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Cake day: April 7th, 2025

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  • So this doesn’t entirely answer your question, but it’s worth watching this reallifelore video on Why Iran Is Dying, as it’s good context for that background of what is going on and gives a frame for what’s next. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8kSGH4I8Ps

    🇮🇷 Iran – TL;DR

    TL;DR in one bold phrase:
    Iran is simultaneous geopolitical whiplash + ecological free-fall.

    🔥 Immediate Flash-Points

    • Security nosedive: Hezbollah, Hamas, Assad proxies left in tatters; Israeli/US jets roam Iranian skies at will.
    • New NATO wedge: US-brokered Armenia–Azerbaijan deal may choke Iran off from Russia via the Caucasus.
    • Eastern squeeze: Taliban dams on the Helmand & Hari Rivers cut Iranian water to a trickle → border skirmishes.
    • Mass deportation: 1.1 million Afghans expelled in one month in a doomed attempt to force more water downstream.

    💧 Depleting, Salting, Sinking

    Metric Recent Status Pre-Crisis Reference
    Tehran rainfall 2025 projection = 100 mm Historic norm = 260 mm
    Tehran reservoirs 258 Mm³ left Long-term average 618 Mm³
    National groundwater 200 Bm³ gone, most rest is salty Original 500 Bm³
    Land subsidence 10–31 cm / yr Critical global = 4 mm / yr
    • Lake Urmia – Former largest lake in ME is 90 % gone; dust-storms surging.
    • Isfahan – 23 Bm³ air-void under city after centuries of aquifer tap.

    🏗️ How We Got Here

    1. 1949–1979Shah‐Era

      • Hoover-Dam envy → launch of mega-dam program. Displaced ancient qanat system.
      • Industrialization forced onto the water-scarce central plateau.
    2. 1979+Post-Revolution Float-or-Die Policy

      • Iraq war + US embargo → “Food-export-import is treason”.
      • IRGC-crony “Water Mafia” bloats projects: 80k wells800 k wells, 316 dams (2012)647 dams (2018).
    3. Climate & Corruption

      • Fuel subsidies fund inefficient irrigation; 90 % of drinkable water now feeds ag that earns <12 % GDP.
      • 90 % pipeline leakage vs <10 % in advanced countries.

    🗺️ Ethnic Break-points

    Region Issue
    Sistan-Baluchestan Helmand dam chokes wetlands → fuels Baloch separatism.
    Khuzestan Highly salted Karun River attacks Arab minority irrigation.
    Azerbaijan & Kurdistan Vanished Lake Urmia sparks Kurdish–Azeri clashes.

    🔮 Forecast

    • Even with optimal policy, models: +2.6 °C, –35 % rain in coming decades.
    • Iran already spends more water/year than Turkey (similar pop). Beyond end-game for aquifers.

    ✋ What Would Fix It (but won’t happen soon)

    • Immediate well capping & metering.
    • Kill water-intensive farm subsidies.
    • Redivert IRGC-controlled cash from nukes & foreign proxies to desalination & pipeline repair.
    • Accept food import dependence as necessity.


  • There is a lot here, but if you feel you can’t act using LE help, than Ohio has zero-criteria, male-inclusive housing options. They rarely use the word “shelter” on the web so they do not get swamped by single men seeking free motel space. You qualify under “survivor of family-violence with disability.”

    When you call: you can give “first name only” and withhold your exact address—they will still arrange transport. Bring legal-ID. Proof-of-employment are not required; safety trumps paperwork.

    Crisis Hotline 24/7 (call from any phone – they will NOT disclose caller ID):
    Ohio Domestic Violence Network – 1-800-934-9840 (ask for “male survivor advocacy”).
    Faster SMS/Text (smart-number line): Text “SAFE” + ZIP to 44357.

    Three metros with immediate walk-in male units (all wheelchair/adaptive):

    • CHOICES – Columbus & Delaware detox-friendly, 30–90 day stays.

    • YWCA Dayton Brukner House male wing funded specifically for adults with disabilities; they take SSA or SSI clients and help reinstate payments if interrupted.

    • Victims Assistance Cleveland & Erie County – 24-bed male DV dorm; can place you same night in independent-living room once CPO filed.

    Next-72-hour legal & relocation funding:

    • Flexible Financial Assistance – pays up to $2,500 toward deposit, mover, phone, food. One-page form + pic of lease invoice.

    • Hotel program – ODVN hotel-voucher code is good for 7– 21 nights; county‐to‐county portability. Confidentiality clause forbids hotel from telling anyone who book and paid.

    • REACH Rapid Re-housing – month-to-month subsidized lease for disabled adult DV survivors, renewable for 12 months.

    It’s worth mentioning that if your bother is drilling reserve status, or is a retiree who receives retired pay then call the Military Police & DoD Inspector General: 1 800 342-9647. Privileged report triggers immediate base-side investigation and overnight restriction orders—they don’t need your parents’ permission and cannot reveal your identity to them. Based on what you have written, he’s in violation of Article Article 128 — Assault & Threats (10 U.S.C. § 928), Article 134 – Communicating a Threat, Article 134 — Disorder/Neglect to Prejudice, and Article 133 – Conduct Unbecoming an Officer / Qualities of Leadership.

    Under Ohio, there are at least two statues: Domestic Violence Civil Protection Order (DV-CPO) – R.C. 3113.31

    • specifically covers threats to kill or harm “household members” (supreme court.ohio.gov).

    Red-/Yellow-Flag Extreme-Risk Protection Order (ERPO) – R.C. 2923.132

    • judge can order police to seize all firearms & ammunition immediately if the respondent poses a “threat of violence”.

    These two will remove your brother’s guns/ammunition within 24–48 h. And the Judge can make him vacate the home and stay 500–1,000 ft away even if your parents co-own the house.

    There is no criminal charge, no attorney required (R.C. 3113.31(J)): county clerk must supply forms, waives all fees.

    My suggestion is that tomorrow morning (or tonight if your county has night magistrate), walk in or use webcam petitioning (many Cuyahoga, Franklin, Summit and Hamilton courts offer online intake after 5 p.m.).

    Make a check box “Emergency ex parte” (he does not get notice until order is already in force). You can attach as evidence: a short sworn affidavit of tonight’s threats, any photos of dead animals, and/or a recording (legal in Ohio if you are participant to the conversation).

    The court can sign the DV-CPO order the same day and it will be served to him as soon as possible by local PD/Sheriff (generally within 24-48 hours). The hearing has to take place within 7- to 10-day which is a temporary window for you. If he violates the order that it is an instant jail offense R.C. 2919.27.

    Forms & on-line helper: olh-cpo-launcher (Ohio Legal Help).

    You are not required to broadcast to your family that you sought aid. Every corner of reporting him is lock-and-key confidential—police, courts, shelters. The only way your brother learns is if he breaks the order and is arrested, at which point you have county-funded housing, legal advocacy, and a safety net already in place, and he has a history which is going to make it much harder for him.

    Stay safe, and reach out to safe places if you need space.





  • As was designed, once utility power failed, backup generators took over. But as the outage dragged on, indications came to the scientists in charge of the atomic clocks at NIST that one of the generators had failed. This prompted scientists to warn against relying on the Boulder NTP sources. The scientists running the clock feared complete failure of the hydrogen source clocks. Such failure would require a lengthy and complex re-start procedure once power was returned in the long term, and complete failure of a stratum one NTP source in the short term.

    Further complicating the already bad situation was the fact that due to the dangers involved, the scientists could not reach the campus. So not only could they not confirm with certainty what issues the clocks may be experiencing, but they were unable to shut down the NTP servers. Fortunately, power was returned and the main source clock only drifted by a few microseconds. This is still far too much drift as would be preferred on a clock normally accurate in the range of nanoseconds, but perfectly usable for NTP which is only accurate to within a few milliseconds.

    And from Update on Boulder Internet Time Services and atomic time scale

    To put a deviation of a few microseconds in context, the NIST time scale usually performs about five thousand times better than this at the nanosecond scale by composing a special statistical average of many clocks. Such precision is important for scientific applications, telecommunications, critical infrastructure, and integrity monitoring of positioning systems. But this precision is not achievable with time transfer over the public Internet; uncertainties on the order of 1 millisecond (one thousandth of one second) are more typical due to asymmetry and fluctuations in packet delay.

    NIST provides high-precision time transfer by other service arrangements; some direct fiber-optic links were affected and users will be contacted separately. However, the most popular method based on common-view time transfer using GPS satellites as “transfer standards” seamlessly transitioned to using the clocks at NIST’s WWV/Ft. Collins campus as a reference standard. This design feature mitigated the impact to many users of the high-precision time signal.

    Fascinating stuff. Gives some answers to how long in a zombie apocalypse too, not that didn’t have them, and probably wouldn’t need highly precise time in that existence, but amazing anyway.



  • This Fucktard has no concept of real life challenges. I’m not condoning what the researcher did if it was intentionally, but having worked on research ships where biological samples need movement I am well aware of how hard it is for a PhD student to navigate the procedures to get samples into and out of the US and other countries. It’s an ever loving pain in the ass. Unintentional missteps are possible all over the place.

    We need researchers, we need PhD students, and scaring them further with this shit is only going to make our futures more dominated by the likes of China. This isn’t a deterrent that is useful, it’s a diverting of brain power to China.

    Also, Patel can kiss the abuse of power acts as he’s useless tard who is only droving agents away. Ferrying his girlfriend around on a private jet, being a premadonna demanding jackets with logos before he’ll get off a damn plane. It’s all show with him and no value.

    Fuck off and due something useless… Like arrested the president for being a Pedophile.


  • This is despite Americans’ enormous spending on healthcare, which is in a league of its own – inflated by a large private, profit-driven medical industry that charges patients and their insurers an arm and a leg every time they come into contact with the system, regardless of whether the intervention does any good to their health

    Like the US’s disturbingly profound poverty, its over-the-top mortality is not due to some technical shortfall or economic constraint. It is a choice. The United States is not only rich. It is better at inventing newfangled drugs and therapies than probably any other country in the world. What it is terrible at is ensuring that its people, even the poor ones, have access to the basic building blocks of a healthy life – from decent jobs and humdrum amenities like potable water, to access to health insurance.

    American death and destitution are intimately connected. From the country’s fentanyl addiction to its obesity and its many suicides, often its most deadly afflictions do not call for fancy healthcare technology. It’s the social contract that must be fixed.





  • I do all the time as well. Has changed my life in a very useful way. But as you said, knowing what it’s place is, how to use it, and what it’s limitations are (as well as my own) are key. I have solved many many problems I’ve been working on for years on in the digital world.

    I also sympathize with the AI hate, and really struggle with the energy usage as well as the bubble. It has power and capability, but not what the “public” think it does.

    I just deal with the online hate as it’s not shit people says to my face, and it’s driven of ignorance like much is these days.

    And as you said there are development in the pipe which will further change our lives. Knowing how it works and why, as in using the critical thinking in synthesis with an LLM and what comes next is going to be valuable.



  • The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order to fully fund SNAP food aid payments amid the government shutdown, even though residents in some states already have received the funds.

    A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked an appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.

    After a Boston appeals court declined to immediately intervene, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order late Friday pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause. Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts.

    Her order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appeals court refuses to step in.


  • And hours later it’s reversed by Scotus temporarily.

    The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Trump administration’s emergency appeal to temporarily block a court order to fully fund SNAP food aid payments amid the government shutdown, even though residents in some states already have received the funds.

    A judge had given the Republican administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But the administration asked an appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund, and instead allow it to continue with planned partial SNAP payments for the month.

    After a Boston appeals court declined to immediately intervene, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued an order late Friday pausing the requirement to distribute full SNAP payments until the appeals court rules on whether to issue a more lasting pause. Jackson handles emergency matters from Massachusetts.

    Her order will remain in place until 48 hours after the appeals court rules, giving the administration time to return to the Supreme Court if the appeals court refuses to step in.




  • The AP News article might be a bit more readable.

    Democrats on Tuesday won governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, the only states electing new chief executives this year. They also swept a trio of state Supreme Court contests in swing-state Pennsylvania and ballots measures from Colorado to Maine.

    Trump and his Republican allies have been especially focused on immigration, crime and conservative cultural issues.

    But voters who decided Tuesday’s top elections were more concerned about the economy, jobs and costs of living. That’s according to the AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of more than 17,000 voters in New Jersey, Virginia, California and New York City suggesting that many voters felt they can’t get ahead financially in today’s economy.

    Ironically, the same economic anxieties helped propel Trump to the White House just one year ago. Now, the economic concerns appear to be undermining his party’s political goals in 2025 — and could be more problematic for the GOP in next year’s midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power for Trump’s final two years in office.

    That’s even as Trump regularly brags about stock prices booming and boasted about leading a new renaissance of American manufacturing.

    About half of Virginia voters said the economy was the most important issue facing their state while most New Jersey voters said either taxes or the economy were the top issue in their state. Just over half of New York City voters said cost of living was their top concern.

    Zohran Mamdani was elected New York City mayor Tuesday, capping his meteoric rise to national prominence. The 34-year-old democratic socialist will make history as the city’s first Muslim mayor - and its youngest in more than a century.

    In Pennsylvania, Democrats swept all three elections for state supreme court justices. The wins could have implications for key cases involving redistricting and balloting for midterm elections — and the 2028 presidential race — in the nation’s most populous swing state.

    Conservative causes struggled on ballot questions in other states as well.

    Maine voters defeated a measure that would have mandated showing an ID at the polls while approving a “red flag” rule meant to make it easier for family members to petition a court to restrict a potentially dangerous person’s access to guns.

    Colorado approved raising taxes on people earning more than $300,000 to fund school meal programs and food assistance for low-income state residents.

    California voters approved new congressional district boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026