I started Avowed, but it didn’t really grab me for some reason. So, I’m re-playing Persona 3 Reload because I never got around to checking out the Episode Aigis content. And, of course, Balatro on and off as my go-to, casual time killer.

This legislation was written to protect American tech bros, pure and simple. OpenAI is screaming about how DeepSeek stole their data, and how China-made AI is a huge security risk. Of course, OpenAI stole the data from us first, and it’s not actually a security risk if you download the model and run it locally on your own hardware, offline. They’re just throwing a fit to protect their massive profits.

But what they fail to understand is: you can’t un-foot the lettuce.

DeepSeek has been on Hugging Face and GitHub for a while now. Plenty of time for independent AI model makers to download the whole dataset, intermingle it with other datasets, and create a hybrid that won’t give you bullshit answers when you ask it about Taiwan or Tiananmen Square. Technically, no longer an AI model developed in China, and just as problematic for OpenAI.

The community will continue to make iterations of this new toy as well, so the next DeepSeek could easily come from Canada, Poland, Korea, India… you get the idea. Hawley’s going to be busy, trying to ban the whole world. Which, in fairness, does seem to be the greater MAGA foreign policy strategy right now.

The point is, bad legislation won’t fix the fact that OpenAI needs to re-think their strategy. We already know that you don’t need to build Skynet to create ChatGPT v6, and they’ve been bullshitting us for a while now.

Looks interesting, but I gotta be honest: when I click on the Steam page and the first thing I see is a cash shop to buy “Epoch Points” for this early access game? That’s an instant turn-off for me. I’m sure it’s not as predatory as what Blizzard did with D4’s monetization, but I don’t want it in my games, period.

Re-Logic (Terraria’s developers) have already gone on record saying, "even if Unity were to recant their policy and statements, the destruction of trust is not so easily repaired.” That’s the stance I think every developer should be taking. Unless you have a Unity game that can be released by the end of the year, all devs need to seriously consider switching engines.

I hadn’t heard about those changes, but that’s quite a relief. I hated traveling to individual ripperdoc clinics to snag all the best upgrades. Especially because the best cyberware for your frontal cortex can only be bought from a VDB ripper in Pacifica, and I didn’t want to give those assholes any of my eddies.

I doubt Ashton and Mila apologized because they actually regret writing those letters; this is just damage control because they got caught defending a rapist. Also, Scientology isn’t a religion, it’s a criminal organization, and it ought to be treated as such.

I was disappointed to hear that Kurtwood Smith wrote a letter in support of Masterson too. I really liked him in RoboCop… but I guess there’s a reason why he was so good at acting like a total bastard.

I only have a small amount of experience with generating images using AI models, but I have found this to be true. It’s like making a photocopy of a photocopy. The results can be unintentionally hilarious though.

Her seat is not in danger, but there’s infighting over who will replace her. If Feinstein resigns, California’s governor gets to appoint her replacement, and Gavin Newsom is likely to appoint a black woman if given the opportunity. Rumor has it that Nancy Pelosi wants Adam Schiff to replace Feinstein though, so she is pushing for the 90 year old Senator to finish her term.

Feinstein’s caretaker also happens to be Pelosi’s daughter. That’s not a conflict of interest at all.

The United States has very similar problems. The oppressed are encouraged to work within the system if they want things to change. They go to the system, and find it broken. So they protest, and the moment the protests turn violent-- or appear to turn violent-- the oppressed are labeled as being impatient or perhaps even deserving of being marginalized. Cries for freedom are willfully misinterpreted as the howling of barbarians, and used as populist propaganda.

Like you, I don’t know what it’s like to be treated like a second-class citizen in my own country, but I do know that racism doesn’t go away simply because the government declares that it won’t be tolerated. It’s hard to come up with any specific solution to this particular problem though, when it’s a conflict that humans have struggled with for their entire existence. Back in 2020, people were just trying to get the message out that black lives matter. Even when taken as a plea for solidarity with no specific policy demands, somehow that statement proved controversial.

France has been a big fan of revolution since the late 18th century. They’re on their Fifth Republic and I’m sure some French people feel they’re overdue for a Sixth, just for the sake of keeping the tradition alive.

Either the Democrats need to make some big changes internally, or a third party is going to have to break up the current duopoly. The current Democratic party sucks, as an effective opposition to the Republicans. The GOP just keeps drifting further to the far-right, and the Democrats continue to compromise even though the demands are becoming more extreme. This drags the whole government toward more conservative policies, regardless of which party is winning the elections.

Change isn’t going to happen when you have an aging centrist like Biden in the Oval Office. Governing by compromise is all he knows how to do. And yet, the Democrats still think they’re “winning” even though the GOP is actively twisting their arm with every policy they try to pass. We need more people in Congress who are actually liberals, not centrists, and recognize that the current system isn’t working for anyone outside outside of the 1%. Until that happens, the far-right is just going to keep turning up the heat, and the rest of the country is going to be stuck sitting there like a frog in a pot of water that is slowly being brought to a boil.

I refuse to believe this decision was influenced, in any way, by any actual consideration of the U.S. Constitution. There’s no reasonable interpretation of that document which would provide sufficient justification to rule the relief plan unconstitutional. This was a political decision, pure and simple, by a government body that is supposed to be apolitical. Just like every other branch of government, the judiciary has become corrupted by billionaire donors and turned into a polarized mockery of its original intent. No wonder public opinion of the Supreme Court is in the toilet. They’re no better than Congress these days.

That reminds me of how my conservative uncle got really angry once, when I showed him one of my college papers. Started ranting about how it’s a bunch of liberal indoctrination.

In fairness, the paper was left-aligned.

The base game has improved considerably since launch, though it still lacks some promised content and performance will vary depending on your hardware. I have a PC with a Ryzen 7 and a RTX 2070, which can run the game well enough, but have not tried it on a machine with an AMD video card.

I think the base game might still be on sale and now might be a good time to pick it up for 50% off. Major updates will still be coming to the base game even if you don’t buy Phantom Liberty… including vehicle combat, I believe.

It’s Florida, in the United States. The article is from a local news station, which is probably why they don’t mention their own state. Sorry for the confusion!

It’s insane that Thomas is still a Supreme Court justice

Absolutely zero argument with you there.

Considering how well the Super Mario movie worked out for Illumination, I’m expecting to hear something about a new movie or short TV series. Maybe more Mario, maybe Legend of Zelda. In any case, there’s no way Nintendo won’t be going hard in that direction now that they see what a gold mine it is.

I think it’s interesting how Trump cultists have been screaming for months that the DoJ should leave their guy alone, and look into Hunter Biden instead.

Turns out, they have been looking into him, and Hunter’s going to enter a guilty plea. Because the DoJ can conduct multiple investigations simultaneously.

Sooo… Trump supporters should be happy now, right? Everyone can shut up about the Trump investigations being witch hunts?

As someone who has held a security clearance with the U.S. Federal government and has handled classified material as part of my official duties, I am reasonably confident in stating that the presence of golf shirts in a container holding classified documents is not sufficient to declassify said documents.

Andromeda is fine as long as you don’t compare it to the core Mass Effect trilogy. Ryder is no Shepard, and none of your squadmates are as memorable as Garrus, Tali, Mordin and the rest. But take the game as its own thing, and it’s a pretty good time.