#e lab software

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“Disenshittify or Die”

I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

Last weekend, I traveled to Las Vegas for Defcon 32, where I had the immense privilege of giving a solo talk on Track 1, entitled "Disenshittify or die! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification":

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=54861

This was a followup to last year's talk, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification," a talk that kicked off a lot of international interest in my analysis of platform decay ("enshittification"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rimtaSgGz_4

The Defcon organizers have earned a restful week or two, and that means that the video of my talk hasn't yet been posted to Defcon's Youtube channel, so in the meantime, I thought I'd post a lightly edited version of my speech crib. If you're headed to Burning Man, you can hear me reprise this talk at Palenque Norte (7&E); I'm kicking off their lecture series on Tuesday, Aug 27 at 1PM.

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What the fuck happened to the old, good internet?

I mean, sure, our bosses were a little surveillance-happy, and they were usually up for sharing their data with the NSA, and whenever there was a tossup between user security and growth, it was always YOLO time.

But Google Search used to work. Facebook used to show you posts from people you followed. Uber used to be cheaper than a taxi and pay the driver more than a cabbie made. Amazon used to sell products, not Shein-grade self-destructing dropshipped garbage from all-consonant brands. Apple used to defend your privacy, rather than spying on you with your no-modifications-allowed Iphone.

There was a time when you searching for an album on Spotify would get you that album – not a playlist of insipid AI-generated covers with the same name and art.

Microsoft used to sell you software – sure, it was buggy – but now they just let you access apps in the cloud, so they can watch how you use those apps and strip the features you use the most out of the basic tier and turn them into an upcharge.

What – and I cannot stress this enough – the fuck happened?!

I’m talking about enshittification.

Here’s what enshittification looks like from the outside: First, you see a company that’s being good to its end users. Google puts the best search results at the top; Facebook shows you a feed of posts from people and groups you followl; Uber charges small dollars for a cab; Amazon subsidizes goods and returns and shipping and puts the best match for your product search at the top of the page.

That’s stage one, being good to end users. But there’s another part of this stage, call it stage 1a). That’s figuring out how to lock in those users.

There’s so many ways to lock in users.

If you’re Facebook, the users do it for you. You joined Facebook because there were people there you wanted to hang out with, and other people joined Facebook to hang out with you.

That’s the old “network effects” in action, and with network effects come “the collective action problem." Because you love your friends, but goddamn are they a pain in the ass! You all agree that FB sucks, sure, but can you all agree on when it’s time to leave?

No way.

Can you agree on where to go next?

Hell no.

You’re there because that’s where the support group for your rare disease hangs out, and your bestie is there because that’s where they talk with the people in the country they moved away from, then there’s that friend who coordinates their kid’s little league car pools on FB, and the best dungeon master you know isn’t gonna leave FB because that’s where her customers are.

So you’re stuck, because even though FB use comes at a high cost – your privacy, your dignity and your sanity – that’s still less than the switching cost you’d have to bear if you left: namely, all those friends who have taken you hostage, and whom you are holding hostage

Now, sometimes companies lock you in with money, like Amazon getting you to prepay for a year’s shipping with Prime, or to buy your Audible books on a monthly subscription, which virtually guarantees that every shopping search will start on Amazon, after all, you’ve already paid for it.

Sometimes, they lock you in with DRM, like HP selling you a printer with four ink cartridges filled with fluid that retails for more than $10,000/gallon, and using DRM to stop you from refilling any of those ink carts or using a third-party cartridge. So when one cart runs dry, you have to refill it or throw away your investment in the remaining three cartridges and the printer itself.

Sometimes, it’s a grab bag:

You can’t run your Ios apps without Apple hardware;

you can’t run your Apple music, books and movies on anything except an Ios app;

your iPhone uses parts pairing – DRM handshakes between replacement parts and the main system – so you can’t use third-party parts to fix it; and

every OEM iPhone part has a microscopic Apple logo engraved on it, so Apple can demand that the US Customs and Border Service seize any shipment of refurb Iphone parts as trademark violations.

Think Different, amirite?

Getting you locked in completes phase one of the enshittification cycle and signals the start of phase two: making things worse for you to make things better for business customers.

For example, a platform might poison its search results, like Google selling more and more of its results pages to ads that are identified with lighter and lighter tinier and tinier type.

Or Amazon selling off search results and calling it an “ad” business. They make $38b/year on this scam. The first result for your search is, on average, 29% more expensive than the best match for your search. The first row is 25% more expensive than the best match. On average, the best match for your search is likely to be found seventeen places down on the results page.

Other platforms sell off your feed, like Facebook, which started off showing you the things you asked to see, but now the quantum of content from the people you follow has dwindled to a homeopathic residue, leaving a void that Facebook fills with things that people pay to show you: boosted posts from publishers you haven’t subscribed to, and, of course, ads.

Now at this point you might be thinking ‘sure, if you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product.'

Bullshit!

Bull.

Shit.

The people who buy those Google ads? They pay more every year for worse ad-targeting and more ad-fraud

Those publishers paying to nonconsensually cram their content into your Facebook feed? They have to do that because FB suppresses their ability to reach the people who actually subscribed to them

The Amazon sellers with the best match for your query have to outbid everyone else just to show up on the first page of results. It costs so much to sell on Amazon that between 45-51% of every dollar an independent seller brings in has to be kicked up to Don Bezos and the Amazon crime family. Those sellers don’t have the kind of margins that let them pay 51% They have to raise prices in order to avoid losing money on every sale.

"But wait!" I hear you say!

[Come on, say it!]

"But wait! Things on Amazon aren’t more expensive that things at Target, or Walmart, or at a mom and pop store, or direct from the manufacturer.

"How can sellers be raising prices on Amazon if the price at Amazon is the same as at is everywhere else?"

[Any guesses?!]

That’s right, they charge more everywhere. They have to. Amazon binds its sellers to a policy called “most favored nation status,” which says they can’t charge more on Amazon than they charge elsewhere, including direct from their own factory store.

So every seller that wants to sell on Amazon has to raise their prices everywhere else.

Now, these sellers are Amazon’s best customers. They’re paying for the product, and they’re still getting screwed.

Paying for the product doesn’t fill your vapid boss’s shriveled heart with so much joy that he decides to stop trying to think of ways to fuck you over.

Look at Apple. Remember when Apple offered every Ios user a one-click opt out for app-based surveillance? And 96% of users clicked that box?

(The other four percent were either drunk or Facebook employees or drunk Facebook employees.)

That cost Facebook at least ten billion dollars per year in lost surveillance revenue?

I mean, you love to see it.

But did you know that at the same time Apple started spying on Ios users in the same way that Facebook had been, for surveillance data to use to target users for its competing advertising product?

Your Iphone isn’t an ad-supported gimme. You paid a thousand fucking dollars for that distraction rectangle in your pocket, and you’re still the product. What’s more, Apple has rigged Ios so that you can’t mod the OS to block its spying.

If you’re not not paying for the product, you’re the product, and if you are paying for the product, you’re still the product.

Just ask the farmers who are expected to swap parts into their own busted half-million dollar, mission-critical tractors, but can’t actually use those parts until a technician charges them $200 to drive out to the farm and type a parts pairing unlock code into their console.

John Deere’s not giving away tractors. Give John Deere a half mil for a tractor and you will be the product.

Please, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Please! Stop saying ‘if you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product.’

OK, OK, so that’s phase two of enshittification.

Phase one: be good to users while locking them in.

Phase two: screw the users a little to you can good to business customers while locking them in.

Phase three: screw everybody and take all the value for yourself. Leave behind the absolute bare minimum of utility so that everyone stays locked into your pile of shit.

Enshittification: a tragedy in three acts.

That’s what enshittification looks like from the outside, but what’s going on inside the company? What is the pathological mechanism? What sci-fi entropy ray converts the excellent and useful service into a pile of shit?

That mechanism is called twiddling. Twiddling is when someone alters the back end of a service to change how its business operates, changing prices, costs, search ranking, recommendation criteria and other foundational aspects of the system.

Digital platforms are a twiddler’s utopia. A grocer would need an army of teenagers with pricing guns on rollerblades to reprice everything in the building when someone arrives who’s extra hungry.

Whereas the McDonald’s Investments portfolio company Plexure advertises that it can use surveillance data to predict when an app user has just gotten paid so the seller can tack an extra couple bucks onto the price of their breakfast sandwich.

And of course, as the prophet William Gibson warned us, ‘cyberspace is everting.' With digital shelf tags, grocers can change prices whenever they feel like, like the grocers in Norway, whose e-ink shelf tags change the prices 2,000 times per day.

Every Uber driver is offered a different wage for every job. If a driver has been picky lately, the job pays more. But if the driver has been desperate enough to grab every ride the app offers, the pay goes down, and down, and down.

The law professor Veena Dubal calls this ‘algorithmic wage discrimination.' It’s a prime example of twiddling.

Every youtuber knows what it’s like to be twiddled. You work for weeks or months, spend thousands of dollars to make a video, then the algorithm decides that no one – not your own subscribers, not searchers who type in the exact name of your video – will see it.

Why? Who knows? The algorithm’s rules are not public.

Because content moderation is the last redoubt of security through obscurit: they can’t tell you what the como algorithm is downranking because then you’d cheat.

Youtube is the kind of shitty boss who docks every paycheck for all the rules you’ve broken, but won’t tell you what those rules were, lest you figure out how to break those rules next time without your boss catching you.

Twiddling can also work in some users’ favor, of course. Sometimes platforms twiddle to make things better for end users or business customers.

For example, Emily Baker-White from Forbes revealed the existence of a back-end feature that Tiktok’s management can access they call the “heating tool.”

When a manager applies the heating toll to a performer’s account, that performer’s videos are thrust into the feeds of millions of users, without regard to whether the recommendation algorithm predicts they will enjoy that video.

Why would they do this? Well, here’s an analogy from my boyhood I used to go to this traveling fair that would come to Toronto at the end of every summer, the Canadian National Exhibition. If you’ve been to a fair like the Ex, you know that you can always spot some guy lugging around a comedically huge teddy bear.

Nominally, you win that teddy bear by throwing five balls in a peach-basket, but to a first approximation, no one has ever gotten five balls to stay in that peach-basket.

That guy “won” the teddy bear when a carny on the midway singled him out and said, "fella, I like your face. Tell you what I’m gonna do: You get just one ball in the basket and I’ll give you this keychain, and if you amass two keychains, I’ll let you trade them in for one of these galactic-scale teddy-bears."

That’s how the guy got his teddy bear, which he now has to drag up and down the midway for the rest of the day.

Why the hell did that carny give away the teddy bear? Because it turns the guy into a walking billboard for the midway games. If that dopey-looking Judas Goat can get five balls into a peach basket, then so can you.

Except you can’t.

Tiktok’s heating tool is a way to give away tactical giant teddy bears. When someone in the TikTok brain trust decides they need more sports bros on the platform, they pick one bro out at random and make him king for the day, heating the shit out of his account.

That guy gets a bazillion views and he starts running around on all the sports bro forums trumpeting his success: *I am the Louis Pasteur of sports bro influencers!"

The other sports bros pile in and start retooling to make content that conforms to the idiosyncratic Tiktok format. When they fail to get giant teddy bears of their own, they assume that it’s because they’re doing Tiktok wrong, because they don’t know about the heating tool.

But then comes the day when the TikTok Star Chamber decides they need to lure in more astrologers, so they take the heat off that one lucky sports bro, and start heating up some lucky astrologer.

Giant teddy bears are all over the place: those Uber drivers who were boasting to the NYT ten years ago about earning $50/hour? The Substackers who were rolling in dough? Joe Rogan and his hundred million dollar Spotify payout? Those people are all the proud owners of giant teddy bears, and they’re a steal.

Because every dollar they get from the platform turns into five dollars worth of free labor from suckers who think they just internetting wrong.

Giant teddy bears are just one way of twiddling. Platforms can play games with every part of their business logic, in highly automated ways, that allows them to quickly and efficiently siphon value from end users to business customers and back again, hiding the pea in a shell game conducted at machine speeds, until they’ve got everyone so turned around that they take all the value for themselves.

That’s the how: How the platforms do the trick where they are good to users, then lock users in, then maltreat users to be good to business customers, then lock in those business customers, then take all the value for themselves.

So now we know what is happening, and how it is happening, all that’s left is why it’s happening.

Now, on the one hand, the why is pretty obvious. The less value that end-users and business customers capture, the more value there is left to divide up among the shareholders and the executives.

That’s why, but it doesn’t tell you why now. Companies could have done this shit at any time in the past 20 years, but they didn’t. Or at least, the successful ones didn’t. The ones that turned themselves into piles of shit got treated like piles of shit. We avoided them and they died.

Remember Myspace? Yahoo Search? Livejournal? Sure, they’re still serving some kind of AI slop or programmatic ad junk if you hit those domains, but they’re gone.

And there’s the clue: It used to be that if you enshittified your product, bad things happened to your company. Now, there are no consequences for enshittification, so everyone’s doing it.

Let’s break that down: What stops a company from enshittifying?

There are four forces that discipline tech companies. The first one is, obviously, competition.

If your customers find it easy to leave, then you have to worry about them leaving

Many factors can contribute to how hard or easy it is to depart a platform, like the network effects that Facebook has going for it. But the most important factor is whether there is anywhere to go.

Back in 2012, Facebook bought Insta for a billion dollars. That may seem like chump-change in these days of eleven-digit Big Tech acquisitions, but that was a big sum in those innocent days, and it was an especially big sum to pay for Insta. The company only had 13 employees, and a mere 25 million registered users.

But what mattered to Zuckerberg wasn’t how many users Insta had, it was where those users came from.

[Does anyone know where those Insta users came from?]

That’s right, they left Facebook and joined Insta. They were sick of FB, even though they liked the people there, they hated creepy Zuck, they hated the platform, so they left and they didn’t come back.

So Zuck spent a cool billion to recapture them, A fact he put in writing in a midnight email to CFO David Ebersman, explaining that he was paying over the odds for Insta because his users hated him, and loved Insta. So even if they quit Facebook (the platform), they would still be captured Facebook (the company).

Now, on paper, Zuck’s Instagram acquisition is illegal, but normally, that would be hard to stop, because you’d have to prove that he bought Insta with the intention of curtailing competition.

But in this case, Zuck tripped over his own dick: he put it in writing.

But Obama’s DoJ and FTC just let that one slide, following the pro-monopoly policies of Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, and setting an example that Trump would follow, greenlighting gigamergers like the catastrophic, incestuous Warner-Discovery marriage.

Indeed, for 40 years, starting with Carter, and accelerating through Reagan, the US has encouraged monopoly formation, as an official policy, on the grounds that monopolies are “efficient.”

If everyone is using Google Search, that’s something we should celebrate. It means they’ve got the very best search and wouldn’t it be perverse to spend public funds to punish them for making the best product?

But as we all know, Google didn’t maintain search dominance by being best. They did it by paying bribes. More than 20 billion per year to Apple alone to be the default Ios search, plus billions more to Samsung, Mozilla, and anyone else making a product or service with a search-box on it, ensuring that you never stumble on a search engine that’s better than theirs.

Which, in turn, ensured that no one smart invested big in rival search engines, even if they were visibly, obviously superior. Why bother making something better if Google’s buying up all the market oxygen before it can kindle your product to life?

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon – they’re not “making things” companies, they’re “buying things” companies, taking advantage of official tolerance for anticompetitive acquisitions, predatory pricing, market distorting exclusivity deals and other acts specifically prohibited by existing antitrust law.

Their goal is to become too big to fail, because that makes them too big to jail, and that means they can be too big to care.

Which is why Google Search is a pile of shit and everything on Amazon is dropshipped garbage that instantly disintegrates in a cloud of offgassed volatile organic compounds when you open the box.

Once companies no longer fear losing your business to a competitor, it’s much easier for them to treat you badly, because what’re you gonna do?

Remember Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the AT&T operator in those old SNL sketches? “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company.”

Competition is the first force that serves to discipline companies and the enshittificatory impulses of their leadership, and we just stopped enforcing competition law.

It takes a special kind of smooth-brained asshole – that is, an establishment economist – to insist that the collapse of every industry from eyeglasses to vitamin C into a cartel of five or fewer companies has nothing to do with policies that officially encouraged monopolization.

It’s like we used to put down rat poison and we didn’t have a rat problem. Then these dickheads convinced us that rats were good for us and we stopped putting down rat poison, and now rats are gnawing our faces off and they’re all running around saying, "Who’s to say where all these rats came from? Maybe it was that we stopped putting down poison, but maybe it’s just the Time of the Rats. The Great Forces of History bearing down on this moment to multiply rats beyond all measure!"

Antitrust didn’t slip down that staircase and fall spine-first on that stiletto: they stabbed it in the back and then they pushed it.

And when they killed antitrust, they also killed regulation, the second force that disciplines companies. Regulation is possible, but only when the regulator is more powerful than the regulated entities. When a company is bigger than the government, it gets damned hard to credibly threaten to punish that company, no matter what its sins.

That’s what protected IBM for all those years when it had its boot on the throat of the American tech sector. Do you know, the DOJ fought to break up IBM in the courts from 1970-1982, and that every year, for 12 consecutive years, IBM spent more on lawyers to fight the USG than the DOJ Antitrust Division spent on all the lawyers fighting every antitrust case in the entire USA?

IBM outspent Uncle Sam for 12 years. People called it “Antitrust’s Vietnam.” All that money paid off, because by 1982, the president was Ronald Reagan, a man whose official policy was that monopolies were “efficient." So he dropped the case, and Big Blue wriggled off the hook.

It’s hard to regulate a monopolist, and it’s hard to regulate a cartel. When a sector is composed of hundreds of competing companies, they compete. They genuinely fight with one another, trying to poach each others’ customers and workers. They are at each others’ throats.

It’s hard enough for a couple hundred executives to agree on anything. But when they’re legitimately competing with one another, really obsessing about how to eat each others’ lunches, they can’t agree on anything.

The instant one of them goes to their regulator with some bullshit story, about how it’s impossible to have a decent search engine without fine-grained commercial surveillance; or how it’s impossible to have a secure and easy to use mobile device without a total veto over which software can run on it; or how it’s impossible to administer an ISP’s network unless you can slow down connections to servers whose owners aren’t paying bribes for “premium carriage"; there’s some *other company saying, “That’s bullshit”

“We’ve managed it! Here’s our server logs, our quarterly financials and our customer testimonials to prove it.”

100 companies are a rabble, they're a mob. They can’t agree on a lobbying position. They’re too busy eating each others’ lunch to agree on how to cater a meeting to discuss it.

But let those hundred companies merge to monopoly, absorb one another in an incestuous orgy, turn into five giant companies, so inbred they’ve got a corporate Habsburg jaw, and they become a cartel.

It’s easy for a cartel to agree on what bullshit they’re all going to feed their regulator, and to mobilize some of the excess billions they’ve reaped through consolidation, which freed them from “wasteful competition," sp they can capture their regulators completely.

You know, Congress used to pass federal consumer privacy laws? Not anymore.

The last time Congress managed to pass a federal consumer privacy law was in 1988: The Video Privacy Protection Act. That’s a law that bans video-store clerks from telling newspapers what VHS cassettes you take home. In other words, it regulates three things that have effectively ceased to exist.

The threat of having your video rental history out there in the public eye was not the last or most urgent threat the American public faced, and yet, Congress is deadlocked on passing a privacy law.

Tech companies’ regulatory capture involves a risible and transparent gambit, that is so stupid, it’s an insult to all the good hardworking risible transparent ruses out there.

Namely, they claim that when they violate your consumer, privacy or labor rights, It’s not a crime, because they do it with an app.

Algorithmic wage discrimination isn’t illegal wage theft: we do it with an app.

Spying on you from asshole to appetite isn’t a privacy violation: we do it with an app.

And Amazon’s scam search tool that tricks you into paying 29% more than the best match for your query? Not a ripoff. We do it with an app.

Once we killed competition – stopped putting down rat poison – we got cartels – the rats ate our faces. And the cartels captured their regulators – the rats bought out the poison factory and shut it down.

So companies aren’t constrained by competition or regulation.

But you know what? This is tech, and tech is different.IIt’s different because it’s flexible. Because our computers are Turing-complete universal von Neumann machines. That means that any enshittificatory alteration to a program can be disenshittified with another program.

Every time HP jacks up the price of ink , they invite a competitor to market a refill kit or a compatible cartridge.

When Tesla installs code that says you have to pay an extra monthly fee to use your whole battery, they invite a modder to start selling a kit to jailbreak that battery and charge it all the way up.

Lemme take you through a little example of how that works: Imagine this is a product design meeting for our company’s website, and the guy leading the meeting says “Dudes, you know how our KPI is topline ad-revenue? Well, I’ve calculated that if we make the ads just 20% more invasive and obnoxious, we’ll boost ad rev by 2%”

This is a good pitch. Hit that KPI and everyone gets a fat bonus. We can all take our families on a luxury ski vacation in Switzerland.

But here’s the thing: someone’s gonna stick their arm up – someone who doesn’t give a shit about user well-being, and that person is gonna say, “I love how you think, Elon. But has it occurred to you that if we make the ads 20% more obnoxious, then 40% of our users will go to a search engine and type 'How do I block ads?'"

I mean, what a nightmare! Because once a user does that, the revenue from that user doesn’t rise to 102%. It doesn’t stay at 100% It falls to zero, forever.

[Any guesses why?]

Because no user ever went back to the search engine and typed, 'How do I start seeing ads again?'

Once the user jailbreaks their phone or discovers third party ink, or develops a relationship with an independent Tesla mechanic who’ll unlock all the DLC in their car, that user is gone, forever.

Interoperability – that latent property bequeathed to us courtesy of Herrs Turing and Von Neumann and their infinitely flexible, universal machines – that is a serious check on enshittification.

The fact that Congress hasn’t passed a privacy law since 1988 Is countered, at least in part, by the fact that the majority of web users are now running ad-blockers, which are also tracker-blockers.

But no one’s ever installed a tracker-blocker for an app. Because reverse engineering an app puts in you jeopardy of criminal and civil prosecution under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, with penalties of a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine for a first offense.

And violating its terms of service puts you in jeopardy under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, which is the law that Ronald Reagan signed in a panic after watching Wargames (seriously!).

Helping other users violate the terms of service can get you hit with a lawsuit for tortious interference with contract. And then there’s trademark, copyright and patent.

All that nonsense we call “IP,” but which Jay Freeman of Cydia calls “Felony Contempt of Business Model."

So if we’re still at that product planning meeting and now it’s time to talk about our app, the guy leading the meeting says, “OK, so we’ll make the ads in the app 20% more obnoxious to pull a 2% increase in topline ad rev?”

And that person who objected to making the website 20% worse? Their hand goes back up. Only this time they say “Why don’t we make the ads 100% more invasive and get a 10% increase in ad rev?"

Because it doesn't matter if a user goes to a search engine and types, “How do I block ads in an app." The answer is: you can't. So YOLO, enshittify away.

“IP” is just a euphemism for “any law that lets me reach outside my company’s walls to exert coercive control over my critics, competitors and customers,” and “app” is just a euphemism for “A web page skinned with the right IP so that protecting your privacy while you use it is a felony.”

Interop used to keep companies from enshittifying. If a company made its client suck, someone would roll out an alternative client, if they ripped a feature out and wanted to sell it back to you as a monthly subscription, someone would make a compatible plugin that restored it for a one-time fee, or for free.

To help people flee Myspace, FB gave them bots that you’d load with your login credentials. It would scrape your waiting Myspace messages and put ‘em in your FB inbox, and login to Myspace and paste your replies into your Myspace outbox. So you didn’t have to choose between the people you loved on Myspace, and Facebook, which launched with a promise never to spy on you. Remember that?!

Thanks to the metastasis of IP, all that is off the table today. Apple owes its very existence to iWork Suite, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote are file-compatible with Microsoft’s Word, Excel and Powerpoint. But make an IOS runtime that’ll play back the files you bought from Apple’s stores on other platforms, and they’ll nuke you til you glow.

FB wouldn’t have had a hope of breaking Myspace’s grip on social media without that scrape, but scrape FB today in support of an alternative client and their lawyers will bomb you til the rubble bounces.

Google scraped every website in the world to create its search index. Try and scrape Google and they’ll have your head on a pike.

When they did it, it was progress. When you do it to them, that’s piracy. Every pirate wants to be an admiral.

Because this handful of companies has so thoroughly captured their regulators, they can wield the power of the state against you when you try to break their grip on power, even as their own flagrant violations of our rights go unpunished. Because they do them with an app.

Tech lost its fear of competitin it neutralized the threat from regulators, and then put them in harness to attack new startups that might do unto them as they did unto the companies that came before them.

But even so, there was a force that kept our bosses in check That force was us. Tech workers.

Tech workers have historically been in short supply, which gave us power, and our bosses knew it.

To get us to work crazy hours, they came up with a trick. They appealed to our love of technology, and told us that we were heroes of a digital revolution, who would “organize the world’s information and make it useful,” who would “bring the world closer together.”

They brought in expert set-dressers to turn our workplaces into whimsical campuses with free laundry, gourmet cafeterias, massages, and kombucha, and a surgeon on hand to freeze our eggs so that we could work through our fertile years.

They convinced us that we were being pampered, rather than being worked like government mules.

This trick has a name. Fobazi Ettarh, the librarian-theorist, calls it “vocational awe, and Elon Musk calls it being “extremely hardcore.”

This worked very well. Boy did we put in some long-ass hours!

But for our bosses, this trick failed badly. Because if you miss your mother’s funeral and to hit a deadline, and then your boss orders you to enshittify that product, you are gonna experience a profound moral injury, which you are absolutely gonna make your boss share.

Because what are they gonna do? Fire you? They can’t hire someone else to do your job, and you can get a job that’s even better at the shop across the street.

So workers held the line when competition, regulation and interop failed.

But eventually, supply caught up with demand. Tech laid off 260,000 of us last year, and another 100,000 in the first half of this year.

You can’t tell your bosses to go fuck themselves, because they’ll fire your ass and give your job to someone who’ll be only too happy to enshittify that product you built.

That’s why this is all happening right now. Our bosses aren’t different. They didn’t catch a mind-virus that turned them into greedy assholes who don’t care about our users’ wellbeing or the quality of our products.

As far as our bosses have always been concerned, the point of the business was to charge the most, and deliver the least, while sharing as little as possible with suppliers, workers, users and customers. They’re not running charities.

Since day one, our bosses have shown up for work and yanked as hard as they can on the big ENSHITTIFICATION lever behind their desks, only that lever didn’t move much. It was all gummed up by competition, regulation, interop and workers.

As those sources of friction melted away, the enshittification lever started moving very freely.

Which sucks, I know. But think about this for a sec: our bosses, despite being wildly imperfect vessels capable of rationalizing endless greed and cheating, nevertheless oversaw a series of actually great products and services.

Not because they used to be better people, but because they used to be subjected to discipline.

So it follows that if we want to end the enshittocene, dismantle the enshitternet, and build a new, good internet that our bosses can’t wreck, we need to make sure that these constraints are durably installed on that internet, wound around its very roots and nerves. And we have to stand guard over it so that it can’t be dismantled again.

A new, good internet is one that has the positive aspects of the old, good internet: an ethic of technological self-determination, where users of technology (and hackers, tinkerers, startups and others serving as their proxies) can reconfigure and mod the technology they use, so that it does what they need it to do, and so that it can’t be used against them.

But the new, good internet will fix the defects of the old, good internet, the part that made it hard to use for anyone who wasn’t us. And hell yeah we can do that. Tech bosses swear that it’s impossible, that you can’t have a conversation friend without sharing it with Zuck; or search the web without letting Google scrape you down to the viscera; or have a phone that works reliably without giving Apple a veto over the software you install.

They claim that it’s a nonsense to even ponder this kind of thing. It’s like making water that’s not wet. But that’s bullshit. We can have nice things. We can build for the people we love, and give them a place that’s worth of their time and attention.

To do that, we have to install constraints.

The first constraint, remember, is competition. We’re living through a epochal shift in competition policy. After 40 years with antitrust enforcement in an induced coma, a wave of antitrust vigor has swept through governments all over the world. Regulators are stepping in to ban monopolistic practices, open up walled gardens, block anticompetitive mergers, and even unwind corrupt mergers that were undertaken on false pretenses.

Normally this is the place in the speech where I’d list out all the amazing things that have happened over the past four years. The enforcement actions that blocked companies from becoming too big to care, and that scared companies away from even trying.

Like Wiz, which just noped out of the largest acquisition offer in history, turning down Google’s $23b cashout, and deciding to, you know, just be a fucking business that makes money by producing a product that people want and selling it at a competitive price.

Normally, I’d be listing out FTC rulemakings that banned noncompetes nationwid. Or the new merger guidelines the FTC and DOJ cooked up, which – among other things – establish that the agencies should be considering whether a merger will negatively impact privacy.

I had a whole section of this stuff in my notes, a real victory lap, but I deleted it all this week.

[Can anyone guess why?]

That’s right! This week, Judge Amit Mehta, ruling for the DC Circuit of these United States of America, In the docket 20-3010 a case known as United States v. Google LLC, found that “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," and ordered Google and the DOJ to propose a schedule for a remedy, like breaking the company up.

So yeah, that was pretty fucking epic.

Now, this antitrust stuff is pretty esoteric, and I won’t gatekeep you or shame you if you wanna keep a little distance on this subject. Nearly everyone is an antitrust normie, and that's OK. But if you’re a normie, you’re probably only catching little bits and pieces of the narrative, and let me tell you, the monopolists know it and they are flooding the zone.

The Wall Street Journal has published over 100 editorials condemning FTC Chair Lina Khan, saying she’s an ineffectual do-nothing, wasting public funds chasing doomed, quixotic adventures against poor, innocent businesses accomplishing nothing

[Does anyone out there know who owns the Wall Street Journal?]

That’s right, it’s Rupert Murdoch. Do you really think Rupert Murdoch pays his editorial board to write one hundred editorials about someone who’s not getting anything done?

The reality is that in the USA, in the UK, in the EU, in Australia, in Canada, in Japan, in South Korea, even in China, we are seeing more antitrust action over the past four years than over the preceding forty years.

Remember, competition law is actually pretty robust. The problem isn’t the law, It’s the enforcement priorities. Reagan put antitrust in mothballs 40 years ago, but that elegant weapon from a more civilized age is now back in the hands of people who know how to use it, and they’re swinging for the fences.

Next up: regulation.

As the seemingly inescapable power of the tech giants is revealed for the sham it always was, governments and regulators are finally gonna kill the “one weird trick” of violating the law, and saying “It doesn’t count, we did it with an app.”

Like in the EU, they’re rolling out the Digital Markets Act this year. That’s a law requiring dominant platforms to stand up APIs so that third parties can offer interoperable services.

So a co-op, a nonprofit, a hobbyist, a startup, or a local government agency wil eventuallyl be able to offer, say, a social media server that can interconnect with one of the dominant social media silos, and users who switch to that new platform will be able to continue to exchange messages with the users they follow and groups they belong to, so the switching costs will fall to damned near zero.

That’s a very cool rule, but what’s even cooler is how it’s gonna be enforced. Previous EU tech rules were “regulations” as in the GDPR – the General Data Privacy Regulation. EU regs need to be “transposed” into laws in each of the 27 EU member states, so they become national laws that get enforced by national courts.

For Big Tech, that means all previous tech regulations are enforced in Ireland, because Ireland is a tax haven, and all the tech companies fly Irish flags of convenience.

Here’s the thing: every tax haven is also a crime haven. After all, if Google can pretend it’s Irish this week, it can pretend to be Cypriot, or Maltese, or Luxembougeious next week. So Ireland has to keep these footloose criminal enterprises happy, or they’ll up sticks and go somewhere else.

This is why the GDPR is such a goddamned joke in practice. Big tech wipes its ass with the GDPR, and the only way to punish them starts with Ireland’s privacy commissioner, who barely bothers to get out of bed. This is an agency that spends most of its time watching cartoons on TV in its pajamas and eating breakfast cereal. So all of the big GDPR cases go to Ireland and they die there.

This is hardly a secret. The European Commission knows it’s going on. So with the DMA, the Commission has changed things up: The DMA is an “Act,” not a “Regulation.” Meaning it gets enforced in the EU’s federal courts, bypassing the national courts in crime-havens like Ireland.

In other words, the “we violate privacy law, but we do it with an app” gambit that worked on Ireland’s toothless privacy watchdog is now a dead letter, because EU federal judges have no reason to swallow that obvious bullshit.

Here in the US, the dam is breaking on federal consumer privacy law – at last!

Remember, our last privacy law was passed in 1988 to protect the sanctity of VHS rental history. It's been a minute.

And the thing is, there's a lot of people who are angry about stuff that has some nexus with America's piss-poor privacy landscape. Worried that Facebook turned grampy into a Qanon? That Insta made your teen anorexic? That TikTok is brainwashing millennials into quoting Osama Bin Laden? Or that cops are rolling up the identities of everyone at a Black Lives Matter protest or the Jan 6 riots by getting location data from Google? Or that Red State Attorneys General are tracking teen girls to out-of-state abortion clinics? Or that Black people are being discriminated against by online lending or hiring platforms? Or that someone is making AI deepfake porn of you?

A federal privacy law with a private right of action – which means that individuals can sue companies that violate their privacy – would go a long way to rectifying all of these problems

There's a pretty big coalition for that kind of privacy law! Which is why we have seen a procession of imperfect (but steadily improving) privacy laws working their way through Congress.

If you sign up for EFF’s mailing list at eff.org we’ll send you an email when these come up, so you can call your Congressjerk or Senator and talk to them about it. Or better yet, make an appointment to drop by their offices when they’re in their districts, and explain to them that you’re not just a registered voter from their district, you’re the kind of elite tech person who goes to Defcon, and then explain the bill to them. That stuff makes a difference.

What about self-help? How are we doing on making interoperability legal again, so hackers can just fix shit without waiting for Congress or a federal agency to act?

All the action here these day is in the state Right to Repair fight. We’re getting state R2R bills, like the one that passed this year in Oregon that bans parts pairing, where DRM is used to keep a device from using a new part until it gets an authorized technician’s unlock code.

These bills are pushed by a fantastic group of organizations called the Repair Coalition, at Repair.org, and they’ll email you when one of these laws is going through your statehouse, so you can meet with your state reps and explain to the JV squad the same thing you told your federal reps.

Repair.org’s prime mover is Ifixit, who are genuine heroes of the repair revolution, and Ifixit’s founder, Kyle Wiens, is here at the con. When you see him, you can shake his hand and tell him thanks, and that’ll be even better if you tell him that you’ve signed up to get alerts at repair.org!

Now, on to the final way that we reverse enhittification and build that new, good internet: you, the tech labor force.

For years, your bosses tricked you into thinking you were founders in waiting, temporarily embarrassed entrepreneurs who were only momentarily drawing a salary.

You certainly weren’t workers. Your power came from your intrinsic virtue, not like those lazy slobs in unions who have to get their power through that kumbaya solidarity nonsense.

It was a trick. You were scammed. The power you had came from scarcity, and so when the scarcity ended, when the industry started ringing up six-figure annual layoffs, your power went away with it.

The only durable source of power for tech workers is as workers, in a union.

Think about Amazon. Warehouse workers have to piss in bottles and have the highest rate of on-the-job maimings of any competing business. Whereas Amazon coders get to show up for work with facial piercings, green mohawks, and black t-shirts that say things their bosses don’t understand. They can piss whenever they want!

That’s not because Jeff Bezos or Andy Jassy loves you guys. It’s because they’re scared you’ll quit and they don’t know how to replace you.

Time for the second obligatory William Gibson quote: “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” You know who’s living in the future?. Those Amazon blue-collar workers. They are the bleeding edge.

Drivers whose eyeballs are monitored by AI cameras that do digital phrenology on their faces to figure out whether to dock their pay, warehouse workers whose bodies are ruined in just months.

As tech bosses beef up that reserve army of unemployed, skilled tech workers, then those tech workers – you all – will arrive at the same future as them.

Look, I know that you’ve spent your careers explaining in words so small your boss could understand them that you refuse to enshittify the company’s products, and I thank you for your service.

But if you want to go on fighting for the user, you need power that’s more durable than scarcity. You need a union. Wanna learn how? Check out the Tech Workers Coalition and Tech Solidarity, and get organized.

Enshittification didn’t arise because our bosses changed. They were always that guy.

They were always yankin’ on that enshittification lever in the C-suite.

What changed was the environment, everything that kept that switch from moving.

And that’s good news, in a bankshot way, because it means we can make good services out of imperfect people. As a wildly imperfect person myself, I find this heartening.

The new good internet is in our grasp: an internet that has the technological self-determination of the old, good internet, and the greased-skids simplicity of Web 2.0 that let all our normie friends get in on the fun.

Tech bosses want you to think that good UX and enshittification can’t ever be separated. That’s such a self-serving proposition you can spot it from orbit. We know it, 'cause we built the old good internet, and we’ve been fighting a rear-guard action to preserve it for the past two decades.

It’s time to stop playing defense. It's time to go on the offensive. To restore competition, regulation, interop and tech worker power so that we can create the new, good internet we’ll need to fight fascism, the climate emergency, and genocide.

To build a digital nervous system for a 21st century in which our children can thrive and prosper.

Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear RIDA QADRI and me talk about how GIG WORKERS can DISENSHITTIFY their jobs with INTEROPERABILITY, VOTE FOR THIS ONE!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/17/hack-the-planet/#how-about-a-nice-game-of-chess

Image: https://twitter.com/igama/status/1822347578094043435/ (cropped)

@fak3r@mastodon.social (cropped)

https://mamot.fr/@fak3r@mastodon.social/112963252835869648

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.pt

[ottopilot-wrote-this]

Generational Trauma

Once more unto the breach of @subliminalbo's Romero Literary Universe. This story references characters from the Obedience by Fleur series. This is also a prequel to Backend Support, though both stories (hopefully) stand on their own.

Thanks again to my friend @subliminalbo (also at @subliminalboarchive) for the art trade and collaboration.

Bailey Castillo set the clippers on the sink counter and rubbed the base of her skull. She was a queer woman, it certainly wasn't her first time getting an undercut. But it was the first time she'd done it to herself.

It made her smirk to herself. Given the grim nature of what she had talked herself into, Bailey could use all the levity she could muster.

She had an undercut when she met Ed. It was a good metaphor, she thought. Under that big head of dark curls, there was an edge. Her fresh face and polite smile were a mask, disguising survival instincts and a pragmatism you could only get by growing up Black, asexual, and female in Romero, Washington.

Bailey rubbed the shaving gel in her wet fingers until it foamed up. Smelling of peaches, she rubbed it on her shaved hair. After rinsing her hands, she rinsed the razor's blade, new and sharp, in the cold water of the faucet.

It seemed a strange offer. What did a lingerie company need with an embedded systems designer? Software devs for e-commerce, sure. But she specialized in hardware, in writing firmware, in the arcane art of assembly code.

Beggars couldn't be choosers, though. Not beggars who had a degree from the local party school, because Mamá got a discount on tuition, and it was what they could afford. Certainly not beggars who would take the first offer they could get that would get them away from this cesspool. Bailey shaved her neck and the undercut area with smooth, careful strokes.

Her first mistake was trusting. Trusting that if she did a good job - and her control array for Obedience by Fleur was, objectively, goddamn genius - she'd be recognized for it.

Bailey rinsed the razor of shaving cream and tiny black hairs. Won't make that mistake again.

She had overestimated Ed King. She bought his Silicon Valley rep, and failed to see he wasn't any different from Romero's traditional power brokers. He was a carnival barker, not a visionary like he thought he was. She was a commodity to him, not a person. If Obedience failed, she would've taken the blame; but since it succeeded, he was more than happy to take all the credit.

Bailey rubbed the smooth wet skin on her neck, checking for missed spots. Elena wasn't any better. She got what she wanted from Bailey, and that made her disposable. It was a blessing, really. Bailey was a natural beauty, but her curvy hips and thighs meant she wasn't model thin, and it also meant she was back at her mother's house in Romero, and not mindlessly, dutifully, licking Elena's designer boots.

Toweling off her neck, Bailey shifted away from the sink toward the 3D printer. She triple-checked her work.

When she first read about needleless tattoos in Wired, at all just clicked into place. A silicon ink payload in dissolvable microneedles. Putting the Obedience tech inside the subject. Permanently. Forget the sensors, pair the array with a fitness tracker or smartwatch. An AI sidecar to increase subject safety. No more brain damage.

Stealing the base software from Ed King? Bailey had no qualms about stealing from a thief. But she needed stake money. It was surprisingly easy to talk the Chinese triads into financing her. But they wanted proof before they pumped more yuan into her operation.

The 3D printer hummed to life as it printed the dissolvable needles, loaded with silicon ink, onto the dermal patch. This was, of course, a fork, custom firmware modified from the base model. Unfortunately, you can't just print a tiny one of these and slap it on a lab rat.

And experimenting on an unwilling human subject… That was something they would do. Bailey wasn't a monster. Not yet.

The array was done. It was a rectangle about the size of deck of cards. The trick had been spacing, making sure the crudely printed lines wouldn't bleed or touch accidentally when applied. Bailey's array was, of course, unique. She'd created a hyperfocus routine that, when enabled, could drown out stimulation and increase cognitive ability temporarily. More importantly, the mind control protocols were blunted, and she wrote an additional protection against mesmerism: the ability to mentally control her hormone levels.

But at the end of the day, this was modified Obedience by Fleur firmware. Bailey knew there was an unknown period where she would have to take Obedience's best punch, enduring and outlasting it, before the AI sidecar would read her biofeedback and adjust the indoctrination protocols lower. She was prepared for it, with a physical anchor.

She took the black choker, her mother's, in her left hand. When Mamá died, shortly after Bailey came back to Romero with her tail between her legs, it was in her jewelry box.

Bailey didn't know how to reconcile that. Mamá never said anything. She didn't have to. When she left the house wearing this choker, all painted up when she should have been in bed, the vacant look told young Bailey everything. But to keep this in an intimate place, where she likely saw it every day - before the early-onset Alzheimer's rotted her from the inside out - what did that mean?

That she missed it?

Bailey gripped the choker tightly, feeling the satin in her delicate fingers. She couldn't guess what went through her mother's mind. Bailey only knew what it meant to her: anger. Abandonment issues. A keepsake of a life she would never, ever lead.

One last check. One last chance to bitch out.

Bailey sat upright in her work stool. She prepared the tattoo array patch, removing it from the printing tray. She looked again at the choker in her left hand, her anchor to reality. She took the patch, and affixed it to the base of her skull.

At first, there was a cold, wet feeling. Like ultrasound gel. And it itched, probably from the microneedles penetrating her skin. Bailey's research indicated there wouldn't be any pain from the actual absorption of the silicon ink into her dermis, just a slight delay.

Immediately, she realized she'd miscalculated.

Bailey had set the weights on the Obedience protocol to fifty percent. She barely had time to process that was too high before she was inundated with sensation. "Oh… Fuck," she moaned breathlessly. It was so hard to think from the pleasure. Warm and comforting, like a blanket. Like a hug, but not a hug from just anyone. From someone precious. From a lover.

Then she felt something new. A flicker, at first. Then a slow burning heat. Then an intense raging inferno, burning between her legs, deep inside her, in her very soul. Bailey instinctively put her hand there, but it was a huge mistake. Immediately she rubbed her engorged clit through her panties, wetness spreading through the dainty cotton fabric.

Lust? But I'm fucking ace, Bailey thought, before the first orgasm hit.

Wave after wave of euphoric gratification pounded her senses like a tempestuous ocean.

Shit! this is- Then another.

Tides of pleasure washed over her.

The choker. Have to- Another.

The powerful undertow eroded her reason and resistance.

Mamá, I-

The blissful sensations overwhelmed Bailey, preventing the formulation of new thoughts, until she just simply stopped trying.

And then she was under. Submerged. Sounds fading. The world oh, so far away.

She was better this way, she saw that. It was better to stop resisting, stop trying to think, and just accept it. As she enthusiastically fingered her soggy cunt, mouth open, her body rewarding her for her compliance, Bailey thought she heard something. It was her own voice, moaning and panting and… giggling. Being dumb, and sexy, and available - it made her happy?

When was the last time she could say that, that she was legitimately happy?

She understood. She could feel like this for the rest of her life, and she only had to do one thing. Let go. Let go of the past, let go of the trauma, let go of the hurt. Let go of herself. The fingers on Bailey's left hand loosened their grip. The choker threatened to fall to the floor. No, not fall. To sink. To sink and drop, deeper and deeper. Her mind was still. Vacant. Empty, except for one thing creeping into her consciousness.

No. Not today.

Bailey's fingers tightened. She could feel the smooth satin, once cold, now hot with her own emanating warmth. She thought of Mamá, looking more like a movie starlet than her tireless, caring mother. Bailey saw her walk out the door, not even turning back to her crying daughter. And she remembered her pledge, to Mamá, to herself: it ain't gonna be me. Not today. Not ever.

Bailey held the choker with a steel grip, as if her life depended on it. It did. The choker was a life preserver in the choppy ocean of arousal flooding her mind and body. She had no idea how anyone could take twice as much of this. It was no wonder Obedience's control was absolute and immediate.

Slowly, she felt it. The constant bombardment of pleasure losing its steam. Waters receding. Her thoughts forming more easily, coherently. Her breathing stabilizing, and the hot flush of her arousal lowering to a simmer. "Set dopamine levels to zero," she gasped. She didn't need to say the words out loud for it to work, but in her disheveled state she needed to hear it. To remind herself she was in control.

She looked in a nearby mirror. Her eyes were a milky solid white, all sclera, no pupils. Her body was flushed with desire. She looked every bit the fucktoy she despised. Bailey knew she was lucky. If she had looked into this mirror a few minutes ago, she would've been lost.

Her hormone levels stabilizing, Bailey blinked, and her eyes returned to an intense chestnut brown. She was still in shock from the ordeal. She opened her palm and looked at the choker, and she placed it on her workbench. Slowly, she took her cell phone in her right hand and sent a message.

"Live test successful. Production is GO."

-------------------

The dream again. The same one. Fuck, I hate this, Bailey thought. And turning off the dopamine wasn't helping.

Bailey got out of bed and turned on a bedside lamp. She drowsily stood up, stumbled to the kitchen for a drink of cold water. It was a hot July night, so she was only wearing panties. Which, of course, were soaked through. Again.

On her back to bed, she stopped at her nightstand. She looked at herself in the vanity mirror. Running a prostitution empire based on mind control hadn't been kind to her, she thought.

Bailey wasn't sure what possessed her. But she reached into her top drawer, and retrieved Rosa's - Mamá's - choker. She hadn't looked at it since she turned on the Obedience array. She'd been too afraid. But here, in the dark, she fastened the choker around her neck. She activated her hormonal controls and raised them - not too much - to maybe 120% of normal. And she looked in the mirror.

Her eyes clouded over until the pupils were gone again, just solid white spheres. Like two blank canvases. She let her mind dull - again, not too much. Just enough to let her thoughts drift. Her full lips parted, on their own, as she watched with interest and arousal. She had always been beautiful, but now? She was a bombshell. All tits and ass and thighs, with a pretty fuckable face. She didn't have a sexual bone in her 29-year-old body, but she would fuck this braindead slut in the mirror.

Bailey's mind cleared as she regained control. She again dampened her pleasure center, and her eyes returned to normal. She took the choker off, and put it back, reverently, in her dresser drawer.

She now understood why Mamá had kept it.

[hemipenal-system]

Malware I

Reveria rolled her eyes, servos clicking in a way only she could hear, blinking apathetically as she turned her music up. She understood the stares, as much as she despised them. Mugorra didn't get many synthetics like her, especially on Outer Ring trains. The long, heavy shawl she wore covered most of her slender body, both to keep the sand out of her joints and to deflect any further stares.

She wasn't exactly subtle – people of all kinds drifted through here, but being a foot taller than the average human with glowing orange eyes and an extra set of arms made one stick out.

The job was simple. Get in to the storage container, get the silver case, and get out. Perhaps a tier below the usual bloodshed for a KALI-6 class synthetic, but she was doing her best to lay low and take whatever jobs would get her least noticed.

She was trying to sit somewhat still. The case wasn't large, but it was stuffed under her shawl at the moment, and occasionally a corner poked out. She shifted her grip again, moving her hand on the handle for a more comfortable position.

ding

She heard the quiet internal chime and froze. That noise meant something had connected to her. Nothing should have been able to. The shawl had a Faraday cage sewn into the fabric, and it was snapped snug around her. Wireless signals shouldn't have been able to get through, unless-

Shit. The fucking case. She ducked down into the shawl quickly to inspect the case. When she had taken it, she hadn't looked thoroughly enough at it, and had apparently missed the quick contact port in the handle that now stared back at her, her thumb an inch from it after swiping across it when she shuffled it in her secondary arms.

[Download Requested]

Fuck. Every urge in her body was screaming at her to hurl the case away. She had to maintain a facade of order. If she got the case out of the shawl it would block the download, but she couldn't take it out without raising suspicion. This was a poor district. No one carried anything like it here. She couldn't even cancel or acknowledge the download request because she was set up for somakinetic controls and that kind of movement was out of the question.

[Download Proceeding]

What the fuck was she supposed to do about that? She couldn't contact her handler this far underground, and she doubted he'd even know how to fix a software issue with her. She'd foregone her normal backers and picked up a quick contract in the area from a sketchy Vinteran because she was trying to stay within city limits. Something had seemed wrong with him the entire briefing.

Many species got edgy around synthetics, especially KALI models, but this was something else. The whole time they talked, his eyes kept flicking to the door and across the room. Anywhere but her. She wasn't that intimidating, and most people in this business had dealt with scarier synths than her. She'd seen his arms. For as many tattoos as he had, each signifying a kill, she knew he'd seen worse.

Wait. There was another tattoo. Three triangles surrounding an S. Fuck. She sighed, more out of annoyance than actual worry. That slimy, two-faced scaly piece of shit was a Trigonalist. Of course. She'd worked with them before, but it was always born of desperate necessity. "Terrorist" was a strong term, but they weren't the best people out there.

That explained the job, then. She'd wondered why this case was being treated as so important. Lab-grown neurons were a dime a dozen, even out here, and a case that could hold maybe five or six brainslabs maximum couldn't have been worth what she was getting paid to retrieve it, especially since they were blank. But if they could get a small object inside her shawl and download something onto her, like remote access software or a location log?

Well, a KALI-6 class synthetic was decidedly not a dime a dozen anywhere.

[Download Complete]

She instinctively braced up, preparing herself. She'd been cyberattacked before, and she'd lived. She knew what to expect. It was probably going to either be excessive, disabling pop-ups or a logger she could sift through herself and cull later. Nothing too hard to handle.

She wasn't expecting the sharp, drowning techno in her ears to fade out and replace itself with soft jazz. Nor was she expecting the silk-smooth voice that seemed to rebound around the narrow train car, reverberating from everywhere and nowhere.

Hi, sweetie~

She tried to move her eyes, looking around for the speaker without moving her head.

Don't bother with that, darling, I'm still miles away from you! I'm surprised I could even get a connection down in those tunnels!

No one else seemed to be reacting to it. Everyone's faces were still cast down, trying not to make eye contact. It was too late at night for social interaction, especially with this trigger-happy crowd. Accidents happened down here all the time.

Oh, no one can hear me except you! Don't bother asking them for help. It'd be a shame if anyone were to think the big scary killsynth was attacking them. It would probably get... messy.

No one could hear the voice except for Reveria. That made it easier. If it was coming straight from an external source and being processed as speech, that was likely a remote access software. If she could activate a virus scrubber and get into a dead zone, it'd be easy enough to disable.

Oh no you don't, cutie. I'm all clientside. Besides, we're having fun, right?

She needed to know who this was. If she could hold onto this, she could take it into an Enforcement station. Granted, they likely wouldn't be happy to see her, but they'd most likely let her off for bringing in a Trigonalist. Disabling her external speakers, she cast her voice across the link.

Are you a synth? It was hard to know these days. Speech synthesizers had gotten so advanced since Reveria's assembly days.

No, I'm fully human, especially the bits that matter~

What's that supposed to mean?

Watch this! A new screen flicked open, overlaying above the occupants of the train car, showing a video at half transparency. It was enough to pick out details, at least. It just seemed to be... shapes? What was she looking at?

Oh. Oh, six suns. That was human genitalia. Close to the camera and at a strange angle, but still recognizable. Reveria watched with a combination of incredulous amazement and horror as the dripping hole a foot from her face was split open by pale, slender fingers capped with electric blue nails, index and pinky resting gently on the thighs as middle and ring curved delicately through the glistening pink flesh.

Could a synth do this? Technically yes, since most synths were modular enough to install... equipment down there, and some even accessorized with it as a fashion statement, changing it out by the day, but that was beside the point.

Is... is this live? In real time, I mean?

Obviously! Only the best for a pretty girl like you! The other hand, previously out of the camera, descended into the shot holding something that made Reveria's temperature jump up a bit.

Synths didn't really have genitalia, but plenty of aftermarket manufacturers made compatible items for them. She was ashamed to admit she owned a few of different makes and models, but a girl had needs. The voice in her head was holding one of Placebo's Bruiser models, one of Reveria's favorites. It was long and slender, with a ridged underside that featured a camouflaged electroconductive strip that boosted the signal from the partially conductive outer shell.

Said signal strength was entirely customizable for the enjoyment of the wearer, meaning when the voice ran her fingers slowly up the length then circled them around the pointed end, Reveria felt it all as she tried desperately to not buck her hips into the sensation, her body involuntarily seeking more stimulation for the appendage she didn't even have connected. Fuckin' wireless transmission...

Aww, does that feel good? Don't worry, I'll help you feel it~ Reveria tried to brace herself as the feminine words in her ear ran their fingers along the length again before angling it and pushing just the tip into herself. To the synth's immense embarrassment, she couldn't physically stop her hips from slamming forwards, immediately thanking whatever spectral forces existed that no one on the train noticed.

Oh? Someone wants me, huh? Here you go, then!

The synth stifled a scream as the voice slammed the entire length in at once, arching her back slightly for a better angle as the synth was forced to watch and feel all of it. The voice, for her part, was clearly also feeling it, as the constant noise attested. Reveria couldn't think clearly. No matter where she turned her head, she could see the human practically bouncing on it, to speak nothing of the feeling which only grew stronger as the human leaned forward. The synth could feel the human touching her, one hand on her shoulder and the other pressing her into the seat with a force that she knew wasn't real but certainly felt tangible enough.

She got a momentary relief from the constant whimpering in her ear when the brakes of the train activated, the loud screech drowning out all but the words, This is your stop! Don't miss it!

The moment the train had stopped, the needy whines returned. Reveria managed to stumble to her feet, shaking like a drunken Turvoss, and stagger off the train. She had barely made it to the platform before the fire in her midsection caught up to her and her legs practically buckled as the world was drowned out in a sea of white.

Fuck, Revi, don't just stop! I need you please don't stop now! The sensation of the length being ensheathed again was so much more powerful now, and if Reveria had been halfway lucid at this point she would have picked up on the fact that the human knew her name. As it was, that was far more thinking than she was capable of. All she could think about was getting home. She managed to pool her brain function enough to find and activate the tracker beacon in her rented room, the slender white line tracing out a path in front of her that she attempted to follow, one step at a time.

The feeling was overwhelming her. It was unprofessional, but she needed some time alone. If she had anything attached to relieve herself with, she likely would have lost her composure and done it right there in the station. As it was, she just moved through the station as fast as she could, shaky, desperate movements drawing stares that she was too deep in a world of need to notice or care about.

She was halfway up the stairs to exit the station when it happened again, her entire body twitching hard then going limp as she frantically grabbed a rail to avoid falling. The voice just laughed in her ear as she did. It was only three blocks to her building. She could make it.

She wasn't even up the stairs when the next one hit. They were getting faster and faster, her increased sensitivity after each making it easier to drive her over the edge for the next.

You gotta get home, okay? I need you to pick something out and fuck me for real~

Three blocks. It was three blocks.

This was the door. The white strip on the street took a sharp left through the narrow arch. She crossed the threshold, holding the doorframe for support as she climaxed again. How many times had she? Thinking about it was too hard. There was nothing in her head anymore except for that delicious whimpering that seemed to increase in intensity along with her. She just had to take the elevator up to the eighth floor and get into her room, then she could cut the signal.

The hallway looked the same as it always did. Bare. Stumbling to her door, she tried the knob. Locked. She just snapped it off. Any measure or restriction of her own strength was gone. The door swung open.

Something was wrong. Her brain was getting sluggish, but she retained enough evidence to realize this wasn't her room. The sand-brown walls she should have seen were dark and lit with purple LEDs, and the furniture was all arranged wrong. Soft jazz was playing.

She had a sudden break of clarity, and felt cold all of a sudden as the figure sitting in the back of the room, lit from behind by a computer monitor, pulled the toy from within herself and tossed it over. Reveria's hand instinctively shot up and caught it, the liquid on it glinting in the harsh hallway light. She checked the tracker beacon she had been following. Where she had expected reveria.home in the namespace, she saw instead DEN1ZEN. This wasn't her building.

Hi, Revi~

[fun-bot-and-mr-fun-computer]

8:54P.M - 5/30/2025 - Laboratory - Sprunki Town

[ D o w n l o a d C o m p l e t e . . . ]

"Did the software install?"

"I believe so..."

-----

Ooc - Blog run by @sillylogiclover 🟡 - Fun Bot 🔴 - Mr. Fun Computer

"As much as we'd like to meet all the people here, we're here for 1 reason."

"We've learned most of the Sprunkis' are on here!"

"And due to the current situation, we've decided joining here would be a better approach to keep aware of Gray's location. Or at least an idea."

"We're staying in the lab for the most part, trying to keep track of Gray, and the other Sprunkis' condition!"

"We're trying to get it under control, but it any of the residences reading this, stay safe. To anyone else, any and all information could be helpful."

[randomized-sims24]

Starting Over With You (amnesiac!Rusty x Ruin/Equinox)

By some miracle, some higher being had taken pity on the amalgamation- or maybe it was sheer, dumb, blind panic that had him working faster than ever- but as soon as Charlie had left Parts and Service he was back on the cure, trying so desperately to finish it before she reached the lab. Unfortunately he didn't know how long that would take her but he couldn't think about it right now.

All that mattered was finishing the cure, fixing Rusty and-

The screen flashed with a completion notification.

Ruin stared at it, the little green letters and numbers reading "100%" and he let out a short, unbelieving laugh. He'd done it. He'd actually done it! His fingers flew across the keyboard as if he were playing a guitar or piano, and before he knew it the cure was already being uploaded into Rusty.

Ruin stepped back once the process started, as if him being too close would somehow screw it all up, and he waited. With the cure already going in Rusty Ruin finally turned to where Eclipse had been seated.

He was still catatonic, locked in place with only the faint flickering of his eyes, to indicate blinking and the slight rise and fall of his chest and shoulders, being the only indications he wasn't fully shut down yet.

Suddenly he felt something inside him, deep in his core and rooted throughout his coding. The virus inside him was stirring, trying to take control of him as it had before without much more success as it would have this time, but this time it felt a bit different. It felt like a more frantic thrashing than manipulative coercion. He could hear Eclipse groaning more too, saw him twitch slightly. The virus was trying to do...something? Override Eclipse's motor locks perhaps?

Then he felt it, like something raking through his code, and he felt the virus leaving him. In a panic he turned back to Rusty and the computer, it's progress bar already almost full. He felt the raking, the pulling getting stronger, Charlie must have begun the plan, no not now not yet not when he was so close to having Rusty back, please please please hurry up-

There was a brief flash throughout the room, and Ruin fell back, hitting his head on the way down and falling unconscious.

When he woke Eclipse was above him, the dog at his face licking him...

Ruin pushed Clippy back a bit and sat up, rubbing his head a little. "Ugh...what happened..."

"I think Charlie fixed everything."

Ruin blinked, processing the words before he shot up, nearly smack into Eclipse's face plate as he frantically scrambled to get up.

"What do you- no she can't have, I was-" Ruin paused at the terminal, looking in at Rusty. He was still, but still there.

With trembling fingers Ruin began to type away at the keyboard, running diagnostics and programs to wake him back up. The cure had been fast, but was it fast enough to work before Charlie fixed everything?

He ran every virus detection software, including the one for his virus.

He stared at the screen, the green lettering reflecting slightly off of him.

'No viruses detected'

'Cure upload: 100% complete'

Slight movement tore Ruin's attention away from the screen watching as the computer began the reboot process and Rusty began to wake, fingers twitching with the motor function test, head, eyes and voice box reacting for the same reason.

Once the testing finished Rusty properly woke and sat up, looking around and at his hands and tail and every part he could see, as if he was seeing himself again for the first time.

For Rusty, it might as well have been the first time again.

"Where...am I...?"

And then Rusty looked at him.

He'd done it.

He'd cured Rusty.

He finally had him back.

"Who are you?"

Ruin felt his system stutter and his gears jam. What kind of question was that? Surely he was joking? Then again he did just wake up from what was essentially a living nightmare so of course he'd be a little confused, and Ruin looked a little newer than the last time they'd really seen each other.

"It's me, Ruin. Eclipse. You're in Parts and Service. Not in our home though, that place is dead and gone. You...you're all better, Rusty. You're finally...I finally cured you."

Rusty tilted his head and looked confused. "Not home? What do you mean destroyed? And cured me of what?"

'Ok this is getting a bit old' Ruin thought. Rusty should know what he was on about qith the virus. For all his testing, he knew it couldn't erase memories, especially not forty or so years of them.

"Alright Rusty that's enough. Please drop the joke, it isn't particularly funny anyway."

"Dude, I'm not joking. I seriously have no idea what you mean or where I am or who you are."

Ruin frowned a bit. On one hand it wasn't like Rusty to joke about knowing him or remembering, the gator was a genius. Not nearly on his level but pretty smart.

"Hold on, let me check your system again, perhaps it didn't check everything during shut down..."

Ruin typed away on the keyboard again, running another diagnostics. After a few minutes everything came up.

"Motor functions optimal. Voice box test optimal. AI function optimal. Casing needs repairs. Memory bank-"

Ruin froze, staring at the last string of words highlighted in red.

'Memory bank corruption, hard reboot initiated. Corrupted files deleted'

Ruin's hands were trembling as he fell to his knees before the terminal, staring at the ground as his processors tried to catch up with the information.

There was no way. This was some cruel, twisted joke on him from the universe. Maybe retribution for the trillions of lives he indirectly took in his crusade to kill the Creators, even if it ultimately did as much good as it did harm.

No matter what he just couldn't have a happy ending could he?

He became vaguely aware of black oil stains appearing on the floor, feeling them drip down his face. He was crying.

First he mourned Rusty losing himself. Then he mourned the life they could have had. Now he was mourning Rusty all over again.

"Hey, uh...Ruin, was it? Everything uh, everything ok out there? You good, man?"

Ruin blinked and wiped away the tears, taking a minute to compose himself and stood, taking a deep breath to steel his nerves and turned to him.

"Everything's fine, Rusty. Don't worry about it. Everything's in working order," Ruin pressed a button to open the chamber. "Go ahead and explore if you wish. Just remember this isn't your original home. I...have a lot to explain regarding that but I don't want to overwhelm you too much just yet. For now just know there is another Montgomery here. Go ahead and have a look around, meet some new friends."

"Ok...sure you're good, Ruin?"

"I'm sure. Go on, I'll be fine."

With a final look and slight hesitation Rusty left Parts and Service. As soon as the doors shut Ruin sat against the terminal, sighing heavily and closing his eyes.

Maybe, just maybe, this was a blessing in disguise. He had a chance to start fresh, no virus to worry about, no creator or world ending problems. Well, there was still the issue of Afton, Mimic and EK but they would be dealt with.

Eclipse would make sure of it.

For now, Ruin would worry about Rusty. After a few more minutes he got up to find Rusty and check on him.

Starting over sounded nice after all.

-end-

[kpdigitalworld]

Fashion Designing Institutes in Hyderabad: Blending Heritage with Modern Creativity

Hyderabad is more than just a city of IT parks and ancient monuments — it's a growing fashion destination blending centuries-old textile traditions with cutting-edge design education. In recent years, students from across India have started flocking to fashion designing institutes in Hyderabad to turn their passion into a professional path.

With a creative-friendly atmosphere, access to rich artisan networks, and modern academic facilities, Hyderabad is quietly becoming the go-to place for fashion aspirants. If you're thinking of stepping into the world of fashion, here’s why the institutes here are worth considering.

The Cultural Edge: Hyderabad’s Textile and Craft Heritage

One of the standout advantages of studying fashion in Hyderabad is access to traditional Indian art forms that are still alive and thriving.

Pochampally Ikat, Kalamkari, Narayanpet weaves, and Muga silk from surrounding regions inspire students to blend heritage with modernity.

Institutes often arrange artisan visits, textile trails, and dyeing workshops, which enrich classroom learning with ground-level insight.

These experiences make students culturally aware and help them design collections rooted in Indian identity, with global appeal.

Modern Infrastructure & Global Curriculum

Hyderabad’s fashion design schools are known for their advanced infrastructure, including:

Fully equipped design studios and labs

CAD software for 2D & 3D garment design

In-house textile printing and embroidery units

Libraries with fashion magazines, trend reports, and design journals

Photography and styling labs for editorial shoots

The curriculum is often benchmarked against international standards, combining traditional modules like garment construction and illustration with emerging areas like:

Fashion Forecasting & Trend Analysis

Sustainable Design Practices

Fashion Business & Entrepreneurship

Augmented Reality in Fashion

E-Commerce & Online Fashion Marketing

Learning Beyond the Classroom

Top fashion designing institutes in Hyderabad go the extra mile to provide holistic learning experiences. Students actively participate in:

Annual Fashion Shows and Design Exhibitions

Style & Branding Workshops by industry experts

Internships with fashion houses, boutiques, and stylists

Student exchange programs with design institutes abroad

Fashion film-making and digital storytelling competitions

These activities help develop soft skills like teamwork, leadership, and creative direction — essential for working in the real world.

Courses Offered by Fashion Designing Institutes in Hyderabad

Whether you're a beginner or looking to specialize, fashion design colleges in Hyderabad offer a variety of programs:

🔹 Certificate Programs (3–6 Months)

Ideal for skill enhancement or testing interest in the field.

🔹 Diploma & Advanced Diploma (1–2 Years)

Perfect for those wanting hands-on skills with quicker industry entry.

🔹 Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Design (3–4 Years)

Comprehensive academic route with deeper design thinking, internship, and portfolio development.

🔹 Postgraduate Programs (1–2 Years)

Focused training in design innovation, fashion marketing, or merchandising.

Each course type balances creativity, technical skill, and business understanding, preparing students for a fast-paced, competitive industry.

Career Prospects After Completing Fashion Designing in Hyderabad

With the growing fashion scene in Hyderabad and across India, graduates from design schools can pursue careers such as:

Fashion Designer (Apparel, Accessories, Sustainable)

Textile or Surface Designer

Fashion Illustrator or CAD Designer

Retail Buyer or Merchandiser

Fashion Stylist or Visual Merchandiser

Costume Designer for films and TV

Fashion Content Creator or Blogger

Entrepreneur or Boutique Owner

Hyderabad also gives students the advantage of working in Tollywood, e-commerce startups, and independent fashion brands.

What to Look For in a Fashion Institute

Before enrolling, make sure the fashion designing institute you choose in Hyderabad has:

✅ UGC or university affiliation (for degree programs) ✅ Industry-experienced faculty ✅ Strong alumni network and placement record ✅ Access to labs, studios, and digital tools ✅ Focus on both Indian and global fashion perspectives

Also, explore student testimonials, sample portfolios, and past fashion shows to understand the creative output of each institute.

[ottopilot-wrote-this-txt]

Generational Trauma

Once more unto the breach of @subliminalbo's Romero Literary Universe. This story references characters from the Obedience by Fleur series. This is also a prequel to Backend Support, though both stories (hopefully) stand on their own.

Thanks again to my friend @subliminalbo (also at @subliminalboarchive) for the art trade and collaboration.

Bailey Castillo set the clippers on the sink counter and rubbed the base of her skull. She was a queer woman, it certainly wasn't her first time getting an undercut. But it was the first time she'd done it to herself.

It made her smirk to herself. Given the grim nature of what she had talked herself into, Bailey could use all the levity she could muster.

She had an undercut when she met Ed. It was a good metaphor, she thought. Under that big head of dark curls, there was an edge. Her fresh face and polite smile were a mask, disguising survival instincts and a pragmatism you could only get by growing up Black, asexual, and female in Romero, Washington.

Bailey rubbed the shaving gel in her wet fingers until it foamed up. Smelling of peaches, she rubbed it on her shaved hair. After rinsing her hands, she rinsed the razor's blade, new and sharp, in the cold water of the faucet.

It seemed a strange offer. What did a lingerie company need with an embedded systems designer? Software devs for e-commerce, sure. But she specialized in hardware, in writing firmware, in the arcane art of assembly code.

Beggars couldn't be choosers, though. Not beggars who had a degree from the local party school, because Mamá got a discount on tuition, and it was what they could afford. Certainly not beggars who would take the first offer they could get that would get them away from this cesspool. Bailey shaved her neck and the undercut area with smooth, careful strokes.

Her first mistake was trusting. Trusting that if she did a good job - and her control array for Obedience by Fleur was, objectively, goddamn genius - she'd be recognized for it.

Bailey rinsed the razor of shaving cream and tiny black hairs. Won't make that mistake again.

She had overestimated Ed King. She bought his Silicon Valley rep, and failed to see he wasn't any different from Romero's traditional power brokers. He was a carnival barker, not a visionary like he thought he was. She was a commodity to him, not a person. If Obedience failed, she would've taken the blame; but since it succeeded, he was more than happy to take all the credit.

Bailey rubbed the smooth wet skin on her neck, checking for missed spots. Elena wasn't any better. She got what she wanted from Bailey, and that made her disposable. It was a blessing, really. Bailey was a natural beauty, but her curvy hips and thighs meant she wasn't model thin, and it also meant she was back at her mother's house in Romero, and not mindlessly, dutifully, licking Elena's designer boots.

Toweling off her neck, Bailey shifted away from the sink toward the 3D printer. She triple-checked her work.

When she first read about needleless tattoos in Wired, at all just clicked into place. A silicon ink payload in dissolvable microneedles. Putting the Obedience tech inside the subject. Permanently. Forget the sensors, pair the array with a fitness tracker or smartwatch. An AI sidecar to increase subject safety. No more brain damage.

Stealing the base software from Ed King? Bailey had no qualms about stealing from a thief. But she needed stake money. It was surprisingly easy to talk the Chinese triads into financing her. But they wanted proof before they pumped more yuan into her operation.

The 3D printer hummed to life as it printed the dissolvable needles, loaded with silicon ink, onto the dermal patch. This was, of course, a fork, custom firmware modified from the base model. Unfortunately, you can't just print a tiny one of these and slap it on a lab rat.

And experimenting on an unwilling human subject… That was something they would do. Bailey wasn't a monster. Not yet.

The array was done. It was a rectangle about the size of deck of cards. The trick had been spacing, making sure the crudely printed lines wouldn't bleed or touch accidentally when applied. Bailey's array was, of course, unique. She'd created a hyperfocus routine that, when enabled, could drown out stimulation and increase cognitive ability temporarily. More importantly, the mind control protocols were blunted, and she wrote an additional protection against mesmerism: the ability to mentally control her hormone levels.

But at the end of the day, this was modified Obedience by Fleur firmware. Bailey knew there was an unknown period where she would have to take Obedience's best punch, enduring and outlasting it, before the AI sidecar would read her biofeedback and adjust the indoctrination protocols lower. She was prepared for it, with a physical anchor.

She took the black choker, her mother's, in her left hand. When Mamá died, shortly after Bailey came back to Romero with her tail between her legs, it was in her jewelry box.

Bailey didn't know how to reconcile that. Mamá never said anything. She didn't have to. When she left the house wearing this choker, all painted up when she should have been in bed, the vacant look told young Bailey everything. But to keep this in an intimate place, where she likely saw it every day - before the early-onset Alzheimer's rotted her from the inside out - what did that mean?

That she missed it?

Bailey gripped the choker tightly, feeling the satin in her delicate fingers. She couldn't guess what went through her mother's mind. Bailey only knew what it meant to her: anger. Abandonment issues. A keepsake of a life she would never, ever lead.

One last check. One last chance to bitch out.

Bailey sat upright in her work stool. She prepared the tattoo array patch, removing it from the printing tray. She looked again at the choker in her left hand, her anchor to reality. She took the patch, and affixed it to the base of her skull.

At first, there was a cold, wet feeling. Like ultrasound gel. And it itched, probably from the microneedles penetrating her skin. Bailey's research indicated there wouldn't be any pain from the actual absorption of the silicon ink into her dermis, just a slight delay.

Immediately, she realized she'd miscalculated.

Bailey had set the weights on the Obedience protocol to fifty percent. She barely had time to process that was too high before she was inundated with sensation. "Oh… Fuck," she moaned breathlessly. It was so hard to think from the pleasure. Warm and comforting, like a blanket. Like a hug, but not a hug from just anyone. From someone precious. From a lover.

Then she felt something new. A flicker, at first. Then a slow burning heat. Then an intense raging inferno, burning between her legs, deep inside her, in her very soul. Bailey instinctively put her hand there, but it was a huge mistake. Immediately she rubbed her engorged clit through her panties, wetness spreading through the dainty cotton fabric.

Lust? But I'm fucking ace, Bailey thought, before the first orgasm hit.

Wave after wave of euphoric gratification pounded her senses like a tempestuous ocean.

Shit! this is- Then another.

Tides of pleasure washed over her.

The choker. Have to- Another.

The powerful undertow eroded her reason and resistance.

Mamá, I-

The blissful sensations overwhelmed Bailey, preventing the formulation of new thoughts, until she just simply stopped trying.

And then she was under. Submerged. Sounds fading. The world oh, so far away.

She was better this way, she saw that. It was better to stop resisting, stop trying to think, and just accept it. As she enthusiastically fingered her soggy cunt, mouth open, her body rewarding her for her compliance, Bailey thought she heard something. It was her own voice, moaning and panting and… giggling. Being dumb, and sexy, and available - it made her happy?

When was the last time she could say that, that she was legitimately happy?

She understood. She could feel like this for the rest of her life, and she only had to do one thing. Let go. Let go of the past, let go of the trauma, let go of the hurt. Let go of herself. The fingers on Bailey's left hand loosened their grip. The choker threatened to fall to the floor. No, not fall. To sink. To sink and drop, deeper and deeper. Her mind was still. Vacant. Empty, except for one thing creeping into her consciousness.

No. Not today.

Her fingers tightened. She could feel the smooth satin, once cold, now hot with her own emanating warmth. She thought of Mamá, looking more like a movie starlet than her tireless, caring mother. Bailey saw her walk out the door, not even turning back to her crying daughter. And she remembered her pledge, to Mamá, to herself: it ain't gonna be me. Not today. Not ever.

Bailey held the choker with a steel grip, as if her life depended on it. It did. The choker was a life preserver in the choppy ocean of arousal flooding her mind and body. She had no idea how anyone could take twice as much of this. It was no wonder Obedience's control was absolute and immediate.

Slowly, she felt it. The constant bombardment of pleasure losing its steam. Waters receding. Her thoughts forming more easily, coherently. Her breathing stabilizing, and the hot flush of her arousal lowering to a simmer. "Set dopamine levels to zero," she gasped. She didn't need to say the words out loud for it to work, but in her disheveled state she needed to hear it. To remind herself she was in control.

She looked in a nearby mirror. Her eyes were a milky solid white, all sclera, no pupils. Her body was flushed with desire. She looked every bit the fucktoy she despised. Bailey knew she was lucky. If she had looked into this mirror a few minutes ago, she would've been lost.

Her hormone levels stabilizing, Bailey blinked, and her eyes returned to an intense chestnut brown. She was still in shock from the ordeal. She opened her palm and looked at the choker, and she placed it on her workbench. Slowly, she took her cell phone in her right hand and sent a message.

"Live test successful. Production is GO."

The dream again. The same one. Fuck, I hate this, Bailey thought. And turning off the dopamine wasn't helping.

Bailey got out of bed and turned on a bedside lamp. She drowsily stood up, stumbled to the kitchen for a drink of cold water. It was a hot July night, so she was only wearing panties. Which, of course, were soaked through. Again.

On her back to bed, she stopped at her nightstand. She looked at herself in the vanity mirror. Running a prostitution empire based on mind control hadn't been kind to her, she thought.

Bailey wasn't sure what possessed her. But she reached into her top drawer, and retrieved Rosa's - Mamá's - choker. She hadn't looked at it since she turned on the Obedience array. She'd been too afraid. But here, in the dark, she fastened the choker around her neck. She activated her hormonal controls and raised them - not too much - to maybe 120% of normal. And she looked in the mirror.

Her eyes clouded over until the pupils were gone again, just solid white spheres. Like two blank canvases. She let her mind dull - again, not too much. Just enough to let her thoughts drift. Her full lips parted, on their own, as she watched with interest and arousal. She had always been beautiful, but now? She was a bombshell. All tits and ass and thighs, with a pretty fuckable face. She didn't have a sexual bone in her 29-year-old body, but she would fuck this braindead slut in the mirror.

Bailey's mind cleared as she regained control. She again dampened her pleasure center, and her eyes returned to normal. She took the choker off, and put it back, reverently, in her dresser drawer.

She now understood why Mamá had kept it.

[relianceacademy]

Don’t just follow trends—create them with the power of our graphic course in Andheri at Reliance Animation Academy in Andheri

Reliance Animation Academy in Andheri is more than a training center—it's a launchpad for your creative career. If you're part of Gen Z and looking for a career that matches your passion, creativity, and need for independence, animation is calling you. And right here in Mumbai, our animation course in Andheri is tailored to make your dreams a career reality.

In today’s content-driven world, visual storytelling is everything. From Instagram reels to Netflix originals, from gaming to digital advertising—animation is at the core of what people watch, share, and remember. It's no longer a niche; it's a necessity. And at Reliance Animation Academy, we don’t just teach software—we build creators.

The Animation Boom: Why Gen Z Is Fueling the Future

Gen Z doesn’t want the cubicle life. You want to create, design, innovate, and be recognized for your ideas. Animation is the perfect career path for that. It combines the best of art and technology, offering endless opportunities across industries:

Entertainment (films, OTT shows, short-form content)

Gaming (console, mobile, AR/VR)

Advertising and branding

Education and e-learning

Corporate storytelling

The industry is growing globally and in India. With streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ doubling down on animated content, and gaming taking over as the highest-grossing entertainment segment, animation is one of the most future-proof careers available today.

And guess what? You don’t need to be a pro-doodler to get started. All you need is a passion for stories and visuals.

Why Reliance Animation Academy in Andheri Is the Ideal Place to Begin

Reliance Animation Academy is part of the respected Reliance Education Group. That means we're backed by a name that stands for excellence, innovation, and industry relevance. But it’s not just about the name—it’s about how we empower students.

1. Creative Culture, Real-World Training

We understand Gen Z thrives in flexible, expressive environments. Our Andheri campus is designed to reflect that vibe. Think open labs, group projects, creativity hubs, and brainstorming zones. No rigid classrooms. Just an ecosystem where you feel seen and supported.

2. Curriculum That Matches Industry Demand

We constantly update our curriculum to match what’s trending in the job market. Whether it’s 2D, 3D, VFX, gaming, or motion graphics, our course content is approved and designed by real working professionals.

Want to work on films? You’ll learn cinematic storytelling.

Dream of being in gaming? We teach modeling, rigging, and animation workflows used in Unity and Unreal.

Interested in freelancing? You’ll build a portfolio that gets clients.

You also have the option to specialize further in niche fields like:

VFX Course in Andheri

Graphic Course in Andheri

BSc Degree in Animation in Andheri

3. Professional Mentorship, Not Just Lectures

Each batch is mentored by experienced industry professionals—VFX artists, 3D modelers, storyboard designers, and game developers. You’ll get real feedback on your work, guidance on career moves, and insights into how the industry works behind the scenes.

4. Software That Studios Use

We train you on software that’s used by top animation and VFX studios:

Autodesk Maya

Blender

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Premiere Pro

ZBrush

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

These aren’t just taught as tools—you use them in live projects and collaborative exercises, just like in a real studio.

Animation Careers Are More Diverse Than You Think

Here’s what your future could look like after completing our animation course in Andheri:

2D/3D Animator: Create moving characters and environments for games and media.

Storyboarding Artist: Visualize scenes and direct visual storytelling.

Motion Graphic Designer: Create ads, trailers, and explainer videos for brands.

Game Designer: Bring interactivity and life to games.

Character Designer: Build unique and memorable characters from scratch.

Compositor/VFX Artist: Add special effects to live-action or animated footage.

Freelance Content Creator: Design YouTube intros, Instagram reels, Twitch overlays, and more.

These careers are not limited by geography or industry. You can work with:

Film studios (domestic and international)

Animation production houses

Advertising agencies

Gaming companies

EdTech and e-learning startups

Content creators and YouTubers

Gen Z Perks: Work-Life Balance + Creative Freedom

Reliance Animation Academy understands that today’s students want more than just a job. You want lifestyle alignment. Here’s what animation gives you:

Remote Opportunities: Many animation jobs are fully remote.

Freelancing Freedom: Pick your clients, work on your schedule.

Global Exposure: Work with clients from the US, Canada, Europe, or UAE.

Creative Control: Build your own animation brand, channel, or studio.

Diverse Roles: From game cutscenes to animated music videos, choose your creative path.

Animation isn’t just a skill—it’s a passport to a flexible, fulfilling career that evolves with your goals.

Placement Support That Actually Works

We don't just say "100% placement support" because it sounds good. At Reliance Animation Academy, we put that into action:

Demo reel building workshops

Resume writing support

Portfolio presentation mentoring

Mock interviews

Studio collaborations

Our placement team has connections with top recruiters in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and beyond. Whether you want a job, an internship, or a freelance opportunity, we make sure you are seen and selected.

Why Choose Andheri? The Creative Hub of Mumbai

Choosing Reliance Animation Academy in Andheri isn’t just about convenience. Andheri is Mumbai's creative heart. Here’s why that matters:

Proximity to Film City and Major Studios

Networking opportunities with artists, filmmakers, and designers

Access to media and art events, festivals, screenings, and masterclasses

By studying in Andheri, you’re not isolated from the industry—you’re placed right in the middle of it.

How to Enroll in the Animation Course in Andheri

We’ve made the admission process simple and straightforward:

Step 1: Call or WhatsApp Contact us at: +91 9326591557, 7400400795, 9920678816 for free counseling

Step 2: Visit the Academy Address: Unit no 14, 2nd Floor, Shri Alankar CHS Ltd, Nadco Shopping Centre, SV Road, Near Railway Station, Andheri, Mumbai

Step 3: Explore Our Courses Online Visit the course pages to know more:

Animation Course in Andheri

VFX Course in Andheri

Graphic Course in Andheri

BSc Degree in Animation in Andheri

Step 4: Submit Your Admission Form & Join Start your creative career with a course that prioritizes YOU.

Final Words: This Isn’t Just a Course – It’s Your Creative Future

Animation is not just another job option. It’s a lifestyle, a way of expressing yourself, and a global opportunity. And there is no better place to begin than Reliance Animation Academy in Andheri.

Whether you’re straight out of school or in college and looking for your "true path," our animation course in Andheri can unlock doors you never knew existed.

So Gen Z creators, this is your sign. Break the rules. Build new worlds. Design characters. Create emotions. And let your animation career start here.Ready to Animate Your Future? Call Now: +91 9326591557, 7400400795, 9920678816 Visit Us: Unit no 14, 2nd Floor, Shri Alankar CHS Ltd, Nadco Shopping Centre, SV Road, Near Railway Station, Andheri, Mumbai Website: https://relianceacademyandheri.com/

[manekapiyumawali]

Why Sabaragamuwa University is a Great Choice.

Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka (SUSL) is increasingly recognized for its technological advancement and innovation-driven environment, making it one of the leading universities in Sri Lanka in terms of technology. Here are the key reasons why SUSL stands out technologically.

Here’s why SUSL stands out as a technological powerhouse among Sri Lankan universities:

🔧1. Faculty of Technology

SUSL established a dedicated Faculty of Technology to meet the demand for tech-skilled graduates. It offers degree programs such as:

BTech in Information and Communication Technology

BTech in Engineering Technology

These programs combine practical experience in labs, workshops and real-world projects with a strong theoretical foundation.

🖥️2. Advanced IT Infrastructure

SUSL has modern computer labs, smart classrooms, and high-speed internet access across campus.

A robust Learning Management System (LMS) supports online learning and hybrid education models.

Students and lecturers use tools like Moodle, Zoom, and Google Classroom effectively.

🤖 3. Innovation & AI Research Support

SUSL promotes AI, Machine Learning, IoT, and Data Science in student research and final-year projects.

Competitions like Hackathons and Innovative Research Symposia encourage tech-driven solutions.

Students develop apps, smart systems, and automation tools (e.g., Ceylon Power Tracker project).

🌐 4. Industry Collaboration and Internships

SUSL connects students with the tech industry through:

Internships at leading tech firms

Workshops led by industry experts

Collaborative R&D projects with government and private sector entities

These connections help students gain hands-on experience in areas such as software engineering, networking, and data analytics that make them highly employable after graduation.

💡 5. Smart Campus Initiatives

SUSL is evolving into a Smart University, introducing systems that streamline academic life:

Digital student portals

Online registration and results systems

E-library and remote resource access

Campus Wi-Fi for academic use

These initiatives improve the student experience and create an efficient, technology-enabled environment.

🎓 6. Research in Emerging Technologies

The university is involved in pioneering research across emerging technological fields, including:

Agricultural tech (AgriTech)

Environmental monitoring using sensors

Renewable energy systems

Students and faculty publish research in international journals and participate in global tech events.

🏆 7. Recognition in National Competitions

SUSL students often reach fina rounds or win national competitions in coding, robotics, AI, and IoT innovation.

Faculty members are invited as tech advisors and conference speakers, reinforcing the university's expertise.

Sabaragamuwa University is actively shaping the future not only with technology, but by integrating technology into education, research and operations. This makes it a technological leader among Sri Lankan Universities. Visit the official university site here: Home | SUSL

[mymo-in-bb]

The New Life of Eilidh Mhorganach

(toki pona li lon anpa)

@krakajici-kavka and I made a game prototype! We made it as a submission for the Pirate Software Game Jam 15.

It's now playable on itch.io!

It's a rhythm game about a blind alchemist called Eilidh who uses music to brew her potions, with the help of her wife Leagsaidh and lab assistant Calum. The game is made with blindness accessibility in mind, and it fully playable without any visual input.

We plan to develop it further, so there may be more updates in the future!

(English above)

@krakajici-kavka en mi li pali e musi pi ilo nanpa a! mi pali e ona tawa kulupu pi pali musi "Pirate Software" pi nanpa luka luka luka.

sina ken musi e ona lon lipu Isotajo.

ona li musi pi kalama musi. jan pi pali telo pi wawa nasa li jan suli ona. ona li ken ala lukin. ona li pali e telo tan kute tan wawa pi kalama musi. jan olin ona en jan pona pali ona li pona pali e ona.

sina ken ala lukin la, sina ken musi e musi ni.

mi wile e ni: tenpo kama la, mi suli e musi ni. ken la, ijo sin musi li lon a.

[surajsolanki]

Become a 2D Animation Expert with Pickles Animations

Why Choose 2D Animation as a Career?

In today’s fast-paced digital world, 2D animation continues to be a powerful medium for storytelling in films, advertisements, web content, and educational tools. It’s widely used by leading production houses, marketing firms, gaming studios, and e-learning platforms.

By enrolling in a 2D animation course, you’ll gain the skills to create dynamic characters, immersive storyboards, and visually appealing animations. The demand for professional 2D animators is growing rapidly—and this is your chance to be a part of the creative revolution.

About Pickles Animation – Best 2D Animation Institute in Delhi

At Pickles Animation, we offer a hands-on, industry-oriented 2D Animation Course in Delhi that prepares you for real-world opportunities. Our expert instructors have years of experience in the animation industry and focus on developing both the technical and creative aspects of animation.

What You’ll Learn:

Fundamentals of classical 2D animation

Character design and rigging

Storyboarding and concept development

Digital animation techniques using industry-standard software

Project-based learning to build your animation portfolio

Whether you’re a student, a creative professional, or someone looking to switch careers, our 2D animation course is designed to help you build a strong foundation and master the tools of the trade.

Course Highlights:

Beginner to advanced-level modules

One-on-one mentorship and live project experience

Affordable fees and flexible batches

100% placement assistance

State-of-the-art labs and software

Join the Best 2D Animation Course in Delhi Today!

Make the first move towards your dream career in animation. Join the community of passionate artists and creators at Pickles Animation.

📞 Call Now: 9999065344 🌐 Visit Us: https://www.picklesanimation.com/2d-animation-course/in-delhi/

[thewinter-eden]

almost summer | kim seungmin (13)

13 : I NEED YOU TO TRUST ME

Pairings: KIM SEUNGMIN x OC | YANG JEONGIN x OC

Rating: mature

cross posted on AO3 under the_winter_eden and wattpad under alone-at-last.

Warnings: none. I forgot both of this week's uploads

almost summer masterlist Comment a request to be tagged!

< last chapter | next chapter >

I sat with my anger long enough until she told me her real name was grief. -C.S. Lewis

“This contains the original and the translated copies of the hard drive that we duplicated.” Seungmin pushed a brown paper envelope across Captain Lee's desk. “It came from one of the lab computers, but based on the permissions controls, it appeared to have complete access to all lab documentation. That should be a comprehensive packet.”

Maven remained still in her chair beside him.

They had perused the data the night before, after returning from the task of retrieving it. Files upon files of human experimentation and torture still flooded her thoughts.

She’d forgone both dinner and breakfast due to the bloody and grotesque imagery included in the data copy.

Captain Lee Minho swiped the envelope off the desk and tapped a button on his desk phone, paging his lieutenant. “Please call in the intel group.”

Soon, a swarm of intelligence officers would be buzzing around the office, dividing the data packet into sections between them and bringing back their individual assignments to their respective analysis teams. Maven had been one of those analysts not six months before, and she had no desire to have that job back.

Tapping the envelope against his palm, Minho's eyes flicked back and forth between them. “And the other item?”

His eyes landed on Seungmin, so Seungmin answered. “We installed the trojan device as well. Any incoming or updated data will be automatically uploaded to our field computer. It’s on an isolated network so we don’t need to worry about security concerns.”

Maven disagreed with his assessment, but didn’t say so.

She didn’t need Captain Lee giving her any more dirty looks for being crabby about her partner assignment.

“Always be worried about security.” Lee returned flatly, but turned to Maven without allowing Seungmin a chance to respond. “As you’ll remember, our people will go over this data and have a rough analysis in the next three days. Rest and relax in the meantime. Lieutenant Seo and Agent Hwang will keep up passive recon with the surveillance devices in place.”

Maven responded dutifully, taking his orders as a sign to leave his office.

Seungmin, however, recognized no such indication. “Would it be possible to stay aboard the Vesper and be involved in the analysis? I have a background in robotics and electrochemistry, I believe I would be able to assist.”

Lee's eyes narrowed. “Your part in the chain of custody is over for now, Agent Kim. Do not contaminate the process.”

Seungmin chuckled humorously like the lethal glint in his superior’s eyes was a joke. “I think everyone here can agree that we would all have a better understanding of the facts if we could be involved in the—”

“You will stand down, Agent Kim, and let everyone do the jobs that they are being paid for. Go back to University Station. Make sure the antivirus software on your field computer is updated.”

Maven left the captain’s office immediately to hide her laughter.

A L M O S T   S U M M E R 

Elvis’ voice boomed around the dingy beige walls of Maven’s room. The familiar baritone timbre sang away the anxious exhaustion that stiffened her muscles and made her neck ache. Working with Seungmin had been predictably aggravating, but having to take frequent flights with him and appear civil in front of Captain Lee had proved to be an immense drain of energy.

The book in her hand did nothing to dispel the horrific images of tortured and murdered patients floating around her brain.

Maven readjusted the pillow she was laying against and pulled the cuffs of her sweatpants down around her feet, nestling deeper into the uncomfortable cot-like mattress. Her eyes glazed over a few more lines of the book and she flipped the page without processing any of it.

Nothing had processed properly since entering the alien facility.

Knowing that people were rotting away in unimaginable agony not three miles away made her stomach turn with guilt and unease. They shouldn’t be waiting for more information.

Seeing hundreds of people suffering and being scientifically violated should have been enough information to spur action.

A knock sounded at the door.

Maven turned down the music and called a grumbly “hello?”

“I bring food,” Seungmin's muffled voice just barely carried over the quiet notes of Heartbreak Hotel.

Maven’s eyes rolled into the back of her head on reflex. The sound of his voice still put her at war with herself—the deep rumble that once filled her with comfort and excitement set against the narcissistic voice that flooded her senses with unhinged animus. “I don’t really have an appetite, but thanks.” The animus was winning.

Seungmin pushed her door open without invitation, bearing in his hands a tray with a couple of grilled sandwiches that smelled divine and an assortment of sides and drinks. His sheepish smile didn’t diminish as he stared into her infuriated stare. “I haven’t seen you eat in two days and we need some team bonding.”

Maven gaped at him, appalled by his brazen entry. “What makes you think I want to bond with you?” Nothing in the world sounded worse than reconnecting with him, even on a cordial level. She pictured herself snatching up one of those bowls of salad and chucking it directly at his nose.

His eyes swept over her sloppy pajamas. “I didn’t say you wanted it, I said we needed it.” He set the tray down and sat at the foot of her bed. “Eat with me, please? We have to be able to work together and I just want you to be able to trust that I’ve always got your back.” He reached out a shameless hand and cupped her sweatpants-covered ankle reassuringly.

She couldn’t think of a more laughable notion. Yanking her foot out of his reach and sitting up straight against her headboard, Maven pointed to the uncomfortable wooden desk chair across the room. “Fine, but you have to sit over there.”

[rileylostintime]

Ei! Você viu o RILEY KALMAN por aí? você sabe, aquelu alunu da graduação que tem 35 ANOS e se parece muito com SOPHIA BUSH/ZAC EFRON. Acho que elu formou com especialização em FÍSICA e em 2014 se parecia muito com CHARLIE GILLESPIE. Dizem que elu era THE PARTY ANIMAL e Toda vez que passava pelo dormitório delu, ouvia SOME KIND OF MONSTER DO METALLICA E tocando pela porta. Todos que u conhecem dizem que elu costuma ser CORAJOSE, mas também poderia ser IMPULSIVE. Será que em 2024 elu ainda é assim?

— Básico

NOME: Riley James Kalman

ORIENTAÇÃO SEXUAL: Pansexual

GÊNERO: Não Binario (Elu/Delu), mas prefere se apresentar socialmente mais alinhado com o feminino

ALINHAMENTO: Chaotic Neutral

ANIVERSÁRIO: 04 de Junho

SIGNO: Gêmeos com ascendente em Leão

DEFEITOS: Impulsive, Displicente, Cinique, Errátique

QUALIDADES: Leal, Corajose, Generose, Mente Aberta

TATTOOS: TBA

CICATRIZES: Sobrancelha esquerda por conta de um acidente de infância.

GRADUAÇÃO:PhD em Física

OCUPAÇÃO NO NOVO 2024 : Guitarrista/Consultor da Cadmus Corp

—  Inspirações

Erin Lindsay (Chicago PD), Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory), Brooke Davis (One Tree Hill), Jackson "Jax" Teller (Sons of Anarchy), Angel Reyes (Mayan MC), Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller's Day Off),John Nolan (The Rookie), Spike (Buffy),

—  Personalidade

Em 2014, se tivesse uma festinha na UCLA, por menor que fosse, lá estava Riley Kalman. Elu é do tipo que faz a merda primeiro e depois pensa nas consequências, o que geralmente acaba colocando ainda em mais problemas.

Kalman é dominante, assertivo e normalmente se sente confortável em assumir mais riscos.

Elu é orientada para a ação e prospera melhor quando desafiade. É mais atraíde pelo ar livre e adora ser ative. Elu também têm um forte senso de justiça, que nem sempre é alinhado com o que as leis, por ter um código moral próprio. Elu tende não fazer julgamentos, mas se irrita facilmente.

Elu é multitalentose, tem habilidades em várias áreas, exceto pra se comunicar com seres humanos de forma adequada socialmente, elu pode encontrar uma maneira de ajudar a acelerar um computador, como baixar um software que seja compatível com um tipo específico de computador do funcionário, mas não vai conseguir manter uma conversa sem irritar alguém pela quantidade de aleatoriedades que vai trazer a tona.

Kalman é muitas vezes atraído por conceitos ou situações que envolvem coisas mecânicas e suas complexidades em vez das de natureza emocional. Elu prioriza o espaço pessoal, é espontâneo em termos de seu julgamento e é autodirigidos em projetos que elu acredita que pode realizar de forma autônoma.

—  Resumo

Linha Prime (Original - CLIQUE EM QUALQUER LUGAR DESSA FRASE)

Nova Linha Temporal (Pós-Viagem de 2014)

Diferentemente da primeira viagem, onde Big Rich (pai) morreu e acabou sendo filha do tio Sammy (Irmão mais novo do pai), agora Riley é filha mais nova de Alexander Kalman, fotógrafo do Projeto Chronos, e seu avô na linha temporal original, com sua mãe na linha original

Como irmão mais novo de seu tio e pai, Riley não teve vida fácil, ainda mais que, os "irmãos" viam a mãe como oportunista. O bullying entre eles era constante e ainda é nos dias de hoje

Apesar de física e matemática sempre ter sido algo muito fácil pra ela, acabou largando o mestado no meio e montando uma banda de rock de garagem, fazendo bico de fotografo de vez em quando para rebater as críticas dos irmãos que é um encostado.

Recentemente ficou noivo, porque a mulher apareceu grávida e a mãe o obrigou a assumir a responsabilidade e casar (Nada a ver com ela ser a filha mais velha dos Diamonds e eles serem podre de ricos) a criança acabou nascendo antes da hora, mas o noivado foi mantido e deve acontecer no fim do ano de 2024.

A família da noiva arrumou um emprego pra ela há seis meses no Cadmus Corp, parceiro do Atom Lab, cuja a família da noiva é uma das acionistas.

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 218 Trivia (Part 2)

(Previous part)

Looks like Xeno's old coworkers were revived!

Or, at least one of them..?

I guess Kinro is sad that his younger brother doesn't miss him more after not seeing him for several years. :(

The first e-paper software of this kind was the Graphic 1 computer system designed by Bell Labs in 1965. The way Graphic 1 works is by matching what the "light-pen" (more like a tiny camera) sees to what the screen is showing. The screen has a marker/cursor, and if the light-pen says it can see it, the screen knows where the pen is.

The two electron beams Senku mentions are part of the storage tube (a type of CRT), which helps "freeze" an image to the screen allowing the computer to work on other things.

The strong electron beam sends the image to the display, which causes extra electrons to jump off onto the dark parts, making them negative.

The weak beam then fires an even spray of electrons, which are repelled onto the non-negative parts, recreating the image.

The storage tube doesn't read the image, so to do that a metal mesh is added. This is probably the metallic plate Kaseki attaches, called a Williams tube.

The overall design may be based off the Direct-view bistable storage tube by Tektronix.

This astronaut is not only posed as if they're going to begin doing martial arts, but they've also got two gun holsters.

Is this meant to confuse us as to which fighter may be headed to the moon?

Should we be suspecting Ryusui's confidence that he's got a seat on the rocket? Will something happen to him? I just want to know who will be in focus during the final arc…

[umichenginabroad]

Week 2: Getting Intense(ive)

Howdy y'all, it's me Connor back after, quite frankly, an exhausting week of classes. When I learned I was going to be taking class here I thought I would be taking ✨Classes✨ but in reality I am going to the library most days. That being said I don't think I have ever been more interested in what I am learning than I am right now.

This is a picture of me and my dorm-mates walking to our first class together.

Intro to Japanese has been nothing but spectacular. Although the class is moving a bit slower I have chances everyday to practice what I learn so I am getting quite confident in my abilities. Also the teachers are so nice and helpful in class even though they do not speak almost any English.

In the afternoons we have Automotive Engineering class, now these are the tough ones. Having a 4 hour lecture every afternoon is not for the weak. What is entertaining though is the people the University bring in to special lectures. We have met employees from Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi and more. All of them gave given us amazing lectures on the future plans for these companies and what to expect if we ever end up working there. All of the lectures have been passionate to a point I have never experienced in the United States, everyone truly seems to love what they are doing and it makes the class so much more fun.

With about 5-6 hours of lecture a day I will at least concede the point that the amount of homework we have is light, often only a one page reflection on the information e learned, which is quite nice as I often find myself exploring in the afternoon/night with friends.

Another huge upside of this school is the cafeteria, the food is absolutely wonderful and dirt cheap:

Two of the lunches I've had. On the left a spicy miso ramen and I do not quite remember what the ride noodle bowl was called but it was equally delicious. Both of these cost me about $3 USD and they were amazing.

This first week we also had special tours of a number of different research labs here at Nagoya University.

These are two concept cars designed and created within the university. On the left you can see a small Toyota fitted with lidar and camera sensors, this is one of the universities forefront autonomously driven vehicles. On the right is a built from scratch "Slocal' (A slow locally driven vehicle which often gives verbal directions to the driver) vehicle which has the primary purpose of helping the elderly get around safely.

In addition to the research cars they have multiple highly technical driving simulators used for the research. These things are crazy big and so cool. I was even able to drive in one of them for a short while and the amount of modifications that are available via. software editing is ridiculous.

That was about it in terms of the technical knowledge and class stuff for this week so now we get to FOOD REVIEWS!!!!! <3

After being in Japan for over a week at this point I still had yet to have sushi so me and my roommates went and found this little hole in the wall place.

You can see me and my friends sitting at the bar on the left and the finished food spread on the right. We were the only ones in here for dinner which made sense as the sign outside only said すし which just translates to sushi (So still don't know the name of this place). We had an amazing time and the food was great and we even talked to the chef a bit in Japanese.

Around midweek I was craving something super spicy, and my girlfriend Olivia recommended me aa curry chain before I left called Coco Ichiban so we tried it out

This is the spread of each of our orders. Mine is in the bottom left (The one that is several shades darker than the others) I did not understand how the spice level system worked here and ordered a level 8. It turned out that meant it was about 24 times spicier than level 1. My spice cravings were definitely satisfied and then some. Still we had an amazing dinner and I do want to go back to try the level 10.

The next spot also came recommended from Olivia and it was a cream puff spot called Beard Papa.

This is a photo of all of their types of cream puffs. I got three different kinds: vanilla, peach, and green tea filling all with the original pastry. They were rich, decadent, and sweet; Everything you could want in a cream puff. (My favorite was the peach)

Lastly I did just a little bit of sightseeing towards the end of the week.

This is me at a Chunichi Dragons baseball game. Baseball is huge in Japan and this is the local Nagoya team. This night they won 1-0 against the Hiroshima Carp. The energy was super high the entire game, fans constantly cheering, music playing, it was so much fun. (I ended up buying a jersey because the starting pitcher did so well).

I have felt so much more comfortable in my surroundings this week and cannot wait to keep learning about and exploring this amazing country.

Until next time, さようなら, また 来週

Connor Gilfillan

Mechanical Engineering

NUSIP Automotive Engineering in Nagoya, Japan

[rpgse7enx4]

All that glitters is not gold - The realities behind the image/story/object (a real life aspect): Canal 5 Mexico, Al servicio de la communidad (At the service of the community) and missing person Selene Delgado Lopez - By RPG.

(Above) Segment from Canal 5's "Al servicio de la communidad", airing to provide insight on missing people from various areas in Mexico throughout the early 1990s until the 2000's.

A notable name in this broadcast was one 18 year old "Selene Delgado Lopez", a woman who had apparently disappeared from Delegation "Alvaro Obregon" (District "Alvaro Obregon") on the 22nd of April sometime 30 years ago.

The case of Selene interested the minds of true crime enthusiasts, and those willing to find missing people in a heartbeat; though with endless researching and outreach, there were no leads or any proof that she had even existed in the first place. People in Mexico started to make up theories that she was kidnapped and used in human trafficking, but without any proof their claims came to no avail.

Selene's missing persons case soon started to dissolve into a mystery, and as time went past more and more people started to conclude that she was either dead or hadn't existed and that it was just a PR stunt made by Canal 5. Theories of her disappearance, and the involvement of organised crime came after a slew of other high profile cases sprung up in Mexico involving missing women and girls; who had succumbed to unimaginable fates. A note, and fact, to make about Central and South America is that countries in that region are a hotbed for crimes related to the exploitation of women; for example, Honduras and El Salvador to this day hold the highest rates of Femicide (honour killings involving the "sacrifice" of women to apparently "stop misfortune within the family")...and the sad thing is that cases like these aren't usually concluded due to the influx in police corruption and extortion.

In 2020, the case was amplified again; with people announcing that the apparent missing girl was found alive, and rumours of a social media account began to show up. An account called "Selene Delgado" began to be shared around to people with a warning attached, stating that this person was "friends with many people on Facebook" and that there was no way to block her; turning out to all be a huge hoax to scaremonger those gullible enough to believe it.

September 2nd 2021. Youtuber "FlorecitaDreams" uploads a video of themselves attempting to disseminate the likeliness of her even being a real person by using photographic evidence and advanced software to prove that it was just a collage of pictures put together. Doing this, they collated the supposed picture of Selene Delgado Lopez and the Baton Rouge killer Derrick Todd Lee:

A note: The picture of Derrick Todd Lee is a computer rendered E-Fit of the murderer and not an actual photo of Derrick.

E-Fits are superimposed images made by collating various facial features often given in witness testimonies to make a somewhat over-exaggerated face; faces are made exaggerated for one sole reason, so that they are recognisable even by identifying someone based on one facial feature. E-Fits are commonplace in use in both criminal cases, trying to catch a murderer or unidentified suspect, or in hopes of identifying a unidentified corpse (in this case, laboratories like FACES Lab will use exhumed skulls and 3d imaging software to produce a look-a-like to what their facial structure might have been; this of course depends on the severity of structural damage to the body part).

With this investigation done by FlorecitaDreams, they made the argument that the Selene Delgado Lopez face was just a manipulation of Derrick Todd Lee's; going over sophisticated mathematical explanations just to try and prove that the face wasn't real in the first place.

FlorecitaDreams uses a graph make-up to show the likeliness and familiarity between inanimate and unrealistic beings to a healthy human. It goes into extensive depth exposing whether or not the being in question accentuates movement like a human does.

As a summary, the case still remains unsolved; though multiple sources have attempted to debunk potential fallacies to do with both the missing persons case itself and the rumors around it. Its illusive to whether or not the person existed, or if they were just a figure of someone's oddly creative

RPG-7