I forget the exact quote or who said it, but the gist is that a species cannot be considered sapient (intelligent) on an interplanetary/interstellar stage until they have discovered Calculus. I prefer to use that as my bar for the sapience of those around me as well.

You can't really say Blizzard has not raised prices when they have added microtrans and mental health costs to the game.

Gabe heads a company which is successful because it respects its employees, customers, and suppliers instead of constantly trying to marginalize and abuse them. They are not perfect by any means, but they do fit into the definition of ethical capitalism, which should not be understated. They don't employ anticompetitive tactics like bribing/coercing developers into exclusivity contracts. They don't operate with a bunch of 1099 contractors so they can avoid providing benefits. Etc.

For now. Remember that Project 2025 aims to dismantle both organizations and privitize the NWS's activities.

Fact checking myself: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-what-project-2025-says-about-the-national-weather-service-and-noaa

Honestly, auto generating text descriptions for visually impaired people is probably one of the few potential good uses for LLM + CLIP. Being able to have a brief but accurate description without relying on some jackass to have written it is a bonefied good thing. It isn't even eliminating anyone's job since the jackass doesn't always do it in the first place.

What, you don't want to pay another 80 bucks for what could have been a content patch to last year's game? Pshhh... You're not a real fan.

Is what I would say if I were the type of guy who should take a long walk off a short pier.

This raises a rather sticky situation for the coming years. I have been seeing more and more posts about developers using GPT generated code in various projects. If a game is made and it is found that GPT was used for some parts of the core code, does the whole project lose its copyright?

Other way around. Require sales of licenses to games to be perpetual. The way you phrased it means that the license holders can charge way more.

Many court positions are elected seats. They are probably just expecting him not to run when his term is up or to be ousted.

Same. I initially had the sinking dread then I saw that they actually fixed the arbitration clause and I became quite elated.

Oh hell, I have not had that one yet. I am already leaning away from it with just the random pins showing up on my nav that were not searched for.

Your idea is one of the specific reasons many companies try to label everyone as an "independent contractor". Especially people like voice actors are not "employees", and thus do not count as such for your idea.

I have taken to using my a quote of my own with people recently, on both sides in different situations. Quote: "Those who neither ascribe to nor participate in the social contract of tolerance are not afforded the protection it brings."

I say it to the right when they complain about me calling them out on their BS or making it known that they are generally shit human beings.

I say it to the left when they try to call me out for saying that literal Nazis holding signs on the side of the road should have beverages thrown at them by passing cars at the tamest. I would prefer throwing much heavier objects, but the law protects them. The Law, not the social contract of tolerance. Within the confines of the law, people like that should not be tolerated and should be informed with as much force as possible.

This is a cultural thing. My wife has studdied German culture, particularly relating to their relationship with their language, pretty extensively and from what she says they are exceedingly resistant to changes to their general language at all. Hence all of the compound nouns for new devices instead of coming up with a new word. Apparently the cultural adoption of "Das handy" for cellphone was a cultural milestone since they actually used something new instead of trying to cram together "Mobile Wireless Vocal Communication Device" into one word.

I hace been using noscript for like 15 years now. In my experience, it comes down to recognizing what is a required and superfluous or privacy invading 3rd party. Some websites can take me a while to get working, but I have had very few which I cannot figure out.

You assume that the governments of which you speak are not assisting intentionally. These companies did not write the EULA legal frameworks that allow them virtual carte blanch to take and do whatever they want just because the population is trapped in the endless cycle of coercion that is our life.

Why do all of these companies decide they are so tired of existing?

Yup. I shop at Walmart out of desperation. I had stopped entirely for years after hearing that they have members of staff who go around from store to store to help get employees on food stamps. That and that they tell manufacturers what the price will be. That is not how commerce works.

My solution to the government assistance issue is a pretty straightforward answer. Revise corporate tax codes to include a reduction exempt line item that totals 2x the total value of all government assistance received by employees. Do not pass go, give us your $200. Food stamps exist to help families who are struggling, not as a corporate subsidy.

Good not-a-bot. Thanks for the updated info. Bookmarking it for when I get into arguments about how the moves Amazon is making towards fully automated fulfilment canters is a death knell for the economy or why I refuse to use self checkout.

The word you are looking for is "Oligopoly"

• a state of limited competition, in which a market is shared by a small number of producers or sellers.

And yes, they should. Our laws focus on Monopolies, but the big boys figured out a long time ago that if they let a single major competitor exist that the government cannot really touch them. This is why Target and Costco exist and Walmart does not do everything in their power to stomp them out.