Yes, I only use it via syncthing-fork so this is a distinction without a difference to me.

Not sure if I qualify as extra paranoid but this whole situation feels very sketchy and has me reconsidering my use of syncthing. Making significant changes like this without any explanation is extremely bad practice.

Vanilla flavoring not from a vanilla orchid is more likely to be made from wood than beaver. Lignin in wood pulp can be used as a precursor and is much cheaper than beaver butts.

I am trying to think of a corporate gig that would be comparable. Being a murderous dictator who has journalists butchered is generally viewed as being significantly worse than your average CEO by most people. Maybe you could say taking money from Erik Prince is sort of on par? I would expect there to be a somewhat equivalent level of outrage in that scenario. Bill Burr whoring it out for a more normal corporate overlord who isn’t directly involved in torturing and murdering people isn’t going to draw the same kind of condemnation though.

I agree that the only slightly compelling argument in this is that there is some greater good being served here, but it is impossible to ignore the reality of the situation. MBS is directly paying them, there are rules about what they are allowed to say, the audience is a bunch of wealthy elites who already have easy access to anything they want, and the intent of the whole thing is very obviously part of the larger image rehabilitation campaign that MBS has been attempting to pull off for the past few years by throwing his blood money around. Burr got crucified for what he said because it is exactly what MBS wants him to say. Burr saw a bunch of fast food places and that was enough for him because he is being paid, and he knows if he said some real shit about MBS it would be a problem.

I do tend to go this hard on whoever. If they want to associate with someone like MBS I am going to judge the shit out of them for it just like I would anyone else. It’s disgusting behavior whoring yourself out to a dictator. I don’t need people like that in my life and I regret that I have to share this planet with them.

To me this does not feel like an especially lofty standard. Particularly for someone like Burr who is already wealthy and established enough that a $1m paycheck isn’t life changing money.

I do agree that religious fundamentalists could use more exposure to people speaking freely and openly, but that is not what this is. Besides the government imposed restrictions on topics they were allowed to mention in their sets, the audience itself is the wealthy elite from Riyadh who are the least religious and most secular segment of Saudi society. These are a bunch of rich folks who can fly to NYC whenever they want to catch any comedy show they want to see.

The reason that performers and comedians in particular piss people off is because of the whole free speech thing. It is a gross look to be someone reliant on freedom of expression for your career to take money from the guy who notoriously had a journalist brutally tortured and chopped up with a bone saw. And it’s not like that is the only horrific thing MBS has done either, it wasn’t even the first or last journalist he has murdered. If they were just performing in Saudi Arabia for some kind of private org and the money wasn’t being paid directly by MBS there would be significantly less anger or sense of betrayal from their fans. MBS is a notorious psychopath directly responsible for horrific crimes and anyone who associates with him is going to be tainted by it, there is no getting around that.

You don’t need to be a moral paragon to recognize that taking money from the fucking bone saw guy to whitewash his shitty dictatorship is bad and will piss off your audience. Where is the line for you? If you think Burr is excused for this because his claim to fame is being a piece of shit, could he do anything you actually find unacceptable?

US imports of Saudi oil have not been significant for awhile now, North American oil production has increased massively over the past several decades. The US has actually been energy independent and a net exporter for around 5 years or so I think.

I don’t think many Americans are happy about the US relationship with Saudi Arabia but it doesn’t get shoved in their faces often so when comedians act like this it becomes an avenue for that anger to be expressed. Many Americans have parasocial relationships with comedians, and/or have this idea that they are “fearless truth-tellers”, so it hits a lot different compared to abstract foreign policy and people get a lot more easily riled up about it.

This isn’t that surprising, they have a reputation for dumb fuck-ups like this. There’s a lot of major issues in these elite SOF units that have been festering for decades.

It sounds more like a crazy person did a crazy thing and happened to use AI.

Mr President, God spared you in Butler, PA to be the most consequential President in a century—maybe ever. The decisions on your shoulders I would not want to be made by anyone else. You have many voices speaking to you Sir, but there is only ONE voice that matters. HIS voice. I am your appointed servant in this land and am available for you but I do not try to get in your presence often because I trust your instincts. No President in my lifetime has been in a position like yours. Not since Truman in 1945. I don’t reach out to persuade you. Only to encourage you. I believe you will hear from heaven and that voice is far more important than mine or ANYONE else’s. You sent me to Israel to be your eyes, ears and voice and to make sure our flag flies above our embassy. My job is to be the last one to leave.

I will not abandon this post. Our flag will NOT come down! You did not seek this moment. This moment sought YOU! It is my honor to serve you!

That is some weird shit.

Maybe they needed 3.5% of China? Since the repression was imposed from outside of the city its happening in a larger context than just the local demographics.

The first armed protest on a freeway will clarify everything.

I didn’t keep track of them, but I’ve only ever tried to fix blatant mistakes like typos and misspellings. The most recent was several years ago, I think 2020 or 2021. If you want to see it happen find a typo and try to fix it.

I’ve tried multiple times over the years and had the same experience. As far as I can tell Wikipedia is dominated by a weird clique of power tripping dicks. If you’re not in the clique they will revert anything you do, even fixing really blatant and obvious typos or misspellings will get reverted.

Potentially yes, if you use existing IP to make music, doing it with a computer isn’t going to change anything about how the law works. It does get super complicated and there’s ambiguity depending on the specifics, but mostly if you do it a not obvious way and no one knows how you did it you’re going to be fine, anything other than that you will potentially get sued, even if whatever you did was a legally permissible use of the IP. Rightsholders generally hate when anyone who isn’t them tries to make money off their IP regardless of how they try to do it or whether they have a right to do it unless they paid for a license.

That feels categorically different unless AI has legal standing as a person. We’re talking about training LLMs, there’s not anything more than people using computers going on here.

Where does the training data come from seems like the main issue, rather than the training itself. Copying has to take place somewhere for that data to exist. I’m no fan of the current IP regime but it seems like an obvious problem if you get caught making money with terabytes of content you don’t have a license for.

Their banking sector at least went through reforms following the 2008 crisis. They are required to be less risky in certain ways than they were pre-GFC and have gone through a bunch of stress testing over the years.