tal

tal , 2 hours ago to News in 49% of independents, 15% of Republicans think Trump should end campaign: poll

[continued from parent]

From when ballots are printed to Election Day

However, if either party nominee dropped out or passed away after ballots were printed, then it would be too late to officially replace them on the ballot. In that scenario, millions of Americans would cast ballots for the inactive candidate with the understanding that their Electoral College votes would really go to someone else — probably someone designated by the DNC or RNC.

"The reality is, when you vote for president, you're never voting for that person. You're voting for the elector to cast a ballot for that person at the Electoral College meeting in December," Brown said. "I would imagine what would happen is that parties would indicate to the electors who they should vote for."

From Election Day to Dec. 17

Next, let's say we make it to Election Day without incident and voters choose a new president — but then the president-elect passes away or becomes incapacitated before the Electoral College votes on Dec. 17 to make their win official. This could be a messy political situation as well.

According to the National Archives, there is no prescribed process for what to do if the president-elect dies between Election Day and the meeting of the Electoral College. (It would not automatically be the vice president-elect, as, legally, the presidential line of succession would not have kicked in yet.) So the (ex-)president-elect's electors would essentially get to pick the president. "A whole bunch of Americans don't realize that the electors are actual, real live people," Kamarck said, who could theoretically choose for themselves whom to vote for.

There is historical precedent for this: After the 1872 election, which was won by Republican Ulysses S. Grant, Democratic nominee Horace Greeley died on Nov. 29, and his electors' votes went to various other people. According to Pildes, whether this could happen again depends on the state, as some state laws address this possibility while others do not.

There have also historically been "faithless electors" who have not voted for the candidate who won their state. Some states have laws prohibiting this, but in an emergency situation, state legislatures could change the rules to allow them to do so.

It's possible that the party would coalesce around a new candidate (for example, the vice president-elect would be a logical choice) and its electors would vote en masse for that person. Brown said the DNC or RNC would likely signal to electors whom they should vote for. That could be Harris on the Democratic side or Trump's still-unannounced running mate on the Republican side. But Brown emphasized that some states would need to adjust their faithless electors laws to allow for this.

If the electors cannot agree on a single alternative and no candidate gets a majority of electoral votes, the election would fall to the House of Representatives — a procedure known as a contingent election. The Constitution stipulates that each state's House delegation would cast a single vote for president, with a majority of states required for a candidate to win, and the Senate would elect a vice president based on a majority vote of its members individually. But Brown said that this is a highly unlikely scenario, as the electors would most likely listen to guidance from their party.

From Dec. 17 to Jan. 20

If the president-elect dies or is incapacitated after the Electoral College votes but before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, the law is clear: the vice president-elect would be inaugurated instead. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution says, in part, "If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President."

tal , 2 hours ago to News in 49% of independents, 15% of Republicans think Trump should end campaign: poll

https://abcnews.go.com/538/biden-trump-suddenly-leaves-2024-race/story?id=106136493

From the conventions to when ballots are printed

The national conventions are a key turning point in our hypothetical calendar. Before them, primary voters, or delegates selected through the primary process, would still have the ability to choose their party's nominee. After the conventions, though, the Democratic and Republican national committees would inherit that power.

Both the DNC and the RNC have enshrined in their rules a process for how to fill a vacancy on the party's ticket after the formal nomination has already taken place. For Democrats, there is only one option: Chairman Jamie Harrison would confer with Democratic leadership in Congress and the Democratic Governors Association and would then take the decision to the DNC, according to the party's call to convention.

The 483 members of the DNC — who comprise the chairs and vice chairs of each state Democratic Party committee as well as members elected from all 56 states and territories, plus Democrats Abroad — would vote on a new nominee. There are no rules governing who the nominee has to be; the nomination would not, for instance, just go to the former nominee's running mate or the person who won the second-most delegates in the primaries. They just need to get a majority of party members to vote for them.

Experts say that could be a political mess, with various factions of the party pressuring members to choose one nominee or another. "They would have all sorts of internal politicking. There would be competition between various factions within the party," Richard Pildes, a professor of constitutional law at New York University Law School, told 538.

For their part, Republicans have two options for filling a vacancy, according to the party's rules. Like the Democrats, they could choose to have their committee members vote. There are three RNC members per state and territory, but they get to cast the same number of votes their state or territory's delegation was entitled to cast during the Republican National Convention. If members of a delegation aren't in agreement on who to support, their state or territory's votes would be divided equally among them. In order to become the nominee, a candidate must secure a majority of votes.

But the RNC is also "authorized and empowered to fill any and all vacancies" by reconvening the national convention.

In either case, the results of all of the primaries and caucuses would no longer formally matter. While the primary results would be one source of information for the members (if they vote) or delegates (if they reconvene the convention), they wouldn't be bound to choose the person who came in second in the primaries. They don't even have to choose somebody who ran in the primary.

Beyond their distinct rules, Pildes did not think there would be much difference between how Democrats and Republicans would deal with a candidate's death. The RNC is much smaller than the DNC, which could have an impact. "It's always easier to reach decisions in a smaller body than a larger body, and so that might be a significant difference in the way the two parties are governed," Pildes said. "But other than that, I don't think there's a dramatic difference."

[continued in child]

tal , 4 hours ago (edited 4 hours ago) to World News in In a historic election, South Africa's ANC loses majority for the first time

many US journalists like to pretend they went to Eton or something

I'm not sure that the "h" is silent in Received Pronunciation, either. I know that some British dialects do use silent "h"s, but I though that that was...what, Cockney?

kagis

Cockney and others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-dropping

H-dropping occurs (variably) in most of the dialects of the English language in England and Welsh English, including Cockney, West Country English, West Midlands English (including Brummie), East Midlands English, most of northern England (including Yorkshire and Lancashire), and Cardiff English.[6] It is not generally found in Scottish English and Irish English. It is also typically absent in certain regions of England and Wales, including Northumberland, East Anglia and parts of North and West Wales.[7]

H-dropping also occurs in some Jamaican English, and perhaps in other Caribbean English (including some of The Bahamas). It is not generally found in North American English, although it has been reported in Newfoundland (outside the Avalon Peninsula).[8] However, dropping of /h/ from the cluster /hj/ (so that human is pronounced /'juːmən/) is found in some American dialects, as well as in parts of Ireland – see reduction of /hj/.

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

Commentators report widespread homogenisation in South East England in the 20th century (Kerswill & Williams 2000; Britain 2002). This involved a process of levelling between the extremes of working-class Cockney in inner-city London and the careful upper-class standard accent of Southern England, Received Pronunciation (RP), popular in the 20th century with upper-middle and upper-class residents. Now spread throughout the South East region, Estuary English is the resulting mainstream accent that combines features of both Cockney and a more middle-class RP.

Features of working- or middle-class Estuary English, spoken in the counties all around London in the 21st century, include:

• Not as much h-dropping as Cockney, but still more than RP

So it sounds like Received Pronunciation, the wealthy crowd, does it the least, but that it's there to some degree. I think that NPR would be doing it more if they were trying to adopt an accent used by poorer people in England, though, if anything.

tal , 4 hours ago to World News in In a historic election, South Africa's ANC loses majority for the first time

checks Google Ngrams

According to Google Ngrams, in American English, "an historic" and "a historic" were about neck-and-neck until 1935, when "a historic" started steadily pulling ahead. Today, "a historic" is far more common.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=a+historic%2Can+historic&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-US-2019&smoothing=3

In British English, "an historic" had a solid lead for a long time, with "a historic" pulling ahead in 1986, and "a historic" now being significantly much more-common as well.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=a+historic%2Can+historic&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-GB-2019&smoothing=3

Anyways, both choices are valid. The only truly incorrect thing is that en-uk use “speeded” as the past tense of “speed” and that’s just fucking awful - we can all agree on that. /s

The one that drives me nuts is "pressurized". In American English, you "pressure" someone to do something, but "pressurize" something with gas. In British English, you "pressurize" both, which is ambiguous. I mean, given context, I can normally make it out, but it's just ambiguity that doesn't need to be there, and it always gives me the wrong mental image to start with.

tal , 4 hours ago to World News in In a historic election, South Africa's ANC loses majority for the first time

baited breath

"bated breath"

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/with_bated_breath

From the verb bate, alteration by aphesis of the verb abate (“to reduce; lessen”). Coined by William Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice, see quotations.

with bated breath

1. With reduced breath.

2. (idiomatic) Eagerly; with great anticipation.

We are waiting with bated breath for the release of the new version.

tal , 5 hours ago to Technology in Stealing everything you’ve ever typed or viewed on your own Windows PC is now possible with two lines of code — inside the Copilot+ Recall disaster.

It's encrypted; the author is pointing out that it has to be decrypted to be used, and then the data can be obtained.

Security and privacy concerns aside, I saw someone commenting on the use case, asking who would ever want something like this.

One problem I hadn't appreciated for a long time was that some people apparently have real problems with dealing with the Windows UI in terms of file access. They don't know where their data is being saved. This, in my opinion, is in significant part a Microsoft UI problem induced by various virtual interfaces being slapped on top of the filesystem ("Desktop", "My Documents", application save directories, etc) to try to patch over the issue that the filesystem layout was kinda organically-designed in a kind of cryptic way back in the day.

But if you can remember a snippet of text in what you were working on, you can find that thing again even if you have no idea where you stored it. Like, it's content-keyed file access.

That's not very useful to a techie. They know how to navigate their system's filesystem, and even if they lose track of a particular thing, they know how to use the system's filesystem search tools to search for filenames or content. They can search for recently-modified files. They know how to generally get ahold of stuff.

But for the people who can't do that, reducing their interface to a single search box might make file access more approachable.

Now, let me reiterate that I think that a whole lot of this is Microsoft repeatedly patching over UI problems they created in the past rather than fixing them. And they've done this before over the decades with stuff other than document access. It's hard to navigate the filesystem to find an installed program a la the MS-DOS era, so they stick stuff in a Start Menu to make it more accessible. That gets too crowded, installers start slapping shortcuts on the desktop. That gets too crowded, installers start adding system tray icons. That gets too crowded, the Start Menu becomes searchable. Each interface just becomes progressively less-usable and the solution each time is to stick a new interface in on top of the old one, which in turn contributes to the complexity of the system as a whole.

But that doesn't mean that they aren't trying to address a real problem.

I think that they'd do better with something like having a rapidly-accessible log of recently-accessed files (like, maybe have the filesystem maintain a time-based doubly-linked list of those) and be able to rapidly search the content of documents based on mod time so that recent stuff gets hit quickly, then trying to make their existing search tools more accessible. That doesn't replicate data across the system and produce some of the problems here. It also permits for fully-searching content, rather than just the stuff that was on a screen when the Recall system grabbed a screenshot and OCRed it. Maybe they've done something like that in recent years; I'm many years out-of-date on Windows.

I'd also add that I think that personal computer systems in general would benefit from giving users better control over where their data is replicated to. It's kind of confusing...you've got swap (well, encrypted swap probably helps somewhat with this). Browser history. Any clipboard manager's retention. Credentials stores. Application-saved copies of in-progress files. Various caches. If you use some kind of cloud-based storage, you're pushing data out to other computers. Backups. Just a lot of state that can be replicated all over the place and is hard to go back and track down and remove. That's even before stuff like issues with doing secure deletion on existing filesystems (which we had a conversation about the other day, everything from log-structured filesystems to wear-leveling on SSDs inducing data replication). If you want something definitely gone, be able to manage your data's lifetime, something that I think that a lot of people -- even non-techies -- would like, you really have to have a lot of technical knowledge of the system's internals as things stand today. This Recall thing is egregious, but it's far from the first feature that makes it harder for people to understand and control the lifetime of data on their computer.

I don't think that the software world has done a great job of letting people control that data lifetime. And I think that it's something that a user should reasonably be able to expect out of their computer.

tal , 5 hours ago to Technology in Stealing everything you’ve ever typed or viewed on your own Windows PC is now possible with two lines of code — inside the Copilot+ Recall disaster.

Yeah, I gotta say that I read the article and it seemed pretty reasonable in terms of content. The fake-Q-and-A thing wasn't quite my cup of tea either, but eh, I don't think it was all that problematic.

tal , 5 hours ago to Ask Lemmy in Is streaming normal?

I feel like the title of this post is going to be edited later, so that all the comments that just say “yes” seem awful.

I don't know. If you look at OP's post history, that doesn't seem to be there. He's got a lot of simple questions, maybe just trying to generate discussion.

tal , 5 hours ago to Ask Lemmy in Is streaming normal?

Hmm. I suppose that's why Reddit didn't allow it.

tal , 6 hours ago to World News in North Korea floats more rubbish-filled balloons to South Korea

It sounds like they do both import and manufacture some, but it sounds like they can't do sufficient of either to eliminate reliance on human waste from the system.

kagis

This was 2020:

https://beyondparallel.csis.org/kim-zeroes-in-on-fertilizer-production-the-latest-activity-at-the-hungnam-liquid-nutrient-fertilizer-factory/

During the past 10 years, North Korea has undertaken a number of modernization projects at the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex, one of the nation’s oldest and largest chemical complexes. While the majority of these have been large undertakings such as the First- and Second-phase Lignite Gasification Plants in the western section of the complex, a number of smaller projects have also been undertaken. Most recently has been the construction of a small “liquid nutrient fertilizer factory.”

Here's 2021:

https://www.38north.org/2021/04/the-sunchon-phosphatic-fertilizer-plant-is-one-year-old-but-is-it-operating/

May 1 marks the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory.[1] The factory is an important piece in Kim Jong Un’s push to build up North Korea’s domestic chemical industry and fertilizer production, as part of larger efforts to increase agricultural production and save foreign currency. However, after 12 months, it remains unclear if the plant is fully operational. Commercial satellite imagery over the last year indicates a gradual increase of activity throughout the complex, but no major activity was observed, and no state industrial achievements for this site were reported. This suggests that production is likely still at an early stage.

2022:

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/manure-02012022130916.html

Yearly ‘battle’ begins in North Korea over human waste for fertilizer

Citizens once again steal human feces from each other’s toilets to meet impossibly high quotas.

In impoverished North Korea, farmland is fertilized using human waste, and the government tasks every household with yearly collection quotas.

RFA reported in January 2019 that households were struggling to meet an impossible quota amounting to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) per able-bodied citizen per day.

“On the 25th, several residents from Marum village in Sunam district had a dispute with the people of nearby Sinhyang village as the Marumers were trying to collect human feces from a communal toilet located within Sinhyang,” the source said.

“After the authorities imposed their orders for every citizen to produce manure, conflicts are erupting… as the people venture into other districts,” he said.

The order to produce manure went out to every institution, company, school, and neighborhood watch unit according to the source.

The source said each resident must deliver the 300 kilograms of manure by early March at the latest to a cooperative farm to use as fertilizer.

https://www.dailynk.com/english/north-korea-pushes-fertilizer-production-despite-lack-urea/

North Korean authorities are pushing fertilizer production, even though they are not supplying urea, a necessary raw material. This is leading to complaints on the ground, with workers saying that fertilizer without urea does nothing to boost agricultural production.

A source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Monday that a recent plenary meeting of the provincial party committee decided to send even more organic compound fertilizer to small family plots in the province “based on the experience and lessons of last year.” The meeting said fertilizer supply was a vital link to increasing grain production by more than a ton per jongbo (about 9,900 square meters), tasking farms with producing organic compound fertilizer.

North Korea has been conducting a sweeping campaign to boost food production this year with the goal of increasing grain production by more than a ton per jongbo. Basically, the authorities have tasked ordinary people with producing organic compound fertilizer as a key task to achieving party goals.

On the ground, however, people are complaining that the authorities are simply demanding production without providing the urea needed to produce organic compound fertilizer. That is to say, the authorities are making unreasonable demands even though fertilizer without urea cannot raise agricultural production.

The source said in most cities and counties in the province, people use commonly available peat moss or manure to produce organic compound fertilizer, but this needs a certain amount of urea to work.

He said the provincial party meeting made no mention of providing urea. He added that in this case, agriculture will not thrive just because you tasked people with producing organic compound fertilizer.

North Korea has been experiencing severe difficulties producing fertilizer due to urea supply shortages. The aftermath of China’s curbs on urea exports apparently continues.

Here's 2023:

https://www.nknews.org/pro/fertilizer-chemical-tops-north-koreas-imports-from-china-in-december/

Expert says DPRK has long lacked fertilizer for farming and likely purchased chemical with recent ‘additional revenues’

North Korea procured record quantities of a fertilizer chemical from China in December, knocking imports of human hair for wigs off the top spot.

North Korea and China trade spiked to a four-year high of nearly $260 million in the last month of 2023, and NK Pro analysis of line-item data from China’s General Administration of Customs shows that the DPRK imported record quantities of a chemical used in fertilizers in December.

Pyongyang procured almost 40,000 tons of diammonium hydrogen orthophosphate worth $25.3 million, representing a nearly 25-fold jump from November and its highest monthly value in 2023.

Here's 2024:

https://www.38north.org/articles/affiliates/north-korean-economy-watch/21856/

The Namhung Youth Chemical Complex, north of Pyongyang, produces fertilizer and coal gas using anthracite mined in the area. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the site in 2013.

High-pressure valves and jet sprays at the complex have become too worn for continued use, according to reports the Korea International Trade Association received from North Korea in January. Without replacement parts, it is unclear when the plant can resume work.

The suspension hinders North Korea’s push to lift its meager agricultural output. Kim last year ordered a boost in fertilizer production and attended a completion ceremony for a separate fertilizer plant. Coal gas also serves as a valuable industrial energy source for the country, which faces an oil embargo in response to its nuclear and missile testing.

tal , 7 hours ago to World News in Russia Declares War on ‘Mediocre Actor’ George Clooney

Yeah, I was gonna say, I really prefer that to the Oceans movies.

tal , 9 hours ago to Ask Lemmy in Should I stick to the Fediverse or mainstream media?

Well, the Threadiverse is, like Reddit, set up to be a content aggregator. It mostly links to content on mainstream media.

l'd think that for most people, it's kinda "both".

tal , 9 hours ago (edited 9 hours ago) to Ukraine in The United States faces a shortage of energetics and propellants for munitions

Been that way for a while, over the course of the war -- as things ramped up, we had more shell-manufacturing capacity than filler capacity. We'd been shipping some of the shells we manufactured to be filled in Poland, as I recall, because they had some excess filler capacity.

EDIT: Yeah, went to some other countries as well, schlorped up some of their filler output too:

https://www.defensenews.com/land/2024/02/06/us-army-hunts-for-explosives-to-meet-increased-munitions-output-goals/

The Army awarded $1.5 billion in contracts to nine companies in the fall of 2023 to companies in the U.S., Canada, India and Poland to boost global production of 155mm artillery rounds. The contracts included procuring 14.2 million pounds of bulk energetics, consisting of TNT and IMX-104 explosive.

tal , 11 hours ago to World News in North Korea floats more rubbish-filled balloons to South Korea

Not dangerous to the public, but it will be to the government.

If you've gone to great lengths to maintain an information bubble and keeping the country cut off from the outside world informationally, and if the government remaining intact relies on that...if the whole thing collapses, I suspect that the life expectancy of the North Korean leadership isn't too good.

tal , 13 hours ago to Ask Lemmy in Anyone have luck with a hair growth *inhibitor*? Especially my fellow gentledudes who could be mistaken for sasquatch after skipping a day of shaving.

I've spent the last couple years with the conclusion that hair is just annoying, and I want it gone with as little effort and expense as possible.

How permanent are you wanting?

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

Electrology is the practice of electrical hair removal to permanently remove human hair from the body.

Most practitioners will advise that complete removal of male pattern facial hair takes between 1 and 4 years, with an average treatment length of 2 years in case of one session per week, one hour per session.