Futurology Today

Adam Ellis https://bsky.app/profile/adamtots.bsky.social/post/3m4u2ikza4222

• https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18417-earth-calling-a-short-history-of-radio-messages-to-et/

• https://web.archive.org/web/20080927211140/http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_j_webarchive/davis_profile_sciam/jd.htm

If you ever tried the infamous "Update and shut down" option in any Windows build, it often leads to a reboot instead to an actual shutdown. Now, Microsoft has finally fixed this issue starting with Windows 11 25H2 Build 26200.7019 (or 26100.7019 on 24H2). According to the Windows Latest, Microsoft has shipped this broken functionality way back with Windows 10, and has never fixed it since. However, the Windows teams working behind the update have finally managed to ship a working solution with a note stating in Windows 11 experiences that the new build: "Addressed underlying issue which can cause "Update and shutdown" to not actually shut down your PC after updating."

Although Wayland has been GNOME’s default session since 2016, X11 has continued to linger in the codebase—until now. That changed with the recent merging of two PRs (here and here), which completely removed the X11 codebase from both Mutter, GNOME’s default window manager and compositor, as well as the GNOME Shell itself.

In other words, the GNOME project is finally closing one of the longest chapters in Linux desktop history. With the upcoming GNOME 50 release, scheduled for mid-march 2026, the desktop environment will officially drop support for the native X11 session, making Wayland the sole display system moving forward.

The federal and provincial governments have been underfunding universities for decades. Recently, universities were able to start recruiting foreign students to make up for the shortfall, but it looks like that money tap will be turned down. It doesn't look like there's a plan to make up for it.

At the same time, the feds want to

recruit more than 1,000 top international researchers to Canada, with the budget injecting up to $1.7-billion into a suite of recruitment measures.

That'll be tough if universities see their income crater.

I'm actually planning to put together a video review, so I'm in the process of organizing my thoughts. This thread is just a spur of the moment thing.

Overall I really liked it. It was well worth the $15 sale price I got it for. The game drops you onto a planet colonized by humans in the future which has undergone some event called "The Bleeding". Now there's sentient meat creatures expanding everywhere, with people eating meat off of them to survive. There are mutated human thralls to the meat. Vomiting and putting the vomit into your inventory to use later is a game mechanic. You as the player have some kind of infection at the start, which kicks off the story and you go out into the wastes and get into fights. It's David Cronenberg's Kenshi, more or less.

It's an RPG, but choices are pretty streamlined. There also aren't alternate ways than combat to complete many quests. It's a little disappointing for the dialog based skills to get so little use. Combat is real time, I'd call it hard hitting twinstick style combat. Even end game a good three or so hits could kill my character from mid or high level enemies. There is a stealth mechanic, which works though often it acts just as a way to get close and deal some sneak damage rather than being able to sneak entirely past obstacles.

There is melee and ranged combat, with a few flavors of stat specialization, but even if you only specialize in ranged or melee damage with your character you'll almost certainly want to fight with both kinds of weapons. Ranged combat boils down to a lot of circle strafing and baiting enemies around corners. Melee combat relies on getting a few hits in before doing a dodge roll away from the enemy's attack.

There is overworld travel in the style of an OG Fallout game. The player can go through the desert divided into two areas, chokepointed by a specific location full of enemies, but once that is cleared out, can freely go back and forth.

There's relatively new content, The Perished City, which is a city so large it has its own overworld travel.

The game is Early Access and has been that way on Steam since 2021. Lots of the negative reviews are by people unhappy with the pace of updates. Many of those reviews were calling it dead or abandoned right before the big Perished City update dropped. Personally while I obviously want to see the game get fully completed, what's there right now was worth the price of entry. If you do buy this, I think it's best to buy for what's there now instead of what may come, given the small (I believe two person) team and history of slow updates.

Long story short. Friend with history is body and mental issues (mainly depression). I moved to a different country, so we talked less. For the past two year things went very one sided. I would text her and get reply much later. Never able to meet when I was in town.

Then, nothing. No answers at all. Text or calls. Friends tell me similar story. I keep texting sporadically, sometimes calling. After months I get a response. She's crying and saying shes sorry for not replying, that's she's not well in general and needs time. Problems with work, relationships, family and some tragedies all in short time.

That was months ago. Part of me thinks to give space, but another is worried because she's avoiding our common friends too. The only way to reach to her or even know how she is would be through her family, which is very intrusive.

Any advice?

Edit: fixed "In moved to a different country" to "I moved to a different country" as somebody misunderstood due to the typo

Elon Musk has long made a habit of hyper-focusing on a specific project, forcing an entire team to attend to his every whim while letting his other responsibilities fall by the wayside — whether it’s his obsession with Robotaxis impacting Tesla or his weird procreation kink disrupting the private messages of countless women.

The latest object of Musk’s obsession? According to new reporting by the Wall Street Journal, he’s been personally overseeing the developing of xAI’s chatbot Ani — which, tellingly, comes in the form of a super-sexualized pigtail-wearing woman that removes her clothing in response to flirtation.

Last Tuesday, as the strongest Atlantic storm in 90 years slammed the western coast of Jamaica with 185-mph winds, Bill Gates was downplaying climate change.

The billionaire does not appear to have publicly addressed the disaster in Jamaica, which extended throughout the Caribbean, with Melissa having killed dozens across Cuba, Haiti, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic. And his overall point, frankly, does not hold up to scrutiny.

Gates isn’t alone; climate change has slipped down the world’s priority list in the past few years—and it shows. Governments and corporations are shelving emissions goals, budgets are being redirected from climate initiatives to warfare, the media is pivoting away from climate journalism, and even activists are urging a softer, more “hopeful” tone. It all signals a vibe shift in how we talk about climate change, reframing it from the existential risk it actually poses to a less urgent, peripheral issue—even as the floodwaters reach our front doors.

Washington (AFP) – A US man charged with using a sandwich to assault a law enforcement officer was acquitted Thursday after a jury decided that charges brought by President Donald Trump's prosecutors were baloney.

The prosecution made a surprise local hero of 37-year-old Sean Dunn, who was protesting Trump's shock takeover of law enforcement in the capital Washington.

He was accused of flinging a "sub-style sandwich" at an armed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent on August 10 in a busy nightlife district after shouting expletives at the officer.

The officer was part of a huge crackdown ordered by Trump, with multiple agencies and troops deploying in Washington and several other Democratic-run cities, ostensibly to fight what the Republican president says are crime waves and anarchy.

Prosecutors wanted serious felony charges, but a grand jury refused to indict Dunn -- a rare occurrence. A misdemeanor charge was filed and Dunn faced a maximum of one year in prison if convicted.

While prosecutors ultimately proved ham-fisted, Dunn had appeared to be in a serious pickle.

Right after hurling his sandwich he was chased down, then released, only to be arrested in a raid on his home that was publicized by the White House.

As video of the initial altercation went viral, Dunn was quickly dubbed "DC sandwich guy," becoming a symbol of resistance to Trump. Stylized images of him in mid-sandwich-attack appeared on posters, graffiti, T-shirts and even a popular Halloween costume.

Trump's much-touted crime crackdown has seen an increase in arrests and indictments, but US media analysis of the data shows much of that has come from pursuing minor offenses in court.

The top Trump-appointed prosecutor for Washington, Jeanine Pirro, has pursued maximum penalties for all arrests since taking office, including in the Dunn case.

Dunn was a paralegal at the Justice Department at the time of the altercation and was fired from his position.

On Monday, as proceedings opened, Judge Carl J. Nichols noted that he expected the trial to be a short one as "this is the simplest case in the world."

Dunn's defense did not dispute that he threw the sandwich at the officer, instead arguing that his action did not constitute an offense, and that the charges against him were a "blatant abuse of power."

Much of the case centered on the definition of key terms, including whether the throwing of a soft object constitutes an act that is "forcible," and whether Dunn's action impeded the officer in the conduct of their duties.

On the first day of court proceedings, the defendant, dressed in a black-and-white patterned sweater, appeared subdued as his defense team engaged in feverish consultation.

Dunn's defense has contended that he was being selectively prosecuted due to his political views, having called the federal officers "fascists" before he threw the sandwich.