#workforce development model

[reasonsforhope]

"Across the country, thousands of public schools face closures due to low enrollment. 

But Detroit, Michigan-based nonprofit Life Remodeled is welcoming vacant schools into a new era.

The organization, which has invested $51 million in revitalizing Detroit neighborhoods, primarily works to purchase vacant properties and work with dozens of area organizations to provide life-changing resources to community members.

Its first remodel — the Durfee Innovation Society — opened in 2023. A former elementary and middle school, the building is now what the organization calls “an opportunity hub,” providing resources like after-school programs, career preparedness, and support in accessing healthcare, financial literacy, and more.

“The Durfee Innovation Society is an Opportunity Hub,” Brandy Haggins, the director of the project, told CBS News. “We call it that because we’ve taken an old school building that probably would have set back vacant, and we housed it with the best and brightest nonprofits in Detroit.”

She continued: “An Opportunity Hub is a place where individuals can come and get opportunities that they deserve, that they probably otherwise would not have access to.”

The building is home to over 35 organizations, including Nursing Detroit, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Starfish Family Services.

Since it opened, the Durfee Innovation Society has provided 3,400 Detroit students with after-school programming, 5,600 with job opportunities, and 13,400 children and families with resources and support. 

Ultimately, the organization says, 22,000 Detroiters take part in Durfee’s programs every year.

These numbers represent exciting milestones, but they are also in competition with what Life Remodeled is up against.

According to the organization, 88% of third graders in Detroit read below grade level. 30% of Detroiters can’t access the healthcare they need. And Detroit residents’ median household income is 50% less than suburban residents.

School closures impact low-income communities hardest, with low enrollment rates causing school districts to consolidate resources — and infrastructure.

In 2017, Durfee Elementary School merged with a local high school, and Life Remodeled swooped in to save the space.

“It’s not just community history; It’s personal history for a lot of people,”  Haggins told CBS News in 2024. “What better way to work with the community than to reopen their school building into something that still belongs to them?”

The services available at the hub are free to anyone in the community. Nonprofits housed there pay for their space “at cost,” meaning they only pay what it takes to keep the building up and running.

It’s a model that seems to be working.

“The best part about being involved is seeing the actual change be made,” Charles Spears, the youth alliance president for Durfee Innovation Society, told CBS News. “You know, a lot of people talk about it. But when you get to see first hand, you actually see what is happening. It’s just like, wow, there is literally opportunity for all.”

Now, Life Remodeled is onto their next project: another “opportunity hub” on the east side of Detroit. The new property, formerly Winans Performing Arts Academy, is a 90,000-square-foot space that plans to open in December of 2025.

It’s called Anchor Detroit, and it’s located in the Denby community — an area in which residents “face significant poverty and lack access to opportunities related to educational attainment, job opportunities, and health and wellness resources,” according to a press release from Life Remodeled. 

More than 50,000 square feet of the space will be leased by nonprofit partners, who will bring more after-school youth programs, workforce development initiatives, and health resources to the area...

Anchor Detroit is currently being renovated to prepare for its reopening and will reportedly include a “significant presence” for arts and culture programs. 

Once it opens, Life Remodeled estimates the new space will support 18,000 community members per year.

“This should be a nationwide model for other schools that have closed across the country,” Haggins told CBS News. “I think taking a school building, or any historical building that means something to a community, and repurposing it into something that’s for the community — that’s huge and necessary.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, February 5, 2025

[probablyasocialecologist]

It’s hard to talk about 21st-century economic history without discussing the “China shock”. That is the term often used to describe China’s entrance into the global market, a change that brought rich countries an abundance of cheap goods, but left entire industries and workforces mothballed. DeepSeek may provide a sequel. A little-known Chinese hedge fund has thrown a grenade into the world of artificial intelligence with a large language model that, in effect, matches the market leader, Sam Altman’s OpenAI, at a fraction of the cost. And while OpenAI treats its models’ workings as proprietary, DeepSeek’s R1 wears its technical innards on the outside, making it attractive for developers to use and build on. Things move faster in the AI age; terrifyingly so. Five of the biggest technology stocks geared to AI — chipmaker Nvidia and so-called hyperscalers Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta Platforms — collectively shed almost $750bn of market value before US markets opened on Monday. It could be particularly grim for Nvidia if it proves true that DeepSeek won without the use of its shiniest chips.

27 January 2025

[romaine-arts]

categorizations for mudokons, through the skewed perspective of industrialist society. a collaboration between me and @lair-of-the-white-worm

SCRUBS Nicknames: Workforce (formal), Cattle (derogatory) Scrubs are Mudokon workers that have been industrially bred for factory labour. Due to the artificial breeding process that is preformed on enslaved queens, Scrubs are usually inbred and suffer many deficiencies and mutations as a result, most commonly a lack of feathers. Scrubs are raised to never know of their mothers, nor their enslavement, and are forced into manual labour the moment they are capable of lifting. A diet of processed foods, lack of vitamins, and horrible working conditions usually results in incredibly poor posture, joint pains, breathing problems, oral health issues, etcetera. Scrubs are fed propaganda to believe these health problems are entirely normal for their species. A Scrub's lifespan is approximately 40 years due to poor health and addictions to alcohol and nicotine products. Scrubs are considered "rude and stupid" by Mudokons that grow up in more urban environments. Scrubs are mass-produced and typically undergo artificial de-sexing processes to ensure that they remain workers (i.e. won't immediately undergo drone development if exposed to sexuality) while under "employment". Scrubs make up an uncomfortable majority of the Mudokon population in midwest Mudos.

CRIMPS Nicknames: Show-muds (offensive) Crimps are Mudokon workers that have been cosmetically altered by Vykkers to be more aesthetically pleasing. Mostly found in the servitude of high-class industrial elites, Crimps are likely to be seen taking on the role of butlers, maids, or other forms of personal servant. While Scrubs may undergo a de-sexing process, Crimps undergo complete chemical castration and are completely incapable of ever developing further. This castration process also ensures Crimps remain youthful and will never be able to develop beyond their worker physique, even if exposed directly to sexuality. Due to Glukkons finding Mudokon pinky fingers and pinky toes unsightly, Crimps have them surgically removed to appear more kempt and clean to their masters and mistresses. They will also have their two remaining toes grafted together in order to fit their feet into more fashionable shoes, or simply to walk more elegantly. Other plastic surgeries Crimps can be seen with are lip fillers, face-lifts, brow-lifts, chin augmentations, and boob jobs (Mudokon workers cannot grow breasts naturally unless they are future queens. As Crimps are completely castrated, any seen with breasts have had them applied surgically or chemically). Crimps will commonly get their natural feathers plucked (if they have any) and undergo transplants to have a fuller, thicker, artificial head of unnaturally coloured feathers. In more urban areas, modelling photos of Mudokon Crimps will be put on posters to serve as an example of what a "high class" Mudokon looks like.

CORRECTIVES Nicknames: Rekties (informal) Mudokon workers born in the wild and captured for enslavement are known as Correctives. Corrective workers are seen as feral, wild animals that need to be tamed and trained in order to serve, hence the necessity of 'Corrective Facilities' from which they get their name. Correctives are captured during military Slig raids on Mudokon villages, from tribes that refuse to relocate or comply to industrial developments. Mudokon workers captured and sent to Corrective facilities seldom ever undergo any form of de-sexing. Also, due to being hatched in the wild naturally, Correctives are not born with pre-existing medical conditions, and only risk developing them overtime if exposed to harmful environments. These factors are advertised by the sales representatives of Corrective facilities. They do, however, undergo immense abuses such as whipping, branding, beating, and degradation in order to "correct" things such as their posture and attitude in order to appear more "proper". Their use of the Mudokon language, culture and traditions is beaten out of them. It's commonplace for enslaved Mudokon queens to be sourced from these Corrective facilities, as the captured Mudokons are not de-sexed and are left intact. Due to this, female Correctives are highly desirable and go for a high price. Correctives in these facilities are brainwashed into a distaste for the native Mudokon tribes and a warped hatred for Mudokon Scrubs in factory environments. Correctives that comply with orders will be forced into whipping and beating other Mudokon Correctives. Despite the grueling process of "civilizing" Mudokon correctives, aside from the underground trade of developing Mudokon queens, purchasing a Corrective otherwise is seen purely as a status symbol. The sheer amount of resources that go into training a 'decent' servant from a corrective is often seen as a waste of moolah, with the advent of industrial queen programs. Very few Corrective Facilities still exist, as their products and services are seen as obsolete.

NATIVES Nicknames: Bush-Muds (offensive/derogatory), wild (informal) Native Mudokon workers in their natural environment are living in their element. In Mudokon tribes, workers serve as the main providers of all those within them. While Drones live to closely protect and breed with their Queen, the native Worker Mudokons act as farmers, fishermen, builders, shamans, and soldiers. In the wild, Mudokons live off a natural diet of fruits, vegetables, insects, fish, and occasionally Meep, though fruits make up the vast majority of their diet. They give the natives the nutrients they need to serve their tribes. Mudokon worker feathers are naturally quite beautiful. While not as dense as Drone feathers or Queen feathers, native worker feathers are a sight to behold and even serve to accessorize various regalia that they wear during ceremonies. Queens/”female” Mudokons have dull grey feathers, while developing drones will have more vibrant feathers in order to put on displays for their queens. Native Mudokons are very spiritual and connected with the land. They have immense respect for the world around them and live incredibly humbly, usually near rivers or dense forests depending on the tribe. Due to industrial development and oppression, most Mudokon tribes in the east and Midwest of Mudos live in hiding. In the wild, Mudokon workers can live up to 100 years (or longer if they choose to become a Shaman). Mudokon Workers that become Shamans take a vow of celibacy, and will not develop into drones or queens.

[tangentiallly]

One way to spot patterns is to show AI models millions of labelled examples. This method requires humans to painstakingly label all this data so they can be analysed by computers. Without them, the algorithms that underpin self-driving cars or facial recognition remain blind. They cannot learn patterns.

The algorithms built in this way now augment or stand in for human judgement in areas as varied as medicine, criminal justice, social welfare and mortgage and loan decisions. Generative AI, the latest iteration of AI software, can create words, code and images. This has transformed them into creative assistants, helping teachers, financial advisers, lawyers, artists and programmers to co-create original works.

To build AI, Silicon Valley’s most illustrious companies are fighting over the limited talent of computer scientists in their backyard, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a newly minted Ph.D. But to train and deploy them using real-world data, these same companies have turned to the likes of Sama, and their veritable armies of low-wage workers with basic digital literacy, but no stable employment.

Sama isn’t the only service of its kind globally. Start-ups such as Scale AI, Appen, Hive Micro, iMerit and Mighty AI (now owned by Uber), and more traditional IT companies such as Accenture and Wipro are all part of this growing industry estimated to be worth $17bn by 2030.

Because of the sheer volume of data that AI companies need to be labelled, most start-ups outsource their services to lower-income countries where hundreds of workers like Ian and Benja are paid to sift and interpret data that trains AI systems.

Displaced Syrian doctors train medical software that helps diagnose prostate cancer in Britain. Out-of-work college graduates in recession-hit Venezuela categorize fashion products for e-commerce sites. Impoverished women in Kolkata’s Metiabruz, a poor Muslim neighbourhood, have labelled voice clips for Amazon’s Echo speaker. Their work couches a badly kept secret about so-called artificial intelligence systems – that the technology does not ‘learn’ independently, and it needs humans, millions of them, to power it. Data workers are the invaluable human links in the global AI supply chain.

This workforce is largely fragmented, and made up of the most precarious workers in society: disadvantaged youth, women with dependents, minorities, migrants and refugees. The stated goal of AI companies and the outsourcers they work with is to include these communities in the digital revolution, giving them stable and ethical employment despite their precarity. Yet, as I came to discover, data workers are as precarious as factory workers, their labour is largely ghost work and they remain an undervalued bedrock of the AI industry.

As this community emerges from the shadows, journalists and academics are beginning to understand how these globally dispersed workers impact our daily lives: the wildly popular content generated by AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the content we scroll through on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, the items we browse when shopping online, the vehicles we drive, even the food we eat, it’s all sorted, labelled and categorized with the help of data workers.

Milagros Miceli, an Argentinian researcher based in Berlin, studies the ethnography of data work in the developing world. When she started out, she couldn’t find anything about the lived experience of AI labourers, nothing about who these people actually were and what their work was like. ‘As a sociologist, I felt it was a big gap,’ she says. ‘There are few who are putting a face to those people: who are they and how do they do their jobs, what do their work practices involve? And what are the labour conditions that they are subject to?’

Miceli was right – it was hard to find a company that would allow me access to its data labourers with minimal interference. Secrecy is often written into their contracts in the form of non-disclosure agreements that forbid direct contact with clients and public disclosure of clients’ names. This is usually imposed by clients rather than the outsourcing companies. For instance, Facebook-owner Meta, who is a client of Sama, asks workers to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Often, workers may not even know who their client is, what type of algorithmic system they are working on, or what their counterparts in other parts of the world are paid for the same job.

The arrangements of a company like Sama – low wages, secrecy, extraction of labour from vulnerable communities – is veered towards inequality. After all, this is ultimately affordable labour. Providing employment to minorities and slum youth may be empowering and uplifting to a point, but these workers are also comparatively inexpensive, with almost no relative bargaining power, leverage or resources to rebel.

Even the objective of data-labelling work felt extractive: it trains AI systems, which will eventually replace the very humans doing the training. But of the dozens of workers I spoke to over the course of two years, not one was aware of the implications of training their replacements, that they were being paid to hasten their own obsolescence.

— Madhumita Murgia, Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

[cleoselene]

Sharing this on behalf of a Marine Biologist friend, not my words.

Tumblr loves sea creatures, and this is important. Have a cool pic of an octopus before digging into this big post from someone who is in the trenches (but not the really deep ones like the Mariana):

"Hi all! I have a personal request for everyone!

I need you to write a letter/email. Please write your congressional representative in support of the value that your state (or state(s) you love) Sea Grant Program means to you personally. Please send a copy of your email/letter to your state Sea Grant director as well. I can tell you for a fact that these messages are critically important and do in fact make a difference.

If you do not want to write your representatives, please still write your Sea Grant directors.

Unsure about what/who the Sea Grant Programs are? The Sea Grant Programs were created specifically to connect science between local, state, and national needs. Sea Grants make sure up-to-date science is informing decisions made in our home states and regions. Each of the State programs conducts marine and coastal research, education, and outreach tailored to their regional needs. If you’ve ever been to the beach and seen rip current education signs, seen disaster readiness material, enjoyed a coastal natural area, enjoyed fishing, ate local seafood, have a military installation near you, and much more, you’ve been positively impacted by your state’s Sea Grant Program.

Economic Benefits: Sea Grant programs provide direct economic benefits contributing to job creation, industry resilience, and sustainable economic growth.

• Works with local businesses, tourism operators, and maritime industries to enhance profitability and ensure longevity of businesses.

• Supports jobs in fisheries, marine engineering, coastal construction, and tourism through workforce development, training programs, and fellowships.

• Provides technical assistance to commercial fishers, shipbuilders, and port workers, including development of new and innovative technology that improves entire industries.

Fisheries & Aquaculture: Sea Grant programs support seafood production and sustainable fisheries management to ensure the health of marine ecosystems and economies.

• Offers training on best practices for commercial and recreational fishers.

• Helps reduce bycatch and overfishing through gear modifications and conservation efforts.

• Advances shellfish farming techniques (e.g., oysters, mussels, clams) to boost seafood production while improving water quality.

• Provides resources to help small-scale aquaculture businesses thrive.

• Monitors seafood safety and waterborne diseases to protect public health.

• Conducts research on invasive species like zebra mussels, lionfish, and green crabs; and, develops early detection and removal strategies to prevent ecological and economic harm.

Public Safety & Community Resilience: Coastal communities face unique challenges, from hurricanes and flooding to rising sea levels and water pollution. Sea Grant programs work to keep people safe through risk mitigation, education, and emergency preparedness.

• Helps communities create hurricane evacuation plans and build disaster-resilient infrastructure.

• Provides flood mapping and modeling to predict storm surges and coastal erosion.

• Develops tools like real-time weather alerts and emergency response strategies.

• Monitors pollution levels in oceans, rivers, and lakes to ensure safe drinking water.

• Identifies and mitigates harmful algal blooms (like red tide) that threaten human and marine life.

• Leads efforts to reduce plastic pollution in oceans, including microplastics research.

• Runs community beach cleanups and educational programs on waste reduction.

• Helps coastal communities upgrade ports, harbors, and public infrastructure to withstand extreme weather.

• Promotes nature-based solutions (e.g., living shorelines) to prevent coastal erosion and property damage.

• Partners with local governments to design smarter zoning laws for flood-prone areas.

Military Readiness & National Security: Sea Grant programs help ensure the safety and effectiveness of naval operations, coastal military installations, and maritime security.

Protecting Naval Bases & Infrastructure

• Assists military installations in climate resilience planning to prepare for sea-level rise and extreme weather.

• Works on coastal erosion control to protect bases and training grounds.

• Supports advancements in sonar, remote sensing, and underwater drones for naval and marine research.

• Provides oceanographic data crucial for submarine navigation and surveillance.

Education & Workforce Development: Sea Grant invests in the next generation of scientists, engineers, and marine professionals.

• Supports STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education focused on marine science.

• Provides internships and fellowships for students pursuing marine research careers.

• Runs public engagement programs to promote environmental stewardship.

• Helps local governments understand disaster preparedness, flood management, and coastal zoning laws.

State & Regional Sea Grant Programs

East Coast and Caribbean

• Connecticut Sea Grant – University of Connecticut, Director: Sylvain De Guise (sylvain.deguise@uconn.edu)

• Delaware Sea Grant – University of Delaware Director: Joanna York (jyork@udel.edu)

• Georgia Sea Grant Director: Mark Risse (mrisse@uga.edu)

• Maine Sea Grant – University of Maine, Director: Gayle Zydlewski (gayle.zydlewski@maine.edu)

• Maryland Sea Grant – University of Maryland Director: Fredrika Moser (moser@mdsg.umd.edu)

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sea Grant – Director: Michael Triantafyllou (mt@mit.edu)

• (Massachusetts) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Sea Grant – Director: Matthew Charette (mcharette@whoi.edu)

• New Hampshire Sea Grant – University of New Hampshire Director: Erik Chapman (erik.chapman@unh.edu)

• New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium

• New York Sea Grant – Cornell University & SUNY Director: Rebecca Shuford (rebecca.shuford@stonybrook.edu)

• North Carolina Sea Grant – NC State University Director: Susan White (snwhite3@ncsu.edu)

• Pennsylvania Sea Grant – Director: Sarah Whitney (swhitney@psu.edu)

• Puerto Rico Sea Grant – Director: Ruperto Chaparro Serrano (ruperto.chaparro@upr.edu)

• Rhode Island Sea Grant – University of Rhode Island Director: Tracey Dalton (dalton@uri.edu)

• South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium Director: Susan Lovelace (Susan.Lovelace@scseagrant.org)

• Virginia Sea Grant – Virginia Institute of Marine Science Director: Troy Hartley (thartley@vims.edu)

Great Lakes Region

• Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant – University of Illinois & Purdue University Director: Tomas Höök (thook@purdue.edu)

• Michigan Sea Grant – University of Michigan & Michigan State University Director: Silvia Newell (senewell@umich.edu)

• Minnesota Sea Grant – University of Minnesota Director: John Downing (downing@d.umn.edu)

• New York Sea Grant – Cornell University & SUNY Director: Rebecca Shuford (rebecca.shuford@stonybrook.edu)

• Ohio Sea Grant – Ohio State University Director: Christopher Winslow (winslow.33@osu.edu)

• Pennsylvania Sea Grant – Director: Sarah Whitney (swhitney@psu.edu)

• Wisconsin Sea Grant – University of Wisconsin Director: Christy Remucal (Interim Director) (remucal@wisc.edu)

Gulf of Mexico

• Florida Sea Grant – University of Florida Director: Sherry Larkin (slarkin@ufl.edu)

• Louisiana Sea Grant – Louisiana State University Director: Julie Lively (julieann@lsu.edu)

• Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium Director: LaDon Swann (ladon.swann@usm.edu)

• Texas Sea Grant – Texas A&M University Interim Director: Laura Picariello (lpicariello@tamu.edu)

West Coast and Pacific

• California Sea Grant – Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego Director: Shauna Oh (caseagrant@ucsd.edu)

• University of Southern California Sea Grant – Director: Karla Heidelberg (kheidelb@usc.edu)

• Oregon Sea Grant – Oregon State University Director: Karina Nielsen (karina.nielsen@oregonstate.edu)

• Washington Sea Grant – University of Washington Director: Kate Litle (Interim Director) (kalitle@uw.edu)

• Alaska Sea Grant – University of Alaska Fairbanks Director: Ginny Eckert (ginny.eckert@alaska.edu)

• Hawai‘i Sea Grant – University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Director: Darren Lerner (lerner@hawaii.edu)

• Guam Sea Grant – University of Guam Director: Austin Shelton (shelton@uog.edu)

Please, if you love the sea critters, do this!! You know this website owes so much to the crabs.

[jackied0minguez]

Remote Work Redefined: TopDevz CEO Ashkan Rajaee on the Future of Flexible Business

In a world where remote work has rapidly shifted from a temporary solution to a long-term strategy, TopDevz CEO Ashkan Rajaee is leading by example. Speaking ahead of the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show, Rajaee shared insights on how his company has seamlessly integrated remote operations into its DNA—and why he believes this model isn’t just a passing trend.

A New Kind of Software Solutions

TopDevz isn’t your typical tech firm. Comprising an elite team of software developers, designers, project managers, and quality assurance specialists based in the United States and Canada, the company tackles the unique challenges that conventional off-the-shelf software can’t resolve. Rajaee explains that while standard solutions can cover 80–90% of business needs, the remaining nuances often cause significant inefficiencies. TopDevz fills this gap by offering custom solutions designed to address those critical details, ensuring that their clients achieve peak operational efficiency. With an impressive 96% workforce retention rate and 63% of their business coming through referrals, the company’s model speaks volumes about its effectiveness and employee satisfaction.

Mastering Remote Operations

Long before the global pivot to remote work, TopDevz was already thriving in a fully virtual environment. Rajaee emphasizes that the success of remote operations lies in having the right infrastructure and clear communication channels. “Working remotely isn’t as simple as logging in from home,” he notes. “It demands disciplined processes and a commitment to best practices—elements we’ve honed over the years.” His team’s seamless transition during the pandemic only reinforced the idea that a well-organized remote workforce can outperform traditional office setups.

The Indefinite Future of Remote Work

For TopDevz, remote work isn’t a temporary workaround—it’s the future. Rajaee envisions a business landscape where companies can lower overhead costs while empowering employees to work from anywhere. This flexible model not only drives client satisfaction by reducing expenses but also enriches employees’ lives by allowing them to choose environments that inspire creativity and well-being.

Rajaee even shares a personal touch: his passion for working from a yacht. Equipped with reliable Wi-Fi and satellite services, his unconventional workspace symbolizes the freedom that remote work offers. “If your current job doesn’t support the lifestyle you aspire to, it’s time to consider other opportunities,” he advises. His own journey from renting a yacht to eventually making it part of his regular work life underscores the importance of aligning one’s career with personal values and ambitions.

Empowering the Next Generation of Remote Entrepreneurs

Beyond leading TopDevz, Rajaee is passionate about sharing his remote work philosophy. Through his “RemotePreneur” initiative, he provides aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals with a playbook for building successful remote companies. This resource addresses the nuanced challenges of remote business management—from overcoming financial stagnation in traditional roles to confronting the inevitable criticisms that come with venturing off the beaten path. Rajaee’s message is clear: true freedom in work comes from rethinking established norms and embracing the possibilities that remote operations can offer.

Embracing a New Era

As businesses around the globe continue to navigate the evolving work landscape, Ashkan Rajaee’s vision serves as a powerful reminder that remote work, when executed with precision and passion, can unlock unprecedented opportunities. His leadership at TopDevz demonstrates that with the right approach, remote operations can not only sustain but also drive innovation, employee satisfaction, and overall business growth.

In a time when flexibility and adaptability are more important than ever, Rajaee’s insights offer a compelling roadmap for companies eager to thrive in a remote-first world.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

Hot take

The US government would do more good for our economy by instead of putting tariffs on individual products if they put a tariff on outsourced labor.

Large companies are cutting costs my outsourcing their labor to countries that provide the same skilled workforce for a lower price (like India), and it's not only causing a lack of employment opportunities here. It's causing employees in the US to lose their jobs as companies try to cut costs by moving their business overseas.

In 2025, with inflationary pressures and rising labor costs in developed economies, outsourcing to India offers a financially viable solution.

Spoiler alert. Labor costs are rising because the cost of living is rising, and it's getting harder than ever for skilled workers to pay the bills because instead of paying them for the job they trained for, you're moving operations of skilled labor over seas where you don't have to pay the inflation rates.

(I'm not shitting on the Indian workforce in any way. I am shitting on companies that are outsourcing our jobs and their [the company's] shitty business models that includes training employees for 6 months on something that we'd usually require a college degree for and high turnover rates.)

Force companies to keep their skilled labor jobs in the country or drive them out so they're not competing with small companies that would actually hire American labor out of business.

-fae

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

By Vijay Kumar Malesu

In a recent pre-print study posted to bioRxiv*, a team of researchers investigated the predictive role of gut microbiome composition during acute Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the development of Long Coronavirus Disease (Long COVID) (LC) and its association with clinical variables and symptom clusters.

Background LC affects 10–30% of non-hospitalized individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2, leading to significant morbidity, workforce loss, and an economic impact of $3.7 trillion in the United States (U.S.).

Symptoms span cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, cognitive, and neurological issues, resembling myalgic encephalomyelitis and other post-infectious syndromes. Proposed mechanisms include immune dysregulation, neuroinflammation, viral persistence, and coagulation abnormalities, with emerging evidence implicating the gut microbiome in LC pathogenesis.

Current studies focus on hospitalized patients, limiting generalizability to milder cases. Further research is needed to explore microbiome-driven predictors in outpatient populations, enabling targeted diagnostics and therapies for LC’s heterogeneous and complex presentation.

About the study The study was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board and recruited adults aged 18 years or older who underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing at Mayo Clinic locations in Minnesota, Florida, and Arizona from October 2020 to September 2021. Participants were identified through electronic health record (EHR) reviews filtered by SARS-CoV-2 testing schedules.

Eligible individuals were contacted via email, and informed consent was obtained. Of the 1,061 participants initially recruited, 242 were excluded due to incomplete data, failed sequencing, or other issues. The final cohort included 799 participants (380 SARS-CoV-2-positive and 419 SARS-CoV-2-negative), providing 947 stool samples.

Stool samples were collected at two-time points: weeks 0–2 and weeks 3–5 after testing. Samples were shipped in frozen gel packs via overnight courier and stored at −80°C for downstream analyses. Microbial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted using Qiagen kits, and metagenomic sequencing was performed targeting 8 million reads per sample.

Taxonomic profiling was conducted using Kraken2, and functional profiling was performed using the Human Microbiome Project Unified Metabolic Analysis Network (HUMAnN3).

Stool calprotectin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) was detected using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).

Clinical data, including demographics, comorbidities, medications, and symptom persistence, were extracted from EHRs.

Machine learning models incorporating microbiome and clinical data were utilized to predict LC and to identify symptom clusters, providing valuable insights into the heterogeneity of the condition.

Study results The study analyzed 947 stool samples collected from 799 participants, including 380 SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals and 419 negative controls. Of the SARS-CoV-2-positive group, 80 patients developed LC during a one-year follow-up period.

Participants were categorized into three groups for analysis: LC, non-LC (SARS-CoV-2-positive without LC), and SARS-CoV-2-negative. Baseline characteristics revealed significant differences between these groups. LC participants were predominantly female and had more baseline comorbidities compared to non-LC participants.

The SARS-CoV-2-negative group was older, with higher antibiotic use and vaccination rates. These variables were adjusted for in subsequent analyses.

During acute infection, gut microbiome diversity differed significantly between groups. Alpha diversity was lower in SARS-CoV-2-positive participants (LC and non-LC) than in SARS-CoV-2-negative participants.

Beta diversity analyses revealed distinct microbial compositions among the groups, with LC patients exhibiting unique microbiome profiles during acute infection.

Specific bacterial taxa, including Faecalimonas and Blautia, were enriched in LC patients, while other taxa were predominant in non-LC and negative participants. These findings indicate that gut microbiome composition during acute infection is a potential predictor for LC.

Temporal analysis of gut microbiome changes between the acute and post-acute phases revealed significant individual variability but no cohort-level differences, suggesting that temporal changes do not contribute to LC development.

However, machine learning models demonstrated that microbiome data during acute infection, when combined with clinical variables, predicted LC with high accuracy. Microbial predictors, including species from the Lachnospiraceae family, significantly influenced model performance.

Symptom analysis revealed that LC encompasses heterogeneous clinical presentations. Fatigue was the most prevalent symptom, followed by dyspnea and cough.

Cluster analysis identified four LC subphenotypes based on symptom co-occurrence: gastrointestinal and sensory, musculoskeletal and neuropsychiatric, cardiopulmonary, and fatigue-only.

Each cluster exhibited unique microbial associations, with the gastrointestinal and sensory clusters showing the most pronounced microbial alterations. Notably, taxa such as those from Lachnospiraceae and Erysipelotrichaceae families were significantly enriched in this cluster.

Conclusions To summarize, this study demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals who later developed LC exhibited distinct gut microbiome profiles during acute infection. While prior research has linked the gut microbiome to COVID-19 outcomes, few studies have explored its predictive potential for LC, particularly in outpatient cohorts.

Using machine learning models, including artificial neural networks and logistic regression, this study found that microbiome data alone predicted LC more accurately than clinical variables, such as disease severity, sex, and vaccination status.

Key microbial contributors included species from the Lachnospiraceae family, such as Eubacterium and Agathobacter, and Prevotella spp. These findings highlight the gut microbiome’s potential as a diagnostic tool for identifying LC risk, enabling personalized interventions.

*Important notice: bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

Journal reference: Preliminary scientific report. Isin Y. Comba, Ruben A. T. Mars, Lu Yang, et al. (2024) Gut Microbiome Signatures During Acute Infection Predict Long COVID, bioRxiv. doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.10.626852. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.10.626852v1.full

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A link-clump demands a linkdump

Cometh the weekend, cometh the linkdump. My daily-ish newsletter includes a section called "Hey look at this," with three short links per day, but sometimes those links get backed up and I need to clean house. Here's the eight previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

The country code top level domain (ccTLD) for the Caribbean island nation of Anguilla is .ai, and that's turned into millions of dollars worth of royalties as "entrepreneurs" scramble to sprinkle some buzzword-compliant AI stuff on their businesses in the most superficial way possible:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/08/ai-fever-turns-anguillas-ai-domain-into-a-digital-gold-mine/

All told, .ai domain royalties will account for about ten percent of the country's GDP.

It's actually kind of nice to see Anguilla finding some internet money at long last. Back in the 1990s, when I was a freelance web developer, I got hired to work on the investor website for a publicly traded internet casino based in Anguilla that was a scammy disaster in every conceivable way. The company had been conceived of by people who inherited a modestly successful chain of print-shops and decided to diversify by buying a dormant penny mining stock and relaunching it as an online casino.

But of course, online casinos were illegal nearly everywhere. Not in Anguilla – or at least, that's what the founders told us – which is why they located their servers there, despite the lack of broadband or, indeed, reliable electricity at their data-center. At a certain point, the whole thing started to whiff of a stock swindle, a pump-and-dump where they'd sell off shares in that ex-mining stock to people who knew even less about the internet than they did and skedaddle. I got out, and lost track of them, and a search for their names and business today turns up nothing so I assume that it flamed out before it could ruin any retail investors' lives.

Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory, one of those former British colonies that was drained and then given "independence" by paternalistic imperial administrators half a world away. The country's main industries are tourism and "finance" – which is to say, it's a pearl in the globe-spanning necklace of tax- and corporate-crime-havens the UK established around the world so its most vicious criminals – the hereditary aristocracy – can continue to use Britain's roads and exploit its educated workforce without paying any taxes.

This is the "finance curse," and there are tiny, struggling nations all around the world that live under it. Nick Shaxson dubbed them "Treasure Islands" in his outstanding book of the same name:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780230341722/treasureislands

I can't imagine that the AI bubble will last forever – anything that can't go on forever eventually stops – and when it does, those .ai domain royalties will dry up. But until then, I salute Anguilla, which has at last found the internet riches that I played a small part in bringing to it in the previous century.

The AI bubble is indeed overdue for a popping, but while the market remains gripped by irrational exuberance, there's lots of weird stuff happening around the edges. Take Inject My PDF, which embeds repeating blocks of invisible text into your resume:

https://kai-greshake.de/posts/inject-my-pdf/

The text is tuned to make resume-sorting Large Language Models identify you as the ideal candidate for the job. It'll even trick the summarizer function into spitting out text that does not appear in any human-readable form on your CV.

Embedding weird stuff into resumes is a hacker tradition. I first encountered it at the Chaos Communications Congress in 2012, when Ang Cui used it as an example in his stellar "Print Me If You Dare" talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njVv7J2azY8

Cui figured out that one way to update the software of a printer was to embed an invisible Postscript instruction in a document that basically said, "everything after this is a firmware update." Then he came up with 100 lines of perl that he hid in documents with names like cv.pdf that would flash the printer when they ran, causing it to probe your LAN for vulnerable PCs and take them over, opening a reverse-shell to his command-and-control server in the cloud. Compromised printers would then refuse to apply future updates from their owners, but would pretend to install them and even update their version numbers to give verisimilitude to the ruse. The only way to exorcise these haunted printers was to send 'em to the landfill. Good times!

Printers are still a dumpster fire, and it's not solely about the intrinsic difficulty of computer security. After all, printer manufacturers have devoted enormous resources to hardening their products against their owners, making it progressively harder to use third-party ink. They're super perverse about it, too – they send "security updates" to your printer that update the printer's security against you – run these updates and your printer downgrades itself by refusing to use the ink you chose for it:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

It's a reminder that what a monopolist thinks of as "security" isn't what you think of as security. Oftentimes, their security is antithetical to your security. That was the case with Web Environment Integrity, a plan by Google to make your phone rat you out to advertisers' servers, revealing any adblocking modifications you might have installed so that ad-serving companies could refuse to talk to you:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/02/self-incrimination/#wei-bai-bai

WEI is now dead, thanks to a lot of hueing and crying by people like us:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/02/google_abandons_web_environment_integrity/

But the dream of securing Google against its own users lives on. Youtube has embarked on an aggressive campaign of refusing to show videos to people running ad-blockers, triggering an arms-race of ad-blocker-blockers and ad-blocker-blocker-blockers:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-will-the-ad-versus-ad-blocker-arms-race-end/

The folks behind Ublock Origin are racing to keep up with Google's engineers' countermeasures, and there's a single-serving website called "Is uBlock Origin updated to the last Anti-Adblocker YouTube script?" that will give you a realtime, one-word status update:

https://drhyperion451.github.io/does-uBO-bypass-yt/

One in four web users has an ad-blocker, a stat that Doc Searls pithily summarizes as "the biggest boycott in world history":

https://doc.searls.com/2015/09/28/beyond-ad-blocking-the-biggest-boycott-in-human-history/

Zero app users have ad-blockers. That's not because ad-blocking an app is harder than ad-blocking the web – it's because reverse-engineering an app triggers liability under IP laws like Section 1201 of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which can put you away for 5 years for a first offense. That's what I mean when I say that "IP is anything that lets a company control its customers, critics or competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

I predicted that apps would open up all kinds of opportunities for abusive, monopolistic conduct back in 2010, and I'm experiencing a mix of sadness and smugness (I assume there's a German word for this emotion) at being so thoroughly vindicated by history:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/04/01/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either/

The more control a company can exert over its customers, the worse it will be tempted to treat them. These systems of control shift the balance of power within companies, making it harder for internal factions that defend product quality and customer interests to win against the enshittifiers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

The result has been a Great Enshittening, with platforms of all description shifting value from their customers and users to their shareholders, making everything palpably worse. The only bright side is that this has created the political will to do something about it, sparking a wave of bold, muscular antitrust action all over the world.

The Google antitrust case is certainly the most important corporate lawsuit of the century (so far), but Judge Amit Mehta's deference to Google's demands for secrecy has kept the case out of the headlines. I mean, Sam Bankman-Fried is a psychopathic thief, but even so, his trial does not deserve its vastly greater prominence, though, if you haven't heard yet, he's been convicted and will face decades in prison after he exhausts his appeals:

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/sam-bankman-fried-guilty-on-all-charges

The secrecy around Google's trial has relaxed somewhat, and the trickle of revelations emerging from the cracks in the courthouse are fascinating. For the first time, we're able to get a concrete sense of which queries are the most lucrative for Google:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/1/23941766/google-antitrust-trial-search-queries-ad-money

The list comes from 2018, but it's still wild. As David Pierce writes in The Verge, the top twenty includes three iPhone-related terms, five insurance queries, and the rest are overshadowed by searches for customer service info for monopolistic services like Xfinity, Uber and Hulu.

All-in-all, we're living through a hell of a moment for piercing the corporate veil. Maybe it's the problem of maintaining secrecy within large companies, or maybe the the rampant mistreatment of even senior executives has led to more leaks and whistleblowing. Either way, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the anonymous leaker who revealed the unbelievable pettiness of former HBO president of programming Casey Bloys, who ordered his underlings to create an army of sock-puppet Twitter accounts to harass TV and movie critics who panned HBO's shows:

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/hbo-casey-bloys-secret-twitter-trolls-tv-critics-leaked-texts-lawsuit-the-idol-1234867722/

These trolling attempts were pathetic, even by the standards of thick-fingered corporate execs. Like, accusing critics who panned the shitty-ass Perry Mason reboot of disrespecting veterans because the fictional Mason's back-story had him storming the beach on D-Day.

The pushback against corporate bullying is everywhere, and of course, the vanguard is the labor movement. Did you hear that the UAW won their strike against the auto-makers, scoring raises for all workers based on the increases in the companies' CEO pay? The UAW isn't done, either! Their incredible new leader, Shawn Fain, has called for a general strike in 2028:

https://www.404media.co/uaw-calls-on-workers-to-line-up-massive-general-strike-for-2028-to-defeat-billionaire-class/

The massive victory for unionized auto-workers has thrown a spotlight on the terrible working conditions and pay for workers at Tesla, a criminal company that has no compunctions about violating labor law to prevent its workers from exercising their legal rights. Over in Sweden, union workers are teaching Tesla a lesson. After the company tried its illegal union-busting playbook on Tesla service centers, the unionized dock-workers issued an ultimatum: respect your workers or face a blockade at Sweden's ports that would block any Tesla from being unloaded into the EU's fifth largest Tesla market:

https://www.wired.com/story/tesla-sweden-strike/

Of course, the real solution to Teslas – and every other kind of car – is to redesign our cities for public transit, walking and cycling, making cars the exception for deliveries, accessibility and other necessities. Transitioning to EVs will make a big dent in the climate emergency, but it won't make our streets any safer – and they keep getting deadlier.

Last summer, my dear old pal Ted Kulczycky got in touch with me to tell me that Talking Heads were going to be all present in public for the first time since the band's breakup, as part of the debut of the newly remastered print of Stop Making Sense, the greatest concert movie of all time. Even better, the show would be in Toronto, my hometown, where Ted and I went to high-school together, at TIFF.

Ted is the only person I know who is more obsessed with Talking Heads than I am, and he started working on tickets for the show while I starting pricing plane tickets. And then, the unthinkable happened: Ted's wife, Serah, got in touch to say that Ted had been run over by a car while getting off of a streetcar, that he was severely injured, and would require multiple surgeries.

But this was Ted, so of course he was still planning to see the show. And he did, getting a day-pass from the hospital and showing up looking like someone from a Kids In The Hall sketch who'd been made up to look like someone who'd been run over by a car:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53182440282/

In his Globe and Mail article about Ted's experience, Brad Wheeler describes how the whole hospital rallied around Ted to make it possible for him to get to the movie:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/article-how-a-talking-heads-superfan-found-healing-with-the-concert-film-stop/

He also mentions that Ted is working on a book and podcast about Stop Making Sense. I visited Ted in the hospital the day after the gig and we talked about the book and it sounds amazing. Also? The movie was incredible. See it in Imax.

That heartwarming tale of healing through big suits is a pretty good place to wrap up this linkdump, but I want to call your attention to just one more thing before I go: Robin Sloan's Snarkmarket piece about blogging and "stock and flow":

https://snarkmarket.com/2010/4890/

Sloan makes the excellent case that for writers, having a "flow" of short, quick posts builds the audience for a "stock" of longer, more synthetic pieces like books. This has certainly been my experience, but I think it's only part of the story – there are good, non-mercenary reasons for writers to do a lot of "flow." As I wrote in my 2021 essay, "The Memex Method," turning your commonplace book into a database – AKA "blogging" – makes you write better notes to yourself because you know others will see them:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

This, in turn, creates a supersaturated, subconscious solution of fragments that are just waiting to nucleate and crystallize into full-blown novels and nonfiction books and other "stock." That's how I came out of lockdown with nine new books. The next one is The Lost Cause, a hopepunk science fiction novel about the climate whose early fans include Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit, Bill McKibben and Kim Stanley Robinson. It's out on November 14:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/05/variegated/#nein

[reasonsforhope]

"New York is marking the early achievement of its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act statutory goal a year ahead of schedule, announcing that 6 gigawatts (GW) of distributed solar have been installed across the state, enough to power more than one million homes.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) president and CEO Doreen M. Harris broke the news onsite at a distributed solar project in New Scotland, NY today. The project, developed by New Leaf Energy and owned by Generate Capital, participates in the state’s Solar for All pilot program with utility partner National Grid, meaning its generation benefits low-income households. The site’s 5.7 MW solar array will generate 6.7 million kilowatt-hours of solar energy annually, powering about one thousand homes.

“New York State has provided a replicable model for others to deliver clean, low-cost renewable energy to more consumers,” asserted Harris. “Our public-private partnerships are the catalysts which have helped us to achieve our 6-GW goal well ahead of target, trailblazing New York’s path to an equitable energy transition.”

Governor Kathy Hochul says this achievement brings New York one step closer to a reliable, resilient, zero-emission grid. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act contains goals to generate 70% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040.

“Distributed solar is at the heart of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, expanding the availability of renewable energy, and delivering substantial benefits for our health, our environment, and our economy,” Hochul added.

New York achieving its distributed solar goal of 6 GW has generated approximately $9.2 billion in private investment across the state, according to NYSERDA, creating more than 14,000 solar jobs from engineering to installation. Three years ago, Governor Hochul directed to expand the goal to 10 GW by 2030.

“While we’re incredibly proud of the work and partnerships that have led to this achievement, we’re more excited that it can be repeated and multiplied. With the State’s continued leadership, we’re confident we can get to 10 GW and beyond,” predicts New Leaf Energy director of policy and business development Sam Jasinsk.

The state says it has another 3.4 GW of distributed solar projects already in development, making a 10 GW goal quite feasible.

“Customers and consumers are asking for access to clean energy, and New York state is listening,” Generate Capital Investments managing director Peggy Flannery said. Generate Capital operates 69 projects and counting in New York.

In 2023, New York installed more community solar capacity than any other state. Last year was also the state’s most productive year ever for solar installations, with 885 MW of capacity installed.

In April, NYSERDA was selected to receive nearly $250 million from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Solar for All program to enhance New York State’s existing portfolio of solar deployment, technical assistance, and workforce development programs for the benefit of over 6.8 million residents that live in low-income households and disadvantaged communities. As part of the grant funding, the New York State Housing and Community Renewal, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and New York City Housing Preservation and Development, will implement new programs that target specific barriers to solar deployment for this population."

-via Renewable Energy World, October 17, 2024

[probablyasocialecologist]

The most absurd and tragic results of this fetishizing of what were taken to be advanced farming methods occurred in the Soviet Union, where giant model farms were newly laid out for mechanized production before a trained workforce had been developed and before a proper storage-and-transport infrastructure had been installed to support the use of the expensive machinery. In the maturing Marxist-Leninist version of socialist construction, nature was regarded as an utterly passive and infinitely malleable substrate for industrialized agriculture. Because the proper treatment and improvement of the land was not regarded as an important step, let alone a priority, Soviet agriculture attained notoriously low productivity levels per unit of land area (even on some of the world's most excellent soils), coupled with an astonishingly bad record in soil erosion. The response in the mid-1970s was to import grain on a large scale while investing even more heavily in the further industrialization of agricultural-production processes. The result was increased output purchased at a much more than proportional increase in capital costs. The inefficient use of resources in Soviet farming was substantially due, of course, to its overly centralized, command-from-above style of social organization. Experimental systems employing mobile brigades of workers were tried out in the early seventies but were soon politically quashed. They were revived more recently and might eventually have altered the poor labour productivity in Soviet agriculture if they had been given a proper chance. Their environmental impact was quite uncertain, however, although it seems unlikely that it could have been worse.

Colin A. M. Duncan, The Centrality of Agriculture: Between Humankind and the Rest of Nature

[twistedpink]

You called. I answered.

Let me get you details.

I'm tend to dress more elegant as a woman than those around me (no dresses or skirts though). One could say I have a recognizable sense of style that looks normal but no one else (I know) matches the detail I take or the effort I put in so I always end up looking very put together. I don't really care too much about how I'm perceived (I'm comfortable) as I'm glad to have people who want to be around me and won't be intimidated. I know I can make people insecure and that makes me sad as I just want to make people smile and feel safe to be themselves. My appearance (facial and body) seems to be another source of insecurity for many as I look very "model, queen, read-my-soul and step-on-me" (friends words not mine! I'm trying to avoid doing physical features but get the points people notice about me upfront across). I tend to draw attention just be entering a room. Think romance drama where everyone looks at the girl when she walks in (frankly I find it embarrassing, but detail is important)

I'm an INFJ; 5w4; with a heavy heart for those in need, or those who just need a space to be them with no judgement. I often create space for those who overwork and love their jobs but don't rest, are beaten by the world/society, or just need a space to breathe naturally. I frequent cozy coffee/tea shops with my laptop to write with a cup of tea, and prefer the company of books and turning pages to loud bars and clubs. I'm a avid reader and enjoy gaining knowledge about pretty much any topic, though even I have my fixations: analyzing situations and characters; making scenarios for my writings; chatting about situations and giving advice if wanted. I am an analyzer with a soft heart and I'm known for my therapist mindset.

I will be social on ocassion and put in the effort to have a good time, but I will be honest. I have a small social battery and prefer one-on-one chats to groups of friends going to a bowling alley. My body tells on me with looking tired despite how I try lol.

I tend to read people well and see that they're struggling deeply, or the opposite, they're on cloud nine. Kinda a sixth sense that been with me all my life and has saved my life and other's on several occasions where we were in dangerous situations (robbery, harassment, kidnapping I could name more...). People also tend to share with me more freely and let their guards down. Banter is my middle name and twisted high stake teasing is my game. You wanna do mind games I will play and enjoy it (usually to my opponents shock lol). Finding a fellow intellectual and aware person (to my understanding) is a special treat for me and I tend to develope a bond (on my end, can't say how they feel) with these rare few, even if we never meet again.

My weaknesses are abandonment, not being good enough and always over looked as my giftings/talents/skills aren't seen as valuable in the workforce. I feel trapped, in a gilded cage to be looked at and admired, but on the inside I'm screaming. All I want is out, to achieve what I reach for between the bars, but I have been cut off from getting there no matter how hard I try. There's always someone else instead of me and I shake my cage in rage internally, but just smile and nod on the outside.

I should add a big part of who I am is based around my health. As I have had to create a life around disorders and diseases, to get creative and learn to say no. I'm aware enough to admit my ability to surpass and push in the workforce is directly related to my health and my inability to match the level of energy or "strength" one needs to be seen as a viable candidate. I am rarely out matched on skills that don't require labor or excessive hours though.

While I can be shy and nervous I will gain confidence quickly and soon one wonders where that passive woman went. I'm very firm in my morals and practice integrity while I live my life with a burning tenacity. I'm not one to bring others down but build up. And I'll go to war for those who have no voice or hope. I'm not for everyone as I march to the beat of my own drum, but I am persistent in my goals and never let go of my purpose.

As for flirting or if I chase a man, I have no qualms with being the initiator. I tend to be hard to approach for most men so I make the first move. I'm picky and won't give just any guy a chance despite being a hopeless romantic that longs to find their one and only. I am a woman who dreams of her soulmate and longs to be his everything and him mine. If a man isn't ready for me, I'll walk and he can watch me leave. Flirting is second nature and I enjoy it, but rarely do the men I try to entice like me back. I'm seen as to much work or requires commitment beyond a phone call if you get my drift. I'm straightforward and don't beat around the bush due to this. Better to just get disappointed before my heart starts skipping. I will chase a man if I like him enough, holding space for someone isn't unfamiliar to me and I'll pine for years (*cough* leading year waiting on a crush count is 8) as I am extremely loyal and persistent. I won't entertain another while chasing. If I do it's just empty flirting.

It's important to note I'd rather have "a mind to play with than a body to mate with" so to speak. While attraction is important, for me, muscles are second to being able to keep up with me and match what I'm serving. Even have me raise the bar if he's brave enough. I like someone to challenge me but also knows I'm something special he won't find another of.

I'm here and I'm ready to play....

LOWKEY???? Deuce, Jackie, Kalim, Epel, or Silver

[scotianostra]

John Elder, marine engineer and shipbuilder, died on the 17th of September, 1869.

John Elder was a marine engineer and shipbuilder, who developed practical compounding marine engines and conceived the modern integrated shipbuilding yard, basically without his work the shipbuilding yards of the Clyde would not be the same. Elder gave the world major contributions to engineering and shipbuilding:

The practical development of compounding in marine engines. This made long-distance steam shipping both possible and economic, and also improved the economics of shorter-haul steam navigation. It allowed the extension of steam power to cargo liners and tramp ships, and greatly accelerated the substitution of steam for sail in the world's shipping. To this should be added his patent for triple and quadruple expansion marine engines, foreshadowing later 19th century developments.

He initiated the conception of the modern heavy engineering workshop, with overhead gantry cranes developed, as seen in the still-existing Fairfield Engine Works in Govan.

The conception of the modern integrated shipbuilding yard. With only minor alterations the plan of the present Govan Shipyard survives largely as John Elder conceived it. It was the foremost yard on the Clyde until the great liners were built at John Brown's, and has outlasted most, including the builder of the "Queens". As one of BAe Systems' yards, it is still a highly effective production unit, notable for building the largest elements of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers.

At its peak production in 1868-69, the final eighteen months of Elder's life, the Fairfield Yard employed 4,000 people and produced 18 engine sets of 6100 aggregate horsepower and 14 ships of 27,000 aggregate tonnage. Elder had created one of the greatest enterprises of its kind in the world.

Elder was also a model employer of his 4,000 workforce, with a real concern for the well-being of his men and their families. At his funeral, as reported by the Rev. Norman MacLeod "a very army of workmen, dressed like gentlemen, followed his body - column after column. Respectful crowds lined the streets, as if gazing on the burial of a prince; and every one of us .. felt that we had left a friend behind us."

His statue in Elder Park, Govan, erected by public subscription in 1888, carries the inscription: "By his many inventions, particularly in connection with the compound engine, he effected a revolution in engineering second only to that accomplished by James Watt, and in great measure, originated the developments in steam propulsion which have created modern commerce" and: "His unwearied efforts to promote the welfare of the working classes, his integrity of character, firmness of purpose, and kindness of heart, claim, equally with his genius, enduring remembrance".

If you have ever been in The Lord of the Isles Wetherspoon bar in Renfrew, you may have notice some prints and memorabilia of Elder in the pub. Elder Park, Govan is also named in his honour, you will also see the statue there.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s native seed collector networks drive wider social change, study finds

Brazil’s native seed collector networks supply hundreds of tons of seeds critical to forest restoration across the country’s many ecosystems. From the Amazon’s lush rainforests in the north to the shrinking Atlantic Forest along the coast, the networks are a lifeline not only for degraded landscapes, but also for the people on the frontlines, a recent study found. The networks, researchers say, are reweaving the social fabric of their communities and creating a new model for just and sustainable development.

Researchers surveyed nine major seed networks, out of more than 100 across Brazil, that collect and sell seeds, largely to meet restoration requirements on private land under environmental laws.

���Without seeds, there is no restoration. It’s that simple,” lead author Aurelio Padovezi, a researcher at the University of Padova, said by phone.

The study found that from 2018-21, the nine networks gathered 180 tons of seeds, generating more than $1 million for about 1,000 collectors. But beyond income, the networks were also found to drive social gains for Indigenous and marginalized communities that make up much of the seed-collecting workforce.

Continue reading.

[shieldfoss]

What benefits of using AI with low-code/no-code platforms do you see?

[ ] I haven’t used AI with low-code/no-code platforms

[ ] AI helps with initial project generation for new products

[ ] AI allows for faster generation of data models, user interfaces, business rules, or other components

[ ] AI acts as a subject matter expert to help generate proper business functionality

[ ] AI reduces requirements for training and knowledge from developers

[ ] AI increases velocity when building integrations with other systems

[ ] AI improves productivity for developers and reduces the workforce needed

[ ] I haven’t observed any benefits from using AI with low-code/no-code platforms

[X] Other, please specify:

Good AI could tell stakeholders to avoid no-code platforms

[onheil-ferguson]

Public comment on AI Exc. Order closes @ end of day 15 March 2025

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

On January 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14179 (Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence) to establish U.S. policy for sustaining and enhancing America's AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security. This Order directs the development of an AI Action Plan to advance America's AI leadership, in a process led by the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, the White House AI and Crypto Czar, and the National Security Advisor.

This Order follows the President's January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14148, revocation of the Biden-Harris AI Executive Order 14110 of October 30, 2023 (Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence), which hampered the private sector's ability to innovate in AI by imposing burdensome government requirements restricting private sector AI development and deployment. The Trump Administration recognizes that with the right government policies, the United States can solidify its position as the leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.

OSTP seeks input on the highest priority policy actions that should be in the new AI Action Plan. Responses can address any relevant AI policy topic, including but not limited to: hardware and chips, data centers, energy consumption and efficiency, model development, open source development, application and use (either in the private sector or by government), explainability and assurance of AI model outputs, cybersecurity, data privacy and security throughout the lifecycle of AI system development and deployment (to include security against AI model attacks), risks, regulation and governance, technical and safety standards, national security and defense, research and development, education and workforce, innovation and competition, intellectual property, procurement, international collaboration, and export controls. Respondents are encouraged to suggest concrete AI policy actions needed to address the topics raised.

Comments received will be taken into consideration in the development of the AI Action Plan.