Just an Honest Merchant Sailor

Strictly freaks only. Strictly no minors. He/him.

[demegods]

Goal is to cultivate an audience of absolute degenerate perverts and socialists

[honestmerchantsailor]

From Curious to Hooked in One Evening

I went in skeptical. An AI girlfriend sounded like a gimmick. But one evening on sweetdream.ai turned that around fast. Designing her was genuinely fun, and the first real conversation felt warm and surprisingly natural.

By the end of the night I understood the appeal. The chat remembered what I'd said, the photos matched the person I built, and a quick voice message sealed it. SweetDream is the rare thing that's better than the pitch.

[starlightxraven]

Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google

Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry.

[appalachian-werewolf]

"Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry."

It fucking better.

[mrsjdavis]

Like to charge, reblog to cast?

[newbarktownalumni]

[wifegideonnav]

“bits to use in everyday conversations”

[what-even-is-thiss]

I like the idea in fantasy that humans are better at maintaining things long term because they set up societies or professions to do it whereas dwarves and elves and stuff are like “just get bob to do it he’s got a good few hundred years left” and then bob doesn’t teach anyone else how to do it

[what-even-is-thiss]

Elf: How have you kept this castle maintained for a thousand years if your lives are so short?

Human: We just train new people how to do it?

Elf: *gears visibly turning in their head*

Human: Are you alright?

Elf: I just realized that we didn’t have to let that whole city fall to ruin just because my grandfather died.

Human: What?

[what-even-is-thiss]

Human: Wait that’s why there’s ruins of elven cities even though you live for so long? You just keep not asking people how to do things? How do you learn anything?

Elf: There’s a lot of “you’ve got time to figure it out on your own” attitudes floating around in our society that I’m starting to question somewhat.

[unassimilatedsoul]

Elf: That sword, where did you get it?

Human: My cousin made it.

Elf: Impossible! Those metalworking techniques were lost a hundred years ago!

Human: What do you mean lost? My great-grandmother learned to make these swords from an elven smith, then taught it to her kids.

Elf: That's ridiculous. No elf would give such secrets to a human.

Human: They didn't. Meemaw delivered the metal to the forge, and no one kicked her out when she stayed and watched. She always said they barely acknowledged her even when doing business with her, like she wasn't worth noticing.

Elf: Come to think of it, my great-uncle always was rather single-minded when he started working.

Human: So he wasn't ignoring her, he just forgot she was there?

Elf: Oh, he was definitely ignoring her, too. He was super racist.

[specialagentartemis]

Character has a PhD: they’re really smart and knowledgable about their field!

Character has 2 PhDs: either they did a dual degree program and are braggy about it, had a life-changing experience after their first degree and pivoted their whole career, or they find the structure of being a PhD student, despite all its stress, more comfortable and familiar than the stress of finding a Real Job and have a very indulgent advisor.

Character has 3 PhDs: who keeps accepting them to PhD programs. Either this person needs psychological help or their department needs to be investigated for its academic standards. Probably both

Character has 4+ PhDs: if they aren’t an undercover vampire or something then no they don’t lol

[prokopetz]

Alternatively: this character is some kind of rock star celebrity in their field and has a bunch of honorary degrees from several different institutions, and also this story takes place before most universities adopted a separate postnominal for honorary doctorates specifically to avoid this sort of confusion.

[r2x2]

The Amnesty International report that JK Rowling is trying to censor through legal threats.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

[cbarc]

Please save and share this info where possible. This report has since been removed by Amnesty International due to legal threats of libel from JK Rowling. This information is no longer easily accessible.

[screampotato]

Suddenly struck with a need to explain to you how boat pronouns work (I work in the marine industry).

When you're talking about the design of the boat, you say "it".

When the boat is still being built, your say "it".

When the boat is nearing completion, you can say "it" or "she".

When the boat is floating in the water you probably say "she", unless there is still a lot of work to be done (e.g. no engine yet) then you say "it".

When the boat is officially launched and operating, you say "she". If you continue to say "it" at this point you are not incorrect but suspiciously untraditional. You are not playing the game.

If you are referring to a boat you don't really know anything about you may say "it" ("there's a big boat, it's coming this way"). But if you know its name, it's probably "she" ("there's the Waverley, she's on her way to Greenock").

If you are talking about boats in general, you say "it" ("when a boat is hit by a wave it heels over")

If you speak about a boat in complimentary terms, it's "she" ("she's a grand boat"). If you are being disparaging it may be it, but not necessarily ("it's as ugly as sin", "she's a grotty old tub").

If she has a boy's name, she's still she. "Boy James", "King Edward", "Sir David Attenborough"? The pronoun is she.

If it's a dumb barge (no engine), you say it. But if it's a rowing boat (no engine), you say she.

I hope this has cleared things up so that you may not be in danger of misgendering floating objects.

[glitched-out-mess]

[theramblingvoid]

Hit "view post" and lost it

[lickingandsuckingchristmascoins]

come over

[trangoldin]

American diet and "healthy living" culture is insane and runs DEEP

[jennamoran]

who the heck is eating dice, cards, and pool

[aniseandspearmint]

WHAT is the first one supposed to be? It looks like 'piecing between meals' to me, but that can't be what it says, right?

[prfury-lavaca]

It does in fact say “piecing between meals” and it refers to snacking

[prokopetz]

I'm more struck by the fact that the progression set forth here implies that laudanum and cocaine are less concerning that spicing your food.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

In Rimworld I was just contracted to hold onto some prisoners for someone for awhile, very normal circumstance. Except that the idiots decided to stage a prison break one day before it was time to return them and I had to violently subdue them. So my neighbours handed me three prisoners in perfect health and a week later I hand them back with shattered noses and poorly bandaged head and chest wounds like. No this wasn't my fault. We're good people we run a good prison.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I did make them sleep on sandstone slabs and eat nutrient goo but in fairness the rock slabs are to make me need to break their noses less often, and everyone here eats nutrient goo. We're good people we run a good prison.

[softness-and-shattering]

How do the rock slabs function to decrease the totally passive need for totally passive nose breaking?

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Prisoners have a prison break internal timer, and when it runs out they will attempt a prison break. The timer depends on things like how many prisoners there are, how healthy they are, and how many doors lead into the cells.

The timer only ticks down while a prisoner is awake -- it is paused while they sleep. So you can increase the amount of time before a prison break (and thus the amount of time before you have to crack them over the head with a mace until they stop moving) by making them sleep longer. This is done by giving them shitty beds made out of stone that reduces their sleep quality so they have to be in bed longer to rest up. Since prisoners only really need to be awake to eat and get brainwashed (I mean, chat companionably with the warden about which faction they should be working for and what they should believe, we're all friends here), there's no reason not to make their sleep as shitty as possible.

This is the kind and gentle way to keep prisoners contained and healthy btw. Mean players will often use the more direct and reliable "nugget pawn" method.

[clovercalliber]

hi, what the hell is the nugget pawn method

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Mental breaks and prison breaks don't matter if you amputate their arms and legs and leave them as a nugget with a head.

Some people just do legs, depending on what you want the prisoner for.

[cugzarui]

i was going to say it doesn't sound like you take good care of your prisoners but it seems it can always be worse

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Rimworld is incredibly detailed in weirdly specific areas and incredibly basic and clumsy in weirdly specific areas and these mechanics clash in weird ways that make it... not impossible to Play Super Nice, but extremely limiting to do so. Unless you're specifically doing a Good Guy Run where you're deliberately avoiding most of the game options for personal challenge reasons, you kind of end up playing as a monster in some way or another.

I'm playing a pro human rights, pro individualist, technology-positive settlement, and stuff like the prison break mechanics are just. Fundamentally part of the game and almost impossible to avoid without extensive modding. (Avoiding taking prisoners at all except to medically treat and release them would be an example of a limitation in an aforementioned Good Guy Run.)

[matt-lock]

Once or twice I've done runs where I try to avoid breaking the Geneva conventions* and it is very hard to do so in rimworld. You need to give surviving enemies access to an alter of their ideology (impossible in vanilla), pay them (impossible in vanilla), avoid holding women in unisex cells (difficult to impossible in vanilla). And give them fancy cells, sufficient food, clothing, medical treatment etc.

It's also illegal to recruit them, you have to release them. And you can't release them normally, you have to send them back via drop pod. The only way to avoid this is to avoid taking prisoners at all, i.e. let downed enemies bleed/starve to death (which I suspect is itself a war crime but the mod doesn't consider it one so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). And then you have to dig them individual graves, because it turns out that cremating enemies is also a war crime unless they consented while alive (impossible in vanilla).

plus there's a bunch of sensible rules about how it's illegal to turn prisoners into organ farms or enslave them or dump toxic waste near other factions or raiding non-hostile work sites or destroy their brain to make a robot that e.g. burns enemies with hellfire.

* using a mod that lists detected Geneva convention violations and encourages you to get them all: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3339044171

[honestmerchantsailor]

Re: payment. If I recall correctly, prisoners of war are entitled to be paid in line with their rank, the reasoning being that a lot of people sign up with the military for the money, and by not giving them their salary while they're locked up, you're really dicking them over in their post-war civilian life and/or harming any civilian dependents who rely on their salary. However, there's no in-game evidence that enemy pawns get paid at all regardless of rank (and it's not even possible to pay your own pawns in vanilla), so they wouldn't be entitled to any salary as prisoners.

[prokopetz]

It's fun when the robot character in the sci-fi show gets cut in half because nobody working on this type of media knows anything about robotics and you never know what you're going to find inside. Green printed circuit boards? Meat and viscera, but like in a weird colour? Just a shitload of goo?

[prokopetz]

I especially like it when the robot appears to have realistic musculature which operates via contraction, suggesting some sort of fluid-driven or shape-memory-based actuation, and then it gets dismembered and a bunch of random gears and sprockets go flying everywhere.

[prokopetz]

You're a sci-fi robot who just got cut in half by the Big Bad (don't worry, you'll get better). What's inside you?

Printed circuit boards (blinking lights optional)

Gears and sprockets

Endless bundles of wire

Some sort of translucent crystal

Meat and viscera in a weird colour

Random geometric shapes

The cut is mirror-smooth, like I was one solid mass of metal

It looks like... car parts?

I'm actually mostly hollow

Just a shitload of milky goo

Other (specify)

Cheese sandwich

Voting ended onJul 13

[elgreytea]

What are you reading rn, why are you reading it, and what format are you reading it in (physical book, ereader, on your phone etc)

[papayajuan2019]

in of body experience

[gayrobot9000]

LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT

[gayrobot9000]

i'm a girl now

[unadulteratedhideouttrash]

[support]

One legitimately weird thing about Tumblr is that we literally can’t code for shit, many people quit working at Tumblr due to a hostile work environment, and we can’t seem to program a simple blogging website to not flood your RAM.

[monopoison3r]

nearing the 10 year anniversary of banishing editable reblogs

[rederiswrites]

Turns out the horsemen of the Apocalypse now prefer to go by Shareholder Profit, Private Equity, Corporate Personhood, and Workforce Optimization.

[jottingprosaist]

Shareholder Profit: War (the casus belli for attacks on workers' rights)

Private Equity: Pestilence (they are parasites that voraciously strip the value out of a healthy business until it withers and dies)

Workforce Optimization: Famine (cutting hours and employees until the business is starved of staff, barely functioning)

Corporate Personhood: Death (a hollow, shambling mockery of a human with rights and needs)

[rederiswrites]

Yeah I can work with that.

[theriverbeyond]

Ideal work schedule:

I show up and am given a list of cognitively engaging but achievable tasks

I complete the list

I leave immedietly

[silicon-katydid]