If it’s anything like the last one, it’s still pretty heavy.
“Iran Launches Third Military Satellite to Orbit, Raising Tensions on the Ground”
I quite like the instrumental backing on this. (T/W: mentions of it being Okay to Not Be Okay™)
Friday Afternoon Links
About The Author
Riven
[riv-uhn]
noun
1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd.
2. often aims to misbehave.
3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.*
And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.
Unfortunately, the act seeks to address a problem that doesn’t exist
Isn’t that around 90% of federal legislation these days?
It could be lower considering all the bills addressing problems the government caused?
No.. I thought it was about 30%. 90% is the Feds getting their beaks wet.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAaaaa…
And I say that as someone who processes about $1M in credit card transactions a year.
Better still let’s get enraged at businesses that have different prices for cash versus credit.
Mind you depending on the business I might go elsewhere, but the business should be allowed to make that decision.
I get more annoyed at places that are card only. Look, I want a beer, I may stick around for more, but I don’t want to have to deal with a CC tab for a drink or two.
#metoo
I get customers who want house credit and then pay with a credit card after the terms period. Those are the ones that get under my skin.
I usually insist on 3% fees for those guys. People who pay up front don’t get hit.
That’s an ass right there.
One or the other.
Haha!
That jumped out at me too. Swing and a miss, FEE guy!
Heh… that’s nothing. I don’t remember which flavor of Street Fighter II it was — but there was a combo/glitch/something where someone could literally scroll way, way, way off the map — and then do a throw on the opponent. (Maybe Ken/Ryu if you did their dragon uppercut and then kept doing it before the animation stopped? Been too long…). It got decidedly silly.
I think that may have been Killer Instinct. That had some insane combos, and if you didn’t know the combo breaker and when you could break it, you were D-E-D. A friend gave up on the game when the person he was playing, entered in a combo, stood back and applauded his win as the combo continued.
Video game-wise, I broke down and got Geoguessr Pro
I kind of want to become a competitive Geoguessr player. I have about 10000 rounds to play, I reckon, before that happens. I hate that it’s limited to 2 minutes. I’d like to spend some time getting to know the places on the map
Sounds kinda fun
Very fun…like most games, it can be frustrating at times.
There’s pretty much no way to play it for free, unfortunately. The free game is limited to 5 minutes per day. So that’s essentially one 5-round game of 1 minute per round. No likey.
Competing with the world means some 10-year-old from China or India is going to clean your clock.
Most of the top players are European nerd dudes
Nvidia is an absolute bully in most of its product markets. They have a superior product with high demand so they can pretty much name their price.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they actually broke the law.
Cool song, it has kind of a 21 Pilots vibe. Which is a compliment, I like 21 Pilots. ::ducks::
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I don’t think there’s any artist or genre who’s 100% garbage, personally.
Not even Butch Vig?
Bravo.
He’s had other projects, so Riven’s argument still holds.
You care what we think?
Sometimes. But I do wish we could turn back time to the good old days.
Related to gaming: Raspberry Pi 5 launching next month.
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2023/09/the-raspberry-pi-5-is-launching-next-month
Depends on availability, but they say they claim they are going to individuals first.
Also now much more expensive.
During lockdown those things were crazy pricey, like over $120. I had to get a used on on eBay that was the price of a new one to do the Pi article.
Exactly. They had a good thing going and pissed off a lot of users. They were selling to a bunch of commercial customers and pissed off their users.
As a result there all kinds of inexpensive complete systems on a compact board that run Linux variants. Naturally with various degrees of support and reliability.
If they kept the market happy we wouldn’t have this kind of fragmentation, but here we are. Long term the extra choice is likely to be nice, but it came at their expense and I’m hard pressed to buy another one, Once you power supply it and case it and cool it you are likely over $100 for the 8GB version. Take $20 off for the 4GB.
Geeze, I remember when they were$20
I ended up buying a Radxa Zero and a Rock 5C (the onboard M.2 slot is what sold me on that one) Still haven’t set either up though, I’ve been designing the case.
Worth upgrading for a RetroPi set up?
Give it some time to make sure everything works OK with the new hardware.
Agreed.
Former Loudoun Co. schools superintendent guilty of retaliation in teacher’s firing, jury finds
He’s guilty. Penalty may be nothing, like a $2,500 fine which technically the taxpayers pay.
I’m not sure what a criminal conviction does for his employability in education.
Ban the box!
Well, one for facilitating groomers and transing likely sets him up for a nice promotion or a gig at an NGO.
Doesn’t bode well for him in a probable civil trial.
Nice, That guy sounds like a real POS.
I’m wondering who has been funding his defense and the likely appeal. You’d assume that he would be, but in this crazy world I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was the county.
I’d be amazed if it wasn’t the county/school district.
Me too for anything civil. The criminal part is why the slight question.
He isn’t a unionized cop or civil servant.
But I’d bet taxpayers.
No, but he’s Ruling Class, and he was doing what any Right Thinking Person(tm) would do to keep Alternatively Gendered Children(tm) Safe(tm).
Video Game wise, in the month of September, I’ve already sunk 174 hours into Starfield and noticed that I cam 7 achievements away from all 50. Five of those are “finish the quest lines you have open” in all practicality. The other two are doable. I don’t often grab all the achievements, because a lot of them ask you to do stupid things*. So, I have some hours left before my first playthrough might be called “done”.
*see CyberPunk 2077 “Shoot a grenade out of the air with a revolver” as an example
I started it… still exploring the first planet when I feel like bothering (3.3 hours total according to Steam). It just isn’t pulling me in… most of the time I’m just thinking “Oh, yeah.. that’s Skyrim mechanics… Oh, that’s Fallout 4….” Maybe I’m just gamed out for the most part. I just keep going back to the tried-and-true: Nethack, Stars in Shadow and Warlock: Master of the Arcane. BG3 keeps being patched every other day so I don’t feel like playing and risking something screwing with saves… and Hogwarts Legacy is just pissing me off with their stupid “Every chest is a bit of clothing… and you can only carry like 15! Mua-ha-ha-ha!” (and yes, I’m looking for Merlin trials like crazy… I think I’ve levelled inventory at least twice now… still keep hitting the caps because I want to explore…)
Which is a typically verbose way to say: “Meh.” I suppose.
I find stellar cartography relaxing, but I admit it has issues that make it less than it could have been.
They need to Fire the writers and hire people who have talent. The plot, quests, and lore are downright weaksauce.
They need more tiles for the procedural generation. I should not have the layout of the “Abandoned Listening Post” and “Abandoned Science Station” memorized.
There are, however, moments when I reach a ridge line, pause, and take a screenshot because the view is that good.
Yeah I go through long periods of gaming “meh”.
Nothing’s grabbing my attention lately. I have a long stack of games that I’m half interested in progressing but only half.
Nethack? I haven’t played that in years.
Team America is still a cherished achievement.
Back when I was gaming, I hated achievements that required you to do some random unlikely thing at a single specific point in the game. If you hadn’t read up on it, you’d never, ever get it.
The new computer is making me love games.
Lily does not love me playing them tho.
After BG3 I might dare to reinstall WoW.
I was surprisingly meh about Baldur’s Gate 3 and surprisingly pulled in by Starfield. Got about 130 hours in so far.
The weekend is here, and again it’s a busy one. Cleveland Beer Week kicks off today, and Ohio Pint Day is still limping along since Tuesday (it’s a pretty sweet glass this year), and then the hated Ravens are coming to town on Sunday.
But you don’t care about that, you care about the Zoom link.
She’s so drunk she doesn’t realize she’s about to be torn to pieces by yellow dragons?
It’s a reference to a minor league baseball team that has some fans among the commentators here:
–Amy Kollar Anderson, co-owner of Nowhere in Particular Cabinet of Curiosities in Kettering
Without baseball gear, I didn’t recognize them as ball players.
Nice shout out to the home team, but [commence pedantic quibble] she should know that OUR Dragons are GREEN!/pedantic quibble
I like the name of her business. I may just hunt it up and visit it.
Ah – no big surprise: it’s a brewery/taproom.
The proper term is “Dragons of Color”.
We only wish you were a loser so you’d hang out with us more often
It should be a perfectly cromulent Zoom.
That “Ohio Pint Day” glass sure looks like a 12 ouncer.
Just measured it. Liquid to the shoulder (where the lip curves back in) is 16 ounces. Now, unless you’re pouring amazingly careful, you’ll probably have issues pouring a pint can into the glass.
Adam Carolla brings back an old episode in which he discusses anti-secondhand smoke laws. The politician he talks to perfectly parallels the COVID politicians of the current era.
“Believe the experts” as they mouth completely unbelievable “facts” like “second hand smoke is more dangerous than smoking”
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5mZWVkYnVybmVyLmNvbS9UaGVBZGFtQW5kRHJld1Nob3c/episode/MjQyZWRhZGMtZjJiOC00YjU0LTk3NDktNmJmNTI3ZDExOWEy?ep=14
I remember them trying to make third hand smoke a thing.
Ban parking garages!
A Canadian teenager is dead after standing up through a car sunroof, cruising through a parking garage … and accidentally slamming his body into a concrete beam.
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
It was a bit short-sighted.
He was pointing out the splinter in his friend’s eye while ignoring the beam in his own.
Who are you going to believe, Biden or your receipt at the grocery store? You’ll also note that Politico still goes all in the fact that the economy is doing great it’s just the messaging that’s problematic.
Dems pressure White House to change economic message
I’ve seen one of those Bidenomics/Biden2024 ads. It claims inflation is down.
The rate of change is down. On an absolute level it’s higher from when he took office.
Inflation is “down” in the same way that in the Fed budget a reduction in the amount of the increase is a “cut.”
The challenge with those ads is not to find the lies but to find the truths.
Took me all day – why does work keep interfering?
https://squaredle.com 09/29:
77/77 words (+25 bonus words)
📖 In the top 33% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 5
That’s a lot of bonus words, I have to say…
I played https://squaredle.com 09/29:
77/77 words (+12 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 11% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 5
I gave up on “accuracy”. A lot of the bonus words are only findable by accident.
Yup
LOL there is a 10×10 board on there with 890 words. Hell to the no.
The do-gooder argument against rewards cards is that poor people are less likely to get rewards yet are stuck with the higher prices that are passed on to the consumer from the transaction fees.
Even without rewards cards, there would be transaction fees.
They can’t count on interest and monthly fees to cover their overhead.
Poor people pay more for pretty much everything. Rewards cards are not an exception.
Why are poor people less likely to have Rewards Cards? Serious question.
Ace Hardware always asks but I’m not a big time Ace shopper and don’t have a card.
I believe the issue here is not so much merchant loyalty cards, but credit cards both of both the national and specific merchant kind which people with poor credit histories may not be eligible to have.
A lower credit rating means you get cards with less favorable terms so that they can be assured of breaking even. That means fewer approvals for cards with attached rewards programs.
Poorer people tend to have poorer credit scores.
Looks like an Ace Reward card amounts to a 2% cash back after $250 spent. Then it’s not in cash, only in discount purchases.
If you’re not getting at least 2% cashback on every credit card purchase, you’re paying for my flights in First and Business around the world.
Never change Verge. You’ll note that they wiretapped the moron. They didn’t actually say they did or didn’t monitor his Xbox Chat conversations.
‘There’s no tracing Xbox 360 chat,’ claimed guy now charged with insider trading
These are called interchange fees, a small transaction charge—usually 2-3 percent—that is borne by the retailer (not the customer) whenever a customer swipes.
Right. And “the seller pays the real estate commission”.
Where does the money come from?
*shrugs*
In MN the real estate agent can represent both parties. Commission comes from seller. Obviously it’s taken from the buyer at time of purchase. I had a friend represent me (and the seller). 2 checks, one to the seller, one to my friend. 6 %. Didn’t matter to me.
On the gaming topic, I’ve been biking/gaming for two hours before work every day (~30 miles). I have a bike set up in front of a monitor with a mouse and game pad. Down 20 pounds in the past 5 weeks since also fixing my diet.
The best part is my kids play with me. I have a second monitor and a chair next to the bike. My daughter co-opted through Borderlands 3 and now we’re starting the Halo series. A bit nostalgic for me. She’s a deadly shot both on screen and off. Then the younger kids take their turns on something more age appropriate while I’ve been working through Grim Dawn.
The kids think we’re just gaming, but that’s two hours of conversation time I’ve been getting in with them before starting work every day. And before the sun even comes up during winter.
That’s so dope, my dude. Congrats on the weight loss, but kudos for spending quality time with your kids, too.
Thanks! It’s been a good time. Also funny to hear her yell out ‘grenade in’ or call dibs on loot.
Then the younger kids take their turns on something more age appropriate
Leisure Suit Larry?
NBC News reprints press release by green group concerned about right wingers spreading misinformation in Spanish concerning renewable energy…
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/spanish-language-misinformation-false-renewable-energy-climate-rcna117631
“Others described renewable energy technologies as being unreliable compared to fossil fuels and as a fabrication by wealthy elites to profit off renewable energy projects, according to the study.”
What kind of crazy person believes such things?
People are so gullible, they’ll believe anything. For example, some still believe the economy is bad!
Of course renewables are reliable. The sun always shines and the wind always blows.
And that battery technology that hasn’t been invented yet is totally lit.
“unreliable compared to fossil fuels”
“It’s just as reliable when it’s not night, and not cloudy, and you don’t live in a northern state, and …”
I laughed.
https://twitter.com/HarmfulOpinion/status/1707861007287333130
They are going to ignore as hard as they can.
Nation of laws
The Biden administration announced on Friday the next step in its new plan to cancel people’s student debt after the Supreme Court struck down its original policy in June.
The U.S. Department of Education released its initial agenda of policy considerations for its second attempt at delivering Americans student loan relief. It also shared a list of individuals who will serve on the “Student Loan Debt Relief Committee,” including Wisdom Cole at the NAACP, Kyra Taylor at the National Consumer Law Center and several student loan borrowers.
——-
“The Biden-Harris Administration has taken unprecedented action to fix the broken student loan system and deliver record amounts of student debt relief,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Now, we are diligently moving through the regulatory process to advance debt relief for even more borrowers.”
You haven’t “fixed” anything, you morons.
Just a little more gas on that fire and it will go out!
“Hey, we changed an ‘and’ to an ‘or’, and removed a comma. Totally constitutional now!”
They’ve essentially wiped away student loans. Everyone’s focus was on the peanuts $10k loan forgiveness. I’m convinced that was a distraction. And it didn’t matter whether it succeeded or not. The whole point was SAVE.
The SAVE option has already gone into effect. Under this repayment option, a person’s required payment is peanuts and, as you long as you make a payment, then the remaining interest is immediately dropped rather than added to principle.
So family of 4 making $75k year with $100k in student loans would previously owe owe something like $900/month. They’ll now pay $50 bucks/month and the remaining $850 will be immediately forgiven with no tax implication. Full forgiveness of outstanding debt in 10-20 years with no taxes due for government employees, NGOs, or other non-profits. I made those numbers up, but they should be pretty damn close based on what I’m seeing.
And the same people pushing this will continue to complain about skyrocketing tuition.
What’s a good way to degrease the interior of an air fryer?
I love the thing, but it’s time to clean it.
Spray with degreaser, let sit 5-15 minutes, wipe down.
Do you have a recommended brand? Or are they all a wash?
I use Simple Green. Seems to be less harsh.
SG reeks undiluted.
Someone here recommended Krud Kutter recently.
I’ll see if I can find any.
Red bottle, if it matters.
“I am the Night Slider! Krud Kutter knows me!”
Diluted Dawn and hot water. I’ve never had any grease Dawn couldn’t cut.
You don’t clean it after every use? 🥴
Hello, nurse!! 🤤
https://twitter.com/ProudPatriotSSG/status/1707758839121006784
I was right.
A Kennedy independent run is generating REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES far and wide.
Probably including Trump‘s team
Probably primarily Trump’s team. They really fucked up by not having him fall on the ‘vid sword. He looks really, really bad to people who suffered.
I can’t get through my wife’s skull on that issue. Lockdowns, vaccines, the CARES Act… Trump won’t apologize for any of that. She’s bought into the “he didn’t really have a choice” narrative or “he was led astray”
Irritates the shit out of me.
I’ll vote for Trump if I have to, otherwise I’ve written him off. For me, he’s nothing more than the rhetorical version of lobbing a grenade into DC.
Back door unionization of an entire business segment
California is raising the minimum wage for fast food workers, marking a hard-won victory for those workers and union organizers.
Amid chants of “when we fight, we win” from fast food employees and Service Employees International Union members in Los Angeles, California, Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed legislation that raises the minimum wage to $20 an hour for fast food workers, and creates a council that can approve further increases in the future. The state’s current minimum wage is $15.50 an hour and will increase to $16 an hour on January 1.
The new hourly wage for fast food workers will take effect on April 1 of next year. Employees who work at fast food restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide are eligible.
A key part of the law is the establishment of a nine-person fast food council which includes two representatives from the fast food industry, two who represent franchisee groups or restaurant owners, two who represent employees, two representatives from groups advocating for employees, and a member of the public.
From 2025 through 2029, the council is authorized to increase the hourly minimum wage for fast food workers each year by a maximum of either 3.5% or the annual change in the consumer price index (a federal government measure of inflation and prices of goods), whichever is lower. In that period, only the council may set wages for fast food workers. The law only authorizes the council through 2029.
The council may also recommend other labor, health or safety standards for consideration to appropriate governing bodies.
What could possibly go wrong?
🤖
$20 an hour. How long before all the fast food joints are Robo food?
How is this legal?
Once the government sets the precedent of any minimum wage, this sort of fake unionization can follow. Sort of like how the amendment creating an income tax was supposedly only going to be a few percent for the wealthy only – then 90% marginal tax rates hsppened.
Unauthorized leakage
The Department of Justice charged an IRS consultant Friday with disclosing tax return information on “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals” to a news organization, the agency said in a statement.
The consultant also passed tax information associated with “a high-ranking government official” to a different news outlet. Neither the news outlets nor the government official were identified in the statement from the DOJ.
——-
“Helped by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS has moved quickly to take significant steps to improve protection of taxpayer data and add new safeguards against unauthorized access and disclosure of sensitive information,” the agency said in its own statement on Friday.
Inflation Reduction Act, to the rescue.
They needed the Inflation Reduction Act to fire the consultant?
FloMax helps with that.
$20 an hour. How long before all the fast food joints are Robo food?
There are going to be a lot of burger flippers seeing their hours “unexpectedly” cut.
This should wipe out any fast food in any small town. All those burger flippers will be better off on welfare anyway.
And favor small chains with 59 or fewer locations.
Speaking of that IRS return leak- didn’t it go to propublica?
It is almost October and it was 93* today. This is bullshit. I want autumn NOW.
Hush, you! I want my Tranquility Base time on weekend mornings as deep into the year as I can stand it!
What, like 65 and raining on orange and yellow leaves isn’t perfect?
Same. 96 today. The one good thing is my mosquito fogger got here. I don’t know how I ever lived without one. I am outside enjoying a bug-free night.
I think you got hot weather than me today.
That does sound terrible and definitely the worst thing about living where I am. Today it was not-hot enough to allow a fire in the backyard. Cooked up some dogs and marshmallows… it was wonderful.
Norm for this time of year is 70ish with 50s at night. In any case, window-opening weather.
70-50 is my jam, but we only get that for a couple months in the ‘winter’. It was 86 today, which feels wonderful after 3 months of 90+ and 111% humidity
:/
That’s where we are now. Lovin’ it.
50 and sunny in the Valley today.
I had yesterday off and went for another hike up Hunter Mountain.
On the way up to the trailhead the car’s electronic warning for “road surface may be icy” went off because it got down to 37°. By the time I got to the trailhead just before 7AM, it was 33.
It warmed up enough that I took my sweatshirt off (yes, I had a T-shirt on) when I got back down to about 2500′.
Staaaaahp.
It’s dusk, and 93 degrees.
“It’s time to inject real competition into the credit card network market, which is dominated by the Visa-Mastercard duopoly,” says Durbin.
By central planning? Oh boy.
Tip for curbside take-out or no?
A nominal one. Like 10%
$5
Redownloading CKII as we speak. I really haven’t gamed in a long time, but for some reason I got the bug on the drive home today.
“for some reason”
Deus vault.
Vult… even after typing it three times it auto corrected.. *throws phone in the trash*