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maxlearnmicrolearningplatform · 8 months ago

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Is Microlearning the Future of Employee Training? Here’s What We Know!

Microlearning, a training methodology characterized by delivering content in short, focused bursts, is increasingly being recognized as a transformative approach in the realm of employee training. As the modern workplace continues to evolve, driven by technological advancements and changing employee expectations, microlearning emerges as a solution that addresses the need for agile, efficient, and engaging training methods. This article explores the potential of microlearning to shape the future of employee training, examining its benefits, applications, and challenges.

The Evolution of Employee Training

Traditional employee training programs often involve lengthy sessions, extensive manuals, and a one-size-fits-all approach. While comprehensive, these methods can be time-consuming, costly, and ineffective for the modern workforce, which values flexibility, personalization, and immediacy. Employees today are accustomed to accessing information quickly and efficiently, thanks to digital technologies. This shift in information consumption has paved the way for microlearning to gain prominence.

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning breaks down training content into bite-sized modules that can be easily consumed and retained. These modules can take various forms, including videos, infographics, podcasts, quizzes, and animations, typically lasting between 2 to 10 minutes. The goal is to deliver relevant, actionable information that employees can apply immediately, enhancing their skills and knowledge incrementally.

Benefits of Microlearning

Increased Engagement: Short, focused content is more engaging than lengthy training sessions. Employees are more likely to stay attentive and absorb the material when it’s presented in manageable chunks.

Flexibility and Accessibility: Microlearning modules can be accessed anytime, anywhere, using mobile devices or computers. This flexibility allows employees to learn at their own pace, fitting training into their busy schedules.

Improved Retention: Studies have shown that information retention is higher when learning is spaced out over time, rather than crammed into a single session. Microlearning’s structure supports this spaced learning approach, reinforcing knowledge and skills.

Cost-Effective: Developing microlearning content can be more cost-effective than traditional training programs. It reduces the need for in-person training sessions, travel expenses, and extensive training materials.

Personalization: Microlearning allows for more personalized training experiences. Employees can select modules that are relevant to their roles and career development, ensuring that the training is directly applicable to their needs.

Applications of Microlearning in Employee Training

Microlearning can be applied across various aspects of employee training, including:

Onboarding: New hires can benefit from microlearning modules that introduce company policies, culture, and job-specific information in a structured, digestible manner. This approach helps new employees acclimate faster and more effectively.

Compliance Training: Compliance topics often involve dense regulations and policies. Breaking down this information into microlearning modules makes it easier for employees to understand and adhere to compliance requirements.

Skill Development: Whether it’s soft skills like communication and leadership or technical skills like data analysis and software usage, microlearning can provide targeted training that enhances employee capabilities incrementally.

Product Training: Sales and customer service teams can use microlearning to stay updated on new product features, benefits, and usage. Short modules ensure they have the latest information to effectively support customers.

Performance Support: Microlearning can serve as just-in-time learning, providing employees with quick access to information they need to solve problems or perform tasks more efficiently.

Microlearning in Action: Case Studies

Several organizations have successfully implemented microlearning to enhance their training programs. For example:

Google: Google uses microlearning to train its employees on various topics, including new technologies, management skills, and company policies. Their approach includes short videos, quizzes, and interactive modules that employees can access on-demand.

IBM: IBM leverages microlearning to keep its workforce up-to-date with the latest technological advancements and industry trends. Their microlearning strategy includes bite-sized courses, podcasts, and gamified learning experiences.

Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola has implemented microlearning for its sales teams, providing short, focused training on product knowledge, sales techniques, and customer engagement strategies. This has helped improve sales performance and customer satisfaction.

Challenges of Microlearning

Despite its many benefits, microlearning also presents some challenges:

Content Development: Creating high-quality microlearning content requires careful planning and expertise. Organizations need to ensure that the content is engaging, relevant, and effectively designed to meet learning objectives.

Integration with Existing Systems: Integrating microlearning with existing learning management systems (LMS) and other training platforms can be complex. Organizations need to ensure seamless access and tracking of microlearning modules.

Consistency: With multiple microlearning modules, maintaining consistency in tone, style, and quality can be challenging. Organizations must establish guidelines to ensure uniformity across all content.

Measuring Effectiveness: Assessing the impact of microlearning on employee performance and knowledge retention can be difficult. Organizations need robust evaluation methods to measure the effectiveness of their microlearning initiatives.

The Future of Microlearning in Employee Training

As organizations continue to navigate the changing landscape of employee training, microlearning is poised to play a significant role in the future. Here are some trends and predictions for its evolution:

Increased Adoption: More organizations will adopt microlearning as part of their training strategies, recognizing its benefits in enhancing employee engagement and performance.

Advanced Technologies: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data analytics will enable more personalized and adaptive microlearning experiences. These technologies can analyze employee performance data to recommend relevant modules and provide real-time feedback.

Gamification: Gamification elements, such as leaderboards, badges, and rewards, will be increasingly incorporated into microlearning to boost motivation and engagement.

Social Learning: Social learning features, such as discussion forums, peer reviews, and collaborative projects, will enhance the microlearning experience by fostering interaction and knowledge sharing among employees.

Focus on Soft Skills: With the growing importance of soft skills in the workplace, microlearning will increasingly focus on areas like communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence, providing employees with the tools to succeed in a dynamic work environment.

Conclusion

Microlearning represents a promising future for employee training, offering a flexible, engaging, and efficient approach to skill development and knowledge retention. As organizations seek to meet the evolving needs of their workforce, microlearning provides a solution that aligns with modern learning preferences and technological advancements. While challenges remain, the potential benefits of microlearning make it a compelling strategy for the future of employee training. By embracing microlearning, organizations can enhance their training programs, improve employee performance, and drive overall business success.

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onetechavenue · 11 months ago

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IBM Study: Widespread Discontent in Retail Experiences, Consumers Signal Interest in AI-Driven Shopping Amid Economic Strain

Only 9% of respondents say they are satisfied with the in-store shopping experience; only 14% say the same for online shopping. Roughly 80% of consumers surveyed who haven’t used AI for shopping expressed an interest in using the technology for various aspects of their shopping journey. Manila, Philippines — As the retail landscape faces mounting pressure from evolving consumer expectations and…

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#AI #Case Study #Consumer trends #Economics #Featured #IBM #Study

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sbcdh · 24 days ago

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The discovery that hypnotic states could be used for market regulatory purposes was nothing short of a revolution for the Federal Reseve. in June 1968, Initial experiments with "financial clairvoyance" were conducted.

The original methodology was fairly simple: fully trained subjects would be placed in a sensory deprivation tank and undergo hypnosonic neuro-induction to the point of sub-finantial emanation. Subjects would remain attuned for 24 hours, at which point they would be de-emanated, and their experiences recorded via interview.

This methodology proved to be an expensive disaster. Repeated cycles of emanation and de-emanation had a catastrophic effect on mental cohesion. On average, subjects would begin to show signs of neuro-depatterning within the first 50 dives, and would slip into permanent catatonia by 350 dives.

Additionally, recovered documents from the period show that information from a single Plutophant was only accurate to within a 2.2i Murdoch deviations, and the interview method introduced a further 5.1i of uncertainty. While experimental attempts to record brain activity directly were underway, technology was primitive, often harmful to the subject, or necessitated invasive surgical modification. Even then, transchronological brain activity proved uniquely difficult to record.

Then, a breakthrough.

The 1960 nationwide upgrade of the minuteman nuclear system was underway, which created a surplus of IBM Drum Storage Drives. Drives that were largely donated to research institutions under the purview of project Clover. With some modifications, the cyclical nature these drum drives proved to be ideal for recording changes in transchronological neuropatterning.

These "Radio-Magnetic Neurological Sensory Arrays" were the predecessor to the modern neuroscope. The first production example, the IBM Y-2, was the size of an entire room, requiring enormous amounts of power and several trained technicians to process the thoughts of a single Plutophant into a human-readable form.

Study is ongoing.

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scotianostra · 11 months ago

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On February 16th 1954 the writer Iain Banks was born in Dunfermline, Fife

Banks was a son of a professional ice skater and an Admiralty officer. He spent his early years in North Queensferry and later moved to Gourock because of his father’s work requirement. He received his early education from Gourock and Greenock High Schools and at the young age of eleven, he decided to pursue a career in writing. He penned his first novel, titled The Hungarian Lift-Jet, in his adolescence. He was then enrolled at the University of Stirling where he studied English, philosophy and psychology. During his freshman year, he wrote his second novel, TTR.

Subsequent to attaining his bachelor degree, Banks worked a succession of jobs that allowed him some free time to write. The assortment of employments supported him financially throughout his twenties. He even managed to travel through Europe, North America and Scandinavia during which he was employed as an analyzer for IBM, a technician and a costing clerk in a London law firm. At the age of thirty he finally had his big break as he published his debut novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984, henceforth he embraced full-time writing. It is considered to be one of the most inspiring teenage novels. The instant success of the book restored his confidence as a writer and that’s when he took up science fiction writing.

In 1987, he published his first sci-fi novel, Consider Phlebas which is a space opera. The title is inspired by one of the lines in T.S Eliot’s classic poem, The Waste Land. The novel is set in a fictional interstellar anarchist-socialist utopian society, named the Culture. The focus of the book is the ongoing war between Culture and Idiran Empire which the author manifests through the microcosm conflicts. The protagonist, Bora Horza Gobuchul, unlike other stereotypical heroes is portrayed as a morally ambiguous individual, who appeals to the readers. Additionally, the grand scenery and use of variety of literary devices add up to the extremely well reception of the book. Its sequel, The Player of Games, came out the very next year which paved way for other seven volumes in The Culture series.

Besides the Culture series, Banks wrote several stand-alone novels. Some of them were adapted for television, radio and theatre. BBC television adapted his novel, The Crow Road (1992), and BBC Radio 4 broadcasted Espedair Street. The literary influences on his works include Isaac Asimov, Dan Simmons, Arthur C. Clarke, and M. John Harrison. He was featured in a television documentary, The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks South Bank Show, which discussed his literary writings. In 2003, he published a non-fiction book, Raw Spirit, which is a travelogue of Scotland. Banks last novel, titled The Quarry, appeared posthumously. He also penned a collection of poetry but could not publish it in his lifetime. It is expected to be released in 2015. He was awarded multitude of titles and accolades in honour of his contribution to literature. Some of these accolades include British Science Fiction Association Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, Locus Poll Award, Prometheus Award and Hugo Award.

Iain Banks was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the gallbladder and died at the age of 59 in the summer of 2013.

#scotland #scottish #history #author #fifer

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months ago

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Richard R John’s “Network Nation”

THIS SATURDAY (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

The telegraph and the telephone have a special place in the history and future of competition and Big Tech. After all, they were the original tech monopolists. Every discussion of tech and monopoly takes place in their shadow.

Back in 2010, Tim Wu published The Master Switch, his bestselling, wildly influential history of "The Bell System" and the struggle to de-monopolize America from its first telecoms barons:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/11/01/the-master-switch-tim-net-neutrality-wu-explains-whats-at-stake-in-the-battle-for-net-freedom/

Wu is a brilliant writer and theoretician. Best known for coining the term "Net Neutrality," Wu went on to serve in both the Obama and Biden administrations as a tech trustbuster. He accomplished much in those years. Most notably, Wu wrote the 2021 executive order on competition, laying out a 72-point program for using existing powers vested in the administrative agencies to break up corporate power and get the monopolist's boot off Americans' necks:

https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

The Competition EO is basically a checklist, and Biden's agency heads have been racing down it, ticking off box after box on or ahead of schedule, making meaningful technical changes in how companies are allowed to operate, each one designed to make material improvements to the lives of Americans.

A decade and a half after its initial publication, Wu's Master Switch is still considered a canonical account of how the phone monopoly was built – and dismantled.

But somewhat lost in the shadow of The Master Switch is another book, written by the accomplished telecoms historian Richard R John: "Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications," published a year after The Master Switch:

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674088139

Network Nation flew under my radar until earlier this year, when I found myself speaking at an antitrust conference where both John and Wu were also on the bill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VNivXjrU3A

During John's panel – "Case Studies: AT&T & IBM" – he took a good-natured dig at Wu's book, claiming that Wu, not being an historian, had been taken in by AT&T's own self-serving lies about its history. Wu – also on the panel – didn't dispute it, either. That was enough to prick my interest. I ordered a copy of Network Nation and put it on my suitcase during my vacation earlier this month.

Network Nation is an extremely important, brilliantly researched, deep history of America's love/hate affair with not just the telephone, but also the telegraph. It is unmistakably as history book, one that aims at a definitive takedown of various neat stories about the history of American telecommunications. As Wu writes in his New Republic review of John's book:

Generally he describes the failure of competition not so much as a failure of a theory, but rather as the more concrete failure of the men running the competitors, many of whom turned out to be incompetent or unlucky. His story is more like a blow-by-blow account of why Germany lost World War II than a grand theory of why democracy is better than fascism.

https://newrepublic.com/article/88640/review-network-nation-richard-john-tim-wu

In other words, John thinks that the monopolies that emerged in the telegraph and then the telephone weren't down to grand forces that made them inevitable, but rather, to the errors made by regulators and the successful gambits of the telecoms barons. At many junctures, things could have gone another way.

So this is a very complicated story, one that uses a series of contrasts to make the point that history is contingent and owes much to a mix of random chance and the actions of flawed human beings, and not merely great economic or historical laws. For example, John contrasts the telegraph with the telephone, posing them against one another as a kind of natural experiment in different business strategies and regulatory responses.

The telegraph's early promoters, including Samuel Morse (as in "Morse code") believed that the natural way to roll out telegraph was via selling the patents to the federal government and having an agency like the post office operate it. There was a widespread view that the post office as a paragon of excellent technical management and a necessity for knitting together the large American nation. Moreover, everyone could see that when the post office partnered with private sector tech companies (like the railroads that became essential to the postal system), the private sector inevitably figured out how to gouge the American public, leading regulators to ever-more extreme measures to rein in the ripoffs.

The telegraph skated close to federalization on several occasions, but kept getting snatched back from the brink, ending up instead as a privately operated system that primarily served deep-pocketed business customers. This meant that telegraph companies were forever jostling to get the right to string wires along railroad tracks and public roads, creating a "political economy" that tried to balance out highway regulators and rail barons (or play them off against each other).

But the leaders of the telegraph companies were largely uninterested in "popularizing" the telegraph – that is, figuring out how ordinary people could use telegraphs in place of the hand-written letters that were the dominant form of long-distance communications at the time. By turning their backs on "popularization," telegraph companies largely freed themselves from municipal oversight, because they didn't need to get permission to string wires into every home in every major city.

When the telephone emerged, its inventors and investors initially conceived of it as a tool for business as well. But while the telegraph had ushered in a boom in instantaneous, long-distance communications (for example, by joining ports and distant cities where financiers bought and sold the ports' cargo), the telephone proved far more popular as a way of linking businesses within a city limits. Brokers and financiers and businesses that were only a few blocks from one another found the telephone to be vastly superior to the system of dispatching young boys to race around urban downtowns with slips bearing messages.

So from the start, the phone was much more bound up in city politics, and that only deepened with popularization, as phones worked their ways into the homes of affluent families and local merchants like druggists, who offered free phone calls to customers as a way of bringing trade through the door. That created a great number of local phone carriers, who had to fend off Bell's federally enforced patents and aldermen and city councilors who solicited bribes and favors.

To make things even more complex, municipal phone companies had to fight with other sectors that wanted to fill the skies over urban streets with their own wires: streetcar lines and electrical lines. The unregulated, breakneck race to install overhead wires led to an epidemic of electrocutions and fires, and also degraded service, with rival wires interfering with phone calls.

City politicians eventually demanded that lines be buried, creating another source of woe for telephone operators, who had to contend with private or quasi-private operators who acquired a monopoly over the "subways" – tunnels where all these wires eventually ended up.

The telegraph system and the telephone system were very different, but both tended to monopoly, often from opposite directions. Regulations that created some competition in telegraphs extinguished competition when applied to telephones. For example, Canada federalized the regulation of telephones, with the perverse effect that everyday telephone users in cities like Toronto had much less chance of influencing telephone service than Chicagoans, whose phone carrier had to keep local politicians happy.

Nominally, the Canadian Members of Parliament who oversaw Toronto's phone network were big leaguers who understood prudent regulation and were insulated from the daily corruption of municipal politics. And Chicago's aldermen were pretty goddamned corrupt. But Bell starved Toronto of phone network upgrades for years, while Chicago's gladhanding political bosses forced Chicago's phone company to build and build, until Chicago had more phone lines than all of France. Canadian MPs might have been more remote from rough-and-tumble politics, but that made them much less responsive to a random Torontonian's bitter complaint about their inability to get a phone installed.

As the Toronto/Chicago story illustrates, the fact that there were so many different approaches to phone service tried in the US and Canada gives John more opportunities to contrast different business-strategies and regulations. Again, we see how there was never one rule that governments could have used if they wanted to ensure that telecoms were well-run, widely accessible, and reasonably priced. Instead, it was always "horses for courses" – different rules to counter different circumstances and gambits from telecoms operators.

As John traces through the decades during which the telegraph and telephone were established in America, he draws heavily on primary sources to trace the ebb and flow of public and elite sentiment towards public ownership, regulation, and trustbusting. In John's hands, we see some of the most spectacular failures as more than a mismatch of regulatory strategy to corporate gambit – but rather as a mismatch of political will and corporate gambit. If a company's power would be best reined in by public ownership, but the political vogue is for regulation, then lawmakers end up trying to make rules for a company they should simply be buying giving to the post office to buy.

This makes John's history into a history of the Gilded Age and trustbusters. Notorious vulture capitalists like Jay Gould shocked the American conscience by declaring that businesses had no allegiance to the public good, and were put on this Earth to make as much money as possible no matter what the consequences. Gould repeated "raided" Western Union, acquiring shares and forcing the company to buy him out at a premium to end his harassment of the board and the company's managers.

By the time the feds were ready to buy out Western Union, Gould was a massive shareholder, meaning that any buyout of the telegraph would make Gould infinitely wealthier, at public expense, in a move that would have been electoral poison for the lawmakers who presided over it. In this highly contingent way, Western Union lived on as a private company.

Americans – including prominent businesspeople who would be considered "conservatives" by today's standards, were deeply divided on the question of monopoly. The big, successful networks of national telegraph lines and urban telephone lines were marvels, and it was easy to see how they benefited from coordinated management. Monopolists and their apologists weaponized this public excitement about telecoms to defend their monopolies, insisting that their achievement owed its existence to the absence of "wasteful competition."

The economics of monopoly were still nascent. Ideas like "network effects" (where the value of a service increases as it adds users) were still controversial, and the bottlenecks posed by telephone switching and human operators meant that the cost of adding new subscribers sometimes went up as the networks grew, in a weird diseconomy of scale.

Patent rights were controversial, especially patents related to natural phenomena like magnetism and electricity, which were viewed as "natural forces" and not "inventions." Business leaders and rabble-rousers alike decried patents as a federal grant of privilege, leading to monopoly and its ills.

Telecoms monopolists – telephone and telegraph alike – had different ways to address this sentiment at different times (for example, the Bell System's much-vaunted commitment to "universal service" was part of a campaign to normalize the idea of federally protected, privately owned monopolies).

Most striking about this book were the parallels to contemporary fights over Big Tech trustbusting, in our new Gilded Age. Many of the apologies offered for Western Union or AT&T's monopoly could have been uttered by the Renfields who carry water for Facebook, Apple and Google. John's book is a powerful and engrossing reminder that variations on these fights have occurred in the not-so-distant past, and that there's much we can learn from them.

Wu isn't wrong to say that John is engaging with a lot of minutae, and that this makes Network Nation a far less breezy read than Master Switch. I get the impression that John is writing first for other historians, and writers of popular history like Wu, in a bid to create the definitive record of all the complexity that is elided when we create tidy narratives of telecoms monopolies, and tech monopolies in general. Bringing Network Nation on my vacation as a beach-read wasn't the best choice – it demands a lot of serious attention. But it amply rewards that attention, too, and makes an indelible mark on the reader.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/18/the-bell-system/#were-the-phone-company-we-dont-have-to-care

#pluralistic #books #reviews #history #the bell system #monopoly #att #western union #gift guide #tim wu #richard r john #the master switch #antitrust #trustbusting

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duskofastraeus · 7 months ago

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Friday, 31st of May.

Had to pull a sort of all-nighter the day before to finish some French units before the deadline.

Had a private French class in order to analyse my written compositions with my professor

Finished the first course of the IBM Data Science certificate

Started planning out some essays and writing I need to submit during the summer

Notes of the day:

- I’ve been feeling quite fatigued recently, though it is not the first time I am preparing for a language certificate I still feel a bit nervous and must discipline myself into dealing with these emotions rationally.

- A part of me is quite envious of seeing my colleagues enjoying their vacations and time off university while I have to deal with additional examinations/studies and an internship but I should recognise that this surplus work will pay off in the future and I shouldn’t discourage myself.

- I wished I had more time to do readings for the next semester, but for now 2-3 hours of my day will have to suffice. I am a bit anxious for the opening of the application process for next summer’s internships. I need to acquire a research internship in my field of choice and I am not sure if I’ll obtain one in my own university because of the competition between 4 different stages of study going for the same internships…

- Academia aside, I’ve been spending the majority of my days either in libraries or alone in coffee shops doing some work. It is not the first time I spend a summer by myself and I think I’ve learnt to enjoy my own company harmoniously.

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chrissdollie · 1 year ago

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”what would you do if jess proposed?”

a/n: WARNING: i wrote this late and it’s mostly dialogue. also it’s not really a romantic jess x reader it’s a very causal thing. but i promise i’ll edit it soon to make it cuter. wc: 2.6k

paul anka barked at the door where a knock was heard. you and your mom lorelai were sitting on the couch watching a movie. “just a minute!” she yelled, picking up paul and handing him over to you where you held him in your lap, petting him slowly. you looked over your shoulder to the front door, wondering who it was.

lorelai opened the door to reveal rory’s current boyfriend of three years, logan. “oh hey!” she greeted. “hey.” logan replied blandly.

“oh, you just missed rory. she’s on her way back to school.” rory had left back to yale after visiting at home to study for her finals.

“i know, im actually here to see you and y/n.” his voice shook slightly. he seemed nervous, which was weird because from the few times you met him, he was a very confident and down to earth guy. “oh, okay. come on in.” she invited.

“thank you.” logan stepped inside and walked over to where you were sitting in the living room. “do you want, um, any food or drink? we ordered way too many fries.” lorelai asked, inviting him to sit on the couch. you smiled and muttered a small “hello” to which he nodded back and sat down next to you.

“no thanks, i’m all good.” you moved over slightly so lorelai could squeeze in next to the two of you. “um, so how was your trip?” you asked kindly, trying to rid of the awkwardness.

“oh, it was really great. actually that’s what i wanted to talk about.” he folded his hands as he manspread. you raised your brow so only lorelai could see. she looked at you and then back to logan.

“oh, god. i know nothing about that world. uh, apple, ibm, microsoft, im out.” she joked, making logan chuckle. his face then turned serious again. “well, i’ve been offered a position with an emerging internet company.” he informed before pausing.

“wow, that’s great!” you congratulated, grinning. “yeah, congrats.” lorelai agreed. “thanks, it’s pretty similar to what i was doing in new york, but actually, they’re willing to make me a full partner i’ll be getting in on the ground floor.”

you had no idea what the ‘ground floor’ was, but you nodded and continued to smile like you did know. lorelai seemed at a small loss for words too. so she settled with “that’s exciting!”

“it is. it’s gonna be a lot of long hours and an incredible amount of work building the company, but i really feel this ‘venture has a bright future. i mean, these are serious people.” he grinned softly.

“and you’re a serious guy.” lorelai complimented, her eyes softening. a serious guy? you weren’t totally sure about that, but you stayed quiet. “look, you don’t have to convince me. i voiced my concerns, and you told me your plans. we had pie. i’m cool.” she sweetly told him.

“thank you. i appreciate that. that means a lot to me.” he thanked. this was getting weird. you wanted to know the reason that he came here. god, would he just hurry up already??

“you’re welcome.” lorelai hummed back, her face falling to a frown. logan cleared his throat. “so, the thing is.. well, as the you guys can imagine, i’m pretty excited about all this.”

“yeah, of course, i mean it’s really cool.” you spoke. “but it-it does mean a move to san francisco. palo alto, actually.” he dropped the bomb. he’s moving. poor rory, she was going to be devastated! your mom’s face fell into an ‘O’ shape and your face saddened at the thought of him breaking up with rory.

rory was your best friend (besides from your mom, of course) and she loved logan deeply. you would hate to see her get hurt, but it has to happen. it’s not like she can move with him. oh.

“that’s big. that’s funny, rory didn’t mention it. did she say anything to you?” lorelai questioned turning the spotlight to you for a minute. “nope, not a thing.”

“well, i haven’t told her yet.” he said, voice shaking slightly again. “and you’re here because you want us to tell her for you?” lorelai asked, trying to get the point across. logan chuckled again.

“no, no, i’m gonna tell her. i just, um, i wanted to talk to you guys first about it.” he took a deep breath while looking at the floor before speaking. “look. i love rory. she means the world to me and i want her to come with me to california.” oh no. now he’s dropped the bomb.

you saw lorelai close her eyes and take a breath before opening her eyes again. “oh.” was all she had to say. you shook your head. “but, not just as my girlfriend.” he said deeply. “which is why i’m here. i’m here to ask for your blessings. to ask rory to marry me.”

“chris, hi.” lorelai picked up the phone. you were standing next to her because rory was talking to some DAR ladies. you excused yourself and followed your mom away from the two women you were talking to. you saw chris standing outside and that was your cue to leave them alone and walked towards your boyfriend who’d finally arrived

“hi, honey!” you greeted. jess smiled and kissed your cheek. “hi, i’m sorry for being late. work was right up my as.. hello emily.” he greeted your grandmother who came up to you two. “hello, jess. hi, y/n.” she smiled at you before kissing your cheek.

your grandfather richard came over and quickly greeted you before turning to emily.

“emily, i think now is a good time.” he mumbled. “oh, excuse us.” emily and richard walked to the front of the room next to the grand piano. emily tapped a glass with a fork to get everyone’s attention. richard straightened his shoulders and held a piece of paper.

“ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen. first, let me thank you for coming to celebrate my granddaughter rory’s graduation.” he spoke clearly. emily walked up next to him and pinched his arm. “ouch!” he winced. “oh i-i do beg your pardon. celebrating our granddaughter rory’s graduation.” he corrected himself, making you and rory giggle quietly standing next to each other. you also waved quickly to your dad before turning back to richard.

“i can’t let him take all the credit, have you seen her? can you blame me?” emily joked, making the crowd laugh. you and rory gave each other a look almost to say ‘she’s been drinking.’

“so, when my wife and i sat down to write our toast,” he continued. “we ran into something of a problem. all of our words sounded too mundane, too insignificant to mark such an auspicious occasion, as rory’s graduation from yale. so, instead.. maestro.” richard turned to the pianist.

rory’s head turned slightly and furrowed her eyebrows. you were just as confused as she was. “please excuse us. we are not singers.” emily somewhat nervously apologized. “never let them see you sweat, dear.” richard soothed.

lorelai turned to her daughters, raising a brow causing you three to chuckle. your grandparents raised their papers in front of them and stood tall. richard began the song as the pianist played a joyful tune.

you’re the top

you have graduated

you’re the top

your grandparents are elated

newspaper editor, phi beta kappa WOW!

you’re a relegation, a huge sensation

you should take a bow

you are done

no more school for you

there is nothing now that you can’t do

you’ll make us proud, we’ll sing it loud

it’s true cause now rory, you’re a bulldog through and through!

you clapped loudly, laughing with your sister. the crowd applauded and “aww”’ed at the sweet song. logan yelled out a “yeah!” before rory ran up to her grandparents and gave them both a hug. “oh, thank you, thank you. wow!” she smiled.

“we meant every word in that song.” emily cooed. “we certainly did. even the ones we sang off key.” richard agreed. rory thanked them again before expressing her love and appreciation for them. you loved that rory went to college, even if you didn’t. she had begged you to go with her so she wouldn’t be alone, but this experience had given her a new pov of the world.

chris’ phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. “oh, it’s the babysitter calling to see if g.g can watch an hour of television.” he said aloud. “i don’t think she’s ready for ‘the pussycat dolls yet’.” you teased, causing chris and lorelai to grin. “i’ll be right back.”

but before he could leave to answer the phone, logan stopped him. “actually, would you mind waiting?” he jumped quickly. chris’ head turned up to look at logan for a second before nodding. “sure.”

“thanks. trust me, you’ll want to stick around for this.” he dismissed himself and walked to rory. “okay.” he replied shortly. your face fell and you could see lorelai’s did too. “is he gonna..” chris pointed towards him. you’re assuming your mom told chris about logan wanting to propose.

“not here. not now.” lorelai shook her head in disbelief. you really hoped he wouldn’t do that to rory. especially in front of everybody. what if she says no? truth be told, you didn’t want rory to get married and leave to san francisco! she was only 22 and you wanted her to stay with you and your mom for a little while longer.

she can’t just up and leave. she won’t. she’s been away at college while you’ve been working and things will finally get to go back to normal after her graduation. you mentally shake of these thoughts and focus on the present.

“if i could, i’d also like to say a few words about my girlfriend of the past three years.” logan began. you had also told jess after you’d found out logan wanted to propose. but he still looked appalled. rory was like a little sister to him, you knew.

logan turned to look rory in her big blue eyes. “you amaze me, rory gilmore, every day, everything that you do, everything that you are. this past year, i realized that i don’t know a lot more than i thought i knew if that makes sense. i’m sorry, i’m a little bit nervous. didn’t think i’d be.” he chuckled shyly.

“what i’m trying to say is that.” he sighed softly before taking a quick breath. “i don’t know a lot. but i know that i love you. and i want to be with you.. forever.” he sighed again and pulled out a velvet blue box from his pocket. rory’s eyes widened and she realized what was happening. you wish you knew what was going on in her head.

the crowd began to murmur. your eyes widened in anticipation. emily’s mouth was wide open with joy while richard’s happy face contorted to an serious one. “rory gilmore.” he opened the box, still looking at her. “will you marry me?”

that’s it. the question was asked and out in the open. it was silent for a few moments. “um..” she muttered and turned to you and lorelai for a moment. she looked back and struggled to find words. “um, wow.” she chuckled breathily. “i- wow..”

“is there a yes in between those ‘wows’?” logan asked eagerly. the crowd laughed lightly. “um, im just, im so.. surprised. i-i just, um, would, um..” she ran her fingers through her hair quickly before grabbing his hand. “w-will you come talk to me outside?”

“sure.” he walked as she led them outside. “yeah, okay,” she stumbled quickly out the door. emily ran to the pianist. “play something now.” she demanded before looking out the window.

“my poor girl.” you pouted as jess wrapped an arm around your shoulders. emily walked over to where you and lorelai were standing. “well i don’t know what to do! should i continue to stagger the hors d’oeuvres or just tell the kitchen staff to send everything out?” she cried.

lorelai shrugged. “i don’t know.” she mumbled. “why didn’t she just say yes?” emily threw her arms down like a child, clearly upset. your eye twitched for a moment. “i’m not sure she wants to marry him, grandma.” you tried to make her understand. but who are you kidding, this is emily gilmore.

“that’s ridiculous, he’s a huntzberger. an offer like this doesn’t come around every day.” emily whined. “it’s a marriage proposal, not a sale on linens.” lorelai folded her arms as richard approached, handing a drink to his wife. “clearly, rory was caught off guard, all of us were.” your phone rang as richard spoke.

you pulled your cellphone out of your pocket and answered. “i’m sure she just needs a moment to get her bearings-“ you cut your grandfather off to speak. “hi, ror.”

you motioned for lorelai to follow you, removing jess’ arm from you quickly. “did she say yes?” emily called out as you and lorelai exited the house. “we’ll be right back.” lorelai told chris and jess.

you two found rory and your eyes widened. “is that a carriage?” you laughed. “wow, how romantic!” you cheesed jokingly. “get in, now please!” rory pleaded. lorelai went in first, rory followed second, and you last.

the horses began to walk and rory turned to you. “i just kept saying ‘i don’t know, i’ll have to think about it’ and it was awful! and he was obviously disappointed and upset.” she began ranting. “well that was kinda on him. imagine if you said no in front of all those people!” you thought.

the girls agreed silently. “you know, he made all these plans about the house we’d live in and the avocado tree in our backyard.” she continued. “you do like guacamole.” lorelai threw in. “i-i just had to explain to him how it if the blue this is. like super out of the blue! the deepest, darkest, naviest blue. and why are you so calm by the way?”

“we knew. he came by the house to ask for our permission.” you told her. “we were dying to tell you!” you whined. lorelai jumped in after you. “and she almost did, but i threatened her to no more sleeping in on weekdays.” she said. “you sleep in on weekdays.” “that’s not the point.”

“anyways, what do you think i should do?” rory asked desperately. “oh, honey, i think it’s your decision.” lorelai put simply. rory pushed her head forward waiting for more. “you have no opinion?” she questioned in disbelief. “only you know what you want.” she briefly answered.

“hm, okay. what about you, curly? what would you do if jess proposed?” rory asked. “well, moe, i would definitely wait a few days before answering. id really think about it first. id make a photo collage of what our wedding would look like and then show you, then make a pros and cons list, and then answer once i’m fully confident.” you finished.

“that was actually a very good answer, dude, nice.” lorelai spoke in her surfer-bro voice and fist bumped you. “i love him. i do. i’m like a circus freak with all the hands. i’m all over the place!”

“you’ll get through this. just mull over it for now.” you gave her a big hug. rory grinned sweetly and hugged back. “group hug!” lorelai cheered, leaning in. “if you get married, can i be the flower girl?” lorelai asked in a high pitched voice. “no. paul anka will be the flower girl.”

#this is trash sorry #gilmore girls #jess x reader #jess #jess mariano #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore #logan huntzberger #𝓳𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓸 ☕️

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retrocgads · 10 months ago

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USA 1997

#USA1997 #RED ORB ENTERTAINMENT #STRATEGIC STUDIES GROUP #STRATEGY #IBM #WARLORDS III REIGN OF HEROES

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icebear4president · 2 months ago

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Since men are so ready to take away women’s right to vote and say we’re sooo uneducated and need to know our places, please, have these inventions and scientific discoveries that were credited to men instead 🥰

Hedy Lamarr: Wireless communication. Hollywood actor Hedy Lamarr should actually be the person credited with the invention of wireless communication. During the second World War, Hedy worked closely with George Antheil to develop the idea of "frequency hopping," which would have prevented the bugging of military radios. Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy ignored her patent —and later used her findings to develop new technologies. Years later, her patent was re-discovered by a researcher, which led to Lamarr receiving the Electronic Frontier Foundation Award shortly before her death in 2000.

Alice Ball: Cure for leprosy. Alice Ball was a young chemist at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii who focused on Hansen's disease, a.k.a. leprosy. Her research sought to find a cure for the disease by figuring out how to inject chaulmoogra oil directly into the bloodstream. Topical treatments worked, but had side effects patients weren't interested in. Sadly, Ball became sick and returned home, where she died in 1916. Arthur Dean took over her study, and Ball became a memory—until a medical journey now referred to the "Ball Method." Her method was used for over two decades all over the world to cure the disease.

Elizabeth Magie Philips: Monopoly. The invention of everyone's favorite board game has been credited to Charles Darrow, who sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935. But it was Elizabeth Magie Phillips who came up with the original inspiration, The Landlord's Game, in 1903. Ironically, she designed the game to protest against monopolists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

Marion Donovan: Disposable diapers. In the '40s, new mothers had very few options for diapers. There was cloth...and that was pretty much it. The daughter of an inventor, Marion's first patent was actually for a diaper cover. She later added buttons, eliminating the need for safety pins. Her original disposable diaper was made with shower curtains, with her final one made from nylon parachute cloth. This new method helped keep children and clothes cleaner and dryer, not to mention helping with rashes. But, of course, diaper companies at first ignored her patent.

Vera Rubin: Dark matter. Rubin is the astrophysicist who confirmed the existence of dark matter in the atmosphere. She worked with astronomer Kent Ford in the '60s and '70s, when they discovered the reasoning behind stars' movement outside of the galaxy. She's dubbed a "national treasure" but remains without a Nobel Peace Prize.

Margaret Knight: Square-bottomed paper bags. In 1868, Knight invented a machine that folded and formed flat, square-bottomed brown paper bags. She built a wooden model of the device, but couldn't apply for a patent until she made an iron model. While the model was being developed in the shop, a man named Charles Annan stole the idea and patented it. Though he received credit for it, Knight filed a lawsuit and finally won the rights to it in 1871.

Dr. Grace Hopper: Computer Programming Language. Hopper created the first computer language compiler tools to program the Harvard Mark I computer—IBM's computer that was often used for World War II efforts. Though it's noted in history that John von Neumann initiated the computer's first program, Hopper is the one who invented the codes to program it. One of the programming languages she pioneered, COBOL, is widely used today.

Ada Harris: Hair straightener. Marcel Grateau is often credited for the invention of the hair straightener, but it was Harris who first claimed the patent for it in 1893. (Grateau made his claim to fame with the curling iron around 1852, and we certainly know there's a difference.)

Esther Lederburg: Microbial Genetics. Lederberg played a large part in determining how genes are regulated, along with the process of making RNA from DNA. She often collaborated with her husband Joshua Lederberg on their work on microbial genetics, but it was Esther who discovered lambda phage—a virus that infects E. coli bacteria. Despite their collaboration, her husband claimed the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries on how bacteria mate.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Pulsars. Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered irregular radio pulses while working as a research assistant at Cambridge. After showing the discovery of the pulses to her advisor, the team worked together to uncover what they truly were: Neuron stars, AKA pulsars. Burnell received zero credit for her discovery—instead, her advisor Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974.

Chien-Shiung Wu: Nuclear Physics. Often compared to Marie Curie, Chien-Shiung Wu worked on the Manhattan Project, where she developed the process for separating uranium metal. In 1956, she conducted the Wu experiment that focused on electromagnetic interactions. After it yielded surprising results, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, the physicists who originated a similar theory in the field, received credit for her work, winning the Nobel Prize for the experiment in 1957.

Ada Lovelace: Computer algorithm. In the mid-1800s, Ada Lovelace wrote the instructions for the first computer program. But mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage is often credited with the work because he invented the actual engine.

Rosalind Franklin: DNA Double Helix. Franklin's X-ray photographs of DNA revealed the molecule's true structure as a double helix, which was a theory denounced by scientists James Watson and Francis Crick at the time. However, since Watson and Crick originally discovered the (single) helix, they ended up receiving a Nobel Prize for their research.

The ENIAC Programmers: First electronic computer. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first computer ever built. In 1946, six women programmed this electronic computer as part of a secret World War II project. Inventor John Mauchly is often the only one who gets credit for its creation, but the programmers are the ones who fully developed the machine.

Lise Meitner: Nuclear Fission. Discovered the true power of uranium, noting that atomic nuclei split during some reactions. The discovery was credited to her lab partner Otto Han, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1944

Katherine Johnson: Moon landing. She l discovered the exact path for the Freedom 7 spacecraft to successfully enter space for the first time in 1961 and later for the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon in 1969. She often went unrecognized by her male colleagues and faced racial discrimination.

Mary Anderson: Windowshield wipers. Anderson first came up with the idea of windshield wipers while riding in a streetcar in the snow. She tried selling her device to companies after receiving the patent for it in 1903, but all of them rejected her invention. It wasn't until the '50s and '60s when faster automobiles were invented that companies took to the idea. By then, Anderson's patent had expired, and later, inventor Robert Kearns was credited with the idea.

Nettie Stevens: Sex chromosomes. Stevens discovered the connection between chromosomes and sex determination. Despite Stevens' breakthrough, her colleague and mentor E.B. Wilson published his papers before her and is often noted for the discovery.

Caresse Crosby: The modern bra. Caresse Crosby, who developed the modern bra. She was the first to acquire the patent for the modern bra, AKA a "Backless Brassiere," yet is often left in the shadows because she sold her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company.

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origami10 · 6 months ago

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AjinWeek24 fic (title TBD)

I was feeling bloodthirsty brainstorming for the week so it's all on the body theme, inspired by the worst things I could come up with.

Author’s note: I’m very sorry to anyone out there who actually knows anatomy reading this. You’ll probably be going “it doesn’t work like that!!” the whole time. I told myself I would study up on it but I haven't, and I wanted to just get this fic out there sometime before 2047. Also I’m very sorry to anyone reading this in general. This is verrrry much hurt/no comfort so if you’re not feeling it, hit that back button and try again later, or just leave, I don’t mind! Dead doves and all that, or dead… main characters. (Please picture origami10 holding a knife and grinning like Satou) My standard for what to write about this time was, if it makes me recoil in horror from having thought it up, that’s what I should write. You’ve been warned.

Day 1: Head

Apparently, the only thing Samuel T. Owen found more exciting than crashing planes into populated areas was torturing Kei personally.

And this time, he wasn’t playing games.

It was down in the sewer where Satou caught up to him. A tremor in the shadows materialized into the flat-topped head of Satou’s IBM, followed by Satou’s narrowed eyes glinting out of the darkness behind. No sooner than Kei could think “Ah, this is ba-“ was the hand of the creature around his throat, jetting him back up against the concrete wall. The impact to his head knocked stars into his vision, and in the brief span he was unconscious, the nearly invisible yet undeniably solid hands of the IBM had moved to pin his biceps back against the cold, rough stone.

“I always make good on my threats, you know.” Satou’s voice was sing-song, but not a single gleam of mirth showed in his eyes. “But, I don’t mind taking my time getting there.”

The IBM’s hands pressed over Kei’s arms like a vice. It faced him head on, and as it leaned its head closer and closer, to Kei’s horror, its flat top lifted to reveal a gaping snake mouth. The yawning maw drew closer and closer, filling his vision like a nightmare.

For something so stiff on the outside, the inside of its mouth as it closed over Kei’s head was as soft and pliable as any human flesh. That flat head slid down flush against the wall, forcing its way over the back of Kei’s head even as its lower jaw swallowed up his face. A more sober Kei might have been intrigued to note that the IBM wasn’t inhibited by the same bone structure that would limit a snake’s bite, but right now a full panic was overriding his usual rationality. Even if he had the reserves to produce his own IBM right now, Satou knew the trick now about attacking its head, and in these close quarters it’d be almost as useless as he was against Satou.

He was completely at Satou’s mercy. The jaws of the IBM closed over his neck.

#ajinweek24 #sorry it's so short #I have days 2 & 3 done as well so posting now to make sure I write the other days I have ideas for #warnings in author's note

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