#Learn About Our Privacy Policy

[carsthatexcite]

Find out why CarsThatExcite is Sydney’s top choice for quality vehicles. Explore their exceptional service, selection, and customer satisfaction.

[probablyasocialecologist]

There is no obvious path between today’s machine learning models — which mimic human creativity by predicting the next word, sound, or pixel — and an AI that can form a hostile intent or circumvent our every effort to contain it. Regardless, it is fair to ask why Dr. Frankenstein is holding the pitchfork. Why is it that the people building, deploying, and profiting from AI are the ones leading the call to focus public attention on its existential risk? Well, I can see at least two possible reasons. The first is that it requires far less sacrifice on their part to call attention to a hypothetical threat than to address the more immediate harms and costs that AI is already imposing on society. Today’s AI is plagued by error and replete with bias. It makes up facts and reproduces discriminatory heuristics. It empowers both government and consumer surveillance. AI is displacing labor and exacerbating income and wealth inequality. It poses an enormous and escalating threat to the environment, consuming an enormous and growing amount of energy and fueling a race to extract materials from a beleaguered Earth. These societal costs aren’t easily absorbed. Mitigating them requires a significant commitment of personnel and other resources, which doesn’t make shareholders happy — and which is why the market recently rewarded tech companies for laying off many members of their privacy, security, or ethics teams. How much easier would life be for AI companies if the public instead fixated on speculative theories about far-off threats that may or may not actually bear out? What would action to “mitigate the risk of extinction” even look like? I submit that it would consist of vague whitepapers, series of workshops led by speculative philosophers, and donations to computer science labs that are willing to speak the language of longtermism. This would be a pittance, compared with the effort required to reverse what AI is already doing to displace labor, exacerbate inequality, and accelerate environmental degradation. A second reason the AI community might be motivated to cast the technology as posing an existential risk could be, ironically, to reinforce the idea that AI has enormous potential. Convincing the public that AI is so powerful that it could end human existence would be a pretty effective way for AI scientists to make the case that what they are working on is important. Doomsaying is great marketing. The long-term fear may be that AI will threaten humanity, but the near-term fear, for anyone who doesn’t incorporate AI into their business, agency, or classroom, is that they will be left behind. The same goes for national policy: If AI poses existential risks, U.S. policymakers might say, we better not let China beat us to it for lack of investment or overregulation. (It is telling that Sam Altman — the CEO of OpenAI and a signatory of the Center for AI Safety statement — warned the E.U. that his company will pull out of Europe if regulations become too burdensome.)

[hoodjam]

antidote

a/n1 : helllo, I missed y’all on here lol,, I hope you like this & my inner Choso lover came out lolll

warnings smut(mdni), cuckhold (?), cheating, fingering, oral (m & f), double penetration, slight voyeurism, I think that’s it, 1.5K words

omg I can’t stop thinking about doctor!choso who specializes in making people cum & boyfriend!gojo making the appointment

It honestly started when satoru thought he broke your pussy… he’d edged you to the brink of exploding and when he finally craved guiding you to a sweet release— you couldn’t

he tried everything, toys, his fingers, his tongue, porn, but no matter what he did it never sufficed & you were pissed.

for some reason, you couldn’t push yourself to the edge either, which made your skills on the job suffer.

so much so that your boss had called you into their office to give you a couple of days off for a “cool down period”, with pay of course

which brings you to the website you’re staring at now, ‘ Kamo’s Magic House of Fingers ‘. the name sucked but the reviews were top notch

tojis-digbick : as a guy, dr. kamo made me cum buckets, hell I go at least twice a week ;)

utihim3 : people have said I was pent up, had my panties in a twist, and more degrading rude things, but dr. kamo untwisted my knickers! thank you, doctor!

naoya_z : even tho it’s not a lowly woman’s fist fucking my pristine cock, the doctor knows how to satisfy my needs. or whatever

your mouth salivates thinking about the relief this dr. kamo could bring you, persuading satoru to book your appointment by telling him he’d stay in the room.

now you sit here, or lay, on a soft mattress on a table. the room looked like any other clinic but seemed spacious.

there was a knock on the door, and I came what you assumed was dr. kamo. gojo stood to shake the man’s hand as you clenched your thighs together— the doctor was attractive.

wearing a tight black shirt that showed off all his assets, black slacks, and shoes with a white lab coat to it off. after shaking your boyfriend's hand he eyes your chart.

“good afternoon, Ms. y/n, I am Dr. Kamo, but you can call me Choso,” he starts smoothly, his deep voice rattling to your core.

“first off, I’m glad that you finished your paperwork online, most people forget,” he chuckled, “secondly, i see you are having a problem with intimacy in the bedroom?” he questioned, eyeing your wristband, double-checking to make sure he had the right patient.

you nodded your head in agreement, mind coming to terms with that in a few minutes, Choso would be in between your thighs. you could cum just at the thought.

choso smiles, making the black mark on his nose move, “well I hope I can help,” he starts, placing the clipboard down, and dimming the lights. “however on our privacy policy, we state that there cannot be any guests in the room with patients.”

your heart sinks, finally remembering satoru sitting by your head, “I’m very quiet, I swear I’m here for moral support!” He pleads, grasping your hand.

Choso hums, as if he’s thinking about bending his rules. “well I suppose he could stay, since it’s his mess that you’re here today, maybe he could learn something today,” he teased, keeping his heated gaze on you.

satoru scoffs, fixing his mouth for a response when he’s shushed by the doctor, “ah ah, remember quiet.”

your legs are propped up by the doctor as he slowly rolls your dress upwards past your hips. his eyes glancing at your features to make sure you’re still ok.

this makes your throb, panties dampening with every slight caress of his fingers on your skin.

“curtains open or closed, Ms. y/n?”

OPEN! you wanted to scream but the soft huff from satoru told you otherwise, you don’t think his ego could take another hit.

“closed please.”

another smile, then he disappears. you hear gloves being put on from the other side as you wait patiently for your session to start.

you’ve been panting and trying your hardest not to close your shaky thighs. your core clenching around nothing, feeling your wetness drip through your underwear.

Choso lazily rubs your clit, sometimes missing just to hear you whine, enjoying his job for the first time.

you were gorgeous, from top to bottom, and at this moment you were his.

he stops abruptly, pulling your soaked panties off your core, mouth wet as he sees the slick sticking to it.

on his side table, he looks at his various options of toys, wondering how much you could take, setting on a standard dildo.

he teases your folds, watching the fake dick collect your cream. “you sound so lovely,” Choso groans, slipping the tip in your hole.

you gasp clutching your breasts, face warm from his words. satoru rolls his eyes but palms his growing bulge. tempted to plunge his cock into your mouth.

doctor!Choso expertly moves the false dick, making sure to nudge your g-spot every so often. squelching sounds in the room as you moan, hips matching the pace of the doctor.

whatever it was doing felt so good, better than your fingers, way better than what gojo had tried. you moan louder, rolling against the toy that’s filling you to the brim.

“so good choso, keep going im almost there!” you squeaked, feeling something wet against your clit, almost like a mouth.

satoru stands up, swiftly pulling his pants and underwear down, cock hitting your chin. you moan louder seeing the deranged look on your boyfriend's face. he’s pissed.

opening your mouth, you relax your throat taking the harsh thrusts from both ends to take you. satoru gasps, feeling the tight pressure of your mouth soak his cock.

you whimper, feeling gojos palms around your tits, squeezing and tweaking your nipples, slowing his pace to cum down in your mouth. you gagged, struggling to take all his cum as he slips out your mouth.

after catching his breath he quietly slips out the door feeling triumphant, the thought that only he could cum in you.

“oh, so that’s the problem,” you hear, yes connecting with Choso’s, “he nuts too fast, no wonder he can’t satisfy you.”

you gasp, the curtain slightly open revealing the light pink that dusts the doctor's cheeks.

“is my assessment correct?” he chiles, still trusting the toy in your core, “hm? I need an answer.”

you moan a ‘yes’, leaning up to open the curtain more, “he hasn’t made me cum in months, please help me Choso.”

feeling bold, you take the toy out of your pussy, scooting to the edge of the table-bed, spreading your cunt with your fingers, “I’m begging.”

the doctor watches as your hole clenches still oozing onto the mattress under you. his cock twitches, ready to break another rule of his policy.

his laces his fingers with yours, flickering his eyes on your face as his head dips to lick your core. tongue collecting your slick as he circles your pearl.

you shudder, pushing your hips to his face, pleading for more.

he’d make you cum, a few times. with his tongue, his fingers, a few of his toys, and finally his cock that you were sitting on.

his job completed, yet he still can’t get enough of you, nor could you. after you came in his face he was stunned when it came with rain, soaking his coat and shirt. your hands pressed his face deeper into your core asking for more and more and more.

so insatiable, when you clenched around his fingers, unappeased when you felt the vibration bring a nudge against your g-spot, greedy when you pleaded for his cock.

he’s lucky that the door locks after someone leaves, fortunate that only he has the keys to the room, blessed that it’s soundproof, muffling your moans when you bounce on his lap, pussy sucking him in deeper, skin slapping when you come down.

he can’t remember when he took his coat and shirt off when his pants zipped down only revealing his aching member how your dress bunched around your waist, when your breasts bounced and covered with marks, but he thoroughly enjoyed this.

“one more Cho i swear,” you whined, grinning your hips against his, feeling every vein of his cock inside you, nudging your cervix.

he groans, circling his hips upwards, ready to cum inside you for the billionth time. “yea?” he’s breathless, slowly fucking you as you both arrive at the peak.

you moan once more latching your mouth on his, squirting on his lap, feeling his hot seed fill your hole.

Your heavy breathing subsides, feeling his cock soften, “fuck, that’s was amazing.” he groans lifting you and placing you on the bed.

gathering some warm wet wipes, he cleaned himself as well as you. opening a makeshift closet and finding another shirt and coat. he hands you your dress and smiles. “do you feel satisfied?

“I do, I was wondering if I could come back? just in case the treatment wears off,” you mumble, cringing at your poor excuse to see him again.

He chuckled, fishing a business card from his pocket. “here’s my personal card, call me when you need treatment.” winking walking about the room with his panties in your back pocket.

a/n2 : this was supposed to be short, damn.. oh well

@hoodjam-recs for more jjk content!!

[horsegamergirl]

From SSO's instagram:

SPOOKY MUSIC WANTED

"We're conjuring up something wickedly fun in Jorvik — our annual Halloween Festival! But beware, there's more brewing! DJ Kai will be bringing Halloween music to the Fort Pinta disco to get you in the spooky mood. And we want you to be part of the musical magic! 🎃 Do you have an original song (made by you!) that will put everyone under a spell? Send us your chilling music submissions for a chance to be featured at the disco alongside DJ Kai's ghostly grooves! 🎵 And that's not the end of our tricks and treats! Selected tracks will be credited to the talented creators, and we'll craft a playlist with the music on our Spotify account. To keep the vibes fresh, we'll accept submissions on an ongoing basis. But the deadline is September 20th if you wish to be a part of the Halloween disco...if you dare! 🕸️ Drop your submissions by emailing music@starstable.com. We'll process your personal data to communicate with you about your music submission. The legal basis for processing is legitimate interest—check out our privacy policy* to learn more about how Star Stable handles personal data and your rights. We can't choose everyone, but we'll reach out to the lucky few! Terms and conditions apply, including a 50/50 split of any revenue generated from streams of the chosen songs between the talented artist and the Star Stable Music label! Let's create some ghoulishly good memories on the dance floor together! 🧛‍♀️🎶 *https://www.starstable.com/privacy"

[granulesofsand]

do you think it’s unsafe/dangerous to post about system functions? i would like to post ours, just so we have a better understanding of it, but im not sure if journaling would be better instead. we prefer online stuff because some alters have trouble writing.

We keep separate journals from our social media, and we have a couple safeties in place when we do. If it’s just typing that feels better, you can use a note app or keep everything in drafts (read privacy policies and terms of service if you’re doing that).

While we’re pretty open about how our system works online, we’re not particularly inclined to give identifying information for our body or any member of our collective. There are creeps online, so have a plan for how vague you’d like to be and which pieces to keep to yourself/ves

We queue almost everything. Current events in our life actually took place about a month ago, and any details of our structures or even opinions typically sit for three to five days so we can regret them before the world sees. We only post photos when we’ve left an area, and we change the location and timestamp when possible. Determine how much you(&) want strangers to know about your(&) life at any given time, and give yourself/ves space to discuss big topics before sending them out

Get consent from headmates or prepare to fight. Mentioning system members and their activities can feel violating, especially if anyone has exploitation trauma. Permission every time is ideal unless you know them really well (and even then you might offend them by accident)

Sharing account names and emails/phone numbers across platforms can get you(&) tracked easily. Decide what content you’re posting and remember that outsiders can find you(&) in a video game or gushing over an interest in the wild. Keep separate sideblogs and user info for different topics unless you(&)’re real comfy with people knowing that much about you(&). The more you(&) connect in public, the crisper the picture you(&) give for people looking for you(&)

Lying is okay. Change names, give a funky time period, construct a persona online. That’s harder to do with a journal on the internet, but you(&) need some barrier between the depths of your(&) soul(s) and the general populace. If you(&) are more authentic online, you(&) might have to be less authentic offline to stay safe

And to actually answer the question: no, I don’t think it’s safe to post system functions online. Catch me doing it anyway.

We find that social media allows us to get some peer interaction without the risk of irl relationships being compromised. We can share bits here and then turn around and say those things out loud in therapy

We can say that we’ve heard of others like us and learn what’s normal for our subgroup instead of humans in our town. People understand us, and we get more comfortable diverging from the norm in both modes of life

This much talking to strangers and practicing etiquette makes us better at opening communication amongst ourselves

We get feedback and learn to deal with criticism — including what is important to hear and change and what people are just mouthing off about

Most of us know that we can look for notes on our life (the stuff that didn’t make it into the letters) on this account. We get used to seeing each other’s writing and perspective, and so are less avoidant when we notice these things in physical reality

You(&) get to choose between your(&) own pros and cons. Maybe it’s not worth it to you(&); that’s fine, there are alternatives. Maybe you(&) want to give it a try; good luck, people can be both incredible kind and absolutely scathing. I do recommend asking around/leaving notes for your systemmates to determine what their concerns are, if any. There are shades of how far you(&) might go with each aspect going forth. It’ll probably be messy at first, but you(&)’ll learn. I’ve yet to disappear my system’s online presence, so clearly I enjoy it.

[splathousefiction]

"For The Children" Is A Puritan Dogwhistle, And It's Time You Stop Pretending People Who Use It Are Acting In Good Faith.

They're not.

Not once, not ever, nor has any policy, political move, bill, terms of service update or edit to an EULA agreement done under this banner been made with good intentions. "For the safety/good of children" is what's commonly referred to as an "Emotional Appeal", a logical fallacy most of you learn about in grade school. Corporations and politicians, at least in America, will happily strip away your autonomy without a second thought while simultaneously ignoring direct and real dangers that many children face literally every single day. They get away with it too, because gaslighting in American politics works.

There's no grand agenda, no chemical in the water nor some mind control via 5g tower by some shady cabal to harm your children.

You know what kids are really dealing with right now?

There's been 64 school shootings in the US so far just in 2024. The number of kids facing food scarcity or only getting a meal at school (often on the free/reduced price tier) has surged since the 2019 lockdowns. More than 1.2 million kids in school right now are homeless. Schools are underfunded by $150 billion annually, meaning kids don't even have access to the resources necessary to receive a quality education.

These are just the causes I can personally think of that we should be investing in "for the children", and yet as literal bodies pile up every year, kids starve and freeze outside in the elements, I've watched our politicians just shrug and say nothing can be done while actively infringing on the privacy and safety of it's citizens.

Instead of doing something about gun control, we've got militarized police in schools and talk of allowing teachers to carry firearms. Instead of taking my tax money and at least feeding the kids, I've watched them be fed stuff so lacking in nutritional value it might as well be dirt. I've seen politicians move to keep the holocaust out of textbooks and reduce the horrors of war to a few paragraphs-always with this country as the winners, the good guys, the MCU equivalent of the avengers coming to save the day. Don't even get me started on housing those homeless children. If the US doesn't care about kids being shot to death, it sure as hell doesn't care about giving them adequate shelter.

I'm not so dumb as to assume there's a single solution or a single cause to any of this, but I'm also not ignorant to the fact that every single fucking time I've heard "for the safety of kids" or "for the good of the children" used by someone, they're about to do something fucking hideous to all of us and get away with it. They're about to rob you of your rights, your humanity, your name and culture if they think they can. And they're gonna get away with it too, because what kind of monster would ever argue against the safety of kids?

"For the children" is a conservative dog whistle. It always has been, it always will be, and every time you see it used it's time to start harassing the shit out of the people saying it by asking them what they're legitimately, actually, factually doing for kids. Because there's a damn good chance their entire argument is built on a throne of corpses.

[mariacallous]

In a sunlight-filled classroom at the US State Department’s diplomacy school in late February, America’s cyber ambassador fielded urgent questions from US diplomats who were spending the week learning about the dizzying technological forces shaping their missions.

“This portfolio is one of the most interesting and perhaps the most consequential at this moment in time,” Nathaniel Fick, the US ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy, told the roughly three dozen diplomats assembled before him at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. “Getting smart on these issues … is going to serve everyone really well over the long term, regardless of what other things you go off and do.”

The diplomats, who had come from overseas embassies and from State Department headquarters in nearby Washington, DC, were the sixth cohort of students to undergo a crash course in cybersecurity, telecommunications, privacy, surveillance, and other digital issues, which Fick’s team created in late 2022. The training program—the biggest initiative yet undertaken by State’s two-year-old cyber bureau—is intended to reinvigorate US digital diplomacy at a time when adversaries like Russia and China are increasingly trying to shape how the world uses technology.

During his conversation with the students, Fick discussed the myriad of tech and cyber challenges facing US diplomats. He told a staffer from an embassy in a country under China’s influence to play the long game in forming relationships that could eventually help the US make inroads there. He spoke about his efforts to help European telecom companies survive existential threats from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in the battle for the world’s 5G networks. And he warned of a difficult balancing act on AI, saying the US needed to stave off excessive regulation at the UN without repeating past mistakes.

“We really screwed up governance of the previous generation of tech platforms, particularly the social [media] platforms,” Fick said. “The US essentially unleashed on the world the most powerful anti-democratic tools in the history of humanity, and now we’re digging our way out of a credibility hole.”

Restoring that credibility and expanding American influence over digital issues will require tech-savvy diplomacy, and the State Department is counting on Fick’s training program to make that possible. To pull back the curtain on this program for the first time, WIRED received exclusive access to the February training session and interviewed Fick, the initiative’s lead organizer, five graduates of the course, and multiple cyber diplomacy experts about how the program is trying to transform American tech diplomacy.

Fick has called the training program the most important part of his job. As he tells anyone who will listen, it’s a project with existential stakes for the future of the open internet and the free world.

“Technology as a source of influence is increasingly foundational,” he says. “These things are more and more central to our foreign policy, and that’s a trend that is long-term and unlikely to change anytime soon.”

Maintaining an Edge

From Russian election interference to Chinese industrial dominance, the US faces a panoply of digital threats. Fighting back will require skillful diplomatic pressure campaigns on every level, from bilateral talks with individual countries to sweeping appeals before the 193-member United Nations. But this kind of work is only possible when the career Foreign Service officers on the front lines of US diplomacy understand why tech and cyber issues matter—and how to discuss them.

“The US needs to demonstrate both understanding and leadership on the global stage,” says Chris Painter, who served as the first US cyber ambassador from 2011 to 2017.

This leadership is important on high-profile subjects like artificial intelligence and the 5G war between Western and Chinese vendors, but it’s equally vital on the bread-and-butter digital issues—like basic internet connectivity and fighting cybercrime—that don’t generate headlines but still dominate many countries’ diplomatic engagements with the US.

Diplomats also need to be able to identify digital shortcomings and security gaps in their host countries that the US could help fix. The success of the State Department’s new cyber foreign aid fund will depend heavily on project suggestions from tech-savvy diplomats on the ground.

In addition, because virtually every global challenge—from trade to climate—has a tech aspect, all US diplomats need to be conversant in the topic. “You’re going to have meetings where a country is talking about a trade import issue or complaining about a climate problem, and suddenly there’s a tech connection,” says Justin Sherman, a tech and geopolitics expert who runs Global Cyber Strategies, a Washington, DC, research and advisory firm.

Digital expertise will also help the US expand coalitions around cybercrime investigations, ransomware deterrence, and safe uses of the internet—all essentially proxy fights with Russia and China.

“We are in competition with the authoritarian states on everything from internet standards … to basic governance rules,” says Neil Hop, a senior adviser to Fick and the lead organizer of the training program. “We are going to find ourselves at a sore disadvantage if we don't have trained people who are representing [us].”

Diplomats without tech training might not even realize when their Russian and Chinese counterparts are using oblique rhetoric to pitch persuadable countries on their illiberal visions of internet governance, with rampant censorship and surveillance. Diplomats with tech training would be able to push back, using language and examples designed to appeal to those middle-ground countries and sway them away from the authoritarians’ clutches.

“Our competitors and our adversaries are upping their game in these areas,” Fick says, “because they understand as well as we do what’s at stake.”

Preparing America’s Eyes and Ears

The Obama administration was the first to create a tech diplomacy training program, with initial training sessions in various regions followed by week-long courses that brought trainees to Washington. Government speakers and tech-industry luminaries like internet cocreator Vint Cerf discussed the technological, social, and political dimensions of the digital issues that diplomats had to discuss with their host governments.

“The idea was to create this cadre in the Foreign Service to work with our office and really mainstream this as a topic,” says Painter, who created the program when he was State’s coordinator for cyber issues, the predecessor to Fick’s role.

But when Painter tried to institutionalize his program with a course at the Foreign Service Institute, he encountered resistance. “I think we kind of hit it too early for FSI,” he says. “I remember the FSI director saying that they thought, ‘Well, maybe this is just a passing fad.’ It was a new topic. This is what happens with any new topic.”

By the time the Senate unanimously confirmed Nate Fick to be America’s cyber ambassador in September 2022, tech diplomacy headaches were impossible to ignore, and Fick quickly tasked his team with creating a modern training program and embedding it in the FSI’s regular curriculum.

“He understood that we needed to do more and better in terms of preparing our people in the field,” Hop says.

The training program fit neatly into secretary of state Antony Blinken’s vision of an American diplomatic corps fully versed in modern challenges and nimble enough to confront them. “Elevating our tech diplomacy” is one of Blinken’s “core priorities,” Fick says.

As they developed a curriculum, Fick and his aides had several big goals for the new training program.

The first priority was to make sure diplomats understood what was at stake as the US and its rivals compete for global preeminence on tech issues. “Authoritarian states and other actors have used cyber and digital tools to threaten national security, international peace and security, economic prosperity, [and] the exercise of human rights,” says Kathryn Fitrell, a senior cyber policy adviser at State who helps run the course.

Equally critical was preparing diplomats to promote the US tech agenda from their embassies and provide detailed reports back to Washington on how their host governments were approaching these issues.

“It's important to us that tech expertise [in] the department not sit at headquarters alone,” Fick says, “but instead that we have people everywhere—at all our posts around the world, where the real work gets done—who are equipped with the tools that they need to make decisions with a fair degree of autonomy.”

Foreign Service officers are America’s eyes and ears on the ground in foreign countries, studying the landscape and alerting their bosses back home to risks and opportunities. They are also the US government’s most direct and regular interlocutors with representatives of other nations, forming personal bonds with local officials that can sometimes make the difference between unity and discord.

When these diplomats need to discuss the US tech agenda, they can’t just read monotonously off a piece of paper. They need to actually understand the positions they’re presenting and be prepared to answer questions about them.

“You can’t be calling back to someone in Washington every time there’s a cyber question,” says Sherman.

But some issues will still require help from experts at headquarters, so Fick and his team also wanted to use the course to deepen their ties with diplomats and give them friendly points of contact at the cyber bureau. “We want to be able to support officers in the field as they confront these issues,” says Melanie Kaplan, a member of Fick’s team who took the class and now helps run it.

Inside the Classroom

After months of research, planning, and scheduling, Fick’s team launched the Cyberspace and Digital Policy Tradecraft course at the Foreign Service Institute with a test run in November 2022. Since then, FSI has taught the class six more times—once in London for European diplomats, once in Morocco for diplomats in the Middle East and Africa, and four times in Arlington—and trained 180 diplomats.

The program begins with four hours of “pre-work” to prepare students for the lessons ahead. Students must document that they’ve completed the pre-work—which includes experimenting with generative AI—before taking the class. “That has really put us light-years ahead in ensuring that no one is lost on day one,” Hop says.

The week-long in-person class consists of 45- to 90-minute sessions on topics like internet freedom, privacy, ransomware, 5G, and AI. Diplomats learn how the internet works on a technical level, how the military and the FBI coordinate with foreign partners to take down hackers’ computer networks, and how the US promotes its tech agenda in venues like the International Telecommunication Union. Participants also meet with Fick and his top deputies, including Eileen Donahoe, the department’s special envoy for digital freedom.

One session features a panel of US diplomats who have helped their host governments confront big cyberattacks. “They woke up one morning and suddenly were in this position of having to respond to a major crisis,” says Meir Walters, a training alum who leads the digital-freedom team in State’s cyber bureau.

Students learn how the US helped Albania and Costa Rica respond to massive cyberattacks in 2022 perpetrated by the Iranian government and Russian cybercriminals, respectively. In Albania, urgent warnings from a young, tech-savvy US diplomat “accelerated our response to the Iranian attack by months,” Fick says. In Costa Rica, diplomats helped the government implement emergency US aid and then used those relationships to turn the country into a key semiconductor manufacturing partner.

“By having the right people on the ground,” Fick says, “we were able to seize these significant opportunities.”

Students spend one day on a field trip, with past visits including the US Chamber of Commerce (to understand industry’s role in tech diplomacy), the Center for Democracy and Technology (to understand civil society’s perspective on digital-rights issues), and the internet infrastructure giant Verisign.

On the final day, participants must pitch ideas for using what they’ve learned in a practical way to Jennifer Bachus, the cyber bureau’s number two official.

The course has proven to be highly popular. Fick told participants in February that “there was a long wait list” to get in. There will be at least three more sessions this year: one in Arlington in August (timed to coincide with the diplomatic rotation period), one in East Asia, and one in Latin America. These sessions are expected to train 75 to 85 new diplomats.

After the course ends, alumni can stay up-to-date with a newsletter, a Microsoft Teams channel, and a toolkit with advice and guidance. Some continue their education: Fifty diplomats are getting extra training through a one-year online learning pilot, and State is accepting applications for 15 placements at leading academic institutions and think tanks—including Stanford University and the Council on Foreign Relations—where diplomats can continue researching tech issues that interest them.

Promising Results, Challenges Ahead

Less than two years into the training effort, officials say they are already seeing meaningful improvements to the US’s tech diplomacy posture.

Diplomats are sending Washington more reports on their host governments’ tech agendas, Fitrell says, with more details and better analysis. Graduates of the course also ask more questions than their untrained peers. And inspired by the training, some diplomats have pushed their bosses to prioritize tech issues, including through embassy working groups uniting representatives of different US agencies.

State has also seen more diplomats request high-level meetings with foreign counterparts to discuss tech issues and more incorporation of those issues into broader conversations. Fick says the course helped the cyber officer at the US embassy in Nairobi play an integral role in recent tech agreements between the US and Kenya. And diplomats are putting more energy into whipping votes for international tech agreements, including an AI resolution at the UN.

Diplomats who took the course shared overwhelmingly positive feedback with WIRED. They say it was taught in an accessible way and covered important topics. Several say they appreciated hearing from senior US officials whose strategizing informs diplomats’ on-the-ground priorities. Maryum Saifee, a senior adviser for digital governance at State’s cyber bureau and a training alum, says she appreciated the Morocco class’s focus on regional issues and its inclusion of locally employed staff.

Graduates strongly encouraged their colleagues to take the course, describing it as foundational to every diplomatic portfolio.

“Even if you're not a techie kind of a person, you need to not shy away from these conversations,” says Bridget Trazoff, a veteran diplomat who has learned four languages at the Foreign Service Institute and compares the training to learning a fifth one.

Painter, who knows how challenging it can be to create a program like this, says he’s “heard good things” about the course. “I’m very happy that they've redoubled their efforts in this.”

For the training program to achieve lasting success, its organizers will need to overcome several hurdles.

Fick’s team will need to keep the course material up-to-date as the tech landscape evolves. They’ll need to keep it accessible but also informative to diplomats with varying tech proficiencies who work in countries with varying levels of tech capacity. And they’ll need to maintain a constant training tempo, given that diplomats rotate positions every few years.

The tone of the curriculum also presents a challenge. Diplomats need to learn the US position on issues like trusted telecom infrastructure, but they also need to understand that not every country sees things the way the US does. “It's not just knowing about these tech issues that’s so essential,” Sherman says. “It's also understanding the whole dictionary of terms and how every country thinks about these concepts differently.”

The coming years could test the course’s impact as the US strives to protect its Eastern European partners from Russia, its East Asian partners from China and North Korea, and its Middle Eastern partners from Iran, as well as to counter Chinese tech supremacy and neutralize Russia’s and China’s digital authoritarianism.

Perhaps the biggest question facing the program is whether it will survive a possible change in administrations this fall. Officials are optimistic—Fick has talked to his Trump-era counterparts, and Painter says “having an FSI course gives it a sense of permanence.”

For Fick, there is no question that the training must continue.

“Tech is interwoven into every aspect of … American foreign policy,” he says. “If you want to position yourself to be effective and be relevant as an American diplomat in the decades ahead, you need to understand these issues.”

[mantisgodsdomain]

It is now Saturday. New discoveries from this week of university:

-The teachers know less about technology than us, a purposefully low-tech insect who learns things about technology exclusively so that it can rip stuff off the internet and/or work games and tech from a decade ago minimum and whose knowledge consists primarily of buzzwords and how to make machines do what they're meant to do.

-As extension to this, the school computers are significantly slower than our 20-year-old writing computer, which has had its hard drive replaced more than once and currently runs Windows 95.

-Our school email requires us to download a spyware app for two-factor authentication in order for us to use it, effective today.

-Telegram has recently updated its privacy policy so that it can give your info to the cops if they ask.

-We have been getting into fountain pens and after witnessing the ridiculously pretty shading that Southwest Sunset has and discovering that apparently one of the #1 priorities of its manufacturer is to we are getting progressively more tempted to do something to give us the opportunity to write physical mail more often rather than just typing everything out online and talking to people verbally

-Every day we get progressively closer to becoming someone who can only be reached by snail mail

[coochiequeens]

I may not like conservative news sites but at least they are willing to report on crap like this instead of bowing to the TQ+ cult

An 11-year-old little girl was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as a girl while on a cross-country school trip, according to a demand letter sent Monday. That girl's parents are now calling upon the public school system to provide answers and clarification of its policies related to children who identify as transgender.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: An 11-year-old girl was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as a transgender girl while on a cross-country school trip, according to a demand letter sent Monday. That girl’s parents are now calling upon the public school system to provide answers and clarification of its policies related to children who identify as transgender.

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Joe and Serena Wailes are calling on the Colorado-based Jefferson County School Board usaand Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Tracy Dorland to clarify “whether JCPS will continue this practice of intentionally withholding information about rooming accommodations from parents like the Waileses, who object to their children rooming with a student of the opposite sex, regardless of the other student’s gender identity.”

“This practice renders it impossible for these parents to make informed decisions about their children’s privacy, upbringing, and participation in school-sponsored programs,” reads the demand letter, which was exclusively provided to The Daily Signal. “Additionally, our clients request information related to JB R-1 and the ability to opt out of this rooming policy for all future school trips.”

The Waileses describe how their daughter, who is in fifth grade, went on a JCPS-sponsored trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in June 2023. JCPS had repeatedly told parents that the boys and girls on the trip would be roomed on different floors—and chaperones told the students that boys would not even be allowed to visit the girls’ floor, as well as vice versa, according to the letter.

Serena Wailes also went on the trip, though she was not a chaperone.

The Wailes’ 11-year-old daughter, who is identified in the letter as “D.W.,” was assigned to a room with three other students, according to the demand letter. Two of these students were girls from her school, and the third student was a boy who identified as a girl (named in the letter as “K.E.M.”) who went to a different school.

D.W. and K.E.M were told that they would share a bed, and that evening, when the students were in their room together, K.E.M. reportedly revealed to the girls that he is a boy who identified as a girl.

“We were definitely not aware of that before we went on the trip,” Serena Wailes told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. The mother shared that this young boy was presenting as a girl, wearing girls’ clothing, and had longer hair.

Uncomfortable at the thought of sharing both a room and her bed with a boy, D.W. snuck into the bathroom and called her mother. Then she went downstairs and met her mom in the lobby to discuss the matter.

Serena Wailes told The Daily Signal that her daughter was “terrified and really upset about the idea of sharing a bed with a biological boy—even though she had a good relationship with this other student.”

“I was really upset,” Serena Wailes told The Daily Signal. “One, I was really upset that she was put in that situation at 11 years old—I don’t feel that is fair to put kids in that kind of situation—and two, that we were not even given the information that this was a possibility before the trip. The whole time they’re saying, ‘Girls on one floor, boys on another, they’re not going to be in each other’s rooms unless it is pre-approved.’ So we’re going through this whole process, not even recognizing that this is a possibility.”

Joe Wailes said that his wife called him from the hotel and filled him in about the situation.

“I felt a bit helpless,” he said. “I was 2,000 miles away. My daughter is scared in a bathroom trying to get herself out of a situation. It was a frustrating experience, and I just really felt like it was not a situation my daughter should be put in.”

School chaperones called one of the trip leaders, Principal Ryan Lucas, who called the boy’s parents, according to the letter: “K.E.M.’s parents confirmed their child’s transgender gender identity and that K.E.M. was to be in ‘stealth mode,’ meaning students on the trip would not know about their child’s transgender status.”

After a good deal of trouble, chaperones finally agreed to move the male student, with a different female student, to another room.

“Throughout the entire evening, K.E.M.’s privacy and feelings were always the primary concern of JCPS employees,” the letter said. “After JCPS disregarded D.W.’s privacy and the Waileses’ parental rights, JCPS then silenced D.W., thus infringing on her freedom of speech, when a JCPS teacher told the three girls that they were not allowed to tell anyone that K.E.M. was transgender, even though K.E.M. voluntarily chose to share this information.”

According to the demand letter, the school district’s policy is, “in most cases,” to room students based on the gender they identify as, rather than their sex.

The Wailes parents have two fourth-grade children registered to attend a trip to New York, Washington, and Philadelphia in 2024, and they emphasize in their letter that the district must clarify its policies for room assignments for students, as well as parental ability to opt their children out of sharing rooms with children of the opposite sex.

“They want to make sure that every parent knows that this is a possibility and can have the opportunity to opt out or make the best decision for their kid,” Kate Anderson, director of the Center for Parental Rights at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal. “But they also have two younger children that they want to make sure are not in the same situation that their older daughter was in.”

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

To the anon with the timelord with a fever: that sounds really serious. You know, even if your Time Lord is a renegade, you don't have to get in trouble - surely it's more important to make sure your Time Lord doesn't die than to avoid talking to the CIA for a few minutes?

Hey, I gave an idea - to show you the potential good outcomes from such a meeting, maybe the Gallifreyan institute for learning - an unbiased source - could tell us about some famous times when the CIA consorting with a human friend of a renegade, or a renegade directly, has resulted in positive outcomes? A little history lesson!

- @jillthecia-agent

While we truly appreciate your enthusiasm and curiosity about the positive outcomes of the CIA's interactions with humans and renegade Time Lords, we have to keep certain boundaries in place. Here at the Gallifreyan Institute for Learning, we adhere strictly to privacy policies set by the High Council.

The information you're asking about is highly classified. Accessing and sharing these details would contravene this privacy policy, which is designed to protect ongoing operations and the individuals involved. While we aim to be an unbiased source of Gallifreyan knowledge, our hands are tied when it comes to such sensitive information.

As much as we'd love to share more stories from the archives, it's important that the CIA itself handles these matters. Perhaps, Jill, you could take on the role of sharing these success stories within the boundaries of your own regulations?

🚨 Prioritising Health and Safety

To the anon concerned about their Time Lord with a fever: Your Time Lord's health is paramount. Sometimes, a quick chat with the CIA can be the best course of action to ensure they get the care they need.

Thanks for understanding!😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[dominatecharlotte]

A common mistake I see everyday as a ProDom is that some gentleman have no idea how to appropriately approach a mistress.

It’s partially laziness, lack of manners or just lack of basic communication skills.

If you’re a sub and you want to approach a Mistress be mindful and respectful.

As ProDoms we receive hundreds of messages we don’t have the capacity in texting with each and everyone for hours just to get the basic information if someone wants to apply for a session.

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts that will help you as a sub to learn how to approach a Mistress!

RT to spread the word and help others! 💋

Do's:

1. Do Your Research: Before reaching out, spend time on the mistresses website or social media profiles. Check out their requirements for you to apply for a session. Understand their specialties—whether they focus on bondage, discipline, sissy training, etc. And see of they even offer what you’re looking for. Don’t waist our times with nonsense questions, that could be easily answered when you would check the website.

2. Communicate Clearly: During your initial contact, whether it's through email or a booking form, be concise yet thorough about your interests, limits, and previous BDSM experience. This clarity helps the dominatrix tailor the session to suit both of you. Mention also daytime and session length you’re interested in the Mistress can see her availability and offer you an alternative date in case she is unavailable.

3. Show Respect: Use the title or name they prefer (Miss, Mistress, Master, etc.), and always maintain a polite and respectful tone in communications. This respect should also extend to respecting their time—arrive on time, be ready to start, and finish sessions as scheduled.

4. Come with a present: Always bring a gift when you visit your Mistress, it doesn’t matter how small or big, let it be flowers, chocolate or parfume, it’s all about the gesture. Never forget that good manners bring you further in life!

5. Do Maintain Confidentiality: Respect the privacy and confidentiality of your interactions. Professional Mistresses value discretion both for themselves and their subs.

Don'ts:

1. Don’t waste a Mistresses time: If you are unsure about the time & date, don’t ask for a session. There is no point in applying for a session if you don’t even know you can attend the session. Simply: don’t ask for an appointment if you can confirm. If you don’t feel 100% ready to attend a Femdom Session don’t ask for one either. We don’t have time to convince to try out a session if you’re not ready.

2. Don't Be Disrespectful: Avoid using overly familiar or derogatory language. Addressing the Mistress as “Babe”, “Darling” etc. is rude. Also message like “How are you?” are completely useless to a Mistress who receives tons of messages in a day. Also important, respect their professional boundaries and don't pry into personal details unless voluntarily shared.

3. Don't Overstep Boundaries: Never attempt to push the dominatrix into an activity that the Mistress doesn’t offer. Respect their limits just as they should respect yours.

4. DON’T TRY TO NEGOTIATE THE MISTRESSES RATES: There is nothing more turning a woman off than a stingy, cheap man. If you can’t afford a session, save money until you can.

5. Don't Cancel Last Minute: Always try to give as much notice as possible if you need to cancel. Understand and respect their cancellation policy, which might include a fee or the deposit being kept. Don’t accept the deposit getting paid back after you cancel last minute

[carsthatexcite]

Explore top car warranty options in Sydney with Cars That Excite, ensuring peace of mind and protection for your vehicle.

[kuromi-hoemie]

10 and 24?

10: About someone I think is funny: random tumblr users and kids lmao 😭 and me..

further out of my sphere i love Kennie JDs personality so much. fellow black woman rawdogging ADD

she has a YouTube channel and has a “Bad movies and a beat” playlist where she talks about bad movies while putting her makeup on. she's so gorgeous and her looks come out beautiful and her personality is a huge part of the draw 😹 she's sorta got a series within that series too called “Good movies and a glam” which is the same thing p much but she talks about movies she enjoyed.

we don't fully overlap in our interests but she talks about horror movies sometimes and i love listening to her talk and watching her reaction to things. there are definitely some videos that have me stopping like 5-10 minutes in like wait let me go watch the movie first bc this sounds like it's gonna be an Experience. i think it's very validating and fun to see how she feels about things I've seen, and even if it's stuff I'm not interested in i still think it's fun to see her do her thing :3

sometimes she does a good analysis, sometimes it's more of a summary w some thoughts and reactions here and there, and for some she's just does a straight reaction to it bc she doesn't think there's really anything to talk about. the worse the movie is the funnier she is 💀 but she's just funny period. Atlanta queen 🫶🏾

comedy is a hard one for me.. there's a lot of jokes and comedians that don't really land for me but i think it's bc I've always been surrounded by ppl i think are funnier or more outta pocket offline and online.. something something ppl who try to be funny vs ppl who just are.

24. An unusual talent I have: o: i don't know.. electrical engineering i suppose? as an end to end process w schematic design, 3d modelling and printing, soldering n circuitry etc. i think it's very rewarding to have a bespoke thing that's the only one of its kind.. technology that does exactly what u want it to do nothing more nothing less no unwanted upgrades/planned obsolescence/privacy policies/cloud bs etc. u can make technology do plenty off of ur home network alone, if u want it to be controllable/accessible from a network at all. i only call this strange in the sense that it's not common.. but in another perspective i think I'm v good at tinkering with stuff in general!! I've built and taken apart enough things in life that a lot of stuff feels very intuitive atp, more so for furniture or something more.. mechanical, than electronics but I'm good at tinkering w that too :3

not good enough to be able to tell which specific part of a complicated circuit board stopped working (unless there's obv physical damage or a disconnected cable), but i can put stuff together from scratch or bypass certain things for more desired behavior. like i built an ebike once but instead of using its pedal assistance i bypassed it and just made it full throttle. it did like 32mph lol 😭 i made that when covid first hit and i didn't want to bus anymore but i usually otherwise make stuff for taking care of my indoor gardens, when i have them (i do not rn). a simple and handy one to do is replacing a battery source with an AC adapter so u can get full power and the thing will never die on u. or at least when it does it's in the way that all electronics will eventually stop working after enough use, but nothing's died on me yet :3

also making web tools for data analysis! (or just something u can use in the browser basically but it's on ur computer not The Internet™). i don't have the time to educate myself in other fields fully but i do like looking at the data they produce and learning more about things that way!! my favorite visualizations to make are maps but I'll make utilities that i can use to strategize for my games sometimes too.

oh and i also like modding games :3 i have made my own mods for 13 games so far. playing the game is already nice but to me it's about really fine tuning the experience to be how i want it to be and making it my own. sometimes I'll start modding before even starting the game 💀 like hmm let me take a peek at what y'all got going on here, then being like eh that sounds annoying I'll just do this instead. my favorite game to mod is elden ring, their spell system has a LOT of different pieces and phases and effects of spells that u can mix and match and chain together to make ur own spells. in this way getting a new game can be like getting a new project at times, and when i don't wanna do that i just use WeMod and call it a day :3

[noah-infinity]

so discord decided to not learn anything from the failed crypto/nft integration of last year, as they’re now planning to include ai chatbots and ai tools into their godforsaken app.

they’re also changing their tos to reverse their protection policies on recording our data

i’m heavily advising anyone with sensitive, private or nda information on their discords to think about hosting it elsewhere as discord will likely suck it up without bias to feed into their new ai chatbot. this is a major fuckup on discord’s end and incredbily tone-deaf to what their userbase consist of.

i also reccomend while you still can to disable any data analysis you have enabled in privacy and security. it’s on by default for many users. hell i didn’t even know i had it on in the first place.

its time to bully companies again into making them not make stupid tone-deaf decisions. discord needs another lesson

[armandism]

hey so i learned this from tiktok but metas gonna use our profiles and their contents to train their ai and if u dont want that u have to literally fill out an objection form with a reasoning as to why you dont want it. and theyre hiding that shit so heres how to do it: go to your settings then scroll all the way down and click on about and then privacy policy and then youll be taken so a site where it tells you at the top that itll start doing that and in that box you can click on the highlighted right to object which will take you to the form.

i copy and pasted an article stating that in article whatever of my countries law you have a right to privacy and immediately got an email confirming it.

[hotsugarbyglassanimals]

im too tired to debunk the tos stuff since we go through this scare yearly but the distribute clause refers to hosting images on the site period. Resizing, thumbnails, etc.

nowhere in this screenshot does it say that twitter is going to train AI using your artwork or whatever photos you post. this is about recommendations / the algorithmic feed. the part where it uses other accounts linked to twitter (which could be whatever uses your email or phone number, I'm not sure but since there is a lack of option to directly link twitter to anything else as far as I'm aware) IS a valid privacy concern. I'm not fond of it either. but it's not going to scrape your art. I find it funny that this person underlined train our machine learning or AI models but ignored "for the purposes outlined in this policy".