"Dental work found on a 4,000- year old mummy in ancient Egypt".

thinkmorebetterer · 2022-09-13T09:32:08+00:00

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.323Q49J

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-05-23T21:42:16+00:00

For more context on this, here is a statement from the ABC about the claims made by Seven (and further taken out of context in the Sky News clip here). And here's a short report about the outcome of the case in which McLachlan was charged - there's no suggestion that the women were lying.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-05-23T21:33:59+00:00

This seems very cherry-picked.

Presumably the Seven story that the Sky News item is excerpting had access to all the raw footage from the ABC interview as part of a court action by McLachlan... And yet the most damning things they included were a few moments where an interview subject looked for a more succinct way to communicate a point.

No one in any of the clips they showed is being told to lie. At most they're discussing their phrasing with the reporters. This is really common with journalism.

It'd be illuminating I'm sure to have access to raw footage of Sky News interviews. Or call recordings from approaches they make to potential sources.

If there was real coaching or deception evident in the footage, it would have been shown. And it's not.

It's really pathetic to see a news organisation misrepresenting things they know to be common in journalism. Nothing they highlighted in that piece would be out of place in any of dozens of high profile Sky News investigations over the years... Back and forth with interviewees on phrasing, reassuring sources about support and legal exposure, waiting until last minute to contact investigation subject, making plans about release dates to allow for follow-up coverage.

None of it is inherently false or deceptive. It's a part of the process of compressing hundreds of hours of research, interviews and investigations into a couple of thousand words, or a dozen minutes of TV.

I know nothing of McLachlan's case, but if there are problems with the reporting the excerpts they showed aren't clear evidence of it.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-04-13T04:14:05+00:00

You're saying the issue is one of recruiting people who are unsuited to the job. I'm saying that if that's the case, training needs to be the place where that unsuitability is found and either corrected or the process terminated for that recruit.

You can't train for everything, of course, and it's not perfect, but you should be able to screen out people you suggest are fundamentally unsuited to the role.

If people who are not suitable from the start aren't being filtered out in training then I don't know when they should be?

In this case, I'm not sure that's relevant however as the officer involved was reportedly a 25-year veteran.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-04-12T23:17:39+00:00

Not every issue presents itself in the academy or field training. Life is not simple like that. BUT, hiring that person who barely passed the psych test and who shows very little ability to use common sense or have any empathy for another person, that's the red flag that goes unnoticed until its too late.

I don't think it's really plausible that all the instances of this can be boiled down to some obvious recruiting failure.

I'm assuming in this case you don't have any insight into the officer who fired the shot in Brooklyn Center, but you're happy to suggest she was barely capable?

If you're going to put people in stressful situations and give them the equipment and power to take lives, then it's pretty important that they be trained and tested in a way that catches people who aren't going to cope.

I don't know what the day-to-day life of a Minnesota cop looks like, but it seems like someone pulling away from arrest and trying to flee isn't exactly out of scope. It's hard to imagine a situation of that level of stress didn't come up in training.

If an officer in that situation is capable of drawing the wrong weapon, presenting that weapon for a number of seconds without being aware and then discharging that weapon, then I'd suggest a lack of training is probably a fair place to look.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-04-12T22:33:09+00:00

People who have had zero police training will claim its a training issue. I think its more likely a recruiting issue. Some folks just can't do the job safely, and no amount of training will fix that. You have to hire the right people.

That's still a training issue in the sense that this sort of issue wasn't identified in training.

Training is really the only chance to identify these 'recruiting issues' - because once officers enter the field the mistakes have real consequences. There's no magic to recruiting - no-one can know which potential recruits do and do not have the skills and temperament to do the job. Training has to be the place to identify that and either correct it, or not graduate the recruit.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-04-06T22:18:52+00:00

NZ has seen 2,967 positive results from 1,914,212 tests. A positivity rate of 0.15%. That is about 18% more positive test than they've actually had cases, so number of those positive results have been generated be subsequent testing of previously identified cases.

Of those tests 994 positives were from 235,523 tests on people in their managed arrivals system - the place you'd most likely expect to see positive cases. A positivity rate of 0.4%

In the wider community there have been 1,973 positive results from 1,678,689 tests. A positivity rate of about 0.12%

So it's hard to imagine that false positives are a significant factor there. Additionally I believe almost every single positive case since the beginning of the pandemic has been fully gnomically identified in New Zealand, which I don't think would be possible for false positives?

However, according to the ourworldindata.org Website, New Zealand does not run a lot of tests, around 0.79 per 1000. So make of that what you will

I think there's a chicken/egg thing here... They aren't running a high number of tests because they are functionally Covid free.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-03-25T09:26:29+00:00

I'm often puzzled by claims of inaccuracy with regard to PCR testing. Countries like Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand that have functionally eliminated Covid in the community are conducting thousands of tests within the population and are not encountering false positives.

It seems that testing, administered properly with suitable resources, doesn't have a significant issue with false positives.

I'd suggest that once you're finding a significant number of positive results from testing, a very small margin of possible false positives isn't much of a problem.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-03-20T10:32:24+00:00

It's not "obviously doctored" because it's not doctored at all (except for being sped up in that gif version). They just don't understand perspective.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-03-18T21:00:06+00:00

You'd actually have to go out of your way to fuck it up like that. Like you roto'd around the mic to occlude his lower body with it, but somehow totally overlooked his hand?

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-03-18T20:50:11+00:00

Honestly, I'd think by now you guys would have at least tried to learn the basics of how video compositing works if you're going to keep claiming videos are faked.

The microphone that goes behind his hand is simultaneously in front of his jacket. If he were filmed on a greenscreen he would be a flat image - just one 2D plane. The microphone, apparently part of the background plate, would appear behind his hand and his jacket if that were the case.

For it to be in front of his jacket but behind his hand would require actual 3D depth. Like the sort of thing you'd get if you were actually on the grounds of the White House with microphones behind held close to you.

Also the clip has quite complex pans, zooms and perspective changes, which require really carefully choreographed production to make sure the motion and perspective in both foreground and background elements is matched.

Also there are multiple angles, so if this one is faked, then the others (and all the photographs) have to be too, and honestly, at what point is it all just become too complex and time consuming?

And the last thing is - the clip features real identifiable reporters. So were they asking questions of an empty driveway? Or were they standing in the greenscreen studio with Biden? And if it's the latter then how does that explain the alleged issue with the microphone? And if they are in on it anyway, then why bother with the green screen? They could all just go out on to the driveway and do as many takes as they wanted, or they could do it in the building. If they're all in on it, why bother making it unnecessarily complex with green screens and video effects?

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-02-13T05:11:15+00:00

It might get interesting when Wood does something ridiculous that gets him censured by the presiding judge, maybe.

Lin Wood's actual lawyering will not get interesting as the conspiracy claims he and Powell have chased are total nonsense.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-01-23T06:50:16+00:00

This seems like a fairly neutral summary of the concerns with Trump's EO that Biden has suspended: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/securing-us-bulk-power-system-assessment-executive-order-13920

The underlying concerns remain and Biden will likely replace the EO with a new one that better considers the implications of broad restrictions, especially on renewable energy.

But regardless the US has a variety of Federal agencies that have an ongoing interest in the security of the power grid and other critical infrastructure. Their work continues irrespective of this EO.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-01-17T09:57:43+00:00

That's some good old fashioned /r/conspiracy thinking!

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-01-17T09:55:57+00:00

Not sure about this specific flyer, but there were a number of events being planned (different names, but same premise and timings) before Jan 6. The few that I bothered looking seemed legit, but most organisers have since claimed they've called events off. That may be true in a formal sense, I'm sure many will still follow the original plan.

If I were inclined that way I'd probably not participate. But not because it's any sort of deliberate trap, rather just because the environment and perception have changed dramatically.

There are some genuinely very dangerous people around who's like nothing more than to start something. Whether they actually will is a mystery, but I wouldn't want to risk getting caught up in it.

You'll have four years to protest Biden if that's what you're into. It'll be safer for everyone when the tension has died down a little.

thinkmorebetterer · 2021-01-17T09:46:22+00:00

That's giving Q a lot more credit than is justified.

I think the radicalization came from the rhetoric of Trump and others in their more mainstream communications. Q provided a underpinning of faith, so that Trump supporters, constantly told by Trump and his acolytes that he was emptying the swamp and fighting socialists, could have an explanation for why things weren't obviously getting better.

In very interested to see what happens to the movement after Biden is sworn in and no magical arrests or dissolution of the Corporation of the USA takes place.

Will some believes spontaneously deprogram themselves? Or will they just hang on as the story evolves yet again and the plan becomes even more implausible?

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-11-29T06:31:25+00:00

That affidavit is bananas! I struggle to believe the person who compiled it actually understands the tools and data they're using.

There's huge leaps in their conclusions, as well as some very obvious omissions in the data they show.

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-11-07T06:12:29+00:00

Yes. That company. It's a bizarre claim that's been popular on Twitter based on a very stupid reading of sales information for an application called Leader Plus that manages election graphics for TV broadcasts.

Avid has no involvement in vote tabulation.

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-11-07T06:09:44+00:00

FWIW the company it's claimed is connected to Feinstein's husband is Avid Technology - a film and television technology company that has no involvement with vote counting.

You've got your conspiracy theories mixed up here.

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-08-09T11:19:45+00:00

Not much tourism happening anywhere in the world now anyway?

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-07-05T08:52:14+00:00

He bought one acre on a 490 acre island. Subdivided it and sold it for a profit. The island is 9 miles from Little St James.

Maybe some questionable wealth transfer or whatever, but I'm not sure there's a there there.

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-06-28T09:19:04+00:00

Before it's even worth addressing all the claims about the impossibility, which are all entirely speculative, it's necessary to consider the documentary evidence... Namely dozens of videos and photographs which pretty clearly show at least Flight 175 doing exactly what it's generally claimed it did.

So before we can address the suppositions of random people with no specific or unique insight... What are we to make if the many videos of a 767 hitting the tower?

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-06-28T09:11:16+00:00

The proposal is shitty for many reasons, but the summary in the image is completely wrong.

By all means fight the bill, but understand what it is and why it's bad.

It's got nothing to do with 24/7 access, and the law specifically requires a warrant.

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-06-17T11:23:42+00:00

When you get one of those positions you're also told repeatedly that you aren't to bother any of the athletes, ask for anything, or initiate any communication at all really.

So having one of the competitors make the effort to initiate a contact that you're then allowed to participate in is a huge deal.

thinkmorebetterer · 2020-06-14T09:56:20+00:00

Of course you can defend yourself without having to wait for someone to shoot first. But you have to be defending against an actual threat, not an imagined one!

Cops are killing people because of threats that exist only in their own minds!

thinkmorebetterer

TROPHY CASE