domain:mattlakeman.org
Tanista
19hr ago
I can get why Coogler didn't want the bad guy to be lying about the Klan, thematically.
I thought the mid-credits scene was a bit indulgent though and raised needless questions about the established vamp lore.
naraburns
nihil supernum
19hr ago
This part was interesting from Frost:
Frost: In terms of who I’m watching for, it’s all the folks who have not yet gone on the record as being opposed to nationwide injunctions.
Who are those people?
Frost: Really everybody but [Justice Neil] Gorsuch, [Justice Samuel] Alito and [Justice Clarence] Thomas.
However, according to this CNN article:
Speaking at a university event in 2022, Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, addressed how nationwide injunctions – when coupled with forum-shopping – were hamstringing administrations of both parties, asserting that “It just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stopped for the years that it takes to go through the normal process,” Kagan said.
My sense has long been that Kagan, as the only remaining Democrat-appointed justice who wasn't purely an affirmative action pick, is an the awkward position of being a genuinely capable jurist saddled with the burden of morons for ideological allies. But when supposed court experts go on Politico to explain who thinks what, and somehow a journalist at CNN manages to know more than them about the state of play, I have to wonder whether the experts are actually ignorant, or simply crafting a narrative.
sun_the_second
19hr ago
I'm not convinced that the Chinese are so different as a people that they don't try to get exactly what they want exactly the way they want, whenever they can. Just look at the way media is altered for their market.
RenOS
Technology giveth, Sociology taketh
20hr ago
My impression is more that there is a somewhat indirect, but stable link between these two: If you're part of the elite, you usually already consider yourself more a cosmopolitan who just happens to life in this particular country. You have lots of elite friends from other countries, you have lived yourself in other countries. You profit from lower-class immigrant workers suppressing salaries. You should be able to live in the good part of wherever you are insulating yourself from most problems. All this together means is that you have a very strong positive disposition towards ethnic diversity. Any negative mention of any ethnic group except your own is frowned up on to such a degree that it is near-impossible to publicly acknowledge even obviously problematic minorities, it's always just specific people or at most this particular clan. Not being able to acknowledge a problem leads to that problem proliferating.
There is also the problem that some groups are simultaneously supplying useful cheap work, but are also high-crime. Some of this is even systematic, such as using legal low margin work companies as a front to do illegal side work which can range from merely supplemental to being the actual income stream. I think that's as usual a spectrum, with extreme cases such as east asian immigration at "great work, no crime, high willingness to fit in", the middle is something like east europeans "low-value work, often significant illegal side work, medium willingness to fit in" and the extreme other would be something like sub-saharan "very little work, income almost entirely illegal or from state support, no willingness to fit in". The middle groups are here for work, but still cause issues and some loss of trust, but just not as much.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
20hr ago
-
November 2022: A homeowner in a homeowners' association seeks to build a four-foot fence in his backyard, four inches from the property line. He receives approval from both the municipal government and the HOA. Accordingly, the fence is constructed.
-
February 2023: The HOA claims that the fence is in violation of the HOA's rules. The homeowner replies that the fence was built in perfect accordance with the plans that were approved three months ago.
-
March 2023: The HOA seeks to amend its rules in order to impose a minimum setback of ten feet on fences. The amendment fails to garner the required two-thirds vote of all members.
-
September 2023: The HOA sues the homeowner under the theory that the minimum setback of thirty feet prescribed in its rules applies, not just to buildings, but also to fences, overriding the minimum of four inches that is prescribed for fences in the municipal zoning code. The trial judge rejects this argument as utterly ridiculous in April 2024, and the appeals panel affirms in May 2025.
Bonus: Trial transcript
I don't know the size of the lots over there, but, unless you've got a couple of acres, 30 feet back off your property line is a pretty significant distance. Frankly, it wouldn't be very aesthetically pleasing if you look at it that way, which is what these HOA rules are meant to provide. They want to keep the community a certain way, and a 30-foot setback requirement for a fence is just unheard of. I've never seen it anywhere. I've never heard of any association's having a 30-foot setback requirement from a property line for a fence. Drive around South Jersey. A lot of the fences, they're often at the property line, but you've got to get them off your neighbor's line unless you get his permission.
So I don't find that there is any material fact here. I think fences are specifically addressed under 8.1(c). If they wanted a setback requirement to be required, 8.1(c) should have had a setback requirement contained within that area. Otherwise, it should have been all under 8.1(dd), and it should have mentioned fences as well, but it did not. They separated them and there's a reason for that. Fences in one and the structures in another, the accessory buildings and shacks. I think it's pretty clear. And, if there is any ambiguity, you resolve that against the drafter. I think the defendants in this matter, they followed exactly what they were supposed to do under 8.1(c). The fence can stay.
FtttG
21hr ago
I think they were able to pay in instalments, half upfront and half at the end of the second semester. I think several droppped out without paying the second half, but I'm not sure. But you're right, quite a big chunk of cheddar, especially given quite a few were international students.
Corvos
21hr ago
That’s hugely excessive. A slightly clunky conversation struck up at the wrong moment is not the same as harassment.
MadMonzer
Temporarily embarrassed liberal elite
21hr ago
With hindsight, she arguably should have called a manager and had you ejected, photographed and banned from the store for bothering on-the-clock employees while not being a customer.
Botond173
21hr ago
It also bears mentioning that Playboy used to release a multitude of (mostly) short erotic/softcore movies on VHS. Supposedly subscribers could receive them via mail-order for an additional fee or something, and cable channels also broadcast them. I think this was important in terms of brand recognition and building, especially in an age when distribution via VHS was still the norm. Before the age of cheaply available broadband internet it was much easier to control the distribution of such content and limit piracy/filesharing.
And it’s also unironically true that Playboy usually featured interesting articles as well.
Botond173
21hr ago
I guess it’s just a simple case of scarcity. Women tend to either have well-shaped tits that are small, or big tits that are often misshapen and saggy, and of course get increasingly saggy with aging, which most women are terrified of already. Only a small minority of women have the sort of ideal breasts that earn you a Playboy photoshoot, so small that it’s impossible to fill all titty mags only with pictures of them. Hence the sad and pathetic proliferation of bolt-on tits.
MadMonzer
Temporarily embarrassed liberal elite
22hr ago
Is the loss in social trust caused by ethnic diversity in general, or by specific high-crime ethnic groups? The high crime groups (ADOS blacks in the US, Jamaicans and Somalis in the UK, Arabs and Afghans in Continental Europe) did not get here through work-based legal immigration.
Corvos
22hr ago
€8000 seems like quite a lot of money for 1/3 of your classmates to toss away, though. I’m surprised.
MadMonzer
Temporarily embarrassed liberal elite
22hr ago
No - it's the recharge rate that the supervisor's employer charges the student's college. Informally, it is also the standard rate for self-employed supervisors. (In the UK there is no overhead on a self-employed worker). The direct overhead on a Cambridge academic is about 30% - 15% employers' NI and 14.5% pension contribution. They took this into account by calculating a supervision at 2.5 hours pay when the supervision takes about 1 hour contact time and 1 hour marking time.
FtttG
22hr ago
The fees for my master's were €8k. But you're right: my understanding is that in Italy, it's pretty normal for people to be constantly enrolled in a post-grad course which they spend years finishing, more or less explicitly so that they can avail of student discounts at cinemas, coffee shops etc.
Corvos
22hr ago
My understanding is that in Europe university is free and therefore much more ad-hoc than in UK and US where it’s a massive investment.
I’ve always thought it sounded like a good system but haven’t had a chance to try it.
For what it's worth my university front loaded the weed out classes. Freshman year courses graded on a curve to give the bottom portion a hint to go to business school or some other joke major.
TIRM
23hr ago
Classes at elite universities have long abandoned the idea that they actually teach skills and knowledge, in favor of the idea that they pre-selected the best kids, made sure they could pass basic tests, and then certify them to other users
There's an old quip about how the only way to flunk out of Harvard is to die of a heroin overdose. It's at least as old as the 90s. Google is crippled and won't show me.
Corvos
23hr ago
Is that what the Chinese say? I’d be interested to read a translated article or whatever if you happen to have one.
overworked SF nerds with more money than sense
I naively would have thought some significant minority of them would go for all the transwomen we work with. As best I can tell no one does. It must be more than zero, but so low I somehow don't notice. I certainly notice all the asian wives and half-asian kids.
TIRM
23hr ago
men can still, to this day, be forced to fight and die for society
I understand you are not American. From my very American perspective: yes, I registered for selective service, which is our national male military draft program. I volunteered for some hypothetical draft. I predict if they ever to use the draft in anything other than an apocalyptic impossible situation in which mainland America was invaded, it would be an unmitigated shitshow. Our culture used to have a commonly used draft. A significant minority of American men were called to military service including in peace time to maintain a standing military. The Vietnam War ruined it beyond recovery.
faul_sname
Fuck around once, find out once. Do it again, now it's science.
23hr ago
Wait is Chili's not considered a full-service restaurant? Also that sounds about right for a Chili's (restaurant staff generally makes ~23-27/h here based on the help wanted signs I see in windows, probably on the upper end of that considering the selection effects, and $20pp sounds rightish for dinner out somewhere nonpretentious).
CertainlyWorse
No one is coming. It's just you.
1d ago
He really is the ur-example of the bimbo fetish.
I'd expect something less like genocide and more like anti-homeless hostile architecture turned up to 11. Don't need to kill the useless eaters if they can't take the resources your drone factories loot for yourself.
More options
Context Copy link