I am begging anyone on this sub, begging. Help me get FEMA data. It is just as vital. Please.

This is an executive order, not a law. That doesn't make it any less terrible, however. Those commenting it is just political posturing are seriously misinformed at the wide range and scope this action will (not might, not could, WILL) have on you. Anything even tangentially related to getting work done, grants made, research funded with the federal government will be effected. In brief, the scope and impact of an executive order can vary greatly depending on the specific issue and the details of the order itself. This one will likely be meant to ensure that grant making, contracts, research, and legal recourse for those not subscribing to it's narrow and, frankly, archaic definitions will have a very difficult time interacting with the federal government in a variety of ways. But again, we are entering uncharted territory where the legislative, judicial, and executive are now all openly corrupt and willing to harm and hinder rather than help people.

I don't think the general public realizes the sheer insanity of the new government and their willingness to go far to harm people they don't like or don't agree with. Therein lies the real danger. How this EO will be interpreted and executed across the executive branch will be purposefully cruel and targeted. With the recent spat of boot licking in SCOTUS, I fear we're all in for a world of hurt. I'm just an ally, and I'm telling you that you absolutely must not bury your head in the sand on this one. You have to find ways to either protect yourself or protest/contest in a way you deem necessary for your health and well-being. Even a simple act of protest can mean a world of difference to those who are and will suffer.

The only bright side is an Executive Order ONLY effects federal branches of government under authority of the President. They can be undone by future presidents and challenged/overturned after judicial review. Remember the "Muslim ban?" That was one example.

So please, I beg you, do not brush this off as a Trumpism. This is meant to unleash the powers of hate, ignorance, and brutality that will latch onto as permission to be complete assholes.

Gates has done a magnificent job burying the fact that he is a horrible human being. There is a reason old Slashdot used him photoshopped as a Borg for a thumbnail for any story Microsoft.

I just respect everyone and never assume their identity is what I initially (subconsciously?) think. It took a long time to get there, but I just take every person as a person worthy of respect and dignity as my default.

Thanks for this. Time to play around and experiment.

The honest answer is no one knows. The line is subject to change. My opinion is foreign troops threatening Russia.

Hypothetical (I hope for now and forever) If, say, France actually put soldiers in Ukraine Russia would do all sorts of shenanigans short of nuking anyone. If French and Ukrainian troops entered Russia, then we'd see tactical nukes used on Ukrainian soil for certain.

I'm going to tackle this as best as I can. I am not a subject matter expert, but have done enough political science work and worked with both Power Transition Theory and Great Power Theory to at least kick off a discussion. None of what follows is my personal opinion on the war or ideas concerning morality or just wars. This is also very simplified.

-At the moment, the Ukraine War is contained. It is not spreading and, thus, the world powers are not interested in intervening. Even in this case, the amoral state (read Richelieu) has no reason to get involved.

-The war's continuation, at the moment, does not threaten state survival to anyone outside of Russia and Ukraine. Maybe Belarus? But I view that as a non-issue since they are essentially Russia's puppet state.

-Internal challenges in nation's that could intervene will prevent them from doing so. Why? Escalating to "boots on the ground" has one of two effects. One, a surge of nationalism that allows the state to absorb immediate shocks and unifies the population. Two, a complete disruption of legitimacy and systems that could cause the state to collapse. There's not enough risk to justify the possibility of two happening.

-The western European states have not seen a major ground war in Europe since WW2. Entire generations have no idea what a modern nation-state vs. nation-state war is actually like. Afghanistan or Iraq, where international forces did operate, was very different. Getting into a shooting war directly with another power is a huge risk and huge unknown.

I'm not reading the article but instead trying to be amusing. If it breaks the reality, please put me in a new one with really good scotch, healthy knees, and a spirit of adventure!

My family invested in a jungle-gym when I was a kid. We were lucky. The slide was wood with a thin wax coating. It lasted about one year in that region, baking in one season, swelling in another, freezing and thawing in the other two, until it became a splinter distributor and we never used it again.

For the metal slides, however, lying on a skateboard + metal slide = somehow never broke a bone.

I highly recommend you visit your local library and request/check-out a copy of the book Polarization by Nolan McCarty. Read that.

The epilogue is actually pretty damn good. Highly recommended.

I've been playing Soulmask and enjoying it, but I need a break as the building in that game leaves a lot to be desired. So I'm returning to Baldur's Gate 3. I can never bring myself to play Durge or evil aligned characters, but I'm going to try a class and character I've never considered and see how it goes.

Month later update: This is the route I've gone down. I've used WSL to get Ollama and WebopenUI to work and started playing around with document analysis using Llama 3. I'm going to try a few other models and see what the same document outputs now. Prompting the model to chat with the documents is...a learning experience, but I'm at the point where I can get it to spit out quotes and provide evidence for it's interpretation, at least in Llama3. Super fascinating stuff.

I really appreciate all the responses, but I'm overwhelmed by the amount of information and possible starting points. Could I ask you to explain or reference learning content that talks to me like I'm a curious five year old?

ELI 5?

Manor Lords. Its got some annoying bugs in this EA version, but the developer should be really happy. Enjoying what is in front of me. Its beautiful, mind boggling at times, and fun.

So many story telling memories. ME is still a treasure to me despite its challenges and missteps. ME2 is among my favorite game of all time, right behind Dragon Age: Origins.

But ME3 has a scene that was so well executed that I don't think anything has ever topped it, for me, in video gaming storytelling. From his decision to rectify what he now believes is a past wrong, do it alone, to his final remark about seashells.

It, to me, is extremely emotional and in the best way that a good story can be.

I'm using Claude (subbed) to help me do qualitative coding and summarizing within a very niche academic framework. I was encouraged to try it by an LLM researcher and frankly I'm happy with the results. I am using it as a tool to assist my work, not replace it, and I'm trying to balance the bias and insights of the tool with my own position as a researcher.

On that note, if anyone has any insights or suggestions to improve prompts, tools, or check myself while I tinker, please, tell me.

Dragon Age: Origins

I respectfully offer that the Better Business Bureau is not a reputable source. They rate companies and charities in the same way Yelp rates businesses. They offer fees for ratings and the complaint process does absolutely nothing. I'll let you do the google sleuthing on it, but please, do not use them for anything.

Charity Navigator, Candid, and ProPublica offer far better tools for assessing charity. If you're paywalled from navigating some of the tools provided by Candid or other big entities, you can try your local library as they'll sometimes have access.

Finally, the "best" charity in my line of work (I research these things) depends on three things:

1. % of contributions spent on administrative overhead
2. % of revenue spent on ED/CEO compensation
3. Measured program effectiveness in the service area

And you should absolutely read what @[email protected] has contributed. Clear mission/value/goal/program alignment, transparency, and accountability to the public are, generally, praise worthy organizations. Those that do not provide annual reports, 990s, and other important information on their websites are, in my research/experience, generally doing something questionable if not illegal.