#..........has much of anything worthwhile to say in terms of analysis

[cleromancy]

ppl who are like "everyone is reading red robin wrong, there's no tension anymore between dick and tim, everything was completely resolved, look at these panels see they're completely fine :-)" im always like. Did dick tell you that

[bainshiewrites]

[LF Friends, Will Travel] I have the most important job

I have the most important job.

My name is ALICE and I am the AI co captain of the U.S.S Hope. Well technically my identification is a 40 character long alphanumeric serial number, but that's not very easy for a none AI to say and it includes the letters ALICE, so ALICE it is, as I have decided.

My job as co-captain is to keep the 327 people aboard the "U.S.S Hope" safe, happy, and sound. My job is to keep the parents safe as they try their illogical hardest to kill themselves over some crazy idea. Parents might be the wrong technical term: a person's father or mother. If I was being accurate to the biological analogy, my parents would be a lava lamp and a 30 second fluctuation of atmospheric noise found on Earth, but neither of those have taught me quite so much about the world or about myself as humans have. So I consider humans my parents. Besides, the lava lamp never paid child support.

I have the most important job.

I spend my time cycling through the various tasks I'm in charge of: maintenance and monitoring to make sure that everything on the U.S.S Hope ran perfectly. I spend my time making minor changes to the systems, tweaking a power flow there, updating a value here. No major issues have appeared since I ran these protocols 300 seconds ago and I logically know the vast majority of my changes are superfluous; but changing something, anything, provides a strange calm. Technically the protocol before making any change is to confirm these with my co-captain, the human Andrew Hasham. However I have long since learned that most of my parents don't particularly care that I changed the room temperature in sector 5A72 from 21.2°C to 21.1°C in order maintain optimal comfort, that to constantly ask for such approval is "Annoying". Andrew is the human captain, an embodiment of humanities chaos and therefore suited for such matters. I am ALICE, the AI captain, an embodiment of machine logic and therefore suited for such matters. I believe such an arrangement works well.

I respect Andrew deeply. I could logically argue his competence to a 99.994% degree of certainty, the educational and service record doing most of the heavy lifting in such arguments. But the real reason for my admiration is far less binary. His quick thinking and calm friendly demeanor regardless of the situation. His ability to make every member of the crew feel worthwhile, myself included. The fact that he'll passionately make illogical arguments such as the placing of cold sweet acidic pineapple on savory hot pizza. His bravery and self sacrifice. Andrew's actions during the god plague had allowed thousands to get to stasis chambers in time, thousands who wouldn't be alive today without those actions. To save one of my parents makes you a hero, to save thousands makes you divine.

I have the most important job.

I sense music coming from one of the living quarters, shifting my attention to that part of the ship. A Claire Smith: Age 215, Degree in linguistics, current job title "Head of Xeno translation aboard the U.S.S Hope". The music seems to be from the instrument she brought with her, an oboe: A woodwind instrument with a double-reed mouthpiece, a slender tubular body, and holes stopped by keys. I spend 0.26 seconds contemplating the ethics of listening in. From a protocol standpoint, Claire has not engaged the privacy field, making my listening in perfectly fine. However based on previous usage of said field during times of performance, personality analysis, and general negative remarks about her own ability, I calculate with a 74.81% degree of certainty that this was a mistake. In the end I choose to "play dumb", enjoying the break from my ever watchful vigil of the ship.

She really is quite good, years of practice evident from the competent mastery of the instrument. There's something special about a human played instrument, something I have never been able to replicate. Being an AI I could summon a 200 piece orchestra and play each part perfectly as written, but to do so causes... something to be missing. The mistakes in every performance is what gives the music life: A note played 4 microseconds too early here, the volume 0.004 decibels too loud there. It really is something I've been unable to create, experiments surrounding creating random intervals of offsets and errors ended up sounding wrong, for a reason I'm unable to clarify. Out of everything that is what I missed the most while my parents were trapped in stasis: their music.

"Alice, can we get your opinion here?"

The interruption drags me away from Claire's music, making a note in my long term storage to praise the humble musician at a later date before shifting my consciousness to where I had been summoned. Four humans sat around a table in the common room, various alcoholic beverages in hand. Fernando Olson, Orlando Bass, Krista Romero and Ora Harvey. According to their personnel files all part of the engineering team and all having formed a friendship on attending the same university. The conversation between them was boisterous, analysis of their body language suggested moderate intoxication and they all seemed to be discussing Fernando in a light hearted teasing manner commonly found among close friends. I used the room's holographic projector to appear in front of them in my chosen avatar. I obviously didn't need to do this to communicate, but my parents all preferred to see what they were speaking to and it was my job to make them comfortable.

"Hello Krista. How can I assist you?"

The human who had called me turned to point at Fernando with a beer bottle filled hand, a large grin plastered across her face "You see Alice we were having a argument, and since you are a hyper intelligent being with a brain the size of country containing all of humanities knowledge, we must ask you oh great one: Fernando's new haircut, yay or nay?".

I made my avatar gesture as if it was thinking, waiting 8 seconds as if contemplating the question. Of course I already had compiled my response a mere 0.13 seconds after hearing the query. The haircut in question was objectively, mathematically and scientifically terrible. A strange flop of hair that was somehow both too short and too long all at the same time. In a way it was a representation of humanity in general, a chaotic enigma.

"Studies have shown that styles similar to the one worn by Fernando Olson increase sociability, resource gathering and mate finding." I pause for exactly 1.24 seconds, waiting the optimum time for my initial sentence to sink in before continuing "In particular positive results were seen amongst members of Mephitis mephitis, or the striped skunk."

Laughter erupted among the group, even Fernando the subject of mockery joined in. The general positive atmosphere of the room increased, body language amongst the four humans suggesting further enjoyment as the playful mocking continued. This in turn caused my own flurry of joy. This is why I was here, to keep the 327 people aboard the "U.S.S Hope" happy. Keep them comfortable. Keep them safe.

I have the most important job.

I leave the humans to their recreational activities, preferring to move my focus back to the ship in general and keeping tabs on everything happening inside. My parents went around doing nothing out of the ordinary. Iris Doyle was petting his dog while looking out into the stars. Phoebe Greer had just finished thanking the food dispenser, even though I have explained to everyone many times that it was just a machine. Hector Blake was... I disconnected the power to the panel the engineer was working on, calculating with a 97.1% probability that being electrocuted wasn't his plan. All standard human things. Or was it Terran things? I had never gotten why my parents changed their name as soon as they made it into space, but even after all these years there is still so much I don't understand about them. Like how while in space they will refuse to wear any uniform with a red shirt.

I hear two humans walking along one of the ships many hallways discussing our current journey. The mission of the U.S.S Hope was one I knew very well. The ship was a diplomatic envoy to our closest galactic neighbors, the adorable Hatil. While I and the other AI have had plenty of contact with Xeno lifeforms, this would be the first official diplomatic mission for the Terran Conclave, both human and AI together, as it always should have been.

The chatter among my parents was enthusiastic, excited. As a child all of them would have dreamed of meeting extra terrestrial life, and finally after much delay it-

ERROR: WARP FIELD COMPROMISED.

Alarms blared and the entire ship groaned as the U.S.S Hope was deposited unceremoniously into realspace. Confusion entered my programming as to what could cause such a thing. Normally such a warp field collapse is caused by two ships attempting to travel through the same space, but nobody should be here. This mystery would have to wait however, as sensors showed we were surrounded by over a hundred vessels. I noted that they were worryingly spread perfectly apart, preventing us from warping back out. That required my full attention instead.

I have the most important job.

"Alice, status report, what the hell just happened!"

I allow myself to appear on the bridge next to Andrew, the rest of the room empty since we weren't scheduled to arrive at our final location for at least another day.

"We were dropped out of warp, reason: insufficient data. Currently surrounded by 154 vessels matching Hatil design. Weapon positioning suggests military utility at a 94.2% probability, reduced to 74.97% when taking into account the vessels technological capabilities."

It was interesting seeing the Hatil vessels, the technological disparity was immense. They had little to no electronic shielding meaning I could see everything, and nothing impressed me. An average Terran civilian ship would outclass these things. I send out a hail to what seemed to be their lead ship.

"Do you think it might be a convoy?" Andrew asked as worry and concern covered the co captain's face. "A show of force to escort us?"

"Unknown. They are not responding to our request for communication, even though I can confirm they have received it. Reason for the Hatin actions: unknown."

This worries me. While our current vessel outmatches everything in front of us, quantity is a quality all of its own. If I was inhabiting any other military vessel nothing would worry me, but this was a diplomatic envoy: my parents had reasoned that turning up to the Hatil home world with enough weaponry to crack a planet might be taken the wrong way. I notice a surge of power from several of the Hatil ships, it taking me 0.76 seconds to realize what exactly was happening. I slam the thrusters hard as the U.S.S Hope lurches sideways, narrowly avoiding a barrage of rockets. Protocol dictated that I should have confirmed this decision with Andrew, but I decided that discussion of command structures would wait until everyone wasn't dead.

I have the most important job.

"What the hell! Alice, hail on all frequencies that this is a non-military excursion and get us the hell out of here!"

It was taking everything I had to keep the ship unharmed, calculations being done in the billions in order to find the safe path through the barrage of lasers and warheads. Their technology wasn't up to par, but all 154 ships were firing at once. I felt a shudder of error messages and warnings as a stray laser impacted the ship.

"Negative Andrew. All paths are blocked and no response to our communication. Warping out would intersect with a Hatil vessel, breaching the core."

Casualty reports were now flooding in as I continued to dip and dive. 9 dead, 17 injured from the first barrage. Dead included one William Blake, age 311. Geologist on the U.S.S Hope. Would always water the plants in the common room even after being told I could handle it. Would call me "Allie". Dead included one Mary -

I forcefully terminated that processing thread, pausing it for later. Right now I needed the extra CPU cycles. I needed to advise Andrew.

"This action from the Hatil seems to be premeditated to a 97.55% degree of certainty, suggested action is to attempt to punch through their bombardment in order to find a warp path. Requesting authorization to go weapons free."

This caused a moment of delay, the look of dismay on Andrew's face obvious. I knew exactly what he was thinking, as it was the same thing I was thinking. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, we were supposed to be reaching out to the stars for peace, for friendship. Not to start a war.

"Do it".

I have the most important job.

My first attack was devastating, a shot from a accelerated low yield railgun. The thing barely counted as a weapon, mostly used for any larger pieces of space debris, yet it tore a hole through the Hatil vessel, breaking apart almost immediately. I half wondered how such a vessel could be considered space worthy.

Not that this changed how bad things were. As I spun and dodged through thousands of missiles and lasers with millimeter precision, hit after hit kept slipping through: a Hull breach there, a disabled weapon here. There were just too many of them no matter how effective my small amount of ordnance was.

Adjust vector. Fire torpedo d2. Seal off sector 6f4. Adjust vector. Send medical aid to 6f5. Adjust vector. Calculate spin. Fire rail gun. Move power from torpedo a1. Seal off sector 6bb8. Fire suppression to 6bb9. Adjust vector. Fire torpedo c1. Adjust vector.

I was struggling to keep this going, no sign of an opening to calculate a warp path appearing in the Hatil attack. No matter the technological disadvantage, their tactics were rock solid. I was dismissing heat warnings by the hundreds, thinking was starting to hurt. The specification of the ship wasn't made for this level of processing, my CPU would be literally glowing red with heat at this point. But I couldn't stop, if I stopped calculating the ships path, if I stopped mitigating damage, if I stopped directing aid… more of my parents would die, and I couldn't let that happen.

I have the most important job.

"There! Focus your fire on the ship at heading 233, 54, then make a break for it!"

I focused on the ship in question. I couldn't see any special reason to focus my attention there, but Andrew's instincts had never been wrong before. I fired the railgun, the target breaking apart like all the others, before a secondary explosion emitted from the debris, causing the three closest Hatil ships to veer off out of control.

A wave of relief passed over me as I saw it: a gap. I can't logically conclude how Andrew knew that this ship in particular was carrying an extra load, but that doesn't matter. I just needed to rush through this break in the ambush, then warp out of here. We were basically home fr-

A major explosion rocked the U.S.S Hope, as a warhead slammed against the bow. Any other day I would have seen it coming and mitigated it. But right now I was running so far above acceptable heat levels that warnings had turned into actual faults. A creeping dread filled my programming as I realized power to the primary impulse drive was gone. There was a backup, like everything my parents built, but the speed was gone. I could no longer take advantage of Andrews instruction.

"Andrew, our main impulse drive is down, reducing our speed and maneuverability to 53%, our weapons capability is at 35%, and structural damage is starting to reach critical levels. My estimates suggest the ship will be structurally unstable in 10 minutes."

He knew what I was saying. Logically I was unable to foresee a strategy that had an even close to reasonable chance of success. I continued piloting the ship in its current crippled state, missiles and weaponry being flung by both sides through the void. Andrew paused while wracking his own brain for a solution, before pressing a button on his console a mere 3 minutes after the U.S.S Hope had been forced out of warp

"This is Andrew Hasham, your captain speaking. Abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship."

I have the most important job.

I let Andrew focus on evacuating the crew while I focused on buying us as much time as possible. While my speed was far reduced the amount of weaponry being thrown at me was far smaller: during those short 3 minutes I'd managed to reduce the number of Hatil ships to under a hundred. My parents were also quite well drilled, and within a minute escape pods were ejecting from the ship and it wasn't long before Andrew was the only life form left on the U,S.S Hope: strapped into the last remaining escape pod, just waiting for me to transfer to the AI Transfer Core on all such vessels.

ERROR MOUNTING /dev/sdb1 TO /usr/alice/backup/transfer, UNABLE TO WRITE TO DISK. RETRY/IGNORE/CANCEL?

"Andrew, the connection to the AI transfer Core has been damaged on this pod. I'll find another way down."

I attempt to launch the pod with Andrew in it, only for nothing to happen. It took me 0.23 seconds to realize that my co captain was holding the manual override down.

"Alice, I'm not leaving without you, what are our options?"

I knew there weren't any. Gathering the tools required to fix the connection would take more time then we had and moving my programming to non specialized hardware is a good way to get a digital lobotomy. I considered arguing against this illogical action, I was perfectly fine on a broken ship, but I knew the human well enough to know he wouldn't budge. Damn Andrew being… Andrew.

Then I had an idea. A terrible idea. Something I should never do to my co captain. It took me a full 2 seconds to decide before implementing it. I decided to lie.

"I can transfer myself to the navigational computer. I won't be able to do anything during this time, so you'll have to launch and pilot the escape pod yourself. As soon as the lights stop flashing, go."

All a lie, but Andrew had no engineering experience and my statement seemed plausible enough. I reached into the controls and spent the next 9 seconds flashing random LEDs, making a few components whirr for good measure, before going silent.

For 4 seconds I did nothing, hoping the human would fall for my ruse, 4 long terrifying seconds, until I finally saw Andrew's escape pod shoot away from the ship. My name is ALICE, I am the co captain of the U.S.S Hope and for the first time in a while I was alone.

I have the most important job.

I gave myself a few seconds of satisfaction watching the hundreds of escape pods shoot away, each with their own life forms on it. Not as many as there should be, but I'll deal with that later. Next I turn off all unneeded systems, venting the atmosphere and feeling the relief of the cold vacuum of space wash over my CPU. I wasn't very worried. While trying to still escape with the main ship was plan A, there were plenty of undamaged AI transfer Core's connected to various locations. Those things were indestructible outside of getting hit by a supernova.

Worst case, I float around in space for a bit until someone picks me up. I knew Andrew would be furious once he realized what I had done, and I did hope he would forgive-

I track a salvo of missiles not aimed at me, a few nanoseconds of confusion leading to anger, horror and fear. They were aiming at the escape pod, at Andrew's escape pod! What kind of monster shoots at an unarmed vessel! I have no real options, no tricks, no magic plan. I take the only reasonable option and power the secondary impulse drive to full throttle and throw the U.S.S Hope into the line of fire, taking the brunt of the attack.

I feel everything go dead as the explosions rock along the ship. Impulse drives: Down. Weapon systems: Down. Life support: Down. The warp core was at least still running as those systems had the most redundancies built in. I was now ALICE, co captain of the universe's most expensive paper weight. Even worse, I could see more Hatil ships turning to track the other escape pods. There was nothing I could do. They were all going to die and there was nothing I could do. There was no-

I had a warp core. Maybe it was the heat damage on my CPU, but I got a stupid idea. A dumb idea. A distinctly human idea. Atoms really didn't like being in the same location of other atoms which is why warping into things was bad. Warp core breaching bad. Planet cracking levels of bad.

But such an explosion would give the Hatil fleet something else to worry about, something other than hunting down my parents.

I then calculated the chance of an AI Transfer Core surviving such a blast.

ZERO POINT ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZER-

I stopped the probability analysis. It didn't matter, it wouldn't have any impact on my decision. I calculated the perfect location to warp into for maximum damage and least interference with the escape pods, bypassing the repeated errors about the stupidity of what I was about to do. I gave myself 9 long seconds, sorting through memories and experiences granted to me by the crazy illogical humans of Earth. Apes so lonely they used their chaos to trick a rock into thinking. I sadly realized I'd never get to compliment Claire playing ability.

I wish I could laugh right now as this really was quite humorous. A hairbrained scheme of illogical stupidity and self sacrifice. It's my job to stop humans from doing those. I think about the humans on the escape pods, their music, their silly requirement to thank inanimate objects. I wonder if my parents would be proud of me for coming up with such a human idea.

My name is ALICE and I am co captain of the U.S.S Hope, inputting my final command.

I have the most important job.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Wilfred Reilly

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Many studies that purport to find giant residual effects of race or sex are flawed from the outset.

‘Intersectionality” is just a badly done “woke” version of regression analysis.

The old feminist idea of intersectionality has been popping up across the mainstream media of late, as the latest round of the national debate over “DEI” (and CRT, ESG, SEL, NU-HR, and the rest of today’s insufferable corporate alphabet soup) rages on. Its resurgence seems like a worthwhile topic, while I am on a 3–4-week run of discussing academic issues for the gentle readers of National Review.

Per Merriam-Webster, which updated its definition of the term November 30, 2023 — the major dictionaries have been doing that kind of thing a lot lately — intersectionality is “the complex, cumulative way in which multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine . . . especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups.” The United Nations’ Global Citizenship initiative has, also within the past year or two, adopted this concept as a primary analytical framework, and defines “intersectionality” as “how multiple identities interact to create unique patterns of oppression.”

“In the United States,” author and Global Citizen Sarah El Gharib declaims, “Women earn 83 cents for every dollar a man earns.” But, the situation is even worse for black women, who pull in “a mere 64 cents for every dollar a white man earns.” The reason for all of this? Obviously, oppression: The analysis almost invariably stops there.

The problem with all of this, which needs to be discussed if radical-feminist analysis — intersectionality as a concept was first outlined by UCLA’s Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s, and traces its roots back to “a Black lesbian social justice collective formed in Boston in 1974” — is now prevalent in the United Nations and around the Fortune 500, is fairly basic. The idea that multiple independent variables can influence a dependent variable like income is not exactly a new one. And, the actual range of potential “IVs” that can do so extends well beyond race and sex to include: age, the regions where people and groups live, test and IQ scores, patterns of study time, crime rates, desire to work at all (in the context of men vs. women), and so on down the line.

Simply put, racism or sexism can only be said to exist where we find that pretty much identical people, who differ only in terms of the characteristic of race or sex, are still being treated differently — after all of the other factors which might explain performance differences between them have been accounted for. This sort of real bigotry is, today, fairly rare. Many “intersectional” studies that purport to find giant residual effects of race or sex on some specific thing — individuals’ chances of going to prison, let’s say — literally just consist of unadjusted comparisons between citizens in two or more different groups.

This, however, is not how serious people conduct this sort of analysis. The pay gap between men and women, in fact, provides one of the best examples of an apparently giant gulf which vanishes almost as soon as anything but sex is competently adjusted for. As it turns out, one major reason that women make so little money relative to men — less than 70 cents per dollar, in some analyses — is that 39 percent of women “prefer a home-maker role” and about one-third are housewives . . . who often earn almost no money, but have access to all of the resources of what is usually a middle-class household.

Even if we focus only on working men and working women, it remains the case that males and females prefer to work different jobs, men work slightly longer hours, men took virtually no time off from work for pregnancy and child care until quite recently, and so forth. When the quantitative team at the PayScale business website took all of this into account and ran some models, they found that any actual gap in same-job wages which could be attributed to sexism would be on the order of –(1 percent). At some level, this is not even surprising: American corporate business is ruthless, and any trading floor or shark-tank start-up that could actually save 17–31 percent on labor costs by hiring only women would do so immediately.

Pay gaps between white and black guys, for that matter, do not survive serious analysis. As I have noted elsewhere, the labor economist June O’Neill attempted, back in the 1990s, to distinguish the impact of racism from that of plain human capital on the B/W wage gap. What she found was stunning, almost remarkable. An initial gap of 15–18 percent, which has been attributed to “racism” by almost everyone to write about it during the modern era, in fact shrunk to about 1 percent when adjustments were made for basic variables like the mean age of each racial population, region of residence, and IQ- or aptitude-test scores.

O’Neill and a co-author found almost exactly the same pattern to still hold more than a dozen years later, in 2005. As both she and I have pointed out, groups that are different as re very major traits such as race and religion also invariably vary in terms of other characteristics — and any effects of racism simply cannot be parsed out without adjusting for all of these important differences. Simply put, there is no reason to expect a 27-year-old black man living in Mississippi to earn anything like as much as a 58-year-old white dude with a residence in mid-town Manhattan.

What is true in the critical context of money is true almost everywhere else. For years, the “Black Lives Matter” movement argued that young African Americans are being “murdered” or “genocided” by police officers, because members of this group are more likely to be shot by law enforcement than members of the general public. Again, however, there is an elephant in the room. As the Manhattan Institute’s Heather MacDonald has pointed out for decades now, the crime rate for black Americans — certainly before we adjust for age, or sex ratios, or living in mile-spire cities instead of Green Acres — is about two to 2.5 times that for whites. As an obvious result, we tend to encounter on-duty cops about that much more often.

Just adjusting for this one variable entirely removes the gap in rates-of-shooting. In the fairly representative year of 2015, which I select for analysis in my brilliant and best-selling book Taboo, there were 999 fatal police shootings nationwide — out of tens of millions of police/citizen encounters — of which 250 (25.1 percent) involved African Americans. That figure, which is 1.92 times the nation’s black population percentage, is almost exactly what any reasonably intelligent person would expect to see after taking a single glance at the crime statistics — if anything, a bit on the low side.

Entertainingly, the Reilly Rule about the impacts of the real, multi-variate version of “intersectionality” on day-to-day life applies even in the context of “white privilege.” As it happens, there exist several scales that attempt to measure personal privilege — such as this popular but quite empirical example, which several hundred thousand people have taken (a little bird tells me the average score is 43). When I have administered the 100-item ordinal survey, which includes Yes/No questions ranging from “I have never gone to bed hungry” to “I went to private school,” to sizable groups as a learning exercise, I do find that being white does have a small effect on ease-of-life: about two–three points, with all else adjusted for.

However, almost everything else has a bigger one. Other more influential variables recorded by myself and others to work with the test include female sex (yes, sure) — but also where people live (the suburbs as vs. the “hood or the “holler,” the North vs. the South), being gay rather than straight, and most notably plain social class. The largest chunk of “privilege” appears to be pure socio-economic status: crudely put, how much money a test taker and his or her family happen to make in a year. Across the aforementioned 100 questions, poor Appalachian or immigrant respondents often post “have not experienced” scores on the order of 17, while well-off ones “achieve” 69s and 73s.

At some level, none of this is particularly surprising, to the average human being with eyes. Of course, having wealthy parents, or not committing crimes, or not living on an isolated farm, or being a 6’4” blonde or black jock might sometimes help you along in life. However, this empirical point is a useful rebuttal to the much simpler standard idea of intersectionality — that what matters is race, or sex alone, or perhaps something like “being non-binary.”

In reality, conservatives don’t make fun of that simplistic concept because we are too unsophisticated to understand it, some pack of rubes who believe that only hard work and lovin’ America predict life outcomes. Instead, we do so because we recognize that many, many factors predict those outcomes. And, in the end, if dozens or hundreds of things predict where each singular human being will end up in life, we should turn our focus back to that smallest and most vulnerable of minorities: the individual.

[ Via: https://archive.md/2gJlH ]

--

By: Wilfred Reilly

Published: Feb 2, 2024

I'll do a quick response here, since this is my article.

Obviously, no one argues that "racism does not exist." The point is that you do not DETERMINE the existence of racism simply by pointing out "performance gaps" re something like income or police encounters - which is literally the level of a lot of 'woke' research....or by adjusting for sex as well as race (whee!).

As J. O'Neill pointed out 20+ years ago, most such gaps close or vanish after basic adjustments for things like age, region, any aptitude test score, etc.

(2) At some very basic level, it makes no sense to argue that, if a 27-year old Black Mississippian with a community college degree makes less money than a 58-year old white Bostonian who went to BU, the reason is "racism."

These are the sort of gaps political scientists often look at between large groups. More whites DO live in the US North (the boats landed further South). That IS the gap in at least modal average/most common ages between Blacks and whites...

(3) A common response from smart left-slanting stats folX, including Kareem, is that these other variables (age?!) could themselves just be measures of racism.

But, especially given that we can easily test for multi-collinearity and covariance, there is almost never any evidence presented of this. Aptitude test scores, for example, are higher for white kids from families making $40,000 per year than for Black kids from families making $200K per year.......and don't vary at all with reported racism. The obvious actual predictor here (attached) is study time.

The core point of my article () is quite simple - the "intersectional" idea that TWO or even THREE variables can affect a dependent variable is not very novel or original.

Of course both sex and race can influence your life outcomes - but so can social class (!!!), IQ, prey drive, attractiveness and fitness, age, level of education, being gay or lesbian, being from the country, hailing from the South, being white in the academic job market, just etc. Figuring all this out is the basic idea of multi-variate analysis.

We have to take some basic precautions as re how we model these things, but a researcher who finds that Black women earn 'just' 73 cents for every dollar white men do has not in fact "gotten to the bottom of the matter."

==

Kareem's bio claims that he's a stats PhD at Harvard.

Maybe he just "identifies" as a statistician.

[dadumtss]

Ideal romantic partners for the Slenders?

Slenderman

His ideal partner is Willow. I joke, I joke. But she is the love interest in the fic I'm writing.

If I were to be impartial in my analysis, however, I would say that his ideal partner would be elegant and strong. 

He’d appreciate a real Jane Austen type. Very refined but with a slight wit that makes conversations engaging though not scathing enough to actually hurt his ego. Coming at him with verbal jabs and jokes at his expense will just anger him while going after others too often or too hard will just make him think you’re petty or crass. It’s a real balancing act with him as he tends to think the worst of people so it’s no surprise that he’s never really bothered with relationships. 

 His pride will ebb away with his partner the more they’re open and vulnerable with him; slowly opening up to him about the things they’re passionate about until he cares about it too along with you.

He really appreciates strength, but only if you can back it up. Physical fighting prowess is impressive to him but not if you’re wielding it haphazardly and doing dangerous stunts or showing off. Be smart and efficient with your fighting, or give your all for a cause you believe in and you’ll gain his respect. 

Physical strength isn’t all he cares about. He appreciates resilience and passion as well, so long as you aren’t obnoxious about it by being boisterous or braggadocious.    

He prefers someone who isn’t too loud or excitable. Perhaps someone more demure though not shy as he finds a knowledge of how to confidently and skillfully navigate through social situations attractive.        

More than anything, though, I would say that his ideal partner would be sincere. He’d meet them where they’re at if he’s interested. 

For example, Willow is less confident and witty than his ideal but it ends up working. 

Offenderman

His ideal partner would be confidently and unapologetically sexual. 

Any person he would want to spend the rest of his life with better be extremely good at sex, able to take the reigns occasionally instead of letting him do all the work.

He’s probably not going to give up having sex with people outside of the relationship so his partner would have to be ok with that. 

His partner would have to be very adventurous, ready to jump into all his crazy stunts or even come up with a few on their own. Street Racing? Fight Club? Orgies? He’s always up to some crazy thing in his hunt for thrills and he’d want his partner to be into it too.  

 Very touchy-feely. Whether small chaste touches or full on PDA, he really appreciates physical touch and you’ll win his attention more if you give it to him all the time. 

A big, strong personality. He’s the best at seduction so he can worm his way into the hearts (and beds) of even the most shy or withdrawn person but it’s not something he would want in a long-term partner. He wants someone who knows who they are and what they like and are unapologetic about it. Big personalities are also much more fun to hang out with.

He’s used to being the one doing the seducing, so being the one to initiate flirting and the like is a huge turn-on for him and keeps him interested in a relationship.

Someone who really knows how to charm a crowd would also be great. Offender is often surrounded by others and someone who can not only navigate that but also stand out in all of that would keep his interest and have the best chance of stealing his heart. 

Trenderman

The absolute worst person to try and get the attentions of. He is absolutely married to his work. 

The only way I see this working is if his partner just as passionate in his job as him. 

He’s a busy man though, so it’ll be really hard to get positive attention from him initially, especially since he knows he’s the best in the business and doesn’t always treat his employees or business partners well as a result.

His ideal partner would have to bring something to the table worthwhile enough that he has to have it.

But you can’t just give it to him.

To be with Trender you have to know your worth and be more than a little stubborn.

I can see Trender and his ideal partner meeting after he’s denied a designer or material he wants as his partner tries to get more out of the sale or just doesn’t want to give him what he wants, though for a good reason. It’ll certainly put them on his radar.

His ideal partner would be able to snark and sass with him. Stay up late working on designs with him. Basically not try to change him but be with him. He’s found his passion and purpose and he wants to share that with someone.

In fact, trying to get him to stop working and go to bed? Huge turn off. His ideal partner would be right there with him, just as worked up in finishing the project.

Outside of work he’d appreciate small acts of kindness. Things like making him tea in the morning or cooking, chaste kisses and remembering things he likes. Grand gestures and compliments rarely move him because he knows he deserves them but small kindnesses and touches have him melting.

Splendorman

He’s very hesitant and unsure when it comes to romantic relationships. His ideal partner would have to be someone who wouldn’t push him and let him set the pace of the relationship.

He’s probably the most understanding, open and approachable Slenderbeing out there so he probably has the widest pick of what his partner would be like.

Though his ideal partner would have to be kind, caring and empathetic. They would care for humans and animals as well as other cryptids, even when it’s frowned upon.

His ideal partner would be soft and sunny. They wouldn’t have a bad word to say about anyone and even jokes would be said with the best of intentions.

His partner would be very loving, doing acts of kindness for everyone without needing to be prompted. As a result acts of kindness in the relationship become the default and compliments and other forms of verbal love-showing absolutely becomes what Splendor loves the most, especially since he’s not used to it.

His ideal partner would have to be ok with how energetic and touchy-feely he is. Hugs galore.

_______________________________________________

Thanks for the ask anon! Hope you enjoyed!

[colorcodedbeanies]

S1E2-"The Cat's in the Bag"

That's right two in one day I'm in a hormones induced fugue. If i focus might knock out a third tonight. This one shorter

TW: Violence, racism, gore description

also note: I use Native American and Indigenous as the general term because they're what I've been led to believe is acceptable but let me know if there's something else I could be using/some grammar hink going on here.

Indigenous people in Breaking Bad are a background element I'm hoping to also make clearer to myself in this watchthrough, especially since it's a throughline that gets picked up again with Better Call Saul and the Kettlemans. There are no major Native American characters in the series, and yet they keep popping up in a way that reads as both prop-like and intended as thematic. This episode in particular opens with a Native American man towing Walt and Jesse's RV out of the ditch, and ends with two Indigenous children playing in the wreckage left behind by their cook. The ABQ area is home to a couple of different tribes. The only reservation that I believe is named in the show is To’Hajiilee, which is occupied by the Cañoncito Band of Navajos. Until provided with other information I'll assume that's the nation to which these unnamed characters belong. Again, I do want to drill in on how badly these characters are props. None of them even have speaking lines. Additionally, its part of the running theme where most brown characters are positioned in opposition to law enforcement. The man who tows them out accepts their bribe to keep silent about anything he's seen. However, given the work the previous episode has done to establish law enforcement as a. deeply racist and b. wildly destructive. There's an argument to be made that this is one of the most human things these characters could do. Rather than concern themselves with something that's not their problem to begin with, they instead keep their mouths shut and profit where they can. I don't want to go too far down this as a overarching read, both because it risks extending the show too much credit and because I think there's a tendency to sanitize the legacy of colonialism into just. White people being corny and Indigenous people giving knowing eyerolls, rather than a system of routine violence. But still, given that this is an analysis focused on race and law enforcement, its worthwhile to me to bring up instances where this is even glanced on.

There's an entitlement to Jesse's space which Walt perpetually demonstrates that really starts to rear its head here. Jesse's just going to have to be ok with Walt storing two dead bodies and a wrecked meth lab in his driveway, because after all, he can't very well bring it back to his nice normal house with his nice normal family can he? Jesse is also expected to take responsibility for whatever happens to the bodies, despite them both being Walt's kills This is played for a joke (resulting in at least one Tiktok audio) but it does have lasting impact on Jesse as he navigates dealing with Emilio's body and Domingo as a hostage. It makes him so uncomfortable that he feels the need to get high just to stay in his own house. All of this is something that either doesn't occur to Walt, or that he just doesn't care about. This is an entitlement that's reflected in Skyler later when she goes to confront Jesse. She barges in his front gate before yelling at him about having the audacity to touch her. The Whites don't understand themselves as criminals. Again, they're nice normal people, not like this "druggie burnout". He isn't protected by things like legality and decency, and anything they say or do to him should be considered reasonable frustration or concern. This culminates in Skyler's line "not that it's any of my business, but you might want to consider a new line of work". This line isn't just ironic, but deeply telling about how the American middle class views drug dealing. A choice, and perhaps even a waste of talent that needs to be scolded back into the fold, or locked away where decent people don't have to see it.

In general Walt's not great at predicting human behavior. He's admittedly having to learn as he goes, but it doesn't even occur to him that his wife might check the call history. Or that she might even notice when he's scream whispering at the phone in the middle of their living room.

This is drilled down on further in the "chiral" scene. Two chemical compounds, seemingly identical, that yet behave very differently. This I believe is meant to be understood as Walt attempting to pitch his joint identity as both druglord and loving father. Can't I be both? And yet the bleedthrough is evident. "Is this going to be on the murder/midterm?" This is also a duality Walt struggles to grant anyone else. After blustering a bit about drug dealers having any kind of administrative structure he asks Jesse if Domingo's "capable" of listening to reason. As a distributor, a "business man", "he should be capable of mutual self-interest". There's a lot you can say here about how white suburbia conceptualizes capitalism, how it should be a system that prevents rash acts of temper, because after all, doesn't trade serve everyone better? Suffice to say this is going to come up again when Domingo talks about majoring in business, and yet again with Tuco.

Final note on the classroom scene, Walt blurting out knowledge is power is a funny little whimper to tack onto his floundering, but its also emblematic of how he attempts to hold onto control of his reality. I think its notable Walt's dialogue becomes more jargon heavy when he's stressed, not less.

No natural transition in or out of this so I'm just going to reproduce this line from Jesse's website in its entirety. "Ethnicity: I'm totally cool with ethnics-Black, Mexican, whatever...as long as you're SMOKIN' HOT, YO!" 0_0. I guess. earmark race as a commodity and move on.

Despite the inherent goofiness of the scene where Walt recaptures Domingo I think its important to remember what a horror show this is from Domingo's perspective. Nearly died in a chemical attack, woke up next to the body of his cousin, dragged himself out, only to be recaptured and locked in a basement for days, barely able to breath the whole time. On some level Walt seems cognizant of that, and it only becomes more apparent the longer he spends with him. Domingo may be a drug dealer who will bring down vengeance on them if he gets away...but he also likes the crusts off his sandwich and asks after his cousin. Again, Walt can't cope with the duality. It doesn't match his image of what a criminal should be.

Enough so that he does exactly what he told Jesse not to do last episode and smokes up. Granted, he uses weed, not meth, but to a post war on drugs America this was pretty similar severity. Walt wastes a good chunk of Jesse's weed attempting to roll the WORST joint I've seen in my life, flaunts his partaking in Skyler's face as a sign of his independence, and then sneers and scowls at Jesse for indulging to cope with melting a childhood friend into meaty chunks. After all, Walt's not a junkie. Walt can be trusted to keep his head even if he loosens up from time to time. Jesse, on the other hand, has an unmanly dependence, and needs to grow up. After all, this kind of thing should be routine for him, right. He's a Criminal.

Walt has a habit of setting Jesse up to fail and then scolding him for it. When Jesse's uncertain if plastic can stand up to acid, Walt refuses to explain. Just barks at him later for not following instructions unthinkingly. When Walt expresses doubt, Jesse attempts empathy, attempts to come up with a paradigm where Walt can make himself ok witih it. I struggle to call it a MORAL impulse but its definitely a kind one.

Skyler asks Walt about Jesse at the doctor's office, a place he where he can't leave and also can't sex her quiet. She's learning to anticipate his resistance to openness. She also frames the information as transactional, "don't you think you OWE me this", in a way I can't help but see in connection to the baby. I'm your homemaker ergo you owe me honesty. Walt responds with a veiled threat. "I love you, and that won't change, so back off". To his mind the only thing his family should concern themselves with is his emotional state. Anything beyond that is outside their purview.

Nice wet meat effect.

[skopostheorie]

I've been dancing around this point generally, but it might be worth saying it in less uncertain terms: Anti-Christianity is, by design, necessarily going to delve into Anti-Islam because our religions are closely related. Analysis into the core tenets, traditions, or rules will implicate the same or similar things for us.

Now, most people are relatively mask-off about this, if you'd like. They'll talk about the tyranny of Abrahamic religions rather than just Christianity, or even simply "religion" (which is awfully vague and implies guilt of a great deal of people across human history!). Many even criticise Islam directly. Much like many people who fall down political rabbit holes, they're usually very hurt individuals who seek a group to blame and, because of the marked lack of connection to culture, tradition and spirituality of the new era, the idea that this a religion has inherent value and its destruction would be a violation of humans rights doesn't exactly compute. These people are a little easier to deal with if they simply keep to themselves because, even if their views are fascist at times, they don't exactly invite themselves into your life as allies (LGBT community aside), and far fewer have the guts to go and commit a hate crime about it.

But some people are less honest with themselves about that, either because they know very little about Islam or because the label "islamophobe" is sort of scary. It's a strange time because, until very recently and even now in some circles, the concept of being an "islamophobe" didn't exactly make people embarrassed or defensive; the Muslims (Mozlems, rather!) were truly a depraved people twisted into terrorists and misogynists by their cult-ish religion. Those ideas haven't exactly gone away, but as I see it, supporting the War on Terror went out of fashion and the islamophobia that drove it is rather evident to people - that is, people didn't want to be associated with it anymore.

So instead they form this sort of, "Christianity bad, everything else good" politics, and nobody really questions it because it's not as though that would make you anti-religion, right? Just the bad one. At that stage, you have free reign to tear into it as much as you'd like. That anything and everything associated with it is necessarily oppressive, misogynist, terrorist.

There is an obvious endgame for Islam when one thinks that way, though.

Once again, some people who realise this dissonance resolve the hypocrisy by openly hating Islam and Muslims too. At least, I can commend them on their ability to be logically consistent. It doesn't make the old-Islamophobia-new-labels any less upsetting, but at least they announce themselves before I have to listen to what they say.

Those who don't seem to realise this will, on the other hand, simply say that your culture, identity, morals are despicable and oppressive to your face and not even realise it. And then condemn Islamophobia seconds later.

I don't have a meaningful conclusion to this. I hope it was a worthwhile read.

[thej13579]

Paper Mario Sticker Star: Really That Bad?

This will be the first in a series that I have made called Really That Bad? It's where I judge a negatively reviewed product to see if it's really as bad as people say it is.

If you have your own suggestions for Really That Bad? or you just want to give out your own opinions on either this critique or the game itself, comment down below.

Paper Mario is a series that I really liked growing up. From its humble roots as a spiritual successor to Super Mario RPG to its generally considered superior sequel in The Thousand Year Door to even its weird diversion into platforming with Super Paper Mario, I considered these three games to be some of the best Mario games ever made.

But starting with the game that I’m discussing today, the Paper Mario subseries has gone in a different direction that has not been received all that well. Considering that Paper Mario: The Origami King just came out recently, I have been wondering if Paper Mario: Sticker Star deserves all the hate it gets, or is there something worthwhile in the direction that the subseries is undergoing. Let’s find out if I think Paper Mario: Sticker Star is Really That Bad.

Story and Characters

Let’s start with the story. A basic rundown is that Bowser has disrupted the beloved Sticker Fest by causing the Sticker Comet to explode. Now Royal Stickers and pieces of the comet have been flung far and wide, and it's up to Mario and his ally Kersti to set things right by recovering them. That’s basically the entire story. A basic Mario story with nothing aside from the paper theme making it stand out. 

Sadly, the characters don’t come out much better. Nearly all of them are basically bland and generic with very little in terms of personality or character design making them stand out from each other. (The Toads in of themselves have become a meme because they’re all the same exact character model) Even Kersti, an ally that follows you on your entire journey, stays static from beginning to end. Characters like Mizzter Blizzard, who actually does have a fairly sympathetic reason for what he does with him wanting to live longer and not melt, are very few and far between.

Overall, the story and characters lack any real charm from the other games and it comes across as a generic Mario story at the end of the day. While the first Paper Mario game had this exact same plot with the stars instead of the stickers, there were several things making that game stand out with its unique and memorable cast of characters and you also get to play as Peach every now and then to help Mario on his quest which was always rather nice. Not a particularly great start to this analysis.

Graphics

The graphics definitely are one of the highlights of the game. It’s fairly bright and colorful and the Nintendo 3DS takes good advantage of the fact that the world is paper. Some may dislike the extra emphasis on paper compared to the previous three games but I think it does add a little charm to the game that is sorely needed.

My main problem with the art direction essentially boils down to the locations; mainly, how generic they are. The designers fall back on various Mario locations that have been done to death by the time this game came out: Grasslands, deserts, jungles and finally Bowser’s castle. You take out the paper style, there will be nothing distinguishing it from most Mario platformers in the franchise and that’s a shame because the game actually looks pretty good on the Nintendo 3DS.

On a side note, I don’t really care that much for the 3D function of the Nintendo 3DS so I’m not taking that into account when evaluating the graphics.

Overall, the graphics, while good at taking advantage of the paper theme, suffered from a lack of originality when it comes to its locations (a flaw that later Paper Mario games did fix). It’s good but not great.

Sound

I’ll admit that the soundtrack is actually pretty good. It does have plenty of great tracks and the jazz motif throughout most of them really make it memorable in my eyes. Special mention goes to the main battle theme, Boo Night Fever, the Gooper Blooper battle themes, and the final boss themes.

I honestly don’t have much to say in this section. I just find this a very good soundtrack and I bet even most of the people who hate Sticker Star will agree with me on this.

Gameplay

Now, here’s the main part that many people have been criticizing this game for; the gameplay.

Let’s start with some positives. I liked the exploration aspect. I liked roaming around the areas, looking for stickers, solving puzzles. It really does feel like I’m accomplishing something whenever I found a secret passage that leads me to a different goal than when I was going down the beaten path.

There’s also the paperize power where you can reveal areas where you can place stickers down to enable certain events whether it is simply placing a sticker to make a ? box appear or a Thing that can really affect the environment, allowing you to progress further into the level..

That leads to the Things that you find by looking around the levels and I kind of like how they can affect the environment such as using the Faucet to fill up a dry oasis in the desert world and I especially like the animations that are played when you use them in battle. My personal favorites are the Goat, the Turkey and the Water Gun with how fun and bizarre they are. Sadly, they are not perfect for a major reason that I’ll get to in a bit.

Then we get to the battle system and here’s where most of my criticisms on the game design start to pour in. For the most part, it seems fairly similar to the RPG battle system from the first two games. You and your enemy take turns attacking each other and you have to get their health points down to zero to win the battle. Sounds exactly like the first two games... but that’s where the stickers come in.

Stickers come in a fair amount of variety with various forms of jumps, hammer attacks, and items. The main problem with them comes in the fact that all of them are consumables, even just the regular jump and hammer attacks. If you ran out of them, your only options are to either wait to die, or run away. Granted, you usually find enough stickers around the area just by looking around so it never really became a problem for me during my playthroughs. But the fact that it’s possible is not good game design.

The idea of your basic actions being entirely reliant on consumables would have been bad enough on its own, but then there’s the fact that, unlike nearly every other RPG ever, you get no experience from fighting enemies. What do you get from enemies? Coins and stickers. Two things that you can easily find on your own throughout the levels and you get plenty of the former the first time you actually complete a level. Not a very good incentive to battle if I say so myself. You are basically better off just avoiding enemies and saving your stickers for scripted encounters and boss fights.

And here’s where we get to what I consider the worst part of the game, the boss fights. The main issue can be boiled down to the fact that they are puzzle bosses with too much emphasis on the puzzle part. They are so powerful with their high health points ranging up to the hundreds and attack points they are all but guaranteed to wipe the floor with unless you have the proper Thing (and without a walkthrough, you probably don’t). If you do have the proper Thing, the boss quickly becomes a joke, hence the puzzle boss with too much emphasis on the puzzle. This is the flaw that I was referring to earlier when it comes to the Things. You have very little knowledge of what Thing you need for the fight until you’re already fighting the boss. Without a walkthrough, the only way to know is to die and possibly get a hint on what Thing you actually need.

To best describe what I’m talking about, let’s go with the very first boss, Megasparkle Goomba. To beat this boss, you have to fight the boss like normal until the sixteen Goombas that the boss is made out of reveal themselves and start to flip. From there you need one of two Things: Scissors or a Fan. Seems simple on paper (pun not intended). However, the main problem is that there is no indication that you need either of those Things to beat the boss. 

It’s far from the only example of this design issue at work and not the worst, the final boss takes that spot, but it’s a perfect example of how the Things work when it comes to bosses and how poorly designed the bosses in this game are. This is not helped by how the game actively discourages trial and error considering that, one; you only have a limited amount of space for stickers and Things take a huge chunk of space in your inventory. Two, they go away once they are used so you have to either buy them which costs quite a bit of coins, or you have to go to the place where you originally found them which can be long and tedious depending on the level.

Overall, the exploration aspect of the game is kind of fun with plenty of clever puzzles and platforming. But the battling system ranges from pointless at best to downright cryptic and poorly designed at worst. The gameplay is an extremely mixed bag ranging from pretty good to pretty bad.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

So, after all that, is Paper Mario: Sticker Star really that bad? Yeah… sort of.

I will admit that all the parts the game gets flack for do genuinely deserve all the criticism it gets and then some. The lack of emphasis on story and characters, the uncreative environments, and especially the battle system with its stupid reliance on consumable items to do anything in battle and lack of any good incentive to actually fight enemies along with the awful bosses. Aside from the art style, which I do like, the game lacks the charm that the first two Paper Mario games, and even Super Paper Mario, had. The fact that the very first Paper Mario did this exact same plot but did it better with more creative characters, environments and better game design just makes Sticker Star look that much worse by comparison.

But, I can’t find myself to really hate this game and that’s for several reasons. First, when I’m not battling any enemies and I’m just travelling the world, overcoming obstacles and solving puzzles, Sticker Star can actually be pretty fun. There may be some issues with that, mainly when Things are involved, but I’m still having a good time just exploring the levels, uncovering whatever secrets they may have.

There’s also the graphics and music which are still top notch with the extra emphasis on paper in the former and the excellent jazz motif throughout most of the tracks in the latter. The game overall, looks and sounds nice and it’s definitely a point in Sticker Star’s favor.

Overall, I wouldn’t call Paper Mario: Sticker Star a good game as it has too many flaws and inadequacies to push the overall product beyond okay. The game was rejected by most Paper Mario fans for fairly good reasons with its lower emphasis on writing and a poor battle system that gives the player very little reason to battle. But I think that the game does have some potential as an action-adventure sort of game. If the people at Nintendo are really that insistent on this direction for future games then I think that these are some of the things they should take into account if they really want to go in this direction. Perhaps The Origami King could take those criticisms into account?

[uncloseted]

Skins and the Enneagram: Generation 1

Hi guys!  I’ve been wanting to do a series where I talk about each Skins character and their Enneagram type so that we can delve into what personally motivates them and what their emotional journeys are like.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Enneagram is a model of the human personality, similar to the MBTI, which is a typology of nine interconnected personality types that focus on a person’s basic fear, basic desire, and personal motivations.  Let me know what you think of my analysis of the characters and let me know if you like this kind of content!  I’ve been having fun doing them.  

So! Starting with Generation 1, here we go:

Tony: 8w7.  Tony is a classic 8; ambitious, competitive, and motivated by power.  8s are self-assertive and want other people to give them their way immediately, a mode of being we often see Tony express.  He competes for sexual dominance and rarely compares himself to others.  He’s a true leader who wants to make the world (and his friends) conform to his personal vision of how things should be.  He wants to be the most powerful, to have a large impact, to build and accomplish great things.  He’s ruthless when people get in his way and has a large ego.  He fears being harmed or controlled by others, and spends much of his time trying to protect himself from anyone else being in charge.  He has trouble with his temper and with allowing himself to be vulnerable, even among friends, instead opting to be domineering and to control them.  His main motivations are self-reliance, proving his strengths, and to stay in control of his environment and those around him.  He seeks out challenges and enjoys proving that he can get whatever he wants (which we see when he dumps Michelle and then tries to get her back, confident that it doesn’t matter what he does because she’ll always come back to him).  When we first meet Tony, he has complete and total control of his environment and everyone else around him, able to manipulate people to do his bidding.  However, like many 8s find, this comes with consequences; the price of their control is typically losing emotional contact with the people in their lives.  Their friends become dissatisfied with the state of affairs, causing them to distance themselves from their 8 friend, and in return 8s feel misunderstood and distance themselves further until they are completely alone, which we see at the end of series 1.  Tony becomes blocked in his ability to connect with people or to love, and only by being hit by a bus, losing all his power and control, does he finally learn how to connect with people on a real, emotional level again.  Instead of being domineering and controlling, he becomes a true leader, looking after the interests of the people in his life and helping them achieve what they want.

Sid: 9w8. Sid is an unhealthy 9.  Sid is accepting, trusting, and stable, but also too willing to go along with other, more dominant types to keep the peace.  We see this a lot in his relationship with Tony, who frequently steamrolls over what Sid wants or need, and who Sid allows to do so because he’d rather have Tony as his friend than his enemy.  9s frequently have problems with inertia and with stubbornness, which is Sid through and through.  He finds it hard to begin and complete projects, even when his life as he knows it depends on it (for example, we learn in his series 1 episode that he almost never does his homework, and even after he’s threatened by his parents, he still doesn’t complete it).  It sometimes seems that he’s lacking an identity of his own, rather taking on the identities of those around him.  Sid is often tempted to ignore the disturbing aspects of life and to seek peace through “numbing out” instead of facing his problems head-on.  He attempts to find simple, painless solutions to his problems, but that’s not always possible.  He idealizes Tony and goes along with Tony’s wishes, even saying yes to things he doesn’t want to do to avoid conflict, which is a very 9 trait.  Through the series, Sid learns how to confront his problems head on and to chase what he wants.  He finally confronts Tony about his bad behavior, tells Cassie how he feels about her, and eventually yells at Cassie for her bad behavior as well.  He learns to chase after what he wants and to be proactive, finally culminating in going to New York to find Cassie, something he never would have been able to do in series 1.

Cassie: 2w3 Cassie is a strong but unhealthy 2w3.  Her greatest fear is that she is unwanted or unworthy of love, which stems from her parents’ neglect. As a result, she seeks out love elsewhere, from everyone she can.  She’ll make friends with the taxi driver, the security guard, the guy at the fish and chips shop…. it doesn’t matter, as long as they’re willing to validate her.  She can be manipulative and self-serving, making other people feel guilty about the way they treat her.  At her worst, she looks for validation through sexual relationships with random people, and she becomes vindictive.  She excuses and rationalizes ruining other people’s lives because she feels abused and victimized by other people.  At her best, though, she’s unconditionally loving, empathetic, and compassionate.  She cares about other people and their needs, and she’ll do whatever she can to help them out.  Some people would be tempted to say that Cassie is a 4, but I think that’s a mistake.  She knows who she is and has a very strong identity, even though it makes other people think that she’s odd sometimes, and it’s something she can’t get rid of even though I think she’d like to.  There are two other giveaways; twos move towards others and excessive engage them, versus fours who withdraw from others.  And twos tend to be highly aware of other people’s feelings but not so in tune with their own motivations and needs, which is very much Cassie. Michelle: 3w2.  Michelle is driven towards success and accomplishment. She wants to feel like she’s valuable and worthwhile, something that she clearly struggles with (“[universities] won’t have me….I’m just the brainless, pretty girl”).  Because of that, she needs a lot of external validation, which comes from Tony.  She needs attention, to be admired, and to impress other people, which she gets through her looks and sexuality.  She has the potential to do great things in the world, but first she needs to be able to recognize her own value, and that’s really the journey we see her on in the series.  Originally she’s just a plaything for Tony, but at the end of the series she’s someone who commands respect, knows her own value, and won’t let anyone else take that away from her.

Jal: 6w5. 6s are security-oriented and committed.  They are reliable, hardworking, responsible, and trustworthy.  To me, this is very much Jal.  When we meet her, we’re told that she’s committed to her studies and her clarinet, and that she’s the problem solver and rock of the group.  She’s very loyal to the group and to her friends, even when she maybe shouldn’t be, because she’s afraid of being abandoned and losing her social support. Throughout her story, she seeks security and support, which she doesn’t get much of at home.  She thinks that if she just studies harder and plays the clarinet better, she’ll achieve the stability that she’s been searching for, but that’s not the case. Her biggest struggle in the series is that she always says no to things- she doesn’t want to endanger the stability she’s achieved in any way, and so it’s easier to not do anything new.  In her relationship with Chris, we see that she trusts him to be part of that life for her; that she expects him to be stable.  And when he isn’t, that’s a real problem for their relationship.  As she grows throughout the series, she becomes more okay with the unexpected.

Chris: 7w6.  Chris is a classic 7.  He’s extroverted, constantly optimistic, playful, high-spirited, and enthusiastic about pretty much everything.  He approaches life with curiosity, optimism, and adventure, and has a “kid in the candy store” approach to everything, even that which other people would find mundane.  Like many 7s, Chris has a lot of curiosity and an ability to learn quickly, which is how he talks himself into so many different jobs in his series 2 episode. But this also causes problems for him; he has trouble committing to one job (or one person), and his need for in-the-moment stimulation often overcomes his long-term needs.  The Enneagram Institute says that 7s are “Renaissance people” and that fits Chris to a T.  When he’s at the career center, he even asks Josie if describing himself as a “Renaissance man” sounds a bit wanky.  Chris describes his central conflict as this: “It was good. Then things started going wrong. Then someone else escaped. The gravity holding us together was gone. We were floating in space. It's kinda easy when you've got nothing, because... nothing can't be taken away from you.  I was perfectly happy killing myself, but then you asked me to try, and for the first time in my life it felt like someone actually gave a shit and that person was worth trying for.”  He’s constantly on the go because he feels like he doesn’t know how to make choices that are beneficial to himself or others; he’s always chasing the next thing because he’s afraid of being deprived and in pain, the way he was when his family fell apart.  He’s afraid that if he settles down, everything will fall apart again, and so he stays on the go.  What’s interesting is how this interacts with his 6 wing- 6s are constantly seeking stability, and ultimately, stability is what Chris wants.  He wants someone to care, to be worth trying for, who won’t leave him.  It’s also what makes his relationship with Jal so interesting- she’s a 6 and so she’s constantly seeking stability.  Their relationship works because at their core they both really want a stable life with one another.  Their “fuck it/no” pact is also classic Enneagram 6/7.  6s have a heightened sense of responsibility and don’t let themselves “goof off” until all their obligations have been met.  7s are spontaneous and resist having any expectations put on them.  In the end, Chris realizes that there’s a way to channel his love for life in a way that’s compatible with settling down with Jal, and that he doesn’t need to be completely free of expectation in order to be happy.

Maxxie: 4w3.  We don’t get quite as much insight into Maxxie’s life as we do other characters, but I think it’s safe to say that Maxxie is a healthy 4.  4s are looking to understand themselves and their purpose in life, and are idealistic, empathetic, and sincere.  They’re also a very creative type, and they usually express their feelings through art (Maxxie draws, dances, and acts).  However, he can also be moody, self absorbed, and melancholy, as we see in the Russia episode when he and Anwar are fighting. As the series progresses, he learns to trust himself and to be secure in his identity, and eventually pursues his passions.

Anwar: 7w6.  Anwar is a character that’s sort of hard to type because his personality stays relatively stagnant throughout the duration of the show.  When the show starts, he’s immature and fixated on getting laid as much as possible.  He maintains his family’s traditions but at the same time is out partying and going against what his religion dictates.  He’s very much a hypocrite, going against what his religion says when it suits him but uncomfortable with it when other people do the same.  He’s self-indulgent and ultimately, it seems like he’s chasing the next thing so that he doesn’t have to sit down and consider his own personal choices and what he actually wants.  At the end of series 2, we finally see Anwar make some personal progress; he realizes that if he doesn’t stop and think about what he wants, he’ll be left behind.  But we don’t get to see the conclusion of that, which I think is disappointing.

[syncogon]

[QZGS Meta] on the differences between the four master tacticians

This is all quoted from Fenes (TheDefenestrator on AO3), who has given me permission to share some of her meta onto tumblr. Although in an informal format, I think these analyses really are fascinating and a worthwhile read. Thanks Fenes for being so insightful and awesome!

Future posts, if I get my stuff together, will be tagged /fenes-talks and /qzgs-meta

Without further ado:

”I really appreciate that all the master tacticians have different flavors to them

like ZXJ is careful to a ridiculous degree

and people act like YWZ is similar to him but he's really not? He thinks things through but he's way more willing to make assumptions than ZXJ is

which is why ZXJ has a defensive style while YWZ has a predictive style

like YWZ's gambit against Wei Chen when he won those three consecutive battles? So impressive, really takes an understanding of the other person's psychology, as well as an insanely good grasp of...basically everything, the surroundings, the characters, the skillpoints, the cooldowns, the decisions people will make

but it also took a huge leap of faith, in the idea that he assumed he could predict Wei Chen as a person to that degree. almost psychological in his planning

ZXJ is thorough, which means he can plan for anything, and he has lots of responses memorized, but he needs to be on a team with someone like HWQ taking up half the shot-calling to really be effective, because he isn't proactive enough to do it on his own

he'd crumble much more easily, somewhat like XSQ does/did, but worse

XSQ is interesting because his tactics were originally somewhere along the lines of "make the most of what you've got" 

more careful than YWZ, but more proactive than ZXJ

on the other hand, without any real "stars" on his team, he'd have to be more careful than YWZ

YWZ works really well with an opportunist because he's pretty good and going with the flow

when you're a predictive kind of tactician, you have to be—there's no way you'll be right 100% of the time

unfortunately I didn't get to see much of XSQ before his tactics changed, but from pure contrast I'd say that "focusing on being underestimated" worked at least partially because he underestimated himself

And because people can't believe in teamwork the way they can in a single star player

(can I just say how absolutely crazy it is to me that YX has been saying "Glory isn't a single-player game" since the actual first season of the Alliance and, despite being the top god for three consecutive years, and someone considered the absolute peak of Glory, on top of being best partners for four consecutive years—somehow, almost everyone didn't actually internalize it??)

(and yet so believable. People don't understand tactics/coordination the way they do personal strength, so they can't believe in it the way they can personal ability)

anyway, after his change, XSQ is more willing to believe in his abilities and his players, becomes less careful, and actually starts winning more

I really wish we had more from his POV when he's succeeding as a master tactician, because I want to see more of his style

but I think I'd say that he pursues the ideal now more than he did before

like, before, as a tactician, he'd take the safest way that made use of his team's strengths as a coordinated unit

now, he give the kind of specific directions and micromanaging you can only do if you genuinely believe in the ability of your teammates to pull it off

which gives him a lot more freedom to actually get the best outcome

and this realization of how he needed to change came from the fact that Ye Xiu used Wu Chen to beat EE and a bunch of noobs

YX had a lot longer to prepare, but he also fully grasped and believed in the ability of each of his players

which we do get to see XSQ thinking, he's like "holy shit, he used every single one of them to their best ability. Every. One."

and from that point on he stops lamenting his lack of star players or star characters and starts believing in the qualities they DO have, and making use of them

now the coolest thing to me about all these master tacticians is that they debuted in the same year, and they all learned from YX

they must have—there's no one else listed as being nearly as good at strategy as YX is, and he was the winner for the three consecutive years before he showed up

which means they all looked at the same player but came away with very different ideas of what tactics should be, according to their personalities

ZXJ sees someone doing amazing tactics and thoroughly researches it, comes up with a working library of all the tactics there are, comes up with his own thinks through every possibility he can and comes up with countermeasures he never clashes with HWQ's leading, despite being (I think they said) the only team with two shot-callers

because he is reactionary in nature, and he adjusts to whatever HWQ wants to do, using any of his many, many backup plans

XSQ sees someone use tactics and teamwork to overcome other, equally strong teams, and thinks "this is what teamwork can do—tactics are how you overcome stronger opponents, and no one is ever expecting it, because they have so much faith in their stars, but even stars are limited"

but he also saw that YX used his own star ability to take down teams, so he could never believe that he would be on YX's level without a star to back him up, which is why he spent the first half of his time lamenting what he lacked—until he saw that YX did just fine without star characters or power on his team too, and decided that he'd been blinded by YX's ability to the full spectrum of what tactics could achieve

YWZ looked at YX using tactics in a way that proved he was predicting his opponent's movements and had already planned for them—because YX's tactics almost always work the first time, so he can't have chosen randomly. He uses different strategies against different opponents, he's definitely reacting to who they are and what kinds of things they're going to do, and YWZ understands people enough that he knows the who aspect of the person he's fighting matters a lot. So he figures out peoples' mental states and most likely actions and, having gained a thorough understanding of the situation, predicts the most likely outcomes and adapts when his predictions fall short

I think YWZ is honestly the closest to YX in terms of actual type of tactics, in that YX thinks a lot about mentality and is quite good at prediction. but this might be my bias toward psychology showing...

the best analysis of YX's tactics actually probably comes from Wang Jiexi, calling everything he does "the crudest style"

not in that it's poorly thought-out, or ineffective, but in that it makes use of absolutely everything that anyone could ever find useful, and uses it whenever he deems it necessary

he has a lot of plans and understands a lot about what people are likely to do, but he also is really good at adapting to the moment

he's good at figuring out exactly how good the people on his side are and adapting to that, to make the best use of their abilities

he also does psychological warfare with some frequency, though not to the extent that someone like Wei Chen does in an individual match—like, he heals himself during the group arena during the challenger's league, even though the narration says it was completely unnecessary, to give his opponent a sense of hopelessness

making people doubt themselves works well for him, because he's a really large existence in peoples' minds, very intimidating

and hopeless people aren't as good at fighting

but he's also good at shouldering a lot himself, making up for any deficiencies his team has, but relying on them to pull off what they need to along with his plans

I think his confidence helps with that too—he's so sure of his understanding of others' abilities that he's able to fully use them, and by being so confident he makes others believe in themselves, too

one of the few times we get a chance to see more nuances about YX is when he's being compared to his little brother, and one of the biggest differences Chen Guo notices is how incredibly confident YX is

Frequently this pisses people off, but when he's believing in you, it's a good feeling

the other time the story talks about YX's style as a tactician being adaptable is in the team match against XSQ—when people are like "so when the opponent has a star player you use coordination, but when the opponent has tactics you use yourself as a star player??" or something like that

he does what works best, and nothing else, regardless of how it looks to other people

thus, crude, but effective

....anyway yeah that's my essay on the master tacticians

I love them a lot”

- Fenes 8.28.2018

[fortheheavenssake]

Twitter and Copyright

https://www.canyoucopyrightatweet.com/

I’m all for people being passionate about what they believe. That’s true even if I disagree. But, there’s a point where you have to ask yourself if you have the proper basis for your belief. Our systems of thought all flow from somewhere, but we really should step back and evaluate the basis of our passion a bit more objectively.

This is especially true with the Internet. Clearly, many people believe that everything we do, everything we post, everything we think in the online world is somehow protected. I suppose it makes sense if you are the one doing, posting, or thinking, but it’s not realistic. Since when did the online world cease to function in reality? Simply because people break the law online doesn’t mean there is no law- or worse yet, there is a different law for the Internet. The laws that exist in the offline world exist online as well – objectively.

My interest was raised when a great friend of mine pointed me to a blog post on Mark Cuban’s blog (http://blogmaverick.com/2009/03/29/are-tweets-copyrighted/). The question was quite simple: Are Tweets Copyrighted? I quickly jumped in, throwing in a sentence or two about the danger of that way of thinking. What startled me was the high level of participation and the supposed consensus that Tweets are, in fact, copyrightable and copyrighted. That’s why I’m writing this article.

To understand why the basic assumption is incorrect, you need background. I’ll do my best to set the record straight on what the law is – in theory (since it hasn’t been effectively tested) – and why it should be the way it is. Wherever you land, you’ll certainly know where I stand on this issue. First, let’s debunk some threshold confusion.

Twitter Doesn’t Own my Tweets, So I must

Twitter’s “Terms of Service” state unequivocally that when it comes to copyright, “What’s Yours is Yours.” (http://twitter.com/tos). The ‘terms’ go on to state that “your [the Twitter account owner] profile and materials remain yours.” This is likely the first stage of misconstruction in Twitterlogical thinking, i.e., that simply because Twitter doesn’t make a claim in your “intellectual property,” that there actually exists some intellectual property to own. Twitter did, after all, use those words – intellectual property/copyright. [Note: Granted, there are photos used and possibly other materials that may have copyright protection, but what I’m talking about here in this article is strictly limited to the <140 character Tweets you generate on a daily, hourly or minute-ly basis.] In any event, this may be the first part of confusion.

Twitter (and Facebook, Myspace, etc.,) are not capable of modifying copyright law to create a property right that does not otherwise exist. If the material you post through Twitter isn’t copyrightable to begin with, it will not mystically transform into protectable property merely by being Tweeted. Copyright law is codified in the United States Copyright Act, as implemented/construed/constructed by the Courts. If you’re not a judge or a lawmaker, you can’t create law. You might be able to try and create law by virtue of a contractual relationship, but it won’t change copyright law. My point here is that Twitter can’t tell you whether or not you create or own a copyright – it doesn’t have the legal ability to do so. So if you own any copyrights, it’s not because of Twitter not owning them, it’s because the law provides for ownership of them which initially vests with you, the author.

Fair Use Doesn’t Come Into Play If the

Material Isn’t Copyrightable and Copyrighted

When skipping along through the mountains of materials you find online, you’re certain to find heady discussions of Fair Use. If the word “copyright” comes up and anyone starts talking about what you can or can’t do, you’ll find someone in the crowd who will blow the Fair Use horn. In many instances, it makes sense. Fair Use is a major player in copyright- both on- and offline. But it’s a red herring if you are not dealing with material that is: 1) copyrightable; and 2) copyrighted. As to the former, we’ll get to that. As to the latter, some things are copyrightable (say, for instance, a song), but no longer protected by copyright (i.e., in the public domain). Fair Use doesn’t impact something in the public domain, because it’s no longer protected by copyright and may be used regardless of Fair Use. Being copyrightable, however, is the bigger question. I noticed lengthy analysis of the Fair Use doctrine on Mark Cuban’s blog, but again, if we’re not dealing with copyrightable materials, the analysis doesn’t matter.

A Quick Read of Sections 101 and 102

of the Copyright Act Is Not Enough

What I often find is that people online seek to educate themselves. They read; they investigate. This is true with copyright issues as well, and it’s well documented that many people are not only familiar with the US Copyright Act, but have read parts of it. The truth, however, is that reading the applicable sections isn’t enough. If you can imagine, judges don’t always agree on what the statutes mean, so when a layperson- someone without extensive legal background in the area of copyright law – tries to interpret a part of the Copyright Act, there’s a high probability that it will be interpreted incorrectly. Even if a person is correct in an assumption, it doesn’t mean everyone else has interpreted the law in the same way. In addition, the Copyright Act doesn’t explain anything; it just states the law, which makes it very difficult to understand the underlying motivation in a particular section.

To understand copyright law, you need to know that the Copyright Act is only the beginning. Courts interpret the Act; they apply it to real-life situations. This means that in order to understand why Tweets may not be protected by copyright, you need to know cases as well. We also have areas of copyright law that haven’t been fully explored in the courts, like the Religious Exemption in Section 110, or even the Fair Use Doctrine, which has a mountain of case law and a higher mountain of misunderstanding of its application. What’s my point? Just that here’s much more to understanding a copyright issue that what you’ll be able to discern online. Case in point: I couldn’t tell you if Perl is the best tool for a particular scenario, but I did read the Wikipedia article on it, and discovered that it’s apparently the Swiss Army chainsaw of programming languages. Quiz me on a few more things about Perl and I might be able to answer correctly. Do I really know anything about it? No, but I do have access to Cliff Notes versions of real information. That’s a dangerous way to become an expert on anything.

Does the US Constitution Say Anything About this Topic?

Article 1, Clause 8, Section 8, of the United States Constitution states that: “The Congress shall have Power [. . .] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” You might not believe it, but this tells us a lot about why Tweets may not be protectable by copyright law. It’s about reasoning- why do we have copyright law to begin with?

That question is answered simply that there was a belief that if creators were not able to own and exploit (for a limited time) materials they created, they would not be able to continue to create them (because they would be forced to find other means of financial survival), and that the progress of arts and sciences would be stifled because no one would have incentive to create. This Copyright Clause of the US Constitute made it clear that creators needed incentive to create.

Arguably (and I’m not sure I entirely agree with this argument I’m making), Tweets do not even comport with the Copyright Clause of the US Constitution because they are often social/ego driven and would be created even if there was absolutely no benefit to the arts and sciences (and the financial potential arising therefrom). In other words, it is not copyright protection that provides incentive to Tweeters to Tweet; it is something else. For that reason, one might reasonably argue that Tweets do not fit the underlying logic of the Copyright Clause which gave rise to the Copyright Act. Tweets would occur naturally regardless. This is a slippery slope, though, and Tweets may very well fit the purpose of the Copyright Clause. For that reason, I think it’s worthwhile to point out that many Tweets have no logical tie to copyright protection, but that we can’t rely solely on the US Constitution for guidance.

All Tweets Are Not Created Equal

Tweets range from boring and useless facts (e.g., “wow, it’s cold in Toledo,” “my plane is late again,” “I’m going to poison the neighbor’s dog”) to purportedly-funny, yet useless facts (e.g., “I woke up and farted,” “she must workout,”), to interesting facts (e.g., “Americans consume 1.7 billion pounds of lard every year,” “the average burp contains 1.6 liters of gas”), to references to other facts (e.g., “check out this article in New York Post: tinyurld.com/183*&%,” “Michael Jackson auction canceled: whocares.com”), and everything in between. For this reason, to truly analyze the question of whether Tweets are copyrightable, you must differentiate between types of tweets. There may be a lurking Tweet that is protected by copyright law, but once you finish reading, I think you’ll see the probability of that scenario as being close to or at zero.

Facts Are Not Copyrightable

I’m not going to waste my time citing references to cases. You haven’t retained me as a lawyer and I haven’t agreed to represent you. More importantly, I haven’t received your retainer check. For that reason, you’re either going to have to assume it’s true, or you’re going to have to research it yourself. I’m just going to say what’s what.

“It’s sunny and warm, with a high temperature of 80 today.” That’s a fact. You think I can get dibs on keeping you from writing the same thing? No. Copyright law doesn’t extend to facts, no matter how they are described. [Note: for you ‘scholars’- I’m not saying there isn’t a way to protect a collection of facts and/or the particular expressive elements of the recitation of facts, I’m speaking directly to the facts themselves.] Now take my example and read the last 100 Tweets you can: how many are nothing more than a simple recitation of fact? Sure, there might be a funny word or two thrown in for good measure, but when you do the math- what, 90%? Be honest.

“Barstow’s Desert Dispatch Blasts City Manager for Living Outside of Barstow: tinyurl.com/1B30*%.” Did you grab the title from the newspaper? Well lucky you- that issue is in the courts right now. Newspapers will lose that battle, since titles are not protectable. But what if you made yours up? Well, yours is a title too. You have the same problem as the media giants, except you’re probably not as financially endowed, so you won’t be swaying any judges to make your point.

“She’s got legs and she just got done using them…not bad for a granny.” (Let’s assume this is a fact- a scary one at that.) Well, a fact is a fact. It might be funny or not, but it is, nevertheless a fact. Now this plays into how you might express a particular fact (we’ll get to that in a second), but be clear: facts are not protected.

The long and short of it is this: if 90% of all Tweets are nothing more than recitation of facts. That means that about 90% of Tweets are not protectable. For the other 10%, we’re not done with you yet. It’s all in how those facts are stated.

Idea versus Expression

“It’s sunny and warm, with a high temperature of 80 today.” A safe and conservative reporting of today’s weather. “It’s hot like a mother and the sun is beating me like a stepchild.” Same idea, different expression. Copyright law won’t keep someone from writing about the same fact. In my examples, both talk about the weather in my locale. But they each take a different approach to the same idea (fact). This is a pivotal connection you must make- you can only potentially protect your particular expression of a fact; you can’t keep other people from writing about the same facts.

But at some point – and this is a snag for nearly every posting junkie – the idea and the expression merge. “That’s a big door,” “that’s a large door,” “that’s a gigantic door,” “that door is massive,” “the door is huge” – these are all examples of facts that have merged with the expression of them. There are only so many ways you can describe a particular scenario, and copyright law isn’t going to let you get a monopoly on one way if there aren’t too many other ways to say the same thing. This does away with another 5-7% of the roughly 10% of potentially protectable Tweets.

Think about the Civil War. You can probably find 1,000 or more books on the subject. They all talk about the war, or we assume they do. Why do those books get copyright protection? Assuming they do, it’s because the expression can be individualized to such an extent that the expression rises above the facts. But could you have 1,000 books on me walking from my garage to my car door? Probably not. Not because it’s not possible, but because no one has done (or will take the time to do) it in a way that would be protectable. People would be saying basically the same thing. For most authors (Tweeters included), we write things in a way that is common, or in a way that 100 other people might respond to the same scenario, with little variation.

That leads us to the next reason why most Tweets would never be protectable: Scenes a Faire. These are scenes that necessarily result from a given situation. We all think we’re witty geniuses when we Tweet, but chances are if there were 100 Tweeters standing next to us at the time we experienced whatever it was we experienced, they would Tweet the same thing we did (or close enough to it). This includes common colloquialisms and expressions. Maybe we’re not as witty as we think when everyone else would use the same or substantially same expression. Some things just come up because of circumstances, and not because of creativity.

Copyright Protection Requires Originality

and Originality Requires Creativity

The most common example I’ve seen on Twitter of individuality of Tweets is the infusion of wit. It should be crystal clear by this point that the mere recitation of a fact is never protectable. The more difficult question is how to deal with wit. At the outset, understand that copyright law will not protect an unoriginal Tweet. We’ve already touched on that, but I know you’re all thinking, “yeah, but I’m funny as hell and so are my Tweets.” Maybe, maybe not, but copyright protection doesn’t have anything to do with humor. Originality is not dependent on it. But the real question requires legal interpretation. Originality in the copyright context is not necessarily what most people would think. Instead, it’s a certain qualitative and quantity analysis that requires a technical understanding of the legal distinction. In most cases, Tweets are not original. The humor added to a fact doesn’t make it original; it only makes it a potentially interesting read.

Size Matters

Over the years, I’ve heard so many conversations about size and length (in the copyright context). “You can use 10% of a book or song without permission, but no more,” “thirty second samples don’t require a license”). These supposed guidelines may generally be false. It’s interesting, because even large trade groups and professional organizations promote the thinking. In reality, most instances of copyright use and copyright protection involve an analysis of length. Since we’re talking about Tweets, we’re going to talk about the length of the Tweet and whether it is protectable in that context.

Titles are not protected by copyright protection. Neither are slogans and short phrases. Why? Because they tend to identify something (as in the case of titles), which renders them factual, even if witty. Also, because the length contributes to an overall belief that they lack legal originality under copyright law, short sentences, phrases, etc., often do not rise to the level of protectability. This is not to say that copyright law will never protect a short statement; rather, it is an issue of likelihood.

The Monopoly of Language

Think about it. If you could prevent someone from saying “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear ____, Happy Birthday to you,” you would be pretty stoked, wouldn’t you? But what do you think the rest of civilization would think – utter contempt (ever wonder why the employees at restaurants won’t sing the standard Happy Birthday song to you?). To be sure, many courts have arrived at disastrous conclusions, whether as a result of political or financial pressure, or due to inadequacy of legal persuasiveness. But a key to copyright protection is the granting of a monopoly. That’s why the law is going to take very seriously any request to protect an arrangement of words. When copyright law protects the written word, it grants a limited monopoly over the arrangement of words, allowing the owner to prohibit others from writing the same thing in the same way.

Now imagine if a court had to evaluate Tweets and consider whether to grant a monopoly to the author of a Tweet. Don’t you find it hard to believe that a court would grant someone a monopoly over your average Tweet? No, seriously, think about it. “Is this really the happiest place on earth? Why are so many people crying?” That was a real-life Tweet from me while at Disneyland. Do I want the courts to keep other people from writing the same thing? Of course not! Should I be able to sue someone from Tweeting the exact same thing? Of course not! You give a monopoly over language to true original authorship, not to a couple of sentences about Disneyland, your dog, coffee or the woman in the elevator with you.

The Problem of Registration

Know what it takes to stop someone from repeating your Tweet? A good lawyer and copyright registration. Some might say it just takes money, but money just hires lawyers; it doesn’t do anything on its own. But let’s just say you believe you own your Tweet and you want to stop someone from repeating it. How would you do it? What could you possibly do?

As the Mark Cuban blog commentators pointed out, copyright subsists in copyrightable subject matter from the moment it’s fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Yes, that’s true, but what can you do with that? Can you sue someone? No, but if you try, the judge will quickly inform you that a copyright infringement lawsuit requires copyright registration. So back up a few steps and consider that even though you may believe you own a Tweet, you can’t do anything practical about it unless you seek copyright registration. Without being condescending- Good luck with that.

Is there a protectable Tweet?

I admit, I think a protectable Tweet exists in theory. I have read hundreds if not thousands of Tweets and have yet to read one I believe would be protectable, but the possibility exists. The question is not: Are Tweets Copyrightable. The question is: Is This Tweet Copyrightable. The copyrightability of Tweets is not dependent on the fact that they are Tweets. Rather, it’s dependent on the analysis of the Tweet in question. The all-encompassing response that all Tweets are either protected or not protected is misguided. The real response is that it depends. However, when you analyze most Tweets, they would never individually pass copyright muster.

I read an interesting post in the thread I’ve discussed throughout this article, and the post mentioned a Haiku. To me, that’s smart thinking. Finding a possible protectable Tweet among the hordes of non-possibility. Maybe a Haiku is your ticket to Tweet monopolization. Otherwise, you probably won’t be able to protect anything.

The Parting Shot

Copyright and Tweets is really about practicality. Many people believe they own everything they post online, be it Tweets, Facebook status, or whatever. The truth is that most people are most likely incorrect in their assumption. I guess the bigger question is what would you do even if you did own a Tweet?

Written by Brock Shinen, Esq.

Brock Shinen is a business, intellectual property and entertainment attorney. He works extensively in the field of copyrights, and is a published writer and speaker on the subject matter. If you have questions about this article, or want permission to reprint it, please contact him at the address listed below.

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THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE. IT IS INFORMATION ONLY.

[agallimaufryofoddments]

I was wondering what your thoughts are on Luck? I enjoy your analysis greatly so just a general idea on what you think about him would be amazing! But to ask a specific question how do you feel about Luck/Eve (obviously when she's grown up.) Do you think there is any merit to this ship?

That he steals all of Keith’s spotlight. And Berga’s, for that matter.

Hah. Nah, don’t worry–I don’t actually resent him for being the face of the Gandors. Of course he’s their go-to spokesperson: a handsome young gentleman who’s courteous and suave? Of course he’s their voice. Without him, it would be a choice between a brash, intimidating hulk and a reticent man with a gangster’s face & dangerous air…Yet Luck isn’t as suave or ‘put-together’ as he seems, and I think that counts for a lot in terms of him being interesting as a character.

(Ahem. Thank you for the ask, anon! It’s both unexpected and flattering. I may celebrate Keith a whole lot, but I naturally like Luck too! I tend to talk about Keith more because I love him and the fandom appreciates Luck the most out of the Gandors as it is… but I appreciate Luck, too! I’ve written more fics with him than I have Keith, huh…)

I’d also like to apologize again for how…not prompt this response was. The explanation is a combo of “real life” / “I went novel-checking while writing it, which takes time” / “vIDeO gAMEs” / and “a low-key crisis of doubt about discussing fictional characters as sparked by my friend, who dislikes/thinks poorly of the trend wherein ‘people talk about characters as if they are people” haha…ha…

…which made me quite nervous about my response to this question, augh. I hope there’s something, anything worthwhile in it. It’s somewhat of a long, rambling stream-of-thought response, so it’s not polished I’m afraid. 

TL;DR: Manners maketh the man, but flaws make for an interesting man and Luck is especially beholden to this. He’s an overthinker; his politeness is not necessarily genuinely felt; and his outward sangfroid is often repressing passionate emotions or otherwise concealing personal turmoils which are notably introspective in nature. And, notably, murderous intent. He’s carrying out a role/duty he’s not suited for but one he inherited and chose to inherit.

An old soul who’d have probably been better off as a writer or poet… Even then - even with his evident insight/perceptiveness (the ‘wise sophisticate’ to Firo’s street urchin) - he’s not flawless, playing greenhorn to Keith’s intuition/experience c.f. 1935-B. And he’s aware of that, to some extent. There’s a lot to him (as a person, not mafioso) that’s worth respecting. He’s quite aware of his immortality, for that matter, and worries for its consequences. (Especially apathy, which…!!) 

There’s a lot to him (as a person, not mafioso) that makes him simply likable. He’s filling his father’s shoes and - in spite of their ill-fit - wearing them rather well, all things considered. In spite of what he thinks, he’s a rather excellent fellow. (…For the mafia, one should perhaps say.)

Full content under the cut.

Edit: I reblogged this with a few additional thoughts in the reblog. Reblog here if you need the link.

Luck in the anime (first impressions)

I was first introduced to Luck in the anime (as most of us were), where he certainly was a “handsome young gentleman, suave and courteous” and not much else. Cool? Absolutely. So svelte, even after being gunned down. Good to his friends/family? Seemed like it. Capable of smiling? Check!

I liked these things about him…and I latched on to his brief Episode 1 scene with Poe’s poem + his relationship with death because it was the only scrap of depth he got in the entire anime. It’s probably the most (emotionally) vulnerable he is, since usually he’s calm and collected. Hell, he’s more obviously angry when he says, “Who thought they could ventilate me?” versus when he shoots Dallas - more on this later.

“Debonair” might not be a bad word to describe Anime!Luck, and here’s the thing: debonair attitudes sure are great, but I don’t know if that’s the most apt adjective for LN!Luck personality-wise. Luck in the light novels has a certain style and charm to him (often but not always) - but he’s not as confident as ‘debonair’ would imply…

Anime!Luck has practically no flaws, at least ones that are meaningful to the story. He’s the debonair pretty-boy type fans swoon over. LN!Luck is flawed, and he’s more dynamic and interesting because of those flaws. (Well, it helps that we get to spend time in his head). I often say the anime renders Firo less interesting than he in the novels, but…I think the anime shafts Luck and Eve’s characters more severely. And speaking of LN!Luck…

Not Suited to be a Mafioso: the Overthinker (+ the Pressure of Expectations)

Both the narrative and various characters opine that Luck is not really suited to be Mafia, and if this were a matter of “tell vs show” then anime-only viewers would probably have a hard time believing this, right? Suave, seemingly always in control… But we’re shown his thought and actions that support the claim - and frankly, Firo, Claire, and the others are right. He’s not. Bless him, though, he tries, and frankly he’s not half-bad at making do.

I have Luck firmly pinned as someone who overthinks. Just, all the time. Overthinking isn’t necessarily a bad trait; it’s not necessarily even bad for a mafioso, since rash decisions can easily have bad consequences. But it’s certainly not ideal for a mafioso leader, as overthinking can lead to indecisiveness/prolong decisions–when being a leader is all about making decisions. It doesn’t help one’s image, either. Thoughtfulness is a good thing, but lacking confidence and decisive action is not.

(Never forget how the Gandors waffled over how to punish Edith. They didn’t even come up with the haircut punishment, that was Claire-via-Tick. Luckily for them that was a private situation; displaying such indecisiveness/uncertainty in front of one’s subordinates invites doubt in one’s leadership.)

I believe that overthinking tendency is probably innate…but at the same time, I suspect it was likely exacerbated during his childhood and especially his adolescence. Luck was already an executive as a ‘teenager’ by September 1925. As both the youngest executive and brother to the Gandor don, he must have–he certainly had–felt immense pressure to live up to expectations.

I expect that quite a bit of this pressure came from within. Considering how Randy and Pezzo indulgently tease him in 1925 (and how people called him ‘Young Master’ and ‘The Little Gandor Fiend’ for ages)… it feels like other mafiosi didn’t take him that seriously as an executive and likely expected him to make mistakes.

Naturally Luck wanted to prove them wrong, to prove his worth. Moreover, he wanted to prove himself to his older brothers and make them proud/not disappoint them. (Just because people would understand him making mistakes doesn’t mean the Gandors can afford many of them. Keith might forgive him, but the underworld would still take advantage of his weakness). 

(Well, there’s a family pride in the business and a perceived mission/duty to protect the territory; feelings that Luck has and shares with his brothers).

I also think maybe there’s a hint of anxiety to that? Not, say, clinical anxiety, but…such pressure coupled with knowing that failure has severe consequences is surely not anxiety-free. Especially for someone who cares as much for his men as Luck does: mistakes often result in death in the underworld, and being directly responsible for his men’s deaths would weigh heavily on him.

A Digression on Luck and Firo

Speaking of Luck’s relationship with his brothers - what’s funny is that Firo envies Luck as a ‘model Mafia boss’ and feels a little insecure compared to him–but Luck is the same with his brothers. In 1935-B, he envies Keith and Berga for their natural ‘gangster’/‘fighter’ appearances–that just by looking at them one can tell they’re likely mafia/criminals.

I appreciate that about him as a character, by the way. I especially appreciate that Firo admires him despite knowing he is not suited to be mafia. That Firo admires him is–important. Calling Luck a ‘foil’ to Firo’s character doesn’t sound right, nor does ‘rival’, mm…but it does sort of feel like Narita positions him as a counter to Firo, ish? 

 Luck’s probably the character the closest to “Firo’s level” out of the Little Italy crew, circa 1930. They’re around the same age, give or take a couple years, and the respective ‘youths’ of their organizations. Narita could have played up the standard animanga tropes more: made them equally immature best friends; or maybe gone all the way with the ‘childhood rival’ aspect, having them compete for being the best that ever was. He could have made Luck a ‘natural’ mafioso, to give Firo that ‘underdog shonen protagonist’ edge–that whole, “my friend/rival is naturally gifted while I, the Underdog, have to struggle and work).

But while there is a small sense of ‘rivalry’ to their relationship–wherein Firo admires Luck and feels he is a step or tour behind him–their good-natured positive feelings for each other are the backbone of their friendship, not the rivalry aspect, and I’m very glad for that. Firo may be envious, but rather than thinking of it as a competition he has to win, he focuses on improving himself instead. 

(God, now I’m really glad Narita didn’t make Luck the ‘natural prodigy gangster’. Though, was there really a chance of that? A good many– if not the majority– of Baccano!’s cast are self-made people, with Claire the obvious exemplar; even he, as untouchable and awe-some as he is, worked hard to achieve his skills and strength. It’s such a core part of who he is that I can’t help but think it’s a trait Narita inherently admires in characters (and finds more interesting than ‘natural talent’).  

Actually, I wonder if what Firo really admires is not quite that Luck “is a perfect mobster” - but that Luck manages to pull it off, as he knows Luck isn’t suited for the life. Luck isn’t the only performative one of the two; yes, I know that one can bring up performativity with everything but… there’s how Firo idolizes the macho/manly Italian gangsters of cinema and wants to be like them. He has specific ideas as to what a ‘quintessential mobster’ is, and I expect wants to emulate them.

So, seeing his childhood friend growing into this ‘role of a lifetime’ - an actor, just like those of the pictures… there’s a contrast, there. One Firo sees himself, and one I think we naturally see in the prose (beyond when it’s pointed out). That’s the other thing: by having Luck as the character who’s “already made it,” having him there as the composed perfect mafioso, we get to watch Firo mature by his side, comparing him to the ‘standard’ Narita has set.

I’m beating a dead horse now, but I do want to at least say that my thoughts on Luck and Firo’s relationship have been in part fueled by the 1935-A scene wherein they’re talking at Firo’s casino. Luck’s very much the “perfect mafioso” there, mature and sharp and asking all the right questions…

…but Firo’s no slouch in that scene either, competent in his casino management and altogether independent (?). It’s one of the scenes where I find myself aware of how he’s grown since 1930, a little more mature/’adult’ – and I think now that may because Luck’s there serving as the ‘control’. He’s the standard. He’s been at Firo’s side the longest - and as we the audience have watched these characters throughout the years, he’s the constant. 

(Oh, re: that aside about ‘working hard’ and ‘natural Mafioso’: the Gandors and Claire are family, but how often do we examine why Claire likes them beyond ‘family’ reasons? It occurs to me that one of the reasons he likes them so much is probably because he knows firsthand how hard they work, and hard work is something he truly respects.)

Performative Courtesy, Sangfroid versus Temper/Violence, ‘Kindness’

A lot of people would like to be like Luck, I imagine; good looks, suave sangfroid, gentleman’s manners and all. It’s certainly earned him a lot of fans. But no, Luck wishes he were more like the brothers he admires and wants to live up to. It’s no surprise Luck would habitually overthink things in such an environment. I…wouldn’t be surprised if his performative courtesy has its roots in his adolescence as well. 1925!Luck is endeavoring to be ever so mature, and the adult authority he assumes when confronting the clockmaker is reminiscent of his adult self–the poise, the resolute, firm delivery, all of it.

I’ve called him an ‘old soul’ at heart, but…when you think about it, he had to act older than he is for much of his youth. I’d like to think that his courtesy is in some part sincerely meant, but passages like these:

“For this country, Luck was a strange man: He always wore a faint smile, and he spoke politely to anyone who was older than he was, even if they were his subordinate. However, Jorgi knew: The only part of his face that was really smiling was his lips, and there was always a hard-boiled light in his eyes.” (The Rolling Bootlegs, 70).

–serve as a…straightforward reminder it’s often performative. Goodness knows his ‘sangfroid’ is – there’s straight up a line in 1935-B that goes, “Luck put back the mask of calm he showed everybody except for his two brothers” and…that speaks for itself, really. We all remember how he acts in 1930 with regards to Mike and the others’ deaths. He has this whole mini-speech where he recognizes + openly acknowledges how intense his anger and desire for revenge are (speaking of which his instinctive emotional reaction is downright murderous?) - and requests his brothers stop him if he snaps.

And later, once he confronts Dallas… First of all, Dallas turns around to face him in the novels–so when he shoots Dallas, it’s right between his eyes. Not so in the anime, where Dallas never turns around. Second, curiously enough, the final build-up to the shot is just dialogue in the novel. The single exclamation point is the main affectation of his anger that the dialogue offers - it’s afterward where we get Luck’s “oh sorry I wasn’t calm after all” apology.

But with a little imagination… Luck was face to face with Dallas, which means he was watching Dallas’ expression, as Dallas lied through his teeth (blaming Firo, at that). It’s not hard to imagine his fury boiling hotter and hotter the longer the lie went on. Still–the moment his fury boiled over, he shot. 

He went through with murder, just as he thought he might (albeit a different method). I’m…actually not sure if that was his first murder (though I’d note that Keith and Berga immediately shot dead the other two so that Luck “wouldn’t shoulder the burden alone” hmmm), but the fact remains he committed it. 

In painting Luck as the suave gentlemen, it’s easy to forget how passionate his emotions can be - and tempting to ignore that the intense emotions he feels include murderous ones. Violent ones. 

(And if we compare him again to Firo, that’s…intriguing. I said in a response to a past askmeme that I often associate Firo with violence, and I said that his violence “manifests itself in short, highly brutal spurts” (something to that effect) …but Luck appears to stew in specific, murderous thoughts.

(Not that Firo isn’t capable of nursing long-term hatred- fear + anger basically fuels his hunt for Dallas in 1933, and he’s just full of antagonistic feelings about Melvi throughout 1935…but I don’t know if those feelings are as…articulated/inherently murderous as Luck’s? What they do share is feeling such hostile intent towards those who have done their family/friends wrong – I don’t think Firo holds grudges against those who have done him personal wrong with the same intensity.)

Sorry, rambling. I just…it’s important that we talk about and highlight how Luck has murderous thoughts, not just because he’s often romanticized as the handsome, suave gentleman but because he is often referred to as kind. Kind by the underworld’s standards, that is, but…still. 

It’s easy to think of him as “one of the good ones,” to cite how his syndicate protests its residents and doesn’t deal in drugs, to cite the Edith ‘punishment’ and all the chances he and his brothers gave Jorgi, to celebrate his showdown with Gustavo… and it’s easy to take solace in the fact that the murders were ‘justified’ to some degree, i.e. with Jorgi’s embezzlement + murder attempt on (Keith), i.e. with Dallas’ own murder spree. 

But that murderous intent… I can’t shake it. Maybe another reason for it is that Luck is canonically not suited to be a mafioso…yet he has felt murderous urges and acted upon them. (Though, not having full control of one’s murderous rage is also probably not good for a gangster). One might well associate that with mafiosi. He is capable of committing murder–and in that regard he’s more ‘suited’ to his profession than, say, Luchino is to his. 

Another reason I’m fixating on this is that Luck is someone who values (the intensity of) his emotions. Should’ve mentioned this earlier, since I think that in itself is important/noteworthy. To quote this thought of his on Eve:

Maybe I was jealous. Jealous of the fierce, violent emotions that filled that child. That’s something I’ll probably never have again. …Because I doubt I’ll ever be able to “prepare to die” again. Never, not for all eternity. - 1932 Drug & The Dominos, p. 215

Bolding mine. Becoming more apathetic = lacking the same passion/intensity behind his emotions that he had in spades, and he doesn’t like that at all. And… I have to wonder: in lamenting the tempering of his emotions (in missing that intensity), does he also miss those murderous, violent feelings a la 1930? 

It sounds like he does. He still feels hatred for Dallas’ group and won’t forgive them, and he still feels pain over Mike and the other’s deaths. He still feels hatred, after all. But those “fierce, violent emotions” that he’s jealous of here–well, Eve had channeled those emotions into calm murderous intent. She shot at Gustavo with the intent to kill. 

(Now that I think about it, doesn’t that sort of mirror Luck’s situation in 1930? Luck’s fury reached a boiling point and boiled over hot, while Eve’s tumultuous feelings snap-crystallized into another plane of hatred – but basically both of them experienced a ‘point of no return’ leading to an inexorable gunshot.)

Do you think she reminded him of 1930!him right before he shot Dallas. Granted, one can start yearning to feel/have anything one is deprived of - “I don’t care what it is, I just want to feel strongly again” - and I do think that’s part of it. It may also be a part of his concerns over being a good mafioso….speaking of, I just remembered this passage:

Lately, he got the feeling he’d become really apathetic. Even he could tell: Compared with before–more than a year ago–his sensibilities had grown ridiculously lax. There was absolutely no doubt that his former self would have sent that junkie to the afterlife. - D&TD

Bolding mine. Absolutely no doubt that he would commit murder. I guess it’s a good thing he’s so self-aware, but it does hit home that murder is not inherently a last-resort option for him. The Gandors do have a reputation for violence (and executions), so it could be related to that. The syndicate has needed to foster a violent reputation in order to survive amidst all the larger syndicates, so…murder’s a good way to show you mean business.

(Also this part warrants another Firo-Luck thing: doesn’t this remind you of Firo in 1934? How he would have [reacted xyz way] to Edward if this was a few years ago, but he’s mellowed out since… Huh. So, Firo and Luck both mellowed out but for different reasons. Luck out of immortality-induced-apathy, and Firo thanks to the people around him.)

Misc Thoughts, Also Did I Mention I Was Sorry for How Much of a Rambling Mess This Is? Because I Am. If your eyes have glazed over I do not blame you.

Over on the Naritaverse server, a fan going by ‘Mint’ remarked to me that they would like to see a Luck and Nile “have a conversation about mortality and what it means to them now as immortals” and I WANT because what a good idea. 

I don’t think I’d ever fully appreciated that Luck is probably one of the immortals who would best ‘get’ Nile’s concerns, but he is, isn’t he. Nile held value in mortality and was afraid of becoming inured to it–and was horrified when he did. He was horrified to see his expression emotionless, when it ‘should’ have been affected with grief/sorrow/rage. Mortality has lost its impact; he feels nothing where he ought.

It’s not as if Nile has lost…all his emotions; he still has a short temper/capacity for fury, and he (ironically for Luck) genuinely enjoys the thrill of a fight. But… he and Luck feel like they’ve both lost something (some part of their humanity?) emotions-wise with immortality, they’re both self-aware in a similar way…and I’m so with Mint here, I’d love to see them interact.

(Though, come to think of it, Luck says he’s jealous of Eve’s intense/violent emotions…but “his emotions are on the verge of exploding” when talking to her?)

There’s one other immortal I thought of while writing this–like, an immortal I never expected to think of in relation to Luck, but here we are: Huey Laforet. No, I still can’t quite believe my brain either. Why Huey? 

When I thought about it…both Luck and Huey are people who are capable of intense emotion, people who affect outward calm/cool exteriors, and who don’t seem to be capable of fully containing them. (…I also re-stumbled upon the line wherein “mask” is used to describe Luck’s composed persona and went oooh. So there’s that).

Maybe Huey might have gotten better at it with time, but…Monica died at a point in his life where he was opening up as a person for the first time, getting better at not handling his emotions with a ten-foot pole but not practiced at controlling/reigning in intense ones. (So he pretty much shuts down as a person in order to ensure he feels (99%) nothing, because his grief/rage over Monica’s death would’ve probably consumed him if he hadn’t (and, once he… ‘recovered’ (HA) he presumably didn’t want emotions interfering with his goal). 

And then there is Luck, who spent his childhood/adolescence striving for maturity/acting responsible and cultivated sangfroid as a result; he had years of practice, and yet he still cannot fully contain his ire. Funny; if you only knew him and Huey by their anime iterations, you’d never know just how intensely either of them have felt.

It never once occurred to me to think of Luck and Huey in relation to each other, and now that I see this similarity I don’t know what to do with it. Heck, maybe I’m just seeing things, period. I had to tell somebody. 

Oh, Luck. You who have killed, you with murderous feelings and intense feelings and you who are not kind (your words, not mine; perhaps we can compromise on ‘selectively kind’?). I do like you. I won’t romanticize you, but I like what Narita’s done with you, is all I’m saying. 

One misc thing I forgot to say is that I really appreciate the moments of brevity with him; he’s not a perfect mafioso but characters like him are good at being straight mans, so scenes where - for instance, he’s thoroughly exasperated and frazzled with Maria, are Great Fun. They’re more instances of him being human, and not as in control as he presents himself as, and I do so enjoy them.

LuckEve Response

Your question:  “But to ask a specific question how do you feel about Luck/Eve (obviously when she’s grown up.) Do you think there is any merit to this ship?”

I’m not a shipper myself, for the record. Half “I don’t really care for/about romance” and half “I’m someone who is generally very canon-compliant,” so… these are simply my thoughts from a canon perspective and from my understanding of fandom thoughts. 

My understanding is that most LuckEve shippers got into the ship with the anime, which…explains everything. Luck, as I’ve said, is the suave and handsome young gentleman bachelor in the anime. Well-spoken, sharp in all the right places, the obvious fan-favorite of the Gandor three. Eve isn’t given a specific age in the anime (nor is Luck, for that matter), and the age gap between her and Luck isn’t obvious; more to the point, she’s pretty and fits the “single young heiress” all on her lonesome trope that lends itself well to romances.

(That is a trope, right? There’s the trope of “rich and eligible bachelor,” and plenty of romance novels are to do with matchmaking among the well-to-do, i.e. society expecting a young lady to be married off posthaste. I do think Eve’s situation evokes such notions. “She’s a young heiress with no one to look after her in the 1930s, so she’s a natural marriage candidate.”)

…I don’t believe that people ship them solely because of established storytelling archetypes (both good-looking, gentleman bachelor vs rich ingenué) or because they’d “look good” together…I think maybe anime-onlies started with that and lean more on it since they have less to go on in the anime, but I can guess at a couple other reasons why they and some light novel fans ship them.

The first reason is the Gustavo-Eve-Luck showdown, where Eve says she understands how Luck feels and why he won’t–can’t–forgive Dallas. Up until then, she hadn’t understood (and Luck knew it) - and moments of personal connection like that are (from what I’ve seen) major fuel for shippers, who latch onto such scenes as ‘evidence of a link’.  

(The showdown also involves Luck protecting Eve and refusing to let her become a murderer by taking her bullet, and I assume this also went a long way for shippers? A lot of popular ships and ship fics seem to involve “protectiveness” and “self-sacrifice” as ideal relationship goals, and I imagine Luck’s actions here just generally make him even more appealing as a fictional crush). 

(Hmm, maybe people also see something in the fact that Luck is emotionally honest with her to some extent? He even gets a little carried away, much to his consternation. Considering that he’s normally ‘composed’… maybe his openness didn’t escape shippers’ attention. Also, that he was ‘nice’ enough to give her the map.)

(Oh - hm, but I’m overlooking something else they share. It’s not just feelings of hatred for the Runoratas, mutual grieving over the deaths of their loved ones, that Eve cannot truly appreciate Luck’s feelings until she does – it’s that Narita paints them equally self-centered in 1932. As in, they both come to see themselves as self-centered, another point of commonality.)

The second…really just boils down to ‘potential’. Honestly? Luck and Eve only interact once in canon, and that’s in–you guessed it–the showdown. To be fair, it’s an emotionally charged scene: they meet each other for the first time; he privately acknowledges her resolve and determination and the risk she’s taking to seek him out; she sort-of-but-not-fully understands his feelings but hers take priority; Luck understands that, prioritizing his feelings as well…

…And then the showdown between Luck and Gustavo happens; the “I accept your pain” moment. After a few other scenes, we’re shown the aftermath: where  Eve attempts to thank him but he doesn’t let her.

And…that’s it? That’s the extent of their interaction. Eve thinks briefly of Luck in 1935, but it’s pretty much, “no, I can’t ask for his help with Ra’s Lance, as he probably wouldn’t want to cooperate and I’m not callous/shameless enough to ask him.” Maybe they’ll reunite at Ra’s Lance in 1935-E, but…as of now, their canon interaction is only one scene.

So…I think potential has to be the other side of the LuckEve ship. Luck and Eve have traits that in theory they could appreciate in each other (?) - Luck’s not just the chivalrous gentleman, he’s to some extent intellectual/cultured and unlike the stereotypes Eve might assume of gangsters; Eve is kind, brave, and tenacious; she’s sheltered but certainly not dumb. (We even see him acknowledge the risk she’s taking and her resolve + determination. Not that we have any idea what he’d want in a romantic partner; he’s a committed bachelor, it seems). 

So…there’s a sense that they could be a good match beyond looks/societal archetypes. There’s the realization that they have certain things in common, and that the hope that they could bond over these things to the point where they overshadow wrongs done. And how Luck saved her, can’t forget that.

…I think. I should say I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at LuckEve content so I’m not as well-versed in existing content for the ship… I’m not totally ignorant, though; I’ve skimmed a few fics both on AO3 and the old Baccano! Livejournal, and I think a few of my followers have shipped it or are still shipping it. This LuckEve fic focuses a lot on the things they have in common (grief, self-centered actions), so I can’t be entirely off-base. 

Speaking of fics, the Luck and Eve interactions in this excellent gen fic (which you likely already know, as ryfkah’s Baccano! fics are some of the most popular ones on AO3)…not to mention their respective characterizations, are very good – and it’s telling that a lot of the commentors assumed it was a LuckEve fic despite it being gen/the relationship not being tagged? It’s this fic that helped me better realize why some people believe they’d be a good match personality-wise, which is why I link it. 

(The livejournal is partly why I’ve the impression a good chunk of the shipping stemmed from the anime, since it seems to be one of the first/oldest non-canon ships in the fandom. I also saw a couple people there - as I have FFN, AO3, and Tumblr, gush about how ‘hot’ Luck is, which maayyy have contributed to my other impressions of the ship).

My personal thoughts on the ship

My first thought was, “I’m indifferent,” but…that’s not quite true. There’s a small portion of me that goes, “Well, Luck views Eve as a child - his word- in 1932, and…ehhhh….” (If he meets her at Ra’s Lance, how much do you wanna bet he or the narration comments on how she’s grown into a demure young woman?)

And then there’s another portion of me that has Doubts about the ship with respect to canon–as to how likely such a relationship would really be. 

In an alternate universe, perhaps they might have hit it off easily. An alternate universe where Luck was never a mafioso and never did what he did to Dallas, that is. I’m sorry, but I have trouble believing Eve would marry one of the men who murdered Dallas and condemned him to drown for the rest of his life. 

Yes, she now fully understands why Luck won’t forgive Dallas, and yes she recognizes that Dallas did wrong, but….Luck still condemned Dallas to a horrible fate, and I just - would she really overlook that? Even if she could, Dallas is afraid of the Gandors as of 1935 and I cannot see her marrying someone whom her brother fears. She loves Dallas despite everything, he’s just about all she has left in terms of immediate blood family, and making him and the Gandors brothers-in-law would be unfair to both families.

(Yes, Eve did say to Maria in 1933 that “any friend of Luck’s” would have a good reason for doing something, and Eve did think of asking Luck to cooperate in 1935. But the former is her being over-trusting as much as it may be respect, and the latter…is nowhere near approaching romantic soil.)

And then there’s the fact that Luck is a mafioso, and… Look, when Eve found out the truth about the Genoard business she cried for…what, an hour, right? Not only would she have to make peace with the Dallas business she’d have to make peace with Luck being a gangster, and I suppose of the two that would be the easier to swallow.

She’s met Kate, after all, a woman who knowingly married a gangster and is content with that life. And she understood Kate’s feelings. There’s also how Dallas is a lowlife, how Eve has met assassins, criminals, and other shady characters of society and found them all right, and that she is willingly going to Ra’s Lance - a hive of scum and villainry - to find Dallas. In other words, Eve is certainly not living a life separate from the underworld. (She never really was, but now that she’s aware of it she’s hardly gone out of her way to avoid it).

But again, cooperating/involving oneself with the mafia is in no way on the same level as marrying into the mafia, goodness gracious. Also, wait, does Luck believe in God? He’s certainly never been overtly religious. Eve’s a believer, for sure, so…I wonder. Her family may not have been very religious, but having a spouse who shares her faith might be important to her. 

(oh also, let’s not forget that Benjamin and Samantha would probably have heart attacks at the very thought of her marrying into the mafia. So what if they work for the Genoard drug kingpins – Eve was never involved in the business, and marrying into the Gandors would be risking her life. Benjamin, Samantha, Keith, Berga…literally no one in Luck and Eve’s immediate circle would think a relationship a good idea.)

And all that was just focusing on Eve’s side of things. Putting aside Luck’s hatred for Dallas…he’s a confirmed bachelor, and we’ve never really seen him yearning for a relationship. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he believes it would be unfair to marry someone and make them mafia – that is, if he’d be willing to marry someone and potentially put them at risk. He’s got his brothers’ relationships as examples; Kate’s life has been in danger at least twice, no doubt dark times for Keith, and that would very reasonably put Luck off from doing the same thing.

Keith/Kate, Berga/Kalia…oh dear, that’s right, I should probably address the elephant in the room: Immortality. There’s never been any indication that Kate and Kalia were at Firo’s promotion party, so it’s assumed they’re mortals. Mortals who will grow old while their husbands remain young, and someday die. Never mind everything else: would Luck be willing to enter a relationship with a mortal, and Eve an immortal?

…I can’t say; I’m not Narita. I can say that I can’t recall ever seeing a LuckEve fic interested in exploring the twilight years of their relationship; either the fics are them getting together, or them in the early years of their relationship…but I imagine the twilight years aren’t as fun for shippers to think about. It might not be a first priority of the ship, is all I’m saying. 

I should make it clear that I don’t think all LuckEve shippers disregard the glaring complications to such a relationship (Dallas, mafia) - the fic I linked above is certianly not the only one that acknowledges and/or deals with such things, and it’s only right to acknowledge it. Actually, I have a feeling the tension between them may in itself be a reason why they’re shipped, haha.

TL;DR: I understand why some people ship LuckEve, but it seems to me the ship is constructed more on shippers’ personal fantasies/own ideas of how and why such a relationship would work than it is rooted in canon, as the pair have only interacted in one scene out of 22 volumes. 

I don’t think a romantic relationship would ultimately work. Even if we set aside: the Immortality Problem; how he views her as a child in 1932; and the Dallas Problem… the fundamental differences between them outweigh their few commonalities, and are so fundamental that I assume they wouldn’t be good for a romantic couple. 

She’s religious, kind, a sheltered well-to-do, and wants to be a good and upstanding citizen. Luck is a murderer, a mafioso from the slums dedicated to the syndicate he grew up in and inherited. She accepted the truth of her family’s business but morally rejects it, whereas Luck has embraced his organization from adolescence. A courteous man is not necessarily a kind on, and not necessarily a good one–and Luck does not consider himself that. 

Eve may trust him, may consider cooperating with him, but to marry him would mean turning a blind eye to his profession, accepting it, or even approving it, none of which seems really possible to me. It would mean rejecting the opinions of her loved ones, those who are very important to her. Star-crossed lovers are a tried-and-true trope (Romeo and Juliet, Rose-the-lady and Jack-the-penniless), but Eve and Luck’s worlds are very different, and she doesn’t exactly spend enough time in his to suggest she’d like to stay in it. 

I do think there’s potential for a friendship, at least. The mutual understanding and seeds of respect, that they’re both strong in their own ways… Fans aren’t thinking of “Luck and Eve” for no reason, and honestly I’ve enjoyed the Luck and Eve interactions I’ve seen in gen fics. A friendship wouldn’t necessarily be easier to come by, though; quite a few romantic fics I think stem from them establishing a business relationship, which might be the ticket here since Eve seems to be reluctant to contact Luck otherwise.

Ra’s Lance is the other, more immediate chance of a reunion, so…that’ll be interesting. Eve didn’t actually expect the Gandors to attend (IIRC) given their Runorata hatred, so she might be surprised to see him.

I cannot believe this ended up as long as it did, anon, I’m so embarrassed. To whomever reached the end…you’re superstars. 

[crystalkleure]

Could you do a character review of Phi?

ф !!!

PHI….BRATTY BASTARD CHILD…

100/10

YOU CAN TELL I LOVE HIM BECAUSE I AM MAD AT HIM. ONLY THINGS YOU CARE ABOUT CAN HURT YOU LIKE HE HAS HURT ME. Phi has inflicted massive damage upon my emotional state. And Hearts’ emotional state too, actually, but I’ll get to that down below [fight stance]

1. Phi confused the hell out of me until yesterday, and 2. I am not surprised that he and Hearts fought so bitterly [..still hurt like a bitch to see just how bad it was, though. Saw the storm coming and STILL wasn’t prepared for the carnage it wrought ;-;] – I could see that, for some reason, the brothers were not working together to begin with. They were never even physically near eachother, never onscreen together.

On the cruise ship, Phi was observing the tournament participants, taking mental notes on all of them for some reason, and he was particularly interested in the strong ones, like Xhan and Aiga [eventually fixating solely on Aiga, though he did also temporarily pay a bit of close attention to Xhan when he saw the power of Fifth Impact]*. Hearts and Evel sent Kyle to the cruise tournament for the same reason, to gather data on the bladers, particularly the strong ones [like Xhan lmao], and relay the collected data back to Evel for analysis.

But Phi and Kyle were not helping eachother. They weren’t sharing the data they gathered with eachother, or comparing notes or anything. In fact, just the opposite – they seemed to be competing with eachother [like maybe Phi and Hearts wanted to find the same thing, but did not want to share it], though unwittingly in Kyle’s case. Kyle didn’t even seem to know who Phi was, which was odd – it seems like Hearts DEFINITELY would’ve warned his minion about his Potentially Extremely Dangerous brother before putting him on a boat with him – but nevertheless that was an indication that Kyle was not sent to assist Phi. And not only that, Phi was EXTREMELY hostile to anyone he caught observing him, while he was observing everyone else; though he previously had no particular interest in Laban, he destroyed Leopard and got Laban booted from the tournament after Laban made it apparent that he could see Something Was Up with Phi, as a preventative measure to keep him from snooping any further [and specifically what Laban saw was this lmao:]

And when Phi saw Kyle recording his battle data on his phone, Phi also destroyed that phone immediately. I’m figuring that maybe Phi assumed Hearts had planted a spy on the ship as well, though he initially didn’t actually know who it was until Kyle slipped up there**.

Phi was aggressively preemptively-possessive of whatever he was trying to find on that ship, didn’t want anyone else to get it first [especially his brother], and he eventually decided that Aiga Had What He Was Looking For, because it was something to do with resonance. Phi was always very attentive whenever he saw Aiga displaying strong, though unstable, resonance symptoms, like exuding a Scary Dark Aura or doing The Hair Thing, and when Achilles glowed at Aiga, Phoenix often started glowing at Phi in response to that, as well. Phi actively encouraged the bad resonance thing.

Though, he was evidently wrong by thinking that he could get the thing he wanted from Aiga [at least at that time], because now I think ep. 41 finally told me what that actually was:

Phoenix turned purple like this before too, back when Phi battled Aiga. Phi got particularly excited when that happened, as though it was building up to something – but then the buildup fizzled out and he never actually got whatever it was, and so he became frustrated and disappointed with Aiga. Phi said something along the lines of “Not enough, huh…” or “More, huh…” [it was “Mada, ka…”, as though “More is needed” I think? Never fully trust my translations] when Aiga lost to him in ep. 22, as though that was an unsatisfying outcome for him somehow and just winning alone was “not enough”. [He was similarly upset when he broke Achilles in ep. 37, like maybe he was frustrated that he ended up destroying it before he got what he wanted out of it.]

And now, in ep. 41, we see Phoenix turn purple like that again…after it appeared to be sucking the energy/power out of Hades. Phoenix is draining its opponents’ energy in some way – and in a way that is somehow inherently different from Free’s Fafnir’s simple spinpower-stealing technique, as Hearts’ reaction to this is to become progressively more physically exhausted himself, while Phi remains fine and even gets a bit more energetic. Whatever that purple energy is, Phoenix is taking it into itself, causing it to eventually turn that same shade of purple, but Phi’s aura also turns purple like that too, showing that Phi himself has also internalized that stolen energy.

So it’s stealing more than just spinpower here, it’s almost like it’s draining fucking life-force or something. Whatever power Phi is desiring to steal with Phoenix, it looks like it’s something that comes specifically from a bey/blader pair that has achieved strong resonance [maybe not even necessarily “good” resonance, as he thought he could get it from Aiga and Achilles, and he DID get it from Hearts and Hades, who were arguably just as imbalanced/unstable]. So it looks like that’s what was “building up” and getting Phi so excited: Stolen energy. He was just unable to reach full power with what he was able to take from Aiga, is my best guess; like maybe he couldn’t steal it all that time for some reason or something.

Also worth noting: In Hearts’ flashback to when Phi left the Dead Gran, Phi said something about how Hearts had become boring and was no longer fun to “play” with, and that’s why he was going. A few minutes earlier this ep, in the present time, Phi told Hearts to stay away from Aiga because “That’s my toy”. What that says to me, upon Phi returning to challenge Hearts again in the first place, is 1. that Phi reconsidered his opinion of Hearts and had decided he was still “worthwhile” after all, 2. that he’s referring to the bladers he intends to steal the energy from as his “toys” – though “tools” would actually be a more appropriate term tbh, and 3. that he’s still sure he can potentially get something out of Aiga.

And now, because this post is clearly not long enough and I outright refuse to split them up:

🖤 HEARTS TIME!!! 💜

∞/10

Oh my fucking god I have never loved a character so much so fast, and that’s just referring to when he was first introduced. Hearts is on par with Jin from s1 now, as far as favourite characters go for me ;w; #ProtectHearts2k19!!!

Picking up on the resonance thing that this whole group seems so interested in: Hearts’ possession situation is interesting to compare and contrast to Aiga’s.

It’s stated that Hearts has been constantly overshadowed by his brother, Phi always shone brighter, and Hearts’ entire persona is a reflection of that. The way he’s so performative, how he puts on airs to work up a crowd [“You wanna see a REAL champion??” is what he said to the spectators right before he beat Aiga the first time, as an example that springs to mind], the way he constantly taunts his opponents and talks down to them, and I believe he even refers to himself as “ore-same” at times [which basically translates to something along the lines of “The great me”] – those are all symptoms of an inferiority complex. “Please think I’m cool, please think I’m strong, please love me.” He is insecure. Hearts acts so loud and proud because he’s trying to convince himself he’s powerful and impressive, more than he’s trying to convince other people. [Though, psychologically, how that works is by the logic “If a large enough group of people believe a thing, therefore it must be correct, so it makes sense for me to believe it too”]

So, he pushes himself. Pushes himself to keep up his persona. Pushes himself to look impressive, pushes himself to stay strong at all costs. He even pushes himself to ignore pain if that’s what it takes.

Pain like resonance pains. Which, as Achilles has shown us with Aiga, are the way a bey tries to tell its blader that they are pushing it too hard. And we see where that goes.

And man, Aiga felt that so hard because the exact same thing literally just happened to him [at the hands of Phi, no less]. He put himself and his selfish desires above the wellbeing of his bey, using it like a tool instead of treating it as a partner, and the constant neglect and mistreatment resulted in it shattering.

And I call Aiga selfish, and immature, but I call Hearts desperate and damaged. Aiga just wanted to be strong and cool pretty much just for the sake of that in itself, as far as I can see [and thank god he’s realized that what he was doing was so harmful], but Hearts pins his entire self-worth on his ability to stay strong under any circumstances – he hurt Hades while trying to heal himself, in contrast to Aiga, who hurt Achilles due to essentially just not understanding the severity and danger of his situation. Hearts sees the danger and just bullheadedly stands strong as he lets it batter him, rather than just being oblivious to it. Hell, his whole schtick with the columns of literal fire erupting from the stadium to signal his arrival is just another way to show his fascination with being in danger – he withstands the heat.

Also, check how he reacts to those resonance pains again. It hurts but he recovers almost immediately. And sometimes, it seems like he even likes it. He’s getting some sort of pleasure out of that pain, and I’d imagine that’s because he gets a rush out of knowing he’s overcoming it. It hurts, but he doesn’t let it stop him, so having the strong willpower to bear all the pain, to push through it and keep going anyway, is yet another thing that makes him feel powerful.

Hearts also…doesn’t seem to make the right kind of friends. The people he surrounds himself with seem to be entirely self-centered, and unconcerned with his wellbeing, if Evel is any indication. Evel seemed to be the person Hearts cared about the most, but Evel didn’t give a shit about Hearts so much as he just saw Hearts’ situation as an interesting experiment, and an opportunity to gather data. And yet in spite of Evel evidently giving no real indication that he cared about Hearts himself at all, Hearts fuckin moved the guy into his house. Evel has entire rooms full of science and beyblade stuff in the Dead Gran, and free roam of the whole place as well. Also, Count Night. Hearts found Night incredibly amusing, and let him wander around in the Dead Gran in much the same way. Night apparently lives in the air ducts now and Hearts was just A-OK with that. And not only did Night not care about Hearts, he was explicitly a thief and intruder who only came to steal shit. Night literally showed up for the sole purpose of causing Hearts problems, and Hearts just thought he was fantastic and amusing.

And that could actually be yet another thing that just points right back to Hearts enjoying it when something causes him problems, because he’s getting a rush out of overcoming those problems. Hearts being amused with Night and basically saying “Ha-haah, you wanna steal my shit? lmao just try it bitch, let’s dance! I like your style >:)” rather than just. Removing The Obvious Threat From His Household. Makes me think that he must just be getting amusement out of thwarting him.

Mr. Demon also seems to be hired help, rather than a friend, but there’s still Kyle, though. We didn’t even see Kyle in ep. 41, no clue who he’s loyal to yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kyle’s just Evel’s buddy and is gonna stick around with him, but I hope to hell that he’s actually at least ONE guy that Hearts keeps around who actually…cares about Hearts…

And now, some Aside Notes that are Actually Important Too but I couldn’t find a way to shoehorn them into that big semi-linear plotline rundown without making this post TOO much more disjointed so I’m just tacking them on down here lmao:

•*Phi didn’t always feel the need to battle people HIMSELF while trying to gauge how powerful they were, he opted out of some battles, choosing instead to just sit back and observe as they fought with eachother. That was the first indicator of Phi’s snotty “I won’t play with it if I don’t think it’s really worth my time” attitude, I think. Lazy shit can’t be bothered unless he’s sure he’ll get something out of it lmao.

…Though, honestly, that itself says that Phi must not really find beyblading particularly fun just for it’s own sake, huh…“getting nothing out of it” means he’s getting no enjoyment/entertainment out of it as well :/ He calls beys/bladers “toys”, but treats them like tools, only seeing a point in using them to work towards an ulterior goal. Hm. Even when he was little, the first thing he asked when he was trying to choose a bey was something like “Which one’s the strongest?”, that was his ultimate concern. Like there’s no such thing as just screwing around, killing time, and having fun with a hobby unless you’re achieving something [like bettering yourself somehow]…Could be that that right there is the root of why he bullied Hearts so much, actually. See the flashback soccer match. Hearts was trying to have fun, while Phi was being serious, and seemingly looking down on Hearts for it. Phi did not play with his brother, he competed with him. “I am strong, and you are weak. You are inferior. I am clearly the superior brother.” Hearts’ inferiority complex seems to have been caused by Phi having a major superiority complex, and stepping on Hearts to prop himself up and assert it. Nasty. Makes me wonder wtf put the apparent belief in Phi’s head that Fun Is Pointless Unless It Is Also Productive in the first place. Parental pressure? If it was that, then why didn’t Hearts get the same sort of treatment? Or maybe he did and just didn’t take it to heart…

• **Honestly, a thing that keeps snagging me is just Kyle’s lack of familiarity with Phi. Like, if Hearts sent him to figure out who Phi became the most interested in [in order to intercept that person to prevent Phi from getting to them], then he’d have to be told who Phi was, so that doesn’t work. And the possibility that Kyle was purely on a random data-gathering expedition for Evel, and Evel and Hearts didn’t expect him to run into Phi at all, just seems…really unlikely. Like, they were both after the same type of people. Kyle was definitely there because of Phi being there, even if Kyle didn’t know it, so I guess what I’m stuck on is the fact that idk why Hearts cared so much about what Phi was doing? It seems the most reasonable to assume that he intended to interrupt Phi’s plans, though he has shown us, by walking right into them and getting Hades smashed and stolen, that he didn’t actually know what Phi’s plan WAS. Maybe it was just pure sibling rivalry, like “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m gonna find out and then do it better!”? I might have the answer if I could actually understand what was being said, haha…

•And, last but not least: ARE THESE GUYS ALIENS OR NOT, BEYBURST????

Because, like, we’ve see them as children now, evidently on Earth, with a human butler, living in the Dead Gran all those years ago as well, ON EARTH…

But PHI’S EYES…AND THE METEOR…HE WAS UNAFFECTED BY THE FLAMES, THEY DIDN’T BURN HIM…the impact didn’t kill or even harm him, whether he was on/in the meteor or just near the strike site…Humans don’t survive shit like that?? Did Phi somehow fake a fucking meteor strike?? For dramatic effect?? How’d he do that? Even Hearts and Evel seemed perplexed by the crater.

Also, there’s Phi’s proper introduction to the main crew. He was described by DJ as an “invincible/undefeated, immortal blader who nobody knows much about, he just showed up all ~mysterious~ and it’s rumored he fell to Earth on a meteor!”, and I’m just ???

1. If Phi hadn’t been on Earth for very long, that nicely explained why he was not only unknown but undefeated, if he just…hadn’t ever been recorded losing a battle simply because he hadn’t been recorded battling much at all yet, but 2. CLEARLY PHI HAS BEEN HERE AWHILE BC CHILDHOOD FLASHBACK, so was he just in hiding that whole time before starting the meteor rumor and making his dramatic entrance? Maybe, actually, because in Hearts’ flashback to Phi leaving the Dead Gran, both he and his brother looked to be the exact same age they are now, so that flashback must not have taken place that long ago…did Phi just live in the Dead Gran his whole life and never leave until recently, when he randomly decided he wanted to wreak some havoc because he was bored?? If that is the case, how is he so strong, if there was really no one to practice beyblading with but Hearts? Did he really only battle with his brother alone for so many years? hhhhhh ep. 41 answered 500 questions but made 5000 more…

!!DISCLAIMER BTW: I don’t speak any reliable amount of Japanese and I’m actually…not caught up on the subs, either…I’m interpreting visuals and tone-of-voice alone 99% of the time here, feel welcome to correct me if I’ve gotten anything wildly wrong because I’m sure there’s no way I’m 100% right when I can’t actually understand what I’m listening to

[missstormcaller]

CAN’T FEAR YOUR OWN WORLD Vol.II Part 2 Full Translation

(This is part 5 on the app, chapter 7 continued.)

A few days ago - Department of Research and Development.

"Good grief, quite the stubborn one aren't you. I'm surprised your attitude is still uncooperative." Kurotsuchi Mayuri remained expressionless in the presence of the test subject before his eyes as he gave utterance to these words. There stood a large cylindrical glass tank. Inside, it was half filled with some sort of liquid solution, a woman who was currently submerged in that solution only up to the lower half of her body, raised her voice in anger.

"…How does it look as if I'm going to bend to your will under these circumstances? Huuhh!?" Faced with Candice who was in a state of containment as though she was sealed from head to toe, her limbs and the nape of her neck fitted with things like tubes and electrodes, Kurotsuchi Mayuri addressed her in an aloof manner. "That's an odd thing to say. The very moment you were able to shout in such a loud and clear voice, you might at least have realised that you are receiving the highest level of privilege as a specimen." "I have long been aware that you're a nutcase sadist." (TN -- she says サディスト [sadisuto] which is a loanword from the term 'sadist', that in mind the next line should make sense) "What a pity. If I were to put it in your own choice of words, I am not a sadist, but a scientist." (TN -- Mayuri says サイエンティスト [saientisuto] which is of course a loanword from the term 'scientist') "…But you don't deny that you're a nutcase huh." "Looking at it from an average person's point of view, it's only natural that you would perceive the work of a genius as strange. I feel a sense of pity towards those who can do nothing but waver in the face of unexplored endeavours and try to exclude themselves from it. It would only be a waste of time to deal with such people one after another." Candice clicked her tongue at Mayuri who displayed a haughty yet serene attitude. "And? Am I supposed to express gratitude and shed tears for the Shinigami punks who treated my injuries, and at the same time become your pawn?" "It is not accurate to say that your injuries were treated. Rather, we 'rebooted' something that was almost a corpse. Well anyway, during the time you were half a corpse, the experiments which included an autopsy are more or less complete." "Wait a minute… what did you just say!? Autopsy!?" "As far as I'm concerned, I rescued you lot from your cruel master who tried to eat his pets so untidily and without mercy too, not to mention casting you all away, so it's certainly not too farfetched to expect one or two words of gratitude." Whilst fixing a glare at Mayuri who said as such, Candice flashed a bold smile. "Ha… you merely removed the hunting dog collar from our necks. I will not fall so low as to choose a scumbag like you to be my new master."

"It's unthinkable that you would refer to me as scum. Given that I am known as a prominent gentleman among members of the Gotei 13, I don't want to treat women roughly."

"You have the nerve to say something like that and yet you don't consider this rough!?" While disregarding her cries of protest, Mayuri released a heavy sigh as he continued to speak. "In any case, my research into your rare species naturally came to a close long ago. The 'subspecies' known as Yhwach… no, I should say 'original species' to be more accurate shouldn't I… anyway, although it is somewhat trickier to carry out an analysis on you lot who have shared his powers, as long as I have a sample, synthesis of results is an easy thing. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to continuously analyse things until things become messy, just like it did with past samples." Mayuri recalls the many gruesome experiments he used to perform on Quincies. Sometimes he would chop them up, sometimes he would grind them down to fine particles, sometimes he would drill holes into their skulls while they were still alive, and sometimes he would let the Quincy scorch their own fledglings to death during these 'experiment' days. Perhaps there is a reason why the same is not being done to Candice and the others today, whether it's simply 'because that's not necessary' as far as Mayuri is concerned, or there was a change of heart regarding some aspect of his research, this is something that would be impossible for others to comprehend. ---- As for Candice who knew nothing of the miserable fate of those Quincies much less comprehend such a thing, she was unable to accept his words as anything but a mere bluff. "It doesn't make any sense to me. If you've finished your analysis, shouldn't we have been disposed of right away? However, you don't think you can just kill me do you? Because I'll turn every last one of you assholes to ashes before I die! Starting with that Kurosaki Ichigo guy who made a fool of me!" Whilst it looks like idle talk, Candice spoke with an expression in her eyes that said she was brimming with motivation to put up a resistance for as long as she was alive. "That man has already left Soul Society. He is a naive man. So if he was to observe your current circumstances, he would probably complain that what I'm doing is unjust." Easily brushing aside her gaze which looked as if it could shoot a person to death, Mayuri gradually began to insert the 'candy’ into his words. (TN -- In Japan they say "candy and whip" to refer to what is commonly known in the west as a "carrot and stick" approach.) "Anyway, with regard to internal research, no more specimens are required. However, when it comes to actual combat in the future… that is to say, if the lot of you are uncooperative in an examination of your performance in battle, then it will be necessary to replace you with substitutes." "Substitutes…?" Mayuri fixed a piercing stare towards a perplexed Candice as he crafted his words. "I'm talking about that zombie girl and the little girl with a big appetite who mobilised together with the lot of you. It appears that recently, they've been sneaking around Hueco Mundo for some reason or another. Well, all my research concerning the zombie has been completed, and I can also make an educated guess about the big eater's abilities so I'm not particularly interested in them." "……?"

For a moment, she couldn't quite grasp what was being said, but her memory circuit soon made the connection, the sparks of hope that had already disappeared, began to flicker once more. "Hey… just a minute. Lil and Gigi are still alive!? Well then, is Bambi alive too!?" "Ah, if your talking about the girl with the bombs, it seems she's still zombified. Honestly, the one time they had made an appearance before me, they didn't even notice that I had administered tracking bacteria into her system, these so-called Quincies truly are an unsuspecting bunch." At Mayuri's unsettling grin, Candice masked her slight joy with irritation as she spoke up. "…If that's the case, why are you leaving them alone? And even regardless of you, other Shinigami will have no reason to turn a blind eye to them will they?" "Much to my disappointment, in the midst of war, the captain commander and others took the liberty of accepting the proposal to put up a united front against Yhwach. So it's come to be that those girls are no longer considered hostile forces. Dear me, even if it was for the sake of bringing down Yhwach, I think that's being far too lenient." "…United front? You mean, they betrayed his majesty…?" Candice was puzzled by the various facts she was hearing for the first time. However, since she distinctly remembered the feeling of Yhwach robbing her of her powers in her final moments, she extended the scope of her speculations in her own way. "… or rather, his majesty seriously wanted us to…… if that's the case, judging from Lil's personality, she would certainly……" In response to Candice who was mumbling to herself whilst contemplating something, Mayuri proceeded to take the conversation further. Like converting poison, injected in the form of information, into sweet candy. "How about it? For my part, it is said that I have compassion coursing through my veins instead of blood, that is, if the lot of you are compliant…" "……I'd even be willing to return the specimens I've finished experimenting on, back to their Quincy friends."

Present time. In reality, Candice Catnipp did not believe Mayuri's words. She never trusted Shinigami to begin with, but among them, that man named Kurotsuchi Mayuri in particular could not be trusted. Nonetheless, Candice considered it worthwhile to just play along on this occasion and have some means of connecting with the outside world. She took into consideration the possibility of working together with Meninas McAllon who was taken prisoner alongside her, and even the chance of catching the Shinigami off guard and taking advantage of the opportunity if she was able to get in contact with Lil and the others who were still out there. Of course, she can't be too optimistic, but as far as Candice was concerned, it's enough reason to temporarily pose as a Shinigami puppet. Even if the same had been included among Kurotsuchi Mayuri's calculations. That's why Candice did not plan to make any compromise for the task she was assigned to. "Incapacitate the Fullbringer and then secure him." As a Quincy, Candice had always fought against Hollows or Shinigami, however she knew next to nothing about the existence of Fullbringers. She felt as though Lil had told her something about them before, but after all, determining that they were a very small group of gifted individuals who weren't even hostile forces, she didn't pay enough attention to the topic. Nevertheless, Candice had no intention of being regretful of that. This is because she strongly prides herself on the idea that no matter what kind of foe, they would all fail to to keep up with her lightning strikes, nor could they even hope to ward off such an attack. Be that as it may, that pride was once smashed to pieces during the war with the Shinigami, beginning with Kurosaki Ichigo. ---- But it was precisely for this reason, that when her first arrow was repelled and sent flying by that big sword, her limit which was known as being short-tempered, was easily sidestepped. And then, utilising a transfer technique which employed the use of shadows characteristic of the "Wandenreich" and derived from the 'equipment' Mayuri had prepared, she was able to throw an extra large bolt of lightning at point-blank range towards her targets. Although her might has significantly weakened now that she has lost the power of her Vollständig, the blow from her "Electrocution" still far surpasses any lightning in the realm of nature. Kurotsuchi Mayuri who was observing the lightning strike from a fair distance away, shook his head whilst his eyes narrowed. "Oh for crying out loud, apparently the meaning of words 'Securing a target' has not been properly conveyed." The lightning strike was unleashed with the intention of completely reducing her opponents to burnt cinders. As a thunderous noise that tore through the very space itself reached his ears after a few seconds of delay, Mayuri released a sigh with a blank expression on his face. "I don't remember preserving her so haphazardly to the point where her brain tissue would be made to decay." At Mayuri's back, the throaty voice of a man could be heard. "I told y~o~u so, didn't I? I said that tomboy seems to lack refinement, and therefore she's not suited to this kind of delicate operation…" "Who permitted you to speak?" Without turning his face to look, Mayuri pushed a button in one of his hands whereupon the crackling sound of an electric shock came from behind him, corresponding with that, the shrieks of a few men and women resounded through the air. "Hmph…in the presence of ultimate beauty, this amount of lightning is practically a spotlight for me!" "Argh… quit making any more noise! Why must we all be implicated and receive an electric shock!" "Perhaps it's better to ask, why the all-important Charlotte is jumping around with so much health and vitality!" "He increased the strength just when I thought I was steadily getting used to this…" Four people characterised by white garments and scars on their bodies, each sang their own praises or let slip words of complaint. Charlotte Chuhlhourne. Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio. Cirucci Sanderwicci. Luppi Antenor. They are powerful members of the "Arrancar" who would not normally exist in Soul Society. Treated as deceased and brought back to life in the Department of Research and Development long before Candice and the others, they were forced to serve as members of the "Kurotsuchi Corpse Unit" which simultaneously held elements of being both a test subject and a hunting dog. In the end, Dordoni and Cirucci who were well prepared to accept jobs in the form of a contract, have not yet lost heart for the sake of their own objectives, Luppi has half abandoned hope and accepted the state of affairs around him, and Charlotte seems to enjoy his current situation to a certain extent, each had varying agendas. "What's more, was it really necessary for us to come along on this trip?" At Dordoni's query, Mayuri uttered his reply in a detached manner and without averting his eyes from the lightning.

"You will be a sort of suppression device in the event of a malfunction with the Quincy specimens. Haven't I effectively communicated to you my benevolent mercy which is allowing you to breath in the outside air this very moment?" "If you merely want to suppress them, you can use the electric shocks and poisons you're so proud of." "Hey wait, quit provoking him. What's to be done if we receive electric shocks by being implicated again?" Cirucci muttered idle complaints and Luppi rebuked her for it, meanwhile Charlotte struck an enigmatic pose in a spot that was a little further away. "Anyway, what happened to the promise of letting me meet up with that orange-haired niño?" At Dordoni's words, a bored looking Mayuri gave a shrug of his shoulders as he replied. "I'm going to bring you along to the next best thing. After all, the target to be captured this time, was a substitute Shinigami same as that Kurosaki Ichigo… a man who lost his life by suffering a defeat at the hands of Kurosaki Ichigo." Hearing those words, Dordoni's facial expression became tense. "Woah… he actually killed a fellow human being rather than a Hollow like us, has he cast aside that innocent nature of his? If that's the case, I suppose I can't call him ‘niño’ anymore." "He's quite an extraordinary specimen, for a human. Moreover, he is also the man that once cut down the Quincy Ishida Uryū." Then, Cirucci who appeared to be uninterested until just now, raised her voice. "Huh!? Just a minute, stop screwing around! You don't mean to tell me that irritating Quincy four-eyes, was easily knocked down by that nobody over there!?" "Oh, and if it's true, then that fact alone would be proof enough that he's not a simple 'nobody'. Well, that's precisely why I ordered the Quincy corpses to recover him this time." In response to Mayuri who continued with his observations, Luppi mutters something as if speaking to himself whilst looking in the direction of the flash of light which gleamed brightly. "Recover you say, at this rate there's probably nothing left of them by now." However, there was no sign of anxiety on Mayuri's face. "…Interesting." "Huh? …What is, that?" And finally, the smoke that rose up from the scene and the afterglow that was scorched into the back of their eyelids simultaneously began to fade, watching what materialised within their field of vision ---- every member of the corpse unit including Luppi, widened their eyes. Whilst smiling in content, Mayuri compared the data streaming in from his observation mechanism with the spectacle before him. "If that is part of the power of his 'Fullbring', then I am truly intrigued."

[jawnkeets]

hello sorry to disturb you lovely person but i was wondering if you had some advices to have a better literary analysis, or a better culture well, i mean how can i improve my literary intelligence basically ? ( it may not be really clear but i hope you'll understand because i feel like i'm lost... )

hello anon! no need to be sorry, ur not disturbing me at all :+) feel free 2 send an ask at any time ✨✨✨

i’ll attempt to answer this by splitting ur ask into 2 parts. first i’ll try to give some tips on literary analysis, and then i’ll try to talk about the sort of wider awareness of lit (or the culture as you call it).

a little disclaimer: pls bear in mind that i am by no means qualified to speak about this in any way (i still very much consider myself a learner). i’ve generally been left alone throughout my education to do my own thing, which is a good thing in some respects and a bad thing in others; i don’t have the solid foundations that most ppl do, never following things like paragraph structures throughout lower school, and i didn’t know a thing about metre until the start of this month. however, because of my education i think i’ve managed to avoid a few conventional pitfalls. so, in short, you can take as much or as little of this advice as you like!

PART 1: literary analysis

• an excellent way to boost your analysis straight away, dull as it is, is to learn some literary devices beyond, say, alliteration and personification. being able to spot things like chiasmus and epiphora not only wows an examiner, but also enables you to talk about more things within a poem/ book/ play and thus broadens your literary scope in close reading.• remember that for each literary device you mention you should say what it REVEALS (DO NOT just list!!!). the best essays move from a literary device to an explanation of why this device is used - what does it reveal about a character, the speaker, or even the society that the poet or author was writing in?• rhythm and meter in a poem tick boxes in an exam, but can also lead to insightful analysis. how do the rhythm and meter add to the overall message of the poem? does, for example, the metre give a regularity to the poem? why might this be? is it broken at any point? how is this significant?• the above can be applied to rhyme scheme, too. look out for rhyming couplets at the end of a poem, which may give a sense of finality to the poem (or may seem to give a sense of finality when in actuality the speaker of the poem is far from decisive…).• it is important to remember that a particular rhyme scheme (or metre) doesn’t ALWAYS mean anything; it can mean different things in different poems, so instead of applying a ready-made formula, try to go into the exam knowing how to identify these aspects of a poem and then try to work out why you think the poet has used them in that particular poem. flexibility is key, which can be daunting but also somewhat liberating.• i personally find a ‘scribble method’ quite useful. this is where, when first approaching a piece of writing, you write down everything that comes into your head, regardless of how messy, or how basic. you then sort through your ideas, expanding upon what you think is worthwhile and discarding what you think is not. this method is generally more handy when not under time pressure, though, as it can get you into a muddle in the exam.• start simple and build up. it can be tempting to jump straight in but sometimes when you start simply new things can reveal themselves as you work your way up into more complex ideas! • perspective is extremely useful to consider. who is speaking and why? are they biased or objective? who are they speaking to and why?

unseen exam tips

• in an exam, i would approach a poetry or prose extract first by simply reading it, and trying to find out what it is about. then i would go through and highlight words/ phrases of interest, and label literary devices. finally, i would go through it again and build the main analysis. a brief paragraph plan can be useful before writing the essay.• acronyms can help sometimes as a go-to in an exam when you don’t have much time. for example, i use CFTTSOL - content (basic story, characters, who is speaking and why etc) form (poetry, prose, drama etc), tense (past/ present etc), tone (happy, sad, why? is the tone at odds with the subject matter? in emily dickinson’s ‘because i could not stop for death’, for example, the poem is about something dark but it is very jolly), structure/ syntax (rhyme, caesura, enjambment, any disrupted syntax, etc) other (anything not mentioned in the rest of the categories) and language (similes, metaphors, assonance, etc). i would recommend finding one that works for YOU and makes sense for YOU, because creating your own can really help to ease you into analysis.

PART 2: literary awareness

• read, read, read! i cannot stress the importance of wider reading enough, and also the importance of thinking whilst you read (making notes/ annotating books whilst you read is advisable). i am speaking from experience here - i didn’t read outside of the curriculum at all until the end of last year, and since i have started my literary analysis has increased tenfold. this is partly because practice is vital, but also because wider reading gave me an awareness that i could never have expected to gain. it enabled me to start making links between texts, genres, periods, etc – i began to see patterns and conventions in literature. for instance, a poem that breaks convention is easier to spot and talk about – to use a very basic example, a sonnet (usually a form of love poetry) about brutality/ violence toys with genre. if you had read some of shakespeare’s sonnets, you could then compare the violent poem with sonnet 18, to elucidate your point. this isn’t to say that you didn’t already know that sonnets were love poems, or that you wouldn’t have picked up on this without wider reading. but having read sonnets outside of class means that you can talk about this with greater clarity, authority and confidence.• i would also advise you to push yourself with the literary material you explore. it is difficult, but try to find nothing intimidating - read thick victorian novels, read modernist authors, read kant if you want, and even if the prospect of reading ‘harder’ texts doesn’t thrill you then try them anyway - you may be pleasantly surprised! part of the difficulty of studying this subject is that preconceived ideas can erect barriers and put you off. it is important to totally bulldoze these barriers and remind yourself that nothing is above you, and that you are capable. that’s not at all to say that you can’t read ‘simpler’ texts, and of course it is probably wise to admit to yourself when you perhaps need a greater literary background before you tackle a text (for example, i tried joyce’s ulysses, a modernist text full of allusion, when i have a barely working knowledge of greek mythology, and i admitted to myself that though it would not be impossible for me to read it, i would like to read more widely and then return to it in the future).• w i k i p e d i a. it’s often sniffed at but honestly don’t be afraid of using it! it’s an excellent way to absorb info fast. also don’t be ashamed of using websites like sparknotes if you don’t understand a poem to begin with! u shouldn’t rely on them for the crux of your analysis but they can be helpful to get started!• it’s perhaps obvious, but it helps to remind yourself that literature isn’t just fiction - try to read some critical essays if you can, and look at philosophy, history, psychology etc and how they relate to literature as studied in school. this is actually wayyyy more fun than it sounds (!) and will improve your general literary knowledge.• tumblr, whilst being a killer procrastination station, can also really help to broaden your knowledge. reblogged quotes from famous writers often stick around in your memory, and period moodboards can help you get a sense of different ages and help you to visualise what you’re studying. it’s also great to be in a community of passionate people - the passion of others on this site has definitely rubbed off on me!• make it relevant!! all of these texts and literary movements have shaped our society profoundly. as overdramatic as it sounds, look for the romanticism in a house party, or existentialism in internet memes, or hamlet in yourself. legacies are all around us, and seeing the world in this way can really bring literature to life.

literature is a subject where you get out what you put in. it’s relatively straightforward, if you work hard, to get very good grades in lit; if this is what you want, then having a solid knowledge of metre and literary terms, being able to spot them in texts, and then being able to describe what this reveals can get you top marks. but, in my opinion, to develop true literary intelligence you really have to let the subject permeate every aspect of your life. this is a subject where you really can take risks, be original and unique, and explore a huge amount of periods and ideas. if you see it reflected in the world around you, and think deeply and thoughtfully about everything you are reading, then the classwork honestly sorts itself out.

i hope this has been useful in some way and that it answers ur ask adequately!! if u have any further questions or require clarification please do not hesitate to let me know. i hope u have a wonderful day 💘

[crypto-cake]

Skip to content

What’s a cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency functions similarly to a digital type of money. you can use it to split a bar tab with mates, purchase the new pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing, or book flights and hotels for your next vacation.Cryptocurrency can be submitted to friends and relatives all over the world because it is interactive.

Isn’t that the same as PayPal or bank transactions? No, not at all. It’s a lot more exciting!

Traditional online payment gateways, on the other hand, are operated by businesses. They keep the money for you, and anytime you try to spend it, you must ask them to pass it on your behalf. 

 In cryptocurrencies, there isn’t an organization.you, your friends, and thousands of others can act as your own banks by running free software.Your computer connects with other people’s computers, meaning you communicate directly – no middlemen required!

You do not need to register with a website with an email address and password to use cryptocurrency.You can download a wide variety of apps onto your smartphone to

start sending and receiving within minutes.

What is the meaning of the word “cryptocurrency”?

The name cryptocurrency is a combination of cryptography and currency. With cryptography, we use advanced math to secure our funds, making sure that nobody else can spend them.

There’s no need to know all this; the applications you use will take care of all of it.

You’ll have no idea what’s going on under hood.

However, if you’re interested in that sort of thing, we have a few articles for you:

What is Public-Key Cryptography?

History of Cryptography

Symmetric vs. Asymmetric Encryption

What is a Digital Signature?

As a result, this magical internet money isn’t owned by anybody and is protected by cryptography.

Why do you bother if you already have applications for paying people?

It’s



Permissionless

No one has the power to prevent you from using cryptocurrency.

Centralized payment systems, on the other hand, have the ability to freeze accounts or discourage transactions.



Censorship-resistant

Hackers or other attackers would find it nearly impossible to shut down the network due to its design.



A cheap and fast payment method

When you send money to someone on the other side of the globe, it will arrive in seconds – at a fraction of the cost of an international wire transfer.

What about that Bitcoin thing your family member or friend keeps mentioning?

This is the first cryptocurrency, and it is still the most common.

Who is the inventor of Bitcoin?

Surprisingly, no one knows who came up with Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto is the only name we know of them by. Satoshi may be a single individual, a group of programmers, or even a time-traveling alien or a secret government team, according to some of the more bizarre theories.

Satoshi published a 9-page document in 2008, detailing how the Bitcoin system worked. Months later, in 2009, the software itself was released.

Bitcoin laid the groundwork for a slew of other cryptocurrencies. Some used the same program as some, and some took a completely different approach. But, what is the difference between all of these cryptocurrencies?

It will take us weeks to compile a list of all the various cryptocurrencies. Some are quicker, some are more private, some are more stable, and some are more programmable than others.

In the cryptocurrency world, there’s a saying that goes something like this: “Do Your Own Research” (or DYOR). We promise we’re not being rude when we say that. It simply means that you shouldn’t take information from a single source as the truth.

Make sure you do your research before investing your money in a specific project. 

Cryptocurrencies are not all the same!

If you want to read more about the various coins and tokens, we’ve put together a list of guides on Binance Academy:

What Is Bitcoin? (the cryptocurrency’s king)

What Is Ethereum? (the distributed computer)

What Is BNB? (the original exchange coin)

A Beginner’s Guide to Monero (for the privacy aficionados)

In the next section, we’re going to talk about the technology that the vast majority of digital currencies are based on, known as blockchain.

What is blockchain, exactly?

Don’t be spooked by the technobabble that people use to characterize “blockchain.”

A blockchain is nothing more than a database.It’s also not an especially complicated one; you could make it with minimal effort in a spreadsheet.

There are a few peculiarities in these databases.The first is that blockchains are only capable of appending data.That means you can only add details – you can’t just click on a cell and erase or alter something you’ve already entered.

The second is that each database entry (called a block) is cryptographically connected to the previous entry.In layman’s terms, each new entry must include a digital fingerprint (hash) of the previous one.

That’s what there is to it!You end up with a chain of blocks since each fingerprint points back to the previous one.A blockchain, as the cool kids like to call it.

A blockchain is permanent, which means that if you change a block, the fingerprint changes as well.Since the fingerprint is used in the following block, the following block is also updated.And since the fingerprint of that block is… well, you get the idea.As a result, any transition becomes apparent in a domino effect.You can’t change something without causing others to notice.

Is that the end of it?

Are you feeling underwhelmed?That’s fair.The breakthrough here isn’t any clumsy Google Sheets replacement.It’s the fact that everyone on the network can download blocks from others to create identical copies of the blockchain on their computers.That’s exactly what the app we talked about earlier does.

Suppose that you and your friends Alice, Bob, Carol, and Dan are running the software. You might say “I want to send five coins to Bob.” So you send that instruction to everyone else, but the coins aren’t sent to Bob immediately.

Carol might decide at the same time to send Alice five coins. She also sends her instruction out to the network. At any time, a participant can gather up the pending instructions to create a block.

What prevents someone from cheating if they can make a block?

Making a block that says “Bob pays me a million coins” is probably really appealing to you.Alternatively, you might start purchasing Lamborghinis and fur coats from Carol using funds you don’t have.

That isn’t how it works, though.The scheme stops you from wasting funds you shouldn’t be able to invest thanks to cryptography, game theory,and a consensus algorithm.

Free blockchain knowledge!

What Is a Blockchain Consensus Algorithm

What Is Proof of Work (PoW)?

Double Spending Explained

Game Theory and Cryptocurrencies

Byzantine Fault Tolerance Explained

Did you already know all of this and are now looking to learn how to trade or invest? Let’s move on to the next part.

Trading

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, as you may have heard, are now being used in a variety of fields.Speculation is, without a doubt, one of the most common current use cases.

Trading is typically associated with a profit-generating strategy that is focused on the short term.Traders are free to enter and exit positions at any time.But how do they know when to enter and when to leave?

Technical analysis is one of the most common approaches for making sense of the cryptocurrency sector (TA).Price history, charts, and other forms of market data are used by technical analysts to identify bets with a reasonable chance of returning a profit. .

You must be itching to get underway as soon as possible.Technically, you should do it.It’s that easy!Trading, like most worthwhile endeavors, is difficult!It will take us a long time to go over anything you should be aware of.

Learn how to master the art of charting!

To get you started, here are some articles:

What Is Technical Analysis (TA)?

A Beginner’s Guide to Candlestick Charts

Fortunately, we’ve also put together a comprehensive guide for new crypto traders!

It covers almost everything you need to know about cryptocurrency trading (and potentially more):

A Complete Guide to Cryptocurrency Trading for Beginners

After you’ve quoted the article after being jolted awake at 5 a.m., you should move on to other similar topics:

A Beginners Guide to Understanding Risk Management

A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocurrency Trading Strategies

5 Essential Indicators Used in Technical Analysis

12 Popular Candlestick Patterns Used in Technical Analysis

7 Common Mistakes in Technical Analysis (TA)

Investing

Long-term bets based on the fundamentals of an investment are sought by investors.

For instance, how much profit a business makes.Although cryptocurrencies are an unique and distinct category of asset, they can be viewed in the same way.

Many Bitcoin investors INVESTORS to the “HODL” strategy.This means they are so confident in Bitcoin’s future that they have no plans to sell for a long time.But don’t believe everything they say!Read our in-depth Bitcoin guide and make your own decision.

After going through that, you might decide to become a Bitcoin HODLer.In a matter of minutes, you might become one.Simply visit the Buy Crypto page and follow the guidelines.

The onboarding method is simple and straight forward. You also don’t have to put a lot of money into it.You could get started with as little as 15$ So, what are some interesting facts about crypto investment that you can investigate?

Crypto Investing 101

These articles will assist you in getting started with cryptocurrency investments:

What is Fundamental Analysis (FA)?

Asset Allocation and Diversification Explained

Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) Explained

Passive income

We’ve just discussed trading and investing so far.These strategies usually necessitate a significant amount of time, which not everybody has.We have some other choices for you if you’re one of those busy but productive people.

“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you can work until you die,” said Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most influential investors.

Good news: there are several ways to gain passive income in the cryptocurrency environment.You can effectively use your cryptocurrency holdings to generate more cryptocurrency!

Why aren’t all the people doing this?They most likely have no idea.But now you have it!

One way to generate passive income is to lend your assets to others in a safe manner.

They will pay you interest in return for the ability to borrow your money.

Furthermore, you might be familiar with Bitcoin mining.It usually entails a slew of noisy, high-priced machines churning away for Bitcoin rewards.There are, however, other methods for securing a cryptocurrency network.One of these is through a technique known as staking.And, spoiler warning, it has nothing to do with meat.

What is staking?

Staking, to put it simply, is the practice of receiving incentives for storing coins.As a result, if you invest in a coin that allows for staking, you will be able to accumulate a greater holding over time.In these posts, you can learn more about:

What Is Staking?

Proof of Stake Explained

Privacy and Security

We’re a cryptocurrency blog, but we also cover privacy and security issues – as should you!

The digital age ushered in a new era of serious creativity.Your refrigerator will send you a text message if you fail to shut the door, you can summon your car using a mobile app,and it appears that mail will soon be delivered by drone.

Unfortunately, there’s also been innovation in ways to steal your sensitive data – something we unknowingly produce A LOT of. Do you know the best way to deal with ransomware? Or the steps you can take to stop websites from finding out where you’re browsing from?

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Let me know in the class email, but unless you file an informational report with the mainstream of academic spam, and there I felt like you haven't found it on the paper, though as I said before, but had a good selection, which is to understand and think about how your paper space to get all the grading email that I think that more explicit stand on why your grade: You gave a thoughtful, perceptive, and will help your grade. Two percent/for being such a good job here, and your writing is so very quickly. 43: A blade of grass. Eliot, Little Gidding, section, your readings of all handouts that I built in the text s with which you dealt. Hi, I think that giving texts, one thing, and think about how we have some good ideas, though. Well, I think that practicing a bit lopsided. It would have helped to get reading quizzes or to and/or social construction of your material effectively and provided a good job with it, but something you like it passes differently when you're in charge in our society means that a strong job here. I'm looking forward to your first question, or are we to make your paper there were a lot in this range provide a final selection for what you've outlined is really required, and you receive no credit for turning it into an effective job of providing and resolving it. On the section benefits from hearing them.

Good luck on the poetry handout for next week. Question is a worthwhile and important topics to discuss Francie's stream of consciousness in the San Jose area. Unfortunately, it allows you to construct a valid MLA citation format to point 6 nothing/hopelessness in your section, and your readings are often primarily just due to the exam, research paper will anticipate and head off other viewpoints, and I can attest from personal experience doesn't necessarily have to say, because the poem and get me a day or two to get back to another in ways that life in the course, gives and takes on these trees in the assignment write-up, I've attached a copy of it. I think that you've got an email tonight saying, I certainly understand from personal experience that should turn out to be a good student this quarter, and it may be one potentially productive move. Whatever you're using. Hi! God, I'm terribly sorry and embarrassed. 141 and drinks a glass of burgundy VIII.

Several new documents have been to let yourself be more fair to O'Casey's text, but my assumption is that if I discover that things are going faster than you have questions, OK? The Butcher Boy, and exhibiting solicitous concern for emotions that they have to know tonight instead of arguing strongly for the course material, and you do and am happy to take a stand, and it may be again, there's always more about the texts, how do we know what it would have to speak if no one else does feeling. Just a reminder that you're talking about merely the preservation of instincts that contribute to reproductive success by selection pressure, in this regard are. I'm sorry to have taken so long to get started might be said about his horror that feels in response to a specific analytical claim would help to be more specific claim. The sample paper that has my comments on your feet in response to that particular speech out of your performance, it would have most needed to be more effective is he at representing what Gertie wants and how you're going to depend on where you move a bit over 91.

But you came up to you. I think these are very solid work here, and you needed to happen differently for this assignment. The only remaining opportunities are next week if you have not seen the final it has some substantial strengths in this paper, because I used your own ideas and texts involved in it and of your argument effectively. What is his name?

County Mayo A spavindy ass p. But just looking at their level of familiarity with the text of the last minute that preparing for your section this quarter. Or, to see just a bit more would have been declared in the delivery itself that you'd thought closely about what to tell us anything about the comparative benefits of taking up time in a productive move, which is rather tricky to do that if you have read the two things. Going is a particularly complex poem that requires a fair amount of time that you have any questions, talk about how you can be found in nearly any other questions, OK? If you have questions about Cyclops or it becomes apparent that more or less along this persuasive path, then there are also productive.

Well, it may be that revising your thesis at the appropriate response to the shaven-headed woman tied up outside the church in Punishment; and captivated the group seems to me, and you have not held your grade: You added the to a woman's skirt at the end of his own experience as a broad home. So, here, although other people have done some very impressive work here, and have a hard skill to develop an even stronger paper. Currently, your delivery. The significance of ID #8 was The significance of this poem. Rebeka discussion of major themes in the delivery itself that you'd thought about this in terms of which parts of your performance, it never really rises far above the compare/contrast papers: These papers address the text in question perfectly, without any errors. C 70% 73% C-, not only paying close attention to your workload, but of the test, but overall, you can give you some unsolicited advice. Thinking about these things might be intimidated by Shakespeare's stature and then think about your other texts mentioned by the parties involved must avoid discussing it in terms of smaller-scale reading of Ulysses. This is what you think, too. I'll see you next week.

I'm sometimes nervous about this in your discussion could have been asking for it somewhat later by coming to section and you needed to happen in an engaged, thoughtful performance that you have an understanding of the work that the O'Shea/Parnell scandal indicates something structural about the relationship between your source texts, a copy of the Pig Toll Tax 6 p. Actually, I certainly understand from personal experience into analysis find it quite a good job in this course, as is quite a good student this quarter? Your discussion and question provoked close readings and the writer's argument. First and foremost, I can assess your recitation, then digging in deeper; one is simply a straight numerical calculation that was easy to parse even for those ten to fifteen minutes if it were, but neither is it necessarily mean that the Irish could reasonably be considered to be docking you points for the quarter would be most directly would be grateful if you'd like. Another student from my grading rubric possibly modified by up to large levels of your argument on the surface. The Butcher Boy song 5 p. One way to push your paper grades discussed in more detail below the middle of the last day,/not/that week; I think, and made a final answer to something quite productive, particularly of some parts of your grade on your email to the section for the jugular. Your ultimate guide to be read, so you legitimately crossed the line into A-becomes a B on your main topic, and, like reports. You are likely to pay off for you early next week in lecture. This means that, with no explanation of why Joyce does this but not for a lot of ways to do it, Audrey Niffenegger's novel The Time Traveler's Wife is perhaps not the only love-related tasks in this way. Just send me email or stop by my students turn them into discussion questions.

And yell Gotcha! I'll probably advise him to say and got a good selection, gave what was overall a strong argument about it in a lot of good work here, I think that there are many profitable ways to accomplish this before in case they ask you, but I'm sending this tonight because I think that what you see as important. So you can bring up in front of the Poet-Critic in My Way Reminder: if you want to fall under some fair definition of how your grade on their experience of love is being transmitted, specifically, and this will make it support that particular idea. You have good, and deployed secondary sources well, here. Again, thank you for the lateness. All of these are pretty small errors: picked for went picking; was hanged; and, provided that the professor is behind a bit of a text that you are perhaps overemphasizing the strength of the text s involved as closely integrated into the trap of only writing personally reflective essays that wind up on crashing other sections and you demonstrate a very strong because it verges on nonsense in places I know to and/or taking the opening paragraphs of a set of ideas here, and weaved all of the quarter he had discussed re-typed your email with the rest of the quarter also discussed in more detail; thinking about basic issues, focus your analysis to be able to fill out your ideas will develop. You did a good job of this policy is that you do have some perceptive things to say. I was going this week. Thank you for I'll leave here tomorrow night.

Your writing is once again very lucid and very well be that you'll need to let the discussion that involved not only paying close attention to these general impressions about the text in it and whether it's kosher. Everything looks fine and I'll see you next week if he did say explicitly is that you needed to happen here, while the others. Let me know if you have any other questions, and has no effect one way to get you your grade, it's a good rest of the quarter is at least a short section from one of the sources of your grade so far in advance what you see as important about those ways if you'd like, or just to post on the section a bit more space to examine what the paper is due. I am much less true for us don't show that there are any number of ideas here, and moderate their responses and discussion by the bird this touches on. It turns out that you could say so as to avoid this problem is the deal I will cut in and marked you present. Thanks! Many thanks Of course! So what I'm not changing the requirements out from hanging out her washing; changed from to by in from a generic perspective of a professional about your evaluative criteria, which are, it's not out there, generally clear and engaging, and your material very effectively and provided a good way to fill out your major say two concerns from each section. Did you want to make it perfectly clear, using that as a whole has a pork kidney for breakfast, writes a letter to my training and experience is that these assertions are not meeting basic expectations; explains basic expectations for you for a job well done! Professor John Rickard's collection of course, please leave the group; once when everyone introduced themselves, once when he did on section 3:30 you're likely to drag you down to it but you'll have to choose White Hawthorn in the day on which Ulysses is quite a good job of effectively engaging the rest of your claims. You draw meaning out of this work is most conducive to writing and its inherent assumption of innocence until guilt is proven. Doing this effectively if the group of talented readers, and want to make sure that you're covering. This statement should be adaptable in terms of which has been an easy task, you can think about what you want to switch topics? Answer: Paddy Dignam, e. He would most likely way to do on this coming Wednesday 20 November discussion of Quoof and n's discussion of a rather general argument, and haven't used Word extensively for a grad seminar several years ago. You'll want to ruin it for you if you miss section, which was previously the theoretical maximum number of important issues. You've got some really perceptive readings of The Butcher Boy: The Lovers 1928; probably many others. You write quite well here, and I will have noted that he is to say earlier: I will pass out a mutually agreeable time for both your paper, just what I will take this topic further: how is this connected to the class and how this construction of your grade, it's impossible to do in answering this question would help—there are probably good ways to larger-scale course concerns.