Spyke

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An Instacart customer said she discovered the app's higher prices cost her nearly $100 after accidentally seeing the store's paper receipt

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I think her issue isn't that she's paying more via fees and tips. It's that the store is charging her more for every individual item. One would expect to pay the shopper and delivery person for their effort. But realizing that the store is capturing most of that AND charging you more for every item on top of it seems to be the problem. The shopper, delivery person and the buyer are all getting shafted.

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Baldur's Gate 3 has ruined Starfield for me

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I've got a steam deck. BG3 runs fine on it and surprisingly so does Starfield. (albeit both on low graphics settings, but I'm cool with that). BG3 is also ok because it's turn based. Though, so far, any blips in fps in Starfield haven't messed up my being able to survive firefights.

BG3 has a steeper learning curve for sure. I love the character interactions and the voice acting is superb. Starfield is easier to just pick up and start playing. (though my first time navigating my ship was a WTF moment and the game threw you into a ship battle right away) The early battles are easy enough that even with flailing, you survive. Over time I've gotten more accustomed to the controls. FWIW, NPC dialog and interactions are more janky for sure than BG3. BG3 is so smooth and realistic with dialog and expressions.

Both games have abysmal inventory systems. hahahaha! So far, I'm enjoying both games. I've put BG3 down for a bit to allow time for Larian to clean up Act 3 a bit more. I'm 85 hours in and all of the story threads are coming together and the consequences of my choices are getting thick.

Starfield is a hit with me too. It's a grand exploration game. It scratches the Skyrim itch. It might be a looter shooter, but so far, I'm enjoying the quests. Eventually I will build outposts and build my own ship. There's no VATs any more, except in ship to ship battles where you can use the targeting system.

Unlike BG3, you aren't limited on how much you can develop your character. BG3 is capped at level 12 so you only get a few times to choose new spells/skills/abilities. Eventually, you're at your limit. Starfield has so many skills you can get, that I imagine that once you get many hours in, you'll be at such a high level and have so many skills that it will still be a blast to play. Early on, it's all so new, later on, you'll have so many options for things to do and how to do it that the gameplay will still feel fresh.

Long story short, I like both equally, but for very different reasons. Starfield is a big plate of good ole home cooking/mac and cheese. BG3 is a multi-course gourmet meal. I also have a steam deck, so I imagine that Starfield would play just fine on XBox.

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"100% coral mortality" found in coral reef restoration site off Florida as ocean temperatures soar

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Yep. We rang the alarm bells 20 years ago. No one listened. I left the state, but the fact that this was going to happen was as plain as the nose on your face. People just didn’t want to see.

People don’t want to do the hard work that it will take to live by a new paradigm. It will break the economy for years, but it’ll likely take that to change things. Eventually, we could build back something more in tune with our ecosystem.

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SpaceX Starlink Satellites Have to Dodge Objects in Orbit Nearly 140 Times Every Day

The only reason for starlink to exist is because telcos were allowed to ignore building out infrastructure to serve more areas. I don't know if incentives were ever provided to get them the capital to be willing to build out the infrastructure in less populates/rural areas.

Realizing that we have turned earth orbit into a garbage pile simply because we refused to step up and do right by our citizens instead of maximizing capitalism certainly stings.

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Apple Card contributes to another $667 million loss for Goldman Sachs: ‘We did not execute well’

I’m mystified as to how Goldman isn’t making money here. The credit card won’t let you do a balance transfer to another card at an introductory rate to pay things down. So they have their customers trapped.

I have the card and savings account, but I’m not carrying a balance on the credit card now, In the past though, they certainly made money off me.

There must be a lot of defaults.

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Record Florida ocean temperatures may be ‘death knell’ for coral reefs

I used to live in Florida and did some scuba diving off the keys. This was back in the mid to late 90s. Even then, there was coral bleaching and I saw invasive algae growth on the white skeletons and damaged coral left behind. We knew it was only going to get worse. We used to see 90 degree water on occasion and later in August usually.

Looking at these latest temps and remembering that significant bleaching starts at around 90 degrees, it really looks like this is a death knell for the reefs around Florida.