Apepollo11

We could technically do it now, but you'd need a ton of quality control.

A basic workflow:

Use an image generator to generate start (and optionally end) frames of each scene.

Use a video generator like Runway to create the scene.

Use something to generate the speech, either a realistic text-to-speech engine or a record the dialog yourself and use AI voice changing software.

Use a lip synch AI to match the mouth flaps to the audio.

Generate music using something like Udio

Job done.

All these technologies exist and in some capacity are available to use. The only issue at the moment is consistent quality. This is coming on in leaps and bounds, however.

Ah, ok - that's fair.

I thought you were implying that we had some kind of firewall like China or something!

I agree, US sites geolocking their content is sometimes a pain, but I get your meaning. We do tend to be more comfortable with our governments trying to protect us than the Americans seem to.

I'm really curious about what you think you're not being allowed to visit on the internet.

I can't think of a single thing that's 'blocked'.

Unless you're under 13, of course, in which case I concede there are a lot of restrictions - but that's a good thing.

At our GP surgery, there are a couple of doctors who won't consult on birth control matters for religious reasons.

There's just a sign at the reception saying that if you need to discuss birth control, please let the receptionist know and they'll be sure to assign a different doctor.

I love the optimism here, but unless there was a significant potential for profit, none of the people who have the resources to begin collecting ocean plastics could care less.

The sad truth is that the majority of the world's resources are owned and controlled by a handful of psychopaths.

Only in the US and a select few other countries...

In other places, 'Professor' is a specific academic rank - there'll only be a few professors in a university.

chefs kiss

Materials.

If you'd have seen the marble sculptures when they were new, you would have described them as anything but realistic. We now know that many, if not most, sculptures were painted in bright garish colours.

Why paint a delicately crafted sculpture with a dodgy paint job? Party taste, perhaps, but more definitely because that was what was available.

The paints that we have now are carefully designed, mixed and stored to deliver a wide range of colours of a consistent quality (and even modern companies like GW struggle with that!).

The further back you go, the fewer pigments there are and the less sophisticated the binders are. It's no coincidence that the rapid explosion in science and trade of the Renaissance led to the rapid development of paints. Even in those days, an artist didn't buy paint, they made it - access to new raw ingredients was all that was needed.

So, why the Renaissance? Because it's the earliest point in time it could have been possible.

if they don't have some already, 100% on the Brio train set - except not Brio. The generic wooden railway sets are just as good nowadays, and many many times cheaper.

You can buy a whole dinosaur themed wooden railway set on Amazon for £37. I'd want that, even as an adult!

FWIW, both of my kids played with their wooden railway for years - seriously good investment.

I read that book about 30 years ago! I didn't remember the eye-scanning gargoyle, but for some reason I still remember the phrase "Ultima Ratio Regum" from the nuclear powered gun.

I don't think the word needs to imply a creator necessarily.

"Clouds are created when water vapour in the air condenses".

"Black holes are created when giant stars collapse".

I'll concede that going on to question political motive implies a creator, though.

I assume you're talking about the Unifying feature.

I've got no direct experience, but there are a few people who say that despite Firefox not being listed as supported, it works fine.

https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14961275

As for the spying, I can see how that could be a concern, but I don't think it's too likely.

For convenience, I'm guessing they're using a web interface to the settings in the same way that your router does. They've made a Chrome plugin, so that's probably the route they want you to take because they know it works.

Logitech is a global brand, an they'd get into a lot of trouble in a lot of countries if they were gathering keypress data etc.