xkcd #3272: Time Change

Title text:

All discussions of daylight saving time policy are doomed by a mix of contradictory, inconsistent, and impossible preferences, which is why I think the only thing we can really hope to do is to make it worse.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3272/

explainxkcd for #3272

JD Vance sought last week to use a military helicopter to ferry himself and his son across Washington for a golf lesson, one of a number of allegedly unusual travel requests that has left the Republican’s security detail “fed up,” MS Now reports.

The alleged travel plans aboard Marine Two were ultimately canceled due to weather, but Secret Service agents nonetheless discussed it among themselves unhappily, according to the outlet.

Past vice presidents have had Secret Service agents drive their children to activities, rather than use military hardware, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour to operate.

I got SOOO much cheese here! It was awesome!

The head monk takes him in, and tells him "as a small respite, you will be given an opportunity to say exactly two words once every five years. I'll keep track of it, but choose your words carefully."

Five years later, the new monk is called into the head monk's chambers to say his two words. The monk simply says "bed hard." The head monk says "understood, I'll see what we can do."

Five more years pass. He is again called in, and says "food bland." The head monk says "understood, I'll see what we can do."

Another five years pass in silence. When he is called in by the head monk, he calmly says "I quit." The head monk replies "I'm not surprised. You've done nothing but complain since you joined."

By GunShad https://x.com/gunshadart/status/2077513733551669353

Snip:

An engineer for Rafael Arms Industries, Israel's weapons manufacturer behind some of the regime's most advanced missile and air defense systems, has died from injuries suffered during an Iranian missile strike back in April.

Israeli authorities announced on Friday that Michael Katz died from wounds he sustained after an Iranian ballistic missile struck Haifa on April 5 during the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.

As part of Operation True Promise 4, Iran struck Haifa with waves of missiles and drones, causing extensive damage and destroying targets, including in Haifa, in the process.

Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of modern life—in water bottles, shopping bags and car dashboards. But once discarded, it is among the hardest materials on Earth to recycle. Most recycling processes require plastics to be sorted by type first, a step that is both labor-intensive and costly. As a result, only 9% of discarded plastic is actually recycled, while 79% is dumped in landfills and another 12% is incinerated, releasing carbon dioxide in the process.

Now, a team co-led by researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and Ewha Womans University in South Korea has demonstrated a new chemical approach that converts a mixture of the three most common plastics directly into high-purity hydrogen fuel at temperatures far below conventional gasification. The process locks carbon dioxide away as a solid mineral without releasing the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

More density would also narrow racial pay gaps, while a decline in density correlated to surges in wealth inequality

This is a shitpost community, but I'm 100% committed to this chart.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/50110335

Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) has called on United Nations member states to impose an immediate arms embargo on the United Arab Emirates, arguing that its aid to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) makes it complicit in atrocities that UN investigations conclude amount to genocide.

The appeal demands that the UN General Assembly convene an emergency session, and comes a week after a UN fact-finding mission for Sudan warned that abuses of humanitarian law and attacks on critical infrastructure unfolding in el-Obeid echo the assault on el-Fasher.

Dawn cites a UN panel of experts that mapped UAE-linked supply corridors funnelling weapons, vehicles, and fuel across the borders of Chad and Libya into Sudan. It additionally cites Amnesty International’s analyses of the RSF's utilisation of UAE-made armoured personnel carriers and UAE re-exports of Chinese Norinco ordnance, including GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers.

Nearly half of all Democrats in the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to cut off US military aid to Israel, a move that underscored a dramatic shift away from the US support the Mideast ally has enjoyed for nearly 60 years.

While House lawmakers ultimately rejected Rep. Thomas Massie's (R-Ky.) amendment to a national security spending bill that would have eliminated the $3.3 billion in annual foreign military financing provided to Israel’s military, the details of the vote were viewed as an encouraging sign by defenders of Palestine and the rule of law.

Massie and 103 Democrats voted for the measure, while 215 Republicans and 98 Democrats rejected it. The overall tally was 104 for, 314 against, and 10 "present" votes, with 9 absences.

"I cannot vote for aid to a country that committed genocide and has used tax dollars to detain Americans like me," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said ahead of the vote, referring to an incident in which heavily armed residents of an Israeli settler colony stopped and surrounded him last week in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine.

Speaking to reporters after the vote, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas)—who had urged colleagues to support Massie's amendment—noted, "It used to be that just a small number of House Democrats would vote against sending taxpayer dollars to weapons for the Israeli military."

"Today, over 100 House Democrats voted for a measure to block billions of dollars in weapons to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," he continued. "That is enormous progress. That is a victory for our movement, for security, peace, and justice for all people."

The vote, Casar said, "sasends a strong message to Netanyahu that the days are over of an unaccountable blank check to his wars and his war crimes, at least from the Democratic Party."

"So this is an important moment because nothing will be the same on this issue ever again, I think, after this vote," he added.

CPC Chair @RepCasar, Deputy Chair @Ilhan Omar and @USProgressives on the historic vote by a majority of House Democrats to block $3 billion in weapons to Israel pic.twitter.com/T58q6J5LHZ
— Keane Bhatt (@KeaneBhatt) July 15, 2026

Speaking after Casar, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said that she was "surprised" by many of her colleagues' votes in favor of the amendment, "and I am proud of them."

"I am proud that they have finally decided to lead with their morals, that they finally dared to stand up, and that we are all finally listening to our constituents, who have been asking us to do the right thing for many years," she added.

The high vote count in favor of Massie's amendment came after a "dear colleague" letter from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-NY) expressing his opposition to the measure.

Palestine and human rights defenders hailed Wednesday's vote.

“Today’s vote reflects a seismic shift in US politics. What was once unquestioning bipartisan consensus to fund Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians is now breaking apart," Jewish Voice for Peace Action political director Beth Miller said in a statement. "While it is shameful that the House failed to pass this amendment, it is also now clear that it is impossible for Congress to ignore our voices."

"The overwhelming majority of Democratic voters are demanding that we halt US military funding to Israel, and every Democrat who ignored these calls should fear for their seat,” Miller added.

Margaret DeReus, executive director of policy projects at the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU), said Wednesday's vote "reflects the popular will of Americans, and the overwhelming majority of Democratic voters who do not want to see another penny of our tax dollars fund Israel’s genocidal military."

The United Nations' International Court of Justice is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa and formally supported by nearly 20 nations. A UN panel of experts concluded last year that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, where more than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded, most of them civilians, since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, including over 9,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble.

In addition to the $3.3 billion in annual military aid the US gives Israel under a 2016 memorandum of understanding signed by then-President Barack Obama, the Biden and Trump administrations have provided billions of dollars in additional armed aid to Israel since it began waging its US-backed war on Gaza.

All told, the US has provided approximately $174 billion in direct bilateral assistance and missile defense funding—over $300 billion when adjusted for inflation—since the modern Israeli state's atrocity-laden founding in 1948. This makes Israel the largest overall beneficiary of US foreign aid since World War II.

US aid dramatically increased after the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, and the attack that same year by Israeli forces on the USS Liberty, which killed or wounded more than 200 Navy sailors in what numerous senior US officials believed was a deliberate attack. Last month, Massie introduced a resolution honoring the 34 Americans killed and 174 wounded in the Liberty attack.

"No more weapons to Israel is a principled demand, a legal obligation, and now a political necessity for any Democrat in office," DeReus said. "Democratic lawmakers who continue to stand with [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's] fringe agenda of funding to Israel, and against their voters on the moral issue of our time, are inviting a primary challenge.

Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said in a statement that "congressional Democrats are finally starting to catch up to the American people, who no longer want to give Israel a blank check."

"This should be a blaring wake-up call for Democratic leaders," Kharrazian added. "The political tide is clearly turning against unconditional US military support for Israel. Leadership can no longer dismiss this position as marginal or politically untenable. Members should listen to their constituents, stop shielding Israel’s government from accountability, and support future efforts to end the flow of US weapons and military financing."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-10-15

Been having a great week, all things considered, and this scum sucking dick wad of a brain has to be all ooeeewwwhhh my chemicals.

Fucking bastard. Who decided Chronic should be a part of this Depression thing? I want to speak to their manager.

Hey, guys. @ryper@lemmy.ca brought to my attention that Valve already addressed the situation about the batteries for the steam deck LCD.

For those who are out of the loop, I posted this news article earlier today: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/07/it-looks-like-ifixit-wont-be-getting-any-more-steam-deck-lcd-spare-parts/

Here's the most relevant bit from this article:

The Reddit story wasn’t necessarily false. Earlier today, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens confirmed to The Verge that it had indeed heard that Valve would no longer make replacement batteries or screens for the original Steam Deck LCD.

But by afternoon, Valve and iFixit had already managed to change that. “They have hooked us up with a supplier, we’re working on it,” Wiens now tells me. And if Valve does decide to sunset the part in the future, iFixit says it’ll be ready to take up the torch by using an aftermarket supplier instead. “I want people to know we are going to find a way to get batteries for these things,” says Wiens.

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