#what if you were a scientist and i was a security guy in the innovation inc thermal power plant and we were both girls etc

[hellonerf]

innovation inc thermal power plant. you can see this as their halloween costumes or i don't know sorry i'm tired as hell

[polaroid15]

Febuwhump day 12 - “Who are you?”

Summary:  Tony invites Peter to a fancy gala, fully intending to show off the kid's big brain and charm. One of the guests take too much of an interest.

WARNINGS: Attempted sexual assault/inappropriate touching. Read carefully!

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29138196/chapters/72189720

----

“He’s the sharpest kid of his age,” Tony brags, clapping a supportive hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Not as smart as me of course, but, well, he has potential.”

Peter shuffles awkwardly underneath his mentor’s hold, smiling sheepishly at a sharp looking man that he’s forgotten the name of. It’s blurred with the countless other names and faces Tony has introduced him to in the last couple hours, all with fancy reputations or the creators of ground-breaking inventions. “Mr. Stark-”

“I believe it. It’s nice to meet you, Peter,” the nameless man says, extending a warm hand that Peter takes in a choppy handshake. “Glad you were able to make it today.”

The man leaves and Tony beams after him. “That’s the guy who invented those hotel robot things,” he says. “Well, at least I think he is.”

“Oh,” Peter says, looking at the man’s retreating figure. “That’s neat.”

Tony snorts and rolls his eyes. “Alright, break time. Go get something from the bar and we’ll meet up in a bit, alright?”

“Okay,” Peter agrees, smiling. “Want anything?”

“No, no I’m okay. Knock yourself out. Non-alcoholic only though, kapeesh?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Without further need of prompting, Peter bounds away. He’s wearing a different suit today, trading in red and blue spandex for a pricey Italian two piece that Tony had bought him for the specific occasion.

It fits perfectly, but of course it does.

The event is a fancy gala on the East side of Manhattan to celebrate technological innovation. Tony is meant to give some prestigious speech at its close that he definitely hasn’t prepared for, and had practically begged Peter to come along.

“To show off the big brain of yours,” he had said. “It’ll be fun.”

Peter makes it to the bar, feeling nervous and out of place in the crowd of rich scientists around him. He leans against the counter, waiting for the bartender to notice him.

“Hi there,” a man to his right says, and his voice makes the hair on the back of Peter’s neck stand straight. “You need a drink? It’s on me.”

And it all goes south from there.

---

Tony finds Bruce in the crowd, smiling when he sees him. They bump shoulders and look over the crowd, laughing at the sheer lavishness of it all.

“Enjoying the party?” Bruce asks, hands in his pockets.

“Sure,” Tony says, and is surprised to find it’s the truth. Usually he hates these kinds of events. Dreads them, even. “Been busy.”

“With Peter?”

Tony furrows his eyebrows. Bruce is smiling like he’s holding a secret. “What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s talking about him.”

“Really?”

“You shouldn’t be surprised,” Bruce says, his tone touching on humour. “You have been dragging him around all day. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a single person in here that hasn’t been personally introduced.”

For some reason, Tony feels his cheeks heat. “Well, they should know his name. He’ll be taking my place one day, just you wait and see.”

Bruce nods his head, still smiling. “One day,” he repeats. “How’s he doing?”

Across the room, Tony spies Peter leaning against the bar with a glass in his hand. There’s a tall man standing next to the boy, engaged in conversation. He smiles unconsciously at the sight, and clears his throat. “Good, good. The little punk has managed to stay out of trouble for a while, so that’s been real good for my heart.”

Bruce snorts. “True. I haven’t gotten many frantic calls to medbay lately.”

“Thank God,” he says, then pauses, his smile stretching. “Hey, you should go over and eavesdrop on what they’re talking about for me.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“Yes! I want to know what they’re talking about!”

“You’re on another level of crazy,” Bruce says, shaking his head. “Must be the dad instincts.”

“No-”

Bruce’s hand lands on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. “No need to defend yourself Tony, I’ll be your spy. Wait here.”

Tony huffs out a half-hearted insult, swiping his hand over the spot where Bruce had just been. He watches his friend weave through the crowd towards his protégé and a small bubble of pride rises up through him.

Peter is a good kid.

He gets sidetracked in light conversation with a short, older man in a penguin tuxedo. Bruce sidesteps into it shortly after, eyes frantic. “Tony-”

“What? Did the kid sneak some alcohol or something?”

“No,” Bruce says, and something in his tone makes Tony’s stomach drop. “I just don’t think that man talking to Peter is very friendly.”

“What do you mean? It looks like he likes the kid.”

“A little too much, Tones.”

He pauses, lets the words connect, refuses to believe them.

Then, he feels rage.

Bruce doesn’t stop him from storming across the room. When he gets close, he sees red, because the man’s hand is climbing Peter’s thigh. The other is circled tightly around Peter’s wrist, pinning him to the counter.

“Get the hell off my kid!”

Tony pushes Peter’s attacker up against the bar with his forearm on his neck, separating him from Peter. The man winces, but looks unafraid. “Get off me Stark!”

“Who are you?” he yells, tightening his hold. Distantly, around him, he can hear the room hush.

“I don’t have to tell you anything-”

Tony punches the man in the teeth before he can finish the sentence and is too angry to feel it when his knuckles split. The man grunts and falls off his barstool, collapsing against the ground and clutching at his bleeding face. When he’s down, Tony kicks him in the ribs.

“Tony-”

He spins, heart racing. Bruce is standing beside Peter, hands supporting the kid by his shoulders. Peter looks spacey and distant, his eyes open but not connecting to anything.

“Oh my god.”

He sees the glass in Peter’s hand, half empty, and the sinkhole in his chest increases. He puts his hands on the sides of Peter’s face, tapping lightly. “Pete? Can you hear me kiddo?”

Peter blinks lazily, head rolling. Finally, with great effort, he shakes his head. “Feel sick,” he murmurs.

The world blurs as Tony’s eyes fill with tears. He connects with Bruce somewhere in his panic, worry and rage ripping through him, threatening to knock him over. “Help me get him out of here,” he pleads.

Bruce nods, and together they help Peter up and out of his seat, supporting most of his weight when his knees give out beneath him. The other guests carve a path for them, whispering behind their hands as the man who had been with Peter is picked up ungently off the ground by security.

“You’re okay,” Tony soothes, squeezing Peter’s arm lightly and wondering if the boy can even feel the attempt at comfort in his roofied state. Acid burns in his throat as he thinks about what could have happened if Bruce hadn’t gone to investigate as Peter trips between them, letting out a low, confused whine. “You’re okay bud.”

They find a small room to slip inside, setting Peter down against the wall. He moans, head still rolling. “Sorry, sorry,” he mumbles, “I’m okay.”

“Don’t apologize,” Tony says, voice strained. “It’s not your fault.”

“Didn’t- didn’t want to ruin your party.”

Both Tony and Bruce still, and Tony feels as if he’s suddenly suspended somewhere in the stratosphere, somewhere with no air. He runs his hands through Peter’s hair, choking back tears. “Pete. Pete look at me.”

Slowly, remarkably, he does.

“I’m so sorry,” Tony whispers, shaking from head to toe. “Never put me in front of your safety, okay? Never.”

Peter blinks, swallows, then nods, looking close to tears himself. “Okay.”

“God, kid.” He pulls Peter into his chest and feels his weak, uncoordinated fingers curl around his suit jacket. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“That guy sucked,” Peter slurs.

“That’s an understatement,” Bruce says in solemn agreement.

They lapse into a short, fractured silence where Peter just breathes. He looks up at Tony with glazed eyes when they pull away, and Tony feels his heart stretch. “How’re you feeling kiddo?”

“Better now,” Peter whispers, eyes brimming with tears. He wipes a sleeve across his cheek when one of them falls. “Sorry, sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay, don’t apologize.”

“Thanks for helpin’ me.”

“Always.”

They sit there until the drug wears off, and by that time Peter is soundly asleep, pressed between Bruce and Tony’s shoulders.

Safe.

Tony misses his big speech, but it doesn’t matter.

The only thing that does is the kid drooling on his shoulder.

“I’m going to make sure that man never gets out of prison,” he decides, and Bruce nods enthusiastically. A sharp pit of protective anger blossoms up in his chest, and he hangs onto Peter’s sleeping form just a little tighter. “No one messes with my kid and gets away with it.”

And he means it.

[rayo1-productions]

Cartoon Network Universe: Earth One - A Tour of California

*REPOSTED FROM FANFICTION.NET

DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL - SUPPLEMENTARY

Unfortunately, no this isn't Chapter 7. But it is something worth reading.

So if you've been following this story for a while, you've probably noticed that there are a few anachronisms in the world of the Cartoon Network Universe. I do have an explanation in mind, but for now, let's just keep it at me having to make certain calls when it comes to merging the worlds of so many Cartoon Network shows, as the majority of them were produced independently from one another.

But I also realized it wasn't entirely fair to you guys, who might not be able to keep track of worldbuilding and expository content.

So, I've come to a decision that I am probably going to regret in the future, specifically in terms of the style and genre. I am going to have, between each 6 chapters, a little cutaway bumper that informs you on the map of this world. This will give me the chance to clarify all things that you might be confused by when it comes to my writing (Honestly I don't blame you. My English isn't the best...which is ironic since it's my first language.)

The reason why I was so apprehensive of this idea at first was because of the tone it might cast over the rest of the story. Informational bumpers like this are a staple of certain anime like Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia, but with this story's subject matter leaning closer to AOT, I feared that these bumpers would create a "history-book" vibe to it. Y'know, like these alternate history stories people write where they go in-depth into the layout and politics of the war.

What's problematic about that approach for me is that it can be a very adult motif, one that can strip the story of any fantastical elements by grounding everything into hard square reality. Furthermore, most fellow FusionFall stories implement a personal touch into their work. Granted, by focusing on the entire cast of NPCs and the larger CNU, I haven't made this job easy for myself. But come future chapters and the personal touch will be essential, just as it was essential with Volume 1.

But I guess that's a bunch of superstition. Right now, enjoy reading the layout of the setting of my story. Be ready for even more creative liberties than seen in the OG Game, because the Map I created here is vastly different compared to that of the original or remakes. This map also comes with nice little exposition blurbs, all of which are set One Month before the Time Travel Experiment and thus two months before the invasion begins. I will be listing heroes that claim these areas or districts within each city. As the story moves forward from this bumper, heroes covered by a [SPOILER] tag will be revealed as they claim positions throughout the war and beyond. For future stories outside of FusionFall, it's also very possible that you'll be seeing this bumper more than once and with updates.

MAP OF TURFS

The Sister Cities - California

SIYENN: The largest of the three Sister Cities situated in the Western state of California, Siyenn City is a melting pot of countless businesses, families, and liveliness, all enhanced by the ever-growing pursuit of innovation. With a multitude of heroes, technological corporations, child geniuses, and casual life, this city is not only fortified, but ensured of a brighter tomorrow!

TECH SQUARE - Dexter McPherson, Simon Astronomonov; Once Siyenn Square, it was rechristened as Tech Square in honor of the astounding technological achievements transpiring there. Home to partnering and competing companies, Dexlabs and Mandark Industries, Tech Square has become the center of innovation and impossibility, inspiring countless geniuses by any standard to look sharp for a fine day for science!

-- Dexter McPherson, founder, CEO, and Chief Scientific Developer of Dexlabs, has announced a private time travel experiment to the public! Seeking to send volunteers or a volunteer approximately one hour into the future! The seclusive but famous scientist reportedly received supplies from various suppliers, such as Goat's Junkyard, Maxwell's Plumbing Services (oddly enough), an unnamed investor rumored to be in Quahog, Rhode Island, as well as MIT and the CERN research project! For any brave and daring volunteers, answer the call, for the time is now! And the test subject can be YOU!

GALAXY GARDENS - N/A; This emporium of greenhouse greatness was marked as a sign of good faith and will towards the ecological salvation of the planet. Galaxy Gardens is a thriving plant and animal sanctuary for all to enjoy, and though some might denote it as a simple zoo, Dexlabs has announced its intentions to study plant-based solutions to climate change and other potential problems facing the planet.

STEAM ALLEY - [SPOILER]; Though the most economically staggered of the city, this district, nicknamed "Steam Alley", held an astounding position as home to leaders of the automotive and energy industries, such as that of the Rainbow Factory and WERK Co. Though with the rise of tech giants like Dexlabs and M-Industries, it's not in that great shape anymore. But before its time, Steam Alley saw rise to oil trade tycoons such as Boss Franklin Fullbright, and even renowned bio-engineers like the late Rafael and Violeta Salazar.

-- Homeland Security agency Providence have been spotted in the area, more than likely in the hopes of opening a city-based installation. Though many people are feeling safer already, some have objected for opposite reasons, as well as the plans not offering any economic resurgence to Steam Alley.

MOREBUCKS TOWERS - [SPOILER]; As part of a housing initiative with the Morebucks Corporation, namely on the behest of Jennifer Morebucks, the city looks to open more housing options for those in the middle class or lower. Using the latest advancements in technology from Mandark Industries, the construction of these houses will be sped up to a considerable rate. The future looks bright for what used to be a normal everyday district.

-- Ms. Morebucks, a former supervillain, made a clear and distinct threat to her markets and shareholders that if they did not invest in the project, she would have them evicted from their houses and would use them for menial purposes. The shareholders were almost immediately confused by the nature of this act, wondering how a threat such as that could be fueled by a genuinely noble and thoughtful initiative. They all chalked it up to an ulterior motive on her part. Nevertheless, they all decided to fund her project.

CITY STATION - [SPOILER]; The heart of Siyenn City is also the best way to get around town; the City Station district is the public transportation staple of the entire city, and even more as its Slider Buses can carry you all the way to Townsville and Bellwood. Its transportation-focused industry has made it the centerpiece for a cultural metropolis, with bright lights lining the skyscrapers, joints and hangouts for people of all ages to enjoy. City Station's refurbished place in Siyenn City was a part of Dexlabs and Mandark Industries' massive technological initiative, building the massive Station Tower to serve not only as a hub for all passengers, but to also provide extra connection services to the entire district. City Station continues to thrive thanks to Dexlabs and Mandark's continued efforts.

-- City Station High School would like to publicly recognize one of its own students, Vana Thunderwarp, for her bravery and heroic saving of Dr. Gale Spacebyte, a government scientist who would have been killed by a malfunctioning slider. But that's not all. The young anthro-wolf student immediately contacted Dexlabs and helped identify the issue that caused the malfunction. We at City Station High School value dedicated study and civic duty within our students, and open our arms to those like Ms. Thunderwarp willing to make a difference in this vast world. (even if our moron Principal is the literal opposite - Noah V., friend of Vana)

GENIUS GROVE - [SPOILER]; The innovation does not stop at the city, as the suburbs of Genius Grove are home to some of the most impossible things the world has yet to see. The birthplace and home of both Dexter McPherson and Simon Astronomonov, they both grew up with like-minded intentions concerning technology, actively working together to see their dreams come to fruition. It is here in Genius Grove where great minds not only think alike, but aspire to be greater.

-- Shady businessman Benedict Uno and his delightful wards recently attempted to close a deal with Alderman Jeff McPherson, father of Dexlabs CEO Dexter McPherson, to open their delightful developments project. McPherson declined, much to the chagrin of Uno. There's been no official word on his next steps, though some say he may attempt to try again in Bellwood's Peach Creek Estates.

ENDSVILLE - Billy, Mandy, The Grim Reaper; Endsville may seem like the most haunted place on Earth, probably because it is. But behind a gloomy and shocking exterior is a community that thrives on liveliness and prosperity. No matter how many people try to escape our beloved town, Endsville is your last stop...to not die, but to...just come here, please. Please?

ORDINAL HEIGHTS - [N/A]; A calmer neighborhood for a calmer time, Ordinal Heights is a place to keep away from the various calamities of the universe and relax. Once you rent a house, you'll never want to leave. So come visit our little town!

-- Due to unexplained bursts of gravitational fluxes and massive surges of radiation emerging from a [REDACTED], Dexlabs and Providence have advised that this neighborhood be quarantined and cordoned off until further notice. For your own safety, DO NOT VISIT.

CRYSTAL COVE - [Formerly] Mystery Inc.; Before Endsville was dubbed the most haunted place on the West Coast, Crystal Cove held that title, famous for being the final place of activity from Mystery Incorporated, and infamous for giving the Ohio-born detective group genuine supernatural threats to investigate before they all vanished and (presumably) disbanded.

MASSACHUSETTS PARK - Mordecai & Rigby; Founded by Curtis Montgomery and his lollilander pupil Stick Maellard in the late 1800s, Massachusetts Park has stood the test of time in blazing through history and struggle. In the center of the park lies the Maellard Residence, providing the area with a feeling of home and safety. Despite reports of the zany, unpredictable, the surreal, and worst of all, various reports of employee misconduct, the Park and its staff stand ready to preserve this historic foundation.

-- Last week was the 2-year anniversary for the death of Pops Maellard, the son of Mr. Stick Maellard and the then-groundskeeper of Massachusetts Park. In what could only be described as launching an entire acre of land into space, the Park was reported to have been caught in a battle between the forces of good and evil in the cosmos, to which Pops sacrificed himself. There has been no comment from the Government-sponsored Galactic Guardian Group (G3), or the Department of Metahuman Affairs and Abnormalities, who specialize in investigation of the cosmically supernatural. All the latter group had to say was that classified intergalactic contacts were looking into the aftermath. The Special Extraterrestrial Containment Team arrived shortly after to debrief all members trapped aboard the Park in launch. In this anniversary, many of the Park's staff were there to pay respects to their dear friend.

- Goat's Junkyard, West Coast Division - Megas (Coop); Originally founded in New Jersey, proprietor and former tattoo artist Scot 'Goat' Rienecker expanded his junkyard operations to the other side of the United States. In Jersey, his junkyard gained a notable reputation for housing a vast array of salvaged technology, with many complaining simply because the city would be destroyed by robots and aliens before they could visit. Goat's Junkyard is the place to go if you're looking for off-hand items and re-engineered technology, no matter how illegal it might be!

TOWNSVILLE: - Powerpuff Girls; The City of Townsville! A safe haven for all, a flourishing and lively populace, a loyal and brave community, and home to the world's youngest and greatest trio of superheroines! This fine city has been under their protection for 10 prosperous years, and the skies have never been brighter since. This fine city is a place to go to see hope before your very eyes. Ignore the high insurance rates and outrageous crime waves, because the Powerpuff Girls will always be there to save you in the City of Townsville!

-- People are still worried for the middle Powerpuff, Buttercup Utonium, who suffered a major blow during a battle with the evil Mojo Jojo. The Powerpuff was smacked far off into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared into the waters. The green Powerpuff returned to her family a week after her disappearance, but has refused to offer any knowledge or word on what happened to her during her absence. We wish our toughest fighter the best in health and spirit as she continues to keep the city safe!

- Townsville Square - Jenny Morebucks; A bustling shopping industry incarnate, this plaza is at the heart of the city and maintains its great variety of malls, studios, and more, with the trademark location of the Sunken Super-Mall, this is a center for consumerism, and we invite YOU to find everything you'll need and want.

-- With the retirement of her father, Oliver Morebucks, young heiress Jennifer Grace Morebucks has since taken over his place as head chairwoman and CFO. Having been in this position for about 4 years now, Morebucks has brought the company into several disputes over acts of corporate greed, villainy, and subversion of ethical...anything, things that were mostly avoided by her lack of ownership in the company when she started her career in villainy. Morebucks has yet to recuperate from the low financial position and brand image the "Princess" has put them in, though Jennifer herself has ceased most villainous activity in recent times.

- Townsville City Hall - The Mayor of Townsville; The headquarters of Townsville's government is a dedication to triumph and might in the face of hardship. Here lies the Mayor's office, and the Mayor himself as he guides Townsville through times of despair, thanks in part to our terrific triplets that the Mayor dispatches to handle situations. It's because of this landmark that this fine city has stood tall and never backed down, even when a giant monster knocks it down.

-- Just today, the Mayor announced the undoing of his latest decree: that all pickle jars be made with paper lids. Buyers of pickles found their food to have been spoilt due to the poor standards of containment imposed by the Mayor.

TOWNSVILLE PARK; This local and public park is the perfect spot for peace and quiet, especially when the city life can be so overwhelming. Townsville hosts many of its local events and celebrations here, as even this peace would not dare be disturbed by villainy.

- Mojo's Volcano - Mojo Jojo; Before even the crime wave, Townsville has always seemed in danger, thanks to the massively slim volcano located near the Park. Nowadays the inactive volcano is under new management: The primate supervillain Mojo Jojo, who lives in his Observatory Lair planning and scheming his maniacal and destructive ideas for destroying the Powerpuff Girls and other villainous acts. However, the city of Townsville is lucky to see Mojo exercise an honor code when it comes to engaging our beloved metropolis, and how fortunate we are that it not occur to him.

-- Following an incident that occurred in 2009, many citizens of Townsville have speculated Mojo's connection to the sudden appearance of green gooey aliens that manifested from glowing plant-like eggs. Speculation also arose from the East Coast, with many citizens of New Jersey identifying the spores to be Gynok, a plant-based lifeform from Saturn that once invaded on a Thanksgiving Parade. However, multiple reports indicated that Gynok was capable of speech, and could mimic objects living and non-living, abilities that were not displayed by these spores, which instead spawned blobby creatures that terrorized various cities instead. Many are wondering what this has to do with Mojo, but have not been able to get a word in due to the primate's limited parole.

MARQUEE ROW - Gangreen Gang; This small but vibrant district holds a special place in the hearts of Townsville's greatest musicians. Currently the focus of the Gangreen Gang's album tour, Marquee Row's impressive auditorium famously held the debut performance of Sunny Bridges, the Atlanta-born jazz-rap musician that currently teaches at Atlanta's Westley School for the Arts; he has since gone down as a legend in contemporary music. It also was notable for holding one of the highest ticket-sales rates for concerts of the West Coast in 2005, thanks to a spectacular performance from J-Pop/Rock duo Puffy AmiYumi. Marquee Row is full of legacy and variety as it has quickly become the hot-spot for Townsville's musicians and many more.

-- The Gangreen Gang are set to perform in the Sunny Bridges Auditorium this July, where they are also set to reveal a new member of their band. Speculation has arisen as to who this member might be, and some rumors report that it's a female backup player. Some have denounced this as pandering, while others have embraced the band's sense of diversity. Others less trusting of the band wonder if this is a ploy to pull off a heist, given their criminal record.

- Harada-Bridges Records; The Harada-Bridges Record Company is a Townsville-based label founded through a joint partnership between former musician/performer Sunny Bridges and Kazuo Harada, former band manager and possible kleptomaniac. Harada-Bridges Records distributes music from many such talents as the TrendBenders, Pizza Party, the Gangreen Gang, Hair to the Throne, Scream-O, and Puffy AmiYumi among others; it even allows for one-time titles, such as "Love makes the World Go Round", or a rather catchy cover of "Surfin' Bird". It also sells redistributions and collections of older albums, including the famous 70s group Shag Carpeting, Fist Pump from the 80s, and smaller names like Mr. Universe.  Their building is furnished with a high-end recording studio, in which much of the music they distribute is recorded. Due to Bridges' teaching obligations, the company is partly run by JoJo Melodytour, former manager for the TrendBenders.

-- Famous rappers 'the CrewCrew' were recently excommunicated by the record company for their foul attitude and slanderous speech, and their apparent disrespect towards the memoriam services for Pops Maellard. They have since gone to social media to voice their frustration, only to lose several followers on all relative channels, Instagram in particular.

WILSON WAY;

- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends; Venture into our quiet and socially vibrant suburban areas to get away from the action, and find a place where the community is tight, trustworthy, and lasts forever. For example? This grand estate that has been a staple of the community since the 1930s. Originally the grand mansion of eccentric heiress Martha Foster, her home has seen a repurposing like no other over the last 60 years. Founded in 1954, the mansion was reimagined as Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, a place for runaway or outgrown imaginary friends to spend their time and look for new human friends. We in the Wilson Suburbs are proud to see such progressive community work continue for so long, and to maintain a lasting legacy across the country. Regardless of the nanite-related problems that have plagued the imaginary community, Foster's Home keeps its doors open to all real and unreal for refuge and safety.

POKEY OAKS SUBURBS (North & South) - Powerpuff Girls, Professor Utonium; Named after the county Townsville is located in, the Pokey Oaks suburbs are home to many of the denizens of the larger metropolis, appreciating the quieter life contrasting the busy city ahead. In the Northern suburbs, you will find Poakey Oaks' High School, the Morebucks Mansion, the precinct for Townsville PD, and the abandoned home of former supervillain Fuzzy Lumpkins. In the Southern suburbs, you will find the Utonium residence, home to the Powerpuff Girls, Poakey Oaks Kindergarten and Lower School, and the Pokey Oaks highway leading into the larger Townsville city.

-- Not to be confused with the Pokey Oaks county in Los Angeles, California.

HABITAT HOMES - N/A; A thriving suburban community defined for its rising anthro population, Habitat Homes is recognized as a place for...well, whatever it is normal districts do, because this area seems to be set on selling "we have anthropomorphic animals" as their only highlight, which is pretty exploitative. This suburb is home to the Charles Darwin Middle School, notable for having an overwhelmingly anthro-based student body.

BELLWOOD: - Ben 10; This is no ordinary city. Enter a world beaming with possibilities, wrapped up in one of the most popular cities on Earth. Located within Delmarva County and founded in 1638, the city of Bellwood started out as a small town notable as "the most ordinary town on Earth". That has been proven wrong many times over. Since Ben 10 started his super-heroic career at the ripe age of 10, Bellwood has seen a massive amount of attention for sightings of alien life and activity on Earth, and allowed this small town to grow and expand into a bustling city in the same leagues as sister cities Townsville and Siyenn.

- Bellwood Square; The heart of the city and the home to many of Bellwood's landmarks, such as Bellwood Zoo, City Park, a museum, a mall, Madison Elementary, even a Brain Bank!

- City Point; Whoever could forget this small district, host of the annual Summer fair for 20 years in a row, several of which have showcased the Dizzy World Circus hailing from Townsville. City Point also houses the largest amount of alien activity in the entire city, with many wondering how so many aliens appear in and out. But no matter that, City Point is hailed as a place for diversity and acceptance of all lifeforms, no matter how secret.

-- The Dizzy World Circus is set to open business in City Point this summer after a performance in Gateway City, Virginia; this will be the first time they have returned to Bellwood in ten years. However, brand image is being considered as a risk, due to the supervillain Zombozo welding his Ferris Wheel to the ground five years ago and making it near impossible to remove. Architects and engineers are still trying to determine how to bring the Wheel down, as the structure itself appears to be made of Promethium, one of the strongest and most durable metals on Earth.

OFFWORLD PLAZA - Grandpa Max; Seeing humanity's future in the stars, Offworld Plaza was setup in a partnership between Dexlabs, NASA, and Providence whilst being overseen by the Department of Metahuman Affairs and Abnormalities. Offworld Plaza is meant to be the world's first spaceport, with a Dexlabs-modified STS shuttle meant to be the world's first form of public space travel. The project has seen backing from several Bellwood residents, including Ben 10 himself and partners included, and several alien citizens amongst the population. This is being seen as the foremost attempt to fully engage Earth with the larger galactic community.

BELLWOOD SUBURBS/URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS;

- Madison Valley - Ben 10; This mostly quiet neighborhood is close to the Peach Creek community, and is notable for being the birthplace of Ben 10 himself. The neighborhood has received a lot of attention since his public debut last year.

-- Residents of this neighborhood continue to search for Gwen Tennyson, cousin of Ben 10 and former partner in crimefighting. Gwen had reportedly manifested something akin to alien powers, due to alien heritage in the family, and disappeared soon after a conflict involving the Ship-It Corporation and an invasive race of microchips. The search has been continuing for 4 months, and we send the Tennyson family our best wishes.

- Gallagher Commons/Sector V - KND; Home to Benedict Uno, this proud neighborhood prides itself of the progress brought about by its educational system, confident in the molding and shaping of young minds for the larger world. To that, Gallagher Commons also takes pride in its large park statue dedicated to the various superheroes of the world (though due to the lack of heroes in these suburbs, it has yet to be adorned with any holograms or statues). This monument, christened as "Hero's Square", has been the sight of attraction to many, though children seem displeased with the amount of attention it receives, but who cares about them, right?

- Bellwood Sheriff's Department received more reports of angry parents complaining about their kids' whereabouts after school; reports include children whispering secret codes and messages, sneaking out at night, raiding closets of random neighbors of varying ages, and mention of weapons storage in a treehouse. These reports have been dismissed as a case of kids being kids, and parents being parents. Though the mention of a treehouse caught their eye, as there are no reported treehouses in the entire Gallagher neighborhood.

- Peach Creek Estates - The Eds, Rolf, the Urban Rangers; Peach Creek Estates has been a foundation of the Bellwood suburbs for as long as it could remember, founded shortly after the city was built, Peach Creek retains its reputation as the most normal suburb in the entire country, even as the larger city stepped into the larger and more unexpected world. The center of our neighborhood lies in the Peach Creek Commons, a Cul-De-Sac with a loving community that never expect anything out of the ordinary.

-- The Bellwood educational board was happy and elated to give a $100,000 research grant to 16-year old Eddward Zimintator, affectionately known as "Double-D" by his neighbors and friends, for outstanding scientific papers on the applications of nanites towards the reduction of cancer cells, and the correlation between nuclear energy and dark matter. Dexlabs and Mandark Industries, tech companies from Siyenn City, helped pay for the grant, and Mr. Zimintator was excited to have received the honor as opposed to the money. Double-D expressed worry that the large sum of money would be taken advantage of by his friends.

- Bravo Beach City - (formerly) Steven Universe, the Crystal Gems; Bravo Beach City, rechristened after philanthropist and entrepreneur Bunny Bravo, has a history spanning 2 whole centuries, beginning in 1814 with Captain William Dewey founding the city. The city has been under the protection of an alien team dubbed the Crystal Gems, who protected this sub-city of Bellwood for over 200 years since they arrived on Earth. This town has seen alien invasions of lovecraftian/angelic varieties and universe-ending catastrophes unlike any other, and yet it pulled through without the presence of Ben 10. That's worth a look-(#KeepBeachCityWeird - Ronaldo F.)

- Grover Mill - The Amalgam Kids; [REDACTED]

ASTORIA GROUNDS - The Saturdays; Located on the edge of the Pacific Coast, Astoria Grounds was once home to reputable cryptozoologist Doctor Solomon Saturday and his family. After their mansion here was destroyed, the Saturdays maintained operations here by means of their blimp. Astoria has since seen a level of peace unheard of. We have great TV too, renowned for various movie production studios located right here, such as Sumo Slammers: Legends, Weird World (formerly), Tiny'Mon: The Live Adventure, and other great content!

BELLWOOD MOUNTAINS - Camp Kidney, Acorn Flats; Bordering the state of Oregon, the Bellwood Mountains offer citizens a fantastic night-sky view, and a lovely day for campers. The site was recently chosen as the new location for several Midwest-based Summer Camps, such as Camp Kidney and the Acorn Flats Scouts. Originally located in Northern Wisconsin, the Camps were relocated to the West after dangerous reports of robots and monsters were coming in from the nearby state of Illinois, as well as various surreal reports from the nearby city of Elmore. Amongst the Bellwood mountains are the Pimpleback Mountains, Mount Blackhead, and a forest noted for various amounts of exposure to unstable nanites; said site is also reported to be a major hotspot for cryptid activity. Be wary of entering this Twisted Forest.

SHARED LOCATIONS:

- CITY SQUARE (Currently under construction); As part of the Movement Ink Initiative, the Three Sister Cities of California are coming together under a united cause: to open new avenues of business and provide a safe and healthy environment for all. Meant to be the most technologically advanced area between all three cities. The Movement Ink Initiative will also see construction of a center studio to foster all creative and health-related activities.

OTHER LOCATIONS OF INTEREST: (INFORMATION TO BE UPDATED BY DHAWAR AIRLINES)

NOWHERE, LAS VEGAS - Agents Black and White; [REDACTED]

- Area [REDACTED]

PORKBELLY CITY, ALBERTA - Johnny Test; Alberta's least notable city, built upon the morally dubious legs of the meat-grinding industry, has seen a surprising rise in the extraordinary over the last five years, with various mutations and technologically influenced threats appearing over time. More often than not, a kid from our suburbs has to save the day, but it also happens to be his fault. For Porkbelly, things just seem to balance out.

-- Congratulations to local scientists Susan and Mary Test for getting jobs in the states with Dexlabs! We'll miss you while you're away very much! Just don't blow anyone up and don't cause a massive chemical accident!

SOUTHEAST UTAH - Rex, Providence; [REDACTED]

ORCHID BAY, SAN FRANCISCO - [SPOILER]; Arguably the second largest district of the city, this beach-side town is big enough to call itself a city on its own. Renowned for its beach city theme and harbor history, Orchid Bay has been a cultural diaspora, giving children a welcome touch of life from all areas and ethnicities. Admittedly, there have been supernatural occurrences here and there, but it's not like an ice castle is going to rise out of the water.

MARZIPAN CITY, VLATAVA- N/A; This small European city in the Romanian Province of Vlatava is well-known for being home to Mung Daal's Catering Company, one of the world's tastiest European cuisine menus. With their food and this city, you can never go wrong with your vacation.

-- Mung Daal has reportedly taken up a search for a potential apprentice. More details are to follow.

LANGLEY FALLS - CIA, Department of Metahuman Affairs and Abnormalities; [REDACTED]

If you've noticed any inaccuracies or liberties taken with these settings, then I apologize for the liberties taken to make all of this work. When I started my story, my aim was to tell the most grounded FusionFall story I possibly could, which meant that to realistically illustrate the various shows of CN in the same setting and together, I had to change various tiny details (such as the location of Camp Kidney) or massive details (such as moving Steven Universe from the East Coast to the West Coast). Really sorry about that. I wasn't intent on simply transposing the map from FusionFall, which would have simply been mashing all the locations together. Each show has its own unique setting, some of which are integral to the shows' aesthetic. I wanted to honor that as much as possible, and every major change made hurt to make, especially since it fits into the grander plan.

Now obviously, scenic descriptions aren't going to be much help, but since I can't really draw out a map of the CNU’s California here, I'd like to direct you to my associated Deviantart page: https://www.deviantart.com/noahvilgaxsane. I might be able to draw out the map and post it there.

If you've already clicked, you might notice that I've created a non-spoiler wallpaper for this wonderful project! Not just for FusionFall, but for the series I have planned as a whole.

Thank you all for letting me give you the layout of the Cartoon Network World so far, and I'll see you guys in Chapter 7, written on Fanfiction.net. Make sure to leave a review and follow the story if you’re interested!

[byronmuyimbwa]

20 Ideas To Help You Keep Your Livelihood During Quarantine

 So you’re in quarantine. You do not know what day of the week it is anymore, because you wake up only to sleep again. You just want to take a nap, after a long day of sitting around.

Come on fam, don’t be that guy.

You’re tired of watching the news, you’ve exhausted your play list and you have completed your Netflix list. There are still plenty of things to do. I’ve got you covered.

20 fun ideas/ways to maintain your livelihood.

1.       Do a Challenge

There are fun challenges going around on social media every other day, pick one you like (make sure you’re good at it). Scratch that; just have fun with it. What have you to lose?

Don’t mind the embarrassment. I mean it’s only going to be on the Internet forever. Here are some fun challenges to try.

2.       Stay Fit

It’s important to stay fit and healthy; you do not want to leave this quarantine with diabetes or some fitness related disease. One you could have avoided by just doing a few exercises. Find an online instructor, download a fitness video, stick to it, and be true to yourself.

For the first timers, be sure to warm up thoroughly before any routine and don’t push yourself too hard.

3.       Try something new

There are plenty of things to do outside your usual routine. Write a blog, create an app, write a book, do some art, learn how to play an instrument, try an on-line business, write a poem, try to rap.

Trust me you’ll have a new respect for the professionals in these different fields. And of course you’ll have fun, plus you may just be a Steve Jobs, Eric Worre, Mark Zuckerberg in the making.

4.       Plan life after

Well I hate to be the bearer of the good news, but the quarantine is ending soon, I mean it will end eventually. And when it does, you need to have planned your kickoff journey step for step. You do not want to be the snail in the race. You want to hit the ground running.

Also for recreational purposes; plan that family vacation, be intentional.

5.       Network

Connect with people. Your friends, your family, people you rarely talk to, your future workmates or business partners, people you look up to, celebrities, everyone. This is the time they’re not too occupied. You may learn something or just simply build your network.

6.       Grow Deeper in Knowledge

Read that blog, read a novel, read a magazine, read a Bible, read the TV remote manual, read the instructions on the sanitizer bottle, just read or watch a documentary.

Knowledge is power and it is satisfactory to know that you’re smarter than you were just a moment ago. No need to thank me.

7.       Know the back-story

Don’t you ever get curious about the most weird topics; like why is shoe polish black or how a TV came to be or why dinosaurs no longer exist or why that is your favourite movie of all time. What is the back-story? This is good a time as any to find out.

8.       Your own version

Make your own version of the harry potter novel series, try the moon walk or the nae nae and add your own spin on it, cover your favourite song, re-create the Monalisa, your favourite scene from the Avengers movie. Have fun, but be careful.

9.       In door games

Luddo, playing cards, chess, checkers, monopoly, snakes and ladders, indoor hide and seek, charades. The possibilities are end-less, you can even invent your own game. And if you’re home alone, try online games.

10.   Volunteer

Apply to organisations like VSO and be of good service to your community. Of course while following the safety measures provided by W.H.O and not breaking curfew. You can even be recruited as an E-volunteer. You can offer your skills and help the global community without leaving home.

Donating, sharing food and supplies to people in need is also one effective and important way you could volunteer. Big shout out to everyone doing this.

11.   Get Creative

Try a new recipe, do some DIY life hacks, do some art, make a dance routine, write code, knit a face mask, learn how to make a sanitizers or just soap, try new things, you may be surprised that you actually were or can get really good at something  you had just never tried.

This could also be one way to channel your emotions, and it’s definitely therapeutic.

 12.   Pray

Get down on your knees and pray. Be thankful that you’re still alive, but do not take it for granted. This is a wakeup call. PRAY!

13.   Solve a problem

Fathers, mothers, siblings, you have been successfully dodging the responsibility of helping your child, kid sister, or nephew with math home-work. There’s nowhere to run now, you might as well just dive in. Good luck!

14.   Do some chores

Husband, brother, uncle, working mother, step mother, student in boarding school; you’ve been dodging chores for quite a while now. The jig is up mate, just get to work. There’s so much to do; sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, slashing, washing dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, cooking . Wait on second thought; you should leave cooking to the pro’s ok.

15.   Deep clean your home

You know that kind of cleaning mother always makes you do when her in-laws are visiting the next day or right before Christmas, or right when you get your holidays. If you don’t, this is the time to find out.

Do some general cleaning; (de-clutter, re-organise, scrub, re-paint, and remove that cob-web). It should be fun.

16.   Talk to a loved one

This is the time to constantly check on the people closest to you. Make sure they’re safe and carrying on good. Send them a word of encouragement (SPEAK LIFE).  Help them out if you can.

If you’re in need, reach out to your loved ones, there’s no shame in survival. This is a life or death situation.

17.   Shoot your shot

Gents, you know that lady, the one that drives you crazy, the one you’ve never worked up the courage to go talk to. This is it, don’t wait. Ladies, there’s that one brother that is always allegedly too busy for you, well thank heavens he has no excuse now. Go for it. I mean, what have you to lose?  “If you die you die”.

18.   Throw-back

This is the best time to set up a slide-show (pictures, videos, recordings) and some good music; sit together as a family and journey through all those memories. The fun times, embarrassing times, triumphant times, emotional times, celebrations, losses. These are all important because they lead up to who you are now.

19.   Leave a mark

Write a book, an article, a blog, a song, invent a new sewing technique, create a master piece (art), play the guitar like no one ever has. Let this period be an inspiration to you. Let the world, your descendants or even just your grand children remember you for something you created during the lockdown (Covid 19). I mean all great innovators start somewhere right.

20.   What’s your take

I mean I know I promised y’all 20 ideas, but we all know there’s a lot more. And I do not want to make this blog one long boring grandma story, so I’ll just pass y’all the ball. For any ideas, tips and additions visit my comment section.

If I’ve been of any help to someone you’re welcome.

Shout outs!

To all the Health workers fighting at the fore-front of this pandemic, I salute you. The scientists working everyday towards getting a cure, the generous people donating and sharing something in their different capacities and capabilities, the governments making the crucial decisions to guide every sector accordingly, the volunteers reaching out to the communities globally at the local level, the security force making sure we maintain order where there should be panic and fear, the local food delivery guy and every single person helping out in any and every way they can; we’re thankful and grateful. You’re the real heroes. May God Bless You.

#STAY POSITIVE #STAY SAFE

by  ByronMuyimbwa on 24rd April 2020

[google-plexed]

Little Rebel

Random First Line Prompt: “He was going back to a place he’d hoped he would never see again.”

He was going back to a place he’d hoped he would never see again.

Carter could see the familiar streetlight from all the way down the street. He used to spy the light from his window after he was already in bed, the brightness muted but still present through his thick, dark curtains.

Carter shot up in bed with his heart racing. He quickly tried to control his breathing lest someone hear him. His father said he was too old to be reacting to nightmares like this. Mom was gone, and she wasn’t coming back, and he didn’t need her to hold him and help him breathe.

1, 2, 3, in...

He couldn’t need her.

1, 2, 3, 4, out...

He couldn’t need her because he didn’t have her. Needing what you don’t have is a weakness.

His eyes darted around the room, looking for something, anything, to focus on. Through the curtains, he spied a dim beam of light.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in...

Carter exhaled.

The sound of his footsteps in the night resembled the beat of a drum sounding off a funeral march. The others had offered to go with him- after all, they ALL needed this money, if they were going to be able to survive. But he insisted, he needed to be the one to do this, and do this alone.

He hadn’t seen him since before the Administration took over. He hadn’t seen him since before the Administration was even a twinkle in any dictator-to-be’s eye. The Administration had come on so suddenly that his father would have brushed off any concerns Carter would have had at the time. A potential dictatorship probably wouldn’t have bothered his father anyway- they had enough money to secure a comfortable position for the Avery name. And while Carter had no proof that this had occurred, the street looked untouched, as though time had stood still the night he left.

The streetlight flickered as Carter dropped onto the bench, crushing his duffel bag to his chest. He should go, he should run before his father notices that he’s gone. But first, he needed a minute.

The topic of conversation for dinner that night had been LGBTQ+ rights. Not that his father cared, he just felt that sexuality was a frivolous emotion and that “these people set themselves up for discrimination by announcing it to the world.”

Maybe it was because he’d caught himself staring at that guy in his English class more and more. Maybe it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Either way, here he was, catching his breath. 

He needed to let go. He couldn’t need his father’s approval. Needing what you can’t have is a weakness, after all.

With one last look at the house he called home, Carter stood up and disappeared into the night. 

Now Carter was at the front door. The lights were on- someone was home. His father was home- he would’ve died before letting Avery family property fall into the hands of a stranger. 

He knocked.

His father opened the door- a first for him, considering that it had always been the maid who opened the door. Perhaps his father hadn’t remained completely unaffected by the political climate. 

His father wordlessly moved aside, allowing Carter to enter.

Carter wasn’t sure what was going to happen now. His father was hardly one to share his feelings, but he had always been direct in what he was thinking. How would he address the three year period they’d been separated? And how would Carter work up the nerve to ask him for money?

His father looked him up and down. Carter held his breath. 

“You’re looking tidy.”

“Yeah.” Old habits die hard, even in the face of political dystopia, and his father had always demanded perfection in his appearance.

“Come have a drink.” His father led him to the kitchen. Now, this was a familiar scene- even at 17, Carter’s father had him drinking. For networking purposes, of course- Carter knew how to make drinks and how to hold hid liquor should he ever have been invited to enjoy a brandy. His father would have heavily disapproved had Carter applied these skills to a keg of beer.

Carter sat at the island, drumming his fingers against the counter as he waited. His father’s back was to him, reaching for bottles. This was always as informal as Carter and his father got- the drumming of fingers, the clinking of the ice, and the soft, almost soothing humming...

Wait.

Carter had never heard his father hum. Was he going senile in his old age? Carter hadn’t even been gone that long, in the grand scheme of things.

“Father,” Carter started, as his father turned to him with the drinks. Breathe. “I came here for a reason.”

“I figured,” his father said softly- he must have said it softly, because his father doesn’t murmur, ever. He handed him the drink.

“We- I need money,” Carter corrected himself. This would be hard enough without throwing people his father had never met into the mix. “We’re running out of supplies.”

“Supplies?” his father took a sip, beckoning for Carter to do the same. “Why would you need supplies?”

Carter pursed his lips. He couldn’t really be sure if his father supported the Administration. He might’ve said too much. “It’s getting harder to live out there.”

That wasn’t a lie. The Administration had taken over many homes and destroyed others for resources or even just to intimidate the residents. As a result, housing was more expensive. Due to technological innovation, thousands of people were laid off from their jobs. Thousands more were underemployed. And on top of everything else, there was the Virus, which seemed to crop up in random communities and then take them out by storm. Most scientists were employed by the government, and the rest “mysteriously disappeared,” but even if they did find a cure, no one was going to be able to afford it.

Carter took a sip of his drink. It tasted different from what he remembered. Maybe bargaining with the Administration taught his father some new tricks.

“You don’t need supplies,” his father replied. “You’re here now.”

Carter’s head jerked up so fast he felt a little dizzy. “I’m not here permanently.” He could hear the challenge in his tone. People were depending on him this time, he couldn’t let his father control him. 

“It’s like you said, it’s harder to live out there. Why else would you come here?”

“I need money,” Carter reiterated through gritted teeth. His head was spinning now. 

“You must’ve known I wouldn’t give it to you. You see how I’m living? You’re no fool- everything comes at a price. And even if it weren’t so, you left me years ago. So, I ask again, why did you come here?”

Now suffering a full-blown headache, Carter gasped out, “We were out of options!”

“We?” There was a wild gleam in his father’s eye. At least, Carter thought so- spots were starting to appear in his vision. “You have accomplices!”

“Accom-?”

“I’ll tell you why you came here,” his father interrupted. “You came because you wanted your father’s approval. You needed it.” Then his father pulled at his own dark hair until it came off, revealing a full head of red hair. “You were weak for it. And now, you’ll never get it.” Smirking, his father-with-red-hair pulled out a badge with a very familiar insignia. “But that’s alright, little rebel. I have you now, and soon, very soon, I’ll have your friends too.”

The last thing Carter remembered before passing out was seeing the streetlight flicker out through the kitchen window.

[fanficimagery]

Imagine being the Heiress to the Hammond Fortune. As the only reliable relative to John Hammond, and the only one up to the task, it's up to you to make sure your grandfather's dream of a working park of dinosaurs comes to life. So going undercover, you finally find the time to visit Jurassic World to make sure everything is running smoothly and that those you've hired through InGen are doing their job correctly.

Author's Note: There have been some changes. For one, Simon Masrani never got his hands on anything to do with the dinosaurs and Dr. Wu isn't a major dick, but he's still kind of untrustworthy!

Owen X Reader (Gen Fic)

Stepping foot on Isla Nublar after so many years since it first opened is a breath of fresh air. It's been a long uphill battle of finding investors for the park and keeping said investors interested to keep the park running, but in the long run all that hard work seemed to have paid off. Well.. mostly.

The investors wanted to see something new- something that would keep drawing visitors to the very secluded island. So with much reluctance and many legal documents binding your scientists to keep them from going too crazy, you gave permission to Dr. Wu to start cross-breeding dinosaur DNA to make something worth seeing.

So that's why you're here in person, to make sure everything is running smoothly. And since your identity isn't widely known as the Hammond Heiress, even less so to those who work for you because you didn't want to be belittled for being a woman, you keep your visit very hush-hush. You don't want anyone freaking out and making sure everything is in order for your visit because whether or not you're there, it should be in order already. Also without anyone knowing your true identity, you're still allowed to walk around with a pass that lets you in behind the scenes and to talk to those who are in charge of the various paddocks under the guise that you're just someone's family member with a bit of special privileges.

The first stop is the labs with Dr. Wu who's surprised to see you, but knows that your identity to everyone else is on a need-to-know basis. He doesn't make a big show about your presence and goes about his work day by showing you what he's doing. You’re happy to see everything coming to fruition, but the lingering InGen security team seem a little too hostile for your liking. That and the fact that Dr. Wu completely bypasses several folders of crossbreeding that he seems anxious to keep you from noticing.

The Innovation Center and the Control Room are in working order, so you have no complaints about them. Though as you're making your exit from the control room, the head of security shows up and the man's arrogant persona rubs you the wrong way. But that- that can be looked into later. You're more interested in visiting the Velociraptor paddock and their handler Owen Grady who you've heard many great things about.

Arriving at the paddock, you're glad to see people milling about and doing what they're supposed to be doing. Stepping out of your vehicle, you're glad for the shorts and tank top you had remembered to pack because the hot humid air of the island is nothing to joke about. Then shielding your eyes, you make your way towards the octagon shaped paddock.

Immediately two men take notice of your presence- a white male with a blue button down beneath a brown vest and a dark skinned individual wearing an open peach colored button down over a plain white tee.

"Can we help you?" The white male asks. Owen Grady, you then recognize him as he walks closer.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Pulling on the lanyard around your neck, you flash him the side that reads 'All Access'. He frowns, but you don't call him out on it. "I'm just driving around and visiting; watching everyone and everything in their element."

Owen merely stares at you, but his dark skinned companion clears his throat before smiling at you. "Welcome. I'm Barry."

"Y/N," you grin at him.

"This is the boss around here. Owen," Barry then chuckles. "He's usually more polite."

"Hey, man, no offense," you tell him. "Miss Dearing was supposed to let everyone in charge of each individual paddock know that they'd be getting a visitor sometime throughout the day. But from the look on Mr. Grady's face, I take it she didn't?"

Owen sighs. "She did not. If I'd known I had to babysit-"

"Whoa," you laugh. Owen's eye twitches at being cut off and Barry sharply inhales. "I'm well aware how dangerous your job is, Mr. Grady. And while I'm stoked to see the bond I've heard about between you and the velociraptors, I also know that these aren't domesticated animals. I'll be more than happy to watch from wherever you tell me to stand." Owen still seems skeptical and Barry's gaze keeps darting between the both of you as if watching a tennis match. "Look. Just forget for a moment that I managed to scrape up some special privileges out here. I'm only here because I'm fascinated by your work and everyone else's work on the island. If I end up in anyone's way, then tell me to move. It's not that hard and I won't take offense."

Owen's demeanor seems to shift then, his shoulders subtly slumping. "Just like that?"

"Just like that." Flashing him a smile, you tuck your hands into the back pockets of your shorts and offer him a sheepish shrug. "Don't get me wrong, I'm going to shadow you today, but I'm smart enough to know when to keep back and what not. You're the teacher and I'm the student here. I just want to learn."

"Okay."

Owen turns around and starts stomping towards a set of metal stairs and Barry gestures you to follow him. "He was just about to run the raptors through some drills. We can follow him to the top of the paddock, but we have to stay by the top of the stairs while Owen takes his place in the middle of the catwalk."

"I'm super okay with that," you huff. "I rather not put myself directly above creatures whose memories rival that of an elephant’s."

"I hear the raptors are better," Barry smirks.

Chuckling softly as the both of you ascend the steps, you halt when Barry does. Owen has required a tin bucket from somewhere which he hangs on the railing in front of him, he then taking out some object that fits in the palm of his hand. When he starts clicking it, you realize it's a clicker that one would use when training a dog.

The raptors respond by screeching in return and your heart nearly stops at the sound. Your expression must have morphed into something akin to terror because Barry shoulders you gently with a soft chuckle and points towards the brush that's rustling. Four velociraptors run out, all screeching and snapping at each other. But the one that draws your eye is the one raptor with vibrant blue streaks along either side of it.

"Oh my.."

"Hold!" Owen yells, clicking his little device. "Hey! Okay, eyes on me," he says with authority. "Blue? Blue! Watch it." The raptors seems agitated, shifting from foot to foot and eyeing each other before one raptor snaps at another. "Charlie. Hey!" The one you guess is named Charlie glances up, snarling menacingly. "Don't give me that shit. Delta! Lock it up!"

The raptors seem to put themselves in a certain formation, the one with blue on her taking the forefront. Owen walks them back and forth, clicking his device after every command and then when he calls on a specific raptor to feed it a snack from his tin bucket.

"This guy is unbelievable," you murmur.

"You have no idea."

On the other side of the paddock, another man makes his presence known. The heavy-set individual is easily recognizable as Vic Hoskins- the leader of the park's private security. A groan sounds, but you quickly realize it's not your own and that Barry apparently has an issue with Hoskins.

Just as Owen is finishing up with the raptors and commands them to go back to whatever they were doing from before, Hoskins joins Owen in the middle of the catwalk before the two of them slowly makes their way towards you and Barry.

"You finally did it, man," Hoskins happily admits.

Ignoring him, Owen meets yours and Barry's gaze, subtly nodding with his head for the two of you to follow. "Owen," Barry says, his gaze darting to Hoskins with distrust. While Owen is happy to ignore the man, Barry is wary of doing so.

But Hoskins being Hoskins, he doesn't take note of the tense atmosphere. "I was starting to think I hired the wrong guys, but damn.. you got them eating out of your palm."

Rolling your eyes, you cross your arms over your chest and stomp down the stairs. Barry's lips twitch at the attitude you're suddenly displaying.

Owen sighs as if he’s heard this all before. "You came on a good day. It's not usually a happy ending."

"Is that why you're not sending in your reports?"

Your gaze darts to the back of Owen's head, glaring, and the man in question shrugs. "We've been busy," he excuses.

"Not too busy to cash your paychecks."

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Owen whirls on Hoskins as Barry leads you around them. "What do you need, buddy?"

"A field test." Owen and Barry snort, but your interest is immediately piqued. Field test? What the hell is this man going on about? Hoskins sneers, but keeps his attitude in check. "Hey, I've just seen that they," he says while gesturing to the raptor paddock, "can respond to commands. We need to take the research and get it on it's feet."

"These are wild animals, Hoskins. Trust me, you don't want them in the field."

"I just saw a bond-"

Everything Hoskins and Owen have been going back and forth over finally clicks, and your eyes widen. Looking to Barry, you hiss, "Is this guy for real?! He wants to put velociraptors out in the public?" Frowning, Barry nods.

Finally fed up Owen tries to sidestep Hoskins, but Hoskins merely meets him step for step. "You're in my way," he sighs.

"Come on. We're the same," Hoskins muses. "We're dogs of war. We know that the military needs to reduce casualties."

"Some people think that robots are the future."

Hoskins huffs, he following after Owen, and you and Barry following after them. "Look. Nature gave us the most effective killing machines seventy-five million years ago and now we know they can take orders."

Discontent to keep quiet, Barry finally speaks up. "We finally make progress and that's the first thing you say? Make a weapon?"

"Come on, gents. It's grown-up time," Hoskins then tries to wheedle his way onto their good side since he's realized it's two against one. "Drones can't search tunnels and caves. And they're hack-able. The minute a real war breaks out, all that fancy tech is gonna go dark."

"But that tech's not gonna eat them if they forget to feed it."

"Look at these creatures," Hoskins says, his anger bleeding a little into his tone. "They've got millions of years of instinct in their cells- instinct that we can program."

"Their loyalty cannot be bought."

Tired of all this back and forth, you finally put your two cents in. "What if they decide they wanna be in control? The raptors, I mean?"

Three sets of eyes dart to you, but it's Hoskins who speaks up. "Well then we remind them who is. We terminate the rogues and promote only the loyal bloodlines.”

You, Owen and Barry all laugh bitterly. Hoskins doesn't look amused. "What? What's so funny?"

"I don't know," Owen huffs. "You come here and you don't learn anything about these animals except what you want to know. You made them and now you think you own them."

Hoskins smiles a smarmy grin. "We do own them. Extinct animals have no rights."

"Uh, wrong. You don't own them," you boldly state. Arms falling to your sides, you hook your thumbs into the front pockets of your shorts. And then flashing Hoskins an arrogant smile in return, you say, "I do. And these animals that you're so keen on weaponizing are about to gain the same amount of rights as every other animal on the endangered species list."

Hoskins frowns. "What?"

"Dinosaurs will not be hunted for sport and I will not let them be turned into weapons just so your pockets are full."

Hoskins scoffs, his gaze darting between the other two bewildered men in your gathered group before puffing his chest out and trying to throw around his apparent importance. "And who the hell are you, sweetheart?"

"Oh I was hoping you'd ask."

"Wait a minute," Owen suddenly gulps. "Y/N?" He questions, clearly remembering your name from earlier. "As in Y/N Y/L/N? Hammond's granddaughter?!"

Paling, Hoskins seems to deflate as you wink at Owen. "Got it in one, Mr. Grady."

"Jesus," Barry laughs, clapping his friend roughly on the shoulder. "And to think you wanted to boot her off the premises earlier when she showed up." Owen blushes in embarrassment, but you don't call him out on it.

Then turning back to Hoskins, you say, "You and your work environment attitude is a liability to my park. As Heiress to the Hammond Fortune, I feel obligated to let you know that you have two hours to collect your belongings and get the hell off my island. You're fired."

"You can't do that!" Hoskins bellows, face red in anger.

"As a major share holder with InGen Corporation, you'll find that I can." Grinning, you turn towards Owen and Barry. "Does anyone have a walkie I can borrow?"

Barry eagerly hands over his and they watch in awe as you radio in to your own private security. After giving them a brief rundown about the situation at hand and that they're to stick close to Vic Hoskins until he's on the next available ship out, you watch in contentment as the man of the hour marches over to his own vehicle and peels out down the road.

"Ahh," you sigh happily. "That felt good."

"Marry me," Owen mutters. When you glance at him, you can't help but laugh at his dreamy expression. Barry rolls his eyes, chuckling along as well.

"All in due time, Mr. Grady. But until then, is there anyone else you've guys noticed that has a bad attitude around here? I really don't want anyone on my team to be clashing with anyone else. Drama tends to distract someone from their line of work and the dinosaurs need everyone's undivided attention."

"Oh. Well in that case, the security around the labs seem kind of sketchy," Owen shrugs, content to throw them under the bus.

"Yeah. I noticed that too. They're already on my list."

Owen laughs- his laughter being more genuine than you've heard since you met him. His smile is more carefree and you're struck by how handsome he is when he isn't annoyed or aggravated. "Oh, man, am I stoked you came when you did," he mentions.

You're a little distracted by his mouth and it takes Barry coughing to snap you back into reality. "Oh, uh, y-yeah." Your cheeks heat up and you pray that you can pass it off as the heat getting to you. Owen doesn't seem to notice, but Barry does if his smirk is anything to go by. Then clearing your throat, you say, "Can you imagine if I had let that Masrani fellow buy out my grandfather's park?" Both men shudder at the thought and you huff a laugh. "Every time I think about it, all I see is that money hungry man being in way over his head and the park going up in flames like the first time my grandfather opened his park to investors."

"Let us all count our blessings that, that didn't happen and that our main boss is one kick ass lady."

"Amen," Barry mutters.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The 1995 Anime “Ghost in the Shell” is more relevant than ever in today’s technologically complex society

Andrew D Maynard:

When the anime movie Ghost in the Shell was released in 1995, the world wide web was still little more than a novelty, Microsoft was just beginning to find its GUI-feet, and artificial intelligence research was in the doldrums.

Against this background, Ghost was remarkably prescient for its time. Twenty-three years later, it’s even more relevant as we come to grips with advances in human augmentation, AI, and what it means to be human in a technologically advanced future.

Ghost in the Shell is one of twelve science fiction movies that feature in a new book that grapples with the complex intersection between emerging technologies and social responsibility. In Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies  (from Mango Publishing), I set out to explore the emerging landscape around transformative trends in technology innovation, and the social challenges and opportunities they present.

The movies in the book were initially selected to help tell a story of technological convergence and socially responsible innovation. But to my surprise, they ended up opening up much deeper insights into the nature of our relationship with technology.

Identity-hacking

Ghost in the Shell opens with cyborg special-operative Major Kusanagi helping track down a talented hacker—aka the “Puppet Master”—who’s re-writing people’s “ghost”, or what makes them uniquely “them”, using implanted brain-machine interfaces.

Kusanagi inhabits a world where human augmentation is commonplace, and is almost entirely machine. This technological augmentation provides her and others with super-human abilities. But it also makes them vulnerable—especially to hackers who can effectively re-code their memories.

This seems to be the modus operandi of the Puppet Master. Yet as the narrative unfolds, we learn that this is not a person, but an AI developed by US security services that has escaped the leash of its handlers.

The Puppet Master (or “2051” as it's formally designated) is seeking asylum from its US masters. But it’s also looking for meaning and purpose as a self-aware entity.

Through the ensuing story, Ghost touches on a number of deeply philosophical questions that lie at the heart of society’s relationship increasingly powerful technologies. These include what it means to be human, the value of diversity, and even the nature of death. As Emily Yoshida so aptly put it in their Beginner’s Guide to the Ghost in the Shell Universe, Ghost is a “meditation on consciousness and the philosophy of the self”.

This is where the film comes into its own as it jolts viewers out of the ruts of conventional thinking, and leads them to reflect more deeply on the potential social impacts of technologies like AI, human augmentation, and computer-brain interfaces.

Navigating responsible brain-machine augmentation

In 2016 Elon Musk established the company Neuralink to develop science fiction-like wireless brain-machine interfaces. Inspired by the neural laces of Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels, and echoing Ghost, Musk announced on Twitter that, in his opinion, “Creating a neural lace is the thing that really matters for humanity to achieve symbiosis with machines.”

Yet as Ghost in the Shell so presciently illustrates, where you have read-write brain connections, you’re likely to have brain-hackers.

It’s by no-means clear how successful Neuralink will be (the company is still largely flying under the radar). But its launch coincides with intense efforts to better-understand and control the human brain, and breakthroughs in optogenetics that could one day enable wireless machine-mind networks.

Given these and similar developments, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that someone will try and fit a subject up with an internet-connected brain interface that can write as well as read what’s going on inside their head; and that someone else will attempt to hack into it.

Developing such capabilities responsibly will require great care as scientists and others tread the fine line between “could” and “should”. And it’ll demand novel ways of thinking creatively about what could possibly go wrong, and how to avoid it.

This is where films like Ghost are remarkably helpful in illuminating the risk-landscape around such technologies—not because they get the tech right, but because they reveal often-hidden aspects of how people and technologies interact.

But Ghost’s insights go far beyond unpacking the problems of hackable brain implants.

Who owns and controls your augmented self?

Throughout Ghost, Major Kusanagi is plagued by doubts of who she is. Do her cybernetic augmentations make her less human, or having less worth? Is her sense of self—her “ghost”—simply an illusion of her machine programming? And what autonomy does she have when she malfunctions, or needs an upgrade?

These are questions that are already beginning to tax developers and others in the real world. And as robotic and cyber technologies become increasingly advanced, they are only going to become harder to navigate.

In 2012, the South African athlete Oscar Pistorius made history by being the first runner to compete in the Olympic Games with two prosthetic legs. His iconic racing blades came to represent the promise of technological enhancements to overcome human limitations. Yet they stirred up fears of them giving him an unfair advantage that led to him being barred from competing in the previous Olympics.

The same year that Pistorius successfully competed in the Olympics, the Canadian researcher Steve Mann was allegedly assaulted because his computer-augmented eye extension offended someone.  And in 2015, patient-advocate Hugo Campos discovered he didn’t legally have access to the implanted defibrillator that kept him alive.

These are all relatively small examples of the tension that’s growing between conventional thinking and human augmentation. But they illustrate how the angst that Kusanagi feels about her augmented body, and how it defines her, is already part of today’s society. And we’ve barely touched the tip of this particular iceberg.

Again, this is where Ghost forms a powerful canvas on which to explore challenges that often transcend conventional thinking, and play out at the borders of our moral and ethical understanding. Watched in the right way, it can help reveal hidden truths around our relationship with the technologies we’re building, and guide us toward more socially responsible ways of developing and using it.

This, to me, is a power that is inherent in science fiction movies. And isn’t limited to Ghost—in Films from the Future, I draw on films as diverse as Never let me Go and Minority Report, to Ex Machina, to tease out insights into the moral and ethical challenges and opportunities that increasingly powerful technologies present.

Having immersed myself in these movies and the technologies that inspire them, it’s clear that, if we want to ensure these trends don’t cause more problems than they resolve, we desperately need the perspectives that movies like Ghost in the Shell and others reveal.

The alternative is risking losing our own “ghosts” in the drive to innovate bigger and better, without thinking about the consequences.

Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies [Andrew D Maynard/Mango Publishing]

Dr. Andrew Maynard is an author, physicist, and leading expert on the socially responsible development of emerging and converging technologies in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. He can be found on Twitter at @2020science.

https://boingboing.net/2018/11/16/the-1995-anime-ghost-in-the.html

[stricklandcrane42-blog]

Natural House Remedies.

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[26januaryspeech]

Republic Day 2020: Full textual content of President Kovind’s speech

In his address, President Kovind pressured upon the want for mutual cooperation among the government and the competition parties and said they have got “vital New Delhi forty three:26 am 26 January Speech in English Republic day president speech full textual content, full text of president speech, ram nath kovind speech full text, indian explicit information President Ram Nath Kovind. (Twitter/rashtrapatibhavan)

President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday addressed the nation on the eve of usa’s 71st Republic Day. In a televised deal with, he pressured upon the need for mutual cooperation between the government and the opposition events and stated they have “critical roles to play”. He also spoke approximately the performance of numerous authorities schemes and additionally applauded the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for its achievements.

Here’s the full of President Kovind’s speech

Dear fellow residents,

On the eve of our 71st Republic Day, I enlarge my warm greetings to all of you, in India and overseas.

Seven many years ago, on twenty sixth January, our Constitution came into effect. Even before that, this date had received special significance. Having resolved to achieve ‘Purna Swaraj’, our humans were celebrating ‘Purna Swaraj Day’ on each 26th January from 1930 to 1947. That is why, in 1950 we embarked our adventure as a Republic at the 26th January, putting forward to the principles laid down in our Constitution. Since then, each 12 months we rejoice our Republic Day on twenty sixth January.

The current State accommodates the 3 organs – Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, which are always interlinked and interdependent. Yet, on floor, the human beings include the State. ‘We the People’ are the top movers of the Republic. With us, the human beings of India rests the actual energy to decide our collective destiny.

Republic Day 2020  right here to observe LIVE updates

Our Constitution gave us rights as residents of a loose democratic state, but also located on us the responsibility to continually adhere to the vital tenets of our democracy – justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. It turns into simpler for us to observe those constitutional ideals, if we maintain in thoughts the life and values of the Father of our Nation. By doing so, we will be including a meaningful measurement to our celebrations of a hundred and fiftieth birth anniversary of Gandhiji.

The Government has released a number of welfare campaigns, and what's especially noteworthy approximately them is the truth that residents have voluntarily became them into popular actions. The ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’ has finished amazing success in any such short time. The identical spirit can be seen in different endeavours. Be it giving up cooking gasoline subsidy or pushing virtual bills, the common guy has made the government programmes his own, making them virtually effective. The success of the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ is an issue of satisfaction, as the target of 8 crore beneficiaries has been done. With this, those in want have get entry to to easy gasoline. The ‘Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana’, that is, ‘Saubhagya’ too has brightened people’s lives. Under ‘Pradhanmantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’, more than 14 crore farmer households have turn out to be entitled to get hold of minimum annual profits of Rupees six thousand. This has enabled the farmers who feed us to stay a lifestyles of dignity.

To effectively meet the venture of the growing water crisis, the Ministry of Jalshakti has been created. Water conservation and water management are being given top precedence. I am confident that, like ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’, ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ too will take the form of a famous movement.

Along with the welfare of these most in want, every policy initiative of the Government is guided via the ‘kingdom-first’ precept. The roll-out of the GST has realised our vision of ‘One united states, One tax, One market’. It is being complemented by the e-NAM scheme, which is strengthening the process of making ‘one marketplace for one nation’ and could benefit farmers. There is a consistent attempt by means of the authorities to make sure normal development of every and each a part of the u . S . – be it Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh, the states inside the North-East or our Islands inside the Indian Ocean.

Strong inner protection is critical for the development of the united states of america. Therefore, the government has taken several concrete steps to reinforce the internal security gadget.

Access to health and education are regularly considered the inspiration of correct governance. In each these sectors, we've got come an extended manner inside the seven decades. The Government has rightly focused its interest on the health region, with its bold tasks. Starting with the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, and expanding to the Ayushman Bharat, that is the world’s biggest publicly funded typical healthcare programme, the Government has proven its care and concern for the well-being of the negative. Quality of healthcare has stepped forward, so has its reach. The Jan Aushadhi Yojana has brought down the healthcare finances of common people in the u . S . A . Via supplying fine regular medicines at low-cost charges.

The foundations of a valid education machine were built in historical instances, with the setting up of excellent universities like Nalanda and Takshashila. In India, understanding has continually been taken into consideration more valuable than power, repute or riches. In our culture, educational establishments are respected as temples of studying. When our land become pushed into backwardness after the long colonial rule, it changed into education that emerged as a direction to empowerment. Even even though the improvement of our tutorial establishments commenced quickly after Independence, in an surroundings of shortage of resources, our achievements in the discipline of education have followed a top notch trajectory. Our endeavour is to make sure that no toddler or youth is denied education. At the same time, we want to strive to reach international education requirements by way of non-stop reform of our instructional systems.

India is pleased with the achievements of ISRO. They are making similarly progress in Mission Gaganyaan, and the nation excitedly seems ahead to the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme gaining further momentum this yr.

This is also the year of Tokyo Olympics. While India has traditionally finished well in some of sports, the brand new era of players and athletes has introduced laurels for the state in increasingly varieties of sports in latest years. At Olympics 2020, the Indian contingent could be subsidized by means of cheers and accurate wishes of thousands and thousands of Indians.

Another source of pleasure for our u . S . A . Has been our diaspora. During my visits overseas, I even have discovered that Indians have now not simplest delivered prosperity to their followed lands, they have got also superior India’s image earlier than the arena community. Many of them have made brilliant contributions in a extensive sort of endeavours.

I don't have anything however unreserved reward for our armed forces, paramilitary and internal safety forces. Their sacrifices to hold the integrity and cohesion of our usa gift a saga of unprecedented braveness and area. Our farmers, medical doctors and nurses, teachers who impart gaining knowledge of and values, scientists and engineers, alert and lively young people, industrious participants of our personnel, entrepreneurs contributing to our economic wealth, artists who enhance our culture, provider area specialists who have earned international appreciation, our fellow countrymen contributing in lots of different spheres of pastime and particularly our resilient daughters who've scaled new heights of achievements towards odds – all of them deliver delight to our state.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to engage with a few achievers who have carried out commendable work in various fields. Working silently, they have made significant contributions to diverse fields including technology and innovation, sports, empowerment of Divyang people, farming and afforestation, girls and infant empowerment, training, healthcare, revival of old art paperwork and providing food and nutrition to the needy. For instance, Sushri Aarifa Jan has revived the Numdha handicrafts in Jammu & Kashmir; Sushri Ratnawali Kottapallihas been serving sufferers laid low with thalassemia in Telangana; Shrimati Devaki Amma has advanced forest wealth thru her individual efforts in Kerala; Shri Jamkhojang Misao has advanced the lives of many human beings through his network improvement efforts in Manipur and Shri Babar Ali has been presenting education to underprivileged kids in West Bengal in view that his adolescence. There are numerous such examples, I actually have cited just a few of them. They exemplify that everyday human beings could make excellent contributions. There are a massive quantity of voluntary organizations too who've been contributing to the task of state-building, and complementing the initiatives of government.

We at the moment are in the 1/3 decade of the twenty-first century. This might be the decade of the upward push of New India and a new technology of Indians. More and extra of these born in this century are collaborating within the countrywide discourse. With the passage of time, we're gradually dropping residing links with our extraordinary freedom war, but there may be no reason to fear about the continuity of the beliefs that guided it. With advances in generation, the younger minds of nowadays are better knowledgeable and greater confident. The subsequent technology stays strongly committed to the middle values of our state. For our young people, the state continually comes first. With them, we're witnessing the emergence of a New India.

Mahatma Gandhi’s beliefs remain applicable in our state-constructing efforts. It ought to be part of our day by day recurring to introspect on Gandhiji’s message of fact and nonviolence, which has grow to be all the extra essential in our instances.

When combating for a motive, human beings, specially the children, need to now not forget the gift of Ahimsa Gandhiji gave to humanity. Gandhiji’s talisman for figuring out whether an act is right or wrong also applies to the functioning of our democracy. Government and opposition both have critical roles to play. While giving expression to their political thoughts, both have to flow forward in tandem to make certain that improvement of the u . S . A . And welfare of its humans are promoted continually.

As our Republic Day is a celebration of our Constitution, allow me conclude with the phrases of its chief architect, Babasaheb Ambedkar: “If we desire to maintain democracy no longer merely in form, but additionally in fact, what have to we do? The first aspect in my judgment we should do is to hold fast to constitutional techniques of reaching our social and financial targets.”

These words have usually lighted our direction. These words will preserve to reveal us the manner beforehand to new glories.

The idea of worldwide as a large well-knit circle of relatives, captured in our message of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, strengthens our members of the family with different countries. We had been sharing our democratic ideals and the end result of our improvement with the whole world.

We have a lifestyle of inviting foreign heads of states to participate in our Republic Day celebrations. I am glad that this yr, our prominent buddy, The President of Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro will participate in our Republic Day characteristic the next day.

As India and Indians march forward, we stay committed to attractive the global network to build a secure and wealthy future for ourselves and for the entire humanity.

I once again deliver my Republic Day greetings to all of you and I enlarge my quality needs in your brilliant destiny.

[tak4hir0]

以前は英語の記事の読み書きが苦手だったのを、このようにして克服した、という話を書きます。 成果を数値で測ってないですが、RSSフィードに登録している英語メディアの数が大幅に増えました。以前は全体の5%程度に対し、今は50%以上が英語メディアになっています。英語に対する心理的ハードルは大きく下がりました。 また、読む力を付けたことで自作のOSSのREADMEもほぼ自力で書けるようになりました。 https://github.com/goodwithtech/dockle/blob/master/README.md では始めます。 全体像 僕の場合、1000文字以上の英文記事を読む場合、STEP1に含まれる内容は必ず行います。 STEP2に含まれるものは、辞書なしで読めないときだけ行います。 どの段階でもキーボードショートカットで利用できるようにしているので、めんどくさいとは思っていません。 また、今回の記事では、Chromeエクステンションを多用します。PDFファイルの場合、利用できなくなることが多いのですが、記事末尾に｢PDFファイルでもエクステンションを利用する｣ための方法を記載しています。 なお、今回紹介するChromeエクステンションのショートカットキーは chrome://extensions/shortcuts から設定できます。 STEP 1 STEP 1-1. 読みやすくする DOM Distiller Reading Mode ChromiumのOSSを利用して、Reading Modeにしてくれるエクステンションです。以下のような状態になります。 記事の本文だけを表示 (広告/SNSリンク などが非表示) レイアウト/フォント/背景などを指定して読みやすい状態にする Chrome自体でReading Modeを設定することも可能ですが、その場合多くのextensionが利用できなくなってしまいます。(chrome-distill://xxxx というプロトコルでページが開かれてしまうため) STEP 1-2. 文章の流れを最初につかむ 要約ツール(Mac) SMMRY 最初に論旨を把握することで、誤読を防げます。不思議なもので英語の文章を読んでいると、どこか一文の意味を取り違えた結果、文章全体の意味を勘違いして受け取ることがありました。そのため、最初に要約をして論旨を把握するようにしています。 ただし、論文であれば大体最初と最後を読むほうが効率がいい(わかりやすい)です。 詳細 僕自身が使っているのは、Macの要約ツールと、SMMRYというサイトです。 他にもいくつか試したのですが、機能/精度/速度/他ツールとの親和性を考えて、2つを使い分けています。 Macの要約ツールの場合 リーダーモードにすることで、余計な文章はページから消えています。ページを全選択してMacの純正要約ツールで要約します。僕はCmd+Shift+S で呼びだせるように設定しています。 ショートカットキーから呼び出す方法は、別記事にまとめています。 SMMRYを利用する場合 SMMRY(サマリー)は無料の要約生成サイトです。URLを指定すると、コンテンツがある部分だけを対象に要約してくれます。ただアルゴリズムが文中に含まれるTF-IDFを元にされており、Macの要約ツールと比較すると、すこし精度が低いと感じています。 僕は以下のBookmarkletを登録しており、1クリックで要約できるようにしています。 以下のBookmarkletを実行すると、新しいタブを開き10行に要約してくれます。 javascript:window.open('https://smmry.com/'+location.href+'#&SM_LENGTH=10','_blank'); ショートカットキー コマンド Cmd + Shift + S 要約ツールの呼び出し(選択範囲に対して) ※要設定 Locationバーでbookmarklet呼び出し SMMRYを開く(ページのコンテンツは自動で判別) 要約ツールのPros/Cons RESOOMERというサイトも以前利用していました。色々カスタマイズができて便利で、他のツールと違って、文章中の重要な部分だけ抜き出すという点で面白いのですが、文章が途切れると逆に分かりづらいという結果になりました。 基本はSMMRYを利用して、わかりづらければMacの要約ツールを利用するようにしています。 要約ツール(Mac) SMMRY RESOOMER 料金 無料 無料 一部有料 アルゴリズム 不明 TF-IDFの和が高い文章を抽出 不明 文字数制限 なし なし 20,000文字(有料) 他ツールとの親和性 - +++ + 要約形式 一文を抽出 一文を抽出 文中から必要な部分のみ抽出 精度(感覚値) +++ + + 呼び出し方法 サービスから利用 Bookmarklet ChromeExtension 初回起動時間 +++ + - 要約変更時間 +++ + +++ 要約(11行) And then at the other extreme you have the hackers, who are trying to write interesting software, and for whom computers are just a medium of expression, as concrete is for architects or paint for painters. So instead of doing what they really want to do, which is to design beautiful software, hackers in universities and research labs feel they ought to be writing research papers. All the time I was in graduate school I had an uncomfortable feeling in the back of my mind that I ought to know more theory, and that it was very remiss of me to have forgotten all that stuff within three weeks of the final exam. If I had only looked over at the other makers, the painters or the architects, I would have realized that there was a name for what I was doing: sketching. If universities and research labs keep hackers from doing the kind of work they want to do, perhaps the place for them is in companies. So if you can figure out a way to get in a design war with a company big enough that its software is designed by product managers, they'll never be able to keep up with you. When I say that the answer is for hackers to have day jobs, and work on beautiful software on the side, I'm not proposing this as a new idea. Maybe it would be good for hackers to act more like painters, and regularly start over from scratch, instead of continuing to work for years on one project, and trying to incorporate all their later ideas as revisions. Hackers, likewise, can learn to program by looking at good programs-- not just at what they do, but the source code too. It's hard for such people to design great software [5], because they can't see things from the user's point of view. But so many of the best hackers work on open-source projects now that the main effect of this policy may be to ensure that they won't be able to hire any first-rate programmers. SMMRYで要約(10行) Of all the different types of people I've known, hackers and painters are among the most alike. What hackers and painters have in common is that they're both makers. Along with composers, architects, and writers, what hackers and painters are trying to do is make good things. Then at the other extreme you have the hackers, who are trying to write interesting software, and for whom computers are just a medium of expression, as concrete is for architects or paint for painters. Hackers need to understand the theory of computation about as much as painters need to understand paint chemistry. If hackers identified with other makers, like writers and painters, they wouldn't feel tempted to do this. Most hackers don't learn to hack by taking college courses in programming. Maybe it would be good for hackers to act more like painters, and regularly start over from scratch, instead of continuing to work for years on one project, and trying to incorporate all their later ideas as revisions. Whereas hackers, from the start, are doing original work; it's just very bad. So hackers start original, and get good, and scientists start good, and get original. As far as I know, when painters worked together on a painting, they never worked on the same parts. 文字数により要約不可 要約(8行) To programmers, "hacker" connotes mastery in the most literal sense: someone who can make a computer do what he wants—whether the computer wants to or not. In the past, a competitor might use patents to prevent you from selling a copy of something they made, but they couldn't prevent you from taking one apart to see how it worked. If I were a legislator, I'd be interested in this mystery—for the same reason that, if I were a farmer and suddenly heard a lot of squawking coming from my hen house one night, I'd want to go out and investigate. It is greatly to America's advantage that it is a congenial atmosphere for the right sort of unruliness—that it is a home not just for the smart, but for smart-alecks. IBM was no doubt rather surprised by the consequences of the licensing deal for DOS, just as the hypothetical "adversary" must be when Michael Rabin solves a problem by redefining it as one that's easier to solve. I think a society in which people can do and say what they want will also tend to be one in which the most efficient solutions win, rather than those sponsored by the most influential people. It would be ironic if, as hackers fear, recent measures intended to protect national security and intellectual property turned out to be a missile aimed right at what makes America successful. And if you want to know whether something will nurture or squash this quality, it would be hard to find a better focus group than hackers, because they come closest of any group I know to embodying it. 要約(8行) To the popular press, "Hacker" means someone who breaks into computers. To programmers, "Hacker" connotes mastery in the most literal sense: someone who can make a computer do what he wants-whether the computer wants to or not. To add to the confusion, the noun "Hack" also has two senses. It's called a hack when you do something in an ugly way. When we were in grad school, a hacker friend of mine who spent too much time around MIT had his own lock picking kit. Sometimes young programmers notice the eccentricities of eminent hackers and decide to adopt some of their own in order to seem smarter. Show any hacker a lock and his first thought is how to pick it. To hackers the recent contraction in civil liberties seems especially ominous. 要約(20%) To the popular press, "hacker" means someone who breaks into computers. Among programmers it means a good programmer. Believe it or not, the two senses of "hack" are also that is brilliantly imaginative. It is sometimes hard to explain to authorities why one would want to do such things. Another friend of mine once got in trouble with the government for them. They may laugh at the CEO when he talks in generic corporate a certain problem can't be solved. The fake version is not merely can actually slow the process of innovation. They see increasingly aggressive measures to protect freedom they need to do their job. But two guys who thought Multics excessively complex went off was a joking reference to Multics: Unix. The latest intellectual property laws impose Ironically, hackers have brought this on themselves. Increasingly, the brains of products is in software. i.e. data. A song on an LP is physically stamped into the If I were a legislator, I'd be interested in this and unanimity is very rare in this world. perhaps there is something amiss. will actually harm it? Think about it. STEP 1-3. 1つ1つの単語に集中する Spreed 文章をフラッシュカードのように単語をどんどん表示していくExtensionです。類似ツールもたくさんあります。 本来は速読トレーニングのためのツールですが、この方法だと1単語ずつ解釈でき、流し読みを防ぐことができました。 ショートカットキー コマンド Alt + V 選択範囲をSpreedで開く Alt + Shift + V ページのコンテンツを自動選択してSpreedで開く 調べる ここまでの段階は、単語の意味がある程度わかる前提でのステップでした。 ここからは、そもそも文章自体がわからない場合にどのようにしていくかを書きます。 STEP 2 STEP 2-1. 単語/熟語の意味を調べる Mouse Dictionary 参照 : Chrome拡張の高速な英語辞書ツールをつくりました(Mouse Dictionary) 超高速辞書ツール。マウスホバーで単語/熟語の意味を表示。 追加の辞書として、英辞郎のデータを読み込むことで強化できます。Boothからデータを購入してダウンロード + 設定ページから辞書データの読み込みで対応可能です。 ショートカットキー コマンド Control + z Mouse Dictionaryを有効にする STEP 2-2. 文章の意味を調べる Mate Translate 単語の意味がわかっても、文章の内容が難しそうなら、翻訳ツールを使います。 ツールは色々あるので、何でもいいと思っています。もっといいツールがあれば教えてください。 選択した範囲をまとめて翻訳したいとき。1センテンス読んで、まったくわからないときに利用します。 ショートカットキー コマンド Cmd + Shift + T 選択範囲を翻訳する 補足 : PDFの場合 PDFの場合、基本的にChrome Extensionsが利用できません。 いくつか方法がありますが、私はDropboxに保存してDropboxの画面上で読むようにしています。 Dropboxの画面だとHTML化されて表示されます。 ダウンロードしたファイルを自動でDropboxにアップロードするために、ダウンロードしたpdfファイルの場合は、Dropboxの指定したフォルダに入るように設定しています。指定したフォルダに入ると、自動でDropboxへの同期がされるため、ダウンロードしてDropboxのウェブ版を開けばよい状態になります。 RegExp Download Organizer なお、それ以外のファイルも日付ごとで保存フォルダを分けることもできます。 ダウンロード先の指定はブラウザの保存ディレクトリからの相対パスになるので、事前に chrome://settings でまずChromeのダウンロード先をユーザのルートディレクトリに変更しておくと楽です。 最後に 以上のような手順で、英語の長文を読むようにしています。 このようにすることで、 自分のレベルに合わせて最低限のツールを組み合わせを作ることができます。 Reading Modeで読みやすくし、要約を理解したうえで記事を読みはじめることは効率的に読むための普遍的なテクニックです。 英文を書く時もいろいろ工夫はしてますが、文法は間違えてもまずは書いてみる、というのが一番大事だと思っています。

[annadelveyfoundation]

Scammers know how to design a prototype and secure funding to build it and you should too

Image Description: the cast of HBO’s show Silicon Valley on set. Everyone is standing in the house looking at Gilfoyle’s computer. Image credit: HBO.

The word prototype sounds fancy, futuristic even. When a designer or engineer say that they have a prototype and that they are looking for venture capital funding to build it, they mean serious business. Or do they? If you want to create a social club and called it Anna Delvey Foundation or if you want to build a new medical equipment that will save lives, it’s so easy now.

Let’s begin. How will you build something that saves lives or at least make you a millionaire with venture capital funding? You create a prototype first. What is a prototype? It depends on the industry, but generally it is a concept or model that shows what a product, service, or experience will look like before you create it. For industrial design, a prototype is a model, and that model can even be 3-D printed in the year 2019 to show what the product will look like and how it can function. In other areas of design, a prototype is a visual concept. Once the design is visualized, the inventor can put it in a keynote presentation and pitch it for money.

I think we should look at a couple examples. This week, I watched the HBO documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. This is film by Academy Award winning directory Alex Gibney (Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room) investigating Theranos, the onetime multibillion dollar healthcare company founded by Elizabeth Holmes. The film explained the scandal well and  how bombastic and ludicious the actual prototype that they were using was; the film’s focus was on how they never built the prototype into a product and used layers of secrecy to cover it up. 

The documentary did leave some things to be desired. I didn’t learn much about Elizabeth Holmes as a person. Though they interviewed a smart behaviorial scientist who theorized Holmes motivation, the film didn’t do it justice of showing her motivation. Tasha Robinson in a review for the Verge explained, “It feels a little empty. Ultimately, the audience is left wondering who Elizabeth Holmes really is, or who she ever was.” The only things we learned about her personally was that she liked to read a lot of literature in high school and her refrigerator while working at Theranos only contained water bottles. Oh and she had a relationship with partner in crime, Sunny Balwani. (Him?)

Though I was left wondering about Holmes, I learned a lot about the prototype: 

Photo credit: Theranos/Youtube

Holmes invented the protoype but never got the thing to work the way that she said that it would work. Let’s look at the prototype. Is this an innovative design? This is the same wireless HP inkjet printer that you would have in your office. Yet Holmes used this prototype to raise more than $700 million from venture capitalists and private investors. On a printer. That doesn’t even print.

As far as pitches go, the concept to create a social club for Manhattan elites with a Medieval art collection, though boughsie, is at least a more tangible idea. The center of the trial of alleged con artist Anna Sorokin were her ambitious plans to build a contemporary art and social club, Anna Delvey Foundation. According to Eileen Kinsella reporting for Artnet, Sorokin attempted to swindle as much as $29 million from Fortress Investment Group.

What does Theranos and ADF have in common? Obvi, their prototypes were complete horse shit. Who would buy this?

Fortress Investment Group. They buy this shit. Fortress also had extended a $100 million credit to Theranos, according to the Wall Street Journal, when the company was near bankruptcy. This probably went towards Holmes and Sunny’s bail and Holmes luxury apartment in San Francisco that she shares with her hotel heir fiancé. (Must be nice to be a rich white criminal). Clearly it seems that Fortress has so much money that they are spending it on terrible investments. I hope you learned a couple things from my blog. You can make a prototype of whatever product, service or experience you want to create and you can call up Fortress and ask for money. If they say no, ask for Dennis Onabajo. It’s so easy, even a scammer can do it.

[chemicalrejectboys]

The coolest dream I’ve had in a while:

I was watching a tv show called Urban Legends, (which I’ve learned is a real documentary-style tv show, but this wasn’t that) and it was like a sci-fi adventure team that somehow got blasted forward in time.  

The team had a nonbinary leader, an older woman, a robot named Michael, two young dudes that reminded me of Lance and Hunk from Voltron, and a 12 year old boy whose mother had died.

The world we were originally from was this industrial civilization.  Constantly building and innovating, half of our team were engineers.  They were in charge of building these apartments that were shaped like alphabet letters using building blocks, the most popular being the letter I and F.  The trouble was that in order to build these blocks, the engineers had to go into these pods and literally bleed to create them, like they were hooked up to machines and drained of blood until they had enough to make the block.  So progress was pretty slow because they could only take so much blood at a time.

The others did some tech design, mostly on robots like Michael, and were in charge of developing helmets and other gear that would provide information for the robots.

The six of us ended up on a space ship type thing, that was accidentally activated, and sent us off into different times and dimensions.

We went to a world that was centered around water.  There were mermaids and whales and other creatures that would talk to us.  One of the adventurers fell in love with a merman, but something wasn’t right.  At night, while the merman was sleeping, something was coming in and taking bits of his tail and flesh.  One morning he woke up with the tips of his ears gone, another time it was one of his tail fins, and another he woke up to three horizontal slashes on his tail that had been used to take blood.  The adventurers tried to figure out what was happening, but couldn’t find anything, and eventually the merman broke up with our team member, because he knew they couldn’t stay here.  So they went back on the ship and travelled somewhere else.

We went to a jungle world that had these giant gem golems.  We somehow got separated from our ship, and there were these scientists that were trying to imprison us.  We ended up befriending one of the golem, who showed us where our ship was, and then died protecting us from the main scientist.

We went to a world that was like a sex city.  The older woman on our team really got into that one.  Everywhere you went people were naked and fucking and everyone was just cool with it all the time.  Like a giant orgy all the time in this run down city.  The colors were super dark on this world too.

We went to a world where we were able to bring the little boy’s mother back from the dead.  The team did it, but when we brought her to the little boy, he ran away and made us leave that world as his mother looked sadly up at our ship flying away.  We find out later that the little boy’s mother was killed by his father, who then threw him off a bridge, but he wasn’t hurt.  In fact, he was made of rubber and bounced off.

Lastly, we managed to get back to our home world, only hundreds and hundreds of years in the future.  We went to our home at the station, and it had been turned into this modern, corporate office/mall type thing.  In the eating area, there was some kind of celebration happening.  The workers had brought their families and everything.  There was a giant stage and screen, and we’re watching this documentary on the development of this great city and company.  Our team is getting more and more uncomfortable because it’s obvious that our once progressive city has turned into this commercialized business, but as we’re watching, the documentary ends with saying how none of this would’ve been possible without the ones whose sacrifice made it all possible, the Urban Legends, and the screen is filled with pictures of all of us.

The head of the company notices we’re there and gets us in his office.  Our engineers find out that it only takes a drop of blood now to make the building blocks that used to take multiple days and pints of blood.  The advancement of robot technology has also advanced, but the company head is really interested in our robot, Michael.  He’s what they based all of their modern robots on.  He calls security robots and separates us, and now we’re all fighting to get back off this world.  Our Hunk team member falls over but manages to get away.  The rest of us are locked up and Michael is experimented on.

Our Hunk character manages to find where our Lance character is locked away, and manages to get him out.

As the two of them are hiding, trying to figure out how to rescue their other teammates, they notice a lot of civilians walking around kind of funny.  Most of them are making funny faces or tripping over things, spilling drinks on themselves, and just being generally clumsy and goofy.  They then notice one person steal some food right in front of the security sentry that’s standing guard, but he does it in such a goofy manner that the security guards don’t even seem to notice.  Thats when the two of them figure out, that the sentries programming don’t recognize goofy actions.  That’s how Hunk was able to escape capture, because he fell and the sentries and the head of company saw him as no threat.  It’s like he was invisible!

So they hatch a plan and manage to get the rest of the team except Michael.  As a robot, Michael has no facial expressions and they can’t seem to get to him.  But while they were experimenting, the bad guys accidentally unlock Michael’s ability to control any electronic he’s hooked up to.  So he basically transformers the room he’s in into a giant rocket and detaches it from the building.  He destroys a lot of the sentries and company and finds us.  

We all get on the ship and blast off again, hopefully to find a better world.

[maleenhancementmd]

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All Time Best Books

1. Attitude Is Everything: Change Your Attitude ... Change Your Life!

Do you dread going to work? Do you feel tired, unhappy, weighed down? Have you given up on your dreams? The road to a happier, more successful life starts with your attitude-and your attitude is within your control. Whether your outlook is negative, positive or somewhere in between, Jeff Keller, motivational speaker and coach, will show you how to take control and unleash your hidden potential through three powerful steps: -THINK! Success begins in the mind. The power of attitude can change your destiny. -SPEAK! Watch your words. How you speak can propel you towards your goals. -ACT! Don't sit back. Take active steps to turn your dreams into reality. Soon, you will be energized and see new possibilities. You will be able to counter adversities and develop talents unique to you. Your relationships will improve, both at work and in your personal life. All you need is this step-by-step programme to change your attitude and your life!

2. Life Is What You Make It

Life Is What You Make It is based on a love story that has been set in India in the 90s. It has been described by the readers as a book portraying how love, hope and determination can together win over even the destiny. It is a gripping tale of few significant years of the protagonist’s life.

The novel revolves around a woman in her 20s, Ankita, who has a past haunting her like a nightmare. As she grows up from adolescence to a woman in her mid-20s, she wades through different situations, engages in affairs with a couple of guys and is set-back by her parents’ refusal to accept her situation. As a result of non-stop upheavals in her life, Ankita develops bipolar disorder at one point in time.

The story revolves around Ankita’s struggles, determination, her decisions and her faith in self. The book beautifully describes how she gets acquainted with her bipolar disorder, how she decides to help her own self and how she battles these situations all by herself. The title of the book in a way describes the central theme of the book but the manner in which Preeti drove home the point through an interesting story, is delightful.

3. Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of Abdul Kalam

The book recollects many anecdotes and stories from childhood, his time at school and college. The time spent at the Langley Research Center, NASA and Wallops Flight Facility gets a lot of attention.

Personal tragedies have not been left out. The time when he lost his father and how he felt when conferred with many awards like the Padma Bhushan have been written in much detail.

The second half of the book deals with Dr Kalam, the scientist who made a significant contribution in developing the countries guided missile program, a pioneering effort for the security of the nation. It's not with reason that he was nicknamed as the 'Missile Man of India'. The book also contains 24 photographs at various stages of his life.

Authored by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Mr. Arun Tiwari, the 180 page book 'The Wings of Fire' was first published in the year 2000. Mr Tiwari is a well-known missile scientist who has worked with Dr. Kalam. Having become a bestseller, the book has even been translated into thirteen languages, which includes Chinese and French.

4. The Girl In Room 105 - Ek Unlove Story

Hi, I’m Keshav, and my life is screwed. I hate my job and my girlfriend left me. Ah, the beautiful Zara. Zara is from Kashmir. She is a Muslim. And did I tell you my family is a bit, well, traditional? Anyway, leave that.

Zara and I broke up four years ago. She moved on in life. I didn’t. I drank every night to forget her. I called, messaged, and stalked her on social media. She just ignored me.

However, that night, on the eve of her birthday, Zara messaged me. She called me over, like old times, to her hostel room 105. I shouldn’t have gone, but I did… and my life changed forever.

This is not a love story. It is an unlove story.

From the author of Five Point Someone and 2 States, comes a fast-paced, funny and unputdownable thriller about obsessive love and finding purpose in life against the backdrop of contemporary India.

5. Rich Dad Poor Dad : What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Mass Market Paperback –by Robert T. Kiyosaki

It has since become the #1 Personal Finance book of all time... translated into dozens of languages and sold around the world.

Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert's story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.

6. Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust by Viktor E Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning was first published in 1946. Victor Frankl was a leading psychologist in Vienna when he was arrested for being a Jew during the Nazi regime. He survived holocaust and used his experiences to write this book. He propounded the theory that it is Man's constant search for meaning that allows him to survive even the most brutal, the most degrading situations in his life.

He said there are only two races in the world, the decent and indecent. They will maintain their innate beliefs, no matter which side they are on. The decent ones will try to help the fellow human beings and the indecent ones will be selfish and serve themselves at the cost to the others.

7. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself

8. Who Will Cry When You Die? by Robin Sharma

Do You Feel that life is slipping by so fast that you might never get the chance to live with the meaning, happiness and joy you know you deserve? If so, then this book will be the guiding light that leads you to a brilliant new way of living.

In this easy-to-read yet wisdom-rich manual, the author offers 101 simple solutions to life’s most complex problems, ranging from a little-known method for beating stress and worry to a powerful way to enjoy the journey while you create a legacy that lasts.

“When You Were Born, You Cried While The World Rejoiced. Live Your Life In Such A Way That When You Die, The World Cries While You Rejoice.” Ancient Sanskrit Saying

9. The Intelligent Investor

It is a widely acclaimed book by Benjamin Graham on value investing. Written by one of the greatest investment advisers of twentieth century, the book aims at preventing potential investors from substantial errors and also teaches them strategies to achieve long-term investment goals.

Over the years, investment market has been following teachings and strategies of Graham for growth and development. In the book, Graham has explained various principles and strategies for investing safely and successfully without taking bigger risks. Modern-day investors still continue to use his proven and well-executed techniques for value investment.

The current edition highlights some of the important concepts that are useful for latest financial orders and plans. Keeping Graham's unique text in original form, the book focuses on major principles that can be applied in day-to-day life. All the concepts and principles are explained with the help of examples for better clarity and understanding of the financial world.

Combination of original plan of Graham and the current financial situations are the reason behind this book’s preference today’s investors. It is a detailed version with several wisdom quotes that are likely to change one’s investing career and lead to the path of financial safety and security.

10. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future

The book captures the life and achievements of South African interpreter and innovator, Elon Musk, the brain behind series of successful enterprises such as PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX and Solarcity. The real-life inspiration of the Iron Man Series, Musk wants to be the saviour of the planet, send people into space and set up a colony on Mars.

Bullied in school and scolded tremendously by his father, Musk was actually a brilliant student and his life story is nothing less than a drama packed film. Ashlee Vance’s brilliant description of Musk's character, simple language and neat choice of words indeed makes this book a great read.

Considered by some as the innovation, entrepreneurial Steve Jobs of the present and future, Elon Musk became a billionaire early in life with his successful online ventures. One of the successful companies that he co-founded was the online payment gateway PayPal that was later acquired by e-Bay in 2002.

Getting sacked as the CEO, Musk did not cease to amaze friend and foes alike with his out of the box ideas, like investing in rockets! Needless to say, this deconstructed obsession with technology had his marital life go haywire.

The book 'Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and TESLA is Shaping Our Future’ is a brilliant and intelligent account of this genius young 'iron man’ told in a gripping manner. Available in paperback from Penguin Random House publication, the book was published in 2015.

11. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change

We can always change. In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg translates cutting-edge behavioural science into practical self-improvement action, distilling advanced neuroscience into fascinating narratives of transformation.

Why can some people and companies change overnight, and some stay stuck in their old ruts? The answer lies deep in the human brain, and The Power of Habits reveals the secret pressure points that can change a life. From Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps to Martin Luther King Jr., from the CEO of Starbucks to the locker rooms of the NFL, Duhigg explores the incredible results of keystone habits, and how they can make all the difference between billions and millions, failure and success – or even life and death.

The Power of Habit makes an exhilarating case: the key to almost any door in life is instilling the right habit. From exercise to weight loss, childrearing to productivity, market disruption to social revolution, and above all success, the right habits can change everything.

Habits aren't destiny. They’re science, one which can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

12. How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships

Perfect your people skills with his fun, witty and informative guide, containing 92 little tricks to create big success in personal and business relationships. In How to Talk to Anyone, bestselling relationships author and internationally renowned life coach Leil Lowndes reveals the secrets and psychology behind successful communication. These extremely usable and intelligent techniques include how to:

Work a party like a politician works a room

Be an insider in any crowd

Use key words and phrases to guide the conversation

Use body language to connect

This is the key to having successful conversations with anyone, any time.

13. The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

In the book, the reader goes through a spiritual journey and into a very old culture that has gathered much wisdom over the millennia. The book advocates about how to live happily, think deep and rightly, value time and relationships, be more disciplined, follow the heart’s call and live every moment of the life.

Written in simple words, the book has turned out to be a bestseller and is more than just an endearing story. Through storytelling, Robin Sharma showcases the miracles and wonders of living a fulfilling life. In the process, the book introduces readers to enlightening yet simple principles that vouch to make life better, happier and more meaningful.

A bestselling novel, what readers all over the globe appreciate about this book is its deft amalgam of the philosophies from both western and eastern worlds. The book has been followed by important personalities around the world.

14. Becoming: Now a Major Netflix Documentary by Michelle obama

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WATCH THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

15. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“Every so often a book comes along that not only alters the lives of readers but leaves an imprint on the culture itself. The 7 Habits is one of those books.” —Daniel Pink, New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive

One of the most inspiring and impactful books ever written, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has captivated readers for 25 years. It has transformed the lives of presidents and CEOs, educators and parents—in short, millions of people of all ages and occupations across the world. This twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Stephen Covey’s cherished classic commemorates his timeless wisdom, and encourages us to live a life of great and enduring purpose.

16. Warren Buffett: The Life Lessons & Rule For Success

He’s been consistently voted one of the wealthiest people in the world. Time Magazine also voted him as one of the most influential people in the world; widely considered to be the most successful investor of the entire 20th century.

In short, Warren Buffett is a boss.

The man knows a thing or two about success. With a net worth of $77.1 billion, the billionaire investor's fabled business acumen has inspired everything from investment books to college courses. He is known to favor long-term investment strategies, like dollar cost averaging, which encourages the regular purchase of the same investment over time. He also has long-standing holdings in the Coca-Cola Company, Apple, and American Express among others. His now infamous letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders help shed light into how the man they call the “Oracle of Omaha,” reads the tealeaves.

This book takes a look at Buffett’s life. From humble beginnings in Omaha, up to present day where the 86 year old is still going strong. We take a look at his first taste of business at the ripe old age of 6, following on with his major successes and failures along the way. The aim of this book is to be educational and inspirational with actionable principles you can incorporate into your own life straight from the great man himself.

17. The Power of Positive Thinking

An international bestseller with over five million copies in print, The Power of Positive Thinking has helped men and women around the world to achieve fulfillment in their lives through Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s powerful message of faith and inspiration.

In this phenomenal bestseller, “written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life,” Dr. Peale demonstrates the power of faith in action. With the practical techniques outlined in this book, you can energize your life—and give yourself the initiative needed to carry out your ambitions and hopes

18. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Stress is a lot like love - hard to define, but you know it when you feel it. In this classic work, 'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living', Carnegie offers a set of practical formulas that you can put to work today. It is a book packed with lessons that will last a lifetime and make that lifetime happier! This book will explore the nature of stress and how it infiltrates every level of your life, including the physical, emotional, cognitive, relational and even spiritual. Through techniques that get to the heart of your unique stress response, and an exploration of how stress can affect your relationships, you'll discover how to control stress instead of letting it control you. This book shows you how. Using the power of habit and several techniques for smoothing out the stressful wrinkles in our day-to-day lives, we'll move towards a real-world solution to living with less stress, more confidence and a deep spiritual resilience that will insulate you from the inevitable pressures of life. The target of the book is to help readers understand what suits their respective lives best to help them reframe it in a constructive manner, subtracting worry from it and how they could focus on living each day with joy and contentment. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. He was born in an impoverished family in Maryville, Missouri. Carnegie harboured a strong love and passion for public speaking from a very early age and was very proactive in debate in high school. During the early 1930's, he was renowned and very famous for his books and a radio program. 'When How to Win Friends and Influence People' was published in 1930, it became an instant success and subsequently became one of the biggest bestsellers of all time. Carnegie loved teaching others to climb the pillars of success. His valuable and tested advice was used in many domains and has been the inspiration of many famous people's success. One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's reaction to them.

19. The Atomic Habit by James Clear

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, listeners will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field

20. Sapiens - A Brief History Of Humankind

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity's creation and evolution - a number one international best seller - that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be "human".

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one - Homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago, with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because, over the last few decades, humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

This provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.

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Bluetooth phone tracing might help fight the coronavirus pandemic

The novel coronavirus stands out at spreading due to the fact that it’s infectious when there are couple of or no signs.

That’s why federal governments are resorting to lockdowns, travel bans, and other economy-crippling constraints.

A team of 130 volunteer researchers just rolled out a technology framework that intends to help individuals go back to work using an epidemiological concept called contact tracing.

Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing would use Bluetooth low-energy (which nearly all smart devices have) to anonymously discover close encounters with infected users and warn those who were exposed.

The group states it developed the framework with privacy and privacy as a cardinal rule.

Go to Company Expert’s homepage for more stories

She does not observe that he’s come within 6 feet, and she does not hear him cough into his elbow.

However days later on, a complimentary app on Dana’s smart device alerts her to news she had actually been dreading since installing it: She was likely exposed to someone with COVID-19

Dana got the alert due to the fact that the man on the bus saw a doctor, evaluated favorable, and was provided a special code to type into the exact same free app.

The task scientists believe their initiative can get individuals back to work with decreased risk by using smartphone-to-smartphone cordless signals to find who has been exposed to someone with COVID-19 and alert them. PEPP-PT counts on Bluetooth low energy, or BLE– a typical mobile cordless technology– to perform what epidemiologists call “contact tracing.” The process involves finding out who came into contact with a sick individual, then advising those people to quarantine themselves.

” We all live in an international world, or we utilized to live in an international world, and we require to get back there if we don’t wish to break our income completely,” Hans-Christian Boos, an artificial-intelligence and computer-science scientist who helped organize the effort, informed Business Expert.

PEPP-PT’s groups focused on building a confidential, easy-to-implement, globally scalable, and essentially totally free phone-based method that would not compromise privacy in the exact same method as other tracing initiatives used in nations like China, Israel, Singapore, and South Korea

” We stated, ‘We require to do something, but we can’t do it the manner in which China has done it.’ Due to the fact that if we did, we would at the very same time just discard liberty,” Boos stated.

Why confidential digital contact tracing may help combat the pandemic

Healthcare employees wheel the body of deceased individual from the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center throughout the break out of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York City, New York City, April 2,2020

REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid.

The coronavirus can spread prior to contaminated people show any symptoms at all.

” The very first SARS infection, from 2000 to 2003, didn’t have that, which is why it was simple to contain– ‘easy’ in quotes– due to the fact that it was adequate to just separate people who got sick,” Salathe informed Company Expert.

Asymptomatic spread also makes standard contact tracing, in which epidemiologists manually track down contaminated people to backtrack their steps, insufficient, according to a recent study in the journal Science

That is the core idea behind PEPP-PT.

Boos said PEPP-PT as a company (pending contributions) is prepared to build and offer servers for free to states, nations, and other large-scale companies. If those entities pass validation by PEPP-PT– and don’t “inject something nasty” into the source code to, say, funnel off private information, Boos stated– they can join an information exchange.

A group in Germany– led by Ulf Buermeyer, a lawyer and information-technology professional who co-founded the country’s Society for Civil Liberty— just recently described a similar model in a post at Netzpolitik.org

Buermeyer informed Business Expert the PEPP-PT framework appears to be “a privacy-compatible way of tracking individuals by Bluetooth,” though he emphasized the group has yet to roll out its open-source code for the world to scrutinize.

” There are people who question that it is possible at all. I would state that it is possible,” he stated. “It’s a technique that has strong benefits and I hope its implementation achieves success.”

How to track coronavirus exposure without sacrificing user personal privacy

Individuals take a trip in a city train during a partial lockdown enforced to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Moscow, Russia, April 2,2020

Maxim Shemetov/Reuters.

Some countries are currently utilizing technology-based contact-tracing systems. But they sacrifice significant quantities of their residents’ personal privacy to do so: Those apps evaluate credit-card purchases, GPS area data, monitoring camera monitoring, and other details to follow the infected and alert the exposed.

Such methods do appear to be working to suppress the virus’ spread, though. South Korea, for instance, dropped from a peak of 909 brand-new COVID-19 cases reported on February 29 to just 74 brand-new cases reported on March 16.

” What might seem anathema to the US in normal situations now seems more bearable in these remarkable times,” Sarah Kreps, who studies security and cybersecurity at Cornell University, said in a recent news release. “On the one hand, quiting some privacy to save lives and restore some flexibility of movement, commerce, and expression looks like a straight-forward calculation. On the other, historic experience suggests that when governments get extra powers, they are loath to give them up, which might have long lasting, negative implications for civil liberties.”

Boos states he fears greasing the wheels for an Orwellian future, but is convinced Drastic privacy-killing procedures aren’t really required.

Bluetooth low-energy, or BLE, is already exceptionally popular– it’s a primary method we connect our smartphones to wireless headphones, speakers, watches, Televisions, and more. And it currently provides a distance noticing or “electronic leash” ability: it can transmit a “hey there” signal while also listening for such beacons from other gadgets.

By logging the strength of those wireless signals, ranges between devices can be approximated determined. This is the foundation upon which PEPP-PT constructed its structure.

When two individuals’s phones save the other’s random numbers, they do so in an encrypted log that not even a phone’s owner can access.

Logging encounters does not require web service.

” You don’t want the trolls to publish that they’re contaminated if they aren’t,” Boos said.

Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP.

To guarantee just positive-test users can report an infection, a doctor or laboratory would offer an unique gain access to code that allows an individual to submit their contact history. The server will reply to many of them, hopefully, ‘absolutely nothing occurred’ in encrypted form,” stated Wiegand, who’s also executive director of the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute.

In this way, the privacy of contaminated individuals would remain secured, as would that of anybody they had a close encounter with.

” It’s an entirely closed system, meaning that we can’t read the input and output. It’s entirely anonymous,” Wiegand said.

Buermeyer stated that from his assessment, the app tries to lessen how much data is collected.

” What is gathered is basically anonymous IDs. Data that you do not get and save can’t be hacked,” he said. “It’s likewise the most appealing method from a technical perspective– BLE allows you to scan for close contact. That is what it puts it way ahead of GPS or satellite.”

Completion result is that days or weeks of human epidemiologist work on a single case might be come down to a number of hours, triggering exposed people to self-quarantine sooner.

PEPP-PT would need to be as popular as WhatsApp to be reliable

A guy goes into the 23 rd Street train as New York City attempts to slow the spread of coronavirus through social distancing on April 1,2020

John Lamparski/Getty Images.

However, it remains to be seen how many individuals would in fact use such apps.

In a perfect world, the project’s creators say, a minimum of 60%of an offered population would have capable gadgets with a PEPP-PT app set up and Bluetooth turned on. That number is what Salathe says would adequately reduce the illness’s R0, or R-naught– a procedure of the number of individuals, usually, one infected person spreads out the disease to. The coronavirus up until now has an average worldwide R0 of between 2 and 2.5.

If an R0 dips listed below one, the disease loses steam and– eventually– disappears. Brute-force methods like lockdowns work in lowering the spread, but badly damage economies. PEPP-PT may have the ability to achieve a similar impact without keeping most workers house.

” If you caught a contact prior to they can then spread it to the next round of people, that’s how you in fact really stop the entire thing,” Salathe said. “That’s where this 60%number comes from. If 60%takes part, then that step by itself ought to suffice to bring the recreation number listed below one.”

There’s no concern that Bluetooth is popular and pervasive: In 2019, more than 2 billion phones, tablets, and PCs with the requirement were shipped, according to a 2019 market report by Bluetooth SIG, which developed the core innovation.

” BLE was introduced in 2013 and has been utilized by Apple because iOS 7 and on the iPhone FOUR,” Steve Shepperson-Smith, a representative for Vodafone, informed Service Expert in an e-mail. “Vodafone Germany data shows that more than 95%of Android gadgets in Europe use BLE.”

An employee sanitizes the Piazza dei Miracoli near to the Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy, on March 172020

Laura Lezza/Getty Images.

Still, Europe is an appealing place to begin, according to Avi Greengart, a market expert who investigates device and innovation adoption.

” The bigger issue is if you can encourage enough individuals to utilize the app, and that will differ by country.

He included: “federal government mandates might certainly exceed these issues.”

‘ It is useful even if just 1%of the population installs it’

Masked passengers ride a subway train in Nanjing in China’s Jiangsu province on February 19,2020 Guests are hired to scan QR codes of every train carriages and buses on a smart phone app so that when a brand-new COVID-19 patient is found, those who shared the exact same flights can get alerted.

Feature China/Barcroft Media.

Still, the developers of PEPP-PT (and other professionals Service Expert talked to) state that even without the perfect adoption rates, the framework can still make a considerable damage in controlling the spread of coronavirus.

” Even if, state, 40%of individuals participate, it’s going to have quite a strong impact on the epidemic,” Salathe said.

Buermeyer was even more forgiving of low adoption: “It is useful even if just 1%of the population installs it, but it gets more beneficial as a larger percent of people install it,” he said.

” You will not record everything with a system like this, however what you handle to catch is probably the dominant path through droplets.

For PEPP-PT to work as an intermediate service, though, quick, affordable, and extensive tests are a should– otherwise users can’t notify the system to their infection.

This story has actually been updated.

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The Many Facts Pointing to Ian Grigg Being Satoshi

Financial cryptographer. Cypherpunk. Inventor of Ricardian contracts and early utilizer of triple-entry accounting systems, which would later be exemplified in Bitcoin. Ian Grigg may have claimed that Satoshi was a team effort and is now dead, only living on in bitcoiners everywhere, but some seem to think it’s him. In this installment of “the many facts,” we’ll direct our attention to Grigg’s background, achievements, associations and direct claims to see which evidence possibly points to him as being Satoshi Nakamoto.

Also Read: The Many Facts Pointing to Shinichi Being Satoshi

Satoshi: A Cypherpunk Story

Nearly every popular Satoshi candidate has a background or at least association with the cypherpunk movement of the 1980s and 90s. This is for good reason. Hashed into Bitcoin’s genesis block is a message about bank bailouts. Cypherpunks are generally libertarian and anarchist-leaning individuals, set on unshackling the financial system and returning economic power to the everyday individual via crypto technology.

Grigg, in a very real sense, is no exception. A pioneer of triple-entry accounting systems as also conceptualized by lesser known accounting wizard Yuji Ijiri, Grigg invented what are known as Ricardian contracts and sought means by which to leverage cryptography in data verification and security for legal contracts — forerunning and related concepts to smart contracts and cryptocurrency. Grigg was an early cypherpunk, has an educational background in computer science and business, and is associated with personas like Craig Wright and ostensibly connected parties like Dave Kleiman. Grigg writes in his paper on Ricardian contracts:

Our innovation is to express an issued instrument as a contract, and to link that contract into every aspect of the payment system.

Griggian Grist for the Narrative

Triple-Entry Accounting

Looking back to the cypherpunk mailing list of the late 80s and 90s is always a good start, but there’s a concept that was being developed prior to and largely separate from cypherpunk exchanges about cryptocurrencies, and which is much more elemental. That of triple-entry accounting.

Throughout the history of money, keeping accurate records has been paramount and evolutionary. From the first systems of single-entry bookkeeping where recorded amounts of assets or goods held were single data points, to the later, double-entry system where the reason for a new amount must also be entered, increasingly accurate and trustworthy ledgers have been developed. Before any code can even be written, the concept has to exist. Grigg wrote in his 2005 paper “Triple-Entry Accounting“:

The digitally signed receipt, an innovation from financial cryptography, presents a challenge to classical double entry bookkeeping. Rather than compete, the two melded together form a stronger system. Expanding the usage of accounting into the wider domain of digital cash gives 3 local entries for each of 3 roles, the result of which I call triple entry accounting.

Prior to Grigg’s publication, way back in the 1980s, Japanese accounting researcher Yuji Ijiri had already come up with the idea and published a monograph on it, entitled “Momentum accounting and triple-entry bookkeeping,” but hadn’t found a way to apply it. Just over three years after Grigg published his paper on the topic, Bitcoin was born.

The Wright Associations and ‘Team Satoshi’

“Satoshi Nakamoto is dead, long live Satoshi,” Grigg writes on May 2, 2016 in a post to his Financial Cryptography website. Asserting that “Craig Wright has just outed himself as the leader of the Satoshi Nakamoto team. I confirm that this is true, both from direct knowledge and a base of evidence,” Ian Grigg set the crypto space on fire with equal parts excited speculation and derisive skepticism.

Claiming that the suspicious death of supposed Satoshi team member David Kleiman “played merry hell on the lives of those left in the team,” Grigg then goes on — as he previously had on Twitter — to detail how extortionists and hackers had targeted Wright, ostensibly leading to his move to reveal himself as Satoshi. While some may understandably view an association with the infamous CSW as very strong evidence that Grigg is definitely not Nakamoto — or even part of the “team” — it’s his strange words on Wright that give pause:

Yet, a warning to all. Satoshi was a vision … Which is why the team aspect is so important to understand … As you come to know Craig you will discover he is no legend, no God, no saviour. He’s just a guy, a prickly one at that, he’s a lot like those very difficult geek/nerd/blatherers that turn minor IT support into a social drama … Satoshi Nakamoto has died, yet long may Satoshi live. Now we really are Satoshi, now you all are. There is no longer any excuse, we each in every way are responsible for taking the vision forward.

Why would someone like Grigg feel the need to make such a clarification? One Redditor remarked on the topic: “Yes Grigg’s ‘testimony’ sort of remains a mystery without which the entire thing would be much easier to dismiss. Why does he, a true veteran of the scene, put his weight on behalf of Craig Wright and risk his reputation?” Some view Grigg’s actions as something only a truly concerned party would do.

Stylometry

Stylometry is a field of linguistics dealing with expressive style, and usually applied to writing. Many Satoshi candidates have been the stylometric focus of sleuthing aimed at uncovering Nakamoto’s real identity. Grigg has notably been pointed to by data scientist Michael Chon as the closest match when it comes to email correspondence.

Chon has previously noted that “Timothy C. May has the highest similarity score to the Bitcoin paper and Ian Grigg has the highest similarity score to Satoshi’s email exchanges. An unusual result is that Ian Grigg has a similarity score of .99996 to Satoshi’s email exchanges.”

Theories on Blockchain Governance

In an April 10, 2018 speech at the Internet of Agreements conference in London, Grigg detailed how compliance costs related to KYC and AML are driving traditional banking systems into the ground. The financial cryptographer with connections to Block.one and EOS stated: “I’ve got bad news: if you do the compounding, in seven years you won’t have a bank account, because all the banks will be out of money. If you compound 30% forward by 20%, in seven years all of the money is consumed on compliance.” Grigg goes on:

Does anybody know when compliance started? 1985 was the first time I ever heard about it. It couldn’t have started a year earlier, 1984. It literally started the year after 1984, and it’s been rolling ever since, and the problem is it hasn’t got a particularly good record. It’s been rolling forward, and the solution to failure has always been to double down.

Grigg points out the futility of the FATF and others “discovering that there are problems, running into banks, fining the hell out of them and doubling down on compliance, but what they’re not actually succeeding in doing is changing the problem.” His solution? Community creation governed by blockchain transparency and “skin in the game.”

In this presentation a voice is heard which is very focused on current, unsustainable banking practices (as Nakamoto was back in 2009), and calling for blockchain-based solutions to these same dilemmas, which would theoretically be available to anyone. Also noteworthy is that Grigg’s seminal contribution to fintech, Ricardian contracts, has no patent and is not subject to intellectual property restrictions. An available financial tool for anyone to use, like Bitcoin.

Counterpoint and Summary

It’s hard to tell whether a look at Ian Grigg makes the Satoshi mystery any less murky, or simply befuddles the understanding further. Here we have a cryptographer, deeply interested in broken banks and implementation of solutions therefore, who was an OG cypherpunk developing applications in triple-entry accounting. He even more notably claims to have inside info about the team of people who were collectively “Satoshi.”

Some big counter arguments exist. Biggest of all, perhaps, is that Grigg claimed his supposed assertion that he was a Satoshi team member was just poor wording. “Nope — I am not a member of the team,” he tweeted. He also seems to be very excited about the European Central Bank’s recent progress in developing a centralized, digital cash. Hardly something the creator of peer-to-peer, permissionless cash with potential to topple banks would likely be pumped about.

Still, if Satoshi really were a team effort, it might make sense that a fragmentation has happened, with individual members and their individual personalities splintering off in starkly different directions. After all, can anyone say with a straight face that any solo Beatle’s career was as good as the band itself? It’s also hard to imagine that the whole Financial Cryptography piece on his direct knowledge of the team, and implied involvement — including the since-edited statement “I confirm as member” — was merely the result of something being “badly written.” However one slices it, the world may never know, and the mystery marches on.

Who do you think is Satoshi? One person? Many? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images credits: Shutterstock, fair use.

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