#UK tech frustrations

[crazydiscostu]

When Will the UK Receive Full Meta Ray-Ban Features?

The Meta Ray-Ban glasses, blending wearable technology with stylish eyewear, have captured global attention since their launch. Positioned as smart glasses designed to enhance daily life, they promise innovative features like augmented reality integration, AI assistance, and a seamless connection between the digital and physical worlds. However, for users in the UK, the experience has been…

[alpha-mag-media]

Devin Booker’s frustrated reaction toward teammates picked up by TV mics as he asks ‘why aren’t you running back?’ | December 27, 2023 at 11:08AM

Devin Booker’s frustrated reaction toward teammates picked up by TV mics as he asks ‘why aren’t you running back?’ Read More … Check full articles at Source: ALPHA MAG

[ur-mag]

England player ratings: Ollie Watkins struggles on frustrating night as Harry Kane proves his worth to Three Lions | In Trend Today

England player ratings: Ollie Watkins struggles on frustrating night as Harry Kane proves his worth to Three Lions Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[mostlysignssomeportents]

UK publishers suing Google for $17.4b over rigged ad markets

THIS WEEKEND (June 7–9), I'm in AMHERST, NEW YORK to keynote the 25th Annual Media Ecology Association Convention and accept the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity.

Look, no one wants to kick Big Tech to the curb more than I do, but, also: it's good that Google indexes the news so people can find it, and it's good that Facebook provides forums where people can talk about the news.

It's not news if you can't find it. It's not news if you can't talk about it. We don't call information you can't find or discuss "news" – we call it "secrets."

And yet, the most popular – and widely deployed – anti-Big Tech tactic promulgated by the news industry and supported by many of my fellow trustbusters is premised on making Big Tech pay to index the news and/or provide a forum to discuss news articles. These "news bargaining codes" (or, less charitably, "link taxes") have been mooted or introduced in the EU, France, Spain, Australia, and Canada. There are proposals to introduce these in the US (through the JCPA) and in California (the CJPA).

These US bills are probably dead on arrival, for reasons that can be easily understood by the Canadian experience with them. After Canada introduced Bill C-18 – its own news bargaining code – Meta did exactly what it had done in many other places where this had been tried: blocked all news from Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and other Meta properties.

This has been a disaster for the news industry and a disaster for Canadians' ability to discuss the news. Oh, it makes Meta look like assholes, too, but Meta is the poster child for "too big to care" and is palpably indifferent to the PR costs of this boycott.

Frustrated lawmakers are now trying to figure out what to do next. The most common proposal is to order Meta to carry the news. Canadians should be worried about this, because the next government will almost certainly be helmed by the far-right conspiratorialist culture warrior Pierre Poilievre, who will doubtless use this power to order Facebook to platform "news sites" to give prominence to Canada's rotten bushel of crypto-fascist (and openly fascist) "news" sites.

Americans should worry about this too. A Donald Trump 2028 presidency combined with a must-carry rule for news would see Trump's cabinet appointees deciding what is (and is not) news, and ordering large social media platforms to cram the Daily Caller (or, you know, the Daily Stormer) into our eyeballs.

But there's another, more fundamental reason that must-carry is incompatible with the American system: the First Amendment. The government simply can't issue a blanket legal order to platforms requiring them to carry certain speech. They can strongly encourage it. A court can order limited compelled speech (say, a retraction following a finding of libel). Under emergency conditions, the government might be able to compel the transmission of urgent messages. But there's just no way the First Amendment can be squared with a blanket, ongoing order issued by the government to communications platforms requiring them to reproduce, and make available, everything published by some collection of their favorite news outlets.

This might also be illegal in Canada, but it's harder to be definitive. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enshrined in 1982, and Canada's Supreme Court is still figuring out what it means. Section Two of the Charter enshrines a free expression right, but it's worded in less absolute terms than the First Amendment, and that's deliberate. During the debate over the wording of the Charter, Canadian scholars and policymakers specifically invoked problems with First Amendment absolutism and tried to chart a middle course between strong protections for free expression and problems with the First Amendment's brook-no-exceptions language.

So maybe Canada's Supreme Court would find a must-carry order to Meta to be a violation of the Charter, but it's hard to say for sure. The Charter is both young and ambiguous, so it's harder to be definitive about what it would say about this hypothetical. But when it comes to the US and the First Amendment, that's categorically untrue. The US Constitution is centuries older than the Canadian Charter, and the First Amendment is extremely definitive, and there are reams of precedent interpreting it. The JPCA and CJPA are totally incompatible with the US Constitution. Passing them isn't as silly as passing a law declaring that Pi equals three or that water isn't wet, but it's in the neighborhood.

But all that isn't to say that the news industry shouldn't be attacking Big Tech. Far from it. Big Tech compulsively steals from the news!

But what Big Tech steals from the news isn't content.

It's money.

Big Tech steals money from the news. Take social media: when a news outlet invests in building a subscriber base on a social media platform, they're giving that platform a stick to beat them with. The more subscribers you have on social media, the more you'll be willing to pay to reach those subscribers, and the more incentive there is for the platform to suppress the reach of your articles unless you pay to "boost" your content.

This is plainly fraudulent. When I sign up to follow a news outlet on a social media site, I'm telling the platform to show me the things the news outlet publishes. When the platform uses that subscription as the basis for a blackmail plot, holding my desire to read the news to ransom, they are breaking their implied promise to me to show me the things I asked to see:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-need-end-end-web

This is stealing money from the news. It's the definition of an "unfair method of competition." Article 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act gives the FTC the power to step in and ban this practice, and they should:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

Big Tech also steals money from the news via the App Tax: the 30% rake that the mobile OS duopoly (Apple/Google) requires for every in-app purchase (Apple/Google also have policies that punish app vendors who take you to the web to make payments without paying the App Tax). 30% out of every subscriber dollar sent via an app is highway robbery! By contrast, the hyperconcentrated, price-gouging payment processing cartel charges 2-5% – about a tenth of the Big Tech tax. This is Big Tech stealing money from the news:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores

Finally, Big Tech steals money by monopolizing the ad market. The Google-Meta ad duopoly takes 51% out of every ad-dollar spent. The historic share going to advertising "intermediaries" is 10-15%. In other words, Google/Meta cornered the market on ads and then tripled the bite they were taking out of publishers' advertising revenue. They even have an illegal, collusive arrangement to rig this market, codenamed "Jedi Blue":

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

There's two ways to unrig the ad market, and we should do both of them.

First, we should trustbust both Google and Meta and force them to sell off parts of their advertising businesses. Currently, both Google and Meta operate a "full stack" of ad services. They have an arm that represents advertisers buying space for ads. Another arm represents publishers selling space to advertisers. A third arm operates the marketplace where these sales take place. All three arms collect fees. On top of that: Google/Meta are both publishers and advertisers, competing with their own customers!

This is as if you were in court for a divorce and you discovered that the same lawyer representing your soon-to-be ex was also representing you…while serving as the judge…and trying to match with you both on Tinder. It shouldn't surprise you if at the end of that divorce, the court ruled that the family home should go to the lawyer.

So yeah, we should break up ad-tech:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

Also: we should ban surveillance advertising. Surveillance advertising gives ad-tech companies a permanent advantage over publishers. Ad-tech will always know more about readers' behavior than publishers do, because Big Tech engages in continuous, highly invasive surveillance of every internet user in the world. Surveillance ads perform a little better than "content-based ads" (ads sold based on the content of a web-page, not the behavior of the person looking at the page), but publishers will always know more about their content than ad-tech does. That means that even if content-based ads command a slightly lower price than surveillance ads, a much larger share of that payment will go to publishers:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-ban-surveillance-advertising

Banning surveillance advertising isn't just good business, it's good politics. The potential coalition for banning surveillance ads is everyone who is harmed by commercial surveillance. That's a coalition that's orders of magnitude larger than the pool of people who merely care about fairness in the ad/news industries. It's everyone who's worried about their grandparents being brainwashed on Facebook, or their teens becoming anorexic because of Instagram. It includes people angry about deepfake porn, and people angry about Black Lives Matter protesters' identities being handed to the cops by Google (see also: Jan 6 insurrectionists).

It also includes everyone who discovers that they're paying higher prices because a vendor is using surveillance data to determine how much they'll pay – like when McDonald's raises the price of your "meal deal" on your payday, based on the assumption that you will spend more when your bank account is at its highest monthly level:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

Attacking Big Tech for stealing money is much smarter than pretending that the problem is Big Tech stealing content. We want Big Tech to make the news easy to find and discuss. We just want them to stop pocketing 30 cents out of every subscriber dollar and 51 cents out of ever ad dollar, and ransoming subscribers' social media subscriptions to extort publishers.

And there's amazing news on this front: a consortium of UK web-publishers called Ad Tech Collective Action has just triumphed in a high-stakes proceeding, and can now go ahead with a suit against Google, seeking damages of GBP13.6b ($17.4b) for the rigged ad-tech market:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/17-bln-uk-adtech-lawsuit-against-google-can-go-ahead-tribunal-rules-2024-06-05/

The ruling, from the Competition Appeal Tribunal, paves the way for a frontal assault on the thing Big Tech actually steals from publishers: money, not content.

This is exactly what publishing should be doing. Targeting the method by which tech steals from the news is a benefit to all kinds of news organizations, including the independent, journalist-owned publishers that are doing the best news work today. These independents do not have the same interests as corporate news, which is dominated by hedge funds and private equity raiders, who have spent decades buying up and hollowing out news outlets, and blaming the resulting decline in readership and profits on Craiglist.

You can read more about Big Finance's raid on the news in Margot Susca's Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy:

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p087561

You can also watch/listen to Adam Conover's excellent interview with Susca:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N21YfWy0-bA

Frankly, the looters and billionaires who bought and gutted our great papers are no more interested in the health of the news industry or democracy than Big Tech is. We should care about the news and the workers who produce the news, not the profits of the hedge-funds that own the news. An assault on Big Tech's monetary theft levels the playing field, making it easier for news workers and indies to compete directly with financialized news outlets and billionaire playthings, by letting indies keep more of every ad-dollar and more of every subscriber-dollar – and to reach their subscribers without paying ransom to social media.

Ending monetary theft – rather than licensing news search and discussion – is something that workers are far more interested in than their bosses. Any time you see workers and their bosses on the same side as a fight against Big Tech, you should look more closely. Bosses are not on their workers' side. If bosses get more money out of Big Tech, they will not share those gains with workers unless someone forces them to.

That's where antitrust comes in. Antitrust is designed to strike at power, and enforcers have broad authority to blunt the power of corporate juggernauts. Remember Article 5 of the FTC Act, the one that lets the FTC block "unfair methods of competition?" FTC Chair Lina Khan has proposed using it to regulate training AI, specifically to craft rules that address the labor and privacy issues with AI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mh8Z5pcJpg

This is an approach that can put creative workers where they belong, in a coalition with other workers, rather than with their bosses. The copyright approach to curbing AI training is beloved of the same media companies that are eagerly screwing their workers. If we manage to make copyright – a transferrable right that a worker can be forced to turn over their employer – into the system that regulates AI training, it won't stop training. It'll just trigger every entertainment company changing their boilerplate contract so that creative workers have to sign over their AI rights or be shown the door:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

Then those same entertainment and news companies will train AI models and try to fire most of their workers and slash the pay of the remainder using those models' output. Using copyright to regulate AI training makes changes to who gets to benefit from workers' misery, shifting some of our stolen wages from AI companies to entertainment companies. But it won't stop them from ruining our lives.

By contrast, focusing on actual labor rights – say, through an FTCA 5 rulemaking – has the potential to protect those rights from all parties, and puts us on the same side as call-center workers, train drivers, radiologists and anyone else whose wages are being targeted by AI companies and their customers.

Policy fights are a recurring monkey's paw nightmare in which we try to do something to fight corruption and bullying, only to be outmaneuvered by corrupt bullies. Making good policy is no guarantee of a good outcome, but it sure helps – and good policy starts with targeting the thing you want to fix. If we're worried that news is being financially starved by Big Tech, then we should go after the money, not the links.

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/2024/06/06/stealing-money-not-content/#content-free

[mistydeyes]

pharmacist! hcs

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summary: ik some people put themselves in the role of the pharmacist but here are some headcanons i have for her if you consider her more of an oc :)

pairing: 141 x pharmacist!reader

see her here counseling the 141

her story if she likes price

her story if she likes ghost

PS. Another part of her story is coming soon! Look out for next Wednesday :)

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joined the British Army as a pharmacy captain after a two year pharmacy residency in a London hospital

she realized that working at a local chemists and in a hospital weren’t for her so she decided on the career change

speaking of her life before being a pharmacy captain, she was a good student — not at the bottom but not at the top

she primarily struggled with anything related to pharmacology but excelled with therapeutics and counseling

her blood type is O- (a universal blood donor)

before becoming a pharmacist, she had aspirations of becoming a linguist or historian

was amazing at picking up languages and learning them after some time

but she was drawn to pharmacy after seeing how it helped a close family friend who had an MRSA resistant infection

knows 10 different languages and counting (with varying speaking and writing fluency) - English obvi, Spanish, Mandarin, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, Swedish, German, French, and is currently learning Portuguese

loves taking walks and runs at the base gym (she has to get in her recommended 150min of exercise a week)

if you think she’s listening to music while exercising you’re wrong, she’s listening to podcasts and always loves the medicine focused ones

always will show up to military balls or formal events and talk to you about anything under the sun

loves interacting with people 1 on 1 rather than behind a pharmacy counter

also keep in mind she’s not flirting, she just loves chatting with people and knowing how to make their day better

one time, she met a linguist and after the initial awkwardness (she thought the pharmacist was hitting on her), they had a whole conversation about the nuances of languages

if you know her well, you’ll notice how she deflects the conversation onto you and talking abt yourself as she loves observing

Gaz and Ghost frustrate her at times as she finds herself revealing things she normally won’t tell patients

despite the health risk, she loves caffeine and always has an energy drink or cup of coffee during the day

her diet is completely different, she prefers to prepare things in her room or look for the best things in the mess hall (she needs a balanced diet)

her bookshelves in her room are filled with books in a variety of languages and are often history books or classics

she also is currently reading a book that details the history of women in medicine

she has pictures in her room which show her happiest times aka being in pharmacy school

carries a large water bottle with her at all times and her tech’s have to remind her to stay hydrated during a shift

her techs are basically her siblings and she likes to take them off base occasionally to chat about something different than drugs and immunizations

her drink of choice is a tequila sunrise because tequila is the only alcohol that isn’t a depressant and also orange juice is a great source of Vit C!

her second drink of choice is a penicillin

wants to be a professor when she retires and dreams of teaching about self-care recommendations and emergency medicine

has a small tattoo of a mortar and pestle on her forearm, she got it with some of her friends when they all graduated

her tech joked that she should get a notepad tattooed on her wrist because she always writes reminders on her arms

primarily lives on base and occasionally visits her parents who live in Brighton

she updates them weekly but they know their daughter is in one of the safest places in the UK

her favorite drug to administer are any antimalarials, eye drops, nasal spray, and inhalers (she loves that she just has to count the boxes)

her least favorite is Metformin and thyroid drugs as they often are in counts of 90 or 180

constantly uses pink pen and colorful sticky notes (peep her little notes in the medical files)

the reason she hates doctors is not because of anything significant but because of an ex that told her that her degree was irrelevant because she didn’t go to med school

hates the stigma against pharmacists, in the US they’re literally considered doctors so why is there such disrespect?

she’ll never admit it but her favorite patients are the 141, they all have such unique personalities that she constantly looks for their scripts every morning

[absolutebl]

Wedding Plan Trash Watch!

You ready to snuffle-kiss the burn? 

Before I start...

Find out about Mame and the Mameverse here.

Find my other trash watches of her and others here. 

We all know what we are getting in for, 7 episodes of BLduggery. To crane your neck as you drive by the car wreck or not... that is the question. Me? I'm wallowing in the guts. 

Episode 1 - In which I craft an ode to Dumpster Fires Everywhere 

I am sorry, but they opened with Battle Hymn of the Republic for PrapaiSky’s wedding? I busted out laughing. 

Also, you KNOW I can’t just let that go. 

Ready?

LET’S SING! (Bet you’d never thought I’d type those words). 

Battle Hymn of BL Tumblr

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the trash This is barely even BL it’s just Mame writing slash  She hath set ablaze such garbage in pursuit of all our cash But the trash watch must go on! 

 (Buh buh ba buh) 

Glory, glory hallelujah!  Mame hit us with a sewer.  Spoiling all our fun, Oh the shit storm has begun, But the trash watch must go on! 

I have seen the dumpster-fires of a hundred BL tropes She will sacrifice her ukes ’til they’ve lost all of their hopes We will watch in righteous anger while the refuse burns and smokes But the trash watch must go on! 

 (Buh buh ba buh) 

Glory, glory hallelujah!  Life’s rough for a BL reviewer.  When OG BL fans run afoul of Mame stans  But the trash watch must go on! 

 Buh buh buh buh! 

Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here for the next 7 weeks. Yes some of my rhyming conventions are awkward af but I never claimed to be a filker. Now where was I?

Oh YES, 

STILL AT THE VERY BEGINNING. 

Where have I seen this seme before? Oh! Top Secret Together. 

Micky D sponsorship? Nice. I’m impressed. 

Too many sound effects, abort! Is that the sound tech from Lovely Writer I sniff? Someone please fire his ass. Yes, it must be him. Only a straight dude misuses buttons like that. 

I feel Nuea’s pain I too hate the gym. 

This better not be in one of those situations where after instalove our seme arranges for the wedding planner boy he likes to plan his own wedding so that he can marry him at the end. 

Lots of pronouns going astray in that sentence, but you get my meaning. 

Drag baby around. Locker room. Kabeldon 

Honestly? And this is not usually a criticism I lob at Mame ( I know is there anything I have lobbed at her?) but the leads seem a bit stiff and uninspired. 

It is just me? 

Episode 2 - What’s this? Oh is that boredom? 

What are these boys in these office BLs doing behind their desks on those computers? They never actually seem to be working at all. They’re like brochure stock art ads for boys on computers. 

I had to skip most of the humiliating stuff with the food in the car and whatever was going on because… aargh. 

They keep ordering food in this episode of nobody’s eating it. And it looks really good and I’m hungry and this is very upsetting to me. 

Lom is just totally jerking Nuea around. Just tell him what your relationship is with the bride. 

There’s no need to be so fucking coy about it. 

I love the flaming yelling fit from Nuea tho.  

It was also a good kiss. 

But that’s what we expect from a Mame. 

Mame giveth and mame taketh away. 

Somewhat dull episode frankly. Even with the kiss.

Sigh. What have I become?

Episode 3 - WHAT IS THIS? There is nothing about this episode that pleased me even a tiny bit. Except Noel’s hair. But that wasn’t part of the script. 

Buckle up, I got A LOT to say. 

It’s a pleasure to welcome you back to your normal and expected ABL meets Mame interface where... ABL LOSES THEIR TINY MIND. 

Right on schedule it feels like. 

Ready?

Oh who am I kidding, you sadists life for this shizz. And you can’t tell me you don’t. 

Lom is so frustrating. 

I wanna punch him too. Sing it, sister! 

Random water sports. (And not of the kind one might expect from Mame. Stop it. You know she would go there. She’d think it was edgy.) 

Peeps! 

We need a name for when a BL reviews itself. 

It keeps happening. 

Should you tell him everything? 

Yes. 

1000 times yes. 

I’m basically screaming it at the screen. 

TELL HIM!!!! 

You tricked him into a date without telling him a single thing about what’s actually going on. Are you insane? 

What the hell. 

You keep kissing him but he is planning your wedding. How fucked up are you? You monster 

A Mame show calling out its own exploitive sexism is so fucking awkward. 

Mame. Sweetheart. Snookums. Sugarbeans. Shaken-baccon. You don’t have enough fucking talent to go meta. Leave it to the better BLs to follow trends. Your shizz is old fashioned and that’s why people like it. Don’t try to be classy, it makes this whole shit show just look even more shabby. 

Poor baby. 

Now he’s doubting himself completely. 

What are these assholes doing to you? 

Come with me. 

I’m going to transport you to this other terrible BL trash watch happening right now, where there is a LOVELY adorable boy named Max and I think you would be perfect together. 

So it’s basically just Narnia-level closet cases we are dealing with here? 

THAT’S IT?

THAT’S THE EXCUSE FOR THIS LEVEL OF MANIPULATION?

WHAT IS GOING ON? 

Nuea is such a cutie.

I want to punch Lom all over again.   

Noel looks v pretty as a blond. 

The proposal sequence was unnecessary. But at least I don’t wanna punch anyone. 

THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE for lying. For manipulation. For not understanding how you’re betraying another person’s faith in himself. 

Especially not if you’re in the position of power: social, cultural, employer. 

Why doesn’t Mame EVER understand this? 

You can’t have a character that is sincere and earnest in love and yet entirely lacking in all forms of integrity. 

This is driving me crazy. 

No one is in the show is as crazy as this show is making me.

I started this episode wanting to punch Lom, and I’m ending this episode wanting to punch Lom.

That’s a mame plot for ya. 

No character development at all, on any side of the screen. 

And someone, mostly me, is always left with a mad desire to punch something. 

Frankly, I kinda want to punch the screen.

Episode 4 - I Am Going to Start Drinking

I like consent especially when “no” is activated. But this being Mame she shoe horns it in and then the seme ignores it. 

It’s so awkward. She’s actually incapable of making any non-problematic tropes sexy. It’s like there is only one lane for her shows and that lane is...

the WORST 

My “Punch Lom in the face 2023” campaign continues.

I don’t see how he can ever become a sympathetic character. He just trundles along lying by omission (when speaking up would make everything better). I hate him. 

I’m glad we get to see Nuea suffering, now show Lom what he has done and make him lose the boy. 

No? No.

Instead Lom gets rewarded with sex for being a sleazy lying gutless jerk? Well terds to both you fine gentlemen. 

I mean, very gay of you, Nuea sweetie. 

“Because just SOOOO hot” being the #1 excuse in my personal “I slept with WHAT?” experience. (Heh, to be fair I’m often the WHAT? in that equation. I live to be someone’s bad mistake... just not Lom-level-bad. 

Where was I? 

Oh yeah, Gaga has the sex scene. FYI. Came outta nowhere, that sex scene did. Very disjointed... not that kind of joint. Not that kind either.

It’s not a particularly impressive sex scene, which is disappointing. Because WHY ELSE WOULD WE BE WATCHING?

I mean, if you’re going to have your characters (and by extension us) forfeit all integrity and taste in order to watch your stupid show, the least you could do is give us decent chemistry. 

I’m not saying this is worse than LITA but at least LITA was hot.

It wasn’t anything else. But it was hot.

This this is 

not hot. 

In conclusion: if Nuea’s baby bro doesnt’t punch Lom in the face next week I will have to start drinking on Weds...

oh wait!

BMF ends this Friday! I can switch to drinking mid week!

YES

(I have a new rule: only one BL a week is allowed to drive me to drink in any give rotation.) 

Imma preemptively point out that I am aware that bearding and lavender marriages are still quite common all over the world. I would whole heartedly support a good depiction of it. (Even one where it stays fix in the beard position.) This is NOT a good depiction. 

I shall draw your attention to 2017′s rarely discussed (not really BL) We Are Gamily out of... you guessed it... Taiwan. You can argue with me about this only AFTER you have watched that. 

Okay, back to the trash watch. 

Episode 5 - I Neglected to Drink and that was a Mistake

Ate a lot of crap traveling home today (feel gross) + tumblr new desktop UX has me pissed + Mame & alcohol? I’m not sure I’d survive. So no alcohol. 

Here we go. 

Poor Nuea feels so guilty. 

Please save me from ever feeling that way after sex. *shudder* 

Before you ask, to the best of my knowledge, I have never slept with a married person. I’ve slept with married people... married to each other mind you... but I hope that makes it clear everyone was consensual. (I recommend it, by the way. Being a unicorn is lots of fun.) 

Where was i? 

We were dealing with punching Lom not my misspent youth. 

(looks at calendar. wait, that was last month.) 

PUNCH LOM 2023! 

Queen! 

I love her.

It wasn’t a physical punch but a verbal one is almost as good. (And can be more damaging in the long run.) 

Could we please still have an actual punch?

Pretty please?

Mame punches her characters all the time. And no character ever deserved a punching more than Lom. 

I do wish there was a nice boy back home to scoop Nuea up. 

That line of boys wanting him, could we see it, not be told it? 

I do like the random sinshine hyung side couple. 

Omg. COLD MICKY D?! 

That might just be the most objectionable moment in this whole show. 

And that’s a tall order. 

Pun intended.

(straight, HA! pun not intended but still very much THERE) 

Was I pleased we got multiple characters who are just outright gay? Yes. 

But representation has not been one of Mame’s issues. 

I mean Tharn was one of the first openly gay seme leads in a Thai BL, and she also had rep for lube and condoms in that show. That’s not the issue with TharnType. Or Mame. 

Her issues tend to revolve around story structure and audience manipulation. 

Was I pleased that Nuea knew what was going on? Yes, I’m glad he’s not totally clueless. 

I still want Lom to be punched in the face and I’m still mad at this show. 

Episode 6 - Too hot to drink, still a Mistake

I finally figured out my real problem with Lom. It’s not that he was closeted and manipulative without good reason (although he is). It’s not that he lied and strung Nuea along for a lot longer than was necessary (because he did). It is that he basically does everything for himself and his own ends. Even when he’s confessing his love it comes off as flat because it isn’t about Nuea and what Nuea wants or needs, it’s about Lom wants.

Hanging a lampshade on it doesn’t make it right. 

It was good bridge kiss. And car kiss. And sex kisses. 

There is something corrupted grunge romantic asking the person you love most in the world to hide that love and climb back into the closet with you for the sake of your nasty arse family (is that a queer taboo, hum). I’m not saying lavender marriages are necessarily wrong, I’m just saying it’s an interesting plot twist in a BL. 

I think we HAVE to hold this up and examine it in stark contrast to the final ep of Bad Buddy. It’s interesting how the closet retreat didn’t bother me at all in BB, and I thought it was quite a clever and elegant ending twist. Whereas here it’s just annoying. It’s not making me as angry as it probably should. But it is annoying as a narrative conceit and denouement.

Can I ask a question.

 It’s not a serious question, of course. 

What is up with all of the shows this year having dates on lakes featuring that thing where you ride a funny little floaty-boat while being dragged behind a fast boat. I’m sure it has a name, but I could not care less. New sponsor? 

The sex scene was fine. But I have to say, I wish they had leaned into the fact that Lom is a virgin and Nuea has more experience. It would’ve been a really interesting dynamic to see honestly represented on screen.

In conclusion, Nuea is a saint and next week everything comes to a head that didn’t already get head this episode.

Episode 7 - Finally I’m drinking! 

I am having a tiki beverage this evening to round out this show. Coconut rum and mango popping Boba are involved. Don’t judge. I have the alcohol palate of a 7 year old. 

I’m ready! Let’s shave this beard!

And, well, that was a pink saturated drama of the mothers in law. Enjoyable lakorn style scenery chewing. The ladies seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Lom pretending to be sad and pitiful. Also funny. 

Using his evil against his mom is acceptable. Suddenly his manipulative lying ways are working in the right direction. 

Honestly? 

This was a fine ending, I’m not mad at it. 

They managed to keep Lom in character until the end, he remained deceitful.  I would never trust him, but clearly Nuea is willing to ride that dragon. 

I guess 7/10? 

If you can tolerate Mame and liars (kinda the same thing) you’ll be fine with this show. 

But, frankly? Lom as a character would sit better amongst the drama bananas of Only Friends.

In summation: 

A lackluster Mame offering with less of her usual stellar chemistry, but all of her usual manipulation. An innocent wedding planner falls haplessly and hopelessly in love with a groom who relentlessly pursues him, even though he’s about to marry someone else. 

(source) 

[sleepanonymous]

AMPED UP: SLEEP TOKEN

(source)

Anonymous Brit metal cult big on peering down the rabbit hole…

??? (UK) 1 Aug 2018

“WE EXPLORE THE DEEPER RECESSES OF THE MIND…” HIM

Sleep Token are a band shrouded in mystery. The London metallers’ mix of high-tech riffs and dreamy soundscapes have earned them a good name for themselves since forming last year, but if you want to give them credit for it, you must do so to the masked, anonymous face of their enigmatic frontman, known only as Him. Him declines to reveal specifics about the ancient deity the band worship, Sleep, but he’s more forthcoming about his own artistic motivation.

“There exists a considerable body of art that explores the deeper recesses of the human mind,” he explains. “Sleep Token serve as a means to explore this on an individual basis. The music is a representation of one individual’s deepest and most fundamental emotions and desires. This is what people connect to. They see themselves in this individual, and the music becomes about them.”

Easy-going fare this isn’t, but there’s no denying it’s pretty captivating. Sleep Token have played fewer than 10 times (they refer to their gigs as “rituals”), but they’re already Download alumni. The industrial-ish thrust of new single Jaws, meanwhile, continues their philosophical, lyrical path. “Our jaws are the tools we have to rend apart,” Him explains. “They show our concealed aggression, and take something once hidden and burst it apart. You don’t know someone until you have seen them destroy something. Jaws is an exploration of the frustration which accompanies the sense that someone close to you is hiding their true self.”

But while Jaws looks to expose the darkness that lies inside us, when it comes to the hand’s own identities Sleep Token are steadfast in their belief that art comes before aesthetic.

“Art has become entangled with identity,” Him says of the band’s anonymity. “The aim is to provide something people can engage with without being obstructed by the identity of its creator. The true identities behind Sleep Token are irrelevant. Our identity is represented through the art and music itself.”

SLEEP TOKEN’S SINGLE JAWS IS OUT NOW. THE BAND PLAY READING & LEEDS FESTIVALS – SEE THE GIG GUIDE FOR INFO

[mariacallous]

In early 2022, two Google policy staffers met with a trio of women victimized by a scam that resulted in explicit videos of them circulating online—including via Google search results. The women were among the hundreds of young adults who responded to ads seeking swimsuit models only to be coerced into performing in sex videos distributed by the website GirlsDoPorn. The site shut down in 2020, and a producer, a bookkeeper, and a cameraman subsequently pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, but the videos kept popping up on Google search faster than the women could request removals.

The women, joined by an attorney and a security expert, presented a bounty of ideas for how Google could keep the criminal and demeaning clips better hidden, according to five people who attended or were briefed on the virtual meeting. They wanted Google search to ban websites devoted to GirlsDoPorn and videos with its watermark. They suggested Google could borrow the 25-terabyte hard drive on which the women’s cybersecurity consultant, Charles DeBarber, had saved every GirlsDoPorn episode, take a mathematical fingerprint, or “hash,” of each clip, and block them from ever reappearing in search results.

The two Google staffers in the meeting hoped to use what they learned to win more resources from higher-ups. But the victim’s attorney, Brian Holm, left feeling dubious. The policy team was in “a tough spot” and “didn’t have authority to effect change within Google,” he says.

His gut reaction was right. Two years later, none of those ideas brought up in the meeting have been enacted, and the videos still come up in search.

WIRED has spoken with five former Google employees and 10 victims’ advocates who have been in communication with the company. They all say that they appreciate that because of recent changes Google has made, survivors of image-based sexual abuse such as the GirlsDoPorn scam can more easily and successfully remove unwanted search results. But they are frustrated that management at the search giant hasn’t approved proposals, such as the hard drive idea, which they believe will more fully restore and preserve the privacy of millions of victims around the world, most of them women.

The sources describe previously unreported internal deliberations, including Google’s rationale for not using an industry tool called StopNCII that shares information about nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) and the company’s failure to demand that porn websites verify consent to qualify for search traffic. Google’s own research team has published steps that tech companies can take against NCII, including using StopNCII.

The sources believe such efforts would better contain a problem that’s growing, in part through widening access to AI tools that create explicit deepfakes, including ones of GirlsDoPorn survivors. Overall reports to the UK’s Revenge Porn hotline more than doubled last year, to roughly 19,000, as did the number of cases involving synthetic content. Half of over 2,000 Brits in a recent survey worried about being victimized by deepfakes. The White House in May urged swifter action by lawmakers and industry to curb NCII overall. In June, Google joined seven other companies and nine organizations in announcing a working group to coordinate responses.

Right now, victims can demand prosecution of abusers or pursue legal claims against websites hosting content, but neither of those routes is guaranteed, and both can be costly due to legal fees. Getting Google to remove results can be the most practical tactic and serves the ultimate goal of keeping violative content out of the eyes of friends, hiring managers, potential landlords, or dates—who almost all likely turn to Google to look up people.

A Google spokesperson, who requested anonymity to avoid harassment from perpetrators, declined to comment on the call with GirlsDoPorn victims. She says combating what the company refers to as nonconsensual explicit imagery (NCEI) remains a priority and that Google’s actions go well beyond what is legally required. “Over the years, we’ve invested deeply in industry-leading policies and protections to help protect people affected by this harmful content,” she says. “Teams across Google continue to work diligently to bolster our safeguards and thoughtfully address emerging challenges to better protect people.”

In an interview with WIRED, a Google search product manager overseeing anti-harm work says blocking videos using hashes is challenging to adopt because some websites don’t publish videos in a way that search engines can compare against. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she says Google has encouraged explicit websites to address that. She adds that there’s generally more for Google to do but refutes the allegation that executives had held up the work.

Advocates of bolder action by Google point to the company’s much tighter restrictions on searching for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as evidence it could do much more. Typing “deepfake nudes kids” into Google prompts a warning that such content is illegal and ultimately directs users to news articles and support groups. Google also finds and blocks from its results almost 1 million new CSAM-containing webpages annually.

A recent Google search for “deepfake nudes jennifer aniston” yielded seven results purporting to offer just that. The search engine offered no warning or resources in response to the query, despite nearly every US state and many countries having criminalized unpermitted distribution of intimate content of adults. Google declined to comment on the lack of a warning.

The product manager says comparisons to CSAM are invalid. Virtually any image of a naked child is illegal and can be automatically removed, she says. Separating NCEI from consensual porn requires some indication that the content was shot or distributed without permission, and that context often isn’t clear until a victim files a report and a human analyzes it. But the manager wouldn’t directly answer whether Google has tried to overcome the challenge.

Adam Dodge, founder of advocacy and education group Ending Tech-Enabled Abuse, says that until Google proactively removes more NCII, victims have to be hypervigilant about finding and reporting it themselves. That’s “not something we should put on victims,” he says. “We’re asking them to go to the location where they were assaulted online to move past the trauma.”

Google started accepting removal requests for search results leading to nudity or sex in 2015 if the content was intended to be private and was never authorized to be published, according to its policy. That went largely unchanged until 2020, when the company added that being in an “intimate state” qualified.

A New York Times column that year triggered Google executives to dedicate resources to the issue, organizing projects, including one codenamed Sparrow, to help victims keep content off search for good, three former employees say. The product manager confirmed that executives at times have pushed teams to improve Google’s handling of NCEI.

Google made its takedown form friendlier to use, understand, and access, the sources say. The search giant axed legalese and outdated use of the term “revenge porn,” since porn is generally viewed as consensual. The company added instructions on submitting screenshots and greater detail on the review process.

The form became accessible by clicking the menu that appears next to every search result. Requests rose about 19-fold in one early test, one source says. A second source says that it has become among Google’s most-used forms for reporting abuse and that, after the edits, a far greater percentage of requests resulted in removal of results. Google disputes these figures, but it declined to share comprehensive data on NCEI.

Government-mandated transparency reports show Google has removed most of the nearly 170,000 search and YouTube links reported for unwanted sexual content in South Korea since December 2020, the earliest data available, and nixed nearly 300 pieces of content in response to 380 complaints from users in India since May 2021. The limited data suggest Google is finding more reports credible than its smaller rival in search Microsoft, which took action in 52 percent of the nearly 8,400 cases it received globally for Bing and other services from 2015 through June 2023.

Launched in late 2021, the StopNCII system has amassed a database of over 572,000 hashed photos and videos and blocked that media from being shared more than 12,000 times across 10 services, including Instagram and TikTok. Google hasn’t adopted the tool to block content from search due to concerns about what’s actually in the database, according to three sources.

To protect victims’ privacy, StopNCII doesn’t review content they report, and hashes reveal nothing about the underlying content. Google is worried that it could end up blocking something innocent, the sources say. “We don’t know if it’s just an image of a cupcake,” one of them says. The sources add that Google also has opted against bankrolling a system it considers better, despite internal suggestions to do so.

The Google spokesperson declined to comment on StopNCII, but in April the company told UK lawmakers who questioned Google about its decision not to use the tool that it had “specific policy and practical concerns about the interoperability of the database,” without elaborating.

Internally, Google workers have come up with some bold ideas to improve takedowns. Employees have discussed booting explicit websites, including porn companies, from search results unless they are willing to assure that their content is consensual, according to four sources. The idea hasn’t been adopted. Google’s search unit has shied away from setting rules on a thorny and taboo subject like sexual imagery, three sources say. “They don’t want to be seen as regulators of the internet,” one former staffer says.

Because Google sends significant traffic to explicit websites, it could force them to take stricter measures. About 15 percent of image searches and up to half of video searches among the billions Google receives daily are related to porn, says one former staffer, figures the company declined to comment on. “Google holds the keys to the kingdom,” the source says. Meanwhile, few others are stepping in. US lawmakers haven’t passed proposed legislation to impose consent checks on online uploads. And some popular services for sharing explicit content, such as Reddit and X, don’t require users to submit proof of subjects’ consent.

Porn producers, who collect identity information from performers as required by US law, support the sharing of a consent signal with search engines, says Mike Stabile, spokesperson for the industry trade body Free Speech Coalition. “Major adult sites already monitor and block NCII much more aggressively than mainstream platforms,” he says.

The Google spokesperson declined to comment on the consent idea but points to an existing penalty: Google last December began demoting—but not blocking—search results for websites that come up in “a high volume” of successful takedown requests.

The Google product manager and the spokesperson contend that the search team already has taken big steps over the past three years to ease the burden on survivors of image-based sexual abuse. But WIRED’s investigation shows that some improvements have come with caveats.

A system Google introduced that tries to automatically remove search links when previously reported content resurfaces on new websites doesn’t work on videos or altered images, and two sources say Google hadn’t dedicated staff to improving it. “It absolutely could be better, and there isn’t enough attention on how it could really solve victims’ problems,” one says. The spokesperson says staff are assigned to enhance the tool.

Another system called known victim protection tries to filter out results with explicit images from search queries similar to those from past takedown requests, the two sources say. It is designed to not disrupt results to legitimate porn and generally reduces the need for victims to stay vigilant for new uploads. But Google has acknowledged to South Korean regulators that the system isn’t perfect. “Given the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the web, automated systems are not able, 100 percent of the time, to catch every explicit result,” the company writes in its transparency reports.

In one of its biggest shifts, Google last August abandoned its policy of declining to remove links to content that included signs that it had been captured with consent. For years, if Google determined from the imagery and any audio that the subject knew they were being recorded without any signs of coercion or distress, it would reject the takedown ask unless the requester provided ample evidence that it had been published without consent. It was a “super-mushy concept,” one of the former employees says.

That same source says staff persuaded executives to update the policy in part by describing the importance of letting people who had become adult performers on OnlyFans out of financial necessity to later revoke their consent and shred any ties to sex work. The Google spokesperson didn’t dispute this.

The Washington, DC-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation, an anti-porn group that’s become an authority on image-based sexual abuse, argues that even after the revision, Google is falling short. It wants Google to automatically honor all takedown requests and put the burden on websites to prove there was consent to record and publish the disputed content. The Google spokesperson says that potential policy updates are constantly considered.

In the eyes of advocates, Google is being nowhere near as resourceful or attentive as it could or should be. Brad Gilde of Gilde Law Firm in Houston says he came away disappointed when his client won a headline-grabbing $1.2 billion judgment against an ex-boyfriend last August but then couldn’t get Google to remove a highly ranked search link to a sexually explicit audio recording of her on YouTube. The upload, which included the victim’s name and drew over 100 views, came down last month only after WIRED inquired.

Developing a reliable AI system to proactively identify nonconsensual media may prove impossible. But better keeping an ear out for big cases shouldn’t be too complicated, says Dan Purcell, a victim who founded removal company Ceartas DMCA. Google employees had a proposal on this issue: The company could establish a priority flagger program—as it has for other types of problematic content, including CSAM—and formally solicit tips from outside organizations such as Purcell’s that monitor for NCII. But staffing to administer the idea never came through. “​​Google is the No. 1 discoverability platform,” Purcell says. “They have to take more responsibility.” The Google spokesperson declined to comment.

DeBarber, the removal consultant who spoke with Google alongside his clients victimized by GirlsDoPorn, did a search for one of them this month while on the phone with WIRED. No links surfaced to videos of her, because DeBarber has spent over 100 hours getting those pages removed. But one porn service was misusing her name to lure in viewers to other content—a new result DeBarber would have to ask Google to remove. And through a different Google search, he could access a problematic website on which people can look up videos of his client.

Harassers regularly text that client links to her NCII, a frustrating reminder of how her past has yet to be erased. “They want to be out of sight and out of mind,” DeBarber says of his clients. “We’re heading in the right direction.” But he and survivors are counting on Google to help knock out the offenders for good. "A lot more could have been done by Google and still could be."

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-06-24

Hosting

Listening: It's important to put music on while there are people kicking around the house to fill in the gaps, a lot of that has been Vienna Teng, so, Green Island Lullaby :

Also as another note, I am closing in on the end of The Magnus Archives, and I like some of the stuff of this last season. It gets to get a lot more into absolute horror when it doesn't have to reasonably fit into the real world and I appreciate a lot of that, I've always liked my short story to veer a little abstract.

Watching: After my parents left for Amsterdam I was like "hey I should watch something" and put on Funeral Parade of Roses/Bara no Soretsu, which is such a banger of a movie if you love queer art films from five minutes after we invented the concept of editing and horrible tragedy. We should make more extremely heavy movies that include within themselves comedic making-of documentaries.

Also, courtesy of @canmom's Animation Night, Mars Express, a very beautiful robot sentience animated movie by Jérémie Périn. It follows a Space Cop who ends up working with a renegade engineer who jailbreaks sentient slave robots. Extremely space-noir. Extremely detailed world of future-tech, thoughtful design, and a by-the-numbers but well-executed plot. If you like cyber neo-noir you'll love it, also check out Animation Night on twitch.tv/canmom most Sundays at 20:00 UK time, truly a gem, the first place I watched PMMM.

Reading: All but finished with Iron Widow, it's a shame that it's not a very good book because it feels like much more aggressive editing could have saved it. There's so many words and maybe 30% of them don't have to be there, this book loves to tell instead of showing, or to show and then tell you all about what it's shown you. Again, very compelling setting and themes, the way that being in a mech transcends your material form while simultaneously making you very responsible for other people is a great idea!

Zetian is a clumsy protagonist in-world, which is fine if frustrating. She's not calculating enough to pull off Taylor Hebert long-term plans and careful considerations, but she's not impulsive enough to get into interesting problems for very long, there's lots of opportunity to create intrigue that just get snipped in the bud because she decides not to care, which means a lot of threats just aren't very credible.

Playing: Hades! I got tutored through a full clear and had the boons system laid out to me and I have now got a clear with every weapon except the fists, and that's only because I haven't gotten around to it yet. I still don't think I enjoy the way the narrative of Hades is presented, but I am appreciating the gameplay, I enjoy enginebuilder-likes like this, you know, Inscryption, Noita, that kind of thing.

Making: Not much, too busy.

Tools and Equipment: I picked up a LowePro Creator Box, which is their line of mini-camera storage cubes intended to help turn normal bags into camera bags. Transporting camera equipment is a huge pain in the ass, because you have to keep it all padded, but dedicated camera bags are frequently awful as, you know, bags. Lowepro does make some camera bags that are also okay day packs, but these boxes are really nice for just dumping into an existing backpack or carry-on to safely travel with a camera and a couple lenses. This is the Large size.

There's a line of outdoor backpacks that even let you access your box from a side hatch directly, but I don't have one of those. This makes it much easier for me to, say, hoof my camera to work when I have somewhere I want to go later in the day. There's some gigantic cubes for larger bags as well which I guess are for if you're doing wildlife photography on foot, or running a full production in a remote area.

[rubykgrant]

If all of the Reds and Blues and Freelancers played instruments, what do you think they'd all play? All I can think of is Doc/O'Malley on violin (probably gets really into it like Devil Went Down To Georgia), Sarge on trumpet (cuz bugles but can actually play it nice too), Florida on ukulele, and Maine and Locus taking up classic guitar and cello respectively for therapeutic reasons and ending up getting really into it.

Those all sound really good!

Hmm... it depends on what kind of music they're going for. I think in general, most of them haven't had the chance to really practice much music, but in season 15, we saw some of them formed a band! Carolina sings (so good), and it looked like Grif and Tucker were both on guitar, while Caboose did drums (if I remember right).

Sarge is certainly musically inclined, in regards to how much he likes to make up songs about killing stuff he doesn't like. I'm gonna say he knows how to play guitar, generally classic-rock/folk/country with what he does, but he surprises people by listening to wide range of musical genres (he's got a big collection that includes heavy metal and hip-hop). Oh, and he rocks on the harmonica!

Grif is good with guitar, and he'd probably be good on drums as well, but I'd like to think he secretly hides a gift with piano. Like, he can just naturally do really amazing/complicated pieces with ease (but when he was younger, little jerks he went to school with called that "sissy music", so he was awkward about sharing it with anybody). He's good with a uke too, and a very nice singer (again, if he's not feeling embarrassed)

Simmons WISHES he could play something like the violin or cello... but he just doesn't have rhythm, and gets too frustrated to practice properly. He doesn't have a bad voice, but he's a nervous mess if he tries to sing in front of people. He's able to get decent on the piano (with some help from Grif), and since he's a tech guy, he finds his own niche with electric keyboards (nothing too extravagant, but still very good)

Carolina is the one who had fancy music lessons when she was younger, but she's out of practice (she used to be good on clarinet and violin). She gets back into music and singing, picking up some guitar and piano... but surprises everybody by randomly deciding to get REALLY good at the harp (just to show off, haha)

Doc and O'Malley would certainly learn to play violin and fiddle, but I think they'd also practice different kinds of unique instruments; the kalimba, the tabla, the veena, the dholak, the balafon, and various types of flutes (they both also know how to make small little instruments with woodcraft; various things that Doc knows from his own traditions and heritage). They also are very good singers, Doc being especially into acapella/using voices to simulate instruments (though, O'Malley tends to ham it up for "villain" songs~)

Kai is more into mixing music, creating beats, maybe making something new with samples, and she is a killer DJ (dance music, electronica, techno remixes, and all similar variations. she's pretty good at changing up the "tone" of a song, but still keeping the melody strong)

Church is kinda-sorta good at a few things, but nothing he's invested in/practices often. However, he's pretty good at writing songs when he can focus on it (the Fragments all help, and they have a variety of musical genres they are into)

Tex is also OK with certain instruments, but not especially passionate to play anything often (she can sing though, but is the opposite of Carolina, who tends to lean toward more energetic songs. Tex will sing lower and slower)

Wash learned how to play the recorder in middle school. He can also play a kazoo, and can shake a tambourine on the beat. That's about it... with some help, he's OK on drums (he likes to back-up sing/harmonize with other people rather than sing solo)

Caboose is good on drums, he can put all his energy into making a strong rhythm! He's also good on various horns/brass and woodwinds, and really vibes with free-form jazz

Donut gets more caught-up with performing, he loves two come up with songs, sing and dance. He mostly likes pop-rock, but gets into other genres occasionally (he knows how to play the melodica very well). His big dream is to write a bunch of musicals~

Tucker is very good at different kinds of guitar, and he's a great singer as well (he didn't think he'd be into it, but just for practice, he tries out some classical/opera, and he's actually VERY impressive, he can project his voice very well and change the tone/pitch easily, and so he plays around merging old-school stuff with newer themes of music)

Locus hasn't had time for music in years... but he learned how to play different things as a kid; quena, siku, and some percussion instruments

Lopez can play basically anything he wants. People outside the loop will think it is just because he's a robot, and is therefore "copying" music that is already recorded... but Lopez will combine two completely different instruments and use them together in ways most people couldn't think of (he also leans toward very sappy loves songs, inspired by his adoration for Sheila~)

I don't have too many thoughts for the Freelancers... but if they could have had a different life path, York would probably have done well in a boy band, and South would have been a punk-rock star~

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Why Jenna’s Lemon’s play will be remembered as a disappointment for many fans

Caveat: I know production companies keep things under their hats. If an announcement is made contradicting what I’m about to rant about, then I’ll delete this post and happily stand corrected.

So, Jenna Coleman’s play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons is to be performed for the final time this weekend. By most accounts (except the views of a few critics) it’s being looked at as a success and one of Jenna’s crowning acting achievements.

Yay. Me, I’m left with quite a few negative feelings, mostly of frustration to the point where I seriously considered not reblogging the reviews of a production I likely will never get to see.

This is nothing against Jenna at all. But you know where this is going. The decision not to record the play for National Theatre Live (or anyone else but NTL has the market cornered) has made it one big piece of lost media. None of us who lacked the health, money or time to travel to the UK will ever be able to see the show, to see how Jenna did. Even as a one-off stream. Yeah, some people snuck in phones and posted a few blurry moments here and there on Youtube. But it’s not the same. (And if someone managed to record the whole thing and is circulating it via Reddit or something ... that’s still not the same, right?)

People are rightly complaining about this on the play’s Instagram but of course you have people responding with “well that’s the nature of theatre” and acting all high and mighty. True. Theatre has always been a momentary thing. But this is 2023. And they did a stream with All My Sons and that wasn’t even particularly a good play. Yet it’s been preserved. It was made available (albeit after a delay due to there being a competing production on Broadway) to fans in North America. It was also made available for home streaming during the pandemic. Right now I can view it through my university as it’s been archived via a service that libraries can access. And guess what - if I’d been physically able to get to London in the spring of 2019 I’d have bought tickets too. Same goes for Lemons. People would have still paid to see Jenna and Aidan in person. It wouldn’t have impacted that box office. 

There was an NTL stream of Prima Facae starring Jodie Comer. Of Emilia Clarke’s The Seagull. David Tennant’s play Good streams starting April 20. They streamed BOTH versions of Frankenstein in which Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternated the roles of Dr. Frankenstein and the Monster. So many great performances have been preserved. But not - so it appears - Jenna Coleman and Aidan Turner in Lemons x 5.

But we have the technology to do it. Every play should be recorded for public release once its in-person run has ended. What I wouldn’t give to be able to see Julie Andrews’ original version of My Fair Lady. Thankfully Ed Sullivan had the cast perform an excerpt on TV; it’s the only known footage. They didn’t have the tech to film a full Broadway performance back then. Or Audrey Hepburn’s performance of Gigi in 1952. We can read about them in the biographies, but we’ll never see them. Why were people mad that Audrey made the movie of My Fair Lady instead of Julie?

Turner likely has many fans who are equally disappointed right now.

Now, it’s possible there was a behind the scenes reason; maybe the playwright wouldn’t allow it. Maybe they couldn’t come to terms with Jenna and/or Aidan or the director (I assume people were paid extra when All My Sons was streamed; the director has done NTL streams in the past which is why I assumed they’d do one for Lemonsx5). Maybe next week the Manchester production house Jenna was spotted leaving by paparazzi a couple weeks back will announce they’re doing a movie of it and people say this post was premature. I concede all of that.

But for now, all I can do is imagine what might have been. (And hope it’s not too long before Jenna appears in something all her fans can enjoy.)

[ellie-e-marcovitz]

Idunn headcanons

One of the best Vikings in Skalafell at archery, not that she brags about the fact. Also takes up hand-to-hand combat.

Spend some time in Skalafell's home defence for a couple summers, before rejoining after Yule 1994

Has something of a crush on Kaari Arcano (@kathrynalicemc ) in 5th year, but figures out pretty quickly it'll go nowhere, much to her frustration

Ends up splitting her time between Edinburgh and Skalalfell during the war, before partly taking over at the brewing company.

Is still boggled by muggle tech, through appreciates spreadsheets for accounting. Makes it somewhat easier.

Sends Kaia, Kennet and Magne to Hogwarts. Kaia ends up in Gryffindor, Kennet in Ravenclaw and Magne in Slytherin (good snake, tho).

Magne joins Kaari at the Fossen dragon reserve, while Kennet joins the Ministry as an ambassador between Norway and the UK.

Kaia plays Quidditch for the Chudley Cannons and the Norwegian national team. Idunn proudly shares a box with Ron Weasley.

Idunn kept in contact with her dorm mates, particularly Jasmine and Annika, but Ellie as well.

[alpha-mag-media]

Maisie Adam exposes ‘most frustrating’ thing about being a comedian – and it’s bleak | December 24, 2023 at 06:08AM

Maisie Adam exposes ‘most frustrating’ thing about being a comedian – and it’s bleak Read More … Check full articles at Source: ALPHA MAG

[ur-mag]

England player ratings: Ollie Watkins struggles on frustrating night as Harry Kane proves his worth to Three Lions | In Trend Today

England player ratings: Ollie Watkins struggles on frustrating night as Harry Kane proves his worth to Three Lions Read Full Text or Full Article on MAG NEWS

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#10yrago UK police arrest man who built anti-immigrant nail-bomb, decline to press terrorism charges https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/28/soldier-jailed-nailbomb-ryan-mcgee-manchester-bomb

#10yrsago Library’s seed sharing system threatened by Big Ag regulations https://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/11/30/duluth-librarys-seed-sharing-program-hits-a-hurdle

#10yrsago Haunted Mansion leg sleeve tattoo https://www.reddit.com/r/tattoos/comments/2o20s0/haunted_mansion_leg_sleeve_in_progress_by_darin/

#10yrsago Interview with fantasy writer Tim Powers about being a “secret historian” https://web.archive.org/web/20150103220737/http://likeiwassayingblog.com/2014/12/02/tim-powers-interview-with-a-secret-historian/

#5yrsago McKinsey designed ICE’s gulags, recommending minimal food, medical care and supervision https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-helped-the-trump-administration-implement-its-immigration-policies#172207

#5yrsago Frustrated game devs automated the production of 1,500 terrible slot machine apps and actually made money https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025766/1-500-Slot-Machines-Walk

#5yrsago The Supreme Court just heard the State of Georgia’s argument for copyrighting the law and charging for access to it https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/12/justices-debate-allowing-state-law-to-be-hidden-behind-a-pay-wall/

#5yrsago UK Apostrophe Protection Society surrender’s, saying “ignorance and lazines’s have won” https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/apostrophe-society-shuts-down-because-ignorance-has-won-a4301391.html

#5yrsago MMT: when does government deficit spending improve debt-to-GDP ratios? https://carnegieendowment.org/china-financial-markets/2019/10/mmt-heaven-and-mmt-hell-for-chinese-investment-and-us-fiscal-spending

#5yrsago Using the Challenger Disaster to illustrate the 8 symptoms of groupthink https://web.archive.org/web/20150326031934/https://courses.washington.edu/psii101/Powerpoints/Symptoms of Groupthink.htm

#5yrsago A sweeping new tech bill from Silicon Valley Democrats promises privacy, interoperability, and protection from algorithmic discrimination and manipulation https://web.archive.org/web/20191105215639/https://eshoo.house.gov/news-stories/press-releases/eshoo-lofgren-introduce-the-online-privacy-act/

#5yrsago Harry Shearer interviews Uber’s smartest critic: Hubert “Bezzle” Horan https://harryshearer.com/le-shows/december-01-2019/#t=10:10

#5yrsago Reading the “victory letter” a white nationalist sent to his followers after getting $2.5m from UNC, it’s obvious why he tried to censor it https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1201547992748216322

#5yrsago “Harbinger households”: neighborhoods that consistently buy products that get discontinued, buy real-estate that underperforms, and donate to losing political candidates https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022243719867935

#5yrsago White nationalists who got a $2.5m payout from UNC abuse the DMCA to censor lawyer’s trove of documents about it https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1201635924158881792

[starseedfxofficial]

Crack the Code: GBP/AUD Trading with Reinforcement Learning Trading Like a Pro with the British Pound, Australian Dollar, and Reinforcement Learning Models Trading the British Pound (GBP) against the Australian Dollar (AUD) can feel like navigating a maze blindfolded. It’s volatile, fast-moving, and downright tricky. But what if we could make the chaos work for us? Enter reinforcement learning models, the cutting-edge tech that’s giving traders an AI-driven edge. Let’s dive into why this currency pair and these algorithms could be your secret weapons—complete with humor, insider tips, and a dose of unconventional wisdom. Trust me; you’ll leave with strategies sharp enough to slice through market noise. Why GBP/AUD Is a Wild Ride Worth Taming Think of trading GBP/AUD like adopting a hyperactive puppy: unpredictable but rewarding if trained right. This pair is driven by: - Economic Divergence: The UK’s service-heavy economy contrasts sharply with Australia’s commodity-based exports. - Interest Rate Dynamics: Rate decisions from the Bank of England (BoE) and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) can send the pair skyrocketing or crashing. - Global Risk Appetite: AUD often acts as a proxy for risk sentiment, while GBP reflects global economic shifts. Translation? Volatility. And volatility equals opportunity—if you know how to harness it. What Makes Reinforcement Learning Models a Game-Changer? Reinforcement learning (RL) is like teaching an AI to play chess—but instead of rooks and pawns, it’s optimizing your Forex trades. Here’s how RL can transform your GBP/AUD strategy: - Dynamic Adaptation: RL models learn from past data and adjust strategies in real time. - Risk-Reward Balance: These algorithms are designed to weigh risks versus rewards meticulously. - Pattern Recognition: RL spots subtle market patterns that even seasoned traders might overlook. Secret Sauce: How to Apply RL to GBP/AUD Ready to get nerdy? Here’s how reinforcement learning models can supercharge your trading: 1. Backtesting with AI: The Magic Wand Start by feeding your RL model with historical GBP/AUD data. Use tools like TensorFlow or PyTorch to create a simulated environment where the model learns by trial and error. - Pro Tip: Include high-impact events like Brexit or RBA announcements in your data. RL thrives on diverse scenarios. 2. Reward Functions: Teaching Your AI What Success Looks Like Set clear goals for your RL model. For instance: - Maximize the risk-adjusted return (Sharpe ratio). - Minimize drawdowns. Your AI won’t just aimlessly trade—it’ll hone in on what matters. 3. Real-Time Adjustments: Your AI Sidekick Once trained, the RL model can analyze live data to adjust trades dynamically. It’s like having a co-pilot who’s always on their A-game—and never needs coffee breaks. Common Myths About GBP/AUD and RL Trading Myth 1: “GBP/AUD Is Too Volatile for AI” Reality: Volatility is an RL model’s playground. The more dramatic the swings, the more opportunities for profit—if you’ve trained the model correctly. Myth 2: “Reinforcement Learning Is Only for Quants” Reality: You don’t need a PhD to use RL. Tools like Google’s Dopamine library make implementation surprisingly accessible. Myth 3: “AI Replaces Human Judgment” Reality: Think of RL as your trusty assistant, not your overlord. It augments your decision-making but doesn’t replace intuition and experience. Case Study: How a Trader Nailed GBP/AUD with RL Meet Sarah, a seasoned trader frustrated by GBP/AUD’s erratic moves. She decided to test RL models. Here’s what happened: - Data Collection: Sarah compiled five years of historical GBP/AUD data, including economic reports and sentiment analysis. - Model Training: Using Python’s stable-baselines3, she trained her RL model to maximize Sharpe ratio. - Results: Over six months, her average monthly returns increased by 15%, while drawdowns shrank by 20%. Sarah’s takeaway? Combining human judgment with AI can be a game-changer. Risks to Watch Out For Before you hand the reins entirely to an algorithm, consider these risks: - Overfitting: An RL model trained on past data may struggle with unforeseen events. - Black Swan Events: No AI can predict the unpredictable. - Tech Hiccups: A glitchy model can lead to costly errors—always have a backup plan. Your Next Steps: Tame the Beast Ready to turn GBP/AUD into your secret weapon? Here’s your roadmap: - Study the Basics: If RL feels daunting, start with foundational AI courses on Coursera or Udemy. - Experiment: Use demo accounts to test RL strategies without risking real capital. - Join a Community: Platforms like StarseedFX’s community offer expert insights and live discussions. Tools to Make Your Life Easier - Smart Trading Tool: Automate lot sizes and manage orders seamlessly. - Free Trading Journal: Track performance and refine strategies. - Forex News Today: Stay ahead of market-moving news. Marrying AI with Strategy GBP/AUD trading doesn’t have to feel like a rollercoaster. By incorporating reinforcement learning models, you can make sense of the chaos, capitalize on volatility, and enjoy a smoother ride. And remember: it’s not just about the tech. Your intuition and experience are irreplaceable. Together with RL, they’re an unbeatable combo. —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article