#....blaME LEX OK

[jewishdragon]

In my re-watch of Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman i have reached the Sex Pollen Episode

yes you heard that right

sure it was a lexcorp chemist releasing her insane airborne aphrodisiac BUT STILL ohmygod it was awkward but fucking FUNNY. Lois was ready to just fuck Clark's brains out this is not an exaggeration. (and of course she does later in the show. the show is a slow burn to them fucking (ok and getting married). that's not a spoiler that's the premise)

also the episode starts with Clark's Average Morning where he uses his superpowers to cook breakfast/do his chores. a lot of episodes start this way!

this show is WONDERFUL at showing off Clark's just everyday behavior (and not just for the sort of cold-opens because this show thinks its a 45 min sitcom). In this show he's Clark Kent, he's really just this average man who happens to have superpowers so he uses them to do everyday things. (and be superman when he needs to be so he can save everyone without having to give up his normal life. he's superman like 10% of the time. Which is perfect, i love superman but when things focuses on superman it gets boring.)

Also if this show aired today Lex would be labeled a commentary on El*n Mu*k. He's the quintesential evil capitalist who thinks himself a genius (he's smart sure but he buys/pays for all his tech). Lex never builds a giant robot or anything all his crimes are normal (making them kinda scary) just a little outrageous (like using the metropolis aquaduct as his nuclear plant's heat sink to fuck with the city's weather and blame superman + make the city wild for his nuclear plant to power AC for the city. Him manipulating utilities for his own gain!!!)

anyways this show is amazing because its really a comedy investigative reporter show where things investigated are both normal and a touch cartoonishly outrageous. and the character's have amazing chemistry (not just romantic). Clark and Lois are constantly bantering and that's not to mention the rest of the cast!!!

[depravedmicrowave]

Vlad doesn't have a death day...

OK so I was rereading a fanfic (doens't matter but it's lex luthor's ascent) having a grand old time and I wouldn't have thought about it but with how topics flowed in the fic (when you're two day binging you don't have a lot of time to set aside plot points and my brain is a steel trap on a good day) with Vlad's weird torture tendencies and Danny's Death Day being a thing I got to thinking about Vlad's Death Day.

Now this isn't like a oh look at poor me thing but as someone whose in constant pain and lived hell on earth for a good eight months I can confidently say that being in pain drives you mad.

Thus I present the High Council of Phanon Lore with this tribute.

Vlad Masters-Plasmius didn't die on a single day. He was locally revived and killed over the course of two years. I'm not saying his heart stopped every day, I'm saying that being that contaminated and that radioactive for two years before stabilization would have had time to cover most of the year for a very slow death. Even if he only partly died in localized zones of his body, the man was actively dying day after day after day.

If we take into account of Death Days being a day for the posthumous ghost to relive their death, then he would be feeling that pain persist every day after. I'd argue that he'd liken the melting of flesh and bone from radiation to plasma and that pain for himself skewed irrevocably.

Pain wrecks your ability to think critically. Who has time for logic and reason when all you can think about is how you need your body to stop? Who has time for others' hurt feelings or morals when you're fighting your own body to survive? If things are bad enough you get wreckless with your own safety, you look for someone/something to blame, you grasp at the things that bring you a speck of distraction.

Some days are better than others, not all deaths are created equal, but he'd have a constant reminder and the mind doesn't like knowing pain. He is a fruit loop, he's lost it, and while I don't think everyone would break in that way or that it'd excuse him of his questionable actions.... I think, his death day just might be the worst there is.

[superman86to99]

Action Comics #699 (May 1994)

"THE BATTLE FOR METROPOLIS" STARTS HERE! Well, not here here, since most of the issue is actually just the setup for the battle itself, but this still counts as the first part of the storyline that will reshape the City of Tomorrow forever (in comic book terms, so "for a few months").

We start with Lex Luthor Jr. being interviewed on a panel-style TV show that conveniently recaps all the relevant plot points: Lex Jr. is at war with Project Cadmus because he blames them for the virus that's killing all the clones in Metropolis (including Lex Jr. himself, because he's actually Lex Sr. in a clone body). The Underworld clones living in Metropolis' sewers also blame Cadmus for their malaise and have been voicing their displeasure by breaking Cadmus shit all over the city, using big '90s-type weapons Lex secretly provided.

During the interview, Lex points out that Metropolis' so-called protector hasn't been terribly helpful during the current crisis, but that's because Superman's been occupied dealing with his power issues -- as in, his superpowers going out of whack, not that his landlord cut off his electricity or something. Fortunately, Superman managed to get rid of his excess powers last issue by just letting the Parasite absorb them (which turned the Parasite into a big-ass monster, but that's a problem for another storyline).

After recovering from his fight with the (now-missing) Parasite and confirming with Professor Hamilton that his powers are completely back to normal, Superman catches up with Lois Lane, who recently lost her job due to Lex's h4xx0r skillz. Talking to Lois, Superman finally learns the shocking truth about Lex Luthor Jr. = Lex Luthor Sr., and he also finally connects the dots between the clones of Metropolis getting sick and Lex suddenly looking old and frail.

When Superman goes to confront Lex, he sees that a kinkily dressed-Supergirl is about to kill him and has to stop her (see the Supergirl miniseries for more details on how the heck that happened).

Once Supergirl leaves, Superman goes after her, apparently forgetting what he came to LexCorp for (or deciding to give poor Lex a break, given his frail state). Lex's faithful medical team, Drs. Kelley and Packard, end up putting him in a "hyperbaric chamber"/big healing tube and chopper him to his private yacht so he can recover.

Meanwhile, the city is being evacuated and things are tense between the various groups that are supposed to protect it. A fight is about to break out between members of Team Luthor, the Special Crimes Unit, and Project Cadmus, when some nasty Underworlders suddenly emerge from the ground and attack the Cadmus guys. Superman drops by to reason with the Underworlders, and they actually seem to be listening to him... until Lex, from the safety of his yacht, remotely fires one of those sci-fi guns he gave the Underworlders, and all hell breaks loose. OK, now we can say the battle has started. TO BE CONTINUED!

Plotline-Watch:

We get an appearance from Jimmy Olsen's mom AND Bibbo in the same page?! Oh boy. Unfortunately, Jimmy himself appears too (along with Ron Troupe, both riding Bibbo's bike straight into the danger zone). Interesting that Jimmy has an Uncle Fred and Aunt Lynn in the city, yet he still ended up living in his car for a while. Is there a a deleted scene where he asked if he could crash with them and they just laughed for ten minutes?

Lex publicly blames Cadmus for destroying his private homes all over the world, but those who read the Supergirl mini know that was actually S-Girl subtly letting him know she's breaking up with him. Incidentally, in Supergirl #4, she actually throws Lex through his office's window and Superman rescues him, but in this issue, Superman arrives before she can throw him. Continuity error... or an anomaly caused by a certain time crisis looming in the horizon?!

When Superman is having his check-up with Professor Hamilton, he notices Hamilton seems distraught -- Hambone claims it's because of the chaos going on in the city, but I think it's clearly because Superman didn't even comment on the fact that he just dyed his hair brown at some point since his last appearance.

What with the city being under martial law and all, Perry White moves the Planet's city room to the newspaper's printing plant on the edge of town, and thinks to himself: "I've endured fires, blackouts, and riots, but I've never been forced to evacuate my own city room... until now." He might be talking about the fires, blackouts, and riots that happened during and around the "Blackout" storyline, when Metropolis was going through a Lex-triggered economic crisis.

Incidentally, Perry also seems to notice for the first time that all of the Planet's computer equipment was made by his biggest enemy's company, so he asks to see a test run of anything that's printed from now on. Don Sparrow says: "Interesting that Perry White, no longer a reporter, is the first to have the notion of checking the presses while investigating the wacky headlines Lois was purportedly creating. Lois and Clark are both intrepid newshounds, and neither of them thought of that? I suppose Clark was busy being enormous at the time."

Mayor Berkowitz, usually a level-headed chap, sides with Luthor and says on TV that Cadmus is intentionally creating all that chaos as revenge for that time he and Lex didn't let them steal Superman's corpse (during "Funeral for a Friend"). Surely this means Lex will finally forgive Berkowitz for having him arrested way back in The Man of Steel #4, right? (Spoilers: haha, no.)

I mentioned in our post about Man of Steel #33 that the nonchalant way in which Lois told Superman about Lex Jr. being a clone kinda bugged me. It was so nonchalant, in fact, that Superman didn't even seem to remember that bit of information in this issue, since he exclaims "What?!" when Lois mentions it again. Or maybe he thinks Lex Jr. being a clone was predictable but it's the part about him having Lex Sr.'s brain that took him by surprise? Either way, I'm actually glad we got a do-over on that moment, even if it still wasn't as dramatic as I would have hoped for.

Patreon-Watch:

This post was published today and not in like three months thanks to the Superman '86 to '99 Patreon gang, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, and Bol. You rule!

You know who also rules? Don Sparrow, who has more commentary on this issue after the jump...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start off with the cover, and it’s a very blocky, Kirby-like pose, of Superman fast-walking into gunfire.  I love the one eye in shadow, which gives the pose an intimidating and mysterious air we’re not used to seeing with Superman.  As always, Guice’s Superman seems to have the longest Tarzan locks (at least until Stuart Immonen joins the team) and that’s true here.

Inside the issue we get extremely '90s guest artwork by Norman Felchle and James Pascoe, and while it’s not my cup of tea, he is remarkably consistent throughout.  Felchle would go on to do storyboard work for Pixar, Netflix, Marvel and others, so hopefully he isn’t sweating the criticism from a never-was like myself! The opening splash page is a good example of the 90’s style “extreme” stylization, as we see a computer-generated Lex Junior with a big old curly tress blocking his eye.

The length of this stylization changes panel to panel.  We get more extreme linework a page later as Perry White’s disapproving expression makes his forehead look like cracking clay. [Max: Are we sure this isn't Darkseid posing as Perry as part of some nefarious plan?] After this argument, we get our first look at Superman himself, and it’s not bad overall—the S-shield is consistent throughout, and his wavy hair is well rendered.  One of the main things that bug me about this art style (apart from when he attempts regular clothing, but we’ll get to that) is that every male character has an identical nose, particularly from the front view.  Once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop seeing it. [Max: Dang, can't unsee it either.]

A few pages later, as Superman trails the Parasite underground, we get an example of Felchle’s penchant for perhaps-unnecessary detail.  Rather than the gritty cement he has at the top of the panel, the Metropolis sewer is drawn to have been made up of European cobblestone, which is both pleasing to look at, and an unlikely building material, especially some 20 feet below the ground.  Felchle does excel at motion—there’s a great image of Superman flying away from Professor Hamilton’s apartment.

It’s followed immediately, however, by the strange physics of Lois Lane dislodging a cathode ray television set with a couch pillow! The following page is the best example in the book of Felchle’s aforementioned weakest point—drawing regular humans in regular human fabric.  Lois’ green sweater clings in such an unnatural and revealing way to her body that it appears to be made of cellophane (there was a similar instance earlier in the book when a beat cop’s uniform appeared to have been painted on, and again in a few pages on poor old silver-haired Sarah Olsen). [Max: To be fair, Byrne did establish early on that Mrs. Olsen is actually pretty young and attractive, but her hair greyed prematurely.] Sadly for the industry, this kind of cheap fan service depiction of women would become the norm rather than the exception in the decade to come, but in this era, it is a real deviation from the naturalistic look we’ve gotten used to. 

A few pages later we get a tiny glimpse into the concurrently running Supergirl mini-series, where Superman talks Supergirl out of taking her vengeance on Lex Jr. too far.  This whole scene is a little blasé for my tastes, as the stuff Supergirl describes (attempted murder, cloning experiments) is as bad or worse than the stuff Lex Jr. has been pulling on Lois.  As Guardian looks for the Underworlders, we get still more of Felchle’s unique brickwork, this time above ground, at least.  Lastly, we get a pretty lean and mean Superman on the final couple of pages as the Underworlder/Cadmus conflict becomes a shooting war.  The three-fingered mutant firing on Superman recalls a couple Byrne panels, starting with flesh-suit Metallo getting (temporarily) blown away by S.W.A.T team members in Superman #1, and also Superman getting shot at by Bloodsport a few issues later in Superman #4. 

STRAY OBSERVATIONS: 

There’s just a ton of stories going on here, perhaps too many to comfortably deal with in a single issue.  We have the abrupt end of the Super-giant storyline (with no sighting of the Parasite that Superman crashed to Earth with), the who-cares war between Cadmus and the Underworlders [Max: I care, Don! I care!!], the Lois-bonkers headline storyline, the Lex-is-dying storyline, and then even a glimpse at Supergirl’s mini-series.  It’s no wonder this issue feels quite long, but also incomplete.

It’s nice to see a little more of the Daily Planet’s operations, but the introduction to plant manager Jeff (no last name) and Jane (no last name) are so quick, and staged so distantly, we really get no sense of them as people. [Max: Jane Stewart, Don! Big fan of Jane Stewart, who appears for all of three panels. I don't know if she ever shows up again, but I'm giving her a tag on the blog anyway.]

Without saying too much, they’re certainly telegraphing who the mole in Lex’s organization is.  Whenever this character appears in this issue they’re either admonishing Lex, or revealing details of Lex’s life to underlings.  The reveal they’re setting up for really doesn’t feel so shocking after all this. [Max: Is it Vekko? I bet it's Vekko.]

[you-have-been-frizzled]

heyy- I'm curious abt which headcanons do you have abt what would happen if Juline got hurt very badly / died and how would the rest of characters react. (sorry if it sounds dark D:)

*deep inhale* oh anon i don’t think you realized what you just signed up for. also NOTHING is too dark for me when it comes to fic ideas

i have spent years thinking about what would happen if Juline was taken prisoner by the Neverseen, and when i remembered that the collective had that mind wipe poison i just made it angster.

Kesler would shut down when she was captured going completely on autopilot because that way he didn’t have to think to feel to process what had happened

that the person who was apart of his life since he was teen, his best friend was gone he would have a planting for her because that’s what he was told to do, he just told himself that she was dead because if he didn’t all he would think about is the ways they where torturing her.

that didn’t change the fact that he kept expecting to wake up and find Juline laying beside him, and he could hold her and know that she was safe but she was never there,

Dex would stay up day after day refusing to believe that she was gone, insisting that he could find her. he would stay so long that he would start to hallucinate.

because if he stopped working for even a moment his mind would run wild, thinking of every possible way the Neverseen was hurting her. and he couldn’t take it,

Lovise would have to force him to go bed and even Tinker would send him home when they where searching for her and he was falling asleep at his desk. Tinker eventually just made him a spot in the corner of her workspace so she could put him there to sleep when he would black out.

he wouldn’t be focusing at school or at team valiant meetings, he would be angry and sassing everyone if they tried to speak to him. he blamed himself for what happened to his mom weather he was there or not

and more importantly that was his mom, and weather they where fighting or not, and he didn’t know how to live without her

and the triplets Lex wouldn’t fully understand she was gone, he would be checking at the widows, mistaking Edaline for Juline everytime she comes over before becoming crushed and looking out the window for Juline again,

Dex came back why wouldn’t she?

Bex doesn’t speak she barely makes a noise and just follows Dex around like a shadow, “helping” him with his search for their mom,

Rex wouldn’t leave his dad side because what if he goes missing too, what if he losing another parent,

they had already lost their brother once and got him back and now they lost their mom, and they don’t know if she’s going to come back

Edaline would lock herself away at first crying so hard she couldn’t breathe, or completely catatonic, she wouldn’t want to speak to anyone other than Grady because her little sister is gone,

she’s lost her daughter, almost lost her second daughter and now lost her sister,

one of the days Dex comes over with Sophie rambling in techospeak, about how he’s going to find Juline, Edaline comes downstairs to watch them work not wanting to be in bed any longer

Dex when he sees her and freezes for a moment, almost like he thinks that Edaline is his mom just for a moment,

she runs over and hugs him and they are both crying and Edaline decides right then and there that they she’s going to go over to Rimeshire and be with her sister’s kids

because that’s what Juline would have wanted, Edaline helps run slurps and burps as often as she can, so Kesler doesn’t have to deal with the cruel whispers 

Grady would be angry, at everything, not understanding why his family can’t catch a break? why must they lose everything? why are they not allowed to be happy?

he goes over to Rimeshire to be with Kesler, not wanting him to suffer alone, he lets Dex yell about the Neverseen and how they can’t leave their family alone, he makes sure the triplets are ok while their father is on autopilot.

he would be the one to go with Sophie to check on the councils search and the black swans, because he’s been through it before twice, and he’s going to be the strong one and he’s not going to cry

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Ok so a la Turnabout Goodbyes plot, in Smallville Lex has this whole little brother complex with Clark right, he meets Clark and just gloms on to him as a little bro like hey let me help you get that girl let me teach you how to tie a tie let me take you round in my fast car and it’s like ok maybe he’s just a Lonely Only Child but turns out? He had a little brother once. And that little brother died. And Lex was blamed for the baby’s death for years and years cause his dad found him standing over the cradle and Lex trauma blocked it all and couldn’t remember and thought he did hurt him but in an unanticipated break of kindness it turns out! He didn’t! He actually tried (but failed) to save the baby!! He loved his baby brother and never hurt him in his love, and the guilt!! Doesn’t belong to him!! He loved his brother!!

AHHHHHH HELLO???? SMALLVILLE WRITERS 🤝 ACE ATTORNEY WRITERS WHAT IF YOU BLACKED OUT AND BLAMED YOURSELF FOR YEARS FOR HURTING SOMEONE YOU LOVED BUT IT WASN'T TRUE YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG YOU TRIED TO SAVE THEM THE GUILT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE YOURS

Actively crying over this!! The relief of it all!!! The KINDNESS!!!! Ough ough they get it they Comprehend

[vampiregokudera]

Woooo got tagged in several lil posts by the lovely @roseandgold137 (thank you so much!!!) and i finally have online energy again :3

So i'm combining them all here :)

5 things i like:

1. My friends and my cat <3

2. Anime, art, music, fanfics, cosplay, comics, video games and all that good stuff

3. Sunflowers

4. With my dc fixation came a need to create spotify playlists which i have been enjoying immensly

5. My genshin slime pillows

---

Top 3 ships: if we're talking DC, TimKon (i will take the liberty to also include TimBer and TimBart in this spot), Superbat, CissieCassie and StephCass

First ship: Uhhhh not proud, but it was SasuSaku. I was like 11 at the time and didn't know non hetero stuff exists xD

Last song: At the time of writing - Dark side of your room by All Time Low

Last movie: in cinemas - Accros the Spiderverse. Otherwise One Piece RED. Both were amazing and mindblowing.

Currently reading: Fanfiction :D always have a couple tabs open to read when i find time.

Currently watching: One piece

Last thing i wrote: If we're talking last-published-online thing - the Paranormal Justice AU fic "We played Duolingo in a hounted house and THIS happened"

Currently writing: ...this'll be long

-More paranormal justice AU stuff - the main fic where they go to Wayne manor, their first hunt, their actual first hunt.

-DC zombie AU

-YJ neverland AU

-timkon fics "You can't be serious about this", "Not like this", "Burnt", The one where Lex throws Tim through a window (name pending), "The end of the world starts with handholding"

-timber fic "Noir"

-as of yet unnamed Tim centric fics - one is about a school skii trip that he uses as a cover to do hero work while he's benched, the other (inspired by Gotham Knights) about how Tim's and Jason's work dynamics clash so so much

- a yugioh fic that i will one day return to.

-KH fic "Neophyte" it's on major hiatus but i haven't given up on it.

----

First ten tracks on my spotify repeat playlist with shuffle on:

1. New genesis by Ado

2. Drive by The Wild Frontiers

3. Time by Holdfast.

4. Binkusuno sake by Ado

5. Mona Lisa by Dominic Fike

6. Wait a minute by Sub-Radio

7. Exposure by fin

8. Backlight by Ado (her songs slap ok?)

9. The quittin' kind by Eleisha Eagle

10. Sunflower cover by El HueyCoyote

----

Last song: already did this one :) but at this time it was Sleepwalking by All Time Low

Currently watching: besides One piece i'm on a mission to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I blame Superboy.

Currently reading: trying to find time to read Impulse and Superboy comics TT along with a million others

Last obsession: before dc it was hypnosis microphone. Kingdom Hearts and Naruto are always on standby mode tho.

Tagging @h3llomynameiskibs and anyone else who wants to join

Feel free to cherry pick which bits to answer ^^

[ladamedemartel]

Hope it’s ok to send random asks but I’m wondering does Aurora enjoy her birthdays? What are her favourite/least favourite parts about them

Random Asks

I'm always happy to get asks about Aurora! I'm just not very good about responding to them -pointedly looks away from the ask about her relationship with Lucien that's been sitting in my inbox for months-

Your question is also timely because Aurora's birthday is in about a month!

As a human, Aurora hated her birthday because her mother died giving birth to her, and she therefore blamed herself (I'm sure that the Count did as well). Aurora then spent her next hundred birthdays believing herself to be Rebekah. I think "hating" her birthday is something that helped Aurora distinguish "Aurora" from "Rebekah." I also think at that point it was difficult for her to know exactly when her birthday was, and to this day, Aurora does not know exactly when her birthday is except in very specific modern human verses where Aurora would absolutely be a basic birthday month type of princess. Honestly, it's a running joke on my blog at this point that if someone asks Aurora how old she is/when her birthday is, she just directs them to Tristan who does, in fact, know exactly when Aurora's birthday is. In verses with Lex, Tristan spoils Aurora excessively so she that is usually her favorite part of her birthday.

[teddyjamesro]

Here are my gay hatchetfield headcanons

Tom:

-Trans ftm, Hetero, he/him, he’s just a Guy. Pretty early transition, didn’t do hormone blockers, went on T at like 15-16 ish, got top surgery like right after he started T. He had a great family they were awesome.

Paul:

-Trans ftm, bi, he/him. I blame some of his appearance on him wanting to be as passing as possible and just a Normal Guy and the other half on his autism.

Emma:

-Trans mtf, unlabeled, she/her. She came out like after high school and transitioned pretty quietly. In love with her height

Ethan:

-Nonbinary, pan, they/them, has never made a decision in their fucking life and theyre totally fine with it would have it no other way

Lex:

-Cis, unlabeled, she/her. She just doesnt care

Alice:

-Cis, Lesbian, she/they. She knew from a like rly young age and just like never questioned it

Deb:

-Genderfluid, Lesbian, she/he/they. Just Doesnt Care she’ll j kinda go on with life not giving a shit

John MacNamara:

-Trans ftm, gay, he/him. Also new super young just didnt rush a transition since he was homeschooled in the PEIP base til he went to college

Xander:

-Cis, gay, he/him. Was in a lot of denial till his like sophomore year of highschool and he got like adopted from a lot of gay theater and sciences kids and was just like yeah ok

(Becky is a cishet dont come for me she definitely is a She/Her/Hers girly)

I will fight all of these done come for me also I’ll do more if I want to

[mrhowells]

Smallville 2x23

Hiiiiii Jor-El welcome to the circus (just kidding (not really))

I respect the hell out of Helen honestly.

Ok Jor-El is NOT off to a good start🤨

I have a very vague idea of what's about to happen here and I'm😬😬

I'll take pissed off Chloe over heartbroken, pining Chloe any day.

oh boy.

Clark is about to go full emo god this hurts

fuck fuck fuck I knew this would happen but FUUUUUCK

Ok I think I regret that statement about pissed off Chloe, wtf is she doing with Lionel

Marthaaaaaa😭😭😭

NOT THE MOTORCYCLE💀💀 DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH RN THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE SERIOUS😭 IF HE PUTS THE SUNGLASSES ON I'M GOING TO LOSE IT

HE DID IT STOOOOOP

I'm an asshole💀

Ok what happened with Lex and Helen, I'm suddenly doubting her🤨 Istg the Luthor family is the reason I have these trust issues.

I blame Jor-El for this mess.

[clarklexlois]

Okay possibly #unpopularsmallvilleopinion : Oliver is a sociopath, a bully, and a murderer (he literally murdered Lex TWICE), and yet the writers painted him as a hero while Lex is painted as the antichrist. I get in a fight with someone in a Smallville group every day about this because apparently, Oliver can do no wrong because he's so dreamy or something, idk. I can't figure out the cognitive dissonance attached to him, honestly....

OK I SOOO AGREE. I have beef with Oliver (tho he’s quite grown on me) for these reasons. Well, specifically with how he treats Lex. If Oliver felt bad about being a bully maybe I’d be less critical, but even as adults he still taunts Lex and blames him for the death of his friend (which was caused by Lex wanting to fit in with the cool kids which wouldn’t have even been a problem if Oliver and his friends didn’t make fun of him everyday 🙄). He’s also just rude to Lex in general when Lex hasn’t really done anything to Oliver that I can specifically remember, in fact Lex really just wants to be left alone.

He’s definitely a murder, and while I don’t forgive him for killing Lex he did have a whole depressive period about it and was “haunted” by his actions. (Not letting him off the hook I’m just pointing out his “regret”). His depressive arc only serves to show how much of a dick Clark was to Lex tho, forgiving Oliver for all the things he’s done and telling him he’ll be there for him, but when it was Lex in a similar situation he would only berate him and tell him he’s not trying hard enough. Which causes me to resent Oliver but in this case it’s because I think Lex deserved better treatment from Clark as well.

But yeah overall Oliver is painted as a hero worthy of redemption and Lex is tainted and destined for corruption 🤧

[jcmarchi]

Getting A-Ok with AI - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/getting-a-ok-with-ai-technology-org/

Getting A-Ok with AI - Technology Org

In June, a federal judge fined two New York accident attorneys for submitting fake legal history in documents supporting an aviation injury claim. The lawyers blamed the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT for developing bogus judicial opinions and citations.

For some time now, AI-assisted technologies like ChatGPT have been transforming industries across the board including the legal profession.

With its ability to process large volumes of data far beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, AI is helping lawyers when it comes to electronic discovery, vastly speeding up the process of collecting, exchanging and reviewing information related to specific cases — especially when it comes to reviewing hundreds of documents.

Law practices also are using AI tools for document management, due diligence, litigation analysis and more. For example, litigation analytics by judge, firm, etc., are available on places like Lex Machina. And other AI tools are helping with research tasks, even reviewing lawyers’ draft briefs and suggesting new cases.

Now, at USC Gould, AI is becoming more present in the classroom in both curricula and as a teaching tool.

“Probably a quarter of USC law faculty are experimenting with ChatGPT in the classroom,” says Professor D. Daniel Sokol, the Carolyn Craig Franklin Chair in Law and professor of law and business.

“The general-purpose technology of AI is being applied across areas of law and different functions within law,” Sokol adds. “And like most law schools, we’ve had offerings here and there that focus on AI-related issues, but not in a comprehensive way.

“We’re now trying to achieve this with our curriculum. The idea is to create a greater sense of coherence both in our existing course offerings and what we need to do to fill in gaps when it comes to AI.”

Two New AI Offerings

In May 2023, USC Gould began offering a Master of Science in Innovation Economics, Law and Regulation (MIELR).

The joint course with USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences’ Department of Economics is a STEM-designed course about big data and machine-learning innovation through the lens of antitrust privacy, data security and intellectual property law.

And now in the works is a new AI minor for undergrads.

“If not the first, it will be among the first course of its kind,” Sokol says.

Undergraduate students began enrolling in a data analytics class this fall to apply toward the new minor, expected to launch in Spring 2024. Students in the JD program also will be able to enroll in a new data analytics course in 2024.

“We want to be thought leaders in the AI space — innovators on the teaching and the research side,” he says.

Many Questions Remain

How big has AI become?

No greater authority than Pope Francis has come out with a warning about the need to be vigilant about its use, saying it must be used ethically. He specifically called out the fields of education and law in remarks he made this summer.

“The Catholic Church has 1.2 billion people under its jurisdiction,” Sokol notes. “For most of these people, these guidelines are like binding law even though they aren’t binding law.”

Professor Jef Pearlman, director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic (IPTLC) at USC and a clinical associate professor of law, says AI touches vast of areas of law.

“Certainly, IP is a big one,” says Pearlman, noting a flurry of recent lawsuits involving AI and intellectual property.

At least one person has filed a patent application on behalf of AI as the sole inventor, Pearlman says. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the concept. That same person also tried to register a copyright on behalf of an AI tool. The copyright office and a federal court both turned down that request, saying human authorship is required. But just how much human inventorship or authorship is required is still an open question.

Regulation remains a big question when it comes to AI and the law, Pearlman and Sokol agree. Questions about central regulation vs. companies relying on self-regulation have been asked in many areas of law, and are now being considered in the context of AI, the professors say.

“It’s both old and new at the same time,” Sokol says. For now, USC Gould will focus on the best ways to equip its students to answer these and other questions when it comes to AI.

Says Sokol: “We’re trying to make AI more relevant in a way that faculty and students understand the value and the problems of this technology when it comes to legal processes and outcomes — both the costs and the benefits.

“AI matters now and is going to matter more, so we should get ahead of this.”

Source: USC

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

[faker-aus]

Ok you asked for it, heres my incoherent ideas about Starkid shows and Sonic

Starship with Metal Sonic as Bug, Sage as Roach, and Sonic +CO as the Starship Rangers (blame this one on all of the organic Metal Sonic stuff I've been reading recently)

I really want to think of a Holy Musical Batman AU but I don't think that would work lol (it would be super funny tho)

Black Friday with Eggman as Uncle Wiley, Sonic as Lex, Tails as Hannah (I really want to say Vector and Vanilla as Tom and Becky tbh) (wait can you imagine Vanilla in this part omg)

I wonder how Nerdy Prudes Must Die would work

OKAY SO STARSHIP BADNIKS ARE MUTUALLY AGREED UPON COOL

i need to rewatch holy musical b@man but i could probably figure smth out??

we have the EXACT same idea for black friday too lmao, if this were to fall in the "same universe" as thwdlm (we all know hatchetfield is never the same universe lol) then shadow and rouge get to be paul and emma again, tho with a sibling dynamic instead of romance again. also i feel like tikal could be webby??? just gotta figure out the lib

and i've been thinking abt a npmd sonic for a while now!! hear me out. can we please please please let this be the diamond cutters. or like the restoration in general.

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] History of Doom (More hidden recording devices than even the NSA is willing to use)

[All images are owned by DC Comics and Warner Bros. Discovery. Please don’t sue me]

The final episode of Challenge of the Superfriends ends on a sorta-kinda high note. It’s another episode (kind of) dealing with time travel and visiting the origins of a few characters, in this case Lex Luthor, Apache Chief, and Giganta. We also see what would happen if the Legion of Doom actually won.

(Thanks to Pro Wrestling Fandom)

They get the tag team titles!

Wait...

Dammit, wrong LoD again!

Anyway, if you would like to see the original review, you may do so here. If you would like to watch the episode, Watch Cartoons Online has you covered!

We open on the ruins of Earth (with a montage of devastation worldwide), where we see this cheery headline.

It’s nice to know newspaper editors have their priorities straight. I can totally see Perry White at the Daily Planet screaming at his staff: “I don’t care that the world will end at dawn! We’ve got to get the Morning Edition out!”

Anyway, three aliens land in the ruins and start investigating how Earth came to be destroyed.

You can tell they’re aliens by their weird robes and the fact that their leader must be using some sort of futuristic mustache wax to get that much facial hair to suspend itself like that.

They eventually find their way to the Hall of Justice, which one of them recognize (though they don’t recall the name of the “group of super beings” that occupied it. Maybe their records keep mixing up Superfriends and Justice League as well?) They deduce that the Superfriends (or at least their records) will likely know what happened.

While searching through the remnants of the Hall of Justice’s computer, they stumble across Superman’s final recording, pinning the blame on the Legion of Doom. The aliens have never heard of them (THAT will be a blow to Lex Luthor’s ghosts’s ego!) so they check other parts of the computer’s damaged memory banks (that’s what they used before hard drives, kids!) to find out who the Legion of Doom are. I want to also point out that, once again, the writers, much like the aliens, can’t decide how the Superfriends are connected to the JLA, as the computer refers to the recordings as “Justice League memory files”

They stumble across Lex Luthor’s origins, and how he befriended Superboy.

[As a side note, ever since his creation in the 1940s, Lex Luthor has always been a redhead whenever he had hair, including on Smallville. (The movies don’t count, as he was wearing a wig by then). Nice to know DC reinforced the stereotype that gingers are evil]

When he saw that Lex’s makeshift lab was on fire, he used his super breath to put out the flames.

Unfortunately, Lex was inside and the chemical fumes were blown into him, making him lose his hair. He vowed revenge on Superboy and became a super villain (I guess bald jokes were more vicious than ginger jokes back then?)

[OK, I’m gonna hit the pause button here. During this origin, we have video documentation of Lex’s farm and Lex’s lab. Was the NSA keeping tabs on young Lex even back then?]

Next up, we have Giganta. (that’s quite a step down from Luthor. Were the tapes of the Riddler, Toyman, and Solomon Grundy destroyed?) Once again, the NSA recording devices are evident, this time on a Native American (I’m assuming Apache, since Apache Chief is involved) reservation. Exactly who are they keeping tabs on here?

(Thanks to Super Friends)

I know, not much of an origin story.

Next we see the origin of the Justice League Superfriends and the Legion of Doom. Superman pretty much gathers the heroes together and says they’re now Superfriends.

(Thanks to SuperVillainTelevision)

(OK, Superfriends debuted in 1973 (the clips didn’t have Wendy, Marvin, or Wonder Dog?), but the Legion of Doom wouldn’t start trouble until 1978. What were they doing for 5 years?!)  

We are then treated to highlights of previous episodes (obviously the animation budget was running low by now) that show the Legion winning just before the moment the deus ex Supershit kicked in...

...but no mention of what happened to the Earth. The aliens decide to find the Hall of Doom to investigate further.

Fortunately, the memory tapes told them exactly where to go. (So even though the Superfriends knew exactly where the Hall of Doom was (thanks to the NSA), they never once laid siege to it to capture the Legion?!) They find the memory taps and review “Attack Plan 1566″. (so they’ve come up with 1,565 plans that didn’t work? I think this would be beyond the point most would call it quits. At least they have tenacity)

Luthor plans on sending a rocket to the sun, (wouldn’t it burn up before it got there?) which will cause a solar flare aimed right at the Hall of Justice. ("How?” you ask? Trust me, that is the least confusing part of this plan)

The rocket reaches the sun in seconds. (those are some advanced engines on that rocket! You know, if this Luthor was the industrialist that post-Crisis Luthor was, he’d make billions off of NASA instead of slumming with a bunch of second- and third-rate villains no one heard of before this show started) Fortunately, the Superfriends have time to evacuate (ya think? I mean, it is traveling 93 million miles...), or would if Superman didn’t want to grandstand and take care of it himself. (can’t blame him. Thanks to the restrictions placed on cartoon violence, he hasn’t been able to punch anything for most of the season)

However, Luthor’s rocket (that should’ve melted by now) has a device that changes the sun’s color to red as Superman approaches the flare, robbing Superman of his powers! (you’d think Luthor would have done that earlier; also, the NSA has cameras not only in the Hall of Doom, but outer space as well? Exactly who are they spying on out there?!)

Superman somehow (given he no longer is able to fly...or breathe in space for that matter...) manages to get back to the Hall of Justice. (and no one has evacuated yet)

Green Lantern then activates the global force field (doesn’t he have an all-powerful ring that will do whatever he wants against anything that isn’t yellow? The sun’s red now, right?) which reacts to the flare, causing global devastation   (which the NSA happily records for posterity)

The aliens decide to go back in time to prevent the events of the episode from happening (wait, this takes place after Secret Origins of the Superfriends, which means not only is it documented that Flash and Black Vulcan can travel through time, but the Legion have their own time machine and Batman has Wayne Enterprises’ experimental Bat Flux Capacitor! They could have traveled back in time themselves to stop this!)...

...by shifting the moon’s orbit enough to cause an eclipse (why didn’t Superman think of that?)

The Superfriends cheer their good luck at the Legion’s miscalculation...

...when Luthor interjects (wait, so he can hack into the NSA recording devices in the Hall of Justice? And don’t even try to pretend the NSA wouldn’t have recording devices keeping tabs on them!) and says he didn’t miscalculate!

Kind of a fitting way for Challenge to end (this was the final episode of this Superfriends series, and the last original episode until Legendary Super Powers)

[st4rryspace]

ok ok, um, the art is under the cut, but it contains some unreality and that kind of stuff, so I've tagged accordingly. however, if you do look at the art, there's some explanation about the art and why I made it and stuff under the art, so yeah. read it. or not. I'm just some text, not a cop /ref.

[ a little elaboration on this : we sometimes love aus so much from some people, (or not even that much, but at least a considerable amount) that we get fictives from them, and it’s kind of funny how these people might not even realize they might be talking to their own character/a character of an alternate universe they've created. for example; you’re now talking to lex, a fictive of the fusion of Emmet, Rex and Lucy that @/thinknamewhat created :]. So as you might notice by now, (or not, I won't blame you if you didn't catch on) this is mostly directed at @/burgycreeper405-blog & @/thinknamewhat. This was the thing that I said was directed art at specific people. ] -lex

so that’s enough rambling! /lh

um, also don't necessarily treat us as our source and we're all good! Yeah, just wanted to share that with you all! Uh, have a great timezone I guess :D -hunter

hope this all made a bit of sense! brain is a bit blehg rn if u know what I mean -

[grad502-sachawoudenberg]

Research

Lex Fridman (2022, June 5). Jonathan Haidt: The Case Against Social Media | Lex Fridman Podcast #291 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0un-l1L8Zw "Social media has both the power to destroy our society and to help it to flourish. It's up to us to figure out how to take the latter path." Haidt, J. (2022). Teen Mental Health Is Plummeting, and Social Media is a Major Contributing Cause. https://jonathanhaidt.com/social-media/

2.1 Correlational studies consistently show a link between heavy social media use and mood disorders, but the size of the relationship is disputed. See the studies in section 1.1 of the review. Nearly all studies find a correlation, and it is usually curvilinear. That is, moving from no social media use to one or two hours a day is often not associated with an increase in poor mental health, but as usage rises to 3 or 4 hours a day, the increases in mental illness often become quite sharp. You can see this pattern below in two studies, the first from the USA, the second from the UK.

2.8. The “eyewitness testimony” confirms the academic findings: social media is a culprit. Section 4 of the Social Media collaborative review collects studies that have directly asked teens what they think is going on. Teens often say that they enjoy social media while they are using it –– which is something heroin users are likely to say too. The more important question is whether the teens themselves think that social media is, overall, good for their mental health. The answer is consistently “no.” Facebook’s own internal research, brought out by Frances Haugen in the Wall Street Journal, concluded that “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression … This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.

This crisis did not emerge gradually. There was no sign of it before 2010, but by 2015 it was everywhere, overwhelming mental health centers that catered to teens and college students. The crisis emerged in the exact years when American teens were getting smart phones and becoming daily users of social media platforms such as Instagram. Correlational, experimental, and eye-witness testimony points to social media as a major cause of the crisis. I do not believe that social media is the only cause of the crisis, but there is no alternative hypothesis that can explain the suddenness, enormity, and international similarity that I laid out in part 1 of this document. Researchers and spokespeople for the major platforms who tell you that the evidence is “inconclusive” or that the effect sizes are “too small” should be asked directly: “OK, then what do YOU think caused this?”

[lilacsandmarigold]

Yeah I have no excuse