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Things are really coming to a head here. We have a bunch of alt-right jerkoffs hysterically jumping up and down shouting "butbutbutbut MUH FREEZE PEACH!!!111one" over Gab getting its blood supply cut off like the cancer it is.

Listen, you Constitutionally-ignorant know nothings, you fucking fourth-grade civics class failures, you frothing wild-eyed lunatics: the First Amendment merely says the government may not restrict your speech in and of itself (and there are still exception clauses for public safety).

It does not mean you have a right to be heard.

It does *not* mean you have a right to a platform.

It does NOT mean you have a right to incite violence.

And MOST OF ALL, it does NOT mean you have a right to escape the consequences of your speech.

Now, I personally am all for shitholes like gab.io, and would even support funding them. Why? Because they keep you stupid motherfuckers all in one place, contained, exposed, letting you mingle and hybridize and ooze and fester, like the old Chinese sorcery "gu." Some interestingly poisonous shit must come out of that. Free association and all that, right? And poison goes where poison's wanted.

The most hilarious part of this, though? It's when all the gibbertarian shitheads start demanding that Thuh Eebil Gubbamint stop *private corporations* from doing what the fuck they want with their resources! News flash, assholes: corporations have discovered that hosting actual, literal, Heil-Hitlering, 1488'ing Nazis is a Bad Business Decision (TM). That burning pain you feel is the Invisible Hand of the Free Market smacking you across your inbred faces so hard it raises welts. And raising a gigantic middle finger at you. You made your bed, now lie in it.

So keep screaming and howling at the corporations and the government both to do your bidding. Keep marching. Keep concentrating yourselves into ever smaller and more feverish and more frenzied little circlejerks deep in the festering asshole of the internet. Keep displaying your ignorance and stupidity and hatred and utter, utter impotent rage.

We won't necessarily punch a Nazi, but we're sure as shit gonna mock a Nazi till y'all drop dead of apoplexy. And something tells me what you really can't stand is mockery; violence you will merely take as incentive to continue on. But being laughed at? No. Never. What you fear most isn't death; it's having to live on, knowing your entire political philosophy is a laughingstock, a byword for ineffectual, self-destructive evil, your entire lives wasted on this destructive, fruitless comedy of errors.

It's coming. You've already lost. You lost the moment you started this.

These are two stories that I may or may not submit based on upcoming electoral events:

Congressman John Culberson is a driving force behind the Europa Clipper mission, and an SLS proponent. He may lose his re-election bid this November. This could have a significant impact on the mission. Or not, who knows?

Could November elections scramble a controversial U.S. mission to a frozen moon?

Here is an in-depth story about Culberson's Europa obsession: Inside NASA’s daring $8 billion plan to finally find extraterrestrial life

And a follow-up: The billion-dollar question: How does the Clipper mission get to Europa?

FiveThirtyEight currently forecasts a slight chance of Culberson losing, but it's essentially a coin toss.

This is a Denver local ballot initiative to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms. It won't be on the ballot in November. They are collecting signatures so that it can be on the ballot in May 2019. 4,726 signatures must be collected by January 7th:

Denver, Colorado, Psilocybin Mushroom Initiative (November 2018)
After the success of cannabis legalization in Denver, could mushrooms be next?
No Magic Mushrooms On The Denver Ballot This Year. Supporters Are Looking To 2019
Denver’s Psilocybin Initiative Moves Forward to Signature Gathering Phase

If you live in Denver, go and sign the petition.

Here is the big list of 2018 ballot measures, amendments, etc.. And here's a few that may be of interest:

California Proposition 12, Farm Animal Confinement Initiative (2018)
Colorado Amendment 74, Compensation to Owners for Decreased Property Value Due to State Regulation Initiative (2018)
Florida Amendment 3, Voter Approval of Casino Gambling Initiative (2018)
Florida Amendment 4, Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative (2018)
Massachusetts Question 3, Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Veto Referendum (2018)
Michigan Proposal 1, Marijuana Legalization Initiative (2018)

Missouri has two amendments and one proposition regarding medical cannabis that are in conflict:

If two conflicting constitutional amendments, such as Amendment 2 and Amendment 3, are approved, the one receiving the most affirmative votes prevails. State law does provide a protocol for when voters approve statutes, such as Proposition C, and amendments, such as Amendment 2 and Amendment 3, that are in conflict. Speaking to a similar issue regarding tobacco tax initiatives in 2016, the attorney general's office said the issue would need to be decided in court.

Missouri Amendment 2, Medical Marijuana and Veteran Healthcare Services Initiative (2018)
Missouri Amendment 3, Medical Marijuana and Biomedical Research and Drug Development Institute Initiative (2018)
Missouri Proposition C, Medical Marijuana and Veterans Healthcare Services, Education, Drug Treatment, and Public Safety Initiative (2018)

Amendment 2 taxes cannabis at 4%, Amendment 3 taxes it at 15%, Proposition C taxes it at 2%.

North Dakota Measure 3, Marijuana Legalization and Automatic Expungement Initiative (2018)
Ohio Issue 1, Drug and Criminal Justice Policies Initiative (2018)
Oregon Measure 106, Ban Public Funds for Abortions Initiative (2018)
Utah Proposition 2, Medical Marijuana Initiative (2018)
Washington Initiative 940, Police Training and Criminal Liability in Cases of Deadly Force Measure (2018)

Legislative and automatic referrals

Alabama Amendment 1, Ten Commandments Amendment (2018)
California Proposition 2, Use Millionaire's Tax Revenue for Homelessness Prevention Housing Bonds Measure (2018)
California Proposition 7, Permanent Daylight Saving Time Measure (2018)

Hey look, it's Kanye's issue: Colorado Amendment A, Removal of Exception to Slavery Prohibition for Criminals Amendment (2018)

Colorado Amendment X, Definition of Industrial Hemp Amendment (2018)

I think one of our ACs complained about this mess: Florida Amendment 11, Repeal Prohibition on Aliens’ Property Ownership, Delete Obsolete Provision on High-Speed Rail, and Repeal of Criminal Statutes' Effect on Prosecution Amendment (2018)

Hawaii Constitutional Convention Question (2018)
Louisiana Amendment 1, Felons Disqualified to Run for Office for Five Years Amendment (2018)
Nevada Question 2, Sales Tax Exemption for Feminine Hygiene Products Measure (2018)
New Hampshire Question 2, Right to Live Free from Governmental Intrusion in Private and Personal Information Amendment (2018)
South Dakota Constitutional Amendment X, Constitutional Amendments Require a 55 Percent Supermajority (2018)
South Dakota Constitutional Amendment Z, Single-Subject Rule for Constitutional Amendments (2018)
West Virginia Amendment 1, No Right to Abortion in Constitution Measure (2018)

I plan to submit a story focusing only on ballot initiatives, measures, propositions, amendments, etc. Last time around, I submitted a story before the election. This time, I think I will do it after the results are in so we can see what succeeded and what failed.

If there's a specific ballot measure you want to see mentioned, please let me know below in the comments.

11 Dead, Several Others Shot At Pittsburgh Synagogue

Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting: At Least 11 Dead and Gunman Identified

Guns beat bombs.

SpaceX ships another huge propellant tank to South Texas BFR test site

Russian Orthodox Church severs links with Constantinople

In a major religious split, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut ties with the body seen as the spiritual authority of the world's Orthodox Christians.

The break came after the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow.

The row is being described as the greatest Orthodox split since the schism with Catholicism in 1054.

Relations soured after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Many Ukrainians accuse the Russian Church of siding with Russia-backed separatists in the east.

Russia sees Kiev as the historic cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church now fears losing many of its 12,000 parishes in Ukraine.

Constantinople holds sway over more than 300 million Orthodox Christians across the world. The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest.

Also at Reuters and The Guardian.

See also: Archbishop’s defiance threatens Putin’s vision of Russian greatness

It turns out that increasing spending and decreasing tax revenue isn't good for the bank balance.

The federal deficit ballooned to $779 billion in the just-ended fiscal year — a remarkable tide of red ink for a country not mired in recession or war.

The government is expected to borrow more than a trillion dollars in the coming year, in part to make up for tax receipts that have been slashed by GOP tax cuts.

Corporate tax collections fell by 31 percent in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, despite robust corporate profits. That's hardly surprising after lawmakers cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21.

Income taxes withheld from individuals grew by 1 percent. Overall tax receipts were flat. As a share of the economy, tax receipts shrank to 16.5 percent of GDP, from 17.2 percent the previous year.

Federal Deficit Jumps 17 Percent As Tax Cuts Eat Into Government Revenue

I believe that other people have mentioned Iridium, here on the forum. For whatever reason, I've never messed with it. Never even followed up on it, to see what makes it special. In recent days, it has been mentioned multiple times in various discussions that I've read, but not elaborated on. So - interest piqued, I did a search for it.

https://iridiumbrowser.de/

A BROWSER SECURING YOUR PRIVACY. THAT’S IT.
DOWNLOAD

Iridium Browser is based on the Chromium code base. All modifications enhance the privacy of the user and make sure that the latest and best secure technologies are used. Automatic transmission of partial queries, keywords and metrics to central services is prevented and only occurs with the approval of the user. In addition, all our builds are reproducible and modifications are auditable, setting the project ahead of other secure browser providers.

There is a lot more to read on that page, like the manifest.

MANIFEST
IMPORTANT NOTICE

Before Iridium Browser, we had to decide if we wanted to have cutting edge technologies like sandboxed processes, WebRTC, WebUSB … , or if we wanted to use a browser that respects our privacy. So we decided to use the power of free software and build a browser that can do both. We analysed the code of Chromium and stripped out the functionality which exposes data to others in a way we don‘t like.
See most important changes here

Our ambition is to get builds for Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, RHEL/CentOS, Windows and macOS a couple of days after a new release of Chromium. To achieve this, we need help from individuals and organisations, who have the same intention. Currently there are weeks between a new release of Iridium and Chromium.
Please take this into consideration for your personal usage of the browser as you might be at risk when surfing unknown and potentially dangerous websites!
We feel, that as an application browser or as browser for trusted websites, this is acceptable.

Wow. Sounds good. It seems to address the reasons that I've used several other browsers, such as SRWare Iron, Cyberfox, and others.

Keep on reading, and I'm reminded of the reasons I was excited about Webkit when it was promoted by Google. (Bear in mind that Google didn't invent this thing, they took open source code from the KDE browser, Konqueror, enhanced it, and turned it loose under the Google name.)

Unfortunately, Google added some things that none of us need, and in fact, few of us know about. Hardcoded URLS for various purposes, all designed to collect information, and to push advertising. SRWare Iron addresses some of that, but - sometimes, it has just seemed that they didn't go far enough.

Iridium, though, has gone into the source code, and either removed or obfuscated those hard coded URL's. There is a whole page dedicated to the stuff that has been removed, or changed - https://github.com/iridium-browser/tracker/wiki/Differences-between-Iridium-and-Chromium

This page describes the changes we did in Iridium compared to the Chromium base version. Please note that this list might not be exhaustive, so always check the Git repository at https://git.iridiumbrowser.de/cgit.cgi/iridium-browser/ for the latest changes.

I've kicked it around for a couple days now. I'm just about to set Iridium as "default browser", to replace Cyberfox. (Default browser is the one that opens when you click a link someplace, like in a PDF. It has little to no effect on what happens inside of your non-default browsers.)

Resource-wise, Iridium uses about the same CPU and memory as SRWare Iron. (they don't have the same pages open, so maybe I shouldn't compare them like that, but they do have roughly the same number of pages open) Both seem to use slightly less resources than vanilla Chromium.

EDIT: I initially posted that Iridium is in the Debian repositories. That was wrong. Iridium happens to be in my distro's repository, so it popped up immediately when I did an apt-cache search. Iridium-browser is NOT in the Debian repositories. Most Debian users will have to add the Iridium repository, or compile it themselves from the git. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused!

The best thing about Iridium, for Debian users, it's in the repository.

#apt-get install iridium-browser

does it all for you. You'll get the standard output, telling you dependencies, and recommended libraries and documentation.

NOTE: Iridium isn't replacing my daily drivers. I have multiple browsers installed on my system, and I use them in different ways. Using Iridium (or any "hardened" browser) as "default" helps to insure that inadvertantly invoking a browser from a PDF file doesn't open the system up to anyone who might be watching for a phone-home thing to happen. It's a "secure browser", right?

You be the judge - click the link(s), read up, and decide how good Iridium is - or isn't.

Currently, Iridium Browser is available for the following operating systems:
Windows 7+ • macOS 10.9+ • Debian 8+, Mint 17+, Ubuntu 14.04+ (all 64-bit) • openSUSE Leap 42.3 and 15.0 • Fedora 27+ • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+ | CentOS 7+

  Iridium Browser is not available for Android, iOS, Windows Mobile or any other mobile operating system!

I'm just going to put this out there for you all to think about. If you are taking your moral cues from politicians, pundits, or lobbying groups, you've got it precisely backwards. They are supposed to be taking their positions based on what you believe. The other way around is the tail wagging the dog.

This is very much a first draft of an essay I've been wanting to put together for some time. Please be critical. I want you to tell me if you uncover any glaring logical flaws (or even grammatical ones!). I want you to tell me if you disagree or even think I'm being an egocentric asshole¹ or an insane crackpot hippie! I also want you to tell me if any of these ideas make sense or resonate with you and also if you can point me to anywhere else you've already come across them before. It's quite long and a bit heavy so thank you very much if you do decide to take the time to read it.

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Discussing one's own mortality may produce an air of discomfort or awkwardness in some western societies and yet for those of us that tend to reflect and introspect it remains a topic that we cannot help but contemplate from time to time.

As we go through life, we all soon realize to our dismay that none of us are getting any younger--and anyone with a head for figures that's watched the decades pass in their grandparents' and parents' lives will soon gain an all too sharp understanding of just how rapidly their own life seems to be passing, measured against its estimated length.

Some people find comfort in religion. As I approached adulthood and gained a greater understanding of probability, logic, and the scientific method, I quickly cast aside pretty much all religious beliefs and also the overwhelming majority of anecdotal evidence for the popular so-called Unexplained on the basis that extraordinary claims do indeed need extraordinary evidence to be worthy of serious consideration. I now understand that the probability of bizarre coincidences occurring is massively higher than most humans intuitively think (but hey, they still play the lottery--I guess they're only willing to consider the improbable events that make them feel happy!)--and that easily accounts for many accounts of supernatural phenomenon. Outright fraud in many cases is much more likely as well than any of these events requiring new science (or religious faith) to explain.

Despite all of this skepticism I've always tried to remain open-minded. I am fascinated by the most fundamental questions of what consciousness, reality and existence are made of, if you like--the limits of science and the boundaries between physics and philosophy. I became especially interested in the philosophy of mind and first person consciousness. Much of this involves speculation, but if you're careful you can try to be at least logically consistent and consider which theories are the most attractive based on things like simplicity or drawing parallels with other established theories in science.

Our own reality is by its very nature, subjective. It is as if the entire universe is perpetually centered on our own body's location in space. Not just in space, but conveniently the universal "now" also coincides with just that moment in our own life that we thought we had got up to. Unless you're a raging solipsist, you'll probably acknowledge that physically this phenomenon seems to be related to our senses and our brains. My universe feels centered on here and now simply because I only have access to my own memories and the most recent of those memories are of sights and sounds and thoughts that relate to this very time and place. I feel safe enough to call it my brain and my memories because the memories have a continuity stretching back into my body's past all the while accompanied by a strong sense of identity.

At least for now, I feel hopeful that I may continue to exist in the above physical and mental form for the near future because it seems a fair bet that the apparent continuity in my past can be extrapolated at least a little way into the future as well. Especially when I observe other people, both older and younger than I, also seeming to persist (well, at least in a physical, third person form). Moments seem to pass consecutively whilst we are alive--but we can't prove it--and at the point of death, all bets are off--for all we know perhaps our perspective even loops right back to the moment of our own birth or conception, if you'll forgive my wild speculation!

We now have a reasonable understanding from neuroscience of how the information content of memories can be represented physically inside our brains. That strongly suggests that if the brain is lost, the information represented in the memories will be lost for that person along with it. Some religions and some dualist philosophies (perhaps Cartesian Dualism) will suggest that varying amounts of that information will be preserved somehow separately from the physical brain. To me that seems highly unlikely because it implies some kind of massive redundancy in reality. Brains and memories are highly complex and took millions of years to evolve physically, so it just seems odd that there should be some other storage mechanism present at the same time that--let's note--also persists after the brain is long gone. If such a mechanism were to exist it would seem awfully convenient, as if perhaps some benevolent deity had chosen to conjure it up just for the sake of human comfort.² Anyway, after death what use would our memories even be unless this aforementioned deity has also conjured up a redundant reality similar enough to our own for the things we have learnt in our Earthly existence to be relevant and useful in the new one?

So what do you really lose if you lose all your memories? Your own personal interests, thoughts and feelings are not as unique as you maybe like to think they are! You like music from a particular band? That's great. Don't worry, there are thousands of other people that will still like it too for the same reasons after you are gone. Even when that music itself is long forgotten in the mists of time, every attribute that made it great to you will almost certainly be realized again, albeit in a different configuration, in other, future pieces of music. You like running? Come on: that's not even unique to homo sapiens! You like a very particular piece of engineering on a particular model of train? So perhaps, did the designers and you likely won't be the first or last person to cast their eye over it with some degree of appreciation. Moreover when you reduce it to a sum of the qualities that you like about it, such qualities will doubtless pop up again, much like the music. What's that, the particular configuration is important to you? I submit that that doesn't make it better. Other very particular and arbitrary configurations of qualities will be just as important to other individuals. It's the familiarity that you crave. Other people have familiarity too, just for subtly different things.

Of course, at some time or other just about every one of us likes to create rather than just consume. If you invent something, discover some new science or create some works of art then these are entities that truly are unique to you. It might be painful contemplating having to let go of that sense of ownership and pride when your body and memory dies. But you needn't really worry. If your discovery has wider appeal or helps other people make their activities more efficient or gives them a sense of wellbeing, then it's likely of course that it will persist after you are gone, with them. If it doesn't have wider appeal, well then you're being incredibly egotistical wanting other people to spend time and energy preserving it. It had its time and place and purpose within your own life, but it's no great loss when the day comes that you have no further need of it.

Other than creating and consuming, something notable that brings many of us satisfaction in life is helping other people. This could be raising a child, sharing time and resources with a friend or loved one, or helping strangers. It could be doing charitable work that benefits other beings indirectly. We'll doubtless worry about leaving the people we care about behind³ but at least we will have made a positive contribution to their lives and so, hopefully, to the wider world.

When thinking about our own demise, we may lament the loss of our body, our personality, our social interactions, and even our daily routine. But then, from your own perspective, your life doesn't just encompass you. Everything. Everything you see and hear and read about. Every historic event you discover. Every idea. Every mathematical theorem you understand. Every movie you watch. Every other being's life that you observe. All of it is a part of your own life experiences. Your view of the universe and your memories of it are what really make up your life when viewed from your own perspective. To the third person, on the outside looking in at you, it couldn't be more different of course. They don't look at you and see an entire universe. They just see a talking, moving body, much smaller and more limited in scope. That body and brain. and the particular things it does and says, are very probably lost when death occurs. But all those outward things that your body perceived and felt and enjoyed through its life--those things mostly will go on existing. I don't know about you, but I find that somewhat comforting.

I think that the more you can absorb yourself in and grow to love the beauty of the longer-lived aspects of reality--the sound of bird song, the changing shapes and shades of clouds, the sharp contours of mountains, the less worried you need feel about the decline and demise of your own brain and body--because the love of these things is not unique to you--it has been and will be enjoyed by countless other humans throughout history and likely other beings too. You may still trouble yourself with the fact that even these things are probably less than eternal, that our very universe may too have a finite history.⁴ Perhaps then seeking delight in the beauty of mathematics may provide further comfort.

Of course even if the above reflections allow you to become somewhat comfortable with what disappears when your brain is no longer capable of storing and recalling memories, you might still be dreading death on the basis that you like experiencing life and just want a lot more of it. This is understandable but I take some comfort in the fact that some sort of reincarnation seems very logically plausible. Even if you're a die-hard materialist, you have to acknowledge that it was possible for you to be incarnated on one occasion. Why should it not be possible for another such event to happen? It probably doesn't have to be an identical event. Just similar enough (whatever that means). It doesn't matter how many centillions of millennia it takes for you to be incarnated a second time, since you will have no awareness at all of any passage of time without a brain or senses to measure it with. This is a sort of variant of the Anthropic Principle: that is that we have all found ourselves in a conscious state because it simply isn't coherent for someone to be experiencing non-existence.⁵

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^{1. I'd be surprised as I thought this is more about getting away from selfish interests, if not full on ego death. Hey, don't some of you more right wing Soylentils think the left is all about the loss of individual identity? Perhaps you think what I've written here reeks of that. If so, tell me more.}

^{2. You might think that brain injuries causing obvious lasting memory loss are evidence against it, but the religious folk may postulate that the information is only made available again once death has occurred.}

^{3. They'll probably do OK. Maybe you think you're more important to them than you really are [joking!].}

^{4. In some physical models of 4D spacetime, the past is just as real as our perceived present moment, in much the same way that two locations in space are equally real. In that case we need not fret over our universe's demise, when from a different perspective it will still be existing.}

^{5. We can of course conceive of nightmarish Purgatories where a mind is able to think on some minimal level but lacks any sensory input but given that thinking for us seems to depend on the evolution of a physical brain, the scenario doesn't strike me as something, hopefully, that would be especially likely or common.}

A Suicidal Nanny, an Underground Industry and 3 Babies Stabbed

The Case of Jane Doe Ponytail