Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re: America: Challenge Accepted (Score 1) 81

The problem is people vote emotionally not rationally. (The quicker we get rid of this stupid myth of the rational actor, the better off we'll be) Trump is "owning the libs" and by that I mean "scientists" and "people who disagree with me" or whatever the fuck. Its so far beyond responsible governance at this point. In any country with a less robust economy and without miles deep instutions, they would be spiraling into developing world status, the way its being run right now. Eventually the bill will be due. And the best you'll be able to do is say "I told you so" for whatever faint comfort that'll be.

Comment Re:Great (Score 1) 171

Unfortunately there is a large number of film crew workers in LA that have been pushed beyond the point of breaking by the parlorous state of the film industry since the pandemic more or less destroyed the film theatre economy. Though there have been some signs of it picking back up again.

The reality is, if the market regulators hadn't been completely gutted by special interests this merger would never have gotten this far. Between FCC market concentration laws and anti monopolization laws, this was never a good idea.

So the states have to act to enforce the laws the fed refuses to enforce (Despite constitutional dictates that the administration *must* enforce the laws congress passes, we all know washington is currently lawless)

And here we are. Multinationals can just venue shop and place themselves higher than the law. Welcome to Oligopoly, America. Next stop: People falling out of windows.

Comment Re:Side effects (Score 2) 207

I sort of have the opposite problem, a super agressive immune system. Sounds good right? Not fucking really. Flus have hospitalized me multiple times nearly drowning me in phglem. Vaccines tend to make me feel lousy because the reaction is so strong but dear lord is it an improvement over the disease itself.

Needless to say, covid scared the shit out of me. Still havent had it yet. I think.

Comment Re:This ladies and gentlemen (Score 1) 224

It wasn't so much a vibe as that as court staff we'd see the evidence that gets excluded (which is mostly a strictly rules-of-evidence) thing, and once you've done enough trials you realise how misleading body language is.

For instance a Defendent who acts angrily on the dock is MORE likely to get convicted because the jury thinks 'Wow this angry dude sure seems like he's a mean person". However its actually the ones who act angrily on the dock who are more likely to be actually innocent because being falsely accused tends to enrage people. You also get phenomena like DNA evidence will often doom a defendent on a rape trial, but often all your actually proving is that the person had sex with them. Those DO tend to get excluded from the cases where the defence is that the sex was consentual, at least now days.

You also get awful stuff with psychiatric evidence. The "psychopathy" thing is really scientifically suspicious. Mainstream psychiatry doesnt really have that diagnosis, and its considered somewhat of a pop-sci thing Sociopathic personality disorder does exist. But you'll get forensic psychs say "I diagnose this person as a psychopath" and like, my dude that isnt a DSM diagnosis. He MIGHT be a sociopath. But so might your boss, and your boss probably doesnt have a vat of dead backpackers in his basement.

Sifting through this stuff really requires a lot of experience, and thats something most jurors dont have. I absolutely believe the 1 in 3 cases having a bad judgement thing. Its just a really hard thing to measure because you need an analytical way of working out which judgements where false, and if you had that, we'd probably be using it in appeals.

Comment Re:Such cautious, responsible reasearchers (Score 1) 48

"the ones moving gain-of-function research on human viruses to Wuhan" ..... and other fever dream paranoid conspiracy theories.

Can we please stop it with the schizophrenic lab leak and "gain of function" conspiracies. Those where pretty much ruled out as possibilities as early as 2021.

Comment Re:New York Really is Going Full Authoritarian (Score 1) 56

You really think a market where you can perform an infinite amount of research before making a prediction is more gambling than buying a package that has a completely random chance of containing something of value??

Yeah that is quite different from sites where the majority of betting is on sporting, which no amount of research will turn it from a bet into an investment. Like, if its not primarily that sort of thing, then sure.

Btw I'm refering to Kalshi which has sports betting as 80% of its "volume". Polymarket is around 40%

I'm sure someone will create a "prediction market" where what you say is true, however this lawsuit isn't about these , its about Kalshi which is primarily (based on useage) a sports betting site, and Polymarket where sports betting is around half its useage.

Comment Re:This ladies and gentlemen (Score 1) 224

Because the judge is there to arbitrate the law, not their own personal suspicion of truth. The job of judging truth belongs to the Jury, not the judge.

And its a terrible arangement, because the truth is not democratic, and judges rarely like it, but its not a system they designed.

I've seen a judge in tears as she dismissed a rapist we all knew was guilty, but the prosecution hinged the case on the testimony on a 12 year old girl, Ricky Lee, who suicided mid trial rendering her testimony legally inelligible. She simply had no choice. The law was the law. (About 3 months later the case went back to trial, this time with DNA evidence, and the creep got a very long sentence with aggravated circumstances because his stepdaughter had died of his actions). Fucking tragic man, but the judge had no say in the matter.

Its a thankless job.I hated working those cases.

Comment Re:This ladies and gentlemen (Score 4, Interesting) 224

Yeah. I worked in the courts for 3-4 years around '99-'03 and it was eye-opening how.... random... jury convictions really are. The judge I worked under estimated that around a third of those found guilty where probably innocent and a third found innocent probably did it, and that matched my gut feeling. You kind of get a feel for who gets convicted vs who is actually guilty. But none of that really stands up to scientific scrutiny, cos gut feelings..... What did seem clear is that what makes a difference is how well you scrub up in front of a jury and how expensive your lawyer is. Juries just have no experience or instinct for it.

You couldn't possibly want THAT to be the system that decides life and death, especially when the topic is something as emotionally charged as murder. Its enough to give one chills the thought that you end up on the wrong side of a vindictive cop or prosecutor, and that cop or prosecutor decides your going to die and fudges the evidence to put a rope around your neck, because thats probably a story thats as old as humans putting ropes around each others necks.

I dont think *anybody* should feel safe living in a world where your government is allowed to kill you. Its the literal opposite of free.

Comment Re:Since the US Supreme Court often caves (Score 3, Informative) 175

The thing is, in MOST well run countries, you can pressure the government all you like, it doesn't make one knob of goatshit difference to the courts who do NOT answer to the government. Even if the EU heads of states wanted to give trump what he wants, the EU courts are neither obliged, or even allowed, to take that into consideration.

Trump has no power over the matter, because the people he's trying to bully have no power over the situation either.

Comment Re:Restricting access to the masses (Score 1) 18

America was *never* classless. Its always been a heirachy of the powerful few controlling the powerless many.

And it will remain that way until people realise that actually they aren't powerless at all, when acting together.

As the old Anarchist saying goes, "Suppose they gave a War and nobody came?"

Slashdot Top Deals

Yet magic and hierarchy arise from the same source, and this source has a null pointer.

Working...