Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor, leaked the tax returns of the rich to show the public how the uber-wealthy game our tax code. Now he’s facing potential prison time. They’ve nabbed the wrong criminal.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys who’ve been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can’t pay the millions more that he’ll owe in legal expenses...
Oct 2 (Reuters) - Donald Trump and his family business are set to stand trial in New York on Monday in a civil fraud case that could deal a major blow to the former U.S. president’s real estate empire.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. But he doesn’t think he’ll be put in that position....
It would be inappropriate for Biden to request a specific action regarding Trump, but the overall wording gives the impression that Garland intends to be idle in the face of Trump's criminality.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat viewed as a national leader in voting rights, has received 67 death threats and over 900 threats of online abuse within just three weeks, according to a system used by her office that tracks harassment and threats against election workers....
Science fiction can lead people to be more cautious about the potential consequences of innovations. It can help people think critically about the ethics of science. Researchers have also found that sci-fi serves as a positive influence on how people view science. Science fiction scholar Istvan Csicsery-Ronay calls this...
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain took a swipe at former President Trump, saying he serves a “billionaire class,” a day ahead of Trump’s visit to Detroit, where he wi…
While mod authors are free to charge money for their mods, including DRM in a mod for a game that doesn’t have DRM (beyond basic steam account check) is kinda messed up. Adding deliberate bugs to mess with pirates is even more messed up. Why waste time making your product worst with drm and intentional bugs just to piss pirates who would never buy your product in the first place anyway?
putting aside the ethics of DRM in general (ew) and that this developer has already made a fortune on a mod virtually unequaled... my biggest problem with this kind of thing is that bugs happen. "mines" implies that the goal will be to do something malicious to pirates. so what happens when there's a bug in the detection code, or in the auth server, or when you didn't test it on some specific quirky hardware-software combo, or when a cosmic ray strikes the RAM stick and flips the wrong bit?
a paying customer gets fucked -- or a lot of them do. all for the petty greed of someone who can't envision the obvious fact that the actual pirates will just fuzz your bomb logic and patch it out within two days.
The Republican-led Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression, or Eats, Act aims to end the authority of states and localities to set animal welfare and food safety standards. If passed, it could also jeopardize more than 1,000 state and local health and safety laws that set food-quality requirements and stop the spread of invasive...
I have an idea for a game where the premise is to go from living paycheck to paycheck, to being a billionaire. I could include an in-game stock market, in-game jobs of various salaries and recreational activities, so you have to balance the amount of money you gain with how much you spend, and you have to upkeep your own physical and mental well being.
I'd also have your expenses scale proportionately with your earnings, have your landlord raise your rent for no reason, have your job reduce your hours or cut your bonus, etc. The tutorials that tell you how to play the game are in-game items randomized in a loot box format, and you have to pay in-game currency to unlock them. But no matter how closely you follow the advice, no matter how many of them you unlock, and no matter how much grinding and climbing you do, you can never succeed. But then the kicker, I program in a microscopic chance that you start the game with $50 million dollars, and parents/lawyers who bail you out no matter how much you lose, such that you are guaranteed to eventually succeed.
I wanna see A) how long it takes for regular people to figure out it's impossible to win, B) how long it takes for the randomly selected billionaires to brag how fast they could beat the game, and C) how long it takes for those people to collide.
Unity might be facing the ire that comes with a near-universal condemnation of a new policy change, but at least things are looking up for two open-source game engines....
The female vote stems the tide of the far right in Europe and Latin America (english.elpais.com)
Investigations suggest that women’s suffrage has emerged as a key barrier against the far-right wave.
Ultrarich Tax-Dodgers Are Criminals, Not the IRS Whistleblower Who Exposed Them (jacobin.com)
Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS contractor, leaked the tax returns of the rich to show the public how the uber-wealthy game our tax code. Now he’s facing potential prison time. They’ve nabbed the wrong criminal.
Gourd cricket cage with moulded chrysanthemum decoration - China, 18th century (lemmy.world)
collections.ashmolean.org/object/690233...
Gallo-Roman dodecahedron, purpose unknown, 150 AD-400 AD (lemmy.world)
California governor vetoes bill that would have set a $35 cap for insulin (www.theguardian.com)
Bill denial for the prescription drug price cap called ‘a major setback’ for diabetics in the state
Silver hand from a reliquary display, Belgium, 13th century (lemmy.world)
[News] Election denier and 'MyPillow Guy' Mike Lindell confirms he's out of money, can't pay legal bills (apnews.com)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys who’ve been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can’t pay the millions more that he’ll owe in legal expenses...
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Two-thirds of CEOs think staff will return to office five days a week, survey finds (www.theguardian.com)
Most company leaders also believe pay and promotions could become linked to workplace attendance
Donald Trump's business empire in peril as civil fraud trial opens in New York (www.reuters.com)
Oct 2 (Reuters) - Donald Trump and his family business are set to stand trial in New York on Monday in a civil fraud case that could deal a major blow to the former U.S. president’s real estate empire.
[News] Attorney General Garland says in interview he'd resign if Biden asked him to take action on Trump (apnews.com)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. But he doesn’t think he’ll be put in that position....
TIL ancient Egyptians didn't use Hieroglyphics as an everyday writing system. They reserved this for special functions. The Egyptians used two script-like writing systems called Hieratic and Demotic. This eventually became Coptic script. (en.wikipedia.org)
[News Analysis] GOP waging a "coordinated national effort to undermine American elections," says leading official (www.salon.com)
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat viewed as a national leader in voting rights, has received 67 death threats and over 900 threats of online abuse within just three weeks, according to a system used by her office that tracks harassment and threats against election workers....
Sci-fi books are rare in school even though they help kids better understand science (phys.org)
Science fiction can lead people to be more cautious about the potential consequences of innovations. It can help people think critically about the ethics of science. Researchers have also found that sci-fi serves as a positive influence on how people view science. Science fiction scholar Istvan Csicsery-Ronay calls this...
ChatGPT can now access up to date information (www.bbc.co.uk)
The chatbot's knowledge previously only included data up to September 2021, but not any more.
[News] UAW boss says Trump works for ‘billionaire class’ ahead of visit (thehill.com)
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain took a swipe at former President Trump, saying he serves a “billionaire class,” a day ahead of Trump’s visit to Detroit, where he wi…
Creator of Cracked Paid Starfield DLSS 3 Frame Generation Mod Will Place "Hidden Mines" in Future Mods (wccftech.com)
The creator of the paid Starfield DLSS 3 Frame Generation mod, PureDark, has said that he will be placing "hidden mines" in his future mods....
Ottoman flintlock pistol, 17th century AD (lemmy.world)
A Tiananmen Square Musical Worries About China’s Glare (www.nytimes.com)
Highlights for those unable to get past the paywall:...
From cage-free chicks to puppy mills and Avian flu: Republicans are trying to roll back animal protections in the U.S. (www.theguardian.com)
The Republican-led Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression, or Eats, Act aims to end the authority of states and localities to set animal welfare and food safety standards. If passed, it could also jeopardize more than 1,000 state and local health and safety laws that set food-quality requirements and stop the spread of invasive...
Terraria devs donate $200K to open-source engines in wake of Unity changes (www.polygon.com)
Unity might be facing the ire that comes with a near-universal condemnation of a new policy change, but at least things are looking up for two open-source game engines....