And this isn’t just the lead and the love interest: supporting characters look this way too, and even villains (frequently clad in monstrous makeup) are still played by conventionally attractive performers. Even background extras are good-looking, or at least inoffensively bland. No one is ugly. No one is really fat. Everyone is beautiful.

Heh, this reminds me of this scene in Last Action Hero (Just watch until 1:34 or so for the scene I’m referring to.

Honestly though, I think this might be starting to change. Looking at shows like Resident Alien and Wheel of Time, for example, there are plenty of casting choices that go against that trend. Now, I’m not saying anyone in these shows is ugly or anything like that, but there are a lot of folks being cast who are not “classic Hollywood pretty” and it’s very nice to see. I like seeing people playing the everyday Joe art who actually looks like an everyday Joe. It really breaks immersion for me when the “ugly girl” part is played by someone who is beautiful dressed in a frumpy outfit.

We’re so conditioned to think realistic violence in games is fine, but realistic sex in games is “wrong” or “sad”.

Not just in games. In all media. You bring to mind a great quote from George R. R. Martin.

“I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off. To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it’s madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much.”

Seconded. If the Earth were the size of a globe on your desk, he entire biosphere would be thinner than a piece of paper. We have filled the whole thing with our waste and toxins and we are destroying the very systems that we rely on to produce our food and air. If we do not start paying attention and taking steps, I sincerely believe that there will be a society ending global crisis in the next 2-3 decades.

Indeed, dead men tell no tales, right? I’m with you though, I said yes to all the questions. I don’t care if they shoot my corpse, or beat it with a bat, or use it as a party favor at the lab Christmas party. It’s just meat, as far as I’m concerned and if their experiments help posterity then I’m all for it.

Yes, that is possible. The paperwork for the place I am looking into specifically asks if you object to that and a number of other possible uses to which they may put your remains.

Donate your body to science. My mother did that. She used to joke that they would put her body in a car trunk in the desert, or some other location, and see what time and decay did so they could measure the process. For all I know, that’s literally where her body is right now. They also do other experiments. Then, after a few years, they return cremated remains to you.

Try to find an institution that will take your body. I’ve looked into it. There’s a place in a neighboring state that will take mine, but if I die more than 100 miles from them, someone will need to arrange to transport the body to them. There’s not much more to it for me.

Edit to alter link to a better site

Thanks for the link. I had never heard of this either.

Somebody has been spending too much time chatting with their LLM.

It has been claimed. It’s also claimed that Ghislaine Maxwell’s father Robert was a double agent that worked for Mossad according to a former Mossad agent.

The claims are being made by the alleged former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe in a soon-to-be-released book “Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales” in which he said that he was the handler of Ghislaine’s father Robert Maxwell, who was also an Israeli espionage agent and was the one who introduced his daughter and Epstein to Mossad…

It is now being alleged that the Trump administration stepped in directly and expedited his release and return to Israel. If true, his MAGAts may blow a gasket. Though to be fair, everyone should blow a gasket if it’s true.

Oh, is Ted having trouble finding jailbait these days?

What do you expect from a guy who literally goes swimming in fecal-contaminated waters with his young grandchildren? The man has no understanding whatsoever about health and safety.

There’s no way for Valve to accept and then immediately convert Crypto to USD.

I didn’t realize that. It does seem an insurmountable problem.

I had heard that Steam used to accept crypto but the volatility of the currency was a major issue. Maybe try cryptocurrency again.

Perhaps they could set up a system where they could make a sale in bitcoin or something then immediately convert to USD. They could add a processing fee to the sale to cover any conversion fees.

I know nothing about actually doing any of this beyond having bought and sold BTC in the past. I was just wondering if it would be possible.

I lean towards 20-30 years if ever for AGI if ever, but that assumes the world doesn’t fall apart from climate collapse before then. Severity and frequency of once in a lifetime weather calamities has increased dramatically. Over one week this year, the USA had 4 separate once in a thousand year flooding events. And there’s no reason to think that this will decrease.

I think the struggle to survive and recover from disasters and maintain food and energy production will impede major development in this area.

Did you leave it under the hood of a car you were working on?

All the supposed comics - Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Steve Martin, etc. Even a lot of Jim Carrey’s stuff - the humor is sophomoric at best.

I agree with that list, but I like some of Steve Martin’s serious stuff. If you’ve never seen it, give Leap of Faith a try if you see it streaming. He plays a traveling faith healer/con artist who runs up against a small town sheriff and a handicapped 15-year old and the kid’s older sister. It’s a really good movie in my opinion.

The first one I remember really being moved by was Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. But the first one I truly loved was Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny.

Every single post I can see for OP is now “deleted by creator”

the man, who was not identified, was a French citizen listed by Swiss economic weekly Bilan among the 300 richest people in Switzerland — with a fortune in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

You don’t get that obscenely wealthy by being frugal.