https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=snorkel

Here’s another question: Was this post written by an AI bot? Because it sure reads like it.

Repubs will get rid of him but the plan was, and so far apparently still is, to wait until after January next year, after the midterms and so that Vance will take over with less than half the term remaining, allowing him to run twice more. Their hope was that keeping him around until the midterms would help them hold the majority in both Houses of Congress, more than Vance would be able to. But by now, some of them are regretting that, since he’s going off the deep end further and faster than they expected. They might lose both Houses anyway and now he’s started this catastrophic war. I’m sure some of them are arguing for getting rid of him sooner than planned at this point.

Only $1.5 million? That’s peanuts, especially to Google and especially for such heinous defamation. It should be for at least 100 million.

Complete lie. More like at least 100 billion if not more in direct costs. And of course that doesn’t take into consideration the massive negative effects on the US economy.

That’s why I said he tried to get past security and into the dinner.

I love my Brother laser printer!

Chips A’Roy is crummy.

If you wear glasses or contacts that are for seeing at a distance, it’s hard for your eyes to focus close-up for very long. Same for if you don’t wear glasses at all, if you are reading a lot. So depending on your situation you may just need to take your glasses off while reading, or pick up some cheap reading glasses at the drugstore–making sure to get the right type for easily focusing on the page, or even get bifocals. Best bet is to get an eye exam and tell the optometrist what you’ve said here, so they can figure out what your best options are.

Yeah, I was over-simplifying to make my statement more dramatic and semi-funny, because so many people hate the clock-switching.

It’s complicated. DST is mostly observed in North America, Europe, and part of Australia, and mostly since pre- or during WWII, BUT yes there are a few countries that started later. There are also some original ones that stopped observing it and then started again later. Also, some of the people still alive from when it started would have been too young to be able to agree to it.

So I’ll amend my statement to “The vast majority of people alive today didn’t agree to DST”. Doesn’t have the same punch.

No one alive today agreed to Daylight Saving Time.

This one may sound a bit silly, but it’s worked for me quite a few times:

“Whatever happened before or might happen later, right now, just for this moment, everything’s fine.”

(of course, if something bad is actually happening at a given moment you’re probably not going to be spending time remembering that little tidbit. It’s for when you’re feeling depressed or anxious).

After his gaffe was brought to his attention, Bessent was shaken, not stirred.

Another clip making the rounds on X featured a MAGA hat ablaze on a barbecue grill.

They’re eating the hats …

The only issues I’ve had with LW so far has been how aggressively it blocks things for privacy. I had to change some of the default settings to let me access some sites even though that reduces the amount of privacy.

What kinds of issues did you have, and what’s better about waterfox? I may need to check it out.

I know you say “that one” , but there are several that are kind of tied, that I use every day.

• Firefox --> but since last year, the Librewolf fork.
• emacs
• Thunderbird
• LibreOffice Calc

My fear is that the models merge all kind of patient record info together as the statistical model so the ‘summaries’ will write the most likely word to come next in the phrase, so wrong information and incorrect diagnoses will be recorded into a person’s record, or that important information will be omitted.

I predict that people will be harmed or die because of missing or false information patient records. But it will be difficult for the public to find out about it because of privacy issues and the unwillingness of institutions to acknowledge it.

Drugs have to go through multiple stages of testing and trials before they’re allowed to be used on patients. But no one is doing any kind of testing on the effects of this at all, let alone controlled trial rollouts with review, before allowing general use.

I feel very strongly about this and I would change doctors. But of course it won’t be long before they all do this and we’ll have no alternative. The two biggest problems I see are

1. I saw a news story where a doctor who uses this said it saves her time because before seeing the patient she gets an AI summary of their chart, so she doesn’t have to “go through several tabs” to read the actual information. Oh great, let the statistical probability text generator hallucinate up some shit about what’s in a person’s chart, to save 10 seconds of tab-clicking to read the ACTUAL patient records! If they want a summary there’s no reason a traditional report or summary screen couldn’t be programmed to pull data out of the most important fields and arranging them in the desired format.

2. THEN the doctor uses her damn phone to record your visit, everything you say, and that gets run through the AI which generates a visit summary and puts that into your medical records. So, god only knows what 3rd party private corporate vulture has access to your doctor/patient conversations and what they’ll do with them, and again, what hallucinated shit will get put into your medical records!

So your doctor never reads your chart and never writes your chart! [Readacted] me now! Also what happens after a few iterations of an AI summarizing records that an AI wrote?

Yes, IF it’s during business hours and the desk is open. But that’s another good thing for people to make sure and do if they decide to go ahead with a mail-in ballot.

And I do understand that the move to regional processing centers as their excuse for why things might no longer get postmarked the same day. But that’s what they’re saying and does not negate the fact that they can easily delay postmarking or delivery if they want to, and I don’t think they should be trusted not to want to (or be ordered to). My point is that we’re now at a moment where no government agency can be trusted to not act in a partisan way or to not interfere in our elections.

Yet another tactic to prevent “the wrong people” from voting. But a lot has already been happening even before this. States have been passing laws over the last several years that mail-in ballots can only be counted if they physically arrive at he Election office before Election Day.

It used to be with most states that a ballot would be counted if it arrived by X number of days after Election Day as long as it was postmarked by that day. And it used to be that your mail was postmarked the same day you mailed it, proving for example that you sent in your tax return on time. But not any more. The USPS is now saying that your item might not be postmarked for some time after you actually mail it, depending on when they get around to processing it.

Depending on where you live, relying on a postmark to prove you mailed your tax return, mail-in ballot, bill payment or any other time-sensitive document by a specific date may no longer work as you expect. As the U.S. Postal Service continues implementing operational changes in an effort to shore up its finances and modernize its infrastructure, the agency expects an increase in delays between when you mail something and when it is postmarked, according to a public notice in the Federal Register that took effect Dec. 24. A postmark shows the date your mail was processed, and historically has been applied the same day you mail an item. However, due to limiting pickups at many postal locations and mail now often traveling farther to regional processing centers where the postmark is applied, “the postmark date does not inherently or necessarily align with the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of the mailpiece,” the notice reads.

Mail-in ballots are clearly recognizable in their special envelopes (so they would get priority treatment). So it’s very easy for the Post Office to sort out those ballots from the other mail. And depending on the state, besides your signature it will have your name and return address they could scan and compare to a list, or at the very least they know where it was mailed from. So they could easily screen out ballots from people areas more likely to vote Democratic and simply delay postmarking them until past the deadline, or just hold up delivery to make sure they’re late.

I would say we should avoid voting by mail, or if you do, mail it well before the deadline AND consider driving to a post office in an affluent, white, or in general Republican-leaning area and mailing it from there. But really, at least for the next couple of federal election cycles or for as long as magats are in power, I recommend voting early and in person at the Election office if at all possible.