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What's the most effective at helping you sleep at night?
  • White noise. I bought a white noise machine years ago when I lived near a large emergency room that had ambulances going by all day every day. It really helped with the sirens, and when I moved away I kept using the machine. My brain now interprets the white noise as profound silence, and I sleep so deeply that I don't know how I ever got by without it.

  • I thought I was being pretty diplomatic
  • Inmate firefighters are indeed inmate labor, but the issue is whether inmate firefighters are slaves. I don't think that they are, and I also think that lumping them together with other forms of inmate labor (particularly those that benefit private interests) is misleading and hyperbolic when discussing that point.

  • I thought I was being pretty diplomatic
  • I think you're conflating the general issue of inmate labor with the particular issue of inmate firefighters.

  • I thought I was being pretty diplomatic
  • But in this case they are volunteers. They specifically applied to the firefighting program.

    There's certainly cause for discussion about the ethics, etc. but calling it slavery or involuntary servitude is hyperbole.

  • I thought I was being pretty diplomatic
    1. No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
    2. Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
  • California enslaves 400 prisoners to fight wildfires.
  • Well, yes, just like me and my job, they can quit. What part of that suggests slavery?

  • California enslaves 400 prisoners to fight wildfires.
  • It's not involuntary, though. They have to apply for the program, and can stop if they want.

  • California enslaves 400 prisoners to fight wildfires.
  • While I'd agree they deserve better pay, etc. these inmates volunteer for the work. Calling them "slaves" is ridiculous.

  • f.a.c.k.t.s
  • Ugly giant bags of mostly water.

  • "Your Honour, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well, there it sits. Waiting." - Picard
  • Another nit about Riker's argument: at one point he detaches Data's arm to demonstrate that he's a machine. Four years later Riker's arm was amputated and reattached by the subspace aliens in Schisms.

  • DS9 in a nutshell
  • The Dominion Did Nothing WrongTM

  • What would the implications of a US constitutional amendment excluding corporations as persons and the constitutional rights that affords them?
  • Many different kinds of organizations are organized as corporations. Charities, newspapers, churches, etc. If the amendment was not carefully written, it could be construed to deny important rights, such as press freedom or religious freedom, to organizations that really ought to be protected. Similarly, the protections against unwarranted search and seizure or taking of property for pubic use without compensation should probably continue to cover corporations.

    Really, the only problem I see WRT corporations having constitutional rights is the decision that political spending is protected speech. The other constitutional rights are generally not problematic.

    So maybe something like this:

    1. No person, whether natural born human or legal fiction, shall spend, donate, or otherwise make valuable contributions to any candidate or campaign, if said person is not entitled to vote in the election for such candidate or campaign.

    2. Only natural born human beings shall be entitled to vote in any election.

  • TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal
  • From a national security standpoint of the government, it absolutely does matter who has the data.

  • What pieces of software can you recommend that's free, efficient and does not bullshit around?
  • TestDisk and PhotoRec. TestDisk can recover broken drive partitions, PhotoRec can recover deleted files even if the partition table is borked.

  • why so much Star Trek?
  • There's an entire Star Trek instance (startrek.website) that followed the /r/daystrominstitute community from reddit during the Exodus.

  • Worf was never a fan of those PSAs
  • There are Federation time beacons. The E-D resynchronized the ship's chronometer using one after they got stuck in a time loop in Cause and Effect. They, however, did not use it when they lost a day in Clues.

  • Of Biblical Proportions

    An elderly Catholic priest dies one night peacefully in his sleep after a long life of serving God, and finds himself standing at the pearly gates.

    "You were such a pious and holy man in life," began St. Peter, "that as a reward you can make one request of me before leaving behind your worldly cares and entering heaven."

    "Well," says the priest, "I'd like to read the original manuscript of the Bible."

    Even more impressed now than before, St. Peter grants the request and takes the priest to God's own private library, before leaving him to his studies.

    Shortly afterward, the priest lets out an unholy shriek. St. Peter rushes into the library and asks, "what is it? What's wrong?!"

    And through gritted teeth and streams of tears the priest cried out: "Celebrate! It says celebrate, not celibate!"

    3
    TIL Joe Satriani's "Crowd Chant" was meant to be called "Party on the Enterprise"

    It would have included loops of Star Trek sound effects, but Paramount lawyers said no.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Satriani#Musical_themes

    Thank you for your attention, Bajoran workers. This mandatory cultural appreciation moment has been noted on your time cards and will be deducted from your food ration.

    3
    What is my purpose?
    i.imgur.com What's my purpose?

    Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.

    What's my purpose?
    2
    charonn0 Melllvar @startrek.website

    Seer of the tapes! Knower of the episodes!

    Posts 11
    Comments 1.5K