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a president cannot pardon or commute state crimes. most states have crimes against violence


The crime in question occurred in a non-state, so that isn’t much help here.


The majority of governors are all in on this new Republicanism. They can pardon any crime that Trump can't. Blue state governors can be leaned on extremely hard and most will have to give in if their Federal dollars are on the line. This isn't 2006 anymore.


> Blue state governors can be leaned on extremely hard and most will have to give in if their Federal dollars are on the line.

This is especially true if the courts roll over and reverse the Impoundment Act, which is exactly what the Project 2025 author and OMB nominee is pushing for. The president would be able to bankrupt any State, any entity that relies on federal funding, regardless of the wishes of Congress.

And arguably they could just do it: ignore any court judgment, and watch Congress do nothing. We know he won't ever be impeached and removed, so it's sort of a foregone conclusion that impoundment power can be seized at any time.


or Evan Gershkovich. St Pete was a wonderful city to visit before the 2014 invasion, now I think it's too risky


Disagree. I thought there's a part in the story where the narrator talks about the inability to change the future. she knew her daughter would die in a fall and couldn't change it


Maybe my previous comment wasn't clear enough, since I agree with you. I think both versions make sense in their own context:

In the short story she sees all of her life "simultaneously" but it all still works with our typical notions of causality. The future can't influence the past, and so she can't use knowledge of the future in the present.

In the movie, she gets glimpses of the future which she then uses in the present. She learns the Chinese general's phone number from a memory of the future and then calls him. In the movie it wouldn't have made sense for her to see her daughter die in an accident and then not act on that information at all, so they changed it to an illness which she couldn't prevent even with foreknowledge.


I feel its super clear if you read the story before the movie existed. Also the physics examples, which aren't in the movie, make this clear.

There are two views of the world, in one you have freewill and experience making choices. In the other, you have no free will, and the things you do are set. They are set and you know what they are.

That's why its important that her daughter died of something preventable, so when you find out at the end that it hasn't happen yet, yet she does nothing to stop it even though it is in the future, you are getting a taste of seeing the world in this second way.

Cancer, there is nothing anyone can do, and it throws aside the whole premise.

The acting on seeing things in the future break the premise as well.

The point of the story was that you can't act on the future. If you can see the future you can't change it. It's also why the aliens had no strong reason for coming or leaving. They were always going to come, have the explosion and leave.


> She learns the Chinese general's phone number from a memory of the future and then calls him.

Didn't she do something like this in the short story as well? The part where she learns the non-zero-sum phrase?

> In the movie it wouldn't have made sense for her to see her daughter die in an accident and then not act on that information at all

It didn't make sense in the story either. I remember being infuriated.


I recommend you read the linked post above: https://gwern.net/story-of-your-life, which argues that the story is not about precognition at all.

> and on my first read, I thought [Story of My Life] was downright mediocre—it seemed like some formal experimentation ... wrapped around an unnecessarily confusing plot & second-rate physics mumbo-jumbo in the service of a heavy-handed point. On my second read years later, having read some more about related topics in physics & philosophy since, I realized that I (along with almost everyone else who read it, judging from online discussions & reviews of the story and Arrival) might have been badly mistaken and that the plot was deliberately open to misreading and the physics mumbo-jumbo was in fact the whole point and the formal structure nicely reflected that.

> Didn't she do something like this in the short story as well? The part where she learns the non-zero-sum phrase?

If you carefully read the section, she learns the "non-zero-sum" phrase before having her daughter. The flashforward where she uses the "non-zero-sum" phrase is just her recalling the memory - no precognition required.

> “Mom, what do you call it when both sides can win?” I’ll look up from my computer and the paper I’ll be writing. “What, you mean a win-win situation?” … “I’m sorry, I don’t know it either. Why don’t you call your dad?”…A representative from the State Department named Hossner had the job of briefing the U.S scientists on our agenda with the heptapods. We sat in the video-conference room, listening to him lecture…“You mean it’s a non-zero-sum game?” Gary said in mock incredulity. “Oh my gosh.”…“A non-zero-sum game.” “What?” You’ll reverse course, heading back from your bedroom. “When both sides can win: I just remembered, it’s called a non-zero-sum game”


That was a great read overnight. Thank you. Also one of the prettiest functional websites I've had the pleasure of reading on my phone.


Yea. There's a recurring theme in Ted Chiang's works about the inability to change the future.



Which makes sense if there's a goalie with his thumb on the scale.


what is "unused PTO" - I thought every company was now on the unlimited/zero PTO model


Unlimited PTO sucks for employees. It isn't the case in every state but some states, including mine, require employers to pay out PTO upon separation. So having unlimited automatically means you get paid out nothing on separation, a bad deal for employees. If you're allowed to take time off, then you have earned it but because of the policy, you don't get to realize the benefit of having earned it upon separation.

Unlimited PTO also discourages using PTO because nobody wants to be seen as the person taking the most vacation. And there are therefore no useful guidelines about how much is reasonable or allowed. A written or de facto company policy of "if you take more than 2 weeks of PTO per year, you'll be seen as abusing the system" is not unlimited PTO, it's an excuse to not pay people.


> Unlimited PTO also discourages using PTO because nobody wants to be seen as the person taking the most vacation.

That depends on the management. I took more vacation at Netflix than anywhere else (where we had unlimited PTO). But the management made a point of talking about their extended vacations and making sure all the VPs took at least a few weeks of vacation every year to set a good example.

There was no stigma to taking vacation.


Im curious did anyone take 2 months?


I don't recall anyone taking 2 months at a time, other than mothers who just gave birth (who usually took 3-6 months). That being said, in the US, even companies with generous vacation policies generally don't let you earn two months, much less take it. Usually the best you can do is accrue 1.5 times your annual earning, and most places rarely give more than four weeks.


I have actually received performance review notes at my current and former job (both with unlimited PTO) for not taking enough PTO...

But in both cases, the CEOs actively encouraged PTO. At my current job, people take PTO regularly (several people at my department have taken roughly 3-4 months of PTO over the course of the past 12 months, and were promoted). What matters isn't time-in-seat, but whether tasks get done.


That's wonderful they emphasize that so strongly. I hope the rest of the culture is as healthy. If so, it sounds like a lovely place to work.


It's a great place to work (now).

They actually have difficulty hiring people though because it wasn't a great place to work under the previous CEO a few years ago, so the Glass Door score is pretty low, and it's been slowing edging up over time. But it's gotten to the point where about half of the people who leave for greener pastures end up coming back within 6 months.


> Unlimited PTO also discourages using PTO because nobody wants to be seen as the person taking the most vacation.

I'll take one for the team then. When do I start?


"Unlimited PTO also discourages using PTO because nobody wants to be seen as the person taking the most vacation"

This fallacy needs to die. When I was at GE everyone in my blast radius took at least 1 month per year. Many took much more than that. There was no stigma.


It's not a fallacy. It's true, and obviously true.

It may not be true everywhere, but every company I've worked in that had "unlimited" PTO had far fewer vacation days taken than companies with a limited allocation of days.


I recall reading that, statistically, you are correct.


Wait, you really thought every company had unlimited PTO? Like, every single one?


Under non-US countries, they're still required to offer time off in employment contracts, and payout for unused time off under that contract


What made you think every company had unlimited PTO?!


I don't know of any big company with unlimited PTO.


Netflix, Salesforce, General Electric...


Three weeks PTO at Stripe, that's it.


an acquisition


An acquisition in its infancy.

Acquisitions happen all the time and later get turned down when they don't flourish. Many stories get posted often with negative sentiment right here on HN.


YouTube was one of the 10 most visited websites on the Internet when Google bought it (IIRC, #4)


With a completely underdeveloped ad business, unclear if it would ever produce any significant revenue. YouTube was purchased for 1b, they cleared 28b in revenue last year alone.


or just pass a bill


interesting, thanks. for related reference, this year in Minneapolis some residents sued their city and showed that it had too few police officers. The ratio of police officers to residents is right there in the charter. A county judge ruled for the plaintiffs last month https://kstp.com/news/hennepin-county-rules-minneapolis-must...


I used to watch Newshour most nights but since last summer I've quit. too many stories are unbearably biased. and Mr Capehart is a poor substitute for Mr Shields on Fridays. The former is so predictable, why watch


My wife also misses Mr Shields greatly, I do too.


in the southwest US there is plenty of interaction between Hispanics and non-Hispanics in Catholic churches


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