#a physiologic arrow sticking out of it saying THAT WAY

[fauvester]

@ everyone who has weighed in on the extremely important question as to whether cardassians have eyelashes: I appreciate your input, have considered and cogitated, and am making the authorial (artistic?) decision to keep drawing them with some form of eyelashes because at this point in my artistic development its an important surrogate for indicating the 3d orientation of the eyeball

[pagekiersten19]

If all of the MCU superheroes were put into a Hunger Games arena without their powers/weapons/suits, who would win? How would the battle play out?

Cap’s going out first. Because let’s admit it: Stripped of the super soldier serum, he barely has enough body mass to break a stick, much less a bone.

He gets poached by the first wild animal that comes by.

Bruce Banner won’t last very long, either. Without the Hulk, he’s got very little in terms of offensive capabilities. I would say that his greatest weapon is his brain, but unlike Tony, who specializes in making weapons from scratch, Banner’s intellect lies more in the field of nuclear physics.

So I doubt he could design anything too complex out here. He’d probably meet death at the hands of Thor.

And now things get really interesting. We’ve weeded out the trash, and everyone left has a decent shot at actually surviving this.

Thor has a better chance of survival than I initially gave him credit for.

Yes, his two greatest assets are literally his powers and his weapon. But take that away, and you still have a proficient martial artist. Maybe not as much as, say, Cap, but enough to hold his own against multiple SHIELD agents (which is admittedly not much in this universe, but still…). Even without his Asgardian physiology, he may go a long way…if he plays his cards right and picks his battles wisely…

Nonetheless, he’s always seemed to rely very heavily on his enhanced muscle. Once any of the big boys (I.E, Clint and Natasha) come along, he’s going down.

Tony Stark has a good shot here. Even without his suit, Tony is known for creating spectacular devices out of little or nothing. And I’m not saying that he’ll create an Iron Man suit out of tree branches, but he’s known for doing more with less. I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulled some sort of trick from his sleeve.

I’d imagine that whoever beats him would undergo a long, grueling battle on their part.

Black Widow and Hawkeye remain as the two main contenders here. They were the only two Avengers trained expressly for hand-to-hand combat on equal terms. And we’ve seen time and again that they’re pretty much even when it comes to close-quarters combat.

Which is exactly why Hawkeye would emerge the victor. Clint knows that he and Natasha cancel one another out in hand-to-hand. So he knows not to get close.

And unlike him, Natasha doesn’t have very many ranged options.

Clint, on the other hand, could just create makeshift bows and arrows from the terrain, lay low, and wait for the moment Black Widow emerges (because she’ll obviously be lurking).

And when that time comes, Clint will be ready. Even if he has to take a shot from a mile away.

[raywritesthings]

It’s a Bird (Plot bunny/Preview)

My Writing Fandom: Arrow, Supergirl Characters: Laurel Lance, Kara Danvers, James Olsen, Alex Danvers, Winn Schott, J’onn J’onzz (Hank Henshaw), Eliza Danvers, Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, Damien Darhk, Cisco Ramon Summary: In a universe where another Kryptonian pod doesn't crash land to Earth, Supergirl and her friends receive a different otherworldly visitor; on a different world, Team Arrow loses one of their own, but not in a way that they can initially understand. Additional Notes: Hello everyone! Since this is a holiday weekend for me, I thought I'd treat you all to a plot bunny I had. I'm calling it a plot bunny because to continue it, I would need an interested beta reader who has actually seen seasons two of Supergirl and five of Arrow, which I have not. So, if this idea intrigues you, let me know and maybe we can work something out. I have a vague idea of certain plot points I want to move forward. The pairings as of now are listed as undecided because it could honestly go any direction at this point where I've left off in this first chapter. However, I will state that my interest in pairings that include characters I haven't actually watched anything of (i.e. Lena Luthor) would likely be small. Otherwise, feel free to weigh in. At any rate, I hope you enjoy this idea, and we'll see if anything else comes of it down the road. Thanks for reading, and let me know your thoughts! *Can also be read on my AO3*

It didn’t get much better than a night like this. Family and friends, along with the possibility of a new relationship she’d been longing for for months. Kara was still beaming ear to ear thanks to that.

But Supergirl didn’t get nights off for long. As she sat amongst the others, a distant sound caught her ear, rising in prominence until she couldn’t ignore it.

Kara looked up.

“Kara? What’s wrong?”

Everyone else had stopped talking, but she hardly noticed. She’d placed the sound. It was a scream, and of terror.

“Be right back.” She left James’ side and hurried out the door. There wasn’t time to change, so Kara took off straight into the sky.

It took her several precious minutes to find her target — judging by the volume of the scream, she had thought it closer. But at last Kara spotted it; a figure in black, falling fast. She put on a burst of speed to intercept, getting her arms around the person and continuing her flight at a gradually decreasing pace to ease out of the momentum of the fall.

Kara looked down at the woman, for it was a woman with long, blonde hair and a mask laid over her eyes. Her clothing was mostly leather, and there was some sort of stick or baton sitting in a holster on her thigh.

Kara’s brow furrowed. “Where did you come from?”

There was no answer; the woman must have passed out shortly before she had caught her.

She didn’t look injured otherwise, and Kara wasn’t sure what a hospital might think of the whole mask situation. More than that, though, if she turned this woman over to the authorities now, she might not find out just why she’d been plummeting through the air with no visible starting point or any plan at a landing.

Nothing for it then. Kara turned back for home, taking care to tuck the woman’s body in closer as she cleared the window. The others all turned around at her entrance, taking the sight in with varying degrees of surprise.

“Uh, Kara?” Winn took a half step forward. “Who’s your hot friend?”

“I’m not sure yet. She was falling through the air, but by the time I reached her, she’d fallen unconscious. I need somewhere to let her rest until she wakes up, and then we can ask.”

She shooed Alex and J’onn off the couch to make room, and the two of them exchanged a look.

“Kara, she’s wearing a mask,” her sister said.

“And she’s armed,” J’onn pointed out.

“Well, it’s not with kryptonite, so we should be fine.”

“Do we know who she is?” James motioned around his eyes. “Under the mask, I mean.”

Kara shrugged, then leaned over to lift the mask off the stranger — who was still a stranger. “Nope. Guess we’ll just have to ask her.”

“Kara, honey,” Eliza reached to touch her shoulder. “Are you sure you want that happening in your apartment?”

“Oh.” She looked around, then down at the sleeping stranger. Kara switched to her X-Ray vision for a moment. There was something puzzling about her throat, but otherwise… “Her physiology suggests human.”

Alex stepped up next to her and felt at the woman’s wrist and forehead. “Heart rate and temperature are consistent with one.”

“So the D.E.O. isn’t the right place for her, and she isn’t injured, so a hospital won’t take her.” Kara shrugged. “I don’t know where else this can happen.”

“Maybe if I have a look at her recent memories, it might give us a better idea of what we’re dealing with,” J’onn suggested.

Kara and Alex both moved back as he stepped forward, eyes glowing red. His brow furrowed, and a frown grew on his face.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Alex asked.

“Her mind. It’s not strictly inaccessible, but it isn’t as open as a human’s should be. I’m only getting flashes of images that keep cutting out.”

“What, like the signal’s bad?” Winn asked.

“She was somewhere like a jail, I think. There were people in prison uniforms. And a man with white hair. Then there’s the falling. I can’t get much else.” J’onn blinked and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, J’onn,” She assures him. “So to all appearances she’s human, but something is interfering with your telepathy.”

“I can probably still use a psychic push to wake her up. It’ll get us those answers you want faster.”

Kara looked out at the others. She didn’t want to hand this woman over to an authority — there hadn’t even been a crime committed so far as she knew — but she also wanted her friends and family safe. Her eyes landed on James last, and he gave a single nod.

“It’s your call, Kara.” There was so much trust in his gaze, she nearly felt swept away.

But Kara collected herself and nodded. “Go ahead, J’onn.”

His eyes glowed once more, and on the couch the woman stirred. Her eyelids fluttered, and in the next instant she sat right up with a gasp, her arms flying out.

Kara caught them both.

“Easy, easy! You’re not in any danger.”

The woman looked up at her with green eyes. “Wha— Who are you?” Her eyes darted around the whole room, taking everyone in. “Where am I?”

“I’m Kara, and this is my apartment. Who are you?”

The woman stared at her like she’d asked something very odd despite repeating her own question. “The Black Canary?”

“Yeah, that’s not a name,” Winn remarked.

The Black Canary. Something about that name rang a bell, but Kara couldn’t seem to pin it down.

She was distracted as Black Canary tried to tug her arms from Kara’s grip, and she eased up to let her go.

“Wait. Am I not—?” She felt around her eyes where the mask had been sitting. “Oh no.”

“It’s cool, we still don’t know who you are,” Winn told her.

“Then this isn’t Star City?”

“Nope,” said James.

“I don’t think I know a Star City,” Eliza added. Everyone else shook their heads in agreement as well, leaving Black Canary looking very confused and distressed.

“If we’re going to help you, we need you to cooperate with us,” Alex said, her voice trending more toward the stern Agent Danvers than her big sister. “So who are you really?”

The woman drew in a breath. “My name is Dinah Laurel Lance, and I have no idea how I got here.”

—-

To say that Laurel felt lost was an understatement. She couldn’t even guess as to the sequence of events that had led her here.

She’d been at the prison with the others, fighting to get the riot under control. Then Andy had betrayed them. After she’d convinced John to give things a chance with his brother, she couldn’t think what he must be feeling — assuming he and the others were still out there, somewhere.

With his powers back, Darhk had frozen them all. He’d caught Oliver’s arrow and turned to her with it, and then—

The floor had vanished out from under her. That was the only way to explain it. She’d gone from standing in front of him to suddenly falling, and through air. How had that happened?

Laurel couldn’t remember much about that past the blind panic. She’d been screaming, and something about that... she cleared her throat. “Can I have some water?”

“Oh, yeah. Um, Eliza?” Kara asked. A woman who looked to be one of the two oldest in the group nodded and walked across the open floor of the room to a kitchenette area, getting a glass and filling it. Laurel accepted it with a nod of thanks and drank. One hand absently rubbed at her neck, but she froze as she realized something was missing.

Her Canary Cry choker was gone.

“Um, when I was found, was there a- a necklace on me? It had sort of a silver-colored piece on the front.”

Kara shook her head. “The only thing we touched was the mask.”

Laurel frowned. Maybe it had fallen off while she was falling? She couldn’t believe she’d lost it after all the effort Cisco had put into making and developing it. It also didn’t make her feel any better about being on her own amongst strangers in a totally different place from home.

And there was still the question of how she’d gotten from falling through the sky to a woman’s apartment. “How was I found?”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Oh. Uh, well…”

“It was Supergirl,” one of the men blurted. “She- she works with Alex and Hank, so I guess she thought they could help. So she dropped you off and took off just before you woke up.” He looked around at the others as if checking with them for confirmation.

“Supergirl?”

That got a lot of disbelieving looks.

“Well, yeah. Supergirl,” another man said. “National City’s resident hero? That’s where you are now, by the way.”

Laurel had never heard of a National City, much less the hero that protected it. “Is she new?”

“She’s been here a year,” Kara said. “Just about, anyway. No one’s counting. But, if you haven’t heard of her, you’ve probably heard of her cousin,” she added in a somewhat glum tone. “Superman?”

“Nope,” Laurel answered. “I don’t know any super-people. What do they do?” Were they metahumans like Barry and Cisco in Central or magic users like Mari?

“They save people,” the only unnamed woman in the room stated. Though maybe someone had called her Alex? “Supergirl also works with the D.E.O. The Department of Extranormal Operations, which handles extraterrestrials,” she added at Laurel’s raised eyebrow.

“Extraterrestrials.”

“Oh, come on, you have to have heard about aliens,” the first man said.

“The concept? Yes. Actual aliens? No.” As if it hadn’t been enough to learn that time travel was possible only a few short weeks ago. Laurel put her head in her hands.

“Um, well, Dinah—”

“It’s Laurel. I mean, I’m named after my mom, so everyone’s always used my middle name.”

“Okay, Laurel,” said Kara. “Maybe you just tell us everything you can remember up until your fall.”

“Well, it doesn’t make much sense. My team and I were trying to get a prison riot under control. Damien Darhk had orchestrated it, and he used a spy we had trusted to get his powers back. I thought he was going to kill me,” she admitted in a hushed tone. “But then, it was like the ground disappeared, and everything was really blue for a minute, and then I guess... I was here. Maybe Darhk did it? He, um, he has magic.”

“He does?” None of them seemed to look totally thrown by that.

Laurel nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, could I get all of your names?”

“Oh! Right,” Kara laughed. She gestured to the woman on her left. “Well, this is Alex. We’re sisters. That’s our mom, Eliza. And our friends Hank, Winn, and, um, James,” she said, her smile turning up just that bit brighter as she glanced at the last man.

“And you all know this Supergirl?”

There were various nods or sounds of assent.

“I mean, we’re not super close. Maybe Alex,” Winn said. “But she’s a hero, so, you know, we all love her.”

Kara was grinning quite widely at that, and if Laurel wasn’t mistaken, her chest had puffed out a little.

“You said you were part of a team fighting a prison riot,” Alex said. She looked at Laurel with her arms crossed over her chest. “But you wear a mask.”

“Yeah.” Laurel glanced down. “Some people, they call us heroes. There’s plenty of others who just see us as vigilantes. But we’re just people trying to help bring justice to a city that has trouble finding it on their own.”

“If you were in trouble back home, maybe we should lend you a phone so you can call your team,” James suggested.

“Yes, thank you.”

He passed her his, and she stood on just slightly unsteady feet to walk to the other end of the room as she dialed. She could see the others talking amongst themselves about her. Laurel didn’t know what to do about that. They’d helped rescue her, but they knew her identity.

An automated voice told her Thea’s number did not exist. Laurel frowned and tried again with the same result, then tried her father to get the same message again. The only other number she had memorized anymore was Ollie’s.

It rang and rang. Laurel held her breath, waiting for the familiar voice, something to ground herself, comfort her. Finally it was picked up. “Hello?”

It was a man’s voice, but not his. Laurel hesitated. “Hi. Um, could I speak to Oliver?”

“You must have the wrong number.”

She didn’t, but she also did not know this stranger. “Okay. Well, thank you.”

Laurel turned back to the group. “I couldn’t reach anyone.”

“They weren’t answering, or…” Winn began.

“Either their phones have been disconnected, or someone else has the number now.” Laurel shook her head. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sure we can help you find them,” Eliza promised. Laurel tried to smile in gratitude, but she was still thrown by the lack of ability to contact her friends and family. What had happened? Where was she?

—-

He didn’t know what had happened. None of them did. He’d been forced to watch the whole thing, but Oliver couldn’t begin to explain it.

Darhk had had them all frozen once Andy had restored the last piece of the idol to him. Laurel had been the closest. Oliver’s last action had been firing an arrow, futilely, for Darhk had caught it. He’d turned back to Laurel.

“I want you to give your father a message from me. I want you to tell him—”

Yet just as he had moved to strike his blow, a...thing had opened up in the ground. A hole. A temporary one, but a hole.

Because Laurel had fallen through.

Her eyes had reflected a moment of shock and then terrible fear as she had dropped out of sight. Oliver had felt the yell of her name he could not voice rumble through his very bones.

The blue circle in the ground had disappeared, leaving the floor where she had once stood intact. Like she had never been there at all. Damien Darhk had paused, looking down at it.

“Well, that was odd.”

He didn’t know if it had been a break in Darhk’s concentration or just pure rage, but without any warning at all, Oliver had been able to move.

His fist had connected with Darhk’s face, and the man went tumbling to the ground. Oliver had hauled him back up and slammed him into the wall.

“What have you done? Where is she?”

“I’ve done nothing!” Darhk had claimed, one of his characteristic laughs on the end.

“Liar!”

Darhk’s eyes had glowed as he’d managed to get a hand raised up between them, yet Oliver’s arm had not stilled. His fist had connected. Again and again.

“How—” the man had coughed.

“Bring her back!”

“Oliver!”

John had caught his arm before he could land another blow, and Darhk had slowly slid to the ground, his eyes drooping shut and his breathing heavy.

“You’re gonna kill him if you keep that up,” John had muttered. “And whatever happened, it wasn’t him.”

But if it wasn’t… “She’s gone, John.” His voice had trembled. Oliver had looked around, his view and his standing unsteady. His eyes had landed on the idol sitting on the table, and with barely a second thought, he’d swept it off to smash on the floor.

Andy had gone when he’d looked around, and Malcolm had moved to check on Thea. “Get away from her, Malcolm,” he’d snarled, making great strides to cut him off from his sister. Oliver had scooped her up into his arms.

Malcolm has calmly raised both hands. “Oliver, I swear I didn’t—”

“I don’t care. You’ve chosen your side.” How many times had Malcolm used and betrayed his family and friends? How many times had Laurel warned him?

He’d left the prison with John once the authorities arrived, some in ARGUS attire to cart Darhk away as he knew their secret. Back at the base, they’d set Thea on a medical cot and Oliver had dropped into one of the chairs by the computers.

He was sitting there even now, his head in his hands. Laurel had disappeared in some blue light, not of Darhk’s origin. But how could it have been anything other than magic? And where was she now? He refused to consider the idea that she might simply be nowhere. No, Laurel still had to be alive.

The elevator opened and Quentin Lance hurried out. Oliver’s heart jumped into his throat.

“I got your call,” he said to John. “Is Darhk still in custody?”

“He is. ARGUS took over it,” John said. “But that’s not everything that happened.”

“What do you mean?”

A groan from Thea’s cot interrupted them, and Oliver went to her bedside. “Hey, it’s okay. Careful sitting up.”

“Did we get him?” His sister asked groggily. Under better circumstances, it might have pulled a smile from him. Right now, the best he could manage was a nod.

“We did, yeah.”

“Where’s Laurel?”

Of course Thea would notice because of course Laurel would be there on the other side of the bed, holding his sister’s arm to keep her steady and checking her head for any bruise. If she were here.

He swallowed down a lump in his throat and looked from her to Lance. “We don’t know.”

Lance almost scoffed. “You don’t — what do you mean, you don’t know?”

“She disappeared, straight through the floor,” John replied, and without his helmet on Oliver could see how disturbed he looked by just the memory. “There was this blue light, and she was gone.”

“Gone where?” Lance stared at him, expecting something more when Oliver had nothing. “What- what floor were you on?”

Oliver shook his head. “She wasn’t in the prison. I’m sorry, Quentin.”

“But she’s not dead. I mean, she can’t be, right?” Thea asked, her eyes wide and afraid.

“We don’t know, Thea.” Oliver turned away. “We don’t know anything.”

The only thing they did know was that Laurel wasn’t here.

—-

Cisco sat up, an arm outstretched and a wordless cry on his lips. He stayed there for a moment, waiting for the harsh breaths he took to slow his heart rate down.

The same. For the seventh night in a row he had had the same dream. On some level, he felt it could be called a nightmare, but he just didn’t know why.

Nothing especially bad happened in it. It was just, there was a bird. A dead bird. And for some reason he always got a terrible sense of dread at the sight of it, building worse and worse with each successive night. This was the first time he’d woken up seemingly reaching for something, though.

He searched around on the bedside table for his phone, checking the time. It was an ungodly hour, of course. Why couldn’t his powers be the kind that let him sleep?

Cisco checked his messages and emails, then scrolled through the news app. Nothing of note, except a prison riot outside Starling City that had been fought by Team Arrow. At least he wasn’t the only one keeping late hours.

He set his phone aside again and rolled over with a sigh, closing his eyes and willing himself back to sleep.

For the first time in a week, the nightmare did not find him.

[razieltwelve]

Invasion (Final Gate)

The Saderan Empire was not used to being invaded. On the contrary, they were usually the ones doing the invading. Alas, they had made a grave mistake. The Grand Empire Alliance was not fond of people who tried to invade it, and it could be very good at invasion if it put its mind to it…

X     X     X

"Prepare yourselves for battle, brothers and sisters!” the Dia-Farron roared as she leapt atop her war hamster and shook her fist at the gate in front of them that led to another world. “These fools have dared to set foot upon the sacred soil of our glorious empire. We must teach them the folly of their actions. We must bring them fire, thunder, and ruin! We will boil their seas and burn their skies! We will crush the ashes of their devastated lands beneath our boots and sow their ruined fields with salt! They will rue the day that they -”

Natalia Dia-Farron coughed and tapped her cousin on the shoulder. “Actually, this isn’t an extermination mission.”

Aurelia Dia-Farron turned. “Wait… what? I thought we had clearance to annihilate everything.” She pointed at the weapons mounted on her war hamster. “I’ve even got Professor Cuddlebaxter kitted out with obliterator cannons and everything.”

The war hamster nodded, and the aforementioned obliterator cannons swivelled in their mountings. Natalia sighed. The use of obliterator cannons was highly restricted due to their tendency to, well, obliterate stuff on a colossal scale. A single blast could simply erase entire cities from the very fabric of reality.

“No, we are not authorised to annihilate everything.” Natalia sighed. “We will be doing some conquering, but not a lot of annihilation, at least, assuming they see sense.”

Aurelia made a face. “So… you’re saying I can’t use the obliterator cannons?”

“Nope.”

“Damn it. Fine.” Aurelia rubbed her chin. “I suppose I can stick with warp cannons instead.”

“I’ll be the lead on this mission, and my orders were clear. We’re sticking with low-tier weapons unless something bigger is required. We don’t want to give too much away.”

“Seriously?” Aurelia threw her hands up in the air. “You’re asking me to use plasma cannons like some kind of barbarian?”

“Plasma cannons have a long and storied history.”

“I suppose they do scale up rather well.”

“There will also be restrictions on maximum weapons output.”

Aurelia glared. “You’re sucking all of the fun out of conquest.”

“Look,” Natalia said. “I’ll be setting up a hive for my Imperial Zerg. If you want, you can be the field commander for my frontline forces.”

“Hmm…” Aurelia eyed some of the nearby Imperial Zerg thoughtfully. “The thought of commanding an army of ravening, bloodthirsty creatures designed specifically to massacre our enemies does have its appeal. Okay. I accept.”

X     X     X

The Saderan army encamped around the gate was completely annihilated in a little over twenty minutes.

In keeping with Aurelia’s approach to combat, the first person through the gate was Tiberius, one of the titanolisks under Natalia’s command. The mighty Imperial Zerg simply trampled everyone foolish enough to get in his way as he unfolded the vast armoured plates on his body to shield those behind him.

Volleys of arrows, stones, magic, and metal bolts clattered into him. They might as well have been throwing confetti. Tiberius had been designed to survive orbital bombardment from civilisations that could tear apart entire star systems with their weaponry. The only thing he felt was satisfaction that his opponents were so easily crushed underfoot and delight that his kin would be able to wreak havoc upon the enemies of the Empire.

Right behind Tiberius, waves of cyberlisks poured out of the gate. Much like the hydralisks, they were primarily ranged combatants. But by combining the wonders of Zerg physiology with cybernetic engineering, they didn’t shoot spines. No, they were basically living rail guns that fired volleys of shrapnel at unbelievable speeds.

Against people clad mostly in leather, cloth, and steel, the results were devastating. Each volley reduced entire ranks of the enemy into clouds of gore, which provided the more melee oriented Imperial Zerg the perfect chance to shatter the tattered Saderan formations.

Zerglings streamed forward. Since they were the first to enter melee combat with the enemy, Aurelia had chosen specimens with slightly lower speed but greater durability than the standard configuration. They tore into the Saderans with the single-minded ferocity the Imperial Zerg were famous for, ripping and tearing anything they could reach.

Behind them, the cyberlisks had switched from firing volleys of shrapnel to firing lances of hardened material. This allowed them to continue attacking without putting the Zerglings at risk. Besides, with the enemy in full retreat, long-ranged attacks were more efficient anyway.

As the Saderan army’s retreat broke into a disorganised rout, the first of the Imperial Zerg fliers entered the fray. Swift and deadly, they strafed the retreating Saderans over and over again. 

And just like that it was over.

Aurelia and Professor Cuddlebaxter advanced. Neither of them had fired a single shot.

“Hmm…” Aurelia patted Tiberius on the side as the gigantic creature lumbered forward, ready to put himself between her and any possible threat at a moment’s notice. “Good work.” She activated her communicator. “Gate is secure, Natalia. You can start setting up your hive now.”

A moment later, drones and other Imperial Zerg began to file through the gate. Unlike the combat types that Aurelia had commanded, these ones were suited for construction. Soon, dozens of structures were morphing, and the beginnings of creep had begun to spread. Further back, Imperial scientists, soldiers, and construction workers had also begun to exit the gate.

The Imperial Zerg had provided the beachhead. It would be up to the rest of the Empire’s forces to make the most of it. Aurelia looked across the battlefield and gave the order for the Zerglings to begin collecting the bodies. Natalia liked to be economical, so it wouldn’t be long before she had a conversion pit up and running. They might as well make use of the organic material they had on hand.

[aucklandmed]

How I study

A lot of people having been asking me how I study and how I prepared for exams during my degree, so here is a summary post. Please message me if you have any questions.

In summary, my advice is

1. Focus

2. De-stress

3. Make good notes that you understand

4. Plan your exam prep

5. Study by teaching

Focus

A big part of procrastination is losing focus and wanting to do something else OR not really wanting to study. Losing focus is due to a combination of lack of motivation to study and being easily distracted. It can be a 50:50 combo of those two or a different combination. Maybe you really do want to study but you just can’t focus. For that situation I’ve found a really good solution: the pomodoro technique. It’s a step by step process which encourages a really good productivity habit. This video is going to explain it much better than I could.

https://www.focusboosterapp.com/the-pomodoro-technique

This is the technique I use during exams, not during the year. The website I use it http://www.marinaratimer.com/ where you can pick your own sound etc and it’s free.

Stress (and de-stress)

Maybe you’re really good at committing to study but you’ve got other things on your mind. You’re worried about your results, an upcoming test, assignments etc. It’s all very well to be super focus on what you’re doing but if you’re also stressed, you’re not gonna be very efficient and ultimately, it’s not very good for you.

Learning how to “let go” of things that worry you is a good strategy to dealing with stress and becoming more focused and thereby more efficient. The theory is VERY simple but putting it into practice.. not so much. However, if you do manage it, it’s amazing. It took me a whole semester to master it (S1, 2nd year) but by the start of S2, I was pretty much stress free (for the most part). I became much more efficient (did 5 papers in a semester and did really well in all of them) and I was just having a much better time. Life suddenly wasn’t so dull and stressful anymore.

The basis of this technique can be explained in 2 ways: the simple way and the arrow metaphor. The simple explanation is “If you can change something, then change it. If you can’t, don’t worry about it”. So, putting that into practice: you’re trying to study and you keep thinking about UMAT and how stressful it was, but then you realise you can’t affect your UMAT grades anymore so you think “hey, I can’t change this so let’s not worry about it and instead I’ll focus on things I CAN change, such as the MEDSCI test”. This is, of course, very easy to say and much harder to do. I much more prefer the arrow metaphor. Everything that hurts or stresses you in life is an arrow that hits you. This causes some bleeding and you’re hurt and stressed and you don’t like it. This can be a bad grade, a break up, anything. But then you can hit yourself with another arrow. The 2nd arrow is you punishing yourself for the 1st arrow. You’re angry at yourself for not getting a better grade, angry/upset with yourself for the breakup. But you don’t need to endure the pain of the 2nd arrow if you never shoot it at yourself. Forgive yourself. You’re doing better than you think and you need to be nicer to yourself.

Let me ask you a question. If you treated your friends and family the way you treat yourself when you get a bad grade/something doesn’t go well for you, would they still want to talk to you? If you can be compassionate to others, then you can be compassionate to yourself.

You need to also identify the source of stress. Of course, the “ultimate” stressor is usually the main goal we are heading towards. For me that was not getting into med school. But then, when broken don, there were smaller parts to it such as the upcoming test, the interview etc. Breaking it down and identifying WHY each of those things stressed me out helped me not be stressed about them.

“The test is stressing me. Why? Don’t feel like I’ll do well. Ok, I’ll go do some more practice papers. I see I’m getting a lot of answers right. Oh, I must be doing alright. I am now less stressed” Ultimately, becoming less stressed will result in becoming more efficient at studying/doing anything you’re trying to do.

Progressive studying (how I study)

Alright. I think there is a difference between memorising every single little detail months before the test and actually understanding the concepts (months ahead). I also think that people get these two confused.. a lot. In 1st year I memorised everything ages ahead and then when I got to the test… I forgot it. What I did remember were the general concepts and I also remembered everything I understood.

So, progressive studying is definitely good. A simple google search will show you 100s of studies proving that. But one study technique is not like the other.

What I did in 2nd and 3rd year (and actually still do today) is that I make notes for the lecture. Now this is different for 1st year and for everyone else. In 1st year, the notes are already pretty good, you probably don’t need to make extra notes. In every other year, you do. Make your own notes because the notes in the book just won’t be useful for you. Then, you make sure you understand everything in that lecture. Don’t let a lecture go by unnoticed if you don’t understand it because it will be much more difficult to understand a week before the test, I guarantee it.

Notes and lecture preparation

What I did was that I went to these lectures and I usually came prepared: I had other people's notes/slides because they don't upload them before the lectures (for some physiology papers) and the course guides are crap. Lucky all of you who message me for them (in a polite and respectful manner). I will happily provide you with my notes. I will only send you notes written by me so there is no copyright issue. So now I’m at a lecture with my pre-printed notes/notes on my laptop, I can easily keep up with the lecture. Edit the notes

From here I would never be done with a lecture until the notes are done. That is, they're edited and ready to be printed, they're not missing anything the lecturer said, they're nicely formatted so that I don't hate studying from them AND MOST IMPORTANTLY I UNDERSTAND everything in the notes. Not remember but understand. So that when I need to memorise everything from them in a few days or weeks, I can and I don't have to go back and re-do them. This is a very important step.

Exams (how I prepare before exams)

I cram. But beware.. there are different kinds of cramming. I’ve never crammed overnight and I’ve never started studying a day before an exam. That’s just… not smart. When people say cramming they think of learning the whole semester’s worth of content in one day and that's just downright impossible.

What I do is I usually allocate about ~2 weeks before a test that is reserved just for that test. I take all of my notes that I prepared during the semester (previous paragraph) and I’ll start planning and preparing. I would write out approx.. how many days I have, leave ~1 day purely for revision and past exams, divide the number of lectures by the number of days. I would then do MINIMUM that number of lectures and always try to do a few more per day if I can.

Study by teaching

For the actual study, I would read the whole lecture notes. I would make sure I understand everything there and then I would re-write everything from that lecture that I didn't automatically remember (some stuff is really obvious and it just sticks in your mind). Ideally I would try to fit that summary onto 1 page. Then you're left with your notes and ~30 one page summaries of everything.

Now I’ve read through your notes and I’ve summarised everything I didn't know. Now I move onto more intense study.

I had a few friends in undergrad who were usually a bit behind on stuff and I think they really benefited from me teaching her stuff. When I taught them stuff (even just reading it from the page) I learnt it REALLY well. It was crazy how much I remembered just by explaining it to someone else, even if I didn’t remember it myself and I was reading it from my book. Teaching is a really really good way of learning.

So find someone you can teach. Big groups never really worked for me, we all ended up procrastinating. Find one other person and take turns teaching. Divide the lectures into 2 halves and each of you will teach one half to the other. You can also correct each other. This is the best study technique I've ever had and it's so effective. If you can't find someone to teach, get a teddy bear and lock yourself in your room and explain everything out loud to your teddy bear. NOT in your head - that's bad and doesn't work. Explain it out loud. I spent about 50% of my study this way because I couldn’t be bothered going to uni to find someone to explain it to.

Good luck for the rest of the year :) 

[kristablogs]

Eleven outdoor skills to teach your kids—or yourself

Teach your little ones some new survival tips to fill up free time. (Christine Peterson/)

This story originally featured on Outdoor Life.

Unless you’re an engineer or calculus teacher, you probably aren’t going to be able to help your high school senior with math homework. Nor will you likely teach a 5-year-old to speak a foreign language fluently. Let’s face it, few of us are teachers and even fewer are trained to teach whatever grade level and subject matter your suddenly homeschooled student is trying to learn. But you might be qualified to teach outdoor skills.

How to sharpen knives, use a compass, and build an emergency shelter are important. They’re also more fun than suffering through schoolwork. I’m not advocating parents permanently pump the brakes on reading and arithmetic, just gently suggesting you use this newfound time to do something other than fight over how much TV they watch.

“If you’re trying to force them to do schoolwork every day, that’s going to be a drag and they will get burned out quick,” says Zach Even, a high school art teacher in Lander, Wyoming, father to twin 11-year-olds and an avid outdoors person.

So stop worrying so much about worksheets and e-learning and start thinking about the skills you’d really like your kids to know. The ones maybe your parents taught you, or their parents taught them. The ones you never really had the time to spend on before. Think about what you want your kids to be able to do if they found themselves in a survival scenario. And if you don’t want to go there, just think of the next few months as a way to bond over something you love, not the ones you’re being cajoled into teaching.

As a bonus, you’ll not only be creating a more capable outdoor companion, but it may also be a good refresher for you. And, who knows, your kids may learn some math and science along the way.

We shouldn’t have to remind you, but will, that some of these are clearly age dependent. I have a 3-year-old, and while she’s spent many nights helping me build a campfire, she’s not ready to sharpen knives or drive the truck.

Build an emergency shelter

If it’s still winter where you live, find a pile of snow or a snowdrift and show your kid how to build a cave. Talk them through angles—don’t dig straight, create a wider space in the back—and how to punch a small hole through a wall to circulate fresh air. If it’s not still winter, help them build a lean-to where they could spend a night, if needed. If you want, you could even make a lesson of it and have them research building techniques before heading outside.

Study how bullets and arrows work

If ignoring schoolwork is giving you a little heartburn, don’t fret, you can still work plenty of math and science lessons into these skills. Teaching how to reload bullets is a perfect example: Different weights can lead to discussions on momentum and energy. If you’re more of an archery person, teach your kids how to fletch their own arrows and discuss the same topics. Then go outside and practice shooting, taking those lessons from the classroom to the field.

Teach animal anatomy

Maybe you already talk about basic deer anatomy before hunting seasons open, but now is an even better time to go over the basics on any species you may want to hunt—or even those you don’t. The tutorials can go over not only physiology of the creatures but also necessary angles for kill shots. With turkey season upon us, start with gobblers. When you shoot one, take the time to go over what you see in the field. I guarantee whatever biology class your kid is in, he or she is not learning how to dissect a wild turkey. You can also go fishing and apply the same dissecting lessons with your catch. Instead of filleting and moving on, take the time to explain each part and its function.

Demonstrate tying flies

We’ve all been teaching our kids how to fish since they were old enough to hold a rod, but have you worked on fly tying? If not, this is a great time. Even, the teacher, resolved to use some of the homeschooling hours to practice fly tying with his kids. Start with a simple dubbing nymph, then move to a basic nymph like a pheasant-tail before moving to a woolly bugger. You could also try an egg pattern. You’re working not just on entomology and matching flies to hatches, but also art skills.

Host some knife-sharpening tutorials

Sharpening knives is a skill all outdoors people should have. It’s usually just a task we do while preparing for a hunting or fishing trip, or working in the shop some evening. It’s rarely something we go over with our kids—but consider it. Demonstrate the basics of knife sharpening in the woods when you’re in a pinch or in the shop when you need a sharper blade for butchering. Helpful hint: Start with the knives you don’t care as much about.

Use geocaching to learn navigation

We’ve broken navigation skills into two lessons. Start by teaching your kids how to use a GPS. You likely have one, and they should know how to use it. But if you want this to be less of a how-to and more of an activity, create a geocache for them. Hide objects in an area near your house and set them on a course.

Or learn navigation the old-fashioned way

Get out your map and compass and start going over those skills you likely learned as a kid. Go over the basics. Then head outside for a scavenger hunt, Even suggests. “Give them a starting point, a bearing, and a certain number of steps and then some type of clue.” When they arrive and find a box, include a clue for the next point. Make it fun and put ingredients for cookies in each package so there’s a reward at the end.

Go over building fires

If you haven’t taught your kids how to start a fire in the woods, now is the time. Even our 3-year-old knows how to stack sticks on top of red needles to start a blaze. The older the child, the more complicated you can be with fire starting. Go over using flint and a glass lens. Incorporate a little chemistry by lighting steel wool on fire with a battery.

Outline basic mechanics

This isn’t a skill directly tied to the outdoors, but it’s important to know how to change a flat tire when you’re stuck on a dirt road with no cell service. Teach your kid the basics. Go over how to change a vehicle’s oil, check tire pressure, run jumper cables, and swap a tire. Also be willing to teach your kid how to operate an ATV, and if you’re on two-track roads in the backwoods, how to drive your vehicle. Even had his kids driving on a two-track when they were 8 years old, not so they could joy ride, but so if they were out hunting together and he was injured, one of them could get help.

Plant a garden or harvest in the wild

It’s spring, and if you don’t have a garden yet, now is a good time to start putting one in the ground. Use that free labor you have in your house to teach kids how to grow basic vegetables. Then put them in charge of watering and working with you on weeding, learning what you want and don’t want in the garden. For older kids, head into the woods to harvest morels or other native edibles.

Pack a survival kit

Even if you already have yours put together, it’s the perfect moment to make sure your first aid kit and survival pack are up to date and complete. But instead of sorting through it on your own, show your kid, too. Start one if you don’t already have it ready. Here’s a good place to begin.

[scootoaster]

Eleven outdoor skills to teach your kids—or yourself

Teach your little ones some new survival tips to fill up free time. (Christine Peterson/)

This story originally featured on Outdoor Life.

Unless you’re an engineer or calculus teacher, you probably aren’t going to be able to help your high school senior with math homework. Nor will you likely teach a 5-year-old to speak a foreign language fluently. Let’s face it, few of us are teachers and even fewer are trained to teach whatever grade level and subject matter your suddenly homeschooled student is trying to learn. But you might be qualified to teach outdoor skills.

How to sharpen knives, use a compass, and build an emergency shelter are important. They’re also more fun than suffering through schoolwork. I’m not advocating parents permanently pump the brakes on reading and arithmetic, just gently suggesting you use this newfound time to do something other than fight over how much TV they watch.

“If you’re trying to force them to do schoolwork every day, that’s going to be a drag and they will get burned out quick,” says Zach Even, a high school art teacher in Lander, Wyoming, father to twin 11-year-olds and an avid outdoors person.

So stop worrying so much about worksheets and e-learning and start thinking about the skills you’d really like your kids to know. The ones maybe your parents taught you, or their parents taught them. The ones you never really had the time to spend on before. Think about what you want your kids to be able to do if they found themselves in a survival scenario. And if you don’t want to go there, just think of the next few months as a way to bond over something you love, not the ones you’re being cajoled into teaching.

As a bonus, you’ll not only be creating a more capable outdoor companion, but it may also be a good refresher for you. And, who knows, your kids may learn some math and science along the way.

We shouldn’t have to remind you, but will, that some of these are clearly age dependent. I have a 3-year-old, and while she’s spent many nights helping me build a campfire, she’s not ready to sharpen knives or drive the truck.

Build an emergency shelter

If it’s still winter where you live, find a pile of snow or a snowdrift and show your kid how to build a cave. Talk them through angles—don’t dig straight, create a wider space in the back—and how to punch a small hole through a wall to circulate fresh air. If it’s not still winter, help them build a lean-to where they could spend a night, if needed. If you want, you could even make a lesson of it and have them research building techniques before heading outside.

Study how bullets and arrows work

If ignoring schoolwork is giving you a little heartburn, don’t fret, you can still work plenty of math and science lessons into these skills. Teaching how to reload bullets is a perfect example: Different weights can lead to discussions on momentum and energy. If you’re more of an archery person, teach your kids how to fletch their own arrows and discuss the same topics. Then go outside and practice shooting, taking those lessons from the classroom to the field.

Teach animal anatomy

Maybe you already talk about basic deer anatomy before hunting seasons open, but now is an even better time to go over the basics on any species you may want to hunt—or even those you don’t. The tutorials can go over not only physiology of the creatures but also necessary angles for kill shots. With turkey season upon us, start with gobblers. When you shoot one, take the time to go over what you see in the field. I guarantee whatever biology class your kid is in, he or she is not learning how to dissect a wild turkey. You can also go fishing and apply the same dissecting lessons with your catch. Instead of filleting and moving on, take the time to explain each part and its function.

Demonstrate tying flies

We’ve all been teaching our kids how to fish since they were old enough to hold a rod, but have you worked on fly tying? If not, this is a great time. Even, the teacher, resolved to use some of the homeschooling hours to practice fly tying with his kids. Start with a simple dubbing nymph, then move to a basic nymph like a pheasant-tail before moving to a woolly bugger. You could also try an egg pattern. You’re working not just on entomology and matching flies to hatches, but also art skills.

Host some knife-sharpening tutorials

Sharpening knives is a skill all outdoors people should have. It’s usually just a task we do while preparing for a hunting or fishing trip, or working in the shop some evening. It’s rarely something we go over with our kids—but consider it. Demonstrate the basics of knife sharpening in the woods when you’re in a pinch or in the shop when you need a sharper blade for butchering. Helpful hint: Start with the knives you don’t care as much about.

Use geocaching to learn navigation

We’ve broken navigation skills into two lessons. Start by teaching your kids how to use a GPS. You likely have one, and they should know how to use it. But if you want this to be less of a how-to and more of an activity, create a geocache for them. Hide objects in an area near your house and set them on a course.

Or learn navigation the old-fashioned way

Get out your map and compass and start going over those skills you likely learned as a kid. Go over the basics. Then head outside for a scavenger hunt, Even suggests. “Give them a starting point, a bearing, and a certain number of steps and then some type of clue.” When they arrive and find a box, include a clue for the next point. Make it fun and put ingredients for cookies in each package so there’s a reward at the end.

Go over building fires

If you haven’t taught your kids how to start a fire in the woods, now is the time. Even our 3-year-old knows how to stack sticks on top of red needles to start a blaze. The older the child, the more complicated you can be with fire starting. Go over using flint and a glass lens. Incorporate a little chemistry by lighting steel wool on fire with a battery.

Outline basic mechanics

This isn’t a skill directly tied to the outdoors, but it’s important to know how to change a flat tire when you’re stuck on a dirt road with no cell service. Teach your kid the basics. Go over how to change a vehicle’s oil, check tire pressure, run jumper cables, and swap a tire. Also be willing to teach your kid how to operate an ATV, and if you’re on two-track roads in the backwoods, how to drive your vehicle. Even had his kids driving on a two-track when they were 8 years old, not so they could joy ride, but so if they were out hunting together and he was injured, one of them could get help.

Plant a garden or harvest in the wild

It’s spring, and if you don’t have a garden yet, now is a good time to start putting one in the ground. Use that free labor you have in your house to teach kids how to grow basic vegetables. Then put them in charge of watering and working with you on weeding, learning what you want and don’t want in the garden. For older kids, head into the woods to harvest morels or other native edibles.

Pack a survival kit

Even if you already have yours put together, it’s the perfect moment to make sure your first aid kit and survival pack are up to date and complete. But instead of sorting through it on your own, show your kid, too. Start one if you don’t already have it ready. Here’s a good place to begin.

[nancyedimick]

Crime on the virtual street: Strobe lighting, ‘virtual groping’ and startling

I’m blogging excerpts this week and next week from Mark Lemley’s and my new article, “Law, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality” (click on the link to see the whole article, including footnotes). This post is from the criminal law part; we began with disturbing the peace and indecent exposure and are now turning to other crimes.

One general assumption we make throughout: VR and AR technology (think something like Google Glass) will get better, cheaper and more effective at rendering lifelike human avatars that track the user’s facial expressions. I think that’s a safe assumption, given the general trends in computer technology and one that doesn’t require any major technological breakthroughs; but we are indeed prognosticating about technology that’s likely at least a couple of years out.

* * *

1. Strobe lighting

Here’s a possible test case that does involve a serious harm that is harder to avoid: About 3 percent of people who have epilepsy — disproportionately, young people — can have seizures triggered by strobe lighting. Though such seizures tend not to be fatal, or even greatly injurious, at least when the person having the seizure is just sitting in his home in front of his computer, they do involve a nontrivial risk of injury. This hasn’t been seen as reason enough to generally ban strobe lights, especially since such lights seem to be entertaining for many people and are sometimes used as a safety feature. But deliberately creating a strobe effect in VR precisely to play a nasty prank on someone you know to be endangered by this would likely be tortious or even criminal.

But here, too, a program running on a user’s VR headset might be able to detect strobe lighting and convert it to something non-strobing. People who know they are strobe-sensitive, or who even think they might be, could then easily turn on this program.

The initial exposure — for those who have neglected to get and turn on such a program, or for those who are unaware that they need it — is materially more dangerous than in the disturbing-the-peace scenario: physical injury, and not just annoyance. And an attempt to deliberately trigger a seizure, as in our hypothetical, is highly morally culpable. The purpose is to harm someone, even if most of the time the purpose will be frustrated by the target’s precautions.

Would this be enough to lead the police to be willing to intervene? Or would they likely not think this to be worth triggering a possible interstate or international investigation, when, at least going forward, the victim could avoid such harms through technological means?

The strobe light example is the rare virtual hypothetical that combines such culpability with the real risk of physical injury, but others might arise in the future: Imagine, for instance, a hack that alters the VR camera positioning information so that a user who thinks she is in the middle of her living room is in fact standing at the edge of the stairs, or that deliberately sends someone using AR walking into a wall or off a cliff. The use of VR (or, more likely, AR) systems to deliberately cause physical harm to a user is more likely to get the attention of police and courts than are disturbing the virtual peace or virtual indecent exposure. But it will do so precisely because the consequences are more obviously physical rather than virtual.

2. “Virtual groping”

Harm, though, can also feel real without being physical. Only a few months after commercial VR became available, a woman named Jordan Belamire (a pseudonym) was “virtually groped.” Belamire recounted playing a multi-player zombie shooter game when another player — who recognized Belamire as female by her voice — began to make gestures that seemed like virtual groping:

In between a wave of zombies and demons to shoot down, I was hanging out next to BigBro442 [the other player], waiting for our next attack. Suddenly, BigBro442’s disembodied helmet faced me dead-on. His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest….

[E]ven when I turned away from him, he chased me around, making grabbing and pinching motions near my chest. Emboldened, he even shoved his hand toward my virtual crotch and began rubbing….

And Belamire reports that BigBro442’s behavior, though utterly lacking in physical contact, seemed so realistic as to be disturbing. Belamire had earlier in her article described how realistic a VR cliff seemed to be, triggering her fear of heights.

“The virtual groping,” she said, “feels just as real. Of course, you’re not physically being touched, just like you’re not actually one hundred feet off the ground, but it’s still scary as hell.” Her experience is consistent with the studies we reported in Part I.C.2 suggesting that people react physiologically to touches in VR much as if they had happened in the physical world.

Under current law, virtual groping probably wouldn’t be a crime. It isn’t sexual battery, because there’s no touching. Tort law tends to define “assault” as including an actor’s intentionally putting someone in “imminent apprehension” of “offensive contact,” but criminal law tends not to outlaw such behavior unless it is actually an attempt to commit battery. And beyond that, it’s not clear that such imminent apprehension would be present when the target consciously knows that no physical contact is possible. While sexual threats by remote actors over the Internet have sometimes been treated as crimes, those cases all hinge on the plausibility that the threat made over the Internet will be carried out in the physical world.

Should the law be changed? We suspect that very few people would find virtual groping, accomplished through purely visual means, to be as upsetting as real groping. Nonetheless, Belamire is doubtless right that, because of the visceral feeling created by virtual reality, such virtual groping will be more upsetting to many people than getting an unwanted tweet or an email expressing sexual desire.

And people’s reactions may well depend on how developed and personalized their avatar is, something that differs from platform to platform and game to game, and that is likely to change over time. Perhaps virtual groping will be upsetting enough to treat it as the sort of action that criminal law ought to, in principle, forbid, if not now then in the near future. This question likely can’t be resolved until we have more experience with how people actually feel in such situations.

Nonetheless, here too, as in the indecent-exposure scenario, there is reason to be skeptical of whether criminal law can and should apply. First, as always, is the Bangladesh Problem: Few police departments will be eager to extradite someone from another country or even another state simply because he made gestures, however disquieting, in a virtual reality game. Even police officers who greatly respect women’s bodily integrity may be hesitant to use a great deal of resources to deal with people who, after all, did not literally touch anyone.

Second, here too technologically enabled self-protection may be available. The physical structure of the real world is notoriously tolerant of people coming very close to you. Protection from unwanted touch has to rely on legal rules, social mores and the threat of violent self-protection.

But the code-as-law of the VR world can easily forbid avatars from approaching within some perceived distance of you, or forbid particular people from doing it, or forbid this except in certain games. Indeed, VR developers have already offered this as a response to Belamire’s article; as the author of the VR game that Belamire had been playing wrote:

We should have prevented this in the first place. While QuiVr is still in pre-release alpha, we’d already programmed a setting into the game called your, “Personal Bubble,” so other player’s hands disappear if they come close to your face. This way, the rare bad-apple player can’t block someone else’s view and be annoying. The arrows that get shot at you stick in your helmet, which is good for a laugh, but they do no damage and quickly disappear so they don’t get in the way. We hadn’t, though, thought of extending that fading function to the rest of the body ….

I called Jonathan, who is … the original creator of QuiVr …. He’d already seen the article — his girlfriend had sent him the link — and he had spent the morning changing the game to extend the Personal Bubble; now, when the setting was turned on, other players faded out when they reached for you, no matter their target, chest included…. It was a possible solution; no one should be able to treat another player like the author had been treated again.

Indeed, the author suggested other technologically enabled self-protection options, including ones that come across as more active self-defense (or, if you prefer, retaliation) — perhaps, for instance, allowing a player to “reach[] out with a finger, and with a little flick, sent [the other] player flying off the screen like an ant.” One can even design the game so that this feature can be used only against those avatars who come too close to one’s own (or else the flicking could itself become a form of unprovoked aggression). Or the VR or AR company can set up a bubble feature that excludes some avatars but not others that the participant has placed on a “close approach permitted” list.

If people behaved better, none of this would be needed. But given that people do behave badly, VR and AR technologies sometimes offer better tools for dealing with bad behavior than the physical world does.

3. AR crimes that can’t be easily technologically avoided — startling

Finally, let’s note one crime that is especially likely to be dangerous in AR: deliberately or recklessly startling someone in a way that’s likely to dangerously interfere with his physical-world tasks.

Say I know that you’re driving with your AR set engaged, and I deliberately appear in your field of vision — not just as me, but as a giant, loud, fire-breathing dragon (or perhaps as a very attractive naked person of whatever sex you find attractive). Or perhaps I happen to know that you have a fear of spiders, so that’s the avatar I choose, in an attempt to startle you. You are indeed startled and get into an accident. (In principle, this might happen even in VR, but the risks are greater when people are using AR, which they might do even when driving or walking down a busy street.)

That might well be a crime, such as reckless endangerment, or negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter if someone dies. It could certainly be a tort (more on that in Part III). This would be one of the few scenarios — strobe lighting being the other — that could actually cause physical injury. And it is also not easily avoided through technological self-help measures.

But as a practical matter, this is likely to be a special case of the broader problem: AR can be distracting, especially for drivers but also for people walking near traffic and other hazards. AR designers will have to find some way of dealing with such normal incidental distractions; that might likewise be useful for dealing with deliberate but much more unusual distractions.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/22/crime-on-the-virtual-street-strobe-lighting-virtual-groping-and-startling/

[wolfandpravato]

Crime on the virtual street: Strobe lighting, ‘virtual groping’ and startling

I’m blogging excerpts this week and next week from Mark Lemley’s and my new article, “Law, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality” (click on the link to see the whole article, including footnotes). This post is from the criminal law part; we began with disturbing the peace and indecent exposure and are now turning to other crimes.

One general assumption we make throughout: VR and AR technology (think something like Google Glass) will get better, cheaper and more effective at rendering lifelike human avatars that track the user’s facial expressions. I think that’s a safe assumption, given the general trends in computer technology and one that doesn’t require any major technological breakthroughs; but we are indeed prognosticating about technology that’s likely at least a couple of years out.

* * *

1. Strobe lighting

Here’s a possible test case that does involve a serious harm that is harder to avoid: About 3 percent of people who have epilepsy — disproportionately, young people — can have seizures triggered by strobe lighting. Though such seizures tend not to be fatal, or even greatly injurious, at least when the person having the seizure is just sitting in his home in front of his computer, they do involve a nontrivial risk of injury. This hasn’t been seen as reason enough to generally ban strobe lights, especially since such lights seem to be entertaining for many people and are sometimes used as a safety feature. But deliberately creating a strobe effect in VR precisely to play a nasty prank on someone you know to be endangered by this would likely be tortious or even criminal.

But here, too, a program running on a user’s VR headset might be able to detect strobe lighting and convert it to something non-strobing. People who know they are strobe-sensitive, or who even think they might be, could then easily turn on this program.

The initial exposure — for those who have neglected to get and turn on such a program, or for those who are unaware that they need it — is materially more dangerous than in the disturbing-the-peace scenario: physical injury, and not just annoyance. And an attempt to deliberately trigger a seizure, as in our hypothetical, is highly morally culpable. The purpose is to harm someone, even if most of the time the purpose will be frustrated by the target’s precautions.

Would this be enough to lead the police to be willing to intervene? Or would they likely not think this to be worth triggering a possible interstate or international investigation, when, at least going forward, the victim could avoid such harms through technological means?

The strobe light example is the rare virtual hypothetical that combines such culpability with the real risk of physical injury, but others might arise in the future: Imagine, for instance, a hack that alters the VR camera positioning information so that a user who thinks she is in the middle of her living room is in fact standing at the edge of the stairs, or that deliberately sends someone using AR walking into a wall or off a cliff. The use of VR (or, more likely, AR) systems to deliberately cause physical harm to a user is more likely to get the attention of police and courts than are disturbing the virtual peace or virtual indecent exposure. But it will do so precisely because the consequences are more obviously physical rather than virtual.

2. “Virtual groping”

Harm, though, can also feel real without being physical. Only a few months after commercial VR became available, a woman named Jordan Belamire (a pseudonym) was “virtually groped.” Belamire recounted playing a multi-player zombie shooter game when another player — who recognized Belamire as female by her voice — began to make gestures that seemed like virtual groping:

In between a wave of zombies and demons to shoot down, I was hanging out next to BigBro442 [the other player], waiting for our next attack. Suddenly, BigBro442’s disembodied helmet faced me dead-on. His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest….

[E]ven when I turned away from him, he chased me around, making grabbing and pinching motions near my chest. Emboldened, he even shoved his hand toward my virtual crotch and began rubbing….

And Belamire reports that BigBro442’s behavior, though utterly lacking in physical contact, seemed so realistic as to be disturbing. Belamire had earlier in her article described how realistic a VR cliff seemed to be, triggering her fear of heights.

“The virtual groping,” she said, “feels just as real. Of course, you’re not physically being touched, just like you’re not actually one hundred feet off the ground, but it’s still scary as hell.” Her experience is consistent with the studies we reported in Part I.C.2 suggesting that people react physiologically to touches in VR much as if they had happened in the physical world.

Under current law, virtual groping probably wouldn’t be a crime. It isn’t sexual battery, because there’s no touching. Tort law tends to define “assault” as including an actor’s intentionally putting someone in “imminent apprehension” of “offensive contact,” but criminal law tends not to outlaw such behavior unless it is actually an attempt to commit battery. And beyond that, it’s not clear that such imminent apprehension would be present when the target consciously knows that no physical contact is possible. While sexual threats by remote actors over the Internet have sometimes been treated as crimes, those cases all hinge on the plausibility that the threat made over the Internet will be carried out in the physical world.

Should the law be changed? We suspect that very few people would find virtual groping, accomplished through purely visual means, to be as upsetting as real groping. Nonetheless, Belamire is doubtless right that, because of the visceral feeling created by virtual reality, such virtual groping will be more upsetting to many people than getting an unwanted tweet or an email expressing sexual desire.

And people’s reactions may well depend on how developed and personalized their avatar is, something that differs from platform to platform and game to game, and that is likely to change over time. Perhaps virtual groping will be upsetting enough to treat it as the sort of action that criminal law ought to, in principle, forbid, if not now then in the near future. This question likely can’t be resolved until we have more experience with how people actually feel in such situations.

Nonetheless, here too, as in the indecent-exposure scenario, there is reason to be skeptical of whether criminal law can and should apply. First, as always, is the Bangladesh Problem: Few police departments will be eager to extradite someone from another country or even another state simply because he made gestures, however disquieting, in a virtual reality game. Even police officers who greatly respect women’s bodily integrity may be hesitant to use a great deal of resources to deal with people who, after all, did not literally touch anyone.

Second, here too technologically enabled self-protection may be available. The physical structure of the real world is notoriously tolerant of people coming very close to you. Protection from unwanted touch has to rely on legal rules, social mores and the threat of violent self-protection.

But the code-as-law of the VR world can easily forbid avatars from approaching within some perceived distance of you, or forbid particular people from doing it, or forbid this except in certain games. Indeed, VR developers have already offered this as a response to Belamire’s article; as the author of the VR game that Belamire had been playing wrote:

We should have prevented this in the first place. While QuiVr is still in pre-release alpha, we’d already programmed a setting into the game called your, “Personal Bubble,” so other player’s hands disappear if they come close to your face. This way, the rare bad-apple player can’t block someone else’s view and be annoying. The arrows that get shot at you stick in your helmet, which is good for a laugh, but they do no damage and quickly disappear so they don’t get in the way. We hadn’t, though, thought of extending that fading function to the rest of the body ….

I called Jonathan, who is … the original creator of QuiVr …. He’d already seen the article — his girlfriend had sent him the link — and he had spent the morning changing the game to extend the Personal Bubble; now, when the setting was turned on, other players faded out when they reached for you, no matter their target, chest included…. It was a possible solution; no one should be able to treat another player like the author had been treated again.

Indeed, the author suggested other technologically enabled self-protection options, including ones that come across as more active self-defense (or, if you prefer, retaliation) — perhaps, for instance, allowing a player to “reach[] out with a finger, and with a little flick, sent [the other] player flying off the screen like an ant.” One can even design the game so that this feature can be used only against those avatars who come too close to one’s own (or else the flicking could itself become a form of unprovoked aggression). Or the VR or AR company can set up a bubble feature that excludes some avatars but not others that the participant has placed on a “close approach permitted” list.

If people behaved better, none of this would be needed. But given that people do behave badly, VR and AR technologies sometimes offer better tools for dealing with bad behavior than the physical world does.

3. AR crimes that can’t be easily technologically avoided — startling

Finally, let’s note one crime that is especially likely to be dangerous in AR: deliberately or recklessly startling someone in a way that’s likely to dangerously interfere with his physical-world tasks.

Say I know that you’re driving with your AR set engaged, and I deliberately appear in your field of vision — not just as me, but as a giant, loud, fire-breathing dragon (or perhaps as a very attractive naked person of whatever sex you find attractive). Or perhaps I happen to know that you have a fear of spiders, so that’s the avatar I choose, in an attempt to startle you. You are indeed startled and get into an accident. (In principle, this might happen even in VR, but the risks are greater when people are using AR, which they might do even when driving or walking down a busy street.)

That might well be a crime, such as reckless endangerment, or negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter if someone dies. It could certainly be a tort (more on that in Part III). This would be one of the few scenarios — strobe lighting being the other — that could actually cause physical injury. And it is also not easily avoided through technological self-help measures.

But as a practical matter, this is likely to be a special case of the broader problem: AR can be distracting, especially for drivers but also for people walking near traffic and other hazards. AR designers will have to find some way of dealing with such normal incidental distractions; that might likewise be useful for dealing with deliberate but much more unusual distractions.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/22/crime-on-the-virtual-street-strobe-lighting-virtual-groping-and-startling/