Oh, it occurs from time to time. Jones will shotgun tons of contradictory predictions, then quietly drop the ones that don’t work out and never shut up about the one that actually happens.

Not only that, but trust from a self contained community is not the same as safe for the general public outside of context. Imagine asking for a summary of the Gamestop shortsqueeze and getting an answer from Superstonks.

honestly, not sure I -ever- found a useful answer on Quora.

Reading them taught me one thing, Quora had/has a weirdly strong hardon for Steve Jobs and is/was all too happy to talk about anecdotes of him buying the authors’ lunch or reconciling with his estranged daughter. The only time I read criticism of Apple or him was when the question specifically asked for it.

There’s ways to rate limit, like increasing response time per IP address per hour to make rapid, massed requests slower and easier to handle. Taking them all down at once is an extreme move.

Let me add one thing more, that a realistic aesthetic brings with it certain expectations. For example, I don’t question how Security Bots in Bioshock refuel themselves, or fly, or recognise intruders. I don’t ask how come the turrets in Portal never run out of bullets (though it’s answered as a gag in one of the videos). They’re not presented as realistic, and I don’t expect them to be. But when you make the choice to use realistic miniguns in Talos, those questions are going to bubble up to the surface, like “Where’s the ammo box on that thing?” and “Who’s maintaining these on islands in the middle of nowhere?” and “Scratch that, who’s making them?” and “If Elohim (yeah real subtle name there) did all this then why bother with a machine that requires maintenance in the first place instead of a magic pillar of fire or smth?”

The author is the host of Behind the Bastards, and produced a pair of episodes to accompany the article on the same subject: https://pca.st/episode/96a1d3d1-7966-412b-bc8b-492c817b9f93

I can say I was put off at first glance by the “realistic” aesthetic, with props like jammers and minigun turrets that have an unnecessarily detailed, grounded look when as a puzzle game, graphics should not be the focus of the experience. A stylised, or minimal, graphical style would put the focus firmly where it belongs - on the puzzles themselves.

The commentary said they wanted to do rival criminal gangs, which would have made a lot more sense than the construction magnates they went with, but my guess is they realised West Side Story already did it.

The Federation makes it quite easy to quit a term of service before completion (even during war time)

I’m fairly sure it’s mentioned that once war broke out Rico was no longer allowed to leave, but he didn’t pay much attention because his two years weren’t up anyway.

once someone has quit they are never allowed to enroll again. This is to ensure that all volunteers are dedicated, whilst also discouraging people from leaving.

On the contrary, the Federation deliberately makes leaving as easy as possible to get rid of anyone who would otherwise leave later, or worse stay and let his squaddies down in a way that would get them killed. You can’t just up and leave (though no effort is made to find you if you desert), but at any time you can ask to see a superior, get your papers voided, and walk out off base.

This is because Federal Service is tough and dangerous (by design). It can involve joining the Military, being a Human Guinea Pig, testing survival equipment or Manual Labour.

This is a funny one. On the one hand, in execution it’s mentioned those physically unfit to serve in the military do get any pointlessly dangerous job available. But in principle, many speeches are made specifically saying military service is what makes someone worthy of political rights, because of the responsibility of military service. Someone counting the hairs of venomous caterpillars (an example job given in the book) has no responsibilities that could harm or help the country he’s serving.

his father told him everyone needed a basic understanding of it.

Three hundred years later and some things never change.

but yeah, why wouldn’t they just use standard anesthesia gas? or nitrous oxide?

Because the suppliers don’t want to be associated with executions, so they won’t sell any to the state for that purpose.

Okay yeah, but that’s not the discussion. You’d might as well say all methods are equally bad because it’s the act itself that’s the problem, and at that point the state can break out the human mincing machines knowing it’ll get just as much or little pushback no matter what it picks.

Funny, I remember nitrogen gas being promoted as far more humane than lethal injection or existing gas execution. For years it was touted as the solution no one was using because of I guess sadism. Now someone is using it, and of course it’s instantly denounced. You just can’t win…

a firefox extension that does this automatically?? removing the redirect/tracking link and convert back into normal link)

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/utm-eraser/

Be sure not to leave fingerprints!

I highly recommend you watch Netflix’s Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.

As a free alternative/companion, I would also suggest the PBS documentary Boeing’s Fatal Flaw, which features the CEO subtly throwing the pilots under the bus for one of the MCAS crashes.

Pale Lights, an ongoing web serial set in the pistols-and-sabres era. The first book’s already out for you to read! The author previously wrote A Practical Guide to Evil, which is completely finished.

I think that ‘Star Trek - The Next Generation’ covered this very dilemma with (S2E18) Up The Long Ladder. …The one where the crew execute the clones that Planet A were making of them to make up for their lack of genetic diversity, and forced them to marry into Planet Ireland instead?

I use FreeFileSync: https://freefilesync.org

How authentic is this on Mayer’s end? He’s set up cameras, lighting, probably got the owner’s permission…he’s not ‘just happening’ to sit there on Zoom.