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thebadbatch · 3 years

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Hii, I have a request.

Could you, pretty please write reader being to the Bad Batch, during the Bad Batch what Omega is to them (I still don’t know how to define that ksksks), but when order 66 happens and they take Omega she is super jealous and such (and could you please also do your writer magick to include Crosshair with them)? Thank you so so much, you’re a very sweet person

A/N: I really hope that this is okay! If there's anything you want changed or added then DM me! :3 Enjoy!

The Bad Batch x Fem!Reader

Plot: You are apart of Clone Force 99 but had been captured by the Empire and seperated from your brothers who had no idea you existed. Upon escape they find you and it's your goal to get your little sister back too.

Warnings: None, just a little intense with the Empire and a little violence.

---------------

Ad'ika

Rapidly running through the halls you finally shut yourself into a room, panting heavily within an attempt to capture your breath. You were currently stuck on an imperial ship, the plan you had been trying to muster up for months was finally in place but storm troopers were hot on your tail. You were a clone, a young one a part of some experimental unit but you were said to be the first female one. The empire had gotten you when order 66 commenced and nobody cared, everybody watched as they took you to experiment on and nobody was there to help or assist you. Sighing softly you turned toward the hallway you were supposed to go down beginning to pull yourself towards it.

"Escape pods…" You whispered to nobody in particular, beginning to pull it open and activate it.

"Halt! Step away from the escape pod, kid." The storm troopers voice muffled out, a blaster pointed in your direction. Staring at him you just ran into the pod, slamming the door shut behind you which thankfully prevented any blaster shots hitting you. What button were you supposed to press? They all looked different and you couldn't mess up, not now at least. You could already hear the footsteps of the reinforcements coming toward your location, so within a final attempt you pressed one of the buttons which thankfully freed you into the space before you - guiding you throughout nowhere. You were free, but at what cost? Nobody was there, no planets were nearby and you were lost in the middle of space. A small child alone, nowhere - this was it. At least you weren't in imperial hands anymore and you were free on your own terms. Gazing around at the newly found controls, you clicked a square button that blinked rapidly. A communications device? You've seen these briefly before, perhaps some other people would find you?

"Hello?" You spoke softly, voice echoing in the small escape pod as the cold began to finally get to you. "I'm y/n, I'm a part of experimental unit 99 and I'm lost. Please help." You whispered out, praying to the stars somebody could hear you and could save you. If the empire arrived before somebody else could then that would be it. Back to square one. But there was definitely a spark of hope, one in which you were going to dream of as your eyes shut allowing you to fall into a much needed cold slumber. Perhaps when you woke up things would be better?

"Hello?" The ship's communication device lit up before 5 men who rushed into the cockpit, Tech accepting the signal and listening. "I'm y/n, I'm part of experimental unit 99 and I'm lost. Please help." The men turned to one another questioning the words that were spoken by an unknown user.

"Experimental unit 99?" Hunter repeated, keeping his eyes trained on Tech who looked equally as confused as his brother.

"That's our unit!" Wrecker interjected, confused but still rather excited at the message they had received.

"Don't be stupid, Wrecker." Crosshair grumbled, moving over toward his brothers - a toothpick lingering between his lips. "Are we supposed to actually believe they're a part of our unit?" Echo nodded lightly, gazing at them all as Tech took a soft breath in allowing the confusion to lift.

"Well, it's still highly possible they could have created others before us and lingered us all a part of the same batch." Hunter sat in the Co pilot's chair, beginning to press certain things on the control panel. "But it could still be a trap, we can't be certain they made others before us-" Hunter's voice soon pushed Techs aside, abruptly stopping him mid sentence.

"We'll take our chances." The other three brothers strapped themselves into the spare chairs, watching as Hunter set some orders. "Tech, get the coordinates that the signal sent out." He simply nodded, typing in a few things before locking onto the signal.

"They seem to be situated in the middle of nowhere, but the closest planet seems to be Jakku. I suggest we hurry if we're going to get ourselves into some mess." The others nodded as hyperspace soon commenced, blurring stars filling the window as they travelled toward the lonely signal silently hoping there was another one of them - perhaps even another brother.

Once the ship pulled out of hyperspace, their eyes fell upon a lonely escape pod floating with no destination and a single person inside. They couldn't make out the person using the escape pod due to the distance. Tech soon moved the attack shuttle closer to allow the escape pod to lock onto their beloved ship.

"I'm locking on the escape pod, the user seems unconscious." Hunter simply nodded and stood, walking toward the airlock and awaiting the escape pod to lock on.

"I'll retrieve the person. After this we need to get out of here just in case, prepare hyperspace for Ord Mantell." The others simply nodded as the doors to the escape pod opened, Hunter disappearing momentarily. As he walked in, he noticed a young girl curled up in the seat, hiding her face for any sort of warmth she could muster. He crouched down, gently placing his hand against her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up - she didn't. Hesitantly he picked her up and rushed out of the pod to his brothers,

"She won't wake up!" He seemed rather panicked as Tech disengaged the escape pod and activated hyperspace before he stood. Once Hunter placed her against the Med table, Tech ran a med scan over her as the others came to see what was going on.

"She's cold and beyond exhausted, her health is otherwise fine. I suggest she borrow somebody's bunk until she wakes." Echo was the first to step forward,

"She can borrow mine for now, is she really a part of the experimental unit?" Tech sighed softly as Hunter lifted her back up, carrying her to the bunks.

"It's possible, we can't know more until she wakes up." Wrecker had followed Hunter as he placed her into bed, ensuring the blankets were wrapped around her and placing Lula into her arms.

You awoke slowly, blinking rapidly as you took in your surroundings. You felt warm but why? Moving slowly, you felt the blankets soft texture against your hands finally being able to open your eyes fully enough to realize where you were. Was this another imperial ship? Did the empire find you first? Surely it couldn't be them, they had never let you sleep in a bed before. Turning to your side you saw a soft looking plush coloured in black and red, your childlike curiosity took over as you held it in your hands squishing it gently. Who saved you? What was this place?

"You're up then?" A voice spoke, a large gun against his back - it seemed to be a sniper rifle. You gasped and stood up quickly, preparing to run. "Woah woah there kid, I'm not going to hurt you." He took in a breath as he examined your shocked face, "We saved you from that escape pod." Nodding slowly you backed up instead, realising there wouldn't be anywhere to go.

"We?" You asked before a different man arrived with a bandanna around his head, nodding softly toward his brother who left the room.

"Hey kid, you're up. I'm Hunter, we just rescued you from that pod." You sat back against the bed, gazing around the room for whatever you could use as a weapon. "I need to ask, are you actually a part of clone batch 99?" You just nodded slightly at his words, fiddling with your hands in thought. Was this just another group of people who were going to experiment on you?

"Yes. I'm sick of the experiments - please just leave me alone, I'm sure you can find credits elsewhere." Your hands automatically clung to the plush which made Hunter smile and slowly sit beside you which made you flinch.

"I'm a part of the same batch, so is everybody else aboard this ship." It took a moment or two to process his words. Your brothers had found you? These were your brothers and they had come back for you? Rescued you?

"You're my big brother?" You breathed out slowly, eyes meeting his own. He nodded slowly at your words, gently smiling to give you some comfort.

"All of us are." He slowly stood and offered you his hand, "Would you like to meet them?" Hesitantly you took his hand all whilst clinging to the plush, everything felt scary but you had finally found your brothers, so maybe everything would be alright again. Upon walking into the cockpit, you saw your other four brothers turn toward you, smiles on some of their faces.

"Hey kid, I'm Echo." He spoke, crouching before you. "These are the others, Wrecker, Crosshair and Tech - you've met Hunter already." You nodded gently and gazed lightly at them all. Wrecker soon stood forward, a big smile against his face.

"You enjoyin' Lulas company?" He asked, gesturing toward the plush held tightly in your arms. "She's always helped me when I start feelin' scared so I thought she'd help you too!" You couldn't help but smile softly at his kind gesture, softly passing her back over to him.

"Thanks for letting me borrow her... She helped." Yeah soon interrupted the conversation, a datapad held tightly in his hands.

"Y/n, I believe that you said you were a part of our clone unit. Is this true?" You simply nodded, recalling the time you had spent on Kamino. It wasn't particularly good or bad, but it was your home nonetheless.

"Yes, I was there when you were all created along with another." Tech paused, typing rapidly into the datapad.

"Another?" Crosshair asked, eyes wide." I thought it was just us five?" Shaking your head you rubbed your hands together, it was a nervous habit of yours.

"Her name is Omega. I was created first then she was, then we watched them create all of you but you all got accelerated healing." Hunter moved forward toward Tech,

"Omega? She's our sister?" He turned toward everybody, "We left her on Kamino!" Echo stood and placed a hand against his shoulder,

"It's safe for her there, we had no choice." He sighed in response to Echos words,

"What about y/n? It's not safe for her here either." You crossed your arms softly and stared at them,

"I'm a clone too you know, I was created with war in mind."

When you had told them that you had been created with war in mind, they decided to make you a permanent part of their team. It had been a year since they saved you from the escape pod and from the Empire. You were now pretty much a fully trained soldier with incredible blasting skills, senses and some skills behind technology. There were many new memories with your brothers and you had all created an unbreakable bond. However, lately things were difficult due to Order 66 being implemented across the galaxy and you only had one goal and that was to rescue your sister Omega from Kamino. You were currently on course for the planet, prepared to try and get away with this rescue mission as quickly as possible.

"How far off are we from landing?" You asked, preparing your blaster and adjusting the custom made armour they had prepared for you. Turning toward Tech who was currently piloting the ship you felt the attack shuttle judder.

"Any moment now." Hunter moved everybody toward the door, glancing between each sibling.

"Set your blasters to stun, we aren't looking to kill any of our brothers." He grabbed onto the side and placed a hand upon your shoulder as the ship took a rather rough landing. "Y/n, are you certain you know where Omega will be?" Nodding you watched as Tech joined you all, switching his blaster to stun.

"I am, we were always there together - She never left." The ramp opened up which allowed you all to rush down, stunning any and every clone that had their blasters pointed toward you.

"Go and get Omega! We'll keep you covered." Rushing frantically down the hall with Wrecker and Tech following for cover, you reached the lab that you were certain she'd be in. Due to the facility on lockdown, Tech had overridden the systems and managed to get the door open much to your relief.

"Omega?" You called out, gazing around until your eyes fell on her placed upon the medtable. "Come on, we're getting you out of here - I found our brothers!" She recognised you as soon as you removed your helmet, rushing into your arms and allowing you to pick her up. You were young, but old enough to take care of your little sister and shoot a blaster. They had given you certain aspects of accelerated aging but not enough to bring you to your brother's ages.

"Y/n, I wanna go. The clones have chips and-" You hushed her lightly, placing your helmet over her for at least some protection until you reached the Marauder.

" I know, order 66." She hid against you which allowed you to rush away with your brothers, running into the ship and allowing Tech to fly you all away. A quick in and out with everything going how it needed to go. Omega removed her helmet, passing it back with a mumbled thanks.

"Omega, hey kid." Hunter spoke, crouching down and hugging her. She stayed silent against him though which definitely wasn't the welcome back he hoped he'd get. "What's wrong?" He asked, voice gentle in tone.

"You all left me but took y/n - I was terrified and you had all left me." Her eyes soon filled with tears, voice gentle with hints of anger. Crouching down beside her you pulled her into a gentle hug.

"I never stopped trying to get to you, the Empire took me and our brothers found me after I escaped." You paused for a moment as she clung onto you. "We couldn't come and get you until it was safe to do so, now order 66 has happened, it's safer for you to stay with us." Hunter smiled warmly as she pulled away, smiling lightly. "You never stopped being my Ad'ika." The others soon walked in, greeting Omega with a long awaited hug. In all honesty you couldn't wait to create new memories with your family now you were all together, memories of your own.

#the bad batch #Tbb #Bad batch #Clone Force 99 #Omega #The bad batch x Reader #Starwars

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years

Text

Pluralistic: 11 Mar 2020 (Saturated fat and obesity, which foods produce satiety, spying VPNs, Twitter's research-friendly terms of service)

Today's links

Obesity and unsaturated fats: Blaming unsaturated fats for obesity is very plausible, but likely wrong, alas.

The satiety index: Which foods cause or satisfy cravings?

Sensor Tower's VPNs and adblockers spied on users: Like sneaking laxative into Immodium.

Twitter's new Terms of Service help academics: Good bots welcome.

Italy's "I Stay in the House" law: The comprehensive quarantine plan.

Scam-buster hacks into a scam-factory: He gets their CCTVs, recordings of their calls, transaction data, Whatsapp chats, and more. Delicious.

Postmortem: the catastrophic EU Copyright Directive. Testimony from yesterday's Senate hearing.

Podcast: A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick: My latest Locus column, on how copyright failed artists and enriched corporations.

This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Obesity and unsaturated fats (permalink)

Scott Alexander does a very deep dive into the literature on diet, weight, and saturated vs unsaturated fats.

https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/10/for-then-against-high-saturated-fat-diets/

The most important elements for me were first, the validation that something really has changed: average US adult men's weight went from 155lbs to 195lbs from the 1800s to today. The 90th percentile 1800s man weighed 185lbs, today, it's 320lbs. US obesity rates in the 1800s were 1%. Today, they're 25%.

But the usual culprits can't explain the change: they ate more bread and potatoes in the 1800s, for one thing.

In China, obesity rates were very low even with a diet dominated by white rice.

1970s France had 1800s US obesity rates, on a diet of "baguettes, pastries, cheese, meat. Lots of sugar, white flour, and fat."

It's true that some tactics (intermittent fasting, low-carbing) work for some people, but they're not what worked in 1970s France or 1800s USA. So if those things work, they're "hacks" – not an indictment of carbs or eating three meals a day.

There's a widespread theory that the change is driven by the switch from saturated to unsaturated fats, which was driven by spiking heart disease in the 1950s. It's likely this heart disease epidemic can be attributed to the vast increase in smoking a couple decades earlier, but the tobacco industry's denial machine meant that the blame fell on diet, and the US (and then global) diet's fat composition shifted dramatically.

We ate a lot fewer animal-derived fats and a lot more plant-derived fats. These fats had lots more Omega 6s and (to a lesser extent) 3s, and the ratio of these Omegas also changed dramatically, both in our diet and in our bodily composition. Intriguingly, these play a significant role in metabolism. There's a plausible ring to this whole business – particularly as a way of crisping up what we mean when we say "avoid processed foods." What is "processing?" Maybe it's doing something that requires vegetable fats.

Unfortunately, neither the literature nor the lived experience of experimenters support the theory. Studies don't support it. Meta analyses don't support it. Reddit forums skew heavily to people saying it didn't work for them (dotted with people for whom it did).

Which makes weight gain a mystery. It can't be (just) exercise: we're exercising more now than we did 40 years ago, and we're heavier now. Studies about causes are inconclusive overall, but clear that weight gain is more explained by diet than exercise. What's more, we're seeing weight gain in lab rats, pets and feral animals, so exercise seems an unlikely culprit here.

Alexander ponders other possible causes: plastics or other contaminants in our diet, or that it's a "ratchet" (once your weight set point changes, it doesn't change back.). Both have little evidence to support them.

He concludes that he's "more confused than when I started it," but will avoid unsaturated fats where possible, with the exceptions of Omega-3 rich oils (fish/olive oil).

I am likewise confused, but also better-informed than I was before I read his post.

The satiety index (permalink)

I lost ~100lbs in 2002/3 with a low-carb diet. The thing I immediately noticed when I started eating (lots) more fat and (lots) less carbs was that I was always satiated, with none of the food cravings that had plagued me all my life.

No other diet since has had that effect. I really struggle with cravings (and have put 50lbs back on through my 40s, though some of that is muscle from a much higher level of exercise). For me, satiety is the barrier to sticking to any diet. I don't just get ravenous, I get these all-consuming cravings that I can't put out of my mind, even if I resist them (and the longer I resist, the more likely it is that I'll really blow it out when I give in at last).

So I was really interested in this 1995 open access study, "A Satiety Index of common foods," which offers a league table of the foods that made subjects feel full.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/15701207_A_Satiety_Index_of_common_foods

The meaty (heh) parts are in these charts on pp682-3.

Sensor Tower's VPNs and adblockers spied on users (permalink)

Sensor Tower, a company that made apps billed as privacy-protecting, installed man-in-the-middle certificates on your devices that let them spy on everything you did online.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/vpn-and-ad-blocking-apps-sensor-tower

They made 20+ VPN apps for Android and Ios, but didn't disclose that all those apps were owned by analytics company, Sensor Tower. The apps had names like "Free and Unlimited VPN, Luna VPN, Mobile Data, and Adblock Focus."

The apps installed a "root certificate" in users' devices. With this cert, the company could insert itself in all the device's otherwise secure, encrypted sessions – web browsing, email, etc. Sensor Tower admits that they collected data using this cert, but insists that it was "anonymized," which is something most computer scientists agree is likely impossible for this kind of data. Re-identification of anonymized data is devilishly hard to avoid.

The claim is made even less credible when you listen to the company's other claims about its practices, such as the idea that they hid the authorship of their apps "for competitive reasons."

Or this howler: that "the vast majority of these apps listed are now defunct (inactive) and a few are in the process of sunsetting." Well, yes, they were removed for violating their users' privacy. It's not like the company had a change of heart or anything.

And then there's this: "Apple and Google restrict root certificate privileges due to the security risk to users. Sensor Tower's apps bypass the restrictions by prompting users to install a certificate through an external website after an app is downloaded."

Twitter's new Terms of Service help academics(permalink)

Twitter just published a new, and much-improved developer policy, one that permits academics to field bots for research and auditing purposes.

https://blog.twitter.com/developer/en_us/topics/community/2020/twitter_developer_policy_update.html

"Researchers will be able to share an unlimited number of Tweet IDs and/or User IDs, if they're doing so on behalf of an academic institution and for the sole purpose of non-commercial research, such as peer review."

https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/10/twitter-rewrites-developer-policy-to-better-support-academic-research-and-use-of-good-bots/

Twitter's also creating a bot registry that must include contact info for the botmaster, so that "it's easier for everyone on Twitter to know what's a bot – and what's not."

https://developer.twitter.com/en/developer-terms/policy#4-b

Italy's "I Stay in the House" law (permalink)

The FAQ for the Italian government's "I Stay In the House" decree is a fascinating document:

http://www.governo.it/it/articolo/decreto-iorestoacasa-domande-frequenti-sulle-misure-adottate-dal-governo/14278

Most notably, Italy has kicked out its tourists. As Bruce Sterling writes, "It's a tourist-ectomy. An Italy devoid of all tourists. It's fantastic, unheard-of. Surely this hasn't happened in at least 700 years."

https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2020/03/stay-house-decree/

People are allowed to go to work, to shop, and to run errands, provided it is for an "essential purpose," which you must prove "by means of a self-declaration which can be made on pre-printed forms already supplied to the state and local police forces. The veracity of the self-declarations will be subject to subsequent checks and the non-veracity constitutes a crime."

Business travelers are permitted to enter and leave the country, cab, delivery and freight drivers are allowed to do their jobs, and "outdoor motor activity is allowed as long as not in a group."

Public offices are open. Training activities are suspended. Government offices need to provide hand santizer, but if they run out, they have to stay open ("disinfectant is a precautionary measure but itstemporary unavailability does not justify the closure of the office").

Bars, pubs and restaurants may open from 6AM to 6PM, but have to cancel live music, games and screening events. Theaters, cinemas and museums are closed.

Schools are closed. Universities are closed. Exams and graduations will be conducted by video-link. Med schools are not closed. Research institutions are not closed.

Masses and funerals are canceled. Islamic Friday prayers are canceled.

Farms are open.

Scam-buster hacks into a scam-factory (permalink)

Jim Browning is a talented and prolific scambaiter. He calls the numbers listed in pop-up tech support scams and has the scammers log into a specially prepared system that lets him trace them.

In his latest adventure, Browning thoroughly turns the tables on http://Faremart.com , a Delhi travel agency that was the front for a sprawling network of tech-support scammers taking in millions every year through fraud.

Browning not only traces the scammers: he breaks into their unsecured CCTV network so he can watch them work. He compromises their phone system and listens to the recordings of all their scam-sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le71yVPh4uk

He gets hold of their ledgers, which list how much money each scam nets for the gang. He doxes the scammers and learns their real names. He gets a confederate to fly a drone over their HQ and maps out their comings and going.

In part II, Browning treats us to a delightful scambaiting session in which he mercilessly trolls a scammer who claims to be in San Jose, CA, tripping him up in a series of ever-more-desperate lies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV-qa9M-o4E

It's part of a growing genre of journalists who explore and document the operations of overseas scam operations. See, for example, Reply All's excellent podcasts on this:

https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/6nh3wk https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/76h5gl

There are two more parts to come in Browning's series (you can watch them now on his Patreon, apparently):

https://www.patreon.com/JimBrowning

He also turned his footage over to the BBC's flagship investigative programme, Panorama, which has produced its own doc based on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rmvhwwiQAY

Postmortem: the catastrophic EU Copyright Directive (postmortem)

Yesterday, the Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held hearings on "Copyright Law in Foreign Jurisdictions," at which two key copyright experts testified on last year's catastrophic EU Copyright Directive.

First up was Pam Samuelson, one of America's leading copyright experts, who explained in eye-watering detail how the compromises made to pass the Copyright Directive produced an incoherent mess that no one can figure out how to implement in law.

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Samuelson%20Testimony.pdf

Next was Julia Reda, who served in the EU Parliament during the passage of the directive and helped spearhead the opposition to it.

Her testimony really shows you where the bodies were buried: how the EU knew it was making a pig's ear out of things.

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Reda%20Testimony.pdf

Both are essential reading for anyone striving to understand Article 17 (formerly Article 13) – it is such a tangle of garbage lawmaking that these kinds of guides are indispensable.

Podcast: A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick (permalink)

I've just posted my latest podcast: a reading of my new Locus Magazine column, "A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick," on how copyright failed artists and enriched corporations and what we can do about it.

https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/11/a-lever-without-a-fulcrum-is-just-a-stick-2/

Tldr: Giving monopolies to artists doesn't help them gain leverage over the super-concentrated entertainment industry, because the corporations control access to audiences and force artists to sign away those monopolies to get past their gatekeeping.

The more monopolies we give artists, the more monopolies are transfered to corporations, and the more they dominate the market and thus the more they can retain from the earnings generated by the artists' works.

Fights like the EU Copyright Directive are a distraction, a fight over shifting some points from Big Tech's balance sheet to Big Content's – but without any mechanism to move more of that revenue to creators.

Enriching creators means thinking beyond more "monopoly"-style copyright: instead, we have to think about inalienable rights that can be taken away through one-sided contracts (like the "reversion right" that lets US artists take back copyrights after 35 years).

And we have to think beyond copyright itself, by beefing up competition laws to break up entertainment cartels, and by beefing up labor laws to let artists form unions.

There is a role for copyright, but in things like extended collective licensing that would allow all online platforms to access the same catalog and pay for it based on the number of users they have, so a new platform pays pennies while Youtube pays hundreds of millions.

These blanket licenses have been key to keeping other forums for artistic revenues open: think of what the world would be like if one club or radio station could buy the exclusive rights to play the hits of the day, and then use their ensuring dominance to squeeze artists.

If you prefer the written work, you can read the column here for yourself, of course:

https://locusmag.com/2020/03/cory-doctorow-a-lever-without-a-fulcrum-is-just-a-stick/

Here's a direct link to the MP3 of the reading (thanks as always to Internet Archive for hosting – they'll host you too, for free!):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_330/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_330_-_A_Lever_Without_a_Fulcrum_Is_Just_a_Stick.mp3

And here's the RSS for my podcast:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

Now in its 14th year (Thanks to Mark Pesce for convincing me to start it)!

This day in history (permalink)

#10yrsago London Olympics: police powers to force spectators to remove non-sponsor items, enter houses, take posters http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100303/tts-uk-olympics-london-ca02f96.html

#10yrsago Leaked documents: UK record industry wrote web-censorship amendment https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/bpi-drafted-web-blocking

#5yrsago Piketty on the pointless cruelty of European austerity https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/thomas-piketty-interview-about-the-european-financial-crisis-a-1022629.html

#5yrsago Rightscorp loses big on extortion racket https://torrentfreak.com/rightscorp-hemorrhages-cash-profit-from-piracy-remains-elusive-150311/

#5yrsago UK foreign secretary: stop talking about Snowden, let spies get on with it https://web.archive.org/web/20150315031642/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2399082/government-minister-is-bored-with-snowden-and-wants-to-get-on-with-surveillance

#1yrago Defect in car security system aids carjackers, thieves https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/gone-in-six-seconds-exploiting-car-alarms/

#1yrago Former Archbishop of Canterbury cheers on students who are walking out to demand action on climate change https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/10/rowan-williams-school-pupil-climate-protests

#1yrago Leaked Chinese database of 1.8 million women includes a field indicating whether they are "BreedReady" https://twitter.com/0xDUDE/status/1104482014202351616

#1yrago Why #Article13 inevitably requires filters https://www.communia-association.org/2019/03/05/final-x-ray-article-13-dangerous-legislative-wishful-thinking/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Slate Star Codex (https://slatestarcodex.com/), Slashdot (https://slashdot.org), Fipi Lele, Matthew Rimmer (https://twitter.com/DrRimmer).

Hugo nominators! My story "Unauthorized Bread" is eligible in the Novella category and you can read it free on Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Upcoming appearances:

Museums and the Web: March 31-April 4 2020, Los Angeles. https://mw20.museweb.net/

Currently writing: I'm rewriting a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I'm also working on "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel afterwards.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: A Lever Without a Fulcrum Is Just a Stick https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_330/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_330_-_A_Lever_Without_a_Fulcrum_Is_Just_a_Stick.mp3

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a very special, s00per s33kr1t intro.

#pluralistic

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joannlyfgnch · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

The healthcare industry is not known for its forward-thinking philosophy on the user experience. Patients, providers, insurers, and others in the field are used to navigating complicated menus, outdated designs, and clunky forms. Everyone from the primary care physician to the pharmacy tech seems to use a unique interface — and users get caught in the […]

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waltercostellone · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

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pattersondonaldblk5 · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

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jeanshesallenberger · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

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mariaaklnthony · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

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dustinwootenne · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

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aracecvliwest · 6 years

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How to Create a Better User Experience in Med Tech

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techcrunchappcom · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/how-manufacturers-can-ready-labelling-for-the-compliance-wave-med-tech-innovation/

How manufacturers can ready labelling for the compliance wave - Med-Tech Innovation

Ken Moir, VP, NiceLabel, explains what a wave of new regulations will mean for medical device manufacturers.

Medical device manufacturers are coming under increasing pressure ahead of a wave of regulations coming into force over the next few years. These include the EU’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR); the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Class I, and the in vitro diagnostic regulation (IVDR) which comes into effect in May 2022.

Even after that, there are other application dates in multiple different countries on the horizon. The message is clear: now is the time to take a standardised approach to unique device identification (UDI) compliance, and select a process that can be scaled to cover upcoming regulations. Labelling will be a big part of that process.

What EU MDR means for labelling

For many medical device manufacturers, the immediate focus is the EU MDR, scheduled to apply from May 2021. Any medical device manufacturer shipping product to the EU will need to comply with MDR.

Even organisations that have had to comply with previous device directives, will notice the new regulations introduce significant changes which impact labelling. For example, labels need to be in a human-readable format, which manufacturers can supplement with machine-readable information, such as RFID or bar codes. Labels must be legible, according to the user’s technical knowledge, experience and training. There are also specific requirements for sterile barrier labelling, absorbed materials and warnings related to harmful substances.

Meeting these requirements will likely require a complete redesign of a business’s existing labels. In tackling this challenge, manufacturers should look beyond the regulation and uncover the hidden costs and problems in their existing workflow.

Quality and validation

In the context of EU MDR, one of the key areas is quality control. Manufacturers should be encouraged to digitise quality assurance by incorporating review and approval workflows into their label management system. This will provide improved accuracy, transparency and efficiency. Their label management system also needs to enable them to lock down UDI information to reduce the likelihood of errors.

Organisations also need to consider how they will handle and approve mass label changes. Instead of manually creating thousands of label designs for each SKU that then need to be approved, they need to implement a labelling system that can automate mass label changes and approvals.

One of the critical tasks before going live is completing system validation. Here it can help to use a validation tool that aligns with regulatory requirements, which can simplify compliance with industry standards and make it easier for them to maintain a validated, compliant labeling solution. They need to be aware that by standardising on a single labelling platform with a digitised quality workflow, they only have to validate one system, as opposed to individually validating multiple, disconnected modules.

How cloud-based labelling helps

Once they have created an MDR-compliant labeling process, manufacturers will want to ensure their labels stay compliant, no matter who prints them. Manufacturers need to consider granting their suppliers and contract manufacturers remote access to their labelling system using cloud technology. In this way, they can guarantee their labels are accurate and compliant, because they are printed based on templates and data housed in their own systems. They control who has access to what, and they get a complete history of every label that’s been printed. They can also manage labeling centrally and reduce security risks without placing an additional burden on IT resources.

Digital, cloud-based labelling can ease the burden on IT departments and expedite the label creation process. It gives MDMs an easy-to-use tool to visually lay out the label; a digital, visual workflow for quality control; the ability to automate mass label changes and approvals; and label printing that’s integrated with the business systems that house UDI data.

Seeing it as an opportunity

Ultimately, manufacturers need to take advantage of the opportunity that MDR compliance presents. By adopting the right technology and implementing a digitised cloud-based labelling approach, they take cost out of their quality control and integration processes and minimise IT resources. They can also drive agility in this way. If manufacturers can ensure they are compliant with EU MDR and if they have standardised on a modern digital system, ideally in the cloud, they will be well placed to make any adjustments required to comply also with new UDI requirements of national and regional regulations yet to be put in place. The more agile their system is, the better prepared they will be to handle the regulatory future.

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metaverseproductions · 4 years

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Apocalypse Mind Share

Hello everyone out there! I am back! I know, it has been years and much has happened since. You’re probably curious as to what happened, in a way, me too. Sometimes writing things out helps us remember where we have been in order to know where we are going.

First of all, I came out of my cave for the first time because we are living in extraordinary times. A global pandemic with the COVID19 virus that is killing thousands of people, potentially millions within a few months if it cannot be controlled (as it seem to be the case).

My mind drifts back to those days at Singularity University and Ray Kurzweil talking about the Singularity timeline, the 2045 Initiative starting soon after with their infamous “Open Letter to the United Nations”. I can’t believe the Dalai Lama jumped on-board, but more importantly, Ray signed it under his new role of Director of Engineering for Google! I was not surprised to see Google’s historical data of company acquisitions (one per week) starting 2012. It was epic to see Google give birth to Alphabet, acquiring and creating the tools it needed to build the Singularity. Yet it was still missing the magic sauce, the 5G network and DWave to make computational astrophysics a seamless integration of information spaces.

There was also the underlying concern of the acquisition of Boston Dynamics and their military dog robots, which created an eerie sense of Terminator meets an apocalyptic future of hunting down “chipped” humans. Boston Dynamics has since been sold by Alphabet, and humanoid A.I. robots like Sophia were created, showcased around the world like a weird circus freak show, and then decommissioned because of their lack of empathy. Go figure, their vision of the future does not include humans.

Fast forward to mid 2012, I tore my achilles tendon which ended my days of glory in the tech world. At that point I was told that my blog was quite popular with Google employees, which came as a total shock because I thought no one read my blog. I had been writing and posting for myself, perhaps as a means to track my own personal leyend and remind myself of what I have achieved and accomplished in the times when I felt down, sad, depressed or like I hadn’t achieved anything with life. No I am not damaged goods, have never been on meds, but I have experienced (like most) challenges, gender discrimination, trauma stemming from being raped...but this writing is not about that, there will be other posts to address those topics at a later date.

What this IS about is that long journey out of the hole I ended up in, 8 months to completely heal from the injury and be able to walk normally again. Being bed-ridden for weeks, then a wheelchair for months until I could handle crutches with excruciating pain. Trust me, anyone would feel like giving up during such a slow recovery. At the time we were living far from the city and my husband had to go to work, which meant I was alone most of the day and in bed unable to move. Amazing to see so many people on social media complaining about their “Self isolation” during the COVID19 pandemic, they have it easy compared to what I went through. Nevertheless, time went by and I came to realize I had to stop spending my day on social media trying to save what was left of my business contacts and network. No one was going to hire me anytime soon in a world that required hitting the ground running every day, travel, presentations, summits, face to face meetings, and physical production to stay relevant with the people that truly matter. The tech world sold the idea of remote work through telepresence, holographic displays, tele-conferencing, etc., but the reality was that it was not massively adopted or utilized for part-time or full-time distance-employment.

What I did manage to do during these hard times was vow to learn something new every day. So I went on an exploration of YouTube videos and open source tools, which taught be how to edit videos, create websites, get started on bitcoin and blockchain foundations, and then learn to use multiple audio and visualization platforms for Transmedia. I then took a deep dive into multiplayer gaming, and not just as an Avatar-user roaming the virtual creations of others, but as a builder of simulations. By the time I was done with my healing journey, my Avatar had gained more notoriety than my real life persona. I was co-producing virtual art experiences, like a concert inside of a Volcano, gallery openings and plays and then live-streaming to the real world. My Avatar was making virtual money as my real self was on unemployment.

Eventually, my family felt sorry for me so they hired me to manage the company finances. My parents and grandmother had been to the hospital within weeks of each other, so I felt the need to contribute and help out with their legacy as well. It was a decent exchange, for about a year, but as the saying goes “it’s not a good idea to do business with family”. I had completely given up my dream and was now living a reality of something that wasn’t my passion, only to realize I had dug myself in a deeper hole. I should have left sooner, but my sense of responsibility and “ I got this” blurred the way back to my life in Tech. Eventually when I did leave, it was hard to find work as most employers were not open to the value of being employed by the family business where I had a posh position that paid well.

“Why did you leave”, is all I kept being asked.

What was I supposed to answer? Tell the truth about wanting to stand on my own two feet, not have to go into meetings where people kissed my ass because I was the daughter of the owners of the company. The employees did not value the work that I did or felt I deserved the title or position, and they were right. I could have been a hypocrite and ride that nepotism until the fat lady sings, but it is not right or optimal for the better good of the company.

I would opt to answer the “why did you leave” question with the general answer of “I wanted to move toward a better opportunity”. Unfortunately most of the hiring managers I encountered didn’t consider their company or work as “a better opportunity”. It reminded me of the time at Burning Man in 2007 when I worked as a lead coordinator of Entheon Village, worked all week during the worst dust storms and winds, only to leave at night on break to “see the city” and “find the cool things to do” and have everyone I met tell me they were going to Entheon. Surely there must be other options.

Flash forward, I obviously had to recreate myself, start from zero and build from the ground up. It was no easy task! I had to swallow my pride and understand that if I had achieved great things before, I could do it again.

Eventually I ended up going back to my roots of what inspired me about the Future in the first place. Guess where I landed? I closed my eyes and found myself in front of Ray Kurzweil again, talking about the Singularity and challenging us to positively impact 1 billion people in the next 10 years. I opened my eyes, looked at the calendar, how much time did I have to make that happen? Approximately 1 year and 8 months. Was I in a position to go for it? Yes, I had managed to get my foot in the door at a Fortune 300 that provides global food supply to over 100 countries. So what did I do? I applied to Harvard (HBS) and pitched the most batshit crazy personal statement imaginable, mentioned the goal of positively impacting 1 billion people by May 2021, and added the cherry on top of the cake by mentioning a disruption in 2020 that could potentially disrupt humanity, permanently.

The result was an acceptance letter into the Harvard Business Analytics with Artificial Intelligence program AND a partial scholarship, the VP of Analytics for the Fortune 300 I work for agreeing to supply me with company data to build my case scenarios, Ethics and Compliance agreeing to back me legally with NDA’s to Harvard (after making me sign on the dotted line about “Safeguarding Company Information”). One month after this happened, the Coronavirus hit Wuhan, then spread to China, then became a global pandemic. Prophetic timing?

I have some ideas about the Future, post-pandemic, which keep me up at night. They have to do with biological warfare for population control, nano-RFID’s implanted into critical mass via a vaccine, and Morpheus coming to a brain near you via 5G. Are you ready to go down the rabbit hole? Stay tuned for my next mind dump.

Disclosure: I am mind dumping right now, so yes, there will be spelling and grammatical mistakes. Remember, I am writing for me, not because I think anyone out there is following or reading this. However, if any Hollywood types want to use my Mind Dumps to pitch movie or Netflix ideas, include me in as a writer. Don’t just hijack my life and expect me not to find out. We live in a time of technology where you can’t get away with that anymore.

- PRH 3/28/20

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payment-providers · 5 years

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New Post has been published on Payment-Providers.com

New Post has been published on https://payment-providers.com/the-big-bucks-behind-sleep-or-lack-thereof/

The Big Bucks Behind Sleep (Or Lack Thereof)

The benefits of a good night’s sleep can’t be overstated – nor the negative consequences of not getting one. The average human being needs seven to nine hours per night of sleep, and while there is no medical benefit to sleeping more than that average, there are all kinds of risks associated with getting less.

The first one is weight gain (and all its associated health risks like diabetes, heart disease and cancer), because lack of sleep stimulates the production of hormones that increase appetite and limits the production of the hormones that make a person feel full. Which leads to the second (unsurprising) consequence: Given that lack of sleep makes one insatiably hungry, being tired also makes people cranky and depressed.

Yes, science has discovered that waking up on the wrong side of the bed is actually a medical diagnosis almost always brought on by the same root cause: lack of sleep.

The third problem is still under investigation, but is quite concerning. According to NIH studies, those who report poor sleep in middle age often experience symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer’s later in life. Sleep, it seems, plays a critical role in clearing the toxins associated with declines in brain function.

So in short, sleep could make you thin, make you pleasant to be around and, in the long run, possibly protect your brain from degrading. Sounds like it should sell itself – particularly considering that sleep is one of life’s few pleasures that is absolutely free and can be done without a partner or any special training.

But somehow, we are a nation of chronically under-rested people. According to the most recent available research on sleep, about one-third of Americans report routinely getting less than the recommended seven to nine hours a night, while another third report they “sometimes” don’t get enough sleep.

But luckily, where there is a problem, there is typically an innovative entrepreneur selling a solution – and in the case of sleep, there are a lot of solutions out there. According to McKinsey, if you take the approximate value of all the sleep swag on the market as of 2018 –think luxury pajamas, high-end bed linens, cuddling robots, DTC mattresses and odd gadgets – it generates somewhere between $30 billion and $45 billion annually in revenue worldwide. The mattress market alone is worth a whopping $15 billion. Throw in the amount spent on pharmaceutical sleep aids worldwide each year, and “big nap” as an industry will be worth at least $76.7 billion globally by 2020.

Consumers are clearly willing to invest in getting some much-needed rest – and if some of the firms we’ve covered in the last few years are any indication, they are willing to experiment with some out-of-the-box ideas. There’s the Ostrich Pillow, which allows the sleeper to tuck his head into a soft, pillowy box to make it easier to sleep on a desk or other surface. Or there’s the Bearaby, which could be mistaken for a blanket knitted by a grandmother but for the fact that it weighs 20 pounds and costs $250-$280.

If that is more than you want to spend on a pressurized blanket experience, there is the Hatch Sleep Pod, which costs only $100. It works on the same principle as a weighted blanket – applying uniform pressure across the body to reduce stress – but instead of using weights to create the effect, the pod wraps the sleeper tightly in what can only be described as a swaddle.

“It’s designed to feel like a hug,” Founder Matt Mundt explained to PYMNTS.

There is also the slightly different variation of the Sleep Pod – a much more literal one, offered by HOHM. The startup offers napping spaces on-demand in the form of a 43.5-square-foot portable pod that comes equipped with a twin bed and charging station. The pods set up shop in places where the nap-needing tend to gather – university campuses and office spaces being their two main sweet spots – and offer the chance to book a 20-minute to two-hour nap online or on mobile with a few clicks or taps. Once a pod is paid for, the customer checks in with the pod’s attendant, who unlocks it and lets the customer in for their nap.

“I think there’s definitely a demand and interest for a product like this,” the firm’s Founder and CEO Nikolas Woods told PYMNTS. “Wherever people need sleep, we want to be there.”

In the future, he noted, they will be looking to expand their services to airports and music festivals.

As it turns out, apps aren’t only useful for ordering up weighted blankets or time in a sleep pod. The team at Sleepio believes their anti-insomnia app – which comes with a built-in cartoon therapist – is just the tool Americans need to get to bed on time and sleep the right number of hours.

This week, the app got a major upvote of confidence. According to reports from The New York Times, CVS Health is encouraging employers to cover the costs for their workers to use the app. CVS recently included Sleepio, along with about a dozen or so other healthcare apps, as benefits whose downloads employers can cover as part of their insurance policies as easily as they can cover prescription drugs.

In general, CVS is part of a nascent push to bring digital therapeutics and telemedicine more into the mainstream.

“We are at this pivotal moment,” Lee Ritterband, a psychiatry professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, noted on the emergence of various digital therapy apps. “For years, these have been bubbling under the surface.”

So far, only a few employers have started offering Sleepio, though CVS expects more to sign on this fall. It was chosen, according to Dr. Troyen A. Brennan, CVS Health’s chief medical officer, because it came backed by rigorous published studies.

“It’s important for us as a pharmacy benefit management company, as a big retail pharmacy, to endorse digital therapeutics when they work as good as or better than medications one can take by mouth,” Dr. Brennan said. “We can give the stamp of approval from having looked at the scientific information.”

The app functions by turning sleep into something of a gamified experience – the person seeking sleep works with a cartoon therapist/chatbot with a Scottish accent and an affable but firm demeanor. The user and the advanced bot work through a series of six weekly online sessions aimed at healing “broken sleep,” according to Sleepio.

“It feels a lot more like play than work,” Lisa Kelly-Croswell, the chief human resources officer at Boston Medical Center, noted of the program. Boston Med has offered Sleepio since 2016.

But does it really work? The science is a bit more mixed than Dr. Brennan let on. In several randomized studies that assigned some volunteers to use Sleepio and others to use a different treatment, the Sleepio users generally performed better in terms of how long it took them to fall asleep and how long they stayed asleep throughout the night. But in terms of net time spent asleep, the two groups didn’t have very different outcomes.

Plus, the program seems to have some issues with keeping customers engaged. Boston Medical, for example, has had about 3,000 people start the program since it became available in 2016, but have only had about 350 finish it. And that 89 percent attrition rate doesn’t seem to be a problem that is wholly unique to medical workers in Boston drinking too much Dunkin’ coffee. One large randomized trial showed that only 18 percent of Sleepio users completed the insomnia treatment. Another showed that more than half of people who downloaded the app failed to engage with it at all.

In some sense, Sleepio has the same problem as every other solution: It can only work if one uses it. The weighted blanket won’t help if you kick it off, and the luxury pajamas won’t work if they never come out of their box.

But lying under a weighted blanket is not a lot of work (unless one tries to move), nor is slipping on a set of luxury pajamas or checking into a campus sleep pod. Sleepio’s user retention issues might indicate that its course of study can succeed, but that it might be a little too much work for someone who is already tired.

Plus, given the sheer volume of experts who point out that smartphones are one of the main factors contributing to Americans not getting enough sleep, one has to wonder if a phone app is really the right approach when it comes to an insomnia cure.

And honestly, we can’t help but wonder how many of the workers who downloaded Sleepio tried to use the app, opened up their phone to start their session with the cartoon sleep therapist and then got distracted by shopping on Amazon, checking in with social media, binge-watching something on Netflix or talking to a co-worker on Slack. For some consumers, a sleep app is clearly an effective solution – but for others, we imagine, it is sort of like hosting a Weight Watchers meeting in a bakery, in that it’s just not the right venue to encourage willpower or discipline.

For those customers, it might be better to offer lower-tech solutions.

Like a doll bed for their phone – which, of course, they keep in a room other than the one their actual bed is in.

——————————–

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Our data and analytics team has developed a number of creative methodologies and frameworks that measure and benchmark the innovation that’s reshaping the payments and commerce ecosystem. The September 2019 AML/KYC Tracker Report provides an in-depth examination of current efforts to stop money laundering, fight fraud and improve customer identity authentication in the financial services space.

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