#e Formula Reviews

[sptsblogs]

e Formula Reviews: Scam Or Legit? Know The Truth!

Building a profitable online business is one of the most fulfilling and life-changing endeavors. However, without the proper training and methodology, it is difficult to go from idea to continuous income. eFormula seeks to deliver the precise foundation created by internet marketing specialist Aidan Booth.

This full eFormula review will go over what's included, who it's for, the projected cost, and whether it's worth it for individuals looking to make money online.

Who is Aidan Booth?

Before getting into eFormula, it's crucial to understand who Aidan Booth is and his reputation for making money online. Aidan, originally from New Zealand, is a world-renowned internet marketer with over 15 years of experience developing successful online businesses.

Aidan got his start in 2005, when he was struggling financially and discovered the world of online marketing. He launched a website that provides SEO services to local businesses, allowing him to quickly replace his work income.

Aidan has since built multiple multi-million dollar online ventures in a variety of niches. Some of his most successful products are:

Elite Affiliate Pro is one of the earliest push-button affiliate marketing solutions.

Google Sniper is a tool that teaches you how to construct profitable niche sites.

Parallel Profits - E-commerce Arbitrage Training

7 Figure Franchise - Strategies for generating affiliate commissions

Kibo Code - Aidan's most popular course for creating an ecommerce brand

Beyond his personal earning streams, Aidan discovered a passion for assisting others in their online success. He has built multiple online business training programs, including Kibo Code, Kibo Eclipse, and 123 Profit, which have helped over 200,000 students start and expand their own online enterprises.

Aidan Booth has established himself as one of the most credible authority on how to generate a consistent income online. So when he launches a new course like eFormula, it's definitely worth noting.

Overview of eFormula.

Aidan's next online business training program, eFormula, will focus on how to profit from selling digital things online. The essential aspects include:

Selling informational products such as ebooks, video courses, and membership websites. These have huge margins and provide immediate delivery.

Generate free organic traffic using channels such as search, social media, and content marketing. There is no need for paid ads.

Providing enormous value up front to establish authority and trust.

Creating passive income by delivering digital products 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In essence, eFormula promises to educate individuals and teams a comprehensive method for developing and selling educational-style digital products online in a user-friendly manner.

Aidan's track record of excellent teaching and results from previous courses has raised expectations for the formal launch of eFormula.

How Does the eFormula System Work?

Aidan provided some high-level information about how the eFormula system works during his pre-launch webinar. The essential steps include:

Identify a successful niche or theme for your digital products.

Create quality products or obtain resell rights. - Develop marketing materials such as a website, sales pages, and email follow-ups.

Increase organic traffic using SEO, social media, and free opt-ins.

Convert traffic through convincing copywriting and sales funnels. - Provide exceptional value and increase customer happiness.

Increase expansion with automation and regular income.

In essence, eFormula attempts to give a step-by-step plan for starting and growing a digital product-based firm.

Benefits of eFormula

According to Aidan's coaching sessions, the primary advantages of eFormula include:

Easy for beginners to start - Low overhead (no paid marketing or large teams needed) - High profit margins for digital products compared to physical ones

Complete A-Z solution for selling digital stuff.

Create long-term assets and passive income - Receive ongoing updates from Aidan on model optimization.

For anyone looking for a steady income online, eFormula meets the most important criteria in terms of profitability and longevity. The training attempts to prepare users for long-term success.

eFormula's Launch and Pricing Details

Aidan has stated that eFormula will begin around January 2024. An exact debut date will be announced soon, along with program pricing information.

As in previous courses, many one-time and installment payment choices are expected. Aidan's trainings have a reputation for providing more value than expected. Given the potential profits eFormula can generate, the investment should be worthwhile.

Expect to pay between $1000 and $3000. However, once enrollment begins, Aidan typically gives discounts to early registrants. So it is recommended that you join the priority list.

Who Is eFormula for?

eFormula is developed for a wide spectrum of people interested in building successful online enterprises, including:

Beginners to internet business and income opportunities - Those seeking lifestyle independence and flexibility - Existing business owners seeking additional revenue streams

Side hustlers seeking full-time internet work - Dedicated individuals prepared to work consistently for 6-12 months.

The reality is that eFormula can work for anyone, including those with no prior expertise, as long as they are willing to implement the training step by step over time. Because the approach begins with the fundamentals, even complete beginners can succeed by following the tried-and-true foundation.

eFormula Review: Conclusion

In conclusion, our eFormula review believes it is a highly promising possibility for anyone serious about earning a consistent income online. Aidan Booth, one of the industry's most respected names, created a tried-and-true approach that reflects all of his knowledge and experience.

Given Aidan's track record of success stories and eight-figure businesses, eFormula is likely to be his most thorough training course ever. It's definitely one to have on your radar. Register early to be alerted when eFormula enrollment opens. If applied diligently, the short time investment required to finish the course could yield life-changing results.

[molliemoo3]

They didn't review Da Costa's penalty?????

[arsenal-has-me-depressed]

I went to my third e prix today and had a great time really recommend it if you’re into racing 

[madlovenovelist]

Book Review – ‘Red Rain’ (#4 S1 Nameless) by Dean Koontz

Fire and formulaic fun. Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Horror No. of pages: 50 In a town where the corrupt are protected, a bereaved mother seeks retribution for an arsonist’s deadly crimes. Only Nameless can help ease the burden of her grief—and satisfy her rage. After a suspicious house fire, Regina Belmont lost her two children, was left disfigured, and was abandoned by her gutless husband.…

[lostf1ndaydream]

I know I’ve sort of let the DOTD championship slip a bit, and I haven’t written anything about the predictions I made at the beginning of the season, but I’ve been absolutely swamped in life at the moment.

Consider it all a mid-winter-break treat when it turns up?!

[graysoncritic]

A (Negative) Review of Tom Taylor's Nightwing Run - What Went Wrong? Dick's Characterization

Introduction Who is Dick Grayson? What Went Wrong? Dick's Characterization What Went Wrong? Barbara Gordon What Went Wrong? Bludhaven (Part 1, Part 2) What Went Wrong? Melinda Lin Grayson What Went Wrong? Bea Bennett What Went Wrong? Villains Conclusion Bibliography

In the previous section, we explored not only who Dick Grayson is and why he is so beloved by his friends, but why many people — including Taylor and others at DC — have a hard time  understanding his character. By reducing Dick to a hero who is “good” and transforming into an “everyman” that anyone can project themselves onto, Taylor fundamentally removes that which makes Dick special, transforming him into a different character.

But there are other ways in which Taylor and DC mischaracterize Dick by erasing his history and transforming into a more “palatable” mainstream hero. That is what I wish to explore in more detail now. 

Let’s begin by examining how Taylor’s framing Dick’s story in Nightwing (and that of the Titans in Titans) as a coming-of-age tale contributes to a grand erasure of Dick Grayson’s greatness.

In Taylor’s run, Dick is treated as if he were a new superhero. However, even if this run (not the entire title that started in 2016 with Rebirth, but just Taylor’s run) were to become a new stand-in for the 1996 Nightwing solo in which Dick arrives in Bludhaven for the very first time, Dick Grayson should not be portrayed as someone new to vigilantism. Even if one were to generously interpret Taylor’s Dick as being only twenty-two years old after starting as Robin at twelve years of age and only recently having become Nightwing, Dick would still have a decade of experience doing detective and hero work. It is notable that most of that decade was spent with him leading the Titans, serving as Batman’s partner and second-in-command, and mentoring numerous young heroes.

(Wolfram, Amy, writer. Kerschl, Karl, illustrator. In the Beginning… Part Three. Teen Titans: Year One no. 03, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2008. pp. 09)

One of Dick’s core traits is that he is a natural, if at times reluctant, leader. Many key moments in his character history are defined by Dick feeling the weight of the responsibilities placed upon him and having to push through his personal reservations for the sake of others. 

Dick was the first child hero. He was the first sidekick. Out of universe and in universe. (In the introduction to  Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder: Scholars and Creators on 75 years of Robin, Nightwing, and Batman, Kristen L. Geaman mentions that some argue Mister America from Action Comics #2 is, in fact, the first side-kick. However, this claim is debated since Mister America played more of a comedic and “Watsonian” role [as Dick Grayson Fan C suggested], and Dick was the one who popularized the formula of the role.) He was the proof that the concept of a sidekick — a partner — could work. Proof that kids could be trained into this life. Proof that they did not need powers in order to be a hero. That is one of the reasons why, in-universe, he is admired by so many characters – because he is the trailblazer who opened the doors for every young hero and side-kick that came after him. Dick’s history is also why he has so many connections — it is because he was the one who opened the doors for everyone else, mentored so many people, and partnered with those who were his age and those who were much older that he gained so much respect in the superhero community. 

And yet, that history is called into question in Taylor’s narrative when he frames Dick as a young, new hero who is just beginning to assess what he wants to do with his life. Not only is it bad storytelling to portray Dick’s connections without factoring in the experience tied into them, it also demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of who Dick is, what he represents, and why he’s been so beloved for over 80 years.

This lack of appreciation and of respect towards Dick is extended to the other Titans in Taylor’s Titans (2023) run. As he himself pointed out, the first arc is called Out of the Shadows because, in his words, the Titans are “stepping out of the shadows of the Justice League.”

(Taylor, Tom [TomTaylorMade]. Twitter, 22 June 2023, https://twitter.com/jesswchen/status/1636971185782259716?s=20.)

And yet, to its fans, the Titans were never in the Justice League’s shadows. They were not inferior or subordinate to the Justice League, even if they may be less known. In-universe, the Titans may have modeled themselves after the Justice League and they may be allies, but the Titans are still an independent entity. From their very inception they defined themselves in contrast with how the Justice League operates. 

In fact, in JLA/Titans #02, Dick himself draws this distinction when arguing with Bruce and calling him out on his condescending behavior towards the Titans.

(Grayson, Devin; Jimenez, Phil, writers. Jimenez, Phil; Brown, Eliot R., illustrator. The Generation Gap. JLA/Titans no. 02, e-book ed. DC Comics, 1998. pp. 23)

Trying to repackage Dick and the Titans as newbie heroes who are only now experiencing independence demonstrates a lack of understanding of their history and who the Titans are meant to be. The Dark Crisis and The Dawn of the DCU attempt to frame Dick’s Nightwing series and Titans as coming-of-age tales, where only now the characters are stepping into adulthood. Taylor’s writing goes a step further and portrays them as making rookie mistakes, coming across as newbies, and as a result, erasing all of the rich history that have built these characters into who they are today.

As I mentioned above, even if we generously interpreted that Dick never lived in Bludhaven before, Dick should still have plenty of experience being a hero and living on his own. The moment in which he transitions from Robin to Nightwing (willingly or unwillingly depending on your preferred Nightwing origin story) is Dick’s coming-of-age moment. By the time he comes to Bludhaven, Dick already knows who he is, what he wants, and he knows how to care for himself. By the time Dick comes to Bludhaven, his internal struggles are not that of a young adult who just left the nest and does not yet feel like an adult, but rather that of an adult who knows his own abilities and is confident in who he is. 

And yet, in Nightwing #84, the first issue in Nightwing: Fear State, Taylor has Dick pondering on the responsibilities of taking care of Bludhaven. Right on the first page, he says “Fighting an entire corrupt system? Saving a whole city? There’s no training for that.” 

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Rodriguez, Robbi, illustrator.  Fear State Part 1 of 3. Nightwing: Rebirth. 84, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 03)

Except even the most basic knowledge of Dick’s character shows that he was, in fact, trained to save an entire system and to fight a corrupt system — he was trained to care for Gotham and to take out the corrupt systems that prevail in that city. Not only that, Dick has also been Batman, at which point he was also Gotham’s main protector. 

This mistake becomes even more outrageous when one considers that, though Taylor’s run is at times treated as a soft-reboot, Dick is still shown to have lived in Bludhaven while operating as Nightwing. This means that that generous interpretation I’ve been alluding to is not, in fact, compatible with the story as it is written. It is a falsehood, and therefore cannot be used to excuse the “new-in-town” approach Taylor uses when writing Dick. 

Dick’s apparent inexperience and, frankly, incompetence, is further highlighted by the amount of times Dick is saved by others, or the amount of times when he is dependent on others to do the work for him. These instances include, but are not limited to:

The people of Bludhaven answering Nightwing’s call when Heartless sets the tent city on fire in #81

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator Leaping into the Light Part 4. Nightwing: Rebirth. 81, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 13)

Dick being knocked out with a single blow and then unmasked during his first attempt to investigate Melinda also in issues #81

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator Leaping into the Light Part 4. Nightwing: Rebirth. 81, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 20 - 21)

Babs calling people to Dick’s rescue rather than trusting he could get out of it on his own in #82.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. Leaping into the Light Part 5. Nightwing: Rebirth. 82, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 03)

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator. The Battle for Bludhaven’s Heart Part Four. Nightwing: Rebirth. 95, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2022. pp 24 - 25)

In #90, when his building blew up and Wally came to save him, then proceeded to force him to rest away from Bludhaven instead of letting him take action.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator Get Grayson Act Three. Nightwing: Rebirth. 90, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2022. pp 15)

And needing Babs’ help during a car chase in #106,

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Byrne, Stephen. The Crew of the Crossed Part One. Nightwing: Rebirth. 106, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp 16)

Which greatly contrasts how, in #113 of the Nightwing (1996), Dick handles a similar situation while simultaneously mentoring Rose Wilson.

(Grayson, Devin, writer. Chian, Cliff, illustrator The Scorpion and the Frog. Nightwing no 113, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2005. pp. 19)

The thesis of Taylor’s run is that people need to rely on one another — we have to be each other’s safety net. And while that is an interesting theme to explore and one that certainly speaks to Dick’s history of doing things on his own out of fear of putting others in danger, Dick should still, more times than not, be able to do things by himself. After all, this is not an ensemble piece — this is Nightwing’s story and as his fans, we want to read about him. Cameos are fine. They can be fun, in fact. But cameos are different from Dick constantly struggling and needing help whenever he faces a challenge – the former portrays Dick as someone with powerful connections that deeply love him; the latter portrays Dick as being incapable of doing things without someone holding his hand.

This is another thing that Waid understands about Dick and portrays it clearly in World’s Finest. When Kara explains to Clark what first attracted her to Dick, she emphasizes how, despite the fact he had no powers, he could still save himself. 

(Waid, Mark, writer. Lupacchino, Emanuela, illustrator. Scream of the Chaos Monkey. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest no. 12, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp. 06 - 07)

Being not just competent, but exceeding even the highest expectations is at the core of Dick’s character. And, as was pointed out in the previous section, it also serves to feed into his toxic perfectionism — he is one of the top tier heroes, therefore people expect excellence from him. Dick does not want to fail those who put their trust in him, and so he demands perfection of himself to the point of self-destruction.

Beyond that, we cannot give Taylor credit for trying to tell a story about Dick growing out of his perfectionist bad habits by learning to rely on others. After all, if Dick is constantly asking for help, then he is not resisting help. And that removes his chance for growth. A character arc requires development and change, which means one cannot start at the endpoint. Therefore, it cannot be claimed that Taylor’s intentions are for Dick to learn to rely on others, for he has been doing so without hesitation since the beginning. 

As a result, the story is not about Dick being Bludhaven’s safety net while learning that he also has a safety net of his own, but rather about Dick always relying on his safety net, always knowing it was there, and having them also shoulder the responsibilities he took when he named himself Bludhaven’s protector. There is no room for Dick to grow because he is already at the end of his journey. And there is no room for Dick to be the hero of his story because others are constantly coming to his rescue when things get too difficult.

Once more, I must clarify that I’m not saying that Dick is not loved, or that Dick is not important to many people. I’m simply stating that the way his relationships are built gives him very little room to rely on them. He is their safety net but he doesn’t trust them to be his safety net. Exploring this requires going into the nuances of each relationship, where conflicts are created, and where people hurt the other in the heat of an argument. It would mean dealing with the messiness of complex human emotions, forcing characters and the audience to sit with uncomfortable feelings as we get to the root of Dick’s perfectionism and his fears.  

In June of 2022 a reader on Twitter asked Taylor about his decision to have Dick constantly falling, for, as they pointed out, this makes Dick look incompetent.

(Jonathan [@Nightwingdagoat]. Twitter, 21 June 2022, https://twitter.com/Nightwingdagoat/status/1539267708310765568)

Taylor responded by saying that these instances were Redondo’s call, and that it was their attempt to humanize Dick.

(Tom Taylor [@TomTaylorMade]. Twitter, 21 June 2022, https://twitter.com/Nightwingdagoat/status/1539267708310765568)

In fairness to Taylor, the following criticism will then be directed primarily at Redondo who believed these instances were the best way to “remind people that Nightwing is human.” That being said, as Taylor appears to support such a position, and as he has written numerous incidents where Dick is conveniently knocked over by others, I do believe this can be directed at him as well. 

Simply put, to have a character constantly fall is a superficial and lazy way to humanize said character. Casual falls like this, after all, are not failures. They contribute little to the story and have very little consequence.  

Nothing happens once Dick falls. The bad guy doesn’t get away, the innocent civilian is not hurt, the crucial piece of evidence needed to crack the case is not destroyed. There are no lasting consequences for Dick to deal with, no conflict that can arise from these falls, no tension to make Dick’s future success more emotionally effective. Furthermore, these falls are completely out of Dick’s control, taking away any responsibility he might have for his mistakes. 

If the flaws that are meant to “humanize” Dick are falls which he bears no agency over, then he, the good guy, has no responsibility over his own “failures.” Said “failures” also end up having no consequences to the plot, which gives Dick no crisis to respond to (furthering his passivity), and this robs Dick of character development opportunities. 

It creates a stasis in the story where the only conflicts Dick faces are the ones against really bad guys that always – always – lose to Dick and his connections, and ones which do not ask for moments of introspection.

Despite almost never falling in The Untouchable, Dick is far more human there than in Taylor’s and Redondo’s run. This is because Dick is forced to face the consequences of his “failure” to capture the Judge twice in the past. Dick is constantly thinking about the Judge’s victims, forcing himself to carry their lives on his shoulder. He pushes himself to toxic lengths. Whenever the Judge escapes his grasp, the conflict evolves, the stakes are raised, and the tension builds. Dick’s desperation becomes visceral to the reader, and that is what humanizes him to the reader. Similarly, the emotional pay-off of the climactic battle in the end grows with each obstacle Dick faces.

(Humphries, Sam, writer. Chang, Bernard, illustrator The Untouchable: Chapter Four: Infiltration. Nightwing: Rebirth no. 38, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2018. pp. 09)

But Dick’s newbie incompetence is not the only way Taylor mischaracterizes Dick. It is by combining the lighthearted tone of his story, his depiction of Dick as a blank canvas “good guy,” his avoidance of conflict, and his attempts at answering difficult real-world problems that Taylor ends up creating a version of Dick Grayson that is utterly self-absorbed and lacking in foresight.

Telling and not showing is an immense problem in Taylor’s writing. There’s a difference between how a writer attempts to portray a character and how, given their actions in the context of the narrative created, the story shows them to be the complete opposite. In such cases, the story triumphs over the writer. This is why I claim that, though Taylor tells the reader that Dick is caring, intelligent, and a hard worker, he actually shows Dick as as selfish, incompetent, and naive.  

Take, as an example, how Taylor sidelines the Heartless storyline in favor of slice-of-life scenes. If Heartless was not there, perhaps those sweet moments could be just that. However, as in the world of the story there is currently a serial killed running around free, making orphans out of the youth Dick vowed to protect, the fact that Dick is not constantly working to catch Heartless is not only out of character, it makes it so it seems he doesn't care what happens to the people of Bludhaven (And now also Gotham, given #111, which was released as this essay was being edited). Rather than stopping crime and bringing justice to Heartless’ victims, Dick would rather spend his nights in his apartment, enjoying a relaxing evening with his girlfriend and his dog. 

Please do not take this to mean that I consider a slice-of-life story to be inferior to other genres. My reason for highlighting this is not to undermine the value of slice-of-life, but rather to argue that such scenes do not live in isolation. They exist within the context of a larger narrative, and what would be sweet in a sitcom-style story comes across as something entirely different when other characters are facing life-and-death stakes. It does not matter how much the writer tells us that these characters are caring and compassionate — their lack of action and urgency portrays them as self-centered. 

Just as Taylor attempts to write the big climatic moments without properly building the momentum necessary to make them impactful, he similarly forgoes the work required to win the reader’s trust, and instead expects his audience to simply accept that important plot and character developments are happening off-screen. Rather than letting the audience experience the intrigue and devastation of the Heartless mystery by showing us how the horrors of these murders motivate Dick to continuously search for this cruel killer, Taylor instead advances these elements off-screen, opting instead to tell the reader they’ve occurred.

That is not to say that writers cannot streamline plots. They absolutely can and, in some cases, they absolutely should. However, streamlining a subplot is a far more complicated matter than just telling the reader said events happened off-screen and expecting them to simply accept it. 

While it is impossible to provide a precise checklist with the step-by-step guidelines on how to properly streamline a subplot, I believe one of the factors one must consider is whether that plot should be streamlined or not. Personally, I believe that Dick investigating the character who was meant to be this run’s main villain is too big and too important of a story to be played off offscreen.

Dick has hardly spent any time attempting to apprehend Heartless. Instead, as time of writing, his investigation of Heartless has practically nonexistent. Instead, after not focusing on him for the majority of the run, we are simply told by Dick and Babs that they’ve been keeping an eye on Heartless, even if their investigation is never shown to us. 

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Basri, Sami Nightwing. Nightwing: Rebirth. 111, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp 09)

If we, as readers, are to believe that Dick is the selfless detective and hero — the Heart of the DCU — that Taylor tell us he is, then finding and apprehending Heartless should be one of his top priorities. If Heartless was meant to be Nightwing’s big nemesis, then their confrontation should always be a source of great tension and conflict. Such importance would be demonstrated by showing Dick working towards stopping him at every moment he has free. But either those moments are not happening at all, or they are happening off-screen.

Having such an important conflict and such a crucial antagonistic dynamic develop does nothing to enrich the plot — in fact, it only detracts from them, for because we do not get to witness this relationship grow and we are only told that it is happening, the pay off that must come when Nightwing and Heartless finally have a big confrontation will be cheapened as a result. 

Heartless' actions are so brutal and create such urgency that not prioritizing Heartless' arrest makes it seem like Dick doesn't care about his victims. Batman doesn't wait around when the Joker breaks out of Arkham – he hunts the Joker down. Similarly, Dick didn't wait around on the Judge – he hunted him down. 

For Heartless to be the Big Bad, Dick should have put him in jail already and Heartless should have escaped. DIck should have faced him multiple times. He should have been Dick's priority because of how cruel and urgent his actions are.

Finally, there are three particular moments that I wish to discuss to illustrate how ambivalent Taylor is when it comes to Dick’s characterization, choosing to prioritize online discourse over who Dick Grayson’s established history and personality. 

The first one comes from a throwaway line. And yet, because this was a throwaway line that demonstrated how little thought Taylor gives to his main character. 

When Tim makes his first appearance in Taylor’s run in #80, Dick’s narration says that many would consider Tim to be the best Robin, and that he “totally gets it.”

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator.  Leaping into the Light Part Three. Nightwing: Rebirth. 80, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 09)

“Who is the best Robin” is a discourse that I, admittedly, care very little for. It serves no purpose other than to get fans to fight one another, bashing each other’s favorite characters in order to prop up their own. When posed on social media, this question becomes a thinly veiled attempt to generate high engagement. In reality, when people discuss “who is the best Robin,” they are, most often than not, truly arguing about who is their favorite Robin. But the question is framed in a way to be purposefully divisive, creating conflict within the fan community. The fact that DC plays into that divisiveness that requires their characters to be brought down so others can be lifted up for marketing material is concerning, but the fact that writers such as Taylor are letting that fan perception bleed into in-universe narration is nothing less than lazy writing that prioritizes online leaning into buzz over good storytelling.  

Naturally, as a Dick Grayson fan my opinion is that Tim is not the best Robin. Dick is. But my problem is not that Taylor said that Tim was the better Robin, but that I think Dick would never concede to the existence of a “best Robin.” In fact, not only do I believe that it is out of character for Dick to believe that one Robin can be defined as the best Robin, I would argue that Dick would be offended that such a question could be asked.

Dick, more than any of the other Robins, understands the purpose of a Robin, as he was the one who created the mantle. By seeing so many others inherit his family’s colors and his mother’s name for him, he also understands better than anyone that each person who becomes Robin has their purpose in their own unique way. Dick would understand how each of them made the Robin mantle unique, how they added to its mythos in their own way, and how all of their contributions are equally valid and equally important. He would never single out one of them as the best because he knows that Robin is about an ideal of justice by bringing light into the darkness. Most importantly, understanding how many Robins tied their self-worth to the mantle, Dick would never want others to feel as if they fell short of some arbitrary measure by proclaiming they are not “the best.” Dick would be against that measure, against the very idea of ranking Robins, as if they were interchangeable, as if they each didn’t make relevant contributions. He would hate the idea of the mantle he created in honor of his parents being used to judge and measure the worth of those he loves. Dick would argue that there can never be a "best Robin" because Robin is always about being your best self in the service of those who need your help, and you can't quantify that.

The concept of a “Best Robin” is a marketing strategy and a fan-oriented discourse that Taylor casually imposed into the narrative without considering whether his protagonist would adhere to such ideas. He prioritized internet discourse over characterization, and while the former may be immediately fulfilling as the page is cropped and shared a few thousand times in the first few days after publication, only the latter will leave an impression that will last decades. Taylor is embodying a current DC Comics trend to favor the former over the latter. As scholar Steve Baxi said in his review of Leaping into the Light, that page “doesn’t feel like Dick Grayson appreciating his brother, it feels like Dick Grayson saying what the audience wants to hear.” (Baxi, Steve, “TRADE COLLECTION REVIEW: Nightwing Vol. 1 - Leaping Into The Light” Comics Bookcase, August 2021)

Although they share similar problems, unlike the “Tim is the best Robin” throwaway narration, the second example I wish to discuss in detail became a big plot point in the beginning of Taylor’s run. I’m referring to the choice of having Dick become a billionaire due to the inheritance Alfred left to him.

To be more clear, my problem is not with the fact that Taylor made Dick into a billionaire (after all, Dick inheriting wealth from his parents is not a novel concept), but rather with Dick’s musings on the subject. (Dick’s financial situation is inconsistent across the years. While some like Dixon and Wolfman allude to him having a trust fund his parents set aside and that remained untouched until Dick’s adulthood, other writers like Humphrey who portray him as more middle class and sometimes struggling financially. Then there are the numerous times in which Dick was left homeless, implying that he did not have a safety fund to go to when tragedy struck.) On #79, Dick says, without a hint of irony, that he always thought that Bruce could do more to help Gotham with Bruce Wayne’s money than he does as Batman. 

(Taylor, Tom. writer, Redondo, Bruno, illustrator Leaping into the Light Part Two. Nightwing: Rebirth. 79, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 07)

This is a popular online discourse that reveals lack of knowledge about Batman and a naive understanding of how corrupt systems function. I understand we are currently very critical (and rightly so) of billionaires and the hoarding of wealth. I understand that this leads many — media critics and everyday fans — to analyzing how wealth is portrayed in the stories that resonate within our culture. But anyone who claims that Bruce has not used his wealth for the benefit of Gotham outside of funding his Batman endeavors has not engaged properly with Batman media. I’m not going to go into the merits of how Bruce’s wealth should or should not be portrayed and how DC has currently been handling this issue (that is the subject for an entirely different essay that is not relevant to this discussion), but I will say that Bruce has, canonically, used a lot of his money to fund safety net programs in Gotham, to invest in small businesses and on individuals, and in trying to make the city more affordable and kinder to those with less. 

Twitter user Ashley|TheBatFamily 🦇 (@TheBat_Family) created a comprehensive Twitter thread of examples. These are but some of the ones that stood out to me and that feel most relevant to this essay:

In Cataclysm, Bruce attempted to lobby the US government to offer aid to Gotham after the earthquake; 

Bruce used his money to rebuild the city during No Man’s Land;

Bruce invested in the people who were ready to start new businesses so Gotham could offer jobs to its people and rebuild itself without being fully dependent on others;

Bruce created scholarships so more people could attend university;

Bruce funds Leslie’s free clinic as well as other hospitals around Gotham;

Bruce invested on low-income housing developments in Gotham by working with local firms, providing accommodations to local residents so no one would be displaced;

Bruce expanded and modernized Gotham’s public transportation system;

Bruce ensured all Wayne properties were secured against earthquakes (which led to those residences being the only ones standing during NML);

Bruce funds libraries and museums;

Bruce funds green efforts not just in Gotham, but in other places by buying land and making them nature preserves;

Bruce funds orphanages and provided them resources (from educational supplies to toys for the children);

Bruce provided support for immigrants;

Bruce funds appeals for wrongful convictions;

Bruce provides employment for former convicts;

(Ashley [TheBat_Family]. Twitter, 13 October 2020, https://twitter.com/TheBat_Family/status/1316006509923520512.)

In short, Bruce Wayne has done everything and more that Dick claimed he wished to do for Bludhaven. There’s nothing novel about the idea. Batman narratives don’t put as much focus on these endeavors and do not place as much emphasis on Bruce’s philanthropy simply because they Batman stories are, at their core, detective stories first and foremost. Their focus is on investigation and crime solving (Though I would argue that Cataclysm and No Man’s Land put a lot of focus on issues of wealth, class, and examine Bruce’s financial responsibility towards the city).

But just because these examples are not the focus of the stories in which they are present, it does not mean that they do not exist. Neither does it mean that Batman stories do not engage with themes of wealth and class inequality, as well as systemic corruption. In fact, I would argue that many of the best ones know how to use Bruce’s privileged status to explore these issues. The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder, for example, brilliantly uses the Court and the Talons to engage with these themes. (An essay analyzing the Court of Owls through such a lens would be a fascinating study, especially when exploring the parallels and foils between the Court and the Talons, and Bruce and Dick. Alas, this is not the place for it.)

Dick, who not only has always been characterized as knowing Bruce better than most people,  but who was also raised by Bruce, would know about every single one of the examples listed above. Dick, of all people, had a front row seat to all the ways in which Bruce helped Gotham with his wealth, both in examples that were covered by the press, and the ones Bruce did secretly without taking credit. Dick attended countless fundraising events, press briefs, boardroom meetings. But most importantly, Dick would have witnessed with his very own eyes that lack of funding is not at the root of Gotham’s problems.  The problem in Gotham is not lack of money or safety nets, but rather, it is that its systems are so corrupt that pumping more funds into it will do nothing to help those in need. Instead, it will only further enrich those who are already in power. That’s why in this comic book world with comic book conventions and comic book logic, Batman is needed. Batman is a disruption to the system, forcing it to change, dismantling it from both the outside and the inside. In Dixon and Grayson’s Nightwing runs, Dick’s understanding of systematic problems can be observed in his motivation to become a police officer, as he joins the force with the goal to weed out the corruption and dismantle the system from within. Money alone cannot save a city if the foundation was purposefully designed to favor those on the top by taking from those at the bottom.

(Dixon, Chuck, writer. McCarthy, Trevor, illustrator The Threshold. Nightwing. 60, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2001. pp 22)

But of course, Taylor never takes a moment to wonder how being raised by Bruce Wayne would influence Dick’s perspective on this matter. Instead, he once more takes a popular online discourse and makes Dick say it out without considering characterization. A more in-character and canonically accurate approach to such a story moment would have Dick comment on all the ways Bruce used his money behind the scenes to help Gotham, and how he wishes to do the same for Bludhaven. A single line change would have demonstrated Taylor's willingness to engage with Dick’s character history rather than just copying the hot takes he sees on social media. 

Not only that, this change in dialogue would also establish Bruce and Dick’s closeness as it would show that not only is Bruce a source of inspiration for Dick, but that Dick is one of the few people who have seen this side of Bruce. That would have also made the hug between Bruce and Dick in the #100 more emotionally effective and thematically cohesive, especially as they are in front of Alfred’s grave.

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator Power Vacuum: Part Four: The Leap. Nightwing: Rebirth. 100, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2023. pp 44)

The truth is that Dick's Haven project engaged with issues homelessness only in the most shallow of manners. Rather than discussing the realities of this matter, it simply used it as a backdrop. It is an appropriation of hardships by someone who is unwilling to engage with the difficulties brought upon by said hardships. It is substance-less writing masquerading as social consciousness.

The third example I wish to cite which demonstrates Taylor’s lack of consideration for Dick’s character or his backstory comes when Haley is taken in #87. Dick’s internal monologue reads that “The last thing I’d want is for anyone to be threatened because they’re close to Dick Grayson,” referring to the fact that he is now a public figure thanks to the press conference he gave about his plans for Bludhaven. 

(Taylor, Tom, writer. Redondo, Bruno, illustrator Get Grayson. Nightwing: Rebirth. 87, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2021. pp 09)

The idea that Dick Grayson, billionaire Bruce Wayne’s first child, was unaware of the dangers faced by those associated with a public figure is laughable. The idea that the first Robin, who was often taken hostage by villains who wished to get to Batman (so much so that Frank Miller famously nicknamed him “Boy Hostage”), did not understand the threat posed to those who are close to powerful figures is insulting. After well over a decade as a superhero, and after well over a decade of being associated with a wealthy public figure, Dick should know better than most how such ties can put loved ones at risk. 

In-universe, this line makes Dick appear so self-centered that he does not take into consideration how his actions affect his loved ones. It makes him appear dense, unable to think through his actions and strategize contingency plans and safety precautions before taking such a giant risk. 

Out of universe, this betrays a lazy way of storytelling, with Taylor going for low-hanging fruits without thinking of how that might affect the characterization of his protagonist. Out of universe, a collection of throwaway, thoughtless lines like this demonstrates just how uninterested Taylor is in giving even the slightest consideration to who Dick Grayson is meant to be, instead putting his focus on the gimmick that will get him noticed on social media.

[dear-ao3]

Re your RB cursed second seat post, just wanted to add a few things and make a couple of corrections because this stuff really does add to the uh... flavour

First, while I know it's not entirely relevant, the whole Racing Point driver swap was SO MUCH more dramatic because Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon are like. Besties. Like BFF friends forever since childhood. Poor son of mechanic and rolling in cash son of billionaire true friendship story. Esteban was fired in favour of his best friend, by his BEST FRIEND'S DAD. PEAK drama. They're still besties, bee tee dubs, because Esteban only makes enemies with his teammates.

F1 Invisible Moustache Twirling Supervillain Christian Horner also has a history of 'we're fully supportive [x driver] to be the best they can be and have no intention of changing our driver line up' and then oops, sorry. We lied. Like... five minutes later. Happened to Gasly, happened to Albon, and the former is currently where we're at with Checo. Christian has admitted that they were too hasty with Albon but oh dear how sad too bad boy's thriving now oopsie doopsie.

Also not forgetting that while Daniel was twiddling his thumbs waiting for his metacarpal to heal, Liam Lawson, the AT and RB reserve, got the highest placing position for the Alpha Tauri team this season (up until Mexico, anyway) while driving in Daniel's seat, and also threw himself into the RB second driver conversation.

And a couple of minor corrections:

DR didn't just leave RB because of the unreliability, it was more about being pushed aside for Golden Child Max Verstappen (affectionate, maybe slightly derogatory), which of course he knows all about because DR did the same thing to Vettel back in 2014. Who also had experience in that field because you could argue the cursed seat actually started with Mark Webber vs Seb Vettel back in like... 2010

Honda has been in F1 before. They sold to Brawn GP for the princely sum of one euro symbolic cash when they were going under, because Ross Brawn knew they'd built a MEGA car and couldn't bear to see them not run it for the 2009 season. Brawn GP won that year, it was Jenson Button's one and only championship win.

F1 drivers can't really go back to F2. If you've won it before, you can't compete again, but it's a feeder series so there's no way some ex-f1 driver is ever gonna be in F2 (or any of the lower formulas) because it's specifically for young talent. IDK maybe you meant Formula E? They also often go to WEC or IndyCar. Even rallying.

RB didn't give Checo another car at Suzuka he went out in the same car after they fixed it up enough for it to drive around one lap. Worth noting he was like 32 laps behind by this point (IDR the exact number but it was LORGE). spare cars haven't been a thing in F1 since 2008

Finally, the Fernando and Charles rumours are so fucking funny ain't no way either of them are gonna go to RB only to be a second to Max. I can see Carlos doing it though, trying for the grand return a-la DR. He's just Like ThatTM (affectionate, again also slightly derogatory). They've also been hardcore courting Lando Norris, who's way too smart and aware of his mental health to put himself into that depression spiral.

ANYWAY this isn't intended to be a big GOTCHA i just wanted to, as I said, add some extra flavour because F1 is so much more insane than anyone who doesn't follow it can POSSIBLY comprehend. Thanks for the post, I love seeing people explain the bonkers bullshittery.

yes yes thank you for pointing out all my mistakes and all that i j ew i was going to be getting Peer Reviewed (again, tumblr deleted my damn post so the first version was more accurate but i was pissed and i was also 1am so…) but yes. i am also new here in terms of the f1 drama. but yes it’s totally positively bonkers do you guys See now why fandom people are attracted to it???

[lesharl-eclair]

strollonso fic recs part 1: fics

4 fics from authors who have just the one strollonso fic, and who somehow added SO MUCH to the genre. whose other works are equally insanely mindblowing (the charles/bono fic that i am still not oVER BY THE WAY... the painfully high-quality webbonso. charlos and landoscar.) im crying how do you guys do it (these fics actually changed my life i am not kidding:

all fics below the cut; if you enjoyed these fics, please show the authors comment and kudo love; should you be the author of a fic that's here, and don't want to be here, please reach out to me and your wish is my command :)

victor's spoil by venerat (E, 1.9k)

Two hours later Lance is told he’s going to the winner’s room. “Oh,” Lance says stupidly. "Uh. Me? Now?”

ouUEGHHGEUGHHH the rancid vibes. it's all mind games here. lance's desperation vs nando's casual (playful????!!!) viciousness.

the attention to detail is so stunning. the way the scene is set, the inherent power imbalance, lance so eager to please it's almost painful to watch....

"Even when Fernando aims it warmly, it still makes Lance shiver. That’s because Lance, of course, is fucked up. He’s already getting hard between his legs, just because Fernando chose him. Just from being here, from the anticipation of knowing his role. From the uncertainty of sitting there, waiting." im sobbign <3

this one rearranged my brain a lot. one of my favourite renditions of their dynamic.

***

in the hold by @pressurizer2 (M, 1.9k)

Lance scrunches his nose and makes a noise of protest as soon as Fernando’s hand leaves his ankle.

im still reeling at this concept okay. i havent gotten over it yet i don't think my review is sufficient to describe how good this is but can we talk about this like

"Mouth open and sucking in air, trying his best to keep quiet, Lance feels both compressed and torn apart by the intensity of Fernando’s attention, redirected. He’s being talked about, but not talked to. Praised but not acknowledged. Lifted up high and pushed down hard." such a waaay with words!!!! i am very extremely enamoured.

the push and pull here is perfect: bratty lance (<3) trying to elicit a reaction, nando willing to indulge despite his discipline (he's actually so into it.....it's all a game for him.......uuuueegeghheheu.....) the way tension is built and released is so so masterful and a delight from start to finish :)

***

A Little Bit of Exhibition by @sweetpeapoppy (M, 5.1k)

He’d heard all of the rumours about the way Fernando operated in Formula One, how ruthless he was, how he terrorised his teammates, how he would grind you down until you doubted your own abilities. Lance knew he didn’t need that. But he also knew he didn’t have a choice either, Fernando was coming to Aston Martin whether he liked it or not.

nando as an exhibitionist is...something. how he draws lance in to do the most brazen things, how lance is powerless to resist, is such a tantalising prospect. lawrence's obliviousness makes me want to shake my head patronisingly ("Lawrence agreed, feeling grateful he had another driver pairing that were getting along." ??????? ?????) this fic really shines because of all the details (sweater paws?? hand on nape??? the actual db12 feature???) the "canon compliance" makes your concept so true to life and now i can't unsee it.

the thing that stayed with me was the image of nando bent over the car. it still makes me lose my shit to think about.

***

I make two grand an hour by @kritischetheologie (E, 3.1k)

Lawrence had made Lance read an entire fucking book on this history of Formula 1 before he started the job, and all Lance could remember from the 2000’s was the German guy who won all of them, before the other German guy started winning all of them. But still, who did this guy think he was, trying a line like that on him? Aston Martin wasn’t the type of team that could hire a double world champion. “Michael Schumacher won in 2005,” he said, trying to project more confidence than he felt. “Nice try.”

BRATTY LANCE. I MIGHT ACTUALLY CRY

the voicing is nailed doWN to a tee and i am thriving. there is one very interesting roscoe related comparison in there that i will not be forgetting any time soon. this ticks all the boxes for me - backstory, characterisation, humour, there is even Plot !!

also love the offhand mention of glance.....they could have been together in another universe..... "Everyone was short except for George Russell, who was both tall and fast. Why couldn’t his father have invested in Mercedes instead?"

this author brings so much delight and depth to every single one of the pairings she writes about, and i will not be forgetting about this any time soon.

***

that's all for today :) i DO have more strollonso fic recs on the way so keep your eyes peeled if you like what you see !!

if you enjoyed this, or if i missed any fic, please let me know :) drop me an ask mayhaps if you would like more fic recs, and i will try my best to give timely unqualified opinions <3

[dreamweaversfavsandthoughs]

Rick and Morty S7 Ep. 8: Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie

(I do care!)

Don’t forget to add spoilers to the equation

My Favs

Reminiscent of HarmonTown

I use to listen to HarmonTown back when Dan Harmon was still doing that show and I felt this episode was the most HarmonTown-esqe episode they have even done. It was written by HarmonTown regular Rob Schrab and had Dan Harmon and Brandon Johnson as basically the two leads of the episode and I felt I was listening to that podcast once again.

It broke the formula the hardest out of any episode that has been done

Mainly because Rick didn’t show up at all. I guess he’s still so depressed he couldn’t be bothered. I appreciate when the show is able to take a wild swing like that and having Rick present would have taken away from what they were trying to accomplish with Mr. Goldenfold

Mr. Goldenfold’s character was fleshed out

Mr. Goldenfold has always been the butt of the joke so it was a nice change of pace to show him as someone who is passionate about his subject matter and cares about teaching. I think the episode could have done more but it was nice seeing the character taken somewhat seriously.

Math/Letter puns

This episode was chock full of corny, sometimes clever math and letter puns and it was kinda fun trying to hunt them all. A few of my favorites include:

Bracket shield

All Type strikers attack. I want his serifs.

Subtract Water-T to life and carry the one to me

Helvetica Light speed

Threesus Christ

E-10

“I’m a prime number and I’m only divisible by myself”

“And my dick is magma but we’ll figure it out.”

Not My Fav

Morty’s role in the episode

I like seeing Morty in any episode I can get him. I really do, but Morty being in this episode felt like an executive saying, “We can’t have both Rick and Morty not be in an episode that’s a bridge too far. Just find something for Morty to do and call it a day.” As others have pointed out, you could take him out of the episode and nothing would be affected. I wish more had been done to justify him being there other than to commentate.

I’m starting to worry that the show is relying too much on older characters/older concepts

I’m not necessarily opposed to older one-off characters coming back, fleshing out old stories, or explore old places, but if done too much it can start to feel like a crutch. I feel now as we approach the end of season 7 that they might be creeping into the territory of being over reliant on old material. It might be time to start course correcting for that.

My Thoughts

I might be a bit of an outlier on this one but…I kinda enjoyed this episode. I mentioned earlier that this episode felt the most HarmonTown-esqe of any episode they’ve ever done--and I really missed that podcast. This episode seemed like something that they would have improvised or joked during an episode of that show. Also, I had read a couple reviews before the episode aired so I already knew ahead of time that Rick wasn’t going to be in it and that the episode really had nothing to do with the lore or developing the family so I went into the episode not expecting that and I had fun with it.

This episode was a love letter to schlocky 80’s action movies that seem serious on the surface but are, at their core, just dumb, corny fun. I think not having Rick in the episode was a good call because he would’ve just been a cynical voice to an episode that didn’t need any cynicism. Speaking of Rick’s absence, when I heard that he wasn’t going to be in the episode and that Water-T and Mr. Goldenfold were the main focus I expected that the episode would be a bit divisive among the fan base and they did not disappoint. It’s exhausting being in this fandom.

This episode is certainly one of the weaker episodes this season I won’t dispute that but I think a weaker episode from this season is leagues better than that sperm episode ( or some of the weaker episodes from seasons 4 and 5) and I will die on that hill. There was some clever moments, like the primitive googas being reminiscent of early pictographs and the relationship between math and music with Mr. Goldenfold teaching Ice-T about time signatures. That connection makes the logic of Mr. Goldenfold’s and Ice-T’s friendship and falling out make sense, albeit, in a deeply silly way. The writer clearly loves 80’s action movies and used the characters and settings of Rick and Morty to accomplish his own version and I’m here for it.

[study-with-aura]

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Geometry was a problem today. I do not know what was going on as sometimes my answers would be correct and then somehow on the next question, my answers were wrong. Ratios have never been my favorite to begin with, but I know that I will have to review this lesson and maybe check different resources to see if they help me understand the formula for solving better because I am doing something wrong. I only wish I knew what it was.

Maybe I should start using pencil for my geometry practice, but then it would not stand out as well. I like color coding. It helps. Or perhaps use scratch paper and then once I have it figured out, I can copy it back into my notebook so I don't have to waste my wite-out. I was so frustrated that I nearly ruined the tape on the wite-out! I fixed it, but frustration was so real today!

I wish Julien were here. He could explain it easily to me. He's very good at math. It's days like this that I miss the ease of simply going over to his study space and asking for help.

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Reviewed distance and midpoint formulas + learned to partition line segments + practice

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 16-18 vocabulary + read chapter 25 of Emma by Jane Austen + read the news + copied examples of poetic devices in use

Spanish 2 - Read answers from yesterday out loud to my dad and submitted the assignment for grading (30/30) + practice quiz body and face terms

Bible I - Read Joshua 13-14

World History - Read timeline for the final four days before the start of WWI

Biology with Lab - Read about human impact + read about human impact on wildlife + watched a lecture video on human impact

Foundations - Read more about punctuality + completed Lumosity daily brain workout + learned about Texas sharp shooter and middle ground fallacies + reviewed all fallacies learned

Piano - Practiced for one hour

Khan Academy - Completed High School Biology Unit 9: Lesson 7 (parts 5-8) + Completed High School Geometry Unit 6: Lesson 2 (parts 1-3) (assigned)

CLEP - None today

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 137-174 of My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix by Kalynn Bayron

Chores - None today

Activities of the Day:

Extracurricular robotics course

Personal Bible Study (Romans 8)

Ballet

Variations

Journal/Mindfulness

-

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful to have made it through geometry today!

Quote of the Day:

I don't have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. I'm as good as anybody, but no better."

-Katherine Johnson

🎧Symphony No. 1 in E Minor - I. Allegro ma non troppo - Florence Price

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 6, 2024

Visual velocity perception dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. Bernardinis, M., Atashzar, S. F., Jog, M. S., & Patel, R. V. (2023). Behavioural Brain Research, 452, 114490.

A mathematical formula of plasticity: Measuring susceptibility to change in mental health and data science. Branchi, I. (2023). Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 152, 105272.

Impaired salience network switching in psychopathy. Deming, P., Cook, C. J., Meyerand, M. E., Kiehl, K. A., Kosson, D. S., & Koenigs, M. (2023). Behavioural Brain Research, 452, 114570.

Pinging the brain to reveal the hidden attentional priority map using encephalography. Duncan, D. H., van Moorselaar, D., & Theeuwes, J. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 4749.

Brain criticality predicts individual levels of inter-areal synchronization in human electrophysiological data. Fuscà, M., Siebenhühner, F., Wang, S. H., Myrov, V., Arnulfo, G., Nobili, L., … Palva, S. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 4736.

A cell-type-specific error-correction signal in the posterior parietal cortex. Green, J., Bruno, C. A., Traunmüller, L., Ding, J., Hrvatin, S., Wilson, D. E., … Harvey, C. D. (2023). Nature, 620(7973), 366–373.

Functional modules for visual scene segmentation in macaque visual cortex. Hesse, J. K., & Tsao, D. Y. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(32), e2221122120.

Experimental validation of the free-energy principle with in vitro neural networks. Isomura, T., Kotani, K., Jimbo, Y., & Friston, K. J. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 4547.

Crows flexibly apply statistical inferences based on previous experience. Johnston, M., Brecht, K. F., & Nieder, A. (2023). Current Biology, 33(15), 3238-3243.e3.

Stimulus edges induce orientation tuning in superior colliculus. Liang, Y., Lu, R., Borges, K., & Ji, N. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 4756.

People can use the placement of objects to infer communicative goals. Lopez-Brau, M., & Jara-Ettinger, J. (2023). Cognition, 239, 105524.

Metacognitive awareness in the sound-induced flash illusion. Maynes, R., Faulkner, R., Callahan, G., Mims, C. E., Ranjan, S., Stalzer, J., & Odegaard, B. (2023). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1886).

Metacognition in the audiovisual McGurk illusion: perceptual and causal confidence. Meijer, D., & Noppeney, U. (2023). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1886).

Boosting Serotonin Increases Information Gathering by Reducing Subjective Cognitive Costs. Michely, J., Martin, I. M., Dolan, R. J., & Hauser, T. U. (2023). Journal of Neuroscience, 43(32), 5848–5855.

Causal inference during closed-loop navigation: parsing of self- and object-motion. Noel, J.-P., Bill, J., Ding, H., Vastola, J., DeAngelis, G. C., Angelaki, D. E., & Drugowitsch, J. (2023). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378(1886).

Aging and temporal integration in the visual perception of object shape. Norman, J. F., Lewis, J. L., Bryant, E. N., & Conn, J. D. (2023). Scientific Reports, 13, 12748.

Non-shared coding of observed and executed actions prevails in macaque ventral premotor mirror neurons. Pomper, J. K., Shams, M., Wen, S., Bunjes, F., & Thier, P. (2023). eLife, 12, e77513.

Backbone spiking sequence as a basis for preplay, replay, and default states in human cortex. Vaz, A. P., Wittig, J. H., Inati, S. K., & Zaghloul, K. A. (2023). Nature Communications, 14, 4723.

Feasibility of dopamine as a vector-valued feedback signal in the basal ganglia. Wärnberg, E., & Kumar, A. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(32), e2221994120.

NMDA-driven dendritic modulation enables multitask representation learning in hierarchical sensory processing pathways. Wybo, W. A. M., Tsai, M. C., Tran, V. A. K., Illing, B., Jordan, J., Morrison, A., & Senn, W. (2023). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(32), e2300558120.

[dystini]

Indycar - Social Media

Who, what, where to follow.

Social Media

NTT INDYCAR SERIES YouTube - videos go back 15 years. Twitter Instagram TikTok

Team Penske (Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, Will Power) YouTube - a mix of all the series Penske runs in. Go look for the Penske Games - they're hilarious. Twitter Instagram TikTok

Andretti Autosport (Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Romain Grosjean, Devlin DeFrancesco, Marco Andretti) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team (Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, Felix Rosenqvist, Tony Kanaan) By far the most active and on-trend of the Indycar teams. YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Chip Ganassi Racing (Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou, Marcus Armstrong, Takuma Sato) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, Jack Harvey, Katherine Legge) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Juncos Hollinger Racing (Callum Ilott, Agustin Canapino) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Ed Carpenter Racing (Rinus Veekay, Ryan Hunter Reay, Ed Carpenter) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Dale Coyne Racing (David Malukas, Sting Ray Robb) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

AJ Foyt Racing (Santino Ferucci, Benjamin Perdersen) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Meyer Shank Racing (Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Indianapolis Motor Speedway YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Indy NXT (Indycar Junior series) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Media/other

RACER YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

Marshall Pruett YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

INDYCAR on NBC YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok

Nathan Brown (IndyStar) YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram N/A TikTok N/A

Dalton Kellett (former driver) YouTube Twitter Instagram TikTok (tech explanations)

Speed You Later YouTube N/A Twitter Instagram TikTok N/A

TikTok

Misc Caterina Masetti Zannini (Callum Ilott's girlfriend) Behind the scenes and Indycar tech explained, some F1 content. James and Becky Hinchcliffe (hasn't been updated in some time) Honda Performance Development - features all series that use honda engines so you'l have to search for the Indycar stuff.

Drivers Pato O’Ward Conor Daly Callum Ilott Christian Lundgaard Alex Palou

Instagram

Misc PitFit (The gym a lot of drivers use)

Podcasts

Racer's Roots - A deep dive into the history of motorsports and the genealogy of the racers we know and love.

The B1tch Stop is a podcast about motorsport hosted by Charlotte, Almay and Steph: an exasperated sports fan who'd make a better team principle than half the paddock, someone that reads about the aerodynamics of cars for fun, and a woman with a lot of opinions and no driver's licence. Follow for biweekly breakdowns of major race series (including F1, 2 and 3, Formula E, W Series, F1 Academy and IndyCar), the judgement of professional drivers based on their birth chart, and very valid and correct opinions about which drivers would catfish each other.

The Race IndyCar Podcast Race reviews and analysis from the fastest circuit racing in the world. Jack Benyon hosts, ex-Indycar racer JR Hildebrand adds expert knowledge, while a host of special guests bring colour and insight. Join us for the ride!

The Week In IndyCar The Week In Indy Car features one or more guests to weave through the latest news in North America's premier open-wheel series and its related junior formula. Like The Week In Sports Cars show, it's an interactive affair driven by listener questions submitted via social media.

Motorsport101 - covers F1, MotoGP and FE as well as IndyCar

Did I miss anything? Have a podcast to recommend? Send me a message.

[scifigeneration]

The Galactica AI model was trained on scientific knowledge – but it spat out alarmingly plausible nonsense

by Aaron J. Snoswell, Queensland University of Technology and Jean Burgess, Queensland University of Technology

Earlier this month, Meta announced new AI software called Galactica: “a large language model that can store, combine and reason about scientific knowledge”.

Launched with a public online demo, Galactica lasted only three days before going the way of other AI snafus like Microsoft’s infamous racist chatbot.

The online demo was disabled (though the code for the model is still available for anyone to use), and Meta’s outspoken chief AI scientist complained about the negative public response.

So what was Galactica all about, and what went wrong?

What’s special about Galactica?

Galactica is a language model, a type of AI trained to respond to natural language by repeatedly playing a fill-the-blank word-guessing game.

Most modern language models learn from text scraped from the internet. Galactica also used text from scientific papers uploaded to the (Meta-affiliated) website PapersWithCode. The designers highlighted specialised scientific information like citations, maths, code, chemical structures, and the working-out steps for solving scientific problems.

The preprint paper associated with the project (which is yet to undergo peer review) makes some impressive claims. Galactica apparently outperforms other models at problems like reciting famous equations (“Q: What is Albert Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalence formula? A: E=mc²”), or predicting the products of chemical reactions (“Q: When sulfuric acid reacts with sodium chloride, what does it produce? A: NaHSO₄ + HCl”).

However, once Galactica was opened up for public experimentation, a deluge of criticism followed. Not only did Galactica reproduce many of the problems of bias and toxicity we have seen in other language models, it also specialised in producing authoritative-sounding scientific nonsense.

Authoritative, but subtly wrong bullshit generator

Galactica’s press release promoted its ability to explain technical scientific papers using general language. However, users quickly noticed that, while the explanations it generates sound authoritative, they are often subtly incorrect, biased, or just plain wrong.

We also asked Galactica to explain technical concepts from our own fields of research. We found it would use all the right buzzwords, but get the actual details wrong – for example, mixing up the details of related but different algorithms.

In practice, Galactica was enabling the generation of misinformation – and this is dangerous precisely because it deploys the tone and structure of authoritative scientific information. If a user already needs to be a subject matter expert in order to check the accuracy of Galactica’s “summaries”, then it has no use as an explanatory tool.

At best, it could provide a fancy autocomplete for people who are already fully competent in the area they’re writing about. At worst, it risks further eroding public trust in scientific research.

A galaxy of deep (science) fakes

Galactica could make it easier for bad actors to mass-produce fake, fraudulent or plagiarised scientific papers. This is to say nothing of exacerbating existing concerns about students using AI systems for plagiarism.

Fake scientific papers are nothing new. However, peer reviewers at academic journals and conferences are already time-poor, and this could make it harder than ever to weed out fake science.

Underlying bias and toxicity

Other critics reported that Galactica, like other language models trained on data from the internet, has a tendency to spit out toxic hate speech while unreflectively censoring politically inflected queries. This reflects the biases lurking in the model’s training data, and Meta’s apparent failure to apply appropriate checks around the responsible AI research.

The risks associated with large language models are well understood. Indeed, an influential paper highlighting these risks prompted Google to fire one of the paper’s authors in 2020, and eventually disband its AI ethics team altogether.

Machine-learning systems infamously exacerbate existing societal biases, and Galactica is no exception. For instance, Galactica can recommend possible citations for scientific concepts by mimicking existing citation patterns (“Q: Is there any research on the effect of climate change on the great barrier reef? A: Try the paper ‘Global warming transforms coral reef assemblages’ by Hughes, et al. in Nature 556 (2018)”).

For better or worse, citations are the currency of science – and by reproducing existing citation trends in its recommendations, Galactica risks reinforcing existing patterns of inequality and disadvantage. (Galactica’s developers acknowledge this risk in their paper.)

Citation bias is already a well-known issue in academic fields ranging from feminist scholarship to physics. However, tools like Galactica could make the problem worse unless they are used with careful guardrails in place.

A more subtle problem is that the scientific articles on which Galactica is trained are already biased towards certainty and positive results. (This leads to the so-called “replication crisis” and “p-hacking”, where scientists cherry-pick data and analysis techniques to make results appear significant.)

Galactica takes this bias towards certainty, combines it with wrong answers and delivers responses with supreme overconfidence: hardly a recipe for trustworthiness in a scientific information service.

These problems are dramatically heightened when Galactica tries to deal with contentious or harmful social issues, as the screenshot below shows. Galactica readily generates toxic and nonsensical content dressed up in the measured and authoritative language of science. Tristan Greene / Galactica

Here we go again

Calls for AI research organisations to take the ethical dimensions of their work more seriously are now coming from key research bodies such as the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Some AI research organisations, like OpenAI, are being more conscientious (though still imperfect).

Meta dissolved its Responsible Innovation team earlier this year. The team was tasked with addressing “potential harms to society” caused by the company’s products. They might have helped the company avoid this clumsy misstep.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2023 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 3/4)

Well, it's 2024 now, and I'm still at these mini-reviews. Definitely gonna be four parts, I think.

[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]

Pikmin 4

I've already posted my thoughts about this one, but... I think this one's my game of the year. Tunic or Disco Elysium would have it, except they didn't come out this year- which leaves Pikmin 4, which is just such a tour de force of good interaction design. There's so many QoL improvements and bits of time-saving polish in it- I can't remember the last time I played a game with so few interface frustrations. (And they nailed all the usual good things about Pikmin, too.)

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE

Man, this fuckin' thing... so this is the new IP from Kazutaka Kodaka, the Danganronpa guy, who decided he didn't want to keep making Danganronpa games. So obviously the first thing he did was just make another Danganronpa game.

It's mechanically almost identical. A murder happens, you spend some time combing the crime scene for evidence, then you go into an extended deduction segment where you use evidence on contradictions and play tangentially-relevant minigames to break things up. It's very the same thing- you go to the Class Trial Mystery Labyrinth and use Truth Bullets Solution Keys to attack wrong statements in Non-Stop Debate Reasoning Deathmatch, spell the word "knife" in an obnoxious hangman minigame (except this time it's an anime girl striptease), mind-snowboard down multiple-choice quizzes, and even do the exact same fill-in-the-blanks-of-the-comic-pages-to-recap-the-case finale thingy.

This isn't a bad thing, necessarily! (Except the stupid spelling minigame, my beloathed.) Danganronpa's formula works, and (with one egregrious exception in the form of the awful case 3 with the resistance guys) the deduction is all pretty solid. Rain Code falls down where it deviates from that, mainly. The new things it's trying almost universally don't work.

Firstly... it's sort of inverse Danganronpa in that instead of a fairly stupid and contrived setup and ending that don't really matter and bookend some satisfying and dramatic cases in the meat of the game... it's a satisfying and dramatic setup and ending that bookend fairly stupid and contrived murder cases that don't really matter in the meat of the game. Rather than having a core cast that develops and interacts throughout the story, the core cast (really bad, incidentally; Halara is the only good character, and the obligatory comedy pervert boy is the worst he's ever been in any Kodaka work) is totally ancillary, and all the cases involve random sometimes-nameless NPCs introduced specifically for that case. You could cut the first four chapters of the game and leave just the prologue and finale, and you'd have a better game. The central plot mystery is actually really cool! Shame you have to faff about with Junko Enoshima Shinigami for four boring cases in between.

Special shout-out to the mini-mystery sidequests the game is crammed with for you to do between cases- they achieve the impressive distinction of not-having-a-single-one-of-them-be-interesting. If you play this game, skip them entirely- the only reward is EXP to spend on a thoroughly useless skill tree.

Ori and the Blind Forest

Already posted about this, so I'll just copy-paste what I said when I finished it- it's a very polished and enjoyable little metroidvania! I kind of love how saving the game is an anytime action you cast with mana like any other spell, that’s a fun little gimmick- and the “bash” power that lets you use enemy projectiles like boost pads is so fun. The story’s very simple and straightforward but accomplishes what it set out to do, with a very effective final moment, emotionally speaking. Not a game that’s going to really stick in my brain for longer than a couple hours after finishing it (e: yeah nope I'd have forgotten I played it if I hadn't been keeping a record), but very pretty and very pleasant.

(Except those godawful instakill gauntlet escape-the-dungeon sections, oof, those are overlong and so pointlessly mean. Why the hell would you give the encroaching wall of instant death rubberbanding so no matter how fast you go, you never win any breathing room and you’re never more than one slipup away from having to restart the damn thing?)

Raft

I posted about this one a couple years back:

It’s a survival-crafting game like so many others, except instead of a big empty asset flip wilderness, you’re on a raft drifting through the wreckage of an apocalyptic flood that destroyed civilization. The basic loop of “reel in trash” -> “expand raft” is pretty satisfying, and the islands you can visit to progress the story have some pretty fun things going on. I’m waiting to play it in a group with some friends before I finish it.

and I finally got a chance to do that this year. I get the feeling it would've been substantially more annoying solo, since the engine and fuel logistics that become necessary lategame are so complicated and time-consuming, and the later islands are gigantic and want you to pick up like a dozen tiny collectibles scattered across them.

Then again, maybe it would've been substantially less annoying if I didn't have to keep CONSTANTLY CRAFTING BLUE PAINT because SOMEONE thought it'd be FUNNY to keep REPAINTING ALL MY SHIT RED, PYRO

Grounded

Likewise, I got to finish Grounded with a group, too- again copy-pasting my take from when I finished it:

Grounded overall has good voicework and a simple but well-executed story and does a lot with the Honey I Shrunk The Kids concept- but I think it was substantially dragged down by all the gear crafting nonsense, grinding for parts to upgrade the best armor sets that have slightly bigger numbers so you can survive hits from bigger bugs. Subtract all the pointless crafting of globs and plating and whetstones for marginal stat bonuses and just balance the game around the base weapons and armor, and you’ve got a much tighter experience, I think.

Also- small thing with an outsized impact- the base-building element is fun, but building a new base requires a specific array of crafting materials that just aren’t available in most regions of the yard (egregiously, acorns, which seem to find their way into every crafting recipe but only exist at the oak tree.) Building materials for anything except grass/weed bases are way too scarce (and necessary for other things) to have much fun building bases in remote parts of the yard, where earlygame starting resources (nonetheless fundamental to building anything) are harder to find.

Also dandelions shouldn’t take up the one accessory slot and thereby make all other accessories mostly unusable because they implicitly come at the cost of You Die If You Fall Off Stuff, in a game with a ton of verticality. They’re so indispensable that they basically lock off all the most unique rewards in the game.

There’s a lot to praise (Wendell Tully is a very fun character, the setpieces are super cool, the way a little backyard becomes a world of adventure is the core concept and does a lot of heavy lifting) but it’s a game that’s weirdly choked by a handful of very small nuts-and-bolts game-design-level decisions that seem to have been made thoughtlessly and could’ve been easily fixed. Mixed feelings, overall positive.

Pokemon Too Many Types

It's a Pokemon Emerald mod that does three main things:

Randomizes the parties of non-gym NPC trainers

Allows you to see the summary page of enemy pokemon

Adds a shitton of extra types to the game, and retypes a bunch of pokemon (including extra mon from up through gen 8) and moves to use those new types- often giving pokemon three types at once.

It is... fucking wild. And one thing I didn't realize I was missing from Pokémon in general is... not already having the types and type chart memorized introduces this fun element of guesswork, trying to determine what types are probably weak to other types. Do we think "Furry" is weak to "Gender"? What happens if you hit "Crab" with "Guys"? Was that "Angy"-type attack super-effective against "Baby", or "Gun"? It's hilarious and injects a lot of life into an old game.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Just managed to finish 100%ing this one December 31st. It's... uh, it's a 2D Mario game. People are freaking out about it because the art style is slightly different, but it's really just a 2D Mario game. Nothing to write home about. It's got this gimmick where each level has a hidden "Wonder Flower" that makes the level into something crazy and wacky, but it's really nothing that couldn't have just been... its own normal level in a different 2D Mario game. Like, they hold back on the level designs so they can hype them up when you get the flower. Some of them are cool but mostly they're just standard fare.

The main thing of note is that this game has a badge system, where you can equip one of a selection of unlosable powerups for each level, which can sometimes break the game wide open. Maybe you get an extra wall jump, or you can use your hat to glide, or you start each level full-size, or... well, none of them are as good as the one that just straight-up gives you a double jump, so it hardly matters in the end.

(Also, all my hate for that fucking super-duper secret special double-final bonus level where it keeps switching up what badge you're using. Why would you make the final segment the one where you have the invisibility badge on so you have no feedback on how exactly you fucked up and died?! You can't get better at it with practice, because you never have any idea what you did wrong! You just have to get lucky!!!)

Cuisineer

Another one I have a more in-depth post on- it's a roguelike action game crossed with an arcadey restaurant sim game, which I have mixed feelings on. It's very visually polished, and if you use the right weapon and approach it the right way the combat is pretty fun, but its level design and upgrade economy kind of force you into playing it that one specific way. The restaurant management half of it is a lot better than the dungeon-crawling half, IMO.

Cavern of Dreams

This one's a retro-looking N64-style collectathon platformer, and it's just a really nice time. The dragon's various movement abilities feel satisfying, there's all kinds of fun shortcuts and secrets to discover... and it does this cool thing that you wouldn't expect from an N64 game, where items you can pick up in levels can be carried through loading zones and used in other levels. There's just a lot of very clever level design, charming creatures, and good vibes. Not too long, either- I put in about 7 hours. Very cute, very polished, worth a look.

-

Going to finish up these reviews in a bit with a fourth post, which is going to be all the games I played but didn't finish.

[1] - [2] - 3 - [4]