Book 2 in the Children of Time series has a civilization of genetically modified octopuses. They have a sort of dual intelligence, with their more conscious mind handling big ideas and emotions while their arms host a distributed intelligence that handles stuff like math and problem solving, and the two function independently and are only somewhat aware of each other.

They are incredibly alien and yet so very relatable. It was weird listening to the description of how their minds work on two different levels at once and realizing that this was coming from an audiobook that I was using to keep one half of my brain occupied while the other half gets work done.

Am I the only one here who looked at that picture and thought “Oh look, the rhino’s giving birth.”

Chicken is dinosaur meat.

Not to mention that the bullshit in AI videos made by the left would absolutely get called out in every propaganda outfit on the right. It would just give them more ammo (without the usual lies).

But even more important, it will grant legitimacy to everyone who responds to damning video evidence by claiming it was AI. We don’t need to make shit up, the reality is already horrifying. All AI will do is make it harder for people to believe their own eyes.

So if your character is from Alabama it could still work then.

Things that have helped me include:

• an alarm across the room that I have to get up to turn off.
• a light that turns on before that alarm
• an alarm app on my phone that can only be turned off by solving puzzles.
• having an engaging activity that I want to do ready for me and fit into my schedule
• getting up a little earlier so I have time to make a decent breakfast instead of grabbing some trash or just not eating.
• a TV set to turn itself on and set to a channel that shows stuff you can’t easily get used to (the history channel used to show random documentaries in the morning, no idea what it’s like now)
• strict discipline about never sleeping in even when I can.
• avoiding spending time in my bedroom when I’m not trying to sleep.
• setting a reminder to start getting ready for bed
• popping melatonin when that reminder goes off if I’m not already tired.
• drink water before drinking caffeine.
• stop caffeine at least 6 hours before bedtime.
• prescription medication in the morning. Not enough to replace all the other stuff, but definitely something that makes a huge difference with my sleeping disorder.

Because they aren’t just doing nothing, they are actively interfering.

If this became a trend it would probably just push the studios to be that much more focused on big franchises where the director is just doing a job for hire. And of course, their long term goal of being able to replace as many people as possible with AI, just as soon as the slop it churns out is good enough sell tickets.

Turn off the nsfw filter on steam and find out.

In an order issued by a Texas federal court last week

Ah, say no more.

An old friend of mine would often leave cups of coffee around his house that he had forgotten about. My favorite was when I found one in his freezer.

With the renewed interest from the show, it would make sense for Microsoft to get someone else working on a Fallout game since Bethesda isn’t going to do it any time soon. However, I would think that Obsidian would be the more natural choice. I would guess that MS would prefer to utilize one of the studios they own rather than license it out, but I could be wrong about that.

And even if they did license out development on a Fallout game, I would assume that they would be in a hurry to get something out there, which would make Larian far less appealing to them. I agree that they would probably make an amazing Fallout game, but another studio would probably make a decent enough game that costs less to develop and pays off sooner.

One of the things that sets the original apart from a lot of other open world survival craft games is that it was designed to be a single-player experience. Hopefully they can make it work well for both solo and co-op, but that’s a tricky balance.

One thing I’d really like to see is for creatures to be able to damage structures, and to balance that by having defenses to protect those structures. Being able to throw together an invincible fortress in seconds made some of the dangerous areas a lot less threatening.

A show should get as many episodes as it needs to tell the story it wants to tell in the best way possible.

Forcing a show to fill 20+ episodes with a set runtime often leads to lower quality filler episodes. It’s also a lot harder to do with the more serialized style that audiences have gotten used to. Babylon 5 showed that it could be done, but it takes a lot of skill, effort and planning.

On the other hand, having only 6 to 8 episodes can be infuriating when a show isn’t laser focused on telling a narrowly scoped and tightly scripted story. It can be done, but many shows waste precious time on tangents and subplots at the expense of the larger story. There’s less time for character development, foreshadowing, subtlety and pacing. Again, it can be done if it’s planned well and the writing is good, but often it just feels like a longer show that’s had essential material cut and rushed the plot because they didn’t plan for the amount of time they had. We still get the filler, even as they struggle to squeeze the story in. Can be especially bad when every episode has a different writer, and no one seems to know where the focus should be.

Lying about testing a product in order to get people to buy it so you can get your affiliate revenue sounds like fraud to me. Seems like the kind of thing that should lead to lawsuits and potentially criminal charges. Not that anyone would actually try to do something about this or most other problems facing consumers.