20 hours ago, Tanooki said:

  Sadly another parallel so far, more lip service than action, sending supplies but little else, other than those who say screw it and go on their own choosing to help out directly.

 

Not for nothing, but the USA has sent a third of ALL javelin missiles in existence to Ukraine.

The supplies the west provides are absolutely critical to Ukraine's continued successful defense. (Coupled with sanctions that have already made Russia incapable of repair or replacement of lost equipment)

It would be great if we could help more directly with air support, but it is hard to see how that could happen without it providing Russia with an excuse to deploy tactical nukes out of desperation, or at the very least opens the door for them to fire cruise missiles indiscriminately into NATO territory in retaliation, raising the stakes for civilians outside of Ukraine.

40 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Do you think biological females with abnormally high, but natural levels of testosterone should also not compete against biological females in sport? 

I think that generally falls within the intended spirit of the rules when separating male and female athletes for physical competition.  Similar to genetically gifted male athletes being able to dominate their sport.  (Though in the case of Castor Semenya, there was some pretty invasive scrutiny to "prove" she was genetically female, given that she had a rather extreme outlier case of androgenic hormones)

But to your question, are you suggesting that a biological male that goes through normal male puberty, and increases muscle mass to athletic male levels due to natural testosterone ends up in a fair competition with genetic females just from suppressing their current testosterone (for 1 year, or however long it was)?  They gained essentially all of the physiological athletic  advantage of actually being male into adulthood.  That doesn't just go away and create a level playing field if the person continues to work out and maintain as much of their original male muscle levels as possible (aside from the direct mechanical benefits of being naturally larger framed due to male puberty).

It is a genuinely challenging and interesting question, where from the ethical side the decision starts to revolve around which group exercising their rights infringes more, or less, on the other group attempting to exercise similar rights (in terms of equal access to competition that lead to school admissions, scholarships, etc)

This is wholly separate from accepting, socially, that people can be whoever they feel they need to be, to be themselves.

31 minutes ago, OptOut said:

 

So, yes, biology plays a big part in gender, but so do many other things. And in fact, even when it comes to biology, the chromosomes themselves are no where near as important as hormones. You give someone the right hormone treatment and they will be WAY more whatever gender they want to be than whatever their chromosomes are saying, guaranteed!

From what I understand the sports issue is more about sex (and  sex hormones during peak developmental years) than it is about gender, though.

If someone goes through puberty and early adulthood with fully functioning testicles and male genetics, but then switches to hormone suppressing drugs to reduce testosterone levels - from a standpoint of athletic competition, would you say that is materially different from a genetically female (with baseline female-sexed testosterone levels) taking anabolic steroids during her peak developmental years and then discontinuing use?

Separating the discussion from "gender" and what a person feels they are, and talking purely from the standpoint of athletic physiology and development.

I don't know that there is a "right answer" but it is an interesting topic to consider.

10 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

I

true human hermaphrodite doesn’t exist, correct?

Since the structure for the organs starts from a common origin, having a truly full set of both male and female sex organs would probably require you to actually be conjoined male twins where one of them had androgen insensitivity so ended up with a vagina instead of a penis. 

There are definitely a wide range of possible birth defects that result in "ambiguous" combinations of apparent sex organs, though.

On 4/11/2022 at 4:54 AM, Estil said:

Well the gov't and military and those who are actually the evil doers (as Dubya Bush would say)...I mean I don't reckon most rank and file Russians like this anymore than we do.  It's not their fault.

Rank and file Russian soldiers that are too cowardly to defect or simply refuse illegal orders are actively doing evil in this war.  They have no excuse, unless they are trying to help in a round about way by becoming fertilizer.

Slava Ukraini.

I have only skimmed the thread, but I hope the couple of early seeming-apologists for Russia have managed to extract their heads from their anuses before they suffocated.

Anyone that thinks a meaningful percentage of Russian speaking Ukrainians want to be ruled by Russia is a fucking idiot. They want freedom. They all are old enough or have enough family that remember how shitty it was the last time Russia was in charge and want absolutely nothing to do with it.

And enough Russian troops have been smart enough to defect or go AWOL that the rest committing atrocities have absolutely no excuses for "just following orders".

14 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Again, your tax obligation hasn't changed because of this. It was always there. The only new requirement is that you be sent a 1099.

What has changed is the direct need to file the paperwork since a reported 1099 without a matching line on your tax return is bad news.

Yes, you "should have" been doing this anyway, but for yard sale like selling (cleaning house of old stuff and potentially less than paid) most low volume sellers would have skipped the hassle of the paperwork.

The other actual problem this 1099 creates is that for hobby sellers, they get screwed by shipping, fees, and sales taxes being included in the reported gross.  Only businesses can take those deductions, and if you are really a hobby sellers, not a business, it is up to you whether to take the risk of claiming those deductions.

16 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

Miiiiiiiiike  you old dog you. 
aunt jeann just left us. This estate sale….it’s going in somebody’s pocket that didn’t pay for those things.

Estate sales are different.

Heirs get a stepped up cost basis, so what was paid for a thing is irrelevant.

The only thing that matters is whether the total value exceeds the estate tax exclusion.

8 hours ago, avatar! said:

 

"It's that some people's attitude toward work has changed. If you're a couple with five kids and you're getting $250 credits on each of them, plus the food stamps, you can keep one of you at home and take care of your kids."

Yup, some people are happy staying home doing nothing... ugh. Honestly, this is so antithetical to the American dream.

 

I would think one worker supporting a household while one can take care of the kids IS part of the American dream, and that through a variety of reasons we have all gradually succumbed to the need for dual income households over the last few decades.

Also, you are obviously not a parent if you think being a stay at home parent with 5 kids is "doing nothing"...

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

I saw that clickbait headline on the mass zoom firing, but now reading that paragraph I'm really curious if that rant has some merit.

Is he a dick, or did he take out some entitled trash who were defrauding their time clock like some antiwork stooges?

I think if that was really the fact of the matter, you would just do it via letters from HR, rather than some sort of video production where you go on camera and talk about how you almost cried the last time you had to do something like this.

The optics certainly would have been better in that case, IMO.

6 hours ago, FireHazard51 said:

I totally knew what you were going to say before you said it.  This isn't the first time a cure for something was a cure for another thing that was hindering the body from fighting off the thing that it was claimed to fix.  I'm sure MANY people will take that global improvement at face value and not see what the real cause for improvement was.  

I'm getting so dark with Covid any more that the new variant that is come out has got me going....

The other kind of funny thing, is that if it is true that omicron has "common cold" coronavirus parts, it seems like a nonzero chance that a targeted booster/vaccine may "cure" that class of common colds entirely...

21 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Woman wins court battle over treating her husband's COVID-19 with ivermectin. That was just the beginning.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-wins-court-battle-over-170915572.html

She wrote on a website called Caring Bridge, “My faith has wavered this week. I’m up. I’m down. One minute, I’m on my knees with tears streaming down my face. The next, I’m driving Keith’s car, shouting and screaming and ranting till my throat breaks.

“Asking God WHY?”

She wrote, “Will ivermectin save my husband’s life? I don’t know. Maybe not.”

She concluded, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds. I don’t know where God is.”

Things go your way - "GOD IS GREAT!"

Things don't go your way - "God has abandoned us!"

Doctor says to do something - "You're the devil! Give my husband his horse medicine NOW!"

I read an interesting and thorough metastudy that GLOBALLY, taking ivermectin was generally helpful for Covid because, on average, people around the globe are likely to have parasites that make it harder for their bodies to fight covid successfully in the first place.

It was a truly fascinating take on things.

Obviously has no support for taking it if you live in a developed country with safe food and water, which most of the most vocal ivermectin proponents do...

7 hours ago, JVOSS said:

the corn oil and olive oil are going on the back shelf now... ever use grape seed oil for cooking?

Grape seed oil is OK.  Don't find it to be as good as avocado oil, and lacks the flavor appeal of olive or coconut oils.

8 hours ago, JVOSS said:

Coconut OIL!!!!  really!!!!  and Flavacol is that like the theater butter?

For awesome popcorn, airpop popcorn sprayed with coconut oil cooking spray and sprinkled with salt is fantastic.

10 from me.  One of the all time best.

It is simultaneously one of the best in multiple genres as the tone shifts during each act of the movie.

Also just saw Dune today... Can you imagine if Denis Villeneuve got tapped to make an Alien movie?

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Some fly-by-night middling scores.  Come on guys, debate!

Nuke em from orbit.  It's the only way to be sure.

18 minutes ago, avatar! said:

In most states, parents are responsible for all malicious or willful property damage done by their children. This is called civil parental liability because it's non-criminal. The parent is obligated only to financially compensate the party harmed by his or her child's actions.

https://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0061.htm

Of course, getting parents to pay what they owe will likely require an attorney, and of course parents can always claim they don't have the money etc etc...

 

You don't get to just claim you don't have the money.

You have to prove it, and then your wages get garnished until the civil penalty is paid.

For that middle story... Is it not typical that parents are financially responsible for damages caused by their kids?  I would have thought that was standard practice.

12 hours ago, Rhapsody98 said:

Anything at Sotheby's is going to be only for the 1%'ers, though.  That's kind of it's function.  

 0.01%-ers...

1 hour ago, Shmup said:

Anyone got theirs yet? I just received an email from EB Games that mine is ready to pickup, going to grab it tonight. I'm interested to try out the app as well.

Mine showed up a week ago.

Looks great, might finally have time to break it out and play this weekend.

1 hour ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

A great movie where I seem to notice something new everytime I watch it. Definitely a personal favorite. 10/10.

Exactly. One of the best.

We are living in crazy land if there is an attempt to characterize 30%APY as "moderate" in any form or fashion.

So basically, they are paying tokens as interest on people willing to buy and hold tokens to draw capital into their ecosystem.

That doesn't sound particularly sustainable.

I am curious whether people participating in these schemes understand the very real financial and legal risk of clawback, where, once the whole thing falls apart, people who profited can be made to return all profit and then some to help spread out the losses with those who go into it too late to see a positive return.

Just because it is "decentralized finance" it doesn't completely neuter the legal ability to go after a Ponzi scheme if it turns out to be one.

2 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

I'm all in on Orion Protocol yield farming. Currently receiving APRs between 35% and 300%, depending on the coin.

I would be curious to hear an attempt at an explanation for where those kinds of yields could come from.

These kinds of things scream "clawback risk" depending on how it all falls apart when the music stops 

33 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

No. I think it will crash down to the $10-$15 range within a few days. But I clearly don't know anything about anything haha.

No telling how soon it would drop, but I agree the long term prospect seems dubious, since it isn't particularly clear how they would make money, unless they are running paid subscription.

It just seems like a brand gamble to affiliate a business with that particular platform by paying for advertising.

31 minutes ago, OptOut said:

He was being seen by paramedics, there was an air ambulance on the scene within minutes, which my friend told me about as it was happening because he lives like right across the road from where it happened.

There was no way Amess could have been moved at that time, however, he was stabbed at least 17 times. There was nothing anyone could have done to save him. 

Ok, that makes sense -- was just surprised at the comment about being worried about paramedics trashing the scene...