Senior public prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said that the suspect acted alone and said of his motive: "According to the current situation, the background could have been dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees in Germany."

cc: @elfbinn

Completely dull, no shine.

@Garry_Kong opinion?

It was after hours and didn't interfere with p*tients.

15k+ upmarseys and going strong

>FAIRHOPE, AL—Exploiting the popular online game platform for his own perverse ends, local Roblox user Rodney McKinney, 68, was accused of grooming 56-year-old Roblox user Walter Rhodes, sources confirmed Wednesday. "For the past several months, Mr. McKinney, a 68-year-old Roblox user, used the game as a means to foster an inappropriate relationship with an impressionable young 56-year-old that was sexual in nature," said officer Mike Cavazos, noting several obscene messages in which the baby boomer offered the much younger Gen X user Robux in exchange for lewd images of Rhodes' flabby, mature body. "It was clear from their correspondence that Mr. McKinney knew the victim was 56, as he stated in chats that he was 'old enough to be [Rhodes'] supervising manager.' And though he claimed that messages inviting the victim to move off Roblox to a more private LinkedIn chat were innocent, we believe otherwise." At press time, authorities claimed McKinney attempted to conceal his indiscretions by warning Rhodes not to "tell your mom, if she's still alive."

Real life Afghanistan is literally worse than The Handmaid's Tale. The fact that this gets so little media attention angers me.

Islamic law is incompatible with human and especially women's rights. No amount of gaslamping or whining about "islamophobia" is going to stop me from saying that anymore. Women and children are not fricking property.

If Islam cannot be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, then it needs to be left behind in the past. Same for any religion.

This is most perfect reconstruction of reddit comment

Although it's technically a holiday in Hong Kong I am in the office, albiet with nothing to do so I have been watching DS9. Here are my thoughts...

Emissary

The best Star Trek pilot, both in terms of entertainment and setting the scene and establishing the main characters for the subsequent series. Quark and Odo aren't given much to do but nevertheless we get an impression of who they are and their relationship to one another- Quark's nephew BIPOC is presented here as more of a hardened delinquent rather than the naughty kid he would later appear as and BIPOC's father Rom only appears in the background. Kira is pretty annoying tbh and it took most of season 1 to let her calm down and stop being angry and unhinged about literally everything. Everyone else is pretty much as they would be throughout the show, including Gul Dukat who has a brief appearance.

The story revolves around the immediate aftermath of the Cardassian withdrawl from their 50-year occupation of Bajor and the uneasy new alliance between the Bajorans and the Federation, who the Bajorans fear might just be a new occupation force. The Bajoran gods, the Prophets, are revealed to be aliens who exist outside of time and space in an artificial wormhole which connects the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants of our galaxy. By the end of the episode the Prophets have agreed to allow transit to the new frontier through their wormhole after a lengthy extrapolation between themselves and DS9 commander Sisko on the nature of linear time.

This focusses on why Sisko- who insists we temporal beings are always moving forward- continues to dwell on the death of his wife during the Borg invasion, rather than moving on which he has argued is what we do. This is very smart writing- taking the very out-there concept of aliens who exist at every point in time simultaneously and linking it to the very relatable experience of grief. It would have been better without Avery Brooks' profoundly uneven performance. I think he is capable of acting some scenes very well- the relationship between Sisko and his son Jake is one of the best father-son combos in tv history- but he cannot play strong emotions and resorts to this odd staccato shouting which just seems weird.

Why exactly the Prophets- who experience past, present and future as one- would seem surprised or even threatened by Sisko deserves some exploration. Especially so since later seasons will reveal he has a very close relationship to one of them. I hypothesise that they are, to some extent, playing along with the scene but, at the same time, this actually is the beginning of a linear cause and effect series of events for them. They use Sisko's description of linear events as a template to create their own, deciding to interract more closely with the temporal universe beyond their own wormhole- that these events occur in the past from our perspective is irrelevant as the Prophets can leave their own dimension at any point along the timeline. From their perspective the line of cause and effect is- meet with Sisko, realise he's 'one of them'; send one of their own to create him; take a greater interest in Bajor and the greater galaxy (including abducting an ancient religious extremist to act as an alternative emissary- a wake-up call to goad Sisko into taking his role as emissary seriously, and saving the Alpha Quadrant from a Dominion fleet); and latterly suffering a schism among their ranks which creates the Pah-Wraiths. This happens all over our timeline but is a series of one-after-the-other events to them and is their exploration of linear existence. Of course, to some extent, they always knew they would do this as they always had knowledge of past, present and future as one- in the words of Dr. Manhattan; "We're all puppets, but some of us can see the strings".

Past Prologue

The first regular episode of DS9 introduces possibly the greatest reoccuring character in Star Trek history- challenged only by his fellow Cardassian Gul Dukat- Elim Garak (or "plain simple Garak" as he prefers). He is the only Cardassian to remain on the station and is suspected of being a spy, which is half true (but of course, the truth is just an excuse for a poor imagination). Andrew J. Robinson (who also played the Scorpio in Dirty Harry- he was wrong to feel lucky- and the heavy-bleeding father in the original Hellraiser) plays Garak a little too creepy and gay and apparently Rick Berman told him to cut that shit out, so Garak straightens out quite a lot in subsequent appearances. Garak is the best part of the episode, the rest of it is some guff about Bajoran extremists- whom we never hear from again- and another appearance by the utterly tiresome House of Duras in the form of the sisters Lursa and B'Etor (in their defence, they do seem to have nice tits) who are smuggling bomb parts for the extremists. Lets just remind ourselves of what eventually happened to them:

Anyway, none of this goes anywhere and Kira ends up looking like a bit of an idiot for initially supporting the nice-haired extremist leader- to be fair she does redeem herself towards the end. All anyone cares about in this episode is Garak and it's worth watching for him.

A Man Alone

Cut to: Bashir and Quark lusting after Dax (Jeets and Jews being notorious for this kind of shit). Everyone assumes that Sisko is going to feed her a length but he insists they're just old friends. For some reason I startrd imagining the noises Avery Brooks makes when fricking while writing this.

Anyway- none of this is the point of the episode and Odo harrumpfing and admitting to being a vocel before jumping up and slugging a guy at the dabo table and telling him he's got 26 hours (one Bajor day) to get off the station cues us to the focus of this episode. The guy he hit was some kind of smuggler but not the good kind- he let a kid die cos her family couldn't pay for the medicine she needed. He then killed a Cardassian for which Odo arrested and charged him. Later on he's seen getting a massage by a web-fingered holo-whore when's he's stabbed in the back and killed.

The tale requires us to go along with the notion that Odo might actually be the killer- after all, we don't know him that well. However Rene Aberjoniois is a fully paid up regular cast member contracted until at least the end of the season. I suppose, back in the 90s, there were still a lot of people watching who didn't understand how TV gets made but the whole thing never gets resolved and a bunch of threads get left hanging- most notably the motivations of Chudd McWrinklenose...

...who leads the witch hunt against Quark when he gets relieved of duty. I'm going to spoil the ending cos it's not very interesting. The suggler guy cloned himself and then killed his clone. Bashir demonstrates this by growing a clone of the guy revealing that, when it's grown, it will be allowed to leave medbay and go have a life- Odo states that "killing your clone is still murder". Now, I grant you that this might just be Bajoran law but lets just recall how Riker and the awful Pulaski reacted when someone cloned them:

The B-plot is about the O'Briens and Keiko being unhappy with nothing to do on the station. The woman was a botanist on the Enterprise (I assume she and a bunch of other civilians worked in specialist jobs like than somewhere among the huge and echoingly- empty halls of that ship- seriously, the Enterprise-D had a compliment of less than a thousand people -including civilians- and had literally millions of square feet of floorspace- place must've been empty as frick) and now she's sat at home with the kid. So she decides to become a schoolteacher because, when all other career choices dry up, that's what you do. She goes to persuade Rom to send his son to the school. Rom is... very different to how he'll be later. Of course,nobody likes Keiko so anything about her is unpopular. A lot of this is for the same reasons that nobody liked Skylar in Breaking Bad- male writers project onto wife characters and make them drag-wheels for the male protagonists... their feelings and ideas an obstacle to be overcome. Nevertheless, here's a compilation of Keiko being an annoying ladygarden:

In summary: meh.

I really want to know why Odo doesn't just turn his arms into tentacles and wrap up perps when arresting them or why he grunts and gasps while he's fighting considering he's a changeling who doesn't breathe.

Babel

Cold open on something I've never seen before: a hard working Irishman. Potatoneighbors usually only put the effort into three things- drunkeness, spousal abuse and the glorification of heinous acts of terrorism. But Chief Miles O'Brien will do anything to avoid having to go home and talk to his wife so he's personally taking charge of literally every actof maintenence on the station. DS9 was a shoddy rush-job, it seems and Cardassian technology is a bit shit compared to the Federation stuff. After fixing yet another anus-juice-producing replicator we see a mysterious object within release a strange gas...

The station becomes Wuhan to an aphasia virus which makes people spount gibberish. This is never funnier than when it's O'Brien- Colm Meany (an actually legitimately great actor) delivers this stuff wonderfully and it's an incredible shame that he's removed from the episode so soon. I could watch this shit for 40 minutes no trouble:

This episode is actually quite good and benefits from having no real b-plot. The closest you get is that Quark inadvertently spreads the virus further by breaking into the crew quarters on the command decks to use the replicators after the ones in his bar break and O'Brien's too busy having his spazz to fix them. Now this begs a question: what the frick are people paying Quark for if he's just using the same ship replicators as everyone else to make his food and drink? Is it ambience? I considered the idea that maybe Quark has licences to replicate stuff you can't get at home but then how's he doing it from a crew replicator? Maybe everyone only gets a certain ration of replicator credits and Quark's takes latinum for more but then that really raises the idea that his patrons are gluttons. I suppose the gambling and holo-whoring is something you can't do in your quarters but everyone acts like the food and drink is something special too.

Quark and Odo are the only two main cast members who don't get affected by the virus by the end of the episode which actually makes a lot of sense as Odo's a changeling and numerous TNG episodes established that Ferenghi brains don't work like goyim brains do.

Anyway- first objectively good regular episode of season 1. The next episode will be even better...

Like, u get off the beach and u and ywour shit is cwowored in sand. Weww just swipe ywour cwedit card fwor $1.50 and u've gwot an air wand that can bwow aww of the sand out of ywour shit. As a bwonyus u can use it two inflate innyer tubes and other beach twoys.

Im thinking abwout it. Im alswo sick and fuww of DXM.

Think abwout it.

South Africa's president is relatively beloved. However, many have forgotten about his fricked up past and how he is responsible for the worst massacre in South Africa since apartheid. In this relatively short post, I want to outline the events of the Marikana massacre and the shitshow that ensued.

Mining in South Africa

As you probably already know, South Africa is one of the worlds mining hub, producing the overwhelming majority of the world's platinum and gold. This was in part made possible through aparheid which built ghettoes near mines as a means of acquiring cheap labour. Of course, this had several negative effects, including the destruction of the nuclear family.

Regardless, when apartheid seized, a question arose: what to do with all these mines? They were generating the majority of the country's wealth, yet they were exclusively owned by whites. This was obviously not a natural occurrence of a free market and it was only possible because of apartheid laws. On the other hand, they couldn't just hand over the mines to Black people who had no knowledge on how to manage the mines. Thus, a conclusion was reached: the mines would be given grants to improve the communities they were located in, and to give their workers a better standard of living.

It should be mentioned at this point that mine workers were paid very poorly, often were injured on the job, and suffered long-term health effects from inhaling dangerous substances. Another problem that made things worse is that male workers were separated from their families who still lived in the rural homestead. Consequently, many workers would start second families in the ghettoes, meaning that their menial salaries were split among two families, sometimes consisting of 6,7, or even 8 children. As you can imagine, many of these children were underfed and did not go to school.

The Workers Have Had Enough

Well, the time came when workers had decided that enough is enough. They were working long hours, suffering greivous injuries, and yet were being paid peanuts while their bosses were amongst the wealthiest people in the nation.

Hence, South Africans did what they did best - protest. Now, there's a lot of drama between the different workers unions, but that's not the focus of this peice. All you need to know is that on 10 August 2012 a strike began. It was led by rock drill operators who suffered some of the worst injustices because they worked long hours in dangerous conditions. They marched to Lomnim Platinum Mine offices, but nobody agreed to meet with them which angered the workers. Lomnim was heavily protected and had its own private security. This isn't a surprise as the business deals with very valuable goods. Hence, the owners of Lomnim set their security on the protestors. The security guards fired rubber bullets at the crowd, injuring many. This would only be the start of the violence.

This wasn't enough to deter the protestors. In the subsequent days, they returned to protest even more and in greater numbers. But this time, their beef wasn't just with Lomnim. They also had a problem with their Workers Union, NUM, which refused to negotiate on their behalf. They visited the headquarters of NUM, some of them carrying guns, and they opened fire. It is not clear how many people died. Some sources say 2 died, but others say the 2 were only injured and did not die. When asked about the incident, the workers claimed that they were acting in self-defence.

After this event, the workers were PISSED. They hired a traditional healer (witchdoctor, sangoma) to protect them from violence and they vowed to return with even more people because they really wanted a raise. There were more clashes between August 12 and August 15, resulting in the death of 15 people. If you know anything about the cycle of violence, you'll be aware that violence only begets more violence. So neither party backed down. NUM did not support their workers, the workers did not back down, and Lomnim refused the raise that the workers were demanding. During these clashes, an estimated 10 people died, including three mineworkers and two policemen in a single altercation; and, in other confrontation, an additional three Lonmin mine employees and two Lonmin security officials died.

Things got from bad to worse. Workers burned cop cars, attacked police, and dodged rubber bullets. However, all of this chaos would be nothing compared to the disastrous events of August 16.

The Marikana Massacre

The cops had had enough of the protestors. The poors were killing cops! So, they got together and orchestrated a plot called D-Day. They had nothing good on the mind. A press conference was held where it was announced that they were ending the matter. Grave words indeed. These were the exact words: "The plan is that we intend to ensure that today we end this strike. If they resist, like I said, today is a day that we intend to end the violence."

So, the police readied themselves. They packed barbed wire to keep the protestors from the police, and they stocked themselves with R5 ammunition. For those who don't know, this is a variant of a South African rifle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vektor_R4

You can watch them getting shot here:

The protestors were aware that the police were planning on escalating matters, but they believed they were safe because they had received protection from witch doctors. An opposing workers union, AMWU was against the strike, and he begged and pleaded for the workers to not go ahead with the protest because he could see that the police were willing to use lethal force. However, his warnings were not heeded. Hence, the massacre began.

Now, don't be fooled into thinking the protestors were peaceful. Though the majority of them had no guns, they were carrying sticks and rocks and fully meant to intimidate the police. However, many would agree that what the police did next was not proportionate. At first, the police tried, non-lethal means to disperse the crowd consisting of over 100 miners. They sprayed water cannons, used stun grenades and teargas but none of it worked. The crowd continued to progress. Now, you may think the crowd is stupid but just look at things from their perspective. They are not earning enough to feed themselves, yet their employees are literal billionaires.

Chaos started when one of the strikers decided to fire his pistol. In response, the police opened fire with their R5s. This barrage of bullets lasted about 12 seconds, and over 300 bullets were fired. It was complete pandemonium and it was hard for police to keep contact with each other. A Tactical Response Team commander raised his fist and shouted "cease fire", but not all police heard the order, so the shooting continued. In total, 17 workers were killed. It was found that most of the workers were shot on the back, meaning that they were running away. In other words, they were escaping from the gunfire. That is to say, they were in the process of dispersing. What I'm trying to communicate is that they were getting away and were no longer a threat.

At a different scene, things were no better. Cops clashed with protestors. Rocks were thrown and in response, police opened fire with their R5s, killing 17 more workers. Of course, the police defended themselves, claiming that they had given the crowd ample warning and that the protestors were too rowdy and aggressive and that the police feared for their lives. But in general, people in South Africa aren't very sympathetic to the police. One of the reasons this is the case is because police in South Africa have a history of being corrupt and violent. Secondly, when guns were found on scene, it wasn't clear who the guns belonged to, so they essentially "planted" the guns on whoever they could find. Yeah, the police aren't known for their world-class work.

The Role of Cyril Ramaphosa

Cyril is the current president of South Africa and he is a billionaire. He is involved with Lomnim, but he has his fingers in many other pies, including, according to Wikipedia:

Ramaphosa was also a chairman of Bidvest, MTN, and from March 2007, Mondi, a leading international paper and packaging group. His other non-executive directorships included Macsteel Holdings, Alexander Forbes, SABMiller, Lonmin, Anglo American, and Standard Bank. In 2011, Ramaphosa paid for a 20-year master franchise agreement to run 145 McDonald's restaurants in South Africa. He also belonged to the Coca-Cola Company International Advisory Board and the Unilever Africa Advisory Council.

The Marikana Massacre took place prior to Ramaphosa becoming president, but he was one of the board members who gave the okay for increased police force to be used against the strikers. The billionaire caught a lot of heat for this, with many calling him a murderer. But Ramaphosa faced no legal consequences, though he was courteous enough to apologize for his role in the murders.

"Yes, I did put a bid and that was a mistake on my part. It was a mistake; I regret it. It was a mistake to even put up my hand to do so, and I've been chastised by some of my good comrades. Even before they chastised me I did admit that that was a mistake. I regret it because, I mean, it's an excessive price in the seas of poverty… it was one of those moments when I was blind-sighted," Ramaphosa said.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121025233419/http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-10-25-cyril-ramaphosa-the-true-betrayal

Despite this, the man managed to become president of the country. Also, white extinction is long overdue.

Workers and Lomnim reach an agreement

So after all the murders, it was clearly that something had to be done. In total, 40 workers died and 2 police officers were killed. This caused national outcry and the country was furious, especially at Cyril who was a somewhat popular figure due to his billionaire status and being a senior member of the ANC. Eventually, it was agreed that workers would get a raise but it was not much. For example, rock drill operators now earned about $579 dollars. Imagine doing backbreaking work, inhaling dust all day to be paid $579 to feed your family while mine owners earn literally billions.

Aftermath

An inquiry was held to determine who, if anyone, was responsible for this massacre. By the end of it, very few police officers faced any disciplinary action. After all, they were just following orders! The State paid over $70 million to those affected by the murders, and they promised to build houses. But when journ*lists went to investigate these houses, they found that they were shoddily built and likely the result of corrupt tenders. @kaamrev probably knows more about this.

Conclusion

So how do you feel about the whole event? Were the strikers asking for it by not backing down even after being warned? Were the police pieces of shit for firing rifles at poor people with rocks? Does Ramaphosa deserve to be president or in prison? Is it fair that mine owners make billions while workers live in poverty? You decide!

The answer is no. Unless you want a divorce or to be miserable. There are small differences that are fine but you're talking about major values and that's a big no no.

You can disagree on the best NFL team (Go Birds 🦅) but for fundamental things, you must be on the same page or, as you mentioned, there will be lots of fights and resentment in the future.

You can disagree on stuff like sports teams, restaurants, vacation locations. As soon as your disagreements reach "Human rights", then you're in a major issue. You will be with someone who believes some people are destined and deserve eternal punishment for the love they show being different. Take that how you will

!nooticers

A Cal Fire captain was found stabbed to death inside of her San Diego County home on Monday and authorities are still searching for the suspect.

Deputies were dispatched to the 20200 block of Rancho Villa Road in Ramona at around 9 p.m. on Monday after learning of an assault that happened in the area, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office.

Upon arrival, they found the victim suffering from multiple stab wounds, deputies said. Despite attempted life-saving measures the woman was declared dead at the scene.

On Tuesday, the victim was identified by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, as Rebecca Marodi, 49, a 30-year firefighting veteran who was stationed in French Valley just north of Temecula.

Thus far into their investigation, Sheriff's Homicide Unit detectives have yet to identify a suspect or motive in the incident, but they suspect that Marodi "knew the perpetrator and are treating this case as a potential domestic violence incident."

According to Cal Fire officials, Marodi began her firefighting career in 193 as a volunteer firefighter in Moreno Valley. She then served as a seasonal Fire Fighter I from 1994 to 2000 in San Bernardino and Riverside before she was promoted to Fire Fighter II. In 2007, she was promoted to a Fire Apparatus Engineer and to Captain in 2022.

She was previously stationed in Perris, Home Gardens, Indian Wells, Menifee, North Rancho Mirage and Temecula before ending up with French Valley Station 83.

"Beyond her operational assignments, Captain Marodi was deeply involved in Peer Support and Hazmat, always prioritizing the well-being of her colleagues," the Cal Fire statement said. "Her legacy of mentorship, service, and dedication will be felt for years to come. Her passing is a profound loss to her family, friends, and all who had the privilege of working alongside her."

Anyone who knows more is urged to contact SDSO homicide detectives at (858) 285-6330.

Get your gains on the cheap!

1) I have a lot of sympathy for gov’t employees: I, too, have not checked my email for the past few (hundred) days

And I can confirm that being unemployed is a lot less relaxing than it looks

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) February 25, 2025

!coomers

https://instagram.com/p/DFqLyTmy_56/

Almost as if it isn't actually child safety that they care about

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-07/sam-kerr-trial-kristie-mewis-cross-examination-london/104907414

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-04/sam-kerr-trial-london-metropolitan-police-london/104884292

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-05/sam-kerr-trial-london-metropolitan-police-chelsea-matildas/104897448

She said she was uncomfortable in the taxi because some taxi driver in Sydney murdered some people and got upset at the popo for taking the taxi driver's side or something. Idk heard it yesterday on the radio.

Basically, Sydney is a dangerous place that you should never go to.

!strayans

Democracy is when you ban opposition parties for political reasons.

TOTAL KRAUT DEATH

Not trying to play devils advocate for a racist weirdo, but how are you sure? Not trying to argue, just curious what gave it away.

This is, of course, assuming it's the OK hand gesture. If it's something less obscure, the answer is self explanatory

He was taking a selfie in the mirror. The hand that was at his side was doing the white power gesture. Hands do not naturally fall like that… so no.

EDIT: Hinge has actually emailed me to say they've taken action against him, so I'm not mistaken as you're inferring.

Her previous posts indicate she absolutely hates men, but is having trouble finding her disney prince on dating apps because they all love hitler.

https://old.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/1chuwpl/i_feel_like_giving_up_online_dating_men/

What a lovely night, tucked into bed with the boys and mister man

!animalposters !cats

A foreign billionaire has seized the United States government.

— DCCC (@dccc) February 3, 2025

Is he a foreigner from Canada? Or Africa?

Bonus video here's Elon with his McLaren F1 and his ex wife of his child