#thecontroversy

[pleuvoire]

twice this morning on my dash i have seen an apparently cool photography or crafts project that i suspected was ai-generated and turned out to indeed be, and i thought hmm this is still cool i would like to reblog it. but i felt conflicted about it because #thecontroversy and i wonder if people would be mad at me. but i really feel that the best use of ai image generation is to create visual mockups of interesting combinations of concepts, as an artistic project. like those baroque sneakers that were going around a while back. or one of the ones i saw this morning which was quiltwork depicting sushi. both of those were visually pretty and interesting to look at and had an interesting and creative idea behind them, and also had clearly taken some human refining and shaping to make sure all the details were consistent, so i consider this to be art, or at the very least a neat and creative thing to look at. but i am nervous of #thecontroversy

[thecontroversyband]

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June 4th! New single! ⚡️#newalbum2019 #alternative #electropop #thecontroversy #worldonfire #behindthescenes (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/ByD8ufUBFBK/?igshid=1d90tzjf5iaug

[pumpedmoney]

“Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity” • Follow @pumpedmoney for interesting content • Leave your feedback & save the post • #controversy #thegreatcontroversy #thecontroversy #controversyclub #contentmarketing #marketingstrategy #digitalmarketing #affiliatemarketing #marketing101 #marketingideas #growthhacking #stocktrading #harshadmehta #makemoney #moneytalks #moneymind #businessdevelopment #contentstrategy #communication #linkbuilding (at India) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRCg5nZlTyz/?utm_medium=tumblr

[thevitalsofficial]

@thesatellitela Halloween night!!! Be there! Link in bio for tickets 👆🏻. 🎃🎃🎉🎉 #thevitals #thecontroversy #pompomsmusic #teleskopes #thesatellite

[remnantgsplr-blog]

/ W E D N E S D A Y / — “When errors arise and are taught as Bible truth, those who have a connection with Christ . . . will search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so. When they discover what is the word of the Lord, they will take their stand on the side of the truth. They will hear the voice of the True Shepherd saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Thus you will be educated to make the Bible the man of your counsel, and the voice of a stranger you will neither hear nor follow.—Faith and Works, p. 86." [E.G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons]. . . . . #remnantgospeler #truthinfaith #sda #seventhdayadventist #sabbathschool #god #jesuschrist #holyspirit #christian #christianity #sabbath #threeangelsmessage #ellengwhite #remnantchurch #salvationbyfaithalone #thebookofromans #thecontroversy #solascriptura #solafide #solagratia #soluschristus #solideogloria (at The Remnant Gospeler Institute)

[michaelandrewlaw]

#KristinaPimenova , Kristina Ruslanovna Pimenova is a Russian child model and actress, Woman Daily Magazine dubbed 9-year-old model Kristina Pimenova"the most beautiful woman in the world" — a title that media outlets have been associating with thecontroversial Russian child star ever since. | 37 ½ x 37½ INCH in Oil , Acrylic and Nippon Paint on Canvas © 2017 Michael Andrew Law / Law Cheuk Yui . #hongkongart #hkig #hkart #painting #羅卓睿 #hongkongartist #畫廊 #gallery #畫 #oilpainting #fineart #artgallery #artofinstagram #painter #當代藝術 #iloveart #油畫 #書法 #書道 #hkstreetart #hongkongdraw #香港插畫 #香港原創 #香港插圖 #香港插畫專區 (at Gallery Michael Andrew Law)

[asthen-ic]

@tickled-pinkh @adioraphne @interdependant-blog @mixedmesss @lauxist @justwuoa @slynnn @vioulet @mwhippp @frhillss @jungkookslipmole @velvet-skeleton @fberard @asxf @damp-spark @paranoiahc @neudest @gyypsy-love @piaevans123-blog @jasmineeou @justmichaael @soahker-blog @kashiwo @uptown-photos @morguebitch-blog @club-blush @prissk @bri-sk @h-ickie @twinsizematttress @recklesss-dreamss @thecontroversy-usa @phaazes @stu-cck @kailanijade @amourdufou @orisondesert @paint-your-skies @wildtittymonster @cr-ash-ing @seinlaunt @opulent-hiraeth @kingxki @g0ldgrillz00 @ouimarins @lilhippiechicky @agate-gypsy-blog @jackelizabeth @angggggg @bold-chanel 

ok

[cryptokingrobiul]

Top 20 Broker

New Post has been published on http://www.top20broker.com/news/now-segwit2x-hard-fork-really-failed-activate/

Now the SegWit2x Hard Fork Has Really Failed to Activate

In case there were any remaining doubts, it now seems clear that the SegWit2x hard fork will not happen.

The SegWit2x project, a product of the New York Agreement signed onto by a long list of companies and miners in May, had scheduled a hard fork to double Bitcoin’s block weight limit today. And while thecontroversial effort was suspended by leaders of the project last week, this would not have stopped anyone else from proceeding with it. Companies like Coinbase were indeed taking into accountthat the SegWit2x hard fork could still happen.

The Fork That Wasn’t

SegWit2x nodes — most notably btc1 — were programmed to fork away from the Bitcoin blockchain this afternoon (UTC) to create the SegWit2x blockchain and a new currency, often referred to as B2X. However, not a single SegWit2x block has been mined since fork point, nor is there any indication that this is likely to happen. For all intents and purposes, there is no SegWit2x — nor a B2X.

Further, software bugs in the btc1 codebase made all btc1 implementations grind to a halt even before it reached the expected fork point. While Bitcoin and SegWit2x nodes were widely expectedto share a single blockchain up until block 494783 and then to go their own ways at block 494784, btc1 nodes never made it past block 494782.

This is mainly because the first block on the SegWit2x chain wasrequired to have a “base block” larger than one megabyte. This is how the chain would diverge from the original Bitcoin protocol. But due to what is referred to as an “off-by-one error,” SegWit2x blocks started to reject smaller-than-one-megabyte blocks one block too soon — at block 494,783 instead of 494,784.

Moreover, another btc1 bug prevented miners from mining a big enough block when it was needed. So even if some miners did want to proceed with the fork, they accidentally wouldn’t have done so — at least not automatically. Miners would instead have had to manually configure their block weight settings, but it’s unlikely they knew about this step. Btc1 maintainer Jeff Garzik (while also denyingthere was a problem) has since released a patch to resolve this issue.

But judging by the absence of any SegWit2x blocks, the patch hasn’t made a difference, most likely because few, if any, miners were interested in mining on the SegWit2x chain in the first place.

NO2X?

Despite the seeming failure of SegWit2x to take off in any way, it should be noted that there is technically no way to declare a fork like SegWit2x officially “dead” or “failed.”

While unlikely, it’s always possible that the SegWit2x hard fork could proceed at some point in the future. In fact, there is no way to tell whether the SegWit2x chain is currently being mined with a little bit of hash power right now, and it is strictly impossible to foresee whether it will be mined later on. Perhaps a SegWit2x block will be found a day from now, a week from now or even ten years from now, at which point SegWit2x and B2X will technically come into existence.

However, since the SegWit2x chain did not include a mining difficulty reset, it will be as hard to mine a B2X block as it currently is to mine a BTC block. Meanwhile, market support for B2X appears to be extremely low, with B2X futures trading below 2 percent of BTC. So even if miners decide to mine B2X blocks, they’d almost certainly be earning far less than they would by mining BTC. Or, more accurately, they’d spend more on electricity bills than they’d be able to earn by mining B2X. The financial incentive to mine the SegWit2x chain just isn’t there.

Alternatively, SegWit2x could see a bit of a rebirth in the form of “BitcoinX” (BTX). This project, supposedly started by disappointed SegWit2x supporters, will take a snapshot of bitcoin balances at block height 494,783 and start a SegWit2x-like altcoin that offers all BTC holders the equivalent amount in BTX. Though, while this coin is arguably more viable than B2X thanks to a mining difficulty reset and more, it really is a new coin — arguably even more so than B2X would have been.

source-bitcoinmagazine

[thecontroversyband]

The new full-length album World On Fire is out today!!!!⚡️Produced by The Controversy, Dave Russell @davey_r_2_d_2 and Thomas Ross Johansen @thomasrossjohansen. thanks to @krispersson for the amazing drum tracks!! ♥️ Mixed by Dave Russell. Mastered by Gene “The Machine” Grimaldi @oasismastering. Available everywhere! Link in bio ⚡️ #thecontroversy #newalbum #worldonfire (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5nycvqBDym/?igshid=1gqbuems3dmgy

[baydorz-blog]

Politics: Tory minister defends comments describing NHS as a potential 'Ponzi scheme'

Politics: Tory minister defends comments describing NHS as a potential ‘Ponzi scheme’

A Conservative minister was tonight forced to defend comments describing taxpayer-funded healthcare as a potential “Ponzi scheme” that is “about to collapse”. Justice Minister Philip Lee made thecontroversial comments at a fringe event at Conservative party conference. Lee, who is a trained doctor, was speaking at a Social Market Foundation event on Monday. He appeared to suggest that young…

[omcik-blog]

New Post has been published on OmCik

New Post has been published on http://omcik.com/senate-will-not-vote-on-obamacare-repeal-bill-killing-health-reform-chances-in-2017/

Senate will not vote on Obamacare repeal bill, killing health reform chances in 2017

President Donald Trump earlier Tuesday harshly criticized the trio of Republicans who opposed thecontroversial Graham-Cassidy bill.

“We don’t know why they did it,” Trump said of Collins, John McCain of Arizona and Kentucky’s Rand Paul.

“We are disappointed in certain so-called Republicans.”

The GOP holds 52 seats in the Senate. It needed 50 Republican senators to vote for the bill for it to pass, since no Democrat or independent would have voted for the legislation.

Collins’ decision to oppose the bill Monday evening came minutes after the Congressional Budget Office, in a preliminary analysis, said that if Graham-Cassidy becomes law .”

A wide array of groups representing health providers, insurers, patients and older Americans were opposed to the bill, which also was viewed negatively by much of the public, according to recent polls.

Driving that opposition was concern that if the bill became law, up to 20 million or more people would become uninsured, and premiums in the individual health plan market would rise significantly for people with pre-existing health conditions.

The CBO said that Graham-Cassidy would slash funding for Medicaid, which provides health coverage to primarily poor people, but $1 trillion over the next decade.

The bill would have repealed the Affordable Care Act mandates that require most Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine. It also would have eliminated the ACA’s system of subsidizing health insurance purchases on the individual market, and ended the expansion of Medicaid benefits to more poor adults.

In its place, the bill would have given individual states block grants of federal funds, which they then would have to use to create their own health-care coverage systems.

Graham said there is “universal agreement” among Senate Republicans that “Obamacare is failing, can’t be repaired, it’s structurally flawed.”

But, he added, “the missing agreement for us as Republicans has been we know what we don’t like. Obamacare is not working, we make that case effectively. But we’ve had a hard time articulating what we’re for until now. Now we have something to talk about that makes sense.”

“The good news for America is Republicans are not just going to deliver on campaign promises, we’re actually going to improve health care by giving you access to people who care more about you at home than any bureaucrat could do here in Washington,” Graham said.

He said the bill is “a simple proposition, taking basically the same amount of money, in a fair way allocate it to the states.”

Graham also said that by having states decide what to do with the money, Obamacare would be replaced “with a system closer to where you live, controlled by people you can vote for.”

The liberal think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that despite Graham’s claims, by more than $240 billion from 2020 to 2026.

In 2026, there would be 20 states whose block grant funding under the bill would have been anywhere between 35 and almost 60 percent below what they would have received under Obamacare, CBPP said.

In an analysis published Monday, the CBPP said the bill

[vitalmindandbody]

Review: ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is beautiful but hollow

The originalGhost in the Shell influenced 20 years of cyberpunk cinema. This presented some problems for the U.S remake, because a direct adaptation would seem hopelessly outdated compared toThe Matrix orEx Machina. So the American screenwriters(Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, Ehren Kruger) borrowed the anime’s plot structure, makingsome keychanges to itsexploration of artificial intelligence and identity. Unfortunately,they didn’tcome up with any decent new ideas.

The remake obsessively recreates visual moments from the anime, while making detrimental changes to the story. In a similar vein to the disappointingAlien prequelPrometheus, it offers a clumsy explanation forsomething that doesn’t needexplaining.

Scarlett Johansson stars asthe Major, typecast as an expressionless cyborg cop. She’s a human brain inside a cybernetic body, an amnesiac Frankenstein’s Monster created by scientist Juliette Binoche. Tasked with finding theterrorist hacker Kuze (Michael Pitt),she begins to remember snapshots of her human life, kickstarting a desire to learn more about her past.

Unlike the slow, philosophical tone of the anime, this is a straightforward sci-fi action movie. The Major and her partner, Batou (Pilou Asbk), annihilatetheir enemies in a typical Hollywood example of heedless police brutality. The main villain, cybernetics mogul Mr. Cutter (Peter Ferdinando) isunderdeveloped and forgettable. With such a generic cast of characters exchanging bad expositorydialogue, the real staris the art direction.

Production designer Jan Roelfs created a vibrant cyberpunk landscape that calls back toBlade Runner without feeling like a ripoff. Costumes by Kurt and Bart (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay) add personality and vitality to every character, combining contemporary street styles with subtle references to the 1995 movie. It’sgorgeous to look at, although the film’s most arresting setpieceswere lifted wholesale from the anime.

Judged on its own terms,Ghost in the Shell isstylish but unoriginal; an acceptable sci-fi blockbuster. As a remake of an iconic film, it’s startlingly unnecessary. Instead of propelling its inhuman protagonist toward a new realm of consciousness, it’s obsessed with herorigin story. This involves a troubling detail that plays into thecontroversy overcasting white actors in Japanese roles.

Ghost in the Shell‘s racism goes beyond casting choices

Ghost in the Shell faced backlashforcasting Johansson as the Major, known as Motoko Kusanagi in the anime. Detractorsargued this was a perfectopportunity to cast a Japanese actress, counteracting Hollywood’shabit of prioritizing white actors. Johansson respondedby saying she would “never presume to play another race,”describing the Major as “identity-less.” But the Major’s role is more complex and problematic than a white actress playing a robot with no cultural background.

Warning: the following paragraph includes a spoiler.

Inher past life, the Major wasa Japanese girl named Motoko. Herformer identityexists as a “ghost” within the Major’sartificial caucasian body. This trans-racial body swap concept is so politically fraught, it formed the basis for the acclaimed horror movie/social satireGet Out. ButGhost in the Shellnever acknowledges the creepy subtext of white scientists transplanting a Japanese woman into a white body and erasing her identity. Instead, the Major’s backstory is presented as a simple tale of self-discovery and empowerment.

Despite being set in Japan, the film focuses on its white leads. Takeshi Kitano is the only Japanese actor with a significant role, withJapanese extras as set-dressing for the glossy aesthetic of Tokyo as a futuristic metropolis. It even includesa bastardized interpretation of a geisha, a popular theme in Hollywood depictions of Japan.Actually, her role invites questions about whatwas kept and discarded from the original film. Director Rupert Sanders faithfully recreated itsopening scene, down to the “invisible” catsuit that conveniently makes Scarlett Johansson look naked. But he addeda robotic geisha, who turnsinto a dehumanized, crab-like monster before Johanssonshoots her in the face.

It’s hard to understand why these changes were deemed necessary or acceptable. Why not just watch the original movie instead? The remake feels clunky and shallow by comparison, failing to provide a convincing argument for its own existence.

Read more:

The post Review: ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is beautiful but hollow appeared first on vitalmindandbody.com.

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[viralalien]

UK surveillance law still fuzzy on decryption rules for comms providers

UK surveillance law still fuzzy on decryption rules for comms providers

A little moredetail has emerged about howa key componentof thecontroversial UK surveillance law, the Investigatory Powers Act, which was passed at the end of last year, is likely tofunction after a government consultation document on so-called Technical Capability Notices was published yesterdayby the digital rights organization Open Rights Group. Technical capability notices refer tothe…

[serene84]

(via https://soundcloud.com/thecontroversy/queenofchinatown?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=tumblr)

[bbwraven]

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"Queen of Chinatown" @thecontroversymusic #music @gottapressplay #thecontroversy #indie #gottapressplay #queen (at Los Globos)