This year, the incidence of dengue fever globally has been the highest on record, as countries report increasingly hot temperatures -- ideal for mosquitoes that spread dengue to hatch. read more
An online gaming dispute made its way to the real world when a New Jersey man flew to Florida to attack another player with a hammer, authorities said.
A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars media platform ... read more
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state's longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities. read more
The union representing Boston's firefighters is asking for the public's help to identify a group of spectators who climbed on top of several vehicles outside the department's firehouse on Boylston Street during the Boston Celtics championship parade on Friday.
@#6 ... previously a member of Captain Beyond ...
Oh, don't get me started...
Captain Beyond
en.wikipedia.org
... Captain Beyond is an American rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1971.[3][4] Consisting of former Deep Purple singer Rod Evans, former Johnny Winter drummer Bobby Caldwell, former Iron Butterfly guitarist Larry Reinhardt and former Iron Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman, the band had an eclectic style bridging elements of hard rock, progressive rock and jazz fusion with space rock.[1] They released three albums between 1972 and 1977. ...
Captain Beyond - Sufficiently Breathless
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
Sitting on the door stoop
Watching multi bizarre people pass me by
Look through the windows, through the houses
Oh, they're made of sky
Gargoyle watching the bouncing ball
Strangers mystified by all
All the goings on
Sufficiently breathless
Sufficiently breathless
Hey, Mr. Policeman, can you point the way
Oh, with your handgun?
Peter the puppy and the space below
Don't you understand 'em?
...
Armageddon - Silver Tightrope (1975)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt...
...
I close my eyes to worldly skies
I leave behind the day
And deep within me, I shall begin
To chase my thoughts away
As loved ones hold me to their sides
Their strength flows into me
To cast me out of sorrow's blindness
Into eternity
I thought I heard them softly calling
The voices of the spheres
As light years flash forever falling
Away from waking fears
I reach out, try to touch the passing
Of beings bathed in light
But they just smile, their eyes not asking
To see beyond their sight
...
Armageddon
en.wikipedia.org(British_band)
...Armageddon were an English hard rock band formed in 1974. Their self-titled debut, Armageddon, was recorded in England and released in the United States on A&M Records. The albums' original liner notes use the term "supergroup", as their personnel were drummer Bobby Caldwell (previously a member of Captain Beyond), singer Keith Relf (who had fronted the band the Yardbirds and was a co-founder of Renaissance), guitarist Martin Pugh (from Steamhammer), and bassist Louis Cennamo (also formerly of Renaissance and Steamhammer). ...
@#1
OK, I will admit upfront that I have not a clue of the facts she offers to support her case.
She may be trying to walk on water, I do not know.
But, when you get into the realm of electronic ballot tabulators, there is much concern, substantiated concern.
For example...
Rows and Columns, the County Line, and the ExpressVote XL (May 2024)
freedom-to-tinker.com
... Why did New Jersey counties keep choosing one insecure voting machine after another, for decades? Only this year did I realize what the reason might be.
A century ago, New Jersey (like many other states) adopted lever voting machines that listed the offices by row, with the parties (and their candidates) across the columns: ...
Barcodes on paper ballots: the good, the bad, and the stealth
freedom-to-tinker.com
... Paper ballots should not have barcodes to mark votes; paper ballots should have barcodes to mark ballot styles. Why is that? What's the difference? And at the end, I describe a useful innovation from a company called Voting.works.
One of the most important reasons we use paper ballots in elections is to protect our elections against the possibility of computer hacking or error.
If the optical-scan voting machines miscount the votes, we can recount the paper ballots by hand. To save the trouble and expense of always recounting by hand, we can do a risk-limiting audit of a well-chosen sample of the ballots. In those recounts or audits, teams of human auditors inspect the marks made by human voters. And even if the mark wasn't made by a human, suppose it was a touch-screen ballot-marking device (BMD) that marked the vote onto the paper, then at least (in theory if not in practice) that vote can be inspected and verified by the voter before they cast the ballots.
This principle assumes that the votes are printed onto the paper ballot in a form that the voter can read. But some BMDs print the vote onto the paper in the form of a barcode or QR code, in addition to printing the candidate selection in human-readable form.
The voter can verify what the human-readable text says, but that's not the mark that will be read and counted by the optical scanner.
This leads to serious problems, as described in the "Votes Encoded in Barcodes" section of the experts' letter on Suggested Principles for State Statutes Regarding Ballot Marking and Vote Tabulation. ...
imo, both articles are worth a read.
In addition, that site is awesome for voting security discussions, I've cited it previously here on this most august site.
Suggested Principles for State Statutes Regarding Ballot Marking and Vote Tabulation (March 2024)
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2024/03/18/suggested-principles-for-state-statutes-regarding-ballot-
marking-and-vote-tabulation/
@#55 ... but all were of age and consenting. ...
Given fmr Pres Trump's relationship with Mr Epstein, I am not yet convinced of that.
What we know about Trump's friendship with Epstein. (June 2024)
nymag.com
...
What we know about Trump's friendship with Epstein.
Trump began palling around with Epstein in the late '80s but the depth of their friendship is a subject of debate.
Footage unearthed by NBC News in 2019 shows the two men joking around and ogling women during a party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in 1992. ...
Here's the article ...
Multiple Trump Witnesses Have Received Significant Financial Benefits From His Businesses, Campaign (June 3, 2024)
www.propublica.org
... Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump's media company.
The benefits have flowed from Trump's businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. And one of the campaign's top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign staff, where she is now the fourth-highest-paid employee.
These pay increases and other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump. One aide who was given a plum position on the board of Trump's social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified.
Significant changes to a staffer's work situation, such as bonuses, pay raises, firings or promotions, can be evidence of a crime if they come outside the normal course of business. To prove witness tampering, prosecutors would need to show that perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony.
White-collar defense lawyers say the situation Trump finds himself in -- in the dual role of defendant and boss of many of the people who are the primary witnesses to his alleged crimes -- is not uncommon.
Their standard advice is not to provide any unusual benefits or penalties to such employees. Ideally, decisions about employees slated to give evidence should be made by an independent body such as a board, not the boss who is under investigation. ...
@#10 ... I don't think the mosquitoes care about political leanings or immigration status either. ...
I agree.
Mosquitos are a non-political blood-sucker.
And the attempts of some to try to politicize this medical issue (#11) do not help to resolve the problem we face.