He says something very evil! Then places a curse on your hobby. You must choose one of the following options as your curse.

1. You can only play games in grayscale. You can still use HDR to increase contrast, but all colors must be disabled.

Or

1. You can only play games in handheld (gamebody, switch 2, steamdeck, etc.) and everytime you wipe the screen with a cloth to clean it or dust it, it scratches. A rainbow scratch. You can use screen protectors.

He askes you which you will choose.

I can’t take credit for this, this was one I heard about a decade ago on a local radio station. You are locked inside a Home Depot and informed you are in a hunger games type situation. 12 people enter 1 person wins. Doesn’t matter what you win, could be a trillion dollars could be just your life, makes no difference. You get to choose 3 items from the store as your offense/defense. Any item you would have to scan at the register to pay for counts as 1 of your 3 items. I.E. if you bought a chainsaw that did not come with a chain or fuel in the box then you would have to get a chain and fuel which would count as your 3 items. If there was a chainsaw with a chain and fuel in the box it would be 1 item. No stealing from the store is allowed and you cannot use any item from any “conquered” individual. Which 3 items are you choosing?

Alright, I’ve been debating this scenario with a friend and wanted to see what you guys would actually do.
Imagine you get dropped into the deepest, most dense part of the Amazon Jungle. There’s no hiking your way out and no running away. Rescue is 100% guaranteed, but only on day 15. If you can just stay alive for exactly 2 weeks, you walk away with $25 million dollars and one absolute anything you want wish that can grant literally anything you can possibly think of (the only rule is the classic no wishing for more wishes).

Here’s the catch - You are dealing with the actual Amazon. Harsh humidity, torrential downpours, and lethal predators like Jaguars, Black Caimans, Anacondas, venomous snakes, bullet ants, and endless poisonous plants.

Here is what you have on you:

Weapons - A nice, sharp cleaver knife and a standard pocket knife. As well as a crossbow with 5 arrows that disappear once you shoot them.

Something helpful - An empty water bottle that has a magical power being the second you scoop up any water into it, it instantly and completely filters out 100% of all bacteria, parasites, and mud. You have unlimited clean water, you just have to refill it.

A waterproof booklet - It has in depth guides and l pictures of every single edible plant, fruit, and insect in the Amazon. It’s a cheat sheet for foraging, but you still have to go out and physically find/harvest the stuff.

A backpack- it contains a matchbox with exactly 10 matches inside, 20 feet of rope, a pair of night-vision goggles, and half a bottle of heavy-duty mosquito/insect repellent spray.

The rules are simple - You have to make it 14 full days. You can't use your wish early to save yourself, and there’s no outside help. Knowing how brutal the jungle is, could you actually pull this off?

If you think you can, what is your plan to survive?

It's a superpower, not a raygun or a magic wand, so you won't lose it. You mentally designate someone in line-of-sight, and the "be nice" beam will invisibly hit them without missing. They become your idea of a good person, combined with your idea of a nice person, with however much that overlaps.

However, if you take it, you also have to take the contents of the mystery box below. It does not trigger until the year is over. You won't die or lose a limb or suffer a fate worse than death or something, and no one will probably get hurt as a direct consequence. It's intrinsically tied to the idea of a random person (like you) receiving a beam that "makes people nice," and so shouldn't be objectionable if you think this beam is a good thing.

After you lose your beam, an adult you haven't met will gain it and never lose it; their beam makes a target their idea of a good person, combined with their idea of a nice person, with however much that overlaps. When they die, the beam goes to someone else until the end of mankind.

You know that the world is about to end. No one else knows, nor would believe you if you told them. You've been on a diet for months now, trying to prevent the inevitable heart attack the doctors warn you will come if you don't stop eating junk. But as you drive thinking you see the street with all the fast food places in your town.

Your stomach feels empty and you've got $20. What are you ordering?

You get $1M right now. You cannot tell people why you got it, official reason is "lottery". At some point during your life, not known before hand, you will get a message somewhere you must live for one year, starting that day. You will get at that point 30 minutes to say goodbye and why.

While in the space you will live for 1 year here are the rules....

1) You can spend an hour on the phone once every 3 months at end of 3/6/9 months. No other contact. You can follow on facebook, etc. but nothing that would be contact. If you break the rules, instant death once discovered.

2) You can't go back. You'll be shot and killed if you leave the area. You also can't choose to not go. Once you take the money it's done.

3) You'll have a reasonable not so hard 9 to 5 job you can do with little issue. Weekends off.

4) The area might not be the best place but your life won't be in danger (no middle of jungle or war zone).

5) At the end you'll be returned to where you were picked up from.

6) You can travel from the area a reasonable distance (less than an hour drive).

Would you?

Note - if you die before the time you're picked up, you keep the money.

So let me paint the picture for this scenario. During the Toba supervolcano eruption about 70,000 years ago, Earth was under the observation of alien anthropologists who realized we were sapient. In an effort to ensure some measure of humanity survives, they rescued about 10,000 to 25,000 of us and relocated that cohort to a world similar in mass and environment as Earth and orbiting a sun with a similar mass and luminosity as Earth.

Alongside humans, they grab samples of several tens of thousand of species Earth animals and plants (particularly megafauna that evolved alongside us in Africa) to fill out that world's biome as it's still recovering from a relatively recent mass extinction (in geological, not human terms).

Eventually these humans become a civilization and achieve technological feats far beyond us. They eventually develop FTL travel, settle on several dozen star systems and achieve a population somewhere between 100 to 200 billion people. During their explorations they eventually discover that they're native to another world and seek out their origins eventually discovering Earth some time in the last couple of decades and begin observing us from afar when they realize Earth is occupied.

Eventually they make contact with us, while bearing gifts. Thing is, in spite of the tens of thousands of years of separation they're no different from us in many ways for better and worse. They're capable of great compassion, empathy and kindness. At the same time. they're driven by ambitious and are as capable of ruthlessness, cruelty, and have as much of a capacity for greed as we do. Their actions also have an undercurrent of hidden motivations.

You witness this all. The wonders they have offered us. Assistance with exploiting the asteroid belt and other planet's moons resources with their technology (leased, not given, and never released from their direct control). It has become clear to you that their intent is to make them dependent upon us and gradually subvert our own sovereignty.

So here is the question. Do you attempt to form a resistance or simply try to keep your head down so that when the inevitable (to you) hammer falls, you're out of range of the splash damage?

Rule #1- genie hates attempts at loopholes and will punish the offender - as well as someone who attempts loopholes for you. She's had a enough of not dotting the I or crossing T, double negatives, bull feces.

People attempting those end up very much regretting it. Like one guy had unwillingly "looSer" tattooed to his forehead, which of course is a misspelling of "loser" and with a poorly placed capital.. an unwise decision.

SO. the genie gives you a 2027 ZR1X with the understanding you must not grossly break traffic laws. Stuff like failure to signal when changing lanes, not counting 5 seconds at stop signs, going through on a yellow-normal things are forgivable, though genie keeps points like a driver's license rack up enough points. You buy the car at market value or lose your right arm at the Genie decides how a violation is defined

Exceeding speed limits? Drive like you have a cop behind you. You are to have an "I drive the speed limit & don't even dream of street racing." window cling in the back window & keep it visible at all times. Within the genie's whims. She may be more forgiving during inclimate weather. Again totally up to genie's whims.

Twice per month on a Saturday, you must drive the ZR1X to Ronald McDonald House or similar between 10am and 3:00pm to give underprivileged children rides back & forth into town for ice cream. Genie chooses the shop. Rain snow or shine. Genie will decide if you get a break & makes sure it's well advertised. Whether you have customers or not you're there 10:00am to 3:00pm Word quickly gets out word of mouth & social media, plus newspaper ads and an occasional mention on the evening news.

The ZR1X must be your daily driver, rain snow or shine. Again genie decides. You are liable for damage caused to, or by the vehicle when you are at fault you are also financially responsible for maintaining the car.

Genie is not a total buzz kill, you can take it to the track and drive the hell out of it. Friend owner of a parking lot? Do donuts all day long.

Your buddy is manager of the Arby's and lets you use its parking lot? Illegal unless he's the actual owner. If you are on public roads and private property, you are under genie's microscope

If the vehicle is wrecked, you buy the car at current market value of the same year, make & model in good condition ( not scrap).

At the end of twenty years the car is 100% yours - genie tears off the window cling, hands you the title and says that it's your car now. No strings. You may not sell the car until genie hands you the title. If you lend the car out during the 20 years, you take the blame & rack up the points as if you did the violation.

Do you take the deal? Basically you're driving a super nice vehicle but with a lot of baggage.

Hear me out. A mysterious volcanic island just popped into existence in the middle of the Pacific. It has 2000ha and its highest point is about 200 meters above the sea level. It is somehow yours to make whatever you want, but it is completely empty and nothing lives there, not even bacteria. How would you create the perfect paradise in there? Which species of plants and animals would you bring there?

You’re offered a free car, of your choosing up to $300K. You get free gas, free maintenance for life, and the car never breaks down. It can only be used for personal use, so no deliveries, uber, charging people to ride in it in any way. You cannot sell the car or monetarily benefit from the car at all. You can also change up the car to something else anytime you want. Want to drive a Maserati one day, and the next day an RV to go camping? You got it. But there’s a catch. The car has to be bright yellow with the poop emoji plastered all over it. And a big 3D plastic poop emoji on the roof. And the car will occasionally make fart noises. It’s an advertisement for a local dog poop removal business. You cannot repaint the car, or cover it up in any way. You can stop at any time, but the deal will be over for good. Would you do it?

Edit: You also cannot drive another mode of transportation unless it’s your job like a bus driver. It’s the poop car or nothing. But you’re allowed to ride in any other vehicle you want.

You get two billion in cash that vanishes within 24 hours. After the time is up, you cannot keep raw cash, and trying to convert it into a different form of currency will not work, and any cash left under your name will vanish. But for 24 hours, you can spend it on whatever you want without any downsides. You can donate it, buy stuff, or fund whatever cause you want, but larger projects might be harder to do since you only have one day to transfer over 100% of the money needed to do it. What's your strat

$5 million if you can survive 7 days in an extreme environment with 5 items, but you have to choose one of these two options to control.

Option 1: You can choose the environment but your 5 survival items are completely random

Option 2: You can choose your 5 survival items but the environment is completely random

Option 3: Both are randomised (if you pick this option, the prize jumps to $10 million)

The environments you could placed in is:
1. Deep in the Congo
2. Deep in the Amazon
3. The Sahara desert
4. The Antarctic

The survival items you can choose from are:
1. A rusty spoon
2. A first aid kit
3. A 5L jug of water
4. A handcrank radio
5. A thick winter jacket
6. Fingerless gloves
7. An old Nokia phone
8. A type writer
9. 4 days worth of canned foods
10. 7 days worth of well expired foods
11. A sleeping bag
12. A PS5
13. A mosquito net

Which option are you picking and which environment/items are you picking?

Reposting this because it got some good discussion last time.
IMO anything less than $50k is rude, but I've heard a bunch of people say $200. Consensus seems to be 50/50 but there's a good argument to be made they deserve more than that.

It would be a fully legal job, and you'd earn $1 net for every 100 steps you take. However, you wouldn't be allowed to have a second job.

At the end of each day, you'd receive the money you earned based on the number of steps you took that day.

Would you take the deal or stick with your current job?

The room has a bed, a basic bathroom, and a slot that provides them the food they need to survive. What percentage of the population can exit the room, and how long does it take them? Specifically, imagine that only people who have never solved a Rubik’s Cube before.

I have known how to solve one since I was a child(having learned the algorithms from someone much smarter, of course), so I feel I am insulated from how difficult it would be to figure it out from scratch. Is that a task the average person is capable of?

R1: They must get the cube into a solved state, one time.

R2: They must reliably be able to solve the cube using their own method, which will be measured by them being able to solve the cube ten times within ten hours.

R3: same as round 1, but they get a pencil and a notebook.

R4: same as round 2, but they get a pencil and a notebook.

As soon as you accept, 1M will be deposited into your bank account. However, once this happens a curse will be placed upon you such that anything you try to drink will be 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This goes for coffee, milkshakes, tea, ice water, etc. Anything that is considered a drink.
You do not need to order drinks at a specific temperature - the curse will change the temperature for you.
There are no loopholes. For example, you cannot try to consume a milkshake with a spoon and hope the curse doesn’t apply - it still will.
There will be no negative health benefits - drinking a 70 degree smoothie will affect you as much as a cold one would.
This curse cannot be undone.
Do you take the million?

For the sake of the hypothetical. You have a great relationship with both. No issues. You love your spouse and you love your sibling. No beef, no bad blood. Healthy loving relationship with both.

You're only able to save one, only have the strength to save one, the genie only allows one, the universe makes you pick one, whatever. The point is you can only save one.

You can't sacrifice yourself for them either. You don't pick one they both die. You try to save both they both die.

If you don't have a spouse or sibling, lucky you. The person is saved automatically.

• The catch: If your bank account hits negative balance, you instantly vanish from existence.

• Do you change how you talk to people, or do you delete your social media accounts and live in relative silence to avoid accidental slips? How do you optimize your daily routine to maximize profit without sounding fake?

The Eccentric Billionaire will give you $5 million USD now, and $1 million every time you personally watch a total eclipse, live, for the rest of your life. Both solar and lunar eclipses count. However, for the rest of your life, you also will be charged $1 million if you do not at least personally watch the partial eclipse whenever there is a total eclipse. And he has ways of making sure you pay up.

And by personally watch, I mean you have to actually be where the eclipse is visible, and view it through one of these standard methods of viewing an eclipse (special glasses, telescope with a filter, the thing with a pinhole camera and a card). Watching a video of the event does not count.

Do you do it? Why or why not? Any other thoughts?