Shawn K. Quinn @skquinn@octodon.social

The slippery slope of censorship: the copyright lobby and child porn
The title of the MAFIAAFire forum post "The Copyright Lobby Absolutely Loves Child Pornography" is intentionally controversial and eye-grabbing, but when you look at the actual content of the post all of a sudden the politics and chess game of censorship as played...
https://www.rantroulette.com/2011/11/the-slippery-slope-of-censorship-the-copyright-lobby-and-child-porn/
#censorship #child-porn #copyright #mafiaafire #monopoly

Elastic is not fantastic: a blatantly deceptive lender's advertisement
So recently, alongside all the other mail I usually receive, I get this solicitation to borrow up to $2,500 via a service called Elastic. Often I just rip these into a few pieces and toss into the trash along with all the other garbage advertisements I...
https://www.rantroulette.com/2021/07/elastic-is-not-fantastic-a-blatantly-deceptive-lenders-advertisement/
#elastic #republic-bank #predatory-lending #payday-loans #interest

@mhoye Wow. That's dirty pool.

@shahaan I never paid much attention to how my (late) grandmother made tea, and I've never seen an authoritative guide on the net. That's the reason I'm asking; if you don't feel comfortable taking a stand either way I totally get it.

@a_lizard My personal favorite was the MIME encoding quoted-printable from 1990s Usenet being referred to quite derisively as quoted-unreadable.

@halcy Obviously edited from original.

@shahaan Are you supposed to? What does that do, besides transfer a few germs from my hand into the tea?

@devinprater Captchas need to die a horrible death period. They are one of the most tedious and odious parts of the modern internet.

This post for some reason was never tooted out here. Or maybe it was, and this is a dupe?

A brief stopover at Big Star Bar
So I just happened to pass by Big Star Bar this past Tuesday. This location has just a Ripley's Believe it or Not (Stern, 2004) which at one time was one of my favorite games (back when there was still a Tilt arcade in the lower level of The Galleria). This particular machine was a bit dirty but reportedly still played well. I tried my hand at it, failing to reach the replay score of...
https://www.skqrecordquest.com/2021/07/08/a-brief-stopover-at-big-star-bar/

On competition, judgment, fairness, decency, respect, honesty, citizenship, hopes, dreams, and the current situation
Hopefully you can forgive the rather obtuse post title, but I couldn't think of anything better. The original title, the one I came up with for the original four-part series (that this post is replacing), was a heck of a lot...
https://www.skqrecordquest.com/2021/06/07/on-competition-judgment-fairness-decency-respect-honesty-citizenship-hopes-dreams-and-the-current-situation/

@ajroach42 I miss seeing "from the $90s" on ads for new houses. That has to have been a good 10 years ago if not longer.

@ajroach42 Here in Houston they are building tiny townhouses that sell for somewhere in the $300s and up. I don't call those affordable, nor do I call $250,000 affordable. Realistically, for most people, affordable is maybe somewhere in the $120s, maybe $150s. Going any higher is delusional.

I need better selfies for social media... pretty unhappy with most of them now that I look again.

Dirty pool: On the vacating of Bill Cosby's conviction
I did write a post about Bill Cosby's first trial that ended in a hung jury; I did not get a chance to write about the second trial which did result in a conviction. Well, today, the guilty verdict was vacated and Bill Cosby is once again a free man.

"Dirty pool" in the post...
https://www.rantroulette.com/2021/06/dirty-pool-on-the-vacating-of-bill-cosbys-conviction/
#bill-cosby #fifth-amendment #sexual-assault

@strawberryfieldsforever I've gotten that even when what I've been using is a tracking blocker, not an advertising blocker specifically.