Yes, most definitely. Dry and tasteless are not words I associate with falafel, it sounds like something went horribly wrong there

The base taste is pretty mild, like a baked potato, but then you add spices and eat it along with other things

Yep, it's pretty amazing how much not destroying the environment helps it recover… although the closer we get to a collapse, the more that ability to bounce back diminishes

Literally every aspect of our world is in a balance… Everything wears down over time, so the current state is basically a homeostasis between biological, geological, and astrological forces. The problem is that humans act on a far shorter time scale - 100 humans could cut down trees faster than a forest can regrow, 8 billion can change the atmospheric composition in a decade or two

I can. By making it technically possible, you can divert attention.

One example would be for crazy edge situations. Like letting children with terminal illnesses fulfill their last wishes, or letting hormone ridden teens make their case to a judge, keeping them from more extreme actions.

But more practically, I think this is a great idea… 99.9% of anyone asking for this either needs court ordered mental evaluation and/or a referral to CPS to do a deep dig into the situation. By making it technically possible, that means anyone seriously pursuing this has to explain themselves to a judge.

Unfortunately our judicial system has a lot more to do with money than justice (so most people who would actually go through with this probably have the money to protect themselves from consequences), but this law would be a sensible part of a more perfect system… Granted this should almost never be granted by the court (terminally ill child is the only situation that makes sense to me), but there's value in it

My opinion would change greatly if this is a real path to child marriage rather than a mostly theoretical possibility

My favorite is the ones where programmers are like "they wanted someone with 5 years experience with ? Guess I'm unqualified, I wrote it 3 years ago"

Because it's a bullet without the bullet - it's still a directed explosion that could kill someone with air pressure alone if you're close enough

Now let's say there's something in the barrel, or in this case a chunk of glue from a home made blank propelled out at the speed of a bullet. It's a lot less force or energy than a piece of lead, but everything is pretty deadly when it's going faster than the speed of sound

It's checks and balances, not rock paper scissors

His power here is to set a direction and to nominate new appointees. He could write a bill to expand the bench and/or a constitutional amendment to require a code of ethics… Hell, he could even say "ok supreme Court, you say you can self-regulate… Publish your own code of conduct publicly or I'll lead the charge in imposing one on you"

Presidents have a lot of soft power. He can write executive orders to demand the problem be evaluated, or he can use his platform to rally support… He can even go to Thomas privately and suggest he resign with dignity while he can, even try to bluff him off the bench

There's a lot he could do - his hard power over the supreme Court is very limited, but soft power is how most everything works

Some estimates put the number of vacant homes upwards of 30% a few months back, and it’s been climbing

It’s not about a lack of supply, it’s about homes being both an investment and a basic need - someone like Black Rock can go into a small town in Georgia, snap up every property that goes on the market, then dictate rental prices while jacking up the house prices by bidding on everything. Even if they greatly overpay, by doing it a few times it drives up the valuation of the entire area, overall making their net profit grow

And it’s not just Black Rock, it’s a bunch of investment companies doing this everywhere. They have the same goal and their interests are aligned - they’re not competing for tenants, they just want to jack up the values and use homes like stock investments

Some estimates put the number of vacant homes upwards of 30% a few months back, and it’s been climbing

It’s not about a lack of supply, it’s about homes being both an investment and a basic need - someone like Black Rock can go into a small town in Georgia, snap up every property that goes on the market, then dictate rental prices while jacking up the house prices by bidding on everything. Even if they greatly overpay, by doing it a few times it drives up the valuation of the entire area, overall making their net profit grow

And it’s not just Black Rock, it’s a bunch of investment companies doing this everywhere. They have the same goal and their interests are aligned - they’re not competing for tenants, they just want to jack up the values and use homes like stock investments

You sure as hell do when you put 80% of it outside your borders, outside US borders no less

This kind of thing could spark a war in different circumstances - imagine the Mexican army goes to dismantle the buoys in their borders, and one of several possible groups from Texas confronts them and it leads to a skirmish

Mexico would be entirely within their rights - it’s on their property and it’s suspected to be leading to deaths

Ummm… Has he not been making it public? He hasn’t seemed too subtle to me

Yes and no - prism and related programs weren’t that big a deal (besides morally and legally) - the NSA was collecting far more data than they could use at scale. It was a problem, but realistically it wouldn’t affect normal people - you’d have to catch a lot of attention first to even be searched in that system. It couldn’t be used for law enforcement or anything wide scale - the collection was there, but the analysis didn’t scale

It was a problem because of where we are now - AI advancement means not only can they now process the insane amount of data they ingest and make terrifying associations, they can use the ridiculous amount of compute they’ve been building out to actually use all this data

We’re most of the way down the slippery slope now, and still accelerating fast. The capability makes 1984 look quaint, and having the ability to flick on systems China drools over is pretty concerning

People don’t even know they’re trying to make us use id to use sites “to protect the children”. Any site that might be inappropriate (of which, social media fits under the current definitions of) would be responsible for children getting access to their services - storing driver’s licenses seems to be the popular idea for compliance. Google’s web DRM might be pushed out so fast to offer this kind of service too

Kosa has bipartisan support, the president has come out strongly supporting it, and it’s insane to me that people still don’t care

Yes and no - prism and related programs weren’t that big a deal (besides morally and legally) - the NSA was collecting far more data than they could use at scale. It was a problem, but realistically it wouldn’t affect normal people - you’d have to catch a lot of attention first to even be searched in that system. It couldn’t be used for law enforcement or anything wide scale - the collection was there, but the analysis didn’t scale

It was a problem because of where we are now - AI advancement means not only can they now process the insane amount of data they ingest and make terrifying associations, they can use the ridiculous amount of compute they’ve been building out to actually use all this data

We’re most of the way down the slippery slope now, and still accelerating fast. The capability makes 1984 look quaint, and having the ability to flick on systems China drools over is pretty concerning

People don’t even know they’re trying to make us use id to use sites “to protect the children”. Any site that might be inappropriate (of which, social media fits under the current definitions of) would be responsible for children getting access to their services - storing driver’s licenses seems to be the popular idea for compliance. Google’s web DRM might be pushed out so fast to offer this kind of service too

Kosa has bipartisan support, the president has come out strongly supporting it, and it’s insane to me that people still don’t care

It boggles my mind how you can get away with a self-defense defense even when you entirely created the situation

Zimmerman is a great example to me… He brought the gun, he stalked an unarmed kid minding his own business, and he confronted him up close and personal. If Treyvon Martin had gotten the gun and shot Zimmerman instead, he’d have a way stronger self-defense case (in principle at least)

Like I could understand avoiding a murder charge, but shouldn’t it be manslaughter at least? At best according to the one side of the story we have, Zimmerman was negligent to the point someone died. If he didn’t bring the gun, it’s doubtful anyone would have died. If he left it to the police, no one would have died. If he kept his distance or tailed him in a car, no one would even have been at risk.

Our laws are seriously wonky in this country…