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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months

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At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Privacy raises some thorny, subtle and complex issues. It also raises some stupid-simple ones. The American surveillance industry's shell-game is founded on the deliberate confusion of the two, so that the most modest and sensible actions are posed as reductive, simplistic and unworkable.

Two pillars of the American surveillance industry are credit reporting bureaux and data brokers. Both are unbelievably sleazy, reckless and dangerous, and neither faces any real accountability, let alone regulation.

Remember Equifax, the company that doxed every adult in America and was given a mere wrist-slap, and now continues to assemble nonconsensual dossiers on every one of us, without any material oversight improvements?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/20/equifax-settles-with-ftc-cfpb-states-and-consumer-class-actions-for-700m/

Equifax's competitors are no better. Experian doxed the nation again, in 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/30/dox-the-world/#experian

It's hard to overstate how fucking scummy the credit reporting world is. Equifax invented the business in 1899, when, as the Retail Credit Company, it used private spies to track queers, political dissidents and "race mixers" so that banks and merchants could discriminate against them:

https://jacobin.com/2017/09/equifax-retail-credit-company-discrimination-loans

As awful as credit reporting is, the data broker industry makes it look like a paragon of virtue. If you want to target an ad to "Rural and Barely Making It" consumers, the brokers have you covered:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#axciom

More than 650,000 of these categories exist, allowing advertisers to target substance abusers, depressed teens, and people on the brink of bankruptcy:

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

These companies follow you everywhere, including to abortion clinics, and sell the data to just about anyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

There are zillions of these data brokers, operating in an unregulated wild west industry. Many of them have been rolled up into tech giants (Oracle owns more than 80 brokers), while others merely do business with ad-tech giants like Google and Meta, who are some of their best customers.

As bad as these two sectors are, they're even worse in combination – the harms data brokers (sloppy, invasive) inflict on us when they supply credit bureaux (consequential, secretive, intransigent) are far worse than the sum of the harms of each.

And now for some good news. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, has declared war on this alliance:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/16/cfpb-looks-to-restrict-the-sleazy-link-between-credit-reporting-agencies-and-data-brokers/

They've proposed new rules limiting the trade between brokers and bureaux, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, putting strict restrictions on the transfer of information between the two:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/tech/privacy-rules-data-brokers/index.html

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, this is long overdue and meaningful. Remember all the handwringing and chest-thumping about Tiktok stealing Americans' data to the Chinese military? China doesn't need Tiktok to get that data – it can buy it from data-brokers. For peanuts.

The CFPB action is part of a muscular style of governance that is characteristic of the best Biden appointees, who are some of the most principled and competent in living memory. These regulators have scoured the legislation that gives them the power to act on behalf of the American people and discovered an arsenal of action they can take:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

Alas, not all the Biden appointees have the will or the skill to pull this trick off. The corporate Dems' darlings are mired in #LearnedHelplessness, convinced that they can't – or shouldn't – use their prodigious powers to step in to curb corporate power:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

And it's true that privacy regulation faces stiff headwinds. Surveillance is a public-private partnership from hell. Cops and spies love to raid the surveillance industries' dossiers, treating them as an off-the-books, warrantless source of unconstitutional personal data on their targets:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/16/ring-ring-lapd-calling/#ring

These powerful state actors reliably intervene to hamstring attempts at privacy law, defending the massive profits raked in by data brokers and credit bureaux. These profits, meanwhile, can be mobilized as lobbying dollars that work lawmakers and regulators from the private sector side. Caught in the squeeze between powerful government actors (the true "Deep State") and a cartel of filthy rich private spies, lawmakers and regulators are frozen in place.

Or, at least, they were. The CFPB's discovery that it had the power all along to curb commercial surveillance follows on from the FTC's similar realization last summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling

I don't want to pretend that all privacy questions can be resolved with simple, bright-line rules. It's not clear who "owns" many classes of private data – does your mother own the fact that she gave birth to you, or do you? What if you disagree about such a disclosure – say, if you want to identify your mother as an abusive parent and she objects?

But there are so many stupid-simple privacy questions. Credit bureaux and data-brokers don't inhabit any kind of grey area. They simply should not exist. Getting rid of them is a project of years, but it starts with hacking away at their sources of profits, stripping them of defenses so we can finally annihilate them.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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queenquinzel715 · 11 months

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Jethro Gibbs An undercover job turns to romance

Wrd count: 4,313

Warning: adult content, knife cutting (no self harm)

Jethro Gibbs (I know nothing about the military protocols so just believe it lol)

(Y/n) P.O.V

My morning was going just like all the others. I'd wake up, eat breakfast, fill my travel mug with coffee, and go to work. However halfway through my eggs, bacon, and toast when my cell phone rings. I sigh as I place my book down, and answer.

"(L/n)." I answer.

"(Y/n) we need you to come in. We have a… well the best type hinky." I hear Abby's cheery voice.

"Okay I'll be right there." I hung up with her.

I quickly get dressed into my scrubs, pull my hair into a high ponytail. Once on the road I make a quick stop for gas, and a couple drinks for my fellow colleagues. As I walk into the NCIS building I greet security and others as I get into the elevator. I hear heavy metal music as the doors open, and it brings a smile to my face.

"Good morning, Abby." I smile at her as I place her big gulp next to her quick fingers.

"Y/n you doll." Abby gives me a big smile before she takes a sip.

"What's the big hinky?" I laugh at her excited smile.

"Well this morning Gibbs and his gang had a call to this military housing neighborhood, and found a newlywed couple completely torn apart." She informs me.

"And?" I push because I know there's more by here turning to the computer screen.

"I've already found a handful of murders that were just swept under the rug, because they didn't have any sort of evidence." She walks over to a table. "Until I figured out the weapon is both a hunter's knife, and a scalpel." She then smiles in triumph.

"It's like you're a psychic, and you just give us pieces to throw us off." I laugh with her, but it's short lived by Special Agent Gibbs walking in with a box full of evidence.

"Abby, this is for you. (Y/n) I need you upstairs." He walks back toward the door. "Thanks for getting her here, Abbs." He says just as he walks out.

I give Abby a quick look before quickly walking to the elevator. Gibbs and I stay in silence the whole way until we get to the group looking at multiple people's pictures on a screen.

"(Y/n) great." McGee says. "We need you to go on an undercover operation. I just need you to pick a male that will pass for a Marine." He runs off like I knew what he was talking about.

"Gibbs?" I look at him with a pointed look, hoping he'd fill in the spots.

"We know the killer is going after newlyweds, so you are the bride." He smirks once he's finished. "I already have an idea of who it is, but of course we need to prove I'm right. I picked you for this." He ends his speech there.

"Okay." I turn to McGee. "What do I need to do?"

The rest of the day I'm given a crash course on how the undercover business works, and once I was done with my three hours course I found out that Gibbs is going to be my husband. I returned to the gang's area, and saw Gibbs watching the others talk.

"So my dear husband, how will our wedding work, hmm? Quick courthouse, or are you just gonna throw me over your shoulder like a caveman." I joke as I sit on the corner of his desk.

"Well I was thinking the club over the head would be easier." He smirks at me when I gasp. "You asked."

"So seriously, does this start immediately today?" I ask, grabbing the file about the suspect.

"You are a free woman until tomorrow night, and then we will sign the marriage certificate. I will get my uniforms, the address we will set up, and we will begin then." He puts away his belongings, and as he stands he pulls on his coat. "Chinese or pizza?" He asks.

"Chinese." I respond as I follow behind him.

This has been a new norm for me and Gibbs for a couple months now. I was pretty bad when I had to end my engagement, because my fiance was sleeping with our neighbor. An entire five year relationship down the drain. I didn't leave the lab for two weeks before Gibbs and Abby came knocking on my door. Apparently Abby had some concerns for my sanity so she went to Gibbs, and he came straight to the lab. Ever since then he has taken me to dinner every other day, or brings me dinner in the lab.

Tonight, we sit inside a little Chinese restaurant eating in a comfortable silence. With Gibbs I've learned, to much relief, I don't have to speak unless I absolutely want to.

"How's the boat coming along?" I ask as we throw away our trash.

"Pain in the ass." He chuckles.

-next morning-

I walked into the office a little bit early with coffees, and sat at Gibb's desk until I saw DiNozzo walk in with Kate in a heated discussion.

"Oh please DiNozzo all because you think it's him doesn't mean it is." Kate rolls her eyes at him, but lights up when she sees me holding a coffee cup in the air for her.

"(Y/n) you've read the files right?" I give DiNozzo nod in response. "Okay so don't you think it's Corporal Simon. He just fits every creepy fib." He acts like he's shaking.

"All because he's creepy doesn't mean anything, DiNozzo." Gibbs says before I could open my mouth. "And you. Why are you at my desk?" He says in my direction.

I simply hold up the coffee cup.

"Aw lovely wife boss." DiNozzo gets smacked in the back of the head for that.

For the next couple of hours I'm with Abby in the lab testing blood samples, fingerprints, and retesting the little bit of evidence for the past murders. By two in the afternoon Gibbs came to the lab to collect me, and my bags to go to our new home. Once there we five the whole moving in show I'm giving direction to Gibbs and DiNozzo as they carry furniture. Inside I'm dying of laughter, because every time Gibbs gives me a side eye I know he wants to tell me something smart. We had pizza delivered and sent DiNozzo back to the office.

"How do you want the sleeping arrangements to go?" I ask as I clean up the trash.

"Well I usually fall asleep in my boat." He speaks in a voice full of normalcy.

"Gibbs! That's not good." I fuss. "You told me "you can't do things that harm your body, or we won't solve shit" and look at you breaking your body down." I continued to fuss, and didn't realize Gibbs had gotten up from the table.

"Yea. I know." His voice comes right behind me as his hand drops the fork into the sink. "Then tell me where to sleep." He looks into my eyes.

"I put bedding in both rooms, so just pick one." I nervously turn back toward the sink.

"I'll take the room closer to the living room just in case." He grabs our bags by the doors, and goes toward the rooms.

Over the next couple days Gibbs, Kate, DiNozzo, and McGee have ran around the entire Marine Base to find who's actually the murder, but since I'm the stay at home wife I'm doing home things. I've taken broken down boxes to the trash, messed in the garden in the front yard, and went grocery shopping at the grocery store on base to meet other stay at home wives. As I'm taking the groceries into the house I hear a female yell hello through the front door. I secure my gun in the waist of my pants before walking to the door. A brunette woman is standing with a big smile, and a wrap covered plate.

"I didn't mean to intrude. I just wanted to say hello, and welcome you to the neighborhood." She smiles at me. "My name is Christine."

"Well that's so kind. I'd invite you inside, but the place is a complete mess." I give a smile as I take the plate.

"Oh I understand. I just wanted to drop off some sweets, and let you know if you need anything I can help. I work in the main office, so I can pull some strings." She gives me a wink.

"Well that's comforting to know." I laugh. "Thank you again, but I have to get dinner started before my husband Jethro comes home." I give a small wave as I shut the door watching her walk down the driveway.

I place the plate on the counter as I call Gibbs.

"Yes Mrs. Gibbs?" He answers.

"I was wondering when you will be back. I just met the most wonderful person." I vaguely respond.

"Be back in an hour. Everything okay?" He asks quietly.

"Yes, perfectly fine." I reassure him, and he hangs up.

Just like clockwork, an hour later Gibbs, and Kate walk through the door. I'm pulling the chicken out of the oven as Kate walks into the kitchen.

"Smells great (y/n)." She comments.

"Thank you. I love cooking." I hand her a plate, which she takes with a great smile.

"So who was this neighbor you met today?" Gibbs gets to the point as I walk to the table where they have everything set up.

"A woman named Christine. She didn't exactly say she was a neighbor, just that she worked in the main office and could pull some strings in case I needed anything, and handed me the plate of cookies there on the counter." I say pointing to the still wrapped plate. "Told her I had to get dinner ready for my new husband Jethro." As I fill him in on what else happened in my day I'm fixing both of our plates, because I realized he hasn't even looked in the kitchen direction.

"She does have access to high documents, and can cut through a lot of red tape." Gibbs informs me, and gives me a thank you nod when he takes the plate.

"Wait, can I see the witness report again?" I ask, and Kate hands it to me.

I read through the report, and found where a witness saw a brunette white woman, with long legs, short torso, and pointed face. I place the paper down as I point out the passage I read.

"This describes Christine." I inform them.

"I figured." Gibbs sighs. "We'll follow up on this in the morning. Thank you." He holds up the paper as he drinks the rest of his beer.

Once dinner is over Kate leaves. Gibbs goes to the garage, and I to the bath. I can't help but think how this is so simple for us. How we fit into the role perfectly, but I know it has to end. After I clean the rest of the kitchen I come out to find Gibbs glaring at the evidence board from the garage door. I take his empty bottle, replacing it with a new one.

"You already know who's doing this, don't you?" I lean against the table.

He leans next to me with his arms crossed.

"My gut tells me it's Christine. The evidence we have points to her office." He shakes his head.

I give him a hum in response as I stand on my feet. I can feel his eyes watching me while I walk toward my room. I do turn back at him with a soft smile before going to the door. I throw on my tank top and shorts for bed, and end up just laying there in frustration. I haven't had any sort of touch since my ex, but I can't do anything like that here with Gibbs' falcon hearing. I lay there for three hours until I've had enough, and I throw the blankets off me. I grumble under my breath as I open my bedroom door, but I quietly walk down the hall to the kitchen. I pull pb&j stuff out only for the garage door to open. I grab the large knife from the knife stand, and throw it at the door, only for it to get stuck in the doorframe.

"Whoa! It's me." Gibbs holds his hands up as he comes into the light better.

"Oh my God Jethro I'm so sorry." I run toward him, but he grabs my hand before I could grab his.

"Good throw." He keeps my hands into his one while he pulls the knife out of the wall.

"Good throw?! Gibbs, that's all you can say?" I keep freaking out.

"I thought it was Jethro." He looks into my eyes with a smirk.

He lets go of my hands to go put the knife back. He then starts making a sandwich.

"I…well..it just came out." I stumble over my words, and my face heats up.

"I think you should get used to calling me Jethro." He keeps his back to me while he speaks.

I'm too nervous to say anything, but he soon turns with two sandwiches in his hands. He holds out one to me with a paper towel wrapped around it as he takes a bite of his.

"Thank you Jethro." I smile as I take the sandwich.

We end up sitting on the counter, and Jethro telling me stories. We laugh, I joke about his military days, and he jokes about my technical "support" skills. The sun is starting to rise as my eyes become heavy.

"You should go get some sleep." He softly says.

"You're right, but so should you." I look over at him as he gets down.

"I will." He softly holds my arm as I get off the counter.

We separate into our rooms, and he is gone by the time I wake up. I stay inside for the day, and just watch movies. My phone rings as I'm stepping into the bath, and it's Jethro. I sit on the side of the tubs as I answer.

"Yes Jethro?"

"I have pizza for dinner." He simply tells me.

"That's nice." I sarcastically respond, trying not to laugh.

"I'll get you garlic bread. What is that noise?" He has the most annoying hearing.

"That is the bathtub water running." I run my foot in the hot water.

"I'll be there in an hour." He then hangs up causing me to laugh.

I'm too relaxed to hear the front door opening, but when I hear doors opening I call out for Jethro. When I don't get a response I slowly get out of the bath, wrapping my house robe on. I'm about to reach for the gun I have in my nightstand when the door is burst open. I give a scream of surprise, but I'm quickly shut up by a gun being pointed at me. Christine comes creeping into the room with a hard look in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" I keep up the act, hopefully I can stall until Jethro gets here.

"Living room, now." She demands.

I timidly walk to the living room with my hands raised, and slowly sit on the couch. I watch her look around the living room, and kitchen before she comes in front of me. She points her gun at my head as she sits on the table directly in front of me.

"So tell me how long have you and hubby been together?" She asks, sounding sweet.

"Y..year." I look confused.

"Ahhh newly newlyweds." She stood to go over to the bag she had put on the loveseat. "I was with my husband for six years before we decided to get married." She turns with rope and a knife in her hands. "We then were married for two before he was deployed. He was a Marine that was sent overseas, obviously that's all he could tell me. I was kept in the dark the whole time while my husband was tortured by terrorists." She takes her seat back on the table. "Tell me what do you think Jethro would do if you were taken."

"I…I don't know. I'd hope he'd help me." I shake from her moving the knife closer.

"Sad isn't it? Shouldn't the answer be something on the lines of "he'd burn the whole world apart" or "he'd never stop looking"?" She cuts the arms of my robe open to the elbow. "You want to know what the US military does to help their Marines?" I scream from her cutting a short cut going down my arm. "Quiet!" She shoves pieces of robe into my mouth. "Four men died because the US tried to play into the terrorists computer, instead of simply allowing the terrorists into the Union, and they would let the Marines go." She cuts another line. "They could've said they would allow it, get the Marines, and then grab the terrorists!" Her voice gets louder as she goes.

I see movement from the corner of my eye, but I keep watching Christine move the knife around. She goes to cut my arm again when the front door, garage door, and backdoor open.

"Freeze NCIS!" I hear from my three favorite people.

Jethro comes in through the backdoor, DiNozzo through the garage door, and Kate comes in the front with their guns raised. Christine looks at me in surprise as she drops the knife and gun. Jethro softly grabs my face to make me lock eyes with him.

"I'm here. Come on." He helps me stand, walk to my room while the others handcuff Christine.

I'm quiet as Jethro cleans up my wounds with the first aid kit I keep in my bag. I'm so out of it my robe opens slightly, and I didn't realize until Jethro closed it more. He gives a deep sigh as he cleans up the trash.

"Thank you Jethro." I timidly tell him as he goes to walk out.

He turns back, and kisses me hard with a hand on my cheek, his other on my thigh. I grip his shirt in my hands as I kiss him back. We pull apart after a moment, and rest our heads against each other.

That night my nerves were level, and everythings calmed down. I start packing up, and put the bags in the garage for the guys to load up. Tomorrow the movers will come for the rest.

"Ready." Jethro walks up to me, grabbing my bag.

"Yes. I checked everywhere to make sure nothing was left." I tell him as we walk to his car.

"Tomorrow morning we need to meet at the director's office." He informs me, once we are on the road.

He helps me carry my bags into my apartment, and shuts the door. I softly smile at him as he walks toward me. I rest my hands on his shoulders as his hand rests on my waist. He kisses me deeply as he pulls me to his chest. I melt against him, having my fingers run along his shaved hair. I gasp when we pull back, but his warm hands moving up my back makes me softly moan.

"Room." He orders.

"Yes sir." I give him a sly smile as I walk him toward my room.

I hear him chuckle as he follows me, but once to the door he pulls me in from my waist. I throw my shirt off so I can feel his hands again. While he works on the buttons of my pants he gives me soft kisses to my neck. I lean my head against his shoulder just melting against him. The feeling of being protected feels so much more different, but amazing. He flattens his hands to slide my pants down, and he lets me walk out of them. I turn to him, locking eyes with him as I lay on my bed.

"You sure about this?" He asks me while untucking his shirt.

"I'm more than sure." I give him a straight answer.

Once he gets down to his boxers he crawls over me with a dark look in his eyes. I put my hands on his cheeks to pull him into a deep kiss. His skillful hands unhook my bra, making me throw it behind him. I move my hand along his shoulders while he kisses along my neck to my chest.

"Jethro." I moan softly when his lips wrap around my nipple.

He wraps his arm around my lower back pulling me closer, biting lightly on my nipple. His other hand moves my underwear down, but once he got to my thigh, he had pulled back to snatch them off my ankles. My legs open back up for him to lay comfortably in between them. He looks me in the eyes as he slides his boxers off. My knees rest on his hips, relaxing into the bed, feeling him rub against my entrance. Him slowly entering me makes a shiver take over my body, but Jethro deeply groans. His hand grips my thigh in a tight grip, causing it to rise higher.

"(Y/n)." He rests his head on my shoulder.

"Please move Jethro." I whine.

He starts to move back some only to piston back inside. My body arches up to his chest, and my throat closes on the scream that wants to leave. All I could do was grip his bicep, lock my ankles together, and enjoy the feeling of him stretching me. The feeling of his hands, his deep harsh movements, and the tightening feeling in my stomach. I start to lose my mind.

"Let go for me." He groans in my ear before he kisses my neck.

He kisses me as he goes harder making it very difficult to let my moans out, but I just hold onto his back as he just lets go. With a deep groan and final thrust Jethro and I finish together with a loud moan from me. He lays next to me with an arm under my head as we catch our breath.

"Wow." I breathed out.

He chuckles, turning over, and grips my lips with his forefinger and thumb. I giggle as we kiss a lot more softly now. We lay together for a while before finally getting in the shower. I did think Jethro was going to leave, however when I went back to lay down he joined me. I slept amazing with his warmth next to me whenever I would turn.

When I wake up I see a hand placing a coffee mug on my nightstand, and a hand rubbing along my side.

"You got to wake up. We still have to work." He talks quietly in my ear.

"Thank you." I smile as I reach for the mug.

"You are quite welcome." He chuckles as he grabs his clothes.

"Jethro!" I giggle at his joke, placing my hand over my eye.

"I'll see you at the office. I have to change." He says as he throws his clothes on.

Once he leaves I finish my coffee, get dressed, and try to keep the smile off my face as I walk into the office.

"Well what made you so smiley this morning?" Abby asks as I walk into the lab, and pull on my lab coat.

"I'm just glad to have my bed back." Is all I tell her.

"Is that so?" I hear behind me.

I turned to a smirking Jethro holding a cardboard cup holder with two coffees, and in his hand was a big gulp for Abby.

"Jet…Gibbs." I exclaim almost messing up.

"Morning Abs." He hands her the drink, and walks back to me.

"(Y/n)." He hands me a coffee. "Director needs us." He leans me with a hand on my lower back to the elevator.

"I'm sorry I didn't know if you were okay with me saying anything, or if…" I'm stopped by him stepping closer to me.

He kisses me softly like he's been doing so for his whole life. I'm just about to relax into him when the elevator opens, and there stands Kate and McGee. They are shocked when they finally realize what they just saw. I step out of the elevator, quickly getting to the director's office. I stop at his door, and wait for Jethro. Jethro walks up the hall with purpose, and goes right into the office.

"Alright let's get you two divorced." Director Morrow places the papers in front of Jethro.

"What if we don't sign?" Jethro asks so nonchalantly.

Director Morrow looks lost as he turns his attention to me, then back to Jethro. I'm just frozen from shock.

"I'll let you two talk." Vance leaves quickly, and once he's gone Jethro turns to me.

"What are you doing Jethro?" I timidly ask.

"Well I was thinking how easy it was for us to be together this week." He starts. "We don't have to sign just yet. Let's give it some time, and then if you want we can sign these papers." He lifts them as he speaks.

"So you're making me number three?" I sass.

He shrugs as he throws the papers back on the director's desk. The rest of the day DiNozzo gave Jethro so much crap about how he didn't get to throw a bachelor party. I also got an ear full from Abby about how I should get a big dress. Kate was like an older sister asking me if being married is what I wanted. Her being Catholic marriage is a big thing, but after telling her how I felt, she understood.

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avelera · 1 month

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I've been talking with a few people irl about the TikTok ban and I was wondering if I could get your take on it? (iirc you work in election security). Mainly I'd like to know why TikTok/China is *uniquely* bad wrt dating mining/potential election interference when we've seen other companies/governments do the same thing (thinking of the Russian psyops here on Tumblr in 2016). It feels like the scope is so narrow that it doesn't come close to targeting the root problem (user privacy and data mining as a whole), leading me to think it's only point is "ooh China Scary". Thoughts? (No worries if you'd rather not get into it, I just thought of you as someone who might have more insight/informed opinions on the matter).

So I'm not really familiar with all the details of the case and certainly not all the details of the bill. But I will give my perspective:

TikTok as a particular threat to users' data and privacy has been known for some time in the cybersecurity world. US government employees and contractors have been straight-up forbidden to have it on their phones for some time now. I, for example, have never had it on my phone because of these security concerns. (Worth noting, I'm not a government employee or contractor, it was just a known-to-be dangerous app in the cybersecurity world so I avoided it.)

This is because the parent company, as I understand, has known connections to the Chinese government that have been exploited in the past. For example, to target journalists.

Worth noting, another app that would potentially be on the chopping block is WeChat, which also has close ties to (or is outright owned by?) the Chinese government. This is just speculation on my part but it's based on the fact that all the concerns around TikTok are there for WeChat too and it has also been banned on government devices in some states, so I imagine it would be next if the bill passes.

I think this is important to note because I've seen some hot takes here on Tumblr have said that the entire case against TikTok is made up and there is no security threat. That is simply not true. The concerns have been there for a while.

However, the question of what to do about it is a thorny one.

The determination seems to be that so long as TikTok is still owned by its parent company with its direct ties to the Chinese government, there really is no way to guarantee that it's safe to use. From that angle, demanding that the company sever ties and set up some form of local ownership makes sense.

I am not a lawyer, but, that being said, forcing them to sell their local operations to a locally-based buyer is a pretty invasive and unusual step for legislators to take against a private company, even in a clear case of spying. I'm sure TikTok's widespread popularity is a big part of the threat it poses, which lends to the argument used to justify such an extreme step. (Because it is on so many phones, it really could be a danger to national security.)

That said, at one point young activists on TikTok embarrassed Trump (lots of good context in this article) while he was campaigning in 2020, and there was some talk then about shutting it down which seemed pretty clearly linked to how it was used as a platform to organize against him. I'm sure there's at least some right wing antipathy towards the app that has a political basis going back to this event. Trump signed an executive order banning it, the ban going into effect got bogged down in the courts, and then Biden rescinded that executive order when he got into office, pending an investigation into the threat it posed.

Those investigations seem to have further confirmed that the Chinese government is getting access to US user data through the app, and further confirmed it as a security threat.

Now, to muddy the waters further, there's several dodgy investment funds including one owned by former Secretary of the Treasury to Trump Steven Mnuchin that are circling with an interest to buy TikTok if it does sell. That's very concerning.

Funds like Mnuchin's interest in purchasing TikTok (even though they do invest in other technologies too, so it is in their portfolio) definitely makes the motivations behind the sale look pretty damning as momentum builds, that it could be some sort of money grab here in the US.

China has also pointed out that forcing the sale of a company because of spying concerns like this opens a whole can of worms. If China thinks that, say, Microsoft is spying on their citizens, could they force the US company to sell its operations in China to a Chinese investor? Could they force Google? Could they even further polarize the internet in general between "free" and "not free" (as in, behind the great Chinese or Russian firewall, as examples) if this precedent is set, so that no Western companies can operate in authoritarian states without selling their local operations there to a government-controlled organization, and thus be unable protect their users there? Or, if you don't have so rosy a view of Western companies, could it effectively deal a blow to international trade in general by saying you have to have to sell any overseas arms of a company to someone who is from there? Again, I'm not a lawyer, but this is a hell of a can of worms to open.

But again, this is muddy because China absolutely is spying on TikTok users. The security reason for all of this is real. What to do about it is the really muddled part that has a ton of consequences, and from that angle I agree with people who are against this bill. Tons of bad faith consequences could come out of it. But the concerns kicking off the bill are real.

#current events #tiktok drama

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sgiandubh · 7 months

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When clueless, silence is golden

I was just browsing around while looking for something completely different and stumbled upon this quintessential Mordorian POV:

Disclosing a username is crass and I usually never do this, unless really necessary and relevant. So spare me the ad hominem argument you usually fumble around with, Disgruntled Tumblrettes. Yet, for all its intellectual paucity, this is interesting dissection material, since clearly this person hasn't got the slightest idea of what she is so confidently talking about.

First scenario at play: The Tasting Alliance, 'a company no one has ever heard of', booked and paid for the suite.

Not necessarily booked, nor necessarily paid, madam. In the real business world you are so clueless about, these arrangements are seldom - if ever - monetized. It's rather all about barter.

That company no one ever heard about - except, perhaps, #silly and totally irrelevant Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemicallef/2023/04/13/the-tasting-alliance-and-reserve-bar-are-set-to-launch-top-shelf/?sh=b45f7085f6f1) - is the parent company of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC), largely acknowledged as at least one of, if not the world's leading spirits award contest. Google is your friend, you should try it some time:

The operative info here is that this evaluation comes from the Beverage Trade Network, a professional portal for spirit dealers. Having determined this, Tasting Alliance's IG number of followers is completely irrelevant, since we are talking about two very different targets, here. Its real leverage and weight on the global market does not really need the boost of an aggressive social media presence and the kind of events it hosts are not your favorite junior hockey league or elementary school cake and bake sale.

Let's look a bit further. It takes one click to get on the Tasting Alliance's website (https://thetastingalliance.com/). Granted, not all the information you need to understand its business model is right there and I had to go dig a bit (not without some help - merci encore!) to even get a grip on how these wheels are really turning.

The way they sell themselves is sober and confident. And completely disinterested in social media impact, to be honest:

So, in lieu of glitz and sequined bras, we have a success story in its own right, which started in Frisco in 1980, then continued in 2000, with the addition of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Further expansion followed in 2018, with the New York World Wine & Spirits Competition and 2019, when Dias Blue set a firm foot on the emerging Asian market, with the Singapore World Spirits Competition.

I doubt an explanatory drawing is needed as to the why of this expansion choice: it's all about baijiu, the old/new Chinese sorghum spirit and the everlasting love of the Far East for anything fermented. Lao-lao, the unspeakable Laotian homemade rice whisky, comes immediately to the mind of this blogger: the last bottle I saw, somewhere along the unexploded ordnance ridden Route 13, had a plump snake inside, as a naïve Viagra of sorts. Took a mouthful and thought I was going to die - but when spending the night in a longhouse with the Tai Lü people, you can't afford a faux-pas, can you? /end of travel memories intermezzo

By all my estimations, The Tasting Alliance is very profitable business. Let's unpack ( for current fees, see source: https://callingallcontestants.com/contest/2023-san-francisco-world-spirits-competition/):

Considering the 500 USD fee /entry (550, in 2023) in the competition and the fact that in 2022 there were approximately 5000 entries in the Frisco spirits' competition, we have a very rough turnover estimation of 500x5000= 2.5 million USD. That figure is just for one of the spirits competitions, mind you, and does not take into account what the winners probably pay for the right to mention their medals on their bottles (I am yet to see them on the SS gin bottles, btw), nor the multiple sidekick profit (e-shop sales, consulting and/or other distribution deals, etc). So, at the end of the day, I would comfortably multiply that base by 4, assuming a similar scale for all the other events they organize, which takes the yearly turnover at around 10 million USD and keeping in mind this is very probably a conservative estimation. I also assume costs are negligible, taking into account the discretion with which major players traditionally operate on that particular niche. Real expenses are probably limited to the activity of a handful of offices, sparingly and intelligently staffed. Advertisement is probably bartered and social media, well... you just saw the effort, haven't you?

But then there's the brand's real power on that market and this is the right time to talk about influence and impact. Perhaps this recent (2021) Men's Journal article will help us see better: https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/inside-the-san-francisco-world-spirits-competition

With a bit of luck, this could happen:

Sounds familiar? Of course and I bet that was S's strategy. If you imagined him doing the same exhausting booze tour every year (groping on top and seriously cringe on the sides), I think you might want to reconsider. I told you Sassenach Summer was a sandbox for more serious things to come and until now I have no reasons to change my mind. He did it for a reason and, mind you, that reason is not that the booze did or does not sell. It does. Restaurants start to feature it. Podcasts are being produced. The press starts to mention it (that recent New York Times article is evidence enough). This is not Lucky Luciano dealing in bootleg alcohol during the Prohibition and making obscene money over a fortnight. This is a serious business project that was delayed by COVID. That's all. And it takes time and patience and consistence. We know he has all those aplenty.

We also have the totally inane take on production costs for that podcast. It suddenly made me remember again my media expert past. It is with complete and educated confidence that I tell you: a potential 5K USD extra cost for renting that damn suite for the day is peanuts, even for a two-minute clip (let alone, in reality, a podcast interview, and I stand corrected if wrong), if such costs are covered by The Tasting Alliance. But my money is on a barter with The Shutters on the Beach, which would be, again, common business practice.

Second scenario: 'Shutters comped the room for free promo (...) for an actor most people haven't heard of.' You can throw timelines down my throat as many times as you wish and tell me he already stayed there several times and yell and screech, but here is what I think. Shutters didn't comp that suite for S, an actor most people haven't heard of, a decent, hard working start-up entrepreneur. If so (I doubt it), it would be logical to think Shutters comped that suite for The Tasting Alliance, which has a long documented history of partnerships with hotels that host their competitions:

So Shutters might have comped that room for a major player of the alcohol lobby world, happy that S, a returning client, picked them out of several possible options, because it was convenient. I don't believe for a second he stayed there.

This guy knows what he's doing and C's gin success completely depends and I bet will rely on that relentless networking effort. If anything, the Keepers of the Quaich recent development is only confirmation of all the above. But that's another story - very soon on this page.

IYKYK. The rest is uneducated cackle. But Mordor people were never the brightest bulbs in the fandom's chandelier, were they?

#BoozeWars

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treasurechestsubs · 4 months

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Year End Big Bulk Release - MDZS Audio Drama S1 7 Mini-theatres + 3 Extras + S3 Extra - Into the Dream-End English Subbed

Hello everyone~ :D

It's the last day of 2023! This has been a pretty busy and a fun year for us all to be able to share so many episodes of different projects we've taken up.

To end the year with something special, we have a big bulk release of 11 videos today~

We have the following for you all today: MDZS S1 7 Mini-theatres + 3 Extras- 3.5 - No 4.5 - Escape 5.5 - Ancestor's Story 6.5 - Ant 7.5 - Loquat 10.5 - Director 11.5 - Sticky Rice Porridge (The numbers 3.5, 4.5, etc. mean that these mini-theatres were released after episode 3, 4, etc.) --- Extra - 40 Million Benefits-LWJ Extra - Fear of Dogs Extra - Lan Sect Mandates

=and=

MDZS S3 Extra - Into the Dream-End the latest extra that was released by the audio drama creators on Wei Wuxian's birthday.

All of these episode can be accessed via our discord server. To request an invite to the server, please fill up this >> request form <<

Please note: In case you try to open above link or any links from us on your phone and get an error message, please just try opening the link in your phone’s internet browser, go to the address bar and remove the “href.li” part and proceed to open the link.

Please also note: When you put down your responses in the above-linked form, please just put down a link to your social media profile. Only writing your social media username does not give us any information on which social media website you are referring to, and so, I won’t be able to process such requests. Also, if you just write some random answer (like OK) for this question, your request will definitely not be considered and no invite will be sent to you.

Many a times, it happens that our email to you having the invite link goes to your spam folder in your mailbox. So please do check once check there once and if you still haven’t received an invite, contact us on tumblr.

Also, please do double-check the email address you put down because one reason for you not receiving any invite could also be that you put down a wrong email address and so the mail bounced back.

*********

!!! Please see: We are still looking for Chinese to English translators for our projects. So if you are interested, please apply to us. Please see >> this post << for details on how to apply.

*********

Our ongoing projects: >> Link <<

Our Carrd (now revamped!): >> Link <<

*********

Notes:

1) Please use >> VLC Player << to play the file. It is available for a large range of operating systems as well as devices.

For advanced users, I’d recommend >> K-lite codec pack + MPC-HC player << Standard version or above. The player is included from the standard version onwards.

2) Please avoid sharing these files on YouTube and other video streaming platforms. If you wish to share our subbed files, please just reblog or link this tumblr post.

3) Copper Coins, Global Examination, Panguan, Qianqiu, Mou Mou, and Mo Dao Zu Shi Audio Dramas are paid dramas. So please consider purchasing these audio drama if possible in order to support the original content creators. Links to the original CN audio only ADs have been linked in the >> projects << page for ease of navigation.

Happy watching~! :D

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captain-price-unofficially · 1 month

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Video published by Al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas) allegedly showing them tracking an officer in the elite Shaldag unit, Yitzhar Hoffman, before he was killed by a sniper. Hoffman is said to be responsible for the siege and storming of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

Translation:

A unit of the occupation forces is holed up in Gaza City. The images obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera allow the location of the concentration to be determined. The field command center was established in a sports club, about one kilometer away from Al-Shifa Hospital, and located within the Jawazat area, which witnessed fierce clashes between the Israeli army and the Resistance factions for weeks.

This is Yitzhar Hoffman, a platoon leader in the Shaldag Special Unit. He was responsible for drawing up a plan to besiege Al-Shifa Hospital and then storm it last November. According to photos obtained by Al Jazeera, which are being shown for the first time, the Al-Qassam Brigades monitored Hoffman's movements after storming the hospital. At the end of last January, the Al-Qassam Brigades waited for the Israeli army to announce the killing of Hoffman so that they publish pictures of the operation and identify the targeted person.

The Al-Aqsa flood was not the first confrontation in which the Qassam Brigades used sniper weapons. The developed Al-Ghoul rifle that mimics the specifications of the Austrian-made Steyr rifle, caliber 12.7 mm, has the capabilities and features of an assault rifle with an adjustable system, to transform from an assault rifle into a sniper rifle.

The Al-Qassam Brigades were able to manufacture it locally and it bore the name of one of the most prominent symbols of military manufacturing in Al-Qassam: the martyr Adnan Al-Ghoul. With the rifle, Al-Qassam produced the appropriate ammunition to enhance the rifle’s effectiveness and feasibility.

The ammunition was manufactured with three specifications:

1- Training that enable the preparation of fighters within the special units.

2-Ammunition designed to target flammable materials.

3-Used to deal with the armor and fortifications used by the Israeli army.

The impact of the locally manufactured weapons is show on battlefields, in a way that the bullet penetrates the helmet worn by the soldiers and explodes after penetration. The bullet can also penetrate the protective vest, which is supported by a metal plate that shatters when hit to cause damage to the upper area of the body. It can also penetrate and disrupt devices and systems used by the occupying army.

To put the weapon into use, the Al-Qassam Brigades trained special units of fighters within its combat formations, as the photos obtained by Al Jazeera show. Training takes place after selecting fighters who have qualities that enable them to withstand long periods of waiting to capture a potential target, the ability to work under extreme pressure in difficult field conditions, the flexibility of concealment, determining the importance of the target and making the decision of execution.

The Qassam had previously used sniper weapons in field combat in battles before 2007, when it seized medium-caliber rifles like the Russian Dragunov and Brezhnev models and the Belgian FN FAL rifle. But it suffered from limited availability, scarcity of ammunition and its high cost. Then, heavy snipers including the Austrian Steyr and the Chinese M99, were brought into the Gaza Strip through supply lines. And documented operations were carried out using them.

The Ghoul rifle is the latest weapon in the resistance’s arsenal, which according to Al Jazeera’s information, recorded a verified hitting distance of 1800 meters in Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

#modern #combat footage #2023 israel-gaza conflict #arab-israeli conflict

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wrecklwj · 11 months

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MXTX Diaspora May 2023 is drawing to a close, so here are some personal reflections

As some of you may know, MXTX Diaspora May was originally started by Frost in 2021 as a means of elevating Chinese diaspora creators in fandom. At the time the event was set up, the climate in fandom was truly a hostile one, with Chinese diaspora creators routinely facing discrimination and marginalization. Adding to that were a slew of vicious hate crimes against Asian diaspora people in real life.

May is AAPI Heritage month in the US, and thus it was chosen as the posting month for the event. In other words, it was a time for us to come together, to heal, and above all, to let our voices be heard.

Since 2021, the scope of MXTX Diaspora May has evolved. Instead of solely focusing on MDZS, we now spotlight fanworks for all of MXTX’s novels. More importantly, MXTX Diaspora May has gone international in welcoming the participation of Chinese diaspora creators from not just the US, but all around the world (like me)!

So, why is MXTX Diaspora May so meaningful to me?

At the time that Frost invited me to be a part of the mod team, I was honestly struggling to find a place in MDZS fandom. I was frequently spoken over, treated as an expendable resource for cultural information, and on the receiving end of comments that contained racist microaggressions (and sometimes, outright aggression). Dealing with these interactions was exhausting, as well as grappling with the constant feeling that I had no real right to be in the English-speaking fandom. I still feel like this, even today — works where I (subconsciously or otherwise) downplay my identity as a member of the Chinese diaspora are always substantially more well-received than works where I do not. In other words, as some commenters (helpfully) pointed out to me, it was exhausting and difficult to get into the stories I told and the viewpoints I presented, especially if they contained too many cultural markers and language code-switches.

Being part of MXTX Diaspora May changed everything for me. Creating and interacting in this space that belonged to us, that was built solely for the purpose of elevating voices like mine — it meant that for once, I could tell the stories I wanted to tell, to the likeminded people I wanted to reach, without needing to downplay, apologize, or make excuses for just how unpalatable they might be.

Personal revelations aside and back to the culture-building aspect — I truly believe that the path to disempowering racist structures in fandom (and by extension, in real life as well) lies in changing the fundamental mindsets and worldviews of people. And to achieve that, we all have to relearn the ways in which we think, feel, and operate. MXTX Diaspora May is built on this very principle — the belief that through giving a platform to marginalized voices and actively encouraging open dialogue and appreciation, we can connect with each other over our shared experiences and gradually influence the perception that others outside our immediate circle have over our culture and language. It is an active, inclusive, and sustainable way of dismantling preconceived notions and habits that allow racism to flourish in fandom.

At the same time, it is also worth acknowledging that there is also a limit to how much power we place in institutions to do the work for us. Sit with the discomfort and the exhaustion, question our preconceived notions, and challenge our hearts — and I am optimistic that as things change at the individual level, the associated structures and systems will naturally follow.

So, where should we start?

There are so many ways we can be a part of the movement to dismantle systemic racism against members of the Chinese diaspora in MXTX fandom. One of the most actionable ways would be to boost and consume works by Chinese diaspora creators. And if we’re reading, listening to, or looking at something that doesn’t immediately appeal to us, and especially if we find ourselves struggling to comprehend or relate — ask ourselves honestly if it is a failing on the part of the creator, or just our own unfamiliarity with the context of the work, and/or implicit biases coming into play. Take our time to realize it for what it is, and then decide from there whether to move on, or move ahead.

MXTX is a Chinese writer, and her works are an extension and reflection of her culture and upbringing. It is impossible to separate her identity and belonging from the stories she writes. It’s exactly the same for us Chinese diaspora creators. Wherever we are in the world, however we were raised, and whatever pieces of ourselves that we choose to share in our works — I hope that we will continue to find our peace, our pride, and our homecoming whenever we do.

Resources

MXTX Diaspora May collection (2023, 2022, 2021)

Danmei Diaspora Creatives collection (showcases work by Chinese diaspora creators across a myriad of danmei fandoms including MXTX; not affiliated with MXTX Diaspora May)

Directory of MDZS fics and podfics by Chinese diaspora writers that are focused on the modern diaspora experience, compiled by G (not affiliated with MXTX Diaspora May)

#MXTX Diaspora May #own voices #Chinese diaspora #danmei fandom thoughts #Racism in fandom

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arkiwii · 6 months

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ME WHEN I'M FINALLY DONE WITH MY ARKNIGHTS OC

my god it took too long for literally just a fullbody. usually i do them so fast but i guess here i was lazy. anyway information and stuff and story and whatever below!!

Real name Fortuna, code name Kochosen, is a Liberi (azure-winged magpie) born in Laterano. She had been growing up and thriving to become a doctor. However, after contracting Oripathy in an accident, she has been forced to leave Laterano. Surviving in the wastelands on her own, she discovered her Originium Arts, to manipulate water, which greatly helped her in her journey. She finally joined Yan, where she was able to find some help for her cause, then later, joined Higashi, after helping a whole village from a Catastrophe.

She later accepted to help Rhodes Island as a Medic operator, precisely an Incantation Medic.

Fortuna is what can be said a bad omen... And also a good omen. Back in Laterano, due to her clumsiness, she quickly won the reputation of bringing bad luck around. Her Infection is what truly made her the nemesis of the Leterans, and due to the rules in the city, has been seen as an occasion to get rid of a bad luck bringer. This convinced her that she was indeed one who only cause suffering around, bringing her morale and self confidence to the lowest as she barely managed to survive in the wilderness.

However, when she arrived in Higashi, after catching the first signs of an incoming Catastrophe and having alerted the nearby village, she has been seen as a savior and a good omen. Her help and contribution to the village as a doctor also contribued to this good reputation, and the villagers quickly started to appreciate her presence. After this event, and seeing that her powers and own hands were able to save lives and not hurt them, she questioned herself.

But she doesn't remain less clumsy. It seems all the worst happen to her, like a bad luck magnet. But it seems like it happens to her and only her, and nobody around, quite the opposite even - people around her seem to live rather fortunate events. Maybe by attracting the bad luck to her, the other persons around are left with only good luck...

It's because of her clumsiness that her body is rather... In a bad state. Under the layers of clothes she wears is a wounded, bandaged body, covered in minor scars, bruises, and of Originum crystals. She seems to be used to this however, her only complains are about how her sleep is uncomfortable.

Despite her serious and calm personality, she's not one to be on the smarter side. She still struggles a lot with Yanese for example, and the culture of Higashi. After all, as a Lateran, she finds the food of Higashi "dull", and would much prefer their sweetest snacks instead.

As well, it seems that her Oripathy has caused kleptomania, as she was often caught taking on objects of her interest for no other reason that she felt the urge to take them.

___________

i love birds, i love magpies, i love arknights, boom

here she is

The main ideas for her design and story is... Well, about how Magpies are absolutely dual?? in occidental cultures, they are seen as bringer of death, bad luck, nasty, quite like crows. but in oriental cultures, it's the total opposite, they're seen as a symbol of luck, of love, of balance and such! that's why i wanted to make her being so contradictory. she seems serious but is dumb. she came laterano where she was seen as bad luck, she moved to higashi where she is seen as good luck. her outfit is quite literally a mix of lateran and higashi culture

as for water arts, it's a reference to how luck and fate are like a river, but also to how water arts are both very dangerous and benefic, and also it's a reference to the magpie bridge in chinese culture

anyway, she tries her best, and that she's clumsy and a bit strange doesn't change that she has a very kind heart

#arknights #stalkiwiart #stalkiwi oc #i like bimrbds

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bizarrequazar · 8 months

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08-27 Zhang Sanjian/Scam Gang Recent Events Space

This was a Twitter space held to review recent events with the scam gang and Zhang Sanjian, as well as to address topic about fandom culture and likely reasons why Zhang Zhehan’s case is taking longer than many would hope. Notes are organized by topic, then by order presented in the space. [Recording]

KL concert and review of the Bangkok concerts

Another Zhang Sanjian concert is going to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 17th. The previous concerts were held in Bangkok on May 10th and 11th.

Things seem to be operating fairly similarly as with the Bangkok concerts, though whalers are not rushing to buy tickets the way they were last time.

Tickets went on sale yesterday (08-26); ticket release seems to be similar, ie. not all tickets—including VVIP and the front few rows—are currently available. With the Bangkok concert, these held back tickets were partially due to the tour packages they were selling. I (the note taker) am not aware at this time of any similar tour packages with the KL concert, and none was mentioned in the space.

Quite a few of these held tickets for the Bangkok concerts were only released generally a week in advance. Part of this was because Xie Yihua had been working with scalpers who were trying (with little success) to sell them at roughly twice the original price. Flora and MB talked to one scalper separately who offered them both the exact same ticket for the Bangkok concerts that was being sold by another scalper, and blatantly lied about his own location.

Chinese citizens are able to get a travel visa at the airport when traveling to Bangkok, meaning that the short notice (announcement less than one month prior to the date) was less of an issue. The same is not true for Malaysia, visas have to be obtained in advance and tend to take a couple weeks.

The VVIP tickets included a backstage meet and greet after the show. With these, fans were not allowed to take photos themselves but were sent the photos by Zhang Sanjian’s team. These photos took weeks to arrive (likely due to the amount of editing done to the photos) and were quite low quality.

Zhang Sanjian was quite physical with fans during these meet and greets, with photos including his arm around their waists and fans reporting hugging him. This is completely inconsistent with Zhang Zhehan’s behaviour—the only time he would ever initiate contact was with children (and some fans would specifically bring his children for that reason lol.)

The tour group for the Bangkok concerts had not been in operations for quite a while prior but suddenly came back, did not seem to have any proper registration, and was run by someone with a gambling addiction who had had a number of complaints against him about him and his company scamming people, as well as employees reporting not being paid. Whalers who went on the tours admitted to being afraid to talk about it because of the amount of personal information they had given, but some who spoke said that they were not picked up from the airport and were taken to a place very out the way. Some of these whalers returned early (implied to be by their own choice.)

A direct business partner of CAPA is the producer for both the KL and Bangkok concerts. If, hypothetically, Zhang Zhehan caved and agreed to work with CAPA, why would they be doing these international concerts rather than rescinding their blacklist against him so he could work in China where it would be much more profitable?

Before the Bangkok concert, a number of bought articles in oversees publications were published, always saying that Zhang Zhehan had gone to the shrine without any clarifications about those allegations being false. This is the exact opposite of what any logical PR would do. The information for these articles and the similar radio blurbs given with the fake songs have been provided directly by Zhang Sanjian’s team.

Paid PR articles can be 100% made up. Sheena talked about a friend of hers who was hired to do a PR piece for a member of BlackPink and wrote the entire thing, questions and answers, herself, with the manager only reviewing it before publication.

Whalers have repeatedly reposted the various articles about Zhang Sanjian, blatantly blurring out the lines repeating the slander about Yasukuni and/or omitting it completely from their translations.

(A reminder to seek out information and confirmation yourself. Keep in mind that it is very easy for your own views to be manipulated by translators if you do not speak/read Chinese.)

The venue for the Bangkok concert was designed for conventions, not concerts, ie. there was no raised seating. It wouldn’t be surprising if this was done specifically so that people further back would only be able to see the screens rather than Zhang Sanjian himself.

Ticket prices for the concerts are ridiculously expensive, more than you would pay for even many A-list artists. One Malaysian tabloid paper ran an article talking about how expensive the tickets are, again including mention of Yasukuni with no clarifications. Comments underneath the Facebook post for it were filled with passersby questioning why someone they had never heard of was charging so much.

Money laundering

The article Flora translated on money laundering in c-ent

Basic economics: prices are set based on supply and demand.

Whoever is putting on the Zhang Sanjian concert clearly works in the industry, yet is charging enormously inflated prices. This makes no sense if the goal is actually to sell a large amount of tickets.

The main idea behind laundering is that you create opportunities to falsify and inflate sales records. The Bangkok concerts were clearly not sold out despite claiming to be.

The production for the concerts is not high: these are small cheap venues, there are no opening acts, etc. Another part of laundering is to claim that production costs were higher than they really were.

When your goal is money laundering, it doesn’t matter if you actually make money or not. Your aim is only to create records for the movement of money, preferably as large an amount as possible.

Thailand and Malaysia have looser regulations for moving money than China.

Changing currency is another way to make it easier to falsify records, as is the case if you are holding concerts internationally.

This is very serious. Corruption of high enough financial levels can receive a death sentence in China, and it’s not uncommon for whistleblowers of money laundering to be murdered. This is another potential reason for Zhang Zhehan to not speak out against the scam.

[my post of collected info about the Bangkok concerts]

The Chens

The Chen family in particular are really not smart about how they’ve been doing their sketchy business, given that they’ve been opening dozens of companies in their own names and the names of their relatives.

Flora suspects that the shell companies are more likely for tax evasion than money laundering. Their product releases have been tracked to see which company is responsible for each, and every clothing release is under a different one. This is likely to avoid hitting a higher tax bracket, and is literally the most obvious form of tax evasion.

The tea shop has been fined for other things (ex. unsafe food production, false advertising, etc.). These are pressing safety issues, unlike tax evasion.

It’s quite likely that the government IS aware of the Chens’ activity but that they aren’t a big enough concern yet. The longer someone is allowed to get away with something, the more bold they become, which is apparent in the Chens’ behaviour. Letting them get away with it now means that the authorities should be able to book them on heavier charges later.

To reiterate for the millionth time: Zhang Zhehan’s name is not on any of the paperwork for any of the Chens’ companies. The HZ Baobao brand is owned by Chen Ahyi’s boyfriend’s son and his wife, how is it there is any realistic connection there with Zhang Zhehan?

The main motive for the Chens’ involvement with the scam seems to be the money they are able to leech off of fans.

C-Ent politics

The unfortunate reality is that CAPA is very powerful in c-ent. For the people whose livelihoods depend on being in the industry, they have little choice but to cooperate. Xiao Chu, the screenwriter for Word of Honor, is likely an example of this—notice that she has not had any more projects despite the popularity of Word of Honor.

It’s important to remember that c-ent is a very different environment than what westerners might be used to. Keep in mind that, while we are international fans, we are in a Chinese fandom and need to try to understand how the significance of own behaviour might differ from in western fandoms.

Artists in c-ent have little independence and control over their careers, that power is held much more heavily by the companies holding their contracts.

Fandom is also VERY manipulated by capital. Planted fans are extremely prevalent for the purpose of increasing sales and traffic. Fan culture and endorsements are much more for important—a celebrity’s success hinges heavily on how they do in endorsements, not just their own projects.

Toxicity in fandom often is created and/or manipulated by a celebrity’s own company for the sake of increasing traffic. The celebrity might or might not be aware/involved in this—Gong Jun’s studio has done this.

Buying fans (ie. plants) or otherwise artificially inflating traffic (ex. water armies) is extremely common in order to create the appearance of popularity. Nearly every current big whaler has been found to be a plant, and some of the real big whalers were intentionally driven away early on, likely because the scam wanted to make sure they could control the fandom.

If you see a “big fan” loudly saying they’re leaving a fandom, often they were a hired fan and their contract is almost up. With Zhang Zhehan “fans”, notice that there is an uptick in these sorts of posts around August.

Virginia and Yajing

Virginia worked for Pulin, Zhao Wei’s company. When Zhang Zhehan worked for them, she seems to have sometimes accompanied him. She closely follows the Zhang Sanjian accounts and it is known that she’s involved in the scam.

When Zhang Zhehan lost access to his Instagram account for a while, Virginia was the one he thanked after getting it back (2020). It’s not known exactly what she did. The phone number the account is registered under is not Zhang Zhehan’s. The account was created for him while he was working under Yu Zheng, so it’s suspected that Virginia put him in contact with the person in possession of that phone number. The phone number was not changed.

Yajing is a livestream host who did a number of livestreams with Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun after Word of Honor’s success. She’s quite popular for having a non-threatening motherly vibe, and a fair bit of candy came from her livestreams with them.

In July 2022, Yajing posted a photo of herself wearing the EHz.Z slippers, then deleted it shortly afterwards because she lost a huge amount of followers. She has not said anything else related to this since. At the time people questioned if she posted it in ignorance, however, it is now known that she and Virginia follow each other online and have worked together multiple times in the past, including with stage productions funded by CAPA.

This again comes back to the topic of how powerful CAPA is. It might not be that Yajing and many of these other people have any malicious intent or ill will towards Zhang Zhehan personally, but they’re in a position where if they don’t stay in line with what CAPA wants, they could lose their entire careers. How many people would be willing to do that for someone they only worked with a few times? That doesn’t excuse their actions of course, but it does explain them.

Legal matters

People involved in legal cases (including jury) are advised to maintain Internet silence. This gained more public awareness recently due to a case of a woman whose daughter was killed oversees trying to seek justice, who was advised not to speak despite being slandered heavily by the accused. Kris Wu’s victims are another example of this. Speaking online easily complicates your case, sways public opinion, and muddies the story that you want to tell in court.

A major aspect of defamation cases are what the damages of the defamation were. Zhang Sanjian’s activities are a way of trying to sway public opinion into thinking he sustained less damage than he really did.

With that being said, have faith in the Chinese legal system—as stated above, the online culture is very extreme, but the courts are aware of this. As well, Chinese people culturally place a lot less significance on what happens outside of China (ie. the concerts and aforementioned articles.)

It’s important to keep in mind everything that has been discussed above about how corrupt c-ent is and how many different things are at play in the background. While on the surface Zhang Zhehan’s case seems like it should be open and shut, there are a lot more factors at play that complicate and prolong the legal process. What Zhang Zhehan is doing is extremely brave given the circumstances, and it’s obvious that he has not caved despite indications of them giving him opportunities to do so.

Misc.

A CPF was able to train AI within a day to change her voice—feminine and with a Northern Chinese accent—to Zhang Zhehan’s in real time, with the only significant noticeable difference being some of the Northern speech habits.

Ranyi Music was created in June 2021, before 813. One of the shareholders is one of the Chen Ahyis. She recently created a subsidiary company where Zhang Mama is listed as one of the executives. When creating a subsidiary, everything can be done remotely electronically, so likely all they would have needed to do was fake her signature. It is also known that they have a copy of Zhang Mama’s ID (as well as Zhang Zhehan’s and possibly Xiao Yu’s. This would be because the Chens were helping with things such as travel bookings prior to 813.)

The various online accounts of Ranyi Music were accounts repurposed from ones previously run by other companies (ex. the Weibo was for a company run by Xie Yihua’s brother.) Just because a social media company says it’s related to Ranyi doesn’t mean it’s actually registered to them.

Zhao Wei (Zhang Zhehan’s former boss)’s Instagram recently updated for the first time in a while. Flora et al. do not have enough information to speculate about this at this time; there is not currently reason to believe she’s involved in the scam. Some background: Zhao Wei’s husband is well known to be part of the Chinese mafia, and she has a number of connections to many other very wealthy people in China. Both she and her husband have been in legal trouble in the past, including at one point shortly after 813.

It’s hilariously obvious that the scam has been regretting trying to cut out CPFs via the divorce video (22-05-04): there was recently a fan group created for JunJian shippers, the Instagram post that used the 😺🐶 emojis, the concert video that showed Zhang Sanjian interacting with someone in an orange hat, etc. They’re very obviously trying harder to appeal to CPFs, likely because they’ve squeezed solo whalers dry.

Xie Yihua recently posted some photos from Tibet when she supposedly was traveling there with Zhang Sanjian and captioned it “Find Our Voice.” She quickly took it down because of how much whalers came after her for it, ie. they don’t like her “trying to leech attention off him” because they refuse to acknowledge that he’s a fake character created by her.

Whalers proudly talk about how they don’t go back and look at Zhang Zhehan’s old material anymore because of Zhang Sanjian’s narrative of “wanting to forget the past,” seemingly with no awareness of how obvious it is that that’s a ploy to make them not see how different Zhang Sanjian is from Zhang Zhehan.

Candy to lighten the mood

A reminder that during the Friendship Institute interview, Gong Jun said that he thought Zhang Zhehan had a cat, and Zhang Zhehan corrected him by saying “I also have a dog.” (Timestamped in the link.) Fans were confused about this because Zhang Zhehan is not known to have a cat. It has been found out that Zhang Zhehan used to foster stray cats. Specifically, it was discovered that he once took in a stray kitten that he posted pictures of in his WeChat friends circle, which is presumably what Gong Jun was referring to. Supposedly, this is the same kitten that Don’t Want to Be Anonymous posted pictures of. (Below, thank you to Harry for sharing these with me.) Given that some people in the scam gang were in Zhang Zhehan’s friend circle, this is not evidence supporting Anon—only that Anon at the least was someone who had access to his circle.

On the topic of Anon, it’s been noticed that Gong Jun has been posting scenery photos much more often since that account was shut down. Anon’s IP also always stayed consistent with Gong Jun’s location.

It’s worth noting that in the time that it was active, Anon never posted anything harmful, ie. unless it comes back and does something, there’s no harm in believing in it (with a grain of salt.) ❤️

Harry, Coya, and Zell are organizing a fandom event for the Mid-Autumn Festival! Stay tuned for more info! Harry has also recently been running a group for Russian Zhang Zhehan solo fans, please check it out if you’re interested. :D

[masterlist of my posts about zzh]

#Zhang Zhehan #Gong Jun #Word of Honor #woh cast #zzh info

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mysteriouslover1516 · 1 year

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IMAGINE:

The young hacker sighed as he and MC laid out all the information they had discovered in the last few hours. They had so many new leads, so many new paths to pursue and chase after, and yet he felt like they had barely made a dent of progress in Hannah's disappearance. He somewhat smiled though, MC was handling everything very well, he couldn't help but be impressed, proud even.

You can relax a little bit for now. I have asked a lot of you recently.

MC deserved a break, he needed her to rest. She needed to be able to function the next time he had something new to share with her.

When was the last time you slept anyway?

A small chuckle escaped Jake's lips, when was the last time he slept, like ACTUALLY slept? Hmmm, he figured cat naps didn't count, he could barely even remember the last time he slept more than three hours at the most. All he could say was insomnia sucked.

Last fall?

He half expected MC to give him some sort of lecture about how the body needs roughly eight hours of sleep every day in order to properly function, blah blah blah. But instead she took a different turn, catching him off guard.

Hey Jake...

Yes, MC?

What was worrying her? What was weighing on her mind? Was she okay? Or was she about to confess her feelings for him.....

I don't want you to go....

Jake had hit the nail on the head with his last theory, there was no doubt in his mind that MC held certain affections for him.

I can literally feel you blushing.

He groaned, running a hand through his wavy black hair. How did she master the art of combining vulnerability with cockiness? And why did he find that hot, not hot, he meant interesting, interesting was what he meant, not hot, definitely not.

What are you afraid of? You know I like you.

Jake's foot twitched nervously as he read MC's question, what WAS he afraid of? The answer was easy, he was afraid of commitment. But deep down that wasn't the real reason he had found himself trying to quell the unfamiliar feelings he was experiencing. If he committed and lost her, he would never be able to recover. It was better to kill the feelings now, put an end to everything, it was necessary.

Do you think I don't feel the same?

Because he damn well felt the same! It was impossible to not.

You are so mysterious but at the same time I feel like we have known each other for a long time.

Every day he found himself wondering who she was, who was this mysterious MC? Why had she been pulled into the group? Why was her number the last message sent from Hannah's phone?

Throughout the day I think about you a lot more than I would like. And I don't even know you.

He would find himself thinking about her at random, whether it be looking out the window wondering if MC's weather was rainy like his was. Whether he was eating a box of takeout and he asked himself if MC happened to like Chinese food as well. Whether she felt the same way for him.....whether or not she was falling....falling for a stranger she had never even laid eyes upon....

I open up to you, even though I usually never give anyone any information about myself.

"I open up," Jake mumbled. "No matter how much everything within me says not to, I find myself placing myself at your mercy." Whatever he was feeling, this thing he could barely bring himself to call Love, he needed to end it, and end it now. It simply wasn't safe!

My behavior towards you just doesn't make sense.

For once in his life he found himself operating by heart, not with his head. This was not him, this was not normal, and it wasn't RIGHT!

It doesn't have to make sense if it feels right!

But it isn't right! And it's dangerous. For me just as much as for you. I am sorry MC.

Quickly logging off, he pushed himself away from his desk. He was angry, yes, but not at MC. He was angry at himself, angry that his chair was not the only thing he was pushing away. Why did his life have to be laced with so much danger, why couldn't he be one of those lucky bastards who experienced a happily ever after?

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mostlysignssomeportents · 16 days

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Twinkfrump Linkdump

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in CHICAGO (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Welcome to the seventeenth Pluralistic linkdump, a collection of all the miscellany that didn't make it into the week's newsletter, cunningly wrought together in a single edition that ranges from the first ISP to AI nonsense to labor organizing victories to the obituary of a brilliant scientist you should know a lot more about! Here's the other 16 dumps:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

If you're reading this (and you are!), it was delivered to you by an internet service provider. Today, the ISP industry is calcified, controlled by a handful of telcos and cable companies. But the idea of an "ISP" didn't come out of a giant telecommunications firm – it was created, in living memory, by excellent nerds who are still around.

Depending on how you reckon, The Little Garden was either the first or the second ISP in America. It was named after a Palo Alto Chinese restaurant frequented by its founders. To get a sense of that founding, read these excellent recollections by Tom Jennings, whose contributions include the seminal zine Homocore, the seminal networking protocol Fidonet, and the seminal third-party PC ROM, whence came Dell, Gateway, Compaq, and every other "PC clone" company.

The first installment describes how an informal co-op to network a few friends turned into a business almost by accident, with thousands of dollars flowing in and out of Jennings' bank account:

https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Archive/TLG/TLG.html

And it describes how that ISP set a standard for neutrality, boldly declaring that "TLGnet exercises no control whatsoever over the content of the information." They introduced an idea of radical transparency, documenting their router configurations and other technical details and making them available to the public. They hired unskilled punk and queer kids from their communities and trained them to operate the network equipment they'd invented, customized or improvised.

In part two, Jennings talks about the evolution of TLG's radical business-plan: to offer unrestricted service, encouraging their customers to resell that service to people in their communities, having no lock-in, unbundling extra services including installation charges – the whole anti-enshittification enchilada:

https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Archive/TLG/

I love Jennings and his work. I even gave him a little cameo in Picks and Shovels, the third Martin Hench novel, which will be out next winter. He's as lyrical a writer about technology as you could ask for, and he's also a brilliant engineer and thinker.

The Little Garden's founders and early power-users have all fleshed out Jennings' account of the birth of ISPs. Writing on his blog, David "DSHR" Rosenthal rounds up other histories from the likes of EFF co-founder John Gilmore and Tim Pozar:

https://blog.dshr.org/2024/04/the-little-garden.html

Rosenthal describes some of the more exotic shenanigans TLG got up to in order to do end-runs around the Bell system's onerous policies, hacking in the purest sense of the word, for example, by daisy-chaining together modems in regions with free local calling and then making "permanent local calls," with the modems staying online 24/7.

Enshittification came to the ISP business early and hit it hard. The cartel that controls your access to the internet today is a billion light-years away from the principled technologists who invented the industry with an ethos of care, access and fairness. Today's ISPs are bitterly opposed to Net Neutrality, the straightforward proposition that if you request some data, your ISP should send it to you as quickly and reliably as it can.

Instead, ISPs want to offer "slow-lanes" where they will relegate the whole internet, except for those companies that bribe the ISP to be delivered at normal speed. ISPs have a laughably transparent way of describing this: they say that they're allowing services to pay for "fast lanes" with priority access. This is the same as the giant grocery store that charges you extra unless you surrender your privacy with a "loyalty card" – and then says that they're offering a "discount" for loyal customers, rather than charging a premium to customers who don't want to be spied on.

The American business lobby loves this arrangement, and hates Net Neutrality. Having monopolized every sector of our economy, they are extremely fond of "winner take all" dynamics, and that's what a non-neutral ISP delivers: the biggest services with the deepest pockets get the most reliable delivery, which means that smaller services don't just have to be better than the big guys, they also have to be able to outbid them for "priority carriage."

If everything you get from your ISP is slow and janky, except for the dominant services, then the dominant services can skimp on quality and pocket the difference. That's the goal of every monopolist – not just to be too big to fail, but also too big to care.

Under the Trump administration, FCC chair Ajit Pai dismantled the Net Neutrality rule, colluding with American big business to rig the process. They accepted millions of obviously fake anti-Net Neutrality comments (one million identical comments from @pornhub.com addresses, comments from dead people, comments from sitting US Senators who support Net Neutrality) and declared open season on American internet users:

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-issues-report-detailing-millions-fake-comments-revealing

Now, Biden's FCC is set to reinstate Net Neutrality – but with a "compromise" that will make mobile internet (which nearly all of use sometimes, and the poorest of us are reliant on) a swamp of anticompetitive practices:

https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2024/04/harmful-5g-fast-lanes-are-coming-fcc-needs-stop-them

Under the proposed rule, mobile carriers will be able to put traffic to and from apps in the slow lane, and then extort bribes from preferred apps for normal speed and delivery. They'll rely on parts of the 5G standard to pull off this trick.

The ISP cartel and the FCC insist that this is fine because web traffic won't be degraded, but of course, every service is hellbent on pushing you into using apps instead of the web. That's because the web is an open platform, which means you can install ad- and privacy-blockers. More than half of web users have installed a blocker, making it the largest boycott in human history:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

But reverse-engineering and modding an app is a legal minefield. Just removing the encryption from an app can trigger criminal penalties under Section 1201 of the DMCA, carrying a five-year prison sentence and a $500k fine. An app is just a web-page skinned in enough IP that it's a felony to mod it.

Apps are enshittification's vanguard, and the fact that the FCC has found a way to make them even worse is perversely impressive. They're voting on this on April 25, and they have until April 24 to fix this. They should. They really should:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-401676A1.pdf

In a just world, cheating ripoff ISPs would the top tech policy story. The operational practices of ISPs effect every single one us. We literally can't talk about tech policy without ISPs in the middle. But Net Neutrality is an also-ran in tech policy discourse, while AI – ugh ugh ugh – is the thing none of us can shut up about.

This, despite the fact that the most consequential AI applications sum up to serving as a kind of moral crumple-zone for shitty business practices. The point of AI isn't to replace customer service and other low-paid workers who have taken to demanding higher wages and better conditions – it's to fire those workers and replace them with chatbots that can't do their jobs. An AI salesdroid can't sell your boss a bot that can replace you, but they don't need to. They only have to convince your boss that the bot can do your job, even if it can't.

SF writer Karl Schroeder is one of the rare sf practitioners who grapples seriously with the future, a "strategic foresight" guy who somehow skirts the bullshit that is the field's hallmark:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/07/the-gernsback-continuum/#wheres-my-jetpack

Writing on his blog, Schroeder describes the AI debates roiling the Association of Professional Futurists, and how it's sucking him into being an unwilling participant in the AI hype cycle:

https://kschroeder.substack.com/p/dragged-into-the-ai-hype-cycle

Schroeder's piece is a thoughtful meditation on the relationship of SF's thought-experiments and parables about AI to the promises of AI hucksters, who promise that a) "general artificial intelligence" is just around the corner and that b) it will be worth trillions of dollars.

Schroeder – like other sf writers including Ted Chiang and Charlie Stross (and me) – comes to the conclusion that AI panic isn't about AI, it's about power. The artificial life-form devouring the planet and murdering our species is the limited liability corporation, and its substrate isn't silicon, it's us, human bodies:

What’s lying underneath all our anxieties about AGI is an anxiety that has nothing to do with Artificial Intelligence. Instead, it’s a manifestation of our growing awareness that our world is being stolen from under us. Last year’s estimate put the amount of wealth currently being transferred from the people who made it to an idle billionaire class at $5.2 trillion. Artificial General Intelligence whose environment is the server farms and sweatshops of this class is frightening only because of its capacity to accelerate this greatest of all heists.

After all, the business-case for AI is so very thin that the industry can only survive on a torrent of hype and nonsense – like claims that Amazon's "Grab and Go" stores used "AI" to monitor shoppers and automatically bill them for their purchases. In reality, the stores used thousands of low-paid Indian workers to monitor cameras and manually charge your card. This happens so often that Indian technologists joke that "AI" stands for "absent Indians":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

Isn't it funny how all the really promising AI applications are in domains that most of us aren't qualified to assess? Like the claim that Google's AI was producing millions of novel materials that will shortly revolutionize all forms of production, from construction to electronics to medical implants:

https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/millions-of-new-materials-discovered-with-deep-learning/

That's what Google's press-release claimed, anyway. But when two groups of experts actually pulled a representative sample of these "new materials" from the Deep Mind database, they found that none of these materials qualified as "credible, useful and novel":

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c00643

Writing about the researchers' findings for 404 Media, Jason Koebler cites Berkeley researchers who concluded that "no new materials have been discovered":

https://www.404media.co/google-says-it-discovered-millions-of-new-materials-with-ai-human-researchers/

The researchers say that AI data-mining for new materials is promising, but falls well short of Google's claim to be so transformative that it constitutes the "equivalent to nearly 800 years’ worth of knowledge" and "an order-of-magnitude expansion in stable materials known to humanity."

AI hype keeps the bubble inflating, and for so long as it keeps blowing up, all those investors who've sunk their money into AI can tell themselves that they're rich. This is the essence of "a bezzle": "The magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

Among the best debezzlers of AI are the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy's Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor, who edit the "AI Snake Oil" blog. Now, they've sold a book with the same title:

https://www.aisnakeoil.com/p/ai-snake-oil-is-now-available-to

Obviously, books move a lot more slowly than blogs, and so Narayanan and Kapoor say their book will focus on the timeless elements of identifying and understanding AI snake oil:

In the book, we explain the crucial differences between types of AI, why people, companies, and governments are falling for AI snake oil, why AI can’t fix social media, and why we should be far more worried about what people will do with AI than about anything AI will do on its own. While generative AI is what drives press, predictive AI used in criminal justice, finance, healthcare, and other domains remains far more consequential in people’s lives. We discuss in depth how predictive AI can go wrong. We also warn of the dangers of a world where AI continues to be controlled by largely unaccountable big tech companies.

The book's out in September and it's up for pre-order now:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/ai-snake-oil-what-artificial-intelligence-can-do-what-it-can-t-and-how-to-tell-the-difference-arvind-narayanan/21324674

One of the weirder and worst side-effects of the AI hype bubble is that it has revived the belief that it's somehow possible for giant platforms to monitor all their users' speech and remove "harmful" speech. We've tried this for years, and when humans do it, it always ends with disfavored groups being censored, while dedicated trolls, harassers and monsters evade punishment:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/como-is-infosec/

AI hype has led policy-makers to believe that we can deputize online services to spy on all their customers and block the bad ones without falling into this trap. Canada is on the verge of adopting Bill C-63, a "harmful content" regulation modeled on examples from the UK and Australia.

Writing on his blog, Canadian lawyer/activist/journalist Dimitri Lascaris describes the dire speech implications for C-63:

https://dimitrilascaris.org/2024/04/08/trudeaus-online-harms-bill-threatens-free-speech/

It's an excellent legal breakdown of the bill's provisions, but also a excellent analysis of how those provisions are likely to play out in the lives of Canadians, especially those advocating against genocide and taking other positions the that oppose the agenda of the government of the day.

Even if you like the Trudeau government and its policies, these powers will accrue to every Canadian government, including the presumptive (and inevitably, totally unhinged) near-future Conservative majority government of Pierre Poilievre.

It's been ten years since Martin Gilens and Benjamin I Page published their paper that concluded that governments make policies that are popular among elites, no matter how unpopular they are among the public:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

Now, this is obviously depressing, but when you see it in action, it's kind of wild. The Biden administration has declared war on junk fees, from "resort fees" charged by hotels to the dozens of line-items added to your plane ticket, rental car, or even your rent check. In response, Republican politicians are climbing to their rear haunches and, using their actual human mouths, defending junk fees:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-12-republicans-objectively-pro-junk-fee/

Congressional Republicans are hell-bent on destroying the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's $8 cap on credit-card late-fees. Trump's presumptive running-mate Tim Scott is making this a campaign plank: "Vote for me and I will protect your credit-card company's right to screw you on fees!" He boasts about the lobbyists who asked him to take this position: champions of the public interest from the Consumer Bankers Association to the US Chamber of Commerce.

Banks stand to lose $10b/year from this rule (which means Americans stand to gain $10b/year from this rule). What's more, Scott's attempt to kill the rule is doomed to fail – there's just no procedural way it will fly. As David Dayen writes, "Not only does this vote put Republicans on the spot over junk fees, it’s a doomed vote, completely initiated by their own possible VP nominee."

This is an hilarious own-goal, one that only brings attention to a largely ignored – but extremely good – aspect of the Biden administration. As Adam Green of Bold Progressives told Dayen, "What’s been missing is opponents smoking themselves out and raising the volume of this fight so the public knows who is on their side."

The CFPB is a major bright spot in the Biden administration's record. They're doing all kind of innovative things, like making it easy for you to figure out which bank will give you the best deal and then letting you transfer your account and all its associated data, records and payments with a single click:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

And now, CFPB chair Rohit Chopra has given a speech laying out the agency's plan to outlaw data-brokers:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/prepared-remarks-of-cfpb-director-rohit-chopra-at-the-white-house-on-data-protection-and-national-security/

Yes, this is some good news! There is, in fact, good news in the world, bright spots amidst all the misery and terror. One of those bright spots? Labor.

Unions are back, baby. Not only do the vast majority of Americans favor unions, not only are new shops being unionized at rates not seen in generations, but also the largest unions are undergoing revolutions, with control being wrestled away from corrupt union bosses and given to the rank-and-file.

Many of us have heard about the high-profile victories to take back the UAW and Teamsters, but I hadn't heard about the internal struggles at the United Food and Commercial Workers, not until I read Hamilton Nolan's gripping account for In These Times:

https://inthesetimes.com/article/revolt-aisle-5-ufcw-grocery-workers-union

Nolan profiles Faye Guenther, president of UFCW Local 3000 and her successful and effective fight to bring a militant spirit back to the union, which represents a million grocery workers. Nolan describes the fight as "every bit as dramatic as any episode of Game of Thrones," and he's not wrong. This is an inspiring tale of working people taking power away from scumbag monopoly bosses and sellout fatcat leaders – and, in so doing, creating a institution that gets better wages, better working conditions, and a better economy, by helping to block giant grocery mergers like Kroger/Albertsons.

I like to end these linkdumps on an up note, so it feels weird to be closing out with an obituary, but I'd argue that any celebration of the long life and many accomplishments of my friend and mentor Anne Innis Dagg is an "up note."

I last wrote about Anne in 2020, on the release of a documentary about her work, "The Woman Who Loved Giraffes":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/19/pluralist-19-feb-2020/#annedagg

As you might have guessed from the title of that doc, Anne was a biologist. She was the first woman scientist to do field-work on giraffes, and that work was so brilliant and fascinating that it kicked off the modern field of giraffology, which remains a woman-dominated specialty thanks to her tireless mentoring and support for the scientists that followed her.

Anne was also the world's most fearsome slayer of junk-science "evolutionary psychology," in which "scientists" invent unfalsifiable just-so stories that prove that some odious human characteristic is actually "natural" because it can be found somewhere in the animal kingdom (i.e., "Darling, please, it's not my fault that I'm fucking my grad students, it's the bonobos!").

Anne wrote a classic – and sadly out of print – book about this that I absolutely adore, not least for having one of the best titles I've ever encountered: "Love of Shopping" Is Not a Gene:

https://memex.craphound.com/2009/11/04/love-of-shopping-is-not-a-gene-exposing-junk-science-and-ideology-in-darwinian-psychology/

Anne was my advisor at the University of Waterloo, an institution that denied her tenure for fifty years, despite a brilliant academic career that rivaled that of her storied father, Harold Innis ("the thinking person's Marshall McLuhan"). The fact that Waterloo never recognized Anne is doubly shameful when you consider that she was awarded the Order of Canada:

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/queen-of-giraffes-among-new-order-of-canada-recipients-with-global-influence

Anne lived a brilliant live, struggling through adversity, never compromising on her principles, inspiring a vast number of students and colleagues. She lived to ninety one, and died earlier this month. Her ashes will be spread "on the breeding grounds of her beloved giraffes" in South Africa this summer:

https://obituaries.therecord.com/obituary/anne-innis-dagg-1089534658

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/13/goulash/#material-misstatement

Image: Valeva1010 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hungarian_Goulash_Recipe.png

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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