#then medication conundrum

[nd-babblinggoblinfromthevoid]

So medication from the ER was sent to my pharmacy, unknowingly right before they closed... for the weekend.

So I managed to find ONE pharmacy open today. Called the ER back. They changed where they sent the scripts. All good. Until.

Husband became too sick to drive up to grab them. I called my grandmother (who I REALLY did not want to bother) to ask if she had free time/energy today for such a task.

She did, bless her, and told me she would throw herself together once we hung up and she'd go get it. While I was on that call, I had missed a call from my mother. So I called her back.

She was out and about, and happened to be right up the street from said pharmacy. So SHE said she could grab it. So we got off the phone and I called my grandma back, to let her know hey this worked out!! All was well.

Mom drove through, got my meds, and was going to head my way. Then her car started making sudden, loud, concerning noises. She called her husband (who's a mechanic) and he instructed her to go straight home.

She called me to let me know. I told her about the brief plan for grandma to do it so I'd ask if she was STILL willing/able. Called her. We just. Laughed. Cuz what else could we do about this ridiculousness.

Grandma picked up my meds from mom, and is now on her way to us.

*exasperated sigh*

We cannot catch a break apparently!!!

(Btw thermostat still hasn't been replaced partly due to all this sickness and partly because I guess we can't actually do it afterall?? Has to be the tech?? Idk. Idc at this point. Just want the house, and our bodies, to be working again T_T )

[9w1ft]

Don't you find the strict rules of society in Japan overwhelming for you and the kids?

not one bit

[jevilowo]

FUN FACT

Ms Pauling can be seen in the background of MEET THE MEDIC at 0:56 and 1:22 (thank u tf2 wiki). Spooky.

[some-assholes-familiar]

God, did anyone else in the trans community get hit with the “All or Nothing” Facebook parent conundrum when trying to get family to call you by a new name / pronouns?

[creaturesgrin]

actually now that i think abt it. i'm tempted to not apply for these jobs because i was actually able to get state health insurance. i could lose it and possibly not have insurance if i get one of these jobs. shit

[geraskier]

developing rough hands--calloused around the knuckles, dry from handwashing+refrigerated workspace, scaly fingertips. but i regularly move 40 pound crates around that refrigerated workspace. but i can't lift stuff above my head too much! if i don't take my midodrine in the morning i can't really raise my arms up without feeling a head rush. slinging 10 pound gallons of milk into wire shelving at an apparently impressive pace. bruised and scraped knuckles from poor spatial awareness. i cannot afford to move carelessly or i *will* hurt myself. however, i am so stubborn and used to ignoring pain that i can push myself extremely hard in the short term. if i don't wear braces at work my wrists buckle.

[violentdevotion]

it's so over

[si-cucumber]

So I've been having real bad heel/foot pain to the point where I am now struggling to walk without my cane. I know I gotta get it checked out but like....

How much we wanna bet they just tell me to lose weight and be on my way lmao

[kraniumet]

soooo funny to experience a collection of debilitating symptoms that without fail make people say "oh. that's a physical manifestation of stress 👍". I'm not stressed I'm a chill dude

[ostensiblyfunctional]

Dang. 2023 is not AO3's year at all, is it. This is like, what, the third or fourth time this year that I've gotten politely told to come back and read later, our servers are currently buffering like a YouTube video with bad bars. And this time I've even gotten forcibly logged out.

I'm not mad! I know better. I have other things to do than rage at what is an inconvenience to me and a horrible day for AO3. But…dang. People need to chill the hell out and give these poor people a rest

[bunny584]

OBSESSED: SHOKO (feat. The Boys)

A/N: This took an entirely different route than I expected when I first started dribbling it. This was a fun one 🤭

C/W: Cuckholding, Mature, 18+

Fact: You are the hottest woman alive.

Fact: Shoko is no better than a man.

Shoko is no better than a man because she has used you — your pictures, your smile, your tight hugs — as her personal spank bank.

Truthfully, she can’t really pinpoint the moment you broke her brain.

All she remembers is that there was an inflection point in time. Before meeting you. And after meeting you.

And the funniest part of it all is that you two have nothing in common.

Shoko is a sorcerer at Jujutsu Tech. You are a normie at University of Tokyo.

Shoko can count on one hand how many people she can tolerate. People flock to you in droves. And you like it.

Shoko is red wine and cigarettes. You are champagne and birthday cake.

So how the hell did a bubble gum, pretty pink, girly girl, princess work her way into Shoko’s life? And take permanent residence in a little (extremely large) part of her brain?

Not to mention the havoc you are wreaking in her heart. Whatever is left of the cold, shriveled plumbing system keeping her alive.

When was it exactly?

Shoko lights another cigarette on her short 2 mile walk home. You have a habit of making her burn through her vices.

Was it the night you went out dancing?

When the dress you wore made Shoko see God?

You grinded every part of your mind-altering curves on her, and Shoko left sopping wet. At home she immediately reached for her vibrator. Unable to look herself in the eye for a full day after that.

Or maybe it was the time you fell asleep curled up in her lap. Wearing one of her old ratty softball shirts, smelling like her shampoo. Small, rhythmic breaths flowing from your lips.

You looked like the missing puzzle piece in Shoko’s life.

No, no.

It’s definitely was the time you came barreling into her apartment with balloons and flowers and cupcakes that were too sweet. All because Shoko had finally mastered her reversed curse technique before the prodigal sons.

You can barely even grasp the concept of curses. And why would you?

A soft, gentle soul like you couldn’t muster enough negativity to form a curse.

You live in the clouds. Among the angels. You can’t see curses and yet — somehow —you’re the most supernatural person in any room.

She’s completely, fully, idiotically smitten with you.

And so is everybody else.

You pretty, unaware little thing. You have the two strongest sorcerers at Jujutsu Tech and their personal medic wrapped around your dainty fingers and you have no idea.

Suguru? He stares. Vision sharper than a hawk. He watches you talk, eat, walk, text, think. Suguru anticipates your next breath and would kiss oxygen into your mouth if he could. Even still, despite how taken he is, Suguru is the best at concealing his puppy love.

Satoru is the absolute worst.

Limitless goes off the second you step into a room. And Satoru rarely clicks off his technique otherwise. Even when it’s just Shoko or Suguru around.

He all but chains you to his body. He’s always lifting you, hugging you, carrying you, holding your hand, holding your hair. Satoru would crawl inside of your body and live there, if he could.

Then there’s Shoko.

Who seethes when anyone looks your way. But also masturbates to the thought of other people touching you.

A fucking mess of a conundrum, right?

The first time it happened was about 8 months ago. Definitely one too many glasses of Cabernet were poured. You two were gabbing on the phone. Exchanging the best and worst sex you’ve had to date.

And you. In that melodic, breathy, gossamer thin voice of yours that belongs in Heaven’s choir started saying the dirtiest things. About how cock-drunk you were. How you begged and pleaded for more. Swallowed cum like it was your only sustenance. And squirted all over your lover, only to kiss it off his face after.

Shoko touched herself until she came right then and there. On the phone. You unknowingly talking her through her one of the most satisfying orgasms of her life.

Since then it’s been a horrible habit she’s given into time and time again.

And who’s to say? Maybe it’s from constantly being in the shadows of Suguru’s Sun and Satoru’s Moon that there’s comfort in watching from the side lines?

Maybe she’s found the sweet pleasure in that pain and it’s manifested as her lust for others having their way with you? And her blind infatuation with you?

No, wait.

Not blind.

With you it’s like she has the Six Eyes. And with you, so does everyone else.

Shoko drags in a long, exasperated breath. Pausing just outside her apartment entrance, stomping out the last of her menthol.

If the time she spent mulling over you in her mind could be converted caloric energy - she’d be a supermodel by now.

Whatever.

Today’s the best day of the week. Friday.

Which means when Shoko opens her door, you’re going to be fussing about the kitchen. Cooking some kind of dessert for Movie Night.

The Boys usually trip over themselves getting to Shoko’s apartment after classes. But there’s always an idyllic 15 minutes where Shoko has you all to herself.

15 minutes in Heaven. Like she’s a damn middle school girl.

Shoko opens her door and nearly flatlines.

You’re evil.

An evil, mean, cruel tease.

You KNOW anyone with eyes would have a stroke at the site of you.

Fully bent over at the waist, rummaging through pots and pans. Not a single blemish on your silky smooth skin. Your lilac boy shorts could not BE any tighter. And of course, they’re just short enough to not cover the plump shelf of your lower ass cheeks.

Shoko’s hands start twitching. Like she’s going through withdrawal.

You pop back up with a triumphant “there it is!” An empty small pot in your hands. And Shoko thinks she’ll have to add a heart attack to her growing list of ailments.

Your matching lilac tank top is egregiously and deliciously small. The sliver of tummy between the hem of the top and waist of your shorts could bring civilizations to collapse.

Not to mention that the apartment is cold. And your nipples are so painfully responsive.

Sin.

You are sin.

Wrapped in the most beautiful frame of a woman.

“Babe!! You’re already home. I let myself in because the icing for these cupcakes takes forever to get right.”

You flash your Colgate smile, ensnaring Shoko in your trap.

“You’re going to give Satoru and Suguru a heart attack.” Her, you’re going to give her a heart attack.

“Hmm? Why do you say that?” So non-chalant. So oblivious.

Shoko gestures to your outfit. Attempting to mirror your nonchalance. But, ironically, she can feel her face tumbling down the descending shades of red.

Genuine confusion weaves though your features and she almost screams.

“Shoko please. You know they don’t see me that way!”

Everyone, gorgeous. EVERYONE. Sees you that way.

Before she could edge another word out, the familiar hum of Limitless buzzing inward splits Shoko’s thoughts in half.

Dammit, they’re early.

“Daddy’s Home!”

Satoru charges straight at you because of course he would.

“Satoru!!!” You’re a plaything in his arms. Legs tightening around his waist.

Shoko would pay an inordinate amount of money to trade places with him.

She watches through an envy-green screen. How easily Satoru spins you and tosses you on the kitchen counter. Situating himself between your soft thighs.

How would your body bounce against his hips thrusting into you?

“You have to taste this, pretty boy.”

Tsk. He’s not THAT pretty.

Both Shoko and Suguru watch through parted lips as you shove half a cupcake into Satoru’s mouth. Neither of you miss how his tongue flicks between your fingers. Or how his hips lean closer to your barely clothed flower.

He lets out an exaggerated groan. “Fucking, perfect. I could eat your cupcake..all night.”

“You perv.”

You laugh and shove Satoru back from between your legs. Then turn in Shoko’s direction.

Silently curving your index finger forward, you beckon. Both Shoko and Suguru start toward you like well-trained, love-struck pets.

“No pouting Suguru, you’re pretty too. And up next.”

And Shoko’s shoulders sink like the child who is picked last for dodge ball teams.

Her eyes trail Suguru’s back - wishing to every God she was born with a technique allowing her to take over a host’s body.

“Me next.” He settles between your legs.

Suguru, the master of subtlety. Everyone but you can pick up on the strain in his baritone.

There’s something so painfully sensual about the way he grips both of your thighs. Your skin is so smooth, so pliant under his large hands. Waiting on your fingers to invade his mouth.

How pretty would your lips look like wrapped around his fingers? Do your cheeks hollow out when you suck on something larger?

Shoko crosses her right foot over the left. As if jamming her thighs together would stop the growing pool of lust between her legs.

“Alright babe, best for last. I have something for you too.”

Suguru takes his time pulling away from the warmth of your core. And Shoko has to strap her mind to her body to keep from sprinting at you.

Eventually, she nestles between your legs and is at eye level with your pert nipples. Immediately caught in a trance. So close to her mouth.

“Blushing so much!” Your thumb pulls Shoko’s focus back to earth.

Blushing so much because she wants to watch her best friends fuck you. Then lick your cunt clean after they’re done.

“I’m not, what’s my surprise?”

“So demanding.” You giggle. Your palm takes away Shoko’s view of your perky, hard nipples.

“Open.”

Shoko’s jaw hangs at your command. Cold glass hits her lips before the full bodied, decadent Cabernet does.

Red wine. Because she hates sweets.

You’re as thoughtful as you are beautiful and everything you do is a turn on.

“Mmmm,” Shoko hums and you gift her vision back.

“Amazing, right?” You take your own sip, maintaining eye contact.

Shoko’s eyes fall to your lips. And how you roll the wine over your tongue. Savoring each drop.

How would your tongue feel rolling around her mouth? Her neck? Her nipple? What kind of sounds would you make if her tongue rolled around your petals? Your clit? What do you taste—

“Movie time?” You break Satoru, Suguru and Shoko’s daze.

All three of them scramble around you. Grabbing your cupcakes, snacks and wine to settle in on Shoko’s huge sectional couch.

You drape your body over Satoru and Suguru’s lap. A little loose limbed kitten. Shoko situates herself on the long arm of her chair.

Far enough to drown into her own spiral. Close enough to register everything you do in the the most permanent part of her mind.

You nuzzle your cheek into Suguru’s thigh. His forearm immediately drops in front of his crotch. Undoubtedly to avoid spearing you with his manhood.

“Play with my hair, Suguru?”

“Yes. Of course.”

His free hand weaves into your hair. The soft, decadent moan you exhale sent visible shudders down their spines.

Shoko’s eyes laser to Satoru’s hands. His eyes haven’t touched the screen since the movie began. His grasp encompasses your entire back thighs. Slowly gliding them up to the delicate mounds of your ass.

“God that feels amazing.”

Satoru’s Adams Apple drags along the column of his throat. “Yeah?”

“So good.”

You deepen the arch in your back and the physical restraint Satoru imposes on himself is visible.

The only person watching the movie is you.

And the room tilts on its axis the moment you melt deeper into the boys’ hands. Their names, quiet praise, seep from your lips.

Satoru and Suguru exchange hooded gazes.

As if to commiserate about how fucking hot you are. And how it’s taking active awareness of every single muscle to not do vulgar things to you.

Not even a backward glance Shoko’s way.

Again.

Leaving Shoko out of the conversation. Again.

She angrily tosses a blanket over her lap. Frustration bubbling up her throat. Her fingers clumsily fumble with her zipper. She’s pissed. Angry. Fucking jealous.

And so turned on she might crawl out of her skin if she doesn’t touch herself this goddamn second.

Shoko’s fingers are ice cold against her warm, wet clit. It’s agonizing. How incredible the pressure feels.

You look delicious. So small between their laps. Far too tiny to handle them both.

But God it would be so hot.

It would be so fucking hot. To watch you choke all over Suguru’s cock. Slobber into his lap. All while Satoru bullies his length into your soft, dewy pussy. Helpless. Overstimulated.

Getting used like the pretty Barbie doll you are.

And the way they touch you, so brazenly, in front of her.

Like Shoko’s presence isn’t even remotely threatening. She isn’t any competition for their big hands and broad shoulders. Masculine frames. That’s why she’s just sitting there. Pathetic. Rubbing herself dumb just watching.

She would be so happy, so fucking eager to lap you clean. Pet your swollen, abused folds when they’re done with you. Hump a pillow while she sucks your nipples. You’d moan and whine and squirm under her touch.

Would you beg? Or laugh at how pitiful she is? Getting off to remnants of you when the Boys have had their way?

Shoko accidentally choking on her own drool draws almost everyone’s attention to her. The hand that was molesting her sensitive bud freezes.

Suguru’s eyes flicker back down to you, sleeping beauty.

Their coordinated touch lulled you to bed. Satoru’s eyes linger on Shoko long enough to make her simmer under his gaze. She blinks back to the movie, credits now scrolling up the screen.

How long was Shoko day dreaming?

“Let’s get her to bed.” Suguru gently pulls you onto his chest. You sleepily drape your arms around his neck.

Satoru follows close behind him into Shoko’s room. Because putting the smallest little kitten to bed is a two person job.

Shoko scrambles to zip up her pants and swipe the last of her arousal on the blanket. She gets to the doorway and watches the Boys dote over you in a way that makes them slightly more endearing.

You wake up long enough to murmur goodnight. Floating your arms in the air so the boys can bring their hugs to you. Both of them place quick pecks on your forehead. Leaving you with the cutest, most content smile on your sleepy face.

At least Suguru can hold it together. He weaves out of Shoko’s room quickly.

Satoru, however, keeps stopping along the 10 foot pace to the doorway to just stare. As if a monster from your nightmares will pop up the second he leaves you alone.

Shoko snorts, arms crossing her chest. “Put it back in your pants, yes?”

“Look who is talking.” Sly grin pulls across Satoru’s perfect, blinding teeth. Shoko could punch him right now.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Ieiri. I have the fucking six eyes. What do you think I’m talking about.”

Satoru wires around Shoko’s stunned body.

He and Suguru are out of her apartment before she can bat her eyelashes 5 times.

Shoko all but sprints to the kitchen. She gulps the rest of her red wine. Something. Anything to burn Satoru’s comment out of her mind. And to put out the desperate flame between her legs.

You’re in her bed.

She’s just been masturbating watching her two best friends touch you.

One of her best friends is FULLY aware of this all.

Her hands shakenly pour another, head sized glass of Cabernet. Which is doing absolutely nothing for how lusty she feels right now. And everything to destroy her self control.

Why does she have to sit on the sidelines?

Why do they get access to you that she doesn’t?

She downs the last few drops of red wine. Storming back to her room. She’s going to confront this once and for all.

You’re strewn over her bed like a silk scarf. Rolling, tender hills of flesh. Valleys of feminine curves. Shoko grips both of your dainty wrists. Tossing you onto your back.

Sleepy groans bubble out of you. Your eyes lazily slide open. Not an ounce of concern on your face. Full of trust. Even though Shoko is glaring down at you like she wants to crawl in your skin.

“Bad dream?”

“No.” Shoko is kurt. Angry. Jealous.

“What is it?”

“I just…” Moonlight is kissing your face in the way Shoko wants to.

“T-The boys,” Your eyes flutter expectantly. Nose crinkling in fuzzy confusion.

“The-the boys always get to touch you. And pick you up. And tuck you in. And kiss you. And-and I-im just…”

“Do you want to kiss me?”

Shoko hears her heart stop beating.

What did you just ask? So casually. As if you didn’t just catapult her into another dimension.

“H-huh? What?” Shoko didn’t hear you right.

There’s no way.

“I asked if you want to kiss me.” Something other than innocence lines your voice. And it pets Shoko’s flame

“I—I uh. M-. Yes.”

“So kiss me.”

Only one second of shocked hesitation passes before Shoko crashes her lips into yours.

Of course your lips taste like this. Marshmallow soft. Cotton candy sweet. Mini explosions of pleasure surge in all directions of her body.

“God,” Shoko groans, bringing the back of your head impossibly closer to her.

Melting into the soft hills and rolls of your sweet tongue. Shoko whines into your mouth like the desperate puppy she is. She’s drunk. Intoxicated. And it has nothing to do with the wine.

Do you know that?

Have you always known?

How does anyone ever make it out of their embrace with you with their wits about them?

“Baby,” you sigh into Shoko’s swollen lips.

Her hands tremble against your waist. Twitching to explore. Dying to map every inch of your body.

She lets out little, staccato moans of protest when you pull away.

“Feel better?”

Your starry eyes sparkle between Shoko’s. Sleepy, pretty smile playing on your puffy lips.

Shoko nods wordlessly. You’ve already stolen her logic and her heart. Might as well add her voice to the list.

You place a chaste kiss on Shoko’s lips before cocooning underneath the sheets.

Like you didn’t just make her fall in love.

“Goodnight, baby.”

PART. II

[princesssmars]

victoria with lab tech reader…nsfw.

when you were approached at your basic post-grad biomedical science research program with the opportunity to "study and develop a potentially groundbreaking medication", you immediately, but politely, called bullshit. but your boss and coworkers encouraged you once they heard the pay, so you accepted.

it was…challenging to say the least.

the lab and the workers were shady as hell, not telling you any details about the company you were working for, if you were even working for a company, what exactly this medication was for, etc etc. but the pay really was good, enough to help you splurge on yourself while also saving and paying off your student loans, so you couldn’t really complain.

after about two months of great work and progress on your tasks, the leads of your team told you that one of the head donors would like to “talk about utilizing your full potential”. you were expecting further praise for your work and maybe a pay boost, not to walk into an office with the super attractive congresswoman you’d seen on tv sitting at the desk.

she has just as much mysterious charisma as she had then, keeping eye contact as she pulls out your chair, waiting for you to sit before she places herself on top of the desk, pantsuit-covered leg only a few inches from yours. she gives you a mini rundown of why she personally picked you out from your university and she's been keeping a close eye on your personal progress to develop a cure for an unknown but deadly disease you had been keeping track of.

"so that's why im here? we're working on a disease?"

"yeah, you could say that."

her smile unnerves you but you don't mention it. nor do you bring up how weird it feels that a congresswoman would be following your manic studies over a disease that only ten thousand people in the world had. you do have to reel in your ego slightly, figuring this meant that your theories were legitimate.

things are weird after that. now that you have some more hints about what you are actually doing your work starts to move along slowly, even impressing your lead with the progress you started to make.

ok, maybe a tiny little part of it was so that when victoria came in on her weekly walk-throughs she'd observe your work and give you that pretty smile of hers, maybe even a 'great job, hun' if you were lucky.

as the weeks went by and the medication came along her affection only grew in intensity, from leaving coffee at your workstation to inviting you to take lunch breaks with her. it was odd and completely unprofessional, but when those slender fingers would move one of your stray hairs back in place while telling a story you couldn't find it in yourself to care.

but then it happens - that dreaded period in any medical science where just one stupid little thing stumps you for a week. you should be used to it at this point, having been through this process since you bought your first microscope in middle school. it doesn't make it any easier to power through though, especially when you know everyone on your team is depending on you to finish up your labs.

so now you've resorted to this, three red bulls and a heap of paperwork around you while you frantically rework the math on some of the work you need to turn in. you're a few minutes away from slumping over when a loud door slam forces you upright, looking to the entryway to make eye contact with victoria.

you dont know how it happens but you go from hunched over in your chair to lying on the comfy couch in her office, a short blanket draped over your body as you drowsily explain your conundrum to the older woman. she nods along the entire time, a soft hand rubbing up and down the bare expanse of your arm while she listens to your rambling.

'what on earth are you doing?' your brain asks yourself when you shift closer to her body that's sitting next to you, head delicately resting in her lap. 'are you really going to jeopardize your career like this?' when your eyes flutter when she runs her hand over your cheek and down your neck. she leans her head down ever so slowly until her lips are just barely pressing into yours, corners pulling up when she sees you arch your back in wait for her neck action.

"but you'll figure it out for me, won't you smart girl?"

you solved the problem the next morning.

i dont even wanna write for her GIVE HER BACK TO ME

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Palantir’s NHS-stealing Big Lie

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

Capitalism's Big Lie in four words: "There is no alternative." Looters use this lie for cover, insisting that they're hard-nosed grownups living in the reality of human nature, incentives, and facts (which don't care about your feelings).

The point of "there is no alternative" is to extinguish the innovative imagination. "There is no alternative" is really "stop trying to think of alternatives, dammit." But there are always alternatives, and the only reason to demand that they be excluded from consideration is that these alternatives are manifestly superior to the looter's supposed inevitability.

Right now, there's an attempt underway to loot the NHS, the UK's single most beloved institution. The NHS has been under sustained assault for decades – budget cuts, overt and stealth privatisation, etc. But one of its crown jewels has been stubbournly resistant to being auctioned off: patient data. Not that HMG hasn't repeatedly tried to flog patient data – it's just that the public won't stand for it:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/21/nhs-data-platform-may-be-undermined-by-lack-of-public-trust-warn-campaigners

Patients – quite reasonably – do not trust the private sector to handle their sensitive medical records.

Now, this presents a real conundrum, because NHS patient data, taken as a whole, holds untold medical insights. The UK is a large and diverse country and those records in aggregate can help researchers understand the efficacy of various medicines and other interventions. Leaving that data inert and unanalysed will cost lives: in the UK, and all over the world.

For years, the stock answer to "how do we do science on NHS records without violating patient privacy?" has been "just anonymise the data." The claim is that if you replace patient names with random numbers, you can release the data to research partners without compromising patient privacy, because no one will be able to turn those numbers back into names.

It would be great if this were true, but it isn't. In theory and in practice, it is surprisingly easy to "re-identify" individuals in anonymous data-sets. To take an obvious example: we know which two dates former PM Tony Blair was given a specific treatment for a cardiac emergency, because this happened while he was in office. We also know Blair's date of birth. Check any trove of NHS data that records a person who matches those three facts and you've found Tony Blair – and all the private data contained alongside those public facts is now in the public domain, forever.

Not everyone has Tony Blair's reidentification hooks, but everyone has data in some kind of database, and those databases are continually being breached, leaked or intentionally released. A breach from a taxi service like Addison-Lee or Uber, or from Transport for London, will reveal the journeys that immediately preceded each prescription at each clinic or hospital in an "anonymous" NHS dataset, which can then be cross-referenced to databases of home addresses and workplaces. In an eyeblink, millions of Britons' records of receiving treatment for STIs or cancer can be connected with named individuals – again, forever.

Re-identification attacks are now considered inevitable; security researchers have made a sport out of seeing how little additional information they need to re-identify individuals in anonymised data-sets. A surprising number of people in any large data-set can be re-identified based on a single characteristic in the data-set.

Given all this, anonymous NHS data releases should have been ruled out years ago. Instead, NHS records are to be handed over to the US military surveillance company Palantir, a notorious human-rights abuser and supplier to the world's most disgusting authoritarian regimes. Palantir – founded by the far-right Trump bagman Peter Thiel – takes its name from the evil wizard Sauron's all-seeing orb in Lord of the Rings ("Sauron, are we the baddies?"):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/01/the-palantir-will-see-you-now/#public-private-partnership

The argument for turning over Britons' most sensitive personal data to an offshore war-crimes company is "there is no alternative." The UK needs the medical insights in those NHS records, and this is the only way to get at them.

As with every instance of "there is no alternative," this turns out to be a lie. What's more, the alternative is vastly superior to this chumocratic sell-out, was Made in Britain, and is the envy of medical researchers the world 'round. That alternative is "trusted research environments." In a new article for the Good Law Project, I describe these nigh-miraculous tools for privacy-preserving, best-of-breed medical research:

https://goodlawproject.org/cory-doctorow-health-data-it-isnt-just-palantir-or-bust/

At the outset of the covid pandemic Oxford's Ben Goldacre and his colleagues set out to perform realtime analysis of the data flooding into NHS trusts up and down the country, in order to learn more about this new disease. To do so, they created Opensafely, an open-source database that was tied into each NHS trust's own patient record systems:

https://timharford.com/2022/07/how-to-save-more-lives-and-avoid-a-privacy-apocalypse/

Opensafely has its own database query language, built on SQL, but tailored to medical research. Researchers write programs in this language to extract aggregate data from each NHS trust's servers, posing medical questions of the data without ever directly touching it. These programs are published in advance on a git server, and are preflighted on synthetic NHS data on a test server. Once the program is approved, it is sent to the main Opensafely server, which then farms out parts of the query to each NHS trust, packages up the results, and publishes them to a public repository.

This is better than "the best of both worlds." This public scientific process, with peer review and disclosure built in, allows for frequent, complex analysis of NHS data without giving a single third party access to a a single patient record, ever. Opensafely was wildly successful: in just months, Opensafely collaborators published sixty blockbuster papers in Nature – science that shaped the world's response to the pandemic.

Opensafely was so successful that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care commissioned a review of the programme with an eye to expanding it to serve as the nation's default way of conducting research on medical data:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis

This approach is cheaper, safer, and more effective than handing hundreds of millions of pounds to Palantir and hoping they will manage the impossible: anonymising data well enough that it is never re-identified. Trusted Research Environments have been endorsed by national associations of doctors and researchers as the superior alternative to giving the NHS's data to Peter Thiel or any other sharp operator seeking a public contract.

As a lifelong privacy campaigner, I find this approach nothing short of inspiring. I would love for there to be a way for publishers and researchers to glean privacy-preserving insights from public library checkouts (such a system would prove an important counter to Amazon's proprietary god's-eye view of reading habits); or BBC podcasts or streaming video viewership.

You see, there is an alternative. We don't have to choose between science and privacy, or the public interest and private gain. There's always an alternative – if there wasn't, the other side wouldn't have to continuously repeat the lie that no alternative is possible.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies

Image: Gage Skidmore (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Thiel_(51876933345).jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

[captainfantasticalright]

You’ve probably seen this newspaper-style ad for Good Omens around! The Nice and Accurate News!

It features a series of headlines that tie in with the story from the book:

ANGELS AND DEMONS WALK THE EARTH!

Top Psychic Tells You How to Spot Them!

"I SURVIVED RAIN OF FISH!" -Trout tells of miracle getaway.

And just about everything else you can read.

Also a witty conundrum about its authors:

WORLD'S FUNNIEST BOOK WRITTEN BY TWO PEOPLE WITH ONE HEAD EACH!

Top scientists have declared themselves baffled by the astounding case of these two one-headed men. Not only do they not have any limbs or vital organs in common, but they have been separated since birth-which for Terry Pratchett occurred an amazing 12 years before the birth of Neil Gaiman! Even more astonish-ingly, they have written a book together.

"The Apocalypse has never been funnier," says Clive Barker, director, author, and famed celebrity of the Gaiman and Pratchett collaboration GOOD OMENS. "Their partnership has produced a riotous romp through Revelations, brimming with blissful daftness and wry one-liners." Incredibly, while they have between them two heads, four arms, four legs, and two torsos, these medical marvels don't look anything alike! (Full story and pictures inside.)

Someone who was selling their copy said this:

“I have never seen another of these, nor can I find any information on this very, very cool addition to the book. The book itself was given to me as a gift many year[s] ago and the paper was folded inside it. The paper is in perfect shape.As I said, this was given to me many years ago and I hate to part with it”.

This ad was apparently included during the first U.S. printing of Good Omens back in 1990 (by Workman Publishing Co.) as a promotional item!

I would love to know more about it. Perhaps someone here has more of these that they’d like to share!

[copperbadge]

Well, the Small HVAC Leak that I noticed two weeks ago when changing the filter is now a Large HVAC Leak, thus solving the Adderall vs Weed conundrum. Stimulant medication it is!

The guys who installed the unit, which is still very much under warranty, were coming to look at it tomorrow morning anyway, so at least I don't have to pay Memorial Day Plumbing Emergency prices. The leak isn't so massive that a couple of towels and very judicious use of the AC can't handle it until then, but the cleanup has been a bit intensive.

I may need to bump up my plans to at least redo the bathroom floor. Maybe that'll be a big project for November. I should have the HVAC paid off by then...

[wildestdreamsblog]

Latibule IV

Pairing: Min Yoongi x Reader (Mafia/Detective AU)

Summary: In which you didn’t know who he truly was- until it was too late. Or in which he found heaven in you.

Warnings: Secret Identity, Yandere behavior, Obsessiveness, Possessiveness, Manipulative behavior, Violence, Mention of death, Disability, Sexual themes, If you’re not 18+ please, PLEASE, do not interact. Be mindful of the warnings. Let me know if I miss anything.

A/N: tysm for the overwhelming support you give to this story!! Ily all 💕

Masterlist, Latibule III

“You’re a veterinarian?” he asked in apparent disgust, his hand covering his mouth. He was looking at you with betrayal in his eyes as though you did the most heinous thing to him.

Seriously, a veterinarian? A veterinarian saved him? All along he thought you were a someone from a medical field. A human medical field.

You rolled your eyes before picking up the dog that had been cowering in fear when he stepped in the clinic uninvited. Really, it was unprompted. You didn’t know how he knew where you worked or why he was here. All you knew was that his presence was not only distracting, but it was also unwarranted. Also, what was it with him that even known predators were shaking with trepidation? Suga was all bark and no bite, you thought to yourself.

And the way he was acting was over-the-top. You bumped his shoulder as you went out of the room. “What are you doing here, my dearest and largest inconvenience in life?”

Suga followed you in your office after you handed the dog to the assistant. He of course had he audacity to plop himself down on your swivel chair as if he belonged there. You really had no energy left to deal with him. You had too much on your plate and you hadn’t really been sleeping well lately.

He looked around your office with a mask of indifference, taking in every nook and cranny. He eyed the framed photographs you had on your table, noting that the couple holding you must have been your parents. You were smiling at the camera, clutching your diploma and a bouquet of roses in your hands as your parents stood proudly beside you with their arms around you. You were smiling so wide at the camera that he subconsciously smiled. You looked good happy.

He wondered what made you so sad now.

His mind was still desperately attempting to figure out the mystery that you were. You were still young. He thought that you should be out there instead of holed up in this quiet town. You should be out there enjoying your nights instead of looking at the same damn sky every night, gazing at the stars as though it would be the last time you looked at them. It had been a while now since he entered into your life bloodied and bruised. Aside from knowing that you were an annoyingly kind person who had no qualms about putting him in his place, he knew nothing about you. You went straight home from work, as far as he knew you didn’t talk to your family, and you loved mornings and looking at the night sky.

You were a glaring conundrum, and he couldn’t separate the detective in him. He wanted to stop at nothing until he discovered every untold verity about you. Additionally, did he really want to know? Would it be the smartest thing to do?

Would he survive knowing everything?

“I was bored,” he answered with an air of nonchalance, “your house does not really provide entertainment, you know?”

You glared at him as you leaned your hands on your table, “Then leave.”

He was shaking his head slowly, “I can’t yet. You’re stuck with me until the foreseeable future.” Suga looked at the numerous frames again taking space on your desk. He couldn’t stop looking at them, his kind itching with the familiarity of who he presumed as your parents. “Seriously, angel, would you forget what they look like if you don’t have five frames on your table?”

A flash of sorrow crossed your eyes for a second before hiding it with annoyance. You marched to him, pulling him up by his thick wrists with all your might, to which he didn’t even move an inch. He was looking at you with raised brow as though in confusion to what you were trying to do. “Get up. If you’re so bored, go and look for a job. For heaven’s sake, it’s like feeding three people at the same time! Fifty percent of my salary goes to your food!”

“I’m a growing man, angel! I need to eat more-“

“You’re old! You stopped growing eons ago!”

He expertly removed your grip on him. He pulled you closer to him, his seated position still towering over you as he brought you closer to his face. His voice was deep…and enticing. “I’ll have you know that I’m only thirty-“

“No way!” you exclaimed exaggeratedly, putting your hands on his chest to stop you from completely crashing to him. “Then why don’t you act like it?”

Suga smirked. See, no one really talked to him this way. It was only ever you. All his men followed his orders. All of them dared not to cross him just because he might have maimed several people who crossed him. Cowards. Additionally, your quick wit and your personality that took no shit from anyone were a breath of fresh air for him. He could almost treat his refuge in this town as a vacation. Well, until he can return to ruling all the worlds.

Ah, you were really beautiful, he thought as he looked closely at you. Had he met you under his normal circumstances, he would have made a move on you already. But alas, this was the craziest of times in his life. He did not need any attachments to this godforsaken town.

He tilted his head, tucking your hair behind your ear. “Why, angel? How does a man my age act with a woman as beautiful as you?” he asked lowly, his voice deepened more than usual. Your heart skipped a beat at what he was asking, but you were you and he was him. And so you met his eyes, his scarred eye did nothing to lessen his beauty. If anything, his scar proved that he lived. You felt his other hand moved to the small of your back, ensuring that you stayed where he wanted you to.

“W-well. For one, a man your age should have a stable job-“

He nodded, his hand mindlessly rubbing your waist. “Got it. A stable and well-paying job.” If only you knew what he was in his life, he thought. He had a stable job in the police department and a well-paying job as the kingpin.

“-and a man your age should take care of a woman as beautiful as me. How else can you protect a woman without any means to do so? Honey, no woman would stay with you if you are incapable of providing,” you shot back with a smirk on your face thinking that he wasn’t any of the things you said.

Suga could only chuckled at what you were insinuating. He was more than capable, alright. “So, all I need to do is get a job so you won’t leave me?”

You nodded seriously. “I need a man who buys me expensive things.”

He smiled so widely at you that his adorable gums were visible. You were entertaining, he thought. He could buy you all the things you could ever wanted had he been in his normal life. If only you knew.

“Doc, are you going to the carnival later?” the office’s assistant asked as you bade her goodbye for the day. You had been working here since your arrival in this town. You thought you were extremely lucky to find someone hiring in the town as small as this was. It turned out, this was perfect for you.

You offered her a smile even though her eyes strayed to the man behind you. He looked as bored as he felt. He annoyed you into clocking out early because he was hungry. You told him straight off that he didn’t need to wait for you but if stubbornness has a name, it would be Suga.

“Is that your fiancé?” she whispered to you.

“What? No-“

“Angel,” he suddenly called you, his expression that of an innocent man and that was when you knew he was on his bullshit again. “You know it hurts me when you deny us.”

“How could you, doc?” she accused you lightly, shaking her head at you as she fully believed his horrendous act. “It’s okay. The whole town knows, anyway.”

“What?! How?”

“Well, you’re hiding someone as handsome as him. Of course the whole town will talk. It’s not like we get new people in this town, anyway.”

Before you could answer, he was pulling your workbag and you were left with no choice but to follow him. The clinic was a ten-minute walk. In a town as quiet as this was, walking was more welcome than driving. He was walking with one hand in his pocket, the other pulling your bag which made inadvertently made him carry most of the weight and all you needed to do was follow his lead.

“I’m going to the carnival later,” you quipped up, watching his reaction from behind. He didn’t even spare you a glance but you could feel the annoying smirk showing in his face.

“Is this your way of asking me to come?”

“As if,” you scoffed, looking at the other side to hide your expression. Why the fuck did you want him there with you, you thought angrily. You couldn’t deny that you did, though… “B-but, do you want to come?”

“Nope.”

Yep. Your heart sure didn’t drop at that.

You had just changed your clothes when you heard a knock. You opened the door and immediately lighted up when you saw it was your friend and the owner of the clinic. “Hey, you ready to go?”

“Yup, let me just grab my--“ you trailed off when you felt a had pulling you. Your back was plastered on his front as he regarded who technically was your boss. His face was devoid of any emotion as he looked at him with his dark eyes.  

“You are?”

“I’m…Jackson?”

“Is that a question?” he scoffed. “I’m her fiancé,” he stated with enough strength that no one would think that he wasn’t staking claim. He said it with enough force as though to ask the man in front of you who the fuck he was in your life that he had the audacity to take you from him.

Jackson glanced at you with something akin to a teasing glint in his eyes before meeting Suga’s eyes head on. “Cool. Although I heard the news, I didn’t believe that Y/N has a fiancé now.”

“Well, believe it.”

“Okaaay,” you spoke with finality before turning to Suga. “I’ll be going now-“

“I’m coming with you.”

You watched him as he took in the bright lines from the carnival. He genuinely looked like a cat as he turned his head to look at every ride and stall the carnival had. This was his first time going to a place such as this with his father never allowing him to enjoy what normal children enjoyed. He was not allowed to exist for any reason other than to serve his father’s ambition. Simple pleasures such as this was deprived from him. He wondered if this was also the reason why he grew up as depraved as he was, he thought, to never have known and feel comfort and happiness, did those things make him the greedy and twisted man that he was?

He tugged you to the side when he saw what seemed like a toy gun and lines of cans on the wall. He watched as teenagers miserably failed to knock down the required numbers of cans. He shook his head before turning to you with his palm up in expectation.

See this was why most of your budget went to him.

“No.”

He frowned grumpily, “Why not?”

“Because games like that are rigged.”

“But I want to shoot a gun…”

You strayed on the other side when you got bored watching him shoot like a lunatic. You were drawn to the small band playing on the other side of the carnival. You joined the crowd as they swayed to the sweet melodies as they sang a rendition of The One by Kodaline. A smile graced your lips as you watched an elderly couple leaned into each other as they listened to the song. It must have been nice to have someone to grow old with, you thought. It must have been comforting to have someone…but you didn’t and you couldn’t.

Not with your situation.

You were going to grow old alone. You were going to live a life of solitary and never to have anyone to call your own. Your thoughts were louder than the music. Your emotions were higher than the volume of the instrments when you felt a familiar hand pulled you. And it was as though time moved a little bit slower as he turned you around to face his towering form. His skin was glowing underneath the sea of fluorescent lights from the carnival. His long, dark hair was framing his face. He was breathing hard as he stared down at you with his equally dark eyes. Your heart beat faster when you met his eyes.

“Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been looking for you, angel,” he reprimanded with an air or worry and annoyance in his voice. He frowned, loathing the fact that he looked everywhere for you. And when he couldn’t find you, he didn’t know why it unnerved him, nor why it felt wrong to not know where you were. Or why for the first time in his life, he felt the crippling panic in his heart.

Shadows engulfed his face as he looked down at you, the light behind him made him looked like an ethereal being, one that was too dangerous to touch, yet you were preconditioned to meet him. It was the cruelest of trick that you and him were always meant to cross paths, and neither of you could avoid it.

 “Don’t just leave like that.”

And you knew right then and there, you were fucked.

-Somewhere in Seoul, South Korea-

Park Jimin walked stealthily on the narrow street, his eyes on the bodies scattered on the ground. Finally, he could feel it. This was it. He was going to know who the betrayer was.

He smirked as he stalked to the last breathing man leaning on the wall. Jimin whistled ominously, his hand on his pocket and the other holding his favorite gun nonchalantly. He smiled angelically at the dying man as he squatted down to look at him eye to eye.

“P-pl-please…” he whispered pathetically, “e-end me, s-sir. P-please-“

Jimin smiled at him before lifting the man’s chin with his gun, “It hurts, doesn’t it?” he whispered tauntingly. “I should give you the mercy you don’t deserve, right?”

“P-Pleas-“

“I will. Don’t worry,” he assured him before losing his smile all together. He was not going to leave anyone alive tonight, he thought. That was never part of the plan. “But you need to tell me who your boss is.”

And he did.

“So it’s you, huh?” Jimin whispered to himself as he walked away from the crime, his men rushing in to clean the mess.

Latibule V