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arquebus_x

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arquebus_x ,

Except the U.S. is not a party to the ICC and therefore not subject to its jurisdiction. It should be, but it's not. This is bullshit fear-mongering over something that literally cannot happen, in order to distract people from the thing that will and should be happening.

arquebus_x ,

Yes but also no. The U.S. isn't a party to the ICC. It's not under ICC jurisdiction regardless of the ASMPA. The function of the ASMPA is mostly to serve as political theater.

The U.S. should be a party to the ICC, but it's not and it likely never will be.

I just learned that the Time Cube is no more. (lemmy.world)

Some of you may remember this absolute diamond of insanity that was the “4-Day Time Cube.” This was the go-to example of the internet as a universal amplifier for communication - for both the sane and insane alilke. It was there from nearly the start of the world-wide web, back in the 1990’s. Alas, it ceased to be some...

arquebus_x ,

I love what Wikipedia says, succinctly:

"The Time Cube website did not have a home page as such…In one paragraph, he claimed that his own wisdom 'so antiquates known knowledge' that a psychiatrist examining his behavior diagnosed him with schizophrenia."

The New York Times should not be considered a reliable source of journalism.

The New York Times is one of the newspapers of record for the United States. However, it’s history of running stories with poor sourcing, insufficient evidence, and finding journalists with conflicts of interest undermines it’s credibility when reporting on international issues and matters of foreign policy....

arquebus_x ,

I don't read the Times anymore. I get my news elsewhere. That said, there are a few things to consider here, when it comes to the relative shittiness of the NYT vs other major papers. We have this notion, unfounded, that the NYT "used to be" better, or more progressive, or what have you. Certainly compared to the other two "papers of record" for the country (Washington Post and Wall Street Journal), it's a raging pinko rag. But the fact remains that it was founded as a conservative-leaning paper, continued to be a conservative-leaning paper in the 20th century and, surprise surprise, remains a conservative-leaning paper. The lean is more Tower of Pisa than Man Vomiting on Sidewalk, but it's still conservative.

Many of its bad takes (and there are many) are squarely in line with mainstream views. At worst, its views lag behind the country by a few years. And like all major news corporations, it is incentivized to maximize its visibility (and therefore revenue). Given the options of 1) publishing something incendiary that will put the paper in the public eye and help in creating more news to print or 2) doing additional work with the anticipated result of the truth not being nearly as interesting and therefore not nearly as attention-grabbing, they're going to do the less work option.

Next, the NYT is a victim of the news cycle just as much as the TV networks, if not more so. While the website updates fairly regularly throughout the day, the paper comes out once every 24 hours, and must be prepped hours in advance. This means that breaking news suffers from two issues: 1) it has to be investigated at a speed faster than the TV networks because they paradoxically don't have the luxury of time and 2) they can't afford to be tentative when they don't know something. CNN and Fox especially can get away with saying "we'll report back when we know more" because that "back" is maybe 30 minutes from now. "Developing stories" exist on news networks. They do not exist for print papers. If you publish, you have to claim to be definitive, or people will stop reading. ("Why should I read the NYT when they just keep saying they don't know shit?")

Finally, and we should take some solace from this, it should be noted that the NYT, despite being one of the "papers of record" for the country, is basically screaming into the void. Almost no one reads it. Damned if they do, damned if they don't, they're not conservative enough for the people who can throw money at a news organization when there are free alternatives available, and they're not progressive enough for the rest of us to care. The number of eyeballs scanning the NYT is vanishingly small compared to the eyeballs staring at Fox News - or even CNN, for that matter. Basically, the NYT just doesn't matter anymore. They can say whatever the fuck they want. They're not influencing anyone who isn't already on the same (sorry) page.

I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for giving up on the NYT because of its journalistic errors. I certainly have. But we should neither be surprised nor shocked. This behavior is baked into the cake, and it has been since 1851, and got even worse after 1980 when CNN first went on the air. They didn't suddenly get stupid, and they never betrayed us. We have simply never been their intended audience.

arquebus_x ,

It also has a 1v1 mode (player vs computer or PvP) that is just fantastic. I actually spent most of my time playing the 1v1 mode way back in the day.

arquebus_x ,

It doesn't help that the sentence makes no sense. The second clause requires that the first be the subject of the sentence, but then the third clause starts with a new subject, and lastly there's that weird "German" comma after "Arms."

There's more than one way to interpret the meaning, but strictly speaking the only syntactically accurate rendering comes out roughly as:

[The right to] a well regulated Militia shall not be infringed, as it's necessary to the security of a free State (security meaning the right of the people to keep and bear arms).

...which is also meaningless.

It's a stupid amendment for lots of reasons, but the big one is that it's just shitty English.

arquebus_x ,

Or free Black people.

They weren't quite the sharpest tacks in the box.

arquebus_x ,

If I'm not mistaken, a "militia" was understood to be an ad hoc, non-standing armed group, supplied by the resources of its members. The amendment was added so that if a militia were ever needed (again), it could be formed, because the pool of potential militia members had their own firearms. Laws limiting citizen access to firearms would hobble any new militia.

Given that armies at the time were only recently becoming "standing" (permanent) armies, and the U.S. didn't really have one, their best option for making war was militias. They were acutely aware that the revolution began that way, and only later developed an actual (organized, separately supplied, long-term) army.

But very quickly, the U.S. developed permanent armed forces and never had to rely on militias again. At that point the 2nd amendment really should have been obsolete.

arquebus_x ,

"I lost a brother once. I was lucky. I got him back."

"I thought you said men like us don't have families."

"I was wrong."

arquebus_x ,

I've been an Apple fanboy for years, too, and I still am. The alternatives aren't exactly better. And anyone who is surprised that Apple is dragging its heels and trying to do the bare minimum to comply, well, get back to me when you're no longer twelve. Companies aren't your friends, even when they look like they are. Hell, Google's sudden about-face regarding Right to Repair is 100% intended to fuck over Apple. It's not about the consumer, it's about the money. Always, with every company, every time.

Developers want alternate app stores because they want to make/keep more money. There's no other reason. Every other reason given just comes back to more money. Is that a more valid argument simply because they're smaller?

I'm in favor of Apple opening up iOS to alternate stores. I think it's going to be a privacy and security nightmare, but the horse is pretty much already out of the barn and the barn is burning, so... whatever. But I'm not so naive to think Apple's going to fully embrace the ideal concept of alternate stores unless somehow it's a way to beat Google's or Samsung's face in, and take their money.

44% of Americans can't pay an unexpected $1,000 expense from savings. ‘We're just not wired to save,’ expert says (www.cnbc.com)

When faced with an unexpected $1,000 expense, more than one-third of Americans would borrow the money, according to a new Bankrate survey. That may include tapping their credit cards, seeking money from friends or family or taking out a personal loan....

arquebus_x ,

“We’re just not wired to save,” said Brad Klontz

Asshole. Like THAT's the problem.

Video game actors speak out after union announces AI voice deal (www.videogameschronicle.com)

According to SAG AFTRA, the deal will “enable Replica to engage SAG-AFTRA members under a fair, ethical agreement to safely create and license a digital replica of their voice. Licensed voices can be used in video game development and other interactive media projects from pre-production to final release.”...

arquebus_x ,

This deal solves the problem you're encountering, because it allows game companies to use real voices to generate dialogue. It will sound a hell of a lot better than the 100% AI generated voices you dislike.

And it will protect voice actors' jobs because the deal effectively requires new contracts for each use out of scope of the previous contract (i.e., the "opt out" language), and it encourages game companies to continue to rely on voice actors rather than switch to 100% AI generated.

Without this deal, game devs will just go 100% AI (and the tech will improve dramatically), and within a year or two, game voice actors will have no jobs to contract.

This is especially important in light of the trend toward dynamically generated dialogue in RPGs, etc. Without allowing an AI to train on real voice actors, dynamically generated dialogue will have to be 100% AI generated (no human voice involvement).

Voice acting in all fields is already a diminishing market because of AI generated voices. One of my coworkers had to get a job where I work because his VA jobs basically dried up. This agreement stanches the bleeding by permitting the use of AI trained on VAs (but only allowing use on a per-contract basis). Without that permission, AI would just be trained on open source / freely available voice samples, and there would be no contracts, and VAs would just .... not exist anymore.

arquebus_x ,

That's... what this agreement proposes.

arquebus_x ,

It does, yes. And they can also choose to opt out of future uses of their voice in the AI trained model. Which essentially means that their contracts are on a per-project basis, rather than allowing the game developer to force them to contract for the current project and any future use of the model by that game dev.

arquebus_x ,

That's correct, but it's important to distinguish something explicitly here. The voices may not be copyrightable, but the dialogue is, as long as it's not also generated by AI (i.e., dynamically generated). Also, the trained model that generates the voice is still proprietary: only its product (and only the sound itself, not the words if the speech is from a script) can be openly used.

arquebus_x ,

The contract would be a combination contract, for performance and AI training. That's explicitly the thing that's been agreed to here.

arquebus_x ,

Do you not understand how unions work?

arquebus_x ,

"What's up" is that people are stupid and don't know things. Popular vote awards (and national elections!) always suffer from lazy ignorance.

arquebus_x ,

It's about the same as everywhere else. The most fun I have on any social media platform these days is blocking assholes.

arquebus_x ,

Ever try a hot cola?

I once drank a Coke that had been sitting in my car console for a day during the summer.

It was a revelation.

arquebus_x ,

Maybe? HIPAA generally covers medical-to-medical information transfer. Most non-medical entities/people aren't part of that law and it's not a violation for a hospital to release information to law enforcement.

Violating the rights of patients definitely. HIPAA...maybe not.

arquebus_x ,

If Kbin defederates from Threads, I'll just leave Kbin, and stay with Threads. Defederating over vibes is not how the fediverse is supposed to operate. And for everyone advocating for this dumb idea, I'm just using this thread as a honey pot.

Congress approves bill barring any president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO (thehill.com)

Congress has approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an Act of Congress. The measure, spearheaded by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which passed out of...

arquebus_x ,

Under many sane readings of the constitution, this isn’t a power congress has.

The constitution only explicitly articulates the process for establishing treaties, not ending them. So it's a bit of a gray area as to whether the president can end them by himself, since he can't establish them by himself.

To my mind, it would seem exceedingly weird if establishing a treaty required the consent of the Senate but breaking one didn't. What's the argument to be made that the two aspects (establish/break) are so fundamentally different that the rules for the first aren't also the rules for the second? Why does the president need consent to say yes but does not need consent to say no?

It's definitely been done before, but also never directly contested. (In previous cases SCOTUS has avoided answering the question by saying they didn't have jurisdiction.)

arquebus_x ,

Do you disapprove of the idea that SCOTUS can decide constitutionality? It's not in the constitution, so when they first did it, it was a "limit" on another branch of government.

arquebus_x ,

I would totally live in a van except for the lack of wired internet. :(

Moms for Liberty founder leaves rightwing leadership role amid queer sex scandal & rape allegations (www.lgbtqnation.com)

The co-founder of the anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group Moms for Liberty seems to have resigned from her most recent position in the wake of rape allegations against her husband and her own involvement in a same-sex sex scandal....

arquebus_x ,

I just love how the ( R ) got translated into the Registered symbol.

…Governor Ron DeSantis (registered trademark)…

arquebus_x ,

What it comes down to there is whether the act of selection is an act of art. If there is no skill other than picking, I'm not sure I'd consider it an artistic act. (For similar reasons I'm very much on the fence about a lot of modern art.)

arquebus_x ,

Star Wars, drive-in, 1977. I was 4.

arquebus_x ,

Jesus Christ that NYT article has so many weasel words in it. "Seen as", "appear to be," blah blah blah. I hate the NYT.

arquebus_x ,

At what point does the world look at this and say that enough is enough.

Do we ever, really? Over the sum of all war-related humanitarian disasters, the West responds to very few of them, and only when it's economically or geopolitically useful. The Palestinian crisis is no different; it's not exceptional in any way. There's an ongoing nightmare in DRC that's orders of magnitude worse than what's happening in Gaza and... no one cares. Europe and the U.S. are on the verge of disengaging from Ukraine.

The thing is, it doesn't even matter if we "condemn this behavior." We could do that all we want and it wouldn't make much difference. And no one wants to be interventionist - there's too much awful history around it, and it smacks of colonialism, and it means taking resources away from "domestic issues" that always seem to matter more.

We've got to move away from the notion that the situation in Gaza is somehow unique. It allows us to conveniently ignore the root causes of the problem, which is much more universal, and stems from the ongoing sense of cultural superiority on the part of Europe and the U.S.

arquebus_x , (edited )

Duct. Duck is a brand name

Yes. But also mostly no.

Wikipedia:

"Duck tape" is recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as having been in use since 1899 and "duct tape" (described as "perhaps an alteration of earlier duck tape") since 1965

and:

In 1971, Jack Kahl bought the Anderson firm and renamed it Manco. In 1975, Kahl rebranded the duct tape made by his company. Because the previously used generic term "duck tape" had fallen out of use, he was able to trademark the brand "Duck Tape" and market his product complete with a yellow cartoon duck logo. Manco chose the term "Duck", the tape's original name, as "a play on the fact that people often refer to duct tape as 'duck tape'", and as a marketing differentiation to stand out against other sellers of duct tape.

People should really do the bare minimum double-check before showing their whole ass.

As others have noted, "duct tape" is the last thing you want to use on ducts. Better to actually call it "duck tape," as it was for the first 65 years of its existence.

arquebus_x ,

Ireland has been supporting civilian Palestinians from the beginning. The only Western nation to do so vocally.

Ireland has a lot of history resisting an occupying force.

These far-right Israeli politicians are basically saying, "You love them so much, you take them."

arquebus_x ,

While it's awful, it's nevertheless true that he will always do better being seen as Islamophobic rather than as antisemitic. The amount of shit he'd get from all sides if he supported the Palestinians from the start would dwarf the current amount of shit by an order of magnitude.

U.S. cities consider banning "right on red" laws amid rise in pedestrian deaths (www.cbsnews.com)

Sophee Langerman was on her way to a bicycle safety rally in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood in June when a car turning right rolled through a red light and slammed into her bike, which she was walking off the curb and into the crosswalk....

arquebus_x ,

It's the size of the cars that's causing the increase.

arquebus_x ,

I can't imagine there's any way to make optical drives that much faster. The spin rate is already very high and the media size has been standardized. (You'd get a lot more data throughput with a laserdisc-sized drive spinning at the same speed as a CD/DVD.)

arquebus_x ,

It's exactly the sort of thing that gets me to block the poster and never have to think about their diaper brain ever again.

arquebus_x ,

Small being the operative word. Gunshot explosions don't have enough energy to break glass in most circumstances.

arquebus_x ,

I'm much more interested in the original games, which are now available for free as Aleph One.

https://alephone.lhowon.org/

arquebus_x ,

You probably already know this, but there's a free open source version of all three original games, plus others:

https://alephone.lhowon.org/

arquebus_x ,

No one's going to watch a realistic exploration sci-fi show about small unmanned ships quietly going about their jobs with no drama.

arquebus_x ,

Their mission is to explore and contact new life, which is more likely to be successful with a human touch.

Have you met us? ;)

arquebus_x ,

Shit, why not just 30? The frame rate a viewer needs is very different from the frame rate a player needs.

arquebus_x ,

if they gave these fucking companies china consequences

Post a photo of the Tiananmen Square massacre and see what happens.

arquebus_x ,

If you don't already have a driving pattern that made having an EV convenient, you're not going to consider getting one in the first place.

What is something (feature, modes, settings...) you would like to see become a standard in video games?

I’ve been thinking about making this thread for a few days. Sometimes, I play a game and it has some very basic features that are just not in every other game and I think to myself: Why is this not standard?! and I wanted to know what were yours....

arquebus_x ,

Welcome back to the 1980s!

arquebus_x ,

It's fish and children, isn't it?

arquebus_x ,

In other words the idea might have the opposite effect - keeping potential new human users out, but allowing the bots in

The galaxy brain shit here is that I suspect the bot problem actually doesn't concern Musk in the way he claims. If he can make it seem like there are fewer bots (because of these policies) while at the same time not actually getting rid of them, the engagement level stays up and the advertisers are happy in their ignorance. Bots are better users: they're not fickle, they don't go to sleep, they can be reliably expected to be posting more regularly than normal users. The trick for Musk is convincing everyone they're gone.

arquebus_x ,

Bots aren't a "problem" for Twitter unless the advertisers think there are more of them than there are real users. But if you can convince advertisers that you're reducing bots, while also not actually reducing bots, you've got a winning formula. Bots are reliable posters, they contribute a lot more than a regular user, and they make high-engagement tweets/posts/tweex that end up getting a lot of views, aka advertising opportunities.

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