• Police, fire, and medical personnel responded to a shooting at the Seattle Center on Sunday around 6 p.m. The venue had hosted hundreds of thousands of visitors over the weekend for the annual Bite of Seattle food festival.
  • The three people killed in Sunday's shooting include a 19-year-old man, a 44-year-old man, and a 56-year-old woman.
  • Four surviving victims were treated for their injuries and released from medical care while a fifth victim, a 2-year-old boy, remains at Harborview in satisfactory condition.
  • Two guns were recovered and authorities believe at least two people may have been shooting at each other, though any motive for the shooting is unclear.
  • One shooting suspect, a 15-year-old male, is in custody and police are still searching for at least one other suspect. Anyone with information is encouraged to call 206-233-5000; tips can be provided anonymously.
  • A candlelight vigil in honor of the shooting victims is scheduled to take place at 8:30 p.m. on Monday at the Seattle Center's International Fountain.
[–] 1 point 5 days ago (1 child)

I don't think I've ever even seen an e-ink reader. In the past year I thought I'd give more e-content a try, one reason being that my public library has loads of such content available - not just books but also magazines (like Harpers say) that I used to pay good money to subscribe to. I bought a used, not-too-old tablet with an 11" screen and thought I'd be good to go. But ... it weighs a lot somehow and feels awkward in hand because of that, the screen while fine otherwise (it's a pretty nice device IMO) is not-quite-sharp-enough it feels, and I find myself constantly zooming to help with that, but doing so messes up layouts and then I find myself scrolling not only up/down but also side-to-side, a real PITA. And apart from all that, being an Android device, there are also all kinds of apps right there begging for attention while I'm trying to read. Not a good experience even if some of it is a lack of self-control on my part.

I'll have to research the devices. I would be concerned about the content ownership issue - I want to buy my books and have them under my complete control whether on-device or on-bookshelf (not counting any content that I don't feel the need to own, like public library content). I don't want to give Amazon a single cent either for hardware or for content because Amazon is an evil company. And of course I don't want to pay a ton of $ on hardware either, or find that the content is much too pricey - I almost always buy books used but will usually pay hardcover prices when I do.

Thanks for your perspective. I now have another rabbit hole to dive down.

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  • [–] 11 points 5 days ago (1 child)

    Interfering with operation ... hmm... you've no doubt seen (at least if you're on FB) the photo of the guy sitting outdoors on a chair next to a Flock device, and blocking its camera using a sign (or something, can't tell) that's mounted on a pole at FlockCam height. He's not touching the Flock gear but he's presumably interfering with its photo/video taking ability in a mostly passive way. Vandalism? Or does vandalism actually involve making physical contact with the vandalized object? I could imagine him arguing that he was just holding a sign up for the world to read and didn't intend to interfere with the FlockCam. Still vandalism? Or could people put up objects (signs, flags, stuffed animals, Diaper Baby effigies) on poles very close to FlockCams (but not touching them) that happened to prevent those cams from doing visual surveillance, all without being vandals?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago (3 children)

    Is it vandalism if one does something that stops an X from working temporarily even if one doesn't damage the X at all? It's an interesting question, I'd always thought vandalism = causing damage to a thing.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 days ago (3 children)

    I like to buy print books because I hate reading on tiny screens. There's also something about reading from a real book that feels right, the heft of it, the cover art, the occasional errors, and if used, the scars that can indicate that someone like you also cared about reading it once. It's an experience nothing like reading a stream of bits. It's an experience that's probably a lot like what vinyl LP fans get from listening to their analog albums vs listening to streamed music.

    If these AI companies destroy books in bulk then we'll have fewer and fewer physical books to read and their prices will go up. They've been hoovering-up RAM for their datacenter computers for years and prices for RAM have been crazy high as a result, hobbling system-builders and driving up prices for consumer electronics across the board. Rare books are already expensive, and if more books become rare just because AI companies are destroying books, then all books will eventually become prohibitively expensive. We'll then be marketed AI-generated text that we'll be assured is "just as good" as those "old" books (we'll also be told that "old" is undesirable and that AI-generated text is better because it's "new" and because AI has improved the originals). Eventually the old books will disappear in any form and we'll only have AI books.

    It should go without saying that the AI texts will be polluted with pro-AI propaganda and with propaganda, overt or covert, promoting the views and best interests of the AI's corporate owners. Every text will have within it somewhere a voice speaking for the benefit of the Sam Altmans of the world.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    Right, here it is Monday and this Lemmy posting is the first I've heard of the incident. In civilized times, this would have been front-page news from coast to coast. Now, a mass shooting elicits just a shrug of the shoulders, a "oh yeah, again, well whatever" response, and the "media", such as it is, ignores it.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Onishi and his co-host, with their "Straight White American Jesus" podcast, have been hitting it out of the park lately. Last week there was an episode about the Job story where their analysis made the God character come off as a real dick, and also showed how the Satan character is misunderstood badly - in the Job story he kind of works for God as part of his administration and they cooperate on certain projects such as the Job one. Also last week was an analysis of the Garden of Eden story and on the concept of Original Sin. It seems that the poor snake is not some kind of embodiment of the Satan character at all, at least according to the Bible.

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    Cook has openly embraced Trump, particularly in his second term, attending the president’s inauguration, presenting him with an engraved golden trophy, and giving money to the White House to help construct the president’s $300 million pet project ballroom.

    The relative workplace calm may be over. “I hope we never find out, but I seriously started wondering what our leadership would do if an Apple employee was summarily executed by our government,” wondered one employee.

    Many workers claimed hypocrisy between Apple’s longtime professed commitment to progressive values and causes and the extent to which its CEO has cozied up to the Trump administration. “But but but…. we changed the Apple website to MLK last Monday, so that cancels out.” Another pointed sarcastically to the company’s recent announcement of Black History Month Apple Watch bands. “Went to hang out with the guy who didn’t even acknowledge MLK Day and took away park access on the day,” commented one worker.

    For some, the affront was personal. “As a lifelong Minnesotan and an Apple badged employee for over half my life I feel pretty abandoned by the company that has told me it stands for humanity more times than I can count,” wrote another worker. “Silence on ICE violence speaks volumes.” Another pointed out the “Three retail locations in the Twin Cities and not a peep” from Cook. “This isn’t leadership. This is an absence of leadership.” To which a colleague quickly countered: “I disagree, this IS leadership. This is intentional, nobody travels to the white house by mistake.”

    An Apple employee who has spent decades at the company said they had noticed a marked cultural and political shift within Apple under Cook’s tenure. “A lot of people are talking about how Steve Jobs would have never given a gold bar to a politician,” referring to the 24-karat gold trophy Cook presented Trump at the White House in August.

     

    During Friday’s episode of The Paul Allen Show on Twin Cities radio station KFAN, Allen, Chad Greenway, and Alec Lewis opened the show discussing the intense cold weather in the region. One person mentioned the recent story about a Los Angeles Rams player putting cayenne in his socks to stay warm, and Allen mentioned the urban legend about trees “exploding” from cold weather.

    Umprompted, Allen then interjected by asking, “In conditions like this, do paid protesters get hazard pay? Those are the things that I’ve been thinking about this morning.”

    A few minutes later, the conversation switched to football, and Allen once again worked a paid-protester reference into a discussion about NFL coaching hires.

    “Everybody’s catching strays this week. [Brian] Flores, Kevin Stefanski from Baker [Mayfield], Charlie ‘Biyatch’ caught one out of nowhere. They’re just all over, paid protesters caught one this morning,” he said, referencing his earlier comments.

     

    Herrera said 10-year-old Karla is stressed thinking of the school she’s missing.

    “She would at least want to finish elementary school,” Herrera said.

    Spokane Public Schools board member Nikki Otero Lockwood held a moment of silence at Wednesday’s board meeting after she learned of the young student’s detention.

    “The child’s absence is deeply felt by classmates, educators and a school community that is grieving and trying to make sense of this loss,” Lockwood said.

    Karla is an “amazing” girl and left everyone with that impression, Herrera said. She came to Spokane at 4 years old and eventually enrolled in school and learned English. She loves books, Herrera said, and was teaching herself to write Japanese characters.

    Herrera said Karla “was saying goodbye to everything she knew with that kind of innocent certainty only a child has.”

    Karla is now one of the 1,700 children in custody since family detention centers reopened in April.

    Tiul Caal will likely remain in detention until his next court hearing slated for March 9 under immigration Judge Veronica Marie Segovia.

    Segovia, who was appointed as an immigration judge in November 2023, is known for denying immigrants asylum in the U.S., and more often than other immigration judges across the board.

    Segovia denied a Turkish immigrant’s asylum case in 2025, despite the Department of Homeland Security stating the immigrant had met the legal requirements for asylum, according to a report by the Guardian. Segovia suggested the immigrant’s rape, torture and beatings he experienced in Turkey were “not as bad” as the report states.

    Segovia saw 193 cases in the first 11 months of 2025. She granted other forms of relief for eight of those cases, but only granted full asylum for one of them, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research center.

    Her asylum denial rates are also significantly higher than her counterparts, data shows. Segovia denied 36% more asylum claims than other immigration judges across the U.S. in that same time period.

    The Texas processing center is crowded, Tiul Caal told Mesa, with many detainees falling ill because of poor conditions.

     

    The FDA initiated the first recall in an Aug. 19 notice, announcing certain raw frozen shrimp products processed by Indonesian company PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati (doing business as BMS Foods) had tested positive for Cesium-137, also known as Cs-137. A handful of manufacturers sold these products under different brand names to retailers nationwide.

    The FDA published an expanded recall notice on its website on Dec. 19, one of 12 notices that have been issued in the growing recall.

    Cs-137 is a radioisotope of cesium, meaning it is a chemical element that emits radiation as it breaks down. It is man-made and is produced by nuclear fission, according to the FDA. In the United States, it is used in medical devices and measurement gauges.

    Because it is widespread around the globe, trace amounts can be found in the environment, including soil, food and air, the FDA said. Agencies, including the FDA and U.S. Customs & Border Protection, test for, monitor and regulate the presence of the substance due to the risks associated with long-term exposure.

    The FDA said low-level radiation exposure over time can lead to serious health complications. Exposure to Cs-137 alone can cause burns, acute radiation sickness, cancer and death. Due to the risks, governing agencies restrict potential exposure to lessen the possibility of these long-term impacts.

     

    Two civilian women and an officer were injured by the shooter, who Eddy identified Saturday as 77-year-old John Drake, of nearby Mullan, Idaho.

    Eddy said he didn’t know Drake’s motive, and he’s “not sure we ever will.”

    He said Drake shot two women who were sitting in a pickup outside the sheriff’s office, in the legs. He initially said an officer was shot in the ear inside the sheriff’s office but clarified Saturday that the officer, who law enforcement has not identified, got hit in the ear with a glass shard caused by Drake’s gunfire.

    Eddy said all three victims’ injuries were minor. Drake had several guns with him at the time of the shooting, he said.

    Eddy said Saturday that no one ever expects someone to come into the sheriff’s office and open fire.

     

    I think it's called a "baffle". The original one, which was probably between 12-15 years old, held up well but eventually started coming apart such that drops of crud could spray up and out of the disposal on occasions when the motor was on. I was expecting a tedious and potentially expensive repair that would involve removing the unit from the sink. But it turns out, at least with the brand I have (Insink--or), that the baffle is designed to be easily replaced. All you have to do is reach in and yank out the old one (nothing holds it in but friction), then plug the new one back in its place. Done.

    The old baffle had all kind of nasty brown crud on the bottom of it and there are horrors inside the unit of course, but it's working fine. I don't often use the unit and that no doubt accounts for its longevity. The best part, apart from how easy the fix was, was how cheap it was - the baffles themselves cost me less than $10 each online.

     

    Congressional Republicans are reportedly trying to insert anti-abortion language into government funding legislation as the shutdown continues, with the GOP and President Donald Trump digging in against a clean extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits as insurance premiums surge.

    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, sounded the alarm on Saturday about what he characterized as the latest Republican sneak attack on reproductive rights.

    Wyden said Saturday—which marked day 39 of the shutdown—that “Republicans are spinning a tale that the government is funding abortion.”

    “It’s not,” Wyden continued. “What Republicans are talking about putting on the table amounts to nothing short of a backdoor national abortion ban. Under this plan, Republicans could weaponize federal funding for any organization that does anything related to women’s reproductive healthcare. They could also weaponize the tax code by revoking non-profit status for these organizations.”

    “The possibilities are endless, but the results are the same: a complete and total restriction on abortion, courtesy of Republicans,” the senator added. “Trump said he’d leave abortion care up to the states. Well, this latest scheme makes it crystal clear: A de facto nationwide abortion ban has been his plan all along.”

     

    Russia attacked the government district of Kyiv with 805 Iranian-designed drones, killing at least five people; the U.S. military attacked a vessel in the Caribbean Sea that it claimed was trafficking drugs from Venezuela, killing eleven people onboard; and a team of Navy SEALs was reported to have shot and killed at least two unarmed North Korean fishermen six years ago, and tossed their bodies into the sea.

    The Trump Administration unofficially renamed the U.S. Department of Defense the Department of War; and the Chinese Communist Party celebrated the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War by releasing eighty thousand pigeons at a military parade. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point rehung a painting of a Confederate Civil War general in its library, the state of Kentucky was reported to continue to marry an average of twenty children a year, and South Carolina’s senate was reported to be planning to pass a bill equating abortion with homicide and making providing information via telephone about how to obtain an abortion a felony. In Beijing, Russian president Vladimir Putin was caught on a hot mic telling Chinese president Xi Jinping that some people can achieve immortality; and in Washington, D.C., U.S. president Donald Trump denied rumors that he was dead.

    The Iranian government paved a parking lot over the mass grave of thousands of people executed during the Iranian Revolution; the White House was reported to be considering banning Iranian diplomats from shopping at Costco without the express permission of the Department of State; the Justice Department was reported to be considering banning transgender citizens from owning guns; and per a new law in the state of Tennessee, kindergarteners will now be taught to identify the muzzle, barrel, and trigger of a gun. The Coast Guard announced that it seized forty thousand pounds of cocaine in the past month, it was reported that cocaine levels in Nantucket sewage were 50 percent above the national average, a nurse in Kentucky revived a drunk raccoon using CPR, and a highly toxic contaminated site in New Jersey caught fire and burned for days. In Japan, an online scammer conned an octogenarian woman out of thousands of dollars by pretending to be an astronaut who needed money for oxygen, and teenage girls in Sweden were reportedly using encrypted messaging sites to advertise their services as hitwomen. “Young kids,” said a Stockholm prosecutor, “are thirsty for blood.”

    A vascular surgeon in the United Kingdom was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for possessing extreme pornography and for having his own legs amputated and then fraudulently claiming to insurers that it was due to a “mysterious illness”; a lawyer in Indiana named Mark Zuckerberg sued Meta for repeatedly falsely flagging his account as fake; and four hikers in the woods of upstate New York called rangers to rescue them from a “debilitating psychedelic mushroom high.” In Oregon, a pilot who while off duty ate psychedelic mushrooms and then tried to cut off a commercial airliner’s engines mid-flight pled guilty to endangerment charges and was sentenced to probation and fifty days in jail, and a man who stole an excavator to break open an ATM was sentenced to over four years in prison. A woman in California was charged with multiple felonies after registering her dog to vote in the 2021 gubernatorial recall election, thousands of bees entered a honey shop in British Columbia, a swarm of jellyfish clogged the filters of a French nuclear power plant for the second time in a month, and a study found that people who used their phones on the toilet reported a higher rate of hemorrhoids.

     

    Many political figures and media outlets have repeated the claim, even though public documents show the crews have firefighting classifications and were assigned to key frontline roles battling the blaze.

    “Everybody in the profession sees through it, but the public doesn’t and that’s concerning,” said Riva Duncan, a former wildland fire chief who served more than 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service. “It’s a lie. Everybody I’ve talked to is very upset about it. It does not just those two crews a disservice, but it does all firefighters a disservice.”

    Political figures have also repeated the claim from DHS. State Rep. Jim Walsh, chair of the Washington State Republican Party, shared another user’s post on Facebook blasting the media for failing to report the truth. The crews, Walsh wrote in his own comments, were “NOT firefighters.” The post has been shared hundreds of times.

    “Facts matter,” Walsh wrote. “But the Left doesn’t let facts get in the way of its ignorant sanctimony and virtue signaling.”

    But the facts clearly show that the crews were firefighters. In planning documents drafted by the management team overseeing the fire and posted to a public federal database, the crew from contracting company ASI Arden Solutions, Inc., is listed as a “CR2I” crew. That’s shorthand for a Type II Initial Attack wildland firefighting crew.

    “They’re just one level below a hotshot crew,” Duncan said. “[Saying they’re not firefighters] is incredibly insulting to them.”

    The other crew, from contracting company Table Rock Forestry, Inc., is listed as a “CRW2,” short for a Type II wildland firefighting hand crew. That means both crews were certified under National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards as firefighters who met rigorous qualifications and held “red cards” verifying their status to fight fire.

    Additionally, the documents show that both crews were assigned to active firefighting roles in the days leading up to the raid. The crews were tasked with securing the fire edge, protecting structures, constructing fire lines and addressing hazards caused by the initial suppression work.

    Many wildfire veterans who have served in similar roles privately expressed anger that the crew’s status was called into question because they had been assigned to cut firewood on the day of the raid. That frustration is heightened by the widespread belief, shared by many fire professionals, that the crews were given that assignment under false pretenses to lead them into contact with federal immigration agents.

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