The Big Case Drops Early
No Scalia? No problem! When all eight of the surviving SCOTUS Justices agree on the result, we’re sure to get a nice, clear, definite rule of law… right?
Burt Likko
/// April 4, 2016
No Scalia? No problem! When all eight of the surviving SCOTUS Justices agree on the result, we’re sure to get a nice, clear, definite rule of law… right?
Will Truman
/// April 4, 2016
Though it is 2:00 p.m. on a Tuesday, the Church of Scientology visitors center I am exploring is bustling with activity. It’s so full of people that I have to serpentine my way around bodies to get to my test-taking station. Still, it is so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
The test-taking stations are spartan, just a row of desks agains the wall, each with a small electronic timer and a jar of #2 pencils. Surrounding these desks are a myriad of sales displays, offering hundreds if not thousands of books and videos by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard — any of which, I have been assured by the nice woman at the front desk, would make a great gift. As I said, it’s mid-afternoon on a workday, but all of the test stations are filled will people who, like me, are busy filling out scantron sheets.
The test we are all taking is the Oxford Capacity Analysis™, the proprietary “free personality test” Scientologists use to both rate and entice new members. (If you have ever passed a Scientology Church, you’ve likely seen a sandwich board inviting you to take this test.) When I signed up to take the test an hour prior I asked about the name, and the nice woman at the front desk explained to me that the test was developed by a team of scientists at “the university.”
Holly Whitman
/// April 4, 2016
The ins and outs of driverless car security.
Will Truman
/// April 4, 2016
If you have any outstanding VHS rentals, beware.
Mike Schilling
/// April 4, 2016
“That’s it!” My Campaign Manager screamed, “But first, we’ll need the supplies.” Yes! The supplies. And so we gassed up the helicopter and zoomed off like a pair of Martians on steroids, frenziedly gathering all of the dangerous drugs we’d need to make it to the White House: six keys of Colombia’s finest; a pharmacist’s hernia-load of reds, blues, and yellowjackets; twenty pounds of Panamanian Red; the whitest heroin from the Harz Mountains of Germany; a gallon jug of angel dust; two briefcases loaded with mescaline; twelve blotters of Florida sunshine acid; and an aquarium full of Bolivian arrow toads. Plus a hogshead of Budweiser and a big inheritance from our Old Granddad.
From CNN Business:
New York (CNN Business)Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands and a major donor to Republican politicians, died late Monday following complications related to his cancer treatment, his company said. He was 87.
Adelson took a leave of absence from Sands last week to resume treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which his aides first disclosed in late February 2019.
(Featured image is "Some birds hanging out at the Sands Casino in Atlantic City" by iirraa is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Comment →In the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by scores of President Trump’s supporters, a lone researcher began an effort to catalogue the posts of social media users across Parler, a platform founded to provide conservative users a safe haven for uninhibited “free speech” — but which ultimately devolved into a hotbed of far-right conspiracy theories, unchecked racism, and death threats aimed at prominent politicians.
The researcher, who asked to be referred to by their Twitter handle, @donk_enby, began with the goal of archiving every post from January 6, the day of the Capitol riot; what she called a bevy of “very incriminating” evidence. According to the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, among others, Parler is one of a number of apps used by the insurrections to coordinate their breach of the Capitol, in a plan to overturn the 2020 election results and keep Donald Trump in power.
(Featured image is "A radio tracking device on a Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) at the Cotswold Falconry Centre" by Anguskirk and is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Comment →From Twitter Safety:
After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
(Featured image is "Free Bird" by Ennev and is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
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