Reply With QuoteMaybe it's not relevant to your point, but Kelowna is in British Columbia, Canada.
I saw that story in the news and figured it was more a story about a mentally unwell old man than it was about trans stereotyping.
I wish this had more nations than the Euro-centric ones, but it's a good start!
Side note: What most disturbs me about news stories like the one above is how honestly unAmerican Americans are becoming per this kind of chart. On the one hand stereotypes are never entirely fair, and there's always these other strains in every culture. But ... I don't know. Coming back to the place for a bit after 10 years, it feels like a different country than the one I left which everyone seems to recognize but maybe not their own part in why that is.
Maybe it's not relevant to your point, but Kelowna is in British Columbia, Canada.
I saw that story in the news and figured it was more a story about a mentally unwell old man than it was about trans stereotyping.
Why 'smart homes' are a bad idea
An Amazon user who had created a smart home using their products and tech found himself locked out of all of his devices after he was reported by a delivery driver for “racism”, which he believes was just his automatic doorbell being misheard.
Brandon Jackson revealed how several vital features of his home were locked down while Amazon investigated the racism complaint in a blog post, where he said that the lockdown lasted nearly a week before he was able to access his devices again.
He also said that the experience had made him reconsider his relationship with Amazon and that he was now considering dismantling some of the features of his smart home.
In his post, Brandon said that he was locked out of his accounts and devices the day after he recieved a delivery.
He said: “The following day, I found that my Echo Show had signed out, and I was unable to interact with my smart home devices. My initial assumption was that someone might have attempted to access my account repeatedly, triggering a lockout.”
After he contacted Amazon to find out what had happened, he said he was met with “accusatory tones” by the representative he spoke to about the incident.
“When I connected with the executive, they asked if I knew why my account had been locked. When I answered I was unsure, their tone turned somewhat accusatory. I was told that the driver who had delivered my package reported receiving racist remarks from my Ring doorbell.
“I reviewed the footage and confirmed that no such comments had been made. Instead, the doorbell had issued an automated response: “Excuse me, can I help you?” The driver, who was walking away and wearing headphones, must have misinterpreted the message. Nevertheless, by the following day, my Amazon account was locked, and all my Echo devices were logged out.”
Brandon finished the post by saying that he supported Amazon taking measures to protect delivery drivers, but that the lengths they went to in disabling key parts of his home were too invasive.
Canada has a lot of QAnon, MAGA and Sovereign Citizens. That stuff doesn't stop at a border.Originally Posted by Aja
A fair chunk of Canada is expecting "any day now" for Trump to send a signal for the US military to take over and execute Trudeau. Two big examples are the Canada Convoy protests, and the Queen Romana Didilu / sovereign citizen thing. All of these people are usually Trump fanatics too. They've got Jordan Peterson up there too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_convoy_protest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romana_Didulo
Either mentally unwell or simply pilled to the gills. Facebook is just as effective in pilling people as one of them chan boards, if not more so. Especially with old people who are socially isolated otherwise.
Right, I obviously missed that detail because it sounds like a US story and I keep forgetting that Canada has these people too. Reminds me of hanging out with a really friendly Canadian guy in Tokyo and enjoying it until we passed a lady in a burka on the sidewalk and the guy started on some screed about even Japan getting infested with these Muslims, and I was kind of shocked since I had that stereotype in my mind that Canadians are supposed to be friendly and get along with everyone. I guess bigot types are everywhere if you dig enough.
The state of Illinois has introduced a ban on book bans -- a book ban ban, if you will:
Of course, the lawmakers being Democrats, they utterly failed to consider that they are merely delaying the inevitable, as Republicans now only need to introduce a ban to ban book ban bans when they are in power.Taking a new tack in the ideological battle over what books children should be able to read, Illinois will prohibit book bans in its public schools and libraries, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker calling the bill that he signed on Monday the first of its kind.
The law, which takes effect next year, was the Democratic-controlled state’s response to a sharp rise in book-banning efforts across the country, especially in Republican-led states, where lawmakers have made it easier to remove library books that political groups deemed objectionable.
[...]
The law directs public libraries in the state to adopt or write their own versions of a library bill of rights such as the American Library Association’s, which asserts that “Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
Libraries that don’t comply could lose state funding, according to the bill.
[...]
https://www.mediamatters.org/rumble/...-wasnt-iceberg
Meanwhile MAGA pundit Joey Mannarino is saying "The Regime" sunk the submersible to distract us from Hunter Biden's Laptop. So much for no discussion of Hunter Biden allowed on social media. It's constantly brought up, even on stories that have zero connection to it. Espescially on stories that have zero connection to it - which should tell you everything you need to know.Stew Peters’ Rothschilds conspiracy theory: OceanGate sub was sunk to hide truth “that it wasn't an iceberg that sank the Titanic”
Another one going around online claims that the CEO who died in the submersible was planning to release an expose on Jeffrey Epstein. Yet another one of these people supposedly just about to expose the Epstein story, but who never talked about it and didn't set up any sort of trigger to release their information publicly in case they died.
I guess they could all be true at the same time though.
Yet another from a QAnon podcast as summarized by a Qult watcher:
Another bunch noted that in the story there were 17 bolts on the hatch of the submersible, and they've noted ... 17 ... Q ... white hats! so it's a fake story and the 17 was in there as a "nod" to the QAnons.A bunch of people who needed to disappear so they faked their deaths. One of them was responsible for Chem Trails. There is no photographic evidence of any of the people getting into the sub, and no selfies of them getting into the sub. It's about creating fear and making you too scared to go visit the Titanic ship and see what's down there. It's about deflecting you away from the news of Hunter Biden and deflecting from the Durham testimony
Last edited by Cipheron; 25th Jun 2023 at 09:00.
"I'll take 'People who can somehow survive without oxygen reaching their brains' for 200 Alex"
I'm embarrassed. We've truly become a clown show.
Republicans have no idea how stupid these book bans look to anyone not fully pilled, like most of the independents they need to get elected in my state. Likewise this:
https://stefanik.house.gov/2023/6/st...s-impeachments
DeSantis probably screwed himself by leaning into this culture war stuff. He ends up not looking like a freedom guy to the libertarian side, his spats with Disney don't look good to the business side, and a lot of Republicans could out-church him.
Hmm...
Hmm...https://stefanik.house.gov/2023/6/st...s-impeachments
[...]
All of this information was revealed to Congress by the FD-1023 form from the FBI’s most credible informant. The form vindicates President Trump and exposes the crimes of the Biden family
[...]
The more things change...https://socxfbi.org/SFSA/SFSA/Featur...-Congress.aspx
What are FD-1023s, and why is protecting them important?
As many of you know, the FD-1023 is the form our special agents use to record raw, unverified reporting from confidential human sources (CHSs). FD-1023s merely document that information; they do not reflect the conclusions of investigators based on a fuller context or understanding. Recording this information does not validate it, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI in our investigations.
She represents an unusual district and she's good at pandering.
Wow these guys really cleaned up:
https://www.deseret.com/2023/6/29/23...e-new-websites
$21 million is a definite bargain for all that.Utah-based furniture and home goods giant Overstock.com isn’t wasting any time making use of the Bed, Bath & Beyond branding, intellectual property and customer database it acquired for $21 million via an auction bid approved by the failed retailer’s bankruptcy judge just on Tuesday.
...
Assets acquired by Overstock in the bankruptcy auction include Bed, Bath & Beyond’s website and domain names, trademarks, trade names, patents, customer database, loyalty program data and other brand assets related to the Bed Bath & Beyond banner.
Rioters in France vandalize a holocaust memorial.
A memorial to Holocaust victims and members of the French resistance was defaced with graffiti on Thursday during widespread rioting after police fatally shot a teenager in a Paris suburb.
The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation et de la Résistance (Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation and the Resistance) in Nanterre honors the 200,000 deported to Nazi concentration camps from France during World War II, as well as those who fought against fascism.
The memorial was vandalized during rioting after a 17-year-old — identified only as Nahel — was killed by police in Nanterre on Tuesday.....
According to unverified video circulated on social media, the phrase “we’re going to make a Shoah,” was also sprayed nearby.
It's not like the rioters are not some sort of monolithic political demographic. That hardly seems like the actions of anti-authoritarian brown people. More like white nationalists. Riots are a great opportunity for many factions to take advantage.
Fascists and Nazis have become emboldened by events elsewhere, especially by Mango Mussolini and his merry thugs. Loving Hitler is cool again. Social memory is short.
Patrick Michael Byrne. the Overstock Chief Executive Twat is one of the traitors who plotted Jan 6. Sociopaths R' Us.Utah-based furniture and home goods giant Overstock.com...
Yeah I was thinking something along these lines. It also takes out two targets at one: take the Jews down a peg, but also implicate immigrants at the same time while undermining the French equivalent of BLM. It might not have been French Neo-Nazis, but they sure as hell benefit from the situation in more ways than one.
Dang, I wasn't aware of the links there, I should have looked into it a bit better. So this can be a warning not to buy from BBB now, since it's owned by insurgents.
In this case, the Wahhabi far right might be involved
Jean Marc Illouz, a former senior correspondent for French television, who is also Jewish, says he's been pushing back against what he calls ridiculous comments on the Internet about anti-Semitism in France. He says Americans seem to think it's a resurgence of Nazism.
"You see people are thinking of anti-Semitism in terms of World War II and coming from the French," says Illouz. "It has nothing to do with the French. It has nothing to do with the mainstream Muslim French thinking. It has to do with imported terrorism."
Illouz believes today's anti-Semitism stems from radical Islam brought to France by imams and jihadists espousing a hard-line doctrine from places like Saudi Arabia.
He says the vast majority of French Muslims want to be integrated into French society, and many are. But, he says, the radicals' message is corrupting a small, angry minority.
"You have a number of poor young people who have a problem much bigger than money," he says. "It's a problem of identity. Because they're neither Algerian, nor do they feel they are full-fledged Frenchmen. So in that gap, the jihadis found the way to put their lever."
Antisemitism in France is overwhelmingly perpetrated by brown Muslims. Blaming white neo-Nazis for it is such an American opinion, it hurts.
Yeah it would be a terrible shame if white Nazis got unjustly blamed for the actions of any of their co-fascists. They are still processing the guilt from WW2.
Oh wait. They are already completely over that. Silly me.
To be fair, if John commits a crime, we shouldn't blame Bob if he's not responsible. Bob might very well be a scumbag who committed a bunch of other crimes, but should he be blamed for something he didn't do?
Not to mention, letting John off to continue his crime spree because you're looking for other scapegoats.
If you're the victim of a crime, do you want the person responsible to pay? Or do you want the cops to select a random habitual offender who commits the same crimes, and charge him instead?
Last edited by Azaran; 14th Jul 2023 at 15:09.
That's a bit of a false equivalent when both John and Bob are just taking turns committing the same crimes against the same victims. Let us remember that John is still a violent criminal and a threat, even if Bob did the deed this time around.
'Oh thank god they busted Bob. Hey, John. Where you goin' with that gun in your hand...'
Whether brown fascists are hiding behind white fascists or white fascists are throwing false-flagging brown fascists, is moot, in my books.
I knew it was the whites. Even when it was the Muslims I knew it was them.
New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries
The problem here is they're giving companies until 2027 to comply, which will give them plenty of time to find some loophole or concoct a workaround scheme to screw customers.
I can already foresee Apple only making batteries replaceable by their authorized $199 a piece ones - put another battery in the phone, and Apple bricks it.
Smartphone manufacturers make their batteries hard to replace. Tough new EU rules will change that.
The European Union will soon require smartphone manufacturers to let users replace their batteries.
The tough new rules - endorsed by the European Parliament this week - could save millions of phones from landfill.
Every year, more than 150 million smartphones are thrown away. Making batteries more easy to replace could stem this deluge of e-waste.
Existing phones seal away batteries within the tablet, meaning replacing them can be nearly as expensive as buying a new phone.
The new measures will help break that cycle of rampant consumption, MEP Achille Variati declared.
“For the first time, we have circular economy legislation that covers the entire life cycle of a product - an approach that is good for both the environment and the economy,” he said.
“We agreed on measures that greatly benefit consumers: batteries will be well-functioning, safer and easier to remove.”
Under the legislation, consumers must be able to "easily remove and replace” portable batteries used in devices such as smartphones, tablets, and cameras.
This will necessitate a significant redesign.
The smartphone replacement rules are part of a broader system of rules.
All electric vehicle and rechargeable industrial batteries above 2kWh will need to have a compulsory carbon footprint declaration, label, and digital passport.
The parliament also passed new targets for collecting waste and recovering materials from old batteries.
By 2031, 61 per cent of waste must be collected and 95 per cent of materials must be recovered from old portable batteries.
The rules will come into force in 2027.
The question of third-party batteries is a different one however.
Apple & Co don't want the phone to be fixable, they want you to throw it away and get a new one. Being able to replace the battery at all, even with only an official one, is an improvement.
Then, they could do a class action lawsuit if Apple simultaneously discontinued your phone's battery and also blocked third party batteries at the same time. The end result would be them knowingly acting in a way designed to breach the law.
So i think the right set of laws could constrain Apple here. EITHER they maintain the battery product long-term, probably for some designated lifetime of the product - which is also set down in government regulations, as this is about pre-planned product life cycles, or they allow the phone to work with third-party batteries. So then you'd hamstring them. They can either keep it proprietary in which case they're obligated to keep the production lines running or they can open it up and not have to deal with it: they can say it's up to the market to keep the batteries in supply.
There is an argument to let the phone companies build planned obsolescence into their phones, as this will "grow" the economy since people need to keep buying new phones, but it fundamentally boils down to the "broken window fallacy" which states that you could grow the economy by constantly smashing windows, since jobs would be created for glaziers.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/ans...ow-fallacy.asp
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In a related bit of news, some people are upset that phone companies are trying to avoid providing "free" chargers with all their phones. Personally I think this is a good thing. Get a power board with USB charging ports. Charge it from your PC or laptop. But we make too many disposable chargers.
People on reddit were complaining that the EU's laws on interoperability with USB-C being standardized would be an excuse for companies to skimp on chargers. I wonder if any of those people are Apple employees? They want to keep people locked into a proprietary standard, the "free" charger that comes with it is actually a yoke around your neck. Companies that make USB phones could already get away with not including a charger, it's nothing to do with the law.
Last edited by Cipheron; 21st Jul 2023 at 11:24.
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