There were a few around that same timer period. IIRC, that’s also about when the whole /r/jailbait controversy happened, and the site suddenly had a really bad reputation among non-users. Like before it had been seen as a weird site, but then it was suddenly seen as outright predatory. Users suddenly didn’t want to associate with the site. Then the t_d stuff happened, which just compounded the issue of users not wanting to associate with the site due to the bad reputation.
Yeah, captchas have gotten worse recently. I had one asking me to choose “the largest animal” and it had an example picture of what was meant to be a lion. There was a rhino in one of the other pics.
It wanted me to click on lions, but then gave me something larger than a lion.
It’s the latter. And even worse, they couldn’t claim ignorance or accident, because they were previously using the former system. They had a system set up which only allowed a certain number of licenses to be in use at any one time. When someone checked out an ebook, it was unavailable to anyone else. This is standard practice for libraries.
Then IA intentionally went out of their way to disable this licensing system, and allowed unlimited downloads. It was the worst of both worlds, because it meant they were violating copyright and they took active steps to remove those copyright protections. They couldn’t go “sorry we didn’t know” and get off with some finger waggling and a “don’t do it again”, because they had gone out of their way to intentionally disable the licensing system. They knew exactly what they were doing. Instead, the courts threw the book at IA, because it was an open-and-shut case of blatant and intentional copyright violation.
Yup. Pretty much anyone who knew anything about copyright law agreed that they were making a monumentally stupid move. And their only defense basically boiled down to “bUT wE’rE a LiBRarY.” Which completely ignores the fact that even libraries need to comply with copyright laws for ebooks, via licensing agreements with the publishers.
This video takes on a new vibe when you learn that the actor has had several allegations of violence and erratic behavior. The dude lost like half of his brain in a medical issue, somehow survived, and is now a very aggressive drunk. Supposedly beating and choking a woman in his college comedy improv group, calling in a bomb threat on a train, etc…
I do believe the one employee had her face blurred because she did not agree to being recorded.
Nope, Vance’s team released the footage without blurring her. It was third-party news sites that blurred her when they reposted it, because she clearly didn’t want to be filmed. But Vance’s team 100% posted it without any kind of blur at all.
There are (on average) around two mass shootings per day, but only (ugh) about one school shooting per week when you actually average it across the whole year. For instance, 2022 had 51 school shootings, but had 647 mass shootings total.
The high number of mass shootings is because anything over 2 victims is considered a mass shooting. So when an abusive dad drunkenly shoots his wife and kids before committing suicide, it’s considered a mass shooting. Drive by gang shootings are frequently considered mass shootings if more than two people are hit. It’s not just an active shooter firing into a crowd, (though those definitely qualify.)
At least on iOS, it takes it a step farther and tells you specifically when an app is accessing your location, microphone, camera, etc… It even delineates when it’s in the foreground or background. For instance, if I check my weather app, I get this symbol in the upper corner:
The circled arrow means it is actively accessing my location. And if I close the app, it gives me this instead:
The uncircled arrow means my location was accessed in the foreground recently. And if it happens entirely in the background, (like maybe Google has accessed my location to check travel time for an upcoming calendar event,) then the arrow will be an outline instead of being filled in.
The same basic rules apply for camera and mic access. If it accesses my mic, I get an orange dot. If it accesses my camera, I get a green dot.
To be fair, the stock Ford 750 looks like the douchiest pickup vehicle imaginable. It’s like if you had asked an AI to design a truck specifically for dudes with fragile masculinity and court-mandated anger management classes. All it needs is twin flagpoles mounted to the back, with the American and confederate flags flying side by side.
I swear to god, the Ford F-750 looks like if you had asked AI to design the biggest lifted pickup specifically for the dudes with fragile masculinities and court-mandated anger management classes.
Even better is the fact that he illegally registered to vote while serving time for a felony. Such a wonderful example for the party, and he’s one of the leaders.