https://apnews.com/article/georgia-lgbtq-rights-samesex-marriage-57ede62918ec995f21473f23f5676f80

Georgia's parliament on Tuesday approved sweeping legislation that curtails LGBTQ+ rights, a measure that echoes laws adopted in neighboring Russia.

The bill, introduced by the ruling party Georgian Dream earlier this year, includes bans on same-s*x marriages, adoptions by same-s*x couples and public endorsement and depictions of LGBTQ+ relations and people in the media. It also bans gender-affirming care and changing gender designations in official documents.

The Orthodox Church wields great influence in Georgia, and demonstrations against the LGBTQ+ community are common. Last year, hundreds of opponents of gay rights stormed an LGBTQ+ festival in the Georgian capital, forcing the event's cancellation. This year, tens of thousands marched in Tbilisi to promote "traditional family values."

"Traditional family values" are also at the cornerstone of the Kremlin's narrative in Russia, where authorities in the last decade banned public endorsement of "nontraditional sexual relations" as well as laws against gender-affirming care, among other measures. Its Supreme Court effectively outlawed LGBTQ+ activism by labeling what the authorities called the LGBTQ+ "movement" operating in Russia as an extremist organization and banning it.

The new initiative was announced by Georgian Dream after the country in June adopted the "foreign influence" law that critics also denounced as borrowed from Moscow's playbook. The measure requires media and nongovernmental organizations to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

That measure ignited weeks of protests and was widely criticized as threatening democratic freedoms and jeopardizing Georgia's chances of joining the European Union. The South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million formally applied to join in 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but the bloc halted its accession in response to the "foreign influence" law and froze some of its financial support. The United States imposed sanctions on dozens of Georgian officials in response to the law.

The anti-LGBTQ+ bill was approved on its third and final reading, with 84 of 150 lawmakers voting for it. It now must be signed by President Salome Zourabichvili. Zourabichvili, who has been at odds with the ruling party. She can veto the bill, the same way she vetoed the foreign influence law, but the parliament, dominated by Georgian Dream, can override her and adopt the legislation regardless.

Georgia's constitution states that "marriage is based on the legal equality and free will of the spouses" but does not explicitly ban same-s*x marriage, and the country's civil code clarifies that marriage is a "voluntary union between a man and a woman." The new legislation by the ruling party, which does not have the votes to change the constitution, contains a more explicit ban and is seen as a populist step to win the support of marginal groups.

Georgia will hold a parliamentary election on Oct. 26, with the ruling party seeking to retain its dominance.

Georgian Dream was set up up by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia and served briefly as Georgia's prime minister in 2012. It promised to restore civil rights and "reset" relations with Moscow, which fought a brief war with Georgia in 2008 over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Russia then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and established military bases there.

Many Georgians backed Ukraine as Kyiv battled Russia's invasion in 2022. But the Georgian government abstained from joining sanctions against Moscow, barred dozens of Kremlin critics from entering the country, and accused the West of trying to drag Tbilisi into open conflict with Russia. The opposition has accused the ruling party of steering the country into Russia's orbit at the detriment of its European aspirations.

Remember: almost all Europeans passionately support the criminalization of views that they dislike. You will be hard-pressed to find any left-wing Europeans who do not support the criminalization of homophobic speech, just as you will be hard-pressed to find any right-wing Europeans who do not support the criminalization of pro-gay speech. The idea of defending freedom of speech for views that you personally disapprove of flat-out does not exist in Europe. In Europe, defending freedom of speech means defending freedom of speech for views that you personally agree with and censoring views that you personally disagree with. In the '90s, leftists and "human rights activists" in Russia zealously lobbied the Russian government to enact all manner of restrictive laws against "hate speech", to supposedly protect the country from evil Nazis and commies. The laws were passed, of course; and, today, they are used primarily against leftists, LGBT rights activists, and Putin opponents - the exact same people who demanded that the laws be enacted in the first place. The exact same thing is now happening in other European countries, as far-right parties take power and begin using speech censorship laws pushed by leftists in order to silence anyone who opposes the far-right.

People who advocate drawing lines around freedom of speech always envision themselves as the ones holding the pen. They never even entertain the thought that someone else's definition of objectionable speech might differ from theirs.

The putrid diarrhea people of Kiwi Farms - the most rancid, worthless subhuman vermin on the planet, whose lives hold less value than the lives of fleas or ticks - have been largely predictable in their reactions to this, as if sweeping government power of this sort wouldn't immediately be used to shut down their vile online swamp:

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/georgian-parliament-approves-anti-lgbtq-legislation-echoing-measures-in-russia.200574/

User Vyse Inglebard:

God bless you, Eastern Europe.

User osooolemiiio:

Based <s>Khachapuri</s> Sakartvelo!

User Picnic_Boy:

It's almost like they don't enjoy seeing children marching in dildo parades. Weird.

User Toji Suzuhara:

A brilliant decision, you must fight this before it takes root. Otherwise you end up like Cali, which went from democratically deciding to ban gay marriage, to having fetish parades in its largest cities, in less than a generation

User Battlefield2142EU:

Odds are the mainstream media lying about the law just like the so called don't say gay bill in Florida. If journ*lists can't be trusted with reporting news in United States. Why should they treated with reporting news in eastern Europe?

User Nitro!:

All "gay rights" are infringements and it is morally correct to outlaw them.

User SSj_Ness:

You love to see it, too bad America is so cucked to strags and shitskins.

One user - Arcade Gannon - tells the truth and is, of course, immediately swarmed by MAGAt r-slurs:

Bans depictions of homosexuality in media.

Bans public gatherings promoting homosexuality.

This is oppression. They're outlawing public assemblies and broadcasts that go against what the government wants.

User The Punished Mitch:

If banning sexual deviants from corrupting children is oppression I don't want to be free.

User Reinhardo-sama:

Nah, cute twinks and s overplayed their hand. Now they get what they fricking deserve.

Another user - Montalbane - says what anyone with a functioning brain knows is actually going to happen (and is, of course, also swamped by the rest of the r-slur pack for it):

Ban gays from gathering

Label all your opponents as cute twinks and catamites.

Profit.

Gotta respect the hustle.

The same for another user, Miquella:

Now to label anyone they don't like as something so vague as LGBTQ activists to keep the sheeple convinced traditional values means being poor and subservient to the bourgeois class a fricking billionaire lol can't make this shit up idiot clowns

User The Punished Mitch:

It's really quite easy to avoid being labeled an LGBTQ activist, just make sure you don't try to convince kindergarteners that mutilating their bodies, padding out their allowance via prostitution or engaging in anal fisting during recess are acceptable practices and you'll be perfectly safe from accusations of LGBTQ-activism.

User Sperg Coalition:

What the frick is this word salad? Frick off strag lmao

Arcade Gannon responds to The Punished Mitch's "I don't want to be free" comment:

Tyrants love to hear it.

As of this post, the thread is still active, so I'm sure there's more wingcucked r-sluration to come.

Every time a Kiwi Farms member commits suicide, it legitimately makes my day. I am not even being facetious. As I have stated before, Kiwi Farms is a putrid swamp of the internet's worst psychopaths, neo-Nazis, incels, racists, degenerates, sadists, perverts, conspiratards, and QAnon mongoloids, and its members legitimately do not deserve to live. I would once again like to thank @Aevann a million times for making sure that this site does not turn into Kiwi Farms.

@Cream_a_da_crop said it best:

Null and his whole clique of cute twinks are some of the most insufferable people on the internet. I hope that KF gets permanently taken down and Null ends up in a fricking gutter somewhere, out of spite because he is the most unfunny unlikeable wingcucked cute twink on the internet. The users need to shattered into 1000000 pieces and cast to the wind. I don't care if my cow archives are gone there's plenty of documentation elsewhere

By the way, you r-slurred basement-dwelling neo-Nazis who worship Russia: Hitler considered Russians (and all Slavic people) to be inferior subhuman vermin fit for extermination. And, if Hitler had succeeded at wiping Russia off of the face of the earth before being defeated, the world would be a far better place today.

@Aevann, Marseybux for documenting and stirring up rightoid infighting please.

!lgbt !nonchuds !burgers !grillers

To be honest, all the medical intervention in the world probably couldn't have changed him, the parts of his brain that weren't needed for wolf behavior probably atrophied beyond repair/never grew, I grew up an isolated child slave and my brain is significantly atrophied, I could only imagine the damage his took.

Time to do an AMA

Homeschooling in America allows kids to be treated however the parents want, because they're never checked on, not by anyone, I grew up on a farm and wasn't allowed contact with anyone outside the farm, and I was severely abused, my parents lost the farm in 2008 when I was 9 and we moved somewhere more populated, my life changed for 2 years and as I began to feel human I was moved back to a farm in 2010 but it wasn't quite as bad as before as I had internet, in 2020 my parents had trouble paying for the place so my dad would drop me off at work, which they wouldn't do before, so I was finally able to get a job, they mooched off of me pretty heavily which made moving out difficult, but I've done it twice, once in a city, and once living in my car, but this economy combined with my brain and health issues have made it hard to maintain, I've been to the doctor for my issues and they say I likely have brain damage which I believe.

Wow, same here! I was also raised isolated on a farm in the middle of nowhere. One of nine kids and no access to internet or tv. We had DVDs/VHS but only with express permission, and they were all kids movie or previously approved movies (LOTR, Star Wars original trilogy, black and white movies, etc.).

We also weren't allowed to listen to music beyond classical music, or old stuff like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, etc. I remember my mom had some country music CDs that she kept locked away and every now and then we would be "treated" to one or two songs from them, but then they would be locked up again.

To say the real world was a culture shock is an understatement. I'm in my 30s now and I'm STILL uncovering some things that I didn't know about, but most people assume is common knowledge.

Sorry to hear you experienced it too. It was a major butthole move on our parents' part, and I hope you're in a much better place now. ❤️

"When I finished my homework I could only choose between 1 movie or 1 hour on the internet."

"Gahh! Gobralalagolala!"

"I am glad someone else gets it!"

We are litigation counsel for WP Engine and write to address the serious and repeated misconduct Automattic has directed toward WP Engine over the past several days.

Stunningly, Automattic's CEO Matthew Mullenweg threatened that if WP Engine did not agree to pay Automattic – his for-profit entity – a very large sum of money before his September 20th keynote address at the WordCamp US Convention, he was going to embark on a self-described "scorched earth nuclear approach" toward WP Engine within the WordPress community and beyond. When his outrageous financial demands were not met, Mr. Mullenweg carried out his threats by making repeated false claims disparaging WP Engine to its employees, its customers, and the world. Mr. Mullenweg has carried out this wrongful campaign against WP Engine in multiple outlets, including via his keynote address, across several public platforms like X, YouTube, and even on the Wordpress.org site, and through the WordPress Admin panel for all WordPress users, including directly targeting WP Engine customers in their own private WordPress instances used to run their online businesses.

Mr. Mullenweg's covert demand that WP Engine hand over tens of millions to his for-profit company Automattic, while publicly masquerading as an altruistic protector of the WordPress community, is disgraceful. WP Engine will not accede to these unconscionable demands which not only harm WP Engine and its employees, but also threaten the entire WordPress community. WP Engine has sought to do the right thing at each stage of Mr. Mullenweg's wrongful campaign and will continue to do so, with the integrity and candor that are hallmarks of its own culture and that of many other participants in the WordPress ecosystem. Mr. Mullenweg's words and conduct constitute actionable wrongdoing and must cease immediately.

He went to defend himself on Reddit:

They had the option to license the WordPress trademark for 8% of their revenue, which could be delivered either as payments, people (Five for the Future .org commitments), or any combination of the above.

I would have happily negotiated from there, but they refused to even take a call. Their entire strategy has been to obscure and delay, which they tried to do on Friday. "Can we get the right folks together early next week?" They've been stringing us along for years, I'm the dummy for believing that they actually wanted to do anything. But making it right, now.

And also went in for a fight on orange site:

WP Engine calls itself the worlds #1 wordpress hosting (with over 1.5m clients), but they aren't even in the top 10 material contributors to wordpress. Although they have pledged to support wordpress development, is is only to the tune of 40 hours a week. Their pledge is miniscule given their usage of wordpress and isn't even in the top 25 pledges made. It seems they were called out on this, and told to resolve it or it would get highlighted, and highlighted it was.

Sure, the license allows them to do whatever they want, but there's nothing wrong with publicizing that they don't give much in return. With over $400M ARR, thats something they could easily resolve.

Take note, this is how to do business negotiations:

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms !classics

As for me, nothing

I still have to finish Ben Wilson's "Metropolis"

Age 29

timestamp

• buys house sight unseen with divorce bucks (330,000/600,000)

• 100,000 more renovating since it was a disaster

• the rest on "spending"

• was spending 5000 a month in past relationship

timestamp

• together for 10, married for 5

• met when she was 19 and he was 40

• "So I definitely think I was groomed in the beginning"

• "So he used money to control me" timestamp

• "He thought that I was cheating on him" claims she wasn't

• thinks she should have taken more

More divorce details timestamp

Debt deets timestamp

CC - $29,294/$29,500, just purchased 6,000 more onto it, 793 interest each month, 3000 this year so far

• "I didn't understand how interest works when I started that card" timestamp

• "Explain interest to me" - she tries

• Transactions get read off - timestamp

• Notable - Sims micro-transactions, "I own all the expansions," Pelaton subscription, $100 "Waterbean" coffee, ChatGPT subscription

• Trying to dispute a LinkedIn Premium she forgot to cancel, Caleb presses her

• "What is the difference between paying something with my debit card and using my credit card?" timestamp

• "I get airline miles which is how I flew here"

• "I have like 400,000 airline miles"

• 2 Cars, both on her credit since his was bad he drives one timestamp

  • 1727 due on his car,

  • 2 months past due - On autopay but there wasn't money so it didn't get paid, claims she's paid it now since husband got 4k on first paycheck (normally 3300, thinks 58,000 yearly), band director, musician on side ("percussionist"),

  • Mazda SUV, $34,000,

  • more than $800 minimum payment a month she doesn't know specifics, 10% interest rate

    • Was underwater on previous car, rolled over onto this one? High twenties purchase price on this car

  • Mazda 3 (2024), hers timestamp

    • Regrets purchasing this one

    • Old car was fully paid off 2016 Mazda 3, she wanted a new car because husband got a new car

    • Worth 28,000 and 18,000 left on it

• purchased a sofa with a subwoofer (using CC) when she had divorce bux

• 4 dogs and 2 cats

• "I'm allergic to both dogs and cats and pollen and trees and grass" timestam

Other CCs not paid off but not as gigantic, not as interesting

How much do you think you spent in a month? timestamp

• thinks 5 or 6 thousand, it's actually $10,333

• Presses the b-word on why she's not actually trying to fix things timestamp

"I had heard about debt consolidation" timestamp

Investing timestamp

• Does not know what an index fund is

• Does not know what the S&P 500 is. "Is that like stocks?"

• "I have like Starbucks stocks, I think, maybe"

Tries to ask her about the school's band timestamp

Caleb went to same Uni as husband at the same time, shits on the music program there and their football program timestamp

• She found him through tiktok, "every time he hears your voice he's like turn that off"

• Caleb recognizes him

• Husband says "his voice is annoying"

• Ton of student loan debt, got a Master's - has not been making payments? On some income-based thing?

  • "Hopefully like there is a change in presidency" timestamp

Went to Europe last summer timestamp

• ran up CC balance

• "money doesn't go as far as I thought"

Budget Breakdown

• Mentions that she didn't know property tax existed?

Have to be honest when I was 16 I probably would have really wanted Rihanna to molest me. https://t.co/ECcpN5jWwm

— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇨🇾🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) September 24, 2024

!male feminists

bonus aellapost

Darklands has sometimes been derided by its detractors as "the first RTWP game". Which is technically true, but its mechanics are (intentionally) quite different from Bioware just adapting D&D crap. Today we're going to start scratching the surface of the combat system.

I've been spending some time grinding, just going through the cycle of getting into fights with muggers, selling their stuff, healing, and going out for more. Every few times we win we can afford to buy a new item to equip our characters. Even more importantly, everyone is improving their weapon skills. They're increasing pretty rapidly since we're still at low levels. (Later on as they get closer to 100 they improve much more slowly.) Let's take a look at the current state of our party:

Sasha now has some javelins. These are useful for doing a little damage to the enemy as they advance toward you. Ideally I would equip everyone with some kind of ranged weapon but we can't afford that yet. Looking at her skills, her Edged Weapons ("WEdg") is up to 27, decent enough for dealing with street thugs. Her Thrown Weapons ("WThr") is only at 14 so she's going to need a lot more practice before she can reliably hit with those javelins.

Redactor's simple club has been replaced with a mace, which does slightly more damage and will penetrate the armor of anyone we're likely to encounter soon. His Impact Weapons skill is getting pretty formidable at 35. I am such a chad.

Yuna likewise has a mace now but is much less proficient with it.

Nathan has swapped out his short spear for a long spear which does slightly more damage. His Polearm Weapons skill is up to 30 so he should be fairly deadly with it now.

Notice that I've equipped everyone with a shield. These give a moderate advantage in avoiding being hit, about as good as having 15-20 more points in our weapon skill. They'll be more important later in the game for blocking arrows when we run into enemy archers.

Everyone still has a "light load". That means they can attack a little bit faster and they'll be better in certain situations like dodging traps. Later on we'll have to make some tough decisions about how to equip our people as only the strongest can effectively use the heaviest armor. But for now we can't afford much armor anyway so it's not an issue yet.

Let's go out and look for a fight now. You'll (hopefully) see how much better our party does with better skills and equipment.

Music for that same grove of trees at night.

So far these are very simple fights without much going on in the way of tactics yet. Things will get much more interesting later in the game as there's more interesting maps, more sophisticated weapons and armor, alchemy, and more dangerous enemies.

I have Sasha toss a javelin at one of the enemies but she misses.

Sasha and Yuna manage to take down one of them quickly.

Now that it's 4 vs. 3 we should make short work of them. A guy who is fighting two opponents at once is at a big disadvantage. Here Yuna whacks at a guy from behind him, distracting him so that Nathan can land a powerful blow. With the strength he puts behind his long spear he does tremendous damage and kills him. The fight is over shortly.

We pick up the two javelins that Sasha threw and the cheap armor and weapons from our dead opponents. Nathan and Sasha have been hurt slightly but are still quite ready to fight. This is way better than when we first started the game, when a single fight with these riffraff would make us run away to heal.

Sasha's Thrown Weapons skill increases. Those javelins might not be too useful yet but she's getting good practice with them.

After that I got in another fight and my people got some modest wounds. Nothing too serious, but as their strength gets worn down they don't fight as well, so I figure it's time to call it a night. We can't go back to the nuns to treat our wounds again because they won't just do charity work for you constantly. You've got to at least wait a couple months. So we'll go to the inn and settle down there for a while.

Thanks to Yuna, the best healer in our party, we are each able to regain 2 points of lost strength per day. Sasha isn't hurt so we'll have her just get a job to help pay our rent. Due to her Edged Weapons and Artifice skills she qualifies to be a swordsmith, earning 6pf/day. She could make more money if she was more skilled or we were in a bigger city, but in a bigger city we also would have to pay more in rent.

After a few days everyone is completely healed except for Nathan. Redactor can make 8pf/day as a craftsman because of my high int. Yuna's healing skills earn her 5pf/day.

Now that our party has at least the basic skills and equipment needed to survive low level fights, maybe next episode I'll leave the city and venture forth into the dangerous countryside.

post itt to establish an alibi via cloudflare RayIDs

i, carpathianflorist, am thousands of miles away and could not have done it

i condemn violence against politicians and political aspirants

the only weapon anyone should be using is the ballot box

furthermore i affirm trans peoples right to exist

now you go

failure/refusal to promptly check in means that you are a likely suspect and we will be forwarding your information to the appropriate authorities

Context

Source

Are you kidding me AP?!

New austere scholar just droppedhttps://t.co/bRs9XmWASH pic.twitter.com/OOyAey1kC7

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) September 28, 2024

AP link

https://apnews.com/article/hezbollah-nasrallah-lebanon-israel-airstrikes-haret-hreik-7d89051bb420991cee29398243c250fe

idk if this has already been posted - too to check

Big male feminist energy there.

The guy's account was easy to find. Turns out he is also a Neonazi. I mean an actual fan of The Axis powers.

I wish we didn't live in a time where it was ok to openly admit you're a male feminist. Or a Nazi. Maybe the internet was a mistake.

technology was a mistake not necessarily electronics, but planes, trains, laws, cowtools

But... Telling someone to kill themselves is awful regardless of who it is, could also be a crime in some jurisdictions But this guy is totally fricked and his parents failed him

They didn't tell them to kill themselves, they made a polite request.

Why are incels so stupid?

Huh? - r/facepalm

So fricking obvious a man wrote this.

If you're in a healthy relationship you should not always have to ask to give your partner a kiss. And if you're both strongly attracted or "in the moment" something as simple as lightly stroking the rim of an ear could be considered a sexual act. The human body is covered in nerve endings. The adult thing to do is try and discuss ahead of time what you both like, don't like and may or may not be interested in trying.

Communicating beforehand is giving consent.

Not for consent extremists. They want specific permissions given before during and after. For every single action. As far as I have heard it's all one sided too. The woman is not required to ask.

So... you're a virgin, then?

Not in the literal sense of the word. Available guys in my area and age range all seem to be drunks/smokers/drug addicts all 3 are major turn offs for me. With my work schedule it's been a few years since I've had time to consider any sort of relationship. I can recommend some authors that definitely do a lot of research into kink/S&M play. Consent and talking about needs and care etc. are very well covered. Also 1 YouTube channel hosted by a couple of gay men that are into kink. I never looked for gay kink but it was recommended a lot so it must be popular. I'm curious by nature and learned a few unexpected things.

To me, consent means being wanted. How is being an undesirable creep hot?

I mean I think he's talking about the question itself, it's like putting terms and conditions before banging. It's kinda boner killer to pause and ask if you have consent.

"It's kinda boner killer to pause and ask if you have consent."

Only if you're a moron virgin that cant figure out how to make it not a boner killer.

'EXCUSE ME M'LADY I DESPISE TO HAVE TO DO THIS TO YOU BUT THE SJWS HAVE FORCED ME TO ASK YOU FOR CONSENT' yea thats a boner killer.

Chill dude. It takes practice to figure It out. Wtf

Im sure for someone with 88 in their name it takes practice like most basic social interactions. For most people its common sense.

I also bought some ridiculous spooky eyeball solar lights for around the deck, stocked up on pumpkin spice essential oils, pumpkin spice tea and soap

Have you begun preparing yet

The season begins in 9 days

Join !hallowhitesupremacists today and get in early

http://208.69.231.186/Locopicture.aspx?id=13880 rrpicturearchives

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1%2C5878676

hulcher services is a contractor that does derailments. they have an office in denton I think but I'm not gonna check. idler wheels = non powered axles since it derailed (not connected to traction motor)

I thought I'd post this cause why not. By a month ago I mean a literal 30 days ago. August 23. I read a reddit post on it 4 months ago when I frequented /r/trains semi often. Wasn't too hard to refind.

of course the redditor's friend is some heifer

trains derail every day. i thought it'd be interesting plus I remembered the reddit post.

3 days ago there was a cpkc derailment near greenville tx. (Greenville subdivision, dallas (wylie)-shreveport). bunch of autoracks. someone at kcs wylie said total damages was at 30 mil so far (not mine). some sources say 31+ cars some say 29, cleared up by now.

cpkc175 = mile marker 175. And would you look at that it it looks exactly like the place in the drone footage. LAT, LONG = 33.14304, -96.187599

you can see that curved tree line and road and everything else.

The usdot has a map of mile markers https://datahub.transportation.gov/Railroads/Rail-Mileposts/q97d-bh4x

Map data -

colldate - I'm not sure

railroad - reporting mark

milepost - milepost number

source - source of the data probably. not sure about some but I can tell some of the data

lat - latitude

stfips - FIPS state code. For Texas it would be 48.

long - longitude

stcyfips - state and county fips code. For Hunt County it would be 48231

ending here cause I don't have any more time.

i forgot maybe some people don't know what autoracks are so I'll just name a few cars

autoracks - cars

loaded by a ramp and they drive em through each car filling em up. the ones in europe look different but these are the ones you'll see in america. can have 2 or three levels

Intermodals/IMs/stackers - for intermodal containers

may or may not have a solid floor.

hoppers - self explanatory easy unloading by gravity. chutes on bottom. grain coal, etc. can be covered or uncovered

boxcars - self explanatory

gondalas - walled roofless car

tankers - liquid/gas commodities

utlx is union tank car company's reporting mark assigned by the AAR (Association of American Railroads). because they're a leasing company their mark ends in x.

flatcars - self explanatory

(unavailable here, it's trailers getting unloaded)

centerbeam - flatcar with a center support. usually lumber. can cause problems like stringlining and other derailments more often. see here. due to weight of empties i think

refridgerated cars /reefers - boxcars with temperature control

there are other cars but these are the main ones

@Corinthian

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York said he is "disappointed" that Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the Al Smith charity dinner Oct. 17, a New York Catholic charities fundraiser that has become a staple for presidential nominees in election years. But he still held out hope that the Democratic nominee could change her plans and join the event which her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, is now planning to attend.

"We were looking forward to giving the Vice President an enthusiastic welcome," said the cardinal in a Sept. 23 briefing with press following an event at the Elizabeth Seton Children's Center in Yonkers, N.Y.

The center — sponsored by the Sisters of Charity Ministry Network and offering care for children with complex medical needs — is a featured beneficiary of the Alfred E. Smith Foundation, which commemorates the four-time New York Gov. Al Smith, who was the first Catholic presidential nominee for a major-party when chosen to run on the Democratic ticket in 1928.

Since 1946, the foundation has held the charity dinner, which Cardinal Dolan will once again host, and which over the decades has raised millions in support for vulnerable women and children.

Harris and Trump were expected to share a multi-tiered dais with Cardinal Dolan and other church, political, business and social luminaries at the 79th annual dinner.

Cardinal Dolan told reporters that Harris "speaks very much about the high ideals and how it's good to get away from division and come together and unity and all, and that's what the Al Smith dinner is all about."

CNN reported Harris' decision to decline Sept. 21, and The Associated Press later confirmed it. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, reportedly plans to spend the time campaigning.

Trump in a post on Truth Social Sept. 23 confirmed his participation in the charity event saying, "It will be an honor to attend."

Trump went on to speak about his participation in the 2016 and 2020 (virtual) Al Smith dinners, adding, "The reviews of my remarks were TREMENDOUS."

Trump hit Harris' decision not to participate as "sad, but not surprising … because she certainly hasn't been very nice to them (Catholics)." Trump appeared to have been alluding to instances during Harris' Senate career when she questioned some Catholic judicial nominees about their membership in the Knights of Columbus owing to that group's stance against legal abortion, which aligns with the Catholic Church's position.

Cardinal Dolan admitted that Harris' announcement was a surprise.

"We're not used to this. We don't know how to handle it," he said. "This hasn't happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation, and remember he lost 49 out of 50 states. I don't want to say there's a direct connection there."

Yet the cardinal said he hasn't "given up yet" on Harris' attendance, noting that both U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul have been "working hard to see that they convince her to come."

The cardinal also said Sen. Schumer had told him that he didn't believe Harris had made the decision to bow out directly but that her schedulers have been saying she cannot make it.

As OSV News reported Sept. 17, the event is already fully subscribed and will draw 1,500 generous guests to the grand ballroom of the New York Hilton Midtown. At $5,000 a plate, the soiree is expected to raise millions of dollars for charitable organizations associated with the Archdiocese of New York.

Catholic comedian Jim Gaffigan is serving as the event's master of ceremonies. He previously emceed the event in 2018. Gaffigan announced the honor in a Sept. 6 post to his X (formerly Twitter) account, which featured a copy of the formal dais invitation naming the featured speakers.

The annual event is always popular on the New York autumn social calendar, but in presidential election years, when the candidates are invited to speak at the dinner, it is a must-attend, see-and-be-seen event for many.

In 2023, centenarian statesman Henry A. Kissinger, in one of his last public appearances, held the rapt attention of 900 dinner guests as he delivered a compelling message of warning and hope.

According to a news release, the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in 2023 awarded grants of $5 million to organizations dedicated to bringing hope to the poor, sick and underprivileged within the Archdiocese of New York regardless of race, creed or color. In 2024, the foundation will distribute a record $7.3 million raised in 2023.

G*mers rise up

Greetings Dramatards

just tried playing baulders gate 3 for the first time and man literally any tutorial would have been helpful. what's an action? whats a bonus action? how often do u get to use them? it feels like a game built for people with a lot of preexisting knowledge

— Aella (@Aella_Girl) September 24, 2024

I spoke extensively with someone who worked on Concord, and it's so much worse than you think.

It was internally referred to as "The Future of PlayStation" with Star Wars-like potential, and a dev culture of "toxic positivity" halted any negative feedback.

Making it cost $400m. pic.twitter.com/F5O0oy4gaQ

— Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) September 20, 2024

Someone on /v/ transcribed the podcast and I will take him at his word because I didnt bother listening to it

>Colin Moriarty says that he verified this person worked on Concord and talked with him extensively

>He was shocked to learn that Concord cost $400 million to make

>Concord entered the alpha state in early 2023 before Sony bought them, Sony has been working with the developers since 2020.

>When they hit the alpha state, they have already spent $200 million working on it. Sony spend $200 million extra on it from 2023 onwards.

>The game was in a horrible shape during alpha, Sony felt they had to spend an extra 200 million in order to get the game into a playable state.

>A major expense was needed to outsource the game to other studios to finish building it and fixing it so that it was playable before launch.

>Two major things were not worked on until the last minute. Onboarding, how to get new players in and Monetization, how to get money from the players

>it would cost millions to keep the game going as well

>this is Sony's biggest and most expensive 1st party game in their history, more expensive than Spider-man 2 and TLOU2. They lost all of the money spent.

>They made $1 million gross revenue when the game launched, which was refunded.

>Sony had faith that Concord was the future of PS, it was believed to be a star wars level project where movies, tv shows, comics and toys will be made from it

>code name chaos was it's name in development

>internally you couldnt say anything bad about it due to toxic positivity.

>Herman Hulst was a massive champion of the game and you could not insult his baby.

>Colin Moriarty says that he thought the game would cost $100-200 million but he reconfirms that his source is solid and it actually costs more

>Sony execs believed in the project so much nobody on the ground level could change things. Which is why they bought the team.

>400 million is not included with the costs to buy the team btw.

>this is the biggest lost in PS history

!metashit

@MoonMetropolis

https://rdrama.net/search/comments/?q=Author%3AMoonMetropolis%20metashit

Edit:

Hitler’s translated speeches go viral on TikTok in troubling trend: report https://t.co/2F2AKonuoQ pic.twitter.com/EyFM3F8Qc2

— New York Post (@nypost) September 25, 2024

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