#Network Administrator Jobs

[hotzimbabwejobs]

Keep NUST's Network Running Smoothly: Network Administrator Opportunity! - March 2025

The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) is seeking a skilled and proactive Network Administrator to join their Information and Communication Technology Services (ICTS) Department! If you’re passionate about maintaining and optimizing network infrastructure, ensuring seamless operations, and providing excellent technical support, this is an excellent opportunity. About the…

[anonymusbosch]

oh no, i established myself as Capable Of and Willing To Perform some minor annoying administrative tasks at work and now am being tossed additional requests to perform said tasks

i know that in a strict financial view it makes sense to spend 20 minutes of junior engineer time on mundane-annoying-task than 20 minutes of senior staff engineer time but have you considered: I Don't Like It

[job-skill-share]

Network Administrator Training: The Path to a Successful IT Career in the USA

We will also introduce you to Job Skill Share’s Network Stack Engineer Associate course, an excellent training program designed to help you thrive as a network administrator.

[mamtarajshree]

System and Network Administration

System and Network Administration System and Network Administration – System administration is a job done by IT experts for an organization. The job is to ensure that computer systems and all related services are working well.    What is TCP/IP? Introduction of TCP/IP model TCP/IP is a set of network protocols (Protocol Suite) that enable communication between computers. Network protocols are…

[wilwheaton]

For some odd reason, moderator Jake Tapper told Trump in the beginning that he didn't need to answer the questions and that he could use the time however he wanted. Trump ran with that, essentially giving a rally speech whenever he had the floor and was unresponsive to the vast majority of the questions. He made faces and insulted Biden to his face, at one point calling him a criminal and a Manchurian candidate. If anyone had said 10 years ago that this would happen at a presidential debate they would have been laughed out of the room. After the debate when most of the country had turned off cable news or gone to bed, CNN aired its fact check. [...] Even had Joe Biden been at the top of his game, he would not have been able to parry all those lies and he shouldn't have been put in the role of being Donald Trump's fact checker. His choice was to either ignore the lies and let them stand so he could use his time to make his own case or spend the entire debate correcting the record. It was not a fair fight. It's obvious that Biden's terrible performance has caused panic among Democrats and liberal pundits and analysts. The calls for him to withdraw are loud and meaningful and it's going to be a very rough period in this campaign whatever happens. For me, this isn't really a question. As long as Donald Trump is on the ballot, I will vote for the Democratic nominee. If it's Biden or someone else, the calculation remains the same. Nothing is worse than another Trump administration and I suspect that at the end of the day Democratic voters will agree with that. So it's still a matter of those undecided voters in swing states, just like it was on Thursday morning.

CNN's debate was no fair fight

CNN, yet again, gave Trump a national stage to vomit an endless stream of unchecked lies, and today, CNN is telling itself and anyone who will listen that the network and its moderators did a great job. That’s just plainly false, and America is paying the price for their failure.

That doesn’t let Biden off the hook. Biden had a terrible night. He was so bad, it’s allowed the political press to completely ignore not just how much Trump lied, but what he lied about: January 6, all his indictments, his Covid response, and on and on. President Biden was a disaster, and his campaign should be at DefCon 1 to try and repair all the damage. I am terrified that his awful performance will obscure his surprisingly good record and leadership in the post-insurrection era, and give the political press an excuse to run with “Biden is old” in the face of Trump’s endless lies, his felony convictions, his pending trials, and all of his criminality. Someone at Salon said that Trump didn’t win, but Biden absolutely lost. I can’t argue with that, even if the facts are all on Biden’s side.

I’ve seen President Biden on TV today, and even last night after the debate, where he didn’t come across as an ancient dude who needs a walker on his way to some Matlock reruns. He looks and sounds like the SOTU Biden we all expected would show up last night. I have no idea why he was so awful for 99% of the debate (the campaign says he has a cold), and I have no idea why the guy who is showing up to speak to supporters today, and who delivered the SOTU didn’t show up last night to save America from Trump, again.

But we have to live with this reality now, and I hope like hell that the Biden campaign, the candidate, and the entire Democratic party apparatus scrambles like fucking crazy to get all hands on deck to fix this, and remind voters that

This isn’t about BIden vs. Trump. This is about America vs. Project 2025.

There will be no second debate where Biden can try to salvage something out of the wreckage of this one. Trump has everything to lose and nothing to gain. Trump will crow about how he won, and declare he has no reason to debate again, and he’s right. Biden had one shot and he absolutely blew it. The moderators did not help, but the campaign had to have known they wouldn’t, and it sure looks like they didn’t prepare Biden for what we all knew was coming. I don’t know how those same people stop the bleeding, and if they can’t, America and the world are in real, real trouble.

But we all have to remember that we have a choice to make in just a few months. Right now, and probably on election day, the choice is between Joe Biden and Democracy, or Donald Trump and Fascism. It’s stark, it’s clear, it’s binary, and I can not believe that it is even a question. I just hope that there are enough voters out there who will understand that we do have a choice. The options suck, but we do have a choice.

Please choose Democracy. Please choose America. Please choose the future world our children will inherit from us.

[iwillstabyou]

TMAGP 31 - A Computer Nerd’s Breakdown Of The Error Logs

It’s round 3, bitches! (tumblr crashed twice when I was writing this so I’ve had to start again multiple times. I do in fact see the irony, considering the subject matter)

I was listening to TMAGP 31 and as a computer nerd, oh my god those error messages just HIT DIFFERENT. There are so many subtle details hiding in those lines that a typical non-computery person would probably miss, so I feel it is my duty to explain them and their possible implications. So that’s why I’ve decided to fully break down each part of the error report, complete with what they could potentially suggest — think of this as “the TMAGP theorist’s guide to deciphering Chester’s yapping”

So without further ado, let’s get this party started…

(NOTE: lines from the transcript are in red, ‘translations’ are in purple, jmj specific stuff is is green, explanations are in black)

Starting off with Category: fatal programmer error, notice it says programmer, not program. There is nothing wrong with the code - the user has truly fucked up. Uh oh, Colin has made a big mistake…

Also, clever double meaning here with the word fatal. Obviously we know it was fatal to Colin (RIP king 🥲), but error logs also typically have a criticality level describing if immediate action needs to be taken. There are 6 commonly used levels, with the most critical being, yep you guessed it, ‘fatal’ - this means that whatever Colin was doing was a critical threat to the system. In other words, Colin had figured out the problem and was dangerously close to fixing it so Freddie just went “oh shit, we need to deal with this guy quickly or we are in serious trouble.”

Then we’ve got the next line, attempted host compromise (the Errno611 isn’t significant - error codes vary from system to system). When it comes to network terminology, a host is basically just any device on the network, so in full this line basically means “somebody’s tried to damage part of the network.” Importantly, “host” seems to suggest that the computers aren’t the source of this evil but merely a vessel for it. Freddie is just the mouthpiece for these supernatural forces - a bit like a non-sentient (as far as we know…) avatar. Whatever these forces are, they didn’t come from within/they weren’t created by Freddie.

(NOTE: I will come back to jmj=null in a bit)

The program traceback, Traceback <module> by extension BECHER, is rather interesting. A network extension is a way of providing network access to remote users (think along the lines of a VPN) by creating a personal direct ‘route’ to the network. Therefore if it’s the subject of an error report, it means there’s been an issue with data transmission along that path. So this bit means “there’s a problem with this specific network route that’s allocated to Colin.” However, the darker implication here is that Colin is an extension of Freddie. Although he wasn’t initially a part of all of this, he’s become tangled in the web (no pun intended) to the point that he and Freddie are inseparably intertwined. The OIAR employees may be able to quit their jobs, but they’ll still be a part of Freddie…

There isn’t much to say about Host=self.host in this context. It’s just convention when it comes to object oriented programming. Not important here.

Extension BECHER compromised isn’t just saying “there’s an issue here.” It’s saying “there’s an issue here that is a serious threat to network operation.” In other words, Freddie’s going “uh oh. Colin needs to be dealt with.”

The next bit is pretty self explanatory. I really don’t think I need to explain what <hardware damage_crowbar> means for you guys to understand. This bit made me laugh so hard. One thing that’s interesting though is that it gave it a DPHW, so Freddie processed this like it was an incident… Perhaps this fully confirms that the ‘thing’ controlling Freddie is of the same origin as the cases - it’s not something else entirely?

And now onto Administrator privilege revoked. This was the moment when I fully realised “oh no. Colin is fucked,” because any control that Colin may have had over the situation is now gone for good. Freddie’s basically just said “fuck you Colin. You’re not in charge anymore. I am.”

As you can probably guess, Unexpected data isolated/resolved just means that the crowbar’s been dealt with and the program can run as usual. Similarly, the Colin threat is fixed now he’s not an administrator i.e. he can no longer control the system. However, it then gets weird with Independent operation permissions revoked… It’s not saying Colin can’t use the network independently, it’s saying that Colin can’t be used independently of the network. Remember what I was saying earlier about Colin being a part of Freddie? Yeah, well now he purely is a part of Freddie. They’re turning our boy into data!

NOTE: I know in the audio it said everything was discarded but I’m going by the transcript. Idk why they’re different

You know it’s a bad sign when you hear Re config: self.host - Freddie’s evolving. The network is literally reconfiguring itself to now include Colin. And then Freddie goes through each of his alchemical elements one by one and fucking deletes them! How rude. You go and eat this man only to spit everything out!? I guess he’s feeling generous though, because he decides to keep the sulphur, which in alchemy, refers to the soul… If this isn’t just a coincidence, then that means Colin’s actual soul has been uploaded to Freddie. That could be really cool. And messed up. But mostly cool.

Starting with the final line, everyone knows what New administrator permissions assigned means, but we don’t know yet who they’ve been assigned to. Maybe it’s Gwen? Maybe it’s a new character? Maybe there is no system administrator anymore? It’s a mystery.

Now that’s out the way, let’s get on to the real juicy stuff…

The top few lines are pretty simple - it’s Freddie’s way of saying “Colin was a problem. We ate him. Now he’s not a problem anymore.” The next line, however, is a reminder that none of this is simple” - .jmj error not resolved. There it is again. The infamous jmj error. What does it mean? Jon? Martin? Jonah? Is that you???? Nobody knows. One thing we do know though is that jmj=null (from the start of the error log). Now when it comes to interpreting values, null is weird. It’s not zero, it’s not empty, it’s sort of nothing but it’s not nothing. It’s just null. It means no value, but it doesn’t mean that the variable doesn’t have a value (if that makes any sense to you guys???). Ooh I think I know how to explain it?? Imagine you’re Jonathan Sims, head archivist of the Magnus Institute and you’re digitising some archived ID photos when you find one without a name. The recorded name in the database would be null - you can’t put anything in particular, but that doesn’t mean the person in the photo doesn’t have a name. I guess null means unknown or missing here. So basically, what jmj=null means is that the jmj is unknown and that is a problem because it can’t get ignored/it is important. So what it’s basically saying is that jmj is a mystery not only to us, but also to Freddie.

Take a look at Data integration cycle ongoing <0.02%> - Data integration is the process of combining data from multiple sources into a single source of truth. There are 4 stages: data ingestion, cleaning, transformation, and unification. Thanks to the whole Colin ordeal, I’m sure you are all quite familiar with these stages by now (and that, students, is what we call a case study!). The peculiar thing here though is that we’ve just witnessed most of the data integration cycle - surely it should be higher than 0.02%? Yes, that’s correct. It should be far higher than that. It makes no sense. UNLESS this isn’t about Colin. Most of Colin’s data has probably already integrated. This is something else entirely - something so much bigger and foreign than these computers were designed for (the only comparison I can think of is trying to run the sims 4 with all expansion packs on a 15 year old laptop. It really shouldn’t work, and it probably won’t, but it’s gonna try regardless). This seems to follow on nicely from the jmj=null comments above, because Freddie is clearly struggling to integrate something (hence System function margins down to 82%), and when you try to read data that hasn’t been fully integrated with the system, you end up with a lot of missing & unknown values. Sound familiar? Yep, that’s right - until more data is synchronised, many values will be null, like our good friend jmj. Why is it taking so long to integrate jmj? We don’t know. Perhaps its origins are so supernatural and otherworldly that it’s simply not tangible enough for Freddie to process it? That’s what I think at the moment, at least.

So yeah, that’s my line by line analysis done! Hope you found that helpful/interesting. This podcast is so well written I’m actually going insane! Jonny and Alex, you are the guys of all time! As I’ve already said, feel free to expand on any of this - I’d love to hear your theories

Signed, your friendly neighbourhood computer nerd who is very autistic about TMAGP :)

[swaps55]

I know everything feels so bleak right now, but I need you to believe me when I say there is hope. Sometimes you just have to look for it, in places you're not used to seeking it out.

One of the things I occasionally do for my job is attend networking events with people who work in planning and development for public agencies like cities, state universities, transit agencies, etc. They talk about the projects they're working on, from new roads to new academic buildings to public parks to new rail lines.

These aren't elected officials - these are people who are doing the work. They're looking at the problems the people they serve has, and are looking for ways to fix them. And they're doing the work. They're looking for solutions, fighting with budgets, making compromises to ensure that they can make at least some of these ideas real.

In the one I attended yesterday, I listened to four different transportation agencies talk about all the ways they are trying to extend rail lines to relieve traffic congestion and pull cars off the road. They have so many challenges in their way, but every day they get up, go to work, and try. Because it will make lives better.

Another project in my area is working hard to add a park to one of the most underserved areas of a major city to make lives better for the people who live there. Right now my job is trying to make sure the awesome people I work with are the ones they pick to make that idea a reality. That's cool. That's some good I can put back into the world.

A community college here is going all out to build more on-campus housing to help relieve the housing crisis because of how many students get their education while living out of their cars. They see this happening - and they want to help. Guess what! I voted to give them more money to do those kinds of projects, and they got the money.

I wish you could hear how passionate and excited these people are. They care. They see problems in their communities and want to fix them. Many times they'll have the wrong priorities, have ideas that won't work, suffer unintended consequences, etc. They're human. But still get up and they try. Every day. That hasn't stopped with this new administration. It won't stop.

If the big picture is making you feel hopeless, look at your community and see what's happening there. These are things that can affect you directly - and make your life better. There are Leslie Knopes in the world!

It may feel like you have no power over what's happening, but I beg you not to lose hope. Even the smallest kindness is an act of rebellion right now. They are trying to take good out of the world. Every good thing we put back in it stands in defiance of that. Good comes in so many shapes and forms. Good is still out there.

All is not lost.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me FRIDAY NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The Democratic Party Pizzaburger Theory of Electioneering is: half the electorate wants a pizza, the other half wants a burger, so we'll give them all a pizzaburger and make them all equally dissatisfied, thus winning the election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

But no one wants a pizzaburger. The Biden administration's approach of letting the Warren/Sanders wing pick the antitrust enforcers while keeping judicial appointments in the Manchin-Synematic universe is a catastrophe in which progressive Dem regulators (who serve one term) are thwarted by corporatist Dem judges (who serve for life):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

The Democrats – like all parties in two-party systems – are a coalition; in this case, a "progressive" liberal-left coalition with liberals serving as senior partners, steering the party and setting its policies. These corporate dems like to color themselves as "neutral" technocrats with "realistic, apolitical" policies that represent what's best for the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This sets up the left wing of the party as the starry-eyed, unrealistic radicals whose policies are unpopular and will lose elections. But for a decade, grassroots-funded primary challenges have made it possible to test this theory, by putting leftist politicians on the ballot in front of voters, especially in tight races with far-right Republicans (that is, exactly the kinds of races that the corporate wing of the party says we can't afford to take chances on).

The 2022 midterms included enough races to start testing these theories – and, unlike traditional midterms, these races enjoyed high voter turnout, thanks to the unpopularity of GOP positions like abortion bans, book bans and anti-trans laws. Jacobin teamed up with the Center for Working-Class Politics, Yougov and the Center for Work and Democracy at ASU and analyzed those races:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11134429/CWCP-Report-2024.pdf

Their conclusion: candidates from working-class backgrounds who campaigned on economic policies like high-quality jobs, higher minimum wages, a jobs guarantee, ending offshoring and outsourcing, building infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back to the US won with a 50% share of the vote in rural and working-class districts. Dems who didn't lost with a 35% share of the vote:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-18-how-actually-existing-democrats-run-for-office/

In other words, in the kinds of districts where Trumpist politicians are beating Democrats, running on "left populist" policies beats Trumpist politicians.

That's the good news: if Dems recruit leftist, working class politicians and put them up for office on policies that address the material reality of voters' lives, they can beat fascist GOP candidates.

Now for the bad news: the Democratic establishment has no interest in getting these candidates onto the ballot. Working-class candidates, by definition, lack the networks of deep-pocketed cronies who can fund their primary campaigns. Only 2.3% of Dem candidates come from blue-collar backgrounds (if you include "pink-collar" professions like nursing and teaching, the number goes up to 5.9%):

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters

All of this confirms the findings of Trump's Kryoptonite, an earlier Jacobin/CWCP research project that polled working-class voters on preferences for hypothetical candidates, finding that working-class candidates with economically progressive policies handily beat out Republicans, including MAGA Republicans:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08125102/TrumpsKryptonite_Final_June2023.pdf

Since the Clinton-Blair years, "progressives" have abandoned economic populism ("It's not a burning ambition for me to make sure that David Beckham earns less money" -T. Blair) and pursued a "third way" that seeks to replace half the world's of supply white, male oligarchs with diverse oligarchs from a variety of backgrounds and genders. We were told that this was done in the name of winning elections with "modern" policies that replaced old-fashioned ideas about decent pay, decent jobs, and worker power.

These policies have delivered a genocide-riven world on the brink of several kinds of existential catastrophe. They're a failure. The pizzaburger party didn't deliver safety, nor prosperity – and it also can't deliver elections.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/#bread-and-butter

[hotzimbabwejobs]

Support Computer Science Education: Technician/Senior Technician Opportunity at NUST! - March 2025

The National University of Science and Technology (NUST) is seeking a skilled and versatile Technician/Senior Technician to join their Department of Computer Science! If you’re passionate about providing technical support in a computer science environment, and have experience in software development, network administration, and desktop support, this is an excellent opportunity. About the…

[herrfivehead]

i really didn't want to have to make this post, but i have no choice

i don't have a whole lot of confidence this will get traction because the majority of my followers are probably bots, but i have to leave my parent's house tomorrow. I might have a job lined up, but it seems like every resource i've reached out to months in advance is dragging their feet in an attempt to save my life.

i'm completely destitute. i have 0 dollars to my name. For the past year and a half i have desperately sent out over 2k applications for a single job, *A* JOB, and have gotten 0 offers. I don't really have friends, or a safety net, or a support network. I feel like the majority of places I've applied to are either obvious scams, ghost jobs (fake positions posted on job boards in an attempt to collect your personal information), staffing agencies masquerading as actual company positions, or social services positions that got cut because of our fuckass government.

I don't know what to do. I've considered taking my life for the past few months because I feel all alone and I've run out of time. While I wait for any kind of job offer, I'm not going to ask for a bed, or even a couch. I would take a floor over risking having what little belongings I can take with me stolen at a shelter. I wouldn't want to stay too long, just enough to keep me from being sleep deprived. I can go without food for a while, but I won't be able to function without somewhere to rest.

Even better yet, if you know someone looking for an immediate-hire employee that either has 3 years of administrative/clerical experience or has an open position requiring no experience at all, DM me, because I really am that desperate. I can't afford to be a choosing beggar.

I'm located in the NYC area, currently in Brooklyn. If anyone has anywhere for me to stay tomorrow, I'd appreciate it. If you don't have any space but do have money, I do have this (it will have my deadname on it, no helping that).

for obvious reasons, i really don't want this taken down, so you know what not to tag this as. for even more obvious reasons, don't call the police on me because of my contemplation.

[blumoontf2]

Absolute Territory (TF2 x Reader)

Cross-posted on AO3!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63777574

You are the Programmer and you work as a member for GRN - Global Radio Network. With trouble arising in your previous job, you had been reassigned and given a nine month deadline to reestablish yourself as someone worthy of working under GRN, by improving and helping the communications and publicity of Team RED. But RED is different and a far cry from what you know, and the people seem to distrust anyone who works under GRN.

You’ve been tasked to help them but really it feels like you’ve been tasked to survive.

Content Warnings - n/a for this part! It’s just an introduction :)

Hot, humid and dry. You’ve been idly leant against one of the cleaner strips of wall in the waiting room you’d been settled in several minutes prior. Duffle bag hung around your shoulder for your refusal to set it on the filthy ground, you’re stood nearest a window blown wide open, feeling the breeze as it coughs onto your neck; your fingers, slightly shaking with nerves, play with the undersides of your nails, focusing your thoughts on anything but the unsettling dread that had been weighing down your chest.

With a huff you push off the wall, arms crossing as you check your shoes: the clock hung beside one of the doors was cracked and unticking, refusing the truth of time spent waiting. You were patient for the most part, but it had felt like half an hour had passed since you were last instructed to wait.

Looking around, you entertain yourself with idle observation.

The waiting room - viewed more as a dumping ground from the shoes sprawled about and lack of organisation - was quaint and rather tight. From the centre, you could tilt your body such that you could touch one wall then the other with your arms spread: length wise, it was four large steps for you to make it from one door to the next. The miscellaneous items spread about meant you had to be meticulous where you stepped (unless you WANTED to trip) and you had to balance yourself as you crossed the room.

The walls are lined with coats of various sizes and styles, hung ornamentally like a cluttered meat hanger - caked in substance you can only hope is just mud. The shoes, in similar states, are mix-matched across the room, kicked off in a hurry with no care to where they land. You idly kick pairs of shoes closer together, hands forced under your arms so as to not touch anything unnecessarily.

“Programmer?” a feminine voice finally calls, door opening with a slight creak in its hinges.

“That’s me…!” you cheer, pretending not to have been judging the room prior to her entrance.

You straighten up as much as your weighted bag allows, hoping your coat is as presentable as you think it is. Stepping around a particularly muddy pair of combat boots, you hold a hand out for the lady to shake.

“Miss Pauling,” she introduces, grip firm and quick as she pulls her hand away, “I was the one who agreed to the contract terms on the Administrator’s behalf. It is wonderful to have finally recruited GRN under the Administrator!”

Her voice - though fluid and concise - carries a certain tone of borderline mania, actions strict yet lively. She doesn’t move erratically but with a casual precision you believe is accessory to her punctuality. Low bun and button up, she’s styled like stress is in fashion, bruised under-eyes working to compliment her purple attire. Slim yet fleshy fingers push square glasses up the bridge of her nose, eyes focused on the clipboard and folder she has gripped in her other hand.

The folder - which she juts towards you - is fairly heavy with the amount of paper contained within it: you take it from her in a hurry, a small mimic of her behaviour, and feel its weight in your hand.

“Okay, so, contained is all the information you’ll need for the job and your job description. I’ll be leading you to the meeting room where you’ll meet Team RED but I’m in a bit of a hurry so I’ll trust one of the mercs to tour you around base…”

Her speech is practiced, snappy, yet she still comes off as friendly as she addresses you, turning back to the door she’d entered from and opening it wide enough for you to step through yourself.

Entering the halls, you find the space just as welcoming as the waiting room.

The walls are tea-stained, so far used to boyish rough-housing and daily abuses. You can see where it’s been marked by curious licks of flame, or by muddied shoes - how repair had been neglected or conveniently forgotten about. A fluorescent light flickers near the end of the hallway to the right, three doors crowded around it like a strange congregation; to your left, you hear Pauling tsk as she nearly steps into a pool of water.

“Since the meeting room is at the end of the corridor, I’ll point out-” Miss Pauling had started leading you down the left, “the radio room is here to the left - this will be your office - and on the opposing side is the archives.”

You pass two more doors, ‘the library’ and, apparently, ‘the living room’ before reaching the end of the corridor. A large faux-oak door imposes on you, muffled shouting from behind causing the chipped ‘meeting room’ sign to shudder every so often, a threat to fall off its perch.

Miss Pauling looks preemptively annoyed, passing you a look that says ‘get ready’ as her hand reaches for the handle. She opens it to loud, boisterous cheering.

The hallway light spills into the room, Pauling’s shadow elongating against the ground. Peering over her shoulder, you see an arm wrestle happening at the table in the centre of the room, two blokes of similar build competing against each other. A slim figure and gas mask cheer to the right of a hard-hat, whereas an eye-patched man taunts the combat helmet to the left, with hard knocks of a glass bottle against the table you presume to be from threatening encouragement.

The slim guy - haven noticed the light from the hallway - perks his head towards the door, face brightening before he seemingly disappears, spontaneously appearing again in front of Miss Pauling with a cheer of her name. As he speaks, you pick out the important phrases he says - ‘Miss Pauling,’ ‘date’ - at some point he tries to casually lean against the meeting table, forgetting that it’s miles away from where they’re standing, and almost stumbles to the ground like he’s drunk.

It takes him several moments to spot you behind her, hand gripped onto your duffle bag and folder for moral support, and feeling awkward to his attempts to flirt with the woman in front of you.

“Yeah- w-wait, who the freak is that?!”

He points at you accusingly, cautious tilt in his eyebrows with a pout that almost makes him look like an angry, bent outta shape puppy. Miss Pauling just shakes her head.

“Gentlemen-” she starts, ignored, “Red Team!” voice a little louder, “BOYS!”

They jump almost comically, heads snapping towards her in a way that would be scary if it weren’t unprompted. The one to break that tension is the gas-mask person who gives a cheery wave to Miss Pauling, who gives a half formed smile in return before dropping it into an unimpressed frown. The men disperse to sit down properly.

You’re partially in awe of her ability to command attention in a room full of men. There’s something to fear of this woman, though you know this from working under GRN to begin with.

“Great. Now that I have your attention…”

She steps further into the room which you’re hesitant to follow. Slim-boy (or, Slim Shady if you’d like to be funny) is hovering by you at the door, eyeing you with suspicion, and that’s enough to prompt you to move again.

“As you guys HAVE been warned, the Administrator has hired a worker from team GRN to work in collaboration with RED in regards to communication services and status reports.”

With nine (eight and a half?) pairs of eyes on you, you’re suddenly a lot more self-conscious of the space you occupy, of the feel of your clothes as they rest on your person, and the weight of your bag as it hangs from your shoulder. You fingers trace the folders edges for distraction, though the reminder of its contents only serves to unnerve you more.

“Everybody, I’d like you to meet the Programmer.”

She gestures towards you as you meet her side and you let go of the bag strap to give a lukewarm, yet polite wave to the men. In your sudden shyness, you’d forgotten to recite your speech in your head, mind rebooting for an introduction you stumble to make.

“…As Miss Pauling said, I’m the Programmer… I’ll be helping with communications, reports, publicity - that is to say, I won’t be working on the field. I’ll… be in your care?”

For all your feigned confidence, radio is based on audio - not appearance - and you mentally kick yourself for the higher pitch that betrays your uncertainty in a place unfamiliar to you. They stare at you, like hawks to prey, judging the slightest movements you fear to actually make.

“Going around with quick introduction then,” Pauling starts, pointing towards each man as she speaks, “that was Scout, Heavy Weapons guy over there, Sniper’s next to him…”

When their name is called, most of them offer a wave to you with varying levels of enthusiasm. Scout - the boy harassing Pauling at the door earlier - gives you a mocking, egotistical smirk. The Heavy Weapons guy lifts a hand that thuds against his thigh when he drops it again, eyebrows weighed into this permanent scowl he uses to criticise you with. Sniper just tilts his hat towards you with a frown you hope is from sympathy and not pity, orange aviators disguising his true intention as he crosses his arms against his chest.

“Soldier and the Demoman,” a salute and tilt of a bottle, “Engineer and Medic - you two need to register them into the system, don’t forget - and that there is Pyro and-”

“I can acquaint myself,” a man appears before - one you hadn’t really seen before - and you almost jump back in surprise, “Spy.”

He holds a hand to his chest and gives you a modest bow, his other arm hooked behind his back. You can’t see much past what’s revealed by his balaclava and - although he disguises himself with civility - you can see the suspicious glint in his eyes, a clear distaste for your presence.

In noticing such, a quick observation around the room and you find all the men look at you in a similar manner. From the hollow round bulbs of the gas-mask, staring so soullessly at you, to the disinterested side glances you receive from the glaring eye of the drinking man, they make your place at the bottom of the food chain evidently clear.

Perhaps it’s because green is a product of blue - not RED - that they stare at you with the intent to kill: to stain the green garments of yours crimson. And as your earlier dread bubbles back to the surface, you regain the overwhelming sense to run once more.

“Right… with that done, I expect everyone not to kill the new hire…” Pauling says, which you would wistfully love to believe was a joke, “oh, um, Engie-” to which the man perks to the name, “could you give them a tour?”

He looks mortally offended by the request, immediately and effectively rejecting her out right.

“Hell no! The Administrator wants those teleporters shipped out by the evening - this meeting already cut into my working time-” then his goggles tilt to you, a sudden, guilty frown to his face, “ach, no offense to you Programmer, I’d’ve done so any other day o’ the week.”

He’s got that southern lilt that makes everything he says that tidbit sweeter, voice soft and sincere enough that you almost believe he cares for your feelings in this. Your hammering heart disagrees, and you manage to wave him off with a shaky smile, your presence already encroaching in the peace they’ve made here.

“It’s alright, Pauling, I’ll just-” you’re interrupted almost as soon as you open your mouth.

“MISS PAULING!” the Soldier interjects, “IF I MAY!”

Miss Pauling, seemingly well-met with this groups antics, pinches the bridge of her nose before turning to Soldier, beginning to answer him before she too is cut off, “yes, Soldier, what-”

“AFFIRMATIVE! I WILL TOUR THE NEW MAGGOT AROUND!”

You both stare dumbfounded by the factual way he says this, and for a moment, you briefly believe he was actually asking permission. But the sudden and violent grip at the scruff of your neck strikes a fearful frown to your face, body being yanked backwards and through the swinging meeting room door like you were about to be taken out back for a beating.

“Well, that makes my job easier…” Pauling mumbles as you’re whisked away, and even though you yelp, no one comes to your rescue.

[job-skill-share]

Advance Your IT Career with Network Administrator Training

Are you ready to boost your IT career? Job Skill Share’s Network Stack Engineer Associate program offers in-depth network administrator training designed to equip you with the knowledge and practical skills needed to excel in today’s competitive job market. This course covers key areas like network security, troubleshooting, and system optimization, preparing you to handle complex IT infrastructures. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, this program provides you with the tools to succeed. Enroll now and take the first step toward becoming a certified network administrator.

[kngstr]

Hi Hi!

I'm a graduating animation major this summer and I'm really interested in joining the Chaos Theory team.

Is there any tips and tricks you got on joining a team such as DreamWorks?

Love y'all sharing behind the scenes info btw 🫶 I eat that stuff up.

Feel free to ignore this ask, but was genuinely just curious.

Hey there, I'm glad you've been enjoying all of the team's chaos theory posts - thank you for supporting our show!

To join a production in an animation studio like Dreamworks, first it's best to know which part of the process/pipeline you'd like to be involved in. On the creative side of things, there are roles such as Storyboard Artists, Visual Development Artists, Writers, etc. There's also the Production team which oversees the administrative aspects of the show through organization of information, management of assets/resources, etc. Once you've decided which role you're interested in, it helps to research the responsibilities one would expect in it & prepare your skills to become effective in that zone.

As of late, the Animation Industry has been seeing a heavy drought in job quantity, which has made it difficult for current guild members to find work and consequently has made it even more challenging for newcomers to break into the industry as well. I'm unsure of when hiring rates may improve, but I think my main piece of advice for those looking to pursue a career in animation in the future is to be prepared to exercise great patience & continue to develop the skills necessary to be considered competitively. It's important to consider that the industry may pick back up as we move forward, as things are always changing. Be as ready as you can when it does - preparation meets opportunity.

Most importantly, get to know people in Animation circles (professional, student, or for fun) & network laterally often. You'll learn a lot from your peers.

Best of luck to you & early congrats on graduating!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jason Wilson at The Guardian:

In a December 2023 speech, JD Vance defended a notorious white nationalist convicted over 2016 election disinformation, canvassed the possibility of breaking up tech companies, attacked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and talked about a social media “censorship regime” that “came from the deep state on some level”.

The senator’s speech was given at the launch of a “counterrevolutionary” book – praised by the now Republican vice-presidential candidate as “great” – which was edited and mostly written by employees of the far-right Claremont Institute. In the book, Up from Conservatism, the authors advocate for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act, for politicians to conduct “deep investigations into what the gay lifestyle actually does to people”, that college and childcare be defunded and that rightwing governments “promote male-dominated industries” in order to discourage female participation in the workplace. Vance’s endorsement of the book may raise further questions about his extremism, and that of his networks. The Guardian emailed Vance’s Senate staff and the Trump and Vance campaign with detailed questions about his appearance at the launch, but received no response.

‘Congratulations on such a great book’

Vance’s speech was given in the Capitol visitor center in Washington DC last 11 December, according to a version of C-Span’s subsequent broadcast of the event that is preserved at the Internet Archive. The occasion was the launch of Up from Conservatism, an essay collection edited by Arthur Milikh, the executive director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. In his introductory remarks on the day, Milikh said the book “maps out the right’s errors over the last generation … on immigration, on universities, on the administrative state”.

The book, however, appears more directed towards supplanting an old right – seen as too accommodating – with a “new right” focused on destroying its perceived enemies on the left.

In the book’s introduction, Milikh writes: “The New Right recognizes the Left as an enemy, not merely an opposing movement, because the Left today promotes a tyrannical conception of justice that is irreconcilable with the American idea of justice … the New Right is a counterrevolutionary and restorative force.” Also in that piece, Milikh offers a vision of the new right’s triumph, which has an authoritarian ring: “We like to say that one must learn to govern, but a truer expression is that one must learn to rule.” In his speech, Vance first offered “congratulations on such a great book, and thanks for getting such a good crew together”, and then warmed to themes similar to Milikh’s. “Republicans, conservatives, we’re still terrified of wielding power, of actually doing the job that the people sent us here to do,” Vance said, later adding: “Isn’t it just common sense that when we’re given power, we should actually do something with it?”

Brad Onishi, author of Preparing for War, a critical account of Christian nationalism and the host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, said: “Vance, many Claremont people, including some folks in this volume, and especially the ‘post-liberal’ conservative Catholics that he hangs out with, have advocated for a form of big government that will wield its power in order to set the country right.” He added: “And you may think, well, OK, that doesn’t sound so bad. But here the common good is rooting out queer people, making sure non-Christians don’t immigrate to the country and outlawing things like pornography that are currently a matter of personal choice. “You end up with this conservatism that promotes an invasive government conservatism rather than a small government.”

[...]

‘Free our minds … from the fear of being called racists’

In the book, commended by Vance, a series of authors take reactionary – or “counterrevolutionary” – positions on a number of social and economic issues. In one chapter, John Fonte writes of disrupting narratives of civil rights progress: “The great meaning of America, we are told, comes from liberating so-called oppressed groups and taming the power of privileged groups. Thus, our history is one of liberation: first of Blacks, then of women, then of gays, and now of the transgendered.” Fonte retorts: “Not only is this narrative false; it will take us further down the path of national self-destruction … On the questions of slavery, American Indians, and racial discrimination, the progressive narrative is not a historically accurate project designed to address past wrongs, but a weaponized movement to deconstruct and replace American civilization.”

Like other authors in the collection, Fonte offers policy recommendations. He proposes heavy-handed federal intervention into education: “[T]he US Congress should prohibit any federal funds in education to support projects … that promote DEI (“diversity, equity and inclusion”) and divisive concepts such as the idea that America is ‘systemically racist.’” In his chapter, David Azerrad tells readers: “We need to free our minds once and for all from the fear of being called racists.” The assistant professor and research fellow at rightwing Hillsdale College, and former Heritage Foundation director and Claremont Institute fellow, also claims that conservatives have been too conciliatory on race: “For too many conservatives, the goal is to outdo progressives in displays of compassion for blacks … yet blacks continue to vote monolithically for the Democratic Party and progressives have only ramped up their hysterical accusations of racism.”

Azerrad continues with white nationalist talking points on race, crime and IQ, writing: “It is not racist to notice that blacks commit the majority of violent crimes in America, no more than it is to incarcerate convicted black criminals … There is no reason to expect equal outcomes between the races … In some elite and highly technical sectors in which there are almost no qualified blacks, color-blindness will mean no blacks.” Elsewhere, Azerrad writes: “[C]onservatives will need to root out from their souls the pathological pity for blacks, masquerading as compassion, that is the norm in contemporary America … This is most obvious in the widespread embrace of affirmative action (the lowering of standards to advance blacks) and the general reluctance to speak certain blunt but necessary truths about the pathologies plaguing black America – in particular, violent crime, fatherlessness, low academic achievement, nihilistic alienation, and the cult of victimhood.”

[...]

‘Do not subsidize childcare’

Helen Andrews, meanwhile, offers “three things we could do right now that would put a big dent in the multiplying lies that have come from feminists for the last forty years about women and careers”. Her first proposal is to “stop subsidizing college so much”, since, according to Andrews, in the 22-29 age group, “there are four women with college degrees … for every three men. That is going to lead to a lot of women with college degrees who do not end up getting married.” “Second,” Andrews continues, “the Right can do more to promote male-dominated industries. Reviving American manufacturing and cracking down on China’s unfair trade practices isn’t just an economic and national security issue; it’s a gender issue.” Her third proposal is “do not subsidize childcare” – since the fact that “many working moms are struggling” with childcare costs “might actually be good information the economy is trying to tell you”. Andrews is the print editor of the paleoconservative magazine the American Conservative and has previously written sympathetically about white supremacist minority regimes in Rhodesia – renamed Zimbabwe after white rule ended – and South Africa.

Scott Yenor claims in his chapter that before the 1960s, America lived under a “Straight Constitution, which honored enduring, monogamous, man-woman, and hence procreative marriage. It also stigmatized alternatives”. Yenor is a political science professor at Boise State University and a fellow at the Claremont Institute. He then claims: “We currently live under the Queer Constitution”, which “honors all manner of sex”, and under which “laws restricting contraception, sodomy, and fornication are, by its lights, unconstitutional”. Yenor claims: “These changes in law are but the first part of an effort to normalize and then celebrate premarital sex, recreational sex, men who have sex with men, childhood immodesty, masturbation, lesbianism, and all conceptions of transgenderism.”

Yenor says the state should intervene in citizens’ sex lives: “In the states, new obscenity laws for a more obscene world should be adopted. Pornography companies and websites should be investigated for their myriad public ills like sex trafficking, addictions, and ruined lives. The justice of anti-discrimination must be revisited.” In a separate essay co-written with Milikh, the editor, Yenor advocates in effect destroying the current education system and starting again. The essay includes a recommendation for school curriculums: “Students could start building obstacle courses at an early age, learning how to construct a wall and how to adapt the wall for climbing … Students could learn to build and shoot guns as part of a normal course of action in schools and learn how to grow crops and prepare them for meals.”

The Guardian reports that Trump VP pick and Ohio Senator JD Vance promoted far-right extremist views from Arthur Milkh’s Up From Conservatism essay book.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

dave whammond

* * * *

Shocking disclosures regarding a data breach at the National Labor Relations Board suggest illegal conduct by DOGE members

Over the weekend, NPR published a lengthy story about a potential major data breach at the National Labor Relations Board. At first blush, the story sounds like it is in 45th place on the list of the most horrible things that Trump and DOGE have done in the first 86 days of his administration.

But you must pay attention to this story. It is a national scandal that suggests DOGE has intentionally exposed confidential US government information to foreign adversaries.

I will give a very brief summary, but urge you to read, listen to, or watch one of the sources I cite below.

In short, a whistleblower from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claims the following:

DOGE gained access to the NLRB's most sensitive information, which included labor complaints, identity of whistleblowers, identity of private employees engaged in union organizing, and enforcement actions against private companies (like Tesla and SpaceX).

DOGE turned off log files that would record their actions.

DOGE set up a “black box” inside the NLRB network so that NLRB IT personnel could not monitor what was happening.

DOGE disabled security protections, thereby exposing the NLRB’s sensitive information to the internet.

Within 15 minutes of the firewall protections being disabled, someone using an IP address in Russia used a username and password for a DOGE team member to attempt to access the NLRB information.

NLRB IT members witnessed a massive spike in information being downloaded from the NLRB servers.

A DOGE team member set up a file that was briefly visible on a public forum; the filename suggested that it was a “backdoor” download program for an NLRB-specific database.

The NLRB IT staff asked the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) security team to help launch an investigation, but the CISA investigation was peremptorily shut down without explanation.

The employee who asked CISA to begin the investigation received a typed note on his residence door which warned the employee to drop the request for CISA assistance and included personal details about the employee known only from government files. The note also included a drone photo of the employee walking his dog on a public street.

A spokesperson for the NLRB issued a statement claiming that DOGE never visited the NLRB and did not gain access to NLRB data—a statement that seems to a blatant, easily disprovable lie.

I have not done justice to the details of the story. There are three ways you can educate yourself about this story.

First, the lengthy NPR article is here: NPR, Whistleblower details how DOGE may have taken sensitive NLRB data.

Second, the NPR report has a seven-minute audio summary embedded in the article. It is an accessible entry point into the article.

Finally, Rachel Maddow did an excellent job of explaining the whistleblower allegations on Tuesday evening. I have excerpted the 20-minute segment of her show that includes an interview with the whistleblower and his attorney. See The Rachel Maddow Show, Whistleblower Excerpt, April 15, 2025.

As a personal favor to me (and you), I urge you to watch the Rachel Maddow segment. It will bring you up to speed on this scandal, which will be around for a long time and may be the undoing of DOGE.

If you watch the Rachel Maddow show, you will meet the whistleblower--Daniel Berulis—who is a loyal employee of the federal government who says that he “hopes he is wrong” in believing that DOGE exposed sensitive information to someone in Russia who was using a DOGE username and password.

At this very moment, there are hundreds or thousands of Daniel Berulises in the federal government who have not come forward. Daniel Berulis’s example should encourage them to come forward to describe other instances of DOGE misconduct or carelessness that may have harmed America’s interests.

If Berulis’s allegations are true, it is difficult to see how the conduct by at least one DOGE member does not rise to the level of a felony. We need to know more and must be open to the facts, including denials of the allegations. But the allegations are truly shocking and suggest that DOGE may have inflicted grievous injury on the US by exposing confidential information.

CODA: As shocking as the above allegations are, we have reasonable grounds for believing misconduct by Trump administration officials in seeking to conceal their unlawful actions.

Remember Signalgate? You may recall that CIA Director John Ratcliffe participated in chats on an non-secure commercial application. Congress has asked that all such communications be turned over for review.

Well, it might not shock you to learn that the CIA’s information technology team has informed Congress that none of John Ratcliff’s communications on Signal are recoverable. See MSNBC, Missing Signal messages from CIA director’s phone raise cover-up concerns.

Remember after the January 6 insurrection when most of the Secret Service’s texts were mysteriously deleted and therefore unavailable for review by the January 6 Committee? See PBS News, Government watchdog says Secret Service agents deleted Jan. 6 text messages.

Once is a mistake. Twice is a suspicious coincidence. Three times is a damning pattern. Secret Service. Signalgate. DOGE. It appears that actors within the Trump administration believe that destroying communications is an acceptable way to avoid accountability. It is up to Congress and the courts to get to the bottom of the DOGE NLRB incident and Signalgate as quickly as possible—before more evidence goes missing.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[cheshirecatqueerio]

Conclave journalism AU/ canon divergence

Thomas Lawrence still faces his crisis of faith in the last several years of the late pope's pontifcate. He asks to be permitted to resign and join an order. The late pope denies him. However, Lawrence's difficulties with prayer and doubts about God get so severe, he simply quits the Church altogether. In the secular world he lands somewhere in academia, not as a professor but maybe as a researcher or administrative assistant somewhere like the Oxford Psalms Network. My guy has had to do at least 10 years of theological education to get a doctorate in canon law, academia is the major other thing he can do. So he's involved with the Church sphere but very tangentially. Mainly in the archives. He's not happy per say but his self- flagellation complex sees this as a reap what you sow situation so he's trying to make his peace with his middling job till he inevitably hits certain retirement age.

He has a falling out with Bellini before he leaves, as he in his 'I shall not burden those near me' mindset doesn't really explain what is going on, obliquely mentions the desire to join an order and then slinks off seemingly in the middle of a random night leaving only a highly effusive but not at all explanatory note thanking Aldo for his years of friendship and peace. Aldo is understandably pissed, calls Thomas and tries to hash things out. Tells Thomas to his face that being gay and dedicating his life to the clergy has not exactly been smooth sailing but he worked it out so what gives? Thomas in his desire for martyrdom refuses to elaborate on anything which makes Aldo madder. Bellini eventually hears about some of Thomas' doubts from the Holy Father, and while he gets it, he still thinks Thomas' disappearance means their friendship ment more to Aldo than Thomas so he's not feeling very charitable and remains mad. Also, Thomas' suddenly departure leaves Aldo with a promotion he very much doesn't want and the Holy Father's years are numbered so he doesn't reach out to Thomas. Thomas thinks he's ruined their friendship and that Aldo spends 23 hours of the day thinking about how much Thomas disappointed him (he ignores the fact that being Dean simply doesn't leave one with the mental capacity for this) so as penance he gives Aldo space. By the time the Conclave comes around they are very much not talking. Aldo contemplates reaching out to commemorate the late Holy Father but then finds out running a conclave takes 110% of his brain capacity, so he never does.

Meanwhile, Vincent Benitez resigned from being a bishop a while back. He consults the late Holy Father and while he refuses the surgery he also has a mild crisis of identity and new thoughts about how the Church treats people like him. While the hysterectomy offer from the Holy Father was well intentioned, the more he thinks about the less he can reconcile his perception of the Church as an institution for good, his role among it, and it's historic role propagating violence againts intersex and trans people. The hysterectomy isn't about affirming Benitez's feelings or identity it's about fixing what the Church deems an aberration to the binary and remodeling him back into an acceptable servant for the institution. However, upon quiting the Church Vincent continues to do what he has always done best- he helps people. He uses his experience helping surviors of GBV in Kinshasa. He joins UNAMA and works on the issues of women's rights and integration pre-Taliban rule. In his work, due to his compassionate manner, the women he works with confide in him about the things that are happening. He sees not only the violence of the Taliban, but also the means by which IGOs, NGOs, and the American presence are complicit in perpetrating human rights abuses. He sees that sometimes exposing these structures is useful to help survivors. So he befriends a couple of locally based journalists and sometimes helps critique the systems the Western media likes to stay quite about. He helps track down how America's armed forces defend himan rights abusers and perpetuate state violence in the name of fighting the Taliban (think this piece by the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/briefing/afghanistan-war-us-kandahar.html). Then the Taliban takes over again and he is notorious for his work on women's rights, so UNAMA politely tells him he is going to be evacuated because he can do better work remotely and will be reassigned elsewhere. Vincent hates this but he cannot not acquiesce. So he is working to get Afghani families resettled with the UNHCR when he gets a strange email. He receives the email about a month before the Holy Father's death and it only includes a "Dear Vincent, I think this may be useful to you," and an excel file titled TremF, and an email adress for a thomas.lawrence@theology.ox.ac.uk signed the Holy Father's first name. Intially, he thinks this is a spam email, but he tries to click the excel file only to find it's corrupted. He tries to email the sending adress but the message bounces back saying the account has been terminated and recipient cannot be found. Vincent has a job to do and a huge amount of people to resettle and state organizations to lobby so he forgets about the email.

Until, the Holy Father dies and Tremblay is elected pope. And Vincent has been out of the Church for about 14 years now, so he wouldn't think much of it except for that weird file name. And also most of the people who he works still involved with the Catholic Church with find Tremblay's election a bit weird because he's by no means a nobody, but no one anticipated him to be pope over much more charismatic or diverse candidates like the Patriarch of Venice or Lagos. So on a whim, just in case, Vincent sends an email to that Thomas Lawrence explaining who he is bfrielfy that he got a strange email he is 90% sure is authentic from the late Holy Father and maybe this is nothing but Thomas' email was the only other part of the message and that he's not been a part of the Church for almost 15 years so it's a bit odd and does Thomas have any answers?

Miracle of all miracles Vincent's email reaches Thomas despite being out of organization, probably due his @unhcr.org. Thomas thinks this is very strange but also probably nothing. Nonetheless this Vincent seems like he is very polite and to assuge both his own conscience (he feels a bit guilty over how he left things with the Holy Father and is grieving) and honor Vincent's time spent reaching out to him, he tells Vincent he'll reach out to some people who still work at the Church. That's when things get stranger and stranger. At first he tries Archbishop Wozniak because he was in charge of all of the late Father's correspondence. Any messages or emails to Wozniak go unanswered. Some asking old staffers tells him Wozniak was removed as Perfect of the Papal Household after Tremblay's election. Worse, no one quite knows where he went, just that he is still ostensibly with the Church. So he asks after Ray, because they are still friends and Ray has always been competent and if he doesn't know what the email was he'll find Wozniak. But... Ray's also gone. He's been made a papal nuncio but no one will tell Thomas where. It's classified, allegedly for O'Malley safety, which in all 30 years of his time at the Church is a circumstance Thomas has never heard of. Lawrence writes back to Benitez reporting what he's found so far and that this is all very weird indeed and that this may be something.....

Finally, Lawrence reaches out to Aldo, who has been made Secretary of State, stepping down as Dean. Aldo feels a bit guilty about suspending his own candidacy early on (he suspects this was conterary to the wishes of the Holy Father who may have seen him as a successor) because he was busy running the damn Conclave and Tremblay approached him with a way to make sure Aldo never head to go through managing a conclave again and also positioned himself as an alternative to Tedesco. Sue him, he had a lot going on. Intially Bellini is happy to hear from Thomas, they may have not been close the past 4 years, but still a friendship of 30+ years. He's way less thrilled this is not a personal call and Thomas starts interrogating him about Tremblay's pontificate and the conclave (if Thomas wanted to be involved this badly he could have just stayed on). He also lacks the answers to most of Thomas' questions and thought Ray simply asked to be reassigned while Wozniak's work load was reduced due to escalating drinking problem (Aldo found the poor man passed out several times near the papal apartments after the Holy Father's passing). And also who in the world is this Vincent Benitez upstart who allegedly was tapped by the Holy Father intially to ask all these questions? Still, while not wanting to admit to Thomas why Tremblay had such a easy time consolidating Aldo's vote share of the liberal vote, he agrees to look into Wozniak's posting. Only to be stonewalled by Morales? So Aldo, despite strained relations gets back to Thomas to say something is definitely up, and now that he thinks about it Adeyemi's papal bid ended weirdly and that there was a nun from Lagos working in the Vatican kitchens for like a week during the Conclave who was rumored to have had a child with him? But he's not sure and also, angering him greatly, 70% sure that piece of information originated with Tedesco so someone (NOT Aldo) is going to need to follow up with him. And the nun appeared and disappeared under very opaque circumstances? Que Vincent and Thomas meeting up to try and figure out where out of 106 possible diplomatic postings Ray ended up, while Aldo tries to find things out in the Vatican without alerting Tremblay to his intentions.