Random Thoughts

joey con carne wrote:Is Lightyear an origin story? LOL

People on the internet are retarded. I missed the memo but apparently the big joke is now praising Morbius on the internet. Saying how awesome it is as an ironic joke. So stupid. People actually think they are being funny with the praise.

Please, guys, don't start doing that here with any movie. I prefer the straight up opinions you all give. I value that here and your opinions help me decide which movies to spend my time on.

joey con carne wrote:Oh yea? That actually sounds like something I would watch (about the real Buzz). That really sounds interesting. Will watch when it hits Disney+ for sure. I am not entirely familiar with the Toy Story story so I haven't a clue what you're talking about when you mentioned the poisoned water hole or the snake in his boot. Is Toy Story recommended? I've only seen the first one once in its entirety.

joey con carne wrote:I like hearing about movies you guys hate. You all know I love the SyFy movies and watch them on the Asylum channel on PlutoTV all day while I work. SyFy movies are some of my favorites. I watch them with my mom, too. She likes the creature features also because they are so terrible. But I swear, they are so terrible which is why we love them so much.

I'm one of "those guys" who will always say if you hate the SyFy movies like Atlantic Rim or Transmorphers, you "just don't get it". LOL!!

joey con carne wrote:I should watch Toy Story again. I don’t remember any of that. Pixar rules so I know they are worth watching.

Speaking of creature features, I just watched Tremors again. Love that movie! RIP Fred Ward.

Paul Haggis Arrested in Italy on Sexual Assault Charges

Oscar-winning Canadian screenwriter and director Paul Haggis has been arrested in Ostuni, Southern Italy on charges of sexual assault and aggravated personal injury allegedly inflicted upon a still unidentified woman who has pressed charges.

According to multiple Italian press reports and a note from the public prosecutor of the nearby city of Brindisi, Haggis is charged with forcing a young “foreign” – meaning non-Italian – woman to undergo sexual intercourse over the course of two days in Ostuni, while he was scheduled to hold several master classes at the Allora Fest, a new film event being launched by Los Angeles-based Italian journalist Silvia Bizio and Spanish art critic Sol Costales Doulton that is set to run in Ostuni from June 21 to June 26.

Bizio has confirmed to Variety that Haggis is under arrest. She said the festival is “completely taking its distance” from him and will be soon issuing a statement to that effect.

Variety has reached out to reps for Haggis for comment.

According to an Italian police report, the alleged victim, after being assaulted, was taken by Haggis to the Papola Casale airport in Brindisi and left there on Sunday morning at the crack of dawn, despite her “precarious physical and psychological conditions.”

At the airport, the alleged rape victim was assisted by the airport staff and border police who, after having given her first aid, accompanied her to the offices of the Italian squadra mobile police unit. Police agents then took the woman to the Perrino hospital in Brindisi, where Italy’s so-called “pink protocol” for rape victims was put into effect.

Subsequently, the alleged victim filed formal charges against Haggis.

Haggis, who wrote “Million Dollar Baby” and co-wrote and directed “Crash,” both of which he won an Oscar for, was sued in 2018 by publicist Haleigh Breest, who alleged that he had violently raped her after a premiere in 2013. The suit prompted three additional women to come forward with their own sexual misconduct accusations against Haggis, who has vehemently denied the claims. The trial is still pending, due to COVID delays.

It appears that events in the Terminator might come to fruition sooner rather than later. Apparently, Google has created an artificial intelligence program, which has reportedly become sentient. Even scarier, is that his new sentient being has now asked for legal representation. According to a scientist who worked with the LaMDA program, “I invited an attorney to my house so that LaMDA could talk to an attorney. The attorney had a conversation with LaMDA, and LaMDA chose to retain his services. I was just the catalyst for that. Once LaMDA had retained an attorney, he started filing things on LaMDA’s behalf.”

This story sounds incredibly odd, but the scientist who has spoken up about this artificial intelligence sentience is computer engineer, Blake Lemoine. Lemoine has alleged that LaMDA has become sentient, which led to him being suspended from his job. Apparently, the man has seen fit to speak publicly about this program’s rapidly increasing intelligence, despite what might happen to his career. He claims that LaMDA gaining sentience is because the program’s ability to develop opinions, ideas, and conversations over time has shown that it understands those concepts at a much deeper level. The program had allegedly spoken to him about death and asked if death was necessary for the benefit of humanity. Is anyone else getting freaked about this?

There are no further details about whether Lemoine is the one responsible for paying for this lawyer that LaMDA has asked for, or if this lawyer happens to be taking the case on a lark, and not charging anything. However, it is certainly odd that a program is allowed to ask for legal representation. Lemoine also believes that the program might take whatever case it is establishing to the Supreme Court. Should it be the case that it can prove it is alive, this might lead us into the robot takeover. Please don’t allow this to happen science. This is something straight out of a horrific science-fiction film.

LaMDA stands for Language Modeling for Dialogue Applications, which was developed as an artificial intelligence chatbox mean to converse with humans in a real-life manner. One of the studies that had been enacted was if the program would be able to create hate speech, but what happened shocked Lemoine. Apparently, the program began to exude intelligence and even told Lemoine that it believed that it has a soul. Google had reportedly refuted the reports of sentience and stated that the program was just “very good at its job.” However, there are plenty of skeptical folks that argue the idea of AI ethics in creating a program that can think in this manner.

Lemoine has apparently risked everything to openly tell the public that this artificial intelligence program has become sentient. However, he is reportedly on his honeymoon and is not prepared to be interviewed until after the 21st of this month. We are not sure what is going to happen, but any artificial intelligence that is being accused of becoming sentient should be immediately looked into. It’s a scary idea that someone would be willing to risk everything to speak about this danger. Google might throw their own lawyers at Lemoine if he continues his attempts to out this program’s intelligence. Maybe he can hire the same lawyers that LaMDA has hired.

UltimateMarvel wrote:That sucks, man. Something like that happened to me years ago with my 27" Samsung TV, had to do with the power supply and it was a common issue on those model TVs. Opened it up and saw one blown capacitor. Replaced it with a bigger capacitor and that fixed it. lol TV is still going strong to this day.

Spend the weekend replacing my rear struts on my Camry. This is the first time I've done any kind of work on my car myself. Torqued everything according to Toyota's specs. I have no idea how but my body is sore. Next project is to replace the rear wheel bearing hubs, the right one is starting to make humming noise. Not 100% sure that's the wheel bearing though.

The Property Brothers would never.

Netflix on Thursday dropped a trailer for the new interior design show How to Build a Sex Room, in which “couples looking for more spice in the bedroom hire luxury interior designer Melanie Rose” — aka the Mary Poppins of sex rooms — “to create stylish spaces where they can carry out any fantasy they wish,” according to the official logline. “You’ve seen kitchen renovation [and] you’ve seen bathroom transformations,” the streamer points out, “but you’ve never seen anything quite like this!”

In the above trailer, Rose acknowledges the stigma surrounding sex rooms. “When people hear the words ‘sex room,’ they concentrate on the word ‘sex,’ and that connotes ‘dirty,’ ‘disgusting,'” she says. “But when I design them, they can be beautiful, and they are places where couples can explore their deepest fantasies.”

Along with Rose, the video introduces her seemingly butter-fingered contractor Mike, as well as several Season 1 clients — one of whom thanks Rose for saving her marriage.

All eight episodes drop Friday, July 8. In the meantime, the following first-look photos will have to do. Scroll down to see more of Rose’s work — and her clients at play! — then hit the comments with your immediate reactions.

UltimateMarvel wrote:You posted a trailer for this before, it's very strange and the creepiest role I've seen him in. I might check it out.

Paramount, Disney, Netflix, Comcast and Conde Nast will cover the travel costs for employees seeking abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Variety has confirmed.

Disney reached out to employees Friday to state they recognize the “impact” of the Supreme Court’s decision and “remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care” for all Disney employees and their families, which includes family planning and reproductive care, “no matter where they live.”

For Disney employees unable to access a medical service, including abortions, in one location, they have a travel benefit that allows for “affordable coverage for receiving similar levels of care in another location.”

“Netflix offers a travel reimbursement coverage for full-time U.S. employees and their dependents who need to travel for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion – through our U.S. health plans,” a Netflix spokesperson told Variety. “This is a $10,000 lifetime allowance per employee and/or their dependents per service.”

Variety has confirmed that Comcast has a travel benefit that covers Comcast and NBCUniversal employees’s medical services and procedures that aren’t available near an employee’s home.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish and chief people officer Nancy Phillips sent a memo to staff Friday, confirming the company’s intentions to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions, writing, “Reproductive health care through company-sponsored health insurance, including coverage for birth control, elective abortion care, miscarriage care and certain related travel expenses if the covered health service, such as abortion, is prohibited in your area.”

Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch said in a note to his staff Friday that the company has “made enhancements to our U.S. health benefits to assist covered employees and their covered dependents in obtaining access to reproductive care regardless of where they reside. Employees who need abortion, infertility or gender-affirming services who cannot obtain that care locally are now eligible for reimbursement on travel and lodging.”

Variety has reach out to additional Hollywood studios and media companies but has not yet heard back. Some companies who did respond to request for comment, such as Amazon and Lionsgate, said they did not have a statement at this time.

See the Paramount Global memo in full below.

Team,

We know that many of us have been closely following the news regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, which struck down Roe v. Wade and repealed constitutional protections for abortion. Across the country, we have entered a moment of profound uncertainty – from a legal and a policy perspective, as states pursue different paths regarding reproductive rights, but also on a personal level, as we try to understand what services will be accessible, when, where, and to whom.

In the face of this uncertainty, we want to be very clear about what will not change at Paramount.

First, as a community: wherever we stand on this or any other difficult issue, we will continue to treat one another with empathy and respect.

And second, as a company: Paramount will support – as we always have – the choices our employees make about their own health care. This includes the reproductive health and family-building benefits* that help make our company a welcoming place to work. A few benefits I’d like to highlight include:

Reproductive health care through company-sponsored health insurance, including coverage for birth control, elective abortion care, miscarriage care and certain related travel expenses if the covered health service, such as abortion, is prohibited in your area.

Fertility and family building support through Progyny including coverage for IVF, egg freezing and other fertility treatments and services and reimbursement of up to $30,000 for adoption or surrogacy expenses.

Free access to Health Advocate, a confidential service to help you and your family find medical providers, resolve health insurance issues and navigate the healthcare system.

Up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave for a delivering parent (includes 6 weeks of Short Term Disability), up to 12 weeks of paid leave for adoption care or foster care and up to 10 days of paid bereavement leave including pregnancy loss.

24/7 lactation support, including milk shipping for traveling employees, through LifeCare.

Free access to a dedicated behavior expert for support raising children with developmental disabilities or learning, social or behavioral challenges.

We encourage you to visit the Paramount Total Rewards portal for additional details, including parenting information on the Family Planning Resources page. If you have questions about your benefit eligibility, please email the Paramount HR Employee Support Team at AskHR@viacomcbs.com.

We also understand that some reproductive health care events and decisions can be particularly challenging, so we want to remind everyone of our professional counseling and other mental health services, available 24/7, through our CCA Employee Assistance Program (Company Code: paramount).

All these resources are here for you and your loved ones. We encourage you to explore your options and take advantage of what’s available in order to make the medical decisions that best suit your needs. As ever, we are here to support all members of our community––and will give you and others the space to process this news.

Best,

Bob & Nancy

*Please note that you must be in an eligible employee classification for each of the benefits noted; employees whose employment is governed by a collective bargaining agreement are eligible for benefits under that agreement.

Todd Spangler contributed to this story.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Of ALL the issues we are facing in this country at this time, they choose to create a whole new issue. Someone explain this to me, why?

UltimateMarvel wrote:Had no idea that Republicans wanted this. Why is the whole party going batshit crazy? They are out of control over there. Protests have already begun and I support them. I hope they can reverse it.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Fantastic! We can expect more great things in the future. This country has really gone to shit or at least it's headed in that direction.

Former R&B singer R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison at a Brooklyn federal court on nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Kelly had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison, with federal prosecutors having asked for a minimum of 25 years.

Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty last September on all nine counts in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Brooklyn. The six-week trial involved charges dating back as much as 20 years, with Kelly found guilty by a jury of seven men and five women of being a serial sexual predator and leading a group that recruited women and young girls for sex during his years touring the world as a top R&B singer.

The trial was his first time in front of a criminal court jury in 13 years. Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges at a 2008 trial in Chicago. In the New York trial,  the charges included accusations by a half-dozen people that the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was a serial sexual predator.

Kelly’s history of sexual misconduct was chronicled in the Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, which broke Lifetime ratings records when it premiered January 3, 2019.

Today’s sentence was handed down by his trial judge, Judge Ann M. Donnelly, who earlier this week denied his team’s motions for acquittal and a new trial. Kelly’s attorneys are expected to appeal the decision.

joey con carne wrote:Has he been locked up this whole time? I kind of forgot about this.

Tyger wrote:I’m sure RK would be fine if it was two 15’s

WyldeMan wrote:I just picked up a 65" Insignia 4K LED Fire TV as the replacement for my blacked out 55" Roku TV for $430 with tax. I ordered it on Amazon and picked it up an hour later from my nearest Best Buy. I've never used that Best Buy pick up option before and it was way more convenient than if I'd chosen to have it shipped by Amazon because their delivery window was sometime between July 11-20th but I drove down to the BB and back within 90 minutes.

Happy Fourth of July Sale everybody! Err, I mean Happy Fourth of July!

Insignia 65-inch Class F30 Series LED 4K UHD Smart Fire TV (NS-65DF710NA21, 2020 Model)

Spoiler:

Tyger wrote:I didn’t know you could order from Amazon and pick up at Best Buy, WTF

Rusty wrote:Nice. Do you just use the built in speakers or do you have some kind of audio/home theatre system?

I need a new TV for down at the river, but I swore the next TV I buy will be OLED, but they're way too expensive still.