For the record, while the Supreme Court justices have refused to hold themselves to the same standards as lower court judges, a U.S. District Court judge like Cannon is indeed bound by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges and the policies of the Judicial Conference, which do require disclosure of such gifts and trips.

Don’t forget the huge energy savings (heating/cooling, transportation, infrastructure) by having denser housing. It isn’t just a measurement of “I can see trees,” but all the daily human activities that have a reduced environmental impact in denser development. It’s counter-intuitive, but rural areas that are “nearer to nature” are often worse for the environment.

There is probably a break-even point, I don’t think everyone living in skyscrapers is ecologically ideal and I wouldn’t want to live there anyway. But medium-density development with multi-unit (shared wall) buildings allows huge energy costs, while also making public transit more viable and providing a tax base that actually pays for its own infrastructure.

Thanks for the rec! I also love that you presume that there will be a next time, cuz, uh, that’s accurate. These little boxes are powerhouses, I probably want one for a TV set-top box now that all the TV boxes (Roku, Amazon Fire, even Android TV and soon Apple TV) are riddled with ads.

Hardly. The arguments against race-conscious admissions or affirmative action are generally based (unironically) in the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Beelink and Minisforum are legit

I wish I knew a lot of this when I first started shopping for a mini PC. I ended up with a Beelink model that I’m quite happy with, but it seems almost luck that I didn’t pick another one, and I would have liked a “reputable brand” search function.

Aldi employees do a lot (stocking, cleaning, cashiering, etc.) but are paid relatively well and get solid hours. The stores I have visited seem to retain their workers for long periods, too.

That’s basically the wave in the water planet scene from Interstellar. That’s terrifying.

And I have been very critical of Nashville DA Glenn Funk, including for his malfeasance in using person connections to get fake work to boost his own pension, but the formation of the Conviction Review Unit—once it was actually used, after an initially inactive period—deserves recognition and praise.

Thanks! Is there any better way of getting new mods? There are a couple I’m on that are somewhat orphaned, I’ve messaged the mods and no response.

Who’s Yellen now? (This song was actually commissioned by APM’s Marketplace when Janet Yellen became Secretary of the Treasury, but feels appropriate now.)

I just started Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages.

Before that I read The Queen’s Thief series, by Megan Whalen Turner, which was fun.

Not a surprise, but still somehow crushing. It’s a loss for us all.

This article is ~5 years old, but I recall at the time there were a few articles about selfie deaths and it became “a thing.” I don’t 100% agree with the opinion piece, but it’s definitely true that dumb rednecks have been falling off stuff for a long time. The only difference was the numbskull had a camera in his/her hand when he/she fell instead of just falling, or perhaps saying “Hey look at me, Bubba!” before falling.

Where I really disagree with the author is the notion that “no place has ever been ruined by Instagram.” Social media platforms absolutely drive huge numbers of people to very specific photogenic sites, and some of them are not in any condition to handle the crowds. Sometimes that’s fine, like the street in DUMBO (Brooklyn) that has a great shot of the Empire State Building framed under the supports of the Manhattan Bridge, which can handle the crowds and I think is now somewhat pedestrianized. Other places are more fragile, like slow-growing cave stalactite systems, or the protected mossy landscapes of Iceland, and the visitors do harm the place. I think a lot of the pressures on these places can be ameliorated, and there’s a conversation to be had about access versus isolation, but I can’t agree that no place has ever been ruined by an Instagram post.

Kinda, there was a progression to travel to different planets, etc. I mostly played it with friends and messed around, so I didn’t pursue it very far.

I think US military operations moved away from counter-insurgency to preparedness with conflicts with mechanized military forces that have actual air power, so a low-and-slow airframe wasn’t considered as necessary. That, and drones are filling a lot of the air coverage and surveillance gap (though no one on the ground will tell you there could ever be a complete replacement for the BRRRRRRRR of an A-10.)

As I understand it, the Armed Overwatch pick that would at least sometimes replace the A-10 for close air support is the OA-1K Sky Warden, which has 10 hard points, and a 7,257kg gross weight. I don’t know how to accurately calculate the Sky Warden’s weight budget, but it’s a little more than half of the gross weight of the A-10, so I’d guess it’s roughly half, or 3,500kg or so. Which is definitely a step down in terms of weight and ability, but I guess the hope is that it will be cheaper to fly and maintain, particularly since it’s based off the long-running Air Tractor AT-802 airframe. I think the other two planes in consideration, the EMB-314 Super Tucano and the AT-6B Wolverine, have fewer hard points (5 each) and lower maximum take-off weights (5,400kg and 2,948kg, respectively).

And if I read the literature correctly, the craft actually selected was the OA-1K Sky Warden, the airframe based on the agricultural aircraft designs of Air Tractor AT-802.

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/air-force-pilots-begin-training-for-air-tractor-based-light-attack-variant/

But really it’s just stealing with extra steps.

Accurate.

yahoo

Nowadays, I don’t know that they could, but more than a decade ago they still had enough mail and search users to be somewhat relevant, and Marissa Meyer had just taken over after she left Google. There was a real thought that Yahoo! could so something new. It obviously didn’t pan out, but for a hot minute, people really talked about Yahoo!

What sort of stuff do you like? Maybe some folks can make some good recommendations to jump-start a more interesting experience.

Recommendations and boosts from other users are how I’ve discovered interesting people there, and at this point, my feed feels just as full as my old twitter feed.

If you like news, a lot of breaking news is happening on Mastodon much more accurately and faster than on Twitter. There are a LOT of publications on there now, here are a few off the top of my head:

• Polygon (@polygon@mastodon.social)
• The Conversation (@TheConversation@newsie.social)
• The Intercept (@theintercept@jouna.host)
• Voice of America (@VOANews@mastodon.social)
• Ars Technica (@arstechnica@mastodon.social)
• Semafor (@Semafor@flipboard.com)
• Kotaku (@Kotaku@flipboard.com)
• The Christian Science Monitor (@csmonitor@flipboard.com)
• Fast Company (@FastCompany@flipboard.com)
• The 19th (@19thnews@flipboard.com)
• Vox (@Vox@flipboard.com)

There are a lot more local news sources too, so depending on where you live, you can probably follow news for your specific area. The account @FediFollows@social.growyourown.services regularly bundles up follow suggestions for different regions, interests, and topics. If you go that account and search for a hashtag (i.e., #texas) you’ll get a lot of active and high-quality local accounts to follow.