I think the idea here (although it'd be hard to prove one way or the other) is that this is an indication of his character, which will influence how likely he is to re-offend in the future, AND what his actual intent was in setting up and running the site. Setting up a black market and using it yourself to obtain some marijuana is a far cry from setting up a blat market and attempting to use it to kill people. It colors his intent for use.

But it's still not a good move on both the prosecution's part and the judge's part, as it damages the veil of impartiality.

Gob Gob writes:
The Prime Minister of Australia has come out and ridiculed an opposition policy aimed at encouraging teaching kids to code:

        'the Prime Minister said. "He said that he wants primary school kids to be taught coding so they can get the jobs of the future. Does he want to send them all out to work at the age of 11? Is that what he wants to do? Seriously?"

Arguably, software development practices can be better group educational tools than teaching maths, literacy and art in isolation, as a software project can draw on coders, artists, organisers and others with different interests and backgrounds. Is teaching coding and technology from a young age useful or should it be discouraged until the twilight years of secondary education/college?
Link to Original Source

Ah; but the damage of a 2 pound multirotor might not be physical -- it could be the intel captured on its camera/mic setup.

For that matter, the multirotor could be the homing beacon for some remote-fired homing system.

It's not hearsay when the prosecution were the ones (under false pretenses) who were asked by the defendant to arrange the hit.

The one time I was on jury duty for attempted murder, we were constantly leaving the room while they discussed what could be allowed to be said in court. Both the victim and the attacker had ties to organized crime, and prety much everything they said and did had links to other court cases that had either already happened or were pending. It was pretty easy to figure out what we weren't hearing from the direction the questioning was going each time the judge called a halt and asked us to step out. At least with that judge, unless the accusations had witnesses who were in court and were used to indicate character, and the accounting had no impact on other cases, it would not be allowed.

So in this case, if the officer who moonlighted as the guy arranging the hit was called on as a character reference and used this story in that context, it might be admissible and affect the weight of the sentencing. If it was just thrown in as hearsay, that would be grounds for mis-sentencing, and a new judge would need to be called for the sentencing (not for the finding of fact).

Well no -- in this case, it was the state that first of all posed as a resource that had carried out hits in the past, and then later responded to his request, first to "send a message" and later to "take him out". They instead staged the whole thing (the guy who was supposed to be killed actually being held by the state at the time the hit was arranged). So at least in one of the five cases, they knew exactly what he had said/done, because they were involved in setting it all up.

Using english for side-spin is 2-D, as you're still on the plane of motion. But you can also add topspin or bottom spin without hopping the ball, which involves rotation through the third dimension, thus making it more than a two-dimensional maneuver.

And yeah; any useful pool move also takes time into account unless it's a straight shot, so until you go hopping the ball, you're in 3 dimensions (x, y, and t).

You, sir, sound like an excellent candidate for an "experienced C++ programmer" position.

Well, baseboard heaters will use AC on their own circuit for a long time, I'm sure -- as will ovens, hot water heaters and clothes dryers.

Anything with a heating element is likely to be pegged to 110VAC, including hair dryers, soldering irons, curling irons, clothes irons, heat guns, and the like. At least with vacuum cleaners, you have the option to go with a built-in system, at which point your power options are less limited.

...which is another reason why everyone's moving to git.

While the playing surface is usually 2-D, the balls have always moved in 3-D in the games I've played. When the players are bad, the balls arc through the air to land on the floor/go through a window/etc. When the players are good, use of english means that the balls are accomplishing specific rotations that influence the other pieces with a decidedly non-2D physics model.

So if these plasma balls aren't on a 2-D plane, it's highly probable that this black hole just isn't very good. Most black holes are more subtle, putting a spin on their galaxies and taking their time with the collisions.

That takes care of the first 20%... but what about the cheap AC->DC transformers that sit between your house wiring and your devices? I'd love to be able to switch each outlet I have between 110VAC/15a, 12VDC/3-5a and 9VDC/500Ma-2a, and do away with wall warts altogether.

I like bitter chocolate, and I like broccoli -- I even like chocolate-covered broccoli.

But I'd never use either to lose weight.

No, what I'll do (and what I DO do) is stop visiting that site. So what battle was won and by whom? Ad agency gets less of a chance of getting a hit, site loses a viewer, and I have more time to do other things (one guarantee in life is that you won't have enough of it to do everything you want).