I mean, orange was right there...

Enshittification in action.

"Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."

Facebook, TikTok, Amazon, it's everywhere. Once a platform has lock-in from users it turns its attention to vendors. Then once they're locked in it rakes in the profits until nobody can tolerate it any more and something else takes its place.

Our thinking can be so twisted by religion. Imagine someone long ago wants to build a really tall tower. Nobody knows engineering, material science, etc. They just start stacking rocks on top of each other like they do when they made short buildings. Eventually it's so tall and heavy that it's no longer stable, one side sinks into the ground, and the whole thing falls over. And what's their takeaway? Is it about learning from their mistake and trying again? No, it's "God is punishing your hubris!" Religion just poisons the mind.

I watched it. It was a good looking show. And the origin story (which took over half the season I think) was well done. But where it really fell down is that none of the characters are likeable. At the end of the season I was kind of relieved it was over because I didn't care whether any of them lived or died.

“We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior.” Stephen Covey

In support of your argument.

Report: 44% of all Single-Family Home Purchases were from Private Investors in 2023

edit: see corrections below

You've posted an article at a paywalled website. It appears to also be paywalled at archive.org. If you don't want to get downvoted, provide some way to read the article for those of us who don't subscribe to the atlantic.

Ukrainian flag - not political. Russian flag - political.

Israeli flag - not political. Palestinian flag - political.

I think that's the point of the lawsuit. You can't claim you're "completely apolitical and non-biased" when you actually support one side of a conflict and punish your employees who support the other side.

I've done some blacksmithing as a hobby. The two most common ways of heating the metal are a gas or a coal forge. The coal forge normally has some sort of forced air coming from the bottom to feed the fire. The coal starts burning real smoky like, but then turns to coke and burns hotter the more air you force through it. Typically you pile some coal around the sides of the fire so it converts to coke then you scoop it into the fire as needed. Also it produces a waste product called clinker that builds up at the bottom of the fire at the tuyere (the nozzle or grate the air is forced through). It's kind of like stone or metal and it needs to be cleaned out to keep the fire going.

A fact that I hadn't realized. TIL.

Have you ever tried telling a friend that you didn't like their partner and they should not be together? They are much more likely to get mad at you and stop talking with you than they are to leave their partner. Just search the advice columns on 'how to tell a friend their partner is bad'. Every one is filled with comments like "I did that and they got mad at me", or "we told her and she ignored us and keeps going back". I'm not really surprised nobody intervened.

I wonder if you were mostly angry at yourself for being in that situation. Maybe angry you could be so foolish or naive. Then you projected that anger onto your friends and family. Anyways, I'm glad you made it through that period.

It pays to watch ad-free videos or else it gets the hose again.

Which is an issue if those artists want to copyright their work. So far the US has maintained that AI generated art is not subject to copyright protection.

Did they train this chatbot on Donald Trump speeches?

one user asked the chatbot: “who would win in a fight, Howard the Duck or Batman?”.

The answer from the chatbot, verbatim, is:

Howard: I don’t think so. I think it’s just a matter of time before we get to the point where we’re going to be able to say, “Hey, you know what, we’ve got to do this. We’ve gotta do that.” And then we’ll have to figure out how to make it work. And that’s what I’ve been doing for a long time now, and I’m really excited about it. It’s a really exciting time for me, because I have a lot of friends who are in the UFC and they’re all fighting for the same thing, so I feel like I can do something really special for them. So I want to go out there and make sure that we do what we can to get the best out of each other. That’s the only way I know how. e’ve got to do this. We’ve gotta do that.” And then we’ll have to figure out how to make it work.

If you want a big list of these check out https://www.kissthisguy.com/

Here's one from there

Like a virgin touched for the thirty-first time. Artist: Madonna Song: Like a Virgin Real Lyric: Like a virgin touched for the very first time.

https://earth.nullschool.net/ realtime global wind, pressure, temp, etc.

Dr Borus? Is that you?

From Old World Blues in case you're wondering.

(attempting to answer the question instead of shaming the questioner)

It might have helped solve the problem if we did it 50 or 60 years ago, along with global EMP strikes to disable all the vehicles and industrial equipment, and a global commitment to return to an agrarian low-energy lifestyle. And if you prioritized the most highly industrialized cities that produce the greatest carbon per capita. But the sad truth is that, right now, it's already too late. We have already released so much carbon into the atmosphere that we are more or less guaranteed to see 4 degrees C above pre-industrial. And if you aren't already retired you will probably see it in your lifetime. Along the way that triggers a series of cascading feedback loops which, all-told, will likely take the planet to about 10C above pre-industrial. We continue to release something like 40 billion metric tons per year. And the best CCS facility we have, in Iceland, can sequester about 4,000 tons per year. We are racing toward the cliff with the throttle at full speed and no corrupt government scientist is going to take away my truck or make me eat bugs.

And questions about who should die, who should be killed, and such don't even really matter now. They sound immoral, but if the projections are right it looks like all of us who aren't already old are going to die from climate change anyways. So pontificating on things that aren't ever going to happen is just academic onanism.

I think damage reduction would be even more than that. The damage a projectile does to a target is directly related to its kinetic energy which is calculated as e = ½mv². So when you increase mass but reduce velocity you also reduce the damage by the square of the difference in velocity (I think). As long as the damage just relies on the physics of the projectile and not magic, that is.

hmm. I see. By plugging in only one side you're creating a 120v cattle prod. Yeah, that would be hazardous.