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SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday June 29 2020, @01:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the we've-been-here-for-you;-will-you-be-here-for-us? dept.

[20200629_140251 UTC: Update 1: Encourage taking care of personal/local needs, first.]
[20200629_191024 UTC: Update 2: Added stretch goal of $1000.00 ]
[20200630_023201 UTC: Update 3: Increased stretch goal from $1000.00 to $2000.00]


[20200630_023201 UTC] What is possibly one of the worst things to hear from an editor? "I'm at a loss for words." Well, it's happened. The SoylentNews community has done it, again! We started today needing $800 to cover projected operating expenses of $3500 for the first half of the year. And you did it! So, I added a stretch goal of an additional $1000. Now you have gone and reached that goal, too! We'd run at a significant loss ($6000 so far), so that is very much appreciated! THANK-YOU!!!. Stretch goal has now been increased to $2000 [so we can continue to track your subscriptions in the Site News block]. Dare I hope? --martyb

[20200629_191024 UTC] The SoylentNews community is AMAZING! In these especially difficult circumstances, we've reached our original goal for ongoing expenses... and then some!

Thank You!!!!

We started today (Monday June 29) needing over $700.00 to cover projected operating expenses for the first half of the year.

We not only reached our original goal of $3500.00, but I added a stretch goal of $1000.00 and we are already 66% of the way to reaching *that*!

Why a stretch goal? Because we have been running at a deficit for a few years. We are are still about $6,000.00 short of having sufficient funds to pay back our benefactor's original $10,000.00 outlay. Any additional funds raised will go towards that purpose whilst giving us a larger safety cushion. --martyb

The original story (after performing Update #1) appears below:


SoylentNews could use your help.

tl;dr The first half of our fiscal year runs Wed. January 1 through Tue. June 30, inclusive. We are at 80% of the funds needed to cover our expenses for the period. If money is tight for you, take care of yourself first. But, if you can help, it would mean a lot to help us to continue to be here for you.

Please subscribe. The subscription amount provided (e.g. $20.00 for 1 year) is the minimum amount for that period; you can change that default to any larger value.

To all who started a new subscription or renewed an existing subscription: Thank You!

Times are tough. First, please take care of yourself and those close to you. But, if you do have funds to spare, we would very much appreciate your support!

Where We Stand:

So far, we have had 106 subscriptions this year which have netted us an estimated $2,794.92 (after processing fees from Stripe/Paypal) towards our goal of $3,500.00.

We run a very lean operation; $20/day keeps everything going. Staffing is all-volunteer; nobody has ever been paid anything for their work on SoylentNews. That includes the editors who get the stories out on the main page. The sysadmins who keep everything running: the servers and all the services like the MySQL databases, Apache HTTP Server, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), email... it's a long list. That we so rarely have issues is a testament to how fortunate we are to have professionals who donate their free time to keep things running. We had to incorporate to be able to accept subscriptions to pay expenses. And with that there are fees for maintaining the incorporation, calculating taxes, and paying them.

Subscriptions Breakdown:

Number of subscriptions for each subscription amount, and the totals at that level, so far in 2020:

QtySub AmtTotal
7$4.00$28.00
12$5.00$60.00
2$12.00$24.00
63$20.00$1260.00
2$25.00$50.00
3$30.00$90.00
1$36.60$36.60
1$39.39$39.39
3$40.00$120.00
4$50.00$200.00
1$60.00$60.00
2$100.00$200.00
1$113.00$113.00
2$120.00$240.00

The Pandemic Sucks:

The world has changed in the past six months.

A lot.

The pandemic hit and with it came lock-downs, work-from-home, and social distancing. Closures of movie theaters, restaurants, and bars. Video conferencing became a norm as in-person gatherings were prohibited. And for good reason: worldwide, over 10 million are known to have been infected and over a half million have died. Untold struggles and suffering as we attempt to understand and adapt to a new reality.

We recognized that many of the community were struggling. On April 19th, we extended all subscriptions that were due to expire in April or May to the end of May. If money was tight and it was a choice of renewing your subscription or paying your bills, we'd rather you spend your money locally and so thereby help keep the money in your local community.

Folding@Home (F@H):

SoylentNews is helping in the fight against SARS-CoV-2. You might not be aware, but SoylentNews has a Folding@Home team. We are currently ranked in the top 300 teama in the world (#297 out of 254150 teams)!

F@H is a distributed computing project designed to help understand how proteins fold and thereby search for cures to various diseases. It was originally focused on Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases as well as cancer. With the appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, F@H has pivoted to trying to unravel the behavior of that virus. To this end, many large infrastructure companies (like AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Google) have joined the effort.

How it works: Install the client on your computer, instruct it what amount of resources to use, and you are ready to go. The client will periodically download work units and, when completed, upload the results to the F@H servers. The faster the results are computed, the more points are earned. We are team #230319. If you have computes to spare, we'd love to have you join us!

Stories and Discussions:

Through all this, we here at SoylentNews have persevered. People from all over joined us in discussions on the pandemic and so many other topics. We aim for news with a technological focus but will occasionally offer something a little offbeat.

So far in 2020, SoylentNews has posted over 2,100 stories. Separately, the community has posted 700 journal entries. To these 2,800 items, the community has posted 76,000 comments — over 400 comments per day! In addition, there have been over 55,000 comment moderations — that's nearly 300 per day.

Server Upgrades:

We are continuing our efforts to move services from beryllium (our only Centos server) to aluminum (Gentoo). Deucalion (on IRC; aka Juggs on SoylentNews) has been trudging along trying to get things brought over for IRC (Internet Relate Chat). He reports he had a 100-hour long week at work last week, but still managed to make some progress on this over the weekend. There are significant differences between the two, so it has been quite the challenge. Getting userids added to the correct groups; setting up ACLs; chron syntax incompatibilities; the list goes on and on.

 
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  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 29 2020, @05:20PM (29 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 29 2020, @05:20PM (#1014166) Journal

    That is only silly, in view of the fact that Gubbermint is going to stop writing checks soon. If you don't have a card, you won't get any benefits at all.

    NOTE: I'm only half joking. Applying for unemployment benefits in Arkansas automagically gets you a debit card, with which you withdraw your funds. From what I've seen on Youtube and other sites, EBT recipients get a card that looks just like any other credit card - it doesn't even say "EBT" on it.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by quietus on Monday June 29 2020, @06:41PM (3 children)

    by quietus (6328) on Monday June 29 2020, @06:41PM (#1014202) Journal

    The unstoppable rise of the cashless society, eh?

    Nowadays you can pay with credit cards almost anywhere. It is convenient and fast and you also don't need to carry cash around with you.

    Nonetheless, some people still prefer to pay with cash. Why do people do that?

    Economists previously thought that differences in transaction costs determined which form of payment someone would use. But paying in cash has other characteristics which can prove advantageous to consumers.

    Prospect theory tells us that it is harder for us to part with cash than to pay via credit card, because the negative utility from a cash payment is greater.

    If you want to rein in your spending and resist the temptation to buy things, trying to pay in cash as much as possible will better help you achieve that goal.

    Two economists discovered another effect. In their analysis of 25,500 individual transactions, they found that consumers who want to have an overview of their expenditures tend to avoid paying with credit cards. They described this as the "reminder effect" of cash. When you look into your purse or wallet, you immediately see how much you have spent and how much money is left. It is particularly advisable for people with limited financial means to use cash payments as a control mechanism.

    According to the researchers, people actually do this; they make two-thirds of their purchases in cash. The clear advice of the researchers for anyone who is deep in debt or who wants to live within a tight budget: always pay in cash!

    (Better to Pay in Cash, in Confessions of the Pricing Man, Hermann Simon, Springer, 2015)

    (The research mentioned above is an October 2011 discussion paper (Nr 22/2011 [ssrn.com]) for Germany's central bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank, Using cash to monitor liquidity implications for payments, currency demand and withdrawal behavior.)

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 29 2020, @09:45PM (2 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 29 2020, @09:45PM (#1014266) Journal

      Nonetheless, some people still prefer to pay with cash. Why do people do that?

      Those stupid cops & robbers shows from late last century were educational. Everyone who ever watched them knows that credit card purchases are recorded, tracked, analyzed, and run through myriad data bases to search for correlations. Did you know that one brand of antacids are used exclusively by fascists, while another brand is used exclusively by antifascists? Don't like the antacid correlation? Make your own up - it will be as valid as most others.

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:19PM

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:19PM (#1014554)

        Antifacid?

      • (Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday July 01 2020, @04:34PM

        by quietus (6328) on Wednesday July 01 2020, @04:34PM (#1015054) Journal

        I do not know. Right now businesses still seem to do an awful job in attempting to seduce me into buying, but a few random thoughts:

        • Maybe neither you, nor I, are the target demographic for all that fancy profiling stuff: but somebody in a hurry, who doesn't want to do a bad buy, is;
        • Maybe we're more beasts-of-habit than we'd like to admit, even -- or especially -- to ourselves; and psychologists are not any less gullible of selling their soul to the figurative devil;
        • Maybe the aim is not so much the individual, but to understand our group behaviour;
        • Maybe statisticians get that clustering stuff down pat, automatically, in 20 or 30 years time;
        • and finally, maybe we're really not that much more advanced, or thoughtful, than a bunch of chimpansees.

        I will start drooling now.

  • (Score: 2) by quietus on Monday June 29 2020, @06:58PM

    by quietus (6328) on Monday June 29 2020, @06:58PM (#1014213) Journal

    As an aside, on quickly checking out the GAO report [gao.gov] on how the covid money under ARES(*) has been spent:

    For example, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, as of April 30, almost 1.1 million payments totaling nearly $1.4 billion had gone to decedents [aka dead Americans]. We recommend that IRS consider cost-effective options for notifying ineligible recipients how to return payments. IRS agreed.

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @06:59PM (23 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @06:59PM (#1014214)

    From what I've seen on Youtube and other sites, EBT recipients get a card that looks just like any other credit card - it doesn't even say "EBT" on it.

    Of course it doesn't. We wouldn't want people on the dole to be embarrassed spending other taxpayer's money.

    • (Score: 4, Touché) by istartedi on Monday June 29 2020, @11:40PM (22 children)

      by istartedi (123) on Monday June 29 2020, @11:40PM (#1014307) Journal

      We wouldn't want people on the dole to be embarrassed spending other taxpayer's money.

      Seriously, we don't. Don't judge somebody until you've walked a mile in their shoes. I'm old enough to remember when people had to pay with physical food stamps at the register, and I'm sure it was embarrassing for them. Of course that system was rife with corruption because people would sell the coupons for pennies on the dollar to get drugs. If they were passing it at the register for food, that was the least embarrassing thing you could do with it, but I'm sure they still got dirty looks.

      Also, do you think some owner of a football team should be embarrassed for taking taxpayer money to get a stadium built? If not, why?

      --
      Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
      • (Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:39AM (20 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:39AM (#1014322) Journal
        Don't judge a serial killer until you have a couple of stiffs in the freezer?
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:41AM

          Do lawyers and politicians count or are we talking strictly human beings?

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:49AM (18 children)

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:49AM (#1014364) Journal

          Don't judge a serial killer until you have a couple of stiffs in the freezer?

          Rookie mistake. One doesn't start the serial killer career before one gets a backyard or a pickup truck able to carry a couple of barrels of acid.

          This is to say your analogy is entirely flawed and loaded; at the best, people on the dole will advance to "simply killers", they lack the proper tools of the trade to avoid early cop's interference.

          (large grin)

          And I have this nagging suspicion you used this loaded analogy on purpose, just to paint the people on the dole as criminals or something.

          --
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:52AM (7 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @03:52AM (#1014367) Journal

            And I have this nagging suspicion you used this loaded analogy on purpose, just to paint the people on the dole as criminals or something.

            And if I did, do you have the intellectual resources to do something about it?

            • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:11AM (3 children)

              by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:11AM (#1014379) Journal

              And I have this nagging suspicion you used this loaded analogy on purpose, just to paint the people on the dole as criminals or something.

              And if I did, do you have the intellectual resources to do something about it?

              You mean, do more than to call it out?

              That may be an intellectually valid endeavor, but otherwise an other-than-wise one (i.e unwise).
              You see, some saying about fighting pigs springs in my mind (also supported by the fact the individuals of Sus scrofa domesticus species may be as intelligent as the primates [seeker.com]).

              --
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:37AM (2 children)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:37AM (#1014394) Journal

                You mean, do more than to call it out?

                I notice that you didn't actually call anything out.

                • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:45AM (1 child)

                  by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:45AM (#1014398) Journal

                  Ok, we have different understandings on the meaning of "calling it out".
                  Since I'm not inclined to engage in an intellectual pissing contest, we may as well end this thread here.

                  --
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
                  • (Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:05PM

                    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:05PM (#1014455) Journal

                    Since I'm not inclined to engage in an intellectual pissing contest

                    Good call.

            • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:33AM (2 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:33AM (#1014933) Journal

              And if I did,

              Shut up, khallow! You remember that thing we talked about? You're doing it again.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 02 2020, @12:43AM (1 child)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 02 2020, @12:43AM (#1015220) Journal
                You talk about lots of things that I don't care about. So no, I don't remember. Care to link to it?
                • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday July 02 2020, @02:25AM

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday July 02 2020, @02:25AM (#1015248) Journal

                  You fool, khallow! It is a movie reference! "War Games" with Matthew Broderick.
                  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001999/?ref_=tt_trv_qu [imdb.com]

                  Jim Sting: Remember you told me to tell you when you were acting rudely and insensitively? Remember that? You're doing it right now.

                  Just letting you know, like you asked me to, that you're doing it again.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:31AM (9 children)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:31AM (#1014390) Journal
            To continue along this vein, my take is that the majority of humanity has walked way more than a mile in these particular shoes. And shame has been and continues to be an effective way to prevent overuse of "dole" programs.
            • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:40AM (8 children)

              by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @04:40AM (#1014396) Journal

              To continue along this vein, my take is that the majority of humanity has walked way more than a mile in these particular shoes.

              Any "circle" has fringes.
              If you demonize those fringes and eliminate them, in time you yourself will end being a fringe.

              --
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
              • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:33AM (2 children)

                by istartedi (123) on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:33AM (#1014409) Journal

                This gets close to a proper rebuttal to the counter-point to my original suggestion. "Don't judge somebody until you've walked a mile in their shoes" is not an absolute. The person who suggested that the statement is flawed because it should include serial killers is suggesting that it *is* an absolute. In general, assuming that a proverb like that is absolute tends to lead to just these kinds of fallacies.

                For example, "do unto others as you would have done unto yourself". If you take it too literally, you end doing something totally wrong like buying your wife a bunch of fights on pay-per-view.

                --
                Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
                • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:53AM

                  by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @05:53AM (#1014415) Journal

                  If you take it too literally, you end doing something totally wrong like buying your wife a bunch of fights on pay-per-view.

                  Well, in the context, I reckon is not that bad, as it will balance out; for example, your wife may buy you some high heels and sexy fishnet stocking.
                  Oh... wait... that's bad! You'll need some leg hair removal sessions!

                  Ummm... I think you may be right.

                  --
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
                • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:16PM

                  by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:16PM (#1014458) Journal

                  "Don't judge somebody until you've walked a mile in their shoes" is not an absolute.

                  Ignoring that the proverb actually was absolute, we still have no guidance from you on when it applies. Why does the proverb apply to welfare deadbeats and not to corporate welfare deadbeats? Why aren't you demanding that we walk a mile in the shoes of the stadium owner before decrying the public funds he's using to build his stadium?

                  In general, assuming that a proverb like that is absolute tends to lead to just these kinds of fallacies.

                  Another reason why proverbs like this tend to lead to these sorts of "fallacies" is because they are false even in the non-absolute sense. We need to make split-second judgments all the time, for an important class of judgments that can't afford to walk a mile in anyone's shoes. It could be deciding whether that car ahead of you is a risk to you, whether to follow that YouTube link provided by the poster who just blathered about SJWs and libtards, or whether you really want to read that pamphlet that the strange guy just gave you in the parking lot while you're rushing to finish some errands. Judgment happens all the time and it is healthy.

                  Further, I think people are ignoring how effective these soft discouragements are at keeping societies running. For example, I think a big part of the reason that the Scandinavian countries can survive their levels of social programs is because they have social factors like embarrassment driving down the demand for the programs. IMHO, that's also one of the big tools in primitive tribes for getting rid of leeches in the tribe.

                  Overconsumption of social safety nets is a bigger problem than embarrassment and shame. That's why so many societies which have widespread cooperative behavior, also have embarrassment and shame in the tool box.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:22PM (4 children)

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:22PM (#1014459) Journal

                Any "circle" has fringes. If you demonize those fringes and eliminate them, in time you yourself will end being a fringe.

                Just like we better not demonize and eliminate serial killers because otherwise in time we'll end being serial killers? Or at least a fringe that the "circle" thinks is as bad as serial killers today? Sorry, not buying it.

                • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:33PM (3 children)

                  by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:33PM (#1014462) Journal

                  Just like we better not demonize and eliminate serial killers because otherwise in time we'll end being serial killers?

                  I'd rather classify them as "outside", but then I can't stop you if you want to include serial killers in your circle.

                  BTW, I note that you still didn't address the issue of your analogy of equating "people on the dole" with "serial killers", how are they the same in the context of the discussion.

                  --
                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
                  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:37PM (2 children)

                    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:37PM (#1014464) Journal

                    I'd rather classify them as "outside"

                    They're still part of society until exposed. That makes them fringe.

                    BTW, I note that you still didn't address the issue of your analogy of equating "people on the dole" with "serial killers", how are they the same in the context of the discussion.

                    You've already addressed it. It's analogy.

                    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:49PM (1 child)

                      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @12:49PM (#1014470) Journal

                      fringe group [collinsdictionary.com]

                      You've already addressed it. It's analogy.

                      You'll need to demonstrate is a valid one to accept it as a premise of an valid argument.
                      Fail this and I'm out of a discussion that may lead to incorrect conclusion.

                      --
                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
                      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 30 2020, @01:42PM

                        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 30 2020, @01:42PM (#1014488) Journal

                        You'll need to demonstrate is a valid one to accept it as a premise of an valid argument.

                        The fact that I wrote it is demonstration that I think it's a valid argument. So this is a matter of demonstrating to you, right? All we have presently is some claim that people on the dole don't have the infrastructure to support serial murder and a "nagging suspicion" that they are implied to be "criminals or something". It just doesn't sound like much needs to be validated?

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday July 01 2020, @08:23PM

        by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 01 2020, @08:23PM (#1015134)

        Don't judge somebody until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

        That way, you're a mile away and they don't have their shoes.

        --
        The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.