Idk, ask the Texas Tribune, haha.

I feel people have made the same mistake before, and confused crowdtangle, which is a disinformation tracker, and tangles, which is a “surveillance-for-hire outfit.” Meta probably felt the need to clarify, at least once time before.

One point of contention. I dont think tangles is some defunct meta app. Texas has recently acquired a contract with a law enforcement surveillance tool called tangles.

Tangles is a product offered by the cybersecurity company Cobwebs Technologies, which was founded in Israel in 2014 by three former members of Israeli military special units. The company has said their products, which are marketed as open source intelligence (OSINT) tools, have been used to combat terrorism, drug smuggling, and money laundering, but Meta has accused the company of operating as a surveillance-for-hire outfit. In 2023, Cobwebs Technologies was acquired by the Nebraska-based tech firm PenLink Ltd.

This tool is out there, and still being used.

Per the article

The resolution simply requires the hand counting of physical paper ballots at the precinct level to ensure it matches the total reported by the tabulators. This does not involve a hand-count tabulation of the vote totals but rather simply the total number of physical ballots cast at that particular precinct.

So, because in Tennessee, a QR Code error created a mismatch between the number of physical ballots vs tabulated ones, and they found the same code error in 64 out of 66 counties in Georgia’s tabulators, they are going to hand count the number of ballots to make sure it matches the number the tabulators counted. Especially, since they apparently found a bunch of additional ballots in some counties, as well…

I mean, this seems reasonable on the surface. But, considering the situation, it seems like it could all go really sideways.

Isn’t there another way they could count just the number of paper ballots? Like, as they come in, instead of later on, by hand? I’m not sure of the way thier system / machines work, or of a way that would convince everyone of privacy, but…like a laser counter that counts every time its broken, or something…Idk, there just seems like there has to be a better way.

Edit: so really, objectively speaking, this is an issue. One that wouldnt be caught unless they ordered a hand recount after the fact. I mean, obviously, this isnt an objective source, but, unless theyre just straight up making this up (which I suppose is a possibility), how is not having every ballot counted OK? Isnt there a better suggestion than breaking the seal immediately, counting everything by hand, and inviting all the issues that come with that? Something that could even be presented to the court or something as an alternative, that everybody could agree with. At least people could say they tried to solve the issue another way. If it gets rejected, then it would be plainly obvious there were ulterior motives. At this point, it sounds as if theres some plausible deniability behind the reasoning for hand counting.

Thats a street urchin. Strangely, this blog post was one of the first links that came up. It ponders how the name street urchin came to be.

It says

Looking in the OED, I see two possibly relevant definitions. 1c. A goblin or elf. (From the supposition that they occasionally assumed the form of a hedgehog.)… There is also 4a. A pert, mischievous, or roguish youngster; a brat.

Edit: formatting is crazy

Bet they use this case as reason to ban abortion pills instead.

I mean, drinking it (well tasting) used to be the legit way of testing it.

There doesn’t seem to be an indication of how far along this is. An embryo turns into a fetus at 10 weeks. Stupid healthline says the brain left and right halves of the brain don’t develop until the third trimester. At that point abortion is reserved for severe birth defects and such.

I mean, in reality I would assume this would be it’s purpose. But when put next to a picture of, what seems to be, him outside, the mind starts to wander.

Obviously, disabled and handicapped people also go outside, so it’s silly to generalize…the posted picture just doesn’t help the picture in my mind go to appropriate places…

I thought the same thing myself, until I noticed the drain…

Now I’m stuck imagining what he was doing with the chair in the shower.

Well then that’s not so bad. I mean it still will change the way you hear, but definitely not as drastic.

I was always under the impression he had like at least 3/4 of the ear gone. Lame.

TIL

Conch you fool, not cootch…jeeze , lol

Definitely. A piercing in my conch, was enough to give me some mildly annoying tinnitus for years.

Can’t imagine if my ear was just…gone.

Stab in the dark…your on tmobile.

It does this to me too. You disable the damn thing, then you get a carrier update and it reactivates and downloads stupid games no one wants.

First time it did it to me, I thought I got a virus. Come to find out…nah it’s just a thing tmobile forces on you for fun.

Assholes

there’s a common misunderstanding in texas, as well, about cedar trees.

a while back, a ranch owner with ALOT of land, who was considered a great steward of trees, was interviewed for an article and stated that new cedars used too much water and that he tears them all out of areas where he wants to maintain a forest of alternate trees (i.e. oak, elm, whatever, idk)

everyone took that to mean tear out all cedar trees whether there was a forest of other trees or not, no matter how much land you have. they completely overlooked the qualifiers to practice this type of land management. (obviously owning cows are a different story, but almost none of these people own cows)

a ridiculous amount of land in Central Texas (esp the hill country) now is barren save the 1 or 2 odd scraggly oak trees here and there. anytime someone buys land (even a couple of acres) the first thing they do is clear cut the damn place, causing unnecessary erosion, bringing in uneeded heat, and in general, killing the ecosystems that made that area special in the first place.