or even the idea that people can aspire toward ascertaining the best available truth – has been falling out of favour. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s well-known observation that “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts” is more timely than ever: polarisation has grown so extreme that voters have a hard time even agreeing on the same facts. This has been exponentially accelerated by social media, which connects users with like-minded members and supplies them with customised news feeds that reinforce their preconceptions, allowing them to live in ever narrower silos.

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13 July, 2018

ishitar comments on Iceberg 4 miles wide breaks off from Greenland glacier

ishitar comments on Iceberg 4 miles wide breaks off from Greenland glacier: "And so here we come to the coup de grace. At any time it seems the house of cards could come tumbling due to all these converging factors and modern society would collapse, perhaps resulting in the deaths of hundreds of millions to billions. Bad, but maybe survivable for the human race. However, in geologic time we have detected prior mass extinctions and the mechanisms for these extinctions is not well understood. Both AGW deniers and “believers” have been intimately focused on CO2: massive historical CO2 concentrations, sunspots, Maunder minimums, little ice ages. Few people focus on the methane - and we look above and see how many feedbacks with methane there are and the fact that methane is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas in large burps as CO2 (25 times as bad accumulated over 100 year period) and we say ruh roh.

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11 July, 2018

No, Pastor Jeffress (and others), America is not a Christian nation. And here’s why it matters – Baptist News Global

No, Pastor Jeffress (and others), America is not a Christian nation. And here’s why it matters – Baptist News Global: "Despite the puritanical impulses in colonial America, our country is not a colony of the kingdom of heaven. It never has been, and it never will be, legally or constitutionally. Privileging any one religion above another endangers our ability to work for the common good for all citizens. Thus, as Virginia Baptist minister John Leland said in the 1780s, “The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever.”

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UN report shows a regime of rampant abuse and apartheid in Turkey controlled Afrin - The Region

UN report shows a regime of rampant abuse and apartheid in Turkey controlled Afrin - The Region: "A new report released by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) paints a picture of how Afrin has been administered by the Turkish Armed Forces and its Arab rebel affiliates. The report recounts "high levels of violent crime, with civilians falling victim to robberies, harassment, abductions and murder", it also mentions the particular discrimination that Kurds have faced in Afrin since the city was taken from the Kurdish-led  Democratic Union Party (PYD) at the beginning of this year. 
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10 July, 2018

A Letter From A Parent

A Letter From A Parent: "But there are more articles I read or even just saw the headlines that hammered into my mind the importance of listening when someone reports something of this nature to you, however they do it and whoever is involved."



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I've Got Some Things to Say | By Romelu Lukaku

I've Got Some Things to Say | By Romelu Lukaku: "She was mixing water in with the milk. We didn’t have enough money to make it last the whole week. We were broke. Not just poor, but broke.

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Goodhart's law - Wikipedia

Goodhart's law - Wikipedia: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."



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09 July, 2018

Married, raped, abandoned: the shocking sex trade of Syrian refugee girls sold to Saudi men | The Sunday Times Magazine | The Sunday Times

Married, raped, abandoned: the shocking sex trade of Syrian refugee girls sold to Saudi men | The Sunday Times Magazine | The Sunday Times:

Sixteen-year-old Tira flicks through her phone. She sits cross-legged on the sitting-room floor in the cold, scarcely furnished apartment that her mother rents. She looks like a normal Syrian teenager; her hair is scraped into a tight ponytail, some kohl is smudged under her eyes and light acne dapples her cheeks. She wears a black poloneck with lacy sleeves, and stares at the screen with unfaltering concentration.
When she eventually finds the photograph, she turns her phone on its side to show us. On the screen is a double bed with a frilly red eiderdown and four red pillows. A heart-shaped cushion bearing the words “I love you” is perched on the headboard. This is where Amr — an overweight Saudi Arabian man in his sixties — first raped her. He had hidden a stick under one of the pillows and beat her with it as she tried to resist him.


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Chilly Gonzales - White Keys (from SOLO PIANO II) - YouTube

Chilly Gonzales - White Keys (from SOLO PIANO II) - YouTube:



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06 July, 2018

drewiepoodle comments on Outed as Transgender on Reality TV: Survivor’s Zeke Smith Says ‘I Just Wanted to Be Known for My Game’

drewiepoodle comments on Outed as Transgender on Reality TV: Survivor’s Zeke Smith Says ‘I Just Wanted to Be Known for My Game’: "Trans people have the strong feeling, often from childhood onwards, of having been born the wrong sex. The possible psycho-genie or biological aetiology of transsexuality has been the subject of debate for many years. A study showed that the volume of the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTc), a brain area that is essential for sexual behavior, is larger in men than in women. A female-sized BSTc was found in male-to-female transsexuals. The size of the BSTc was not influenced by sex hormones in adulthood and was independent of sexual orientation.

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05 July, 2018

[Transcript] Over, Under Through: Fixing Government Friction | Stanford eCorner

[Transcript] Over, Under Through: Fixing Government Friction | Stanford eCorner: "Jennifer: That’s one of the things that is so interesting about this work is that we had this small group of people but we had amazing air cover and so what that meant was that the entire federal government had gone through and had seen what can happen when technology fails to serve citizens. They had seen, the president had seen it, the administration had seen it and didn’t want that to happen again. You know the digital service had the support of a very divided Congress while President Obama was in office. When he got started Democrats and Republicans supported this because people have an understanding across aisles and ideologies that government should do what it says it’s going to do and should do it well. And the idea that we had results, not just optics, but results that we could show that we were doing, we were making things more effective. We were making things more efficient. It was exceedingly helpful.

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Great Barrier Reef Imperiled as Heat Worsens Die-Offs, Experts Say - The New York Times

Great Barrier Reef Imperiled as Heat Worsens Die-Offs, Experts Say - The New York Times: "SYDNEY, Australia — Scientists have again sounded the alarm about Australia’s imperiled Great Barrier Reef, saying that by the 2030s it could see devastating mass bleachings as often as every two years unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced.

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04 July, 2018

How 5th Century Augustine Helps 21st Century American Christians Understand July 4 - Andrew T. Walker

How 5th Century Augustine Helps 21st Century American Christians Understand July 4 - Andrew T. Walker: "Augustine helps us understand that society is differentiated, pluralistic, and full of people who are different. Notice, though, that Augustine says this is expected, and Christians cannot expect to override or overwhelm this diversity with its own hegemony or dominance. We are not able to take control of the social order and thoroughly Christianize it (and we possibly do great harm when we think we really can). We speak, preach, testify, witness, and vote. But we do with a mind toward humble participation in the larger creational order. As Augustine writes, “not scrupling about diversities in the manners, laws, and institutions whereby earthly peace is secured and maintained, but recognizing that, however various these are, they all tend to one and the same end of earthly peace.” Augustine believes a modicum of peace is achievable even amid great diversity, and Christians do not complain about not being in charge. We welcome our place in society towards a view of our ministry to it.

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02 July, 2018

NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka's soccer ball that survived the Challenger explosion

NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka's soccer ball that survived the Challenger explosion:

On earth, Janelle Onizuka's soccer ball weighed 14.5 ounces. Two hundred and fifty-four miles above Clear Lake, Shane placed the ball into the ISS observatory to take a photo. It stayed there, suspended against the backdrop of the earth -- finally weightless.
"It was a bit emotional just thinking about where this came from and what had transpired over these many years to get to that point," Shane says. "I started thinking about their family and what it meant to them, and as a result, took some pictures and sent some down to them."
In its age, the ball is worn and flaked and looks almost tired against the vibrant blue of Earth and the metallic shine inside the ISS. It looks like a time traveler, a relic from another era, continuing on a mission in place of the Challenger Seven.


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01 July, 2018

messrmt comments on Trump: 'possible' North Korea nuclear deal may not 'work out' | President tells Fox he did not make concessions to Kim Jong-un. Trump in fact agreed to end military exercises with South Korea

messrmt comments on Trump: 'possible' North Korea nuclear deal may not 'work out' | President tells Fox he did not make concessions to Kim Jong-un. Trump in fact agreed to end military exercises with South Korea:



My dad was born to subsistence farmers and grew up miserably poor. He immigrated to America in his 20s and worked like a dog to become the lowest engineer on the totem pole for the rest of his life. He is incredibly book smart, but not street smart at all. He holds everyone to his standards, and anyone that doesn't meet them is automatically garbage in his eyes. He knows how to conduct himself in public, and others likely see him as a stubborn and introverted man who is polite, yet distant. He believed in company loyalty and refused to change companies for a higher salary for the longest time. In return, he either stagnated in his position or got laid off.
He did everything "right" by his own standards. He had skill (objectively, he is genuinely very, very book smart) and a solid work ethic. He never lied, never cheated, never stole. He also never kissed ass, never cut corners, and never embellished his achievements. He never drank and never flirted, because he abhorred drugs and never cheated on his wife. He worked ungodly hours, played by the rules, and trusted his superiors to discern talent from sycophancy.
That obviously never happened. By his own standards, he was better than everyone else around him, so what went wrong?


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How a Hacker Proved Cops Used a Secret Government Phone Tracker to Find Him - POLITICO Magazine

How a Hacker Proved Cops Used a Secret Government Phone Tracker to Find Him - POLITICO Magazine: "So far, judges and courts are not in universal agreement over whether locating a person or device, as the stingray helps to do, should require a warrant. Stingrays don’t necessarily mean that conversation will be picked up, so wiretap laws, which require warrants, don’t apply. In most cases, police officers would need at least a “pen register” court order, named for a kind of technology that allows police to get call logs. The pen register court order has lesser standards than a warrant: Rather than requiring that officers show probable cause, a pen register court order requires that law enforcement only needs relevance to an ongoing investigation. But stingrays are more invasive than pen registers, and as Rigmaiden’s case would show, law enforcement didn’t have any kind of specified protocol about what it needs to do to use this new technology.

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FrontColonelShirt comments on Fentanyl shipment from China worth $1.7 million seized at Philadelphia Port

FrontColonelShirt comments on Fentanyl shipment from China worth $1.7 million seized at Philadelphia Port:

You clearly have never known an opioid addict.
TL;DR: Tolerance is a thing, and if someone uses powerful opioids for years on end, a dose of carfentanyl that would kill you might not even be enough to get them out of withdrawal.


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A Mother Considers Her Son’s Final Thoughts

A Mother Considers Her Son’s Final Thoughts:

Kevin climbed over the railing, leaned back, let go, and felt, he says, “instant regret, powerful, overwhelming. As I fell, all I wanted to do was reach back to the rail, but it was gone.”
He plummetted 220 feet in four seconds, going 75 miles per hour and wracked by the thought all the way down: What have I just done? I don’t want to die. God, please save me. 
He hit the water in a seated position and broke his back, shattering his T12, L1, and L2 vertebrae upon impact. Disoriented under the water, in agonizing pain, he was suddenly desperate to live. He flailed to get back to the surface, telling himself, Kevin, you can’t die here. If you die here, no one will ever know that you didn’t want to.
Kevin was rescued by the Coast Guard. Now he tells as many people as possible about watching his hands release their grip on the railing and the instant devastation he felt. He wants everyone to know that the act of suicide leads not to a final sense of satisfaction and relief but to panic-stricken sorrow.


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Man killed by police was US Navy vet trying to break up fight, reports say | Fox News

Man killed by police was US Navy vet trying to break up fight, reports say | Fox News: "Jason E. Washington, 45, a U.S. Postal Service worker from Portland, Ore., was a licensed gun owner with a concealed carry permit, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

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