As someone who reads scifi like a chain smoker in a tobacco warehouse, this reads as somewhat antiquated. Niven and Heinlein and such back in the day, definitely in the American camp on how they wrote women and relationships, not seeing much of that lately though. Heavy lean on military scifi instead. Most of it narrated by RC Bray.

Silo series was American. Though that felt like the smart man’s Fallout as a writing prompt. Chuck Wendig, American. Maybe we all just have apocalypse on the brain the last decade.

Not sure the space romance thing is limited to one country’s culture. God save us all from young adult fiction of any kind, because this is the main plot.

The real issue in scifi rn is the multiverse popping up like the vampire trend back in the Sookie Stackhouse days. Every other description of newly “printed” scifi I’ve read in my book searches this year: multiverse. Is everyone just out of ideas?

I liked it better when it felt like the scifi market was trying to find the next expanse.

No. White people who tan tend to have rawhide for skin by age 40, and the lines of someone who is 55. There’s no lure for that life, even if skin cancer wasn’t a risk.

My partner is a redhead. The man does not own or wear shorts, no matter how hot it is. Long sleeves in the sun. Took his shirt off in the yard on a hot summer night, after the sun went down, and moths flew into his chest.

But he looks younger than he is, not older.

Fuck Microsoft.

Test it on topics you’re going to dig into already (to minimize work), and you’ll quickly find how horrifying this practice is.

My favorite is when the bot “infers an answer based on what information is available”, in other words, makes shit up, instead of saying “I don’t know.”

It won’t tell you it’s doing this unless you demand source material. Spoiler: what is linked below the answers as source material can be completely unrelated to the response. Like cited sources in an Ann Coulter book.

This illustrates who has bought and paid for the Trump administration.

Never heard of him until now (goes to show how individual news feeds are these days) but that explains ground zero for those random “huh” statements about daycare fraud in MN by Trump a year or so ago.

And here I saw YouTube as a venue for how to and standup. Maybe watching Jon Stewart’s podcast instead of listening only.

I don’t have TikTok. Short form in any extended degree makes my head feel the same as it does after watching advertising. So I avoid.

To be fair, my algorithm doesn’t feed me much beyond my niche interests at this point, but, huh?

A prank isn’t physical.

Example. It’s around my birthday and I receive a knock on the door. (In the 90s this was still normal). I open it to find a lady with a bunch of pizza boxes , at least 10, asking for payment. I quietly go in circles with her that i didn’t order and thus payment, from me, isn’t happening. Then she bursts into song. A paid prank from a friend.

Judge it as you will. No one is touched. No one is hurt. Friend got a good laugh. I’d call it a neutral experience. I don’t understand why you’d spend money on such things, but there it is.

A prank. The story OP posted is about an assault.

So, this kid (legal, sure, but displaying the emotional age of a 13 year old) found an autistic student, somehow, paid to travel to his campus, cornered him in a bathroom and broke his glasses. For content?

There’s a bully market on YouTube now? Or this kid thought there should be, not comprehending the legal problems involved with being on vid harassing people?

In a way, it makes sense. Same donors. Why wouldn’t some of them get bought off post election? The money in legislators is the entire game.

I’m not defending it, I’m pointing out how obvious it is that this would happen since most elections are oligarch influenced. Oh, the oligarch lost? Money just gets more direct now. Probably. To make sure each vote goes their way. No other reason for these anti-American assholes to switch party lines.

It’s probably why they’re so rabid about people like AOC, Bernie, and Mamdani. They can’t buy them off.

In am offshore Trump family account, probably.

Remember vid cams way back? On the shoulder with VHS tapes.

Right but sometimes conditions have to be right for it is my point. And the riots/orotests (depending) were more intense and publicized than prior. Not sure the results would’ve been the same in January. People like to think better of themselves, but background human behavior variables guide things too. Outside in January? Probably not unless your MN, WI, or MI. (There a culture of pride in weathering cold weather in the upper Midwest that doesn’t reallly sway them.) April though? Yes please, for most.

Getting to this point, doing it on scheduled work days, is step one. The energy has to be there before anything else can ignite.

Cameras in general. Good quality film cameras took some work and were heavy. Like bookbag heavy. You’d have to carry a little set of filters (thin lens caps that screwed onto the main lens) in addition to another lens or two to get a good range of options. Now, tap, done. Copies? NP. Black and white? Tap. No need to use up the roll of color film and then switch to black and white film.

I’d love to think people would’ve protested racism and gross police incompetencies ending in death regardless, but it’s highly unlikely.

Even the storming of the Bastille had to wait for nice weather.

Locking away the poors’ access to distraction could very well be that “nice weather”.

Piracy keeps the poors occupied and busy so they don’t riot. There’s no blood left to squeeze from that rock, they’re not going to buy streaming. Games are in decline as systems die of go outdated, and corporate erodes the quality of development.

They’re idiots if they push this bill in earnest.

Look what happened the last time people had too much time on their hands (Covid). And everyone has a lot more to pissed about, now.

Selfies always read as less secure to me. Possibly problematic on bad days or Halloween.

Fingerprint or tapping a code makes more sense.

I’m waiting for the selfie required logins. Right now, you log into YouTube or anything else with that user base and they want a selfie and a phone number. YouTube even asks for your address. You can skip. For now.

This is in deep as a national practice already. It’s why your doctors visits are so shitty now.

Corporate now runs PCPs like machines. 10-15min per patient. 1 maybe 2 (try not to) problems at most per visit. Overbooked like an airport. No free appointment slots for immediate concern patients or when things just run over because that one patient needs more help today (common clinic practice pre corporation).

The no free appointment slots practice is now one piece of why you’re waiting 3 months. The other reasons are: one problem per visit, and no longer just phoning that script in or setting up a referral or whatever without, drum roll, another in person appointment first.

Unless this law doesn’t grandfather in what is already there, it’s worthless. It’s more likely it’s for midterms. To demo all the republicans who will vote against it.