tbh i would have loved a minecraft movie where the world was visibly updating around steve and alex as they explore. like, the first couple days have the old textures and their movement is laggy etc.
it takes a little while for the audience to notice, but as the days go by, there are more mobs and new trees and the movements of everything is smoother. and suddenly everything is so much more colourful than it was before and now the oceans have life, and the villages are huge, and the nether is full of biodiversity and the caves are enormous and theres something lurking at the bottom
and throughout the movie, you can see the odd character in the background of youtubers that started playing during whatever version it is at that point, and when we reach 1.20 all of a sudden alex and steve run into this group of people and its all the new character skins that were introduced at that point
idk its a shame we get something that visibly didnt have much thought put into it aside from 'lets make jumanji again but this time its minectaft' when there are so many possibilities that have so much more interest
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Federal regulators on Tuesday [April 23, 2024] enacted a nationwide ban on new noncompete agreements, which keep millions of Americans — from minimum-wage earners to CEOs — from switching jobs within their industries.
The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted 3-to-2 to approve the new rule, which will ban noncompetes for all workers when the regulations take effect in 120 days [So, the ban starts in early September, 2024!]. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. For all other employees, existing noncompetes are not enforceable.
[That's right: if you're currently under a noncompete agreement, it's completely invalid as of September 2024! You're free!!]
The antitrust and consumer protection agency heard from thousands of people who said they had been harmed by noncompetes, illustrating how the agreements are "robbing people of their economic liberty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said.
The FTC commissioners voted along party lines, with its two Republicans arguing the agency lacked the jurisdiction to enact the rule and that such moves should be made in Congress...
Why it matters
The new rule could impact tens of millions of workers, said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
"For nonunion workers, the only leverage they have is their ability to quit their job," Shierholz told CBS MoneyWatch. "Noncompetes don't just stop you from taking a job — they stop you from starting your own business."
Since proposing the new rule, the FTC has received more than 26,000 public comments on the regulations. The final rule adopted "would generally prevent most employers from using noncompete clauses," the FTC said in a statement.
The agency's action comes more than two years after President Biden directed the agency to "curtail the unfair use" of noncompetes, under which employees effectively sign away future work opportunities in their industry as a condition of keeping their current job. The president's executive order urged the FTC to target such labor restrictions and others that improperly constrain employees from seeking work.
"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," Khan said in a statement making the case for axing noncompetes. "Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand."
Real-life consequences
In laying out its rationale for banishing noncompetes from the labor landscape, the FTC offered real-life examples of how the agreements can hurt workers.
In one case, a single father earned about $11 an hour as a security guard for a Florida firm, but resigned a few weeks after taking the job when his child care fell through. Months later, he took a job as a security guard at a bank, making nearly $15 an hour. But the bank terminated his employment after receiving a letter from the man's prior employer stating he had signed a two-year noncompete.
In another example, a factory manager at a textile company saw his paycheck dry up after the 2008 financial crisis. A rival textile company offered him a better job and a big raise, but his noncompete blocked him from taking it, according to the FTC. A subsequent legal battle took three years, wiping out his savings.
-via CBS Moneywatch, April 24, 2024
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Note:
A lot of people think that noncompete agreements are only a white-collar issue, but they absolutely affect blue-collar workers too, as you can see from the security guard anecdote.
In fact, one in six food and service workers are bound by noncompete agreements. That's right - one in six food workers can't leave Burger King to work for Wendy's [hypothetical example], in the name of "trade secrets." (x, x, x)
Noncompete agreements also restrict workers in industries from tech and video games to neighborhood yoga studios. "The White House estimates that tens of millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements, even in states like California where they're banned." (x, x, x)
The FTC estimates that the ban will lead to "the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade." (x)
Clearer explanation of noncompete agreements below the cut.
Noncompete agreements can restrict workers from leaving for a better job or starting their own business.
Noncompetes often effectively coerce workers into staying in jobs they want to leave, and even force them to leave a profession or relocate.
Noncompetes can prevent workers from accepting higher-paying jobs, and even curtail the pay of workers not subject to them directly.
Of the more than 26,000 comments received by the FTC, more than 25,000 supported banning noncompetes.
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I think where a lot of attempts to do "Dungeons & Dragons-style" settings in alternative milieux go wrong is that they're imitating the explicit trappings of standard D&D settings without putting a whole lot of thought into why those trappings are the way they are. Your standard D&D setting is essentially gonzo sword and sorcery fantasy, and there's a very particular internal logic to it which isn't necessarily going to be obvious examining it in isolation.
For example, one of the more common sword and sorcery fantasy tropes which strongly informs D&D-style settings is the convention that "monsters" are usually something protagonists can talk to (and have stupid arguments with), even – and often especially – when it would be incongruous for them to be so chatty in a more conventional fantasy setting. If you want to carry that over, it's not enough to go "well, D&D settings have chatty dragons, so my setting should have chatty dragons, too"; you need to think carefully about what things qualify as "monsters" in your setting, and what role they play in it.
Basically, what I mean to say is that if you're transposing D&D-style worldbuilding into a steampunk milieu, player characters should definitely be able to talk to the trains.
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