I really think Roblox is missing the point.

Sure, age-verification might impede underage use of their product, but there are a lot of adults that understand the age-verification movement to be an invasion of their privacy. Whether or not this is true, "perception is reality".

The real problem is that given his rank, he would be in a position to hear things sooner than others further down the food chain. Anyone paying attention to who is doing any betting could have (or should have) asked what they might now that would cause them to place the bet they did. In this case, it boils down to an OPSEC violation, and that's illegal under any circumstance, punishable by UCMJ if not actual civilian law. The fact that the FBI are involved tells me that this guy will probably be facing UCMJ violations too (if he's lucky, court martial if he's not), and may not be a Sergeant Major any longer when the dust settles.

Curious, then, that if such a law was already passed that recently that the likes of Pelosi (and surely other members of both parties) still managed to get around it.
Congress (as a whole) acts as if their shit doesn't stink. It's high time they get reminded that it most certainly does.

I can think of four reasons ticket sales have dropped.

1. Much of what Hollywood has been putting out is crap.
2. Politicians increase taxes constantly, resulting in less disposable income for potential movie-goers.
3. Ticket costs increasing - Not much can be done there, theaters do it to compensate for the loss in sales.
4. Streaming is a thing. Why go to a theater to sit in a sticky, uncomfortable seat when one can wait a little while for the movie to hit $STREAMING_SERVICE and watch it from the comfort of one's own home?

If you read the BBC article, you'll see that they didn't just rely on local sources, but interviewed experts from around the world.

Yeah, I read that. Some of the worst statistical proofs I've seen have been written by economists who know something about statistics but don't understand epidemiology, and are advocates trying to win an argument. This guy, a biostatistician, can explain the problems with Wyner better than I can:

https://liorpachter.wordpress....
Bits of DNA
A note on âoeHow the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbersâ
March 8, 2024
by Lior Pachter

In a Tablet Magazine article titled âoeHow the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbersâ posted on March 6, 2024, Professor of Statistics and Data Science Abraham Wyner from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania argues that statistical analysis of the casualty numbers reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health is âoehighly suggestive that a process unconnected or loosely connected to reality was used to report the numbersâ....

The BBC did a good job of fact-checking and talking to experts about the Hamas and Israel death statistics. The people who study and collect wartime casualty statistics thought that their numbers were pretty accurate, although probably understated.

BBC, Checking Israel's claim to have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters, 29 February 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/world...
Israel claimed to have killed 10,000 Hamas fighters, but has no way to distinguish between Hamas fighters and ordinary civilians. Also, according to Haaretz and +972, whose reporters are in regular contact with IDF soldiers and commanders, the IDF counts all male deaths as Hamas fighters. On the ground, the IDF has free-fire zones, or "Death Zones," in which they assume that everyone in the zone is a terrorist, and can kill them -- men, women, and children. That includes 6-year-olds like Hind Rajab.

BBC, How the dead are counted in Gaza.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world...

Gandalf's horse was Shadowfax, not Equifax.

Until Apple or Samsung put their efforts into AR, I don't see anyone else being able to go to market with a VR solution. Even Google tried and failed with the Google Glass a decade ago. While I love the idea, I don't think the market is there for this yet (and might not be for a long time outside of large cities).

I'm pretty sure HIPAA laws (in the US, anyway) would prevent such activity, for the same reason(s) that California deemed it acceptable to retract their requirement that HIV-positive people disclose their situation with potential partners.

Germany seems to be dong pretty well.

https://91-divoc.com/pages/cov...
COVID-19 Cases by Country

Active cases, and new cases per day, have been declining since 6 April.

Here's an authoritative report on Germany.

https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/tw...
TWiV 601: Das coronavirus with Christian Drosten
April 14, 2020
Coronavirus expert Christian Drosten joins Vincent to provide a view from Germany on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2.