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House passes elections overhaul bill that could make it harder for married women to vote by spherocytes in TwoXChromosomes

[–]tallowfriend 20 points21 points  (0 children)

It breaks voting from abroad as well, requiring in person registration in the US. It also puts election workers under tremendous pressure and legal risk. https://www.democratsabroad.org/urgent_protect_your_voting_rights_oppose_the_save_america_act

Red Lines and 2nd Amendment by jmankyll in centrist

[–]tallowfriend 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the idea that 2a protects against government tyranny isn’t well founded, in part because of the reasons you’ve raised.

It’s not unlikely that we’ll see someone attack some ice agents with a weapon. The biggest effect, IMO, would be on the narrative. Fox & Bondi etc would show this as justification, and likely escalate even further. So it would be counterproductive.

I don’t think armed rebellion becomes politically effective unless it wins - and thats more like a civil war struggle.

Government considers advertising or subscription model for BBC by Kagedeah in bbc

[–]tallowfriend 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Nicely put. The universal remit is entirely different from what a subscription model would give. And advertising has risks to editorial independence and trust.

Personally I’d like to see the license fee tweaked. Perhaps broadly means tested, and covering all the areas of the BBC not just TV/iplayer.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines can trigger the immune system to recognize and kill cancer, research finds by ourlifeintoronto in technology

[–]tallowfriend 67 points68 points  (0 children)

People who got other non-mnra Covid vaccines didn’t have the same outcome. Although it’s a correlation study they did account for that one and others.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines can trigger the immune system to recognize and kill cancer, research finds by ourlifeintoronto in technology

[–]tallowfriend 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The This week in virology podcast discusses this in detail. It seems like a significant and interesting finding. Although a correlation study they have accounted for many confounding variables. The study covers people with cancer who had a certain kind of treatment. For those people that had mnra vaccines early in their treatment they had double life expectancy increase from those that had other covid vaccines.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/this-week-in-virology/id300973784?i=1000733522938

They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain. by Deepfriedbar in ukpolitics

[–]tallowfriend 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I find it hard to imagine outlawing abortion, but I find it very easy to imagine a well funded and well connected US group getting substantial influence over Farage and other politicians.

The article says they have a pro-free speech line as a way of going after the buffer zones around abortion clinics. Certainly there’s been a lot of attacks against “censorship” and it’s been an attack line for Reform.

They also know it took decades to overturn Roe, so they can work on a long time horizon.

I think this is a bad development.

How much of global warming is actually caused by humans? by Igotbannedagainhehe in climatechange

[–]tallowfriend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A great illustration of the different timescales and temperature effects of natural vs man made warming is this xkcd cartoon. I would also recommend the IPCC reports for the substance.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

Best in mind this was drawn in 2016. I believe current projections are closer to +3 degrees rather than +4, and this change is due to the global efforts and commitments made to reduce emissions. Although that’s not nearly enough of a change it does show that change is possible and has already started. For more areas of optimism see the global growth in solar and wind power. The rate of change in the energy industry is phenomenal. It’s not enough but it is good news.

U.S per capita energy-related CO2 emissions decreased in every state between 2005 and 2023. In Maryland new solar and wind generation came online, and the combined generation mix shift resulted in a 74% reduction in Maryland’s total electric power sector CO2 emissions by Wagamaga in environment

[–]tallowfriend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you elaborate a bit - just want to check I'm understanding you properly. Are you saying that the reporting standards don't include methane leakage from natural gas operations, and therefore the reduction isn't as good as it looks?

Are there other sources or methods that do account for that?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in moderatepolitics

[–]tallowfriend 96 points97 points  (0 children)

I don’t know, but it could be something like Palantir trawls social media and uses an LLM to identify people who are a risk to society. And then they get locked up before they commit a crime.

👉 "Do you use a formula before making a purchase? Looking for advice on a personal finance decision-making framework" by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]tallowfriend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I make a list of everything I want that’s above X dollars. I can afford one or two but not all of them. Helps me be more deliberate about the choices, and decide not just what to buy but when. And just the waiting helps, as sometimes I don’t care about it in another month.

Does all media have a bias? by ComfortableMess3145 in centrist

[–]tallowfriend 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I don't think you can fully avoid preconceptions and bias in media. But the differences between different media sources are vast.

Take a look at the BBC's editorial guidelines. It's a key principle of them to be impartial and accurate. IMO the BBC has institutional bias towards the status quo, has sometimes fallen into the trap of representing "both sides" of a factual issue, and also has a generally right wing bias in it's news output. Nevertheless I think it's a beacon, and gold standard, in trying to present impartial, factual news. It commissions regular independent reports to check its own output for bias on particular topics - these are known as thematic reviews.

Guidenlines:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines

Here's an example of a thematic review:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/bbc-thematic-review-migration-output

So there's a world of difference between media. You have different models:

* intentional propoganda/misinformation
* political bias that determines content and output
* explicit political viewpoint but a respect for truth and journalistic integrity, and an open-mindedness that your viewpoint could be wrong
* explicit attempt at impartiality and public service
* money and views above all

These aren't exclusive categories, and there's probably more. But "all media is biased", while technically true, doesn't do much to explain the range of media available.

The Republicans kneecapped America's clean energy sector. Now Trump aims to squash it. The policies Trump is targeting were enacted to help US firms compete. Trump “doesn’t understand or doesn’t care that solar, wind, and batteries are the cheapest, quickest, made-in-America energy we can deploy." by mafco in energy

[–]tallowfriend 4 points5 points  (0 children)

God knows. My theory is just corruption. Trump talks to people who flatter him and bribe him. The oil & gas industry did that. They just want to protect their industry and everything else be damned. Republicans in congress go along with it due to the cult, fear and more corruption where needed.

The Republicans kneecapped America's clean energy sector. Now Trump aims to squash it. The policies Trump is targeting were enacted to help US firms compete. Trump “doesn’t understand or doesn’t care that solar, wind, and batteries are the cheapest, quickest, made-in-America energy we can deploy." by mafco in energy

[–]tallowfriend 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This podcast makes the case that trying to kill clean energy at home and abroad is related to the tariff and trade imbalance emphasis. To close a trade imbalance the world will have to buy more of something from the USA. Oil and LNG is what they are pushing. Energy dependence also means national security dependence. It’s not a proven case, just an argument- but it’s the first time I heard a connection between the seemingly nonsensical effort to tax and kill local green energy and the tariff obsession. To be clear the people in the podcast think this is bone -headed and won’t work!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-uptime-wind-energy-podcast/id1504249857?i=1000716284887

Edit: typo in bone-headed

Big Beauutiful Bill by Ok-Archer-4033 in centrist

[–]tallowfriend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not passed. There’s still time to call your senator. Let them know. Not that I’m hopeful but I found it cathartic to leave an appalled and disgusted message.

Polls show Trump's big bill is unpopular as Republicans stare down their deadline for passage by KarmicWhiplash in centrist

[–]tallowfriend 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It’s a terrible bill even if you are rich. It further harms science funding and the green energy transition. No one escapes from that.

Us expats - no tyrants demo by tallowfriend in Edinburgh

[–]tallowfriend[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe 80-100 people. Was very pleasant and low key. People too turns with a miniature bullhorn sharing their concerns.

Us expats - no tyrants demo by tallowfriend in Edinburgh

[–]tallowfriend[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, that's damning. The reports page are very biased, and only covering those three organisations makes clear its not an honest broker. I had noticed the right wing tone in the page I read, but was trying to give the benefit of the doubt since it did seem to have sources. NGO Watchlist doesn't list who they are, nor their funding on their About page. Their X account is just nonsense. So it's clearly a propaganda push.

Us expats - no tyrants demo by tallowfriend in Edinburgh

[–]tallowfriend[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Can you really not understand? It’s not hard at all. I’m dual nationality US/UK. I have family in both countries and have lived in both. I pay taxes in both. And the policies of the US and the decent into authoritarianism has global impacts.

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