Honestly you can get a lot done just by wrapping a rubber band or two around your phone, it’ll kinda catch and hold in your pocket and make it more notable if someone tries to pull it out. Works for your wallet too, and all without building a whole ass mousetrap for your pocket.

But it’s okay, because now we can get wrong answers faster than ever, and we’ve taken human creativity and joy out of art.

So if I just occasionally have a beer with dinner does that mean I could also enjoy a bit of light recreational heroine for dessert?

So there will be a mistrial as the first jury list gets leaked, and Trump “loses access” to the information as the jury immediately starts to get death threats. In the next trial, the Jury names will be closely kept secrets.

Volcano lair, obviously.

Pretty much yeah. Mostly just “Yes, we know.” If they had any real chance of killing it off, they’d have done so before the game even launched. They’ll make a big show of looking into it, then grumpily admit there wasn’t technically any wrongdoing and, while they don’t support Palworld, they can’t actually stop it.

You seem to think they would put any value in appeasing fans of Palworld. They’re not even interested in appeasing their own fans. If they could publicly behead Palworld for all it’s fans to see they’d do it just to send a message.

That’s really tragic, after all we surely all recognize the great strides he took toward uniting Korea! Of course most of them were strides towards Food Aid, but he needed to get his steps in anyway.

Problem solved, lads, let’s go home. Right?

I certainly don’t advocate for giving her money and would support anyone choosing not to. I don’t go out of my way to negatively engage anyone who does buy HP franchise things, but I do quietly think less of them for it and snicker behind their back. That’s mostly just because I try to avoid confrontation though.

I did, however, play Hogwarts Legacy, enough at least to get a good read on the game. If I can save someone the trouble of playing it themselves, and especially save them from paying money to do so, then it was time… spent. Maybe not well spent, but since I can’t get a refund on time and I’m not out a dime anyway, let’s just… move on, shall we?

Hogwarts Legacy definitely has it’s problematic elements, most of which are more a result of the Harry Potter setting lore. The most egregious I recall is the connection of Goblins and some of the ugliest old stories of Jewish people. I’m of the opinion that Rowling didn’t do that intentionally, so much as she’s just kind of a shitty writer who didn’t actually think about what she was doing at all, but that doesn’t excuse it’s inclusion in the books, and certainly doesn’t excuse the proliferation in the game. That’s an ugly mark against the game that shouldn’t be overlooked, but when I played I was specifically on a mission to try to evaluate the game on it’s own merits, so… moving on.

As it relates to the trans community, I seem to recall the character creation was actually one of the more progressive I’d encountered. The game also didn’t do anything to try to enforce a gender identity on the player, beyond making you choose whether you call yourself a Witch or a Wizard, with you choice determining which side of the common room your bed is in. This was entirely unconnected to body type or voice chosen, and it didn’t do anything so crass as scold you for which bathrooms you went into. While I suspect that was specifically in an effort to counter some of the ugly things Rowling has said before, I still felt like it was worth recognizing that the creators of the game itself went out of their way to be more open about gender identity than most games.

As far as gameplay goes, it was pretty… okay? Not great, not terrible. It felt generic, a few kinda high points like the free roaming on a broomstick was fun, but countered with the lows of a pretty bland open world that was quickly not worth exploring. The RPG mechanics were functional enough, but not exactly engaging. Mediocre feels like a pretty solid description of the game, if it hadn’t been for the setting, and the controversy surrounding the setting, the game itself would have been completely forgotten in no time.

So, what about the setting? I still remember back when I was a child, growing up reading the HP books, it was a more innocent time that allowed the setting to garner some nostalgia credit with me, which Rowling’s later actions, and a helping of more mature hindsight, tarnished considerably. So, did the game serve to at least feed that craving for nostalgic old warmth?

Eh, not really. Sure it was kinda neat to explore the castle, there were a couple of locations that were memorable enough that finding them myself was… something, at least. Mostly though, it was just… bland. And not just the locations, but other elements of the setting. The game is set well before any of the books, so the only characters anyone is familiar with would be the ghosts, so that’s just boring. The whole world just feels… Dull. Just an example, you can learn the Unforgivable Curses in game, but using them in front of a professor just gets a pathetic little “I’d better not see you doing that again” line, no matter how many times you keep doing it. It’s pathetic, and of course never addresses things like why using a fire spell to light someone on fire until they burn to death is fine, but just zapping them with a green death ray isn’t. Boring, lifeless, uninspired. But surely, the sorting hat, that most memorable of- Nope nevermind, even that sucks. It asks you a single question akin to “How would you best describe yourself?” And they might as well have color coded the four answers, because it just picks your house based on that alone. If that wasn’t lame enough, it even gives you the chance to just change your mind and manually pick your house immediately after.

All in all, I’m sure the most avid fans of the Harry Potter world could find something to like in Hogwarts Legacy. The rest of us, though, have few reasons to try it, and far more reasons to avoid it and it’s Author entirely.

Now compare what flying in the 60’s cost to what it costs today. If you want some magical luxury experience, you can fly First Class and get a comfortable seat with extra amenities and preferential treatment, but you’re still just buying the cheap tickets aren’t you.

Yes, the airline is squeezing every penny they can out of everything they can, and they’re doing it because consumers are dramatically more sensitive to price than quality. When you look at the booking selection and the available flights are all more or less going to get the job done, you and just about everyone else will pick the one that costs $20 less, completely ignoring the First Class option that costs $800+ more. It’s why everything seems to be shitty and cheap these days, quality goods and experiences still exist, but we don’t pay for quality when the economy option costs a third as much.

I mean, 3D printing itself was just a gimmick, some niche little curiosity that didn’t have any practical use. Things improve, new use cases emerge, times change.

For anyone who stopped reading at the headline, it’s because the material they were using didn’t reach the strength requirements of the project (5,000 psi), despite what previous tests had suggested (6,000 to 8,000 psi). With revisions to the material used, they intend to begin working on the second planned house in the spring.

Perhaps I should have clarified that for the sake of discussion I was taking OP’s comment at face value, but the essentials are the same either way. Whether it’s a chain-wide declaration that napkins are done, a single store doing away with them, or just a sufficiently casual attitude to restocking them that allowed them to run out in the first place, the math in the end is all the same. They can and will let their service get a little shittier, because they know they’ll save more money than they lose.

I think it’s less that we’re expected to sympathize, and more just that they’ve realized enough people will tolerate it. With OP’s example, Taco Bell has clearly decided that whatever business they may lose due to people deciding to not go to Taco Bell anymore because of the lack of napkins will be less than whatever they save by not stocking napkins anymore.

And they’re right.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a shitty thing to do, but between people in general not realizing that this place doesn’t even have napkins anymore, and people deciding they still want semi-delicious garbage tacos anyway, they’re really not going to see a big dip in revenue. They’ve simply realized that they really can just make their presented experience a little shittier just to save some money.

The difference lies in how we got here. One means finding a new community, assessing it, and integrating into it. It means seeing the new community as distinctly not Reddit. The other is effectively a “Come as you are” invitation that will just directly import reddit’s culture, after which it will be effectively too late to trim less desirable behaviors.

If you just funnel reddit users onto Lemmy, you’re just going to get a shittier version of Reddit. You’ll be selecting for people who are tired of, can’t use, or rejected from reddit, but didn’t make the move on their own. That will result in growth, but at the cost of quality. Specifically reaching out to reddit users sends the message that you just want to be reddit for people who can’t or won’t use reddit anymore.

Expansion should come naturally. As Lemmy grows and improves, new users will naturally gravitate over, but because it wasn’t some sudden influx of reddit users they’ll be less inclined to just bring Reddit’s culture with them.

Thanks, I hate it.

On the model 3, yeah, because of all the rain pouring in.

Yes, you can. I mean, you’re probably still eating mold and it may or may not be “safe” but you can do it. You probably shouldn’t, however. When you see the mold on the surface, the mycelium have already spread much further. Best case scenario you still need to tear off much more than just the visible mold.