I’m wondering when this will simply be a feature of game engines, along with AI character generation, terrain/map generators, and AI-driven dialog.

I’m really on the fence about it since it really could put extra life into games where it just isn’t normally feasible to make all NPC’s unique, dialog etc so you end up with a lot of “I took an arrow to the knee” type dialog.

For smaller studios - or independent authors - the ability to generate high quality content with code could also be a real boon.

I’d still rather not see big studios just go with AI instead of real humans for design and acting though. That just leads to cookie-cutter bullshit and games that feel stale

Everyone hates on lawyers, until they need one…

Yeah, I could see neck guards becoming required equipment after this. Safety regulations are built on blood

$35B could have built some nice transit infrastructure. Just saying

I could see maintenance costs increases being not insignificant over time. Parts/appliances had gone up notably, as has materials and the cost of people to do the work. There’s also some issues with receivables which may end up needing to be written off, and deliberate damage over time. Generally, these do need to be accounted for on a going-forward basis.

That said, none of these should have increased nearly so much as the cost of property and overall rents. They should account for a reasonable increase over time, instead what we see is increased to cover the cost of the mortgage on additional rental properties etc

See there you go, accusing people and putting words in their mouths. Nobody said kids were the problem (or even “a” problem) but not every kid feels the same way and that sometimes has little to do with parenting.

But feel free to go and accuse everyone of being a bad parent because things worked out for your niece. I know more than a few people who were damn good parents and their kids did eventually come out to them, but it took awhile and some digging to get to it while in the meantime those same kids were experiencing real issues in their social life because of it but their parents were unaware of why (though on most cases they know something was off). Once they finally got through it the dialog with their parents was great but it took quite awhile and needless suffering in the meantime. In one case the child was concerned that a rather religious family member (not the parent) would find out and ostracize them. When that family member did find out over the longer course they were actually very supportive, if a bit confused.

Having something in policy one way or the other is idiotic. Some kids might get beatings for having low grades, but that doesn’t mean we don’t decide to keep parents informed about academic performance, it means we should report unsafe home environments and use judgement in other cases.

If the teacher believes there’s a real risk of harm then that should not feel compelled to share that information by gov’t, but at the same time if something is potentially adversely affecting a child they shouldn’t be compelled by black-and-white policy NOT to engage the parents, and early interaction may benefit all sides.

The “all kids who don’t want to talk to their parents must be raised by abusive rednecks” is just a shitty argument. Even adults sometimes have hidden fears or worries that aren’t bounded in reality, but allow unrealistic “what if” scenarios to hold them back. Kids are in a worse state with less personal experience and a bombardment of other people’s opinions, situations, social media and many other factors than can bring anxiety even in the best of home environments.

Yeah but he’s on the wanted list because it’s terrible behavior for a bear. He didn’t even try to pay!

Yeah, this is what gets me. Some parents are shitty, and I can see the issues with this as it’s not unheard of for kids to be kicked out by homophobic parents after being outed, etc

But in the flip side, parents are legally responsible for their kids try increasingly cut off from the information that might be important for caring for those kids. They can ask a doctor to not disclose drug use, and apparently now a teacher not to disclose their gender identity decisions, leaving the parent might be clueless up to the point where it grows into a major issue and blindsides them.

Life isn’t an episode of Leave It To Beaver. Not all kids have daily sit-downs with their parents where they discuss in detail everything about their lives. At a certain point, a lot of kids often start cutting out their parents thinking that it’s part of establishing their own independence, and sometimes -especially with issues of sexuality/etc - they may be embarrassed to bring those forward to their parents.

Do parents have a right to know everything about their kids lives? Maybe not. Parents DO have a responsibility towards help educate their kids, help them navigate life and deal with major life changes and decisions. Educators have historically had a duty to keep parents informed of major developments in school which might affect their children or - if they have evidence the child is at-risk - to report cases of abuse to the appropriate authorities.

It’s a tightrope, for sure, but expecting parents to do their job while potentially withholding vital information is not a good look either, and a lot of decisions from government (on both sides) lately are starting to have a “it’s for the children” authoritarian feel.

I would support my kids regardless of how they choose to identify, their sexual orientation, etc, but when stuff is happening in regards to that I would damn well want to KNOW so that I can support them properly (possibly including learning more myself)

Yeah not sure exactly what a union even has to be “sorry” about in regards to a bunch of evil pieces of shit doing terrible things oversees

I think there was also some threats of beheadings more recently

They could, but that’s still going to take a lot to balance the scales. It should be part of an overall plan for housing affordability

Slumlords and overpriced rentals can be storage issues though. It can be a nice place, but if you’re paying $2k+/mo for a 1b1b that’s way too fucking much even if it’s in good condition

This feels like a crappy situation to be in. Governments up the chain have obviously dropped the ball if we’re bringing in refugees without actually having solid plans to support them, sponsors etc.

Meanwhile increasing amounts of citizens are suffering from homelessness due to the housing crisis.

If they think that “denying refugees” is going to spur racism and xenophobia, what exactly do they think will happen when citizens are turned away because the shelters are full of refugees the governments didn’t adequately plan for?

I prefer against sharing my specific location but western Canada in an area where there can literally be a 60-70°c+ difference between peak winter and summer conditions.

Yeah, I’d agree with that. Road clearing in general is pretty bad here, let alone sidewalks and bike lanes (especially since the “clearing” often involves pushing it off to the side and blocking up those lanes).

I found it cool how some countries had sweepers which collect the snow and cart it off rather than just pushing it around

I could see this for ice but I’m thinking more snow and slush, which where can be near bumper-height on cars (not to mention the double-digit degrees below freezing for temperatures).

It’s one of those things where it’s probably a good idea for bigger cities with nicer weather (or better maintenance of dedicated bike lanes), but in smaller centres a better investment in public transit would make more sense

Those might be ok here in summer, but the snow (and shitty city management) plus hills would not work out well in the winter.

As somebody who has literally been injured with a cardboard tube to the eye (being used as a sword though sans crossguard/handle): just make sure the kids are using swinging motions rather than poking (or are very aware to stay below neck level)

Last December, the backlog for the regulator (dealing with cases/complains against Air Canada and other airlines) was 18+ months. It likely has only been since then.

They treat people like cattle because they can generally do so without significant consequences.