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Submission + - Maryland To Become First State To Tax Online Ads Sold By Facebook And Google. (npr.org)

schwit1 writes: With a pair of votes, Maryland can now claim to be a pioneer: it's the first place in the country that will impose a tax on the sale of online ads.

The House of Delegates and Senate both voted this week to override Gov. Larry Hogan's veto of a bill passed last year to levy a tax on online ads. The tax will apply to the revenue companies like Facebook and Google make from selling digital ads, and will range from 2.5% to 10% per ad, depending on the value of the company selling the ad. (The tax would only apply to companies making more than $100 million a year.)

Proponents say the new tax is simply a reflection of where the economy has gone, and an attempt to have Maryland's tax code catch up to it. The tax is expected to draw in an estimated $250 million a year to help fund an ambitious decade-long overhaul of public education in the state that's expected to cost $4 billion a year in new spending by 2030. (Hogan also vetoed that bill, and the Democrat-led General Assembly also overrode him this week.)

Still, there remains the possibility of lawsuits to stop the tax from taking effect; Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh warned last year that "there is some risk" that a court could strike down some provisions of the bill over constitutional concerns.

Submission + - Tesla Wins Lawsuit Against Whistleblower Accused of Hacks (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The US District Court of Nevada awarded Tesla a win in its lawsuit against a former employee, filed two years ago. You may recall CEO Elon Musk referred to this incident in a previously leaked email calling on employees to be "extremely vigilant." Martin Tripp, who worked at the company's Nevada Gigafactory, was accused of hacking the automaker and supplying sensitive information to unnamed third parties. Reuters reported Friday the court ruled in Tesla's favor and dismissed Tripp's motion to file another reply to the court. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but according to Reuters, the court will grant Tesla's motion to seal the case.

Submission + - DuckDuckGo Is Growing Fast (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader writes: DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search engine, announced that August 2020 ended in over 2 billion total searches via its search platform. While Google remains the most popular search engine, DuckDuckGo has gained a great deal of traction in recent months as more and more users have begun to value their privacy on the internet. DuckDuckGo saw over 2 billion searches and 4 million app/extension installations, and the company also said that they have over 65 million active users. DuckDuckGo could shatter its old traffic record if the same growth trend continues. Even though DuckDuckGo is growing rapidly, it still controls less than 2 percent of all search volume in the United States. However, DuckDuckGo's growth trend has continued throughout the year, mainly due to Google and other companies' privacy scandal.

Submission + - Why passenger jets could soon be flying in formation (cnn.com)

ragnar_ianal writes: Look at the V-shaped formations of migrating ducks and scientists have long surmised that there are aeronautical efficiencies at play. Aerbus is examining this in a practical manner to see if fuel efficiency can be enhanced.

Building on test flights in 2016 with an Airbus A380 megajet and A350-900 wide-body jetliner, fello'fly hopes to demonstrate and quantify the aerodynamic efficiencies while developing in-flight operational procedures. Initial flight testing with two A350s began in March 2020. The program will be expanded next year to include the involvement of Frenchbee and SAS airlines, along with air traffic control and air navigation service providers from France, the UK, and Europe.

"It's very, very different from what the military would call formation flight. It's really nothing to do with close formation," explained Dr. Sandra Bour Schaeffer, CEO of Airbus UpNext, in an interview with CNN Travel.

Comment Re:Trolling (Score 1) 189

> OMG! You mean there isn't really a country in the middle of Africa with cloaking technology and magical super-metal that can do almost anything you can imagine? I had no idea that it was all a lie! FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS! Well there is, but it's cloaked, and if we told you about it we'd have to kill you to keep it secret.
Bitcoin

Bitcoin Transactions Lead To Arrest of Major Drug Dealer (techspot.com) 169

"Drug dealer caught because of BitCoin usage," writes Slashdot reader DogDude. TechSpot reports: 38-year-old French national Gal Vallerius stands accused of acting as an administrator, senior moderator, and vendor for dark web marketplace Dream Market, where visitors can purchase anything from heroin to stolen financial data. Upon arriving at Atlanta international airport on August 31, Vallerius was arrested and his laptop searched. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents allegedly discovered $500,000 of Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash on the computer, as well a Tor installation and a PGP encryption key for someone called OxyMonster...

In addition to his role with the site, agents had identified OxyMonster as a major seller of Oxycontin and crystal meth. "OxyMonster's vendor profile featured listings for Schedule II controlled substances Oxycontin and Ritalin," testified DEA agent Austin Love. "His profile listed 60 prior sales and five-star reviews from buyers. In addition, his profile stated that he ships from France to anywhere in Europe." Investigators discovered OxyMonster's real identity by tracing outgoing Bitcoin transactions from his tip jar to wallets registered to Vallerius. Agents then checked his Twitter and Instagram accounts, where they found many writing similarities, including regular use of quotation marks, double exclamation marks, and the word "cheers," as well as intermittent French posts. The evidence led to a warrant being issued for Vallerius' arrest.

U.S. investigators had been monitoring the site for nearly two years, but got their break when Vallerius flew to the U.S. for a beard-growing competition in Austin, Texas. He now faces a life sentence for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

Comment Re:But I love it when slides are read to me (Score 1) 327

Anytime I have to build a presentation in PowerPoint, I generally have comprehensive notes (with additional case studies and metrics) in the notes section. I generally take a printed copy with the additional notes to the presentation so I have a reference copy and I use the slides as topic agendas, maybe a chart or two for reference.

Comment Re:nature will breed it out (Score 1) 950

Rape prevention is a really difficult topic - most advice revolves around telling women what they can't do; don't dress provocatively in case you inflame someone's desire, don't engage in eye contact or conversation with strangers, don't walk alone after dark, basically don't live as an independent human being in case someone who doesn't respect the rule of society decides that against your wishes they are going to assault you.

The closest analog is telling a guy not to carry his wallet around with him, having money on his person was just asking for it when it comes to being mugged.

There are certainly actions you can take to minimise the risk of being targeted by a sociopath - plan on traveling in well lit areas, travel with friends, etc.. Of course this ignores the fact that for women most assaults are by people they know in familiar environments; stranger rape is the exception not the rule. But either way - victim blaming an assault victim, whether it be rape or a mugging, is blaming someone for the anti-social behaviours of someone else.

The 'victim-blaming' of the guys up thread is telling these guys to change their own anti-social behaviour. Sitting behind a computer screen screaming vitriol at people over XBOX live or posting hate on /r/redpill is not going to get you a date let alone laid (if that's your total end goal). Getting out into the world and treating other people with some level of respect might.

Comment Re:nature will breed it out (Score 1, Interesting) 950

From the studies I've seen, most men are financially as well off within 2 years of divorce as they were before, whereas most women at significantly behind where they were for a decade or more after divorce - and that's after getting the house and the kids.

Most 'stay-at-home-moms' have no retirement savings, they aren't qualified for well paying jobs, they still have the upkeep on the house and kids to cover, the support payments men complain about so often generally don't cover 100% of those costs (I'm not saying it should).

People don't get divorced for the fun of it and it is extremely rarely for financial gain. Sure, we see the odd story of some super wealthy guy who marries a gold digger who takes him for millions - but that's not the norm.

That's like people who think teenagers get pregnant for the increase in benefit payments - the costs generally exceed any increase in welfare payment - it's not a profit making option.

Marriage should be like a tattoo - don't get one unless you plan to keep it forever. But if you really need to, there should be an option for getting rid of it. It's better than going through the rest of your days miserable.

Comment Re: nature will breed it out (Score 0) 950

Not at all, men have been the mules of our society.

Somewhat ironic given mules are all female.

Sure, men were conscripted to fight in the army, they died, it sucked.

It's a bit of a myth that women stayed at home and lived a life of luxury while this was going on.

Women worked in the fields next to their men folk, they looked after the house and the children. During times of war they were taken as trophies.

History hasn't been kind to either gender - but traditionally women were seen as little other than breeding stock to be traded. It's only recently that being self-sufficient and having a choice in the matter has been an option for any percentage of the female population at large.

Comment Re:nature will breed it out (Score 2) 950

Blaming the victim. What are we, as a society, doing to help these men learn how to find women?

There are women everywhere - have you tried looking down the back of the sofa? Maybe if 'finding a woman' is important to them they should work on developing traits/behaviours that are attractive to women. If it's not as important as perfecting the headshot in COD - well, we know what they are more likely to achieve.

All I see is abuse heaped on them by people who get squicked out to discover that these men have sexual desires, too.

As opposed to all the abuse heaped on women who acknowledge that they might have sexual desires of their own. Slut-shaming sexually active women is probably not the fastest way into their pants.

Stop treating women (or men) as the enemy. Relationships are largely about common ground, that goes for friends or lovers. If the only people you have anything in common with is a bunch of misogynistic haters who treat 50% of the population with disdain it's going to be difficult to form a meaningful bond with people that don't share your worldview.

"Blaming the victim" is telling a rape victim they shouldn't have been wearing a mini-skirt - they were asking for it. Telling guys to get out from behind the computer screen and talk to women as if they were people isn't victim blaming. It's telling them to take responsibility for their choices in how they interact with the world at large.

PUAs aren't helping - they aren't trying to teach guys how to form a relationship, they are teaching guys to treat women as disposable conquests. You're not going to find a life partner that way. To spend 40+ years with someone, you'd want to actually like them.

Comment Re: nature will breed it out (Score 0) 950

The problem isn't a shortage of gamer girls but rather a shortage of those willing to actually take care of themselves

WTF? What do you even mean by this - do you think they need someone to get them dressed in the morning or tell them to eat?

Most women I know (that is, members of the female gender over 18) are generally more capable of looking after themselves than most guys of a similar age.

If you're saying girls because you're looking for children - then of course they're less capable of looking after themselves.

Unless by 'look after themselves' you mean you don't find them physically attractive and think you deserve a 8/10 or better. At which point you probably need to go take a good hard look at yourself.

Like most hobbies, there is a continuum of people of a variety of levels of attractiveness, social ability or intelligence. Most people will be average - because that's pretty much what it means. It's probable that you also fall into the category of average too - so stop expecting the world to throw exceptional at your feet - it ain't going to happen.

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