#cubic functions

[jamescacedemicblog]

Unraveling the Mysteries of Cubic Functions: A Comprehensive Guide from Academic Buddies

Dive deep into the world of cubic functions with our latest blog! Explore the A-Z of cubic functions, understand their intricacies, and boost your mathematical prowess. Academic Buddies takes you on a journey of discovery.

#CubicFunctions #Mathematics #AcademicBuddies #MathBlog #LearnWithUs

[foobars-cool-car]

i really dont want to eat a whole pint of ice cream dude

[math-journal2]

<— Unit 12 — Unit 🍑 — Unit 13 —>

Unit 🍑 : Parent Functions

Note:

Approach asymptote:

Rational___ 1/x

1/x^2

Max or Min:

Parabola ___ x^2

Absolute value__ l x l

Radical __ sqr root(x)

Page 37

[txttletale]

Saw a tweet that said something around:

"cannot emphasize enough how horrid chatgpt is, y'all. it's depleting our global power & water supply, stopping us from thinking or writing critically, plagiarizing human artists. today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools. this isn't a world we deserve"

I've seen some of your AI posts and they seem nuanced, but how would you respond do this? Cause it seems fairly-on point and like the crux of most worries. Sorry if this is a troublesome ask, just trying to learn so any input would be appreciated.

i would simply respond that almost none of that is true.

'depleting the global power and water supply'

something i've seen making the roudns on tumblr is that chatgpt queries use 3 watt-hours per query. wow, that sounds like a lot, especially with all the articles emphasizing that this is ten times as much as google search. let's check some other very common power uses:

running a microwave for ten minutes is 133 watt-hours

gaming on your ps5 for an hour is 200 watt-hours

watching an hour of netflix is 800 watt-hours

and those are just domestic consumer electricty uses!

a single streetlight's typical operation 1.2 kilowatt-hours a day (or 1200 watt-hours)

a digital billboard being on for an hour is 4.7 kilowatt-hours (or 4700 watt-hours)

i think i've proved my point, so let's move on to the bigger picture: there are estimates that AI is going to cause datacenters to double or even triple in power consumption in the next year or two! damn that sounds scary. hey, how significant as a percentage of global power consumption are datecenters?

1-1.5%.

ah. well. nevertheless!

what about that water? yeah, datacenters use a lot of water for cooling. 1.7 billion gallons (microsoft's usage figure for 2021) is a lot of water! of course, when you look at those huge and scary numbers, there's some important context missing. it's not like that water is shipped to venus: some of it is evaporated and the rest is generally recycled in cooling towers. also, not all of the water used is potable--some datacenters cool themselves with filtered wastewater.

most importantly, this number is for all data centers. there's no good way to separate the 'AI' out for that, except to make educated guesses based on power consumption and percentage changes. that water figure isn't all attributable to AI, plenty of it is necessary to simply run regular web servers.

but sure, just taking that number in isolation, i think we can all broadly agree that it's bad that, for example, people are being asked to reduce their household water usage while google waltzes in and takes billions of gallons from those same public reservoirs.

but again, let's put this in perspective: in 2017, coca cola used 289 billion liters of water--that's 7 billion gallons! bayer (formerly monsanto) in 2018 used 124 million cubic meters--that's 32 billion gallons!

so, like. yeah, AI uses electricity, and water, to do a bunch of stuff that is basically silly and frivolous, and that is broadly speaking, as someone who likes living on a planet that is less than 30% on fire, bad. but if you look at the overall numbers involved it is a miniscule drop in the ocean! it is a functional irrelevance! it is not in any way 'depleting' anything!

'stopping us from thinking or writing critically'

this is the same old reactionary canard we hear over and over again in different forms. when was this mythic golden age when everyone was thinking and writing critically? surely we have all heard these same complaints about tiktok, about phones, about the internet itself? if we had been around a few hundred years earlier, we could have heard that "The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth."

it is a reactionary narrative of societal degeneration with no basis in anything. yes, it is very funny that laywers have lost the bar for trusting chatgpt to cite cases for them. but if you think that chatgpt somehow prevented them from thinking critically about its output, you're accusing the tail of wagging the dog.

nobody who says shit like "oh wow chatgpt can write every novel and movie now. yiou can just ask chatgpt to give you opinions and ideas and then use them its so great" was, like, sitting in the symposium debating the nature of the sublime before chatgpt released. there is no 'decay', there is no 'decline'. you should be suspicious of those narratives wherever you see them, especially if you are inclined to agree!

plagiarizing human artists

nah. i've been over this ad infinitum--nothing 'AI art' does could be considered plagiarism without a definition so preposterously expansive that it would curtail huge swathes of human creative expression.

AI art models do not contain or reproduce any images. the result of them being trained on images is a very very complex statistical model that contains a lot of large-scale statistical data about all those images put together (and no data about any of those individual images).

to draw a very tortured comparison, imagine you had a great idea for how to make the next Great American Painting. you loaded up a big file of every norman rockwell painting, and you made a gigantic excel spreadsheet. in this spreadsheet you noticed how regularly elements recurred: in each cell you would have something like "naturalistic lighting" or "sexually unawakened farmers" and the % of times it appears in his paintings. from this, you then drew links between these cells--what % of paintings containing sexually unawakened farmers also contained naturalistic lighting? what % also contained a white guy?

then, if you told someone else with moderately competent skill at painting to use your excel spreadsheet to generate a Great American Painting, you would likely end up with something that is recognizably similar to a Norman Rockwell painting: but any charge of 'plagiarism' would be absolutely fucking absurd!

this is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it is much closer to how AI art works than the 'collage machine' description most people who are all het up about plagiarism talk about--and if it were a collage machine, it would still not be plagiarising because collages aren't plagiarism.

(for a better and smarter explanation of the process from soneone who actually understands it check out this great twitter thread by @reachartwork)

today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools

i mean, this is true! AI tools are definitely going to destroy livelihoods. they will increase productivty for skilled writers and artists who learn to use them, which will immiserate those jobs--they will outright replace a lot of artists and writers for whom quality is not actually important to the work they do (this has already essentially happened to the SEO slop website industry and is in the process of happening to stock images).

jobs in, for example, product support are being cut for chatgpt. and that sucks for everyone involved. but this isn't some unique evil of chatgpt or machine learning, this is just the effect that technological innovation has on industries under capitalism!

there are plenty of innovations that wiped out other job sectors overnight. the camera was disastrous for portrait artists. the spinning jenny was famously disastrous for the hand-textile workers from which the luddites drew their ranks. retail work was hit hard by self-checkout machines. this is the shape of every single innovation that can increase productivity, as marx explains in wage labour and capital:

“The greater division of labour enables one labourer to accomplish the work of five, 10, or 20 labourers; it therefore increases competition among the labourers fivefold, tenfold, or twentyfold. The labourers compete not only by selling themselves one cheaper than the other, but also by one doing the work of five, 10, or 20; and they are forced to compete in this manner by the division of labour, which is introduced and steadily improved by capital. Furthermore, to the same degree in which the division of labour increases, is the labour simplified. The special skill of the labourer becomes worthless. He becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production, with neither physical nor mental elasticity. His work becomes accessible to all; therefore competitors press upon him from all sides. Moreover, it must be remembered that the more simple, the more easily learned the work is, so much the less is its cost to production, the expense of its acquisition, and so much the lower must the wages sink – for, like the price of any other commodity, they are determined by the cost of production. Therefore, in the same manner in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory, more repulsive, do competition increase and wages decrease”

this is the process by which every technological advancement is used to increase the domination of the owning class over the working class. not due to some inherent flaw or malice of the technology itself, but due to the material realtions of production.

so again the overarching point is that none of this is uniquely symptomatic of AI art or whatever ever most recent technological innovation. it is symptomatic of capitalism. we remember the luddites primarily for failing and not accomplishing anything of meaning.

if you think it's bad that this new technology is being used with no consideration for the planet, for social good, for the flourishing of human beings, then i agree with you! but then your problem shouldn't be with the technology--it should be with the economic system under which its use is controlled and dictated by the bourgeoisie.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

The 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 is one of the most iconic and revered muscle cars ever made, built to excel on both the street and the racetrack. Under the hood sat a high-revving 302 cubic inch V8 engine, designed specifically for Trans-Am racing, delivering a spirited 290 horsepower with a balanced combination of power and handling.

The Z/28 featured a sport-tuned suspension, heavy-duty front and rear sway bars, and a close-ratio 4-speed manual transmission, making it incredibly agile and responsive. Its aggressive styling—highlighted by racing stripes, a functional cowl induction hood, and bold front grille—gave it a commanding presence.

Inside, the Camaro Z/28 offered bucket seats and a driver-focused dashboard with rally gauges, emphasizing performance and control. Revered for its race-bred performance and timeless design, the 1970 Z/28 remains a symbol of Chevrolet’s muscle car mastery and a favorite among collectors and enthusiasts.

[aioironwaterfilter]

SoftPro IronMaster 1.5 Cubic Foot Water Filter: The Ultimate Solution for Iron-Rich Well Water

If you're a well owner grappling with high iron levels in your water, the SoftPro IronMaster 1.5 Cubic Foot Water Filter stands out as a premier solution. This system is meticulously designed to tackle iron, manganese, and sulfur contaminants, ensuring your household enjoys clean, safe, and odor-free water.

Unmatched Filtration Capabilities

The SoftPro IronMaster employs advanced Air Injection Oxidation (AIO) technology combined with Katalox Light® media, enabling it to remove:

Iron: Effectively eliminates up to 30 parts per million (ppm), addressing even the most severe iron concentrations.

Manganese: Removes up to 7 ppm, preventing unsightly black stains and potential health risks.

Hydrogen Sulfide (Sulfur): Eliminates up to 5 ppm, eradicating the notorious "rotten egg" odor often associated with well water.

This robust filtration ensures that your water is not only aesthetically pleasing but also safe for consumption and daily use.

Key Features and Benefits

Chemical-Free Operation: The system's reliance on AIO technology means there's no need for additional chemicals, making it an eco-friendly choice for households.

Enhanced Water Quality: Beyond iron removal, the SoftPro IronMaster improves overall water clarity and taste, elevating your daily water experience.

Durable and Low Maintenance: Constructed with high-quality materials, this filter boasts a long lifespan and requires minimal upkeep, offering peace of mind to homeowners.

User-Friendly Installation and Operation

Designed with the user in mind, the SoftPro IronMaster ensures a hassle-free experience:

Straightforward Installation: Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or prefer professional assistance, the installation process is simplified for your convenience.

Automated Functionality: The system features a programmable control valve with an intuitive LCD screen, allowing for easy monitoring and adjustments.

Vacation Mode: A unique feature that pauses regeneration cycles during extended periods of non-use, conserving resources and extending the system's efficiency.

Customer Testimonials

Users have consistently praised the SoftPro IronMaster for its performance and reliability:

"So far the IronMaster has worked very well. Our water quality is much better than it was before with our old filter system. Even the periodic iron flushes have become a thing of the past."

Such feedback underscores the system's effectiveness in transforming water quality and enhancing user satisfaction.

Conclusion

The SoftPro IronMaster 1.5 Cubic Foot Water Filter emerges as a top-tier solution for homeowners contending with iron-laden well water. Its advanced filtration capabilities, combined with user-centric features and positive customer reviews, make it a worthy investment for ensuring pristine water quality in your home.

For a comprehensive review and deeper insights into the SoftPro IronMaster, consider watching the following video:

[ratbastardz]

BLOCKY 90s COMPUTER – NPT / ID PACK — ★

System names: The Error Codes, The Windows, The Personal Computer, The Hard Drive, The Glitches, The Cursor Collective, Screen Death, Core Dump, Fatal System Error, Hardware Reset, The Computer Collective, The Dialup System, The Internet, Collective Digitality

Names: Cirrus, Colossus, Sia, Athena, Raven, Ditz, Crash, Syntax, Static, Glitch, Error, Digital, Digi, Pixel, Exe, Megabyte, Terabyte, Gigabyte, Byte, PC, Com, Cube, Cubic, Cubix, Internet, Net, Data, Cyber, Google, Alexa, Siri, Linux, Mac, Apple, Cloud

Pronouns: they/them, it/its, zero/zeros, one/ones, 0101/1010s, voi/void, glitch/glitchs, error/errors, block/blocks, bluescreen/bluescreens, byte/bytes, tech/techs, windows/windows, 365/365s, PC/PCs, mouse/mouses, computer/computers, data/datas, tech/techs, tech/technical, internet/internet, net/nets, web/webs, disc/discs, .exe/.exes, exe/exes, 404/404s, ctrl/ctrl, shift/shifts, alt/alts, del/dels, caplock/caplocks, .com/.coms, .org/.orgs, .net/.nets, hack/hacks, HTML/HTMLs, JPEG/JPEGs, PNG/PNGs, ZIP/ZIPs, key/keys, hardware/hardwares, software/softwares, RAM/RAMs, 🌐/🌐s, 🔌/🔌s, 📀/📀s, 💽/💽s, 💾/💾s, 🖱️/🖱️s, ⌨️/⌨️s, 🖥️/🖥️s, 💿/💿s, 🖨️/🖨️s, 🔈/🔈s, 🔉/🔉s, 🔊/🔊s, 🔇/🔇s, 🖲️/🖲️s, 🛜/🛜s, 📁/📁s, 📂/📂s, 🗃️/🗃️s

Titles: The windows shutdown, The task manager, It who controls the cursor, It who cannot backup your information, It who has 1GB of brain space, It who runs games, It who whirrs when powered on, It who needs a cord, It who feeds on electricity and laughter, It who makes others smile, It who glitches, It who is disconnected, It who processes, The blue screen of death, It who is completely digital, It who has infinite functions, It who is limitless, The sentient computer

Labels: ancianaldern, computypen, robotthing, glitchlexic, techbodiment, aiwarix, cyberthing, bytegender, virtulonogia, techthing, Y10Kglitchic, technarian, phostechial, oldwebcitian, techrobai presentations, mechakeyboardic, keyboardsoundic, HTMLgender, hackgender, guy.exeic, genderprogram, gendercodex, errowebic, webot, webicoded, edgywebaesic, compuvior, compuvesil, computerredacted, computergender, computerkin, computergender², comphonum, codestelic, virtualexic, digitalexic, glitchsilly, 🌐💾emojic, virtualthing, webirus, webcorething, digiminalwebic, computergender³, webcoric, abstratechgender, techrobai, gendersoftware, gendervirtual, genderhacker, artificial intelligence, glitchgender, androidgender, youareanidiotvirusic

System roles: database, techie

Requested by: anon

[reasonsforhope]

"Heat stored underground in caverns can be set aside in Finland’s summer months to be re-used during frigid winters thanks to a state-of-the-art ‘seasonal energy’ storage facility.

Slated for construction this summer near Helsinki, it will be the largest in the world by all standards and contain enough thermal energy to heat a medium-sized city all winter.

Thermal exchange heating systems, like those built underground, or domestic heat pumps, are seen as the most effective way available of reducing the climate-impact of home heating and cooling.

Their function relies on natural forces or energy recycling to cool down or heat up water and then using it to radiate hot or cold energy into a dwelling.

In Vantaa, Finland’s fourth largest city neighboring the capital of Helsinki, the ambitious Varanto seasonal energy storage project plans to store cheap and environmental friendly waste heat from datacenters, cooling processes, and waste-to-energy assets in underground caverns where it can be used to heat buildings via the district heating network whenever it is needed.

In Finland and other Nordic countries, the heat consumption varies significantly between seasons. Heat consumption in the summertime is only about one-tenth of the peak load consumption during the cold winter months.

Varanto will utilize underground caverns equal in space to two Maddison Square Gardens—over a million cubic meters—filled with water heated by this waste heat and pressure that will allow the water to reach temperatures of up to 300 degrees Fahrenheit without the water boiling or evaporating.

“The world is undergoing a huge energy transition. Wind and solar power have become vital technologies in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy,” says Vantaa Energy CEO Jukka Toivonen.

“The biggest challenge of the energy transition so far has been the inability to store these intermittent forms of energy for later use. Unfortunately, small-scale storage solutions, such as batteries or accumulators, are not sufficient; large, industrial-scale storage solutions are needed. Varanto is an excellent example of this, and we are happy to set an example for the rest of the world.” ...

“Two 60-MW electric boilers will be built in conjunction with Varanto,” adds Toivonen. “These boilers will be used to produce heat from renewable electricity when electricity is abundant and cheap. Our heat-producing system will work like a hybrid car: alternating between electricity and other forms of production, depending on what is most advantageous and efficient at the time.”

... Construction of the storage facility’s entrance is expected to start in summer 2024, while it could be operational as early as 2028."

-via Good News Network, April 12, 2024. Video via VantaanEnergia, March 10, 2024

[cityof2morrow]

CDK/MoneyMAT: Cashpointe Set V2 – Trait-Based Autonomy

Published: 9-14-2024 | Updated: 2-11-2025 SUMMARY MoneyMAT is a collection of modified objects for financial operations and storytelling in your game. The series includes functional cash clutter, as well as tools for banking, loans, and investments. #CO2MONEYMAT This is a crossover with the #CO2CDKSERIES. Cubic Dynamics by John B. Cube and Marcel Dusims forged the future with furnishings that were minimalist in design and maximalist in erudite pretension. Generations later, the company continues to produce edge-of-cutting-edge designs. Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sims 2 (EA/Maxis, 2004) by adding various currencies from the simsverse to your game – simoleons, magicoin, simoles, OMEGA, neo simoleons, simoleon sprouts, war simoleons, and more. Canon currencies and extra recolors allow you to create a color-coded banking/investment system. All items are grabbable, sellable and available in the catalog as well. Watch out for robbers! FEBRUARY 2025 UPDATE: VERSION 2 WITH TRAIT-BASED AUTONOMY! The original version allows sims to pocket items from this set if they’re left out in the open and aren’t marked for sale. In Version 2 (V2), sims won’t autonomously grab these items unless their FUN level is low (-80) AND they meet ONE of the following conditions: Theft Skill = 3 or higher Traits = Burglar, Deadbeat, Dread Pirate, Desperate, Joker/Harley Quinn (insane trait), Kleptomaniac, Poison Ivy, Ratchet, Rogue, Scammer, Scrub, Venom/Symbiote If you use default replacements for any of these traits, they should work if the GUID has not been changed. Required fun/skill levels can be tuned in the “Action Variables” BCON using simPE. DOWNLOAD VERSION 2 FROM THE ORIGINAL POST RECOMMENDED TRAIT LINKS Kleptomaniac, Insane from original 3t2 Traits Project (Hexagonal-Bipyramid, 2019) Burglar from 3t2 Hidden-Unused Traits (Dill, 2023) Dread Pirate from TSM-to-TS2 Traits (Completer Set) (Simmons, 2025) Joker/Harley Quinn from Jelly-Meduza (2022-2024) Poison Ivy from Jelly-Meduza (2023) Venom/Symbiote from Jelly-Meduza (2019) Theft Skill from CO2 Skills (Simmons, 2024-2025) Deadbeat, Desperate, Ratchet, Rogue, Scammer and Scrub from SimCityLuv Traits (Simmons, 2025) – COMING SOON! CREDITS Thanks: @hexagonal-bipyramid, @lilbabydilljr, @jellymeduza, @gummilutt, @picknmixsims. Testers/TXTR Help - @logansimmingwolverine @gayars @ch4rmsing @chocolatecitysim @crispsandkerosene  Sources: Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik). Other Sources: Pierre, G. via Jovan, 2014); Applesee, 2023; Cgoodw, 2024; Iamsosha 2024; Kalagoglu, 2023; Olena_Skrypka, 2024; Oliveira, 2023a-b; Sam, 2024; Solsnare, 2024; Katy76/PC-Sims, 2007; D_dgjdhh, 2019/2011; The Ninth Wave, 2019; Tvickiesims, 2019, Honeywell, 2019.

[delusinaldreamer19]

I absolutely LOVE the whole idea of the reaper organization. The fact that these otherworldly beings, fuckin GRIM REAPERS, work and function like an office??? Like their headquarters are not some dark dreary hell cave but a CORPORATE OFFICE. That is such a unique and fascinating way to set things up.

It also makes me wonder if the rest of hell/the underworld works in a similar way in Kuro.

Like does Sebastian have a cubical? Do demons have a department? What if demons are just “assets” that get rented out by humans. That is so hilarious to me.

[sanzaibian]

“Sir, here are the Beatty files.” The young woman told me, handing a USB key.

I have heard a lot about these files. They were intercepted in the town after which they’re named by the secret services a while ago, but were encrypted in such a puzzling way that only now can we view them. And of course, I am the first one to be able to review its content.

I know a lot of things, as it is my job to be informed of anything and everything happening around the world. I know the plans of China over Taiwan, the successor to the Ayatollah, the contents of the talks between Putin and Kim Jong-un, and all the current US military strategy. In my line of work, everything can happen, yet at no single point could I make sense of the Beatty files. Nor could anyone else for that matter.

I excused the young woman, bidding to her my thanks for the deciphering team, and went to the unused laptop I had prepared. When it comes to matters of national security, I cannot afford to be careless, and let anyone unlicensed to get access to this. So brand new laptop, created by us, which has never been opened, to open these files.

And so I fiddled with the parameters a bit, entering the secret code, and inserted the USB key to view its contents. Inside were a few files, all of which videos. Their names were not informative, since I know for a fact that their original names were not recovered, so I just opened the first file in the list.

The video opened looking down in a white cubic room, meaning it was very likely a security camera recording. In addition, there was the time indicated on the bottom right, yet something felt weird about how it was displayed… 15:58… 15:59… 15:60 ???... 16:01, etc. Why is it not counting time correctly ? Nobody indicates time like this ! It’s wrong, it’s incorrect ! I just opened it and there’s already something I cannot in any way explain !

Taking a deep breath, I look at the center of the screen, in which I have a good view of a man sat in a chair. He has tanned skin, black hair and black stubble, and a very developed musculature. He looks to be a very attractive middle-eastern man, although I cannot say which ethnicity he precisely has.

The chair he’s sitting on is quite massive, and he looks almost as if he is… restrained in it ? Yes, there seems to be little handcuffs tethering him to the armchairs. But most striking are the numerous tubes going out from his arms, legs, torso and even head, linked to some types of medical appliances I cannot recognize, as well as to a sort of glass tank.

Suddenly, I notice the deep voice of a man. I up the volume, and hear… a language I cannot understand.

“Tzai en 19/03, 2:17, en tzoujkbruoi odogattzion program en Scipio Labratory. Ny hse Hk. Adtem, tzai widt nyn hskadiais, Sjd. Fingtrosy ÿ Sd. Vagohs, ÿ naum wom fill no tzoujketvÿsn ekspÿrians widt no #1073 bymarjen.”

At first I get some German vibes from it, but then it seems to be Polish, and then French… Whatever that language might be, it is not one I have ever heard. The man in the chair looks around, seemingly half-dazed, as if he was drugged. I don’t know what will happen to him, yet I get the feeling that it won’t be a desirable fate.

Suddenly, another voice, that of a woman by the looks of things, speaking in that same strange language.

“Hsüzmalhsÿv drël en im.”

Then a buzzer sound. There seems to be some white substance flowing inside the man’s body, through the tubes from the medical appliances. As it flows, I can see his eyes starting to become more droopy, before fluttering, and then closing. At the same time, his body starts floundering in the restraints, as if he was keeping himself from falling asleep. But as time went on and the white liquid ran dry, all of his muscles were relaxing and his stance become limp, like that of a dysfunctional robot. However, looking at his accelerating breathing rhythm, it seems to my trained eye that he is not actually asleep. It’s only his body refusing to function correctly.

“Drël ingkatzt. Etvÿsn harjimÿll.” Says another voice, deeper than the last one, but not as deep as the first one.

I don’t really know what’s happening. If the counter on the bottom-right of the screen wasn’t ticking up, I would have thought that the image was frozen. But then, suddenly, I can hear a low sound in the recording. And that sounds starts creeping higher and higher, as if something was charging up… Yeah, definitively charging up, since I almost saw some lightning sparks going off from the chair…

I don’t know what’s happening, but it seems to be malfunctioning. The sparks make themselves more and more intense, and it almost seems as if the machine is ready to explode...

Just as I say that, the first deep voice makes itself heard once again, but this time more in a frustrated or worried tone than an official one.

“Sel heont havy… Go huop sel hstill pÿrdont...”

But suddenly, the sparks stop, and while the sound doesn’t stop, beige liquid start flowing into the pipes… from the man to the tank ? What is that thing ? I don’t understand ! However, I can hear cries of rejoice in the audience, with all three voices I’ve heard since then saying incomprehensible stuff that I wouldn’t even be able to transcribe. I guess they also didn’t think… whatever this is would work ?

I take a drink from my water bottle as I keep an eye on the video. However, since I need to reach my bag, I cannot actively monitor it. Besides, according to what I hear, nothing of note seems to be happening... But when I have put down the bottle, I stop the video. I rub my eyes, but even then, I still see it.

The man seems smaller.

Somehow.

I go back in the video to the time where the man with the deepest voice sounded worried and… Yeah, looking like that, it’s even more apparent. The man has been losing mass. And the tanks have been filled by this beige skin-color liquid… Heh, if I didn’t know I was in reality, I would have said that this is muscle-juice, but this is ridiculous…

Especially since the body mass hasn’t been the only thing to change.

As I play back the video and continue through the long haul of high-pitch noise and not much else, I notice that the man’s stubble seems to be disappearing… and his head hair growing as well, somehow ? It almost seems as if he’s becoming less masculine by the second, if it even makes any sense, even though nothing about this video actually makesanysense. If I didn’t know who supplied it to me, I would have said this was a fake…

As his pecs were shrinking, his arms were thinning, his waist narrowing and his legs slimming, his stance almost seemed to be relaxing further – if it’s even possible. I mean, I don’t know ! It’s just the impression that I’m getting ! As the last of his stubble vanishes, at least according to what I can see through the pixels, he almost seems to be getting cuter ? Whence more relaxed ? Fuck, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever…

Oh. I know why I get this impression. It’s not anymore weird or nonsensical, but at least in this context it seems to make sense… I think he also is losing height. Yes, actually. Height. It’s almost as if someone took the textbook definition of a “twink” and decided to impart its characteristic on this poor fellow – don’t ask me why I know what it is.

As I continue watching in horror, the woman’s voice says, gleefully :

“Entzony as hen !”

How can they sound so… happy ? Happy to torture a man like this ? To, quite visibly, drain his muscles into those tanks that look more and more full ? It just goes beyond me ! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen my fair share of horrible and unethical treatments, and a ton of unethical human experiments. But this by far takes the cake of the most disturbing thing I have ever seen ! They’re taking away what he is, his identity ! Him ! That’s the most cruel violation of human rights I have ever seen ! To gleefully disfigure someone like that…

The tanks have finished filling up, and the sound starts lowering in intensity. The man left looks only like a shadow of who he was. He still looks like himself, except devoid of any… meat, may I say ? When the machine was well and truly turned off, the deep voice rejoiced, seemingly announcing the success of that terrible plot.

“Fÿstyfuroll ! Oll fod havy kotzvong !”

Funnily enough, the first word made me think of “feast for all”, which just feels wrong given the context. On that, they all seem to have left the premises, as a nurse came in and untethered the poor man from all the equipment, and taking with her the tanks filled of muscle juice.

I continued watching, hoping that I would get to see the young man wake up.

And wake up he did, looking around, before standing up… and immediately falling. Presumably due to him not expecting to be this skinny. He then looked at himself, and had an utterly horrified look in his eyes, as if he was processing the fact that he was irremediably different.

He crawled towards the wall, and using that, he climbed back to standing, managing to take a position so that he could be looking at the camera.

And on that, the video suddenly stopped, leaving me on this freeze frame :

I absolutely don’t know what to do with that. Now I not only understand, but also feel how confused the secret services were by intercepting this message. It just seems wrong in so many ways, so much that… it might not even have occurred on Earth for all I know ! The language is unknown, but familiar. The way to count time is disturbing, but otherwise identical to ours. The events depicted are of typical mad experimentation, but in a manner that is unthinkable in my knowledge of the world.

I don’t have the strength to view any of the other videos, since they’re likely all the same amount of disturbing. So I close the laptop, and already starts asking myself the question I need to give an answer for my superiors :

Just what the hell are the Beatty files ?!

[a-minke-whales-tale]

Estimation of Energy Consumption During Swimming

One of the big questions I have had for quite a while is to estimate really just how fast I would normally swim, my normal energy consumption, and questioning if really I could breach, either partially or entirely.

Starting from my most recent estimations of the shape and size of the suit (which I have another post on that soon so this is sort of sneak preview). The length is 2,4 meters, width 0,36 meters, and height around 0,28 meters (I originally started at a target around 3,5 meters or so I think to give an idea how much the size has changed). The flukes would be 0,7 meters across and roughly 0,2 meters in length.

We can approximate a whale as more or less an ellipsoid with several protrusions at least for a first order guess. In this case the dorsal fin is small so it will be ignored and I will only add in the flukes (however this notably only changes the result around 5%). I did not include the flippers because when swimming straight and continuously, we tend to hold our flippers against our side and bring them out only when manoeuvring. This is in contrast to the delphinids (like dolphin and orca whose flippers tend to remain in the flowstream).

Using this equation we can calculate the wetted area of the suit (note that these sorts of approximations tend to lose accuracy as one axis becomes stretched as has happened here but it is what we have for now).

The drag equation is fairly straight forward.

However to turn it into energy this drag force needs to be multiplied by the distance over which it occurs. To become power it is then divided by time. This does make the power required to move through the water functionally a cubic relation.

From this paper, Simulated and experimental estimates of hydrodynamic drag from bio-logging tags, we can get drag coefficients corresponding to velocity. It is worth noting that these values are for bottlenose dolphins, however a variety of papers tend to put the coefficient of drag in this range so we will use it.

The efficiency of the kicks also poses some question. I took 56% from Propulsive Efficiency of the Underwater Dolphin Kick in Humans which notes 56% within its abstract for cetacean swimming efficiency. It does however note that other papers have reported 79% for monofin users, and 86% in bottlenose dolphins though that those numbers are idealised and ignores body drag.

Taking this data yields the following table which gives the needed input power and MET rating.

2,5 MET is equivalent to a gentle walk and 6 MET to running. Minke whale generally cruise swim between 5-10 kph though can swim as fast as 40kph. From this swimming at 10kph is likely to be a significant struggle for any length of time, however 5kph corresponds to 1,6 which is roughly equivalent to making this tumblr post.

From this chart there is very much no way I would be able to reach the top speed of normal minke (which would require around 5kW exertion). However in very short bursts humans can produce 2000-2500W of power so it is possible for a very brief moment I could get near to 20kph, though that would have to be a very short moment given the nature of both the breathholding and thermal management of the suit.

However knowing that 1,5m/s (5kph) is a very relaxed swimming speed, and 3m/s is quite achievable for very short periods does mean that I will likely be able to breach entirely out of the water.

From Energetic and physical limitations on the breaching performance of large whales, minke whales would make breach attempts between 1,6 and 3,4 m/s of which half of the observed breaches were full breaches (which I believe in this paper a full breach is 40% of the body above the water, baleen whales tend not to fully clear the water in the way delphinids do).

I do have the advantage of being quite a lot smaller than a normal minke, so even moving at 3m/s I should have a higher chance of nearly fully lifting myself from the water.

It is nice to know that at least certain aspects of minke movement are achievable for me. 5kph is not terribly fast but that is plenty fast for movement and still potentially a very relaxed movement as I swim around. Also knowing that I can realistically breach (in the way baleen whales do) is quite comforting and exciting as that is something I have worried about quite a lot - that being said, there are human monofin users who are themselves capable to fully exit the water on a breach, and even with my old monofins which are far more flexible I can already exceed the 40% boundary of a full breach.

Zwem Vrij, ~Kala

[liquidcrystalsky]

do you think there will ever be a day where a switch gets hacked like the 3ds

no probably not

(Warning beforehand i'm not an expert in this topic. This is just a bit of googling around to see how older exploits worked)

the 3ds is currently hackable through a thing where the file system crashes if a certain function tries to read a directory, but it gets a file instead. This works by messing around with Miis and empty user profiles or some shit idk, but it's system data which is stored on the SD card which can be manipulated and read in unintended ways.

The web browser on the wii u was just. kind of stupid they implemented a whole web browser, including one with javascript that can read and write to the system to the system! yay!

On the switch and switch 2, the SD card stores game save data and photos, thats it. there's also two system data things, but it only deals with what data is on the SD card itself, and you cant do anything with it really (i think)

Early 3ds and wii u hacks would require an exploit through a game, for example the Cubic Ninja thing as i mentioned, which had a level editor you could just dump whatever bullshit you wanted into which would crash it and make an entrypoint. This doesn't work on the switch, as each game is sandboxed, and so if you can run some bullshit code or crash it in a way thats exploitable, the system will stay completely unaffected.

The nintendo switch was only able to be hacked with a vulnerability in the hardware itself. thankfully this one has a fucking paper written about it so i dont have to guess how it works. Not fully understanding what's happening but i think in the usb recovery mode you can issue commands to the switch. If you request a status from the switch you can set it to request any length, which if you included some code you wanted to run in the request, it ends up being copied directly into the execution stack without any verification, and you can run WHATEVER code with full access to everything. which is really obvious if i explained it better, but it was a really severe and kinda stupid oversight.

The chip was given a revision to fix it, but the recovery mode stayed, and with the knowledge from blowing it wide open, modchips are able to monitor what the system is doing, and mess with the voltage to skip a security check, so an unapproved payload is able to be properly loaded.

Both the fusée gelée exploit and the modchip required a very intimate knowledge of how the chip worked, which required another vulnerable device using the chip to reverse engineer it. The chip used in the switch 2 is unique to the device and security has been locked down on it much more.

fusee has been fixed and the voltage fault is probably fixed too. I don't even know if there's a USB recovery mode with this. A hardware exploit could be virtually impossible, and software exploits may take years just for it to get patched immediately (we havent figured one out for the switch 1, even with all the knowledge of it!)

[math-journal2]

Parent Functions

[ask-gamtavkar]

whats the dang quadrants

FINALLY *SOMEONE* IS ASKING SOME DECENT QUESTIONS HERE. QUADRANTS ARE BASICALLY THE CORE OF SOCIETY, THE FLUID RUSHING THROUGH THE PUSHERS OF ALL TROLLS ACROSS THE ENTIRETY OF PARADOX SPACE. CONCUPISCENT, CONCILIATORY, RED AND BLACK. ALL THESE DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OVERLAP INTO THE FOUR DISTINCT RELATIONSHIP TYPES WE TROLLS FUNCTION WITH.

FIRST WE HAVE CONCILIATORY REDROM, MOIRAILEGENCE, WHERE YOU FIND SOMEONE SO ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC THAT YOU CAN'T HELP BUT WANT TO FIX THEIR INSURMOUNTABLE SHITHEAP OF ISSUES. NOW, THIS PART IS SOMETIMES OVERLOOKED, BUT MUTUAL PITY IS IMPORTANT TO NOT HAVE AN UNBALANCED RELATIONSHIP. IF ONE PARTNER IS DOING ALL THE PACIFYING FOR ONE PARTICULARLY PAN-BOGGLINGLY PITIFUL TROLL, IT WILL EVENTUALLY END UP IN DISASTER. MOIRAILEGENCE IS BASICALLY WHAT KEEPS SOCIETY FROM CRUMBLING UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THE FUCKING MOUNTAIN SIZED PILE OF PAN-DEAD IDIOTS THAT LITTER THE UNIVERSE.

NEXT IS CONCUPISCENT REDROM, MATESPRITSHIP. THE EASIEST QUADRANT FOR YOU HUMANS TO UNDERSTAND FOR SOME GODDAMN REASON. IT'S WHERE SOMEONES PITY CONTORTS LIKE THE FUCKING THING FROM THAT HUMAN MOVIE THE THING INTO SOME SORT OF MATING FONDNESS. PHYSICAL OR EMOTIONAL ATTRACTION WILL END UP TURNING INTO PITY, WHICH IS THE FOUNDATION OF REDROM. BUT OF COURSE IT'S NOT CONCILIATORY SO THE GOAL ISN'T TO MANAGE SOMEONE'S SAD, PATHETIC, CRUMBLING LIFE BUT INSTEAD TRY TO JAM YOURSELF INTO THAT LIFE LIKE A CUBIC BLOCK CARVING INTO A ROUND TREEFALL-HOLE.

NOW TO CONCUPISCENT BLACKROM. KISMESISTUDE IS OFTEN THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD AND UNSTABLE QUADRANT, BUT THAT JUST COMES WITH THE TERRITORY. A BOND OF PURE UNFETTERED HATE IS RARE, BUT TROLLS MAKE DUE WITH WHATEVER HALF-BAKED RIVALRIES THEY CAN MANAGE. IMAGINE SOMEONE YOU DESPISE SO MUCH YOU JUST CAN'T STAND THE THOUGHT OF NOT BEING BETTER THAN THEM AND SHOVING IT IN THEIR UGLY WASTE-EATING FACE, AND YOU HAVE THE GIST OF IT. OBVIOUSLY IN REAL LIFE IT'S MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT BUT I CAN'T JUST OVERLOAD YOUR SLOW MAMMALIAN PANS WITH TOO MUCH KNOWLEDGE AT ONCE.

AND ON TO CONCILIATORY BLACKROM, AUSPISTICISM. THE ONLY REASON EVERY TROLL HASN'T CULLED EACH OTHER OVER WHO OWNS MORE TROLL POGS. AN AUSPICES JOB IS TO GET SO FED UP WITH A COUPLE OF TROLLS SQUAWKING AT EACH OTHER LIKE LARGE BEAKED WATERFOWL ARGUING OVER A BIG JUICY TROUT THAT THEY STEP IN AND BREAK UP THAT FEUD BEFORE IT CAN BLOSSOM INTO A KISMESISTUDE. SINCE TROLLS ARE SO FUCKING STUPID, A LOT OF ARGUMENTS HAPPEN. ALL OF THE TIME. CONSTANTLY. SO WE NEED SOME WAY TO STOP THE DOZENS AND DOZENS OF NON-ROMANTIC RIVALRIES FROM BLOSSOMING INTO CHAOTIC FESTERING PLAGUE CLOUDS OF ASTATIC HATE. THAT CAN ONLY LEAD TO SOMEONE GETTING HURT, AND NOT IN THE FUNNY WAY.

HONESTLY I'M KIND OF A GENIUS AT THIS STUFF AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE DON'T ASK ME ABOUT IT MORE. EVERYONE AROUND ME IS JUST SO ROMANTICALLY INCOMPETENT THEY PROBABLY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START. I MEAN, AT LEAST GAMZEE CAN COMPREHEND THE IDEA AND EVEN ACT AS A DECENT MOIRAIL WHEN HE'S NOT FUCKING FONDLING HIS HORNS OR WHATEVER. TAVROS IS JUST A LOST CAUSE.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1969 Plymouth Road Runner

The 1969 Plymouth Road Runner was a muscle car that combined raw power with a stripped-down, no-frills design. It was a direct competitor to the Chevrolet Chevelle SS and the Pontiac GTO.

Key Features and Specifications:

Design: The Road Runner's design was simple but effective. It featured a long hood, a short deck, and a blacked-out grille. The car was available in a variety of colors, but the most popular was the "Sizzling Plum" purple.

Engine: The Road Runner was powered by a 383-cubic-inch V8 engine that produced 335 horsepower. This engine was more than enough to propel the car to high speeds.

Transmission: The Road Runner was available with a four-speed manual transmission or a three-speed automatic transmission.

Interior: The interior of the Road Runner was basic but functional. It featured bench seats in the front and back, and a simple dashboard.

Options: The Road Runner was available with a variety of options, including a rear spoiler, a Hurst shifter, and a tachometer.

Popular Body Styles:

Hardtop: A sleek, coupe-like design with no B-pillars.

Convertible: A convertible with a fabric roof that could be lowered.

Legacy:

The 1969 Plymouth Road Runner is considered to be one of the most iconic muscle cars of all time. Its simple design, powerful engine, and affordable price made it a popular choice for performance enthusiasts. Today, the Road Runner is a highly sought-after collector's car.