Number 2 is the actual ideal, not number 1. Number 1 represents, “good,” gerrymandering that politicians argue for, but it really only serves them. They get to keep highly partisan electorate that will reelect them no matter what, which means they can be less responsive to the will of their voters. They only have to worry about primary challengers, which aren’t very common, and can mostly ignore their electorate without issue.

It’s also important to note that this diagram is an oversimplification that can’t express the nuances of an actual electorate. While a red and blue binary might be helpful for this example, a plurality of voters identify as independents, and while most of them have preferences towards the right or left, they are movable. The point is that actual voters are more nuanced and less static than this representation.

Number 2 is how distracting would work in an ideal world; it doesn’t take into account political alignment at all, but instead just groups people together by proximity. A red victory is unlikely, but still possible if the blue candidate doesn’t deliver for his constituents and winds up with low voter turnout. It also steers politicians away from partisan extremism, as they may need to appeal to a non-partisan plurality. That being said, when literal fascists are attempting number 3, we’ll have to respond in kind if we want any chance of maintaining our democracy, but in the long term, the solution is no gerrymandering, not, “perfect representation,” gerrymandering.

Bird names are all either, “red-breasted blackbird,” or, “deep-throated cum-tit.” There’s no in-between.

Yeah, it’s true. I just went to get my son’s inhaler, and the pharmacy paid me 14 times what I normally pay them for it. Thank you, Mr. President.

I think the public domain would be fair game as well, and the fact that AI companies don’t limit themselves to those works really gives away the game. An LMM that can write in the style of Shakespeare or Dickens is impressive, but people will pay for an LLM that will write their White Lotus fan fiction for them.

Yeah, it definitely looks like the tray was hastily slapped together in photoshop, but I think the tub and woman are AI. I could be wrong, but the perspective on the tub doesn’t seem right, and she looks uncanny.

More like, “The AI program we used to generate this slop has no idea what a women do in the bathtub, or that humans don’t drink wine and lattes simultaneously, and it can’t even maintain a consistent perspective around the edge of the tub.”

Yeah, for sure. Also, I should be clear that I’m not certain how much I believe in the male loneliness epidemic. I think a lot of it can be explained as people who were conditioned to view themselves as the primary earners having to cope with the conditions of late stage capitalism. But I think that representing the male loneliness epidemic as, “men aren’t getting laid,” is a fundamental misunderstanding of the argument, and ironically, what the original commenter thought of when they first heard of male loneliness is a much more accurate description than what they think, “people really meant by it.”

OK, but…no? That’s not what people are talking about with the male loneliness epidemic. They’re talking about how an inability to connect with their peers on a more than superficial level, coupled with a lack of older male role models, are causing Gen Z and Millennial men to report extremely high levels of loneliness.

It’s tangentially related to, “getting laid,” as many of these men are driven towards misogynistic monosphere influencers who make sexual conquest a measure of self-worth, but that’s a symptom of the problem, not the totality of it. Also, some people debate the existence of the loneliness epidemic altogether, but no one defines it as, “men aren’t getting laid.”

Yeah, but this Supreme Court doesn’t give a shit about the Constitution or consistent rulings, only partisan bullshit. Citizens United ruled that money is free speech, but they refused to rule on an anti-BDS law because they would have either had to rule against their ideology or explain how withholding money is not free speech.

If a lower court rules in favor of the bill, they’ll decline to hear the case. If a lower court rules against it, I bet they’ll make up some bullshit about how the first amendment applies to journalism and public speech, but not private companies providing a service, even if that service is speech. They’re barely even trying to pretend that they’re not a partisan institution anymore.

The most disturbing thing about this is that it implies that Donald’s lower half is not made up of feathers, as one would assume, but sort of garment that covers his genitals. What other parts of Donald are not actually his body? Is he even an actual duck, or some sort of creature in a duck suit?

Well, there’s the third celebrity death.

I just can’t see a world where that isn’t immediate political suicide for everyone involved. Short of a judge ordering her release, I don’t think she’s going anywhere.

By the numbers, probably Mississippi. Lowest life expectancy, highest infant mortality rate, second highest poverty rate…being ranked 39th in education actually seems to be a bright spot for them.

Maybe? Seems like it would be easier to do it when she’s locked up in a a place full of criminals and murders. Plus, they got Epstien in prison, right? …haha, just kidding, it was a suicide…maybe.

First of all, good to know someone’s finally gotten in touch with Chuck Schumer. When you don’t hear from someone of his age for this long, you start to worrry.

Second of all, what the hell is he talking about? He’s 100% right to call this an, “Epstien Recess,” that’s accurate and good branding, but why would he be pardoning Maxwell? What would the motive be? “She might talk, so I’m going to pardon her as a bribe, even though that would be incredibly suspicious and unpopular with literally everyone. Also, it wouldn’t guarantee she would never talk, and would make it much harder to silence her later.” Doesn’t seem like a great idea, but maybe I’m missing something.

So, this is a dumb explanation. It’s like saying you would never support giving a knight a sword, just armor and a sheild. The armor and sheild are what let’s him mow down peasants on the battlefield with impunity, you can’t separate them out.

That being said, this is getting fucking ridiculous. The amendment was never going to pass (it got 6 votes), so this was entirely symbolic. Beyond that, she voted against the defense spending bill it was attached to, so in end, she didn’t support arms to anyone. She’s also one of the strongest voices on Gaza in congress (an admittedly low bar); she’s been voting against sending arms to Israel since before October 7th, she usually votes, “present,” on Iron Dome funding, and she’s called what’s happening in Gaza a genocide on the House floor. I can count on one hand the number of U.S. politicians willing to say, “genocide,” when talking about Israel. Behind Omar and Talib, she’s probably the most reliable pro-Palestinian Representative.

I’m assuming that she had some reason for voting against the amendment, and I assume it has to do with optics. Maybe she she thought siding with MTG would hurt her, maybe she thought voting against the Iron Dome would make her vulnerable to AIPAC attacks. It sucks, but Bowman and Bush both lost their seats to AIPAC money. The reality is you have to play politics sometimes, and if that means not making a symbolic vote for a doomed amendment, that’s not the worst compromise to make.

I’m sure he’s in hell now, having a blast.

That’s certainly how I feel about Parachutes. Solid little album, even if it’s not reinventing the wheel. I feel more mixed about A Rush of Blood to the Head. Some of their best tracks are on that album (The Scientist may be their best song), but a lot of it is forgettable, and Clocks just sucks, don’t know how that became a big single. I thought X&Y was pretty meh, and then I stopped listening.

I don’t know, maybe? When I was in high school the girls were all listening to emo. Once pop-punk went out of style (pretty much the minute Sk8ter Boi was released), most of the girls I knew pivoted towards Death Cab for Cutie or Dashboard Confessional. I was having a sad-boy period and other sad-boys I knew got me into Radiohead, Interpol, Coldplay (again, those first two albums), the Shins, and the Strokes.

I got the impression they were more of what bro-dudes listened to when they were sad rather than what sad-boys were listening to, but only exposure to them was Chasing Cars. They seemed closer to The All-American Rejects than, say, The Shins or Interpol or any of the other shit I was listening to when I was my most insufferable teenage self.