#Local Laws

[alltradeventures]

Local laws significantly impact property management companies in the UK by dictating compliance with tenancy agreements, safety regulations, and licensing requirements. These regulations shape operational costs, training needs, and risk management strategies, ultimately affecting the trust between landlords and tenants.

[howdoesone]

How does one navigate legal regulations and restrictions on sports gambling?

Sports gambling has become increasingly popular, but it is important to understand and comply with the legal regulations and restrictions that govern this activity. Navigating the legal landscape ensures that you can engage in sports gambling in a safe and legal manner, avoiding any potential legal consequences. In this guide, we will explore key considerations for navigating legal regulations…

[ankurvyas1]

High School

Local laws and international laws might be a little different but humanity's laws are pretty much the same. Anywhere in the world you go, if an individual kills another individual for money, sx, power, position, influence, sport, greed, intolerant attitude, or any other inhumane reason, they must get punished. e.g. 09/2001, Afgha......, 2003 and every subsequent action inhumanely done to not get punishment.

Locally, people are going to work and working hard honorably to make money to buy food they can eat with respect, then make money to build whether it is a business or their employer and then use money to drive nice cars, and live life. That is the American way. Not what really and actually happened above.

“Acquire knowledge. It stays with you for a lifetime.”

I was never taught to acquire knowledge. It just sort of became an interest to me, then a desire then an outright passion. I love to read. I love to listen. I love to observe.

When I was in high school, I read a 400-page psychology book at the very back of the room in a class that wasn’t about psychology. I don’t know why it just interested me. I’m not saying you should read a psychology book; just pick up something that interests you but always keep your brain alert and accepting. Always talk to people that aren’t similar to you. Why? To listen and learn from them. Always read something that isn’t similar to you. Why? To acquire knowledge.

For high school students who need academic help:

“No man is an island.”

Ask for help. The only dumb question is the one not asked (except for one). In high school, I would read everything I didn’t understand once. Then I would use angular brackets to highlight the most important things. Then I would read only the text within the angular brackets. Then I would keep re-reading it until I knew it by heart. I’m not super-smart. I just knew how I learned. It might seem ironic, but I taught myself how to learn. You have to understand how you think. When you understand that, it is a lot easier to figure out the steps of learning. For me, it is through re-reading the most important things. For you, it could be something different. Whatever it is, figure it out and then apply it.

In my senior year, I taught a tall black basketball athlete that needed tutoring so he asked and I agreed. We would go to the local fast food restaurant (which one doesn’t really make any difference) after my cross country run and his workout and I would just stay with it until he understood. He wasn’t an idiot or a genius. He just needed someone to show him the way, the right way to learn and he asked for help, which was the first and biggest step that he took. He acknowledged his own limitations and he didn’t have an ego (which means a willingness to learn). I wasn’t in basketball, I wasn’t as tall as him, I didn’t have as many girlfriends as him, but he didn’t have an ego (plus he needed to clear a certain GPA or he wouldn’t be able to play in college because of graduation from high school).

For high school students that have a part-time job:

I worked at Del Taco during I think my sophomore or junior year, usually on the weekends, and maybe 1 or 2 days during the weekdays. One time, it was raining hard and I didn’t want to use that as an excuse. So I put on an old t-shirt, pants and a light jacket in a plastic bag then in a school bag, I put my clothes that I was going to change into when I reached Del Taco. I got drenched. I mean soaked. Then I went to the bathroom, changed my clothes, and went to work. I cycled there with my bicycle that I bought with the money I earned from my newspaper delivery route.

As I mentioned earlier, there’s nothing wrong with working part-time in high school or in the university if you understand that it is just the means to the end not the end itself.

For high school students who have low self-esteem:

Sign up for the Yearbook Club. It’s great. You get to take pictures of cheerleaders. You have an excuse to talk to them. All kidding aside, low self-esteem is due to reasons best known to each individual. Later on, I describe about knowing yourself – the way you think and consequently feel – and knowing the other person. You don’t need to read a psychology book. As I said earlier, you need to understand the way you think, then understand the way the other person thinks. When you do, you’re golden.

Mr. Kaufhold, my Yearbook teacher, in my senior year, when I was late to class right after lunch, said, “Oh, Ankur, you just missed my lecture on tardiness.” I loved that wit. It was my senior year so it was difficult to worry about after school detention when I knew I’d be in college within a few months.

Bullying:

I was cool with a lot of people in my high school, but there was one person who for some reason just didn’t like me. I didn’t try to befriend him or ask him why. I just did not pay attention to him. So in my language class, he was just like I’m going to fight you after school and I was indifferent because I knew the guy didn’t realize my friend had sat next to him, heard him say that and told him to back off. I didn’t care either way but there was no fight.

For high school students that smoke:

With Indian culture (not Native American), my parents never told me don’t smoke. They just expected it, but I would say to the parents of children with multi-cultural backgrounds, don’t just expect that your child will not smoke. The way I learned to not smoke is in my senior year in high school, I saw a picture of a lung of a decades-long smoker that had cancer. The lung looked decayed, dirty, and dark. It was next to a picture of a healthy lung. The first reaction I had was I never want my lungs to look so unhealthy. If famous people who died from lung cancer or pictures of unhealthy lungs were shown to high school students or were on the pack of cigarettes, there would be less smokers that would in turn live longer and lead productive lives.

Participate in a sport:

Physical activity is known to release endorphins which help you release stress and feel good mentally. You will feel better. If you’re not good at the sport, it’s alright. Just work out. You will also have more self-esteem and, of course, if you cross country or track, like I did in my high school, you will have healthier lungs. Participating in a sport is also for high school students who are fat or unhealthy. Physical activity also fosters social connections because of shared activity. It also gives you a sense of pride and worth when you physically accomplish something. I remember in high school there were always students that slacked in physical education and the teacher didn’t really care but I think it is absolutely necessary in today’s world. Runner’s World is a great magazine for cross country and track. I think the high schools should keep similar sports magazines for the different sports. Also, in the freshman year of high school, I would suggest students only sign up for one sport. High school is much different than junior high school or middle school. With the hectic schedules, it can very quickly get overwhelming. Then as the student gets accustomed to the busy schedule of managing a sport along with academics, they can think of joining a club or other extracurricular activity or even another sport. I think that’s much better than to try to do more than possible.

I understand the parents that want to move into better neighborhoods for the high schools but why not just increase the level and strength of public education. Give the teachers higher pay. Then equip the public schools with the library books, tools and technology needed to compete. Eventually it works out because when the teachers are better at their jobs, the students are more likely to go to a university. More education means higher salaries. The people are less likely to commit crimes and go to jail, which means the government spends less money on incarceration and rehabilitation. The people are less likely to be homeless so there’s less social spending. The government then has more money on more critical spending in technological infrastructure, roads, waterways and other areas like Veteran Affairs. It also means more innovation, which is described with examples later. All of this means the national economy grows and is more competitive internationally. It all goes back to a quote by Lincoln:

“You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Don’t sell the sizzle or the steak. You just have to step up. I cannot stress this enough. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time. So, it is better to increase capability now so when it is time to step up, you’re ready to compete.

For high school students who don’t know if they should go to a university:

Yes. Get higher education. The first two years of your university days are general subjects anyway. You will learn so much. I would encourage students to join clubs, fraternity/sorority, language courses, things which you are interested in. You will naturally find what you want to do with your life. Talk to your high school guidance counselor if you aren’t sure of the major. It’s alright. Just attend a university. Don’t even worry about financial aid. If you don’t qualify or you just cannot afford it, then go part-time and work part-time. Whatever you’re earning from your part-time job is pale in comparison to what you’ll earn when you are a university graduate.

When I went into my science teacher’s room in the 12th grade, there was an awesome poster. It had the Earth, then its relative size and position to the Sun, then the Sun’s relative size and position to the solar system, then the solar system’s relative size and position to the galaxy, then the galaxy’s relative size and position to nearby stars and then the universe. It was mind-boggling. Then there should have been a quote:

“There is other life in the universe or we’re all alone. Either way, it’s scary.”

You’re on the Earth for a reason. Find the reason. Then use your time purposefully and with conviction. Remember the following quote by Roosevelt:

“If you fail, fail while daring greatly so that your place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

I didn’t take a creative writing course until the University of California, Riverside (UCR) but I can say to the high school students writing their college/university admissions essay:

The reader of your essay has read thousands of essays. They can spot a fake from the real deal a mile away. So be true to your reader. Talk about the skills you learned in high school, how you will apply them to succeed in higher education and the skills you want to learn.

In my college essay, I wrote that my cross country coach once told us: “Everyone wants to win and the will to win. Very few have that will to work to win.”

I got accepted to an advanced biomedical degree program where you get your Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in seven years, but I still think they confused my application with someone else’s so somehow I got accepted into a program where only a dozen like them existed in the entire country. The admissions rate is as low as the admissions acceptance rate into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you don’t make it, you’ll still be among the stars.”

[aegisprecisionkinetics]

If you're an enthusiast who enjoys shooting sports, hunting, or simply a responsible gun owner, you might have encountered the need to ship ammunition at some point. While it may seem like a straightforward process, shipping ammunition in the United States requires careful consideration to ensure compliance with legal requirements and safety protocols. As a trusted ammunition manufacturer in Las Vegas, Nevada, let us share some essential factors to consider when shipping ammunition.

[attyrocious]

cooldown sketch. local emo dies of heatstroke

[livelaughlaney]

i need a man written by lana del rey

[charmillington]

A Comprehensive and Valuable Resource for Solo Female Travelers: A Review of "Her Own Way: A WOMAN'S SAFE-TRAVEL GUIDE

A Comprehensive and Valuable Resource for Solo Female Travelers: A Review of “Her Own Way: A WOMAN’S SAFE-TRAVEL GUIDE

I recently downloaded, “Her Own Way: A WOMAN’S SAFE-TRAVEL GUIDE,” a publication by the Canadian government. I was thoroughly impressed by the level of detail and care that went into this guide. One of the things I appreciated most about this guide was the focus on safety. As a woman, I often worry about my safety when traveling, and this guide provided valuable tips and resources on how to stay…

[chimaeraonwards]

no ai generated content will ever compare to the absolutely cartoonishly evil plot to cut down trees to prevent workers from striking to get livable wage.

[marzipanandminutiae]

giant bags of thread collected by old ladies over their lifetimes and never used, then donated to antique shops or sold on FB Marketplace, save me

image source

protect and preserve me, immense ziplock bags full of 50 years' "oh but I have to have the EXACT SHADE of this fabric even though I'll never use 300 yards of thread!"

("Marzi why not buy new thread?" 99% of it is plastic and finding more than a handful of colors in cotton thread is incredibly rare in brick-and-mortar stores. let alone thread in fibers besides polyester and cotton, or buttonhole twist)

("come on, now, Marzi- THREAD can't possibly make you sweat more or catch fire and stick to your skin while burning, and isn't that your reasoning for using only natural-fiber fabrics?" listen. Irrational Brain Like When Zero Plastic. don't @ me)

[daftpatience]

i lov planning outfits the same way i love drawing diagrams for rearranging furniture. its plotting and scheming

[justaz]

i prefer happy ending bbc merlin where morgana becomes court sorceress and arthur becomes king and merlin remains as his servant (until they eventually marry) and lancelot lives and he and gwen marry but that damn game of thrones (?? probably idk) audio on tiktok that goes “i mean to fight this war and win it.” “good. to war then.” keeps giving me visions of king arthur of camelot on the verge of war with other kingdoms and his powerful court sorcerer merlin standing by his throne. arthur declares that he wishes to go to war and merlin (eager to bring about the united albion the prophecies speak of) supports arthur immediately and declares they’re going to war

[emoechoes]

I can't explain it but Ides of March feels like a Tumblr festival. Every year we amp it up, meming in anticipation of the main event, where we celebrate the brutal murder of a dictator at the hands his friends and colleagues by posting nonsense for a full 24 hours. I wonder if @staff will turn it into merch.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Every internet fight is a speech fight

THIS WEEKEND (November 8-10), I'll be in TUCSON, AZ: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

My latest Locus Magazine column is "Hard (Sovereignty) Cases Make Bad (Internet) Law," an attempt to cut through the knots we tie ourselves in when speech and national sovereignty collide online:

https://locusmag.com/2024/11/cory-doctorow-hard-sovereignty-cases-make-bad-internet-law/

This happens all the time. Indeed, the precipitating incident for my writing this column was someone commenting on the short-lived Brazilian court order blocking Twitter, opining that this was purely a matter of national sovereignty, with no speech dimension.

This is just profoundly wrong. Of course any rules about blocking a communications medium will have a free-speech dimension – how could it not? And of course any dispute relating to globe-spanning medium will have a national sovereignty dimension.

How could it not?

So if every internet fight is a speech fight and a sovereignty fight, which side should we root for? Here's my proposal: we should root for human rights.

In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the US government was illegally wiretapping the whole world. They were able to do this because the world is dominated by US-based tech giants and they shipped all their data stateside for processing. These tech giants secretly colluded with the NSA to help them effect this illegal surveillance (the "Prism" program) – and then the NSA stabbed them in the back by running another program ("Upstream") where they spied on the tech giants without their knowledge.

After the Snowden revelations, countries around the world enacted "data localization" rules that required any company doing business within their borders to keep their residents' data on domestic servers. Obviously, this has a human rights dimension: keeping your people's data out of the hands of US spy agencies is an important way to defend their privacy rights. which are crucial to their speech rights (you can't speak freely if you're being spied on).

So when the EU, a largely democratic bloc, enacted data localization rules, they were harnessing national soveriegnty in service to human rights.

But the EU isn't the only place that enacted data-localization rules. Russia did the same thing. Once again, there's a strong national sovereignty case for doing this. Even in the 2010s, the US and Russia were hostile toward one another, and that hostility has only ramped up since. Russia didn't want its data stored on NSA-accessible servers for the same reason the USA wouldn't want all its' people's data stored in GRU-accessible servers.

But Russia has a significantly poorer human rights record than either the EU or the USA (note that none of these are paragons of respect for human rights). Russia's data-localization policy was motivated by a combination of legitimate national sovereignty concerns and the illegitimate desire to conduct domestic surveillance in order to identify and harass, jail, torture and murder dissidents.

When you put it this way, it's obvious that national sovereignty is important, but not as important as human rights, and when they come into conflict, we should side with human rights over sovereignty.

Some more examples: Thailand's lesse majeste rules prohibit criticism of their corrupt monarchy. Foreigners who help Thai people circumvent blocks on reportage of royal corruption are violating Thailand's national sovereignty, but they're upholding human rights:

https://www.vox.com/2020/1/24/21075149/king-thailand-maha-vajiralongkorn-facebook-video-tattoos

Saudi law prohibits criticism of the royal family; when foreigners help Saudi women's rights activists evade these prohibitions, we violate Saudi sovereignty, but uphold human rights:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55467414

In other words, "sovereignty, yes; but human rights even moreso."

Which brings me back to the precipitating incidents for the Locus column: the arrest of billionaire Telegram owner Pavel Durov in France, and the blocking of billionaire Elon Musk's Twitter in Brazil.

How do we make sense of these? Let's start with Durov. We still don't know exactly why the French government arrested him (legal systems descended from the Napoleonic Code are weird). But the arrest was at least partially motivated by a demand that Telegram conform with a French law requiring businesses to have a domestic agent to receive and act on takedown demands.

Not every takedown demand is good. When a lawyer for the Sackler family demanded that I take down criticism of his mass-murdering clients, that was illegitimate. But there is such a thing as a legitimate takedown: leaked financial information, child sex abuse material, nonconsensual pornography, true threats, etc, are all legitimate targets for takedown orders. Of course, it's not that simple. Even if we broadly agree that this stuff shouldn't be online, we don't necessarily agree whether something fits into one of these categories.

This is true even in categories with the brightest lines, like child sex abuse material:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-reinstates-napalm-girl-photo

And the other categories are far blurrier, like doxing:

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trump-camp-worked-with-musks-x-to

But just because not every takedown is a just one, it doesn't follow that every takedown is unjust. The idea that companies should have domestic agents in the countries where they operate isn't necessarily oppressive. If people who sell hamburgers from a street-corner have to register a designated contact with a regulator, why not someone who operates a telecoms network with 900m global users?

Of course, requirements to have a domestic contact can also be used as a prelude to human rights abuses. Countries that insist on a domestic rep are also implicitly demanding that the company place one of its employees or agents within reach of its police-force.

Just as data localization can be a way to improve human rights (by keeping data out of the hands of another country's lawless spy agencies) or to erode them (by keeping data within reach of your own country's lawless spy agencies), so can a requirement for a local agent be a way to preserve the rule of law (by establishing a conduit for legitimate takedowns) or a way to subvert it (by giving the government hostages they can use as leverage against companies who stick up for their users' rights).

In the case of Durov and Telegram, these issues are especially muddy. Telegram bills itself as an encrypted messaging app, but that's only sort of true. Telegram does not encrypt its group-chats, and even the encryption in its person-to-person messaging facility is hard to use and of dubious quality.

This is relevant because France – among many other governments – has waged a decades-long war against encrypted messaging, which is a wholly illegitimate goal. There is no way to make an encrypted messaging tool that works against bad guys (identity thieves, stalkers, corporate and foreign spies) but not against good guys (cops with legitimate warrants). Any effort to weaken end-to-end encrypted messaging creates broad, significant danger for every user of the affected service, all over the world. What's more, bans on end-to-end encrypted messaging tools can't stand on their own – they also have to include blocks of much of the useful internet, mandatory spyware on computers and mobile devices, and even more app-store-like control over which software you can install:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

So when the French state seizes Durov's person and demands that he establish the (pretty reasonable) minimum national presence needed to coordinate takedown requests, it can seem like this is a case where national sovereignty and human rights are broadly in accord.

But when you consider that Durov operates a (nominally) encrypted messaging tool that bears some resemblance to the kinds of messaging tools the French state has been trying to sabotage for decades, and continues to rail against, the human rights picture gets rather dim.

That is only slightly mitigated by the fact that Telegram's encryption is suspect, difficult to use, and not applied to the vast majority of the communications it serves. So where do we net out on this? In the Locus column, I sum things up this way:

Telegram should have a mechanism to comply with lawful takedown orders; and

those orders should respect human rights and the rule of law; and

Telegram should not backdoor its encryption, even if

the sovereign French state orders it to do so.

Sovereignty, sure, but human rights even moreso.

What about Musk? As with Durov in France, the Brazilian government demanded that Musk appoint a Brazilian representative to handle official takedown requests. Despite a recent bout of democratic backsliding under the previous regime, Brazil's current government is broadly favorable to human rights. There's no indication that Brazil would use an in-country representative as a hostage, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with requiring foreign firms doing business in your country to have domestic representatives.

Musk's response was typical: a lawless, arrogant attack on the judge who issued the blocking order, including thinly veiled incitements to violence.

The Brazilian state's response was multi-pronged. There was a national blocking order, and a threat to penalize Brazilians who used VPNs to circumvent the block. Both measures have obvious human rights implications. For one thing, the vast majority of Brazilians who use Twitter are engaged in the legitimate exercise of speech, and they were collateral damage in the dispute between Musk and Brazil.

More serious is the prohibition on VPNs, which represents a broad attack on privacy-enhancing technology with implications far beyond the Twitter matter. Worse still, a VPN ban can only be enforced with extremely invasive network surveillance and blocking orders to app stores and ISPs to restrict access to VPN tools. This is wholly disproportionate and illegitimate.

But that wasn't the only tactic the Brazilian state used. Brazilian corporate law is markedly different from US law, with fewer protections for limited liability for business owners. The Brazilian state claimed the right to fine Musk's other companies for Twitter's failure to comply with orders to nominate a domestic representative. Faced with fines against Spacex and Tesla, Musk caved.

In other words, Brazil had a legitimate national sovereignty interest in ordering Twitter to nominate a domestic agent, and they used a mix of somewhat illegitimate tactics (blocking orders), extremely illegitimate tactics (threats against VPN users) and totally legitimate tactics (fining Musk's other companies) to achieve these goals.

As I put it in the column:

Twitter should have a mechanism to comply with lawful takedown orders; and

those orders should respect human rights and the rule of law; and

banning Twitter is bad for the free speech rights of Twitter users in Brazil; and

banning VPNs is bad for all Brazilian internet users; and

it’s hard to see how a Twitter ban will be effective without bans on VPNs.

There's no such thing as an internet policy fight that isn't about national sovereignty and speech, and when the two collide, we should side with human rights over sovereignty. Sovereignty isn't a good unto itself – it's only a good to the extent that is used to promote human rights.

In other words: "Sovereignty, sure, but human rights even moreso."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/06/brazilian-blowout/#sovereignty-sure-but-human-rights-even-moreso

Image: © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Border_Wall_at_Tijuana_and_San_Diego_Border.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[soft5ku11]

i know this isnt what i usually post, "shut up fat kink blog" i dont fucking care sit the hell down and listen.

You're aware of the Huion New Year AIGI Tweet, right?

LEST WE FORGET, back in november last year:

If you want to buy a Wacom, Huion or Gaumon device, I'd recommend either looking into an alternative or buying secondhand/refurbished from 3rd party sellers on Ebay or something. Avoid Amazon for all the obvious reasons.

This is fucking disgusting. This is embarrassing. This is unacceptable.

most importantly,

They won't stop.

[emdeerm]

Idea!

Whomst???

So, let's take canon Danny Phantom. We can even take the AGIT, that would only make him canonically 16-17is for this scenario. (Btw, poor Val. I'm seriously so sorry for her)

Danny is flying around the Infinite Realms to familiarise himself with it better. Look, if he decided to be the Bridge, he has to learn more about the Ghost side of his life. Their customs, quirks, limits, world... from someone who isn't a Fruitloop or his parents. He is still ashamed that it took meeting Dairy King to finally realise that not all Ghosts are evil.

He got to a section of many, many, MANY, natural portals that led into completely different universes. Most of them even had Heroes!!!! He was so exited!

He visited many in the next few months. Made friends, confused the heck out of locals. Made some enemies, cause that's just his life.

Spiderman was cool! Iron Man was so fun to prank, the guy was a billionaire and hilarious.

Even if he never was able to speak with the vast majority, those Japanese Heroes with cool superpowers were awesome. He was kinda glad his world was normal-is tho. Call him judgmental, but come on, look him in the eyes and tell him that you wouldn't be weirded out by some of the mutations.

And now, he spotted his new target. From what he gathered, they were an urban legend of the gloomy as heck city. Robins,... bats? or something. Time to make friends!

And close the leakage of the Raw, unfiltered ectoplasm into here. He had only been around one for an hour and he saw how problematic it was.

Aka

Danny is a gremlin in canon. He found cool portals. He will make it other's problem.

Yes, he keeps his identity hidden. No, he doesn't stay invisible all the time. Only initially to get some info. After that? You'd spot him openly bothering the superheroes. And rogues. Can't let them be left out.

What are they gonna do? Kill him? They can't even touch him most of the time.

[ex-injuria-jus-non-oritur]

18•01•22// back from a small hiatus to write my 4th exam 📝☕️✨ Here's to two of my favourite views and only 2 more weeks of studying before I'm done this round of licensing!