#data residency requirements for businesses

[legalfirmindia]

Data Protection: Legal Safeguards for Your Business

In today’s digital age, data is the lifeblood of most businesses. Customer information, financial records, and intellectual property – all this valuable data resides within your systems. However, with this digital wealth comes a significant responsibility: protecting it from unauthorized access, misuse, or loss. Data breaches can have devastating consequences, damaging your reputation, incurring…

[grandisknight]

afternoon treatment | zayne

summary: Zayne follows the "doctor's orders" in order to feel better.

tags: suggestive, established relationship, gn!reader (no specific descriptors), soft zayne, medical kink, 'doctor' kink, kissing, medical procedures (auscultation), medical inaccuracies (in a sense), chest mention, straddling

wc: 2.2k | ao3 | kinktober in deepspace masterlist

a/n: relax time affinity 80 with zayne and that one liner he has. that's it, that's the tweet.

Afternoons at Akso Hospital were always the busiest, from routine check-ups to meetings alike. Staff and accompanying patients hustled through the halls and hushed rooms—there was always something happening, and the cardiac surgery department was no different.

Yet, today seemed to offer Zayne some grace and time to reside in the chilled comforts of his workspace. The morning surgery went well, and his next procedure wouldn’t be for another hour or two. 

Therefore, he’s rewarded himself with a simple diagnosis report. The file was lighter in subject, easier to digest in comparison to what was usually on his plate. In his mind, this was a well-fitted solution to kill some time before returning to sterile scrubs and tense operating rooms.

Glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, he looks over their exterior when a soft series of familiar knocks reach his door.

“It’s open,” he calls out, rectangular reflection returning to the onscreen data. Without missing a beat and sparing another glance, he adds on, “Weren’t you supposed to visit a No-Hunt Zone today?”

“Finished my observations earlier than expected,” you chirped, pushing the door to a close and striding towards his busy desk. 

Recent reports of Metaflux fluctuations had consumed your bright morning with Herte Knaves running amok. Nothing out of the ordinary from your usual line of work, easily dealt with in a couple of bulleted blows. Their dispersing remains flecked the air in a quiet flurry that reminded you of snowflakes—naturally, your feet led you to the pristine floors of Akso soon thereafter.

Curiously, you sidestep to shadow his focused form, gaze altering between the wall of text and precise clicks of his keys. “Thought you were on break, but it seems like you’re working,” you mumble, in awe of his steady pace. “As always, Dr. Zayne.”

He speaks with an obvious, “Well, I am at work. The call is coming from inside the house.”

“Zayne,” you punctuate. His sarcasm doesn’t go unnoticed, and you cross your arms in turn. “You know what I mean.”

A faint chuckle passes under his breath. “You’re accusing me as if I’m in the wrong.”

He was not, actually—far from it. That goes without saying when you were in the middle of his office, imposing during said work time. But you’ve been in his graces for nearly a year now, and know well enough that it was only around this time in the afternoons would he be able to catch a breather.

You shake your head, putting on your best voice before coming to your defense. “No, but the doctor’s orders require you to take a break.”

This catches his attention, fingers slowing their clicks and chair swiveling to face you head on. Slight confusion quirks his brow, mirroring your folded arms in observation. “And pray tell, who would that be? Last time I checked, only one of us is a certified surgeon in this room.”

Your eyes instinctively dart to his stationed badge, credentials on full display against his chest pocket. He had you beat there, at the very least.

“You may hold a degree for medical hearts,” you start, taking a step into the space of his parted knees and tapping your chest. 

“But I hold the degree to your heart.” Your finger redirects to the meeting point of his neckline, resting above the aforementioned muscle.

“Is that so?” The corners of his lips lift, amused by your display and newfound authority. “I was unaware of such a professional. Surely, I would’ve remembered seeing someone as dedicated as you during my studies.” 

He takes the chance to brush away a strand of hair hugging your cheek, neatly tucking it behind your ear. Gentle appreciation fills his comment of, “Would’ve made them much more enjoyable, too.”

“That’s besides the point.” You wave him off, though it doesn’t fan away the heat blushing your ears, sensing his underlying meaning. 

Returning to your self-presumed role, you nod. “As your dedicated and completely legitimate doctor, I believe you’re showing concerning symptoms.”

Zayne hums, withdrawing his hand. “I’m afraid your assessment is lost on me. What exactly are these symptoms?”

“Well, my patient seems to love working overtime. This can cause unnecessary stress to the body and mind, for one.” 

You lift one knee to bracket his, the other following in suit—Zayne adapts rather quickly, leaning back to give you space as you carefully straddle his waist. His arms naturally circle around you, hands hovering your tailbone to keep you steady.

Neatly settled on top, you continue with your mild lecture of reported observations. “Even though he should be using the precious time in-between work to give himself a well-deserved break, he does the exact opposite.” 

“He is on a break,” Zayne says to his defense. “It’s barely considered heavy work.”

“Doing any kind of work during down-time does not count, mister,” you chide.

You gently tussle his bangs, pushing them to the side and revealing his forehead. Smoothing over the skin above his brow, your eyes searched his expression before noting a shadow of fatigue beneath his lashes. He really was working himself to the bone, even if he didn’t want to admit it. 

“A dire symptom of a workaholic is when his skin is faring worse than usual,” you exaggerate. “Your eye bags are so prominent they could be checked in at the airport.”

“It’s not that bad,” he murmurs, eyes crinkling at your touch. They flutter to a close when your hand slides to cup his face, thumb brushing the high of his cheekbone in gentle care. “The lighting just makes it seem worse for wear. I’m fine.”

“I beg to differ.” You slowly trail downwards, caressing the side of his neck with a pursed lip. 

His pulse point thrummed nicely against your fingers, and a curious press elicited a low sigh from him. Unexpected, though the sound was music to your ears and had butterflies rampant in your stomach. A part of you wanted to hear more of the gravelly timbre that rarely made an appearance—you knew what needed to be done.

Picking up where you left off, more of your self-declared medical ramblings followed. “See here? Another symptom, such a fast pace surely isn’t for the faint of heart. Your apical pulse,” to which your fingertips lightly drag themselves towards, “can’t lie to me.”

Zayne is breathless by the time he formulates a response in sincerity. “How can we go about a treatment plan, then? It seems pretty serious.”

A slowed, purposeful pronunciation follows soon thereafter. “Doc-tor.”

Your heart skipped not one, but two beats—dangerous, surely, but it fell short in the face of Zayne’s steadfast compliance. He peers up at you, factually smitten and framed softly by the office lights blending the contours of his face. You raise your other hand to hold his fine face between them. Admiring, in awe of all that he was.

“There’s only one known treatment option, I’ll have you know.” Unable to hide your smile, you quickly add, “Might require mouth to mouth if things go south.”

Zayne’s pools of hazel flick to your upturned lips, before meeting your mischievous stare with a hint of his own.

“Is this truly scientifically proven, or did you come all this way just to kiss me?”

“Yes,” was all you offered to his question, before placing an airy kiss to his cupid’s bow. 

A second found its way to the bridge of his nose, laid over the slight ridge you adore before another rested between his raised brows. His eyes flutter to a close when your lips gently pressed to his temple, stilling at the contact. Slowly, you leave a trail of love across his cheeks, pausing once you meet the corner of his mouth.

Your thumb brushes against his lower lip, smiling at the way he parts them so readily for you. His chin tilts in the direction of your touch, mouthing the chase. A flush of pink sinked into his skin, a perfect peach for you to sink your teeth into.

“Tell me,” you say softly. Your fingers curl underneath his chin, observing the lidded gaze that follows. “Does it hurt anywhere?”

A tender exhale pushes past those very lips. “Right here,” he quietly admits. Closing the distance until you were only a breath away, his eyes focused on the plush of your mouth. “Please, Doctor.”

The union was gentle and warm, a kiss so kind that the same sentiment blossomed in your chest. Traces of a sweetened coffee picked from the hospital’s cafeteria and warm amber from his collar consumed your senses.

Zayne held you closer, chest to his and enveloping in a tender embrace. His hands traced the curve of your back, following your spine to gently cradle your head. Just to keep you this close, he was restless—realizing that he needed this more than he thought. The smile that cracks through another kiss is a testament to it, sealed with a deep breath of contentment.

It was perfect, a moment in time where your thundering heartbeats were equally matched. The world was nothing but a witness to the seconds spent in meaningful lip-locking.

“Mmph,” you groan unceremoniously. 

Something firm brushed against your brow, pulling you out of the sweet trance. The culprit looked back at you in its silver rimmed and glass glory, sliding down the bridge of Zayne’s nose.

“Hm?” He leans back, noticing your discomfort. “What’s the matter?” 

You contemplate on telling him, partially distracted by the puff of his lower lip. It has a sheen of your affection, and you were sure you looked no different in his eyes.

“Your glasses are falling,” you admit. You reach for the frames, intending on pushing them back to the high of his nose.

Zayne pauses your wrist then, a warm mirth in his gaze. “These are in the way, are they not?” He guides your hand, allowing the glasses to depart from his face and settling it on his desk. 

With or without the specs, he truly was handsome—the kind of beauty modeled in Greek busts, from the contours of his cheeks to the sharp angle of his brow bone. You’d have to thank his parents the next time you see them.

He sneaks in a kiss, no longer obscured by the barrier and face perfectly pressed to yours. “My Doctor seems to be distracted,” he comments, taking in your wandering gaze. A cool hand graces the crowd of your head, patting softly. “What are you planning this time?”

His touches brought you out of your daydreaming, and you nod. Hands settling on the curves of his shoulders, you slide them upwards with a murmur of, “I should check your apical pulse again.”

Your eyes wander to the space behind him, a stethoscope only a grab away. With some effort, you spare a hand to reach for it, rising from the chair to a degree. 

Zayne noticeably stiffens at his newfound view—your chest in his face wasn’t something on his agenda for today. The breath in his throat hitches, recognizing your fragrance. Comforting and pleasant, a piece of home warmly enhanced by your skin.

By the time you successfully have the medical device in hand, you nearly drop it at the feeling of his nose digging into your chest. 

“Zayne? You’re—mmh?!” His hands find their way to your midsection, holding you still as he inhales deeply. You only hear him hum between muffled fabric, and your mind dizzies at the heatwave the mere sound sends to your core.

He pulls back with a soft sigh, the peach of his skin notably deepened to a soft rouge. Zayne guides you back to sit proper in his lap, reaching for the stethoscope in your surprised hand. Carefully, he places the ear tips into place for you and brushes your hair back in the process. Nonchalant, as if he didn’t spend the last waking moments happily buried in your chest.

“If you’re checking my pulse for me, I hope you’ve read the hospital’s code of conduct.” He drops his hands then, patiently awaiting your auscultation. In the reflection of his coy stare, you find that your own blush is faring far, far worse than his.

“Right, right. I did, trust me,” you say in confidence.

You, in fact, did no such thing. But memory of past appointments guides your hand over his heart, chest piece sliding around to count the beats. Not a single count was missed, all perfectly in place and accounted for.

Though, the only thing you could hear was your own heartbeat drumming. It didn’t help that his eyes were entirely focused on you, pointed with affection and observation alike.

“Well?” Zayne hums. “How does it sound?”

“You have a heart, and it’s beating alright.” Your conclusion was far from exemplary, but at least it was the truth.

“That’s a relief,” he laughs quietly. He gently removes the stethoscope, setting it aside. “Realistically, this isn’t how an auscultation works.”

“My methods are just special, that’s all.” You shrug, lightly patting the space that protects the aforementioned organ. “But you seem to be feeling better, and that’s all that matters to me.”

“Mhm.” Zayne presses a kiss to your nose, and offers his gratitude. “Thank you, Doctor. I don’t know what I would do without your care.”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Every internet fight is a speech fight

THIS WEEKEND (November 8-10), I'll be in TUCSON, AZ: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

My latest Locus Magazine column is "Hard (Sovereignty) Cases Make Bad (Internet) Law," an attempt to cut through the knots we tie ourselves in when speech and national sovereignty collide online:

https://locusmag.com/2024/11/cory-doctorow-hard-sovereignty-cases-make-bad-internet-law/

This happens all the time. Indeed, the precipitating incident for my writing this column was someone commenting on the short-lived Brazilian court order blocking Twitter, opining that this was purely a matter of national sovereignty, with no speech dimension.

This is just profoundly wrong. Of course any rules about blocking a communications medium will have a free-speech dimension – how could it not? And of course any dispute relating to globe-spanning medium will have a national sovereignty dimension.

How could it not?

So if every internet fight is a speech fight and a sovereignty fight, which side should we root for? Here's my proposal: we should root for human rights.

In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that the US government was illegally wiretapping the whole world. They were able to do this because the world is dominated by US-based tech giants and they shipped all their data stateside for processing. These tech giants secretly colluded with the NSA to help them effect this illegal surveillance (the "Prism" program) – and then the NSA stabbed them in the back by running another program ("Upstream") where they spied on the tech giants without their knowledge.

After the Snowden revelations, countries around the world enacted "data localization" rules that required any company doing business within their borders to keep their residents' data on domestic servers. Obviously, this has a human rights dimension: keeping your people's data out of the hands of US spy agencies is an important way to defend their privacy rights. which are crucial to their speech rights (you can't speak freely if you're being spied on).

So when the EU, a largely democratic bloc, enacted data localization rules, they were harnessing national soveriegnty in service to human rights.

But the EU isn't the only place that enacted data-localization rules. Russia did the same thing. Once again, there's a strong national sovereignty case for doing this. Even in the 2010s, the US and Russia were hostile toward one another, and that hostility has only ramped up since. Russia didn't want its data stored on NSA-accessible servers for the same reason the USA wouldn't want all its' people's data stored in GRU-accessible servers.

But Russia has a significantly poorer human rights record than either the EU or the USA (note that none of these are paragons of respect for human rights). Russia's data-localization policy was motivated by a combination of legitimate national sovereignty concerns and the illegitimate desire to conduct domestic surveillance in order to identify and harass, jail, torture and murder dissidents.

When you put it this way, it's obvious that national sovereignty is important, but not as important as human rights, and when they come into conflict, we should side with human rights over sovereignty.

Some more examples: Thailand's lesse majeste rules prohibit criticism of their corrupt monarchy. Foreigners who help Thai people circumvent blocks on reportage of royal corruption are violating Thailand's national sovereignty, but they're upholding human rights:

https://www.vox.com/2020/1/24/21075149/king-thailand-maha-vajiralongkorn-facebook-video-tattoos

Saudi law prohibits criticism of the royal family; when foreigners help Saudi women's rights activists evade these prohibitions, we violate Saudi sovereignty, but uphold human rights:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55467414

In other words, "sovereignty, yes; but human rights even moreso."

Which brings me back to the precipitating incidents for the Locus column: the arrest of billionaire Telegram owner Pavel Durov in France, and the blocking of billionaire Elon Musk's Twitter in Brazil.

How do we make sense of these? Let's start with Durov. We still don't know exactly why the French government arrested him (legal systems descended from the Napoleonic Code are weird). But the arrest was at least partially motivated by a demand that Telegram conform with a French law requiring businesses to have a domestic agent to receive and act on takedown demands.

Not every takedown demand is good. When a lawyer for the Sackler family demanded that I take down criticism of his mass-murdering clients, that was illegitimate. But there is such a thing as a legitimate takedown: leaked financial information, child sex abuse material, nonconsensual pornography, true threats, etc, are all legitimate targets for takedown orders. Of course, it's not that simple. Even if we broadly agree that this stuff shouldn't be online, we don't necessarily agree whether something fits into one of these categories.

This is true even in categories with the brightest lines, like child sex abuse material:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/09/facebook-reinstates-napalm-girl-photo

And the other categories are far blurrier, like doxing:

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trump-camp-worked-with-musks-x-to

But just because not every takedown is a just one, it doesn't follow that every takedown is unjust. The idea that companies should have domestic agents in the countries where they operate isn't necessarily oppressive. If people who sell hamburgers from a street-corner have to register a designated contact with a regulator, why not someone who operates a telecoms network with 900m global users?

Of course, requirements to have a domestic contact can also be used as a prelude to human rights abuses. Countries that insist on a domestic rep are also implicitly demanding that the company place one of its employees or agents within reach of its police-force.

Just as data localization can be a way to improve human rights (by keeping data out of the hands of another country's lawless spy agencies) or to erode them (by keeping data within reach of your own country's lawless spy agencies), so can a requirement for a local agent be a way to preserve the rule of law (by establishing a conduit for legitimate takedowns) or a way to subvert it (by giving the government hostages they can use as leverage against companies who stick up for their users' rights).

In the case of Durov and Telegram, these issues are especially muddy. Telegram bills itself as an encrypted messaging app, but that's only sort of true. Telegram does not encrypt its group-chats, and even the encryption in its person-to-person messaging facility is hard to use and of dubious quality.

This is relevant because France – among many other governments – has waged a decades-long war against encrypted messaging, which is a wholly illegitimate goal. There is no way to make an encrypted messaging tool that works against bad guys (identity thieves, stalkers, corporate and foreign spies) but not against good guys (cops with legitimate warrants). Any effort to weaken end-to-end encrypted messaging creates broad, significant danger for every user of the affected service, all over the world. What's more, bans on end-to-end encrypted messaging tools can't stand on their own – they also have to include blocks of much of the useful internet, mandatory spyware on computers and mobile devices, and even more app-store-like control over which software you can install:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

So when the French state seizes Durov's person and demands that he establish the (pretty reasonable) minimum national presence needed to coordinate takedown requests, it can seem like this is a case where national sovereignty and human rights are broadly in accord.

But when you consider that Durov operates a (nominally) encrypted messaging tool that bears some resemblance to the kinds of messaging tools the French state has been trying to sabotage for decades, and continues to rail against, the human rights picture gets rather dim.

That is only slightly mitigated by the fact that Telegram's encryption is suspect, difficult to use, and not applied to the vast majority of the communications it serves. So where do we net out on this? In the Locus column, I sum things up this way:

Telegram should have a mechanism to comply with lawful takedown orders; and

those orders should respect human rights and the rule of law; and

Telegram should not backdoor its encryption, even if

the sovereign French state orders it to do so.

Sovereignty, sure, but human rights even moreso.

What about Musk? As with Durov in France, the Brazilian government demanded that Musk appoint a Brazilian representative to handle official takedown requests. Despite a recent bout of democratic backsliding under the previous regime, Brazil's current government is broadly favorable to human rights. There's no indication that Brazil would use an in-country representative as a hostage, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with requiring foreign firms doing business in your country to have domestic representatives.

Musk's response was typical: a lawless, arrogant attack on the judge who issued the blocking order, including thinly veiled incitements to violence.

The Brazilian state's response was multi-pronged. There was a national blocking order, and a threat to penalize Brazilians who used VPNs to circumvent the block. Both measures have obvious human rights implications. For one thing, the vast majority of Brazilians who use Twitter are engaged in the legitimate exercise of speech, and they were collateral damage in the dispute between Musk and Brazil.

More serious is the prohibition on VPNs, which represents a broad attack on privacy-enhancing technology with implications far beyond the Twitter matter. Worse still, a VPN ban can only be enforced with extremely invasive network surveillance and blocking orders to app stores and ISPs to restrict access to VPN tools. This is wholly disproportionate and illegitimate.

But that wasn't the only tactic the Brazilian state used. Brazilian corporate law is markedly different from US law, with fewer protections for limited liability for business owners. The Brazilian state claimed the right to fine Musk's other companies for Twitter's failure to comply with orders to nominate a domestic representative. Faced with fines against Spacex and Tesla, Musk caved.

In other words, Brazil had a legitimate national sovereignty interest in ordering Twitter to nominate a domestic agent, and they used a mix of somewhat illegitimate tactics (blocking orders), extremely illegitimate tactics (threats against VPN users) and totally legitimate tactics (fining Musk's other companies) to achieve these goals.

As I put it in the column:

Twitter should have a mechanism to comply with lawful takedown orders; and

those orders should respect human rights and the rule of law; and

banning Twitter is bad for the free speech rights of Twitter users in Brazil; and

banning VPNs is bad for all Brazilian internet users; and

it’s hard to see how a Twitter ban will be effective without bans on VPNs.

There's no such thing as an internet policy fight that isn't about national sovereignty and speech, and when the two collide, we should side with human rights over sovereignty. Sovereignty isn't a good unto itself – it's only a good to the extent that is used to promote human rights.

In other words: "Sovereignty, sure, but human rights even moreso."

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/2024/11/06/brazilian-blowout/#sovereignty-sure-but-human-rights-even-moreso

Image: © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Border_Wall_at_Tijuana_and_San_Diego_Border.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[yyokkki]

Warning: Chapter 6 spoilers? Vaguely??

Idia Shroud

A hermit that claims to be a game developer! He’s not lying but he has omitted some details about his family business that he’s been working with remotely.

Owns a house that he lives in with his little brother Ortho who does all the grocery shopping!

Created Ortho after a terrible tragedy with the help of a mage (not the local one).

Would never willingly take part in the town festivals but Ortho hides all the food in the house on those days so he has no choice but to eat the festival food if he doesn’t want to starve…

Plays board games with Azul every Monday in his house.

Is often found in his room… And sometimes by the lake late at night (Ortho kicks him out to get fresh air).

Loved Gifts: Pomegranate, Any Candy, Battery Pack, Dwarf Gadget, Iridium Bar. Universal Loves

“!! T-thanks, you’re not bad, farmer.”

For Battery Pack and Iridium Bar: “Huh, I needed these for some of Ortho’s new upgrades… Thanks farmer.”

Hated Gifts: Sashimi, Any Fish, Universal Hates

“...Normies like you are the reason why I stay inside.”

Ortho Shroud

The resident sunshine child and Idia’s little brother!

He’s a robot that doesn’t require food to survive but with the power of the world wide web, he can do anything in the world!

He has a lot of healing equipment installed in him so he kinda turned into the town’s informal doctor by default! Is usually the one who treats you whenever you pass out in the mines.

He has a bunch of different gears but the most commonly seen ones are for each season and beach wear.

Absolutely obliterates the competition at every egg festival (Floyd is so mad about it). The hunt is like 10x harder for you in this universe particularly all because of him.

Joins Vil in the library every Thursday for film appreciation! He takes part in the plays along with the other children! 

Doesn’t attend school the way the other kids do but he does sit in and gives his own lectures every once in a while.

Is often found at his house or in the town square chatting with the other kids and residents!

Loved Gifts: Battery Pack, Dwarf Gadget, Iridium Bar, Radioactive Bar, Universal Loves

“Thank you, farmer! This will be useful for data collection!”

Hated Gifts: Bombs, Poisonous Mushrooms, Universal Hates

“My sensors say that this is a highly dangerous object! Activating Energy Cannon!

---

TWST x SDV Masterlist

Tag List (Interact with the linked post to be tagged in future updates mwah)

Tag List Below Dropdown

@coffee-or-hot-cocoa @neuvilletteshusbandd @multifandomlazywriter @whimsybloom

@petaled-pages @blerp-22 @lazy-raven @the-ghost-0f-t0m0

@iamlowkeycrying @sleep-ydragon @loopdydee @hrhqueenfox

@mielle-estelar @cerisescherries @asillysleepy @sarah22447

@iamstillalive158 @fatally-incorrect @kumikokane @lettuceyarn

@awkwardlyso @banshee-y-etc @wolfdragongodex @honehbee42

@yvonneyudith @gyarukitti

[stackslip]

The European Union is set to generate millions of euros more from the high rejection rates of visa applications by African visitors with a new increase in non-refundable fees.

Citizens of the 26 member states within Europe’s Schengen area have unhindered borderless access within the area, while most travelers from elsewhere require visas. A 12.5% price hike that takes effect on June 11 increases the cost of a short-term (90 days) visa application to €90.

But while the price hike applies equally to all non-EU residents who require a Schengen visa, it raises the prospect of the bloc making disproportionately more money from its rejection rates for applicants from Africa, analysts say.

Of the €130 million the EU earned in 2023 from rejected visa applications, about 42% of that was from applicants living in Africa, even though the continent accounts for 24% of Schengen visa applications, according to London-based research firm LAGO Collective. Prospective visitors who apply from Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria receive rejection rates of between 40% and 50%, LAGO estimated, based on data from the European Commission’s migration and home affairs office.

“We found a relationship between the GDP of countries and rejection rates for short-term visas,” Marta Foresti, LAGO’s founder, told Semafor Africa. A similar rejection trend in 2024 with the new price would deepen long-standing inequality of outcomes between consumers paying for the same service from high and low-income countries, Foresti said.

While these encourage dangerous attempts to reach Europe across seas and deserts, most African migration is via “regular channels,” the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington DC notes.

Yet Africans applying to visit Europe for short-term stays, such as business engagements or conferences, continue to face a stumbling block.

Average rejection rates for African applicants are generally 10 percentage points higher than the global average, Mehari Taddele Maru, a researcher at the EU-owned European University Institute in Italy, found. Seven of the top ten countries with the highest rejection rates for Schengen visa applications in 2022 were in Africa.

The EU’s more expensive visa and its potentially disproportionate impact on Africans comes as the bloc takes a tougher stance on migration.

New rules approved by the EU Commission in April impose a higher standard for screening non-EU nationals at borders, including the collection of biometric data, and health and security checks. Border fences set up by member states within the Schengen area have become longer in the last decade, stretching from 315 km to 2,048 km as of 2022.

Higher visa prices could be another type of fence, which when combined with high rejection rates, will continue to enrich European consulates at the expense of residents of low income countries who nevertheless have legitimate reasons to be in Europe.

Africa’s high rejection rate is sometimes explained as a consequence of visitors overstaying their visas. But “there is no evidence to suggest that a higher rejection rate leads to a decrease in irregular migration or visa overstays,” Maru argues. In essence, an unexplained bias against Africans is at play.

The costs of rejection to African entrepreneurs, career professionals, artists and other seekers of the EU’s short-term visa calls for a reform of the approval process, Foresti told me. Consulates with high unequal outcomes should review their decision-making to ensure “systematic discrimination” against some countries isn’t an underlying cause.

And should some EU members enforce high rejection for short-term visas to dissuade overstays by residents of particular African countries, more paths to legal migration should be considered, she argued.

[acceptccnow]

Maximize E-Commerce Growth with Efficient Payment Processing

Article by Jonathan Bomser | CEO | Accept-Credit-Cards-Now.com

In the rapidly evolving world of business, E-Commerce Payment Processing stands as an undeniable linchpin. With the perpetual surge in online shopping and digital transactions, businesses must prioritize delivering a seamless and secure payment experience for their diverse customer base. This article zeroes in on strategies that empower businesses to unlock their full e-commerce potential by implementing effective payment processing methods. From embracing credit card acceptance to skillfully navigating the complexities of high-risk sectors like CBD and credit repair, we'll delve into key insights that enable businesses to make well-informed decisions and turbocharge their profitability.

DOWNLOAD THE MAXIMIZE E-COMMERCE GROWTH INFOGRAPHIC HERE

The Cornerstone of E-Commerce Triumph At the core of every flourishing e-commerce enterprise lies a robust payment processing infrastructure. A frictionless payment solution can have a direct impact on conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Payment processing for high-risk industries, such as CBD and credit repair, demands specialized services owing to their unique challenges. These sectors require reliable payment gateways that cater precisely to their distinct needs while steadfastly upholding stringent compliance with industry regulations.

Crafting a Seamless Customer Journey The acceptance of credit cards stands as a fundamental pillar of e-commerce success. The ease and familiarity associated with credit cards empower customers to make swift purchasing decisions. By seamlessly integrating credit card payment processing systems, businesses can streamline the checkout process, reduce instances of cart abandonment, and cultivate trust among their patrons. A user-centric payment gateway guarantees that transactions happen rapidly, securely, and without complications, thereby enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Navigating Uncharted Waters Industries like CBD and credit repair often find themselves classified as high-risk, primarily due to intricate regulatory frameworks and potential chargeback risks. Securing a high-risk merchant account and harnessing specialized high-risk payment processing solutions become imperative. These tailored services provide the indispensable infrastructure for tackling the unique challenges of high-risk industries while simultaneously mitigating potential setbacks.

Paving the Path to Progress Merchant processing forms the crux of e-commerce expansion. By acquiring a merchant account, businesses unlock access to a broader spectrum of payment options and enhance their market credibility. A well-structured merchant processing system serves as a competitive advantage, allowing businesses to accept credit cards, expedite transaction processing, and offer a diverse array of payment alternatives to their clientele.

The Future of E-Commerce Payment Processing As technology continues its inexorable advancement, payment processing solutions evolve in tandem. Online payment gateways now encompass more than just transactional capabilities. Contemporary payment gateway solutions extend offerings to encompass comprehensive analytics, real-time reporting, and customization features, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their overall payment ecosystem.

E-commerce payment processing resides at the heart of e-commerce expansion. By embracing the intricacies of payment processing within high-risk sectors, embracing credit card acceptance, and optimizing merchant processing systems, businesses can chart a course toward success. The voyage to maximizing e-commerce growth is initiated by acknowledging the pivotal role of payment processing and making judicious choices that align with industry trends and cater to customer preferences.

[mitigatedchaos]

VOL - Value-Over-LLM

(~700 words, 3 minutes)

3) Ken, an estate campus resident: "Cycling through my neighborhood this morning, I can't help but appreciate living in a place that values sustainable transportation and community spirit! 🚴‍♀️🌳 #EstateCampusLife"

I instructed Nous Capybara to generate 5 fictional characters after reading about the hypothetical country I've mentioned before. On previous runs I didn't specify to make ordinary people, and got pairings like:

An influential [country's politics] philosopher and political thinker known for her radical ideas about the role of religion in governance and societal order.

"The path to true enlightenment lies not within abstract notions of good and evil, but in the practical application of morality and ethics in our daily lives." - Hera

A high-ranking member of [country's military], known for his exceptional strategic thinking and leadership skills in [country]'s wars and conflicts.

"In times of war, it is often those with the sharpest strategies who emerge victorious. But in peacetime, it is the leaders who can adapt quickly to changing circumstances who will prevail." - Shu

With respect to both the text and the knowledge base of the model, with respect to meaning, we can think of LLMs as moving sideways and downwards - they generate a related text in the text-space, which generally has less meaning. This can result in an information gain if you are not familiar with the meaning of the original text, or with that portion of the LLM's knowledge base, or just haven't thought about it much yet.

In my opinion, LLMs as a technology, by itself, are likely to be at least as consequential as email.

First, I expect this to reshape how human beings communicate with each other. A ChatGPT subscription costs about $20/mo. The existing generations will get used to nearly-unlimited, on-demand, LLM text generation. Future generations will grow up with LLM text as a baseline.

This is likely to socially devalue text that sounds like an LLM. I can already feel the outline of socially lonely people turning to LLMs in some way, and this generating a vibe of, "All your friends are puppets," / "all my friends are flesh and blood," where the latter will be seen as the result of superior social ability and fitness.

It may lead to the devaluing of all generic business talk, or push some individuals to a higher level of consciousness or understanding. These conditions may spark new artistic or philosophical movements, and are likely to change the way society views itself.

It's unclear what follower-personalities, whose beliefs are more socially determined, are likely to do in the face of the text onslaught, as they are not currently reading text into a coherent model for evaluation. Some of them may be "trapped" by this technology and fail to reach a new level of development.

Future teenagers will likely project retro nostalgia for the pre-LLM era and its greater authenticity.

There will likely be development of a writing style which is deliberately LLM-illegible, but it would likely be an awful lot of fucking work to read.

Second, humans are likely to accumulate a ring of text information and spreadsheet type data that can be fed into LLMs and related systems. Right now, it's difficult to get the information back out, because you have to do it manually, which is high attention. An LLM's reading of this data will be low-attention, but cheap.

What's in this ring of text information is likely to depend on copyright or intellectual property law, but the provisioning of textbooks or articles for inclusion in LLM use may emerge in the coming decades.

Automatic summarization, even of middling quality, is a big deal. LLMs still have the issue where processing a large document at speed requires a tremendous amount of VRAM, but documents could be summarized in a hierarchy, and then searched and processed in a multi-step process.

Regardless, the text information is likely to include the user's own creative content.

A lack of access to this ring is likely to result in reduced mobility, for lack of a better word.

Third, an increasing body of text will likely be written for LLMs. I don't mean messages or queries. Rather, the goal of an article is to add information, so text will be written as LLM source materials.

Fourth, what you get out of an LLM depends a great deal on what you put in. People with a higher aptitude can get more out of an LLM because they better understand the limits of the system, but also because they ask the right questions.

Fifth, constant exposure to text generation of this kind might also result in atrophy of skills in reading and writing.

It's difficult to tell at this juncture. What seems more likely is a split. Some people will focus on what gives them the advantage, writing in a way that provides a very rich and understandable information source, providing "value over LLM." Others will let the machine write everything and gradually pay less and less attention to it, and would eventually find it challenging to write a quality email on their own even if they were forced to at gunpoint.

The effect of the latter may end up being be similar, in some ways, to online environments in which someone's avatar is "physically" present, but the operator is not at-keyboard, and you don't know when the operator will be at-keyboard, and if they don't want to answer you they may pretend to be not-at-keyboard. (This is one reason to avoid brain-computer interfaces, as they could lead to a society of people who are never anywhere - even online.)

It may be necessary to apply some class of future social conservative policies, such as banning the use of LLMs on school grounds, but we will see.

[robboyblunder]

Was in the mood for drawing another robot and came up with this beast for my solar/cyberpunk setting :) It's a giant robot that processes an entire city's data instantaneously and fluently and LOVES information. the robot doesn't really have pronouns, so I gave it it/they where people unfamiliar use 'it' and those closer to it use 'they'. I don't have a name for them other than 'data bot' at the moment lmao.

more info about 'em under the read more! Image ID in ALT text :)

(please don't repost or use these, and leave my description; thanks! reblogs appreciated!)

-this data bot cares about information more than anything, and will do most anything to get it; the only way it isn't destroying systems and taking over is built in inhibitors lmao. it's one of the only things that can handle the massive information flow the cyber city it resides below needs to compute and control things. having something with that much power go out of hand... not safe!

-data bot loves talking about the things it knows and providing information, but doesn't have strong attachment to most anything; sentimentality, empathy, and morality are not part of its AI. It does feel emotions, but simply tends to be mostly curious, ambivalent, and quite bored.

-intruders or rude people will get rapidly 'disassembled' into information by the data bot; as in, like a praying mantis, it'll snatch them up so fast they can't react before they're pulled apart to be dissected for how they work and what's inside them. it's a little brutal! cleaning up after sucks for everyone except data bot.

-data bot is not entirely waterproof as a safety protocol; the water in the bottom of the room serves to cool its tech, but also as a threatening reminder that if it goes haywire or tries to escape, it'll be dropped from the ceiling straight into a watery pool grave.

-the glass panels floating around the bot are actually intricate low-tech data storage made from special tech imbued glass that is water proof and holds large quantities of information each. data bot is one of the only things that can read them! the slot holes in the walls are for putting away panels, retrieving them, or getting new ones to write data upon.

-data bot can move in most any direction in its giant bubble room, and is incredibly flexible and nimble. this makes its motions oddly organic and kind of creepy to most! the workers seriously fear this thing, and rarely want to be the ones to have to go near it.

-workers are required to be sterile and hazmatted up around data bot for unknown reasons to them. data bot doesn't mind either way.

-data bot gets rapidly bored, and this is dangerous; its super intelligent mind needs constant stimulation lest it start trying to find ways to entertain itself to the detriment of the building and the city it controls. workers often give it puzzles, news from their own lives, and talk to it to keep it busy when the city's data isn't enough.

-to keep it clean, workers must squeegee bathe the bot, who funny enough, finds it very enjoyable and relaxing; one of the only times it's safe to be remotely close to it is bath time. holding up a squeegee in their presence is like holding up a stick for a dog.

-data bot longs to break free and pick apart as much of the world to understand and catalogue all information out there... if it had a body, it would be catastrophic as its information is priceless so destroying it would be incredibly devastating, expensive (its tech is state of the art), and difficult (in the event it manages to break out, shut off the inhibitors, and upgrade itself to be water proof).

-the city council and members in power often use data bot like an AI assistant, and have no idea how dangerous, huge, and scary the thing is minus a select few. the ones who know are the most wary.

ty for reading :)

[tgrailwar-zero]

From what we saw before, it seems like you have many forms that each could be called a “true form” of you. What’s up with that?

DRACO: "Simple. I am a Larval Beast in this current state, and given the proper conditions I should be able to evolve. This body of mine has many forms and many names."

"Of course, there's the 'Foolish Me', who boldly shies away from her true nature, boldly declaring herself as a Saber. I have no intention of ever debasing myself by even mentioning her name. I am Draco, Sodom's Beast, and will always be. This is a Spirit Origin of a Beast, after all, not that of a hero. You have awoken me from the farce that is 'Lucius', and for that I am grateful. For now I may get to business."

"And as such, given the proper conditions, I should manifest as something that could devour the Solar Cell utterly. A genuine City Eater, the bane of civilization. But to even begin, I require the data stored within my meteor blade."

You could feel the blade grow hot in DRACO's presence, burning to life. While the 'Saber' verification doesn't seem to be broken, it seems as if DRACO ticks off more of a few of the other locks present.

DRACO: "Ah, I can sense it. I may not wield such a blade, but the secrets residing within sing such a vibrant melody, even under such lock and key. Hand it over, now. I do not break my promises. Give me the sword, and I will supply you with valuable information."

[govindhtech]

Data Zones Improve Enterprise Trust In Azure OpenAI Service

The trust of businesses in the Azure OpenAI Service was increased by the implementation of Data Zones.

Data security and privacy are critical for businesses in today’s quickly changing digital environment. Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service provides strong enterprise controls that adhere to the strictest security and regulatory requirements, as more and more businesses use AI to spur innovation. Anchored on the core of Azure, Azure OpenAI may be integrated with the technologies in your company to assist make sure you have the proper controls in place. Because of this, clients using Azure OpenAI for their generative AI applications include KPMG, Heineken, Unity, PWC, and more.

With over 60,000 customers using Azure OpenAI to build and scale their businesses, it is thrilled to provide additional features that will further improve data privacy and security capabilities.

Introducing Azure Data Zones for OpenAI

Data residency with control over data processing and storage across its current 28 distinct locations was made possible by Azure OpenAI from Day 0. The United States and the European Union now have Azure OpenAI Data Zones available. Historically, variations in model-region availability have complicated management and slowed growth by requiring users to manage numerous resources and route traffic between them. Customers will have better access to models and higher throughput thanks to this feature, which streamlines the management of generative AI applications by providing the flexibility of regional data processing while preserving data residency within certain geographic bounds.

Azure is used by businesses for data residency and privacy

Azure OpenAI’s data processing and storage options are already strong, and this is strengthened with the addition of the Data Zones capability. Customers using Azure OpenAI can choose between regional, data zone, and global deployment options. Customers are able to increase throughput, access models, and streamline management as a result. Data is kept at rest in the Azure region that you have selected for your resource with all deployment choices.

Global deployments: With access to all new models (including the O1 series) at the lowest cost and highest throughputs, this option is available in more than 25 regions. The global backbone of the Azure resource guarantees optimal response times, and data is stored at rest within the customer-selected

Data Zones: Introducing Data Zones, which offer cross-region load balancing flexibility within the customer-selected geographic boundaries, to clients who require enhanced data processing assurances while gaining access to the newest models. All Azure OpenAI regions in the US are included in the US Data Zone. All Azure OpenAI regions that are situated inside EU member states are included in the European Union Data Zone. The upcoming month will see the availability of the new Azure Data Zones deployment type.

Regional deployments: These guarantee processing and storage take place inside the resource’s geographic boundaries, providing the highest degree of data control. When considering Global and Data Zone deployments, this option provides the least amount of model availability.

Extending generative AI apps securely using your data

Azure OpenAI allows you to extend your solution with your current data storage and search capabilities by integrating with hundreds of Azure and Microsoft services with ease. Azure AI Search and Microsoft Fabric are the two most popular extensions.

For both classic and generative AI applications, Azure AI search offers safe information retrieval at scale across customer-owned content. This keeps Azure’s scale, security, and management while enabling document search and data exploration to feed query results into prompts and ground generative AI applications on your data.

Access to an organization’s whole multi-cloud data estate is made possible by Microsoft Fabric’s unified data lake, OneLake, which is arranged in an easy-to-use manner. Maintaining corporate data governance and compliance controls while streamlining the integration of data to power your generative AI application is made easier by consolidating all company data into a single data lake.

Azure is used by businesses to ensure compliance, safety, and security

Content Security by Default

Prompts and completions are screened by a group of classification models to identify and block hazardous content, and Azure OpenAI is automatically linked with Azure AI Content Safety at no extra cost. The greatest selection of content safety options is offered by Azure, which also has the new prompt shield and groundedness detection features. Clients with more stringent needs can change these parameters, such as harm severity or enabling asynchronous modes to reduce delay.

Entra ID provides secure access using Managed Identity

In order to provide zero-trust access restrictions, stop identity theft, and manage resource access, Microsoft advises protecting your Azure OpenAI resources using the Microsoft Entra ID. Through the application of least-privilege concepts, businesses can guarantee strict security guidelines. Furthermore strengthening security throughout the system, Entra ID does away with the requirement for hard-coded credentials.

Furthermore, Managed Identity accurately controls resource rights through a smooth integration with Azure role-based access control (RBAC).

Customer-managed key encryption for improved data security

By default, the information that Azure OpenAI stores in your subscription is encrypted with a key that is managed by Microsoft. Customers can use their own Customer-Managed Keys to encrypt data saved on Microsoft-managed resources, such as Azure Cosmos DB, Azure AI Search, or your Azure Storage account, using Azure OpenAI, further strengthening the security of your application.

Private networking offers more security

Use Azure virtual networks and Azure Private Link to secure your AI apps by separating them from the public internet. With this configuration, secure connections to on-premises resources via ExpressRoute, VPN tunnels, and peer virtual networks are made possible while ensuring that traffic between services stays inside Microsoft’s backbone network.

The AI Studio’s private networking capability was also released last week, allowing users to utilize its Studio UI’s powerful “add your data” functionality without having to send data over a public network.

Dedication to Adherence

It is dedicated to helping its clients in all regulated areas, such as government, finance, and healthcare, meet their compliance needs. Azure OpenAI satisfies numerous industry certifications and standards, including as FedRAMP, SOC 2, and HIPAA, guaranteeing that businesses in a variety of sectors can rely on their AI solutions to stay compliant and safe.

Businesses rely on Azure’s dependability at the production level

GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Security Copilot, and many other of the biggest generative AI applications in the world today rely on the Azure OpenAI service. Customers and its own product teams select Azure OpenAI because it provide an industry-best 99.9% reliability SLA on both Provisioned Managed and Paygo Standard services. It is improving that further by introducing a new latency SLA.

Announcing Provisioned-Managed Latency SLAs as New Features

Ensuring that customers may scale up with their product expansion without sacrificing latency is crucial to maintaining the caliber of the customer experience. It already provide the largest scale with the lowest latency with its Provisioned-Managed (PTUM) deployment option. With PTUM, it is happy to introduce explicit latency service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee performance at scale. In the upcoming month, these SLAs will go into effect. Save this product newsfeed to receive future updates and improvements.

Read more on govindhtech.com

[batterfang]

Nick Cave on AI

"Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend. ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become."

"Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering. This is what we humble humans can offer, that AI can only mimic, the transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings. This is where human genius resides, deeply embedded within, yet reaching beyond, those limitations."

"It may sound like I’m taking all this a little too personally, but I’m a songwriter who is engaged, at this very moment, in the process of songwriting. It’s a blood and guts business, here at my desk, that requires something of me to initiate the new and fresh idea. It requires my humanness. What that new idea is, I don’t know, but it is out there somewhere, searching for me. In time, we will find each other."

- Nick Cave on the use of ChatGPT to recreate lyrics in his style.

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/chat-gpt-what-do-you-think/

[bulkdatabaseindia]

Chennai Mobile Numbers Database

Learn about Chennai Mobile Numbers Database. Describe the key features of a Chennai Mobile Numbers database and application.

In the digital era we live in today, corporations and NGOs alike would greatly benefit from having a database of mobile phone numbers. This collection of contact information would also be crucial for marketers targeting specific customer segments so that they could enhance their marketing drive through personal information.

An organized mobile number database makes operations easier and enables growth in SMS campaigns, customer outreach, or data analysis. Competitive considerations necessitate being able to stay in touch with clients and customers competently throughout a fast, technology-dependent world through consistent supplies of accurate and updated contact information because people are increasingly using their phones.”

Chennai Mobile Numbers Database

The specific Android area phone data set is a directory of phone numbers belonging to Chennai city, and it frequently features additional data within its portals, including names, addresses, and e-mail addresses.

Employ founders unstructured for business organizations and companies that would like access to new clients inside Chennai, for instance, sales news or so on, and support services besides event advertising.

Key Features of a Chennai Mobile Numbers Database

Geographical Targeting: Address the Chennai region and, hence, local markets so that businesses can successfully target their customers.

Demographic Segmentation: Creating marketing campaigns that are personalized can be challenging if you don’t have detailed information about age, gender, income level, and occupation.

Updated Information: Make sure that the database remains true and keeps abreast of doing so regularly rather than allowing for any misinformation or out-of-date files that would lead to it being unreliable

Compliance with Regulations: By obeying set regulations and laws for data protection, ethical standards in database use are ensured, and this also shields firms as well as individuals.

How to Obtain a Chennai Mobile Number Database?

1. Purchase from Data Provider

Several of firms deal in mobile number databases that are confirmed for accuracy and updated for sales. They guarantee comprehensive details by observing prescribed laws.

2. Build Your Database

Gather phone numbers from client interactions, registration forms, loyalty schemes, competitions, and promotions. Using this method guarantees that the information collected is exactly what your business requires.

3. Collaborate with Local Businesses

Share resources and data by partnering with other businesses in the locality. This collaboration will lead to an increased reach for your business and enhancements to its database.

4. Utilize Online Directories

It is important to note that public records and online directories are essential access points for contact details. However, caution should be taken in the way collected information is used by ensuring it adheres to moral conduct as stipulated in regional laws.

Applications of a Chennai Mobile Numbers Database

SMS Marketing: In the domain of enterprise marketing, contextual marketing is a dedicated module that involves sending marketing messages, offers, and updates tailored to the mobile phones of potential clients directly.

Telemarketing: Contacting possible customers and presenting products or services.

Customer Support: “Delivering swift help and backing to clients through immediate interaction.”

Event Promotion: Let residents find out about local events, sales, launching new products, and other important messages.

Surveys and Feedback: Gathering consumer feedback and product or service observations related to developments involved in surveying.

Conclusion

The Chennai Mobile Numbers Database business opportunities are increased, and customers are reached in one of the most productive economies in India. This resource gives you new contact details, thus helping you to improve your marketing plans as well as enhance client ties, leading to extensive customer base penetration.

Using custom messages in Chennai’s lively setting can help one advance positively and achieve long-term objectives while building a real connection with the audience.

More Information About Plan and price Visit our website :- https://bulkdatabase.info/

[meret118]

There are hundreds of nonfiction and fiction books that show us what poverty looks like—Charles Dickens immediately comes to mind, as does Barbara Kingsolver’s excellent Dickens adaptation, Demon Copperhead (scroll down for our review). Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond, who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his last book, Evicted, and whose own family struggled financially during his Arizona childhood, chose instead to focus on why: Why is poverty—especially deep poverty, a ghastly state of existence for 1 in 18 Americans—so stubbornly persistent? In this enlightening and well-argued book, Desmond examines the reasons Americans face destitution at rates so much higher than, for example, Europeans. He also offers solutions and calls upon not only policymakers but everyday people of privilege to acknowledge our complicity—indeed, to remake ourselves as “poverty abolitionists.” We have the resources to eliminate this scourge, this national embarrassment, Desmond writes. It’s surprisingly cheap, and we know what has to be done. We need only to summon the heart and the will. —Michael Mechanic

After reading this fascinating book, I can no longer countenance people talking about how America is turning into a surveillance state. Too late, I’ll say. Privacy was dead and buried ages ago. Funk, a talented magazine journalist, chronicles how the late Hank Asher—brilliant, obsessive, and volatile—pioneered the business of harvesting every available scrap of information about every American back in the early 1990s. These snippets, including court and DMV records, residence addresses, data about our travels, families, relationships, professional pursuits, money owed, consumption habits, social interactions, and more, resided in far-flung public and private databases. Asher’s innovation was to gain access to these disparate troves and merge them into a single, high-speed storage-and-retrieval system that knew more about us than we knew about ourselves. To win over high-level clients, including law enforcement brass who presumed their information was sacrosanct, he only had to run the person’s name through his system. The universe of data services he unleashed, now peddled by firms like LexisNexis, Equifax, and Cambridge Analytica, can be put to good uses—like improving health outcomes and nabbing child abductors—but also deeply problematic ones. Readers will learn how Asher’s work likely cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000, and how police and immigration authorities used his products to seize and deport otherwise law-abiding immigrants with American-born children. This deeply reported book is required reading for people who want to comprehend American culture and where it’s headed. —Michael Mechanic

From Mother Jones

[alittlecatastrophe]

Nick Cave's response to ChatGPT writing a song in his style.

Dear Mark,

Since its launch in November last year many people, most buzzing with a kind of algorithmic awe, have sent me songs ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ created by ChatGPT. There have been dozens of them. Suffice to say, I do not feel the same enthusiasm around this technology. I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI – that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster. It can never be rolled back, or slowed down, as it moves us toward a utopian future, maybe, or our total destruction. Who can possibly say which? Judging by this song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ though, it doesn’t look good, Mark. The apocalypse is well on its way. This song sucks.

What ChatGPT is, in this instance, is replication as travesty. ChatGPT may be able to write a speech or an essay or a sermon or an obituary but it cannot create a genuine song. It could perhaps in time create a song that is, on the surface, indistinguishable from an original, but it will always be a replication, a kind of burlesque.

Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend. ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become.

What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognises as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value; it is the breathless confrontation with one’s vulnerability, one’s perilousness, one’s smallness, pitted against a sense of sudden shocking discovery; it is the redemptive artistic act that stirs the heart of the listener, where the listener recognizes in the inner workings of the song their own blood, their own struggle, their own suffering. This is what we humble humans can offer, that AI can only mimic, the transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings. This is where human genius resides, deeply embedded within, yet reaching beyond, those limitations.

It may sound like I’m taking all this a little too personally, but I’m a songwriter who is engaged, at this very moment, in the process of songwriting. It’s a blood and guts business, here at my desk, that requires something of me to initiate the new and fresh idea. It requires my humanness. What that new idea is, I don’t know, but it is out there somewhere, searching for me. In time, we will find each other.

Mark, thanks for the song, but with all the love and respect in the world, this song is bullshit, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human, and, well, I don’t much like it — although, hang on!, rereading it, there is a line in there that speaks to me —

‘I’ve got the fire of hell in my eyes’

— says the song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’, and that’s kind of true. I have got the fire of hell in my eyes – and it’s ChatGPT.

Love, Nick

[yzanjiiii]

𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 #𝟭 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲

I've always been attracted by the beauty of politics in business. How people can settle and manage their financial transactions through efficient communication, proficiency, and the development of plans using scientific methods in research to patch up gaps and establish projects based on solvency. Selling your business necessitate you to be able to speak persuasively, and I admit that it was still challenging for me to gather my thoughts and be confident enough to approach people and persuade them about something, despite the fact that I am a Political Science major and thus expected to be good at public speaking. However, our interview activity gave me the opportunity to venture outside of my comfort zone. In a larger perspective, it made the realm of politics and entrepreneurship converge in a sense that I was able to practice the art of identifying grassroot problems to provide solutions for the betterment of learning and quality education, which is entirely the definition of politics, and to make it income generating, we have to devise a product or services to cater the needs of the people, which is in the business realm, and for me to be able to show my innovative skills, I have to also link the realm of entrepreneurship hence, I believe that I can pour out all the learning application of my three years residency in political science in this subject.

EXPERIENCE

The encounter itself was enjoyable. During our preparation phase, I was able to demonstrate my leadership skills by devising techniques to make our workload more efficient by assigning ourselves quotas to meet. Personally, I wanted our data to exceed 100, but owing to forthcoming requirements, we opted to limit the quota at 50-60 interviewees. I assigned the deadlines, responsibilities, and established a bureaucratic framework to guarantee that each of us fulfilled our tasks; thus, before the interview, I ensured that the Google Drive was available for the uploading of our documentation, specifically images, videos, and recordings. Google Docs is also ready for the consolidated report, which includes both the quantitative and qualitative data. To avoid delays, I have also assigned the secretary to monitor task completion.

BEFORE THE INTERVIEW/D-DAY

During the interview, it became increasingly difficult to identify students who are not shy in front of the camera and are willing to participate. Fortunately, I know a lot of people at the university, which gave me an edge in finding interviewers. An individual interview was initially conducted, but I later realized that it was time consuming and made the interviewee more shy due to the pressure and tension of becoming embarrassed, so I have to make small talk with the interviewee first to ensure that I will be able to break the ice and allow comfort to kick in. We experimented with combined interviews, team interviews, and partner interviews alongside Eloisa. As a result, we were able to troubleshoot problems during the interview by devising plans and trying out different techniques. Regardless of the outcome, I believe it gave me confidence to take risks and become resilient, both of which are essential in entrepreneurship, especially since one major challenge is dealing with people with different tastes, preferences, and attitudes.

D-DAY

INTERVIEWEES #1 and #2

Eloisa and I with our first interviewee from the program of Sociology. The problem identified was the absence of comfortable tambayan with good food.

Our second respondent is from BSED PE and the problem identified was waste problems.

INTERVIEWEES #3 and #4

The third interviewee is also from BSED PE and the problem identified was mental health issues due to the pressure being felt by students.

The fourth interviewee is from the College of Business and Management major in Finance. The problem identified was ventilation due to poor budgeting of the university.

INTERVIEWEES #5 & #6 and #8 & #9

The fifth and sixth interviewees are from the program of BS Bio. The problems identified are transportation and printing problems due to the location of printing services.

The 8th and 9th interviewees are both from the program of AB Political Science. The problem identified is waste problems.

Bonus GIF

Caught on 4K: Ma'am Butalid, the program coordinator

INTERVIEWEES #10 & #11 and #11, #12, #13, & #14

The tenth and eleventh interviewees are both from the College of Education. The problem that was identified is also the prevalent waste problem.

All four interviewees (11-14) are from the program of AB Political Science and the problems identified were insufficiency of educational tools, transportation, waste problems, and illegal business (no permit).

INTERVIEWEES #15 & #16

Our fifteenth interviewee is from the program of BS Math and the problem identified was waste problem.

The last interviewee is from BSED PE and the problem identified was waste problem.

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

Following the interview and consultation with the instructor, we were able to share our views, suggestions, and data results, so with waste management being the most pressing issue at the university based on our data gathered from the series of interview, we looked for potential products and services that would be the greatest solution. We had a lot of prospects for the proposal because I came prepared, and I had already researched sustainable products online through various platforms to make our decision process easier. Following the deliberation, it was decided to proceed with the conversion of leaves into paper, with modifications such as colour classification and scented option.

RESULTS OF THE INTERVIEW

The first pie chart shows the result of our joint interview. It has been revealed that there are 8 identified problems and the top three are the following: (1) Waste problems, (2) Transportation, and (3) Ventilation. Meanwhile, for the consolidated result, it was revealed that waste problems still hold the top issue that the CMUans are currently facing and have been posing grave concerns weighing 53.8 percent out of 55 respondents being interviewed. Therefore, we have decided to go with a visionary EcoVenture product called "EVERLEAF" which means everlasting leaf which aims to stop deforestation and degradation of the environment 🌿

REFLECTION

Through this dialogue, I have come to understand that that, despite the fact that we are in a micro level setting, the problem that we are facing in the university is ubiquitous since corporations do nothing about it because they just care about profit. Sustainable practices are difficult to implement since they may inhibit economic growth, which is something every businessman avoids. The ongoing problem of deforestation, erosion, and forest fires will exist unless we begin to develop regulations and sanction big industries. Thus, this subject is an excellent way to enter the VentureVerse because anyone may be a businessman, but not everyone can sustain their business owing to the ups and downs of business hence, it needs strong mentality.

LEARNINGS

Furthermore, this interview helped me identify my strengths, such as strategic leadership, critical thinking, resiliency to troubleshoot unforeseen problems that require immediate solutions, adaptability, time management skills, and the ability to remain rational at all times in order to manage the team. While I accept my inadequacies, such as my public speaking abilities and approaching strangers, it has provided me with opportunities to identify areas for improvement. It taught me that mistakes and failures are inevitable and necessary for learning and growth. Every master was once a beginner in their chosen industry. As a result, I feel that by constantly improving and allowing oneself to admit mistakes, I will be able to recognise threats that are critical for mitigating macro consequences on the endeavour.

To summarise everything, I am excited for the thrills of this rollercoaster journey. The uncertainty makes me rosier about the future. Risks are what keep me alive. It piques my interest in exploring new horizons. I am challenged to venture beyond of my comfort zone in order to try new things and discover more about myself.

[goongiveusnothing]

remember how harry wouldn't let those other singers get the credit for singing in his song with him, and were told if they didn't like it he'd find someone who would accept that?///

Omg. I completely blocked that from my mind. That was the first time it really hit how greedy he is. I’m remembering his fans made it seem like an honor that he was stealing from the girl group. They would get more “exposure” due to the kindness of their fairy godmother Harry sharing credits. Except no one would have even known they performed the majority of vocals since Harry didn’t bother mentioning it.

He’s hell bent on being seen as some boy genius (loool 😂) who does it all even though we can see a whole ass village manufacturing his image. With how tight he holds on to his purse strings though, I cannot imagine him willingly giving anything beyond the bare minimum to anyone, not even people on his own team. This is a person who needed others to chip in on a donation so he would have enough money for his $250,000 Ferrari. He be greedy af. His downfall will be enjoyed by many. I’m here for it 🍿 🥤

some of his stans are still delusional about this, so this is what they said again. "AND IF YOU DON'T WANT THAT, THEN WE'LL JUST TAKE YOUR VOICES OFF AND REPLACE THEM." i know the harry style translators are very busy these days trying to turn all the stupid shit he says into something coherent and intellectual, but the meaning behind this comment was if they refused to engage with this shitty practice of just having a regular credit, the harry styles TPWK machine told them to get fucked, and they'd just simply replace them... with people who would agree to those terms. you either agree to them or walk. so they had to agree to get some money and attention from this. because harry knows people will agree to it because they'll want the association to him.

so if you think how he was like with them... it's absolutely how he is like with his song writers and producers. you have to give him the big credit no matter what, or he'll find someone who'll agree to it. he's not the only major celeb who acts like this.

and yes, the man is greedy as sin! i keep thinking that to cover up his all his bad PR he'll try some charity thing, but he doesn't! because to do charity would require his own money and he's not doing that! he gave that donation to a hospital via part of his tour money where they both put together some money to have a $100,000 donation, which meant harry could've literally only made a $10,000 to be part of it. unbelievable greed from someone with all that.

his shitty pleasing crap, his awful merchandise, the lack of any stage concepts or production at all, data mining, ticketmaster, residencies in US cities, all of these are to cut costs and increase how much he earns. there's zero doubt in my mind that he treats the people who make his albums in the exact same scrooge like way.