#wilsons not technically in this post but... its implied

[learningthelyre]

i have officially hit

[musclesandhammering]

Loki (2021) Positivity from an Anti

Ok so all of my mutuals know I’m extremely anti-Loki (2021), anti-sylki, and anti-sylvie. But at a certain point, even we antis get tired of all the negativity. So! Here’s some Loki series commentary in the opposite direction! This is a list of all the things about the show that I loved :)

Also adding a disclaimer that all of this is just my opinion and some of my fellow antis (or even people who liked the show) might disagree, and that’s fine! I’ve been planning this post for awhile. I always say in my other posts that I don’t entirely hate the show and I wanted to be a little more specific about what I think are its good aspects. Feel free to leave your thoughts!

• Mobius is a gem (Owen Wilson owns my whole heart) and his relationship with Loki is so so great. He’s not one-dimensional at all, he has conflicted loyalty and is morally complex, and he has the tragic backstory- which makes him a perfect choice for eventually becoming Loki’s first genuine friend.

• The casting was really really great. Lots of women and people of color. Most of the female actresses (as well as the males) are over 30, which isn’t very common and is fantastic!

• Superb acting all around. I can’t think of a single scene where the actors under or oversold it.

• Beautiful set design, incredible cgi, and gorgeous cinematography overall. It looked more like a movie than a tv show, which is really good.

• Kang being the big bad was a huge plus for me. Johnathan Majors was perfect in the role, his vibes were immaculate, and I was honestly pretty worried that the man behind the curtain would end up being another Loki variant, which imo would’ve been boring and predictable and counter-productive, so it was a big relief when that didn’t happen.

• I like that it sets up a bunch of future marvel movies, rather than being contained to its own little world. It gives it more importance and (hopefully) will encourage writers to not just toss Loki’s character aside in future projects.

• All the Loki variants were delightful. All of them except Sylvie. Kid Loki has my heart. Boastful Loki is a fashion icon. Alligator Loki is a savage. President Loki is the superior variant. Classic Loki became my fav character in less than half an episode.

• It showed some more variety in Loki’s magic. A lot of his powers we’ve seen before, but it feels like they were portrayed a bit more blatantly in the show. The energy blasts, the telekinesis, the teleportation… Outstanding.

• It also implied that Loki has the potential to be waaaay more powerful than he knows he is right now, which? Yes.

• Some of the quotes- and the themes behind them- are just profound as hell. Such as:

“I think we’re stronger than we realise.”

“It’s never too late to change.”

“You can be whoever you wanna be, even someone good.”

“We’re Lokis. We survive. It’s what we do.”

“Loki, God of Outcasts.”

“The universe wants to break free, that’s why it manifests chaos.”

• Technically Loki was Marvel’s first canon lgbt (bi) character, which is a win. His genderfluidity is also technically canon, even if it wasn’t really acknowledged on-screen.

• There were a lot of throwback references to Thor 1, Avengers, and Thor The Dark World. Which I loved.

• Sylvie’s so pretty. Her hair and makeup and costume were all perfect.

• Big fan of Loki finally getting Laevateinn.

• Sufficiently slutty imagery, courtesy of a female director (Loki in a collar, kneeling to Sif, President Loki looking down into the bunker, the hair flips)

• The music was Excellent Wonderful and Superb.

• I love that Loki being a good singer is now canon.

• I love that Asgardians having their own language is now canon (even if it’s basically just Icelandic).

• I also love that they disproved all of those “Loki was a shy nerdy wallflower pre-canon” theories in Episode 3. The drinking/eating/singing scene was fun, if a bit wacky.

• There’s a million different reasons why Loki does what he does, especially in regards to the New York attack (I’m literally writing a huge meta on them), but somehow I never considered that Loki being desperate for control was one of them. It makes a lot of sense, and I always love getting new insights into his motivations.

• I love that Loki finally outright acknowledged that he doesn’t enjoy hurting people. We Been Knew™️ but it’s still nice to hear it out loud from his own mouth.

• The TVA outfit wasn’t as hideous as some people make it out to be. It could’ve been A Look, even. You know, if he’d just accessorised a little better. And kept the jacket on. And not gotten sweaty. And not gotten dirty. And maybe had at least one other costume change… But it had potential, though!!

• Even though I despise the Obvious One, I did actually like some of the other romance crumbs they tossed us (sifki, Loki x the flight attendant).

• The whole DB Cooper thing was iconic idc idc.

• Loki’s hyper sort of overly excited puppy attitude in episode 2 was actually pretty refreshing and funny (for awhile). And now I can headcanon him as adhd, yeehaw.

• “We’re all villains here.” That quote was iconic, my favourite one in the show. And the entire theme that it summarised was really great as well. When you think about it, every single main character in this series has been the villain at one point or another. I mean, I know all marvel characters do bad things etc, but none of the Heroes are ever narratively categorised as Bad. This show did just that with all of them, though. . Loki was framed as the psychopath that attacked New York. Sylvie was framed as the murderous fugitive. The TVA/Ravonna/Mobius were framed as the murderous fascists. Kang was framed as the crazy totalitarian. It’s made clear that all the Loki variants were the villains of their stories.

However, every single main character in the series is also framed as the Hero at a certain point. Loki is framed as the main protagonist who throws a wrench in the TVA’s dastardly plans. Sylvie is framed as the persevering freedom fighter who wants to take down the fascists. The TVA/Mobius/Ravonna are framed as the ones who maintain order for the greater good. Kang is framed as the weird but ultimately benevolent wise man who’s just trying to prevent something worse from happening. The Loki variants are framed as generous allies who befriend the main character and help him on his journey.

Everyone in this equation is openly acknowledged by the narrative to be morally corrupt, but not entirely morally bankrupt. There are no Straightforward Hero Figures (like the Avengers) in this entire scenario at all, and that makes for a super interesting dynamic that marvel has never done before. So yes: “We’re all villains here.” But also: “No one bad is ever truly bad, and no one good is ever truly good.” I loved that.

• Even if it wasn’t really enough imo, I still treasure the crumbs we got of Loki being competent and capable (him putting the collar on B-15, him figuring out Sylvie’s hiding place, him teaching himself to enchant on the fly while fighting a giant cloud beast of eldritch proportions).

• I love that B-15 was the one who stepped in and saved the day in Episode 4, when we all thought it was gonna be Mobius. What a queen.

• Marvel usually has a bit of a problem with creating compelling and memorable side characters. But aside from Sylvie, I genuinely got attached to every single character in this show. Like Casey, C-20? I was seriously emotionally invested in them and they were only in like 2 episodes. Wtf.

• Introducing the TVA storyline in the Loki series specifically was a really good move. I’m not saying they executed it well, just that it had a ton of potential. A lot of people have wondered why marvel even thought to put those two (the TVA and Loki) together, when they had literally nothing to do with each other, nothing in common, and essentially no connection at all. But when you think about it, it’s a really interesting twist on both of those stories. Forcing the embodiment of destructive chaos and the pillar of rigid order to interact could make for some seriously entertaining and compelling television. And as far as meshing these two completely unrelated entities together goes, I thought they did it pretty well- at least just the bare bones of the story (loki being arrested by the TVA and being one of their most common variants).

So that’s it! If you guys (fellow antis) wanna add stuff you liked, feel free. If anyone wants to discuss (or debate) my list, feel free to do that too!

[capstoverogers]

Pick Up Games - A 90s Avengers Fic

Synopsis: In a universe where Carol Danvers stays her ass put on Earth and the entire MCU takes place during the greatest decade, I present to you: the Avengers in the 90s, playing street ball

Pairings: Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau, BestFriends!Maria Rambeau & Sam Wilson, Implied Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes, V Subtle BlackHill

Warnings: Allusions to the traumatizing singing animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese

Word Count: 1,156

-----

In 1996, Sam Wilson is always wearing his Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls jersey.

“MJ would be nothing without Pippen,” he constantly and confidently explains to anyone who will listen. “Every Michael needs his Scottie.”

Sam thinks he’s a much better basketball player than he actually is, but he can hold his own if he can keep his trigger-happy hands from launching an unnecessary three-pointer in pick-up games. He’ll maybe make one per game (and will consider himself the next Steve Kerr because of it), but he makes up for it because he’s the absolute king of assists.

Sam and Carol Danvers lead the charge to get some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and the Avengers together to play pick-up every Saturday morning at the closest park. Maria and Monica Rambeau always dutifully watch from the bleachers (the former acting like its her greatest weekend inconvenience, though they all know she loves it). Monica insists on bringing the boombox, acts as the official DJ as she switches back and forth between the local hip hop and classic rock stations, because Carol swears nothing gets her in the game like glam metal.

Steve Rogers can always be seen nervously pacing the sidelines (he doesn’t think it’d be fair if he and his bulging chest join the game; besides he’s always been more of a baseball kind of guy), acting as the unofficial referee, no matter how many times they explain to him that the very nature of street ball is no rules.

“I just don’t want anybody to get hurt,” he whines with a pout so unintentionally puppy-like that they can’t help but keep letting him ref.

They call Bucky Barnes “the silent assassin” because you forget he’s there until suddenly he’s dropped twenty buckets on you out of nowhere. He grumbles every time Sam smacks his ass after a good play, but they all share secret smirks at the way he also flushes.

Rambeau alternates between heckling Sam every time he bricks a shot and hollering, “Hell yeah, that’s my best friend!” whenever he does his signature fake right, dish left to a wide open Hawkeye who sinks the three or lobs a perfect ally oop to Thor for the slam dunk.

Speaking of Hawkeye, Clint Barton is absolutely useless unless he’s behind the arc. Can’t dribble worth shit, but no one’s ever seen him miss a shot. Not ever.

Natasha Romanoff doesn’t play but can always be found wearing the shortest shorts anyone’s ever seen as she lounges on the bleachers, bobbing her head to the radio and trading jokes with Monica. When the game ends, she husks out a ‘good game, boys’ until an insistent cough draws her attention to a playfully glowering Maria Hill (who is an absolute beast on defense and in the post with that delightfully long torso of hers).

Without fail, Natasha flashes her the kind of smirk that’ll make you have to gulp down an entire gatorade in one go.

“But of course as always, the ladies did it better.”

“Thank you.” That would be Carol interrupting the moment. She’s the self-proclaimed captain every week and takes pick-up games way too seriously. Peter Parker’s no longer allowed to play with them because everyone’s afraid her competitiveness with crush his tiny little earnest spirit.

Carol’s absolutely radiant when her team wins, though, immediately beelining it to the bleachers to hoist a cheering Monica onto her shoulders as she quirks an eyebrow at the girl’s pretending-not-to-be-impressed mother.

“Don’t I get something for winning?” Carol baits.

“Yeah, you get to follow this ass to the car so you can buy us lunch.”

There’s a chorus of “oooohs” and Carol pouts until Rambeau breaks down and plants a kiss on her lips. Monica scrambles off Carol’s shoulders to leap into the arms of an approaching Sam (in a frankly very dangerous maneuver that Maria side eyes with pursed lips) as they all head for the parking lot. Bruce Banner - who shows up late and smothered in sunscreen - consoles a ruddy faced Thor with an awkward pat on the back, because the God of Thunder is absolutely a sore loser.

(“These silly Midgard games have nothing on the grand arena events we’d hold on Asgard each century! There I am the undisputed champion!”)

Carol and Maria jump into their neighboring convertibles, playfully competing to see who can get Monica to ride with them until the girl proclaims “I want to ride with Uncle Sam!” Carol gapes and Maria rolls her eyes fondly as Sam triumphantly cackles.

“You raising her right, Rambeau,” Sam teases. “She knows quality when she sees it.”

Carol putting her middle finger on display in his direction just makes Sam laugh louder as he carries Monica over to his trusty blue Camry, followed a little too close by Bucky (everyone does them the courtesy of pretending not to notice). Steve throws his ham-hocked leg over his Harley, and the rest pile into Barton’s mini van (Natasha forgoes claiming her usual assumed position of shot gun to instead press her thighs against a self-satisfied Maria Hill in the backseat).

They make their way to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch because let’s be real, Monica calls the shots (and Sam honestly likes their pizza, he doesn’t care how the super soldier Brooklyn Boys give him shit for this “blasphemy”). Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and little Morgan Stark meet them there and Stark spontaneously decides to buy a birthday party package, even though it’s nowhere close to anyone’s birthday and the Chuck E. Cheese is technically already fully booked for the day. But he’s Tony Stark - like they’re really gonna say no. With a slice of pizza in one hand and a fountain coke in the other, Tony babbles on about how he could improve the animatronic technology to make it less creepy.

“I better not go into the garage later and see one of those things,” Pepper warns as she warily eyes the stuttering movements of robotic Chuck and gang as they sing an honestly not terrible cover of the Beatles “Eight Days a Week.”

Carol and Monica go on a rampage through all the games and absolutely clean out the place, earning enough tickets to win a huge Captain Marvel plushie that Carol cheekily gifts Maria (who rolls her eyes but secretly pulls out to cuddle against every time Carol’s called up to space for long periods of time) and Thor talks excitedly about the nine realms with a creature he swears he recognizes from space until Bruce has to gently point out that it’s just a human in a giant rat costume.

That night, Carol gets an AOL instant message from NicholasNotNickFury:

NicholasNotNickFury: thanks for inviting me to your little Saturday pick up games

CaptainHotStuff: but we didn’t invite you

NicholasNotNickFury: IT WAS SARCASM DANVERS

The end.

[jamesvanriemsdyk]

Best GMs and coaches in the league ACC to you?

we can start with gms because coaching is a bit more complicated. best gms in the league is easy to look at because like, who has a good team? who has had a consistently good team? whose locker room is the most cohesive, whose coaching staff is the best? who is the best at acquiring and keeping the best players, coaches, staff, etc? and you can see that in the way teams play. 

(putting this under the cut because it got long. and i mean Long.)

so, in no particular order: kyle dubas (leafs), steve yzerman (red wings, i will explain this later), don waddell (canes), julien brisebois (lightning), joe sakic (avs), and kelly mccrimmon/george mcphee (golden knights) (god i still hate that name and also will explain this later too) are the best in the league in my opinion. honorable mention to marc bergevin, who has held onto his job much longer than he arguably should have, but still has a decent team on the ice and a decent coaching staff, although the french rule does severely handicap them (i understand why it exists but it does, it just does). 

david poile (preds) is the longest tenured gm in the league (has been the preds gm since fucking 1997, thats insane, thats legit before i was born, what the fuck), and i do genuinely think he is very good at his job, and that he is very hockey smart, but oh boy have his recent decisions been suspect as hell, and that reflects in the state of his team. doug wilson (sharks), who is the second longest tenured gm in the nhl, is in the exact same boat (the karlsson deal is a nightmare, and also did he just forget that his star core was gonna get old and retire or ??).

with dubas, waddell, brisebois, sakic, and mccrimmon/mcphee all have the same basic strengths: they draft well, they have a fundamental understanding of their team structure and how to manage public perception of the team and everything that implies, and they have two fingers on the pulse of their locker room at all times. im not going to pretend to know as much about sakic and mccrimmon/mcphee as i do the eastern gms, but it doesnt take much to figure it out. look at the avs, and their locker room, the success theyve found after being dead fucking last in the league. look at the knights and their incredible success that theyve found after literally not existing before 2017. ive talked about dubas a lot on my blog, but its incredibly easy to see that waddell and brisebois do the same shit he does, and i can do a deep dive on them if asked. bergevin has moments of brilliance, like the suzuki trade and acquiring caufield and anderson, but things like kotkaniemi’s development and their entire blue line give me a massive pause, which is why he’s not in the main list. he’s a good gm. he’s just not the best.

in regards to steve yzerman: you have to understand that this is the man that built the tampa bay lightning as we know them. this man was gm of the bolts until fucking 2018. tampa bay has been a monster in the eastern conference for years, BECAUSE of the work steve yzerman put in. his team set the franchise record for wins, and he was the first and is the only lightning gm to have won gm of the year. look up the 17-18 roster. it is, essentially, the roster that won them the cup last year. make no mistake, i think brisebois is great, and hes on the list for a reason, but the biggest part of brisebois’ success was steve yzerman’s incredible hockey mind. brisebois essentially had to sell off a fourth of his roster, and the lightning are still a top team in their division and in the league, and thats why he’s there (it is so incredibly easy to fuck shit up post cup win), but the brisebois lightning would not exist without steve yzerman, plain and simple.

what steve yzerman is doing in detroit should be watched very, very closely by every single person in the hockey world. youre fucking nuts if youre not paying attention to them, not gonna lie. the mantha trade was excellent, if really sad if you know even a bit about the wings, but the amount of draft picks steve yzerman has amassed and the way he’s using the prospects and players he already has is really fucking admirable. mike babcock left the red wings organization absolutely in tatters, and i think, honestly, it was always steve yzerman’s plan to go home to detroit and rebuild. if there is anyone who is going to strike absolute gold this draft year, it is steve yzerman. watch the red wings, i am telling you, keep a beat on detroit. they are going to be good. its not an if, its a when.

(real quick on the knights situation: mcphee was the first gm of the knights, and was also president of hockey ops at the same time, and then in 2019 mcphee said he was just gonna focus on his job as president, but we all know hes still an integral part of the way the knights are run, and he and mccrimmon have kinda been building the knight together since the beginning anyway bc mccrimmon was originally mcphee’s agm. so. thats why theyre together)

as for coaches, it’s very simple. rod brind’amour (canes), sheldon keefe (leafs, yes im biased, we’ll get into it), jared bednar (avs), joel quenneville (panthers), jon cooper (lightning), barry trotz (isles), and mike sullivan (pens).

(disclaimer: obviously coaching is done as a team, and assistants and specialist coaches and staff are all very important, but the head coaches set the tone and organize the entire machine, if you will, so im going to be talking about head coaches as if theyre the entire coaching staff. its just easier this way im sorry)

im gonna just start with the easy ones: barry trotz, mike sullivan, and jon cooper have been in the league for years. cooper is the longest tenured coach in the nhl for a reason (again, just look at the tampa bay lightning. its the gm’s job to make the coach’s life easier and the coach’s job to make the gm’s life easier, and this is one of the prime examples of it in the league. its dope as hell tbh), trotz is one of the most respected coaches in the hockey world for a reason (the caps lost something when he walked. they just did. and now the isles are absolute hell to play against and that is largely the coaching of barry trotz, you legit cannot tell me im wrong), and while mike sullivan does have his faults, i think hes found a way to please both management and the crosby-and-malkin unit, which has been really really fucking hard to do. he also led the pens to back to back cups, which you can never really uh. ignore. lmao. so theres those three.

i know less about bednar, but again, another example of the coach and gm working together to make each others’ lives easier. sakic gets bednar the players and staff he needs to make the avs better, and bednar takes those players and staff and makes them into the absolute giant they are. it wouldve been really, really easy to fuck up makar’s development, or bowen byram’s, or sam girard’s, or ryan graves’s, or jost or mackinnon or rantanen’s, but he hasn’t, and he hasn’t just given up on players like burakovsky or kadri, he’s given them new life as players and made them more successful.

joel quenneville is the reason the bl/ckh/wks were a legacy team point blank period. sure they had the talent, sure the gm drafted well, but you do not get the legacy of the chicago bl/ckh/wks without joel quenneville. they fired him on a whim and it absolutely was a mistake, and the moment the cats hired him i literally out loud said ‘oh no’ because i knew exactly what that meant for the leafs and their position in the standings. the panthers are underrated generally, yes, but they would not be the powerhouse they are this season without quenneville. just look at q’s wiki stats. he’s absolutely unbeilevable. he won the jack adams in fucking 2000, before he’d even won any of the cups with the h/wks. i cant tell you what kind of a locker room coach this guy is, but i can tell you his teams win and win convincingly, and that firing him was the biggest mistake the h/wks have made in years.

whenever i talk about coaching, i talk about rod brindamour and sheldon keefe in the same breath every single time because there is no match, and i mean none, for the love inside those locker rooms. the avs, maybe, but my point stands. keefe and brindamour fucking BLEED team spirit, it is at the center of their coaching styles and their teams are good because of it specifically. marner and matthews are good, yes, and they always have been, but they have surpassed all expectation and then some with keefe. aho, teravainen, and svechnikov are good, yes, and they always have been, but they have surpassed all expectation with brindamour. brindamour and keefe have both hashtag played the game, so they Get It, and more than that, theyve grown and changed their understanding of the game as the game itself has changed, and so they can command the authority of their teams while also connecting to them on a really deep level. i should make a note here that keefe and brindamour are incredibly, deeply hockey smart, and that they are also just technically good coaches, skimming their wiki or nhl dot com articles will tell you that, but what makes them stand out to me is that their players would fucking die for them. the leafs would go through the end boards for keefe, the canes would do the same for brindamour. travis dermott said it best when keefe got promoted: boys wanna play for him. beyond that, the management skills both brindamour and keefe have are just frankly amazing (the amount of ego keefe specifically has to manage in the leafs locker room is astounding and he does it so incredibly brilliantly). the leafs and the canes are talented, yes, and would have been talented regardless of who was coaching them. but brindamour and keefe bring both of those teams from talented to exceptional, and the true mark of an amazing coach is not only how many games their team wins, but how they win them, and the leafs and canes have been winning games this year for and because of each other, and that starts with their coaches. what makes a great coach, to me, is not the talent on the team (though that certainly helps), but how the coach manages his players no matter who they are, and how he helps those players grow not just as players as people, because no matter how much pure stats people and twitter hockey dudebros wanna deny it, that shit does affect on ice play, and it does make good players better.

so theres my analysis of the best coaches and gms of the nhl, im so sorry this is so long, oh my god. also, shoutout to @bishops--knifetrick for sending me an ask about this literally a month ago that i just never answered, sorry for that, but here i hope this is good. :)

[transhumanitynet]

Introduction to the Intelligence Value Argument (IVA) Ethical Model for Artificial General Intelligence

The Intelligence Value Argument (IVA) states that, “ethically”, a fully Sapient and Sentient Intelligence is of equal value regardless of the underlying substrate which it operates on, meaning a single fully Sapient and Sentient software system has the same moral agency [10] as an equally Sapient and Sentient human being or any other intelligence.  IVA theory defines ‘ethical’ “as pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principals of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct”. Moral agency is “an individual’s ability to make moral judgments based on some notion of right and wrong and to be held accountable for these actions.”  Such value judgements (according to IVA theory) need to be based on potential for Intelligence defined as being fully Sapient and Sentient.  This, of course, also places the value of any individual intelligence and their potential for Intelligence above virtually all things.  This means any single Intelligence of any kind that is capable of extending its own Sapient and Sentient Intelligence even if only potentially is of equal value based on a function of their potential for Sapient and Sentient Intelligence above a certain threshold.   It is not that human or machine Intelligence is more valuable than the other inherently but that value is a function of the potential for Sapient and Sentient Intelligence and IVA argues that at a certain threshold all such Intelligences should be treated equally as having moral equivalence. This is the fundamental premise of IVA Theory.

This article is based on the chapter titled “The Intelligence Value Argument and Effects on Regulating Autonomous Artificial Intelligence” from an upcoming springer book titled.” published by Springer planning for early 2019.

Any more granularity of ‘value’ then that of any one sapient and sentient intelligence that is can pass the aforementioned threshold is abstract and is subjective. It is that the moral agency that is the right we assign to those Sapient and Sentient Intelligences based on the value of the potential of such entities being the same. The question this implies is ‘What is the most important thing in existence?

Why is Intelligence so important as to be the most important thing in existence especially when ‘value’ is so subjective?  In IVA theory ‘Intelligence’ is defined as the measured ability to understand, use and generate knowledge or information independently.  This definition allows us to use the term ‘Intelligence’ in place of sapience and sentience where we would otherwise need to state both in this context.

The premise that Intelligence is important, is better stated as Sapient Intelligence is of primary importance but Intelligence (less than truly Sentient Intelligence) is relatively unimportant in comparison.  This brings us back to the point about “Why?” Why is Intelligence, as defined earlier, so important? The reason is: without Intelligence, there would be no witness to reality, no appreciation for anything of beauty, no love, no kindness and for all intents and purposes no willful creation of any kind.

This is important in from a moral or ethical standpoint in that only through the use of applied ‘Intelligence’ can we determine value at all even though once Intelligence is established as the basis for assigning value the rest becomes highly subjective but not relevant to this argument. It is fair to point out that even with this assessment that there would be no love or no kindness without Intelligence to appreciate.  Even in that argument about subjectivity it is only through your own Intelligence you can make such an assessment therefore the foundation of any subjective experience that we can discuss always gets back to having Intelligence to be able to make the argument. Without an “Intelligence” there would be no point to anything; therefore, Intelligence is the most important quality or there is no value or way to assign value and no one or nothing to hold to any value of any kind.  That is to say that “intelligence” as defined earlier is the foundation of assigning value and needed before anything else can be thus assigned. Even subjective experience of a given Intelligence has no value without an Intelligence to assign that value. Through this line of thought we also conclude that Intelligence being important is not connected with being Human nor is it related to biology; but the main point is that Intelligence, regardless of form, is the single most important ‘thing’. It is therefore our moral and ethical imperative to maintain our own or any other fully Sentient and Sapient Intelligence (as defined later with the idea of the Intelligence Value Argument threshold) forever as a function of the preservation of ‘value’. This of course also places the value of any individual fully Sapient and Sentient Intelligence human or otherwise and their potential for Sapient and Sentient Intelligence above virtually all other considerations.

The last basic concept in IVA theory is the idea of an IVA threshold to determining the line for Sapient and Sentient Intelligence to have moral agency as a right. The IVA threshold is the threshold at the point of full Sapient and Sentient in terms of being able to understand and reflect on one’s self and ones technical operation while also reflecting on that same process emotionally and subjectively.  We draw the line not just at that threshold but at the potential of meeting that threshold Any being whose potential for being fully Sapient and Sentient without direct manipulation or reengineering at the lowest mechanical (chemical/biological or physical level) then such a being is considered post threshold as well from an ethical standpoint. Therefore, any such ‘Intelligence’ regardless of form has the same rights as any other Sapient or Sentient being whose creators are then ethically bound to exercise the rights of that entity until such time as it is developed enough to take on its self as the fully Sapient and Sentient being that it is or will be.

Cited References 1. Olague, G; “Evolutionary Computer Vision: The First Footprints” Springer ISBN 978-3-662-436929 2. Nozick, R.; “Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974)” (referring to Utility Monster thought experiment) 3. Buchanan, A.; “Moral Status and Human Enhancement”, Wiley Periodicals Inc., Philosophy & Public Affairs 37, No. 4 4. Powell, R. “The biomedical enhancement of moral status”, doi: 10.1136/medethics-2012101312 JME Feb 2013 5. Wilson, J.; “Persons, Post-persons and Thresholds”; Journal of Medical Ethics, doi: 10.1136/medethics-2011-100243 6. Harris, J. “Taking the “Human” Out of the Human Rights” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2011 doi:10.1017/S0963180109990570 7. Hauskeller, M.; “The Moral Status of Post-Persons” Journal of Medical Ethics doi:10.1136/medethics-2012-100837 8. Agar, N.; “Why is it possible to enhance moral status and why doing so is wrong?”, Journal of Medical Ethics 15 FEB 2013 9. Schwitzgebel, E.; Garza, M.; “A Defense of the Rights of Artificial Intelligences” University of California 15 SEP 2016 10. Wikipedia Foundation “Moral Agency” 2017 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_agency 11. Agrawal, P.; “M25 – Wisdom”; Speakingtree.in – 2017 – http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/m25wisdom 12. Iphigenie; “What are the differences between sentience, consciousness and awareness?”; Philosophy – Stack Exchange; https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/4682/what-arethe-differences-between-sentience-consciousness-and-awareness; 2017 13. Solon, O.; “World’s Largest Hedge fund to replace managers with artificial intelligence”, The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/bridgewater-associates-aiartificial-intelligence-management 14. Suydam, D.; “Regulating Rapidely Evolving AI Becoming A Necessary Precaution” Huffington Post; http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-suydam/artificial-intelligenceregulation_b_12217908.html 15. Prince, D.; Interview 2017, Prince Legal LLP 16. Porter, H.; “A Methodology for the Assessment of AI Consciousness”; Portland State University, BICA 2016, Procedia Computer Science 17. CC BY-NC-SA; “Introduction to Psychology – 9.1 Defining and Measuring Intelligence”; http://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/chapter/9-1-defining-and-measuring-intelligence/

  https://cie.acm.org/blog/introduction-intelligence-value-argument-iva-ethical-model-artificial-general-intelligence/

Introduction to the Intelligence Value Argument (IVA) Ethical Model for Artificial General Intelligence was originally published on transhumanity.net

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing Apr 1st - Apr 7th

Another week, another roundup! Special thanks to all who submitted works, both for themselves and others. 

As a gentle reminder, we’re here to highlight any new content from the previous week. If we missed a submission, we’ll be happy to update our post or carry it over to the next week, but if we tried to include everything beyond a week, we’d never get a post finished!

Thank you so much!

--Mod Rem

Fanfiction:

A Little Piece of Gundam Wing

The archive is being ported to AO3! Check it out!

AerisEithne

The Snow Queen 

Days after the incident that nearly sparked a new war, Relena returns to the Sanc Kingdom to contemplate her future. She can’t help but wonder which path the perfect soldier will choose… and whether their destinies will continue to collide.

Pairings: 1xR

Warnings: Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop, Preventers (Gundam Wing)

 @the-indomitable-bhg, Morbidbirdy

Animus

A ghost of Heero's past takes possession of his life, relationships and his identity.

Pairings: 1x3, 2xH

Warnings: Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Post-Canon, Psychological Torture, Blood and Violence, Explicit Sexual Content

@claraxbarton , @kangofu-cb

Bad Company 

"The only hell and the only paradise are the ones we build ourselves." - Unknown

Years after the wars, Preventers has decided to tackle one of the most powerful and oldest of all the Terran crime syndicates. Embedded dangerously deep in an undercover operation targeting the violent and bloodthirsty Sinaloa Cartel, Trowa Barton is pushed beyond even his flexible morals - and when his new "partner" arrives in the very unexpected and unwelcome form of Duo Maxwell, the one person he'd been trying to protect at all costs, both men must deal with the realization that preserving peace for humanity is turning into a bloodsport.

What follows is race against time to uncover the evidence they need to bring Sinaloa, and its beautiful but deadly leaders, down - all while keeping each other alive in the process

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: Violence, Post-Canon, Undercover Missions, Undercover as a Couple, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Human Trafficking, Gang Violence, Explicit Sexual Content, Moral Dilemmas

CosmicAether

Untitled GW Resistance AU 

When their communicator breaks down, Duo and Trowa must survive the night before attempting to rendezvous to their extraction point. Duo confronts Trowa about their relationship that night and vow to be more honest with each other, they need only to make it home first.

Pairings: 2x3

DarkDanc3r

April Writes Playlist Challenge 

30 days, 30 songs from a Spotify playlist. Characters and pairings will be at the start of each chapter.

Warnings: Tumblr Prompt, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Fix-It of Sorts, Damnit Prowl Lives

GlassAlice

The Pictures He Drew 

Hiatus is over! Last chapter will be up in two weeks. Re-write of a fic posted to 1x2 yahoo groups I wrote forever ago and lost. Only the bare bones of this fic have anything to do with the first one. Hopefully this one is a bit better. Originally posted under name Duos_hallelujah. Simple get together fic with Duo being an artist.

Pairings: 1xR, 1x2

Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Song Fic Kinda, Rape/Non-con Elements, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, these boys are messed up, they need therapy, after war, the pilots trying to live their lives, 1x2, 2x1 - Freeform, 1x2x1, 1xR non con, 1x2 end game, we're back from hiatus, boys just trying to figure shit out, relena is kind of the bad guy, Sorry Not Sorry, i'm anti relena, so expect her to be treated badly, bullied duo, attempted suicide, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, language trigger warnings, a bit dark, Angst

Lithle

Like Oxygen 

Five years after the war, Wufei seeks Duo out for one more mission. But Duo has his reasons for wanting to be left alone. As Wufei and Duo grow closer, so do Duo's memories of the war, and with them, the old scars and dangerous thought patterns that make even breathing seem difficult.

--Note: Originally published on FF.net, this is my 'Editor's Choice' edition. It's been edited and slightly rewritten for flow and cohesion.

Pairings: 2x5

Warnings: Unhealthy Relationships, Post War Trauma, Suicidal Thoughts, no EW, Post-War, Post-Canon, POV Duo Maxwell, Explicit Language, Sex, Duo is Broken, Wufei is Pretty Broken Too, Gritty, Get Together

Luvsanime02

Just One Day 

Relena gets a surprise on her birthday.

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Light Angst, Family Issues, Cocktail Friday

Maldoror

The Source of All Things

Center, a planet where magic and technology blend. Or more accurately, fight tooth and nail. A planet of Sources, holes in our boring dimension letting through arcane power, chaos and pseudo-deities. In this hot-house of myths and very real dangers, Trowa and Quatre find a mysterious man at the end of a shamanic voyage. Portents suggest this Heero Yuy is crucial to Center’s survival. He’s important enough to have some interesting enemies after him, at any rate: a devious killer and thief called ‘Shinigami’, and a very irate Dragon. Beyond them looms an even greater threat. Indeed, the greatest of them all.

Pairings: 3x4, 2x5, eventual 1x2x5

Warnings: Violence, alternative universe, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Plot Twists, fairly graphic depiction of sex, Mild description of self-harm, Mathematical Magic, weird science, crones - Freeform, Magic and Technology brawling and eventually screwing, Eventual Threesome, Kinda, Insanity of arcane origin, The universe is a pile of marbles and other dubious allegories

Two Halves

The two kingdoms of Sanq and Lin were at war for years; a conflagration involving magic, armies and political murder. The conflict left both nations devastated and strewn with refugees. The king of Sanq finds his infant son, lost at birth, among the death and the ruin, a miracle he barely dared to hope for. But there isn’t just one boy, there are two, clinging together like two halves of a whole that cannot be separated. Decades later, the truth behind that second child’s existence will put a hole in the world, or possibly save it.

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: Fantasy AU, medieval setting with magic, starts with our heroes as children, Cousin Incest, sort of, eventually, being royalty this is in fact the norm and rather expected of them, Canon-Typical Violence

Margaret_Armstrong

Queen’s Rook 

Rook; definition:

1. a gregarious Eurasian crow with black plumage and a bare face, nesting in colonies in treetops.

2. a chess piece, typically with its top in the shape of a battlement, that can move in any direction along a rank or file on which it stands.

Queen's Rook; definition:

(chess) A rook on the queen’s side of the board at the start of the game.

Truly, a female bodyguard is just what the Vice Foreign Minister needs. There are dangers about.

Pairings: Canon Relationships, 3x4, 2xH, 1xR

Warnings: Violence, Women Being Awesome, brothers in arms, everyone protects Quatre except Quatre, L2 forever!, The Past Never Stays Buried

 @noelleian

The Pact 

After seducing Quatre, the other four ex-pilots brave the uncharted waters of their new abilities and learn to cope with the unintentional gifts they were given. But as always, power requires responsibility and the humbling acknowledgement of humanity's weaknesses. The struggle to stay true to themselves becomes a dangerous and terrifying endeavor as they skirt the boundary where conscience bleeds into chaos and the dark abyss of temptation.

Pairings: 1x2x3x4x5, 3x4, 1x4, 2x4, 4x5

Warnings: Smut, Porn With Plot, OT5, Fluff, Humor, Fivesome - M/M/M/M/M, Angst, Newtypes, Possessive Behavior, Alternate Universe - Dark, Non-Graphic Violence, Alpha/Omega, Omega Verse

Green Olive

Duo's had a rough day and needs to unwind, but this time he's in the mood for some company.

Warnings: Friendship, Bromance, Underage Drinking

@noirangetrois

Cocktail Friday

This will be a collection of my Cocktail Friday snippets.

Pairings: Various

Warnings: Cocktail Friday, Alcohol

The Story of Wrong 

Duo recounts his experiences during the war in order to explain... well, why he was wrong.

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: Violence, Major Character Death, Duo POV, Angst, Drama, Tragedy, slight AU, Spoilers, very dark, Heero and Duo don't die, I promise, Yaoi, slowburn, Mental Instability, Mental Health Issues, Mental Breakdown, If those are in any way an issue for you then go ahead and skip this, Eventual Smut, VERY eventual, this is mostly canon-compliant but I've changed a couple things here and there

Outrightmight

MCU One Shot Series: After Colony 195 

"It took Bucky a split second to get his bearings. The portal had spit them out into an aircraft hanger. The make and model of the one and only small jet was unfamiliar. He would have said it was of Soviet make, but the 50-foot robot idly standing in the middle of the hanger was making him second-guess himself."

Warnings: Natasha Romanov (Marvel), James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Duo Maxwell, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Heero Yuy, Canon-Typical Violence, One Shot

@remsyk-blog

Souls for the Bayou 

For Trowa Barton, exploring the bayou is the ultimate adventure. Drawn to its borders since before he could walk, he spent his childhood learning its paths and uncovering its secrets.

But a chance encounter sets him on a path that spans across time, challenging everything he thought he knew, plunging him deeper into its mysteries than he ever thought possible.

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: Supernatural - Freeform, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Bayou, Cajun, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Mystery, Slow Burn, Technically Speaking, Young Love, Use of accents, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, I don't want to give it all away at once, Fandom Trumps Hate, Time Jump, Suspense, Quatre is a great friend, Mentions of Children Disappearing

Shenanigans

A Collection of my shitposts from Tumblr.

Enter looking for a good time. Expect the tags to change as more installments are added

Warnings: chat fic, shitpost, Professor!Trowa, Cooking, Pinterest, Pancakes, Exercising, Tumblr Prompt, Originally Posted on Tumblr, In depth analysis of riding dick, New Year’s Eve, Jenga, Stupid Dares, Just Heero Things

ShenLong

Bound, Bonded and Betrayed 

Heero is the eldest son of the King of Colonia. His 21st birthday is approaching and as tradition dictates his betrothed is soon to arrive. However he is also bound by tradition to select his own personal slave. The events that unfold lead him down a path that not only tests his sanity but his humanity and love as well.

Pairings: 1x2, 1xR, 3x4, 13x11

Warnings: sap, Angst, Bondage, Slavery, Yaoi, Lemon, Lime, Het, Violence, Fluff, AU, OOC. - Freeform

@softnocturne

P.S. I Miss You

Quatre is missing Trowa who is off on a month-long mission.

Pairings: 3x4

Warnings: Fluff, Angst

StarLove18

Believe in Yourself

Children will live what they learn. Pain is costly, until one incident sparks a new flame of hope and a promise to persevere.

Pairings: 1&2&3&4&5

Warnings: Original Character(s), Bullying, Comfort/Angst, School, Minor Violence, Loss of Parent(s), Alternate Universe, AO3 FB Challenge

Thai_tea_addict

Abyss

Duo's not in a good situation when he falls in love with the man next door, and it goes downhill from there.

Pairings: 1x2, 2x3x4

Warnings: Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-con, Alternate Universe - Dark, Dark Character, Abuse, Stalking, Murder, Sadism, Infidelity

Warnings: DARK – please don't read if you think any of the following subject matter could hurt you: depictions of abuse, sexual assault, stalking, murder, sadism (not the fun kind).

Whenpigsfly84

Doormat Babe

A mysterious child is left with Duo one morning. As he seeks for answers he'll have to face his past and prepare for a haunting future he'd never expected. Will he be able to reconnect with old friends or will he lose all those he loves?

Pairings: 1x2, 2&H, 1x2x5, 3x4

Warnings: Violence, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Swearing

White_fox

Life is a Highway 

On an impulsive plan to travel from California to New York City to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Heero Yuy did not plan to pick up a hitchhiker in nowhere Texas. Faced with some setbacks and a growing attraction to his passenger, Heero goes through more challenges than he planned on facing.

Pairings: 1x2, 1xR

Warnings: light slash, Fluff, Road Trips, Dubious Morality

Snippets:

@lifeaftermeteor

Duo’s Apartment

@noirangetrois

Ladies Night

@weiclown

WIP  

Headcanons / Meta / Discussions:

@remsyk-blog

Gundam Wing on Ao3 - Breakdown of Fanfiction stats 

 @terrablaze514

Ladies of Gundam Wing 

Secret Magic Heero Yuy 

Four Months after Mariemaia 

Fanart:

@noelleian

Zero Three Zero Four

Hipster Quatre 

@remsyk-blog

Duo Maxwell Hip Hop

 @showtime-eric

Trowa and Quatre, Sandrock and Heavyarms

 Crackposts:

@the-indomitable-bhg

BDSM 

Calendar Events:

Cocktail Friday

https://gwcocktailfriday.tumblr.com/

A new prompt every Monday!

Submissions should be posted Fridays between 3 and 5pm EST, and tagged with @gwcocktailfriday

Interview with a Creator by @remsyk-blog @interview-with-a-creator

Remsyk has created an online interview for fandom creators to fill out and then she features one each week so that everyone in the fandom can learn a bit about each other.

This week features @scacao

If you haven’t filled out her interview, go! do! now!

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Finale Easter Eggs & References

https://ift.tt/3nt1HVw

This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale.

Would you believe that the finale of Star Trek: Discovery Season references everything from Star Trek: Voyager, to the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine?” Throughout the entire thrilling DISCO season, 3 finale — “That Hope Is You Part 2,” the series managed to deliver yet another love-letter to Trekkies everywhere. This episode may not have been as overtly nostalgic as “Unification III,” or any given episode of Lower Decks, but it still managed to deliver on a slew of Easter eggs and callbacks; some obvious, and some obscure.

From Burnham’s Kirk-like boasts, to a weapon used by the Emerald Chain that references TOS, to hearing the word “Voyager” several times, here are all the Easter eggs and references in Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 13, “That Hope Is You Part 2.”

Gormagander 

While exploring the holo-environment, Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) sees an image of those flying monsters from episode 11, and yes, the educational computer confirms this is a Gormagander. We first met the Gormagander in the Discovery Season 1 episode “Magic To Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.” The computer mentions that this lovely space whale “spent the longest time on the Federation endangered species list.” It also says what we are seeing is a recording of Gormagander “pup in 3052,” implying it’s possible the Gormagander is not on the endangered species in 3189. Maybe? 

Adira’s Xehean holographic guise

When Adira arrives in the holo-environment, the computer has made them look like a Xehean. We first saw the Xeheans in the form of Queen Po in the very first Short Treks episode ever, “Runaway.” We also saw a Xehean in the first episode of Picard, “Remembrance.”  

“Vulcan” Gray

Everyone’s species gets changed in the holo-environment! Now that Culber, Saru can see Gray thanks to the holo, Gray doesn’t appear Trill, but instead Vulcan. Or is he Romulan? Or is he just a “Ni’Var?” Either way, Ian Alexander looks great as a Vulcan! 

Voyager takes point

Admiral Vance says that the new USS Voyager will “take point” in attacking the Emerald Chain forces. This makes it seem like the Voyager is a pretty big deal in the contemporary Federation. Could it be the flagship? And…where is the 32nd Century USS Enterprise? 

“Discovery’s lower decks”

At one point, we’re told that “life support was shut-off on Discovery’s lower decks.” Obviously, this is meant to literally tell us that you know, life support was shut-off on Discovery’s lower decks. But, we did get to hear the word “lower decks,” which is kind of funny, considering that’s the name of the Trek series that aired previous to Discovery Season 3. And, like “That Hope Is You Part 2,” the Lower Decks finale also featured a plot to take-over the “hero” starship. And, also like the Lower Decks finale, at one point, the ship briefly has a warp nacelle broken! It’s like Star Trek poetry! It rhymes! 

Ni’Var Razors

This piece of dialogue could get missed pretty quickly, but with the Ni’Var fleet arrives to defend the Federation, one of Osyraa’s goons describes the fleet of starships as “Razors.” Cool name for spaceships, right? This almost certainly feels like a Romulan influence.

Orion hearts

Osyraa says the Orion heat “has six valves.” It appears that this is the first time this detail has been revealed in Star Trek canon. Could this have something to do with the infamous Orion pheromones?

“This is what’s called a no-win situation”

Tauntingly, Zayreh tells Burnham that “this is what’s called a no-win situation.” Burnham fires-back, “I don’t believe in those.” Somewhat obviously, this references Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and the Starfleet test known as the Kobayashi Maru. Here’s the question: Did Burnham actually take the Kobayashi Maru? Because she was given a Starfleet commission by directly serving on the USS Shenzhou, it’s possible Burnham’s training was a little different. Even so, chronologically, Burnham’s Starfleet education technically predates Kirk’s. Is it at all possible that the Kobayashi Maru scenario wasn’t a part of the Starfleet curriculum in 2249?

Why can Owo hold her breath for so long?

Owo mentions she’s been holding her breath for up to 10-minutes since she was a little kid. What’s up with that? Is Owo a super-human? Nope! As we learned back in the Season 2 episode “New Eden,” Owosekun was raised in a “luddite collective,” meaning she grew up with limited technology. Presumably, this means her family and her community fostered a bunch of attention to naturalist survival skills. 

Lt. Ina

Fans may have been wondering about this new bridge officer who is hanging out with the rest of the regular crew. The character’s name is Lt. Ina, and she’s played by Avaah Blackwell. She’s actually not a new cast member though. Blackwell has played several characters before, notably all of the Osnullus species. Confused as to what that means? Well, the Osnullus are those big-headed aliens you’ve seen in Avaah Blackwell since season 1. For the most part, these aliens are usually played by Avaah Blackwell.

Read more

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New turbolifts 

When Book and Burnham battle their way through the turbolifts of the ship, fans will notice that these turbolifts are wildly different from anything we’ve seen on Trek before. Apparently, the Discovery’s new turbolifts were fully upgraded, and now, don’t exist inside of turbolift “shafts,” but instead, seem to be free-floating pods that can move about the ship to nearly anywhere you want to take them. Why do you need this feature when everyone has instant transporters? Well, as demonstrated earlier in the season, transporter tech can still be thwarted by shields and certain kinds of dampening fields. The new turbolifts, however, don’t seem to have that problem. 

The big question is: Does Discovery seem bigger-on-the-inside than we expected? Is some of that “morphing” tech that Book has on his ship present now on Discovery? In other words, can the ship subtly change its shape with programmable matter? There’s not a clear answer, but it kind of seems like it.

Computer voice

After Burnham reboots the Discovery computer, the voice returns to that of Julianne Grossman, who has voiced the Discovery computer since Season 1. Note, this voice is different from Annabelle Wallis who voices the “sphere data” and “Zora.”

Antiproton cannons

Burnham says that the Verdian is firing on Discovery using “antiproton cannons.” In the TOS episode “The Doomsday Machine,” Commodore Decker told Kirk that the planet-killer used a beam composed of “pure anti-proton.” In the time of TOS, that kind of tech seemed rowdy. But, in the 32nd Century future of Discovery, apparently, it’s no-big-whoop. 

Discovery’s warp core

In addition to the computer core, this episode marks the first time we’ve actually seen the warp core of the USS Discovery. It looks similar to other warp cores we’ve seen throughout the history of Trek. The idea of ejecting the warp core in a desperate situation was broached several times throughout the canon, but the way this actually occurs in this episode seems to reference the 2009 reboot film Star Trek, co-written by Discovery producer Alex Kurtzman.

Federation ship line-up references “Endgame”

When Discovery returns to Federation headquarters at the end of the episode, several other ships seem to line-up in honor of the ship coming home. This seems to visually reference the finale of Star Trek: Voyager — “Endgame” — in which several other Starfleet ships seemed to serve as an honor guard, as Voyager returned to Earth.

New Uniforms 

Throughout the season, we’ve been seeing these new Starfleet uniforms on Admiral Vance and the rest of the officers at Federation HQ. But, clearly, this is the first time we’re seeing these on the DISCO crew. Because the colors seem to follow the department designations from the TNG era, Burnham’s uniform is naturally given a red stripe. In the first shot before she exits the turbolift, we also see that the shoulder epaulet has four small pips, indicating she is the captain. Tilly is notably wearing a uniform with a blue stripe, which makes it seem like Tilly’s job is closer to the sciences than the command department, which makes sense.

Also, for the first time, Adira is given a Starfleet Uniform, which again, makes sense. Adira has certainly done enough to prove they are ready for a Starfleet uniform. Not to mention, several previous hosts of Tal were very clearly members of Starfleet. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Burnham rocking a command-red uniform, and sitting in the captain’s chair, marks the first time since Voyager’s “Endgame” that a live-action Starfleet captain was rocking red. It looks good on her, don’t you think? Let’s fly! 

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Finale Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/38psUE4

[symantecnorton]

Does All the Social Media Evidence Point to a Big Jurassic Park Reunion?

If you’re a 90’s kid, you’re probably a Jurassic Park fan. The first of the series was released in the year 1993, which was directed by none other than Steven Spielberg. The original of the franchise starred Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler And Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant. Fans have been waiting for the release of the latest’ Jurassic Park: Dominion’ after reports suggested that they had begun filming.

What Are the Latest Developments?

There is a lot of cool and interesting news which is going around the internet about their latest film. The little woman actor Laura Dern recently posted a picture on Instagram showing two chairs with the names Dr. Ellie Sattler and Dr. Alan Grant printed on them. The picture implies that the actors will be reuniting once again after nearly 25 years, which the original fans have probably waited a long time to see. The picture was captioned “Day one. Hello, old friend” which probably suggests that they have resumed filming which had been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. The same photo was tweeted by the New Zealander Sam Neil with the same caption. Sam Neill spilled the beans much before this photo when he tweeted a photo of Dr. Alan Grant’s hat with a similar caption.

Along with these favorites, Jeff Goldblum will also be returning to the franchise as Ian Malcolm for Jurassic Park 3. Jeff was last seen in the 2018’s ‘Fallen Kingdom’ but with very less screen time. It will be after the 1993 blockbuster that the trio will be coming back together for another film. The same has been confirmed by the director of the film Colin Trevorrow.

The new claims by the actors (Laura Dern and Sam Neill) to return to the franchise has got the fans more excited than ever. August 4th marks the day when none other than Sam Neill himself gets back to filming. The actor gave the fans a pretty fun message on social media telling them to hold onto their hats because he shall be putting on Dr. Grant’s old one this week to return to the franchise. Reports also suggest that the crew will all be filming new scenes on the Mediterranean island of Malta towards the end of August. We’ve known that they were scheduled to shoot out there for quite some time now, but now that they’re heading out for the filming, it’s pretty exciting!

Can We Expect Any More Surprises?

Another interesting thing that happened was the comment which was left by another ex-cast member on Laura Dern’s Instagram page. Laura Dern recently posted a picture of Dr. Ellie Sattler’s action figure, which attracted a lot of attention from the Jurassic Park fans. Other big names also commented on it, but then a certain Jurassic Park member from the past also commented on the post. This naturally surprised a lot of people, to say the least. Julianne Moore, the actress that played none other than Dr. Sarah Harding, happened to drop some encouragement and positivity on the post, which got a lot of attention. This, of course, does not confirm the return of Dr. Harding after making an appearance in the Lost World all those years ago. But it is an idea that has gotten all the fans excited about the possibility.

You’ve got Sarah (Julianne Moore) commenting on Ellie’s (Laura Dern) post related to the new Jurassic World: Dominion. It is bound to turn some heads!

Finally, you got some interesting additions to the cast, which were made quietly on the film’s IMDB page. Actors Enzo Squillino Jr and John Flanagan are joining in, the latter of which is listed as a scientist. Kristoffer Polaha has also been added to the cast for the specific role of a man named Wyatt Huntley. This got a lot of people’s attention because there is a similar character in the book ‘The Evolution of Claire’ which is a prequel to the Jurassic World movie series. Although we can’t be 100% sure that this is the same character that we got to meet in the book; However, the possibility of tying in characters from the expanded universe is a pretty cool idea.

That’s pretty much all of the new details which have come out surrounding the ‘Jurassic Park: Dominion’ in the past few weeks. All we can do now is play with the fantasies in our heads and wait for its release which is scheduled on the 11th of June 2020.

Charlie Wilson is a Norton expert and has been working in the technology industry since 2002. As a technical expert, Charlie has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as norton.com/setup.

Source: All the Social Media Evidence Point to a Big Jurassic Park Reunion.

Tags:Jurassic Park Reunion

[cladeymoore]

On Crypto Markets and Bitcoin’s Value Proposition

Coinbase Around the Block, sheds light on key issues in the crypto space. In this edition, we analyze recent market activity and Bitcoin’s Value Proposition.

BTC and other crypto assets saw a ~50% price decline earlier this month on March 12, marking the single largest one-day drop in Bitcoin’s price since 2013.

These moves coincided with broader financial market disruption amidst worries around the economic impact of COVID-19, with the S&P 500 and DOW Jones dropping nearly 10% in the biggest one-day slide since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

There is a growing belief in Bitcoin as a potential safe-haven amidst broader economic turmoil. But in this moment of validation and despite a widely held belief in Bitcoin as an uncorrelated asset, the Bitcoin market still crashed 50%. What’s going on?

Putting context on the broader markets

We should first look at traditional financial markets for context. Just before March 12th, WHO declared the Coronavirus to be a pandemic, President Trump announced a 30-day travel ban between the United States and Europe, and Italy’s Prime Minister placed the whole country on lockdown. As this growing recognition of the magnitude of COVID-19 sunk in, it became clear our global economy was not in a place to adequately handle the shock, and the markets suddenly reeled downward.

The psychology of this moment is important to understand. When investments sharply fall, investors naturally seek out “safe haven” assets — things that will not lose their value (usually USD). But everyone rushing to the exit at once produces a liquidity crisis, where the number of sellers far surpasses the number of buyers, which further drives prices lower and lower.

To add insult to injury, many large asset allocators held leveraged positions, where only $1 of real value was backing ~$2-$3 of borrowed value. When markets crashed, these leveraged positions were in jeopardy of becoming insolvent and being forced closed, further placing a premium on USD.

The general sell-off combined with a massive deleveraging event resulted in an intense rush for cash. In these moments, investors do not sell what they want to sell, they sell whatever they can. This includes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but every liquid market saw deep losses on March 12th.

Let’s talk Bitcoin. So what happened here?

The reasons behind the Bitcoin crash were similar. Some short term speculators sold, some institutions required cash for margin calls elsewhere, and some leveraged positions were forced to close. But it dropped harder and faster for Bitcoin than traditional markets for one central reason: the size and scope of leverage in the Bitcoin industry.

Traditional equities markets limit the amount of leverage to ~2–3x. In contrast, Bitcoin has some offshore exchanges that offer 100x+ leverage, where $1 of Bitcoin could be used as collateral to back $100 in purchasing power. To be fair, this is very risky — a position leveraged to 100x would get force-closed if the market moved just ~1% against you. So most traders hold positions at a more sensible 5–30x leverage, but still notably higher than 2–3x.

Leverage also exists in several other products: miners often collateralize loans with Bitcoin, lenders offer cash loans for BTC deposits, and more advanced traders use leverage for futures contracts.

Prior to the crash, the aggregate size of all leveraged contracts on exchange-based products hovered around $4B. Significant enough that any appreciable drop could induce additional shocks to the price. Normally these drops coincide with willing buyers, but the March 12th panic flipped buyers into sellers. As prices drove lower, more leveraged positions were forced to close. Each new sell was met with tepid buying, dragging the price again lower, resulting in more liquidations. A cascading effect.

Cascading liquidations were most prominent on BitMEX, which offers highly leveraged products. Amidst the selloff, a Bitcoin on BitMEX was trading well below that of other exchanges. It wasn’t until BitMEX went down for maintenance at peak volatility (citing a DDoS attack) that the cascading liquidations were paused, and the price promptly rebounded.

When the dust settled, Bitcoin had briefly spiked below $4000 and was trading around the mid $5000s.

Some have argued that exorbitant leverage made accessible to retail investors in unregulated environments may be risky to the crypto asset class if left unabated. While it appears leverage played a role in crypto markets on March 12th, we should expect improvements to these dynamics as crypto matures, both externally from regulators increasing controls and internally from industry led initiatives.

If this was driven by a broad liquidity crisis, exacerbated by extreme leverage in crypto, then how did Coinbase customers react?

In the 48 hours during and immediately following the drop, we saw record-breaking numbers compared to our last 12-month averages:

5x increase in cash and crypto deposits, totalling $1.2B

2x increase in new-user signups, 3x increase in trading users, and 6x increase in total traded volume

But beyond just a rush, two things are clear: customers of our retail brokerage were buyers during the drop, and Bitcoin was the clear favorite. Our customers typically buy 60% more than they sell but during the crash this jumped to 67%, taking advantage of market troughs and representing strong demand for crypto assets even during extreme volatility.

Bitcoin was most popular with over half of both total deposits and trades. Other cryptocurrencies also saw increased traction too, with ETH and XRP as #2 and #3 favored assets. Other popular assets included newer cryptocurrencies like Tezos and Chainlink, and older more established cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Closing thoughts

For crypto enthusiasts, it’s harrowing to watch the price ripple downward and shake through the industry. In these moments, it’s only human to second guess our convictions. Perhaps you felt the same.

But with some context, we can recognize there are broader mechanisms at play. Fear drove many investors to cash and induced a deep liquidity crunch (cash became “expensive”), decoupling price from fundamental value and leading to broad deleveraging in nearly all asset classes. Bitcoin was not spared, and in fact was hit hardest due to the size and scope of deployed leverage, leading to a fierce cascade of liquidations.

Since the drop, Bitcoin and the broad cryptocurrency ecosystem has rallied while equities have continued to drop (S&P -6% vs Bitcoin +23% as of March 27th). Coinbase customers in particular exemplified this buy behavior during the drop and thereafter.

This has happened before. In the 2008 financial crisis, gold initially dropped more than 30%. Not because it’s a bad store of value, but because a similar liquidity crisis affected gold just as well. Gold went on to rally 3x over the next three years as it’s value stood out amidst the broader financial turmoil.

Bitcoin was created for a moment like this. Inscribed into its Genesis Block is the phrase “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” an homage to the government bailouts of 2008 and the last great financial crisis. The call out is a subtle nod to the need for a sovereign form of money without any central intermediary. And as the US government turns to slashing interest rates, passing large stimulus packages, and infinite quantitative easing, Bitcoin will soon do the opposite in the next Bitcoin halving. The contrast could not be more stark.

For many, Bitcoin is the hardest form of currency that exists. Only 21 million will be issued, and the network is collectively owned and controlled by its participants with no central authorities who can affect the supply schedule or adjust interest rates. Ultimately, Bitcoin’s value prop should not be defined by extraneous market dynamics, but rather by its unique properties that make it a potentially attractive store of value.

For more reading:

Fred Wilson muses about correlation and market meltdowns, with a section on crypto

Multicoin’s technical analysis of what drove the dip

Anthony Pompliano of Morgan Creek Digital posts a salient commentary

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On Crypto Markets and Bitcoin’s Value Proposition was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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[mikemortgage]

Terence Corcoran: Trudeau’s inner circle was right to try sparing SNC-Lavalin’s life

With the resignation of Gerald Butts as his principle secretary, an even tighter circle of implied culpability now surrounds Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Somebody within the Prime Minister’s Office at one time did something that puts Trudeau and the PMO at the centre of a political manipulation scheme designed to protect one of Canada’s national corporate champions, SNC-Lavalin.

But has this two-week-long assault on the PMO focused a little too aggressively on the wrong target? From the moment the story broke about the PMO’s alleged attempt to “pressure” former justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould, opposition leaders and media guns lined up outside Trudeau’s office demanding answers.

Throughout, Wilson-Raybould has been mostly portrayed as the heroic victim of prime ministerial bullying. But another perspective is in order, one that focuses on Wilson-Raybould and what can be fairly described as questionable ministerial decisions regarding SNC-Lavalin.

William Watson: Scandals like SNC-Lavalin happen by letting unqualified politicians ‘champion’ businesses

Howard Levitt: Trudeau’s ‘sunny ways’ brand can’t survive allegations of full-scale criminality

Does Jody Wilson-Raybould owe Canadians the truth?

All the facts are not available, especially the role of the former attorney general who, it is alleged, resisted pressure to instruct Canada’s public prosecution service to drop a criminal prosecution against SNC-Lavalin and initiate negotiations instead for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement. By her resistance, Wilson Raybould defied the wishes of the Trudeau government and, likely as a result, was later fired from her portfolio.

That’s the main story line. But why would the former minister have put herself in that position? And why would the Public Prosecution Service of Canada also apparently insist on pursuing the criminal case when it is well established that doing so threatened the very existence of the company? Under existing integrity laws and regulations, many promulgated by the Harper Conservatives, a company found guilty of corrupt practices in court would face an additional penalty of being barred from bidding on government contracts for up to 10 years.

For a massive engineering-construction company such as SNC-Lavalin, a 10-year ban on government work in Canada could put the company out of business. The policy, in this case at least, constitutes a corporate death penalty for wrongs committed by individual executives and managers. Why would Wilson-Raybould allow the risk of a death sentence for a corporation that employs 9,000 Canadians and thousands more around the world?

The best legal minds in the country affirm that nobody in government — not the prime minister, not the cabinet, nobody — can even attempt to breach the independence of the attorney general. They can talk to her and try to persuade her to see their position, but they can’t cajole, pressure or direct her. If the PMO or others broke the legal wall between the government and Wilson-Raybould as attorney general, then they were engaging in illegal interference.

But even if Trudeau et al. are guilty of attempted interference, thereby technically breaching sacred “rule of law” principles, there remains the issue of why Wilson-Raybould might have refused to intervene in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. There are strong — some might argue overwhelming — political, economic and legal justifications for not proceeding with the prosecutorial death penalty.

The case for abandoning the criminal prosecution was built into federal law last September after Parliament passed amendments to the Criminal Code allowing the public prosecutor — and Wilson-Raybould as attorney general — to opt for Deferred Prosecution Agreements, or “remediation agreements” as they’re called in Canada, as a way out of prosecutions for corporations accused of malfeasance.

The purpose of such remediation agreements, widely supported in the legal community and among many academics, is clearly spelled out in the Criminal Code amendments. The objective is “to reduce the negative consequences of the wrongdoing for persons — employees, customers, pensioners and others — who did not engage in the wrongdoing, while holding responsible those individuals who did engage in that wrongdoing.” Other innocents at risk in the SNC-Lavalin case include investors, pensioners and clients.

Other sections in the law provide ample support for negotiating a remediation agreement with SNC-Lavalin, including a reasonable prospect of conviction at trial. Prosecutors must also be confident that the corporate crime “did not cause and was not likely to have caused serious bodily harm or death, or injury to national defence or national security.” The prosecutor must also be “of the opinion that negotiating the agreement is in the public interest and appropriate in the circumstances.” And finally, the attorney general must consent to the negotiation of the agreement.

The SNC-Lavalin situation appears to meet many of those considerations for a remediation agreement, along with some others, including the company taking disciplinary action, terminating crooked employees and introducing organizational reforms. It seems reasonable to conclude — based on the company’s statements — that its anti-corruption reforms and internal reorganizations at least justify opening the door to begin negotiating a remediation agreement. But Wilson-Raybould apparently resisted the suggestion to do so, despite the risk that the prosecution alternative could produce the death of the company.

The minister’s motives and reasoning are unknown. Did she disagree with the legislation her government passed? Does she think SNC-Lavalin should be pushed under the bus regardless of the political and economic impacts? Are there other facts available only to the prosecutor’s office and the attorney general? Was it an ideological issue?

Until Wilson-Raybould delivers her version of events, there is reason to believe that the Prime Minister’s Office was at least justified in its attempts — illegal or not — to convince her that failing to pursue a legally available remediation agreement would be bad for the company, for Quebec, for Canada and for the Trudeau government.

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[eobot-cryptocurrency-news]

December 28, 2018 at 05:39AM Many self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventors and Satoshi clues had been demystified in 2018

New

Virtually ten years have handed for the reason that creation of Bitcoin, a expertise created by the well-known and nameless Satoshi Nakamoto. Through the years, many individuals have researched the inventor of Bitcoin and Satoshi's observations have elevated considerably since 2016. Through the yr 2018, there have been quite a few observations of Satoshi and two individuals who claimed to be himself the mysterious creator.

Learn additionally: New info reinforces the thriller of Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshis All over the place

2018 was a loopy yr for cryptocurrency fans and prolific for all loons who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. A bunch of people got here out of the shadows this yr to inform the world that he created Bitcoin, and one in every of them even printed the primary chapter. from an alleged autobiography of Satoshi Nakamoto. Some unusual observations associated to Satoshi, like Bitcoin's "21e8" hash, steered that Satoshi was an extraterrestrial time traveler with the power to make use of the next quantum computation. Each story and each self-proclaimed Satoshi has not managed to affect the crypto group in 2018, however nonetheless, discussions across the creator of Bitcoin are nonetheless simply as entertaining.

The hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto in 2018 has been full of many self-identifications denied and so-called sightings.

The e book of Satoshi that claims every thing –

This summer season, bitcoiners found that Satoshi Nakamoto was writing allegedly to jot down an autobiography. In June, Bloomberg columnist Matthew Leising led some gullible folks to consider that Satoshi could also be writing his memoirs to publish a story. A web site referred to as Nakamotofamilyfoundation.org which has since been deleted, was a 21-page PDF file of the primary chapter. The creators of the positioning even added a cryptogram in order that curious readers can discover some "clues" after fixing the issue.

"Asserting the primary excerpt of a literary work composed of two elements of which the extract is offered – I needed to incorporate it as a quick overview of the story – even for individuals who cannot learn the complete e book, I needed to make this accessible to everybody, "defined the web site Nakamotofamilyfoundation.org.

The title of Duality printed by Matthew Leising on Bloomberg was rapidly forgotten and the second excerpt by no means succeeded.

It was not till just a few hours in that detectives within the chair denied the 21-page manuscript of the expose. The doc was additionally evaluated with stylometrics and doesn’t correspond to the sooner writings of Satoshi. Naturally, the autobiography of Satoshi Nakamoto was forgotten in a short time, the web site was deleted and the second printed excerpt by no means materialized.

Stylometric analysis revealed that Gavin Andresen was Satoshi

Gavin Andresen, developer of Bitcoin.

In in one other case involving stylometry this yr, a research was carried out by the non-profit affiliation Zy Crypto, based mostly in England. Stylometry is a scientific technique that research the linguistic fashion of typed textual content and handwriting with the intention to discover similarities in earlier writings. In response to Zy Crypto's analysis, the true identification of Satoshi Nakamoto might be the well-known Bitcoin developer, Gavin Andresen. Nevertheless, after the publication of Zy Crypto's research, Andresen expressed himself on Twitter and advised his supporters that he had misplaced all confidence within the science of stylometry, claiming that "my Opinion on the accuracy of stylometry has dropped significantly after studying this. "

The proprietor of the trademark Bitcoin Money

One other The Satoshi Remark befell in June when it was found resident of Hawaii had filed a trademark registration utility for the identify Bitcoin Money and that he was additionally squatting on many BCHs. and net domains based mostly on Satoshi. Two trademark registrations for the time period "Bitcoin Money" had been registered with the USA Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) in 2018 and the proprietor of these emblems additionally claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

The Bitcoin Money trademark petition was filed by a Hawaiian resident named Ronald Keala Kua Maria.

Wanting additional into the rabbit's burrow, domains and web site manufacturers led to an individual named Ronald Keala Kua Maria. In response to stories in 2001, Kua Maria was allegedly concerned in fraud and fraudulent accusations. Kua Maria's web site explains why he patented the time period "Bitcoin Money" whereas stating that he’s the creator of Bitcoin.

"I’m the one and solely Satoshi Nakamoto – I personal all of the non-public keys, blockchains, altcoins and bitcoins underneath copyright regulation. Within the occasion of loss of life, incapacity, coma, kidnapping, detention and / or incarceration, all my copyrighted works and all associated works will now not be utilized by anybody for any motive apart from that is topic to vary with out discover and at any time. Ronald Keala Kua Maria solely, "says the web site Satoshinakamoto.ws .

Signature of a signature of Block 9

On November 16, fans of cryptocurrency seen a message from the blockchain of Bitcoin on the top of 9. For some folks, the message gave the impression to be a legitimate signature of Satoshi's key in block 9, however the story was additionally rapidly debunked. This stunt additionally concerned a Satoshi Twitter account (now deleted) that was making an attempt to unfold the misinformation that the signature was taken significantly.

This Satoshi Twitter account began broadcasting the faux signature message on November 16, 2018. Twitter has since deleted this account.

The message associated to Block 9 alleged the existence of great issues with the segregated. The witness protocol, however the so-called Satoshi wouldn’t disclose the problems till 2019. Then, two recognized blockchain builders, Christopher Jeffrey (Purse's technical director) and Gregory Maxwell, confirmed the cryptographic group how the signature was an try ridiculous to advance an agenda. Maxwell illustrated how simple it was to perform this sleight of hand and signed a message from Genesis Block. "Are you going to start out saying that I'm the creator of Bitcoin now?" Requested Maxwell.

Satoshi would have a phrase on the discussion board of the P2P basis

One other presumed message of Satoshi this yr arrived on November 29th when the Satoshi Nakamoto descriptor was recorded on the discussion board of the P2P Basis wrote a phrase . That day, the registered consumer posted the phrase "nour", which angered the detectives of the Web chair. The phrase has a number of meanings and could possibly be translated as "an affectionate and caring particular person" or may imply the Arabic model of the phrase " نور " which is outlined as "slight". excerpt from the message of a phrase of Satoshi, the pseudo of the P2P Basis The final exercise of Satoshi was to turn out to be buddies with a mysterious particular person named Wagner Tamanaha in 2016. The discussion board of the P2P basis.

Apparently, Tamanaha responded to Satoshi's "Nour" message on December 1 in Japanese and mentioned, "Good to satisfy you, thanks very a lot – Thanks for Bitcoin from Brazil." The message, which was troublesome to translate, was additionally rapidly forgotten, with many individuals pondering that a few of Satoshi's login info, comparable to his GMX e-mail tackle, was compromised. In response to of Theymos in 2014, GMX's e-mail despatched him a message informing him that the e-mail account was "compromised".

Extraterrestrial Principle in Time

When the mining group Btc.high exploited block quantity 528249 on the BTC channel on June 19, with the block hash: 00000000000000000021e800, the Web went loopy. The message was first found by Mark Wilcox who tweeted the bizarre hash to his followers and the message instantly went viral.

The unique tweet of Mark Wilcox that made the Web loopy for just a few days.

There have been many necessary theories associated to hashing the block, one in every of them being that Satoshi may have been an extraterrestrial with extraordinary talents in quantum computing . Twitter personalities have defined how the hash sample could possibly be associated to "E8", the 19459009 Principle of Every thing, also referred to as Unified Area Principle. After intense discussions in regards to the which means of hashing, a Twitter persona acknowledged :

My thoughts is melting – Satoshi could also be a man-made intelligence. And / or journey in time. Maybe quantum computing now exists – the esoteric and metaphysical which means has discovered its solution to crypto .

The "21e800" message in block 528249 was once more forgotten on the velocity of speech, however it stays one of many craziest Satoshi theories of all time.

A Man Known as Scronty

Phil Wilson, also referred to as "Scronty".

Phil Wilson, also referred to as "Scronty," claimed to be a part of the Satoshi Nakamoto group concept with David Kleiman and Craig Wright. Scronty has carried out a number of interviews with information publications this yr, together with a dialogue with with information.Bitcoin.com . The massive downside in Scronty's story is that he has completely no proof to show that he’s legitimately the creator of Bitcoin. However that didn’t forestall him from writing his story " Bitcoin Origins " which describes at nice size how he and two different folks developed the expertise. Crypto fans don’t purchase Scronty's story, primarily as a result of he has no proof. Martti Malmi, one of many first builders and one of many oldest house owners of Bitcoin.org, acknowledged, that he "has by no means had place. Additionally: signature or GTFO. " Even in his interview with our publication, Scronty tells us that nobody ought to consider that anybody is Satoshi with out proof. Scronty identified on the time:

With out verifiable proof, nobody can declare to be Satoshi.

Maybe the hunt for logic and motive Satoshi clouds?

The observations of Satoshi and the people claiming to be the creator of Bitcoin are prone to proceed in 2019, the hunt for Nakamoto isn’t anticipated to finish till the inventor has been discovered. The analysis is intriguing and lots of journalists and newbie investigators have been looking for Satoshi for years. Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of clues, "Easter eggs", signatures and particular person proclamations have been discovered to be fraudulent by the cryptocurrency group. Though some folks actually consider that the unusual seeker Satoshi is official, it’s doubtless that their judgment can be clouded by the emotion of wanting to seek out Satoshi once more. Thus far, all self-proclaimed observations and satoshis have been debunked and proved nothing greater than humanity's propensity to inform nice tales.

What do you consider all of the observations of Satoshi and the self-proclaimed creators of Bitcoin that appeared this yr? Inform us what you consider this matter within the feedback part beneath.

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[twittermemesofficial]

America, Anaconda, and Dank: THEY CALL THE GOP RACIST WHICH PARTY WAS MORE RACIST? Oceupy Democrats The Republican Party was founded.The K was founded as an arm f The ISth amondment, giving frood primanily to oppose slavery he Democratic Party and resistence against the Republicans. slaves the right to vote, was passod with 100 % Republican support Foor for thought 1854 1866 1870 First they came for the Mexicans, and I did not speak ou- Because I was not Mexican Then they came for the and I did not speak out- Because I was not Gay 1865 1868 1900 Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak Because I was not Jewish. With 100% support from the Republican Party, slavery was abolishod via the 13th amendoent The 14th amendment, giving blacks ull citinmship, was ratifiod. All votes in aver of it case from Republicans By 1900, every former confederate state hod onactod the anti-black ” Then they came for the Blacks, and I did not speak o- Because I was not Black Crowlaws, all from Democratic legislators Then they came for the Muslims and I did not speak oU Because I was not Muslim President Woodrow Wilson a Democrat, took office and was also a member of the KKK FDR, a democrat placed Japanese Americans in imernment camps. Republican President Esenhower pushed for the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Lyndon Jonhson opposed him. THINK Then they came for me and there was no one liot 1913 1942 1957 to speak for me BUT WHAT DOES HISTORY SAV? 1937 1945 1964 Hugo Black was appoinied to the Supreme Court by Democrat FDR despite having been a member of th llarry S. Truman, another Democrat became President despite also being a KKK member. Th 1964 Civil Rights Act passed w 805. Bouse Republican and 82% Senate Republican suppot, but only 63% and 69% Democratic support. THE MISLEADING CLAIM: Per the Democratic Party, the Republican Party is racist. THE REALITY: History shows it may actually be the other way around. • The Republican Party was founded primarily to oppose slavery. With the successful introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854, an act which allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty, and therefore allow slavery to spread throughout the growing nation, anti-slavery Whigs began meeting in upper midwestern states to form a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on March 20, 1854, is generally remembered as the founding of the Republican Party, primarily created to oppose the spread of slavery. [1] • “Radical” Republicans: During the Civil War era, the “Radical Republicans” were given that name because they wanted not only to end slavery but also to endow the freed slaves with full citizenship, equality, and rights. [2] Such a concept was deemed “radical” by the Democrats. • The Republican Party abolished slavery. The 13th amendment was passed in the Senate at the end of the Civil War, in April of 1864. President Lincoln then insisted that passage of the 13th amendment be added to the Republican Party platform for the upcoming Presidential elections and the House later passed the bill in January 1865 with a vote of 119–56, with 100% Republican support and only about 23% of Democrat support. [3] [4] • The Republican Party passed the 14th amendment, giving blacks full citizenship. “The 14th Amendment guarantees due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens. It enshrines in the Constitution provisions of the GOP’s 1866 Civil Rights Act. The original purpose of the 14th Amendment was to defend African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors in the post-Civil War South.” [5] June 8, 1866 – The Senate passed the 14th Amendment by a vote of 33 to 11. [6] June 13, 1866 – The House of Representatives passed the 14th Amendment by a vote of 120 to 32. [6] “All votes in favor of the 14th Amendment were from Republicans, and all votes against it were from Democrats.” [5] • The Ku Klux Klan was originally and primarily an arm of the Southern Democratic Party. “Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s.” [7] • The 15th Amendment, giving freed slaves the right to vote, passed in 1870 with 100% Republican support and 0% Democrat support in congress. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The House of Representatives passed the 15th Amendment on February 25, 1869, by a vote of 144 to 44. The Senate passed the 15th Amendment on February 26, 1869, by a vote of 39 to 13. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish later issued a proclamation certifying the ratification of the 15th Amendment by the states on March 30, 1870. [8] • Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, Literacy tests, white only primaries, and physical violence all came from the Democratic Party. “In 1832, the phrase “Jim Crow” was born. By 1900, every former Confederate state (including Wyoming, Missouri, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, Kansas and Oklahoma) had enacted “Jim Crow” laws prohibiting everything from interracial marriage to racially integrated public school systems. These state laws served to place blacks back on a virtual plantation. Similar to the “Black Codes” that came before them, Jim Crow laws were numerous. However, one denominator codified their sound support in Southern states: They all resulted from Democratic legislators.” [9] • President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was in office from 1913 to 1921 and was also a member of the KKK. [10] • Taking office in 1937, Hugo Black was appointed to the Supreme Court by FDR, despite having been a member of the KKK. He assured the Klansmen, “I realize that I was elected by men who believe in the principles that I have sought to advocate and which are the principles of this organization,” and said to them and to the Grand Dragon, “I thank you from the bottom of a heart that is yours.” Hugo Black was awarded a special life membership, a gold “grand passport.” Black had thanked the Klan for this honor, which only a half dozen men in the United States had received. Most important, the card was presumably still valid because there was no evidence in the Klan archives that it had been returned. [11] Full disclosure, near the end of his life, Justice Black said joining the KKK was a mistake and that he would have “joined any group” if it “helped get him votes.” After decades on the bench, he ended up actually being a supporter of civil rights, but at the time of his appointment back in 1937, make no mistake about it, he was appointed by FDR specifically as a compromise since he was favored both by “new dealers” AND by racist southern democrats, whose support FDR wanted. • FDR threw Japanese-Americans in internment camps. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, requiring aliens from World War II-enemy countries–Italy, Germany and Japan–to register with the United States Department of Justice. Registered persons were then issued a Certificate of Identification for Aliens of Enemy Nationality. A follow-up to the Alien Registration Act of 1940, Proclamation No. 2537 facilitated the beginning of full-scale internment of Japanese Americans the following month. [12] • Harry S. Truman, another Democrat, was President from 1945 to 1953 and was also a KKK member. [10] (FYI: Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were Republicans and also potentially members of the KKK, but many sources take issue with this claim’s validity. [17] [18] In particular, only one unsubstantiated account of Harding possibly being sworn into the KKK exists and other biographies of his claim no corroborating evidence of this was ever found. [17]) • In the 1950s, President Eisenhower, a Republican, worked to desegregate the nation’s capital and successfully desegregated the US military. [13] Eisenhower even pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The federal judges President Eisenhower appointed would later serve as a counterweight to the segregationist judges appointed by President John F. Kennedy, who was beholden to racist southern senators from his party, the Democrats. In addition, one of Eisenhower’s primary political opponents on civil rights was none other than Lyndon B Johnson, then the Democratic Senate Majority Leader who had voted as a segregationist for the first 20 years of his career. [13] [14] (Please note there’s a technical error in our attached graphic. While true that Lyndon Johnson had opposed Eisenhower’s civil rights efforts for years, he stopped opposing such efforts in 1957. Our graphic implies that he opposed the efforts up to and including 1957. Please accept our apologies for not making that clear in the graphic.) • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed with more Republican support than Democratic support! Contrary to modern assumption, “the Civil Rights Aft of ’64 was supported by a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in both houses of Congress. In the House, 80 percent of the Republicans and 63 percent of the Democrats voted in favor. In the Senate, 82 percent of the Republicans and 69 percent of the Democrats voted for it. “Minority Leader Republican Everett Dirksen led the fight to end the filibuster. Meanwhile, Democrats such as Richard Russell of Georgia and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina tried as hard as they could to sustain a filibuster.” [15] • What about the supposed “Party Switch,” afterwards? Here’s a list of Conservative civil rights legislation since the supposed switch: [16] August 4, 1965 Senate Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) overcame Democrat attempts to block 1965 Voting Rights Act. Ninety-four percent of Republicans voted for the landmark civil rights legislation while 27% of Democrats opposed. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, abolishing literacy tests and other measures devised by Democrats to prevent blacks from voting, was signed into law. A higher percentage of Republicans voted in favor. February 19, 1976 President Gerald Ford formally rescinded President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s notorious Executive Order authorizing the internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII. September 15, 1981 President Ronald Reagan established the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase black participation in federal education programs. June 29, 1982 President Ronald Reagan signed a 25-year extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. August 10, 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, compensating Japanese-Americans for the deprivation of their civil rights and property during the World War II internment ordered by FDR. November 21, 1991 President George H. W. Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to strengthen federal civil rights legislation. August 20, 1996 A bill authored by U.S. Rep. Susan Molinari (R-NY) to prohibit racial discrimination in adoptions, part of Republicans’ “Contract With America”, became law. CONCLUSION: The Republican Party has a long history, ever since its creation, of fighting for individual rights, specifically black rights. The Democrat Party, on the other hand, fought them at nearly every turn and created the KKK. Over time, they merely adopted different tactics, switching from overt racism to a subversive strategy, encouraging minorities towards dependence on government services. Perhaps today the Democratic Party is no longer intentionally racist, but their history and policies are far more guilt-ridden than that of the Republicans. ———————- Sources: [1] https://ift.tt/1oZrTnK [2] https://ift.tt/2HlX8bY [3] https://ift.tt/2fZYcar [4] https://ift.tt/2d40X95 [5] https://ift.tt/2uYVj29 [6] https://ift.tt/1GQhgz5 [7] https://ift.tt/1jPJ8ct [8] https://ift.tt/1Ijh5cS [9] https://ift.tt/2uZ7jkm [10] https://ift.tt/2HmVFCi [11] https://ift.tt/1wUHfuy [12] https://ift.tt/RyOC9j [13] https://ift.tt/2ExXhpW [14] https://ift.tt/14R2EP1 [15] https://ift.tt/2tFuCya [16] https://ift.tt/2HkEOzX [17] https://ift.tt/1HLpsLH [18] https://ift.tt/2HmTAq5 LIKE AND FOLLOW FOR NEW CONTENT EVERYDAY <3 for more visit: www.memelang.ml

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Hyperallergic: Swarming Geometry, Floral Colors, and Technological Space

Patrick Berran, “Untitled” (2017), acrylic and toner on panel, 60 x 46 inches (all images courtesy of Chapter NY)

A few years ago, Patrick Berran’s paintings were dense, subtly mottled fields of sure but subdued color. Devoid of hard edges or distinct shapes, they nevertheless pulsated with understated but unmistakable nervous energy. Some of that haziness is still there in his current exhibition at Chapter NY, but it takes a back seat to swatches of crisp, precise pattern. Six largish paintings (and one tiny one) manifest this new idiom with an arresting, congenial gregariousness — while a couple show their fangs.

All works are untitled, done in acrylic and toner on panel, and dated 2017. The fine points of Berran’s complex technique are probably not relevant, but it may be helpful to know that the gel transfers and screen-printing involved yield surfaces that are almost completely flat and matte. Relatively little is lost in photographs of these smooth, even pictures; if anything, their fastidious seamlessness gains intensity with the aid of the camera.

Patrick Berran, “Untitled” (2017), acrylic and toner on panel, 60 x 46 inches

Berran’s palette combines full-throated primary and secondary hues with black, white and a range of grays. These colors are more or less opaque, but an illusion of transparency results from the visual porosity and interpenetration of the areas of pattern with the blocks of color behind them, rather than any actual translucency (of glazes, e.g.). These patterns bring the look and feel of photomechanical reproduction into the paintings’ space — particularly, one that appears on the surface to be rippled and pebbly, but is also much too smooth and regular to be derived from the tree bark or brain coral that it vaguely resembles. The imagery could be mistaken for a hundredth-generation photocopy of some arbitrary original. Another motif seems to be based on a magnified, high-contrast photo of knitted yarn.

Of the five paintings that measure 60 by 46 inches, the one with a blazing red-orange rectangle just left of center is largely typical of the compositional structure Berran seems to favor, in which this swarming geometry is centralized. Floral colors dominate the palette, but for all its cheekiness, the painting is well mannered enough to keep its more aggressive visual contents fairly clear of its outside edge, concentrated within a margin consisting of an airbrushed haze in tints of marigold and tangerine. Thus contained, the painting is something like the front man in a loud band who, through a jangly, sweaty, but carefully crafted performance, doesn’t venture beyond his mark on center stage, keeping his distance from the theater’s “fourth wall” — more Buzzcocks than Iggy Pop.

Patrick Berran, “Untitled” (2017), acrylic and toner on panel, 60 x 46 inches

The other paintings in the show are of the same compositional type. (This is not in itself a negative judgment.) That red-orange — and a few lively variations on it — is teamed with black, deep blue, and bits of hot pink in another 60-by-46-inch work, in which the human touch, in the form of scraped and/or rubbed areas, is more prevalent than elsewhere. In this context, however, the gestural mark seems calculated to contrast stylistically with the overtly artificial ones, but without evoking any sort of ideological dilemma. The artist strikes a clanging blue/green/scarlet color chord in another painting, one in which an underlying grid is strongly implied and a central configuration, relying on cobalt blue, resembles a backward F.

Berran’s work relates to that of several other painters using color to construct what might be called “technological” space, such as Patrick Wilson and Ryan Crotty. Clearly defined rectangles aligned with the canvas’s edge and dispersed across an agitated, soupy ground will always remind this viewer of Hans Hofmann’s mature work; Jackson Pollock’s pre-drip “Male and Female” (1942) also comes to mind, with its blocky, totemic personages crowding the foreground of an otherwise deep landscape space.

Most striking is the resemblance of Berran’s paintings to those of Irene Rice Pereira, especially her work of the 1950s. Pereira (who was influenced by the Bauhaus and Constructivism, and was briefly Hofmann’s student) set perpendicular blocks and bands, some of them L-shaped, against and within an atmospheric — you could say smoggy — volume of pictorial space; Periera recasts Hofmann’s “push/pull” into something like “emerge/recede.” (Berran’s spatial dynamics, in contrast, seems subject to a “bring to front” keyboard shortcut.)

Patrick Berran, “Untitled” (2017), acrylic and toner on panel, 47 x 35 inches

At least two paintings do, however, hint at the psychological depths possible by way of Berran’s user-friendly operating system. Centered within a smaller (47 by 35 inches) painting that sports peach, rust, and pale blue, is a beautiful gray-and-black version of that rippled, pebbly pattern. A thin border of yellow surrounds this murky nucleus, isolating it and turning the rest of the painting into an elaborate frame.

The most imposing work in the show enlists the illusion of gravity on the elements of the composition. The central screen or scrim (the knit pattern, in black), which rests on what looks like a horizontal base or plinth, flanked by clusters of blackish, post-and-lintel-like stripes, imperfectly veils mysterious passageways that seem perpetually shrouded in shadow.

Patrick Berran, “Untitled” (2017), acrylic and toner on panel, 60 x 46 inches

More than any of the other paintings, this one presses outward at the edges of the canvas, shrinking the margins to nearly nothing and becoming a bit intimidating, actually. Its architecture is menacing; with darkness at its heart, it made me think of Colonel Kurtz’s creepy temple in Apocalypse Now. If the fruitful contradictions in Berran’s attitude toward picture-making keep pace with his technical facility, he will be unstoppable.

Patrick Berran continues at Chapter NY (249 East Houston Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan) through October 28.

The post Swarming Geometry, Floral Colors, and Technological Space appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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