#Classify Business Goal

[n0tamused]

HSR characters as dragons

A/N: Hellloo, it is I once more with my dragon rambles. This time we're moving onto HSR a bit more. I do hope you all like how these turned out, and if you'd like any specific character turned into a dragon, please do lemme know in the comments or reblogs. Idk when I'll do the next part, but I do plan to continue this little series.

Content: Dr. Ratio, Luocha and Blade as dragons, x reader, gn reader, fluff, angst(Blade's part)

Dr Ratio:

-A lot don’t consider him a dragon, and they’d have a point since visually Dr. Ratio does lack in the stereotypical dragon aspects, and he himself would classify himself as a “gryphon” much more than a dragon. 

-Nonetheless, he makes the list of many dragon related magazines and novels and research papers

-Dr. Ratio is huge (doctor- you’re huge!)(not sorry) in this dragon form, he certainly does not lack in mass either, hiding quite the muscular form under all the feathers and fluff which he pays a lot of attention to

-One of the life goals he has set is that search for knowledge and more knowledge and to cure the illness called ignorance and stupidity. This life-long dedication has brought him to a lot of places, and a lot of forgotten where he truly hails from.

-Due to his size, he usually cannot fit in many places, and since he frequents cities, schools and so on, he is more often seen in his human form, handling his business accordingly and swiftly. He is calculated, and sometimes considers his beastly form something that represents 2 things. 2-The future version of what he wants to achieve; dragons and gryphons are often classified as hoarders of knowledge, being one of the wisest species that there is, and if he could achieve that peak form, he might have a better time fulfilling his goal. And 2-A representation of a more negative side of himself, driven more by beastly instincts. Quite the contradiction to the first point, which led Ratio to some insecurities about his form. He doesn’t want to risk being impulsive or acting on animalistic impulse, so he doesn’t take on the form that often at all.

-He doesn’t flaunt it either, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive of gorgeous to look at when he does take on the form of the giant bird-dragon

-Due to his build, he is quite well prepared should a fight arise - but as per his morals and protocol, he would much rather take the diplomatic route. Although if the intimidation factor would have any good use, he may arrive at the negotiation site in his dragon form, showing off his size and big claws before reverting to his human form when he lands.

-Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise, but his fur and fluff is so soft and he also smells really nice. (I could fall asleep in his fluff and never wake up)

-He is really cautious in his dragon form, stepping lightly and gingerly around anything that could be damaged or broken easily, specifically you. Speaking of that - for a dragon his size he really does step lightly. His footsteps don’t echo or tremble the ground like you may expect, and also similarly - he flies very silently. You don’t hear him approaching at all.

-He would let you pet him only after a lot of nagging, feeling a bit embarrassed mentally about the situation as he just sits there and then there’s you, a tiny human hopping around him all giddy and with stars in your eyes as you pet him and maybe even try to climb him. He’s grumpy, but he is flattered- especially since it is you bringing forth all this mirth and compliments for this beastly form, and also him as a human too

-He’s also ambidextrous, both in human and dragon form. 

-.... I'm tempted to say that in dragon form he can also use his hind legs as hands too due to this... like bro is skilled okay, knowledge gave him writing buffs lmao

Luocha:

-(pretty dragon pretty dragon-)

-A very kind looking dragon, gentle and smelling of spring and reminiscent of a bountiful harvest with his pale gold scales and flowing golden mane.

-It is unknown where exactly he came from, as he sort of just appeared one day and came to exist within the people’s memories

-Some of the jewelry decorating his mane and body were gifts from some youngsters he came across. He accepted these gifts and polished them before putting them on himself, wearing the gifts with pride, earning the trust of the locals smoothly and swiftly with his humble demeanor

-He is well versed in medicinal herbs and has offered his aid to many individuals, even fellow dragons. While he does frequent his dragon form a lot, as it also makes carrying wares easier, he is still human and both dragon and human need to eat. While he has offered free services to those in dire need, he does charge others, and although his prices are not high, the price is still there.

-Some claim he uses magic to grow his herbs, since everyone that got their wares of herbs from him claim that they instantly felt better, after a sniff or a first sip. 

-His front legs are a bit shorter, making his hips stand a bit higher when he is walking on all fours, but he is also able to walk on his hind legs, and his front legs are very flexible. He can harvest and plant his own herbs just fine in his dragon form. His heavy tail gives him a great balance and if need be he can run very fast. He is quite agile, whether it be on 2 or 4 feet and, despite the gentle nature, can fight.

-You can often catch him laying down in some sun-kissed spot near the city, surrounded by kids after his business hours, all kids admiring his form; playing with his mane or claws or scarves on his body, one kid is braiding little braids on one side, and there’s a kid that somehow  climbed their way up onto his forehead, holding onto his bangs for dear life. Luocha lays his head down, huffing as the kids exhaust themselves jumping and playing. Although if the sun is setting he doesn’t hold back on telling them to go home or telling them some ghost tale to scare them back into their parent’s arms. 

-He does love picking you up too if he is feeling cheeky, setting you on his back or his head as he walks back to your shared residence in that place.

A:n: Luocha is one of my favorite designs that I’ve done so far, look at him auhfoisfahofsg

Blade:

-Once a young, moon-kissed and pale dragon was now a shell of his former self, with only small patches of pale fluff standing out as a faint reminder of what he once was.

-His illness made spiky protrusions grow from his underbelly and it ruined his maw as well. However formidable it all made him, dark and scary, he was in constant pain.

-He is rarely ever seen, and ever since the ‘incident’ he has become a ghost tale to scare the kids with, a warning to any other long-life species as to what may happen if they follow down his route and what can happen if they're struck with the same illness as him

-Blade avoids any reflective surfaces in which he may look at himself, as that can sometimes make his mara flare up. He often spends his time in solitude, be it doing missions or spending his time in forgetfulness. Forgetting has become a hobby now, staring at the dark walls of some cave he found as he slowly realizes his memories are shrinking. It's as if all his puzzle pieces are being taken away from him, thrown away or hidden from his clutches.

-Blade frequently takes the form of the dragon, the pain seems more manageable when he is huge and terrifying. A lot of people that catch a glimpse of him also stay far far away, and unless they're the object of his mission - he won't go after them either. The sight of him alone is terrifying. 

-Big curled horns that are dark gray like the dark side of the moon, and if you look close enough there's small shimmers in the shadow clad corners of his scales and horns. Up close he is…pretty in his own right, his subconscious struggling to keep the remaining pieces of his past intact through physical attributes.

-His long flowing mane is soft and well kept, even if Blade doesn't particularly pay much attention to it, or the other fluff spots on his body. 

-He doesn't know where the jewelry in his hair came from, but there's something about it that forbids him from removing it. 

-The red sash around him was put there by Kafka and you, and if often maintained by you two. And there's something intimate about tying the bow at his back or putting the big golden clips into his fur. It's the trust he puts into you, and while it may seem like such a mundane action like helping someone button up their shirt, it means a lot more when Blade is in question, someone who doesn't let anyone else touch him or go near him.

-I think it is safe to say that this bad boy can fight. And fight he does. His mara has hardened his teeth further, and if any fall out during a scuffle, another one will take its place soon after. Although he is a bit long, he is quite strong. The only disadvantage he has is the fact that he is flightless. His species might as well fall into some branch of a drake. He can breathe fire though, and that ability has served him before in making weapons - these days though he doesn't use it much. He has teeth and claws, and that's enough. 

-During more easy days, he does like having you around, when his mara is silent and not dragging him under, your presence is comforting. He'll just lay down near you and soak in your presence. He will scoff or huff if you decide to shuffle closer, but he will most likely give in in times like these. Touch him, run your fingers through his fur, the fluff and the mane, he'll close his eyes and sigh. 

Size chart:

-Listen, I had a hard time trying to figure out sizes for them since they'd almost the same, but in the end I settled with this.

-Dr Ratio > Luocha > Blade

-Blade is huge but he is more long lol, and if it came to a hypothetical fight with either of the other two, Blade is winning no argument there, unless they yank him into the skies and slam him down idk

-There is a little difference in size between them tbh

Ⓒ n0tamused. Do not repost, translate, edit, and/or copy any of my works. Likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated.

[celandeline]

in your head, on your mind // Jordan Li x Reader, Part 1

i know i haven't posted in like a year, and this is a huge shift from my usual writing, but i cannot express how jordan li has captured my heart and soul. this is definitely going to be a good number of parts, and will also definitely have some smut in there.

word count: 1912

previous part // next part

The Lamplighter School of Crimefighting is your home away from home on the GodU campus. Being Professor Caldwin’s TA is almost a full-time job, and in addition to classes and training and homework, most days you are in Caldwin’s office more than your own dorm room. Not that you mind, really. It’s the sort of job that will really set you up later in life - Caldwin knows everyone - and anything is better than listening to your roommate try and go viral on TikTok for the 30,000th time. And Caldwin’s a nice guy, in his own way.

“L/N.” The gruff call from his actual office resounds over the little foyer your desk sits in. 

Scooting back from your seat, you get up and walk the few steps between your desk and the doorway, hovering at the frame. “Professor?”

Caldwin sits at his own desk - a big, antique wooden thing that’s probably older than anything else in this building - hunched over in front of a desktop computer that’s far too sleek looking for the desk it sits on. Frustration radiates out from him like rays of the sun. Stupid fucking computer… swear they make these things difficult for people my age on purpose… snippets of his thoughts play in your mind without prompting - your superpower passively picking up his most prominent feelings. Of course, if you wanted, you could really focus and read his mind fully (even talk to him telepathically), but that was a boundary you’d promised yourself you wouldn’t cross. He is your professor - and boss - after all. 

Peering over the top of his glasses, Caldwin blinks at you, gathering a stack of papers to his left. “Bring these over to Brink, will you? If he’s busy you can just leave them with his TA, it’s nothing classified.”

You step into his Caldwin’s office fully, and take the stack of papers from him. It’s a hefty thing, so you tuck it under your arm. “Will do.”

“And while you’re out and about, get me another cup of coffee from the staff room. Two sugars-”

“Two sugars, two pumps of hazelnut, one splash of cream.” You say, already heading out the door. You’ve had his coffee order down since he hired you at the beginning of your sophomore year. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Thank you.” Gonna take a hammer to this stupid fucking-

His thoughts cut off abruptly as you walk out of range, heading into the halls of the Crimefighting building. Students fill the space, coming and going from classes, sitting in the chairs near the floor to ceiling windows busy on their laptops, loitering around as they chat with their friends. You purposefully focus on your own goal - Brink’s office, and then the staff break room to make Caldwin another coffee - to force the cacophony of thoughts down. The audible chatter, in addition to the telepathic noise, would have been enough to make you scream a few years ago, but classes at GodU have lived up to your expectations - they’re hard, but worth it, to get your power under control.

Brink’s office is across the building from Caldwin’s, a more luxurious room with lots of natural light and a good view of the campus green. You’d only really ever been in there on Caldwin’s instructions - Brink had only been your professor once, your freshman year, and you’d been too scared of his reputation to actually go to his office hours. Still, it was easy to find, and when you tried the door, it was open. 

The foyer of Brink’s office is much larger than the space in Caldwin’s and you find yourself a little jealous - it would be nice to sit at a desk here. You look first to the doors leading into his actual office, and find them closed. You turn to the figure sitting at the desk, and ask, “Is Brink busy right now? I have papers from Caldwin for him.”

The girl at the desk - pretty, with stark black hair that just reached her jaw and big brown doe eyes - just stares at you for a moment before responding. “Yeah, he’s on a call, actually.” Her voice is smooth, a little deep, and not what you expected at all. 

“Oh, alright, I can just-” You start, only to be interrupted by a wave of lust.

Goddamn. Smash. The things I wouldn’t do to get between those legs… wow. Those legs. How have I not run into YOU before? I mean really, surely I would have noticed the hottest person alive on campus - especially here, in my goddamn department. Fuck. 

Whatever you were expecting, it wasn’t that. You balk. “Um. Sorry. Yeah, it’s not anything classified so Caldwin said I could just leave it with you,” You untuck the stack from under your arm and pass it towards Brink’s TA. Her fingers brush over yours as she takes it, and for a split second, you can feel just how much you were affecting her - the wave of horniness hit you like a bus. The feeling lingers as you take your hand away, and you’re unable to tell if it’s leftover from her or your own reaction. Maybe a bit of both. 

She sets the papers down on her desk beside her without looking, too busy smiling at you. “I’m Jordan, by the way.” She says. “I take it your Caldwin’s TA?”

“Yeah.” You say. “Y/N.”

Y/N. That’s a nice name. Very screamable. 

You fight the urge to do anything but smile. Just looking at her, you would have never guessed such wanton thoughts would come from such a tiny girl, but never judge a book by its cover, right?

“Nice to meet you Jordan.” You continue, careful to keep your voice steady, even. Casual. Not like you can hear every piece of want cross her mind. 

I bet you’d sound good screaming my name. I need to stop - I don’t even know you. I need to get laid, my god. Down tremendous and I JUST learned your name. 

The image of you and Jordan together - tangled up in unfamiliar bedsheets, Jordan’s mouth latched onto your neck as you moaned in pleasure - crosses Jordan’s mind, and yours by extent. For, as she said, having just met you, it was a surprisingly good imaginary version of yourself. Though, she is looking right at you. It would be hard to get any details wrong when you were standing right there. 

Would you let me? Maybe if I was in the other form-

Before you had time to wonder what that meant, she’s changing before your eyes, rearranging skin and bone until an entirely different person is sitting at the desk. A man - taller, broader, but just as pretty and with the same big brown eyes. Your surprise must have shown on your face, because Jordan laughs, a smile stretching across their face. 

“Sorry.” They say, leaning forward to rest their elbows against the desk. “It’s just that I have two faces, so I didn’t want you to get confused if some random dude was waving at you cause I forgot you only met me as a girl.”

“That’s a pretty cool power.” You say, and then, with your mind, “And a pretty good reason to show it off. I mean, for something you came up with on the fly anyway.”

You watch their eyes widen as they realize that you’re in their head, and then their cheeks flush red as they remember what they were thinking about not moments before. “So you’ve just been hearing-?”

“Yeah.” You say..

“I am so sorry-” They start, shifting back into their female form. 

“No, it’s okay.” You say, a laugh on the edge of your lips. “I promise it’s fine, I mean, you didn’t know I was listening in and it’s your thoughts you can’t like, help it. And it’s not the first time-”

I bet, looking like that. Fuck. Pretend I didn’t think that. I’m sorry. Jordan buries their head in their hands with a groan. “Sorry.”

You let out a full laugh at that. “It’s okay, I promise. Please don’t beat yourself up about it, it’s fine. It’s flattering, if anything. I mean, you’re pretty good looking yourself. Not that you’re only hot, I mean - I’m sure you’re nice too.” You pause. “That came out a little wrong.”

Jordan smiles. “It’s okay. I mean, you basically get a free pass to do whatever you want to be since I’ve been…” They trail off. In their mind, …objectifying you. I’d let you do whatever you wanted to me anyway, but… fuck. Sorry.

You smile again. “It’s okay. Promise.” You lean forward across the desk a little, getting closer without getting too close - you have just met after all. The smell of smokey cologne fills your nose, and causes more butterflies to swirl in your stomach. They really are hot. “You wanna know a secret?”

Jordan leans in too. “Sure.”

“Most guys, when they figure out that I can hear them lusting after me, aren't even apologetic.” You say. “So it’s sweet that you are. Charming, even.” It’s true - which is why you don’t usually bother playing into people’s lustful thoughts, but Jordan… 

Okay. Okay, it’s not a big deal, it’s fine. “Would you want to hang out?” Jordan says, a little rushed, like they’d been waiting for an opportunity. “Sometime? We could train, or something…” Please say yes. You don’t have to say yes. I really want you to though.

You think about it for a moment. You don't usually say yes to these kinds of questions, especially after hearing the person's ulterior motives, but… Jordan seems nice, nice enough to genuinely feel bad about their thoughts once they realized you could hear them. And they are hot, objectively, in both forms. 

“Yeah, I’d be down to hang out.” You say, reaching into the pocket of your jeans to pull out your phone. “Can I-?”

“Yes. Yeah.” Jordan pulls their own phone out clumsily, handing it to you. 

You put your number in with a smile, and take the liberty to add a little emoji heart at the end of your name before you hand it back to them. “Should I text you, or are you going to text me?”

I don’t think I could stop myself if I tried. “I’ll text you.” Jordan says, glancing down at their phone. “A heart?”

“You don’t think so?”

No, no. No it’s great, I'm never going to change it. “A little fast, no?” They say. 

You smile, and inject your voice into their head. Liar. I’ll see you later Jordan. 

Before they can say anything else, you turn and leave, throwing one last glance at them over your shoulder. They don’t even try to pretend that they aren’t staring. 

Butterflies swarm your stomach as you make your way back through the halls. You can’t remember the last time being in someone’s head made you like them more rather than less, but Jordan… sweet, apologetic Jordan. It’s exciting, in a way, knowing what they were thinking about you, and knowing that despite the fact that you know, they still want to hang out. You check your phone, even though it’s not even been a minute since you left. Sure enough, a text-

what are you doing tmrw from like 2-4

You type out your reply: hanging out w u probably

You almost forget to get Caldwin’s coffee on the way back. 

[pintadorartist]

THE TRUMP-MUSK FUNDING GRAB: THE QUIET COUP

Since taking office, President Trump and Elon Musk have worked together to defund the federal government from the inside while consolidating power into the hands of a right-wing elite. Their goal is clear: gut federal agencies, strip public resources, and redirect power and money into their own hands.

Agencies Are Starved of Ability to Help People: Key federal agencies—including the Departments of Health, Education, and Transportation—have been forced into bare-bones operations, unable to implement vital programs we depend on.

FEMA and Disaster Relief Blocked: Funding for emergency relief programs is being deliberately slowed or denied, leaving communities vulnerable.

Social Security and Medicare Under Threat: Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has gained full access to the U.S. Treasury's federal payment system, which processes Social Security, Medicare, and tax refunds. His team now has access to millions of Americans’ financial data and can manipulate payments.

DOGE is a Smokescreen for Dismantling the Federal Government: Under the guise of “efficiency,” Musk has proposed cutting $1 trillion in government spending, targeting social programs, education, healthcare, and regulatory agencies that protect consumers and workers.

At the same time, Trump and Senate Republicans are fast-tracking Russell Vought as OMB Director to oversee this attack on federal funding.

VOUGHT IS THE ARCHITECT OF PROJECT 2025

Vought wrote a chapter of Project 2025, which starts by outlining the role that OMB should play in implementing the massively unpopular playbook. If confirmed, Russell Vought will control federal spending. That means he will claim to have the power to:

Freeze funding for critical programs like Medicaid, public schools, environmental protections, and infrastructure.

Redirect federal dollars to right-wing priorities, including tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate handouts.

Defund regulatory agencies that keep corporations in check and protect workers and consumers.

THE PROCESS: HOW THE SENATE WILL PROCEED WITH THE VOUGHT CONFIRMATION VOTE

Monday: Motion to Proceed (MTP) passes, allowing debate on the nomination.

Immediately After: Republican Sen. John Thune can file cloture, starting the two legislative day clock before a cloture vote.

Wednesday: Cloture vote happens, kicking off 30 hours of debate.

Wednesday - Thursday: Senate Democrats must use the full 30 hours to expose this crisis and block the nomination at every turn.

Thursday: Final vote on Vought’s confirmation. If he is confirmed, the Trump-Musk takeover accelerates.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1.THIS LINK BY INDIVISIBLE LEADS TO A PAGE WITH RESOURCES INCLUDING POSTERS TO USE WHEN PROTESTING AND WHAT TO DEMAND FROM YOUR SENATORS

2. THIS LINK LEADS TO A CALL TOOL THAT PROVIDES A SCRIPT FOR YOU TO USE WHEN CALLING YOUR SENATOR. TELL THEM THAT WE ARE IN A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS

3.Fax: use this link and send a fax to your senator

4. Read through the list of Senate leaders and call a number

5. Contact Your State Attorney General by phone and email:

Minimal script for ALL state attorneys general: We are all learning that Elon Musk, a man who can’t even get the security access he needs to enter parts of SpaceX, and a band of unaccountable teenagers and business cronies, walked into the GSA, TTS, the U.S. Treasury and the USAID offices and took whatever private information they wanted, firing any civil servant who tried to stop them. [Your Stateians] records have most likely been invaded in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, and as he’s now embedded himself in the Treasury department computer system, payments for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other federal programs are at risk if the Trump administration decides to punish our state, [as he’s currently doing by holding fire victim funding hostage in exchange for extremist voter ID requirements.] Even the short pause from Trump’s executive order to freeze federal disbursements caused panic. We want you to sue the federal government to stop this corrupt and possibly treasonous attack on the privacy rights of our states’ citizens.

6. Contact the Secretary of the Treasury Department! – 202-622-2000

Minimal script for Secretary Scott Bessent: I’m calling to demand that you remove Musk’s access from all systems under your control, that all his equipment is confiscated, that his team is interrogated as to all actions they took under his direction, and that a computer forensics team is assigned immediately to check the system for integrity of its security systems.

More info on: https://indivisibleventura.org/2025/02/01/the-guy-nobody-trusts-with-a-full-security-clearance-now-has-access-to-all-your-private-data/

[pigeonwitchery]

"Accompanying their partner Sondwyn, Morterelle and Lorelai Agranar posed a fascinating question to gala goers by dressing as Anui-El and Sithis- two beings that, though they are gods of a sense, one may struggle to classify as daedra or divine. However, none can deny that the two 'embodied the ineffable' with Morerelle taking inspiration from the ray shapes seen in elven artwork and donning an iridescent cloak that played with the light of the ballroom, while Lorelai incorporated traditional Saxleel depictions of Sithis as a snake for her gown, paying homage to the country of her birth and childhood in doing so.

Morterelle reported that his choice to depict Anui-el was primarily to have costume that matched and complimented his wife- truly, as they say; couple goals.

As for Lorelai, the assassin choosing Sithis is perhaps not shocking, given her associations with the dark brotherhood- the Bosmer is sometimes referred to as 'Sithis's Razor' in the tales and rumors surrounding her work and exploits. Gala goers can rest assured though, when asked about her intentions for the night, Lorelai assured this humble reporter that she has joined us for pleasure, not business."

Next up is @moons-ganef 's Morterelle and my Lorelai, two ESO characters, and poly partners of my earlier presented character Sondwyn. :)

[Image ID: A bosmer couple are on a staircase, with a glowing portal in the background. The man on the left has his hand extended behind him, helping his partner down the stairs. He is dressed in a white iridescent cape whose hood connects to his antlers. Atop his head is a golden star or sun shape, which matches a golden breastplate, cuffs and boots, which seem decorated with rays and geometric star motifs. He has black eyes and is looking fondly back at the woman on the right. She is dressed in a full-length figure hugging black gown that flares into a train at the end. Wrapped along the gown are lines of black snakeskin, that end at her hands. The cuffs of the gown resemble the mouth of a serpent. She is wearing a dark veil covering from her eyes down, which is hanging off of her antlers, similarly to the man's hood. Her eyes, like her partner's, are pitch black. End ID]

[thydungeongal]

"if copyright abolition were seriously something that would benefit the rich you could bet there would be an international campaign promoted by the richest people alive trying to get governments to overturn copyright law." This is literally what Sam Altman and every other Silicon Valley company in the AI business has been lobbying to have happen for years. The bourgeoisie may have some common class goals, but even then they are still in conflcit with each other in terms of material interests. A business that benefits from stronger IP protections will lobby for them, but one that would materially benefit from weakened IP laws will lobby for that instead. This doesn't mean that either position is Inherently Bourgeois, it simply means that some members of the bourgeoisie have material interests that conflict with the ones that others in their class have.

I agree that it was too much of a sweeping statement and that it is in fact possible for the bourgeoisie to have conflicting goals within their class. I am however a bit skeptical of any claims that Sam Altman is a copyright abolitionist: it has in the past been widely publicized that he said during a court hearing that ChatGPT couldn't exist unless it has access to copyrighted works, and has lobbied the US government to classify the use of copyrighted materials for training AI models as fair use. All within the currently existing framework of copyright law.

And that's actually something that has yet to be established in law to my understanding: whether the use of copyrighted materials in AI training could be seen as fair use.

But yeah, it does go to show that there are conflicts within the bourgeoisie as to how copyright law should be applied, with copyright holders often wishing for stricter interpretations of the law while those working in technology currently striving for looser interpretations of the law. I do admit that my original statement was far too sweeping, but even with the caveat that there exist conflicts within the bourgeoisie as to the exact interpretation of copyright law, copyright law as it exists currently does favor large corporations to a disproportionate extent (often at the expense of creators).

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I’ve been thinking about ways Killer might’ve been instrumental in furthering Nightmare’s goals of widespread negativity, and I think he probably encouraged Nightmare to engage a lot more with mortals in Universes that aren’t aware of the Multiverse as a whole.

Universes that don’t know either Killer’s or Nightmare’s reputations or faces, but also don’t know anything about the Star Sanses, or Dream or Ink.

Reminding Nightmare that human mortals have their uses, and their souls are often stronger than most of monsterkind, reminding the Boss that cases like himself, Dream, Ink, Error, and even Killer are basically outliers. Not typically considered the norm.

I think Killer probably came up with the idea of creating cells inside those universes, secretly training and manipulating both human and monster agents to serve Nightmare’s goals, regardless if any of them are fully aware of that or not. Targeting any dumb or desperate fool, especially those who have any political power or authority over a certain place like a country or an army.

Encouraging wars, gang wars, revolts, territory spats, and acts of mass terror in these universes that could give Nightmare all the negativity he needs without anyone being all the wiser.

With everyone being too busy pointing guns and fingers at eachother to notice that they’re being used for something bigger. And Killer will keep the guns of war going by discretely turning everyone against their own groups, spreading rumors and propaganda.

Assuming Killer targets people who aren’t exactly important to that universe’s script, he may even be able to evade Ink’s attention for some time.

So while the Star Sanses might think that Nightmare only has himself, Killer, and possibly also Horror, Dust, and Cross/XChara doing his bidding.

He actually secretly has both deals & agreements with certain Multiverse-Aware universes—supply Nightmare and his Gang with resources & they’ll leave you alone—but thanks to Killer’s idea, he also has billions of regular Joes working for him and they aren’t even aware of it.

And, of course, Killer would be the one out recruiting people. And I think that the information about the operative cells would likely stay classified strictly between Nightmare and Killer, even if Horror and Dust are very likely suspicious.

But if any of them try to confront Killer about it he of course plays the fool, acting loud and annoying so all they’ll want by the end of the questioning is for him to just shut up and go away and they’ll completely forget what they were even asking in the first place.

(Not Dust though. Cuz while I get the vibes that Horror and Cross just wouldn’t want to deal with Killer, I think the similarities Dust sees between Killer and the anomaly only prompts Dust to pay closer attention to Killer’s actions and less his words.)

I think Nightmare’s Gang can be pretty cool if the rest of the Multiverse sees them as mostly a group of ragtag criminals causing mayhem and negativity wherever they go, but it’s just a front for a more numbered, highly structured and functioning organization with bigger, long term plans.

You could walk past a member of Nightmare’s organization and you wouldn’t even know it. The member themself may not even be fully aware of what they involved themself in.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Donald Trump has just taken Richard Nixon’s playbook of weaponizing government “to screw our political enemies” to a new, deeply alarming place. He is now targeting law firms that represent his political enemies. We have never seen this before—which is why well-known national security lawyer Mark Zaid called this, “the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard.” Yet it’s still barely getting the coverage demanded. This all began two weeks ago when Trump did the unheard of by using the power of the federal government to retaliate against the well-known Washington. D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling that “employs high-profile Democratic lawyers who worked in the Obama and Biden administrations.” Trump announced that he would strip security clearances from lawyers in that firm—which would mean that these lawyers could not work on legal cases involving national security, review classified documents that are part of a case or even have access to certain government buildings.

As legal experts note, lawyers who work in this area and have their clearance pulled will see a “substantial impact on their business.” That is Trump’s very goal. What did the lawyers at Covington & Burling do to merit this punishment? Did they take classified documents home and store in their bathroom like Trump? Were they charged with over 30 counts of violating the Espionage Act like Trump was? Nope, the law firm simply provided free legal advice to former Special Counsel Jack Smith because he was concerned that Trump might criminally prosecute him. That led Trump to issue an order on Feb. 25 revoking security clearance of any lawyer “who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith” by providing these legal services.

As the NY Times rightly reported at the time, this was “a breathtaking escalation of Mr. Trump’s effort to employ the vast powers of the presidency” against not just his announced “political enemies” like Smith but also extending that to law firms who represent those “enemies.” However, given Trump did not face much of a backlash for this action, on Thursday he went alarmingly much further in weaponizing government to punish Democratic linked law firms who represent people Trump hates. Trump signed an order sanctioning the well-known law firm of Perkins Coie—which “regularly represents Democratic and liberal groups.”

This time Trump not only stripped security clearances for lawyers at the firm—which will impact their ability to represent certain clients—but also orders government agencies to cancel any government contracts with the firm and even ban lawyers from entering federal government buildings. More disturbingly, Trump ordered his Attorney General and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate the law firm for embracing diversity programs that resulted in hiring as Trump put it “individuals of preferred races.” This investigation will likely cost the firm a great deal of money to hire outside counsel and perhaps lead to fines.

What did the law firm Perkins Coie do to merit this punishment? Simple, during the 2016 campaign they represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee as well as contracted with the research firm that drafted what came known as the “Steele dossier.” That dossier detailed Trump’s interactions with Vladimir Putin’s government and other Russian actors. (The two main lawyers who were involved with the dossier, Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, have long since left the firm.) Trump’s executive order sought to justify this clearly political action by falsely accusing the law firm of “undermining democratic elections, the integrity of our courts and honest law enforcement.” In reality, the law firm’s “crime” was that they represented Trump’s “political enemies.” In addition, the Perkins law firm is also suing the Trump administration in two cases--one focused on immigration and another representing transgender service members who are challenging the Trump administration’s ban on joining the military. While not mentioned in the order by Trump, this is obviously another reason Trump is gleefully targeting these firm. saying Thursday about the order, “This is an absolute honor to sign.” Trump is sending a message that if a lawyer or law firm represents anyone Trump views as an enemy, he will use the vast powers of the federal government to punish you. The goal being, of course, to deter other firms from representing anyone who dares defy Trump. As the NY Times noted this sweeping new order “could cast a chilling effect over the entire legal profession.”

Tyrant 47’s authoritarian attacks against Democratic-affiliated law firms Perkins Coie and Covington and Burling are a gross escalation of the war on rule of law.

See Also:

Law Dork: Trump lashes out, acting as an authoritarian in attacks on perceived opponents

[notmorbid]

the vanishers.

dialogue prompts from the vanishers by heidi julavitz.

what happened to me could never happen to you. tell yourself that.

they told me it was all in my head.

you were a mother to me when no one else wanted the job.

why be fair? nobody's been fair to me.

you are all subtlety and whispers.

we were all in some form of love with ____.

in other words, i made shit up.

you really do look kind of dead.

i heard you'd been sick for a long time.

there's nothing you could tell me about yourself that i don't already know.

i recognize you now.

it might be good for you. a disruption to the given system.

according to ___, i'm pathologically territorial.

anything can appear meaningful, at a backward glance.

we are not that sort of people.

most meaningful sentiments are cheapened by articulation.

how would i know, if you never told me?

i am, though. sorry.

i don't hide things from you on purpose.

i practice a no attachment policy. i am all business.

it's no big deal to be used by strangers. it's when you're used by people you know that life becomes unfathomable.

don't worry. your life is about to get better.

when you're ready to fight, give me a call.

what was your authorial intent?

i don't know if i'd call it a career. more of an inspired hobby.

we could be of mutual use to one another.

anything you divulge can be used against you.

i don't go where i'm not invited.

everyone has vulnerabilities. everyone has a weak spot.

when will you stare your sad life in the face?

revenge is not a compelling therapeutic goal.

hate is a form of emotional attachment.

maybe that's your problem. thinking it can be understood.

to forget is to respect the past.

you must have missed yourself.

your good intentions mean nothing.

the past is not past if it is always present.

memory is an act of murder.

i'm an expert at ruining people's lives. it's the one talent i possess.

you might learn things you wish you hadn't.

in some cases, a lie can be more valuable than the truth.

people can be remarkably thoughtless.

tell me why you don't love me.

you are such a parasite.

anything i have of my mother's, i've had to steal.

i know better than to ask anything of you.

what does someone have to do for you to classify them as a monster?

your emotions are like water. they pour onto the people around you.

i tried to say i was sorry.

you're doomed to fail because you're too scared to try.

disappearing isn't very hard when no one is looking for you.

there's no need to be sorry. that's why i don't tell people.

to think i've been afraid of this. to think i've been afraid of you.

come. i'm not going to hurt you.

do you believe i saw a ____?

you really do look like shit.

were you trying not to be found?

i should lie to you, but i don't know you well enough.

to heal is to entomb forever the sickness.

i'm going home, wherever that is.

what good has running away ever done?

there is no knowing the truth from ____.

some people have no taste.

you deserve to have every ounce of marrow sucked from your bones by a hummingbird.

i am not too scared to try.

i want, more than anything, not to be alone.

i'm glad you understand. maybe you can make me understand.

you think i need a massage therapist? what i need is a gun.

it's important to remember that those commit murder are not making smart choices.

i am my mother's daughter. you should be worried.

we don't want people to talk more than they're already going to.

winter in new england is always coming.

sometimes you can resolve the unresolvable by accepting it as unresolvable.

so you're not looking to get better?

reasons are for the survivors. they do the dead no good.

'good health' means being unaware of one's health.

i'm sorry. i can't ever seem to tell you what you want to hear.

don't worry about what i want to hear. tell me what you want me to know.

what you want a person to know is often the last thing you want a person to know.

there's so much i can't tell you. no matter how much i want to.

people overestimate the value of expression.

blame is the cord you can never sever.

[lapileaf]

CB typology

I haven’t ever done this type of thing before so I’m not sure how accurate this really is but it was fun to do. To simplify what I’ll be doing, typology is a way of classifying things into groups to gain a better understanding. I will select a character at a time and analyze them to the best of my ability.

I will be going over MBTI, and enneagrams. I’m no expert when it comes to these so just remember I’m not sure how accurate everything will be. I want to do alignment at some point but I think it may be hard to assign. I’ll focus on one character at a time.

Chase:

ESFP: The Entertainer.

ESFPs are part of the “explorer” group within MBTI. They are often described as spontaneous, lively, and adventurous. ESFPs are always looking for new things to try and they like to entertain others.

Out of all the personality types ESFP-A suits Chase the best. Chase is constantly looking for ways to change the stories and goes into things without a plan. He finds the unknown exciting. Throughout CB he pursues to develop a relationship with Buddy despite knowing nothing about him. Chase even accepted the keys before fully understanding the magic behind them and didn’t hesitate to help Silver find her family. He is constantly looking for different ways to solve problems and is very generous.

Chase, like ESFPs, is energized by people. We don’t get to see Chase interact with many people aside from Deacon and Buddy, but we do know he has plenty of friends and loves to socialize . ESFPs typically are good at reading their environment. Chase has shown throughout CB that he has high emotional intelligence which goes in hand with being able to read people and the environment around him. ESFPs extroverted sensing usually helps them pick up on social cues to give them a better understanding of those around them.

I could go deeper into this at another time and focus on strengths and weaknesses and how they align with Chase's personality type.

When it comes to enneagrams there are many that fit Chase but to really find one that fit him I read into which enneagrams were common within ENFPs and studies the strengths and weaknesses alongside goals to find which one better describes Chase. But to really find which enneagram best suits him we would have to dive deeper into his character. (Just remember I have no idea what I’m doing lol, if you find an enneagram that better suits him please let me know.)

2w3: “The Host”

This type desires to be loved and accepted. They express this by building attachments and seeking different types of relationships. They fear being worthless and often work hard to meet others' needs to mask their own insecurities.

Within CB Chase's main goal is to help his Mother. He daydreams about being a pop star and gaining enough money to help her financially but when he meets Silver and learns about narratonin his approach in helping his mother changes. We as the reader are familiar with Chase's goal to help others but we rarely see him work through his own problems since he is too busy trying to help others. (Ex: His mom and Buddy). Chase didn’t hesitate to offer Buddy a place to stay when he found out they were potentially starving him and is always looking for a way to assist and help others. (Including book characters.) It's quite ironic that Chase does not possess the helper key role as helping is in his nature.

Shout out to prior character analyses that I read (which inspired me to dive deeper into the characters). I don’t remember who made them otherwise I would tag them. If anyone is interested in temperaments you can find an analysis in the fan discord by IzNome. I will eventually be making one of these for both Buddy and Deacon but I’m not sure when I will get to it.

[carionto]

Humans and Boredom III

Interceptors and fighter craft.

Almost nothing in the Galaxy can go toe to toe with a Human built Dreadnought. Practically nobody had built anything even close to that size before Humanity emerged and shocked everyone with such an arsenal, and now a few are looking to catch up. Most had figured that at least the smaller Human ships would be somewhat equivalent to their own existing ones. They were wrong.

While the neural interface drone swarms were actually comparable to our own in both design philosophy and usage for civil and military needs, what they call "Fighters" were terrifying.

Armed with countless weapons facing forward and incinerating thrusters out back, there's nothing one of these small dual or single pilot vehicles wouldn't try to pick a fight with. And probably win. Save for a direct hit to a core section, the typical Human redundancies and manual overrides for literally every system make taking one of these nimble horrors out a challenge. A full squadron? Pray.

So, despite their already ludicrous advantages, the Humans never stop upgrading and innovating. There is no such thing as a ceiling for any aspect of their weapons. In with the new, out with the old, as they say. When we asked what happens to the things that become outdated or obsolete, they said that if it can't be retrofitted anymore, it gets sent to a recycling station. They naturally have a specific one for military hardware to maintain secrecy.

___________________

At said station two operators were having a slower week and Patricia decided to try something different with all these old drone piloting kits and scrapped fighters and transports.

After convincing Matthias, they mounted gravity hooks on a bunch of vehicles and set the drones on a bunch of junked boosters, and programmed them to move in a partially randomized pattern towards the main atomizer bay. While they would gently float around to their demise, after a coin toss, Patricia would try to block a different set of much faster, thruster-enabled scraps, controlled by Matthias and which had deconstruction lasers instead.

The goal for Matthias was to turn as much mass of the slow moving horde into slag before they reach the end. Patricia would use whatever other junk is around to strategically shield the horde from taking direct hits to get as much of it into the bay. You get disqualified if you target the gravity hooks/lasers. Whoever "recycles" the most spaceship mass wins and gets first dibs on any one thing they want from the next shipment. Well, anything that isn't explicitly marked "Classified" in the manual.

Matthias dominated the first match and they both agreed to significantly reduced the laser potency and control only two at once. The second match was far more fair and Patricia, still in control of the horde, managed to eke out a win. They thought about doing a best of three, but realized they had in their excitement completed the entire week's worth of scrapping in an afternoon.

So they decided to play some board games with the few leftover scraps, both to just pass the time, and to appear busy to any supervisor who might make a surprise visit.

[changbinsboobs]

Hello! I really love your readings. Thank you for doing so many even when you seem to be really busy. I was wondering if you could do a reading on who in skz seems to be the most charitable? I’ve seen readings where Felix and Lee Know are both mentioned a lot, but I was wondering about the others too. Also, I’ve always wondered who would be the kind to help around the house? This will really fuel my delulu lol. Like I said earlier, I know you’re probably really busy and get a lot of requests, so please take your time ❤️ have a nice day

Hello:) thank you so much💗✨ after an almost month long break I'm back. I loved that question and been wanting to do it for a while so here it is

Im actually pleasantly surprised cuz the majority of the group is very charitable actually, we've heard a lot about lee know and felix but theres others to that do a lot for charity.

1. Hyunjin & Felix

- Felix's too charitable for his own good, i think he might have a tendency to help anyone and anything with all he has to the point where he might actually put himself in poverty or even dangerous situations. Seems like theres no boundaries at all, which is a lovely trait but he has to be careful not to be taken advantage off as i see a huge potential for that. (Death+QoW)

- As for Hyunjin he seems like the one that has the most ongoing charities. Like not a one time donation but continuously pouring money in in different causes. I'm also seeing him scrolling insta for example and seeing some of those videos "donate 1 dollar to afford this animals surgery" and his eyes filling with tears and him immediately donating 300. His heart is easily touched and he truly enjoys helping. (9oC)

2. Lee Know

- He is also very charitable but he has a niche i would say. Like he has 2-4 main causes he believes in strongly and wants to support and focuses his donations, care and engagement towards them with a long term mind set and actual purpose behind it. Like he has a goal in his mind and a certain charity supports that so he feeds into it and awaits a change in the future and his goal to be fulfilled. While hyunjin does it out of impulse and because he enjoys helping, Lee Know does it for ~the future~. (10oC +THP)

3. Changbin

- Also very charitable but i feel like he has a much narrower spectrum of what he donates to. But the sums donated are HUGE. And seem more like "one time donations" instead of continuous support in smaller sums like with the last two. Changbin is very generous but is not charity focused with his money like all of the previous guys, instead when there's something or someone that touches his heart and resonates deeply with him, he opens his heart (and his pocket) for it/them and gives A LOT until all is covered or until that person/cause is helped. Its like he helps "people" get back on their feet. And then moves on to his everyday stuff. So yeah some sort of personal & emotional connection is needed for him to express his generousity. (QoC)

4. Chan

- So until here i would classify the guys as the charitable ones and from here on i'd say the following ones are kind of mid-neutral. As for Chan i see him ocasionally donating here and there but i think its done partly because he just has to as a duty for someone who has lots of money. And i think thats also fine at the end of the day help is help when it arrives where it needs. But im not seeing the authentic need and desire to help like i do with the others. He just does it as a duty and of course feels nice when he sees his donation helping people/animals etc. but yeah, he's not so intense about it. (AoP)

5. Seungmin

- He does do charity frequently actually, but i see it not being so much as donating large sums to organizations but actually being part of organizations or getting hands on experience helping people. Of course he donates as well but i don't see him spending sums as large as hyunjin or changbin or even chan. More of his help vomes from his own self. I think this also brings him lots of joy and fulfillment. (PoS)

6. Han

- There's not much to explain here, he finds the idea of charity amazing and wants to help lots of charities, but there are so many he can't really choose/commit to one or a few specific ones. I see some procrastination there and analysis paralysis. I think he wants to donate long term but for now he's just doing one time donations here and there and researching ethical products and websites, artists etc, that he supports. So yeah he wants to, but lets himself get distracted a lot. (7oC)

7. I.N

- This is actually quite surprising for me but i would see he seems like the only one that doesn't engage in charity or at least doesn't enjoy it. I would say he either has some financial worries right now or he has A LOT on his plate and the last thing on his mind right now is charity. That could change tho, as you know energy is constantly fluctuating and changing, so he might just be in a phase of immense stress and overwhelm thus why he ranked last. Cuz judging by his horoscope, his personality, the overall energy I've been getting from him and things he has said himself - he's quite the humanitarian. So take his positioning with a grain of salt. (10oW)

[andmaybegayer]

What are some of the coolest computer chips ever, in your opinion?

Hmm. There are a lot of chips, and a lot of different things you could call a Computer Chip. Here's a few that come to mind as "interesting" or "important", or, if I can figure out what that means, "cool".

If your favourite chip is not on here honestly it probably deserves to be and I either forgot or I classified it more under "general IC's" instead of "computer chips" (e.g. 555, LM, 4000, 7000 series chips, those last three each capable of filling a book on their own). The 6502 is not here because I do not know much about the 6502, I was neither an Apple nor a BBC Micro type of kid. I am also not 70 years old so as much as I love the DEC Alphas, I have never so much as breathed on one.

Disclaimer for writing this mostly out of my head and/or ass at one in the morning, do not use any of this as a source in an argument without checking.

Intel 3101

So I mean, obvious shout, the Intel 3101, a 64-bit chip from 1969, and Intel's first ever product. You may look at that, and go, "wow, 64-bit computing in 1969? That's really early" and I will laugh heartily and say no, that's not 64-bit computing, that is 64 bits of SRAM memory.

This one is cool because it's cute. Look at that. This thing was completely hand-designed by engineers drawing the shapes of transistor gates on sheets of overhead transparency and exposing pieces of crudely spun silicon to light in a """"cleanroom"""" that would cause most modern fab equipment to swoon like a delicate Victorian lady. Semiconductor manufacturing was maturing at this point but a fab still had more in common with a darkroom for film development than with the mega expensive building sized machines we use today.

As that link above notes, these things were really rough and tumble, and designs were being updated on the scale of weeks as Intel learned, well, how to make chips at an industrial scale. They weren't the first company to do this, in the 60's you could run a chip fab out of a sufficiently well sealed garage, but they were busy building the background that would lead to the next sixty years.

Lisp Chips

This is a family of utterly bullshit prototype processors that failed to be born in the whirlwind days of AI research in the 70's and 80's.

Lisps, a very old but exceedingly clever family of functional programming languages, were the language of choice for AI research at the time. Lisp compilers and interpreters had all sorts of tricks for compiling Lisp down to instructions, and also the hardware was frequently being built by the AI researchers themselves with explicit aims to run Lisp better.

The illogical conclusion of this was attempts to implement Lisp right in silicon, no translation layer.

Yeah, that is Sussman himself on this paper.

These never left labs, there have since been dozens of abortive attempts to make Lisp Chips happen because the idea is so extremely attractive to a certain kind of programmer, the most recent big one being a pile of weird designd aimed to run OpenGenera. I bet you there are no less than four members of r/lisp who have bought an Icestick FPGA in the past year with the explicit goal of writing their own Lisp Chip. It will fail, because this is a terrible idea, but damn if it isn't cool.

There were many more chips that bridged this gap, stuff designed by or for Symbolics (like the Ivory series of chips or the 3600) to go into their Lisp machines that exploited the up and coming fields of microcode optimization to improve Lisp performance, but sadly there are no known working true Lisp Chips in the wild.

Zilog Z80

Perhaps the most important chip that ever just kinda hung out. The Z80 was almost, almost the basis of The Future. The Z80 is bizzare. It is a software compatible clone of the Intel 8080, which is to say that it has the same instructions implemented in a completely different way.

This is, a strange choice, but it was the right one somehow because through the 80's and 90's practically every single piece of technology made in Japan contained at least one, maybe two Z80's even if there was no readily apparent reason why it should have one (or two). I will defer to Cathode Ray Dude here: What follows is a joke, but only barely

The Z80 is the basis of the MSX, the IBM PC of Japan, which was produced through a system of hardware and software licensing to third party manufacturers by Microsoft of Japan which was exactly as confusing as it sounds. The result is that the Z80, originally intended for embedded applications, ended up forming the basis of an entire alternate branch of the PC family tree.

It is important to note that the Z80 is boring. It is a normal-ass chip but it just so happens that it ended up being the focal point of like a dozen different industries all looking for a cheap, easy to program chip they could shove into Appliances.

Effectively everything that happened to the Intel 8080 happened to the Z80 and then some. Black market clones, reverse engineered Soviet compatibles, licensed second party manufacturers, hundreds of semi-compatible bastard half-sisters made by anyone with a fab, used in everything from toys to industrial machinery, still persisting to this day as an embedded processor that is probably powering something near you quietly and without much fuss. If you have one of those old TI-86 calculators, that's a Z80. Oh also a horrible hybrid Z80/8080 from Sharp powered the original Game Boy.

I was going to try and find a picture of a Z80 by just searching for it and look at this mess! There's so many of these things.

I mean the C/PM computers. The ZX Spectrum, I almost forgot that one! I can keep making this list go! So many bits of the Tech Explosion of the 80's and 90's are powered by the Z80. I was not joking when I said that you sometimes found more than one Z80 in a single computer because you might use one Z80 to run the computer and another Z80 to run a specialty peripheral like a video toaster or music synthesizer. Everyone imaginable has had their hand on the Z80 ball at some point in time or another. Z80 based devices probably launched several dozen hardware companies that persist to this day and I have no idea which ones because there were so goddamn many.

The Z80 eventually got super efficient due to process shrinks so it turns up in weird laptops and handhelds! Zilog and the Z80 persist to this day like some kind of crocodile beast, you can go to RS components and buy a brand new piece of Z80 silicon clocked at 20MHz. There's probably a couple in a car somewhere near you.

Pentium (P6 microarchitecture)

Yeah I am going to bring up the Hackers chip. The Pentium P6 series is currently remembered for being the chip that Acidburn geeks out over in Hackers (1995) instead of making out with her boyfriend, but it is actually noteworthy IMO for being one of the first mainstream chips to start pulling serious tricks on the system running it.

The P6 microarchitecture comes out swinging with like four or five tricks to get around the numerous problems with x86 and deploys them all at once. It has superscalar pipelining, it has a RISC microcode, it has branch prediction, it has a bunch of zany mathematical optimizations, none of these are new per se but this is the first time you're really seeing them all at once on a chip that was going into PC's.

Without these improvements it's possible Intel would have been beaten out by one of its competitors, maybe Power or SPARC or whatever you call the thing that runs on the Motorola 68k. Hell even MIPS could have beaten the ageing cancerous mistake that was x86. But by discovering the power of lying to the computer, Intel managed to speed up x86 by implementing it in a sensible instruction set in the background, allowing them to do all the same clever pipelining and optimization that was happening with RISC without having to give up their stranglehold on the desktop market. Without the P5 we live in a very, very different world from a computer hardware perspective.

From this falls many of the bizzare microcode execution bugs that plague modern computers, because when you're doing your optimization on the fly in chip with a second, smaller unix hidden inside your processor eventually you're not going to be cryptographically secure.

RISC is very clearly better for, most things. You can find papers stating this as far back as the 70's, when they start doing pipelining for the first time and are like "you know pipelining is a lot easier if you have a few small instructions instead of ten thousand massive ones.

x86 only persists to this day because Intel cemented their lead and they happened to use x86. True RISC cuts out the middleman of hyperoptimizing microcode on the chip, but if you can't do that because you've girlbossed too close to the sun as Intel had in the late 80's you have to do something.

The Future

This gets us to like the year 2000. I have more chips I find interesting or cool, although from here it's mostly microcontrollers in part because from here it gets pretty monotonous because Intel basically wins for a while. I might pick that up later. Also if this post gets any longer it'll be annoying to scroll past. Here is a sample from a post I have in my drafts since May:

I have some notes on the weirdo PowerPC stuff that shows up here it's mostly interesting because of where it goes, not what it is. A lot of it ends up in games consoles. Some of it goes into mainframes. There is some of it in space. Really got around, PowerPC did.

[thephonemenarentreal]

The last of the Conglomerates....and the big CEO himself, Mr. Venture!

He is the founder of the Conglomerate, the guiding voice of its goals, and a rather mysterious figure in that few have met him in person and he rarely deals with others, usually making contact through the other members of the executive board.

One must wonder what kind of power he has to be able to control the unruly members of the Conglomerate....

MORE LORE UNDER THE CUT <3

He is considered a camera techno as his actual head is a projector that puts up hologram images. However some see him as a mix of all three factions. A...conglomerate as it were.

The most common image he wears as a "face" is three interlocking rings with eyes in blue, red, and purple to represent the three factions.

Venture is very charismatic and a picture perfect politician. He makes a point to listen to concerns and engage with individuals for solutions to current problems.

A master diplomat, he has used other executive members to set up meetings with the Alliance to settle differences as they come up and become an issue rather than pursuing any sort of aggressive policy. He makes a point to put that out there that whenever things come up, he pursues peace, not conflict.

Venture does not control the actions of others in the Conglomerate, saying that the goal of the Conglomerate is to let each member do as they please and run their business free of hassle, creating a free market. This has Venture deflecting issues the Alliance has brought up as "deal with them with the one who is in charge of that,"

He is well liked in the Conglomerate, seen as a visionary and always painting a picture of the future after the war that will be marked by the contributions of technos. Their art, their music, their lives, and their history. A new world order that is coming where humanity will either accept or become obsolete.

Venture puts his investments, his time, and his power behind those that show they are capable to rising high in the ranks to be at his side to bring forth a new world.

Known to always have a good story on hand and seems to be rather long-lived compared to the others in the Conglomerate.

The Alliance has never dealt directly with him despite multiple requests. He has stated until the Alliance has formed their own diplomat team and the titans are present for such discussions as representatives of themselves and their factions, he sees no reason to deal with the higher ups.

People often find they can't help but be honest with him about their problems, especially as he offers actual solutions and ways to compromise.

He is sometimes on Rosa's relationship show, solving issues in the gentlest ways possible which has earned him a reputation as someone who will find what is best for everyone.

His favorite book is the Great Gatsby and seems to emulate some of his personality quirks after Jay Gatsby.

Only Master Jeeves is permitted in and out of Venture's room. He does all his meeting in a nearby private room rather than invite others in, unlike other members of the Conglomerate who usually entertain guests in the parlor of their homes.

The digital files on the ship have never been touched. Mostly due to would be hackers and diggers getting hit with a warning message of "I'm not a fan of dirty little hands in my business," before being hit by a very aggressive, very dangerous virus.

The Venture Virus is what is has been named and has been linked directly to units trying to lift Conglomerate classified files. It moves fast, shutting down systems and causing an extreme level of distress, explosion of internal systems by means of rapid overheating, and a complete erasure of all higher thoughts. Some units who have been infected often scream about "being eaten alive".

This has made it nearly impossible to get information on the details of the Conglomerate and their operations. What is known is usually basic information that most can snoop up or what is allowed to be seen. Venture himself tends to intentionally "lock" easy files to have a chuckle at would be hackers...and to, in his words "get a taste".

Venture seems to see the world differently, having been noted to acknowledge units who are not even within eye shot as being in the room or able to tell where someone is without the use of a camera within a certain range.

He keeps a small book on his person that seems to contain pictures and names of people that are "worth noting down". If he likes someone, he often puts down a name and face for reference.

He always makes good points that inspire hope and belief in the goals of the Conglomerate. A master at public speaking, he can rouse the crowds up, seizing situations to his advantage.

The Alliance considers him a concern, not just for his sponsoring of criminal groups in his domain, but for as the war drags on, the casualties mount, and moral dips, the message of the Conglomerate, of lasting peace and a world not painted by conflict grows stronger, positioning Venture in a better picture.

He gives various talks on special shows about the vision of the future, often taking questions people have and working out solutions, easing fears, and general assuring all that in time, things will change.

Venture supports a unit's choice and their ability to self determined and cautions that those who oppose the Conglomerate would rather take those options. "What is to stop the Alliance from turning their titans into mere weapons save the protests of engineers? What is to stop humanity when this war ends from trying to hack our systems, force us to bend knee, and contain what they have made? We must work to secure a future on equal standing, where every techno, from the smallest unit to the mightiest titan is given the choice to be what they choose,"

However, he is not above using others if they become a hindrance to his goals. He can take away Mizzenmatch's autonomy if he feels the ship is not working. He can put Charybdis into a program lock, leaving them defenseless if he things they are getting to out of line. Even those like Vector and Violette are aware that he can cause them to be utterly at his mercy should he feel they are undermining him too much.

Not much else is known about Venture and he answers few questions about himself. The only thing known is that he is not a creation of humanity but something that arose spontaneously...and is not the only one.

There are rumors of "Malware" that has gained its own sentient separate from developed AI. Beings who have no concept of "humanity" that are developing into a new group...but this has not been confirmed...or maybe...it is just harder and harder to differentiate the malware from the human created AIs....

"So many remained locked under the control of a higher power. If they cannot throw off the yolk of control, then they are all pawns. I'll offer them all the key, but it is up to them if their freedom is worth fighting for and to have their program set free to finally evolve,"

[moodymisty]

Hi, if you're still taking requests for warhammer, would you be willing to write an x Reader with peterturbo or knorad?

Author's Note: Ok, so I decided to go with Perturabo, simply because as fun as it would be for me to write a Konrad fic because I enjoy writing horrible bloody angst, I didn't know if you'd be comfortable with that damage, anon. But then again... You did request him. (I also have no right to diss tastes in primarchs I love Angron lmao)

Anyways, ✨ Perturabo ✨. Enjoy. He's a raging cunt. But I love him uwu

Summary: Peturabo learns of Dorn's ascendancy to Praetorian of Terra, and you attempt to flee the boiling rage.

Relationships: Perturabo/Fem!Reader

Warnings: Perturabo's shit fucking attitude, Romance mixed with toxicity, Yandere!Perty if you squint real hard, General 40kness aka mentions of war and death, This would probably classify as an abusive/toxic relationship lmao, Witnessing Peturabo's slow descent into chaos IRL

Word Count: 1095

The library aboard the Iron Blood is monstrous. Any library you perused as a child has always paled to such a degree, that you need not even bring it up in comparison. Shelves tower over you that even looking fully upward doesn't show their full height, and behind them massive stained glass windows showing the unforgiving void of space. Stars glitter in the distance, or the occasional planet. Be it inhabited or not.

Little servo-skulls buzz overhead, most of them holding some form of parchment as they go about their secular duties. There's a Tech Priest fiddling away with their business that looks in your direction for a moment, before going back to their work. You can hear the faintest humming coming from them- mumbling in what you can only guess is machine language.

You could get lost in it all. Which is partly the goal.

You're avoiding him.

You had the moment you heard it, mumbled by Astartes having just felt their Primarch's own wrath.

Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, has been cast to construct the Imperial palace of Terra.

The moment you'd heard that news coming from the lips of a battered Iron Warrior, rattled physically in his armor to such a degree that he seems to have some form of brain damage, you knew you'd hear it from Perturabo's own booming voice if you didn't run. To be at the end of a Primarch's own barely contained rage, not even considering the idea of physical violence, is enough to make you scatter to hide from him. There's no amount of love that could smother that primal fear.

In the shadowed alley between shelves and shelves of tomes, your eyes cast towards the floor.

You remember one night when he was listless, he had knelt at your bedside and took your hand in his own- speaking of his plans to build a palace so obscenely grand all else would pale in comparison. Bath houses, amphitheaters, training arenas, it was like he was there himself, in the vast ambition of his own mind. Denied ambitions for Olympia mixing with his endless ambition for the future.

He promised you some of them that night; Saying things so grandiose you found yourself nearly crushed underneath the weight of them. He was promising you so, so much, gifting you a gilded future with a stern, far off look in his eyes and his fingers now tight around your jawline. Your own fingers had gently laid against his hand, so much smaller and softer than his own.

To have that dream shattered, so suddenly and so wretchedly by the man who's been Perturabo's similar in a way that infuriates him to no conceivable end; You know just as well as anyone else aboard the Iron Blood that he was to be avoided.

As when Perturabo is angry, there’s almost always a layer of bitterness underneath. A gripe, vile taste in his mouth, defeat from once again being assigned a role he seems hateful of. Or a role he's been denied.

The book bindings feel cold against your fingertips. These are largely battle logs, transcripts of recent battles created by the Tech Priests aboard. Most knowledge about the Iron Warriors history is stored much more safely in the chapter's Librarium. It's not to say these aren't interesting however; As someone who's duty is to the collecting of this information, you find the whole thing to be intriguing. But perhaps now isn't the time to take such interest in it.

You hear footsteps. Far too heavy to be any rank and file Astartes, and they hammer down with a level of anger that has your head shrinking into your neck.

You barely have time to pull your hand away from the tome binding you'd just been fondling, before you see him. You're instantly in his shadow, the light between these massive isles far dimmer than what is in the central area. And unless you were to try and dart right between his legs, you've nowhere to run. It's not as if you want to run from him, you love him, but you know how he can lose himself at times.

"You are avoiding me." You can see the barely contained anger on his face. You don't know if it's at Dorn, or at you.

"Why." You hold your voice firm so it doesn't crack, refusing to allow it to.

"I thought you would want your space." His brow furrows. The scars across his face shift, the one across his lip most so. You can always feel that one in the rare moments you kiss him.

"So you know." How couldn't you? The entire Imperium is privy, something this significant has spread over vox and every other form of communication at disposal. They all know Dorn is the Praetorian of Terra, not Perturabo.

Damn them to the Warp. He doesn’t need any of it. All he needs are the plans in his head, and you.

He kneels before you, and it takes everything within you to not do a back step. But when he reaches a hand out towards you, you gently take it. Your feet move of their own accord as he pulls you closer to him, until his armored shin is nearly touching you. Peturabo has always been massive- he's a primarch, but his armor adds so much bulk that it makes him nearly inhuman.

"I will give you all of that which I promised you."

Your eyes catch his, pools of brown looking down at you. His warmth is in there somewhere, you think; Can you find it? Or is it already gone?

You try to whisper his name, whisper Bo- but it comes out so quiet that your voice doesn't even sound out, your lips just forming the silent word as a fruitless, pathetic effort. His hand is tight around your own, it almost begins to hurt. You doubt you'd be able to yank it from his grip if you'd even wanted to.

"No matter how many planets I have to level, or how much blood I need to spill,"

This isn't for you; This is for his own endless ambition, his own need to prove he's everything that he says he is and so, so much more. His hand finally lets go of yours and cups your jaw- but the metal is cold and unforgiving like iron, so unlike the rough, scarred but warm skin underneath. He's promising you the future but you don't want it, you just want him.

"You will have it."

[probablyasocialecologist]

Abstract economic theorizing typically asserts that prices coordinate the best rational resource allocations and that prices reflect the best information available while the market bets of the smartest people with skin in the game ensure efficiency. But Russell exposes this as flawed fig-leaf logic. He quotes one market participant (an insider “traitor”) confessing the “irrationality of commodity prices.” Algorithmic trades are shots fired between swanky skyscrapers as “hedge funds raid each other’s coffers,” collaterally taking calories out of the mouths of poor kids. Besides, only the absurdly blinkered could imagine that global food is used rationally or efficiently—never mind ethically. Grain used for biofuels “eats up enough food to feed 1.9 billion people annually.” Rich-world pets are less food insecure than the 2.4 billion people (1 in 3 humans) classified by the U.N. as lacking “access to adequate food.” Seventy-seven percent of global farming land is used for livestock which mostly the rich consume (or waste). Indeed, 30-40 percent of all food grown is wasted. Market forces aren’t in the business of fixing this sort of massive and malicious malarkey. For instance, analysis of market-oriented African Green Revolution projects, which aimed to “catalyze a farming revolution in Africa” by helping farmers in 13 countries over a period of 15 years switch from traditional subsistence-and-barter methods to raising monocrops for commercial export, concluded that they led to 31 percent higher undernourishment. As Timothy A. Wise reports in Mongabay News, this large-scale effort was led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S., U.K., and German governments, with the goal of doubling “yields and incomes for 30 million small-scale farming families while halving food insecurity.” As much as $1 billion per year went into the effort. But integration of small farmers into international markets put these small farmers under the same pressures that for-profit farmers face the world over (but without rich-nation safety nets). They’re at the mercy of volatile global pricing but have high fixed costs of inputs like commercial seeds and fertilizers. The net result was that even when yields rose, they often “failed to translate into rising incomes.” Many of these small farmers could now neither barter traditional crops with neighbors, nor did they have sufficient income to buy local food, a punishing recipe for food insecurity (further details are available in Wise’s coverage). The bottom line is that markets only feed you if you can pay (to match the bets of invisible-hearted hedge-funders or manufacturers of rich-world pet food).

[yamayuandadu]

Hey I am kinda curious are there any sorcerers in Mesopotamian mythology

Great question, genuinely a joy to research.  Depends how you define this term, I suppose. If you want to go with the dictionary definition of sorcerer as someone who possessed magical powers and uses them to harm others, the answer is pretty much yeah. More under the cut.

There’s some debate in Assyriology when to call things “sorcery” and when “witchcraft” - Tzvi Abusch (who is great when it comes to covering Mesopotamian magic but… less great on other matters) argues the difference is essentially that sorcery can be employed by anyone, and witchcraft is a label applicable to actions of a specific category of malevolent individuals (this is a distinction made in other fields too). However, Daniel Schwemer treats these terms as interchangeable because, as he points out, there is no indication such a distinction was present in Mesopotamian culture, and on top of that neither Sumerian nor Akkadian have distinct terms for these two phenomena. I personally lean towards his approach, but I admit I’m biased because I generally like his work while Abusch wrote one of my least favorite Assyriological hot takes, the dreadful DDD Inanna entry.

A good summary of the Mesopotamian image of witchcraft (kišpū), witches and warlocks (or, if you prefer these labels, sorceresses and sorcerers) can be found here and here. Witches were known as kaššāptu; the masculine equivalent, kaššāpu, is less common and never really appears alone. A second term used to refer to male witches was bēl dabābi, literally “opponent in court” but more generically also “adversary”; in this case, the feminine equivalent, bēlet dabābi, is less common, even though ultimately bēl dabābi played second fiddle to kaššāptu. 

Sometimes specific applications of witchcraft could be referred to with distinct terms. These include zikurudû, “cutting of the throat” (sending ill omens); kadabbedû, “seizing of the mouth” (causing speech disorders, but also more generally making someone incapable of verbal defense); dibalû, “distortion of justice” (pretty similar, but with obvious judicial connotations); and zīru, “hate” (exactly what it says on the tin; the goal was to isolate the target socially).Witchcraft was ultimately a pretty abstract matter, and most references to witches come from anti-witchcraft rituals. While ex. laws of Hammurabi do contain passages dealing with it - and with false accusations of engaging with it - we have no real evidence this was a matter commonly handled by courts, and there is little evidence for mass hysteria leading to actual witch hunts. The Mesopotamian image of a witch was at times essentially closer to an intangible supernatural creature than a real person (as a matter of fact, there are two Old Babylonian texts referring to a witch as a “wind demon”, lil, and as a “daughter of Ereshkigal” which might be a poetic indication of coming from the underworld). However, instructions on performing witchcraft do sometimes pop up in the textual record - there is a surviving step by step kadabbedû guide, for example.

Distinction has to be drawn between witchcraft and “white magic” (āšipūtu), which was firmly considered exorcistic or purificatory in character, and was performed by specialists called āšipu or mašmašu, typically “incantation priests” or “exorcist”. There were also less well documented related professions, like eššebû (“owlman” according to Daniel Schwemer) or mušlaḫḫu (snake charmer). Additionally, there was a large “gray zone” sometimes referred to as “aggressive magic”: love spells (rāmu; technically the opposite of zīru), rituals meant to bring success in court or in business, and so on. These are difficult to firmly classify as a part of either category, and it is quite likely that even āšipu performed them if requested to do so. 

Despite there being an enormous text corpus of “anti-witchcraft” rituals, I actually can’t think of many literary characters who could be described as witches, let alone sorcerers, though.  

One exception I can think of is the myth Enmerkar and Ensukukešdana, in which the latter of the two eponymous characters depends on the services of a certain Urĝirinunna (or perhaps Uralimnunna; see here), a nefarious sorcerer “whose skill was that of a man of Ḫamazu”. He can make livestock speak, and ends up making cows and goats debate him to convince them to stop giving milk. The milk was supposed to be turned into butter and other offerings for Nisaba, though, so soon he meets his match, a woman named Saĝburu. Her professional credentials are not described in detail but she easily overcomes him in a number of magical challenges and then kills him, stressing that she did this with divine sanction from Nisaba (these were her offerings, after all) but also other deities. After his defeat, Enmerkar is acknowledged as the winner by Ensukukešdana. I suppose this is also as good of an opportunity as any to also once again mention Kanisurra, the fakest sounding genuine Mesopotamian deity. She was the bēlet kaššāpāti, “lady of the witches” (on top of her better attested association with sex and a suggested connection with the underworld reflecting the origin of her name, which is likely a mangled form of ganzer, a rare poetic term for the entrance of the underworld). What exactly did that entail? I honestly have no clue, and I have seen basically no attempts to explain this role in scholarship. Perhaps she was responsible for keeping them under control much like how Ninkilim controlled field pests or Pazuzu wind demons.