#Fed independence

[trendynewsnow]

The Trump Administration's Tense Relationship with the Federal Reserve

The Trump Administration and the Federal Reserve: A Tumultuous Relationship During his first term in office, Donald J. Trump frequently targeted the Federal Reserve, expressing dissatisfaction with its monetary policies. He persistently urged Fed officials to lower interest rates and often resorted to derogatory labels for them, ranging from “boneheads” to “the enemy.” As he embarks on a…

[yellodisney]

[petrichormore]

anyway I hope if q!BBH ever encounters the resistance group he vows to destroy them as well. Not only did they attempt to kill his son more than any other child and succeeded but they also talk about him,,, really weirdly?

Like maybe it was an accident on the part of the writers but… they only use he/him pronouns twice. They don’t use his name at all except for the designation at the beginning, but they’re just fine referring to Philza and Etoiles by name in the same damn paragraph. Kinda fucked up if you ask me I hope he hates them immediately. And even if he doesn’t hate them immediately I can’t imagine he won’t pick up on this kind of weirdness if they try to talk to him directly.

[bi-writes]

ok i've done some light research. if you want a software engineer/fic writer's inital take on lore.fm, i'll keep it short and sweet.

my general understanding of lore.fm functionality:

they use OpenAI's public API. they take in the text from the URL provided and use it to spit out your AI-read fic. their API uses HTTP requests, meaning a connection is made to an OpenAI server over HTTP to do as lore.fm asks and then give back the audio. my concern is that i wasn't able to find out what exactly that means. does OpenAI just parse the data and spit out a response? is that data then stored somewhere to better their model (probably yes)? does OpenAI do anything to ensure that the data is being used the way it was intended (we know this probably isn't true because lore.fm exists)?

lore.fm stores the generated audio (i am almost certain of this because of the features described in this reddit post). meaning that someone's fic is sitting in a lore.fm database. what are they doing with that data? what can they do with it? how is it being stored? what is being stored, the text and the audio, or just the audio?

i find transparency a very difficult thing to ask for in tech. people are concerned with technological trade secrets and stifling innovation (hilarious when i think about lore.fm, because it doesn't take a genius to feed text into AI and display the response somewhere, sorry to say). and while i find the idea of AI being used to help further accessibility on apps that don't yet provide it promising, i find the method that lore.fm (and OpenAI) chooses to do this to be dangerous and pave a path for a harmful integration of AI (and also fanfiction in general -- we write to interact, and lore.fm removes that aspect of it entirely).

we already know that AI companies have been paying to scrape data from different sources for the purposes of bettering their models, and we already know that they've only started asking for permission to do this because users found out (and not from the goodness of their hearts, because more data means better models, and asking for permission adds overhead). but this way of using it allows AI to backdoor-scrape data that the original sources of the data didn't give consent to. maybe the author declined to have their fic scraped by AI on the site they posted it onto (if the site asked at all), but they didn't know a third-party app like lore.fm would feed it into an AI model anyways.

what's the point of writing fics if i have no control over my own content?

[hellsingmongrel]

Man, so I'm not normally the biggest fan of Modern AUs, nor am I overly fond of fiction focused on kids, but...last night, my sleeping brain decided to concoct this Trigun (Stampede-flavored) Modern AU that now is living rent free in my damn brain! I want to get it out of my head and into the ether. I don't know if I'm going to do anything long-form with it, and I'm having to translate dream weirdness into more coherent storytelling, but here we go.

So it's modern day Earth, like 2024 or some shit, right? And that's when this version of Earth had just begun fucking around with Plant cloning. It's early enough that the SEEDS project hasn't even left the planet, the scientists haven't yet figured out how to put Plants in bulbs and use them for fuel, none of that! But they've already had Tessla happen, and the boys have already been born. Since they're not in space, even though they had to have found out about their sister, Nai hasn't had a chance to literally nuke humanity from orbit, and I guess Rem has had a chance to try and curtail some of his trauma, so he's...more stable? Ish? Stable enough where he's not actively trying to murder everyone. And the boys are "older," like we see in the flashbacks for the time Vash encountered Nai during the Last Run, so probably around 6 years old but looking 16 or so.

Rem has managed to fudge their paperwork so they've started going to school with human kids, to try and give them a normal childhood. Nai isn't as eager to play ball with the whole "being human" thing as much as Vash is, but Vash has got so many friends, Meryl and Milly and Lina are there and they're like the cutest, most stupidly adorable group of friends, just a bunch of little goofballs, like kids that age are. And the school has a field trip to a theme park (it was Disneyworld in my dream because my school actually did this, but ours was a band trip) and Vash manages to convince Rem to let him go. Vash and Nai and Rem are still paranoid about humans figuring out who they are, so you know, he's told to be extra careful and take care of himself, and Nai gives him one of his blades or something for self defense, just in case something happens. Even though Vash would never, that boy has trauma around knives and trying to defend himself, if you've read Trimax, iykyk. But he takes it anyway, and somehow, he manages to sneak it into the park. Maybe the metal doesn't register on metal detectors or something, who knows.

But he's a kid, and kids are dumb. Especially when they're 16. Especially if those 16 year olds aren't actually 16 and don't have the actual lived experience to know better. So he starts playing with the knife in front of the girls, showing off and just being a silly little guy. And then the knife slips. Bad. We're talking "this is how he probably lost his arm in this AU" bad. Blood everywhere, the girls are panicking and take him to the school chaperones and it's like "HOLY SHIT WTF DUDE, We're taking you to the ER, someone call his mom!"

And he hears that, pictures the doctors finding out he's not human, remembers what happened to Tessla, and panics. Boy does a runner like only Vash can do, and he manages to get away from them, out of the park, and escapes from security. And when parents get involved in trying to find him, the authorities start looking into the incident, and someone in the government overseeing the Plant research is able to recognize the elemental make up of the blade he dropped, and they start having suspicions. So the feds get involved, and it just goes from bad to worse, right?

Meanwhile, loopy from blood loss and panicking and a little sobbing mess because he feels dumb about slipping up and he's afraid he'll never get to go home to his mom and his brother again and is spiraling the way kids do when they panic, he gets lost in the city and ends up stumbling over teenage Wolfwood, who lives on the streets and has a few street kids that he looks after on his own with Livio. They never got to live at the orphanage, but that also means that the Eye (in whatever form it takes in this AU) never got ahold of them, so yeah, shits fucked for them, but it's actually a whole lot better for them than it might have been. And it's Wolfwood without all of the EoM trauma, so you can just imagine what he does when this delirious, bloody, terrified, severely injured kid runs him over in the street, sobbing about being caught by the adults and taken away.

Big Brother Nico do what Big Brother Nico do.

At that point, I ended up waking up, but damn if my brain didn't give me enough details to come up with a dumb AU idea that I kind of love and want to do something with, but I don't know if I have the time or spoons to do so.

Ideas I'd had following this beginning to flesh itself out in my head; Luida and Brad are Plant researchers brought onto the project to help the feds figure out wtf is going on with this whole situation, and when Luida is told to talk to Rem, because she's not giving them anything they can use, the two of them reach a secret accord to bring Vash home safe and sound and cover everything back up nice and squeaky clean the way it should have stayed.

Vash's arm is bad enough that he can't really heal it very well on his own without medical care, Plant healing or no. He's doing better than most kids would, but it still begins to go septic, and it forces Nico and Livio to make the really hard decision to find adults they can trust to bring him to so he can get the care he needs. He still ends up losing his arm, though.

At the end of everything, Melanie ends up taking Nico and Livio and the other kids in, so they still get to have their momma figure, even if she comes in later. Maybe she's the one that they find to help them. Is she maybe someone they've known was mostly safe but was never able to get them to stick around long enough to take care of them? Either way, the boys get Vash to her, and it starts the process of getting him home and the kids finally staying at the orphanage.

Meryl, Milly, and Lina all end up sneaking away when they realize that Vash is in more trouble than the adults are letting on, trying to go find him, since they know him better than anyone other than Rem and Nai. Eventually, they meet up with Nico and Livio while everyone is trying to avoid federal agents.

Obviously it's lovey-dovey Vashwood and Insurance Girlfriends and Polygun-flavored, but in the "these kids are too oblivious to think about sexy things, yet" sort of way, because I really do headcanon that at least Vash is ace, Wolfwood is probably demi, and also I am not writing children getting intimate like that. >8/ But kids having little crushes on each other is adorable and I can't not have Vashwood and Insurance Girlfriends be the eventual outcome, once those idiots all grow up and get their heads screwed on straight.

Also, because Nai hasn't had a chance to murder everyone, Rem's managed to work with him enough that he's very slowly overcoming his trauma and regaining his ability to trust that he's not in permanent danger. He'll probably grow up to be a Plants Rights activist or something, lbh. Or a politician. But he's not going to murder people, so either way, it's a win/win!

Because Nico's been living on the streets with him, Razlo either hasn't had to manifest as strongly for Livio, or hasn't manifested at all. Livio is still the sweet, shy, crybaby teddy bear we see, and maybe Razlo only comes out when the feds start getting closer and almost managing to grab the kids, and because he's been able to bond with Nico and the other kids so well this time, Livio is close enough to them that the thought of them getting hurt or taken away is enough to make him want to protect their little group instead of just Livio.

Wolfwood absolutely grumbles about how alike Vash and Livio are. Both a couple'a crybabies, geez, what the Hell you two??? But he also is very much a teddy bear who gives the best hugs when one of his little band of gremlins is upset, so he probably spends more time in a cuddle pile than anything else, now that there's two of them to lose their shit at the drop of a hat.

Vash was totally the one very sweet boy in a clique of girls that everyone who'd known him realized, when they were adults looking back, that he was very much the sweet gay kid hanging out with the girls because it was safer to be himself around them than it was to be around the other boys. (This isn't meant as a stereotype of gay kids, this is based on actual kids I grew up with. My friend group honest to God adopted them because we were all a bunch of momma bears.)

Vash is also...not trans? Because he's a Plant and Plants don't work the same way humans do, but he's also not what humans would think of as a cis boy. He expresses a masc presentation, but probably the closest equivalent would be an intersexed kid. Nai, too, tbh, though he's probably more of the "I don't give a fuck" opinion when it comes to his own gender identity. He uses he/him because that's what humans think when they see him, but he doesn't care any deeper than that.

[mironovs]

i hate how entitled I end up feeling bc this is my sentiment but . Really really resenting that my parents aren’t going to help me with school or rent or anything while they super can

[the-dear-skull]

Civil War's world is confusing. New York is regularly getting bombed by IEDs but four star hotels are open. DC is a war zone but the successionists are California and Texas. Cars are being abandoned on the side of the road but wifi is somewhat a thing. The NYT doesn't exist but there's dozens of American journalists with jobs AND INTERNS.

I understand the world doesn't immediately end during civil wars but if they wanted to tell the story of Jan 6ers vs the they/them army, why not have it set in Oregon where there are a lot of far leftist and far rightists together? With that state being really the only one that's messed up. Are Texans flying drones across Appalachia? If we can have an iron dome over Israel I feel like we could keep DC stable, much less the CULTURAL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.

[giiyus]

frubbo coded (mainly fred) lyrics

[mejomonster]

Justice in the dark.... please come back to us...

[fennopunk]

It's exhausting trying to explain to people I need help on doing certain tasks, not because I don't KNOW how to do them, but because my brain is wired weirdly, and I need someone present so I can do them myself

It's especially annoying when it's stuff like "how to do X in computer/internet" and not only am I from the generation that was actually taught how to use computers in school, I have goddamn certificate on it AND AN ENTIRE FUCKING DEGREE THAT REQUIRES COMPETENCE WITH COMPUTERS.

[error-elf-206]

I like just, making parallels between Alfred and Arthur -not current Arthur, no that's too obvious, but like, the younger Arthurs, that Alfred never knew ( If he ever knew his father to begin with; I mean really, who does?) That he's already surpassed. - and then I feel emotions about it.

Like that quote; boys spend their whole lives trying and failing to be the men they though their fathers were but girls can't avoid becoming their mothers.

Or sm like that

Anyway

[paintedpawz]

Finally found the art program for me it seems, even though Krita gave me some troubles at first, I got comfortable pretty quickly once I worked out the tools. :D I’ve been wanting to practice with reference images, as well as it helps cement my fursona’s design!  Still might tweak the colors to be a little more pleasing to the eyes.  Even than, Pig looks amazing in digital art now that I got a better grasp on their design! 

Anyway, Pigment is happy because they woke up and remembered it’s pride the 1st!!! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Reference was this meme~

[godlovesdykes]

life is very stressful rn.

realised today that i can’t go back to any sort of organizing/leadership role in the chapel and that nothing seems to have changed in the year i was gone. trying to decide where to live this year (kind of feels like deciding whether it would be worse to be lonely or overworked).

crushing in a way i’ve never crushed before and planning to ask her out on friday. thinking about my future and how she could fit into it and worrying because although our personalities seem so perfect together, our life trajectories are going in total opposite directions.

and i still haven’t applied for student loans.

[kc22invesmentsblog]

Gratitude Overflowing: Thank You for 100 Incredible Followers!

Thank you all for the love and support! Reaching 100 followers is just the beginning. We are excited about the future and the opportunities that lie ahead. We are committed to providing you with even more engaging content, thought-provoking discussions, and valuable insights. I want to build a community where we can all learn, grow, and support each other. Thanks again for the love and support! I…

[tenrose]

I find it really interesting while rewatching the show to realise that they give us the reason why Samaritan is a piece of shit AI unlike the Machine before it was even operational. His creator says that he designed Samaritan as an AI who can learn and upgrade in consequence, while Harold (who did not believe in AIs) decided to create a Machine who erases its own memory every night and by doing so, never derogated from her original goal which is to prevent acts of terror. She's still evolved though but with that goal always being her prime purpose but she's not really a full AI, she's just a very independent computer, and since her goal was to protect, of course she turned to be good. Meanwhile Samaritan kept evolving and learning from the world without protecting as being his top priority goal, and well since the world is shit... We all know how that ends.

[hikayelastoria]

K so i think I saw a post too many about this

An animal that has lost limbs and or other functional body part may not be automatically synonym with euth (unless it's like a cow or a horse) but if this animal has literally no QOL and must be force fed for it to not starve to death? Keeping it alive is far from the kindest option