#Network Analysis

[empiricalscotus]

Using Network Analysis to Gauge the Justices’ Relative Importance in Oral Arguments

Anecdotes and research support the notion that oral arguments do not often influence case outcomes. Chief Justice John Roberts said as much in an interview with Bryan Garner for the Scribes Journal in 2010: “The oral argument is the tip of the iceberg — the most visible part of the process — but the briefs are more important.”  In fact, a series of studies including my own work points to the…

[filehulk]

Wireshark

Wireshark is a free and open-source packet sniffer that examines your network to identify performance and security problems. This Windows tool can analyze network traffic across Wireless, Ethernet, VLAN, and Bluetooth. As a standard protocol analyzer, it provides these features at no cost to both businesses and individuals. Additionally, these capabilities are not restricted to Windows, as…

[itcsssolutionandstaffing]

Most IT service management and security providers offer penetration testing for clients who store numerous amounts of data and information. Penetration testing is a kind of cybersecurity procedure that assesses the security of a system.

[feelingtheaster99]

I’m rewatching Young Justice again and in “Independence Day” I am just STRUCK by how well they introduce all four of the “sidekicks” and their respective mentors.

Like Robin is so at home fighting against villains. He cackles and he almost seems bored because he’s rather dismissive of Mr. Freeze and of the fight. He’s also fairly at ease with Batman, because I imagine not many other people, can tell Batman, “yeah, yeah” in that tone.

Speedy, on the other hand, is very serious. He’s the only one of the four who questions the villains’ motives and he is the one getting annoyed with Green Arrow for joking around.

Aqualad is also serious but in a much calm and less aggressive way. He absolutely oozes respect for Aquaman, even when his mentor teases him about being excited for the day ahead.

And Kid Flash? He’s going full-on impatient, excited puppy mode. He’s so impatient to get there that he allows himself to get slightly frozen in order to stop the fight as soon as possible. And his wide, excited grin is so telling of his generally positive personality

[givehimthemedicine]

seasonal reminder that this probably happened because El saw It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Hopper seems surprised that she even knows about Halloween, and watching tv is all she has to do all day in the cabin, so that must be where she learned. and sure there were other shows/movies that probably mentioned Halloween, but ITGPCB:

explains how to go trick or treating in terms a small child / cultural newcomer would understand

introduces the specific concept of a bedsheet ghost costume and the anonymity it offers, and shows how to make one

shows a group of 5 friends trick or treating together (El + the party = 5)

would've been on network television during October 1984

El doesn't know about this, but there's also the whole pumpkin patch thing in season 2 - which is where Hopper is on Halloween night when he's supposed to be with her

Sally spends Halloween waiting for the Great Pumpkin with Linus, but in the end she's furious at him when she realizes the Great Pumpkin isn't coming, and now she's wasted her night and missed trick or treating because of him. much emphasis on missing trick or treat being something to be very angry about.

El's also mad at Hopper for making her miss trick or treating, because he's instead forcing her to wait around for something that's not really coming (Hopper himself, since he stood her up, but more broadly her freedom from the cabin).

not saying El needs any help from media to be frustrated about her circumstances, but her being pissed off about Halloween does seem to be what kicks off her confronting Hopper about his promises that never come true, and the ensuing sneaking out / fight

[inbarfink]

Man, I’m so curious about how the rest of the Swollen Eyeball network sees Dib. We’ve gotten some snippets of their interactions but I would love to see more of their perspective on him. Because, like, the one other SE we’ve actually clearly seen was an adult dude.

And everyone else is in silhouette and they also all seem to be grown-ups.

And, like, I’ve actually kinda Been There. I mean, if you wanna talk about Invader Zim and the Autistic Experience “being extremely socially isolated from all of your same-age peers and only finding companionship in an online community dedicated to your special interest which composed of a variety of ages” is an Extremely Relatable One. 

So… how do they feel about it? It seems that they are trying to be Responsible about all of this, with the whole ‘parental permission slip’ thing from ‘Battle-Dib’. 

But are they trying to see him as an equal and low-key forcing themselves to ignore that having a kid tag-along is kinda hurting their image as a Cool Mysterious Organization? Do any of them kinda think of him as a son figure or a little brother figure in a way? Do any of them still… look down at him? Not because he’s ‘crazy’, but because he’s a kid? We’ve seen that despite giving him a bit more respect than anyone else around him, a lot of the Eyeballs don’t necessarily always look at Dib 100% seriously either. Maybe it's less about his conspiracy theories and more about his age?

Dib found the only community he ever had within the Swollen Eyeball… but is he also kind of an outsider, seen as less respectable or more gullible, or maybe just assumed to be an over-excited kid LARPing more than he is a true member of the group?

[dear-kumari]

A couple months ago I started writing a draft essentially joking that a lot of the uncritical praise for Malevolent must be sublimated backlash to TMA, but the further I get into TMA and the discourse surrounding it the more I think that that might actually just be true

[descendant-of-truth]

What I like about Rockman.exe is that. they push the notion that Netto is the wild card between the two so much, right, like he's the classic loud, reckless kid who jumps out of windows and runs into radiation on purpose. so, next to the sweet and mild-mannered Rockman, he's gotta be the crazy one of the two, right?

Except at every turn, Rockman proves time and again to be WAY more susceptible to unhinged behavior than Netto could ever be

And to his credit, the stuff with Dark Rockman and the Cybeast forms were caused by external factors, even if it still adds to a narrative pattern that I'm very invested in. But the part in the manga where he tears a navi apart with his bare hands was 100% pure Rockman rage, and Netto has to be the one to tell him not to give in to it while he's strangling his evil double in the background

The best way I can think to explain it is that Netto is a consistent level of insane across the board regardless of the situation, while Rockman switches rapidly between the extremes of being Actually Normal and needing to be physically restrained to stop his bloodlust. And truly, who else is doing it like them

[itspkuwu]

I get the feeling that Marie honestly doesn’t really care about all the “romance” and kissing her and her sisters display. She only finds REAL fun out of toying with Edd, aka Double D.

I mean, in Honor Thy Ed, she did tell Lee to “quit showing off” when she was spewing her “romantic” wedding speech.

Then she immediately went on to call Double D “pumpkin” and say “Wait’ll see what I cooked ya for supper” in a teasing tone. Marie doesn’t have a crush on Double D, she just likes to mess with him.

(boy howdy isn’t that a bold claim) And she only keeps the kissing up because she’s learned that’s it’s a necessity. (even tho we know it’s not) From what we see in the show, the Kankers go by something like this: “Men are the walking scum of the earth, and if they want “romance” then we’ll give it to them.” Each girl has a different point of view for it. May genuinely thinks that's what love is when she's around her sisters. When she's on her own, she'll try to go about it in a healthy way. Like with that valentine's day card she made for Ed in Hanky Panky Hullabaloo.

Lee can come off as "sweet" to her sisters, but it's only for her own lustful benefit. I mean, just look at Ed Overboard.

Why else would she say “I love a man that begs” if she secretly wasn’t only doing it for her own sick pleasure? And, just because she’s that horrible, Lee finds a way to make May feel bad earlier on. Lee knows that May will always love her and Marie, no matter what. So having May feel hurt and betrayed towards BOTH of her sisters, leaving her with no one to lean on, would be considered a big deal. And knowing that Marie likes to tease, getting her in on that awful makeover would be no problem.

And Lee knows for an absolute fact that May’s happiness has been smashed to pieces when she has to say this: “You got a great personality. Besides, who needs good looks when ya got us?”

The absolute heartbreak on May’s face. It’s times like this that she knows that Lee’s words aren’t genuine. That’s because they aren’t. Lee just says things to settle her down and/or manipulate her. Not because she actually cares. She knows that Lee, and a bad influenced Marie, in her life isn’t a positive. Not at all. She still loves them, but how could she not? They’re her own sisters. That’s just the kind of sweet person May is. And so, who’s the only person that May cares for just as much as her sisters? Ed. Her “boyfriend”. And Lee knows that. 100% This, by the way, is what makes Lee a perfect “villain” in my eyes. But Marie? Well, this just proves my point as to why I think she could become a good person. Or at least a slightly less horrible person. Oh sure, she'd still be loud, angry, intimidating, sneaky, and rough at play... but could learn about boundaries. You know how Double D likes to dog pile? It could be like that just without the kissing. Honestly, she could just get bored of the kissing, it could be that simple! Heck, Marie could become a cooler female version of Kevin! PS, I love this alternate outfit of her’s

(also yes I did make the wrist band blue to match her shoes)

[undeath1245]

Regarding Verdona and her role

We all know who she is. Verdona is Ben and Gwen's estranged grandmother and Max's old partner, long before he met Xylene. And she's also an anodite.

Analysis and criticisms

Ever since her debut, Verdona had changed something fundamental with the Tennyson family. Because she was Max's old partner, that would make their two sons, Carl and Frank, half-anodites, and in-turn, that would also make their grandchildren quarter-anodites. However, just because they're half-anodite or quarter-anodite, it doesn't mean that they immediately possess mana-based powers. A descended anodite would have to inherit an anodite spark in order to grow their powers, and Gwen was the lucky child to possess one. So, long story short, Verdona is Ben and Gwen's magical grandma, and the Tennyson family is now presented as a strange family of regular folk, plumber agents, and magical energy beings. Everything's fine and dandy, right?

Here's the thing: I think Verdona is a huge inconsistency. Let's go back to the Ben 10 episode, "The Visitor". According to the episode, Max met Ben and Gwen's grandmother in St. Louis, hence why he looked so melancholic in the beginning, either they split up or something bad really happened to Ben and Gwen's grandma. That immediately contradicts the Ultimate Alien episode "Moonstruck", where a young Max met a runaway Verdona in a diner in the middle of the desert. Sure, you could say that they probably had a later date in St. Louis, but still, it felt kind of contradicting whether or not Verdona was planned to be Ben and Gwen's grandmother. It makes me wonder if UAF was intended to be a soft reboot or not. And speaking of the episode mentioned above, where does Xylene fit in this? I would want to pry into it further, but that's a can of worms I don't want to discuss about.

Here's another thing about Verdona: She's a confusing, frustrating character. Verdona had only appeared in three episodes throughout the course of UAF and in the game, Vilgax Attacks, and two of these appearances depicted most of her negative traits. For example, in the episode "What Are Little Girls Made of?", she harbors huge favoritism of Gwen over her grandson, Ben, due to Gwen's anodite spark, especially after Ben presented his Omnitrix to her. She wanted Gwen to become an anodite and take her to her home planet so she could train her into becoming a powerful, free-spirited energy being. When Gwen politely declined, Verdona takes matter in her own hands, strips herself of her old human disguise (as in she removed her human skinsuit), and battles against her own kids (and Kevin) so she could transform her granddaughter into an anodite by force. To think that a free-spirited anodite like Verdona would respect Gwen's personal choice to remain on Earth with her family as a human, but no, she had to go ham on her own kids. Later on in the episode "Girl Trouble", after dealing with her rebellious granddaughter, Sunny, Verdona expresses favoritism of Gwen over Sunny in front of the rebellious anodite, and she still expresses her desire for Gwen to come with her to Anodyne after all this time. Grandmother of the year, ladies and gentlemen.

You would think that Verdona is a good enough character to impact Ben, Gwen, and the Tennyson family, and yet, all she left them were a few bad impressions and generational pressure. I mean, sure that Verdona helped her kids out with dealing with the rambunctious Sunny in "Girl Trouble", and sure that she helped the trio teleport towards Anur Phaetos during the events of Vilgax Attacks, but that's about two things she done some good for our main characters. If Max hadn't made his sacrifice in "Max Out" and wound up getting teleported to the Null Void, I wonder how would he react towards Verdona's attitude towards Ben and Gwen. Hmm, I wonder if that's how he and Verdona split. Maybe there were tensions between the two after Max found out Verdona's carefree, near-selfish attitude towards normal, non-powerful people. Maybe Verdona tried to make anodites out of her own kids, Frank and Carl, but later realized that they didn't possess the anodite spark and gave up on them. Maybe Verdona realized that she couldn't live such a normal life in an average, simple world like Earth, and so, once Frank and Carl are old enough to fly the coop, she decided to split from Max and leave Earth, at least that's how I see it.

What could have been...

You know, I feel like Verdona could have been an actual antagonist (not entirely a villain, though) in the series had her actions and attitudes weren't just waved off in a whim by the narrative. If so, there probably could have been a family member in the Tennyson rogues gallery. Imagine if Verdona didn't hold herself back in her episode debut and revealed her true nature and attitude towards non-powerful beings. Imagine if Verdona actually tried to transform Gwen into an anodite by force (which is something that I would call forced anodization). Imagine if she were to constantly encounter her granddaughter multiple times throughout the series and push her into becoming an anodite, probably saying something like, "This world is holding you back, Gwen," or something like, "You don't need them anymore. I'll still be your family." Long ago, I looked at a deviation of Verdona surrounded by rebel anodites (something I mentioned in my last post on anodites), and the artist talked about her potential as an antagonist in Gwen's small rogues gallery, as well as Verdona being a member of a rebellious, yet radical group of rogue anodites. I'd figure that, similar to Charmcaster, she could have served as another foil to Gwen, being a representation of unlimited, unrestrained power and potential, yet holding a disregard and attitude towards regular, non-powerful sentient life.

My initial idea for Verdona were to have her as a siren/witch-inspired antagonist. She would have lived for a hundred years and woo a dozen men into making love with her so that she would conceive a child. And afterwards, she would then train her child into a full-fledged anodite throughout their childhood, and once they're fully grown and well-trained, she would then transform them into an anodite and assimilate them, their whole body and very power so that Verdona herself can grow more powerful. Evil, ain't it? I was largely imagining her as some sort of witch, particularly one who has a physical disorder that weakens her and her very energetic structure, so she would have to rely on assimilating other fellow anodites in order to rejuvenate her body. Then, it got worse when she realized that younger anodites are twice as powerful than an adult anodites. She's basically like Spectra from Danny Phantom except that she relies on positive psychological manipulation.

Here's how I imagine her backstory with Max could have played out. Back when she was young, she wooed Max with her magical charms, and he let her into his life. Little did he and his kids know, she was planning on making Carl and Frank into powerful anodites so that she would gobble them up like a hungry witch. Thankfully, Carl and Frank didn't possess the anodite spark, so she saw no use in absorbing them whole. I imagined that Max also soon realized that Verdona was actually an energy-absorbing witch and then had a nasty argument with her when he found out about her true intentions with their kids. Eventually, they split up, but not before that nasty argument involving laser guns and mana blasting. Many years later, she discovered that her granddaughter, Gwen, has the anodite spark and is a wiz at her magical abilities. The events of "What Are Little Girls Made of?" play the same, except that not only is Verdona presented as more vicious and more apathetic, but Max is also there, as I would have have him not sacrifice himself in the events of "Max Out". In fact, I would have Verdona use her anodite charm to condition him into a happy, loving grandpa who likes to bake sweet, fruity cherry pies and cook scrumptious spinach casseroles. Does this sound like something Max would cook? After Max is freed from Verdona's charms, he would have used a prototype teleportation bomb that would send Verdona far away from Earth. During the climax of the battle, we would see Verdona's true form wither a bit while trying to pull herself away from the portal. After these events, Verdona, Ben and Gwen's grandmother, is now officially added to the Tennyson rogues gallery. Like I said, this is my initial idea for Verdona's revised character, of which I decided to recycle for a different character.

Alternatively, Verdona doesn't need to be a former lover of Max, and by extension, she doesn't need to be related to Carl, Frank, and Ben, only Gwen through her mother, Natalie. I was thinking about Verdona's biological relation with the Tennyson family and their anodite heritage, and I feel that it's a bit unnecessary for Ben to be quarter-anodite, same goes for Carl and Frank being half-anodite, especially since neither of them don't possess the anodite spark. So, why not make Verdona Gwen's maternal grandmother instead? It would make more sense for Natalie to be super distrustful with Verdona, considering the indication of her own mother pressuring her into becoming a full-fledged anodite during her childhood, but not to eat up, though. Once again, the events of "What Are Little Girls Made of?" play the same, and Verdona still wants to transform Gwen into an anodite regardless of her feelings. So, what if Natalie swoops right in and uses her anodite powers against her mother? After that, she and Gwen perform a magical spell to summon a large portal to banish Verdona away from Earth. They then reconcile, and Natalie apologizes to Gwen for not being honest with her anodite heritage or her grandmother.

Alternatively, Verdona doesn't need to be an antagonist at all. In fact, she could also be have character development once she understands better of Gwen's personal choice to remain on Earth. Let's say that she also learns the perspective of non-powerful beings and their own norms and limitations, like from her own family. She could still remain free-spirited, but she could still learn from her attitudes and feelings, realizing that there's more to life than maintaining your free spirit. She could even grow as a proper grandmother to Gwen and Ben, and she could still train Gwen with her magic, just not in Anodyne. Heck, she could also reconcile with her old family, Max, Frank, and Carl, and be the mother she could have remained after her kids were grown up. Or, if you choose for Verdona to be Gwen's maternal grandmother, she could make amends with her own daughter, Natalie, and apologize for being so rough on her throughout her childhood. Maybe there ought to be a rogue anodite (or a group of rogue anodites) that Verdona and the main trio encounter, and during the battle, the rogue anodite asks Verdona why she chose to remain here on Earth and help the less powerful humans, only for Verdona to reply, "That's my family you're talking about!" And then, she pulls the biggest magical spell we see from her and blasts away her opponent, thus earning her role as Ben and Gwen's grandmother.

So, that's all I want to share how I feel about Verdona, her character, and her potential. There's basically multiple ways to revisit her character, either as a member of a dangerous rebel group, a sadistic witch with a need to rejuvenate her body, an apathetic energy being with little regard over family, or a confused energy being with a lot of room to grow. There are a couple of posts I'd like to make about other characters, like Kevin and his character between the original series and the UAF series. But, that's all for now.

[empiricalscotus]

I'm Still Standing

What ingredients come to mind when you think of cases before the Supreme Court? One might opine controversial issues or high stakes litigation. At a case level one might say circuit splits or elite attorneys. Still, there are more elementary components of litigation mentioned in Article III and they start with a case or controversy.  Central to this concept is standing – that a plaintiff suffered…

[phantaphanta]

I just wanna talk about Lance from Symbionic Titan because I just finished a rewatch today and I kinda just wanna ramble about how complex of a character he is.

Spoilers and a bit of a character analysis under the cut!

I think me and most people who do rewatch the show and don’t remember anything enter the rewatch thinking that Lance is a bit of an ass, maybe you assume he thinks he’s better than everyone. He’s a loner, emo if you will. And he is emo for the most part but there is more to him. Lance is a character defined by flaws. Since his childhood he was deemed as insubordinate and this continues into his adolescence with risky behavior. Lance shows almost a blatant disregard for his wellbeing in some scenes. The first instances that come to mind are him running into oncoming traffic (I do believe this happens more than once but I’m citing episode 2 specifically), purposefully getting eaten by an alien to destroy it from the inside (episode 2 again), and the entirety of the Phantom Ninja episode showcases Lance taking on random crimes in the middle of the night. Lance is chastised by both Ilana and her father, the king for his reckless behavior however the fact that Lance does all this begs the question of: why? This is answered in the Phantom Ninja episode where it shows that Lance feels a sense of fulfillment and purpose from fighting. Of course, it is his mission to protect Ilana and he does mainly fight for that reason but I also wanna bring up Lance’s childhood.

It is unclear exactly how old Lance was when his father passed but it is shown he was very young and from then on, was sent to combat training. Lance was constantly bullied and it heavily affected his reputation and from then on, he underwent a pretty extreme regimen to prove himself to others and to make himself stronger. With this development happening at such a young age for Lance, it’s safe to assume that fighting is most of what he knows. Most of what we see from his childhood in flashback scenes is him training and fighting (granted if we’re not seeing him be belittled or chastised by authority figures). It’s like most of his childhood was spent on him becoming some kind of weapon and he didn’t have time to really explore other avenues to express himself or to cope with his father’s passing.

Thankfully, we do see him engage in hobbies in later episodes (he fixes up a car and proceeds to drive it in the White Dragon episode, even obtaining his drivers license. And Disenfranchised shows he has an interest in music and he even joins a band albeit temporarily). However fighting is his main outlet and he still spends a lot of his time doing that to defend Ilana and Earth as a whole. And he is still a flawed person. Lance and Ilana usually bicker over conflicting beliefs of what they should do in dangerous situations, Lance even admits to being wrong in a few cases (episode 3 immediately comes to mind for both of these). The important thing is that he does work through these flaws, even becoming more sociable and legitimately seeing Ilana and Octus as his family and trusting people like Solomon. At times he is still irritable, antisocial and overprotective but you do see him change throughout the series and you really get the sense that he is growing as a character but still retains flaws that make him feel real and complex. Again, he is emo but also more than that.

I didn’t touch on a lot of his character since I just wanted to get this out now while the series is still fresh in my mind (left out some details regarding his past and I did wanna talk about the Shaman of Fear episode but I feel like that deserves a separate post) and for brevity’s sake but thank you for reading this if you got this far! I really like Symbionic Titan :>

[my-deer-friend]

Baby don't you have an announcement to make????

Hmm. 🤔 I'm not sure what you could mean.

Oh, except maybe that...

I got accepted onto the Oxford postgrad history program!

[eddiediazenjoyer]

whatever. no athena is not a "mishandled" character she is handled exactly the way that they want to handle her. she is not "at odds" with the rest of the show she is a vessel for a pro-police state message that is at the center of the show whether you like it or not. she is the titular cop in a copaganda show. do not forget this bc she had one singular episode where she realizes that incarcerating people is Bad Sometimes (but not on principle but bc it makes the cop sad :(. ) like. that whole storyline was still rife with copaganda (her being allowed by the Plot to exercise abuse of power by literally locking that guy in a trunk)(the dichotomy that they CONSTANTLY show between Bad Cops and Good Cops)(dennis saying that he won't accept the deal without athena's permission, implying that he Deserves that kind of punishment unless athena frees him from it and that prison absolved him in some way)(even them having the Real Bad Guy that's dichotomized against dennis being a child molester is fucking copaganda like. it's classic. they always remind you that Well we actually need cops and prisons bc then what do we do with people like him??? the really scary guys??? THAT'S COPAGANDA) like. that's the story. this in not undone by her not... what. arresting him on the spot and banning him from taking the deal????? talk about bare minimum. ik it's complicated and like. i like this show too but goddamn the bar is on the floor and it's crazy how easily people fold as soon as the Cops Are Good show has the cop show one moment of complexity regarding prison. guys. it's still the Cops Are Good show by DESIGN. it's not incidental

[ai-innova7ions]

Neturbiz Enterprises - AI Innov7ions

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[thisshitisridiculous]

actually i hate watching a show where the actors and writers have articles every week about what's going to happen, like what do you mean ever take involves some quote from someone where they literally can't tell you what's going on because that's a spoiler, just watch the show, the show will tell you everything you need to know