All Activity
This stream auto-updates
- Yesterday
-
-
Indian accent at that....
-
Interesting topic, I never really investigated or understood. Legal is not one of my preferred subjects of study as I generally find myself disgusted by language form of the whole topic but both my career and personal life has resulted in a greater need to understand it. That being said the primary reason I looked into this was due to this interesting ruling in Germany: Tesla’s wiper controls are ruled illegal in Germany after someone crashed while using them which was really a media spin on the situation as Germany is getting to be really anti-Tesla due to it impacting one of their primary industries. More important is the false headline in the article due to Germany being a Civil Law rather than Common Law country where the ruling does not really apply to Tesla as a whole in Germany but rather in that specific case. Interesting food for thought. In general though, I believe our current justice system requires some significant reform due to the social issues that are impacting the country today (POTUS flagrant disregard for many previous expected norms and the BLM movement due to perceived injustices in the system).
-
-
So Apex gets a new "builder" character with an accent and a deployable turret. And Valorant just got a new "builder" character with an accent and a deployable turret. uhh....
- Last week
-
-
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3569182/whats-wrong-with-intel-and-how-to-fix-it-former-principal-engineer-unloads.amp.html More on the screwed up decisions of Intel. Jim Keller recently left intel as well. I think Intel pissed him off TBH.
-
Minor bit of news, the New York AG is currently attempting to dissolve the NRA. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/06/new-york-nra-lawsuit-ag-james-accuses-gun-group-execs-of-self-dealing.html There are multiple issues with the NRA, not the least of which is their leadership. There are other better organizations like the 2nd amendment foundation or the gun owners of America and others that would increase in size if the NRA is shut down.
-
I think that's a pretty gross simplification of common vs civil law. I do think there are issues with common law: Elected judges - This creates huge conflict of interest at lower levels, sometimes these judges will ask local attorneys for contributions to their campaign, these are the same attorneys who will most likely be presenting cases to these judges. The upside of elected rather than appointed judges is that you can remove them through voting rather than more complicated means. We have both types of judges in the US, with some judges like federal judges being appointed for life. Juries - Juries are supposed to represent the general population but there are severe issues with how jury selection is generally handled. Most working professionals try to get out of jury duty because it represents a financial burden (generally jury duty is unpaid, and the stipend is a joke) this means that the jury pool isn't a great representation of the general population Also remember that no attorney will ever be selected for a jury pool, both the prosecution and defense do not want people with education in law on the jury for their own reasons Depending on the type of case juries have the authority to convict (guilty/not guilty) and sentence (determine punishment) which can result in some very odd sentencing. I tend to prefer the idea of judges handing down sentences using guidelines and having to provide clear reasoning for sentencing outside those guidelines. Note that sentencing is probably one of the most disparate issues with our current justice system, multiple studies have shown that women receive on average much lower sentences than men for similar crimes, and likewise people of color often receive harsher sentences than whites for similar crimes - I firmly believe that fixing this issue alone would be a huge benefit to our justice system Prosecution & Plea systems - Prosecutors actually do not want to take cases to trial, they're far more likely to try and get people to plead guilty for lesser charges or reduced sentencing. This is because these guilty pleas add to their record of convictions "I'm tough on crime I prosecuted many cases and have a 90% conviction rate" Some of this has been changing recently with some district attorneys focusing more on criminal justice reform rather than the traditional tough on crime platforms. Conversely prosecutors when they do have to try a major/public case will often over-charge the defendants as both a scare tactic (to try and get a plea deal) and because it again makes them look "tough on crime" this can often result in cases being ruled in favor of the defense because the prosecution overplayed their hand. This is seen very often with police involved cases where prosecutors try to appeal to the community by charging for murder or manslaughter 1 when they should actually charge for a lesser crime to guarantee a conviction. *speculation* this is done on purpose to help prosecutors play to the crowds while also letting police off the hook */speculation* In a civil law system you have a different set of issues. Judges - generally appointed but also harder to remove. Also while it's nice to say that judges should remain impartial, they're still people and still make decisions based on their principals. Prosecution/investigation is sometimes handled by a judge which means you're fate is decided by basically one person. Juries are flawed but in cases that require unanimous convictions (capital murder) you only need to bring a reasonable doubt to 1 out of 12, which is a much lower bar - this is somewhat mitigated in most civil law countries because they do not have the death penalty (china/japan being exceptions) Verdicts are probably more consistent in a civil system but that can also be limiting. If a standard range in a corporate negligence case is established, a judge might have a hard time levying a larger penalty even if the case they're reviewing is especially egregious. I think we could make fixes/changes to our existing system that could improve it drastically. Sidenote: Louisiana uses civil law.
-
Copying over from Google Hangouts: https://onlinelaw.wustl.edu/blog/common-law-vs-civil-law/#:~:text=The%20main%20difference%20between%20the,law%20systems%2C%20codified%20statutes%20predominate. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-common-law-versus-civil-Roman-law-Which-are-representative-countries-for-the-various-systems-of-law i feel we should really switch to a civil law system.... " Well, here's my opinion: If I were to be prosecuted for criminal charges, I'd pretty much prefer a common law jurisdiction if I'm guilty and a civil law jurisdiction if I'm innocent. If I were to be in court for some issue with a contract or other, non-criminal, matters, I'd prefer to be in a civil system if I'm righteous and in a common law system if I'm actually liable." Sounds like a lot of america's problems is related to its common law system
-
No one ever wants to get their hands dirty.... On a side note, the new FFG(X) program is using an Italian builder...looks like a varation of the Italian FREMM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FREMM_multipurpose_frigate new ALAMO round used in the LCS and FFGX in the 57mm turret:
-
Official Post Anything Electric Vehicle Related Thread
Jedi2155 replied to Jedi2155's topic in Automotive
To summarize: Polestar has a far better interior (and likely better build quality compared to US built model 3's) Fully loaded PoleStar in UK is cheaper than Model 3 (although its a lot cheaper for the Performance 3 in the USA) Tesla better in any other metric (driveability, range, usability etc.) My opinion, admirable attempt by Volvo and definitely a great vehicle, but it just can't compete against a company that is literally applying every edge of technology development the moment its developed onto its products. This results in a product that doesn't have the same refinement as the Polestar but literally the state of the art the moment you buy it (which has its own pros and cons). -
I have a lot more learning to do. I might also bring a passenger along for the ride. Definitely amazed at how enjoyable it was although a bit scary at times.
-
-
Street Fighter 5 is adding Dan, Rose, Oro and Akira from rival schools. Their current timeline goes out to end of year 2021, so I guess we aren't seeing a new fighting game from capcom for quite a while. https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2020/aug/05/revealed-street-fighter-5-champion-edition-season-5/ Horizon Zero Dawn was released for the PC, most reviewers say it's a good port. https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/i48o7k/horizon_zero_dawn_complete_edition_for_pc_review/ EDIT - further reading says the horizon zero down is not a good port, serious issues with consistent frame hitching, cutscenes not designed for 60fps and weird performance numbers. Digital foundry put out a long video listing some of the issues with it.
-
nope tht place prob the place to be sunrise might be sick
-
I don't want to leave you hanging. Speaking for myself, I'm not sure is the straight answer. I'm probably going to get an oil change in the next couple of weeks. I also am not sure if we will find a road that is much better than that. It basically had everything I think we were looking for. It did not have much straightaways but I that's a good thing because it forced us to keep our speed lower. All the turns allowed for a lot of opportunties to work with breaking, feel the cars roll and other behavior. Again I would have to default to Tino if he has other destinations in mind for spirited driving.
-
I'm especially disappointed in Germany but look at the other countries in that survey. France, Italy, Greece, Spain are also in the >50% "don't get involved even to defend an ally" group. Those are some of the biggest EU militaries. Unless the numbers are skewed by people not taking the survey questions seriously, NATO really does look pointless. On that same page, just scroll down a little bit to the survey "People in member states say the U.S. would defend a NATO ally" and look at those results. They overwhelmingly feel that the US would jump to their defense. Everyone decries the USA acting as "world police" but offer no alternative and are unwilling to get their hands dirty.
-
This was made fairly clear with Ukraine and invasion/war that's still happening. Germany seems content to let Russia just slowly gobble up former soviet states. The fact that they're not interested in defending a NATO ally is just plain sad, especially because they would absolutely expect to be defended if they were attacked. Why do I have this weird flashback about Poland getting screwed over while other countries watch? I still firmly believe that some of these multi-lateral treaties, like NATO, need to get serious about having member abide by the rules and standards they've agreed to. Germany and several other countries consistently don't meet their target goal of 2%, if that's the case why the hell should the US abide by that same treaty? There needs to be some mechanism to address non-compliance and penalize countries that don't meet their agreements otherwise NATO itself becomes pointless.
-
-
I know this is a really old thread but I did not want to start a new thread. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/02/09/nato-seen-favorably-across-member-states/#public-reluctance-on-article-5-obligations-across-nato-member-countries Results from one survey question from last year. 60% of Germans claimed their country should NOT use military force to defend a NATO ally in the event of a Russian attack. Think about that for a moment. They are obligated by the NATO agreement but they still would not want to. It is disappointing.
-
Finished it. I was ok with the premise at the beginning but shortly after the story gets going, it starts to go down such a strange path because of a plot mechanic that feels like a giant plot hole. Even if it was an intentional plot hole, since we are talking about a satire, the characters take it so seriously that I just felt completely detached. I do not reccommend it and I have no idea why it gets such high praise. MASSIVE SPOILER LIKE LITERALLY THE WHOLE BOOK: Started reading Wool by Hugh Howe. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13453029-wool-omnibus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(series) Still relatively early. I'll post again once I'm farther.
-
Pixel 4a review thread on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/i2ykyh/google_pixel_4a_review_thread/ tl;dr - great camera, decent specs, no frills, low price. I'll order one to replace my pixel 2. I refuse to buy a phone with only face unlock, plus as many people have mentioned it doesn't work with our current new mask trend. I did see some slightly mixed thoughts on the "speed/smoothness" of the phone, and multiple people mentioned that since this doesn't have a dedicated image processing chip it does take a few seconds to process photos if you take one and quickly switch to the gallery. I doubt I'll use the audio jack much, but I could maybe see myself buying a halfway decent pair of IEMs for travel, not entirely sure. Other rumors indicate that the 4a 5g version ('rona included) is a larger phone and more akin to the 3a XL with a slightly better spec sheet. Also pixel 5 has been officially confirmed but no details. Considering how late the pixel 4a was we might see the 5 in just a few months. As a reminder, the pixel 4 launched at $800 and had price drops almost immediately afterwards, so I would suggest some patience around the launch. Also I hope Google was smart enough to put the fingerprint reader back, cause I'm fairly certain face masks aren't going anywhere for a while.
-
Destiny 2 raid thoughts and various shitposting. Raid List: https://d2.destinygamewiki.com/wiki/Raids Leviathan - we've done this, it's pretty easy at this point. Eater of Worlds - did this last night, slightly harder and shorter, still interesting Spire of Stars - I sort of want to do this for the emote, but the videos I've watched show a ton of mechanics to deal with. Last Wish - I want to do this, I've heard it's arguably the best raid in the game, this is also sticking around after the next expansion so there's no rush. Scourge of the Past - Got my anarchy, I'll run if necessary but I this raid didn't do much for me. Crown of Sorrow - I want to do this, seems interesting. Garden of Salvation - I want to finish this, I think this is one of the more mechanically intensive raids but it was interesting. Other notes: Pugging is very hit or miss (just like other mmo's) I had one group that ran scourge 2x with no major issues and was mostly ok. I also had one group that ran scourge and had an utterly obnoxious 12 year old memelord leading the group or at least dominating the coms; that was... unpleasant. On the flipside all our clan raids have been absolutely great, everyone pulls their weight, good banter, fun times.
-
