General News Discussion Thread

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GatoDelFuego

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As the title says. Not everything in Cong needs, or even deserves, its own thread. The purpose of this thread is to discuss the current events happening in the world right now. Emphasis on "discuss," not "debate".

This thread isn't going to be a political quarantine from the rest of Cong. Now at the same time arguments can and should exist here, but be reasonable about them. Know your audience! Grand debate shouldn't be the focus of your posts, and people should be comfortable sharing their opinions. If you think somebody's opinion is wrong, then ask questions rather than just telling them they're wrong. The latter's not going to go anywhere!

Also, this thread doesn't need to and shouldn't be all about politics. Science, technology, media, sports, culture, anything that you want to share or talk about should be posted here! Try and find high-quality, non-paywall articles if you can. The more people that can read something, the better.
 
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GatoDelFuego

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To start things off:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/entert...en-hiv-is-under-control-unprotected-sex-is-ok

Not exactly breaking news, as several organizations have been agreeing on this for some time, but I find this pretty fucking cool. My old school district took health classes pretty seriously, which put a lot of emphasis on HIV/AIDS education. We basically learned that it was a death sentence for quite a long time. I think this shows just how far science has come with turning HIV from a fatal disease into a manageable condition.
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
To start things off:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/entert...en-hiv-is-under-control-unprotected-sex-is-ok

Not exactly breaking news, as several organizations have been agreeing on this for some time, but I find this pretty fucking cool. My old school district took health classes pretty seriously, which put a lot of emphasis on HIV/AIDS education. We basically learned that it was a death sentence for quite a long time. I think this shows just how far science has come with turning HIV from a fatal disease into a manageable condition.

I'm going to assume this also has to do with California working on laws to protect HIV victims who accidentally spread the disease as well as lessen punishment for those who WILLINGLY spread the disease. HIV is no longer a terminal contraction, it's manageable like most sources say.

This all reminds me of a person I knew, never knew them personally but slowly figured out they were an absolute psychopath. They wanted to exterminate all straight man and all jews. They transitioned from Male to Female and even mutilated their own penis cause people wouldn't GoFundMe their transition surgery. Eventually They found a way to give themselves HIV and were attempting to spread it to Jewish Men they met on dating sites. They never made it so far and they posted daily vlogs about it on instagram and got caught pretty quickly. It was such an insane experience, this was someone I'd watch go from simple Jew hating on Facebook to full blown Biological Terrorism. A lot of people who were following the situation started blaming it on Leftbook and "Social Justice". People like him/her REALLY give a horrible reputation to actual trans people and actual people suffering from HIV/AIDs.

Anyways, it's good to see progression being made when it comes to life long diseases / illnesses. As someone who suffers from a life-long disease I get a lot of questions, mainly stupid ones like "Can you spread it?" and "Oh how did you get it?". I can't imagine what it's like living with a diseases like HIV/AIDs but I get what it's like to be in a similar situation.
 
I'm going to assume this also has to do with California working on laws to protect HIV victims who accidentally spread the disease as well as lessen punishment for those who WILLINGLY spread the disease. HIV is no longer a terminal contraction, it's manageable like most sources say.
Personally, I don't care if its manageable or not. I would still be extremely miffed if someone knowingly gave it to me and think they ought to be charged with something serious. It's good that it's no longer life ending, but it still doesn't mean I wouldn't care if I got it.
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
Personally, I don't care if its manageable or not. I would still be extremely miffed if someone knowingly gave it to me and think they ought to be charged with something serious. It's good that it's no longer life ending, but it still doesn't mean I wouldn't care if I got it.
The majority of cases spread come from victims who don't yet know they have the diseases. There have only been something around 13-16 cases of Bio-terrorism (spreading HIV/AIDs knowingly) in the last decade or so. The last BIG outbreak was pretty small too, back in 2008. Purposely spreading it is more of an issue in the UK and Germany than anywhere else. Obviously it goes without saying it's an epidemic in Africa but we can't really blame them for having zero way to prevent / treat the disease.
 
The majority of cases spread come from victims who don't yet know they have the diseases. There have only been something around 13-16 cases of Bio-terrorism (spreading HIV/AIDs knowingly) in the last decade or so. The last BIG outbreak was pretty small too, back in 2008. Purposely spreading it is more of an issue in the UK and Germany than anywhere else. Obviously it goes without saying it's an epidemic in Africa but we can't really blame them for having zero way to prevent / treat the disease.
Yeah, nothing you can do if you don't know you have it. But if you know and spread it without telling your partner? That's some grotesque behavior that the courts ought to curb.
 

GatoDelFuego

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I'm going to assume this also has to do with California working on laws to protect HIV victims who accidentally spread the disease as well as lessen punishment for those who WILLINGLY spread the disease. HIV is no longer a terminal contraction, it's manageable like most sources say.

This all reminds me of a person I knew, never knew them personally but slowly figured out they were an absolute psychopath. They wanted to exterminate all straight man and all jews. They transitioned from Male to Female and even mutilated their own penis cause people wouldn't GoFundMe their transition surgery. Eventually They found a way to give themselves HIV and were attempting to spread it to Jewish Men they met on dating sites. They never made it so far and they posted daily vlogs about it on instagram and got caught pretty quickly. It was such an insane experience, this was someone I'd watch go from simple Jew hating on Facebook to full blown Biological Terrorism. A lot of people who were following the situation started blaming it on Leftbook and "Social Justice". People like him/her REALLY give a horrible reputation to actual trans people and actual people suffering from HIV/AIDs.

Anyways, it's good to see progression being made when it comes to life long diseases / illnesses. As someone who suffers from a life-long disease I get a lot of questions, mainly stupid ones like "Can you spread it?" and "Oh how did you get it?". I can't imagine what it's like living with a diseases like HIV/AIDs but I get what it's like to be in a similar situation.
I'd say that the CDC rulings are the cause, not the effect. Like I said, the scientific consensus on the spread of HIV (as long as the virus remains in extreme low levels of detection after years of managing it) is pretty clear. California probably is using that as rationale on their new law.

As for that person you know, I should be surprised how bad and weird people out there can get but I really aren't any more.
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
As for that person you know, I should be surprised how bad and weird people out there can get but I really aren't any more.
Yeah, they were an absolute horror show. I'm not sure if I mentioned or lightly mentioned but they absolutely hated Jews, to the point where blaming Jewish people for all the problems in America, for electing Trump, for Civil Rights, ect. Even going as far as saying Jewish people purposely caused WW2 because they wanted to take attention away from the Nazis anti-LGBTQA+ and people of color. They were insane, born a male but claimed "anyone born male should be executed! Except me cause I cut off my penis and I hate Jews!" was pretty much their logic.


It's always sad seeing how far people go to hate Jews

Speaking of Jew Hating, has anyone else noticed that it's always the extreme spectrum of politics that hate Jewish Culture? IE The Far Left / Far Right both tend to lean towards the dislike of Jewish heritage / Progression.
 
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Martin

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Huntington’s breakthrough may stop disease

This is honestly such a good thing. When I heard this being talked about on the news on the radio they were mentioning that it’s also a huge breakthrough for other similar diseases, which makes me really happy because my grandad has Parkinson’s disease, which in turn means that his life could be made easier in the near future. Anyway, any kind of medical breakthrough is always worth following, especially for one as major and important as this.
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
Huntington’s breakthrough may stop disease

This is honestly such a good thing. When I heard this being talked about on the news on the radio they were mentioning that it’s also a huge breakthrough for other similar diseases, which makes me really happy because my grandad has Parkinson’s disease, which in turn means that his life could be made easier in the near future. Anyway, any kind of medical breakthrough is always worth following, especially for one as major and important as this.

Read the article and somewhat realized I had almost no idea what Huntington's was. I ended up finding this site, which is essentially a Tl;Dr of the disease

http://hdsa.org/what-is-hd/

It seems like a hybrid of three diseases you really wouldn't want to have, especially in combination with each other. I feel really bad for anyone who has it.

However, articles like this make me hopeful that we'll move on to finding better treatments for other diseases of this sort.
 

GatoDelFuego

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https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2017-elections/alabama-senate-race-results-moore-jones-n829011

Roy Moore has lost the Alabama senate race. I'm pretty sure that this is the first liberal senator in alabama since....ever. Had the pedophile accusations never come out, I don't think the race would have ever been in question, so I don't think this is a sign of a left-wing resurgence. I'd say that will have to wait until 2018 or at least 2020. I'm honestly very interested to see if Jones can hold on to the seat in 4 years. Yeah, long time from now, but if he can remain in the senate for another term then bama will definitely be changing.
 
Yeah this isn't a sign of a liberal resurgence but it is a win for basic decency. It's at least a sign that maybe things aren't as fiercely partisan as I thought. Doug Jones is living on borrowed time though lol.
 

Theorymon

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I'll take it. Even if Jones only lasts for 3 years, that's way better than having a disgusting, racist pedophile like Moore in congress. This was pretty nice to wake up to!
 
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Oglemi

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Fox is already mostly off of Netflix, more likely fox will be leaving hulu and joining Disney's plan for a streaming service, which will be interesting to see how that plays out
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
Fox is already mostly off of Netflix, more likely fox will be leaving hulu and joining Disney's plan for a streaming service, which will be interesting to see how that plays out

I feel like the one thing that's going to backfire for Disney is their streaming service...

Does anyone remember when Disney purchased Power Rangers and flopped it then dropped it like an unwanted pet crocodile down the toilet drain...left to grow into something large and dangerous that no one notices until it's in the news/on Tv.
 

GatoDelFuego

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The whole segmented steaming sites makes me mad. The whole point of netflix and the dawn of the internet was to kill old media, commercials, and tv. Now with these companies segmenting away and making their own television streaming subscriptions (hulu went totally paid only a few years ago, cbs all access, hbo go, and now Disney's platform) consumers are just back in the exact same place, paying exorbitant fees to get smaller and smaller pieces of the entertainment pie, while studios just pump out sequels and reeboots and remakes. Ice age is in the top 5 highest grossing franchises of all time, iirc, and Disney is definitely not going to let it DIE.
 
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The whole segmented steaming sites makes me mad. The whole point of netflix and the dawn of the internet was to kill old media, commercials, and tv. Now with these companies segmenting away and making their own television streaming subscriptions (hulu went totally paid only a few years ago, cbs all access, hbo go, and now Disney's platform) consumers are just back in the exact same place, paying exorbitant fees to get smaller and smaller pieces of the entertainment pie, while studios just pump out sequels and reeboots and remakes. Ice age is in the top 5 highest grossing franchises of all time, iirc, and Disney is definitely not going to let it DIE.
Just pirate shit like everyone did before netflix.
 

GatoDelFuego

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Alright, let's get political!

https://www.politico.com/story/2017...rvice-amazon-shipping-charges-319625?cmpid=sf

I find this hilarious and scary on two levels. First, replace "amazon" with "any business in the country" and the postal service is losing money on them, too. The whole point of a postal service is to be fair to the citizens, right? How'd people like it if the postal service started charging a percent of your income for every letter you sent? This is the whole basis of net neutrality: allowing the providers of the service (USPS and ISPs) to charge more from richer customers (Amazon and Netflix). At least trump is being consistent with the rulings, lmao.

Second: it is painfully obvious that this is no more than an attack on Amazon, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, which Trump does not like. Trump has attacked WaPo and Amazon pretty directly in the past from what I remember, but this is getting into shady areas of "personal criticism". How much longer is this going to go on? The obsession with amazon is getting a little creepy to me. What do you guys think? Past presidents have called out specific companies in the past as sort of...punching bags (say, obama on BP after the deepwater horizon spill), but this constant anti-amazon tweeting is a new level of presidential "lobbying" that makes me concerned for the future of the office.
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.
Alright, let's get political!

https://www.politico.com/story/2017...rvice-amazon-shipping-charges-319625?cmpid=sf

I find this hilarious and scary on two levels. First, replace "amazon" with "any business in the country" and the postal service is losing money on them, too. The whole point of a postal service is to be fair to the citizens, right? How'd people like it if the postal service started charging a percent of your income for every letter you sent? This is the whole basis of net neutrality: allowing the providers of the service (USPS and ISPs) to charge more from richer customers (Amazon and Netflix). At least trump is being consistent with the rulings, lmao.

Second: it is painfully obvious that this is no more than an attack on Amazon, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, which Trump does not like. Trump has attacked WaPo and Amazon pretty directly in the past from what I remember, but this is getting into shady areas of "personal criticism". How much longer is this going to go on? The obsession with amazon is getting a little creepy to me. What do you guys think? Past presidents have called out specific companies in the past as sort of...punching bags (say, obama on BP after the deepwater horizon spill), but this constant anti-amazon tweeting is a new level of presidential "lobbying" that makes me concerned for the future of the office.


I tried reading this and it's like someone did a full on analysis of one of his more worse tweets...like holy cow how is this man taken seriously by millions of people?
 

Tera Melos

Banned deucer.

GatoDelFuego

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James Damore is suing Google.

you can read the full lawsuit here https://www.scribd.com/document/368...le-Class-Action-Lawsuit#fullscreen&from_embed

not sure entirely what I think of it yet, but it will be interesting to see play out
I think this has potential to go full supreme court. Political views are one of the few things that you can legally be fired for in a lot of states (I took a diversity training thing every year for teaching in school, and they always reminded us of this for some reason). Maybe that's a good thing? I talked a lot about this in the free speech thread, and the clash of employer vs employee rights of opinion. There's zero chance google goes down in california court, though, which will probably appeal to the supreme court in a couple years. I think it's definitely an interesting case, and Damore has definitely gathered a ton of evidence for his side of the story.
 
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