I used to have this overly large 3-piece sectional that I bought extremely discounted during the last day of a garage sale.

While it was too large for, well, all of my apartments, to have the couch laid out properly with all 3 sections (I often put the chaise lounge portion in another room) - I did discover that I could push all three pieces together into a rectangle that was the size of a queen sized bed, and had the couch back walls on 3 1/2 sides of the square. We’d line it with pillows and called it “The Nest” It was like a conversation pit / bed that could easily be topped with blanket ceilings for a cozy feeling, and many brunches, board game nights, sad cuddle piles, drunken hangouts, dates, and afternoon snoozes were had there.

Once we had the nest up for an entire year! People still ask after it.
Hm. I don’t love the current couch.

INTERNATIONAL CRIME RING AFOOT!?

Over 100 left shoes stolen from Albuquerque shoe store

Sadly, I don’t have that ability, but I would gladly cheer on whoever does have that ability.

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My shitpost response is that I personally plan to be sluttier.

My serious response is that social media needs to be more social.
I hate Facebook because it’s just an advertising platform, but I don’t know what is going on if I avoid it. I wish there was a way to just share social calendars with all my friends. Like - I want a group tracker that one-click adds stuff that I find interesting. I want to only see stuff certain folks have added to their tracker, and have the ability to share with folks what stuff I’m sharing to share, vs what I’m sharing because I’m actually going to attend something. Make it easy to connect with folks, not advertisers.

I have dogs. (And a cat that hisses at the mailman, so - a dog.)

We all sleep naked. Not under the same blanket.

Tell us when you figure it out, because we’re all equally fucked.

Edit: I misread the comment I replied to as “But did you write that comment?” but it appears they said “How did you write that comment?”

I leave you with this, my final gift:

Like - I’m excited about sensors that uses higher frequency versions of this for health monitoring. I think that’s a perfectly valid use. But also, in my use, I’d be installing it as an IoT device on a network I control, feeding data to services I own.

This use - where it’s opt in for now, until they figure out how to monetize selling how much time you spend in front of the TV, in the kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom (paired with ‘anonymized’ data about what you’re looking at online in each space) is creepy as fuck.

Why this is unneeded

Citizenship is already required to vote in state and federal elections. Every state currently maintains its own voter rolls. These voter rolls are administered at the state level and how citizenship is proved occurs according to state laws.

Why this is bad

This database represents a breach of state autonomy to administer their elections.
Some localities do not require citizenship to vote. This database could disenfranchise voters in those localities.
This represents a huge target for hackers, and given that every municipality will have access to it, there are a lot of potential ways in which it could be compromised or manipulated. The federal government is rife with inaccurate information, and is often understaffed to address the issue. These issues can and will disenfranchise voters. States and municipalities are better equipped to handle their voter rolls.

How this will be abused

This database will be used to both verify citizenship, and for election officials to upload who is registered to vote in a given electoral area. This will lead to its usage to disqualify people who are registered in multiple areas. If - 31 days before an election, someone uploads a list of conservative or liberal voters from a purple area such as Florida or Ohio to the rolls of another state using hacked credentials, then it’s very possible those people will be disqualified from voting and may not know until they try to cast their ballot - shifting the balance of the election.
With the Supreme Court recently discarding birthright citizenship without clarifying who qualifies for citizenship, a sufficiently malicious actor could ensnarl the electoral and legal system with arbitrary claims that people’s parents were not U.S. citizens.
Invariably, the data from this will be used to stalk hapless people — either by electoral workers, or by anyone, once it has been hacked.
And, speculatively - what happens if the scope of this morphs to a ‘voter eligibility’ database, where it tries to ascertain if someone is eligible to vote on additional criterion, such as criminal history? Will it be plagued with errors, such as not registering expunged records, or applying one state’s laws to another?

I have nothing of value to add, but this is slightly amusing. I promise I’m not all 51 of your votes for this comment.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Well, Mr. President, when you talk to the people who built the bombs, understand what those bombs can do and deliver those bombs, they landed precisely where they were supposed to, so it was a flawless mission, right down where we knew they needed to enter.
And given the 30,000 pounds of explosives and capability of those munitions, it was devastation underneath Fordow. And the amount of munitions? Six per location.
Any assessment that tells you it was something otherwise is speculating with other motives.
And we know that because when you actually look at the report– by the way It was a top-secret report. It was preliminary. It was low confidence, all right?
So this is a you make assessments based on what you know they don’t.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And they said it could be very devastating, very serious.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Moderate to severe, and we believe far more likely severe and obliterated. So this is a political motive here.

Each GBU-57 weighs 30k lbs (13,600kg), and contains around 5k lbs (2,270kg) of explosives.

So first, I’m really annoyed they dropped 6 bombs, because while I wholeheartedly believe that Hegseth thinks each bomb has 30k worth of explosives, I’m sure that if I make that assertion, someone will “well, ackschually” me that 5x6=30 and say he’s technically correct.

But second, his lie is fucking stupid. So they saw a report that said the strikes were ineffective and they knew exactly what was being referenced when the reporter brought it up, but they’re saying the report is ‘wrong and low confidence’ because it disagrees with how they think things should have happened.
You’d think a man that drinks like that has played cards. Does he only play poker with people that let him win? Has he never bluffed before? No guile, no finesse. Just vacant stupidity.
I wonder what the WH doc has them on this time around.

Not quite yesterday, but yeah.

Not the 80’s, but the early-mid 90’s were rife with evidence of the U.S.’s decline.

Rodney King beatings, the highway of death in Iraq, the rise to prominence of Fox News, the mass destruction of the ‘93 floods, all those communities destroyed by the shift to zero tolerance policies, and the deevoludtion of national political debate into contentious identity politics by 24-hour news channels.

In the 80’s you had Bhopal and 3-mile island, too. And the savings and loan crisis, I think.

80% of U.S. states have made marijuana decriminalized or legal for medical or recreational use. As far as I know, many of these states require some form of registry or documentation when legally purchasing marijuana.

Marijuana isn’t federally legal. If the federal government got its hands on state buyer registries, they basically have a cheat code to subjugate vast swaths of the population under threat of legal action.

I hope that states will take the necessary actions to protect their citizens.

Given the permissive and, well, stupid business practices that the U.S. allows, I’m sure a shell corporation there, an ownership transfer there, and you’ve got a de facto foreign owned company that’s every bit as answerable to the corporation, although not necessarily the U.S. government. I’m sure the shareholders won’t care so long as the stock price still goes up.

Those sorts of changes could presumably be executed much faster than working through the court challenges of nationalizing companies, or of building new facilities/swapping to new providers.

Not that I’m advocating sticking with what would still ostensibly be U.S.-backed tech.
I live in the U.S., and I ply my trade in tech and tech-adjacent sectors. I wouldn’t prefer it if the country I live in becomes a technological backwater and is passed on by the world, but I also am sort of reaching a point where I think perhaps FAFO.

I’m going to respond to a later comment of yours here for the sake of visibility.

Tucker Carlson flew to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin last year. That trip was financed by Tenant Media - the same group that was revealed to have been financed by Russia for the sake of spreading Russian talking points. Justin Trudeau gave testimony under oath that Tucker was shilling for Russia.

• How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos
• Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot
• Tucker Carlson Funded by Russian Propaganda Machine, Justin Trudeau Testifies Under Oath

It is more challenging, generally, to show that politicians are illegally taking money from foreign interests because the pathways by which money is publicly disclosed are more well-known. So the pathways through which money may be hidden can also be followed to disguise the source of income. Unless one gets caught.

As did an aid of Rand Paul’s, who helped funnel Russian money into the RNC during the 2016 election, and whom was later pardoned by Trump, at Rand Paul’s urging.

• Former Rand Paul aide, pardoned by Trump, charged with funneling Russian money into 2016 election
• Ex-Rand Paul aide pardoned by Trump convicted of illegally funneling Russian cash to Trump campaign

As far as Gabbard is concerned - no money trails, but even her own staff think she’s compromised.

• Tulsi Gabbard’s Own Ex-Staffers Expose Her as a Russian Stooge

[King] Bluetooth was extremely influential, joining the tribes of the region into one kingdom — which is why the technology that unites electronic devices is named after him.

I’m one of the 10,000!

This has been interesting to watch: Hegseth is apparently running against the grain or considered untrustworthy. Gabbard is expressing contrary opinions to the media. Tucker Carlson is part of the media resistance on this issue. Marjorie Taylor Greene is also opposed to the extent that she tries for express thought.

It’s a who’s who of people that carry water for Russia in the U.S. Of course Russia doesn’t want the U.S. at war with its primary military partner and missile/drone supplier. Sorta funny and sad to see all of them so desperately crawl out of the shadows to reveal their real masters.

Ah, I see. That is much clearer.

The testimony given is that Gamboa had pulled out his weapon while hidden behind a barrier, and was in a firing position while running into the crowd is supported the video. At the very beginning of the video, it shows him walking, then running, while holding the weapon in his right hand.
I guess if he ducked away to surreptitiously pull the weapon out, he should have… I don’t know, slung it, rather than held it, and responded to the folks who drew on him, rather than try to run into the crowd.
I wouldn’t have stepped out of cover with my hands on it if that were the case. But also, if I were open carrying, I wouldn’t be wearing a ski mask.
Nothing about his actions read proper to me.