#How to become a Big Data Analyst

[river-taxbird]

AI hasn't improved in 18 months. It's likely that this is it. There is currently no evidence the capabilities of ChatGPT will ever improve. It's time for AI companies to put up or shut up.

I'm just re-iterating this excellent post from Ed Zitron, but it's not left my head since I read it and I want to share it. I'm also taking some talking points from Ed's other posts. So basically:

We keep hearing AI is going to get better and better, but these promises seem to be coming from a mix of companies engaging in wild speculation and lying.

Chatgpt, the industry leading large language model, has not materially improved in 18 months. For something that claims to be getting exponentially better, it sure is the same shit.

Hallucinations appear to be an inherent aspect of the technology. Since it's based on statistics and ai doesn't know anything, it can never know what is true. How could I possibly trust it to get any real work done if I can't rely on it's output? If I have to fact check everything it says I might as well do the work myself.

For "real" ai that does know what is true to exist, it would require us to discover new concepts in psychology, math, and computing, which open ai is not working on, and seemingly no other ai companies are either.

Open ai has already seemingly slurped up all the data from the open web already. Chatgpt 5 would take 5x more training data than chatgpt 4 to train. Where is this data coming from, exactly?

Since improvement appears to have ground to a halt, what if this is it? What if Chatgpt 4 is as good as LLMs can ever be? What use is it?

As Jim Covello, a leading semiconductor analyst at Goldman Sachs said (on page 10, and that's big finance so you know they only care about money): if tech companies are spending a trillion dollars to build up the infrastructure to support ai, what trillion dollar problem is it meant to solve? AI companies have a unique talent for burning venture capital and it's unclear if Open AI will be able to survive more than a few years unless everyone suddenly adopts it all at once. (Hey, didn't crypto and the metaverse also require spontaneous mass adoption to make sense?)

There is no problem that current ai is a solution to. Consumer tech is basically solved, normal people don't need more tech than a laptop and a smartphone. Big tech have run out of innovations, and they are desperately looking for the next thing to sell. It happened with the metaverse and it's happening again.

In summary:

Ai hasn't materially improved since the launch of Chatgpt4, which wasn't that big of an upgrade to 3.

There is currently no technological roadmap for ai to become better than it is. (As Jim Covello said on the Goldman Sachs report, the evolution of smartphones was openly planned years ahead of time.) The current problems are inherent to the current technology and nobody has indicated there is any way to solve them in the pipeline. We have likely reached the limits of what LLMs can do, and they still can't do much.

Don't believe AI companies when they say things are going to improve from where they are now before they provide evidence. It's time for the AI shills to put up, or shut up.

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

Pakistan, home to more than 240 million people, is experiencing one of the most rapid solar revolutions on the planet, even as it grapples with poverty and economic instability. The country has become a huge new market for solar as super-cheap Chinese solar panels flood in. It imported 17 gigawatts of solar panels in 2024, more than double the previous year, making it the world’s third-biggest importer, according to data from the climate think tank Ember. Pakistan’s story is unique, said Mustafa Amjad, program director at Renewables First, an energy think tank based in Islamabad. Solar has been adopted at mass scale in countries including Vietnam and South Africa, “but none have had the speed and scale that Pakistan has had,” he told CNN. There’s one particular aspect fascinating experts: The solar boom is a grassroots revolution and almost none of it is in the form of big solar farms. “There is no policy push that is driving this; this is essentially people-led and market driven,” Amjad said.

The rapid shift to solar in Pakistan is particularly interesting in that it is being primarily driven by individual families and communities rather than the government--so individual solar panels are dispersed throughout communities rather than big solar farms operated by utility companies.

A large driver of this transition is the rapid increase in the cost of electricity in Pakistan, which is unfortunately something that the solar panels may make worse in the short term since fewer people are paying for electricity from the grid. However, the adoption of solar is also bringing electricity to families who would have had very little reliable access to it before. The article gives the example of several families pooling resources to use solar panels to operate their community well instead of relying on a diesel pump.

[blackwidownat2814]

Pairing: Tyler Owens x female reader, Tyler Owens x shy!reader, Tyler Owens x insecure!reader

Word Count: 1408

Summary: You begin your new job as a Tornado Wrangler (remotely), and meet most of the team. It isn't until you suffer a little mishap that you meet the man himself.

A/N: Thank you all so much for the wonderful response to the Prologue!!! I didn't think it'd be that much of a hit, so I was surprised with all the love. After finishing this chapter, I feel like it could've been part of the Prologue, but oh well. It's been a while since I've written as well, so bear with me. As always, thanks to my awesome beta, @buckysdollforlife, for their help with this and for creating the header for this story (I LOVE IT!!!!) and bestie, @13braincellsonly, for allowing me the use of their son's name and personality when I needed to come up with a horse. **All descriptions of Ziggy the horse were approved by his momma.** And as always, I will be cross-posting this to AO3. If you see this story anywhere besides AO3 or Tumblr, it's stolen.

City Girl Knows Her Stuff

You became a Wrangler near the end of the season that first year.  Kate picked you up at the airport with two members of the team: Lily and Dani.  Lily immediately pulled you into a hug, chatting a mile a minute about how excited she was to have you on the team.  Dani (perhaps picking up on your shyness) offered a handshake and big smile, welcoming you to Oklahoma.  Kate was more than happy to let Dani and Lily talk your ear off on the drive to Sapulpa, where you’d be staying with Cathy until you found a place.  She knew it was somewhat difficult for you to make friends, so she was happy to see you enjoying a conversation with two new friends.

You got to meet Dexter when he came by in the van to pick up Lily and Dani.  You thought he was funny and enjoyed some very science-centric conversations with him.  Before they all left, Lily let you take her drone for a spin.  You enjoyed it so much that for your birthday later that year, she gifted you a smaller drone that wasn’t quite like hers, but it had a small camera and small, tinny sounding speaker.  She even had it painted in your favorite color.  That would become one of your absolute favorite gifts.  It made you cry.

Like most storm chasers, you had to have a job in the off season, so you got a remote data analyst job with the NOAA offices in Norman and moved out to a place just out of Sapulpa.  This would allow you to visit Cathy at the farm and work on data in the barn workshop the Wranglers had set up.  You even got yourself a cat.  Abandoned due to his looks and runt status (according to the shelter), you snatched him up the first time you saw him.  Black cats didn’t scare you.  Life with Roach (you’d spent quite a bit of time watching The Witcher) was idyllic and you were happy.

By the time you met Boone, the Wranglers felt like family…and Boone felt like the brother you never had.  Like Boone, you were an only child and didn’t have much of an extended family and it was a bit lonely in the beginning.  The difference, however, was that Boone was an outgoing guy and it was easy for him to make friends and talk to people he didn’t know, whereas that scared you half to death most of the time.  You loved his boisterous way of being, but you also appreciated that he (like Dani) could tell when your social battery had run down and turned it down and would sometimes sit with you in a quiet environment.  Sometimes he’d sit and nap while you read or he’d pick up the latest meteorological article (or sometimes the latest comic he picked up at the shop).  He didn’t even make fun of your nickname like others had before, so you trusted him.

The day of Cathy’s pre-tornado season bbq, while cleaning some dishes, you confessed to Boone that you were nervous about meeting the head tornado wrangler himself, Tyler Owens.

“T’s a sweetheart B, you got nothin’ to worry about.  Why are ya nervous?”

“Boone!  He doesn’t know me, what if he doesn’t think I’m a right fit for the team?  What if he doesn’t like how I do work?  Y’all are famous ‘round here, what if he gets irked by the fact that big crowds make me nervous and it takes me forever to become comfortable with people?  You know it’s not easy for me to talk to people I’ve never talked to before”, you cried in exasperation.

“B, imma need you to take a breath, okay?” Boone reassured you as he placed his hands on your shoulders.  “If Ty thought any of those things, I would definitely not be workin’ with ‘em.”

You were so busy trying to get yourself to relax that you missed Kate wandering into the kitchen.

“B, are you freakin’ out about meetin’ Tyler again?” she asked.  You and Boone nodded.  “Well, you don’t have to worry.  He won’t be able to come today, said he had to drive down to Texas to see his parents.”

You breathed out a sigh of relief, sending some of your hair floating up.  “Good, I have time to relax about it.  Thanks Kate.”

“Thank Tyler’s parents.”

“Thank you, Mr. & Mrs. Owens!” you said to no one in particular and dried your hands, as you looked over at your friends.  “See you two out there!”

Kate and Boone followed, but stayed on the porch, both taking twin sips from their beers.

“You think either of them has any idea what’s about to happen to ‘em?” Boone asked.

“Meaning that Tyler is going to become enamored the second she opens her mouth?”

“Yup.”

“And that she’s going to have the same thing happen to her the second she comes into contact with that cocky cowboy swagger that he exudes when you meet him the first time?”

“Yup.”

“No, I don’t think either of ‘em knows what’s coming.”

A few days before the chasing season began, you brought Roach down to Cathy’s, where he would be staying while you were out with the Wranglers for your first season on the road.  

While there, you asked Cathy if you could saddle up your favorite of her horses, Zig, nicknamed Ziggy.  He wasn’t the brightest of the bunch; he was the type of horse you’d see in a video because someone thought he was dead but in actuality, he was just sleeping.  You swore that his mother, a horse named KJ, rolled her horse eyes every time someone caught him playing dead.

Ziggy may not have been the sharpest pitchfork in the barn, and may not have enjoyed doing much of anything besides looking dead when he slept, but he enjoyed riding through fields with you.  He knew whenever he saw you approaching with a bowl that he was about to get one of his favorite snacks: ice cubes with apple bits in them.  You put Ziggy’s snack bucket down so he could munch while you brushed him and got him saddled and ready to go for a ride.

When Ziggy let you know that he was done with his snack, you popped in your earbuds and shuffled your favorite classical music playlist on Spotify.  You found it was one of your favorite ways to relax.  After you climbed on Ziggy’s back, and kicked him into gear, you took off for the open fields near the road leading up to the farm.

You’d been out there for a while when you started hearing the faint rumble of an engine, but ignored it because trucks passed near this area all the time.  You probably shouldn’t have ignored it though, because when that modified-to-withstand-tornadoes red Dodge Ram 3500 turned on to the road and took off towards the main house, Ziggy took off after it.  By now, you shouldn’t have been surprised that he recognized the truck or the person in it, but you were…and because you were so thrown off by it, your hands (stupidly) had not been holding the reins.  And because you had not held on, you went flying off Ziggy’s back while he just followed the familiar truck.  Lucky for you, the fall didn’t cause you to go unconscious, but it did knock the wind out of you after you landed hard on your back.

As you attempted to take deep breaths, you heard someone yelling and running towards you, so you tried to sit up.  The voice yelled for you to not move, so you listened and stayed on the ground, with your eyes shut.  You just lay there, waiting.

All of a sudden:

“Are you okay?” the voice asked.  You knew that you knew who the voice belonged to but you were so thrown by being thrown that your brain wasn’t focusing.  You blinked your eyes open, and your vision swam before focusing on the most beautiful face.

“Wha-”

“Are you okay, darlin’?” he asked as he helped you sit up.

“Uh…”

“Did you black out?”

“No.”

“Do you know where you are?”

“Cathy’s farm, in Sapulpa.”

“Do you know your name?”  He smiled when you told him.  “Where’d you come in from?”

“New York City.”

“Why are you here?”

“I’m the new data analyst for the Wranglers.”

“Well…looks like we got another city girl that knows her stuff.”

Tagging: @ladybirdbeetle7 @omgbrianab @itsdesiree86 @avengersfan25 @keyrani @thedonswife13 @lonelyghosts-stuff

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[erensonly]

thinking about sweet data analyst!reader being quiet as a mouse always scaring the boys. scares them so much they think abt getting her a bell. lets get into some backstory bc this may be a mini series 😈

contains: extreme fluff, ooc writing, love is used as a pet name, no pronouns used, references to DV pls read at your own discretion.

you were the new data analyst for the 141. before, you only worked with Kate, gathering and analyzing data for her but she thought you would be so much more helpful to the task force since their old analyst had retired. you were hesitant at first, not really wanting to be around a group of men. why should you leave your comfort zone?

this did not work with laswell. she had taken you in after you stumbled to the gates of the base, attempting to stop crying to give them an explanation and sporting bruises on your face and hands. luckily she had been there to meet with john when she had heard the guards complaining about a crying woman refusing to leave. she had helped you in more than one way. even allowing you to stay with her until you could find a job and move by yourself.

when she had found out you knew your way around computers, her face lit up like a christmas tree, telling you she had the perfect job for you. you were hesitant to take the job, knowing the work she did involved the military, you didn't know if you wanted to take the job. you had tried to convince her that it was fine, but once laswell has her mind made up, that's it.

thats how you ended up here, wanting oreos. you didn't mean to scare them at first. they were a little scary and you wanted nothing to do with them at first.

you just wanted the oreos but ghost was in the way, facing the opposite way with his head in his phone. you stood there awkwardly at first,not wanting to ask the big man to move but you really wanted those cookies. you stand there for a bit debating if you'll wait for him to leave the room or grow some balls and just ask him to move. you decided on doing neither.

you made your way towards him as quickly as you could; the plan was to just reach up and grab the chocolate cookies so you could go back to your desk before ghost could say anything. trying to get closer to the cabinet, you find yourself pushed up against the counter, a large hand wrapped around your wrist. when he realized it was you, he let you go with a big sigh. "scared the shit out of me. when did you get in here?"

"uh.. not too long ago." that was all you could muster, the man was too intimidating. you awkwardly shuffled towards the cabinet with the cookies and reached up to get them. mission accomplished, you thought to yourself. slithering back to your desk, you leave ghost stunned and only able to mutter a quick "bloody hell" before going back to his phone.

----

the next time you interact with the 141 outside of working it's with gaz. from the small conversations you had, he seemed very nice with a kind smile and calming aura. this time you were trying to make your way to price's office to give him a manila folder with the information he requested. you had walked to the door but heard talking, maybe he was busy. you decided that you would wait to give him the folder so you wouldn't have to speak to whoever was in the office.

it felt like time was going so slow and by the time the person had walked out, you were leaning against the corner of the wall, head against the wall in a way that you had have to almost round the corner to be able to see you. you looked up, and the man look like he just had a heart attack. clutching his chest like he was clutching his pearls and purse and breathing heavily. "Jesus, love,gotta say something. have you been waiting out here long? you could've just came in, y'know?" all the questions were becoming overwhelming when you just gripped his lips to silence him.

it took his look of surprise and a bit of thought to realize what you did. you had just grabbed the lips of a soldier. not just any soldier but a heavily decorated soldier who was apart of The john price's task force. he could kill you faster than you can say you're sorry. "oh my god, i'm so sorry. i didn't mean to, you just kept talking and i didnt know what to do. please don't kill me." you had finished your mini rant only to see him doubled over in laughter. he was in tears.

"did you just silence me?" he asked between laughs. you didn't understand what the hell was funny, this man is going to kill you. while he was still laughing and trying to get soap on the phone, you tiptoed into price's office to give him the folder, telling him that if he found you dead on base it was gaz before scurrying out of his office. john was left looking confused because he had just heard kyle laughing a few seconds ago.

----

next was soap. sweet, sweet soap. he genuinely did his best to welcome you into their group, but you didn't really seem interested. he eventually just took any interaction you two had and replayed it in his head over and over again. you were just so sweet, how could he not? you still got lost on base sometimes since everything was one monotone grey and everything looked the same. and it was just your luck that the only people around were new recruits and other people you never spoke to. turning, you see soap heading toward the mess hall.

when you sped up to catch him, he's surprised. he even did that cartoon cat jump they do before running off. he started saying something in a language you don't understand when you cut him off. "not sure what you're saying but i agree. anyway, where's the gym? i need to ask ghost a question." he was shocked to see you turn around and wait for him to lead the way. he couldn't help the smile that came across his face. such a hasty girl; you always said everything you needed to say as fast as you could before turning away, giving him a look at allat movement back there.

he laughed again before helping you find ghost. and you still don't get why these men find you so funny. there is nothing funny about them being so scary.

----

lastly, we got my husband john. he was made aware of your situation and why you acted the way you did before you started working under him. he couldn't help but think you were a sweet, hard working little thing. never with much to say, and so skittish. he may have told you that he doesn't know how to access the files on his computer just so he can see you come to his office with a folder. is it a crime to want to see such a sweet face?

john had told you he would like to see you after debriefing and that he would just let you know. but you had already finished your work of the day an you spent your free time playing whatever games you could access on your computer. you eventually started to feel restless so you decided to sit in price's office until he got there. there was a couch in a corner of the room, worn but comfortable. you could imagine the boys laying on the couch talking mindlessly to john.

you had sunken into the corner of the couch, curling up in a way that you would have to step completely into the office to see you sitting there. it had been a good 10 minutes of sitting in silence before you heard footsteps approaching the door. you couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but it sounded like john was on the phone. he, not long after, walked into the room, holding his phone between his shoulder and ear with a stack of folders in his hands.

"-exactly. yeah i'll be on it right away. bye." and as he's turning around, you're sitting up straighter and he yells. and i mean one of those old people, "help i've fallen" type of yelps; and he drops his files on the floor. you just give him a blank stare.

"good God. when did you get in here?" you just shrug, brushing over the question. "what was it that you needed from me sir?" that's when he knew, you were going to be the death of the 141. literally.

[saturnville]

all yours, jude bellingham

pairing: jude bellingham x black fem oc (adeba malina). warnings: sexual insinuations. song: all yours by normani an: I don’t remember the last time I wrote a one-shot this long. and I came out of football retirement for this, so let me know how you like it! 🫶🏾 also, can anyone guess what position I played? 👀

“I don’t have an interest in pursuing a relationship with Jude. He’s a great guy but…”

Jude Bellingham, the world’s wonder boy, had become a staple in her life over the last few months following his multi-million dollar transfer to Real Madrid, but not for the reasons that people thought. They met during a dinner celebrating his transfer and hit it off immediately.

“Congratulations,” she said cooly and sat next to the young footballer. When her voice registered in his ears and her face came into view, his eyes grew wide and he looked like a child in a candy store. “I’m Adeba Malina.”

She needed no introduction. He knew exactly who she was. Former Madridista turned business-woman. She was known as one of the greatest center midfielders of her time; her speed, agility, and vision for a pathway to the goalbox were praised by the highest of heavens. Ronaldo’s protege and a Madrid icon. Adeba Malina was a football legend.

“Jude.” His hand engulfed hers as he shook it firmly yet delicately. “It’s wonderful to meet you.”

Adeba pushed a strand of hair away from her face and nodded once, taking in the footballer with a quick sweep of her eyes. He wore a crisp black suit with a complimentary black tie against the freshly pressed white shirt. He was handsome, but she didn’t let her mind go past that. Rather she said, “I trust you’ll do big things with Los Blancos. I’m excited to see what you do on the pitch.”

He was bashful, she noticed, his brown skin suddenly growing red and a small smile on his lips, “Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.”

“No problem at all. You enjoy your dinner, but a piece of advice, if I may.” Jude sat up intently. Adeba leaned over, her lips close to his ear as she tried to speak over the rowdy individuals around her. “You have nothing to prove to anyone. You’re young, gifted, and Black. They’ll do and say anything to make you look bad and to get in your head. Perfect your craft, do your best, and keep moving. There’s nothing to prove.”

Jude met her eyes for the first time that night. The prettiest shade of brown with specks of caramel. They held care and intentionality, just like the words she spoke, and he digested them like his favorite food. It was at that moment that Jude knew she’d be a good person in his life.

“But what?”

Adeba cursed to herself as she sorted through her jerseys for one to wear. Zizou. Ramos. Varane. Ronaldo. Beckham. Rodríguez. Malina. Bellingham. She snatched it off the hangar and onto her bed behind her. It would make do, and it would be cute with her newest navy blue heels and straight-leg jeans. “But,” she started after some time. “He’s younger than me and we’re just friends.”

The woman behind her scoffed audibly. “He’s barely 3 years younger than you, not 12. And you just went through 6 jerseys, knowing you have kits dating back to the 90s, including your own, to wear his, as you do for almost every home match. Don’t play with me.” And there it was. The bluntness and honesty of Colombia’s very own Dawn Nalinja, data analyst turned interior designer.

The two crossed paths at an event in Barcelona four years prior and had been inseparable ever since. So much so that their homes were in the same building, four floors apart. They were quite literally, two peas in a pod.

Adeba sighed and began getting dressed for the match against Dortmund. “Look, I just don’t think every friendship needs to transition to a relationship. Jude is good people and you don’t have to have to romanticize everything with good people.”

Dawn blinked, one, two, three times before sighing. “While that may be true, it’s best to romanticize aspects of your life with a good person, especially before they get swiped by someone else. You won’t know until you give it a try and that goes for anyone, not just Jude. But, we’ll leave that there. Are you ready?”

Adeba slid her feet into her shoes, fluffed her braids, and swiped her purse off the bed. She ignored the feeling within her chest and smiled softly as she tried not to think too hard on what Dawn had mentioned. “Ready!”

-

And as predicted, Los Blancos took the victory. Adeba always adored the energy of the stadium during victories, no matter who won. There was joy in seeing fans jump for joy, holler the chants of their favorite players, and take pictures with the players who’d walked by.

By the end of the match, Dawn had scurried off with her significant other, leaving Adeba to wait in the tunnel for Jude as she typically would.

She tapped her fingers against the wall as she waited for his exit, and when he came into view, the smile she didn’t realize she had on her face widened. “Hey, champ.”

Jude welcomed the greeting and returned it with a hug and a kiss against her cheek. Adeba felt warm as his arm circled around her waist and his fingers brushed against the loops of her jeans. Dangerous territories. “Thank you, Dee. What’re you doing after?”

Adeba shrugged as she stepped back to put distance between them, but it still hadn’t forced his hand to drop from her waist. If anything, it made his grip tighter. She ignored the pulsing between her thighs and said, “I planned to go home.” Her bed was always a wonderful place to be.

Jude nodded once. “Want to come to dinner with me? Not in the mood to party, but I could eat.”

Her head turned to the side and her braids swayed with it. “Just us?” The corner of Jude’s lips rose in amusement at her question. He couldn’t recall a time when them being alone mattered so much before, but with the way her breath quickened, he knew it was deeper than what she let on.

Adeba grew nervous underneath his gaze. His brown eyes were focused on her. How had she not realized how pretty they were? A rich shade of mahogany, a portal to a place unknown.

She exhaled shakily. He answered her question: “Just us.”

-

liked by judebellingham, georginagio, kylianmbappe, and 102,678 others.

adebamalina. hala madrid y nada más. congratulación a los blancos para la victoria 🤍 ft the wonder boy himself

view 3,780 comments

username stunning

username 😍

— adebamalina thank you honey

username the braids!!!

judebellingham 🤍🤍🤍 always grateful for your support

— adebamalina so proud of you.

username. just get tg alr

— judebellingham liked your comment!

username. I know yall saw Jude like her comment!

username. the prettiest wag out!

-- username. girl, she’s not a wag. just a rm legend

-- username. she’s always with jude, so she might as well be. two for one special atp

-- judebellingham liked your comment!

username. real madrid legends fr

— adebamalina and judebellingham liked your comment!

georginagio we still need to have our shopping date!!

— adebamalina I’ll book a flight in a few weeks! and tell Cris and the kids I said hello!

username. okay but fr when are they getting tg?

— saturnville girl idk I haven’t thought that far yet

-

“Stay with me tonight.”

If Adeba lived in an animated world, she would have heard her feet squeal like brakes when she stopped suddenly. She turned slowly to see Jude standing with one hand in his pocket while the other held her blue heels, a straight look on his face. “As in…?” Adeba pushed for further explanation. Sure, they’d hung out before at each other’s places and in other public spaces, but his words hinted at something more.

“Movies, snacks, and I’ll whoop your ass in Uno. Just something chill. I just…didn’t want the night to end this early.”

Adeba sighed heavily. She wanted to deny him. To tell him that wasn’t a line that needed to be crossed. That she was nothing more than a friend, a mentor in a way, to push him to be his best self in his professional and personal life, but how could she? With the way he looked down on her and not in a condemning way. But with a look of adoration. His eyebrows were relaxed and his eyes were soft. His body language spoke of comfortability in her presence with how his shoulders were low and slightly rounded above her body. Like a guard.

She wanted to tell him she’d go home, that she didn’t want to blur any lines. She wanted to admit that she had no feelings for him at all, but then she’d be lying, and one thing Adeba Malina hated was a liar.

Adeba pondered on it longer. Her teeth captured her bottom lip as her mind worked to weigh the pros and the cons. They were friends, just friends. Friends who were potentially spending the night together…alone. With any other guy friend, the idea would have repulsed her. But when it came to Jude, something within her sparked with curiosity at the idea of staying the night with him.

Maybe Dawn was right. If everything aligned, would it be worth a try?

Adeba finally met his eyes again and nodded. “Okay.”

-

“You started playing at 17 for Real. Is that how you met Cristiano?” Jude asked inquisitively and passed the bag of candy to Adeba, who sat on her knees in front of him. She nodded and popped a few Nerds in her mouth.

“Correct. The men’s team came to visit the women’s practice and of course, we’re football fanatics just like you, so having these legends visit us and give us advice was amazing. Cris always gave me good advice, especially being that we both came from nothing. So, I try to pour into you what he and many others pour into me.”

Jude couldn’t help but smile. From what she’d shared, she was Ghana-born and raised in Spain once her parents moved at the age of five. She couldn’t take much with her when traveling to Europe, but what she did take was a soccer ball her father had gotten her, which she kept in a glass case in her jersey closet. Growing up she didn’t have much, but she had her ball, and that was enough for her.

What she didn’t know was that the ball would grant her and her siblings an education, her parents a home, and her family stability that would continue even when she left the Earth. Football saved her in more ways than one. She understood what it was like to fall in love with it and she also understood the challenges that came with it. And that was what she enjoyed sharing with others. The journey of loving the game.

“I appreciate that,” he replied. There was a silence between them, a comfortable one. “I still can’t believe you kicked my ass four times.” His tone was teasing, she knew, but she could hear a hint of seriousness. She shrugged and smiled.

“A torn ACL took me out the game, but you can never take the game out of me, baby. I do this.” It was his turn to get flustered. Baby. It was a casual pet name and he knew she meant nothing by it but he wanted to hear it over and over.

“Yeah, yeah,” he replied with a wave of his hand. “I’ll get you back eventually.”

Adeba’s eyebrow raised, “Is this a challenge, Mr. Bellingham?” His eyes met hers. There was a glint of mischief behind her which displayed her fun and teasing nature. But, behind the mischief, her eyes grew darker and the smirk on her lips grew wider, especially as he began to visibly crumble under her gaze.

“Maybe,” was all he could get out.”Guess you’ll have to find out.”

And there it was. The ambiguous statement that left the two of them wondering what the other meant. But she knew. He knew. It was his comment that seemed to shorten the invisible string between them that seemed to wrap around the world. Suddenly, it was just inches long andt the only thing that kept their bodies from pressing against one another’s in a heated exchange of passion.

“Is that so?” Adeba’s tongue circled around her cheek, a subtle action that left Jude’s stomach clenching. He nodded.

The space between them continued to dwindle. They were once separated by the middle cushion of the couch, but now, they could feel the warmth from each other’s breath fanning against their faces. Jude, making the first move, brought his hand to her bare face, fingers caressing her skin. She was so beautiful. Rich complexion with beauty marks and faded acne scars that added to her uniqueness. Her lips were so full. His thumb drummed against them. “Pretty girl…”

Her eyes fluttered closed. “Please…”

Before she could say anything else, his mouth was on hers. Adeba felt her inhibitions slip away as their lips moved together. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of kissing him and what it’d be like. She expected something sweet. Nah, this was a grown kiss. Passionate and intense, borderline sloppy and nasty. Exactly how she liked it.

Adeba couldn’t remember how she ended up on her back with her bare legs around his waist as he kissed and sucked along the skin of her neck, but she chose not to think of it too much. She refused to be the reason why the moment was ruined.

Jude enjoyed every moment. From feeling her legs tense around his waist and shuddering as her manicured nails snuck under his shirt to trail along his abdomen to hearing her whisper his name so delicately. Jude. She drove him insane.

But, as much as he wanted to keep going, he knew she deserved more than a heated makeout on his couch at two in the morning with no clear expression of his feelings. So, he broke away from her, which was met with a very cute yet very confused expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”

Jude smiled and shook his head. He used his thumb to wipe the corners of her mouth which were damp from their heated exchange. “Nothing, I just…I like you a lot. In a more than friends way and I think you should know that before anything else happens. It’s only right.” Adeba’s eyes sparkled at his comment. “And…I’d like to take you out. On a real date. Just us. Then maybe, if you’re up to it, we can see how far this goes.”

Adeba smiled. “I’d like that.”

Damn it, Dawn.

-

6 months later…

liked by judebellingham, normani, justinskye, and 342,890 others

adebamalina my man, my man, my man

view 18,073 comments

dawnnalinjaaaa finally!!!! y’all were pissing me off

-- adebamalina yeah yeah yeah

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georginagio double date!!!

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judefanpage I’m glad he cuffed her before I did

-- username you’re so real for this

-

“Baby, we’ve got somewhere to beeee.” Adeba’s words were dragged out as she grew distracted by his lips against her neck and his front pressed against her back. “Jude…”

He hummed softly, massaging her hips as she struggled to finish the finishing touches on her makeup. They had a date to celebrate their six month anniversary but it seemed as though Jude wasn’t in a hurry to make it to their reservation on time. “You look pretty, love. Pretty and all mine.”

All yours, she replied. Jude’s eyes swept across her body. Adeba looked stunning. She wore a red dress that flowed every step she took. Her hair was curly, her makeup was bright and beautiful, and of course, her full lips were just begging to be kissed.

“Thank you,” she said, dropping her makeup products down. She turned in his arms and smiled. Her hands were against his chest and she soothed his suit jacket with her palms. “You look very handsome as always. Let’s go.”

Adeba took a step back to go find her heels and purse, but was stopped by his lips on hers. Jude swallowed every moan she released and allowed it to fuel the fire that burned within him. She circled her arm around his neck as their kiss intensified. She’d never get enough of this.

“I love you,” he mumbled against her lips.

Adeba smiled. “I love you too.”

[brodygold]

The Interview

Ben adjusted his tie nervously, his fingers fumbling against the silk fabric as he sat in the reception area. This was his big break: a chance to work as a data analyst for the prestigious Golden Army. He had spent countless hours perfecting his resume and rehearsing answers to potential questions. Now, all that preparation boiled down to a single meeting with Captain Scott.

Ben glanced at his reflection in the polished glass of the office door. His charcoal suit was crisp, his blue tie perfectly knotted. He looked the part, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t belong here. Soccer wasn’t exactly his passion; numbers were. He could crunch statistics, perform regression analysis, and optimize strategies—that was his real talent. Surely the Golden Army would see his value, even if he wasn’t an athlete.

The door to the inner office opened, and a tall man with a commanding presence stepped out. Captain Scott—a broad-shouldered Brit with a sharp jawline and piercing eyes—surveyed the room. His golden soccer jersey, emblazoned with the team’s emblem, caught the light as he turned his gaze to Ben.

“Ah, you must be Ben,” Scott said, his British accent smooth yet authoritative. “Come on in, lad.”

Ben rose quickly, nearly tripping over his own feet as he followed Scott into the office. The room was adorned with Golden Army memorabilia: framed jerseys, championship trophies, and photos of triumphant players. Scott gestured to a chair, and Ben sat down, clutching his briefcase like a lifeline.

Scott leaned against his desk, arms crossed. “Now then, Ben, I’ll get straight to it. I’ve had a look at your resume. Impressive stuff. But I’m afraid there’s a bit of bad news.”

Ben’s heart sank. “Bad news?”

“Aye. The data analyst position’s already been filled,” Scott said, his tone apologetic but firm. “Just last week, in fact.”

Ben’s stomach churned. “Oh, I see. Well, thank you for considering me,” he said, rising from his chair. “I appreciate the opportunity.”

Scott held up a hand. “Hold on, lad. I’ve got another idea.”

Ben paused, curiosity flickering through his disappointment. “Another idea?”

Scott’s lips curved into a knowing smile. “Aye. It’s not exactly what you came here for, but it’s a position that’s crucial to the Golden Army. And I reckon you might be just the man for it.”

Ben tilted his head. “What kind of position?”

Scott’s smile widened. “Let me show you.” He snapped his fingers.

The sound echoed in Ben’s ears, sharp and commanding. For a moment, he felt a strange tingling sensation coursing through his body. He blinked, trying to shake it off, but the feeling only intensified. His muscles began to ache, then burn, as if he’d just completed a grueling workout.

“W-what’s happening?” Ben stammered, clutching the arms of the chair. He looked down and gasped. His once-slender arms were bulging, his biceps swelling with newfound strength. His chest expanded, his shoulders broadening, and his legs thickened, stretching the fabric of his trousers.

“Relax, lad,” Scott said, his tone calm but commanding. “You’re becoming who you were meant to be.”

Ben’s mind raced, but it was becoming harder to think. The numbers and equations that had once dominated his thoughts were slipping away, replaced by something simpler, more primal. Images of soccer fields, roaring crowds, and the camaraderie of a team flooded his mind. He tried to hold on to his old self, but it was like gripping sand; it all slipped through his fingers.

His suit and tie began to shimmer, the fabric dissolving into golden threads. The threads wove themselves into a shiny golden soccer jersey, snug against his newly muscular frame. His trousers transformed into matching shorts, and his dress shoes hardened into gleaming gold soccer cleats.

Ben’s breathing steadied, his initial panic giving way to a strange sense of purpose. He looked up at Scott, his eyes now bright with determination.

“How do you feel, lad?” Scott asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Ben stood, flexing his powerful arms. “I feel… incredible,” he said, his voice deeper, more confident. The hesitation that had marked his earlier speech was gone. “What position do you need me to play, Captain?”

Scott clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit! You’ll be our new striker. Quick, agile, and unstoppable. Just what the Golden Army needs.”

Ben nodded, the role already feeling natural. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

“I know you won’t,” Scott said, his tone firm but encouraging. “Welcome to the team, lad.”

As Ben left the office, he no longer felt like the nervous data analyst who had walked in just minutes ago. He was a striker for the Golden Army, a proud member of the team. And he couldn’t wait to hit the field.

As Ben stepped outside into the bright sunlight, the world seemed sharper, more vibrant. His cleats clicked against the pavement as he made his way toward the training grounds. It was strange; just an hour ago, he couldn’t have imagined himself even holding a soccer ball, let alone playing professionally. Now, he felt an unshakable drive to prove himself, to be the best.

The training field stretched out before him, a lush expanse of green bordered by gleaming bleachers. A group of players was already warming up, their golden jerseys shining in the sun. They moved with precision and confidence, their camaraderie evident in their easy laughter and banter. Ben hesitated for a moment, suddenly unsure of how to approach them.

“Oi, new guy!” one of the players called, jogging over. He was tall and lean, with sharp features and a mischievous grin. “You must be the new striker. I’m Brody, co-captain. Welcome to the team.”

Ben shook his hand, the firm grip reinforcing his new reality. “Thanks. I’m Ben.”

Brody raised an eyebrow. “Ben, eh? Not anymore, mate. You’re part of the Golden Army now. We’ve got a tradition here: new name, new start. How about… Blaze? Got a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”

Blaze. The name resonated with him, sparking a sense of pride and excitement. “Blaze it is,” he said, grinning.

“Good on ya, Blaze. Let’s see what you’ve got,” Brody said, tossing him a soccer ball. “Warm up with us.”

Blaze joined the other players, quickly falling into the rhythm of the drills. His body moved with an ease and power that felt both foreign and familiar. Each pass, each shot, each sprint reinforced his new identity. By the time practice ended, he was drenched in sweat but exhilarated.

As the team gathered around Scott for a debrief, the captain’s gaze fell on Blaze. “Not bad for your first day, lad. Keep this up, and you’ll be unstoppable.”

Blaze nodded, determination etched on his face. He had found his place, his purpose. The Golden Army wasn’t just a team; it was a family. And he was ready to give it everything he had.

After the team dispersed, Scott called out, “Blaze, a word in my office.”

Blaze followed Scott back to the office, his heart pounding slightly. He wasn’t sure what to expect. Once inside, Scott closed the door and leaned against the desk, studying Blaze with a thoughtful expression.

“You’ve adapted faster than I expected,” Scott said, his voice softer now. “Most lads take a bit of time to find their footing, but you… you’re something special.”

Blaze felt his cheeks warm at the compliment. “Thank you, sir. I just want to do my best for the team.”

Scott smiled, his eyes glinting. “That’s what I like to hear.” He stepped closer, his tone dropping. “But there’s more to being part of the Golden Army than just skill on the field. It’s about trust, loyalty… connection.”

Blaze swallowed hard, the air between them charged. “I understand, Captain.”

Scott’s gaze lingered on him, and for a moment, neither of them spoke. Then, with deliberate intent, Scott reached out, his hand resting lightly on Blaze’s shoulder. “Do you?”

Blaze nodded, his voice barely a whisper. “Yes.”

Scott leaned in, his lips brushing against Blaze’s in a kiss that was both firm and tender. Blaze responded instinctively, his hands resting on Scott’s waist as he deepened the kiss. The world seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of them in the quiet, golden-lit office.

When they finally pulled apart, Scott’s eyes searched Blaze’s, a rare vulnerability showing beneath his confident exterior. “Welcome to the team, Blaze. Truly.”

Blaze smiled, his heart racing. “I’m proud to be here, Captain.”

[justforbooks]

‘I felt nothing but disgust’: Tesla owners vent their anger at Elon Musk

The tycoon’s links with Donald Trump and Germany’s far-right AfD have slammed the brakes on sales and put the car’s owners in a spin

When Mike Schwede first sat in a Tesla Roadster 15 years ago, he felt like it was a glimpse into the future. By 2016, he was the proud owner of a Tesla, revelling in the thumbs up he would get from other drivers as he whizzed along Europe’s highways in the electric vehicle.

But of late the sheen of owning a Tesla has begun to wear off. For years the brand has been synonymous with Elon Musk and his stance against the climate crisis. Recently, Schwede watched aghast as the Tesla CEO poured hundreds of millions into backing Donald Trump as he made promises to ramp up domestic oil and gas production.

“He was getting more and more weird,” said Schwede, an entrepreneur and digital strategist based in Switzerland. The final straw came when Musk made back-to-back fascist-style salutes during Trump’s inauguration in January. “I felt nothing but utter disgust,” said Schwede. “And I no longer enjoyed sitting in my Tesla.”

On Tuesday, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association showed sales of new Tesla cars almost halved in Europe last month. The figures left analysts scrambling to assess how big a factor customers turning their backs on the brand because of Musk’s foray into far-right politics may be.

The Texas-based carmaker sold 9,945 vehicles in Europe in January, down 45% from last year’s 18,161, the association said.

Now, there are signs existing Tesla owners who have become disgruntled with Musk’s views are making their anger heard.

Schwede contemplated selling his car, but after racking up more than 60,000 miles on it, there was little value left in it. So he came up with his own means of reclaiming his Tesla and the liberal ethos that had underpinned his purchase; he began donating 10 cents for every kilometre driven to a range of charities, countering Musk’s support of the far right with direct support to those who help LGBTQ+ youth or fight hate and extremism. “It was something Elon wouldn’t like,” he said. “That’s my personal revenge.”

It’s a hint of how some Tesla owners in Europe are fighting back, putting up their own – albeit small-scale – resistance as Musk wades into global politics, using his wealth to help secure Trump’s return to the White House and his sprawling influence to back far-right and anti-establishment parties across Europe.

For Germany’s Patrik Schneider, the turning point came as he was heckled by a stranger at a petrol station, who pointed to his Tesla and called him a Trump supporter. Saddled with a long-term lease on the vehicle, he scrambled to find a way to address his relationship with a brand that – in his mind – had soured.

“Of course, as a Tesla driver you were always the fool: the Green party voter, the world saviour, the CO2 guy,” Schneider told Germany’s Capital.de media. “But now you’re in a category that’s no longer funny.”

What he came up with was a line of “Anti-Elon stickers” for Tesla cars. In an echo of an American initiative, he began selling the stickers online six months ago, taking orders for messages that range from “I bought this before Elon went crazy” to “Elon sucks”.

As Musk waded more deeply into German politics, hosting the far-right AfD’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, in an interview on X and turning up at an AfD rally where he disparaged multiculturalism and lambasted the country’s focus on “past guilt”, demand for the stickers soared.

Demand has now climbed to as much as 2,000 stickers a day, with orders pouring in from across the German-speaking world but as far as Australia and South Korea. All of it was done without any advertising, said Schneider, adding wryly: “Elon Musk does that for us.”

Others have called for the actions to go further. In Poland – where the Nazi German occupation led to the deaths of 6 million Poles, including 3 million Jews – the country’s tourism minister called on citizens to boycott Tesla after Musk’s surprise appearance at the AfD rally. “All I can say is that probably no normal Pole should buy a Tesla any more,” Sławomir Nitras recently told Polish broadcaster Tok FM. “A serious and strong response is necessary, including a consumer boycott.”

In August, the German drugstore chain Rossmann said it would no longer buy Tesla cars for its corporate fleet, citing Musk’s support for Trump, while the German energy company LichtBlick said on social media that it would be “pulling the plug” on the Tesla vehicles in its fleet, citing Musk’s backing of “a rightwing populist and extremist party”.

The message was echoed recently by UK-based campaign group Led by Donkeys after they projected images of Musk’s salute on to the facade of the Tesla gigafactory near Berlin.

“The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is promoting the far right in Europe,” the campaign group wrote on social media after their collaboration with Germany’s Centre for Political Beauty. “Don’t buy a Tesla.”

In London, activists put up a parody “Tesla – The Swasticar” bus stop advert with the tagline “goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds”, referencing the start of the second world war, and stickers with similar wording have been slapped on Tesla cars. In Tottenham, north London, a member of the activist group People vs Elon took a cardboard cutout of Musk’s salute into a Tesla dealership.

In Sweden, the EV maker Polestar has sought to capitalise on the discontent. “We get a lot of people writing that they don’t like all this,” the company’s CEO, Michael Lohscheller, told Bloomberg, adding that he had directed sales staff to target disgruntled Tesla owners.

After a Dutch poll suggested 31% of respondents who owned Teslas were considering selling them or had already done so, it remains to be seen what the impact will be on the company. Matthias Schmidt, a Germany-based automotive analyst, said “2025 will be one of the biggest tests for Tesla.”

“With all respect, consumers tend to be like goldfish; they tend to forget things very quickly,” Schmidt added. “But Germany is potentially slightly different because of its history … The shift to him backing the AfD was potentially far more damaging in Germany than his move to back Trump.”

Last year, Tesla saw sales in Germany plunge 41% – outpacing the overall 27% decline in EVs across the country – as rivals rolled out their own electric vehicles and governments rolled back subsidies.

Figures for early 2025 show that Tesla sales fell sharply across several European markets. Registrations were down 63% on a year earlier in France, 59% in Germany, 44% in Sweden, 38% in Norway and 12% in the UK.

While buyers could be reacting to Musk’s comments, other factors may also be at play as consumers await Tesla’s release of the updated Y model, said Schmidt.

When contacted by the Guardian, Tesla did not reply to a request for comment. But late last month, Musk appeared to be upbeat during a call with investors, hinting that 2025 may be a tough year but that 2026 would be “epic” for the company.

“Musk is kind of like a character that – like a cat – has nine lives,” said Schmidt. “And he’s almost used up those nine lives. And it will be interesting to see what happens now.”

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

[ixhika-jsx]

## What’s a Cyber Forensic Investigator?

Master post - part 1 • part 2

You must have heard bout forensics yk investigating bout dead people who might have been killed and all

You must have seen shows on those topics too.Cyber forensic investigator is just of same kind but investigating through all types of modern gadgets.

Catching hackers and all but cooler

### The Money Talk: How Much Do They Make?

- **Cash Money**: Expect to rake in about $60k to $120k a year. If you are very much experienced and skilled then you can expect about 150k+ a year.(obv different countries and companies may have different wages)

### Companies That Want You

- **Tech Titans**: Google, Amazon, Facebook—they all have requirement for such heroes

- **Gov Jobs**: FBI, CIA—basically every spy agency wants you.

- **Cybersecurity Firms**: CrowdStrike, McAfee—so every gateway you go you gonna have opportunities everywhere.

### What Other Forensic Investigators Are There?

- **Forensic Pathologists**: Real-life detectives who figure out how someone died. Less tech, more science.

- **DNA Analysts**: The ones matching DNA samples

- **Forensic Accountants**: Following the money to catch fraudsters and scammers

- **Toxicologists**: Poison experts, figuring out if someone’s been covertly poisoned. (Yeaa yk snow white story)

### What’s the Work Environment Like?

- **The Lab**: Imagine a room filled with more screens than your gaming setup. Gadgets galore, maybe even a Red Bull or two

- **On the Move**: Sometimes you’re out in the field, collecting evidence. Think of it like collecting rare items in a game.

- **Remote Vibes**: You could be solving cybercrimes from your bed in your PJs .

### How Long Does It Take to Become One?

- **Time Investment**: About 4 years for a bachelor’s, and then 1-2 more years for a master’s if you’re going all-in. So, 5-6 years total. But hey, good things take time, right?

### What Do You Study?

- **Cybersecurity/Computer Science**: Your main jams. Think of them as the ultimate cheat codes for this career.

- **Digital Forensics**: Specialized courses where you learn to be a digital ninja.

- **Law and Ethics**: Learning how to catch the bad guys without breaking the law yourself. (You yourself don't want to be troubled obviously)

### Subjects You Need to Get Into It

- **Math**: Yep, but not the boring kind—more like coding and algorithms.

- **Computer Science**: Your go-to for everything techy.

- **Optional Nerd Points**: Chemistry/Physics if you’re into hardware forensics or just want to flex those brain muscles.

### Work Hours: What to Expect?

- **9 to 5-ish**: Standard hours if you’re working for a company, but expect some late nights or weekend shifts when big cases pop up.

- **On-Call Madness**: Sometimes you’re on-call like a digital firefighter. Cyber-attack at 3 AM? Time to suit up (or log in) and handle it.

- **Flexible/Remote**: If you’re lucky, you can work from home. Just remember, no solving crimes in your underwear during Zoom meetings!

### Interview with a Cyber Forensic Investigator

**Interviewer**: What’s a day in the life of a cyber forensic investigator?

**Cyber Sleuth**: Imagine rolling out of bed, grabbing your coffee, and diving into cases. I’m talking analyzing hard drives, sifting through emails, or tracking down cyberattack origins. Some days it’s all data, other days I’m working with law enforcement or testifying in court. Never a dull moment!

**Interviewer**: What’s the coolest case you’ve worked on?

**Cyber Sleuth**: Helping bust a phishing ring that was scamming millions. Tracked their digital footprints, caught the culprits, and recovered their loot. Felt like a total legend.

**Interviewer**: Ever seen some dark stuff, like murders?

*Cyber Sleuth**: Yeah, I’ve stumbled across some pretty grim stuff. It’s not all memes and malware—sometimes it’s serious business. But catching those bad guys makes it all worth it.

**Interviewer**: Have you ever been on the dark web?

**Cyber Sleuth**: Oh, for sure. It’s like the sketchy underbelly of the internet. Lots of shady deals. I go there when I need to, but it’s not a fun hangout spot.

**Interviewer**: How dark can a case get?

**Cyber Sleuth**: It can get really intense. I’ve worked on cases involving human trafficking and other serious crimes. It’s tough, but making a difference makes it worth it.

**Interviewer**: Any advice for someone who wants to get into this field?

**Cyber Sleuth**: Stay curious and keep learning. Tech evolves fast, so you’ve gotta keep up. And don’t be afraid to dig deep—sometimes the answers are buried in tons of data, but finding them is like hitting gold.

So if you’re into tech and have subjects like mathematics , chemistry and physics then you are all set to start your journey.i have seen ppl running for a common a job and all and they are not even specified about what they want. So just research and find out what you want.

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 6/11/25: AI

Paywall free.

More seriously, from the NY Times:

"For Some Recent Graduates, the A.I. Job Apocalypse May Already Be Here" (Paywall Free)

You can see hints of this in the economic data. Unemployment for recent college graduates has jumped to an unusually high 5.8 percent in recent months, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently warned that the employment situation for these workers had “deteriorated noticeably.” Oxford Economics, a research firm that studies labor markets, found that unemployment for recent graduates was heavily concentrated in technical fields like finance and computer science, where A.I. has made faster gains. [...] Using A.I. to automate white-collar jobs has been a dream among executives for years. (I heard them fantasizing about it in Davos back in 2019.) But until recently, the technology simply wasn’t good enough. You could use A.I. to automate some routine back-office tasks — and many companies did — but when it came to the more complex and technical parts of many jobs, A.I. couldn’t hold a candle to humans. That is starting to change, especially in fields, such as software engineering, where there are clear markers of success and failure. (Such as: Does the code work or not?) In these fields, A.I. systems can be trained using a trial-and-error process known as reinforcement learning to perform complex sequences of actions on their own. Eventually, they can become competent at carrying out tasks that would take human workers hours or days to complete.

I've been hearing my whole life how automation was coming for all our jobs. First it was giant robots replacing big burly men on factory assembly lines. Now it seems to be increasingly sophisticated bits of code coming after paper-movers like me. I'm not sure we're there yet, quite, but the NYT piece does make a compelling argument that we're getting close.

The real question is, why is this a bad thing? And the obvious answer is people need to support themselves, and every job cut is one less person who can do that. But what I really mean is, if we can get the outputs we need to live well with one less person having to put in a day's work to get there, what does it say about us that we haven't worked out a way to make that a good thing?

Put another way, how come we haven't worked out a better way to share resources and get everyone what they need to thrive when we honestly don't need as much labor-hours for them to "earn" it as we once did?

I don't have the solution, but if some enterprising progressive politician wants to get on that, they could do worse. I keep hearing how Democrats need bold new ideas directed to helping the working class.

More on the Coming AI-Job-Pocalypse

I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking. (X)

Paul Krugman: “What Deindustrialization Can Teach Us About The Effects of AI on Workers” (X)

How AI agents are transforming work—and why human talent still matters (X)

AI agents will do programmers' grunt work (X)

At Amazon, Some Coders Say Their Jobs Have Begun to Resemble Warehouse Work (X)

Why Esther Perel is going all in on saving the American workforce in the age of AI

Junior analysts, beware: Your coveted and cushy entry-level Wall Street jobs may soon be eliminated by AI (X)

The biggest barrier to AI adoption in the business world isn’t tech – it’s user confidence  (X)

Experts predicted that artificial intelligence would steal radiology jobs. But at the Mayo Clinic, the technology has been more friend than foe. (X)

AI Will Devastate the Future of Work. But Only If We Let It (X)

AI in the workplace is nearly 3 times more likely to take a woman’s job as a man’s, UN report finds (X)

Klarna CEO predicts AI-driven job displacement will cause a recession (X)

& on AI Generally

19th-century Catholic teachings, 21st-century tech: How concerns about AI guided Pope Leo’s choice of name (X)

Will the Humanities Survive Artificial Intelligence? (X)

Two Paths for A.I. (X)

The Danger of Outsourcing Our Brains: Counting on AI to learn for us makes humans boring, awkward, and gullible. (X)

AI Is a Weapon Pointed at America. Our Best Defense Is Education. (X)

The Trump administration has asked artificial intelligence publishers to rebalance what it considers to be 'ideological bias' around actions like protecting minorities and banning hateful content. (X)

What is Google even for anymore? (X)

AI can spontaneously develop human-like communication, study finds

AI Didn’t Invent Desire, But It’s Rewiring Human Sex And Intimacy (X)

Mark Zuckerberg Wants AI to Solve America’s Loneliness Crisis. It Won’t. (X)

The growing environmental impact of AI data centers’ energy demands

Tesla Is Launching Robotaxis in Austin. Safety Advocates Are Concerned (X)

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act would ban states from regulating AI (X)

& on the Job-Pocalypse & Other Labor-Related Shenanigans Generally, Too

What Unions Face With Trump EOs (X)

AI may be exposing jobseekers to discrimination. Here’s how we could better protect them (X)

Jamie Dimon says he’s not against remote workers—but they ‘will not tell JPMorgan what to do’  (X)

Direct-selling schemes are considered fringe businesses, but their values have bled into the national economy. (X)

Are you "functionally unemployed"? Here's what the unemployment rate doesn't show. (X)

Being monitored at work? A new report calls for tougher workplace surveillance controls  (X)

Josh Hawley and the Republican Effort to Love Labor (X)

Karl Marx’s American Boom (X)

Hiring slows in U.S. amid uncertainty over Trump’s trade wars

Vanishing immigration is the ‘real story’ for the economy and a bigger supply shock than tariffs, analyst says (X)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

Last May, Florida enacted a law deleting any reference to climate change from most of its state policies, a move Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis described as ​“restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.”

That hasn’t stopped the Sunshine State from becoming a national leader in solar power.

In a first, Florida vaulted past California last year in terms of new utility-scale solar capacity plugged into its grid. It built 3 gigawatts of large-scale solar in 2024, making it second only to Texas. And in the residential solar sector, Florida continued its longtime leadership streak. The state has ranked No. 2 behind California for the most rooftop panels installed each year from 2019 through 2024, according to data the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie shared with Canary Media.

“We do expect Florida to continue as No. 2 in 2025,” said Zoë Gaston, Wood Mackenzie’s principal U.S. distributed solar analyst.

Florida is expected to again be neck and neck with California for this year’s second-place spot in utility-scale solar installations, said Sylvia Leyva Martinez, Wood Mackenzie’s principal utility-scale solar analyst for North America.

Overall, the state receives about 8% of its electricity from solar, according to Solar Energy Industries Association data. The vast majority of its power comes from fossil gas.

The state’s solar surge is the result of weather — both good and bad — and policies at the state and federal level that have made panels cheaper and easier to build, advocates say. 

“Obviously in Florida, sunshine is extremely abundant,” said Zachary Colletti, the executive director of the Florida chapter of Conservatives for Clean Energy. ​“We’ve got plenty of it.”

The state is also facing a growing number of extreme storms. Of the 94 billion-dollar weather disasters that federal data show unfolded in Florida since 1980, 34 occurred in the last five years.

“Floridians have long understood that not only is solar good for your pocket, it’s also good for your home resilience,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, the executive director of The CLEO Institute, a Miami-based nonprofit that advocates for climate action. ​“In the face of increasing extreme weather events, having access to reliable energy is a big motivator.”

The tax credits available under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act have also made buying panels cheaper than ever before, she said.

[jssc007]

Teach the first steps of becoming a fintech bro please How you did it

I think there are many paths towards it but here’s a quick summary into my path (I basically see each job as a stepping stone tbh)

Got a job as a Data Analyst at a big corporate (basically a job that helps you build some technical skills and is very adaptable and high demand - there are other types of jobs like that tbh)

Moved to a tech company as a data analyst (this was my official pivot to tech)

Moved to a small start up as a PM (pivot from data to Product)

Moved to a more established tech company still as a PM (get a recognisable brand to build PM reputation and widen options)

Now in a top fintech as a PM - the goal 🌟

My take when it comes to career is that every job is an opportunity to learn something and you should always play for the long game

[prahelika]

love your recruitment headcanons!! do you have any for benji/will/jane?

benji i can see like wrong place, wrong time getting caught hacking into something big (or not an accident at all?)

but those two i'm not sure...

Thank you so much! This is a lovely question.

I'm inclined to agree with you on Benji. Sometime after graduating from Oxford, he acquired a low-level job as a white-hat hacker, maybe? Got bored, hacked into something important (MI6??), got caught, got offered a clean break.

Brandt... Hmm.

What do we know about Brandt? He's by the book. Has a tendency to ignore impulses in favour of the rulebook, but can be convinced to step outside the box if the situation demands it. He's an analyst, the Chief analyst. Looking at the timeline, it couldn't have been more than 3-4 years between the Julia fiasco and his rise to Chief Analyst. So, he must have had prior experience. I think a case could be made that he has parallels to Benji, as in, he was a low-level analyst in the IMF before deciding to undergo field training one day.

But that doesn't answer how the IMF got its claws into him in the first place, does it? Here's how I think it went down. He was a security analyst for a high-profile tech company. Some discrepancy in the expenditure sheets led him to conclude that there was something fishy going on behind the scenes. He contacted the authorities immediately, from where the case was handed over to the FBI. He was ordered to become an informant, and collect data without raising anyone's suspicions. Unfortunately for him, he jumped the gun and confronted/confided in one of the higher-ups who then pinned the whole thing on him. In comes the IMF and sweeps him away, and William Brandt develops an aversion to disobeying orders.

We know even less about Jane than we do about Brandt. It's tempting to just say she was a conwoman or assassin or thief, and leave it at that. But that's no fun. So out come the tinfoil hats.

We know that Jane is a good fighter, but not great at seduction missions. (Side note: Ethan backseat driving Jane's flirting with Anil Kapoor is a scene that lives rent free in my head. Be Venus, Ethan? Seriously?) However, she's experienced enough that they gave her command of the mission to retrieve the nuclear launch codes.

I think, as far as Jane is concerned, a simple explanation is key. She might have been involved with the army, as, say, military police. That would explain her skills in combat and her mission planning chops, while still leaving relative inexperience in matters of honeytrapping. Unfortunately, police codes of conduct and personal codes of honour don't always intersect. She might have tampered with evidence to let a morally innocent suspect walk away, which would then attract the attention of other unsavoury people. One thing leads to another, and then, she finds herself thrown in a cell, accused of being an accomplice to a criminal - upon which the IMF swoops in and saves the day.

That's all I have for the moment, and tbh these sound like a bit of a reach. But headcanons are fun so.

[xaltius]

Business Analytics vs. Data Science: Understanding the Key Differences

In today's data-driven world, terms like "business analytics" and "data science" are often used interchangeably. However, while they share a common goal of extracting insights from data, they are distinct fields with different focuses and methodologies. Let's break down the key differences to help you understand which path might be right for you.

Business Analytics: Focusing on the Present and Past

Business analytics primarily focuses on analyzing historical data to understand past performance and inform current business decisions. It aims to answer questions like:

What happened?

Why did it happen?

What is happening now?

Key characteristics of business analytics:

Descriptive and Diagnostic: It uses techniques like reporting, dashboards, and data visualization to summarize and explain past trends.

Structured Data: It often works with structured data from databases and spreadsheets.

Business Domain Expertise: A strong understanding of the specific business domain is crucial.

Tools: Business analysts typically use tools like Excel, SQL, Tableau, and Power BI.

Focus: Optimizing current business operations and improving efficiency.

Data Science: Predicting the Future and Building Models

Data science, on the other hand, focuses on building predictive models and developing algorithms to forecast future outcomes. It aims to answer questions like:

What will happen?

How can we make it happen?

Key characteristics of data science:

Predictive and Prescriptive: It uses machine learning, statistical modeling, and AI to predict future trends and prescribe optimal actions.

Unstructured and Structured Data: It can handle both structured and unstructured data from various sources.

Technical Proficiency: Strong programming skills (Python, R) and a deep understanding of machine learning algorithms are essential.

Tools: Data scientists use programming languages, machine learning libraries, and big data technologies.

Focus: Developing innovative solutions, building AI-powered products, and driving long-term strategic initiatives.

Key Differences Summarized:

Which Path is Right for You?

Choose Business Analytics if:

You are interested in analyzing past data to improve current business operations.

You have a strong understanding of a specific business domain.

You prefer working with structured data and using visualization tools.

Choose Data Science if:

You are passionate about building predictive models and developing AI-powered solutions.

You have a strong interest in programming and machine learning.

You enjoy working with both structured and unstructured data.

Xaltius Academy's Data Science & AI Course:

If you're leaning towards data science and want to delve into machine learning and AI, Xaltius Academy's Data Science & AI course is an excellent choice. This program equips you with the necessary skills and knowledge to become a proficient data scientist, covering essential topics like:

Python programming

Machine learning algorithms

Data visualization

And much more!

By understanding the distinct roles of business analytics and data science, you can make an informed decision about your career path and leverage the power of data to drive success.

[inspired-lesson-plans]

Person who talked about doing homework in my head

Yeah I’m from a very small town with a very small school which meant two things

1) most of our teachers were just out of school and only just figuring out how to teach/saw this school as a place they had to get through to get somewhere better and we (the kids) could tell they didn’t want to be there

2) there were no accommodations for pretty much anything, either for more advanced work or special help. As it was we only ran physics 30 once every other year and did not have a calculus class offered at so it had to be offered online with no in person option

Like there were some teachers who would give me extra things or do more advanced work with me (the principal, who taught high school math, used to visit me in junior high math and teach me advanced math) but in general the expectation was that I would just sit there quietly and play in my phone waiting for class to end. Sometimes I took a walk around the school and none of the teachers would stop me though

I should also say this school did not have any teachers that gave specific homework as its own separately planned thing. Homework (besides home reading) was limited to in class work that was not finished by the end of the class period, but we always have time in class to work on it as well

And yeah my teacher friends aren’t super big fans of the sit and wait quietly plan for kids who get done work early as in some cases that becomes a punishment that makes kids resent schooling

*sigh*

Stories of how others have struggled like yours are very good for keeping us grounded. I came up through a well-funded school district in New Jersey where the property taxes must have been ridiculous. When I decided to start teaching, I knew that I wanted to work at one of the underperforming city schools. I really wanted to stay, but I got fired from one district, and then from a second, and this past year I got fired from substitute teaching at a wealthy, rural school. So clearly, I'm not cut out to be a teacher.

A lot of our problems would be resolved by, for instance, ramping up education spending by a factor of ten and keeping it that way for the next 20 years. There are a lot of great people who need a lot of support to build up the skills necessary to do one of the world's top 10% most difficult jobs[citation needed]. I was one of them. Now I'm working to become a data analyst, and in the meantime I'm blogging out lesson plans for fun, knowing that I'll never use them unless I start a YouTube channel but that sounds like so much work.

[jcmarchi]

Broadcom's AI surge challenges Nvidia's dominance

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/broadcoms-ai-surge-challenges-nvidias-dominance/

Broadcom's AI surge challenges Nvidia's dominance

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Riding the AI wave, semiconductor giant Broadcom has joined the stampede of companies chasing Nvidia for a piece of the lucrative AI chip market. The computing and software conglomerate is up more than 66% in the past year, as it makes power moves to establish itself as one of the most dominant players in AI today. Broadcom has been making aggressive moves that have piqued the interest of analysts and investors, from buying VMware in a $61 billion deal to strengthen its data centre and cloud chops, to investments in AI chip R&D.

Central to Broadcom’s AI aspirations now is its fast-growing AI-connected chip business, which the company said it now forecasts will bring in an astounding $11 billion in revenue for fiscal 2024, up from a previous forecast of $10 billion. Combined with a 15% jump in Broadcom Inc shares recently, the upward revision reinforces the strong appetite for chips driving the rise of generative AI.

Morningstar analysts agreed in a note to Reuters that Broadcom remains “we continue to see Broadcom as incredibly well-positioned to benefit from rising generative AI investment in the long term,” — a view widely held on Wall Street. A second explanation for the upswing in AI for Broadcom is essentially through buying or investing very well over the years.

They come as one of three planned spinoffs in Dell’s drive to become a full-fledged cloud computing firm with the $61 billion acquisition of VMware next year, which also added $50 billion to its market capitalisation, per FactSet data. In addition, Broadcom has been ramping up its own custom AI chip business, inking deals with tech giants including Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms.

In March, the company revealed that a third unidentified customer was using its custom AI chips, which gave its business credibility in this high-stakes industry. According to Reuters, “At an investor conference on Wednesday, Broadcom said it will produce the new custom AI chips for ‘hyperscaler’ buyers that are mostly Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms.”

Diversified revenue streams and investor optimism

Broadcom’s software division, bolstered by the VMware acquisition, added $2.7 billion to its second-quarter revenue, further diversifying the company’s revenue streams and positioning it as a formidable force in the AI ecosystem. The company’s stock performance reflects this optimism, with shares surging 76% over the past 12 months and closing at a staggering $1,495.5 on Wednesday. 

Broadcom’s recent announcement of a 10-for-1 stock split, a move reminiscent of Nvidia’s strategy, is expected to further fuel investor enthusiasm. “It’s a sure-fire way to send your stock soaring,” Triple D Trading analyst Dennis Dick told Reuters, commenting on the stock split, adding that the move was “right out of Nvidia’s book.”

Nvidia’s dominance and competitive pressure

Broadcom is progressing, but Nvidia is still the leader in this space. For years, Nvidia has benefited from the first-mover advantage of producing AI chips that cater to a long tail of applications while favoring innovation over turning in big volume. While that balance appears to be in flux, Broadcom’s recent wins shed light on how the writing may be on the wall for a boom in AI now benefiting more than just one company.

This new contender has even forced Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang to admit that ‘a resurgent Broadcom (and other start-ups) have planners at Nvidia nervous. Huang, for his part, stressed how the company must continue to innovate to ensure that it remains ahead of its peers. Nevertheless, competition has yet to make a dent on Nvidia’s enviable lead in the AI chip market as the company busily cranks out its top-performing AI tech.

Broadcom vs Nvidia: The battle for AI chip supremacy

Unlike Nvidia’s graphics processing units which have long dominated the industry, Broadcom’s custom AI chips – or application-specific integrated circuits – might offer a great business opportunity for tech giants with massive and steady-state AI workloads. These bespoke chips require considerable initial capital investment but they can offer large cost savings in both CapEx and power consumption, which sets them up as a more cost-effective (if less general purpose) option to Nvidia’s.

Also bullish on Broadcom is Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar, who writes, “We continue to see [Broadcom] as the best AI play [excluding Nvidia] due to its strong positioning in the custom ASIC business along with its strong software portfolio.”

Broadcom’s multi-pronged strategy of pumping cash into buyouts, offering bespoke chips and expanding into a software business has established it as a strong rival, as the AI revolution shows few signs of abating. Nvidia is still the undisputed leader in the industry, but Broadcom’s bold AI play here was enough to light a fire under investors and analysts both, sowing the seeds of what could become an epic showdown in the market for AI chips.

(Photo by Kenny Eliason)

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: ai, artificial intelligence, broadcom, Nvidia

[gnh5blog]

A TURN FROM B.Com OR BBA GRADUATE TO 

DATA ANALYST

The business world is changing, and so are the opportunities within it. If you've finished your studies in Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) or Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), you might be wondering how to switch into the field of data analysis. Data analysts play an important role these days, finding useful information in data to help with decisions. In this blog post, we'll look at the steps you can take to smoothly change from a B.Com or BBA background to the exciting world of data analysis.

What You Already Know:

Even though it might feel like a big change, your studies in B.Com or BBA have given you useful skills. Your understanding of how businesses work, finances, and how organisations operate is a great base to start from.

Step 1: Building Strong Data Skills:

To make this change, you need to build a strong foundation in data skills. Begin by getting to know basic statistics, tools to show data visually, and programs to work with spreadsheets. These basic skills are like building blocks for learning about data.

I would like to suggest the best online platform where you can learn these skills. Lejhro bootcamp has courses that are easy to follow and won't cost too much.

Step 2: Learning Important Tools:

Data analysts use different tools to work with data. Learning how to use tools like Excel, SQL, and Python is really important. Excel is good for simple stuff, SQL helps you talk to databases, and Python is like a super tool that can do lots of things.

You can learn how to use these tools online too. Online bootcamp courses can help you get good at using them.

Step 3: Exploring Data Tricks:

Understanding how to work with data is the core of being a data analyst. Things like looking closely at data, testing ideas, figuring out relationships, and making models are all part of it. Don't worry, these sound fancy, but they're just different ways to use data.

Step 4: Making a Strong Collection:

A collection of things you've done, like projects, is called a portfolio. You can show this to others to prove what you can do. As you move from B.Com or BBA to data analysis, use your business knowledge to pick projects. For example, you could study how sales change, what customers do, or financial data.

Write down everything you do for these projects, like the problem, the steps you took, what tools you used, and what you found out. This collection will show others what you're capable of.

Step 5: Meeting People and Learning More:

Join online groups and communities where people talk about data analysis. This is a great way to meet other learners, professionals, and experts in the field. You can ask questions and talk about what you're learning.

LinkedIn is also a good place to meet people. Make a strong profile that shows your journey and what you can do. Follow data analysts and companies related to what you're interested in to stay up to date.

Step 6: Gaining Experience:

While you learn, it's also good to get some real experience. Look for internships, small jobs, or freelance work that lets you use your skills with real data. Even if the job isn't all about data, any experience with data is helpful.

Step 7: Updating Your Resume:

When you're ready to apply for data jobs, change your resume to show your journey. Talk about your B.Com or BBA studies, the skills you learned, the courses you took, your projects, and any experience you got. Explain how all of this makes you a great fit for a data job.

Using Lejhro Bootcamp:

When you're thinking about becoming a data analyst, think about using Lejhro Bootcamp. They have a special course just for people like you, who are switching from different fields. The Bootcamp teaches you practical things, has teachers who know what they're talking about, and helps you find a job later.

Moving from B.Com or BBA to a data analyst might seem big, but it's totally doable. With practice, learning, and real work, you can make the switch. Your knowledge about business mixed with data skills makes you a special candidate. So, get ready to learn, practice, and show the world what you can do in the world of data analysis!

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