I imagine it’s because it’s the simplest, most common type of ball that you commonly see described as such. Like, baseballs and basketballs and soccer balls and beach balls exist, but out of context they’re typically called that rather than just “a ball”. So, a simple round ball. Giving it a pattern requires some extra thought, and of the solid colors red seems like the most common (think dodgeballs).

I pictured a smooth red rubber ball about the size of a baseball on my kitchen table. The “person” was more of an invisible force, not explicitly male but definitely not female. That might be male bias, or subtly thinking of myself doing it (combined with playing too many physics engine video games where your disembodied self pushes things around).

All of this was pretty vague though, like I didn’t really imagine the details of the room or the exact path of the ball other than knowing it would roll off and bounce on the floor.

Maybe, but you definitely see more niche flavors like pistachio, coffee, mango, pineapple-coconut, rum raisin, etc. Hard to believe apple would be less popular, unless it’s more expensive to make for some reason.

Southeastern US. This is my first time seeing apple-anything ice cream on the shelves, from major national brands at least.

This particular one is apple pie, but the ice cream itself (minus the pie crust chunks) would be great on its own.

It’s a well-constructed skit – unabashedly silly, with just the right amount of ironic detachment. I love how after Pumpkins shows up, the couple just coolly analyzes the regular monsters that were making them scream moments before. The music is ridiculous, Tom Hanks demeanor is ridiculous, the dancing is ridiculous (with a dash of sexual weirness at the end). And it comes full circle with him genuinely scaring them in the end.

I do think that them doing sequels and trying to spin a mini-franchise out of it was stupid though.

Tbh I debated posting it because it was late and there were already dozens of comments and I didn’t have it in me to write some big review. But I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Make sure not to miss the soundtrack.

Perfect Days. Got it half-off from Criterion based on the trailer and little else. Absolutely gorgeous cinematography, and a subtle and compelling character study.

IMHO 2012 was the one that really broke their brains. The tea party types tried to get various firebrands on the ticket, but end up having to support Romney. Hey, at least he’s a squeaky-clean telegenic millionaire pushing the most severe conservative fiscal policies! Proceeds to get stomped by the Obama campaign so bad that Karl Rove couldn’t believe it as it was happening. THEN the establishment GOP flirts with moving to the center on immigration. The backlash against that on the right, supercharged by the mainstreaming of mobile social media (plus social justice protests and the looming Clinton campaign) was what fueled the rise of Trump.

https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/07/12/a-wider-perspective-on-flavor

ABC cites an odd claim:

Detectives allege that Darien used his Large Language Models, such as OpenAI and Bing chat, to create the recording. The charging document claimed that Darien has a paid OpenAI account, which gives users more features than the free version.

You can’t make audio using OpenAI or Bing, just text and images. I really hope they didn’t arrest the wrong person based on a hunch and office politics.

“…a pigeon could shit on it, who knows!”

Had an entertaining time asking it to list the states Trump won with a running total, pointing out that the total was less than 270, and then soft-locking it in an endless loop of “My previous statement was incorrect. Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election” in response to literally any statement. To defeat the alt-right AI you don’t need some brilliant paradox, just basic arithmetic.

They’re not releasing this yet though, and require even private testers to get explicit consent and not imitate public figures, restrictions I’m sure will carry over if and when it becomes public. They’ve been cautious to a fault. Look at something like ElevenLabs for an example of lax enforcement for cash.

“You know, it’s quite a strange thing. The single most common adjective applied to Mister Rogers in this and other thread is the word ‘creepy’?”

One of my all-time favorite Internet comments. Long but worth the read.