This Site Spits Out AI-Generated Rejection Emails so You Can Copy and Paste Disappointment
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Screenshot: Unfortunately.io/Gizmodo
Crushing a starry-eyed startup’s hopes and dreams can be a pain, but now you can outsource that emotional labor to a heartless AI instead. Because rejection doesn’t have to hurt…err, not you at least, I mean.
That’s the idea behind Unfortunately.io, an online tool that uses artificial intelligence to generate rejection emails. It’s the latest brainchild of Danielle Baskin, a San Francisco-based designer and artist whose works embody that deranged intersection endemic of online humor where one-off goofs and genuinely fantastic ideas blur into one. Her previous projects include Face ID-compatible face masks, an online graveyard for expired domain names, and Quarantine Chat, a call service co-created with fellow artist Max Hawkins that connects two random strangers over the phone and which made headlines last March as the world descended into coronavirus-related lockdown (and loneliness).
Baskin debuted Unfortunately via Twitter on Friday, explaining that she built the prototype after a conversation with its now-lead investor, Jack Dreifuss, who initially suggested the idea. It’s simple: You just copy and paste whatever rejection email Unfortunately spits out, filling in relevant information such as your name and that of the poor soul whose inbox this polite “no” is destined for, and bam, you’re done.
We took it for a test run, as you can see below. The randomized email we got really softens the blow by pointing downtrodden entrepreneurs toward [insert insightful Medium article here].
Screenshot: Unfortunately.io/Gizmodo
G/O Media may get a commission
At the moment it can only generate emails for letting down startup ventures—”If you’re an angel investor or a VC—let us handle the heavy work,” reads Unfortunately’s pitch. But the site promises that expanded formats tailored to rejecting candidates and movie/tv pitches are “coming soon.”
The site advertises a paid tier for $25 per month or $149 per year (which we assume is a joke but it’s always so hard to tell on the internet) that will customize the tone of your randomly generated rejection emails with “4 possible emotions,” as shown below, and incorporate OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model for “more nuance and detail.”
Gif: Unfortunately.io/Gizmodo
Unfortunately also encourages visitors to submit their own rejection letter anonymously to be used as part of the site’s dataset. And for anyone out there dealing with a particularly rough rejection right now, there’s the Unfortunately hotline where you can submit an anonymous memo unloading your troubles. “We’re here to listen,” Unfortunately’s site claims, but something tells me you should take that promise with a grain of salt. Just a hunch.
5 Reasons Why Democrats’ Extremist Gun Control Will Always Fail
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Gun Control Background Checks
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- With the launch of their frontal assault on firearms rights via H.R. 8 and H.R. 127, Capitol Hill Democrats have made it clear they are not interested in facts or the “common sense” their gun control campaign perennially claims to represent, and instead provided all the justification necessary for a hard-hitting pro-rights ad campaign by a grassroots gun rights organization now heading into its second week.
Ammoland News did some homework and found five clear reasons—call them examples—why gun control fails and will always fail; the proof routinely ignored by gun prohibitionists whose ultimate goal, according to Second Amendment activists, has never been violent crime reduction but unilateral public disarmament.
Reason 1:
A Meridian, Mississippi man identified as Edmond Dewayne Miller was sentenced recently to 51 months in federal prison, plus three years of supervised release, for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. In a Justice Department news release, Miller was stopped by a Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Deputy as he headed for the home of a neighbor who had called in a noise complaint. Miller was carrying a .40-caliber pistol that turned out to be stolen, and the lawman learned he was a convicted felon, unable to possess a firearm. Miller pled guilty in January 2020 but only recently was sentenced.
Reason 2:
Michael D. Moore of Kansas City, Missouri pleaded guilty in federal court to illegal possession of a firearm following an armed standoff last Aug. 17. Moore had been under surveillance by police as a suspect in two armed robberies and when they moved in, he exited a BMW SUV, took cover and drew a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol that was later found to have been stolen. As more police arrived, Moore threw down the gun and ran a short distance before being taken into custody.
Reason 3:
Tampa, Florida resident Devon Cohen was sentenced to five years in federal prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Police stopped Cohen after observing him violate several traffic laws and a search of the car turned up a loaded pistol in the console. Cohen admitted he possessed the pistol. His criminal record included multiple felonies.
Reason 4:
A 28-year-old suspect identified by NorthEscambia.com as Christopher Torrey, Jr. has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a weapon in public by firing into an occupied vehicle, firing a weapon into a building, meth possession, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was being held in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
Reason 5:
Torrey has company in that jail, NorthExcambia.com reported separately. A suspect identified as 22-year-old Larry Clay is charged with trafficking and possession of drugs, and probation violation. He was arrested on a search warrant and in addition to drugs, police found four handguns, a shotgun and a rifle, the news agency said. He was being held without bond.
Each of these cases underscores why gun control is inherently and irreversibly doomed to failure, says the Second Amendment community. Criminals do not obey gun laws. They never have and never will.
It is not that anti-gunners don’t understand this fundamental fact; they deliberately ignore it. Admitting that criminals routinely disobey gun laws is anathema to the gun prohibitionist mindset, and they will never acknowledge this error in logic. It is this stubborn refusal to recognize the obvious that keeps anti-gunners in a perpetual frenzy to pass restrictive gun laws, say rights advocates. They’ve apparently convinced themselves that restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens will somehow translate to disarming criminals and reducing violent crime.
The Federalist just published an Op-Ed by firearms attorney Ryan Cleckner, detailing the “Top 9 Reasons” a new gun control bill introduced by Democrats “is a terrible idea.” In his essay, Cleckner managed to dismantle virtually every argument in favor of gun control ever put forward by so-called “gun safety” organizations. In order, here are the reasons H.R. 8 is doomed to failure, Cleckner says:
Demands for New Gun Control Are an Admission That Gun Control Doesn’t Work
Gun Dealers Already Conduct Background Checks
There Is No ‘Gun-Show Loophole’
There Is No ‘Online Gun Sales Loophole’
Universal Background Checks Won’t Stop Criminals from Getting Guns
Background Checks Won’t Stop Mass Shootings
In-State Commerce Is a State Issue
Universal Background Checks Are Too Burdensome
Universal Background Checks Create a De Facto Federal Gun Registry
In an email blast Thursday, anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety declared, “This is a pivotal moment. Legislation to expand background checks to all gun sales has been introduced in both the House and the Senate.
“HR 8 closes a dangerous loophole in our background check system that allows individuals to avoid a background check if they purchase guns in a private sale,” the Everytown message claims. “This gap allows individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms to purchase them anyway. That doesn’t make sense. If someone can’t pass a background check at a gun store, they shouldn’t be able to buy one at a gun show no questions asked.
“For the first time in decades, there are gun responsibility majorities in Congress, which means this policy has a real chance. We are working tirelessly to make sure those gun responsibility candidates keep their promise and support HR 8. We need your help to hold them accountable.”
Everytown, like other gun prohibition lobbying groups, erroneously deems Capitol Hill anti-gunners as “gun responsibility” politicians.
One example would be Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, whose H.R. 127 is criticized by gun rights activists as being so egregiously ignorant of constitutional rights it has brought the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms into the media arena with a devastating 60-second advertisement calling for public opposition. CCRKBA is the grassroots sister organization of the Second Amendment Foundation, and typically remains in the background while SAF has emerged as a legal powerhouse since winning the 2010 Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago.
CCRKBA’s campaign is called “SAVE2A.US” and is aimed squarely at Jackson Lee’s legislation. Public response during the first week was so stunning that CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb quickly extended it fr at least seven more days.
The message is appearing 66 times during the second week on the following networks: DirecTV, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, DishTV, the Weather Channel, HLN, OANN, the Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and the Inspiration Channel.
“By the end of the week,” Gottlieb said in a news release, “CCRKBA’s message will have been aired a total of 119 times.”
He said H.R. 127 represents the “ultimate wish list” of gun control zealots.
“This bill really is a sinister attack on Second Amendment rights,” Gottlieb stated. “Democrats are determined to reduce rights protected by the Second Amendment to the level of privileges so tightly regulated by government red tape that they no longer really exist. The Washington Post likes to tell people that ‘freedom dies in darkness,’ but H.R. 127 is being pushed in broad daylight by people claiming some sort of mandate to trash individual rights.
“Anti-gunners have waited for years to launch this attack,” he added. “With Joe Biden in the White House, Beltway Democrats are determined to destroy the Constitution’s cornerstone Amendment, and we are determined to stop them.”
American gun owners can join this campaign by visiting ‘SAVE2A.US’ or text SAVE2A to 474747.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
WATCH: Whistleblower from Merrill Lynch leaks BOMBSHELL phone call on the day Robinhood restricted trading
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Project Veritas has just gone public on Friday with a leaked phone call given to them by a whistleblower, in which a Merrill Lynch employee admits that the bank was on the "side of the institutional investors". The Robinhood App put restrictions in place on the same day.
"WALL STREET: Citizen Journalist/Retail Investor LEAKS RECORDING to Veritas of @MerrillLynch Employee Admitting Bank Had ‘Taken the Side of the Institutional Investors’ in the Same Day @RobinhoodApp Restricted Trading … ‘It Sounds Fishy’ … ‘It Sounds Strange’"
At the beginning of the video, one can hear the voice asking:
"Now, tell me the truth. You guys know that this stock is going to go up and you want me to sell my shares to put some liquidity into the market, don’t you?"
The Merrill Lynch employee replies:
"If I take the Merrill name badge off of my shirt right now, watching what’s been going on today, it’s very clear to me that it looks like they’ve taken the side of the institutional investors."
The stock in question is BNGO, or BioNano Genomics. However, this whole controversy original centered around a group of stocks, the most prominent of which was GameStop. An informal group of independent traders based off of Reddit heavily invest in that stock in order to counter a move by the hedge funds.
For example, Merrill Lynch’s representative in the case of this particular phone call told the customer that the margin requirement was going up from 30% to 75% in order "to manage the risk in the account." As stated a bit later in the video, "that’s a big difference."
When something like this happens, an investor is forced to either cough up the extra cash (if the investor even has that much cash on hand), or sell some of the shares off to meet the new margin requirement.
It could be rightly said that this was a strong-arm tactic on the part of Merrill Lynch to make their own customers do their bidding. As it was put in the video, they are telling customers that "forced losses are for your own good."
Responses to the tweet were overwhelmingly appreciative:
"This s**t is nuts! James [O’Keefe, CEO of Project Veritas] you literally are the f**king best!!"
This package makes it easy to send notifications using Microsoft Teams with Laravel 5.5+, 6.x, 7.x and 8.x
returnMicrosoftTeamsMessage::create()
->to(config('services.teams.sales_url'))
->type('success')
->title('Subscription Created')
->content('Yey, you got a **new subscription**. Maybe you want to contact him if he needs any support?')
->button('Check User', 'https://foo.bar/users/123');
Please check out this for setting up and adding a webhook connector to your Team’s channel. Basic Markdown is supported, please also check out the message card reference article which goes in more detail about the do’s and don’ts.
Setting up the MicrosoftTeams service
Then, configure your webhook url:
Add the following code to your config/services.php:
Now you can use the channel in your via() method inside the notification:
useIlluminate\Notifications\Notification;
useNotificationChannels\MicrosoftTeams\MicrosoftTeamsChannel;
useNotificationChannels\MicrosoftTeams\MicrosoftTeamsMessage;
classSubscriptionCreatedextendsNotification
{
publicfunctionvia($notifiable)
{
return [MicrosoftTeamsChannel::class];
}
publicfunctiontoMicrosoftTeams($notifiable)
{
returnMicrosoftTeamsMessage::create()
->to(config('services.teams.sales_url'))
->type('success')
->title('Subscription Created')
->content('Yey, you got a **new subscription**. Maybe you want to contact him if he needs any support?')
->button('Check User', 'https://foo.bar/users/123');
}
}
Instead of adding the to($url) method for the recipient you can also add the routeNotificationForMicrosoftTeams method inside your Notifiable model. This method needs to return the webhook url.
type(string $type): Type which is used as theme color (any valid hex code or one of: primary|secondary|accent|error|info|success|warning).
content(string $content): Content of the message (Markdown supported).
button(string $text, string $url = '', array $params = []): Text and url of a button. Wrapper for an potential action.
action(string $text, $type = 'OpenUri', array $params = []): Text and type for a potential action. Further params can be added depending on the action. For more infos about different types check out this link.
options(array $options, $sectionId = null): Add additional options to pass to the message payload object.
Sections
It is possible to define one or many sections inside a message card. The following methods can be used within a section
addStartGroupToSection($sectionId = 'standard_section'): Add a startGroup property which marks the start of a logical group of information.
activity(string $activityImage = '', string $activityTitle = '', string $activitySubtitle = '', string $activityText = '', $sectionId = 'standard_section'): Add an activity to a section.
fact(string $name, string $value, $sectionId = 'standard_section'): Add a fact to a section (Supports Markdown).
image(string $imageUri, string $title = '', $sectionId = 'standard_section'): Add an image to a section.
heroImage(string $imageUri, string $title = '', $sectionId = 'standard_section'): Add a hero image to a section.
Additionally the title, content, button and action can be also added to a section through the optional params value:
title(string $title, array $params = ['section' => 'my-section']): Title of the message and add it to my-section.
content(string $content, array $params = ['section' => 'my-section']): Content of the message and add it to my-section (Markdown supported).
button(string $text, string $url = '', array $params = ['section' => 'my-section']): Text and url of a button and add it to my-section.
action(string $text, $type = 'OpenUri', array $params = ['section' => 'my-section']): Text and type of an potential action and add it to my-section.
Changelog
Please see CHANGELOG for more information what has changed recently.
Testing
Security
If you discover any security related issues, please email tobias.madner@gmx.at instead of using the issue tracker.
Ready for a trip back to the 1980s? The guys at We Are the Mutants spotted this gem of a commercial that perfectly captures the sci-fi aesthetics of the era. This big budget ad spot that implies General Electric’s cassette tape players will free the oppressed was obviously influenced by Apple’s famous 1984 Super Bowl spot.
We Tried to Find the Best Mouth Guard for Teeth Grinding. We Bit Off More Than We Could Chew.
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If your jaw or neck feels sore after you wake up, you may be one of the millions of people suffering from sleep bruxism—when a person involuntarily clenches their jaw and grinds their teeth at night or during a nap. Though estimates differ, typically 10% to 16% of adults regularly suffer from sleep bruxism. But this has been no typical year: Pandemic-related stressors are associated with an uptick in not just tooth grinding and jaw clenching but also cracked teeth and other bruxism-associated dental problems.
technology
via Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World https://ift.tt/36ATBn1
A while back, I wrote to let y’all know about CatTongue Grip Tape. I was able to get my hands on some for testing, and the time has come to review it here on AllOutdoor. CatTongue tape is essentially a transparent rubbery material (HDPE plastic) with a pattern of raised squares on one side and a peel-and-stick adhesive on the other (smooth) side. The idea is to stick CatTongue to just about anything in order to make the object more “grippy.” Here are some features/specs according to the manufacturer:
Non-abrasive so it won’t scratch furniture etc
Won’t ruin your phone or leave behind any sticky goo or residue
Waterproof
Made with HDPE plastic: soft, lightweight, flexible, strong, impact-resistant
HDPE’s grip is superior to rubber & latex
Recyclable
Latex-free
Won’t interfere with wireless chargers or magnetic mounts
Colors: Clear
CatTongue Non-Abrasive Grip Tape – Sticking to it?
The main feature of this stuff is its ability to stick to whatever you put it on, thereby adding a high-friction surface to increase grip, and that is where my testing hit a snag about midway through. It started and ended pretty well, though.
Peeling the backing from CatTongue tape.
We first tried it on a rebounder (small trampoline) my wife uses for exercise. Her clamp-on phone holder wouldn’t grip the metal handle, so she added two strips of CatTongue tape to the handle (there’s an identical strip of CatTongue on the other side, not seen in the photo). The tape adhered well and solved her problem; the phone holder stays in place now.
CatTongue tape was added so this clamp would stay in place.
My testing on manly outdoor type things was initially not as promising, however. I first slapped some on the steering wheel of the utility cart I use around my property, and I admittedly didn’t do a lot of prep to the surface. I wiped it well with a clean cloth and stuck on the tape. The CatTongue tape didn’t fall off during a few days of driving the cart, but as you can see it didn’t adhere well and most of the edges lifted immediately.
CatTongue tape didn’t like my steering wheel.
I next tried it on a wooden hammer handle out in my workshop. This time, the tape almost fell off as soon as I tried to install it and was completely unusable because it wouldn’t stick at all. I was starting to think that although CatTongue is a pretty good anti-slip material, it might not be so good at sticking to things that see hard use in the great outdoors. Since we are AllOutdoor, that matters, but I knew I needed to give CatTongue another chance.
This time, I applied two strips of CatTongue grip tape to the fiberglass handle of a light camp axe after thoroughly cleaning the handle with acetone. Adhesion to the handle was excellent and the grip is greatly enhanced. Let it be noted that the adhesive side of CatTongue doesn’t stick to its “grippy” side at all which is why I trimmed the tape to prevent overlaps. Check out these photos to see what I mean.
The grip tape stuck to this axe handle well.This smooth-handled camp axe is less likely to slip out of my hands.
CatTongue Non-Abrasive Grip Tape – Conclusion
CatTongue grip tape is indeed grippy, and will help prevent slipping and sliding. You definitely want to prep your surfaces well to make sure it’s going to stick, and some surfaces and shapes aren’t really suitable for it. For more civilized things like adding grip to a phone or water bottle, I think this tape will probably do you right. In the great outdoors, be aware that surface prep is everything and as the old saying goes, your mileage may vary. In reading online customer reviews I learned that my experience with poor adhesion is not unique, so bear that in mind. A roll of CatTongue grip tape is 2 inches wide and ten feet long, and will cost you about $20.
Following up on their comprehensive Cat Tier List, animal analyst TierZoo delves deeper into the pros and cons of cheetahs, who ranked quite poorly. While these big cats are incredibly fast, they don’t have the defensive properties and strength of cats like lions, tigers, and jaguars.
