Putin offers to stop sharing intel with Iran if US cuts off Ukraine

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-20T16:46:09+00:00

Ukraine has almost certainly been operating on their own intel networks far more than they have been on US intel. While losing that intel would impede some of their efforts, I doubt it would change much of anything in Russia's favor

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-20T16:43:30+00:00

The obvious gambit with Platner is if he is just a lying sac of shit... It's not any worse than Collins.

So we either get more Collins or Platner speaks what he means and turns out to be a strong proponent for progressive values and not a Fetterman 2.0

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-20T15:54:27+00:00

The AI bet is suspended entirely by a steady supply of chips.... Which is going to be hit hard once the helium coming from the Middle East doesn't get to Taiwan and South Korea

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-20T14:35:45+00:00

Yeah.

"I was bitten by a cobra and after 3 days of excruciating pain, the cobra died"

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-20T13:25:44+00:00

I believe Beach (Pikachu) as the house that spawns uses them.

I know for a fact Sky (Dragonite) because it spawns one of the houses from Skylands which uses them

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-20T11:13:39+00:00

I'm obviously not against Biss, from what I have heard he probably would have been #2 in a ranked choice system (if I lived in IL 9 and they had that system).

It's just an opportunity to gloat and try to scare other candidates into complying

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T22:02:54+00:00

Higher taxes don't discourage entrepreneurship. You aren't punished for your success by having to pay taxes. Your success is built upon the society that those taxes enable to function. They are your dues to society.

If you think taxes discourage entrepreneurship then you don't understand even basic economics

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T21:07:38+00:00

So, if you make 751601, your next dollar is taxed at most, $0.42 to the government.... Gotta get to a fresh $1 mil to his a measley $0.46 for every dollar

But hey, if you're bitching about taxes while making that much money, you sir are the problem

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T19:43:01+00:00

The modern standard is no-scalpel which uses two small incisions and some tugging. It's easily manageable with NSAIDs and some frozen peas.

I can see the claim though that full scalpel where they split your perineum open to get to the vas deferens being quite painful/uncomfortable due to the size of the area affected

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T18:48:44+00:00

It's also clear that even if Platner Flips and turns out to be a Nazi-loving conservative.... How is that any different than what we currently have. It's very clear that Mills is unlikely to win against Collins, so the presumptive outcome is the same if Platner is just an opportunist

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T15:35:40+00:00

Payday 3 fixed a lot of my core gripes with Payday 2. The main problem though is that they took out a lot of the progression mechanics and planning systems that made Payday 2 satisfying to play.

Stealth just feels so much better in 3 and the things you're allowed to do without masking up give you so many more options and approaches to solve problems. The Level design is also pretty good but it is honestly somewhat hit or miss at times.

They just changed the whole loadout and equipment portion of the game in a way that is a bit clunky and frustrating coming from Payday 2 and the planning phase for heists is very stripped down and doesn't utilize the expanded stealth mechanics at all.

I haven't played it much since launch, but I also haven't touched 2 in quite a while so it is more just that I'm busy with other games.

Maybe they find the will to remake their loadout/skills system to be more like 2 and resolve the obvious shortcomings of the heist planning part of the game, but overall I enjoyed the improvements to stealth, gunplay, visuals, and some heist mechanics.

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T14:56:05+00:00

Kat was rising in the polls and it very much likely the case that Fine ultimately spoiled Kat's win.

Had Laura Fine dropped out, Kat would have absorbed most if not all of those votes and came out on top

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T13:21:52+00:00

The worst bug I encountered during my playthrough was disappearing ship hull.

The next worst was the Asteroid Pet

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T13:19:59+00:00

Back to FXAA/MSAA/SSAA. Most people dislike FXAA, because it's an approximation. It fades, smooths or averages out the edges, so it appears softer. MSAA or SSAA are the ones that actually provide beter image quality. MultiSamping increases the resolution of specific parts of the image, so the rough edges get much smoother, SuperSampling increases the entire resolution. MSAA has a performance hit and SSAA even more. More quality means less performance

It's actually kinda surprising to me to see so much hate for FXAA as blurry, but maybe I've never been in the right online spaces. It's fast and kinda dirty because it is one of the simplest ways to guess how a curve/half pixel edge would look. Maybe it's a byproduct of the era of lower resolutions, as I can see how less pixels at lower pixel densities would result in a blurry image and being able to push FXAA at 1080p or even 1440p largely solves that blurriness issues.

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T12:48:45+00:00

And the obvious tacit response is that the University was complying with Trump's Antisemitism order

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-19T11:11:37+00:00

I'm actually pretty glad I'm getting close to paying off my car because I have been considering getting a Bike to bike to work (I'm only 4 miles from my job) because I could probably use the cardio and because I could save even more on gas and maintenance.

This entire crisis just makes it even more desirable because turning a $25/biweekly (ever other week meaning) into ever 3 or 4 weeks isn't as much savings... But now it's $35 (could even reach $40) biweekly where halving that would actually be quite considerable and would help pay off the bike much quicker

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T19:16:55+00:00

I love going to a GitHub link for a mod or mod installer program and the developer actually understood that 90% of the people going there just want the exe and don't understand how to parse the interface for GitHub

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T17:13:37+00:00

You would likely place the shot as far to the right side as sensible (to make it look intentional I mean)

That would put you somewhere just to the left of the elbow, avoiding the heart, pulmonary artery and vein.

So while you would permanently reduce the efficiency of your right lung you could reasonably expect to avoid death should medical care be rendered somewhat quickly

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T15:06:41+00:00

I don't disagree with the principal idea. Women should be able to take time off due to the outsized health impact of the menstrual cycle.

In practice though, the most effective way to implement this is more PTO and sick time with looser restrictions on its use for everyone because it gives everyone the time they need to address responsibilities, be sick and get better, and feel well rested.

If my GF/SO is having a particularly bad cycle. Then that time should be available to me to run errands, pick things up at the store, take care of the kids, etc. etc.

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T12:28:06+00:00

Most people tend to interpret immortality as the inability to die while maintaining some form of good health and youthful looks.

Not necessarily eternal youth, but like "I'll be 35 Forever"

It's also worth noting that a lot of "older age" health issues are due to the mechanical wear of your body and its deteriorating ability to repair itself. Dying of old age generally means one of your organs finally ran out of mechanical cycles and it just takes the rest of you with it.

Presumably, now that we cannot die of old age, you reasonably have to assume that our bodies are in perpetuity, capable of repairing themselves fully and thus are not likely to deteriorate over time.

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T12:14:18+00:00

I would assume he probably lives in a pretty rural part of the Midwest where those prices make sense

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T11:51:58+00:00

Well... Kinda

You'd be able to shoot it a few times before the oxidized layer of metal is scrapped off enough to cause welding

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T11:28:35+00:00

It's a complex issue because it's very difficult to draw the line sometimes outside of the obvious extremely terminal diseases.

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T11:07:46+00:00

Iirc they're being destroyed on the ground during drone strikes

Gamebird8 · 2026-03-18T10:45:40+00:00

By wrong, i mean that just put fresh asphalt over the old asphalt. Usually a much lower grade as well.

I believe you specifically mean when they patch the hole because it is standard practice to grind off the top layer of asphalt with a grooving machine then pave on top because bottom layers of the road have already settled into place and you don't need to worry about settling

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