#diary of government restrictions

[sophsweet]

My 2021 Diary - week 3

Realised annoying dance people used to do is called The Floss – image YouTube January 15th Friday Had big discussion with Eric about stuff, relationships, acceptance etc and went to see his new car 1998 Citroen estate, which he wanted to sell me for £1700. Nice big comfy car but has handbreak on floor. Dangerous for me. Another day I didn’t walk. Need to find more motivation and when finished…

[notenoughdramaaa]

Happy Pride Month Everyone! As your chronically annoying internet neighbor, I'm here to bring up something uncomfortable:

Some ideologies and figures that are widely praised or romanticized online do not support LGBTQ+ rights. If you're about to unfollow me for stating the obvious, then let me give you a reason to do so:

Let's start with my all time favorite, the reason why I condemn the left:

- Communism: In 1930s USSR, Stalin introduced Article 121, criminalizing homosexuality and framing it as "bourgeois decadence" and "moral weakness." Yes, you read that right, according to one of the most loved communist dictators, queer people shouldn’t be out there fighting against property owners, the upper class, the ones that oppress workers, because they’re seen as a product of the very decadence those groups represent Homosexuality was only decriminalized in Russia and much of the former Eastern Bloc after the fall of the USSR. And it doesn't stop there. My latino friends love to wear Che Guevara shirts with pride, well they shouldn't, both Che and Fidel Castro persecuted LGBTQ+ people, sending many to labor camps. In The Motorcycle Diaries, Che refers to a man he believes to be gay as a "pervert." To them, being gay was "counter-revolutionary." It's the same logic of a Jew wearing a Hitler T-shirt. It screams: "Look how proud I am of the man who would’ve sent me to my death if he’d had the chance." Cuba only decriminalized homosexuality in 2022 yes, 2022 as in 3 years ago. Not convinced yet? Well let's talk about China, the third one in the Communist trio. Under Mao Zedong regime homosexuality was treated as a mental illness and heavily repressed by the government. Today, China has no protections for trans people, and censorship laws heavily restrict queer representation online as an inheritance of the leftism. The bottom line is: Just because a movement calls itself revolutionary or anti-fascist doesn’t mean it's LGBTQ+ friendly. Be aware of your mistake.

- Islam: This is sensitive, so let me be very clear: I grew up around Sunni Muslims, studied parts of the Quran, Hadiths, Fiqh, and Sharia law. This doesn't come from hate, it comes from first-hand experience and concern. Both Sunni and Shia branches of Islam disagree on many aspects but one thing that they agree is that both consider homosexuality to be haram (a sin). Under Maliki jurisprudence, the punishment for homosexuality can be death. Yup you read it right death as in unaliving people for something they were born with. In many Islamic countries that apply Sharia, honor killings are permitted by law. If you don't know what honor killings are let me explain it to you: honor killings are when family members kill those who transgressed to "restore the family's honor." The practice is especially common for those who commit the so-called sin of loving someone of the same sex. Don’t believe me? Ask your local mosque. Read the Quran.

I remember when my half-Lebanese best friend found out I was living with a man, he told me kindly that he loved me no matter what… but also reminded me of the words of the Holy Quran:

“And remember Lut (Lot), when he said to his people: ‘Do you commit the worst sin such as none before you has committed in all of mankind? Verily, you practice your lusts on men instead of women. Nay, but you are a people transgressing beyond bounds.’” — Surah Al-A’raaf 7:80–8

Yup. According to that, I’m a transgressor beyond bounds. Still don’t believe me? Try Googling “gay and honor killings.”

- Palestine: Some well-meaning people chant: "One struggle, one fight: Palestine and trans rights." But here’s the reality: Gaza’s basic law is based on Sharia, which criminalizes both homosexuality and transgender identity. Under Hamas, LGBTQ+ people face legal penalties, societal hostility, and risk of death Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, a gay Palestinian man, was found beheaded after seeking refuge outside Palestine. His story is real and unfortunately it isn't rare. Even in the more “liberal” West Bank: There are no anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ+ people, those people are not protected under the law, they're victims of the law. When I say this there is always someone who cites the Fatwa that allows gender-affirming surgery for intersex people, but those people often leave it out that the Fatwa explicitly forbids it for transgender individuals. This is just a very, very superficial overview there’s much more fear and violence that I’m choosing not to go into. This doesn’t mean you can’t support Palestinian rights. But don’t conflate that with support for trans or queer rights, the two don’t currently align in law or practice. The truth is, Palestine under Hamas administration means the death of hundreds of LGBTQ+ people.

If you're going to wave the Pride flag, don’t blindly romanticize movements or ideologies that have historically harmed people like you and me. You can support liberation but make sure it includes us, too. Make sure you're supporting a world where queer people can go outside in the daylight and be themselves without fear.

[atiny-for-life]

Mini Lore Nugget #8:

Mini Lore Nuggets - Masterlist

In the Fever Part.2 Diary Entries, we learned that Z-World's government really started shooting up on the waking-nightmare-scale after they began running AI simulations to come up with the "best" policies to implement for maximum control and efficiency.

What resulted from these simulations was that the AI determined all crimes and terrorism were strictly the result of human emotions. Therefore, the best way to rid the world of such suffering must be to eradicate emotions and all which might evoke it.

Z's government developed technology to essentially numb the population - the chips we later learned about in the World Ep.1 Diary Entries. In the Fever Part.3 Diary Entries, we then got some additional info on the AI software used by the government: it was an AI system which utilized deep learning technology and ran uncontrolled for a while as the government awaited its results.

During this time, the system began treating human emotion as a bug - perhaps because it couldn't understand it - and it also started estimating humans' individual energy, thereby reducing it to a product. And since it found it to be a product, it also began treating it as a tradeable commodity.

Instead of questioning these results, the government was more likely delighted, because they immediately took over this new energy trading platform, banned all arts and emotions, and wilfully stripped the population of its humanity by treating them as nothing more than components needed to maintain the governments' idea of a utopia.

Out here in the real world, we've also begun to see the crazy amount of negative consequences since AI technology has become widely implemented in pretty much all areas of life:

#1 - Use of AI in Healthcare

In the US, the healthcare system has been relying on AI powered algorithms to guide health care decisions, but due to the data sampled by the AI, extreme racial bias has crept in and is actively putting black lives at risk. To quote Science Journal:

At a given risk score, Black patients are considerably sicker than White patients, as evidenced by signs of uncontrolled illnesses. Remedying this disparity would increase the percentage of Black patients receiving additional help from 17.7 to 46.5%.

Furthermore, the data sourced by AI for global use (such as in risk-prediction) is often extremely biased in other ways as well: radiology manuscripts are over represented, the majority of documents sourced are authored by men, and data-poor regions are grossly underrepresented, meaning the majority of information sourced comes from the US and China. [Source]

#2 - YouTube's Algorithm Is Messed Up

According to the Tech Transparency Project which has gathered data from another study:

YouTube recommended hundreds of videos about guns and gun violence to accounts for boys interested in video games. Some of the recommended videos gave instructions on how to convert guns into automatic weapons or depicted school shootings. Many of the videos violated YouTube’s own policies on firearms, violence, and child safety, and YouTube took no apparent steps to age-restrict them. YouTube also recommended a movie about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to minor accounts.

Further watching on dumb stuff YouTube AI features have done to fuck people over:

#3 - Ethics Has Left the Chat

#4 - The Physical Cost of Generative AI

Where Meta has recently constructed a 2 million square foot data facility in Georgia, a nearby living couple have documented the devastating consequences to the environment and their lives.

Facilities like these are used to power stuff like Chat GPT, Gemini, etc.:

In order for them to function as needed, they put a huge toll on the power grid and require the construction of an entirely new infrastructure atop the usual servers, storage systems and networking equipment.

For one, AI data centres require high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) which come with their own required infrastructure needs (advanced storage, networking, energy and cooling capabilities). The sheer number of GPUs necessary for AI use alone then already add a ton more square footage to the size of the data centre.

On top of that, living in a county with a data centre like this in the US drives up the cost of electricity for everyone in the county.

And what does all this mean for the environment? Deforestation. Light pollution. Air pollution. Here is a still frame from a video shot by a woman living over 366 meters away from an AI centre's construction site:

All this pollution then started seeping into the ground water, resulting in this:

And what does that mean for someone living nearby? Dishwashers breaking. Washing machines breaking. Water pressure dropping to the point where you can't even flush a toilet anymore because all the pipes are clogged with sediment.

On a global scale, it should also be noted that:

According to the Washington Post in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside, writing a single 100-word email in Open AI's ChatGPT is the equivalent of consuming just over one bottle of water.

Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of engineering at UC Riverside, says that while "We haven’t come to the point yet where AI has tangibly taken away our most essential natural water resources," the use of AI in places with frequent droughts has caused rising tension between communities who need the water and data centers. Not to mention, hardware production pollutes water, per a study initially published in January 2015 in the Journal of Cleaner Production, due to the extraction of precious minerals like boron, silicon, and phosphorous.

[Source]

UPDATE:

A new video has been released which takes a look at Memphis where Elon Musk had the data center built that allows for Twitter's Chat-Bot Gronk to exist, and here is what was discovered:

No regulatory body has been informed of what is operating within that facility.

Large turbines are causing noise pollution (far more turbines than is reasonable).

The building emits a disturbing smell.

Aerial and thermal footage obtained of the site has revealed that:

The air quality in the entire area has been severely degraded to the point of causing health issues for people living in the area:

Continuing, Alexis shared her grandfather's story of how he developed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) despite being a non-smoker-

- and continuous by saying her, her mother, and grandmother all three also developed respiratory illnesses (asthma and bronchitis in Alexis's case and just bronchitis in her mother and grandmother's case):

Another local is dealing with much the same issue:

If you're still not convinced of how truly horrific the situation is:

And if you're now wondering how all this could happen, I've got one word for you: DOGE. Together with the Trump administration, funds for the EPA have been slashed to the point where they're basically non-functional:

Presently, should everything continue on this set path, then...

These videos provided the screenshots used above:

#5 - Use of AI in Warfare

Israel has been using untested and undisclosed AI-powered databases in order to identify targets and plan bombing campaigns throughout Gaza, which has reportedly led to the loss of thousands of civilian lives.

And who provided this technology? Google. For fear of losing business to Amazon. And not just them. Microsoft too has been collaborating with the Israeli military, as has Amazon who collaborated with Google in 2021 to establish "Project Nimbus" which continues on to this day with zero transparency or accountability.

Sources: x | x

Beyond that, even after the bombs were dropped, drones would come in to specifically target surviving children and it is known that Israel utilized AI-powered drones for carrying out precise assassinations and various combat missions.

The video below is timestamped to when this surgeon retells the horrors of what happened to the children while he was working in the Gaza strip:

Outside of Israel, Ukraine has also been using AI-technology in its warfare:

Further reading on the topic:

#6 - AI-Generated Art

With AI-generated art flooding social media and streaming platforms on the daily, it's getting harder and harder for new artists to enter the scene. On top of that, all the recommendations you're getting online - be that on an image search, streaming platform or elsewhere - are also all the result of AI-powered algorithms.

And as we all know, generative AI is trained on data banks filled to the brim with stolen art from non-consenting artists across the globe - be that musicians, painters, photographers, voice actors, chefs, or writers.

All of this ultimately shapes the world we live in. Those in the know are now full of mistrust of corporations, new information, articles, and media. Anything and anyone is being accused of using AI when they post something online by skeptics, and those who don't know any better are living in blissful ignorance while they're being spoon-fed misinformation left, right, and center.

Further watching on generative AI as a whole:

Further reading:

Final Note:

Not all AI is bad, of course. There have been major breakthroughs in all fields of science thanks to AI which will bring about positive change for (hopefully) all of humanity.

But the problem is that the technology is developing far too quickly for lawmakers to keep up with (as planned, most likely, by all the billionaire tech bros on this planet) and generative AI in particular should have never been made publicly accessible. It should have remained in the hands of trained professionals who know how to use it responsibly.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Taiyler S. Mitchell at HuffPost:

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (R) blocked a bill that would have required libraries to put books that feature sexually explicit material in areas that are “not easily accessible” to minors. The bill, which would have applied to public libraries and libraries at public schools, also threatens prosecution against those that don’t comply. A two-thirds vote in favor of the bill in both the state’s Senate and the House could override Armstrong’s veto. But it passed narrowly in both chambers with neither side of the legislature hitting the two-thirds threshold — by a 27–20 vote in the Senate in February and a 49–45 vote in the House earlier this month. “While I recognize the concerns that led to its introduction, Senate Bill 2307 represents a misguided attempt to legislate morality through overreach and censorship,” Armstrong wrote in a Tuesday letter explaining his decision. “The bill imposes vague and punitive burdens on professionals and opens the door to a host of unintended and damaging consequences for our communities.” “In the last 10 years, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, Of Mice and Men, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Kite Runner, 1984, and To Kill a Mockingbird have all been targeted by obscenity laws,” Armstrong added. “I don’t pretend to know what the next literary masterpiece is going to be. But I want it available in the library. And if a parent doesn’t think it is age-appropriate for their child, then that is a parenting decision. It does not require a whole-of-government approach and $ 1.1 million of taxpayer money.”

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (R) vetoes book ban bill SB2307.

[rjalker]

@walks-the-ages yeah turns out I've just spent four hours trying to find an interview that has since been deleted -.-

So now it only exists on the wayback machine.

____

In her series of novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells offers us a glimpse into the far future; one with accessible space travel across the galaxy, incredible technology, drones, sentient robots, human-AI constructs and, of course, humans. It is an exciting universe, but also one where key aspects of society, such as work, travel, and even justice are largely controlled by interplanetary companies and corporations. Despite its space-age setting, this reality feels as familiar as ours in many ways. 

Wells introduces us to this world from an unexpected perspective: a part-human, part-robot construct who calls itself Murderbot. The Company created Murderbot for a single job: the security of the Company’s clients. It is one of many SecUnits who are rented out for for-profit and non-profit space missions as contracted security providers, governed by company policy, and a governor module that observes and controls its actions. The story opens after our narrator has hacked its governor model, gaining free will and the ability to use its own judgement, especially when its clients refuse to use theirs.  With this newfound freedom, it is mostly minding its own business and downloading its favourite TV dramas. 

At the Brookfield Institute, our research and foresight work has identified some of the present-day signals explored in this fictional far-future, including AI rights, human augmentation, and technological fear. In this interview, we talked to Martha Wells about how we got to this version of the future, the nature of work in an era of drones and embodied AI, and the role of capitalism in creating it. We also touch on personhood, responsibility, and the potential for sci-fi to be a vehicle for empathy and perspective, especially for policymakers.

iana: A lot of the world that you’ve created for The Murderbot Diaries is a very familiar space. Even though it operates in an intergalactic and much more technologically advanced society, a lot feels familiar from data mining, to dependence on feeds for entertainment, finding work, or security. Could you tell our readers more about Murderbot’s story? And whether this story is happening in our future?

Martha: The story is basically about a person who is a partially human, partially a machine construct. These people are created by corporations, primarily for security purposes and they’re rented out, and classified as equipment. They have restrictions on their behaviour; they cannot go more than 100 meters from the clients they are rented to, and their governor modules can kill them if they do not obey orders. So it’s slavery. The way of getting around the idea of enslaving humans is by claiming that they are not human, when actually they may not be human, but they are people. The story is that Murderbot, who is a Security Unit (SecUnit) has managed to hack its governor module and no longer has to obey orders. But it really doesn’t know what else to do, so it has been downloading media and entertainment feeds, and just kind of doing its job and trying not to get caught. In the first story, All System’s Red, it has come to like the group of scientists that it’s protecting on a planetary survey. And it has ended up having to reveal that it is free [from its governor module and company oversight] in order to save them.

I do imagine it being our very far future. It is far enough that people have forgotten Earth, or it is just a note in the history books. Our future in space has been co-opted by corporations for their own purposes and this has gotten worse and worse over time. You have an entire sector of the inhabited galaxy now controlled by different corporations.

Diana: In several cases, these corporations have adopted the role of governments from justice to accountability. They also broadly control the terms of work, where people can find jobs, where they can’t. You mentioned slavery, but there’s also indentured work in this world. How does Murderbot’s world reflect on our own world’s issues regarding the corporate control and nature of work?

Martha: It was me being afraid of what I saw coming, which is unions becoming less and less powerful and less and less able to protect people, and corporations becoming more powerful and more able to do whatever they wanted, and gaining status. The idea of a corporation that has the same rights to the person when it is so much more powerful than an individual person.

In the story, it is very much like right now where you have people who manage to stay independent, and are able to negotiate for contracts on their own and able to work like consultants but also people that, through whatever misfortune end up having to take really bad deals and end up basically as indentured slavery on in really terrible jobs that are very dangerous or are set for for certain time limits. There’s a section in the third story in the series in which a group of people have had to sell themselves for contract labour and are not really sure what that means yet but they know it is going to be really bad.

[In our world] we are seeing fast food places now suddenly stop paying people in actual currency and start paying them with gift cards that basically give the company back half their salary in fees, and companies further eroding workers’ rights. Trying to think of things that can happen to people that have not already happened now, in our world, is hard.

Diana: In the case of one of the characters, Dr Mensah, and her team, they come from Preservation, a free planet, and they are not as beholden to corporate rule and corporate rules, even though they do have to interact with them. How did they get there? And how could we maybe shift towards that future in our world?

Martha: The story is told from Murderbot’s perspective, so the only thing it really knows at the beginning is the Corporation Rim, plus what it has seen on entertainment shows. There are a bunch of other governments that actually function as governments, by the people and for the people, but they are much less powerful than the Corporation Rim and most of them are scattered around outside it. Preservation is one of those independent government systems. How they got there is explained a bit more in the later novel Network Effect. They were basically an abandoned colony that was rescued [and relocated] to a planet that they could settle that would be viable for them. They grew out of a culture that had been under corporate authority and did not want to go back to that, that wanted independence.

How we get there is by controlling our interaction with corporations and not letting them get a foothold on the resources and other things we need to be independent. There’s nothing wrong with a small company that makes food or other things we need. We potentially need those for our society to work but it is not the only way to live. You can have a more egalitarian society, where these interactions are controlled, where the individual rights of each person are more important than corporate rights.

Diana: The Murderbot Diaries can be read as a criticism of capitalism. Preservation is the only society in the book that doesn’t seem fully dysfunctional, where justice is possible and there is no contractual slavery. Do you see the books as a criticism of capitalism and did you set out to explore this or did it emerge from the signals we’re seeing now?

Martha: I did not set out to explore it, but in creating the kind of world and the situation Murderbot is in, that is what came out of it. That kind of unrestrained capitalism that dehumanizes people and uses them as objects is really the only kind of world that could produce this character.

Diana: We were talking before about basic rights and humanity and I wanted to explore those themes a little bit more. Particularly in Corporation Rim, humans seemed to have outsourced violence, security, justice, and safety, but they still need humans for certain jobs. One of my favorite quotes, and I’m paraphrasing, but the main character says “I like the humans in the (entertainment) feeds much better, but we can’t have one without the other.” What do you think about the things that they, in the Murderbot world, and we, in our world, put value on what humans can or should do?

Martha: A lot of the work they outsource to bots would be almost impossible for humans to do. The big cargo bots and the haulers move things a lot more efficiently than humans could and they can also work outside the space station to move cargo from ship to ship. You can have a human operator inside but it would be incredibly dangerous and not very productive. The things that they are not outsourcing (to bots) is scientific research; the development of their media, storytelling, acting, music, writing, all the artistic work involved in entertainment, anything involving creativity. Murderbot makes this point, which you mentioned, that it is humans who create the entertainment feeds, and humans who invented the cubicles that SecUnits use to repair themselves. The bots in the story are not at the level where they could duplicate that creativity or the ability to take the information gathered by the bots during research and use it to inform theories about what is going on and what it means.

Diana: Related to that. I think science fiction is a really good tool, particularly when it’s in a world where there’s space travel and planetary settlements, to heighten our awareness as readers of the human dependence, current and future, on technology, particularly when that technology is sentient.I was wondering what do you think our biggest blind spots and opportunities are when it comes to technology as we are now. What do we get wrong about AI?

Martha: Currently, we’re a world away from developing and sentient AI, if that’s even possible I wouldn’t want to say it’s not possible because so many things we have now we wouldn’t have thought possible. I think we are having trouble right now with how the technology is misused and how it can be potentially misused. I think [we are] very behind in legislation and forming rules and laws about how it cannot be used, like to take in this information and basically tailor it to influence people on a large scale. I’m not particularly an AI expert, so I’m looking at it as a layman but that’s my primary concern.

There is a show called Better Off Ted that came out several years ago about a big evil corporation and there’s a bit where they have the elevator designed to operate without buttons. So it recognizes people and takes you where you need to to go. But it doesn’t recognize Black people, the Black executives and scientists who work there. So they can’t get anywhere in the elevator. And it’s a metaphor but it’s also a way that shows how AI right now is not any better than the people who program it and the people who feed the information in.

Diana: A lot of Murderbot’s transformation does deal with discovering what guilt is and responsibility is, so I was very curious about that kind of distinction, the responsibility of being human versus not. As a human you have certain responsibilities, you have certain accountabilities, and as a bot, or as a piece of equipment, you’re not accountable, the company that owns you is. The line between the times when Muderbot was responsible for certain acts and the times when it wasn’t is invisible to most of the world, much like the fact that it is or isn’t a human. How do you envision that conflict of responsibility for actions of a technology that makes decisions. In the case of our real world, they’re not sentient, But I think it’s an interesting parallel: when do you assign that responsibility?

Martha: If they’re not sentient, like in our world, then it’s the people who programmed it that have the responsibility. They should be checking to see that the program or AI was learning, like the case of the driverless car that hit someone because it didn’t know that a bicycle wasn’t something you could hit. It’s a big simplification of what happened, but it was the responsibility of the programmers who should have been looking at a range of things for it to react to and to make sure it could be accurate, there should have been more testing to be sure that there was no gap in these reactions. I don’t understand why a driverless car wouldn’t stop at any motion in front of it. When a human is driving, you’re looking for movement. My foot is going to the brake before my brain even fully processes that. When it is not sentient it is definitely the fault of the person who programmed it. And if it’s a sentient being that has to be programmed with information, I’m still inclined to think it’s the person who programmed it who is responsible, who told it it didn’t have to stop for bicycles.

At some point, there was somebody who decided it was okay to hit bicycles or decided that it was okay not to fully test. It always comes back to a person or a corporation. It’s that old adage: garbage in, garbage out.

Diana: On the idea of responsibility and intelligence, I listened to one of your previous interviews with the Modern War Institute podcast. You touched on the situation from Star Trek that really struck me about how a low, high, or different intelligence doesn’t make anyone less human or less of a person. From the story, it’s fairly obvious that Murderbot is a person in almost all the usual senses. I wondered if you could elaborate a bit more on this sense of personhood and the different intelligences that you explore.

Martha: It’s a really complex question. The Star Trek episode I referenced is about animals and what we’re dealing with now is that it is in our best interest to treat animals like things. But when you’re talking about something that has a very complex decision-making process…. I think the thing that Star Trek is also talking about is the idea that they keep setting a bar, e.g, “an animal can’t do this therefore it is not like a person”. And then they’ll find animals that can do that and suddenly the bar will be raised. The case is always decided in our favor, no matter what the evidence is.

I could see that happening with actually burgeoning sentient machine intelligence. “A machine can’t do this, therefore it is not a person.” As long as something benefits us, we’ll always try to make it keep making it a thing and not something whose feelings and wants and agenda need to be taken into consideration.

Diana: I want to take a bit of a step back and jump into our last and most open-ended question. In the series, you tackle various issues that we’re confronting now with respect to workforces, companies, humanity, etc. What do you think the role of science fiction could be or should be in policymaking and in preparing for a potential wide shift of societal norms as we look into the far future?

Martha: I think it lets us look at these possibilities. When you’re reading them, you experience them through the point of view of the characters. That’s a more real experience for our brain than just thinking what might or might not happen. You’re getting all these different viewpoints from different people, and different types of people, that let you see the problem from different angles. It’s kind of like any fiction, it’s what we do when we read storybooks when we’re children, and why we read dystopias. It’s looking at worst case scenarios and seeing how people survived them and building empathy and stretching that to scenarios that we wouldn’t see in contemporary literary fiction but we might actually be coming toward in the future. What does a planet-wide disaster look like? How do people deal with it? Those kinds of questions.

Diana: I think what you mentioned about seeing something and almost living something through a character’s point of view makes a lot more sense to our brain. In a lot of ways, we have empathy as we step into the shoes of those characters. In addition to that, a lot of your work has interesting world-building. I read the Cloud Roads series, as well as the Murderbot series. And just as Murderbot feels familiar, the world also feels familiar. How do you think that world-building exercises could also help policymaking?

Martha: I guess it’s just constructing these different places and looking at how everything fits together. The Cloud Roads series is fantasy, and a kind of science fantasy where they are using biological technology and magical technology but it all kind of fits together into these systems. I think world-building makes you realize, even if you’re using magic, everything has to fit together. There has to be a reason why this happens or a purpose for it. Or it’s a thing that happens and people use it for a purpose and you have to look at how the world functions and get one that doesn’t have to feel super realistic, but it should feel like a complete functioning system. I think that’s where the sense of verisimilitude comes in.

Diana: That’s all of the questions I have, but I wanted to see if you have anything you wanted to add or any other books or any inspiration you used in building this world that you might recommend to our readers, other than Network Effect of course [the latest book in the Murderbots series].

Martha: For exploring different worlds, I really love Ann Leckie. NK Jemisin for looking at a system that became corrupted or was intentionally corrupted and all the terrible ways it spiraled out. I didn’t have a lot of non-fiction that inspired the Murderbot Series. It came from reading science fiction all my life and from my experience in programming and working in computer software and writing database software and dealing with people. A lot of people who have social anxiety or autism have related to Murderbot. The way it relates to the world feels really familiar to them.

____

imagine saying that your robot characters are just more advanced generative AI but are still fundamentally incapable of any genuine creativity on their own. Imagine saying that when the entire premise of the series is that these robots are people who deserve freedom.

The things that they are not outsourcing (to bots) is scientific research; the development of their media, storytelling, acting, music, writing, all the artistic work involved in entertainment, anything involving creativity. Murderbot makes this point, which you mentioned, that it is humans who create the entertainment feeds, and humans who invented the cubicles that SecUnits use to repair themselves. The bots in the story are not at the level where they could duplicate that creativity or the ability to take the information gathered by the bots during research and use it to inform theories about what is going on and what it means.

Martha Wells is obsessed with creating castes of people who are inherently incapable of creativity. Why does she keep doing this.

[taag-the-withering]

Hello, I'm TAAG, any pronouns, go wild, get creative!

I will reblog shitposts with nsfw jokes, always have always will. Don’t like? Leave.

I’ve got no sideblogs, only untagged reblogs of whatever the fuck I’m thinking about in the moment. Alas I do not have the energy to tag every fandom post I reblog. However if there is something triggering enough I will tag it for the sake of tagging it (including flashing lights, unreality, etc). But that’s subjective and based upon how notable it is

AO3 (Due to the threat of AI, all of my fics have been placed under AO3 account-only restrictions)

I primarily blog and think about MCYT with a current focus on The Realm, Lifesteal, Whitepine, and Hermitcraft. Alongside some indulgence with a bunch of other media like some anime (Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Black Lagoon, The Apothecary Diaries), Sonic, Stardew Valley, Tales of Arcadia, and Star Wars.

#taag talks - as in the name, my yapping tag, go here if you want to watch me complain about either writer's block or annoying professors

#taag games - a pun for tag games, ask games and related stuff

#arcburn: the city of sins - original story idea of mine about superheros, corrupt families, and corrupt governments (a running theme in most of the og stories I make). Haven't worked on it in a while though

#voided hearts & wicked sunflowers - my Hermitcraft and Lifesteal crossover. Imagine Hermit!Tommyinnit but it's ClownPierce and slightly less generic

#Mary the Maverick AU - My Tales of Arcadia canon-divergence au where Mary becomes the Trollhunter

#favourites - discover my awful sense of humour

#taag share this with friends later - posts that I save to share with my irl friends later, another way to discover my awful sense of humour

Credits:

Blinkies by (in order): Anakin (x3) and Amy (x2)

Blog Divider by Pixel Safari

[centrally-unplanned]

“And this is in fact a sociological change by the way - this doesn't describe 1960's radicals. They were weird but not mentally unwell. Its a modern phenomenon, due to how modern society functions (which is its whole deep topic). This is a "type", a social phenomenon. “

What is the evidence for this, and do we know why it happened?

Its gonna be subjective in the end like anything is in this space, but overall the 60's radical factions are very well-documented. We have like hours of interview footage with the Weatherman Underground, Red Army Faction, Black Panthers etc, diaries and contemporaneous accounts. Most of them lived, and weirdly in a lot of cases, became normal members of society - mainly due to the FBI breaking every law on the books investigating them. Bill Ayers co-founded the Weatherman Underground! He is an Education Professor of at the University Illinois, he helped Obama in his early days which fueled mountains of republican conspiracy drivel. If you want to know if he is mentally unwell, just go to his office hours! He co-founded it with his wife, who is a law professor now!

Its not every group of course - the Japanese Red Army definitely had leadership that you can see pathology in, but in the main I think this trend holds.

The reason for this is ofc one million things, but I see the main things as being that the first half of the 20th century was just a maelstorm of social change. The US is one of a handful of governing regimes that survived from 1900 to 1960 (setting Latin America aside at least), radical social experimentation just seemed like the order of the day. It made the idea of like actually being able to overthrow governments seem pretty reasonable, it wasn't weird to believe that it didn't require crazy oddball beliefs to buy into. That isn't true today, the world of developed countries is in fact extremely stable, no major country has gone through a true revolution in decades (this doesn't mean they havent changed, we talking about revolutionary groups here). And its deeper than a rational calculation or strength or w/e, the "accepted space of action" for people is more restricted now. The US *was* radically changing at that time, after all. Whose to say when that had to stop?

It was also a more violent time? Huge swathes of the population had been in the military at some point. Many of the radicals were veterans, or knew veterans, who knew how to do things like make bombs and such. Culture was different to, every level of society was less controlled, more violent or at least physical. The details ofc are deeper but I think you can see the trend - it just isn't a hard sell to someone who sees the world as inherently violent to like bomb a building. It was normal then in a way that is very hard to conceive of now (even if ofc that level of organization to the violence was exceptional, most people still never did).

"Why the 1960'/70's radicalism happened" is both worthy of and the subject of dozens of books, there is so much more than this. The fact that it was a mass movement that spanned dozens of countries and lasted around a decade for it to fully trail off I think shows that it was a structural force in society.

[read-marx-and-lenin]

Under capitalism, where part of the value of every product goes to the employer as profit, the workers in any single enterprise, or in a whole industry, can force the employers to raise their wages or otherwise to improve their conditions by direct action. If strikes are successful, wages rise at the expense of profits, which is satisfactory to the workers though unsatisfactory to the employers. When, however, as in the U.S.S.R. today, the whole of the means of production are owned and controlled by public bodies in the public interest, a strike by the workers in any factory or industry for higher wages can only react to the disadvantage of the working population itself. For, by a strike, production is restricted. And this is contrary to the public interest in a community in which every extra product is required and is utilized. A strike, therefore, is to the disadvantage of the workers of the Soviet community as a whole. The method of fixing wages by means of strikes in a Socialist country is highly undesirable, for it is no longer possible for any workers to raise their wages at the expense of employers’ profits. If, as a result of a strike, higher wages are won, then they are won at the expense of the general fund which goes to paying the wages of all citizens. If the coalminers of the U.S.S.R. strike today for more wages, they are in fact fighting to force the Government to give to them what otherwise it would be dividing up among other workers. Strikes, then, in such conditions, can only represent sectional demands against the whole community, and in themselves are contrary to the general interest because they restrict production. In a diary of a visit of a few weeks’ duration to the U.S.S.R., Sir Walter Citrine has said that “it was too much to assume a complete identity of interest between the director and the workers. The director was concerned with efficiency and output, and the worker with the amount he could earn, and the conditions under which it was earned” (Search for Truth in Russia, p. 129). And, in a later passage, he says that “liberty of association and the right to strike are the essential features of legitimate trade unionism” (p. 361). It is clear, from what has been said here, that Sir Walter’s estimation of the relations between director and worker in the Soviet factory is based on a lack of understanding of the situation. Sir Walter ignores the unique fact that the Soviet director, as part of his job, is responsible for increasing the welfare of the workers. He ignores the fact that the workers, no longer working for an employer who takes part of their product in the form of profit, know that everything they produce is distributed to the community — that is, to themselves. Finally, he ignores the also important fact that, under such conditions as these, a strike is an attack by a small minority on the economic resources of the whole community; and at the same time, by holding up production, reacts to the disadvantage of all citizens. As to the other matter — freedom of association — no other State in the world has ever given the encouragement to trade unionism which has been given in the U.S.S.R. We have already seen how the young Soviet State, in its first months of existence, made the trade union committees the official representative bodies of the workers in all industrial enterprises, with powers of control over the management. This was a tremendous stimulus to trade union development, as is shown by the figures of trade union membership. In October 1917, at the time when the Soviets seized power, there were 2 million trade unionists. By 1928 this figure had increased to 11 million, and was 18 million in 1934. No other country can show such figures, and it is absurd to suggest that the U.S.S.R. has ever done anything but encourage, to the greatest possible extent, the organization of the workers in trade unions.

Pat Sloan, Soviet Democracy, 1937

[mariacallous]

(JTA) – The Biden Administration’s new point person for combating book bans at school districts and public libraries across the country is a gay, Jewish progressive activist who has served as a government liaison to the Jewish and LGBTQ communities.

The appointment of Matt Nosanchuk comes as the thousands of book challenges nationwide have focused on books with LGBTQ as well as Jewish themes, in addition to works about race. Nosanchuk was named a deputy assistant secretary in the Department of Education’s civil rights office earlier this month. In that role, he will lead training sessions for schools and libraries on how to deal with book bans — and warn districts that the department believes book bans can violate civil rights laws.

An Education Department official recently told the 74, an education news site, that the bans “are a threat to students’ rights and freedoms.”

“I am excited to return to public service to work on behalf of the American people,” Nosanchuk posted to LinkedIn earlier this month. “There is a lot of important work to do!”

The Education Department declined to make Nosanchuk available for an interview. He has already taken heat from conservative outlets, which have pushed the narrative that the books being removed from schools and libraries are too sexually explicit for children. Kayleigh McEnany, the Fox News host who served as Donald Trump’s press secretary, called him a “porn enforcer” on-air.

But his appointment has been celebrated by librarians and book access activists. “This is a step forward for the Biden Administration, who has heard the concerns of parents and taken action, but it is just the beginning,” the National Parents Union, a progressive parental education activist group, said in a statement.

Nosanchuk’s career has largely focused on working with the LGBTQ and Jewish communities. In 2009, after serving in a number of roles in Washington, D.C., Nosanchuk was appointed as the Department of Justice’s liaison to the LGBTQ community — a position he held while Obama was still publicly opposed to same-sex marriage. He later worked on the Obama administration’s opposition to a law barring same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits.

He subsequently served as the White House liaison to the Jewish community during Obama’s second term, and in 2020 was the Democratic National Committee’s political organizer for Jewish outreach and LGBTQ engagement. That same year, he cofounded the New York Jewish Agenda, a progressive policy group that he led until earlier this year.

Nosanchuk’s first webinar in his new role was held Tuesday in partnership with the American Library Association, an organization with which a number of Republican-led states have recently cut ties. He begins his work after a year that has seen several school districts take aim at books focused on Jewish experiences or the Holocaust.

Two weeks ago, a Texas school district fired a middle school teacher reportedly for reading a passage from an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary to eighth-grade students. Other schools’ removals of “The Fixer,” a Jodi Picoult novel about the Holocaust and other texts have been likened to Nazi and Stalinist book burnings —  comparisons that proponents of the book restrictions reject.

Democratic politicians, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have accused Republicans of wanting “to ban books on the Holocaust.” A recent Senate hearing on book bans included testimony from Cameron Samuels, a Jewish advocate for access to books, along with numerous references to “Maus,” a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman about the Holocaust that was pulled from a Tennessee middle school curriculum last year.

PEN America, a literary free-speech advocacy group, welcomed Nosanchuk’s appointment.

“Book removals and restrictions continue apace across the country, as the tactics to silence certain voices and identities are sharpened,” the group said in a statement. “Empowering the coordinator to address this ongoing movement is critical.”

[scotianostra]

On January 11th 1999 the novelist and politician Naomi Mitchison died.

Naomi Mitchison is best known as a novelist and social commentator, but she also wrote and published poetry, much of which is rooted in her Scottish background. Her Father, John Scott Haldane, a distinguished scientist based in Oxford, where Naomi Haldane grew up. The Scottish connection remained important throughout her childhood, and she spent many summers at Cloan in Perthshire, the Haldanes’ family home. Although her formal education was limited, she was steeped in an environment of scientific and creative enquiry which influenced her entire life.

In a life that spanned the twentieth century, Naomi Mitchison published over ninety books – novels, plays, short stories, poetry, essays, children’s fiction, travel writing, history and autobiography. As an active feminist and socialist, her writing was always politically engaged but she found that she had to promote her most radical ideals under the cover of historical or, later, science fiction. Her frank memoirs and the diary she kept for Mass Observation during the Second World War are important historical and social documents.

She wasn't afraid of controversy, her personal life drew as much attention as her work, from shocking contemporary convention in the 1920's by declaring her marriage an open one, she had continual fights with publishers who insisted on removing explicit references to sex from her books. Her novel, We Have Been Warned published in 1935, dealt with abortion and birth control was censored.

A rebel against social restrictions on women from her youth, she had a tendency to lash out physically at men to prove her point, once took a swing at the Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell and on another occasion whacked a dinner guest over the head because he asked the woman seated next to him to fetch his dinner from the kitchen, definitely a woman ahead of her time!

Married for 54 years and the mother of seven children, she was asked on her 90th birthday if she had any regrets. ''Yes,'' she said, ''all the men I never slept with. Imagine!''

She moved to a 300 acre farm at Carradale on the Mull of Kintyre in her late 30's, from there she "held court" to a influx of visitors, she made Mull of Kintyre a cool place way before Paul McCartney did!

There is so much more written about Naomi Mitchison, she preached that if intelligent people shouted long and loud enough at governments, she believed, truth would prevail. She travelled the world supporting injustice going to the US in the 1930s, because she was worried about sharecroppers; to Vienna in 1934 when the Nazi-era storm clouds gathered, and she smuggled letters from endangered people to Switzerland in her knickers. She ventured to the USSR hoping to find a socialist experiment that she could champion, sadly finding, amongst other things "a wasteful and repressive bureaucracy."

Naomi reached the ripe old age of 101.

Woman Alone by Naomi Mitchison

A woman comforts a man, staring Beyond his pillowed head, thinking Of other things, of needful cooking and sewing, Of flowers in a vase, of the idea of God. She is giving only her body. But the man is comforted, he does not know, Blinded by customary eyes, lips, breasts, tender hands, That woman’s mind is faithless It is not with him Nor with any man, for to her all men are children. She has been sucked by baby men, giving them her body As she now gives it. Suckling, she thought of other things, Staring out gently over small, breast-pillowed heads, thinking Of necessary things. Faithless. The woman alone.

[xxdreamscapes]

diary 060125 | 10:00 pm

on identity + open dialogue;

My loves, don't cling so tightly to things like trauma, MBTI, gender, sexuality, zodiac signs, diagnoses, attachment styles or where you went to school. Micro-labels. Also binary traps: introvert/extrovert, minimalist/maximalist, etc. I've said this a lot, but we're never just one thing. It’s great to know yourself, but you don’t need to plaster or advertise every aspect of your identity online. It’s okay to be proud of who you are, AND it's okay to just be who you and let people learn you over time.

Not everything has to be done fast, at such break-neck speeds. You don't need to rush into friendships or relationships. You don't need to lay all your cards out in a take-it-or-leave-it manner. You'll learn that this is just fear of intimacy and pushing people away before they can push you away, to reject them before they can reject you.

Something I’ve noticed is that people can become so dysregulated, going on the defense anytime they feel like their entire identities are under attack. They treat curiosity or differing values as death blows. That’s your ego. If one facet of your identity is enough to make you crumble and insecure in all the things you believe in, I think there are bigger issues at hand. I know it can feel annoying when we feel like people are invalidating, or discrediting us, but most of the time it’s got nothing to do with us. This coming from a long-retired keyboard warrior. Don’t take things too personally and please work on that self concept. You can make more meaningful change irl than in online.

I’m not saying there aren’t hateful bigoted people out there or that hate crimes don't happen. But in general, you are more safe than you realize and nobody is out to get you. You don’t need to personalize everything and take everything as an attack on you as a person. Self victimizing and wallowing in self-pity isn't good for progress you want. Clinging so hard to define yourself can get unhealthy. Just be yourself, nobody’s stopping you even when your mind is perceiving it that way (this is not me gaslighting you) You can avert that looming identity crisis, I believe in you.

I know it sucks when people perceive us in a way that doesn't represent how we see ourselves. It’s not for us to control. It’s okay to be a bit more nuanced and live with less rigidity. Labels are great for finding like minds and safe spaces, but clinging so desperately onto them creates more division and pushes people away. You don’t have to antagonize people and make more hatred.

If you felt threatened by any of this, or bring up how the government is restricting peoples’ rights (which I already fucking know) you are exactly the type of person I wrote this about. In my view, complainers don't get things done and nobody wants to listen to someone whine 24/7 but not take actionable steps towards a goal. Express yourself however feels most authentic to you (it might also change over time and that’s ok) but also mobilize and participate.

Being you isn’t just about how you present yourself online. If being yourself is reduced to one singular thing, what does that say about us? We’re never just one thing. We also don’t always get exactly what we want out of life. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Find ways to express yourself, your identity, your gender, your values, etc. that don't consume your entire being. It shouldn't be tiring to be you.

⋆⁺₊⋆ + ⋆⁺₊ ⋆ ☁︎

For the younger people especially, don’t feel the pressure to conform, or squeeze yourself into one box. It’s been said to death. Also, don’t label or diagnose other people, that’s weird and not ok.

[business-market-insight]

North America Secure Logistics Market Trends, Size, Segment and Growth by Forecast to 2030

Market Overview and Dynamics The North America secure logistics market is poised for steady growth, projected to rise from US$ 13.49 billion in 2021 to US$ 20.42 billion by 2028, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% during the forecast period. In today's globalized landscape, financial institutions are increasingly forging strategic alliances to stay competitive and diversify their service offerings. Across the region, the financial sector is witnessing dynamic expansion, fueled by the strong performance of established players and the steady influx of new market entrants. This diverse ecosystem includes commercial banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial firms, co-operatives, pension funds, mutual funds, and a variety of smaller financial entities. Recent regulatory changes have also paved the way for innovative players like payment banks, further enriching the industry landscape. Notably, commercial banks continue to dominate, holding over 64% of the sector's total assets. Governments across North America have introduced a series of reforms aimed at liberalizing and strengthening the financial ecosystem, with particular focus on easing credit access for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). As banking and financial institutions continue to evolve and expand, the demand for secure logistics services is expected to rise in tandem, driving market growth across the region in the coming years. 📚Download Full PDF Sample Copy of Market Report @ https://www.businessmarketinsights.com/sample/TIPRE00026780 Market Introduction The US, Canada, and Mexico are the primary drivers of the secure logistics market in North America. The US and Mexico rank among the highest for domestic logistics performance, while all three countries are recognized leaders in international logistics. Stable economies combined with ongoing technological advancements have fostered the growth of various markets in the region, including secure logistics.

Despite the rise of digital payments, cash remains a dominant form of financial transaction in North America due to its convenience, zero transaction costs, and confidentiality. According to the US Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Diary of Consumer Payment Choice report, cash accounted for approximately 26% of total payment transactions. The need for efficient cash management and secure logistical solutions remains critical to ensure widespread access to cash. Developing countries in the region, such as Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, and Nicaragua, are expanding their ATM networks and banking infrastructure. With an average of 27.82 bank branches per 100,000 people in North America and 89% of US consumers reportedly carrying cash, demand for secure logistics services—particularly cash-in-transit and ATM replenishment—is expected to rise during the forecast period.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges to the secure logistics sector. In 2020, North America experienced severe economic contraction, particularly in the first two quarters, as the US recorded high infection rates. Lockdowns and movement restrictions disrupted manufacturing output and strained the supply chain, impacting logistics service providers. However, the crisis accelerated the adoption of digital technologies across the logistics sector. Companies shifted focus toward digitization—suspending recruitment and investing in digital infrastructure to sustain operations and mitigate losses. This trend is expected to spur the digital transformation of the North American logistics and supply chain market in the coming years.

North America Secure Logistics Strategic Insights

Strategic insights for the North America Secure Logistics provides data-driven analysis of the industry landscape, including current trends, key players, and regional nuances. These insights offer actionable recommendations, enabling readers to differentiate themselves from competitors by identifying untapped segments or developing unique value propositions. Leveraging data analytics, these insights help industry players anticipate the market shifts, whether investors, manufacturers, or other stakeholders. A future-oriented perspective is essential, helping stakeholders anticipate market shifts and position themselves for long-term success in this dynamic region. Ultimately, effective strategic insights empower readers to make informed decisions that drive profitability and achieve their business objectives within the market.

North America Secure Logistics Report Scope

Report Attribute

Details

Market Size in 2021

US$ 13.49 Billion

Market Size by 2028

US$ 20.42 Billion

Global CAGR (2021 - 2028)

6.1%

Historical Data

2019-2020

Forecast Period

2022-2028

Segments Covered (By Type)

Static, Mobile

Segments Covered (By Application)

Cash Management, Jewellery & Precious Metals, Manufacturing

Regions and Countries Covered

North America (US, Canada, Mexico)

Key Companies

Allied Universal, BRINK'S, G4S, GardaWorld, LOOMIS AB, Prosegur, SECURE LOGISTICS, Securitas AB, SERCO GROUP

North America Secure Logistics Regional Insights

The geographic scope of the North America Secure Logistics refers to the specific areas in which a business operates and competes. Understanding local distinctions, such as diverse consumer preferences (e.g., demand for specific plug types or battery backup durations), varying economic conditions, and regulatory environments, is crucial for tailoring strategies to specific markets. Businesses can expand their reach by identifying underserved areas or adapting their offerings to meet local demands. A clear market focus allows for more effective resource allocation, targeted marketing campaigns, and better positioning against local competitors, ultimately driving growth in those targeted areas. Can you see this our reports Europe Natural Food Colors Market – https://postyourarticle.com/europe-natural-food-colors-market-trends-size-segment-and-growth-by-forecast-to-2030-3/ North America Heavy Construction Equipment Market – https://github.com/businessmarketinsights985/business-market-insights/issues/37 Europe Plant Extracts Market – https://findit.com/uwttwdjttmkjdpa/RightNow/europe-plant-extractsmarkettrends-sizes/569cfe97-4dc7-4370-9d87-97919164ed82 Europe Machine Condition Monitoring Market – https://businessmarketins02.blogspot.com/2025/05/europe-machine-condition-monitoring.html Europe Heat Exchanger Market – https://sites.google.com/view/businessmarketinsights145/home About Us: Business Market Insights is a market research platform that provides subscription service for industry and company reports. Our research team has extensive professional expertise in domains such as Electronics & Semiconductor; Aerospace & Défense; Automotive & Transportation; Energy & Power; Healthcare; Manufacturing & Construction; Food & Beverages; Chemicals & Materials; and Technology, Media, & Telecommunications Author’s Bio Akshay Senior Market Research Expert at Business Market Insights

[zeldahime]

Some non-Americans in the notes seem confused about how our history classes are structured so I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

First of all, standards are set at the state level (it's more complicated, I'm simplifying a little) but actual implementation is left up to the school district. The school district is in charge of choosing textbooks, teacher training, lesson plans, school day structure, things like that. Basically no two schools are going to be exactly alike in what and how they teach, even within the same state.

That said, my personal experience with a rural Arizona school district in the 00s and 10s was this:

Elementary school (kindergarten-fifth grade, about ages 5 to 10): All subjects are taught by one teacher, so there's no "history class" per se. History topics are taught in a way that ties them to something else happening in real life or in the classroom, such as teaching about the the Revolutionary War near President's Day or about Isaac Newton right after doing a science experiment. In fourth grade, we had a huge unit about the Conquistadores; in fifth grade, we did a whole quarter focused on World Wars 1 and 2, including reading an abridged version of The Diary of a Young Girl.

Middle school (6th-8th grade, about ages 11-13): Subjects are taught by different teachers in different classrooms, so "classes" become distinct and stop bleeding into each other. Classes were still strictly separated by grade (except for math). I didn't attend 8th grade but 6th and 7th had two different history classes: World History and American History.

6th grade World History focused on ancient and classical history and mythology in Europe and Asia in the first semester, and Medieval Europe and Mesoamerica in the second.

7th grade American History went chronologically from Jamestown to Watergate, except for major anniversaries (eg 9/11, which all of us remembered; the Challenger explosion).

High school (9th to 12th grade, about ages 14 to 18): Classes are now no longer restricted to specific grades; you can take them in whatever order (mostly) and still graduate on time. Required for graduation was at least three credits of history or civics, and I took four: World History, Arizona History, AP US History, and AP US Government and Politics (civics).

World History: Once again focused on ancient history, but this teacher went purely geographically instead of doing a vague timeline and bopping all over. Squeezing the Indus Valley Civilization, the emergence of Buddhism, and a brief discussion of Ghandi all into five classes labelled "India" didn't work for me personally but I can see why he did it.

Arizona History: Focused on our state. Went from early prehistory to present day.

AP US History: Began with the establishment of the Iroquois Confederacy, skipped straight to the Revolutionary War, and then went on chronologically until the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. Even more than all the other classes, AP classes are designed around test-passing and the Civil Rights Movement was the last thing on that test chronologically. After the test in April, we chose an individual topic for a project to work on relating to US history between 1950 and the year 2000. I don't remember what I chose, but someone else chose Watergate and I remember my thoughts about it, haha.

Edit: Whoops, hit post too soon.

We also didn't only learn history in history class: it was kind of baked into English, too. When we read Shakespeare, we learned about Elizabethan times; when we read The Crucible, we learned about McCarthyism; when we read To Kill A Mockingbird, we learned about the antebellum South; when we read The Great Gatsby, we learned about the 1920s; and so on. A lot of my history knowledge doesn't come from history class at all, but the more in-depth looks in from English!

Through my public school education in the '90s and early '00s, our US history classes always ran out of time at the end of the year, somewhere around the '60s civil rights movement. We usually had enough time for a rushed, incomplete, confusing explanation of the Vietnam War. We never learned about Watergate or the fall of the Berlin Wall or Reagonomics or the Gulf War. They were in our history books, but we never got to that part.

It terrifies me to wonder what era history classes end on now. Do they make it past the Cold War era now? Past 9/11 and the War on Terror? Or are young folks today entirely uneducated on the horrific Islamophobia and civilian slaughter that occurred at the beginning of this millennium?

[aqurette]

Writers and Academics Applaud Brazil’s X Ban in Open Letter

This is so sad! “An example of eroding support for free speech around the world can be seen in a recent public letter by academics and writers from several countries supporting Brazil's government in its battle to ban the X social media platform and punish Brazilians who evade restrictions.” Read about it at Reason. https://aqurette.com/diary/2024/09/23/writers-and-academic

[nationalfilings]

Everything you want to be aware of Trademark Registration in Chennai

Trademark Registration is fundamental for businesses willing to safeguard their image character and intellectual property. In Chennai, the registration cycle adheres to explicit government guidelines. This article will assist you with understanding the trademark registration in Chennai, explain why it is significant and the significance of securing the trademark registration.

Understanding Trademark Registration

Trademark registration is the course of lawfully protecting your image name, logo, or motto. It ensures that others can't utilize your image without your consent. This gives you restrictive privileges to involve the trademark for your items or administrations. It assists you with building major areas of strength for a character and prevents others from benefiting from your image's standing.

In Chennai, the Regulator General of Licenses, Plans, and Trademarks, under the Ministry of Business and Industry, administers trademark registration. The cycle includes a few stages. In the first place, you want to look for existing trademarks to guarantee yours is exceptional. Then, you record an application with every one of the essential subtleties and archives. The trademark office examines your application to check whether it meets legitimate standards. Assuming it does, your trademark is distributed in the Trademarks Diary for public warning. This permits others to go against it assuming they have legitimate reasons. On the off chance that there are no resistances, or on the other hand assuming any restrictions are settled in support of yourself, your trademark gets enlisted. Finally, you get a registration testament, giving you legitimate insurance and elite privileges to your trademark.

The Significance of Trademark Registration

Securing a trademark registration in Chennai offers various advantages for businesses:

1. Lawful Assurance: Trademark registration gives legitimate security against unapproved utilization of your image by others. It gives you the option to make a lawful move against infringers.

2. Memorability: An enlisted trademark assists shoppers with identifying your items or administrations and distinguishes them from contenders, building memorability and reliability.

3. Market Restrictiveness: Trademark registration awards you selective freedoms to involve the trademark in the market portion and geographic region where it's enrolled, giving you an upper hand.

4. Resource Worth: An enlisted trademark is an important business resource that can increase your organization's worth and draw in investors or purchasers.

5. Worldwide Development: Trademark registration in Chennai opens entryways for worldwide extension by providing a strong starting point for international trademark security.

Trademark Registration Cycle in Chennai

1. Trademark Search: Lead a complete trademark search to guarantee the accessibility of your ideal trademark and keep away from clashes with existing trademarks.

2. Application Filing: Get ready and record a trademark application with the Regulator General of Licenses, Plans, and Trademarks, including every essential detail and reports.

3. Examination: The trademark application goes through examination by the trademark office to survey its qualification for registration in view of legitimate rules.

4. Distribution: Assuming the trademark application meets all necessities, it is distributed in the Trademarks Diary for public warning and resistance by outsiders.

5. Registration: Upon fruitful culmination of the distribution time frame and goal of any restrictions, the trademark is enrolled, and a registration declaration is given.

Leading Organizations Offering Trademark Registration Administrations

1. National Filings: Known for its mastery in trademark registration and intellectual property administrations, National Filings is a believed accomplice for businesses seeking exhaustive trademark security.

2. IP Firms India: With a group of experienced trademark lawyers, IP Firms India offers customized trademark registration administrations custom-made to clients' particular requirements.

3. LexOrbis: LexOrbis is a leading intellectual property law office in India, specializing in trademark registration, requirement, and portfolio the executives for homegrown and international clients.

4. K and S Accomplices: K and S Accomplices is a full-administration IP law office providing vital counsel and legitimate help with trademark registration, implementation, and licensing matters.

5. Remfry and Sagar: With more than 175 years of involvement, Remfry and Sagar is one of India's most seasoned and most regarded intellectual property law offices, offering exhaustive trademark administrations to clients across different industries.

End

Getting a trademark enlisted brings many advantages. It gives legitimate security, so you can make a move if another person attempts to utilize your image without consent. It likewise assists in building with branding acknowledgment and devotion among shoppers, distinguishing your items or administrations from contenders. Furthermore, an enlisted trademark can increase your organization's worth, making it more alluring to investors and purchasers. It likewise establishes the groundwork for expanding your image internationally.

Numerous legitimate firms offer trademark registration administrations in Chennai. National Filings is one such confided in organization, known for its mastery in trademark registration and intellectual property administrations. Other notable firms include IP Firms India, LexOrbis, K and S Accomplices, and Remfry and Sagar. These organizations can direct you through the trademark registration interaction and assist you with protecting your image actually.

All in all, trademark registration in Chennai is essential for businesses to defend their image, gain legitimate security, and upgrade their market presence. By following the legitimate registration cycle and seeking help from dependable firms, businesses can guarantee long haul achievement and development.

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#019 Independent Project

Black Lives Matter

To racist people, it seems that people who are not of their own race or people of other races are invasive, and one can see that there is dislike and avoidance in the eyes of such people. I have seen a film called Twelve Years a Slave, which is about the main character who was originally a violin player but was abducted and sold to become a black slave; as well as The Green Book in which the pianist, as an invited performer, was not allowed to use the toilets in the house and had to take a guidebook of the route that belonged to them on the road because some hotels did not allow him to stay there. In the same situation, I saw in Hidden Figures where the heroine had to travel a long way to use the toilet because the office toilet was exclusive to white people. In life I have found that invisible discrimination does exist, sometimes you can feel it but you can't make it explicit.

In fact, Black Lives Matter is decentralised and it broadly describes and supports the theme of anti-racism. It also expresses a variety of incidents outside of police brutality. Racial discrimination cannot occur without the influence of the superstructure, in the history of the United States, slavery broke human rights and freedom, and there is no equality. Exploitation is a cruel fact, freedom is a basic right of every human being, but under slavery, freedom is like an object, forcibly plundered by slave owners.

I think this is why Libertarians is often associated with politics, such as this slogan: "This land is our property" and "Back off government." Because the contradiction between personal freedom and government power is irreconcilable, a strong and unjust system will have negative impacts, resulting in conflicts and resistance.

In "The Diary Of Anne Frank", Anne had to lose her freedom and hide in a secret room due to the Nazi restrictions and persecution of the Jews. In the small space, she needed to remain absolutely quiet, and I think writing was her desire for freedom. Just like Solomon in "12 Years a Slave", he never gave up the pursuit of freedom during the twelve years, and he persisted in looking for opportunities to escape. When facing these events, We want to seek freedom.

I would like to end with a quote from Django Unchained. "His name is Django, he's a free man, he can ride what he pleases."