I didn’t say I use Windows. I only said that 7-Zip is the best archiving software available for it.

Unlike 7-Zip, which is actually free and also open-source as well

7-Zip is by far the best archiving software on Windows

For once I actually agree with Democratic leadership on this point of election strategy. Unless they win the Senate, a third impeachment wouldn’t really accomplish anything. If they win control of the Senate (and can actually get all their people to agree to do it), then an impeachment trial would at least force all of Trump’s skeletons out of the closet for the world to see.

I can think of several impeachable offences:

• Bribery, for accepting a jet from Qatar
• Bribery, likely from AI/crypto companies (not proven so far but almost certainly occurred)
• Bribery, for selling pardons
• Sexual assault, a high crime or misdemeanour, for Epstein Island activities
• Being an accomplice to interstate sex trafficking, ditto
• Violations of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a high crime or misdemeanour as the Act doesn’t have any other enforcement mechanism, leaving impeachment as the default
• Malfeasance in public office, a high crime or misdemeanour, for all the rather obvious grift arising from the actions that funnel taxpayer funds to enterprises connected with his family
• Together with the acting Attorney-General, conspiring to defraud the United States, a high crime or misdemeanour, concerning the so-called settlement with the IRS for “leaking his tax returns”

Well, I’m not saying that they’re only remembered for the good things. But you’ve almost certainly heard about the good things that Ford’s done as well. What notable good thing will Elon be known for? I can’t think of anything at all.

I agree that instant-runoff voting is better than first-past-the-post (almost anything else is), but there are a few problems with it:

1. It’s hard to explain to voters, especially for multi-seat constituencies, how their votes translate to representation.
2. When the rules of an election system are too complex, people tend to just not grasp it, and are susceptible to lies about how the system is rigged against them when their preferred candidates don’t win.
3. For multi-seat constituencies, the amount of effort it demands from voters in terms of researching a long list of candidates is too high.

In terms of alternatives, I think a simpler system like MMP or simple open-list proportional representation with multi-member constituencies are better.

On the backup line you can subscribe to the cheapest data-only plan for like $5 a month and then just add $20 worth of pay-as-you-go credit, which never expires and will be used for calls, at 1 cent per minute.

It will save you $5 a month on the backup phone plan, making it even cheaper.

Let’s see what the great American magnates of the past are remembered for:

• Henry Ford was remembered for selling his cars at a low enough price and paying his workers a high enough wage that they could easily afford to buy the cars they made.
• Andrew Carnegie was known for paying for the construction of a library in every town.
• J. P. Morgan was known for bailing out the economy of New York using his personal wealth and influence when the Federal Reserve did not yet exist.

All these men were also known as ruthless barons of industry who stamped out those who opposed them without second thought, but at least they also did a fair bit of good to at least try to offset their ills. Elon is just openly a horrible person. History will not be kind to his memory.

Hakeem Jeffries is criticising members of what is functionally another party. The DSA is an insurgency whose members use the label of the Democratic Party only because the United States has a broken electoral system that forces them to. They don’t listen to the leaders of the Democratic Party, they’re only here to use the resources that the nameplate can unlock. They nominate their own candidates, talk against the Democratic leadership, and time and time again, trounce Democratic nominees in elections in the areas where they are strong. The DSA is a party within the party, and Jeffries is utterly wasting his time crying about this.

The DSA being treated as an unruly faction of a party he supposedly leads is laughable. The age of moderates is over. Those who remain in office next year should look to the DSA members who occupy the benches as a coalition partner; an equal political force, not a subordinate.

If you spend US$3,000 on the Steam Machine your brain must be made of tofu.

There’s this related thing in linguistics which is quite fun, relating to the terms loanword and calque, which both mean “words originating from foreign languages”: The word calque is a loanword, and the word loanword is a calque.

A calque is a literal translation of the components of a word. One of the most commonly calqued words across all languages is skyscraper (in Chinese, it’s 摩天大楼, “sky-touching large building”). The word loanword is a calque of German Lehnwort (lehnen, to borrow + Wort, word).

A loanword is a word which is taken directly from another language and, with exceptions to fit the receiving language’s grammar and pronunciation, is not translated. An example of an English word which has been calqued into many languages is “okay”. The word calque is a loanword from French, where it means “copy”.

No, I don’t think you’d follow through. I also think you knew you were going to lose that wager.

If you think you’re right, you’re more than welcome to take me up on my wager and win $20 for the charity of your choice.

You’re free to propose alternative charities. Maybe even a local food bank or some organisation. The point is: I’m happy to put my money where my mouth is, and I don’t think you are. In fact, even if you lose the bet, I don’t think you’d do it anyway. After all, I’m just some guy on the Internet.

I don’t have “faith” in the US legal system. I just know more than you about how it works and how it doesn’t.

I’ll be willing to make a wager with you. If David Hearn is sentenced to at least 12 months imprisonment in this case, I will donate $20 to an international human rights charity of your choice. If their case is dismissed, he is acquitted, or he is sentenced to less than 12 months imprisonment, you have to donate $20 or equivalent in your currency to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Do you agree?

Unlike what most people seem to think, the US criminal court system is not broken in such a manner that would allow someone to go to prison for years for this. Trump prosecutors have a reputation for poor performance in court. All the competent prosecutors have quit or were pushed out for failing to prosecute obviously loser cases or sign legally unsound court filings. All that are left are the idiot Trump loyalists whose only experience in criminal law is being arrested for drink driving.

Grand juries refuse to indict these defendants for obviously trivial crimes, and trial juries will acquit.

They tried to charge someone with assaulting a federal agent for lobbing a sandwich at a Border Patrol goon during a protest. The Trump-appointed chief prosecutor in Washington made a TikTok about how they were coming down hard on protestors. It went to trial. The jury acquitted.

I remind that juries have to be drawn from the local area (i.e. Washington, DC) and the city hates Trump’s guts. He lost by over 80 percentage points in the last election there.

Regardless of whether any beatings occurred, when someone is imprisoned in your country, they are under your care, and you are responsible for them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s malnutrition, beatings, or if he just smacked his head against the wall on his own accord really hard: it is the responsibility of the custodian to ensure the good and proper health of those in their custody. That is the position of international human rights law. It doesn’t even matter if a prisoner decides to kill themselves, a death in custody is always the responsibility of the custodian and in that case it’d still be the custodian’s fault for allowing the creation of circumstances that allows prisoners to kill themselves.

It is not usual for a person to suddenly become comatose while in custody. And even if that did happen, it was North Korea’s positive responsibility to notify consular officials and the family of that, and deliver proper medical care to them.

Return Merchandise Authorisation. It means to return a product to the seller or to the manufacturer because it is defective, and ask for a replacement.

But OP would still get something.

Fun fact, Reddit users probably had a hand in this.

I’m not defending this action from Microsoft, but for most people, they buy a Microsoft product and then happily use it for years, none the wiser to any of Microsoft’s other nonsense happening in the background.