Spyke

Replies

news

Comment on

Escalating Threats to Midterm Elections, Bannon Says Trump Will ‘Have ICE Surround the Polls’

Reply in thread

Hi, poll worker here and this is absolutely accurate. If you stand in or near our polling place we will absolutely have you removed.

However… observing polls is a core part of a functional democracy and I strongly encourage you to do so. Each county is a bit different, but essentially every single one of them have some sort of process that you can register as an observer and you’ll be legally protected while observing and documenting what you see. If you’re affiliated with a political party, contact your local officials and they can help facilitate, as most observers are party affiliated.

news

Comment on

*Permanently Deleted*

Reply in thread

Garcia was later treated at the renowned Grossman Burn Center, where he received not one but two skin grafts on his penis. Garcia's attorney, Trial Lawyers for Justice co-founder Nick Rowley, said Garcia's penis was permanently discolored and disfigured, with less length and less girth.

Rowley said the key evidence during the trial was the surveillance footage of the incident taken from inside the coffee shop. Rowley said the footage clearly showed the barista secure two of the cups in the caddie but not the third, causing it to spill less than two seconds after Garcia took it into the car.

https://www.courthousenews.com/starbucks-hit-with-50-million-jury-verdict-for-hot-tea-that-scalded-and-disfigured-postmates-drivers-penis/

He didn’t hold 3 drinks, he was handed a drink carrier and one of the drinks was negligently secured. The jury took 40 minutes to determine that Starbucks was at fault, and Starbucks themselves offered $3m and $30m settlements at different points. How much do you think two skin grafts to your genitalia are worth?

games

Comment on

What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews.

Reply in thread

The first felt really fresh at the time. FPS was dominated by various milsim shooters and Halo, and the irreverence and clever cell shading style worked well.

Two dialed things up in scope and scale and added some nice environmental variety.

But the rest? The presequel? The 3rd? I just couldn’t. It was more of the same, tired, repetitive, the jokes started really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I had fun early on, but I’m out.

Comment on

There is a fee to close my HSA account

Reply in thread

No, you should probably collect your documentation and engage an attorney. Money in an HSA is yours, whether you leave the company or not. Your contributions need to be made while you’re covered under an eligible health plan, but once you’ve made the contribution, funds are yours forever, and can be spend on any eligible expense in the future.

news

Comment on

Trump tells Walmart to 'eat the tariffs' after retailer warned it will raise prices

Reply in thread

Obviously this entire situation is insane from many perspectives, but strictly speaking, it’d be 30% added to the cost of acquiring merchandise, rather than the overall margin. The price of goods is a small fraction of Walmart’s overall expenses, compared to logistics and freight, labor, real estate, shrink and such. The actual impact to margins is probably more like 10% or so. Which is simultaneously both something Walmart could probably eat, and more than the Walton family is willing to swallow.

news

Comment on

‘FEMA has not been on the ground’: St. Louis mayor pleads for federal aid in wake of devastating tornado

Reply in thread

I very much like the sentiment, but I’d mostly advocate for a data backup that doesn’t require any particular effort or memory to preserve in an emergency.

Obviously everyone’s personal situation varies, but as a simple default I usually recommend that friends and family simply use whichever cloud drive service is available from the device manufacturer that stores their photos (ie, google Drive, Microsoft one drive, or Apple iCloud). Photos are almost always the most irreplaceable digital asset, storage is typically just a few bucks a month, and using the “default” provider usually requires zero skill, effort, or recurring action. Other than making sure you can afford the auto-debit each month, your backs are mostly foolproof.

Cons include a dependency on a cloud service, which has a recurring charge and a privacy impact. The charge is typically minor vs the cost of a NAS or similar, and most services have some privacy assurances that may be enough to ease your concern. Nobody will ever care as much about your backups as you, but in aggregate a team of skilled full time FAANG engineers is often a more robust administrator than a solo customer.

If you have the desire and resources, you could and should do both backups, or as many as you reasonably can manage in as many places as possible.

news

Comment on

Nearly 60 Idahoans sick after drinking raw milk in past two weeks, officials say

Reply in thread

This is right wing Idaho… many of these folks haven’t sat in a school for a day in their life. They were “home schooled” or went to a cultist religious school. The government distrust runs so deep that a bunch of them likely were born in their own home, never saw a doctor, never had a vaccination, and don’t legally exist on paper.

I’m not saying they don’t have any responsibility for their actions… but if you consider the environment they have been immersed in… they don’t really stand a chance.

Comment on

*Permanently Deleted*

Reply in thread

In fact, in a few certain situations you can actually purchase higher-end hardware than the pros use. UCI has restrictions on shape and weight that need not apply to non sanctioned riders, and there are improvements that are available in both aero and weight. Notably, Triathlon specific bikes are often markedly faster than UCI compliant bikes due to the aggressive aerodynamic optimization.

Comment on

*Permanently Deleted*

Reply in thread

I’ll try to give better context since you’re coming in blind.

As in many sports, “fired” isn’t generally the term used when athletes are dropped from teams, but it’s true that he likely would have preferred to continue racing at least for his current team, Sauber.

Bottas is generally very well liked, and there’s no indication that there was a personality conflict between himself and Sauber. Unfortunately, this is a very competitive sport and Bottas is nearing the natural end of his career. He has been blisteringly fast before, but was never a serious world championship contender, and the team he’s with have decided to move on with other drivers.

Prior to racing with Sauber, he was a reliable and quick #2 driver at powerhouse Mercedes, cementing them as one of the most dominant teams of all time, and helping them to a string of championships. During this time, one of their fiercest rivals was Red Bull. Red Bull has their own pipeline of talented drivers, and while they likely respect Bottas’ skill, it’s unlikely that they’re interested in hiring aging talent that is firmly associated with their rivals.

If I could use a strained example, it’s a bit like saying that Steve Ballmer of Microsoft wouldn’t get a job at Apple because Steve Jobs didn’t like him. It may be true, but Jobs has no control over Ballmer at Microsoft and couldn’t fire him in any case.