#specialization in ai and data science

[online-programmes]

LIBA’s Online Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM)

Brief of the programme:

LIBA offers a 11 month Online PGPM combining core management and specialized courses. The programme is for students who wanted to learn about the foundation of business and for working professionals who wanted to develop their knowledge further.

Curriculum

As mentioned above there are Core as well as Specialized subjects. Core management subjects include Principles of management, Quantitative studies, Marketing, Economics, Finance, Management Information system and more. Specialization courses are designed to gain knowledge about the in- depth aspects of the course. This PGPM programme offers three specialization courses from which the students can choose one. Specialization courses are AI & Data Science, Healthcare and FinTech.

Who can apply for this programme?

Applicants who hold a bachelor’s degree with a minimum aggregate of 50% marks. Also those who have a minimum of 2 years full - time work experience are preferred but it's not mandatory.

Individuals who seek further knowledge in business, those who want to learn about the fundamental aspects of management, professionals who want a to achieve more in their career, people who want to transition from their job to AI & Data science or Finance or Healthcare, Technology and Healthcare professionals who wanted to strengthen their competencies, individuals who wanted to foster their innovative thinking in technology and finance can apply for this programme.

Why should you apply?

With respect to the specializations offered, all 3 course subjects are vital in today’s world. AI & Data Science deals with machine learning algorithms, big data analytics and cutting- edge AI applications. Since the world is getting accustomed to AI, there is a growing demand for this course and for people who complete it.

FinTech specialization includes financial technology, blockchain, digital payments and financial as well as data analytics. This course also includes practical projects, industry insights, and collaborations with financial institutions.

Healthcare Specialization emphasises on predictive analytics, personalized medicine, health informatics, policy, economics, information systems along with training individuals through data-driven insights and technological advancements.

Apart from that, there are various reasons as to why one should apply for this course. Primary reason would be to develop and deepen your knowledge. If you are a student, you will learn about the basics of the subject. If you are a working professional, you will be able to gain wisdom to have career advancement in your domain. You will be able to connect with distinguished people while you are enrolled in the course.

In this world, having knowledge in theory alone doesn’t help, we should know how to apply the theoretical knowledge in the real world. With regards to that, this programme trains you to achieve it by providing different case studies, projects and assignments. There are live sessions and self- paced modules to make the learning process convenient and exciting. Ample resources are given access to refer and study. Courses are taught by renowned faculty who are field specialists and experienced scholars. Finally, at the end of this course you would’ve developed both personal attributes and job-related skills.

Why wait? Initiate your learning journey now -

https://iop.liba.edu/pg-program-in-healthcare-management/

Learn more about:

AI & Data science specialization - https://iop.liba.edu/ai-pgpm/

Fintech specialization - https://iop.liba.edu/fs-pgpm/

Healthcare specialization - https://iop.liba.edu/hs-pgpm/

[bestschoolofcoreai]

AI in Education: Revolutionizing the Future of Learning

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into various industries has been a game-changer, and education is no exception. As the world continues to embrace digital transformation, AI in education is emerging as a powerful tool that has the potential to reshape the way we teach and learn. From personalized learning experiences to automating administrative tasks, AI is paving the way for a more efficient, effective, and inclusive education system.

What is AI in Education?

AI in education refers to the application of artificial intelligence technologies to enhance and support teaching, learning, and administrative tasks within educational environments. At its core, AI in education leverages data, algorithms, and machine learning models to create intelligent systems that can adapt to the needs of students, provide real-time feedback, automate routine tasks, and even predict learning outcomes.

How AI is Transforming the Classroom

One of the most significant impacts of AI in education is its ability to personalize the learning experience. Traditionally, teachers have had to rely on a “one-size-fits-all” approach, which doesn’t always cater to the unique learning styles, paces, or needs of individual students. AI solves this problem by offering tailored educational content, providing real-time assessments, and creating adaptive learning paths that adjust to the student’s progress.

1. Personalized Learning:

AI-powered systems can analyze data on a student’s learning behavior, such as the time spent on each topic, areas where they struggle, and their pace of understanding. This data helps AI create customized lesson plans and suggest appropriate resources, whether it’s supplementary reading, practice exercises, or even videos that explain difficult concepts. Over time, AI can adapt and refine its recommendations, ensuring that students get the support they need to excel.

2. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS):

AI can provide students with on-demand assistance outside of the classroom through intelligent tutoring systems. These virtual tutors use natural language processing and machine learning to engage with students, answering their questions, providing explanations, and offering practice exercises. This reduces the dependency on human tutors and allows students to get the help they need at any time of the day, even when teachers are unavailable.

3. Real-time Feedback:

AI tools can offer instant feedback on student performance, which is crucial for effective learning. Instead of waiting for a teacher to grade assignments or tests, students can receive immediate insights into their strengths and weaknesses. This allows students to make improvements in real-time and accelerates the learning process. Teachers, on the other hand, can focus more on teaching rather than grading, thanks to AI-powered assessment tools.

AI and Teacher Support

While AI offers great benefits to students, it also has the potential to enhance the teaching experience. By automating routine administrative tasks, AI allows educators to spend more time focusing on what matters most — teaching and interacting with their students.

1. Grading and Assessment Automation:

Grading assignments, tests, and exams can be time-consuming for teachers. AI tools can automate the grading process for objective-based assessments like multiple-choice questions, quizzes, and even essays to some extent. This frees up teachers to focus on more critical tasks, such as lesson planning, student engagement, and providing personalized support.

2. Administrative Efficiency:

AI can help automate a variety of administrative tasks, from managing student attendance to processing enrollment data. Machine learning models can also be used to predict student performance, identify at-risk students, and suggest interventions, helping teachers and school administrators make data-driven decisions to improve student outcomes.

AI in Educational Administration

Beyond the classroom, AI is also transforming the administrative side of education. Institutions are using AI to improve decision-making, resource allocation, and even curriculum development.

1. Data-Driven Decision Making:

AI tools can analyze large sets of data, such as student performance records, attendance, and engagement metrics, to provide actionable insights. Administrators can use this data to identify trends, make informed decisions about resource allocation, and design curricula that better align with student needs.

2. Predictive Analytics for Student Success:

AI can analyze historical data to predict which students are at risk of falling behind. This predictive capability enables early intervention, allowing educators to provide additional support to students who may need it before they encounter significant challenges.

The Future of AI in Education

As AI technologies continue to advance, the potential for their application in education is virtually limitless. We can expect further innovations that will make learning even more accessible, interactive, and tailored to individual needs.

For instance, AI-driven virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools can take education to new heights by providing immersive learning experiences. These technologies can simulate real-world scenarios that are too costly or dangerous to replicate in a traditional classroom setting. Imagine medical students practicing surgeries in a virtual environment or history students “walking” through ancient civilizations.

AI is also expected to play a crucial role in lifelong learning. With the world constantly changing and evolving, individuals will need to reskill and upskill throughout their careers. AI can facilitate this continuous learning by providing personalized recommendations, tracking progress, and offering adaptive learning pathways that meet the needs of professionals at various stages of their careers.

Conclusion

AI in education is not just a trend — it’s a transformation. By making learning more personalized, accessible, and efficient, AI is empowering both students and teachers to reach their full potential. As the technology continues to evolve, it will play an even more pivotal role in shaping the future of education, helping to create a more inclusive and effective learning environment for all. While challenges remain, the promise of AI in education is undeniable, and its potential to improve outcomes on a global scale is truly exciting.

[apna04counsellor]

Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College (SAKEC), Mumbai

Detailed Review of Shah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College (SAKEC), Mumbai OverviewShah & Anchor Kutchhi Engineering College (SAKEC), established in 1985, is a renowned engineering institute located in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The college is affiliated with the University of Mumbai and approved by AICTE. SAKEC offers various undergraduate and postgraduate programs in engineering and technology.…

[maichan808]

Americans, our democracy is under threat.

Do you reject fascism and oppose the Trump-Musk coup? Want to do something, but aren’t sure what you can do to make a difference? Keep reading for ways big and small you can fight back:

Attend a Protest New to protesting? Here’s a primer for first-time protesters and a schedule of upcoming national days of action:

Mar 1st and ongoing (Tesla Takedown) Website | Find an event

Mar 4th (50501: 50 protests, 50 states) Website | Find an event

Mar 7th (Stand up for Science) Website | Find an event

Mar 8th (Women’s March) Website | Find an event

Search for future protests at /r/ProtestFinderUSA and join the mailing list of grassroots organizations like Indivisible to be alerted to future actions.

Put Pressure on Congress Want your elected officials to stand up to Trump-Musk and push back against the unconstitutional executive orders, disastrous DOGE cuts, and illegal funding freezes? Already calling your Reps and Senators daily using 5calls.org?

Then it’s time to escalate to in-person action. Visit their websites, join their mailing lists, follow their socials, and call their offices to find out when the next local event will be and make your voice heard. 

Applying pressure to congress works, and we are already seeing the results of constituent push back. House Democrats recently voted as a unified block against the Trump-sponsored billionaire tax cuts, with members breaking maternity leave and leaving the hospital to fly back to Washington just to cast their votes. And on the Republican side, negative town hall blowback has the GOP running scared.

If your congressperson is hiding from you, stage a protest event and put their cowardice on blast. For more information on how to implement these tactics, see the Indivisible congressional recess toolkit.

If your congressperson is already fighting the good fight, then make sure to thank them and provide encouragement to continue opposing the budget cuts. Courage is contagious, and vocal public support will help spur congress to fight that much harder. 

And finally, regardless of where you live, you can sign up to phone bank and reach out to voters in red congressional districts.

Get Out the Vote Did you know there are Special Elections as soon as April 1st that could flip control of the House back to Democrats? We simply cannot wait for the 2026 midterms, we must take action now! You can help get out the vote for Gay Valimont (FL-1), Joshua Weil (FL-6), and Blake Gendebien (NY-21).

In addition, the Muskrat is spending millions to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Phone bank or write letters to keep a MAGA extremist off the high court and protect Wisconsin elections from future gerrymandering.

Fight the Broligarchy If you own TSLA stock, or *gasp* an actual Tesla vehicle, drop it like a scorching case of herpes, then join the picket line at your nearest Tesla showroom. 

On socials, delete your Nazi-infested X and Meta (Facebook, IG, Threads) accounts and join the open source BlueSky. If you must remain on Meta, at minimum change your account settings so Fuckerberg can’t profit from your data. 

Stop using Google search/Chrome and install privacy-focused alternatives like DuckDuckGo or Firefox. As a bonus, in the DuckDuckGo browser you can permanently hide AI garbage from your search results.

Show your monetary support for companies that have renewed their commitment to DEI programs (like Costco and Apple) and boycott those who have not (like Target and Amazon). Also look up how other corporations score on the democracy scale and adjust your spending accordingly.

 And last, but not least, pledge to join the General Strike!

Stay Informed Corporate media has capitulated to Trump. From the cancellation of minority-hosted shows on MSNBC to the Bezos takeover of the Washington Post editorial pages, MSM cannot be relied upon to provide unbiased coverage of the Trump-Musk regime.

Support independent journalists and media and follow AltGov accounts on Bluesky to stay informed as to what is actually going on in Washington.

Get to Know your Community Authoritarians want you to feel helpless and isolated because they know we the people vastly outnumber them. Get to know your neighbors and join a group/team/club - anything that gets you interacting with your local community whether it is political or not. 

Under Trump-Musk, federal programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, and even Social Security are in danger.  We will need to increasingly rely on our own communities to have our backs. Visit mutualaidhub.org to locate resources and learn how to start your own network.

And finally, remember that resistance is a marathon, not a sprint. So be sure to stop doomscrolling and simply enjoy life as AOC reminds us:

[crystal-wingeddragon-spikes]

My fan made Animation vs Coding part 2

Do you think stick figure AI would "assume" data type of all number to be float, double, or decimal?

...What? This is not a well-known fun fact outside STEM community?

So many people have this problem, someone made a whole webpage explaining it.

More organic explanation here; Defining a right data type is a big deal in programming. At least the programmer who manually assign it float/double would know why it went wrong.

JavaScript, however, will automatically assign an appropriate data type, and is advertised to be more beginner-friendly... Can you see why this became a meme?

0.1 and 0.2 will be considered double data type, which can't be accurate expressed in base 2.

There is only (1/2), (1/4), (1/8), ... ,(1/(2 power n)) in base 2.

It can't accurately express (1/10 and 2/10), but it still makes a very good approximation. That is why it is only 0.00000000000000004 off.

This is why in most statistic analysis and calculator use decimal data type. Or banking uses fixed-point numbers data. They both have their limitation; Decimal requires more computing power, which mean more specialized device. While fixed-point works fine with money because it's transferring money, not doing maths. It would never have to deal with 0.3333333... dollar.

Do you know what language is from the same family as JavaScript? That's right, it's Flash's programming language, ActionScript.

I told you my Computer Science grade was horrid, but this is very basic, so I am more confident explaining it.

[magicmousetrash]

Krel Tarron x Reader

Non-binary reader

SFW Scenario

It takes place during the 3below series

I'm writing all this with the translator since English is not my first language so if there are any mistakes please let me know <⁠(⁠￣⁠︶⁠￣⁠)⁠>

🪄🐁: I will soon come with more food

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Krel was back in front of the holographic screen in his room, drumming his fingers nervously. He was determined to win the heart of his human crush, but earthling customs remained a mystery. How did humans connect emotionally without all the advanced technology and science he knew? So she had turned to "Mother" for advice.

—Mother, I need your help, —he said seriously, taking a breath.—I want to… impress a human.

The AI projected its holographic form, and Krel felt a slight flicker of discomfort as the ship's sensors analyzed his request.

—Understood, Prince Krel. I can provide suggestions on human courtship. Data shows that humans respond to certain common social stimuli. I will proceed to share a series of recommendations.

Krel nodded, looking over the list of tips that appeared before him. It seemed simple, in theory. How difficult could it be?

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Tip 1: A meaningful gift

—"A thoughtful gesture or a small gift is a way of showing appreciation between humans."

Krel frowned as he reviewed that first tip. He knew humans gave flowers and chocolates, but he wanted something more special. Something unique, something that would show how much he cared... without it being very obvious.

Determined, he spent the whole night creating a… how to describe it? A small, handmade device. It was a mix between a terrarium with a bioluminescent plant and a small gravitational field that made the object float gently. Krel thought it was impressive and was sure his crush would appreciate it.

The next day, with a big, self-satisfied grin, Krel approached them at school.

—I made this for you, —he said, holding the floating contraption in an outstretched hand. —I thought you might like it.

They looked at it, at first intrigued by the strange gift. But as soon as they took it, the plant began to emit a flickering glow that grew in intensity.

It’s so… cute! —they said, smiling at first. But as soon as the glowing plant started spinning faster and blinking wildly, their expressions changed to panic. —Is this safe?.

Before Krel could respond, the artifact began to sputter and floated too high, crashing into the ceiling of the hallway and exploding in a small burst of light.

Krel cleared his throat, trying to appear calm.

—Maybe… it needs a couple of adjustments, —he said as he picked up the remains of the device..

First attempt: disaster.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Tip 2: Specific compliments

—"Personalized compliments create a greater emotional connection between humans."

Krel thought this advice would be easy to follow. He knew a lot about his crush. He knew they liked science and was pretty smart. So, he decided that praising their intellect would be a great move.

The next day in chemistry class, Krel sat next to her and waited for the perfect moment. As she focused on measuring a substance, Krel decided to intervene.

—Your accuracy with test tubes is… statistically astonishing, —he commented enthusiastically.

They looked at him, not knowing whether to laugh or worry.

—Thanks… I think. —they replied, somewhat bewildered.

Krel decided to double down, thinking that perhaps a more specific compliment would be better.

—And the way you calculated the molar concentration of that solution… it’s almost as if you could handle mathematics at the quantum level.

Now they were clearly more confused than impressed.

—Uh… well, I learned it in class last year. —they answered, trying not to sound strange.

Krel bit his lip, realizing he might be going off on a bit of a tangent.

—What I mean is… you are very smart..

They smiled politely.

Second attempt: weird...

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Tip 3: Be protective

—"Showing care and protection creates a sense of emotional security."

Krel was convinced that this advice would be a success. He had noticed that humans reacted positively when someone showed concern for their safety. And since he had advanced skills in protecting others, he thought it was his time to shine.

As they walked together towards the cafeteria, he saw some kids running past, clearly not paying attention to their surroundings. This is my chance, Krel thought.

With quick movements, he pulled his crush to the side, placing them behind him with exaggerated protection.

—Watch out! —he exclaimed, turning dramatically. —You could have been run over by those reckless individuals!

They stared at him, mouths agape, totally surprised.

—Krel, they were just… running, — They said, with a nervous smile.

Krel was unfazed. He was certain he had done the right thing.

—You can never be too careful. Safety first. —he replied determinedly.

They laughed softly, clearly seeing the situation as a bit exaggerated.

Third attempt: exaggerated overprotection

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Tip 4: Quality time

The last tip was simpler: spend quality time together. No technology, no interruptions, just being in the moment. Krel thought this would be easy, but he underestimated how hard it would be not to use technology..

As they strolled through the park after school, Krel tried to hold a normal conversation. But soon, the silence felt awkward, and Krel began drumming his fingers, wishing he could Open your device to avoid this awkward situation.

Finally, he decided to distract himself from technology and focus all his attention on them.

—Did you know that the human brain releases dopamine during pleasant conversations? —he said, trying to start a topic that seemed interesting to him.

They looked at him, laughing softly.

—Really? That’s… good to know.

Krel nodded, glad to have steered the conversation back to a scientific topic. But then, without realizing it, he started talking about chemicals that activate dopamine in the brain… for 15 minutes straight.

By the time he realized it, they were looking at him with a mix of fascination and exhaustion.

—Krel, that was… very informative. —they said, trying to sound friendly.

Fourth attempt: excessive talk.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

At the end of the day, Krel returned to his room, somewhat frustrated, and stared at "Mother's" screen, waiting for her assessment.

—Mother, how did I do it? —he asked, sighing.

—The results indicate that 45% of your attempts were successful and 55% were questionable. I recommend adjustments to your approaches.

Krel slumped back into his chair.

—Maybe… humans are more complicated than I thought.

Despite everything, they allowed themselves a small smile. Even though everything had gone a little wrong, there was something charming about his mistakes. And they… well, thay hadn't completely walked away. That was a good start.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

We all love this alien boy called Krel

[gossamerufansubs]

One page about the series Cosplay Warrior Cutie Knights (movie 1 and movie 2) from HEROINE magazine Volume 2 (2004). This edition focused on independent heroine tokusatsu production companies such as Eiyu Club, Center Island, and more. The series had several Gamera cameos, as one of the creators of Gamera was involved in the production of these films (Noriaki Yuasa). The series was also produced by the same production company as Gamera (Daiei Film).

English translation below the cut.

[Red text at top and then text directly below]

Cosplay Warrior Cutie Knights

Just the elements of tokusatsu, beautiful girls, and cosplay alone make this a must-buy. Here, we introduce two highly acclaimed works, even among researchers of tokusatsu idols.

[Text to the left of red text]

Right: Miho Yabe, Left: Sara Shimada. Special Moves: Cutie Flash, Cutie Halation, Cutie Shot

[Text below image of three people]

Yuki Aoyagi (Chiemi Chiba) is captured by Colonel Zuru (Takeyoshi Ikeda) and Sirene (Conchita Matsumoto). She holds the secret of the data on the weather weapon, Touchuu, and is tortured with Colonel Zuru's electric whip.

[Text next to the head of the woman in red, arm outstretched]

Cutie Red/Ai Akakage (Akane Kanazawa) The second Cutie Knight. She usually works as a waitress. But her costume is really sexy.

[Text below the upper-right Red Cutie Knight’s boots)

Sexy! Action!

Suspense! Tokusatsu! Moe!

A spectacular idol entertainment movie that covers it all!

[Text to the right of the image of Sirene and Yuki, far left middle of page, as well as the text directly below]

Conchita Matsumoto’s bondage fashion is also pretty cool.

Cutie Knights 1 

© 1995 Daiei Ultimate 

Mai and Rei are 17-year-old high school girls. At first glance, they seem normal, but when they fight against the powers of evil, they transform! They dress up in sexy combat-enhanced suits, combat bustiers, and become warriors of justice, Cutie Knights. And when they get into a pinch, they evolve into even sexier battle armor... This is a sexy special effects action film starring Miho Yabe, who has become popular for her cute looks and slightly silly character, and Sara Shimada, who is active mainly in movies and stage productions. It is a work that will bring tears to the eyes of fans, filled with extremely revealing and sexy cosplay, such as miniskirts, battle suits, bunny girls, and nurses. The production team includes top creators, including manga master Kaoru Shintani and science fiction novelist Hitoshi Yoshioka. Don't miss the sexy scenes with sexy beauties such as Mimi Rover and Conchita Matsumoto, who support the main cast.

[Below this text, to the left of the small image of the Red and White Cutie Knights from Cutie Knights 1]

Staff:

Director: Hirotaka Murayama Screenplay: Naruhiko Tatsumiya, Takeshi Sakura Music: Kizoku Ikeda Original Idea & Planning: Ultimate Supervision & Cooperation: Noriaki Yuasa, Kaoru Shintani, Taira Yoshioka, Minoru Kawasaki Planning & Production: Arcadia Co., Ltd. Production & Copyright: Daiei Co., Ltd.

Cast:

Miho Yabe, Sara Shimada, Chiemi Chiba, Pink Saturn, Kizoku Ikeda, Conchita Matsumoto, Eriko Kawano, Kaoru Shintani, Ishirō Honda, Great Monster Gamera, Sailor Fighter

[Text below small center image of the Red and White Cutie Knights from Cutie Knights 1]

The costumes bring out the cuteness of these girls to the fullest, and just looking at them makes you happy.

[Text in the bottom right of the page]

The definitive cosplay heroine drama featuring popular idols!

Daiei produced two superheroine V-cinema films. The first one featured Sara Shimada and Miho Yabe, while the second one featured Akane Kanazawa and Junna Morishita, who were popular at the time, and the fact that Australian voice actors appeared with their faces on screen drew much attention. They also starred with heroes and heroines such as Daiei's monster star Gamera, the heroine of Chukyo TV's "Sailor Fight!", Sailor Fighter, and Pink Saturn's Pairanger, so they have captured the hearts of special effects fans. The last caption of "2" read "Continued in 'Cutie Knights 3'", but it is unclear whether it will continue in the future.

[Text above photo in the middle of the page of 4 Cutie Knights from Cutie Knights 2]

New Cutie Knight and Cutie Knight Black. Cutie Knight Black lends her power to stop the out-of-control annihilation machine.

[Text below image in middle-right of page, of three cutie knights looking up from the floor]

Cutie Knights 2

© 1996 Ultimate Daiei 

With the retirement of the previous Cutie Knights, the Secret Squadron is short on manpower and is scouting new warriors to fight against the evil secret society Teikokuya. Meanwhile, Teikokuya kidnaps beautiful girls one after another from all over the country in order to eliminate the Cutie Knights...

Following on from the previous film, this is a sexy special effects action film starring beautiful idols. Idols active in gravure and TV, such as Akane Kanazawa, Junna Morishita, and Sara Shimada, entertain us with various cosplay costumes. The production team also brings together top-notch creators. This is a must-see for fans, as you can enjoy the efforts of sexy and cute idols.

[Text to the left of a close up of the White Cutie Knight from Cutie Knights 2]

White Cutie Knight/Jun Shirogane (Junna Morishita)

In the previous movie, the White Cutie Knight kept her skirt on, but in the second movie, she doesn't wear a skirt when in combat. She wears a bikini.

[To the right of the White Cutie Knight closeup]

Production information

[Staff]

Director: Noriaki Yuasa

Original story: Ultimate

Screenplay: Noriaki Yuasa

Takashi Sakura

Matsu Midorigaoka

Producer: Tetsuya Ikeda

Producer: Masaru Fukuda

Makoto Shinohara

Music: Yoshinobu Genno

Planning and production: Arcadia Co., Ltd.

Copyright: Daiei Co., Ltd.

[Cast]

Akane Kanazawa, Junna Morishita, Sara Shimada, Chika Misaki

[Text flanked by the DVD covers of Cutie Knights 1 and 2]

Cosplay Warrior Cutie Knights 2: Teikokuya's Counterattack

BBBE-1802 30 minutes of main content + 29 minutes of bonus footage

4800 yen (excluding tax)

Published by Daiei Co., Ltd.

Distributed by Beam Entertainment

Cosplay Warrior Cutie Knights version 1.3

BBBE-1801 50 minutes of main content + 30 minutes of bonus footage

4800 yen (excluding tax)

Published by Daiei Co., Ltd.

Distributed by Beam Entertainment

Distributor: Daiei Corporation, Beam Entertainment, Happinet Pictures, Komagata CA Building, 2-4-5 Komagata, Taito-ku, Tokyo. For DVD inquiries: Phone: 03-5828-3940 

Email: dvdshopping@happinet.co.jp

[elbiotipo]

fwiw and i have no idea what the artists are doing with it, a lot of the libraries that researchers are currently using to develop deep learning models from scratch are all open source built upon python, i'm sure monsanto has its own proprietary models hand crafted to make life as shitty as possible in the name of profit, but for research there's a lot of available resources library and dataset wise in related fields. It's not my area per se but i've learnt enough to get by in potentially applying it to my field within science, and largely the bottleneck in research is that the servers and graphics cards you need to train your models at a reasonable pace are of a size you can usually only get from google or amazon or facebook (although some rich asshole private universities from the US can actually afford the cost of the kind of server you need. But that's a different issue wrt resource availability in research in the global south. Basically: mas plata para la universidad pública la re puta que los parió)

Yes, one great thing about software development is that for every commercially closed thing there are open source versions that do better.

The possibilities for science are enormous. Gigantic. Much of modern science is based on handling huge amounts of data no human can process at once. Specially trained models can be key to things such as complex genetics, especially simulating proteomes. They already have been used there to incredible effect, but custom models are hard to make, I think AIs that can be reconfigured to particular cases might change things in a lot of fields forever.

I am concerned, however, of the overconsumption of electronics this might lead to when everyone wants their pet ChatGPT on their PC, but this isn't a thing that started with AI, electronic waste and planned obsolescence is already wasting countless resources in chips just to feed fashion items like iphones, this is a matter of consumption and making computers be more modular and longer lasting as the tools they are. I've also read that models recently developed in China consume much, much less resources and could potentially be available in common desktop computers, things might change as quickly as in 2 years.

[mariacallous]

A young man with no government experience who has yet to even complete his undergraduate degree is working for Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and has been tasked with using artificial intelligence to rewrite the agency’s rules and regulations.

Christopher Sweet was introduced to HUD employees as being originally from San Francisco and most recently a third-year at the University of Chicago, where he was studying economics and data science, in an email sent to staffers earlier this month.

“I'd like to share with you that Chris Sweet has joined the HUD DOGE team with the title of special assistant, although a better title might be ‘Al computer programming quant analyst,’” Scott Langmack, a DOGE staffer and chief operating officer of an AI real estate company, wrote in an email widely shared within the agency and reviewed by WIRED. “With family roots from Brazil, Chris speaks Portuguese fluently. Please join me in welcoming Chris to HUD!”

Sweet’s primary role appears to be leading an effort to leverage artificial intelligence to review HUD’s regulations, compare them to the laws on which they are based, and identify areas where rules can be relaxed or removed altogether. (He has also been given read access to HUD's data repository on public housing, known as the Public and Indian Housing Information Center, and its enterprise income verification systems, according to sources within the agency.)

Plans for the industrial-scale deregulation of the US government were laid out in detail in the Project 2025 policy document that the Trump administration has effectively used as a playbook during its first 100 days in power. The document, written by a who’s who of far-right figures, many of whom now hold positions of power within the administration, pushes for deregulation in areas like the environment, food and drug enforcement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

One area Sweet is focusing on is regulation related to the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH), according to sources who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Sweet—who two sources have been told is the lead on the AI deregulation project for the entire administration—has produced an Excel spreadsheet with around a thousand rows containing areas of policy where the AI tool has flagged that HUD may have “overreached” and suggesting replacement language.

Staffers from PIH are, specifically, asked to review the AI’s recommendations and justify their objections to those they don’t agree with. “It all sounds crazy—having AI recommend revisions to regulations,” one HUD source says. “But I appreciated how much they’re using real people to confirm and make changes.”

Once the PIH team completes the review, their recommendations will be submitted to the Office of the General Counsel for approval.

One HUD source says they were told that the AI model being used for this project is “being refined by our work to be used across the government.” To do this, the source says they were told in a meeting attended by Sweet and Jacob Altik, another known DOGE member who has worked as an attorney at Weil, Gotshal & Mangesthat, the model will crawl through the Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR),

Another source told WIRED that Sweet has also been using the tool at other parts of HUD. WIRED reviewed a copy of the output of the AI’s review of one HUD department, which features columns displaying text that the AI model found to be needing an adjustment while also including suggestions from the AI for alterations to be made, essentially proposing rewrites. The spreadsheet details how many words can be eliminated from individual regulations and gives a percentage figure indicating how noncompliant the regulations are. It isn’t clear how these percentages are calculated.

Sweet did not respond to requests for comment regarding his work. In response to a request to clarify Sweet’s role at HUD, a spokesperson for the agency said they do not comment on individual personnel. The University of Chicago confirmed to WIRED that Sweet is “on leave from the undergraduate college.”

It’s unclear how Sweet was recruited to DOGE, but a public GitHub account indicates that he was working on this issue even before he joined Musk’s demolition crew.

The “CLSweet” GitHub account, which WIRED has linked to Sweet, created an application that tracks and analyzes federal government regulations “showing how regulatory burden is distributed across government agencies.” The application was last updated in March 2025, weeks before Sweet joined HUD.

One HUD source who heard about Sweet’s possible role in revising the agency’s regulations said the effort was redundant, since the agency was already “put through a multi-year multi-stakeholder meatgrinder before any rule was ever created” under the Administrative Procedure Act. (This law dictates how agencies are allowed to establish regulations and allows for judicial oversight over everything an agency does.)

Another HUD source said Sweet’s title seemed to make little sense. “A programmer and a quantitative data analyst are two very different things,” they noted.

Sweet has virtually no online footprint. One of the only references to him online is a short biography on the website of East Edge Securities, an investment firm Sweet founded in 2023 with two other students from the University of Chicago.

The biography is short on details but claims that Sweet has worked in the past with several private equity firms, including Pertento Partners, which is based in London, and Tenzing Global Investors, based in San Francisco. He is also listed as a board member of Paragon Global Investments, which is a student-run hedge fund.

The biography also mentions that Sweet “will be joining Nexus Point Capital as a private equity summer analyst.” The company has headquarters in Hong Kong and Shanghai and describes itself as “an Asian private equity fund with a strategic focus on control opportunities in the Greater China market.”

East Edge Securities, Pertento Partners, Tenzing Global Investors, Paragon Global Investments, and Nexus Point Capital did not respond to requests for comment.

The only other online account associated with Sweet appears to be a Substack account using the same username as the GitHub account. That account has not posted any content and follows mostly finance and market-related newsletters. It also follows Bari Weiss’ The Free Press and the newsletter of Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley billionaire investor and group chat enthusiast who said he spent a lot of time advising Trump and his team after the election.

DOGE representatives have been at HUD since February, when WIRED reported that two of those staffers were given application-level access to some of the most critical and sensitive systems inside the agency.

Earlier this month, US representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said DOGE had “infiltrated our nation’s housing agencies, stealing funding Congress provided to communities, illegally terminating staff, including in your districts, and accessing confidential data about people living in assisted housing, including sexual assault survivors.”

[zzzallnite]

Trade Secret (A partly AI generated short story)

Horace Horowitz, with his glasses perched at the tip of his nose, scanned the last page of data for any anomalies. The lab's silence was a comfort to him, a stark contrast to the caffeine-fuelled chatter of the weekdays. The clock's hands ticked past 10:00 PM, and he knew he should go home, but his work called to him with a siren's song. Moreever, since his wife was out of town for the weekend, it wasn't like there's someone at home warming up the bed, waiting for him to come back anyway. His office, a bastion of order amidst the chaos of research, was lit by the soft glow of his computer screen. He had to ensure everything was perfect for a special lab visit coming next week. A cure for a rare disease was in his grasp, and he could not afford any missteps.

With a sigh, he pushed back his chair and stood, stretching his stiff limbs. The floorboards creaked beneath his feet, echoing in the emptiness of the hallway as he made his way to the laboratory. The smell of antiseptic lingered in the air, a constant reminder of the sanctity of his workplace. He switched on the lights, revealing the gleaming chrome surfaces and meticulously organized cabinets. Each tool and sample held the promise of saving lives, and he treated them with the respect they deserved.

The lab was his sanctuary, a place where he could lose himself in his work and forget about the outside world. His eyes darted from bench to bench, making sure all was in order for the upcoming inspection. The shelves were lined with flasks and beakers of various sizes, their contents a rainbow of scientific secrets waiting to be unlocked. Horace's heart raced with excitement and a touch of anxiety. This breakthrough was his legacy, a testament to years of tireless dedication.

As he reached the far corner of the room, he heard a faint sound, like the rustling of paper. Horace froze, his hand hovering over the light switch. The lab was supposed to be empty tonight. He told himself it was probably just the wind playing tricks on him, but his instincts were screaming otherwise. He glanced over his shoulder, expecting to find nothing but shadows and his own reflection in the glass cabinets. Yet, something was off. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew he wasn't alone.

With quiet resolve, Horace tiptoed back towards the hallway, his ears straining to catch any hint of an intruder. The soft padding of footsteps grew louder, and he could see the silhouette of a man walking towards him, a flashlight in hand. It was Ben Naber, the night shift's security guard. His blue security outfit was a beacon of comfort in the otherwise deserted corridor. Horace felt his heart rate slow as Ben's familiar face emerged from the darkness.

"Everything okay, Doc?" Ben's voice was a gentle rumble, a stark contrast to his intimidating physique. He shone the light on his face, revealing a concerned expression beneath his square chin.

Horace let out a nervous chuckle. "Just couldn't resist the call of science, Ben. How's your night?" He tried to keep his tone light, but the tension was palpable. Ben nodded, his eyes sweeping the hallway before they settled back on Horace. "Quiet. Too quiet, if you ask me."

The two men exchanged a knowing look. In the world of pharmaceutical research, quiet nights were rare. The stakes were high, and the competition was cutthroat. Horace felt a pang of gratitude for Ben's vigilance. "I'll be finishing up soon," he assured the guard, "then I'll head home."

Ben nodded again, his flashlight casting eerie shadows on the walls as he resumed his patrol. Horace watched him disappear around the corner before returning to his office. The brief encounter had shaken him more than he cared to admit. He couldn't help but wonder if the whispers of corporate espionage were more than just paranoid fantasies.

He sat back down at his desk, the glow of the computer screen washing over his face. The data was still there, beckoning him with its secrets. Horace steeled himself and continued his work, the rhythm of his typing a comforting counterpoint to the silence of the lab. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't the only one searching for something in the night. The cure was so close, but the shadows cast by the secrets of his competitors grew longer with each passing moment...

---

Outside, on the terrace, David Jones took a long drag from his cigarette, the ember glowing like a fiery eye in the darkness. He leaned against the railing, his gaze distant. The city lights twinkled like stars that had fallen from the sky, a stark contrast to the quiet of the research facility. The cold wind ruffled his white hair, and he tugged his leather jacket closer around him. The scent of smoke mingled with the faint odor of the night-blooming jasmine that grew along the terrace's edge. He had seen a lot in his years in the military, but the stakes here were different. This wasn't about power or politics; it was about lives.

The weight of his responsibility pressed down on him. He was here to protect not just the lab but the hope it contained. Horace's work was a beacon in a world where profit often took precedence over people. The thought of losing that to some greedy corporation made his blood boil. He had seen good men and women fall to the whims of those who wielded power without care for the consequences. He couldn't let that happen here.

David took a final puff of his cigarette before flicking it into the night. The embers arced through the darkness, a fleeting spark of defiance against the vastness of the sky. He ground the butt into the concrete with the heel of his boot, the crunch a small but satisfying act of aggression. His scar, a souvenir from his time in the service, tingled with a phantom pain that served as a constant reminder of the battles he had already fought. But this was a new war, one waged in the shadows of boardrooms and lab corridors.

He pushed away from the railing and began to pace the perimeter of the terrace, his eyes scanning the grounds below. The sensation of unease grew stronger with each step, a prickling at the base of his neck that whispered of impending danger. The quiet of the night was usually a balm to his soul, but tonight it felt like a shroud, concealing threats just beyond the reach of his sight.

Finally, with a firm nod to himself, David decided to head to the security office. The lab's security system was state-of-the-art, but it was his job to ensure that the digital fortifications were backed up by a human presence. His shoes clicked against the cold floor as he made his way back inside, the sound echoing through the empty halls like a warning to any unseen intruder. The dim emergency lights cast long shadows that danced with each step he took, making the corridors seem like a maze of shifting darkness.

As he approached the security office, the light grew brighter, spilling from the open doorway. His stride quickened, the quiet now a deafening crescendo in his ears. Something was wrong. He knew it deep in his bones. The door was ajar, a sliver of light cutting through the gloom. With a swift movement, he pushed it open, ready for anything.

The sight that greeted him was not what he had anticipated. Ben Naber, the burly night guard, lay sprawled across the floor, his chair toppled beside him. The flashlight he had been carrying was nowhere to be seen. His head was at an awkward angle, and his eyes were closed, a thin line of drool and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. David's heart skipped a beat. He rushed to Ben's side, dropping to his knees and checking for a pulse. It was there, strong and steady, but Ben was out cold.

With a trembling hand, David reached for Ben's eyelids, gently lifting them to reveal unresponsive pupils. They were dilated, a clear sign of trauma or a substance. The sweet odor of a particular chemical still faintly lingered in the air. Chloroform. His mind raced, trying to piece together what had happened. The room was in disarray, papers strewn across the floor, monitors smashed, and the control panel of the security system hanging off the wall. Ben's tank top was drenched in sweat, and bruises were already beginning to bloom across his face. His breathing was shallow, and David could see the tension in his jaw as if he was fighting to regain consciousness. Gently, he rolled Ben onto his side to keep his airway clear and searched for any signs of severe injury. His breathing remained shallow, but the pulse was still strong. The room spun with a whirlwind of thoughts, but David knew he had to keep it together. He couldn't risk alerting whoever was responsible.

The cold realization set in. Ben had been incapacitated, and someone had breached the lab's security. David's instincts kicked into overdrive, and he pulled out his radio, his thumb hovering over the call button. But he hesitated. If the intruder had managed to get this far without triggering any alarms, they were likely monitoring communications. He needed to think fast. He gently shook Ben's shoulder, trying to rouse him. "Naber, come on, wake up," he murmured, his voice low and urgent. But the guard remained still, lost in the depths of unconsciousness.

David took in the scene before him. Ben's blue security outfit was nowhere to be found. The uniform was gone, which meant the intruder had likely donned it to move about the premises undetected. David's hand hovered over the radio once more, his mind racing. He had to warn Horace without alerting whoever was prowling the halls. Silently, David rose to his feet and stepped out into the corridor, his eyes scanning for any sign of movement. The shadows stretched out like the fingers of an unseen hand, hinting at the hidden dangers lurking within...

---

Horace, engrossed in his research, was oblivious to the drama unfolding in the security office. His office door was slightly ajar, a sliver of light spilling into the hallway. From his vantage point, he saw a shadow move in the periphery of his vision. Assuming it was Ben on his rounds, he called out, "Everything alright out there?" No answer. The shadow grew larger, and the footsteps grew closer. Horace's heart began to race as the realization dawned on him. The silhouette was not Ben's. It was someone else, someone who moved with a stealth that seemed almost predatory.

The figure burst into the office, and Horace stumbled backward, his chair scraping against the floor. The intruder was clad in Ben's security outfit, the blue fabric stretching taut over a slender frame that was definitely not the night guard's. The room felt suddenly suffocating as the stranger's presence filled the space. Horace's throat tightened, and he could barely force the words out. "Who are you? What do you want?"

The intruder's voice was low and measured, a chilling calm in the face of the chaos they had brought. "Professor Horowitz, I suggest you stay quiet and face the wall. We wouldn't want any unnecessary trouble, would we?" A gloved hand reached out, gesturing to the wall behind him. Horace's eyes widened, his breaths shallow and quick. The cold steel of the gun pressed into his back was unmistakable, and the weight of the situation settled heavily upon him. With trembling hands, he slowly complied, turning to face the wall. The intruder's footsteps were almost silent, a ghostly dance across the office floor. Horace could hear the rustling of papers, the quiet clink of objects being moved. His desk drawers were opened and closed, each sound a knell of fear. What did they want? His research? The cure? His mind raced with possibilities, each more terrifying than the last.

In the tense silence, the only thing that kept time was the steady ticking of the clock in the hallway. Each tick felt like a countdown to an explosion that would shatter the very fabric of his life's work. His heart hammered against his ribs, and he couldn't help but think of his wife, Rachel. The way she had looked at him with such pride when he had told her of his breakthrough. The thought of her face, filled with disappointment and fear, was more than he could bear. He had to do something.

With a burst of adrenaline, Horace lunged for the door. His glasses slipped down his nose as he sprinted, his heart racing with the hope of escape. But the shadowy figure was too fast. The intruder spun around, their eyes meeting his in a chilling gaze. In a swift motion, the metal bin that was previously lying by Horace's desk flew across the room toward the fleeing professor, its contents scattered in the air. Horace's body flew forward as his legs tangled with the metal object, and he slammed his forehead against the hard office door with a sickening crunch…

Outside, David's keen ears picked up the sounds of a struggle. He had been cautiously making his way towards Horowitz's office when the sudden commotion sent him into high alert. He ducked low, his military instincts taking over. Silently, he approached the open door, his hand tightening around the grip of the gun that was hidden under his jacket.

David's eyes narrowed in anger as he took in the scene. He recognized the signs of a struggle immediately: the office was in shambles, papers scattered everywhere, and the scent of fear thick in the air. The esteemed scholar lay on the floor, unconscious and bleeding from a gash on his forehead, his glasses askew on the nose bridge.

The intruder, now visible in the harsh light of the room, was a slender figure wearing Ben's security uniform. He was bent over Horace, his face a mask of frustration as he patted the professor's cheeks, trying to bring him around. It was clear from the way he moved and the tension in his body that he was not finding what he sought. The thief's eyes darted around the room, searching for something specific, his breathing growing more ragged with each passing second.

"Oi, wake up," the stranger hissed, his voice tight with urgency. He patted the side of Horace's face, trying to revive him. But the professor remained still, lost in oblivion. The intruder's eyes narrowed in frustration, his gloved hands flexing and unflexing. He didn't expect the old man to still be here. It seemed that the universe itself was conspiring against him.

The room grew warmer, the silence thick and oppressive. The only sound was the distant ticking of the clock and the soft rustle of the intruder's movements. Then, something caught his eye. A glint of metal peeking out from under Horace's white button-up shirt. It was a necklace, tucked into the neckline, almost invisible. The intruder's grip tightened, and he yanked open the shirt with surprising strength. Buttons flew across the room, bouncing off the walls and landing with muffled thuds on the floor. Horace's chest, a landscape of grey hair, was exposed to the cold air, the necklace lying against his skin like a serpent waiting to strike. The intruder's eyes widened at the sight of the memory card hanging from the chain around the unconscious professor's neck. This was it, the prize he had been sent to retrieve.

He reached for the necklace with trembling hands, the anticipation of victory almost overwhelming. But just as his gloved fingers brushed against the plastic, a shadow fell over him. David's voice, a low growl of authority, filled the room. "Stop right there. You're not going anywhere with that." The intruder's head snapped up, his eyes wild with panic. David's form, silhouetted in the doorway, was a silent sentinel of justice, his hand steady as he pointed the gun at the intruder's chest.

The thief's eyes darted from David to Horace and back again, his mind racing. He had underestimated the lab's security, and now he was trapped. The card was so close, the culmination of weeks of planning and risk, but the cold metal of the gun barrel was a stark reminder of his precarious situation. He slowly raised his hands, the necklace still clutched in his grip, and took a step back.

"Don't do anything stupid," David warned, his voice a calm command that seemed to resonate through the cluttered office. His eyes never left the intruder's face, watching for any sign of a fight or flight response. But as the thief raised his hands in surrender, a shadow grew in the corner of David's vision. Too late, he realized the mistake he had made.

The blow came from behind, swift and brutal. A blunt object connected to the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward. His gun clattered to the floor, spinning away as his vision swam. The world tilted, and he felt the floor rush up to meet him. Through the haze of pain, he saw the intruder's eyes light up with a malicious glee. The thief had an accomplice, someone who had been waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

David's tense body just moments ago has turned into a slab of unmoving muscles lying belly down on the floor. The intruder took advantage of the distraction, ripping the necklace from Horace's neck. The memory card slipped free, and the thief pocketed it with a triumphant smile. David's vision grew darker, the edges of his consciousness fading like a candle flame in a strong wind.

But before he succumbed to the oblivion of unconsciousness, he heard the thieves' hushed whispers. The first voice, the one from the man who had been searching the room, was tinged with excitement. "We've got it. Let's go." The second voice, deeper and more menacing, responded with a cold, calculating calm. "Not so fast. We can't leave any witnesses. We need to take care of them..."

---

The world spun around him, and David felt his body being moved. His arms and legs were limp, useless as the intruders laid him and Horace side by side on the floor. He could feel the cold seeping through his clothes, the pain in his head a pulsing rhythm that matched the beating of his heart. The room swam before his eyes, a sea of shadows and blurred shapes that made him feel as though he were drowning in darkness.

The sound of zippers being undone was the first indication of what was to come. He strained to move, to fight back, but his muscles refused to obey. The thieves were stripping them, leaving their pants and underwear in a tangled heap around their ankles. The exposure was a humiliation that burned through the fog of his consciousness, a violation that cut deeper than the pain in his skull.

One of the thieves produced a sleek, black case, the kind that might hold a pen or a pair of sunglasses. But instead of innocuous items, it contained a set of needleless syringes filled with a clear, viscous liquid. The thief's eyes were cold and emotionless as he selected one and approached Horace's prone form. With a practiced ease that spoke of experience, he inserted the syringe into the professor's urethra and depressed the plunger. Horace's body jerked once, a silent scream, but he remained unconscious. The thief's fingers clamped his victim's slit tight, preventing the precious liquid from oozing out, and maximizing its sedating effect.

David's body was next. The thief's movements were efficient and calculated, a dance of violence and control. The sedative was administered in the same manner, and the same involuntary spasm rippled through David's frame. His breathing grew shallower as the drug took effect, his eyes flickering closed once more. The coldness of the floor seeped into his skin, a stark contrast to the warmth of a thin line blood trickling down on the back of his neck. The thieves pulled the men's trousers back to their orginal positions, and stepped back. Their task complete, and the room grew still once more.

They carried the unconscious men out of the office and into the corridor, their bodies limp and heavy. The sound of their shoes scraping against the tiles seemed to echo through the empty halls like a funeral procession. The thieves were careful not to let their burdens bump into the walls or knock over any obstacles, their movements synchronized like a macabre ballet. They managed to navigate the lab with surprising ease, as if they had been there many times before. The stolen data was nestled in the pocket of the leader's jacket, the prize that had brought them here. The memory card was a silent promise of wealth and power, a weapon to wield in the cutthroat world of pharmaceuticals.

Once outside, the cold night air hit them like a slap in the face. The stars above looked down on the unfolding drama with indifferent eyes. The van was parked in the shadows across the street, its engine idling quietly. The thieves' breaths formed plumes of mist in the chilly air as they hurried across the asphalt. The van's doors slid open with a whisper, revealing an interior that was surprisingly clean and organized.

The back of the van looked more like a small dentist office than a typical getaway vehicle. The walls were lined with gleaming chrome and white panels, a stark contrast to the black fabric that covered the floor. The only nod to its true purpose was the pair of leather-strapped chairs bolted to the floor, their surfaces gleaming with antiseptic. The thieves lifted Horace and David into the seats with a disturbing gentleness, careful not to disturb their unconscious forms. The leather was cold and unyielding beneath their bare skin, a stark reminder of their vulnerability.

A third figure emerged from the shadows, dressed in all white, a stark contrast to the attires that the first two intruders had been wearing. This one was a woman, her features sharp and angular, with a look that spoke of a precision and skill that was both terrifying and fascinating. She moved with the grace of a surgeon, her hands deftly tending to the men's injuries with an almost loving care. She dabbed at the blood on Horace's forehead with a sterile cloth, the crimson staining the white fabric like a macabre bouquet. Her movements were swift and sure, each touch a silent promise that she would leave no trace of their struggle behind.

With a sigh of annoyance, she straightened up and looked at the two men who had brought the unconscious figures to her. "You've made a mess of things," she admonished them, her voice low and even. "This was supposed to be clean. No witnesses, no fuss."

The one with the malicious smile shrugged, his eyes still gleaming with excitement. "They're out cold. What does it matter?"

The woman's gaze was like ice as it landed on him. "It matters," she said, her voice a whip crack in the quiet van. "We can't have loose ends, especially not when the prize is this valuable." She gestured to the memory card now nestled in her pocket, a small but significant bulge. "You two are getting sloppy. This isn't just about the data anymore."

The thief with the malicious smile took a step back, his bravado slipping. "What do you mean?"

The woman's voice was like a scalpel, slicing through the air. "I mean you left the security guard still in the security office. If he wakes up, if he remembers anything, it'll be a disaster." She turned her attention to the man who had been searching the room. "You. Go back and finish the job."

The thief's eyes narrowed, and he took a step towards the woman. "You want me to kill him?"

Her response was a chilling smile. "No, I want you to bring him to me. Alive."

The thief's eyes widened, and he swallowed hard, the gravity of the situation finally sinking in. He nodded, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. He knew better than to argue with her. She was the boss, the one who had hired them for this job. The one who had provided the intel, the gear, the exit strategy.

The two intruders turned and once again disappeared into the night, the van's door closing with a heavy thud. The engine purred to life, and the woman's eyes remained fixed on the two unconscious forms before her. Her thoughts were a whirlwind of contingency plans and escape routes. They had been so close to a clean getaway. Now, they had to deal with an unexpected variable. But she was a master of improvisation, a chess player who could predict ten moves ahead. She knew exactly what to do.

The potent sedative would keep Horace and David under for the hours to come, and she had no intention of letting their memories resurface. The mind-wiping technology was still experimental, but it was a tool she had used before with great success. She had no doubt that by the time they awoke, the events of the night would be nothing but a hazy dream, forgotten as quickly as a nightmare upon waking. But she had to be thorough. No loose ends, no trace of their existence.

With a series of clicks and whirs, the chairs began to recline, and a peculiar contraption descended from the above the chairs. It was a memory-altering device, a piece of technology so advanced that it was rumored to be illegal in most countries. Horace's and David's heads were cradled by the soft padding, and the cold metal of the contraption pressed against their temples. The room was bathed in an eerie blue light. The machine hummed to life, the sound vibrating through the metal floorboards and up into the men's bones. A series of lights blinking in a hypnotic pattern. The men felt a strange tugging at the edges of their consciousness, as if their very thoughts were being plucked from their brains. The world grew fuzzy, and the line between reality and nightmare began to blur.

Leaning over Horace's still form, she gently lifted off the glasses that had been clinging on the man's face for its dear life throughout the violent ordeal, and raised one of his eyelids. The pupil dilating in the dim light - a flicker of life danced across his face despite his comatose disposition. She felt for a pulse at his neck. It was strong and steady, the rhythm of a man who had lived a life of the mind, not one of physical exertion.

Years ago, she had been a student in his class, a young girl with a burning curiosity for the intricacies of molecular biology. Back then, she had watched him from the back of the lecture hall, her heart fluttering every time he spoke, his knowledge like a beacon drawing her in. The way his glasses would slip down his nose, the way he'd push them back up with a forefinger, the passion that infused every syllable he uttered about DNA and genetic codes. She had been in awe of him, had dreamed of working alongside him, perhaps even sharing her life with him. But fate had other plans.

Now, she had him at her mercy, and the irony was not lost on her. Horace Horowitz, the man she had once idolized, lay unconscious before her, a victim of her own twisted ambition. She studied his face, noticing the new lines etched by time and stress, the slight pallor that had replaced his once vibrant complexion. With a flicker of something akin to regret, she reached out and brushed a lock of his dishevelled hair from his forehead. It was then that she caught a faint whiff of his scent, a combination of stale cologne and the earthy aroma of a life spent in dusty labs. Her nose twitched, and she leaned in closer, sniffing his hairy chest. It was an oddly intimate gesture, one she had not planned. But there it was, a sudden urge to inhale the essence of the man whose work she had sought to claim as her own. Her hand hovered over his heart, feeling the steady beat beneath the fabric of his button-up shirt, stained with patches of blood.

But it was the sight of David Jones, the Head of Security, that truly piqued her interest. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, his breathing deep and even. Her eyes lingered on his broad shoulders, the fabric of his black polo shirt stretching taut, revealing the contours of his pectoral muscles honed by years of military service. The contrast between Horace's scholarly softness and David's hardened resolve was stark. The professor, with his gentle touch and quiet wisdom, had always been a figure of comfort in the harsh world of academia. But it was the former soldier's unyielding discipline and fierce protection of what he deemed right that she found increasingly alluring. As she secured their bonds with practiced efficiency, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of something she hadn't expected—desire.

Her hand paused as she reached for the bandage to dress David's head wound. His skin was warm to the touch, his pulse a steady throb beneath her fingertips. She found herself drawn to the vulnerability of this man who had been sent to safeguard the very thing she sought to steal. As she gently cleaned the blood from his skin, she noticed the way his eyes fluttered beneath his lids, as if trying to break free of the unconsciousness that held him captive. The smell of his sweat and the faint scent of leather from his jacket filled her nose, a heady mix that sent a shiver down her spine.

The woman's eyes lingered on the scar that ran along the side of his face, tracing the jagged line with a tenderness that surprised even her. The harshness of his features, so at odds with the gentle sway of his chest as he breathed, only served to heighten her attraction. She had seen men like him before, in the military compounds she had infiltrated, but never had one been so close, never had one been so… tempting. Her breath caught in her throat as she applied the bandage, pressing it down firmly but not too hard, her mind racing with thoughts of what might happen if he were to wake up right then and there.

With a tremble in her hand, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his. The kiss was gentle, almost chaste, but it sent a bolt of electricity through her body. She felt his breath warm against her mouth, and she closed her eyes, savoring the moment, the power she held in her grasp. For a brief, terrifying second, she thought he might stir, that he might open his eyes and see her there, hovering over him like a predator. But he remained still, unresponsive to her advances, lost in the depths of oblivion.

Her pulse quickened, her breath coming in ragged gasps. The sight of him, laid bare and vulnerable before her, sent a thrill through her body that she had never experienced before. The need to claim him, to assert her dominance, was overwhelming. The desire that had been simmering within her for so long was now a raging inferno, demanding to be sated. She reached for the zipper of his slacks, her fingers trembling with a mix of excitement and trepidation. As the teeth of the zipper parted, the sound seemed to echo in the confined space of the van, a metaphor for the walls of her inhibitions crumbling around her…

---

In the security office, Ben's eyelids fluttered open. The world was a blur, the edges of his vision a kaleidoscope of colors that danced and swirled. He felt groggy, his body heavy as if he had just emerged from a deep sleep. The room spun around him, and he had to grip the edge of the desk to keep from toppling over. His mind was a fog, his thoughts sluggish and slow.

The last thing he remembered was talking to Professor Horowitz, the comforting weight of his flashlight in his hand. Then, darkness. The suddenness of it all made his stomach churn, and he had to swallow back bile. He looked down at his shirt, expecting to find it stained with the remnants of his dinner, but instead, his gaze fell upon a spread of crimson. His hand went to the rim of his nostrils, and his fingertips came away sticky with blood. Panic began to set in, a cold hand closing around his heart. Something was wrong, very wrong.

He tried to sit up, but the world tilted, and he had to grab hold of the chair to keep from falling. The pain in his face was a drumbeat in his skull, pulsing with every throb of his heart. He touched his jaw gingerly, his teeth gritted against the agony, and felt the tender swelling. He had been hit, hard. Who would do this? And why?

Panic coiled in his gut like a snake. He had to call for help. But as he reached for the radio, his hand froze. The line was dead. He looked down at his shirt, the fabric clinging to his sweaty body, and realized with horror that he was in his undershirt. His pants were gone too, leaving him in his boxers and black socks. A chill of fear crept up his spine. The thieves had taken his uniform. They had infiltrated the building.

With trembling fingers, Ben felt his pockets, searching for his phone. Empty. They had taken that too. His mind raced as he tried to piece together what had happened. He needed to warn David, to get help, but the fog in his brain made it difficult to form coherent thoughts. He pushed himself to his feet, his knees wobbly like a newborn fawn's. Each step was a battle against the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm him.

As he reached for the door handle, the world tilted again, and he had to lean against the wall to keep from falling. But the adrenaline coursing through his veins kept him upright. He had to get out, had to tell someone. The lab, the research, Horace—it was all at risk. He took a deep breath and pulled open the door.

And that's when they surprised him, two shadows stepping out of the darkness. Ben recognized the uniform immediately; the same one he had been wearing before everything went haywire.

"You're coming with us," the first thief, the one with the smug smile, said as he grabbed Ben by the arm, twisting it behind his back.

The pain was a white-hot knife slicing through the fog in Ben's brain. He roared, a primal sound that seemed to come from somewhere deep within his soul. With the last of his strength, he swung his other elbow back, catching the thief in the ribs. The man grunted and loosened his grip just enough for Ben to wrench free. He stumbled into the second thief, knocking them both off balance, and they crashed into the wall of the narrow corridor. The impact was like a bomb going off in Ben's head, but he didn't care. The fight or flight instinct had taken over, and he was fighting with everything he had.

But his opponents were not so easily deterred - they had recovered faster than Ben would have liked. The thief with the smug smile was on him again, his hands like iron manacles around Ben's neck. He saw the other man's foot coil back, the muscles in his leg tightening like a spring. Then it shot forward, a blur of motion, and connected with Ben's forehead. His head snapped back, the force of the kick sending him sprawling like a ragdoll. His vision swam with a faint memory before everything went black.

Earlier that evening, Ben had been walking back to the security office after his usual patrol of the lab. The corridors had been unusually quiet, the only sounds the faint hum of the fluorescent lights and the occasional beep from a distant machine. He had just finished his chat with Professor Horowitz. As Ben had returnes to the security office, a figure had emerged from the shadows of the room, a blur of darkness and malicious intent. The blow to the face came swift and unexpected, sending shockwaves of pain through his skull. He collapsed on the floor, but before he could recover, another wave of kicks and punches crashing down on him. He barely had time to register the attacker's face, as a damp cloth was immediaty slapped over his nose and mouth. His eyes watered and his limbs felt like lead weights attached to his body. He struggled, but his body was betraying him, turning to jelly under the potent fumes...

Back to the present, the thief with a distinctive scar on the left of his face stepped over his prone opponent, the burly security guard, "You're one tough motherfucker," he murmured, but Ben was beyond hearing, lost to the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness for the second time of the evening.

The two intruders grunted and strained as they hoisted Ben's bulk between them, his unconscious form a dead weight. They stumbled under the burden, their breaths coming in harsh gasps. Each step was a struggle, their muscles screaming with the effort. The thief with the scar on his left temple took the lead, his eyes darting back and forth as he searched for any sign of danger. The lab was eerily quiet, the only sounds their heavy breathing and the slap of their shoes against the tiles.

The van's engine purred in the distance, the blue light from the contraption inside casting a glow that seemed to pulse with the rhythm of their racing hearts. As they approached, the moaning grew louder, a sound that seemed to resonate with the very air around them. It was a sound of pain, of need, of something primal and terrifying.

The thief with the scar on his temple paused, his grip on Ben's arm tightening. "What the hell is that?" he hissed, his eyes darting to the closed doors of the van.

They stumbled the last few feet to the van, the doors sliding open with a hiss. Inside, the woman in white was exactly where they had left her, but the scene was far from what they had expected. She sat astride David's unconscious body, her left hand braced on his broad chest. The leather of the chair creaked under her weight as she rocked her hips, her movements slow and deliberate. Her eyes were closed, lost in a world of her own making. The blue light from the contraption played over her skin, casting eerie shadows across her features. Her breaths were deep and even, a counterpoint to the moans that filled the van. It was a sound that was both terrifying and mesmerizing, a symphony of control and dominance.

Horace lay in the chair next to them, his body limp and unresponsive. The woman's hand was buried in his crotch, her fingers working with a cold, detached precision. The old man's skin was pale and slack, his face a mask of peaceful oblivion. Yet, even in his unconscious state, his body began to respond to her touch. His penis grew hard, a silent protest against the invasion of his dignity. The thief with the scar watched with a mix of disgust and fascination, his grip on Ben's arm loosening slightly as he took in the scene. The other thief's eyes were glued to the woman, his breaths coming in short, shallow bursts.

Without a word, he released Ben and moved to the other side of the van. His own hand dipped into his pants, stroking himself as he took in the sight of his boss with the unconscious Head of Security. He couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement, the kind that came from watching something taboo, something that shouldn't be. His own desires were a confusing mess, a tapestry of power and submission that he didn't fully understand. He stepped closer to Horace's chair, his eyes never leaving the woman's hand as it moved with purpose.

The thief's hand was shaking as he reached out to mimic her movements. He had seen this kind of thing before, in the dark corners of the internet, but never had he been part of it, never had he thought he would be. His finger slid into Horace's anus, feeling the old man's muscles loosely clench around him. The professor's erection grew more prominent as his prostate was stimulated by the thrusting motion of the gloved finger, and the thief couldn't help but feel a sense of pride, as if he had somehow contributed to the scene unfolding before him. The woman's eyes snapped open, meeting his, and she nodded, a silent acknowledgment of his participation.

The other thief's hand moved to his own pants, his erection straining against the fabric. He was caught in a loop of arousal and revulsion, the power of the moment warring with the horror of what they were doing. Yet he couldn't look away, his eyes drawn to the sight of his boss, the woman in white, using these men like puppets. The contraption above them hummed away, the lights flickering faster and faster as if in time with the thief's racing heart.

With a grunt, he dropped Ben onto the floor of the van, the heavy man's body thudding onto the cold metal. The thief tugged at Ben's briefs, pulling them down roughly, exposing the plump flesh of his buttocks to the chilly air. He positioned himself behind Ben, his breath hot and ragged, and paused for a moment, his own body betraying his twisted excitement. This wasn't what he had signed up for, but the thrill of the unknown was intoxicating. He lined himself up, the tip of his cock pressing against the night guard's yielding entrance. With a final glance at the woman, he pushed forward, feeling the give of flesh as he began to thrust.

Ben's body jerked with each violent entry; his mind was too far lost in the dark abyss of unconsciousness. His mouth hung open, a trickle of drool sliding down his chin, pooling on the floor beneath him. The thief took his time, his strokes growing more confident, each one a silent claim of victory over the man he had bested. The van's floor was cold and unforgiving against Ben's bare skin, a stark reminder of his helplessness. The woman watched the scene unfold with a detached air, her own hand still working between David's legs, her eyes hooded with lust.

Meanwhile, the scarred thief took the opportunity to strip the items from the comatose men, starting with Horace's footwear. It slipped off with a soft sigh of suede, revealing the old professor's black socked foot, the fabric stretched taut over his bony toes. He did the same to David, his eyes lingering on the guard's powerful legs, the muscles standing out in stark relief against the fabric of his black polyester crew socks. It was a small act of degradation, but it felt right, a way to assert their dominance over the two men who had dared to stand in their way.

He took a deep breath, inhaling the musky scent of sweat and leather that clung to the socks like a second skin. It was an aroma that spoke of hard work and masculine vitality, and it sent a thrill through him, a strange mix of arousal and disgust. He had always had a thing for feet, a secret fetish that he had never dared to indulge until now. He hold Horace's socked foot in his hand, feeling the dampness of it against his palm, the slight give of the material. It was like holding a piece of the man himself, a part of him that no one else had ever touched. He brought it to his nose, inhaling deeply, the scent making him lightheaded.

With trembling hands, he gently placed Horace's socked foot against his own erection, the softness of the fabric a stark contrast to the hardness of his cock. He began to thrust, his hips moving in a silent mimicry of the sex act, his eyes locked on the woman as she watched him with a cool detachment. The leather of his chair creaked in time with his movements, a rhythmic counterpoint to the grunts of effort coming from the thief on the floor. Each time he pushed forward, the socked foot slid along his length, the fabric whispering against his sensitive skin. The sensation was unlike anything he had ever felt before, a strange blend of comfort and depravity that made his blood sing.

Meanwhile, the woman leaned over David's unconscious form, her eyes hooded with a mix of concentration and something else, something darker. She lifted his polo shirt damped with masculine musk, revealing a hairy expanse of pectorals. Her hand hovered over his chest for a moment, the silence in the van thick with tension. Then, with a sudden, surprising force, she began to rub his chest vigorously, her palms gliding over the curly hairs that coated the broad planes of his torso. Her movements were sharp and efficient, like a doctor performing a lifesaving procedure, but the intimacy of the act sent a shiver through the thief who was still thrusting into Ben's unyielding body.

Her eyes fell on the scar that bisected David's right pecs, a jagged line of pale flesh that stood out like a lightning bolt against the fair skin. She traced it with her index finger, the pad of her digit tracing the path of the old wound. It was a story written in flesh, a tale of pain and survival that spoke of battles fought and won. She wondered briefly what had caused it, if it was a souvenir from his days in the military or something more personal. Her curiosity was piqued, a rare feeling for someone who dealt in cold, hard facts and the cold, hard reality of their work.

With a practiced ease, she reached over and began to rewire the memory-altering contraption. She knew the technology like the back of her hand, having used it often enough in her line of work. The cables slithered like serpents as she manipulated them, the lights on the panel blinking in a pattern that only she understood. The thief watching her from the corner of the van swallowed hard, his own arousal mixing with a fear of the unknown. What was she doing? He had never seen her act like this before.

The woman in white's eyes were glazed over as she worked, lost in her own thoughts. She was crafting a narrative, a falsehood so convincing it would be indistinguishable from reality. In the new version of events, David would remember her as his lover, someone he had shared intimate moments with. The thought of it made her pulse race, the idea of planting such a deeply personal memory into his mind thrilling and terrifying in equal measure. It was a power play, a way to ensure his loyalty and compliance when they next met.

The thief thrusting into Ben took a moment to appreciate the sheer absurdity of the situation. Here he was, in a high-security lab, committing a heinous act against the very person who was supposed to protect the place. He chuckled darkly to himself, the sound echoing off the metal walls of the van. With a grunt of effort, he flipped Ben onto his back, his own breaths coming in shallow gasps. Ben's chest rose and fell erratically, the soft folds of his stomach jiggling with each movement. The thief took a moment to stare into Ben's slack face, the man's eyes rolled back in his head. He felt a strange thrill at the thought of the terror that would fill those eyes when he awoke to the realization of what had been done to him.

"Hey," the thief said, his voice low and taunting. "You're gonna remember this, right?" He leaned down, his own face a twisted mask of pleasure and malice. "You're gonna remember how I had you, how you couldn't do anything to stop me." His hand tightened around Ben's throat, the other still buried in the man's body. He could feel the night guard's pulse, a frantic rabbit's heartbeat that only served to spur him on. He slammed his hips down, burying himself to the hilt, the sound of flesh meeting flesh a wet slap that filled the small space. "You're gonna remember every single second of this, even if you're not conscious for it."

The woman in white looked up from her task, her eyes meeting the thief's with a cold, hard gleam. "We don't leave any loose ends," she murmured, her voice a sultry purr. "Make sure he remembers nothing."

The thief, his own lust-induced haze momentarily broken, stared at her, his brow furrowed in confusion. "But...what about you? What you're doin' to him, that's personal," he protested, nodding towards David's unconscious form.

The woman in white paused in her task, her eyes narrowing slightly. "What I do is for the job," she replied, her voice devoid of emotion. "What you're doing is a bonus." She turned back to the machine, her fingers moving with the grace of a pianist.

The thief stared at her for a moment, his grip on Ben's socked ankles loosening slightly. He could see the logic in her words, even if it didn't sit well with him. After all, this was why they had all signed up for this line of work—to get what they wanted, no matter the cost. He pushed the thought away, focusing on the task at hand. He had to make sure Ben wouldn't remember, not a single detail. He didn't know what the boss had planned for the clearly virile silver fox, but he knew enough to be grateful he wasn't the one in her crosshairs.

With a final, brutal thrust, he finished inside Ben, the night guard's body jerking one last time before going still. The thief pulled out, his own legs wobbly from the exertion. He stepped away, leaving Ben sprawled on the floor of the van, his anal entrance coated with a sticky, translucent substance. The woman didn't look up from her work, her attention fully focused on the machine's whirring guts...

---

"Hnnnnngghh..."

Horace grunted, his body twitched as his eyes fluttering open. The room was bathed in the soft glow of the computer screens, the only sound the quiet hum of the lab outside. He sat up from the cold floor, his hand going to his forehead. It felt like a bad dream, the kind that left you in cold sweat and disoriented. But there was something...off. His heart raced as he tried to remember what had happened.

The last thing he recalled was being in his office, going over the latest data on his research. The cure for the rare disease had been his obsession for years, a quest that had cost him sleep, relationships, and nearly his sanity. Yet, here he was, as if he had merely dozed off.

With a trembling hand, Horace reached for the necklace that held the memory card, feeling for the comforting weight of the small, metallic square. It was still there, nestled against his chest, a silent sentinel that had somehow survived the night's events. His heart skipped a beat. It had to be a sign. He had to check, had to make sure his work was secure. He fumbled with the clasp, his hands clammy with a mix of fear and relief. The card was still there, nestled in its slot within the necklace, untouched.

The clock on the wall read 3:15 AM, a silent judge of the hours he had lost. Horace sighed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. He pushed himself out of the chair, his knees popping as he stood. A sharp pain lanced through his skull, making him wince. "Must have fallen and hit my head," he murmured to himself, feeling around his scalp. He didn't realize how long he was out. Couldn't even recall the fall, the impact. Just the sudden blackness, like someone had thrown a switch. His mind raced as he padded over to the door, the soft soles of his suede loafers whispering against the cold linoleum. He reached out for a switch on the wall; the harsh fluorescent lights burning his retinas.

His office was a mess, papers scattered across the floor, the chair knocked over. Horace's gaze fell on his shirt, the once crisp white fabric now marred with crimson splatters. His heart skipped a beat as his fingers touched the torn buttons, the fabric sticking to his skin. The blood was warm, sticky. It had to be his. A sudden wave of nausea washed over him, and he stumbled back, bumping into the wall. His breathing grew shallow, the room spinning around him. He had to find a guard, get some help.

With shaky legs, he made his way down the hallway, calling out for Naber or Jones. The lab was eerily quiet, the only sound the faint beeping of machines and his own panicked breaths echoing through the corridor. Horace's stomach churned, the coppery taste of fear thick in his mouth. He had to find someone, had to explain...what had happened.

He turned the corner and found the security office, the door ajar. Inside, Ben lay slumped in his chair, snoring gently. His bared, dark socked feet lay on the control desk, lightly trembling with every breath the burly security guard made. The sight of the heavyset guard, chin resting on his chest and mouth open, brought a moment of relief to Horace's chest. But as he approached, he noticed the bruises that marred Ben's square jaw, the dishevelled mess of his salt-and-pepper hair, and the dried blood crusting in the corner of his mouth. His blue cargo shirt was undone halfway through down to the navel, exposing the white ribbed tank top beneath, which was stained with sweat and something darker. Horace's heart lurched.

With a tremble, he reached out to shake Ben's shoulder, calling his name. The guard stirred, his eyes fluttering open with a grunt. For a second, there was no recognition, just confusion. Then Ben's gaze sharpened, his eyes locking onto the professor's with a jolt of understanding. "Professor?" he croaked, his voice raw as if he had been screaming. "What the hell happened?"

Ben looked down at himself, at the open shirt, the bruises, the blood, and his mind went blank. The last thing he remembered was checking the security monitors, a monotonous task that had lulled him into a light doze. "I don't remember," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I was just sitting here, keeping an eye on things, and then..." He trailed off, his mind a fog of uncertainty.

Horace's eyes were wide with panic as he took in Ben's dishevelled state. "We need to find David," he urged, his voice shaking. "Call him, now." Ben fumbled for the radio, his hands thick and clumsy, and pressed the call button. "Jones, this is Naber. Jones, can you hear me? We've got a situation."

The static response was deafening, the line eerily silent. "Shit," Ben murmured, his eyes darting around the room. He tried again, his voice more frantic this time. "Jones, respond. This is not a drill!" Still, no reply. The silence was unnerving, a stark contrast to the usual calm efficiency of the lab's night shift.

Horace's mind raced, trying to piece together the puzzle that was his missing time. His eyes darted to the security monitors, expecting to see David's stern face staring back at them, but instead, the screens were black. The lab was a ghost town, a stark reminder of their vulnerability. He closed his eyes and tried to focus, to reach into the depths of his consciousness for any hint of what had transpired. But the voice in his head was silent, a mute witness to the horrors that had unfolded just beyond his grasp. It was as if someone had reached into his mind and ripped out the very fabric of his thoughts, leaving him with nothing but a void where his memories should be...

---

Elsewhere, in an unknown location, David Jones was strapped to a patient chair, still unconscious. The room was cold, the air sterile, and the smell of antiseptic burned his nostrils even in his sleep. He was half-naked, his broad chest rising and falling in shallow breaths, the scar on his left arm standing out like a silent sentinel. His eyes were closed, the lids flickering with the dreams of a man who had seen too much. He was a warrior, even in sleep, his muscles taut, ready to spring into action at the first sign of danger.

The chair was a contraption of metal and leather, designed to keep its occupant still and vulnerable. His legs were spread, his feet bound to the chair with thick, unyielding straps. His black socks, once a symbol of his professionalism and order, now seemed almost comical in their starkness against the gleaming chrome. His black briefs clung to his hips, the fabric stretched taut over the contours of his body. He was a man on display, a specimen to be studied and manipulated.

The sound of high heels clicked against the cold, sterile floor, pulling him from the embrace of oblivion. The woman in white approached, her movements fluid and predatory. The light cast shadows across her face, highlighting the sharp angles of her cheekbones and the cruel curve of her smile. She leaned over him, her breath warm against his neck, and whispered, "Time to wake up, sleeping beauty." Her voice was a siren's call, seductive and deadly.

David's eyes fluttered open, the bright lights above stinging his retinas. He blinked, trying to clear the fog from his vision. His eyes locked with hers, and she was beautiful—cold and calculating, but beautiful. He felt a strange warmth spread through his body, a response to the power she exuded. He couldn't remember her name, but he knew she was in his heart. He greeted her with a genuine smile, but clearly enforced on his subconscious.

"Welcome back," she purred, her voice a symphony of manipulation. She knew the memory-altering device had done its job, wiping his mind clean of the previous night's horrors and leaving only a deep-seated loyalty to her.

David looked up at her through the haze, his eyes glazed with a mix of confusion and adoration. She had done it. He was now at her command, a soldier with a new mission, a new loyalty. The woman in white felt a thrill of power run through her as she stroked his cheek, her gloved hand cold and firm. "You're going to help me, aren't you?" she asked, her voice a gentle coax.

David nodded, his mind a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. He didn't know why he felt so drawn to her, why he would do anything she asked without question. But he knew it was true, deep in his bones. The woman in white had claimed him, and he was her devoted servant. "Yes," he murmured, his voice thick with need. "Whatever you need, my love."

The woman smirked, a knowing look in her eyes. Her plan had worked. She held in her hand a copy of the memory card's content, the fruits of their twisted labor. It contained the secret to the cure, the very thing they had all been searching for. The power of life and death, now in her grasp. She leaned in closer, her breath hot against his ear. "Good," she whispered.

David's mind was a blank slate, the memories of the night's events erased by the insidious technology. He knew only what she had told him, the lies she had woven into the fabric of his thoughts. He nodded obediently, his muscles straining against the restraints as he tried to sit up. The woman in white chuckled, a sound like a shiver down a spine, and leaned down to release him from his bonds. He stood, unsteady on his feet, and she offered a slim hand to balance him. He took it gratefully, his eyes never leaving hers. Her next words sent a jolt through him, the electricity of fear and excitement melding into something new. "We have more work to do," she said, her voice a silky promise of dark deeds yet to come. "But don't worry, you'll enjoy it"...

[kanguin]

Hi, idk who's going to see this post or whatnot, but I had a lot of thoughts on a post I reblogged about AI that started to veer off the specific topic of the post, so I wanted to make my own.

Some background on me: I studied Psychology and Computer Science in college several years ago, with an interdisciplinary minor called Cognitive Science that joined the two with philosophy, linguistics, and multiple other fields. The core concept was to study human thinking and learning and its similarities to computer logic, and thus the courses I took touched frequently on learning algorithms, or "AI". This was of course before it became the successor to bitcoin as the next energy hungry grift, to be clear. Since then I've kept up on the topic, and coincidentally, my partner has gone into freelance data model training and correction. So while I'm not an expert, I have a LOT of thoughts on the current issue of AI.

I'll start off by saying that AI isn't a brand new technology, it, more properly known as learning algorithms, has been around in the linguistics, stats, biotech, and computer science worlds for over a decade or two. However, pre-ChatGPT learning algorithms were ground-up designed tools specialized for individual purposes, trained on a very specific data set, to make it as accurate to one thing as possible. Some time ago, data scientists found out that if you have a large enough data set on one specific kind of information, you can get a learning algorithm to become REALLY good at that one thing by giving it lots of feedback on right vs wrong answers. Right and wrong answers are nearly binary, which is exactly how computers are coded, so by implementing the psychological method of operant conditioning, reward and punishment, you can teach a program how to identify and replicate things with incredible accuracy. That's what makes it a good tool.

And a good tool it was and still is. Reverse image search? Learning algorithm based. Complex relationship analysis between words used in the study of language? Often uses learning algorithms to model relationships. Simulations of extinct animal movements and behaviors? Learning algorithms trained on anatomy and physics. So many features of modern technology and science either implement learning algorithms directly into the function or utilize information obtained with the help of complex computer algorithms.

But a tool in the hand of a craftsman can be a weapon in the hand of a murderer. Facial recognition software, drone targeting systems, multiple features of advanced surveillance tech in the world are learning algorithm trained. And even outside of authoritarian violence, learning algorithms in the hands of get-rich-quick minded Silicon Valley tech bro business majors can be used extremely unethically. All AI art programs that exist right now are trained from illegally sourced art scraped from the web, and ChatGPT (and similar derived models) is trained on millions of unconsenting authors' works, be they professional, academic, or personal writing. To people in countries targeted by the US War Machine and artists the world over, these unethical uses of this technology are a major threat.

Further, it's well known now that AI art and especially ChatGPT are MAJOR power-hogs. This, however, is not inherent to learning algorithms / AI, but is rather a product of the size, runtime, and inefficiency of these models. While I don't know much about the efficiency issues of AI "art" programs, as I haven't used any since the days of "imaginary horses" trended and the software was contained to a university server room with a limited training set, I do know that ChatGPT is internally bloated to all hell. Remember what I said about specialization earlier? ChatGPT throws that out the window. Because they want to market ChatGPT as being able to do anything, the people running the model just cram it with as much as they can get their hands on, and yes, much of that is just scraped from the web without the knowledge or consent of those who have published it. So rather than being really good at one thing, the owners of ChatGPT want it to be infinitely good, infinitely knowledgeable, and infinitely running. So the algorithm is never shut off, it's constantly taking inputs and processing outputs with a neural network of unnecessary size.

Now this part is probably going to be controversial, but I genuinely do not care if you use ChatGPT, in specific use cases. I'll get to why in a moment, but first let me clarify what use cases. It is never ethical to use ChatGPT to write papers or published fiction (be it for profit or not); this is why I also fullstop oppose the use of publicly available gen AI in making "art". I say publicly available because, going back to my statement on specific models made for single project use, lighting, shading, and special effects in many 3D animated productions use specially trained learning algorithms to achieve the complex results seen in the finished production. Famously, the Spider-verse films use a specially trained in-house AI to replicate the exact look of comic book shading, using ethically sources examples to build a training set from the ground up, the unfortunately-now-old-fashioned way. The issue with gen AI in written and visual art is that the publicly available, always online algorithms are unethically designed and unethically run, because the decision makers behind them are not restricted enough by laws in place.

So that actually leads into why I don't give a shit if you use ChatGPT if you're not using it as a plagiarism machine. Fact of the matter is, there is no way ChatGPT is going to crumble until legislation comes into effect that illegalizes and cracks down on its practices. The public, free userbase worldwide is such a drop in the bucket of its serverload compared to the real way ChatGPT stays afloat: licensing its models to businesses with monthly subscriptions. I mean this sincerely, based on what little I can find about ChatGPT's corporate subscription model, THAT is the actual lifeline keeping it running the way it is. Individual visitor traffic worldwide could suddenly stop overnight and wouldn't affect ChatGPT's bottom line. So I don't care if you, I, or anyone else uses the website because until the US or EU governments act to explicitly ban ChatGPT and other gen AI business' shady practices, they are all only going to continue to stick around profit from big business contracts. So long as you do not give them money or sing their praises, you aren't doing any actual harm.

If you do insist on using ChatGPT after everything I've said, here's some advice I've gathered from testing the algorithm to avoid misinformation:

If you feel you must use it as a sounding board for figuring out personal mental or physical health problems like I've seen some people doing when they can't afford actual help, do not approach it conversationally in the first person. Speak in the third person as if you are talking about someone else entirely, and exclusively note factual information on observations, symptoms, and diagnoses. This is because where ChatGPT draws its information from depends on the style of writing provided. If you try to be as dry and clinical as possible, and request links to studies, you should get dry and clinical information in return. This approach also serves to divorce yourself mentally from the information discussed, making it less likely you'll latch onto anything. Speaking casually will likely target unprofessional sources.

Do not ask for citations, ask for links to relevant articles. ChatGPT is capable of generating links to actual websites in its database, but if asked to provide citations, it will replicate the structure of academic citations, and will very likely hallucinate at least one piece of information. It also does not help that these citations also will often be for papers not publicly available and will not include links.

ChatGPT is at its core a language association and logical analysis software, so naturally its best purposes are for analyzing written works for tone, summarizing information, and providing examples of programming. It's partially coded in python, so examples of Python and Java code I've tested come out 100% accurate. Complex Google Sheets formulas however are often finicky, as it often struggles with proper nesting orders of formulas.

Expanding off of that, if you think of the software as an input-output machine, you will get best results. Problems that do not have clear input information or clear solutions, such as open ended questions, will often net inconsistent and errant results.

Commands are better than questions when it comes to asking it to do something. If you think of it like programming, then it will respond like programming most of the time.

Most of all, do not engage it as a person. It's not a person, it's just an algorithm that is trained to mimic speech and is coded to respond in courteous, subservient responses. The less you try and get social interaction out of ChatGPT, the less likely it will be to just make shit up because it sounds right.

Anyway, TL;DR:

AI is just a tool and nothing more at its core. It is not synonymous with its worse uses, and is not going to disappear. Its worst offenders will not fold or change until legislation cracks down on it, and we, the majority users of the internet, are not its primary consumer. Use of AI to substitute art (written and visual) with blended up art of others is abhorrent, but use of a freely available algorithm for personal analyticsl use is relatively harmless so long as you aren't paying them.

We need to urge legislators the world over to crack down on the methods these companies are using to obtain their training data, but at the same time people need to understand that this technology IS useful and both can and has been used for good. I urge people to understand that learning algorithms are not one and the same with theft just because the biggest ones available to the public have widely used theft to cut corners. So long as computers continue to exist, algorithmic problem-solving and generative algorithms are going to continue to exist as they are the logical conclusion of increasingly complex computer systems. Let's just make sure the future of the technology is not defined by the way things are now.

[bestschoolofcoreai]

Machine Learning Online: Unlocking the Power of AI from Anywhere

In today’s digital age, machine learning (ML) has rapidly become one of the most transformative technologies across various industries. From predicting customer preferences in e-commerce to enhancing medical diagnostics, machine learning is making waves in almost every field. If you’re keen to dive into this exciting domain, there’s no better time than now to learn. And what better way to do so than through machine learning online courses that allow you to gain the skills you need from the comfort of your own home?

What is Machine Learning?

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables computers to learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. Unlike traditional programming, where humans explicitly tell computers what to do, machine learning systems can improve their performance over time by learning from experience.

For example, machine learning powers recommendation systems like the ones used by Netflix or Amazon to suggest movies or products based on your previous choices. It’s also behind speech recognition in virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, and even in self-driving cars that learn to navigate safely on the road.

Why Learn Machine Learning Online?

With the increasing demand for machine learning professionals across industries, learning ML can open up a wide array of career opportunities. Whether you’re a student, a professional looking to upskill, or someone entirely new to the field, machine learning online courses offer several benefits:

1. Flexible Learning

One of the biggest advantages of learning machine learning online is flexibility. You can study at your own pace, choosing when and where you want to learn. Online platforms often offer self-paced courses, so whether you’re working full-time or have a packed schedule, you can fit your lessons into your routine.

2. Access to Expert Knowledge

Online platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity partner with top universities and industry leaders to provide high-quality content. You’ll be learning from experts who have hands-on experience in machine learning and AI, ensuring that the knowledge you gain is up-to-date and relevant.

3. Cost-Effective

Many online machine learning courses are more affordable than traditional in-person classes. In fact, several platforms even offer free courses or trial periods, allowing you to explore the subject without making a significant financial commitment. For those who want to take their learning further, affordable certifications are also available.

4. A Wide Range of Resources

When you learn machine learning online, you have access to a wealth of resources, including video tutorials, reading materials, discussion forums, and hands-on coding exercises. This variety ensures that you can absorb information in different formats and reinforce your understanding.

5. Hands-On Projects

The best way to understand machine learning is by actually doing it. Many online courses offer hands-on projects, where you can build and implement ML models on real-world data. These projects help you not only understand the theory behind machine learning but also develop practical skills that are highly valued by employers.

What Will You Learn in a Machine Learning Online Course?

Machine learning is a broad field, but online courses usually focus on key concepts and techniques that you’ll need to build a strong foundation. Here’s a brief overview of what you can expect to learn:

1. Introduction to Machine Learning

Most online courses start with an introduction to machine learning, including its core principles and types of ML algorithms. You’ll be introduced to supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning, which are the three main categories of machine learning.

2. Data Preprocessing

Machine learning algorithms require data, but real-world data is often messy and unstructured. In this part of the course, you’ll learn techniques for cleaning and preprocessing data, such as handling missing values, scaling features, and encoding categorical variables.

3. Algorithms and Models

You’ll dive deeper into popular machine learning algorithms like linear regression, decision trees, k-nearest neighbors, and support vector machines. You’ll also learn how to choose the right algorithm for different problems and how to evaluate the performance of your models.

4. Neural Networks and Deep Learning

As you progress, many courses will introduce you to more advanced topics, like neural networks and deep learning. These techniques are behind some of the most cutting-edge advancements in AI, including natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and autonomous systems.

5. Model Evaluation and Optimization

You’ll learn how to assess the performance of your machine learning models and optimize them to improve accuracy. Techniques like cross-validation, hyperparameter tuning, and regularization are essential to building robust models.

6. Real-World Applications

Machine learning has a wide range of applications, and online courses often include case studies or projects where you can apply what you’ve learned to solve real-world problems. This could include predicting stock prices, classifying images, or building recommendation systems.

Choosing the Right Machine Learning Online Course

When selecting an online machine learning course, it’s essential to consider your current skill level and career goals. Beginners should look for courses that start with foundational topics, while intermediate learners might prefer more advanced courses that delve into deep learning or specialized ML applications.

Popular online platforms offering machine learning courses include:

Coursera (courses from universities like Stanford and University of Washington)

edX (courses from MIT, Harvard, and others)

Udacity (nanodegrees in AI and machine learning)

DataCamp (focused on data science and ML)

Final Thoughts

Learning machine learning online is an excellent way to build valuable skills that can advance your career in AI and data science. Whether you’re looking to switch careers or enhance your current role, the flexibility and accessibility of online learning make it easier than ever to get started. With the right course, a bit of dedication, and hands-on practice, you’ll be well on your way to mastering machine learning and unlocking the vast opportunities that AI has to offer.

Start today, and who knows? In a few months, you might be building your own machine learning models to solve real-world problems!

[ideas-on-paper]

Chris L’Etoile’s original dialogue about the Reaper embryo & the person who was (probably) behind the decision with Legion’s N7 armor

(EDIT: Okay, so Idk why Tumblr displays the headline twice on my end, but if it does for you, please ignore it.)

[Mass Effect 2 spoilers!]

FRIENDS! MASS EFFECT FANS! PEOPLE!

You wouldn't believe it, but I think I've found the lines Chris L'Etoile originally wrote for EDI about the human Reaper!

Chris L’Etoile’s original concept for the Reapers

For those who don't know (or need a refresher), Chris L'Etoile - who was something like the “loremaster” of the ME series, having written the entire Codex in ME1 by himself - originally had a concept for the Reapers that was slightly different from ME2's canon. In the finished game, when you find the human Reaper in the Collector Base, you'll get the following dialogue by investigating:

Shepard: Reapers are machines -- why do they need humans at all? EDI: Incorrect. Reapers are sapient constructs. A hybrid of organic and inorganic material. The exact construction methods are unclear, but it seems probable that the Reapers absorb the essence of a species; utilizing it in their reproduction process.

Meanwhile, Chris L'Etoile had this to say about EDI's dialogue (sourced from here):

I had written harder science into EDI's dialogue there. The Reapers were using nanotech disassemblers to perform "destructive analysis" on humans, with the intent of learning how to build a Reaper body that could upload their minds intact. Once this was complete, humans throughout the galaxy would be rounded up to have their personalities and memories forcibly uploaded into the Reaper's memory banks. (You can still hear some suggestions of this in the background chatter during Legion's acquisition mission, which I wrote.) There was nothing about Reapers being techno-organic or partly built out of human corpses -- they were pure tech. It seems all that was cut out or rewritten after I left. What can ya do. /shrug

Well, guess what: These deleted lines are actually in the game files!

Credit goes to Emily for uploading them to YouTube; the discussion about the human Reaper starts at 1:02:

Shepard: EDI, did you get that? EDI: Yes, Shepard. This explains why the captive humans were rendered into their base components -- destructive analysis. They were dissected down to the atomic level. That data could be stored on an AIs neural network. The knowledge and essence of billions of individuals, compiled into a single synthetic identity. Shepard: This isn’t gonna stop with the colonies, is it? EDI: The colonists were probably a test sample. The ultimate goal would be to upload all humans into this Reaper mind. The Collectors would harvest every human settlement across the galaxy. The obvious final goal would be Earth.

In all honesty, I think L’Etoile’s original concept is a lot cooler and makes a lot more sense than what ME2 canon went with. The only direct reference to it left in the final game is an insanely obscure comment by Legion, which you can only get if you picked the Renegade option upon the conclusion of their final Normandy conversation and completed the Suicide Mission afterwards (read: you have to get your entire crew killed if you want to see it).

I used to believe the pertaining dialogue he had written for EDI was lost forever, and I was all the more stoked when I discovered it on YouTube (or at least, I strongly believe this is L’Etoile’s original dialogue).

Interestingly, the deleted lines also feature an investigate option on why they’re targeting humans in particular:

Shepard: The galaxy has so many other species… Why are they using humans? EDI: Given the Collectors’ history, it is likely they tested other species, and discarded them as unsuitable. Human genetics are uniquely diverse.

The diversity of human genetics is remarked on quite a few times during the course of ME2 (something which my friend, @dragonflight203, once called “ME2’s patented “humanity is special” moments”), so this most likely what all this build-up was supposed to be for.

Tbh, I’m still not the biggest fan of the concept myself (if simply because I’m adverse to humans being the “supreme species”); while it would make sense for some species that had to go through a genetic bottleneck during their history (Krogan, Quarians, Drell), what exactly is it that makes Asari, Salarians*, and Turians less genetically diverse than humans? Also, how much are genetics even going to factor in if it’s their knowledge/experiences that they want to upload? (Now that I think about it, it would’ve been interesting if the Reapers targeted humanity because they have the most diverse opinions; that would’ve lined up nicely with the Geth desiring to have as many perspectives in their Consensus as possible.)

*EDIT: I just remembered that Salarian males - who compose about 90% of the species - hatch from unfertilized eggs, so they're presumably (half) clones of their mother. That would be a valid explanation why Salarians are less genetically diverse, at least.

Nevertheless, it would’ve been nice if all this “humanity is special” stuff actually led somewhere, since it’s more or less left in empty space as it is.

Anyway, most of the squadmates also have an additional remark about how the Reapers might be targeting humanity because Shepard defeated one of them, wanting to utilize this prowess for themselves. (Compare this to Legion’s comment “Your code is superior.”) I gotta agree with the commentator here who said that it would’ve been interesting if they kept these lines, since it would’ve added a layer of guilt to Shepard’s character.

Regardless of which theory is true, I do think it would’ve done them good to go a little more in-depth with the explanation why the Reapers chose humanity, of all races.

The identity of “Higher Paid” who insisted on Legion’s obsession with Shepard

Coincidentally, I may have solved yet another long-term mystery of ME2: In the same thread I linked above, you can find another comment by Chris L’Etoile, who also was the writer of Legion, on the decision to include a piece of Shepard’s N7 armor in their design:

The truth is that the armor was a decision imposed on me. The concept artists decided to put a hole in the geth. Then, in a moment of whimsy, they spackled a bit Shep's armor over it. Someone who got paid a lot more money than me decided that was really cool and insisted on the hole and the N7 armor. So I said, okay, Legion gets taken down when you meet it, so it can get the hole then, and weld on a piece of Shep's armor when it reactivates to represent its integration with Normandy's crew (when integrating aboard a new geth ship, it would swap memories and runtimes, not physical hardware). But Higher Paid decided that it would be cooler if Legion were obsessed with Shepard, and stalking him. That didn't make any sense to me -- to be obsessed, you have to have emotions. The geth's whole schtick is -- to paraphrase Legion -- "We do not experience (emotions), but we understand how (they) affect you." All I could do was downplay the required "obsession" as much as I could.

That paraphrased quote by Legion is actually a nice cue: I suppose the sentence L’Etoile is paraphrasing here is “We do not experience fear, but we understand how it affects you.”, which I’ve seen quoted by various people. However, the weird thing was that while it sounds like something Legion would say, I couldn’t remember them saying it on any occasion in-game - and I’ve practically seen every single Legion line there is.

So I googled the quote and stumbled upon an old thread from before ME2 came out. In the discussion, a trailer for ME2 - called the “Enemies” trailer - is referenced, and since it has led some users to conclusions that clearly aren’t canon (most notably, that Legion belongs to a rogue faction of Geth that do not share the same beliefs as the “core group”, when it’s actually the other way around with Legion belonging to the core group and the Heretics being the rogue faction), I was naturally curious about the contents of this trailer.

I managed to find said trailer on YouTube, which features commentary by game director Casey Hudson, lead designer Preston Watamaniuk, and lead writer Mac Walters.

The part where they talk about Legion starts at 2:57; it’s interesting that Walters describes Legion as a “natural evolution of the Geth” and says that they have broken beyond the constraints of their group consciousness by themselves, when Legion was actually a specifically designed platform.

The most notable thing, however, is what Hudson says afterwards (at 3:17):

Legion is stalking you, he’s obsessed with you, he’s incorporated a part of your armor into his own. You need to track him down and find out why he’s hunting you.

Given that the wording is almost identical to L’Etoile’s comment and with how much confidence and enthusiasm Hudson talks about it, I’m 99% sure the thing with the armor was his idea.

Also, just what the fuck do you mean by “you need to track Legion down and find out why they’re hunting you”? You never actively go after Legion; Shepard just sort of stumbles upon them during the Derelict Reaper mission (footage from which is actually featured in the trailer) - if anything, the energy of that meeting is more like “oh, why, hello there”.

Legion doesn’t actively hunt Shepard during the course of the game, either; they had abandoned their original mission of locating Shepard after failing to find them at the Normandy wreck site. Furthermore, the significance of Legion’s reason for tracking Shepard is vastly overstated - it only gets mentioned briefly in one single conversation on the Normandy (which, btw, is totally optional).

I seriously have no idea if this is just exaggerated advertising or if they actually wanted to do something completely different with Legion’s character - then again, that trailer is from November 5th 2009, and Mass Effect 2 was released on January 26th 2010, so it’s unlikely they were doing anything other than polishing at this point. (By the looks of it, the story/missions were largely finished.) If you didn't know any better, you'd almost get the impression that neither Walters nor Hudson even read any of the dialogue L’Etoile had written for Legion.

That being said, I don’t think the idea with Legion already having the N7 armor before meeting Shepard is all that bad by itself. If I was the one who suggested it, I probably would’ve asked the counter question: “Yeah, alright, but how would Shepard be convinced that this Geth - of all Geth - is non-hostile towards them? What reason would Shepard have to trust a Geth after ME1?” (Shepard actually points out the piece of N7 armor as an argument to reactivate Legion.)

Granted, I don’t know what the context of Legion’s recruitment mission would’ve been (how they were deactivated, if it was from enemy fire or one of Shepard’s squadmates shooting them in a panic; what Legion did before, if they helped Shepard out in some way, etc.) - the point is, I think it would’ve done the parties good if they listened to each others’ opinions and had an open discussion about how/if they can make this work instead of everyone becoming set on their own vision (though L’Etoile, to his credit, did try to accommodate for the concept).

I know a lot of people like to read Legion taking Shepard’s armor as “oh, Legion is in love with Shepard” or “oh, Legion is developing emotions”, but personally, I feel that’s a very oversimplified interpretation. Humans tend to judge everything based on their own perspective - there is nothing wrong with that by itself, because, well, as a human, you naturally judge everything based on your own perspective. It doesn’t give you a very accurate representation of another species’ life experience though, much less a synthetic one’s.

I’ve mentioned my own interpretation here and there in other posts, but personally, I believe Legion took Shepard’s armor because they wished for Shepard (or at least their skill and knowledge) to become part of their Consensus. (I’m sort of leaning on L’Etoile’s idea of “symbolic exchange” here.) Naturally, that’s impossible, but I like to think when Legion couldn’t find Shepard, they took their armor as a symbol of wanting to emulate their skill.

The Geth’s entire existence is centered around their Consensus, so if the Geth wish for you to join their Consensus, that’s the highest compliment they can possibly give, akin to a sign of very deep respect and admiration. Alternatively, since linking minds is the closest thing to intimacy for the Geth, you can also read it like that, if you are so inclined - that still wouldn’t make it romantic or sexual love, though. (You have to keep in mind that Geth don’t really have different “levels” of relationships; the only categories that they have are “part of Consensus” and “not part of Consensus”.)

Either way, I appreciate that L’Etoile wrote it in a way that leaves it open to interpretation by fans. I think he really did the best with what he had to work with, and personally, the thing with Legion’s N7 armor doesn’t bother me.

What does bother me, on the other hand, is how the trailer - very intentionally - puts Legion’s lines in a context that is quite misleading, to say the least. The way Legion says “We do not experience fear, but we understand how it affects you” right before shooting in Shepard’s direction makes it appear as if they were trying to intimidate and/or threaten Shepard, and the trailer’s title “Enemies” doesn’t really do anything to help that.

However, I suppose that explains why I’ve seen the above line used in the context of Legion trying to psychologically intimidate their adversaries (which, IMO, doesn’t feel like a thing Legion would do). Generally, I get the feeling a considerable part of the BioWare staff was really sold on the idea of the Geth being the “creepy robots” (this comes from reading through some of the design documents on the Geth from ME1).

Also, since “Organics do not choose to fear us. It is a function of our hardware.” was used in a completely different context in-game (in the follow-up convo with Legion if you pick Tali during the loyalty confrontation; check this video at 5:04), we can assume that the same would’ve been true for the “We do not experience fear” line if it actually made it into the game. Many people have remarked on the line being “badass”, but really, it only sounds badass because it was staged that way in the trailer.

Suppose it was used in the final game and suppose Legion actually would’ve gotten their own recruitment mission - perhaps with one of Shepard’s squadmates shooting them in fear - it might also have been used in a context like this:

Shepard: Also… Sorry for one of my crew putting a hole through you earlier. Legion: It was a pre-programmed reaction. We frightened them. We do not experience fear, but we understand how it affects you.

Proof that context really is everything.

[squided]

So I was researching the administrator of my university program because his decision making is extremely sus and it's a brand new program so this is everyone's first year there so he could be anyone and firstly, I do think it's weird to have a business with specialty in entrepreneurship as the leader of a data science & AI program but I figured hey maybe it takes a special set of skills who knows but like... this guy doesn't exist on the internet at all. There's only his LinkedIn profile which lists two previous jobs on it that I researched and the first one he was the project team leader but was never mentioned once on the project and the second one is a program that might have existed however all links to the webpage that it referred to are expired so there's no information on this project at all except for a broken link on the organizations website under a list of all projects they've engaged in.

So like now I'm burdened with the knowledge that they just hired some random business graduate off the street as our administrator who insists all the ideas that I, a person who has been a college student in this exact program in multiple universities perpetually for the last 12 years, come up with wouldn't work or aren't applicable as if I haven't seen it done on the same program in 4 accredited universities, 2 of them state universities and one of them the main university in the exact same town this one is in and it is their only competitor in higher education.

And like the thing is this is way out of my pay grade, I should absolutely not get involved in any of that bullshit, it would absolutely blow up in my face majorly. But this is also the juiciest piece of gossip my faculty has produced since its inception 4 months ago. Someone needs to produce and even bigger piece of gossip before I get bored and drunk with classmates and accidentally offhandedly mention that our program administrator, who literally everyone disagrees with and has some sort of grudge against him for something, might actually just be some flunky business graduate who never did anything of note up until now when he landed a job because the university had to put the program together in like 6 months and had to just choose some random people.

Guys. I dug too deep and now have the knowledge that would have the similar effects of detonating a nuclear bomb if it ever got out and i just need to sit here and never mention it. I now know what forbidden knowledge is and I don't like it.

[biopractify]

Free online courses for bioinformatics beginners

🔬 Free Online Courses for Bioinformatics Beginners 🚀

Are you interested in bioinformatics but don’t know where to start? Whether you're from a biotechnology, biology, or computer science background, learning bioinformatics can open doors to exciting opportunities in genomics, drug discovery, and data science. And the best part? You can start for free!

Here’s a list of the best free online bioinformatics courses to kickstart your journey.

📌 1. Introduction to Bioinformatics – Coursera (University of Toronto)

📍 Platform: Coursera 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

Basic biological data analysis

Algorithms used in genomics

Hands-on exercises with biological datasets

🎓 Why Take It? Ideal for beginners with a biology background looking to explore computational approaches.

📌 2. Bioinformatics for Beginners – Udemy (Free Course)

📍 Platform: Udemy 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

Introduction to sequence analysis

Using BLAST for genomic comparisons

Basics of Python for bioinformatics

🎓 Why Take It? Short, beginner-friendly course with practical applications.

📌 3. EMBL-EBI Bioinformatics Training

📍 Platform: EMBL-EBI 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

Genomic data handling

Transcriptomics and proteomics

Data visualization tools

🎓 Why Take It? High-quality training from one of the most reputable bioinformatics institutes in Europe.

📌 4. Introduction to Computational Biology – MIT OpenCourseWare

📍 Platform: MIT OCW 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

Algorithms for DNA sequencing

Structural bioinformatics

Systems biology

🎓 Why Take It? A solid foundation for students interested in research-level computational biology.

📌 5. Bioinformatics Specialization – Coursera (UC San Diego)

📍 Platform: Coursera 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

How bioinformatics algorithms work

Hands-on exercises in Python and Biopython

Real-world applications in genomics

🎓 Why Take It? A deep dive into computational tools, ideal for those wanting an in-depth understanding.

📌 6. Genomic Data Science – Harvard Online (edX) 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

RNA sequencing and genome assembly

Data handling using R

Machine learning applications in genomics

🎓 Why Take It? Best for those interested in AI & big data applications in genomics.

📌 7. Bioinformatics Courses on BioPractify (100% Free)

📍 Platform: BioPractify 🖥️ What You’ll Learn:

Hands-on experience with real datasets

Python & R for bioinformatics

Molecular docking and drug discovery techniques

🎓 Why Take It? Learn from domain experts with real-world projects to enhance your skills.

🚀 Final Thoughts: Start Learning Today!

Bioinformatics is a game-changer in modern research and healthcare. Whether you're a biology student looking to upskill or a tech enthusiast diving into genomics, these free courses will give you a strong start.

📢 Which course are you excited to take? Let me know in the comments! 👇💬