#14. Digital Disruption

[dvbusinessconsulting]

the new paradigm of strategic management consulting for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It highlights the importance of integrated consulting services, including Sales and Marketing Consulting, Operational Excellence Consulting, and Strategic Management Consulting, in driving SME growth and success. D&V Business Consulting is mentioned as a pioneer in SME transformation, offering services like performance improvement consulting, sales and marketing optimization, and process reengineering.

[henrykathman]

The Miraculous Horror of Stop Motion

From the same artform that brought you Coraline and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, comes three stories that evoke the existential fear of art.

Original Music by Molly Noise

Bibliography below

Atrocity Guide. “The Animators Who’ve Spent 40 Years on a Single Film.” YouTube, 9 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hip3pz0Xs&pp=ygUMdGhlIG92ZXJjb2F0. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Brubaker, Charles. “The Japanese Studios of Rankin/Bass.” Cartoon Research, Jerry Beck, 14 Apr. 2014, cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-japanese-studios-of-rankinbass/.

Bute, Paris. “Introduction to “a Rankin/Bass Retrospective from a New Perspective.”” Citizen Jane, Stephens College, 19 Nov. 2021, www.citizenjane.org/home/cwwicd2ucb2fvs64kgfaocfykjhaum. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Crome, Althea. “Coraline.” Althea Crome | Micro Knitter, 2012, www.altheacrome.com/coraline. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Harold Halibut. Directed by Onat Hekimoğlu, Slow Bros., 16 Apr. 2024.

Hekimoglu, Onat, and Gabriel Schmitz. “Unite Berlin 2018 - Harold Halibut and Making a Stop Motion Game.” Unity, YouTube, 6 Aug. 2018, youtu.be/9usssSQc0wQ. Accessed 6 May 2023.

Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke. “The Making of Harold Halibut.” XboxEra, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2024, youtu.be/WMyxM9t3o7A. Accessed 19 June 2024.

LAIKA Studios. “Sweater and Gloves: Knitting Coraline by Hand.” YouTube, 11 July 2017, youtu.be/zUvkfcGR-7U. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Mad God Productions. “Phil Tippett’s “Mad God.”” Kickstarter, 17 May 2012, www.kickstarter.com/projects/madgod/phil-tippetts-mad-god/posts.

Olson, Mathew. “Report: Michel Ancel Accused of Abusive, Disruptive Practices on beyond Good & Evil 2.” VG247, 25 Sept. 2020, www.vg247.com/report-michel-ancel-accused-of-abusive-disruptive-practices-on-beyond-good-evil-2. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Ono, Kosei. “Tadahito Mochinaga: The Japanese Animator Who Lived in Two Worlds.” Animation World Network, AWN, Inc, 1 Dec. 1999, www.awn.com/animationworld/tadahito-mochinaga-japanese-animator-who-lived-two-worlds.

Orland, Kyle. “Claptrap Voice Actor Accuses Gearbox CEO of Assault, Underpayment.” Ars Technica, 7 May 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/claptrap-voice-actor-accuses-gearbox-ceo-of-assault-underpayment/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Pilling, Jayne. A Reader In Animation Studies. Indiana University Press, 1998. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/40033.

Prehistoric Beast. Directed by Phil Tippett, Tippett Studios, 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo

Randles, Jonathan. “VFX Studio with Star Wars, Jurassic Park Credits Goes Bankrupt.” Bloomberg Law, 1 May 2024, news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/vfx-studio-with-star-wars-jurassic-park-credits-goes-bankrupt. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Shanley, Patrick. “Gearbox Software CEO Accused of Contempt in Latest Filing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Aug. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/gearbox-software-ceo-accused-contempt-latest-filing-1235064/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

The Making of “Jurassic Park.” Directed by John Schultz, Amblin Entertainment, 1995. https://youtu.be/8r01mk6F_Pk

The Making of Mad God. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2021. https://youtu.be/sfUOHh0xmwc

The Tale of the Fox. Directed by Irene Starewicz and Ladislas Starevich, UFA GmbH, 10 Apr. 1941. https://youtu.be/Us_Pn6Q1dBQ

Wikipedia contributors. "List of films with longest production time." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of media notable for being in development hell." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of Rankin/Bass Productions films." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "Tadahito Mochinaga." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2023. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wilson, Josh. “Phil Tippett: 24 Frames per Second < the Fabulist Words & Art.” The Fabulist Words & Art, 5 Nov. 2021, fabulistmagazine.com/24-frames-per-second-the-phil-tippett-interview/.

Worse than the Demon. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2013. https://youtu.be/ghKqvDNRe4c

[seventeenlovesthree]

Mimi Tachikawa's clothing style - a meta analysis

While their clothing styles are arguably an underlying theme in both Koushirou's and Sora's ways of self-expression (even if it's never at the forefront of their arcs), no other character lives and breathes the idea of expressing themselves through fashion as openly as Mimi. So after Taichi, Yamato and the two redheads, let's take a closer look at Digimon Adventure's very own fashion queen, shall we:

Adventure (+ Our War Game), age 10/11:

If there is one thing the viewer can immediately tell about Mimi, it's probably her favourite colour: Through the course of Adventure, you will rarely see her wear an outfit that doesn't include one pink item of clothing (or at least an accessory) at minimum. While she also has a preference for red shades, she absolutely loves pink in all its variations - on her everyday outfits as well as on her pyjamas! In terms of style, Mimi loves to combine comfort with "being fashionable". The feminine red cowgirl dress and beige-brown - assumably - shearling boots are not exactly the most practical items to wear during a camping trip; but they perfectly complement her favourite item, the pink cowgirl hat she hides her long, wavy hair under in a ponytail. In general, hat(s), dresses/skirts and boots are a repeating theme for her, as we will see later on.

Mimi didn't exactly start Summer camp unprepared, as she wears brown gloves (in a similar colour as her hair) and carries around a brown bag with camping equipment all the way. On the other hand, as Mimi grew up in a sheltered household, at the beginning of Adventure, she is very prone to let everyone around her know when her comfort is being disrupted. Thus, it's no surprise that she got coerced into exchanging her travel-ridden outfit (probably sweaty and dirty at this point) for a fancy white-pinkish (!) princess dress, as PicoDevimon's intrigue aimed to corrupt her. After all, she was overwhelmed by the situation - and loves pretty clothes and being comfortable, so she (understandably!) gets lost in the convenience of luxury for a bit. Thus even Taichi telling her how "impractical" the dress would be as a traveling fit couldn't shake her out of it for a while. However: As a mix between red's passion and white's purity, pink symbolizes love, nurture and compassion - and so it shall also come as no surprise that Mimi (encouraged by Sora) eventually found her way back to the right path and leave the spoilt attitude behind for the sake of her duty.

Even though she'll leave the beloved hat behind with Palmon in the Digital World at some point as well - it won't be the last hat she'll own. And also not the last pink one!

02 (+ Diablomon Strikes Back), age 13/14:

The transition phase between Adventure and 02 already shows Mimi getting a little more experimental with colours, as she actually added white, blue and green - her signature colour - to the mix. However, the viewer is not prepared for just how experimental Mimi would turn out to be! And neither were the animators, as several of Mimi's incredibly varied concept outfits didn't make it into the anime - but let's go through it step by step:

At the beginning of 02, we learn that Mimi's family has moved to the USA - and if the cowgirl aesthetic hasn't been an indicator before, 13-year-old teenage!Mimi will go all out on the American aesthetic and a style that couldn't be more early 2000s: Wearing a crop top that couldn't be closer to the US American flag if she tried, a white short skirt and high heels with white kneesocks. Most notably, for the majority of the season, her favourite colour pink will be a permanent part of her - as she chose to dye her (a little shortened, but more voluminous) hair pink. Additionally, she has adopted the star motive for herself - which we have previously only seen on Taichi! Mimi herself wears them either on her shirt - or as small hairclips in her hair.

Speaking of hair - unfortunately, the viewer won't get to see most of her hair experiments (namely the dark brown dreads, the highlights and the space buns). In one episode, her strawberry blonde perm (and pants!!!) can be witnessed at least - and eventually, we'll see her return to her natural hair colour. She also returns to the cowgirl aesthetic in Summer, once again wearing a pink hat (!), a white cowgirl dress, boots - and pigtails.

In general, one can tell that Mimi undoubtedly enjoys her youth abroad, as she seemed fascinated by American culture and the idea of "expressing herself freely" as a 10-year-old already. In the Adventure novels, it is already implied that Mimi stood out among her peers in school and - similarly yet differently to Koushirou - may be considered an "odd" in contrast to more "more traditional" Japanese customs (such as Sora's kimono-wearing mother as a traditional iemoto). Mimi also never fit into lifestyle aesthetics like Gyaru or Lolita, but definitely thrives in experimenting with extravagant, less traditional clothes and hairstyles through Summer that draw attention and display her personal interpretation of femininity; outfits that are funky, stylish (mainly crop tops, short skirts/shorts and high boots) and, most importantly, individualistic.

By the end of the season and the start of winter, she goes in a bit of a different direction: Her winter outfit is probably one of her most iconic ones - as well as the most high-femme she's ever been: Mimi fully commits to the spirit of Christmas by wearing a pine green goat and hat, accompanied by her long(er) flowy hair, a mahogany red skirt and light brown boots - it's cozy and mature and very Christmas-tree-y! A similarly mature vibe is maintained during Diablomon Strikes Back, as she wears a yellow turtleneck, a mahogany red skirt, a star necklace and brown boots. She doesn't exactly grow out of the experimental expressionist phase - but gets more balance into it. It's all very symbolic for 02!Mimi, who isn't just incredibly self-confident, but has also grown out of her "spoilt princess" tendencies. Instead, she has her own mind and insists on it - in a constructive, self-assured way!

Tri, age 16:

Tri!Mimi is mostly consistent with the majority of style elements we have discovered so far and actually adds a fashion-related element to her arc. First, let's focus on the things we are familiar with - and add the aspects that are new:

By now, Mimi has stopped dying her hair regularly and mostly sticks to wearing it open and/or with a headband. Sometimes, she does wear a ponytail, still cherishes the cowgirl hat whenever it fits - and in one scene, is even seen wearing unconventional bangs (and bunny ears that almost let me doubt that it was her for a moment, but since she actually wore stars - for the first and only time in Tri -, we can tell that it's her!). Thus, she still likes to experiment with variety!

Clothes-wise, she still prefers (mostly short!) dresses/skirts/shorts, (sandal-)boots - and of course the colour pink in most of her everyday outfits (with splashes of red, green and blue in between), including yukatas! Tri also lets her wear jeans for a change - but rather rarely.

Her school uniform includes exactly two aspects that differentiate her from the way Sora wears it: First of all, she adds a splash of colour by wearing red-white sneakers (whereas Sora wears standard loafers). Second, she wears rolled-up long sleeves in Summer - and is the only one who does so besides Yamato.

Last but not least, let's talk about the formerly mentioned US American influences that got her in trouble for a bit: After transferring back to Japan, she suggests hosting a Hooters-like café for the school festival - and thus her outgoing, funky (and undeniably more revealing) ideas clash with her more traditional, reserved Japanese classmates.

Her general sentiment is that she doesn't see the use in holding back or hiding her true feelings and thoughts for the sake of pleasing others. It's her sense of sincerity, which gets perceived as egotism by her classmates, that requires her to balance herself out again (and not just in terms of fashion, as she also got into a fight with Koushirou over priorities as well):

She has to find a way not to give herself up while simultaneously not stepping on everyone else in the process - and just like when she got seduced by a princess dress at age 10, things eventually get resolved. Working with Sora and Meiko to create an orange-purple cheerleading outfit, her performance and enthusiasm doesn't just impress her classmates, but help her to reconcile with them. Even though the outfit may have shown more skin than they initially anticipated, it was still a good mix between practical, fun and cute for them to seem more open to the idea of experimentation themselves. This subplot also greatly contributes to Meiko's character development, helping her to get a little bit more confident herself!

To quote Mimi in the English dub here: "Fashion demands courage."

Kizuna, age 21:

Kizuna represents a small shift in Mimi's expressionist attitude - or rather, as she stepped into the world being an entrepreneur, running her own online business, she interprets some of her prior style elements a little... Differently, depending on the situation:

She still loves (short) dresses and will never give up on pink - however, her everyday outfit appears a little different than what we are used to with her. It's still colourful and funky, complemented by earrings and bracelets with splashes of colour. But gone is the cowgirl hat - and the hair she used to wear open for most of the past ten years has been tied back into a (loose) bun. The style is very difficult to describe and even though it's very much Mimi-esque in the way it's individualistic - it looks a little more kindergarten teacher-esque as well. In contrast, her business meeting outfit - a strapless long-sleeve shirt, a black belt and a high-waist skirt in burgundy red - combines familiar elements of Winter02!Mimi and Tri!Mimi.

The epilogue, approximately age 38:

38-year-old Businesswoman-slash-experimental-TV-star-cook!Mimi elaborated on the look of 21-year-old Businesswoman!Mimi - and while her look definitely evolved, she also returned to her roots again, finding a balance between "more traditional" and "individualistic": She's back to wearing her hair open, it's a little shorter and, depending on how she styles it, either wavy or frayed. The pink cowgirl hat is back too - as well as the whole cowgirl aesthetic, because, let's be real, she would always find a way back to it, considering how it had become such a reoccurring theme for her.

Final thoughts (and headcanons):

Mimi being as experimental as she has always been, trying out all the different things - in both fashion and life itself - absolutely stands for her honest, pure nature. She absolutely has her own mind and trusts her intuition a lot - and this experimental yet straightforward mindset will lead her to make decisions in the end: It helps her to learn exactly what she wants/likes and what she doesn't want/like. Go big or go home, don't hide who you are deep down inside!

It's a very progressive, empowering mindset - and so it shall not even come to any surprise that it's mainly (but not exclusively!) female characters she inspires with her way of thinking. Whether it's Miyako who heavily idolizes and wishes to be like her as she blushes and smiles serenely to herself; Meiko who gains a lot of self-confidence through Mimi's support and encouragement and kisses on the cheek, so she bursts through her self-destructive thoughts and gets "out of the closet box" at least a little more; her female classmates who actually adore and admire her school festival outfit and performance; or, last but not least, there is Sora, who used to take Mimi under her wing, and is, as an adult, reassured by her in return to "spread her wings freely" herself. Personally, it's very difficult for me not to see Mimi's influence and general theme as a metaphor for self-discovery in terms of gender-representation and sexuality as well. (I've made similar points for Sora and Koushirou in their respective analysis posts as well; the former is such a strong contrast to Mimi not only in the way their personalities, styles and arcs contrast each other, but in how Sora struggles so much with her own self-representation in return. The latter's temporary crush on Mimi may even play into the idea of self-discovery as well, but that's a topic for another day. Mimi - in my personal opinion you don't have to agree with! - actually has a lot of aroace energy, as she never actively pursues romance herself in the series. But at the same time, the wlw vibes she causes when she's in the same room with other girls cannot be overlooked! Also, not to say that she doesn't inspire male characters - such as Jyou, Koushirou and Taichi - at various points as well, but that's the beautiful part of Mimi's theme: even more empowerment AND power to the bisexual vibe!)

However, as it is often the case with themes of self-discovery, that kind of sincere, outgoing attitude may not be to everybody's liking. It may even cause Mimi's more revealing/emotion-based choices to clash with other people's preferences and ideals. And, as Tri suggests, it may even be controversially considered self-centered and indecent instead of self-confident and empowering by some.

For example, the fact that she spent most of her early teenage years in a - in comparison to Japan - more open society in terms of fashion choices may be met with suspicious eyes among some of her Japanese peers. 02!Mimi did pick more revealing clothes after all, which were typical for Western teenagers in the 2000s - and Tri!Mimi was 100% used to that kind of style, liking to show skin and feeling free and happy while doing so! Which definitely collided with Meiko's more closed-off clothing choices.

(On a different note, it shall not be ignored that she was also the focus of a lot of heavily sexualized/objectified marketing materials back in the Tri era. So while her wearing crop tops, short skirts and high boots absolutely IS a Mimi!thing, Tri's half-naked fan service promo art can and should be taken with a grain of salt. And while it's not exactly linked to her clothes, Mimi had already faced a lot of Digimon (!) back in Adventure hitting on her as a 10-year-old - such as Numemon and Sukamon -, trying to date her in a rather scummy fashion. So her being the center of weird "fan service" and uncomfortable encounters has always been a thing.)

On the other hand, her learning/knowing exactly what she wants also includes her having reoccurring preferences she will always come back to. And thus, as she grew more mature and self-assured, Mimi never gave up on her own personal roots: The comforting power of pink - let's remember: as a mix between red's passion and white's purity, it symbolizes love, nurture and compassion. And, of course, the nostalgic cowgirl hat that will always link her to her literal soulmate - who wears a pink, almost hat-like flower on top of her head.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hey Quil, I have a question, did you ever figure out what with book you were reading a while back where the audiobook was different from the physical book

!!! I didn't think anyone else cared!! Now this is conjecture, but yes, I think I've figured it out.

For those unaware, the book in question is The Resurrectionist by A Rae Dunlap, published December 24th, 2024. I was listening to it on audio, but purchased a physical book about 3/4ths into my read and intended to continue from there. However, upon trying to find my place, I discovered a scene in the physical book that did not exist in audio, which then changed a few of the surrounding scenes.

I, thinking I was losing my mind, tracked down several copies to compare content--my book, an official digital version, a library book, multiple pirated digital copies. None of them matched the audio version.

The audio version was published January 21st, 2025, a little less than a month after the physical. I'm not overly familiar with publishing and recording, but I'm going to guess it takes longer than a month to create an audiobook.

And while the added/altered scenes do disrupt some of the original flow (I'm considering the audio the original), they also solve a crucial hole in one of the original plot's tensions--in theory. I think it could've worked regardless, but that's just me.

So! My hypothesis is that the version on audio is the original, which was provided to those making the audiobook before publication. But there was then a relatively last minute edit to patch the supposed hole, meaning all versions published on Dec 24th are consistent and updated, but the audio was too far in production to fix :)

(I've rec'd the book to a few people, so I'll put the actual changed contents under a cut, as they're far into the book and contain several major spoilers)

In the original audio version, the two main characters, James and Aneurin, are walked in on while having sex. It's James' sister, Edith, who he hasn't seen in months, and she demands he speak with her over dinner later, then leaves. James goes to Aneurin who is mid packing to flee the city to prevent being executed, as he's been condemned to death for queerness once before, but he's talked down by James, who assures him his sister won't report them to the authorities. Later at dinner, Edith holds knowledge of James' queerness over him to try and pressure him into returning to the family, as it's the 1800s and queerness is an executable offense, and James leaves dinner early. He later sends a letter vaguely agreeing to Edith's terms to prevent her going to the authorities for Aneurin's sake, but intends to wiggle out of it.

In the other versions, James and Aneurin run into Edith the day before, and they meet for dinner and exchange pleasantries. She then walks in on them the next morning, and she and James' have their conversation right there in the bedroom; he leaves having cut ties, he feels, and is now free. He then finds Aneurin packing to flee and talks him down, reflects on the danger of being found out as queer, and realizes he's not as free as he thought.

I think the reason for this change is because Edith can't report Aneurin in the original version--he's just some boy in her brother's bed she got half a look at as he fled the room. She doesn't know anything about him, which takes the steam out of the threat and Aneurin's reason to flee. having met for dinner the day before, now she can make an actual report should she want

However. I think, given Aneurin's past history with being condemned to death at 14 for being queer, it's entirely reasonable for him to lose all rationality and try to flee anyways out of sheer panic and trauma. But that's just my opinion.

Anyways. Again, conjecture, but this is my supposition as to what's happening with the different versions!!

[resonancewitness]

Change is coming to Chinese online fandoms?

Went searching online for something, tangentially found something else that I think is very relevant to the future of the Chinese fandoms. Looking, again, not just at the focus point, but also at the background. 

On June 10-11, 2025 China Internet Civilization Conference was held in Hefei, Anhui province. And the next day The State Council Information Office (SCIO) held a press conference Wednesday in Beijing about it.

The theme was “Gathering Positive Energy on the Internet and Leading New Trends of the Era”. 

I read a few articles about it, and here is my summary.

Turns out the number of Chinese online users below 30 years of age is 540 million, and they comprise about 50% of Chinese online users altogether. 

(...If we look at the number of Wang Yibo’s and Xiao Zhan’s online followers, taken together, they will come up to some 73 million people. Some of those followers are bots; some are over 30 years old; some overlap (at least 4,5 million shippers, + potentially works-appreciators-of-both-but-not-shippers); some may be "water armies" soldiers. But I do believe if we subtract these, we may come down to at least 54 million people. That would mean that every tenth Chinese online user below thirty is either a Xiao Zhan follower, or a Wang Yibo follower. And that puts the fan wars between the three fandoms (“shrimps”, “moto” and “turtles”) in perspective. It is a massive societally disruptive ongoing online conflict.)

“According to the initiative, young people are the most active group in the virtual world and play a crucial role in making the cyberspace civilized. By guiding young netizens into becoming the participants, keepers, communicators and promoters of civilized behavior, the whole online environment can be injected with positive energy, it said.” (source)

This made me think of an article I read about the pattens of “survival and migration” in Chinese fandoms. As far as I understand it, what happens is some fans do something stupid and disgraceful that comes up on the first page of “trending on Weibo” or elsewhere as visible to international observers, and this is a “loss of face” situation for the country. Regulatory organs execute a “crackdown”, close some fandom spaces, fans migrate elsewhere, the cycle repeats. ...There are many other factors involved, of course, besides just "stupid and/or disgraceful", but this is a big topic for potential separate discussion.

But now it looks like they are looking for a positive alternative, a “thriving settlement” model instead of “evicted tenants” model. 

“The two-day conference, themed on gathering positive energy online and fostering new trends of the times, was jointly held by the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress, along with Anhui provincial authorities.

Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a keynote speech at the event.” (source)

That tells us about the importance of the event. The Politburo is a very small group of people at the highest tier of authority. The presence of Li Shulei shows how seriously the state is taking the issue of “online rumours”. What constitutes rumours, now, that’s a great question. 

“The event features an opening ceremony, main forum, 14 sub-forums, and special themed activities, making it a major national-level event addressing internet governance and digital culture. With participation from high-level officials and industry leaders, the conference coincides with the launch of the 2025 National Digital Literacy Enhancement Month, showcasing innovative technological demonstrations and cultural performances, and addressing crucial contemporary issues like AI governance, online ethics, and digital development.” (source)

The rhetoric of “clean and upright” online environment is here again, as it has been since the earlier crackdowns. But this time it happens within the 10-year framework of the initiative of “building a strong education nation”, prioritising both critical thinking, learning, and mental health, that the country has launched in January this year. 

At the conference, they have been talking about “fairer and more open content distribution mechanism can be designed, presenting more authentic and comprehensive information to a vast number of netizens”, that implies the understanding that the current online algorithms amplify bad quality content (fake, scandalous, clickbait-ey etc.), making the more “emotionally provocative” pieces of information more visible and influential than the more “rational, wise, thought-provoking, and clear”. And that this is seen now as a problem to be addressed. 

The rhetoric now is about “sharing positive stories of community-building from all sectors of society”. Tell us what really works in practice, in other words. This is solution-focused, not only problem-focused, and creating a pool of success stories for collaborative learning.

Because really, what makes an online community a community? What is needed to create a welcoming and supportive digital space for the fandom, in particular? 

Maybe it is not just “surveil, identify, and punish” strategy. 

I guess we’ll see a lot of changes in the Chinese online space in the next few months. (Fastening the seatbelt, ha.) 

One of the sub-forums at the conference was called “International Exchange and Mutual Learning on Internet Civilization“, which is particularly interesting for me, because of the existence of what is commonly called the Great Chinese Firewall, or the Wall, in short, — the massive blocking of access to “outside” Internet space for common Chinese users. How can international exchange and mutual learning happen over/ across the Wall? Of course it is not fully impenetrable, we can see that, for example, the celebrities and their studios have international presence (to post,- and, I assume, to research internationally available celebrity-related information). 

This sounded interesting: “multi-stakeholder governance in cyberspace. He (Ran) called for embracing openness and inclusiveness, expanding international cooperation, and promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning among civilizations. By working together, stakeholders can build a more just, secure, and dynamic digital future that benefits people across countries and regions.” (source) If it is not just “officialese”, what can happen to ensure the reality of this vision? Extremely interesting.

So what is my take out from all that:

Change is coming within the next few months

Online rumours will be better identified and less tolerated

Understanding and embodying traditional Chinese values and the ideal of the “positive youth” that is in the Party directives, will become a requirement for Chinese netizens; a value-based approach to online engagement

Critical thinking and discernment of valid/ invalid sources (and making logical conclusions from the data from the given sources) will be taught (and enforced?)

Possibly this will touch on the interactions between Chinese and international fandoms?

[mariacallous]

Most of the discussion around President Donald Trump’s volley of tariff threats this week has centered on their potential impact on consumer prices and inflation. While price increases are a real concern, another impact involves the fact that regional economies (and the local jobs there) are frequently caught in the middle of trade disputes, though not equally. 

For now, the most significant disruptions to U.S. communities are on pause, given the last-minute suspension of Trump’s proposed tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico. However, with Trump standing by his threat to impose 10% tariffs on imports from China, and China sticking with its threat of counter-tariffs commencing on Monday, the nation may well be heading toward a new reminder of the unfortunate ways local communities can suffer collateral damage from international faceoffs. 

While the China clash will play out globally and strategically, its potential impacts will be localized and varied, since different regions have different local industry mixes and structures. Which is why it’s worth looking at the local geography of the pending trade war as an example of how national policy can hurt communities and their economies. 

To explore how this works, this analysis builds on previous Brookings Metro work from 2018 by assessing which places have the most jobs in industries targeted by China’s proposed retaliatory tariffs. While this piece focuses specifically on Chinese retaliation, it also provides a template for assessing the place-specific economic side effects associated with any future trade tensions, such as if Mexico and Canada reimplement their retaliatory tariffs. 

In the current case, China has announced retaliatory tariffs on a total of 80 different manufactured and energy products that the U.S. exports there. China will place 15% tariffs on a set of energy exports, including coal, natural gas, and petroleum; and 10% tariffs on 72 manufactured products or parts including trucks, motor homes, and agricultural machinery. These 80 products correspond with 14 different six-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries in the U.S.1

All told, these industries account for between 400,000 and 700,000 jobs in the United States.2 The tariff list contrasts with the much broader tariffs China levied in 2018, which affected 40 industries that supported over 2 million U.S. jobs. In comparison, this round of tariffs is significantly more straightforward in nature, creating a shorter product list and more concentrated economic impacts. While it’s not entirely clear why China is not retaliating with the same level of intensity as it did in 2018, it’s possible that seven years of escalating bilateral tariffs and substantial U.S. export restrictions have simply left the Chinese government with fewer levers to pull when it comes to new trade barriers. 

Looking at how this may play out across the map of U.S. counties with the largest shares of jobs in industries China’s tariffs target reveals which places are most significantly exposed to potential supply chain disruptions. While the median U.S. county has just 0.05% of its jobs in potentially affected industries (and over 80% of all counties have less than 1% of their jobs in affected industries), there are some notable outliers. 

Similar to the 2018 tariffs, the industrial heartland is again bearing a disproportionate impact from Chinese retaliation. Some of the most intensely affected counties are energy and manufacturing communities in North Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and West Virginia. For instance, Sargent County, N.D. has the highest potential exposure of any county due to its large manufacturing presence, with 59% of its employment in industries potentially affected by the tariffs. Other counties that may be highly affected include Gibson County, Ind. and Noble County, Ohio (both of which are manufacturing hubs), and Irion County, Texas, which relies heavily on oil and natural gas, each with more than 30% of their employment in industries potentially affected by the proposed Chinese tariffs.  

Turning to total employment in affected industries across particular regions, there are significant concentrations of these jobs in major energy-producing places such as Harris County, Texas (33,000 jobs), as well as manufacturing hubs such as Wayne County, Mich. (26,000); Alameda County, Calif. (25,000); Jefferson County, Ky. (13,000); and Elkhart County, Ind. (12,000).  

In sum, these maps of U.S. exposure to Chinese tariffs reiterate that while trade skirmishes are frequently discussed in terms of geopolitics and consumer prices, they also entail very tangible local impacts on regional industry clusters, supply chains, and jobs.   

Given how closely this new round of tariffs is associated with Trump’s policies, it also bears discussing how Chinese retaliation may affect communities where a majority of voters supported him compared to communities that supported former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. 

The four largest counties with industries that Chinese tariffs could impact all voted for Harris, led by Harris County, Texas, which is centered on Houston and its substantial oil and gas industry.  

However, while several large, Harris-voting counties stand to be affected, on balance nearly two-thirds of all jobs in affected industries reside in Trump-voting counties. 

This again stands in contrast to China’s 2018 tariffs, when employment in affected industries was more evenly divided between Trump-voting counties and counties that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. While it’s impossible to fully say how much political motivation played a role in this new set of retaliatory tariffs, it’s clear that Trump-voting counties will feel a bigger burden than Harris-voting counties this time around. 

Many of the most tariff-exposed counties are found in the industrial heartland and Southeast regions, which formed Trump’s electoral base in 2024, including Elkhart and Gibson counties in Indiana; Macomb County, Mich.; Irion County, Texas; and Spartanburg County, S.C. 

And because the vast majority of counties overall voted for Trump, a significantly larger number of Trump-voting counties have employment in tariff-affected industries than those that voted for Harris. Of the 2,010 counties with employment in tariff-affected industries, 1,722 of them voted for Trump compared to just 288 for Harris.   

So, while Democratic representatives in Illinois may have constituents affected by the manufacturing tariffs, the burden of Chinese retaliation as a whole is more likely to land on places that voted for Trump and his Republican allies in Congress. 

Notably, all 71 counties with 10% or more of their jobs in industries exposed to tariffs voted for Trump in 2024. Combined with previous Brookings Metro work showing that Trump-voting counties account for a smaller share of gross domestic product due to their rural nature, this draws attention to smaller communities that are dependent on key tariff-affected industries, and their special sensitivity to disruptions in global trade flows. 

All in all, it bears noting that the proposed tariffs are the latest in a long string of protectionist actions across the Trump and Biden administrations that have forced supply chains to shift and relocate. And while previous rounds of tariffs and U.S. export controls may have left China with fewer options to retaliate than it had seven years ago, these latest trade actions might nonetheless still cause disruptions for U.S. firms, workers, and communities.  

As this analysis shows, tariffs—both those implemented by the U.S. as well as foreign retaliation—have real effects on employment in places across the nation, and a continued expansion of protectionism and retaliation is likely to cause substantially more disruption for more American workers. 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 1, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 01, 2025

Twenty-five years ago today, Americans—along with the rest of the world—woke up to a new century date…and to the discovery that the years of work computer programmers had put in to stop what was known as the Y2K bug from crashing airplanes, shutting down hospitals, and making payments systems inoperable had worked.

When programmers began their work with the first wave of commercial computers in the 1960s, computer memory was expensive, so they used a two-digit format for dates, using just the years in the century, rather than using the four digits that would be necessary otherwise—78, for example, rather than 1978. This worked fine until the century changed.

As the turn of the twenty-first century approached, computer engineers realized that computers might interpret 00 as 1900 rather than 2000 or fail to recognize it at all, causing programs that, by then, handled routine maintenance, safety checks, transportation, finance, and so on, to fail. According to scholar Olivia Bosch, governments recognized that government services, as well as security and the law, could be disrupted by the glitch. They knew that the public must have confidence that world systems would survive, and the United States and the United Kingdom, where at the time computers were more widespread than they were elsewhere, emphasized transparency about how governments, companies, and programmers were handling the problem. They backed the World Bank and the United Nations in their work to help developing countries fix their own Y2K issues.

Meanwhile, people who were already worried about the coming of a new century began to fear that the end of the world was coming. In late 1996, evangelical Christian believers saw the Virgin Mary in the windows of an office building near Clearwater, Florida, and some thought the image was a sign of the end times. Leaders fed that fear, some appearing to hope that the secular government they hated would fall, some appreciating the profit to be made from their warnings. Popular televangelist Pat Robertson ran headlines like “The Year 2000—A Date with Disaster.”

Fears reached far beyond the evangelical community. Newspaper tabloids ran headlines that convinced some worried people to start stockpiling food and preparing for societal collapse: “JANUARY 1, 2000: THE DAY THE EARTH WILL STAND STILL!” one tabloid read. “ALL BANKS WILL FAIL. FOOD SUPPLIES WILL BE DEPLETED! ELECTRICITY WILL BE CUT OFF! THE STOCK MARKET WILL CRASH! VEHICLES USING COMPUTER CHIPS WILL STOP DEAD! TELEPHONES WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION! DOMINO EFFECT WILL CAUSE A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION!”

In fact, the fix turned out to be simple—programmers developed updated systems that recognized a four-digit date—but implementing it meant that hardware and software had to be adjusted to become Y2K compliant, and they had to be ready by midnight on December 31, 1999. Technology teams worked for years, racing to meet the deadline at a cost that researchers estimate to have been $300–$600 billion. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time, Jane Garvey, told NPR in 1998 that the air traffic control system had twenty-three million lines of code that had to be fixed.

President Bill Clinton’s 1999 budget had described fixing the Y2K bug as “the single largest technology management challenge in history,” but on December 14 of that year, President Bill Clinton announced that according to the Office of Management and Budget, 99.9% of the government's mission-critical computer systems were ready for 2000. In May 1997, only 21% had been ready. “[W]e have done our job, we have met the deadline, and we have done it well below cost projections,” Clinton said.

Indeed, the fix worked. Despite the dark warnings, the programmers had done their job, and the clocks changed with little disruption. “2000,” the Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal’s headline read. “World rejoices; Y2K bug is quiet.”

Crises get a lot of attention, but the quiet work of fixing them gets less. And if that work ends the crisis that got all the attention, the success itself makes people think there was never a crisis to begin with. In the aftermath of the Y2K problem, people began to treat it as a joke, but as technology forecaster Paul Saffo emphasized, “The Y2K crisis didn’t happen precisely because people started preparing for it over a decade in advance. And the general public who was busy stocking up on supplies and stuff just didn’t have a sense that the programmers were on the job.”

As of midnight last night, a five-year contract ended that had allowed Russia to export natural gas to Europe by way of a pipeline running through Ukraine. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that he would not renew the contract, which permitted more than $6 billion a year to flow to cash-strapped Russia. European governments said they had plenty of time to prepare and that they have found alternative sources to meet the needs of their people.

Today, President Joe Biden issued a statement marking the day that the new, lower cap on seniors’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs goes into effect. The Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated over two years and passed with Democratic votes alone, enabled the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and phased in out-of-pocket spending caps for seniors. In 2024 the cap was $3,400; it’s now $2,000.

As we launch ourselves into 2025, one of the key issues of the new year will be whether Americans care that the U.S. government does the hard, slow work of governing and, if it does, who benefits.

Happy New Year, everyone.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: John Burn-Murdoch

Published: Mar 14, 2025

What is intelligence? This may sound like a straightforward question with a straightforward answer — the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “a capacity to understand” — but that definition itself raises an increasingly relevant question in the modern world. What happens if the extent to which we can practically apply that capacity is diminishing? Evidence is mounting that something exactly like this has been happening to the human intellect over the past decade or so.

Nobody would argue that the fundamental biology of the human brain has changed in that far-too-short time span. However, across a range of tests, the average person’s ability to reason and solve novel problems appears to have peaked in the early 2010s and has been declining ever since.

When the latest round of analysis from PISA, the OECD’s international benchmarking test for performance by 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science tests, was released, the focus understandably fell on the role of the Covid pandemic in disrupting education. But this masked a longer-term and broader deterioration.

Longer-term in the sense that scores for all three subjects tended to peak around 2012. In many cases, they fell further between 2012 and 2018 than they did during the pandemic-affected years. And broader in that this decline in measures of reasoning and problem-solving is not confined to teenagers. Adults show a similar pattern, with declines visible across all age groups in last year’s update of the OECD’s flagship assessment of trends in adult skills.

Given its importance, there has been remarkably little consistent long-running research on human attention or mental capacity. But there is a rare exception: every year since the 1980s, the Monitoring the Future study has been asking 18-year-olds whether they have difficulty thinking, concentrating or learning new things. The share of final year high school students who report difficulties was stable throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but began a rapid upward climb in the mid-2010s.

This inflection point is noteworthy not only for being similar to performance on tests of intelligence and reasoning but because it coincides with another broader development: our changing relationship with information, available constantly online.

Part of what we’re looking at here is likely to be a result of the ongoing transition away from text and towards visual media — the shift towards a “post-literate” society spent obsessively on our screens.

The decline of reading is certainly real — in 2022 the share of Americans who reported reading a book in the past year fell below half.

Particularly striking however is that we see this alongside decreasing performance in the application of numeracy and other forms of problem-solving in most countries.

In one particularly eye-opening statistic, the share of adults who are unable to “use mathematical reasoning when reviewing and evaluating the validity of statements” has climbed to 25 per cent on average in high-income countries, and 35 per cent in the US.

So we appear to be looking less at the decline of reading per se, and more at a broader erosion in human capacity for mental focus and application.

Most discussion about the societal impacts of digital media focuses on the rise of smartphones and social media. But the change in human capacity for focused thought coincides with something more fundamental: a shift in our relationship with information.

We have moved from finite web pages to infinite, constantly refreshed feeds and a constant barrage of notifications. We no longer spend as much time actively browsing the web and interacting with people we know but instead are presented with a torrent of content. This represents a move from self-directed behaviour to passive consumption and constant context-switching.

Research finds that active, intentional use of digital technologies is often benign or even beneficial. Whereas the behaviours that have taken off in recent years have been shown to affect everything from our ability to process verbal information, to attention, working memory and self-regulation.

The good news is that underlying human intellectual capacity is surely undimmed. But outcomes are a function of both potential and execution. For too many of us the digital environment is hampering the latter.

[ Archive: https://archive.today/vhoGi ]

[darkmaga-returns]

China Halts Rare Earth Exports to US. Carney Sold Canada’s Gold to the UK. Russia, Ukraine to hold direct talks. Trump: decision on Iran to be made soon. Scotland is implementing a digital ID system

Lioness of Judah Ministry

Apr 14, 2025

China Halts Rare Earth Exports to U.S., Threatening Supply Chains for Cars, Semiconductors, and Aerospace Industries

China has halted exports of seven critical rare earth elements to the United States, a move that threatens to disrupt supply chains across key American industries, including automotive, semiconductor, and aerospace sectors.

China’s Ministry of Commerce recently added seven rare earth elements—including dysprosium, terbium, and lutetium—to its restricted export list. These elements are essential for manufacturing high-performance magnets used in electric vehicles, advanced weaponry, and consumer electronics.

Secret way China has been strangling Americans before Trump tariffs... and the crippling impact it has on you

China has been secretly halting exports of major U.S. commodities in a stealthy attempt to undermine Donald Trump's trade war and punish Americans.

While Beijing has matched Trump's 125 percent tariff with one of its own against US-imported goods, they have also been using nontariff barriers to hit the president's supporters the hardest, Politico reported. Over the past four months, China has halted or significantly curtailed direct key U.S. agriculture and energy exports. Many of these exports include U.S. farm goods, such beef, poultry and liquified natural gas.

Smartphones, Computers, Electronic Devices Exempt from Trump Admin’s Tariffs on China

The Trump administration announced that various electronic devices, such as smartphones and computers, will be exempt from the tariffs that have been imposed on China.

In a bulletin posted Friday night by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, it was revealed that certain products would be exempted from tariffs. The tariff exemptions on certain products “apply retroactively to April 5,” according to Axios. The products would be exempt from recently applied tariffs, while other pre-April 2 tariffs would still apply. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained in a statement that President Donald Trump “has made it clear” that the United States “cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops.”

Not So Fast: Lutnick Says Semiconductor Tariffs Coming "In Month Or Two", Exemption Is Only "Temporary"

"We can't be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need."

Update (1059 ET): U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told ABC's This Week host Jonathan Karl that smartphones, computers, chips, and other consumer electronics may soon be subject to separate tariffs in a month or so, suggesting that the exemptions announced Friday evening are only temporary. "All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get re-shored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels -- we need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us," Lutnick told Karl.

Trump says will announce semiconductor tariffs over next week

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would be announcing the tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week, adding that there would be flexibility on some companies in the sector.

Trump spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled back to Washington from his estate in West Palm Beach.

Japanese PM, bank chief, warn of heightened uncertainty from US tariff policy

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday that US tariffs have the potential to disrupt the global economic order.

Speaking in parliament, Ishiba said the government is not thinking of issuing a supplementary budget now, but stood ready to act in a timely fashion to cushion the economic blow from US tariffs. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Monday global and domestic economic uncertainty has increased sharply due to US tariff policy. "US tariffs will likely put downward pressure on global and Japanese economies through various channels," Ueda told parliament. "The BOJ will guide monetary policy appropriately from the standpoint of sustainably achieving its 2% inflation target, while scrutinizing economic, price and financial developments without any pre-conception," Ueda said.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

WhatMatters

Your guide to California policy and politics

By Lynn La

June 16, 2025

Presented by California Housing Consortium, Californians for Energy Independence, California Resources Corporation and Climate-Smart Agricultural Partnership

 

 

Good morning, California.

Californians hit the streets after Trump’s LA deployment

People gather at City Hall to protest the federal administration during the “No Kings” national rally in San Francisco on June 14, 2025. Photo by Nic Coury, AFP via Getty Images

A week after President Donald Trump sent the military to Los Angeles, tens of thousands of Californians took to the streets Saturday to protest his policies on his birthday.

Known as No Kings Day, the rallies took place in the northern part of the state including Shasta County, as well as Sacramento, the Bay Area, the Central Valley, the Inland Empire and across Southern California, including San Diego and Orange counties. 

In San Francisco, protestors of all ages — some with young kids or dogs in tow — chanted “ICE out of our streets” and “sanctuary for us all,” as they marched nearly two miles from Dolores Park to City Hall. They waved California, Pride, Mexico and U.S. flags and carried anti-Trump signs, many of which denounced the administration’s immigration raids and the deployment of federal troops in L.A.

Many of the state’s Democratic officials appealed for calm: Both Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass urged demonstrators to “rise above” and “refuse” chaos, respectively, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked people to protest “peacefully, safely, and lawfully.”

But in L.A., protestors and law enforcement clashed, according to CalMatters’ Sergio Olmos and Mikhail Zinshteyn. After issuing a dispersal order, local police in the early evening began to fire less-lethal munitions, flash bangs and tear gas canisters at crowds in downtown. U.S. Marines armed with live munitions also faced demonstrators while protecting federal buildings, and federal troops were reported tackling at least one protester to the ground.

The majority of the protests in California and nationwide were peaceful, however. The vibe in San Francisco was energetic and cheerful among the presence of police officers, though some demonstrators grew somber when asked why they attended the rally.

Mike Kaiser, San Francisco resident: “Every day there’s new outrages with Trump, with ICE. … I feel that we’re very close to the end of democracy in the United States and that deserves a very big response.”

As National Guard soldiers remain in L.A. following a ruling by a federal appeals court, life for residents and communities located near the city’s government center continue to be disrupted, writes CalMatters’ Joe Garcia. 

Since last week, locals have been under an 8 p.m. curfew, and some businesses report recurring vandalism and plummeting sales. While the sounds of helicopters flying at all hours induce anxiety for some residents, others say the presence of federal troops make the situation “worse for us.” Read more here.

 

CalMatters wins an Emmy: CalMatters’ Digital Democracy collaboration with CBS-TV was awarded an Emmy from the Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “This is one of many accountability stories that I did this year that I could not have done without this incredible tool,” said CBS correspondent Julie Watts when accepting the award on Saturday.

Honoring Walters: Join CalMatters columnist Dan Walters and the Sacramento Press Club on Tuesday in Sacramento to celebrate Walters’ 50 years covering the Capitol and California politics. He will discuss his expansive career with his longtime editor at The Sacramento Bee, Amy Chance. Register today.

 

Other Stories You Should Know

 

 

Health care in sights of immigration enforcement

A benefits counselor assists an undocumented adult at St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles on Dec. 19, 2023. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

Let’s dive into some immigration news:

Divulging Medi-Cal info: On Friday Newsom blasted the federal administration after reports emerged that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services gave personal information, including immigration status, to deportation officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The data transfer includes information about California Medi-Cal patients. The program allows immigrants without legal status to enroll in state-supported health insurance. The move to share private enrollee information reverses a longstanding federal policy. Read more from CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.

Hospitals on high alert: Fears about possible immigration sweeps at California hospitals and health clinics have patients who are immigrants canceling their medical appointments. Staff working at an L.A.-area clinic system said armed officers last week tried to enter a parking lot where doctors and nurses were treating patients in a mobile health clinic. Though the agents eventually left after being refused entrance, the encounter rattled patients and staff. Read more from CalMatters’ Ana B. Ibarra.

Leading L.A. border patrol: In January U.S. Border Patrol agents in California conducted a controversial immigration raid in Kern County, where a lawsuit alleges that Border Patrol unlawfully targeted “people of color who appeared to be farm workers.” In the months following the sweep, the career of the man who led the operation, Sergeant Gregory Bovino, appears to have taken off within the Trump administration. He is now in charge of border protection operations in L.A., and appeared alongside the Secretary of Homeland Security during a press conference last week. Read more from CalMatters’ reporters.

 

A state budget banking on hope

State Sen. Shannon Grove speaks before other lawmakers during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 24, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

On Friday the Legislature passed a state budget agreement to close a $12 billion shortfall, reports CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff. The $325 billion spending plan rejects many of the social services cuts Newsom included in his updated budget proposal. Negotiations will continue, however, as both the Legislature and the governor must approve the budget by the start of California’s fiscal year on July 1. 

Other budget takeaways:

Homelessness funding: Both Newsom and the Legislature propose gutting California’s main source of homelessness funding, which has grown to $1 billion last year. Without that money, local government leaders and homelessness service providers argue that some shelters and housing programs would likely close, and the limited progress they have made toward tackling homelessness will be reduced. Read more from CalMatters’ Marisa Kendall.

Cuts to Medi-Cal: For unauthorized immigrants enrolled in Medi-Cal, the Legislature’s budget plan is a mixed bag. It rejects Newsom’s proposal to cancel home care for immigrants, and lowers from $100 to $30 the monthly premium the governor proposed for immigrants. But the plan also wants to expand Newsom’s proposal to block adults without permanent legal status from enrolling in Medi-Cal to the broader category of non-citizens with “unsatisfactory immigration status,” which includes some legal permanent residents. Read more from CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.

Legal aid services: The budget plan also prohibits $40 million in state funds to go towards the legal defense of immigrants convicted of any felony. The proposal follows repeated criticism from Republican legislators who argue that the state needs to do more to address voters’ concerns about crime. But legal experts and advocates say that the rule change would harm low-income families, and that felony crimes aren’t always violent, such as shoplifting or writing a bad check. Read more from CalMatters’ Cayla Mihalovich and Jeanne Kuang. 

 

And lastly: Changed rules for AI and juror pay?

The Dreamforce conference, the largest AI event in the world according to its host Salesforce, in San Francisco on Sept. 18, 2024. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters

Under pressure from tech giants and lawmakers, California’s privacy agency watered down proposed rules that would have regulated behavioral advertising for AI. CalMatters’ Khari Johnson and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on why the draft rules are raising concerns among privacy advocates as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

And check out another video from CalMatters’ Joe Garcia and Robert on Newsom’s proposal to terminate a pilot program that increased juror pay. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

California Voices

California Voices deputy editor Denise Amos: A bill that would provide funding for phonics-based instruction in K-12 public schools would help address California’s reading crisis, but it should also mandate school districts to transition to more phonics-friendly curricula. 

Other things worth your time:

 

Some stories may require a subscription to read.

Newsom changes his tune on running for president // CalMatters

Federal DEI, ‘wokeness’ restrictions put CA homeless providers in a bind // CalMatters

In CA, Trump finds his perfect antagonist // The Guardian

The week that changed everything for Newsom // The Atlantic

California’s MAGA prosecutor makes Democrats squirm // Politico

CA leaders react to Minnesota lawmaker shootings // The Sacramento Bee

Silicon Valley wants to ban Chinese drones while ‘covering’ SF in their own // The San Francisco Standard

The mad scramble to track ICE immigration raids across LA County // Los Angeles Times

After Ambiance Apparel raid, Fashion District businesses, workers wait in fear // Los Angeles Times

Southern CA immigration raids continue, including at Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet // Los Angeles Daily News

 

See you next time!

Tips, insight or feedback? Email whatmatters@calmatters.org. Subscribe to CalMatters newsletters here. Follow CalMatters on Facebook and Twitter.

 

     

 

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CalMatters 1017 L Street #261 Sacramento, CA 95814 United States

 

[creatureofmimics]

BREAKING NEWS: Revolutionary AI Scheduling Model Disrupts Multi-Billion Dollar Industries

IndustriesMay 14, 2025 – In a groundbreaking development set to redefine time management across education, fitness, and the arts, researchers from the Zurich Institute of Technology (ZIT) have unveiled an artificial intelligence model capable of autonomously optimizing human schedules with an accuracy rate exceeding 98.7%.Dubbed "ChronoPilot," the new system leverages deep contextual learning to interpret not only user preferences but also emotional states, productivity trends, and even regional weather forecasts to dynamically tailor personal and group schedules. In early trials, the system outperformed existing scheduling platforms by over 400% in efficiency and conflict resolution.The implications span vast sectors. Educational institutions using class scheduling software like Lunacal’s platform for class bookings have already reported dramatic improvements in attendance and engagement. In the fitness industry, where applications such as gym booking software are crucial, ChronoPilot’s integration led to a 37% rise in client retention during a 90-day pilot. Music academies leveraging music lesson scheduling tools observed a 52% reduction in missed appointments.ZIT’s Secret Weapon: Sentient Sync ProtocolWhat truly sets ChronoPilot apart is its proprietary Sentient Sync Protocol (SSP) — a neural time-mapping engine that mimics human anticipation. SSP doesn’t just block out time; it predicts the best time for each task based on thousands of variables, including circadian rhythms, cognitive load history, and even micro-fluctuations in vocal tone during user interactions.Dr. Lena Marwick, lead AI architect at ZIT, explained, “We’re no longer asking users to fit into rigid schedules. ChronoPilot adapts to them, moment by moment.”Global Trials, Unprecedented ResultsThe AI was tested across 1.2 million scheduling interactions in 11 countries, across five major time zones. In one compelling instance, a public school in Osaka integrated ChronoPilot into its digital classroom system. Within three weeks, student punctuality improved by 48%, and feedback indicated a 63% increase in perceived classroom coherence.Meanwhile, a UK-based national gym chain used ChronoPilot to coordinate personal training sessions across 87 locations. Instructors reported a 41% decrease in downtime, and an average boost of 18% in customer satisfaction scores.ChronoPilot vs. The Old GuardWhile current scheduling tools rely heavily on manual input or rigid templates, ChronoPilot learns from passive inputs — browsing behavior, sleep app data, voice command history — with the user’s consent. This passive data synergy allows it to preemptively adjust schedules without user intervention.Analysts say the AI’s capabilities pose an existential threat to legacy scheduling systems and even to calendar giants like Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. “It’s not just a calendar anymore,” says Gideon Lark, senior analyst at MetaMetrics. “It’s a lifestyle orchestrator.”Privacy Concerns and Ethical DebateNot everyone is celebrating. Digital rights watchdogs have raised concerns about the volume and sensitivity of data ChronoPilot processes. The AI can access everything from location logs to biometric signals. While ZIT asserts the system uses end-to-end encryption and offers opt-out data controls, some critics remain wary."We’re trading convenience for surveillance,” warns Aria Salim, director of the Tech Privacy Initiative. “There must be enforceable limits on how such AI models evolve, especially as they begin to predict and possibly influence human behavior.”ZIT has responded by publishing a white paper detailing its privacy protocols and inviting third-party audits. Still, the debate over AI autonomy and human agency continues to intensify.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

NRL’s Narrow Field Imager captures first light

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) Narrow Field Imager (NFI) captured its first light images on April 14, offering a preliminary glimpse of the Sun’s corona, as NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission opened two of its four instrument doors for the first time in space.

On April 16, the other two Wide Field Imagers (WFI) opened their doors and also started capturing images.

These initial images from NFI are primarily focused on calibrating the instrument and confirming its pointing accuracy. The NFI image was filtered to show the star field surrounding the Sun, with part of the constellation Pisces highlighted. The Sun itself is hidden behind the instrument's occulter, a disk that blocks direct sunlight, appearing as a bright ring in the center.

Launched on March 11 into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the NFI deployed from Falcon 9 on March 12. PUNCH is a four-satellite constellation, collecting observations in low Earth orbit. It will conduct global, 3D observations of the inner heliosphere to investigate the solar corona's evolution into the solar wind.

The NRL-developed NFI, sponsored by NASA, is a compact, externally occulted coronagraph. The external occulter blocks direct sunlight from entering the main optical aperture, which views the corona and starfield around the Sun using a compound lens system. Polarization is resolved using a polarizing filter wheel and the image is digitized using a CCD camera with a 2K x 2K active detector area.

"We are thrilled to see these first light images from NFI," said NRL Coronal and Heliospheric Physics Section Head Robin Colaninno, Ph.D. "This is a major milestone for the PUNCH mission and a testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire team. We are eager to begin using NFI to study the Sun's corona in unprecedented detail and learn more about how the solar wind is generated."

Over the next few weeks, the PUNCH team will refine the spacecraft's pointing and calibrate the NFI to reduce stray light. Once this process is complete, the NFI will be able to capture detailed images of the Sun's corona, similar to those taken by its predecessor, the NRL-developed Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1).

By capturing the evolution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), PUNCH will provide scientists new data on their formation and propagation. This is essential for understanding and predicting these events, which can cause significant disruptions on Earth, including satellite damage, radio communication blackouts, and power grid failures. Enhanced predictions will also safeguard robotic explorers operating in interplanetary space.

PUNCH is currently in a 90-day commissioning phase, during which time the four spacecraft will be maneuvered into their final orbital configuration and the instruments will be calibrated. Following commissioning, PUNCH will begin its two-year primary science mission.

l.

IMAGE: The first light image taken on April 14, 2025, by the PUNCH Narrow Field Imager demonstrates that the camera is in focus, working properly, and able to capture deep-field images of the solar corona against the glare of the Sun.  This image has been filtered to highlight the stars that are visible through the far brighter “F corona” (also called zodiacal light) that surrounds the Sun. The instrument is not yet fully aligned with the Sun, leading to bright glints of sunlight, which are visible to the right of the Sun’s location on the image. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Florida neighbors band together to recover (AP) When ankle-deep floodwaters from Hurricane Helene bubbled up through the floors of their home, Kat Robinson-Malone and her husband sent a late-night text message to their neighbors two doors down: “Hey, we’re coming.” The couple waded through the flooded street to the elevated front porch of Chris and Kara Sundar, whose home was built on higher ground, and handed over their 8-year-old daughter and a gas-powered generator. The Sundars’ lime-green house in southern Tampa also became a refuge for Brooke and Adam Carstensen, whose house next door to Robinson-Malone also flooded. The three families met years earlier when their children became playmates, and the adults’ friendships deepened during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. So when Helene and Hurricane Milton struck Florida within two weeks of each other, the neighbors closed ranks as one big extended family, cooking meals together, taking turns watching children and cleaning out their damaged homes. “Everyone has, like, the chain saw or a tarp,” Robinson-Malone said Sunday. “But really the most important thing for us was the community we built. And that made all the difference for the hurricane rescue and the recovery. And now, hopefully, the restoration.”

Thousands march in Spain to demand affordable housing (Reuters) Thousands protested on Sunday in Madrid to demand more affordable housing amid rising anger from Spaniards who feel they are being priced out of the market. “Spaniards cannot live in their own cities. They are forcing us out of the cities,” said nurse Blanca Prieto, 33. Spain is struggling to balance promoting tourism, a key driver of its economy, and addressing citizens’ concerns over unaffordable high rents due to gentrification and landlords shifting to more lucrative tourist rentals. Residents of the Canary Islands and Malaga have also staged protests this year against the rise in tourist rentals. Seasonal hospitality workers struggle to find accommodation in these tourism hot spots, with many resorting to sleeping in caravans or even their cars.

Russian Strikes on Ukrainian Ports Target Shipping (NYT) Russia has stepped up its assaults on Black Sea port infrastructure and civilian shipping in recent days, in what Ukraine says is an attempt to disrupt its exports and damage its economy. The attacks are part of an intensifying campaign of strikes on the city of Odesa and the region along Ukraine’s southern coast. Since last Monday, Russia has carried out five attacks in the area, killing 14 civilians and injuring 28, the U.N.’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported on Friday, citing local authorities. The strikes on ships were mostly aimed at those flying flags of small countries unlikely to retaliate against Russia. Last Monday, a container ship under the flag of Palau was hit, Ukrainian official said. The day before that, a missile damaged a vessel under a Saint Kitts and Nevis flag, according to the regional military administration.

Pakistan’s internet slows to a crawl as blame falls on government (Washington Post) Mobile internet in Pakistan has been painfully slow for over two months. Now, technology experts and political activists are accusing the government of intentionally throttling the internet to suppress political protesters. Digital rights activists fear that Pakistani officials are installing new controls to more tightly monitor social media and to censor political content.

China’s ‘New Great Wall’ Casts a Shadow on Nepal (NYT) The Chinese fence traces a furrow in the Himalayas, its barbed wire and concrete ramparts separating Tibet from Nepal. Here, in one of the more isolated places on earth, China’s security cameras keep watch alongside armed sentries in guard towers. High on the Tibetan Plateau, the Chinese have carved a 600-feet-long message on a hillside: “Long live the Chinese Communist Party,” inscribed in characters that can be read from orbit. Just across the border, in Nepal’s Humla District, residents contend that along several points of this distant frontier, China is encroaching on Nepali territory. The Nepalis have other complaints, too. Chinese security forces are pressuring ethnic Tibetan Nepalis not to display images of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in Nepali villages near the border, they say. “This is the new Great Wall of China,” said Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, the former provincial chief minister of the area. China’s fencing along the edge of Nepal’s Humla District is just one segment of a fortification network thousands of miles long that Xi Jinping’s government has built to reinforce remote reaches, control rebellious populations and, in some cases, push into territory that other nations consider their own.

Sri Lanka closes schools as floods hammer the capital (AP) Sri Lanka closed schools in the capital Colombo and suburbs on Monday as heavy rains triggered floods in many parts of the island nation. Heavy downpours over the weekend have wreaked havoc in many parts of the country, flooding homes, fields and roads. Three people drowned, while some 134,000 people have been affected by flooding, according to the country’s Disaster Management Centre. Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather conditions since May, mostly caused by heavy monsoon rains. In June, 16 people died due to floods and mudslides.

Can the Government Get People to Have More Babies? (NYT) In 1989, Japan seemed to be an unstoppable economic superpower. Its companies were overtaking competitors and gobbling up American icons like Rockefeller Center. But inside the country, the government had identified a looming, slow-motion crisis: The fertility rate had fallen to a record low. Policymakers called it the “1.57 shock,” citing the projected average number of children that women would have over their childbearing years. If births continued to decline, they warned, the consequences would be disastrous. Taxes would rise or social security coffers would shrink. Japanese children would lack sufficient peer interaction. Society would lose its vitality as the supply of young workers dwindled. It was time to act. Starting in the 1990s, Japan began rolling out policies and pronouncements designed to spur people to have more babies. The government required employers to offer child care leave of up to a year, opened more subsidized day care slots, exhorted men to do housework and take paternity leave, and called on companies to shorten work hours. In 1992, the government started paying direct cash allowances for having even one child (earlier, they had started with the third child), and bimonthly payments for all children were later introduced. None of this has worked. Last year, Japan’s fertility rate stood at 1.2. In Tokyo, the rate is now less than one. The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899. Now the rest of the developed world is looking more and more like Japan.

The Brewing War With Israel Is Boosting Iran’s Young Hard-Liners (Foreign Affairs) The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s influential, ideological armed force, has been riven by divisions between its older, conservative commanders and its younger, radical ranks. The former generally favor exercising some restraint when it comes to Israel, whereas the latter want to go directly after the Islamic Republic’s nemesis. Typically, the older elite have held more influence with the supreme leader. But as more and more IRGC commanders and partners have been killed, the younger generations have gained the upper hand. They have done so by questioning the competence of their elders but also by suggesting that some IRGC elites are actually Israeli assets, including Esmail Ghaani, the IRGC commander who controls Iran’s Quds force—which, in turn, controls Iran’s network of proxy militias. After Israel killed Nasrallah, Khamenei’s calculus appears to have been shaped by this younger cohort. It is part of why Khamenei launched the October 1 attack.

Netanyahu Is Killing Us To Set Us Free? Logic, Grief And Resistance In Beirut (Daraj/Lebanon) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed us, the Lebanese people, and offered us a gift: a massacre. He sent soldiers to the Lebanese border town of Maroun al-Ras, raised an Israeli flag there, and sent the picture to the whole world. Netanyahu, who has so far killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and about 3,000 Lebanese, addressed us directly—and said that he is killing us for the sake of our future [by destroying Hezbollah]. Netanyahu tells us that he wants to give us after killing us, a homeland, one that is no more than a graveyard and no less than a colony. This speech he addressed to us is truly amazing, a summary of what awaits us if Netanyahu, owner of the “massacre doctrine,” achieves what he wants.

U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel (NYT) The United States is sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. The move will put American troops operating the ground-based interceptor, which is designed to defend against ballistic missiles, closer to the widening war in the Middle East. It comes after Iran launched about 200 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 and as Israel plans its retaliatory attack. The THAAD battery, a mobile defense system, will give the Israel Defense Forces another layer of protection to defend cities, troops and installations from short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles like those deployed by Iran in its last attack.

Netanyahu tells U.S. that Israel will strike Iranian military, not nuclear or oil, targets, officials say (Washington Post) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Biden administration he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran, according to two officials familiar with the matter, suggesting a more limited counterstrike aimed at preventing a full-scale war. In the two weeks since Iran’s latest missile barrage on Israel, its second direct attack in six months, the Middle East has braced for Israel’s promised response, fearing the two countries’ decades-long shadow war could explode into a head-on military confrontation. It comes at a politically fraught time for Washington, less than a month before the election, and President Joe Biden has said publicly he would not support an Israeli strike on nuclear-related sites. When Biden and Netanyahu spoke Wednesday—their first call in more than seven weeks after months of rising tensions between the two men—the prime minister said he was planning to target military infrastructure in Iran, according to a U.S. official and an official familiar with the matter.

Is Israel deploying a ‘surrender or starve’ strategy in Gaza? (Washington Post) Northern Gaza, already pummeled by a year of ruinous war, is in the grips of a punishing new Israeli offensive. Israeli forces encircled the battered Jabalya refugee camp in a bid to “systematically dismantle terrorist infrastructure,” according to an IDF statement. Israel issued evacuation orders to some 400,000 remaining residents in northern Gaza, telling them to go to areas farther south that are already teeming with the displaced and still hit by Israeli bombardments. Airstrikes have killed dozens. Aid workers described a catastrophic scene. “It is like hell to be honest,” Fares Afana, the head of ambulance services in northern Gaza, told The Washington Post in a voice note on Sunday. Israeli forces were attacking the Jabalya refugee camp “for the third time and its surroundings in Beit Lahya and Beit Hanoun,” Afana said, and the camp was surrounded “from all sides.” Humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said Friday that thousands of people—including five of its staffers—were trapped in the Jabalya camp. “Nobody is allowed to get in or out—anyone who tries is getting shot,” Sarah Vuylsteke, a project coordinator for the organization, said in a news release. The intensifying siege will “continue as long as required in order to achieve its objectives,” the IDF said in a statement. It comes alongside an apparent blockade. No food trucks have entered at all in October. Such a tactic may fuel further accusations that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza.

[leonhorn]

In 2054 Capitalism Dies in Space | In 20xx Scifi and Futurism by In 20xx Futurism When people in space are cut off from Earth an imbalance of owner vs. customers comes to a breaking point. The people in space believe no one is left alive on Earth. As far as they know, the (around) 12,000 in space is all that's left of humanity. Those living on and near the moon form Luna Nation. Space refugees scattered near Earth must find a way to insure a future for themselves and their children. AI that in many ways exceed human intelligence play a part in a skirmish for resources. What does it take to outsmart an AI that can make you think you're having a video call with a co-conspirator when it's the AI you are talking to? An finally, if AI can make a six part miniseries staring Drew Barrymore and Crispin Glover about using DNA banks to spawn a new human race, what parts would the two actors play? Here's a list of the technology mentioned in the story: 1. Orbital stations and space habitats 2. Micro-gravity adapting robots (e.g., vacuum bots) 3. Smart glass walls 4. Satellite cameras 5. AI assistants (e.g., Butler AI) 6. Augmented Reality (AR) glasses 7. Canal links (brain-computer interfaces) 8. Virtual Reality (VR) equipment 9. Life support systems for space 10. Automated mining and manufacturing in space 11. Fusion-powered spaceships 12. Electric thrusters for spacecraft 13. Legacy tracking systems for spacecraft 14. Ejection systems for spacecraft 15. Motion stabilizers for space suits 16. Emergency beacons in space suits 17. Artificial wombs 18. DNA banks 19. Brain scanning and digital copying technology 20. Robots capable of performing complex tasks 21. Centrifuges for simulating gravity 22. Terraforming technology (theoretical, for Venus) 23. Advanced medical automation 24. Custom cell cultivators 25. Organ printing technology 26. Stasis technology for long space journeys 27. Laser tight-beam communication 28. Rockets and missiles (mentioned as being disabled) 29. Closed-circuit TVs in spacecraft 30. Space construction vehicles (e.g., "spider") 31. Delivery cruisers 32. Research ships 33. Hologram-producing screens Many of the characters in this project appear in future episodes. Using storytelling to place you in a time period, this series takes you, year by year, into the future. If you like emerging tech, eco-tech, futurism, perma-culture, apocalyptic survival scenarios, and disruptive science, sit back and enjoy short stories that showcase my research into how the future may play out. This is Episode 56 of the podcast "In 20xx Scifi and Futurism." The companion site is https://in20xx.com where you can find a timeline of the future, descriptions of future development, and printed fiction. These are works of fiction. Characters and groups are made-up and influenced by current events but not reporting facts about people or groups in the real world. Copyright © Leon Horn 2024. All rights reserved. Episode link: https://ift.tt/k06LA7S (video made with https://ift.tt/pO3bjSh) via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tFJVPfQw2k

[funkylilworm]

Name:

Jisu Shugamee

Hero name:

わたあめモナーク

wa ta ame monark (English translation: The Cotton Candy Monarch)

Gender:

Nonbinary

Sexuality:

Omnisexual

Pronouns:

They/Them/They're/Their

Height:

5’7

Age:

14 yrs old

Race:

Mixed (South Asian + Malaysian)

Birthday:

February 19th

Zodiac:

Pisces

Siblings:

0

Class:

1-A

Quirk/s:

Cartoon physics

User possess the ability to impose laws and physics of cartoons in reality, essentially allowing to warp the world around them or themselves however they see fit , usually in comedic fashion or (in Jisu’s case) to help however they can

Weapon/s:

dark brown human sized mallet with the word “KABLAM” at the side in red writing, and on top of the smashing part is a golden crown with an image of cotton candy on the side of the crown (the size of the mallet can change)

_______________________________________

Weird body function (related to quirk):

In Jisu's body, there's an unusual substance akin to "toon juice," which fluctuates based on their emotions and physical condition. This toon juice affects their ability to bend reality and manipulate cartoon physics. Here's how it could work:

▪︎Supporting Abilities: When Jisu is in a positive emotional state or well-rested, their toon juice levels are balanced. This enhances their ability to perform feats like pulling oversized objects from their pocket, stretching their limbs to exaggerated lengths, or temporarily defying gravity.

▪︎Hindering Abilities: Conversely, when Jisu is fatigued, stressed, or emotionally unstable, their toon juice levels become erratic. This can lead to unpredictable consequences such as objects shrinking instead of growing, unpredictable teleportation to random places, or uncontrollable wackiness that disrupts rather than aids their goals.

Anatomy wise, other than the blood vessels Jisu was also born with a different set of veins along side blood veins, the different set of veins is what stores the toon juice that pumps through Jisu's body

_______________________________________

Physical Appearance:

Chubby, dark violet irises, dark maroon brown skin, big and long curly hair that's up in two ponytails (that's also dyed cotton candy pink), broad shoulders, round nose, and a tooth gap

Clothing appearance:

▪︎Hero-

°Clown makeup

°Golden crown, a few ear piercings, ruffle ascot , cartoon gloves

°short overalls with golden buttons with one side being a neon green with periwinkle purple polka dots and the other side being light blue with violet purple pin stripes ,and the back and side pockets are a periwinkle pink w/ the white pocket on the front reading in hot pink letters TCM

°underneath their overalls they wear a periwinkle pink long sleeve blouse with one sleeve having yellow pin stripes and the other yellow polka dots

° purple and turquoise jester shoes with attachable golden bells

▪︎Casual-

Navy blue and black shirt with black diamonds on the left sleeve and black stars on the right, nails are painted black, cargo capri pants with one side being dark purple with red pockets and the other side red with dark purple pockets, and black dark purple and black sneakers

▪︎School uniform -

White button up dress shirt, dark red tie, dark green and light gray blazer, black dress pants, and black dress shoes

Mental Disability/ies:

Depression and ADHD

Hobbies:

Digital art, sketching, drawing , geocaching, toy voyaging, pottery , scrapbooking, reading , reading comic books, and baking

Loves:

Digital art, sketching, drawing , geocaching, toy voyaging, pottery , scrapbooking, reading , art, yakitori (fave), melon pan (fave), Japanese parfait(fave), ebi fry (fave), bento box (fave), dango (fave), anything sweet, musicals and plays, loving, writing fanfiction, baking, and baby metal music

Hate:

Physical touch (depends), having their personal space invaded, loud people, rude people, waiting, long lines, small rooms/ areas (gets claustrophobic), long rides, loud chewing, centipedes , bugs, and hot weather

Friends:

Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki , Yuga Aoyama, Denki Kiminari , Tsuyu Asui, and Fumikage

Crush: Tenya IIda (and vise versa, but none of them know)

Quirk moves:

☆Boomerang bang

They throw their mallet, it hits a few enemies, before it returns in their hand

☆ Thumb war

They blow into their thumb which inflates their fist before they clubber an enemy or two

☆Keyboard smash

They make a big piano appear out of thin air to crush an enemy

☆ Rubberband body

They can stretch their limbs and their body at any absurd lengths

Personality:

Jisu Shugamee is a 14 yr old 5’7 tall student that tends at UA class A-01 . Jisu is known for being a drama monarch with a bit of a chaotic and feral personality despite being mute (always not saying a word).

They're also known for being irresponsible, energetic, cocky, witty, and having a sly personality along with the habit of joking around and goofing off and at times a little too much. But other than being a goofball, they're an opportunist and improviser that will take down any antagonists, if given the chance!!

Background:

Ever since childhood Jisu's family has always owned a circus , a circus that was always handed down from generation from generation (Jisu's dad's side of the family) like a family heirloom. Jisu was a lot more happy during childhood, but soon their childhood was ruined once the circus was passed down to their dad

,their dad started emotionally neglecting them and their mom for the circus and Jisu's dad basically became an emotionally and physically abusive helicopter parent towards Jisu and an emotionally and physically abusive husband towards his wife and Jisu had to keep coming home tired and achy every. single. night , and it all started becoming repetitive and boring for both Jisu and Jisu's mom.

Finally it was the last straw for Jisu's mom when the abuse from Jisu's dad got worse . This caused both of Jisu's parents to start having fights and arguments which soon escalated into a divorce , Jisu's mom getting custody of Jisu, than freeing the circus animals.

It may have taken Jisu a while to see their dad's true nature (evil), but seeing their mom do all of that made Jisu see her as a hero

They want to be just like her….

A hero too!!!

Family:

▪︎Izumi Shugamee - Jisu's dad

Status: Divorced (his fault)

▪︎ Carmen Shugamee -Jisu's mom

Status: Marrying someone else (that someone else being Yuri)

▪︎Yuri Shugamee - Jisu's step mom/ Carmen's wife

Status: Married to Carmen Shugamee

Jisu's motivation for becoming a pro hero:

▪︎Inspired by their mom

▪︎Wants something new

Jisu Shugamee headcanons:

☆Currently has two moms , their biological mom ,Carmen and Carmen being married to a woman named Yuri Shugamee

☆Jisu has two sugargliders named Mochi and Nemo, both the sugar gliders are twins that are male

☆ Jisu doesn't talk much (is a mute) and mostly speaks through sign language or random wooden signs that they're able to pull out of thin air

☆ Do to the fact they used to work in their father's circus they're really athletic

☆Their mom , Carmen has a healing quirk, their dad Izumi can control light, and their stepmother (Yuri) can teleport

☆Jisu has insomnia

[swradiogram]

Shortwave Radiogram, 21-25 September 2023 (program 323): Airless digital modes that are on the air

Please note some changes to the schedule for The Mighty KBC. Changes are in bold. All frequencies from WRMI Florida. Friday 1100-1200: Eric van Willegen* 15770 Saturday 0200-0300: Dave Mason 5850 Saturday 0800-0900: Eric van Willegen* 7780 Sunday 0000-0100: Dave Mason 5950 9455 Sunday 0100-0200: Eric van Willegen* 5950 9455 Sunday 0200-0300: Eric van Willegen* 5850 Sunday 1200-1300: Eric van Willegen* 15770 Sunday 2100-2200: Dave Mason 5950 Sunday 2200-2300: Eric van Willegen* 5950 Wednesday 1600-1700: Eric van Willegen* 15770 * A minute of MFSK64, presented by @WD4AH_Al, is at about 30 minutes past the hour on at least some of the Eric van Willigen programs.  Last week's Friday 0530 UTC Shortwave Radiogram broadcast was the previous week's program. After a frenetic Wednesday and Thursday producing the show, sometimes I forget to upload the programs. Acknowledging that my brain will no longer necessarily remind me, this task is now in my computer's calendar, with an audible reminder. The impact of that error was limited by the fact that the Friday 0530 UTC show does not seem to have much of an audience. This could be due to the inconvenient hour in the Americas (e.g., I'm usually asleep). Audio, the transmission on 7780 kHz from WRMI is beamed to the southwest, into Central America, where there is not a large shortwave/amateur radio community, and to New Zealand and Australia. The signal is reaching across the Pacific, at least this time of the year.  So if you are in that part of the world (or can access an SDR there), please tune in and decode. After a nasty few days of very hot temperatures, this week we have been enjoying wonderful weather, with temperatures in the 70s F (~24C) and low humidity. This weekend Tropical Cyclone Sixteen comes to the US east coast, with substantial rains, wind gusts, and maybe even some power disruptions. A good weekend to be inside, tuning the radio, possibly on emergency power.  A video of last weekend's Shortwave Radiogram (program 323) is provided by Scott in Ontario (Friday 1300 UTC). The audio archive is maintained by Mark in the UK. Analysis is provided by Roger in Germany. Here is the lineup for Shortwave Radiogram, program 323, 21-25 September 2023, in MFSK modes as noted:  1:43  MFSK32: Program preview  2:51  MFSK32: Airless bicycle tires near production*  8:35  MFSK64: Louis Armstrong's 1965 visit to the GDR* 15:26  MFSK64: This week's images* 28:26  MFSK32: Closing announcements Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net And visit http://swradiogram.net Twitter: @SWRadiogram or https://twitter.com/swradiogram (visit during the weekend to see listeners’ results) Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/567099476753304 Shortwave Radiogram Gateway Wiki: https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Shortwave_Radiogram_Gateway

Other Shortwave broadcast programs that include digital text and images include The Mighty KBC, Pop Shop Radio and Radio North Europe International (RNEI). Links to these fine broadcasts, with schedules, are posted here.

Bobby in Louisiana received these images, 14 September 2023, 9265 kHz from WINB Pennsylvania ...