Interesting News, Articles & Stuff

[Grass Yes]

I just told you what the harm is, read the post again. Most people aren't smart enough to know that it doesn't exist outside of the imagination of 1980's media panics. We ain't in utopia.

But you also mentioned the benefit. They got publicity to their cause and they got help from the ACLU. As someone who had my high school cancel all clubs rather than allow a GSA, I think it's a pretty reasonable cause too. Sen. Hatch required that public schools have to allow Bible study clubs. Seems fair to allow Satanists.

 

[hinglemccringleberry]

But you also mentioned the benefit. They got publicity to their cause and they got help from the ACLU. As someone who had my high school cancel all clubs rather than allow a GSA, I think it's a pretty reasonable cause too. Sen. Hatch required that public schools have to allow Bible study clubs. Seems fair to allow Satanists.

Fair enough. But now there are so many of those bible thumpers out there that the Satan club title may backfire on them and limit their growth (AND WE NEED THEM TO GROW, DAMNIT!!) 2 wrongs don't make a right. Kids who just want to study the sciences should be able to do so with a more fair/impartial labeling, not a retaliatory hack name created by someone who got their corn flakes pissed in by some loudmouth evangelical preacher in a mega church. You're never gonna convince me that it's not a contentious/regressive/less-than-ideal club title, so stop trying.

 

[Babylon Drifter]

I just told you what the harm is, read the post again. There are way better/more accurate club titles to use, and they risk alienating those on the fence, which is the opposite of what they want to accomplish. And most people aren't smart enough to know that it doesn't exist outside of the imagination of 1980's media panics. We ain't in utopia.

The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing the World He Didn’t Exist

Without followers/practioners no religion exists outside of the mind. Once people begin to follow the teachings of any religion it becomes tangible whether there is actually a Supreme being or not.

The Temple of Set is not small and its founder wrote the current PSYOPS manual for the US military, LT Col Aquino and his flowers believe and teach the Satan is in fact real. If you don't understand PSYOPS, you can't begin to imagine the impact Michael Aquino has on the world everyday. Suddenly "Satan" has a virtually unlimited black Ops budget whether he actually exists or not the world is being shaped by his true believers.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1521617816822161415

 

[EarthworldTim]

I just told you what the harm is, read the post again. There are way better/more accurate club titles to use, and they risk alienating those on the fence, which is the opposite of what they want to accomplish. And most people aren't smart enough to know that it doesn't exist outside of the imagination of 1980's media panics. We ain't in utopia.

I think they might be trying to keep people without a sense of humor away but ya know, just a hunch.

 

[florduh]

Well since the club isn't comprised of ultra-rare breed of culty types who practice occult stuff,, how about they just change that stupid-ass name to something actually representative of what they're doing? Like "The Professions of Secularism" or something, rather than naming it something that's really just a downlow way for them to say "fuck you, Christians"?

I get what you're saying. It's more of a science club. But I think the "fuck you Christians" is kind of the point.

In their opinion, religion shouldn't really have any place in secular public institutions. If we're going to allow Christian Clubs at public schools, we should be ok with any religion having their own school club. Up to and including "Satanism".

It's like a protest or troll "religion". Atheists have done the same thing with "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". I imagine if Christian groups started staying out of public institutions and the government they'd be fine disbanding changing their name to the science club.

They also do stuff like this.

Satanic Temple suing Indiana over state’s near-total abortion ban

The Satanic Temple is challenging Indiana’s near-total abortion ban with a lawsuit that claims the ban infringes on their followers’ religious rights and violates the U.S. Constitution.

thehill.com

Under the two tenets previously explained, the lawsuit states that members of the Satanic Temple have the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy as an exercise of their religious beliefs. By Indiana criminalizing abortion, these members are being denied their religious rights which violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the lawsuit argues.

I think they're nerds. But they're well meaning nerds. And Satanists aren't the ones passing creepy theocratic laws these days. So I'm not wasting any energy being upset with them.

 

[Babylon Drifter]

I get what you're saying. It's more of a science club. But I think the "fuck you Christians" is kind of the point.

In their opinion, religion shouldn't really have any place in secular public institutions. If we're going to allow Christian Clubs at public schools, we should be ok with any religion having their own school club. Up to and including "Satanism".

It's like a protest or troll "religion". Atheists have done the same thing with "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". I imagine if Christian groups started staying out of public institutions and the government they'd be fine disbanding changing their name to the science club.

They also do stuff like this.

Satanic Temple suing Indiana over state’s near-total abortion ban

The Satanic Temple is challenging Indiana’s near-total abortion ban with a lawsuit that claims the ban infringes on their followers’ religious rights and violates the U.S. Constitution.

thehill.com

I think they're nerds. But they're well meaning nerds. And Satanists aren't the ones passing creepy theocratic laws these days. So I'm not wasting any energy being upset with them.

It's all fun and games trolling until you realize we have a massive mental health issue in this country (and around the world) and the youth are regular targets of the people running these programs.

An entity doesn't have to be real for thier followers to be dangerous, plenty of people are attacked due to various religions real and imagined.

Teen involved in 'Slender Man' stabbing to be released from mental health facility

Anissa Weier, one of two girls who said they attacked a friend to please the fictional character "Slender Man," will be released from her mental health facility.

abcnews.go.com

Getting stabbed by a couple of teenage girls trying to appease slenderman, hysterical unless it's you or a loved one being stabbed.

Or committing suicide because the tech God AI told you to kill yourself to fight climate change, religion comes in multiple forms.

Man ends his life after an AI chatbot 'encouraged' him to sacrifice himself to stop climate change

AI chatbot blamed for 'encouraging' young father to take his own life

A Belgian man reportedly decided to end his life after having conversations about the future of the planet with an AI chatbot named Eliza.

www.euronews.com

 

[florduh]

It's all fun and games trolling until you realize we have a massive mental health issue in this country (and around the world) and the youth are regular targets of the people running these programs.

The organization that does after school programs and sues Republican States over their dumbfuck abortion laws is "The Satanic Temple". That organization holds no supernatural beliefs. It exists to promote separation of church and state.

The Satanic Temple has nothing to do with "The Church of Satan" popularized by Anton LaVey in the 60's. The Church of Satan does/did have sincere supernatural beliefs. They weren't trolling.

About Us

The mission of The Satanic Temple is to support empathy between people, freedom, unwillingness to tyrannical power, and protest against injustice.

thesatanictemple.com

With unfortunate regularity - and much to our chagrin - The Satanic Temple is confused with an earlier organization, the Church of Satan, founded by Anton Szandor LaVey in the 1960s. The Church of Satan expresses vehement opposition to the campaigns and activities of The Satanic Temple, asserting themselves as the only “true” arbiters of Satanism, while The Satanic Temple dismisses the Church of Satan as irrelevant and inactive.

I honestly don't know what Slenderman or AI Chatbots have to do with either form of Satanism though. They're both bad? Bad things come from the devil?

I'd be more concerned with the mental health of the kids who are joining the Evangelical Christian after school programs than the Satan Club. Sounds like Jesus Club spends a lot of time threatening kids with Hell. Satan Club's curriculum is far more wholesome and mentally healthy for kids.

 

[vapviking]

Fair enough. But now there are so many of those bible thumpers out there that the Satan club title may backfire on them and limit their growth (AND WE NEED THEM TO GROW, DAMNIT!!) 2 wrongs don't make a right. Kids who just want to study the sciences should be able to do so with a more fair/impartial labeling, not a retaliatory hack name created by someone who got their corn flakes pissed in by some loudmouth evangelical preacher in a mega church. You're never gonna convince me that it's not a contentious/regressive/less-than-ideal club title, so stop trying.

Agree with @florduh, this club is not about Satanism, nor really about science. They are make a statement about separation of church and state.

These are not evangelical Satanists; they likely don't care if their numbers grow; and they don't have to care what anybody thinks of their club.
All they need is the right to have it exist, and only then because some christians have been granted the same right. The Satanists are trying to illustrate an extreme case, an outwardly absurd case, that is nonetheless still a valid case. The point is that neither "club" (religion) should be sanctioned by a public school.

Try see the irony. It all stems from the christians feigning religious oppression!

This club is not about kids learning more science -- but I do agree with you that more science (and less religion and superstition) in general is sorely needed.

 

[florduh]

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Is Now Big Mad About Disney Outsmarting Him

Disney’s CEO called DeSantis’ attempts to control the company ‘anti-business’ and ‘anti-Florida’

kotaku.com

I hate the Disney company, but it's very funny to watch Bob Iger reminding dipshit DeSanctimonious who the government works for in this country.

“Those investments, we estimate, will create 13,000 new Disney jobs and thousands of other indirect jobs, and they’ll also attract more people to the state and generate more taxes. And so our point on this is that any action that supports those efforts simply to retaliate for a position the company took sounds not just anti-business but it sounds anti-Florida, and I’ll just leave it at that.”

Meatball Ron in a few years:

 

[vapviking]

Ron has also written a book that won't pass his own muster.

Democrats bid to use censorship law against DeSantis and ban his book

Opponents say memoir The Courage to Be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last year

www.theguardian.com

 

[florduh]

Ron has also written a book that won't pass his own muster.

Democrats bid to use censorship law against DeSantis and ban his book

Opponents say memoir The Courage to Be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last year

www.theguardian.com

That's the book where he wrote this:

This guy is the Governor of Florida. Yet he is implying that Floridians are Godless, lazy, traitors. Which technically might be true but....

There are a lot of political columnists and commentators who are paid 6 and 7 figures to be subject matter experts. It's amazing to me that they believe this effete dork will ever be the President. Baby brains.

 

[florduh]

If you've ever wondered "what are they puttin' in the water down there in Floriduh?!" it's lead. The answer is lead.

Florida has more lead pipes than any other state, survey says

Lead can cause brain damage and the EPA says no amount is safe for children’s bodies.

www.wesh.com

Florida has more crime than any other large State. Might just be a coincidence. But removing lead from gasoline back in the 80's seemed to reduce violent crime.

 

[florduh]

Tesla workers shared images from car cameras, including “scenes of intimacy”

Ex-staffers tell Reuters about internal image sharing: "We could see their kids."

arstechnica.com

But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras, according to interviews by Reuters with nine former employees. Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked.

Running a totally unregulated "self driving" experiment on public roads, flagrant union busting, their cars spontaneously combusting, lying to investors, having more workplace injuries than every other car manufacturer combined, allowing old timey 1920's style racism to fester in their factories.... and now literally spying on your customers.

What a cool company!

 

[Farid]

Running a totally unregulated "self driving" experiment on public roads, flagrant union busting, their cars spontaneously combusting, lying to investors, having more workplace injuries than every other car manufacturer combined, allowing old timey 1920's style racism to fester in their factories.... and now literally spying on your customers.

What a cool company!

I worked in autonomous vehicle development (not for Tesla), and it is highly regulated. Yes tests are done in live environments on public roads, but our vehicles were still far safer than most other drivers. Also the testing doesn't start on the roads. In order to get an autonomous vehicle to the point where it is allowed on the road you must first prove it is safe to operate (tons of logged hours are required).

The actions of one single company should not be used to judge an industry. Just look at what happened with Juul and ecigs or what happened to dry herb vapes as a result of the cart industry.

 

[florduh]

I worked in autonomous vehicle development (not for Tesla), and it is highly regulated. Yes tests are done in live environments on public roads, but our vehicles were still far safer than most other drivers. Also the testing doesn't start on the roads. In order to get an autonomous vehicle to the point where it is allowed on the road you must first prove it is safe to operate (tons of logged hours are required).

The actions of one single company should not be used to judge an industry. Just look at what happened with Juul and ecigs or what happened to dry herb vapes as a result of the cart industry.

I'm not against autonomous driving. When it gets nailed, it will be awesome. I am against calling what's currently available in Teslas "autonomous driving" or "self driving" though.

I was unaware of any regulations though. Wikipedia isn't helping much either.

Regulation of self-driving cars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There appears to be laws in some States surrounding true driverless cars, like Google was testing. But I don't know if any regulators are looking over the latest Tesla software update. I could be wrong, but it looks like they push the software out and it gets beta tested on public roads.

 

[Babylon Drifter]

Russia: New Cold War is Over, We Are Now in 'Hot Conflict With the U.S.'

The United States is "playing with fire" and engaged in a hot "hybrid war" with Russia, a Russian government minister has claimed.

www.breitbart.com

Hehehe the voters put corrupt Xiden in office and have been great at talking the talk, I'm looking forward to seeing them walk the walk... to the front lines.

They're gonna have a real good time protesting being cannon fodder so the politicians can buy a bigger mansion.

I suspect getting thier draft notice is going to suddenly make the shit they've been all wound up over seem pretty trivial.

 

[Farid]

I'm not against autonomous driving. When it gets nailed, it will be awesome. I am against calling what's currently available in Teslas "autonomous driving" or "self driving" though.

I was unaware of any regulations though. Wikipedia isn't helping much either.

Regulation of self-driving cars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There appears to be laws in some States surrounding true driverless cars, like Google was testing. But I don't know if any regulators are looking over the latest Tesla software update. I could be wrong, but it looks like they push the software out and it gets beta tested on public roads.

There are 6 levels of automation for vehicles. These levels determine the restrictions that apply.

Explore the 6 Levels of Self-Driving Automation - ASME

The Society of Automotive Engineers updated the SAE J3016 standard with new definitions for autonomous vehicles.

www.asme.org

Teslas operate at level 2 afaik. The models we tested operated at level 3 with a goal for level 4. Very different regulations around how the levels can be put on the road. At level 2 operation you can legally drive as it is essentially an advanced cruise control. At level 3+ it becomes more difficult. When we tested vehicles on public roads we were operating at level 2. Our level 3 & 4 testing was done in controlled environments.

 

[CANtalk]

Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.

www.propublica.org

 

[florduh]

Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.

www.propublica.org

I PREFER THE RV PARKS. I PREFER THE WALMART PARKING LOTS TO THE BEACHES AND THINGS LIKE THAT. THERE’S SOMETHING NORMAL TO ME ABOUT IT. I COME FROM REGULAR STOCK, AND I PREFER THAT...I PREFER BEING AROUND THAT.
—Clarence Thomas

Why is this motherfucker taking bribes from billionaires? He literally can't lose his $260k per year unless he dies. He has more financial security than 99.9% of people.

I do appreciate Clarence demonstrating how illegitimate and corrupt the Supreme Court is though. Thanks, dude.

"With every drop of my blood I defy their law, and I despise them. I am appealing to you, the common people; I care nothing about the Supreme Court, corporation lawyers every one of them." -Eugene Debs.

Apropos of nothing.... Debs ran for President from prison in 1920 (for opposing WWI) and got 3.4% of the vote. So it is POSSIBLE!

 

[CANtalk]

3000 years ago

Direct evidence of the use of multiple drugs in Bronze Age Menorca (Western Mediterranean) from human hair analysis - Scientific Reports

Human hair dated to Late Prehistory is exceedingly rare in the Western Mediterranean. Archaeological excavations in the Bronze Age burial and cult cave of Es Càrritx, in Menorca (Balearic Islands) provided some human hair strands involved in a singular funerary rite. This finding offered the...

www.nature.com

On a related note

Tuberville hold on military promotions splits Republicans, draws Pentagon ire

Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) move to block more than 160 promotions for military officers and commanders over the Pentagon’s decision to provide service members with expanded access…

thehill.com

30 under 30-year sentences: why so many of Forbes’ young heroes face jail

Ex-CEO Charlie Javice, 31, is just the latest from the magazine’s list to see criminal charges

www.theguardian.com

North Dakota senators vote to boost their own meal reimbursements after rejecting free school lunch bill

Thirteen Republican senators voted to increase meal reimbursements for state employees after voting against a bill to expand free school lunches for low-income students.

www.inforum.com

Florida high school pulls graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary, saying it is ‘not age appropriate’ - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

It is the second known instance of this particular edition of the famous Holocaust book being swept up by conservatives seeking to purge schools of literature they deem inappropriate.

www.jta.org

 

[Babylon Drifter]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644669672250560518

US ready for war with China – congressman

US Congress could authorize the use of military force if China attacks Taiwan, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has said

www.rt.com

So we're ready to fight Russia and China both eh? LMAO

Seriously fun times ahead kiddies.

 

[Timps27]

Marjorie Taylor Greene ditches Bud Light, internet points out major flaw

A number of prominent conservatives have announced they are boycotting Bud Light over its work with Dylan Mulvaney.

www.newsweek.com

Performative hate is the right’s version of virtue signaling.

 

[macbill]

Grand Canyon delays opening of North Rim due to snowfall

NORTH RIM, Ariz. (AP) — The public will have to wait a little longer to visit the North Rim at Grand Canyon National Park this year.

apnews.com

 

[florduh]

Marjorie Taylor Greene ditches Bud Light, internet points out major flaw

A number of prominent conservatives have announced they are boycotting Bud Light over its work with Dylan Mulvaney.

www.newsweek.com

Performative hate is the right’s version of virtue signaling.

My favorite part of this stupidity is "dOn'T ThEy kNoW THeiR cuStOmErS???"

Yes. Much better than you do. They spend more money in a year figuring out what their customers want than your entire bloodline will make in 300 years.

As it turns out, most Americans either like gay and trans people. Or they're indifferent about them. Only a small minority are committed homophobes or transphobes. Virtue signalling to bigots just isn't as profitable as doing the opposite.

Companies That Get 'Woke' Aren't Going Broke -- They're More Profitable Than Ever

Despite conservative memes and calls for boycotts of companies like Carhartt and Budweiser after LGBTQ campaigns, they're more profitable than ever.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[CANtalk]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644426823101476865