#summaries. this post was started on August 15th. I have three more members lined up for the next one. i hope i get that one done before 202

[star-fi]

The crew's two most elusive members!

KILNEI [Veluu]

Kilnei's main duty as ship biochemist is to test all ingredients (meat, grains, anything possibly edible, etc.) that come aboard the ship to determine who of the crew can digest them and who of the crew these ingredients might accidentally kill. They are at their busiest at the end of most bounties, testing foods the crew often receive as payment. Even if a bounty isn't paid in ingredients, Thierri and members of the front team sometimes harvest ingredients from felled targets*.

Before Kilnei's hiring, the crew relied on a service run by a coalition of laboratories dedicated to cataloguing the safety of various ingredients for all species. It would work like this:

A crew sends a list of species present on their ship alongside samples of each unknown material to the nearest laboratory.

The lab technicians test for specific proteins and other known allergens by species. (The labs will also test for specific allergens if asked.) For samples with too many unknown components, it may take months or even years to determine its level of safety. In those cases, the lab will request the crew send all available sample material for long term storage. (The crew will be reimbursed, of course.)

Most of the samples are tested and catalogued quickly and the crew will receive the results within a week after sending.

Thierri's crew stopped using the coalition's services after it started requiring all participating ships' crew members to be officially identified with bio-scans included in the report. Gus, as well a few other crew members, are in circumstances where, for their own safety, they can't risk being identified via bio-scan by an outside organization. So the crew quit the lab service.

Because they had to quit so suddenly, Thierri scrambled to hire the first reliable biochemist he could find. Therefore, Kilnei was not interviewed for the position like other crew members, leaving many of their...quirks to be discovered on their first day.

Kilnei almost never uses a translator despite not being fluent in any non-veluu languages. Someone will bring her a sample -> she analyzes it -> the results are in the hands on the same crew member by the end of the day. Throughout the entire process Kilnei will not say a word or even attempt to communicate. At some point Gus brought Kilnei down to Loprekyat to ask her a question with Loprey as interpreter. Whatever they said to each other aggravated them so much that Gus had to physically stop the two from fighting with help from Ethna. Nobody else knows what Kilnei said because Loprey won't tell anyone, not even Ethna. All Gus could do was advise Kilnei to stay out of the armory. He can't tell if they listened, though.

Kilnei has spent most of their life in highly competitive and rigid educational institutions, where anything other than perfection the first try is failure. Even among other veluu, her complete lack of casual social experiences leads her to isolate herself from anyone not directly associated with her field of expertise. While that might not cause any issues in a laboratory filled only with like-minded individuals, most veluu'ish labs are dependent on the sponsorship of historically influential and socially high ranked clans. Even as they were removed from their first research position, Kilnei did not know the severity of whatever social taboo they crossed during the investors' annual visit. It was only until they were rejected from every other job in veluu'ish space that they realized they had been put on a blacklist. Desperate, they extended their search to the edges of their race's domain, then farther. At the end of her rope, she would take any job, because what else could she do? What would be the point of it all if she could not do what she trained for? What was she worth?

Welcome to the crew, Kilnei. You might like it here. Eventually.

*: They do not accept bounties that involve taking down sophonts. Thierri's crew are hunters-for-hire and most of their contracts include hunting ecosystem-disrupting mega fauna or helping quell the numbers of interplanetary invasive species. Occasionally they are contracted to pacify or kill Eldritch Horrors as they have built up a reputation of dependability in that area of expertise.

APAVIAN [Thelusian]

Apavian's first encounter with the crew happened long before vi had any plans to join them. At the time, vi was working as a line chef at one of the most remote Burgerfool joints in known space, hiding from vis previous comrades in the arms business.

During a time of tension and total war between many Thelusian factions, Apavian was a branch supervisor midway up the command chain of VIAKRI, a major insectoid weapons manufacturer. Vis branch sold to every Thelusian they could, even manufacturing conflict between factions in order to keep selling to both sides. However, it all came crashing down when Apavarian unintentionally revealed VIAKRI's contributions in aggravating and continuing the wars to every major Thelusian faction leader. Apavian had presented the warring factions with a mutual enemy for the first time in decades and the wars screeched to a halt for the sole purpose of destroying VIAKRI. Vis fled Thelusian space with both the united faction soldiers and VIAKRI enforcers at vis heels until vi lost them at the edge of known space.

After nearly a year into vis job as line chef, disaster struck the remote Burgerfool in the form of a massive conglomeration of masteroids. Thierri's crew was hired by the director of a space station in the path of the masteroids to divert them from their original path into a nearby asteroid belt. The crew succeeded last minute, but started a unfortunate chain of collisions in the belt that destroyed the Burgerfool's kitchens and dorms. Miraculously no one was killed, but the Fool had to be shut down for repairs. Thierri used his ship to help with evacuation, shuttling employees and customers to the aforementioned station. Among the evacuees was Apavian. Knowing that vi would get recognized by station security, vi was desperate for escape. However, as Apavian was about to steal an escape pod, vi was caught by Gus.

At the time, the crew had just hired an unprecedented amount of members and was struggling to keep up with their dietary needs with preserved food packages alone. So when Gus, who received most of the complains about the food, saw Apavian trying to escape, he saw an opportunity.

Apavian joined the crew as Ship Chef. A spare special storage room was converted into vis kitchen and vi started cooking a few ship cycles after the Burgerfool incident.

The kitchen is remote, which suits Apavian just fine. Vi barely ever ventures out farther than the end of the long storage room outside vis kitchen because vi fears that vi might get recognized by Kil'zeer, the crew's only other Thelusian member. The only other crew member vi is close to is Kilnei. They met when Kilnei barged into the room expecting it to still be a storage unit and found the new chef instead. Upon finding out Kilnei is the ship biochemist, vi searched for Veluu'ish language books in the ship's local digital files library. By machine translating a Spanish to Urrota (a language spoken by most interstellar Veluu) phrasebook, Apavian was able to present Kilnei with a few familiar words from home. Vis main goal was to ask for guidance in what was edible for the crew, but over time they lapsed into a mainly non-verbal friendship as Kilnei started using the remote kitchen as a hideout.

[wipbigbang]

2021 Schedule + FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 1st

Sign-ups Close- April 15th

Check In #1- April 22nd

Check In #2- May 15th

Snippets Due- June 1st

Art Claims Begin- June 17th

Check In #3- June 22nd

Check In #4- July 6th

Rough Drafts Due- July 15th

Posting Claims Begin- July 23rd

Posting Claims Ends- August 1st

Final Drafts/Art Due- August 7th

Posting Starts- August 8th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words, but the sky's the limit, right?

What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here.

Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. Just bear in mind that original work is only allowed on AO3 if it has a fannish connection and might make it hard for artists to work with. But we'll make a dedicated post for that if there will be any.

What are 'Check Ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory.

What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. If you are having trouble finding a beta, try this post.

Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Also, we've enabled moderated posting to the comm (Livejournal and Dreamwidth) for members. We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be four fics, plus art, posting per day between August 8th and September 30th. The post with date claims will go up on July 23rd and you'll have to choose your date by August 1st.

If you want to post your story in chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post), you may do so starting August 1st. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. And on until all stories are claimed for art.

If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by June 13th.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by July 13th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.</lj-cut>

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[hpdrizzle]

HP Drizzle Fest 2019: Rules & Guidelines

Welcome to the 2019 hp_drizzle / hpdrizzle FEST RULES POST!

We are excited to have you here. Please read through this whole post and feel free to ask any questions about whatever we might have forgotten to include.

What is HP Drizzle?

It's an anonymous prompt-based fest. Authors and artists will create a Harry Potter piece that involves weather in any kind; for example, it could be Character A and Character B kissing in the rain or Character C building a snowman in their garden. The possibilities are endless. We accept Het, Femslash, Slash, Gen, Three/more-somes, along with angst, dark, fluff, hurt/comfort, humour, etc, etc…

Continue reading for the rules/guidelines!

Prompting

Prompting begins on 1st of April and will remain open until the 15th of April (6 pm New York Time).

A link will be provided on April 1st and all members can leave up to 10 prompts per person. The link will be a "Google Form," and we're requesting all members to limit their prompts up to 10.

You will be able to view what prompts are being posted during these 15 days.

Your prompts can be from Fantastic Beasts and the Cursed Child.

Claiming will begin on the 20th of April.

Sometime between the 16th and the 19th, the mods will organize the prompts in different categories: Het, Slash, Femslash, Multi/threesomes, Any/Other.

We will give you the link to ALL categorized prompts by the 19th of April, so you can be ready for your claim. Claiming will also be done with Google Form.

During your claim, you'll be asked for the following: Your username / fandom base (Like, LJ, DW, Tumblr, etc…) What prompt you want. We will ask you to pick at least 2 prompts just to be sure you have a backup if your first choice is taken.

Prompts are simply guidelines, and the creators can choose to do whatever they want with the prompt. This is not a gift exchange so you have the freedom. 

♥ Anyone can make a claim. You do not have to prompt to claim. You do not have to claim to prompt. ♥ All stories submitted must be unique to this fest.

If your first choice is taken you will get your second choice. You do not have to pick from the list of prompts to create for the fest. You can simply write/create art for your own idea. If you are doing something for your own prompt, you still have to fill out the Claim Form and let us know what you're doing. This is so planning can be easy for the mods when it's time to post for the fest.

♥ Please let us know if you have to drop out of the fest. We will not be upset, you will not be banned from future fests; we just need to know ASAP!

Claiming is anonymous. Posting is anonymous.

When all submissions are posted, we will create a masterlist and REVEAL who wrote what (or created what art).

The keyword is ANONYMOUS. GUYS, I cannot stress this enough. It's ANONYMOUS. We had some serious issues last year with new members who started to post their story/art on other platforms (like Facebook or Tumblr) BEFORE reveals.

The HP Drizzle fest is ANONYMOUS. Please, please, please respect this rule. If you simply cannot wait and are not a patient person to wait until mid-October for reveals, then we'd like to request that you do not sign up.

Being anonymous is half the fun. The other half is reading the anonymous entry. It's heartbreaking to have people sign up and then not respect the rules. It's heartbreaking for the mods, and it's downright disrespectful for other participants.

Fest begins on 1st of September. If your anon entry goes up on the 15th, it does not mean you can now post wherever you want. You have to wait until every single post is made, an anonymous masterlist is posted, and a REVEALS post is made.

Okay, so anonymous.

Phew.

Submissions are due on the 15th of August.

You can do a couple of things. For art, please email us your entry. We will host the art on our server - do not SIGN your art b/c (guess what?) it's ANONYMOUS. After reveals, we will replace your art with a signed version if you wish that.

Every single entry will be posted on AO3. Headers and links will be posted on DW and Tumblr and Livejournal. No art will be posted anywhere but on AO3. Art can be any medium and any style. It must be at least 600x600 pixels. Please wait until reveals to post your art on your tumblr. PLEASE. WAIT.

Fics must be at least 1000 words. There's no maximum. If you are aware of how to HTMLIZE your fic, please email us your fic with the header - in HTML CODE.

Basic HTML guides are: + phoenixacid’s Basic HTML Guide + megyal's: tutorial for placing HTML tags around similarly formatted text in Word

FINALLY please utilize potterwords for all the correct spellings that you might need for creatures, characters, or anything else for your creations.

We will have an AO3 collection. For members who are comfortable with posting their fic on the COLLECTION, will be welcomed to do so. This is very important, because if you do not know how to do it, don't worry, we can do it for you. You can email us your fic or we can do a step by step tutorial on how to do it.

Please make sure you POST TO COLLECTION on the link provided and do not simply post your fic on AO3 - then it will be revealed too soon.

Every single person has to email us a header with your fic or art. If you are posting your fic yourself on the AO3 collection, then you still have to email us a header.

What's a header?

It's something that goes on top of the link for the fic, telling the audience, what the fic/art is about. Everyone needs to use the same header.

<b>Title:</b> <b>Author/Artist:</b> (write your user name and/or link to your profile page) - we will remove this during posting and add it back when the fest is finished. <b>Prompt:</b> # (this will be the prompt you selected) <b>Pairing(s):</b> <b>Word Count/Art Medium:</b> <b>Rating:</b> (G to NC-17) <b>Warning(s):</b> <b>Disclaimer:</b> A basic line about how this is for fun, etc, etc… <b>Notes:</b> <b>Summary:</b>

Do not remove the coding. Write after the "</b>". For example:

<b>Title:</b> A Story about Rain <b>Author/Artist:</b> authorname.dreamwidth.org. <b>Prompt:</b> # 72 <b>Pairing(s):</b> Parvati/Hermione <b>Word Count/Art Medium:</b> 4000 words (or Digital Art) <b>Rating:</b> PG <b>Warning(s):</b> This story takes place in an AU. <b>Disclaimer:</b> This story/art is created for fun. No profit is being made.<b>Notes:</b> Thanks to my beta, Q! <b>Summary:</b> Hermione and Parvati get caught in the rain.

+ It's very important that you do not remove the coding. + Your header does not go in your AO3 page. The header is only for LJ/DW/and Tumblr. + If you copy and paste your header in AO3, then your name is there, and then it's not anonymous. + If you have any confusion about this, please ask.

If you submit your fic to AO3 directly, then you will be asked to add the mod account as a co-creator. Please add: drizzle_mod. This is important because when your story is posted for the fest, the mod will know when it'll be posted and we can update the date of posting so it shows up on top.

Extensions will be judged on an individual basis. Try to give us as much notice as possible, we mods don't love last minute panics, it messes with our pretty schedules! (The subject of your email should read: EXTENSION- YOUR USERNAME). If you need to drop out for any reason, please send us an email letting us know before the deadline for submissions.

All fic submissions need to have been beta-read. We will skim through your story and if it's evident you did not have a beta, we will return your fic and ask you to fix it. The content is yours, we require it to have a proper SPaG (Spelling and Grammar) proofread.

PODFICS are also allowed for the Drizzle fest. A separate post will be made about podfic sign ups. Podfic sign up will be anonymous. When Podfics are posted, their creator will be revealed at the same time as the Podfic. Basically, Podfic posting is not anonymous.

If you have questions, you can ask us anytime. Either on this post or via email: hpdrizzlemods@gmail.com. Please do not send us PMs.

A few things that might help us all if we remember…

Mods are people. Human beings make mistakes. They require time offline, time to sleep and eat and take a break from mod duties from time to time. On top of it all, Mods also have full time jobs.

So, if you send us an email/ask, please give us a little bit of time to respond. During claiming, give us 24-48 hours to get back to you with confirmations. Fandom is across the globe and across different time zones hence all we ask is for you to be patient with us.

Be gentle and always remember this fest is here to have fun. Don't stress yourself out. If you have to drop out, let us know. If you need to express disagreement, please do it with respect.

Your hp_drizzle / hpdrizzle mods,

@digtheshipper (digthewriter) & @ohlookagaydraco (fangqueen)

[creative-frequency]

Connor|RK800 x Reader: Ocularity Ch. 2

Word count: 2565 Warnings/Categories: Rating up to explicit, romance, friendship, fluff, light angst, bad language, uncle Hank Summary: As a doctor of artificial intelligence engineering working for CyberLife, you’re tasked with the initialization of the new RK-series prototype. Notes: Probably will fail, but I’ll try to post a chapter every week and keep them around 2k long. Special thanks to @sevansheart​ and @sherniwrites​ for the translations ❤️ I hope you enjoy reading this!

Previous Chapter | Chapters Masterlist

From: Ethan Wilson To: You Subject: Fw: RK800

Good luck. Make us proud.

- Ethan

----------------

Dear Dr. Wilson,

We are pleased to inform you that we have chosen Dr. Anderson to manage the initiation of the new RK800-model. Mark I will be assembled on August 15th at 8:00 AM.

This decision was reached thanks to your high recommendations as her direct superior and the satisfied feedback from our clients concerning her work. We look forward to following her co-operation with the new prototype.

Please forward this information to Dr. Anderson.

Sincerely,

––

The message content is followed by the full list of CyberLife’s board members. You have read the e-mail over and over at least fifteen times and still can’t believe it’s true.

The new RK-model – the most advanced prototype CyberLife has ever created – is about to become your responsibility.

August 15th 08:22 AM

You stifle a yawn and fold your hands over your chest in a sorry attempt at warming yourself. The mornings haven’t grown cool yet, but thanks to the effective air conditioning inside, you shiver slightly. You ran out of tea several minutes ago and its heating effect is fading. Slow minutes pass by in silence.

The operator sits in the only chair of the brightly lit monitoring room. His name is Dave, or Daniel, or something similar. You think you have met him before, but working for one of the largest companies on the continent means you have a countless amount of colleagues just on Belle Isle. There are at least three Daves working for CyberLife you can remember off the top of your head.

The operator’s eyes are trained on the camera feed of the assembly line right ahead. At each weave and tiny motion of his fingers, the large robot hands move, inch by inch, piece by piece, fitting cutting-edge tech biocomponents inside a male android’s torso. Manufacturing a new android model requires precision. The biocomponents are often not as easily fitted into the frame as in the mass-produced models.

You can see the white 3D-printed limbs dangling in the air, waiting to be attached. It has been over twenty minutes already and you don’t dare to ask how the operator is doing or how long it will still take.

Admittedly, you are impatient. The opportunity is amazing. Until now you have been only working with existing prototypes, mostly of the RK-series. You have been present at many initialization tests, but have never been given the responsibility of taking the lead in one.

The RK800 is the most interesting prototype you have come across so far as it’s designed for police work – not just as an unarmed guard or patrol android, but as the first line response to human life-threatening situations. The list of features and abilities is certainly the most impressive one you’ve seen in a prototype before.

So impressive that you fell asleep halfway through reading it and decided to get to know the prototype in person instead of on paper.

The datapad containing the planned testing schedule is tucked under your arm. The file is ridiculously long and exhaustive, but that only shows how much expectations are piled on the new model, and on you by extension.

“Almost there…”

Your weight shifts carefully from left to right leg. If there would be any other noise than the low buzzing of the assembly robot, you wouldn’t hear the operator mumbling to himself. You have to admire his focus on the delicate task.

A small eternity later, the blue glow inside the android’s torso starts pulsing steadily, the eyes in the white skull flicker. The synthetic heart, the Thirium pump, is spreading life force into the other biocomponents and the prototype slowly starts to wake up.

“Alright. You can talk to it now,” the operator says.

You hum in reply, looking with indefinite fascination as the pure white limbs are carefully snapped into their sockets. They instantly take to action, move around in the air and execute the built-in proprioceptive tests while the assembly robot is still welding the seams.

“Can you hear me?” you ask in a clear voice.

The android’s eyes, that turn out to be milk chocolate brown, blink a few times.

“Yes.”

Skin starts to grow from his temples, revealing a light tone, and quickly grows into short dark brown hair. It’s the first time you see the prototype’s design and there is only one thought running through your mind.

He is beautiful.

You’re so taken aback by the sight that you completely forget the follow-up question you were about to voice.

It’s as if someone hacked your mind and sculpted the face of your deepest fantasies. He is the definition of “your type” and you simply can’t find enough shame to deny it from yourself. Each curve of his features is perfect. He is perfect. Your heart rate is increasing and with each beat it’s becoming increasingly difficult to pass it off as excitement from the new assignment.

No one has ever before crossed the uncanny valley of your mind in such a leap.

The android spreads his arms in a more controlled motion, looking around the shiny new limbs that are gradually covering with artificial skin mask, and waits for instructions.

“State your model and run a diagnostic,” the operator says.

“Model RK800, serial number 313 248 317 – 51.” The android’s eyes flicker closed for a second and his LED flashes in blue. “All systems fully operational.” His voice is calm, pleasant. Maybe even a little husky due to the new voice module being activated for the first time.

“RK800, register your name.”

The operator looks at you expectantly. You spend a few seconds inspecting the android before choosing from the options you’ve been given.

“Connor.”

“My name is Connor,” the android repeats, just like you’ve heard hundreds of them say in their exact same moment. Hearing him say the name you chose feels a little funny.

The skin is covering all of his body now and Connor steps forward from the podium. The robot hands usher clothes on him: A basic white outfit with the statutory blue armband and triangle markings on the chest and back. Unlike many other models, Connor seems extremely curious of his surroundings. You make a mental note to write that down into your first report about the prototype.

The operator turns to you with a lopsided smile. Today, his job is easy.

“All yours, Doc.”

You huff in amusement and lower your fist that you have been leaning your chin on. The guys in manufacturing see you rarely, but when you come by, it always means something new is going on and someone will take the reins as soon as the unit is assembled.

“Thanks. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

You exit the monitoring room with your heels clattering against the smooth marble flooring and an eager thumping inside your chest.

Your first task is to run simple tests to make sure the model is viable for operation and nothing went wrong in the assembly. You’ve seen your coworkers and superiors go through the required procedures so many times you’ve lost count. It’s a routine for all new prototypes. For the past two years you have worked for CyberLife, the amount of errors in prototypes has gone down exponentially, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Noticing errors in as early stage as possible saves time and money.

“Hello, Connor,” you greet the android. Your gaze travels to the distracting lock of hair on his forehead, then down the jawline before returning to the brown eyes. Why does he have to be so handsome? Does a detective android need good looks to perform his job efficiently?

You will probably find out.

“Hello,” Connor replies in the standard friendly tone.

You clear your throat and give him a few seconds to scan you as it should be a standard procedure for him with new people. You pull the datapad from under your arm.

“Do you know who I am?” you ask.

“Yes,” Connor says decisively.

“Do you know who that is?” You nod towards the operator behind the glass. He is yawning and stretching his arms in the air.

“Well we haven’t been introduced, but I do know his name.”

You open the basic test run program and start checking boxes. “Tell me.”

“Dave Atkinson,” Connor starts to speak immediately in an analytical tone. So you did remember correctly. “Born December 21st, 2002. Worked in CyberLife as manufacturing operator since July 2030. No criminal record.”

You smile. “Thank you, Connor.” His name rolls off your tongue in a pleasant way. “Let’s start with the basics.”

Connor’s brows scrunch lightly together and he looks confused. He walks closer to you, to a normal conversing distance. His model and serial number are printed in the white uniform. You’ll need to find more suitable clothes for him for police work.

“Doctor, is there a reason I cannot access the testing schedule file?” Connor sounds worried and his gaze flicks to the datapad in your hands.

“Oh. Well,” you chuckle in surprise, “it’s a tool for me to log your progress. We need to be sure you can’t influence the data directly,” you explain.

Connor nods. “I understand, though I think it would be much more efficient if we both could access the file and deduce together what’s the optimal time for each test.”

“You’re right, but rules are rules.” His insistence makes you smile. The way androids always seem confused when humans don’t want to take the most logical or proficient approach is slightly comical every time you witness it. They adapt to it, of course, but the innocent confusion on their faces is priceless. “Shall we then? We have a lot to do.”

“You want to start from the basics?” Connor sounds incredulous.

You inspect the list on the datapad again. Even the phase one sheet is longer than usually. “Yeah. Protocol, proprioceptive and exteroceptive sensors, components – basic stuff.”

“Doctor, I assure you everything is running perfectly.” He looks dead-serious – as if doing the testing would be a complete waste of time.

“Sorry, but we need to test to make sure, because your diagnostics data could be lying.”

Connor falls silent. He knows you’re right. You know you’re right. It’s time to get the party started, so to speak. You draw a preparing breath and take better hold on the datapad, balancing it on your inner forearm.

“Give me your initialization text,” you say and fix a curious look on Connor. You have the text on the screen.

“Hello, my name is Connor. I’m the android sent by CyberLife,” he says.

You wait for him to continue, but he just looks at you expectantly.

“That– that’s it?”

“For security reasons, my protocol dictates I don’t list my features – unless directly ordered so by the human with the authority to do that.”

You look at the text on your screen, then at Connor. He recited the first row correctly, but you’re not happy to hear you haven’t been granted full rights to give him orders. In a testing-sense it might be better, but you decide to bring it up with Ethan later.

“Alright. Then let’s see the basic physical abilities,” you continue and try to not let the minor inconvenience trouble you further. “Can you move your arms?”

As an example, you slowly move your free hand in front of you, then up and down, and reach behind while standing still. Connor’s eyes are fixated on you while he repeats the motions. Suddenly you feel very conscious of yourself, silly even. You’ve done the tests with other androids countless times to check their physique and nerve connections, but now your heart is speeding and the curious brown eyes make you want to look bashfully away.

“Upper limb connection seems fine…” You check a box in the datapad. “Walk around a little, please.”

Connor does as he is asked. His legs seem to work normally with no weird twitching or missteps in the walking pattern. He even spins around on his toes a few times, making you huff in amusement. He smiles at the sounds you make and your heart is speeding again.

“Okay then, repeat these hand gestures after me, please.”

Connor stands at the exact same distance from you as before, but it feels like he is closer.

You make different gestures with your fingers, crossing and bending them in random order and stare at Connor’s hand. He mimics each motion quickly and accurately. The movement is flawless and fluid, just as it should be.

“Okay, good. Tell me, which one’s your right hand?” you ask.

Connor smiles in surprise and raises his right arm. “Is this really necessary, Doctor?”

“Yup. Locomotion and kinesthetic awareness – alright.” You tick more boxes in the list. If Connor continues to clear each test as quickly as he has, you’ll be done with phase one within the week.

You check the data feed from his vitals and it’s looking steady. There are no signs of his skin mask coming apart and the hair length hasn’t changed after the initial growth. Everything is looking good. He is looking good. You push the improper thoughts about to surface to the back of your mind and focus on the list again.

“Please say ‘Hello, my name is Connor. How can I help you?’ in Spanish.”

“Hola, me llamo Connor. ¿Cómo le puedo ayudar?” Connor says. According to his list of features, he speaks almost five hundred languages.

“How about in… Hindi?”

You don’t speak Spanish or Hindi, but the datapad records the lines to double-check later for potential errors.

“Namaste, mere nam Connor hai. Mein aapakee Kaise madad Kar sakata hoon?”

“Finnish?”

“Hei, nimeni on Connor. Kuinka voin auttaa?”

“Multilingual and verbal expression – checked,” you say as you tick the boxes. Connor’s voice module is working without flaws, at least to your ears. “What was the first thing I said to you?”

Connor tilts his head in question. “I believe it was ’Connor’, but I cannot be sure it was your voice as my systems were not fully operational at that point yet.”

“It was me.” You flash him an encouraging smile. “So what was the first question I asked you?”

“You asked ‘do you know who I am?’” he says without hesitation.

“Your memory components seem to be working fine so far,” you conclude and scroll back on the testing list to be sure you didn’t skip over anything by accident. You’re satisfied to see there was nothing to be marked as “tentative” or “limited functionality”.

“So everything is in order?” Connor asks, pleased with his performance.

“Yes, but before we move on, please run a diagnostic,” you say.

Connor nods. His LED flashes blue and his eyelids flicker for only a few seconds. “All systems fully operational,” he announces.

Hopefully, you will hear those words countless times in the near future.

You tuck the datapad securely under your arm and smile at the android in front of you. Your journey together is off to a good start and you’re eager to see how it continues. Your first prototype initialization. A speck of pride grows within your chest. It will take a minimum of two months to complete the testing schedule with Connor.

You grin. “We can move on to the actual testing now. Follow me, Connor.”

Next Chapter

Tagging (lmk if you want to be tagged or not): @sevansheart @precursor-ao3 @gberryb​ @owlwrites @lucianhuntress@singlebecauseofthechocobros @bleucommelhiver @sherniwrites @n-ulll @mccastle-boi @toastyfiction @touzokukana @imaginovator

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Fact Check: Trump’s Numbers October 2018 Update - U.S. NEWS

New Post has been published on https://citizentruth.org/fact-check-trumps-numbers-october-2018-update/

Fact Check: Trump’s Numbers October 2018 Update

Statistical measures of how things have changed since the president took office.

(FactCheck.org) In the time Donald Trump has been in the White House:

The jobless rate dropped to the lowest in nearly half a century, and the number of unfilled job openings hit a record high.

Economic growth spurted to a 4.2 percent annual rate in the most recent quarter.

Median household income rose to the highest level ever recorded in 2017. Poverty declined.

The growth of federal regulations slowed, and has lately reversed.

Crime rates declined. The number of homicides went down 0.7 percent last year after rising for the previous two years.

Carbon emissions rose. Coal mining jobs went up a bit.

Corporate profits, stock prices and home values set record highs.

The trade deficit grew larger.

The federal debt increased by nearly $1.4 trillion, more than 9 percent. Yearly deficits increased.

The U.S. image abroad plunged.

Analysis

This is our third quarterly update of the “Trump’s Numbers” scorecard that we posted in January and updated for the first time on April 16 and again on July 11.  We’ll publish additional updates every three months, as fresh statistics become available.

As always, starting when we posted our first “Obama’s Numbers” article six years ago — and in the quarterly updates and final summary that followed — we’ve included statistics that may seem good or bad or just neutral, depending on the reader’s point of view.

This update includes the first comprehensive looks at crime, income and poverty during the president’s first year in office. The FBI’s report of crime rates for all of 2017 was released Sept. 24, and the Census Bureau’s figures for median annual household income and poverty levels during 2017 were released Sept 12. Other statistics are released quarterly, monthly and sometimes daily, and we include here the most recent available as of this date.

We make no judgment as to how much credit or blame any president deserves for things that happen during his time in office. Opinions differ on that.

Jobs and Unemployment

Job growth slowed a bit under Trump, but unemployment dropped to the lowest point in nearly half a century.

Employment — Total nonfarm employment grew by 3.8 million during the president’s first 20 months in office, according to the most recent figures available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That continued an unbroken chain of monthly gains in total employment that started nearly eight years earlier, in October 2010.

The average monthly gain under Trump is 190,000 jobs, which is 12 percent below the average monthly gain of 217,000 during Obama’s second term.

Trump will have to pick up the pace if he is to fulfill his campaign boast that he will be “the greatest jobs president that God ever created.”

Unemployment — One reason for the slowdown in job growth: fewer job-seekers. The unemployment rate — which was well below the historical norm when Trump took office — has continued to fall a full 1.1 percentage point lower.

The rate was 4.8 percent when he was sworn in, and fell to 3.7 percent in September. The last time it was that low was October of 1969 — nearly 49 years earlier.

The historical norm is 5.6 percent, which is the median monthly rate for all the months since the start of 1948. The lowest unemployment rate ever recorded was in 1953, when the rate was 2.5 percent for a couple of months.

Job Openings — Another reason employment growth has slowed is a worsening shortage of qualified workers. The number of unfilled job openings hit a new record of more than 6.9 million as of the last business day in July — the most in the 18 years the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking them.

That’s a gain of nearly 1.5 million unfilled job openings — or 27.5 percent — since Trump took office.

Labor Force Participation — Despite the abundance of jobs, the labor force participation rate — which went down 2.8 percentage points during the Obama years — has slipped a bit more under Trump.

Republicans often criticized Obama for the decline during his time, even though it was due mostly to the post-World War II baby boomers reaching retirement age, and other demographic factors beyond the control of any president. The rate is the portion of the entire civilian population age 16 and older that is either employed or currently looking for work in the last four weeks.

Since Trump took office, the rate has fluctuated in a narrow range between 63.0 percent and 62.7 percent. It was 62.7 percent in August, 0.2 percentage points below where it was the month Trump took office.

Manufacturing Jobs — Manufacturing jobs increased under Trump, even faster than total employment.

The number rose by 378,000 between Trump’s inauguration and September. That followed a net decrease of 192,000 under Obama.

The increase under Trump amounts to 3.1 percent, compared with the 2.6 percent increase in overall employment. The number of manufacturing jobs is still nearly 1 million below where it was in December 2007, at the start of the Great Recession.

Economic Growth

The economy is growing faster under Trump — spurting to a yearly rate of 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2018, the most recent official estimate available.

That’s up from the 2.2 percent increase during his first year, followed by a 2.2 percent yearly rate in the first quarter of 2018, according to the most recent estimate of the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s the “real” rate of growth in gross domestic product after accounting for price inflation.

The 4.2 percent rate is just within the 4 percent to 6 percent rate Trump promised repeatedly, both when he was a candidate and also as president.

The “GDP Now” forecast produced by the Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta projects that the third-quarter growth rate continued at a 4.2 percent annual rate. The official estimate for the third quarter of 2018 won’t be released until Oct. 26.

Most economists believe the current growth spurt is temporary. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued an updated economic forecast Aug. 13 projecting real GDP to grow 3.1 percent this year, and 2.4 percent in 2019. That’s in line with the most recent median forecast of the Federal Reserve Board members and Federal Reserve Bank presidents (issued Sept. 26), which is for 3.1 percent growth in 2018, 2.5 percent in 2019 and 2.0 percent in 2020.

Other leading economists tend to agree. Of the business and university economists who offered an annual GDP forecast to the Wall Street Journal‘s monthly economic survey in October, the average prediction was for 3.1 percent growth this year and 2.4 percent next year. Similarly, the National Association of Business Economists’ October survey produced a median forecast of 3.1 percent growth this year and 2.5 percent next year.

Technical Note: Historical GDP figures given here are slightly different from those given in earlier “Numbers” articles, because on July 27 the Bureau of Economic Analysis issued its 15th “comprehensive update” of GDP figures, something it does roughly every five years in an effort to improve the quality of its economic measurement. In this case, some figures were revised slightly all the way back to 1929. The new BEA estimate of GDP growth for the 10 years ending last year has increased by an average of 0.1 percent.

Income and Poverty

Household Income — Household income hit another record during Trump’s first year — but it’s a record with an asterisk.

The Census Bureau’s measure of median household income reached $61,372 in 2017. After adjusting for inflation, that was an increase of $1,063 from the previous record level reached in Obama’s final year, when the median income finally reached and exceeded a level last seen in 1999. (The median figure represents the midpoint — half of all households earned more, half less.)

In percentage terms, the increase in 2017 was 1.8 percent, following a 3.1 percent increase in 2016.

However, a senior Census official cautioned that the latest “records” in 2016 and 2017 are due in part to a change in the survey questions in 2014. Starting then, the annual survey has picked up some sources of income that were previously missed. Taking this into account, Jonathan L. Rothbaum, chief of the Income Statistics Branch, said the 2017 median income would be in a “statistical tie” with incomes measured in 2007 and 1999.

Poverty — As incomes rose, the rate of poverty declined. The percentage of Americans living with income below the official poverty line went down to 12.3 percent of the population in 2017, the lowest level since 2006, just before the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

The poverty rate has now declined for three consecutive years, dropping by 1.3 percentage points in 2015, by 0.8 points in 2016 and by 0.4 points in Trump’s first year.

Regulations

The growth of federal regulation didn’t come to the “sudden, screeching and beautiful halt” Trump once claimed, but it does seem to have ground slowly to a stop over many months — and in recent months has reversed.

The number of restrictive words and phrases (such as “shall,” “prohibited” or “may not”) contained in the Code of Federal Regulations went up by 0.73 percent during Trump’s first 15 months, reaching a peak of nearly 1.09 million on April 6, according to daily tracking done by the QuantGov project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

But since that April peak, the number has declined by a little over one-quarter of 1 percent as of Oct. 10. That decline has grown a bit larger since our last report, suggesting that it may be the start of a trend, and not just a temporary blip.

Overall, the drop still leaves a nearly 0.5 percent net increase in restrictive words and phrases in the nearly 20 months since Trump took office — a far slower rate of rise than in the past. The average annual growth during both the Obama years and the George W. Bush years was just under 1.5 percent, according to annual QuantGov tracking.

The Mercatus Center database provides a hard count of specific legal mandates and prohibitions imposed by federal regulators that we find to be more relevant than counts of the number of pages or words in the rulebook. It doesn’t attempt to assess the cost or benefit of any particular rule — such assessments require a degree of guesswork and are sensitive to assumptions. But it does track the sheer volume of federal rules with more precision than we have found in other metrics.

Some of the rules Trump has eliminated are quite significant. Within a month of taking office, for example, Trump signed a law nullifying an Obama-era rule prohibiting coal mining companies from dumping waste into streams and waterways. And on April 13 his administration withdrew Obama’s edict requiring automakers to double the fuel efficiency of new autos and light trucks to 50 miles per gallon by the year 2025. Instead, the requirement will be capped at 37 mpg starting in 2020.

Crime

Crime declined a bit in Trump’s first year, except for rapes, assaults and motor vehicle thefts, which increased.

The number of homicides declined by 0.7 percent in 2017, according to the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States report, after rising for the previous two years.

The number of all violent crimes went down by 0.2 percent. That included a 2.5 percent increase in rapes and a 1 percent increase in assaults, offset by a 4 percent decrease in robberies and the drop in homicides.

The number of property crimes went down 3 percent in 2017, including a 7.6 percent drop in burglaries and a 2.2 percent decrease in larcenies (such as shoplifting), but the number of motor vehicle thefts increased slightly, by 0.8 percent.

And early data suggests that crime rates are declining further this year. The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law projects that the murder rate in the 30 largest U.S. cities will go down another 7.6 percent this year, based on preliminary data from 29 of those cities.

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly claimed that the murder rate was “the highest it’s been in 45 years.” That was wildly untrue. In fact, the murder rate had dropped to the lowest on record in 2014 — 4.4 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. And while it did rise for the next two years, it was still only 5.4 per 100,000 in 2016, just where it had been the year before Obama took office, and far below the peak rate of 10.2 reached in 1980.

In Trump’s first year, the murder rate dropped down a notch to 5.3 per 100,000 population — still higher than in each of the first seven years under Obama.

Coal and Environment

Coal Mining Jobs  — As a candidate, Trump promised to “put our [coal] miners back to work,” but so far not many have regained their jobs.

A total of 35,700 coal mining jobs disappeared during the Obama years, but as of September, only 1,900 of them had come back under Trump, according to BLS figures. That’s 5.3 percent of the coal mining jobs lost during the Obama years.

The outlook for coal miners remains bleak. The Energy Information Administration currently projects that U.S. coal production will decline 2 percent this year, and by another 2 percent in 2019. EIA expects there will be less demand for exports, and increased use of natural gas to generate electricity.

Carbon Emissions — Carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption have started edging up under Trump, after falling for years under Obama.

Revised figures from the Energy Information Administration show CO2 emissions at first fell by 0.8 percent in 2017, less than the 1.6 percent decline in Obama’s final year. They fell by a total of 14.3 percent between 2007 and 2017, due mainly to electric utilities shifting away from coal-fired plants in favor of cheaper, cleaner natural gas, as well as solar and wind power.

But that downward trend that slowed sharply in Trump’s first year has now reversed entirely. Emissions during the most recent 12 months on record, ending in June 2018, were 0.8 percent higher than in all of 2016.

And the rise is expected to continue. EIA predicted in October that CO2 emissions will increase by 2.2 percent for all of 2018, compared with 2017. “This increase largely reflects higher natural gas consumption because of a colder winter and a warmer summer than in 2017,” EIA said. These projections are sensitive to changes in weather, economic growth and energy prices — all difficult to forecast.

Border Security

Illegal border crossings declined under Trump, dropping sharply at first but lately rising again to nearly where they were the year before he took office.

The number of people caught while illegally trying to cross the U.S. border with Mexico each month plunged to a low of 11,127 in April of last year, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But since then, the number has more than tripled, hitting 37,544 in August, the most recent month on record.

So far in 2018, the monthly average is 33,942, which is just 8 percent below the monthly average of 36,912 in 2016.

Corporate Profits

After-tax corporate profits are running at a record level under Trump. During the second quarter of 2018, they hit an annual rate of $1.96 trillion, the best quarter ever recorded. The current rate is 13 percent higher than the full year figure for 2016.

These annual and quarterly estimates originate with the Bureau of Economic Analysis (see line 45).

In our July update, we reported that full-year profits also set a record in 2017, but that’s no longer the case. After we posted that update, BEA on July 27 revised its GDP figures (of which corporate profits are one element) going back to 1929. As currently estimated, the $1.83 trillion in profits in 2017 was an increase of 5.4 percent over 2016, but still just shy of the $1.86 trillion now recorded for 2014 — the current full-year record.

After-tax profits are getting a boost this year from the tax cut Trump signed into law Dec. 22, dropping the top federal tax rate on corporate income to 21 percent, from 35 percent.

Stock Market

Stock prices continued their long rise under Trump, setting record after record — only to see much of the gain erased in a huge two-day sell-off just before we posted this article.

Despite the recent market tumble, at the close on Oct. 11 the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock average was 20.5 percent higher than it was on the last trading day before Trump’s inauguration, and only 6.7 percent below the most recent record high set on Oct. 3.

Other indexes rose even more. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, made up of 30 large corporations, was up nearly 27 percent under Trump. And the NASDAQ Composite index, made up of more than 3,000 companies, was 32 percent higher than before Trump took office.

The bull market that began in 2009, at the depths of the Great Recession, passed its ninth anniversary in March and on Aug. 22 was widely proclaimed to be the longest-running bull market in modern financial history. By this common measure (with which some quibble), it would require a 20 percent drop from the Oct. 3 high to end the historic bull run and qualify as a new bear market.

Wages and Inflation

The upward trend in real wages continued under Trump, even as prices rose a bit faster.

CPI —  The Consumer Price Index rose 3.3 percent during Trump’s first 20 months (through September of this year), continuing a long period of historically low inflation.

In the most recent 12-month period, the CPI rose 2.3 percent. The CPI rose an average of 1.8 percent each year of the Obama presidency (measured as the 12-month change ending each January), and an average of 2.4 percent during each of George W. Bush’s years.

Wages — Wage increases continued to outpace inflation, and so the purchasing power of weekly paychecks rose. The average weekly earnings of all private-sector workers, in “real” (inflation-adjusted) terms, rose 1.8 percent during Trump’s first 20 months, after going up 4.0 percent during Obama’s eight years.

Those figures are for all private-sector workers, including managers and supervisors.

For rank-and-file production and nonsupervisory workers (who make up 82 percent of all private-sector workers), real weekly earnings have gone up 1.6 percent so far under Trump, after rising 3.7 percent during Obama’s eight years.

Consumer Sentiment

Consumer confidence in the economy soared after Trump’s election, to the highest it has been in over a decade.

The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers reported that its Index of Consumer Sentiment hit 101.4 in March, the highest since January 2004, a month marked by general euphoria following the capture of Saddam Hussein.

A separate survey of consumer confidence, conducted for the Conference Board, reached what it said was an 18-year high in September. (The Conference Board’s historical figures are proprietary, and not publicly available.)

The Michigan survey’s confidence figure has remained high, and most recently was 100.1 in September, topping 100 for yet a third time since 2004. The highest point between Obama’s inauguration and Trump’s election was 98.1 in January 2015.

The Michigan survey’s chief economist, Richard Curtin, said the latest results indicate the economy “has now benefited nearly all population subgroups,” adding: “Consumers anticipated continued growth in the economy and expected the unemployment rate to continue to slowly decline during the year ahead.”

Home Prices and Ownership

Home Prices — Home prices soared to record levels under Trump.

The most recent sales figures from the National Association of Realtors show the national median price of an existing, single-family home sold in August was $267,300. Earlier, in June, the average price hit $276,500 — the highest ever recorded — but prices fell back a bit in July and August. .

The August average is still $38,600 higher than the median price of $228,700 for homes sold during the month Trump took office — a gain in value of 16.9 percent. The rise in the Consumer Price Index during the same period was 3.2 percent.

The Realtors figures reflect raw sales prices without attempting to adjust for such factors as variations in the size, location, age or condition of the homes sold in a given month or year. Even so, a similar pattern emerges from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, which compares sales prices of similar homes and seeks to measure changes in the total value of all existing single-family housing stock.

The Case-Shiller index for July sales also was a record high, and was 11.1 percent higher than where it stood in the month Trump took office.

Whichever way you measure it, homeowners have seen the value of their houses rise dramatically since Trump took office.

Homeownership — Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who own their homes has continued to recover from a years-long slide, gaining 0.6 percentage points since Trump took office.

The homeownership rate began to slide in 2004 after peaking at 69.2 percent of households for two quarters. It hit bottom in the second quarter of 2016 at 62.9 percent — the lowest point in more than half a century, and tied for the lowest on record.

The rate recovered 0.8 points before Trump took office, and has gone up another 0.6 points since then, reaching 64.3 percent in the second quarter of 2018, according to the most recent Census Bureau figures.

Trade

The trade deficit that Trump promised to reduce grew larger instead.

The most recent government figures show that the total U.S. trade deficit in goods and services during the most recent 12 months on record, ending in August, was $583 billion. That’s 16.2 percent larger than in 2016.

That increase came despite a 6.6 percent one-month drop in May, to the lowest monthly deficit since October 2016, before Trump was elected. But this drop proved to be temporary, as it was driven by a surge in exports led by soybeans and commercial aircraft. Exporters rushed to beat the punitive tariffs (import taxes) that China had promised to impose (and later did) in retaliation for Trump’s proposed taxes on what the U.S. buys from China.

China — The goods-and-services trade deficit with China grew at a similar clip, up by 13.7 percent between 2016 and the most recent 12 months on record, ending in June, when it hit nearly $351 billion. (Country-by-country trade figures for goods and services are available only on a quarterly basis.)

Trump has initiated a full-scale trade conflict with China, threatening to impose taxes on practically everything the U.S. imports from China. The first tariffs took effect at 12:01 a.m. on July 6, prompting China to retaliate with increased tariffs on $34 billion in U.S. goods. There is as yet no negotiated solution in sight. But on Oct. 11, news reports said Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, had agreed to meet personally in November to discuss a way forward.

Asked if his tariffs are working, Trump said on Sept. 18, “Well, we just started,” adding: “[T]his is a process. It takes a little time. ”

Mexico — Meanwhile, the much smaller trade deficit in goods and services with Mexico totaled nearly $70 billion during the 12 months ending in June, an increase of 11.9 percent compared with 2016.

Canada — The trade surplus that the U.S. runs with Canada grew just a bit smaller under Trump. The trade balance was positive by $6.5 billion during the 12 months ending in June — meaning that the U.S. sold that much more in goods and services to Canada than it bought from that country. That surplus is 11.8 percent smaller than it was in 2016.

On Aug. 27 the president announced he had reached a tentative new trade agreement with Mexico, and on Oct. 1, he  announced that Canada had joined. Renegotiating the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement had been a key campaign promise. The new agreement will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is expected to be signed by leaders of the three countries within 60 days, but requires approval by Congress before it can take effect.

Health Insurance Coverage

The number of people lacking health insurance has barely changed under Trump, but millions are expected to drop or lose coverage next year and in subsequent years.

The most recent report from the National Health Interview Survey estimates that 28.3 million people were uninsured during the first three months of 2018, about 300,000 fewerthan in 2016. Only 8.8 percent of the population lacked health coverage during that time, down from 9.0 percent during Obama’s last year.

That’s a reversal of the trend in Trump’s first year, when the number who lacked coverage rose by 700,000, according to the NHIC, and by 491,000, according to recently released Census figures. Both NHIC and Census said the increase measured in 2017 was not statistically significant.

Census and NHIC use slightly different definitions and methods to measure the uninsured. We feature the NHIC figures because they are released every three months, and are thus more timely than the annual Census tally.

Trump failed to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act as he promised to do. But in December, he signed a tax bill that will end Obamacare’s tax penalty for people who fail to obtain coverage. At that point, Trump told reporters that “Obamacare is finished. It’s dead. It’s gone.” But that’s not so; the mandate penalty remains in effect until 2019, and the sale of subsidized insurance on Healthcare.gov and state exchanges remains indefinitely.

So the big impact is expected later. According to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the end of the mandate penalty next year will cause 4 million people to lose or drop coverage in 2019, rising to 12 million two years later and 13 million in 2025.

CBO said that ending the mandate would cause average policy premiums for those buying individual policies to rise 10 percent in most years. “[H]ealthier people would be less likely to obtain insurance and … the resulting increases in premiums would cause more people to not purchase insurance,” CBO said.

Food Stamps

The number of food stamp recipients went down under Trump — even as he proposed to cut the program and to move it to a newly named “Department of Health and Public Welfare.”

As of July, the most recent month for which figures are available, 38.9 million people were receiving the aid, the lowest number since November 2009. The number has gone down nearly 3.8 million, or 8.8 percent, since January 2017, when Trump took office.

The number generally has been going down since peaking at nearly 47.8 million in December 2012, as the economy recovered from the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The numbers jumped up in August, September and October last year as part of the federal government’s disaster relief efforts following Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and after wildfires in eight Western states. But that increase proved to be a temporary blip in the downward trend.

Judiciary Appointments

Trump is putting his mark on the federal courts — from top to bottom — more quickly than Obama was able to do in his first two years.

Supreme Court — So far Trump has won Senate confirmation for two Supreme Court nominees, Justice Neil Gorsuch and, on Oct. 6, Brett M. Kavanaugh. Obama also was able to fill two high court vacancies during his first two years in office, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

But the Kavanaugh nomination to fill the vacancy created by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement is significant because Justice Kavanaugh may move the court to the right. He is considered more conservative than Kennedy, who sometimes sided with the liberal justices to provide deciding votes on issues including gay rights, abortion, capital punishment and affirmative action.

Court of Appeals — Trump also has won confirmation for 26 U.S. Court of Appeals judges. That total compares with only 11 for Obama at the same point in his first term.

District Court — Trump also has won confirmation for 41 of his nominees to be federal District Court judges, exceeding the 30 for whom Obama had won confirmation at the same point in his presidency.

Even before Kavanaugh’s confirmation, USA Today called this early success in winning judicial confirmations “perhaps Trump’s most significant achievement” to date. However, responsibility must be shared with the Republican leadership of the Senate, which not only refused to consider Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy eventually filled by Trump’s appointee Gorsuch, but also blocked confirmation of dozens of Obama’s nominees to lower courts. Trump inherited 17 Court of Appeals vacancies, for example, including seven that had Obama nominees pending and that expired at the time Trump took office.

Federal Debt and Deficits

Trump inherited rising federal debt and deficits, and his tax cut and spending increases are making both rise faster.

The federal debt held by the public stood at nearly $15.8 trillion at the last count on Oct. 10 — nearly $1.4 trillion higher than when he took office. That’s a 9.4 percent increase under Trump. And that figure will go up even more quickly in coming years unless Trump and Congress impose massive spending cuts, or reverse course and increase taxes.

The annual federal deficit for fiscal year 2017 (which was largely the result of spending and taxes set under Obama) was nearly $666 billion, up from just under $586 billion the year before.

And now Trump’s cuts in corporate and individual income tax rates — as well as the bipartisan spending deal he signed Feb. 9 — are causing the red ink to gush even faster than it did before. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects the deficit for fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30, will be around $782 billion when the Treasury Department completes its final tabulation. That’s an increase of $116 billion from the previous fiscal year. Corporate income tax receipts alone fell by $92 billion, CBO estimated.

CBO now estimates that the deficit will continue rising for the foreseeable future, exceeding $1 trillion annually starting in FY2020. (Baseline deficit projections are in Table 1, page 2.) Further, CBO said on June 29 that under current law, federal deficits will continue growing for the next 30 years, “reaching the highest level of debt relative to GDP in the nation’s history by far.” CBO projected that under current law, debt would reach 152 percent of the nation’s total annual economic output by 2048 — up from 78 percent currently.

Oil Production and Imports

U.S. crude oil production resumed its upward trend under Trump, rising 14.7 percent during the most recent 12 months on record (ending in July), compared with all of 2016.

Domestic oil production has increased every year since 2008, except for a 6.1 percent drop in 2016 after prices plunged to below $30 a barrel, from more than $100 in 2014. The price returned to more than $50 a barrel by the end of 2016 and has hovered around $70 for many weeks, prompting increased drilling and production.

As a result, the trend to reduce reliance on foreign oil also resumed. The U.S. imported only 15 percent of its oil and petroleum products during the first eight months of 2018, down from 24.4 percent in all of 2016.

Dependence on imports peaked in 2005, when the U.S. imported 60.3 percent of its petroleum, and it has declined every year since except for 2016, when it ticked up by 0.3 percentage points.

U.S. Image Abroad

The U.S. image abroad continues to suffer under Trump.

Polling this year in 25 countries by the Pew Research Center shows those saying they have a favorable view of the United States is down in country after country, compared with the end of the Obama presidency.

Not surprisingly, one of the worst declines is among Mexicans, whom Trump said he would bill for his promised border wall. Only 32 percent of Mexicans now view the U.S. favorably, down by a full 34 percentage points under Trump. (See table on page 18.)

To the north, only 39 percent of Canadians view the U.S. favorably, down 26 percentage points. Among NATO allies, the U.S. favorability rating dropped 27 points among Germans, to 30 percent. It is down 25 points among the French, to 38 percent, is down 31 percent among the Dutch, to 34 percent, and is down 11 points among the British, only half of whom now view the U.S. favorably.

Sixty-seven percent of Japanese still view the U.S. favorably, but even that figure is down 5 points from where it was under Obama. And 83 percent of Israelis still view the U.S. favorably, up 2 points from the end of Obama’s time.

The only big improvement was among Russians, but even that gain is fading. Last year, Pew’s polling found 41 percent of Russians viewed the U.S. favorably, an increase of 26 points in Trump’s first year. But a year later, Pew’s polling now shows only 26 percent of Russians view the U.S. favorably — the lowest of all 25 countries surveyed — a gain of only 11 points.

[wipbigbang]

2020 Schedule + FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm CST. Convert time zones.

We also have a Google calendar you can subscribe to with the schedule.

Sign-ups Begin- April 30th Sign-ups Close- May 9th Check In #1- May 16th Check In #2- May 30th Snippets Due- June 13th Art Claims Begin- June 17th Check In #3- June 27th Check In #4- July 11th Rough Drafts Due- July 25th Posting Claims Begin- July 29th Check In #5- August 1st Posting Claims Ends- August 8th Final Drafts/Art Due- August 15th Posting Starts- August 15th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them! Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID. Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails. However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly. Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words, but the sky's the limit, right? What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. Just bear in mind that original work is only allowed on AO3 if it has a fannish connection and might make it hard for artists to work with. But we'll make a dedicated post for that if there will be any. What are 'Check Ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like. What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap. What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Also, we've enabled moderated posting to the comm (Livejournal and Dreamwidth) for members. We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date. If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue. How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be three fics, plus art, posting per day between August 15th and September 30th. The post with date claims will go up on July 29th and you'll have to choose your date by August 8th. If you want to post your story in chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post), you may do so starting August 8th. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm. Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt! What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. And on until all stories are claimed for art. If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system. Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by June 13th. What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang! If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you. Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by June 13th (if at all possible). Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you. Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang. I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.