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[cambtech]

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[safetycourses2022]

[lulublack90]

Prompt 23 - Teacher AU

@wolfstarmicrofic April 23, word count 966

Sirius had been a teacher for quite a few years, and while he loved teaching the children, his true passion lay in his evening classes. Once a week, he gave up his time to teach adults who wanted to learn and, for some reason, and Sirius was only too willing to help them. 

The class was just beginning. This week, they’d be going over the short story he’d asked them all to read as homework and make a start on one of their own. He’d been told there would be a new student joining them that evening. It was very irregular. Normally, there was a start date that you had to begin at and not come halfway through the course. He’d been assured that the young man had been keeping up at home, but his ongoing health condition had made it impossible to attend the previous classes. 

Sirius sighed when he read the email from the course manager but vowed to help the chap catch up.

He cleared his throat, and his class went quiet. 

“Good evening, everyone. I hope you’re all doing well. Let’s begin with a show of hands. Who’s read the homework?” A sea of hands rose in front of him, and he couldn’t keep the beaming smile off his face. “Excellent! Now, who can tell me why Nellie did what she did?” He pointed at a woman in the back row. “Alice, you’re up.” The short woman checked her notes and began to speak. 

“She was tired of her life and wanted to be free of the chains that kept her there.” 

“Exactly.” He turned and wrote on the whiteboard. “She was a prisoner, and she longed to be free. So when the chance came, she took it. Now, when Nellie escapes, she rushes into the jungle in the dead of night with nothing but a small trunk filled with her few possessions. Was this a good idea or not?” He waited for a hand to go up. He could almost see their brains whirring. The classroom door opened, and a mousy-haired man popped his head around the door. Sirius stared at him, his eyes greedily taking in the slightly flustered handsome man. 

“Are you Mr Black?” He asked politely. 

“Yes, that’s me. How can I help you?” Sirius’s professional brain snapped back on. The man grinned, looking relieved. 

“I’m so sorry I’m late. I’ve ended up in the wrong room twice, and no one seemed to be able to point me in the right direction.” He pushed the door open and hobbled in. He was leaning heavily on a walking stick and took the only empty seat at the front of the class. 

“Right, where were we?” He asked, having completely forgotten. The new man raised his hand. “Yes—er?” Sirius nodded for him to talk. 

“Remus. Remus Lupin.” Remus helpfully supplied. 

“Thank you, Remus.”

“I think the risk of staying captive was far greater than whatever awaited her in the jungle. However, taking anything other than food and water was risky, but as we know, it worked out for her.” He answered Sirius’s question. 

“Yes, well done. I dare say even if she’d met a tiger while she fled, it would still be preferable to that iron chain, don’t you agree, even weighed down as she was.” His class all nodded at him. “So now free and on the run, no forced to perform, no matter how good she was at the tasks they set her, what do you think made her go the way she did?”

Remus raised his hand again, and Sirius signalled for him to continue. 

“She went home. There could have been something familiar about the surroundings, which is why she escaped when she did. But the inner child in me wants to say it was magic.” Remus grinned shyly at him, and Sirius had to chant to himself that he couldn’t date students no matter how ruggedly handsome they were or how intelligent they seemed to be. He had to swallow before he continued. 

“Yes, I think we all want to believe it was magic, as though she heard her mother calling out to her across the many miles she travelled.” He cleared the whiteboard now they were done with that and wrote up the next part of the lesson. “Okay, I want each of you to write your own short story. It can be about literally anything you want. Make a start now. Plan it out. I want them finished for next week, and I’ll go through them.” 

He gave them a few minutes to start their work and made his way around the class, answering any questions they had. Eventually, he had to talk to Remus. He couldn’t put it off any longer. “How’s it going?” He asked, making Remus jump. He’d been so focused on his work that he hadn’t noticed Sirius approach. 

“Oh-er, it’s going good. I think.” Remus rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Sirius peered down at the paper. 

“A werewolf and a man who can magically turn into a dog and an enchanted forest? Sounds thrilling. I can’t wait to read it.” Remus blushed hard. 

“It just popped into my head.” He admitted. 

“All the best ones do,” Sirius reassured him. “Oh, here, before I forget. Take this. It’s got all my information on it in case you can’t make it for whatever reason or need help throughout the week. I’ll do my best to accommodate you.” He handed Remus the little white card. Their fingers brushed as Remus took it, and Sirius felt a jolt of electricity shoot through him, stemming from where Remus’s fingers had been. They looked at each other wide-eyed and stunned. Well, crap, this was going to be harder than he thought.  

[mariacallous]

By the standards of world-historical events, much of Donald Trump’s Wednesday afternoon speech in the Rose Garden was remarkably forgettable. Trump opened the affair, which he had billed as America’s “Liberation Day,” with a rant about the dire state of the nation that could have been cribbed directly from Steve Bannon’s first draft of Trump’s 2017 “American Carnage” Inaugural Address: cities and towns “raped” and “pillaged”; factories “ransacked”; a country “ripped off.” The apocalyptic bluster, like the loud red tie and the strange riffs about Canadian milk and radical-left lunatic judges, was familiar stuff—we’ve heard this so many times before.

But, by the time Trump finished, something else was clear, too—we’ve never actually seen anything like it. About halfway through his speech, he called Howard Lutnick, his billionaire golf buddy turned Commerce Secretary, up to the podium with the big reveal: a chart with a list of countries and the previously secret amounts of sweeping retaliatory tariffs that Trump planned to impose on them. As the world squinted to find out its fate, Trump read the numbers off like a MAGA auctioneer. The global trade war that he’d long threatened and somehow never actually triggered finally seemed to be happening. “We’re going to have to go through a little tough love, maybe,” he said.

Tough love, indeed. Even as Trump spoke, the initial verdict from financial markets around the world came in—a global meltdown. The tariffs were worse than expected. Stock-market futures plunged. The dollar dropped against other currencies. By the close of the markets on Thursday, the damage was all too evident: U.S. stocks had recorded their biggest drop since the earliest days of the COVID pandemic, losing close to three trillion dollars in value. Companies started preëmptively laying off workers. “Never before has an hour of Presidential rhetoric cost so many people so much,” Larry Summers wrote on X. Once again, the Wall Street boys, despite Trump’s many warnings, had failed to take him seriously. “Far more onerous than the market was expecting,” one hedge-fund manager told Politico. “Shockingly high,” another told the Times. “It’s a disaster.” Etc., etc. You get the point.

Amid the chaos of eviscerated retirement savings, blown-up supply chains, and pissed-off allies, perhaps it’s a mistake to linger on just how wrong America’s business establishment continues to be about Trump. But, wow, has this been a case of near-catastrophic wishful thinking. And I think it speaks to much of what we are still not understanding about the ways in which Trump’s second term is off to a darker, more dangerous start than his first. “What’s striking to me is not just that Wall Street so badly underestimated downside risk—it’s that they piled all-in on post-election euphoria that assumed, contrary to all reporting, the tariffs wouldn’t happen,” Jeff Stein, the Washington Post’s economics reporter, wrote Thursday morning on X.

But, of course, the real mistake has little to do with global trade policy, and much to do with a failed theory of the case about Trump.

There is no rational analysis that would lead one to the conclusion that a President would single-handedly decide to blow up a century’s worth of globalization on a chilly Wednesday afternoon in April. I thought a response to Stein from Garry Kasparov, the international chess champion turned modern-day Russian dissident, was particularly revealing. Kasparov attributed the failure to anticipate Trump’s trade war to an epic level of denial about the President’s Vladimir Putin-like brand of autocratic personality disorder—after all, Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine did not make much sense, either, to many of those presented with irrefutable evidence that he was planning it. Instead, Kasparov suggested a maxim for our unhappy times: “Dictators always lie about what they’ve done, but are often quite plain about what they want to do.”

And yet the simplest truths about Trump have proved surprisingly elusive. Why else would so many people who have so much riding on the outcome convince themselves that Trump did not mean what he’s been publicly threatening to do since his first campaign nine years ago? The record has long suggested that, though Trump has few fixed ideological principles, an almost mystical belief in the powers of the tariff is one of them. He explicitly promised to roll out reciprocal tariffs in a campaign video on June 21, 2023, vowing, “An eye for an eye, a tariff for a tariff.” In an appearance before hundreds of business executives in Chicago a few weeks before the 2024 election, he said, “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff.’ ” At Wednesday’s Rose Garden event, Trump spoke of the national debt disappearing, of jobs and factories “roaring back.” (Prices would fall, too, he promised—“ultimately.”)

In this new political moment of the unthinkable made manifest, the sheer power rush for Trump should also not be underestimated. Imagine his joy as he sat down to sign an executive order decreeing the new tariffs on the basis of sweeping powers he may or may not legally possess to declare a “national economic emergency”—here was Trump transforming the world with a single flourish of his Sharpie pen. “It’s such an honor to be finally able to do this,” he said. At what other moment in modern times has a single man wielded so much unaccountable power over such a large swath of the world economy? There are whole businesses devoted to risk analysis for corporations; this is a situation in which Trump himself is the risk and the crisis being analyzed is one that he created. Talk about an ego trip.

Beyond a misunderstanding of Trump’s psychology, there are a few other telling conclusions to be drawn from all this. One is about the maximalist approach the President has taken to his second term. Trump 1.0 fulminated about government waste, the evils of the “deep state,” and the need to take legally questionable actions against illegal immigration; Trump 2.0 has shown a striking willingness to act on his most disruptive ideas. This seems to have surprised many who assessed his rhetoric as just more hype likely to fall prey to the same institutional constraints and poor execution that hampered Trump in his first term. By such logic, the fact that Trump had not succeeded in gutting federal agencies or blowing up the global economic order at the end of his first four years in office was proof that he would not do so this time, either. Oops.

The difference is not so much Trump—it’s who surrounds him now compared with eight years ago. Yesterday’s yes-men, it turns out, weren’t quite so compliant as today’s. (Mnuchin nostalgia? It’s a thing.) A scene from Trump’s first term sums up the contrast: On April 26, 2017, Bannon, who was then still one of Trump’s closest White House advisers, had walked into the Oval Office hoping to get the President to sign a draft executive order for the U.S. to withdraw from NAFTA; the plan was for Trump to announce the end of America’s free-trade deal with Canada and Mexico at a prime-time rally as the marquee event of his first hundred days in office. Trump himself had long railed against NAFTA. But many of his other aides were dead set against abruptly blowing up relations with America’s two closest neighbors for the sake of an applause line at a political rally. Learning of Bannon’s ploy, Trump’s then chief of staff, Reince Priebus, urgently summoned Cabinet officials who supported NAFTA, including Trump’s first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, to the White House to stop it. Trump reluctantly agreed to wait, though he told the Washington Post ruefully the next day, “I was all set to terminate.”

Long afterward, Priebus would take credit for having “orchestrated” the successful pushback. But he understood what it has taken eight years for many others to figure out—Trump truly was prepared to do it. This time, it only took seventy-four days to smash the global economic order. Trump is liberated, even if the rest of us are not. In his second-term White House, they are all Steve Bannons now. 

[maklodes]

I feel like I barely have the right to get into “Star Wars would be so good if it were good” posting given that I haven’t actually watched VII-IX, but I keep thinking about the myriad plots and subplots that could follow VI, after the fireworks stop, all without slamming the reset button.

Like, as of Episode VI’s end, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, and Grand Moff Tarkin are all dead, but much of the rest of the Imperial bureaucracy and military are still intact. Maybe there’s a legal chain of succession that establishes who’s next, but probably it’s pretty weak, because tyrants generally don’t like saying “you know who would benefit greatly if I were to ‘accidentally’ drink poisoned blue milk and die? That guy!” So there’s a likelihood of power struggles, different factions emerging among moffs and admirals. How would the Alliance respond to two moffs waging a brutal war against each other, extorting civilians to death for supplies, bombarding civilian population centers that are not logistically accessible enough for their side to extort but that they think the other side will, etc? Can the Alliance afford to intervene to help the innocents suffering in this conflict, or is it best to just let their enemies weaken themselves and clean up afterwards?

Meanwhile, some moffs and governors see the writing on the wall, and are approaching the Alliance and saying “Yes, I was a high official in the Empire, but I was one of the good ones, working within the system to make it as humane and decent as possible. Now I am preparing to join the New Republic, and preparing to hold free elections on my planet(s) (supervised, of course, by the erstwhile-Imperial bureaucracy under my control – who else is around that could competently manage such an affair?) Yes, there are a few incidents during my reign that can be classified as atrocities, but I can assure you that if anyone else in the empire had been in charge, they would have been more numerous and severe (anyone harsher than me would’ve been worse, and anyone gentler would’ve been force-choked to death by Darth Vader and replaced), so let’s just leave those in the past and work together toward a better future.” Can the Alliance accept such a defector on those terms? Can the Alliance afford not to?

At the same time, former members of the senate – dissolved at the beginning of IV – are saying “Alright! With that tyrannical emperor gone, we are ready to get back into the action and help rebuild the Republic,” while more radical members of the Alliance are like “no, FUCK those old senators. Those were the guys who elected Palpatine chancellor. Then they kept giving him more and more emergency powers. Then they voted to make him emperor. Then they stuck around as a rubber stamp Imperial Senate for like fifteen years legitimizing the Empire, before the emperor finally dissolved the senate. A few of them may be okay, but they are all on probationary status in the politics of the New Republic at best, and many of them should be charged with corruption/oath violation/etc and barred from politics and maybe incarcerated/executed.”

Some people might even question the whole idea of One Galaxy Government going forward. Sure, there are advantages to having a singular Republic/Empire coordinating things, but there are risks. Maybe local control – with the risk of the occasional local dictator, or local border war – is safer than putting all eggs into one basket? Coordinating the resources of a galaxy has proven useful in destructive massive scale projects like planet-killer battle stations. Is there a more productive use case for that much broad scale coordination? 

As more systems democratize and lift censorship and restrictions on holonet, you get paranoia and rumors going around that this or that office-seeking politician is the Next Palpatine. When a planet’s leading candidate for senator faces rumors of being a Dark Sider, the runner-up currently polling at 48% clears her throat and says “The threat of the Dark Side is too serious to be turned into a political issue, and unfounded rumors and partisan smears do nothing to help us re-establish our still-fragile democratic norms. At the same time, any credible allegations of Dark Side influence merit a thorough and independent investigation. After all, recent experience has shown just how destructive the Dark Side can be: whole inhabited planets got destroyed! Once we establish a transparent, impartial process to examine these claims, we can move beyond all this baseless speculation about my opponent (and the baseless speculation that the first anonymous rumors were traced to a holonet account belonging to my campaign’s chief of staff).” You could have HUAC / McCarthy hearings type shit.

You could have some genuine (aspiring) Dark Side guys – no one who knows the true Sith teachings, but maybe some force sensitives who see the force as a Will To Power thing. (The Jedi haven’t been abducting children who show force potential for decades, and the Sith had no room beyond two, so I guess force sensitives have mostly sorta been figuring out what they could of this stuff themselves for a few decades? Most of them are probably pretty weaksauce compared to trained Sith/Jedi like Yoda or Palpatine, but maybe they can influence weak minds and shit) You could have any combination of actual Dark Side influence and rumors: have some people correctly accuse real Dark Side guys, have Dark Side guys spreading false rumors that their innocent opponents are on the Dark Side, have two different candidates both being Dark force sensitives, spreading rumors about each other (or one spreading rumors, being a down and dirty political fighter, and the other refusing to stoop to that and going for the Stately Above the Fray vibe, but secretly being comparably ruthless), or (perhaps most common) rumors of Dark Side influence being spread in politics when no one involved is actually even Force sensitive let alone in touch with the Dark Side.

You could go a little deeper: some people in the aftermath of the Empire might think  that the Force – both the Dark and Light sides – has held the galaxy kind of kind of technical and moral cul-de-sac, accounting for the ways in which the whole setting combines backwardness and advancement:

Why is it that in spite of having overcome the light barrier many millennia ago and being able to build small planet-sized battle stations, they seem to have made negligible progress against senescence and death generally? Because the Force provides a frame in which you either embrace the Dark Side, in which case triumph over mortality is a personal achievement to be hoarded and lorded over your inferiors, or you adhere to the Light Side, in which case you reject the “unnatural abilities” of Dark immortality. Progress against mortality at a collective, civilizational level doesn’t make sense from either of those perspectives.

Why is it that in spite of apparently being fully sentient in many cases, droids are still treated as chattel property without rights? Why is it that they still seem to have widespread animal agriculture? Maybe because the Force doesn’t notice forms of sentience that have no or negligible midichlorian counts or force sensitivity or whatever. Obi-Wan could probably walk past a droid refurbishing facility where droids are getting reset to factory settings, or a slaughterhouse, and not feel any “disturbance in the force, voices crying out in terror and suddenly being silenced” etc, and when the Light Side is treated in some respects as the moral arbiter of the setting, and when a big part of the Light Side is “trust your feelings,” and when the “force feelings” don’t really apply to beasts or droids, they don't get a lot of consideration.

Why is it that the only visions of authority are somewhere on a spectrum from “centralized, despotic autocracy” (the Empire) to “decentralized, semi-feudal oligarchy” (the Republic, with a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth-style weak senatorial authority, proliferation of local nobles like counts and princesses, etc, and, perhaps to an even further extent along that spectrum, the Confederacy of Independent Systems)? Maybe because it reflects  how the Force tends to structure itself: the Dark Side tends to concentrate power in the hands of a couple of megalomaniacs. The Light Side tends to distribute it across a broader order of Force-wielding elites, but still very rare as a fraction of the  population.

You might say that these ideas don’t really get to the essence of the core appeal of Star Wars, which is more like stuff like starfighter battles and lightsaber duels and such, but I’m not saying these themes would necessarily be debated in great detail to the exclusion of action and stuff. They just could be the reason for the lightsaber duels and starfighter battles and such. Consider: in Episode I, the pretext for a lot of the action was a dispute over tariffs. Stated baldly, I think that’s drier than anything I mentioned.

[hroscek]

🛒Dottore shopping headcanons🧾

"Wouldn't it be funny if Dottore went to a grocery store?" - me 2 minutes before I started writing this

Another incredibly silly concept from me, your humble Dottore content deliverer. Not really an AU, but definitely taking massive liberties when it comes to stretching canon. Probably quite ooc as well.

Warnings: mention of death

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Dottore hadn't gone shopping in ages, not since he joined the Fatui. He never liked people and their mundane activities, preferring to stay inside working on his latest project. Groceries and food preparation had been delegated to his staff and the occasional segment as a punishment so he never really saw a need to even think about it.

That changed when he was sent on a covert mission to a wealthy mansion in Fontaine. His job was to infiltrate the household of a prominent scholar who posed a risk of uncovering the operation in Sumeru. The best way to do so was under the guise of being part of the staff. When he was satisfied his appearance was adequately concealed Dottore signed up for the only position that was available in such short notice: the kitchen inventory assistant.

As his new manager explained his job would be to handle the shopping and delivering of ingredients needed by the cooks. In his endless confidence Dottore almost burst out laughing when he heard his duties. "A delivery boy? Me? The 2nd of the eleven Fatui harbingers? This will be too easy" he thought to himself. Oh how wrong he was.

On his first day he set out for the local market with a shopping list in hand, his mind preoccupied with plans of ending his employer. His contemplation was cut short by the sheer loudness of the crowded market. Children wailed for their parents to buy them sweets, merchants bargained over every last coin and groups of people engaged in lively conversation. Any other extrovert person would find the scene quite endearing, a truly fine display of the friendly culture of Fontaine. But this is Dottore we're talking about so his hatred grew every second he was forced to be there.

The first item on his list was fish for the main course of lunch. He gathered whatever patience was left and walked to the first fish stall. Seeing the glossy eyes of the fish in their dozens unnerved him, despite the centuries spent working with cadavers. He was about to point to a fish he deemed adequate when an older lady kindly pointed out it's eyes had gone cloudy (how he managed to find the only week old fish in a city surrounded by water is anyone's guess). He awkwardly thanked her and left in a hurry without buying a fish. He's sure the cooks will figure something out.

Next he headed for the vegetable stand to look for tomatoes. Without bothering to check for quality he started loading the bag as quickly as he could, hoping to get it over with as soon as he could. The seller, clocking the poor guy as a newbie quoted nearly triple the fair price and Dottore paid without questioning or even thinking to haggle (it's a tomato, how much could it cost? 500 mora?)

Almost done with the grocery run (and his patience) Dottore scanned the flower stands looking for Marcottes. He circled the market around 3 times before a amused shopkeep asked what he was looking for. "ᴹᵃʳᶜᵒᵗᵗᵉˢ." he answered, hoping that the earth beneath him sunk and got him out of this hellish situation (awkward social interaction). The seller giggled "Sorry, no one's selling marcottes this week. There's a supply chain issue with the florists on strike, haven't you heard?" Dottore turned and nearly ran in the other direction without a second word, completely forgetting the mint he was also supposed to buy.

Utterly humiliated Dottore decided to ditch any plans of infiltrating quietly and stormed to the manor, killing the scholar and his family. He'll let someone else figure out the coverup. And so he returned to his dim laboratory, vowing never to go shopping again.

Pantalone still makes fun of him for the tomatoes to this day.

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Thanks for reading! Sorry for the lack of posts today, I'm working on a longer fanfiction so I haven't been able to focus on these shorter posts. Will try and finish it within the next day or so, but in the meanwhile enjoy whatever this is. Also you if you figure out what the dish he was shopping for was I'll write whatever topic of headcanon you want, just comment or send a message.

[realm-sweet-realm]

Her Own Hands, chapter 5: Reversal

After Team Galactic collapses, Mars is desperate enough to return home to her father, Giovanni. She must navigate the politics and grand goals of the Kanto team in order to rescue her former leader… and keep Team Rocket from taking over the world in the meantime.

---

In the end, Mars decided to go home. Giovanni wouldn't have found out about Mew2.1 yet, and going home allowed her to grab her map of outposts. Maybe sometime today she could sneak away to one of Team Galactic's depots. Hopefully Jupiter would help her. Hopefully Giovanni could still be stopped.

Mars was assigned to learn shell business management from Archer that day. Archer’s office was quiet and opulent, just as it had been when Mars was little and had spent countless afternoons here, playing with her brother on days when their nanny had time off and her parents had business elsewhere. He’d replaced the furniture since then- red leather now instead of black, but the minifridge was still stocked with the same array of drinks he’d begun to share with Mars the day he first came to him for feminine advice. Ariana might not have wanted to deal with the awkwardness of teaching her to manage a menstrual period or a crush, but Archer was determined and had had just enough female friends in his youth to fill the mom-shaped hole in her life. Or to try, anyway.

“And that’s how you manage the supply chains of a shell business,” Archer concluded, closing his laptop as they finished up for the day. “Any questions, Mars?” he asked, turning his attention to her. He’d been gentle with her today, like he could tell she was sad but was waiting for her to come to him instead of pushing.

“No, I think I’ve got it. And thanks for using my old name.”

“Of course. It’s okay to have trouble fully letting go, even of things that weren’t good for you. Just tell me when you're ready for me to stop.”

“You bet. Could I… ask you a question?”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

“What do you do when the person you’ve looked up to, the person you trusted would be everything you needed… turns out to not be all that?” Mars had planned this conversation in her head, thinking of the exact words she could use. It wasn’t hard- She was supposed to have lost faith in Team Galactic, and now that she wasn't entirely pretending anymore, why pretend that it didn't hurt?

Archer’s brow furrowed with sympathy. “You’ve asked the right person,” he sighed. “I’m not going to pretend that it’s an easy thing to go through. While Giovanni was gone, I started to have doubts about whether he’d come back, and if he was ever what I thought he was. I told myself a lot of things to protect myself from the fact that he might be the type of leader who could just leave us like that. But the day that he came back, every bit of what I told myself crashed down in a second. I was just glad to have him.”

“What did you tell yourself?”

“That I had to be for myself what he’d always been to me, and all that I needed him to be. That even if he was never the person I thought he was, he taught me what to idolize, and that if he really was gone forever, I would just have to truly replace him.” Archer closed his eyes and smiled, like he was laughing at himself. “I even had thoughts that I could be better than he was. Silly thoughts, of course. I was never half the leader he was.”

“Okay,” Mars said, feeling like she’d learned more about Archer than how to handle her situation.

"That wasn't very helpful, was it?"

"Mmm, not really?"

“Well, I tried. Want a nightcap before I send you off, Mars?”

“Sure. It’ll be our first legal one together.”

Archer chuckled. "Indeed it will.”

Mars did not return to Giovanni's mansion that night. As she ate pork chops and mashed potatoes and weighed her options for outposts at the diner she'd stopped at, she faced a choice: was she going to go back to Mew2.1 that night? Was she going to take that risk to see Cyrus one more time? And if so, for what?

It occurred to Mars that leaving prematurely last night had consequences. Cyrus had said that he didn’t want to make the new world anymore, but she hadn’t waited around to ask what he did intend to do if he got out. It seemed likely that he could still help her to unify Team Galactic and keep Team Rocket from taking over the world- he gave her advice on how to get Mew2.1 away from Giovanni, after all. And as much as she hated Cyrus right now, she still needed to find a way to stop Giovanni, and that would be a lot easier with an evil team leader on her side.

It was settled. Mars stood, shovelled the last of her dinner into her mouth, and took to the entrance. Her crobat was well-used to the routine by now, and took off into the night sky as soon as Mars had grabbed ahold of it. As the cool night air rushed past her in the darkness, Mars’ mind stumbled upon a very important question.

If I really am able to see him again, what am I going to say to him?

It could be their last chance to talk for a long while, and once again she was kicking herself for leaving so soon last night. It was hard to know what he’d react well to when she knew so little about his mental state. She wished she could trust him to have all the answers. Hopefully he still would, and his loss of faith in the new world was all that had changed, but…

Archer’s words came back to her. I had to be for myself all that he was to me, and all that I needed him to be.

It was beginning to drizzle, and Mars remembered the night she’d first joined Team Galactic. The rain had been coming down, and Mars should have been running to the nearest Pokémon Center. She knew from experience by then that her clothes didn’t dry easily, and sleeping while soaked was miserable even if she’d have a roof to do it under. But she had to find that street preacher she’d seen that day. Eventually, she did, and, too shy to say anything to him at first, she followed him home.

He gave me so much more than dry clothes and a place to stay. He gave me a mission, something to believe in and work for. He didn’t have all the answers. Mars had been his second recruit, and at only thirteen, she’d had a lot to teach him about managing an evil team. But she’d believed in him.

I guess now I have to be that for myself. But how? Without the new world, the rest just falls apart.

A thought occurred to Mars, sending a jolt through her body: there was no part of creating a new world that Cyrus could do and she couldn’t. She could still make everything okay. Heck, if she could convince him, it could still be the four of them again- just with her as the boss and Cyrus as one of her commanders.

If I can see him again, I’m going to make him feel the way I did that day.

Mars had half-expected that she'd come within a mile of the facility and have to turn tail and run away from armed guards. Instead, the trip to the Distortion World was suspiciously uneventful- no new locks on the doors, no grunts keeping watch, nothing. Maybe plans had changed and Giovanni hadn't checked Mew2.1 that day? It seemed unlikely. Still, Mars pressed on.

Once Mars had made it to the strange realm, she zeroed in on the mountainous floating island and found Cyrus writing on the wall of his cave.

Cyrus turned to Mars once he realized she was there. “You’re… here,” he said, stone-faced. He turned back to the wall. “Do what you will.”

Mars got out of Mew2.1. “Oh, come on. Just because you broke my heart doesn’t mean I’m gonna kill you.”

Cyrus turned back to her, apparently as surprised as she was to be getting this opportunity. “I’m sorry…” he began.

“Save it,” Mars cut in. “We don’t have much time, and the other commanders need to hear that, too. Look at me, Cyrus. You fucked up, big time. You lied to us about what the new world would be like, and now you want to just leave us with the aftermath. But you know what? You gave me something to hope for, and I’m getting it. I’m going to get the commanders back together, and we’re going to figure out how to make a better world, and we’re not going to lie to each other. Join us or don’t, but before I do any of that, I need your help getting Mew2.1 out of Giovanni’s hands, and you’re going to help me.”

Cyrus nodded. It was odd seeing him look almost submissive for once. “Where do we start?” he asked.

Mars took a recording device from her belt. “I need you to record a message. I’m going to go to one of the depots that Jupiter’s team goes to. You’re going to tell Jupiter that you’re alive and that you’re working with me to get back from the Distortion World. She thinks I’m a traitor, but she’ll recognize your voice and trust you. And then, I’ll tell her the location of Mew2.1 and exactly how she can steal it. Okay?”

Cyrus gave her a smile and an approving nod. It’s the kind of plan he would have come up with, and she knew it. The tape was recorded uneventfully, and when they played it back, it sounded right.

“Alright. Second order of business- getting you out of here.”

“As much as I would like to leave immediately…” Cyrus gestured to the distorted part of his face, “there’s no knowing what this might do if we try.”

“No way of knowing, but it’s easy enough to guess.” Mars’ guess was that the distorted parts of his body would fall apart into a bloody mess as soon as he was in the real world. It was hard to imagine him surviving it. “That’s okay. Before all of this Mew2.1 stuff happened, I was going to beat the new Sinnoh champion and make Giratina bring you back. I can still do that- in fact, Mew2.1 will make it easier. I know you don’t have much of a way to measure time, but how long do you think you have before you’re lost to the Distortion? In our world, it’s been four or five months since you got here.”

“Assuming it keeps spreading at its current pace? Weeks. Maybe a month.”

“That’s plenty of time. Third order of business. Cyrus. Look me in the eyes and tell me that once all this is over, you’ll help me make the new world. I’ll do it with or without you, but I wanna do it the four of us- me, you, Saturn, and Jupiter.”

Cyrus closed his eyes and thought on that. Mars grit her teeth, resisting the urge to either yell at him or keep trying to persuade him. What was going through his head? Was he weighing all the evil in the world against the chance that they’d just make something worse? Regretting the loss of his power? Judging her leadership abilities? She knew him better than anyone but Saturn, and still he could be so annoyingly hard to read.

“I’ll do it. Thank you, Mars- for not abandoning me.”

“Thank you,” Mars said with her usual smugness and pep. For that moment, she allowed herself to hope that, the new balance of power aside, things could go back to normal between them. "It does feel good being the one in charge for once. Weird and new, but good."

Cyrus’ face darkened and his Crobat flew to his side. “Mars, behind you. Get into Mew2.1, now!”

Before Mars could even look back, a dart shot into her neck. At the mouth of the cave were several Rocket grunts, all armed to the teeth.

[vedikaberiwal]

Why Internal Audits Are the Backbone of Effective Risk Management

In an era where organizations face increasing complexities and challenges, risk management is not just a business necessity — it’s a cornerstone of sustainability and success. Internal audits play a critical role in this landscape, acting as the backbone of effective risk management. They go beyond compliance, offering actionable insights that help organizations identify vulnerabilities, strengthen internal controls, and mitigate risks effectively.

If you’re looking to gain practical expertise in internal audits and build a successful career in auditing, explore the Master Blaster of Internal Audit Course. This comprehensive course equips you with in-depth knowledge and real-world skills to become a leader in the field.

What is an Internal Audit?

Internal audits are systematic, independent evaluations of an organization’s processes, internal controls, and risk management practices. Unlike external audits that focus on regulatory compliance, internal audits are proactive, focusing on process improvement, efficiency, and risk mitigation.

By bridging the gap between governance and operations, internal audits provide organizations with a clear roadmap to address risks and achieve their objectives. Go through the following website- https://www.catusharmakkar.com/ to gain practical knowledge about auditing.

How Internal Audits Strengthen Risk Management

1. Identifying and Addressing Risks Proactively

Internal audits act as an organization’s radar, identifying potential risks before they escalate.

• Auditors evaluate critical areas, such as operations, IT systems, and compliance frameworks, to uncover vulnerabilities.

• For instance, an internal IT audit may identify weak cybersecurity measures that could lead to data breaches.

By addressing these risks proactively, organizations can prevent financial losses, reputational damage, and operational disruptions.

2. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Internal Controls

Strong internal controls are the foundation of risk mitigation, but their effectiveness often depends on regular evaluation.

• Internal audits assess whether controls are properly designed, implemented, and operating as intended.

• For example, an audit of financial reporting processes may reveal gaps in approval workflows that could lead to fraud or errors.

Regular evaluations help organizations ensure their controls remain aligned with their risk appetite and evolving business environment.

3. Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory non-compliance is one of the biggest risks organizations face today. Fines, penalties, and reputational harm can result from inadequate adherence to laws like GST regulations or data privacy standards.

• Internal audits regularly review compliance processes to ensure they meet statutory requirements.

• For example, an internal audit might assess whether GST returns are filed accurately and on time.

By staying ahead of regulatory requirements, businesses can avoid costly penalties and maintain stakeholder confidence.

4. Enhancing Operational Efficiency

Internal audits are not just about identifying risks — they’re also about improving processes.

• Auditors provide recommendations that streamline operations, reduce redundancies, and optimize resource utilization.

• For instance, a supply chain audit may identify inefficiencies in procurement that increase costs.

This dual focus on risk mitigation and process improvement makes internal audits invaluable for achieving organizational efficiency.

5. Boosting Stakeholder Confidence

When stakeholders — be it management, investors, or employees — know that an organization’s risks are well-managed, their trust increases.

• Internal audits provide assurance that the organization’s governance and risk management frameworks are strong.

• For example, timely and transparent audit reports can reassure investors of a company’s financial health and operational integrity.

This trust translates into better business relationships and improved market reputation.

How to Excel in Internal Auditing?

Mastering internal audits requires a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Here’s how you can get started:

1. Understand Risk Management Frameworks: Familiarize yourself with globally accepted frameworks like COSO and ISO 31000.

2. Gain Hands-on Experience: Work on real-world audit assignments to develop a practical understanding of risk assessment and internal controls.

3. Stay Updated: The regulatory landscape evolves constantly. Keeping up with changes in tax laws, compliance standards, and industry best practices is crucial.

4. Invest in Professional Training: Enroll in courses like the Master Blaster of Internal Audit Course to gain practical insights and enhance your skills.

TIP:- To truly master internal auditing, you need more than just theoretical knowledge — you need practical expertise. The Master Blaster of Internal Audit Course is designed to help aspiring auditors and professionals excel in the field by covering:

• Comprehensive risk assessment frameworks.

• Real-world case studies and hands-on scenarios.

• Tools and techniques for internal controls evaluation.

• Strategies for effective communication of audit findings.

By enrolling in this course, you’ll gain the confidence and skills to handle internal audits with precision and become a trusted advisor in your organization.

Conclusion

Internal audits are the backbone of effective risk management, providing organizations with the insights they need to mitigate risks, enhance controls, and drive efficiency. For aspiring auditors and professionals looking to master this critical skill, investing in quality training is essential. Start your journey to becoming an expert in internal auditing today with the Master Blaster of Internal Audit Course. Gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to navigate the complexities of risk management and make a meaningful impact in your career.

[maytheoddshq]

Much of Seven has fallen, as have pockets of Four and Nine. Vox resources are thin in an already starving society. The Tarrenfree make vicious grabs for what little resources remain, and what little parts of the supply chain the Vox government managed to re-stabilize after the Snow regime threaten to crumble.

Desperation reigns. District life is marked by hunger and scarcity. Even the Upper Districts and Capitol are scraping at the dregs of any stores that may have been shored up in more golden years. Prices of nearly everything that's left to sell balloon around Panem.

What began as a promising new start now threatens total collapse and chaos under the unexpected threat of the Tarrenfree. The Vox still wrestle for the faith of those who had thrived under Snow's Panem; many of them are frustratingly the very same with the military expertise needed in this key moment.

There are no choices left. Peace talks have failed; the Tarrenfree won't make any compromises and see this as their only opportunity. It has come to a single point: this is now a matter of survival, and all measures are on the table.

Panem may not have known justice under its previous regime, but it had known order. Order must precede justice which must precede peace.

Cacus stands before Panem behind a simple podium on the steps of the Presidential Mansion on a clear December morning. Her breath fogging the air, she declares martial law and mandatory conscription to service of one member per nuclear family unit with an eligible, able person under the age of forty to the Vox-- no, to Panem, their mother nation-- to defend against the enemies to the North.

Of course, she continues, the Vox believe in choice. Free will. It is, after all, what these measures in the short term are safeguarding for their children, their children's children, and their children afterward. If a family is unwilling to abide, that is their choice. It will be their choice for them to risk their own children, standard age rules apply, to the one-time Reaping Bowl this January for failure to comply, as they should be expected to so flippantly shirk the lives of their own children as they are those of other families and those of the future. It is, of course, only just.

The Games will go on once more. The Games will bring order.

Order must precede justice must precede peace.

[cambtech]

International Trade & Export-Import Course | Cambtech

Join Cambtech’s online trade course. Learn export-import, trade finance, INCOTERMS, global logistics, documentation & compliance with certification.

Cambtech’s Foundation in International Liners Trade course provides comprehensive training in global trade operations. Learn export-import management, trade finance, INCOTERMS, customs documentation, and international trade compliance. This course also covers freight forwarding, risk mitigation, and global supply chain logistics. Ideal for beginners and professionals, Cambtech’s online certification helps you build a strong foundation in international trade and advance your career globally.

[kivaember]

freud/rusty wip...

a wip from my rusty/freud fic... man my brain has not been focusing well today hggh save me... crack ship turned legit ship... save me freud/rusty...

“Commander!”

Down the hallway, just before he walked around the corner, Freud paused and slowly turned around. Rusty was slightly breathless as he trotted towards him, having spent the last thirty minutes hunting the ever elusive commander down by grilling people for ‘Freud sightings’. How a normal, unaugmented human could walk up and down the HQ stairs all day without tiring, Rusty didn’t know… 

“Oh, V.IV Rusty,” Freud greeted easily, his perpetual smile not faltering. “What’s up? You look like you’re in a rush.”

“I was looking for you,” Rusty sighed, resting his hands on his hips and evening out his breathing. “You’re a difficult man to pin down.” 

“Hm, really?” Freud glanced upwards thoughtfully. “I was just taking a short walk…”

A short walk? This lunatic had walked up ten flights of stairs only to walk back down them again. On what planet was that short???

“...but you’ve caught me now.” Freud slid his hands into his pockets, tilting his head fractionally as his gaze grew heavy-lidded. “I’m ready to be pinned.”

Rusty ignored that… awkward phrasing. He probably hadn’t meant it like that. “We got derailed by Snail earlier but I was wondering about that spar you promised. Us using STEEL HAZE’s data, I mean.”

Freud didn’t say anything at first, and his expression didn’t really change, but Rusty got the feeling that he had caught him off guard.The Vesper commander glanced away briefly, before looking back at him with a wider smile. 

“Oh, well… sure…” he said slowly, like he was genuinely surprised Rusty would come to him first about it. “I’m free if you are. No one should be using the simulators right now… unless it’s V.V…”

“Hawkins? I didn’t know he was so diligent with his training,” Rusty said without thinking, before wincing. He tried not to imply disparaging things about his fellow Vespers, but the fact was Hawkins was a pretty average AC pilot - in fact, that could be said for most of them, with the exception of Snail and Freud, of course. 

See, while the Vespers were actively recruited amongst Arquebus’s ranks, they weren’t scouted solely for their piloting skills - they were squad commanders, after all, not frontline troops, and Arquebus wanted the Vespers to be as self-sufficient as possible when deployed onto planets well outside of the solar colonies’ robust logistic chains. That meant the Vespers needed someone capable of budgeting their resources, sourcing supplies, managing their administration and operation security, etcetera. In Arquebus’s mind, they only really needed two ace pilots to perform the high-risk, high-reward missions that couldn’t be left to disposable waves of MTs. 

That was the only reason Rusty managed to claw his way into the Vesper ranks: they needed a second ace pilot to ‘support’ Freud.

This allowed the other Vespers to focus on their true role, and aside from their mandatory sparring sessions, no one really put in the hours to keep their piloting skills razor sharp. They didn’t have to. They weren’t expected to. They piloted ACs and were augmented, and most of the time they were fighting mercenaries running ACs scrounged from a dumpster, or workers in construction MTs. They didn’t need to be especially skilled. They didn’t have to train regularly. Freud and Rusty conducted the truly dangerous missions, so why should they bother?

So, hearing that Hawkins was willingly doing extra training outside of his scant few mandatory hours? Of course Rusty was surprised. He’d been under the assumption that Hawkins was content to be a mediocre pilot.

“V.V? Diligent?” Freud snorted obnoxiously. “He isn’t. He’s content with being passably adequate.”

Rusty actually blinked at the caustic disdain that dripped from the commander’s voice, a harsh tone that contrasted eerily with Freud’s otherwise warm smile. It was uncannily jarring. 

“But he’s been tasked with assessing a potential recruit. Some Gen Ten that Arquebus want to properly field test,” Freud continued. “Out of the batch, he’s the only one that’s a somewhat okay pilot. The rest were dregs.”

i get the feeling he’s pissed about this, Rusty couldn’t help but think, staring at the peculiar expression on Freud’s face. That smile, which still came across as genuine, was fixed in place, but his tone, and his dangerously glittering eyes, spoke of a bubbling caldera of resentment and irritation that promised to scald anyone who poked the nest a bit too carelessly. 

“I’m… assuming you don’t get a choice in accepting or rejecting him,” Rusty said hesitantly, trying to strike a perfectly neutral tone. He wasn’t actually sure why Freud was being so open with him about this. Maybe he just needed to vent and Rusty was handily available?

But really, wasn’t this something he should vent about with a close confidant?

though, does he have one? Rusty frowned, i don’t think i’ve ever heard of freud having close friends or family…

“Of course I don’t,” Freud said easily, pivoting on his heel to resume walking. Rusty hurried to keep pace. “Who am I to question Arquebus’s faultless wisdom?”

“Well…” Rusty hesitated, once more struck with a suspicion that Freud was dangling bait here. He couldn’t help but think back to that morning in the elevator, where Freud’s gaze had been incisive enough to physically cut, where Rusty had been so certain he had known…

They took one step, and Rusty contemplated letting the topic drop and leaving his own thoughts about the company ambiguous. 

They took another step, and he immediately discarded that idea, because what if that made Freud clam up and Rusty’s investigation ended up going nowhere?

A third step, and Rusty remembered that this investigation was an impulsive personal project that wasn’t really relevant to his overarching goal. He could let it drop and take the cautious route, so he didn’t blow up years of espionage work for nothing. 

A fourth, and couldn’t help but think what if he’s genuine though? If Freud’s discontent with Arquebus was true… if it was…imagining getting a pilot of his skill on Rusty’s side… it was a gamble, a super risky gamble, but…

A fifth step.

“You’re the Vesper commander,” Rusty finally said. “Surely your opinion holds weight with the higher ups?”

Freud burst into laughter. 

It was a startling loud noise, a full on belly laugh that had Freud throwing his head back and cackling like a madman at the ceiling. Rusty actually jumped half a foot in the air, almost tripping over his own feet in the process. 

“Oh! Oh…” Freud swiftly got himself under control, slapping a hand over his mouth that did nothing to hide his wild grin. “That’s so cute… I forget how much of a country bumpkin you are.”

“W-What- what do you mean by that?” Rusty huffed, concealing his surprise with feigned offence. He had no idea Freud had such an obnoxiously loud laugh. “It’s just common sense, isn’t it?”

Freud snorted and dropped his hand to shake his head. 

“Corporate executives and common sense aren’t on speaking terms,” Freud said simply. 

[vivekavicky12]

Empowering Decision-Making: Unlocking the Potential of Data Science Across Industries

In the era of information abundance, data has become a formidable asset. However, the real distinction for successful enterprises lies in their ability to derive meaningful insights from this vast sea of data. Enter data science – a field that transcends mere analysis and offers a transformative lens through which industries can innovate, optimize, and thrive. Opting for the Best Data Science Institute can further expedite your journey into this burgeoning industry. In this blog, we will delve into the diverse applications of data science across various sectors, spotlighting its pivotal role in steering informed decision-making and fostering innovation.

1. Business Intelligence and Analytics: Revealing Patterns for Growth

At the heart of data science is the ability to unravel intricate patterns within extensive datasets. For businesses, this translates into a powerful tool for business intelligence and analytics. By harnessing historical and current data, organizations can gain valuable insights into their performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions that drive growth. Whether optimizing operational processes or uncovering opportunities for expansion, data science serves as a compass for strategic decision-making.

2. Predictive Modeling: Forecasting the Future with Confidence

Predictive modeling stands out as one of the hallmark applications of data science. By analyzing historical data, organizations can develop models that forecast future trends and outcomes. This capability proves invaluable across various domains. In finance, predictive modeling aids in anticipating stock prices; in healthcare, it contributes to predicting patient outcomes. The ability to foresee potential scenarios empowers decision-makers to plan and strategize with confidence.

3. Machine Learning Applications: Infusing Intelligence into Applications

Machine learning, a subset of data science, takes analytical power a step further by enabling intelligent applications. From recommendation systems in e-commerce to fraud detection in finance and image recognition in healthcare, machine learning algorithms bring a layer of automation and adaptability to diverse domains. This not only enhances user experience but also improves the efficiency and effectiveness of various processes.

4. Healthcare and Life Sciences: Revolutionizing Patient Care and Research

In the realm of healthcare, data science acts as a catalyst for transformation. From patient diagnosis to personalized treatment plans and drug discovery, data-driven insights are revolutionizing the industry. Analyzing large datasets allows medical professionals to identify patterns, tailor treatment strategies, and accelerate medical research, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes.

5. Finance and Risk Management: Navigating Uncertainty with Data-Driven Insights

Financial institutions leverage the power of data science for risk assessment, fraud detection, and portfolio optimization. Predictive analytics aids in forecasting market trends, managing risks, and making informed investment decisions. In an industry where every decision carries significant consequences, data science provides a reliable compass for navigating uncertainties. Choosing the finest Data Science Courses in Chennai is a pivotal step in acquiring the necessary expertise for a successful career in the evolving landscape of data science.

6. Supply Chain Optimization: Enhancing Efficiency from End to End

Optimizing supply chain operations is a complex endeavor, but data science offers a clear path forward. By utilizing data to forecast demand, manage inventory effectively, and optimize logistics, organizations can achieve substantial cost savings and improve overall operational efficiency. From manufacturers to retailers, data science is reshaping how businesses approach the end-to-end supply chain process.

7. Marketing and Customer Insights: Tailoring Strategies for Success

In the realm of marketing, data science emerges as a game-changer. Analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns allows marketers to create targeted campaigns that resonate with their audience. The ability to derive actionable insights from data enhances customer experience, improves satisfaction, and maximizes the impact of marketing initiatives.

8. Social Media Analysis: Decoding Trends and Sentiments

The digital era has ushered in an abundance of social media data, and data science plays a crucial role in making sense of this vast landscape. By analyzing social media data, businesses can extract valuable insights into user behavior, sentiment, and trends. This information is instrumental in shaping social media strategies, engaging with the audience effectively, and managing online reputation.

9. Smart Cities and Urban Planning: Paving the Way for Sustainable Living

In the context of urban planning, data science contributes to the development of smart cities. By analyzing data from sensors, traffic cameras, and citizen feedback, urban planners can optimize city infrastructure, improve traffic flow, and enhance overall urban living. Data-driven insights play a pivotal role in creating sustainable and livable urban environments.

10. Education and Personal Development: Shaping the Future of Learning

Data science is making significant inroads into education, where it is utilized to analyze student performance, tailor learning materials, and provide personalized recommendations. This not only enhances the learning experience for students but also facilitates adaptive learning platforms. The application of data science in education is reshaping how we approach teaching and learning, with a focus on individualized and effective educational experiences.

As we delve deeper into the era of big data, data science stands as a beacon of innovation and progress. Its applications span across industries, touching every facet of modern life. From healthcare and finance to education and urban planning, data science is shaping the way we make decisions, solve problems, and envision the future. Embracing the power of data science is not just a choice; it's a necessity for those looking to thrive in a data-driven world.

[vishal0713]

"Unveiling the Future: How Data Science is Revolutionizing Upcoming Industries"

Data science continues to have a substantial impact on various industries, and its scope is expected to expand as new technologies emerge and businesses realize the potential of data-driven insights. Here are some upcoming industries where data science is likely to play a significant role:

Healthcare and Life Sciences: Data science can aid in personalized medicine, drug discovery, predictive analytics for patient outcomes, and healthcare operations optimization.

Financial Services: Financial institutions use data science for fraud detection, risk assessment, algorithmic trading, customer behavior analysis, and credit scoring.

Retail and E-Commerce: Data science helps optimize inventory management, pricing strategies, recommendation systems, and customer segmentation for targeted marketing.

Energy and Utilities: The energy sector benefits from data analytics for smart grid management, predictive maintenance of equipment, and energy consumption optimization.

Manufacturing: Data science improves manufacturing processes through predictive maintenance, quality control, supply chain optimization, and demand forecasting.

Agriculture: Precision agriculture utilizes data science to optimize crop yield, resource allocation, pest control, and environmental monitoring.

Transportation and Logistics: Data science plays a role in route optimization, fleet management, demand forecasting, and autonomous vehicles.

Telecommunications: Data science assists in customer churn prediction, network optimization, and personalized service offerings.

Media and Entertainment: Content recommendation, audience segmentation, and analyzing viewer engagement are areas where data science is making an impact.

Real Estate: Data science helps in property price prediction, market trend analysis, and investment decision-making.

Environmental Conservation: Data science aids in monitoring and analyzing environmental data, including climate patterns, pollution levels, and habitat preservation.

Education: Data science can personalize learning experiences, assess student performance, and optimize educational resources.

Government and Public Services: Data-driven decision-making is becoming increasingly important for optimizing public services, policy formulation, and resource allocation.

Insurance: Insurers use data science for risk assessment, claims processing, fraud detection, and customized pricing.

Travel and Tourism: Data science enhances traveler experiences through personalized recommendations, pricing optimization, and destination insights.

Pharmaceuticals: Data science plays a role in drug discovery, clinical trials optimization, and pharmacovigilance.

Smart Cities: The concept of smart cities involves integrating data science for efficient urban planning, traffic management, energy consumption, and public services.

Cybersecurity: Data science helps in identifying and responding to cyber threats by analyzing patterns and anomalies in network data.

As technology continues to advance and businesses recognize the value of data-driven insights, certybox is creating a difference in providing the top professional courses along with job assistance. It's essential for professionals in the field to stay updated with the latest developments and tools to make the most of these opportunities.

[educlass]

Why SAP global certification is the Best program for career growth & global job opportunity?

What is SAP? SAP is System Application and Products in Data processing. Nowadays having a proper certification can significantly boost ones career and open doors for global job opportunities. One such leading programs is SAP which provides enterprise software solutions. SAP software is an European multinational company, they focus on providing software solutions for better understanding and management of business and their customers.

Some of the comprehensive courses provided by SAP are finance, logistics, human resources and many more. The course certification is acknowledged on global basis.

One of the key advantages of the SAP global certification program is its recognition worldwide. With over 400,000 customers in more than 180 countries using SAP solutions, there is a high demand for professionals with SAP skills across the globe .This opens up a plethora of job opportunities on a global scale.

Benefits of SAP courses

Streamlined Processes: SAP helps organizations streamline their business processes by automating tasks, eliminating the manual effort, and reducing inefficiencies.

Enhanced Decision-Making: the course provides robust data management and analytics capabilities, enabling organizations to access real-time, accurate information.

Improved Collaboration and Communication: It enables the seamless integration and data exchange between different functional areas, enhancing cross-functional collaboration and teamwork.

Increased Visibility and Control: SAP offers comprehensive visibility into organizational data, processes, and operations.

Scalability and Flexibility: SAP solutions are scalable and flexible, accommodating the changing needs and growth of organizations.

Enhanced Customer Experience: SAP's customer relationship management (CRM) solutions enable organizations to deliver a personalized and exceptional customer experience.

Improved Supply Chain Management: It enables organizations to improve demand planning, inventory management, procurement, and logistics, resulting in reduced costs, improved order fulfillment, and better customer satisfaction.

Compliance and Risk Management:  It provides functionalities for governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC), helping organizations mitigate risks, ensure data security, and demonstrate compliance with legal and industry regulations.

Innovation and Digital Transformation: SAP embraces emerging technologies and drives innovation to support organizations in their digital transformation journey.

As multinational companies expand their operations across borders, they require professionals who can support and manage their SAP software system worldwide. This opens up many possibilities for career growth in international work experiences and also being an SAP certified professional it can also lead to higher earning potential, individuals with an SAP certificates tend to earn more as compared to their non-certified counterparts. This financial incentive further emphasizes the value of investing in an SAP global certification for career growth.

Job opportunities in SAP

SAP Consultant: SAP consultants provide expertise and guidance on implementing, configuring, and customizing SAP solutions to meet the specific needs of organizations

SAP Functional Analyst: SAP functional analysts focus on understanding business requirements and translating them into functional specifications for SAP solutions.

SAP Technical Developer: They are responsible for developing, customizing, and maintaining SAP applications.

SAP Project Manager: SAP project managers oversee the planning, execution, and delivery of SAP implementation or upgrade projects

SAP Administrator: SAP Basis administrators manage the technical infrastructure of SAP systems. They are responsible for system installation, configuration, monitoring, performance optimization, and security management of SAP landscapes

SAP Data Analyst: SAP data analysts focus on managing and analyzing data within SAP systems. They extract and manipulate data, perform data validation, create reports and dashboards.

SAP Supply Chain Consultant: SAP supply chain consultants work on projects related to supply chain management, procurement, inventory management, logistics, and production planning using SAP solutions.

Why is SAP global certification important?

SAP Global Certification is important as it validates an individual’s skills, acquires an industry recognition, provides a competitive advantage, strengthens career opportunities, opens up global job prospects, promotes continuous learning, and instills employer confidence. Thus considered a valuable investment for professionals seeking career growth in the field of SAP and for organizations looking to hire skilled SAP professionals.

[constellation-cg]

Inflation Accounting and Budgeting Strategies During Hyperinflation

In today’s volatile economic landscape, Turkish businesses are navigating unprecedented inflationary pressures. The threat of hyperinflation is no longer theoretical—it’s a real and growing concern that demands swift, strategic financial planning. Companies that fail to adapt risk distorted financial reports, inaccurate budgets, and loss of investor trust.

This is where inflation accounting and advanced budgeting tools like Oracle EPM Cloud play a crucial role. With the right strategies and technology, finance leaders can weather economic storms and make informed, data-backed decisions.

Understanding Hyperinflation in Turkey

Hyperinflation is typically defined as an inflation rate exceeding 50% per month. While Turkey hasn't reached this extreme yet, recent economic instability, rapid currency devaluation, and rising consumer prices raise significant red flags. These conditions distort the true financial position of businesses if traditional accounting and budgeting practices are used.

Risks include:

Overstated profits due to historical cost accounting

Misleading asset values

Budget plans that fail to align with reality

HR budget gaps caused by rapidly changing salary benchmarks

What is Inflation Accounting?

Inflation accounting is the process of adjusting financial statements to reflect the real value of money in an inflationary environment. It ensures that assets, revenues, and expenses are not misrepresented due to outdated cost assumptions.

Key Methods of Inflation Accounting:

Current Purchasing Power (CPP): Adjusts all values using a general price index.

Current Cost Accounting (CCA): Replaces historical costs with current costs to better reflect asset value.

Accurate inflation-adjusted statements:

Improve internal decision-making

Enable fair performance evaluation

Provide clearer insights to investors and stakeholders

Dynamic Budgeting with Oracle EPM Cloud

Traditional budgeting methods simply don’t hold up in hyperinflationary conditions. Monthly plans are outdated within weeks, and static forecasts can misguide leadership. Oracle EPM Cloud introduces agility through:

Scenario-Based Planning

Compare best, moderate, and worst-case inflation rates

Simulate the impact of price hikes, supply chain delays, and FX shifts

Real-Time Data Integration

Automatically updates budgets and forecasts with live inflation indicators

HR Budget Optimization

Adjust salary projections for inflation-linked wage agreements

Track benefit costs under different economic scenarios

Align workforce planning with business needs and available resources

With Oracle EPM Cloud, you gain control over your financial planning even in an unpredictable environment.

HR Budget Planning During Hyperinflation

Human capital is often a company’s largest cost center. In a hyperinflationary economy, HR budgets must remain both flexible and responsive.

Key HR Budget Considerations:

Wage Indexation: Tie salary projections to a trusted inflation index.

Benefits Adjustment: Monitor costs like insurance, training, and recruitment.

Retention Planning: Allocate funds for inflation bonuses or retention packages.

A proactive HR budget ensures that talent management stays on course—even when the economy does not.

Minimizing Financial Risks

Strategic budgeting during inflation isn't just about number crunching—it’s about risk mitigation. Here’s how Oracle EPM Cloud helps:

Risk Area

Mitigation Strategy

Currency Volatility

FX-adjusted financial models

Capital Investment

ROI analysis under various inflation scenarios

Supplier Costs

Dynamic contract simulations

Operating Expenses

Expense forecasting using real-time inflation inputs

When finance leaders anticipate volatility, they reduce the surprises that often derail growth plans.

Constellation’s Strategic Planning Expertise

At Constellation Consulting Group, we specialize in helping businesses navigate complex financial environments. Our services include:

Oracle EPM Cloud Implementation tailored for hyperinflation scenarios

Inflation accounting frameworks aligned with international standards

Custom budgeting models for HR, operations, and capital planning

Training and enablement for in-house finance teams

We combine technical expertise with industry knowledge to create sustainable, scalable financial systems.

✅ Contact us today to schedule a strategic planning session or request a personalized Oracle EPM demo.

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

In times of uncertainty, clarity and flexibility in financial planning are your best allies. Inflation and hyperinflation can undermine business stability—but with the right tools and strategies, your organization can thrive despite adversity.

Constellation is ready to partner with your team to implement powerful solutions like Oracle EPM Cloud, tailor inflation accounting practices, and build robust HR budgets.

[techit-rp]

Why AI Tokens Are Emerging as a High-Conviction Investment Theme in 2025

The year 2025 is shaping up to be a turning point in the world of digital assets, particularly with the explosive rise of AI tokens. These tokens, which merge artificial intelligence (AI) with blockchain technology, are becoming a high-conviction investment theme for both retail and institutional investors alike. As digital finance evolves, this convergence is not just transforming how markets operate, but also how investors view the future of intelligent, decentralized systems.

If you're looking to understand such trends and capitalize on them, enrolling in an investment banking course in Mumbai can offer the expertise needed to navigate these emerging asset classes confidently.

What Are AI Tokens?

AI tokens represent cryptocurrencies that are used to power AI-related platforms and protocols built on blockchain technology. They’re generally used for:

Accessing AI services (like machine learning tools or NLP processing)

Powering decentralized AI marketplaces

Participating in governance models of AI protocols

Training and deploying decentralized AI models

Popular examples include Render (RNDR), Fetch.ai (FET), SingularityNET (AGIX), and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN)—all of which have gained significant traction in early 2025.

Why Are AI Tokens Gaining Traction in 2025?

1. Convergence of Two Revolutionary Technologies

AI and blockchain are two of the most transformative technologies of our time. When combined, they unlock powerful use cases—from automating financial strategies to managing decentralized data sharing systems with security and transparency. Investors see this synergy as a gateway to scalable, future-proof applications.

2. Institutional Endorsements

Major asset managers like BlackRock and venture capital giants are now backing AI-blockchain startups. This institutional support adds credibility and long-term viability to the projects, encouraging high-net-worth individuals and retail investors to take positions early.

3. Increased Utility and Use Cases

AI tokens are no longer just speculative assets—they are now driving real utility in sectors like:

Healthcare (predictive diagnostics)

Finance (automated risk modeling)

Supply chains (predictive analytics and IoT integration)

Content creation (decentralized AI models for media generation)

As utility increases, so does perceived value, making these tokens more appealing as long-term investments.

4. AI Boom Fuels Investor Sentiment

With AI taking center stage globally—from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Google’s Gemini and beyond—investors are pouring money into any project with a strong AI narrative. AI tokens benefit from this bullish sentiment, often outperforming traditional cryptocurrencies.

5. Web3 + AI = Decentralized Intelligence

Decentralization is a core ethos of blockchain. When combined with AI, it gives rise to a new paradigm: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) powered by intelligent agents. This model holds appeal for investors who believe in democratizing access to intelligence and information.

Challenges to Consider

While the hype around AI tokens is justified, investors must approach with caution. Some potential risks include:

Regulatory uncertainty: Many AI token platforms operate in a legal grey zone.

High volatility: Like all crypto assets, AI tokens are susceptible to major price swings.

Overvaluation: Not all projects have working products or viable business models, making due diligence critical.

This is where a solid understanding of financial modeling, due diligence, and risk assessment becomes crucial—skills taught in a top-rated investment banking course in Mumbai.

What This Means for Aspiring Investment Bankers

AI tokens are just one example of how traditional finance is evolving. Investment bankers of the future won’t just deal with stocks and bonds—they’ll need to understand digital assets, AI protocols, and tokenomics.

By enrolling in an investment banking course in Mumbai, you’ll gain:

Knowledge of crypto asset valuation

Insights into fintech innovations

Skills in risk management and market analysis

Exposure to real-world investment banking tools and case studies

The Boston Institute of Analytics, for instance, offers cutting-edge curriculum that integrates traditional finance with emerging trends like blockchain and AI—making it one of the best choices for aspiring professionals in the field.

Conclusion

The rise of AI tokens as a high-conviction investment theme in 2025 is no coincidence. It reflects a broader shift in how we define and interact with value in a digital-first economy. Investors are not only seeking returns but also exposure to technologies that will shape the future.

If you want to be part of this transformation—not just as an observer, but as a player—consider upskilling through an investment banking course in Mumbai. The future of finance is not just about Wall Street; it’s about Web3, AI, and everything in between.