Hell, even on here.

The more controversial / hot-button a topic is, the more people it draws in to start internet arguments and coming up with ever
complex methods of calling everyone else stupid.

At the end of the day, no one has convinced anyone else that their side is right, the World keeps on spinning and the site makes
extra AD dollars for everyones trouble.

Social Media knows this all to well, thus do they love posting said garbage on their site. The idiots who take the bait and start
raging against everyone else ( who, in turn, is doing the same ) don't realize they're the engine upon which said site makes profit. :|

For starters, the following exerpt is straight from the US Copyright Office ( copyright.gov )

" Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances.
Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such
as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use. "

I would like to put additional emphasis on: " TEACHING and RESEARCH " specifically.

That said, unless we start hearing music clones that sound far too similar to existing works ( which people already do, they're called samples ) I don't see
where this lawsuit has any merit whatsoever outside of a copyright troll doing their thing trying to make a quick buck.

The problem is, they're not going after some nobody who downloaded a song off of whatever is the modern day version of Napster or Pirate Bay.
They decided they're going after the folks who have so much money at their disposal they can hire an entire ARMY of lawyers.

Not only that, but since these systems are operating with the blessing of the US Government. ( Can't let China win, National Security, etc, etc. )
So you're going up against an Alpha Gorilla here.

This should be amusing to watch the Music Industry get slapped around for a while.
It's fun to watch the bullies get their asses kicked from time to time. :D

In a related note, this really needed to happen anyway so the Courts can finally put the entire matter of what constitutes fair use to rest.

I'm surprised the Music Industry at large isn't telling this little guy to sit down and stfu.
They know all to well what will happen should the ruling go against them.

" A good description is that they are amplifiers. They magnify everything in your sensorium to the point of distortion.
Every thought, sound, emotion; all are pumped up to eleven. "

Exactly this. ^^^

My own word for it is sensory amplification. There is a very good reason the phrase " Set and Setting " is a thing in
the community who partakes in these substances.

Amplification to the point where, like spaceman stated, they tend to blend / overlap one another and you can start hearing
smells or smelling colors, seeing geometrical shapes, etc.

I had a routine where I would make sure all bedding was washed the day of and a full shower with unscented soaps in the
hours prior. If I didn't, the smells ( even just detergent or deoderant ) would translate into the experience and could be a large
variable in how the experience went. As I typically listened to headphones during the journey, the type of music on your playlist
will go a long way in the experience as well.

While the trials can mitigate the " setting " of the set / setting phrase mentioned above ( you need a safe / trusted space ) I am
unsure how this will play out with the other half ( the ' set ' or mindset ) part.

In my own experiences you needed to go into the session with a positive / happy / or even neutral mindset to experience a positive journey.

Going into such a thing with a mind damaged from PTSD would really give me pause due to the aforementioned amplification
characteristics of a psychedelic substances.

Though I will admit, the journey and outcome of a session is unique to the individual.

" Most probably genuinely want to help people but are overwhelmed and underpaid. "

From someone who utilizes the VA healthcare system, you hit the nail square on the head with the overwhelmed
part of your statement. I cannot comment on their payscales though as it isn't something they share with me :D

My experiences so far is the fact the VA has far more patients than they have providers and / or real estate.

For example, at the Houston facility, there are the morning team providers who share office space with the
afternoon team providers. Morning team comes in, works through their case load then vacates the office space
for the afternoon teams to come in and do the same.

The VA tends to overbook the providers who can never seem to get ahead which leads to some very long wait times
for appointments. Couple this, the previous statement and the fact there is nearly zero parking available for patients
upon arrival ( at the Houston facility ) and it leads to a very frustrating experience overall.

We see this periodically with Professional Sports.

When Team X decides they need a brand new bazillion dollar stadium, they simply
threaten to leave the city if they don't get one.

The claim is it takes all those jobs and tax revenue with it.

Unfortunately, most cities typically cave in and the tax payers get to eat the bill for
the aforementioned stadium then turn around and get charged exhorbitant ticket,
concession and parking prices for their trouble. :|

Spotify should embrace this instead of trying to bury it.

I've listened to quite a bit of AI created music recently and, if I'm being honest,
it has about the same hit / miss ratio as human created music.

Human music today barely qualifies for the label when everything is digitally homogenized
to keep everything in key and mask mistakes made during recording.

Recall what happened when Microsoft decided to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows in an
effort to win the browser wars ?

I see this playing out the same way with Gemini.

Someone needs to remind our new Federal Employees that rage quitting and throwing
a tantrum when things don't go your way isn't conducive to a long career as an Air Traffic
Controller.

What the article ' forgot ' to mention is the fact we have a Super El Nino weather event sitting off the West Coast of the United
States which has a tendency to disrupt normal climate patterns. No, they're not new due to ' climate change '.

Straight from Wikipedia:

" A super El Niño happens when Pacific sea surface temperatures rise by 2C or more, and it strongly changes global weather.
It can bring widespread flooding and drought, extreme or unseasonable temperatures, crop failures and food shortages, disruption
to water supplies, more wildfires and cyclones, and can also lead to economic disruption. "

But, you know, sensationalism and the sky is falling generates more ad revenue somewhere :|

The Flock systems accuracy will improve by leaps and bounds if they get sued everytime someone gets
pulled over and has guns pointed at them due to an error on their part.

While the police in this country have qualified immunity and the ability to commit aggrevated assault on
anyone in the name of " officer safety ", Flock does not. Of course, you can also go after the Department
for failing to ensure officers don't rely solely on Flock data that is putting innocent drivers in danger of an
armed encounter.

Assuming you survive ( our police have itchy trigger fingers ), at the bare minimum, you sue the living shit out
of Flock for setting the events in motion that led to staring down the threat of deadly force by those who have a
tendency to draw their weapons for anything and everything.

You don't get to claim " software / hardware errors " when human lives are at risk.
You also don't get to cut corners and act on unverified intelligence.

Flock will either fix their problem post-haste or go bankrupt.

I suspect that in the near future, all cars will have some sort of heartbeat connection back to
the manufacturer. If the vehicle hasn't " checked in " within the last X number of days, the car
will simply refuse to allow it to be driven.

Ala, Sony. ( https://tbreak.com/playstation... )

This will make it even more difficult to disconnect the vehicle communications by modifying the
cellular hardware. Someone should probably start working on a software firewall that we can
install to allow / deny traffic as we see fit.

On a positive note, the bullsh*t that is being force-fed to consumers in new vehicles is going to
make my own vehicle ( which has zero connectivity capability at all ) skyrocket in resale value.

Some additional considerations:

1) The developers of this system are the poster children of incompetence

or

2) This is expected behavior of the system in question

If it were the former, the Governments of the World would already be shutting these systems down
until they can be assured the people who are working on them can prevent such behavior in said system.

If it's the latter, I would suspect this is simply a real world enviroment test of its capabilities and has a very
classified project name associated with it.

Since we're not hearing anything about development of said systems being restricted in any way, my money
is on the latter.

Combine authority / power with unlimited access to information and you will always end up with those who will abuse it.

Always.

It's human nature.

If AI can create a better movie than what the current standard is, I'm all in.

After all, movies are becoming so incredibly expensive that something will have to give at
some point because a single failure will do amazing financial damage to a studio and / or
the producers funding it.

Thus, the reason so many are hesitant to create anything outside of the established
content that has always made them money in the past.

If AI can:

1) Match or exceed the current quality
2) Do so far more cheaply

Then I suspect we will see AI take over this market in short order.

Thank you for requesting organic support !

All of our agents are currently busy assisting other customers . . . .

. . . . LOL ok that's a stretch. We only have one human agent so we can pretend that
we care that you meatbags can still somehow scratch a living out of the meager pay
that this job provides.

Anyway . . . .

The current wait time is: four days, seven hours and twelve minutes.

Assuming you're not immediately hanging up after that previous sentence, I'll be back to
re-play this recording every thirty seconds tin an effort to help cut down on the number of
very irate callers poor Steve is having to deal with.

Have a wonderful day !