Maybe Maccabi Tel Aviv shouldn’t be in UEFA. Getting the boot from AFC might not have been fair in the 70’s but if your fans can’t travel to fucking Ajax, just don’t play international football.

I’ve never had to wait long in New Orleans or DC except for odd circumstances but those places essentially have predetermined elections.

• During the pandemic in New Orleans, they made the Smoothie King Center the main early voting location. That took a couple of hours but in normal years, I vote at a fire department and it just takes a few minutes.

• In 2008 in DC, I lived near the White House and my polling place was an historic AME church that was a spot on the Underground Railroad. Every global news channel with staff in DC — so all of them — was trying to interview people. So, I’m not sure that was the voting system’s fault so much as global media asking everyone for a sound bite. (I got interviewed by Japan’s NHK but I didn’t make the cut. If I want to get on Japanese TV, I guess I’ll have to go on a game show.)

But I’ve never lived in a competitive state or district. DC doesn’t have real representation in Congress and Louisiana’s 2nd district is drawn for Voting Rights Act compliance reasons so it’s also not typically competitive. (Louisiana also elects state/local officials in non-presidential years so it’s rarely got much on the ballot besides President and maybe an amendment or two. This year, we voted on whether offshore wind farms would participate in the coastal wetlands restoration program like offshore oil rigs.)

Why do they need half that data for a derivative of a distro? Fuck off. I don’t care if someone collects the model number of my GPU or whatever but that sounds like personally identifiable tracking data, not basic “telemetry” data to set development priorities or whatever.

China should be ashamed. America would never steal rocket technology from fascists.

They couldn’t get Zoltar to de-age him like in Big? Why use A.I. to do something we could already do in 1988 for 25¢?

The federal government doesn’t run the elections so you’d have to check the 51 Secretary of State (or equivalent) sites to actually get live results.

For just the results. Decision Desk HQ gets updated quickly, as they provide data to media outlets and others. I don’t think they require a subscription just for results. The AP does the same and generally “calls” states anyway. (As in, the networks will call the results when the AP does, though some have extra requirements like their own data team agreeing.)

I would rather cook because I like the taste much, much more. Almost all frozen stuff is just flavorless to me so I end up having to doctor it up anyway. It’s easier for me to just start from scratch unless it’s something that’s a giant pain.

I also worked as a cook when I was young so the effort/time is probably a bit less for me since I can do the food prep stuff quickly and without much mental effort. When I chop vegetables, my brain basically does it on autopilot.

Stuff from different decades just to confuse whomever finds it. Like get a Five Stairsteps album from a used record store, a Blue Oyster Cult 8 track, a Tecmo Bowl cartridge, a Boyz II Men CD, and a newspaper from yesterday.

By the way, I don’t want to discourage anyone from studying International Affairs (or International Relations or International Political Economy or whatever it is at your school). I’m very happy I did. Reading primary sources and writing papers is a good thing. And we have loads of transcripts of actual world leaders making decisions. At my college, we read both the declassified U.S. cabinet and Soviet side’s actual transcripts during the Cuban missile crisis and I wrote papers about avoiding war.

I don’t regret studying it. Sometimes, something happens and I can predict it because I’ve read those primary sources. It’s a valuable skill. Peace is the goal.

And they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for the 200,000 mice pawing at their hideout door demanding cheese.

You think open source project maintainers should move to different countries because of temporary sanctions? What if they have a wife with a job and kids in school? Or delicate Lego collections that are impossible to pack? Or a side-piece?

Take issue with the sanctions if you want but don’t take issue with people who don’t want to move their family, LEGO collections, and side-pieces.

I studied International Affairs. The professors are like, “Whatever your views, ya gotta hand it to Kissinger.” You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to Kissinger.

Maybe someone in the US foreign policy establishment will develop the ability to know right from wrong.

It’s really self-selecting at this point. If you have any sort of soul, you study what they’re doing, get disgusted, and leave. Why would you take part in things like this?

I’d like to think it’s because they’re taking a stand but they have to be even more sick of seeing weird American incels talk about US elections than we are in the U.S. Not to mention vote scolds who assume the entire internet is American.

“I don’t care about the election.”

“Vote! It’s important!”

“Motherfucker, I live in Antwerp! Shut up! Just shut up!”

4 more gigstons of CO₂ in the atmosphere linked to more anxiety in people who might actually see 2100.

Was the question, “Do you need those bombs replaced?”

I love it but even in high school, I knew I didn’t want kids. People told me seeing my friends have kids would cause me to change my mind but it only reinforced my preference. Having kids is a huge amount of work and commitment (not to mention the expense). I love to travel and I’ve been able to go to places and do things you can’t (or just wouldn’t want to) do with kids. I also like that I was able to take risks with my career. It’s much easier to start a business or join an early stage company or whatever if you don’t need the stability kids need.

So, for me, it’s amazing. I feel for people who want kids but never had them, though. I know a few and they’re happy — freedom is a nice consolation prize — but it wasn’t their dream.

Renminbi would already be a reserve currency if they didn’t have currency controls. The reason the dollar and (to a lesser extent) euro, Swiss franc, etc. serve that role is because no one really has to worry about withdrawing their funds and converting them. China can obviously get there but that sort of trust takes time and probably other reforms in China.

For the record, I’m not talking about politics or who is good or bad here. I’m just talking about the basic reality of business transactions. Being one of the currencies accepted in global contracts requires a lot of trust.

This is obviously one of the more tragic wars in modern history but that is good trolling.