#Data Historian Market

[cybersecurityict]

Data Historian Market Size, Share, Analysis, Forecast, Growth 2032: Strategic Developments and M&A Trends

Data Historian Market was worth USD 1.29 billion in 2023 and is predicted to be worth USD 2.26 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.54% between 2024 and 2032.

The Data Historian Market is undergoing a rapid transformation driven by increasing demand for real-time data collection, analysis, and operational insights across industries. Organizations in manufacturing, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, energy, and utilities are leveraging data historian solutions to streamline processes and improve decision-making. These systems enable seamless data logging from multiple sources, offering long-term data storage and facilitating compliance, performance monitoring, and predictive analytics.

Data Historian Market is further gaining momentum due to the rise of Industry 4.0, IoT integration, and digital transformation initiatives. As businesses strive for smarter, connected, and automated operations, data historian systems are becoming indispensable. The growing emphasis on process optimization, equipment efficiency, and energy management contributes to the expanding footprint of this market across both developed and emerging economies.

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Market Keyplayers:

Inductive Automation

Inductive Automation, LLC

ABB

InfluxData Inc.

SORBA.ai

AVEVA

Rockwell Automation

PTC

Honeywell

Siemens

IBM

Emerson

Open Automation Software

Market Analysis

The global Data Historian Market is characterized by the presence of key industry players offering a wide range of on-premise and cloud-based solutions. The demand is being fueled by industries with complex process environments that rely heavily on historical data for real-time decision-making. Moreover, the need for scalable, secure, and interoperable systems has prompted innovation and product differentiation among vendors.

The competitive landscape includes both established corporations and emerging tech companies. Strategic partnerships, R&D investments, and acquisitions are frequent, as market participants seek to enhance capabilities, geographic reach, and technological expertise. As enterprises prioritize operational intelligence and sustainability, data historian platforms are playing a central role in digital ecosystems.

Market Trends

Increasing adoption of cloud-based historian solutions

Integration of AI and machine learning for enhanced data insights

Rising demand for scalable and interoperable systems

Shift from traditional SCADA to advanced analytics platforms

Emphasis on cybersecurity and data integrity

Proliferation of IoT devices and edge computing

Focus on industry-specific customization and modular offerings

Market Scope

The market encompasses a wide spectrum of industries including manufacturing, energy, utilities, oil & gas, chemicals, water treatment, and food & beverage. These sectors require robust data historian systems to ensure operational continuity, regulatory compliance, and safety. The market scope also includes software, services, and platforms that offer seamless integration with existing industrial infrastructure.

Data historian solutions are applicable across diverse process environments—from batch processing to continuous operations—offering high-frequency data collection, contextualization, and visualization. With the evolution of digital twin technology and smart factory frameworks, the role of data historians is becoming increasingly vital in predictive maintenance and process automation strategies.

Market Forecast

The Data Historian Market is poised for sustained growth, driven by digital maturity, rising data volumes, and an increasing need for real-time insights. As industries accelerate their shift toward connected ecosystems and industrial intelligence, data historian platforms are expected to evolve into more intelligent, cloud-native, and AI-driven solutions. These advancements will pave the way for autonomous operations and data-centric business models.

With emerging markets expanding their industrial infrastructure and developed economies upgrading legacy systems, the global adoption of data historian solutions will continue to rise. Vendors focusing on vertical-specific solutions, enhanced user experience, and integration with broader enterprise systems will gain a competitive edge in this evolving landscape.

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Conclusion

In a world where data is the new currency of industrial growth, the Data Historian Market stands at the forefront of enabling intelligent, agile, and efficient operations. Its future lies not only in storing the past but in powering tomorrow’s innovations. Businesses ready to harness the potential of historical data will be best positioned to lead the next wave of industrial excellence.

About Us:

SNS Insider is one of the leading market research and consulting agencies that dominates the market research industry globally. Our company's aim is to give clients the knowledge they require in order to function in changing circumstances. In order to give you current, accurate market data, consumer insights, and opinions so that you can make decisions with confidence, we employ a variety of techniques, including surveys, video talks, and focus groups around the world.

Contact Us:

Jagney Dave - Vice President of Client Engagement

Phone: +1-315 636 4242 (US) | +44- 20 3290 5010 (UK)

[differenttimemachinecrusade]

Data Historian Market Landscape: Opportunities and Competitive Insights 2032

Data Historian Market was worth USD 1.29 billion in 2023 and is predicted to be worth USD 2.26 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 6.54% between 2024 and 2032

The data historian market is witnessing rapid growth due to the increasing demand for real-time data collection, storage, and analysis across industries. As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, the need for scalable and efficient data management solutions has surged. Organizations are leveraging data historians to optimize operations, improve decision-making, and enhance regulatory compliance.

The data historian market continues to expand as industries such as manufacturing, oil & gas, energy, and pharmaceuticals rely on high-speed data acquisition and retrieval. With the rise of IoT, cloud computing, and AI-driven analytics, companies are seeking advanced data historian solutions to manage vast amounts of time-series data. These platforms enable businesses to monitor equipment performance, detect anomalies, and drive predictive maintenance, leading to improved operational efficiency and cost savings.

Get Sample Copy of This Report: https://www.snsinsider.com/sample-request/3569 

Market Keyplayers:

Inductive Automation

Inductive Automation

LLC

ABB

InfluxData Inc.

SORBA.ai

AVEVA

Rockwell Automation

PTC

Honeywell

Siemens

IBM

Emerson

Open Automation Software

Market Trends Driving Growth

1. Rising Adoption of Industrial IoT (IIoT) and Industry 4.0

As industries move towards automation, IIoT-enabled devices are generating massive volumes of real-time data. Data historian systems play a crucial role in capturing and analyzing this information, supporting smart manufacturing and digital twin applications.

2. Integration with AI and Advanced Analytics

Data historian platforms are increasingly integrating with AI and machine learning algorithms to enable predictive analytics. Businesses can leverage these insights to prevent downtime, optimize production processes, and enhance overall efficiency.

3. Shift Towards Cloud-Based Data Historian Solutions

With enterprises adopting cloud computing, cloud-based data historian solutions are gaining traction. These platforms offer scalability, remote accessibility, and enhanced security, making them a preferred choice over traditional on-premise systems.

4. Regulatory Compliance and Data Security

Industries such as pharmaceuticals, energy, and food processing must comply with strict regulations. Data historians help organizations maintain accurate, tamper-proof records to ensure regulatory compliance and data integrity.

5. Increasing Demand for Edge Computing

Edge computing is transforming data historian systems by enabling real-time data processing at the source. This reduces latency, enhances response times, and minimizes bandwidth consumption for critical industrial applications.

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Market Segmentation:

By Type

Software

Services

By Deployment  

Cloud

On-premises

By Enterprise Size

Small And Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Large Enterprises

By End-use

Oil & Gas

Marine

Chemicals And Petrochemicals

Metal and Mining

Power & Utility

Market Analysis and Current Landscape

Manufacturing: Real-time production monitoring and process optimization

Oil & Gas: Equipment performance tracking and predictive maintenance

Energy & Utilities: Grid monitoring and asset management

Pharmaceuticals: Compliance with data integrity regulations and quality control

Despite its rapid growth, the market faces challenges such as high initial costs, integration complexities, and cybersecurity risks. However, ongoing advancements in AI, edge computing, and blockchain are helping address these concerns, making data historian solutions more robust and secure.

Regional Analysis

The adoption of data historian systems varies across regions, with North America leading due to its strong industrial base and high investment in digital transformation.

North America: The largest market, driven by the presence of leading industrial players and high adoption of IIoT and AI technologies.

Europe: Significant growth due to stringent regulatory compliance requirements in sectors like pharmaceuticals and energy.

Asia-Pacific: The fastest-growing region, fueled by rapid industrialization, smart manufacturing initiatives, and increasing investments in automation.

Middle East & Africa: Rising adoption in oil & gas and energy sectors, where real-time data monitoring is crucial for operational efficiency.

Key Factors Driving Market Expansion

Rising Demand for Real-Time Data Analysis: Industries are shifting towards real-time monitoring and decision-making, increasing the adoption of data historian solutions.

Advancements in Big Data and AI Technologies: Enhanced analytics capabilities are improving the efficiency and accuracy of data historian systems.

Expansion of Smart Manufacturing Initiatives: Governments and enterprises are investing in Industry 4.0 technologies, boosting market demand.

Growing Focus on Cybersecurity and Data Governance: Secure and compliant data storage is becoming a priority for industries handling critical infrastructure.

Future Prospects: What Lies Ahead?

The data historian market is expected to witness continuous innovation and expansion in the coming years.

1. AI-Driven Data Historian Systems

Future data historian solutions will leverage AI for predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and automated decision-making, reducing operational risks.

2. Hybrid Cloud Solutions for Enhanced Flexibility

Hybrid cloud architectures will become the preferred model, combining the security of on-premise storage with the scalability of cloud platforms.

3. Blockchain for Data Integrity and Security

Blockchain technology will enhance data security and traceability, ensuring tamper-proof records for industries requiring strict regulatory compliance.

4. IoT-Enabled Smart Factories

Data historians will play a critical role in IoT-powered smart factories, enabling real-time insights for process optimization and automation.

5. Expansion in Emerging Markets

Developing countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa will drive future market growth as they invest in industrial automation and smart infrastructure.

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Conclusion

The data historian market is on an accelerated growth path, fueled by the increasing need for real-time data management, industrial automation, and digital transformation. As businesses prioritize AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity, data historian solutions will continue to evolve, offering more intelligent and efficient data analytics capabilities. With ongoing advancements and expanding market opportunities, the industry is set to play a crucial role in shaping the future of industrial data management.

About Us:

SNS Insider is one of the leading market research and consulting agencies that dominates the market research industry globally. Our company's aim is to give clients the knowledge they require in order to function in changing circumstances. In order to give you current, accurate market data, consumer insights, and opinions so that you can make decisions with confidence, we employ a variety of techniques, including surveys, video talks, and focus groups around the world.

Contact Us:

Jagney Dave - Vice President of Client Engagement

Phone: +1-315 636 4242 (US) | +44- 20 3290 5010 (UK)

[phantomrose96]

If anyone wants to know why every tech company in the world right now is clamoring for AI like drowned rats scrabbling to board a ship, I decided to make a post to explain what's happening.

(Disclaimer to start: I'm a software engineer who's been employed full time since 2018. I am not a historian nor an overconfident Youtube essayist, so this post is my working knowledge of what I see around me and the logical bridges between pieces.)

Okay anyway. The explanation starts further back than what's going on now. I'm gonna start with the year 2000. The Dot Com Bubble just spectacularly burst. The model of "we get the users first, we learn how to profit off them later" went out in a no-money-having bang (remember this, it will be relevant later). A lot of money was lost. A lot of people ended up out of a job. A lot of startup companies went under. Investors left with a sour taste in their mouth and, in general, investment in the internet stayed pretty cooled for that decade. This was, in my opinion, very good for the internet as it was an era not suffocating under the grip of mega-corporation oligarchs and was, instead, filled with Club Penguin and I Can Haz Cheezburger websites.

Then around the 2010-2012 years, a few things happened. Interest rates got low, and then lower. Facebook got huge. The iPhone took off. And suddenly there was a huge new potential market of internet users and phone-havers, and the cheap money was available to start backing new tech startup companies trying to hop on this opportunity. Companies like Uber, Netflix, and Amazon either started in this time, or hit their ramp-up in these years by shifting focus to the internet and apps.

Now, every start-up tech company dreaming of being the next big thing has one thing in common: they need to start off by getting themselves massively in debt. Because before you can turn a profit you need to first spend money on employees and spend money on equipment and spend money on data centers and spend money on advertising and spend money on scale and and and

But also, everyone wants to be on the ship for The Next Big Thing that takes off to the moon.

So there is a mutual interest between new tech companies, and venture capitalists who are willing to invest $$$ into said new tech companies. Because if the venture capitalists can identify a prize pig and get in early, that money could come back to them 100-fold or 1,000-fold. In fact it hardly matters if they invest in 10 or 20 total bust projects along the way to find that unicorn.

But also, becoming profitable takes time. And that might mean being in debt for a long long time before that rocket ship takes off to make everyone onboard a gazzilionaire.

But luckily, for tech startup bros and venture capitalists, being in debt in the 2010's was cheap, and it only got cheaper between 2010 and 2020. If people could secure loans for ~3% or 4% annual interest, well then a $100,000 loan only really costs $3,000 of interest a year to keep afloat. And if inflation is higher than that or at least similar, you're still beating the system.

So from 2010 through early 2022, times were good for tech companies. Startups could take off with massive growth, showing massive potential for something, and venture capitalists would throw infinite money at them in the hopes of pegging just one winner who will take off. And supporting the struggling investments or the long-haulers remained pretty cheap to keep funding.

You hear constantly about "Such and such app has 10-bazillion users gained over the last 10 years and has never once been profitable", yet the thing keeps chugging along because the investors backing it aren't stressed about the immediate future, and are still banking on that "eventually" when it learns how to really monetize its users and turn that profit.

The pandemic in 2020 took a magnifying-glass-in-the-sun effect to this, as EVERYTHING was forcibly turned online which pumped a ton of money and workers into tech investment. Simultaneously, money got really REALLY cheap, bottoming out with historic lows for interest rates.

Then the tide changed with the massive inflation that struck late 2021. Because this all-gas no-brakes state of things was also contributing to off-the-rails inflation (along with your standard-fare greedflation and price gouging, given the extremely convenient excuses of pandemic hardships and supply chain issues). The federal reserve whipped out interest rate hikes to try to curb this huge inflation, which is like a fire extinguisher dousing and suffocating your really-cool, actively-on-fire party where everyone else is burning but you're in the pool. And then they did this more, and then more. And the financial climate followed suit. And suddenly money was not cheap anymore, and new loans became expensive, because loans that used to compound at 2% a year are now compounding at 7 or 8% which, in the language of compounding, is a HUGE difference. A $100,000 loan at a 2% interest rate, if not repaid a single cent in 10 years, accrues to $121,899. A $100,000 loan at an 8% interest rate, if not repaid a single cent in 10 years, more than doubles to $215,892.

Now it is scary and risky to throw money at "could eventually be profitable" tech companies. Now investors are watching companies burn through their current funding and, when the companies come back asking for more, investors are tightening their coin purses instead. The bill is coming due. The free money is drying up and companies are under compounding pressure to produce a profit for their waiting investors who are now done waiting.

You get enshittification. You get quality going down and price going up. You get "now that you're a captive audience here, we're forcing ads or we're forcing subscriptions on you." Don't get me wrong, the plan was ALWAYS to monetize the users. It's just that it's come earlier than expected, with way more feet-to-the-fire than these companies were expecting. ESPECIALLY with Wall Street as the other factor in funding (public) companies, where Wall Street exhibits roughly the same temperament as a baby screaming crying upset that it's soiled its own diaper (maybe that's too mean a comparison to babies), and now companies are being put through the wringer for anything LESS than infinite growth that Wall Street demands of them.

Internal to the tech industry, you get MASSIVE wide-spread layoffs. You get an industry that used to be easy to land multiple job offers shriveling up and leaving recent graduates in a desperately awful situation where no company is hiring and the market is flooded with laid-off workers trying to get back on their feet.

Because those coin-purse-clutching investors DO love virtue-signaling efforts from companies that say "See! We're not being frivolous with your money! We only spend on the essentials." And this is true even for MASSIVE, PROFITABLE companies, because those companies' value is based on the Rich Person Feeling Graph (their stock) rather than the literal profit money. A company making a genuine gazillion dollars a year still tears through layoffs and freezes hiring and removes the free batteries from the printer room (totally not speaking from experience, surely) because the investors LOVE when you cut costs and take away employee perks. The "beer on tap, ping pong table in the common area" era of tech is drying up. And we're still unionless.

Never mind that last part.

And then in early 2023, AI (more specifically, Chat-GPT which is OpenAI's Large Language Model creation) tears its way into the tech scene with a meteor's amount of momentum. Here's Microsoft's prize pig, which it invested heavily in and is galivanting around the pig-show with, to the desperate jealousy and rapture of every other tech company and investor wishing it had that pig. And for the first time since the interest rate hikes, investors have dollar signs in their eyes, both venture capital and Wall Street alike. They're willing to restart the hose of money (even with the new risk) because this feels big enough for them to take the risk.

Now all these companies, who were in varying stages of sweating as their bill came due, or wringing their hands as their stock prices tanked, see a single glorious gold-plated rocket up out of here, the likes of which haven't been seen since the free money days. It's their ticket to buy time, and buy investors, and say "see THIS is what will wring money forth, finally, we promise, just let us show you."

To be clear, AI is NOT profitable yet. It's a money-sink. Perhaps a money-black-hole. But everyone in the space is so wowed by it that there is a wide-spread and powerful conviction that it will become profitable and earn its keep. (Let's be real, half of that profit "potential" is the promise of automating away jobs of pesky employees who peskily cost money.) It's a tech-space industrial revolution that will automate away skilled jobs, and getting in on the ground floor is the absolute best thing you can do to get your pie slice's worth.

It's the thing that will win investors back. It's the thing that will get the investment money coming in again (or, get it second-hand if the company can be the PROVIDER of something needed for AI, which other companies with venture-back will pay handsomely for). It's the thing companies are terrified of missing out on, lest it leave them utterly irrelevant in a future where not having AI-integration is like not having a mobile phone app for your company or not having a website.

So I guess to reiterate on my earlier point:

Drowned rats. Swimming to the one ship in sight.

[fanganfessions]

Something I find hilarious about Damon, is just how he's completely wrong about talents. His isn't better than everyone else's. Its probably on the same level as most of them.

Jean has to know first-aid, weather patterns, memorise multiple sea routes, keep group morale high and actually save people from drowning in order to qualify as an Ultimate. Diana has to have the skill to be able to instantly identify what kinds of makeup looks good on her client, probably transform people's faces into something entirely different, and make sure to never make a mistake as she'd have to redo everything. Her eye for detail isn't something you'd find everywhere. Heck, even Kai has to memorise algorithm trends, do partnerships and such, and according to his FTEs, he manufactured an entire zeitgeist from one account, when he was doing an online marketing job his coworkers were cheating off of (even Damon thinks this is impressive), and also influenced the marketing strategies of companies that try to seem more "friendly" and "casual" on social media accounts. Wolfgang's work changes the course of lives, helping innocent people who could've gotten live sentences live freely. Wenona's responsible for basically all the food in the country.

Not to say Damon's talent isn't also extremely impressive. He has to memorise the details of any kind of topic in order to have an expert's opinion in an incredibly short period of time, and weigh it's pros and cons in order to argue for or against it. He's pretty good at the thing too, judging by his Ultimate title. Him winning enough competitions that his parents don't have to work anymore, and supposedly paying for the welfare, groceries and overall living expenses for three (or more if he also pays for any siblings or uncles and aunts) people is pretty damn impressive. It's just that most of his actual arguments about talents are so far-fetched that it's impossible not to poke holes in them.

Yeah, sure buddy, you can argue about ethics and politics, but so can literally everyone. Has he ever went outside near his country's election day?? Or ever went to a family gathering?? And that's only talking about politics. Beause he's definitely not the only one to ever have an opinion. Yeah, his arguments are backed up by actual data and stuff, but he's not the only person to ever do that, and like 99% of those people probably work office jobs. Intelligence also doesn't make his talent superior cause you have to be intelligento for every talent. He also admits in Wenona's FTEs that he wipes his memory clean in order to prepare for his next debate, so he doesn't actually learn anything.

Some talents are obviously more useful to society, like entrepreneurship or law, but debate isn't one of them. In fact, it barely changes society as a whole. It's extremely important to Damon's life and his family's, but unless he goes straight into being a politician or something, odds are he's not changing anything. Damon is pretty impressive as a person, probably more intelligent than most of his classmates, but his talent simply isn't betters than their's. Like I mentioned above, all Ultimate talents are impressive, but comparing a cosmetologist to a entreprenur, an influencer to a historian, or a debater to a lawyer... doesn't make that much sense.

Personally, I think all the characters are extremely impressive in their personal talents (because they're ultimates, duh), but tons of characters like Damon and Eva (most obvious examples) definitely aren't defined by their talents in regards to how intelligent they are, even though their characters do revolve around their Ultimates.

⠀

[rjzimmerman]

Frontier myth vilified the California grizzly. Science tells a new story. (Washington Post)

The grizzly, a subspecies of brown bear, has long held a place in mainstream American myth as a dangerous, even bloodthirsty creature. Its scientific name, Ursus arctos horribilis, means “the horrible bear.” But that image is being challenged by a new set of studies that combine modern biochemical analysis, historical research and Indigenous knowledge to bring the story of the California grizzly from fiction to fact.

In January, a team of experts led by University of California at Santa Barbara ecologist Alexis Mychajliw published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B about the diet of the California grizzly bear and how that influenced its extinction. The results challenge virtually every aspect of the bear’s established story.

“Pretty much everything that I thought I knew about these animals turned out to be wrong,” said Peter Alagona, an ecologist and historian at UCSB and co-author of the study.

Much of the grizzly bear’s long-standing narrative comes from stories, artwork and early photographs depicting California grizzlies as huge in size and aggressive in nature. Many of these reports, which found wide readership in newspapers elsewhere in the West and in the cities back East, were written by what Alagona calls the Californian influencers of their time.

“They were trying to get rich and famous by marketing themselves as these icons of the fading frontier,” Alagona said. “A lot of the historical sources that we have about grizzlies are actually not about grizzlies. They’re about this weird Victorian 19th-century celebrity culture.”

The team of ecologists, historians and archivists compared the image of California grizzlies from these frontier reports to harder data in the form of bear bones from museum collections all over the state.

The frontier myth had painted the California bears as larger than grizzlies elsewhere in the country, but the bone analysis revealed that they were the same size and weight, about 6 feet long and 440 pounds for the average adult.

In an even larger blow to the popular story of the vicious grizzly, the bones showed that before 1542, when the first Europeans arrived, the bears were only getting about 10 percent of their diet from preying on land animals. They were primarily herbivores, surviving on a varied diet of acorns, roots, berries, fish and occasionally larger prey such as deer.

As European-style farming and ranching began to dominate the landscape, grizzlies became more like the stories those frontier influencers were telling about them. The percentage of meat in their diet rose to about 25 percent, probably in large part because of the relative ease of catching a fenced-in cow or sheep compared to a wild elk.

Colonialism forced so many changes on the California landscape so quickly, affecting every species that the bears ate and interacted with, that the exact cause of this change will be difficult to ever fully understand.

Still, grizzlies were never as vicious or purely predatory as the stories made them out to be. The narrative of the huge killer bear instead fed a larger settler story of a landscape — and a people — that could not coexist with the settlers themselves. And that story became a disaster for more than just bears.

Although we will never have exact numbers, experts agree that hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people were living in what is now California before White settlers arrived. One frequently cited estimate puts the population at 340,000.

By 1900, that number had been slashed by more than 95 percent to around 16,000 surviving tribal members throughout the state. Eliminating the bear and the vast majority of California’s Indigenous people can be seen as parts of the same concerted effort to replace one landscape — and one set of stories — with another.

“The annihilation of the California grizzly bear was part of a much larger campaign of annihilation,” Alagona said. “I think it’s clear that what happened in California meets the legal definition of a genocide. But in a way, it was even more than that, because these were not just attempts to eliminate groups of people. These were attempts to destroy an entire world.”

[justforbooks]

Are Trump’s tariffs for real or an AI hallucination? I’m afraid the answer is both

Amid claims that a chatbot helped shape the key calculations, the president is now off playing golf. He’ll find the world economy in a bunker

There’s a scene in the very first episode of Yellowstone where the casino-owning Native American chief explains the basic financial logic of all casinos to an uncomfortable politician: “The gamblers’ money is like a river – flowing one way. Our way.” Oh no, hang on, wait … Not all casinos. In fact, it could be that when all is said and done, the historians looking for that one key fact to illustrate the eventual legacy of Donald Trump will not go with his two stunning presidential election wins. Instead, they’ll point out that in the 90s, he literally managed to bankrupt casinos. To repeat: this is a man who somehow contrived to bankrupt multiple casinos. Is he the guy to reshape the entire global economic order of the past century? Let’s find out! Either way, only 45 months of his presidency left to go.

Anyway: tariffs. Rather than using actual tariff data, the United States of America this week appeared to have genuinely used a basic ChatGPT-style model to calculate the tariffs it would immediately impose on friends/foes/arctic wildlife. This was called either “liberation day”, or the “declaration of economic independence” (sadly not abbreviated – yet – to DEI).

It was hosted in the White House Rose Garden by ancient gameshow MC Donald Trump, who was accidentally wearing his indoors makeup outdoors. Like many, I’ve tried to mentally detach from the fact that we live in a time when the US defence secretary has a neck tattoo or whatever, but it makes me feel at least partially alive that the presidential paint job still occasionally retains the power to horrify. Trump leered his way through his tariff presentation while appearing to have been made up by the technique that provided the climax to Joe Wilkinson’s RNLI speech on Last One Laughing (If you saw it, you know). It’s not so much foundation any more as cosmetic bukkake.

Forgive me, back to the economics. We know that Trump has always been obsessed with starkly simple numbers. Network TV ratings. The overall trade balance in goods (not services). And – before this week – the stock market. But now, like Bruno, we don’t talk about the stock market, no no no … Certainly not since it dropped 1,679 points in one day alone (the day after Trump announced the tariffs). Although please enjoy the pure hilarious happenstance of scheduling which meant that that day’s opening bell to signal the start of trading on Wall Street had been rung by the staff of wingnut media outlet Newsmax and Rudy Giuliani. Ding, dong – now just watch those stocks crap the bed. Seriously, Rudy – everything you touch! Then again we do have to remember that it was Trump himself who last year declared that “stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III and we have two of the most incompetent ‘leaders’ in history. This is not good!!!”

Is he still marking presidencies on the same metrics? Alas, reporters are going to need to shout that inquiry over the fairways, as Trump has now repaired to one of his Floridian golf courses to host the first domestic event of 2025 on the Saudi-owned LIV Golf tour. It’s called class: look it up. And no doubt it’ll be fun discussing falling oil prices with whoever is over from Riyadh for the event.

Trump did offer one last comment on the tariffs before donning his big-boy golf pants. “The operation is over,” he said. “The patient lived, and is healing. The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better and more resilient than ever before.” A speech I am positive I have heard delivered word-for-word on The Simpsons by ultra-shady physician Dr Nick. Meanwhile, in the back of shot, a Frankenfigure with a fish’s head grafted to a man’s body sits bolt upright, convulses wildly and dies within three foot of the operating table. Listen, you can’t save ‘em all.

Incidentally, Trump is not the only one reaching for medical metaphors. Take the chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, who this morning observed mildly: “We often hear that when the US sneezes the global economy catches cold. This is not the US sneezing. This is the US cutting off its own arm. The self-inflicted economic cost naturally weakens the dollar.” Mm. One indication that an economic plan is going badly is that there’s no one responding to the above by going “ooh, but is cutting off your arm even a bad thing?”. Different circumstances, of course, but there was a similar mood in the air in the UK after Liz Truss’s “mini-budget”.

Speaking of Blighty, Keir Starmer seems to have continued his policy of not poking the bear, and indeed to pretend to really enjoy it when the bear pokes you really hard somewhere really painful. According to Trump, Starmer is “very happy” about the 10% tariff kick he just took up the UK’s backside.

Still, perhaps there are already signs of slight directional pivots in the West Wing. Having watched global markets tumble while the White House absolutely insisted that the tariffs were not lazy ChatGPT-assisted gambits to provoke immediate trade negotiations, it wasn’t too long before Trump’s son Eric was venturing on to X with a take. “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with @realDonaldTrump,” gibbered Trump minor. “The first to negotiate will win – the last will absolutely lose,” he continued. “I have seen this movie my entire life …” Weird, because I don’t remember this particular scene in the aforementioned Trump casino movie – or indeed several epic flops in the franchise.

Yet this was also a week where we were reminded that life is not just about the adult sons with whom we are saddled, but the adult sons we choose. Fire up the elegy muzak, then, for there is sadness in the air. Reports – hotly denied, which means nothing – suggest that Elon Musk will fairly soon be leaving his post at the “department of government efficiency” and returning to the private sector. Yeah, let that sink out. And then try to picture his Doge leaving party. “Sorry boys, tariffs mean we can only afford US beer. And, unfortunately, we eliminated spending on paper cups. On the plus side, the president’s makeup artist is just going to spray Bud Light in the general directions of your mouths, and she has a 30% accurate aim. Open wide, victors!”

All of which would seem to conclude this week’s look at Trump’s river, which a) is a river of effluent and b) only flows one way. Our way. What can I tell you? Buy shares in paddles today.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[alpaca-clouds]

I am currently trying to teach an AI different forms of Latin. In my free time. Because I want to get the AI to translate and analyze old scanned texts. No, so far it is not going well, but I am starting to understand, how to train neural networks.

But as I am doing this, I know why I am doing it: Because we have tons and tons of texts in forms of papyri, parchments, manuscripts and archeological finds that have gone untranslated so far. Mostly because there are just too few people who are good with Latin, and even fewer people willing to give those people money for their translations. And I am doing it for Latin, because other than Ancient Greek, I actually know Latin.

Here is the thing though. I am doing this, because there is a specific problem, and that requires a solution. Even those historians and archeologians who know Latin would rather analyze it in terms of the historicalthan translate it.

But as I am doing this, I am thinking so much about generative AI, and how much it is a solution without a problem. At least in terms of normal people.

It is why it is bleeding money, despite the fact that Silicon Valley having decided it is going to be the NEXT BIG THING. Because while more than enough idiots are willing to outsource thinking to ChatGPT, this is not really something that so far was an issue. Sure, a lot of folks clearly prefer to not think at all, but... How to do I put it? Nobody does dislike thinking enough to actually pay the money that GenAI actually costs to avoid doing it.

Like, those assholes have stolen all this work, all this data, but they have not found any actual use case for it to be actually profitable.

Sure, enough companies will safe on creative work to safe a bit of money to put out some slop for marketing, but the issue is... That they want to safe money, and so far that translates to nobody willing to foot the bill that was created by all the development of the GenAI.

Yeah, I do not doubt that sooner or later some producer at one of the big places - Netflix, Prime, Disney, who knows - will totally try to produce a mostly AI-made movie or game. But we have seen that attempts to this so far have been picked up by audiences less than enthusiastically.

Some folks keep saying: "Yeah, but AI is getting better!" But the thing is... Actually it isn't. Because simply put there is a lot of data suggesting GenAI has become already about as good as it is going to get. Some data even suggests it will get worse, due to data degradation.

And as I am thinking of downgrading my phone to a good old trusty Nokia 3210, I am starting to wonder: this is really what has driven silicon valley for like two decades now, no? They just decided what was going to be the "next big thing", and wanted everyone to move along with it. But... It actually did not happen.

I am working with computer stuff for a good 15 years now, and for that first 5 years, so much was happening. But like... Those last 10 years? There were "new things" that came in and most of them disappeared just as quickly.

Sure, in some specialized fields we got new stuff. Our algorithms to analyze satelight data are much, much better now.

But I get the feeling that in many regards when it comes to consumer targeted stuff... We kinda reached the peak. And this is becoming a problem for a system that was build on endless growth. They need you to buy the NEW BIG THING.

I feel we were at a similar point once already. 2010. 15 years ago. They tried to turn it around with some tricks and investments, and for a bit it worked. But I think it just... stopped.

And sure, Trump is making shit worse.

And man, I really wish I lived 5000 years ago, when the biggest innovation of the century was going to be a slightly more effective way to pick berries.

[itsbansheebitch]

More thoughts

I get both sides, but I feel a little confused they couldn't find four people in their +25 employees

Data analyst (Are you seriously telling me you couldn't personally email or even just HIRE matpat's team who do data analytics as part of Theorist Media to help??? The man would be overjoyed to help???)

Editor (Put the first $6 towards a can of coffee grounds, dude)

PR Team (Even, like, a single person, please, for the love of god)

Business Major (Or literally anyone that has taken a home ec/budgeting/personal finance class)

First, the Dish Granted series was started when gold leaf burgers were novel, now it's seen as tone deaf (for obvious reasons) it should have shifted to something like interviews with people who make that kind of food or local businesses (like parmesan cheese shops in Parma, Italy) or the history of food (like talking about the history of modern Native American slavery on Californian wine vinyards). Not to mention the untapped potential of Food Fraud topics. Either shift it, or scrap it. Any data analyst or chronically online person could tell you that.

Second, why did you keep "anyone can afford $6 a month" in? Are the editors asleep at the wheel? Are they overworked? What is going on? You know damn well to not make generalizations about what people can afford. That's NEVER a good idea, especially when you KNOW (because YT gives you analytics) that most of your viewers are young (16/18-30/35 range, I'd guess) who probably, either 1, are still in school and either arent paid well/dont have jobs OR 2, arent paid well and tired of people's shit, like people who own businesses talking about "tough financial decisions." To them, Watcher isn't going to look different from the other people talking like that, because this was so sudden, with no input from fans, and in the video you hear shit like "anyone can afford [X]." To be frank, it wouldn't really matter what the amount is, because that generalization goes against the message they have stood by for years. THAT is a slap in the face.

Third, what are yall doing with the budgeting? Every artist has a right to make art that they are proud of. Every artist deserves to have their work seen if they so choose. Every artist deserves to make a living. HOWEVER, there are MANY options online when it comes to making money, especially on YT. You could get into marketing, data analysis, expanding your demographic, looking at what people are interested in right now VS what will stand the test of time (not gold leaf burgers), etc.

You have to either have these skills, develop these skills, or hire someone to do it for you. It's understandable that you would want a team behind the production, but I find +25 employees to be WAY too many people, especially in LA. Bailey Sarian has a Dark History section on her YT (and Spotify podcast) where she has hired historians to help make sure her episodes are as accurate as possible. You've caught heat before from Puppet History's missing & incorrect info, you should do the same. She has about three (3) "intermissions" per episode for ad breaks. I never see anyone complain. People WOULD listen to yall talk for that long (+1 hour videos), tbh, though that's not necessary.

Why are yall out here with Teslas, expensive food, new gear, scripts (where there weren't scripts before, PH is different, that makes sense), and "better than TV" level sets??? I need to put your accountant in this week's church prayer list what the actual hell??? Ya'll, this video is literally the meme:

Guys help me budget:

LA Rent: 2K per month

Videos: 100K per vid

+25 Employees: God only knows

New stuff for videos: Don't get me started

Like, are you serious?

You have a right to do whatever you want with your art. You have a right to charge whatever you'd like for that art. You have a right to make a living from your art and you have a right to ask your fans for money.

Your fans have a right to be angry when they've been supporting yall for, what, almost 10 years? They have a right to choose when and where to spend their money even when you've made an impact. They have a right to feel betrayed, especially when there are better options (like Nebula or consulting with Theorist Media).

Fans DO NOT have a right to be racist to any members of Watcher, now that they have made a decision they do not agree with.

I personally, think this is a really silly decision and could have been solved (haha solved) with a simple YT poll, but apparently we had to get... this. I respect their decision, I just don't think it was a smart one. I wish them the best, and I hope they find a better solution. Any further comment from me will depend on what steps they take next.

[transmutationisms]

How do you find the time to read all your book recs?? Also would you mind talking about your process for researching specific topics :)

i generally only make rec lists for things i have enough familiarity with to navigate the literature so, you have to keep in mind those lists are sometimes literally a decade+ of cumulative reading on my end. i do also sometimes include texts i haven't read in their entirety, or occasionally even ones i've only come across in footnotes but still think are foundational or relevant enough to warrant a rec.

as to my research process: there's no single answer here because the sort of research i do will depend on what questions i'm trying to answer. usually if i'm starting to look at a topic completely from scratch, i'll ask someone who publishes in that area what the major recent works are, then scan a few of them. i might 'snowball' those texts (read the works they cite in their footnotes) but, that strategy has limited utility because it only goes backward in time and sometimes a recent or uncited text can be incredibly valuable. so there's a fair amount of bumbling around in the secondary literature at this point. some academic journals maintain bibliographies for their subfields, which are not comprehensive but can be useful; i usually also do a certain amount of keyword fuckery in my library's database. sometimes i waste a lot of time at this point chasing leads that turn out to be irrelevant, or i discover that a question i was chasing is really better tackled from an entirely different direction. shit happens.

at some point i usually reach a stage where i need to look at some primary sources, because i'm oriented enough in the major issues to identify spots where previous researchers haven't made full use of historical records, or may be interpreting them in a way i disagree with. so, what exactly i'm looking for now really varies. sometimes i just want to read the primary texts that another historian is commenting on: for example, the last few months i was trawling through the french national library's archives to see what people were saying in print about a specific historical figure between about 1778 and 1862. other times i might want population data or land records: births, deaths, cholera infections, records of church property sales, &c. depending on, again, what sorts of questions you're asking, anything might have useful information to you: postmortem personal auction catalogues have given me some mileage, along with wills and personal correspondance. i have a committee member who collects and analyses postcards often being sold for pennies at flea markets out of people's grandparents' attics, and another who has an ongoing project looking at a zillion editions of a specific children's book printed in the late 19th century. along the way, as i look at primary sources, i will typically go back and forth to more secondary literature, as i find new topics that might be relevant or help me contextualise what i'm looking at. i can't ever really plan these things out systematically; i just follow what looks promising and interesting and see where it leads me.

another thing to consider is that the primary sources sometimes tell me useful information directly in their capacity as material objects. what type of paper is used, what personal or library stamps appear on the cover, who's the publisher, how many editions did it go through, are the print and typeset jobs sloppy, where was this copy found or preserved? these sorts of details tell me about how people reacted to the text, its author, and the ideas within, which can be a valuable part of whatever investigation i'm trying to conduct. sometimes i end up chasing down information on a publisher or the owner whose personal library a book or piece of ephemera came out of; there are people who research processes of preservation, printing, &c in themselves, which has yielded some fascinating studies in recent decades.

at some point, if it's a research project i'm trying to communicate to other people, i will switch to writing mode, where i try to organise ^^ all of that in my head, and form a coherent narrative or argument that i think is worth making. this might be revisionist in nature ('people have argued before that such and such was x way or historical actors thought about it like y, but what i have here indicates we should actually understand it in the context of z') or it might be more like, "hey, i found this thing i don't think anyone knows about!" or anything else. again, the way you put together a research project will vary so widely depending on what you're researching, and why, and why you think it matters and to whom.

also, i should emphasise that what i've written here isn't necessarily something that happens on a strict or compressed timeline. i'm working on a dissertation, so for that topic, i do have reasons i want to complete parts at certain times, unfortunately. but i also have research projects that i just chip away at for fun, that i've had on various backburners for literally years, that i might sometimes write about (eg, on here) without necessarily ever planning to subject them to the hegemon of academic publishing. i think knowledge dissemination is great and to that end i love to talk to people about what i'm researching and hear about their stuff as well. but, i also think research projects can be fun / rewarding / &c when they're completely for your own purposes, untimed, unpublished, &c &c. i guess i'm just saying, publishing and research conventions and rules sometimes have purposes (like "make it possible to publish this as a book in the next 5 years") but don't get so hung up on those rules that they prevent you from just researching something for any number of other reasons. there are so many ways to skin a cat 📝

[the-catch-center]

SPATIOTEMPORAL CATCH CENTER (SCC) DOSSIER: INTERCEPTION REPORT 77-Ω4-Δ13

SUBJECT FILE: Temporal Deviant Class-IX (Unauthorized Identity Ascension & Market Path Manipulation) INTERCEPT ID: TD-922-5x | CODE NAME: “Cicada Orchid” APPREHENSION STATUS: Successful Temporal Arrest, Mid-Jump Interception REASSIGNMENT PHASE: Stage 3 Conversion Complete — FULL IDENTITY LOCK DATE OF INTERCEPTION: March 2nd, 2025 (Gregorian), during Transition Protocol Execution to 2076 FORCED TEMPORAL REINTEGRATION DATE: June 17th, 1956

I. ORIGINAL IDENTITY – [PRIME SELF]

Full Name (Original, Earth-2025 Reality): Landon Creed Marlowe Chronological Age at Apprehension: 29 years Nationality: Neo-Continental (Post-Treaty North America) Biological Condition: Augmented Homo Sapiens – Class 2 Physical Stats at Intercept:

Height: 6’4”

Weight: 243 lbs

Body Fat: 2.1%

Neural Rewiring Index: 87%

Emotional Dampening Threshold: Fully Suppressed

Verbal Influence Score: 97/100 (Simulated Charisma Layer active)

Psychological Profile: Landon Marlowe was a prototype of hypercapitalist self-creation. Having abandoned all conventional morality by age 17, he immersed himself in data markets, psycho-linguistic mimicry, and somatic enhancement routines. A hybrid of postmodern narcissism and cybernetic ambition, he believed history should be rewritten not through war, but through wealth recursion—self-generating economic monopolies that spanned both physical and meta-market layers. By 2025, Marlowe had begun the Vaultframe Project: a forbidden consciousness routing protocol allowing a subject to leap across timelines and self-modify to fit ideal environmental conditions.

He had already initiated Stage 1 of the Phase Ascension:

Target Year: 2076 Final Form Name: Cael Axiom Dominion

II. TARGET FORM – [PROHIBITED FUTURE IDENTITY]

Designated Name: Cael Axiom Dominion Temporal Anchor Year: 2076–2120 (Planned) Occupation/Status: Centralized Financial Apex Authority (Unofficial title: “God of the Grid”) Intended Specifications:

Height: 6’8”

Skin: Synthetic/Epidermech Weave (Reflective, Gleaming Finish)

Mind: Hybridized Neuro-Organic Substrate, 3-layered Consciousness Stack

Vision: Perfect (Microscopic + Ultraviolet Layer)

Muscle: Fully Synthetic Carbon-Tension Architecture

Voice: Dynamically Modeled for Maximum Compliance Induction

Personality: Pure calculated utility — no empathy, full response modulation

Psychological Construction: Modeled on a fusion of 21st-century crypto barons, colonial magnates, and AI-governance ethic loopholes. His projected behavior matrix would’ve allowed him to overwrite traditional economic cycles, insert himself into every transaction on the New Continental Grid, and displace global markets into dependence loops. He would have achieved Immortality via Economic Indispensability by 2085.

[OPERATOR'S NOTE – TECHNICIAN LYDIA VOLSTROM, FILE LEAD]

"He thought he was the evolutionary end of capital. We've seen dozens like him — grim-faced tech prophets dreaming of godhood, all forged in the same factory-line delusion that intelligence and optimization should rewrite morality. His 'Cael Dominion' persona was practically masturbatory — gleaming muscle, perfect diction, deathless control. The problem with arrogance across time is that we always arrive faster. We waited at his jumpgate exit vector like hounds in a vineyard. Now he will die quietly, shelving dusty books in wool slacks while children giggle at his shoes."

III. REWRITTEN FORM – [REASSIGNED TIMELINE IDENTITY]

Permanent Designation (1956 Reality): Harlan Joseph Whittemore Date of Birth (Backwritten): March 19th, 1885 Current Age: 71 years (Biological and Perceived) Location: Greystone Hollow, Indiana – Population 812 Occupation: Head Librarian, Greystone Municipal Library Known As: “Old Mr. Whittemore” / “Library Santa” / “Harlan the Historian”

Biological Recomposition Report:

Height: 6’2” (slightly stooped)

Weight: 224 lbs

Body Type: Large-framed, soft-muscled, slightly arthritic

Beard: Full, white, flowing to chest length — maintained with gentle cedar oil

Hair: Long, silver-white, brushed back, unkempt at the sides

Skin: Tanned, deeply lined, blotched by sun exposure and age

Eyebrows: Dense, low, expressive

Feet: Size 28EE – institutionally branded biometrics for deviant tracking

Shoes: Custom brown orthotic leather shoes with stretch bulging

Hands: Broad, aged, veined, arthritic knuckles

Glasses: Oversized horn-rimmed, 1950s prescription style

Wardrobe:

High-waisted wool trousers (charcoal gray)

Thick brown suspenders

Faded plaid flannel shirt, tucked in neatly

Scuffed leather shoes (notable bulge around toes due to foot size)

IV. MENTAL & SOCIETAL RE-IMPRINT

Primary Personality Traits (Post-Warp):

Kind-hearted, emotionally patient

Gentle-voiced, soft-spoken, slightly slow in speech

Deeply enjoys classical literature, gardening, and children’s laughter

Feels “he’s always been this way”

Occasionally hums jazz under his breath while shelving books

Writes slow, thoughtful letters to estranged family (fabricated)

Routine:

Opens library at 8AM sharp

Catalogues local donations

Reads to children every Wednesday

Tends a small rose garden behind the building

Engages in local history discussions with town elders

Walks home slowly with a leather satchel and a cane

[OPERATOR’S NOTE – FIELD ADJUSTER INGRID PAZE]

"Watching Marlowe become Harlan was like watching a lion remember it's a housecat. I’ve never seen a posture break so beautifully. He twitched at first — his back still tried to square itself like the predator he was. But the warp wore him down. The spine bent. The voice thickened. By the time his hands were fumbling the spines of leather-bound encyclopedias, he was gone. I almost felt bad when the first child ran up and said, ‘Santa?’ He smiled. Like it made sense. Like it was the right name."

V. DEATH RECORD

Date of Death: October 21, 1961 Cause: Heart failure while trimming rose bushes behind Greystone Library

He was buried in a town he never technically existed in, beside a wife who never lived. His obituary described him as “a man of kindness, wisdom, and humility — who asked for nothing and gave more than most ever know.” No one will remember that he once sought to become Cael Axiom Dominion.

[FINAL NOTE – SENIOR INTERCEPTOR V. CALDER]

"Marlowe played the long game, but his crime was arrogance. You can stack capital, sculpt the body, and forge a god’s name — but time always wins. He wanted to be immortal. Now he’ll live only in the margins of children’s drawings, mistaken for Santa, fading like a dog-eared library card. Perfect."

[the-girl-who-didnt-smile]

DIRECTLY ADDRESSING THE QUESTION OF ‘CULTURAL APPROPRIATION’ IN HAZBIN HOTEL

Many moons ago, I described how I was uncertain where the line was drawn between ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘cultural appreciation’. To no one’s surprise, I still don’t know where that line is drawn…

However, after spending a bit time researching Louisiana Voudou and Haitian Vodou, I can now form opinions in response to two popular takes:

Are Alastor’s vèvès cultural appropriation? Yes.

Is it offensive that Alastor’s theme is Louisiana Voudou? Not necessarily.

Explanation below:

WHY VIVIENNE WAS RIGHT TO REMOVE THE VÈVÈS

In the pilot, Alastor is shown making an array of vèvès appear near him. 

The real reason this is cultural appropriation is because these symbols are from Haitian Vodou, not Louisiana Voudou. Specifically, not early 20th century Louisiana Voudou, which Alastor would represent.

I heard an interesting rumor that vèvès are hidden in the iron fences of New Orleans. However, I was quite disappointed when shown an image of these “vèvès”, which turned out to be adinkra symbols instead. 

Pictured: Spire of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans

Pictured: Sankofa - the most common adinkra symbol found in New Orleans

One of the most beautiful art forms found in the City of New Orleans are the iron fences, which were produced by the skilled blacksmiths, enslaved and free. They hid these adinkra symbols in their metal work, as a means of preserving African spirituality. 

For more information about the adinkra symbols of New Orleans, see: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AfricanArchitecture/comments/x1hhkm/fun_facts_adinkra_symbols_made_their_way_into_the/ 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ironwork-new-orleans-french-quarter-pontalba-adinkra 

https://hgghh.org/exhibitions/artistry-in-iron 

Whereas adinkra symbols originate from Ghana, vèvès are Afro-Haitian religious artwork. Vèvès merge Dahomean ritual ground designs with Kongo symbology, creating these very beautiful and intricate designs that are full of religious meaning. The writings of Milo Rigaud include many examples, such as those found in Secrets of voodoo and La tradition voudoo et le voudoo haïtien. In order to be hidden in iron fences, their designs would have to be simplified. It also raises the question of which vèvès they are, and which lwa they represent.

If vèvès really are hidden in the iron gates of New Orleans, this is actually an extremely historically relevant piece of data. This would be important proof of which lwa were worshiped in New Orleans prior to the “revitalization” of the late 20th century. A task for a future historian would be to tour the City and catalog these vèvès, photographing each fence, dating them, and identifying which lwa is associated with which vèvè.

Barring this evidence, vèvès should not be associated with a character from New Orleans - especially not someone from the early 20th century. Unfortunately, New Orleans has gained a very negative reputation due to the tourist industry, which markets inauthentic Haitian Vodou as “authentic New Orleans Voodoo”. This is how Haitian vèvès came to be associated with the City, and is largely the fault of outsiders moving to the city because they know this phoney “Voodoo” is profitable. As a result, the natives to New Orleans experience something like colonization, while the Haitians experience cultural theft.  I’m sure some people don’t mind this, but many Haitians are very offended by how their sacred religious symbols have been turned into this commodified, tourist-trap garbage. Likewise, the community of actual authentic New Orleans Voodoo views this as theft and fraud.

Pictured: Kafou’s vèvè.

Many different vèvès featured a four-point cross, but it is particularly prominent with Kafou, whose name literally means “crossroads”.

As a side note, I think it is pretty likely that Alastor was visually inspired by Kafou, one of the most prominent and powerful Haitian lwa. Alastor’s colors are the same as Kafou’s, his crossroads symbols resemble Kafou’s vèvè, and his personality is similar to descriptions of Kafou. But again, Kafou is from Haitian Vodou. There is no evidence that Kafou was a feature of Louisiana Voudou in the 19th century or early 20th century. Instead, it is Papa Legba, who seems to have retained his unpredictable and dangerous nature, where he was frequently “Papa La Bas” (“Laba” or “Labat”) or just “Devil”. Rather than Kafou, Alastor should be associated with “Papa La Bas”, or “The Devil at the Crossroads”.

In any case, Vivienne Medrano was right to remove the vèvès from Alastor’s design.

For more information about vèvès, see: 

Cosentino, Donald. Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou. United States, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/sacredartsofhait0000unse/page/102/mode/2up?  

Thompson, Robert Farris. Flash of the Spirit: African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy. United States, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010. pp. 188-191

IS IT OFFENSIVE THAT ALASTOR’S THEME IS LOUISIANA VOUDOU?

Some argue “yes”, on the grounds that it perpetuates the racist stereotype that Voudou is evil. 

My opinion on this is complicated. 

Basically, I think there are two ethical ways to portray Louisiana Voudou:

Portray it in an entirely positive light, to counter-balance the portrayals that show it in an entirely negative light

Show the good and the bad, to create a balanced portrayal

The key word is balance. The concept of balance is central, not just to Louisiana Voudou, but to many African and African-derived traditions.

Whether it’s Louisiana Voudou, Southern Hoodoo, Haitian Vodou, Santeria, Lucumi, West African Vodun, Isese, 21 Divisiones… I don’t know any serious practitioner who denies that there is a bad side to these things. But there’s a bad side to every religion - including Christianity. 

Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell (Psa 55:15a)

Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks (Psa 137:9)

I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things (Isa 45:7b)

These are verses from the Bible, dude!

(Old Testament, to be specific…)

But in Louisiana Voudou, as in Hoodoo, as in Haitian Vodou, etc… serious practitioners know how dangerous the bad side is. People who believe in hexing know all the ways a hex can come back on you; every time you dabble in the bad side of these things, you endanger yourself. This is why most people in these communities avoid it, focusing on the healing and ancestor veneration instead. There are some people who are said to “work with both hands” (meaning, “bad and good”) (sometimes, mostly “bad”...) but they’re quite the minority. To most people, the bad side is viewed as a “last resort”, that is only used when someone really deserves it.

At that, “bad work” doesn’t necessarily mean ‘evil’, and “good work” doesn’t necessarily mean ‘justice’. “Good work” is like a medicine, while “bad work” is like a dagger. Sometimes, it’s evil to heal someone, and sometimes it’s right to stab them. For this reason, the “bad side” of Voudou isn’t always evil; a good spiritual healer has to know something about the “bad side” in order to do their job.

My understanding is, people in these communities probably wouldn’t agree with censoring the bad side completely, as this can mislead people and cause them to endanger themselves. In many of these traditions, the African ancestral spirits or divinities are described as “dangerous” by the believers of African descent, probably because they’re angered by what their people had to endure, and how they have been desecrated. 

However, others in these communities might appreciate an entirely positive portrayal of Voudou, just for the purpose of counterbalancing the negative portrayals that exist. While you could take this approach, another approach would be to balance the bad side with the good side. 

The easiest, most obvious way to balance the “good” with the “bad” is to also give Alastor’s mother a Voudou theme. If the approach is not to remove the Voudou-related elements from Alastor, this is such an obvious decision to make. Since she’s in Heaven, Alastor’s mother would embody the “good side”, while Alastor would embody the “bad side”, as he is in Hell.

At that, I don’t necessarily agree with the following reasoning: IF Alastor is a villain AND Alastor’s theme is Voudou THEN Vivienne must be trying to say that ‘Voudou is evil’. 

As badly as I want Alastor to become the main villain, I actually don’t know if it’s correct to categorize him as one. For right now, there is so much mystery… so much mystique surrounding this character, he’s more like a “wild card” than an actual villain. Right now he’s Charlie’s ally, and he’s almost certainly going to become her antagonist, but I personally view him more as an agent of chaos than a proper villain.

Some people point to him being a serial killer as proof that he’s evil, but bro… The story is set in Hell. Most everyone down there has down there has done some evil shit. Moreover, it is so fucking obvious you are not supposed to take Alastor seriously as a serial killer. 

“That’s the tea, sis!”

This is something Alastor says, almost word for word, in the show.

He’s just this hot ass, Hot Topic, edgelord, dude. 

He just read every Wikipedia article about Ted Bundy. He didn’t actually kill anyone.

…But in all seriousness, if Alastor is a villain, I think it is very likely that he is a sympathetic villain. That, in spite of being serial killer, something happened in his past that was so horrific you can somehow understand why he became a ruthless murderer.

People already love this character; if this turns out to be correct, the love this guy is just going to multiply further and further.

Basically, I think it is very likely he is going to end up being a complex, multi-layered character who might not even be a proper villain. Even if he does get his run as main villain (LET”S GO BOYS!!!!!!!!) I would bet money he gets redeemed. If so, this calls into question the logic of “it’s wrong to make Alastor Voudou-themed because he’s a villain” if he’s not exactly a villain to begin with.

[dystopicjumpsuit]

Martyrs and Kings - Chapter 10

Do I Know You?

Rating: Mature/18+/Minors DNI

Pairing: Kix x archivist/historian OFC

Wordcount: 3.8k

Warnings: fluff; suggestive dialogue; angst; Star Wars politics; Bad Batch Season 2 spoilers

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Maree was profoundly grateful for her high neckline the next morning. Kix had been thorough in his attentions, with the result that her chest, shoulders, and thighs were covered with small marks and bruises. In fairness, Maree had given as good as she’d gotten, and Kix’s torso was similarly adorned. Luckily, all evidence of their rough night was hidden from the disapproving eyes of the Neimoidian administrator who checked them into the Imperial Military Records Archive.

“We don’t often receive visitors from the general population,” he said. “This is highly irregular.”

“Uncommon, perhaps, but hardly irregular,” Maree replied. “You’ll find that the paperwork is all in order. My assistant is extremely conscientious.”

“Hmmph,” said the Neimoidian, shooting a suspicious glare at Kix. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”

“I doubt it,” Kix said mildly. 

Whatever darkness had plagued him the night before seemed to have receded for the moment, and Kix was in notably better spirits today. This was possibly due to the three more times they’d had sex after reaching her hotel room. Maree, on the other hand, was feeling the effects of the lack of sleep, and her patience was dangling by its final thread.

“Is there a problem with our credentials?” Maree asked. “I’m sure the NRGL Archive would be happy to corroborate my identity.”

“That won’t be necessary,” the administrator sniffed. “You are quite well-known to us, Dr. Finnall. It’s your guest whose credentials are in question.”

Maree suppressed her irritation. “I understood that he had already passed the mandatory background check when we received approval for his visit. Is there some further requirement that we were not informed of?”

“No,” the Neimoidian said begrudgingly. “But you will need to sign this waiver accepting full responsibility for any damage or wrongdoing he may perpetrate in the IMRA.”

Maree signed the document without hesitation, and at last, the administrator waved them through. Next, they were scanned for weapons and other contraband, and finally, they passed through a row of New Republic Defense Force peacekeepers.

“Heavy security for a bunch of dusty old relics,” Kix commented.

Maree nodded cordially at the guards. “There’s more in the IMRA than just personnel files. This archive contains weapons schematics, documentation on banned research, and other sensitive information that is in high demand on the black market. I have security clearance for my work, but even I can’t access some of the classified records.”

They passed through the entrance into a vast chamber with towering ceilings. Data terminals lined the walls, and numerous researchers milled about. This section of the IMRA was accessible to researchers and students without security clearance, but in order to access the restricted records, Maree had reserved a private office for their work, and she led Kix quickly through the echoing hall.

“Why do you need security clearance?” Kix asked curiously.

“I am a senior research faculty member, so the scope of my responsibilities is quite extensive. While I am available to assist individual citizens like you, I spend a significant amount of my time supporting the New Republic Judiciary in their efforts to prosecute Imperial war criminals.”

Kix looked surprised. “I had no idea. Are there many war criminals left from the early Empire?”

“Not so many. Most of them have died of old age, if they haven’t already been apprehended. But it’s often helpful to have a team of researchers whose specialties span the full history of the Empire. It provides important context, and given the Empire’s penchant for nepotism, it can help us trace connections between early Imperials and those who came later.”

“That sounds like important work,” Kix said thoughtfully.

“It is,” Maree said. “Though I sometimes am frustrated to see all of our effort go to waste when the New Republic offers an Imperial amnesty in exchange for giving up a few secrets.”

Kix drew a breath to respond, but before he could, a voice called, “Dr. Finnall!” 

She turned to see an unfamiliar young Mirialan man hurrying towards them. 

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“It is you!” he puffed. “I recognized you from your keynote address at the Galactic Military History conference last cycle. My name is Orys Brenko. I’m a graduate student at the University of Coruscant.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Brenko,” Maree replied mechanically. Could the man not see that she was occupied?

“The honor is mine, Dr. Finnall,” he said. “Your book on the battle of Scipio inspired me to study military history. The description of Commander Thorn’s last stand was so vivid. Before I read it, I never knew how compelling history could be. I was reading it on the hovertrain, and I was so caught up that I actually missed my stop!”

Kix merely stood and observed in impassive silence, his gaze flicking between Maree and Brenko.

“That is very kind of you to say, Mr. Brenko,” Maree said with a geniality she was far from feeling. She itched to get started on Kix’s project, but she couldn’t bring herself to snub the enthusiastic young man. “Are you studying the Clone Wars?”

“Er, no,” Brenko said, abashed. “My focus is the High Republic era.”

Of course. She didn’t roll her eyes, but it was a near miss.

“A fascinating period,” she said diplomatically. “I would love to stay and chat, but I’m afraid I have a prior engagement. Good luck in your studies.”

“Oh, yes, of course!” Brenko stammered. “B-but, before you go, would you mind signing my datapad? I have it loaded with all of your publications, and it would mean so much to me.”

Maree blinked. This was a first. She’d never been asked for an autograph before. In spite of the gaucheness of Brenko’s request, Maree was impressed with the young man’s dedication to the pursuit of knowledge. When she’d been a graduate student, she hadn’t had the bandwidth to read anything other than her assigned coursework. She was surprised Brenko had made time in between his studies to read her extensive body of work, especially since their areas of study had very little overlap.

“I don’t have a stylus, sorry,” she said. “Out of curiosity, why did you choose to concentrate on the High Republic era when you are so obviously interested in the Clone Wars? We could use more passionate researchers who focus on that era.”

The young man’s face flushed a dark green under his tattoos. “My parents would only agree to pay for my schooling if I chose a marketable course of study. As you know, the Clone Wars are…”

“Not exactly marketable,” Maree finished. “A pity. Well, if you ever happen to be on Hosnian Prime, please feel free to stop by my office at the Archive, and I’ll sign your datapad. But be warned, I’ll probably try to poach you for my own research team.”

Brenko’s mouth dropped open and his datapad clattered to the floor. “Th-thank you, Dr. Finnall! I will!”

Maree excused herself as Brenko stooped to retrieve the pad, and she and Kix resumed their walk. Brenko stood back and watched them with an awestruck expression.

“I had no idea I was sleeping with a celebrity,” Kix murmured under his breath. 

“Shove it,” she whispered. “It was much more awkward for me than it was for you.”

“Do you have an official fan club I can join?” he asked with a perfectly straight face.

“Maybe you should talk to Brenko about setting one up. You’d have two whole members,” she retorted.

They reached the office and closed the door behind them. Kix immediately crowded Maree up against the desk, burying his face against her neck and trailing kisses toward her ear.

“Dr. Finnall, would you sign my ass? I was so inspired by the way you wrapped your legs around it while I was pounding into you last night,” he teased.

“Dick,” she laughed, swatting the back of his head.

“You’d rather sign my dick? That’s fine, too.”

“Mmm, there’s certainly enough room,” she said, stroking him through his trousers with a languid sigh. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a small blinking red dot. “Dank farrik, Kix, there are security holocams in here. Behave yourself.”

“Sorry, Doc, I couldn’t help myself,” he said, fluttering his eyelashes. “You’re just so inspiring.”

She laughed again, pressed her lips against his and dipped her tongue into his mouth, then pushed him firmly away. They had work to do, and she had a sinking feeling that Kix’s cheerful mood wouldn’t last long once they got started.

“Stop distracting me,” she said as she powered up the holoprojector.

Kix frowned. “Wait, I thought these records are classified. What about the security holocams? Do the guards have clearance?”

“The system has an override built in. If a classified record is being displayed, the holocam feeds are turned off automatically.”

“Good to know,” Kix said with a smirk. “Just in case I’m feeling inspired later.”

“Incorrigible,” Maree muttered.

She spent some time searching the archive inventory for the troopers on Kix’s list. It took longer than she expected, but at last she crowed in victory as she located the records for the Republic Star Destroyer Tribunal. As they waited for an IMRA droid to retrieve and deliver the data chips Maree requested, Kix’s stomach rumbled. Maree checked the chronometer on the wall and realized it was already mid-afternoon.

“Should I order lunch to be delivered from the cafeteria?” she offered. “Or if you’d prefer, we can walk over. It’s inside the Archive, so we won’t have to go through security again.”

“Aren’t you afraid of being mobbed by your legions of adoring fans?” he asked.

“I think you mean ‘fan,’ singular,” she said. “But that is a fair point. We’ll get delivery.”

She pulled up the menu on the holoprojector, and they made their selections. When Maree apologized that she couldn’t offer him anything better than cafeteria food, Kix merely shrugged.

“I’m used to it. It’s probably better than what I’m used to, actually.”

He shifted and put his feet up on the chair across from him. The office was austere, and it lacked any of the comforts with which she had filled her own workspace. The hard plastech chairs were making Maree’s legs fall asleep, so she stood up to stretch and walk around the joyless room. Kix watched from his own seat.

“So,” he said conversationally, “come here often?”

She snorted. “More often than I’d like.”

“Not a fan of Coruscant?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I went to university here. That was long enough for a lifetime.”

“So not your vacation destination of choice, then.”

She shook her head. “Work. Always work. It seems like that’s all I ever do lately.”

“Doesn’t the New Republic offer vacation leave?” Kix asked.

“Who has the time for that?”

“Too busy saving the galaxy from war criminals?”

“Ah yes, the glamorous, exciting life of a professional nerd,” she said. “How could anything else compare?”

“You could always run away and become a pirate,” Kix joked.

Maree laughed. “My mother would kill me.”

“The Ranger?” he asked. 

“She retired last year,” Maree said. “Spends all her time tormenting Eema. Honestly, Baba might enjoy the challenge of hunting down my hypothetical pirate crew. I think she misses the action.”

The door chimed, and a service droid entered with their food delivery. They divvied up the food and started to eat.

“It must be hard to transition to civilian life after she spent so many years fighting,” Kix said.

“Was the transition hard for you?” Maree asked.

“I suppose you could say that,” Kix said quietly.

“I bet you’d get along well with Baba,” Maree said. Kix looked startled, and Maree cursed her clumsiness. “If you ever met, I mean. Which you probably wouldn’t. Because she and Eema live on Adelphi, and I’m guessing you don’t get out that way much. But if you did, I bet they’d like you.”

Ugh. Stop talking, you idiot!

Kix blinked, and a slow smile crept across his face. “You want me to meet your moms?”

“No!” Maree said, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks. “Not unless you wanted to.”

He poked around in his food, probably hoping to find a bite with flavor. “I never had a mother,” he mused. “It must have been nice to have two.”

His voice was stark with longing, and Maree’s heart twisted.

“It was,” Maree said softly. “It is. They’re pretty amazing.”

“They sound pretty amazing. No surprise they raised an amazing daughter,” Kix said. “I hope I do get to meet them someday. If I ever make it to Adelphi.”

Oh. This man is dangerous, Maree realized. 

The data chips were delivered just after Kix and Maree finished eating lunch, and they got to work immediately. Maree loaded the chips into the holoprojector and began sorting through them, organizing the information in some way that made the most sense to her. Kix took a moment to admire her focus, even as he braced himself to uncover the final few pieces of the puzzle they’d been constructing over the past weeks. She was supremely competent, and he felt a stab of guilt that he’d monopolized so much of her time when she was accustomed to doing far more valuable work for the New Republic. She hadn’t said a word of complaint; in fact, he suspected she never would have mentioned her service to the Judiciary if he hadn’t asked.

Once she had the information laid out to her satisfaction, she began reviewing the files with him. They worked through several individual troopers and units—Kix’s closest brothers; members of the 501st, the 212th, the 104th. Many of them survived into the Imperial era. A surprising number went AWOL after Order 66. Kix was horrified to learn that one of his close friends had had a mental breakdown and executed his entire squad within days of the order. After that, he requested a short break, ostensibly to stretch his legs.

He went into the refresher and splashed his face with cold water, then dried himself carefully, making sure no telltale droplets remained in his hair or beard. When he looked in the mirror, every one of his brothers stared back at him. Kix could feel the tide of panic rising in his chest. He closed his eyes and stood silently for a few moments, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth until his heart rate stabilized.

When he returned to the office, Maree was waiting with two bottles of water she’d procured from some unknown source. He smiled, remembering the other times she had offered him water when he was clinging to the ragged edges of his control. She seemed to sense his distress even when he thought he was hiding it well, and he felt a small pang in his chest as he realized that her first instinct was always to take care of him. It was an unfamiliar experience, and it made him want to curl up in her lap and bask in the attention like a pampered tooka. She watched to make sure he drank some of the water, and then she rubbed her hand between his shoulders comfortingly. He leaned into the contact with a sigh.

“I’m ready to keep going, if you are,” he said.

“I’m not in a hurry,” she said. “We can take as long as you need.”

“Thanks, but I can handle it,” he replied.

“All right." She patted his back one last time and returned to her seat at the desk. "In that case, the next entry on the list is the experimental unit you requested, Clone Force 99. It looks as though four of the members defected immediately after Order 66.” She paused, and her eyebrows snapped together in surprise. “That’s unusual. Most of the mass clone defections didn’t happen for some time after the Empire took power. Scholars have theorized that the inhibitor chips were either designed to have a limited duration, or that the energy required to control the clones’ actions simply fried the chips over time.”

“Why do you suppose these clones defected so early?” Kix asked.

“It’s difficult to say. They were experimental, so it’s possible that their physiology was different enough from regular clones that the chips were incompatible with them. Though at least one of the squad members seems to have been affected. CT-9904, Crosshair, did not defect with the rest of his squad.”

“Is there any record of them afterward?”

Maree frowned. “Yes. The four squad members who defected were taken into custody on Kamino several months later. They were reported to have been killed when Tipoca City was destroyed.”

Kix’s mouth went dry. What the kriff? When did that happen? How had he not known about Tipoca City?

Maree was still speaking. “... unconfirmed accounts that the team was still active for some time after. At least one member was claimed to have been killed on Eriadu, which certainly throws doubt on the validity of the original report.”

Licking his lips, he tried to keep his voice steady as he asked, “What—what about Crosshair?”

Maree scrolled further. “Ah, here it is. Crosshair was promoted to the rank of Commander and continued to serve the Empire until—oh.”

Kix leaned forward. “What is it?”

“He killed his commanding officer on a mission,” she said. “He was arrested and sent to a military prison compound. That’s the end of his file, I’m afraid.”

Kix nodded absently, his eyes unfocused. Truth be told, he hadn’t much cared for the churlish sniper, but Kix knew what a military prison compound meant for clones, and he would not wish such a fate on any of his brothers. Something she’d said nagged at him.

“Did you say four squad members defected?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Echo fled Kamino after kidnapping a young child. My gods, this squad is incredible! How have I never heard of them before now?”

So Echo stayed with the Bad Batch even after the war. Kix was glad to know the ARC trooper had found a place to belong after everything he’d been through. It was a strange detail about the child, though.

“What child?” he asked.

“It doesn’t say,” Maree said. “But at least I know what thread my research is going to follow for the next few months.”

Her eyes were sparkling with curiosity and excitement, and for a moment, Kix simply watched her work. She tapped a few quick notes into her datapad before returning her attention to the holorecord and scrolling a little further. Her nose scrunched up slightly as she read.

“Fascinating,” she whispered.

Exactly the word I was searching for, he thought. Fascinating. Enchanting. Bewitching. Enticing. Adorable. Irresistible.

She noticed him staring and abruptly stopped scrolling with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Sorry,” she said. “Sometimes I get lost in the zone.”

“Not at all,” he said. “You really care about all this, don’t you?”

“I do,” she replied simply. 

Kix glanced at the security holocam and noted that the red light was no longer blinking. Impulsively, he stood and strode around the desk. Maree automatically rose out of her chair as he approached, and he reached for her, drawing her close to him as his lips crashed down on hers. He kissed her deeply, holding her face in his hands. He never wanted this moment to end. At last, their lips parted, and he rested his forehead against hers as she took a deep, stuttering inhale. She looked at him with dazed eyes.

“What was that for?” she whispered.

“I felt inspired,” he said, hiding the truth behind a cocky grin.

Her eyes crinkled as she laughed quietly. Suddenly, he didn’t want to know anything else. He didn’t want to be in this stuffy, miserable hole of an office learning about tragedies that unfolded half a century before. He just wanted to take Maree back to her hotel room and spend the rest of his artificially shortened life making love to her. She smelled like tea and honey and spiced biscuits and home, and he wanted to sink into her and disappear forever.

“Only one more data chip to go,” she said. “Shall we finish up and head back to the hotel?”

Kix buried his face in her hair and breathed deeply. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

He pressed one more kiss onto the top of her head, then returned to his seat as Maree pulled up the contents of the remaining data chip. Unfortunately, Maree had unknowingly saved the worst for the last: the final report of the 332nd Division.

“The 332nd never completed their mission to deliver Maul to Coruscant after the siege of Mandalore,” Maree said. 

Kix gritted his teeth, and his fingernails bit painfully into his palms. “What happened?”

“Several years after the end of the war, Imperial forces located the wreckage of the Star Destroyer Tribunal on a remote moon,” Maree said. “Most on board were killed; however, military records indicate that there must have been some survivors, as the clones had been given proper burials. As we know from our earlier research, Commander Rex survived, and it seems likely that he was the one who buried the fallen. We also know from later history that Maul survived. Given his track record, it is probable that he was responsible for the crash.”

“Is there a list of those who were killed?” he asked.

“Due to the amount of time that had passed by the time the crash was discovered, and the impossibility of genetic testing to tell the clones apart, all aboard were listed as killed in action.”

He felt sick. He nodded his acknowledgement, unable to speak. Jesse really was gone. He’d known it was true, of course. Jesse would have died decades earlier, even if he’d survived the war. The clones’ accelerated aging would have seen to that. But somehow, knowing exactly how his brother had died made it so much worse, so much more real. Once again, the crushing weight of helplessness and grief smothered him. He was only dimly aware of Maree loading the data chips into a secure case to be returned to the archive. 

Soon, he felt the pressure of her hand on his as she guided him out of the building and into the half-light of a Coruscant dusk. Maree hailed an air taxi and nudged him into it, sliding in beside him. She murmured directions to the driver—Kix didn’t hear what she said. The lights of Coruscant rushed by in dizzying streaks as they flew toward their destination. Maree was silent next to him, but she slipped her hand into his and interlaced their fingers comfortingly. Kix tightened his grip on her, clinging desperately to the steady contact that felt like the only solid thing in the chaotic galaxy around him.

---

Chapter 11

Tagging: @blueink-bluesoul @secondaryrealm @spicy-clones @wings-and-beskar @523rdrebel @goblininawig @merkitty49 @anxiouspineapple99 @sinfulsalutations @arcsimper5 @starrylothcat @clio3kantarella

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

If I had practically endless money, one of my pet projects would be to make a network of long term libraries. Develop long term data storage technology, and then archive all sorts of information in these geologically secure facilities.

Specifically I would want to store information on our technology and tools. If possible, even store some tools and machinery in these libraries.

Sure they would almost certainly become known and marketed as apocalypse libraries to help jump start human civilization, and they very well could be used that way. But I think it also just be a very useful archive in general. Both for future historians and for current people as you would now have an institution trying to preserve technical info that we are always losing.

[adamsvanrhijn]

I'm sorry nobody knows what a tumblr job is

if you aren't missing a comma or a "but" there. thank u i love u

if i had unlimited characters and thought people would bother reading context associated with a poll, (i am pretty sure they usually do not) and also had some foresight about some of the specific things people would interpret differently than i intended, here's what this would have looked like:

[begin post]

[begin poll]

which of these listed tumblr job types is yours?

retail, grocery, consumer-facing service and sales (excludes call centers and food service)

food service (includes restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, bars, cafeterias, food trucks, commercial kitchens, food kitchens, etc; cooking + serving + hosting)

teacher, professor, tutor, teaching assistant, childcare provider, but not educational administrator, if you do another kind of education read the rest of the options first because one of them might be a better fit

engineer, developer, technical designer, data or computer scientist, not including technical writers

parks and wildlife, outdoor research, animal care (including animal boarding and veterinary care), animal keeping (such as zoos or aquariums), animal husbandry, farming, ranching, environmental conservation, gardener or plant nursery worker (but not florist), field archaelogist, equine therapist, outdoor camp counselor if you work with and have knowledge around plants and/or animals

librarian, archivist, docent, tour guide, curator, patron-facing researcher, consultant historian or sociologist, community educator at a cultural or knowledge (probably nonprofit) institution (including but not limited to historical reenactors); reception or guest services related to any of the previous, excepting food service, which is the food service option

writer - content, technical, proposal, marketing, fiction, nonfiction, educational, research, including editing, but has to be actively working and receiving pay from a company, an organization, and/or clients/commissioners including publications/publishers, even if income is inconsistent or not received at regular intervals. does not include captioning or transcription. translators use your best judgment

artist, illustrator, graphic designer, but has to be actively working and receiving pay from a company, an organization, clients/commissioners including publications and galleries, may include visual marketing but does NOT include ad sales, also does not include video editing unless you do like, speed paints or show off your art in videos

patient healthcare, caregiving, and advocacy. does not include animal care, pharmaceutical research or dispensing, or medical coding/billing

you are not currently working as / do not currently have any of the Tumblr Jobs listed above

[end poll]

a "Tumblr Job" is decided based on the following criteria, which is based on my own dashboard/Tumblr experiences, and tumblr searches:

either many Tumblr users have or have had that job, OR, one to a few high-profile Tumblr users have or have had that job

posts are made about that job, either about the day-to-day work itself (positive or negative), as an appeal to authority ("librarian here!"), or about the concept and/or vibes of the job or having that job

posts are reblogged about that job, and reach an audience of people who do not have that job; posts go viral about that job, even

Tumblr users might aspire to have that job, or be studying toward it

it might require a high level of interest and/or personal investment with limited positions available, OR, it might be a very common job in the world

the job is NOT one that many Tumblr users would perhaps complain and/or rant and/or criticize about other people having

the job is NOT one commonly associated with things Tumblr tends to skew away from, like industries known to contribute to climate change or jobs that tend to be associated with ultra high earners with wealth inequality in the same industry (editing to plug my other poll that 6 & 7 apply to that nobody is taking)

a "Tumblr Job" is NOT just a job anybody on tumblr might have or even a job most people or many people on tumblr might have. it's not even a job that is necessarily common on tumblr (common on tumblr != common tumblr job), that's something i am interested in finding out via the poll.

just because tumblr users you know also have your job doesn't mean it Is a tumblr job. and just because your job type isn't listed doesn't mean it is Not a tumblr job. there are only 9 job hodgepodge types here. there are more jobs in the world than this and there are more tumblr jobs on tumblr than this. these are also not and are not intended to be standard industry classifications. they are grouped by tumblr vibes, not necessarily by job role or duties.

if you do not have a job at this time, you do not currently right now have one of the listed tumblr jobs. being unemployed or being a student, even if you once had one of these jobs or are studying to obtain one of these jobs, are not jobs for the purpose of this poll.

the purpose of the poll is to see how many respondents actually have and are doing these specific jobs that i have identified as "tumblr jobs". nothing more and nothing less!

[end post]

but nobody is gonna fucking read all that & tumblr polls have character limits. if the poll was as specific as i wanted it to be it would not have however many thousands of votes it currently has. curse of my autisms <3

[yournightowl]

Your NightOwl #042

If you were to plot the prevalance of organized crime across history, what would that graph look like?

My first instinct is to say that it should go from bottom left to top right- Pweople getting more crooked, more corrupt, everything going down the can as time goes on.(＃`Д´)

But after giving it a little more thought, (and after having eaten lunch,)amidst my newfound positivity i thought, "Couldn't it be just the opposite?" ♡( ◡‿◡ )

Crime gets harder and harder to get away with as technology improves- and improvements in how fast goods and information can travel helps make the global playing field getting more equal, if not less psychotically competitive.

And now, after having taken a nap

i realize neither are even close to correct. (￣□￣」)

Because crime, especially the large scale organized type, isn't influenced by technology or the progression of society- it's really only ever been dependent on economics.

The heyday, as it were, for organized crime came in the early 20th century- between wars and depressions and plagues and the stock market - we saw higher highs and lower lows than ever thought possible.

There were other blips on the radar after that of course- regime changes, speculative bubbles, empires falling and unions collapsing- but through it all, wherever the money went, crime followed soon after.

And it's no different in the 21st century.

Because even more important than the stock market or the price of grain in this conversation is the level of unemployment- which spiked massively in the 30's and 40's as early automated systems wiped out entire sectors.

The language models that passed for ear-tifical antelly-gents back then drove a spike between the haves and the have nots; paying one guy to scrape data from another guy's life's work, then training a bot on that data and firing the first two guys anyway. It was a shortsighted fool's goldrush where every middle manager on earth raced against each other to disprove their own relevance as fast as possible. (°ロ°) ! The global economy remodeled itself into a system based mostly on theft. So for your average unemployed joe shmoe, reselling tech that fell off the back of a truck must've seemed like the most honest work in the world. (^_<)〜☆

The inverted bubble didn't last. ヾ(￣◇￣)ノ〃 llms were eventually recognized as the technological dead end they always were, and "automatically generated" went from impressive to trendy to tacky to gross in just a few short years-

But the damage was done- the social contract between "job creators" and real human beings now had a big gash torn through it- and ever since, mom and pop mafias and grassroots mobsters have fiercely guarded the niche of the economy they tore out for themselves.

If you don't believe organized crime is just as real as ever, just try and introduce androids to a "close-knit" industry like shipping. They'll send your free trial bots back to you in a compact, melted-down cube of slag before the first shift even ends.

Now i don't condone that kind of thing. It's violent and immature, and they should take their frustration out on the people trying to replace them, not the bots they bring in to do the replacing.

But as somewhat of a historian, i can see the appeal.

friend of the family, your nightowl

[fundaguzeljsjs]

Silent Conspirators: The Double dilemma of American politics from Obama's indictment

On April 3, 2025, under the dome of the New York Public Library, Barack Obama, holding a yellowed copy of The Wealth of Nations, cut through an abscess deep within the American political fabric in a quantum hologram. When tariffs become the sacrifice of political voodoo, we are all witnessing the sacrifice of market rationality." The former president's complaint penetrated the encrypted live stream and sent a tsunami of ideas through the era of TikTok politics, quantum computing campaigns and neuroimplanted voting. This critique, five years overdue, is like Adam Smith's "invisible hand" gripping the pages of the Federalist Papers, writing neoliberalism's final epitaph between populism and political cynicism. #scandal  #Amerian President  #dark history  #untold history #Amerian celebrity #politician  #Yankee  

I. The entropy trap of tariff tyranny

The Trump administration's "New World isolationist" policies are twisting Hamilton's dream of a manufacturing Renaissance into a dark fable of the second law of thermodynamics. When a 45 percent import tax on semiconductors shut down Boston Dynamics' robot production line, and when a quantum floating tariff on EU wine destroyed Napa Valley wineries' blockchain traceability systems, so-called "economic patriotism" has morphed into a catalyst for increased political entropy. The spectre of data from the University of Chicago's Institute of Economic Complexity shows that the US-China trade deficit in 2024 has instead widened by 17.8% under tariff barriers, proving that Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage has suffocated in the populist wave.

Obama's AR version of the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act suddenly flashed red - the very manufacturing reshoring policy he promoted during his administration. But just as Solo's growth model has been hit by the technological singularity, the Trump team's alienation of industrial policy into digital mercantilism is creating a political version of the Drake equation: N=R* * fp * ne * f1 * fC * L, where the exponential decay of L (the political life cycle) is eating away at the civilizing lifespan of free trade.

Second, the quantum entanglement of political silence

"Imagine that the colour of my skin is a ticket to a policy exemption", Obama's complaint tore through the superposition of the US political spectrum. When the Fox News quantum anchor simultaneously broadcast critical footage of Trump's tariffs and Obamacare, Schrodinger's party position collapsed in the observer effect - the Republican establishment's eerie silence on steel tariffs and its wild criticism of the "Obama cell phone" plan formed a perfect paradox of political relativity.

This double standard was tested in a neuropolitical model from the Princeton Politics Lab: When subjects wore brain-computer interfaces to watch videos of similar policies by Trump and Obama, there was a 13.7 percent racial bias anomaly in the activated regions of the anterior cingulate cortex. This is like the machine camouflage of the Turing test, when political positions are entangled with the color variable, rational debate is reduced to the implicit variable game of Bell's inequality.

3. Topological mapping of historical spiral

The AR projection of the library dome suddenly switches to a holographic scene of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Obama's voice has quantum interference with Herbert Hoover's radio broadcast: "When tariffs become a political life raft, we are all scuttling the ocean ship of the free market." Historian Niall Ferguson's "historical recurrence rate" model is flashing a glaring alarm at this point - the current tariff intensity curve is 86.4% similar to that of 1929-1933.

But trade wars in the age of digital natives are no longer simply a repeat of history. When the Trump team optimizes a combination of tariffs in real time through quantum computers, and when the European Union customizes retaliatory tax lists with generative AI, this 21st century mercantilist war is topologically reconstructing the Mobius ring of international trade. Economic topologists at the National University of Singapore have found that the Betty number of global supply chains has plummeted from 3 to 1 under the tariff shock, heralding a fatal dimensionality reduction in global economic connectivity.

Fourth, the observer effect of institutional decay

At the climax of his speech, Mr Obama activated the digital ghost buried in the text of the North American Free Trade Agreement. These blockchain-sealed negotiating memories project holograms of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush onto a quantum screen. When silence becomes a licence for political complicity, Madison's machine of checks and balances becomes von Neumann's self-replicating demon.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Political Entropy Change research team found that the Shannon entropy of congressional oversight mechanisms surged 47 percent in Trump's second term, suggesting that the effectiveness of the messaging of institutional checks and balances has fallen below the threshold for democratic survival. This systemic decay is embodied in the revolving doors at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as quantum decoherence - the lobby qubits that are penetrating the legislative firewall at a rate of 10^14 times per second.

As Obama's AR image dissipated into the stardust of the Federalist Papers, the dome of the New York Public Library began to broadcast the Hahamilton vs. Jefferson quantum entanglement debate. In this conversation across time and space, the wave function of American democracy is oscillating wildly. Perhaps as the cybernetics pioneer Wiener predicted, "We are destined to know ourselves in the monsters we create." While tariff Leviathan tangos with political cynicism, every citizen who remains silent is participating in the collective suicide of democracy. Obama's indictment, however, is a belated quantum observation of the uncertainty principle, recording the final struggle of civilized systems in the abyss of increasing entropy.