#Business Intelligence Testing Services

[reasonsforhope]

"As a Deaf man, Adam Munder has long been advocating for communication rights in a world that chiefly caters to hearing people. 

The Intel software engineer and his wife — who is also Deaf — are often unable to use American Sign Language in daily interactions, instead defaulting to texting on a smartphone or passing a pen and paper back and forth with service workers, teachers, and lawyers. 

It can make simple tasks, like ordering coffee, more complicated than it should be. 

But there are life events that hold greater weight than a cup of coffee. 

Recently, Munder and his wife took their daughter in for a doctor’s appointment — and no interpreter was available. 

To their surprise, their doctor said: “It’s alright, we’ll just have your daughter interpret for you!” ...

That day at the doctor’s office came at the heels of a thousand frustrating interactions and miscommunications — and Munder is not isolated in his experience.

“Where I live in Arizona, there are more than 1.1 million individuals with a hearing loss,” Munder said, “and only about 400 licensed interpreters.”

In addition to being hard to find, interpreters are expensive. And texting and writing aren’t always practical options — they leave out the emotion, detail, and nuance of a spoken conversation. 

ASL is a rich, complex language with its own grammar and culture; a subtle change in speed, direction, facial expression, or gesture can completely change the meaning and tone of a sign. 

“Writing back and forth on paper and pen or using a smartphone to text is not equivalent to American Sign Language,” Munder emphasized. “The details and nuance that make us human are lost in both our personal and business conversations.”

His solution? An AI-powered platform called Omnibridge. 

“My team has established this bridge between the Deaf world and the hearing world, bringing these worlds together without forcing one to adapt to the other,” Munder said. 

Trained on thousands of signs, Omnibridge is engineered to transcribe spoken English and interpret sign language on screen in seconds...

“Our dream is that the technology will be available to everyone, everywhere,” Munder said. “I feel like three to four years from now, we're going to have an app on a phone. Our team has already started working on a cloud-based product, and we're hoping that will be an easy switch from cloud to mobile to an app.” ...

At its heart, Omnibridge is a testament to the positive capabilities of artificial intelligence. "

-via GoodGoodGood, October 25, 2024. More info below the cut!

To test an alpha version of his invention, Munder welcomed TED associate Hasiba Haq on stage. 

“I want to show you how this could have changed my interaction at the doctor appointment, had this been available,” Munder said. 

He went on to explain that the software would generate a bi-directional conversation, in which Munder’s signs would appear as blue text and spoken word would appear in gray. 

At first, there was a brief hiccup on the TED stage. Haq, who was standing in as the doctor’s office receptionist, spoke — but the screen remained blank. 

“I don’t believe this; this is the first time that AI has ever failed,” Munder joked, getting a big laugh from the crowd. “Thanks for your patience.”

After a quick reboot, they rolled with the punches and tried again.

Haq asked: “Hi, how’s it going?” 

Her words popped up in blue. 

Munder signed in reply: “I am good.” 

His response popped up in gray. 

Back and forth, they recreated the scene from the doctor’s office. But this time Munder retained his autonomy, and no one suggested a 7-year-old should play interpreter. 

Munder’s TED debut and tech demonstration didn’t happen overnight — the engineer has been working on Omnibridge for over a decade. 

“It takes a lot to build something like this,” Munder told Good Good Good in an exclusive interview, communicating with our team in ASL. “It couldn't just be one or two people. It takes a large team, a lot of resources, millions and millions of dollars to work on a project like this.” 

After five years of pitching and research, Intel handpicked Munder’s team for a specialty training program. It was through that backing that Omnibridge began to truly take shape...

“Our dream is that the technology will be available to everyone, everywhere,” Munder said. “I feel like three to four years from now, we're going to have an app on a phone. Our team has already started working on a cloud-based product, and we're hoping that will be an easy switch from cloud to mobile to an app.” 

In order to achieve that dream — of transposing their technology to a smartphone — Munder and his team have to play a bit of a waiting game. Today, their platform necessitates building the technology on a PC, with an AI engine. 

“A lot of things don't have those AI PC types of chips,” Munder explained. “But as the technology evolves, we expect that smartphones will start to include AI engines. They'll start to include the capability in processing within smartphones. It will take time for the technology to catch up to it, and it probably won't need the power that we're requiring right now on a PC.” 

At its heart, Omnibridge is a testament to the positive capabilities of artificial intelligence. 

But it is more than a transcription service — it allows people to have face-to-face conversations with each other. There’s a world of difference between passing around a phone or pen and paper and looking someone in the eyes when you speak to them. 

It also allows Deaf people to speak ASL directly, without doing the mental gymnastics of translating their words into English.

“For me, English is my second language,” Munder told Good Good Good. “So when I write in English, I have to think: How am I going to adjust the words? How am I going to write it just right so somebody can understand me? It takes me some time and effort, and it's hard for me to express myself actually in doing that. This technology allows someone to be able to express themselves in their native language.” 

Ultimately, Munder said that Omnibridge is about “bringing humanity back” to these conversations. 

“We’re changing the world through the power of AI, not just revolutionizing technology, but enhancing that human connection,” Munder said at the end of his TED Talk. 

“It’s two languages,” he concluded, “signed and spoken, in one seamless conversation.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, October 25, 2024

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

I think it behooves us to be a little skeptical of stories about AI driving people to believe wrong things and commit ugly actions. Not that I like the AI slop that is filling up our social media, but when we look at the ways that AI is harming us, slop is pretty low on the list.

The real AI harms come from the actual things that AI companies sell AI to do. There's the AI gun-detector gadgets that the credulous Mayor Eric Adams put in NYC subways, which led to 2,749 invasive searches and turned up zero guns:

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nycs-subway-weapons-detector-pilot-program-ends/

Any time AI is used to predict crime – predictive policing, bail determinations, Child Protective Services red flags – they magnify the biases already present in these systems, and, even worse, they give this bias the veneer of scientific neutrality. This process is called "empiricism-washing," and you know you're experiencing it when you hear some variation on "it's just math, math can't be racist":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/23/cryptocidal-maniacs/#phrenology

When AI is used to replace customer service representatives, it systematically defrauds customers, while providing an "accountability sink" that allows the company to disclaim responsibility for the thefts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

When AI is used to perform high-velocity "decision support" that is supposed to inform a "human in the loop," it quickly overwhelms its human overseer, who takes on the role of "moral crumple zone," pressing the "OK" button as fast as they can. This is bad enough when the sacrificial victim is a human overseeing, say, proctoring software that accuses remote students of cheating on their tests:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#cheating-anticheat

But it's potentially lethal when the AI is a transcription engine that doctors have to use to feed notes to a data-hungry electronic health record system that is optimized to commit health insurance fraud by seeking out pretenses to "upcode" a patient's treatment. Those AIs are prone to inventing things the doctor never said, inserting them into the record that the doctor is supposed to review, but remember, the only reason the AI is there at all is that the doctor is being asked to do so much paperwork that they don't have time to treat their patients:

https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14

My point is that "worrying about AI" is a zero-sum game. When we train our fire on the stuff that isn't important to the AI stock swindlers' business-plans (like creating AI slop), we should remember that the AI companies could halt all of that activity and not lose a dime in revenue. By contrast, when we focus on AI applications that do the most direct harm – policing, health, security, customer service – we also focus on the AI applications that make the most money and drive the most investment.

AI hasn't attracted hundreds of billions in investment capital because investors love AI slop. All the money pouring into the system – from investors, from customers, from easily gulled big-city mayors – is chasing things that AI is objectively very bad at and those things also cause much more harm than AI slop. If you want to be a good AI critic, you should devote the majority of your focus to these applications. Sure, they're not as visually arresting, but discrediting them is financially arresting, and that's what really matters.

All that said: AI slop is real, there is a lot of it, and just because it doesn't warrant priority over the stuff AI companies actually sell, it still has cultural significance and is worth considering.

AI slop has turned Facebook into an anaerobic lagoon of botshit, just the laziest, grossest engagement bait, much of it the product of rise-and-grind spammers who avidly consume get rich quick "courses" and then churn out a torrent of "shrimp Jesus" and fake chainsaw sculptures:

https://www.404media.co/email/1cdf7620-2e2f-4450-9cd9-e041f4f0c27f/

For poor engagement farmers in the global south chasing the fractional pennies that Facebook shells out for successful clickbait, the actual content of the slop is beside the point. These spammers aren't necessarily tuned into the psyche of the wealthy-world Facebook users who represent Meta's top monetization subjects. They're just trying everything and doubling down on anything that moves the needle, A/B splitting their way into weird, hyper-optimized, grotesque crap:

https://www.404media.co/facebook-is-being-overrun-with-stolen-ai-generated-images-that-people-think-are-real/

In other words, Facebook's AI spammers are laying out a banquet of arbitrary possibilities, like the letters on a Ouija board, and the Facebook users' clicks and engagement are a collective ideomotor response, moving the algorithm's planchette to the options that tug hardest at our collective delights (or, more often, disgusts).

So, rather than thinking of AI spammers as creating the ideological and aesthetic trends that drive millions of confused Facebook users into condemning, praising, and arguing about surreal botshit, it's more true to say that spammers are discovering these trends within their subjects' collective yearnings and terrors, and then refining them by exploring endlessly ramified variations in search of unsuspected niches.

(If you know anything about AI, this may remind you of something: a Generative Adversarial Network, in which one bot creates variations on a theme, and another bot ranks how closely the variations approach some ideal. In this case, the spammers are the generators and the Facebook users they evince reactions from are the discriminators)

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

I got to thinking about this today while reading User Mag, Taylor Lorenz's superb newsletter, and her reporting on a new AI slop trend, "My neighbor’s ridiculous reason for egging my car":

https://www.usermag.co/p/my-neighbors-ridiculous-reason-for

The "egging my car" slop consists of endless variations on a story in which the poster (generally a figure of sympathy, canonically a single mother of newborn twins) complains that her awful neighbor threw dozens of eggs at her car to punish her for parking in a way that blocked his elaborate Hallowe'en display. The text is accompanied by an AI-generated image showing a modest family car that has been absolutely plastered with broken eggs, dozens upon dozens of them.

According to Lorenz, variations on this slop are topping very large Facebook discussion forums totalling millions of users, like "Movie Character…,USA Story, Volleyball Women, Top Trends, Love Style, and God Bless." These posts link to SEO sites laden with programmatic advertising.

The funnel goes:

i. Create outrage and hence broad reach;

ii, A small percentage of those who see the post will click through to the SEO site;

iii. A small fraction of those users will click a low-quality ad;

iv. The ad will pay homeopathic sub-pennies to the spammer.

The revenue per user on this kind of scam is next to nothing, so it only works if it can get very broad reach, which is why the spam is so designed for engagement maximization. The more discussion a post generates, the more users Facebook recommends it to.

These are very effective engagement bait. Almost all AI slop gets some free engagement in the form of arguments between users who don't know they're commenting an AI scam and people hectoring them for falling for the scam. This is like the free square in the middle of a bingo card.

Beyond that, there's multivalent outrage: some users are furious about food wastage; others about the poor, victimized "mother" (some users are furious about both). Not only do users get to voice their fury at both of these imaginary sins, they can also argue with one another about whether, say, food wastage even matters when compared to the petty-minded aggression of the "perpetrator." These discussions also offer lots of opportunity for violent fantasies about the bad guy getting a comeuppance, offers to travel to the imaginary AI-generated suburb to dole out a beating, etc. All in all, the spammers behind this tedious fiction have really figured out how to rope in all kinds of users' attention.

Of course, the spammers don't get much from this. There isn't such a thing as an "attention economy." You can't use attention as a unit of account, a medium of exchange or a store of value. Attention – like everything else that you can't build an economy upon, such as cryptocurrency – must be converted to money before it has economic significance. Hence that tooth-achingly trite high-tech neologism, "monetization."

The monetization of attention is very poor, but AI is heavily subsidized or even free (for now), so the largest venture capital and private equity funds in the world are spending billions in public pension money and rich peoples' savings into CO2 plumes, GPUs, and botshit so that a bunch of hustle-culture weirdos in the Pacific Rim can make a few dollars by tricking people into clicking through engagement bait slop – twice.

The slop isn't the point of this, but the slop does have the useful function of making the collective ideomotor response visible and thus providing a peek into our hopes and fears. What does the "egging my car" slop say about the things that we're thinking about?

Lorenz cites Jamie Cohen, a media scholar at CUNY Queens, who points out that subtext of this slop is "fear and distrust in people about their neighbors." Cohen predicts that "the next trend, is going to be stranger and more violent.”

This feels right to me. The corollary of mistrusting your neighbors, of course, is trusting only yourself and your family. Or, as Margaret Thatcher liked to say, "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families."

We are living in the tail end of a 40 year experiment in structuring our world as though "there is no such thing as society." We've gutted our welfare net, shut down or privatized public services, all but abolished solidaristic institutions like unions.

This isn't mere aesthetics: an atomized society is far more hospitable to extreme wealth inequality than one in which we are all in it together. When your power comes from being a "wise consumer" who "votes with your wallet," then all you can do about the climate emergency is buy a different kind of car – you can't build the public transit system that will make cars obsolete.

When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about animal cruelty and habitat loss is eat less meat. When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about high drug prices is "shop around for a bargain." When you vote with your wallet, all you can do when your bank forecloses on your home is "choose your next lender more carefully."

Most importantly, when you vote with your wallet, you cast a ballot in an election that the people with the thickest wallets always win. No wonder those people have spent so long teaching us that we can't trust our neighbors, that there is no such thing as society, that we can't have nice things. That there is no alternative.

The commercial surveillance industry really wants you to believe that they're good at convincing people of things, because that's a good way to sell advertising. But claims of mind-control are pretty goddamned improbable – everyone who ever claimed to have managed the trick was lying, from Rasputin to MK-ULTRA:

https://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

Rather than seeing these platforms as convincing people of things, we should understand them as discovering and reinforcing the ideology that people have been driven to by material conditions. Platforms like Facebook show us to one another, let us form groups that can imperfectly fill in for the solidarity we're desperate for after 40 years of "no such thing as society."

The most interesting thing about "egging my car" slop is that it reveals that so many of us are convinced of two contradictory things: first, that everyone else is a monster who will turn on you for the pettiest of reasons; and second, that we're all the kind of people who would stick up for the victims of those monsters.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/29/hobbesian-slop/#cui-bono

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[marciabrady]

Despite poor commentaries throughout the years that seem to be based on prior critiques rather than the actual substance of the original 1937 Princess, Snow White is a very admirable character and has a myriad of positive qualities that make for a great role model. Apart from coping with losing both of her parents at a very young age and being, not only abused by her only parental figure left but also, forced into slavery- by someone who practices magic, no less, someone she had no chance against- Snow White also has a business intelligence. She never, ever expects the dwarfs to take her in out of the goodness of their hearts and just naively depend on the kindness of strangers, nor does she wait for her Prince to save her while she’s stranded in the middle of the woods without food and shelter. 

Actively seeking out a place of refuge, she finds the empty cottage and quickly decides to work for her stay. She identifies a gap she can fill, and applies the skills of cooking and cleaning she’s mastered- not because they’re traditionally feminine activities and this movie is trying to turn back feminism, but because it’s the only trade she knew as a result of being forced into servitude from childhood by another woman- to an environment that’s in dire need of these abilities. With this, she barters an exchange for room and board and convinces a roomful of seven men, who start off not liking her and ascribing their own misogynistic views onto her, in mere minutes to accept her as their equal, as someone who they’re not simply taking pity on and allowing to stay with them, but as a contributing member who earns her keep just as the rest of the house does and is just as worthy of respect. What’s more, Snow White manages to accomplish all this and improve the quality of her life drastically in exchange for the same services she would have been doing anyway if she never left Queen Grimhilde’s castle.

So, in conclusion: by escaping her abusive household and conquering her fear in the forest, Snow White picks herself back up on her feet- after she’s nearly the victim of a homicide- and goes out into the world. She creates a new life for herself by finding a home and shelter, and quantifying her marketable skills to gain effective employment. She never throws around her status as a Princess nor does she expect a pity handout from others. She literally crafts a position for herself that makes her just as worthy of inhabiting the cottage as the Dwarfs by merit of her own hard work and skill- not her beauty, or her privilege, or her birth right as a Princess- and gains their respect, while still being comfortable asserting herself when they try to test her or disregard her authority as their equal. Through her insurmountable ability to rise above her circumstances, her sheer survival skills, and the fact that she literally creates a job for herself to sustain her livelihood, Snow White is a modern woman.

[muffinsin]

ik it says you’re busy so you can ignore this but can you write omega bela x alpha reader but instead of reader being dominant, it’s bela

so kind of like omega power bottom bela x alpha service top reader???

have a good day/night!

Absolutely!👀 this October’s really bringing in the smut XD

Seeing as alpha reader is unspecified imma write them with male genitals/a G!P for the purpose of this

Let’s get into it!🙌

Masterlists

As you work, you find yourself becoming increasingly more and more distracted. You try hard to focus, to ignore all your mind and body is telling you, but your hands tremble as you arrange the papers and your body is breaking out into sweats and shivers.

You feel your cock harden painfully and the hair at the back of your neck stand up. Being in Bela Dimitrescu’s office and asked- no, ordered- to clean up the many papers scattered across desks and window sills across the room, you find yourself barely able to keep it together.

Being an alpha yourself, you’ve found out about her status as an omega long ago. And really, with the many betas and other omegas around at the castle, you never thought it would be much of an issue.

Only does Bela smell much, much nicer than them…

Her mere scent in the air has your cock harden and hands shake, your pulse quicken and balls throb. Far too many nights you spent touching yourself in your bed, biting into your pillow and shamefully jerking yourself off to the thought of her.

Needless to say, you would never actually approach her about this.

Her intelligent, intimidating and cannibalistic nature and her high status and rank within the castle scares away all thought of that easily, after all.

But still, you can’t help but lay in bed dreaming, whimpering to yourself. A hand working furiously between your legs, wishing it was hers. Wishing she was yours, and better yet, that you were hers. Wishing she would push you down and take what she wants, as she effortlessly does in the castle every day.

You want nothing than to be hers, to please her, to be with her, to perhaps even be allowed to lay your claim on her.

Thinking of this has your heart quicken again and you can’t help yourself. Taking a quick glance in her direction to get just a little look at her neck, you freeze immediately upon seeing her stare at you.

Bela walks towards you slowly, her heels clicking against the floor of her office. As if to shield yourself and hide the bulged outline of your hard cock straining against the uniform, you quickly hold a stack of papers in front of your crotch.

The closer she gets, the more you get to smell her.

“Fuck…”, you whisper under your breath, but when she tilts her head to the side, you know she must have heard the phrase still.

When she stands right in front of you, the yearning becomes nearly unbearable. You smell her sweet scent, the sweetest omega scent you’ve smelled in your entire life. It has you shiver and bite your lip, hoping it will keep you from making more noises.

This close, you’re right on face level with her neck, where you seem to almost hear and see her pulse as the blood pumps below. So badly do you want to bite down on the pale flesh, to claim her as yours and be claimed as hers. You’d allow her to do anything, you’d be as good as she expects those around her to be! You know, Bela doesn’t stand for incompetence, after all.

She stands right in front of you at last and you draw in a sharp breath when an ungloved hand comes up to harshly grab at your jaw. Your head is turned a little, her eyes somewhat sharp as she inspects your warm cheeks and listens to your quick heartbeat.

Gripping your jaw a little tighter, she almost seems to test you, and test what you, as an alpha, will do, as though your status would have any relevance in the castle, where it’s so clear the Dimitrescu’s are in charge.

Instead, you only whimper pathetically at her, your body as though on fire from her touch. She’s beautiful, so beautiful, which you finally get to admire now you’re up close to her.

You find, your fantasies could never do her justice.

With bright golden eyes and thick, dark painted lips turned to a scowl, she seems to finish inspecting you. You gasp when the stack of papers is taken from you and her eyes immediately find the bulge in your pants.

“I thought so”, she hums, pleased with herself, as though this was a game she was playing with you. Trembling as she approaches, you feel your body respond and urge you to move, to take, to claim the omega right in front of you.

Only does it seem your body didn’t quite yet get the memo that this is not just any omega, but the Bela Dimitrescu.

And Bela is not so easily taken, nor so easily claimed.

Alas, she’s taken an interest in you.

You’re about to speak up, about to apologize and plead for your life, perhaps even explain, when she suddenly drops her palm to your bulge and all words seem to be taken from you.

You open your mouth, panting and moaning when she squeezes you through the tight pants of your uniform.

She’s so close now, you feel her breasts push up against you.

You yearn to place your hands at her hips, to feel the fabric of her dress, or even better yet; her bare skin. You wonder how she looks below the skin tight dress. Countless nights you’ve spent fantasizing of thrusting between her thick thighs already.

You gasp when sharp, claw-like nails dig into your pants, just above your bulge, and rip at the fabric.

“Take that off, little one”, she speaks. A soft spoken command, but one you follow eagerly still. You squirm out of your pants, groaning in anticipation of what she might to do you. When she merely crosses her arms, clearly displeased and growing impatient, you make quick work of the rest of your clothing, too.

Standing in front of her like this, your power dynamic clear, despite your status as an alpha and hers as an omega.

Her golden eyes flicker to your cock, erect and twitching, drooling some precum already at the mere sight and scent of her. You want to bury yourself inside her so badly, to let her ride and use you as she sees fit. You wonder; will she allow you to cum inside? Will she make you pull out? She’s an omega and mating season is near. Perhaps she will allow you to breed her, if only to relieve the ache she, as all other omegas, must feel.

You watch with wide eyes as she easily swarms out her dress, left only in her choker necklace, a black bra, a pair of black panties connected to the thigh-high stockings by a garter belt and her black heels. Your eyes immediately drop to her breasts and the nipples poking through the fabric.

Immediately, you reach up, yet gasp when a sickle is raised to your throat immediately.

She smirks down at you, walking you back until you squeak as you fall onto the black sofa set against one of the walls in her office. Typically it offers a break for her, perhaps even an opportunity to catch some sleep. Now, it’s clear it will have another use.

She keeps your head tipped up using her sickle, a confident smirk on her dark painted lips. When she leans down and speaks, her words are low and seductive.

“Behave for me, little alpha, won’t you?”

You nod fast, moan openly.

Yes, yes, you will! “Yes, my Lady”, you groan.

Your eyes widen when she lowers herself on you, her legs on either side of your lap, her core, yet covered by her panties, mere inches from your hardened cock.

She moves her head to your neck, humming lowly as her hand drops down and wraps around your cock. At this, her first touch like this, you find yourself at her mercy already. You moan and mewl for her, eyes wide, lips parted. You grip the cushions of the sofa beneath you tightly, your toes curling subtly when she begins to stroke up and down.

“B-Bela”, you moan, only to gasp when she squeezes your cock almost painfully.

“Lady Bela, little one”, she corrects, a playful smirk on her lips. Yes, of course she will keep you. But that doesn’t mean she won’t remind you of your manners. Truly, this is everything she’s ever hoped for. Her status as an omega has always annoyed her, how she’d have to wrestle with the few alphas in the village to get what she wanted, always had to fight off their wandering hands when they believed they were in charge. You submit to her naturally, unable to resist the comfort her domination gives you.

You nod your head fast, already baring your neck to her when her lips move to your jaw and she strokes a little faster. Embarrassingly, pre cum drips from you already. The thought that it’s sticking against Bela’s hand has your head spin.

You moan when soft lips press against your neck first, her tongue darting out to taste your flesh. You know, she has a taste for blood, often seen drinking from unfortunate maidens in the halls, draining them just enough to satisfy her hunger.

How you have always wished it was you….

Now though? You can be.

“Please…”, you moan, your bare skin sporting goosebumps. “Taste”, you beg. You aren’t sure why you’re tempting her like this, why you feel it’s a good idea to tempt a huntress and predator such as Bela.

But your wish is granted, eagerly so, and you’re left moaning and automatically grabbing onto her hips when her sharp teeth dig into your skin.

You feel your balls throb and cock ache, your fingers digging into bare hips lightly. There’s pain, yes, but there’s so much pleasure her bite grants you, too.

You feel almost lost, closing your eyes and groaning lowly. Below your fingertips, her skin is soft, cool, comfortable.

She holds onto your shoulders, slowly hovers above your lap. With your eyes closed and your body responding to her automatically, you have no way of knowing what happens next, have no way of controlling yourself or even to prepare yourself.

Bela pulls aside her panties and sinks down on your dick, her pussy so wet and heavenly, your senses on fire and cock so sensitive already, it’s almost too much.

“A-Ahhh! Too-too-much! I ca-a-AhH!”, you cry out, gritting your teeth and trying to tug her up again when you feel your orgasm approach far too fast. But Bela doesn’t move and only smirks against your lips and coos when she feels warm, wet cum shot inside her warm pussy.

Your body trembles as you cum, your fingertips digging into her soft hips as you pant. Your cheeks are warm and a bright shade of pink, your embarrassment evident.

You could punch yourself, really.

Here you are, getting the chance to be with The Bela Dimitrescu and- you cum instantly?! You could sink into the ground.

Still, Bela doesn’t tease. She giggles and moans, slowly lifting herself and rolling her hips. Your eyes widen and find her beautiful, golden ones, when she begins to ride you as you fantasised her doing so often.

She’s beautiful, her breasts bouncing softly, her hips rolling seductively. Her pussy is just perfect, too, soft and tight, squeezing your cock perfectly with every move. She was wet already, but thanks to the creamy white cum from you, she’s soaked now, each move allowing more wetness to drip from her and run down the sides of your cock.

You feel droplets of blood run down your neck when she pulls away, whine and moan as she easily controls the pace and makes you stay still for her. Despite being the one with the dick, it’s painfully clear that only Bela is the one truly in charge.

“A-Ahhh, fuck…yes…”, you groan, holding onto her a little tighter as she rides you. But she doesn’t allow you to move her, doesn’t allow your grip on her to determine the pace in the slightest. You’re utterly at her mercy, sitting and moaning when she fucks herself on you.

Your eyes drop down to her breasts, bouncing softly as she moves and daring to spill from her black bra already.

This close to her and with her wet walls wrapped around you, you find your head spinning. Your biology demands you to mate, to claim her, to pump her full. Yet you can only moan and whimper for her, beg for all this rather than take her.

And Bela? She finds herself just adoring you.

Your cute little pleas, your sweet voice as you beg her to let you claim her, to let you cum in her again. You beg, plead, whine, moan, gasp out little pleas for her to move faster.

This time, she allows it, and you gasp when nails sink into your shoulders and she rides you faster. Her back is arched, her breasts pushed up against your face. You moan and moan, massaging her soft skin below your fingers.

“A-Ahh, mhmmmm…yes…”

She shakes adorably with you, her thighs trembling, yet she continues.

You’re moaning below her, your face warm, your cock throbbing. You so badly want to keep yourself from cumming, want her to orgasm first, this time, but even in this aspect she dominates you effortlessly.

With her wet pussy and warm, spongy inner walls rubbing up and down against your sensitive cock with every move.

Again, you’re the first to come, burying your face in her chest and moaning hotly against the soft skin. Again, one load of cum after the other is shoot deep in her, coating her pussy in warm, creamy slickness.

She rides you a little more, moaning and gasping above you, her nails digging a little deeper into your shoulders when she finally cums, too, her pussy tightening around you, her back arching beautifully.

It takes you a moment to recover, but eventually you manage to meet her eyes again, your heart beating a little faster when she smirks at you yet again.

She rises from you, your wet cock slapping against yourself when it slips from her wet pussy.

Instead, she abandons her underwear and leans over her desk, her back arched perfectly and her long legs spread. Your head spins and your stomach flips, your chest heaves and you get to your feet eagerly when her fingers spread her pussy lips apart, next, exposing her pink insides.

“Attend me, pet. Deep, and fast, now”, she commands.

Who are you to even think of denying her?

You move fast, immediately walk up to her and line yourself up with her.

You wait for permission, eager to please the beautiful woman, yet your entire body throbs and you shiver in anticipation already.

And when it comes, you can hardly stop yourself.

You move closer immediately, moaning loudly as you thrust deep into her already. Staying true to her instructions, you thrust your hips fast and far, shoving deep inside her wet and warm heat.

While her movements were controlled and dominating, strong and powerful, yours are simply desperate.

You trust fast, whimper and moan as you lean across her. You thrust helplessly, eager to feel her, to mark her. You’re easily getting lost in the feeling, moaning, groaning, your balls slapping against her.

She grips the table tightly, her head turning to you when one of her hands raises to it. “Here, little one”, she commands breathily.

You lean forwards immediately, shivering when you bury yourself inside her to the limit. You feel her warmth, the tight heat around your cock, and your head swims at the possibilities. If she let you, you could breed her, could take the tension you’re sure the omega is feeling.

She grabs you by your hair, tugging to guide your thrusts and speed them up again.

You’re helpless, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Despite being the one thrusting into her, you’re completely submissive, completely hers, rutting your hips forth and back at the pace of which she tugs your hair.

You love it.

Eventually, Bela feels she gets close again, her thighs trembling a little. She’s thankful for the desk underneath her now, knowing her legs might give out from beneath her otherwise.

You hardly fare much better, your cock nearly milked dry from her, sensitive and aching as you thrust your hips faster and faster, moaning and whimpering as you chase your orgasm, too.

“Please, my Lady, please, let me cum, ple-please, inside, please!”, you beg, desperate.

What a beautiful sound it is to her.

Perhaps, she might even grant you your wish…

[mushroomnoodles]

What’s the petrigrof family dynamic like once they return to Ooo and as Morrigan gets older in the WizardBetty Au

after they take the portal back to ooo, simon is welcomed with open arms by marceline, who hes been keeping tabs with using the phone that has service through universes. betty, however, quickly gets overwhelmed and uncomfortable- she hasn't been around this many people in... well, an extremely long time, and it doesn't help that marceline is clearly the little girl she failed to save.

this world is absolutely nothing like the one betty left, either- she's gotten so used to wastelands and being hunted by oozers and wild animals that being completely domestic in a world where she's reasonably safe feels... wrong.

her wizard status is confirmed, and after a few extra tests on her run by pb (due to the fact she fell in the Lich's well) she and simon settle back into the human city with morri.

but even after settling, betty feels the waves of her sadness rise. she's been surviving for so long.. she used to be an extrovert, she used to be so fun loving and free and she was a university student, a budding archeologist.. she's so different now. and she feels alienated doubly by the modern humans. she and simon have a lot of discussions about reopening simon's exhibit in a bigger place; it's good money but they worry for morrigan's safety.

but betty isn't really feeling great. it's her turn to get into a depressive funk.

she gets therapy on simon's suggestion, and it was a lot to get used to, but minerva is helping with her MMS and learning to properly grieve her simon and the world and self she lost.

two years or so after returning to Ooo, simon and betty open up a small museum- a live-in museum house combo dedicated to pre-war humanity, where the front is the museum and the back is the private living space. betty prefers to hang in the back and take care of morri and stuff while simon runs the exhibitation and gives tours- she's still getting used to people, and she's been taking up gardening, knitting, crocheting.. stuff to keep her hands busy.

she also really enjoys trying out new recipes! in the "current" time (where simon is pregnant with baby #2) she's looking forward to growing some actual food that she can cook with this year. she's grown some herbs before but this is the first time she's given veggies a try!

although morri is getting to be a handful.. they're dreadfully curious about everything and betty's really starting to see herself in the little guy.. they're very hands on and intelligent and they surprise her every day with how well articulated and versed they are.

[ramblingoak]

Ratte Art

A little drabble set in an au where Omega runs a coffee shop called The Ghouls Den. (Thank you to the amazing @writingjourney for the art!)

~ Omega helps Copia deal with a customer that doesn't appreciate his latte art ~

Copia x GN Reader (coffeeshop au, background Terzo x Omega, nothing but fluff here, sfw, 1,300 words, not beta read)

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Omega had owned The Ghouls Den for almost 10 years now. 

He named it after the mascot of the local college, a place that held a lot of sentimental value for him.  For almost four years he had been the captain of their rugby team.  It all came crashing down when he’d injured his knee and was told he wouldn’t be able to play his favorite sport ever again.  So he ended up being forced to fall back on the business degree he had half-heartedly been working on.  

The coffee shop was right on the edge of campus.  It was his favorite place to study and eventually the owner threw an apron at him and told him if he was gonna be there all the time he might as well earn some money.  So he slowly began to learn how to make all sorts of caffeinated beverages as well as all the ins and outs of running a coffee shop.  When he graduated the owner offered him a chance to buy the place and Omega couldn’t think of a reason to tell him no.

There was only one thing that would have stopped him from buying the place (besides a severe lack of money).  Although it wasn’t so much a thing as it was a person: Terzo Emeritus.  He and Omega had met in their first year of college and despite a rocky start it didn’t take long for them to realize they were meant for each other.  Terzo was there when Omega hurt his knee and had to face the harsh truth of never playing rugby again and Omega was there when Terzo’s father, Nihil, cut him off.

Thankfully Terzo was an extremely talented artist and with his income from selling his pieces to Omega’s income from The Ghouls Den they both lived a very comfortable life.  Terzo sometimes worked at the shop (although Omega would use the term ‘work’ very loosely), but the majority of the other employees were college students.  His newest employee was hired as a favor for Terzo.  He had waltzed into the shop one day dragging a guy behind him.  Omega had vaguely recognized him, but the sideburns and mustache were definitely new.

College is for experimentation afterall.  

He hadn’t been very confident in Copia’s barista abilities at first.  Or his customer service abilities.  The guy seemed way too anxious for his own good.  After a few extremely iffy shifts Omega had decided to schedule him with Aurora during the mornings.  The perfect companion for Copia while he learned the ropes. She was his best employee, personable and quick.  Although she was a terror with sprinkles and ever since she had started Omega had been forced to double his order for them every week to keep up with her.  

Omega’s biggest worry was how Copia would handle a rude customer.  Most of the folks that came in were pretty chill.  Everyone wanted to be nice to the people providing caffeine.  But every now and then you’d get someone that seemed to be itching for a fight no matter how stupid the reason was.  Unfortunately this morning would be the real test because Omega had been pulled out of his office by the shouts of a woman from the front of the shop.  She was squared off against Copia, wearing a business suit that probably cost more than his monthly rent.  He observed for a few moments to figure out what was going on and once he did, Omega had to turn around to hide his laughter.

“Why would I want a rat in my latte?!”

“Technically it’s on your latte.”

Poor Copia, he seemed genuinely bewildered as to why this woman didn’t like his latte art. 

“Rats are pests!  They’re disgusting!”

Copia immediately straightened up and squared his shoulders.

“Rats are actually some of the most intelligent and cleanest creatures in the world.”

“Well I still don’t want one on my latte.”  While Copia just stood frozen in place Omega could see her gear up and he knew the next thing out of her mouth was gonna involve asking for him so he decided to intervene.

“Is there something I can help you with?”

He had honed his customer service voice many years ago although anyone that knew him well enough could tell he was annoyed.  Aurora was definitely one of those because out of the corner of his eye he saw her turn around, her shoulders shaking with laughter. 

“Yes this idiot seems to think putting a picture of a rat on top of my latte was a good idea.”

He was really glad Terzo wasn’t here right now.  Terzo had a protective streak a mile wide when it came to Copia and Omega knew this woman would’ve been wearing the latte if he had heard her insult his little brother.  Omega was angry enough on his own and all of his fake niceties flew out the window.

“My apologies ma’am, I’m sorry you didn’t like the rat.  We’ll skip the art next time.”

“That’s all I get?  An apology?!  You’re not going to offer to fix it or even refund me?”  

The woman’s voice was getting more shrill with each word and the line of customers behind her was growing.  He always hated dealing with this shit, but he hated giving in to rude people more.   

“You want me to fix it?  Fine.”  Omega reached around Copia and grabbed a small straw.  He plunked it into the cup and gave it a quick stir.  As the poor rat disappeared Copia sighed next to him.  Omega clapped a hand on his back before addressing the woman again.  “There, the rat’s gone.  Next!”

No one in the shop moved for a moment as they waited to see what the woman would do.  Omega was really hoping he wouldn’t have to call campus security on her.  When she finally moved it was to dump the latte all over the counter.  With a frustrated growl she turned and started shoving past the other customers towards the door.  She had just made it outside when Aurora shoved her way in between Omega and Copia, shouting after her as loud as she could.

“Have the day you deserve!”  The woman’s gasp was cut off as the door shut behind her.  “What a bitch.  I can help the next customer!”

Aurora gave Copia a quick hug and then scooted back to her register.  Copia was quiet as he grabbed some towels and started to sop up the spilled mess.

“Hey, you ok Copia?” 

“Si, si.  I’m fine.”  

Omega was pretty sure he wasn’t fine, but he didn’t want to push.  

“Don’t let someone like that bother you.  They just enjoy making everyone around them miserable.”  Copia nodded as he finished wiping the counter off.  “But maybe don’t do any more rat art, ok?”

“Yeah, you’re prob—“

“Actually I’d love a rat on my latte!”  Omega, Copia and Aurora all turned to stare at the customer that had spoken up.  They actually appeared to be blushing a bit when their eyes met Copia’s.  With a little shrug they walked up to the counter.  “Rats are my favorite animal.”

Copia’s mouth fell open and Omega was pretty sure if this was a cartoon there would be hearts coming out of the younger Emeritus’s eyes.  Another good reason Terzo wasn’t here.  The teasing would be relentless.  Omega would have to use some of his old rugby moves to make sure Terzo didn’t try to “assist” his little brother with whatever this might be and judging by how Copia and the customer were looking at each other this was definitely going to be something.

Omega knocked his shoulder against Copia’s and gave him a wink when he looked up at him.    

“One ratte coming up.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

P.S. Ratte is rat in German (thank you again @writingjourney 🤣)

If you'd like to see more from this au let me know!

my masterlist

my ao3

[cyberstudious]

An Introduction to Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is all about securing technology and processes - making sure that the software, hardware, and networks that run the world do exactly what they need to do and can't be abused by bad actors.

The CIA triad is a concept used to explain the three goals of cybersecurity. The pieces are:

Confidentiality: ensuring that information is kept secret, so it can only be viewed by the people who are allowed to do so. This involves encrypting data, requiring authentication before viewing data, and more.

Integrity: ensuring that information is trustworthy and cannot be tampered with. For example, this involves making sure that no one changes the contents of the file you're trying to download or intercepts your text messages.

Availability: ensuring that the services you need are there when you need them. Blocking every single person from accessing a piece of valuable information would be secure, but completely unusable, so we have to think about availability. This can also mean blocking DDoS attacks or fixing flaws in software that cause crashes or service issues.

What are some specializations within cybersecurity? What do cybersecurity professionals do?

incident response

digital forensics (often combined with incident response in the acronym DFIR)

reverse engineering

cryptography

governance/compliance/risk management

penetration testing/ethical hacking

vulnerability research/bug bounty

threat intelligence

cloud security

industrial/IoT security, often called Operational Technology (OT)

security engineering/writing code for cybersecurity tools (this is what I do!)

and more!

Where do cybersecurity professionals work?

I view the industry in three big chunks: vendors, everyday companies (for lack of a better term), and government. It's more complicated than that, but it helps.

Vendors make and sell security tools or services to other companies. Some examples are Crowdstrike, Cisco, Microsoft, Palo Alto, EY, etc. Vendors can be giant multinational corporations or small startups. Security tools can include software and hardware, while services can include consulting, technical support, or incident response or digital forensics services. Some companies are Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), which means that they serve as the security team for many other (often small) businesses.

Everyday companies include everyone from giant companies like Coca-Cola to the mom and pop shop down the street. Every company is a tech company now, and someone has to be in charge of securing things. Some businesses will have their own internal security teams that respond to incidents. Many companies buy tools provided by vendors like the ones above, and someone has to manage them. Small companies with small tech departments might dump all cybersecurity responsibilities on the IT team (or outsource things to a MSSP), or larger ones may have a dedicated security staff.

Government cybersecurity work can involve a lot of things, from securing the local water supply to working for the big three letter agencies. In the U.S. at least, there are also a lot of government contractors, who are their own individual companies but the vast majority of what they do is for the government. MITRE is one example, and the federal research labs and some university-affiliated labs are an extension of this. Government work and military contractor work are where geopolitics and ethics come into play most clearly, so just… be mindful.

What do academics in cybersecurity research?

A wide variety of things! You can get a good idea by browsing the papers from the ACM's Computer and Communications Security Conference. Some of the big research areas that I'm aware of are:

cryptography & post-quantum cryptography

machine learning model security & alignment

formal proofs of a program & programming language security

security & privacy

security of network protocols

vulnerability research & developing new attack vectors

Cybersecurity seems niche at first, but it actually covers a huge range of topics all across technology and policy. It's vital to running the world today, and I'm obviously biased but I think it's a fascinating topic to learn about. I'll be posting a new cybersecurity masterpost each day this week as a part of the #StudyblrMasterpostJam, so keep an eye out for tomorrow's post! In the meantime, check out the tag and see what other folks are posting about :D

[saucyjothoughts]

I know this is such a weird request ,but I've asked who of them would be most likely to be a sperm donor ?

I think Jure.

I completely agree with your assumption of Jure, Anonyboo! Unfortunately, I went way too far with Bojan's answer.

Jure: has absolutely donated anonymously to a fertility service on several occasions. He was just upset they wouldn't let him write his own bio in the catalogue. "Sexy successful rockstar offers premium spunk for prospective parents seeking highly intelligent, GSOH, golden complexion, built-like-a-greek-god offspring. Superb genetics - come and get 'em."

Nace: might donate for a loved one through the proper medical channels, though he definitely wants to raise his own biological kids too and might be cautious of the implications. Would not donate to an anonymous fertility service.

Jan: would consider doing this for a loved one but would prefer to avoid getting doctors involved. Would be really chill about passing on his genes (he's just giving you some gloop in a pot, whatever happens after that is none of his business) until he sees the kid.

Kris: might donate to an anonymous service out of the goodness of his heart to help people who need it. Doing it for someone he knows, however, would have too many emotional complications.

Bojan: one of his best friends has a favour to ask. No, it's not the sort of thing they can ask over the phone. If they fly in, can they meet him for coffee? No, don't be nervous. It's a good favour.

So they want a baby. Except they have no intention of finding a life partner first and want to raise it on their own. Bojan begins to figure out where they're going with this. So... will he help a buddy out? He doesn't need to be involved after the conception, it would purely be a genetic gift. But they want to do it naturally if possible. Yes, that naturally.

The friendship has skirted the edge of something else before, maybe they've even been physical together. It wouldn't have to mean anything, it's just about baby making. So, Bojan - what do you think? You don't have to decide right away.

Around the most suitable dates, Bojan's friend makes another trip to Ljubljana.

The first time is awkward. They're friends, it doesn't feel like sex. Bojan's body doesn't want to. It almost ends with nothing, they almost call it off. But decide to spend the night together anyway, just catching up. Just getting physically comfortable with each other. A cuddle, a kiss. Someone has an orgasm by hand. No one gets pregnant.

The second time is better. Bojan is having fun, this feels like a good idea. Their baby is going to be so pretty, and conceived naturally in a cosy room full of affection and respect.

The third and fourth times are better still and by the fifth, Bojan wonders why they never thought of doing this before. They're so good at it.

It doesn't stick.

So next month, his friend makes another trip. All these plane tickets are still cheaper than IVF.

By now, Bojan has almost forgotten it isn't just a date, a dirty weekend. He's almost forgotten they have a job to do. Until his friend is lying on their back, their hips lifted, trying to keep everything inside, to let Bojan's seed find it's way. He looks after them, keeping them away from cigarettes and alcohol and making sure they don't do anything too strenuous and that they take their vitamins. He asks them if they're hoping for a boy or a girl. If they've thought of names. They're going to be the most wonderful parent.

This time, it sticks.

Bojan gets a very loud, enthusiastic facetime, the test being thrust up towards the camera so it's not even in focus but Bojan knows exactly what it means. It worked! There's a little baby growing in there! Bojan is going to be a da- no. He's a sperm donor.

And his friend has no reason to visit any more. Not now that Bojan has completed his promise. It was just a favour to a buddy, that's all. He doesn't have to be involved after the conception.

His job is done.

It's over.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matt Gertz at MMFA:

If Donald Trump returns to the White House, the fate of the U.S. press may rest on whether corporate executives who control mammoth multimedia conglomerates are willing to prioritize the journalistic credibility of the news outlets they oversee over their own business interests. 

Trump will put wealthy media magnates to the test, forcing them to decide whether they are willing to suffer painful consequences for keeping their outlets free of influence, or whether they will either compel their journalists to knuckle under or sell their outlets to someone who will. Trump spent his presidency demanding that his administration target his perceived political enemies with federal pressure — from regulatory action to criminal investigations — and says he would be even less restrained in enacting “retribution” in a second term. 

In recent months, prominent commentators have warned that the press could become such a target of Trump, whose own former top aides describe him as a fascist. New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger, in an extraordinary warning in the pages of The Washington Post, wrote last month that Trump takes as his model Hungary’s autocrat Viktor Orbán, who has “effectively dismantled the news media in his country” as “a central pillar of Orbán’s broader project to remake his country as an ‘illiberal democracy.’”  These fears that Trump would use a second term to crack down on the press are rational. The former president demands sycophantic coverage and describes those who do not provide it as the “enemy of the people.” Trump’s rhetoric and record show that he is keenly aware of the vulnerabilities some news outlets have and is eager to exploit them if he returns to the White House.

[...]

Corporate media owners are vulnerable to Trump’s pressure — and some are already bending

Trump’s presidency revealed the dark playbook he and his allies use against perceived enemies such as individual journalists. Its potential tactics include publicly denouncing reporters, stripping them of access, inciting supporters to target them with violence, threatening them with investigation, and sending federal agencies like the Justice Department after them. These heinous maneuvers could and likely would be used against journalists in a second Trump term.

But perhaps the greater threat to the free press as an institution comes from Trump’s ability to target for retaliation the corporate barons who control the newspapers, broadcast and cable networks, and other outlets that employ those journalists. While some publications like the Times are functionally standalone journalism businesses, many others are either small divisions within massive multimedia companies whose executives are ultimately responsible to stockholders or privately held entities that represent a tiny fraction of their owner’s assets. 

CNN is part of Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company that also owns film and TV studios, streaming services, and a host of other businesses.  Comcast provides cable and internet services to consumers and owns and operates broadcast and cable TV channels and a movie studio, in addition to overseeing NBC News and MSNBC.  CBS News is owned by Paramount Global. ABC News is part of the Walt Disney Co. 

Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post (where my wife works as letters and community editor) but his billions come from founding Amazon, which is the nation’s second-largest private employer with subsidiaries in industries from online retail to web services, artificial intelligence to groceries. Patrick Soon-Shiong used a fraction of the wealth he earned in biotech to purchase the Los Angeles Times. Trump understands that those broader corporate structures create a host of potential vulnerabilities an authoritarian president with no interest in preserving the rule of law could utilize against the owners of news outlets that displease him. Individuals and corporations that own major news outlets have other business interests that may rely on government contracts or federal patents or regulators who oversee their mergers and acquisitions and other practices.

The former president knows that even if journalists want to stand up to him, he can force their outlets to change course by threatening corporate executives and owners who have different priorities.  Trump does not just lash out at the Post — he targets the “Amazon Washington Post.” When he goes after NBC and MSNBC, he calls out Comcast’s CEO by name. He shares attacks on Disney’s Bob Iger as part of his war on ABC News.  He is telegraphing the future trouble he may bring down on the corporate owners if they do not bring their news outlets to heel — and forcing those owners to determine how much pain they are willing to endure over a division that likely provides a small fraction of the overall corporation's revenues.

Corporate executives also know that there are rewards for knuckling under and following the paths of avowed pro-Trump figures like Rupert Murdoch, whose multimedia empire includes right-wing fixtures Fox News and the New York Post, and David Smith, whose Sinclair Broadcasting Group is a telecommunications giant that owns and programs scores of TV stations. Both received favorable regulatory treatment during Trump’s presidency.

Matt Gertz wrote in MMFA today that Donald Trump and his cronies seek to silence adversarial “truth to power” journalism just like what Orbán, Chávez, and Erdoğan did to the press opposed to them.

[eretzyisrael]

For those who don't have X/twitter:

IMPORTANT TO READ

How much money does every American citizen pay to Israel every year out of his taxpayer's money?

US population is approximately 300 million, or 0.3 billion people.

US government invests approximately $3.8 billion per year into Israel. Do the math: $3.8 / 0.3 = $12.6 — that’s more or less the price of a 2 x 6-pack of Budweiser in 16-oz cans, a year.

75% of the aid must be spent in the US, which means the purchase of US military technology.

HOWEVER, HERE COMES THE IMPORTANT PART TO READ AND SHARE BECAUSE YOU WON’T GET IT FROM JOURNALISTS.

1.) The aid money sent as coupons to be spent in the US returns to the US as wages. Wages to workers at various companies, who then purchase from local business in the US, food, goods, entertainment and other items and services. It comes with further strings attached preventing Israel competing with US firms and further enhancing US profits.

2.) The US in return gets billions a year in recommendations for improvements to that technology as the Israelis use it—some of those improvements are saving US lives in other places. (Israel gets weapons, do thousands of man-hours to upgrade it for the Americans.

Since often the opponents of Israel use Russian weapons, the US gets the intelligence on the capabilities of those Russian systems as to keep ahead of Russian technology that might be used against the US. Similarly the US gets the benefit of Israeli technology in missile defense, which has saved the US billions in development.

In other words, Israel is a significant test bed for US military hardware. For example, it was mostly Israeli-flown but US-built F-15 fighter jets that accrued the F-15’s enviable record.

Further, Israeli intelligence services augment the CIA and have been considered VASTLY superior to the CIA capabilities in our part of the world—saving the US billions.

Further Israel has been a tool for US policy, such as mobilizing to prevent the overthrow of Jordan’s government during a planned Syrian intervention in a civil war, and information to governments as to terrorist attacks and assassinations planned on friendly nations.

The US has no troops in Israel, like it does to protect allies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Japan, Germany, South Korea. The aid to Israel is cheaper, and no US soldiers are put in harms way.

(The cost of maintaining a US military presence in Germany and Japan, very wealthy nations which exist in much less volatile or strategic regions, is estimated to cost US taxpayers at least $20 billion per year for each nation. Israel is quite a bargain in comparison.)

BUT THAT’S NOT THE END.

3.) If America will stop the aid, the US military production will collapse. Tens of thousands of Americans (approx. 50,000) will loose their jobs, and US military will be required to use outdated military equipment because America doesn’t have wars and won’t create wars in order to test weapons.

For this purpose America has Israel, Ukraine, and other places including Colombia, Ethiopia.

4.) Note that Israel is a wealthy country. $3.8 billion of aid is about 1% of Israeli budget, and about 10% of Israeli defense budget. Without American taxpayer money, Israeli army would be almost as powerful as it is now. We don’t really have a powerful army because of an over-abundance of wealth from foreign aid.

We have a powerful army much because of an over-abundance of enemies.

Food for thought. So to all the “journalists” fearmongers who warn about some crisis between the states, not gonna happen. Chill. 🫵🏻

Send this to Kamala Harris and to pro-Hamas ISIS rioters and ignorants from New-York.

[sorcerous-caress]

You've sucked me into the human kink, I have been bewitched <3 tmi but my new go to spank material is that I'm an adventuring party's precious lil cleric, especially in a group of butch warrior women. I offer full body ;) care and they reward me for my services with orgasms and protection.

With a stoic stone butch Half-Orc ranger serving as our leader, an older playful dwarven woman as our fighter, the party rogue is a surprisingly bashful tiefling, there's a mean hard dom drow lady who is our magical expert wizard, and a dragonborn Paladin of the same deity who can be especially protective.

After a very successful job we all rent a big room in a tavern and they all run a train on me..... okay I'll see myself out

Each time I try to write about cleric reader, i get flashbacks to playing squishy supports in moba games where the enemy runs a train on me under the turrent with my useless adc spamming "sup dif"

Maybe if our jungler wasn't busy sucking the mid off, then they'd have had a bit of time to disway the enemy jungler from blowing my guts. Idk what the top is doing honestly, they're in their own world half of the game. Who are they even fighting? The enemy top is right here under the turrent cucking my adc by wave stallling.

But anyway, cleric human let's go.

Imagine it was originally just you and one of them at the start. A new adventuring team, a half-orc ranger, and her precious human healer who tends to her every need and fawns over her every cut and scar.

The second you walked into that adventuring guild, you didn't even get to have a look around before this intimidation half-orc woman approched you. Her tusks were so big and sharp, het gaze sends chills down your spines and her biceps were easily the size of your head.

It was obvious you were a cleric from the way you dressed. The holy clothes, the innocent attire and the cute necklace with a symbol of your god on it. The spellbook you clutched to so adorably as if it will protect you from the dangers of the world outside.

The second she saw you enter, she knew the others here would be swarming you like flies. Everyone wants a healer but nobody wants to be the healer, everyone wants to be the hero of the story.

Not her tho, she never did this for the fame, glory, or gold. She truly was it in for the betterment of the world, no matter how much her own kind is viewed as evil and self serving, she did not care for what others think of her, she'll gladly crush their skulls with her bare hands.

So she tested you as she stood in front of you, not saying a word and watching your reaction closely. Will you run away from this scary half-orc with tears on your pretty cheeks and go hide behind the first human fighter you could spot?

But no. You didn't. Instead, you've only extended your hand to her with a friendly smile. Introducing yourself and asking for her own name. You also spoke normally, unlike how others, especially elves, tend to talk to her own kind with slow condcending words as if she was a brute who didn't understand basic language.

With her by your side, no one else dared to approach you in the guild hall. She walked you through the process of registering as an adventurer, making sure to explain everything you didn't understand and answer all of your questions. Clearly taking pride in showing off her intelligence as a high level ranger.

That's how the two of you met, and since that day she has been by your side. She was clever and knew how to win fights before they even started, a true warrior of the mind that could trick her enemies into walking straight into traps.

But even then, some fights she had to face head on and take the hits meant for you. She always made you her top priority to protect, even sometimes forsaking the mission for your own safety and carrying you away.

At night, the two of you sit around the fire. Her familiar companion cuddling into her side, with you in her arms as you doze off in the safety of her lap.

Then, eventually, someone else approaches the two of you in the guild after turning in a certain mission. A drow wizard with her expensive looking dress walking towards you with confidence.

Staring the two of you down, her confidence didn't falter even after meeting the half-orc eyes. But she did give a small smile towards you, reaching out and holding your chin in her fingers. Turning your face from side to side as she took in your features in great details.

Your half-orc companion got agitated at this strange woman thinking she had the right to just walk up to and touch you. Almost slapping her hand away, wasn't it for the drow pulling back her hand first.

Her next words, are her announcing the fact she is joining your party, human.

[seumyo]

OMGGG CONGRATS ON 1K EUMY MY LOVE!!! im beyond words that describe happy for u ur such a sweetheart u deserve it sm<3 I SAW THE SCRAPBOOKS POST AND ID LOVE A SHOTO TODOROKI ONE!!!! 💗

im an enfp so im a loud extrovert, and i try to make sure ppl dont feel awkward or embarrassed around me bc im 10x worse HAHA 😭 i have insane attachment issues like i was crying so hard when my friend ignored me for a day. big lover with big emotions, hopefully that counts as an emotional intelligent person hehe<3

i am also a complete art kid and i never stop drawing, im also in choir and stage band so im basically all of the above (except sports. does watching haikyuu count?🤔) HAHAHAHA

id love a little description about our dynamic or something!!🥹 and be free w ur colour palette and do what u think deems best 🗣️!!! a song would be velvet ring by big thief, one of my favs rn<3

THANK USM EUMY UR THE SWEETEST AND ONCE AGAIN CONGRATUALTIONS ON THAT DESERVED 1K!!!

ᯓ★ SHOTO + SAKU!

★ Todoroki Shouto hated did not like you at first. The first time you two met in U.A., not once did he glance in your direction. Don’t take it too personally, he’s battling inner turmoil stemming from his complicated family life and upbringing.

★ Skipping to when he does warm up to the rest of the class, he still keeps his distance from them as he tries to test the waters. Now, you, dear Saku, are the first to invite him to have lunch together via the crumpled paper you left on his desk during free period (he almost threw it in the trash, but he telephatically felt your distress thought it might contain something important, so he decided to read it). He accepts, of course.

★ Lunch together was awkward, but Todoroki appreciates your effort to fill in his shortcomings in the conversation. So to say, he just listens to you while you ramble about anything and everything.

★ When he gets home that night, he definitely tells Fuyumi that someone invited him to eat together at lunch, and that it was nice. He doesn’t realize that he kept your note neatly folded in his wallet.

★ Do you know the concept of personal space? Todoroki does not. Whenever you’re doing something, whether it’s doodling or writing notes, he will peer over and check whatever it is that you’re doing. Completely unaware that he, too, has attachment issues (trust).

★ “Am I too close? I’m sorry, I didn’t notice.” And you guys were inches from kissing each other!

★ Romantically, it takes him a long time to understand that what he was feeling is clearly not platonic anymore. But when he does realize thus, he skips the steps in his head and wants to spend the rest of his days with you (you’re not even dating yet, and he’s already thinking of the future ten years later). Todoroki’s hesitant to engage in a romantic relationship because he thinks that you deserve someone who wouldn’t hesitate to court you and love you openly (he’s worried that he’ll end up like his father).

★ The initial dynamic is someone who talks a lot and the other listens (with the most lovestruck eyes yet still unnoticeable). When you do get into a relationship, he’ll still treat you just like when you were friends, but with a bit more effort to show you how much he cares. Acts of service & Quality Time are his love languages. This man is your ride-or-die forever and would go through lengths just to spend time with you (cue to Todoroki just appearing by your side whenever you’re not busy).

★ Whenever Todoroki talks to other people, it’ll always be, “Oh, where are Saku and the others?” You will always be the first person that comes out of his mouth, an unconscious habit of his.

★ Matching bag charms, candid photos (of him, mostly), handwritten notes that are passed to each other during class, enjoying each other’s company even if you two are just walking to the cafeteria together or him waiting for you to tie your shoelaces (he does them himself further into the relationship), finding out that Todoroki kept most of the things you gave him (especially your little notes and doodles), and the tips of his ears turn a bit reddish whenever he’s flustered—and you’re the only one to notice because it only happens when he’s with you.

[elsa16744]

Big Data and AI: The Perfect Partnership for Future Innovations 

Innovation allows organizations to excel at differentiation, boosting competitive advantages. Amid the growth of industry-disrupting technologies, big data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) professionals want to support brands seeking bold design, delivery, and functionality ideas. This post discusses the importance of big data and AI, explaining why they matter to future innovations and business development. 

Understanding Big Data and AI 

Big data is a vast data volume, and you will find mixed data structures because of continuous data collection involving multimedia data objects. A data object or asset can be a document, an audio track, a video clip, a photo, or identical objects with special file formats. Since big data services focus on sorting and exploring data objects’ attributes at an unprecedented scale, integrating AI tools is essential. 

Artificial intelligence helps computers simulate human-like thinking and idea synthesis capabilities. Most AI ecosystems leverage advanced statistical methods and machine learning models. Their developers train the AI tools to develop and document high-quality insights by processing unstructured and semi-structured data objects. 

As a result, the scope of big data broadens if you add AI integrations that can determine data context. Businesses can generate new ideas instead of recombining recorded data or automatically filter data via AI-assisted quality assurances. 

Why Are Big Data and AI Perfect for Future Innovations? 

1| They Accelerate Scientific Studies  

Material sciences, green technology projects, and rare disorder research projects have provided humans with exceptional lifestyle improvements. However, as markets mature, commoditization becomes inevitable. 

At the same time, new, untested ideas can fail, attracting regulators’ dismay, disrespecting consumers’ beliefs, or hurting the environment. Additionally, bold ideas must not alienate consumers due to inherent complexity. Therefore, private sector stakeholders must employ scientific methods to identify feasible, sustainable, and consumer-friendly product ideas for brand differentiation.  

AI-powered platforms and business analytics solutions help global corporations immediately acquire, filter, and document data assets for independent research projects. For instance, a pharmaceutical firm can use them during clinical drug formulations and trials, while a car manufacturer might discover efficient production tactics using AI and big data. 

2| Brands Can Objectively Evaluate Forward-Thinking Business Ideas 

Some business ideas that a few people thought were laughable or unrealistic a few decades ago have forced many brands and professionals to abandon conventional strategies. Consider how streaming platforms’ founders affected theatrical film releases. They have reduced the importance of box office revenues while increasing independent artists’ discoverability. 

Likewise, exploring real estate investment opportunities on a tiny mobile or ordering clothes online were bizarre practices, according to many non-believers. They also predicted socializing through virtual reality (VR) avatars inside a computer-generated three-dimensional space would attract only the tech-savvy young adults. 

Today, customers and investors who underestimated those innovations prefer religiously studying how disrupting startups perform. Brands care less about losing money than missing an opportunity to be a first mover for a niche consumer base. Similarly, rejecting an idea without testing it at least a few times has become a taboo. 

Nobody can be 100% sure which innovation will gain global momentum, but AI and big data might provide relevant hints. These technologies are best for conducting unlimited scenario analyses and testing ideas likely to satisfy tomorrow’s customer expectations. 

3| AI-Assisted Insight Explorations Gamifies Idea Synthesis 

Combining a few ideas is easy but finding meaningful and profitable ideas by sorting the best ones is daunting. Innovative individuals must embrace AI recommendations to reduce time spent on brainstorming, product repurposing, and multidisciplinary collaborations. Furthermore, they can challenge themselves to find ideas better than an AI tool. 

Gamification of brainstorming will facilitate a healthy pursuit of novel product features, marketing strategies, and customer journey personalization. Additionally, incentivizing employees to leverage AI and big data to experiment with designing methods provides unique insights for future innovations. 

4| You Can Optimize Supply Chain Components with Big Data and AI Programs 

AI can capture extensive data on supply chains and offer suggestions on alternative supplier relations. Therefore, businesses will revise supply and delivery planning to overcome the flaws in current practices. 

For instance, Gartner awarded Beijing’s JD.com the Technology Innovation Award in 2024 because they combined statistical forecasting. The awardee has developed an explainable artificial intelligence to enhance its supply chain. Other finalists in this award category were Google, Cisco, MTN Group, and Allina Health. 

5| Academia Can Embrace Adaptive Learning and Psychological Well-Being 

Communication barriers and trying to force all learners to follow the standard course material based on a fixed schedule have undermined educational institutions’ goals worldwide. Understandably, expecting teachers to customize courses and multimedia assets for each student is impractical and humanly infeasible. 

As a result, investors, policymakers, parents, and student bodies seek outcome-oriented educational innovations powered by AI and big data for a learner-friendly, inclusive future. For instance, some edtech providers use AI computer-aided learning and teaching ecosystems leveraging videoconferencing, curriculum personalization, and psycho-cognitive support. 

Adaptive learning applications build student profiles and segments like marketers’ consumer categorizations. Their AI integrations can determine the ideal pace for teaching, whether a student exhibits learning disabilities, and whether a college or school has adequate resources. 

Challenges in Promoting Innovations Based on Big Data and AI Use Cases 

Encouraging stakeholders to acknowledge the need for big data and AI might be challenging. After all, uninformed stakeholders are likely to distrust tech-enabled lifestyle changes. Therefore, increasing AI awareness and educating everyone on data ethics are essential. 

In some regions, the IT or network infrastructure necessary for big data is unavailable or prone to stability flaws. This issue requires more investments and talented data specialists to leverage AI tools or conduct predictive analyses. 

Today’s legal frameworks lack provisions for regulating AI, big data, and scenario analytics. So, brands are unsure whether expanding data scope will get public administrators’ approvals. Lawmakers must find a balanced approach to enable AI-powered big data innovations without neglecting consumer rights or “privacy by design” principles. 

Conclusion 

The future of enterprise, institutional, and policy innovations lies in responsible technology implementations. Despite the obstacles, AI enthusiasts are optimistic that more stakeholders will admire the potential of new, disruptive technologies. 

Remember, gamifying how your team finds new ideas or predicting the actual potential of a business model necessitates AI’s predictive insights. At the same time, big data will offer broader perspectives on global supply chains and how to optimize a company’s policies. 

Lastly, academic improvements and scientific research are integral to developing sustainable products, accomplishing educational objectives, and responding to global crises. As a result, the informed stakeholders agree that AI and big data are perfect for shaping future innovations.  

[morningstartranslation]

5 Reasons Why You Should Be Careful About Machine Translation

Machine translation (MT) usually refers to using algorithms and machine learning (ML) models to translate natural language text from one language to another without human intervention. The most common MT examples include but are not limited to Google Translate, Bing Microsoft Translator, Amazon Translate and DeepL.

With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT, many industries face unprecedented challenges, and the translation industry hasn't been spared. Taking efficiency and cost into consideration, more and more business clients tend to use machine translation to complete their projects.

However, is it always a wise choice? Here are 5 reasons why you should be careful about machine translation:

① Cultural Accuracy: Every culture possesses unique lexical terms, slang, and colloquialisms that machines haven't shown the capability to translate yet, inaccurate translations may lead to poor interpretation of your brand, vision, market position and business strategies.

② Human Touch: Human translation goes through a time-tested process of multiple editing and proofreading to ensure that the translation isn't only grammatically correct and readable, but always enhanced for the target audience. On the contrary, machine translation can only generate simple, toneless text, it's fast and budget-friendly, but it can never be intriguing.

③ Flexibility: Language is constantly evolving, one single term may have entirely different meanings in different contexts, let alone phrases, sentences or even longer paragraphs. MT tools can only generate translations based on the known corpus, they can't predict and correct specific grammatical and cultural errors like human do.

④ Layout: Good translation takes time, so does formatting/layout. When we assess the quality of translation, formatting/layout also palys an important part. Unfortunately, almost all MT tools can't handle this properly, they just ignore it or put some illustrative texts instead.

⑤ Confidentiality: As a responsible language service provider, we should never disclose customer information to any unauthorised third party. But as far as I am aware, some MT tools, especially ChatGPT, may collect and store different kinds of user input, which can be a great security risk for businesses.

In short, it's OK to use MT tools in less important content (i.e., content that does not require translation precision and extensive copywriting). But when it comes to business documents or audience-facing content, there is nothing can beat human translation.

Visit https://www.morningstartranslation.com/ to learn more.

[total-drama-takes-takes-2]

tta episode 9

“Last time, on Total Takes Action: our remaining players competed in an all-out chick flick extravaganza, complete with the infamous makeover scene and a climatic test of intelligence and cunning- in the end, Scary subverted the trope expectations and won immunity, but not without throwing a world-class tantrum first. Sha-Mod ended up voting himself out to protect his identity, leaving only six players behind. Who will be walking the plank today? And who will be taking one step closer to the grand prize of one million dollars? Find out now, on Total! Takes! Island!”

Thunder rumbles overhead Toronto, and this season, it’s not the result of Chris’ scientific tampering. A thick fleet of rain pours down over the film lot, casting everything in a filter of gray.

As per usual, Scruffy is up bright and early (though it’s not very bright today) for their daily pre-challenge training. It’s hardly five in the morning and they’re already dressed, stretching in the boys and such trailer and jogging in place as they brush their teeth in the communal bathrooms.

As they spit out a mouthful of toothpaste, a loud shriek makes them jump.

“Oh, no! The challenge is starting already?” They throw their toothbrush carelessly and run outside. “I didn’t even run my 85 laps around the set yet!”

They throw open the bathroom door and step into the rain to see… a pile of suitcases, clothes, and furnishings on the grass.

A microwave flies out of the girls’ and such trailer and lands on the mountain of things. Peter pokes his head out of the adjacent mobile home and he ducks just in time for a fork to go flying overhead.

“What on earth?” Scruffy scratches their chin.

Their question answers itself, though, as Scary storms out, tugging at their blonde hair with a wild expression on their face. “CHRIS!”

The intercom crackles to life, the feedback making everyone cover their ears for protection as it squeals. “Yeeeees?”

“I KNOW YOU’RE BEHIND THIS!”

Scruffy jogs over to the doorway and hovers in front of Scary. “What’s up?”

“That weasel took my notes- all of the notes I’ve been taking since we got here!” she groans. “This wouldn’t have happened if you were pulling your weight around here!”

“Hey, I’m staying in the game. Isn’t that enough?”

“No!”

“Well, this has been heartwarming,” Chris’ voice blares. “But you’re not so special, Scary- if everyone would please check their belongings...”

Scruffy thinks for a moment, and then pats their pockets. “My whistle!”

Peter digs around his shirt. “My girlfriend!”

A piercing shriek, louder than both Scary and the intercom feedback, makes everyone wince. Fren dashes out of the trailer, dumping an empty drawer on the ground. “My clothes! That sadist took my clothes!” he drops to his knees and cries out to the heavens as the rain pours down. “THAT MONSTER!”

Max stands in the doorway of the trailer, rolling his eyes.

---

MAX: “So, Chris took some stuff. Big deal. This is probably some dumb pirate treasure hunt episode, and at the end of the challenge he’ll reveal he actually burned all of our things and the grand prize is a bag of chips,” he sighs. “Still, it’d be nice if he chose something other than my shoes to take.”

---

The rain continues pouring down on camp, the water pooling on the top of the craft services tent and weighing down on it. O watches the rain indent the fabric and grits his teeth nervously.

No one else seems to notice, though, as they’re all busy dealing with the recoil from their missing necessities. Scary is hurriedly leafing through a physics book, surrounded by other open editions, Fren has had to substitute his usual flair for plain black clothes lended by the interns, and Max is wearing a pair of O’s sneakers.

Only Scruffy still seems chipper, hurriedly weaving something out of grass.

---

SCRUFFY: “In preparation for Total Takes Island, I took a weaving class, a spinning class, a sewing class, and swim aerobics. That last one was free,”

---

They finish their creation, and hold up a tiny horn as a whistle substitute. “Alright, I’m up! If I'm fast, I'll get 30 in before the challenge!” they shout, standing and jogging outside for their laps.

Fren nervously twirls a strand of hair around his finger at one end of the long table. He looks down at his outfit, then back up around the room, then to the camera. “Please tell me the cameras are still capturing my colors?”

The camera man shakes his head. Fren sighs.

Peter walks over and sets his breakfast tray on the table next to Fren. “Everything okay?”

He puts on a smile and looks up. “Great!”

Peter doesn’t look quite convinced, but doesn’t push, anyway. “Hey, wait, didn’t you once design a whole fashion line out of palm leaves and dental floss?”

“This is different!"

Max raises an eyebrow from across the table. The intercom crackles to life and Chris’ voice blares over the sound of the rain.

“Good morning, victims! Get your butts outside the craft services tent, ASAP!”

Scruffy groans from afar.

---

The small group of campers huddles outside the trailers, looking between each other as they’re drenched in rain. Chris, decked out in a raincoat and holding an umbrella, smiles warmly.

“Great weather we’re having, huh?”

“Cut to the chase,” Scary’s eyes narrow.

He chuckles. “Alright, alright. Today’s challenge is simple- or is it? This episode is all about mystery, suspense, and the unknown,”

Max pipes up from the back, eyes wide. “You don’t mean?”

“Oh, I do. Today’s theme is detective noir!”

Scary rolls their eyes and no one else really reacts to the news, though everyone turns around after a high-pitched squeal comes from the back of the group. Max stares back, then clears his throat and straightens his tie.

“Alright then,” Chris chuckles. “I’m sure a few of you have noticed you’re missing a few meaningless souvenirs-”

“MEANINGLESS?!” Fren shrieks. This time, it’s him everyone stares at. He chuckles nervously. “I’m just saying!”

“I hate to admit that he’s right, but…” Scary sighs. “I need my notes back.”

“…And I’m sure you’re all wondering how you’re going to get them back,” Chris smiles. “All these questions and more will be answered… by YOU! Here's the deal: one of you was paid six hundred dollars by moi to swipe from your fellow contestants- who? That’s for everyone else to decide! You'll have the day to hunt for clues, collect evidence, and then when your time is up, you'll all vote on the suspect.”

“Wow!” Peter says. “Kind of like Am-”

“COPYRIGHT!” Chris shouts. “And it’s nothing like that! You have until the end of the day to catch the culprit and recover the missing goods. There’ll be some fun surprises along the way, too.”

“Define fun,” O asks.

Chris chuckles. “Oh, you’ll know. Ciao!”

The host walks off, leaving the last six competitors behind.

---

SCARY: “One of these rats stole the weeks worth of notes I’ve been building my case with. If I can’t get them back, goodbye lawsuit, goodbye Chris McLean lifetime prison sentence!”

---

PETER: “I’m not too worried about the missing goods,” he pulls another picture out of his back pocket. “I always carry a spare! But I am worried about everyone turning on each other. I don't want to pick sides...”

---

SCRUFFY: “Yes! Okay- so not only is this a totally chill, laid-back, relaxed, super fun easy fun challenge, it’s also got something to do with physical harm- based on Chris’ tone! I can ace this!” their eye twitches.

---

Fren wails in the confessional.

---

MAX: “What? Why should I care about this challenge?” he pauses and then grins. “Okay, fine- I love mysteries! Capers, cold cases, riddles, puzzles- I even have a detective alter-ego named Raleigh Dubois-” he pauses and turns red. “I’ve said too much.”

---

O: “I’m just hoping nobody figures out that nothing was stolen from me. I don’t know why, but Chris put a massive target on my back- I don’t even have a fighting chance, and I'm a terrible liar...”

---

The remaining players sit around the table in the craft services tent, looking between each other in silence. The air is thick with electricity- either from the rising tensions, or from the lightning outside.

Finally, Peter breaks. “I can’t stand this! Why can’t we just work together?!”

“That’s not how this works,” Scary snaps. “Now, we just have to wait until the culprit snaps under the pressure, I can get my notes back, and they’ll be sent home- with a broken spine!”

“That’s it!” Max stands, slamming his fists on the table. “If you all want to take the easy way out, that’s fine- but I respect the sanctity of an open case, and I’m going to solve this on my own!”

He storms out. Scary rolls her eyes.

---

MAX: “I came back for Michela. And to get out of that terrible peanut gallery, but mostly for Chel. Now, she’s gone, and until today, I had nothing left to keep going for- but now I have a purpose! I have a motive! I have a case!” he pauses, then pulls a fedora out from under the counter, fixing it on his head. “Raleigh Dubois is on it!”

---

Max sits in a dark room, adjusting a lamp light. He angles it upwards and shines it in someone’s face. They wince.

“Is that really necessary?” Peter asks.

“Very,” Max says. “I find the blinding light to be… calming. Makes a liar nervous and an innocent man blind.”

“How is that fair?”

“It works for me,” he shrugs, then pulls out a notepad. “Run me through your day. Take your time.”

---

“Well…” Scruffy says. “I got up at 5:00 AM sharp, got dressed, brushed my teeth, then I heard this terrible banshee scream…”

---

Scary rolls her eyes. “I went to add the weather for my daily log and my notes were missing. My notes. My notes! For idiots like you, that’d be like waking up and missing a leg!”

---

“Where to start?” Fren thinks. “Well, as per usual, I went to Chef to see if I received any fan mail…”

Max looks up from his notepad, eyebrow raised. “Did you?”

“Ahaha!” he grins. “Of course! Tons!”

---

O quivers. “I-I-I um.. I- I- where’s my lawyer?!”

Max stares back. “I just asked you to state your name,”

---

“It was obviously targeted. So whoever did it must’ve known these notes are important to you,” Max says, clicking his ballpoint pen. “I would ask if you have any enemies, but that’d be a rhetorical question.”

Scary bares her teeth. “How am I supposed to know that you’re not the sellout?”

“I might be. What're you gonna do?”

---

Fren smiles confidently. “After an hour lost on the streets of New Delhi, we found our way to the river-”

“This has nothing to do with the question,”

“It does so! You asked what I was missing, and I’m giving you a detailed account of each item,” he crosses his arms. “You should be thanking me. Anyway, let’s talk about my cashmere scarf. It was winter in the Swiss Alps…”

Max massages his temples and groans.

---

“My whistle,” Scruffy thinks. “An odd choice, considering I have my own notes in the trailer… maybe the thief only cares about Fren and Scary!”

“It’s not necessarily the object, it’s the obstacle it creates,” Max mutters, taking down notes. “Your whistle helps you with your… “training”, so taking it caused you to miss your two hours this morning.”

“Ah! Right! I knew that!” they nod. "I totally knew that!"

Max rolls his eyes.

---

“What am I missing?!” O chuckles nervously, scratching his arm rapidly. “My, um… my catcher’s mitt! It was my grandpa’s, it’s a family heirloom! I take it everywhere, it’s lucky!”

“Really,” Max raises an eyebrow.

O laughs like an insane person.

---

MAX: “So far, not much. All I’m sure of is that whoever did the swiping obviously knows their way around the cast. They have a lot of observational skills, and they’re brave enough to seriously hurt someone’s feelings- or pride. That cuts out Peter,” he thinks aloud. “Scary wouldn’t take the 600 at the price she’s holding over Chris’ head, plus everyone would suspect her. O… I’m not sure.”

---

Scary sits on the steps to the trailer, munching popcorn and watching Fren and Scruffy argue over who’s missing memento is more important.

“Max said it himself! It’s not the object, it’s the symbolism!” Scruffy shouts.

Max’s voice rings out from inside the trailer. “Not what I said!”

Fren scoffs, offended. “As if my clothes aren’t symbolic! I’m not some cheap whore, I have goals, you know!”

“Outside of clothes?” Scary chuckles. “Please.”

“Oh, you'd be surprised. I mean- I did charity work in the Himalayas!” Fren shrieks. “I am a person of substance and interest!”

Max pokes his head out of the trailer, holding a few plastic bags. “Can you keep it down out here? I’m trying to focus,”

“On what? Role-playing?" Scary rolls her eyes. “Please. We all know you’re the thief, anyway.”

“In your dreams,”

“You are most certainly not a part of my dreams,” she scoffs. “Unless you’re dead or in prison.”

Max rolls his eyes and goes back inside the cabin, Scruffy following as he and Fren disperse. Scary rolls her eyes.

---

SCARY: “What do I think? It was O. Obviously. He’s been avoiding us all day- not exactly a great secret-keeper. But I want to drag this out as long as possible, to teach a certain green-haired traitor a lesson,”

---

"So, we can all agree that it's O, right?" Scary asks, flicking a dust bunny off their lab coat.

Peter and Fren look between each other as they huddle around the table in the craft services tent.

"Why?" Peter finally asks.

"Duh. He's an observant therapy-freak so he knows all our weaknesses, he's been missing all day, and nothing of his was taken," Scary sighs. "While Max has been busy getting that stick out of his ass, I went through O's things, and nothing was out of place! I catalogue everyone's belongings at the beginning of every week, so I would know."

"You what?"

"Irrelevant. He's so obviously the culprit,"

---

SCARY: "I know nothing about detective work, or human drama, but... I feel like I'm aceing this,"

---

Scruffy rocks back and forth on the floor in the trailer, mumbling to themselves as Max digs through suitcases and looks under beds. After the trainee starts biting themselves, Max sighs and turns. “Can I help you?”

“No, no, I’m fine! I’m fine! Totally staying in the competition, I totally know what’s going on all the time! I am super chill!”

“Jesus Christ,” Max mutters under his breath.

---

MAX: “So this is pure, unbridled insanity. I can cross Scruffy off the list, unless they're secretly an A-list actor. No... but that is an interesting thought, isn't it? Someone who acts overwhelming as a cover...”

---

He peers out of the doorway and watches as Fren paces around the grass, throwing his hands up and kicking his legs out and groaning.

---

"It's gotta be five o'clock by now," Scary murmurs, pacing around the craft services tent. "Where is he? Where could he hide?"

No one responds. Peter is busy twirling his thumbs, Fren is picking at the scratchy, unflattering sweater he was given, and Scruffy- recently relocated from the trailer- is scribbling nonsense in the dirt.

"Pete, go check the bathrooms," Scary instructs, pointing outside into the dark, pouring rain.

He winces, but doesn't push back, standing and disappearing into the dark.

Scary puts her hands on her hips and huffs, looking around. "Where's the pipsqueak?"

---

The emerald green equipment tent provides adequate cover from the rain- although the wind blows in a few drops as Max opens one of the flaps and sneaks inside.

He surveys the area for interns, and once the coast is clear, he sets up a PC and enters a few passwords before cracking into the system with “chrisisawesome1”. He pulls up a search engine and takes a deep breath.

---

Peter, holding O's hand, coaxes him back into the craft services tent with the promise that no harm will come to him.

"It'll be fine, there are witnesses!"

"That's not helpful!" O whisper-shouts back.

Sure enough, as soon as he's inside, Scary pounces on him and drags him to the table, handcuffing him to the leg while he shrieks and struggles.

"Can it, limp noodle!" he snaps. "We know you did it- and as soon as the shrimp is back, we're voting you out. Bye-bye!"

"Hey, hey, we haven't reached a consensus yet," Peter says, trying to mediate.

"Can it!"

Scruffy holds up a finger. "No- he's right- we need evidence! We need-"

"You're next, jellybean," Scary narrows her eyes. "In fact, you're my next choice- trying to make everyone's lives harder so you get an easy ride to the finale, huh?"

"I don't even want to go to the finale, I just want to know how this game works!"

Scary drops O and storms over to the corner Scruffy is in. "Here's how this works: you don't abandon your lab partner for a stupid rigged game show just because it hurts your frail little ego! Not everything is about Total Drama!"

"You're wrong!" Scruffy sobs, holding their head in their hands. "Total Drama is life!"

"Oh my God- How am I not the craziest person on this island!"

Fren scratches his arm. "You'll all have your time,"

"What was that?"

"Nothing,"

The tent flap suddenly flies open and Chris walks in, carried in a throne with a roof by four struggling interns. They set his chair down at the end of the table and scamper away.

"Good evening, campers. Have we reached a verdict?”

Everyone falls silent. Scruffy hangs their head. O says a prayer. Finally, Scary speaks: "I think we have,"

The players look between each other.

“Only one of us had nothing stolen- only one of us could be stupidly pressured into taking $600 over a million- only one of us was gone almost all day,” Scary claps her hands for emphasis. “O is the thief!”

O protests. “No! I don’t know why nothing was stolen from me! I’m innocent!”

“Lies!”

The campers break out into argument- as they do, the tent flap opens again and Max walks in, grinning. Scary pauses from yelling at Scruffy to scoff. “What’re you so smug about?”

“You’re wrong,”

“Excuse me, shortstack?”

“You’re wrong. And a shoddy detective,” he stands, pacing the room. “I’ll admit, even I was fooled for a while- O has the motive, the know-how, and a shoddy alibi- he’s a smart guy. But not as smart as a certain someone in this room.”

“No need to pat your own back,” Scary rolls her eyes.

“I wasn’t talking about me,” Max says, pulling a stack of papers from his blazer and slamming them down on the table. The players, and Chris, crowd around them.

The top of the stack is a picture of a familiar face, standing on a stage- the headline reading “Teen Theatre Prodigy Awarded in London”.

“From the start, I was suspicious. We all knew he was lying in one way or another, but... what if he wasn't?" Max says, pacing. "What if Fren really has done all those things... as characters?"

The table goes silent, looking between each other. The silence holds until it’s pierced by a delightful, almost cheerful laugh. Fren chuckles, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Oh, God, it took you all so long!”

“What?” Scary demands, staring at him. “What are you talking about?!”

He sighs and leans forward, balancing his head in his palms. “It was almost too easy! A movie-based season? For an auteur? An artiste? A free exercise in my skills, with a monetary prize?” he grins. “The “Frendom”? My fans from back home. I have a lot, after all. All my elaborate stories, my impeccable personality? ‘Fren’ was a fascinating character to play, almost corny in how over-exaggerated he is. Alas, that kind of swagger is brushed off in this show.”

Max smiles triumphantly as Fren pulls off his baggy sweater, revealing a black shirt underneath with everyone's items strapped to his torso.

“At some point, I just began seeing how far I could push this before someone started suspecting something,” he chuckles, tossing everyone their things. “I salute you, Maxwell.”

“It’s just Max, actually,”

“Whatever,” Fren says. “Congratulations on out-smarting Miss Poser.” he jabs his thumb in Scary’s direction. She growls. “Oh, don’t be like that. You’ll get your due. Most of you will.”

“Well,” Chris grins. “I think it’s safe to say that Max has won immunity today- the rest of you, I’ll see later!”

Chris walks off and Scary growls, storming after him. Fren grins.

---

FREN: "Was it manipulative? Yes. Was it deceptive, scheming, conniving? Absolutely. But I served, and if anything- I wasn't boring. After my character- the beta Fren from Island- failed right off the bat, I realized I was going to have to add some extra spice to my performance. And oh, did it flourish from there! I could've made such an excellent antagonist, if I hadn't gone for the "insecurities revealed" plot... alas, there's always the next season,"

---

Fren leans against the boy's trailer, Peter next to him. The rain has finally cleared up and the late afternoon sun is beaming down on the set. “So it was all a character?” the shorter brunet asks.

“More or less- I like to give all my characters a little sprinkle of myself. Fren is me, I am Fren, but we’re different. Understand?”

Peter rubs his head. “I think. Are we still friends?”

“Mmm… no. But we can be,” Fren holds out his hand for a shake. “My legal name is Alistair.”

“Peter!” he eagerly accepts the gesture.

A loud scream emanates from the communal bathrooms and Scary runs out in a towel, clutching their head- their perfect blonde hair changed to a deep, midnight black.

Peter and Fren watch him run to the trailers to attack Max with a large stick.

“Was that you?” Peter asks.

Fren shrugs. “Hey, the hair dye in the confessionals is free. Now she can be a proper emo, and maybe get some acting lessons- her character last season was so dull!”

---

“Well, players… much to talk about today,” Chris chuckles. “Fren pulled a Scary on us and revealed Fren-ception… mostly thanks to Max’s expert detective skills. Or should I say Raleigh’s?” Max turns red and glares. “Nonetheless, it won him immunity, and put the rest of the cast on the chopping block.”

“Our first Gilded Chris goes to… Scruffy,”

“Peter,”

“Scary,”

“O- you unintentionally mislead everyone by acting weird… by trying not to act weird. And you cost Scary the immunity- great work, dude! And Fren- though your acting skills and secret villainy are admired, you also mislead… everyone!” Chris grins. “And the last Gilded Chris… goes to…”

“…O. Sorry, Fren. Maybe next time!”

Fren grins and stands, waving goodbye to the cast as he walks the red carpet. “Don’t worry about me, friends! I’ll be on a real red carpet soon!”

The cast watches him disappear into the Lame-o-Sine and drive off.

“Riveting! Is anyone who they say they are? Will Scary stay emo? Find out next time, on Total! Takes! Action!”