#Component Audit

[kirantech]

AEM Component and Template Auditor

The "Component and Template Auditor" allows you to analyze your project, identifying components and templates with zero references. This knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions regarding whether to keep or remove them.

Problem Statement: How can we effectively assess whether the components and templates within our project structure are actively used on web pages? This knowledge is crucial for making informed decisions regarding component and template maintenance. Introduction: When organizations undertake AEM upgrades or migrations, they often introduce new components and templates following revised project…

[potatoesandsunshine]

everybody thinks they have the best tabletop campaign but actually me and my friends are doing it better than it's ever been done.

[cooking-with-hailstones]

Sight singing auditions my beloathed

[sexymemecoin]

The Rise of DeFi: Revolutionizing the Financial Landscape

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has emerged as one of the most transformative sectors within the cryptocurrency industry. By leveraging blockchain technology, DeFi aims to recreate and improve upon traditional financial systems, offering a more inclusive, transparent, and efficient financial ecosystem. This article explores the fundamental aspects of DeFi, its key components, benefits, challenges, and notable projects, including a brief mention of Sexy Meme Coin.

What is DeFi?

DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance, a movement that utilizes blockchain technology to build an open and permissionless financial system. Unlike traditional financial systems that rely on centralized intermediaries like banks and brokerages, DeFi operates on decentralized networks, allowing users to interact directly with financial services. This decentralization is achieved through smart contracts, which are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code.

Key Components of DeFi

Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs): DEXs allow users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with one another without the need for a central authority. Platforms like Uniswap, SushiSwap, and PancakeSwap have gained popularity for their ability to provide liquidity and facilitate peer-to-peer trading.

Lending and Borrowing Platforms: DeFi lending platforms like Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO enable users to lend their assets to earn interest or borrow assets by providing collateral. These platforms use smart contracts to automate the lending process, ensuring transparency and efficiency.

Stablecoins: Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to stable assets like fiat currencies to reduce volatility. They are crucial for DeFi as they provide a stable medium of exchange and store of value. Popular stablecoins include Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Dai (DAI).

Yield Farming and Liquidity Mining: Yield farming involves providing liquidity to DeFi protocols in exchange for rewards, often in the form of additional tokens. Liquidity mining is a similar concept where users earn rewards for providing liquidity to specific pools. These practices incentivize participation and enhance liquidity within the DeFi ecosystem.

Insurance Protocols: DeFi insurance protocols like Nexus Mutual and Cover Protocol offer coverage against risks such as smart contract failures and hacks. These platforms aim to provide users with security and peace of mind when engaging with DeFi services.

Benefits of DeFi

Financial Inclusion: DeFi opens up access to financial services for individuals who are unbanked or underbanked, particularly in regions with limited access to traditional banking infrastructure. Anyone with an internet connection can participate in DeFi, democratizing access to financial services.

Transparency and Trust: DeFi operates on public blockchains, providing transparency for all transactions. This transparency reduces the need for trust in intermediaries and allows users to verify and audit transactions independently.

Efficiency and Speed: DeFi eliminates the need for intermediaries, reducing costs and increasing the speed of transactions. Smart contracts automate processes that would typically require manual intervention, enhancing efficiency.

Innovation and Flexibility: The open-source nature of DeFi allows developers to innovate and build new financial products and services. This continuous innovation leads to the creation of diverse and flexible financial instruments.

Challenges Facing DeFi

Security Risks: DeFi platforms are susceptible to hacks, bugs, and vulnerabilities in smart contracts. High-profile incidents, such as the DAO hack and the recent exploits on various DeFi platforms, highlight the need for robust security measures.

Regulatory Uncertainty: The regulatory environment for DeFi is still evolving, with governments and regulators grappling with how to address the unique challenges posed by decentralized financial systems. This uncertainty can impact the growth and adoption of DeFi.

Scalability: DeFi platforms often face scalability issues, particularly on congested blockchain networks like Ethereum. High gas fees and slow transaction times can hinder the user experience and limit the scalability of DeFi applications.

Complexity and Usability: DeFi platforms can be complex and challenging for newcomers to navigate. Improving user interfaces and providing educational resources are crucial for broader adoption.

Notable DeFi Projects

Uniswap (UNI): Uniswap is a leading decentralized exchange that allows users to trade ERC-20 tokens directly from their wallets. Its automated market maker (AMM) model has revolutionized the way liquidity is provided and traded in the DeFi space.

Aave (AAVE): Aave is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform that offers unique features such as flash loans and rate switching. It has become one of the largest and most innovative DeFi protocols.

MakerDAO (MKR): MakerDAO is the protocol behind the Dai stablecoin, a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. MakerDAO allows users to create Dai by collateralizing their assets, providing stability and liquidity to the DeFi ecosystem.

Compound (COMP): Compound is another leading DeFi lending platform that enables users to earn interest on their cryptocurrencies or borrow assets against collateral. Its governance token, COMP, allows users to participate in protocol governance.

Sexy Meme Coin (SXYM): While primarily known as a meme coin, Sexy Meme Coin has integrated DeFi features, including a decentralized marketplace for buying, selling, and trading memes as NFTs. This unique blend of humor and finance adds a distinct flavor to the DeFi landscape. Learn more about Sexy Meme Coin at Sexy Meme Coin.

The Future of DeFi

The future of DeFi looks promising, with continuous innovation and growing adoption. As blockchain technology advances and scalability solutions are implemented, DeFi has the potential to disrupt traditional financial systems further. Regulatory clarity and improved security measures will be crucial for the sustainable growth of the DeFi ecosystem.

DeFi is likely to continue attracting attention from both retail and institutional investors, driving further development and integration of decentralized financial services. The flexibility and inclusivity offered by DeFi make it a compelling alternative to traditional finance, paving the way for a more open and accessible financial future.

Conclusion

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) represents a significant shift in the financial landscape, leveraging blockchain technology to create a more inclusive, transparent, and efficient financial system. Despite the challenges, the benefits of DeFi and its continuous innovation make it a transformative force in the world of finance. Notable projects like Uniswap, Aave, and MakerDAO, along with unique contributions from meme coins like Sexy Meme Coin, demonstrate the diverse and dynamic nature of the DeFi ecosystem.

For those interested in exploring the playful and innovative side of DeFi, Sexy Meme Coin offers a unique and entertaining platform. Visit Sexy Meme Coin to learn more and join the community.

[lvrcpid]

wind flower - avatar cast!

includes: gn!reader. fluff FLUFF FLUFF. use of y/n. this was on the forefront of my mind so it’s kinda half assed LMAO. the interview isn’t really in depth.

imagine being apart of the avatar cast and doing an interview with them!

background info!

you were a famous childhood actor. you’ve been obsessed with the idea of being on the big screen since you were 7. luckily enough your parents let you go through with it and you were a big hit! landing shows like greys anatomy, my babysitters a vampire and movies like adventures in babysitting and diary of a whimpy kid.

with age comes venturing out of certain genres. when you turned 18 you ventured into more mature shows and movies. you stared in shows like euphoria, grown-ish, bridgerton and now at 21, your first movie, avatar : the way of water.

when you got the call back for your audition you were bouncing practically through the roof. you loved avatar as a kid and wanted to become an avatar yourself. this was like a dream come true for you.

when you met the cast you were over the moon, they were all so sweet and welcoming. the energy while filming was one you could get used to, especially considering you had 3 more movies to film in the avatar universe.

when you guys wrapped up filming you were really sad but looked forward to the interviews you all could do together! your manager called you and told you that you all were to do an interview with buzzfeed. it wouldn’t be your first rodeo with them.

enough chitchat, let’s get into the interview!

“hi buzzfeed! we’re the cast of avatar: the way of water and we’re here today to answer some questions while playing with puppies!!” you spoke looking to the camera with a smile as you watched the puppies run over everyone’s legs.

(yes i did that buzzfeed interview type cause it’s SO CUTE)

after playing with the puppies for a second it was time for everyone to introduce themselves. you were last and gave a small smile as you waved to the camera “hi im (y/n)(l/n) and i play (c/n)” you said as you picked up a puppy and held it in your arms.

a few questions later and it got to you. you grabbed the piece of paper and read it out loud “who is your character and how would you describe them.” you looked over to bailey who busted out laughing as you did the same. “bailey is such a hater! that’s why i hope the dog pees on you!” you laughed and turned to the camera. “ well i play (c/n), he/she’s jake and neytiri’s oldest son/daughter about 2 years older than neteyam” you pointed to jamie “and how i would describe him/her-“ “sassy!” jack spoke up. “a raging ball of fire” trinity chimed in “i feel so attacked and im mad they’re right!” everyone busted out laughing.

after a few more answers the interview was coming to a close and the director at buzzfeed wanted everyone to give their opinion on the movie and what to look forward to.

“for me” you started “i would say the movie is really about family that’s the biggest component. it touches on a lot of familiar undertones that you really don’t see in a lot of movies like we get to see jake sully as a dad you know” you shifted in your seat before speaking again. “it’s a really good movie that james cameron worked really hard on as well as the cast and everyone behind the scenes and im really excited for everyone to watch it” you smiled as you grabbed another puppy.

“you guys want me to do it- okay fine- thank you to buzz feed! and thank you to these little adorable puppies who are available for adoption if you want a furry companion to watch the movie with. thank you guys again and make sure to go watch avatar: the way of water out in theaters now!! bye!!!” you snuggled the dog before smiling again. the interview coming to a close.

“just so you know. the dog did pee on me.” bailey pulled you to the side and you fell out DYING LAUGHING.

a.n // staring at my inbox while writing this. I PROMISE IM WRITING THEM GUYS im just proof reading a few rn and scheduling them to post okay bye love you mwah

[natlacentral]

The cast of Netflix’s adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender knows they can’t please everyone.

It’s a difficult life lesson that many of the show’s young actors have come to learn since they were chosen to star in a live-action reimagining of one of the most beloved animated series of all time.

Like any great saga, the latest iteration of Avatar has taken a circuitous route to the small screen. In 2020, two years after Netflix announced that it was developing a remake, original creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino departed the project over creative differences. A year later, former Nikita and Sleepy Hollow writer-producer Albert Kim officially assumed the role of creator and showrunner, intending to honor the Asian and Indigenous roots of his source material.

Since the debut of the new Avatar last Thursday, longtime fans have remained divided over the many changes that were made to turn a 20-episode half-hour children’s cartoon into an eight-episode serialized drama that has multigenerational appeal. But by maintaining the essence of the original while expanding the world that Konietzko and DiMartino have created, the new creative team is hoping to recapture some of the magic that transformed Avatar into a cultural phenomenon.

Every diehard fan can recite the basic premise by heart: The four nations — Water, Earth, Fire, Air — once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping the peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads. A century later, Aang (Gordon Cormier), a 12-year-old Air Nomad frozen in an iceberg, reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. With his newfound friends Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang sets out on a quest to save the world from the onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) while avoiding being captured by Ozai’s tempestuous son, Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu).

Almost every Zoomer who grew up watching Nickelodeon seems to have their own relationship with the original Avatar. Kiawentiio, whose older siblings would always have the show playing in their house, recalls being drawn to its depiction of a young Indigenous girl, at a time when there was scant representation of Native Americans. Ousley credits Avatar and Star Wars: The Clone Wars for inspiring him to take up martial arts. Liu has a vivid childhood memory of watching a restless Zuko and his tea-drinking uncle Iroh’s first scene together on a boat. Cormier, as the youngest of the bunch, admits that he had not watched the show prior to auditioning. But by the time he entered production, all he could do was live and breathe Avatar.

Daniel Dae Kim, who watched the original with one of his sons when it first aired, tells Teen Vogue that he held a kind of family meeting with his now-adult children and some of his nieces and nephews after receiving an offer from Albert Kim (no relation) to star in the new version. “I called all of them, and I said, ‘What do you think about me doing a part in Avatar?’ And they were like, ‘You should do it!’ without hesitation. Then I asked the next question: ‘Well, I’m playing Ozai. He’s a bad guy…’ They paused for a second, and then they all screamed, ‘You should still do it!’” he says with a laugh.

Once the cast was assembled, the creative team began the seemingly gargantuan task of trying to breathe new life into each of the characters. While the animated series dealt with weighty issues such as genocide, war and imperialism, there is an added human component in live-action storytelling that requires a more grounded approach to depicting real-life reactions and emotions. “We were all definitely allowed to look into the darker sides of each of our characters,” Cormier says. In Aang’s case, he is tasked with a responsibility that he doesn’t necessarily want but feels obligated to assume after discovering that he is the last living Airbender of his kind.

Aang is “naturally a really fun-loving, goofy 12-year-old, so to be hit with something so serious like a genocide [affecting] all of his people, it really affects him badly,” Cormier says. “We see in the first episode where I blow Katara and Sokka off the mountain how badly it’s affected me. It hurt me so much [that] I blasted into the Avatar state and started destroying my home. I think it just shows how serious and traumatic it is for Aang, but slowly, he’ll get through it and become the Avatar.”

The themes of loss and grief remain prevalent across all eight episodes, with each of the young characters being forced to confront their own unresolved trauma.

Katara is forced to reckon with how her memory of her mother’s death has affected her ability to become a full-fledged Waterbender. “Another thing that I feel like impacted her so much, without even really explicitly touching on it, is being the last Waterbender of her tribe,” Kiawentiio says. “She really feels so deeply connected with that part of [herself], even though it’s something that she can’t really access [at first], and she feels this sense of, ‘This is what I should be doing.’”

After his father left years ago on a mission to fight the Firebenders, Sokka was forced to grow up quickly and protect his tribe, especially his younger sister, from the waterbending abilities that had caused them so much pain. “Sokka is a perfect example of somebody that is not healed, is pushing stuff down and won’t let it come out, is putting on different masks to the point where he doesn’t even know who he is when we first find him,” says Ousley, who insisted on finding a way to bring out a more serious side in Sokka without losing his signature sarcasm in this adaptation. “I think the trauma that he has is covered up by humor often and covered up by acting silly, and he will have lots of moments where he actually discovers who he is.”

Zuko, however, may have the most compelling arc of the first season. Having been banished by Ozai from the Fire Nation, Zuko has effectively lost one father but gained another father figure in his Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), who takes it upon himself to look after Zuko on his journey to capture the Avatar. In the first season, viewers see Zuko’s Agni Kai — or traditional Firebender duel — with Ozai, who was responsible for giving Zuko his prominent facial scar.

While Ozai “may not have the tools to do it the right way,” Kim understands that his character “is trying, in his own way, to shape his children into what he feels is necessary to secure the future of not only his family, but of the entire Fire Nation.” That kind of tough love, unfortunately, has done irreparable damage to his children.

In a dramatic departure from the original series, the writers decided to introduce Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula earlier than in the original series. In doing so, the family dynamics between Ozai, Zuko and Azula become even more complicated. “Since Zuko’s away on his ship in the first season, you get a glimpse into, while he’s away, what is going on in the Fire Nation and who’s pulling all the strings,” Yu says. “For Azula, Zuko is very much more like a roadblock than anything else. You see that sense of family is not really there.”

“I think the writers did a good job of showing a rivalry between the two fighting for the father’s approval and attention without us directly interacting or speaking with each other,” Liu adds. “Zuko is just trying to prove he is worthy of his father’s love and attention just as much as Azula is. I think people will really come to root for Zuko because of everything that he’s been through.”

The production team was also keen to honor and recreate the costumes of the original series in a way that was not only beautiful but practical for the actors; Kiawentiio and Ousley had to wear heavy coats made of suede and fur, while Kim, Liu and Yu wore layers upon layers of corseted material with large shoulder pads.

“They really helped me complete the character because there was something about when I put on the wardrobe that made me walk [and] feel a certain way,” Kim says, “and it turned my character into someone more regal and powerful.”

It’s almost fitting that the most regal character is played by Hollywood royalty among Asian Americans. For the better part of the last three decades, Kim has been at the forefront of the movement to increase the visibility of Asian Americans in film and television. “The fact that I’m still working and able to see [the change] and be a part of it makes me feel very grateful, because success is not guaranteed to anyone in this business,” he reflects.

Kim believes the new Avatar is a reflection of today’s changing landscape in Western entertainment for more diverse stories that center Asian and Indigenous communities. “I don’t think it’s any secret to say that a live-action version has been done in the past, but it wasn’t done this way,” he says, referring to M. Night Shyamalan’s disastrous The Last Airbender film, which whitewashed many key characters. “I don’t think that it would have been done this way even five or 10 years ago because there wasn’t the same emphasis on proper representation and real diversity [that there is now].”

“I feel like we fought hard for the progress that we’ve made, and at the same time, I acknowledge that there need to be others outside of those of us in the community to push things forward,” he adds. “It takes a community working together along with allies.”

As the most accomplished actor of the group, did Kim have any advice for his younger castmates? “I don’t feel like it’s necessarily my place to be giving advice where it’s not needed or wanted, but it was nice of them to ask me about my experiences and how they could chart their own path forward in a business that’s very difficult,” Kim responds. “I can tell you that I really have been impressed by all of them, and I’m so excited to see the next generation of Asian American actors in particular come in with this attitude, with this opportunity. I would really love nothing more than to see them succeed beyond what we’ve seen in generations previous.”

The first season ends with Aang, Katara and Sokka successfully helping the Northern Water Tribe fend off a vicious attack from the Firebenders. Rather than following the advice of past Avatars, who stressed that he would have to bear the burden of his title alone, Aang realizes that he needs his friends to master all four elements.

“The Avatar still has to learn other elements, so we had to get the ball rolling on water and earth. If we did reach Season 2, I believe that we’ll find Aang already practicing water just because in the group he has quite the master to teach him,” Kiawentiio says with a smile, alluding to her own character.

But the last minutes of the finale also reveal that the attack on the North was actually a decoy for the Fire Nation. Ozai, as it turns out, had his sights on the Earth Kingdom — and his daughter, Azula, has taken over the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu with her own army. Aang’s old friend, King Bumi (Utkarsh Ambudkar), has now been taken prisoner.

“You have this idea of the prodigal son and you put all of your attention to someone who, in Ozai’s eyes, is failing him,” Kim says of the state of Ozai’s relationships with his two most powerful children at the end of the season. “So when there’s another child that you are not looking at in the same way that ends up surprising you, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it changes the way that you see the future. I think Azula was a surprise to him, and it brings him some joy, and he may have overlooked her in the past, but now he sees her as a real heir apparent.”

The revelation that his father has passed him over for his sister, at least for now, shakes up Zuko’s entire world, Liu says. “He feels a weird sense of betrayal because even though it is his sister and his father working against him, they are part of the Fire Nation, and his loyalty towards the Fire Nation was something that we know he was very persistent about, even though he was banished.”

Going forward, Kim would be interested in deepening the portrayal of Ozai’s relationships with his children, as well as his older brother, Iroh. “What is the relationship between the two of them when the second son supersedes the first? And how does Iroh feel about all of that? We never really see that explored,” he remarks. “I’d also like to see what happened to Zuko and Azula’s mom. These kinds of things are crucial to deepening the character, and I would love to see a little bit more of his history and how that informs who he is now.”

While the show has yet to be renewed for a second season, the young actors all have their own hopes for future seasons. Ousley would like to see Sokka “pick up the pieces” emotionally after the beautifully tragic end of his first love, Princess Yue (Amber Midthunder). Yu is ready to “do some of the really iconic Azula lines and scenes that we all know,” especially the Agni Kai in Season 3. Cormier is most excited to potentially adapt “Appa’s Lost Days” and the final fight scene between Aang and Ozai. “Throughout the show, I feel like he's going to learn more and more about why he has to be the Avatar,” he says.

[kickmag]

R.I.P. Cat Glover

Dancer, choreographer, and singer Cat Glover died Tuesday at age 62. Her passing was announced on her Facebook page. Glover is known for working with Prince in the '80s during his Sign o' the Times and Lovesexy eras. Glover was a Chicago native, and she started dancing when she was 5 years old. It was Prince's Dirty Mind album that made Glover a fan and gave her the dream to meet him one day. Her first major show of talent happened when she and Patrick Allen competed on the television show Star Search as Pat & Cat. They were the first act on the show to achieve a four-star perfect score. The feat happened again, and despite winning seven times on the show, they did not win in the finals and the $100,000 prize. They lost the contest, but Glover achieved her dream of meeting Prince. A Star Search searcher who was dating Prince introduced him to Glover, and she auditioned for him one night at a club. She joined Prince's band in 1986 after turning down David Bowie. Prince fans first saw Glover on one of the inner sleeves from the Sign o' the Times album holding a guitar. She appeared in the concert film for the album and videos for "U Got The Look" and "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man." 

Prince and Glover had kinetic energy on the stage, and their dance routines were one of the major components of his highly praised and well-attended concerts. She did her Cat Scat dance, which became her trademarked move. Glover famously rapped on "Alphabet Street" from Lovesexy and she also rapped on "Cindy C" from The Black Album. In 1989, she left the band and released her Catwoman album. She continued to work as a choreographer, and after Prince died in 2016, she vowed to keep his memory alive. Fans can only hope that Cat and Prince are dancing together again. 

[chaotic-archaeologist]

Hi Reid! I have a question about the american college/uni system that I've been wondering about for a long time and you seem knowledgeable and friendly enough to maybe help: How big/long are your courses? Like, how many do you take every term? Is every course the same size? How many subjects do you generally study at the same time?

For context, I'm from Sweden and our course sizes are based on a point system, where 30 points is supposed to represent 20 weeks (a term) of full time studying (40 hours a week). It's common to take 30 point courses (usually divided into subcourses, say 4×7,5 points, two for the first half and two for the second half of a term (or 6×5 with three at a time)), but you can also pick smaller courses (usually 7,5 or 15 points taken at 50%) until you get 30 points.

I think my real question is how this translates. If people speak about a, say, linguistics 101 course, is that a 30 point or 7,5 point course? And do all your courses stretch over an entire term? Please help, I just want to know how to interpret people talking about their courseload

Hi there, sorry it's taken me a while to get to this—I've been very busy prepping for the class I'm teaching.

Every university here is different, and credits (how many points you get per class, and how many total points you need to graduate) also vary based on whether your school does quarters, trimesters, or semesters. My only experience has been with semesters, so that's what I'll focus on here.

Here, most classes are either 3 or 4 credits. A usual 3 credit class might meet twice a week for 1:15 minutes each time. A class might be four credits if it's a higher level seminar or discussion based class with a higher number of more difficult readings.

Classes that have both a lab and lecture component can be more (around 6, I think? I never took one), and then there are less difficult classes that usually only run for half the semester that might be 2 credits. For example, I took a half-semester costume design class my freshman year. Below is the official jargon that talks about how credits are determined.

The current nationally recognized standard, the Federal Credit Hour Standard, defines a three-credit course as three fifty-minute classes per week over a fifteen-week semester (including final exam week), or the equivalent (for courses using a non-traditional format such as blended or online learning). This standard assumes that each credit hour generates two hours of assigned work for every hour of in-class contact. Thus, the guiding rule is 45 hours of work per semester for each unit of credit. For laboratory courses or their equivalent, one credit hour is assigned for three hours of laboratory, workshop, studio, fieldwork, independent study, etc.

You can also (sometimes) take a class pass/fail, although usually that reduces the number of credits it is worth. Finally, you can audit a class, which means that you get access to the syllabus, do the readings, and show up, but you don't have to do any of the assignments. Audited classes are worth no credits, but they do show up on your transcript.

Our undergraduate classes are often numbered 100-400, with 100 level classes being introductory, and 400 level classes being highly specialized with prerequisite requirements. Graduate level classes are 500 or higher.

Credits are different than the grades you get. Grades are on a 4 point scale, where 4.0 would be 100%, with 70% being a 2.0 and the lowest passing grade. I'm attaching a picture of the grade breakdown from my own syllabus to show you how my current institution assigns grades to percentage points.

Most colleges/institution require you to earn a C in order to pass a class. If you get that C, you get the full amount of credits for the course, same as anyone who got an A. However, your Grade Point Average (GPA), which is calculated by taking the average of every grade you've gotten, will be lower than someone who got all As.

At most institutions, you have to take 12 credits a semester (so 4 classes for 3 credits each) in order to qualify as a full time student, which comes with certain privileges. Usually you can take up to 18 credits, although this may cost more if the school doesn't have a flat rate tuition.

Finally, with a grading system like this one, undergraduate students are expected to earn a total of 120 credits to complete their bachelor's degree.

As for course sizes, they can range from 200+ person lectures at the really big universities, to 5-12 person seminar/discussions for the higher level classes. Lab classes or more hands on options will be in the 20-30 person range. But it highly depends.

I know that's confusing. Hopefully that helps? -Reid

[barrenclan]

OKAY I TRY NOT TO PUT IN MANY POST-ISSUES ASKS BECAUSE I'M ON THE PATFW SERVER BUT GOOD LORD WHAT AN ISSUE

My gore tolerance is not the best so I was not expecting to enjoy this issue but this might be one of my new favorites to be perfectly honest. I wish that both canon Warriors and fancomics would feature stuff like different artforms more because I love the idea of these societies doing stuff like that instead of just suffering, and, while Barrenclan probably isn't holding auditions nay time soon, the second Deepdark suggested some acting I was absolutely delighted

My favorite thing about the play beyond the lore is just how unreliable Deepdark and his lackies are there. Like little things such as Deepdark hiding his name (which is something he'd of course do, both because nobody knows his old name and because he'd like to keep it that way), the less violent and more cartoonishly dramatic nature of the fight maybe making it easier to see Deepdark as a charismatic leader to be trusted rather than a ruthless murderer to be feared (I may be looking too much into this one), Prowl's anger at Longest Claw's murder being toned down to immediately admiration (and an immediate desire to follow Deepdark's beliefs when he hadn't really communicated what they are/what he'd "been lacking") and Spike's fear being turned to the same and Deepdark's "come and get me" being turned to a gentler "follow me" are all just really great touches which hide the true start of Defiance

Also most of my love for this issue is because of the acting component (I love me some theatre and some talking animals), but death being compared to sleep once again comes to hurt me. Honestly Rainhaze's "death is like falling asleep next to somebody you love" idea is vaguely comforting to me, but I adore him twisting that into complete denial of the brutality of what he's caused. He sees the reality of Dustfeather's death, and knows the reality of her shrieks before death, but he still tries to twist it into happy little yells of delight before she went to curl up to a loved one, so that he can see it as a good, peaceful death instead of the bloody murder of somebody who, as horrible as she was, still meant the world to him.

Anyways I adore this issue and I'll keep yelling about it in the discord but for now here's my many thoughts on it

I really wanted to draw some organs, and I blame the PATFW Discord entirely for encouraging me.

Deepdark might want to tell his followers where he came from, but he can't tell them the truth! No self-respecting cult leader would do that. Filtering this violent story into a morality play helps to communicate his message and mythologize his own origins. Spike and Prowl in those particular panels are acting as they would now, rather than they would before - Spike as brave and excited in front of Deepdark, and Prowl wholly admiring him.

And Rainhaze is doing just the same twisting, for his own memories! Hopefully it makes him feel better.

[texasdreamer01]

Atlantis Expedition - Science Division: Chief Science Officer

So I've gone through all of my proposed headcanons on how the Science Division would break down into different departments, the roles of each departments, and the personnel composition (original post here, which contains links to posts on individual departments). But what is a division without its division leader? Thus, a post on the Chief Science Officer (AKA Rodney McKay).

Below is a brief list, in the same style as the department posts, which I will articulate further under the read-more:

> Head: Rodney McKay, Radek Zelenka (extra-canonical) > Contains: 1 person > Function: Implements department policies, decides upon division and department priorities, disseminates tasks according to expedition needs, reviews employee performances, manages employment of each department, secures and approves all procurement requirements for operations, reviews ethical and legal boundaries on research and resource requests, prepares documentation for review on research progress and results, estimates research project requirements and demands, gives/receives recommendations and feedback to expedition leader and military commander according to mission parameters > Examples of function: Hiring and firing of employees, dispute arbitration between employees, disciplinary measures, creating purchase orders for equipment and department supplies, reviewing research proposals and giving feedback on proposals > Personnel quantity: 1 person > A/N: Technically speaking, the department heads fall under this "department" as sub-administrators (and produce the paperwork that will give Rodney headaches)

Radek being the CSO is part of the Legacy book series, which is a pseduo season six (I don't listen to it, for various reasons), but he's mentioned here as a nod to the books.

As for that big block of text about a CSO's function, it helps to separate things into a few categories. Below is that, with commentary:

> IOA/SGC requirements  » Prepares documentation for review on research progress and results  » Reviews ethical and legal boundaries on research and resource requests  » Maintains documentation of projects for auditing purposes   ⇛ Such as project results, allocation and defense thereof of resources, pertinent stopping and starting points  » Maintains documentation of division personnel usage and other important events   ⇛ Such as field assignments, project assignments, etc  » Maintains documentation of field science research   ⇛ Such as first contact missions, cultural research, etc > Expedition administration  » Gives/receives recommendations and feedback to expedition leader according to mission parameters   ⇛ Such as resource allocation in terms of division personnel, technology, and physical resources (i.e. consumable lab resources, such as testing equipment, reagents, medical resources, etc) > Military relations  » Gives military commander feedback and advice on mixed-context situations   ⇛ Such as situations when expedition leader is unable to perform duties, or when needing to defend critical components, spaces, or personnel    ⟹ i.e. When personally in the field (AR-1, other field assignments), attacks on Atlantis, non-military critical situations on Atlantis  » Gives assessments on non-expedition personnel in regards to permissions on division resources   ⇛ i.e. lab access, database access, critical systems access, etc   ⇛ Functionally makes the CSO a super-user and systems administrator of the digital architecture that comprise the expedition    ⟹ The head administrator and military commander will have their own logins with similar, but not identical, privileges > Division administration  » Implements department policies   ⇛ Such as safety protocols, proposal formats, project documentation formats, etc  » Decides upon division and department priorities   ⇛ Based upon IOA/SGC, expedition leader, and military commander priorities (in that order, unless under a military context)  » Disseminates tasks according to expedition needs   ⇛ May contain separate categories of priorities, according to the needs of varying timelines (i.e. long term, short term, etc)  » Reviews employee performances   ⇛ Ideally according to a rubric of IOA/SGC requirements, department policies, and expedition needs   ⇛ Can mark an employee for a review period, limit access based on negative incidents, recommend merit-based pay increases and pay bonuses, etc  » Manages employment of each department   ⇛ Hiring, firing, inter-department reassignments  » Estimates research project requirements   ⇛ Based upon proposals submitted, expedition mission parameters, resources available for allocation, and IOA/SGC requirements  » Secures and approves all procurement requirements for operations   ⇛ Creates, reviews, and submits documentation to expedition head   ⇛ Items such as equipment (i.e. computers), consumable materials (i.e. pens, cotton swabs), and miscellaneous (i.e. lab coats, uniforms, chocolate for morale)

These main categories, as you can see, are IOA/SGC requirements of the CSO, expedition administration, military relations, and division administration. They are, to the best of my assumptions, listed in order of importance - division administration is necessarily at the bottom because the CSO, ideally, ought to be able to trust the department heads to make sure the division runs well. The main job of the CSO is to liase between the division and the overlords people who make the expedition run.

A lot of this ends up rather convoluted due to competing priorities. The IOA pays the expeditions bills and supports its somewhat dubious legality on the international stage, but the SGC does as well, and to boot is also the group that creates and maintains the supplies and supply lines (see: the Daedalus, primarily, and also the Apollo). As this is a civilian expedition, more weight will be put on the CSO than the Military Officer for a return on investment.

What this results in is a lot of paperwork. Every employee, petri dish, and scribble on a whiteboard must be recorded, accounted for, and justified. This would then be forwarded to the expedition leader, who collates it nicely and gives it to the SGC and IOA for a general accounting, but it's up to the CSO to prepare this documentation.

Accordingly, this means that if there's a request from either side (top-down or bottom-up), the CSO must process the paperwork for that. Requests to perform experiments, usage of employees on things like field assignments, requests for materials to perform the experiments within adequate parameters are the work du jour. And, crucially, it must be legal (as much as one can with something like a Stargate program, at any rate). There's a lot more wiggle room for the expedition, given its project background, but not very much with the introduction of international oversight.

In a practical, daily sense, department requests for experiment/research and expedition leader and military commander requests for the same or for personnel must be balanced by the CSO. If, say, Carson Beckett wants to work with the Life Sciences department to develop a hydrogel infused with Pegasus plant extracts for IFAK use that requires many iterations of testing but would then require less supplies procured from the SGC, and Elizabeth Weir wants Carson Beckett to join an away team to help some recently-culled village with their injuries or a persistent illness that had left them originally vulnerable to a culling, Rodney McKay will be the one to weigh in on priorities for the division and devise a compromise on his employee's time based upon what can be done and what ought to be done. (Elizabeth will likely already think of this conundrum, but as she was not the only expedition leader, the ability to say no is a critical tool in Rodney's arsenal for properly fulfilling his duties.)

Likewise, the CSO has obligations to the military contingent of the expedition. While the Wraith were not an expected enemy, the SGC probably assumed something of the Goa'uld caliber was statistically likely, and thus the CSO is there to also offer technical advice to the military commander.  This is important because nobody had any confirmation on what they would find regarding Atlantis, only that the Ancients had abandoned their city and didn't seem to pack much up with them. Mixed-context situations like a technical emergency on Atlantis, or field missions, will require CSO input on technological expertise and personnel assignments from the Science Division.

A working relationship with the military commander will also mean some back and forth, particularly for instances of assessing who ought to have access to critical systems, and whether such previously-given permissions ought to be revoked. Teyla, the Athosians, and Ronon are popular examples, but also situations like Doppelganger where members of the expedition might be compromised and require a change, however temporary or permanent, in security.

In order for the CSO to assist in maintaining expedition security, being a super-user and systems administrator is a pre-requisite of the position. This means such things as inherent back-door access to all expedition systems, ability to manage user login profiles for all systems, screening of technologies that are inputted as peripherals or adoptions of infrastructure, and the design of the infrastructure systems that make up the overall architecture. As the military commander would be in charge of the physical security of the expedition, the CSO would be in charge of its digital security.

Management of the division itself rests upon the above listed duties, and will influence how the division and its various departments are handled. This is very much a daily, intensive part of the job, but if things with the departments are set up well, typically they would be the least worrisome of the duties.

Based upon the various institutional and situational demands upon the expedition, personnel movement and research projects will be delegated accordingly, with the CSO creating the division policies on things like research parameters, experiment ethics, and the minutiae of funding and resource allocations.

Long-term projects, such as the inherent reasons why the expedition exists at all (figuring out Atlantis and developing technologies and knowledge bases from the information they prise from Atlantis), will generally receive priority outside of some form of emergency, and will get the most resources.  Short-term projects, which might run for a few months or a year at a time of active experimentation, are dependent upon spare resources, time, and personnel that aren't already assigned to work of a higher priority.

For example, documenting the plants of a particular planet in the Pegasus galaxy would rank lower than decoding and documenting extant examples of Wraith language, based upon the multiple variables of military commander demands on the safety of the expedition, diplomatic demands from the expedition leader for the safety of the expedition, and if there are similar plants already being studied that were cultivated from other planets.

An inherent part of the management of a division is the personnel, which includes performance reviews, hiring of employees, firing of employees, disciplining of employees (if the department head requires CSO assistance or it is the department head which requires disciplining), and re-assignment of employees based upon expedition or other needs. Part of the personnel is the work the personnel do, which wraps back around to paperwork - if someone wants to do research on attempting to duplicate a particular alloy, then those materials need to be purchased or otherwise required, which means the CSO must fill out all the purchase request forms and other pertinent documentation (even if it only amounts to "found on the ground because AR-1 crashed the Wraith Dart, put alloy samples into backpack").

I imagine a CSO in this sort of position would probably be running a rough calculation in the background of how many cups of coffee to substitute for hours of sleep, because there will not be a lot of sleep to be had, even without all the various emergencies happening because Atlantis is Atlantis. A little bit of stress-induced yelling from time to time is to be expected, I think.

Total Overall Science Division Personnel

> Chief Science Officer: 1 > Medical Department: 23 > Life Sciences: 13 > Field Sciences: 12 > Applied Sciences: 16 > Total total: 65

Due to the revisions made in some of the department headcanon posts, the personnel estimations rose from the original post's 58 to the current 65, a difference of 7 people and also a nice, easy to calculate number. If we keep to the assumption of 200 expedition members, this would make for 135 leftover for the rest of the expedition, and the Science Division at 32.5% of the expedition.

A CMO post will be written and posted at some point, as I forgot about it, and additionally canonical character headcanon posts will also be posted at some point in the future in an undetermined order. After this will be headcanons on the Military Division, Gate Teams, and the Expedition Leader/Civilian Division (currently undecided what that will be).

[ckmstudies]

July 24th:

One exam and one beach trip later, I'm back to studying. Now that my Audit exam is over, I'm moving on to Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) which I will take on August 25th, about a month away. When I signed up to take this exam I didn't give myself enough study time for some reason and I don't want to pay the fee to move the exam unless I really really need to. So I'll be cramming this exam in. I did the first module of the first section today in just under four hours. The exam has an essay portion at the end of it so I've also got to work on my writing skills. The writing portion isn't graded on if I'm correct but instead on if I hit all the high points of the topic and how well my grammar and spelling is which is almost worse since I'm out of practice with writing essays. But I'm hoping in this month I can improve on that!

Today's accounting topic: The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) issued Internal Control - Integrated Framework which has 17 principles that have been categorized within five major internal control components.

Other activity: I went to a coffee shop an hour away before a doctor's appointment and I got to have one of my favorite coffees! Also got to meet some of my parent's neighbors when I walked my dog this afternoon and they were pretty nice.

[thehollowprince]

The Actor Who Played Jar Jar Binks Is Proud of His ‘Star Wars’ Legacy

Ahmed Best recalls the painful backlash to the “Phantom Menace” character that was considered a racial stereotype at the time but is now embraced by fans.

Ahmed Best is a futurist, an educator, a martial artist, a writer-director, and the actor behind Jar Jar Binks, the most hated character in the “Star Wars” universe.

Long-eared Jar Jar is a bipedal amphibianlike creature with an ungainly walk and a winning attitude. The groundbreaking, computer-generated goofball debuted in the first installment of George Lucas’s prequel trilogy, “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” and instantly set off widespread criticism from both fans and the press.

“It took almost a mortal toll on me. It was too much,” Best recently recalled. “It was the first time in my life where I couldn’t see the future. I didn’t see any hope. Here I was at 26 years old, living my dream, and my dream was over.”

Now 50, Best is the picture of panache who could easily be mistaken for an off-duty rock star. He arrived at our interview, riding a motorcycle and wearing a blue denim jacket, black jeans, and stylish shades.

In the presence of Best’s self-assured demeanor, it’s even more shocking to learn that back in 1999, the vitriol fans flung at Jar Jar and, in turn, at him, ravaged his mental health. But he revisited these memories a few weeks before the movie’s return to theaters on Friday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its release.

Two constellations, “Star Wars” and “Star Trek,” nurtured Best’s curiosity for both science and the arts as a child in the South Bronx. The 1977 “Star Wars” (Episode IV) was the first movie he ever saw in a cinema. Back then, being part of the intergalactic saga seemed unfathomable.

Twenty years later, Best was performing in “Stomp,” the theater show where performers communicate through rhythm and acrobatics, when Robin Gurland, the casting director on “Phantom Menace,” attended a performance in San Francisco. She had spent months conducting an exhaustive search for the actor who could embody Jar Jar’s physicality. That evening, she found him.

“There was just something so electrifying about his performance; it was natural and innovative,” Gurland said by phone. “I couldn’t take my eyes off of Ahmed.”

“What if you were from this other planet, totally different from anything we know? How would you move?” Gurland recalled asking Best during his audition at Skywalker Ranch. “He got it immediately and was able to just create this being out of thin air.”

Doug Chiang, the design director on “Phantom Menace,” remembered Lucas describing Jar Jar as a combination of the silent comedy stars Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Lucas ruled out a puppet for the alien creature, Chiang said, but still needed Jar Jar to appear grounded in reality to hold up against live actors onscreen.

“Even though this was a synthetic character, created out of ones and zeros, George wanted it to have a lot of expression,” Chiang said via video call. “The actor component was absolutely critical.”

Commonplace now, motion capture, the process of recording a person or object’s movement to serve as the basis for a digital entity, was mostly uncharted territory. Jar Jar became the first main character in a feature film created this way, though initially, the filmmakers didn’t know if it would work.

When Best landed the part as well as the separate assignment to voice the character — providing a playful take he often used with his younger cousins — he thought “it was surreal,” he recalled, adding with a laugh, “I was like, ‘Why me?’ I wanted it, of course, and I’m glad George believed in me, a 23-year-old kid from the streets of New York.”

In Chiang’s view, “Ahmed’s role in this was very understated, and it’s heartbreaking that he didn’t receive the attention and accolade because Jar Jar was a breakthrough character.”

Best spent the better part of two years working with Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic; his acting provided the physical element for the foundational software Lucasfilm created for performance capture. “I’m not Jar Jar. We are Jar Jar,” Best said, crediting the numerous artists involved at different stages of the character’s development.

But during filming, Best had doubts about the role. He credits co-star Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, with helping him embrace Jar Jar’s inherent silliness. Best was on set with the rest of the cast, performing while wearing a suit and headpiece that resembled Jar Jar’s final look

“In one of the first scenes we shot, I was having a hard time with the line ‘Weesa going home!’ because it didn’t feel right to me,” Best recalled. “And then Ewan said, ‘But how does it feel to Jar Jar?’ That’s when I thought, ‘I’m going to take my ego out of this.’”

When he saw the final rendering of Jar Jar onscreen, he was taken aback. “I was up there, and I wasn’t up there at the exact same time,” Best said. “Jar Jar moved like me, and that was just a very odd feeling.”

Unfortunately, Jar Jar was a pioneering character in more ways than one. Critics said the character was a collection of racial stereotypes, “a Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit,” as The Wall Street Journal described him. One complaint was Jar Jar’s accent, which some perceived as derived from Jamaican patois.

“Everybody talks about Jar Jar’s accent,” said Best, who is of West Indian descent. “I read exactly what George wrote. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t an accent.”

“Back in the day, Chewbacca was seen as the Black character,” he continued. “And then Yoda was ridiculed for being an Asian stereotype. Then, the Neimoidians were ridiculed for being an Asian stereotype. ‘Star Wars’ has had a history of being a lightning rod. That’s because it’s so successful.”

No matter the context, the onslaught of negative reactions in the nascent online forums of the late ’90s, as well as in traditional media, drove him to consider suicide, he said.

Looking back now, Best said Jar Jar “was probably also the first cyber-bullied pop culture character ever.” In his view there were other factors that contributed to the barrage, including racism among fans, something another “Star Wars” performer, Kelly Marie Tran, called out in 2018 when she endured online harassment. (He said he related to “Kelly Marie for sure. She’s a phenomenal actor” and the way she was treated was “completely unwarranted.”)

“There are a lot of people who want to see Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader for the rest of their lives, and they don’t realize that ‘Star Wars’ is changing,” Best said. He noted that the “Star Wars” franchise had yet to have a movie centered on a Black protagonist and added with a laugh, “I’m available.”

But worse than the ceaseless public scrutiny was learning that his role had been dramatically reduced for the two sequels, “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith.”

“As an artist, you want the respect from your peers, and I felt as if I was being scaled back because I didn’t do a good job,” he said. “It really hurt. Everybody was running away from me, including the people that I gave two years of my life to.”

Finding acting work post-“Star Wars” proved nearly impossible. The first hurdle was proving he had been in the movies: “When I’d tell people what I did as Jar Jar, they would be like, ‘That’s just animation. I don’t see your face, so how do I know it was you?’” Best recalled. “And I’d say, ‘No, it was me. I’m an actor; it’s called motion capture.”

He admitted that even all these years later he remained hesitant to talk with journalists about that time. “It’s such a cultural phenomenon, and there are few Black voices in ‘Star Wars,’ so I feel that I’m partially obliged to keep my voice out there,” he said.

Since those dark days, Best has diversified his ambitions. He’s an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California’s School of Dramatic Arts, where he teaches filmmaking for actors. At Stanford University’s d.school, he has taught a class revolving around Afrofuturism, a subject that informs his belief that an optimistic future is possible through the combination of narrative art and technology.

“Jar Jar represents the possibility that whatever you got in your head, creatively, we can invent a future where this thing exists,” he said. “Just because no one has done it before, doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

Throughout the years, Jar Jar hasn’t entirely left Best’s life. The actor has voiced the character in video games and in animated shows like “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.”

“It’s big, and it tends to overtake your life,” Best said. “The thoughts I’ve had were, ‘Who am I outside of this?’ Because as an artist, you don’t want to be locked into one thing.”

More recently, he’s rejoined the “Star Wars” universe in his own body, as the warrior teacher Kelleran Beq on the children’s show “Jedi Temple Challenge” and in an episode of “The Mandalorian.”

“This is going to sound really corny, please forgive me, but it felt like coming home,” Best said.

Despite the baggage, Best never stopped loving Jar Jar. When he meets fans — on the rare occasions that he agrees to appear at conventions — Best has noticed it’s usually young children, people with disabilities and those who have been ostracized who identify most with Jar Jar. “He’s misunderstood, but Jar Jar’s heart is so pure,” he said.

At the time of the backlash, Lucas assured Best that Jar Jar’s target audience — who were kids and for whom the character would become a fond childhood memory — would eventually come to his defense. “He was right,” Best said. “It’s a different story now.”

Witness the reception for Best in 2019 at “Star Wars” Celebration, an event dedicated to the franchise, when fans welcomed him with thunderous applause. “It really warmed my heart to see him get that,” Chiang recalled.

Heart comes up a lot when Best’s name is mentioned.

Dave Filoni, the chief creative officer of Lucasfilm and a writer on “The Mandalorian,” described him as “a unique talent, and no one can replicate what he brings through his performance as Jar Jar. There is comedy, but also a lot of heart.”

And Best takes solace in the role he’s played behind the scenes as well. He noted that the software developed through his work as Jar Jar became central to the creation of future C.G.I. characters.

“I’m in there,” Best said. “You can’t have Gollum without Jar Jar. You can’t have the Na’vi in ‘Avatar’ without Jar Jar. You can’t have Thanos or the Hulk without Jar Jar. I was the signal for the rest of this art form, and I’m proud of Jar Jar for that, and I’m proud to be a part of that. I’m in there!”

[omegaremix]

Veterans’ Path, 2019.

This year���s one for stasis, an equilibrium that gave no leeway for possibility or moves. It’s not a good feeling when you’re dealing with depression after a major heartbreaker and you need some serious outs to move on. You leave it in someone’s hands to help make some of those changes. Instead, they fall short and constantly buy time, your time you’ll never have back. It doesn’t help any when doctor’s appointments, meetings with investors, pending vacation-weeks, the desire to escape to the city and see family are on the backburner for months instead of mere days, so things are never answered for. Everyday you deal with toxic, needy people who literally drain you of your resources for their own personal needs without any etiquette or consideration of your well-being or sanity. You bleed money for their failures and mistakes. You sit idle while you see your friends, allies, family, and everyday people make moves while your hands are tied tightly behind your back and there’s nothing you can do about it.

So what can you do when the high cost of auto repairs, late inspections, and the constant delivery of traffic violations and tickets keep you grounded? Nothing…except take a walk down to your local veteran’s path on your days off. It’s been the only form of escapism and a reprieve of leaving behind the disruptive anxiety-driving components back home. Walk out the front door, then along the service road and under the highway, down one clean residential street, turn a couple of corners, down another street where houses and open skies phase into heavily wooded areas, and finally you’re there.

Arrive at the veteran’s path where there’s always a pick-up game on the asphalt. Families of three, five, even seven – some with their kids on tricycles or dogs – walk together through elevated wooden plankways that zig-zag though the trees. Smell the sharp scent of apples, shampoo, or shades of ocean mist just by walking past the young Spanish girls who kindly smile and say ‘hi’ to you as you walk past them. Trees of emerald leaves in the spring or red, orange, and yellow leaves in the Autumn stand above a newly-replenished pond creating a mesmerizing near-perfect reflection. Walk off the pathways for the many heavily-wooded dirt roads or walk past the pond to find a hidden treasure: the graffiti tunnel doubling as an underpass for the railroad tracks above. Leave the veteran’s path and wash your hands at the bathroom which reeks of a church cellar and its’ soap dispensers pour out liquid lavender that makes a subtle mark on your trek. Two hours is enough time to dismiss your troubles, sort out your next moves, and even make a phone call or two to your family; all before arrive home right before sundown to catch up on the rest of the day’s posting, graphics, editing, and auditioning. Another quiet, peaceful day written in the record books.

Of course, I wouldn’t have an afternoon walk without something to listen to. My iPhone SE (32GB) replaced my seven year-old iPod Classic (160GB). With limited space, I only take about three months of finds with me. Those two hours of walking means I have more time to audition music for upcoming Omega WUSB shows. What’s in it, then? In case you truly care, it’s mostly city: d.i.y, safe-space, post-punk, indie. You can thank some of my friends and allies at the station for the first four. You can also thank Post-Trash, Brooklyn Vegan, Gold Flake Paint, and Alt-Citizen; all whose featured shining stars post their new sounds on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.

Jazz / fusion has taken me to places that no longer exist; places I never been to that I could never visit in a physical realm ever again. It makes me feel things only a very few can now imagine or understand. If someone lived or experienced it vicariously through the passing images, typesets, colors, aesthetics, and sounds that I have, then you’d understand.

Post-punk, d.i.y., or city? Not so much. The time is now and is very much alive, thriving and changing by the year because it’s here. Aesthetics of Wharf Cat, Katorga Works, Public Practice’s Distance Is A Mirror, Future Punx’s This Is Post-Wave, Gong Gong Gong’s Phantom Rhythm, Current Affairs, Boulders, Merchandise…I assure you get it by now. They, too, made me feel things to my own liking while many others in the scene are simply living in it. My aforementioned friends at the station: Conor, Layne, Toasty, Alosha, Kiki of Horrorscope… they bring their d.y.i. / city mindset to the station and it’s why Omega WUSB is feeling very proud of itself. As all this cycles in my head, it feels like I’m living another life, a life I’ve been trying to achieve. Scenarios I envision can be entirely possible and are waiting for me. I truly feel like I’m somewhere else; a place that’s very real but still far away from me…for now. That’s how powerful the connection is.

It’s been a void year for me, and such an anti-climactic way to end the decade. Only fitting after having a very wild year of extreme euphoria and collapse. The several trips to-and-from Veteran’s Path was the only thing I had to myself this year aside from a rainy Spring day out at Central Park. As a creator, you do your best in making something out of what you have. All you need is a time, location, soundtrack, and motive, and you have the makings of a new experience; a new mechanism for surviving an empty era.

Duckis demo

Annabel Lee “Hi Hi Hi”

Ex Hex “Cosmic Cave”

Garcia Peoples “Feel So Great”

Rong “Cup”

Spirits Having Fun “Auto-Portrait”

Ripped Jeans “Afraid”

Public Practice “Foundation”

Dig Nitty “Angel Calling”

Current Affairs “Breeding Feeling”

Strobobean Winter

C.H.E.W. “Bread and Circus”

My Brightest Diamond “Quiet Loud”

Free Time “Esoteric Tizz”

Sneaks “Tough Luck”

Patio “Legacy Continued”

Big French “Alison”

Jeanines “Is It Real”

Diat Positive Energy

VV Torso “Blood”

Dry Cleaning Sweet Princess

Weeping Icon “Teeth (& A Handbag)”

N0V3L “To Whom I May Concern”

Model/Actriz “New Face”

Channels “To The New Mandarins”

Sub Dio s/t

Bangzz “Your Boyfriend Is Really Bringing Me Down”

Ing “Closet”

Palm “Heavy Lifting”

Nazca Plate “Blotter”

Necking ”Big Mouth”

Pllush “Soft In The Dark” (1st VER)

Being Dead “Apostles’ Prom”

Remote Viewing “Whitney Houston, We Have A Problem”

Taiwan Housing Project “Buy Buy Buy”

Lungbutter “Vile”

Knife Wife “Every Living Thing”

Preoccupations “Pontiac 87”

Gong Gong Gong “Siren”

Dumb “Club Nites”

Second Still “You Two So Alike”

Rapid Tan “Gravy Baby”

Dry Cleaning “Sweet Princess”

Palm “Forced Hand”

Lunch Lady “Sweet One”

Kitten Forever “Hell Hole”

Necking “Spare Me”

Thanks For Coming “We Can’t Both Be Crazy”

Mock Identity “Where You Live”

Doe “Team Spirit”

There’s so much more than all the post-punk and d.i.y. I found. It wouldn’t be fair to ignore our rule of “as it happens, when it happens, anything goes.” The jazz / fusion time-and-space travel is still very much in operation. Down further is our new-found interest in Oakland / Mexican death-rock. Omega WUSB didn’t have a Halloween special this year so it didn’t get its’ day in the darkness. (Were you expecting sunshine?). Finally, some random spins of the wheel in synthpop, synthwave, electronics, hip-hop, and hardcore.

Walt Barr “Free Spirit”

Edgar Vercy “La Mer”

Paul Williams “Wistful Dreams”

Pasteur Lappe “Na Real Sekele Fo Ya”

Phil Upchurch “Black Gold”

Teddy Lasry “Riverhead”

Walt Barr “Creepin’”

Ötzi

Kurräka

False Figure

Cruz de Navajas

Zotz

Adrenochrome

CRVEL

Mystique

Pawns

CHKBNS “Can You And Me Still Have Fun?”

Canal Street Electronics “Deep Red”

Glued “No Past”

Odwalla 88 “What The..”

Sleazy “Cauchemar Administratif”

Your Old Droog “Bubble Hill”

Cave In “Winter Window”

Kedr Livanskiy “Kiska”

Planit Hank f. Jeru The Damaja & Buckshot & AZ “Life In Crooklyn”

[creative-anchorage]

Meta AI will respond to a post in a group if someone explicitly tags it or if someone “asks a question in a post and no one responds within an hour.” [...] Meta AI has also been integrated into search features on Facebook and Instagram, and users cannot turn it off. As a researcher who studies both online communities and AI ethics, I find the idea of uninvited chatbots answering questions in Facebook groups to be dystopian for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that online communities are for people. ... [The] “real people” aspect of online communities continues to be critical today. Imagine why you might pose a question to a Facebook group rather than a search engine: because you want an answer from someone with real, lived experience or you want the human response that your question might elicit – sympathy, outrage, commiseration – or both. Decades of research suggests that the human component of online communities is what makes them so valuable for both information-seeking and social support. For example, fathers who might otherwise feel uncomfortable asking for parenting advice have found a haven in private online spaces just for dads. LGBTQ+ youth often join online communities to safely find critical resources while reducing feelings of isolation. Mental health support forums provide young people with belonging and validation in addition to advice and social support. In addition to similar findings in my own lab related to LGBTQ+ participants in online communities, as well as Black Twitter, two more recent studies, not yet peer-reviewed, have emphasized the importance of the human aspects of information-seeking in online communities. One, led by PhD student Blakeley Payne, focuses on fat people’s experiences online. Many of our participants found a lifeline in access to an audience and community with similar experiences as they sought and shared information about topics such as navigating hostile healthcare systems, finding clothing and dealing with cultural biases and stereotypes. Another, led by Ph.D student Faye Kollig, found that people who share content online about their chronic illnesses are motivated by the sense of community that comes with shared experiences, as well as the humanizing aspects of connecting with others to both seek and provide support and information. ... This isn’t to suggest that chatbots aren’t useful for anything – they may even be quite useful in some online communities, in some contexts. The problem is that in the midst of the current generative AI rush, there is a tendency to think that chatbots can and should do everything. ... Responsible AI development and deployment means not only auditing for issues such as bias and misinformation, but also taking the time to understand in which contexts AI is appropriate and desirable for the humans who will be interacting with them. Right now, many companies are wielding generative AI as a hammer, and as a result, everything looks like a nail. Many contexts, such as online support communities, are best left to humans.

[govindhtech]

What is Argo CD? And When Was Argo CD Established?

What Is Argo CD?

Argo CD is declarative Kubernetes GitOps continuous delivery.

In DevOps, ArgoCD is a Continuous Delivery (CD) technology that has become well-liked for delivering applications to Kubernetes. It is based on the GitOps deployment methodology.

When was Argo CD Established?

Argo CD was created at Intuit and made publicly available following Applatix’s 2018 acquisition by Intuit. The founding developers of Applatix, Hong Wang, Jesse Suen, and Alexander Matyushentsev, made the Argo project open-source in 2017.

Why Argo CD?

Declarative and version-controlled application definitions, configurations, and environments are ideal. Automated, auditable, and easily comprehensible application deployment and lifecycle management are essential.

Getting Started

Quick Start

kubectl create namespace argocd kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml

For some features, more user-friendly documentation is offered. Refer to the upgrade guide if you want to upgrade your Argo CD. Those interested in creating third-party connectors can access developer-oriented resources.

How it works

Argo CD defines the intended application state by employing Git repositories as the source of truth, in accordance with the GitOps pattern. There are various approaches to specify Kubernetes manifests:

Applications for Customization

Helm charts

JSONNET files

Simple YAML/JSON manifest directory

Any custom configuration management tool that is set up as a plugin

The deployment of the intended application states in the designated target settings is automated by Argo CD. Deployments of applications can monitor changes to branches, tags, or pinned to a particular manifest version at a Git commit.

Architecture

The implementation of Argo CD is a Kubernetes controller that continually observes active apps and contrasts their present, live state with the target state (as defined in the Git repository). Out Of Sync is the term used to describe a deployed application whose live state differs from the target state. In addition to reporting and visualizing the differences, Argo CD offers the ability to manually or automatically sync the current state back to the intended goal state. The designated target environments can automatically apply and reflect any changes made to the intended target state in the Git repository.

Components

API Server

The Web UI, CLI, and CI/CD systems use the API, which is exposed by the gRPC/REST server. Its duties include the following:

Status reporting and application management

Launching application functions (such as rollback, sync, and user-defined actions)

Cluster credential management and repository (k8s secrets)

RBAC enforcement

Authentication, and auth delegation to outside identity providers

Git webhook event listener/forwarder

Repository Server

An internal service called the repository server keeps a local cache of the Git repository containing the application manifests. When given the following inputs, it is in charge of creating and returning the Kubernetes manifests:

URL of the repository

Revision (tag, branch, commit)

Path of the application

Template-specific configurations: helm values.yaml, parameters

A Kubernetes controller known as the application controller keeps an eye on all active apps and contrasts their actual, live state with the intended target state as defined in the repository. When it identifies an Out Of Sync application state, it may take remedial action. It is in charge of calling any user-specified hooks for lifecycle events (Sync, PostSync, and PreSync).

Features

Applications are automatically deployed to designated target environments.

Multiple configuration management/templating tools (Kustomize, Helm, Jsonnet, and plain-YAML) are supported.

Capacity to oversee and implement across several clusters

Integration of SSO (OIDC, OAuth2, LDAP, SAML 2.0, Microsoft, LinkedIn, GitHub, GitLab)

RBAC and multi-tenancy authorization policies

Rollback/Roll-anywhere to any Git repository-committed application configuration

Analysis of the application resources’ health state

Automated visualization and detection of configuration drift

Applications can be synced manually or automatically to their desired state.

Web user interface that shows program activity in real time

CLI for CI integration and automation

Integration of webhooks (GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab)

Tokens of access for automation

Hooks for PreSync, Sync, and PostSync to facilitate intricate application rollouts (such as canary and blue/green upgrades)

Application event and API call audit trails

Prometheus measurements

To override helm parameters in Git, use parameter overrides.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

[darkmaga-returns]

By Helena Glass HelenaGlass.net

November 13, 2024

According to the World Meteorology Organization, the world began in 1885 when temperatures first were recorded.   And based on those recordings, which have been radically altered since that time, this is representative of a disaster caused by mankind.  The global mean temperature rose by 1.5’ Celsius.  The goal is for global temperatures to only rise by 1.5’ Celsius… 

In addition, UN climate experts have claimed that global greenhouse gas emissions have ‘smashed all records’.  Records began in 1958.  Starting in the 1950s, scientists began drilling deep into the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland to extract tubes of ice called ice cores.  The data is compared to the last ice age wherein there were few to zero – trees, plant life, etc… This is their methodology which has all the scientific analysis of comparing cow farts to climate.   Elevated levels of CO2 from climate change may enable plants to benefit from the carbon fertilization effect and use less water to grow.

With a President Trump we are hopefully back to reality in regards to Climate Change, NATO and the UN.  Fire up the coal and eliminate the wildlife weapon – windmills.  Melt down the steel components and make appliances.

The left is weeping, threatening that a US agreement to give Russia a win would mean Comrade Rutte will expel the US out of NATO!  NATO spends $1.3 trillion on defense of which the US picks up $860 billion or 66%.  Their last audit was in 2021 and included 33 recommendations, including:  “Five NATO Reporting Entities (ACO, IS, NAHEMO, NAPMA and NCPS) were required to resubmit their financial statements to correct material errors in order to obtain unqualified audit opinion on financial statements.  Sum had to restate their financials multiple times.”

The bottom line audit of NATO declared the Financial Statements and Compliance were ‘unqualified’.  This is considered an Adverse Opinion. Out of 44 reporting entities, 2 were given a ‘qualified’ audit score which is consistent with the last 3 years. Total Assets amounted to roughly $3.2 billion.  Liabilities were predominantly “Deferred Revenue’ of $2.4 billion. Deferred revenue, also known as unearned revenue or deferred income, is money a company receives in advance for products or services that have not yet been delivered.  The accounting entry would debit Cash & Receivables and credit the liability – yet the financial statements reveal only $1.686 billion.  This is what auditors refer to as unqualified, ie fraud.