ToaKraka
Dislikes you
User ID: 108
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
11d ago
Item 1 of 4
Locally-prominent author Alexander Wales has provided his opinion on somebody else's "list of all the best obscure and unappreciated works that you can reach from a computer".
The latter person also has published a "webfic bingo card". My score is 39/182. (Note that the ominous red "dropped" label is very ambiguous between "stopped reading after failing to enjoy early chapters" and "stopped reading after enjoying early chapters but failing to enjoy later chapters". Here is a modified image that differentiates between those two statuses.)
Item 2 of 4
A 13-year-old with no prior record pleads delinquent to possessing a gun as a minor. (As part of the plea deal, the prosecutor withdraws additional charges of possessing a gun without a license and receiving stolen property.) His probation officer testifies that the delinquent has been diagnosed with ADHD and PTSD, and that a court-ordered mental-health evaluator recommended MST (multisystemic therapy), which requires the participation of the entire family and therefore cannot be completed if he is placed in juvenile detention.
The trial judge sentences him to juvenile detention (duration to be determined), with the possibility of MST after the detention is completed.
So, there's no question he needs mental health treatment. Yet, at the same time, in regard to mental health in regard to MST, I understand it's not available in the community, but it doesn't have to happen here today. That's something that can happen later on, and I'm going to put that in my order as well; MST treatment will occur later down the line. But at this time, here today, he will be detained. He will be placed in appropriate placement as well.
And in regard to how his parents feel and different things, I mean, even myself, I mean, it's difficult to send children to placement as well. I understand that, you know, but that's my job in regard to the safety of others as well. There is nothing in the world that convinces me a child with a firearm is safe in the community. Nothing. And I've been doing this for over 20 years, and I haven't seen it. I've seen just the opposite. I've seen other people get killed by mistake or on purpose as well, it's not going to happen. It's whatever I can do to make sure that does not happen. So, he will be placed at this particular time as well. He will continue with all recommendations in regard to his mental health as well. He will complete 40 hours of community service and pay court costs, as well as the Crime Lab fee, continue with education while in placement as well, and his mental health.
(emphasis added by appeals panel)
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[According to the statute,] the Juvenile court must strive to keep the family unit intact and separate a delinquent child from his parents only when necessary; and, in making this decision, the juvenile court must use the least restrictive intervention available consistent with protection of the community and in light of the individualized needs of the child.
…
In our view, the court abused its discretion in failing to give due consideration to the least restrictive intervention consistent with both CL's individualized needs and the protection of the public considering the circumstances of this case. Although this Court appreciates the severity of the offense at issue and does not minimize the need to protect the public from firearms, the Juvenile Act requires that these factors be weighed alongside the delinquent child's individualized needs. Accordingly, based on CL's age, the nature of CL's delinquency, CL's recommended treatment, CL's supportive family and community, and the other circumstances of this case (including CL's school situation and lack of delinquency history), we find that the juvenile court abused its discretion in failing to implement the least restrictive intervention available consistent with protection of the community and in light of CL's individualized needs. Accordingly, we reverse the order of the court placing CL out-of-home and remand this case for a new dispositional hearing—to be held as soon as possible and no later than 5 days after remand of the record in this case—wherein the court places CL in an in-home placement and requires him to participate in MST.
(emphasis in original)
(New Jersey's appeals judges continue to slack, having released only eight nonprecedential opinions in the past week. And I didn't catch anything of interest from Pennsylvania, Ohio, or the feds, other than the single decision given above. For an alternative weekly source of interesting and funny court opinions, see Short Circuit from the Institute for Justice (also crossposted at the Volokh Conspiracy).)
Item 3 of 4
Tired: A/S/L (age/sex/location)
Wired: Age, gender, height, BMI, race, location
Item 4 of 4
Another gutbustingly-hilarious imitation of erotic writing
“Slow down.” Emily grabbed his arm, pulling him back down to his seat. “Let's talk about this like adults.” She was still frowning, but her words were less terror-inducing than her facial expression. “You've been helping me for half the semester, and you haven't propositioned me. But obviously you're attracted to me. So, what's the deal? Were you just trying to get into my pants all along?”
I read Wales’ postmortem on the story a few months back (page seems to be dead now or I would link it here) where he talks about how a certain type of reader probably wanted Valencia to, if not get with Joon, at least eternally pine chastely for him. I guess he got to show them.
Here's a copy. (The Wayback Machine is failing to respond at the moment, so I can't tell whether the page has been archived there. It's on archive.today here.)
The biggest thing she adds to the story is probably an interrogation of rescuing a weak person to have them fall for you, and naïve broken birds in general, and showing what maturity means. I think there’s a kind of reader that doesn’t necessarily want Juniper to sleep with Valencia, but does want Valencia to remain virginal and lusting after him in perpetuity.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13d ago
SSRIs are intended for long-term use vs. depression, not short-term use vs. sadness-inducing events. They don't even start working until a month has passed (authoritative article, personal experience).
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13d ago
An interesting observation: colors are literally [more saturated] when you're not depressed.
Note: The overwhelming prevalence of the flawed sRGB/HSL color space in computer screens may lead people to have false impressions regarding which colors truly count as "saturated". The newfangled OKLab/OKLCH color space (1 2) is useful in curing those misconceptions.
I have mixed feelings about the fact that I recently, over dinner, found out that most of my junior colleagues are older than me.
Funny anecdote: Prior to retiring, I asked my boss and a colleague how old they were, and was surprised to learn that they were a whopping ten years older than I was (i. e., in their early 40s). I was expecting them to be just a few years older than I was. But I'm bad at judging ages.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13d ago
Your own article says that there are tens of thousands of YouTube channels with at least one million subscribers. My point is that a random person not already immersed in the relevant niche of the Internet is not likely to recognize one of those tens of thousands of YouTubers.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13d ago
an extremely popular YouTuber
I don't think she counts as "extremely popular".
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Shoe0nHead may have two million subscribers, but I hardly ever see her referenced on /pol/, /r/kotakuinaction, or /r/kotakuinaction2 nowadays, and I doubt that I've ever seen her referenced elsewhere. Red Letter Media has one million subscribers, and I don't think I've ever seen it referenced outside /tv/.
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Actual "extremely popular YouTubers" are those who regularly make Reddit's front page and have people post memes featuring them in Reddit comments—e. g., Markiplier (38 million subscribers), penguinz0 (18 million subscribers), and (I guess formerly) Pewdiepie (109 million subscribers).
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
13d ago
Did they ever do a Vehicles [Third Edition for GURPS] Fourth Edition?
As I have mentioned previously:
Allegedly, GURPS Vehicles Third Edition [for GURPS Fourth Edition] will be published sometime soon—albeit independently by Pulver and with the serial numbers filed off, since Steve Jackson Games can't spare the money to edit it even though it's already largely complete.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
14d ago
Assuming that, if a 30-year-old persuades a 15-year-old to send an explicit photo, it counts as sexual abuse, it seems unreasonable for it to count as sexual abuse when a 15-year-old persuades another 15-year-old to send an explicit photo.
See also: Assuming that drunks/animals can't consent to sex with non-drunks/humans, it seems unreasonable to say that they rape each other whenever they have sex with each other.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
14d ago
The administrator says it's network maintenance. Tor is working fine.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
15d ago
Link to his website
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
15d ago
I didn't like Mother of Learning. It's literally just Time Braid, but worse. It's slower, the fights are less exciting, the characters are flatter, and there is less fanservice.
As a person who has read Time Braid literally half a dozen times (though not within the past few years) and counts it as his favorite book ever (very possibly with rose-tinted glasses), I think this is too harsh an assessment. Not everything needs to be up to eleven all the time. Call Mother of Learning relaxing rather than plodding.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
15d ago
That's necessary in Reddit's implementation, but this site's implementation seems to account for parentheses in URLs automatically.
I'll give Mother of Learning an honest try next to see if the genre is salvageable.
Obligatory complaint: Web serials constitute a publication method, not a genre. I also abandoned A Practical Guide to Evil after skimming the first two books and seeing nothing that interested me, but I've enjoyed many other web serials, including Mother of Learning. See also The Three Musketeers and its sequels, which originated as non-web serials.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
15d ago
I haven't been following this controversy (remember, I'm just a source gofer, it's @hydroacetylene who brought up the topic), but IMO it's far from impossible that legislators want to legalize infanticide, since legitimate scientists have opened the door to the idea.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
17d ago
broken poetry formatting
In order to create a line break (such as between lines of a poetic stanza), you need to add two extra spaces at the end of each line.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
18d ago
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
18d ago
Wikipedia gives the IPA as [ŋwiən˦ˀ˥] (one syllable), which I interpret as equivalent to Anglophone-pronounceable "ng-wi-en" (three syllables).
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
18d ago
Under IBC appendix J, cut and fill slopes of up to 1/2 are permissible without engineering analysis. This appendix has not been adopted by the relevant state govt., but presumably represents typical practice.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
18d ago
Slopes according to the New Jersey Dept. of Transportation (probably copied from AASHTO):
| Slope | Label | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ∈ [0, 1/4] | Recoverable | Unlikely to cause an errant vehicle to roll to the bottom; does not warrant guide rail |
| ∈ (1/4, 1/3] | Nonrecoverable | Unlikely to cause rollover, but likely to cause an errant vehicle to roll to the bottom; warrants guide rail only if there is no unobstructed runout area at the bottom |
| ∈ (1/3, ∞) | Critical | Likely to cause rollover; always warrants guide rail |
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
18d ago
I had a teacher named Fiess who intentionally mispronounced it as "Feiss" in order to avoid comparison with "feces".
List of the 1000 most common USAian surnames
| Surname | Rank | Proportion (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Cox | 82 | 0.084 |
| Wang | 151 | 0.057 |
| Dixon | 170 | 0.052 |
| Ho | 591 | 0.019 |
| Ponce | 683 | 0.016 |
| Hancock | 694 | 0.016 |
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
18d ago
He has essentially said this on Truth Social.
I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing. This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec. I love French Canadians! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Item 1 of 8
The Astral Codex Ten Survey for year 2026 has been posted.
Item 2 of 8
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At 2:40 in the morning, a police officer observes a motorist touch the shoulder line while making a right turn. He activates his dashcam and starts following the motorist. He sees her touch the shoulder line once more, while making another right turn. Then six miles elapse with no further errant driving. Finally, the motorist touches the shoulder line two more times in a ten-second interval. The officer pulls her over. She is obviously intoxicated, and is charged with driving drunk plus failing to stay within her lane.
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The trial judge is skeptical. After viewing the footage in the courtroom, he says: "[I only saw the defendant] 'cross the line' once; 'the other three times, it's just hard to see. It looks like she might touch them a few times, but there's no—'" After viewing the footage one more time in chambers, he suppresses the evidence gathered from the traffic stop (i. e., all evidence that she was drunk) as the fruit of an illegal search, since the officer lacked reasonable suspicion that the motorist was driving drunk. The appeals panel affirms.
Moral of the story: If you are good at driving drunk, you can get away with it!
Item 3 of 8
If you want to estimate the cost of having a custom house built, here's some fun copyright infringement for you.
Item 4 of 8
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A person buys a lawnmower from a retailer. Various warnings appear on the lawnmower, but since it's a display model the manual is not included.
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The person uses the mower to mow his lawn, which includes a very steep area (slope of 1/2; see opinion for photos). While mowing straight down the slope, he slips on wet grass, causing his foot to go under the mower and be mangled. He ends up with 650 k$ of hospital bills. He sues the mower manufacturer for failing to provide sufficient warnings on the mower and for failing to design the mower to prevent the accident, and the retailer for failing to provide the manual.
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The trial judge dismisses the failure-to-warn claims against the manufacturer and the retailer: the mower already bears warnings against (1) mowing straight down a slope shallower than 1/4 and (2) doing any mowing at all on a slope of 1/4 or steeper (see opinion for photo), and the person disregarded both of them. At trial, the jury finds that the mower is not unreasonably dangerous. The appeals panel affirms.
Item 5 of 8
Aren't big companies' social-media algorithms supposed to be perfect conduits of slop to your piehole? I can't even trust YouTube's algorithm to give me something interesting beyond what I (1) already am subscribed to or (2) actively search for. All I have to look forward to is the next day's tranche of court opinions. :-(
New Jersey's appeals judges have been SLACKING, too! >:-(
| Week | Nonprecedential NJ appeals decisions uploaded |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-24 to -30 | 41 |
| 2026-07-31 to -08-06 | 43 |
| 2026-08-07 to -13 | 18 |
| 2026-08-14 to -20 | 13 |
| 2026-08-21 to -27 | 5 |
I took note of this phenomenon last year as well. Maybe they really do have annual mandatory training.
| Week | Nonprecedential NJ appeals decisions uploaded |
|---|---|
| 2025-07-25 to -31 | 40 |
| 2025-08-01 to -07 | 40 |
| 2025-08-08 to -14 | 17 |
| 2025-08-15 to -21 | 20 |
| 2025-08-22 to -28 | 21 |
| 2025-08-29 to -09-04 | 13 |
| 2025-09-05 to -11 | 7 |
| 2025-09-12 to -18 | 15 |
| 2025-09-19 to -25 | 28 |
| 2025-09-26 to -10-02 | 37 |
| 2025-10-03 to -09 | 32 |
Over the past year, I have spent 180 dollars on downloading federal judicial documents from PACER (and uploading them to RECAP) in order to research the background behind the freely-available decisions. ROFL!!!
Item 6 of 8
A large investment company has been headquartered in Florida for many years. After it "encounters severe financial and legal distress", in May 2024 its founders resign and an interim CEO begins an "extended winddown". The interim CEO is headquartered in Texas, and sets up a paper company there in contemplation of filing for bankruptcy, but the business still is headquartered in Miami, and its former executives still live there.
In July 2026, several creditors file an involuntary-bankruptcy petition against the business in Florida. However, one month later, the business files in Texas its own voluntary-bankruptcy petition. The question before the Florida judge is: Which state is the better venue for the proceedings?
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As held in CORCO, economic and efficient administration is the most important factor. Here, it favors Texas. The reason is not that the Debtors filed twenty-three cases there. It is not that their lawyers prefer that court. It is not that the financing documents contain a Texas milestone. It is that GlassRatner, the enterprise's actual management, has been conducting the financial winddown principally from Texas for many months.
CORCO supplies the closest binding analogy. The debtor there had extensive physical operations, employees, assets, records, litigation, and creditors in Puerto Rico. Yet its financial management was in San Antonio. The court reasoned that the debtor's problems were financial and that the people charged with solving them were in Texas. Those realities outweighed the more visible physical connections elsewhere
The same distinction applies here. Miami is where 777 built and conducted the business that failed, but Texas is where GlassRatner is administering what remains. The work ahead includes protecting and servicing receivables, completing asset dispositions, evaluating litigation, resolving intercompany accounts, investigating claims, negotiating with constituencies, and implementing a liquidating plan or trust. The people directing that work are centered in Texas.
This is not a case in which management moved to Texas on the eve of bankruptcy to create venue. [Interim CEO] Shapiro worked from Texas throughout his approximately-two-year tenure. GlassRatner's operational role preceded the formation of Signal National [the Texas paper company] and the Texas filing by a meaningful period. The formal venue mechanism was constructed, but the management connection is a longstanding and present reality.
Item 7 of 8
Way back in year 2008, the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System sued Freddie Mac for misleading investors. In year 2026—literally 18 years later—this lawsuit still is active after three trips to appeals panels.
Item 8 of 8
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New Jerseyans may remember the controversy over Atilis Gym, which attempted to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic in defiance of government restrictions. Apparently, the gym's owner hired somebody to ghostwrite his autobiography, and then sued her, claiming (among other things) that she fraudulently held herself out as an experienced ghostwriter and that her draft was unsatisfactory and he had to rewrite it himself. The ghostwriter countersued, claiming that her draft was perfectly fine and the gym owner was falsely holding it out as his own work.
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The trial judge now generally has sided with the ghostwriter. (1) Neither party breached the contract. (2) Even assuming that the ghostwriter falsely held herself out as experienced (and the judge finds that she did not), this alleged lie cannot be linked to any damages suffered by the gym owner, since he unilaterally canceled the project before the ghostwriter delivered a final draft and received payment from him. (3) While the gym owner did not republish the ghostwriter's draft wholesale, he did make enough use of it as the "foundation" of his rewrite, and did benefit enough from the ghostwriter's promotional and management activities, that he owes 10 k$ to her.
I believe that, if you manage to complete an entire row, column, or prolific author, then you get a badge in the lower right corner.
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