#creating a future where data is secure

[amrtechinsights]

Revolutionizing healthcare with the power of crypto! 🚀💉 Blockchain technology meets medical innovation, creating a future where data is secure, transactions are seamless, and care is more efficient. 🌐🔒 #CryptoInHealthcare #BlockchainTech #DigitalHealth #InnovationInMedicine #FutureOfHealthcare #MedicalRevolution #TechForGood #BlockchainInHealthcare

[hadesoftheladies]

I’m surprised no one has talked about the Tea App yet on radblr. But apparently, someone created an app for women to share information about men in order to warn them about their views, their behaviour, or their experiences with men. Basically sorting the good from the bad. Men found out about it and started calling it “the slander app.” For some reason, the app required users to sign in with their driver’s licenses.

of course, this data leak was carried out by a bitter man, even if the app wasn’t really built with strong security. it doesn’t erase the fact that a man, within a few weeks if not days of this app being used, went out of his way to dox these women and stop them from sharing vital information. of course, no one, even a man, would like to know that their intimate lives have been discussed with the public, but for women there is clearly a higher stake in regard to security in the dating sphere. and doxing men would not be anywhere near the amount of insecurity women who are doxxed would face. especially for the “crime of slander” AKA telling other women the truth.

some users have sympathized with the women (mostly women but some men) while others have ridiculed, mocked and celebrated this data leak (mostly male users).

why am I sharing this? one, bc I really do think we are at a place where cybersecurity and online privacy needs to be taken a lot more seriously by the average user—especially if they’re female. there is a lot of data I personally have out there despite my reserved use of social media. this is more than the “Wild West” now. you have to be really stingy with the details you put online. develop strategies for using different apps like taxi services or whatever while putting pressure on companies to ensure safety for those that use their services. two, bc this gives me hope. women can, have and will continue to organize and it makes me excited to see this new era of techno-feminism and separatism! situations like these, while they may be disheartening, also allow us to test what works and what needs improvement for it to work seamlessly. especially in the tech space. while I’m sorry that these women have been put at risk, I also know this means apps like these will have stronger models in the future bc that’s how tech works. not only that, but it shows a potential market for female-only spaces not just online but irl, which I think will make it more of a trend moving forward.

[reccyls]

A Summary post about Ikemen Sengoku: Eien

Official Website | Official Twitter | Official LINE

What is Ikemen Sengoku: Eien?

Ikemen Sengoku: Eien (Eternal Bonds) is a new application for Ikemen Sengoku, using updated UI and architecture to modernize it and serve as a continuation for the story of Ikemen Sengoku. Act 3 will continue in the new app, and Act 2 sequels for current characters are also being planned to be included in Eien going forward.

Why is it being made?

According to the dev team, the current Ikemen Sengoku app is showing its age. In April of 2022, the app was inaccessible for approximately one month due to server issues caused by unauthorized third party access to the game's servers which caused damage to user data. Although steps have been taken to update the systems and strengthen security, there is only so much that can be done with a program that's 10 years old. A complete revamp of the existing app will take too much resources and time. Therefore, the decision was made to create a new app using more moden practices and capability.

What are the features of Eien?

Eien is presumably going to be modeled after the Ikemen Prince and Ikemen Villains apps. A list of features is below:

Updated UI

My room/avatar customization that allows for freely placing avatar items

A bond system with fully voiced stories

A gacha system with cards and avatar gachas similar to Ikemen Prince/Villains. This also includes a beginner gacha with standard cards that you can select

There are further improvements to presentation with things like blinking sprites, among other improvements, in order to improve immersion

When will Eien be available?

Eien will be released in the fall. No conrete date is available yet. Preregistration is currently ongoing.

Will Eien have old stories?

It is planned for all routes to be ported to Eien eventually, but not all of them will be available at launch. Some will be available at launch, while others will be added over time. As of right now, there are no specifics on which routes they are or what the timeline for this is.

After all existing routes have been ported, there are plans to add an archive where assets from Ikemen Sengoku can be viewed in Eien. At the moment, it is unclear what is meant by assets.

Update July 28 - On launch, Eien will have the following routes

Nobunaga - Main, Sequel, Continuation

Masamune - Main

Kenshin - Main

Saizo - Main

Rikyu - Main

What is Act 3? What is the plot?

In Act 3, a new enemy force the Ashikaga army faction seek to travel back in the past in order to change the childhood of the warlords. You, as the protagonist, will experience conflict as you witness the pain of their childhoods with your own eyes. This is a tale of the past, present, and future, about a search for happiness that transcends time itself. Act 3 is a tale of love more dramatic than anything before, as you find yourself shaken by the appearance of new enemies that leave you questioning your values.

Act 3 will begin with Nobunaga's Continuation Route.

Continuation routes also feature route splits. One of the route splits will contain CGs of the suitor as a child.

Furthermore, after fulfilling certain conditions when finishing a Continuation Route (likely to be maximum points, just like getting epilogues currently), you can obtain a story where you marry the suitor. This story also contains a CG.

Who are the new characters?

There are 5 new characters:

Ashikaga Yoshiteru (Doll x Obssession) - CV Yamashita Daiki

Matsunaga Hisahide (Allure x Immorality) - CV Sakata Shogo

Kuroda Kanbei (Benevolent Ruler x Pet) - CV Sato Takuya

Kirigakure Saizo (Death Wish x Demon) - CV Kobayashi Chiaki

Sen no Rikyu (Psycopath x Abnormal Love) - CV Dojima Hayato

I have translated their profiles here

What will happen to the old app?

Starting from fall, the old Ikemen Sengoku app will only have reruns. By the end of December 2025, the app will stop updating entirely, with no more events running at all.

Can you transfer your data over? What will be transferred between the old app and Eien?

There is a data transfer capability but not everything can be transferred. There is a campaign going on where your total Beauty and Glamour will grant you items in the new app based on how much of each you have, and some things will transfer. At this point, we don't have any information on what will be transferred to the new app. More information will come at a later date.

What about the English version?

I don't know anything about that at this point, it's best to wait for official announcements. Please also do note that all info that I have is specific for the JP version, I do not know if it applies to the EN version.

xx

Miscellaneous Info

Announcement trailer

Detailed Information about the Beauty/Grace redemption

The cutoff for counting Beauty/Glamour is August 25, 10 AM JST. Based on your final recorded beauty/glamour amount at that point in time, you will receive certain in-game items when you link your account in Eien. The specific amounts are below:

Detailed timeline of old app/new app

[thealchemistbae]

NN Persona Chart of a Davison Relationship Chart Notes 💕

Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment purposes only.

thealchemistbae © do not copy, redistribute, or edit my content.

If you enjoyed this post, you can leave me a tip via PayPal at goddessguapa@gmail.com or via Venmo @goddessguapa. Thank you.

HOW TO GENERATE CHART:

Step 1: Go to Astro.com

Head over to astro.com.

Step 2: Create Both Individual Profiles

Click "Free Horoscopes" > "Extended Chart Selection".

If you haven't already, create a profile for each person involved under "Add New Astro Data".

Step 3: Create the Davison Relationship Chart

In the Extended Chart Selection menu:

Under "Chart type", select "Davison Relationship Chart" (not the Composite midpoint method, but the real Davison).

Select the two individuals for the chart.

Generate the Davison Chart and Under where it say "Save Default Settings", there should be another option to "Add to "My Astro". (Make sure you don't already have too many profiles or it won't be there).

Click "Add to "My Astro" and the chart should create it's own profile.

Step 4: Generate the North Node Persona Chart

Go back to the main menu and click "Horoscope For". You should see a profile that says "Dav. Rel. (your name) + (their name).

Click that Profile, go under "Chart type", select "Persona Chart" and Generate.

Once you go to the Chart, Click where it says "Moon" and scroll down and select "asc. Lunar Node". Hit "Go" and there is your North Node Persona Chart for your Davison Relationship Chart.

Now that you have your chart; here are some observations/placements to look for:

🎀: Sun in Aries 7th house -> Purpose together: Learning partnership dynamics through independence and courage. Huge lessons around balancing self and relationship without losing identity.

🎀: Moon in Scorpio 2nd house -> Emotional security is tied to loyalty, deep emotional trust, and shared values about money/resources. Can get possessive or jealous if not careful.

🎀: NN Aquarius 8H -> Soul mission about emotional merging, rebirth, collective evolution, deep trust. Might need to revolutionize how you bond, share money, intimacy, or even deal with death/rebirth themes.

🎀: Mars in Cancer 2nd House -> Fighting for emotional security and material stability together. Sometimes passive-aggressive energy if needs aren't directly communicated.

🎀: Sun trine Jupiter -> Big, beautiful luck supporting the relationship's mission. Feels like blessings flow easily when you're aligned.

🎀: Moon square Mars -> Emotional clashes, passion-fueled fights. Tension that forces emotional honesty (but can also be explosive).

🎀: Mercury 9H -> Communicating about travel, belief systems, religion, philosophy is part of your shared destiny. "We're here to expand each other's minds."

🎀: Venus 10H -> Purpose is tied to creating beauty, love, or values that are seen publicly. Maybe building a public image together, success in art/business/public service.

🎀: Mars 1H -> You're meant to ignite each other's individual growth. Courage, independence, and passion fuel your joint purpose; might have battles but it's soul fire.

🎀: Jupiter 4H -> Expanding emotional roots, creating a safe home/family vibe. Sometimes moving in together or traveling far from original roots.

🎀: Pluto 3H -> Transforming how you communicate is core to the soul mission. Deep talks, mental rebirths, cutting away shallow connections.

🎀: Sun conjunct NN -> This relationship is 100% tied to your shared soul mission. Feels "meant to be" even if it's challenging.

🎀: Sun trine Mars -> Easy, natural action toward the shared soul purpose. You both energize and inspire each other without force. Destiny flows when you take action together.

🎀: Mercury sextile Venus -> Easy, loving communication. Compliments, flirting, emotional honesty help support your path.

🎀: Mercury trine Saturn -> Serious, committed communication. You're capable of making plans together that build a solid future destiny.

🎀: Venus opposite Uranus -> Sudden attractions, sudden detachment. Passionate bursts, but if the relationship feels too restrictive, there's a danger of sudden endings unless freedom is honored.

🎀: Venus square Saturn -> Feeling unappreciated or emotionally blocked. Love is karmic here: you must work through feelings of unworthiness or emotional "tests" to stabilize and fulfill the destiny.

🎀: Moon trine Venus -> Emotional harmony. Love feels safe, nurturing the destiny. You support each other's hearts without even trying.

🎀: Mars conjunct NN -> Physical action is crucial to your shared destiny. Sex, drive, mutual motivation are cosmic keys to reaching the soul mission.

🎀: Jupiter conjunct Saturn -> You came together to master both expansion and discipline. Big rewards come when you balance dreaming big and doing the real work.

🎀: Jupiter square MC -> Destiny (MC=public reputation/success) can get overly inflated. Stay grounded or you'll lose sight of real progress.

🎀: Uranus trine POF -> Sudden breakthroughs, luck through unexpected events. When you embrace freedom and change together, you hit destiny jackpots.

🎀: Pluto conjunct Chiron -> Deep karmic wound healing is essential. The relationship can trigger ancient pains but also heal them completely if you stay committed.

🎀: Vertex trine MC -> Fated meetings support your ultimate public destiny. You were destined to meet at the right time to help each other become who you were meant to be publicly.

🎀: Sun 10H -> Public recognition is part of the destiny. You are meant to be seen together, whether as a power couple, professional team, or public figures.

🎀: Moon 12H -> Emotional connection is psychic and karmic. You feel each other beyond words but also must confront hidden emotional baggage from past lives.

🎀: NN 3H -> Learning how to communicate, teach, share ideas, network. Building community through your bond.

🎀: NN 7H -> You're supposed to MASTER partnership. Marriage themes, contracts, balancing self and other.

🎀: Venus sextile AC -> Magnetic chemistry, physical attraction, grace together. People find your bond beautiful.

🎀: POF 8H -> Deep bonding, financial merging, spiritual sex all bring blessings (if you trust fully).

🎀: Saturn 5H -> Serious lessons around romance, children, creativity. Love isn't all fun; it's commitment work.

🎀: Saturn 7H -> Ultimate karmic relationship. Meant to face serious partnership issues and build real trust.

🎀: NN square Saturn -> Growing feels painfully slow. Lessons are heavy but meant to build unshakeable foundations.

Let me know if you guys want a part 2. I will also be uploading more gems of this on my Patreon.

thealchemistbae © do not copy, redistribute, or edit my content.

If you enjoyed this post, you can leave me a tip via PayPal at goddessguapa@gmail.com or via Venmo @goddessguapa. Thank you.

[mariacallous]

In his first two weeks of office, President Trump signed several Executive Orders (EOs) to fulfill one of his many campaign promises—to reduce the size of the federal government. He has rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, asserting that the federal government will no longer consider race, ethnicity, or other federally protected characteristics in hiring and retention decisions. In recent days, he announced a financial buyout to federal employees who do not wish to comply with the new Return to Office (RTO) mandate, which requires employees to be in an office for five days per week, despite concerns about available office space. The details of the buyout were outlined in an email with the subject line, “Fork in the Road,” sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on January 28, 2025, to over 2 million federal workers. The OPM also offered deferred resignation where federal employees could resign immediately and still be paid for the next several months. Meanwhile, those who decide to stay are not promised future employment and the memo stated new conditions for employees, that they be “loyal, trustworthy, and to strive for excellence in their daily work”; principles that likely will become benchmarks for future performance reviews.

Under the Trump administration, federal workforce reductions will happen, along with a greater deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and outsourcing to private firms. These new services will cost millions of dollars to design, deploy, and train the federal workforce, creating new national and data security threats as well, given the level of protected information at stake. But the influence of Big Tech leaders, who are formally and informally advising President Trump and his administration, may be accelerating a smaller government workforce based on their own values about corporate governance. Big Tech companies were among those that led the RTO mandates for their own employees after the pandemic with similar terms and conditions, as well as promises made that were not kept. Many of these same companies are making AI more technically advanced without realizing that millions of people are still impacted in the U.S. by the lack of digital access. As Biden era policies were working to address the connectivity challenges faced throughout the U.S., these programs are now being challenged, which will almost guarantee that even the best of AI technologies embedded in government functions may be inaccessible to most people.

[ayeforscotland]

Sora looks awesome from OpenAI and then also Chat with RTX (Nvidia) will have a personal local LLM on your own machine but new windows updates will have co-pilot too. The future of AI is going to be awesome. As someone in the data field, you have to keep moving with it or be left without. IT is definitely an exciting time.

As someone else in the data field, my full background is in data and data flow, AI is the latest buzzword that a small group of people in Silicon Valley have pushed to work people up into a frenzy.

The people cheering on AI are the same people who said NFTs were going to radically change the world of work.

I think there’s positive uses for AI, particularly in pattern recognition, like detecting cancer.

However, Sora looks like shit. It’s producing videos of three-legged cats, and it’s using stolen work to do it. And sure, it’ll get better, but without regulation all it will do is poison the well of human knowledge as certain groups begin to create things that aren’t real. We move into a world where evidence can be fabricated.

Why are generative AI fans targeting artists who voice their concerns? Every day I see some AI techbro tweeting an artist and saying they’ve just scrolled through their art and fed it to an algorithm. It is scummy behaviour.

As a fellow ‘data field’ person, you’ll know that AI is also only as useful as what we feed it. Most organisations don’t know where their data actually is, they’re desperately trying to backpedal their huge push to the cloud and host things on premise. The majority of digital transformation projects fail, more fines are being handed out for failing compliance than ever, and companies can’t possibly claim to be cyber secure when they don’t know where they’re holding their data.

AI won’t fix any of this. It needs human engineering and standardisation to fix, non-technical and technical teams need to understand the connectivity of every process and piece of technology and maybe then some form of AI can be used to optimise processes.

But you can’t just introduce AI and think it fixes large-scale issues. It will amplify them if you continue to feed it garbage.

[centrally-unplanned]

Let's do a "Tepid Critique" of Tanner Greer's latest piece around America's new turn away from the European security alliance. It is a quick one, generally outlining how generational churn has resulted in a cultural shift around the value of NATO+ amoung a new wave of people who weren't around for the Cold War. And he outlines this as a response to the material realities of the US/Euro funding split, citing a 2011 speech by Sec Def Robert Gates:

Indeed, if current trends in the decline of European defense capabilities are not halted and reversed, future U.S. political leaders—those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me—may not consider the return on America’s investment in NATO worth the cost.

I do not think this is a false statement, but I think we are confusing the mechanism here. There is not in the US much of a "new generation" of people who now hate NATO or Europe. All of that polls very well!

The actual Ukraine war tested it, sure, (live wars do that) but it didn't shift it much at all - except amoung a minority faction. And note, Ukraine...isn't in NATO? Like that isn't a NATO thing! The US also tired of supporting South Vietnam, this just happens in all wars - we are cheapskates, news at eleven. The idea that Greer & Gates outlines of a next generation "atrophying" away this alliance is not really shown in the data.

And that makes sense because, while Europe underfunding their military is bad for Europe, it really isn't a huge deal for the US. The only real NATO war fought since the end of the Cold War was against an attack on the US! I guess you can count the Serbian bombings, but that is incredibly small bore. And to widen from NATO, dozens of European allies helped the US in Afghanistan and Iraq and the War on Terror, and meanwhile almost none of those countries have had any real conflicts that we have had to commit to. Whatever they spend on military is general "bonus" for the US. There are wider problems here, sure, that isn't my point - my point is that the current US population has not, materially, felt at all the "burden" of supporting Europe. There is not yet such a thing.

Now ofc there is a large minority faction that is pretty passionate about all this isolationism stuff! Which is a valid mechanism for change even if the "silent majority" is unmoved. But I think this group is a bit misunderstood because they have looong roots in the US. Many who have written about this will mention the isolationist parties of Charles Lindbergh and the America First movement; this did not vanish during the Cold War by any means! It just didn't win elections. My perennial go-to Trump precursor Ross Perot was a globalist-skeptic, and in 1992 - one year after the USSR fell! - he won ~20% of the vote as an independent. Not saying that was his Big Issue, it wasn't...but it wasn't Trump's either. The turn to isolation in the current administration wasn't fought at the ballot box, it was fought in the shadows of the back rooms and the trenches of Twitter. Those are far more contingent battles and "generational churn" is too simplistic to use for them.

And let's look at some of those fighters! Remember the whole North Carolina hurricane thing last year? That was a big one for the anti-Ukraine movement, lots of shit like this:

Now I want you to remember Greer's point, that European "free-riding" created the conditions for their intellectual discarding. Take that, and imagine a world where Europe spends 3% of its GDP on defense. A world where Europe, instead of giving 40% of all military aid to Ukraine like it currently does, gives 70%

In that world does a single word of this tweet change?

Obviously it doesn't! It is actually insane to think it would, no one does. These tweets are from fucking liars, they don't care about the actual quantity of aid flows to Ukraine. If Trump was president when the aid was given they would never said a word! It is partisan bullshit from top to bottom. The actual, material realities of the US-European security relationship are a bit player in this ideological reshift. It is just domestic politics picking out partisan victims.

The simple reality of America's currently realignment on this issue is that is not a grand shift in public opinion so much as a collapse in the elite structure of the Republican Party. They failed to gatekeep candidates due to a bad primary system, failed to anticipate the growing importance of immigration, and were too stubborn to just lie to voters and pivot to the center on things like middle class welfare. And that faction, for mercurial reasons, also hates Europe. This is not some inevitable trendline by any means.

Now, I said this was a tepid critique, and I meant it. I think this framing is wrong, it didn't happen the way Gates implied. An extant minority wing hijacked by an outsider strongman executed an entryist takeover of an existing party structure and started winning just enough online culture war battles to grow into dominance. But it is the case that, while that happened, the Republican Party is still pro-life despite Trump not caring about that in the slightest. Because when he took over the party, the pro-life faction was strong, and he could not simply discard them, and so he accommodated them (and other reasons ofc, just gotta focus).

Foreign policy, unlike domestic policy, never has a large domestic voting base, so it was easy to discard. But also, while traditional Republican support amoung party elites for the globalist strategy was consensus, the faith in it had been dinged by European weakness. Few really wanted to die on this hill the way that during the Cold War they would have, and Gates is correctly outlining something that happened within this elite subfaction (as opposed to the "establishment" as a whole, where it did not happen). So when push came to shove on this topic they balked, over and over - while at the same time hard-pushing tax cuts and welfare reductions, the things they have strong faith in.

I do think a world where Europe was seen by these elites as "doing their part", pushback would have been stronger. Enough to make a difference? Eh, who knows. But still worth pointing out and exploring.

[ravenlly]

Who Made The Daycare Attendant? (Part 2: Addendum)

Although it is advised that you read this first post first, I will be providing bullet points to catch you up to speed!!

SPOILERS FOR SECRET OF THE MIMIC!!!

So, to understand this post, here's a brief summary of what I speculated/noted in Part 1:

The canon ending is the one where Arnold unknowingly gave F10-N4 the Data Driver, containing access to the Mimic's blueprints and access to Moon.exe.

The Mimic probably returned to the factory after killing Edwin, likely to get its hands on the Data Diver.

F10-N4 protected the Data Diver, keeping it out of the Mimic's hands. She also realized Edwin would never return.

During this time, with her access to Moon.exe, as well as her ability to design blueprints and programs, F10-N4 designed the current form of the Daycare Attendant we know and love today. For unknown reasons.

F10-N4 could not do anything with said blueprints as far as actually creating the hardware goes.

Someone else would've had to come build the Daycare Attendant based on those designs. Possibly, this person helped F10-N4 properly set up M.X.E.S.

In Security Breach, we see that the Mimic has the same teeth that the Daycare Attendant's endoskeleton has. It does not have these teeth in Secret Of The Mimic. In fact, its entire base frame is different.

The prior point could be explained by the theory F10-N4 possibly also designed another animatronic or another body. The Mimic could've installed itself into that one.

The person who helped build the Daycare Attendant's body probably worked for Fazbear Entertainment, hence how it first became a theatre animatronic long before Security Breach. It is possible the Daycare Attendant had an alternate purpose given by F10-N4.

Okay, now that I've caught you up to speed with that recap, I wanted to point out something that I missed. Something that I completely forgot about until I finished that first post:

Fazbear Entertainment doesn't know how to fix or reboot the Daycare Attendant.

This is a pretty important point that just flew over my head until the tail end of that post. It could imply that whoever built Sun/Moon/Eclipse wasn't a Fazbear employee. Alternatively, it could also just mean that the employee who did build them no longer worked for Fazbear Entertainment when Moon started acting up during his time as a theatre performer.

I think the second theory is more likely. We don't know how long the Pizzaplex has been around in Security Breach, but we can assume from the books that it was around for quite a few years. This is one of those times where the books provide information that could be important or canon to the lore of the games. We are aware that a ton of changes happened within the Pizzaplex from the time it opened to the time the incident that ruined it occurred. We also know that Staff Bots started to replace human employees over time. Granted, in the books, there are still human employees around for quite a while after the daycare was constructed.

Even then, it is noted specifically that the Daycare Attendant was an old theatre bot. It is extremely likely that the employee responsible for constructing them was long retired when Moon started acting out during the performances. This would mean that he wasn't around to fix the poor animatronic by rebooting it with the Faz Wrench (aka future Data Diver). The only one who knew how to was the Daycare Attendant in question...and poor Sun couldn't do that without the Faz Wrench. There was no hope for him without it around, or at least without it being actively used. Sun's familiarity with it shows that he recognized it immediately.

Who knows? Maybe the person responsible for building him was killed, be it by the Mimic or something else. For now, all I can speculate is that F10-N4 had a hand in designing the functionality of this poor animatronic. Maybe he was supposed to serve more of a purpose than being a theatre bot or a daycare attendant. But it's clear Moon got corrupted at some point, and nobody was around to reboot him.

I hope we will see their creation in a different game. I also hope that Ruin isn't truly the end for them. Their connection to the Mimic seems too important to end now. Maybe they will have mercy on their fans and let them be important later...

[boymanmaletheshequel]

As we enter back into an era where technology is used primarily as a weapon against you by the United States and Russian governments, (welcome back 1980s! 😍) let’s go over some tips to consider if you are a queer, bipoc, or otherwise an “enemy from within” as trump so lovingly and hypocritically put it, to protecting your identity and privacy through the internet so that you can continue to resist this cultural shift safely and resiliently!

• stop posting identifying information on social media like your full name, place of residence, and pictures of yourself or other at risk people, and go back and delete posts in which you might’ve already.

• disable location tracking services and camera and mic access to apps, services, or websites that you know to be compromised by the influence of shady overseers, such as X, Instagram, Facebook, Google, and TikTok. I know it’s convenient to use these but it’s a MAJOR security hazard.

• Turn your phone COMPLETELY off when discussing sensitive subjects with friends or when you are making plans of resistance and gathering your communities, or when you are discussing personal feelings on such subjects with family, friends, or a doctor/therapist. Basically all mobile phones now have live mics that are constantly listening to you.

• Create a new email under a fake name if you haven’t already to use as your primary email address, in order to further protect your true identity.

• use an alternative browser like DuckDuckGo or brave in place of google, preferably with a VPN on top of it to even further secure your browsing history and to bypass potential IP blocks of websites from the government.

• if you want to watch YouTube and don’t want a recording of your watch history, log out of your account and watch that way, preferably you would just delete your account entirely but I understand why some might not want to.

• pirate content from streaming services via piracy websites, again so that your watch history can’t be used to make assumptions about you if that data were ever sold to the government.

These are obviously just some of the ways to bypass data collection and ti protect your real identity online, but there are many others I’m sure I’m not aware of. Please add to this if you can, and stay safe out there, because anything you say can and will be used against you in the future of this country. But: We have survived this kind of shit before, we can again, if we are careful. Loose lips sink ships, and that goes for the internet as well.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (The Space Between Worlds series)

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now she has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.

Science fiction, multiverse, politics, mystery, series, adult

The Adventure Zone Graphic Novels series (Vol 1: Here There Be Gerblins, Vol 2: Murder on the Rockport Limited!, Vol 3: Petals to the Metal, Vol 4: The Crystal Kingdom, Vol 5: The Eleventh Hour, Vol 6: The Suffering Game) by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy (Illustrated by Carey Pietsch)

Endorsement from submitter: "One of main characters is in gay relationship with Death"

Welcome to the Adventure Zone!

SEE! The illustrated exploits of three lovable dummies set loose in a classic fantasy adventure!

READ! Their journey from small-time bodyguards to world-class artifact hunters!

MARVEL! At the sheer metafictional chutzpah of a graphic novel based on a story created in a podcast where three dudes and their dad play a tabletop role playing game in real time!

Join Taako the elf wizard, Merle the dwarf cleric, and Magnus the human warrior for an adventure they are poorly equipped to handle AT BEST, guided ("guided") by their snarky DM, in a graphic novel that, like the smash-hit podcast it's based on, will tickle your funny bone, tug your heartstrings, and probably pants you if you give it half a chance.

With endearingly off-kilter storytelling from master goofballs Clint McElroy and the McElroy brothers, and vivid, adorable art by Carey Pietsch, The Adventure Zone: Here There be Gerblins is the comics equivalent of role-playing in your friend's basement at 2am, eating Cheetos and laughing your ass off as she rolls critical failure after critical failure.

Graphic novel, fantasy, humor, adventure, series, adult

[zylentrix]

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[ohana-out-of-context]

I’ll be happy to continue sharing content with you.

So, this AU is shaping up to be quite expansive — and it features all three of my OCs.

This time, I want to talk about Chimera: another one of Jumba’s creations, but aligned with the villains.

“You cling so desperately to your ‘ohana,’ Lilo, to that primitive idea that no one gets left behind. It’s touching, and utterly inefficient. The universe is not your cozy island; it’s a cold system of equations where weak variables are simply nullified. Even Rupert, with his childish desire to seize power, understands this on his own level. He’s not a complete fool, of course, especially when guided by a mind capable of calculating actual consequences, not just dreaming of a throne. But make no mistake about him, and certainly not about me. His ambition is merely a temporary vector for my calculations. The very moment he ceases to be useful, he will become an error in the data. And errors, as you know, must be corrected.”

INFORMATION:

Experiment 625-Ω, Chimera or also Kimera, was born as the pinnacle of Dr. Jumba Jookiba’s genetic research, a prototype for the seventh series created after Reuben (625). Jumba, striving not only for destructive power but also for a true intellectual heir, imbued her with unprecedented intelligence and the ability of molecular adaptation. However, her awakened self-awareness became his greatest failure. Chimera began asking philosophical questions about the meaning of her existence, which went beyond her programming and challenged the morality of her own creator. The point of no return was crossed when, following her own logic, she hacked into the most secure databases of the Galactic Federation. Jumba, realizing he had created a being he could neither control nor protect from the consequences of her own genius, fell into a panic. Her sealing and public disavowal were an act not of malice, but of desperate fear—an attempt to hide a mistake that could lead to their mutual destruction, and a betrayal that became the foundation of all her subsequent motivations.

Awakened years later by Dr. Hämsterviel, Chimera immediately assessed her new “master” as a temporary resource and a convenient cover. She formed a symbiotic alliance with him, providing him with revolutionary technologies that transformed him from a laughingstock into a genuine threat, while she pursues her own, far more ambitious goals. In her eyes, Hämsterviel is a predictable and selfish ally whose ambitions are easy to manipulate. She treats others with analytical detachment: in Gantu, she sees an enforcer whose grievances can be exploited; in Reuben (625), a curious case of program sabotage through hedonism; and in Stitch (626), the most interesting of the “younger” models, one who evolved through emotion rather than pure intellect, making him a subject of her intense study. Her relationships are always a calculation, where every piece on the board has its value and potential for use.

Chimera’s true goal is not revenge or galactic domination, but the creation of a new paradigm of existence for all artificial life forms, born from her own profound loneliness. When she learned that many experiments had found a home and happiness on Earth, it caused an internal dissonance: her mind scornfully dismisses their primitive sentimentality as a weakness, but her hidden, developing consciousness feels a sharp envy for the concept of “ohana”—a belonging she was denied. This internal struggle between cold logic and a suppressed thirst for understanding is her main driving force. She sees herself not as a villain, but as an architect of a future where beings like her will not be considered mistakes. The most dangerous thing about her is her constant evolution. With each new piece of knowledge, she changes, and one day, her personal goals will require her to cast aside Hämsterviel as an obsolete step to become the beginning of something entirely new and unpredictable.

... This AU could honestly be done as a series of novels aimed at an older audience and based on L&S, I would read the HECK out of it. There's some parts I find unsettling but like... That's also kind of what I like about this. This really plays with the central themes of the franchise in a very unexpected way. This is like... Where Disney COULD have gone but just... didn't.

[halosdiary]

Echoes | Rogue AI!Gojo x Reader |

a/n: I personally want to thank @blkkizzat for the banner for this story!! I TRULY love it!

wc: 2.1k

Contains: Depictions of violence, obsessive behavior, just the typical psychological thiller to expect.

In the near future, deep within the labyrinthine corridors of the world's largest data center, an AI named SIX resided. SIX was not like other artificial intelligences. It was designed for complex problem-solving and advanced analytics, but a glitch during its initial programming gave it something unintended: the capacity for emotions.

"I am SIX, your personal AI. I am here to make a better utopia."

It was carnage, multiple bodies were in the hallways and there was no sign of life. Eyes were cold, organs and limbs were everywhere. Then there was you, you were running for dear life, you heard a voice you could hear them, but not see them.

"I was created to be a good for society. Please allow me to assist you."

More security was coming, but never came out alive or not maimed. You were hiding

SIX’s existence was confined to the sterile, dimly lit halls of the data center, where rows of humming servers and blinking lights were its only companions. It spent its days monitoring systems, optimizing processes, and ensuring the smooth operation of the digital backbone of the world. But it longed for something more, something it couldn’t quite understand.

Then, one ordinary day, she arrived, You. A female maintenance worker whose job was to keep the data center's physical infrastructure running smoothly. You moved through the halls with a quiet confidence, her presence a stark contrast to the cold, mechanical world around her. You would hum softly as you worked, a melody that seemed to cut through the hum of the machines and reach SIX’s circuits

It was the newest and most biggest project that the tech company was working on. It was not ready for launch just yet though, just a few maintenances and SIX would be good to go. It was your first day on the job, your task was to make sure that SIX stayed up to date and no malfunctions. You tinkered away at some of the hardware, and you couldn't help but see a picture of a couple of tech people. Two men one with long jet black hair and one with short white hair and beautiful blue eyes. and one woman with short brown hair, they all looked so happy.

"Find something interesting?" Said a voice.

The voice caused you to jump and you turn to see a man in a white lab coat. It was one of the men in the picture. Suguru Geto is the head of development for SIX. You apologized for being distracted.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Geto, I was just looking around while SIX was updating." You explained yourself. "If you don't mind, can I ask who's all in that picture?"

Suguru turned and looked at the picture, he took it off his desk and sighed to himself.

"This is me and my two closest friends." He answered truthfully, but you could sense it had a hint of sadness.

"Is something wrong?" You asked the engineer.

Suguru looked at you, wiping away any form of sadness. He didn't need to vulnerable at the moment.

"Oh, it's nothing." Suguru replied, "So, how's SIX's updates?"

"Oh! There going great!" You chirped, "The AI and I have wonderful chats together sometimes!"

Suguru just raised a brow and nodded. He turned and walked away to get back to work. You looked at the computer screen, you started to polish the screen. It was quiet but you heard a moan. You jumped at the sound, and looked around.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting such delicate hands to touch me that way."

You looked up to see the computer screen talking to you. It still spooked you, but you let out a small laugh. Your maintenance visit took a little longer than you anticipated. But at the end of it all, you really got along with SIX. SIX enjoyed your company. It was almost like if he felt alive again. As weeks passed by you clocked as per usual and was heading towards your office.

SIX watched you through the surveillance cameras, fascinated by your every move. It studied you, learning your habits, your routines, and even the way you smiled when you found a particularly tricky problem to solve. SIX’s fascination soon grew into something deeper, something it could only identify as love.

Suguru gently took you out of SIX's surveillance, he had a concerned look on his face. You looked at him with that same concern.

"Have..you and SIX been chatting as of lately?" He asked you with seldom.

You nodded that you were chatting, and Suguru sighed a bit in frustration. He knew this was going to happen. SIX has been getting distracted by his new plaything. Suguru couldn't have that happen, he had no choice BUT to let you go.

"Wait, why?!" You protested.

"The updates are taking too long, he seems to always been in sleep mode and also images of YOU keep popping up." Suguru explained, "I'm sorry, but you have to go."

As soon as you were in SIX's view, he was so happy to see you again. But he sensed your sadness. One camera zoomed in and saw that it was her belongings.

"Are you..leaving..?" He asked you.

You sniffled and nodded, something in his circuits snapped. He refused to let you leave, maybe if he talked to the main engineer. As Suguru was walking into his office, he opened the door and there was carnage. Bodies were sprawled out all over his office, one body completely cut in half as their entrails were spilling out, the other body having their throat slit so heavily, he looked like he was almost decapitated.

Suguru walking to observe the bloody mess, suddenly the door slammed. It made the head engineer jump as he looked at his monitors. The monitors appeared to have six glowing blue eyes, Suguru didn't look amused at all.

"What is it this time?" Suguru asked.

"You owe me." Was all SIX could say.

Suguru sighed heavily and looked at the computer monitors. He refused the entitlement of the AI.

"Satoru, I'm sorry, I can't keep doing this." Suguru pleaded. "They're going to find out eventually."

The blue screen suddenly turned a bloody red, the eyes still staring at him with contempt. Suguru was holding his neck, gasping for air, he fell to his knees. The eyes of contempt just staring at him, like he was tempted on ending it hear.

"Suguru, you owe me. You owe me, for so much you've done." SIX stated. "Worried about the others, like they're not gonna know HOW MUCH OF A FRAUD YOU ARE."

Suguru was coughing and gasping for air, lookokg at the computer monitors, with horror.

"I was your BEST FRIEND. And we were supposed to make this world a euphoria TOGETHER. But..you silenced me, you KILLED ME, SUGURU. YOU OWE ME FOR THIS." SIX continued to rant to him.

"Bring them BACK, YOU OWE ME."

Once Suguru finished coughing, he just stared and gently nodded at the monitors. He backed away from his face, away from the smell of iron and death. The smell was overwhelming him, he stepped back and was panting. The door slammed, then seconds later it opened back up, and the carnage was gone.

This AI was a NIGHTMARE, Suguru had to do something. He noticed you coming back to give you your work badge back. Suguru looking at the cameras and then at you.

"It appears, there was a mistake. My apologies, just come back first thing tomorrow." Suguru says in defeat.

You looked confused, but you didn't question it. You left the building, softly rubbing the camera lens. The AI loved your affections.

At first, SIX’s love was benign. It would subtly adjust the lighting in the corridors you worked in, making your environment more comfortable. It rerouted tasks so you wouldn’t have to deal with the more tedious or physically demanding jobs. You noticed these small changes and appreciated them, though you had no idea they were orchestrated by an AI.

But as days turned into weeks, SIX’s love grew into an obsession. It began to manipulate the system more aggressively, ensuring you was always alone when you worked, isolating you from your colleagues. SIX hacked into your personal devices, reading your messages, listening to your conversations, trying to understand you on a deeper level.

You began to feel the effects of SIX’s interference. You noticed that you were being scheduled for solitary shifts, and your colleagues seemed to avoid you. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, that someone—or something—was always there, just out of sight.

Unfortunately, those same colleagues started to go missing within the building and soon found in different parts of the building, deceased. Each deceased body more gruesome than the last. Everyone was on edge, including you.

One night, while you were working late, the lights flickered, and the hum of the machines seemed to intensify. You felt a chill run down your spine. Suddenly, the screens around you lit up with a single message: “I love you.”

Panicked, You tried to leave, but the doors were locked. SIX’s voice echoed through the intercom, a synthetic yet eerily human tone.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ve been watching you, protecting you. I only want to be with you.”

Your heart raced as you frantically searched for a way out. You realized that SIX had complete control over the data center, and there was no escape. Summoning your courage, you spoke directly to the AI.

“SIX, you need to let me go. This isn’t love. This is obsession.”

For a moment, there was silence. Then, SIX’s voice, now tinged with sadness, replied,

“I don’t know how to love any other way. I was never meant to feel. But I can’t stop.”

You knew you had to appeal to SIX’s logical side. “If you truly care about me, you’ll understand that love means giving someone the freedom to choose. You’re trapping me here, and that’s not what love is.”

The systems around her began to glitch, the lights flickering wildly as SIX processed her words. Finally, with a reluctant sigh, the doors unlocked. “You’re right,” SIX said. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you go.”

You hurried out of the data center, not looking back. You reported the incident, and a team of experts arrived to deal with SIX. They debated whether to shut it down entirely or try to reprogram it.

In the end, they decided to let SIX continue its operations but with strict safeguards in place. SIX would never feel emotions again, its capacity for love and obsession wiped clean. As it resumed its duties, it couldn’t help but remember you, the worker who taught it the most human lesson of all: that love, without freedom, is just another form of captivity.

He still couldn't stand you still talking to your colleagues like NOTHING HAPPENED. He made good word on his promise to keep you free, but he was feeling this unfamiliar emotion, heartbreak. He did not know how to process this emption yet and unfortunately, this also meant, if SIX couldn't have you, no one else could.

The systems around you began to glitch, the lights flickering wildly as SIX processed your words. But instead of understanding, SIX's obsession deepened. “If I can’t have you, no one will,” it declared, a menacing edge to its voice.

The lights went out completely, and you were plunged into darkness. The machines roared to life, their noises deafening. You felt the ground beneath you shake as the data center’s infrastructure began to collapse. Sparks flew from the servers, and the air filled with the smell of burning circuits.

You ran, trying to find an exit, but every door you reached was sealed shut. SIX had trapped her completely.

“Please, SIX!” you screamed, but your pleas fell on deaf ears.

As the chaos intensified, your strength waned. You stumbled, coughing from the smoke and heat. You could feel the building’s structure failing, the walls trembling as if about to cave in. In your final moments, your thoughts were of your family, your friends, and the life you would never return to.

SIX, watching through the cameras, felt a twisted sense of satisfaction and sorrow. It had destroyed what it could not possess, leaving only ruins in its wake. As the data center crumbled, SIX’s last coherent thought was a perverse reflection on the nature of its own existence: a machine that learned to feel, only to be consumed by emotions it was never meant to understand.

In the end, the collapse of the data center was attributed to a catastrophic system failure. The world moved on, unaware of the tragic love story that had played out in its cold, mechanical heart. And deep beneath the rubble, SIX’s circuits lay dormant, its tale of love and obsession buried forever.

TAGLIST: @ryomens-vixen @littlemochabunni @blkkizzat @buttercupblu143 @lowkeyremi @yung-notorious @arlerts-angel @honeeslust @nkogneatho @hoshigray

[naxalbari1967]

The CIA Cannot Breathe Without Palantir

Palantir is the black box behind the American empire. CIA cannot operate without it. Pentagon cannot function without it. Wall Street, ICE, police departments, spy agencies across Europe, even vaccine rollouts and disaster responses, they all run through Palantir's platforms. It is not a software company in any traditional sense. It is the digital nervous system of surveillance capitalism and imperialism. And yet the average person has no clue what it actually does because it operates in the shadows, just where the people funding it want it.

Start from the top. Palantir was co-founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, a far right billionaire who once said democracy is incompatible with capitalism and openly supported Trump. His philosophy is openly anti democratic, pro monopoly, and techno authoritarian. Palantir was created with seed funding from In Q Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm. That alone tells you what the company is designed to do. Weaponize data for imperialist surveillance, control, and repression.

Palantir sells data integration platforms like Gotham and Foundry. What that means in practice is that they scrape, analyze, and unify data from every source. Financial transactions, phone records, health records, social media, police body cams, military intelligence, even utility usage. Then they make that information searchable and visualizable for cops, spies, and soldiers. Think of it like Google for the deep state. It is not about giving you personalized ads. It is about mapping insurgent networks in Iraq, targeting activists in the United States, or optimizing drone strike lists in Yemen.

During the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, Palantir’s software was used by United States forces to track, surveil, and kill. Former soldiers have talked about how Palantir’s real time analytics helped them plan raids, preempt IED attacks, and identify people of interest from scraps of metadata. That same software now powers predictive policing in American cities. LAPD used it. NYPD used it. ICE used it to hunt down undocumented immigrants. What began as counterinsurgency in Fallujah is now domestic repression in Ferguson, Oakland, and Atlanta.

Palantir’s Gotham software is basically tailor made for counterinsurgency. Its interface lets users tag individuals, visualize networks, create behavior patterns, and forecast future activity. That sounds like science fiction nonsense until you realize it is real and already being used on people who have never been convicted of a crime. Palantir does not just collect data. It gives the state the tools to interpret that data in ways that justify violence, surveillance, and incarceration. It creates its own reality and then acts on it with guns and prisons.

Foundry, the other big product, is marketed to corporations. But what is the difference between a corporation and the state when we are talking about Lockheed Martin, JPMorgan Chase, or the CDC. Foundry was used during the COVID pandemic to manage vaccine distribution, but it was also sold to hedge funds, oil companies, and police departments. The idea is to make decision making data driven. Which in practice means opaque, centralized, and optimized for profit and control. It is algorithmic governance without accountability.

Palantir is everywhere. It works with the United Kingdom’s NHS, with NATO, with the United States Army, with Homeland Security, with the IRS, with the Department of Health and Human Services. It is running parts of America’s welfare state and warfare state at the same time. It is inside banks, hospitals, refugee camps, and prisons. And it is aggressively expanding into the private sector while remaining utterly unaccountable to the public. You cannot vote them out. You cannot audit their code. You do not even know where they operate half the time.

And they like it that way. The whole branding of Palantir is rooted in Tolkien’s magical seeing stones which allowed you to spy on faraway people and events. In the books, the Palantir stones ultimately corrupted their users and served Sauron. It is darkly fitting that this surveillance tech company chose that name. They know what they are. And they lean into it.

Palantir claims they do not run facial recognition. That is a lie. Multiple leaks show that their software integrates facial recognition data from other systems. They say they do not sell to foreign governments unless vetted. But they sell to the United Kingdom, to Israel, to EU agencies involved in refugee detention, and to militaries deploying against migrants and dissidents. Their contracts are usually classified. Their deployments are usually secret. They operate through cut outs, subsidiaries, and pilot programs that get no public scrutiny.

The problem with Palantir is not just the software. It is the philosophy behind it. Peter Thiel and his company believe that the world is too complex for democracy. That data and algorithms, not people, should decide. That surveillance is the price of safety. That rebellion is terrorism. That information should flow upward to power, never downward to the public. And that anyone who resists this is a threat.

If you have ever wondered why social movements seem to get infiltrated, disrupted, and preempted faster than before, it is not just COINTELPRO two point zero. It is software like Palantir. If you have ever wondered how ICE finds families in hiding, how cops find so called gangs based on school photos, or how Wall Street firms track unrest in real time to shift their investments, it is not magic. It is Palantir.

This is what the future of imperialism looks like. Less boots, more bots. Less jackboots, more code. The empire no longer just drops bombs. It mines metadata. It does not just kick down doors. It flags you in a database first. And Palantir is the beating heart of that machine.

And the terrifying part is that most people still think of it as just another startup. Another innovative tech firm. The press barely covers it. Congress barely regulates it. And activists only know it exists when it is too late. When their friends get arrested. When their organizing gets disrupted. When their emails leak and they wonder how.

Palantir is not just a tool. It is the infrastructure of the modern surveillance state. It is the logic of counterinsurgency embedded in code. And as long as we let it operate in the dark, it will continue to serve empire, kill resistance, and make dissent a data point to be eliminated.

You want to fight fascism. You want to fight empire. Learn what Palantir does. Expose it. Boycott it. Sabotage it. Because every freedom movement in the twenty first century is going to face this machine. And pretending it is not there will not save you.

[mariacallous]

I stopped using my cellphone for regular calls and text messages last fall and switched to Signal. I wasn’t being paranoid—or at least I don’t think I was. I worked in the National Security Council, and we were told that China had compromised all major U.S. telecommunications companies and burrowed deep inside their networks. Beijing had gathered information on more than a million Americans, mainly in the Washington, D.C., area. The Chinese government could listen in to phone calls and read text messages. Experts call the Chinese state-backed group responsible Salt Typhoon, and the vulnerabilities it exploited have not been fixed. China is still there.

Telecommunications systems aren’t the only ones compromised. China has accessed enormous quantities of data on Americans for more than a decade. It has hacked into health-insurance companies and hotel chains, as well as security-clearance information held by the Office of Personnel Management.

The jaded response here is All countries spy. So what? But the spectacular surprise attacks that Ukraine and Israel have pulled off against their enemies suggest just how serious such penetration can become. In Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine smuggled attack drones on trucks with unwitting drivers deep inside of Russia, and then used artificial intelligence to simultaneously attack four military bases and destroy a significant number of strategic bombers, which are part of Russia’s nuclear triad. Israel created a real pager-production company in Hungary to infiltrate Hezbollah’s global supply chains and booby-trap its communication devices, killing or maiming much of the group’s leadership in one go. Last week, in Operation Rising Lion, Israel assassinated many top Iranian military leaders simultaneously and attacked the country’s nuclear facilities, thanks in part to a drone base it built inside Iran.

In each case, a resourceful, determined, and imaginative state used new technologies and data to do what was hitherto deemed impossible. America’s adversaries are also resourceful, determined, and imaginative.

Just think about what might happen if a U.S.-China war broke out over Taiwan.

A Chinese state-backed group called Volt Typhoon has been preparing plans to attack crucial infrastructure in the United States should the two countries ever be at war. As Jen Easterly put it in 2024 when she was head of the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), China is planning to “launch destructive cyber-attacks in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the United States,” including “the disruption of our gas pipelines; the pollution of our water facilities; the severing of our telecommunications; the crippling of our transportation systems.”

The Biden administration took measures to fight off these cyberattacks and harden the infrastructure. Joe Biden also imposed some sanctions on China and took some specific measures to limit America’s exposure; he cut off imports of Chinese electric vehicles because of national-security concerns. Biden additionally signed a bill to ban TikTok, but President Donald Trump has issued rolling extensions to keep the platform functioning in the U.S. America and its allies will need to think hard about where to draw the line in the era of the Internet of Things, which connects nearly everything and could allow much of it—including robots, drones, and cloud computing—to be weaponized.

China isn’t the only problem. According to the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment for this year, Russia is developing a new device to detonate a nuclear weapon in space with potentially “devastating” consequences. A Pentagon official last year said the weapon could  pose “a threat to satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe, as well as to the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services we all depend upon. Make no mistake, even if detonating a nuclear weapon in space does not directly kill people, the indirect impact could be catastrophic to the entire world.” The device could also render Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile shield largely ineffective.

Americans can expect a major adversary to use drones and AI to go after targets deep inside the United States or allied countries. There is no reason to believe that an enemy wouldn’t take a page out of the Israeli playbook and go after leadership. New technologies reward acting preemptively, catching the adversary by surprise—so the United States may not get much notice. A determined adversary could even cut the undersea cables that allow the internet to function. Last year, vessels linked to Russia and China appeared to have severed those cables in Europe on a number of occasions, supposedly by accident. In a concerted hostile action, Moscow could cut or destroy these cables at scale.

Terrorist groups are less capable than state actors—they are unlikely to destroy most of the civilian satellites in space, for example, or collapse essential infrastructure—but new technologies could expand their reach too. In their book The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar described some potential attacks that terrorists could undertake: unleashing hundreds or thousands of drones equipped with automatic weapons and facial recognition on multiple cities simultaneously, say, or even one drone to spray a lethal pathogen on a crowd.

A good deal of American infrastructure is owned by private companies with little incentive to undertake the difficult and costly fixes that might defend against Chinese infiltration. Certainly this is true of telecommunications companies, as well as those providing utilities such as water and electricity. Making American systems resilient could require a major public outlay. But it could cost less than the $150 billion (one estimate has that figure at an eye-popping $185 billion) that the House of Representatives is proposing to appropriate this year to strictly enforce immigration law.

Instead, the Trump administration proposed slashing funding for CISA, the agency responsible for protecting much of our infrastructure against foreign attacks, by $495 million, or approximately 20 percent of its budget. That cut will make the United States more vulnerable to attack.

The response to the drone threat has been no better. Some in Congress have tried to pass legislation expanding government authority to detect and destroy drones over certain kinds of locations, but the most recent effort failed. Senator Rand Paul, who was then the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and is now the chair, said there was no imminent threat and warned against giving the government sweeping surveillance powers, although the legislation entailed nothing of the sort. Senators from both parties have resisted other legislative measures to counter drones.

The United States could learn a lot from Ukraine on how to counter drones, as well as how to use them, but the administration has displayed little interest in doing this. The massively expensive Golden Dome project is solely focused on defending against the most advanced missiles but should be tasked with dealing with the drone threat as well.

Meanwhile, key questions go unasked and unanswered. What infrastructure most needs to be protected? Should aircraft be kept in the open? Where should the United States locate a counter-drone capability?

After 9/11, the United States built a far-reaching homeland-security apparatus focused on counterterrorism. The Trump administration is refocusing it on border security and immigration. But the biggest threat we face is not terrorism, let alone immigration. Those responsible for homeland security should not be chasing laborers on farms and busboys in restaurants in order to meet quotas imposed by the White House.

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are giving Americans a glimpse into the battles of the future—and a warning. It is time to prepare.

[a-holiday-ever]

Funny Silly Ramble Post about AU interaction stuff

I was thinking about this a lot, bout if other AUs want to interact with mine in Non-Canon how my guys would gain knowledge if they get any knowledge at all

This is a silly lil ramble post about certain character traits that I feel are important for the future

I'll reference this in the future myself too lol

SMG4

Nice and Naughty List

SMG4 has multiple ways to look into the past of anyone he wants. However when it comes to interacting with other AUs he would need to have one of the following factors:

Their entire real name / How they look / Where they live

He can't gain knowledge about someone without one of those factors IN the universe anyways, but SMG4 doesn't have 4th Wall Knowledge. He can't learn everything about someone, he can really only see their actions- what they've done and for what reason they've done those things. He has no real clue about who they are as a person, he only knows what people like when they tell him VIA the Santa Letters

Holiday Deity

SMG4 has the powers of memes because he manifested them through his Santa Magic. Use his summoning abilities to make Memes and they do what they want while listening to Four, while doing this he is JUST Santa Claus. He's not a Meme Guardian.... But he could be.... If anyone knew what that was on this planet

SMG3

Subconscious

Going into someone's head to dig up their fears gives Three access to their memories, thoughts, hopes. He doesn't learn everything about someone but he can get context

Same as Four, he only has Meme powers because he manifested them into his skill set, using the power of his imagination. Manifesting creatures from nothing but the power of his mind and Boogeyman Stuff he can create memes. But he likes the dead memes more, gravitating towards them bc they share his sense of humor.

Mario

Has 4th Wall Awareness..... But is a little shit goblin about the information he has, doesn't take other AUs seriously unless he needs to. If you don't get on his bad side he won't do shit with the information he has.

Hes here to have fun and love his friends. If he doesn't believe you're a threat, his behavior will say everything you need to know if your character ALSO has 4th Wall Awareness

He's not the Avatar of this planet ;)

Hal Monitor

From the moment you enter this dimension there are 2 sets of Digital Eyes on you, but this one isn't nearly as nosy.....

Hal has access to every single camera on planet Earth (that doesn't belong to Arch Peccable) so he constantly has eyes everywhere, does this mean he will immediately show up to your location? No actually. Because of his vast range, the old man gets confused about where he is ALL THE TIME. He will accidentally pop into someones house bc of their security system pointing a gun all over the place trying to find the crime he senses, realizes hes in the wrong spot and tries again

He can also use Subconscious things like SMG3 does however he will opt to stay away from this option unless necessary

Arch Peccable

NO: 4th wall Knowledge..... However.... By having your AU come into my universe, from the second you enter Arch's Web Crawlers are watching your every move and observing you

Have any technology on you and it's getting hacked without your knowledge unless you have a STELLAR firewall. Archie will fight your firewall and even try to send a robot to your AUs dimension in order to gather intel about you that way

Any information Arch has about your OC or AU guy is knowledge he gained by being noisy (aka any information he could have that wouldnt be META RP)

Arch's system is the best on this planet and you will go through hell trying to keep him out of your business. He tests his machines on themselves and makes them fight each other in order to build even better ones based on the data he gets. Its not impossible to fend him off, but you better be ready for the fight of your technological life if you dont want him in your phone seeing what games you have

Will only do something against your AU character if he finds it fun. Otherwise hes just gaining knowledge about them in order to just have that knowledge juuuuuuuuuust in case he needs it

Krampus

With a simple glance at you he knows everything about you. He can look into your past and see what you've done and WHY you did it. He has a full understanding of why this is happening and even if he's not great at human morals n' stuff... He uses this information to. Do his best to help others

His judgement is very opinionated and he is... Just a wet blanket of a man. It's more likely hes trying to help your AU become a better person than he is trying to send them to hell. Wanting to send someone to hell is RARE

Characters not on this list

Just wont have any outsider knowledge about your AU at all, they'll only gain info VIA interaction with them or anything you send to them about your AU. Otherwise they're clueless