but in the English speaking world I’d say it’s the most unique name I’ve heard.

Probably because it actually a French surname, which is itself based on a place name in France that no longer exists… and it is not her actual given name, but something she adopted from a character in The Great Gatsby.

You do realize that the impeachment isn’t the goal, right? It’s just the first step. If you want to forcibly remove Trump while he’s still alive, you only have 2 options. 1) You need Vance and half of Trump’s cabinet to formally deem him incapable of executing the powers of the office and replacing him with Vance under the 25th amendment and then (when Trump pushes back) have 2/3rds of both houses of congress vote to agree he’s incapable. Or 2) Have a majority of the House vote to impeach him, and then have 2/3rds of he Senate vote to convict, which will result in his removal from office. Impeachment isn’t just a formal scolding. That’s called a censure. It’s an indictment of a crime that will then be tried in the Senate. In both cases of impeachment last time, the spineless Senate voted to acquit. But that doesnt mean that they won’t ever break ranks or that in voting to acquit they may lose votes as a result.

No it’s a tool, created and used by people. You’re not treating the tool like a person. Tools are obviously not subject to laws, can’t break laws, etc… Their usage is subject to laws. If you use a tool to intentionally, knowingly, or negligently do things that would be illegal for you to do without the tool, then that’s still illegal. Same for accepting money to give others the privilege of doing those illegal things with your tool without any attempt at moderating said things that you know is happening. You can argue that maybe the law should be more strict with AI usage than with a human if you have a good legal justification for it, but there’s really no way to justify being less strict.

It’s pretty simple as I see it. You treat AI like a person. A person needs to go through legal channels to consume material, so piracy for AI training is as illegal as it would be for personal consumption. Consuming legally possessed copywritten material for “inspiration” or “study” is also fine for a person, so it is fine for AI training as well. Commercializing derivative works that infringes on copyright is illegal for a person, so it should be illegal for an AI as well. All produced materials, even those inspired by another piece of media, are permissible if not monetized, otherwise they need to be suitably transformative. That line can be hard to draw even when AI is not involved, but that is the legal standard for people, so it should be for AI as well. If I browse through Deviant Art and learn to draw similarly my favorite artists from their publically viewable works, and make a legally distinct cartoon mouse by hand in a style that is similar to someone else’s and then I sell prints of that work, that is legal. The same should be the case for AI.

But! Scrutiny for AI should be much stricter given the inherent lack of true transformative creativity. And any AI that has used pirated materials should be penalized either by massive fines or by wiping their training and starting over with legally licensed or purchased or otherwise public domain materials only.

The point of the crazy stuff in is so the tax cuts are not the crazy part in that context. They make that the easy target and make the Dems feel like they accomplished something and got some compromise when the GOP really got what they wanted in the end.

It’s like keeping a few weapons on you hidden badly so they don’t find the ones you hid well. Or when you send a movie to the MPAA for rating that you’re afraid will get the movie-killing NC-17 rating, so you intentionally seed the movie with even more gratuitous sex and violence so that you have something to cut to compromise with the MPAA and you end up with the movie and the rating you wanted in the first place.

Fun fact: If you’ve ever seen Sausage Party, that’s what the super long vulgar sex scene at the end was supposed to be. It was bait for the MPAA’s complaints so they could cut it to get the R rating they wanted. But the MPAA only came back with a single complaint, the Pita Bread’s (I believe?) pubic hair on his scrotum. So Seth Rogan said… “Oooookay!” Removed the pubes and released the movie with the rest of the sex scene intact. Cuz when are you ever going to have that chance again?

Starting a conversation with a stranger is usually unwise

Starting a conversation with a stranger by calling a kid ugly is usually unwise. Doubly so when the person you are talking to is the only other adult and possible parent in the vicinity. Triply so when you are grown adult man sitting alone in a park assigning beauty standards to kids. But yes, it is the baby with an overbite and his mother with alternative style that are the weird ones, sure.

More than that, giving food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and giving comfort to the imprisoned, is literally the same as doing those things for Jesus Christ, himself, from his perspective. And, moreover, those who do those things will earn their place in heaven, and those who fail to do those things will be eternally damned to hell. It’s not subtextual. It’s not ambiguous and up for interpretation. It says very clearly that Jesus separated those who are going to heaven and hell to either side and the distinction between the groups was how they treated “the least” of his brothers and sisters. Matthew 25:31-46.

So, bad news Christian Republicans. Might want to correct yourself now before it’s too late.

Frankly, how would DHS even know at this point?

Probably three reasons:

1. They have a lot of synthetic dyes on hand that they do not wish to waste.
2. They have to secure and arrange new reliable supply chains for the natural dyes and probably arrange new processes for storing and using the dyes as they will not be 1:1 with the synthetics.
3. They may want to transition slowly, maybe product testing in specific areas to see how consumers react to the new look, taste (because natural dyes usually affect that), and labeling, and adjusting accordingly before rolling out to the whole counry/world.

That dye has never stopped being used, you know. You have almost certainly been eating food with this dye for your entire life. You likely have products in your home with this dye in it right now. Red candies, red velvet cake, red drinks, strawberry or raspberry yogurts, maraschino cherries, ice creams, some sausages or faux crab meat, too. It is a very common dye.

When it became big news a few years back, the main problem was not that it is made from bugs. The problem was that it was being used in ostensibly vegan products, making it not actually vegan. The big target at the time was Starbucks for their pink drink (I believe). But most companies didnt ever change anything.

In reality, synthetic dyes are likely nowhere near as much of a health risk as the sugars and salts in these products anyway. But anything that can be done to incrementally improve the healthiness of product, it’s still progress. And at least people can read the label and make informed decisions about the nutritional value of the salt, fat, sugar, etc. in their food. But the actual risks of other ingredients, like dyes, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners, are far less apparent to the typical shopper, even if they are largely minimal in risks, if the actual risks are even known in the first place, that is.

May she never leave the hospital

Beast master ranger confirmed

Every country is fucked now. There are no heroes, only victims and victimizers.

Hmm, i use - go@eatabagofdicks.gov.

So, Imma go back to my philosophy 101 argument structure days. Fill in the blank.

Premise 1. Racists should never feel safe being racists. Premise 2. Nobody willingly becomes an ICE agent without being a racist. Conclusion: Therefore, … ?

Well, first I gotta ask, is any of this really necessary or worth it? You want to resolve some limitations with the standard MIDI format, but are those limitations worth this much trouble to fix? “Buy dont build” is an important principle for any developer to take to heart because we all want to just do it ourselves, dive into the challenge, fix the little gripes, etc. But sometimes good is good enough and there’s no reason to retread the same ground someone else has. If you absolutely need something standard MIDI format can’t give you or available editors dont meet your needs, then sure, build away. But otherwise, save yourself the trouble, put your focus on the more important aspect of your project and just use the standard format.

And dont fall for the sunk cost fallacy. You have already invested time into this, and that time is gone. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should sink in more time if the outcome is not going to justify the additional time cost. It is okay to just shelf it for now. You can always come back to it if you need to later as well.

Like the Fremen. Harsh environments breed tough people.

Gossipy bitches.

No shit Sherlock. Literally the point