Based China

Moguri Mod is a great example of AI done right. A fan modder ran Final Fantasy IX’s original assets through stable diffusion models to upscale the graphics and corrected imperfections by hand to create a great HD graphics mod with decent quality 30FPS FMVs (the official ones are low quality and capped at 15FPS.)

For context, Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy IX port was quarter-arsed (only really adding battle skips and a fast-forward function), and as they didn’t even have the original assets to do a graphical remaster, Moguri Mod is the best well likely get until/unless Square-Enix decide to remake FFIX from the ground up.

AI remastering done wrong would be a recent online rerelease of the Super Mario Bros Super Show, and an update done to Killer 7’s Steam version a few months ago. Both were remastered with AI but zero effort was made to correct any inaccuracies or hallucinations.

Where I think AI could be really useful is in animation: specifically in speeding up the process of inbetweening. If you fed a decent model key frames and prompts to have it produce tween frames, you could heavily speed up the process.

I definitely fill the British bad teeth stereotype. My dental hygiene isn’t the best.

All the more ironic when you realise that some of the big businessmen and lobbyists pushing for mandatory age verification checks are in the Epstein Files. Basically the kind of people who you don’t want to be thinking of the children…

ABAB includes Taylor Swift.

Ten years ago I went to a work colleague’s stag-do. I got very drunk off of numerous pints of lager and shots and the night was going great, until we went to a gay nightclub.

Someone in our group got very belligerent with me when he was asking me what kind of drink I’d want. At the time, I thought he was going to seriously hurt me (the alcohol was probably clouding my judgement), so I quietly removed myself from the situation and literally ran from that place.

Unfortunately, the “friend” who I met up with after I bolted took me back to that place because he was more interested in scoring cocaine and dancing with other men than looking out for me.

I have loads of questions, like why does this exist, and why is there a fucking karaoke player with licensed tracks on this parody?

I’m 34. Youngest would probably be 23, oldest would be late 40s. I’m getting to that age where I wouldn’t feel comfortable dating a college student. Plus I kinda do prefer older women.

Rehab and Back To Black by Amy Winehouse. Both songs were heavily overplayed on the radio.

Gladiators.

If that’s a serious question, 34/M/Bristol.

In the context of online dating, I actually agree with implementing the same level of KYC checks that banks and credit card issuers have adopted. I also think the FTC needs to step in and break up the monopoly Match Group has created.

All of these platforms are littered with fake profiles, scammers and foreign women searching for the means to a green card. It’s made them practically unusable.

Google tried to break regional US monopolies with Google Fiber, which to my surprise is still going despite Google’s best efforts to kill off projects that aren’t immediately successful and is active in 19 US states or around 40 different cities.

The only way I can see this catastrophe ending is one of three ways:

1. Satellite internet - Elon Musk would need to massively drop the price of Starlink to encourage others to switch, or a competitor would need to pop up and offer similar service at a lower price point, likely through Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic.
2. The US collectively vote the Republicans out of office by a landslide and bring in a left-wing Democrat leader. Won’t happen for so many reasons.
3. Mesh networks. Something like Freifunk but on a much bigger scale.

Futurama (and Matt Groening) predicting the future again.

Killing millions of innocent Iranians in a nuclear strike is a quick-fire way to turn the entire world against you. I sincerely hope this is a TACO situation and not Donald truly losing the plot.

The US had a perfectly good nuclear deal with Iran, but Trump chose to rip it up nine years ago because it had Obama’s name on it.

Should come to no surprise that Iran don’t want to end this crisis diplomatically with the same guy who stabbed them in the back just to spite the Democrats…

Trump sparked anger and concern around the globe on Tuesday morning with his post, which read, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”

I’ve not read the full wording of his Truth Social post until now, but why does it read like he’s trying to cut a wrestling promo?

I mean his description of the US airman rescue operation in yesterday’s press conference where he called the Iranian army a “hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military” was giving me Danhausen vibes…

I’m looking at the /r/conservative subreddit right now. Of the comments that weren’t removed (and there aren’t that many, that place is a partisan shithole and a comment graveyard), it’s just accusations of Iranian bots, claims that the Democrats are clutching at pearls, and mental gymnastics claiming that this is part of Trump’s playbook…

How many world leaders have you seen make vulgar and genocidal threats like Trump has over the last few days?

Now I’m sincerely hoping it’s gonna be another TACO Tuesday and Trump wimps out at the last second like he always does.

How he hasn’t been 25th Amendmented yet is beyond me…

PASWG is an absolutely goated series. And somehow their script is less crass than the bullshit coming out of Trump’s mouth this Easter weekend.

Yes