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jcmarchi · 2 months ago

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How to 8‑bit quantize large models using bits and bytes

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-to-8%e2%80%91bit-quantize-large-models-using-bits-and-bytes/

How to 8‑bit quantize large models using bits and bytes

Deep learning is consistently changing so many fields, from NLP (natural language processing) to computer vision.

However, as these models continue to grow in size and complexity, the demands on the hardware required for memory and compute continue to skyrocket. In light of this, there are promising strategies to overcome these challenges, one of which is quantization. This lowers the precision of numbers used in the model without a noticeable loss in performance.

In this article, I will dive into the theoretical processes underlying this strategy and show the practical implementation of 8‑bit quantization within a large parameter model, in this case, we will be using the IBM Granite model and BitsAndBytes for quantization.

Introduction

The quick growth of deep learning has resulted in an arms race of models boasting billions of parameters, which, in most cases, achieve stellar performance but require enormous computational resources.

As engineers and researchers look for methods to make these large models more efficient, quantization has shown to be an incredibly effective solution. By lowering the bit width of number representations from 32‑bit floating point to x‑bit integers, quantization decreases the overall model size, speeds up inference, and cuts energy consumption, all while keeping a high accuracy in the output.

I will explore the concepts and techniques behind 8‑bit quantization in this article. I will explain the approach’s benefits, outline the theory behind it, and walk you through the process step by step.

I will then show you a practical application: quantizing the IBM Granite model using BitsAndBytes.

Understanding quantization

At its core, quantization is the process of mapping input values from a quite large set (usually continuous and high-precision) to a much smaller and more discrete set, which has lower precision. Deep learning typically involves converting 32‑bit floating‑point numbers to x‑bit integer alternatives.

The result is a massive reduction in memory usage and computation time.

Benefits of quantization

Lower memory footprint: Lower precision means that each parameter requires much less memory.

Increased speed: Integer math is generally much faster than floating‑point operations (FlOps), especially on hardware optimized for low‑bit computations.

Energy efficiency: Lower precision computations consume far less power, making them ideal for mobile and edge devices.

Types of quantization

Uniform quantization: This method maps a range of floating‑point values uniformly to integer values.

Non‑uniform quantization: Uses a more complicated mapping based on the distribution of the weights or activations of the network.

Symmetric vs. asymmetric quantization:

Symmetric: Uses the same scale and zero‑point for positive and negative values.

Asymmetric: Allows different scales and zero‑points, which is useful for distributions that are not centered around zero.

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Why 8‑bit quantization?

8‑bit quantization is when each weight or activation in the model is fully represented with 8 bits, thus offering us 256 discrete values.

This approach helps maintain compression and precision by enabling:

Memory savings: Lowering the uint from 32 bits to 8 bits per parameter can cut the memory footprint by up to 75%.

Speed gains: Many hardware accelerators and CPUs are fully optimized for 8‑bit arithmetic, which massively improves inference times.

Minimal accuracy loss: With careful calibration and potentially fine‑tuning, the degradation in performance with 8-bit quantization is often minimal.

Deployment on edge devices: The reduced model size and faster computations make 8‑bit quantized models perfect for devices with limited computational resources.

Theoretical underpinnings of quantization

Quantization is thoroughly rooted in signal processing and numerical analysis. The objective here is to reduce precision whilst also controlling the quantization error, the difference between the original value and its quantized version.

Quantization error

Scale and zero‑point

A linear mapping is normally used to perform quantization:

Scale (S): Sets the step size between our quantized values.

Zero‑point (Z): The integer value assigned to the real number zero.

The process normally involves a calibration phase to determine the optimal scale and zero‑point values. This is then followed by the actual quantization of weights and activations.

Quantization Aware Training (QAT) vs. Post‑Training Quantization (PTQ)

Quantization Aware Training (QAT): This integrates a simulated quantization into the training process, allowing the model to adapt its weights to quantization noise.

Post‑Training Quantization (PTQ): Applies quantization to a pre‑trained model using calibration data. PTQ is simpler and faster to implement but it may incur a slightly larger accuracy drop compared to QAT.

Steps in 8‑bit quantization

Applying 8‑bit quantization includes some essential steps:

Preprocessing and calibration

Step 1: Investigate the Model’s Dynamic Range

Before quantization, we need to know the weights and activation ranges:

Collect Statistics: Pass a part of the dataset through the model to collect statistics (min, max, mean, standard deviation) for all the layers.

Establish Ranges: Based on these statistics, create quantization ranges, possibly clipping outliers to create a tighter range.

Step 2: Calibration

Calibration is the process of selecting the best scale and zero-point for each tensor or layer:

Min/Max Calibration: Uses the minimum and maximum that were observed.

Percentile Calibration: Uses some percentile (e.g., 99.9th percentile) to avoid outliers. Calibration must be correct since poor decisions will result in significant loss of accuracy.

Quantization Aware Training vs. Post‑Training Quantization

Quantization Aware Training (QAT):

Advantages: Greater precision as the model learns how to compensate for quantization distortion.

Cons: Involves modifying the training procedure and extra computation.

Post‑Training Quantization (PTQ):

Advantages: It’s much easier to implement because the model is already pre-trained.

Disadvantages: It can sometimes result in a greater reduction in accuracy, specifically in precision-based models.

For most big models, a small loss of accuracy from PTQ is fine, while mission-critical applications can use QAT.

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8-bit quantization applied

No matter which deep learning environment—PyTorch, TensorFlow, or ONNX—the concepts of 8‑bit quantization remain the same.

Practical considerations

Before implementing quantization, consider the following:

Hardware support

Ensure that the target hardware (CPUs, GPUs, or special accelerators like TPUs) natively supports 8‑bit operations.

Libraries

PyTorch: Gives us built-in support for QAT and PTQ through its designated quantization module.

TensorFlow Lite: Offers us utilities to transform models to an 8‑bit quantized format, especially for embedded and mobile applications.

ONNX Runtime: Supports quantized models for use across different platforms.

Model Structure: Not all the layers in the model are created equal when quantized.

Convolutional and fully connected layers will generally be fine, but some activation and normalization layers may need further special treatment.

Fine-Tuning: Fine-tuning the quantized model on a small calibration dataset can help restore any performance loss due to quantization noise.

BitsAndBytes: A specialized library for 8‑bit quantization

BitsAndBytes is an independent library that helps us further streamline the 8‑bit quantization process for very large models. Frameworks like PyTorch offer us native quantization support. However, BitsAndBytes provides additional optimizations designed to convert 32‑bit floating point weights into 8‑bit integers.

With a simple config flag (e.g., load_in_8bit=True), it enables significant reductions in memory usage and speeds up inference without requiring massive code modifications.

Model structure: Not all layers are equally amenable to quantization. Convolutional and fully connected layers usually perform well under quantization, but some of the activation and normalization layers may need special treatment.

Fine‑tuning: Fine‑tuning the quantized model on a small calibration dataset can help us recover any performance loss due to quantization noise.

Integrating BitsAndBytes with your workflow

For seamless integration, BitsAndBytes can be used alongside other popular frameworks like PyTorch. When you pre-configure your model with BitsAndBytes, you simply have to specify the quantization configuration during model loading.

This tells the system to automatically convert the weights from 32‑bit integers to 8‑bit integers on the fly thus reducing the overall memory footprint by up to 75% and enhancing inference speed, which is ideal for deployment in resource-constrained environments.

For example, by setting up your model with:

quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_8bit=True)

you can achieve a quick switch to 8‑bit precision. This approach not only optimizes memory usage but also maintains high performance, making it a valuable addition to your deep learning workflow.

Case study: Quantizing IBM Granite with 8‑bit using BitsAndBytes

IBM Granite is a 2‑billion parameter model designed for instruction‑following tasks. Due to its enormous size, it is possible to quantize IBM Granite to 8‑bit to reduce its memory footprint significantly with good performance.

IBM Granite quantization: Example code

The following is the code segment for configuring IBM Granite with 8‑bit quantization:

# Setup IBM Granite model using 8-bit quantization. model_name = “ibm-granite/granite-3.1-2b-instruct” quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_8bit=True) model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained( model_name, quantization_config=quantization_config, device_map=“balanced”, # Adjust as needed based on available GPU memory. torch_dtype=torch.float16 ) tokeniser = AutoTokeniser.from_pretrained(model_name)

Code breakdown

Model Selection:

The model_name variable sets up the IBM Granite model to be used for instruction execution.

Quantization Setup:

BitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_8bit=True) activates 8‑bit quantization. It is a flag that informs the model loader to quantize 32‑bit floating point to 8‑bit integer.

Model loading:

AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained() loads the model using the specified configuration. The parameter device_map=”balanced” helps distribute the model across available GPUs, and torch_dtype=torch.float16 ensures that any remaining computation uses half‑precision.

Tokenizer initialization:

The tokenizer is instantiated with AutoTokeniser.from_pretrained(model_name) and guarantees the input text undergoes correct preprocessing for the quantized model.

This method not only lowers the memory usage of the model by as much as 75%, it also increases inference speed, making it particularly suitable for deployment in memory-limited settings, such as edge devices.

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Barriers and best practices

Even though 8-bit quantization is highly advantageous, it also has some challenges:

Challenges

Accuracy degradation

Some models can suffer from a loss of accuracy after quantization due to quantization noise.

Calibration difficulty

It is important to determine appropriate calibration data and techniques and may be difficult, especially for models with a broad dynamic range.

Hardware constraints

Ensure that your target deployment platform fully supports 8‑bit operation, or performance will be disappointing.

Best practices full calibration

Use a representative data set to accurately calibrate the model’s weights and activations.

Layer-by-layer analysis

Determine which layers are sensitive to quantization and evaluate the necessity to retain them at a higher precision.

Progressive evaluation

Quantization is not a one-shot fix. Repeat your strategy in turn experimenting with different calibration techniques and potentially mixing PTQ with QAT.

Use framework tools

Utilize the high-level quantization utilities integrated into frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow, as these utilities are always being improved and updated.

Fine‑tuning

If possible, optimize the quantized model on a subset of your data to recover any performance loss due to quantization.

Conclusion

Quantization and 8‑bit quantization are powerful techniques for reducing the memory footprint and accelerating the inference of large models. By converting 32‑bit floating‑point values to 8‑bit integers, you can achieve significant memory savings and speedups with minimal accuracy loss.

In the current article, we discussed the theoretical foundations of quantization and expounded on the steps involved in preprocessing, calibration, and choosing between quantization-aware training and post-training quantization.

We then gave practical examples using popular frameworks, finishing with a case study involving the quantization of the IBM Granite model using BitsAndBytes.

As models in deep learning increase in size, mastering techniques like 8‑bit quantization will be needed to deploy efficient state‑of‑the‑art systems: right from the data center down to edge devices.

Regardless of whether you’re an AI researcher or a deployment engineer, understanding how to make large models optimized is a needed skill in today’s AI landscape.

The application of 8-bit quantization through tools such as BitsAndBytes allows the reduction of the computational and memory overhead of big models, such as IBM Granite, to be achieved for more scalable, efficient, and energy-consumption-friendly deployment in diverse applications and hardware platforms.

Happy quantizing, and may every bit and byte count in your models become leaner, faster, and more efficient!

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reasonsforhope · 3 months ago

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"Claire Cao was only a senior in high school when she saw a vital need in her community — and filled it.

In 2024, the teenager spent her time outside of school volunteering at Blanchet House, a Portland-based nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness through food donations, clothing drives, and mental health assistance programs.

As she logged hours as a Blanchet House student ambassador, Cao soon realized how difficult it was for community members to keep track of shelter openings, rotating food service programs, and available mental health resources.

“During one afternoon meal service, I met Dano, an unhoused man who shared his struggles with accessing basic services like food and shelter,” Cao said in a recent press release.

“Left disconnected from essential services, Dano described his struggles of not knowing where to go or which shelters had available beds.”

Combining her love for technology, law, and public policy, Cao pulled available resources into a database and created the ShelterBridge app, which connects users to shelters and services in their area.

“ShelterBridge wasn’t simply inspired by Dano — it was inspired by the realization that access to resources is a fundamental need that we, as a community, can do a better job of providing,” Cao emphasized.

“I wanted to use my skills to build something that could bridge that gap, ensuring that no one falls through the cracks simply because they don’t know where to turn for help.”

In addition to linking users to services in their area, the app also has a rating system similar to Yelp. This system allows people to leave star ratings and reviews on shelters, food services, hotlines, and legal aid.

The ratings not only help users differentiate between services in their area — but they also provide invaluable feedback to the nonprofits, organizations, and government programs that service them.

“We've been asking for an app like this for a number of years now,” Scott Kerman, executive director of Blanchet House, told Portland news station KGW.

In mid-January, Cao won the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Oregon’s First District for her work with ShelterBridge — outcompeting 12,682 student submissions.

Since the app first launched, Cao and her growing ShelterBridge team — which includes enterprising high schoolers and college students from across the nation — have expanded services to California, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, and North Carolina.

“Claire and the team she’s working with deserve all the credit in the world because they're doing something that frankly nobody else has really stepped up to do,” Kerman said.

“To have the kind of technology that we use every day with hotels and other kinds of reservations [to] help people get into safe, supportive and dignified shelter would be a game changer for our community.”

Although the app started as a class project, Cao said ShelterBridge’s success has far surpassed her expectations.

“I do hope to keep it up,” she told Oregon outlet KOIN 6 News, as she looked ahead to college and beyond. “I’ve made a lot of efforts to expand it to other cities as well — and it’s something I can mostly do from a computer or my laptop at home.”

-via GoodGoodGood, March 21, 2025

#homeless #homelessness #community care #poverty #unhoused #housing crisis #housing #shelter #homeless shelter #mental health resources #portland #oregon #california #los angeles #philadelphia #seattle #north carolina #good news #hope

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schoolofcoreai5 · 1 year ago

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)- The School of Core AI Institute.

The best institute of Delhi NCR, Gurgaon and Delhi, the School of Core AI Institute is a trailblazer in AI education. With cutting-edge features and a forward-looking approach, it stands out as a recognized leader, shaping the future of artificial intelligence with excellence.

What advantages come with industry expert training in IT courses?

Industry expert training, a hallmark of programs like those at the School of Core AI, ensures that you receive top-notch guidance and insights from professionals actively working in the field.

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FAQs tell all about of School of Core AI career program.

#datascience #machine learning #data analytics #artificial intelligence #programming #coding #software development #web development #database #computer science #school system #lesson plan #python #mastering engineer #computervision #career #placement assistance #100% accurate

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reidsism · 1 month ago

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➵ RECORDS!READER DATABASE

to nav 𓇙 to s.r mlist

a semi-chronological collection of short blurbs feat. records!reader

off the record — you haven’t personally assisted on a case in at least six years, preferring the silence of the records room, surrounded by decades-old casefiles and shelving that reaches the ceiling. but when the bau requests your help on an unsub copying a string of murders from the 60s that hasn’t been digitized yet, you get a taste of what teamwork feels like

a project — dr reid visits basement three for the first time since joining the fbi. it’s… a little jarring, how empty it is. but the records room is quiet chaos and he thinks it’s a fine place to make a friend

coffee run — dr reid brings you a gift. sort of

tornado nest — you’re still unused to another presence in your little hobbit hole

frigid — a blizzard hits quantico. dr reid checks on the records room, even with basement three feeling like ice

loch ness — your first non-sanctioned trip to the bau is met with the upwards brows of derek morgan, and maybe dr reid gets a bit too defensive

encyclopedic — the bau needs help on the case of a copycat of a copycat… of a copycat

suddenly essential — you’re used to being a myth, a cryptid in the basement of the bureau. you think you’re a bit out of your depth

lunch? — dr reid brings you lunch for the first time. seeing you twelve feet in the air climbing a shelf is… not what he was expecting

computer fairy — you and garcia are polar opposites. somehow you can’t help the immediate connection

visitation — you’re expecting this unexpected visitor to be dr reid, like always. to say you’re shocked is an understatement

sunshine — you’re yanked out of your crypt unceremoniously, for the convenience of vending machines and cell service and sunlight

daylight savings — dr reid notices everything. even the way you curl into yourself when leaving your hobbit hole

B.B.O. — garcia visits your little cave. she has a plan

organizational structure — the bau doesn’t understand your complex filing system. you decode your hieroglyphics

biography — you meet agent rossi for the first time. he likes you already

#fair warning #these will uh. NOT be posted in order lol #mlist ✧˖*°࿐#reid ✧˖*°࿐#spencer reid x reader #records!reader

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dont-read-this-im-dead · 6 months ago

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In The Jailhouse Job, Eliot puts the flashdrive into the prison computer and types a few keys really fast without getting nervous or making a mistake.

It's this moment where I KNOW Eliot's and Hardison's relationship has reached a different level.

Evidence:

Eliot consistently makes fun of Hardison for knowing computer stuff, but here, we see that Eliot still took the time to actually LEARN it.

In previous episodes where Eliot had to do anything computer related, he was very slow about the whole thing, which means he's been practicing and working with Hardison on a regular basis to get better.

In The Wedding Job, Eliot whined about maybe having to type things when he broke into the FBI office, saying all he knew how to do was Photoshop, but now, typing is second nature to him.

In The Reunion Job, the entire episode revolves around computers, but Eliot is chosen be the on-site hacker, which means he's comfortable enough with computers to assist Hardison.

Whenever Hardison gets in the zone and starts geeking out, Eliot is always frustrated and angry at him and tells him to stop. Yet in The Reunion Job, Eliot trusts in Hardison's skill set enough to pit him against the guy who literally wrote the book on database security.

Maybe they don't see each other as boyfriends JUST yet, but those few seconds in The Jailhouse Job tells me that soon, these guys will eventually figure out how much they love each other.

#the jailhouse job #the wedding job #the reunion job #eliot spencer #alec hardison #leverage #leverage ot3 #ot3 #ot3: hitter hacker thief #my ot3 #polyamory #nate ford #sophie devereaux #parker #they love each other your honor

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 months ago

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Twinkump Linkdump

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY next MONDAY (Mar 24), and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.

I have an excellent excuse for this week's linkdump: I'm in Germany, but I'm supposed to be in LA, and I'm not, because London Heathrow shut down due to a power-station fire, which meant I spent all day yesterday running around like a headless chicken, trying to get home in time for my gig in San Diego on Monday (don't worry, I sorted it):

https://www.mystgalaxy.com/32425Doctorow

Therefore, this is 30th linkdump, in which I collect the assorted links that didn't make it into this week's newsletters. Here are the other 29:

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

I always like to start and end these 'dumps with some good news, which isn't easy in these absolutely terrifying times. But there is some good news: Wil Wheaton has announced his new podcast, a successor of sorts to the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. It's called "It's Storytime" and it features Wil reading his favorite stories handpicked from science fiction magazines, including On Spec, the magazine that bought my very first published story (I was 16, it ran in their special youth issue, it wasn't very good, but boy did it mean a lot to me):

https://wilwheaton.net/podcast/

Here's some more good news: a court has found (again!) that works created by AI are not eligible for copyright. This is the very best possible outcome for people worried about creators' rights in the age of AI, because if our bosses can't copyright the botshit that comes out of the "AI" systems trained on our work, then they will pay us:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-appeals-court-rejects-copyrights-171203999.html

Our bosses hate paying us, but they hate the idea of not being able to stop people from copying their entertainment products so! much! more! It's that simple:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

This outcome is so much better than the idea that AI training isn't fair use – an idea that threatens the existence of search engines, archiving, computational linguistics, and other clearly beneficial activities. Worse than that, though: if we create a new copyright that allows creators to prevent others from scraping and analyzing their works, our bosses will immediately alter their non-negotiable boilerplate contracts to demand that we assign them this right. That will allow them to warehouse huge troves of copyrighted material that they will sell to AI companies who will train models designed to put us on the breadline (see above, re: our bosses hate paying us):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/13/hey-look-over-there/#lets-you-and-he-fight

The rights of archivists grow more urgent by the day, as the Trump regime lays waste to billions of dollars worth of government materials that were produced at public expense, deleting decades of scientific, scholarly, historical and technical materials. This is the kind of thing you might expect the National Archive or the Library of Congress to take care of, but they're being chucked into the meat-grinder as well.

To make things even worse, Trump and Musk have laid waste to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a tiny, vital agency that provides funding to libraries, archives and museums across the country. Evan Robb writes about all the ways the IMLS supports the public in his state of Washington:

Technology support. Last-mile broadband connection, network support, hardware, etc. Assistance with the confusing e-rate program for reduced Internet pricing for libraries.

Coordinated group purchase of e-books, e-audiobooks, scholarly research databases, etc.

Library services for the blind and print-disabled.

Libraries in state prisons, juvenile detention centers, and psychiatric institutions.

Digitization of, and access to, historical resources (e.g., newspapers, government records, documents, photos, film, audio, etc.).

Literacy programming and support for youth services at libraries.

The entire IMLS budget over the next 10 years rounds to zero when compared to the US federal budget – and yet, by gutting it, DOGE is amputating significant parts of the country's systems that promote literacy; critical thinking; and universal access to networks, media and ideas. Put it that way, and it's not hard to see why they hate it so.

Trying to figure out what Trump is up to is (deliberately) confusing, because Trump and Musk are pursuing a chaotic agenda that is designed to keep their foes off-balance:

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-donald-trump-chaos/

But as Hamilton Nolan writes, there's a way to cut through the chaos and make sense of it all. The problem is that there are a handful of billionaires who have so much money that when they choose chaos, we all have to live with it:

The significant thing about the way that Elon Musk is presently dismantling our government is not the existence of his own political delusions, or his own self-interested quest to privatize public functions, or his own misreading of economics; it is the fact that he is able to do it. And he is able to do it because he has several hundred billion dollars. If he did not have several hundred billion dollars he would just be another idiot with bad opinions. Because he has several hundred billion dollars his bad opinions are now our collective lived experience.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-underlying-problem

We actually have a body of law designed to prevent this from happening. It's called "antitrust" and 40 years ago, Jimmy Carter decided to follow the advice of some of history's dumbest economists who said that fighting monopolies made the economy "inefficient." Every president since, up to – but not including – Biden, did even more to encourage monopolization and the immense riches it creates for a tiny number of greedy bastards.

But Biden changed that. Thanks to the "Unity Taskforce" that divided up the presidential appointments between the Democrats' corporate wing and the Warren/Sanders wing, Biden appointed some of the most committed, effective trustbusters we'd seen for generations:

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

After Trump's election, there was some room for hope that Trump's FTC would continue to pursue at least some of the anti-monopoly work of the Biden years. After all, there's a sizable faction within the MAGA movement that hates (some) monopolies:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/24/enforcement-priorities/#enemies-lists

But last week, Trump claimed to have illegally fired the two Democratic commissioners on the FTC: Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter. I stan both of these commissioners, hard. When they were at the height of their powers in the Biden years, I had the incredible, disorienting experience of getting out of bed, checking the headlines, and feeling very good about what the government had just done.

Trump isn't legally allowed to fire Bedoya and Slaughter. Perhaps he's just picking this fight as part of his chaos agenda (see above). But there are some other pretty good theories about what this is setting up. In his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller proposes that Trump is using this case as a wedge, trying to set a precedent that would let him fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-trump-tried-to-fire-federal-trade

But perhaps there's more to it. Stoller just had Commissioner Bedoya on Organized Money, the podcast he co-hosts with David Dayen, and Bedoya pointed out that if Trump can fire Democratic commissioners, he can also fire Republican commissioners. That means that if he cuts a shady deal with, say, Jeff Bezos, he can order the FTC to drop its case against Amazon and fire the Republicans on the commission if they don't frog when he jumps:

https://www.organizedmoney.fm/p/trumps-showdown-at-the-ftc-with-commissioner

(By the way, Organized Money is a fantastic podcast, notwithstanding the fact that they put me on the show last week:)

https://audio.buzzsprout.com/6f5ly01qcx6ijokbvoamr794ht81

The future that our plutocrat overlords are grasping for is indeed a terrible one. You can see its shape in the fantasies of "liberatarian exit" – the seasteads, free states, and other assorted attempts to build anarcho-capitalist lawless lands where you can sell yourself into slavery, or just sell your kidneys. The best nonfiction book on libertarian exit is Raymond Criab's 2022 "Adventure Capitalism," a brilliant, darkly hilarious and chilling history of every time a group of people have tried to found a nation based on elevating selfishness to a virtue:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/14/this-way-to-the-egress/#terra-nullius

If Craib's book is the best nonfiction volume on the subject of libertarian exit, then Naomi Kritzer's super 2023 novel Liberty's Daughter is the best novel about life in a libertopia – a young adult novel about a girl growing up in the hell that would be life with a Heinlein-type dad:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/21/podkaynes-dad-was-a-dick/#age-of-consent

But now this canon has a third volume, a piece of design fiction from Atelier Van Lieshout called "Slave City," which specs out an arcology populated with 200,000 inhabitants whose "very rational, efficient and profitable" arrangements produce €7b/year in profit:

https://www.archdaily.com/30114/slave-city-atelier-van-lieshout

This economic miracle is created by the residents' "voluntary" opt-in to a day consisting of 7h in an office, 7h toiling in the fields, 7h of sleep, and 3h for "leisure" (e.g. hanging out at "The Mall," a 24/7, 26-storey " boundless consumer paradise"). Slaves who wish to better themselves can attend either Female Slave University or Male Slave University (no gender controversy in Slave City!), which run 24/7, with 7 hours of study, 7 hours of upkeep and maintenance on the facility, 7h of sleep, and, of course, 3h of "leisure."

The field of design fiction is a weird and fertile one. In his traditional closing keynote for this year's SXSW Interactive festival, Bruce Sterling opens with a little potted history of the field since it was coined by Julian Bleeker:

https://bruces.medium.com/how-to-rebuild-an-imaginary-future-2025-0b14e511e7b6

Then Bruce moves on to his own latest design fiction project, an automated poetry machine called the Versificatore first described by Primo Levi in an odd piece of science fiction written for a newspaper. The Versificatore was then adapted to the screen in 1971, for an episode of an Italian sf TV show based on Levi's fiction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tva-D_8b8-E

And now Sterling has built a Versificatore. The keynote is a sterlingian delight – as all of his SXSW closers are. It's a hymn to the value of "imaginary futures" and an instruction manual for recovering them. It could not be more timely.

Sterling's imaginary futures would be a good upbeat note to end this 'dump with, but I've got a real future that's just as inspiring to close us out with: the EU has found Apple guilty of monopolizing the interfaces to its devices and have ordered the company to open them up for interoperability, so that other manufacturers – European manufacturers! – can make fully interoperable gadgets that are first-class citizens of Apple's "ecosystem":

https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-ordered-by-eu-antitrust-regulators-open-up-rivals-2025-03-19/

It's a good reminder that as America crumbles, there are still places left in the world with competent governments that want to help the people they represent thrive and prosper. As the Prophet Gibson tells us, "the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed." Let's hope that the EU is living in America's future, and not the other way around.

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/2025/03/22/omnium-gatherum/#storytime

Image: TDelCoro https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdelcoro/48116604516/

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

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comicbookgirl2 · 4 months ago

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My cringy re-write for Dr Sawyer storyline for Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I’m not saying I dislike chapter 4! I actually like it quite a lot! This is just what I would’ve done for the doctors side of things!

Dr Sawyer is still helping the prototype like he is in the original only this time he is secretly trying to undermine him as well. With the power of the Omni hand/chip He has a small faction of his own- but unlike either Poppy’s (sensible toys) or the prototype (toys that toe the line of insanity) his are completely feral, lacking any remnants of the humans they once were, save for the loyalty that he’d forcefully implanted into them before he’d been betrayed by Playtime co.

But this is where we diverge from cannon. You see a bit after the hour of joy - he catches wind of Poppy’s displeasure of the prototype, and being in the position he is - he can’t help but agree with her. So he makes a proposition with her- and using his database informs her of possible survivors. Perphaps one of them could give her the assistance they need and put an end to the prototypes reign of terror.

Of course she and the rest of safe haven wisely don’t trust him but what option do they have? So little by little poppy plans with the doctor but when she leaves to finally send the letter she’s intercepted by the prototype who surprise, surprise had been informed by Sawyer of the entire scheme. (Yeah he’s double crossing people lol)

The prototype locks Poppy up, and now Sawyer (wanting to buy himself some time via providing more proof of his ‘usefulness’) sends his minion bodies to descend upon the safe haven residents, capturing some and killing others.

It’s a huge blow to safe haven especially when coupled with the loss of Poppy. But for the doctor it’s a flawless victory as he reveals the plan to the prototype who allows the letter to be sent out to the player.

Cut to the time when our player is there, you still run into his minions like yarnaby and pianosaurus (who’s Sawyer’s guard dog in this world as well) and his henchmen (other computer bodies) attack safe haven as well.

but you also see that sawyer has been doing some experimentation of his own- gathering parts to build something. What you may ask?

Simple- he’s rebuilding a body for himself- one without meat that won’t rot and age.

His interactions with you are somewhat similiar- malevolent and cold (almost coming off more like a computer than human during the initial interactions) until he asks you to betray Poppy and join him. He tries to use his feral toys to make you see how frivolous it is to help them but ultimately you refuse.

So he puts you in the same room as the trapped critter giving you a choice between your life or its own. This time you can hear the critter talking- it even remembers you, and pleads with you to save it. This is one of the critters Sawyer took from the safe haven and broke to prove a point that all the toys are the same regardless of how ‘sane’ they appear to be, all the while the critter asks for help.

And this time. You do.

Both to the critter’s amazement and the doctor’s disgust you save it. The critter initially follows you for a bit before scampering off asthe boss battle proceeds as originally save for a different part where you battle Harley in his new body- this one is far stronger and more dangerous than the others and corners you about to deliver the killing blow when the critter you save from before reappears and saves you almost at the cost of its life. But it works and you defeat Harley.

I know, I know it sounds cringe but hear me out!

Harley has always looked down on things like altruism, and empathy. He yelled at Ludwig for it. So him being defeated by it would be ironic wouldn’t it? Almost bringing things to a full circle while making you once again think about Doey/Poppy’s conundrum! That maybe there is things- people in the factory that aren’t worth throwing away.

#poppy playtime chapter 4 #harley sawyer #poppy playtime #rewrite

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catboy-autism · 7 months ago

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Webcore/Retro Computer ID Pack

[PT: Webcore/Retro Computer ID Pack/ End ID]

[ID 1: A picture of a IBM PC microcomputer. Its screen is black and is displaying many lines of bright green text. The background of the image is plain white. ID End]

[ID 2: A blue rectangle. On the left is a small star-like symbol, accompanied by white pixelated text that reads "Winamp.NET". On the right side, the blue is a little darker and there are 3 small icons, from right to left they are the window close button, displayed with a small white x surrounded by red, the maximum window button, and the minimize window button. ID End]

OP Note: Consider taking any of these names, pronouns, and titles, and replacing certain letters with matching numbers, like L33T SP3AK (leet speak)

[PT: OP Note: /PT End]

Names: Ace, Aero, Alexa, Ali, Benjamin/Ben, Blue/Blu, Courtney, Cyber, Cypher, Delphine, Dottie, Error, Gigi, Glitch, Hacker, Hal, Hewie, Hijack, Lenny, Lotus, Malware, Memphis, Missa, Missy, Nana/Nano, Neo, Nova, Oliver/Olivia/Olive, Pearl, Pixel, Ruby, Starz, Tecna, Terabyte (Tera), Vapor, Virus, Webster, Wilbur, Winnie

[PT: Names: /PT End]

Pronouns: .exe/.exes, 404/404s, aero/aeros, alt/alts, beep/beeps, bot/bots, byte/bytes, caps/locks, code/codes, ctrl/alt/dlt's, cyber/cybers, disk/disks, dot/com, error/errors, flash/drives, giga/bytes, hack/hacks, hi/jacks, html/htmls, jpeg/jpegs, key/keys, leet/speaks, mal/ware, meta/data, micro/softs, pdf/pdfs, png/pngs, ram/rams, sim/sims, tera/bytes, world/wide/web's, xe/xem, ze/zim, zip/files, leet/leets, 🤖/🤖's, 💽/💽's, 💾/💾's, 💿/💿's. 📀/📀's, 🧑‍💻/🧑‍💻's, 👨‍💻/👨‍💻's, 👩‍💻/👩‍💻's, 💻/💻's, 🖥️/🖥️'s, 🖨️/🖨️'s, ⌨️/⌨️'s, 🖱️/🖱️'s, 🖲️/🖲️'s, 🛜/🛜's, 👾/👾's, 🎮/🎮's, 🔈/🔈's, 🔉/🔉's, 🔊/🔊's, 🎧/🎧's, 📁/📁's, 📂/📂', 🗃️/🗃️'s

[PT: Pronouns: /PT End]

Titles: [Pronoun] Who Exists Only Digitally, The File Eater, The Hacker, The One Who Surfs The World Wide Web, The Shimeji, The Virtual [Noun], The Virtual/Digital One, Traveler of the Internet, Your AI Assistant,The Error Code

[PT: Titles: /PT End]

Labels: 2010scoric, Autistic Computer, Codestelic, Compgirlthing, Comphonum, Computerboygirl, Computercatic, Computergender, Computergijinka, Computerkin, Computerredacted, Compuvesil, Compuvior, Comrowth Cat, Database, Digiminalwebic, EdgyWebcoric, Errowebic, Gendercodex, Genderdotcom, Genderprogram, Gendersoftware, Guy.exeic, Hackgender, HTMLgender, Keyboardsoundic, Liqusecompic, Mechakeyboardic, Motherboard, Nyanwebia, Oldwebcitian, Phostechial, Purplewebpopup, Robotthing, Sillywebic, Technarian, Technogender, Trappedinacomputergender, Virisic, Virusthing, Web1.0spinnic, Webcoric, Webcoricatgen, Webcoristalgic, Webicannibal, Webirus, Y10Kglitchic, Virtualboygirl/Virtualgirlboy

[PT: Labels /PT End] Requested by Anon!

[ID 1: The same as ID 1. ID End] I lost the post I got the divider from and despite searching I just. dont know where it is, But if anyone can find the post its from lmk and I'll add a link ! thank you

#id pack #webcore id pack #tech id pack #computer id pack #virtual id pack #digital id pack #webcore npt #tech npt #virtual npt #computer npt #digital npt #retro computer id pack #retro computer npt #tina's id packs

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allassignment-experts · 3 months ago

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mando-fando · 1 year ago

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The Other Man Pt. 2

Pairing: Miguel O’Hara x Wife!Reader

Words: 2.8k

Interdimensional travel is a tricky thing. Miguel discovered that when he was working the bugs out in his gadgets and researching everything he could about alternate universes.

The first anomaly appeared in Peter B Parker’s universe. It was long before the Spider Society existed. Just a 50’s style, cartoon Vulture that popped up in the middle of Peter B’s NYC. Miguel followed the Vulture and found himself with some assistance in returning the flapping bird to where he belonged.

Peter and Miguel hit it off right away. Soon, Peter B had his own watch and access to Lyla’s vast database. Miguel and Peter still didn’t know the extent of the damage that Kingpin’s collider had done to the multiverse; they were simply playing it by ear.

He stumbled across you almost accidentally. In your universe, Peter Parker was still a kid, a few years out from getting bitten by his spider. For the time being, your universe was relatively normal. So, Miguel didn’t really have a reason to watch you, your husband, and your daughter.

Overnight, it seemed, your lives were always playing in the background on his monitor. He watched you and became obsessed with the normalcy of it all. He took solace in knowing that there was a universe out there where a different Miguel woke up every day and did everything right.

Your universe became essentially a control group for Miguel. He began developing algorithms to predict when the next anomaly would show up, using your universe to feed the algorithm data.

He would have the algorithm predict what you’d make for dinner on a random day, what your husband would do at Alchemax, and what questions your daughter would ask in class.

After a few months, it was spot on.

He knew your family’s routine like the back of his hand, but he could never look back on your past. He could only watch what was happening in the present, and use the algorithm that he and Lyla developed to predict your future. Miguel only had educated guesses about where you and your husband met, how long you’d been together, and the idiosyncrasies of your family life.

One day, as he was watching you cook breakfast for your daughter, the computer alerted him to an unusual event that was set to follow the next day: your husband’s death. A panic went through Miguel for you and your daughter. Your life was perfect, there was no way that something so catastrophic could happen to you. He tweaked the model, assuring himself that there was a problem with the coding.

Time and time again, your husband’s death was predicted. He looked over at you and Gabriella on his monitor, and his heart sank. You two were going to undergo such a tragedy, and there was nothing he could do.

An irrational thought crossed Miguel’s mind. He studied your husband’s likeness, his clothes, his mannerisms for months. He could…could he?

Should he?

The next day, he donned a white, collared sweatshirt and some slacks, the same thing your husband put on before heading to work. Miguel watched all three monitors like a hawk: you, your husband, and your daughter’s respective daily routines.

Night fell, and he watched your husband divert from his usual commute home to head to a panaderia in a sketchy part of town. He was getting some pan dulce for his daughter’s breakfast after hearing that she aced another spelling test.

It happened in an instant. A woman screamed, your husband’s sense of justice kicked in. Moments later, he lay in a pool of his own blood. A tie had been severed.

Miguel portaled in, almost without a second thought. He methodically emptied your husband’s pockets and donned his wedding band. A few hours later, Miguel walked in your front door as if nothing had happened. You jumped into his arms, and he felt himself fall for you in a heartbeat.

Guilt had wracked his brain every day since. He knew you were suspicious. He’d seen you watching him out of the corner of your eye. He saw the way you narrowed your eyes at him.

You started becoming cold towards him. You were less affectionate, less interested in his touch or kind words. Even if you couldn’t put your finger on it, you knew there was something amiss.

You were smart. You claimed that science wasn’t your strong suit, but Miguel saw you catch on to complicated subjects quickly when you helped Gabi with her homework or asked him about his day at work. A part of him thought that you might understand if he explained that he was from another dimension.

Today, you were being particularly cold towards him. You’d taken Gabi to your parents’ house for a weekend camping trip, and you were in the kitchen. It almost seemed like you were trying to find something to do so Miguel wouldn’t bother you.

The emotions he felt about the whole situation were so complex; he didn’t know how you’d react, and he couldn’t blame you. He’d stolen your husband’s life, essentially. Would you care that he only did it to save you and your daughter from devastation? Would you be able to love him the way he loved you?

Miguel walked into the kitchen and placed a gentle hand on your shoulder. You wrenched your body away from his grasp. “Don’t touch me.”

Miguel took a step back and put his hands up defensively. “Amor, I want to talk to you about something.”

You whipped around with an irate expression. “Do you finally have an explanation for how insane you’ve been acting?”

“I… I do, actually.” Miguel watched you lean your back against the counter and cross your arms. “It’s going to sound outlandish.”

“You could tell me that you’ve been abducted by fucking aliens, and I’d believe you. I’m sick of not knowing what’s going on with you!” You raised your voice at him.

“Okay. Before I begin, I want you to know that I didn’t do anything with malicious intent. The complete opposite, actually.” He tried to gauge your reaction and carried on. “I’m not the Miguel

O’Hara you married, but I think a part of you knows that already…”

You eyed him suspiciously, but kept silent.

“I’m from a different dimension. I was born in a city called Nueva York. I was a geneticist, just like your husband. But, when I was in my late 20s, I had an accident at Alchemax which changed the nature of my DNA. In my dimension, I’m a hero named Spiderman.”

You were surprisingly calm. You looked at him with a skeptical expression, but you wanted to hear more. You needed an explanation, any explanation, of what the hell was going on. You were pregnant, and that was all the proof you needed that you’d been sharing your bed with someone else.

“Why are you called ‘Spiderman?’” You asked.

Miguel continued to search your expression for fear or incredulousness. “The genetic sequence that my DNA was spliced with was half spider.”

A disgusted look flashed across your face.

“In my universe, there were quantum theorists and physicists who were on the verge of interdimensional travel. I took the research that they did and combined it with my own knowledge of biomechanics and created this,” Miguel pulled up his sleeve and showed you the bulky contraption on his wrist.

“As far as I know, I’m the first person to ever make an autonomous jump to another dimension. Once I had been to a few different universes, I started to research and document the differences. That’s when I stumbled across your family.

“I enjoyed knowing there was a version of myself out there that was happy. My life in my dimension was pretty miserable sometimes, but things were a little easier to swallow knowing that I was capable of humanity somewhere in the multiverse. I wanted your family to have the perfect life that you deserve.” He paused and looked away for a moment.

“There was a prediction from my model that your husband was going to die.”

Your eyebrows shot up in concern. “What?”

Miguel sighed, knowing how badly you were going to take the news. “He was going to get pan dulce across town after work. A woman was getting mugged, and he intervened. It cost him his life…”

You felt your heart break in your chest as you gasped. Suddenly, your legs collapsed from beneath you. Miguel caught you before you hit the floor.

Your husband. Your darling, lovely perfect husband was gone, and some monster had taken his place.

You couldn’t see past the tears that flooded your vision, and you couldn’t help yourself from pressing your face in the chest of the man who looked just like him.

“I know…” Miguel caressed your hair. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Your love story had come to an end. Every shared glance, every evening doting over your daughter, every morning tangled in the sheets was gone. The pain was unlike anything you’d ever felt before.

Miguel carried your sobbing, screaming figure to the bed. He laid next to you as a tear slid down his own cheek. The screams that emanated from you were haunting; he still heard them in his nightmares to this day.

You wore yourself out so profoundly that you simply lost consciousness. Miguel’s mind swirled with doubt and guilt. He thought back to the moments he’d witnessed on his monitor between the two of you. He was never able to find a flaw in either of you, nor your daughter. Now, he’d thrown a huge wrench in everything. Maybe he’d made a mistake in taking your husband’s place.

You stirred in bed next to him a few hours later. Your face was puffy and your voice was hoarse, but you looked at him with rage. You leapt out of bed before Miguel was fully awake. Instinctually, he activated his suit. His talons and claws shone under the digital fabric.

You screamed again in fear and confusion. Miguel deactivated the suit, returning to the normal clothes he was wearing.

You slid down the wall, cradling your knees. Fear, exhaustion, confusion, and heartbreak clouded your mind.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you!” Miguel looked panicked. He took a step towards you cautiously.

“Why did you come here!?” You screamed at him.

“I- I don’t know. I couldn’t handle the idea of Gabriella being without a father.”

“You’re NOT her father!” You stood up and took a step towards him.

“I know…”

“I’m pregnant.” The words spilled from your mouth before you had a chance to think. “That’s how I knew. That you’re not him, I mean.” You were rambling. “My husband had a vasectomy. When the test came back positive, I had proof…”

A wave of nausea hit you as you realized the man you slept with wasn’t your husband. You ran to the bathroom and Miguel followed.

He was speechless. He held your hair back as you gripped the sides of the toilet, and he rubbed your back as his mind raced.

He was thrust into uncharted territory. How would a baby with parents from two different dimensions fare? How would you fare? He couldn’t even begin to comprehend the ramifications of his stupid actions.

Miguel had seen you and your husband’s intimate moments before. He had always wondered why Gabi never had a sibling, but he made the assumption that you had some sort of contraceptive. The idea that your husband had a vasectomy never even crossed his mind.

You sat up from the toilet and wiped your mouth with the back of your hand. Miguel stood up quickly to grab you a washcloth.

“Aren’t you going to say something?” You asked as your chest heaved. You could feel a migraine beginning to set in.

“I need to go back to my lab and run some tests.” The lack of emotion in his voice cut you.

You remembered your husband’s reaction to your first pregnancy, how he lit up so brightly at the news. To the man in front of you, your pregnancy seemed to be a liability and nothing more.

You glared at him as you took the washcloth. You pressed it to your forehead. A long moment of silence passed.

He reached out slowly and touched your cheek. “I’m sorry…”

“People die all the time, you know.” You said flatly. “You make it sound like my husband’s death was predetermined. If that’s what fate had in store for him, and for us, then that’s the way it was meant to be…”

You stood up and looked at yourself in the mirror. Miguel stood, too, and watched you. “Gabi and I would’ve figured it out. We would’ve gotten through it together.”

“I know you would’ve. You’re an incredible mother.” You watched him stare at you in the reflection. He was looking at you with sympathy and love. You felt your heart flutter. Guilt followed immediately after. The rollercoaster of emotions was exhausting.

“Go figure out what the fuck is going to happen to me.” You turned to look at him. “We need to know sooner rather than later. I could use some space from you, too. I’m still upset.” You crossed your arms and looked away from him.

He took your comments in stride and gave you another look of sympathy. He activated his suit and tapped away at the device on his wrist.

You covered your ears as a loud mess of colors and lights tore a hole open in your room. Miguel was gone in an instant.

Miguel tore through the portal and stepped into his lab in the building that would eventually become the Spider Society.

“Lyla,” he called as he walked over to his computer.

“Look who’s back? How’s married life treatin’ ya?” She asked sarcastically.

“Contact Peter and prepare the lab. We need to run some tests.”

Hours later, Miguel and Peter were driving themselves mad trying to find a circumstance where tissue from two different dimensions remained stable. The results were grim, time after time.

“Miguel, this is-” Peter began.

“Don’t even say it.” Miguel growled. Peter had never heard him take that tone before.

Every possible multi-dimensional combination ended in decay.

The facts stared back at Miguel, and he had to face reality. He pinched the bridge of his nose when his computer alerted him to an anomaly in your universe. Then, another. And another.

Hundreds of bizarre events were occuring in your universe. The tides stopped, gravity changed, and worst of all, things and people all over the world were glitching.

A massive hole opened underneath your version of Brooklyn.

Miguel and Peter suited up and ran in.

“Go find your wife and daughter, I’ll see what I can find out!” Peter called. Miguel nodded and ran at a breakneck speed towards your home.

He found you on the ground, half concious.

“Amor,” he called. He held you in his arms, and he knew he was too late.

“Miguel,” you tried to smile, but you glitched in his arms and groaned out in pain.

He picked you up and began to run towards the campground where Gabi was.

It felt like every cell of your body was on fire. You stared up at him, and a part of you knew that he had something to do with your universe tearing at the seams. Slowly, you were slipping out of his grasp like sand.

Miguel kept his gaze trained on you. He had no idea how he was going to fix this.

“Find her. Save her.” Those were your last words. Miguel blinked and you were gone.

Shock overcame him. He found himself on all fours hurdling towards your daughter. He heard her in the distance, and swooped her up before swinging the opposite way.

He saw Peter in the distance and ran from the white emptiness that began consuming the city.

If he could save Gabriella, it might have been worth it.

He ran, pushing his superspeed to the limit as Gabi screamed in his arms.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” He tried to reassure her as he tucked her into his chest. He saw people in front of him simply vanish, and fear gripped his heart like a vice.

If he could get away from the crowd for just a minute, he could portal away with your daughter.

He continued running, seeing an opening in the distance.

“Papa!” Gabi cried. He looked down, and she was gone. He stopped dead in his tracks. To him, there was nothing left worth saving. The whiteness enveloped him, and soon, Miguel and Peter stood in a vast, empty nothing.

“Miguel, we have to go. We don’t know what’s going to happen.” Peter tugged on his arm.

The words fell on deaf ears. Miguel was still staring down at his empty grasp, wondering where his daughter had gone.

Peter dragged him through the portal.

Time was a blur for awhile after that. Lyla analyzed every scrap of data, Peter recruited more spider-people, and the canon was discovered.

Miguel swore to never let it happen again.

#miguel o'hara #atsv miguel #spiderman 2099 #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel spiderman #miguel spiderverse #miguel x reader #spiderman 2099 spiderverse #across the spiderverse

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strangebiology · 7 months ago

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Paleontology Job Opening!

If anyone is looking for a paleontology job, this one in the Green River Formation in Wyoming is hiring! It's a lot of 52-MYA fish. TONS of fish. Very occasionally, there's other stuff like bats, birds, and very early horse ancestors.

$19/hour

Full time with federal benefits

App due November 25, 2024 or when they receive 80 applications (whichever comes first, so hurry!) Requirements:

One year of experience required (paid or unpaid, professional or volunteer) in "the fields of paleontology, geophysics, or geology; assisting fossil preparation, field work in paleontology, paleontology research, paleontology database management, paleontology monitoring, paleo art, or specimen management of fossils; assisting with natural resources research projects; compiling and analyzing scientific data into reports; operating complex sampling, monitoring, and laboratory equipment; or using computer programs such as databases to compile, store, retrieve, analyze and report resource management data. Experience as a laboratory mechanic or in a trade or craft may be credited as specialized experience when the work was performed in close association with physical scientists or other technical personnel and provided intensive knowledge of appropriate scientific principles, methods, techniques, and precedents."

Successful completion of at least a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree (a) with major study in an appropriate field of physical science, such as paleontology, geology, earth science, earth history or (b) that included at least 24 semester hours in any combination of courses such as physical science, engineering, or any branch of mathematics except for financial and commercial mathematics.

I don't know if paleontologists usually have to have higher levels of education, but I think this job is called "physical technician (paleontology)" to evade that.

If you're interested, go ahead and send in an application sooner rather than later. You can always withdraw later.

This is very close to me, so if you have questions about life here (that aren't easily Googlable) I'm happy to help! It's quite rural. If you're wondering what the rental market looks like, here's a Facebook group where people post rentals. I'm mostly JTM (just the messenger) but I may have a little more insight.

#paleontology #jobs #fossils #Green River Formation #Fish Fossils #Paleontology job

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yandereunsolved · 29 days ago

Text

،، a penny for your thoughts ”

˙ . ꒷ 🍰 . 𖦹˙— —˙ . ꒷ 🍰 . 𖦹˙ ˙ . ꒷ 🍰 . 𖦹˙——˙ . ꒷ 🍰 . 𖦹˙

a snapshot into every character's yandere tendencies ⛃

Yandere FIXER Team • Crash, Duke, Izzy, Lilly, Peanut, Pops, Target, Wes[ley] •

🅨🅐🅝. 🅒🅡🅐🅢🅗

He's the classic "he acts like he hates you but sticks to you like glue." He's constantly chastising you, murmuring about how you're the worst out of all of them. (Worst because you're the only one that makes him out of breath by just looking at your armor.) It's ironic because you're the only one allowed in the watchtower with him as he listens to the radio. He actually prefers your voice to the radio. It's a first for him, and he hates it.

He can't believe he managed to fall in love at the most inopportune time, in the least romantic place, around the worst kinds of people. He's lovestruck, like some military cupid ordered an arrow right into his heart.

He needs to keep you safe. He wants downtime and peace, naturally, but you're part of that reason. If he lost you, he doesn't know what he'd do—probably kill Duke. There's an 80% chance Duke would have a hand in your death, accidentally, of course. It's just that you can't have Crash attached to you like some foreign parasite and not get mixed up in Duke's crossfire (aka his shenanigans, aka his damning incompetence, as Crash would put it).

🅨🅐🅝. 🅓🅤🅚🅔

Wild card extraordinaire.

He's not exactly subtle about his feelings. He's probably confessed ten times over while in his permanent state of drunken inebriation. You dismiss it as Duke being Duke, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that. He flirts with anyone he thinks is attractive. It's embarrassing that he finds you attractive and you're his teammate, but it's just how he is, so you can't help but grow accustomed to it.

He does the grabby hands a lot and just tries to hang off you, blabbering about anything that comes to mind (mostly explosives or alcohol, usually both).

He's probably, most definitely, blown up others who have tried to get your attention, as long as they aren't on his team. Although, his murderous tendencies may still may extend to within the team, he may or may not be willing to stage a death to keep you near him. He'll make Target a target any day. He'd never touch Pops, though, unless he was insanely jealous, and he doesn't really see Peanut as a viable "threat" either.

Your presence gets him drunker than any alcohol. He needs you in his system ASAP. He may have life withdrawals if he doesn't. He doesn't have an alcohol "problem"; he has a you "problem." (Yes, these are actual things he has said/would say to you.)

🅨🅐🅝. 🅘🅩🅩🅨

Peanut writes stories. Izzy writes fanfiction. Take a guess at which one has more smut and tension in it. It's Izzy, in case you were unsure.

She doesn't exactly know how to approach her darling, so she mostly writes her feelings in fic form. You are always some sort of supernatural entity, like the classic werewolf or vampire, and even omegaverse. She's totally into mpreg. So if tab restore is on, I suggest you don't check the computer. At least don't read her latest one about two soldiers on the same squad, where one is pining after the other hopelessly and is eliminating everyone else on the squad systematically until only her darling and she are left. It isn't like she can actually murder everyone on the team, for better or worse. A girl can dream, though.

She'll ask for your help by name most likely. She dislikes calling you by your codename because it seems too impersonal for her. She just says you're a good assistant, and she doesn't say that about anybody. She mostly prefers to work in silence or with you carrying the conversation. She finds that the words get stuck in her throat.

How does she tell you that she's planted a tracker in your suit? Or that she's compiling an entire database on you and has looked through your private records (which definitely breaches trust and breaks at least one military rule)?

She feels... guilty. But she loves you, so it's worth it. You do anything for your loved ones, even if they don't know you'd die (or kill) for them.

🅨🅐🅝. 🅛🅘🅛🅛🅨

She's patient to some extent. She's content with simply being near her darling and helping them when she can. She'll always be really friendly and may overdo it because she's so nervous. She's her own worst critic when it comes to relating to you.

"What if they hate me because I said something wrong?" (Lilly had a simple conversation with her darling.)

"I didn't help them in time." (Her darling dropped something and it fell on their armored foot.)

"Urgh, I'm so stupid! Clearly, they needed that and not this." (She was trying to help but didn't know how to and grabbed the wrong thing. Her darling, in all honesty, didn't mind or even notice.)

"If I were a better soldier, then they'd like me." (Darling was talking to Pops and has a friendly relationship with him.)

"How incompetent can I be? They could have gotten hurt because I wasn't careful enough." (Lily almost bumped into her darling.)

She'll hesitantly bring her feelings to Wes and ask what to do. Even leaving out the darker bits of her attraction to you, Wes has a―let's say in the nicest way possible―a negative reaction. Something along the lines of, "Excuse me? What the fuck? I have to legally inform you that I am not a mental health professional, but seriously, Lil's, you need to get checked out for whatever is fucked in your mind."

It makes her even more ashamed of her feelings for you. She could never be good enough for you. This is just the nail in the coffin.

But she won't stop stalking you. (Is it really stalking if you work together and she's just looking out for you?) She'll just become more persistent in bettering herself so that she is worthy of you (and your love).

🅨🅐🅝. 🅟🅔🅐🅝🅤🅣

He's a little lost, but he's got the spirit. Every team member will know that Peanut has some sort of feelings for you. He doesn't exactly try to keep them a secret. He's constantly blabbering about how much he appreciates you, how warm and fluttery you make him feel, and the things he wants to do with you. He'll whine at any loss of contact with you.

If both of you are separated because of military duties, then he becomes quite frazzled and upset, only to be overly excited when he sees you once again, throwing his arms around you and bonking his helmet against yours.

He wants you to always be the one who watches over him at night. He'll beg you to come cuddle with him because he'll have nightmares if you don't. He's giggling the entire time, and his face is completely flushed.

He loves joking around with you to try to brighten your day. He tells you all his stories. He may or may not have a couple of secret ones that involve you and him. Listening to him drone on about conspiracy theories is a must.

You're Peanut's babysitter soon, lover, essentially. Duke may even try to change your codename to Babysitter because Peanut makes you look after him so much.

🅨🅐🅝. 🅟🅞🅟🅢

He's not one to resort to violence (or euthanization) unless met with an enemy where that is a necessity. So intimidation is his game as a yandere. He will abuse his power as the FIXER team's leader to isolate you and keep you as his. It's more of an instinctual need. At least, that's how he sees it.

He likes pulling you close to him. No one really bats an eye because he does it so often. He'll pull you into a hug or into his lap, then he whispers about how you'll be good and not report him to HR because you won't like the consequences (i.e., ruining your reputation). If you dislike it, he isn't going to force himself on you. He will never do that. However, he will desensitize you to it. His lingering touches will grow bolder until you'll want to freely cuddle with him at the end of long days.

Really, he just wants you happy, healthy, and safe. He's a yandere, like his namesake, after all. Even when he is a romantic yandere, he can't help but come off as paternal. He teaches you things, gives you honest praise, encourages you, and is right there to shut down any bullshit someone may try to give you. He likes placing his hand on your shoulder, patting you on the back, or maybe even on the head.

He even has this dirty little fantasy he often entertains about retiring with you. It's what he thinks about when things get too stressful. He feels too old to have kids; I mean, he already babysits a bunch of grown adults, most of whom can't take care of themselves. So just imagining him and you getting away, his hands free to explore your body, is enough to make him need to excuse himself. He needs to "adjust" his armor or go relieve himself of some bodily fluids.

You're the reminder that he needs to survive―that he still has a future to survive for.

🅨🅐🅝. 🅣🅐🅡🅖🅔🅣

Poor kid doesn't even know what hit him. He's grossly inept when it comes to understanding his infatuation with his darling. He's even worse at expressing it. He walks around in a state of constant confusion, trying to decipher the reason why he suddenly feels homicidal when one of his teammates gets too close to you.

He distances himself from Duke and Peanut for that reason. They are number one and two on the "people I would definitely kill if I had to" list. But even then—he'll probably accidentally confess his feelings about darling to one of his other teammates. There's a good chance it's either Crash or Izzy. And let's say Target should hope he's not stupid enough to tell Crash. Crash will try to shut that shit down and tell him how fucked up he is, while also maintaining an air of dismissiveness. He'll get offended by Crash's insinuation. Target is only looking out for your best interests. He's protecting you!

He also has an entire album of photos of you that you probably don't know about. No one cares about his cool bird pictures, so he doesn't really have to worry about anyone snooping through yours. He tries to capture your perfection in every photo, but only the real thing―you―can do it justice. You're so much better to photograph than any super cool bird anywhere in all the galaxies combined―plus some!

🅨🅐🅝. 🅦🅔🅢🅛🅔🅨

If you think Crash's tsundere attitude is bad, wait until you're introduced to Wes's loving bitchiness. You can't so much as sneeze without having the medic needing to check you out. He's snarky, but something about it is softer. He seems genuinely concerned, and if you are injured, then he'll use all the good supplies on you. He's used to venting to you about, well, everything. Maybe he seems rougher towards you because he's accepted that you're the one person he can let his guard down a little with.

He's freely possessive, even if part of him is ashamed for being so nerveless against his own desires. He's lived too long and seen too much shit not to claim you as his own. If someone doesn't like it, then they can fuck off, and the both of you can transfer out together.

Oh, yeah. Wes always has your transfer papers filled out for you along with his. They're married with one paperclip joining the two stacks of paper. It slightly irritates his need for complete organization, but there's something so subtle and intimate about it that he keeps it that way.

Lilly and he are a package, so more often than not she'll be his unofficial wingwoman. She may question his methods, but you actually make Wes happy. She doesn't think she's ever seen that. And if you can produce that kind of miracle, then perhaps Wes's red flag behavior is something she can turn a blind eye to. He's just not used to normal human relationships. He'll grow out of it.

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riddle-me-fear · 5 months ago

Note

Dear Riddler

What languages do you speak?

And do you have a doctor title or master's degree in any subject?

Edward Nygma | The Riddler

Let's see, obviously English, as my mother tongue, then there's Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, German - all of which I speak fluently - I'd say mid-level Greek and Hebrew, I'm still learning those, and a little bit of Russian. Of course I know a couple words and phrases in a large variety of other languages, but those hardly count.