#hack Uc

[whoslaurapalmer]

gelert morphing potions are so fucking expensive how will i ever turn Pet On Specific Neopets Side Account That Was Hacked And Turned Into An UC Royalboy Acara Through Completely Illegal Means back into his precious red gelert self. the fucking horror of it all

[galwithalibrarycard]

I’m definitely setting this fic in season four so Deborah can say, “No, Bob, I absolutely refuse to fire Ava. Both because I love her, and because I’m not going to be the boss who fires a chronically ill employee and kicks her off her health insurance. She needs that. She can’t be an effective pain in my ass unless I help her with the pain in hers!”

I’ve decided I’m writing a Hacks (HBO) fanfic where Ava Daniels is diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Having a situationship with an older woman who has years of cancer-prevention colonoscopy experience and a long-standing doctor-patient relationship with one of the country’s best gastroenterologists turns out to be a huge asset in this situation.

[bantersnatch]

dissecting the vip s2e11 bianca loredrop

welcome back, folks! this is a deceptive one, because on paper it's just two lines on a wikipedia page. here they are now:

the thing is, there's a lot of information compacted into those two lines. let's break 'em down together!

bianca and the host are alums of the same college. this is from the "notable alumni" section wikipedia page for the host's college (uc irvine as per s2e10), and this is definitively our bianca. these two went to school together. this is actually something i've been speculating about since the mid-season break (i talk about why in this post). this is a story, so there is no world in which this is a coincidence and they didn't know each other during their schooling -- this means the two of them go back at least a decade as of the in-world filming of season 2. "tethered" is starting to make more sense, huh? this is a long, long relationship, and it's likely that it started out as something very different than the current stepparent-stepdaughter dynamic. i'd hazard to say it's most likely that the host actually met their husband through bianca.

bianca graduated one year before the host did. i'm taking this to mean that bianca is in the class year before the host, and is roughly a year older than her stepparent. we know the host's birthday is in november, so assuming bianca didn't graduate early we're looking at an age gap of 3-15 months. absolutely beautiful stuff.

bianca's last name is jocasta. this is the big one, which is a wild thing to say after the massive reveal that these two have known each other for 10+ years. but, well -- that's just the point we're at. i've already been operating under the assumption that the 10+ years thing is true, so while it's fantastic to have confirmation i'm not overly shaken up about it. "jocasta", on the other hand? brand-new. unforeseen. unhinged. we can talk about whether this is her dad's previous surname or if she took her mom's after the divorce but i don't think any of that is too relevant to the story being told here. let's chat instead about the name itself, because holy hell is there baggage. in greek myth, jocasta was the mother-turned-incestuous bride of oedipus rex. a queen doomed by fate to marry her son, so on and so forth. absolutely classic, absolutely devastating. in freudian psychoanalysis, a 'jocasta complex' describes the erotic fixation of a mother on her child. oedipus complex but move it slightly to the left. in short: her last name is an incest reference any way you flip it.

bianca's wiki page has been viewed before. we've just "hacked into" the host's accounts, so i think it's safe to assume that the implication here is that the host has been hanging out on bianca's wikipedia page. i'm not going to offer any analysis here because you know exactly what i'm gonna say about That.

conclusion: yeah okay. i'm done playing coy about this. i've been trying to keep my biases regarding these two's backstory in the realm of fanfiction, where speculation on that level belongs, but this all essentially confirms that the show and i are on the same page. there is a romantic/sexual component to the relationship between bianca and the host, it is Weird, and it goes back at minimum ten years.

everyone strap in. i have a feeling we're in for a wild ride from now until the end of the season. we know they shot around an hour of bianca footage total (i think this was mentioned in a tamar interview with jordon brown?). they could pull just about anything.

[cyberstudious]

Books for Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

I'll admit that I've mostly used online resources and courses so far, but these are the handful of books that I've read and recommend!

Books About Cybersecurity History

The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll: the story of how one man noticed an odd error in a computer at UC Berkely and traced it back to an international hacking scheme. a very fun & interesting read.

Cult of the Dead Cow by Joseph Menn: a look into hacker culture and how few people took computer security seriously at the beginning, and an exploration of how cybersecurity often becomes deeply and uncomfortably intertwined with geopolitics.

Books to Learn Cybersecurity

Practical Malware Analysis by Michael Sikorski and Andrew Honig: an oldie but a goodie for getting into malware analysis. I'm currently in the middle of working through this one and having a great time.

Serious Cryptography by Jean-Philippe Aumasson: a detailed guide for understanding the nuts and bolts of cryptography (the 2nd edition is coming out this month, so it might be worth checking out the newer version).

Cybersecurity Foundations Textbooks

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (7th edition) by Kurose & Ross: this was the textbook we used in the computer networks class I took in college - I think this book does a good job of explaining how the internet works and breaking concepts down to the lowest level.

Operating System Concepts (10th edition) by Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne: this is the textbook from my operating systems course. This is a good book to go through if you want to learn how a computer Really Works.

Books I Haven't Read (Yet) - But I Know They'll Be Good

Cybersecurity Books from No Starch Press - many books have free chapters posted here that you can read as a preview!

Books by Bruce Schneier - books on society, technology, and cryptography

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Ash Walker: Part 1

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

“Now that we’re all here it’s time I tell you what the job is.”

Hemlock kicked the holographic table and it buzzed into life, the projection lighting up the room in a soft blue glow. Six pairs of eyes turned to look at the projection as Hemlock pointed to the slowly turning image of a world.

“This is Thescara III-“ he began before being immediately cut off.

“Frak this shit.” One of the onlookers declared. “I’m not sitting one foot on that cursed world. You drop me off on the nearest barren moon.”

“What’s wrong with Thescara III?” another onlooker asked.

Septh looked at Hemlock and scoffed. “No wonder you wanted a new crew of fresh pups, for no seasoned salvager would join up with you.”

“You going to answer my question old man, or are you just keep ignoring me?”

Septh looked at the Fling then back at Hemlock with a hard stare. Hemlock paused and took a look around the room at his new crew. There was the Theosian called Tug standing in the back. He wore his ceremonial metal armor that was crafted to his flesh upon birth and was the muscle of the group.

The Guppin Fling was sitting in front of Tug with all four of his legs crossed. They were the youngest of the group and were it not for his hacking skills he’d not be here at all. Hemlock saw a lot of himself in the Guppin but was worried his enthusiasm would make him careless.

Opposite them were the triplets Nok, Uma, and Rue. None of them were particularly good with any skillset, but Hemlock needed the extra hands for lugging things and they came cheap. In truth he still didn't know which was which so he’d just shout a name and tell them to do something.

Last was Septh; the only one he’d used for multiple jobs. He was an old hand at the salvage game and was understandably not happy about being kept in the dark until the last moment.

“Thescara III was originally a human world until their war with the Jen. Rather than engage the humans on the surface where they knew the humans had the advantage they dropped a couple thousand low yield nuclear bombs across the entire surface reducing it to perpetual nuclear winter.”

“Cowards.”

Hemlock turned to see Tug adjusting himself against the wall and send a small tremor through the decking before spitting a gob of something black on to the floor and continued talking.

“True warriors face their foes face to face; not through the lens of a computer monitor.”

“If you knew what humans can do with a sharpened stick you might think twice.”

The triplets snickered at this but went silent when Tug shot them a sidelong glance.

“None of this matters, save for the fact there is over seven million credits locked away in the capital branch bank of Universal Credit that is just sitting there waiting to be nabbed.”

The mention of loot drew everyone’s attention. That many credits were enough to buy decent chunk of a moon, or live a life of luxury on a paradise world for seven lifetimes.

 “It’s just been sitting there; this entire time?” one of the triplets asked. “How do we know the credits are still there?”

Gods they even sound the same, Hemlock thought.

“’The planet has been an ecological nightmare ever since the bombs went off. You can only stay on the surface for a short period of time before the radiation levels kill you. Couple that with the vault’s combination randomly rotating itself every hour it’s made it impossible to crack it before the radiation bakes you.”

“If that’s true then what chance do we have?” Septh interrupted.

In response Hemlock reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold disc.

“Because we aren’t going to need to crack the vault with this little ticket here.” Hemlock smiled. “As this little dingy is a corporate level security key, which can open any UC vault automatically.”

The triplets and Fling whistled in amazement, and with good reason. Those types of security keys were only given to executive level personnel and the loss of one would trigger an immediate reaction force to retrieve it.

“Do I want to know how you got that?” Septh asked.

Hemlock shrugged. “I’m borrowing it from a certain partner who will remain nameless for now.”

He pointed back to the hologram and grinned. “Now, time to plan our payday.” ---------------------------

Parting through the dense cloud coverage, Hemlock kept a constant eye on the retro rockets to match the ever changing wind patterns. He had flown through hurricanes and gale force winds that could cleave metal like paper, yet Thescara III was proving to be an entirely different beast.

Not only was the planet covered in a near perpetual cloud cover that dispensed ash but the sheer amount of nuclear bombs that had been dropped had also changed the planet’s equilibrium. Wind direction changed in intensity and direction by the minute, air pockets were abound like it was a minefield, and that wasn’t even getting into the random lightning strikes that could short out the entire ship if one struck home.

“I told you this planet was-“ Septh began before another air pocket the ship and the ship dropped suddenly.

Hemlock grinned at his good fortune and once more adjusted a series of dials. It took a few moments to pass through the last bit of turbulence and finally get below the cloud cover.

“Welcome to Thescara III everyone.” Hemlock said as the planet’s surface finally came into view.

As far as his eyes could see the entire planet was covered in layer upon layer of grey ash. Spires of city skyscrapers loomed up out of the ground like the skeleton fingers of gods, their shadows casting long across the ruins of a dead city.

After a few moments of circling Hemlock found the ideal landing site and brought the ship down. From the city records he was able to obtain the opening was once a large park at the heart of the capital city and only a few city blocks away from their target.

With a loud thud the support legs touched down on the surface and the engines began slowly powering down. Hemlock was already unbuckling harness and making for the cargo hold. Septh was in lock step behind him as the pair entered the hold to find the rest of the crew already suiting up.

Tug still had his armor on but had donned an atmospheric helmet. Hemlock could see the faint green glow of targeting feeds displaying on the inside of the helmet as the warrior performed basic systems checks. The triplets were gathering around hauler making final checks. They wore standard atmospheric suits with different colors for distinction as they circled the hauler. It was an anti-grav model with several large cases stacked on the back which the crew would fill with credits.

Hemlock was crazy enough to take this risk but not stupid enough to think he or his crew could haul seven million credits back without transport so the triplets were to be glued to the thing the entire time.

Fling was the last of the group off to the side that Hemlock found. He was struggling to attach the gloves of his suit when he approached and helped him.

“So if we have a key to the vault,” Fling began as he nodded thanks to Hemlock for the glove assist, “why exactly do you need me?”

“If the key fails you’re the contingency.” Hemlock said plainly. “I always hedge my bets, and I always have a plan B.”

Fling smirked. “I don’t know if I should be flattered or insulted for being plan A.”

Hemlock didn’t reply as he finished checking the rest of Fling’s suit and stepping back as Septh approached. He casually flung a spare helmet to Hemlock who caught it midair and donned it with ease.

“Listen up everyone,” he began as he spoke over the shared com network, “we have three hours to get in and out before the next radiation wave sweeps through here.”

Slapping the release button on the side of the hull sirens began blaring and the boarding ramp slowly cracked open and lowered down to the surface. A fresh blizzard of ash slowly began sweeping into the hold as the crew hopped onboard the hauler.

“Keep in coms range, keep an eye on your radiation meters, and for frak’s sake do not go wandering off.” Hemlock broke off checking on his crew to look down the boarding ramp as it fully opened. “This is not a world you want to be alone on.”

With his instructions delivered he slapped the top of the hauler’s cab and the triplets drove the vehicle forward. No sooner had the hauler reached the bottom of the ramp did Hemlock realize something was wrong.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Hemlock turned to see Fling looking off to the left of the boarding ramp and followed his gaze. His eyes went wide as he saw the outline of a Nebula B class freighter parked right next to his ship.

From the cockpit he had assumed it was another mound of ash, but now looking up at it from the ground he could see the underside of the ship clear as day. It’s boarding ramp was likewise lowered but now was coated in several layers of ash.

“Competition?” Tug asked as he hefted his power rifle. Septh shook his head in response as his eyes went over the freighter.

“This thing’s been here a while now.” He answered. Tug looked at him then back at the silent freighter. “How can you tell?” he asked.

“Nebula B’s are notorious for their engines never fully shutting down and always making a low rumbling sound.” Septh said as he put a hand to his ear. “For it to be silent it must have burned through its fuel reserves, and those can last about two-three years.”

“That’s not the half of it.”

Hemlock turned to see Tug nodding in the opposite direction to see a row of other spaceships lining alongside theirs like a giant parking lot.

“What the hell is this…” One of the triplets said from the hauler cabin. “Where are all their crews? Why’d they leave their ships out like this?”

“It’s-“ Septh began but Hemlock cut him off.

“Shut it.” Hemlock barked. He pointed down the road lined with ash covered vehicles. “We’ve got three hours and we don’t have time to waste!”

The crew looked amongst themselves before the hauler lurched forward again.

[undertale-fic-librarby]

For the latest lost fics post on January 1st: for the anon with the “I found this funky fic the other night that wasnot very popular. The reader is a computer nerd and hacks into the undernet and becomes online friends with Sans. He nicknames the reader snooper. The formatting was really unique and I havent seen anything like it.

I accidentally closed the tab and lost it though. Do you think you can find it? Take your time, there is no rush. Thank you” I think you may be looking for Mixed Signals by Quichein.

Howdy, & thanks for the recommendation! The fic being recommended is…

Mixed Signals by quichein (Not Rated, Incomplete)

Something peculiar catches your attention. Among the usual digital noise of pings, blips, and messages, there’s a single, errant signal — an unfamiliar one, weak but persistent, almost like it’s hiding. It’s coming from somewhere around Mt. Ebott, of all places. Intrigued, you start digging deeper. You scan through layers of old, obscure encryption until you uncover a database. Instead of typical phone numbers, each contact is labeled with a unique string of characters—a mix between IP addresses and phone numbers, almost like email addresses but with a strange, glyph-like composition. S-TS79fb: who are you and howd ya get my UC? You: y/n, and i was given it by a friend You: also, what's a UC? i dont chat a lot haha S-TS79fb: heh, youre funny. S-TS79fb: "a friend" huh? S-TS79fb: didnt think id get a signal from a buddy up top.

[mariacallous]

The anonymous image board 4chan has survived years of controversy. It weathered user and advertiser boycotts as well as damning accusations that it incubated hate speech that may have fueled mass shootings. Users have convened on 4chan to plan hacks like DDoS attacks, and conspiracy theories that festered on 4chan even reportedly inspired the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol. On Monday night and Tuesday, though, the platform faced its latest test after a series of outages led to speculation that the site had been hacked.

The core feature 4chan provides is public anonymity to post text and images, but the platform itself does collect information about users, such as their IP addresses. As a result, a breach of the website could represent a significant exposure of data that was intended to be private.

“4chan is an anonymous message board that enables often offensive and hateful content. The content leaked, if genuine, would remove some of the anonymity from 4chan administrators, moderators, and janitors,” says Ian Gray, director of analysis and research at the security firm Flashpoint. The image board’s billing as an “anonymous” platform may have given users a “false sense of security,” Gray says. “Some users may have registered their email addresses years ago when they were less aware or concerned about their operational security.”

Reports about the apparent hack began circulating after a previously banned board on 4chan briefly appeared online and the site was defaced with a message saying, “U GOT HACKED XD.” Subsequently, an online account on a rival forum known as Soyjak.party posted screenshots allegedly showing 4chan’s backend systems, plus a list of alleged 4chan administrator and moderator usernames, with associated email addresses. Following this post of 4chan administrator email addresses, Soyjak.party users started posting alleged doxes, including photos and personal information, of the accounts included in the leak.

WIRED has not been able to confirm whether the data is legitimate. A press email address associated with 4chan as well as two alleged administrator emails from the leaked data did not immediately respond to WIRED’s requests for comment on the hack and its validity. One of the site’s moderators said they believed the hack and leaks were real, according to a report by TechCrunch.

Rumors also started circulating on Tuesday that the breach is the result of 4chan running legacy, unpatched software that exposed the platform to attack. After a breach a decade ago, 4chan founder Christopher Poole, known online as “moot,” wrote in a blog post, “[We] have spent—and will continue to spend—dozens of hours poring over our software and systems to help mitigate and prevent future intrusions. We’re sorry it happened, and will do our best to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Emiliano De Cristofaro, a computer science and engineering professor at UC Riverside, who has researched the impact of 4chan on the web, says the ramifications could be large if the hack is confirmed.

“It seems true that 4chan hasn't been properly maintained and patched for years, which might indicate that a hack would have definitely been a possibility,” De Cristofaro says. “There might be some ‘high profile’ users exposed as moderators—traditionally, 4chan users hate them, so they might be targeted. It might be hard or at least painfully slow and costly for 4chan to recover from this, so we might really see the end of 4chan as we know it.”

Initial reports posted on Soyjak.party referencing a 4chan hack appeared to say that Soyjak.party members may have been involved in the attack. One post claimed that a hacker had been in 4chan’s systems “for over a year” and exposed personal information allegedly linked to 4chan users and administrators. And multiple screenshots posted on Soyjak.party appear to show someone accessing 4chan’s internal systems. These include images of someone with administrator access to a 4chan backend database, stats about users on various sections of 4chan, a page showing deleted posts and the IP addresses they were made from, as well as other internal documentation. Some reports also claim that hackers stole 4chan’s source code.

In recent years, 4chan has increasingly been on the radar of US government officials. The website has reportedly been kept online due in part to investment by a Japanese company. In June 2023, WIRED reported on internal 4chan documents that showed how the site’s policies shaped the highly toxic nature of the platform—including how moderators explicitly allow racism. In most cases, the documents showed, calls for violence on 4chan are not met with user bans.

“If the data is legitimate, information on members and posting could be useful for law enforcement investigations,” Flashpoint’s Gray says. “4chan has been around since at least 2003, which is extremely notable for any online service. Aside from the offensive and often extremist content, a lot of internet culture has originated from 4chan. If this is a death knell for 4chan, other services will likely fill its place. However, the effect of 4chan on the internet cannot be overstated.”

[beykayfan1]

💾 "✨ ULTRAGOTH XP STOCKING Supremacy! ✨" 💾

After a Week, We Must Behold, Stocking Anarchy in her Windows XP cybercore era—a digital goth queen lost in the aesthetic void of early 2000s nostalgia! And Now, We Must Give Graciousness to her Supremacy for she has been completely uploaded to the digitized world of Windows XP!! And Yea, I Could see Stocking Just Hacking your Mainstream for fun-Enjoy this Cyber/Glittercore Edit of Stocking (FWI I Just Love her Character and Her Aesthetic)! And If you Want to Her Some Music? Visit "https://en.picmix.com/pic/Stocking-XP-Supremacy-12480107?uc=1" For More!

[memecucker]

So people protested on the field of a Berkeley vs USC game and it turns out has nothing to do with Palestine (like many assumed) but is instead was about students protesting to reinstate a Berkeley professor who repeatedly stalked and harassed a UC Davis professor (including leaving graffiti at his mothers house) and it’s just so.. bizarre? Like this professor seems to literally have a cult following like she’s doing the generic “I was hacked” excuse and there’s students that just believe her bc they like her?

In an interview with KQED, del Valle acknowledged some of the behavior described in the investigative reports, including keying Clover’s car, vandalizing the area outside his apartment door, contacting his friends, posting an image of his partner online and leaving messages outside the home of his mother. Those messages included one that said “I raised a psychopath,” according to the university’s investigative reports. She has also acknowledged in the report calling Clover’s office phone line at least ten times within 90 minutes.

Throughout each official investigation, del Valle maintains that her actions were the result of being hacked, and that she was not receiving the support she needed.

“I did write outside his door, ‘Here lives a pervert.’ I did that. And again, I’m not proud,” del Valle said. “If I had the opportunity to do things differently, I would do them differently.”

Del Valle said that she regretted visiting the mother’s home, but disagreed that the message towards Clover’s mother was a threat or that any of her behavior was sexual harassment.

Throughout each official investigation, del Valle maintains that her actions were the result of being hacked, and that she was not receiving the support she needed.

She hasn’t even been fired?!? She is choosing to not accept an 18 month suspension and thus would prefer to be fired?? Literally just don’t stalk, harass and vandalize someone’s stuff?

Del Valle said since the suspension in the fall of 2021, she has not been teaching at UC Berkeley and has been living out of two suitcases because of the uncertainty around her future. She said she could accept an 18-month suspension UC Berkeley offered as a settlement, but has no plans to do so. If she doesn’t accept that outcome, the case could instead be brought before the university’s Privilege and Tenure Committee, and she could lose her tenure and be fired.

“My life is completely destroyed,” del Valle said. “I don’t want UC Berkeley to think that they can do this to a minority woman in order to protect a white, senior professor. It’s not acceptable.”

[rjzimmerman]

In case you're interested, here's the link to the report described in this excerpt entitled, "Decades of Deceit: The Case Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud and Damages," published by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Highlight statement from the report:

Dozens of states, counties, cities, and tribes across the United States and its territories are currently suing major fossil fuel companies for fraud, climate damages, or racketeering. This report assesses the wealth of documentary evidence behind these lawsuits—including recently released internal corporate documents. The evidence could hardly be clearer: For decades these companies possessed detailed and accurate knowledge about the dangers their products pose to the global climate and understood that climate action would threaten their business models. Yet they planned, funded, and continue to engage in a campaign to profit from the planet’s destruction by deceiving the public and blocking climate action. Ongoing investigations link a criminal hacking scheme targeting climate accountability advocates to a Washington, DC, lobbying firm and one of its clients—a major oil and gas corporation. At a time when the federal government is backsliding on climate action and pandering to fossil fuel interests, it is more important than ever to hold these corporations accountable for exacerbating the climate crisis.

Recently, the Union of Concerned Scientists released another report entitled (with the link), "Tracing Tides: How Major Carbon Producers Drive Sea Level Rise and Climate Injustice." Highlight statement from that report:

Major fossil fuel producers have played a large role in driving climate change and increasing global temperatures and sea levels, prompting questions about who bears responsibility. New research by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that nearly half of the increase in present-day average surface temperature and one-third of present-day sea level rise can be traced to emissions from the 122 largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. This research also shows that due to the delay between heat-trapping emissions and the consequential impacts on ocean temperatures and ice sheets, previous emissions have all but guaranteed as much as 22 inches of additional sea level rise by 2300, regardless of future reductions in climate-warming pollution. These findings underscore the urgency of phasing out fossil fuels, highlight the intergenerational injustice of continuing their use, and can inform discussions about major corporations’ responsibility for current and future climate impacts.

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

A new report draws on decades of internal documents and court records to lay out how some of the world’s most powerful corporations misled the public about the dangers of climate change—and how their efforts to avoid responsibility for the harms caused by their products have evolved in recent years. 

The documents and records cited in the report, released Wednesday by the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists, have been reported on previously. But the report’s authors say they are the first to aggregate and analyze those documents in a comprehensive way. 

“This report puts together, in one place, a powerful body of evidence about what the fossil fuel corporations knew—and when—about the climate impacts of their products, and what they did in spite of what they knew,” said Kathy Mulvey, a report author and accountability campaign director for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS.

Mulvey said the report should add heft to dozens of lawsuits pending worldwide against fossil fuel companies over their contribution to climate change. 

The report comes as the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Justice are acting to shield those companies from legal accountability efforts within the United States. 

In late April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order announcing his intent to protect “American Energy From State Overreach.” The order directs the Justice Department to review, identify and thwart state and local efforts to address climate change. In recent weeks, the agency filed lawsuits against Hawaii, Michigan, New York and Vermont, alleging those states’ lawsuits or legislation seeking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate-related harms infringes on federal power. 

Historically, conservatives championed states’ rights. But in recent years, the Republican Party has repeatedly sought to invoke a legal mechanism known as preemption to extinguish local communities’ and states’ rights to make decisions about environmental and health protections. 

The report notes that the oil and gas industry was a “heavy donor” to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Publicly available documents indicate industry groups gave an estimated $96 million to the Trump campaign. That amount doesn’t include so-called “dark money” donations that are not publicly disclosed or contributions to the president’s meme coin, which Trump has personally profited from. 

[simbic]

Haven't been able to focus on this because I changed my mind and started a new save in Elden Ring, which ruined my life. I stay away from here because the drama is just...weird and incoherent, and I'm anxious enough. Constant state of dread. I don't need TS2 drama on top of it.

Then I had computer issues: PSU dying, so it had to be replaced before it potentially fried something. Primary HDD dying, so it had to be replaced. And this week I squared up with my computer to install an AIO, but the first one I bought had an internal threading issue; the screws that were SUPPOSED to fit didn't fit in one side, and rather than potentially ruin the pump, i sent it back.

Got the new one this week and installed it yesterday, which should have been easy, but I screwed something in backwards and then ran out of thermal paste. The thermal paste really set me off for some reason, so...yeah.

Anyway, i played today.

Two hours, no pink soup, no crashing, no lag. I should have seen something by the 2 hour mark. We'll see how it goes with the medieval folder.

I haven't had an experience this smooth or stable in years, dude. UC I could count on crashing every time I loaded a lot. I'd be able to load ONE lot, and then after that, I couldn't load another. This is wild and honestly a little surprising. The patches fixed the issues I've been having with it, so that's nice.

This is with about 6GB of cc, just to see what happens as I add more in. With UC it didn't matter, it just didn't seem to like there to be any CC present at all. Eventually I'd inevitably start seeing pink flashing; it wouldn't even been on the current lot. Sometimes it would be on a lot across from the one I was in. Then I'd go back to the neighborhood and the whole thing would be flashing. But ya'll know how it is.

Also, all settings high, neighbors and hood deco on. Put in the neighborhood skies and turned on water reflections. Running great. It's still way smoother than UC has been in a long time.

This is plasticbox's Elsewhere; i wanted a pre-built neighborhood to see what would happen. This is the only active sim, so I dunno what more townies would be like. Gonna use the townie gun to see lolol

Issue I encountered: Crashing when I initially added in my entire cc folder, so I 50/50'd because the crashing was inconsistent. Sometimes, not all the time. I'd add in half the cc and no crash, but add in the other half, then crash.

I assumed this would happen because there have been reports of this occurring after CC is added in. I went with the tried and true method and fixed this.

I narrowed it down to ONE file and removed it. No more crashing. Same thing with my MCC folder which is considerably bigger and with which I expected way more issues. 50/50 until I found the problem and removed it. One file. That was it.

Makeup tab is...shockingly smooth? Lag still happens, but it takes a lot longer for it to get unbearable. I just started adding tons of stuff to my sim's face to see when the lag would set in. Whatever they did, they improved it a great deal.

Interestingly, hacks and shader fixes cause no issues. I thought this was funny. Hacks work fine, but a random piece of CC makes the game crash while loading.

UC would crash out if I scrolled through anything too fast. scrolling through buymode too fast? Crash. Scrolling through clothing too fast? Crash. On and on. I used to have to wait a few seconds before going forward. It was especially bad if it had to generate thumbnails.

I clicked through everything fast as possible. No crash.

Me: Interesting.

Installed CEP and Scriptorium manually. Lighting mods, touch and go, but everything works. Nice. Might try reshade, but eh.

That said, as with any game, if you're adding in large amounts of custom content, I highly recommend you do this gradually. People have been dumping everything into the game and then complaining about pink soup and crashing. You might just need to do some troubleshooting; it could be just one thing in your folder making the game freak out.

This is my experience though. Can't speak for anyone else.

Anyways. I expect some pink soup eventually, but also with how smooth it is, for the time being I'll just stay positive about it. I'd rather not look for a problem that's not reared it's head yet anymore.

Excited to see how my MCC hood behaves. That said, I think...relaxed rules for my sanity. Maybe just a straight up BACC with storytelling. I will be starting the hood fresh; I have all the lots, so no building this time.

[sonichedgeblog]

'Sonic 2: Archives' (Hack) by Team Conquest & Team Technical Restores unused conceptions, uses concept arts, prototypes, and early/unused stuff! https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1fH9g1JgHM7h_mQk_GmOT8XqPd4mnVcE9&usp=drive_fs

[fangbangerghoul]

I was tagged by @silurisanguine to do an OC chart! I finally got to it!

Fandom: Starfield

Role: Spacefarer, Starborn.

BASICS

Full Name: Carmilla Imada

Nickname(s): Ghoul, just Ghoul

Pronouns: She/ they

Sexuality: Bisexual

Occupation and Titles: Imada's Blade, Mercenary, Argos, failed Chef, Starborn

Birthday & Age:  10/31, current age 28

Physical description: short, thick, and defined. Height at about 5' 2", muscles filled in with her thicker manner.

Clothing style: Loose but form fitting outfits. Olive drab greens, blacks, reds. Mostly covering her body and hiding her blades.

BACKGROUND

Orphaned at 8, her parents failed to pay a debt that landed them dead and her left on the streets of Neon City. She was eventually picked up by Masako Imada and 'adopted' (no real records were kept). She was trained from the age 10 till the time she left to 'handle' family business in the ways her 'caregiver' would request. (assassinations, intimidation, hacking, after a certain age bartering pleasure) She escaped after going on a rage (killing and destroying a business deal that would have greatly benefited the company) and tried to travel as far as she could with what limited funds she had. (She has had a large sum bounty on her head ever since) She used her skills to be undercover to get into a UC culinary school where she failed miserably before coming to the mining operation Argos. Most of her life after Ryujin Industries has been on the run and in hiding, until she runs into Constellation.

COMBAT & SKILLS

Preferred fighting style: Hand to hand combat, shadows, surprise attacks, and anything that allows her to use her brute force. (it's how she gets her anger out)

Favorite weapon(s): Daggers, her collection of blades she picks up.

Special skills: High stealth skills, high persuasion skills, high security skills. She also knows a lot about the insides of what goes on within the businesses of Neon Core.

RELATIONSHIPS

Family: Biological parents dead. Her 'adopted' mother only viewed her as a tool so there isn't much there.

Love interest: Love? Ghoul enjoys pleasure and doesn't allow people to get to close. However, she has found peace around several people for a limited time. (Delgado, Sam, honorable mentions; Valentine, Anton)

Best friends: Her first best friend was killed for being accused as a spy. Now the closest she has gotten is probably Andreja, Vladimir, and Mr. Valentine.

PERSONALITY

Positive traits: Aware, Intelligent, She got that dog in her

Negative traits: Stubborn. Impulsive. Apathetic in a lot of cases.

Likes: Crushing skulls, gouging eyes, also the thrill of the chase.

Dislikes: Government agencies, being forced into a box, being lectured

Fears: Being forced to return to Ryujin and work for her mother.

Guilty Pleasure: Children's plushies, she keeps a small collection of them within her captains locker to visit time and time again.

[darkmaga-returns]

Patrick J. McShay

— Ronald Reagan, US President — Jewish Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin

Kamala Harris has just six days left to do something she has yet to do since being crowned as Braindead Joe’s replacement candidate, due to his advanced dementia and cognitive impairment. She has yet to articulate why she wants to be president and what she would do differently than “Dementia Joe”. Unfortunately, she’s got nothing but abortion and continuing her globalist controller’s disastrous policies that have destroyed the country.

While killing their babies seems way too important to the slags on the left, who in their right mind would give this woman, who has destroyed the country for four years and has a track record of failing upward most of her life, four more years in office?

Harris used Affirmative Action for a leg up to get into college and was also the recipient of assistance through the Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP) at UC Hastings Law School, originally called “The Minority Assistance Program”, a program designed to assist disadvantaged students. For some reason, Harris is angered when she is referred to as a DEI candidate, but she is, after all, the quintessential DEI candidate.

What were her disadvantages? Her father was a tenured economics Professor at Stanford University, her mother was a scientist and Cancer researcher, and she grew up in one of the wealthiest zip codes in Canada. The poor thing.

Kamala and her Marxist handlers are panicking, and the cries of “Hitler” and “Nazis” are all anyone hears from these fake media hacks in the mainstream media, absurdly comparing the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night to the 1939 Nazi Party rally that was held in the old MSG building that was demolished nearly 60 years ago. The Trump rally was in the new MSG building built in 1968. Harris, whose father is an admitted Marxist, is using the Communist playbook in her attacks on Trump and Vance because that’s all she has left.

G. Edward Griffin wrote that in 1943 the following directive was sent from Communist Party headquarters to their comrades in America. This sounds like the Harris playbook she and her protectors in the media are using against Trump. It is truly disgusting and disturbing to see the corporate media coordinating their attacks on Trump with the Harris campaign.

[shin-meddlesome-hero]

So I watched “Gundam Seed Freedom” despite knowing nothing about the series because maybe I won’t get the chance to watch Gundam in movie theaters in my country ever again. So here’s my impressions.

(Spoilers ahead)

Things I liked:

*I wanted to see giant robots fighting in the big screen and the movie delivered.

*I didn’t know that they revisited some of the Mobile Suits from UC. I liked the Gyan, the Gelgoog and the Z’Gok.

*My favorite part was when someone was hacking something and the computer screen said “hacking”.

*Also that part when Athrun defeated the mind-reading psychics by having horny heterosexual thoughts.

*"You don’t love someone because you need them; you need them because you love them”. It’s a nice corny phrase, I wanted to steal it for my fanfic but then I remembered that most Gundam series exist in my fic’s universe so if one of the characters were to use it, someone else would get the reference.

*The theme song is cool.

*There are some parts about the cosmic era lore that I didn’t understand but intrigued me.

Things I didn’t like:

*The concept of genetically engineered psychics using their mind-control powers to brainwash Kira and make him to kickstart an international incident was entertaining, but after that one battle, these powers turned out not to be as powerful and menacing as it was implied at first, so what’s up with that?

*Also, if I understood correctly, Lacus was genetically engineered to be admired by everyone? Isn’t this supposed to be a huge revelation? It didn’t go anywhere.

Things I didn’t like but weren’t the film’s fault:

*I guess most of the story would’ve made more of an impact if I knew who all these people were.

*This is a general Gundam complaint, but why is the final boss always some Giant Death Laser?

*The movie ended with Kira and Lacus kissing while naked in the beach after repeatedly saying how much they loved each other… …. I GUESS THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS OPEN TO INTERPRETATION, RIGHT BANDA— *gets shot by a Giant Death Laser*.

[deltaengineering]

A preliminary report on the topic of Spring Anime 2025

I'm not going through all this shit but here's some notes on shows of note. Fire Force and Apothecary Diaries are continuing but those are basically just what they've always been, and the whole CGDCT parade featuring mono et al are good enough but exactly what you'd expect. Anyway:

Apocalypse Hotel

Not much to say, this is well done and a complete no-brainer for me based on the topic alone. Planetarian without KEY, sign me the fuck up.

Rock Is a Lady's Modesty

This would also be a no-brainer based on the topic alone (I will watch basically any Class S spoof no matter what), but what if I told you that when this show says "rock", it means "sex" and it isn't subtle about it either. I just hope they stop spelling out Lilisa's motivation in every episode eventually.

Kowloon Generic Romance

Passes the vibe check easily and it's pretty interesting outside of that too; it's surprisingly arthouse and thematically rich, but seemingly without the pretensions this usually brings.

Lazarus

This is surprisingly bad, boring and completely uninteresting, and I dropped it before it even gets to the part where Watanabe gets on his soapbox (Carole & Tuesday is, indeed, still continuing in my head, you hack fraud). Best thing I can say about it that it looks expensive, and even that is basically just a demonstration that chasing live action clout by bringing Chad Stahelski in is a foolish idea because this shit looks like West Side Story.

To Be Hero X

But who needs washed up hacks from the 90s when you can watch Li Haolin do whatever the fuck he wants. TBHX is primarily a sick graphics demo, but even if the writing in the first episodes is not supposed to be the focus, it's still smarter than most things in this subgenre - kind of like MHA meets OPM without the godawful parts of either. There's definitely no guarantee that it will stay that way (Haolin shows are known to go places, and so far TBHX barely seems to have anything to do with its own elevator pitch), but it's a risk I'm gladly willing to take.

Witch Watch

Surprisingly good for a shounen romantic comedy, mainly because it nails the comedy. This might get old, but so far it hasn't.

Gundam Uguu

I'm split here; the "main" part of it is a pretty neat cyberpunk cartoon with endearing characters. However, I aggressively don't care about UC Gundam, so Hideaki Fucking Anno coming through with the most embarrassing Char fanfic I've ever seen (and that's saying something for a sub-franchise that has basically subsisted on embarrassing Char fanfics for decades) for an entire episode is very much not appreciated. I'll give it another episode but if that contains basically ANY notable amount of UC memberberries I'm out.

Ballpark de Tsukamaete!

This one is probably doomed to obscurity because it's extremely niche and looks like ass. But for the record, I'll say that I'm a sucker for true Altman-style ensemble pieces if the characters can carry them, and that is the case here. A very positive surprise.

Cinderella Gray

Mainline Umamusume has well jumped the shark by S3, but this spinoff is at least possibly worth watching because it's just a pretty standard sports story without most of the cruft. That doesn't really make it exciting on its own, however, just a lot less irritating, and I'm not sure if that's enough of a reason to actually stick with it.