Was it really as “safe” as the article claims though? They diverted a full episode early in the show to have an hour long homosexual romance episode that completely changed the character paths and storyline for a major section of the game. I’m not really sure what “safe” even means in the context of the article’s argument.

Article appears to be written in Chinese–am I understanding from the headline that they were able to replicate the findings of the recently claimed ambient pressure, room temperature superconductor?

Despite overwhelmingly positive critical reviews, Children of Men lost money in its 2006 theatrical run. Most people I knew had never heard of it, and the only person I knew who had seen it was the friend I went to the theater with. It’s now generally regarded as one of the best films of the 21st Century (so far) and particularly lauded for its cinematography. It’s had a very successful home video run since then and is even more relevant today than on its release.

The takeaway here is that he’s actually received a Target Letter, which indicates a strong belief that there is substantial evidence against him and that criminal charges are being seriously considered. It’s a procedural step, and one that many people likely inferred, but it is important and shows a concrete stance on the investigation. It’s worth noting that “Target” is a specifically defined legal term in this context, on relevant part:

A “target” is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant…

USAM 9-11.151

Don’t have much substantive to add, just want to point out that it’s really McNulty of you to have your username be JayLittle and identify with McNulty and not (Jay) Landsman or Omar (Little).

There was a brief time in the late 90s to early 2000s where you’d just hop into an open server. The lobby would keep the same players as it went round to round and people would just filter in and out as they felt like it. It didn’t track scores or stats between games, and there wasn’t a leveling or progression system that followed you. You just played through the round as it came. People seemed to care a whole lot less about their record or team–it just seemed like everyone was happy to be able to play online. Maybe it’s just because I’m older now and I’m looking back at it with rose tinted glasses, but I wish we could go back to casual modes like that. I don’t have the energy or will to deal with people the way it’s set up now.

There was a brief time in the late 90s to early 2000s where you’d just hop into an open server. The lobby would keep the same players as it went round to round and people would just filter in and out as they felt like it. It didn’t track scores or stats between games, and there wasn’t a leveling or progression system that followed you. You just played through the round as it came. People seemed to care a whole lot less about their record or team–it just seemed like everyone was happy to be able to play online. Maybe it’s just because I’m older now and I’m looking back at it with rose tinted glasses, but I wish we could go back to casual modes like that. I don’t have the energy or will to deal with people the way it’s set up now.

Just another example of the Government’s suppression and censorship of gamers’ God given right to…

[D]efendant, Jesse James Comer, was “incensed” when the community manager — whom both Bungie and the court declined to name, to protect them from further harassment — spotlighted some fan art by a Black community member. Using anonymous phone numbers, Comer left a string of “hideous, bigoted” voicemails on the community manager’s personal phone, some asking that Bungie create options in Destiny 2 “in which only persons of color would be killed,” before proceeding to threaten the community manager’s wife with more racist voicemails and texts.

Oh.

It would be nice. From your specific wish I take it you probably already know, but for general discussion it looks like they’ve just filed the Notice of Appeal with the trial Court, which is entirely procedural and required before an appeal can be brought to the Circuit Court. We’ll likely have to wait for the briefing before we get the substantive arguments. Reporting on appeals really does give the impression that it’s like a second trial though.

Beehaw.org was at war with Lemmy.world. Beehaw.org had always been at war with Lemmy.world.

This is particularly galling as the standard applied originally came from Glucksburg. Glucksburg was a case on physician assisted suicide where the Court applied the “not deeply rooted in and offensive to US tradition” standard being cited here, but also held that the state had a rational and compelling interest in banning physician assisted suicide for the preservation of life and to protect the mentally disabled or ill from medical malpractice or coercion. But in the case of gender affirming care the science and medical practice supports the opposite–gender affirming care drastically reduces suicide rates and provides significantly better outcomes for those with gender dysphoria. They appear to be applying half of the reasoning of Glucksburg while directly going against the second half. That’s not even touching the sex discrimination argument, which is compelling in its own right. I’m ashamed to live in the 6th Circuit today.

I believe it. We must have gone through something like six or seven guitars, two drum kits, three cymbal sets, and who knows how many of those flimsy bass pedals. Didn’t clutter any stores with trade ins though. Ran those things to the ground–only place that would take them was the dump.

The Rock Band series is my GOAT and probably the best party game of all time. The series on its own is fantastic–who doesn’t want to jam out? But add a few other people and it’s in a whole different league. I was living in the dorms when it came out. A lot of days we’d start it up and leave our door open and let people cycle in and out between classes or whatever else was going on through the days. We don’t know you? You don’t know us? Nobody gives a shit–we need someone on drums.

We eventually had several hundred songs through the games and DLC–just about any type of music someone might want to play. The equipment isn’t made anymore to my knowledge and I don’t think there’s any way to get it other than second hand, but when it was at ots height the series was the high water mark of social gaming. It also served as a stepping stone to actual musical pursuits–I eventually picked up an electronic drum kit and started playing (very poorly) for real.

I’d be interested as well, and it’s actually a bit of an open question in the US even whether an emoji can satisfy Statute of Frauds requirements. Not every contract needs to be in writing, but the Statute of Frauds requires that certain types of contracts do need to have a written contract and agreement–sale of goods valued more than $500.00 is one of those categories. Canada has its own various Statute of Frauds laws, but that’s way outside of my jurisdiction, and I can’t tell from the reporting whether any applied or were considered in this case.

Emojis are the focus of more and more litigation these days, and it’s really interesting watching how these cases play out. Here’s a good source (US focused) from Lexis Nexis discussing emojis in contract litigation:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/insights/legal/practical-guidance-journal/b/pa/posts/contracting-by-emoji

I’m a lawyer (though admittedly not in Canada!)–this doesn’t sound as absurd as the headlines read, and I would hesitate to to form opinions on any case on the basis of headlines or blurbs. That said, looking at other sources it seems there’s more here than the posted article conveys:

The judge noted that Mr. Achter and Mr. Mickleborough had had a longstanding business relationship and that, in the past, when Mr. Mr. Mickleborough had texted Mr. Achter contracts for durum wheat, Mr. Achter had responded by succinctly texting “looks good,” “ok” or “yup.”

Both parties clearly understood these terse responses were meant to be confirmation of the contract and “not a mere acknowledgment of the receipt of the contract” by Mr. Achter, wrote Justice T.J. Keene of the Court of King’s Bench for Saskatchewan. And each time, Mr. Achter had delivered the grain as contracted and had been paid.

Looks like they had a long standing business relationship where this sort of communication had been the common understood form of acceptance in the past. It’s also important to note the guy only tried backing out of the deal after a price fluctuation meant he’d be taking a relative loss.

I’d want to see all of the facts and arguments, but this seems reasonable from what we can see reported.

Legend of Dragoon is close to the top of my list of games I’d love to see remade, but almost certainly won’t.

Actually, FF8 is at the top of that list. It’s my favorite of the “mainline” FFs and the story has aged by far the best out of the series, but the systems, equipment, and stat working is awful. Like you’re running into, the systems are confusing and difficult to figure out, but as soon as you “get it” you almost have to handicap yourself so as not to completely break the game. A remake along the lines of the FF7 rework could fix that, and I think 8 would benefit from the treatment more than any other game in the series.

In Legend of Dragoon I hit a wall on a Disc 2 boss and was stuck for months. After I took a break and came back I realized you could change your equipment–I’d never upgraded anything equipped and was using all of the starting equipped weapons and armor. This was not my first RPG, nor was I young enough to use age as an excuse.

This point in particular seems to be conflating the terms “story,” “plot,” and “narrative,” and treating them as synonyms. We often use the terms interchangeably without issue because people generally understand what’s being talked about, but the differences matter on deeper critical examinations. A story is a sequence of events, plot is how those events relate to one another, and narrative is how it’s told (the accounting of story and plot itself). Environmental storytelling is often very light on direct narrative, which seems to be the criticism here rather than on story or plot. These games often have a lot of story, it’s just not told through a more traditional form of narrative.

Just so we’re on the same page, could you give an example of a “Spirit of the Law” system, or a country that uses one? I want to make sure I’m not mixing up concepts.

As I’m understanding the terms now, I’m not sure I agree that the US has either a Letter of the Law or a Spirit of the Law system, at least not inherently one over the other. Letter of the Law appears to be the current prevailing majority view, but that’s largely because the majority of the Court are Originalists and Textualist (and even then they’re only really Letter of the Law when it suits them). But Spirit of the Law is still an alive legal philosophy in the judiciary–many landmark 5th and 14th Amendment cases find their basis there, for example. I’d argue these examples and many other Holdings serve themselves as examples of the “safeguards” working, even if the system isn’t always perfect.

Overall I ultimately agree with your last paragraph–that said, I think bang for buck reform of the legislature is going to make the most appreciable difference for many of these issues rather than reform of the judicial branch itself (not that it should be one or the other, but it seems to me that many of the issues in the judicial and executive branches are symptoms stemming from a disfunctional legislative system).

But the deeper problem is whether their role is needed at all. Why not permit existing representatives to make laws reflecting the needs of the time? Court judges themselves have pointed out that if Congress doesn’t like the Court rulings, it should pass its own laws, or even a constitutional amendment, to provide a new point of reference.

Unless I’m grossly misunderstanding the author’s argument, this is already how the system works (at least, when it is actually working as intended). The Court doesn’t legislate–when it says congress should “pass its own laws or amend the constitution to provide a new frame of reference,” it is saying so because it only has the power review existing laws brought to controversy–it’s already up to the legislature to do exactly what the author is asking.

The current Court is certainly abusing its discretion in practice, and that absolutely needs addressed and reformed, but I’m struggling to imagine a workable system without some concrete form of review/check on the legislature (and even that was, to a degree, an open question before Marbury v. Madison) even if just to ensure due process and equal protection.

I guess my question is (and I’m honestly interested in the discussion): what safeguard would replace the Supreme Court? The current Court is abysmal and needs addressing, but I’m even less convinced that doing away with the Supreme Court and leaving things up the the Federal/State legislatures would be beneficial considering many of the legislatures we have today and the laws they are passing.