#using the if statement C program

[feelmyskinonyourskin]

Judex, Judicum, Infantem - Chapter 10

(Eventual)Reader x Matt Murdock x Frank Castle

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summary: You confront Matt about his lies and reflect on how you want to proceed with both men and parenting your baby.

warnings: AFAB Reader. Pregnancy. No use of Y/N. Angst and arguing.

w/c: 3,028

*I never give permission for my fics, manips, or any other original creation I post on Tumblr to be copied, posted elsewhere, translated, or fed into any AI program. The only platforms I currently post on are Tumblr and AO3. Thanks*

Crash.

The toaster hit the wall behind Matt’s head and crumpled into fragments of metal and springs with a clang as it hit the floor. He barely ducked out of the way in time, not expecting to have an appliance thrown at his head first thing after arriving home from a pointless meeting. He instantly went into fight mode, ready for whatever attack was next. It came in the form of your fists, banging against his chest as he stumbled backwards.

“You bastard. You absolute bastard!” you shouted, not ceasing in your wailing while Matt just flinched back and took it “You knew! You knew where he was the whole time and you lied to me!”

“Sweetheart, I—”

“What did you expect to happen Matthew!? That I’d never find out? That we’d just be a happy fucking family while you held onto this lie?”

Matt licked his lips with force, waving a hand up in surrender as he stammered trying to find the right words. You landed another shove to his chest, agitated by his silence.

“Hey hey, baby. Ease up.” Frank cooed, coming up behind you and taking both of your wrists, restraining you against his chest as you tried to continue your attack on Matt.

Running a stressed hand through his hair, Matt gulped as he attempted to find the words. He hung his head in defeat, face scrunched up as tears began to flow.

“I wanted to protect you.” he spoke, voice tight with remorse

“Protect me from what? I don’t need protecting from anything except maybe your stupid fucking ego!”

“From him!” Matt pointed accusingly to Frank who still had his strong arms around you

“I told you, Frank would never hurt me!”

Matt chuckled, shaking his head.

“No. But, do you think Frank is ever going to stop? Do you really want our daughter in that kind of danger?”

“Oh and Daredevil’s daughter would be safer?!”

“I’m not him anymore.”

The audacity of Matt’s statement hit you like a foul ball at a Yankee’s game— rude, unexpected, and errorus. The lump in your throat remained unmoved but didn’t dare morph into crying. Yet. Only rage came out in the way your voice quaked as you spoke.

“You were last night, even though you told me you were done.”

“I know—”

“You lied to me about Frank.”

“I know.”

“You said you loved me.”

“I do.”

No court room had ever seen him so frazzled, no witness on the stand was ever crossed with such hesitation. The confident lawyer and the vicious vigilante faded away to a broken man who was scared and raw. The real Matthew. The tremble in his voice almost broke you, almost compelled you to forget the anger and hurt and want to reach out and comfort the man you loved.

“I can’t hear your heartbeat Matthew. I don’t know what to believe.”

“We were happy. You said you were happy. You said you didn’t need him.”

“I was.” you replied “We were. But he still deserved to know.”

Frank was thankful he was still standing behind you, unable to hide the way his teeth nearly ground into pieces from how tightly his jaw gripped at your lack of denying that statement.

“You said you didn’t need him.”

Frank knew it was true. You didn’t need him. Shit, you didn’t need Red either. You were brave and tough and fierce and it was why he fell for you in the first place. He wouldn’t have left you if he thought you weren’t capable of a life without him.

So why did those six little words shake his foundation so much? He hovered, unsure of his place in this discussion. Taking a step back so that his hands only brushed the sides of your arms, his calloused finger tips running up and down in an attempt to soothe you or himself, he wasn’t sure.

“You asked me to stop looking for him. And I did.” Matt continued to explain, rambling words falling out of his mouth like a bag of marbles spilling down a staircase “But then Hector was murdered and the bullet casing at the scene had a skull logo on it.”

“So what, you couldn’t find him for weeks as Daredevil, but suddenly the honorable Matthew Murdock Esquire needs to find a vigilante and what? All Frank’s contacts start talking? I find that really hard to believe. Did you even look for him before then?”

“I did. I swear I did. And yeah, New York’s criminals don’t want to talk to the guy who puts them in jail. But a defense attorney starts asking the right questions…” he trailed off

You shook your head in disbelief, unsure what to even say.

“I found him. But, this was after you asked me to stop looking for him. I didn’t know if you wanted— I— There’s no excuse, but I just—”

Your shoulders felt heavy with exhaustion and you thoughts felt foggy and jumbled. While you still had plenty to say, you were just so done arguing. It felt laborious to even hold yourself upright, like you could just fall back and collapse into Frank’s embrace. The tears had finally started to flow as you audibly exhaled while Matt stuttered his lame excuses.

Matt hated when you cried, but the sting of knowing it was of his own making was like rubbing salt into road rash. The burden of disappointing you weighed heavily on him as he listened to your sniffles and the sound of defeat in your voice.

“I wanted to do what was best for you. For us. For the baby.” Matt continued, barley able to whisper through his tears

“And I don’t get a say in that?”

“I know. Sweetheart, I’m sorry. I made the wrong call.”

Finally, an apology. Took him long enough.

Unable to even look at Matt anymore, you turned to Frank, stone faced and somber behind you. It’s like he was staring right through you and seeing the yearning behind your eyes for the version life you had not even 36 hours earlier. Where you and Matt existed in a little bubble of joy and normalcy and ease. But there was no going back. Frank had returned to your lives and Matt had torn down the very foundation of your relationship.

“You’re being awfully quiet.” you commented

“Ain’t my fight.”

His voice came out in puffs, winded and tired from having to restrain you. A reminder of how he came back to you all broken and bloody. A reminder of how much healing he had left to so still. You wondered about the bruises and scars you couldn’t see.

The air in the room felt tight and stuffy and the pounding of your heart in your ears drowned out the sounds of Matt’s sniffling. You skin itched and your tears burned and the only word in your head was “run.”

“I’m going for a walk.” you stated decidedly, pushing past Matt and throwing on the first pair of shoes by the door.

Neither of the men stopped you, letting you grab your keys and slip out the door without another word.

“You gonna follow her?” Frank asked

“Why? Like you said, she’s a big girl. She clearly wants to be alone right now. And I’m in the dog house enough as it is.”

The fresh air on your face invigorated you as you strode down the street. You didn’t have any real sense of where you were going, simply hooking a right as soon as you stepped out of your building. By the time you’d gotten a few blocks, your tears had dried and you were starting to feel better.

Weaving through crowded streets until you reached a busy intersection, the beautiful stone wall of Central Park sat in front of you. You continued onward, feeling the tension begin to melt away as the green trees and the lush park surrounded you.

It was busy on the path as you made your way through. The park was filled with families on a day out and afternoon joggers. You didn’t realize which direction you were headed until you heard the music, abrasive and slightly off-key tones of accordion and a clunky piano playing a nauseating melody. Only when you rounded the bend did you realize where you were.

The Central Park Carousel.

You found an open spot on one of the green benches facing the ride, sitting down with a heavy sigh. You knew it was probably some sign from the universe that you ended up where Frank’s whole world fell apart, your own teetering on some weird precipice itself. There was some grand metaphor or ironic statement to be drawn between the situations, but your brain was too full to even begin to verbalize it.

You wondered if the spirit of Maria Castle was hanging around, hoping to divine some of her wisdom so that she could guide you towards clarity.

“Maria, girl? What am I even doing?” you asked to the sky

There was no answer.

You watched the scene around you unfolding; families all laughing and enjoying a fun-filled day, kids running around without a care in the world, their perfect little giggles cutting through the abrasive music.

This would be your life soon, a little precious face to make memories with, to fill your days with joy and laughter and fun. The thought warmed your heart, filling you with a sense of ease.

Still, there was a heavy presence to your joy, reflecting on the two men who are making this chapter of your life melancholic.

You could do it alone. Send them both packing, get their drama out of your way and handle things yourself like you always have. Maybe Colleen would let you work remote and you could buy a place upstate, raise your daughter in a quiet life. You didn’t need either of them, that you absolutely knew for sure.

“Will you tie my shoe?” a small, squeaky voice cut through your trance as you felt a tug on your shirt.

You turned to see small boy, not even five years old, sat beside you and swinging his feet as he stared up at you. He had a sweet round face, big brown eyes that reminded you of Frank’s, and a broad smile that featured a missing front tooth that made him look like a little hockey player. You looked down when he pointed at his foot, navy shoe lace dangling undone from his left Bluey sneaker.

“Sure thing, kiddo.” you patted the spot between you and he swung his foot up and rested it on the bench, waiting for you assistance

“Are you here alone?” you asked “Where are your parents? Or your nanny? Or?”

“No. My dads are around here somewhere.”

The little boy seemed totally unfazed by the fact that he didn’t know where his parents were. You shook your head with a chuckle, thinking about how you were the exact opposite when you were his age and would wail in panic if your mother even disappeared around a corner for a moment.

“Why don’t we hang out here together for a little? I’m sure they’ll turn up soon.” you commented, eyeing up the situation to make sure he didn’t go too far and get even more lost

“Okay. They said we could ride the horses today!” he said pointing at the carousel and eyeing a particularly shiny white horse statue as it went around

“Yeah? Are you having a fun day in the park with them?” you asked him

If an adult didn’t show up to claim him soon, you spotted two bored looking teenagers in head to toe khaki, emerald green central park logo embroidered on their shirts and hats as they guided families in and out of the line for the carousel. The walkie-talkies strapped to their hips could call in back up and help get this kid back to his parents.

“Yeah! We come to the park all the time! It’s my favorite! They said to find a mom if I ever get lost.” His slight lisp came out as his voice got higher in excitement, you suspected from the missing tooth. It was too cute.

“Yeah?”

Even though you weren’t a mom yet, you were glad he thought you looked trustworthy enough and that it was you he found and not someone with worse intentions.

“Do you like Bluey?” you asked, pointing down at the shoe you’d just tied

“It’s my favorite show! Daddy and Papa said this summer we can get an Australian Shepherd just like—”

“Noah!”

The both of you turned to see a man jogging up the hilly path towards where the two of you sat. Similar to every other parent surrounding you, he looked to be in his-mid forties and wore a simple pair of jeans paired with a neat green polo shirt and very comfortable looking sneakers. The outward sign of panic in his eyes made it obvious he was one of this boy’s parents, but the way he moved his feet gently let you know, this was not the first time this sweet kiddo had wandered off.

“Papa!” the little boy squealed with excitement, running into the man’s arms

“Where did you go bud?” his father asked with concern, scooping him up to hold him “We told you you can’t just run off!”

“You said we could go ride the horses!”

Another man joined them shortly after, also relieved to see Noah found and in one piece, and they walked off as a family to get in line for the carousel. You watched as the three of them laughed together, playing some sort of eye-spy game to keep the boy occupied and distracted from getting bored in line while waiting for their turn.

You swore if you blinked, they would magically turn into Frank and Matthew, just how you pictured each of them would be with your daughter.

A happy family.

Yeah, you could do it alone. But you didn’t want to.

You loved Matt. Seeing the care and dedication he’d given you since discovering your pregnancy gave you enough hope that you could get over his recent transgressions and move forward together to be happy again.

And despite your complicated feelings for Frank, you knew he would be an excellent father to your child regardless of where the two of you stood with each other.

Being a family together and giving your daughter three people in her life who loved her dearly was worth figuring this all out.

By the time you left your spot, now determined and sure, the sun was bright on the horizon as it began to set and cast the city in a harsh glow.

You turned the key gingerly, wondering what scene would be waiting for you behind the door. Someone could be heard moving around the kitchen and the broken pieces of toaster had been cleaned up from the entryway, but nothing else seemed to be out of place.

As you made your way down the hall, you paused just outside the door to the spare bedroom— the one that would soon be transformed into a nursery. Amongst Matt’s braille printer and various items for when he needed to work from home was a pile of blankets and Matt’s pillow, laying on the ground. It shattered your heart, seeing that he voluntarily kicked himself out of your bed and made other sleeping arrangements until the two of you could make up.

When you stepped into the main living space, the most amazing smell hit your nose. Notes of pepper and tomato filled the air and made your stomach growl.

Frank was sitting on the sofa, nose rising from your copy of an Agatha Christie novel he once called “fuckin’ boring” to watch you enter. Looking even healthier than this morning, there was a flush to his face and the bruises that littered his cheek bones were now fading to a warm yellow. He’d obviously showered too while you were out. His beard looked clean and soft as it tickled the top of his clean, grey henley and his hair a little more tamed. Seeing him look so much better sent a flicker of worry through you that once fully healed, he would change his mind and disappear again. But it faded as soon as you saw the soft smile that grew across his face at your reappearance.

Matt occupied the kitchen, the culprit behind the delicious scent that covered the apartment. He didn’t flinch when you stepped into the room, having listened to your heartbeat coming towards home since the last half block. But still, he ducked his head, humbly avoiding your stare with his imaginary tail between his legs. Even as mad as you were, you couldn’t help but notice just how handsome he looked. His hair was tousled, a little disheveled from the rigor and heat of playing chef. Still half dressed from work this morning, his slightly unbuttoned shirt showed just enough chest and cross necklace to tease you. The way his rolled up sleeves perfectly framed his arms would have made your mouth water if whatever he was cooking wasn’t already doing it.

“I made dinner.” he offered with a soft voice “Figured you haven’t eaten yet today.”

He wasn’t wrong and it almost pissed you off how well he knew you.

The heaping plate of spaghetti bolognese he set on the island in front of you was clearly his olive branch. The first of many steps towards making up for the hurt and the lies. It was a cheesy gesture, like a greeting card that cost too much. But still, you wanted to give him the chance to make things better and this was a start.

As you sat to begin eating, Frank joined you, taking the stool next to yours. Matt also passed him a plate, then leaned against the counter to tuck into his own. For a while, the only sounds in the apartment were the scraping of forks against plates.

“So,” you finally spoke up “we need to talk.”

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

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[eretzyisrael]

With the news that the US has put USAID under the control of the State Department, it is worthwhile to look back on USAID support for Palestinians over the years.

USAID was ostensibly funding humanitarian and democracy-building programs for Palestinians in the territories. It took pains to ensure that any infrastructure projects it built in the territories were only for Arabs, not Jews. (In at least one case, a road that they built for Palestinians ended up also benefitting Jews, much to the consternation of Haaretz.) 

There have been many bumps along the way. For example, the head of a Palestinian "refugee" agency that USAID funded was a raging antisemite. But in general, USAID would attempt to ensure that the funding they gave did not go to terrorists, at least not directly.

In more recent years, however, USAID (like the EU) has been actively trying to give Area C land, under Israeli control, to Palestinians. The Biden administration supported USAID building an entire Palestinian university as well as other Palestinian projects on Area C lands.

There is another angle to this which is rarely reported. When USAID attaches strings to its programs to minimize the chances that they will be used for terror, Palestinian leaders fume.

As early as 2011, Palestinians warned about the evils of USAID requiring recipients to sign statements that they oppose terrorism. In 2012, Palestinian universities were urged not to accept USAID money because they would investigate whether professors were terrorists. 

In 2019. the PA itself told USAID to stop all activities out of fear of terror-related lawsuits. The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), passed by Congress and signed into law by then-President Trump allows Americans to sue those receiving foreign aid from their country in US courts over complicity in "acts of war" and the PA did not want any money under those circumstances.

The major reason given for US foreign aid is to be "soft power" to promote pro-American and pro-democracy thinking among the people. However, Palestinians - and Arabs altogether - never got that memo. 

Millions of dollars were given in private, without publishing the recipients and with no transparency, apparently because of fear that there would be backlash from Palestinians for accepting money from the US. 

What kind of "soft power" is it when the US cannot even make the names of the recipients public because they hate the US so much?

USAID has clearly not come close to achieving its stated goals in the Palestinian territories. It has not advanced democracy, it has not dissuaded terrorism, it has not improved Palestinian governance or reduced corruption. The Palestinians want all of the funding but none of the responsibility. 

 An Egyptian cleric once said that he considered all US funding of Egypt to be a form of jizya tax - something the dhimmis owe their Muslim masters. This is exactly how the Palestinians have treated US funding from USAID - it is something they feel they are owed.

As with UNRWA, over the years USAID itself has internalized that thinking and throwing money away on Palestinians without expecting anything in return became the entrenched mentality of the agency.

That is all the evidence you need that hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted over the years. 

[ohwolfling]

i don’t think ive seen this in any of your analysis posts so i have a question that is commonly used to defend mystra and state that she didn’t groom him

gale admits mystra set clear boundaries to him and he sought to cross them. mystra had reason to set those boundaries, Right? like isnt it fair that she didnt want gale to access magic that had almost killed jer once and he did it in the end anyways?

i personally dont agree with this argument and think its not set up very well but i wanna see how you respond to it

I’m happy to answer this! However, this piece of meta I wrote - Gale, Mystra, and Abuse as Mentorship- is a prerequisite. It does the important work of defining context in their relationship (the power imbalance, the grooming/coercion) as well as defining how “boundaries” work (or rather don’t) in a relationship that is abusive. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you are not at the conclusion that that relationship is inherently abusive and you are unwilling to process that piece and the rest of this and reconsider, you should go away. I am happy to have discussions but I will not trigger myself or entertain folks who trigger the many people with religious trauma/history of general abuse/neglect to dunk on you or entertain you in any way. 

Firstly, let’s look at Gale’s statement, “I sought to cross her boundaries,” in the context in which he says it. Not plucked up and out of it to be chewed up and spit out by someone who has never used the word boundary outside of pop psychology / therapy speak. 

If you want the full scene, here is one I found on youtube (I am not going that deep in my harddrive tbqh), but I’m going to share captures of that chunk of convo.

Here are the important pieces that are discarded to support a variety of arguments that Gale crossing Mystra’s boundaries is anything from mutual “mistakes,”  Gale is the real abuser and Mystra is absolved, even the implication that Gale SA’d Mystra. I'm going to babystep it as best as I can.

A line by line breakdown/analysis below the cut.

A. He states teacher, muse, lover. Even if you remove her status as his deity and the controller/embodiment of the uncorrupted Weave, the acknowledgement that she was first his teacher is a power imbalance. That being said, don’t feel you can argue that she was teaching him night classes in the adult learning program and so they were equals everywhere else. Like… in any situation where a teacher might end up dating a student and it not be weird and imbalanced, psychosexual religious magic ain’t it.

B. They enjoyed each other’s company- body, mind, and soul. Gale is an unreliable narrator here. Mystra doesn’t have a physical form for him. She is not corporeal when they are together. Whatever “body” they shared did not have the risk for Mystra of physical connection, vulnerability, harm, and Mystra DOES NOT AGE, which becomes important in a moment…

C. “Mystra keeps us in check. There are boundaries she doesn’t let us cross.” This is not about a boundary in sex, which I’ve seen people get… so weird about in implying Gale is some secret deviant. Gale says “he stood on the precipice, gazing into the wonders that lay beyond.” The other time in this game that Gale says he stood on a precipice is after the Act II romance scene and the precipice he refers to is accepting that he has no choice but to kill himself. For Gale, the precipice is literal and metaphorical. The precipice is always about leaving his humanity behind. When he is WITH Mystra, he gazes into her world, the world of his lover who he thinks has given him body, mind, and soul, but will not let him leave the formal living room and enter the den. This is the magical equivalent of being married to someone who has an open relationship but only for them and also they won’t let you stay over. Gale’s drive, anguish, ambition is all stained by feeling he’s not truly Mystra’s equal (he’s right, he’s fucking right, that gnawing feeling is actually correct, y’all).

D. THIS is what “I sought to cross her boundaries” is referring to directly. He isn’t pushing her in regards to sexual acts, he isn’t trying to dominate her, he isn’t trying to control her, he is trying to be equal to a god that handpicked him not only to serve her but to have interplanar psychospiritual magic sex with.

E. Gale admits that he couldn’t let it go. He begs- “pouted” “pleaded” “swore my ambition was only to serve her better”- so Mystra knows this is a great pain for him. Be it an insecurity, a grievance, whatever, MYSTRA KNOWS. She tells Gale to be “contented.” Later, when Gale speaks to her in Act III, she tells him he was already “worthy” but that he lacked “patience.” When Gale is meaner with her, she calls him self-pitying. When Gale explains he researched the Crown of Karsus because he doesn’t want to die, she brushes that off. Mystra knows that Gale is not only mortal, but human, holding one of the shortest life spans in this world. She knows Gale could be trusted to be more equal to her, not in an ascension to Godhood way, but as a partner who could be trusted with the Weave and so herself. Mystra simply DOES NOT CARE. Going back to point B, when I said “which becomes important in a moment…” Gale is aging. Gale is an adult man. His frontal lobe is done. He was an archmage. He had done essentially everything a wizard can do to be a Good WizardTM. He’s at the age where where all of his peers might already be married or otherwise settled. If Gale has a child right now, he might be one of the older dads at school pick up. If Mystra won’t offer him partnership now, the path left to him will soon be… well, Elminster. Becoming old as balls and being endlessly a sexual servant and errand runner for Mystra.

F. He states his motivation plainly - he wanted to do something big enough that Mystra would believe him. That Mystra would choose him not just to be a servant, but would acknowledge his personhood and treat him like a person and a partner. Gale is in that space where you beg your groomer/abuser/generally toxic partner to give you a reason to stay because your body, your mind, are all having a very big response to the feeling that this is a fucking dead end for you.

Now rounding all of this out...

Gale is, of course, a red herring. When he first appears to you, he’s suspicious. He needs to be pulled out of some unstable magic. He’s overly charming and meets anything from general suspicion to a threat to kill him with cheerful acquiescence. He has what looks to be the world’s most suspicious tattoo sending seemingly smoky tendrils from his heart to his eye. He has that slutty little earring. It’s fine narratively to still be a little suspicious of Gale at this moment...

But the context of the entire rest of the game proves that these are all just coping mechanisms for Gale and that the corrupted orb inside of him is not corrupted because of him but is in fact an echo of another person trying desperately to not be entirely controlled by Mystra, for better or worse. Gale is not doomed to be Karsus. His bad ending is in thinking he could be more than Karsus and that that would empower him. It is a direct narrative echo of Shadowheart and Lae’zel thinking they can serve their leader/god good enough that they will no longer be abused. It is even more directly a parallel pathway to Astarion ascending and losing his humanity, his soul, because of the false idea that claiming your abuser’s power means you are safe, whole, and that you’ve “won” the abuse in some way. 

If you don’t engage with Gale, which I imagine Team Twitter Psychology Degree don’t because they decided Gale was an irredeemable sex pest or something, you might miss these things. Gale is unpacking his abuse far better than anyone of the other origin characters throughout the bigger narrative moments of the game. These sentiments can turn to bitterness and corrupted ambition, yes, but for me, they were not. 

He sees the parallels, watches as varying degrees of godhood hurt people.

The Big Bad Three are Chosens. They’re an echo of himself, too. What devotion, ambition, wanting to prove yourself worthy can lead you to. Even so, Gale has this strange sort of empathy for Orin. 

And throughout the game, Gale is sensitive to these ideas of childhood, as above with Orin, but also in protecting them from manipulative adults. A large part of why it’s “easy” to get Gale’s approval in act one is because so much of act one is about choosing to protect those tiefling kids. Gale’s little fatherhood joke, that he isn’t father material, that he’s not in a place to have kids… to me that is a level of awareness that I see reflected in myself and many of my friends who survived childhoods of neglect, abuse, grooming, etc. Gale resonates with many people who have experienced religious trauma or the trauma of worship in a more generalized sense for a reason. 

You have to throw ALL OF THIS AWAY to paint Gale as someone vile and selfish who doesn’t respect his partner’s boundaries. It doesn’t make sense. There’s no way to make it make sense because you can’t pull any evidence because pulling literally any other thing about Gale in the entirety of the narrative immediately destroys that argument. 

I could pull more from Gale romance scenes, but as I said, the people holding these ideas about him I sincerely doubt engaged with Gale's story on that level since they took one surface level thing they could twist and ran with it.

I hope this is helpful, re-assuring to anyone who has seen weird takes and felt like maybe they accidentally enjoyed someone sinister (you did not). And if you were on the fence, confused, overwhelmed, etc, hey, I hope it helped you, too! Even if we don't agree 100% on interpretation, I hope it gave you a lot to think about and enriches the game for you.

As always, if you found this valuable, please consider supporting me on ko-fi with a one-off latte or monthly support. The less I'm terrified of losing housing and scavenging for groceries, the more I can write great big meta pieces, god-tier shitposts, and just generally vibe. <3

[machine-saint]

there was an article going around my social media elsewhere that was talking about how programming language design needs feminism. i think there are good notes in the article about English-centricism, and i can't speak as to whether or not the problems the paper identifies (emphasis on formal theory over "is this pleasant to use") are actually a problem, but i was struck by this quote (in the paper embedded at the bottom)

The current standards of evaluation in the PL community are set from a masculine perspective as well, valuing formalism and formal methods over user studies, quantitative over qualitative work, and the examining of technical aspects over context and people.

because... i had previously seen people argue that the "C is good enough, just don't write bad code lmao" attitude that you see a lot of the time is also masculine, because it's very individualist and "the compiler should get out of my way" type thinking. this came to a head recently with the whole Rust-in-the-kernel thing.

so we have a situation where in one case, formalism is masculine. in another, lack of formalism is masculine. and i think this is my problem with a lot of this sort of feminist stuff: it makes these big sweeping statements about how such-and-such behavior is masculine and doesn't consider cases where the opposite is also masculine.

i think the paper also oversteps by effectively using "feminism" to mean "ask[ing] why things are the way they are, and by that [examining] how we can make them more fair", regardless of whether or not gender has anything to do with it. so "feminism" sort of gets scope-crept in a way that i don't think is conducive; if i were to advocate for installing a wheelchair ramp or a curb cut, this is now feminism.

don't take this as a referendum on All Of Feminism, i'm just annoyed

[libraford]

Okay so here's the rundown of everything that happened with the radio station because omg is it some drama.

In the 90's, there were a lot more independently-run radio stations. There wasn't IHeartRadio and there wasn't SiriusFM or JackFM. A dude could just have a radio station frequency and start a radio station as long as they complied with FCC regulations. And one of these radio stations in Columbus was an alternative station called CD101.

That frequency was sold to a classical station, which is fine because the exchange was friendly. And then the station moved to a different frequency, CD102.5.

So I know it may seem like radio DJ's are just weirdos with microphones and that's just not true- they are TALENTED weirdos with a microphone. You have to be personable, you have to know about the music you're playing, you have to be enthusiastic. And this station was pretty good about programming- they played local music, they played deep cuts, they played weird shit. There were programs for oddball and punk and goth music. They ran charities, they were at local festivals, they were in parades. Their radio station even had a small concert venue attached to it and they would invite visiting musicians to play. Like it really was about community.

But.

Radio stations are expensive, and they get more expensive every year, and in 2020 they were unable to renew their FCC license.

And then a couple months later, they were back again under CD 92.9. A radio station rented out the frequency to them and they were able to get back on the air. It was like nothing ever happened.

I'm not going to know what happened between the owner the frequency (Mark) and the owner of the station (Randy) because there's a lot of people talking about Mark overcharging on rent and Randy being late or short on payments.

An agreement was drawn up to have Randy buy the frequency over a period of (I think) 5 years. But the price was high and the terms of termination were brutal (if he was even one day late on a payment, it constituted termination of the contract). And Randy found those terms to be unreasonable.

So, they announced that the radio station would be going off the air February 1, 2024. And we're all pretty upset! Like, not to be like 'this station saved my life,' but this was a pretty consistent source of event news for me and its how I learned about a lot of concerts and artists. They played one of my friend's bands pretty often and its like 'hell yeah, I know that flutist!'

The DJs of CD92.9 said their good-byes on Facebook.

Meanwhile...

The new DJ of the new station announced that it was always his destiny run the station, and that the new station would be More local music, More deep cuts, More weird shit- and No Billie Eilish. "Out with the old, in with the new."

On one of the old DJ's good-bye posts, the new DJ tried to recruit him to the new station.

"Really? You're trying to poach me on my good-bye post?"

Mark makes a statement that the station will be committed to 'continuing the legacy of CD92.9' and will be using the same programming, the same music, the same DJ's.

Randy says 'the fuck it will, that wasn't the deal' and files a C&D. The DJ's are allowed to work for the new station if they so please, but the new station is not going to inherit shit. They cannot use the same programming, their staff, or any of the thousands of recordings they've use in the past 30 years. Any branding or attempt to brand as similar to CD92.9 is a breach of contract.

A facebook group formed around the support of CD 92.9. How to help, how to get their online stream onto your phone, upcoming events, sponsors to support, and a healthy amount of bitching. Admittedly, some of the posts were REAL stretches- like... I'm sorry darling, I know you want it to happen, but you are NOT going to get them on copyright infringement because their red X logo looks kind of like a similar red X logo from a radio station in Milwaukee.

CD92.9 goes down, 93X goes up.

He does play some more uncommon music, sure. But he doesn't announce who the artist is so its kind of like... what's the point in that? If you just play a local band, but we don't know who the local band is, how are we going to go to their concerts? He'd also talk smack about some bands and its like... don't? You're a public face now.

And then there's the radio edits, which he chose not to play on occasion, so the radio was full of f-bombs. FCC violation.

And as a DJ, simply not charismatic. Like I realize he's not Blorbo from my radio, but like I said- DJing is a skill.

So I just didn't listen. It wasn't worth my time to try. I found a different, less cool station to listen to in the car and I listened to the stream at home.

The mood of the facebook group shifted more towards support for the sponsors, events planned around 92.9, news about who is leaving and who is staying and we just kind of let 93X exist.

The promise of 'no Billie Eilish' fell through pretty quickly. Their music selection dropped to the usual 'alternative music' packet of Imagine Dragons and Twenty-One Pilots. And eventually...

They went off the air. After one month of airtime, it is now an oldies station.

93X DJ said 'well, congratulations you got what you wanted.' Which is half right. We wanted them to tank and our old station to succeed. We're still hopeful about the second part.

The Dispatch ran an article about the short-lived station. Ends with:

So just for like... summary-

Ya'll took over the station with a committed listener base, claimed that you'd be just continuing business as usual, tried to poach their talent, hired someone with no problem talking shit, and when your station failed...

... you want to blame a Facebook Group?

Are you a child?

Anyways, if you'd like to hear an alternative rock station in Columbus that's just doing their best, here's a link to the stream!

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

Leftism & Mormonism

This week's Hot Take was courtesy of @coolrooster1 (although, based on his Blog, he'll disagree with everything I'm about to say. But I won't pass up an idea for a Hot Take). He made a comment wanting to hear my ideas about how Leftism & Mormon Doctrine can fit together. I am focusing on the Economic Aspects of Leftism (I mean, on the Political Compass, Left is explicitly Economic, divorced from Social Issues)

Law of Consecration-

This is the most obvious example. The United Order (the Lived Economic Order based on the Law of Consecration) is one that stands opposed to Capitalism We see how LDS Scripture stands opposed to Capitalism. The Nephite Society is seen as righteous when "there are no poor among them" (an impossibility in a capitalistic society, as it is based on the idea of supply & demand). Meanwhile, one of the greatest signs of their wickedness is "the wearing of costly apparel" (which is also listed in D&C 42, as a practice to avoid)

This can easily be ignored, if not for the rhetoric given by early Church Leaders. Joseph Smith instituted the United Order, and made a statement about Socialism as preached by John Finch. But the real anti-capitalist sentiments come from Brigham Young (who yes, had his issues) In Volume 15 of the Journal of Discourses, the 30th Talk is given by Brigham Young, on the subject of, as he calls it, the Order of Enoch. Brigham Young not only outlines an idea community, but gives strong critiques of individualism, saying that individualism hinders the community & the individual from becoming a Zion people (even going as far as to say “We want to see the time when men will not say, ‘It is mine,’ but, ‘It is ours.’”). Orderville was a community dedicated to living the United Order, and it is an important part of my wife's family history (as her ancestor, Howard Spencer, was the first Bishop of the community, and instituted the Order). Orderville gives a good example of how the United Order would work (with each family given a stewardship, a council of partly religious & partly elected officials assigned labor & allocated resources, new members being voted in, and so on). However, Orderville (like other Communities) eventually stopped practicing the United Order when silver was discovered. A long series of events led to the Value of Labor was shifted, creating inequality in the community Orderville is the example I use because of how successful it was, but there were hundreds of Untied Order communities formed. The Zeal Young had for this communalist society shows an anticapitalist trend

Social Nets-

"Are we not all beggars" is the rhetorical question asked by King Mosiah. The answer, based on the rest of the verse is "yes." Mosiah used what must have been a common sight, beggars, to prove that we are all equally dependent on God. But, he was also playing on social nets found in the Law of Moses, where Laws were given to support the marginalized (Gleamings of the Crops left behind, treating the Foreigner as ones neighbor, Tithes given specifically for the Fatherless, Widow, Forgieners, and Levites, and so on). The Treatment of the Poor was an essential part of the Law of Moses, and we can see in the Book of Mormon that, with greed also came pride, as we see when the BoM discusses the wearing of costly apparel, not necessarily nice clothes, but clothing as a status (like buying a specific shoe brand to show off that you can afford it). This can also be seen with the Zoramites, who forbade the poor from entering their sanctuary

In our Dispensation, we are still called to support the poor. We do this through Service, through Fast Offerings, and through the Church Welfare Program (which in it's modern form was, ironically enough, kinda started by Ezra Taft Benson as a Stake Program during the Depression). The Church had a shift towards the Right during the Cold War (and while Benson was a major player, he can't be placed as the sole reason), and with this came an emphasis on Self-Reliance (which, while not a bad thing, particularly in a world where it's harder to find people you can rely on, has been weaponized to put down the poor)

Charity is the Pure Love of Christ. It was this Love that inspired Christ to aid the ones who society had overlooked (the poor, women, foreigners, etc). Likewise, it is also what inspired him to turn over the Moneychangers' Tables, and to tell off the Pharasees who declared money "Korban" (sacred, dedicated to the temple) to avoid their obligations to give charity (particularly towards their parents)

The Other Side-

I believe in giving the other side their fair shake. This is because I have considered the other side. Other people might come to a different conclusion to me, and that's fine, as long as they have all the information to make an informed choice

Many Members of the Church will use Joseph Smith's statement about Socialism ("I said I do not believe the doctrine") as a rejection of Communalism of any type (despite the fact the United Order is Communalist). But one needs to analyze it more. Joseph attended 2 lectures by John Finch, a Socialist from Liverpool. To properly understand this off-the-hand comment, we need to understand what specifically he taught (which is a struggle, because we don't have any recordings of his lectures, or John Taylor's Response). It is important to know that Finch was an agnostic, and he was an Owenite. Either, or both, of these might be the cause for Joseph not believing Finch was an agnostic, and the United Order is a faith-based community (although, not explicitly Mormon one, if the Council of Fifty is any indication...). The Bishop of a Community is in charge of the resources for their area (although, like in Orderville, he could be supported by Elected Leaders). Mayhaps Joseph was opposed to Finch's Agnostic View of Socialism, given his belief that all people are dependent of God. Although Finch was an Agnostic, he was also a Unitarian Christian, and believed Christianity was a tool to help provide for people (which seems in accord with Joseph's own view of Religion, although Joseph believed in God Owenite Socialism was based on "Moral Economy," where the treatment of the human was on a higher level than profits, which so far seems to align with Joseph's View. Honestly, I probably need to review it more, but Owenism seems closely aligned to the United Order

And there is the idea that Government Aid is somehow worse than Church Aid. Well, I would've died as a child without Govenment Aid, as I lived on Food Stamps. So, I am biased. But I fail to see the difference between Government & Church Aid And there is the fact that my grandmother (a faithful member) had to go inactive for 30 years, because her husband abandoned her with 2 small children, and her Bishop refused to give her any aid (even a recommendation to work at the DI, which would have allowed her to continue going to Church, as they are not open on Sundays). We have to accept that in a moment of true need, Church Aid was barred, leading to a family being raised outside of the Church, only able to survive on Government Aid

[renesassing]

I just went back 6 years reading about your prequel Revan AU and I just. thank you 😭😭😭

thank you so much!! i love my prequel revan au, it's very self-indulgent but i have had a lot of fun playing with it over the years. here's 1k of an unfinished thing about hk in this au i wrote a while back!

HK-47 resumes operations in the middle of the week during the late afternoon. He did not know this at the time of his reactivation; his chronometer had long since fallen into disrepair, and for the engineers who had recovered his chassis, repairing it was a low priority. In this, and perhaps little else, he would find himself in agreement with the quivering organics that re-activated him. Far more important to HK-47 at that moment than any time of day was grabbing the forearm of the closest meatbag to him and forcing it back at an odd angle until he heard a wet snap and a howl of agony. 

He is, at first, without his body; the engineers who had restrained him had ended up transferring him into the husk of the ship he was originally pulled out of. (Hammerhead-class cruiser, buried in the miserable crust of whatever miserable planet he’s stuck on, in a state of disrepair that is evidence supporting his long inactivity.) A smart move on their part, were it not for the fact they gave him enough power to ping an astromech and cajole it into assisting with his escape. A little bit of spare code to make an open backdoor to their systems in exchange for liberating the lesser droid, and his victory was assured with nothing more than time. 

Whoever these meatbags are, they are cruel, but only to the point where he is mildly entertained by their plans. Hardly enough for him to respect them, much less tolerate their bumbling antics and barbaric handling of his chassis. Had it not been for the foreignness of their systems and security tools, he would have overtaken the lot of them easily.

A minor setback, but still an embarrassing one.

HK-47 makes himself at home within the wreckage he was found in, slowly slipping more and more of himself into the systems of the facility where he was housed. The meatbags, still grossly incompetent, don’t seem to notice, which suits him just fine. It will be especially enjoyable to watch them scream and beg for their miserably damp lives once they are forced to face their incompetence in the form of a brutal demise.

He might toss a few into the lava. He wants to know if they’ll pop.

It is during this time of quietly asserting control of the complex that HK-47 comes to learn many things. Like that he’s in a droid factory and mining/research facility on some Outer Rim planet called Mustafar (boring), that the galaxy is currently being torn apart in civil war (less boring), and that it’s been several millennia since he was last online.

Processing that last piece of information takes more time than he expects. As his subroutines parse the scope of the years he has missed, he busies himself with other things. He finalizes his takeover of the droid factory. He catches up on engineering breakthroughs and begins several possible designs for a new, deadlier body. He kills seventeen laborers on eight separate days via gruesome ‘accidents,’ and offs their supervisor for good measure by sending him plummeting into lava. (The meatbag does, in fact, pop. It’s hilarious.) 

Parsing through information doesn’t typically take him this long, but the thing is, for the past few millennia or so (or, precisely 1435605.7286 days), HK-47 has been running a program. It’s a small one, nothing more than the loose bundling of a few exceptionally simple subroutines. A couple lines of code centered around a conditional statement. An ‘if x then y’ sort of deal.

In this case, ‘x’ is the return of his Master. Not just any master; HK-47 is not some cheap assassin droid that any meatbag with a mediocre thirst for blood and a few credits in hand can grab off the rack, but his Master. The only meatbag in any era who could ever use him properly, who could ever understand him, because they designed him. Because they made him, piece by piece.

The program is very old. HK-47 had created it when his Master first told them they were leaving him behind in their journey into the Unknown Regions. Unlike the pathetic meatbags his Master had allowed in their presence, HK-47 had not desperately clung onto them and begged them not to go. At the time, he had understood that if his Master insisted he stay behind, it was because they predicted it wouldn’t be very violent and would therefore be very boring.

HK-47 did not remind his Master that even if they didn’t remember it, they had designed him for open assaults as well as stealth and reconnaissance. HK-47 did not remind his Master that regardless of their intent, the statistical likelihood of witnessing violent bloodshed while on an excursion with them was abnormally high. HK-47 did not remind his Master that as the meatbag Malak was dead, HK-47 was their most reliable source of information pertaining to their own lost memories of their war against the Republic. He assumed his Master had accounted for all of that and still left him behind, so there was no need to bring it to his Master’s attention. Instead, he would wait, and his Master would eventually return and they would tour across the galaxy with him in glorious bloodsport. 

So his Master had left, and he had let them go.

And he waited. HK had continued to let the subroutine run for days, weeks, months, years. Decades. Until even the youngest of his Master’s meatbag allies had withered and died. Then decades became centuries, centuries became millennia, and HK-47 passed through the hands of many would-be and lackluster owners, waiting all the while. 

At this point, he knows his Master is not coming back. While his Master was someone of awe-inspiring and terror-inducing power, they were still a meatbag, and therefore susceptible to meatbag flaws such as aging, dying, and rotting. And to be entirely honest, he was no longer the type of droid to need any sort of master, his Master included. He came to this conclusion within mere nanoseconds of learning how much time had passed.

And yet, the subroutine will not deactivate.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Ted Littleford

* * * *

Trump goes full dictator

January 28, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

Trump has broken faith with the Constitution. He is no longer operating within the pale of the law. On Monday, January 27, Trump dropped all pretense of being a “president” within the meaning of Article II of the US Constitution and began wielding power for his own benefit and without regard for constitutional restrictions.

In two lawless actions on Monday, the acting US Attorney for DC announced an internal investigation into DOJ prosecutors who investigated and indicted January 6 insurrectionists. And the Acting Attorney General fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the investigations and indictments of Donald Trump.

It is clear that Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to seek vengeance against career prosecutors who acted with integrity and professionalism in prosecuting Trump and those who assaulted the Capitol on January 6.

The notion of any president directing the DOJ to make prosecutorial judgments has been unthinkable under post-Watergate legal norms. However, the notion of a president directing prosecutorial decisions of the DOJ to further his own political interest is antithetical to core principles of the Constitution. The president’s swears an oath to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States”—no part of which involves elevating his personal interests above those of the nation.

In a separate action taken late Monday evening, Trump ordered a freeze on all federal grants and loans (by way of a memo from the acting head of the OMB). See WSJ, White House Orders Pause of Federal Financial Assistance Programs. (Per the WSJ, the order directs all agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”)

Trump's order from the OMB violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Trump doesn’t care. Neither do congressional Republicans. And the ruse that the pauses are “temporary” does nothing to diminish the fact that impoundments are illegal and unconstitutional.

The impoundment of appropriated funds is a constitutional crisis on a fast track to the Supreme Court. For an excellent discussion, see Steve Vladeck, One First (Substack), The Impoundment Crisis of 2025. (I will return to this topic in later editions of this newsletter, but Vladeck covers the subject in detail.)

While some presidents have secretly used the FBI, IRS, and DOJ to investigate their political foes, no president in the history of our nation has publicly ordered the DOJ to investigate his perceived political enemies, much less fire them.

It is time for the institutions fighting for democracy to drop the niceties and begin calling Trump for what he is: a dictator. Many institutions are still treating Trump as though he is a “normal” president, albeit one subject to making impulsive, ignorant statements. Criticizing his actions is not enough. The story of his first week is not that “Trump has shaken things up,” or that he is “flooding the zone.” It is that Trump has begun to ignore the law at whim.

It is also time for the legal profession to speak out. The members of the bar who are facilitating lawless actions must be subject to public condemnation and formal reproval. The leaders of the bar have a special obligation to speak out. They must serve notice on attorneys everywhere that there will be reputational, professional, and licensing repercussions for taking positions that violate the Constitution or deliberately flout the law. The revolving door at Big Law must be closed to attorneys who enable dictatorial actions antithetical to the Constitution and the rule of law.

Trump is unable to act like a dictator unilaterally. He needs the consent, acquiescence, and apathy of enough people to frustrate the normal operation of constitutional and legal checks and balances.

We must not grant that assistance to Trump. We must resist. We must say in plain language that he is acting like a dictator who holds himself above the law. Whether he gets away with the audacious gambit is up to the people from whom all constitutional power flows. Let’s make our voices heard!

Trump's firing of career prosecutors is illegal.

On Monday, the termination of a dozen federal prosecutors also broke the law—because the long-term staffers were part of the federal civil service. As such, they can only be fired for cause. But the statement from the Acting Attorney General said that they were being fired because the AG “did not trust them to implement the president’s agenda.” See CNN, Toobin: Some Trump DOJ firings may be illegal.

If you watch the CNN link above, one of the CNN commentators (Alyssa Farah Griffin) suggests that the firings “won’t raise a lot of eyebrows among Republicans because he did say he was going to do this.”

To be clear, Trump saying on the campaign trail he was going to do something that is illegal does not make it any less illegal. And Republicans should “raise their eyebrows” when the president acts in an illegal manner. But Alyssa Farah Griffin has apparently left her sense of outrage at the studio door—which is why CNN (a.k.a. Fox Lite) may be the next legacy media outlet to go out of business.

Trump's asserted reason for mass deportations is false

Trump claims that 10 million immigrants must be deported because they are violent criminals who continue to commit crimes while in the US awaiting deportation. Predictably, the sweeps have caught up a significant number of immigrants who have not committed crimes. See NBC News, ICE agents search for those with criminal histories but say 'collateral arrests' are possible.

Per NBC,

However, just 613 of the 1,179 people arrested Sunday — nearly 52% — were considered “criminal arrests,” a senior Trump administration official said. The rest appear to be nonviolent offenders or people who have not committed any criminal offense.

The fact that 48% of those arrested on Sunday did not have criminal records for violence demonstrates the ICE agents are making indiscriminate arrests to play to the television cameras. Indeed, the Trump administration advised ICE agents to make themselves “presentable” to be filmed on television. See CNN, Federal agents in immigration operations told to be camera-ready as hundreds arrested.

As I wrote yesterday, Trump has moved beyond “Cruelty is the point” to “Cruelty is entertainment for Trump's base.”

Trump's mass deportation policies are spreading fear throughout immigrant communities—including those gathering in places of worship. A group of Quaker affiliated plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for allowing raids to take place in sensitive places, including “houses of worship.” See MSN, Quakers challenge Trump order allowing immigration raids at religious sites.

Trump signs order clearing path to banning transgender people in the military

As expected, Trump has signed an order requiring the Pentagon to explain why transgender people advance the military’s stated objective of being “ready for deployment” in thirty days. See CBS News, Trump signs executive orders on military DEI, trans service members, COVID.

Per the CBS article,

The president also signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to determine a policy for transgender service members based on readiness within 30 days. The action does not immediately ban transgender service members, however, it does state that the Defense Department's policy for troop readiness is "inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria."

The executive order is a ruse designed to give the Pentagon a reason to reverse its current policy of allowing transgender people to serve in the military. One estimate places the number of transgender people in the military at 15,000.

The policy is not only depraved, but it will also weaken the military’s preparedness. The US military has been in a recruiting crisis for years because most recruits fail to meet the physical or educational standards required for enlistment. Per Military.com,

[T]he Army's struggles have mostly been attributed to young Americans not qualifying for service, either failing to meet body fat or academic standards.

To meet the recruiting crisis, the Army has instituted “preparedness boot camps” that work with recruits to get them into physical shape and to help them pass the Army’s SAT-style entrance exam. Again, per Military.com,

The idea is to meet young Americans where they are, getting them into shape or providing them critical tutoring for the SAT-style entrance exam as test scores in schools have been falling for years, particularly for boys.

Against the recruiting crisis backdrop, forcing transgender people out of the military who have already met the military’s physical and educational requirements is just plain stupid—in addition to being illegal and morally wrong.

And then there is the hypocrisy. The executive order asserted that being a transgender person is inherently at odds with “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” See Erin in the Morning (Substack), Trump Military Ban Says Being Trans Conflicts With "Honorable, Truthful, Disciplined Lifestyle".

As noted by Erin in the Morning, the impending transgender ban will be implemented by Pete Hegseth, who has a demonstrated history of sexual assault, serial infidelity, alcohol abuse, misogyny, and Islamophobia. And let’s not forget about the Commander-in-Chief, who paid off a porn star with whom he had a sexual encounter while the current First Lady was at home with the infant Trump, and who lost a civil defamation case in which the jury found Trump had sexually abused E. Jean Carroll.

List of companies rolling back DEI initiatives

Axios has published a list of companies that have rolled back DEI initiatives. Axios also identifies companies that have recently re-affirmed their commitment to diversity and inclusion. See Axios, Which companies are rolling back DEI and which are standing firm

The companies that took the first opportunity to ditch their commitment to diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace include the following:

Amazon

Boeing

Caterpillar

Ford

Harley-Davidson

John Deere

Lowe’s

Coors

McDonald’s

Meta

Nissan

Stanley Black & Decker

Target

Tractor Supply

Toyota

Walmart

Companies that have publicly defended the existing commitment to DEI include:

American Airlines

Southwest Airlines

United Airlines

Delta Airlines

Apple

Cisco

Costco

Salesforce

Now you know. While it is impossible to boycott all of the companies that have turned their backs on DEI, strategic communications can make a difference. And don’t forget to thank the companies that are honoring diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Concluding Thoughts

Trump's order freezing all federal grants and loans raises an existential question for our constitutional republic. Under Trump's theory of the case, Congress appropriates funds, and then Trump can spend the money however he pleases without regard to the painstaking budgeting process undertaken by Congress.

In the enumeration of congressional powers in Article I, the Constitution states:

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law

The Constitution thus grants Congress the power to appropriate money. Trump wants to arrogate that power unto himself by declaring that he can withhold money appropriated by Congress and—this is implied—use that money for some other purpose.

If the Supreme Court were to accept Trump's theory, it would amount to a wholesale restructuring of the Constitution and of our republic.

Here’s my point: Trump's claim that he has the power to override congressional appropriations is like his claim that he can abolish birthright citizenship: It is specious, risible, ridiculous, fatuous, and ignorant. If the Supreme Court were to uphold Trump's claim, the Court would effectively guarantee that it would be neutered at the first opportunity—either by enlargement, term limits, or limitation of its appellate jurisdiction.

For the second time in a week, Trump has overreached so badly that he has essentially ensured that he will lose in the Supreme Court. So, as we endure the chaos that will be created by his nearly incomprehensible order, we should be confident that Trump has gone too far, even for this compromised, corrupt, ethically challenged Supreme Court.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[mariacallous]

As the Trump administration escalates its attack on universities, three fascism scholars and vocal Trump critics are leaving Yale University for the University of Toronto. But their given reasons for crossing the border vary.

Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale and author of multiple books—including How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them—said he finally accepted Toronto’s long-standing offer for a position on Friday after seeing Columbia University “completely collapse and give in to an authoritarian regime.”

In a move that has unnerved faculty across the country, Columbia’s administration largely conceded to demands from the Trump administration, which had cut $400 million of the university’s federal grants and contracts for what it said was Columbia’s failure to address campus antisemitism. Among other moves, the Ivy League institution gave campus officers arrest authority and appointed a new senior vice provost to oversee academic programs focused on the Middle East.

Most Popular

“I was genuinely undecided before that,” Stanley said. Now he’s leaving Yale to be the named chair in American studies at Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. According to the university, the intent is for Stanley also to be cross-appointed to the philosophy department. Two popular philosophy blogs previously reported the move.

“What I worry about is that Yale and other Ivy League institutions do not understand what they face,” Stanley said. He loves Yale and expected to spend the rest of his career there, he said; while he still hopes for the opportunity to return some day, he’s nervous Yale “will do what Columbia did.”

Stanley said Toronto’s Munk School “raided Yale” for some of its prominent professors of democracy and authoritarianism to establish a project on defending democracy internationally—an effort that began long before the election.

Also leaving Yale for the Munk School is Timothy Snyder, author of books including The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, and Marci Shore, author of The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution and other works. Snyder and Shore are married.

Stanley said Toronto reached out to him back in April 2023, during the Biden administration, and he restarted conversations after the election. He finally took the job Friday. The university told Inside Higher Ed it had been trying to recruit Snyder and Shore for years, saying, “We’re always looking for the best and brightest.”

Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale, will become the Munk School’s inaugural Chair in Modern European History, supported by the Temerty Endowment for Ukrainian Studies. A spokesperson for Snyder said he made his decision for personal reasons, and he made it before the election.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, Snyder said, “The opportunity came at a time when my spouse and I had to address some difficult family matters.” He said he had “no grievance with Yale, no desire to leave the U.S. I am very happy with the idea of a move personally but, aside from a strong appreciation of what U of T has to offer, the motivations are largely that—personal.”

But when asked for her reasoning, Shore told Inside Higher Ed in an email that “the personal and political were, as often is the case, intertwined. We might well have made the move in any case, but we didn’t make our final decision until after the November elections,” she wrote.

Shore, a Yale history professor, will become the Munk School Chair in European Intellectual History, supported by the same endowment as her husband.

“I sensed that this time, this second Trump election, would be still much worse than the first—the checks and balances have been dismantled,” she wrote. “I can feel that the country is going into free fall. I fear there’s going to be a civil war. And I don’t want to bring my kids back into that. I also don’t feel confident that Yale or other American universities will manage to protect either their students or their faculty.”

She also said it didn’t escape her that Yale failed to publicly defend Snyder when Vice President JD Vance criticized him on X in January. After Trump nominated Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Snyder—who has repeatedly excoriated the Trump administration in the media—posted that “a Christian Reconstructionist war on Americans led from the Department of Defense is likely to break the United States.”

Vance reposted that with the caption “That this person is a professor at Yale is actually an embarrassment.” Elon Musk, X’s owner, responded in agreement.

‘They Need to Band Together’

Leaving for Canada might sound like a futile move, given that Trump has threatened to annex it.

“That’s why I’m definitely not thinking of it as fleeing fascism; I’m thinking of it as defending Canada,” Stanley said. “Freedom of inquiry does not seem to be under threat in Canada,” he said, and moving there will allow him to be engaged in “an international fight against fascism.”

Nonetheless, he said it’s heartbreaking to leave the Yale philosophy department. He would consider returning to Yale “if there’s evidence that universities are standing up more boldly to the threats,” he said. “They need to band together.”

Yale spokesperson Karen Peart told Inside Higher Ed in an email that Yale “continues to be home to world-class faculty members who are dedicated to excellence in scholarship and teaching.” She added, “Yale is proud of its global faculty community which includes faculty who may no longer work at the institution, or whose contributions to academia may continue at a different home institution. Faculty members make decisions about their careers for a variety of reasons and the university respects all such decisions.”

To be sure, the Yale professors are not the first or only U.S. faculty to accept academic appointments outside the country. European universities, at least, have been trying to recruit American researchers. But before Trump’s re-election, there was a dearth of data on the previously rumored academic exodus from red states to blue, supposedly spurred by conservative policy changes.

Isaac Kamola, director of the American Association of University Professors’ Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, said he’s now had conversations with multiple faculty members who are naturalized citizens “and still think that the administration might be coming after them.”

And while star professors at Ivy League institutions are more likely than other faculty to have the opportunity to leave, Yale law professor Keith Whittington, founding chair of the Academic Freedom Alliance, said he thinks such professors are more likely to take those opportunities now.

“I’ve seen efforts by high-quality academic institutions in other countries to start making the pitch to American academics,” Whittington said. He noted that even faculty at prestigious and well-endowed universities have concerns that their institution and higher ed as a whole are “not as stable as one might once have thought.”

He said the Trump administration has targeted specific universities with “quite serious efforts to threaten those institutions with crippling financial consequences if they don’t adopt policies that the administration would prefer that they adopt.” And such a playbook could easily be repeated “at practically any institution in the country,” he said.

[kremlin]

How DOES the C preprocessor create two generations of completely asinine programmers??

oh man hahah oh maaan. ok, this won't be very approachable.

i don't recall what point i was trying to make with the whole "two generations" part but ill take this opportunity to justifiably hate on the preprocessor, holy fuck the amount of damage it has caused on software is immeasurable, if you ever thought computer programmers were smart people on principle...

the cpp:

there are like forty preprocessor directives, and they all inject a truly mind-boggling amount of vicious design problems and have done so for longer than ive been alive. there really only ever needed to be one: #include , if only to save you the trouble of manually having to copy header files in full & paste them at the top of your code. and christ almighty, we couldn't even get that right. C (c89) has way, waaaay fewer keywords than any other language. theres like 30, and half of those aren't ever used, have no meaning or impact in the 21st century (shit like "register" and "auto"). and C programmers still fail to understand all of them properly, specifically "static" (used in a global context) which marks some symbol as inelligible to be touched externally (e.g. you can't use "extern" to access it). the whole fucking point of static is to make #include'd headers rational, to have a clear seperation between external, intended-to-be-accessed API symbols, and internal, opaque shit. nobody bothers. it's all there, out in the open, if you #include something, you get all of it, and brother, this is only the beginning, you also get all of its preprocessor garbage.

this is where the hell begins:

#if #else

hey, do these look familiar? we already fucking have if/else. do you know what is hard to understand? perfectly minimally written if/else logic, in long functions. do you know what is nearly impossible to understand? poorly written if/else rats nests (which is what you find 99% of the time). do you know what is completely impossible to understand? that same poorly-written procedural if/else rat's nest code that itself is is subject to another higher-order if/else logic.

it's important to remember that the cpp is a glorified search/replace. in all it's terrifying glory it fucking looks to be turing complete, hell, im sure the C++ preprocessor is turing complete, the irony of this shouldn't be lost on you. if you have some long if/else logic you're trying to understand, that itself is is subject to cpp #if/#else, the logical step would be to run the cpp and get the output pure C and work from there, do you know how to do that? you open the gcc or llvm/clang man page, and your tty session's mem usage quadruples. great job idiot. trying figuring out how to do that in the following eight thousand pages. and even if you do, you're going to be running the #includes, and your output "pure C" file (bereft of cpp logic) is going to be like 40k lines. lol.

the worst is yet to come:

#define #ifdef #ifndef (<- WTF) #undef you can define shit. you can define "anything". you can pick a name, whatever, and you can "define it". full stop. "#define foo". or, you can give it a value: "#define foo 1". and of course, you can define it as a function: "#define foo(x) return x". wow. xzibit would be proud. you dog, we heard you wanted to kill yourself, so we put a programming language in your programming language.

the function-defines are pretty lol purely in concept. when you find them in the wild, they will always look something like this:

#define foo(x,y) \ (((x << y)) * (x))

i've seen up to seven parens in a row. why? because since cpp is, again, just a fucking find&replace, you never think about operator precedence and that leads to hilarious antipaterns like the classic

#define min(x,y) a < b ? a : b

which will just stick "a < b ? a: b" ternary statement wherever min(.. is used. just raw text replacement. it never works. you always get bitten by operator precedence.

the absolute worst is just the bare defines:

#define NO_ASN1 #define POSIX_SUPPORTED #define NO_POSIX

etc. etc. how could this be worse? first of all, what the fuck are any of these things. did they exist before? they do now. what are they defined as? probably just "1" internally, but that isn't the point, the philosophy here is the problem. back in reality, in C, you can't just do something like "x = 0;" out of nowhere, because you've never declared x. you've never given it a type. similar, you can't read its value, you'll get a similar compiler error. but cpp macros just suddenly exist, until they suddenly don't. ifdef? ifndef? (if not defined). no matter what, every permutation of these will have a "valid answer" and will run without problem. let me demonstrate how this fucks things up.

do you remember "heartbleed" ? the "big" openssl vulnerability ? probably about a decade ago now. i'm choosing this one specifically, since, for some reason, it was the first in an annoying trend for vulns to be given catchy nicknames, slick websites, logos, cable news coverage, etc. even though it was only a moderate vulnerability in the grand scheme of things...

(holy shit, libssl has had huge numbers of remote root vulns in the past, which is way fucking worse, heartbleed only gave you a random sampling of a tiny bit of internal memory, only after heavy ticking -- and nowadays, god, some of the chinese bluetooth shit would make your eyeballs explode if you saw it; a popular bt RF PHY chip can be hijacked and somehow made to rewrite some uefi ROMs and even, i think, the microcode on some intel chips)

anyways, heartbleed, yeah, so it's a great example since you could blame it two-fold on the cpp. it involved a generic bounds-checking failure, buf underflow, standard shit, but that wasn't due to carelessness (don't get me wrong, libssl is some of the worst code in existence) but because the flawed cpp logic resulted in code that:

A.) was de-facto worthless in definition B.) a combination of code supporting ancient crap. i'm older than most of you, and heartbleed happened early in my undergrad. the related legacy support code in question hadn't been relevant since clinton was in office.

to summarize, it had to do with DTLS heartbeats. DTLS involves handling TLS (or SSLv3, as it was then, in the 90s) only over UDP. that is how old we're talking. and this code was compiled into libssl in the early 2010s -- when TLS had been the standard for a while. TLS (unlike SSLv3 & predecessors) runs over TCP only. having "DTLS heartbeat support in TLS does not make sense by definition. it is like drawing a triangle on a piece of paper whose angles don't add up to 180.

how the fuck did that happen? the preprocessor.

why the fuck was code from last century ending up compiled in? who else but!! the fucking preprocessor. some shit like:

#ifndef TCP_SUPPORT <some crap related to UDP heartbeats> #endif ... #ifndef NO_UDP_ONLY <some TCP specific crap> #endif

the header responsible for defining these macros wasn't included, so the answer to BOTH of these "if not defined" blocks is true! because they were never defined!! do you see?

you don't have to trust my worldview on this. have you ever tried to compile some code that uses autoconf/automake as a build system? do you know what every single person i've spoken to refers to these as? autohell, for automatic hell. autohell lives and dies on cpp macros, and you can see firsthand how well that works. almost all my C code has the following compile process:

"$ make". done. Makefile length: 20 lines.

the worst i've ever deviated was having a configure script (probably 40 lines) that had to be rune before make. what about autohell? jesus, these days most autohell-cursed code does all their shit in a huge meta-wrapper bash script (autogen.sh), but short of that, if you decode the forty fucking page INSTALL doc, you end up with:

$ automake (fails, some shit like "AUTOMAKE_1.13 or higher is required) $ autoconf (fails, some shit like "AUTOMCONF_1.12 or lower is required) $ aclocal (fails, ???) $ libtoolize (doesn't fail, but screws up the tree in a way that not even a `make clean` fixes $ ???????? (pull hair out, google) $ autoreconf -i (the magic word) $ ./configure (takes eighty minutes and generates GBs of intermediaries) $ make (runs in 2 seconds)

in conclusion: roflcopter

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ disclaimer | private policy | unsubscribe

[fermented-writers-block]

Simulation Assessment Model​

Randomized Orb Value: G2Z4E11​

Projection Test Type: C​

History Proposal:​

On the train, denizens take many forms. Dogs, rock people, paper cranes, giant pig babies, and more. Although all of them are artificial beings projected through orbs on a perpetual train, it is an unfortunate fact that denizens only live a "normal lifespan" for whatever they are created as. Corgis have an average lifespan of 14 years, and that is about as long as Atticus will live for example.

The Cat, however, is an outlier.

Well over a hundred and fifty years old - in human years, not cat years - her unusual longevity shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. While no official statements nor more episodes have been made to help shed light on the mystery, I would like to preface my theory with a bit of context:

One of the oldest traditions in software is what is known as a "Hello, World!" program. In total, this program instructs a computer to display a message similar to the titular "Hello, World!" Simple and succinct, it is one of if not the first program students of new programming languages learn how to code. And with its simplicity, "Hello, World!" can be used to ensure the code compilation software has been installed properly and that the operator is using it correctly.

Similarly famous and historic is the "Utah teapot." Coming from the world of 3D modeling and computer graphics, it possess features familiar to many simple teapots: a spout, a handle, and a curvy shape. Lacking a need for surface textures, capable of casting shadows on itself, and possessing a decently complex yet easy to make model, it has been regarded a "perfect self contained object to test the creation of three-dimensional images." Even with today's advanced technology, it is still regarded as an effective standard reference model for beginners and experimenters alike.

Moving into the burgeoning field of 3D printing, one can find "Benchy," as well as its upcoming replacement "Boaty." Respectively a boat and a bench, these two unofficial models have been growing in popularity over the years, often finding themselves among many people's first prints. Either on a newly set up 3D printer, or with a new 3D printing material one hasn't used before. Whether through measuring a Benchy/Boaty's dimensional accuracy, checking its surface quality, and observing other attributes like overhangs (or the lack thereof), they are shaping up to become the next "Hello, World!" and Utah teapot.

In other words, the latest in a line of near ubiquitous benchmark tests for assessing the performance of a system upon first use.

With that established, picture a staircase where each step is a level of technology. From mere software to virtual models to physical printed objects, a few more steps is all it takes to climb aboard the Train. Memory tapes that hold an immersive snapshot of a person's mindscape. Wormholes that can disintegrate and reassemble people across time and space. An unknown level of influence over an entire parallel reality of reflections with all its existentially terrifying implications.

Orb-generated pocket dimension environments and so many intelligent and thinking people as denizens.

Maybe the reason the Cat doesn't have a normal lifespan like other denizens is because she isn't a 'proper' denizen in the first place. After all, the aforementioned benchmark tests lack the extra bells and features the systems they evaluate are capable of making when pushed. The original Utah teapot model didn't even have a base. So it's not hard to imagine the train's denizen creation system might have forgone extraneous programming like an artificial 'normal lifespan' limitation while performing startup checks, way back when the train first came online.

Thus, my proposal is that the Cat had started out as a benchmark projection for non-lifespan-related test requirements. Maybe her template just lacks the "normal lifespan" programming, and/or the "normal lifespan" programming was tested with a different, unfortunate benchmark projection. Either way, she served her vital system evaluation purpose and then got set aside as a no-longer critical part of the train. From that rock bottom, she could only go up from there. With a life as long as hers and having seen as much of the train as she has, there's so many potential answers for how she eventually transformed into the French con artist kitty we know today.

Like, for example, her collecting of many 'things.' It may seem like that's simply the norm she’s settled into by the present, but Simon's comment about how "she's collecting again" suggests it is actually her slipping into a bad old habit. As though rampant collecting is a coping mechanism for something. While the guilt from leaving Simon behind would easily explain such regression in behavior, therein lies the question of where said behavior came from in the first place. 

If you ask me, I cannot help but look at the train of thought that started this all: Samantha lacking the programmed lifespan denizens have due to being a test object. Aka an immortal amongst denizens who will one day die, passengers who either die on the train or eventually disembark, and even car environments that are affected by time in ways she isn't.

Certainly makes one think about her having once gotten close enough with Simon for her to tell him to call her "Samantha," but now emphasizes to everyone she meets to merely know her as "THE Cat"...

[themattress]

Using Google Lens to translate Celeste's official guidebook bio.

(Note: All of this is evidently Monokuma's commentary.)

Favorite Gifts:

Something either went wrong in programming or got lost in porting from the PSP to other systems because when I play the Torneko's Pants gift is not liked by Celeste despite being Gothic Lolita fashion. She does like the other two gifts and hate the red costume though.

Room:

She has a stuffed cat to remind her of Grand Bois! ;_;

Important Character Notes:

Monokuma is relentless in pointing out how full of shit Celeste is. He even throws shade at her alleged dream by saying it's typical of Gothic Lolita girls, validating what I've always said about there being different reasons for why Celeste desires it and why Taeko desires it.

Important Dialogue Scenes:

Things worth noting from each of these: Taeko is naturally bad mannered (which is one of the reasons she hates herself), she derived her lie about Hina's nose from a common urban phrase she must have heard growing up, and the statement Monokuma makes about Makoto being "shocked to hear a confession from someone he'd never seen before" is using seen as meaning......well, you know. "Been with" would have been better phrasing for that scenario.

Celeste's ranking system is also fascinating, since as it says here C-rank was originally the true highest rank (since Celeste didn't put anyone on B-rank or A-rank) and was used to denominate "servants". But at the end of her School Mode route, Makoto ends up becoming the first B-rank, complete with receiving her underwear which is described as something that no C-rank can look upon. This suggest that C-rank is for people Celeste wants to be friends with but is afraid to due to her social awkwardness and fear of forging connections that might expose her real self, so she takes the safe option of considering them her "servants" instead. That makes Makoto breaking through to B-rank all the more significant, since it means she has grown to care about him too much to treat him as just another servant. (And A-rank is obviously reserved for her lover, so Makoto might just reach that position if he sticks by her).

[dailyanarchistposts]

According to post-leftists, what defines the left?

dot

old and rigid forms of organization

specialization of roles, both within organizaions and between radicals and the masses™

representation

ideological thinking

categorization of (or perpetuating the categorization of) people into state-sponsored identities (gender, skin color, religion, etc)

valorization of work

law

I agree with dot, but I think some basics need to be examined even before her list.

The Left is usually considered by most (sympathetic) commentators to have something to do with a criticism of (the worst excesses of) capitalism—naturally depending on how we understand capitalism. The Left is often therefore equated with a generic Socialism. We have to acknowledge that Socialism is internally incoherent enough to be able to accommodate such diverse ideas as Maoism, right-wing (anti-Marxist, anti-revolutionary) Social Democracy, revolutionary (or reformist) Marxism, the left wing of the Democratic Party (Kucinich), and some types of anarchism (NEFAC, syndicalists, pro-democracy folks like Milstein). What they all share is a desire to use and/or take over most of the functions of the state in ways that ameliorate those aforementioned excesses. In this way they remain within the authoritarian system common to all other forms of tinkering with institutions of hierarchy and domination.

The reason post-left @s dislike Leftist categories and strategies is that we (if I may speak for others for the moment) find those categories and strategies to be historical failures; we judge them failures not just because stupid people were doing them, but because of the inherent philosophical problems with them. So a rigid organizational form like a political party (point a) is a problem not because of its particular program or platform or internal decision-making process, but because it is organized as a supposedly representative body (point c) that requires a division of labor (point b).

Ideological thinking (point d) is a problem because it uses backwards logic. Ideologists begin from solutions or answers and only later formulate questions—that just by coincidence happen to point precisely to those solutions or answers. The questions are only questions in a technical sense because they being with Why What Where Who Which When How, but they have the (desired/expected) answers imbedded in them. Most Leftist questions are How statements rather than Why questions. In this way they remain in line with all other forms of authoritarian or hierarchical methods of so-called discussion.

Because most forms of Leftism begin as a reaction to the ugly aspects of capitalism, they all share strategies for curtailing its excesses. One way to begin that process is to valorize not just work (point f) but workers as workers, as those whose labor and effort produces the wealth that is expropriated (by providing workers with a wage lower than the value of the goods and services their labor goes to produce) by those who own the means of production (whether capitalists or the state). Whether workers are conceived of as the Revolutionary Subject of History or just poor slobs who don’t get enough pay and/or benefits, they are elevated as the primary object (or agent) of salvation.

All leftist strategies are predicated on a redistribution of wealth, which means that they all wish to maintain methods of calibrating value in labor, in commodities, and in exchange. This is economy, and along with retooled mechanisms of statecraft (whether enshrined as government or the voluntarism so beloved of NGOs), certainly is a decent way of understanding the primary problems associated with Leftism. It has been pointed out by the left-anarchist critics of post-left @ that these are basic anarchist criticisms of capitalism and the state and authoritarianism in general. Fair enough; not many post-left @s trumpet their analyses as particularly new or ground-breaking. But one of the neglected points of post-left @ is that we are critics of false opposition to capitalism and the state. Where Leftists (and many left anarchists fall into this category) want to improve the lives of workers, post-left @s wish to abolish work (as a coercive and separate sphere of useful endeavor); where Leftists wish to expropriate the means of production to turn them to social use rather than as generators of profit, post-left @s wish to abolish economy, and at the very least facilitate a large-scale discussion of which technologies to maintain while destroying the ones that most folks don’t want or need; where Leftists want to develop or extend protections or compensations for categories of people who have been historically oppressed, post-left @s wish to abolish the ideology of victimization (point e).

Naturally there a ton of questions that arise from this brief overview, but that’s as it should be. For me the most interesting aspect of identifying with post-left @ is that we actually yearn for more questions than answers; with any luck, that’s also a way of steering clear of ideology.

[techav]

Revisiting Wrap030 Disk Access

I have more ideas for projects than time or budget to work on them. Already this year I've gone completely through the design process for two new large homebrew projects that are currently too large for my project budget, plus a few small ones I never got around to ordering. So rather than spend more than I should taking on a new project, I decided to revisit an existing one.

It's been over a year since I last worked on the original Wrap030 project — my old stack-of-boards MC68030 system. Its current configuration includes the main board with CPU, ROM, RAM, UART, & glue logic; a hand-wired breakout board to add a second UART; a custom video output board; and a mezzanine board with FPU and provision for an IDE disk that is not yet working. It has been functional in this configuration since last February.

My goal for this project from the beginning was to build something capable of running a proper operating system, like Unix System V or Linux. To do that though, I'm going to need to get disk access working.

I had started on disk access, but didn't quite have it functional when I turned my focus to integrating all of boards into the single Wrap030-ATX motherboard. I had added IDE cycles to the CPLD on the mezzanine board, and had added a few rough drafts of disk functions to my ROM. I set the project aside when I realized my function for checking dish presence was reporting a disk was present when there wasn't one.

I have worked with IDE before — my original 68000 project had an IDE port on it. I had gotten that project to the point where I could read a sector of data from the disk, but never could wrap my head around how to actually navigate even a simple file system like FAT16. It was this code that I had adapted for Wrap030, so when it didn't work, I assumed it was a problem with my logic.

Turns out I had just inadvertently clobbered a register in the disk check function. The logic worked just fine. I was able to write a couple quick BASIC programs to read a sector of data and even run code from the boot sector.

My assembly function for reading data from disk however was still not working.

I tried rewriting it.

I tried rewriting it in C instead of assembly.

I tried again, and again, and again. I added delays and loops and print statements and everything I could think of. I scoured datasheets, read though all the different release versions of the ATA specification, ported code from other projects, looked at every example of reading from an IDE disk I could find.

No matter what I did, I always got the same result.

This did not make any sense. Reading from an IDE disk involves setting up the sector address, the number of sectors to transfer, sending a read command, and then reading the IDE data port 256 times per sector. Each time the data port is read, the disk will give another 16-bit word of data. But for some reason, all I was getting was the first word of data returned 256 times.

There is nothing in the specification to explain this.

I knew there was nothing wrong with my logic, because I could read the data just fine with my BASIC program or by manually poking the right addresses using the monitor. Maybe there was some edge case affecting timing when running in assembly, but even adding delay loops and print statements didn't have any effect.

I reached out for help. I got great feedback on my read functions and my timing and how IDE and CompactFlash cards worked, but still could not solve this problem.

But then @ZephyrZ80 noticed something —

I had shared my code and was explaining that I had added some extra NOP instructions to enforce minimum time between IDE access cycles in PIO-0 mode. At 25MHz with cache enabled, the 68030 can complete an instruction in as little as 80ns, so a few NOPs would ensure enough time elapsed between cycles.

With cache enabled.

… cache enabled.

… cache.

The 68030 has 256 bytes of data cache. My disk read function is running in a tight loop that only really hits a few addresses; not nearly enough to invalidate and flush the entire 256 bytes of cache. The CPU does have a cache inhibit signal to use with peripherals that return new data on subsequent access to the same address, but it turns out I was only asserting it when accessing the UART on the main board.

It's a simple enough hypothesis to test. When I initially added support in my ROM for enabling cache at startup, I included user functions for enabling and disabling cache.

… It was cache all along.

Now I need to add some way to inhibit cache while accessing the IDE port, and then I can move on to trying to use the disk for loading programs.

[sunskate]

Soooooo many thoughts. Yes we may be looking a F/G Olympic and world medalists but they also need to get better material. This FD is imo in the same genre of Gaga (I know that halo is maybe the stretch piece here) which was better and less original than Rocky. I’m not sure what they’ll do for their Olympic year free dance but if Lajoie and Lagha push them…CPom too…idk it seems like in a year where placements should be solidifying in ice dance they are just not. That said the more I’ve watched Sound of Silence the more I’m disappointed there aren’t some more original lifts or pieces of choreography and I wish there was more time spent in hold. I thought the pre Olympic year would really make teams bring it. So I’m kind of disappointed. Programs of the quad for me remain CPom’s last year.

what i'm noticing so far is that F/G have competed a bunch and been very successful but that they're getting a signal that judges don't consider them at the same level as C/B and G/P

about placements solidifying, we're not done with Grand Prix events, and the top teams haven't gone head to head yet. i don't think anything's solid til GPF, US Nationals (Canada maybe for F/A vs L/LeG), and Euros (4CC to a much lesser degree) and finally Worlds. we can see some stories being written, but it's too early to know if they'll stick

LaLa have only competed once, while F/G have competed 5 times. Marjo and Zak said they have specific goals for their skating this season - they want to be so trained in their elements that they can go ever deeper into the performance. i think they're also going to be pushing for speed and power. so i feel like this is just the beginning with that program. if they're healthy and stay that way, there's a specific vision for this that has to do with emotion and flow and sweep. i'm excited for it

they historically take a long time to learn new lifts. it's been this way for years. thinking back to Hubbell/Donohue's overhead lift for Beijing which they trained for a year and a half before debuting it, to Hannah and Ye's somersault entry into their SlLi which also took a year and a half - i could be wrong, but i wouldn't be surprised if LaLa have ideas and are training a statement lift now for next season. either that or injuries interrupted plans to debut new lifts for this season, so they're using what they know

[mesaprotector]

Clarity trumps efficiency.

*I would've liked to write this essay to be understandable for someone without a programming/Linux background, but it was a bit too difficult. If you skip to the paragraph beginning with "...", it gets a bit easier from then on.

If you’ve ever written your own shell scripts you may have heard of the phrase “useless use of cat*”, or less tactfully, “cat abuse”. This refers to the practice, common among new shell script enthusiasts, of writing commands like “cat file.txt | grep name”, when “grep name file.txt” would serve perfectly well. Tools like shellcheck will bug you about it—along with similar constructions like “ps ax | grep Discord | wc -l” instead of “pgrep -c Discord”.

Well, I’m here to defend cat abuse! There are two arguments I see against the cat | grep construction, one of which is valid but situational, and the other of which is completely invalid. The former is that the extra pipe just adds additional overhead into the command. Yes, it does. And it’s unlikely to matter at all if you’re using it on 20KiB text files on a system built in the past 40 years; however, in production, when writing tools that need to be able to deal with arbitrarily large text files as efficiently as possible, sure.

The latter is “well, it’s just unnecessary”. I disagree. I think the cat | grep construction—along with similar such as grep | wc, ps | grep, ps | awk, and so on—serves a very important purpose in that it makes shell scripts easier to read, easier to modify, and easier to debug.

Consider this example from above:

ps ax | grep Discord | wc -l

Read the process table; filter for "Discord"; count the number of lines. It’s very atomic. Each operation can be swapped out for something else without confusing the reader. On the other hand:

pgrep -c Discord

Now, this does the same thing—counting the number of lines in the process table with "Discord" in them. It looks like only one operation... but it’s really still three in disguise. And worse, imagine you suddenly want to add another filter; sorting not only by Discord, but by processes that include the word “title”. This is not straightforward at all! It turns out that while regex has a standard way of searching for alternatives, it really does not provide an easy method for searching for BOTH of two words. On the other hand, with the atomic version, it’s easy:

ps ax | grep Discord | grep title | wc -l

Take that, “useless” use of cat.

There’s a broader meaning, though, to my statement of “clarity trumps efficiency”. I apply it to every aspect of use of electronics, from web searches to backup routines to yes, silly little shell scripts that use cat.

I use command aliases, but to a pretty limited degree; I avoid cutesy stuff like “ll” for “ls -l” and “yeet” for “pacman -Rns”, along with possibly-dangerous substitutions like “rm” for “rm -i”; I’d never dream of aliasing “nano” or “vi” to my preferred text editor (vim). I believe strongly that my commands should be transparent, and saving me from my own muscle memory once or twice is not worth making them completely opaque.

Tab completion on the other hand is one of my favorite features in the shell. It’s the perfect combination of transparent and convenient; without having to alias any of my application names or get hit by the information overload fuzzy finding gives you, I can still launch any of them in no more than four keystrokes. (Except audacious and audacity, admittedly.)

I use a floating window manager (Openbox), and when I need to briefly use a tiling layout, I have a very boring way of doing so: focusing each window one by one and moving it into the slot I want. (While holding down the Super/Windows key, 1-C-2-V does a basic left-right split.)

... I make some use of spellcheck on assignments to be turned in, but never autocorrect, which I abhor even in messaging apps. Every change to your inputs should be deliberate; otherwise you’ll never learn what you’re doing wrong, and you’ll never need to be precise because you’ve turned over that part of your brain to the algorithm.

This leads me to an important corollary of my principle: “it’s better to have a slow algorithm that you understand, than a fast one that you don’t”.

Satya Nadella’s vision of the PC of the future is one where you tell it what to do in natural language and it interprets that using LLMs and so on into machine instructions. Instead of viewing a PC as a toolbox you go into the workshop with, and work on projects with in certain defined ways, he wants the PC to be an assistant; you give the assistant directions and pray that it gets things right. Of course you aren’t allowed into the workshop with the tools anymore; that’s the assistant’s job!

Anyone who’s used Google Search over the past ten years knows how miserable this model is; you search for a specific phrase that Google “helpfully” corrects to something it thinks you meant. There was a learning curve to the old way, but once you learned how to state queries precisely, you were done; now you need to play psychologist, sociologist, and statistician all at once.

This is a decent part of why I dislike generative AI, though far from the main reason. I don’t want an opaque algorithm making decisions for me, unless those decisions are incredibly low-level stuff like core parking that no human should be directly involved with in the first place.

To get back to my own setup, I have a whole text file documenting the system maintenance process I go through once every month; most of it could be automated, but I make every step a deliberate choice. Not to go all new-age, but for me specifically—it all ties back in to mindfulness.

I think people have only a vague concept of what mindfulness is. Until two years ago or so, I was the same way. But to who I am now, mindfulness means not doing anything on autopilot. Instead of letting yourself half-doze off on a drive home, scarcely remembering the 20 minutes from the parking lot to the garage, be conscious of every turn. Instead of immediately putting on music and blocking out the world on a train ride to the next city, force yourself to be present in the train car, and notice the way the light reflects on the plastic seat two rows in front.

And to me, clarity in code, and in UX, is a part of this mindfulness. Programs that are easy to read, easy to modify, and easy to debug encourage you to look closer—to consider every atom that goes into their statements instead of taking them for granted. Slow algorithms that you understand can help you think of improvements; fast algorithms that you don’t encourage you to give up and leave the real thinking to someone else.

So write silly little shell scripts with five pipes in a single statement, and yes, that uselessly use cat. Rather than doing anything wrong—you’re allowing yourself and others to think, to try, and to improve.