[-] [email protected] 1 points 28 minutes ago

no public inquiry and a secretive consultation process

Ick. Always a bad start.

  • MPs and political staffers can still pay a “levy” to their party. Historically, these levies have been worth more than the large political donations coming from vested interests and wealthy donors.
  • Nominated entities that can continue to donate to the major parties.

Ok the points the article was making up until here were, in my opinion, unconvincing. But this is huge. As Professor Twomey said about the federal bill this enormously favours the big established parties.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 40 minutes ago

Of the 117 title winners since 1908, 115 of them have done so after finishing in the first four by the end of the regular season.

That's a fun stat, and one I was actually wondering about just a few weeks ago.

I now wonder more precisely what the break-down is across 1–4.

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[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

But they're not. And someone explained how they're not an hour before you made this reply.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

If guys like this are good at getting whole generations of people interested in science, more power to them

That's the problem here though. He might be good at getting a certain kind of STEM bro into science, but his smart attitude turns away heaps more. He contributes to the perception of science as being hostile to women, at the same time as reinforcing the perception of science as elitist and exclusionary. He might've fit in well in the '90s and '00s, but unfortunately he's around in the '10s and '20s.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago

Man I hate it when I'm around someone with a istg dick complex.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 8 hours ago

On its face, this is shockingly good legislation that does a much better job than what is being done/talked about at a federal level of truly levelling the playing field, not giving the two major parties a huge advantage over minor parties, independents, and yet-to-be-established parties.

Still, this is just one interview with someone obviously biased. It'll be interesting to see analysis of this from less partisan figures.

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[-] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Only if they're in a swing state. If they in a safe blue or safe red state, eh, have at it.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Hard disagree on that. That’s assuming the intentions of the people.

No it's not. It's acknowledging the fact that campaigning politicians largely view people as one of the following:

  • With us
  • Against us
  • Someone we might be able to persuade to be with us
  • Not relevant

If you don't vote, they categorise you in that last one. It doesn't matter what's in your heart, what matters is how they perceive you. The only tool you have to change that is your vote.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

Who exactly is "they" in this comment?

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When one of my friends popped over and said they had a small gift for my new office, I couldn’t have imagined what I was about to open!

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago

Fwiw Nye does seem to be very chummy with Neil de Grasse Tyson, and that guy's issues are far more well attested to. From the smug poor media literacy, to reports of being professionally hard to work with, to his sexual harrassment allegations. I'm not especially inclined to give Nye the benefit of the doubt given the company he chooses to keep.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 15 hours ago

Taken from this video.

The comparison is not a perfect one. Deaths per capita might not be as useful a metric as deaths per 100,000 km driven could arguably be better. But then you're perhaps not taking into account deaths of pedestrians & cyclists. No stat is perfect, but this is interesting.

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Only states/provinces over a population of 2,000,000 are shown.

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All from in this thread in [email protected] about a chant at a British music festival where an artist said "death, death to the IDF".

After other users were quoting that chant in the comments and had comments removed and banned, the hero of our story, @[email protected] (appearing as "acargitz") pointed out that under international law, fighting an occupying force is legitimate. But apparently not under world news rules, as their removed comments and the many explanations from mods make clear in the thread.

Equally against the rules is the call for the eradication of an organisation or business, even without an explicit call to violence against individual members of the business.

In the same thread: user @[email protected] had comments removed for being anti-American "(again)", though I couldn't see the first time. It's not even clear to me how the removed comments were anti-American.

Bonus points for the "DC Comics" removal reason. Though this seems to be incompetence, rather than malice.

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CHAPTER VI

Dr. Seward's Diary.

1 July.---His spiders are now becoming as great a nuisance as his flies, and to-day I told him that he must get rid of them. He looked very sad at this, so I said that he must clear out some of them, at all events. He cheerfully acquiesced in this, and I gave him the same time as before for reduction. He disgusted me much while with him, for when a horrid blow-fly, bloated with some carrion food, buzzed into the room, he caught it, held it exultantly for a few moments between his finger and thumb, and, before I knew what he was going to do, put it in his mouth and ate it. I scolded him for it, but he argued quietly that it was very good and very wholesome; that it was life, strong life, and gave life to him. This gave me an idea, or the rudiment of one. I must watch how he gets rid of his spiders. He has evidently some deep problem in his mind, for he keeps a little note-book in which he is always jotting down something. Whole pages of it are filled with masses of figures, generally single numbers added up in batches, and then the totals added in batches again, as though he were "focussing" some account, as the auditors put it.

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CHAPTER IV

JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL---continued

30 June, morning.---These may be the last words I ever write in this diary. I slept till just before the dawn, and when I woke threw myself on my knees, for I determined that if Death came he should find me ready.

At last I felt that subtle change in the air, and knew that the morning had come. Then came the welcome cock-crow, and I felt that I was safe. With a glad heart, I opened my door and ran down to the hall. I had seen that the door was unlocked, and now escape was before me. With hands that trembled with eagerness, I unhooked the chains and drew back the massive bolts.

But the door would not move. Despair seized me. I pulled, and pulled, at the door, and shook it till, massive as it was, it rattled in its casement. I could see the bolt shot. It had been locked after I left the Count.

Then a wild desire took me to obtain that key at any risk, and I determined then and there to scale the wall again and gain the Count's room. He might kill me, but death now seemed the happier choice of evils. Without a pause I rushed up to the east window, and scrambled down the wall, as before, into the Count's room. It was empty, but that was as I expected. I could not see a key anywhere, but the heap of gold remained. I went through the door in the corner and down the winding stair and along the dark passage to the old chapel. I knew now well enough where to find the monster I sought.

The great box was in the same place, close against the wall, but the lid was laid on it, not fastened down, but with the nails ready in their places to be hammered home. I knew I must reach the body for the key, so I raised the lid, and laid it back against the wall; and then I saw something which filled my very soul with horror. There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. I shuddered as I bent over to touch him, and every sense in me revolted at the contact; but I had to search, or I was lost. The coming night might see my own body a banquet in a similar way to those horrid three. I felt all over the body, but no sign could I find of the key. Then I stopped and looked at the Count. There was a mocking smile on the bloated face which seemed to drive me mad. This was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless. The very thought drove me mad. A terrible desire came upon me to rid the world of such a monster. There was no lethal weapon at hand, but I seized a shovel which the workmen had been using to fill the cases, and lifting it high, struck, with the edge downward, at the hateful face. But as I did so the head turned, and the eyes fell full upon me, with all their blaze of basilisk horror. The sight seemed to paralyse me, and the shovel turned in my hand and glanced from the face, merely making a deep gash above the forehead. The shovel fell from my hand across the box, and as I pulled it away the flange of the blade caught the edge of the lid which fell over again, and hid the horrid thing from my sight. The last glimpse I had was of the bloated face, blood-stained and fixed with a grin of malice which would have held its own in the nethermost hell.

I thought and thought what should be my next move, but my brain seemed on fire, and I waited with a despairing feeling growing over me. As I waited I heard in the distance a gipsy song sung by merry voices coming closer, and through their song the rolling of heavy wheels and the cracking of whips; the Szgany and the Slovaks of whom the Count had spoken were coming. With a last look around and at the box which contained the vile body, I ran from the place and gained the Count's room, determined to rush out at the moment the door should be opened. With strained ears, I listened, and heard downstairs the grinding of the key in the great lock and the falling back of the heavy door. There must have been some other means of entry, or some one had a key for one of the locked doors. Then there came the sound of many feet tramping and dying away in some passage which sent up a clanging echo. I turned to run down again towards the vault, where I might find the new entrance; but at the moment there seemed to come a violent puff of wind, and the door to the winding stair blew to with a shock that set the dust from the lintels flying. When I ran to push it open, I found that it was hopelessly fast. I was again a prisoner, and the net of doom was closing round me more closely.

As I write there is in the passage below a sound of many tramping feet and the crash of weights being set down heavily, doubtless the boxes, with their freight of earth. There is a sound of hammering; it is the box being nailed down. Now I can hear the heavy feet tramping again along the hall, with many other idle feet coming behind them.

The door is shut, and the chains rattle; there is a grinding of the key in the lock; I can hear the key withdraw: then another door opens and shuts; I hear the creaking of lock and bolt.

Hark! in the courtyard and down the rocky way the roll of heavy wheels, the crack of whips, and the chorus of the Szgany as they pass into the distance.

I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Faugh! Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common. They are devils of the Pit!

I shall not remain alone with them; I shall try to scale the castle wall farther than I have yet attempted. I shall take some of the gold with me, lest I want it later. I may find a way from this dreadful place.

And then away for home! away to the quickest and nearest train! away from this cursed spot, from this cursed land, where the devil and his children still walk with earthly feet!

At least God's mercy is better than that of these monsters, and the precipice is steep and high. At its foot a man may sleep---as a man. Good-bye, all! Mina!

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Zagorath

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