This seems to be fueling everyone's confirmation bias. The Gallup poll[1] shows a four year decline since 2020. I mean, I don't know what would have happened in 2020 to precipitate this /s. Preceding that was a decade of improvement in employee engagement.
What's a little more interesting (and not at all mentioned in the Axios article) is there is a parallel increase in /active disengagement/. There's clearly a significant minority who consistently feels disconnected from work, but this is back on the rise.
We're also reading a summary of a summary of a Gallup poll by Jim Harter, Ph.D. who posted 5 months ago [2] that "U.S. Employee Engagement Inches Up Slightly After 11-Year Low" [3], so I'm not sure what conclusions to draw.
Unrelated to the links, DOE immediately stop as soon as they realize they're reading derivative commentary and immediately search for whatever source material is being referenced? Unless you have access to the survey information[4] everyone in this thread is already at least two degrees removed from the data (Jim Harter -> Emily Peck -> HN).
This may be the wrong take-away, but the Air Force shooting your balloon down would be a massive source of pride for the science clubs I remember from my youth. We would have had that on a t-shirt within a week.
What? Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie wasn't enough for you?
I kid. Every 40K fan wants this, but it almost feels like hubris to hope it actually happens. I have to wonder if the Amazon deal[1] is Games Workshop's attempt to get out of the streaming business. Nothing coming out of Warhammer+ is breaking out of the core fanbase; I couldn't fathom suggesting to anyone not familiar with the universe, "Yo, you got to checkout this show The Exodite."
My guess is GW is falling back to its comfort zone of licensing IP: "Amazon Studios today announced that it has secured global rights to Warhammer 40,000...The agreement encompasses rights to the universe across series, film, and more..."[2] When you have two producers from Vertigo Entertainment, one of which happens to be dating Henry Cavill, brokering an escape hatch I'm sure they were, "Yes, please."
My guess is we're going to see Eisenhorn first[3] which feels like a far more approachable introduction to the setting anyways.
I was a tabletop gamer for 25 years before I played my first sit-down D&D session. GURPS, Paranoia, Cyberpunk 2020, WHFRP, TOON, Amber, World of Darkness...you name it. To say, "Wizards of the Coast wants to dismantle the tabletop industry," feels like hyperbole when there's a rich history of alternatives, but I sympathize with the content creators. There's a cultural battle as much as there is a commercial one being waged here.
That said you gotta be _asleep_ to not see the tightening of the reins coming from these mega-companies sitting on fertile creative IP. Marvel Cinematic Universe only made — what? — $28B worldwide while making Rocket-fucking-Raccoon a household name. Games Workshop put the screws to content creators leading to the launch of Warhammer+ and r/grimdank is still hitting the front page of Reddit. Not to mention Uber-nerd Henry Cavill is hooking up with Amazon to bring 40K to streaming.
The strategy works and I suspect it's driven entirely by folks — all grown up and with deep pockets — thirsty to see their marginalized childhood hobbies hit the mainstream. I'm conflicted. As much as I want to say, "Fuck WotC. Fuck Games Workshop" there's visceral appeal in hoping for good Drizzt Do'Urden movie or the Drop Site Massacre becoming as much a cultural touchstone as the The Red Wedding.
How so? Do you mean the caricature has been co-opted by far-right activists and provocateurs[1] to promote antisemitism while hiding behind a flimsy defense of ironic trolling?
Or do you mean that in the past decade the Internet has come to its senses and contemporary usage of the meme means: “I am posting this as an affirmation that I _should_ be able to post it, not that I’m a racist, so don’t question my motivation. I come in peace. ;);)”[2]
This tweet is in reply to Musk's revelation that Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter[1] while making an assertion that it must be because "they hate free speech in America". This puts Apple in the same free speech hating category as Chevrolet, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., Ford, Jeep and others.[2]
The screenshots of the app review don't corroborate the "disallowed almost anything related to Covid, especially vaccines or human origins of the virus", but the Pepe the Frog[3] images could certainly run afoul of Apple's "Defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content" restrictions[4]
The App Store Review's comment "We continue to find that your app or metadata includes content that some users may find upsetting, offensive, or otherwise objectionable" also makes it sound like they went around the block a couple of times with this and Odysee was either unwilling or unable to apply content restrictions.
Related, why does it seem like every time Musk rallies for free speech it's adjacent to some hateful dog whistle?
Jalopnik had an article supposing Musk’s Hyperloop was just a ploy to subvert California's high-speed rail project.[1] Hanlon's razor seems applicable here, but that's not necessarily more flattering for Boring. Seems like a case where the hard part of deploying underground infrastructure in major metropolitan areas isn't actually digging through the dirt.
The timing makes this look like a reaction to Musk firing Twitter engineers for criticizing him on social media[1]. It seems like a thinly veiled loyalty test instead of a marshaling the troops for the rough road ahead. The lowest performing engineers ostensibly got the axe in the first round of layoffs. Now Musk wants to root out those employees who aren’t willing to dedicate their lives to the bizarre theater[2] of Total Commitment.
Some folks seem content to give this behavior a pass citing Musk’s admission that he works 100 hours a week The self-satisfied joy that the gravy train is over for these “lazy tech socialists” is surreal. When you consider that Musk is literally the richest person on earth, it is physically impossible for Musk to work enough hours — over multiple lifetimes — to reconcile a $193B net worth with what any reasonable person would consider a fair compensation.
And to believe that he has a plan for Twitter 2.0 as a “digital town square”[3] strains credulity when he’s been a notorious shitposter. It’s almost as if he insists on sincere engagement from everyone but himself. The Twitter Blue fiasco makes it look like Musk is struggling with his first truly /complex/ challenge. As opposed to, you know, simply complicated shit like rockets and electric vehicles.
In contrast to what, the impartial journalism of the past[1]? It doesn't serve well to surrender your worldview to the journalistic authority over truth any more today than it did then.
But now, articles like the TechDirt post are extremely verifiable (admittedly, the "anticipating a messy collision" is my own editorializing.) Don't believe Twitter is under a consent order? Go read it[2]. Don't believe their CSIO quit? Go look at their LinkedIn profile[3]
But I suspect your issue is not with the facts of the article, but the motivation behind making this /news/. I'd argue it absolutely is news regardless of the circus surrounding surrounding the acquisition especially if you care about consumer privacy. You can go read the 2011 complaint[4]; TLDR Twitter was super cavalier with non-public consumer data and the FTC was, "Clean this shit up and put a process in place so it doesn't happen again." And it did happen again! This year Twitter paid $150M for using 2FA numbers for ad targeting[5].
So you now have to think: is Musk going to make consumer privacy a priority? Maybe these exoduses are a good thing? Clean house and all. Or maybe he still coming up with a plan while courting advertisers[6] and scrambling for recurring revenue? But that comes back to the original question: even if Musk gave a shit, does Twitter retain the organizational capacity to police itself?
The Elon-Twitter saga is fascinating in quasi r/ABoringDystopia meets, well, Twitter sort of way.
The stage is set with a billionaire doubling down on a meme and then stumbling into an absurd $45B baby trap. The Internet loves watching a fool and their money parted; Twitter definitely loves watching a fool and their money parted.
And then, for some, it’s dawning that Musk has been on this MAGA-infused, grade-school-interpretation-of-free-speech trajectory and the stakes of this Twitter acquisition are suddenly much higher. Doubly so when you review the behind the scenes discussions [1] and believe Musk is completely disingenuous (any guess who “the boss himself” is?) in his desire for a neutral platform[2].
I’ve been doom-scrolling the Elon-Twitter news mostly for the rapid unravelling of Musk’s ur-engineer persona. His engineering management has been a cavalcade of bully choices: shitcan half the company, stack rank your engineers by LOC, enforce work-the-weekend death marches, and throw all your coders on to a manager schedule...in an office...in 2022.
Maybe my opinion will change when I start hearing stories about the first of his Twitter pull requests, but right now he’s looking like a dilettante who meme'd into a shit show and has forgotten his ambitions to make us a multi-planet species.
The FTC decree isn't related to free speech. It was a part of a settlement the FTC reached with Twitter regarding their mishandling of customer data[1].
The original article is anticipating a messy collision Twitter's legal obligations to the FTC and Musk's inscrutable product development roadmap given the recent employee churn (both layoffs and exits from key roles, e.g. CISO, CPO, & CCO.)
I have to imagine Facebook and Uber had a few lawyers and one paid $4.9B in fines and the other's former-CSO is now awaiting sentencing on an obstruction of justice conviction.
The interesting proposition here is that Twitter could have lost the organizational capacity to comply with these consent decrees, or at least abdicated the responsibility to the engineers...which sounds bananas.
The Prequel-meme writes itself...
ELON-AKIN: I'm not worried about the FTC. I build rockets.
PADME-GNINEER: Then I shouldn't be either.
ELON-AKIN: ...
PADME-GNINEER: I shouldn't be either, right?
Eighteen-percenter here. Made the decision the next car was going to be all-electric. Ended up going with a Chevrolet Bolt EUV. Prices are already competing with gas (compare 2023 All-Electric Bolt EV with, say, a 2023 Honda Civic Sedan) even before the rebates. And Chevy pays for the installation of the level 2 charging outlet; the installer had it down to a science: "I'm doing ten of these a week."
It's such a better driving experience. Untethered from buying gas, I'm now astonished how much infrastructure is dedicated to internal combustion vehicles.
The more interesting story is RH combining high-end home decor and...restaurants? (And jets, and yachts?)[1] As for the death of San Francisco, The Ramp is in spitting distance, so if you find yourself at the Palm Court you might have nobody to blame but yourself.
I dunno. 600 grand feels like such an obviously unrealistic amount to spend I automatically assume there's no in-game expectation that a player should _actually_ hit that goal.
Would it be less worrisome if the game "only" required, say, $600 to max out?
It seems in both cases consumers are at the precipice of a digital money pit and it's not clear whose responsibility it is to keep people from falling in.
The "player" spending this money is the content creator Jtisallbusiness. Self professed as "THE NUMBER ONE YOUTUBER FOR CASTLE CLASH & OTHER MOBILE GAMING CONTENT!", this looks like a business pouring expense money into a micro-transaction game and drumming up PR.
It would be more disturbing if players at this end of the spending curve _didn't_ encounter game-breaking issues. I'd be more alarmed if the headline read: "After $100K, YouTuber professes, 'This is where the game gets fun.'"
What's a little more interesting (and not at all mentioned in the Axios article) is there is a parallel increase in /active disengagement/. There's clearly a significant minority who consistently feels disconnected from work, but this is back on the rise.
We're also reading a summary of a summary of a Gallup poll by Jim Harter, Ph.D. who posted 5 months ago [2] that "U.S. Employee Engagement Inches Up Slightly After 11-Year Low" [3], so I'm not sure what conclusions to draw.
Unrelated to the links, DOE immediately stop as soon as they realize they're reading derivative commentary and immediately search for whatever source material is being referenced? Unless you have access to the survey information[4] everyone in this thread is already at least two degrees removed from the data (Jim Harter -> Emily Peck -> HN).
[1] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/654911/employee-engagement-...
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jkharter_after-us-employee-en...
[3] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/647564/employee-engagement-...
[4] https://www.gallup.com/q12/