Spyke

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Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'

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You know genuinely I don't understand why this isn't a thing. It's expensive to have two homes, especially when you aren't even sure you'll have the job for more than four years. It would lower the cost of entry into politics for people who do work minimum wage.

Shoving someone into a land full of surprise expenses seems like a perfect recipe for corruption.

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*Permanently Deleted*

It's because it's a feature 0 people will complain about adding if it all works well. It's a small, minor, completely unnecessary detail.

If it's there, then someone had the time, the energy, and the freedom to add it, just because they wanted to. It's not an item that will make it on the checklist of a minimum viable game.

If it's there, it's a very good sign.

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Millionaire tries to prove becoming wealthy is easy by becoming homeless and making a million in a year - and of course fails miserably and quits, citing reality

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that... really sounds fishy.

How's he moving tables? He has a truck? How'd he get a truck?

Ok I gotta look into this because I am just curious how dumb this is. I just clicked this because I was genuinely curious.

By week 9 he has an office? EDIT: No he has access to the office in week 1, renting the shared community space costs 40 bucks a month... 40 bucks a month for what you could get from a public library. Also can't help but notice that he's also working there with film crew and editor... which is also probably 40 bucks a head. So he's a poor broke guy who is actually one broke guy and 3 to 6 non broke guys... Like, I've never rented a space like this but this sounds like bullshit.

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GOP Congressional Candidate Got Into Law School With ‘Wildly Plagiarized’ Thesis Lifted from Wikipedia: Report

Found a link to the thesis.

So far it requires a spellcheck, a grammar check, An entire paragraph spends way too long setting a premise and then an example that does nothing to its premise. His entire intro was a ramble that confuses me to what the hell this was supposed to be a thesis about.

Like there's a single line that says this essay is about "a set of right-wing intellectuals who have come to be labeled the “Conservative Revolutionaries.”" It took you 2 and a half pages to communicate that to the reader, but I still have no idea

  • Why should I care about this group?
  • Why do you care about this group?
  • "Who have come to be labeled" implies this label has come recently. This was a group from WWII. Why can't you just say called?

He then moves into those questions, briefly, again with just galling grammar scattered around. Acceptable in a first draft but certainly NOT a final.

I had to stop reading about a quarter of the way in. It just reeks of padding. I'm not surprised it's plagiarized, it's entirely quotes and trombone speak.
What the hell did he get as a grade? Even if it wasn't plagiarized it couldn't have been a C.

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The explicit AI-created images of Taylor Swift flooding the internet highlight a major problem with generative AI

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It's because a person can crank out a deep fake in 3 hours, and a crappy one in one. It never cropped up because... well lets be real it was a couple of weirdos that were doing it, unless it bubbles up from the dark corners of the internet you risk the Streisand effect by bringing attention to it.

AI can crank out 40 in a minute. 7200 in three hours. That's an entirely different beast. The sheer mass and volume ramps up the odds of any image bubbling up from the dark corners of the web falling into the limelight and now this problem that wasn't big enough to merit thought is rearing up it's ugly head right in front of us.

You can generate unique pictures of Taylor Swift faster than even Taylor swift can generate pictures of Taylor Swift. Within one hour of Taylor swift being seen with a man (and you have enough images of the man) you can create a dozen images of her on a date with that man and attempt to sell them to paparazzi.

The problem is volume. Just like how email made everyone connected and allowed the Nigerian Prince scandal to occur.

climate

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Opinion | I’m a Young Conservative, and I Want My Party to Lead the Fight Against Climate Change

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You know what really irks me though? Even if we didn't go green. Those 40,000 jobs are going to vanish. Coal doesn't grow like trees. That mine will empty one day and it's going to get shut down without warning, without any severance packages, the company is just going to run. There will even still be coal in the mine, it's just no longer cheap enough to mine it.

Historically, that's how it happens. Even in this day and age the moment a better mine opportunity is found, they're gone. They make the town dependent on them, they use the town in every way they can, they donate to the schools and municipal water supply, and then they vanish without warning leaving the town in the lurch. Happens with copper, happens with gas, happens with silver and it happens with coal.

At least the green movement will give you a date, a head start, and at least an iota of sympathy.

games

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[NakeyJakey] Bethesda's Game Design Was Outdated a Decade Ago

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I mean, that's a quest at it's core but a good game works it into a narrative and makes it blend. Ideally making all 6 steps anything but tedious. Ideally interesting and fun, but at all times avoiding tedious like the plague.

Best example I've seen is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4ADco41g9s&ab_channel=Nathidraws

Two identical "perform quest for NPC"s, which is your step 4. Negotiate for a thing in a briefcase from somebody who probably will double cross you.

Which one is more tedious? Now combine a 4 minute run in a barren wasteland in your steps 1 and 6...

A few other things that Cyberpunk did, There are several ways to handle that mission, those several options can cause 3 major shifts in that faction. Which affect other missions later on, indeed any time you deal with the maelstrom gang.

Cyberpunk had a lot of flaws but, they're at least innovating. I've never been in a legit standoff like that in a game. It's always been in a static looping animation at 8 paces.

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Looking for games with strong female leads for my daughter (even just to watch as I play). Came across this link, but they're a bit age-inappropriate. Any suggestions from the community?

wandersong is a super simple game that she might be able to play. You play a pacifist bard who just is naive, friendly to a fault. The bard is a male, but the villain, supporting cast, it's quite diverse with some strong females cast in. It's got a pretty good story and a lot of sesame street level lessons on life in there too. Even starts a conversation on what strength truly is. Totally something you should look at.

Slime rancher is another super chill, might actually be able to play herself, game where you do play as a female protaganist, but much lighter on plot than wandersong. You basically farm cute adorable slimes and it's genuinely pretty addictive and super relaxing after a shitty day.

Mirror's Edge you play as a female protagonist. Plot might be a bit steep for her.

If you haven't played through portal 1 or 2 yet, I bet it could be fun. Glados is silly, Chell (who you play but doesn't talk) is female and she can help you with the puzzles a bit.

furry

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We have mind-controlled furry avatars yet Facebook can't get legs working right in the Metaverse

... oh that's interesting. Creation of a phantom "limb" with a brain control interface? I wonder how much control there is? Does it just wiggle? Is it purely binary up/down? Can they control the angle?

I actually have a set of LED eyes that I control with puppetry, last I looked at BCIs it was woefully incapable of what I wanted but maybe I should look at this again...

games

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Borderlands players - what is your opinion about the new movie trailer?

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Oh it's easy, they just googled "Roland voice lines" and he sounds like a perfect role for Kevin heart.

Could he pull off the borderlands 2 Roland intro? I don't think so, but I've been surprised before.

What really has me saddened is the whole pisswater gully bit. Tiny Tina is a native of pandora, Roland and Lilith are not (to my knowledge). So if anything, the roles should have been entirely reversed because:

  1. It makes more sense.

  2. It's way funnier.

Which means they're messing with backstory of the characters to match... nothing. Because it doesn't seem to make the writing better, and it differs from the original. It would also match Tiny Tina's character so much better and mitigate the annoying whiny child part of the character that is just SHINING through this trailer.

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"Men are bad at picking up on women's hints." What are your actual thoughts on this sentiment?

I hate the idea of hints. Because A. You then have to make the person your interested in make their own way towards you, and B. Then they have to notice it and then take a risk. I think it's FAR better, to give your crush an opening, serve them a line on a silver platter.

For example:
My wife was interested in me and she opened with:
"Am I too close?" To which I could've replied "nah you're good" or "yes, a bit" without any fuss. but, since I was also interested, I replied.
"Oh nonsense, if anything you're not close enough" which, can easily be dismissed as me being silly, but nope, she's interested. So she responds
'OH really? So how close can I get?"

Like, set up a romantic line. If there's a romantic line to be had. If they're interested, they'll take it.

memes

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3 browsers

PSA:
Edge is also what you should use whenever you're making a public presentation and need to open a browser.

Why? Because you never use edge, therefore autocomplete is almost empty which means you can type:

  1. x
  2. p
  3. h
  4. r

With full confidence that NOTHING will appear that you will not want public.