WesternWind

There's an expectation on MeFi that people's lived experience trumps people's hot takes.

Whereas in a lot of communities, HN included, a majority viewpoint, even if it reflects a very shallow understanding, can be immensely popular.

To some extent that's just bike-shedding, and maybe that's okay on HN, but Metafilter covers a wider range of topics, and handles a lot of them well.

Programming is a pathway to a middle class life for a lot of folks, but not everyone.

But really the issue is that every job should be a pathway to a middle class life.

Gas stations in California certainly have different prices for CC vs cash, but they have to show both prices I believe. If you just charge extra for credit cards, that's a surcharge and falls under different rules.

I think you can also advertise the credit card price and offer a cash discount.

Debit cards still have transaction fees, though lower ones I believe, so they usually get the same price as credit cards, but none of the benefits like points.

Doordash defines itself as a technology company responsible for connecting customers with restaurants using dashers as contractors for delivery and itself providing logistics for ordering, paying, and routing dashers.

Can you imagine what the press would do if Doordash actually sued the local pizza place because it was dumb, or filed a police report? I think it wouldn't be pretty, and the stock price could go down, and doing something that makes your stock go down can lead to an investor lawsuit.

Not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, I'd love to see a lawyer analyze this though.

This site was useful enough for me that I got it for my phone. Some brown noise with ANC headphones and I don't have to hear other people.

I don't miss it being run by google or forced into every product, but google+ circles were so much better then facebook friend lists.

But I refuse to be nostalgic for FB, it's always been meh to me.

And the sad thing with all these changes is it's going to frustrate all the old retirees who just want their computer to do the same thing that it used to do.

American roads could also be a lot safer.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90771003/american-roads-are-desi...

Yeah but we commute by car way more. We used to have way more railroads and public transit in the US.

You have to look at kilometers driven per person, not just ownership.

Americans drive far far more than most other industrialized nations.

https://frontiergroup.org/blogs/blog/fg/fact-file-americans-...

Nobody wants to work for low rates if there is an alternative.

That's not entirely true I don't think?

A jury trial determines facts, but a bench trial can still occur.The difference between a bench trail is things like discovery, which can be enormously expensive.

I think state constitutional amendments or state ballot initiatives are the current best possible way to reform this. Of course not all states let citizens pass stuff without going through a gerrymandered state legislature.

And of course it's not just gerrymandering, but the electoral college and a host of other things that are just done badly.

These are all fixable problems, even if they are difficult. In fact both the electoral college and gerrymandering at the federal level would be improved if we just doubled or tripled the number of representatives in the House. The smaller the districts the harder it is to gerrymander effectively. Course to do that we probably need to get rid of the filibuster.

That's half right.

The Biden administration has been appointing judges, using the fact that it has a bare majority of the senate (50 + the VP). All Federal judges need Senate approval. Biden in fact had the largest number of Article III judicial nominees confirmed during a president's first year in office since Reagan.

Democrats aren't trying to work completely legislatively, in fact this decision is an injunction against an administrative rulemaking applying a Supreme court decision preventing sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in the workplace to other parts of the same law.

Because at least one of the 50 Democratic senators don't support the elimination of the senate filibuster for normal legislation, the only laws passed by congress under Biden have been reconciliation bills, which have to be primarily financial in nature, and a few bipartisan bills, (the post uvalde bill on responsible gun ownership and red flag laws).

You are right that Republicans are attempting to entrench minority rule using gerrymandering though.

Sorry yes, it doesn't work. It only works on Chrome afaik.

Here's a document from 1961 that shows planned bart stops. Not quite a ring, but it's interesting how many of these places ended up as caltrain stops instead.

Of course the north bay just noped out on anything like that.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5057/5423961825_2d5af7cef4_o....

If you live in a bigger city like Seattle or LA you are probably set when it comes to getting food, even specific onion varieties, but the mail goes everywhere, and there are plenty of places where you don't have those options.

Same with Firefox on MacOS here.

You are largely right, though one can apply the canons of construction to understanding a law's text, which sometimes can sometimes lead to inferences.

https://www.law.uh.edu/faculty/adjunct/dstevenson/2018Spring...

An interesting question that probably deserves it's own ask HN post.

It's interesting that it starts off talking about elite backgrounds by discussing graduate degrees, and only later talks about wealth as an influence.

Wealth seems like such a huge factor in who is successful in this country. Whereas I know quite a few people with college degrees, even graduate degrees, that aren't using that knowledge in their work.

quoting the law, "THIS SECTION DOES NOT ESTABLISH A RIGHT OR AUTHORIZE ANY PERSON TO MAKE A VIDEO RECORDING OF LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITY."

It's bold to suggest their intent is relatively clear when the Court is literally reversing it's past standard in this case and many others this term.

I'm always a fan of scotusblog coverage.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/justices-side-with-high-s...

My personal opinion, if it matters is that Gorsuch argues that we need to assess religious exercise and the establishment clause based on what the founders knew and thought, and he misconstrued (as shown in the pictures in the dissent) the facts of the case to achieve his preferred outcome.

But even if he hadn't, there's a danger to Originalism, in that people in the past didn't have the information we have now. The founders probably weren't nearly as aware of how children are uniquely vulnerable to coercion and influence by authority figures, for example.

Thomas Jefferson wrote (and this quote was inscribed on his memorial), "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

I think the definition of slavery doesn't change when people do awful things. I don't think it's great for the economy either.

I think people need to think more about their theory of justice, and about psychology and sociology, and I hope nobody is deciding their ideas about what a justice system should be based on an anecdote like that.

The idea of justice as retributive punishment, a penalty you pay, is older than the bible.

Have folks heard of Beccaria, Howard Zehr, and John Rawls? Here's a short blog post about Beccaria, whom Voltaire said everyone should read. https://www.exurbe.com/on-crimes-and-punishments-and-beccari...

And Beccaria was writing centuries ago, Howard Zehr and John Rawls are both influential 20th century thinkers who had important ideas on what a more just society should look like.

I mean one can at least say that it's treated as a salient factor. And a good education does inform how people think about justice. For example, the jury selection this blogger talks about. https://www.exurbe.com/on-crimes-and-punishments-and-beccari...

You can mail checks, you know. Certified mail, pictures for documentation.

Then you'll see if they take the money from your account.

Typed the first thing that came to my head honestly, thinking about Russia and Ukraine.

A game about organizing against a neofascist oligarchy in a future America? But it's turn based and more strategic, not an RPG with missions. Call it Rise Up.

Not just congenital disorders, but mental health disorders as well. It's been known for a while that paternal age is a risk factor for schizophrenia.

I had an internship at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (before I moved into software development). Paternal age was used as one factor in determining if people were at risk for psychotic breaks (schizophrenic prodromes) by one of the assessment tools they developed.

Or you hire one entry level person, promote internally and have employees who are quick to train and ready to contribute.