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Talk to me when AI writes or makes images without being directed to do so.

Same, for me it was Han turning up that really brings home how much the movie is more of a cynical nostalgia hit than an organic story crafted with love. Han arrives and look, he’s in the Millenium Falcon! Oh look he’s doing all the same stuff you remember! Look there is Chewie. It wasn’t clever or fun, and it didn’t give me a nostalgia hit other than to want to go back to when Han was an interesting and fun character.

Did you ever watch The Expanse?

That seems to be the crux of the dispute here, whether the "art" is generated with an "aware" intelligence, versus a non-"aware" intelligence. AI could make fundamental innovations to art, and critics would still dismiss it because it's not "aware". If indeed AI surpasses human creativity, I think that will force a reckoning in redefining the necessity of "awareness" as a prerequisite for something to be deemed artistic or creative. Watching those GPT4o videos can serve as a parallel example. Those are very naturalistic reactions in the conversations. And this is an early iteration of multimodality AI. People will dismiss this intelligence even if it becomes indistinguishable from a cross section of a human to human interaction because of the "awareness" stipulation. In my mind, for all practical purposes this gradually will become a useless distinction outside of indulging anthropocentric narcissism.

Not as expensive as it was. When the last licence agreements were done, Lucasfilm agreed to drop exclusivity to make the licences more affordable, hence why EA and Ubisoft can now develop Star Wars games. Sega might decide to get in on that action, easily. The idea of the gameplay not being suitable does make sense, but we do have two very standard Star Wars RTS games (Force Commander and Empire at War, neither of them great) and we even have a vaguely similar concept in Galactic Battlegrounds, which was based on the Age of Empires II engine (I'm surprised Microsoft haven't commissioned a Galactic Battlegrounds Definitive Edition, given the massive success of Age of Empires II Definitive). So Star Wars on a Total War chassis would need some finessing, but it could work. The point about there being too much overlap between Star Wars and 40K is a good one though, especially as CA did make some cuts to staff recently.

Even if the studio pushed for a hobbit trilogy ,how does that let Jackson off the hook for three bad movies? I'm sure it was possible to have made different choices and put together 3 better films. It isn't like there were two great ones and the third was bad. They were all bad, even if there were some good scenes in each film. Dumb, bloated, jokey.

https://twitter.com/Ale8One/status/1791477839750955141

The memes have been flying fast and furious around here for that. My favorite came from the official Ale-8-1 account (sort of a local/regional beverage) with their traditional Green Bottle and the Orange Soda. The message said "Available in our classic green jacket or orange suit. #valhalla" :lol:

Good interview w/ Haaretz reporter Amira Hass.

There is widespread - and recent - speculation/expectation that his coalition will not remain intact that long. We’d be talking over two years since 10/7 by 2026 (and basically three years from October 2026 which is the time period they have to be held). It’s plainly unrealistic to expect no elections to be held for that long.

A FOURTH possibility for Nettles question has been introduced: 1 - Wake the Dragon’s report is correct and Rhaena is replacing Nettles 2 - Wake the Dragon gave this report in good faith but is entirely mistaken 3 - the report is OUTDATED: that this was an early “fallback plan” to merge them if the show didn’t get extended beyond three seasons overall (explaining why the rumor exists, even though they might not really want to do it) but now Wake is being coy on Twitter that Rhaena “claims” Sheepstealer ….but not confirming she SUCCESSFULLY “claims” him. Thus the fourth option: 4 - Rhaena TRIES to claim Sheepstealer, as a Targaryen of royal blood, but he REJECTS her — emphasizing to the audience just how difficult it is to claim a “wild” dragon that grew up away from human contact — which in turn sets up the arrival of Nettles at the start of season three. here’s hoping, at least

Young Sheldon wrapped it's series last night. Have to say it was a pretty good run. The one thing for me that got a little rough was the Young Sheldon character himself, IMO the actor went a little over board in the last couple seasons with some ticks and quirks. They definitely ended it setting up the characters for what we know from TBBT and had a couple tear jerker episodes to close it out. They really did well showing how Sheldon was trying to process an event internally and externally people getting angry with him and not understanding why he was doing what he was.

Color filter dome would have worked fine, for that. Or maybe the Baron doesn't allow filming in color?

For me, it would be Ser Rodrik properly garrisoning and securing WF before sending off a massive force to del with the IB. He should be familiar enough with them as an enemy to know they can't really take TS without starving them out. He's also old enough, and castellan of WF too boot, to be off commanding a force in battle when Bran and Rickon are literally the most important things or people in the North. So, assuming he sends off that 500-600 people and stays at WF with another 100 guards to train, Theon and his men either don't capture WF or get killed and captured themselves. Robb doesn't lose his heirs, Ramsay is still in the dungeons, and Robb doesn't seek comfort from the Westerling daughter. Roose has no reason to send 1/3 of his infantry to die. Jaime remains non-singlehandedly the most important prisoner in the 7K. Even if everything else plays out exactly, Robb has such a stronger hand to sue for peace than during the events of the RW.

What Israel’s strategic corridor in Gaza reveals about its postwar plans Analysts say the buildup of the Netzarim Corridor is part of a large-scale project by the Israeli military to reshape Gaza and entrench its presence there https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/17/gaza-israel-netzarim-corridor-war-hamas/ When my eyes reached the bolded part, my mind said, "Which means Israel can blockade the food for Palestinians at that point too, as they have at all the other points." And, sure enough, further down -- It sure looks, whether they SAY it or not, their plan is to ethnic cleanse via starvation and lack of water. And further down than that, it is repeated: And further down than that -- And yet, and yet, Hamas is nowhere near destroyed, They Say. So what do you all think the point of all this starvation is?

My understanding of their system is that as long as no one abandons Netanyahu's coalition, there is no mechanism to force early elections. Gantz, Lapid, and millions of other Israeli's can all demand an early election, but they cannot force the issue unless Netanyahu's coalition collapses. There doesn't seem a good reason at this time for any of his coalition members to leave. They would gain nothing by doing so, and lose the current power and influence that they have.

The Great Book of Grudges, one of the regular YouTube content creators, strongly disagrees that this is genuine. According to him that source is not reliable and also argues that Games Workshop would be pissed off if CA would try to make another space TW game considering that the 40K game is likely in the works. Also, how expensive is the license to make a Star Wars game? There is a reason we don't have an official LOTR game. I believe that there are three TW games in various stages of development, but that's it.

Following the successful launch of the https://www.westeros.org/Graphics/Images/_medium/HotD_S2-FTrailer_00.png View the full article

@John Suburbs You are exhausting. Yes it is fact. But you seem to need me to spell it out for you so: 1. Daenys had at least 2 daughters and at least 1 son. Nowhere does it say these were her only children. In fact it is even implied that they were not. But assuming they were, to be minimal and safely grounded in known facts we will stick with their descendants alone. Aegon and Elaena continued House Targaryen. The other known daughter married a petty lord whose male line descendant, nearly 200 years later, made a claim at the great council in 101. So for 8 generations there was an uninterrupted male line in at least 1 non-targaryen house. The probability that this family had only sons, and only 1 for every generation for 200 years is ZERO. No, Daenys had granddaughters and great-granddaughters and so on and so on who married into an ever-expanding network of non-Targaryen Houses. Even if it was only 1 daughter for every generation, that could mean up to 256 different Houses had a descendant of Daenys by the year 101. Now maybe not every generation of every family had a daughter, and probably some of those they did have married back into families that already had a descendant of Daenys. So let's say, conservatively, the real number of families involved is more like 1/10th of that maximum number. I am sure you can see that this is still a lot of families, none of whom ceased propagating in the year 101. 2. Valaena Velaryon's mother was a Targaryen. We don't know who because she is not indicated in the Targaryen tree. But she WAS a Targaryen. This is proof of missing Targaryens in their tree. But again, even though she is unlikely to be the only missing Targaryen we will assume, for argument's sake, that she is. Even then, every single Velaryon from her onward had Targaryen blood. And Velaryons were fruitful and multiplied, and, significantly, did not tend to marry their siblings. Yet again then, we have an ever-expanding network of families that married descendants of Valaena's mother. 3. Next we have Orys Baratheon, half-brother of the conquerors. Every single Baratheon, up until Cersei's children (not fathered by Robert) had Targaryen blood that can be traced to Orys. Every single child of a Baratheon woman who was born into a different family also had Targaryen blood, as did their grandchildren, who were born in yet another set of families. 4. As already mentioned, the MANY descendants of Baela and Rhaena Targaryen, as well as Elaena, and so on and so on.

Loving the furore over the Rinehart portraits. So much for freedom of expression!

Star Wars: Total War apparently in the works. Not 100% confirmed but apparently the source has been right before about previous games. Huh. That's on top of an unnamed historical project, which everyone was expecting, and apparently a 40K game, which everyone was also expecting. CA: "You guys asked for another Empire: Total War, and you got! From a certain point of view."

I am waiting for Aegon tv series , I don't care about worthless blunder, the battle is over , we have won,fans love to watch dragons

The return of Azor Ahai is similar to Turin return when he will kill Melkor using Anglechiel. Feanor and Nymeria, both burned the fleet after landing in a new land. But the return of Azor Ahai and Turin are probably a reference of Christ return , the same for Feanor and Nymeria , they are probably a reference to Cortes landing in the new world

Just as well it wasn't Tiger.

I don't see why he would say that if it weren't true. It's not like troops at the front are going to be convinced - they can see with their own eyes whether there are enough shells to go around. It's encouraging.