#it qas a close call between those two

[nani0san]

At this point I shortened "this is so sad, alexa play despacito" to just saying "despacito". And my Spanish colleague doesn't understand why I keep telling him to go slowly when he tells me why his day is fuckt up

Round 1

[nenithil]

Hello! I really like your content, however I'm relative new to AOT fandom and one of my favorite ch is Hange! I really like her interactions with Levi and in the manga they seems very friendly with the poop jokes and all that. However, I've seen people saying they weren't actually really good friends, and that the friendship is only from Hange's side based on some interview, but I've seen other people saying they're best friends, so I'm a little confused. Are they friends or not?

hello!!!glad to know you, Hans is my fav too. And I'm so grateful of your kind words!

"Best friend" comes from Hanji. In QA interview with Isym, Isym said that Hanji thought they and Levi are best friends.

Levi replied with そうか

I would like to add that it is not so normal for Hanji that Levi becomes Hanji's best friend.

Hanji regards many people as friends, including Erwin. She once said:

Hanji: Well ... I’ve been friends with both Erwin and Levi for a long time now. Erwin’s active support of my research has been very helpful. And I’ve heard that he also has doubts about how this world was formed?

It's easy to understand that she has known Erwin since she joined the SC, and the two have a lot similarities in intelligence. And Hanji is actually kind of nostalgic. When the journalist asked her who she got along with except Levi:

Hange: When I see the veteran soldiers who enlisted around the same time as me… if they’re still alive, that is… I would talk to them a lot.

She is more used to chatting with her contemporaries and circling around her work, but even though she has known Levi so many years late, she still claims Levi is her best friend. When it comes to Levi, she will also talk more about personal habits rather than just work. There should be special compatibility between Levi and her.

On Levi's side, Levi rarely directly admits that anyone is his good friend.

There are even official materials (sorry, I forgot the source, it should be in au interview). When asked about friends, Levi replied:

Friends...I have none

(then Hanji complained at one side: it's too much, Levi, am I not your friend?

In other words, he does not acknowledge anyone as his "friend" verbally, neither Erwin nor Hanji.

I speculated the reason, it could be:

1. Levi is not good at expressing or admitting feelings explicitly.

2. As a Survey soldier, Levi could lose anyone at any time. He is unwilling to develop a close relationship with others. He was afraid of the sorrow of losing a close friend.

3. I think what's more important is that Levi may have his unique definition of friend. He has dedicated almost everything to mankind. He knows that in the next battle, he may give up or sacrifice his comrades at any time for victory. This makes him feel that he might not be qualified to call anyone a friend.

But Levi is also a kind and very affectionate man. Even if he doesn't admit it, he will regard them as friends in his heart.

In the official material: sheltering from the rain: moblit & Levi, Levi talked about Hanji to Moblit:

いくら昔馴染みでも、べったり一緒にいるわけじゃねえ

no matter how familiar we were, we won't stick together.

馴染み，the relationship of EMA is called 幼馴染。 These are perhaps words closest to friend Levi had said. And from those words, we can feel how close they are.

How did Levi talk about his relationship with Hanji? In another closeup interview:

——We heard you and Hanji fought together for a long time, didn't you?

Levi: Just a troublesome but inescapable relationship. Each other just…survived with good luck. For experienced survey veterans, maybe everyone is like this.

腐れ縁——He described his relationship with Hanji in this way. You can search the meaning of this word. a troublesome but inescapable relationship. Generally speaking, it is a very Levi answer(and maybe with some romantic implication, lmao). In some sense, he thought their friendship was unshakable.

The most interesting thing in these lines is, he said that everyone may have such a relationship for veterans - but as far as we can see, no one else has such amusing 腐れ縁 like him and Hanji. Levi seems to be shyly hiding his words,lmao.

If in the usual definition, Levi and Hanji are undoubtedly very good friends. This is also reflected in their interaction countless times in the manga or anime. They always cooperate and entrust life to each other. They stood together back-to-back when fighting. Levi understands Hanji's habits and hobbies, appreciating Hanji's wisdom, and even his unknown childhood (about Kenny) he has told her early. Hanji also respects his ability, ridicules his quirks and cherishes his kindness. She'd like to interpret his words to others so that others could also get his consideration and goodness. They can understand each other only with eye contact sometimes. Their relationship is full of intimacy, fun and equality. Except some toxic shippers, I think no one should deny their deep friendship.

[heartslogos]

executive assistant to the batman [52]

Today has, so far, been going well. Overall this is a cause for mild concern, and if this were anywhere else in the world the expression “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” would apply and, most likely, be gladly obeyed.

This is Gotham. The gift horse is most likely going to piss on something you care about and then bite your hand off, regardless of whether you question the equine’s motives or not.

So Tim is going to look that gift horse dead in the eye and mentally project don’t fuck with me vibes for as long as he can stand before the gift horse overpowers him and kicks him down into a pile of steaming shit.

Mr. Wayne went in with a reporter about half an hour ago, and that can’t be what’s going wrong. They’ve been mandated to at least do one interview per quarter that is scheduled, formatted, and from a legitimate publication with reasonable journalistic standards. The one reporter cannot be Lois Lane more than once per year, and it cannot be Lois Lane twice in a row. Their PR department is very, very, very specific in their mandates.

This, inevitably, leads to a flood of reporters requesting to be that one interview per quarter and at this point Tim is barely fielding any of them past a cursory web search because he has other things to do with his time and if there really is something shady about whoever ends up interviewing Bruce Wayne then Bruce Wayne can take care of that with his impeccable personality and charm.

Right.

Today’s reporter seems a little bland, which is good, because it’s unlikely that they’re going to get any nasty questions. Before the two stepped into Wayne’s office to commence the second half of the interview Tim only had to interject four times into their conversation to answer for Mr. Wayne when things got a little too close to certain extracurricular activities and the side effects of such activities.

Now that Mr. Wayne being forced to behave by factor of being interviewed for a modest paper by a modest looking human being Tim can turn his attention to other things. He can unclench his jaw.

When Tim turns around to check on them he even gives the reporter a smile through the window. It’s not even a fake one, it’s a semi-sincere one and it could be called amicable, cordial even. He’s not exactly sure why the reporter quickly averts his gaze and leans forward towards Mr. Wayne but Tim supposes that this means the interview is going well and that they’re having some actual conversational pieces worth reading being spoken about.

He’s ordered lunch, settled a scheduling conflict for the next week’s meetings rearranging the schedule perfectly with enough breathing room to even squeeze in the meeting that the QA department’s been asking for, and Tim’s even cleared a fourth of his inbox by the time the glass doors open again and the reporter walks out with Mr. Wayne.

Tim stands up, smile in place as he goes to escort the reporter towards the elevators.

The man gives Tim a, frankly, strange look, eyes darting between Tim and Mr. Wayne before rushing through his goodbyes. This isn’t too unusual, Mr. Wayne has scared off dozens of reporters who were still a bit wet behind the ears. Tim is fairly certain certain publishers send their greenhorns to do the interviews to toughen them up. The reporter’s hand is a little clammy when Tim shakes it — it’s a remarkably brief handshake and the man spends the entire time they’re speaking looking between Tim and Mr. Wayne, the dart of his eyes growing increasingly nervous before he practically sprints to the elevator and smashes the down button.

Tim returns to his seat, catching the man’s eye as he enters the elevator, giving him another small smile. The man practically punches the elevator buttons, back against the wall.

Mr. Wayne waves as the doors close, leaning against Tim’s desk.

“He wants to make another appointment for a follow up,” Mr. Wayne says.

“Oh,” Tim blinks, “Shouldn’t he have scheduled that now?”

“He wants to schedule it with me, personally.”

“Alright,” Tim opens Mr. Wayne’s schedule again, “Do you need to know what days you’re free?”

“Do you want to know why he didn’t want to schedule it with you?”

“Enlighten me, sir.”

Mr. Wayne smiles, a dangerous glint in his eyes that call to mind the hellish demonic neighing of evil gift horses about to bite you in the ass.

“He thinks you’re extorting me,” Mr. Wayne says, “That charming young man is under the impression that you’re holding me hostage as a puppet CEO so you can have you dark and nefarious ways with the company and all that goes with it.”

“If that were true I would have fired myself and retired far away from here,” Tim says. And then turns to fully look at his boss. “Was he scared of me?”

“Oh yes, I think he wants to see if he can do a welfare check for an adult,” Mr. Wayne chuckles, “He might try to interview one of the kids to see if they’re under your control as well.”

If they were under Tim’s control Tim wouldn’t need the PR department to work so hard and they wouldn’t be constantly on the verge of mental breakdown.

“What did you say?”

“I think he was perturbed by the fact that you answered the preliminary questions for me,” Mr. Wayne examines his nails, “And that during the second half of the interview I directed most of his questions back to you.”

“What?”

“I pay attention when you ask me to do things, Tim, and I distinctly remember you saying that I couldn’t talk about our working relationship. He asked me if you were always the one to answer questions about the business and I answered honestly.”

“With what?”

“That you’d get upset if I talked any more about it and I wouldn’t want to risk it,” Mr. Wayne says. “He did continue to ask but I was very polite, Tim. You’d be very proud of me. I didn’t segue into a conversation about Damian’s after school activities or Dick’s volunteer work at all!”

Tim blinks up at his boss. His boss continues to blather on about the millions of things he could talked about.

Tim runs some mental calculations. On one hand, this reporter is going to be digging around thinking he’s got the scoop on W.E., in that Tim is running this empire with menace and malice in mind, keeping a cowering Wayne family under his control. On the other hand…this is one less reporter he has to deal with bothering him personally and it’s also not as bad as those reporters who think he’s having a salacious affair with his boss or any of his boss’ children.

“Fine,” Tim cuts into Mr. Wayne’s retelling of that one time Jason and Cassandra, charming little scamps that they are, decided to race each other to the top of the Eiffel tower. “Fine. Just tell me when he contacts you again and if you want to take the interview and I’ll schedule you something off premises.”

Mr. Wayne blinks, leaning down a little so that their faces are closer to level.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Can I invite one of the kids?”

Some more mental math. A mental shrug.

“Of course sir, if they so choose to go with you, I can make room in their schedules as well. Please let me know ahead of time.”

Mr. Wayne smiles, clapping Tim on the shoulder with such force that Tim lurches forward a little.

“You’re a good sport, Tim, you know that? Never met anyone as easy going as you are.”

“Thank you, sir."

[alice-writes-junk-blog]

Blmb0 Fairy pt 1

Today wasn’t Alice’s best day, work was rough and dragged on for way too long. She had heard the same quality control speech six different times because she was the QA manager for the QA team. She was tired about hearing about the rules of the work place and how they should be enforced and how best to size the font on the posters. She groaned as she leaned onto the cold shopping cart. All she wanted to do was go home and binge on junk food and enjoy her weekend with her husband. Mark was walking half an isle in front of her looking at all the labels on the cans of food and making mental notes.

She stared at him, now realizing how boring their married life had become. They literally came to the grocery store an hour before closing on a Friday night as their big event for the weekend. “God, we’re old.” She grumbled.

He chuckled softly, “You’re old!”

“Hey!” She joking pushed the cart at him catching it before it left her grasp. She loved him, and the way he aged. No longer was he this young teen who thought being 18 meant he had the keys to the world but a scruffy well formed man who loved reading labels on cans to find words he didn’t know. His soft brown hair still fluffed across his head, as his once piercing eyes now carried soft lines along the edges.

Alice softly tossed her head to the side smiling at her husband. “God you’re such a geezer.”

“Babe, we’re literally 20 something.” He spoke bluntly not looking up from the new can he found.

“You’re turning 30 next year.” She snapped.

Mark’s eyes widened as his face slunk back into his neck, “Shit.” He placed the can in his hand back on the shelf before rising to his feet, his face still stuck in awe of the fact that his wife delivered. “Oh, god we’re old.” He walked over to the cart and held on to the edge staring at his wife. Her dark brown hair slipping out of the bun she kept it in on the top of her head. Her eyeliner smeared a little lower than her lower lashes, the deep brown of her eyes holding his heart in a beat. The t-shirt she wore hung loose over her full body, as her leggings hugged her hips. “I still love you even if you’re old.”

The soft smile that had come across her face now quickly snapped away as she glared daggers at him. “I swear to god old man!” She huffed. She was two years younger than him but he loved to tease her.

He smiled as she pushed the cart around him ignoring him try to grab her waist. He knew she wasn’t actually mad, but just loved seeing the faces she made when he pushed the right buttons. He walked behind her stepping closer and closer till his stomach pressed against her back, his arms wrapping around her rib cage pulling her closer into him. The warmth of her soft body comforting him. He leaned his face on the back of her head kissing her silently. “It’s okay old lady, I’ll help you cross the street.”

“OH my fucking god!” She turned quickly and slapped his chest playfully. She couldn’t hide her smile as it spread across her face. “You’re going to get us kicked out!”

           “No one’s even here.” He smiled playfully. Walking away from her to get back to reading his cans.

           He was right, Alice hadn’t heard anyone since they walked in. Not even any employees. She wondered if the store was closed and they had some how snuck in with out knowing. She pushed the cart a little bit forward trying to find the sound of anyone else in the store, there was no beeping of the check outs or any yelling of kids. The music that played over the speakers was a normal volume but it felt so empty in the building now that her attention was brought to it.  

           She turned to tap Mark on the shoulder trying not to let her active imagination take over but she was starting to freak out a bit. But before her hand reached him a cart turned the corner. The rush of adrenaline made Alice stand up straight and accidentally touch Mark who now looked up at the on coming company.

           The girl who rounded the corner was a sight to behold. She wore dark sunglasses that covered half her face, but her hair fell to one side of her head in dark blue and grey curls. Her lips were plumped to the max as they nearly touched her nose and seemed to be heavily glossed to pull all the attention they could get. The soft tan of her skin was brought out by the deep dark green top she wore that barely held in her over sized breasts. The top, if you could even call it that, plunged as if it was cut down the middle and cropped right under her breasts exposing her midriff. Her wide plush hips hugged tightly by a pair of white shorts that were unbuttoned exposing the plunge of her pelvic region. Her thick legs were completely exposed down to a low top white shoe. She turned and looked at the corner items reaching up to grab something from the very top, her shorts riding up higher on her round behind, the bottoms of her breasts peaking from under the crop top as she grabbed the item she needed. She brought it down and placed it in her once empty cart. She smiled at Alice and Mark before making her way between them.

           As she got close to Alice the tint of her glasses seemed to fade as she peered into Alice’s eyes winking softly before smiling once again and turning the corner of the isle and disappearing from view.

           Alice’s eyes darted to Mark’s face which was still pointed in the way that the woman left. She huffed, how could she walk around like that. She was practically naked and looked like some teenager had just sculpted his ideal fuck doll and let her loose on the public. Mark still hadn’t turned his face away from where she left, “Babe!” She snipped.

           Mark startled turned and looked at his wife who had her arms crossed across her humble chest. His mind had wandered to a very different world where that woman’s wonderfully plump lips were vacuumed around his thick throbbing dick. He cleared his throat trying to clear his mind at the same time, “Haha only in LA right babe?” He didn’t even look at her as he tried to turn to look at the labels again, try to distract himself from the thoughts that kept running through his mind. The stiffness that started to come into his now awakening cock making him shift his stance.

           “Did you like the way that bimbo looked?” Alice asked, her lips slipping a little on the word bimbo. She could see her husband roll his eyes in response. She couldn’t believe him, lusting after someone who looked like that. Her round fake tit- breasts, and those over plumped lips. But they did look super soft, she wondered what it would be like to kiss them. Her finger softly touching her lips which were tingling and felt like they needed to be rubbed. She softly ran her finger across her bottom lip, it felt bigger than before, maybe an allergic reaction or something. But it didn’t hurt or anything. It actually felt really good, like really fucking good. She let her finger slip in between her growing lips and into her mouth and let out a soft moan. Alice snapped back to reality, she didn’t know where her brain had slipped to but maybe she was just more tired than she thought. “I’m going to the bathroom, I think somethings wrong with my mouth.” She said as she held her hand over her mouth and walking towards the bathrooms at the front of the store.

           Mark worriedly walked with the cart quickly behind his wife as she seemingly ran off. She looked worried and distressed as her ass bounced away from him. Mark stopped in his tracks as he blinked, was that just him or did her butt seem bigger?

           Alice panicked as she pushed in the bathroom door, it was empty she ran to the closest mirror. Just as she thought, her lips had swollen to twice their original size and seemed to only be growing bigger. They look so audacious on her, and she was having trouble keeping her mouth closed now. She groaned as she grabbed her shirt trying to calm her self down. As she pulled the fabric over her breasts it sent a shock of pleasure across her body. Her nipples had never been that sensitive, that’s why she had often gone with out bras in the first place. Her breasts were barely B cups but now that she held them I her hands they felt so much bigger, so much softer, and so much better. She couldn’t help herself as she kept squeezing her soft huge tits.

           She looked just like that bimbo lady. Alice wondered what that lady felt like, how soft she was, how it would feel like if their tits were pressed against each other. How soft her lips must be to kiss. She wondered what she looked like naked, her big tiddies must be so perky. Alice lifted her shirt to get a glance at what her new tits looked like. Just a peek, no one was in the bathroom anyway and she need to see if they were just swollen. As she pulled her shirt over her head her big tits flopped out from under the fabric.

           Alice stood in awe of herself, her breasts were now bigger than her head and her nipples were now super puffy and looked like they needed to be pulled on. She wondered what they felt like, if they were still as sensitive as they had been earlier. She let her hands wander as they held the weight of her breasts. She had to use both hands to hold one. Pushing it up as she reached the nipple her nail grazing across the puffy areola making her shiver. “Mmmpf.” She moaned as she proceeded to drag her nails across her super sensitive skin. She watched herself play with her huge tits in the mirror, her hand reaching between her legs as her yoga pants seemed to be tightening in all the right places. She slipped her finger between her thick pussy lips feeling the line of her yoga pants rub against her clit. The immediate shock of pleasure made something in her brain just pop.

“Fuck.” She moaned, as she fell to her knees and felt her pants rip down the middle. Her soft pussy now exposed. She didn’t care what happened she needed to cum. She let her hand wander down to her newly freed pussy, feeing the warmth and wetness that came from it. Her finger sliding down her clit as it begged to be touched. The sharp wave of pleasure that came as soon as she touched it sent her spinning. She began to rub her clit her moans growing louder and louder as she started grinding her hips her holes now begging to be filled. She wanted to be fucked hard. She wanted to be used like a stupid bimbo slut by anyone who could fuck her. Her hand twisting and pulling on her hardened nipples causing her to scream out in pleasure, “Oh fuck, please fuck me. Fuck meee.” She begged as she put two fingers into her sopping wet pussy hole, her screams of ecstasy echoing in the empty bathroom.

Outside the doors Mark heard his wife moaning and yelling words he couldn’t understand. He knocked on the door calling for his wife unsure if she could hear him, his worry overtook him as he pushed in the door. He was met with the sight of a nearly naked woman her huge breasts gleaming in the florescent light as a puddle of juices formed under her exposed pussy. Her hand rubbing vigorously against her freed cunt as the another pressed in and out of it from behind. As he looked at the woman’s face and listened to her moans of pleasure he realized it was his wife. “Alice?” He quickly shut the bathroom door and locked it behind him.

She was too lost in making her self cum to realize he had stepped in and seen her in her lewd act. Her mouth held agape as her over sized lips begged to be fucked. He didn’t know how to act in this moment, seeing his wife in such a degenerate way. Her newly bimbofied body out for anyone to see and take advantage of. He stroked his now fully hard cock through his pants, trying to calm it down and keep a level head. Maybe she needed to go to the hospital, but she couldn’t be seen like this. Maybe after she finished she would be back to normal.

Alice made eye contact with her husband, her eyes completely glazed over as her tongue drooled outside of her mouth, there were no words that came from her as she begged him to fuck her face. He couldn’t deny her any longer as he undid his pants and pulled out his now throbbing cock. A thin stream of precum now leaking from the tip of it. As he got closer she instinctively licked it clean before letting him push it between her super over sized lips and deep into her throat. Her pussy tightening and spasming as her first orgasm over took her. Her eyes crossing as she pushed her mouth further down on his cock.

The over whelming scent of his cock making her ooze even more juices from her sopping wet pussy as she sucked hard on him. She couldn’t tell what felt better having his cock in her mouth or her fingers deep in her cunt. She didn’t care she just loved having both at the same time.

Her moans vibrating down Mark’s thick cock, he wasn’t sure if it was just how hot she looked doing it that made his cock extra hard and sensitive, but his cock seemed bigger between her new lips. His balls seemed to swell and grow with a new load ready to be released into her pleading throat. He grabbed the back of her head and forced his cock down her throat forcing her to touch the base of his dick and lick his balls as he shot his thick load deep into her. He pulled out just in time to let some of his cum ooze out over her drooling lips and down to her huge tits.

She panted as she felt her tits now covered in his thick hot cum. Her hands reaching for his cock as it throbbed still hard in front of her face. She pressed it against her face and then pushed on her knees to place it between her tits. She squeezed them together and began to rub his ever growing cock between them, licking his head and the never ending stream of precum that came out of the tip. The taste of his cum filling a craving deep with in her belly, but forming a new one with in her womb.

She wanted him deep in her pussy that was no longer being played with as he titty fucked her. The way she held her mouth open with her tongue held lazily over her plump lips a mix of drool and cum streaming down her throat as she panted. Her eye glazing over as they began to cross, his cock was hypnotizing her making her feel like he was fucking her tight cunt even though he was only between her huge soft tits.

But they both wanted more. Mark pulled Alice up by her shoulder, her body limp and eager for what ever it was she needed to do to please him. He lifted her by her hips forcing her to wrap her thick legs around his waist as he carried her to the nearest wall. Her arms dangled over his shoulders as he pressed her body into the cold stone, her muscles tensing from the sudden shift in temperature. Her large breasts bouncing into Marks face as he braced his body to hold her weight. He traced the opening of her soaked cunt with his cock making her moan and giggle as she begged for him to fuck her.

The soft squeak of her voice as his dick pushed passed her twitching clit and deep into her awaiting pussy ringing in Mark’s head making more of his precum leak out of his dick and slowly fill his wife’s hole. He wasn’t sure how long he would last but god was he going to enjoy it. He thrust deep into Alice, causing her to groan deeply as her tongue flopped back out of her mouth and her eyes crossed. Her body now limp as he fucked her hole. His thrusts making her lose more and more of her sanity as she felt her pussy swell with his ever leaking cum. Her hands grasped her face as she continued to moan incoherently.

She could feel every inch of his cock filling her up perfectly and every drip of his hot precum as it burned into her. She could almost feel the tip of his dick pressing against her cervix threatening to fill her womb with his seed. She wanted that more than anything right now. To be completely filled with his thick hot cum, and to be only used as his sex doll forever at the beck and call of his cock any time it got hard.

Seeing his wife in this state made it even harder for Mark to keep his composure, she was lost in her lustful ways. Her eyes completely glazed over and no longer looking at him, he could tell her mind was gone and she was nothing more now than a fucking sex doll made for nothing more than his cock. The way her pussy tightened around his dick almost milking it drew more and more of his precum into her insides. With every thrust her huge tits bounced perfectly, they looked even more like fake plastic tits that were bolted on now that they were covered in his cum and her drool. They caught the light perfectly and looked so fake, just like her lips which were still leaking drool as she moaned with each and every pump.

He couldn’t believe he was fucking his bimbo of a wife in the bathroom of a grocery store. He wondered what it would be like if the other bimbo walked in and joined them. He had enough cum for the both of them, he wanted to see them both with their fake tits out and making out over his cock. Hell, he didn’t even have to be touched but just the idea of their tits pressed against each other as they kissed each other, their drool leaking down their over filled lips and down their chests.

           “Fuck.” Mark growled as he pushed his cock further into Alice, her cervix now welcoming the tip of his cock. The tightness of it around his head sent him over the edge as he released his entire load deep into his wife’s womb. Her moans growing louder and louder as her pussy shook with an orgasm. Her body heating up from the center of her womb and sending shots of pleasure deep within her. Her hands digging into her over sized tits as her eyes rolled back into her head. She could feel her cervix tightening as it soaked up all of his cum. Her body completely numb and tingling as he let her down to her feet.

           Alice sat on the ground of the bathroom rubbing her lips and slowly running her finger against her pussy slit feeling his cum start to slowly ooze out of her. She had filled her purpose and was now waiting idly for him to use her again. A small smile growing across her face as her fingers grew braver and started to rub his cum against her sensitive clit.

           Mark leaned against the sinks trying to catch his breath as his wife sat against the wall molesting herself. He wiped his brow and did up his pants. Maybe she was really stuck like this forever. How was he supposed to explain this to her family? Her tits alone were too much to ignore but her lips and ass were just even more fuel for the fire that this would start.

           A sudden knock at the door startled them both, “Occupied!” Mark called panicking and searching for his wife’s shirt. The wheels in Alice’s mind finally starting to turn once again as she shot up and struggled to pull the fabric over her head. There was no hiding her body or her lips, but maybe at least wiping off the cum and drool would hide what they were doing.

           The knocking continued as she wiped her face down with paper towels and tried her hardest to pull her shirt down as far as it would go to cover up the rip in her yoga pants.

           Mark stood in shock as he watched his wife sudden snap back to reality and move silently as she cleaned herself up, the worry in her face bringing his attention to the rip between her legs. Her shirt was long enough, but hopefully there was no wind.

           They stared at each other in silence as they gestured at the door. No plan could be formulated. Alice still needed to fix her self some but Mark was good to go. She pushed him to the door as she hid in one of the stalls. “I’ll go as soon as they get in.” She whispered before shutting the stall door.

           Mark clenched his teeth before opening the door unsure of what he would find on the other side. If it was the manager a simple, “wrong door, had to really go” excuse might not work. As the door moved past his face a familiar face greeted him. That woman from before. She no longer had the sunglasses on, and her soft round eyes looked up at him in a bit of confusion.

           Her plump lips parted as she asked, “I heard screaming is everything okay?”

           “Yeah, sorry about that,” Mark stammered making his way around her and allowing her to see inside the empty looking bathroom, “my wife tore her pants and we weren’t sure how… to get out of the store decently.”  He wasn’t truly lying, he stood to the side holding open the door for her.

           “Oh no that’s awful! I really wish I could help.” She pouted as she entered the bathroom.

           “Yeah but I think her shirt should cover most of it, we just need to get to the car.” Mark laughed awkwardly unable to make eye contact with the woman he had just fantasized about while his cock was breaking into his wife’s womb.

           “Oh that’s good.” She smiled at him.

           Alice could over hear them chatting and was already as cleaned up as she could be. She wasn’t sure who was at the door but know she needed to leave as soon as possible. She opened the stall door and caught they eyes of the blue haired girl. Her heart stopped as she saw her.

           The blue haired girl smiled slyly, “No, you can’t tell at all. Your shirt is long enough. Though with a body like that you really should show it off more.” She winked, walking closer to Alice and pushing her body behind hers. “Some people might call you a bimbo, but like,” Alice felt the blue haired girl’s finger slide down her pussy slit, “we are what we are.”

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 26/11/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Tueday, November 26th, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

PAC GRILLS EX-MANAGER – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had lots of questions for former quality assurance manager at the Transport Board, Sylvan Codrington, yesterday, but for chairman Bishop Joseph Atherley his answers were mainly “vague”. However, Codrington, who worked at the state-owned agency for 45 years, 13 as quality assurance manager, was definitive about the thousands of dollars shelled out by the board for parts for buses that continued to break down after they were serviced and fitted with parts. He also expressed his past frustration at being unable to take some actions he considered within his purview. For example, he spoke of a $1.7 million bill for transmissions for 14 buses, and yet those same buses encountered repeated breakdowns. (DN)

CONSULTANTS HIRING AT TRANSPORT BOARD QUESTIONED – Shocked! That’s how the former Quality Assurance Manager at the Transport Board Sylvan Codrington said he felt after learning that Trinidadian David Bartholomew had been hired as a consultant at the state-owned enterprise. Speaking before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Parliament this afternoon, Codrington said he was surprised Bartholomew was given the job as he had served in a different capacity while working in Trinidad. He made the admission after PAC chairman Reverend Joseph Atherley asked him whether he believed it was an error to engage Bartholomew’s services as a consultant. The Trinidadian was hired by the Transport Board in March 2016 on an initial six-month contract, to undertake the repair of 200 defective buses.. Codrington revealed that his duty as Quality Assurance Manager was to oversee all the engineering aspects for the Transport Board. “When he came to Barbados as the consultant I was taken aback because when I visited the Trinidadian Bus Company he was deputy engineer with that company. Then months after I heard he was a consultant with us, so I was shocked,” replied Codrington, who was QA manager from 2005 to 2018 . When further questioned by Atherley about his perception of Bartholomew’s effectiveness in the role, Codrington said, “It wasn’t coming over to me very clear as to what he was seeing because he was in one capacity and then he went into another capacity and operating as a consultant.” Despite those views, Codrington said he worked closely with Bartholomew. He said there was a spirit of cooperation between them even though from time to time “they had their differences with the engineering aspects of things”. However, Codrington took issue with certain notes which Bartholomew made in respect of the operations of the Quality Assurance Department. In a report handed over to the management of the Transport Board, Bartholomew claimed that personnel from the Transport Board’s Quality Assurance team had not visited service providers for an extended period and that there appeared to be a casual approach to the repair and return of buses. “That is incorrect,” Codrington emphatically stated. Bartholomew also suggested that the QA department lacked “the managerial and administrative skills needed to effectively monitor and manage the units at the external service providers…” But in rebuttal, Codrington said while he had a staff of 30 persons working in that department, only five were sufficiently trained. He said there was also a need for more staff. Codrington, who worked with the Transport Board for 46 years before retiring on December 31, 2018, denied that the QA department, which he managed, circumvented operating procedures at any time during his tenure. “We did not circumvent any operating procedures. Not to my knowledge,” he contended. In fact, Codrington said he considered his time in charge of the QA department a success noting that there over 100 buses in service, a far cry from the less than 70 in operation now. “It was a success. Based on my knowledge and when I left office I had something looking like 115 or so buses on the road and now that I am out of office I was made to understand that there 50 and 70 [buses] and they aren’t making it into the hundreds at all,” Codrington said. (BT)

PAYBACK FOR POWER OUTAGES STILL POSSIBLE – The utility regulator is giving the assurance that investigations are being carried out regarding the recent power outages, and “an appropriate action” will then be taken regarding compensation. This comes amidst increasing calls from residents and business operators for the Barbados Light & Power Company (BL&P) to pay consumers for two consecutive days of power blackouts last week. Information Specialist with the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) Nekaelia Hutchinson-Holder was not in a position to say if customers would definitely be credited for the break in service, or when. However, she pointed out that there was a process that affected customers had to go through. “Investigations are still ongoing as to the circumstances surrounding the electricity outages,” said Hutchinson-Holder. “As a result, appropriate action with regard to claims will be determined following an examination of the nature and cause of the outages,” she said. On Monday morning November 18 around 7:29, the BL&P’s approximately 130,000 customers were left without electricity for most of the day. While about 50 per cent of the power had been restored around 3 p.m. many remained with electrical power up until 11 p.m. when the full restoration was completed. The following day, the power went off and due to load sharing, customers then witnessed intermittent outages, which were compounded by water outages. The BL&P blamed contaminated fuel and aging generators for the disruption in service, which took individuals and businesses by surprise. The board of the electric utility company was asked to meet on the matter of compensation, but officials promised to speak to customers on that issue at a later date. In a brief statement, Hutchinson-Holder told Barbados TODAY the claims process for the BL&P included the completion of the Guaranteed Standards of Service Claim form on the BL&P website. “The form should be completed and returned to the BL&P’s customer service office at Garrison Hill, St Michael within three months of the date of the event giving rise to the claim,” she said. “The utility must then be given 14 business days to address the claim. If the customer is not satisfied with the outcome, they may contact the Fair Trading Commission for assistance. The Standards of Service, which outline each standard and the corresponding compensation when the standard is breached, may be accessed at the Utility Regulation link at www.ftc.gov.bb. Compensation is generally given in the form of a credit on the customer’s account,” she added. She also pointed out that in the case where an outage arises due to circumstances outside of the utility’s control, the utility company would be exempt from the Standards of Service requirements.  (BT)

REVERSE TAX CREDIT COMING – Lower income Barbadians will soon be on the receiving end of a Government policy intended to offset some of the burden being borne by citizens under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT), according to a top economic advisor to Government. Chief Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment Ambassador Dr Clyde Mascoll, while addressing the congregation at St Luke’s Anglican Church over the weekend revealed the reverse tax credit promised in the PM’s March 2019 budget speech would be honoured next month. The tax credits amount to $1300 for Barbadians earning less than $25,000 a year and according to Mascoll, have been made possible because of Government’s ability to stabilise the economy in a short time. This, he argued allowed Government to “re-engineer a few things”, allowing those at the bottom of the “economic barrel” to benefit from “unprecedented tax relief” since July this year. The economic advisor however indicated that the reverse tax credit could not be distributed monthly, hence why it is being disbursed as a $1300 lump sum payment. “It can’t be given monthly, so you may not have seen the immediate effects, but starting this month, Barbadians earning less than $25,000 a year will all receive a reverse tax credit to the tune of $1300, but that could not have been granted immediately,” Mascoll said during the service at which the officials of the Barbados Trust Loan Fund were the special guests. He added: “What is also happening that people are not realising is that we do other transfers to help the poor. The reason why we decided to pay university fees for Barbadians is because only the poor would be affected. So when you start to repay university fees you again start giving opportunities to the poor.” Amid the benefits being given to low income citizens, Mascoll stressed workers were not the burden-bearers of Government’s intensive austerity programme. Instead, he claimed commercial banks, insurance companies and large bond investors were making the greatest sacrifices. He added that the country has been able to stay above the line in interest payments to external creditors totalling $500 million a year. In addition to the cash being given during the yuletide season, Mascoll promised that other social services would be improved, including  garbage collection and public transportation. “We also decided apart from education we had to rectify the social sectors because we were experiencing some difficulties in terms of garbage collection. But I am here to tell you that will soon be solved, because the trucks have been purchased. Last year at this same time we only had 12 garbage trucks and we now have 22 working,” said the economic advisor. (BT)

WOMEN’S CHOICE FOR MORE CHILDREN – Women have the power of choice to determine if they want children or not. Executive director of the Barbados Family Planning Association (BFPA), Anderson Langdon, said that in the 21st century, women should not be pressured into having children merely to prop up national insurance coverage and retirement funds. He was speaking against the background of statements made by Minister of Home Affairs last week when 64 people were inducted as citizens of Barbados. Hinkson said then the National Insurance Scheme and Pension Scheme were on the verge of collapsing due to the island’s low birth rate. (DN)

GREAT HOPE FOR GHANAIAN NURSES – Nurses coming from Ghana to work at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and other public health care facilities are experienced and highly certified in specialty areas. This assurance came from the Executive Chairman of the QEH Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland who said that the nurses being recruited to start work from January 2020 were equipped with post basic qualifications. The hospital chief and a team of local health authorities recently returned from Ghana where they interviewed over 100 Ghanaian nurses. “We are really pleased with the quality of nurses that we saw in Ghana. They are solid nurses and I think they would be a complement to the nursing team that we have here. “We are going to get the opportunity to bring nurses in with specialist skills. And what is wonderful, is because it is a government-to-government programme they are coming to work with us, they are going to be having the same salaries and conditions of work as Barbadian nurses. “I understand that people have said that they are going to be paid different and better, that is not the case, that would be an industrial relations nightmare. There is a scale for nursing and it would be based on your years of experience and qualification,” she said. Speaking to members of the media following the hospital’s 55th Anniversary Service, held at QEH’s Chapel, this morning, Bynoe-Sutherland also indicated that Ghanaian nurses would receive a gratuity instead of a pension. “But as you have heard from the nursing fraternity, we need hundreds of nurses, so we don’t have enough of a throughput of local nurses. We are going to have to continue to supplement until we are able to get our basic and post basic programming up to provide the numbers that we require,” Bynoe-Sutherland added. Last Friday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Jerome Walcott signed an agreement for the recruitment of 120 nurses from Ghana. The agreement was signed when Prime Minister Mia Mottley paid a courtesy call on President Nana Akufo-Addo in Ghana. (BT)

REPUBLIC MEETING FALLS THROUGH – The latest meeting to resolve the dispute involving staff at Republic Bank did not come off yesterday. Management and staff of the bank had converged at the Labour Department in Warrens, St Michael, along with deputy general secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), Dwaine Paul, before 10 a.m. Both parties remained tight-lipped before the meeting was scheduled to begin, with Republic’s managing director Anthony Clerk declining comment and Paul saying he preferred to speak after the meeting. However, the meeting never took place as it was reported that Minister of Labour Colin Jordan was unavailable. (DN)

PSVS GIVE NOD TO TWO-MONTH TRIAL – The Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) is not opposed to the recent decision by the Transport Authority to enforce the controversial five-minute rule for a trial period of two months. The body’s chairman Kenneth Kenny Best told Barbados TODAY while the decision had been accepted by its members, he was hoping that once the 60-day trial was over the authority would uphold its promise to share the information with permit holders of public service vehicles (PSVs). Just over a week ago, the Transport Authority informed PSV owners whose vehicles utilize the Constitution River Terminal (CRT) that they would be limited to using the loading bays five minutes in peak hours and ten minutes during off-peak hours. In a letter circulated to owners, the authority gave the assurance that data would be collected during that period and a report would be prepared and made available to PSV permit holders on its findings and recommendations. Best said he was satisfied that the authority had listened to some of APTO’s suggestions. “We put forward some proposals and after the meeting with APTO and AOPT [Alliance Owners of Public Transport], everyone came up with similar ideas for the improvement of the sector. “Some of our suggestions were taken into consideration because at one point it was a blanket five-minute rule and then we were able to get them to change it to peak and off-peak periods,” Best said.

“I would hope that the information and the data would be shared, so I am looking for that day to come so we would know where we’re at going forward.” Back in September, upset and irate PSV operators staged a protest following the authority’s decision to restrict their loading times in the CRT’s bays to just five minutes. A few days later the authority’s chairman Ian Estwick said following discussions, a decision had been taken to extend the loading time to ten minutes during off-peak hours ((5 a.m. to 6 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.) He pointed out that the five-minute rule during peak hours (6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.) would remain. Surprisingly though, Best said APTO members had accepted the authority’s most recent decision without much fuss. “We have had no complaints thus far. I don’t know if the other association had complaints but I haven’t had any complaints at all,” he said. Efforts to reach public relations officer for AOPT Mark Haynes proved unsuccessful. (BT)

DO MORE TO FIGHT VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, CARIBBEAN URGED – Caribbean countries are being urged to do more to deal with the issue of violence against women as the region Monday joins the global community in observing International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In a statement, the UN Women Multi-Country Office (MCO) Caribbean Representative Alison McLean said research conducted in the Caribbean in the past two years reinforced that violence against women and girls (VAWG) including rape is so entrenched and normalised that both men and women have a high tolerance for its manifestations. She said notwithstanding women’s well-known and often-touted gains in public life and the introduction of laws, policies and initiatives to promote women’s equality, prevailing socio-cultural attitudes that perpetuate unequal and hierarchical power relations reinforcing notions of female subordination and male domination, mitigate against these gains and in turn fuel VAWG. The UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign is focusing on rape as a specific form of harm committed against women and girls, in times of peace or war. The UN System’s 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls activities is taking place under the global theme Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape. McLean said that the UN Women-supported research, which is available for four Caribbean countries to date, shows non-partner sexual violence (NPSV) which includes rape, attempted rape, unwanted sexual touching, and sexual harassment, is reported at significantly higher rates than intimate partner sexual violence and a significant risk factor is being young. In Guyana, most women reporting sexual IPV reported being forced to have sexual intercourse when they did not want to and nearly as many women reported having sexual intercourse with their partner because they were afraid to refuse. On the other hand, one in every five women in Guyana reported non-partner sexual abuse in their lifetime; with a significant number experiencing this abuse before the age of 18. One-fifth of Jamaican women reported being sexually abused before reaching 18 years of age. Further one in seven women reported that their first sexual experience was before the age of 15 years. Under Jamaican law, the age of consent is 16 years old; any sexual intercourse under that age is statutory rape. The Suriname GBV prevalence survey revealed that the prevalence of NPSV among all women is almost double that of sexual IPV/intimate partner violence. In Trinidad and Tobago, the prevalence of NPSV is almost four times higher than that of sexual IPV. McLean said that without reliable and relevant data, it is not possible to adequately treat, reduce and prevent violence against women and girls. “UN Women has invested significantly in supporting member states in strengthening capacities to fill the data gaps on violence against women and girls. Working with regional partners, the Caribbean Development Bank and CARICOM, we developed the CARICOM Prevalence Survey Model. “The CARICOM Model is based on the long-tested global World Health Organization (WHO) model which is considered internationally to be the best practice for national, population-based studies on prevalence data on GBV.” She said this CARICOM model also “allows us to capture information on the consequences of GBV for women, their children and families, women’s help-seeking behaviours and risk and protective factors for violence. It allows in a real way for the voices of women and girls to be heard.” She said national-level efforts should seek to de-stigmatize the experience of intimate partner violence and to shift gender norms and roles in order to create a society in which violence against women is openly rejected and firmly addressed. Information on where women seek help and where they do not, should inform how services to support victims should be designed and located. Data on women’s and girls’ vulnerabilities, partner characteristics and other socio-demographic factors should guide how to prevent and respond to this violence,” she said. The MCO Caribbean Representative said UN Women, along with other UN agencies will be using the data gathered from these surveys to support national efforts to prevent intimate partner violence through school-based and community-based initiatives; including working with men and boys through Batterer Intervention and Prevention programmes and private sector initiatives that prevent work-related spillovers of family violence to create safe spaces at work. (BT)

MONEY NO PROBLEM FOR QUALITY DATA – Lawmakers were today warned not to allow the state of the economy to jeopardize the country’s chances of having quality and up-to-date information so better decisions can be made at all levels. Francisco Javier Urra, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Chief of Operations for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean suggested that the hemispheric bank would provide the funds to help nations gather reliable data. Urra was speaking at the opening of the Caribbean thematic conference: Managing a Statistical Organization in Times of Change at UN House on Monday. Acknowledging that Barbados was currently undergoing an International Monetary Fund-backed (IMF) programme, Urra said it was now common for the IDB, which is also providing support, to have regular discussions with Government about making “strategic choices about budget allocation”. He declared: “We at the IDB, we believe that undermining the capacity of a country to have solid and accessible data would be a terrible mistake.” Stressing the importance of timely statistics for “good decision-making”, the IDB official said poverty and other issues facing the region were becoming more complex, required “good data” in order to find solutions. Urea said: “This is why for policymakers, for high-level officials, for those who try to enable policies that are cross-cutting, having that ground it is almost like a beacon in this time of austerity and this time of information and fake news. “So the role of having strong statistical offices is more relevant than ever.” Over the last two decades, the bank had provided $60 million (US$30 million) in the form of loans and technical assistance for the region’s statistical development. Barbados is in line for an $80 million (US$40 million) IDB loan to help modernize the public sector, including the upgrading of the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS). Praising Government for its modernization efforts, Urra disclosed that the loan should be approved by Wednesday. But he pointed out that while Barbados and other Caribbean countries performed “relatively well” in a number of areas of development when compared to Latin America and other countries, there was a lack of quality data, which he described as a “complicated situation”. Declaring that adequate data “goes beyond the walls” of the national statistical departments in the region, Urra said the IDB was willing to work closer with those agencies so they could help to strengthen the data collecting capacity of ministries and other agencies. Pointing to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) as an example of an institution that was lacking critical data, Urra pointed out that without critical statistics it would be difficult for the island’s main medical institution to get technical assistance from some development partners. While the digitisation of the BSS has started, the agency’s work has been set back by a lack of money and manpower. BSS director Aubrey Browne said the last modernization exercise ended two years ago with recommendations for a change in the agency’s organizational structure so that several units would produce statistics to be fed into a national digital database which would then be available to the public. Browne said: “One of the things we really have to work on now is developing a release calendar for the release of statistics. “We still have a way to go in terms of that development and the main challenge is [not] having the available resources to support the statistical organizations. “As you would be aware we are still operating under an IMF programme so we are having challenges in allocating resources. That is the main challenge we are facing at this time. “So right now we are operating at less than optimal situation.” Browne give an assurance that Government was moving with alacrity to sort out the BSS’s issues. Statistician with the CDB Dindial Ramrattan warned that demands from residents were constantly increasing, and if officials were not ready to deliver timely and adequate data they would have to contend with “fake news” and incorrect use of available information. Adding that the increased data demand was also driving increased scrutiny, and that technology was changing the way information was being shared, he said national data collecting agencies should operate in a timely and efficient manner by being “proactive, reactive and responsive”. The CDB official also urged Caribbean countries to learn from each other, development partners and the rest of the world, as he called for a change in mindset “where we are more social in how we deal with our matters, recognizing that social media, while our best friend with free marketing and free publicity, is also our biggest critic that is not always with accurate facts”. (BT)

FOUR MAIN REASONS WHY YOUTH CAUGHT IN CRIME WEB – With more than six out of ten ex-convicts caught in a criminal justice revolving door, the Government’s top crime researcher and a panel of experts worry that an “unforgiving society”, childhood trauma, drug abuse and mental health issues work to keep young people trapped in a life of crime and violence. Director of the Criminal Justice Planning and Research Unit, Cheryl Willoughby, expressing concern at the rate at which people who had been jailed end up back behind bars also noted that many employers appear to punish ex-cons after they’ve paid their debt to society – by refusing to hire them. She said: “The recidivism rate is now over 65%, and in our research, we found that substance abuse problems were among the factors contributing to this, along with mental health issues that they were being treated for in prison but they stopped after they were released.  “Another matter that concerns us is when we look at unemployment of ex-offenders, 70 per cent of employers said they never employed anyone who went to prison, and 50 per cent said they would not employ anyone who had gone to prison.” Willoughby was among experts appearing in a Barbados Society of Psychologists’ panel discussion on Preventing Youth Violence at the Barbados Public Workers Cooperative Credit Union’s Harcourt Lewis Centre. Principal Consultant at the Potter Centre, Toney Olton blamed a lack of job opportunities for ex-prisoners on an “unforgiving society”.  He added: “A lot of places are asking for Police Certificates of Character as well, and if the Certificate of Character does not expose the person’s past, someone in the community will call and let the employer know the person has a criminal record, which jeopardises them in the job.” But the experts agreed there was little attempt to get to the real root of youth violence and crime or seek to understand the psychological issues behind the rising tide of homicides and assaults. Olton said: “All learning has an emotional basis. In today’s society, the busyness of parents and guardians means that they are spending less time with their children, and have replaced affection and guidance with material things.  “Many of our children also experience abuse and neglect fuelled by frustrated and emotionally unintelligent parents and the fragmentation of the family unit.” In comparing the violence to a volcano, Olton declared: “Once the lava is spitting, there is a lot going on under the surface; and in this case, the lava we are not seeing are feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, feelings of abandonment, unresourcefulness, sadness, depression, resentment and anger.” Primary Coordinator at the Substance Abuse Foundation, Allison Gotip, said while the majority of her clients were between the ages of 18 and 35, two children aged 13 and 15 are now on her list. Childhood trauma, such as abuse in all its forms, tended to lead to addiction, violent behaviour or even suicide, she said, expressing concern that children were not allowed to express their emotions freely and there was still too much of a stigma attached to mental health issues in Barbados. Gotip said: “We must allow our children to have a voice, to start listening to them and have meaningful conversations with them. “We have also found that when people come into our facilities in the throes of addiction, they have a lot of undiagnosed mental illnesses because there is a stigma to having mental illnesses over here. “So with all that suppression, along with domestic violence, divorce and separation, a lot of children deal with these, and statistics show that those who have experienced four or more adverse childhood experiences are more likely to commit suicide or suffer with depression.” Dr Sherri-Ann Catwell, the Senior Registrar at Ward C4 of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said most of her patients had experienced a traumatic situation in their home. She told the audience: “A lot of these people came from families with a lot of interpersonal conflict, had bad relationships with peers, were exposed to abuse or drugs, and there was an association between suicide attempts and violent behaviour when exposed to drugs early.” Some of the solutions the panel identified entailed getting parents and grandparents involved in discussions on why their charges were acting out, since the behaviour was often fuelled by what they experienced in the home, or unresolved trauma the parents or grandparents themselves had never addressed. Olton also suggested a greater emphasis on emotional intelligence, that is, helping people to understand what influenced their behaviour and showing them more appropriate ways to deal with the challenges they faced. (BT)

EDEN LODGE PRIMARY DEFACED – Students of the Eden Lodge Primary School had to be temporarily relocated this morning after offensive graffiti was discovered on several walls of the school. The Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) was called in and the school given a security sweep, while students were housed at a nearby church. After conducting investigations, members of the RBPF gave the all clear for students to re-enter the school around 10:43 a.m. Officials from the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training have covered the graffiti temporarily. The Ministry plans to have the walls repainted this weekend. (BGIS)

ST PHILIP MAN SLAIN IN SHOOTING INCIDENT IN ‘VIETNAM’ –  Barbados TODAY now understands the residence is that of his two-year-old son and the child’s mother, 41-year-old Nichole Alleyne which he visited from time to time. Efforts to speak with Alleyne were unsuccessful as she was finally resting after enduring a sleepless night. A close relative and neighbour informed Barbados TODAY the incident occurred during the night, when most people were sleeping. The source however was awakened by what sounded like someone “killing a centipede with a shoe”. Residents later found out it was the sound of numerous bullets being fired. At the end of the gunshots, Scarboro was left dead at the residence where a four-year-old girl, a 21-year-old woman and their mother also lived. “The youngest child wasn’t able to see what occurred, but the girl that is four saw everything, and even when the officers came they said she would need counselling,” the source recalled, while indicating it was extremely difficult to get them to sleep after the commotion. Residents however indicated they knew very little about the dead father, who they saw in the area sometimes. At his Farm Road home in the same parish, a male middle-aged male answered the door. While declining to identify himself, he indicated that none of Scarboro’s family members were at home and he did not know the young man well. Next door, one woman said she did not know the young man well but was shocked to hear of his passing. (BT)

ACCUSED MUST ALLOW FINGERPRINTING – Allegations that a 42-year-old man robbed another at gunpoint while on Glendairy Road have resulted in remand time at Dodds prison. Matthew Mortimer Phillips, of Lennox Avenue, Goodland, Black Road, St Michael is accused of robbing Rommell Nanton of $15,000 in jewelry on October 18. The jewelry comprised a chain and pendant as well as a ring. The unemployed man was not required to plead to the indictable charge before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today. He is also charged with using a firearm on the same date in commission of the crime. Before he was remanded, the magistrate imposed an order that Phillips allows lawmen to fingerprint him. Phillips will reappear before the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on December 23. (BT)

SURETY TO FORFEIT BAIL MONEY – Not only did a woman who absconded from court lose her freedom for the next few weeks but her surety now has one month to pay half of the bail amount or she too will find herself behind bars. “Ms Marshall has been missing from the court for a long time. It took a new charge sheet to get her back here,” Station Sergeant Cameron Gibbons told the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today about the accused Kesha Melissa Fiona Marshall. The 33-year-old, of Dunscombe, St Thomas had been before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant on two offences allegedly committed on April 25, 2017 – refusing to leave the premises of Savings Plus Supermarket when told to do so by a person in authority and assaulting Selvin Lovell causing him bodily harm. She had been on $3,000 bail since her first appearance after denying the charges. The accused however, appeared in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on November 22 on a theft charge to which she entered a not guilty plea. She was again granted $3,000 bail but it was revealed that warrants had been issued for her for failing to attend court on the pending matters. “When I came to court last Friday and they said I missed court . . . but I was in prison until last year May,” Marshall told the magistrate. However, a check of the court’s records showed that she had not been before court since July 2018. “You were given the date of July 20, 2018. You were not in prison then,” Cuffy-Sargeant said even as the accused’s surety said that she would like to say something. The surety explained that she had only come to court today because she had been informed that Marshall had missed a March date last year. But the magistrate pointed out that it was now November 25 and “You are coming here . . . for a date in March 2018? She is your responsibility as a surety. She has been MIA (missing in action) since July 20, 2018. The bail sum is $3,000 you have to pay half of that.” The magistrate then gave the surety a month to pay the court $1,500 or spend three months in prison. The accused Marshall meantime was remanded to Dodds to reappear before Cuffy-Sargeant on December 20. (BT)

PATIENT STEALS DOC’S PHONE – Sticky-fingered glaucoma patient Paul Devon Francis has been placed on a bond for the next 12 months for stealing a cellular phone belonging to a health care official at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. If the convicted No. 12 George Street, Belleville, St Michael resident breaches the order imposed on him today by Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant, he will spend six months in prison. The complainant Kristen Da Silva had completed an examination on Francis when she left the patient room for talks with the doctor. On return to the room she noticed Francis closing his bag near to the area where she had left her $3, 260 cellular phone. Thinking nothing of his actions at the time, she gave him his six months appointment, and continued performing her duties. It wasn’t until sometime later that Da Silva realised that her electronic device was missing. The matter was reported after she was unable to locate it despite checks. “She is the doctor that check my eye cause I have glaucoma. I ain’t no tief. I ain’t know why I get in that deh. I should have never taken it. She had leniency on me, so I don’t know how you can deal with it. I suppose to have another appointment at the hospital to check my glaucoma. I won’t let it happen again because it ain’t me,” the convicted man said. The police report said that Francis admitted that he had sold the device and purchased a pair of slippers and a phone with the money. The stolen phone was recovered. “At least I feel good that she get back her phone,” Francis said prompting the magistrate to tell him that he was missing the point. “No ma’am I should not have taken up it”. (BT)

ARCHER SUBJECTED TO RACIAL ABUSE – New Zealand Cricket says it will apologise to Jofra Archer after the fast bowler received “racial insults” from a member of the crowd following his dismissal during the first Test against New Zealand at Mount Maunganui. Archer made 30 from 50 balls on the final afternoon of the match, but was unable to prevent New Zealand from sealing an innings-and-65-run win to go 1-0 up in the two-match series. However, that achievement was overshadowed shortly after the finish, when Archer tweeted about the treatment he had received as he left the field at the end of his innings. He said: “A bit disturbing hearing racial insults today whilst battling to help save my team, the crowd was been amazing this week except for that one guy, @TheBarmyArmy was good as usual also.” In a statement, NZC said that the perpetrator had not been located, but that the board would be in touch with Archer to apologise. “New Zealand Cricket will be contacting, and apologising to English fast bowler Jofra Archer, who was racially abused by a spectator as he left the field at the conclusion of the first Test at Bay Oval, Mt Maunganui,” read the statement. “Although security providers at the venue were unable to locate the perpetrator, NZC will be examining CCTV footage and making further inquiries tomorrow in an endeavour to identify the man responsible. “NZC has zero tolerance towards abusive or offensive language at any of its venues and will refer any developments in the case to police. “It will contact Mr Archer tomorrow to apologise for the unacceptable experience, and to promise increased vigilance in the matter when the teams next meet in Hamilton.” Archer later confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the abuser had been a solitary New Zealand spectator, making comments “about the colour of my skin”. He also claimed that the same person appeared to have contacted him via Instagram with further insults. “I don’t think it would happen in England,” Archer said. It was a tough match for England, but particularly Archer, who was required to bowl a marathon spell of 42 overs in New Zealand’s solitary innings, and came in for criticism for an at-times lethargic display. He picked up a solitary wicket, that of BJ Watling who top-scored with 205, but also served a reminder of his menacing attributes when he struck Henry Nicholls a heavy blow to the helmet on the second evening. The ECB later confirmed that an investigation into the incident was ongoing, in conjunction with NZC, “NZC and ECB ensure that clear guidelines are in place at every venue so that watching a cricket match is safe and enjoyable for everyone,” said the ECB in a statement. “Whilst this is a relatively isolated incident there is absolutely no place for anti-social or racist behaviour within the game and it is vitally important that all spectators feel able to come forward to report such behaviour and feel safe in doing so.” (BT)

WALES, ELLERTON WINS SET UP FINAL DATE – Weymouth Wales emphatically booked their spot in next Sunday’s Capelli Super Cup final after a pulsating 3-1 win over arch-rivals Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme (BDFSP) in their semi-final clash on Sunday night at the Wildey Turf. Wales have had the longest and arguably most difficult route to the final, but saved their best performance to date for the clash with the BDFSP, with goals from Romario Harewood, Shaquille Boyce and Walton Burrowes settling the matter for the Carrington Village side. In the other semi-final, Crane and Equipment Ellerton prevailed over difficult playing conditions and earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over the University of the West Indies (UWI) Blackbirds. (DN)

KOLIJ SWEEP THE POOL – The Kolij Lions didn’t seem to miss top swimmers Danielle Titus and Nkosi Dunwoody. Without the two who are now competing under the SMS Cougars banner after helping the Lions to several triumphs in the pool, Harrison College secured the girls’ and boys’ titles during the finals of the Secondary Inter-School Swimming Championships at the Aquatic Centre yesterday. They took the girls title with 273 points and were followed by Christ Church Foundation and The St Michael School with 176 and 165 points, respectively. The boys reigned supreme with 540 points, Queen’s College placed second with 327 and St Michael finished third with 311 points. (DN)

SLUICE GATE OPENING: BEACH TO BE CLOSED – The sluice gate at the Graeme Hall Swamp, Christ Church, will be opened on Tuesday. The Ministry of Environment and National Beautification says this is necessary to reduce the high water levels and to re-balance the swamp. As a result, Worthing Beach will be closed to the public from 6 p.m. tomorrow, until noon Wednesday. Red flags, which indicate no swimming, will be in place along the beach, and bathers are asked to adhere to the flags and any other signs erected by the National Conservation Commission. (BGIS)

UBER LOSES LICENCE TO OPERATE IN LONDON- Uber will not be granted a new licence to operate in London after repeated safety failures, Transport for London (TfL) has said. The regulator said the taxi app was not "fit and proper" as a licence holder, despite having made a number of positive changes to its operations. Uber initially lost its licence in 2017 but was granted two extensions, the most recent of which expires on Monday. The firm will appeal and can continue to operate during that process. London is one of Uber's top five markets globally and it has about 45,000 drivers in the city. Overall, there are 126,000 licensed private hire and black cabs in the capital. If its appeal is unsuccessful, some think Uber drivers would move over to rival ride-sharing firms such as Bolt and Kapten."There would be competition that would fill that void quite quickly," Fiona Cincotta, a market analyst at City Index told the BBC. TfL said it had identified a "pattern of failures" in London that placed passenger safety at risk. These included a change to Uber's systems which allowed unauthorised drivers to upload their photos to other Uber driver accounts. It meant there were at least 14,000 fraudulent trips in London in late 2018 and early 2019, TfL said. The regulator also found dismissed or suspended drivers had been able to create Uber accounts and carry passengers. In one example, a driver was able to continue working for Uber, despite the fact his private hire licence had been revoked after he was cautioned for distributing indecent images of children. Helen Chapman, director of licensing at TfL, said: "While we recognise Uber has made improvements, it is unacceptable that Uber has allowed passengers to get into minicabs with drivers who are potentially unlicensed and uninsured." London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: "I know this decision may be unpopular with Uber users, but their safety is the paramount concern. Regulations are there to keep Londoners safe." (BBC)

There are 36 days left in the year Shalom!  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

[less-than-hash]

Standards Transmission

I’m going to talk a little about bugs. Specifically about how we classify bugs, and the bugs we developers ship our games with.

I’m also going to talk a bit about how I think we, as developers, can mislead players and reviewers about the state of our game prior to launch.

I’m also going to try to convince you not to pre-order games.

Thoughts below the cut.

Games - especially the big, expensive ones - have grown significantly in complexity over the last two decades. If they’re not online, they’re open world. Sometimes they’re both. Fortunately, the proliferation of the internet combined with the tools provided by digital distribution platforms have made fixing issues post-launch significantly easier than back in the pre-PS3 days. 

Developers should be able to relax, knowing that not every little issue that ships with a game is part of that game forevermore. 

Relax a little, anyway.

Meanwhile, during my time in test it seemed that the console certification standards for games also relaxed significantly between the last generation and this. I suspect this, too, a reaction to the reality that games are easier to patch post-launch.

But if the developers relax their standards and console makers relax their standards, what incentive do the developers have to maintain any standards at all?

We've seen a number of utterly broken launches in recent years. SimCity's infamous release was over five years ago now. Fallout 76's was a few months ago. These games were rightly raked over their coals for their usability issues. But they're also outliers.

I'm more concerned about games like Skyrim, which largely gets a pass on its bugginess as the natural outcome of its scope and complexity, or, to bring it home, Deadfire, which shipped with no small number of bugs. Both games received largely positive critical response.

And here's the thing: when we send games out to reviewers, it's often with a statement along the lines of "this is not the shipping game; There Will be Bugs; we are working to address them."

But that's basically a lie.

By the time we send out a review copy, the build's essentially locked down. We're not changing anything unless the behavior being addressed is so reprehensible as to justify the risk of potentially destabilizing the game right before launch. You hit a lot of crashes or an incomplete critical path quest bug, there's a reasonable chance we'll be trying to address that.

Anything short of that? No chance in hell.

And there’s a lot of bugs short of completely game-breaking that can make playing a game an unpleasant or wildly unfair experience. 

When testers submit bugs, they (or a lead, or a producer - this varies wildly between studios) assign said bug a Severity. Studios also have very different standards from one another in how they assign said Severity, but it’ll generally look something like this:

A1 - Crash The game experiences a critical failure and the program ends. May take your computer or console with it. 

This can also include things like infinite loading screens, though those can also occur without the game technically crashing.

A2 - Absolute Critical Path Progression Break An issue prevents play from continuing along the primary critical path of the game. This can be an issue with content (level design or art, a system, or a quest or narrative failure) or programming, and may manifest as things like:

Not being able to connect to a necessary server

Not being able to enter play

Not being able to turn in or complete a quest

Not being able to transition into a new scene

Not being able to load a save file

Falling out of the world

Regardless of exactly what happens, the player is going to have to restart the game or reload a previous save in order to progress through the game’s primary experience.

A3 - Progression Break As above, but the player can work around it and continue play, or it impacts a sidequest or some otherwise non-critical content.

B1 - Major Breakage Some system doesn’t function in some significant way. It’s going to be highly visible and will impact most players. Perhaps health packs don’t actually heal, for example. Perhaps the UI falls apart if interacted with in a particular order. Perhaps subtitles don’t function in languages with non-Latin alphabets.

Perhaps the color green displays as yellow. Always.

At many studios, this’ll be classified as an A bug. I personally consider bugs like this unacceptable for ship.

B2 - Breakage Something specific isn’t functioning like it’s supposed to. It could be something wide-ranging like a system (arrows inflicting fire damage instead of physical for example) or art asset (empty barrels don’t have textures on the inside, and thus appear “invisible” from within). Or it could be something specific, like a winch that’s supposed to lower a dumbwaiter simply not working or a piece of art being upside down.

At this level, a bugged aspect of the game is clearly not functioning correctly to any player who understands how it should function, AND that failure of function negatively impacts play, BUT the game experience isn’t entirely destroyed.

C - Issue Nothing’s perfect. We tend to forgive a lot of little problems in the things we experience - when we notice them at all. C bugs might include minor narrative or art inconsistencies, minor framerate drops during a specific encounter, or a strange animation when switching between one weapon type and another. 

There can be a few other types of bugs that I’m not going to get into here, such as suggestions, subjective bugs, and the like. 

Along with Severity, Bugs tend to be measured along a few other axes called Priority, Reproducibility, and Likelihood. The first represents the import given an issue in comparison to other issues of the same type, the second the probability the issue will occur if the player performs the action that causes it, and the third the chance that any given player will perform the action that causes the issue. Generally, Priority is assigned based on the combination of the bug’s Severity, Reproducibility, and Likelihood. (Which is why a crash might not get fixed - it’s so rare an occurrence that it’s difficult to reproduce and investigate.) 

Here’s the thing: the closer that we get to shipping a game, the higher a bug needs to be up that Severity chart to land on a developer’s plate, much less actually get addressed. There comes a point in every project I’ve ever worked on, for example, where remaining C bugs cease to be something we intend to address (for ship). There’s simply not time to make everything entirely perfect, no matter how much we’d like to.

Here’s the other thing: Since any given change to the game has the potential to cause new issues, we developers have to weigh the importance of fixing an issue against the possibility of introducing a new one. Attempting to fix a B bug can result in a far more severe issue.

For example, if a conversation that includes a player dialog option seems to ignore that option, it may be because the alternative didn’t actually get made. Simply cutting that node could break the conversation and, by extension, the quest. Sometimes it’s possible that the entire conversation can be cut without breaking anything, and sometimes that happens. Other times we decide that it’s best to just leave the bug in there. A player experiencing the issue is better than possible alternatives.

A line I really loved in BioShock: Infinite that played between Booker and Liz on the boardwalk simply stopped firing shortly before release. It had been written, recorded by the voice actors, and implemented. It had functioned just fine up until it entirely stopped playing. Chances are, the fix would have been easy. But we didn’t know what the problem was, time was tight, and we determined that avoiding introducing new issues was far better than trying to rescue a line that players would never know they missed.

So the production realities of bugfixing combined with the timing of reviews means that once a developer has sent review copies out, or, for that matter, once they’ve launched an open beta, they’re very close to release. At that point, anything short of an A Severity bug will almost certainly not be addressed for launch. 

But that doesn’t stop us from telling reviewers (or Beta players) that “hey, we’re still polishing the game and fixing bugs.”

That misleading statement influences reviews. When I see bugs mentioned in reviews, which isn’t particularly often, it's generally with the caveat that "I was playing on an early build, and the developer has assured me that it will be fixing bugs towards launch."

Sure, many of these bugs will get resolved over the update cycle of a title. But they won't all be. And they definitely won't be at launch.

Because the current calculus is "how not-busted a product can we ship without it hurting our bottom line?"

I think that the industry could stand to have its bottom line hurt on occasion.

We need reviewers to call us out on our bugs. We need players to hold off on buying products - especially products from studios with a reputation for releasing buggy titles - until after they've hit market and been fairly evaluated. If a company is releasing software that's buggy as shit, don't financially support them.

I’ve almost started thinking of major bugs I encounter in games as insults. A publisher or producer determined that this bugged product was good enough for the likes of Alex.

And to be absolutely clear: this is not the fault of QA. QA, assuming they're not woefully understaffed (its own issue), will almost certainly have found, reproduced, and reported the defect you encountered. They're as frustrated that you experienced it as you are. Possibly more.

Nor does fault generally lie with the developer(s) who actually caused the bug. They would likely be all-too-happy (assuming they haven't been worked to the breaking point) to fix the thing that they broke. They got into this gig because they want to make fun, exciting experiences, and nothing's less fun than broken-ass shit.

The fault lies with the money people.

The managers and the publishers. The people who don’t care whether you deserve better because you've accepted everything they've served up so far. The same people who would rather have you spending money on loot crates than experiencing narrative content. Who would rather have you be someone else’s content (and them yours) than actually pay to make content for their players. 

And the same people who would rather fire hundreds of developers rather than take a cut in their own pay.

When you've decided that games have become unacceptably broken, they're the ones you have to convince.

You won’t do so by purchasing their games before anyone’s had a chance to play and evaluate them.

<#

[joshslater]

Hitting Jock Bottom

I felt like shit. The throbbing headache told me to stay in bed. Actually, wise from hangovers past I should go and drink water and then take a nap and hope things would turn out better the next time I wake up. Those thoughts quickly went through my mind, still foggy from whatever had transpired the night before. I didn't remember what had happened nor how I had gotten here, but this was definitely not my bed.

Harsh white light lit the sparse, tiled room as I opened my eyes. I was strapped on some sort of gurney that was tilted at an angle between lying down and standing up. My body was secured, but I could move my head around enough to see that I wore something resembling a dark blue wetsuite. Cables and tubes where attached to various points and snaked away to a cluster of machines and drip bags to my right. Still groggy, and more confused than scared, I was trying to sort through all the different sensations. Most prominent of all was something big was stuck in my mouth, and I felt like I needed to take a dump.

*squeak*

The sound when I bit down resembled a doggy squeaky toy.

*squeak*

Before I had any time to consider this new, perplexing weirdness a door opened and closed behind me and a man in white shirt, tie and labcoat came into view.

"I do apologise, we are a bit understaffed at the moment. I try to be present for every arrival". He checked something on one of the machines next to me. "Good, good. Just waking up I see. Welcome to Goldfarb Body Shop and Repairs. I imagine you are feeling some confusion at the moment. It's perfectly normal when our services are purchased for someone else. My name is Rob, and I will take care of your process initiation."

My head still hurt like hell and very little of this made sense, beside the feeling confused part. Rob was in his forties and looked every bit like a lab technician. A lab technician who was high on sugar and couldn't wait to talk to other people.

Rob picked up a clipboard and quickly eyed the first two pages. "Let's start with the basics. As I think I heard, you have already figured out how to use the signalling device in your mouth piece. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but we've had so much problem with people just screaming. Totally ruins the schedule. I would like you to signal once for yes, twice for no and three times to have the question repeated. Do you understand?"

*squeak*

"Excellent! Are you Jonathan Brent, social security number 078-05-1120?"

*squeak*

"Great. It would be so embarrassing to have the wrong person. In the old days we used to invite people to retreats through sham lottery winnings and have them participate in yoga and meditation, and slowly work with them from there, but the way technology has progressed we don't need any cooperation at all anymore. A bit less personal but so much more efficient."

He looked at the clipboard once again. "So someone has purchased, for you, one of our discount packages. Great value! This one is called 'jock bottom'. We are so lucky to have such a creative sales and marketing team. This bundle contains four transformation modules, well three of any substance. We have Muscleman, Meathead, Cunting and then our QA/Design module. I'll explain all of them briefly."

Muscleman, Meathead and Cunting. Whatever this place was and what they were planning to do, I didn't like the sound of any of them. Well, muscleman didn't sound terrible, but I've never been that interested in anything physical. I do the occasional jog and play some volley at the beach, but nothing regular. And I don't even know what cunting means.

Rob continued "Muscleman is about 50% of the transformation effort in the bundle. We'll use state of the art, fast acting genetic editing and gene therapy to overhaul the genetic makeup of your body. Then a combination of stem cells, hormone manipulation and viral reconstruction to actually express those genes as physical changes. In addition to biochemistry we have a set of contraptions that can force tissue to build how and where we want it."

He was looking up from the clipboard and looking into my eyes. "It gets much easier if you cooperate with all given instructions. We will not sacrifice the quality of our work, it just take different amount of time to get there. The changes are pronounced, profound and permanent, to quote our motto."

This is terrible! Somehow someone somewhere has paid these guys to force me into becoming a some sort of body builder. Who does that? How is that technology even possible?

"The Muscleman module also has a small educational component where we ensure that the target has the needed knowledge, skill and motivation to keep the body in great condition long after QA acceptance. This is done, in addition to reinforcing genetic changes, through psycotherapy and metabolic conditioning." Rob was clearly reading marketing text from the clipboard. "The end result is multiple layers of reinforcing behaviors. Eating triggers restlessness triggers excersie. Excersise triggers hunger trigers eating."

"Now the second module is the Meathead module. It's about 20% of the transformation and is a bit more involved than it first appears. First it reinforces the mental conditioning from the Muscleman module, and adds significantly more knowledge and interest in physical activities. But it also removes some of the previous drives and abilities of the target."

This was getting worse and worse.

*squeak* *squeak*

Rob looked up from the clipboard, distracted from his reading. "What? Ah. No? No, it's all already being ordered and paid for, but don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunity to give feedback and consent later. Where were we, yes Meathead. We will run a series of tests in an MRI where we will map your brain. Then we'll insert articulated, microscopic wires through your nose and into your brain, cut out small sections and replace them with stem cells with DNA we coded. You'll see major results instantly after the operation! We'll then stimulate the brain with the right chemicals, electrical impulses and sensory data, and you'll know 50 different ways of excersising your deltoid in no time." He looked up again, excitedly going off script. "We have this cool transcranial stimulation head gear you put on, and then every movement you do while you wear it you will be able to replicate exactly afterwards. Dead lifts, break dance, karate chops, you name it!  Super cool. Well, you will not use it for karate or dancing though."

No fucking way! Replacing parts of the brain. Reprogramming? These people are sick.

"Then we have the Cunting module. This is also mainly a behavior module, but it will turn you into a very submissive, very promiscuous homosexual. The  principle is the same as the Meathead module, but instead of cramming sports teams and being rewarded for squatting correctly, you'll be flooded with gay porn and being conditioned with chemically induced orgasms on anal stimulation. I can promise you that you will love it. After all, the point is that you should love it so much you would arrange your life around sucking dick, getting fucked and working out."

WTF!

"The last 10% is spent on quality assurance and design. We'll remove genetic problems, administer a broad set of vaccinations, slow down aging, etc. This is a standard module for all our work. Good for you to know is that it includes HIV immunity and protects against all known long term STDs. The design part is that one of our character designer will spend 30 minutes to review your build and allocate some minor work to make it coherent. Since there is no purely cosmetic change included in your package, except for the muscles, perhaps the designer will move the hairline forward to make a more youthful look, or broaden the nose a bit to make you look imposing."

Getting massive muscles and being forced to keep them was a survivable event. Some people get stuck in wheel chairs. Some people need to inject insulin daily. Having to eat clean and go to the gym was really nothing compared to that. Having the brain rearranged was way worse, but I could suffer a stroke. Becoming some sort of muscle-homo-sub was something different entirely. How the fuck could I get out of this?

"We're a bit pressed on time, as I mentioned, so I'll get right to it. We have a set of customization options to run you through. All are simply select one option out of three. Just signal once for option one, twice for two, three times for three and four times to have them repeated."

"The first option is selecting the major profile for the Meathead module. This one is important and informs a lot of the following customizations, so pay attention. Option 1 is called 'jock' and is the standard athletic option. Lot's of interest in sports, both as a participant and as an observer, spending your nights in areans or sports bars. Option 2 is called 'douche' and is the party and exhibitionist option. You'll spend your time in bodybuilding competitions, getting photographed, or clubbing. Finally option 3 is called "bear" and is the strongman option. This includes lumberjack, handyman or motorcycle specializations, with nights in leather bars or truck stops."

I'm not playing this fucking game. If I'm not saying anything it is something that happens to me, not something I've done.

"Once for jock, twice for douche, thrice for bear. You should know that the Muscleman module isn't affected, so the muscled build will look the same regardless of option here. The focus is primarily muscle size and secondly strength. Agility, stamina or coordination are not something actively worked on, but possible to train yourself of course."

We look at each other in silence. I can't tell from his voice if he is mocking or serious when he misunderstands my silence.

"I know it is difficult to make a decision. I'll put a time limit of 30 seconds per question and pick something for you. We do typically alter the body hair to match each major theme. Jock gets pretty standard body hair, but clean back and chest, douche gets no hair below the neck and bear gets hair everywhere. There is also some differences in skin tanning."

After presumably 30 seconds he continues.

"OK, let's go with option 1. Jock is our most popular option. It's in the name of the package after all. Let's continue with some specifics. For every question you can either select what you find most exciting today, or what you would like to find exciting. If you pick something you already love, that will make the transition easier. So, what sport are you most interested in. One football, two hockey or three soccer?"

I continue my silent treatment. I'm not much into any of them anyway.

"OK, let's go with soccer. That's big internationally, so there is always something to watch. Next, what would you prefer out of basket, baseball or lacrosse?"

...

"Nothing? Not yet a sports fan, eh? Let's mix it up with something more niche and pick lacrosse. Final sport, MMA, Boxing or Wrestling?"

I have looked at a some wrestling, but being a fan is a bit of a stretch.

"Let's go with MMA then. Final question in this module: do you prefer Sweatpants, basketball shorts or compression shorts? I should mention that the questions going forward are a bit reflective. With the full homosexual module, there is really no difference between what you like to wear and what you are attracted to."

How could I relate to that question, even if I wanted to answer. Would I like to be attracted to men in sweatpants? I don't want to be fucking attracted to men at all!

"Basketball shorts then! We're almost there. Just a few simple customizations in the cunting module. What excites you the most? Licking asses, licking feet or licking armpits?"

Fuck! I can't let it be asses. What is best of feet or armpits? What is least worst?

*squeak* *squeak* ... *squeak*

"Oh, we got some interest. Licking armpits it will be. What ejaculations would you be most excited about? In your mouth, in your ass, or both at the same time?"

Is being fucked better or worse than giving a blow job? You would be more in control of a blow job, but you would have to do all the work for it. Both at the same time is clearly worse. Why do I even have to think about this?

*squeak*

"Excellent! An upcoming supreme fellator. Finally an ethnic question. What would you find most attractive? Middle eastern men, northen Latin American men or west African men?"

For a split second I felt very racist as I rejected each of the alternatives. What would be worse though? I imagine trying to find muslims to suck off could backfire in so many ways? Black or Latino then? I really have no idea what their gay communities look like.

*squeak* *squeak* *squeak*

"West African men it is. So, if I've noted everything down correctly you want to become a jock with special interest in soccer, lacrosse and MMA, attracted to West African men wearing basketball shorts, who you most would like to lick their armpits and have them ejaculate in your mouth. Is that correct?"

*squeak*

"Excellent! It's such a waste of time when people don't consent after all that work. All of this would be a loss and we would have to refund the money."

FUCK! *squeak* *squeak* *squeak* *pfff* ...

Rob turned a small knob on the mouth piece that turned off the toy sound.

"So, we will go right ahead and synthesize the DNA and inject that in a few hours. Then you'll basically be knocked out and in fever for the better part of a week while the major rewrite happens. We'll do the brain mapping towards the end and perform the minor surgeries after that. Then one week of initial programming while the surgeries heal and the initial set of tissue stem cell injections start to grow. Week three and forward will be a daily rotation of gym time, injections and programming, mostly in the fuck lab. With your cooperation we could be done as quickly as 10 weeks."

FUCK NO! FUCK NO!

"While we wait for those viruses to be completed we are going to run you through a cleansing sequence. You can see it as a full body enema, so we can implant a new set of bacteria more helpful to our goals."

He pressed a few buttons and the gurney tilted back almost to a flat position. Some sort of numbing fluid was spraying in my mouth after which something started extending down my throat. At the same time I could feel the plug in my ass inflating and altering its configuration.

Part #2

[ikesenlemonadestandstories]

Unnerving Stillness

I’m not really sure what to say other than here is Part 7 of  ‘Retrograde Spell’ The back half of this just sort of happened...so yea...it’s excessively angsty and there are tons of triggers here i’m sure. For your own safety and reading experience please be advised of the following WARNING: Gore -Graphic Content in the form of Violence, Serious bodily harm occurs below, elements of horror included, a handful of characters have more than a rough time. I am placing this under the cut (except probably not because tumblr never listens to me) Feel free to check out the Master List for my other things here. The rest of this series can be searched under the tag ‘Retrograde Spell Series’. For those who continue I hope you enjoy :)

Admin T~

Tagging @little-mini-me-world

[Yn]

You arrived at the field set as the meeting point the exact same moment your sister did. Kanna jumped off her horse and the two of you tied the reins to your tachi then secured it deep into the earth.

“You’re certain Sasuke knows how to activate this barrier?”

“I have no doubt. I trust him like I trust you.”

“That’s all I needed to know.”

“Awfully careful when it comes to these boys aren’t we sis?”

“What of it.” You knew she was trying to ruffle your feathers, make the mood more casual before it got potentially deadly.

“Nothing.” A soft smile “let me see your stomach.”

“It’s no big deal” lifting your shirt high enough so Kanna could take a look “You’re right.” Her fist connected with your side, knocking the wind out of you.

“What the hell was that for?” you screeched, doubling over.

“For making me worry. Now, what way do you want to go? East or West?”

You had gone off to the west and were waiting, hoping the sky didn’t open up. You and Kanna had synced watches and had a general idea of when everyone should be arriving, which was anytime now, hopefully. Now you just needed to kill time, hopefully this was all for nothing.

You were squatting low, plucking at the single blades of grass when the air grew thick with the smell of electricity. A portal would open. Damn. That’s bad, very bad. Drawing your blade as space time ripped a hole in the sky you took off into the newly developing fray.

You were swinging like mad...because you were mad. There was a spy, someone was using you to fulfill their own needs and that sat terribly with you, lodging itself deep in your stomach. You didn’t stop, blowing through your opponents one by one as you got closer and closer to the group. The outline of the barrier could be seen peeking over the hillside and your body was buzzing, Kanna was close. Increasing your speed and the strength of your swing you pushed forward.

The two of you made eye contact and after two steps broke into a sprint towards the barrier, where a particularly large creature was trying to chip away at the protective bubble surrounding your friends. There was no hesitation, gripping your hilt you swung forward pushing all of your weight and momentum into the swing meeting with Kanna. Your blades crossed in dramatic fashion gliding effortlessly past the other as you halved the creature. Bursting into a fit of smoke, while always intriguing you didn’t have time to stand around and look. Spinning so you were back to back, you continued on.

The fight only last a few minutes once you joined with Kanna. You knew by the quick glance you had taken of the warlords that you looked as lethal as you felt. There were no words, a silent dance, one you and your sister had memorized to the height of its efficiency.  The last enemy met your sword, disappearing in a violent eruption of smoke. This was a problem, a very big problem.

[Mitsunari]

We rode back to Azuchi in tense silence, it was clear this was a serious situation. They looked ever the leaders they had claimed to be, sitting proudly atop their steeds clad in dark armor. The atmosphere was unsettling, mild uncomfortableness creeping in, their mannerisms so far removed from the daily personality we, moreover I, had gotten to know at the castle. Not that I minded. (YN) lead our caravan back towards Azuchi, while her sister took the rear, sure that with all of the attacks as of late it was mostly precautionary, until Kanna bellowed.

“Your seven!”

In an instant, (YN) pivoted her horse positioning herself directly between an assailant and Nobunaga. Sparks flew from the clash of steel, the blow was powerful enough to knock her back out of her saddle, in the moment it took to reset it’s swing, Kanna rushed the creature knocking it’s head clear off it’s shoulders. I hurried over out of concern and was stopped by a sharp look, and a motion I recognized quite well, though usually it came from Hideyoshi, telling me to pause take stock of the situation. I looked up.

Our company had been surrounded by a handful of hoodlums. When had that happened, looking towards the sky I could make out the faintest of purple vortexes closing. This was an ambush. The twins circled us, tightening our ranks, fighting off what they could until (YN) threw up another barrier and took off running in the direction of a  now opened orange and black portal in the sky. Four steps and she was gone, jumping up dissolving into the sky. As if trading places, Yuuto was dumped out in her stead. Clothes a mess, blood running down his arms and face, panic etched in his features.

Breaking into the bubble he pulled his sister with him.

“We were ambushed…(YN) responded to a mayday call. I don’t-” he swallowed hard “I don’t know if everyone’s going to make it.” He shared a look with his sister before planting himself in the grass and in a motion that looked similar to throwing, he moved a screen into view on the barrier wall. 

“It’s a live feed, I use it to monitor all of our officers while they fight. I’m not there but I should be able to tell how it’s going based off of everyone’s vitals.” He explained, finishing by pointing out his Aunt Yui and Aoi, His father Haruto, and (YN) on the different screens, helping us differentiate them from the first through  fourth units. Adjusting the controls on his wrist voices could now be heard crystal clear within the bubble.

The distinct sound of battle echoed off the malleable walls of the barrier, you could hear shouts ringing out from each of the officers, all commands to update positions and re-work the battle formations. I closed my eyes, attempting to envision their positions based on the descriptions alone, trying to calm my mind, wishing I wasn’t just a bystander in all of this. Calculation after calculation to help perceive (YN)’s position, it all seemed alright and they sounded like they had made strides when a sharp cry rang out.

“HARUTO” “DAD” an unknown female and (YN) screamed simultaneously.

There was audible turmoil and his screen flashed, the lines jumping rapidly before it flat-lined and went black. Next to Yukimura, Kanna whimpered as Yuuto gripped the edge of his shirt harder. As his knuckles turned white another shrill cry ripped through the bubble as Aoi’s monitor shuddered and went black. Tears were now visible, welling in Kanna’s eyes, as Yukimura gripped her hard around the waist trying to offer some semblance of comfort. There was a grunt in a familiar voice...and breathing became haggard. My heart rate picked up matching the monitor on (YN). As it seemed to be losing control the familiar orange glow lit up the sky and a several bodies tumbled out of the sky, landing hard in the grass. Shutting with a powerful gust of wind that ravaged the treeline in the immediate area as all the monitors on the screen went black, all but Yui’s and the third and fourth regiments.

[Yukimura]

Kanna grew visibly more distressed by the minute as more and more screen blinked out into oblivion. She jerked in my arms as the bodies tumbled from the sky and a wail ripped through her chest, collapsing against me as everything went black but the screen for Yui. No...that couldn’t be good, I know Yuuto said people wouldn’t make it, it was par for the course when it came to war...but could they have been completely obliterated like that? (YN) had just been standing here minutes ago, participating in one of the most lethal of dances I had ever seen. Would they have succeeded if Kanna had gone or would she have succumbed to the same fate?

“Yuuto…” her voice quivered “someone has to go get them”

He gave a half-hearten nod, but something didn’t feel right. Everyone was on edge, and as he made to break through to collect his Aunt and fellow soldiers, Mitsunari stopped him.

“I wouldn’t.” bewilderment swirled about the enclosed space as he looked right at Kanna, the pain of potential loss clear in his eyes.

“Something isn’t adding up. I ran countless scenarios and only one resulted in the loss of (YN). All of which meant the demise of all others in the area, that includes Yui and your ranking officers.”

“Mitsunari, man, I know it hurts, and you’re scenarios are good in theory but in practice life is way more messy. You have no idea what went wrong up there. We can’t just let them lay half mangled in the field surrounded by enemies.” Masamune made a valid point

“No. he’s right.” red streaks prominent on Kanna’s face. Pain shot through my chest as I looked at her. “Something doesn’t fit. Why would everyone else go black at the same time, and why haven’t they started attacking? Also, (YN)’s barrier is still up. There’s no way that would be possible if she was dead right?” she looked at Yuuto for clarification “Right?”

“She put this up?” His eyes widened “Mitsunari. You may be on to something.”

“I think if we plan to go get them, we should be cautious. Did you ever figure out who the spy was?”

“I had it narrowed down...but all signs are pointing in one direction and that..doesn’t look good.” Gesturing to the members of the third and fourth regimen standing backs towards one another, circling Yui menacingly while keeping an eye on the growing army of QA soldiers.

That’s right, there was a spy wasn’t there. It’s why this entire meeting had happened like this in the first place. Giving Kanna a quick peck on the cheek, tasting the salt from her tears, she leaned into me before stepping forward towards Yuuto.

“I’ve got a plan.”

[YN]

You never got calls to your personal line. Ever. But in the moment the monster had been beheaded you received two, one from your Aunt Yui requesting back up and another from your Aunt Aoi pleading with you to keep you and your sister away. Something was wrong, you knew it was impulsive, but Yui had always been the planner, assuming your aunt’s pride as you mentor was getting in the way you sprinted off to respond to the may-day call. As it stood Yui’s order came first, and she had more authority over you than Aoi as the armies tactician. 

The familiar rush of traveling through time hit you and you were spit out to your home on fire, every person embroiled in battle with the Q.A. Oh gods. Mizuko came running up to you, a wild rush of blonde hair and green eyes.

“What are you doing here? Aoi-sama explicitly stated she didn’t want you to come.”

You felt a chill run down your spine as you broke out into a nervous sweat, “Yui-sama called me, her orders for a may-day override Aoi’s”

“What?” her eye’s went as wide as saucers as she parried a blow from an encroaching QA soldier. Lifting her wrist to her mouth she spoke “Aoi-sama, it would appear that Yui is the traitor.”

You blood ran like ice in your veins. There was no way, but logically it made sense, she had known all your plans, every position, exactly how many soldiers you had at your disposal and where they were being sent. The only real question that remained unansered was why? Why had she done it?

“(YN) is here, she got a private mayday from Yui, after your call went out.” a pause “I understand” turning to me as she lowered her arm, eyes burning like the fire raging behind us. “Aoi has given you command of the second regiment as well. Yoshiyuki is headed our way. We randevu with the rest of the team to circle back and hold the line.”

You met up off in the forest just beyond the citadel walls, everyone gathered up. At your disposal you had four archers Hisame and Mari from the first regiment who would pair up with Koharu and Yumi from the second to give ground coverage from different vantage points throughout the citadel. Always making sure Aoi, Haruto, and yourself were in someone's sight. Four tachi, Tsubaki and Shiro from the first and Ohta and Tora from the second would be heading off with the Naginata wielders Hinata and Tatsuya; the first regiment going north and the second going west to hold the line. Mizuko your general and Yoshiyuki the leader of the second division would be coming with you entering through the middle of the fight to subdue Yui and the QA.

--

If you weren’t sure Yui was the traitor you were now. She stood on the crushed monument to the previous clan leaders, shouting orders to the QA, as she rushed forward. In the blink of an eye she had a sword through the stomach of your father. You couldn’t control it, your scream ricocheted off the tattered building in front of you. She smirked, as he fell from her blade with a sickening thud. Aoi looked up, eyes pleading with you as she engaged her own sister. You advanced in a blind white rage the only things holding you to reality was the swift metallic clang of Mizuko’s blade in tandem with your own and Yosiyuki’s revolver firing off at the enemy between deep swings of his uchigatana.

Everything was a cluster of noise and chaos, people were everywhere, fighting, running, hiding, the citadel was aflame, and now both your father and your Aunt Aoi were mortally wounded, lying side by side near the port crystal at your aunt Yui’s feet. You knew, instinctively, your father had passed already, the one sparring thing your traitorous aunt had done was grant him a swift passing, but Aoi lay in the dirt and blood groaning and gasping for air.

“Yoshiyuki, cover Aoi. Mizuko go find Ryoko and bring her here…I’ll take care of Yui.”

“But…”

“That’s an order” and they were off.

There were no words to be had, you collected your thoughts, centering yourself. No battle could be won off adrenaline alone, and you knew that. She smirked as she turned from her sister “I’m so glad you could make it to the party dearest niece. Shall I send you off the same way I did your loving father and teacher?”

Be calm. Stay calm. She was trying to goad you, she had a sharp tongue, and every mock battle with your sister had prepared you for something like this. You ignored her, as you both danced a dangerous dance. Sparks flying where steel met, you had to be guarded, pace this out, otherwise she could, and would take you. You were wearing her down, making headway, or so you thought, as if struck by lightning a searing heat ripped through your left arm. You followed her blade with your eyes noticing that it had pierced clean through your shoulder, she changed her grip and striking true once more pulled up cleaving your arm from its socket. You took two more swings, filled with the rest of your will, landing a glancing blow across her face, nothing deadly, but it would scar, a permanent reminder of what she had done today. The world around you tunneled, you heard a menacing laugh, and several shouts, many of which were your name. Your weight shifted and you fell to the ground, landing hard in the dirt just beyond your already fallen family members.

The ringing was getting louder and the deep black abyss you had been slowly growing comfortable with began to glow white. As it did you felt your sides prickle and you found yourself nauseous as you were rolled over, now looking at Mizuko and Yoshiyuki, no longer able to make out what they were saying. They looked worried. I wished the didn’t, I wanted to tell them that I felt wonderful. That there wasn’t anymore pain, that it was going to be okay. As I felt myself slipping I thought of my brother and sister stuck completely unaware of what had just transpired and I thought of Mitsunari, his sweet smile, his clumsy nature, his warmth - oh how I wanted to feel that warmth. My eyes burned as they closed. I’m sorry. Everyone I’m so sorry.

[postwell]

What is DevOps?

Introduction

Although DevOps implementation continues to grow across large corporations and web-native companies, confusion persists about what exactly it is. What is DevOps, a culture, a movement, an approach, a philosophy, or a combination? What is the definition of DevOps have different meanings for different individuals?

Whatever way you decide to define DevOps and the process of achieving DevOps success will require an effort. Whatever place you are on the DevOps journey, we'll assist you in answering various essential questions. Develop a better understanding, such as described below in the DevOps course.

What exactly is DevOps?

Where did it originate from?

What are the reasons for DevOps?

What is the process that makes DevOps "work"?

How popular is DevOps in the present?

What are the reasons people are adopting DevOps?

What are the advantages?

What is DevOps?

The term "DevOps" was invented in 2009 by Patrick Debois, who became one of the gurus. The time was created by the words "development" with "operations," which provides an initial understanding of what people are referring to when they refer to "DevOps." It is important to note that DevOps isn't a method, an approach, or technology, nor is it conventional. Many devotees describe DevOps as a "culture"--a perspective that New Relic favors. We also employ the term "DevOps trend" when speaking about issues like the rate of adoption and trends for the coming years, as well as "DevOps environments" to describe an IT business that has implemented a DevOps culture.

This guide will provide a lot more to discuss DevOps; however, for us to begin with the basics, we must have a usable definition. We like this definition taken from Gartner:

"DevOps is a paradigm shift in IT culture, focusing on the speed of IT service delivery by using agile, efficient practices in the framework of a system-oriented strategy. DevOps focus on the importance of people (and the culture) and aims to enhance the relationship between the operations and development teams. DevOps implementers use technology, particularly automated tools that can use an ever-changing, dynamic and flexible infrastructure from a life standpoint. ."

In addition, the definition of DevOps has been broadened to include an umbrella term that encompasses the practices, culture, and mindset used to speed up the software development time-to-market by employing fast feedback loops to release fixes, features, and updates faster.

Chapter 2 What is the Story Behind DevOps Originate?

Despite the mythological nature of some stories about the beginnings of the DevOps movement, DevOps was not created out of thin air. The roots of DevOps were laid out in the past and were developed by innovative IT experts across a range of fields. The two significant antecedents to DevOps are:

Enterprise systems management (ESM). A large portion of those who were involved in the first concept of DevOps were system administrators. They brought essential ESM techniques to DevOps, including the management of configurations, monitoring systems, automated provisioning, and the toolchain method.

Agile development. One observer explains, "DevOps can be interpreted as an extension of Agile, which is agile software development calls for close collaboration among the product manager, customers developers, developers and (sometimes) the QA department to make up for the gaps in the product and to rapidly evolve toward an improved service ..." DevOps acknowledges that] the delivery of services as well as how the application and system interact is an integral element of the value proposition for the customer and the team responsible for product development must consider these issues as a top-level concern. In this way, DevOps is simply extending Agile principles beyond the confines of code to the entirety of the service."

[mari-vargas]

Hey everyone! So I guess this isn’t a specific story, but it’s one of my “stories”. *Note from midway through typing this: I’m sorry, there in fact are several specific stories I’ve decided to delve into.

This one is about mine and my sister’s eyesight. **Note from further into typing this: I’m soooo sorry! Hopefully I’ll get to my actual original intent…

Let’s start with the fact that I was the last person in my immediate family to need glasses (okay *big shocker*, I know, I’m the youngest, but that’s not what I meant. I meant I was older than my sister had been when she first needed reading glasses). I had perfect vision until 5th grade (and I do mean perfect). Then my eye doctor said something along the lines of “…well, you don’t really need these but you’re borderline” and asked me if I wanted reading glasses.

Guys. I’m a nerd. I’ve always been a nerd, and I loved being a nerd. I’d always wanted the full nerd aesthetic, with the braces and glasses because how else were people going to look at tiny cute blonde me and think “yes that’s a nerd”. I was already halfway there what with having braces starting in first grade. But…see the thing is I had my teeth straightened in 2 phases: 3 years on starting in 1st grade, then they took them off because before they could do more they needed my mouth to grow a lot and I had no clue how long that would be. It was another 3 years and then I had them back on for 3 years to finish the job (and then I lost my retainer, found it lost it again, and by the time I found it again it no longer fit…I’m fixing it again and have just a few months left).

Wow ok tangent. My point is I kinda jumped at the chance to have glasses. My whole family had glasses and all I had were fake ones from Claire’s my mom had gotten me to bribe me into finishing getting my second ear pierced because my cousin was with us and was planning to get her ears pierced within the next year and I needed to set an example or something. So yes I got reading glasses. For all that I read though honestly I don’t think I wore them too much. I didn’t need them. And it kinda bothered me to see the words so much bigger than I was used to. At my next eye appointment, the optometrist once again said “well…you can decide if you need these because you see fine but you’re borderline” this time about what I called “all-the-time glasses”. Well guys I decided yes because it’s help me see even better than I did right? And they did! I remember the first time I put them on. My sister had come to pick me up from school and must have gotten my glasses on her way because the first time I put my glasses on I was in my school parking lot and suddenly I saw all the tiny beautiful details of the trees blowing in the wind that was threatening to lift me up and take me far far away. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I had to wear both the regular glasses and the reading glasses for a few years, switching between them. I’d joke that I was both nearsighted and farsighted. I could never remember which definition was for which because I mean well there was really only maybe a 2-5foot area of space in the middle where I could see perfectly fine without assistance. Eventually though I became decidedly nearsighted. I’m not sure if it happened in middle school (where all my classes were on the computer) or high school (which, regardless, turned my eyesight to crap between the sleep deprivation and the screen time). But ya. If I know I’ll be looking at something up close for an extended period of time (as in more than a minute) I’ll take my glasses off. I had contacts for a while back in high school and during college and my prescription didn’t change at all during that time—or at least not enough that my contact prescription would change even if my glasses would slightly. Ps I had swapped eye doctors a little before I stopped needing reading glasses—because the first guy really shouldn’t have pulled that bullshit. Pretty much everyone is in agreement that he probably started the degradation of my eyesight. Granted, it would’ve happened in high school anyways, but it might not have been as bad to start off with. I changed optometrists again I think after graduating from college because the one before was not using my insurance correctly and was convincing me to get things added to my glasses that I didn’t really need and adding to the out of pocket expense which should have been zero. And apparently they’d been ignoring my slowly degrading vision changes and actually a couple times triggered it to get worse.

I got my first new prescription in maybe 3 years the first time I went to the new optometrist. Right around when I started substitute teaching. I opted to not get contacts this time, deciding it was time to give my eyes a break, especially since I was on the computer a lot, job hunting. Then I started working in the QA/QC lab I’m at now and I was wearing safety glasses over top of my regular glasses. This meant I couldn’t take my glasses off to look at screens and my eye sight then got significantly worse. Probably the hugest jump I’ve ever had. Spoke with my eye doctor about my problem and oh my goodness this is genuinely the best experience I’ve ever had. I got two pairs of glasses, one regular and the other prescription safety glasses upon which I got bifocals that essentially revert the lens to what it’d be like if I removed my glasses entirely. I can say with confidence it’s going much better and my only regret now that we fully vaccinated folks no longer have to wear masks at my work is that my safety glasses don’t have adjustable nose pads and thus slide down without a mask on (the embarrassing truth behind why I’ve been content to keep on wearing a mask everyday even when I only see one or two other people (also vaccinated) for the entirety of my 8-16 hour shift(s)—I still wear them literally everywhere anyways, habit y’know? It’s hard for me to break and even harder when I don’t feel like there’s a need to).

Okay!

For those hoping I’d finally get to my original point: I’m terribly sorry I went down a huge rabbit hole of a tangent. The real story is actually about when my sister and I go to the ocean.

You see my sister’s non-reading glasses prescription is technically 0.00, and the optometrists are always confused about why she needs to wear glasses. That is, until they test her depth perception. She has none. Absolutely no depth perception. I really can’t even imagine. She can see perfectly well, but can’t tell where anything is. (As such I think it’s actually recorded that she’s legally required to be wearing corrective lenses while driving—my sister and her driving is enough fodder for several other story times and I doubt this’ll be the last time it’s mentioned).

Me on the other hand… I can’t see a darn thing. All I see are blurry color blobs that occasionally blend into new colors altogether. But I still have depth perception. I couldn’t possibly tell what a thing is but I can certainly tell you how far away it is and where it is in relation to other blobs. I’m honestly legitimately terrified of the idea of things being two dimensional.

So when we go down to the water line to jump in the waves, we leave our glasses with the rest of the stuff so we don’t lose them to the surf. Which presents a problem for us both. So we both need to have someone with us as, essentially, a guide. But!! We’re perfectly capable of going together without any other person. I’m able to tell her how far we are from something or something is from something else and she’s able to tell me what it is. We make an amusing sight apparently.

[knowledge2success]

What is the difference between DevOps, Agile, and waterfall?

DevOps has solid affinities with Agile and Lean methodologies. The old perspective on activities tended towards the "Dev" side being the "creators" and the "Operations" side being "individuals that arrangement with the creation after its introduction to the world" – the acknowledgment of the damage that has been done in the business of those two being treated as siloed concerns is the center driver behind DevOps. Along these lines, DevOps can be deciphered as an outgrowth of Agile – light-footed programming improvement endorses close coordinated effort of clients, item the executives, designers, and (at times) QA to fill in the holes and quickly emphasize towards a superior item – DevOps says "indeed, yet administration conveyance and how the application and frameworks collaborate are a basic piece of the offer to the customer too, thus the item group needs to incorporate those worries as a high level thing." From this viewpoint, DevOps is just broadening Agile standards past the limits of "the code" to the whole conveyed administration. Waterfall - The term comes from the arrangement of clear achievements an undertaking should go through to finish the work. All in all, the achievements course into one another. With the cascade, each gathering is purposefully kept isolated. Information sharing gets troublesome, and correspondence is similarly restricted. The outcome accompanies delays because of disarray around the thing each group is doing. The driver for the whole venture is the thing that the business is hoping to convey. What is frequently absent is a ceaseless discussion with the client, implying that arrangements are conveyed that don't meet client assumptions. The outcome: the conveyed item isn't utilized. Organizations, for example, Microsoft used to utilize the "we know best" model. Agile procedure is a group based methodology that accentuates quick arrangement of a utilitarian application with an attention on consumer loyalty. It characterizes a period boxed stage called a run with a characterized term of about fourteen days. Toward the beginning of each run, a rundown of expectations are focused on dependent on client input. Toward the finish of the run, the group and the client audit and assess the work with notes for future runs. As an approach dependent on broad standards, more explicit strategies dependent on cycles, for example, Scrum and Kanban are called kinds of light-footed philosophy.

American technology consulting: ATC is a preeminent training provider, supporting professionals across industries to develop new expertise and skills for recognition and growth in the corporate world. ATC offers a wide range of services in training, learning, and development in technology and management fields developed to deliver high-value training through innovative and practical approaches. Please visit our website to learn more about our course offerings 

[backstorywithdanalewis]

QAnon - Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast link;https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/8164453

Jason Blazakis: (00:00) Dealing with an ideology, which is what the que a non conspiracy theory really has become is exceedingly difficult to counter, as opposed to maybe one or two individuals bent on violent activity. The etiology allows for individuals to become radicalized, and that is more of a long term and enduring challenge that goes simply beyond the reach of the FBI. Dana Lewis: (00:26) Hi everyone. And welcome to this edition of backstory. I'm Dana Lewis in London, Q Anon. I first broadcast an in-depth story on Q Anon back in July of 2020. And I can tell you, I really didn't understand that much about the group until those interviews. And since then, a couple of Q Anon members were elected to Congress. It became front and center in the storming of the Capitol Kune on members, believe in some cabal of Satan worshipers existing in the democratic party, torturing and murdering children. It's a bizarre called whack dangerous in March Pew Anon prophesized. Trump would come back to the white house and be president with the passing of March 4th, a highly anticipated date for followers of the Q Anon conspiracy theory. Some remain characteristically delusional. They will adjust their conspiracy theories to some other date. Now much like the guy who holds a poster on the street corner saying the end is nigh, and he always changes the date, but Q Anon includes in its roster of the loony policemen and soldiers and politicians. And that's just scary on this backstory Q Anon. And does this international cult fall apart with Trump as its spiritual leader, or does it marry into evangelical religious followers who see parallels in their beliefs in Q and ons? End of days, prophecies in the summer long before the Capitol insurrection, I interviewed Jason [inaudible] from the sifan center who largely predicted violence from Q Anon, but probably not on that scale. And now Jason joins us again. Hi, Jason, how are you? Jason Blazakis: (02:20) Hey, Dana, great to be on the program again. I am doing well. I hope you are doing well as well. Dana Lewis: (02:25) Thank you so much. And you also teach at Middlebury Institute, uh, you teach terrorism, uh, is Q Anon, uh, an extension of that course or, or is that morphing more into kind of the radical right in America? Jason Blazakis: (02:41) So I teach a course on introduction to terrorism and there is a module in that course on cults where we discuss groups like [inaudible] and the Mujahideen costs. But of course, in, in that class, we are talking also about Q Anon in the context of Colts in, in terrorism. And in the course I'm developing for the Middlebury Institute. In fact, for the fall, there'll be a module related to cults in the American radical right. Of which, of course, Q Anon is very well postured, unfortunately. And we'll be talking a lot about [inaudible] in that class too. Dana Lewis: (03:17) I don't like to quote Fox news too much, but, uh, I know one of their evening program hosts, uh, has called Q Anon followers, gentle Patriots, waving flags. It was Tucker Carlson. I mean, do you think he's living on another planet or he's grouping Q and on in the category of terrorism, uh, too harsh. Jason Blazakis: (03:41) I don't think it's too harsh. I most certainly would disagree with Tucker Carlson's assessment that, you know, all QA, non adherence are gentle Patriots. I think we saw firsthand on the 6th of January that there are quite a few to a non-adherence who are anything but gentle. Um, Ashley Babbitt's stormed the capital. Of course she was killed, but she was, uh, uh, uh, [inaudible] um, you know, in, in that individual had a spear in the Capitol and he's behind bars. So there are quite a few individuals with [inaudible] who've carried out bios even before the 6th of January. And it is a, an extremist ideology. There's no two ways about it. And because it's an extremist ideology, I think it's a disservice to call these individuals just simply gentle Patriots. I would characterize the events of January 6th, like Christopher Ray did the director of the FBI. He called it an act of domestic terrorism. So there were certainly then thus individuals with enqueue and non who stormed the capital, who I think we should consider as domestic carriers. So I, I, we can't, we can't let them off like that. And the way Tucker Carlson described them, Dana Lewis: (04:54) Is there a link between white supremacists, some of the dangerous white supremacists in queue and on other links there, Jason Blazakis: (05:02) There, there is. Um, if you examine the queue drops from the so-called queue, um, who nobody knows exactly who Q is still to this day, but the individual purports to have a military level clearance that is inside the U S government working on defense intelligence issues, and Hugh's early messages, um, very early on, uh, he took a very anti-Semitic approach, um, to discussing, um, the so-called deep state being funded by the Rothschilds and the Soros is of the world. So there is an inherent antisemitism within the, uh, Q Anon movement that makes me really uncomfortable. And in that sense, there are some analogies that you can draw between some of the more hardcore white supremacists and their ideology, as well as the Q Anon theories that some subscribed to. That's not to say that all Q non adherence are certainly white supremacists. They are, they're a very diverse set of individuals, but some of those underlying theories of Q Anon are anti-Semitic and people need to understand that Dana Lewis: (06:12) Is the Q and a on that we talked about in the summer, um, you know, a bizarre, far right conspiracy group that thinks that the Democrats are holding children, hostages and drinking the blood of children. And, you know, it's, it's really almost, I shake my head every time I go through this stuff, but is, have they evolved from what they were in the summer to where we are now in terms of the, and on that, that is rooted in America. Jason Blazakis: (06:47) So Q Anon has under gone a shock to the system. Many of the adherence thought on January 20th, the United States military was going to in circle, um, president Biden and all his associates and take them out. Um, and that didn't happen. Um, president Biden was sworn in and he's running the government and, and that led for many members to a situation where they had this cognitive dissonance, where what they believed was illustrates would be patently false. So you had some individuals Dana Lewis: (07:25) Then again on March 4th, March, Jason Blazakis: (07:29) March 4th. Exactly. There was another conspiracy theory that, um, president Trump was going to be sworn in on, on the 4th of March, thinking back to some bizarre convoluted IEM, um, dating back to 1871, where the United States became a corporation instead of a country in that on March 4th, the United States would become a country. Again, led by Donald Trump, who would become the, Dana Lewis: (07:52) If you told me, if you told me that on March 3rd, lawmakers would sit longer to pass legislation so that they weren't going to be in Congress on the fourth, and that they would essentially some of them leave Washington on the fourth, I'd say, come on Jace. And that's exactly what happened. Jason Blazakis: (08:10) I think it was because there was also credible warnings by the U S law enforcement community, that there were individuals who were trying to take advantage of that date of March 4th, the carry out potentially attack against the United States Congress. And because of that, congressional deliberations were, were stalled. Um, so people took that date seriously in law enforcement because they learned from the 6th of January, that there are individuals who really are bent on destroying democracy in the United States. And some of those individuals inevitably are still part of the queue. And non-community, I said there are some individuals who certainly have walked away because they see that there have been just nothing but false prophecies associated with QS messages, but there are those that I've wrote an article recently in the Los Angeles time who are doubling down. And those are the most ardent supporters, um, within pulse, you know, Holtz historically have changed dates. Um, you know, whether it's the heaven Gates cult, um, from the 1970s to 1990s, when, you know, essentially they change the date and when this magical situation would occur when the UFO was going to pick them up, um, and you've seen it with other cults, um, they, they change the, they move the goalpost as it works, uh, in, in Q Anon, the individuals who stay within the movement are moving those goalposts to, to conform with their own worldviews. So that makes them really dangerous. Those that remain behind. Dana Lewis: (09:37) Okay, I'm glad I let you finish that point because that's really important. The surveys, some of the polling in America said that large groups of evangelical Christians, uh, are drawn into Q Anon and, and that a large number of Republican evangelical Christians belong to Q and on or follow-up and, and identify, uh, with its philosophy, whatever that happens to be. Jason Blazakis: (10:04) Absolutely. And there is this, this movement and it's been happening over this past year. And, um, there are some scholars out there who tracks to a non very closely like Mark Andre, Argentina. Who've spoken about this in, in some length, there is this, this natural, um, religious terminology, connect it to the Q and non movement. The idea that there's going to be a great awakening, for instance, that has very overt religious connotations. And that is the language of Q Anon that people will become enlightened to the truth. And then once they are enlightened, that will, um, allow for the precipitation of a quote storm, um, which will lead essentially to this bloodletting, um, of the, the secret cabal that you described earlier, Dana of, uh, Democrats, um, of, uh, of Jews like Soros, who are funding, the deep state who are abusing children, that bloodletting will occur and they will be destroyed and wiped off the face of the face of the earth. Jason Blazakis: (11:03) So there is kind of apocalyptical, um, millenarian, uh, aspects to, to this, uh, um, quasi, um, religious cult. Um, and it is very disturbing to see that there is increasing, um, interest within the evangelical community about what Q Anon is. That's very worrisome. We're also seeing in some of the research we're doing at the Soufan center, um, that there is a lot of anti-abortion rhetoric now associated with individuals who populate the Q Anon community. And that's worrisome because in terms of acts of violence perpetuated in the United States, um, by individuals, um, there have been a significant number of attacks, um, against things like the planned Parenthood, um, doctors who have provided abortions. So I do worry there could be a Q a non follower who is now avidly drinking up some of these anti abortion related conspiracies who could do real-world harm. Um, Dana Lewis: (12:04) CF is the FBI now, have they shifted philosophically and said, okay, we have, first of all, domestic terrorism is the greatest threat in America right now, more than ISIS or Al-Qaeda, or, I mean, we we've at least heard that from them testifying, uh, you know, before one of the congressional committees that the head of the FBI is Q and on now somebody, uh, a group that, um, is being taken very, very seriously by law enforcement officials. And do they need to classify them as a potential terror group in order to, to source funding in order to intercept communications, are they equipped as a law enforcement agency currently to deal with Q1 ons threat? Jason Blazakis: (12:48) So back in 2019, um, the Arizona, um, Phoenix FBI field office declared the Q Anon conspiracy theory to be a domestic terrorism threat. And in that sense, the FBI at least somewhat early on, probably not as early as they could have, start thinking about those who subscribed to that theory as being potentially dangerous individuals. And then you fast forward in time to January 6th. I think the writing became very clearly on the wall. Um, we know a couple of very specific cases of Q1 non-supporters were part of that insurrection. But if you look at the symbols of the day, um, you saw a lot of Q Anon shirts, Q Anon, um, regalia, um, even, even though the individuals who did not go into the Capitol building, who, who still protest it, which was, you know, their, their, their right to protest. Right. But once you cross the, that, that, you know, breach the barrier, that's another story is the FBI well postured to deal with, um, Q Anon and just the ethic, terrorism writ large, um, FBI director, Christopher Ray testified, I think it was last week. Jason Blazakis: (13:53) Um, I think it was the week of the first, uh, uh, March, March 2nd in that time period. And he said, um, in two years, there has been more than 100% growth in domestic terrorism investigations from 850 in 2019 to 2000 in 2021. I imagine of that subset, there are most certainly Q a non-related investigations that are ongoing with the FBI, but with such an explosion of cases, I do worry that the FBI may not have all the resources and FBI agents they could use to tackle this threat. And I think Christopher Ray said as much. So I don't think they're as well postured as they could be. And I think dealing with an ideology, which is what the que a non conspiracy theory really has become exceedingly difficult to counter, as opposed to maybe one or two individuals bent on violent activity, the etiology allows for individuals to become radicalized. And that is more of a long term and enduring challenge that goes simply beyond the reach of the FBI. Dana Lewis: (14:56) When you look at what president former president Trump said about Q Anon, you know, back in August, he said, you know, I've heard these people just love our country. Um, do you believe that with kind of a wink and a nod, he tapped into queue and on to, to bolster his support, to bolster support at the rallies and maybe to supercharge them on the way to the Capitol? Jason Blazakis: (15:23) Unfortunately, I do think either winning or unwittingly, it's hard to know president Trump certainly used buzzwords over a long period of time that motivated individuals within the Q Anon community. Um, he was always reluctant in the lead up to the election to condemn them, um, to, to chastise them for being, um, engaged in problematic behavior, which they were both online and in the real world in that sense, I think he unfortunately emboldened individuals within the queue and non-community, and if you look at, Dana Lewis: (15:58) So, which one is it wittingly or unwittingly? Jason Blazakis: (16:01) I, I'm not sure what the president president Trump, honestly, it's, it's hard to say what's going through that guy's mind. So it's hard for me to conjecture. Um, I will tell you this though, if you look at the individuals who have been arrested, um, whether they're Q Anon or there's something else, they all have said they were following the words and orders of president Donald J. Trump, and, and they actually felt they were fulfilling a mission on his behalf. Um, and there's no two ways about that. Um, so whether he's winning or unwitting to me, a president has to be very careful about the language that they use. And he was not Dana Lewis: (16:41) This guy in the summer told me, and I think he's very smart and he knows this topic. Some guy named Jason [inaudible] told me that he thinks that maybe there is state sponsored as in a, another state, maybe Russia, maybe somebody that could be toying with Q Anon followers and stirring the misled. Do you now, all these months later, what do you think, do you think that those intelligence agencies and state sponsors playing with this group? Jason Blazakis: (17:15) Absolutely. Um, and we have a report at the Soufan center. That's going to be issued very soon where we explore the issue of foreign influence with the Q Anon community. And it's more than one country, um, that is essentially stirring the pot online to amplify Q Anon messages. Um, and that includes Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, interestingly enough, with the Russian Federation and the Chinese actually stirring the pot the most. Um, so there's certainly an aspect in which foreign governments seek Q Anon, um, as community that can lead to, uh, societal discord within the United States and all those countries, I mentioned, they're inherently anti-democratic right. And anything that they can do to, to make a country like the United States, which tries to push forward throughout the world, democracy making the United States lives more difficult is in their national geo-strategic interests and in a lot of ways. So Dana Lewis: (18:13) Yeah, this whole information war and disinformation war. That's so interesting. What you're saying, do you think that the big internet, big tech companies are successful in pulling down the Q Anon accounts and countering disinformation, or it's just a drop in the bucket? Jason Blazakis: (18:30) It's a drop in the bucket. Unfortunately, they were slow to respond generally to toxic anti hate language online over these last few years. Um, it was only more recently, um, where we saw a Silicon Valley pick up a much more serious approach to trying to counter content online. So they're doing better on English language content, but we're still seeing, and this is one of the recommendations in our report, um, a heavy amount of foreign language, Q Anon associated content circulating online, uh, and in particular, they have made strides in countering, I think Russian language propaganda. Um, but they're not doing quite as well. Um, in terms of Chinese, uh, related language, propaganda related to the queue and non message Dana Lewis: (19:14) Now, right? I mean, there's huge followings in Europe and Q Anon. Jason Blazakis: (19:17) It is, it is it's gone global. Unfortunately it's spread like wildfire throughout Europe, Australia, Russia, Japan. Um, I was talking to a former student of mine, actually. She lives in Japan and she was showing me some of the Japanese Q and non-related posts. And CUNA is very popular in Japan. That's very worrisome cause Japan does have a history of poets, like the [inaudible] coat that carried out the 1995 subway, um, Tokyo subway attack with, with Sarah and chemical agents. So you have very worrisome to see that spread in places like Japan, for instance. So, um, I'm very concerned about the scope of this threat. Um, and I don't think it's localized to United States any longer. Dana Lewis: (19:58) And what is the next chapter in this Jason, before I let you go? And I appreciate your time. Do you think that, you know, Biden's approach to white supremacy to the radical, right? Which in Q includes Q Anon and America has generally just to take the rhetoric down, um, you know, stay off social media is deal with deal with trying to become a more normal administration than the Trump administration was. And just tried to, you know, try to try to turn off the, the hot switch is, is that's not going to deal with this completely though. Jason Blazakis: (20:34) It won't. Um, but the fact that we have a president in the United States that uses language very carefully, I find to be incredibly helpful. And I also find it Jason Blazakis: (20:48) He's acting like a, like an adult, which is, which is really helpful. Right? And the other thing that I think that this administration is doing much more seriously than the last is actually trying to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing out vaccines, um, pushing out guidance about the importance of masks in ways that I find to be helpful because Q Anon exploded. Um, as a theory, turning into a belief system in 2020, because of COVID-19 people were trapped at home and they would be can, uh, more speed and the toxic theories of, of Q Anon. So the fact that the president Biden is trying to actually solve COVID-19 so people can get outside of their homes and they can socialize like normal people. Again, I think we'll be, um, hopefully the most important thing that we can do to deliver some kind of death knell to the Q a nominee. Dana Lewis: (21:39) And then you have members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor green, who she seems to be distancing herself from it somewhat. I mean, all these crazy videos have come out of her, you know, stocking students and denying the school shootings were real and saying they were red flag events. And, uh, you know, does that go away? Jason Blazakis: (22:01) Unfortunately, I don't think politicians, um, like Marjorie Taylor green will completely distanced themselves from the Q Anon theories because they, they see that there's a significant number of people that actually believe in it and it, it taps into their political base. So what they were to walk away from that it's walking away from votes. And the one thing I know about politicians is they love nothing more than, than votes, power and money. So I just don't see her completely distancing herself. And I think it's really unfortunate that we have somebody like that as a member of Congress, who does these things, um, you know, denying facts. And, and that is one of the hallmarks of, of Cunanan as a theory is this denial of, of objective fact. And that's problematic for a member of Congress who is representing nearly 800,000 people. It's really a stain, um, in, in Congress. Jason Blazakis: (22:53) And thankfully she was removed from her committee assignments. So her ability to exert true influence and power in terms of lawmaking is, is significantly hampered. Um, and I think that was the appropriate action by Congress, just when Congress took action against representative Stephen King from Iowa, who was essentially touting white supremacist ideology. He had those, uh, committees that he was on ripped out from his hands. And the same thing has happened to Marjorie Taylor green. And I think that shows, um, that we're considering conspiracy theories and truth, um, denial, um, associated with the Q and a movement along the same lines of toxic white supremacy related material and content. Dana Lewis: (23:34) Um, but unfortunately it's a, it's a, it's a cult that has a following and the dangers, the dangers loom, uh, and they're not going to go away that. And, uh, that's why I think you've got a course on the radical right to keep teaching Jason [inaudible] from the Soufan center. Thank you so much, Jason. Good to catch up with you again. Great to be on the program. Um, pleasure to be with you and take care. All right. My friend, Samantha North is the director of North cyber research and she specializes in countering disinformation and joins us from Lisbon Portugal. Hi Samantha. Samantha North: (24:17) It was good to be here. Thank you very much for having me on Dana Lewis: (24:20) Cyber research do exactly because, you know, countering disinformation sounds like a pretty big portfolio. Samantha North: (24:28) Yes. It can be, um, primarily election security. So I'm helping some of the social media platforms, for example, to kind of police there. Um, you know, that territory for signs of disinformation and coordinated inauthentic behavior. Um, that's probably my primary focus and then I can do similar things for a sorted other clients as well. Dana Lewis: (24:53) So when you talk about Q Anon and disinformation, what concerns you most about what you've seen, Samantha North: (25:01) What to start? Um, it's a, it's a huge topic and this, this year really we've seen it gonna come off the rails and explode into, into real life with the capital attack in Washington, DC. I think what really concerns me is kind of looking at it from a long-term perspective. Um, does this tribal as a now running deep in the U S and in the UK to a certain extent, because Q Anon has become a borderless conspiracy theory, but, but with this kind of tribal attitudes and this, this polarization, um, it can make it very challenging for societies to cooperate on matters that affect everyone and a good case in point would be the pandemic. So one thing was that, Dana Lewis: (25:45) I mean, when it, when it comes to vaccines, for instance, part of the disinformation campaign, I don't know if that ties into Q Anon, does it about, you know, the anti-vaxxers as well Samantha North: (25:57) Anti-vaxxer themes are overlapped with, do overlap with Q Anon. Absolutely. It's a very wide ranging conspiracy theory and it puts its tentacles into many different areas. So, yeah, Dana Lewis: (26:07) That's the key one on theory on vaccines? Samantha North: (26:10) Oh, well, um, bill Gates is a key figure in that he is, um, the, the evil conspire who is using the back, they're using the, to the pandemic and the vaccines as a reason to, uh, have us all microchipped by the vaccine so that we can then be tracked anywhere we go. Um, that's probably the one that's that Springs to mind. Dana Lewis: (26:31) So when, when they talked about kind of the things that I'm familiar with, where, you know, they've widely publicized this notion that Democrats, you know, drink the blood of murdered children, um, and then it progressed into an election theft and that maybe Trump is que, um, is, are those kinds of the building blocks of, you know, what a lot of people think is a cult? Samantha North: (26:59) Um, well, yeah, um, it has some features of Colts and a lot of people seem to be very brainwashed. Um, for example, I did some research on YouTube, uh, earlier on in 2020 and ordinary people are creating two hour long YouTube videos, dissecting every aspect of Q's latest message and with a real sort of frenzy in their, in their demeanor, in their eyes, you know, they really believe this stuff. So, so I guess in that sense, it's its way of brainwashing. People is akin to a cult. Yeah. Dana Lewis: (27:32) I mean, there been some pretty tragic stories from family members about somebody who, you know, starts down this rabbit hole of que and on a, a relative, uh, a mother. Um, and, and they cannot get them out of it. I mean, it is, it really becomes a trap and a, uh, you know, a trap into some sort of dimension that, you know, people just get further and further away from reality. Samantha North: (27:59) Absolutely. I think it has a lot of similarities with ISIS radicalization. It's a form of radicalization with just a different narrative with different cultural touchpoints, but this, the effect is the same. You know, these people have a framework that they can hang all aspects of their reality on. And in these uncertain times, amid a pandemic in particular, people really need some certainty. And I think that is very compelling and, and very addictive. Dana Lewis: (28:27) Do you think with a wink and a nod that president Trump was helping to drive it? Samantha North: (28:32) Yes, I think so. I I'm, I'm, I'm sure of that whether advertently or inadvertently, but, but his, his behavior on social media with his following, you know, the millions of people that follow him, um, being the president of the U S then how could he have not known what effect it would have? It's not feasible. Dana Lewis: (28:48) And with Trump removed from power now, at least temporarily let's see what happens. And in four years, is the temperature coming down at all on is, is, are people leaving Humana? Samantha North: (29:01) Yeah, I feel like we're in a, sort of a hiatus now. Um, obviously it was a big blow to their narrative when Biden won the election. Uh, I believe they received another blow recently. I think it was early March, which was supposed to be a, another key date in the queue calendar, something, I think March the fourth, perhaps something was supposed to happen. Um, Dana Lewis: (29:22) The Trump would be somehow he would be, you know, he would come back to power. He would be innocuous. Samantha North: (29:28) Well, whatever that, that was, we all know it didn't happen. So I, I think that, um, you know, some people are going to drift away from it and I I've already seen signs of this people saying we were lied to, we were deceived. Um, so they'll lose probably the outline that the weaker of believers, but they'll always be our heart of the true believers there. And that's very worrying for the Biden administration. Right. Because you know, so many of these people and I, I don't think they just going to disappear overnight just because Joe Biden is president. Dana Lewis: (29:59) Do you think that there are links and how tenuous do you think they are to groups like proud boys and white supremacy? Yeah. Samantha North: (30:08) There are, there are, there are links as to what exactly they look like in practice. I don't know, but there are certainly ideological links that they share and they're on the same end of the political spectrum. Um, and they share some of the same tactics, you know, that they're going to go to the streets and that they're likely to get involved in violent protests, like in the cup atop, I would expect there to be not only Q and non people, but probably people who sympathize with the proud boys and white supremacist groups in general. Dana Lewis: (30:38) I was reading a quote from you where you said that, uh, because Q Anon is sparked so many different sub conspiracy theories, that there's a lot of scope just to keep twisting into a new narrative. So Trump is gone, but they'll find something else to keep it going. Yeah, Samantha North: (30:58) Definitely. We don't know yet what that would look like. Um, it's probably going to go underground the que conspiracy theory, because I believe a lot of the major social media platforms are now banning it quite comprehensively, and Trump's also been booted off most of them. So, so I could envisage that going underground on to more alternative platforms like parlor or like garb, or like [inaudible], and then sort of proliferating there. And in that toxic kind of swamp and perhaps manifesting in violent, real life events from time to time, you know, like when some lone Wolf decides to take matters into their own hands, that's a risk, Dana Lewis: (31:39) An internal presentation from 2016 reviewed by the wall street journal, a company researcher, Monica Lee found that Facebook was not only hosting a large number of extremist groups, but also promoting them to the users in that 64%, she was quoted as saying 64% of all extremist groups, uh, joined are due to recommendation tools. These, uh, these AI algorithms that feed people kind of more and more what they, what the algorithms think will keep them hooked on the platform like Facebook. Do you think that's still going on or are the big texts slowly throttling back from that? I mean, a lot of people say Facebook has not dealt with it. Samantha North: (32:25) Yeah. That is difficult to evaluate. But I would say that until the fundamental architecture of the social media platforms changes, you know, that they rely on engagement for that, the value to advertisers, right. And engagement. It's hard to tell if it's negative or positive, if it's conspiracy theory or cat videos. So I believe until that model can be changed, it's going to be very difficult to really keep this stuff under control because the algorithms always going to lead the user to what the user likes, they're going to serve them up more of what they like and what they engage with. And by their very nature, these, these shocking conspiracy theories are more compelling and more engaging. Dana Lewis: (33:07) I was just going to say, I mean, those are what the studies tell us, right? The, the, uh, maximum engagement means controversy, misinformation, extremism. And when you start telling a social media company, don't have maximum engagement that doesn't ring, you know, very well with the, their dollar incense bottom line, because maximum engagement is where they make their advertising dollars. Samantha North: (33:31) Exactly. And that was an article as, um, just a few days ago. I think technology review or some such, maybe you saw it, it was a deep dive into what's going on behind the scenes of Facebook and the kind of discussions that they have when they try to tackle these problems. And that really, it supported what you said. And what I think is the case, you know, they don't want to cut engagement because they need him. Dana Lewis: (33:54) So how do you fight disinformation? I mean, I've led you through a lot of the disinformation that you're well aware of. Um, is there a way that we begin to dismantle this? Uh, because if we don't, we are seeing everything from the subversion of democracy, to the sparking of insurgencies and storming of democratic capitals, um, to civil war, to violent, extreme movements and extremists, um, both in the United States and around the world. I mean, this is an international issue now. Samantha North: (34:32) Yeah. It's, it's sobering really the extent to which, and, and the way you described it, you've you put it, put it perfectly. Um, I like to think that there's a way to go back to the public and to the, to the users and perhaps not all, not just media literacy, although that's also important, but kind of educating people about the psychological side of how they engage with these things on social media, you know, like disinformation and inauthentic behavior are deliberately designed to trigger certain biases in the minds of humans. And most people don't really know this. So for example, I can give you an example here. Um, I don't know if you've ever been drawn into a trolling argument on social media. I know I have when the person does, wants to keep arguing and arguing with you. Right. And it seems like they just don't want to stop. Dana Lewis: (35:26) I have regrettably gotten into a few counter punches and thought, why in, in, you know, why on earth did I ever engaged in the first one, Samantha North: (35:34) Precisely and me too many times. I mean, I had to consciously hold myself back, but, but, but I think, you know, in, in that situation, we get so kind of focused on beating the opponent on, on telling them our points of view that we, I think are more likely to be more susceptible to disinformation in those moments. You know, perhaps we'll share an article with them to prove our point to drive our point home, perhaps the article we won't take the time to critically assess it because we're so keen on getting one up on the enemy. And then that's the kind of tribalism as well. I think that this us versus them, um, in my research on Brexit from part of my doctoral research, um, I looked into how Brexit supporters and remain supporters go up one another on social media and how, how tribal they are. And, you know, that, that opens people up to, to this kind of toxic content. So, so the psychological biases are critical. And I would like to see more focus on understanding those and, um, finding ways to somehow integrate that into, into policy and, you know, educating the users themselves. Dana Lewis: (36:43) Are there parallels with Britain leaving the European union, the campaign that the leavers, the pro Brexit camp, um, you know, pushed out on the sides of buses and elsewhere, are there parallels with what's happened with Q1 on, in terms of disinformation and how they hooked into people? Samantha North: (37:05) Yes, there are well, Q and a is a lot more outrageous. I think that both of those campaigns had their own flavor kind of tailored to the populations and the cultural context within which they were operating. Right. So perhaps cured on would have been less successful in a British context because some of the things it's involved with are uniquely American, I think. And, but what they have in common is, is tribalism. That's setting two sides against each other's throats. So we've got Brexiteers and remainers in the UK, you know, and, um, the main is, are portrayed as the enemy and there's less patriotic. And as you know, subversive to the, to the European union with Q Anon, there's the Q followers who are the enlightened ones. And then the, the sheeple, everybody else who's not enlightened with Q and Q is going to fight this, this big enemy, these, these pedophile cabals from Hollywood elites. So I think there's lots of group identity theory at work there. Um, and, and it's, it's very interesting how that seems to really be a feature of, um, every disinformation campaign I'd ever seen. There's always an us versus them component Dana Lewis: (38:19) And fear that, uh, you know, your borders are being swarmed by, by immigrants or you're losing control of your justice system, your independence they're giving away the country. Samantha North: (38:36) Absolutely. Yep. Yeah, there was a, it's a powerful trigger. And, um, you know, for, for centuries really, um, dictators and populous leaders have, have leveraged fear and it's nothing new to use that tactic, but it always works. Dana Lewis: (38:50) I feel, I feel a bit dark at the end of this conversation in the sense that, you know, if you, you know, to tell people they need to read information better, they need to be more skeptical. Uh, they need to understand that algorithms are feeding them kind of, you know, more what more extremist information to keep them hooked. I don't think that's going to turn it around for a lot of people. So we need something a little more, you know, hands-on push the, push the red interrupt button to stop this because otherwise I don't see it ending. And probably, you know, let's say Trump decides to run again in 2024. I just see this, you know, getting swirled around again and supercharge. Samantha North: (39:37) Yeah. That's, uh, it's, it's a big worry. Um, perhaps regulation is the answer. I know that the European union, um, is taking some small steps in the direction of regulation of the platforms, but I don't know how that might work in the U S with the first amendment. I think it's a more difficult environment Dana Lewis: (39:54) Europe. How would they, how would they regulate it? I mean, simply by demanding removal of content. Samantha North: (40:00) I think that could be one of the components. I haven't, I haven't looked into it in great detail, but I know that the freedom of speech laws are not as loose as they are in the U S not as permissive. So I guess they could do that. They could, they can take down a lot more things. I think like the bar for what constitutes a violation of content, um, is it's different in your, um, it's lower. So that's one thing, but yeah, we need to take quite dramatic action. And I wish I had a really good solution to this because I, you know, maybe I could be president who knows, Dana Lewis: (40:34) Thank you so much for your time. I mean, it's good. Look, it's perplexing to a lot of people, how we go about this and the removal of some of the content for some of the big platforms, no doubt, uh, has helped. And you're right. I think generally Europe in given our history with, with Nazi Germany and the, you know, there, there is, yes, you have first amendment freedom of information, freedom of speech rights. But when it comes to the spreading of hatred, the red lines are drawn. It seems much more quickly. Um, and so, you know, I guess you're right. I mean, the us is going to have to adapt its to its system as it evaluates that this threat is no longer comical. Um, but I mean, it's a real threat to their, their, their Democrats, their democracy. Samantha North: (41:16) I have some hope for that, but that the Biden administration will take a more productive approach than the previous one did. So fingers crossed let's hope for a good outcome. Good to talk to you too. Thank you. Something to think about the combating Dana Lewis: (41:31) Terrorism center at West point Dana Lewis: (41:34) Concluded that there is significant overlap between Q Anon and extremist channels affiliated with groups like the proud boys, paramilitary groups in white supremacists, the same groups attract former military members to a 2019 military time survey found that 36% of active duty troops had seen evidence of white supremacists and racist ideologies in their ranks. There've been Q Anon postings in us military sites, including a brigade in the 82nd airborne. It is high time for the military to educate its members on the dangers of this cult. And police need to do the same. Don't drink the Kool-Aid. This information deserves re-education I'm Dana Lewis. Thanks for listening to backstory. I also do a daily newsletter, which can be found on substance it's free Dana Lewis dot sub stack.com. Have a look. Thanks for the listen. I'm Dana Lewis and I'll talk to you again. 

[perfectirishgifts]

Q&A: Young The Giant’s Francois Comtois On Leading A Cooking Class And The Bond Between Food And Music

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/qa-young-the-giants-francois-comtois-on-leading-a-cooking-class-and-the-bond-between-food-and-music/

Q&A: Young The Giant’s Francois Comtois On Leading A Cooking Class And The Bond Between Food And Music

INGLEWOOD, CA – DECEMBER 09: (L-R) Francois Comtois, Payam Doostzadeh, Sameer Gadhia, Jacob Tilley … [] and Eric Cannata of Young the Giant attend KROQ Absolut Almost Acoustic Christmas at The Forum on December 9, 2018 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for KROQ/Entercom)

As Young The Giant drummer Francois Comtois explains, food is a big part of a touring musician’s life. Whether it’s finding a favorite restaurant on the road, bonding with another band over a meal or enjoying cooking while at home, food and music share a symbiotic bond for artists.

So as someone who loves food and cooking, Comtois is thrilled to be leading an online cooking class this Friday, December 11, at 7 PM EST/4 PM PST for Impastiamo. Comtois will lead the virtual class in cooking Moqueca De Peixe, a Brazilian seafood stew, followed by an acoustic performance by Young The Giant.

ImpastiamoMoqueca De Peixe (Fish Moqueca) with Young the Giant | Impastiamo

The proceeds from the class, the first in a series called Feed The Music, will benefit Crew Nation, a fund dedicated to helping out of work live music crews. It’s a natural next step for Impastiamo, which, as I wrote about earlier this year, is the brainchild of Silvia Carluccio, a former Live Nation Los Angeles employee originally from Italy, who brought together her loves of food, music and events.

I spoke to Comtois about the bond between music and food, his favorite meal with another band, the artists he’d love to see lead a cooking class and the creativity behind cooking.

Steve Baltin: What are you going to be cooking for this first class?

Francois Comtois: I’m going to be making Moqueca [De Peixe], which is a Brazilian seafood soup. My wife is from Rio and it was one of the first dishes I tried to learn how to make to ingratiate myself with her family. I think it’s close enough to authentic now that I feel comfortable making it in front of a group of people.

Baltin: Good cooking can be very creative in a similar way that music is. Many artists love cooking, sometimes as a sort of a therapeutic release. Is that the case for you?

Comtois: Definitely. I’ve been cooking probably 95 percent of our meals since the lockdown started. I always enjoy cooking when I come home from tour, but I’m using this time as an opportunity to dig a little bit deeper into some of the techniques I’ve been playing around with, and sort of revamp my approach. I do see such a huge connection between food and music as art forms; particularly where you have this group of, whether they’re ingredients or sounds, and you have your basic techniques which allow you to manipulate them, and then beyond that, the world’s your oyster. You can kind of do whatever you want. I’ve found that they’re connected, and I do find a lot of peace in disconnecting myself and taking a moment to cook whenever I can.

Baltin: Is cooking a creative process for you as well? Do you cook off a recipe or go with what you know?

Comtois: I do a little bit of both. I learned a lot of the techniques I know from watching my mom cook, So I would make her recipes, and then after a while, you sort of figure out what works and what doesn’t. You can start to bend those rules or incorporate different flavors or ingredients. So, half the time I find new recipes that excite me, and the other half of the time I’m just trying to build up a repertoire.

Baltin: So take me through what Moqueca is. Is it a traditional family recipe of yours, or do you get to be creative with it as well?

Comtois: It is pretty traditional. There’s an ingredient that you really do need to add to make it taste authentic—red palm oil. Basically it’s just the Brazilian version of that quintessential seafood stew. You have all these different cultures that have coastal presence that have come up with their own iterations of it. So this is the Brazilian version from the region called Paella, I think. It’s tough; I tried to make it a couple of times early on when I was dating my now wife, and she would always say, “This isn’t right. It’s good, but it tastes like maybe a Thai version of the dish because there’s a lot of coconut milk in it.” So, I resigned myself to reading a bunch of recipes for it in Portuguese and trying to figure out what it was that made it authentic. I realized you just have to put a bunch of one ingredient in it and that gave it the traditional Moqueca taste. You can go crazy with seafood, too. This one I’m making with shrimp and white fish, but you could incorporate muscles and squid, basically anything that you have handy.

Baltin: Well, that does sound really good. Now I’m getting hungry for seafood. So readers understand, the proceeds from this cooking show are going to help crew that have been out of work.

Comtois: Yeah, that’s correct. The food service industry was hit disproportionately and so immediately by the shutdown. We’re trying to see if there’s a way that we can do what that industry did in response, but for the live touring industry which has also been hit just as profoundly. There does seem to be a huge connection between cooking and music. There are a lot of artists in the touring world who are very interested in going out to different restaurants and also cooking themselves. It just felt like a natural pairing. Basically, we’re opening up artists to find a dish that means something to them, do one of these cooking classes that Silvia [Carluccio] started through Impastiamo, and then add a little performance, acoustic streaming component to it. We think it’s an interesting way of raising funds and a profile of what is happening in the live touring industry right now.

Baltin: Do the other guys in the band cook a lot as well?

Comtois: I think I probably cook the most. But I would say it’s a huge part of our lives on the road though, to find a good restaurant and we’re always on the lookout for that. There’s definitely a huge connection with food and the band.

Baltin: Are there other bands that you’ve shared a bond over food with that should have their own class, that would be good to participate in this program?

Comtois: We just started to reach out to different artists and we got some interest back from COIN. They’re on our management, we toured with them last year, and they’ve got a couple of recipes of theirs, so we’re talking about possibly working with them. I was just on a call with Brian [Aubert] from Silversun Pickups. His wife owns this amazing catering company, so he has a connection to food. Silvia has been in touch with Roy Choi about possibly playing with a couple of different artists. It’s still definitely early days, and we’re hoping that December 11th shows that this is a viable solution, and beyond that, we want to get the word out. We do think it’s kind of an interesting way to address this issue.

Baltin: How far back do you and Silvia go? I love what she’s done with the cooking classes, coming from music.

Comtois: It’s just so inspiring to see what it started as and what it’s become. I’ve had a chance to do a couple of the classes and they they’re really, really great for a host of reasons. I met Silvia ten years ago, maybe more. We were doing our residency at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, which is not Detroit Bar anymore, but was a really fun venue in Orange County. She came to one of our shows and kept in touch with the band. She worked at the Wiltern for years. She’s been a friend of ours and part of our friend group for a really long time. When this all started to happen, I basically told her, “Hey, whatever I can do with the Impastiamo side of things, even if it’s just posts and stuff on our socials, I’m so happy to help because it’s such a cool idea.” Then it evolved from there. We were thinking, because she does have that connection with food, how can we pair these two things together and do something that’s interesting, that’s different, but also doing some good.

Baltin: Do you feel like you’d be able to lead multiple classes or is this your one specialty dish?

Comtois: I would love to do multiple classes. The only restriction is you don’t want to include this ten-hour braise. Usually a lot of recipes call for that sort of preparation, which I guess you could have the participants do some of early on, but I do have some other recipes that I would be interested in bringing up. The other cool thing is we would love to be able to pair chefs in different cities with artists from the same city. There are a few different restaurants and chefs here that I really admire. I did a class with Natalia Pereira from Woodspoon, which is an amazing Brazilian restaurant in Downtown LA. We’re hoping, maybe there will be some sort of partnership in the future there where we’re just kind of watching and helping cut onions and stuff. Basically, they take the food side of things and we can focus on the music. I’m definitely hoping that this can become more consistent and can continue to raise those funds for the touring world.

Baltin: Silvia and I talked about the fact that this started out of necessity coming from the pandemic. But the reality is that this is something that could continue on afterwards. Would you mix a cooking class and shows?

Comtois: Yeah, it has been discussed loosely in the past. Obviously, COVID has been just such a disaster and it’s impossible to overstate how tragic everything surrounding it has been, but I am trying to maintain some sort of perspective and see if there is any sort of silver lining here. I think that a lot of people have been forced to become more creative and open their minds to what is possible, and I think this is a really good example of that. So moving forward, I would love to be able to incorporate more of this. Young The Giant just did a live stream of the first album for its ten-year anniversary and that was successful. It’s things that we wouldn’t have really tried to do. The saying that necessity is the mother of invention really comes into play here. I think that, moving forward, we’re going to be more open to different ways to engage with fans. Sharing your food tradition and sharing food with people are some of the ways, in my opinion, where you can connect almost immediately. And I think that it’s a really cool way to share a part of yourself with your fan base, if they’re into it. So, yeah, moving forward, we’d love to do more of this type of stuff.

Baltin: What would be your dream combination of food and artists to do a class with?

Comtois: I’m a giant Radiohead fan. Any time this happens, I automatically think of Radiohead. I don’t know, maybe fish and chips with Radiohead. Something along those lines would be pretty fun.

Balin: I actually saw them in a sushi restaurant here in L.A. once, so when I think of them, I think of sushi.

I can see sushi. There’s something about seafood and Radiohead that pairs nicely. Yeah, so sushi, fish and chips, depending on what they’re in the mood for. I would be open to either.

Baltin: It came up in an interview I was doing recently where Billy Corgan had joked about the fact that part of Smashing Pumpkins success came down to having the right chicken piccata recipe on the right day. Is there a dish that you credit the success of Young the Giant to?

Comtois: There are probably a couple. When we first started recording and we dropped out of school, quit our jobs, and decided we wanted to try to pursue music, we basically ate Trader Joe’s orange chicken, like all the time, because it was really cheap, we could make big batches, and it’s like fried rice. Trader Joe’s orange chicken is pretty much what sustained us while we were writing the first album. So, I don’t know if it was a single version of that dish, but we might not even be here if we hadn’t had that to rely on. That and chicken Cesar salad.  Beyond that, I think just in general sharing food, there’s always the meal when you’re on tour. It’s kind of weird, there’s a summer camp vibe to touring, and like you’re a little apprehensive, you’re kind of trying to play it cool in your corner, and there’s always that meal where you finally go out with like all of the crew and the touring acts all go out together and bond over food. And to me, that’s always the moment where a tour goes from being maybe a little apprehensive to we’re all really good friends and we’re going to hang out after we get back home and all that stuff. So it is a huge part of our lives as musicians.

Baltin: What’s for you been the favorite meal with the favorite touring band? That one memorable one that really stands out?

Comtois: One of our first tours was with Incubus. We supported them, and they actually took us out to Nobu. I just remember being so blown away. They obviously had been successful for a while. They knew how to operate in that world, and we did not at the time—we were probably eating at a lot of like Subways and places like that. So we go out to this meal and they’re ordering just the whole menu. I was like, “Man, we should stick with this music thing. We’ll be here in a few years’ time.”

Baltin: What do you want people to know who sign up for your class on December 11th?

Comtois: I’m just making food and shooting the s**t essentially, and just trying to make a connection with these people. We’re going to do a very quick performance after, but this is unvarnished. You’re going to be in our kitchen at our band house, and we’re looking forward to sharing that part of ourselves with our fans. Also, it’s a moment where the crew touring world really does need support and needs to be acknowledged for how big of a part they play when you go see a concert. You see the band and you’re enjoying yourself, but I don’t know if a lot of people really recognize this giant team that has to come behind that band to make it happen. It’s important to acknowledge just how important they are. I’m hoping that this grows into something bigger, but for the time being, we’re just gonna see if it works. I feel pretty optimistic about it.

More from Arts in Perfectirishgifts

[sourabhdubey007]

How to Create MakeQuiz and TakeQuiz for App Inventor 2 2020

MakeQuiz and TakeQuiz

What you’re building

MakeQuiz and TakeQuiz are two apps that, in tandem, allow a teacher to create quizzes for a student. Parents can create fun trivia apps for their children during a long road trip, grade school teachers can build “Math Blaster” quizzes, and college students can build quizzes to help their study groups prepare for a final. This tutorial will walk you through creating both the MakeQuiz and the TakeQuiz app.

Getting started

Connect to the App Inventor web site and start a new project. Name it “MakeQuiz”, and also set the screen’s Title to “MakeQuiz”. Open the Blocks Editor and connect to the phone.

Introduction

You’ll design two apps, MakeQuiz for the “teacher” and TakeQuiz for the “student”. With MakeQuiz:

The user enters questions and answers in an input form.

The previously entered question-answer pairs are displayed.

The quiz is stored persistently, in a database.

TakeQuiz will work similarly to the QuizMe app– in fact you’ll build it using QuizMe as a basis. TakeQuiz will differ in that the questions asked will be those that were entered into the database using MakeQuiz.

This tutorial introduces the following App Inventor concepts:

Input forms for allowing the user to enter information.

Displaying lists: serializing a list variable to display it on separate lines.

Persistent data: MakeQuiz will save the quiz questions and answers in a database and TakeQuiz will load them in from the database.

Data Sharing: the two apps together illustrate how two phones (and even two apps) can communicate through a shared, web database:

Set up the Components for MakeQuiz

Use the Component Designer to create the interface for MakeQuiz. When you finish, it should look something like the snapshot below:

You’ll use the following components to create MakeQuiz. Drag each component from the Palette into the Viewer and name it as specified below:

Component TypePalette GroupWhat you’ll name itPurpose of ComponentHorizontalArrangementLayoutHorizontalArrangement1Display the question prompt and textbox on one lineLabelUser InterfaceLabel1The “Question:” promptTextBoxUser InterfaceQuestionTextUser enters questions hereHorizontalArrangementLayoutHorizontalArrangement2Display the answer prompt and textbox on one lineLabelUser InterfaceLabel2The “Answer:” promptTextBoxUser InterfaceAnswerTextUser enters answers hereButtonUser InterfaceSubmitButtonUser clicks to submit a QA pair.LabelUser InterfaceQuestionsAnswersLabelThis will display previously entered QAsTinyWebDBStorageTinyWebDB1To store to and retrieve from database

Set the properties of the components in the following way:

Set the Text of Label1 to “Question:” and the Text of Label2 to “Answer:”.

Set the Hint of QuestionText to “Enter a Question” and the Hint of AnswerText to “Enter an Answer”.

Set the Text of SubmitButton to “Submit”

Set the Text of QuestionsAnswersLabel to “Questions and Answers”.

Put Label1 and QuestionText in HorizontalArrangement1, and Label2 and AnswerText in HorizontalArrangement2.

Add behaviors to the components

Open the Blocks Editor to add the behaviors for the app. As with the original QuizMe app, you’ll first define some global variables for the QuestionList and AnswerList, but this time you won’t provide fixed questions and answers. You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposeinitialize global (name) to (“QuestionList”)VariablesDefines the QuestionList variable (rename it)initialize global (name) to (“AnswerList”)VariablesDefines the AnswerList variable (rename it)create empty listListsTo set up the QuestionList for new itemscreate empty listListsTo set up the AnswerList for new items

The blocks should look like this:

Note that, unlike the original QuizMe app, the lists are empty to begin with. This is because with MakeQuiz and TakeQuiz, all data is created by the user of the app (it is user-generated).

Handle the User’s entries

The first behavior you’ll build is for handling the user’s input. Specifically, when the user enters a question and answer and clicks submit, you’ll use add item to list blocks to update the QuestionList and AnswerList.

You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposeSubmitButton.ClickSubmitButtonThis event is triggered when the user clicks this button.add items to list (x2)ListsUse these to add the data entered by the user to the listsget global QuestionListVariablesPlug it into the list slot of the first add items to listQuestionText.TextQuestionTextUser’s entry; plug it into the item slot of the first add items to listget global AnswerListVariablesPlug it into the list slot of the second add items to listAnswerText.TextAnswerTextUser’s entry; plug it into item slot of second add items to list

The blocks should look like this:

How the blocks work

The block add items to list appends each item to the end of a list. Here, the app takes the text the user has entered in the QuestionText and AnswerText text boxes and appends each to the corresponding list.

The behavior updates the hidden QuestionList and AnswerList variables, but the changes are not shown to the user. To display these lists, create a procedure “displayQAs” which makes a text object with both lists and places it into the QuestionsAnswersLabel. Then make sure to call the procedure at the bottom of SubmitButton.Click. You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurpose/Actionto (procedure) do “displayQAs”ProceduresPut the code to display questions and answers hereset QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text toQuestionsAnswersLabelDisplay the lists in this label.joinTextMakes a text object by joining the two lists and a colon separatorget global QuestionListVariablesPlug into join” ” (“:”)TextPlug into joinget global AnswerListVariablesUse the mutator to add a third spot to the join block. Plug this block into the newly created space.call displayQAsProceduresPlace in the bottom of the SubmitButton.Click event-handler

The blocks should look like this:

How the blocks work

The displayQAs procedure is called after the lists are modified in SubmitButton.Click. The QuestionsAnswersLabel is modified to display the two lists separated by a colon. By default, App Inventor displays lists with surrounding parenthesis and spaces between items:

(item1 item2 item3)

Of course, this is not the ideal way to display the lists, but it will allow you to test your behavior for now. Later, you’ll modify the displayQAs procedure to display a list on separate lines, and to display each question together with its corresponding answer.

Test this behavior. On the phone, enter a question and answer and click Submit. The app should display the single entry in the QuestionList, a colon, and then the single entry in the AnswerList. Add a second question and answer to make sure the lists are being created correctly.

Blanking Out the Question and Answer

When a user submits a question-answer pair, you should clear the QuestionText and AnswerText text boxes so they’re ready for a new entry.

You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposeset QuestionText.Text toQuestionTextTo blank out questionset AnswerText.Text toAnswerTextTo blank out answer” ” (x2)TextBlank text

Here’s how the blocks for the updated event handler should look:

How the blocks work

When the user submits a new question and answer, they are added to their respective lists. At that point, the text in the QuestionText and AnswerText is “blanked out” with empty text blocks (you create an empty text block by clicking on the the block’s text and pressing the delete button).

Test the behavior. Add some questions and answers. When you submit them, the QuestionText and AnswerText should show only their hint (when a TextBox's Text property is empty it shows the hint until the user clicks it).

Storing the questions and answers in a database

As is, the app records the questions and answers entered by the user, but only in the phone’s temporary memory. All variables in App Inventor are transient data– they are stored on the phone and the data only “lives” through one run of an app. When the user closes the app, the data is lost.

The MakeQuiz app needs to record the questions and answers in a database. This will allow the quiz creator (teacher) to always edit the latest update of the quiz. It will also allow the TakeQuiz app to load the quiz and administer it to the student.

You’ll use the TinyWebDB component to store and retrieve the QuestionList and AnswerList to and from a database. TinyWebDB allows you to store data in AppInventor-compliant databases that live on the web instead of on the phone.

The general scheme for storing a list persistently is the following: each time a new item is added to the list, use TinyWebDB to update the database version of the list. Then each time the app is opened (Screen1.Initialize event), reload the database version of the list into the variable.

Start by storing the QuestionList and AnswerList in the database each time the user enters a new pair. You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposeTinyWebDB1.StoreValueTinyWebDB1For storing questions in the database” ” (“Questions”)TextPlug in “Questions” as the tag of TinyWebDB1.StoreValueget global QuestionListVariablesPlug into the value slot of TinyWebDB1.StoreValueTinyWebDB1.StoreValueTinyWebDB1For storing answers in the database” ” (“Answers”)TextPlug in “Answers” as the tag of TinyWebDB1.StoreValueget global AnswerListVariablesPlug into the value slot of TinyWebDB1.StoreValue

The blocks should look like this:

How the blocks work

The last two rows of blocks store data in the database. The tag arguments label the data being stored so that you can retrieve it later. The QuestionList is stored with a tag of “Questions” while the AnswerList is stored with a tag of “Answers”.

Although our example uses “Questions” as the tag, you should actually use your own tag, e.g., “DavesQuestions”, because by default, the database entries of all App Inventor programs share the same namespace and so your list of questions may get confused with someone else’s list of questions since you both used the same tag.

Test this behavior. TinyWebDB stores information on the web, so you can open a browser page to test whether this behavior is working. Use the "/getvalue" function on that page to verify that the data you stored is matched with the tag as desired. Note, however, that there will be many entries, and your entry may overwrite someone else's tag, as the default service is for testing and is used by many programmers. Because the default service is shared amongst programmers and apps, it is only for testing. Fortunately, setting up your own database service is relatively straight forward.

Loading Data from the Database

Once the blocks for storing the lists are working, you can add the blocks for loading the lists back in each time the app begins.

Loading data from a TinyWebDB database is a two-step process. First, you request the data by calling TinyWebDB.GetValue and providing a tag.

call TinyWebDB.GetValue only requests the data from the web service. After the request is made, your app can do other things, such as responding to user actions, while it waits for the TinyWebDB web service to send the data. When the data arrives, a call TinyWebDB.GotValue event is triggered. When that event occurs, the data requested is in a variable named “valueFromWebDB”. The tag you requested is in the variable “tagFromWebDB”. You can access these variables in the when TinyWebDB.GotValue event handler.

In this case, the app needs to request two things from the TinyWebDB web service, the questions and the answers, so the when Screen1.Initialize will make two calls to getValue. When the data arrives and the GotValue event-handler is triggered, the app should check the tag to see which request has arrived, and then load the corresponding list. Once the lists are both loaded, displayQAs can be called to display them.

You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposewhen Screen1.InitializeScreen1Event handler triggered when app beginscall TinyWebDB.GetValue (x2)TinyWebDBTo request the stored QuestionList and AnswerList” ” (“Questions”)TextUse as the tag to retrieve QuestionList” ” (“Answers”)TextUse as the tag to retrieve AnswerListwhen TinyWebDB.GotValueTinyWebDB1Event handler triggered when data arrivesif elseControlNeed to ask which GetValue request arrived=MathCompare tagFromWebDB to “Questions”” ” (“Questions”)TextThis is the tag that was used to store QuestionListvalue TagFromWebDBMy DefinitionsAn argument of GotValue, specifies which requestset QuestionList toMy DefinitionsIf TagFromWebDB is “questions” this list will be setset AnswerList toMy DefinitionsIf TagFromWebDB is not “questions” this list will be setvalue ValueFromWebDB (2)My DefinitionsThis holds the value returned from databaseifControlCheck if both the lists are loaded before displaying= blockMathCompare the lengths of the listslength of list (2)ListsCheck if the length of the lists are the sameglobal QuestionListMy DefinitionsPlug into one of the length of list blocksglobal AnswerListMy DefinitionsPlug into the other length of list blockscall displayQAsMy DefinitionsDisplay the newly loaded questions and answers

The blocks should look like:

How the blocks work

When the app begins, the Screen1.Initialize event is triggered. The app calls TinyWebDB1.GetValue twice, once to request the stored QuestionList and once to request the stored AnswerList. After requesting the data, the app can handle other events while it waits for the web database to answer the request.

When the data arrives from the web database, the TinyWebDB1.GotValue event is triggered. Since two requests were made, it will be triggered twice, once for each list.

In the GotValue event-handler, the value returned is in the variable valueFromWebDB . The corresponding tag is in tagFromWebDB . The blocks first check to see which request has returned (even though the request for “questions” is made first in Screen1.Initialize, there is no guarantee that the QuestionList will arrive first). If the tag is “questions”, the valueFromWebDB is put into the variable QuestionList. Otherwise (else) it is placed in the AnswerList.

At the bottom of GotValue, the app checks to see if both lists have been loaded– one way to check is to see if the lengths of the lists are the same. If they are, displayQAs is called to display them on the phone.

Test this behavior. Select Restart Phone in the Blocks Editor. When the app initializes, it should display the previously entered questions and answers. If you close the app and restart again, the previous quiz should still appear.

The version of MakeQuiz you’ve created so far works: the user can create a quiz and it will be stored persistently in the database. If you can accept the fact that the quiz is displayed in an inelegant way, you can proceed to creating the sister app, TakeQuiz, which lets a user step through the quiz and answer the questions.

If you’d like to learn how to display list data in a more elegant fashion, step through the steps directly below.

Displaying a List on Multiple Lines

In the app you’ve built so far, the question and answer lists are displayed separately and with the default list display format, e.g.,

(question1 question2 question3): (answer1 answer2 answer3)

In this section, you’ll modify the app so that the newly entered question-answer pairs are displayed in tandem, one on each line:

question1:answer1 question2:answer2 question3:answer3

Displaying the data in this way is non-trivial, so you’ll start by first displaying a single list, the QuestionList, with each item on a separate line.

To display a list on separate lines, you must serialize it . This means to build a single text object with all the items of the list in it and a special character, '\n', between each item. A "\n" within a text object appears as a newline character when displayed. For example, suppose the user has entered two questions, "What is the capital of California?" and "What is the capital of New York?" and these have succesfully been added to the QuestionList . Your displayQAs procedure should build a text object from QuestionList that looks like: "\nWhat is the capital of California\nWhat is the capital of New York?" When displayed on the phone, such text would appear as: What is the capital of California? What is the capital of New York?

All the changes will occur in the procedure displayQAs. You’ll remove the blocks within that procedure, and use a foreach block to build the text by successively adding each question. The blocks within the foreach should add the current item (question) to the end of the text object (QuestionsAnswersLabel) you are building. You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposeset QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text toQuestionsAnswersLabelInitialize the label to empty before repeatedly adding to ittext (blank)Textplug into set QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text toforeachControlFor each item in list, you’ll concatenate it to the QuestionsAnswersLabelname varalready in foreachThe current item of foreach; rename it to “question”global QuestionListMy DefinitionsPlug this into “in list” slot of foreachset QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text toQuestionsAnswersLabelIteratively build the textmake textTextbuild a text objectQuestionsAnswersLabel.TextQuestionsAnswersLabelPlug into make textvalue questionMy DefinitionsPlug into make text (make sure you’ve renamed foreach variable to “question”)text (“/n”)TextNew-line character so following text on another line

The blocks should look like this:

How the blocks work

When the procedure is called, the QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text is first set to the empty text. This is in preparation for the foreach block that comes next, which will build the text in QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text incrementally.

The foreach block specifies that the blocks within it are to be executed once for every item in QuestionList. If there are three questions, then the inner blocks will be executed three times. Within the foreach, the current item being processed is named question.

On each iteration, QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text is modified. Each time it is set to its previous value, along with the newline character, “\n” and the current question being processed.

When the foreach completes, QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text will be text string with all the items separated by newline characters. As the app is processing each iteration of the foreach , the phone display doesn’t change. But when it completes, the text in QuestionsAnswersLabel.Text is displayed on the phone and the items appear on separate lines.

Test the behavior. On the phone, add another question and answer and click Submit. Now, only the questions should be displayed and they should be displayed on separate lines.

Including the answer in DisplayQAs

The displayQAs procedure you’ve created ignores answers and only displays questions. In the next version of displayQAs , you’ll display the data as question-answer pairs, e.g.,

What is the capital of California?: Sacramento What is the capital of New York?: Albany

Modify displayQAs. Use an index variable to access each answer as the foreach block walks through the questions. You’ll need the following blocks:

Block typeDrawerPurposedef var (“answer”)DefinitionsTo temporarily store each answerdef var (“answerIndex”)DefinitionsTo keep track of which answer (and question) you’re ontext (“text”)TextInitialize the variable answer to text.number (1)MathInitialize the variable answerIndex to 1set answerIndex toMy DefinitionsRe-initialize answerIndex each time displayQAs callednumber (1)MathTo re-initialize answerIndex to 1set answer toMy Definitionsset this variable each time in the foreachselect list itemListsselect from the list AnswerListglobal AnswerListMy Definitionsplug into list slot of select list itemglobal answerIndexMy DefinitionsPlug into index slot of select list itemset answerIndex toMy DefinitionsIn order to increment it each iteration through loopglobal answerIndexMy DefinitionsTo increment answerIndex , add 1 to itself.number (1)MathTo increment answerIndex

The blocks should look like this:

How the blocks work

The foreach only allows you to iterate through one list. In this case, there are two lists and you need to step through and select each answer as you proceed through the questions. The strategy is to use an index variable, as was done with the currentQuestionIndex in the QuizMe tutorial.

For this behavior, the index is a position in the AnswerList, so its named answerIndex. The index is set to 1 before the foreach begins. Within the foreach, it is used to select the current answer from the AnswerList, and then it is incremented.

Test this behavior. On the phone, add some more question/answer pairs. The display should now show each question with its corresponding answer, and each question:answer pair on separate lines.

Final MakeQuiz App

Begin by opening your QuizMe app, choosing SaveAs, and naming the new project “TakeQuiz.” This will leave your QuizMe app as is and allow you to use a copy of it as the basis for TakeQuiz.

This version of MakeQuiz/TakeQuiz does not handle images, so first remove the images from the TakeQuiz app:

In the Component Designer, choose each image from the media palette and delete it. Also delete the Image1 component, which will remove all references to it from the Blocks Editor.

In the Blocks Editor, drag the PictureList to the trash.

Since TakeQuiz will work with database data, drag a TinyWebDB component into the Component Designer viewer.

Now modify the blocks so that the quiz given to the user is the one from the database. First, since there are no fixed questions and answers, remove all of the actual question and answer text blocks from the make a list blocks within the QuestionList and AnswerList. The blocks should look like this:

Now modify your Screen1.Initialize so that it calls TinyWebDB.GetValue twice to load the lists. The blocks should look like this:

Finally, drag out a TinyWebDB.GotValue event-handler. This event-handler should look similar to the one used in MakeQuiz, but here you only want to show the first question and none of the answers. The blocks should look like this:

How the Blocks Work

When the app begins, Screen1.Initialize is triggered and the app requests the questions and the answers from the web database. When each of those requests arrives, the TinyWebDB.GotValue event-handler is triggered. The app asks which request has come in, using tagFromWebDB , and places the valueFromWebDB into the appropriate list. If it is the QuestionList being loaded, the first question is selected from QuestionList and displayed.

Test the behavior. Click Restart Phone App. Does the first question from the quiz you created with MakeQuiz appear? Can you take the quiz just as you did with QuizMe (except for the pictures)?

Final Program (Take Quiz)

TakeQuizDownload

The post How to Create MakeQuiz and TakeQuiz for App Inventor 2 2020 appeared first on The Coding Bus.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/32ZF706 via IFTTT

[dreamsoft4usa]

Case Study of Medical Billing Software

You can be the vehicle your clients drive for engagement, mobility, and patient experience while increasing their revenue, productivity, and workflow. Our medical billing solutions are primarily aimed at avoiding error rates & improving the claim-ratio. It enables the users to exercise better control over their revenue cycles & accounts receivables.

The Need for Medical Billing Software

The Clinic was looking for healthcare software development to simplify its billing process, which was then person dependent and allowed no control on stocked medicine, overstocking, pilferages, etc.

Click Here To: Best Platform For Web Applications Development

The Medical Billing Software Solution

Dreamsoft4u’s Medical Billing Software helped to improve the medical store maintenance and their billing activity. It also improved the hospital’s Administrative Work by creating a pharmacy & medical billing software solution. The modules were aimed to improve the efficiency of the store operation by better control and monitoring of the inventory of medicines. The medical billing software module also facilitated in faster and better service to the patients thus improving the good will of the hospital in terms of service.

Case Study of Medical Billing Software

What we did?

Software Product Design

Collaborative Product Discovery

Visual Design

UX Design

Automated Testing

Opportunity 

The medical billing process is a complex interplay between doctors, hospitals, patients, and insurance companies. Our client facilitates that process for their medical practice customers. Parts of the billing process are performed manually, so our client engaged SEP to improve a key area of the process: the portal through which their customers pay and receive payment for patient bills. They process 80 million transactions per year, each with hundreds of pieces of data. The new web portal needed to increase automation so that our client’s customers have better insight into their billing workflow and spend less time manually processing payments.

Benefits

The activities of bill generating become so fast, convenient and accurate.

The rate of generating the bills increased, which reduced the line of the patients.

The data record was managed of all the saleable/non-saleable store items, those issued to different sub-stations and those sold to patients; along with their prices, batch numbers, expiry dates, storage instructions, etc.

Appropriate alerts were generated when particular items in the hospital were nearing expiry or nearing re-order level.

The management were able to get a true picture about the profit/loss making position of the hospital from its stores activity

Actions

The team at Dreamsoft4u replicated the customer’s onshore process to ensure a seamless transition to offshore operations

We provided the customer with a dedicated staffer to handle 7 to 8 patient demographics and charge entry files a month

By the 2nd month, we were able to process more than 150 files with an error rate below 2%

We also provided the customer with a QA team experienced in payment posting

This QA team audited all the charge sheets and processed files

We sent the customer regular status reports with details about the number of files in processing and the reasons for the delays

Results

We started our engagement with a series of Discovery sessions. Together, we distilled the needs of the new portal and built a focused backlog. To determine what parts of the billing process we would focus on, we used activities like event storming. It helped us understand where technology and human interaction bridge together through the process.

We also facilitated Design Studios with key subject matter experts several times throughout our engagement. These discussions allowed us to deepen our domain knowledge quickly and ensure we were meeting stakeholder needs. These Design Studios solidified our project motto: improve clarity. Each time we improved clarity, we removed a lot of problems for our client and their customers.

The customer was extremely satisfied with our work and decided to outsource their entire medical billing process to us, including insurance calling, charge entry, patient demographics, patient calling and payment posting

The Dreamsoft4u team is now successfully handling all the medical billing operations for this customer

We now have more than 50 full-time employees who work on this project

We now process over a million files on a monthly basis, with an error rate of less than 2%

CHALLENGE WE FACED.

1. Privacy Restrictions Must Be Balanced With Usability Requirements

CHALLENGE

he development of electronic health records has made patient privacy a top concern of end-users, healthcare organizations, and governments. Governments have created laws (HIPAA, PHIPA) that impose penalties on organizations that fail to protect their electronic data from misuse. These laws are, in turn, applied to other organizations involved the electronic exchange of health information. In 2009, for example, the HITECH act mandated compliance with HIPAA for all covered entities.

SOLUTION

implementing access control is relatively straightforward. Access control restricts actions such as viewing, editing or deleting data elements. Typically, access control is implemented by user role so that all users of a particular role all have the same privileges.

Check Also:Kind Of Medical Website Design That Completes You…

There are two basic design approaches for role-based access control:

Access control policies are loaded per page or screen

Access control policies are loaded once per user session

The first approach requires more frequent database access but results in more dynamic access control behavior. Here, although user privileges can be revoked or granted instantly, the need for loading the access control policies can slow down the server especially when there are many concurrent users. The second approach suffers from a lack of control over access policies, since a user can have his privileges revoked but still be allowed to continue until the end of his session. Either of these policies, however, would be sufficient to address the access control requirements of HIPAA law and even CCHIT certification in the case of electronic medical records.

2. Doctors Have No Patience For Software That Doesn’t Save Them Time

CHALLENGE

Software developers often create systems without considering the time restrictions healthcare practitioners face. In today’s hospitals, healthcare workers are dealing with growing patient waiting lists and need to be able to get their jobs done as efficiently as possible. They can’t afford to wait for software and will be unwilling to do so.

SOLUTION

To avoid the example scenario, designers of a new system would have needed to be aware of the doctor’s desire to get clinical paperwork out of the way as quickly as possible. The system should not have halted the data transfer when the clinical case was closed.

Check Also:A Complete Guide For Offshore Software Development

More generally, software systems in healthcare domains need to be very responsive and inform the user about what the application is doing. In a system with long-running tasks or data transfers, make sure to ask yourself the following questions:3. Validation Is Far More Important Than Verification

CHALLENGE

Developers often think application crashes are the most serious problem a healthcare program can exhibit. While a crash is obviously not an ideal outcome, hospital processes are well established to deal with software crashes. Of far greater inconvenience is an application that makes a clinical worker’s job more difficult while behaving as designed.

SOLUTION

Problems like those described above can be avoided if they are identified through a rigorous software validation process. This validation period must also be used to test all exceptional and rare (from a healthcare viewpoint) cases so the application can be sure to integrate into the environment in even the most unusual circumstances.

Check Also :IT Outsourcing Benefits For Healthcare Industry

A good software validation process will catch these problems before too much development work has been completed. Moreover, an agile software development process can be appropriate for certain types of healthcare application development, such as patient management and EMR software development. With an agile process, the application can be tested and deployed at various milestones of the development cycle. An agile process allows for more opportunities to perform software validation and ensures it is conducted early in the project life-cycle.

4. Input Validation Should Not Block Users

CHALLENGE Many healthcare applications deal with data entry, and the methods through which data is validated are important software development considerations. In short, treatment cannot be withheld because of the requirements of a software application.

SOLUTION

Good healthcare applications keep the number of required fields to a minimum, ensure only the most important information is required, or give users the option to skip the input field. When a patient is undergoing a test or is sitting in a consultation room, information may not be known and the delivery of care must be allowed to proceed.

To summarize, effective input validation in a healthcare environment should follow these input validation best practices:5. Hospital Processes Are Highly Collaborative and Asynchronous

CHALLENGE

Hospitals and clinics contain a large number of autonomous individuals all working to deliver healthcare. There is opportunity for collaboration, but work almost always takes place between caregiver and patient. When a difficult case presents itself, multiple staff members may participate to gain experience, but for common, routine cases work can normally be done without discussion.

SOLUTION

Traditionally, a piece of paper has been used to synchronize team members. If you had the piece of paper, it meant you were the one who had to work. However, since it would take a while before the paper arrived on your desk, getting the paper implied you had to do a lot of work, and as soon as possible. It is much more efficient to let people work when they want, and do as much work as they want.

6. Supporting Interoperability Standards Is Tougher Than It Looks

CHALLENGE

Most healthcare applications need to interface with external systems. Since these interfaces are usually complex, standards have been developed to simplify the process.

Check Also: Advancement In Medical Technology

Implementing code that adheres to the standards requires a lot of time, and is often a source of overruns and rework. It is crucial to ensure the design and implementation of interchangeability standards is carefully planned and estimated.

SOLUTION

The first step to ensure the interchangeability standards code is well-planned and well-estimated is to account for all the possible tasks that will be required of the software team during implementation. These can include:7. Not All Clinical Users Are Doctors And Nurses

CHALLENGE

Developers often focus on the needs of doctors and nurses since, traditionally; these are the most difficult groups to please. Doctors and nurses are most pressed for time, and their actions most directly affect the quality of patient care. There are, however, other groups of users who will directly or indirectly use a healthcare application. These include:

Often, physicians are the ones who request the development of an application and are the only ones contributing to the requirements. When the software is released, however, it can fail to deliver an improvement in the hospital’s process because it does not deliver what is needed to all those who need it.

SOLUTION

Software teams need to be sure to not only satisfy the requirements of healthcare providers, but also of users who may not use the application directly but who still depend on it to get their work done. It is important to consider those who can benefit “downstream” from the data collected by the application. Be sure to have a usability expert with healthcare experience on hand who can help you ask the right questions, and obtain the right requirements from all the people affected by hospital processes. This process is known by usability experts as “stakeholder identification.”

Check Also : Web Development & Design Skills, You Need To Develop A Site

A usability expert can help you model the people, groups, and institutions that contribute to or will be affected by a change to hospital processes. These experts can also identify the array of user personas within an organization to help you solidify your understanding of who, exactly, will use the application. With a solid understanding of all potential users and their needs, you will be better positioned to deliver relevant, useful software that solves the problems of the healthcare organization as a whole.Not only will this build your reputation as a trusted software development partner, it can help the organization justify its software development costs and ensure value is being delivered across the organization.

Why us?

We rely on our strong understanding of healthcare workflows to build robust and secure systems which are HIPAA & ICD-10 compliant. We can be your software development partner if:

You are a provider looking for an in-house software to gain better control over your billing cycle

Want to replace an outdated system or upgrade it

You are a specialist with specific functional requirements to meet

You are a third-party service provider

Based upon your need, solutions offered can be either on-premise or web-based. They can also be stand-one or integrated with your Practice Management and/or EHR systems.

[sciencespies]

Q&A: Scientist models exoplanet's atmosphere

https://sciencespies.com/space/qa-scientist-models-exoplanets-atmosphere/

Q&A: Scientist models exoplanet's atmosphere

This artist’s animation depicts the exoplanet LHS 3844b, which is 1.3 times the mass of Earth and orbits an M dwarf star. The planet’s surface may be covered mostly in dark lava rock, with no apparent atmosphere, according to observations by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. NASA Spitzer

More

In the search for life beyond our galaxy, many scientists have their eyes turned toward orbs like Earth: rocky planets. So after the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) detected a rocky planet slightly larger than Earth last fall, a team of researchers launched a campaign to take additional images with the Spitzer Space Telescope, the only telescope currently in space that can directly detect a planet’s infrared light. The telescope produced pictures smaller than 1 pixel—1/94 of an inch—like a speck of dust with which to make predictions about the planet’s habitability.

Looking at several orbits of the planet allowed scientists to map the temperature of its surface and create models of its atmosphere—capabilities that scientists are only just starting to develop for rocky planets. Much of what researchers learn about exoplanets is based on what they know about the stars they circle.

“People say we only know a planet as well as we know the star, because we’re basically inferring things based on what we’re measuring about the star,” said Laura Schaefer, an assistant professor of geological sciences at Stanford’s School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth) and co-author on a study characterizing a planet that was published in Nature Aug. 19.

The team’s analyses show that this planet, LHS 3844b, located 48.6 light-years away, is much hotter than Earth and may be covered in dark volcanic rock. It orbits a star smaller than the sun in just 11 hours. The star is an M dwarf—the most common and long-lived type of star that could therefore potentially host a high percentage of the galaxy’s planets—and the rocky planet‘s atmosphere is the first orbiting an M dwarf to be characterized. Researchers found the planet has little to no atmosphere, and thus could not support life—an important finding for understanding atmospheres of similar rocky planets around M dwarfs.

Stanford News Service spoke with Schaefer to understand more about the findings and what they mean.

Why do scientists want to explore exoplanets?

Very broadly, it’s to try to understand planet formation better. We understand in pretty good detail the planets in our own solar system, but that only gives us one snapshot of how planet formation works. By going out and finding planets around other stars, we have discovered many crazy new things that we didn’t realize happened when planets formed. For example, we found one class of planets that nobody expected to exist, called hot Jupiters. These are actually the first kind of exoplanets that were discovered.

The other major goal with looking at exoplanets is to find another planet like Earth that might have life on it. I focus on the smaller rocky planets, not the big gas giants. The goal is eventually to find a planet in what we call the “habitable zone,” which is a region of orbital space where liquid water might be stable on the surface of a planet like Earth.

More

This artist’s animation depicts the exoplanet LHS 3844b, which is 1.3 times the mass of Earth and orbits an M dwarf star. Credit: Stanford University

More

In order to determine if a planet has life, we need to be able to measure its atmosphere and see if life has influenced it, as we know it has here on Earth, where our atmosphere of oxygen is produced by life. Before life was widespread on Earth, its atmosphere was very different. So we think if we can look at the atmospheres of planets in the habitable zone and determine what they’re made of, then maybe we could say if those planets have life. This is a first baby step on the way to doing that.

How did the team map the temperature of a planet that’s so far away?

By observing the planet at different points along its orbit, we see different fractions of the day side of the planet. If we’re looking at the light from the star, we see a big dip when the planet is passing in front of the star, which we call the transit. As it goes behind the star, we see a smaller dip that we call the secondary eclipse. The amount of this dip gives us a constraint on the surface temperature of the planet. We can look also for variations in the stellar light that give us a temperature map with the day side and night side.

We can constrain the orbit pretty well; we know how close it is to its star and we know the star’s brightness, so we know essentially how much light the planet is receiving from the star. We use models of the star’s evolution to try to understand how much light that planet has received over its entire lifetime.

What did the data tell you about its atmosphere?

An atmosphere can take the heat from the star and move it around. If the planet doesn’t have an atmosphere, then you would expect a big contrast between the day side and the night side. Two signatures of the atmosphere are a shift in the highest temperature point and a lower amplitude of this signature, which indicates that heat is being moved around. With this particular planet—one of the first rocky planets from which this kind of measurement has been able to be done—we found a large temperature contrast between the day and night side and no offset of that temperature point. That indicated that the atmosphere had to be really thin.

My contribution was to then determine if the atmosphere was stable by running models to look at how much atmosphere the planet could possibly lose for a range of parameters over the planet’s lifetime. If the planet started off with about the same amount of gases, such as water and carbon dioxide, as Earth or even more than that, then it would have lost all of them over the course of its lifetime due to the star heating up the atmosphere and causing it to escape—that is one mechanism for atmosphere escape. We looked at another model that constrained the lower end of atmosphere the planet could have and determined these thin atmospheres are not stable on this planet.

Why do you focus your research on atmospheric escape models?

I started working on understanding early planetary atmospheres a number of years ago, before I even started grad school. To me, it’s one of the most interesting problems because it’s the early state of the planet that seems to really set how it evolves over its lifetime. That’s really important for Earth, because we don’t know a lot about its early history in the first half-billion years—but that’s the time period when life started. So my perspective is you have to start at the beginning. And that actually means starting before the planet forms and trying to understand all the processes that go into making the planet and what sets the initial conditions that it eventually evolves from. By looking at these hot, rocky exoplanets, we get to test our understanding of these processes.

Explore further

Rocky, Earth-sized exoplanet is missing an atmosphere

More information: Laura Kreidberg et al. Absence of a thick atmosphere on the terrestrial exoplanet LHS 3844b, Nature (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1497-4

Provided by Stanford University

Citation: Q&A: Scientist models exoplanet’s atmosphere (2019, August 23) retrieved 23 August 2019 from https://phys.org/news/2019-08-qa-scientist-exoplanet-atmosphere.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

#Space