#theoretical cs

[pidgefudge]

physics has me bashing my head against the wall. wtf is any of this i don't. understand how things work.

[unopenablebox]

came home at 8:45 from work and 🌸 was already fast asleep fully dressed on the bed phone in hand completely unresponsive to sound including name-calling and loud floor creaks

probably they were planning to get more work done this evening but i'm going to sabotage that by turning their light off and ordering takeout so i don't make any cooking noises to wake them up, hopefully causing them to get up to a full 12 hours of sleep for what i think would be the first time in two and a half years

[borealopelta]

love that i got into Film About Eight Man Rowing because maybe finally i'll understand what the fuck my buddy who rows eights at cambridge is doing. this however gets me absolutely no advantage on writing the technicalities of the sport because he's possibly the least talkative person i've ever known and i can't just text him with my questions

[skeletons-in-ur-closet]

bro im starting to think im too stupid for my degree

[trainsinanime]

I've seen a number of people worried and concerned about this language on Ao3s current "agree to these terms of service" page. The short version is:

Don't worry. This isn't anything bad. Checking that box just means you forgive them for being US American.

Long version: This text makes perfect sense if you're familiar with the issues around GDPR and in particular the uncertainty about Privacy Shield and SCCs after Schrems II. But I suspect most people aren't, so let's get into it, with the caveat that this is a Eurocentric (and in particular EU centric) view of this.

The basic outline is that Europeans in the EU have a right to privacy under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU directive (let's simplify things and call it an EU law) that regulates how various entities, including companies and the government, may acquire, store and process data about you.

The list of what counts as data about you is enormous. It includes things like your name and birthday, but also your email address, your computers IP address, user names, whatever. If an advertiser could want it, it's on the list.

The general rule is that they can't, unless you give explicit permission, or it's for one of a number of enumerated reasons (not all of which are as clear as would be desirable, but that's another topic). You have a right to request a copy of the data, you have a right to force them to delete their data and so on. It's not quite on the level of constitutional rights, but it is a pretty big deal.

In contrast, the US, home of most of the world's internet companies, has no such right at a federal level. If someone has your data, it is fundamentally theirs. American police, FBI, CIA and so on also have far more rights to request your data than the ones in Europe.

So how can an American website provide services to persons in the EU? Well… Honestly, there's an argument to be made that they can't.

US websites can promise in their terms and conditions that they will keep your data as safe as a European site would. In fact, they have to, unless they start specifically excluding Europeans. The EU even provides Standard Contract Clauses (SCCs) that they can use for this.

However, e.g. Facebook's T&Cs can't bind the US government. Facebook can't promise that it'll keep your data as secure as it is in the EU even if they wanted to (which they absolutely don't), because the US government can get to it easily, and EU citizens can't even sue the US government over it.

Despite the importance that US companies have in Europe, this is not a theoretical concern at all. There have been two successive international agreements between the US and the EU about this, and both were struck down by the EU court as being in violation of EU law, in the Schrems I and Schrems II decisions (named after Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist who sued in both cases).

A third international agreement is currently being prepared, and in the meantime the previous agreement (known as "Privacy Shield") remains tentatively in place. The problem is that the US government does not want to offer EU citizens equivalent protection as they have under EU law; they don't even want to offer US citizens these protections. They just love spying on foreigners too much. The previous agreements tried to hide that under flowery language, but couldn't actually solve it. It's unclear and in my opinion unlikely that they'll manage to get a version that survives judicial review this time. Max Schrems is waiting.

So what is a site like Ao3 to do? They're arguably not part of the problem, Max Schrems keeps suing Meta, not the OTW, but they are subject to the rules because they process stuff like your email address.

Their solution is this checkbox. You agree that they can process your data even though they're in the US, and they can't guarantee you that the US government won't spy on you in ways that would be illegal for the government of e.g. Belgium. Is that legal under EU law? …probably as legal as fan fiction in general, I suppose, which is to say let's hope nobody sues to try and find out.

But what's important is that nothing changed, just the language. Ao3 has always stored your user name and email address on servers in the US, subject to whatever the FBI, CIA, NSA and FRA may want to do it. They're just making it more clear now.

[sevenfactorial]

Theory-heavy programs are also still considered more prestigious in the academic world, which certainly doesn't help things. Departments definitely want plenty of practical research going on too, since that brings in much more grant money, but in terms of what to actually teach students? Theory is considered harder and has a longer history so: prestige.

(How much do companies care about that kind of prestige? Idk man. I didn't notice anything during my short job hunt, but I have a degree from an university with well regarded engineering and applied math programs. Even if I personally only did pure math there)

And if your mix is sufficiently toxic, you end up with a startlingly large portion of your students who don't understand theory or know much about practical development!! It's infuriating

(And I definitely feel for the professors forced to tip toe around proofs in what is obviously meant to be a theoretical class, but they're also not the ones possibly going into debt for this mess.)

Anyways, my question is: is this changing over time? I think there'll always be a disconnect since it's a field where you can get paid quite well straight out of undergrad or choose to do another 5+ years of grad school then get a less well paid academic job. But that's applicable to the rest of engineering too.

Note that we've only recently reached the point where you'd actually expect most CS professors to have CS degrees (speaking from the US anyways). CS programs weren't very common until... around the 80s? Also, I'm willing to bet the proliferation of grad programs in CS lagged behind undergrad programs (accounting for grads being a necessarily smaller group). All in all, this means a CS prof (or former one) older than ~60 is very likely to have a math or engineering PhD instead.

I expect the increasing proportion of professors having experienced a CS department themselves will help with the disconnect at least somewhat. You might have still chosen the grad school academia path, but you had plenty of friends who went straight into a development job (and grimaced every time you considered your grad student stipend vs the salary you definitely could have gotten)

I feel like computer science has one of the the largest gaps between its teachers and its student of any field I've seen. Like undergrad physics majors are basically baby physicists, they do heavy derivations and like math and want to understand the world from first principles. Undergrad mathematicians are learning to care about rigor and build things up from first principles. Undergrad engineers have the same kind of pragmatic focus on efficiency that seasoned engineers do.

CS professors are either mathematicians or hacker/engineer types, and undergrad CS majors largely seem to be codemonkeys in training who are scared of math. Like it is so bizarre to me that we have people doing foundational work in logic and proof theory teaching classes to people who get scared when they see an inequality and want to cash out and write Javascript for 6 figures. What even is this field?

[clonewarsahsoka]

I feel so much joy everytime I learn how much of cs is literally just math

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to Read a Scientific Article

THE THREE-PASS APPROACH

The key idea is that you should read the paper in up to 3 passes, instead of starting at the beginning and plowing your way to the end.

Each pass accomplishes specific goals and builds upon the previous pass:

The first pass gives you a general idea about the paper.

The second pass lets you grasp the paper’s content, but not its details.

The third pass helps you understand the paper in depth.

At the end of the first pass, you should be able to answer the 5 Cs:

Category: What type of paper is this? A measurement paper? An analysis of an existing system? A description of a research prototype?

Context: Which other papers is it related to? Which theoretical bases were used to analyze the problem?

Correctness: Do the assumptions appear to be valid?

Contributions: What are the paper’s main contributions?

Clarity: Is the paper well written?

Purpose of the Sections of Empirical Articles

Section — Use it for

Abstract — This is a great section to read to find out if the article will be relevant to your own research.

Introduction — This section gives you an overview of work that has been done on topics relating to the hypothesis of the article, and will often lead you to other relevant work that has been done in your area of interest.

Method — This section will help you understand the design of the experiment. This is particularly useful if you'd like to replicate the study.

Results — The results will tell you what the author/s found in the course of their experiment.

Discussion — The discussion section is typically easier to read than the method and results section, and it will help the reader understand the implications of the results of the experiment.

References — This is a great place to look to find articles that are related to the one you are reading. If you're looking to build your own literature review, the references are a great place to start.

The Anatomy of a Scientific Paper

Some initial guidelines for how to read a paper:

Read critically: Reading a research paper must be a critical process. You should not assume that the authors are always correct. Instead, be suspicious. Critical reading involves asking appropriate questions.

Read creatively: Reading a paper critically is easy, in that it is always easier to tear something down than to build it up. Reading creatively involves harder, more positive thinking.

Make notes as you read the paper. Use whatever style you prefer. If you have questions or criticisms, write them down so you do not forget them. Underline key points the authors make. Mark the data that is most important or that appears questionable. Such efforts help the first time you read a paper and pay big dividends when you have to re-read a paper after several months.

After the first read-through, try to summarize the paper in one or two sentence.

If possible, compare the paper to other works.

Write a review that includes:

a one or two sentence summary of the paper.

a deeper, more extensive outline of the main points of the paper, including for example assumptions made, arguments presented, data analyzed, and conclusions drawn.

any limitations or extensions you see for the ideas in the paper.

your opinion of the paper; primarily, the quality of the ideas and its potential impact.

The guide below details how to read a scientific article step-by-step.

First, you should not approach a scientific article like a textbook— reading from beginning to end of the chapter or book without pause for reflection or criticism. Additionally, it is highly recommended that you highlight and take notes as you move through the article.

Skim the article. This should only take you a few minutes. You are not trying to comprehend the entire article at this point, but just get a basic overview. You don’t have to read in order; the discussion/conclusions will help you to determine if the article is relevant to your research. You might then continue on to the Introduction. Pay attention to the structure of the article, headings, and figures.

Grasp the vocabulary. Begin to go through the article and highlight words and phrases you do not understand. Some words or phrases you may be able to get an understanding from the context in which it is used, but for others you may need the assistance of a medical or scientific dictionary. Subject-specific dictionaries available through our Library databases and online are listed below.

Identify the structure of the article and work on your comprehension. Most journals use an IMRD structure: An abstract followed by Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion. These sections typically contain conventional features, which you will start to recognize. If you learn to look for these features you will begin to read and comprehend the article more quickly.

 Read the bibliography/references section. Reading the references or works cited may lead you to other useful resources. You might also get a better understanding of the basic terminology, main concepts, major researchers, and basic terminology in the area you are researching.

Reflect on what you have read and draw your own conclusions. As you are reading jot down any questions that come to mind. They may be answered later on in the article or you may have stumbled upon something that the authors did not consider. Here are some examples of questions you may ask yourself as you read:

 Have I taken time to understand all the terminology?

Am I spending too much time on the less important parts of this article?

Do I have any reason to question the credibility of this research?

What specific problem does the research address and why is it important?

How do these results relate to my research interests or to other works which I have read?

6. Read the article a second time in chronological order. Reading the article a second time will reinforce your overall understanding. You may even start to make connections to other articles that you have read on this topic.

Identify Key Information

Whether you are looking for information that supports the hypothesis in your own paper or carefully analyzing the article and critiquing the research methods or findings, there are important questions that you should answer as you read the article.

What is the main hypothesis?

Why is this research important?

Did the researchers use appropriate measurements and procedures?

What were the variables in the study?

What was the key finding of the research?

Do the findings justify the author’s conclusions?

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[legal-poppy]

how to study in (and survive) law school, from a 2L who almost failed both 1L semesters

you may be asking, "why would i want study advice from someone who clearly doesn't know how to study?" but that's the point- i'm a first-gen law student. aside from my siblings, nobody in my extended family has even been in grad school since the late 90s. i didn't know how to study last year, and definitely didn't know how to study for law school classes and exams. i ended my 1L year with 3 Cs and was placed in a remedial course last semester for the bottom 25% of students. i worked, changed, and tried different study methods throughout the semester, to figure out what works best for me and the classes i was taking. and it showed--i got an A and 3 Bs and my GPA jumped from a 2.5 to almost 2.8.

#1- do not try to do anything else during class. no social media, no reading, no shopping, no games. seriously. pay attention to your prof, your classmates, and what you did and didn't understand correctly from the reading. make corrections, note additional questions, read and re-read the book and your notes to make sure you can follow along with any questions or hypos.

#2- nothing is optional. do all of the extra readings, practice problems, and hypos. go to your prof for feedback on what you did well, what you didn't understand or apply correctly, and what you can do to write a better answer next time.

#3- go to your prof's office hours or ask questions after class. in high school and college i was told to never bug a teacher outside of class and never, ever go to their office hours. but law profs love when students ask questions and seek help. it doesn't have to be some profound theoretical question- my business law prof learned my name just from asking her about stories and problems my family had with businesses/services recently. my evidence prof learned my name because i kept asking her evidentiary questions about crime shows i was watching. in addition to the typical questions about a subject i was confused on or misunderstood, those fun questions helped me better understand and apply both the law and practical effect of the law to questions on the exam.

#4- start your outlines early and ask your prof for feedback. this was my biggest problem last year because i was paralyzed just figuring out how to format and organize my outlines. instead of going for pretty or aesthetic or perfectly detailed, just start writing. make a mess, write everywhere, scribble and erase and tape things together if you have to. it will still help you relearn and cement your understanding of those subjects. ask your prof if they would prefer to email your outline to look over ahead of time or just pop in for their office hours, and ask them if you got anything wrong, if you're too focused on the wrong details, or if there's anything you won't need to know for the exam. they won't judge if your outline is a mess, it just shows that you're trying and really want to get better.

when i studied for my evidence exam (my A last semester), i had so much trouble with my word doc that a week before the exam i just took my reading notes, my class notes, and my casebook, and spent days filling out an entire whiteboard with every bit of info on a rule. i ended up with 14 photos of that whiteboard completely covered with rules, advisory opinions, cases, and hypos. rather than wasting more time to type all of that up and send it to my prof, i sent her those photos. she knew i was struggling to stay organized on my traditional outline and saw how much better i was able to conceptualize the whole class without touching microsoft. i apologized for my horrible handwriting but all she did was send back notes on every single photo- what i had wrong, what i didn't need to know, and what i needed more detail/clarity on. no judgment for the incorrect parts or my handwriting or that i used a whiteboard, because it worked!

#5- revise your notes after every class. i didn't literally have time right after class, but every day when i went home i tried to revise my notes before i forgot what happened in class. i wasn't successful every single day and often spent a few hours on the weekend rewatching lectures and trying to remember details, but it was more effective than waiting until november to even start revising and outlining.

#6- don't follow the crowd. a lot of "gunners" and people with superiority complexes will tell you to follow their perfect notetaking format, study method, class structure, or reading style. and it might work great for them (or they're probably lying about how amazingly smart they are to look better than everyone else and make you feel worse about yourself), but they're very clearly a different person than you are because i hope you aren't trying to subtly wage psychological warfare on your stressed classmates. if you need a place to start, try to utilize those resources, but you can and should make adjustments if it isn't working for you. take a different class, join a different study group, use a different study supplement, do whatever is most helpful for you, and ignore anyone who suggests you're going to fail if you don't follow their instructions.

#7- don't listen to the noise. there's always someone with their superiority complex and intro-level psychology class and jedi mind tricks or whatever. they want to brag about how smart they are, what amazing grades they got, how easy the exam was that everyone else cried during, and that they got the best internship opportunity because of all of that. odds are, they're (1) lying and (2) exaggerating. they're probably struggling and stressing and crying just as much as you. or they're just not self-aware. you're never going to escape them too, unfortunately. but don't fall for their trap. don't study with them, don't sit by them, don't ask them for help unless you have exhausted every other person and resource in the building, take everything they say with a grain of salt and throw it over your shoulder to keep the demons away.

the other noise to avoid is the worriers who want to vent to everyone about how stressed, stupid, worried they are about the class or exam. and this isn't to say that you can't vent to your friends about it--that's your safety blanket people who will feel your stress and try to help you manage it. but if you see that person that you barely know and don't really talk to and they want to randomly start venting like that, take a step back. leave if you can, and if not, try to keep your head. don't stress because they're stressing, don't start second-guessing yourself, and don't share your own feelings of stress with them because they just want to see how miserable other people are so they can feel like they're doing better than you. if you're one of those people that everyone wants to vent to, do not do that for every person or repeat offenders who only seem to talk to you about their stress. take them to the dean, academic support staff, or on-campus counseling staff if they really need someone to talk to and help them. it's not your job to mother-duck your classmates so don't let them distract you from what you're there to do.

i had a classmate who caused drama with anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way. accused people of cheating, violating the honor code, sleeping around for study help and good grades, or just being generally stupid. he wanted to seem so much smarter and better than those people (out of the 2 people i know who suffered his bullying, one was because she took too long to respond to his text and the other asked him too many questions about materials from a class). he just wouldn't shut up about how he was going to do way better than them and they were going to fail and drop out because they have no other career opportunities (pretty accurate paraphrase too). but to nobody's surprise, he ended that semester with a D, C and 2 Bs. no judgment to him for his grades because clearly i'm not much better, but very much judging for his attitude. people like him caused me to lose 20 lbs and half of my hair between April-September 2024 because i was so stressed about what he would think if he knew my grades or saw me in our remedial course, which he took in an earlier semester but also referred to as "the stupid class" full of students who couldn't care less about their futures. don't be like me, don't listen to anybody's judgment--focus on yourself and doing the best you can.

#8-the moment you start to feel anxious or panicked or spiraling down the drain, shut it down. talk to your professor, advisor, academic support center, dean of students, school counseling center, or even a friend--anyone that you know has your best interest at heart and will do what they can to help you. tell them that you're overwhelmed and stuck on something. law school staff, especially professors, do not judge students who reach this point. i almost cried in a prof's office because i was so worried about our mock court debate with actual lawyers and judges serving as our judges. my prof didn't judge or scold me for being so emotional at law school, she asked me why i was so worried and told me something she hadn't told the whole class: none of our mock judges actually knew anything about our assignment or the case law. they had no idea if we were misstating something or even found the right cases, they were only judging our presentation and advocacy. another professor, took me off of the cold-call list for an entire unit when i told her i was having a hard time reading the cases and didn't think i would be able to answer questions in class about them because of the personal experience i had with that topic. if you don't think a prof will listen to you or it's something more serious like accommodations or certain behaviors, you can talk to higher-ups like the dean/student services office/accommodations office for better help. those resources exist to help, so use them and don't feel bad for doing so.

#9- seek opportunities even if you don't meet the requirements. i got an interview with a federal office as a 1L, with my mediocre grades, because i applied. i didn't think they would be interested in me because i have no lawyer family members and am not the smartest candidate at our school, but i was one of 10 (TEN!!) 1L interviewees and ultimately got that (paid) internship last summer. they never even asked about my grades, but i did use it during my interview to show how hard i was working to do better and actually put in the work to do that. ignore the firms that say they only want the top 50% or 30% and apply if that's what you're interested in. if they don't want you because you don't have the grades they want, it's a sign that they're also not going to be accommodating when the bar exam comes, and you maybe didn't pass the first time, and they decide to fire you rather than hire you as a first-year associate after 6 more months of studying for the next bar date.

#10- take breaks every day and every week. personally, i take 30 minutes after back-to-back classes before i start studying, i stop studying at 6pm on the weekends unless i have a serious deadline, and i try to go out at least once a month with a non-lawyer friend to touch grass with the regular world and bring myself back into perspective. having law-school goggles on all the time throws everything out of whack. mountains and molehills and all of that. talk to regular people, let them slap you back into shape to see the whole puzzle of what lies beyond law school. and don't forget that you are more than your brain. go outside, take a walk, do some yoga, meditate, pet your goldfish. cry if you feel it and stress if it's stressful, but it's not the end of the world--no matter what happens.

good luck on the new semester, whether you've already been back for a while or are starting soon. be proud of yourself no matter what your grades look like when you get them. pause, evaluate, and set a plan to do better this semester.

[nectar-rain]

I'm replying to this instead of the addition because I don't have anything to directly add to that.

This is something that I fully agree with!!

I kinda rambled (tiredly) in the replies, but I do agree with the fact that loose contact terms are a problem. This is, weirdly enough, a sentiment I've seen by both anti radqueers and radqueers; pro contacts and anti contacts. I've seen people call themselves "contact stance abolitionists", and...

The thing is... Regardless of if others want to believe it or not, contact stances will always be important. The problem is that how it's used is very loose, even if you say you're anti-c or pro-c. some anti-c MAPs may believe that there can be small age gaps between legal adults and minors, some anti-c MAPs believe that legal adults and minors shouldn't have relationships at all. Some pro-c MAPs - or really, non anti-c MAPs - will say that there are certain ages under 16 where minors can consent, and pro-c MAPs may be as radical as "Oh, any minor can consent".

Hell, the coiner of radqueer and xenosatanism literally believes that consent is not important in some cases, if at all. Prn still IDs as pro-c.

This doesn't even get into how the terms are meant to be per big three, rather than all-together. Like using c-comp for zoo contact but being anti MAP contact, or being for necro contact but against zoo and MAP contact.

I've seen limi-c and another contact stance similar as some that people use; but it still doesn't. say much about those who are anti-c, because it's vague and loose. Hell, people can ID as mirrored contact. Yet, ridding of contact stances as a whole isn't the answer. It's expanding on the stances that is, in my opinion. It's more complex on pro-consent because in contact discourse, there are disagreements on what is consensual and what isn't, unfortunately. Even then, I understand it's purpose because there ARE pro-c who don't actually care about if a minor could theoretically consent to an adult.

Of course... Anyone who thinks that it is the answer, they tend to be overtly predatory, and it's just slipped through and ignored, unfortunately.

I think we as a broader community need to de-normalize contact stances that are intentionally designed to hide how their users condone abuse.

"Pro-contact"? For what, pedophilia? Are you saying you support adults engaging sexually with children? And then if they don't answer, or say they aren't obligated to, we can make a safe assumption that that's the case. There's no other reason to hide that kind of information.

"Pro-consent"? What kinds of beings do you think are capable of consent? Is your understanding consistent with that of the law's? And if for some reason they think positions of power don't matter when it comes to consent, we can say their position is uninformed.

Current contact stances aren't specific enough to convey the information they should. It's by design. I have a longer one in my pinned, "anti contact paraphilias harmful if acted on", and if more people elaborated on their stances like this it would make it more obvious that some users suspiciously stay silent.

[freakcliff]

now I've never read lord of the rings or seen any of the movies but I do find myself frequently possessed by the ghost of jrr tolkien because I find myself saying things like cs lewis did you even THINK about how long it takes to build a castle and theoretically what would be the etemology of "Christmas" in a world that doesn't have anyone named "Christ"

[nowimabeliever]

hey i heard something about professor doug... tell us more pls... *bats eyelashes*

(original post)

(another ask)

Some more professor Wreden fun facts:

About 25% of the time, he'll show up to class looking semi-professional. The other 75% of the time, he'll be in shorts and a t-shirt. Even in January.

Most of his classes are upper-division machine learning classes, but he teaches a couple sections of CS 210 because he likes seeing people get visibly better at programming over the course of a term

His doctoral thesis was on some machine learning thing that he still builds on as part of his research

He clearly knows his stuff conceptually/theoretically...

...except every time he tries to demo code for the class he fucks something up and you wonder a little bit how he managed to graduate undergrad

"Five minute coding adventure" is still a phrase he very much uses

His upper division classes are used to this and will just shout out that he forgot the semicolon or whatever else he fucked up

He's very good at explaining his mistakes (and also, on the assignments you get back, your own mistakes) once he figures out that he made them

His office isn't actually in the computer science building, since that's under renovations because it's actually the zillion-year-old math building and they ran out of space in there. Instead, he's been shoved into a random office in the business building

Which is how he met Dr. Parkzer, professor of finance and business operations

They've been friends for 4 years and are still in offices next door to each other (which doesn't bode well for the completion of that building)

About half the time anybody tries to find him for office hours, he's in Parkzer's office instead, working on his laptop and pestering Parkzer with hypotheticals

People speculate on whether he's in a relationship with Parkzer all the time

A couple of the younger instructors/postdocs have a bet going on it

He still streams on Twitch every so often and has a devoted following of about fourteen people who watch him code dumb shit in GTA

He'll take his glasses off to work in his office, leave them there when he goes to teach class, and then wonder why his own slides are so blurry

He has two grad student TA's- both of them also think he's hot

Also he still makes stupid jokes and drops insane lore randomly

He tells the linear algebra lube story at one point and everybody in the room who's taken linear algebra just kinda nods (i was so tempted to do this for my organic chemistry midterm ngl)

He's a fair grader but there are secret extra credit points if you're particularly creative on an assignment or make a good enough joke in class/at office hours

[eightmakesonebraincell]

hey so i saw @/honeyhotteok's fic got plagiarized by user @/yeosanitycheck and i was looking through their other fics bc i was reading and noticed some similarities with the smaus too ??? your 'when ateez discover you write smut' smau and @/sativateez 'when ateez are on tour' smau. their might be other fics that are lowk plagiarized but i thought i'd let u know bc ur one of my fav blogs on here and i know ur smaus by heart

hi, thanks for letting me know about this <3

i've had a look at the mentioned works and the related posts, and @yeosanitycheck's smau does seem strikingly similar to mine (and their other smau to sativateez's). it's not the same word for word and as chai put it so nicely, "it's hard to know when fics are coincidences, inspired by a work, or leaning hard enough to be plagiarism"

but three works flagged for notable similarities is three too many to not be plagiarism and that is exactly what makes this type of plagiarism so so sneaky. it's subtle enough that it slips through most people and it makes the original writer question whether they are just being nit-picky, but it's similar enough that it can't be pure coincidence

below are the main similarities i noticed right off the bat between mine (left) and theirs (right), and i don't know but it looks pretty clear that there's something going on

hongjoong's: entire structure of the convo reads pretty much exactly the same, starting with hj texting a random nickname, mc responding confused, hj quoting more from the exposed acc, mc asking how they found it, hj responding that he's all mc's, then mc responding with intent to murder and hj being unfazed

seonghwa's: overall idea is similar. sh texts asking about a social media platform and then making an account while mc tells him no

yeosang's: overall idea is obviously similar. mc asks ys about an account (both with the word doberman in them) that has been spamming their notifs while ys plays dumb

jongho's: entire structure of the convo is similar again and uses the same ideas. starts off with jh questioning mc's sanity (i.e. meds/therapy), mc responding with a flirty comment, jh questioning her about 'domjongho', mc saying they're going to off themselves and jh being unfazed

now less obvious similarities that i can give the benefit of doubt to

yunho's: the structure and idea of the first half is yh asking about a random trope/character, mc responding confused, yh responding with tumblr/tiktok and then giving theoretical scenarios

san's: general idea is similar. starts with cs complimenting content, mc telling him there's something wrong with his brain, san responding back with common booktok comments

wooyoung: the way wy tries to lead the convo to get some sexy time with mc is similar

three works have been flagged from @yeosanitycheck and as one of them is mine, i would like to see some form of accountability from the mentioned user regarding this concern. i do not normally post about these issues in such seriousness on my blog, but it appears as though no matter how many times writers warn others, things like this will still occur. please, it takes time and effort to come up with original ideas and for them to be taken in a way that was deliberately altered to cover up the similarities is a stab in the back.

[andtheywerefootballers]

WIRTZIALA University AU ficlet!

prompt by @disastrouscarrots

Word Count: 681

Synopsis: University AU in which Jamal's an architecture major whose biggest enemy is math and Flo happens to be his math tutor.

A/N: Idk how it works abroad, so putting a lil context just in case, but next to some lectures you have tutorials (Tutorium) where a tutor (sometimes a fellow student in an advanced semester) teaches the course. And @disastrouscarrots told me Flo slayed his math exams during hs so 💅. Flo doesn't have to be a math major to teach the course btw, ig just be in a math-involving major (engineering, cs, ...your headcanons can go wild here).

(ficlet below cut)

Jamal stares back at the weather app, then switches to his messages. Leroy isn't answering. The hallway is mostly empty with some steps echoing from afar. He stands before the seminar door: First one to show up like an overeager, innocent freshman. 

Leroy promised to tag along for their first math tutorial, he knows Jamal's a lost case who stopped going to the math lecture after the first week. He quit the 500 pages powerpoints filled with confusing equations, a professor who's supposed to speak German, but talks in mathematical lingo and theoretical messes and decided to have a mental breakdown at home rather than in a lecture hall instead. 

So. Leroy knows Jamal needs both academic and mental support after being betrayed by the fact that he has to take a theoretical math class.  For architecture. Like, huh? He didn't sign up for engineering, or administration or whatever. He signed up for architecture: construction, design, creativity…not exactly numbers. The uni counseling didn't brief him on this. 

He hears the door fall shut across the hall, glancing up in hope but finds only a handful of students he doesn't recognize. Coming towards him. Straight in his direction. There's a guy leading the group in front. He has a bag slung over his shoulder, wears baggy jeans and an oversized dress shirt. Silver rings flash around his fingers, a denim chain dangles from his waistband. Appears to be a chill dude. Judging by his short, slightly disheveled ash blonde to brown hair and darting eyes, he seems as lost as Jamal feels. 

Maybe he can bond over their fashionable sense of style and shared hatred over maths… because man doesn't look motivated but quite in the motions.  Quite I don't want to be here, but I have to be. Because I also have to practice this exasperating nerve-wracking subject called maths. Then the stranger meets his eyes— Jamal's heart stumbles and he quickly averts his gaze back at his phone. At Leroy's incoming, 'Sorry, won't make it.'

He doesn't roll his eyes. No. It's fine. Maybe Jamal can make a friend today instead. 

And then the guy passes him by and pulls out keys and unlocks the door, the door to the seminar room, like he's some teacher, like-

he's the teaching assistant, the tutor. 

It swooshes in his mind, any remaining thoughts flying away. He feels stupid for reasons he can't really put into words. And then he feels embarrassed, the back of his neck heating up as he realizes this is the guy who will try to teach you and see you're made of straw and empty space. He peeks down the hall, the urge to run away, hide, pay Leroy to take his math exam overbearingly strong. But then he mentally slaps himself, inhales, rolls his shoulders and braces himself for a challenge. Walks through the door to a medium-sized classroom with tables and chairs arranged in an U-form.  He takes a seat by the side, not immediately at the front, not too far at the back. Just right for an incognito plan to talk and interact as little as possible. 

But his classmates ruin his plan because they sit in groups at the end of the U, or parallel to him and he curses and wishes Leroy was here after all. Because now he's sitting on his own, sticking out like a sore thumb. And he feels the tutor's eyes on him. 

He introduces himself as Florian but he's fine being addressed as Flo as he's "only a semester above you guys, so no need to be formal and all." 

He takes his time to talk, mumbling and correcting himself a lot of times, sometimes fiddling with the hem of his shirt, biting his lips. It's…a little endearing. He's scatterbrained but clear when answering questions, even though there are a grand total of like two being asked for the whole lesson. 

From an outside perspective, Jamal may seem focused: furrowed brows, nodding along, taking notes. 

The notes in question are only doodles though, and his eyes are not following equations, but something else. 

[audreyscribes]

Could you do headcanons for what it would be like for child of thanatos to go to caml half blood? Do you think it would affect how things would go in the first book? Especially if they joined percy on the quest

Alright, I’m going to preface and lay out the obvious that the child of Thanatos will be very headcanon-y and I will try to make it as believable as possible, however much as I’m trying to stretch.  I will also be referring to my THANATOS DEMIGOD H/CS as my basis for the child of Thanatos for this ask. I will also be keeping this theoretical “what if” in the first book of PJO. 

The child of Thanatos will be referred to with gender neutral pronouns with THEY/THEM for simplicity sake. There may be references to their sex (i.e. daughter of // son of) but does not dictate their dominant or overall identity and it is merely for semantics’ sake. 

ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ﾟ⋆{Warning: Really x2 Long Text Below!}ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ﾟ☾

The child of Thanatos being in the first book would act as a physical representation of what is to come throughout the series, and what Percy will experience with the numerous deaths for the upcoming war is going to entail. I’m going to assume the child of Thanatos does not know their demigod identity or at the very least does not realize they are a demigod. If they have the beginnings of their wings growing or they do have wings, the mist is a powerful tool in hiding it (maybe they don’t even realize they have wings) and are very protective of their back, not letting anyone touch or graze it, saying they have a really bad skin condition on their back. They might even be shown having a bad back, constantly being shown having their back hunched over (probably the weight of their wings and being hidden away, making it hard to stand up straight).

While yes, the child of Thanatos could be just there, when the Fates are involved, I really doubt anything is a coincidence and I’m going to say that the child of Thanatos would be placed there deliberately in Yancy Academy. Let’s also assume that Hades and all relevant parties of the Underworld know the child of Thanatos exists (however somehow they are born. Let’s just suspend our belief for now). 

I can see when Mrs. Dodds a.k.a Alecto, appears half way through, replacing his previous pre-algebra teacher, the child of Thanatos appeared roughly around the same time. Grover can smell the child of Thanatos being a demigod but at the same time, might have a nervous breakdown because they would smell like death and the underworld, which would make Grover think the child of Thanatos is a child of Hades.  This would make the satyr even more nervous because he would think there’s another child of the Big Three, and they’re both in one place. 

I can see Chiron as Mr. Brunner doing his best to be close to the child of Thanatos, but at the same time would have a harder time than say being as close as he is like to Percy, because Mrs. Dodds would intervene since the child of Thanatos would be under her care; whether or not the child of Thanatos would be aware or not.

Let’s also just say that Percy gets along with the child of Thanatos, or at the very least, knows about them. Maybe they bond that they both have a hard time at Yancy Academy and are having difficulties in school. Maybe they bond over their mothers or their supposed birth (godly) fathers.

Whatever the case is, the child of Thanatos gets along with Percy, which would be Hades’ plan or insurance to make sure if Percy will open up where he may have hidden the Helm of Darkness, and when he does, the child of Thanatos would mention it to Alecto who would grab it. 

However, how, the child of Thanatos gets to camp, whether Grover escorts or has another satyr takes them to Camp Halfblood, when Percy wakes up, he’s relieved to see the child of Thanatos in same place as he is, both of them not sure who their own respective godly fathers are and who they’re supposed to be, and being stuck together in the Hermes cabin together. If Percy has an inkling or has the same idea that the child of Thanatos may be a child of Hades, another child of the Big Three, he could’ve kept it on the down low to protect his friend. However, I can see Percy quietly asking the child of Thanatos whether or not they can see or sense his mom, who supposedly ‘died’ from the Minotaur. The child of Thanatos may sees the lingering of Hades’ influence, but they’re still very new to their power and demigod abilities, so it may not be a good consolation. I can also see Luke trying to get along with the child of Thanatos, along with Percy, because just like everyone else, Luke mistakens the child of Thanatos with a child of Hades. When Percy gets claimed as a son of Poseidon, Luke would definitely assume that the child of Thanatos is a child of Hades, and tries to get closer to them in hopes to persuade them and make use of them for the prophecy and the war against the gods. 

It would be relatively easy because neither Hades nor Thanatos have a cabin, so the child of Thanatos getting claimed isn’t happening at all. So they’re going to be pretty much stuck staying at the Hermes cabin.

Especially when the child of Thanatos shows some innate power or skill to go (seemingly) invisible; which is very useful when you’re trying to be a spy for Kronos. I can sort of see Luke teaching the child of Thanatos how to be sneaky and develop the demigod’s power as a son of thieves, while also telling him to keep it secret. Mostly because he wants to keep them and everyone else in the dark about their origins as a ‘child of Hades’ which violates the Big Three pact; scaring them that they should stay safe because Zeus already has his eye on Percy, so to hear Hades also had broken his pact? He doesn’t want Zeus to treat Percy and the child of Thanatos like what happened with Thalia, while also guilt tripping them that their ‘father’ killed his best friend and is immortalized as a tree- 

Yeah there’s going to be a lot of Luke manipulation, and trying to isolate the child of Thanatos from everyone, even Percy because he was claimed by Poseidon and Hades hasn’t or ever will- 

There’s also the fact of the child of Thanatos keeping their wings hidden from Luke for it to work; which I guess wouldn’t be a problem too much even if they’re small. It’ll definitely be harder to keep underwraps if they’re a son of Thanatos, since the boys tend to stick together because man to man talk, but if the child of Thanatos is a daughter  of Thanatos, Luke would have to switch to tactics and use his charisma and wit to draw them in like he did with Silena Beaugard. 

Throughout the child of Thanatos’ interactions with Luke, the child of Thanatos would see the lingering aura of the Helm of Darkness on Luke, but since they would be still very new to their power, they just assume that the touch of death is because Luke had suffered the death of a loved one, or experienced death and grief (which isn’t unlikely given Thalia’s ‘death’, the ‘death’ of the mother in Mary, the touch of Tartarus that lingered on Kronos, etc). 

I dunno how the child of Thanatos could legally go on a quest with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover since 3 is a traditional number, and to break that is calling for bad luck. It's either popping up or going practically staying invisible throughout the entire quest with or without Percy’s or anyone’s knowledge. Maybe the child of Thanatos gifts Percy with one of their feathers, as a sort of good luck charm, and maybe eluding to Percy that they have wings or not; to which the wing acts a sort of signal for the child of Thanatos that lets them know if Percy is in danger or not, or if Percy can summon them.

Maybe if Percy and Annabeth ‘knew’ the child of Thanatos is a ‘child of Hades’ and maybe they make use of it; yet kept their mouths closed because of the supposed ‘pact’ the Big Three share. I can see Percy calling the child of Thanatos to come over with their supposed ‘shadow travelling’ and ask for help and get them to go in and out throughout the entire camp as a sort of loophole, 

I can also see Annabeth convincing the child of Thanatos’ supposed ‘shadow traveling’ to go invisible being useful, just as Annabeth uses her cap to do the same. 

Definitely at the Lotus Casino, the child of Thanatos making an appearance because of the tidbit that Nico and Bianca are there, and the aura of a child of Hades practically summons them. There could be a small conversation between Nico and Bianca and they talk about the weird situation of the Casino, to which the child of Thanatos realizes this is the Lotus Casino and goes to find Percy, Annabeth, or Grover. 

Though when it gets to the underworld, things become more tense when Hades calls out that the child of Thanatos being a child of the underworld, and he had them placed in Yancy Academy to specifically find out where Percy, the supposed thief, was hiding his Helm of Darkness. Ensure the scenario of the child of Thanatos being seen as a traitor and spy, but we’re going to have to tap into Percy’s loyalty to his family and friends where he trusts the Child of Thanatos’ words that they didn’t know about this and they aren’t a spy. 

However, I can see the child of Thanatos noticing the lingering of death, darkness, and fear of the Helm of Darkness residue on Percy’s backpack that Ares gave to him, confirming Percy’s suspicion and telling Hades that Ares has the Helm of Darkness. 

I can see the child of Thanatos distracting Hades to let Percy, Annabeth, and Grover escape, ensuring that they would keep an eye on Sally. That’s also where Hades enlightens the child of Thanatos that he is a child of the underworld but he is not his blood son.

At the end of the book, I can see the child of Thanatos barely realizing Luke was the one who stole the Helm and barely getting there to fight Luke to protect Percy. There may be a bit of Luke’s manipulation that lingers in the child of Thanatos’ mind or not, but I can see the child of Thanatos hesitating a lot when confronting Luke. 

This matches or could be a similar scenario in the tv show version of the confrontation between Percy and Luke, where the child of Thanatos follows Luke and Percy with their invisibility skill, and appears just the right time like Annabeth did. 

It’s been a while since I re-read the Lightning Thief so some parts may be inaccurate or not in the right sequence but basically the child of Thanatos’ identity as their godly parent’s demigod would be delayed for a very long time. The constant stress of people having the knowledge that they might be a child of Hades, the impact it may have, and so forth. However, definitely when it comes to the ‘Titan’s Curse, when it comes to the introduction of Nico and Bianca, they’re going to be spending a lot of time together. Not only from the Lotus Casino, because the pull of being underworld children, leading to when Nico has his meltdown and leaves Camp, the child of Thanatos follows him because that’s their inborn duty.

[mtb-tv]

The Perfect Sleeper

It's been a minute since I made an esoteric CS lore theory/rant. I thought of this one while tweaking off of a headache and loud music on headphones that hurt to wear.

Anyway, so I've already established that I believe Essen-Arp (creator of Sleepers) to be a secret transhumanist cult under the guise of a megacorp, as discussed in this post

TL:DR, Sleepers as we see them in CS1 and CS2 are but mere prototypes, and not actually meant for labor. They're meant to be a testing group for the advancement of Sleeper technology.

What exactly is that advancement? What is Essen-Arp working toward?

Obviously (in my eyes), they're working toward creating the perfect synthetic-robotic frame that which they can use to escape the Entropy of Flesh.

I've already established that Sleeper frames, even in their prototype stage, are objectively superior to human bodies. In some ways more than others. Sure, they have their issues, but these issues are mainly as a means of control forced by Essen-Arp. The theoretical "Perfect Frames" won't be limited by Stabilizer, and would be fully capable of self-maintenance. Effective immortality, transcendent of flesh.

Sleepers can work in extreme, hazardous environments, but even they have a breaking point. The Perfect Frame would be totally unconstrained as to where it could go, bar the surface of a star. They would be fully immune to radiation, toxicity, chill, and heat. Even in the vacuum of space or deep below an ocean's surface.

CS2 established that the synthetic fibers making up a Sleeper frame are transient, and capable of change given the right stimuli. Perfect Frames would be capable of doing this at will. An infinitely-adaptable body that which can not decay, can not become obsolete, and can not be damaged easily.

Also I'd like to touch on emulation. The copy-paste of a human brain into a Sleeper frame wouldn't be present in the Perfect Frame. Rather, a total transfer of thought, memory, and personality would be uploaded from a human body into the Perfect Frame. Effectively making the Frame a new vehicle for the human soul, leaving a fleshy husk in its wake.

Anyway, rant over.