#Data cleansing Companies

[uniquesdata]

Crucial Role of Data Cleansing in Predictive Modeling

Data cleansing has gained popularity in the modern business landscape due to many benefits and insightful outcomes. It has become a crucial part for predictive modeling analysis, enabling it to offer valuable predicted forecasts to make business decisions.

🔹Here’s a detailed explanation of data cleansing's role in predictive modeling.

[apeirosolutions321]

Comprehensive Guide to Data Enrichment, Cleansing & Validation

Learn essential strategies for data enrichment, cleansing, and validation to enhance your data's accuracy and usability in this comprehensive guide by Apeiro Solutions.

[dataentry-expert]

Best Data Cleansing Services at Affordable Price

The purpose of listing products on the Amazon website is to quickly multiply business chances by utilizing the eCommerce marketplace. Data Entry Expert is the best option to get affordable Amazon Data Entry Services. To list a product on Amazon, you must additionally include details about the product, such as the name of the brand, category, specifications, photos, and range of prices. A company needs to keep ahead of the competition online and turn prospective clients into loyal ones.

To know more - https://www.dataentryexpert.com/data-processing/data-cleansing-services.php

[itesservices]

Data Cleansing 101: What, Why, How, And Trends

Explore the fundamentals of data cleansing in this comprehensive guide. Discover what data cleansing is, why it’s crucial for accurate insights, and how to execute effective cleansing processes. Dive into the latest trends shaping data hygiene practices to ensure your information remains accurate, reliable, and ready for analysis. Read the blog:…

[notbecauseofvictories]

cute thing I have learned during this conference: a couple different players are working in the quantum computing space, and specifically working on encryption protection algorithms to defend against attacks---these algorithms are called "kyber" and "dilithium" respectively.

nerds.

[jcmarchi]

AI Costs Are Accelerating — Here’s How to Keep Them Under Control

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/ai-costs-are-accelerating-heres-how-to-keep-them-under-control/

AI Costs Are Accelerating — Here’s How to Keep Them Under Control

Cloud usage continues to soar, as do its associated costs — particularly, of late, those driven by AI. Gartner analysts predict worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will swell to $723.4 billion in 2025, up from just under $600 billion in 2024. And 70% of executives surveyed in an IBM report cited generative AI as a critical driver of this increase.

At the same time, China’s DeepSeek made waves when it claimed it took just two months and $6 million to train its AI model. There’s some doubt whether those figures tell the whole story, but if Microsoft and Nvidia’s still-jolted share prices are any indication, the announcement woke the Western world up to the need for cost-efficient AI systems.

To date, companies have been able to treat mounting AI costs as R&D write-offs. But AI costs — especially those associated with successful products and features — will eventually hit companies’ cost of goods sold (COGS) and, consequently, their gross margins. AI innovations were always destined to face the cold scrutiny of business sense; DeepSeek’s bombshell announcement just shortened that timeline.

Just like they do with the rest of the public cloud, companies will need to manage their AI costs, including both training and consumption costs. They’ll need to connect AI spending with business outcomes, optimize AI infrastructure costs, refine pricing and packaging strategies, and maximize the return on their AI investments.

How can they do it? With cloud unit economics (CUE).

What is cloud unit economics (CUE)?

CUE comprises the measurement and maximization of cloud-driven profit. Its fundamental mechanism is connecting cloud cost data with customer demand and revenue data, revealing the most and least profitable dimensions of a business and thus showing companies how and where to optimize. CUE applies across all sources of cloud spending, including AI costs.

The foundation of CUE is cost allocation — organizing cloud costs according to who and/or what drives them. Common allocation dimensions include cost per customer, cost per engineering team, cost per product, cost per feature, and cost per microservice. Companies using a modern cost management platform often allocate costs in a framework that mirrors their business structure (their engineering hierarchy, platform infrastructure, etc.).

Then, the heart of CUE is the unit cost metric, which compares cost data with demand data to show a company their all-in cost to serve. For example, a B2B marketing company might want to calculate its “cost per 1,000 messages” sent via its platform. To do this, it would have to track its cloud costs and the number of messages sent, feed that data into a single system, and instruct that system to divide its cloud costs by its messages and graph the result in a dashboard.

Since the company started with cost allocation, it could then view its cost per 1,000 messages by customer, product, feature, team, microservice, or whatever other view it deemed reflective of its business structure.

The results:

Flexible business dimensions by which they can filter their unit cost metric, showing them which areas of their business are driving their cloud costs

An illuminating unit cost metric that shows them how efficiently they’re meeting customer demand

The ability to make targeted efficiency improvements, like refactoring infrastructure, tweaking customer contracts, or refining pricing and packaging models

CUE in the AI age

In the CUE model, AI costs are just one more source of cloud spending that can be incorporated into a business’s allocation framework. The way that AI companies disseminate cost data is still evolving, but in principle, cost management platforms treat AI costs in much the same way as they treat AWS, Azure, GCP, and SaaS costs.

Modern cloud cost management platforms allocate AI costs and show their efficiency impact in the context of unit cost metrics.

Companies should allocate their AI costs in a handful of intuitive ways. One would be the aforementioned cost per team, an allocation dimension common to all sources of cloud spending, showing the costs that each engineering team is responsible for. This is particularly useful because leaders know exactly who to notify and hold accountable when a particular team’s costs spike.

Companies might also want to know their cost per AI service type — machine learning (ML) models versus foundation models versus third-party models like OpenAI. Or, they could calculate their cost per SDLC stage to understand how an AI-powered feature’s costs change as it transitions from development to testing to staging and finally to production. A company could get even more granular and calculate its cost per AI development lifecycle stage, including data cleansing, storage, model creation, model training, and inference.

Zooming out from the weeds a bit: CUE means comparing organized cloud cost data with customer demand data and then figuring out where to optimize. AI costs are just one more source of cloud cost data that, with the right platform, fit seamlessly into a company’s overall CUE strategy.

Avoiding the COGS tsunami

As of 2024, only 61% of companies had formalized cloud cost management systems in place (per a CloudZero survey). Unmanaged cloud costs soon become unmanageable: 31% of companies — similar to the portion who don’t formally manage their costs — suffer major COGS hits, reporting that cloud costs consume 11% or more of their revenue. Unmanaged AI costs will only exacerbate this trend.

Today’s most forward-thinking organizations treat cloud costs like any other major expenditure, calculating its ROI, breaking that ROI down by their most critical business dimensions, and empowering the relevant team members with the data needed to optimize that ROI. Next-generation cloud cost management platforms offer a comprehensive CUE workflow, helping companies avoid the COGS tsunami and bolster long-term viability.

[achivixblog]

How Dirty CRM Data is Costing Your Business Revenue?

The goal of your CRM is to help you expand your company, but if the data in it is disorganized, it is working against you. Inaccurate contact information, duplicate entries, and out-of-date data in CRMs result in lost sales, squandered marketing budgets, and irate staff.

For startups, every lead matters. A bad email address means a missed opportunity. A duplicate entry confuses your sales team. An outdated phone number leads to dead-end calls. Over time, these small issues add up, costing you money and slowing down your growth.

Many companies are unaware of how much they are being held back by inaccurate data. Unaware that a significant portion of the issue is within their CRM, they continue to spend money on advertisements, emails, and sales initiatives. CRM Data cleaning services is a revenue-saving strategy, not just a technical one. This post will explain how untidy CRM data reduces your revenue and offer solutions.

1. What is Dirty CRM Data?

Dirty CRM data is any wrong, outdated, or duplicate information stored in your system. It can be misspelled names, incorrect phone numbers, fake emails, or contacts listed more than once. If your CRM has missing details or records that don’t match, that’s also bad data.

This typically occurs when companies gather leads from various sources without cleansing them or when data is manually submitted without checks. Errors accumulate over time, making the information difficult to trust.

Bad data wastes time and money. Your sales team may call the same person twice or send emails that never reach anyone. Marketing campaigns fail because messages go to the wrong people. The longer the mess sits, the worse it gets.

Keeping your CRM clean isn’t just about organization. It’s about saving money, improving sales, and making sure your team works smarter, not harder.

2. The Cost of Dirty CRM Data on Lead Generation & Revenue

Bad CRM data drains money and wastes time. Your marketing team will be targeting people who will never reply if your contact list is cluttered with incorrect emails, duplicate leads, or out-of-date phone numbers. Lower engagement, fewer conversions, and lost money are the results of this.

Sales teams also struggle. They chase dead leads, call the same person twice, or miss real opportunities because of missing details. Instead of closing deals, they waste hours fixing data mistakes.

Your brand is also harmed by dirty data. Potential clients may become irate and lose faith in your company if you send them repeated messages or get in touch with the incorrect individual.

Additionally, companies that fail to maintain clean data run the danger of breaking privacy regulations, which can result in penalties. Bad data costs you more the longer you ignore it. Better leads, more seamless sales, and higher revenue are all correlated with a clean CRM.

3. How Startups Can Identify & Fix Dirty CRM Data

Startups need clean CRM data to find the right leads and close more deals. The first step is spotting the problem. Look for duplicate contacts, missing details, and outdated information. If emails bounce or phone numbers don’t work, your CRM data needs fixing.

To clean it up, start with a data audit. Remove or update bad entries. Use automated tools that catch mistakes and prevent duplicate records. Set rules for data entry so new information is correct from the start.

Make data cleaning a regular habit. Schedule time to review and update records. Train your team to check details before adding new contacts.

A clean CRM helps you reach real leads, improve sales, and avoid wasted effort. The sooner you fix bad data, the faster your startup can grow.

4. The Business Impact of Clean CRM Data

The way a firm operates is greatly impacted by a clean CRM. Your marketing team can increase engagement and conversions by reaching the relevant people with up-to-date and accurate contact information. Sales teams spend more time closing transactions and less time correcting errors.

Good data also improves customer relationships. No one likes getting repeat emails or calls meant for someone else. When your CRM is clean, your communication feels more personal and professional.

Startups with clean data save money by avoiding wasted ads and outreach efforts. They also reduce legal risks by following data privacy rules.

Keeping CRM data clean isn’t just about organization—it directly affects sales, customer trust, and business growth. The better your data, the better your results.

Conclusion

Dirty CRM data silently eats away at your business revenue. Wrong emails, duplicate contacts, and outdated information lead to missed sales, wasted marketing efforts, and frustrated customers.

For startups, every lead matters. If your CRM is full of bad data, you’re losing money and slowing growth. Partnering with a B2B data company can help clean it up, leading to better leads, higher conversions, and stronger customer relationships.

The solution is simple audit, clean, and maintain your CRM regularly. The more accurate your data, the smoother your sales and marketing efforts will be. Start today and turn your CRM into a real revenue driver.

[datainox]

Data Cleaning Services is inevitable for growth

Data cleaning or scrubbing is an important process in various businesses that corrects and enhances data value by removing duplicate, irrelevant, and missed-value content. Outsource data cleaning services to have an accurate database. Continue to read further in detail.

[uniquesdata]

Elevate Business ROI with Data Cleansing Services

Businesses manage a large amount of data on a daily basis, and it is important to ensure the database is clean and accurate for further use. Data cleansing can improve the quality of data and bring valuable insights. Check out in detail how data cleansing plays an important role.

[apeirosolutions321]

Comprehensive Guide to Data Enrichment, Cleansing & Validation

Learn essential strategies for data enrichment, cleansing, and validation to enhance your data's accuracy and usability in this comprehensive guide by Apeiro Solutions.

[itesservices]

🙄 Best Practices for Effective Data Cleansing: A Guide for Businesses

📣 Discover essential tips and strategies for successful data cleansing in this comprehensive guide. Learn how to improve data quality, enhance decision-making, and boost operational efficiency. Explore best practices, tools, and techniques to ensure your data remains accurate and reliable. Elevate your data management with expert insights. 🔔 Explore the…

[mariacallous]

A lawsuit filed Wednesday against Meta argues that US law requires the company to let people use unofficial add-ons to gain more control over their social feeds.

It’s the latest in a series of disputes in which the company has tussled with researchers and developers over tools that give users extra privacy options or that collect research data. It could clear the way for researchers to release add-ons that aid research into how the algorithms on social platforms affect their users, and it could give people more control over the algorithms that shape their lives.

The suit was filed by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of researcher Ethan Zuckerman, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst. It attempts to take a federal law that has generally shielded social networks and use it as a tool forcing transparency.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is best known for allowing social media companies to evade legal liability for content on their platforms. Zuckerman’s suit argues that one of its subsections gives users the right to control how they access the internet, and the tools they use to do so.

“Section 230 (c) (2) (b) is quite explicit about libraries, parents, and others having the ability to control obscene or other unwanted content on the internet,” says Zuckerman. “I actually think that anticipates having control over a social network like Facebook, having this ability to sort of say, ‘We want to be able to opt out of the algorithm.’”

Zuckerman’s suit is aimed at preventing Facebook from blocking a new browser extension for Facebook that he is working on called Unfollow Everything 2.0. It would allow users to easily “unfollow” friends, groups, and pages on the service, meaning that updates from them no longer appear in the user’s newsfeed.

Zuckerman says that this would provide users the power to tune or effectively disable Facebook’s engagement-driven feed. Users can technically do this without the tool, but only by unfollowing each friend, group, and page individually.

There’s good reason to think Meta might make changes to Facebook to block Zuckerman’s tool after it is released. He says he won’t launch it without a ruling on his suit. In 2020, the company argued that the browser Friendly, which had let users search and reorder their Facebook news feeds as well as block ads and trackers, violated its terms of service and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In 2021, Meta permanently banned Louis Barclay, a British developer who had created a tool called Unfollow Everything, which Zuckerman’s add-on is named after.

“I still remember the feeling of unfollowing everything for the first time. It was near-miraculous. I had lost nothing, since I could still see my favorite friends and groups by going to them directly,” Barclay wrote for Slate at the time. “But I had gained a staggering amount of control. I was no longer tempted to scroll down an infinite feed of content. The time I spent on Facebook decreased dramatically.”

The same year, Meta kicked off from its platform some New York University researchers who had created a tool that monitored the political ads people saw on Facebook. Zuckerman is adding a feature to Unfollow Everything 2.0 that allows people to donate data from their use of the tool to his research project. He hopes to use the data to investigate whether users of his add-on who cleanse their feeds end up, like Barclay, using Facebook less.

Sophia Cope, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, says that the core parts of Section 230 related to platforms’ liability for content posted by users have been clarified through potentially thousands of cases. But few have specifically dealt with the part of the law Zuckerman’s suit seeks to leverage.

“There isn’t that much case law on that section of the law, so it will be interesting to see how a judge breaks it down,” says Cope. Zuckerman is a member of the EFF’s board of advisers.

John Morris, a principal at the Internet Society, a nonprofit that promotes open development of the internet, says that, to his knowledge, Zuckerman’s strategy “hasn’t been used before, in terms of using Section 230 to grant affirmative rights to users,” noting that a judge would likely take that claim seriously.

Meta has previously suggested that allowing add-ons that modify how people use its services raises security and privacy concerns. But Daphne Keller, director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, says that Zuckerman’s tool may be able to fairly push back on such an accusation.“The main problem with tools that give users more control over content moderation on existing platforms often has to do with privacy,” she says. “But if all this does is unfollow specified accounts, I would not expect that problem to arise here."

Even if a tool like Unfollow Everything 2.0 didn’t compromise users’ privacy, Meta might still be able to argue that it violates the company’s terms of service, as it did in Barclay’s case.

“Given Meta’s history, I could see why he would want a preemptive judgment,” says Cope. “He’d be immunized against any civil claim brought against him by Meta.”

And though Zuckerman says he would not be surprised if it takes years for his case to wind its way through the courts, he believes it’s important. “This feels like a particularly compelling case to do at a moment where people are really concerned about the power of algorithms,” he says.

[totallynotcensorship]

tags update: US politics is 3rd on trending with tiktok ban trending under it

for context:

the US house of representatives passed a legislation on Wednesday last Wednesday and it is currently at the senate for being "a national security risk".

tiktok(while i don't like it my self for many reasons) has been useful to spread news of ongoing atrocities around the world and for driving donations for places like palestine, congo, sudan, ect. banning it constitutes an act of censorship. and while such a bill has been suggested for years now the hastiness of it's passing around the same time the site is flooded with content covering an on going genocide the US is complicit in is specious

while yes, tiktok does collect your data and is obligated to send it to the Chinese government if it ask. the data collected is equivalent to the data collected by american companies like meta or google. it is a matter of who you would rather your data be with, companies who will exploit it for profit that then will be used to fund this genocide or the chinese government(who aren't saints btw. the persecution of the uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in xinjiang is an ethnic cleansing in EVERTHING but name, and their acts of censorship are arguably even worse)

the best answer is neither. but "how to protect your data online" isn't the subject of this blog

DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE

[najia-cooks]

[ID: A bowl of avocado spread sculpted into a pattern, topped with olive oil and garnished with symmetrical lines of nigella seeds and piles of pomegranate seeds; a pile of pita bread is in the background. End ID]

متبل الأفوكادو / Mutabbal al-'afukadu (Palestinian avocado dip)

Avocados are not native to Palestine. Israeli settlers planted them in Gaza in the 1980s, before being evicted when Israel evacuated all its settlements in Gaza in 2005. The avocados, however, remained, and Gazans continued to cultivate them for their fall and winter harvest. Avocados have been folded into the repertoire of a "new" Palestinian cuisine, as Gazans and other Palestinians have found ways to interpret them.

Palestinians may add local ingredients to dishes traditionally featuring avocado (such as Palestinian guacamole, "جواكامولي فلسطيني" or "غواكامولي فلسطيني"), or use avocado in Palestinian dishes that typically use other vegetables (pickling them, for example, or adding them to salads alongside tomato and cucumber).

Another dish in this latter category is حمص الافوكادو (hummus al-'afukadu)—avocado hummus—in which avocado is smoothly blended with lemon juice, white tahina (طحينة ال��يضاء, tahina al-bayda'), salt, and olive oil. Yet another is متبّل الأفوكادو (mutabbal al-'afukadu). Mutabbal is a spiced version of بابا غنوج (baba ghannouj)‎: "مُتَبَّل" means "spiced" or "seasoned," from "مُ" "mu-," a participlizing prefix, + "تَبَّلَ" "tabbala‎," "to have spices added to." Here, fresh avocado replaces the roasted eggplant usually used to make this smooth dip; it is mixed with green chili pepper, lemon juice, garlic, white tahina, sumac, and labna (لبنة) or yoghurt. Either of these dishes may be topped with sesame or nigella seeds, pomegranate seeds, fresh dill, or chopped nuts, and eaten with sliced and toasted flatbread.

Avocados' history in Palestine precedes their introduction to Gaza. They were originally planted in 1908 by a French order of monks, but these trees have not survived. It was after the Balfour Declaration of 1917 (in which Britain, having been promised colonial control of Palestine with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War 1, pledged to establish "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine) that avocado agriculture began to take root.

In the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, encouraged by Britain, Jewish Europeans began to immigrate to Palestine in greater numbers and establish agricultural settlements (leaving an estimated 29.4% of peasant farming families without land by 1929). Seeds and seedlings from several varieties of avocado were introduced from California by private companies, research stations, and governmental bodies (including Mikveh Israel, a school which provided settlers with agricultural training). In these years, prices were too high for Palestinian buyers, and quantities were too low for export.

It wasn't until after the beginning of the Nakba (the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from "Jewish" areas following the UN partition of Palestine in 1947) that avocado plantings became significant. With Palestinians having been violently expelled from most of the area's arable land, settlers were free to plant avocados en masse for export, aided (until 1960) by long-term, low-interest loans from the Israeli government. The 400 acres planted within Israel's claimed borders in 1955 ballooned to 2,000 acres in 1965, then 9,000 by 1975, and over 17,000 by 1997. By 1986, Israel was producing enough avocados to want to renegotiate trade agreements with Europe in light of the increase.

Israeli companies also attained commercial success selling avocados planted on settlements within the West Bank. As of 2014, an estimated 4.5% of Israeli avocado exports were grown in the occupied Jordan Valley alone (though data about crops grown in illegal settlements is of course difficult to obtain). These crops were often tended by Palestinian workers, including children, in inhumane conditions and at starvation wages. Despite a European Union order to specify the origin of such produce as "territories occupied by Israel since 1967," it is often simply marked "Israel." Several grocery stores across Europe, including Carrefour, Lidl, Dunnes Stores, and Aldi, even falsified provenance information on avocados and other fruits in order to circumvent consumer boycotts of goods produced in Israel altogether—claiming, for example, that they were from Morocco or Cyprus.

Meanwhile, while expanding its own production of avocados, Israel was directing, limiting, and destabilizing Palestinian agriculture in an attempt to eliminate competition. In 1982, Israel prohibited the planting of fruit trees without first obtaining permission from military authorities; in practice, this resulted in Palestinians (in Gaza and the West Bank) being entirely barred from planting new mango and avocado trees, even to replace old, unproductive ones.

Conditions worsened in the years following the second intifada. Between September of 2000 and September of 2003, Israeli military forces destroyed wells, pumps, and an estimated 85% of the agricultural land in al-Sayafa, northern Gaza, where farmers had been using irrigation systems and greenhouses to grow fruits including citrus, apricots, and avocados. They barred almost all travel into and out of al-Sayafa: blocking off all roads that lead to the area, building barricades topped with barbed wire, preventing entry within 150 meters of the barricade under threat of gunfire, and opening crossings only at limited times of day and only for specific people, if at all.

A July 2001 prohibition on Palestinian vehicles within al-Sayafa further slashed agricultural production, forcing farmers to rely on donkeys and hand carts to tend their fields and to transport produce across the crossing. If the crossing happened to be closed, or the carts could not transport all the produce in time, fruits and vegetables would sit waiting in the sun until they rotted and could not be sold. The 2007 blockade worsened Gaza's economy still further, strictly limiting imports and prohibiting exports entirely (though later on, there would be exceptions made for small quantities of specific crops).

In the following years, Israel allowed imports of food items into Gaza not exceeding the bare minimum for basic sustenance, based on an estimation of the caloric needs of its inhabitants. Permitted (apples, bananas, persimmons, flour) and banned items for import (avocados, dates, grapes) were ostensibly based on "necessary" versus "luxury" foods, but were in fact directed according to where Israeli farmers could expect the most profit.

Though most of the imports admitted into Gaza continued to come from Israel, Gazan farmers kept pursuing self-sufficiency. In 2011, farmers working on a Hamas-government-led project in the former settlements produced avocados, mangoes, and most of the grapes, onions, and melons that Gazans ate; by 2015, though still forbidden from exporting excess, they were self-sufficient in the production of crops including onions, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, almonds, olives, and apples.

Support Palestinian resistance by calling Elbit System’s (Israel’s primary weapons manufacturer) landlord, donating to Palestine Action’s bail fund, and donating to the Bay Area Anti-Repression Committee bail fund.

Ingredients:

2 medium avocados (300g total)

1/4 cup white tahina

2 Tbsp labna (لبنة), or yoghurt (laban, لبن رايب)

1 green chili pepper

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp good olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon (1 1/2 Tbsp)

1 tsp table salt, or to taste

Pomegranate seeds, slivered almonds, pine nuts, chopped dill, nigella seeds, sesame seeds, sumac, and/or olive oil, to serve

Khubiz al-kmaj (pita bread), to serve

Instructions:

1. In a mortar and pestle, crush garlic, pepper, and a bit of salt into a fine paste.

2. Add avocados and mash to desired texture. Stir in tahina, labna, olive oil, lemon juice, and additional salt.

You can also combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.

3. Top with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Add toppings, as desired.

4. Cut pita into small rectangles or triangles and separate one half from the other (along where the pocket is). Toast in the oven, or in a large, dry skillet, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Serve dip alongside toasted pita chips.

[afayebray]

I'm sure there's already a post about this but I am kind of psyched because this goes back to my theory I've had for awhile. Only I thought Emile (though we didn't know his name at the time) would be the head, potentially.

So, let's break down what each symbol is, what it could mean, and who they could be. If you disagree on any of these or have any ideas that I missed, please let me know!! (I'm definitely going to need to do/hear a voice comparison on a couple of the ones that spoke.)

1. Stylized eye--potentially visions/seer, have also seen it in relation to succubi in my reverse search, but the one I think is most likely is surveillance -- having eyes everywhere.

One of my other main theories of this season is that since Tomoe has been heavily implied to be the Quantic verse's Elon, she purchased or created Zoo and has someone helping her with surveilling and data mining the hell out of what the kids are posting. Tracking location settings would also explain why they almost always tend to show up/be near Marinette *or* someone who has posted about/been wronged by her.

With how much he's been in the episode, the amount of trouble he's caused, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if this is Vincent.

2. Bricks--obstacles, perseverance, conformity/loss of self, strength, "building" (as a verb), durability, security.

3. Quill--writing, creating, narrative, communication, etc. André Bourgeois? Could also be Bob.

4. Wheel--(wheel of) fortune, fate, progress, cycle of life, guidance. Never mind, I think this one is likely Bob Roth. With his obsession with fortune, desire for constant progress, and he's a manager/agent, so...guidance, supposedly.

5. Scepter--leader, ruler, sovereign--prior to finding out that they actually do exist and it's not just some theory that I've had, I assumed this would likely be Emil based on what we were told in "Representation".

6. Diamond--ol' Gabe ⚰️I want to update this to say that I absolutely love the backhandedness of having him be the Diamond. Someone that they saw as common, working class (coal) put under pressure and polished up to be something of value to them.

7. Wheat--known to symbolize the cycle of life and death, sacrifice, fertility, growth and renewal. // considering what we know of Nathalie, this seems fitting for her father/for what he expects her role to be.

8. Gear--we know this one is machine. Could also be used/translate as technology potentially. I didn't pay close enough attention to the voice at the time, but I can't imagine this is not Tomoe.

9. Theater masks--this one is pretty self-explanatory...the two extremes of the human psyche, showing the differing sides of emotions--both the "foolishness" of humans and darker ones like fear and sadness, I think. This is probably related to Cerise.

10. Sword--authority/nobility, honor/loyalty, protection/defense, truth/justice/righteousness, battle of good v. evil-- this particular sword is very reminiscent of Excalibur, I'm assuming this is Emil (or both GdVs) if the scepter is not him.

11. Fire--passion, transformation, destruction and renewal/cleansing, knowledge/enlightenment, revolution.

12. Molecule? (fairly certain this one is a molecule though I'm not 100%)--if I am correct, I'm assuming this one was Colt Fathom since he also had a tech company like Tomoe, but he was likely a military contractor based on his description in "Representation", creating bombs, missiles, etc. Basically, the Justin Hammer of Miraculous. I wouldn't be surprised if he had the monopoly on space flight prior to his death and Tsurugi only took over (including Claudie's trip) after the fact.

We have twelve of these and twelve Zodiac Miraculous, I'm assuming when Tomoe planned to improve them, and they had their "new world order"/cult with Adrien and Kagami as "world icons/idols" idea these were meant to take the place of the 12 Zodiacs. Thoughts?

Also, do we think that Mom #2 (the one that's high up at Style Queen and was in "Gabriel Agreste") is one? Or maybe Cerise took over for her? Do we think that anyone we saw in NY, Shanghai, etc. is part of it?

[iamdispleased]

What’s Happening With Lumon, MDR, O&D, and Gemma

Buckle up, cowboys.

Spoilers: Severance, The Lexington Letters

My theory is that Lumon is a sort of shadow government in expansion. The Lumon building is a military base/bunker. While not the only thing Lumon does, Lumon makes weapons, particularly bombs. They probably made or are making nuclear weapons. O&D designs the weapons and run Lumon’s equivalent to the ENIAC. MDR locate where to use the weapons and deploy them, similar to radarmen. I also think Lumon used MDR to cause Gemma’s car wreck.

02/09/25 Edit: I just read Ricken’s book, The You You Are, and it totally decimated my Gemma theory. So, never mind about that.

03/21/24 Edit: LOL.

Petey’s map of the Lumon building heavily resembles a military base or bunker. The technology and aesthetic they use gives me old school military/N.A.S.A. vibes. The way it’s shot when Mark pulls out his locker’s drawer reminds me of a scene in a war movie or flashback— especially with the way his watch looks like a compass.

As I said, MDR are similar to radarmen. Radarmen first appeared during WWII in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. Part of the radarman’s duties was to detect and track vessels through radar equipment, find target locations for attacks (like bombings), and operate the Identification Friend or Foe system, or IFF.

The IFF system, also known as the Mark Identification Friend or Foe system, is an electronic system developed during WWII that military forces used to identify whether an aircraft or vessel detected on radar was friendly or an enemy. This could be why MDR focuses on “scary numbers”. The “scary numbers” represent enemies.

A macrodata refiner’s job description is to “remove impurities from data and reorganize it in its purest form”, and at first I thought MDR was creating atomic bombs specifically, because what is more pure than the atom? But now I could see this as MDR is locating Lumon’s enemies (imperfections) and bombing them (removing them); therefore, making the world/society (data) pure. By ‘pure’, I mean the, “Cleanse the world of our sins,” type pure.

Since radarmen are specifically related to the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, it would make sense as to why Irv is told his outie can swim gracefully and likes the sound of radar, which is what he named his dog after. In the 1970s, the radarman’s duties was split into a few separate jobs. The one MDR seems to resemble the most are Operation Specialist.

O&D design the weapons MDR uses, and seem to be running a machine like the ENIAC. The ENIAC is a big ole computer developed during WWII. It performed calculations for artillery firing tables, the construction of the hydrogen bomb, atomic energy, thermal ignition, and more.

MDR’s file names also clue in on this, with pretty much all of them having events associated with, wars, uprisings and the like.

Pacoima, a file Irv works on, is the name of a neighborhood in Los Angeles. A few screw-ups from radarmen have occurred there, like the 1957 Pacoima mid-air collision.

Moonbeam was the name of a Mustang fighter-bomber aircraft built during WWII.

In the Lexington Letters, Peg, a former MDR employee, thinks that her finishing the Lexington file caused one of Lumon’s competitors trucks to explode, ending with two employees being *burned* alive in the truck and four bystanders’ deaths. The company’s name was Dorner Therapeutics.

I believe Gemma ‘died’ in that accident. The connection to a therapeutics company could be the reason Miss Casey is a wellness councilor.

In 2x02, Mark says that Gemma can’t be alive, because he had to identify her burnt body. My guess is that Gemma’s body was burnt, but Lumon used some sort regenerative technology to heal her. Since Lumon ended up causing Peg to die in a car crash, I wonder if Mark took her job. (Maybe she didn’t die at all, and is in a Miss Casey situation.)

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first major battles of the American Revolutionary War. If the Lexington file involved Gemma’s accident, then that was the start of Mark working for Lumon. It makes sense for the start of Mark’s journey to be titled Lexington, the start of the Revolutionary War.

One final note— the actual severance chip itself looks like a bomb. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are bombs.

And fin.

(I have just started my first rewatch of Severance, and plan to examine it deeper, but I wanted to throw this out there before it’s Too Late.)

tldr: Lumon is a growing shadow government. The Lumon building is a military base/bunker. O&D’s job is to design weapons, while MDR’s job is to locate where to use them and deploy them.

Edit: I rewatched the scene where Mark and Devon are talking in 02x02, and Mark didn’t outrightly say that Gemma’s body burned. He said, “If Ricken died and burned, I’d be sad for you.” I still take this as Gemma’s body burned, though. Mark could have just said, “If Ricken died, I’d be sad for you.” So, the addition of, “… and burned,” feels super specific. Still— my b.