#Data Ingestion

[jcmarchi]

Unlock the other 99% of your data - now ready for AI

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/unlock-the-other-99-of-your-data-now-ready-for-ai/

Unlock the other 99% of your data - now ready for AI

For decades, companies of all sizes have recognized that the data available to them holds significant value, for improving user and customer experiences and for developing strategic plans based on empirical evidence.

As AI becomes increasingly accessible and practical for real-world business applications, the potential value of available data has grown exponentially. Successfully adopting AI requires significant effort in data collection, curation, and preprocessing. Moreover, important aspects such as data governance, privacy, anonymization, regulatory compliance, and security must be addressed carefully from the outset.

In a conversation with Henrique Lemes, Americas Data Platform Leader at IBM, we explored the challenges enterprises face in implementing practical AI in a range of use cases. We began by examining the nature of data itself, its various types, and its role in enabling effective AI-powered applications.

Henrique highlighted that referring to all enterprise information simply as ‘data’ understates its complexity. The modern enterprise navigates a fragmented landscape of diverse data types and inconsistent quality, particularly between structured and unstructured sources.

In simple terms, structured data refers to information that is organized in a standardized and easily searchable format, one that enables efficient processing and analysis by software systems.

Unstructured data is information that does not follow a predefined format nor organizational model, making it more complex to process and analyze. Unlike structured data, it includes diverse formats like emails, social media posts, videos, images, documents, and audio files. While it lacks the clear organization of structured data, unstructured data holds valuable insights that, when effectively managed through advanced analytics and AI, can drive innovation and inform strategic business decisions.

Henrique stated, “Currently, less than 1% of enterprise data is utilized by generative AI, and over 90% of that data is unstructured, which directly affects trust and quality”.

The element of trust in terms of data is an important one. Decision-makers in an organization need firm belief (trust) that the information at their fingertips is complete, reliable, and properly obtained. But there is evidence that states less than half of data available to businesses is used for AI, with unstructured data often going ignored or sidelined due to the complexity of processing it and examining it for compliance – especially at scale.

To open the way to better decisions that are based on a fuller set of empirical data, the trickle of easily consumed information needs to be turned into a firehose. Automated ingestion is the answer in this respect, Henrique said, but the governance rules and data policies still must be applied – to unstructured and structured data alike.

Henrique set out the three processes that let enterprises leverage the inherent value of their data. “Firstly, ingestion at scale. It’s important to automate this process. Second, curation and data governance. And the third [is when] you make this available for generative AI. We achieve over 40% of ROI over any conventional RAG use-case.”

IBM provides a unified strategy, rooted in a deep understanding of the enterprise’s AI journey, combined with advanced software solutions and domain expertise. This enables organizations to efficiently and securely transform both structured and unstructured data into AI-ready assets, all within the boundaries of existing governance and compliance frameworks.

“We bring together the people, processes, and tools. It’s not inherently simple, but we simplify it by aligning all the essential resources,” he said.

As businesses scale and transform, the diversity and volume of their data increase. To keep up, AI data ingestion process must be both scalable and flexible.

“[Companies] encounter difficulties when scaling because their AI solutions were initially built for specific tasks. When they attempt to broaden their scope, they often aren’t ready, the data pipelines grow more complex, and managing unstructured data becomes essential. This drives an increased demand for effective data governance,” he said.

IBM’s approach is to thoroughly understand each client’s AI journey, creating a clear roadmap to achieve ROI through effective AI implementation. “We prioritize data accuracy, whether structured or unstructured, along with data ingestion, lineage, governance, compliance with industry-specific regulations, and the necessary observability. These capabilities enable our clients to scale across multiple use cases and fully capitalize on the value of their data,” Henrique said.

Like anything worthwhile in technology implementation, it takes time to put the right processes in place, gravitate to the right tools, and have the necessary vision of how any data solution might need to evolve.

IBM offers enterprises a range of options and tooling to enable AI workloads in even the most regulated industries, at any scale. With international banks, finance houses, and global multinationals among its client roster, there are few substitutes for Big Blue in this context.

To find out more about enabling data pipelines for AI that drive business and offer fast, significant ROI, head over to this page.

[rajaniesh]

Unlock Powerful Data Strategies: Master Managed and External Tables in Fabric Delta Lake

Are you ready to unlock powerful data strategies and take your data management skills to the next level? In our latest blog post, we dive deep into mastering managed and external tables in Delta Lake within Microsoft Fabric.

Welcome to our series on optimizing data ingestion with Spark in Microsoft Fabric. In our first post, we covered the capabilities of Microsoft Fabric and its integration with Delta Lake. In this second installment, we dive into mastering Managed and External tables. Choosing between managed and external tables is a crucial decision when working with Delta Lake in Microsoft Fabric. Each option…

[techinfotrends]

Data ingestion is core to any data refinement procedure that targets revealing hidden data insights. Right from collecting data to bringing it to the insightful revelation stage is a work of art. This is what data ingestion deals with.

Making it indispensable to your business processes shall yield greater results in the long-term future. Facilitating enhanced data analytics quality, trusted data-driven decision-making, and leveraging flexibility are all the perks that your organization can gain. Therefore, understanding the different types of data ingestion, and how they perform in real-time is a hard nut to crack.

Making it easier for you, there are popular and globally trusted data science certifications that can enhance your comprehension of these key concepts. These are streamed to prepare you for the organizational big data handling ahead.

There is a massive demand for skilled and certified data science professionals with the requisite knowledge of data ingestion tools worldwide. In the years as we advance through 2026, there will be 11.5 million jobs created for certified data scientists (The US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Make yourself a quick pick in the global career field that commands high respect for skills, and expertise, and offers a whopper of a salary internationally.

Building a thriving career progression with these skills and credentials gracing your portfolio for your dream data science job role with your preferred industry giant. Master data ingestion with USDSI® Data Science certifications today!

[navybluetriangles]

.

[tweedfrog]

Need to know if every single era had those incredibly annoying contrarians who, when you point out a fairly obvious recent issue start "not everything is because of 1 thing"-ing you.

Like idk bro if you were previously a healthy 20 year old and after a week long viral infection you can't stand without getting palpations yes statistically it's likely it was covid and now you've got long covid.

If you live on a mountain outside of the tropics and got hit with a fucking hurricane out of nowhere it's likely climate change and not some random freak event that would have happened if we were all using solar panels.

It's just exhausting to deal with. If i was in the middle of the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and someone was like "um akshually this isn't strange at all and can be explained by something else" i think I'd have shoved them into the lava myself.

[alatariel-galadriel]

google’s generative ai search results have started showing up in Firefox and I hate it I hate it I hate it i hate it I hate it I HATE IT

[vague-humanoid]

At the California Institute of the Arts, it all started with a videoconference between the registrar’s office and a nonprofit.

One of the nonprofit’s representatives had enabled an AI note-taking tool from Read AI. At the end of the meeting, it emailed a summary to all attendees, said Allan Chen, the institute’s chief technology officer. They could have a copy of the notes, if they wanted — they just needed to create their own account.

Next thing Chen knew, Read AI’s bot had popped up inabout a dozen of his meetings over a one-week span. It was in one-on-one check-ins. Project meetings. “Everything.”

The spread “was very aggressive,” recalled Chen, who also serves as vice president for institute technology. And it “took us by surprise.”

The scenariounderscores a growing challenge for colleges: Tech adoption and experimentation among students, faculty, and staff — especially as it pertains to AI — are outpacing institutions’ governance of these technologies and may even violate their data-privacy and security policies.

That has been the case with note-taking tools from companies including Read AI, Otter.ai, and Fireflies.ai.They can integrate with platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teamsto provide live transcriptions, meeting summaries, audio and video recordings, and other services.

Higher-ed interest in these products isn’t surprising.For those bogged down with virtual rendezvouses, a tool that can ingest long, winding conversations and spit outkey takeaways and action items is alluring. These services can also aid people with disabilities, including those who are deaf.

But the tools can quickly propagate unchecked across a university. They can auto-join any virtual meetings on a user’s calendar — even if that person is not in attendance. And that’s a concern, administrators say, if it means third-party productsthat an institution hasn’t reviewedmay be capturing and analyzing personal information, proprietary material, or confidential communications.

“What keeps me up at night is the ability for individual users to do things that are very powerful, but they don’t realize what they’re doing,” Chen said. “You may not realize you’re opening a can of worms.“

The Chronicle documented both individual and universitywide instances of this trend. At Tidewater Community College, in Virginia, Heather Brown, an instructional designer, unwittingly gave Otter.ai’s tool access to her calendar, and it joined a Faculty Senate meeting she didn’t end up attending. “One of our [associate vice presidents] reached out to inform me,” she wrote in a message. “I was mortified!”

[juliebowie]

Real-Time Data Ingestion: Strategies, Benefits, and Use Cases

Summary: Master real-time data! This guide explores key concepts & strategies for ingesting & processing data streams. Uncover the benefits like improved decision-making & fraud detection. Learn best practices & discover use cases across industries.

Introduction

In today's data-driven world, the ability to analyse information as it's generated is becoming increasingly crucial. Traditional batch processing, where data is collected and analysed periodically, can leave businesses lagging behind. This is where real-time data ingestion comes into play.

Overview Real-Time Data Ingestion

Real-time data ingestion refers to the continuous process of capturing, processing, and storing data streams as they are generated. This data can come from various sources, including sensor networks, social media feeds, financial transactions, website traffic logs, and more.

By ingesting and analysing data in real-time, businesses can gain valuable insights and make informed decisions with minimal latency.

Key Concepts in Real-Time Data Ingestion

Data Streams: Continuous flows of data generated by various sources, requiring constant ingestion and processing.

Event Stream Processing (ESP): Real-time processing engines that analyse data streams as they arrive, identifying patterns and extracting insights.

Microservices Architecture: Breaking down data processing tasks into smaller, independent services for increased scalability and agility in real-time environments.

Data Pipelines: Defined pathways for data to flow from source to destination, ensuring seamless data ingestion and transformation.

Latency: The time it takes for data to travel from its source to the point of analysis. Minimising latency is crucial for real-time applications.

Strategies for Implementing Real-Time Data Ingestion

Ready to harness the power of real-time data? Dive into this section to explore key strategies for implementing real-time data ingestion. Discover how to choose the right tools, ensure data quality, and design a scalable architecture for seamless data capture and processing.

Choosing the Right Tools: Select data ingestion tools that can handle high-volume data streams and offer low latency processing, such as Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, or Amazon Kinesis.

Data Stream Preprocessing: Clean, filter, and transform data streams as they are ingested to ensure data quality and efficient processing.

Scalability and Performance: Design your real-time data ingestion architecture to handle fluctuating data volumes and maintain acceptable processing speed.

Monitoring and Alerting: Continuously monitor your data pipelines for errors or performance issues. Implement automated alerts to ensure timely intervention if problems arise.

Benefits of Real-Time Data Ingestion

Explore the transformative benefits of real-time data ingestion. Discover how it empowers businesses to make faster decisions, enhance customer experiences, and optimise operations for a competitive edge.

Enhanced Decision-Making: Real-time insights allow businesses to react quickly to market changes, customer behaviour, or operational issues.

Improved Customer Experience: By analysing customer interactions in real-time, businesses can personalise recommendations, address concerns promptly, and optimise customer journeys.

Fraud Detection and Prevention: Real-time analytics can identify suspicious activity and prevent fraudulent transactions as they occur.

Operational Efficiency: Monitor machine performance, resource utilisation, and potential equipment failures in real-time to optimise operations and minimise downtime.

Risk Management: Real-time data analysis can help predict and mitigate potential risks based on real-time market fluctuations or social media sentiment.

Challenges in Real-Time Data Ingestion

Real-time data streams are powerful, but not without hurdles. Dive into this section to explore the challenges of high data volume, ensuring data quality, managing complexity, and keeping your data secure.

Data Volume and Velocity: Managing high-volume data streams and processing them with minimal latency can be a challenge.

Data Quality: Maintaining data quality during real-time ingestion is crucial, as errors can lead to inaccurate insights and poor decision-making.

Complexity: Real-time data pipelines involve various technologies and require careful design and orchestration to ensure smooth operation.

Security Concerns: Protecting sensitive data while ingesting and processing data streams in real-time requires robust security measures.

Use Cases of Real-Time Data Ingestion

Learn how real-time data ingestion fuels innovation across industries, from fraud detection in finance to personalised marketing in e-commerce. Discover the exciting possibilities that real-time insights unlock.

Fraud Detection: Financial institutions use real-time analytics to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions as they occur.

Personalized Marketing: E-commerce platforms leverage real-time customer behaviour data to personalise product recommendations and promotions.

IoT and Sensor Data Analysis: Real-time data from sensors in connected devices allows for monitoring equipment health, optimising energy consumption, and predicting potential failures.

Stock Market Analysis: Financial analysts use real-time data feeds to analyse market trends and make informed investment decisions.

Social Media Monitoring: Brands can track social media sentiment and brand mentions in real-time to address customer concerns and manage brand reputation.

Best Practices for Real-Time Data Ingestion

Unleashing the full potential of real-time data! Dive into this section for best practices to optimise your data ingestion pipelines, ensuring quality, performance, and continuous improvement.

Plan and Design Thoroughly: Clearly define requirements and design your real-time data ingestion architecture considering scalability, performance, and security.

Choose the Right Technology Stack: Select tools and technologies that can handle the volume, velocity, and variety of data you expect to ingest.

Focus on Data Quality: Implement data cleaning and validation techniques to ensure the accuracy and consistency of your real-time data streams.

Monitor and Maintain: Continuously monitor your data pipelines for errors and performance issues. Implement proactive maintenance procedures to ensure optimal performance.

Embrace Continuous Improvement: The field of real-time data ingestion is constantly evolving. Stay updated on new technologies and best practices to continuously improve your data ingestion pipelines.

Conclusion

Real-time data ingestion empowers businesses to operate in an ever-changing environment. By understanding the key concepts, implementing effective strategies, and overcoming the challenges, businesses can unlock the power of real-time insights to gain a competitive edge.

From enhanced decision-making to improved customer experiences and operational efficiency, real-time data ingestion holds immense potential for organisations across diverse industries. As technology continues to advance, real-time data ingestion will become an even more critical tool for success in the data-driven future.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Difference Between Real-Time and Batch Data Processing?

Real-time data ingestion processes data as it's generated, offering near-instant insights. Batch processing collects data periodically and analyses it later, leading to potential delays in decision-making.

What are Some of The Biggest Challenges in Real-Time Data Ingestion?

High data volume and velocity, maintaining data quality during processing, and ensuring the security of sensitive data streams are some of the key challenges to overcome.

How Can My Business Benefit from Real-Time Data Ingestion?

Real-time insights can revolutionise decision-making, personalise customer experiences, detect fraud instantly, optimise operational efficiency, and identify potential risks before they escalate.

[rajaniesh]

Unveiling the Power of Delta Lake in Microsoft Fabric

Discover how Microsoft Fabric and Delta Lake can revolutionize your data management and analytics. Learn to optimize data ingestion with Spark and unlock the full potential of your data for smarter decision-making.

In today’s digital era, data is the new gold. Companies are constantly searching for ways to efficiently manage and analyze vast amounts of information to drive decision-making and innovation. However, with the growing volume and variety of data, traditional data processing methods often fall short. This is where Microsoft Fabric, Apache Spark and Delta Lake come into play. These powerful…

[charseraph]

C&A is a neobotanics and nooscionics lab. In other words, they grow and train sophont AIs, “seedlets,” and design software and hardware to interface organic minds with digital systems.

It’s a small enough company to draw little suspicion, but credible enough to be contracted by big name operations (mainly military).

They accidentally trapped a person in a noospace, the “noosciocircus,” with Caine, a seedlet grown and owned by C&A. He’s a well meaning seedlet, tasked to keep the trapped person sane as C&A keeps their body alive as long as possible.

In an effort to recover the person from the inside, they sent in another only to trap them as well. Their cumulating mistake becomes harder to pull the plug on as it would kill both the trapped and Caine, an expensive investment who just also happens to be relaying immensely valuable nootic data from his ongoing simulation.

C&A continues to send agents to assist the trapped from within, each with relevant skills. They’re getting a bit desperate, since the pool of candidates is limited to those who work with C&A and would not draw too much attention if gone missing.

So, the noosciocircus becomes testing ground for lesser semiohazards.

Semiohazards are stimuli that trigger a destructive response in the minds of perceivers. Semiohazards can be encoded into any medium, but are generally easiest to encode into sights and air pressure sequences. The effect, “a mulekick,” can range in severity from temporarily disabled breathing, to seizure, to brain death.

Extreme amputations (“truncations”) occur when a trapped agent ingests a semiohazard that shuts off the brain’s recognition of some body part as its own. Sieving is a last resort to permanently mechanically support the life of the trapped. Thanks to modern advancements, this is cheap and sustainable. Those overexposed to the hazards become the abstracted and are considered lost. Their bodies are kept alive for archival.

Semiohazards being a current hotspot of discovery and design means C&A is sending in semiotic specialists alongside programmers. Ragatha was sent in to provide the trapped with nootic endurance training, but she underestimated the condition of the trapped. Gangle, too, was sent to help the trapped navigate their new nootic state, but her own dealt avatar clotheslined her progress. She wasn’t too stable entering to begin with, but C&A’s options are limited.

[bunnis-monsters]

How would we "give birth" to bee hybrids?

Bc obviously theres egg, but do we lay them like bees do in the honeycomb?

Or do we give birth like a person would?

This is actually highly debated amongst different hives.

Some believe laying eggs in a honeycomb is both the most natural and best way to go about birthing. It’s what bees did and their ancestors did, so that’s what they should do!

There are others that say incubating them in your womb and giving birth to them live creates more loyal subjects that will stick to their queen through anything!

The truth? Either way is fine and gets the job done. There’s very little information to back up which way is better for the baby bees, as giving birth to live babies is new and hasn’t had a higher mortality rate than laying eggs into a comb.

Scientist bees are still collecting data from different hives to see which way is truly the best method… but I’d say it depends on the mother and what she thinks is best for her own body.

Just like some mothers think ingesting honey straight from the father’s own collection will help build their immunity, others think introducing the little ones to a wide array of honeys at an early age can make sure they’re healthy and will make better honey later in life. It’s a simple difference of opinion that makes no real difference either way.

A baby that survives incubation is a good baby, whether it’s from birthing or being laid by their mother.

Good job mamas, you’re doing your best!

a/n: tried to make this read like an article from a mommy blog that tries to stay neutral on topics lol

[smallestapplin]

What if the Cybertronians saw the reader drinking blue gatorade and thought it was Energon.

I went with Prowl headcanons, he doesnt get enough love.

-

-

- Energon is known, at least to the autobots on Earth, to be toxic to human, Ratchet stressed after an accident that no human companion of theirs should be exposed to it for too long and to never ingest it for it could at minium do serious harm, but more likely kill their little human.

- Prowl does not mind you always bothering him as he works, he’s grown use to you and your antics making it easier to block you out or at least still get things done. So when you walk into his office, greeting him as always, he doesn’t look away from his data pad as he greets you in return.

- You climb up his desk (with the stairs he absolutely did not build in so you could climb up it safer) and sit near his servos.

- You chat with him with ease, asking about his day which he tells you little about, but he’s still nice to be with.

- Bright blue catches his attention off the corner of his optics, he almost assumed you brought him the worlds smallest Energon cube, until he turns his head and sees you drinking it. His optics widen a fraction and before you know it you’re being yanked into the air, you bottle falling from your hands spilling the liquid all over his desk, but he doesn’t care.

- You ask him what’s wrong but he doesn’t even answer you as he’s speeding out of his office, swiftly transforming making your head spin as you find yourself in the passenger seat. His sirens blaring as he drives, speeding down the hall making any autobot jump to the side to get out of his way.

- “Prowl, what’s going on!?”

- “You are a fragging idiot! We can make it to Ratchet, I won’t let you offline.”

- You’re so confused. Prowl slams on his brakes as he bursts through the medbay doors, gaining the attention of a newly pissed off Racteht, before transforming once more, this time holding you out to the medbot.

- “They drank energon!”

- And like that Ratchet is taking you, setting you on the medical berth and hooking so many things up to you as he’s loudly scolding you for even touching energon. But you can’t remember drinking energon, you didn’t have any! The only time you’re even near it is when you’re around them as they drink it.

- Prowl and Ratchet talk amongst themselves, though it’s clear they are both worried. Ratchet is not trained to handle humans, your bodies are so much more fragile and complex than he studied for. It takes Prowl telling Ratchet the story for it to finally click in your head.

“That wasn’t energon, that was a Gatorade!”

The two bots look at you, optics narrowed, squinting at you in suspicion.

“Aren’t gators those lizard things you spoke of with the powerful bite force? Why would they need aid?” Prowl questions, crossing his arms over his chassis.

“And why would you be drinking it?” Ratchet follows up.

You have to pull up your phone to look it up in bigger words to get it through their processors that you really are fine, it was just a tasty drink! Though it doesn’t help the two bots groans, shaking their helms and muttering something humans being weird, and making odd scrap as always.

But as Prowl holds you in his servo as you two leave the medbay, he looks at you with a stern expression.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again, understood?”

You have to fight back a smile, knowing how worried he must’ve been, “I promise Prowl, I’ll make sure to let you know what I got before hand.”

He’s a worry wot, give him a break.

[mx-paradox]

Too Far? (Just Enough) {Sakura Haruka x Reader}

Teasing Haruka leads to you needing to 'take care' of a very embarrassing 'problem' you accidentally caused...

Minors Do Not Interact, written with aged-up haruka in mind, smut, handjob, semi-public sex (locked restroom), praise kink, subby haruka, established relationship, gender neutral reader (no gendered words or any anatomy at all mentioned). word count: 2200 | Ao3 version

You were addicted to the sight of Haruka’s blush.

Every time your boyfriend flushed a shade of rose, you felt it go straight to your head, like a sugar rush. It was the best feeling; especially if it was you who was the cause of that sweet blush.

So, you liked to tease him. Never in a harsh way. You weren’t cruel. But sometimes you got just a little too close to him…touched him a little too intimately for public…praised him a little too much…just so you could get your dose of his embarrassed expression and strawberry flush.

It never went much farther than that, however. You knew Haruka needed to be handled gently; he wasn’t breakable, maybe, but he deserved the soft treatment he never had before. So, you didn’t push it. You pulled away before the embarrassment turned to shame and anger. You showed him love in other ways, quieter ways, ways that were easier for his affection-starved body to stomach. The teasing was just a sort of…seasoning, a bit of flavor you allowed yourself to sneak into your meal (him).

You didn’t think it would escalate like this.

(But you weren’t complaining.)

—

Pothos was filled to the brim with rowdy gang members, your boyfriend among them. It took some maneuvering (and some well-placed elbows) to make your way to him, but it was worth it to nestle into the cramped booth with him.

Tsuguera greeted you with a strong slap to the back that made you wince. Thankfully, Suo and Nirei greeted you verbally. Haruka only let out a grunt, before subtly linking his pinky with yours beneath the table.

“You guys celebrating?” you asked, once you were settled.

“Nothing big,” Suo said with a serene smile. “Just another fight won.”

Your eyes automatically drifted towards Nirei, who was just waiting for the slightest sliver of interest to be shown so he could recount the fight in question. Your inquisitive look was enough to break the floodgates. You couldn’t keep up with all of his enthusiastic babble (few could), but you understood the basics.

“Aren’t you sweet?” you cooed, turning to your boyfriend.

“Huh?!”

“Stepping in to help those girls like that. Starting this whole big fight just to protect them.”

Haruka was already getting the lightest dusting of pink across his cheekbones. He tried to avoid your eyes by looking down, but you dropped your head down to meet his gaze. You would allow yourself to play with him. Just a little bit, as a treat.

“Y’know what,” you murmured, eyes wide and locked onto his, “You’re such a good boy, Haru.”

He went up in flames. It was like he had just ingested a ghost pepper, whole, and was having a full-body reaction to the capsaicin. You barely had a second to admire the fruits of your labor before he let out a screech that sounded vaguely like “IGOTTAPISS—," leapt over your lap, and booked it to the bathroom.

You sat, frozen, staring at Nirei and Suo, who were also similarly shocked.

“What did you say to him?” Suo asked, a touch of humor in his voice. “I haven’t seen him react that way…ever, I think. It was quite impressive, actually.”

Nirei pulled a notebook from his jacket and thumbed through it, like he was double-checking his data. “I don’t think he’s ever been that embarrassed before.”

You started to feel a trickle of guilt slither down your throat. It was just meant to be a bit of fun, a little teasing. You didn’t expect Haruka to react this badly to a little pet name, but you’ve clearly miscalculated. Maybe it hit a nerve you didn’t know was exposed, or maybe it was just a little too much for a busy restaurant full of his friends. Either way, you had made a misstep, and now you would have to deal with the consequences.

“I’m going to go check on him,” you announced, giving the other two men an apologetic grimace. Nirei waved you off, while Suo gave you a head nod punctuated by his typical mysterious smile.

—

The men’s bathroom, a single stall, was tucked further into the back of the restaurant, away from most of the main noise. You knocked at the door, ready to sweet-talk your boyfriend into letting you in, but the door creaked open on its own. He must’ve been in such a state he didn’t even bother to close it properly, you thought, frowning to yourself.

You slipped inside, making sure to close and lock the door behind you before you turned.

You weren’t quite sure what you expected. But it certainly wasn’t the sight you were greeted with.

Haruka had just noticed your entrance, and he stood, frozen. Both of his hands were gripping the edge of the sink counter, his knuckles white. His face and bangs were damp; probably from splashing water on his face to cool down. But the most shocking thing was the obvious bulge of an erection pressing against the zipper of his tight jeans.

You gaped at him. Your brain was lagging like an old windows program (the sight of Haruka’s arousal had definitely been a shock to the system), but with a moment to process, you finally understood what happened.

“Did you get hard when I called you a good boy?”

 He let out a bitten-back whimper. He was grasping the counter so hard you swore you could hear it crack under the pressure. “Stop teasing me,” he said, trying to project anger into his voice to cover up the underlying whine.

“Hey,” you said, placatingly. “I’m not trying to make fun of you. I wouldn’t do that.”

 Haruka blinked at you. He still looked so vulnerable; more so than he ever had in a fight. You felt like you were in a fight…at the very least, it felt like the stakes were just as high. Your sweet boyfriend looked like he was one wrong word slipping from your mouth away from shattering. You needed to be gentle with him. Careful.

You started to move towards him, slowly. “In fact…I think that,” you nodded towards the tent in his pants. “Is pretty hot, actually.”

He didn’t answer, but you can see the blush on his face deepen. He’s still self-conscious, however, bringing both hands down in an attempt to protect what little modesty he might have left.

You let him, for now, choosing instead to grip his chin between your fingers so you could tilt him into a slow, sensual kiss. You were holding yourself back from devouring him, but even at your leashed pace he let out the prettiest sounding mewls into your mouth. He slowly relaxed into your kisses, hands drifting naturally from his crotch to tangle themselves in your shirt. You continued to indulge him, licking deeper into his mouth, chasing all of his sweet noises. Eventually, you had to let him breathe properly, but you made sure to run your tongue over his teeth in the way you knew made him shudder first.

You gave him a second to catch his breath, and recover, before asking, “Do you want me to help you, baby?”

Haruka was too flustered to speak, but he gave you the tiniest nod, unable to meet your eyes.

“Good boy,” you breathed. “I’ll make you feel so good.”

The sound of you pulling down his zipper echoed through the bathroom. Haruka's blunt nails scratched against the counter at the sound. You gave him a few soft pecks along his jaw to distract him, before slipping your hand into his underwear.

His cock was positively dripping when you pulled it out. The head was flushed red, fading down into pink near where the root of his dick was concealed by the bush of his black-and-white pubes. You rubbed your thumb across his slit, coaxing more precum out of his tip as he let out a high-pitched whine.

You raised your gaze, so you could see the both of you in the mirror. Haruka was cherry-red now, his eyes squeezed tightly shut in both embarrassment and arousal. His sharp canines were digging into his lips, nearly drawing blood as he unsuccessfully tried to bite back the lewd noises he was making. You couldn't see the reflection of his cock from this angle, but you could see the muscles in his forearms flex as he gripped the counter edge. You could see the subtle movements in your own arm, wrapped around his body and leisurely jerking his cock. You met your own eyes in the mirror, which were glinting with delight and lust.

"So perfect, Haru," you purred into his rosy ear.

He let out a whimpering cry, hips jerking forward into your grip unconsciously. You licked a stripe up his neck, nibbling at the lobe of his ear. Where your chest was pressed against his back, you could feel his shuddering, broken breathing as you pleasure him; you could almost feel the quickening beat of his heart.

Suddenly, you got an idea. Your self-indulgent actions already led you here, giving your boyfriend a handjob in a public restroom, so what was a little bit more teasing?

"Haruka," you cooed. "Open your eyes for me, baby."

It took him a moment, but he was nothing if not your good boy. You watched as his dual-colored eyes fought to flutter open, endeavors nearly thwarted by both his natural instinct to let them slide shut in pleasure and the wetness that clumped his lashes together. But, finally, they were cracked open enough for you to see his blown-out pupils, surrounded by thin metallic rings of color.

His eyes were open, but his brain was so hazed-out from arousal that he clearly wasn't even processing anything he was seeing. And that simply wouldn't do.

You stilled your hand, moving to lightly grip the base of his cock to stave off his oncoming orgasm. "Look at yourself in the mirror, Haruka."

Haruka blinked dumbly, letting out a whimper as you denied him his pleasure. Reluctantly, he raised his gaze.

His breath hitched as he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He truly looked debauched, every inch of visible skin flushed and slick with sweat, hair mussed, lips bitten and red, eyes shining with tears. He blushed even more as he looked at himself; you could feel the heat radiating from his skin as his eyes met yours in the mirror.

"See? My boyfriend is the prettiest person in the world." You started to stroke him again, this time faster, movements aided by the pre that was leaking from his cock in a steady stream. "You're so sexy, Haruka, I could just eat you alive."

Your pretty boy couldn't even hold back his sounds anymore. Mewls and whines poured from his lips, noises mixing with the slick, lewd sound of your hand working him to climax. His eyes were hooded, in danger of slipping shut again completely; but every time he got close, you would slow your hand until he opened them again. Haruka likely didn't even realize it, but he was humping into your fist, hips jerking in small, unrelenting movements as he lost himself to his arousal.

You kissed him on the cheek, chasteness of it almost ridiculous for the situation you were in. "My precious, adorable, good boy."

Haruka let out a broken moan as he came into your hand. His head was thrown back, the perfect, biteable line of his throat exposed as his voice cracked and faded into a high-pitched, near-silent whine. He was shaking in your arms, every muscle flexing and frozen. You stroked him through his orgasm, milking the shots of milky hot come out of him until his aching balls were empty and his cock oversensitive.

You held him tightly through the comedown, making sure to kiss him all over and murmur words of reassurance and praise to him. You couldn't help but savor the feeling of him, wrung dry of ecstasy, warm and lax in your arms. He was clinging to you with a relaxed shamelessness, born of post-orgasm haze, that was a rare pleasure for you (but a pleasure that you experienced more and more frequently as Haruka learned how to be loved).

As you pressed another kiss to his sweaty forehead, you whispered to him that he really was just your perfect boy, wasn't he?

—

It took a long time to pull Haruka together, but, after a suspiciously long time, the two of you stumbled your way back into the main area of the cafe.

You had hoped that you could slip out unnoticed, and text everyone afterwards when you were taking Haru home, but your hopes were dashed by Nirei's sharp eyes.

"Hey! Are you guys okay? You were gone for—"

He's cut off by Suo placing a hand on his shoulder. You watched Suo's observant gaze catalogue Haruka's flushed and ruffled appearance, the way his eyes wouldn't leave the ground; and how you seemed to be glowing with a smug, cat-like satisfaction. "I think Sakura was just overwhelmed. We should let the lovebirds go home to rest, eh, Nirei-kun?"

Nirei looked a little sheepish, but his normal reaction told you he most certainly did not guess the real reason Haruka was "overwhelmed." Nirei wished you well with a stutter as you took the golden opportunity to take Haruka home.

(It was nearly impossible to tell, with one of his eyes covered, but you wouldn't put it past Suo for that suspiciously slow blink in your direction to be a wink).

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“That Makes Me Smart”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

The Biden administration disappointed, frustrated and enraged in so many ways, including abetting a genocide – but one consistent bright spot over the past four years was the unseen-for-generations frontal assault on corporate power and corporate corruption.

The three words that define this battle above all others are "unfair and deceptive" – words that appear in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and other legislation modeled on it, like USC40 Section 41712(a), which gives the Department of Transportation the power to ban "unfair and deceptive" practices as well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

When Congress created an agency to punish "unfair and deceptive" conduct, they were saying to the American people, "You have a right not to be cheated." While this may sound obvious, it's hardly how the world works.

To get a sense of how many ripoffs are part of our daily lives, let's take a little tour of the ways that the FTC and other agencies have used the "unfair and deceptive" standard to defend you over the past four years. Take Amazon Prime: Amazon executives emailed one another, openly admitting that in their user tests, the public was consistently fooled by Amazon's "get free shipping with Prime" dialog boxes, thinking they were signing up for free shipping and not understanding that they were actually signing up to send the company $140/year. They had tested other versions of the signup workflow that users were able to correctly interpret, but they decided to go with the confusing version because it made them more money:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/amazon-execs-may-be-personally-liable-for-tricking-users-into-prime-sign-ups/

Getting you signed up for Prime isn't just a matter of taking $140 out of your pocket once – because while Amazon has produced a greased slide that whisks you into a recurring Prime subscription, the process for canceling that recurring payment is more like a greased pole you must climb to escape the Prime pit. This is typical of many services, where signing up happens in a couple clicks, but canceling is a Kafkaesque nightmare. The FTC decided that this was an "unfair and deceptive" business practice and used its authority to create a "Click to Cancel" rule that says businesses have to make it as easy to cancel a recurring payment as it was to sign up for it:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/

Once businesses have you locked in, they also spy on you, ingesting masses of commercial surveillance data that you "consented" to by buying a car, or clicking to a website, or installing an app, or just physically existing in space. They use this to implement "surveillance pricing," raising prices based on their estimation of your desperation. Uber got caught doing this a decade ago, raising the price of taxi rides for users whose batteries were about to die, but these days, everyone's in on the game. For example, McDonald's has invested in a company that spies on your finances to determine when your payday is, and then raises the price of your usual breakfast sandwich by a dollar the day you get paid:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

Everything about this is "unfair and deceptive" – from switching prices the second you click into the store to the sham of consent that consists of, say, picking up your tickets to a show and being ordered to download an app that comes with 20,000 words of terms and conditions that allows the company that sends you a QR code to spy on you for the rest of your life in any way they can and sell the data to anyone who'll buy it.

As bad as it is to be trapped in an abusive relationship as a shopper, it's a million times worse to be trapped as a worker. One in 18 American workers is under a noncompete "agreement" that makes it illegal for you to change jobs and work for someone else in the same industry. The vast majority of these workers are in low-waged food-service jobs. The primary use of the American noncompete is to stop the cashier at Wendy's from getting an extra $0.25/hour by taking a job at McDonald's.

Noncompetes are shrouded in a fog of easily dispelled bossly bullshit: claims that noncompetes raise wages (empirically, this is untrue), or that they enable "IP"-intensive industries to grow by protecting their trade secrets. This claim is such bullshit: you can tell by the fact that noncompetes are banned under California's state constitution and yet the most IP-intensive industries have attracted hundreds of billions – if not trillions – in investment capital even though none of their workforce can be bound under a noncompete. The FTC's order banning noncompetes for every worker in America simply brings the labor regime that created Silicon Valley and Hollywood to the rest of the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Noncompetes aren't the only "unfair and deceptive" practice used against American workers. The past decade has seen the rise of private equity consolidation in several low-waged industries, like pet grooming. The new owners of every pet grooming salon within 20 miles of your house haven't just slashed workers' wages, they've also cooked up a scheme that lets them charge workers thousands of dollars if they quit these shitty jobs. This scheme is called a "training repayment agreement provision" (TRAP!): workers who are TRAPped at Petsmart are made to work doing menial jobs like sweeping up the floor for three to four weeks. Petsmart calls this "training," and values it at $5,500. If you quit your pet grooming job in the next two years, you legally owe PetSmart $5,500 to "repay" them for the training:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Workers are also subjected to "unfair and deceptive" bossware: "AI" tools sold to bosses that claim they can sort good workers from bad, but actually serve as random-number generators that penalize workers in arbitrary, life-destroying ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/#you-treasure-what-you-measure

Some of the most "unfair and deceptive" conduct we endure happens in shadowy corners of industry, where obscure middlemen help consolidated industries raise prices and pick your pocket. All the meat you buy in the grocery store comes from a cartel of processing and packing companies that all subscribe to the same "price consulting" services that tells them how to coordinate across-the-board price rises (tell me again how greedflation isn't a thing?):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

It's not just food, it's all of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Take shelter: the highly consolidated landlord industry uses apps like Realpage to coordinate rental price hikes, turning the housing crisis into a housing emergency:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy

And of course, health is the most "unfair and deceptive" industry of all. Useless middlemen like "Pharmacy Benefit Managers" ("a spreadsheet with political power" -Matt Stoller) coordinate massive price-hikes in the drugs you need to stay alive, which is why Americans pay substantially more for medicine than anyone else in the world, even as the US government spends more than any other to fund pharma research, using public money:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/23/shield-of-boringness/#some-men-rob-you-with-a-fountain-pen

It's not just drugs: every piece of equipment – think hospital beds and nuclear medicine machines – as well as all the consumables – from bandages to saline – at your local hospital runs through a cartel of "Group Purchasing Organizations" that do for hospital equipment what PBMs do for medicine:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/27/lethal-dysfunction/#luxury-bones

For the past four years, we've lived in an America where a substantial portion of the administrative state went to war every day to stamp out unfair and deceptive practices. It's still happening: yesterday, the CFPB (which Musk has vowed to shut down) proposed a new rule that would ban the entire data brokerage industry, who nonconsensually harvest information about every American, and package it up into categories like "teenagers from red states seeking abortions" and "military service personnel with gambling habits" and "seniors with dementia" and sell this to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone else with a credit-card:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-proposes-rule-to-stop-data-brokers-from-selling-sensitive-personal-data-to-scammers-stalkers-and-spies/

And on the same day, the FTC banned the location brokers who spy on your every movement and sell your past and present location, again, to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone with a credit card:

https://www.404media.co/ftc-bans-location-data-company-that-powers-the-surveillance-ecosystem/

These are tantalizing previews of a better life for every American, one in which the rule is, "play fair." That's not the world that Trump and his allies want to build. Their motto isn't "cheaters never prosper" – it's "caveat emptor," let the buyer beware.

Remember the 2016 debate where Clinton accused Trump of cheating on his taxes and he admitted to it, saying "That makes me smart?" Trumpism is the movement of "that makes me smart" life, where if you get scammed, that's your own damned fault. Sorry, loser, you lost.

Nowhere do you see this more than in cryptocurrencyland, so it's not a coincidence that tens – perhaps hundreds – in dark crypto money was flushed into the election, first to overpower Democratic primaries and kick out Dem legislators who'd used their power to fight the "unfair and deceptive" crowd:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook-pm/2024/02/13/crypto-comes-for-katie-porter-00141261

And then to fight Dems across the board (even the Dems whose primary victories were funded by dark crypto money) and elect the GOP as the party of "caveat emptor"/"that makes me smart":

https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/12/02/crypto-cash-fueled-53-members-of-the-next-u-s-congress

Crypto epitomizes the caveat emptor economy. By design, fraudulent crypto transactions can't be reversed. If you get suckered, that's canonically a you problem. And boy oh boy, do crypto users get suckered (including and especially those who buy Trump's shitcoins):

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

And for crypto users who get ripped off because they've parked their "money" in an online wallet, there's no sympathy, just "not your keys, not your coins":

https://www.ledger.com/academy/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-why-it-matters

A cornerstone of the "unfair and deceptive" world is that only suckers – that is, outsiders, marks and little people – have to endure consequences when they get rooked. When insiders get ripped off, all principle is jettisoned. So it's not surprising that when crypto insiders got taken for millions the first time they created a DAO, they tore up all the rules of the crypto world and gave themselves the mulligan that none of the rest of us are entitled to in cryptoland:

https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/20/hard-fork-completed

Where you find crypto, you find Elon Musk, the guy who epitomizes caveat emptor thinking. This is a guy who has lied to drivers to get them to buy Teslas by promising "full self driving in one year," every year, since 2015:

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/autonomous-driving/timeline-of-tesla-self-driving-aspirations-a9686689375/

Musk told investors that he had a "prototype" autonomous robot that could replace their workers, then demoed a guy in a robot suit, pretending to be a robot:

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-unveils-his-funniest-vaporware-yet-1847523016

Then Musk did it again, two years later, demoing a remote-control robot while lying and claiming that it was autonomous:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/14/tesla-optimus-bots-were-controlled-by-humans-during-the-we-robot-event

This is entirely typical of the AI sector, in which "AIs" are revealed, over and over, to be low-waged workers pretending to be robots, so much so that Indian tech industry insiders joke that "AI" stands for "Absent Indians":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

Musk's view is that he's not a liar, merely a teller of premature truths. Autonomous cars and robots are just around the corner (just like the chatbots that can do your job, and not merely convince your boss to fire you while failing to do your job). He's not tricking you, he's just faking it until he makes it. It's not a scam, it's inspirational. Of course, if he's wrong and you are scammed, well, that's a you problem. Caveat emptor. That makes him smart.

Musk does this all the time. Take the Twitter blue tick, originally conceived of as a way to keep Twitter users from being scammed ("unfair and deceptive") by con artists pretending to be famous people. Musk's inaugural act at Twitter was to take away blue ticks from verified users and sell them to anyone who'd pay $8/month. Almost no one coughed up for this – the main exception being scammers, who used their purchased, unverified blue ticks to steal from Twitter users ("that makes me smart").

As Twitter hemorrhaged advertising revenue and Musk became increasingly desperate to materialize an army of $8/month paid subscribers, he pulled another scam: he nonconsensually applied blue ticks to prominent accounts, in a bid to trick normies into thinking that widely read people valued blue ticks so much they were paying for them out of their own pockets:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65365366

If you were tricked into buying a blue tick on this pretense, well, caveat emptor. Besides, it's not a lie, it's a premature truth. Someday all those widely read users with nonconsensual blue ticks will surely value them so highly that they do start to pay for them. And if they don't? Well, Musk got your $8: "that makes me smart."

Scammers will always tell you that they're not lying to you, merely telling premature truths. Sam Bankman-Fried's defenders will tell you that he didn't actually steal all those billions. He gambled them on a bet that (sorta-kinda) paid off. Eventually, he was able to make all his victims (sorta-kinda) whole, so it's not even a theft:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/business/ftx-bankruptcy-plan-repay-creditors/index.html

Likewise, Tether, a "stablecoin" that was unable to pass an audit for many years as it issued unbacked, unregulated securities while lying and saying that for every dollar they minted, they had a dollar in reserves. Tether now (maybe) has reserves to equal its outstanding coins, so obviously all those years where they made false claims, they weren't lying, merely telling a premature truth:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cryptocriticscorner/episodes/Tether-wins–Skeptics-lose-the-end-of-an-era-e2rhf5e

If Tether had failed a margin call during those years and you'd lost everything, well, caveat emptor. The Tether insiders were always insulated from that risk, and that's all that matters: "that makes me smart."

When I think about the next four years, this is how I frame it: the victory of "that makes me smart" over "fairness and truth."

For years, progressives have pointed out the right's hypocrisy, despite that fact that Americans have been conditioned to be so cynical that even the rankest hypocrisy doesn't register. But "caveat emptor?" That isn't just someone else's bad belief or low ethics: it's the way that your life is materially, significantly worsened. The Biden administration – divided between corporate Dems and the Warren/Sanders wing that went to war on "unfair and deceptive" – was ashamed and nearly silent on its groundbreaking work fighting for fairness and honesty. That was a titanic mistake.

Americans may not care about hypocrisy, but they really care about being stolen from. No one wants to be a sucker.