#Also like I considered having “school tech support” but that's not super true

[revcleo]

Very specific poll

pls reblog for reach

also perhaps cw: self harm? (I was just a bit manic or bored)

[wsgeon]

hey everyone! ummm this is peyton (also the mun of lee hyeon) taking a second shot at a second character — i have a lot of muse for this one, so i swear he’ll be around for a while… 🥵 this is ryu geon, yes his name rhymes with hyeon’s & no i do not care ♥️ he’s the lead guitarist/vocalist of meta and also the son of a former nobody rockstar, but i’ll get into all that below! like this post if you’d like for me to come into your ims to plot, click the read more for more info on geon, and/or click here to be taken to his pages: CAREER, DOSSIER, PINTEREST.

HISTORY.

born in autumn ‘97 to a “budding rockstar” (translation: “no yeah i swear our band’s really starting to take off, we sold twenty-three tickets to our last show!”) & a woman with commitment issues ♥️ geon’s dad always told him that his mom left because she had some dire matters that needed to be taken care of and SWORE that she cried the last time she held her dear baby boy, but all of his dad’s bandmates say that she was just some groupie and had to be persuaded into carrying her child to term… who can say for sure?

naturally, there are no pictures of this mystery woman. there was one (1) of her holding infant geon, but then he found out that that was actually a sound tech who worked for his dad’s band… and he just never corrected geon’s assumptions LOLLLL

anyway! he was always really close to his dad, considering they were a two-person family. he has a set of grandparents, an aunt and a couple cousins but they were never involved with geon’s life because his dad is the #blacksheep of the family. geon and his dad against the world, am i right?

uhhh geon was also kind of a black sheep growing up, but he didn’t really notice? he was a happy kid, very energetic and enthusiastic. a lot of adults in the area looked down on him & his dad, but he was SOOOO blind to it because his dad’s a god in his eyes and HE’S always been nice to everyone, so why would they not like him??? because his clothes smelled a little like dad’s cigarette smoke??? big deal

wasn’t troublesome (beyond talking too much), but a lot of people still expected bad things from him :/ “his father’s a dirtbag, i’ll be surprised if that boy doesn’t end up in jail by 20”, “he won’t amount to anything without a proper role model in his life”, “his dad is teaching him how to slack off”, “he won’t contribute anything to society”, etc. he kindaaa picked up on this as he got older but pretended not to because it was more rewarding to play dumb and keep being a good kid(tm) to prove them wrong

was basically a mini version of his dad. same style, similar features, birthmarks in the same places, same “live today, die tomorrow” approach in life, same affinity for singing & playing rock music. ummm he loved his dad a lot. a lot. a lot. wanted to make him proud SO BAD, started his first band when he was 15 and they sucked so bad but his dad was their biggest fan… you know how it is. a lot of people misunderstood him, but he was a very good guy and such a great parent

TW DEATH unfortunately he passed away just shy of geon’s 18th birthday and your boy still hasn’t forgiven the world for taking his dad when he was in the middle of his angsty teen phase — had he known that their time together was dwindling, he would’ve been so so so much better to him END TW

his dad’s band actually rocketed into the charts after he passed & suddenly they were getting loads of publicity, lots of “what a shame that he went under-appreciated” which pissed geon off SOOOO bad because why couldn’t they have had that energy when he was still alive? he’s still mad about it five/six years later

this is getting kinda long, so uhhh tl;dr, he ended up staying with the drummer of his dad’s band until he was old enough to live alone/READY to live alone, but he changed quite a bit. was really going through it, quit his band, stopped putting effort into school. barely graduated. went from being a social butterfly spending every weekend at a gig or with friends to spending all of his time on a pc or in front of a tv, playing console games. the internet comforted him when nobody else would/could and then he met the future members of meta <33333333 #newbeginnings

present day geon is still struggling, has to go to counseling bi-weekly but he’s coming back out of his shell! he wants to fall in love with life again, just wants to tread carefully... outgoing & will talk to absolutely anyone, but he still spends most of his time alone. hard to reach by text, so if you wanna talk to him, you better call/facetime LMAO. talks a mile a minute, especially if you get him going abt something he really likes. laughs a lot, smiles a lot, more habitual than actual signs of happiness but yk. ummm he has a really loud voice, mostly controlled nowadays but he still gets carried away sometimes. an absolute menace during long drives/flights, sorry meta.

funny but only when he’s in large groups. feeds off of other peoples’ energy, really good at reading a room and breaking the ice/making everyone comfortable, but if you meet him 1-on-1, none of his jokes land quite the same.

i envision him as being the kind of guy who carries himself in such a way that you’d assume he’s really popular/out of reach/maybe even full of himself, but he’s... not like that... at all... in fact, he’s kinda irritating when you get to know him. the personification of a flood followed by a drought and vice versa, always either too much or not enough. gets used/ghosted/dropped/dumped/whatever a lot because he’s soooo fun in the moment (if he isn’t in his feelings), but draining long-term.

really emotionally intelligent, in touch with his feelings in a way that a lot of people never thought he would be (probably thanks to counseling tbh). he’s very very rarely the type of person who will make you wonder what your place in his life is — he’s communicative, kind, honest. ummm he thinks that intimacy between friends needs to be more common, so he’s really affectionate with the people in his life. type of guy to tell you he loves you every chance he gets (calling you when he’s drunk, sounding like a clingy ex type beat) & greet you/depart with a hug. losing his dad kinda fucked him up in the way that he won’t leave/hang up until his friends say “i love you” back, gets kinda (re: very) upset if he’s denied that and/or a hug.

TRIVIA.

has been playing the guitar “longer than he’s been walking” (not really, but he swears it’s true).

uhhh he really likes nail art, but he’s kinda hesitant in what he tries? mainly sticks to black polish (or other plain colors), but sometimes he’ll get little designs added in as well. mainly does it himself because he still doesn’t feel comfortable in salons... if his work looks bad, leave him alone <3 he’s trying

inspired by people like kurt cobain, nicky wire, yungblud, billie joe armstrong & damiano david in the fact that he’s not against wearing dresses or skirts on stage. doesn’t do it ALL the time, but often enough that it doesn’t go unnoticed. some people say that he does it for attention because he doesn’t dress like that elsewhere and tbh they’re probably kinda right

interested in history (only SOME... dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, specialized areas like the history of circuses/clowns/skateboarding/punk, stuff like that yk), stand-up comedy & documentaries. could spend a whole day watching documentaries and would say he had fun, has a lot of useless knowledge that nobody gives a fuck about and is kinda dumb when it comes to things that matter

when it comes to music, he prefers playing really fast and heavy rock or punk over anything else, but he actually listens to a lot more soft indie on his own time... he’s too tense these days to be listening to anything else RIPPP

the vibe: homemade tie-dye, ripped slipknot t-shirts, frosted tips, neon crocs with alien & peace-sign charms, chipped black nail polish, calloused hands, cheesy pick-up lines used NOT to land a date but to pull a smile, driving until he’s lost, stupid socks paired with pressed suits, dramatic poetry in an iphone note, etc. 

PLOT IDEAS.

people he met through online support groups about coping with grief

uhhh an on & off relationship that’s been going for who-knows-how-long. the reason for this is up for discussion, but i imagine that he hasn’t given up yet because the constant highs and lows are a good source of inspo 🤪 artists must suffer for their art!

opposite side of the coin — someone he’s interested in, but he’s NOT disloyal so it’s a pattern of persistent courting when he’s single vs intense friend-zoning when he’s not and they’re getting tired of trying to figure out what he wants from them

someone else who likes nail art & can convince him that NOBODY cares if he goes to a salon

someone (probably female but doesn’t really matter tbh) who feels like his feminism is entirely performative… maybe they attack him directly for it or maybe they just REALLY don’t like him and they’re super vague about it idk. either way, please tell him that activism is much more than recommending one female artist a year and saying “clothes have no gender 🤪” so he can be praised for the bare minimum (his heart is in the right place but his skull is empty)

someone super introverted who comes out of their shell with geon! uhhh maybe they think that he’s the one doing them a favor, but in reality spending time with them has been doing wonders for his mental health

other people who like to skate. let’s congregate at the local skatepark and scare the middle schoolers away

someone who inspires him musically, for whatever reason. lots of late nights in studios, idly strumming his guitar and writing lyrics that definitely aren’t about how their eyes look in these dim lights… umm maybe he thinks he has a crush on them but really doesn’t and ends up hurting them eventually, maybe he really DOES have a crush but will (probably) never do anything abt it or maybe it’s entirely platonic and he just admires them a ridiculous amount

someone who likes to make music as a hobby, prob won’t publish/release any of it but it’s fun to imagine. spontaneous meetings with geon in the middle of the night, recording songs together and keeping the WORST takes for the laughs. there’s probably a diss-track of them going in on each other floating around somewhere even though geon can’t rap for shit

night owls who keep him company on the phone, even if they can’t be there physically. them talking really quietly vs geon shouting at them while he plays games LMAO

gaming buddies. come over, maybe you can carry geon through his game of the week or you can both fail but have fun while you’re at it… or you can scream while he fends off that hoard of zombies behind you

i’m typing this at the last minute (literally) so i’m gonna stop here, but i will get a proper plots page put up asap with a wider variety of connections!!! but as always, please do let me know if you have any other ideas. i’m always happy to plot and write with you all 🌚

[missbitatuva]

Bringing CS Education Research into the K-8 Classroom

For those new to this blog, my name is Kim Wilkens and I’m a graduate student in the School of Education at the University of Virginia studying curriculum and instruction with a focus on innovation and computer science (CS) education. I would describe my journey into CS education research as a long and winding road. I was a CS major and started my career working in the tech sector in the late 1980s. At that point, education and research were nowhere on my radar. After my son was born, however, I found that being part of corporate America no longer fit my life goals. I feel like I didn’t find my true calling until I went to my first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in 2010. This is where I Iearned that women represented just 18% of CS undergraduates. I already knew that being a woman in tech was challenging, but I had no idea how large the gap had gotten. That experience flipped a switch in me because I finally saw education as a pathway to making a real difference in addressing the gender gap in tech. I had already been dipping my toes into education through volunteering and part-time teaching gigs, but at this point I dove in head first, earning a Master’s in Education, founding Tech-Girls, and working full-time as a K-8 CS Coordinator. In 2020, I embarked on my graduate school journey with the goals of:

getting the time, space and support needed to learn about the latest in CS education research;

being part of expanding the knowledge of ways that CS education can be integrated into any classroom and accessible by any student;

making a broader impact on diversity and inclusion in the tech field overall.

I’m super excited for the opportunity to do this blog and podcast series because not only do I get to take a deeper dive into K-8 CS education research happening now, but I also get to talk with some of the researchers who I have been following and been inspired by on my CS education journey! I hope that if you are a K-8 educator reading and/or listening along, that no matter what subject you teach or what your current comfort level is with CS, that you too will be inspired to take next steps on your CS education journey.

Anatomy of a Research Paper

Because this series is all about taking a deeper dive into current K-8 CS education research, I thought it would be good to spend the first episode of the podcast looking at the anatomy of a research paper with my advisor, Dr. Jennifer Chiu. Jennie is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Virginia. I know from my experience as a teacher that reading a research paper can be intimidating because there were a lot of things I did not understand about the research process and the terminology. Hopefully this episode will break down some of those barriers.

Types of research:

Qualitative - uses research tools like interviews and observations to figure how or why something is happening.

Quantitative - uses research tools like surveys and assessments to find what is happening. It is numbers based, so you can measure and assess to determine outcomes.

Mixed method - a combination of qualitative and quantitative where one method helps inform the other.

Intro to research papers

Title - this is where the researcher tries to capture reader interest. It’s challenging to do in 15 words or less.

Abstract - read this first. If it’s interesting, consider reading more. If not, skip it.

Intro - this is where the researcher describes the problem, why the study is important for education research, and the research questions to be addressed during the study.

Literature review - this is where the researcher highlights, synthesizes, and makes connections related to the current research and their research questions. For peer-reviewed papers, it’s where the researcher proves they know enough about the current research to show that their study is unique while fitting within current research or why it is taking research in a new direction.

Theoretical/conceptual framework - this is where the researcher shares their worldview for learning and the lens through which they address the research questions.

Methods - this is where the researcher describes the context, participants, what kind of data they gathered, and how they analyzed the data. It should be enough detail that someone else could replicate the study.

Results - this is where the researcher answers the research questions using the methods they described. This is the meat of the paper and something you may want to skim first.

Discussion - this is where the researcher situates the results back into the field and how the results build upon or align with other research or how it doesn’t. This is where the research answers why this research is important.

Conclusion - this is where the researcher recaps the study.

More Resources:

Communications of the ACM Magazine (content available online)

CSTA Reports & Publications (open access)

CSTA Virtual Community (requires membership)

International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools (peer-reviewed, open-access journal)

Research Practice Partnerships

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

Teacher Professional Knowledge and Skill (TPK&S)

[genius-with-a-j]

I have had a Sanders Sides college AU bouncing around in my head for a few weeks and the gremlins have been begging for me to let it out so here is some of it:

Virgil:

Sophomore

Undecided major (will eventually go with psychology major and creative writing minor)

Purple hair, very pale (actually has celiac and diabetes and struggles with eating enough)

Actually has a lot of health issues but was still determined to go to college

Skinny boi, into the emo scene still, has purple hair

Has severe anxiety (social and otherwise) and mild to moderate depression

Goes to on-campus counseling

Has an emotional support black cat named Gerard (yes after Gerard Way)

Has okay grades, like a B-/C+ student

Lives in a dorm that’s basically apartments, everything is very separate and it’s mostly grad students there

Not super into extracurriculars because anxiety but does volunteer at an animal shelter

Is reluctantly a barista in like a very indie coffee shop off-campus

Went to a really big high school where he felt very ignored and lost in the crowd

Logan:

Senior

Mechanical and electrical engineering double major with an artificial intelligence emphasis and a computer science minor

Has also considered picking up a math minor or expanding to a double degree

Dark brown hair that’s always just a little messy, tan skin

Angular features, half-Korean and half-Hispanic

Speaks several languages, all weirdly perfectly

Korean, Spanish, English, some Mandarin and some Japanese

Has major depressive disorder and autism

4.0 with ease

Apartment coordinator who was an RA for two years and hall gov president before that

Involved in the robotics club, chess club, head of the engineering society

Went to a large high school, was a standout, won many awards and was valedictorian with like a 4.3 GPA

Patton’s boyfriend, they’ve been together for like 3 years at this point

Patton:

Super senior, this is his 5th year

Changed major a lot, has finally decided on animal science, wants to be a vet tech

Curly, blonde hair and lots of freckles

Chubby, very soft and huggable

Jewish

Genderfluid! Is fine with any pronouns and wears whatever he wants (normally big sweaters and ugg-style slippers)

Struggles with depression and a touch of OCD

Dyslexic

Super empathetic and frequently gets compassion fatigue

Solid C student in most things, but is SUPER good at animal-related classes and pretty bad at math (so Logan helps him)

Lives with Logan even though technically they don’t want apartment coordinators to have roommates but Logan is really good at his job and was basically like “if he goes, I go” so they allowed him to live there for free too

A very good baker and involved with a baking club on campus

Works at an animal shelter (yes that’s how he met Virgil)

Went to a small high school (20 graduating class) really struggled with being bullied, is glad to be away from his small, oppressive hometown

Logan’s boyfriend

Roman:

Junior

Theater and vocal double major with a creative writing minor

Obsessed with love stories, writes love-based plays and love songs, etc.

Plays piano, guitar, and trumpet because he was forced to learn a wind instrument

Black hair basically styled like a Disney prince

Mexican (is actually a DACA student)

Speaks fluent Spanish and English

Has complex PTSD from years of emotional abuse before ending up housed with Abuela

Depressed but going constantly, can’t stop because that’s how the feelings catch you

ADHD but doesn’t know it because he hasn’t been tested, his parents didn’t believe in it

Straight-A student in subjects he cares about but barely scrapes by in the required common core type classes because he doesn’t care and therefore is Unable To Learn

Lives with his brother in an off-campus apartment because Abuela asked that they live together so when she helps pay it’s just one rent payment for the two of them

It’s a bad apartment, it’s basically falling apart but it’s what they can afford

Delivers pizza so he can afford to live

Involved in the choir, jazz band, super active in the drama program, and has starred in multiple roles on the student-run TV network

Went to a small-ish high school (80 graduating class) and was a big fish in a small pond; he and his brother were very well-known

Remus’s identical twin

Remus:

Junior

Creative writing and theater double major with a criminal justice minor

Writes horror, also likes to write poems that seem sweet but are very dark

Majors in theater for the writing aspect more than the acting aspect

Criminal justice minor is because he loves true crime and wants to write accurate criminals in some of his horror stories

Black hair is normally spiked, has a white streak in front

Has that gross rat stache most of the time but will shave it off for a play or the like

Mexican (is actually a DACA student)

Speaks fluent Spanish and English

Has complex PTSD from years of emotional abuse before ending up housed with Abuela

Also depressed, but instead of avoiding his problems embraces them in a way that’s pretty uncomfortable, can be a little too open sometimes

Has OCD that really messes with his head but tries to embrace the intrusive thoughts and blurt them out because he thinks that’s how he wins even though it doesn’t quite work that way

People thought he had Tourettes because of it, but he doesn’t, he has control over what he does (besides the OCD compulsion part of it but that’s different than a tic)

ADHD but doesn’t know it

An impressive writer and excels in his creative writing and theater-based classes but is just awful at other classes because he gets bored and ends up making games out of assignments like trying to freak out his professors or spelling out messages down the side of the page with the first letter of every line

Lives with his brother in an off-campus apartment because Abuela asked that they live together so when she helps pay it’s just one rent payment for the two of them

It’s a bad apartment, it’s basically falling apart but it’s what they can afford

Writes smut for money online

Super active in the drama program, often directs or writes the screenplays, has also written for the student-ran TV network, wrote a whole Twilight-zone-ish show that was pretty popular, enjoys poetry slams

Went to a small-ish high school (80 graduating class) and was a big fish in a small pond; he and his brother were very well-known

Is kind of dating Dee, they’ll both tell you it’s complicated and they like it that way

Roman’s identical twin

Dee:

Freshman

Political science major with a criminal justice minor

Wants to be a lawyer or politician to make changes for marginalized groups

Indigenous

Has vitiligo, it primarily affects the left side of his face (even his left eye is almost hazel instead of dark like his other eye) and also his limbs and his stomach

It started in high school and he was teased pretty bad for it, was afraid college would be the same way

He wears gloves to hide it because he’s kind of ashamed of it, he feels like people think he’s gross-looking

Has very thick, dark hair that’s always a little shaggy, wears a lot of hats

Depressed

Very defensive and guarded, doesn’t want people to know who he truly is

Not a pathological liar, but he does lie to protect himself

Was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder because of his fear of losing people and his lack of emotional regulation

Was raised in a really turbulent household and has trust issues because of it

An honors kid

Nearly has a 4.0, is really good at writing and arguing and history, only struggles with science

Lives in the honors kid dorm, is involved in hall government

Works as an intern (paid) with a local firm

Involved with Model UN and debate team

Went to a medium-sized high school and was very good at blending in

Is involved with Remus

So yeah!!! That’s most of it, I plan on writing stuff about it, feel free to ask questions if you have any, I’d love to answer

[relationshipsandpolitics]

I suppose it’s worthwhile to share who I’m supporting in the upcoming Democratic Primary for President. After all, what better way to make people who mostly agree with me to suddenly hate me than to stan for some deeply flawed elected official or deeply flawed Andrew Yang?

But before I get into narrowing down the field, I want to briefly mention something I’m going to talk about in more depth later: electability.  It’s not entirely unimportant to use this unquantifiable metric when picking a candidate.  I would just caution against it, and I’m not going to use it in mine.  Simply put, I think this election is a referendum on Trump, and there will be enough wiggle room in the electorate to support a candidate who objectively would do worse against Trump and win than the best candidate. Candidate A might beat him by 10 points, but Candidate Z will still beat him and carry the down-ticket races, too. You might as well just vote for the candidate you believe in.  A crazy concept, I know.

For the record, I’d willingly vote for any Democratic candidate over Donald Trump.  I just want to get that out of the way.  People feel the need to caveat their choice in this way, as though anyone is really arguing otherwise.   There is some truth that in 2016, Bernie voters switched to Trump at rates that helped tip the election to the Republican.  But it’s also true that more Hillary Clinton voters in 2008 switched to McCain than Bernie voters switched to Trump in 2016.  The fact is it is incredibly common for supporters of a primary candidate to wind up voting for the opposition party’s nominee. These are often called swing voters or independents.  They sometimes gravitate to a candidate simply because of that candidate and not because of party or policy.   We need to stop with this type of criticism of supporters who don’t support your preferred candidate.

Personally, I’m still voting Democrat no matter who is the nominee. But I’d be very unhappy to vote for a lot of these candidates.  

Here is the list of current candidates in an order that means nothing, but one might think has a hidden meaning:

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Beto O’ Rourke, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Steve Bullock, Michael Bennet, Joe Sestak, Wayne Messam, John Delaney, Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang, Marianne Williamson, Pete Buttigieg

Let’s begin by just lopping off a bunch of these names who even I have barely heard of and have less than zero chance of being the nominee.  Keep in mind that some candidates I’m keeping on, I only do so because I wish to make fun of them.  Otherwise they would fully belong in this category of early dismissals. Here’s the new list:

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Beto O’ Rourke, Tulsi Gabbard, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, John Delaney, Tom Steyer, Andrew Yang, Marianne Williamson, Pete Buttigieg

 That was fun.  Ok, let’s get into it.  When judging who my savior will be, I consider a multitude of categories.  But the first category I consider is one that won’t personally affect me at all.  I want to know if any of the candidates’ position will grossly discriminate against traditionally-disadvantaged groups.  As a straight white male, I have the benefit of not being directly impacted by even the worst Republican social policies.  All I really need to care about is taxes and getting more vacation. That’s my privilege.  But it’s also what’s so fucked up about Americans as a people.  We are entirely out for ourselves, and this is most evident in how we vote.  We need to look out for everyone, especially groups that regularly see their most basic rights challenged.  I think this is the first bar any candidate must overcome.

So any candidate that supports restricting women’s reproductive rights, supports policies that make it easier to be fired for being LGTQ, or supports banning Muslims from entering this country is gone.  Now, most of the candidates have said some questionable thins in the past.  Bernie Sanders wrote a weird column about sexual assault, Joe Biden pushed a shitty crime bill that disproportionately hurt African-Americans and was down with segregated busing, and I’m pretty sure Marianne Williamson’s only black friend is Oprah (but she’ll definitely mention it all the time).  But when it comes to actual policy, I honestly don’t believe any of the candidates running will actively seek to harm minority groups. Except Tulsi Gabbard, who has a history of saying some anti-gay shit.  I’m not trying to wade into this whole Hillary Clinton/Russia/Third-Party run controversy involving Gabbard, so I’m going to cut her off now because I don’t think she has the backs of the LGBTQ community, but I really don’t want to write about her.

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Beto O’ Rourke,  Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, John Delaney, Tom Steyer, Andre Yang, Marianne Williamson, Pete Buttigieg

The next crucial category is competence.  Do these candidates have the basic competence and intelligence needed to be president? It doesn’t matter if they have strong policy proposals or are skilled orators. Can they do the job?  As we can see with Trump, a complete lack of experience as a legislator, coupled with a complete lack of intelligence and basic human decency make for a bad time.  In fact, never holding elected office alone is a disqualifier for me and it should be for everyone. Based on these criteria, the following candidates get the axe:

Andrew Yang - Yang is the type of candidate who randomly makes news for a common-sense plan and gets you thinking that maybe this outsider is what we need.  Then you learn he’s a Silicon Valley tech bro supported by other tech bros and pseudo-libertarian types and he never held public office but now thinks he can be president. That is the most damning critique.  This man knows literally nothing about government and how to govern/legislate. Instead of running for city council or the school board like a normal person, he decides to run for fucking president like an ego-maniacal psycho.   In other words, fuck Andrew Yang and his supporters.  Here’s a good article on why he sucks.   And here’s another.

Marianne Williamson – Candidate moonbeam had her moment in the sun during one debate where she had a couple decent soundbites.  She’s also batshit crazy, believes in anti-vax and anti-science ideas, and is friends with similarly-out of touch rich celebrities and SoCal types.  Never trust anyone who self-identifies and makes a living as a spiritual guru. Some of the worst people in the world are rich white women from Los Angeles who are really into spirituality and New Age medicines. They are the type of liberals who post online about how much they support gay people and the environment, but god forbid they want to put affordable housing in their neighborhood. Every positive thing they do for society is clouded in narcissism.  It’s an attempt to absolve themselves of their wealth with vacuous good deeds that don’t require any actual sacrifice.  People like Williamson protest polluting the oceans because they enjoy their Malibu beaches, and then happily get in their Range Rover to go to the movies down the street.  Williamson simply adds a layer of bullshit with her spiritualism.  If having a personal shaman is a status symbol; being the personal shaman to Oprah is the ultimate status symbol.  Like Yang, Williamson is an egomaniac as only someone from California can be, and she thinks the presidency is her God-given right. Fuck having to actually learn about public service by serving your town first when you can name drop Oprah and Gwyneth and immediately raise enough money to get a national audience to spew your garbage.

Tom Steyer - I could go on about how out of touch his policies are, but no one should be forced to read more than two sentences about this guy.  He is a hedge fund billionaire who doesn’t want everyone to have health insurance and thinks being rich makes him qualified to be president.

Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Beto O’ Rourke, TKamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar,  John Delaney, Pete Buttigieg

Alright, let’s pause and congratulate ourselves for easily dismissing half the field. Yay for us!  This will mark the end of part 1, aka Super Fun Party Time #1.   Part 2 will be up shortly, I hope, as we start discussing the serious contenders.  Remember, my opinion matters more than anyone else’s so it’s extremely important you read this and ultimately vote the way I want you to vote.  

[bakusquadup]

Same anon as before!! Some detailed descriptions of them would be absolutely awesome if you wouldn’t mind!! :D

Hey friend! I’m happy to provide some descriptions for you! All of them are under the cut.

Onishi and Yamamoto are at the top of the list because you mentioned them last time, but I included everyone else in PP just so I could have all the info in one place (it’s kinda a lot of characters, sorry). I still can’t believe anybody would consider drawing them 😭 Enjoy, I guess?

-Shelley

Just a note: I’m using feet and inches here because I’m more used to it, but obviously everything would translate to centimeters because most of them are Japanese

Onishi Tokito (aka RedBolt)

Body: SMOL boy. He’s not even five feet and yet he is full of rage (he’s about 4′10″, but tells people he’s 5′0″). And even though he’s small, he does have three years of UA hero courses under his belt and has enough muscle to get by. He has crimson red skin

Features: His hair is a slightly darker shade of red than his skin and his eyes are a slightly lighter shade of red and seem to glow slightly (they also reflect light like animal eyes). His hair is mid-length and shaggy, curling up at the ends naturally, but he will sometimes spike it up into a mohawk just because he thinks it looks cool (it doesn’t) and makes him taller. His eyes are wide and rounded, which makes him look younger than he is

Personality: He’s incredibly high-energy and is usually stuck in one of two moods: angry/bitter or smug/sarcastic, so he’s either smirking or frowning all the time. On the rare occassion that he genuinely smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkle up and he has one dimple on his left side. He has a big sense of pride and likes to pick on others when he does better than them, but despises having the favor returned

Hero Costume: A baggy black jumpsuit that cuffs at the bottom like a pair of joggers and has a sleeveless top. He wears a thick red belt around his hips with small bags hanging off that hold small metal items (like screws and washers) and hand cream (because his hands dry out from using his quirk too much). In the colder months, he throws his favorite zip-up sweatshirt over top of the costume (it’s also red, he really likes red)

Quirk: “Red Lightning.” The true nature of his quick is hard to pin down, as it has the thin, branching sparks of electricity and its shocking capabilities, but it is a pale red and it seems to flow like a liquid. He’s speculated that it’s a combination of lava and electricity, but he doesn’t really care enough to figure it out

Other Info: He gets super competitive, even with things that he knows he’s bad at, so he’s known to cheat at any competition that he feels he needs to. He’s probably only ever said sorry twice in his life

Yamamoto Kei (aka Midas)

Body: Super tall and lanky. He stands at about 6'6", but he also hunches, so it’s more like 6'8" when his posture is good. He’s a certified bean pole that shot up in first year of high school, but never gained the weight to fill out his frame. He’s so pale, his skin seems to be transparent sometimes

Features: He has two different colored eyes, which are slanted and narrow. His right eye is gold, which is his natural color and the other is a muted brown. The brown eye is a piece of tech that a support company built for him when he lost his left eye in second year during finals. There is a thick pink scar running around the outside of his left eye, which he likes to show off because he thinks it’s badass. His hair is just above chin length, dark brown (almost black), and perfectly straight. His fringe covers his gold eye because he likes to hide it and he can see better out of the artificial eye

Personality: Yamamoto is pretty low-key most of the time. He speaks in a low voice and really only contributes to conversation when he feels he has something worth saying (although, sometimes those important topics are just a dumb meme). The only one that’s able to really rile him up is Onishi because he draws out Yamamoto’s competitiveness. He does have a slight wild streak as he loves anything thrilling and may act a little crazy when it comes to seeking those things out

Hero Costume: He wears many separate items so if he needs to solidify one of them with his quirk, not everything solidifies right away, limiting his mobility. Has loose black shorts with thick gold stripes that run down the outside of his legs. Under that, he wears black compression sleeves with two royal blue stripes and one thinner gold stripe between them. The compression sleeves are tucked into knee-high black boots with fabric soles to allow him to slide on smooth surfaces, but sometimes they will appear gold when he needs to activate his quirk on them (the weight it great for kicking enemies!). On top, he wears a matching black tank top with the same gold stripes. He has a royal blue belt that clips around his waist with a gold buckle shaped like a crown. He also wears the same compression sleeves on his arms and a pair of royal blue fingerless gloves

Quirk: “Golden Touch.” Pretty much self-explanatory. He is able to turn the things he touches into gold (any part of his body, not just his hands), but it acts more like a golden shell rather than solid gold. He can also remove the gold whenever he wants without injuring a living thing inside it. If he keeps his quirk activated, it will not only solidify the thing he is directly touching, but whatever that item is touching as well. For example, if someone grabs his jacket sleeve, he will solidify his jacket and then eventually the person holding him (although, he tries to avoid this because his clothes become much heavier). He can use this to skate along the ground by creating a path on the ground and sliding with his specially-designed boots

Other Info: He will sometimes pin his hair up during hero training because of its length (he doesn’t like the sensation of it flopping around while he’s running). Because of this, he always has bobby pins in his pockets and the girls have started going to him if they need some

Amy Coleman (aka Oracole)

Body: Tall and lean. She’s just under 6′0″ and has a dancer’s frame with long limbs and toned muscles. She has naturally tan skin, but does not tan more if she’s out in the sun, only freckles a little

Features: She has white-blond hair that previous went down to her waist and is naturally straight. She would wear it in a tight ponytail, until it got singed off by Endeavor. It is now chin-length, so she curls it in the morning to get a wavy texture and more volume. Her eyes are piercing ice blue and angle down on the outside. Her brows are darker than her hair, closer to dirty blond. She has a spattering of very faint freckles across her nose

Personality: She’s very outgoing and loud; always willing to make a friend and needs to know what’s going on at all times (basically, a typical American). This can often be her downfall, as she ends up as somewhat of a gossip. She feels that any information she gained without the help of her quirk is fair game for her to talk about. She’s generally high-energy and gets riled-up easily, except when she is using her quirk, in which case she makes a complete 180

Hero Costume: She wears a dark teal fitted jumpsuit with a high neck, ¾ sleeves, and white white piping that runs up her limps and down the center of her torso. Over top of it, she wears a black corset-like/belt thing around her ribcage. It’s wide and has two clasps that hang down and connect to the bags strapped around her legs (also black). She wears black, steel-toed combat boots on her feet that her father bought her from an army-navy surplus store back in the U.S.

Quirk: “Third Eye.” When her quirk is activated, she gains the ability to see into the future or events that are currently happening for which, she is not present. She does not use it to see far into the future and it tends to get unreliable and multiple possibilities arise, but she will use it for events within a couple minutes to allow for preparedness when fighting. She also uses it to keep an eye on her teammates in the middle of a training session. No, she does not use it to cheat on exams

Other Info: Whenever she gets too excited, her American accent becomes more pronounced and she starts making grammar mistakes. Her accent is always a little present, but it becomes much worse. She will also occassionally swear in English (Onishi has started picking up on them and copying her)

Suzuki Youta (aka Umbra)

Body: He’s about average at 5′7″. He has some muscle, but he’s also on the scrawnier side because he relies on his quirk most of the time. He hasn’t built up the bulk that some hand-to-hand fighters have. His skin is pitch black, so it’s sometimes hard to see his features unless in direct light

Features: His hair and whites of his eyes are also black, but because they aren’t matte like his skin, they reflect light and are a little easier to see. His hair is short on the sides and a little longer on top, puffing up when it gets frizzy. It’s difficult to discern his appearance head-on without pointing a light directly at his face, but he has narrow eyes with monolids and a rounded nose. When looking at him from the side or back, he just appears to be a silhouette 

Personality: Suzuki is a man of few words, speaking very little except to Inoue and choosing his words very carefully. He has a keen eye for detail and analysis, so he is very good at determining someone’s weakness and how to take them down or make them improve. For this reason, he is often sought out by classmates for training tips, but the attention makes him uncomfortable

Hero Costume: It’s literally just a jet black body suit. It has some structure to it, like bubbled-out sleeves and slouchy pants, but it’s meant to blend in with his skin. The only item he carries with him is a metal flashlight that fits into a pouch on his suit. He’s going for an aesthetic and damn, if he’s not gonna stick to it

Quirk: “Shadow Manipulation.” He can manipulate his shadow to do as he wills it, including things like grab people, holds falling structures, slide under doors to see inside the room, etc. If he is standing in the shadow of a larger object, such as a tree or something, he can control the larger object’s shadow, but only if the surrounding area is light. This means, he cannot control anything in total darkness (he’s basically useless) or on cloudy days. He needs a very defined shadow, which is why he carries a flashlight, so he can at least make a small shadow to work with. He’s best on very sunny days

Other Info: He doesn’t get very animated, except when talking to Inoue. Sometimes, classmates will sneak up to conversations between the two of them in a hopes of catching one of Suzuki’s rare smiles (his teeth are also black, don’t get too excited though)

Inoue Yumiko (aka Alchemia)

Body: 4′11″ and besides that, pretty much average in every other way. She has an average build without much muscle because she mostly relies on her quirk. She has a medium-light skintone that is more warm-toned

Features: She has cute, rounded features with a small rounded nose and wide, dark-brown eyes. Her face is very circular. She has dark brown hair with a slight wave to it that comes down to her mid-back. In comparison to her classmates, she is probably the most “ordinary” looking

Personality: Pretty much everyone likes Inoue. She is kind, smart, and humble, so most of the class likes being able to work with her on anything. She has a tendency to be indecisive, which is unideal for hero work, and she sometimes has a hard time speaking her mind because she doesn’t like conflict

Hero Costume: A sky blue and grey outfit with wide-leg shorts, a sleeveless top with a slouchy, layered neck and thigh-high matching socks that tuck into a pair of high-top sneakers. The outfit has silvery triangles that go around her hips, the cuff on her shorts are silver, and the soles of her sneakers are as well

Quirk: “Morph.” She can transform anything she touches into a different shape/molecular configuration so long as it has the same chemical makeup (i.e. no making diamond from iron, sorry). She has the easiest time just changing the shape of something, like turning a steel pipe into a sword, but can do more complicated transformations when given more time

Other Info: Her younger sister is a first year in the general studies department. She (the sister) didn’t want to be a hero and doesn’t really have a quirk strong enough for it, but she wanted the connections that came from going to UA

Himura Kenji (aka Obsidian Fire)

Body: Taller than average at about 5′10″ and with a lean build. He is trained for hand-to-hand combat, but is more agile than just strong, so he does not have the bulk of somelike like Mirio, for example. He has relatively pale, cool-toned skin

Features: He has short, inky-black hair that he normally slicks back with gel (he’s not ugly, so it looks good on him, but it’s still douchey looking). His eyes are firey red, narrow, and many would describe them as “boring a hole through your eyes” based on the cold intensity behind them. He is classically handsome, with high cheekbones, a narrow nose, and sharp jawline, but he’s also one of those people that once you know their personality, they aren’t as attractive

Personality: Selfish and competitive. As he has gone through training at UVA, he’s slowly developed a superiority complex and often treats those he deems unworthy significantly worse (he especially hates Quirkless people). He is rather talented and intelligent and, because he puts on a mask for the public, people tend to like him initially. Most of the hero course hates him, but students in the other courses usually like him

Hero Costume: His top is fitted and long-sleeve and has a thick black lapel, similar to a tuxedo, and there are two black bands around his wrists. For his pants, he wears solid black with grey kneepads and a pair of low grey boots (shapes similarly to Timberlands) with tungsten soles. His clothes are all made from a high-tech breathable fabric that can resist extremely high temepratures

Quirk: “Heat.” Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Himura can produce heat from his hands in the form of a dark red glow. If he directs it in a very specific beam, he can cause it to stretch further. Currently, his maximum temperature is just over 4000 degrees F, so hot enough to melt most metals, but not things like Tungsten. In first year, it was closer to 2000 degrees

Other Info: Himura actually has a close friend in the support department. The two of them collaborate on a lot of stuff and he is probably the only person at UA that Himura will be a genuine person around without acting like a complete asshole. No one has figured out why he’s so special

Ishigaki Kaito (aka Dagger Fin)

Body: He’s about 5′9″ and he’s partially a shark, so he has a giant shark head with gills and his fins come out in the water. Because of the shark head, he’s pretty thicc. Bluish-grey skin that matches his quirk

Features: What do you want me to say? He’s a fucking shark man (think great white). He doesn’t have any hair. His eyes are jet black

Personality: Ishigaki (who insists everyone call him Kaito) is very outgoing and excitable. He doesn’t have the best social skills as he’s on the dorky side and has a hard time conveying what he means, but he’s easy to like and fun to talk to. He’s definitely not the brightest bulb, but he makes up for it with raw enthusiasm

Hero Costume: It’s basically just a wetsuit made from a more breathable, thinner material so he can swim faster

Quirk: “Shark.” I mean, it’s pretty self-explanatory. He can do basically anything a shark can in the water and some of it out of the water. Highlights include: High speed swimming! Multiple rows of teeth and powerful jaws! Sensing electric fields!

Other Info: When coming up with a hero name, he first chose “Shark Boy,” but he got yelled at for stealing the name of an American hero. As a joke, he still repeatedly tells people he’s “just a Shark Boy, looking for his Lava Girl”

Fujii Megumi, Megu for short (aka Lancette)

Body: Another smol child. She’s not super short (about 5′0″), but she’s very skinny. She has some muscle on her body and it’s quite defined because she has so little fat. She’s albino, so she has very white skin

Features: As mentioned before, she’s albino, so she has blond hair that is practically white with eyebrows and eyelashes that match. Her hair is very straight and thick and goes down to her butt to help her quirk. Her eyes are wide and constantly look like a deer in headlights because they’re so big. Her eyes are a light reddy-pink color

Personality: Megu is slow to open up to people, generally wary of strangers and quiet around those she hasn’t spent much time with. Once she has opened up to you though, she has a quick temper and hotheaded personality. She often winds up in arguments with Onishi because he likes to push at her buttons or Ishigaki because he’s a little inept at talking to girls. Sachi is her closest friend in the class and she would do absolutely anything for the people that she cares about. Her loyalty runs deep

Hero Costume: A full-body light pink fitted suit with overlapping white rings along her hips, shoulders, ankles, and wrists.

Quirk: “Dagger Hair.” She can sharpen her hair into blades that float around her and can grow and shrink at will. Because it hardens into a nearly impenetrable material, she can also use it as a defense

Other Info:

Mifune Sachiko, Sachi for short (aka Sachi)

Body: She is about 5′5″ and is on the curvier side, again with the normal muscle that someone would have from constant training. She’s half-black, half-Japanese because her dad’s American, so she has a darker skin than her classmates

Features: She has dark brown, almost black eyes that are almond shaped with long lashes. She has very curly, black hair that comes down to her shoulders and she parts in the middle

Personality: Sachi doesn’t like to be involved in drama, so she often comes across as a silent observer. She’s generally more mature than some of her classmates (*cough* Onishi *cough*) and is more laidback. She’s more open and accepting of differences between people and because she thought she was quirkless for a while, she doesn’t discriminate. Because of her relaxed attitude, she can come across as cold and uncaring

Hero Costume: Her costume leaves a lot of exposed skin so she can touch people (must be her actual skin, not clothes), so she has neon yellow biker shorts and a matching high-necked sports bra. A black cursive S runs along the right thigh of her shorts. She also wears a pair of distance-vision goggles that help her see what villains she may be attracted to from afar 

Quirk: “Attraction.” She can make anybody that she thinks is attractive into a zombie of sorts, so long as she touches them. Their minds and eyes will go fuzzy and they automatically move to protect her. Many people misunderstand her quirk and think it either applies to anybody or think it only applies to men, but she’s pansexual and it’s just whoever she thinks is cute. Just for fun, here’s a list of people in the class that her quirk works on: Yamamoto, Amy, Mirio, Hadou, Inoue, Suzuki, Himura, and Reader. She thought she was quirkless until she was about 12, because she didn’t get the whole attraction thing until then

Other Info: Because she’s got bigger boobs than many of her classmates, she dealt with quite a bit of harrassment her first year at UA. Some of her classmates didn’t like that and so developed the Sachi Protection Squad (Ishigaki, Megu, Suzuki, and Inoue). She doesn’t really need the help because she can kick-ass, but they like doing it anyway. Also, she knows English because of her dad, so Amy and she can be seen whispering in English to each other sometimes

[lethesomething]

A note on fictional jobs

There's a joke that all fanfic characters are either baristas, teachers, lawyers or some denizen of the tattoo/florist au set. This isn't really fully true (there's also witches and vampire hunters!) but for anyone going for a realistic setting, let me at least, as someone who has worked a number of jobs in media, software development and catering, give some pointers on how that stuff works, because dear lord does Hollywood get it wrong.

This post is 2k words, so under the cut it goes.

Journalism/Photography/Media

General tips

This sector seems to be pretty popular in old school comics, and for good reason. Clark Kent gets to go out into the city and be near events. It's a job women are historically allowed to do (and be sassy in) and even Peter Parker gets to just traipse around the city getting into adventures.

It must also be noted that all these characters were developed in the first half of the 20th century, and media has changed a lot since then.

If your character is a journalist, they will work long hours and not be paid *that* much. Carrie Bradshaw is the most unrealistic journalist character in the history of everything. Especially after, oh, 2010 or so, when the traditional press sales really started declining. No journalist is that well paid for that little. And none will have that much free time.

Journalists generally have a beat, and what they do and know heavily depends on that. Your character can get into the gritty streets of downtown chasing drug dealers, or they can go to theatre premieres. They won't do both. The Vast Majority of modern media have beats. A person can be a sports caster and then he will go to sports events to report them. They can be a jetset reporter or restaurant reviewer and go to swanky places. They can be a cultural reporter and be invited to premieres and shows. They can be a dedicated business journalist, reporting on IT, or cardboard logistics, or whatever, and go to conferences around the world. But they will rarely be all these things at once.

How wide this beat is, depends heavily on the 'range' of the medium. Big news rooms, like NYTimes, have a lot of journalists, and some very, Very specialised ones. This is deep dive, spend weeks trailing every leak out of the White House stuff. In contrast, a small regional tv station can have their reporter (with or without a camera man and sound tech) drive around the countryside reporting on pumpkin carving festivals one day, and grisly murder the next.

A lot also depends on the medium. If the character works for a newspaper, they will have a noon to eight shift as a writer, and a two to ten shift, most likely, as an editor, because papers need to get printed overnight. If it's a weekly or a monthly print mag, there will be a few days with relative freedom to do interviews and such, and then a few days of crunch time. If they work for a news website they will have a desk job and most likely work in shifts. TV and radio news people are the ones doing most of the running around to get quotes, but they are also on the tightest of schedules.

Speaking of schedules. Unless the character is a blogger, they won't finish an article and immediately rush it to the printer/publish it. Reputable news sources have, at the very least, a copy editor to check for mistakes and typos. Bigger newspapers and magazines and sites have a dedicated fact checker.

Very VERY few papers in the world have full time photographers on the payroll. If your character is a photographer, they will most likely be a freelancer and do corporate events or weddings on the side (sorry Peter Parker). What happens is, a medium will decide in advance which article or interview will require a picture, and book a photographer for that piece.

Any other pictures tend to come from news agencies. Think Reuters or Associated Press. These sort of agencies do use full time photographers, as well as freelancers who happen to visit an event. They'll take like two hundred picture and sell them to the agency, who distributes them to media all over the world.

Few media have the money for correspondents, so they'll pick only a handful. This means a foreign correspondent has a large area to cover. European news media tend to have one correspondent in the US, covering the Entire US, for instance. American media tend to have more moneys, but if your character is a respondent in, say India, expect them to trek along India a lot, because they're prob the only one in that vast country.

Having said that, coverage, especially war coverage, is super expensive. If they're sending a journo to a war zone, it will absolutely not be a rookie. They will have proven themselves capable, preferably speak the language and they'll be Very Prepared. Think local guides, vast networks of informants etc. A startling amount of war reporters and investigative journalists are also freelance. If they are trekking through a jungle and come across anything exciting, you bet they'll try to sell that story in several angles/versions to different media.

Have you considered:

Bread and Butter Freelancers: It's a gig economy my friends. Freelance writey people don't have a boss and usually work from home or from some coffee shop. If they are to be successful (enough to make a living), they'll still have a beat, and will actually have to be fairly good at this subject. Since these characters make their own shifts, they do have the ability to go out in the middle of the day to do superheroing or witchery or to investigate the disappearance of their best friend. Upsides: Freedom. Downsides: Usually very little money. Unstable hours, like one day nothing and then a week of 14 hour days. The crushing stress of looming deadlines ànd job insecurity.

Copywriters: The people that write the text on corporate websites, that fill mail order catalogues with entries for every picture, compose newsletters for various organisations, turn technical instructions into actually mildly readable user manuals. Upside: money. If they're good at it, they will have a fairly stable income. They have the same freedom as freelancers to go flirt with flower shop assistants. Downside: the crushing knowledge that with every piece you write, your soul sinks deeper into the void. Anyone who's ever read clientsfromhell will know what to expect of their clientele.

Lay-outers: The creative side of making media. The bros making the graphs, putting the text to paper,  photoshoping the head of Putin onto the body of a baby, whatever. Upside: artist character. This is a slightly more realistic character than the 'painter'. They're creative, but they have yet to sell their soul to the corporate machine (depending on the medium you put them in, of course). Downside: this is basically a desk job with stable hours.

Cameraman, sound technician: the people that hang out with the news reporter and trot all over the region with him/her. Upside: see the world! Without being instantly recognizable. Downside: they're probably stuck in their mission and they rarely have the power to go 'hey, let's investigate over there'.

 Software development

General tips

There's actually a few different environments for software engineers to work.

Start-ups: the hip one. Think Silicon Valley, the upstarts in sneakers and Star Wars t-shirts living on pizza and red bull and basically coding 20 hours a day. Depending on where they are in the growth of their start-up, these people will be nearly alone, or have a team of coworkers. Traditionally, start-ups start with like a founder (or four) and an idea, and some coding. As the company grows they'll hire a sales person to sell this stuff, a marketing manager to brand it, a support person to troubleshoot it, an HR person, etc.

A very Very VERY large part of start-up business is pitching, aka selling your premise to a bunch of venture capitalists and investors. It's Dragon's Den. Literally. Your super shy, autism spectrum character who hates public speaking and who can't even look at another person without blushing would make a super crappy start-up founder by themselves. They will definitely need their bubbly, motivational speaker best friend. On the other hand: this is an amazing environment for that suave, smooth talking character who could sell sand in the desert.

Second environment: corporate. The vast majority of software engineers out there just work for some big company. These are the people building and deploying management system software for banks, installing security in factories, that sort of thing. A lot of the time they're consultants. They wear a suit. They use something called the Waterfall method, which sucks out your soul, or the Agile method, which also sucks out your soul. There's a lot of managing and meeting and progress reports. If they're good enough, they're allowed to leave the tie at home.

Software needs to be tested. You don't just write the code last minute and put it live.

The coders are absolutely not the only people in a software development team. There's the project managers, the designers, the copywriters, the testers, the lawyers, oh god, the lawyers, etc.

Software Needs to be tested. It takes ages. I cannot stress this enough. It usually happens in India or some other Asian country where the wages are lower.

Will a lot of environments, even corporate, allow their creatives to come to work in like… jeans and a t-shirt, the only people realistically allowed to actually act like teenagers, in any environment (corporate, start-up, small business), are the ones with skills that are very hard to find. In essence: security experts and specifically white hat hackers. Yes, you're allowed to have a hacker character that acts dumb and comes to work in his pyjamas and it will be realistic that he does not get fired. Your clerk character that's super rude and deals in hurtful quips? Not so much.

SOFTWARE NEEDS TO BE TESTED

 Have you considered:

Researchers: you know those people that made a song that can give Alexa commands without the owner knowing? Those are university researchers. A lot of really cool stuff is being developed not by office workers, but at universities. This includes software. Upside: probably a looser environment, with a lot of young people. Downside: you're basically writing a college AU.

Venture capitalists: in a Silicon Valley environment, this is basically the 'wealthy businessman' stereotype of old. The dragons in the dragon's den, the people that traipse around the city talking to people and assessing the potential of their pitch, before throwing money at them (or not). There's a bunch of paperwork, but they probably have a small army of accountants to handle this.

Evangelists: the cool people that hold TED talks. They usually work for a big tech company, as a specialist, and part of their job is to be a spokesperson.  A good example of this is the tech researcher, who has a day job finding nasty hackers or viruses, and who also blogs about that and holds talks and presentations about securing your business. A character like this has the advantage of being a deep tech nerd hacker type. They're rarely the CEO, so they can go deep into the coding, while also travelling places and meeting crowds of press or business people.

Project managers: these don't tend to do the actual coding, but they do, well, the managing. Characters like this will be more social and creative, they're the ones making the reports and presenting their progress to the CEO, and they're the ones troubleshooting when stuff goes wrong. In general, there's a lot of planning involved.

 Bakeries/Catering

General tips

Mass production of food is gruelling. You think you're writing about your sexy pastry chef and how they're carefully, tip of their tongue peeking through their lips, putting a cherry on top of that little moeilleux, but in reality, there's two hundred more to finish on this rack alone and they need to be done in under an hour.

Say it with me, people: baking is a night job. Industrial baking, mom-and-pop rural French bakery, bagel shop, donuts. Someone is going to be making all that stuff before the first customer arrives and that someone is slaving in front of a hot oven at four in the morning.

Any type of catering is a time management business. You know this. You've all watched Great British Bake-off (or, like, Chopped or whatever). If your professional cake maker is only working on one project/wedding at a time, they're not going to be in business for long. Your line chef will be plating up several dishes per minute. Your short order cook is baking six pancakes and scrambling eggs at the exact same time.

Unless it's a very large kitchen, the people that cook are the same ones that clean. And since it's food prep, there is a lot of cleaning.

Have you considered:

Recipe writer: ok so we're kinda back to media but big tv chefs don't make all those recipes themselves. Someone, usually a freelancer, writes them and tests them. Imagine someone getting the request to develop a seasonal cronut recipe that involves peaches and charcoal, because it's hip, and then baking several batches until they find something edible. This is a somewhat realistic environment for your super creative baker to live in a small house and make some money while also working on a book on the side, and falling in love with the quirky … goat… herd… brewer, florist, whatever.

[altonadventures]

ALTON ADVENTURES BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

So...because its Friday and I usually update AA on Fridays, I figured it was time to make my big announcement! 

And that is...that Alton Adventures is changing. A little bit. 

Am I rebooted the comic again? No haha! Once I get back to it it shall continue as normal but some characters may look a bit different going forward. 

Who may those characters be?

Sir Gareth Nemesis 

Why is he changing? 

Sir Nemesis’ change is actually less drastic than one may think. For starters, he needed a design rehaul. I wanted his armor to be more simple, easier to draw but with still details that could tie him to Nemesis (the green eye, the arms, the light pink details instead of inconsistent tentacles). I also had an issue where his hair was too close to his skin color, so to combat this I turned him into a ginger! His eye color also changed from gold to green, another thing to visually tie him more to Nemesis. 

So yes, I changed Sir Nem’s design because I was unhappy with it. His armor was never drawn consistently ever, I was constantly changing the tone of his hair and his skin so that was inconsistent. I want my designs to be more consistent and polished going forward.

What else is different? Well, you can probably tell he looks much more serious, like in older pictures I drew of him. Why is that? Well, I was kind of..honestly tired of his role as the “dad character tm” that he kind of turned out to be. It almost undermined his true characterization and turned him into a typical over the top exaggerated hero character. And I started to realize how much I missed his original concept. A battle hardened solider that was filled with regret and remorse, who heavily sympathizes with the plight of the alien he’s locked in combat with. He’s still much a father however, as he has a biological son and adopts an alien who mimics his likeness (hence another reason he’s a ginger now as his Nemesis daughter always was one). He’s just returned to his roots as a character. Because I felt that characterization was a unique one for the Nemesis ride. And it was an idea I really loved. Sir Nemesis actually WAS one of my favorite characters...I wanted his role to be much larger than it is in the comics. I don’t blame anyone for him becoming a joke, I did initially kind of fuel the fire for it, I’m just hoping that its not to late to get back to the Sir Nemesis I originally wanted to write. And of course, all my characters are still meme and joke worthy. I just want to tackle much more serious issues with my comic and show the more serious side of some of my characters and don’t want there entire existence to be a joke Mr.S can’t have too many folks 1 uping him in the laughs department!�� I guess to note with this change that his original voice claim has also been solidified as well. It’s a more somber and serious tone that I feel fits him as a character. 

Final Notes 

Sir Nemesis is a character that I have a lot of thought put into. His backstory is tragic, emotional, and his character is complex and he’s not the perfect hero people might image him as. I plan for his Arc to follow the Fireworks arc in the comic, as well as I am planning to start some more text heavy short stories about how the Secret Weapons became Secret Weapons (which I will likely call Secret Weapon Short Stories hehe) and will be writing his first. Also a very important thing i must address. Yes, the eye on his chest moves. (I have a gif but it doesn’t want to work on this post Ill have it up later ><)

Erica Annabelle Cloud 

ooof okay this is a huge one. Confession time. Erica was always my least favorite character. Why? She just had...no character. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with her, her design felt phoned in and there because I needed an Air/Galatica character, (yes, she is changing as her Galatica stage too). She was just. not well thought out. She had a dual identity but I think a lot of people didn’t pick up on that? She felt like a Rita 2.0 as just a nice and friendly optimistic person and literally had 0 backstory. Originally she was supposed to have had some sort of accident that turned her into Galatica and she had memory loss and forgotten about when she was Air, yeah it was a mess. That eventually just turned into Nebula Corona being a character she made up (bc her one trait was that she was into space and wrote a lot) that she played as when her rides themeing changed. 

She was just..barely a character and her design was abysmal (Her Galatica suit was okay but her Air outfit was an afterthought) She needed a massive visual upgrade. A sleeker flight suit that makes more sense (I used a ref or two for this design!) A different face shape to help her stand out more, my signature they wear glasses they have dot eyes look. Long, wispy, flowing hair to resemble those trails planes make. A bit more lanky and tall. And let me tell you I LOVE her design now. It looks so much more unique and you can just SEE she has so much more character now!  As for her characterization im going full into her being a nerd. A very tech nerd at that! She designed her suit to help her fly at her best, and eventually will be the one that designs and builds all her Galatica tech! Her Galatica design hasn’t been done yet, mostly bc I wanted to focus on her current comic canon design, but not much would change I feel with her upgrade anyways! She is effectively the brains of the group, and the others often turn to her for plans of attack when dealing with a situation, or innovative solutions to problems! I have yet to get a voice claim for her, but im sure one will come to me soon enough! 

Final Notes

Erica/Nebula was a character I struggled to connect with. Everyone else had Airs that were either super plot important, or just much more cool and creative in general. I felt, that with my Air/Galatica she was just there, and I wanted her to be more. So a full character rehaul was done with her and it makes me so happy. She feels much more fleshed out, better designed, and I’m super excited to do more stuff with her, and hopefully you will all see her much more now that I’m a lot happier with her as a character! <3 

Welp that's the end of the updates....wait. Hold on. I have something written here. What could this be? Oh! I remember now! 

Black Hole, AkA Beatrix, will be joining the MAIN CAST of Alton Adventures! 

When I drew my Black Hole design, I knew she was something special. She stands out compared to a lot of my characters, and her design SCREAMS main character. While the biggest main roles will still be held by Mr. S and Rita, I wanted to add another non SW coaster to the main crew, and because Canonically Corkscrew is MIA, Black Hole seemed like a fitting addition to the main crew! As she isn’t human, a species literally only referred to as Black Holes, I thought making her a main character and giving her a big arc would help flesh out the reality of non humans in Alton Adventures! Her powers and design and character and personality are just too fun to shove her into the background. I feel that adding her to the main cast gives them not only another character to support them, but a closer friend! You will all see her much more in the future for certain! 

Well that's about it! In terms of comic updates themselves...its still going to be hiatus as long as I’m being swamped with school work. I hope you all understand. I’ll try to squeeze in updates over the breaks I have IF im not working on assignments for class. As I also said, I wanna do short stories as well, to expand the world and explain it better, as a comic will only develop the world so quickly and lots of you have tons of questions! I also wanna do something animated at some point, that’s my dream. I’ve ALSO mentioned to some people about merch, likely going for making stickers first since that's simple. I got an excited reaction for that so I’ll come up with designs for them soon! I just wanna do a lot with Alton Adventures, because I know how much it means to people, and of course it means so much. Goodness I really need to actually get to this park, I look quiet silly constantly gushing over a themepark I’ve never been to all the time XP  That all aside I thank you all for sticking by me. I promise that even if I don’t do comic updates as frequently during the school year, I’ll still work to push out as much AA content I can outside of that! I’m always open to suggestions to what you guys want to see! ALSO, working on a big google doc spreadsheet with info on all the characters I’ll be posting when its more completed! So be on the lookout for that! 

Again thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me through this, Your support makes me feel nothing but proud of what I’ve created. These characters may have been created out of something some may consider silly or odd, but the only thing that matters to me if that I can make at least someone happy with what I create. 

Patreon (note that patrons got to see all of this content as it was being worked on!) l Ko-fi

[heroicisms]

iNTROS PART 3 I’M SO TIRED LET’S GO

BANG HAEJIN

saturn’s headmaster’s daughter yEET

she wanted to be a hero, but her dad told her when she was very young that she wouldn’t make it, so she just studied until she figured out what she wanted to be, and she decided that she still wanted to help heroes and asked her dad to let her work as an assistant of sorts in the school

she has the ability to detect emotions, but it can sometimes be difficult to tell whose emotion is whose in a large crowd

some of their emotions can fuel into hers a tiny bit so if there are too many people with strong emotions she can get overwhelmed and has to be alone for a bit

she and her father have a ?? strange relationship ?? like sometimes he treats her like another staff member but other times he’s her daughter and other times she’s someone who can be trusted with any secret whatsoever and she just wishes he’d make up his mind

she doesn’t teach a class, but she just sorta assists with things, like setting up hero training or helping students study or performing first aid and the like

she’s just a helpful person all-round tbh and she’s an easy person to talk to bc she can understand how you’re feeling without you having to put it into words

ALEXANDER MIN aka SHOCK

basically zane lbr

he can emit electricity bUT he can’t really control where it goes by himself so he needs some tech items to help him direct it and all that fun stuff

he works for the league of villains, or a sort of subsection of it bc that’s the life he was born into since his mother was already part of it before he was born

the jobs he ends up going on are mostly to intercept signals and the like, especially since while he’s competent in combat, he tends to destroy quite a few things around him when he partakes in it, so things just end up getting messy

he’ll get a redemption arc bc of course he will

not that he needs tHAT much redeeming he just ?? does what he’s told and likes playing pranks on the other league members when he can so

his mum disappears for days, weeks at a time so he knows how to look after himself and people are always surprised at how independent he can be bc he often acts so childish

he likes to go out in casual wear and pretend he’s normal sometimes rip

DOMINIC FIELDING aka RED LIGHT

ya boi has paralysis inducement which basically just means he can stop people from moving temporarily. it only works on living things tho

he always wanted to be a hero but bc of his colder demeanour people just sorta assumed he’d end up some sort of criminal or even a villain ?? which just influenced him to work harder

the entrance exam was kinda difficult bc his quirk wouldn’t work on the droids and shit but he managed to beat quite a few with just his hand to hand combat skills, which made him one to watch

he was the type of student who was all “why do i need to know this, it’s not relevant to me, anyway” but was super studious on the subjects he DID consider relevant, so the teachers were just “????????”

he’s an underground hero, which means no one really knows the name ‘red light’, he does things under the cover of darkness, his hero persona a secret, but he’s still a legal hero

people were surprised when he became a teacher bc Mr Cold & ‘Everything is Unnecessary’ teaching kids ?? and wanting to deal with them at all ?? what ?? and then he ended up being super effective in his own weird af way so ??

he is 110% the class dad don’t mess with his kids bitch

i’m still debating on whether he should be the main teacher of the 18 year olds or the 19 year olds gimme ur opinion

NAM SUNHWA aka LUX

ya girl has solar manipulation so she can manipulate the sun, but there actually has to be sunlight around her, so she isn’t that effective inside or at night

she became a hero bc it just ?? sounded like a good time tbh and her parents weren’t the bEST tbh they just sorta ignored her and assumed that she would become a deadbeat like them, so she decided she’d become something flashy to prove them wrong and tHUS SHE BECAME A HERO

she had a falling out with her parents midway into studying in saturn and hasn’t spoken to them since idk where she stayed during that time but ?? i’ll figure something out

she’s a partier and loves going out at night, even though that’s when she’s weakest, but she knows hand to hand, so she figures she’ll be okay

she’s also a very social person and has a lot of connections, plus she’s also made a name for herself in the fashion world, and a lot of her hero merch is designed by her

that being said tho she can be super self-absorbed and sometimes she just needs someone to pull her head out of her ass

tHRIVES in front of cameras

she’d be the worst teacher in terms of actual hero training but she’s good when it comes to advice about being in front of the camera and beauty tips and all that fun stuff

MENG DAIYU

while technically a civilian, they’re surrounded by villains 24/7, it’s just that they’re like cullen and are a captive rather than someone who willingly works for them

they can read minds but can’t control it, so when they’re out in a crowd the thoughts can become super overwhelming hence one of the reasons the villains keep them in isolation most of the time. the other reason is that no one wants them to read their mind

they were abandoned as a kid when their quirk first manifested and they accidentally revealed to their mother that their father was cheating, and continued spouting out truths about one to the other. in denial, the parents abandoned them rather than owning up to their own issues

that’s when they were found, pROBS by the same association as cullen but if u guys have any other ideas come @ me

their job is basically to be an assistant, and most of the time, that’s what they are, but when they’re having a conversation with someone untrustworthy, daiyu must stand there and look all assistant-y while reading their mind

they don’t speak a lot, and they especially don’t like revealing discord between the members since they were punished for doing so when they were very little

they’re in isolation, but they’re not without stuff to do, and their constant thought is just ‘it could be worse’ and that’s what gets them throughout the day

someone save them pls

LYSANDER MARS aka DASHER

he has super speed which is an oldie but goldie

his entire family comes from a long line of heroes, so it was inevitable that he would be one too, but he doesn’t mind. his only issue is that he wants to make a name for himself in his own way rather than depending on his surname

he can be a bit off-putting in interviews and it’s very easy to see when someone’s pissed him off bc it’s so obvious like if this were an anime you’d be able to see the vein popping out of his head

he hates getting asked about his family all the time. like he loves them and they love him but sometimes he wants to talk about himself, not how great his parents are, or about the pressures of living up to them

he’s that one friend who seems to live close to the downtown area so everyone just ends up crashing on his couch in the middle of the night and he’s just “why me i need to move”

tbh he’s not that social and yet ?? he probs has a bunch of friends ?? he’s just “i don’t have friends” and then like 5 people at once walk past and just “hey dasher wassup”

he’s known to be at multiple fights at once because of his super speed, but it drains him a lot more quickly

SON CHIWON aka THE DREAMER

he has illusion magic though it’s mostly just limited to sight, but he’s working on the rest of the senses while he’s at saturn

he’s the type of person who wants to please everyone, and so when he was a kid people would be like “hey chi !! can you create this !! hey chi !! can you do this ??” and he’d do it but it tired him out so easily

he’s still like that tho rip

he wants to become a hero bc he wants to help people for a living, and he thinks he has what it takes to be a good hero, especially after passing the entrance exam

other people sometimes doubt him tho bc he’s so soft and sensitive and just wants everyone to be happy so they underestimate him a lot, and while he’s not the bEST in his grade, he’s definitely on his way to being a great hero

his parents are super supportive and also soft like they don’t want him to get hurt but they’re also so proud of him

tries to include people in everything

when he’s sUPER emotional his illusions can act up without him realising, but he apologises profusely whenever it happens and there are people around

he calls himself ‘the dreamer’ bc he likes to use his powers to make people’s dreams come true, even if it’s just for a little bit, though also because people think he’s super spacey and wrapped up in his own little world, which isn’t wrong tbh

SAKAI RAIDEN aka BLACK CAT

feline physiology, but he’s the same as baram, so he can’t actually change inTO a cat, he just has the senses of one

he a flirt

he has 2 mums but he’s biologically theirs

tbh at first he decided to become a hero for the hell of it, bc he thought he had the ability and bc it’s a respectable profession, but he ended up really loving the look on people’s faces when he saved them while he was interning and he wants to see that more often

he acts like a cat all the time tbh, like he’ll sleep in people’s laps and purr when someone scratches behind his ears and he naps in the middle of the day sometimes, he’s the resident house cat

u can also distract him with a laser pointer tho

even tho he’s a flirt he’s a soft flirt bc a lot of the time he just wants to cuddle a bit and he just thinks it’s better when there are kisses involved

he’s a bit of a night owl cat and when he becomes a full hero he wants to work mostly at night

he’s not the class’s number 1 or anything but he doesn’t really wanna be ?? he prefers to go at his own pace bc he knows that’s better for him, and he doesn’t really have any interest in trying to beat people who are aiming to be in the same profession bc what’s the point of competing when all he wants to be is a hero ?? not necessarily number 1 or anything, just someone who helps people

[dalanmendonca]

Belief Inversions - VII

Early twenties are the best time to start a company

This is another area where there's more than one way to skin a cat. You can start-up in your teens when cost of failure is super low but you're coming with zero world/industry understanding and going to learn a lot of things the hard way. It's not only going to be hard on you but also hard everyone who works with you, because lets face it - you're a noob. A squidgy rock not a polished diamond. On other hand, you can start-up later with the benefit of experience, industry connections, and a refined understanding of how the world works. The problem is that anyone successful with good connections, etc. will become risk-averse and be weary of starting up. Also, to be noted is the startling fact that the average age when entrepreneurs started their firm was 42, not 24! Another example where the fetishization of youth dominates the narrative. 42 seems like the place where you've had a decent career, had kids and then are going out to start something. To each his own.

Mumbai University normies who just do a blanket MS and run to the USA are dumb and unpatriotic

I've had about a 3rd of my 12th standard classmates go abroad (primarily to the US) for studies. A lot of these weren't the brilliant ones in class who got top ranks in IIT, making obvious candidates for advanced master's degrees. They were people who went Mumbai University's okayish engineering colleges. Most of them didn't crack top tier masters programs either. They went to okay-ish tier 2 (at best) programs, and it was clear that they just wanted to go abroad (or their family wanted to send them abroad). Funnily a lot of them already came from quite well-off backgrounds. My reaction on observing this was "Eww, you could barely understand high school physics. Why the hell are you doing a masters in X for?". I considered them dumb, wannabe, undeserving, and a tad unpatriotic.

This was ~10 years ago, and my opinions have changed. I still consider a lot of them of dumb and undeserving. Not individually underserving, but on the whole there would be several students far smarter and better suited to these degrees than the people who wanted a visa. It takes a lot more courage for someone from a non-privileged background to make the leap to go abroad without a support system. However, I think their decision was overall the rational one and in hindsight the obvious thing to do if you want give yourself/your kids a better life. It was also a better decision for them. Without great tags providing them tailwinds, their lives would've been harder in India. India has way more cut-throat competition for everything. Vote with your feet and get the fuck out. Nationalism is fool's gold and a modern invention, take care of your family and if you can, some more. That is all.

Side-note: In an irony of fate, most of these folks went into tech sector job, the same sector India in which has moved eons in the last decade. Yes we have a long way to go but if you're a brilliant entrepreneur, a great engineer, a charismatic product manager - the iron for you is hot and only going to get hotter. Suddenly it's more high status AND high paying to be an early employee at Flipkart than it is be Employee #5402 at a random firm abroad. India is just 5-10 years away from reaching the point where staying back in India will be a very serious but not necessarily obvious option on the table. Becoming the obvious option will take 20.

Life's Do’s

You have obligations towards parents/family/x

This is largely true because I imagine most people have normal parents. I can't say because I haven't had normal parents and they don't engender any feelings of love or affection in me (despite their attempts to!). Even within the family, as a spouse, a parent, as a sibling; love has to be nurtured, respect has to be earned. No one is entitled to shit. If you are a toxic human being who hurts everybody, nobody is obligated to be nice to because they're your family. They're people too and want to lead happy lives. Following along, you don't have the obligation to suffer a horrible relationship out of some mythical family obligations. Of course, you should try your best, but sometimes it's best to let go and move on.

I’m supposed to be consistent / upright / disciplined / caring / giving a shit

Nope. The universe exerts no pressure on you whatsoever. There is a lot of peer pressure though. And some pressure from culture and society, which is peer pressure but from your grandfathers' peers. Being consistent, upright, disciplined, etc. are great things in and of themselves but they're applicable in the same way to everybody. The world benefits as much from the genius inconsistency of an artist as it does from the predictable consistency of a bureaucrat. Not everyone can wake up at 6 AM or focus for more than 2 hours or read books. And not everyone can do a handstand, run a marathon, and cook a swell meal either. Yet everyone's held to a common ideal.

[softspideys]

Tech Support (Peter Parker x reader)

summary: when your computer crashes at four a.m., there’s only one person who can save you: the IT guy

warnings: none

prompt: “my computer crashed and you’re the student worker at the IT center” from this prompt list 

pairings: peter parker x reader

words: 1.8k

a/n: you KNOW peter would be the cutest IT guy at his college

You pressed your phone to your ear with shaking hands, listening to it ring and willing for someone, anyone to answer.

“Tech Support, how can I help you?” a pleasant male voice said. You almost burst into tears at the sound of it.

“Hi, I was just calling to see if you guys were still open.”

“Yes, we’re open 24/7,” the boy said. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Um—” You glanced at your laptop, which had been working just fine until about three minutes ago. “My laptop. It, um, it just . . . stopped working. Crashed, I think? The screen just went . . .  black.”

“Hmm,” the boy said. “Did you try charging it?”

“Yes, and it was on 100% when it died anyway.”

“And you tried turning it off and on?”

“Yes,” you said impatiently. Honestly, what was the point of these IT people if they weren’t going to give you any helpful advice?

“Hmm,” the boy said again, and it only infuriated you even more. “That’s odd. I’m not sure how much help I can provide to you over the phone, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“It sounds like we’re gonna have to take a look at and see what we can do. Can you bring it over in the morning?”

“In the morning?” you repeated faintly. “But — but I need it fixed now!”

“I understand,” the boy said, “but we —”

“Please,” you cut him off. “I know you probably hear that all the time but I really, really need it fixed. This is like, a Code Red emergency, okay, please. Please.” You were practically on the verge of tears, which would be more embarrassing if you weren’t going through your current crisis.

There was a long pause, and just as you were about to hang up and jump out of the dorm window, the boy finally said, “Can you bring it to the IT Center? First floor of the library?”

“Right now?” You couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah. You need it fixed, don’t you?”

“Yes,” you said quickly. “Yes, yeah, yes, I can definitely do that. Um, I’ll be there in a few minutes. Thank you so much.”

You hung up and quickly put on your shoes and a jacket, shoving your laptop into your backpack and exiting the study lounge in your dorm, where you’d been working on an essay for the past five hours. You went into the library and headed to the student-run IT Desk. You’d never been there, but it was easy to find, considering the boy sitting there was the only other person in the library.

He had his back to you, watching what appeared to be Star Trek on his laptop. An extra-large coffee sat beside him. You cleared your throat and he turned around.

Your heart almost stopped. This wasn’t the stereotypical geeky, bespectacled, IT nerd you saw on TV. This boy was cute. He looked to be your age, with curly dark hair and pretty brown eyes. And of course he had to be the one to witness your breakdown via phone. Of course.

“Oh, hey,” he said, pausing the show. “Are you the girl who just called?”

You nodded. “Yes, I am.”

“Cool. Got your laptop?”

“Yeah.” You pulled it out of your backpack and handed it to him.

“Awesome. Let’s see what we got,” he said, his voice weirdly upbeat considering it was the middle of the night. He opened it and began to punch the keys, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration.

You didn’t want to watch him, so you glanced around the library. “Is it just you here?” you asked awkwardly.

“Yup,” the boy said, not looking up from your screen.

“What do you do when more than one person needs help?”

“We just do phone help at this time of night,” he explained. “If it’s something that can’t be fixed over the phone, then we just have them bring it in the morning.”

“But . . . why’d you let me come in now?” Not that you were complaining. You were just confused.

“You said it was a Code Red,” he answered with a shrug, like it was that simple.

“Oh. Well, yeah, I guess it is.”

“Can I ask what kind of Code Red situation happens at four in the morning? Also, why are you awake at four in the morning?”

“Uh, well . . . I was typing an essay that’s due at eight and I was ten pages in when my computer just . . . crashed. And it’s such a huge part of my grade and I worked so hard on it and if I get a zero I could fail the class and then it could lower my GPA and I could lose my scholarship —” You paused, suddenly aware of your rambling and how close to crying you were again. “I just really need it fixed.”

The boy had stopped typing and was looking at you sympathetically. “I get it,” he said. “I’ll fix it, don’t worry.”

“Thank you,” you said gratefully.

“What’s your name, by the way?”

“Y/N.”

“Cool. I’m Peter.”

“Hi, Peter.” And now your hero had a name. “So, uh, how’d you get stuck with the graveyard shift? Did you guys draw straws or something?”

He laughed. “No. The new guy always gets stuck with the late shifts. It’s fine, though. I got my Dunkin, got my Star Trek, and there’s only been one call so far.” He grinned at you and you blushed.

“Have you always been good with computers?” you asked. You were afraid that you’d be disrupting his work with your constant questioning, something you tended to do when you were nervous, but he didn’t seem bothered.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said. “I used to like building ‘em when I was in high school.”

“Building them?” you said incredulously. “Holy shit, you must be some type of super genius.”

Now it was his turn to blush. “God, no. Definitely not. I just like messing with them, and I’m majoring in Computer Science here anyway, so I figured why not get a job that will let me mess with other people’s computers and help them out?”

“Well, I’m really glad you did,” you said sincerely. “You’re seriously like my hero right now.”

He smiled shyly, lifting his eyes from your screen to look at you. “It’s what I’m here for.”

The two of you fell silent as he continued to work and you had a small but heated internal battle with yourself. He was cute, really cute. And friendly. And he was helping you in person rather than over the phone or having you bring it in the morning. But maybe this was just good customer service. You forced yourself to snap out of it.

You were startled from your thoughts when your computer screen lit up and turned on. “Oh my God,” you said in awe. “You did it.”

“Almost,” Peter said. “Let’s see if we can get your essay back.” You felt your stomach drop as he clicked around. If you couldn’t recover your paper, then the laptop might as well just stay dead. There was no point.

Several agonizing minutes went by before Peter grinned and said, “Aha! I got it.”

“You — you did?” you asked faintly, your heart hammering against your chest.

“Uh-huh. I mean, did you have ten pages written when it crashed?” You nodded, and he said triumphantly, “Then yeah, I got it. It’s all here. You won’t get a zero.”

You watched wordlessly as he saved your essay multiple times (“Just to be safe,”) before closing your laptop and sliding it over to you. “There you go,” he said cheerfully.

“I — I can’t believe you did that,” you said. The feeling of relief that was washing over you currently was indescribable. Your essay was safe, and so was your grade, all because of this boy.

He smiled and shrugged. “It’s nothing, really. Just doin’ my job.”

“Oh my God,” you said again. “I — thank you. Thank you so much. What do I owe you?” You were ready to give him a million dollars if that’s what he asked for.

But he shook his head. “Nothing. It’s free.”

“Come on —”

“No, I’m serious! It’s free for everyone, not just ‘cause I like you,” he said, and your stomach jumped at the word like.

“There has to be something I can do for you,” you wheedled. “You saved my life tonight, dude. Seriously.”

Peter pretended to think. “Well, you could go out on a date with me.”  His confidence wavered a little as he looked at you. “I mean, if you want.” 

You laughed. “Of course I want to go on a date with you.” 

“Oh. Well, uh, in that case, can I have your number?” he asked. You nodded, and he typed it into his phone before sending you a text so you’d have his too.

“I guess I’d better go finish my paper and find a printer,” you said with a sigh. You really didn’t want to leave, but this stupid essay was your top priority.

“Oh,” Peter seemed crestfallen, but tried to save face. “Okay. Well, I’ll text you.”

You nodded and turned to walk away, but something in your stomach was telling you not to. Things like this didn’t happen that often to you. It was now or never. You bit your lip before you faced him again. “You know,” you said casually. “It’s actually a lot quieter here. Makes it much easier to concentrate.”

Peter looked at you for a second before a slow smile grew on his face. “You can print for free here too,” he added.

“True,” you said. “Plus I kinda like the guy behind the IT desk.”

He laughed. “That’s funny, because I kinda like the girl who crashed her laptop at four in the morning.”

You grinned and came around to the other side of the desk, sitting in the empty chair next to him. Peter resumed his Star Trek as you went back to your essay. Even after you’d finished it and printed it out, the two of you stayed there, sharing his headphones and watching Netflix. 

As you accepted the munchkin he offered you, you reflected on how crazy the night had been. You never thought you’d ever be grateful to have your stupid computer crash.

[stone-man-warrior]

December 19, 2020: 1:26 pm:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Great_Britain

King George I of Great Britain

King George I Rock Star of Great Britain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Music

George liked music, so, he ordered Sunday Concerts performed from boats on the River Themes, it was 1717, July.

Joules on the Water.

Enormous Power, there were no iPhones in 1717, Water Music was a display of enormous power at the time. People came from all over the region to see the musician and hear the music played on an armada of floating orchestra stages. The people floated their own boats, and made picnic on the shore line along the Themes River.

It’s been said that musicians were scarce at the time, however, it’s also recorded history that many people learned to play a musical instrument in those days. A violin was the equivalent of a Game Boy back then, all the kids wanted one.

There have been a lot of musical instrument pieces parts dredged up from the bottom of the Themes River since 1717. Some of the History of Music Books report that when the musicians were not skilled enough to play the music while floating on a boat without making mistakes, they were tossed overboard into the water along with their instruments by King George’s Guards.

I suppose that could be another reason to go to the Water Music show in a boat or at a picnic, the entertainment was full service.

The composer of the selected works is Handel.

Thunderbird’s Episode 3: “Perils of Penelope”

Fast Forward to the end of Perils of Penelope to better understand the beginning.

They are still finding musical instrument parts in and around the Themes River to this day.

Gordon gets all upset that he has to listen to “cheap sea music”.

It’s a violin serenade at a Paris Bistro.

(Penelope had said something about a glass that exploded near her lips the last time she was there at the Paris Bistro. So. time warp over to the previous episode to see how Virgil used explosive charges to blow those other lips off of the Pit of Peril, so they could drag the LBJ Cockroach out of the Oxditch. It’s all symbolic, would take a lot of effort to spell out, so, you do that on your own, I’ll just point some things out that seem important to me, and I leave out the obvious, so, I usually show abstract connections to the current terror we are experiencing now. Besides, I still have glass dust in my eyes from physical attack here at my house the other day and have poor vision at the moment, it’s difficult to see what I am doing. Try to see that the Thunderbird’s Episodes are about global advance of highest level terror, while are actually disguised with sexual innuendo, presented in a children puppet show in the middle of the 1960′s, filmed in “Supermariovision”, or, “Marionette Vision from Above”. Did you get a load of that 1965 Sony Game Boy that have in this episode in Father’s Office? I often say that the tech we have available to us commercially has a delay on it’s presentation at the stores. These Thunderbird’s episodes support that, when you start to see 1965 Game Boy right there. How far does the commercial technology delay really go? I have implanted microphone transmitter inside my jaw that has been broadcasting every word I have said since it was put there in 2011 at a dentist visit without my knowledge or consent... secret spy implant inside my body. The battery is still working and it has a range of about 500 feet as far as I can tell. But no one will believe it even though there is Blue-Tooth devises everywhere, and all of the smoke detectors that were made in 2001 have batteries that last ten years, some of them are still working, twenty years later, with the same battery they came with from the store.)

Now go back to the begging of the Perils of Penelope. See that the whole thing started because some Special Rocket Fuel was used to launch a rocket, and there is talk that the Rocket Fuel could harm the Oceans of the world, and subsequent talk about harm to people because of what could happen to the water.

That was a Violin Serenade Gordon was upset about having to listen to, in Paris. Pair ass... there was talk of lips at the time... and of a chalice that exploded... the International Rescue Team looked cautiously at distant fireworks saying “ooohhh... aahhhhhh”. Is very subtle, disguised in sexual innuendo on a kids show, is really about staying distant from fireworks when holstering nitrous oxide gas.

The episode features a tunnel. A suspended Monorail style Disney Train. There are some Ventilation vents in the tunnel. There are some power controls in the tunnel where the Disney Train (Happiest Place on Earth) is rolling through.

There is a mysterious “Crest” that changes everything about the direction that the plot of Perils of Penelope started out with. The Crest serves as diversion, away from ideas that could make people continue being concerned with Special Rocket Fuel that could harm the Oceans and Humanity.

I did not see any wild geese. I looked for them.

The story started with a big rocket, it ended with small rockets exploding at a violin serenade. There was a modern train and a tunnel in between those two events, a chase for a crest, some foggy coughing gas happened at the crest chase at a library of old knowledge where no one has been reading about the knowledge contained there for a long, long time. There was a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride with Parker through a lot of curvy roads.

I think there is still a good guy that wants to stop the train laying out in some wilderness near a gate by the roadside... I don’t recall seeing International Rescue go try to find the guy that was tossed from the train... maybe I missed that part.

I’ll draw a conclusion here, a brief one: The Makers of the Thunderbird’s episodes in 1965 were reaching many, potentially millions of terror soldiers with a puppet show. In the stories are messages that are directed to top leading government officials, there are messages directed to Church leaders in communities. There are messages that are directed to children who attend church, possibly their parents also. There are messages that are designed to make set-up to trap victims who are not church members with false-front built into the episodes.

The Church leaders train the church members based on what the high government plans are, such as to get Lyndon B. Johnson elected a second time. The episodes tell of development of a plan to attack regional areas, the church members are the terror army. They have commanders at Church, who have commanders at government, who have commanders at the place where the puppet show came from.

In 1965 the plans were still a sketch on a drawing board for the regional attacking, and the advance of key operatives in the government positions were fully underway, while the church’s had been manned and ready to take orders far ahead of these Thunderbird’s episodes were presented, all staffed, training facilities in place, covertly, able to expand as necessary through normal and customary Crusade work as has been done for hundreds of years.

This episode seems to further support and advise of a plan to use nitrous gas, while advising of danger around flame and spark, and has emphasis on diversion tactics to draw attention away from the subject with use of planted clues left laying around for investigators to trip over near the curves, all of which lead them astray.

Why did Father pull young Gordon out of the Submarine to do spy work in Paris?

3:20 pm?

===============

Consider the following:

The puppets and the machinery, sets, details... all of the visual characteristics of the Thunderbird’s presentations are absolutely amazing to look at. Once you get past the creepy sort of vibe they have, it all is very entertaining and is also like brain food... makes me think. There is nothing stupid about these episodes.

So, with that, see that the engineering is such that it makes you think, sparks creativity, is something that is like the Big Fog Horn in the Sky that could direct young people into hobby and career choices later on.

See that all of the pilots are Tracy’s.

Trey C

“Trinity of the Holy See”

See that Tin-Tin is different, Brains is different, and even Parker is somehow different than the Tracy’s are.

The Tracy’s cannot do Jack.... without Brains.

Brains, is depicted as a geek, he stutters, is not cool. He is super smart, but kids watching the show probably don’t want to be like Brains, they want to be more like Virgil. But Virgil cannot do Jack... without Brains to tell him what POD to put onto the Mother Ship, Thunderbird 2, after the scout, Thunderbird 1 goes to make assessments in all of the episodes.

I suggest that Brains is a kidnapped engineer, and Tin-Tin is also a prisoner, special service slave, and all of that is built in to the episodes for the messaging to the various leaders in real life, who are shown what the future plans are. to have other people spend half of their lives in schools learning about engineering, kidnap them, and use them to advance the terror from captivity of The Tracy’s (Trinity See’s).

Parker is there in the episodes to show that terror operatives have a place when they grow older, are not able to do the physical attack duties, are given light duty work, is nice, cushy, easy to do spy work. I already know that to be true, now I see that Parker was put there to show Terror Operative Social Security Retirement System is present in the master plan. I can see that in practice clearly any day of the week while grocery shopping. Parker’s are all over the place doing light duty scouting work at the stores, and driving around looking for outsiders on the roads and at the stores.

The Tracy’s cannot do Jack... without Brains. Look at Boeing Seattle to find real life examples of engineers held in captivity as slaves who design aircraft and military equipment. The Brains of the terror is a slave engineer, all kinds of engineers.

I am such a slave engineer, sort of, I escaped. I did graphic design work, all kinds of drawings, some of my work is on the Boeing airplanes that the aerospace engineers were forced to work on. Now I am captive with different kind of captivity. So much pressure when I go outside, or to get some food, that is the captivity, someone shoots or swings a sword when I go outside. There are no other reasons why I cannot go outdoors, only because of the terror soldiers surrounding my home. no one will help, it’s all fucked up... been more than ten years since I had meaningful conversation with another human being.

In reality here in Oregon, they need the scouts to keep from being detected, and to search for potential victims. The scouts make contact to others who are equipped for learning about who the outsiders are.

3:41 pm

======

I am starting to see that Mike Pomeo is a lot like Thunderbird’s HQ at Volcano Island, in mysterious ways.

I am thinking that the Thunderbird’s episodes serve as fuel for communication far after their initial presentation.

One small way to possibly make a connection in association to the LBJ Cockroach (is part elephant after careful consideration, LBJ Elephroach or Cockaphant) is that good guy who wants to stop the train, is still there by the gate on the curvy road side. That gate, could possibly be the source of the origin of the use of Watergate Hotel, when Richard Nixon was getting in the way and communication began about what the Tracy’s plan to get back on track might be.

Just refer back to Perils of Penelope from about ten years before Watergate happened. The gate is where the good guy tripped over a rock, at a gate, near some curves.

The plan: Use some curvy women, at a hotel, to foul up Richard.

18 minutes of silence is why he resigned.

There are no real other reasons, just some silence. The silence is also most likely fake silence.

It’s small, but could be a volcano of information to consider the gate, the rock, the guy on the ground near the curves is about taking Nixon out of office ten years later, and in retrospect to how he fouled the Tracy’s up when he was elected instead of their Oxroach, or whatever, LBJ, as they looked at the old episodes that all of the Tracy Trinity Warriors are very familiar with. I further suggest looking at that with a French Decoder Attachment to the Decoder Ring, w/prophylactics because if I am correct, it has French Fingerprint on it... the French way, is the smallest way... they don‘t use a missal to shoot down an airplane, they use a bee in the cockpit of the airplane, and that little piece of pork that comes in the Van De Camps Pork & Beans, that goes on the pilots uniform.... the bee is just turned loose in there. Works the same as the missal, makes less noise. So, some tiny little detail is what did the trick to take down Tricky Dick, who is more like Dick Tracy, private eye.

4:25 pm.

==================

Who were the players at the Hotel?

I remember Earlman (Earl of Canterbury, or some shit like that)

Haldeman (A Halter Top... why do you think they call those “Halter Tops”? Because they be used to stop a freight train)

Spirro Agnew was nearby... that can‘t be good. It huts just to say his name.

Little known Factoid: There is a big hotel called “The Watergate” in California, somewhere between Santa Monica and Huntington Beach. I forget where, but it’s very big.

The gate scene in Penelope’s Pit Stop of Peril:

A rock

a gate

curves

a car

the gate is closed, there is a road there.

Parker passed by

there was an injured man

Those will possibly be the ingredients to what happened at the Tricky Dick framing. Arrange them in various orders, see where it goes compared to what the actual record shows.

Seriously. The French Way. Small details, big results.

Let’s say there is a guy who has some military gear he can sell to you out the side door, he says:

“Look at this baby, big motherfucker, has six wheels, bends in the middle and goes Whhooosh!” ~quote from Hollywood movie

Penelope Pit Stop. (Google it)

===============

This is a mind blower here, but:

Let’s say that these guys at Tracy HQ are the hard core global terrorists that they appear to be when viewed with Cracker Jack Secret Decoder Ring, and, they really did think of everything many years in advance, the way it looks like they did, British Chess Player style.

The episode has a “Backfire” vibe to it.

So, the plan is to LBJ elected for a second time, for a two and a half terms in office duration, post JFK assassination, and is the reason Jacqueline shot John that day, so LBJ could take the Oval Office driver seat.

So, the back up plan in event of backfire is in the episode ahead of time contained in the gate scene where the French Conductor looks like a good guy, says he wants to stop the train. Ingredients all in place for a Watergate to happen no matter who was elected that year, if LBJ was not successful. That means the ingredients for the backup/backfire plan would have a lot generic characteristics, and limited personally tailored ones, and are in that episode somewhere, everywhere in there, I think. But of course the Russian Mother Hoax is all adjustable, so, once the election happened, LBJ not elected, then the Custom Tailoring could be done, depending on the particular candidate elected other than LBJ Cockephant in Cambodia, or where ever.

===

Small detail is that there is Corning-wear on the train. It’s out of place in a Thunderbird’s episode, but at the time, in 1965, everyone has Corning-Wear that looks exactly like the coffee maker and that other thing. It’s a Peculator, (for the younger field agents) not a drip kind.

Peculator ideas were presented on Twitter recently from major news networks. Twitter Verified Accounts read this Tumblr account closer than I do, they need to make sure they all come up with appropriate bullshit story in response to what I am exposing here.

Ronald Reagan Trickle Down Economics and it’s failure recent news are about the Corning-Wear on that Thunderbird’s train.

Perc. There is a test that is done for consideration of ground conditions when water or waste water needs to be measured for rate of Peculation back into the aquifer. That may be a clue as to why did Father bring Gordon out of the Submarine to do spy work in Paris?.

Corning-Wear on a 1965 Thunderbird’s Puppet Train is the same as Ronald Reagan Trickle Down Economics on network news Twitter Tweets, some 55 years after the fact. (see Enormous Power Shift Chart Reading from yesterday here at this account for coincidental 55 year cross-referencing considerations)

=========

Twitter is Volcano Island Tracy High Command HQ.

Same Function, just is backwards. like Lady Penelope’s car, is backwards, that is what she is for, is like 1965 Taylor Swift, fast ass for terror advance. Is not International Rescue HQ, is Global Domination Under the Cross HQ... just like I have been trying to say for many years.

Twitter resources are a lot like Tracy Volcano Island ones. They have master listening capability through Google, is like Thunderbird 5 satellite. They can use scouts from State Police or Community Churches, like Thunderbird 1. They have mother ship at the major movie studios that can deploy anything, anywhere, like Thunderbird 2 does. They have all kinds of below the surface characters to call on, Gordon‘s Fisherman are everywhere, Thunderbird 4.

I don’t know what Thunderbird 3 is for, have to watch more episodes to find out... but that one is number 3... can‘t be good. I don‘t think we can afford to wait to see what that one is for. Pompeo might be driving that one, from US State Department at Iranian Terror Party Pirate Rental Service HQ.

=====================

6:57 pm: Bonus:

If you grew up in 1960′s, 1970′s, then you were subject to the idea that if you are a small child, and are more than say 5 years old, but are not quite 6 years old, then, you must be 5 and one-half years old.

Same is true if you are 3, and not quite 4, then, you are 3 and one-half years old, even if your birthday is next month, still, 3 and one-half is how old you say you are.

So, now we go back to the Thunderbird’s episode 2, Pit of Peril, where the LBJ Cockroach machine fell into the fiery Oxditch.

They were said to have fallen 300 feet down the hole.

360 = one term in office

180 = one half term in office

360 + 360 = 720 = Two full four year terms.

720 + 180 = 900 the desired depth or length of official term time in office. Two and one half terms.

900 ÷ 3 = 300 = The depth of the place where LBJ fell, was spotted driving a cockroach in the Asian Jungles. Damage control deployed, with goal of Land Slide victory in 1968 election for Lyndon Johnson, but he did not run for office of president that year as far as I can see.

Richard Nixon won the 1968 election. He shut down the whole Vietnam War that had been going on since 11-1-1955, however, there is not much mention of that in online information, which says the war kept going until after he left office, stopped in 1975 according to Wikipedia, a 20 year war, without any apparent goals.

I see some LBJ finger prints on the math from the depth of the Pit of Peril in that Thunderbird’s episode. Some of the information available online does not support the same things I remember from the time period. It was a long time ago, I have a good memory, but it’s not very long.

There is something about the emphasis on the depth of that pit at 300 feet. If it’s not indicator of desired result of meddling in US elections by the British, then, I don‘t know what it is right now.

===

I remember that Nelson Mandela was in a prison somewhere, refused food for a long time. I remember that he died in the prison in the 1970′s, but that is not what the available online information says what happened to Nelson Mandela and the album called “Meet the Beatles” has changed in some places to “With the Beatles” and there are copies available to see with each title.

Printing is cheap. Digital information is cheaper.

Medical record keeping was Mandated to all go digital about 20 years ago, but that is a different story for a different day. Sometimes the only thing that stays the same is that things will change.

French North American Republic Territory is coming down the road like a Cockroach in Cambodia, no one is concerned about it. That is some big change, maybe no one will notice.

So far, nitrous oxide mixed with medazolam has been the preferred weapon, but I have a feeling Corona Virus could possibly end with a Violence Sarin-Aid Cocktail at the French Bistro, right here in US of A served with a Union instead of a olive in a Holy Grail on top of a Big Tip.

========================================

9:32 pm:

Local update on a walk to the mailbox revealed 376 Chartrand has installed a new mail box at the local mailboxes. There is a replacement big white mailbox there in place of a smaller one. 376 is only supposed to have one mailbox, but there have two there for a long time along with all of the other boxes.

One envelope in my mailbox had been opened and resealed, just some advertising mail in an official looking envelope. Judging by the envelope, it could be that someone is using my mail to reach Oregon State Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer Tanya Henderson, or, could be Tanya Henderson reaching out to Oregon State Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer Jeffrey Prouix, but I am pretty sure Officer Prouix was already killed in defense years ago. The envelope has a Tanya Henderson vibe to it, she is that Hot Chick works as cop at State, has a tattoo on her ankle, says “Jesse” in invisible white ink.

There was the sound of a emergency siren vehicle that lasted for about three minutes, is very unusual to here sirens around here, the emergencies are not handled with conventional means, the sirens are just for show, so, there must be some fools nearby who needed to hear the sound of a siren, for posterity sake.

There was the scent of perfume on my driveway, smelled like a French Brothel.

The odor of a skunk was near the creek along the path I walk, is unusual, there are no forest animals, some skunks must have been imported to please the senses of the fools who were entertained by the siren.

Distant boom sounds came from the south west, near Merlin is my best guest, about 10 booming noises that sounded as if they were loud if nearby, but from here were just a faint whisper of a boom in the distance.

The sound of one hot rod sort of car was heard near the church.

There are no signs of helpful people. no help has come.

There was a very loud explosion or shotgun blast sort of noise nearby my house this afternoon, I did not go look, was bait, a set-up.

Also remarkable is that I heard something that sounded like a distant television... as if someone was watching a movie, and could here that from coming through the woods from Russell Road. That could be the fools. I have not heard the sound of a television being watched in about fifteen years even in the summer time, they are only for show, left on so that they are visible in the windows, but are forbidden to watch around  here, so, be advised, watching a TV if the terror army finds out, will get you marked as an outsider, tracked down, captured, tortured. farmed of assets, and your family will be hunted as a result, so, the fools should turn the TV off, or at least turn the volume down before they get killed.

=====================

11:07 pm:

Back up the page here I mentioned some things about 1717, classical music, iPhone’s and violins, so, I need to do a fair warning that the Twitter Warriors are all over these entries and are going to cause Russian Mother Hoax Fractal problems as a result of what I mentioned about that. This is not my first rodeo, learned this before when I explained other things about Water Music.

“How do you know that all of the kids wanted a musical instrument if were not there?” is the approach the bastards will take, as they head over to other musical history, a place where nsa simply is not interested in, and that area of the Russian Fractal is going to produce “Chamber Music”, which is why I know all of the kids wanted a violin or other instrument when there were no iPhones yet, though, I am convinced that technically, the iPhone was on the drawing board in 1717 in Great Britain.

There will be all kinds of chambers, if things work out as they have before, and tonight I can see that the terror bastards are already gearing up for a big music day tomorrow.

Chamber Music was a informal gathering of a four piece ensemble played in a living space of some neighbors in the shire, back then, because people used to be interested in making some music, in absence of PlayStation. Beware of the double barrel chamber, or especially the Judges Chamber, that one is actually called a “Judge” is a revolver that fired miniature shot gun shells, by a county judge, magistrate, court jester, etc.

There are many chambers, such as the Chamber of Commerce, otherwise known as Club Northwest, just around the corner from the official office of the Chamber. I suspect Chamber Fractal Generations will be iterating in full range Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound by tomorrow afternoon, so, those fools on Russell would be well advised to seek High Ground before they become back-upsingers themselves.

I can see the orders for the Dolby 5.1 Surround Chamber Music Event are ordered to happen tomorrow, and tonight, in this Vintage King Audio Promotional Terror Commands from Vatican Choir HQ that came today just at about the time I started posting information about Handel, Rock Star George I of Great Britain, and the musicians that got tossed over board when the boat started rocking.

That is the entire ad. The bottom part is signed in triplicate. Those three parts that have the colorful block of text explaining about Lucas (ahem) and Dolby is expressed right there openly. I don’t think I have seen such orders signed in Triplicate before like that. It looks like real bad news to me.

That Triplicate, is based on a story on Twitter yesterday, when it was REPORTED that a sheriff at a bar event tripped. fell, was shot by his own people when he stood BACH-UP to leave.

I suspect a cannon is in order, three part Harmony Central (Hillary Clinton is one of the endorsers) could happen, Row, Row, Roe Motors Your Boat... for the abortion card to play into the Fractal Chamber Music event, in Dolby 5.1 Surround (could have a Colorado Raytheon Component, if so, 50.000 watts of Dolby 5.1, private theater, with proper licensing, all approved and official) and the signature is Orange.

What could go wrong?

There are three stamps of Best of 2020 approval on there.

Looks like they have a Mac 10, and Melania is also on in the band.

Please send help to Oregon.

Please send US Military.

Please send some medical services.

Bring your own hospital.

12:04 am, 12-20-2020. Sunday Morning.

There are two airplanes showing in the orders from VKA, sort of fogged out, but are there, hidden in stuff you can’t see or explain on Tumblr.

[squareallworthy]

As a bioethicist of the pro-human school, I denounce the dim-witted hand-wringing in this article.

And because this morning I am a rather crabby bioethicist, I am going to denounce it in detail. If you are a transhumanist, or if you ever even heard of transhumanism, there’s likely nothing in the article and nothing I’m going to say that’s new to you. So the rest is below the cut. I apologize in advance for wasting your time on this stupid article and my foul mood.

First, the lede:

In a 2011 New Yorker profile, Peter Thiel, tech-philanthropist and billionaire, surmised that “probably the most extreme form of inequality is between people who are alive and people who are dead”. While he may not be technically wrong, Thiel and other eccentric, wealthy tech-celebrities, such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have taken the next step to counteract that inequality – by embarking on a quest to live forever.

So, the big news that sparked this useless blather is -- nothing. If you thought maybe you missed some big news in longevity research, no, you didn’t. The writer of this piece, Sanjana Varghese, looked over the entire field of transhumanism and couldn’t find anything more compelling to kick off the lead paragraph than a six year old quote. Smashing journalism.

After opening with this damp squib, Varghese invites us to contemplate this horror:

Thiel and many like him have been investing in research on life extension, part of transhumanism. Drawing on fields as diverse as neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering and philosophy, transhumanists believe that the limitations of the human body and mortality can be transcended by machines and technology. The ultimate aim is immortality. Some believe this is achievable by 2045.

Okay, so we should expect some argument about why this is bad, right? Well, what we get are these two complaints: 1) "transhumanism won't fix capitalism”, and 2) "I hope these people in particular die.”

It seems like if you could articulate those two simple ideas in a pretty strightforward way, right? Well, maybe you could, but let’s not. Instead, let’s first get confused about what the hell transhumanism even is, and who are the people involved in it.

The hows and whens of transhumanism are matters of debate. Some advocate the "Singularity" – a form of artificial super-intelligence which will encompass all of humanity's knowledge, that our brains will then be uploaded to.

Wow, sounds like a radical transformation of all of human civilization and society!

"Transhumanism doesn't have much to say about social questions. To the extent that they see the world changing, it's nearly always in a business-as-usual way – techno-capitalism continues to deliver its excellent bounties, and the people who benefit from the current social arrangement continue to benefit from it," says Mark O'Connell, the author of To be a Machine,

Oh, not so much then.

Musk has publicly declared that we have to merge with artificially intelligent machines that overtake humanity in order to survive.

Oh, survival of the species, that does sound like an important social question, though.

O'Connell points out that "you'd have to be coming from a particularly rarefied privilege to look at the world today and make the assessment, as someone like Thiel does, that the biggest problem we face as a species is the fact that people die of old age".

And we're back to "transhumanism is just overenthusiastic geriatric medicine."

But who are these transhumanists, anyway?

Of course, humans have long harnessed technology, from vaccinations to smartphones, to improve and extend our lives. But that doesn’t admit you into the transhumanist club. Wanting to live forever, and possessing vast sums of money and time to research, does. 

So transhumanists are typically billionaires, then. Like Thiel and Musk and Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg? He's mentioned as someone "embarking on a quest to live forever" in the first paragraph, and then never again in the article. I guess supporting one's contentions is too tranditional-journalisty for a progressive outfit like the New Statesman.

But also, transhumanism includes Ray Kurzweil, an engineer at (gasp) Google. Also a former candidtate for governor of California, Zoltan Istvan. Kursweil has some ideas about that "Singularity" thing, and Istvan has no ideas at all, apparently, since none appear in this article. But he does admit that billionaires are funding longevity research, so that's obviously sinister. 

But also, transhumanism includes white nationalists like Michael Anissimov. But also, they are not a fringe movement because DARPA is funding some projects. DARPA being a totally mainstream thing that everyone is always talking about, like Game of Thrones.

But also, 

It would be remiss to tar all transhumanists with one brush. [...] There are some prominent transhumanists who don’t fit into the Silicon Valley mould. Natasha Vita-More, the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Humanity+ , the global transhumanist organisation, has spoken about the potential for a posthuman society to address issues of economic justice.

So transhumanists are evil billionaires, except when they are not, and they have no vision for the future of society, except when they do. So, we were going to learn about why they are bad, right?

On an even more basic level, a transhumanist society would undoubtedly be shaped by the ideals of those who created it and those who came before it. 

Unlike other societies we might have in the future, which would not be shaped by any sort of ideals, of course.

Immortality as defined by straight, white men could draw out cycles of oppression. 

PETER THIEL IS GAY, YOU DOLT! How can you even work in journalism and not know that he destroyed Gawker for outing him? You use a quote from Thiel to kick off your lousy excuse for an opinion piece and you don't even know this?  Did you even spend as much time writing your screed as I did writing this rant in response to it?

Without old attitudes dying off and replaced by the impatience of youth, social change might become impossible.

We need to kill off these transhumanists because they are stuck in old, hidebound ideas like this "upload all human minds into a global superintelligence" thing.

Artificial intelligence has already been shown to absorb the biases of its creators. Uploading someone’s brain into a clone of themselves doesn’t make them less likely to discriminate. 

Only technology that advances progressive ideals can be tolerated.

Thiel and Musk, for example, identify as libertarians and have frequently suggested that taxes are obsolete and that governmental military spending needs to be curbed (and put into life-enhancing technologies).

Progressive ideals like spending money on the military instead of on improving people's lives, that is!. Now, the New Statesman has been around for a long time, and what counts as progressive is as prone to drift as anything else in politics, but I did not realize they had come around to "bombs are more important than treating senlile dementia."

Okay, wrap it all up for us. What's the really real problem with people not suffering from old age as much as they do now?

If those who form society in the age of transhumanism are men like Musk and Thiel, it’s probable that this society will have few social safety nets. There will be an uneven rate of technological progress globally; even a post-human society can replicate the unequal global wealth distribution which we see today. In some cities and countries, inhabitants may live forever, while in others the residents die of malnutrition. If people don’t die off, the environmental consequences – from widespread natural resource devastation to unsustainable energy demands – would be widespread. 

So, three basic complaints. First, old people in the future will suddenly stop wanting social safety nets. Old people are kinda well known for their attachment to safety nets now, so why exactly do you expect that to change? Because Musk and Thiel funded medical technology, and thereby hypnotized nonagenarians into voting to end Medicaid and the National Health Service?

Second complaint: in the hideous transhuman future, we would still have problems with inequality. Well, I had raisin bran for breakfast, and that also did not solve global inequality. Am I next on Varghese's hit list? "You did not solve global inequality" is a pretty tough standard to meet, so I guess we can look forward to a long series of columns explaining why knitting, and ISO date formats, and hanging toilet paper the right way, and coffee, Taylor Swift's new album are all bad. Don't you know that if it doesn't solve this huge, complex problem that's been around forever, it's bad?

But worse, the second complaint is entirely unsupported, and the reverse may well be true. Cell phones used to be toys for the rich. Now they are commonplace, and they're doing quite a bit to benefit poor people, thank you. Could it be that research into human longevity will have positive consequences for people other than six billionaires in Silicon Valley? Like every broad-based area of technological research always has, ever? Could that be an interesting line of inquiry to write about in an opinion piece? Nah, not worth considering.

And complaint the third is that keeping people alive is just too expensive. It's phrased in tems of environmental costs, but that's just a way of tabulating the bill. Let me tabulate it this way: Varghese looks at a bunch of humans and a bunch of non-humans, and says, "Yeah, it's better if the humans die and the non-humans live." If you're aiming your dumb-ass opinon at oysters, that might be a good argument. Aimed at humans, not so much.

So there's the case against transhumanism. There's the case against basic medical research into aging and disease, including  Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,  cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, hearing loss, vision loss, and just generally feeling crappy when you get old. There's the argument against helping billions of people to live happier, more connected, more productive, more satisfying, and yes, longer lives. 

It's also the argument against fighting cholera, smallpox, and polio. It's the argument against human existence. And it's not progressive, it's not in favor of human dignity and autonomy, and it's not a position that helps the people Varghese claims to be concerned about. As someone who is in favor of human beings, I say fuck that.

[drferox]

20 Questions with Dr Ferox #11

20 more questions and comments to power through, Vetlings.

@bobthejob said: Hey i just wanted to say that im not even going to vet school, i just love learning about animals. Aint got the spoons for actual vet school, it would kill me. But i have learned a lot from you and my friend who IS doing vet school was very surprised when i used the word "brachycephalic". I was like yeah i learned it from drferox! But yeah i just wanted to say thanks, and give you some encouragement. Have a great day!

Aw, thank you. I highly recommend using big words in conversation when the opportunity presents itself. I’m glad I’ve taught somebody something by typing away back here.

@its-animalcrazy-love asked: Is true that you can improve your surgery skill can improve by knitting? I want to be a good at surgery

Anything that improves your dexterity or hand-eye coordination can be helpful for improving your skills at surgery. Actual surgical practice is the most useful, but short of that things like knitting, sewing and other crafts can help develop the fine motor skills you require. My personal favorite is video games, which double as also being useful for pre-training for endoscopy and ultrasound.

@biscuitstudent asked: Are occasional anal gland secretions normal in a neutered cat? We're talking maybe 2-3 times a year, if that? I looked symptoms up online. He discharges a smelly, dark discharge usually when he's really comfy/content/melting in my lap rather than scared which is weird. No meowing or aversion to me wiping his bottom off afterwards, no redness or swelling. Does that just... Happen sometimes? I will be asking my vet when I go, but that's not for a few days. I would love peace of mind if possible 😞

It’s more common when they’re spooked or frightened, but it can happen. It’s certainly better than them being impacted. A diet change might help, or might do nothing.

Anonymous asked: My cat was diagnosed with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and a heart murmur, how frequently should she have ultrasounds to check on her condition? She is turning 9 this year and the vet says she (the cat) is healthier than expected for her age, heart issues aside, but I can't help but worry every time she has an ultrasound because she is a timid cat who stresses when away from familiar grounds.

Usually minimum 6 monthly check ups would be recommended, but you should be checking this with her treating vet.

@cosmiccoz asked: Dr. Ferox, I've a question regarding Calcium/Phosphorous in dog food and how it should be allocated for growing dogs. My 9-month-old field labrador (Brawn) is quite a slender fellow. Very agile and very much a mountain goat. He’s 24 inches from toe to shoulder and 50lbs in weight. I’ve been careful not to overfeed him and the food he’s currently on has a cal/phos level of 1.20%/1.00%. For how long do I monitor his cal/phos intake? Does it matter if he’s not really that “large” of a large breed?

Calcium and phosphorus ratios are particularly important for growing dogs, no matter how big they are. I worry about them in particular for for first 12-18 months of life, depending on breed, to prevent rickets. That said, you don’t want it too out of wack for the rest of the dog’s life.

@ anadiangelo asked: Hi! I love your blog, it's amazing! And I wanted to ask a question, is there any actual difference between the normal Royal Canin sterilized cat kibble and the +7 one? My male cat turned 7 a few months ago and we're not sure if we should change his food or not. My usual vet is my aunt and she became a cardio specialist years ago, so she isn't up to date on that particular issue. 

I don’t have their tech manual on me at home, but from memory I think it was lower calorie per mouthful, possibly lower phosphorus and higher fiber. There should be a technical information line you can call to ask, relevant for your country though. It’s not critical to change straight away, but I generally recommend cats be on a senior food by the time they’re eleven.

Anonymous said: Hey, quick question. Is eating bones, like the actual BONE part (not the meat or marrow) likely to cause an impaction in dogs? My parents let our dog, who chews aggressively, eat bones every now and then, only taking them away when they get small enough to choke on. This seems super dangerous to me, but I've talked to a couple other people who do this as well. It says in the packaging not to let the dog eat the bone, just the meat. Should I be as concerned as I am, or is it okay? Thanks so much!

Not exactly a quick question, but yes, it is a possibility, even with smaller bones lick from chicken carcasses. Some dogs will be perfectly fine, some will be fine for a long time, but it’s common in veterinary practice to see chunks of bone causing oesophageal obstruction, intestinal obstruction, or contributing to constipation. I prefer to not let dogs ingest the bone.

@eruuuica asked: My dog suffers from skin allergies and frequent yeast infections in the ear, and while my vet has been helpful narrowing it down (beef she thinks!) she isn't so great at recommending food. Do you have any recommendations for pets with skin allergies that is also easy on the tum-tum?

I only know what’s available near me. You could consider a hydrolyzed protein diet, but they can be unpalatable. Often we use Skin Support diets or novel protein diets (eg crocodile, fish, venison), as a dog will not be allergic to a protein source that it’s never eaten before Finding a protein source that the dog hasn’t eaten before can be a challenge for dogs on a previously varied diet.

Anonymous said: Hi! My dog has seasonal allergies to certain grasses and some type of herb that are managed by several meds prescribed by my vet, so I don't need medical-medical advice. I was just wondering if you had any non-medical tips to help soothe my dog, because for a couple of weeks the meds aren't strong enough to completely mitigate the allergies. We try to keep him physically away from the allergens but would rinsing or brushing him to remove the allergens from his fur help, or something? Thanks! ❤

Physically washing allergens off the skin can be helpful in reducing the allergen load, but you need to ensure you’re using something suitable for regular use if you’re using it more than once a week. Physically removing the allergens from the skin will reduce the amount of stimulus irritating the dog. Sometimes I will recommend owners put a light shirt on the dog to physically provide a barrier between it and the suspect grass. Fatty acid supplements can help long term as well in some dogs.

Anonymous: Would a hairless cat be mildly hypoallergenic not by the fact that it is hypoallergenic in itself but the dander isn't in fur that gets everywhere? Like it's a contained allergin?

No, because it’s usually teh dander (skin cells) that humans react to, and in a haired cat the dander is trapped under the fur layer. In a hairless cat it sheds freely. There’s no particular allergic benefit in keeping hairless cats. Individual cats will vary in how allergenic they are.

Another Anonymous: Are there any problems commonly associated with dogs with super curly tails? (I mean, there are a lot of breeds of dogs with curly tails and a lot of mutts running around with curly tails so I understand if this is too broad of a question. I guess I was wondering if the fact that the tail curls is associated with any spinal problems--or, conversely, whether tight curls were a sign of good spinal health.)

As with many things that vary with the extremeness of morphology, tightly curled tails, or double curled tails, can be associated with spinal deformities such as hemivertebrae. The tighter the curl, the more likely other vertebrae are going to be affected. 

Anonymous said: Since sheep just seem to want to die and take all of their friends with them, could they have survived all this time with out human help? From what I understand sheep where bred from some that had a genetic defect that gave them the wool they now have. I wonder if those sheep with out the genetic hiccup that causes the wool to grow as it did would be better at not dying

Not sheep in their domestic, woolly form. The fleece doesn’t shed, which means that without sheering it will just continue to grow, weighing down the sheep and making life difficult.

Australian sheep have a particularly rough time because the majority of them are Merino, and fine will Merino at that, which are highly selectively bred to produce fine wool. Their intelligence and mothering instinct is notably less than other, hardier, traditional sheep breeds.

A non-woolly sheep with no restrictions on where it can go are better at not dying in stupid ways.

@ kinkypolyfeminist said: I'm going to be looking after my friend's rabbit for a fortnight while she's away on holiday. My bearded dragon likes to run around my room during the day (I leave her door open so she can come & go as she pleases; I work from home so can supervise). Is it safe for rabbit & beardie to be free roaming at the same time? Question tax: don't officially follow the blog but visit every so often for fantasy biology and breed evaluations.

The risk of the bearded dragon getting an infection from rabbit saliva are pretty low, as rabbits are not overly prone to biting or licking strange animals, and are more likely to just avoid it given the chance, I can’t give you any guarantee though, as the two animals may still disagree and injure each other.

Anonymous said: Some people are really against dogs being allowed to lick people faces or 'give kisses', saying it's unhygienic and such, what do you think?

Well it isn’t hygienic, dog’s lick and eat all sorts of things including their own anus. That said, humans lick some pretty unconventional things too sometimes, so it’s a calculated risk in sot cases.

However when they have a mouth like this...

... then it is definitely not good.

@bluecrownedfinches sad: Playing off your post about white animals, I have now had four extreme piebald mice (black eyed white, in fancier terms, but bew can be formed other ways as well). One escaped and is having a fine time being a wild mouse in my house. One I culled because he was very small compared to his siblings. One I accidentally killed who was smaller but not tiny, and the one left who is also smaller than his siblings. Any idea if there is a link between the extreme pied and growth?

I honestly don’t know enough about fancy mice genetics. It sounds like there might have been in that litter, but I can’t generalise.

@barksworthington said: Hi dr Ferox, Routine desexing for dogs isn't permitted in Norway and is only allowed when it is necessary to the dog's welfare. I was wondering what medical problems might be more likely in intact dogs, and how to minimize risk/symptoms to look out for. Question tax: are you able to keep plants alive? 

Pyometra is going to be the most significant problem in female dogs, which may present with a vaginal discharge, or may present with only lethargy and thirst with 24-48 hours warning before sepsis kicks in. You will also see more mammary cancers in females.

You are ore likely to see prostatitis in males, which may present as straining, blood in urine, constipation or vague malaise.

Anonymous: Have you or the clinic you work at ever partnered with an animal welfare organization or shelter?

Sort of. I have had one job that did some contract work for a shelter, any my current one receives ‘referrals’ from a shelter, but communication isn’t great and it’s a awkward working relationship at times.

Anonymous said: I hope you don't mind me asking a real vet this question but I have a fictional character that has been randomly given a ferret and neither me nor this character has had a ferret ever, so I want to learn more about how to take care of a ferret as well as common mistakes people make with them. If you have a post on ferrets already can I have a link? 

I haven’t written much on ferrets actually, but there is lots of general pet care information available online.

The most common mistakes made with ferrets is neglecting to desex the females, which come into a continuous heat and will give themselves bone marrow suppression from oestrogen toxicity if they don’t get pregnant, and not realizing the tiny spaces they can get into, and being taken by surprise by their kleptomania.

Coincidentally, I also write as @scriptveterinarian which is specifically for writing advice on veterinary topics.

Anonymous said: Hey I'm really curious about Rage Syndrome, what it is and where it stems from? Would you be willing to do a post about it?

This is all I had to say about Rage Syndrome. It may have a genetic basis.

@ sketchywyvern said:  Trashbag has such pretty ears. I love him

He does. He unfortunately also moves very fast and is difficult to photograph.

[vinayv224]

But it’s not clear how much influence social media has over parents refusing vaccines for their kids.

A teenager who disobeyed his anti-vaccine mother and decided to get immunized against her wishes told Congress Tuesday that Facebook was a key source of misinformation in his household.

Sen. Isakson: Does your mother get most of her info online? Ethan Lindenberger, 18-year-old who got vaccinated against his mom's wishes: "Yes... Mainly Facebook." Isakson: Where do you get your info? Lindenberger: "Not Facebook. CDC, the World Health Org...accredited sources." pic.twitter.com/9iMnC8AetM

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 5, 2019

“With my mother, it continues to influence her views, along with countless Americans,” said Ethan Lindenberger, an Ohio high schooler, who went to his local health department in December to get a range of shots, including hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, and HPV, according to the Washington Post.

Lindenberger was invited to speak alongside state health officials and vaccine experts at a Senate committee hearing focused on what’s causing vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. The hearing was called amid a major measles outbreak in Washington state.

The teenage vaccine advocate was describing what’s become a familiar issue on Facebook: groups using the site to try to convince parents not to vaccinate, or to delay vaccinating, their children. Even Pinterest, typically a place for home and wedding inspiration, has housed viral anti-vaccination memes.

Lately, these giant social platforms have been getting more heat for housing this content. And in recent weeks, several companies have gone public about measures to block and minimize anti-vaccine misinformation.

On Thuraday, Facebook announced it’ll seek out and limit the spread of anti-vaccine hoaxes on its network, and also stop showing pages and groups featuring anti-vaccine content or suggesting users join them.

YouTube also announced it’s no longer allowing users to monetize anti-vaccine videos with ads, in the hopes that that will disincentivize the people who create them.

Even anti-vaccine news on Pinterest is being made less prominent: Since September, the network has barred searches for any vaccine content, recognizing that its vast user base of moms was accessing misinformation on the platform. (The effort became public on February 20, when the Wall Street Journal first reported on it.)

These moves are encouraging for one reason: As Lindenberger points out, misinformation about vaccines can be dangerous. A crackdown by some of the world’s tech giants, which all have millions of users, might mean fewer people are exposed to anti-vax information, and maybe fewer parents will decide to shirk lifesaving shots for their kids.

But it’s probably unrealistic to expect that YouTube or Pinterest will eliminate anti-vaccine sentiment, and there are reasons to be skeptical of their approaches. While it’s popular to blame Facebook and its ilk for every social evil, it’s not actually clear that these platforms are emboldening vaccine denialism in a significant way. And there are better — proven — ways to boost immunization rates. But they involve more systemic fixes than just stamping out erroneous pins and Facebook posts. Here’s why.

Social media may not be a major contributor to the anti-vax problem

In order for immunizations to prevent diseases and protect people who can’t be immunized (such as newborn babies), we need a certain threshold of the population to be vaccinated to achieve what’s known as “herd immunity.” For a super-contagious virus like measles, nearly everybody who can get immunized needs to be.

When that threshold drops, vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks are inevitable — and we know vaccine refusers have helped spark recent outbreaks. But what we don’t know is how much misinformation on social media is truly fueling vaccine skepticism, and whether it’s changing people’s behaviors and causing them to turn away from immunizations.

“The conversation around vaccines emphasizes social media more than the evidence can support,” said Brendan Nyhan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan who studies vaccine misinformation. “Would parents come up with some other reason not to vaccinate their kids [without misinformation on social media]? We don’t know.”

That’s because the major social platforms — including Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest — won’t share their user and engagement data with independent researchers. So researchers like Nyhan haven’t been able to study the link between exposure to fake vaccine news online and changes in people’s vaccine-seeking behavior.

At the Atlantic, journalist Alexis Madrigal found a clever workaround — and discovered that the “actual universe of people arguing about vaccinations [on Facebook] is limited and knowable.” Using the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle, Madrigal analyzed Facebook’s most popular vaccine posts since 2016 and discovered it’s actually a small cluster of pages that generates most of the vaccine misinformation. Also, science-based pages are just as likely to go viral. Here’s Madrigal:

While there is no dearth of posts related to vaccines, the top 50 Facebook pages ranked by the number of public posts they made about vaccines generated nearly half (46 percent) of the top 10,000 posts for or against vaccinations, as well as 38 percent of the total likes on those posts, from January 2016 to February of this year. The distribution is heavy on the top, particularly for the anti-vax position. Just seven anti-vax pages generated nearly 20 percent of the top 10,000 vaccination posts in this time period: Natural News, Dr. Tenpenny on Vaccines and Current Events, Stop Mandatory Vaccination, March Against Monsanto, J. B. Handley, Erin at Health Nut News, and Revolution for Choice.

So it’s possible that anti-vax content may not be the major contributor to vaccine hesitancy that we think it is. And if that’s true, stamping out fake vaccine news won’t have much of an impact on vaccination rates.

The anti-vaccine empire is much broader than social media

There’s also the off-platform anti-vaccine information to deal with — what Baylor College of Medicine infectious diseases researcher Peter Hotez calls “the anti-vaccine media empire.” It consists of nearly 500 anti-vaccine websites, according to a recent estimate. “Then you have the books and documentaries,” Hotez added.

The anti-vaccine film Vaxxed, directed by the discredited vaccine-autism fearmongerer Andrew Wakefield, got outsize attention when Robert De Niro touted it at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Now Vaxxed: II, the sequel, will be coming out soon.

These films and popular books have helped fan the flames of vaccine hesitancy. Parents who’ve decided to delay and avoid vaccines told me they were persuaded by Vaxxed, as well as The Vaccine Book, which suggests parents create their own selective vaccine schedule and consider skipping some shots. The Vaccine Book and other skeptical tomes (such as Vaccines: A Reappraisal) also happen to rank among Amazon’s best-selling books on vaccines.

So while Facebook or Pinterest might help amplify anti-vaccine information, Hotez said, cracking down on these platforms doesn’t address all the other ways people are accessing false vaccine content.

Hotez would like to see Amazon hire a chief science officer to vet books for their potential public health impact. He’d like to see Google and other search engines address how vaccine information shows up in searches. He’d also like more pro-vaccine advocacy on the part of government — something that isn’t happening at scale right now.

“We’re not hearing from the usual champions of public health — the CDC, the surgeon general — on the vaccine issue,” Hotez said. “We need a comprehensive public-private partnership between the US government and all the major stakeholders — Facebook, Amazon, Google — to look at dismantling the anti-vaccine empire.”

At the Senate hearing, John Wiesman, Washington state’s health secretary, had a similar message. “We don’t have anything to counter the media of a very well-organized and connected group of a small number of folks who are having a huge impact,” he told the Washington Post.

The moves by the tech giants are also one-offs that can’t scale, Nyhan noted, since they “require manual interventions and subjective judgments.”

So what can scale? Public policy.

We can’t prevent outbreaks until we have public policy that closes vaccine loopholes

Right now, many states make it way too easy for parents to opt out of vaccines on behalf of their children. As I recently wrote, even though all 50 states have legislation requiring vaccines for students entering school, almost every state allows exemptions for people with religious beliefs against immunizations, and 17 states grant philosophical exemptions for those opposed to vaccines because of personal or moral beliefs. (The exceptions are Mississippi, California, and West Virginia, which allow only medical exemptions.)

Getting a lifetime exemption for a child can be as easy as writing a letter and having it notarized. And if that’s too much trouble, there are other loopholes one can take advantage of. For example, in 45 states, even without an exemption, kids can be granted “conditional entrance” to school on the promise that they will be vaccinated, but schools don’t always bother to follow up.

We have plenty of evidence, spanning more than a decade, showing that when you make it easier for parents to opt out of their shots, the rates of vaccine exemptions tend to be higher. The most recent analysis of US vaccine policies, published in 2018, found that states allowing both religious and philosophical exemptions — as 17 states currently do — were associated with a 2.3 percent decrease in measles-mumps-rubella vaccine rates and a 1.5 percent increase in both total exemptions and nonmedical exemptions.

Mississippi and West Virginia — which have long had the strictest vaccine laws in the nation — also have among the highest vaccine rates. In California, which barred nonmedical exemptions in 2015 and closed its “conditional entrance” loophole, vaccine coverage rates have been going up.

For now, the percentage of people seeking nonmedical exemptions in the US has been creeping upward, from 1.1 percent in 2009-’10 to 2.2 percent by 2017-’18. It’s still a minority of people who skip vaccines — but that average hides clusters across the country where nearly 30 percent of parents are opting out of vaccines. When someone brings a vaccine-preventable disease into those communities, we’ve seen devastating results: outbreaks that put public health at risk, cost millions of dollars to stamp out, and distract from other important public health programs.

The new actions by big tech could have some positive influence. But we have no evidence that they will. The solution to sustaining vaccination rates has to encompass more than social media — it has to be a priority for state governments around the country. If we want to stop vaccine-preventable outbreaks, we probably need something mightier than even Facebook. We need to close states’ vaccine loopholes.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2EFlLRc

[scootoaster]

The Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G has one of the best screens you can cram in your pocket

Pictures of phone screens are boring. Here's the back of the phone. (Stan Horaczek /)

You’re easily forgiven if you don’t know how much RAM your smartphone has inside. No one will judge you if you’re not exactly sure which specific version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor lives inside your device. 

In short, diving into a phone’s spec sheet means different things to various segments of the smartphone-using public. For some, it’s something to pore over and argue about on the internet. For others, it’s an irrelevant math problem that you don’t have to solve in order to fire up the TikTok app. Samsung’s Galaxy Note series devices have always put up big numbers on the spec sheet while trying to make its juiced-up hardware accessible to people who couldn’t care less how much RAM sits under the screen. It’s a fine line and the Note20 Ultra 5G walks it better than any of its predecessors so far.

Evaluating a phone like this is tricky—it’s like a supercar. Some folks want to really dig into the technical guts of the thing, twiddle with the knobs (or, settings, I guess, in the case of a phone), and appreciate the feats of engineering required to wring small performance bumps out of every component. Others, however, are primarily concerned with the flash factor. That 6.9-inch AMOLED screen is every bit as impressive as a swoopy Italian sports car, but it employs some seriously impressive tech to make it shine.

The display

Short version: The Note20 Ultra’s screen is one of the nicest—if not the nicest—smartphone screen around. At 6.9-inches, it’s massive. It feels even slightly bigger than it is because—in typical Samsung fashion—the edges of the screen slope toward the back of the device to eradicate any semblance of a bezel. I’ve personally never been a fan of the curved edges because that screen real estate isn’t usable. The screen is also extremely bright. It promises 1,500 nits of brightness, which, in human terms, makes it easily visible in bright conditions and relatively eye-scorching if you try to use the max setting while doom scrolling before bed. 

The really impressive aspect of the screen, though, is its refresh rate. The Note20 Ultra has a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz. That means the image on screen can change up to 120 times every second. Scrolling at 120 Hz is like floating through a lake of pricy hand lotion (it’s very smooth). That kind of performance typically obliterates battery life, however, so the Note20 Ultra’s screen adapts its refresh rate depending on what you’re doing on-screen. If you’re looking at static images, it can drop all the way down to 10 Hz. Of course, it’s capable of rates between the two because not every app supports, or even needs, that kind of smoothness. When you’re playing a high-end smartphone game or just scrolling through apps, however, it will spoil you for other phones with a paltry 60 Hz spec. 

As for resolution, you can pump the Note20 Ultra’s display all the way up to 1440 x 3088, but you can’t run both max refresh rate and max resolution at the same time—even if the phone has enough firepower, you would churn through your battery in just a couple of Quibis. 

The cameras

The camera module sticks out from the body, but it makes good use of that extra room it takes up. (Stan Horaczek /)

There are three cameras on the back of the Note20 Ultra. The 12-megapixel wide camera is about what you’d expect from a smartphone super-wide at the moment. The 12-megapixel telephoto zoom lens, however, is more interesting. Like the zoom in the S20 Ultra, the lens sits down into the body of the phone and sees out into the world like a periscope. This gives it more room to move the elements around and enables true 5X optical zoom. Optical zoom is almost always better because it doesn’t crop into the image and magnify flaws like digital zoom will. 

The maximum zoom promises 50x total zoom through a mixture of optical and digital and the result is impressive as long as you go in expecting a realistic result. The final images are clear enough to make out, but they’re not going to win you any blue ribbons at the state fair photo contest. At 20x, the results are more acceptable, and you could probably even get a usable Instagram photo out of it if you shoot in a bright setting and hold the camera really still. 

The main camera has a 108-megapixel sensor, but you’ll probably never really want to use it to shoot 108-megapixel photos. Instead, it typically combines blocks of pixels together into what we’ll call “ultra pixels” in honor of the phone’s name. That results in images with more reasonable resolution, but lots of detail. Historically, Samsung has not been shy about pouring on saturation and sharpening when using the main camera. I found the Note20 Ultra follows that tradition. Most of the time, the photos are sharp and detailed with vibrant colors. The effect can come off as a bit much if you like more natural-looking images without super crispy sharpness. But, that’s mostly a taste thing. 

One considerable change: it now employs a laser for focusing. The Galaxy S20 had a somewhat skittish focusing system. And with all that resolution, a super-wide aperture, and a somewhat large sensor, focusing is actually important with a camera module like this. I found the Note20 Ultra’s focusing system totally adequate in most cases, though, when you get close, it often encourages you to back up slightly and zoom in to 2x. That’s actually a handy and accurate tip for most people and I was glad to see it happen automatically. 

From a video standpoint, I still found the iPhone 11 Pro Max image quality slightly better overall, but there’s not a huge difference. The Note20 Ultra lets you shoot up to 8K resolution. If you’re shooting in a situation with a lot of light, that mode can actually be useful for pulling 33-megapixel screenshots out of a video after you’ve already shot it. Shooting 8K for strictly video purposes, however, is mostly a waste. The footage takes up too much space, is hard to edit, and limits some of the shooting features you can use during a shoot. 

Samsung has included some clever audio options for video shooting. You can use the built-in microphones, a USB option, or even use the Bluetooth mic in the Galaxy Buds if you want to narrate some action or do voice over. It’s the kind of thing that’s very cool if you know about it and dig into the menus, but I expect many users will never encounter and just shoot with the stock settings. 

Expect a deeper dive into the Galaxy Note20 camera in the coming days. 

The S Pen

Finally, we arrive at the feature that earns the Note its name. The S Pen still slides into the bottom of the device, but now it has moved to the other side. Samsung has reduced the latency involved with writing on the screen to put it on the same level as the iPad Pro. That makes writing on it feel more natural and satisfying. Even if you can’t draw and your handwriting looks like that of a small child scrambling to finish math homework on a school bus as it barrels down a bumpy road, writing with the S Pen still feels good. 

The best writing experience comes in the form of the Samsung Notes app. It makes the most of the improved handwriting recognition for handy features like aligning your scrawled text into neat rows and recording audio as you write so you can hear what was happening as you made a specific note. 

The S Pen is still relatively tiny and I wouldn’t want to use it as my primary method of taking notes for a long period of time. But it’s great for writing shorter notes during an interview, especially with the audio playback feature. Even with all of that going for it, it’s still not quite enough for me to shift all of my note-collecting habits over to Samsung’s software, but it was way closer than I would have guessed. 

Overall experience

The Note20 Ultra is undeniably impressive. Performance feels very snappy thanks to the latest Snapdragon processor and 12 GB RAM. The high-refresh-rate screen makes things feel even faster because content shows up on the screen immediately. 

As you’d expect, 5G connectivity comes baked in and it supports both common types employed by carriers here in the US. I was connected to a 5G network at my house, but certainly didn’t experience 5G speeds that would impress my pals. However, that’s likely more a symptom of the current state of 5G networks than it is anything to do with the phone itself. As the network gets better, so too will the phone. 

You likely already know if you’re planning on buying this phone. If you’re upgrading from a previous version, don’t expect a revolution when it comes to experience. If you’re jumping from an older phone, the screen performance really is a big differentiator, especially if you spend a lot of time watching content or playing high-end mobile games. The base model ships with 128 GB storage, which seems a little paltry considering the price, and it’ll cost you $150 to jump up to 512 GB on top of the already pricy phone. When you add it all up, the decision comes down to what you want your phone to do. If you want ample power and tons of opportunities to tweak settings and performance, then you’ll get it. If you want the biggest, flashiest phone around that can handle whatever you throw at it for the next couple years, it can give you that too. Just make sure it’ll fit in your pockets.