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Obvious Sockpuppets
They're not all that bright, either; the classic tell is consecutive or near-consecutive UIDs, as is the case with John Miller (UID 6613) and "real" Donald Trump (UID 6614). Less well-known, but all the more obvious, are NPC-$BIGNUM (UUID 7144) and NPC-$BIGNUM+1 (UID 7147).
I don't think these are the same person--that is, I don't think rDT/John Miller and the two NPCs are all the same person--but it's fairly obvious each of them has the corresponding pair of socks. And rDT/JM also apparently are "highly correlated with a bunch" of ACs, most of which have been judiciously Spam modded out of existence from the sound of it.
So...what's the point? At the very least, this is using the SN posting system in bad faith. The NPC twins appear to be trying to play a satirical good cop/bad cop game (and failing rather badly...), rDT and JM are poor satire (though they've been improving a bit lately) and who knows WTF the AC socks are really on about. This is needlessly deceptive, if you ask me: if your opinions cannot stand up to the test of collision with reality on a one to one basis with other accounts, extra sockpuppet accounts are not going to change that.
The NPC twins in particular are very obviously here for the sole purpose of stirring shit and causing chaos. Admins: what, if anything, is going to be done about this? You're showing yourselves to be rather weak-willed and careless in the face of sinister forces....
South Korea's 'Webtoons' Put Japan's Print Manga on Notice
South Korea's booming 'webtoons' put Japan's print manga on notice
Should Japanese manga publishers, who have for years invested first and foremost in developing print content, jump on the webtoon bandwagon to strengthen their outreach to a foreign, tech-savvy audience?
Opinions among industry insiders and experts are mixed, but at least for Hideki Egami, a former editor at leading publisher Shogakukan, the answer is a definitive yes.
“Sales for comic magazines in Japan have long been trending downward — we don’t know how much further the domestic market for print manga will shrink,” Egami said.
“Japanese publishers are now at a stage where they can’t overlook the need for going digital and overseas. … Webtoons, I think, are the most reasonable way forward.”
Vertically optimized
Unlike Japanese manga, which in most cases are first marketed for a print audience and only subsequently promoted online via apps, webtoons cater to digital device users from the get-go: Their format has already been optimized for personal computers or smartphones.
Webtoons typically scroll vertically and are in full color, as opposed to traditional manga, which are often black and white and read horizontally. Once they spread on popular manga apps in Japan, the digital South Korean comics immediately attracted a youth following here.
AMD Threadripper 3 Could be Delayed, Navi Looks Bad (Rum0rz)
Third-Gen Ryzen Threadripper Zen 2 CPUs Mysteriously Vanish From AMD's 2019 Roadmap + Tom's
Delaying Threadripper 3 might make a lot of sense. If Ryzen 3 doubles the max core count to 16, and Epyc 2 doubles it to 64, Threadripper 2 will continue to have up to 32 cores. It is unknown what core count Threadripper 3 will have. They could use 4-8 chiplets to provide 32-64 cores. Most high-end users probably don't need it right now, Threadripper 2 is still a better value than Intel, and AMD could just cut Threadripper 2 prices to get rid of the inventory.
What is known is that Navi will still be based on AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) design which is showing its age. It effectively has a 4,096 stream processor limit.
PS5 will include a Navi GPU, and the GPU or SoC will apparently include hardware acceleration for ray tracing. It's not known if desktop Navi GPUs will have this capability.
From the article:
Navi is meant to be the last GCN based GPU design by AMD and as such, should be the most optimized version of the architecture we have seen to date with multiple improvements being delivered. However, the report says that early Navi samples are not even able to match Vega 20 clock speeds and the Navi GPUs which can meet the frequency targets are reportedly facing major thermal and power consumption issues. We heard similar rumors for the Vega 10 and Vega 20 parts before they launched and those rumors turned out to be very close to the real image when the cards finally landed into consumer’s hands.
It may be possible that AMD is trying to uplift the performance by increasing frequency while sacrificing thermals and power efficiency. That is pretty much what Radeon VII was but it’s still much early to say if that’s the truth as the cards won’t be available until next year.
Worst case scenario: Navi is lackluster due to being GCN-based and power consumption issues, and its first non-GCN successor ends up lackluster due to a lack of optimizations.
A leaked/alleged lineup is given in the article showing Radeon VII or better performance starting at $430, and RTX 2070 performance at $330. If that holds true, Navi could be a price/performance win over Nvidia, just not as good as it could have been.
Joe Biden Parody Website Outranks Campaign Site
The internet snafu suggests the Biden campaign is having early difficulty with its digital operation. That could pose trouble for the 76-year-old as he competes in a field that has already proven to be savvy with new tools for online outreach and fundraising.
The problem has also emerged despite the Biden campaign's prolific spending on Google.
An online tracker maintained by the progressive digital advertising firm ACRONYM shows the Biden campaign has spent more than $360,000 on Google platforms, racking up more spending on the site than all the other candidates in the crowded field except Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
The informative parody website doesn't come with an annoying popup like the official one does.
The parody website presents a number of Biden's past positions:
In 1996, Senator Joe Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. This law also prevented states from recognizing same sex marriages.
Senator Joe Biden voted for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 which initiated the “3 Strikes and You’re Out” policy which has resulted in many people spending life sentences in jail for minor crimes.
In 1982, Senator Joe Biden initially voted for a constitutional amendment which would have allowed states to overturn Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.
In the 1970s Joe Biden stated that “I have become convinced that busing is a bankrupt concept.” He actively worked to oppose busing as a way to desegregate schools. Biden even wrote letters seeking the support of people who thought schools should be segregated by race.
Senator Joe Biden, who at the time was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voted for the resolution to authorize military involvement in Iraq. The Iraq war resulted in the death of 4,424 US military members and cost taxpayers $2.4 trillion.
Harsher mandatory minimum sentences for drug use, civil asset forfeiture without a conviction, and imposing death penalty for drug related murders – this is Joe Biden’s legacy. He voted for both the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and its 1988 counterpart and claimed George H. Bush’s war on drugs was “not tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough.”
Daily Show segment from 2015 (5m5s)
Previously: Joe Biden's #MeToo Adventure Continues
I don't eat brains.
Those death metal guys they like to wear black/they like to draw pentagrams on their back
They like headbangin'/Those death metal guys.
Rockabilly guys like hot rod cars/they like hot women and their neighborhood bar
Death metal guys will grow long hair/and work real hard to have an evil stare
They're kind of medieval/those death metal guys.
Jerry Lee Lewis shot his bass player down/down to the ground with a .38 round
But death metal guys would have eaten his brains/and people call Jerry Lee Lewis insane.
Rockabilly guys like rockabilly chicks/death metal guys think they're all country hicks
But death metal guys still live with their mom/on the internet learning how to embalm
So they go kill a dog/those death metal guys!
It's really kind of hard to live in harmony/hot rod cars and blasphemy
Hair in your face or hair way up high/I'm a rockabilly cat not a death metal guy!
<solo>
I'm a rocka, I'm a rocka, I'm a rockabilly guy
Rocka, I'm a rocka, I'm a rockabilly guy
Yeah! Woo!
I'm a rocka, I'm a rocka, I'm a rockabilly guy
And I don't eat brains
Like death metal guys
Like death metal guys
Like death metal guys
Like death metal guys
Death metal guys!
<not an html link disclaimer here> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0EJjqVjPgU </stdsclaim.ho>
They say no lessons were learned from Watergate
I don't believe that's exactly true.
Anybody find the tapes?
Intel Xe Datacenter GPUs to Include Hardware Ray Tracing
Intel to Support Hardware Ray Tracing Acceleration on Data Center Xe GPUs
No confirmation on the first-generation Xe client or integrated GPUs, but I will be surprised if the "enthusiast" tier doesn't have it.
Another thing to look for: will the implementation be dramatically different from Nvidia's approach? Will Intel need to dedicate a portion of the die for ray tracing?
Emperor-be-Gone and Threatening the Little Prince
Japan's 'revolutionary' Emperor Akihito to abdicate, leaving imposing legacy for his son
When Emperor Akihito abdicates Tuesday, he will become the first Japanese monarch to do so in more than two centuries.
Akihito, 85, will step down after more than 30 years on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
His reign has seen Japan continue its post-war modernization and win a bid to host the Olympic Games in 2020, but has also been marked by lows such as the economic crash of the 1990s and severe natural disasters.
He is widely revered for bringing the imperial family closer to the people, and has also won respect for his efforts to heal the nation’s post-World War II wounds. In a sign of Akihito's popularity, a record crowd packed into the grounds around the Imperial Palace in early January for his final New Year's public appearance.
This imposing legacy, combined with shifts in the nation’s politics and rising regional tensions, leave Akihito’s eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, facing numerous challenges after he assumes the symbolic role May 1, experts say.
Knives found at Japan prince's desk days before abdication
Police in Japan have launched an investigation after two knives were found near the school desk of Emperor Akihito's 12-year-old grandson, local media report.
The knives were discovered on Friday in a classroom at a junior high school attended by Prince Hisahito.
Police are probing CCTV footage of a man trespassing on the school grounds.
Prince Hisahito is set to become second in line to the throne after Emperor Akihito's abdication next week.
Police believe the unidentified man caught on camera, who was dressed in blue and wearing a helmet, posed as a construction worker to access the building at Ochanomizu University.
Prince Hisahito and his classmates were in another part of the school when the knives are believed to have been planted.
Security ahead of coronation stepped up after knives found in Japanese prince's classroom
The two kitchen knives, which had been taped to either end of a stick and whose blades were reportedly painted pink, were discovered balanced between Hisahito's desk and his neighbor's, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported. Nothing indicating a motive, or a claim of responsibility was left with the contraption.
Each desk has the name of its occupant written on it, making the prince's desk easily identifiable, the newspaper said.
A knife for both the prince and his neighbor. Is it symbolic, or were they meant to fight each other to the death with them? I'm sensing good anime potential in this. Or pay-per-view blood sport with kidnapped constitutional monarchs/offspring and other elites. #CringeWorthy
The Democrats are going to lose in 2020
One part of it, and unfortunately the part with all the real power and money, is the corporate wing of the party, the ones who call themselves "moderates" and who, by the standards of any civilized nation, are a center-right, corporatist clusterfuck. These are the dynastic politicians, the Clintons and the Pelosis and so on. Notably, they are what the Republicans used to be until about the mid-90s, and Clinton's so-called "welfare reform" has done more to harm the poor than anything the GOP had done from the Depression up until that point. These people *are* Republicans, and modern Republicans are basically the Christian answer to the Taliban, except too weak and obese and low-testosterone to grow facial hair.
On the other side, we have the ones who are triggering all the RWNJs who infest this site like a bad case of bedbugs: Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and so on. You can tell they scare seven shades of shit out of our "friends" on the right wing (wrong wing) because of how much barely-disguised panic they elicit in the form of almost obsessive insults and smears. Make no mistake, the Fox crowd is shitting their Depends (well, more than usual I suppose...) at the idea of them taking over.
Now, because the corporate wing owns the Democratic party, and because they've been fighting the same election campaign battle (1972, if you're curious) for goddamn near half a century, they're going to miscalculate. They're going to run the "safe" choice, Biden. And they're gonna get fucking clobbered. Why? Because the data leading them to even consider Biden as "the safe choice" are massively skewed, ridiculously out of date, and not in line with reality.
The guy's a senile, creepy old ignoramus, and he does not resonate with most of the Democratic voters. I am not one to dump on someone due simply to low Charisma scores, if for no other reason than that I'd have to drag on myself all the damn time. But Biden is toxic. Not just because he's apparently a gross toucher, but he's like Bob Dole and post-Alzheimer's Reagan rolled into one and then given a good beating with the Schlemiel Stick. The corporate wing wants him in charge because he'll keep the gravy train going; he's essentially Dubya for the donkey team. He will obey his handlers, one of whom will likely be Hillary Clinton doing a damn good Dick Cheney impression. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
I predict this is going to come to a head in 2020 with a massive GOP win as the Democrat voter base splits along age and income lines. Honestly, this is nothing more than a reflection of the fact that the corporate Dems are, as I said before, basically Republicans, and this election season is going to make that quite clear. We may, assuming there's anything left to preside over, have a chance in 2024, but who knows what the country will look like by then? Who knows if there's even going to *be* one? This is karma.
Joe Biden's #MeToo Adventure Continues
Anita Hill says she wants 'real accountability' from Joe Biden
A woman who accused a Supreme Court nominee of sexual harassment has rebuked White House candidate Joe Biden, who chaired the 1991 hearings.
Anita Hill said Mr Biden must show "real accountability" for his handling of her complaints during Clarence Thomas' confirmation in Congress.
Ms Hill told the New York Times the former vice-president had called her before announcing his presidential bid.
But she said his apology was not enough without "real change".
Joe Biden Declines to Directly Apologize to Anita Hill for His Handling of 1991 Hearing
In his first sit-down interview of his presidential campaign, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Friday repeatedly declined to directly apologize to Anita Hill for his handling of the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings, instead delivering a broad statement of remorse for how she was treated during the combative questioning she faced from an all-male Senate committee that he led.
Appearing on ABC’s “The View,” which is heavily watched by women, Mr. Biden was asked by one of its hosts, Joy Behar, about his reluctance in recent months to offer a straightforward apology to Ms. Hill for his own judgment and leadership during the hearings. Ms. Behar suggested that Mr. Biden should say, “I’m sorry for the way I treated you, not for the way you were treated.”
“I’m sorry for the way she got treated,” Mr. Biden responded. “If you go back to what I said, and didn’t say, I don’t think I treated her badly.”
Biden Gives Bumbling Apology as ‘The View’ Confronts Him on Creepy Touching, Anita Hill
Biden was initially greeted by The View hosts with a very warm welcome by the panel and extremely friendly audience. But the tone shifted halfway through the chat when co-host Sunny Hostin brought up recent accusations from multiple women that he invaded their personal space and made them feel “gross.”
“We’re in a different time now,” Hostin asked. “We’re in the #MeToo movement. Are you sorry for what you did? Are you prepared to apologize to those women?”
The former veep replied that “everybody has to be more [aware] of the private space of men and women” before awkwardly asking the all-woman panel if he can hug them, noting that he wasn’t sure what to do when he walked out.
'He gave me permission': Joe Biden jokes about touching complaints
Joe Biden has twice made joking references to complaints from women that his physical behavior made them uncomfortable.
The former vice-president’s comments on Friday came during his first public appearance since the allegations began to surface last week. Taking the stage in Washington at a gathering of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Biden was introduced by the president of the union, Lonnie Stephenson. Biden quipped: “I just want you to know – I had permission to hug Lonnie.”
The crowd, which was mostly male, erupted in laughter. Later, Biden made a similar joke after inviting a group of children onstage and putting his arm round a young boy. “By the way, he gave me permission to touch him,” the former vice-president said, again to laughter. “Everybody knows I like kids more than people,” Biden said.
Lucy Flores isn’t alone. Joe Biden has a long history of touching women inappropriately.
Democrat Lucy Flores was preparing to give one of her final stump speeches in a race for lieutenant governor in Nevada when she felt two hands on her shoulders. She froze. “Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?” Flores wondered.
Flores recounts her experience with Joe Biden in a first-person essay for New York magazine, describing an incident in 2014 when Biden came up behind her, leaned in, smelled her hair, and kissed the back of her head.
“Biden was the second-most powerful man in the country and, arguably, one of the most powerful men in the world,” Flores wrote. “He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job. Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused.”
[...] Flores’s experience isn’t unique. It is no secret in Washington that Biden has touched numerous women inappropriately in public. It’s just never been treated as a serious issue by the mainstream press.
Sleepy Joe or Creepy Joe?
