Lemmy NSFW

Elon Musk says he has “done enough” to help MAGA Republicans win elections, signaling a shift in his kingmaker role as Donald Trump’s top campaign backer.

After months of watching his popularity plummet, the DOGE slasher-in-chief said he plans to cut back on funding political campaigns, a move that could dampen the Republicans’ efforts at next year’s midterm elections and in the lead up to the 2028 presidential election.

“I think, in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said, when asked at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday if he would continue spending as much as he has in the past.

RCV trends: Four states ban RCV in 2025, bringing the number of states with bans to 15.

(Okay idk why it says 15 up here then later says 16, somebody on that site probably didn't update the title text)

As of April 30, five states had banned RCV in 2025, which brought the total number of states that prohibit RCV to 16.

• Gov. Mark Gordon (Republican) signed HB 165 on March 18.
• West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (Republican) signed SB 490 the March 19.
• Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (Democrat) signed SB 6 into law on April 1.
• North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (Republican) signed HB 1297 on April 15.
• Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Republican) signed HB 1706 which became law on April 17.

Six states banned RCV in 2024.

Why YSK: If you're a US-American, its time to pay attention to State and Local politics instead of solely on the Federal. There is a trend in conservative jurisdictions to stop progress in making elecoral systems more fair. Use this opportunity as a rallying-cry to pass Ranked-Choice Voting in progressive jurisdictions, and hopefully everyone else takes notes. Sometimes, all you need is a few states adopting a law to become the catalyst for it to become the model for the entire country, for better or for worse. Don't allow anti-RCV legislations to dominate, counter the propaganda with pro-RCV arguments. Time to turn the tide.

Edit: fixed formatting

Edit 2: Added in the map so you don't have to click the link:

See the pattern? 🤔

ST: Generations

40 years later and we're back to Ronnie's Star Wars all over again.

A primer for those who don't understand.

Original Article in Romanian

The Tate brothers will be extradited to the UK after they are tried in Romania, the British government said, according to The Telegraph, which quotes Security Minister Dan Jarvis.

The announcement comes after Andrew Tate gave a post, the day after the presidential elections, in which he said he was leaving Romania and hinted that he was doing it because of the fact that Nicusor Dan came out as president.

Also reported on MailOnline (Archived link)

Also reported in White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working. - Washington Post (archived link)

All tied to Musk's doing with DOGE and his bought political influence

cross-posted from: http://feddit.nl/post/34588599

Parliament has to vote on it first, but it is another step towards its implementation.

Some relevant sections:

The Norwegian government is now initiating work on a new law that will provide better competitive conditions on the internet in the face of the global tech giants. "The law will give Norwegian consumers greater freedom of choice in the use of digital services," says Karianne Tung, Minister of Digitisation and Public Administration.

"The new rules will strengthen the competitiveness of Norwegian companies and make their services and apps easier to find online," says the Minister of Digitalisation.

The regulations are an implementation of the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which targets digital platform companies with a particularly dominant market position. The Minister of Digitisation says that the government aims to submit a draft law for consultation already this year. She explains that the new rules will make it easier for companies to compete on equal terms.

The regulations will apply to digital platform companies that qualify as so-called "gatekeepers". Today, Amazon, Apple and Meta, among others, are defined as such.

For Norwegian businesses and consumers, this will mean, among other things:

• Companies will have better access to their own user data from the major platforms.
• Third-party solutions must be able to work with the major platform owners' systems to a greater extent.
• Major players can no longer favour their own services over others on their own platforms.
• It should be easier for consumers to opt out of standard apps and services from the tech giants.
• Better control of your own data: You will have the right to transfer your own data from one platform to another.

(These are pasts of the text and they are translated using Deepl)

cross-posted from: http://lemm.ee/post/64482059

Caitlin Cross-Barnet earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Caitlin joined the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, where she helped design and evaluate programs to improve pregnancy and child health outcomes.

Her job was testing tiny changes to Medicaid to yield better patient outcomes and save taxpayer money. But Caitlin told her friends that those tiny adjustements, especially in maternal health, could save lives. She oversaw a federal program to help pregnant mothers addicted to opioids.

All her work data was deleted. Harassed by DOGE emails, Caitlin killed herself

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2025/05/20/federal-workers-trump-mental-health/

I'm been trying to expanding to my scientific literacy and that has involved looking at articles in scientific journals; i.e. the peer-reviewed literature. However, not all journals are trust-worthy. I would like to believe that academic search engines like Google Scholar would filter out "junk science" articles that I can't rely on that always happening. So how do I spot "predatory" or "pseudo-journals"?

Sometimes, it's quite obvious: "Answers Research Journal" makes it clear that they exist for creationist confirmation bias. This, however, isn't always the case.

I also can't always rely on a publication's reputation. In that oh-so famous example, Andrew Wakefield exploited The Lancet's venerable reputation to publish a fraudulent study with consequences that still reverberate to this day.

Thanks in advance.

When Noire shows up, you know you're in for a great time!

Originally posted to Twitter on February 2nd, 2024.

cross-posted from: http://discuss.online/post/18936370

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/calculating-2

Alt text

Imagine doing internal fertilization without telepathy. I mean holy shit!

Bonus panel