#NO MORE DOC REVIEW!!!!!

[tea-tuesday]

11/03/2023

today was the last day of my internship!! after saying goodbye to my coworkers/supervisors, i went to a café to finish reading normal people and study for the state bar (i'm on the last module). for the rest of the semester, my goals are to focus on my seminar and write my 30-page paper, study for the state bar, and have as much fun as possible before i go back to campus next sem😩

[s-bean200]

Select Out of Context Quotes from the NQD Lore Doc of Madness to Tempt You

You should listen to NQD!! Not sure about starting? Here are just a few select quotes from my master lore doc of madness I made just to showcase just how maddening and wonderful this show is!! These are in no particular order and I've bleeped out some names to avoid spoilery bits lol. Please enjoy my madness! (P.S. if you'd like access to the doc, DM me!)

"is *REDACTED* do more lie???????????????????????"

"*BLANK* and *BLANKS*'s relationship: ????????"

"how??????" followed soon by "why?????????"

"The order of events is unclear but it’s important whatever it is lol"

"What is????/"

"Could it still function??????"

"...but then what????"

"I have no clue lol"

"What exactly was he doing?"

"They met, they’ve fucked but like what else???????"

"his body is doing something????"

"...may have done sooooomething?"

"maybe it works a bit funky???????"

"This never gets mentioned again but I think.." followed by at least 100 words of raving and 5 different scientific articles linked

"How??"

[bloodonmysqueegee]

Ok everyone sit your asses down. How about that news, huh?

This clarifies things a whole lot for Superior Vol 3 so here's my thoughts on that:

We get BOTH an untold past story and a brand new run in the present which I am verrryy happy about :]

But then there's also this (love the "kicking, screaming, and violently exploding bit) :

I'm kinda confused on how they are going to bring back superior without cloning him cuz I assumed they were gonna shove his brain into a preexisting clone (which I guess might still be possible under different circumstances but who knows) and also no time travel so hm.

I highly HIGHLY doubt that they're going to have Superior take over Peter's body again because that would be a kinda shitty move and it wouldn't make much sense considering everything prior (and also while slotts current spiderman run is ending to make way for superior, I think the current asm run will also continue at the same time so Peter should still be around and separate which THA NK G O D)

There's also a possibility that they could have og comic doc ock fully take up the Superior mantle on his own, and as cool and awesome as that would be I'm gonna be honest, I don't think the Marvel execs have the balls to do that :( they don't like change, you see

The safest route ofc is to have superior existing as a separate being from Pete and doc ock so he can live for longer than a month and they have no reason to delete him. Annd I'm pretty sure they are leaning towards that, but I'm still just a bit concerned on how it'll happen. :<<

BUT ANYWAYS THESE COVERS FUCKING SLAP

Still overly excited about this, can't wait to ramble about the guy forever ever

[tw1stedthicket]

i think i might be a lesbian

[queenlua]

"Our results suggest that between 6.5% and 16.9% of text submitted as peer reviews to these conferences could have been substantially modified by LLMs ... the estimated fraction of LLM-generated text is higher in reviews which report lower confidence, were submitted close to the deadline, and from reviewers who are less likely to respond to author rebuttals." (emphasis mine)

this is just a rando arxiv thing so like grain of salt, but

(1) lmao

(2) it is interesting (and depressing) to me how, like. there's a realm of stuff that we Have Not Been Able To Automate, right, where you actually need A Real Fucking Human Being to sit down and Use Their Cognitive Faculties to determine Is This Real Or Is It Bullshit. and for a while we've been relying on, like, some human Typing Up Some Paragraphs as a sort of proof-of-work that can't really be replicated by an automated system

now admittedly, all these systems that fucking *hate* the "ineffiency" of spending human time and expertise to properly analyze a situation, so the people in those roles are inudated with Too Much Work, and thus they've already been trying to skirt proof-of-work in various ways (writing lazy/bad peer feedback, skimming the paper, etc). so, y'know, "use of chatgpt to churn out the peer reviews you despise doing and don't have time for anyway" is just a step function in a trend that already clearly existed. but it does seem sort of troubling how much everything pushes toward doing things in this "efficient" way (that is, ways that look good in ways that are easily legible) instead of, like, are we doing something real here. because the real doesn't go away. and when quality just goes to shit because ppl are too lazy/tired to properly vet stuff, augh

[keenestpeach]

.

[louismygf]

girls when they just finished watching aotv

[knackfandomarchive]

[artcalledcinema]

My America Movies America : Imagine the World without Her American Assassin American Gangster American Honey ( tattoo ) American Hustle American Made American Me American President ( the ) American Skin American Sniper American Ultra An American Pickle An Inconvenient Sequel An inconvenient Truth An Interview with God From then on it don’t work well Convey, give up the prior Amazing Spider Man ( thee ) Amazing Grace Amadeus ( DirectorsCut ) Alpha Dog Alpha Along with the Gods : The Two Worlds Along with the Gods : The Last 49 Days Aloft All the Money in the World All Is Lost Alive Alita : Battle Angel I can Cirque Du Soleil : Worlds Away Clockwork Orange Can’t rhyme anymore CowBoys vs Aliens ( Ext Ed ) The Crow The Crow : City Of Angels Is a new letter needed I can take you on adventures and sadness thrilling explorations the drama Need to cry feel in thrived It was said already I can take you there Watch up first get acquainted Let me take you in places of movies I can scare you too Trip you out also Looking for viewers I can review too also Hold my hand now Let me take you And you two also Gather around We Are Watching A Movie !

[babisawyer]

finally got to watch scream 5 since 6 is now up for streaming worst experience of my life.

[butterflies-and-bumble-bees]

...

[science-bastard]

I posted 21,135 times in 2022

499 posts created (2%)

20,636 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@loststolenorstrayed

@hogmilked

@dykeonysus

@wingsandpetals

@purgatory-dracorn

I tagged 7,494 of my posts in 2022

#sci nonsense - 1,367 posts

#laugh tag - 684 posts

#pretty pictures - 671 posts

#portal - 369 posts

#research inquiry - 311 posts

#the queen carks it!! - 285 posts

#tf2 - 213 posts

#anonymous - 187 posts

#monsters - 180 posts

#mad science - 168 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i’ll keep making shitposts and the occasional emo todbit but you’re gonna have to ask if you want the continuation of the data point story

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

mad scientists should kiss each other and hold hands and go on gay little lab dates where they manifest an abomination beyond their gods’ comprehension send tweet

2,035 notes - Posted March 3, 2022

#4

i cackle maniacally and pull the switch. there’s the hum of electricity, followed by a massive crack and a flash of neon green light. when the smoke clears, everything is exactly the same as before but now i have a real nice set of honkers

2,426 notes - Posted March 24, 2022

#3

my dear, you are looking like an absolute biohazard!

4,983 notes - Posted April 7, 2022

#2

oh, you sweet little anomaly. my darling biohazard. beloved creature born of my own hands. my favorite, most brilliant specimen. allow me to study you.

8,180 notes - Posted January 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

pfffft, you call yourself a supervillain but you’re STILL using chrome? dumbass! everyone knows REAL evildoers switch to firefox!!

22,110 notes - Posted September 23, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[judasvibe]

no but this is so fucking real

if there is one thing that fully convinces me people are getting stupider it's this: less highly educated (some of them not even finishing high school) generations of parents and grandparents knew how to write in what would today be called a sophisticated level of french. and yet people who spend years perfecting their niche nitpicks in school write at a level most primary school teachers would cringe to correct. what the hell happened ??

[jupiterjames]

Did I just employ the "Treat Them Like You are A Kindergarten Teacher Again" method with my insurance company today? I surely did. Did it work? Probably better than intended because I made an actual doctor feel contrite.

So, my insurance has been trying to not cover my SNRI because it is new on the market and no generic available yet, so pricey.

I apply for a refill and the request gets locked for review. Again. For the 3rd time.

This time I call and immediately ask to speak to the actual doctor making these clinical decisions. Very politely. Must be a slow day because they allow it.

ME: [Teacher voice] I'm calling in regards to the SNRI you have placed a lock on. Why was this decision made?

DOC: Well, there are dozens of other medications on the market in that tier, and far cheaper for you and [insurer]. We have sent a request to your doctor to consider alternatives.

ME: I am aware of that. So, can you do me a HUGE favor and look up my prescription history really quickly and tell me how many SSRIs and SNRIs were only filled once in 2022 for me, showing they were poorly tolerated?

DOC: It looks like eight.

ME: Great job! Now, can you please look at my genetic test for psychiatric drug tolerance and tell me how many medications are listed in the safe category?

DOC: Two.

ME: Awesome! Now, can you tell me what type that other drug is that I'm not taking?

DOC: Yeah, totally, it's an MAOI.

ME: That's correct, you're really knowledgeable! Should I be taking something as dangerous as an MAOI with my other medications, or even just in general?

DOC: It's contraindicated for sure.

ME: It is! So true! So, last question since you've been incredibly smart and helpful. Is it less expensive for [insurer] to pay out for the medication knowing they already get a huge manufacturer discount anyway, or is it more expensive for them to pay for me to need potentially long-term inpatient psychiatric care?

DOC: I'll clear the code, ma'am and flag it as medically necessary. I'm sorry about this.

ME: I appreciate you SO MUCH. You have a great day now.

WALGREENS PHARMACY TECH WITH 5 NOSE RINGS AND PURPLE HAIR STARING AT ME: ........... OKAY! It'll be ready in five minutes. You wanna come work here?

[amtrak12]

There are too many individual topics in chapter 8 of my fic, and I keep trimming and relocating and summarizing topics and it keeps being over 9000 words long and I wouldn't be mad about that except for all the topics. It's chaotic! There are too many topics!

Like besties, is this supposed to be two chapters instead of one???? It can't do that to me! I had the title picked out already! It's absolutely perfect! I can't change the title! D:

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon's bestselling "bitter lemon" energy drink was bottled delivery driver piss

Today (Oct 20), I'm in Charleston, WV at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

For a brief time this year, the bestselling "bitter lemon drink" on Amazon was "Release Energy," which consisted of the harvested urine of Amazon delivery drivers, rebottled for sale by Catfish UK prankster Oobah Butler in a stunt for a new Channel 4 doc, "The Great Amazon Heist":

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-amazon-heist

Collecting driver piss is surprisingly easy. Amazon, you see, puts its drivers on a quota that makes it impossible for them to drive safely, park conscientiously, or, indeed, fulfill their basic human biological needs. Amazon has long waged war on its employees' kidneys, marking down warehouse workers for "time off task" when they visit the toilets.

As tales of drivers pissing – and shitting! – in their vans multiplied, Amazon took decisive action. The company enacted a strict zero tolerance policy for drivers returning to the depot with bottles of piss in their vans.

That's where Butler comes in: the roads leading to Amazon delivery depots are lined with bottles of piss thrown out of delivery vans by drivers who don't want to lose their jobs, which made harvesting the raw material for "Release Energy" a straightforward matter.

Butler was worried that he wouldn't be able to list his product on Amazon because he didn't have the requisite "food and drinks licensing" certificates, so he listed his drink in Amazon's refillable pump dispenser category. But Amazon's systems detected the mismatch and automatically shifted the product into the drinks section.

Butler enlisted some confederates to place orders for his drink, and it quickly rocketed to the top of Amazon's listings for the category, which led to Amazon's recommendation engine pushing the item on people who weren't in on the gag. When these orders came in, Butler pulled the plug, but not before an Amazon rep telephoned him to pitch him turning packaging, shipping and fulfillment over to Amazon:

https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-let-its-drivers-urine-be-sold-as-an-energy-drink/

The Release Energy prank was just one stunt Butler pulled for his doc; he also went undercover at an Amazon warehouse, during a period when Amazon hired an extra 1,000 workers for its warehouses in Coventry, UK, in a successful bid to dilute pro-union sentiment in his workforce in advance of a key union vote:

https://jacobin.com/2023/10/the-great-amazon-heist-oobah-butler-review

Butler's stint as an Amazon warehouse worker only lasted a couple of days, ending when Amazon recognized him and fired him.

The contrast between Amazon's ability to detect an undercover reporter and its inability to spot bottles of piss being marketed as bitter lemon energy drink says it all, really. Corporations like Amazon hire vast armies of "threat intelligence" creeps who LARP at being CIA superspies, subjecting employees and activists to intense and often illegal surveillance.

But while Amazon's defensive might is laser-focused on the threat of labor organizers and documentarians, the company can't figure out that one of its bestselling products is bottles of its tormented drivers' own urine.

In the USA, the FTC is suing Amazon for its monopolistic tactics, arguing that the company has found ways to raise prices and reduce quality by trapping manufacturers and sellers with its logistics operation, taking $0.45-$0.51 out of every dollar they earn and forcing them to raise prices at all retailers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

The Release Energy stunt shows where Amazon's priorities are. Not only did Release Energy get listed on Amazon without any quality checks, the company actually nudged it into a category where it was more likely to be consumed by a person. The only notice the company took of Release Energy was in its logistics and manufacturing department – the part of the business that extracts the monopoly rents at issue in the FTC case – which tracked Butler down in order to sell him these services.

The drivers whose piss Butler collected don't work directly for Amazon, they work for a Delivery Service Partner. These DSPs are victims of a pyramid scheme that Amazon set up. DSP operators lease vans and pay to have them skinned in Amazon livery and studded with Amazon sensors. They take out long-term leases on depots, and hire drivers who dress in Amazon uniforms. Their drivers are minutely monitored by Amazon, down to the movements of their eyeballs.

But none of this is "Amazon" – it's all run by an "entrepreneur," whom Amazon can cut loose without notice, leaving them with unfairly terminated employees, outstanding workers' comp claims, a fleet of Amazon-skinned vehicles and unbreakable facilities leases:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

Speaking to Wired, Amazon denied that it forces its drivers to piss in bottles, but Butler clearly catches a DSP dispatcher telling drivers "If you pee in a bottle and leave it [in the vehicle], you will get a point for that" – that is, the part you get punished for isn't the peeing, it's the leaving.

Amazon's defense against the FTC is that it spares no effort to keep its marketplace safe. As Amazon spokesperson James Drummond says, they use "industry-leading tools to prevent genuinely unsafe products being listed." But the only industry-leading tools in evidence are tools to bust unions and screw suppliers.

In her landmark Yale Law Review paper, "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," FTC Chair Lina Khan makes a brilliant argument that Amazon's alleged benefits to "consumers" are temporary at best, illusory at worst:

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox

In Butler's documentary, Khan's hypothesis is thoroughly validated: here's a company extracting hundreds of billions from merchants who raise prices to compensate, and those monopoly rents are "invested" in union-busting and countermeasures against investigative journalists, while the tools to keep you from accidentally getting a bottle of piss in the mail are laughably primitive.

Truly, Amazon is the apex predator of the platform era:

https://pluralistic.net/ApexPredator

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!