EGM will always be my favorite vide game magazine. I like Game Informer, had a subscription back in the day, even had a subscription last year before they shut down. But GI is no EGM. Wish they'd come back, too.
I was talking to my dad today. He's close to retirement and he was kinda reminiscing about his early days with his employer, the US fed govt, especially with all the shit lately.
He told me the story again of how he got his first federal position. He went to some job fair in like 1990 after he finally finished his degree, and the guy manning the booth offered him a job on the spot. And the rest is history.
I'm also a federal employee. It took me 15+ yrs of applying for numerous federal positions, having to do stupid aptitude tests online, or even in person -- I once flew across the country to literally sit for an ACT/SAT-type aptitude test, on my own dime -- all to get two interviews over that whole time period. It was only in 2023 that I finally got an offer, which I started like 5mo ago.
Offer on the spot at a job fair? That's unheard of these days. I don't even see the point of going to job fairs anymore, since all they do is say, "just apply online!" The few I've been to in the past weren't even accepting resumes in person or doing any on-the-spot interviews. Then what's the point of this?
And having sat on the "other side" of the table, helping conduct interviews, it's all shit. Not the candidates (well...sometimes), but the process. If the whole rigmarole is to help find and select better candidates, then it's not working. I'd rather pick a couple candidates, hire them on probation for 90 days, and evaluate them that way. Then let go of the less-performing one. Or both if neither are worth it. We'd be able to really evaluate them, while at least they'd maybe learn something and get paid.
Griffin, who for now remains a judge on the state Court of Appeals,
The fact that a judge is doing this somehow makes this so much worse. I would be constantly be questioning this judge's impartiality on basically any topic.
Of course, that's just one of those idealisms. That judges and courts are above the fray. It looks like NC Court of Appeals judges are elected anyway. In partisan elections, at that. Which is insane to me for judges. Non-partisan retention elections are about as far as I'd go involving elections for the judiciary.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a new law that would lead to a ban of the social media platform TikTok.
> Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a new law that would lead to a ban of the social media platform TikTok, clearing the way for the widely popular app to shutter in the U.S. as soon as Sunday.
> "We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate the petitioners' First Amendment rights," the court said in a unanimous unsigned opinion, which upholds the lower court decision against TikTok. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch wrote separately, with Gorsuch agreeing with the outcome of the case but splitting with the court's reasoning.
Damn that's a game I haven't thought of in a long time. And I forgot that the SNES had a mouse! at all I even remember that hard plastic mouse pad it came with.
Very interesting article. I'm not a Washingtonian, so don't have much to say, other than that the state certainly has some hard decisions to make going forward. Especially in the face of a likely hostile federal trifecta, even if weak.
It'd be interesting if everyone "started" in the same place. For example, Mastodon.social. But then eventually, like maybe after 90 days, one was forced to choose a "home" instance to migrate to. Could be through a list of servers presented, or maybe a user has found one through friends, so they just type in the server and it kicks off a migration process. I'm almost thinking like an MMO starting area.
During that 90 days, the user has to (or should) learn about federation, why decentralization is important for privacy and security, what defederation means and blocking options, how and why instances are a thing, how to migrate an account, etc. Maybe even some info on how and why one could stand up their own instance.
And this doesn't have to like a classroom/book setting. It doesn't have to be "read this documentation." Maybe some 1min video clips, brief tooltips, little reminders to read a brief paragraph of two on some Mastodon topic. Gamify it; let people collect badges and achievements.
During all this, users have full access to everything Mastodon users can do. They can interact with anyone on the entry server, plus any server that's federated with it. Or maybe they're an already experienced user and want to go straight to another instance; they can either skip all this and migrate or start straight at another instance.
Though I wonder if that's still too much friction.
Because Mastodon and the Fediverse is confusing, especially at first. I'm a techy person. I work in IT. But when I started to looking at the Fediverse back in 2023, it was confusing. Where do I go to sign-up? There are different services on the Fediverse? Which do I get access to? Do I need an account for each service? How do I know that this instance for this service (Pixelfed, Lemmy, Masto, etc.) is a decent one? What happens if my friends/people I follow are on a different server? Will we be able to interact? What does it even mean to federate/defederate?
These are all the questions I asked as I was looking to all this. And it wasn't a quick 15min look. No, I spent a few hours looking into it.
But the average person isn't going to ask all this and research this. They just want a place to follow famous people, post about their life, and post pictures of their food and pets. When these people (myself included) signed up for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, etc, they just went to the appropriate site and signed-up.
It's not nearly as simple for Mastodon. Sure, Mastodon.social acts as the flagship and "gateway," but there are still the other questions that probably need some answers. Otherwise, a user may have a bad experience ("Oh, my friends aren't on this Mastodon server thing? And we're not federated? I gotta make a new account there? Ugh..."). Twitter and even Bluesky don't require those questions. Everyone is on the same instance, all the time.
The reality is that most don't really care for options and choice. Or even security and privacy. They want ease of accessibility. Mastodon is likely a better product (in most regards; I have and use both Mastodon and Bluesky, daily; Bluesky does a few things better), but the options Mastodon provides, especially at the start, are really more roadblocks or offramps than anything.
Oof, sorry to hear that. Lots of illnesses going around this time of year, which is expected, but Strep can't be particularly fun. Nor getting your tonsils out. When I got back from visiting my family for Xmas, I definitely picked up a little something. Had a scratchy throat, minor body aches, and a low fever. But it was gone within a couple days.
Otherwise, pretty chill this week so far. Unplanned WFH on Monday and Tuesday due to snowstorm. Then today (Thurs) is a paid "holiday" for Pres. Carter's funeral, and I took Friday off to make a 4-day weekend. So yesterday (Weds) was the only day I went into the office. I could've WFH again today, but thought I should make an appearance. Been a week since I was last in office, due to holidays, and next week I'm full WFH for online training. It was good to see people, anyway.
Thinking about visiting NYC for a day or overnight trip this weekend. I'd just take Amtrak up. I've been all over the States, but somehow never to NYC. So why not do something other than game and sleep for 4 days? Only thing I'm worried about is another potential snowstorm headed to the region. I don't want to get stuck in NYC if trains get cancelled for weather. But right now, the plan is to go. Just need to, you know, actually buy the train tickets and perhaps book a hotel room. The important things.
Finishing up Frostpunk. I started last year, then put it down basically for a year. Anyway, I recently finished 2 of 3 DLC campaigns. Working on the last one right now. Easily the hardest colony manager I've played, but it's so good. Can't wait to start Frostpunk 2 after this.
With friends, playing Barotrauma. We're doing our annual playthrough/attempt to get the to the end. Which we done once. There's 5 of us regularly playing (a 6th sometimes joins), which for us, seems to be the minimum we need. Think we just entered The Great Sea, which is the 4th of 5 biomes. Just upgraded to a Tier 3 sub.
Wonder when we'll see US-style tariffs in Europe on Chinese vehicles, particularly EVs. In the name of protecting European jobs and auto marketshare. Which would be unfortunate, given the need to move to EVs to mitigate climate change. As an American, I would've loved to have a $20k Chinese EV. I don't think there are ICE vehicles in the US that cheap these days.
But I also get the jobs issue, too. I think much of the West is in the situation we're in because of offshoring of jobs and competition from cheaper labor overseas. Loss of jobs, income, ability to support family, etc.
Curious to see how this plays out.
The 119th Congress starts today, Jan 3. One of the first orders of business is electing a Speaker of the House.
> Mike Johnson can likely only afford to lose a single GOP vote if he wants to remain speaker. He’s already got one Republican promising to oppose him, and about a dozen more who won’t commit to backing him.
When I want to pirate, torrenting is my go to. I don't do it very often, so I'm not really up-to-date on more modern methods. For some movies, I know there are those websites like 123movies or whatever. And I've used those. But Idek what additional methods there are anymore.
That said, I've tried torrenting over I2P, but it's just slow. Not necessarily super slow, but obviously slower than doing it over the clearweb with a commercial VPN. Additionally it seems like there's less available content with torrenting over I2P. At least in the little experience I've had with it.
Oh god, please no. I need some mind's-eyebleach.
> Nov 15 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas on Friday permanently blocked a Biden administration rule that would have made about 4 million more salaried U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay. > > U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Sherman, Texas, said the U.S. Department of Labor rule that took effect in July improperly bases eligibility for overtime pay on workers' wages rather than their job duties. > > The state of Texas and business groups representing a range of industries had filed lawsuits challenging the rule, which had been consolidated.
Oof. I'm in DHS. I'm assuming that in the event of any shenanigans, that'd be a "safer" place to be (though some components like FEMA and TSA maybe less so). But HUD? Definitely top of their list.
Here's hoping for the best. Because that's all we can do right now.
I started a job with the federal government two months ago. I'd been applying for like 18yrs; finally got one! Now a part of me wonders if I'll even have a job next year. Potential for Schedule F designation, layoffs of the federal bureaucracy, whatever other shit a hostile administration throws at us.
How do one sign up to get one or a few of these twink concubines? Asking for a friend.
I don't even know what that liberal nation would be anymore. Sure, for example, Europe is still largely pretty good, but even some of those countries are facing the rise of the right. And they have same objectives as the right here in the US has. Just because it's not as bad as the US right now, doesn't mean it can't be in the future, or even near future. Look at what's going on in Germany or France with the right or even far-right parties making large gains in recent elections and polls.
Feel like it's fucked in much of the world right now.
FYI, you're on Beehaw. Be(e) nice. I know times are crazy right now, I get it. But we still expect people to follow our rules here.
FYI, you're on Beehaw. Please be(e) nice. I know it's crazy times right now, I get it, but we do want folks to still abide by our rules and such here. Thanks.
> Four months after Jackson County voters rejected a Royals stadium proposal in Kansas City’s Crossroads District, and two months after Kansas legislation paved the potential for an alternative path, the vision of downtown baseball endures.
> [...]
> Those conversations have more recently concentrated on studying the viability of a site not prominent in their last exploration: Washington Square Park, which sits just north of Crown Center and east of Union Station. More on that in a bit.
On Friday morning, the National Weather Service reported that the temperature in Kansas City, Missouri, dropped to 54 degrees.
Posting the whole article, since it's so short.
>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - It’s not quite pumpkin spice season, but it sure felt like it on Friday. > On Friday morning, the National Weather Service reported that the temperature in Kansas City, Missouri, dropped to 54 degrees. That broke the record low of 55 degrees for an Aug. 9, set in set in 1927. > As of Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., Kansas City had reached a high of just 71 degrees. The record coldest high temperature for Aug. 9. is 73 degrees. That was accomplished in 1991, the NWS reported. > “We may wind up setting a record low and record low high temperature for the date,” the National Weather Service stated. > First Warn 5 chief meteorologist Luke Dorris said Friday’s weather is typical for Oct. 7!
As expected long before competition began, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Team USA defeated Victor Wembanyama and host France, 98-87, on Saturday in Paris, making it five straight Olympic gold medals for the United States in men's basketball.
> The indelible moment came from Steph Curry, who made four uber clutch 3-pointers in a two-minute second stretch of the fourth quarter to turn away a French uprising. Curry assured his first gold with a ridiculous fall away bomb, silencing the home fans with his "put them to sleep" trademark move.
That was an incredible ending. Final score was 98-87, USA.
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten breaks down the numbers around JD Vance since his announcement as Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick.
> CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten breaks down the numbers around JD Vance since his announcement as Donald Trump's vice presidential pick.
Donald Trump has selected Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his VP. Vance swept to national prominence with his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
> MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former President Donald Trump chose Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate on Monday, picking a onetime critic who became a loyal ally and is now the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America’s political leaders.
Non-paywalled archive.is link.
> Some Kansas lawmakers want to use STAR bonds to finance new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals. After Jackson County voters rejected a county sales tax for the teams in April, a Kansas proposal would authorize STAR bonds with 30-year terms to pay up to 100% of the cost of building a new stadium across the state line.
> Fully financing a Chiefs stadium could mean issuing $2-3 billion in STAR bonds, and potentially $1.5 billion to $2 billion for the Royals. Never before have STAR bonds of that size been issued. As of 2020, $1.1 billion total in STAR bonds had been issued in total, according to a state audit. The Chiefs-Royals proposal could triple that.
> It is far from certain whether such a massive project could pay for itself solely with sales tax revenue.
> The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed the results of a 2022 vote in which Missourians overwhelmingly approved a measure forcing Kansas City to pay more for its police. > The extraordinary decision found that Missouri voters were misled by statewide officials when they approved the measure, called Amendment 4. It calls for a new election to be held in November. > Judge Paul C. Wilson wrote in the opinion that the financial estimates on the ballot question that voters saw in 2022 failed to “concisely and accurately advise voters” of its impact on Kansas City.
These are their exit interviews.
Some softball questions aimed at outgoing House members. Still kinda interesting. Especially when it comes to the Congressional salary question.
If you're not careful, you might think a poll just told you who is going to win
Basic article from Reuters on polling and what things in results mean or don't mean. Not at all in-depth but it is interactive. Always fun to play with sliders and buttons.
> Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is threatening legal action against Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas after the mayor made comments suggesting the city would benefit from immigrants seeking asylum in cities such as New York coming to work in Kansas City.
A Biden ballot brouhaha as Democrats try to certify the president ahead of convention, but GOP Ohio officials say that's not allowed.
> Ohio officials rejected a plan from Democrats to get President Joe Biden on the November ballot after the party scheduled its convention past a state election deadline.
> Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned Ohio Democrats earlier this month that Biden is at risk of not making the Nov. 5 ballot. State law requires officials to certify the ballot 90 days before an election − which is Aug. 7 this year − but the president won't officially be nominated until the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.
> Lawmakers could pass an exemption to the 90-day deadline by May 9, as they did in 2020 when both parties scheduled their conventions too late. But the chances of that are slim: Top Democrats said they're deferring to the Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee, and Republican leaders are unlikely to lend a helping hand.
The Senate has already passed similar legislation, which is awaiting House debate.
> Missouri House Republicans passed a resolution Wednesday that seeks to make it harder to amend the state constitution.
> Lawmakers voted 106-49 to pass the resolution, almost strictly on party lines, with Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, being the only Republican to vote no.
> The resolution now goes to the Senate, which has already approved its version.
> [...]
> The resolution, if passed by both chambers, would ask voters whether it should be harder to amend Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process.
Even though this will likely pass both chambers, it still has to go to a plebiscite.
Hopefully Missourians are smart enough to vote down this attack on our rights. Luckily, voters have been pretty good about things like this (except for the rollback of the lobbying reform "Clean Missouri" act). Still, people need to be aware of this.
The 3/8th-cent sales tax extension would have helped build a new Kansas City Royals stadium downtown as well as fund renovations at Arrowhead Stadium for the Chiefs. Tuesday's vote followed months of intense campaigning from both teams, and a concerted opposition from community and activist groups.
> Jackson County voters handed the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs a major setback on Tuesday, rejecting a stadium sales tax extension that would fund a new downtown baseball stadium and renovations at Arrowhead Stadium.
> Question 1 would have repealed Jackson County’s existing 3/8th-cent sales tax and replaced it with a tax at the same level that extends until 2064. The results mean that sales tax will end in 2031, when the Royals and Chiefs’ leases expire, and can only be used on the existing Truman Sports Complex properties.
> “No” prevailed with 58% of the vote, compared to 42% “yes” votes.
Should be noted that the split was the same in both Kansas City (within Jackson County) and Jackson County (outside of Kansas City). KCEB administers elections in Kansas City (within Jackson Co), while the Jackson County Election Board handles the rest of the county. Turnout was exceptionally high in both jurisdictions; 24% by KCEB [PDF], and 34% for JCEB.
In a redo of their first failed attempt, Republicans pushed through the charges over solid Democratic opposition, making the homeland security secretary the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached.
Gifted link should be non-paywalled (Archive.is link if desired).
> The United States House of Representatives voted narrowly on Tuesday to impeach Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, in a precedent-shattering vote that charged him with willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching the public trust.
> In a 214-to-213 vote, Republicans barreled past the solid opposition of Democrats and reservations in their own ranks to make Mr. Mayorkas the first sitting cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached.
Gifted link should be non-paywalled (Archive.is link if desired).
> House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) preemptively rejected the Senate’s $95 billion national security package to aid Israel, Ukraine and other U.S. allies, saying in a statement that the package’s failure to address U.S. border security makes it a nonstarter in the House.
Taiwan’s vice president, whose party has emphasized the island’s sovereignty, defeated an opposition party that favors reviving engagement with China.
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/11011730
> [Submitted link is an NYT gifted link,](In a Setback for Beijing, Taiwan Elects Lai Ching-te as President) so should be a free to all to read. > >Taiwan’s vice president, Lai Ching-te, who has faced sustained hostility from China, won the island democracy’s presidential election on Saturday, a result that could prompt Beijing to step up pressure on Taiwan, deepening tensions with Washington. > > > For many of the millions of Taiwanese citizens who lined up at ballot booths on Saturday, the vote centered on the question of who should lead Taiwan in an increasingly tense standoff with its much larger, autocratic and heavily armed neighbor, China. >
Taiwan’s vice president, whose party has emphasized the island’s sovereignty, defeated an opposition party that favors reviving engagement with China.
[Submitted link is an NYT gifted link,](In a Setback for Beijing, Taiwan Elects Lai Ching-te as President) so should be a free to all to read. >Taiwan’s vice president, Lai Ching-te, who has faced sustained hostility from China, won the island democracy’s presidential election on Saturday, a result that could prompt Beijing to step up pressure on Taiwan, deepening tensions with Washington.
> For many of the millions of Taiwanese citizens who lined up at ballot booths on Saturday, the vote centered on the question of who should lead Taiwan in an increasingly tense standoff with its much larger, autocratic and heavily armed neighbor, China.
JCPhoenix @beehaw.org Internet Addict. Reddit refugee. Motorsports Enthusiast. Gamer. Traveler. Napper.
He/Him.
Also @JCPhoenix@lemmy.world. @jcphoenix@mastodo.neoliber.al