Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the said-and-done dept
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone with a comment about Trump's attempts to evade a copyright lawsuit:
Ah, it’s the thing Trump fears most: consequences for his actions.
In second place, it's Blake C. Stacey with a quoted update for our post about Trump's social network and its possible violation of Mastadon's license:
Talking Points Memo has a story on it this morning:
“I do intend to seek legal counsel on the situation though,” Rochko told TPM, while declining to discuss any specific legal action he may be contemplating. “Compliance with our AGPLv3 license is very important to me as that is the sole basis upon which I and other developers are willing to give away years of work for free,” Rochko added.
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out with an anonymous response to someone stupidly trying to claim the polio vaccine was harmful due to rare side effects:
Wild polio causes paralysis in 0.1 to 0.5% of infected so even there the vaccine was an improvement over catching the wild versions.
Taking isolated papers and reports, and especially those that justify an anti vaccine stance, is not the way to evaluate a vaccine, you need to read much more widely.
Next, it's That One Guy with another comment about Trump's defenses in the copyright lawsuit:
Well if you insist...
If he wants to argue that presidential immunity applies in this case then it certainly seems like after the judge laughs that argument out of court any fines for infringement should be levied against him personally and shouldn't be dumped on the campaign, since he just claimed that he was directly responsible and involved with the ad and use of music.
Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Chris Brand with a low blow at Missouri over the governor's ongoing attacks on the journalists who "decoded" some HTML:
Is the ability to read so rare in Missouri that it gets called "decoding"?
In second place, it's wshuff with a comment about the launch of Truth Social:
Time for The Lincoln Project to start up Consequences Social.
For editor's choice on the funny side, we start out with some sarcasm from That One Guy in response to a report about the dangers of client-side scanning:
Totally and absolutely unbelievable
I find it difficult to take the article seriously as it seems to be based upon a flawed premise, namely that governments would ever ask for more once they've got what they wanted. I mean really, I'm sure once they have one company scanning for a particular kind of content they'll be perfectly content with that, what kind of greedy, self-serving government would take advantage of the new door Apple just provided them to ask for even more?
Finally, it's That Anonymous Coward with a comment about Canon disabling scanning and faxing functions on printers that run out of ink:
"These precautions are in place to prevent damage to the car from occurring if window wiping with no fluid is attempted. The car uses the fluid to wet the windshield during the driving process. If no fluid is present, the windsheild could be damaged or the car would require service." - On why your car radio refuses to work.
That's all for this week, folks!
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Polio
I searched long ago about this, and it was interesting what they learned about polio, and Why there was an outbreak. More then 1 outbreak.
There are 3 main types. And its something that most kids got, and got over. What spread it is contaminated water, from an infected person. Then it Circulates and gets worse.
"Polio reached epidemic proportions in the early 1900s in countries with relatively high standards of living, at a time when other diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, and tuberculosis were declining. Indeed, many scientists think that advances in hygiene paradoxically led to an increased incidence of polio. The theory is that in the past, infants were exposed to polio, mainly through contaminated water supplies, at a very young age. Infants’ immune systems, aided by maternal antibodies still circulating in their blood, could quickly defeat polio virus and then develop lasting immunity to it. However, better sanitary conditions meant that exposure to polio was delayed until later in life, on average, when a child had lost maternal protection and was also more vulnerable to the most severe form of the disease."
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline/polio
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Here is your most insightful comment for next week:
Putting a mask on a person is like putting a mask on a car's tailpipe. We remove toxins through our breathing - when masked these get caught in the fabric and we end up breathing them in and out all day. Not to mention the industrial chemicals in the masks themselves, our own C02, bacteria, and the bacteria and pollution in the environment all around us.
Not to mention that they only ever work at all when they are used properly by trained professionals. When they are not - when people constantly touch and adjust them all day long - they tend to be worse than nothing. Consider a COVID-19 infected shopper at Wal-Mart that straightens his/her mask before picking an item up off the shelf - considers it - and then returns it. That returned item is now covered with the virus - because the mask that person has been wearing over their mouth and nose is most certainly drenched with the virus - and that item will now likely infect anyone and everyone who comes in contact with it: other shoppers and Wal-Mart staff - they themselves who are also likely employing improper mask wearing. Now consider the average Joe's level of education on proper mask etiquette...
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You have already lost.
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Re:
What did he/she lose?
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Re:
Have you not heard that hand washing, and hand sanitizer is also required to stop the spread of the Virus, along with the injunction of not to touch your face?
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Re:
Carbon dioxide is called 'CO2' because it is made of three atoms: one carbon and two oxygen. I don't know exactly what the atomic composition of the virus is, but I am fairly certain it is more than three atoms wide, and the water droplets that carry the virus are even wider. Therefore, any mask with holes fine enough to prevent the carbon dioxide you breathe out from passing through would absolutely stop the virus as well, in both directions.
As for the 'used properly by trained professionals' part, you're wrong. Even if you have a less-than-N95 mask used by an amateur, it is a lot better than nothing at preventing the spread of the virus, especially combined (as stated above) with proper sanitation of the hands. And if you're worried about bacteria getting stuck on the inside of your mask: throw it out after one day at most if it's disposable, and wash it if it isn't.
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[Asserts insight not in evidence]
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[Asserts insight not in evidence]
That's because they misspelled inciteful. That comment was certainly a riot.
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Re: Re:
Given a past winner it's possible that they just misplaced that line, and it is in fact referring to one of the replies to their plague cultists garbage.
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Re:
Here's a tip: if your argument is "we can't wear masks because we're too stupid to wear them properly", the takeaway is not "we shouldn't wear masks". The takeaway is "you're dumb to the point where you can't even follow basic advice".
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Re: Re:
The takeaway is really that some people are too selfish to do what's needed, so the US is having a harder time than other countries when it comes to common sense measures. When I go to my local supermarkets here in Spain, it's rare to see people not wearing masks properly, and even rarer for anyone other than a tourist from another country argue about the requirement to wear one in the first place. If someone comes into the store without a mask or wearing improperly they will be quickly told to put it on or adjust it.
The reaction to that is almost always someone doing what they're asked to do, not to argue, threaten or commit violence or dare them to escalate the situation with police. All of which, of course, takes far more time and causes far more problems than putting the mask on.
My observations are obviously anecdotal and, given that my usual travel habits have been severely curtailed compared to normal (I typically take at least 6 international journeys a year, I'm at zero for 20 months now), I can't do a direct comparison in person. But, it seems to me that my area with low infection rates and high levels of vaccination and compliance is doing way bettern than the "freedumb" people - including, but not limited to, in terms of actual freedom.
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'How dare they use that boot I gave them on me!?'
'They're infringing upon my freedoms by telling me to wear a mask and not hang out with dozens of people in an enclosed area! Now lemme give them just a ton of very real, very justifiable reasons to crack down even harder so I can scream about my freedoms even more!'
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Re: Re: Re:
I don't think it's selfishness. It's the extreme political division in the US. The plague is politicized to the point people feel the need to oppose anything the Wrong Side is doing on principle. It's not like everyone is stupid or evil, but loyalty to their chosen side is more important.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
Except it's a lie to assert that more than one side is doing that.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
Selfishness is a major political identity. What planet have you been on?
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Re: Womp womp
How cute, it actually thinks it's smart.
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Re:
"Putting a mask on a person is like putting a mask on a car's tailpipe"
Which is obvious why we tragically lose surgeons all the time. The poor, poor doctors, spending all their time in medical school training to get to the point where they're finally able to perform life-saving surgery, only for the requirement for them to wear a mask while doing so doesn't protect the patient from anything they might carry, it simple kills them instead.
Or, you're an idiot, it's one of those things anyway.
It's so strange how places where people haven't argued with mask mandates and vaccinations are seeing record low rates and a return to normal life, whereas it's the places where plague monkeys argue against these things are the ones seeing high levels of spread. So strange, if only we could work out the root cause of that issue...
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Re: Re:
Oh, I don't know. My last car caught a bad case of clogged catalytic converter syndrome because I parked it on the wrong side of the parking lot without a mask on its tailpipe...
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Re:
So.
A catalytic converter does nothing? Good for science and that $600 piece of crap.
Oh! Just to ask. Can you see the mountains from 50 miles away in california now? You couldnt in the 1970's.
Also, Consider the Crap you are breathing out is no worse then WHATS already inside you. And you cant make it worse unless you Stick something in your mouth and SUCK HARD. Or dont you understand Cigarettes dont get worse over time, its TIME that makes it worse.
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Re:
"Here is your most insightful comment for next week:"
<proceeds to argue that every doctor and scientist in the world is wrong because of something he read on Facebook>
Yeah, you know, if we needed further evidence the alt-right and the Trump cult are maliciously ignorant I think this'll do it.
Seriously, at this point Russian and Chinese astroturfers tasked to destabilize and undermine confidence in western governments must be getting desperate - the US alt-right and anti-vaxx brigade are doing all their work for them. For free.
Only In America will you find a third of the population eagerly working to endanger the entire population in the country they live in. Even animals are smarter than to foul their own nest like this.
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Re: Re:
It is both amazing(for all the wrong reasons) and horrifying the results you can get when spite and petty if not malicious selfishness become core pillars of a political party/identity.
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I'm still waiting
for someone to find the Easter Egg in this comment, https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20211012/17560147739/court-tells-arkansas-troopers-that-muting-ant i-cop-terms-facebook-page-violates-1st-amendment.shtml#c163
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Re: I'm still waiting
Yeap, i totally missed it. I should have guessed there was something there.
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Re: I'm still waiting
I see what you did there.
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