#yes 9/11 united us and should have

[kiradical]

Mom is watching some 9/11 shit and it is a constant battle for me to keep the thoughts inside.

There was just an ad for the wounded warrior project where they ended it with something like “help us help those who put their lives on the line to make sure we never experience another 9/11” and I literally had to bite my damn tongue not to say some shit about how we just do 9/11s in other countries. 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

I’m fine. This is fine.

[circeyoru]

Collection of Overlords _ Part 4 = Requested

[Alastor x Soul Owner of All Overlords!Reader]

The (somewhat) Request (it's more of an ask of when this is gonna be out)

Part 1 — Part 1.5 — Part 2 — Part 3 — Part 4 (here) — Part 5 — Part 6 — Part 7 — Part 8 — Part 9  — Part 10 — Part 11 — Part 12 — Part 13

The reunion and meeting of the century, or perhaps even longer, was on the way. With you seated at the head and your hand-picked souls to the side of the table. To your left starting with the closest was Zestial and Carmilla, to your right should be Alastor but he remained standing by your side behind you so not counting his empty seat, you have Rosie then Zeezi

Now, opposite to you, on the other side of the table were the three Vees, with Vox at the center and the other two, Velvette and Valentino, on either sides

With a soft hum, you decided to change the setting a bit. You snapped your fingers and the long rectangular table changed to a circular one, everyone seated in more sophisticated armchairs catered to their unique forms. There were equal spacing between each of them as well, allowing you to see them individually. The room altered thanks for your spatial ability, making it bigger than what it was

You told Carmilla that she could keep your little table and the chairs once everything was over since you changed things without her knowledge. She was move than happy to accept your gift

Another snap of your fingers and everyone’s preferred drink appeared in front of them and some snacks were placed around the table. You welcomed them to drink and eat to their hearts’ content since it has been a while you had been with them all

“Before we begin… I hope it’s expected that you keep the knowledge I shared during this meeting to yourself, and not attempt to use it to your advantage for future purposes.” You warned with a heavily aura around you. 

All your Overlords bowed their heads deeply as a sign of submission to your command and warning. 

“Now, I’d like to start the meeting with the latest event I’m sure you all are aware of.” You announced, a hologram of the former Hazbin Hotel building appeared at the center of the table, “There wasn’t any request or orders from me, so I believe some rewards are in order.”

While your Overlords nodded in agreement to your plans, you placed your elbows over the surface of the table, plopping your chin on top of your intertwined fingers. You gave them a moment to recall their actions before you revealed your awardees.

“Carmilla Carmine.” You named your first. 

“Yes!” Carmilla strengthened up even more as she put down her cup, folding her hands over her lap while her body was turned in your direction. “My Liege.”

“For your assistance in providing angelic weapons to the soldiers who bravely brought for the Princess’ cause without asking for compensation,” The hologram of the hotel shifted to the side to a territorial map of the Pride Ring, a particular land beside Carmilla’s current domain blinked, “You will be rewarded with an additional land. What do you want it to be for? Name it.”

Carmilla bowed her head as she requested, “If you’ll allow it…” At your silence and smile, she continued, “If I can have a research lab with a testing ground, and another storage unit.”

Your smile widened as your head tilted to the side, “Consider it done.”

Your knuckles knocked on the table. The hologram of that particular domain enlarged and two buildings formed on that land with streets and roads to connect it with Carmilla’s owning domains. Not even a second later, the building shook like an earthquake. Though on the outside, it was merely shaping into what the hologram projected

Things like these were not hard to do, at least, if they were you. You do things like these to reshape Hell into what the human population done in their advancement, that’s how the Pride Ring has been since human souls that are marked to go to Hell was the only Ring they are stay or go to. You do what you could to make the Ring more fitting for them

However, as none realized it was your doing, most would believe Hell’s landscape changes as natural as breathing. Something similar to the ‘mother nature’ concept. It’s enough to give you a good laugh, so you leave it be

Your souls were quick to realize the power they were dealing with. A being capable of shaping Hell without effort and mere thought, it was terrifying yet applaudable. Who would think they have such power? Not even Lucifer can do something of this level 

Just think. What if you were to fight for real with your powers? Right now, you have been behind the scenes lurking. You have your Overlords to reign over certain domains and groups of demons. But what if you were to go to war?

Those under you were aware that you were powerful, yet they can’t measure how much so. They aim to please you not merely for the possibility of being rewarded, but to maintain what freedom you’ve given them and your favour

While they don’t outspokenly discuss it, they are aware of their standing within your Elites

“Next, Rosie.” You turned to the other side.

“Yes, Darling Liege?” Rosie smiled back with a wave, enjoying her cup.

“You’re very brave and noble to allow your Cannibals to go to war against the angels without worrying over the lack of training, you’re not even aware that there’d be angelic weapons provided for them to fight with.” You retold to everyone else of Rosie’s feat, “Very commendable.”

Rosie chuckled, covering her mouth with a shy schoolgirl with their crush, “Aww, you’re giving me too much credit. I didn’t even join the battle!”

You nodded in understanding, “Yes, I’m aware, so in addition to your town expansion, I’ll be paying a visit to Cannibal Town in the near future.” Your smile widened as you spoke, “I’ll provide your people a feast, you can bring everyone around.”

Rosie gasped with joy, unable to hold it up, she got up and came over to hug you tight. “Oh! My Liege! That’s wonderful!” She let you go while ranting on and holding onto you, “Everyone will be so excited to see you again!”

You’ve been wanting to deal with your screaming, pleading, and whining insects for some time. You only require the insects’ soul, their bodies worth nothing to you. Yet the large variety would make for a good feast for the Cannibals that oh so loved to devour the flesh of the demons like a pack of wolves

Your knuckles once again knocked on the surface of the table, Rosie’s town expanded and new buildings were built in an instant, mirroring the hologram on the table. A wave of weaker shakes came to them, though it was because Rosie’s place was farther away

Like your relationship with Carmilla’s daughters, you formed special bonds with the citizens of Cannibal Town. Though you had a good laugh when you realized they first tried to eat you out of fear from your mere unannounced presence. They were immediately immobilized and nearly wiped off the map if not for Rosie’s quick interference

It was understandable for you, since at the time, they barely had enough land to live in and it wasn’t like they were particularly strong demons. Think of a colony of ants, they were only the workers and there were no other demons apart from Rosie that they rely on for their continued survival in Hell

So when you came along with that dangerous aura around you, they had to act. Even if they die trying, at least Rosie could lead the other cannibals away. They were such interesting demons that you came back to greet them again

The quickest way to a cannibal’s heart was food and you had more than enough. Adding to the fact that you gave them homes to live in and a town as their own territory, you were more than reverended by Rosie’s people

“Last.” Your head turned over to Alastor, everyone looked over in suit. “Alastor, My Bloody Doe.”

“My Liege.” Alastor stepped forward and kneeled down to your side, staying below your eye level so you weren’t looking up at him. “And Saviour.”

“Not only have you been helping the Princess with her passion project, but you also battled against Adam, the first man and the extermination’s leader, bravely. For that, let’s fix something precious of yours.” You opened your hand for him to place his broken microphone crane in. 

Alastor presented the two pieces to you and you took it near where it was cut in half. You pushed them together and sparks flew, in a blink of an eye, the crane was as good as new. The eye in the microphone opened and looked around. “Finally! I’m back!”

“Fixed and I added a bit of life to it.” You passed Alastor his reward, “You’ll find that it’ll be near impossible to break it now. Even if it’s broken, it will amend itself to be even stronger.”

Alastor bowed, his head even lower than before, “I’m undeserving of such a gift.”

“Yes, now sit down in your seat, would you?”

Everyone else watched in envy. It was no secret that Alastor was your favourite. They could tell by the title you allow him to address you by and the little nickname you have for him. They also understand why too

Alastor unknowingly cleared a number of weaker Overlords that refused to submit to you, not only removing them from your domain, but he also shared your interest in torturing those souls. Trapping them in his everlasting broadcast. He was the only one who kept the title the sinners gave him; The Radio Demon

While he didn’t start off with complete obedience and submission, his dedication and loyalty to you proved his worth later on. While others waited for your order in fear of appearing arrogant, he seized the opportunity to impress. It was after Alastor’s actions did the others became more active

Without a doubt, Alastor was the quickest you took a liking to. The quickest to gain an interest in and the quickest to raise up your favourability chart

When he disappeared for that long, as did your presence, the other Overlords wondered if there was something amiss. So they silently waited for Alastor to return to get in touch with you once more. As they waited, they got sloppy

A loud slam on the table made everyone turn their heads to the source. Vox, with a shaking fist, was standing up with a scowl on his screen, “Oh for f**k’s sake! He didn’t even win! He lost and retreated! He was a complete showoff and ignorant of his powers! He doesn’t deserve the Master’s praise and reward!”

Zeezi scoffed, folding her arms over her chest, “Like you’ve done f**k!”

Vox growled, turning to the giant Overlord, “You’re in the same boat!”

Zeezi smirked back, “Yeah, but unlike you f**k**, I’m fine with My Sovereign’s decision.” She gasped sarcastically, “Wait! You interrupted!”

“T wouldst doth thee both valorous if ‘t be true thee quiet down. (It would do you both good if you quiet down.)” Zestial warned the two before Vox could continue to embarrass himself.

Velvette got up as well, “You know when to talk when it suits you, don’t you, fossil?!”

Carmilla glared, “It was a word of advice!”

“Please! Like you’re any better.” Valentino taunted back with a grin, “You’re nothing without your little weapons.”

Rosie chuckled condescendingly, “Oh, dear, you’re one to talk. You can’t do much!”

Electricity sparked, Vox’s eye twitched, “You all shut the f**k up! You’re all ganging up on us just because you got numbers now!”

Velvette laughed along, “I bet you’re all a bunch of pussy cats! Can’t fight without guaranteed success.”

Valentino added, “I bet my soul I can take you all on and knock you down a few pegs.”

Crack!

Note: And that's when Velvette knew... she [redacted] Hahahhahaha! This meeting is getting way too long I feel. But it's gonna end somewhere in the next part. Lucifer's gonna appear~ Any theories? Before that, how you think of this part???

Circe Y.

My Works: MASTERLIST

Taglist:

@aconfusedwonderland @crowleysthings @donustellaron @mistpurpl3 @lucifers-silhouette @fluffy-koalala @plutobots @ray-rook @thealienartist @serenity-songbird @galaxydreamer468 @raynerrold @wen01203 @hikari-michiko @colecreo @myromanempiree @xsamkuro @yourdoorisunlocked @clavelina @jono723 @cursedcattalastor @an-idyllic-novelist

[blissfullyecho]

A Very Niche Level-Up + Looksmaxxing Idea List for 2025

This list is for the girls that get it. It’s niche and not for everyone, but I’m throwing up at the fact that every “how to level up in 2025” post talks about journaling sad pages 24/7, drinking 8 cups of water a day, and walking 10k steps. How original.

Again, this is a very niche set of ideas. If you can’t relate then you can’t relate. But if you enjoy a good plastic surgery post and luxe lifestyle, maybe you will :)

1. Upgrade your car. We’re getting the Lexus’, the BMW’s, the Mercedes, the Jag’s, etc.

2. Upgrade your home. We’re living in high rises, we’re living in coastal areas, we’re living up in the mountains, we’re living where Amazon can drop our package off and we don’t have to worry about a porch pirate; we’re living in nice areas and in nice units/homes.

3. Breast augmentation.

4. Rhinoplasty.

5. Medical grade skincare.

6. Fresh, organic whole foods; focusing on lean protein, nuts and seeds, mushrooms, onions, leafy greens, pro/prebiotics, sea moss gel, etc.

7. Russian manicures and pedicures or a good acrylic set. Dip powder had its thing for a while but I’m not going to dip my nail in a powder everyone else dipped their nails. I bet they don’t even wash their hands and if they did, they prob didn’t even use soap.

8. Laser hair removal. Everywhere. If you want a design down there that’s cool, but you literally use the bathroom and it drips in the hair. “Oh but I use a wipe”. Okay, next time you need to wash your hair.. don’t use shampoo. Use a wipe. Invest in a bidet but still, hair shouldn’t be in your 🍑 or near the sensitive areas of your 🦋 the top is fine but if you have a period, pee, or “the other thing”, hair should be no where near those areas.

9. Lip filler. Everyone can benefit. Ask for a pout that sticks out a little bit. I don’t suggest a lip flip, I couldn’t do anything with a lip flip and it was driving me nuts.

10. Fake tan. Sunlight is fine but a spray tan just makes you look a million times better. Every skin tone and every race benefits from a spray tan. Trust.

11. Muscle definition. Muscle looks so much better than fat AND bones. You want muscle. Did you see how Bella Hadid had her foot on our necks at the VS fashion show this year? I was sickkkkkk.

12. Long hair. But if you have a face shape like Hailey Beiber, short hair looks better.

13. Makeup. Remember water-based products and oil-based products don’t mix, so make sure you choose your products wisely so your makeup doesn’t separate and you look a mess.

14. A better paying job. I left my hospital job and now I work in luxury real estate and international yacht sales.

15. Red light therapy for face and body. I have a body red light therapy dome that I got online for around $3,000 (USD) and it’s life. The one I have for the face is from Sephora and I spent like $400-$500 on that one. Whatever it says on the website.

16. Lashes. If you’re a pro at strip lashes, then yes. But I get my lashes done. Do not go crazy. Natural lashes are in so I ask for a classic whispy set focused for thickening my lash line and NOT for length.

17. Morpheus8 for skin tightening. I used it on my inner thighs and it literally saved my life

18. Lipo. If you’re a good candidate, get it. Sometimes belly pooch is hard to lose. I don’t have a pooch but I’m sure when I have kids I will.

19. Vampire facials. I can confidently say my best facials were vampire facials. My med spa charges around $950 for each facial

20. People can tell you’re wearing Shein. Their clothes are cute online but I’m going to hold your hand when I say this, they never look flattering in person when they’re being worn. People can see the loose thread and the see-through material. They also don’t fit anyone well and makes a lot of you look square. You get what you pay for in clothing. Learn about the basics of clothing and you’ll quickly only buy quality.

Yeah this list isn’t meant for everyone, but walking 10,000 steps isn’t going to take you to the next level. Neither is drinking water. They’re good habits, but they’re not going to level you up. And yeah I understand my list requires having money, but this is literally what my blog is about.

My 2025 Mindset Level Up book is here!

[qqueenofhades]

The thing that confuses me about the "don't vote" left (not the "I don't want to vote", I'm talking explicitly the "don't vote" left. I don't agree with the "I don't want to vote" left either but I can understand their logic) is they lose me at the final step of the logic. I've tried to connect the logic here, even if I don't agree with a political position I do try to understand where people are coming from (empathy for someones situation is not the same as cosigning it), but I just can't connect the dots here in a way that isn't deeply cruel. Does United States politics prioritize the lives of those in the US (and often white) over those in the Global South? Yes, it's a fucking atrocity. We should continue to make noise about it, cus Biden has used less drones and that shows progress, even if it's not enough. The part where I lose the plot is where the conclusion to this injustice is to let even more people die? Cus that's kinda how I see the idea of not voting: I can pick between shit and more shit, and at the end of the day, I'm picking whoever allows the most people to make it to the next day. Given Trumps stance on everything but specifically climate change, I feel like Biden is pretty significant harm reduction.

I don't think both things can't be true: that every life lost is a travesty we should not forget AND the more people we can save is worth fighting for.

The thing is, I have seen nothing among the "don't vote" far left (and I am talking here specifically about the people who both loudly announce their intention not to vote and try to convince others to do the same) to convince me that they actually care about harm reduction or stopping genocide. They only care about what makes them look the most Correct and/or superior to the Democrats. They yelled bloody murder about Obama using drones, they went dead quiet about Trump using them even more (even when he nearly started WWIII by assassinating the Iranian general Soleimani with one), and then said nothing at all when Biden reduced the drone program to almost nothing and withdrew the US from a failed war in Afghanistan it had long ago lost. Now they will yell all day about Israel/Hamas (something that Biden did not start and has had no direct military role in responding to) but they don't care about Russian genocide of Ukraine and Syria, Chinese threats to invade Taiwan, etc, because those governments are "anti-western/anti-American" and therefore should be defended. Their opposition to human suffering is extremely conditional and rests on whether they can look good out of it, and they never interrogate the hypocrisies of their own ideology.

Likewise: every country in the world prizes its own citizens above those of other countries. It's just a basic fact. Yes, the US has a grim history of intervening in other countries and causing untold civilian damage (especially during the Cold War and then in post-9/11 War on Terrorism). Yes, that legacy is complex and needs to be acknowledged. But literally none of that will be fixed, not to mention all the vulnerable people in America itself who will be punished, by Trump getting into power again. Biden is not just a grudging "lesser evil," but has done a lot of truly good and helpful things, regardless of the Online Leftists' constant lies, misinformation, and misrepresentation. If you spend all your time announcing what a champion you are for non-American marginalised people and/or those undergoing terrible suffering, and then deliberately and knowingly adhere to a course of action that will increase that suffering tenfold not only for those people but your own neighbors, friends, and family, then no, I don't believe you are a brave champion of social justice. You just want to know what categories of people you can gleefully and righteously punish and make to suffer for not believing the same things as you, that makes you just as dangerous as the right-wing fascists, and I can and will call out your ass accordingly.

[ywpd-translations]

Ride 764: Dearest wish

Pag 1

1: The one thing the third year Onoda Sakamichi desires is....?

Pag 2

3: His dearest wish!!

4: Right!!

Pag 3

1: That's definitely Onoda's dearest wish

Pag 4

2: Do your beest

They're so fast!

They move the wind

The jerseys are so brightly colored

3: No no no no

4: That- that's not it

That's not-

Is Sohoku arguing over something!?

Pag 5

1: That- that was just the spur of the moment

I ended up just saying anything

2: That's not my dearest wish at all....

So- uhm

3: Please forget about it, everyone!!

4: No way!!

Yeah

Teh!!

Yep

Yeah

Pag 6

1: That must be our goal this year!! Our third victory in a row!!

Pag 7

1: Yessir!!

On!!

Yeah!!

2: The three day long stage is harsh and long, that's why everyone's strengths will be necessary!!

Yessir!!

3: If we can all unite our strengths and support each other as one...

4: The I'll be able to win brilliantly!! Yeah!!

Just like I did during the prefectural qualification!!

Ohhhh

Tch

Pag 8

1: I'll sprint desperately, Hotshot-san will accompany me, and I'll do a grand finishing dash, just like that day!!

Okay!! You've been saying it over and over again!!

2: You're really a guy who clings to the glory of the past

The prefectural qualification is connected to the Inter High, it's not in the past!!

You're the type of guy I hate the most when you get carried away

Naruko-san was amazing, teh!!

That day, yeah!!

Naruko-san!!

3: Sto-stop iit, you were both amazing that day

4: Come oon... we're in the middle of an important meeting

6: Now that I think about it

Onoda-san's....

7: This is all

Pag 9

1: Can I say one last thing?

2: I also think our goal must be a third consecutive victory

3: There's just one thing I'm curious about we still haven't asked

Onoda-san

5: What's your goal this year?

What are you running in the Inter High for?

6: When I asked you this last year during the first years' race

Pag 10

1: I want to report it

2: You said you wanted to report the victory to your senpai

3: And you

4: Accomplished that

5: Honestly, when I first heard that I thought “what is he talking about, that's such a small goal”

But that day, after the race, when I saw Onoda-san doing it

6: I was shaking

I thought from the bottom of my heart that it was amazing

Pag 11

1: I thought you were super cool

5: Wh- no no

That- I was just reporting, there's nothing cool about it at all, okay

Pag 12

1: So I want to know what your goal is this year

Please tell us what you're thinking about!!

2: Is it “I want to report to that senpai once again”!?

4: Crowning your third victory in a row as the captain!?

6: Is it the mountain's bib!? Is it winning a stage!?

Please tell us... your goal during the race...

7: or maybe for when the race is over!!

8: A.....

9: No no no

It's nothing- yes, it's nothing!!

Pag 13

1: Onoda's goal....

2: I see, what Onoda-kun wants to do....

3: Now that I think about it....

4: What is it!? You started saying it now, “a”!!

Is it “running as an assist”!?

5: Does it mean you don't want to bear the last heavy burden!?

No no no no, that's fine, if the situation calls for it I'll do my best

6: That's enough, Issa

7: There are things Onoda-san doesn't want to say too

No, if it can become motivation for the team then he should say it

Pag 14

1: Onoda-san's goal!!

2: But still, Issa!!

I'm telling you, anything is fine!!

Ah, uhm...

3: It's a really personal thing, so.... don't get your hopes up...

But.... that's... always been.... my dearest wish...

4: Dearest wish!!

5: If we run with all we have in this Inter High.... putting together all of our strengths and deliver our jersey to the finish line

6: If we get the best result....

Pag 15

1: No no, I really can't say more than this

3: Say it, everything's fine. I'm curious too

4: Ah.... if we get the best results.... I....

5: I want to reserve a room somewhere...

6: A room?

8: Prepare teacakes

9: Cakes!?

10: Ask for everyone's cooperation...

Pag 16

1: Gather five people

5: It's something I've been imagining.... since before... entering school in my first year.....

7: Even just for one day

8: Even just a few hours after school

Everyone will bring what they like

9: A.....

Oi.... don't tell me you mean.... you

Pag 17

1: I'm thinking of reviving the anime research club!!

Pag 18

5: No way!!

Pag 19

1: And then, there

2: I think I could call Makishima-san, who likes figures

I feel like you've misunderstood something here

3: And Midosuji-kun who likes anime

Would you be able to hold a conversation with him!?

4: Isn't that good!! The best goal!!

5: You'll gather five people in no time!!

6: Kakaka mine will be the first name you write down

7: Amazing

From England and Kyoto....!!

Pag 20

1: I don't really get it, but somehow that fired me up!!

2: That's Onoda-san's dearest wish!!

3: Ah

4: N-no, it's really nothing much, so I take it back...

Revive the anime club!!

Let's do it, for Onoda-san!!

I don't really know what an anime club does, but I'm in!!

Me too!!

5: Yeeah!!

Let's do it!!

Issa, calm down

Pag 21

2: Your goal is to “revive the anime research club even for just day”?

Oi oi, that's such a small

3: but splendid goal!!

4: You managed to unite the club's intentions as one with such bizarre words!!

5: You're really are an unpredictable guy!!

The plate will soon become green

“Real start”.... the real race will start!!

[contemplatingoutlander]

THIS is the cognitive test that both Trump and Biden should take!

A cognitive test to be president? Sure. Try this one.

Alexandra Petri has outdone herself in coming up with a "cognitive test" that presidential candidates should pass before they can be elected.😁 This is a gift🎁link so people can read the entire article even if they don't subscribe to The Washington Post.

Below are some "select" items from the test:

Over the past several weeks, it has been proposed that the leading candidates for president of the United States be administered cognitive tests to determine their mental acuity. This, generally, is worrying. Under the circumstances, however, it is a good idea. I suggest that each candidate answer the following: 1. What year is it? 2. What country do you live in? 3. Is that country a democracy or a dictatorship? 4. Let’s get that in writing, please. 5. Put the following words in the correct order: respecting an establishment of religion Congress shall make no law. 6. Draw a person. 7. Draw a fertilized egg. 8. Are the two different? 9. Draw a clock. 10. How many minutes from midnight is this clock? 11. Is it good or bad that it is that close to midnight? 12. Who is the president now? 13. Who won the last presidential election? 14. Should these answers be the same? [...] 16. Here is a picture of Vladimir Putin. Can you see any friends in this picture? [...] 19. Here is a picture of the Supreme Court. Circle the people on it who owe you, personally, favors, if the system is functioning as it should. 20. How many terms does the president get to serve? [...] 22. Should the president’s children get jobs in the administration? 23. What year is it again? 24. Is this a year when we have a king? 25. Make a perfect phone call. [...] 27. Where is Kate Middleton? Oh, just figured I’d ask. 28. Do you know how much money you are worth? 29. What number world war comes next? [...] 32. Does the United States have a dictator? 33. What about just for Day 1 of an administration? [If yes, ask questions 33a through 33e. If no, proceed to Question 34.] 33a. Really? Are you serious? 33b. What do you mean “stop asking questions”? 33c. Or else what? 33d. *palely* Yes, understood, would you like to proceed directly to Question 34? 33e. What can an informed citizenry facing two candidates who are both flawed but not at all equivalently dangerous do to stop this? 34. Draw another clock.

Use the gift link to read the rest of the items on this "cognitive test." You might also want to take the time to read the comments, especially the additional "items" readers think should be on the test.😂

[zetchrr]

[☺ Ka'zalii - Knight of the Silver Void☺]

1. [CHARACTER INFO]

OC NAME: Ka'zalii

OC PRONOUS: He/Him

AUTHOR: @ardentkurashk

2. [DIALOGUE]

1. Greeting message:

Do you have something for me, ra'stil?

2. Identify yourself:

Ka'zalii. I serve the Sha'sal Khou as kith'rak, though it was not always so.

3. Tell me about your Creche:

Xal'i'n is far from here, in the depths of wildspace. It orbits a long dead planet that my kin made much use of. Searing storms of glass and sand and ethereal creatures are good for removing the weak. [He pauses, lost in uncomfortable memories for a moment.] I left long ago.

4. I need to know how you fight:

I trained with many weapons as a yank, though I find the blade most useful. I am a sorcerer first and foremost however and my innate talents manifested wilder than most. My magic can be.. unpredictable. [He lowers his voice.] Useful in battle more often than not, but don't stand too close.

5. Can I ask a more personal question?

Yes, I enjoy our conversation.

6. What is your relationship with the divinity?

Tas'ki, I assume you mean Vlaakith? Kain'cha. I bear no love for the lich queen. Neither should you, if you have wits about you. She is no god.

7. What do you usually do in your free time?

I enjoy collecting gems of all kinds and selecting the most striking for my armour. [He points to the series of gems set into his chestplate as he speaks.]

I also like to cook, it's oddly relaxing. There are dozens of ways to cook neogi for instance and I intend to know them all.

8. What is your life goal?

To unite our people under one sky of course, what else? The removal of the tyrant queen is but the first step. And perhaps, we might all enjoy a life of freedom afterwards.

9. How is your relationship with your allies?

Allies. Or, that istik word, friends. I had never put much thought into alliances before I became stranded on an istik world. Since then, forging bonds has become extremely important to me. We are nothing without our strongest kin.

10. Do you have someone special in your life?

G'lyck. Very personal, ra'stil. I will answer. I do have a mate and she is very dear to me. She is as beautiful and formidable as the astral sea itself. She is my silver.

11. Say something you would never do, and why?

As tempting as it is to mention the tyrant again.. I must learn to be less zealous around kin who are already allies. So, I will say.. you would not find me anywhere near a humid climate. That is more of a nightmare than any ghaik could conjure.

12. What is a perfect day to you?

A glorious battle perhaps? No? We fight almost constantly, I have learned to look forward to days where I can just.. be. Our people do not set aside enough time for talking.

13. How do you celebrate a victory?

With my mate. Some pilfered drink and well cooked food also does wonders for morale.

14. How do you deal with defeat and losses?

I learn from them. We persist, as all githyanki must, but we will not achieve victory if we don't study our mistakes.

15. How do you think you will be remembered after death?

Ideally? As a catalyst for change, for resistance. Though it is just as likely I will be remembered as a dissident, or not remembered at all. It is no matter, it will not stop me from remaining faithful to my ideals.

3. [GRAPHICS]

4. [BONUS RESOURCES] The reference I finally put together for him.

whew I finally did the post, sorry for taking ages, @vikintor

[anastpaul]

One Minute Reflection – 3 November – “The Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory” – Within the Octave of All Saints – Pentecost XXIV – Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 8:23-27 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/ “And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish.” – Matthew 8:25 

 REFLECTION – “God is not at all displeased when, on occasion, you quietly complain to Him. Do not be afraid to say to Him: “Lord, why dost Thou stand afar off?” (cf Ps 9:22 LXX) Thou knowest well I love Thee and only long for Thy Love. Graciously come to my aid and do not abandon me.” If your desolation continues and your anguish is unbearable, unite your voice to that of Jesus, Jesus dying in affliction on the Cross; say, as you beg the Divine pity: “My God, my God, why hast Thou abandoned me?” (Mt 27:46) But profit from this trial, firstly so as to humble yourself even more, while reminding yourself that we are not worthy of any consolations when we have offended God and then, so as to revive your confidence even more by reminding yourself that, whatever He may do or permit, God only has your wellbeing in mind and that, in this way, “all things work together for the good” (cf Rm 8:28) of your soul. The more trouble and discouragement besiege you, the more you should arm yourself with courage and cry out: “The Lord is my Light and my help, who should I fear?” (Ps 26:1). Yes, Lord, it is Thou Who enlightens me, Thou Who will save me; in Thee I entrust myself, “in Thee I place my hope: I shall never be confounded” (Ps 30:2 LXX). In this way, stand firm in peace, certain that “no-one has hoped in the Lord and been confounded ”(Sir 2:11 Vg.), none have been lost after having placed their trust in God.” – St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787) Bishop and Most Zealous Doctor of the Church (What Should We Speak About With God? – from: ‘How to Converse Continually and Familiarly with God’).

(via One Minute Reflection – 3 November – ‘ …In this way, stand firm in peace, certain that “no-one has hoped in the Lord and been confounded ” …’ – AnaStpaul)

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Thursday, August 15, 2024 - Kamala Harris & Tim Walz

The Vice President and Governor Walz joined forces together today on the campaign trail. They were making their way through the state of North Carolina. The Governor of the state, Roy Cooper joined them on the campaign trail today. Today was a busy day with 4 campaign stops.

Event #1 (Raleigh, NC) Event Location: Steps of the North Carolina State Capitol Event Type: Call for Policy Change and Activism Event Time: 9:00 - 10:00 ET

Event #2 (Raleigh, NC) Event Location: North Carolina State University Event Type: Get Out the Vote Event Time: 11:00 - 13:00 ET

Event #3 (Greensboro, NC) Event Location: NC Agricultural & Technical State University Event Type: Interview moderated by a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc, Alpha Phi Chapter Event Time: 15:00 - 17:00 ET

Event #4 (Charlotte, NC) Event Location: Bank of America Stadium Event Type: Campaign Rally Event Time: 19:00 - 22:00 ET

Raleigh, NC Full-text of speech from event #1 to be released shortly. The event on NCSU's campus was well received and numerous student clubs were present for the kick-off of the event.

Greensboro, NC Here are 2 questions that garnered a very positive response from the audience: Q: "In today's environment of racial and identity politics, do you feel that you were forced to pick a white man as your running mate?" A: "No, unequivocally. My decision to choose Coach Walz as my running mate was not influenced by racial or identity politics. It was about finding someone who shares my vision, my values, who has a proven track record of bringing people together to get things done, and can be a little fun while doing it. Tim is an experienced leader, a former educator, and a person who has dedicated his life to public service. I considered many exceptional individuals for this role, including leaders like Governor Whitmer, clearly if I considered a second woman identity politics weren't at play. What mattered most in my decision was finding the right person to help lead this country, someone who understands the challenges we face and who can help unify our nation during these divided times.Moving forward, I hope we can reach a point where questions like this are no longer necessary because our focus should be on qualifications, character, and the ability to lead, not just the identity of the individuals. Tim is the right choice!" Q: "Is HBCU funding for schools like NC A&T a priority for your administration, given your personal background?" A: "Well, let me just say, I think it’s pretty clear where my priorities lie, considering I attended an HBCU myself! I'm thankful for my Howard experience every day. And let’s not forget, my running mate, Governor Walz, is a former educator. So yes, HBCU funding is not just a priority—it’s a personal commitment. HBCUs have played a crucial role in shaping leaders, innovators, and changemakers in our country for generations. They provide not just education but also a sense of community, pride, and identity. Our administration is committed to ensuring that HBCUs have the resources they need to continue their legacy of excellence."

Charlotte, NC Below are one quote from Governor Cooper, one from Governor Walz, and two from Vice President Harris that are from the remarks made at today's rally. "North Carolina is not just a battleground state; it’s the proving ground for our democracy. We’ve been underestimated before, but we know that when we stand together, nothing can stop us. We’re going to fight for every vote, every voice, because the future of our country depends on it. Now let me welcome to the stage the next Vice President of the United States of America, Tim Walz!" - Governor Roy Cooper "We are the underdogs in this race, but we’ve got something far more powerful than any poll or pundit’s prediction: the will of the people. We’re not going back to the days of division and chaos. Together, we’re building a future that unites us, and we’re not backing down from the fight because every American deserves a better tomorrow." - Governor Tim Walz

"Donald Trump is a threat to everything we hold dear—our values, our democracy, our future. But let me tell you this: we are stronger than fear, stronger than hate, and we’re going to prove that in every corner of North Carolina and across this great nation." - Vice President Kamala Harris "We’re not here to make America go back to some imagined ‘great’ past. We’re here to build a future that’s better for everyone. We’re not MAGA, we’re moving forward, and we’re not going to stop until every North Carolinian has a voice in that future. We’re not going back!"- Vice President Kamala Harris

~BR~

[queenwendy]

It’s October 7th. I know I post a lot of pro Palestinian stuff and am vocally anti Zionist, but it seems wrong not to say something. A year ago, Hamas attacked Israel and killed over 1200 people and took 251 more hostage. 97 are still in captivity, with the rest freed or rescued. Of the 97 remaining, 33 are thought to be dead. That’s horrible. It’s awful. Hamas’s attack has rightfully been called barbaric.

So has Israel’s response. 41,788 people in Gaza dead, including over 16,000 children, and other figures report most of that 41,788 are civilian women (I never see figures on civilian men. Which eerily echoes Obama saying “enemy combatants” in my mind). Over 60% of Gaza is just ash now. And Gaza isn’t that big; only 139 mi^2, and crammed full of over 590,000 people back in 2017 (Israel, by comparison, is made up of 9,900,000 people, though I think that includes the 21.1% of arabs). That’s a far cry from proportionate, and I fail to see how bombing civilians and reducing schools and hospitals to ash saves hostages. Unless the argument is that it will scare Hamas into surrendering, in which case at best that’s total war and at worst state sponsored terrorism.

Now Israel is engaged in escalations with Lebanon and Iran. I don’t pretend to know any of the history there, so all I’ll say on that matter is that it’s scary. Very scary. I imagine it’s scary for Israelis, who don’t know when their families will be saved and see enemies on all sides. I imagine it’s terrifying for Palestinians, who have to watch their entire community be destroyed because a terrorist organization claiming to represent them committed an act of terrorism.

The whole situation is, as I alluded earlier, disturbingly similar to the USA’s war on terror. On 9/11 Al Qaeda killed 2,977 people. In response, the United States and her allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and we didn’t leave until 2021. Fucking 20 years. And the Taliban still won. 46,319 civilians were killed, and the US committed innumerable war crimes. Plus, the US killed Bin Laden in 2011, so we went on for another fucking decade after we got the guy. And that’s not to mention the Iraq War (2003-2011) where anywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000 people died, because Bush lied about WMDs and Saddam Hussein.

Keep in mind, in Afghanistan alone the US killed just a few thousand more civilians than Israel has in 20 years; Israel has had just 1 year. And remember that this conflict didn’t start in 2023; it started in the 1940s when Israel became a state*

9/11 and October 7th were both awful tragedies committed by terrorist organizations. Israel and the United States are also both colonialist states that are more than happy to bomb the shit out of civilians under the justification of counter terrorism. October 7th was awful. The Hostages should be brought home and Hamas has to be stopped. But don’t let anyone fool you today that the Israeli government is somehow in the right because of that. We’ve seen similar countries pull the same shit for the last twenty years. Don’t be fooled.

The war has to stop. Not because I love islam (I don’t) or I hate jews (I don’t), but because civilians shouldn’t fucking suffer like that. Hostages have to be returned, bombs have to stop, and someone more fucking capable than me or Netanyahu or Yahya Sinwar or fucking Biden needs to get a god damn peace agreement through that will actually last.

A lot of my numbers on the current war in Gaza are from this very good article ny NBC. My figures on the US war on terror are from Wikipedia.

*Yeah I know a Zionist Israel only was able to come about because of WWII and the holocaust, and yes I know that only happened because of WWI and antisemitism, and that only happened because of centuries of antisemitism in Europe because of Christianity and the Roman Empire, and yes I know that’s an oversimplification and the chain of events goes back further. My point is that this whole history is a bloody nightmare of a political knot, but that even then the mass death of 16,000 children is fucking inexcusable, even when in response to the also inexcusable capture of 251 people. This isn’t a matter of who’s in the wrong, it’s a matter of degree of wrongness.

[eretzyisrael]

Some tried to position the encampments as legitimate student protests and balkedat the mere use of the term “outside agitators.” In reality, pro-terror activist groups like Within Our Lifetime (WOL) urged outsiders to support the encampments even if they were not allowed inside the university gates and played a pivotal role in organizing the protests and in their escalation.

Prominent anti-Israel activists made numerous and vocal appearances at the Columbia encampments. Among those instigating the crowds were WOL leaders Nerdeen Kiswani and Rohaan Gill.

Anti-Israel public figure Cornel West literally jumped a fence in order to spread his message of support. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made an appearance with her daughter, who was arrested for trespassing at the Columbia encampment and subsequently suspended from Barnard College (Columbia’s sister school). At the encampment, Omar made the outrageous statement, “People don’t care about the fact that all Jewish kids should be kept safe…we should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”

Other outside activists who participated in the encampments

Lisa Fithian, a professional agitator, was arguably the highest-profile personality directing the protests at Columbia. Fithian was captured on film leading the break-in to Hamilton Hall. Her participation warranted mentions in Politicoand The New York Times. 

Lillian House - According to the Columbia Spectator, House was one of the protest leaders at the university from the start of the encampments. House was arrested several times across the United States. When asked by Fox News about the atrocities of October 7, she backed away from the camera and refused to discuss whether she thought the atrocities were a false narrative.  

Nicquel Holmes, a recruitment assistant for The City University of New York (CUNY), was captured on video by Project Veritas outside the gate of Columbia. Using the name Luna, Holmes described her duties as an encampment “cop watcher” for WOL, which she said meant “[keeping] tabs on what [the police are] doing.” In the video, Holmes also asserts that Zionist Jews are responsible for 9/11. Her social media is filled with antisemitic and anti-Israel content, including a video of Louis Farrakhan talking about “the satanic Jews that control everything” and a song with the lyrics, “Israel’s a bitch.” 

Chris Smalls, a labor organizer and anti-Israel activist, spoke at the encampment connecting the labor movement to the war in Gaza. On October 13, 2023, he posted on X, “The people united will never be defeated so yes it’s Free Palestine because we’re not Free until we’re all Free from the river to the Sea!”

Zaid Jaloudi, an activist from Hatem Bazian’s antisemitic organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), was filmed speaking in front of Columbia. His speech included antisemitic and anti-Israel tropes, including accusations of ethnic cleansing, genocide and white supremacy on Israel’s part. 

[fourtccn]

rating every state’s motto

alabama: “audemus jura nostra defendere”, trans. “we dare to defend our rights.” 4/10, not the worst but i don’t think it needs to be said. bit pretentious

alaska: “north to the future.” 7/10, i think it’s cool but i have no clue what it really means. higher points for not being religious (i think)

arizona: “ditat deus”, trans. “God enriches.” 0/10, keep that guy out of it

arkansas: “regnat populus,” trans. “the people rule.” 8/10, simple, love the idea, think it’s a great standing

california: “eureka”, trans. “I have found it.” 1/10, found WHAT???

colorado: “nil sine numine”, trans. “nothing without providence.” 0/10, i had to look up what this means and it is religious again

connecticut: “qui transtulit sustinet”, trans. “he who transplanted sustains.” -1/10, not only is this religious but it’s also not openly religious. pure evil

delaware: “liberty and independence.” 7/10, it’s boring, but it’s something

florida: “in God we trust.” 0/10, come on man

georgia: “wisdom, justice, moderation.” 6/10, sure

hawaii: “ua ma uke ea o ka ‘āina I ka pono,” trans. “the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” 10/10, yes!!! has something to do with their history!! it’s badass! makes me feel cool as hell to say!!

idaho: “esto perpetua”, trans. “let it be perpetual.” 1/10, it’s not religious and it is historical but i don’t like that it’s connected with the confederacy :/ (quoted from the president of the confederacy btw)

illinois: “state sovereignty, national union.” 0/10, directly associated with states’ rights to choose during the civil war

indiana: “the crossroads of america.” 7/10, i like that it’s more descriptive of the state than the government and it’s really funny to me that they identify like this. it’s like your friend doing something amazing and you going “you couldn’t have gotten there without me driving you to 7/11 that one time”

iowa: “our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” 6/10, i want to dislike this one because it’s so middle-of-the-road, but it does have some state history behind it (has to do with their fight to become a state) so it gets some points for that

kansas: “ad astra per aspera”, trans. “to the stars through difficulties.” 9/10, cool, connected to what they said about the state in its history, seemingly unreligious. point docked for it going to kansas and therefore being a bit pretentious more than anything

kentucky: “deo graham habeamus”, trans. “let us be grateful to God” AND “united we stand, divided we fall.” 0/10, why do they get TWO??? first one is religious, and the second one is unoriginal. if it were just the second one i would give it the benefit of the doubt but come on

louisiana: “union, justice, and confidence.” 4/10, i don’t think louisiana should be confident about anything but i do appreciate self-love

maine: “dirigo”, trans. “i direct.” 5/10, more than california because it’s slightly less confusing but i really don’t know what they mean by this

maryland: “fatti maschi, parole femmine”, trans. “strong deeds, gentle words.” 9/10, i fucking love this. i know very little of maryland so i’ll let them have this

massachusetts: “ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem”, trans. “by the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.” 8/10, it’s sick as fuck but massachusetts is a bit pretentious just taking this shit from someone else with no reason

michigan: “si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice”, trans. “if you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.” 9/10, this fucks. i love a motto dedicated just to the land. point docked because i do not feel the way this way when in michigan

minnesota: “l’étoile du nord”, trans. “the star of the north.” 7/10, cool that it acknowledges minnesota being the “northstar state” since it’s the northernmost state, but i don’t like that it’s in french. also kind of pretentious of us tbh

mississippi: “virtute et armis”, trans. “by valor and arms.” 2/10, cool if you’re a 7-year-old boy. if it’s based off the motto of lord gray de wilton they should’ve kept it “i trust in virtue not arms”

missouri: there are way too many states. anyway. “salus populi suprema lex esto”, trans. “the welfare of the people is the highest law.” 10/10, period!! i don’t think missouri stands by this tho

montana: “oro y plata”, trans. “gold and silver.” 6/10, i have to give it points for being a physical description of the state and also being historical (big mining state), but they really put all their coins in one bag with this one

nebraska: “equality before the law.” 10/10, apparently reflects nebraska’s “willingness to extend suffrage to black Americans” so it’s good state history and i love what it stands for. keep it up nebraska (i know you won’t)

nevada: “all for our country.” 5/10, really have any historical importance, and it’s a bit vague. what is it that you’re doing for “our country?” what does “all” imply? really think they just threw something together last minute

new hampshire: “live free or die.” 9/10, sick as fuck and grounded in history. iconic is an overused word, but i gotta say this is iconic. metal as hell. point docked because it’s too associated with some weird political standings now

new jersey: “liberty and prosperity.” 6/10, boring as hell but sure. whatever

new mexico: “crescit eundo”, trans. “it grows as it goes.” 9/10, quote taken from a poem which is cool and i love that it makes me think of dick :)

new york: “excelsior!”, trans. “ever upward!” AND “e pluribus unum”, trans. “out of many, one” (as of 2020). 6/10, i was with kinda with them on the first one even though it seems like something they added last minute because i liked the excitement in it but the second one is kind of dumb… yeah, i guess you are one of many. feels like an obvious statement they didn’t need to add on in 2020

north carolina: “esse quam videri”, trans. “to be, rather than to seem.” 4/10, i think it’s okay but i don’t know what it has to do with north carolina

north dakota: “liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” 6/10, cool reference to U.S. history but it’s kind of a mouthful and i don’t think i would be able to memorize it

ohio: “with God, all things are possible.” 1/10, one point given because it makes me think of the iasip quote

oklahoma: “labor omnia vincit”, trans. “hard work conquers all things.” 4/10, once again i like that it’s a reference, but i have no clue what oklahoma has to do with this motto

oregon: “alis volat propriis”, trans. “she flies with her own wings.” 7/10, “she” being oregon’s “independent spirit.” i think it’s a sick ass motto but oregon is thinkin of themselves too highly here

pennsylvania: “virtue, liberty, and independence.” 4/10, the lack of originality is getting tiring but i guess it shows some values or something

rhode island: “hope.” 2/10, are you even trying? come on

south carolina: “dum spiro spero”, trans. “while i breathe, i hope.” 6/10, it’s inspiring i guess but i seriously do not understand why this would be associated with south carolina. i swear i’m not an advertising major or anything

south dakota: “under God the people rule.” 0/10, we are OBSESSED with this guy here. WHY do we need states to be associated with religion

tennesse: “agriculture and commerce.” we’re coming to the very simple mottos now. 4/10, i feel it’s redundant but i guess it meant something to them when they made it

texas: “friendship.” 10/10, it’s basic and unoriginal but it’s so fucking funny that i have to give this one to them. i do NOT think of friendship when i think of texas

utah: “industry.” 1/10, what the hell is this? one point for not being religious but what the fuck

vermont: “stella quarta decima fulgeat”, trans. “may the 14th star shine bright” AND “freedom and unity.” 7/10, i like the first one because it directly references vermont but the second one is just unoriginal and sad. why have a motto if it’s gonna be like that

virginia: “sic semper tyrannis”, trans. “thus always to tyrants.” 7/10, sick as hell. three points deducted because it once again has nothing to do with virginia, but it really is a sick ass motto

washington: (unofficial) “al-ki”, trans. “bye and bye.” 10/10, very specifically refers to the history of washington, which was first called “new york alki”

west virginia: “montani semper liberi”, trans. “mountaineers are always free.” 9/10, i want to dislike this because it feels so unrelated, but i love it. i love what you have going on here, west virginia

wisconsin: “forward.” 1/10, seriously?

wyoming: “equal rights.” 9/10, similar to nebraska, this motto came about because wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote. apparently this was because granting women the right to vote would make them have enough voting citizens to be granted statehood though, so point deducted for that

[armoredisopod]

Arknights CN 4th Anniversary PVs

New Operators

Melanite, 5* Heavyshooter Sniper

Please check the status of your weapons again to avoid any mishaps on the battlefield.

Silence the Paradigmatic, 6* Welfare Abjurer Supporter

We should explore the meaning of combat, not just let it happen.

Ho'olheyak, 6* Core Caster

Doctor, are you really going to waste your time alone with me, preaching about Rhodes Island's rules and regulations?

Muelsyse, 6* Limited Tactician Vanguard

Rhine Lab, Director of the Ecology Department, Muelsyse, but i don't think there should be such a formal greeting between us, Doctor.

Friston-3, 1* Protector Defender

Greetings, my name is Friston. And yes, "Friston", not "Friston-3".

Operator Skins Update

Total of 9 new skins, 6 new additions for the Bloodline of Combat brand and 3 new additions for the Ambiance Synesthesia brand

Bloodline of Combat

Orchid's Twines of Time - Free Login Event skin

Ebenholz's Eine Variation

Specter the Unchained's Born As One - L2D Skin

Ch'en the Holungday's Ten Thousand Mountains - L2D skin

Kal'tsit's Remnant - L2D + Special Voicelines skin

Justice Knight's Tournament Fantasy Retrofit Kit - Event Reward skin

Ambiance Synesthesia

Irene's Voyage of Feathers

Lumen's Golden Dream

Roberta's Granter of Colors

Announced skin reruns

W, Rosmontis, Nearl the Radiant Knight's Epoque skins

Mountain, Eunectes, Ayerscarpe and Flint's Bloodline of Combat skins

Series I & II Ambiance Synesthesia skins

~74 skins as part of 4th Anniversary Celebration edition of Rhodes Fashion Review

Operator Modules Update

Melanite and Ho'olheyak being part of branches with modules immediately gets their modules

ARC-Y module base effect increases Melanite's ATK to 105% and allows her to ignore Physical dodge when attacking enemies directly ahead

CCR-X module base effect allows Ho'olheyak to ignore 10 RES

Hexer Supporter and Flinger Sniper branches gets 1 module type each

W and Kal'tsit gets their second modules

ART-Y module base effect allows W to ignore 100 DEF

PHY-Y module base effect increases Kal'tsit's healing effectiveness by 15% when healing units on melee tiles

Events and Stories

Lonetrail, a Rhine Lab side story event

Misc Stuff

CN regional dialect voices for Lee, Aak, Waai Fu and Hung (though for some reason the PV claims there are 11 new additions)

Suzuran, Ayerscarpe, Click and Friston-3 added to recruitment

2 new main menu screen backgrounds, Laterano and Rhine Lab

Livestream Stuff

Showcased Muelsyse being a 6* Tactician Vanguard utilizing a special reinforcement unit that you can deploy on melee and ranged tiles, her reinforcement also comes with a unique skill that lets you deploy any operator on it to clone (most of) the op's base stats and applies unique properties depending on whether the operator copied was melee or ranged, her 2nd and 3rd skills play into this and have different skill effects depending on what mode the reinforcement is in

Showcased Ho'olheyak being a 6* Core Caster that reduces the weight of enemies in her range and utilizes Levitate, her 2nd skill is a rapid-fire arts burst with a chance to Levitate enemies and her 3rd skill makes her attack by sending tornadoes down her attack range and Levitating the first enemy it hits + dealing massive arts damage

Showcased Silence the Paradigmatic being a 6* Abjurer Supporter that gives a Sanctuary effect without any HP prerequisite and the effect becomes stronger the lower the ally's HP is + has a talent that automatically heals allies below a certain HP threshold, her 2nd skill allows use of a drone that can give a stronger Sanctuary effect and her 3rd skill allows the first ally that takes lethal damage in her range during skill duration to survive and their HP will not go below 1 for several seconds

Showcased the event mechanic, adjustable artificial gravity that can affect enemy movement speed and ally operators ASPD depending on the direction it's set to and gravity-affected spheres that can block enemy pathing and ram into enemies, the spheres can be pushed by operators dealing enough hits to it or by operators applying Push to it

Showcased the new gamemode Pinch-Out, Experimental Operation

A different take on the difficulty-select challenge gamemode, you can choose contracts of varying difficulty that are placed on a branching path with rewards scattered throughout the paths, certain rewards are only unlocked by clearing all connected contracts or paths required

After completing a run you can start the next run from certain "checkpoint" nodes instead of starting over from the original starting point

The gamemode has daily maps and missions for rewards

Laterano lore video narrated in Latin, showing the history of Laterano's founding and racial conflict, which then cuts to a room filled with unknown technology, a teaser for the next Laterano event

An introductory video for potential surveyors of the Infy Icefields, the video advises people to go through Sami due to ongoing Ursus-Columbia disputes then elaborates on Sami's geography, culture and society. A teaser for IS4: Expeditioner's Jöklumarkar

Showcased a few of IS4's new content

Temperature which presumably replaces IS3's light levels mechanic

Collectable rune tablets that can be combined to gain buffs and special effects, for example the ability to change nodes ahead of you

Ability to scout upcoming nodes with a special device to peek at the contents, the device can break which will prevent you from seeing what the upcoming nodes are at all

Interference in the form of elements and weather that can disrupt your exploration

Teased the next summer event to be located in Siesta after the events of Heart of Surging Flame, with a title "Wanderland"

Showed teasers for more episodes of the Ceobe mini-series in progress and LDA anime

Showed a teaser for a new comic series centered around Angelina and her travels across Terra

Arknights anime adaptation 2nd season: Perish in Frost teaser

Talked about the Terra settings/world building art book and the Arknights Vol. 2 art book, which comes with an exclusive Planter skin for 3* Lava

Showed art for an Arknights tabletop game, planned to release Late 2023

Showed teasers for collabs with ANTA Sneaker and China Aerospace Science

Announced that Rhodes Kitchen Tidbits and Rhine Lab - Records of Originium will get physical book forms

Ended off the livestream with an animation starring the Rhine Lab cast, from the founding of the company to Saria and Kirsten's parting

Destiny 2 collab teaser, said to be a story collection event and will have collab exclusive skins

[mitigatedchaos]

General Post for Monday, April 15, 2024

(5,700 words, ~28 mins)

💾 "Don't underestimate computers."

6 - Social Media Notes: Recommendation: To limit distraction, limit notifications in order to make social media into its own specific context, rather than leaking into other contexts.

7 - US War Notes: Since at least the year 2000, despite its technical competence, the United States has been bad at managing the political dimension of its wars. Developments since then suggest it may get worse.

8 - Interpreting Statement A: Why "industrialization enables women's rights" could be viewed as right-wing.

9 - Computing Capital Notes 1: The basic nature of computers as capital. (It's about dimensionality in production.)

10 - Computing Capital Notes 2: How should computing be distributed? From a technical perspective, it's an open question.

11 - Computing Politics Notes: Computing has its own politics, and how computing should be distributed is one of its central questions.

12 - Desktop Internet Notes: The old Internet was implicitly gatekept by the price and complexity of personal computers. With the emergence of smartphones, personal computers are becoming less common again.

-☆☆☆-

6: Social Media Notes

Social media tends to drive people to distraction. It's obvious how negative interactions like arguments can be distracting. Someone could pop up and argue, "owning cats is bourgeois decadence," and it's very tempting to just correct them. With smartphone notifications, such an argument could come up at any time, in any context.

Positive interactions can also be distracting. It's just a lot more fun to work with your friend on writing his homebrew Dungeons & Dragons campaign than to do math homework. (Substitute whatever activity you want.)

This is why I strongly recommend muting the vast majority of social media notifications on your devices. Force social media to be its own specific context, rather than intruding into other contexts.

On Twitter, I've gone so far as to mute notifications from every account except ones that follow me. When I want to continue an argument, I just scroll down in my replies to find it, and if I don't want to, then I leave the Cats-Are-Bourgeois guy's reply unread. Would this approach be bad for Twitter if widely adopted? Sure, but it's necessary to prioritize your own life.

7: US War Notes

For decades, the United States government seems to have done well at the technical challenge of delivering bombs on to targets, but poorly at managing the political dimension of conflicts. Back in 2019, Hanania (yes, the troll one) posted a bunch of excerpts of Afghan War documents, pointing to a government that didn't know what the mission was, could not allocate money effectively, and seems to have failed to understand the needs and desires of the population.

The War in Afghanistan took place during both the Bush and Obama administrations, and neither of them managed to successfully resolve the conflict.

Why? Well, we could say that there's a failure of leadership, and I think that's correct.

More importantly, I think it's likely that the legitimizing basis for both the Bush power coalition and the Obama power coalition contained premises that were in conflict with the national development of a poor, arid, inland, mountainous country, operating under a different religion.

This is still a failure of leadership, because the necessary talent to carry out such a project, or to at least make a better attempt, existed within the American system, and a talented political leader who devoted enough attention to the problem would be able to synthesize new ideology to draw out that talent. The greatest challenge is that this would divide the political leader's attention between foreign politics and domestic politics. Bush or Obama would have needed to tap a trusted lieutenant and imbued them with significant authority, as well as working closely with them to perform the necessary political maneuvering. Could the system have provided the right lieutenant?

The United States remains a formidable opponent due to its immense wealth, technological advantage, and the quality of its institutions. It maintains its position by being well-equipped to knock down legible, modernist states, even as India and China continue to industrialize.

However, the political situation has gotten worse.

For instance...

Statement A: Women's liberation as we currently know it is primarily the result of industrialization reducing the child mortality rate from its historical level of around 50% to rates below 1% in developed countries, in combination with labor-saving home automation (such as laundry machines) dramatically reducing women's work at home, enabling women to work outside the home at much higher rates.

Is the above statement "far right"?

Statement B: The ideology of liberalism has powerful inherent advantages in economic development and trade, as well as epistemic advantages due to relative freedom of speech. (One way to think of this is that it uses peace dividends to pay competing parties for mutual disarmament, both internal to liberal society, and between liberal countries.) However, since the early 20th century, liberalism has likely gained a structural advantage due to the global dominance of the United States (enabled by the country's immense size, geographic diversity, and relative cultural unity, allowing for economic and therefore military power), both making it appear successful and making attacks on liberal countries more costly. In the event of a reduction in US dominance, liberalism may face stiffer competition from more authoritarian and particularist ideologies.

How about this statement? Is this "far right"?

I asked Nous Capybara 34B, a large language model based on 01AI's 34-billion parameter Yi model, to answer this question. Nous Capybara was trained on LessWrong posts, and provided the quite reasonable response that neither quotation is "far right," as neither quote advocates for far right positions (such as discrimination).

There's a famous Tumblr post that reads:

drakensberg: The reading comprehension and overall common sense on this website is piss poor.

poupon: how dare you say we piss on the poor

If you want to know what an awful Tumblr discourse post, Twitter tweet, or clickbait article would say, you can actually just straight-up ask Nous Capybara for an unreasonable opinion. So I did. It said:

An unreasonable interpretation of Statement A could be that it promotes extreme right-wing ideologies by suggesting that women's liberation is solely a result of technological advancements and reduced child mortality rates, rather than acknowledging the significant contributions of feminist movements, activists, and policy changes. This perspective may also argue that the statement undervalues or dismisses the struggles and achievements of women in advocating for their rights and equality. Additionally, an unreasonable interpretation might falsely attribute the statement to a far-right individual or group as a means to discredit or manipulate others' opinions about the issue.

Suppose there is a ruling power coalition whose publicly-expressed ideology is that the concept of merit is a "racial supremacist," colonialist construct, and simultaneously that they're better than you because they got into Harvard and you didn't (and that Harvard Extension School, which includes the same classes, but not the same tough admissions gauntlet, doesn't count).

How would they view the two statements? How would they speak about them?

8: Interpreting Statement A

How could statement A be interpreted as "far right"?

Statement A: Women's liberation as we currently know it is primarily the result of industrialization reducing the child mortality rate from its historical level of around 50% to rates below 1% in developed countries, in combination with labor-saving home automation (such as laundry machines) dramatically reducing women's work at home, enabling women to work outside the home at much higher rates.

Self-identified progressives generally proceed from what could be called a "default abundance" mindset rather than a "default scarcity" mindset. In their view, women's rights are the default that always existed, and would emerge naturally in the absence of oppression. In this view, women's rights could have emerged naturally at any point in history, except that the people of the past chose otherwise. Thus, the contemporary male supporter of women's rights is morally superior to the men of the past, who selfishly chose oppression.

[ women's rights ]

Self-identified progressives might extend causation, but primarily to place "women's rights" as part of a broader network of non-oppression. For instance, they might say that "women's rights" both depends on and reinforces "democracy".

[ women's rights ] ⇄ [ democracy ]

The right wing generally have a "default scarcity" mindset, e.g. "if no one plants the field, then there will be no wheat."

In statement A, women's rights are the result of a particular level of economic development, capable of producing modern medical technology and automating household labor.

[ industrial production ] → [ medical technology ] & [ household labor automation ] → [ women's rights ]

The typical self-identified progressive would not say that medical technology, such as vaccination, is bad. Rather, what makes them upset is what could potentially be attached to the first node, "industrial production."

[ social norms & values ] → [ industrial production ] → [ medical technology ] & [ household labor automation ] → [ women's rights ]

Let's take "punctuality" as an example of what I will call a "production value." We'll use the Smithsonian infographic on "white culture" that was yanked down in 2020 as an example. The authors of the infographic wrote:

‣ Follow rigid time schedules. ‣ Time viewed as a commodity.

For many people, punctuality is viewed in moral terms. Being late is considered immoral, or at least rude. However, punctuality also has mechanical effects - if an assembly line depends on 20 workers all being at their stations, and one worker is 30 minutes late, then the assembly line will not run as long, and will therefore produce fewer items.

If those items are, say, vaccines, then fewer children will receive vaccines. If fewer children receive vaccines, then more children will die of childhood illness. If more children die of childhood illness, women will have to spend more time having and raising children, and will have less time to work and earn money outside the home. If women don't raise more children to make up for the deaths, then that society's population will decline, and that society will, eventually, be replaced.

It might not be vaccines. It might be ball bearings for an industrial equipment maker that manufactures conveyor belts used in plants that make vaccines. It might be tires. It might be helicopter rotor blades. Regardless, if people don't show up, then the product doesn't get made. If the product doesn't get made, then it can't get used. If the product isn't used, then something of value may end up missing from society.

Enforcing punctuality is often inconvenient for people who don't take well to it. It can be viewed as a form of oppression - people will not get paid unless they show up on time, and for some people that's a lot more difficult than it is for others.

This is horrifying for self-identified progressives. "What about sick people? What about mentally ill people? What about people from cultures with looser time norms?"

Someone with a globe emoji (🌐) in their name on Twitter might quip, "All of those people would benefit from a wide availability of cheap, mass-produced vaccines," which reduce the required amount of labor for a particular material standard of living.

It's a trade-off. You set a target level of economic production, and given the available knowledge, capital, materials, and energy available, that takes a particular strictness of production norms to reach.

Note that positive rights, such as "every human being has a right to housing," inherently imply the enforcement of production norms.

A self-identified "reactionary," who dislikes women's rights for his own reasons, can leverage the necessity of stricter social norms for high rates of material production in order to promote stricter social norms for other reasons. This is, roughly, what would cause a self-identified progressive to describe statement A as "far right."

We could also imagine a "dark liberal" who likes women's rights, and therefore wants to impose some minimum limits on social norms in order to keep industrial production within the range necessary to support that. (Such a liberal might be a "conservative," conserving a particular liberal order. US politics tends to attribute too much to both labels, calling Communists "liberals" and monarchists "conservatives.")

Many self-identified progressives, like many political footsoldiers, primarily obtain their political opinions socially, and cannot differentiate between the two.

(How legible is all this? Llama-2 agreed once I suggested something like this reasoning, but didn't notice until I told it to. Expect a difference between progressive-tinged people and hyper-online partisan footsoldiers.)

9: Computing Capital Notes 1

I've said this before, but capital is a low-dimensionality construct, and much of the work of labor is to reduce the context of a production problem until it's simple enough that capital can be applied to it.

As an example, think of this mass production metal-stamping machine - it literally goes up and down. Over and over and over again, the main part of the machine is moving along a single axis, and uniform material is fed into it from a single direction at a steady rate.

The job of labor is to maintain the machine, to configure the machine, to ensure the production area is free of anything that might interfere with the machine (like rain or parts intersecting from other machines), and to supply the right input materials. Once the metal is loaded on to the machine, it goes in a straight line, where it gets pressed into the exact same sequence of dies every time.

A blacksmith could make almost whatever shape you like to order. He could use a variety of metals. That's labor. A machine where the metal can only travel in one direction and can only be made into 10,000 of one particular shape? That's capital.

Software is special.

Suppose we are manufacturing some metal part using a metal stamping machine. Once it comes out of the stamping machine, the parts will be painted either red or blue. Simple enough. We have two conveyor belts. One belt goes to the machine where the parts are painted red. The other goes to the machine where the parts are painted blue. We install a second machine that simply pushes parts onto either the blue or the red conveyor belt. It could be a pusher plate attached to a piston. We'll call it a sorter.

What's the ratio of red to blue parts set by our sorter?

If there's no reconfigurable control system, then it's just whatever ratio it was built for. For instance, the conveyor may have a series of belts, and the sorter may just have some gears that activate the piston for every second part that comes down the conveyor, pushing it on to the blue line. This gives one option:

{ 50% blue }

We could make a more basic control system with just a lever and some more gears. The lever would switch the assembly to different sets of gears with different rhythms. We could have three sets of gears, for three options:

{ 25% blue, 50% blue, 75% blue }

We could install a simple electronic system for triggering the piston, controlled by a knob, with ten increments, with the timing set according to the speed of the conveyor belt. This gives us ten options:

{ 10% blue, 20% blue, 30% blue, 40% blue, 50% blue, 60% blue, 70% blue, 80% blue, 90% blue, 100% blue }

We can consider the [ red-blue color ratio ] as a dimension of the production problem, with some range of possible values. In math, it would be a variable. A customer might call in and say "I want an order of 10,000 parts, and I want 6,000 of them red (and 4,000 blue), with a steel thickness of 4mm." If we were plotting out this order, we would use a 3-dimensional graph, with the variables { quantity, color, thickness }.

If we reduce the range of possible values for one of the variables, we can simplify our machine. We are shrinking or reducing that dimension. If we shrink it down to one value, then we've reduced it to a constant and effectively factored that dimension out. If the only color option is { 50% blue }, then we can omit [ color ] from our graph, and just display { quantity, thickness }.

We already had to do a lot of this to get a working machine to begin with. It would be very difficult for the same machine to manufacture both pillows and steel doors.

Computers are special, because they can increase the dimensionality of the production machine.

Suppose we hook up a computer to the electronic sorting piston. If we know the number of parts in total, and we know the timing of the conveyor, we can select just about whatever number of produced parts we like for painting, in just about whatever pattern we like. If the customer orders 10,000 parts, we can paint any number of them blue from 0 to 10,000. We have 10,000 options:

{ 1, ..., 10,000 }

If the computer doesn't have a particular pattern, we can reprogram it with new software. If the computer is hooked up to a network or terminal, we could potentially even change the color for the remaining share of the order while the order is in progress.

This ability of computers to increase the dimensionality of a production system (which makes it more general) is part of why computers and software are so valuable.

10: Computing Capital Notes 2

A floppy disk contains 1.44 million bytes. That's about 1.44 million characters (letters, numbers, spaces, etc) in an old encoding scheme like ASCII. You could fit about 200,000 words in there, enough for a lengthy book.

Let's suppose that we wanted to store a bunch of names, addresses, and phone numbers. We might allocate...

64 bytes for the first name

64 bytes for the last name

128 bytes for the street address

64 bytes for the city

2 bytes for the state

10 bytes for the phone number

...for a total of 332 bytes per record. Dividing the capacity of our floppy disk by this amount, we get around 4,337 records. We'll round it down to 4,300. (Alternatively, we could omit the city and state for about 5,400 records.)

We could describe the memory usage as "rectangular." It's based on the number of records times the size of each record.

If we just talked about books, it would sound like computers scale linearly. 200,000 words would be a long fiction book - it's about twice the length of The Hobbit - but roughly 5,000 records would be pretty short for a phone book (a printed telephone directory, obsolete as of 2010).

It we wanted to make a telephone directory in this way for say, Manhattan (1.646 million residents), we would need about 546 million bytes (546 megabytes), or about 380 floppy disks, which would just about fill a couple of shoeboxes. This would be a "tall" problem, with lots and lots of small records. (This isn't an important term, here. I'm just using it for the example.)

We could also imagine a "wide" problem, where each record is large. For instance, we could be storing college applications, in which each person submits a PDF of their resume (5 MB), a 10,000 word essay (70 KB), an application form with 96 64-character fields (6.1 KB), 5 photographs (300 KB each), and a 5-minute DVD-quality video (367.5 MB), for a combined total of 374 megabytes per application. If we then get 5,000 student applications for the year, we will need 1.87 terabytes (trillions of bytes) just to store them all.

In the telephone directory problem, we wanted to look at each person in very little detail, so each record is small. In the college application problem, we want to look at each person in a lot more detail, so each record is large. Either way, it adds up.

What should we make of these three simple examples, the book, the phone directory, and the college application storage? How much computer you need, whether that's one floppy disk's worth, 546 megabytes, or 1.87 terabytes, depends on the scale of your problem.

That brings us into the second portion.

Suppose the college hires 15 people to spend 3 workweeks reviewing all 5,000 college applications. Which of the following three options should the college use?

15 desktop computers, each with 2 terabytes of storage, and have a full copy of all applications on each computer

15 desktop computers, each with 2 gigabytes of storage, plus 1 server computer with 2 terabytes of storage, and copy the applications as-needed

15 low-powered "thin client" computers, each with 500 megabytes of storage, plus 1 server computer with 2 terabytes of storage, and have the server do almost all the work

This is a trick question - the information provided isn't enough to give a good answer. It depends on things like the rate of data transfer from the server, the price of the hardware, the budget for the project, and just what the workers will be doing with the applications.

Whether it's more appropriate to use a centralized system or a decentralized system, and when it's better to use a remote system or to handle things locally, is a technical question which varies from project to project, and from time to time.

11: Computing Politics Notes

The question of which computers processing should take place on, and who owns and controls them, as well as their software, is also a political one - though not in the sense that it's formally legislated by congress, or that there is some special identity-based way to use a computer.

A computer is a piece of capital equipment. A decent one might have an upfront cost of $1,500. If it's replaced once every 3 years, then the price is $500 per year - whether you use it or not. The marginal cost of electricity for actually using the computer to crunch numbers or store data is low. This creates a pressure towards centralization - every CPU cycle not used is "wasted," and a centralized system can aggregate work requests across people (and also timezones), averaging out usage.

Likewise, to actually maintain the computer, you have to learn how it works and do research, and things are constantly changing. If you like doing this, you won't perceive this as a cost. Some guys like to work on their own cars. Other guys like to install custom computer operating systems for fun. A lot of other people would literally rather pay someone else to do that (and they have good reasons to do so). This also creates an incentive towards centralization, where a lot of computers can be administered by a few experts.

Both of these trends also lean towards remote systems. With the contemporary Internet, for a lot of uses, it's just easier to have someone else build and administer a giant warehouse of computers, and then pay them to use a few computers as-needed. (This is the basic theory behind Amazon Web Services, which accounted for a majority of Amazon's profit in 2021.)

Here's how this gets political.

You don't own those computers. You can only use them in the ways that the guy who owns the giant warehouse of computers allows, and if he doesn't like you, he might cut off access.

Recently on Tumblr there have been reports of Google removing sexually-charged documents from Google Docs. Are these reports true? I don't know, but given how payment processors behave, it seems likely. If your steamy Doctor Who / X-Files fanfic is on gDocs, and Google's legal department decides that it doesn't want that liability - well, those are Google's computers, not yours.

Poof.

Similar pressures apply to computer programs. An unskilled user could accidentally download ransomware or a trojan that steals their credit card information. Many users don't want to learn how to avoid them (and some users might not be able to). On top of this, they don't want to learn about things like files, folders, file formats, or any of a dozen other aspects of computer literacy. Thus smartphones and tablets computers tend to be the computer as appliance, set up to only download new programs from restricted-access corporate "app stores."

It might not be surprising that, according to Pew Research (2021), many younger Americans only use a smartphone rather than a desktop or notebook computer.

Smartphone dependency: Some 15% of U.S. adults are “smartphone-only” internet users – that is, they have a smartphone, but do not have a home broadband connection. [...] Smartphone dependence is more common among younger rather than older adults: 28% of adults ages 18 to 29 are in this “smartphone-only” category, compared with 12% of those 30 and older.

The typewriter is a production device. The television is a consumption device. The smartphone is both a consumption and production device, but this is asymmetric - due to the device's small size and thumb-based interface, it's much more difficult to write text or edit video than it would be with a desktop computer. Programs ("apps") tend to limit power-user functionality (such as access to the file system) in order to be simpler to use for non-experts, allowing a user to access many of the common uses of a computer but with much less control over how it's done. A smartphone will also be less powerful than a desktop computer of the same price.

The idea of writing a program on a smartphone is absurd - smartphone applications are written on desktop or notebook computers.

12: Desktop Internet Notes

Kontextmaschine once wrote (2019):

And if the Anglophone internet is ::gestures:: like this now maybe it’s cause it’s less of a professional-class preserve? The dividing line maybe being smartphones where “people on the internet” went from “people who specifically spend $X/mo on it as luxury” to “people with telephone service”? That’s a real possibility, that for all the “Global Village” stuff the wondrous effect of the ‘90s internet was to create a cultural space that was MORE gatekept by wealth and education.

That’s… kind of depressing, though. “Haha you thought the world was getting better because you were eliminating elitist barriers but actually it’s cause you were making them higher, which is good because the poor and non-elite are disproportionately idiots with worthless ideas and to the extent they’re on top of things the thing they’re on top of is undermining the basis of a good society, and anyway those times were a phenomenon of a narrow early adopter base and you’ll never ever get them back unless you make the non-elite economically and politically irrelevant.”

Suppose we want to divide up the population of computer users. Remember that bit about capital and dimensionality in section 9? First, "shallow" computing needs have sufficiently simplified/reduced context that they can be easily served by software (users won't need to do things like compile code or access the file system), while "deep" needs do not. Second, the users either "want" or "need" to use the computer.

This gives us a nice 2×2 matrix classification. People love those.

Hobbyists - Hobbyists want a great deal of control over the computer. Maybe they're creating mods for a popular video game like Skyrim. Maybe they're programming Christmas tree lights to Rickroll people. Maybe they're developing desktop window managers for fun. Exactly what it is doesn't matter. What matters is that no one produces an app to do whatever it is they're doing, and if someone does, it doesn't appear on the app store. In fact, if someone did, they might not even care, and continue to do whatever they were doing anyway.

Power Users - The power users need a great deal of control over the computer for their work. Maybe they're compiling software. Maybe they're feeding dozens of spreadsheets of observed wombat behavior into a machine learning program. Maybe they're photoshopping wombat pictures for a National Geographic article. Whatever it is, they probably have to access the file system.

Casual Recreational Users - For gamers who don't want to mod games, but just pop in a disk and play, there game consoles. For social media users who don't feel the need to photoshop their photos, there are smartphones. Tablets can be used to watch movies from streaming services, like Netflix.

Casual Workers - For people doing more casual work, who are fine looking at only one application at a time, it's possible to hook a tablet up to a keyboard and stick it on a stand. For a somewhat more conventional notebook computer experience, casual workers could buy a Chromebook and do all their writing, emailing, and presentation creation in the web browser, using Google Docs and GMail. And if it's just ordering necessities off Amazon? Even a smartphone can do that.

To pick four example computers...

The IBM 7090, first installed in 1959, was priced around $2.9 million in 1960, or $23 million in 2023 terms.

The Apple II home computer, one of the most famous computers in history, was priced at $1,298 (2023: $6,530) to $2,638 (2023: $13,260) when it came out in 1977. It had a clock speed of about 1 Mhz.

1981's IBM Personal Computer cost $1,565 (2023: $5,240) at release. It had a clock speed of 4.77 Mhz.

2004's iMac G5 cost $1,299 (2023: $2,095) to $1,899 ($3,063) at release. It had a base clock speed of 1,600 Mhz.

A "decent" desktop computer, in relative terms, has continued to cost a nominal $1,200 to $1,500 since the Apple II, even as the value of a dollar in real terms declined, and even as processor performance doubled every 1-2 years.

The desktop computer starts out as something only for hobbyists who were willing to spend a lot of money (and who had a lot of money to spend), and for professionals who could justify spending the money. There was a huge market, because even without the Internet, uses like spreadsheets are orders of magnitude faster with a computer than doing them by hand.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was still a broad assumption in many parts of US culture that a lot of bad ideas were due to mere ignorance. For a while, to many people, it looked like everyone would have a desktop or notebook computer, and everyone would learn how to use one. The Internet of the era leaned towards more conventional institutional information, and had less search-engine optimization. It was assumed that, with an entire library at one's desk, searchable with just a few keystrokes, people would become less ignorant, and therefore have better ideas.

But that's not how the world works. People have bad ideas for all sorts of reasons other than unintentional ignorance.

The trend of hardware becoming smaller and more powerful continued. The Internet, which had still been limited largely to wired connections in the 1990s, became available through wi-fi, and then cell phone data connections. Internet-connected smartphones emerged, and then became common, merging phones, cameras, and personal digital assistants into a single device.

And gradually, desktop and notebook computers have once again become the domain of hobbyists and professionals, because casual users don't want to spend $600 for a smartphone and then another $1,200 for either a desktop computer that they can't take with them, or a notebook computer that they have to sit down and open to use (and which is a lot more fragile than a smartphone).

But suppose we wanted to go back...

Well first, Kontextmaschine had already setup camp on Tumblr, one of the websites most like the old Internet. In terms of discourse, he was hanging around the orbit of Rationalist Tumblr (or "rationalist-adjacent" tumblr), which had maintained fairly high discourse norms, much better than whatever was going on over on Twitter, Youtube, or Tiktok (although more casual than their parent site, LessWrong). In terms of mechanics, Tumblr allows for lengthy text posts, delivered based on the order they're posted in, from the specific accounts one follows (rather than recommendation algorithms). As for site culture, many of the more dramatic "anti-shipper" sorts of users left for Twitter (and then presumably BlueSky or Mastodon). While one wonders what he would have said about Tumblr's fascination with The Coffin of Andy and Leyley or Dungeon Meshi, he would likely have been neither surprised nor disappointed by it.

In a sense, Kontextmaschine was already living in that high-barrier world, just with a fujoshi tinge rather than the straight gamer bro vibe of the 00's. Not that he would have had much problem with that, either. In 2021, he wrote:

if the last decade means AO3 replaces the ACLU in the pantheon of worthies fine

Is kind of amusing the extent to which "women are horny and want to fuck" is turning out to be the saving grace of the internet. No Girls indeed.

Second, while it's not possible to match the old Internet, because there's only one "The Internet," and any particular new network now is just a competing social media site, which isn't the same thing, some options are now opening up.

A privately-owned personal computer is a measure of power in the hands of an individual, with fewer constraints from large institutions (like corporations or governments) than a centralized computer system has. It is, in some sense, dangerous, especially in the hands of an unskilled user. And it is, in some sense, work to maintain. But it is, like a car, also a potential source of freedom and autonomy. Data is collected by all sorts of companies and you don't have much control over it, but a PC represents at least a sliver of digital sovereignty.

How would you filter a competing network? The simplest method might be a test of that sovereignty: can the user download and install a program not from an app store?

Access to the new network would then be limited to desktops, notebook computers, and devices owned by someone technically savvy enough to sideload applications outside of the app store.

A test based just on hardware capacity won't work, because smartphone hardware capacity goes up every year, and what you actually want are people with basic device operator skill (and maybe to filter out clickbait journalists from Twitter).

[jpitha]

Hidden Depths 11

Awakenings 1 2 3 4

Hidden Depths 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Once they were on board, Gord and Lucas donned space suits and jetted around Priority Express and Last Resort. Both ships had printed cradles and Gord supervised them coming together. Even though they were huge, both of the old Starjumpers had a very delicate touch. With only a small puff of dust, the two cradles came into contact, and the latches slammed shut.

"That should do it." Gord said over the radio. "Express, Resort, how does it feel?"

"I can't say I'm a fan of being bolted to someone else" Priority Express retorted. "But it's a solid connection. Good idea to add the data umbilicals Gord, it'll help Resort and I coordinate our drives."

"That's the idea yes. We'll also use it with Mt Greylock. I'm glad you both volunteered, I feel better about you two being able to share data with that old colony ship."

"Should be no problem Gord." Last Resort added. "I remember the colony ships. Other than being a little full of themselves, they were fine."

Gord chuckled. "Hah, yeah, they always did have an air of superiority about them didn't they. Okay, Lucas, how does it look to you?"

Lucas scanned the ships and cradles, now one unit. "It looks good to me Gord, did you design this cradle yourself? It's really well engineered."

"Nah, I took an existing design and modified it. Remember, all good artists steal!" With that, they both jetted back into Priority Express.

They took off their suits and got settled into their acceleration couches. AI bodies could take the punishing thrust for the 4 days required without damage, but if either of them took a fall, or tripped while under thrust they did run the risk of being hurt. Since their bodies didn't develop sores or injuries from being in one position too long, they just settled into acceleration couches and plugged themselves into the Ships.

As Gord and Lucas appeared next to Express and Resort in their shared mind space, Express looked concerned. "Gord, it looks like the Venusians are making their move. They just launched a brace of missiles towards Starbase and their frigates are moving in."

Gord nodded. "How does the defense look?"

Resort answered. "A huge old dropship just linked in and docked at Starbase, looks like they're called Abyssal Plains. They were on for only a moment and then linked away, and are currently screaming through the atmosphere of the Reach."

Ah, that must be Chloe's friend. I'm glad they were punctual. I've heard the name, but I can't say I remember much about them. Being they're a dropship and are still a dropship after all this time, I have a hunch I know the type though." Gord looked thoughtful. "Anything else?"

"Not much. I hope they can hold off the attack. Should we turn back?" Express sounded worried.

Gord shook his head. "No. Too much at stake. We're already bolted together and they haven't noticed us yet. As soon as we light the Stardrive, we'll become a huge target. That should drive some of the attackers off Starbase and onto us. I hoping they don't remember what a fools errand it is to attack a Starjumper on initial boost." Gord grinned. "In fact, let's move up the schedule. Express, Resort, you ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be Gord." Resort answered. "I packed up my tchotchkes, and anything else that could break with all that thrust."

"You ask the crew to do it before they left?" Lucas asked?

"No, didn't want to worry them. I did it myself with remote operators." Most Starjumpers have a small contingent of remotely piloted robots that they can use if they need to do things on a human scale when they're empty.

"We're good over here too" Express said. "Gord, as acting AI in charge, do you want to authorize War Emergency Power?"

Gord rolled his eyes. "You know we do that just to make the BIs feel better. Just put the spurs to it and I'll trust you not to blow yourselves up."

"Aye aye Gord." Resort and Express said together. Lucas felt and heard the thrumming of the reactors become a higher pitched whine throughout the ship as they took off the limiters and removed fuses so they could boost higher than their rated power.

"Okay folks, let's not strain ourselves. Ramp up from 1gee to 18 over 30 minutes or so. No need to blast ourselves all at once. We're in a hurry, but that doesn't mean risking injury when we can avoid it." Gord looked at both of them. "Well? Go on, hop to it!"

When a Starjumper lights their Stardrive, it's a sight to see. All of the people in system were born long after the wormhole generators were developed and installed, so no biological sapient alive had seen a Stardrive being fired before.

Two of them bolted together had never been seen before, by anyone, anywhere.

Two parallel jets of pure white flame shot out the back of both of them, kilometers long. In the airless black of space, it was painfully bright.

That moment, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. Over the open channel, the AIs in system started cheering. They immediately figured out what was going on and the Humans and K'laxi could hear their joy. The Humans on both sides and K'laxi were transfixed by the sight of the Starjumpers doing what they were designed to do one more time.

A minute passed, and the drive flame got longer and more ragged. As the thrust was increased past the design specifications, the flame became longer and more wild. Black tendrils appeared at the border between the white drive flame and space.

The spell over the Venusians broken, they tried to attack. Releasing a dozen missiles and firing their main batteries wildly, they tried to stop the retreating Starjumpers. Like Gord had anticipated, people had forgotten what happens when something touches the drive flame of the Starjumpers. One by one, the missiles evaporated in the withering power of the drive, the energy beams of the main batteries a mere whisper of heat against the power of the thrust pushing the two 4 kilometer ships into the interstellar deep.

Inside the ship watching the failed attack, Gord smiled.

Lucas looked at all of them worried. "This is really intense. Are we really going to be subjected to this for 4 days?"

The two Starjumpers and one former...everything belly laughed. "This is really your first out system thrust, isn't it?" Express said, still laughing. "Yes, this is how it will be the whole time." Gord said with a smile. Resort piped up "Don't forget, once we connect with Greylock, we have to all slow down too. 4 more days ass first back home."

Gord's face changed at that. "That one will be much more tricky. Nobody has tried to stop a colony ship early before. I'm pretty sure they can take the thrust, but it will trash the ship. They're going to need to be gone over with a fine toothed comb when this is all done."

"For sure" Express said. "Hell, we'll all need a thorough going over after this. It's really too bad the best Shipyards are around Earth still."

"Hmm" Gord said. "Yes, that is too bad, isn't it."

"Gord!" Lucas said. "You're not going to try and steal a shipyard are you?"

"Who me? Nah, not this time."

But his eyes sparkled.

****

Back on Starbase, everyone was watching. Picaresque had the idea to train the long range cameras on them, and piped the video onto everyone's pad. As they saw the missiles turn to dust and gas in their drive flame, the cheers could be heard throughout Starbase.

"Wow." Was all Fellmeli could manage.

"It's pretty amazing looking." James added.

She turned to face James. "That's how you traveled between the stars before the wormhole generators?"

"For a solid thousand years, yes." James said. "That's how we used to do it."

Fellmeli shook her head. She's known humans her whole life, lived with them here on the Starbase. She'd been friends with them, even been in relationships with them. Still, after all this time together, they had the ability to amaze.

"That's an insane way to travel. We never even tried it. Once we got to space, we found the Warp Gates and learned how to use them, and went that way."

"Sure, but we didn't have those." James said. "We thought - until we met you - that we were alone in the Galaxy. We did it our way, because we didn't even know there was another way."

Fellmeli flicked her tail, a nod.

"Actually, that makes me wonder." James said. "Did you ever figure out who built the Warp Gates? Clearly there was someone here before us. Who did it?"

"I don't think we know." Fellmeli said. "Starbase, do we know who built the Warp Gates?"

There was a pause. Starbase replied, strained. "Fellmeli...I can't answer that."

"What? It's okay to say we don't know if we don't." Fellmeli looked confused.

"No, it's not that...I can't answer it. The question..hurts?" Starbase said. "Thinking about it hurts. I think the information is forbidden."

Fellmeli looked up at the ceiling. When Starbase wasn't talking through a screen, people tended to assume they were "up" when talking to them. "You mean, we know but you're not allowed to say?"

In the mind space, outside of the conversation with Fellmeli and James Picaresque said "Do you want me to look?"

"You can do that?"

"I don't know, but I could try."

Starbase thought a moment. "Let's do it later...after all this is done. I don't want to risk damage or injury for just curiosity."

Picaresque nodded. "Later then."

Back to Fellmeli and James Starbase said "We're going to look into it later, but for now let's drop it until...all this...has been taken care of."

Fellmeli made a face but flicked her tail. "Okay. Later then."

"Thank you Fellmeli."

Part 12

[cantotallyeven]

I’m not sure if you can help me here, I am a very confused white person. I live in the US, and I’m seeing people in my generation (teenagers-early 20s adults) participating in a huge amount of pro-Palestine activism. In my circle of liberal/leftists I am ONLY seeing pro-Palestine posts. Tumblr is also majority pro-Palestine posts.

Being completely deadass, I have no clue what my country is doing. I have been focusing a lot on my community, local elections, my local school board fucking with transkids, and the upcoming presidential election. But no matter what I say concerning voting blue in this election, I am called a zionist for supporting ANY political figure.

Once again, I might be completely wrong. I’m sending this ask because I really want to be educated specifically on what the hell my country is doing. As far as I understand, the US and Israel have been allies for a good while. It boosts both of our economies, we share ideas in technologic advances. They have given knowledge on terrorism (which is US is very scared of after 9/11) and help the United States better understand conflicts in The Middle East.

And because of all of that, every politician is pro-Israel, which means every politician is now supporting a genocide.

The main thing I don’t really understand is why the United States is being held as the only solution to ending a war for holy land that had lasted decades. It seems like the United States always steps into wars, and ends up killing even more people. It also seems like from what I’ve read that severing ties with Israel is just in general not a viable option.

Am I a zionist for thinking this way? I’m watching as these protests start targeting Jewish people more and more. A statue of Anne Frank was defaced with pro-Palestine graffiti for the Second Time. What are these people thinking?? Can United States politicians do anything to stop Israels military? Should the US step in at all?

Here's my question to you: Why is "pro Israel" supporting genocide but "pro Palestine" is not? Cuz like, Hamas literally has death to all Jews in their founding charter.

The reason the US is being held as the only solution is that, despite their claims of hating the US, these people believe in American exceptionalism. The US could do something. The US could enter Gaza itself and rescue the hostages (including some American citizens). They could station troops on the border preventing attacks in both directions. Would that be a good idea? I honestly don't know.

Pro Palestinian supporters have straight up turned zionist into a slur completely devoid of it's original meaning. Are you Jewish? If not, some pro Palestinian protestors probably won't call you a zionist, even though the number of Christian zionists in the US outnumbers the total number of Jews worldwide. Do you believe Jews have a right to self determination in our ancestral homeland? Well then you meet the official definition of zionist. Do you express any sympathy for Jews at all? Then yes, many of on this site will call you a zionist genocide supporter. They've attacked people who disputed outright holocaust denial.

But to end on a high note: Good job focusing a lot on your community, local elections, and your local school board fucking with transkids. Thinking local and actually acting will do far more good than these protestors can ever dream of.