https://nitter.poast.org/POTUS/status/1469474907700477958
The United States unequivocally does *not* pay its debts when they come due, which is why the United States just applied for a credit limit increase.
The United States unequivocally does *not* pay its debts when they come due, which is why the United States just applied for a credit limit increase.
Be careful of idle games.
They look so reasonable, like "Oh! Don't worry! You don't even need to play this game to play this game!" but let me tell you how they work.
Phase 1: Showering you with gifts.
Thanks for joining! Here, have gold! Here, have silver! Here, have jewels! Here, have free heroes! Isn't this game fun?
Phase 2: Showering you with levelups.
Goodness you're so smart! Look at how much you're levelling up with all the smart things you're doing with your gold, silver, jewels, and heroes!
Phase 3: It starts to slow down.
You're so hard working, you can do it! You can make it to the next level!
Phase 4: You're not gonna put it down, are you?
You don't have to play, but you'll only get the best rewards if you come back every 30 minutes. Are you sure you don't want to come back every 30 minutes?
Phase 5: Chasing the dragon
If only you could give us $50.00. We could bring you back to feeling like you did in phase 1 again! You could get all this gold, silver, jewels, and heroes! Only 4900 more levels until you get access to the new dungeon! Don't you want access to that?
Phase 6: Unlimited
There is no final stage, you know. If you get to level 10^10 then you'll start (10^10)+1. You're putting effort in every 30 minutes, you're paying your hard earned money, to arbitrarily drive a level that will never stop up yet again.
They look so reasonable, like "Oh! Don't worry! You don't even need to play this game to play this game!" but let me tell you how they work.
Phase 1: Showering you with gifts.
Thanks for joining! Here, have gold! Here, have silver! Here, have jewels! Here, have free heroes! Isn't this game fun?
Phase 2: Showering you with levelups.
Goodness you're so smart! Look at how much you're levelling up with all the smart things you're doing with your gold, silver, jewels, and heroes!
Phase 3: It starts to slow down.
You're so hard working, you can do it! You can make it to the next level!
Phase 4: You're not gonna put it down, are you?
You don't have to play, but you'll only get the best rewards if you come back every 30 minutes. Are you sure you don't want to come back every 30 minutes?
Phase 5: Chasing the dragon
If only you could give us $50.00. We could bring you back to feeling like you did in phase 1 again! You could get all this gold, silver, jewels, and heroes! Only 4900 more levels until you get access to the new dungeon! Don't you want access to that?
Phase 6: Unlimited
There is no final stage, you know. If you get to level 10^10 then you'll start (10^10)+1. You're putting effort in every 30 minutes, you're paying your hard earned money, to arbitrarily drive a level that will never stop up yet again.
@kaia It's just good economics: In a crowded marketplace where under normal circumstances a market is more or less correctly determining value, you're trying to find something of value that people do not perceive to be of value and then unleash its value, after which people will be sitting there going "Why didn't I do that?" -- It's what folks like Warren Buffett do in the stock market, finding things that aren't properly valued.
There are two caveats, however.
The first is it takes leadership to nurture someone's hidden strengths. Lots of people try to force a fat person to lose weight, few people succeed. You need to walk a line between firmness to make sure it happens, kindness to make sure your girl doesn't just call you an asshole and leave, and competence to give good counsel that will result in success so you're not just having them act with futility.
The second is that sometimes girls are fat because they're otherwise broken. I've seen it a lot where someone loses weight and suddenly unencumbered they become the horrible person they were always meant to be.
There are two caveats, however.
The first is it takes leadership to nurture someone's hidden strengths. Lots of people try to force a fat person to lose weight, few people succeed. You need to walk a line between firmness to make sure it happens, kindness to make sure your girl doesn't just call you an asshole and leave, and competence to give good counsel that will result in success so you're not just having them act with futility.
The second is that sometimes girls are fat because they're otherwise broken. I've seen it a lot where someone loses weight and suddenly unencumbered they become the horrible person they were always meant to be.
@ducheng I don't understand... If you want a boot on your neck, why not just go walk up the jack booted thugs? Seems like a really roundabout thing running your own service only to do exactly what they do.
@jeffcliff I keep asking them to add my instance, because I'm doubleplus wrongthinking *right now*. Someone could see it and have a thought that isn't prescribed by The Party!
@AlexJones How exactly is this going to work? BLM specifically burned down all the businesses in predominantly black neighborhoods to protest the existence of black people or something.
@boilingsteam I get a kick out of it -- we've had so many major outages affecting corpo services this year, and I've just sat back and laughed about it while my services continue to function perfectly.
@eff Mu, the question is wrong.
You don't build privacy into the megacorpiverse, we need to build privacy into a privately owned Internet.
You don't build privacy into the megacorpiverse, we need to build privacy into a privately owned Internet.
Therapist: Democrat death panels aren' real, they can't hurt you.
Democrat death panels:
Democrat death panels:
Review: Rise of the Weakest Summoner: Volume I
Final Verdict: 2.5/5
Started to write this for Amazon, but realized I didn't really want to post it on amazon.
This review will spoil some plot points, but I’ll try to keep my statements vague.
At first glance, this story mimics a tried and true formula in Japanese light novels.
In the light novel formula, the protagonist starts off as someone who is of lower class but has obvious virtue, often because they work really hard despite appearing to be useless, or being nice to people in situations where they don't need to be nice, something like that. The down on his luck but virtuous individual by pure luck, or because they acted in a virtuous way in a situation that could have harmed them, or because some deus ex god figure recognizes their virtue, or because some deus ex god figure recognizes something about them that they don't know about themselves such as a dark secret. Because of this event, the previously powerless protagonist is granted a sliver of power, with the promise that with hard work more will be granted. Sometimes the protagonist is then introduced to a woman, and they through some contrivance need to spend the adventure together. Over the course of the story, the two grow closer until a romantic finale. In the meantime, the power is expanded upon and although the power is almost always clearly a world-breaker, its limitations are defined, and its mechanics are set up. In the meantime, short term and long term obstacles are established (usually in such stories the short term challenge is something like a boss enemy to be defeated, though sometimes that turns out to be several such challenges in one book depending on how it is structured), and the story is spent pursuing that challenge. The climax of a specific book in a longer arc of a story will be a challenge that seems to push our protagonist to the limit, and shows that despite the power-up the protagonist has received, there are still things out there that can challenge them, so they must continue to grow or they will be defeated next time. The epilogue of the story tends to focus on some of the boons gained by the hero in conquering the challenge and setting up the intrigue for the next book.
I picked up this book frankly expecting something similar to the above, likely written by a Japanese author. It was about half way through that I started to realize this wasn’t a translated work.
It started off small, using clichés that are common from English-speaking writers, such as repeatedly referring to a “wry grin”. Then I started to realize that I was in the middle of a multi-page discussion about consent, and in that moment I realize I wasn’t in Kyoto anymore.
The story starts off more or less like you’d expect given the formula, though the main character is a bit too much of a Marty Stu. He may be the worst summoner, but he’s the fittest, smartest, best student in the entire world, and if only he had more mana! And his weak summon just loved him and couldn’t figure out why he was such a great summoner who couldn’t summon anything, and then his weak summon sacrifices its life for him because he’s so amazing and he gets so mad that he powers up and his hair and eyes change color and he summons the best summon ever that nobody knows even exists and it’s a cute cat girl and she wants to generate new generations of cats the old fashioned way right from the moment they meet!
Afterwards there’s a trope of the genre, where the newly powered up protagonist goes and tests his powers against a known powerful opponent and trounces the floor with him. Everyone was so impressed that the Elven girl with big boobs gave him her number!
Next he goes off to do a simple pair of quests but someone who was mean who didn’t like him set him up so he might die, but he pulls an ass pull power out of his hat and the day is saved, so he goes back and totally pwns that guy!
His sidekick this whole time totally wants to jump his bones, but she’s so shy and timid she doesn’t want to say anything despite the two of them going through every step of it. It looks like character development, but the character doesn’t really change. I’m going to bring that up later.
Finally, they go to a new area to learn more and power level, and they save some young people with no real trouble.
After that, the sidekick turns out to be really pent up, and jumps his bones! There’s an extremely explicit scene describing the act of copulation between the two, and after a short epilogue the story abruptly ends.
There were a lot of parts of this book I enjoyed. The beginning was very strong, the description of the mechanics of the magic system was interesting, I really thought the spots where they were working to use their unique situation to make life easier was interesting, and the action scenes were well written enough that I could imagine what was going on.
I hit a certain point where I didn’t want to read anymore. Somewhere around the middle the paragraph after paragraph about how virtuous a guy the protagonist was just started to rub me the wrong way. I found the explicit scenes rather off-putting. The romance felt forced, and while the book told me they were growing, I didn’t feel it. At the end of the book after their copulation, the sidekick reverted to the same person she was in the first scene of the book – meek, shy, unsure – and at that point I just stopped being invested.
On the topic of the romance scenes and copulation scenes, I felt like it was largely focused on the mechanics, and I just didn't feel that was appealing. I'm not reading hundreds of pages for a description of actions I can see with 15 seconds on a search engine.
I feel like the books inflection points could have been done differently. Dramatic tension can be difficult to maintain when the main character is growing in power, but by the final battle of the book there was no question whether the protagonist was going to succeed, it’s just a matter of how much winning there would be.
It might be unfair, but I’m probably done with this series. It wasn’t what I had expected of it, but it also didn’t pleasantly surprise me by being more than it appeared.
Final Verdict: 2.5/5
Started to write this for Amazon, but realized I didn't really want to post it on amazon.
This review will spoil some plot points, but I’ll try to keep my statements vague.
At first glance, this story mimics a tried and true formula in Japanese light novels.
In the light novel formula, the protagonist starts off as someone who is of lower class but has obvious virtue, often because they work really hard despite appearing to be useless, or being nice to people in situations where they don't need to be nice, something like that. The down on his luck but virtuous individual by pure luck, or because they acted in a virtuous way in a situation that could have harmed them, or because some deus ex god figure recognizes their virtue, or because some deus ex god figure recognizes something about them that they don't know about themselves such as a dark secret. Because of this event, the previously powerless protagonist is granted a sliver of power, with the promise that with hard work more will be granted. Sometimes the protagonist is then introduced to a woman, and they through some contrivance need to spend the adventure together. Over the course of the story, the two grow closer until a romantic finale. In the meantime, the power is expanded upon and although the power is almost always clearly a world-breaker, its limitations are defined, and its mechanics are set up. In the meantime, short term and long term obstacles are established (usually in such stories the short term challenge is something like a boss enemy to be defeated, though sometimes that turns out to be several such challenges in one book depending on how it is structured), and the story is spent pursuing that challenge. The climax of a specific book in a longer arc of a story will be a challenge that seems to push our protagonist to the limit, and shows that despite the power-up the protagonist has received, there are still things out there that can challenge them, so they must continue to grow or they will be defeated next time. The epilogue of the story tends to focus on some of the boons gained by the hero in conquering the challenge and setting up the intrigue for the next book.
I picked up this book frankly expecting something similar to the above, likely written by a Japanese author. It was about half way through that I started to realize this wasn’t a translated work.
It started off small, using clichés that are common from English-speaking writers, such as repeatedly referring to a “wry grin”. Then I started to realize that I was in the middle of a multi-page discussion about consent, and in that moment I realize I wasn’t in Kyoto anymore.
The story starts off more or less like you’d expect given the formula, though the main character is a bit too much of a Marty Stu. He may be the worst summoner, but he’s the fittest, smartest, best student in the entire world, and if only he had more mana! And his weak summon just loved him and couldn’t figure out why he was such a great summoner who couldn’t summon anything, and then his weak summon sacrifices its life for him because he’s so amazing and he gets so mad that he powers up and his hair and eyes change color and he summons the best summon ever that nobody knows even exists and it’s a cute cat girl and she wants to generate new generations of cats the old fashioned way right from the moment they meet!
Afterwards there’s a trope of the genre, where the newly powered up protagonist goes and tests his powers against a known powerful opponent and trounces the floor with him. Everyone was so impressed that the Elven girl with big boobs gave him her number!
Next he goes off to do a simple pair of quests but someone who was mean who didn’t like him set him up so he might die, but he pulls an ass pull power out of his hat and the day is saved, so he goes back and totally pwns that guy!
His sidekick this whole time totally wants to jump his bones, but she’s so shy and timid she doesn’t want to say anything despite the two of them going through every step of it. It looks like character development, but the character doesn’t really change. I’m going to bring that up later.
Finally, they go to a new area to learn more and power level, and they save some young people with no real trouble.
After that, the sidekick turns out to be really pent up, and jumps his bones! There’s an extremely explicit scene describing the act of copulation between the two, and after a short epilogue the story abruptly ends.
There were a lot of parts of this book I enjoyed. The beginning was very strong, the description of the mechanics of the magic system was interesting, I really thought the spots where they were working to use their unique situation to make life easier was interesting, and the action scenes were well written enough that I could imagine what was going on.
I hit a certain point where I didn’t want to read anymore. Somewhere around the middle the paragraph after paragraph about how virtuous a guy the protagonist was just started to rub me the wrong way. I found the explicit scenes rather off-putting. The romance felt forced, and while the book told me they were growing, I didn’t feel it. At the end of the book after their copulation, the sidekick reverted to the same person she was in the first scene of the book – meek, shy, unsure – and at that point I just stopped being invested.
On the topic of the romance scenes and copulation scenes, I felt like it was largely focused on the mechanics, and I just didn't feel that was appealing. I'm not reading hundreds of pages for a description of actions I can see with 15 seconds on a search engine.
I feel like the books inflection points could have been done differently. Dramatic tension can be difficult to maintain when the main character is growing in power, but by the final battle of the book there was no question whether the protagonist was going to succeed, it’s just a matter of how much winning there would be.
It might be unfair, but I’m probably done with this series. It wasn’t what I had expected of it, but it also didn’t pleasantly surprise me by being more than it appeared.
@jeff @Linux_in_a_Bit I come from a different era of the Internet where most people running websites and forums had jobs and couldn't really afford to be people's parents. You'd have to actually do something harmful to get banned.
There weren't as many people on the Internet at that time, and I tend to think that most people don't want freedom on that scale -- having your own ideas and others having their own ideas, and you'd clash and you'd hash it out or you'd ignore each other because daddy wasn't going to step in and send either of you to your room.
I wonder if a lot of people come to the fediverse thinking "Oh great! I can say whatever I want and not get banned!" only to realize "Oh shit! People I don't like can say whatever they want and not get banned!" and run right back to their curated gardens provided by big tech? Fact is, freedom sounds pretty, but it's ugly and you need to have a taste for it to enjoy it.
There weren't as many people on the Internet at that time, and I tend to think that most people don't want freedom on that scale -- having your own ideas and others having their own ideas, and you'd clash and you'd hash it out or you'd ignore each other because daddy wasn't going to step in and send either of you to your room.
I wonder if a lot of people come to the fediverse thinking "Oh great! I can say whatever I want and not get banned!" only to realize "Oh shit! People I don't like can say whatever they want and not get banned!" and run right back to their curated gardens provided by big tech? Fact is, freedom sounds pretty, but it's ugly and you need to have a taste for it to enjoy it.
@becassine @CSB @Eris @PunishedD @coolboymew @deprecated_ii @jeffcliff @marud @ooignignoktoo @parisc @parker @skylar That's impressive. I'm always shocked at how quickly our reusable bags start to disintegrate.
@jeffcliff @Eris @CSB @PunishedD @becassine @coolboymew @deprecated_ii @marud @ooignignoktoo @parisc @parker @skylar You have to be very careful not to get caught up in ideas spit out by the environmental industrial complex. You end up doing damage while feeling like you're doing good. They'd prefer selling you something, but often the best choice doesn't sell anything new.
We know that cotton bags use substantially more fossil fuels to produce than a standard disposable shopping bag. you need to use a standard cotton bag hundreds of times to match the energy per-use. This is in large part because the bags are highly economical, using very little material and taking up very little weight.
Cotton bags are not perpetually reusable. In my experience, within a year or so you can expect them to rip and become unusable if you're using them on a regular basis. Thus, you have a very narrow margin to break even and start beating a disposable shopping bag.
If disposable shopping bags are already shockingly good ecologically for carrying groceries on a per-use basis if you throw them out immediately afterwards, what about if instead of looking like you're doing good, you just reuse disposable shopping bags a few times?
Suddenly, with no added marginal cost, you're reusing something that was previously disposable, and the ecological advantage it already held over alternatives becomes insurmountable. Hypothetically, if you reuse a disposable shopping bag 10 times, you're talking about needing your little cotton bag to stay together for thousands of uses to match the ecological impact of the reused disposable shopping bag.
The disposable shopping bag can also be used as a garbage bag closer of the end of its life, which replaces a single use disposable garbage bag.
Prior to the pandemic, we used this method, and it worked really well. Besides the ecological impact and not having to pay for new grocery bags every time, the disposable bags are much more convenient to store and keep in your car or handbag since they are made up of significantly less material.
We know that cotton bags use substantially more fossil fuels to produce than a standard disposable shopping bag. you need to use a standard cotton bag hundreds of times to match the energy per-use. This is in large part because the bags are highly economical, using very little material and taking up very little weight.
Cotton bags are not perpetually reusable. In my experience, within a year or so you can expect them to rip and become unusable if you're using them on a regular basis. Thus, you have a very narrow margin to break even and start beating a disposable shopping bag.
If disposable shopping bags are already shockingly good ecologically for carrying groceries on a per-use basis if you throw them out immediately afterwards, what about if instead of looking like you're doing good, you just reuse disposable shopping bags a few times?
Suddenly, with no added marginal cost, you're reusing something that was previously disposable, and the ecological advantage it already held over alternatives becomes insurmountable. Hypothetically, if you reuse a disposable shopping bag 10 times, you're talking about needing your little cotton bag to stay together for thousands of uses to match the ecological impact of the reused disposable shopping bag.
The disposable shopping bag can also be used as a garbage bag closer of the end of its life, which replaces a single use disposable garbage bag.
Prior to the pandemic, we used this method, and it worked really well. Besides the ecological impact and not having to pay for new grocery bags every time, the disposable bags are much more convenient to store and keep in your car or handbag since they are made up of significantly less material.
@weaf Jeez, we've got to listen to Vegeta talk like this for the next half season while getting his ass beat.