This is a great write up of the problem space. I've also tried an approach here that converted the tile dependencies into a Boolean constraint satisfaction problem and then used the Open Source clasp (https://potassco.org/clasp/) answer set solver to return valid tilings. The inspiration was from the paper "Answer Set Programming for Procedural Content Generation: A Design Space Approach" (https://adamsmith.as/papers/tciaig-asp4pcg.pdf) which is also a good read.
Using an answer set solver was nice because it was so easy, I just had to encode the tile constraints and then the solver did all the work, backtracking, etc, but it could be slow, and it could also fail to return (infinite loop). I gave up because it seemed like WFC and similar could return results fast enough for "online" generation, like generating chunks in Minecraft and also because it seemed hard to encode tile probabilities (from some initial example map) like WFC does.
Would be great to see examples for RPGs that don't use classes or equipment, given how similar the rules structure is (by design) between dungeon world and D&D.
Anything to do with features or abilities would be great too.
Seems like (b). I can't really find any evidence with proof a laptop owned by Hunter Biden actually existed and was somehow found in a pawn shop, given to Rudy Giuliani, then to the FBI, found to be filled with "evidence", then totally suppressed. It's all such a ludicrous story with no real proof that people (like you) who talk about it tend to get dismissed. I'm generally for dismissal of the conversation like this (downvoting and hiding it) because generally it tends to turn towards more stories with little or no evidence and doesn't really bring anything new to the table.
That being said, I find it funny that people want an exciting story about a forgotten laptop when it's generally well accepted that Hunter Biden accepted a job he wasn't qualified for in a foreign country. For me that's pretty clearly nepotism at best and harming the interests of your own country at worst, and displays a clear lack of judgement. But Americans like a conspiracy theory...
It's not clear that it's illegal. The federal fraud statutes cover obtaining "money or property" through false statements. A prosecutor would have to convince a jury that the site is engaged in conspiracy to commit fraud and that a degree is property. If I were on that jury I'd convict, but it's a riskier bet than prosecutors usually like. I'd be interested in seeing a well crafted law here that makes it obviously a crime, although federal felony is a bit harsh but that's what let's you coordinate across state lines.
I think that case [1] is largely based on bribery, a recognised form of honest services fraud [2] for which it’s not necessary to prove that the defendant ‘obtained money or property.’
Thanks for prompting me to look a little further into this. Leaving aside the legal technicalities, I suppose there is a fundamental difficulty here in that academic cheating itself generally is not (and in my opinion shouldn’t be) dealt with as a legal issue. I think that it should be illegal to profit from it, but it does fundamentally differ from other kinds of fraud because the person who pays isn’t deceived, and the person who deceives isn’t paid.
The U.S. mail and wire fraud statutes are notoriously broad and on their face, seem to cover academic cheating services. Indeed, there is a precedent to this effect: United States v. International Term Papers, Inc., 477 F.2d 1277 (1973) [1]. However, I think it was overcome by the Supreme Court’s rejection of honest services fraud in 1987 [2]. While Congress reinstated the concept [3], the Supreme Court cut it down again in 2010, limiting it to bribery and kickbacks [4].
So that could explain why the newer online services haven’t been prosecuted federally. Several U.S. states have statutes explicitly dealing with this issue [5], but I suppose they are not being enforced for jurisdiction or resourcing reasons. Perhaps the newer legislation in Australia [6] and New Zealand [7] will be more effective.
Note that that's an opinion piece and it doesn't appear the author has actually read the U.S. Constitution. Section 8 says: "The Congress shall have Power To... make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;"
The use of nuclear weapons is clearly covered by that clause and several others giving Congress the power to regulate the military, whereas the Executive has the authority to execute those duly regulated rules.
Just want to point out that US states aren't allowed to run a deficit, while countries are, so I mostly agree with this but this hamstrings states like Oregon who aren't allowed to provide relief for strict measures through debt. Also Oregonians would have to still contribute to the Federal government via taxes, essentially stealing more money from this plan.
Excuses. If the state really wants to do something, they can. It is just a question of the costs.
NZ is not a state, but instead has a precarious relationship with the USA and other countries, which can ban-hammer us for things it really shouldn’t have any say in.
A better example: “Since Canberra pointedly demanded an investigation into the origins and spread of the coronavirus, the number of Aussie businesses being squeezed in China has exploded. Crates of Australian rock lobsters have been left to rot at a Chinese airport, and mountains of coal have been stuck in Chinese ports. Beijing turned the screw again, hitting Australian wine exports with punitive tariffs of up to 212 percent, essentially closing off a US$1 billion market.” “Australia's virus-weakened economy is being targeted for political retribution and the two countries may be sliding into a shadow trade war.”
Not a state, but American Samoa's governor ordered the ports closed in 1917 and allowed no ships to dock. They escaped the flu pandemic with zero cases.
There’s no way a US state could have done it, especially with Donald Trump at the helm.
The federal government certainly could have done a lot better. But frankly, even a federal government that didn’t do anything would have been better than the current one which was promoting snake oil, and not promoting wearing masks or social distancing but working actively against them.
Hey folks, I think this is like the third or fourth RPG map maker I've seen show up, but I've been working on this one for quite some time and it's finally ready.
I specifically wanted a map maker that was fast (even on my slow laptop) and supported text descriptions for different areas of the map. I'm especially proud of the Print layout that lets you print well-formatted map-driven adventures straight to PDF.
This is a start on some ideas I have around AI-based content generation for tabletop RPGs. The idea is to let the AI generate content you can drop into your own adventures. Or it might stay just a simple map-maker, I already have a laundry list of features to add like tokens and decoration types. Feedback, bugs, and suggestions are always welcome.
My girlfriend's father in Malaysia watched CCTV and a few other Chinese language broadcast news stations that had stories on what was happening in the US every day, so if the family in Xiamen has a TV then they might not "follow" US politics, but they definitely get informed about what's happening here.
For an interesting contrast, check out the history of cave temples in the karst formations of Southeast Asia. I'm most familiar with those in Malaysia, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves. There it's common for religious groups (Buddhist or Hindu) to purchase a cave and develop it into a temple, complete with concrete floors and living spaces for the monks. It's a completely different attitude towards transforming yet conserving the natural environment that really shocked me coming from American caves where everything is "look but don't touch."
When you make a statement like "99 times out of 100" it's up to you to prove that with statistics. My initial belief is that you made up that 99/100 number and evidence of people not getting their money back only reinforces that belief.
85% of people not showing up for court does not mean that 85% of people would win immediately upon showing up. As my examples demonstrate, merely showing up can be the first step in a very lengthy and expensive process.
If I go see a lawyer and they tell me "it'll take years, you'll get back only some of the money, and most of it will go to paying me", I'd skip court too.
Using an answer set solver was nice because it was so easy, I just had to encode the tile constraints and then the solver did all the work, backtracking, etc, but it could be slow, and it could also fail to return (infinite loop). I gave up because it seemed like WFC and similar could return results fast enough for "online" generation, like generating chunks in Minecraft and also because it seemed hard to encode tile probabilities (from some initial example map) like WFC does.