Fort myers social security office photos

Phone Scams: It happened to us!
A person claiming to be Officer Robert Daniels from Customs and Border Protection contacted a staff member in the IPO office and informed her that she was facing criminal charges in Texas (drug trafficking and identity theft) and that she needed to confirm personal information to verify her identity. The person provided the following information to verify his identity as a CBP officer:
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• Badge #15109
• Telephone #783-503-0955
• Case#

IPO immediately called the UMass Police Department to report the scam. They traced the number to a pay as you go burner phone. Staff also Googled the phone number of the Tuscon, AZ CBP office and confirmed that the phone number was different than the one given by the scammer. When we called the field office, we spoke to an officer who confirmed that they receive phone calls every day about "Officer Robert Daniels" and that it is a scam.
What is was remarkable about this scam is that, when we Googled "CBP 15109", the search results brought us to the Customs and Border Patrol page for Officer Robert Daniels. When we asked about this, the (real) CBP officer confirmed that these scammers are increasingly using sophisticated methods to scam their victims. This scammer was also using high pressure tactics to try to get the staff member's Social Security Number.
Tips to protect yourself from scams (from the UMPD website):
When you get a call from a telemarketer, ask yourself:

• Who’s calling…and why? The law says telemarketers must tell you it’s a sales call, the name of the seller and what they’re selling before they make their pitch. If you don’t hear this information, say “no thanks,” and get off the phone.
• What’s the hurry? Fast talkers who use high pressure tactics could be hiding something. Take your time. Most legitimate businesses will give you time and written information about an offer before asking you to commit to a purchase.
• If it’s free, why are they asking me to pay? Question fees you need to pay to redeem a prize or gift. Free is free. If you have to pay, it's a purchase — not a prize or a gift.
• Why am I “confirming” my account information — or giving it out? Some callers have your billing information before they call you. They’re trying to get you to say “okay” so they can claim you approved a charge.
• What time is it? The law allows telemarketers to call only between 8 am and 9 pm. A seller calling earlier or later is ignoring the law.
• Do I want more calls like this one? If you don’t want a business to call you again, say so and register your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. If they call back, they’re breaking the law.

Some Additional Guidelines

• Resist pressure to make a decision immediately.
• Keep your credit card, checking account, or Social Security numbers to yourself. Don't tell them to callers you don't know — even if they ask you to “confirm” this information. That's a trick.
• Don’t pay for something just because you’ll get a “free gift.”
• Get all information in writing before you agree to buy.
• Check out a charity before you give. Ask how much of your donation actually goes to the charity. Ask the caller to send you written informa­tion so you can make an informed decision without being pressured, rushed, or guilted into it.
• If the offer is an investment, check with your state securities regulator to see if the offer — and the offeror — are properly registered.
• Don’t send cash by messenger, overnight mail, or money transfer. If you use cash or a money transfer — rather than a credit card — you may lose your right to dispute fraudulent charges. The money will be gone.
• Don’t agree to any offer for which you have to pay a “registration” or “shipping” fee to get a prize or a gift.
• Research offers with your consumer protection agency or state Attorney General’s office before you agree to send money.
• Beware of offers to “help” you recover money you have already lost. Callers that say they are law enforcement officers who will help you get your money back “for a fee” are scammers.
• Report any caller who is rude or abusive, even if you already sent them money. They'll want more. Call 1-877-FTC-HELP or visit ftc.gov/complaint.

This scam was sophisticated and used high pressure intimidation tactics! If you suspect you are being scammed, hang up! If you fall victim to a scam, contact the UMPD immediately.
Stay safe, UMass!

In 1996, I began volunteering to help those who had been raped in the Military file claims to get VA benefits. These claims were different than other VA claims since the majority of the Evidence (if any) had been sanitized, and the vast majority of Veteran Service Officers were not trained in how to do these claims correctly.
As much as I disliked veterans and military groups, these were the best venues to find people who needed my services.
I worked closely with Senator Patty Murray's office, and called to see if I could get tickets to the Army Birthday Ball in Washington DC. They said that they were unable to get one for me, and offered other venues to contact to see if I could get one. None were available.
Our local Goodwill has a special day in November called the Glitter Sale. All party dresses and accompanying accoutrement were out for this sale. I carefully spent $19.99 on a long silk beaded gown.
Since I was in D.C. for a Women Veterans conference, I packed that puppy in my suitcase for my off duty adventure.
The conference had some much paperwork, I ended up bringing my suitcase and filled it up. During lunch break, I crafted my "propaganda" as I loved to call it, "Raped in the Military? Do you know you can be compensated for PTSD if you have it? Contact our website."
Others had commented at the conference that they actually wanted to go to the Army Ball, but heard that they entire facility was surrounded by busses and armed guards, and there was absolutely no way to get in. Friends warned me to not even try.
At the end of the day, I put on my "costume" and found out that I needed, unfortunately, to lug my suitcase with me. Not a good look, since security was at an all time high in Washington DC.
I arrived at the venue, saw the wagon train of busses and armed guards, said hello to them and broke the perimeter. I needed to go up the two escalators to the Security Checkpoint, to hand over my ticket, and found it unmanned. Check. Got inside, and while I am no fashionista, I did cringe at the yellow gingham tiered and ruffled dress with bouffant hair, micro miniskirts on 50+year old women and many styles of dress I had seen since the 70's and 80's. To prove that I got in, I had one of the Formal Photos taken, the only one I had in the military since Basic Training.
I continued my mission of placing information to help those who had been sexually assaulted in the phone booths, restrooms and more private areas in the facility filled with about 5,000 men and women.
Once my suitcase was empty, I left via the front door, never to be seen at another Military Birthday Ball.

Hello guys,
Some context: I’m a 50-something dude that has been an Apple user since the early 80s. I’m not a power user. I have never used an android device. I Iike to get the most out out of whatever I buy, so I try to make my gear last.
Among the Apple stuff I own I’m still happily using an iPad Pro 1st Gen 12.9 and the 11 Pro 1st gen 9.7 (from 2015 and early 2016). Both are still working fine and run the latest version of iOS, despite being ~8 year old. But they are getting old, starting too feel a tad too laggy to my taste. Worse, the battery autonomy that had already gotten worse in recent years has now started to drop a lot.
Unsurprisingly, I wanted to replace them with the newer 11 and 12 iPad Pro. But the price... It's more than what I'm willing to spend. Looking for alternatives, I discovered the Samsung S7 family and the newebetter S8 family.
Spec-wise, they look impressive. And I like that the pen is included in the price, what a radical change ;)
The Tab S7 FE is the one I’m most interested in, considering my light usage and its price: drawing (Infinite Painter should be more than capable to replace my dear Procreate), looking at my photos, writing (Google Docs), reading, watching Netflix, YouTube, social apps, listening to podcasts, and stuff like that. I don’t care about the quality of the camera for video or photo (I have dedicated cameras for that) as long as it’s good enough to scan a document.
Alas, as I told you I have no experience with Android itself and I’m lost with its update cycle, and its security updates too. I cannot understand how many years I can hope to be able to use this tablet and have it updated.
What I understand is that most android devices should get three OS versions and that is it, no more OS updates after that? It seems a bit short, but I’m not sure how many years that should do? And then, what about the security updates, do they stop too? If I can only hope to have an updated device say for three or four years that would be a big downside of switching to android, at least for me.
But I may also have it all wrong.
If that’s the case, would anyone be willing to explain in simple terms how it works. Or, at least, how it works for Samsung tablets?
Thx for reading.

Detailing all the little things of the next few weeks would tell you that, all things considered, my life was a rich one, but it would not offer great insight…at least not in things I hadn’t already conveyed in previous observations and experiences, save for one exception, which I will relay next, but after that, the next few weeks of journal entries were labeled as ‘scraps’. I couldn’t bring myself to dispose of them, so in the nonacademic work, ‘The Scraps of My Life’ they can still be found. They however, are not included here, as they detail the more ‘ordinary’ things that were pleasant and charming, but in areas where I had already reached conclusive observations.
This was ‘Michael’s Return’. Before I explain what this entailed, it must be understood that since the end of the Silent Civil war, a lot of things changed, a few years were come and gone, Fauve was no longer under constant guard, and though she would never have a normal life without ‘some’ security…
Humans are flexible, and she’d gotten used to having a security team around within some proximity to her. Unsurprisingly, her relationships with others of a more adult nature were now only with those who also had to deal with having considerable security concerns. The daughter of an admiral, the son of a lawmaker… she seemed in a hurry for a permanent bond, but it was clear that she’d taken a lesson from her time with Halbert.
People who cannot understand your life or your pressures, whatever their character, will never be a good fit. This in the end, is why I have concluded that nepotism becomes the dominant method of governing, over and over again even in their far more egalitarian present.
I wish I could have had more time with my human, of course, but… we do still have coffee at night together sometimes even when she’s traveling. When it comes to humans, you can be together, even when you’re apart, as long as you make the time for it and have a proper network connection.
But I digress. What this departure and shift in her security meant was that Byron and Boatswain were now fixated solely on the security of the Walker house, meaning that their residence was always monitored, but the people themselves were not, unless the trip took someone away for an extended period of time.
Which in Michael’s case meant going to Fort Knox for classes taught by the ‘JSFT’ or the ‘Joint Special Forces Team’.
The brainchild of the human and dlamisa soldiers, a request signed off on by both units through to both chains of command fell on the same day on the desks of both commanding Generals, that the two teams be based together and undergo a series of joint exercises with an eye toward, and I quote, ‘The mutual security of vital trade lanes currently under consideration’.
That was quite a ways away, but I knew the truth. Probably most people involved did. It was an excuse… the humans didn’t want the dlamisa to go, and the dlamisa didn’t want to leave ‘their humans’.
I think we can probably credit Bonny Red for some influence here, as her ‘mass resignation’ remained a blight that would never be washed off, and she probably warned Gaozu that if he tried to force them to leave…they’d quit.
So, conveniently enough, a joint unit was created on an Earth military base that was now part of the community… and which taught children various forms of martial arts.
Since Genghis wasn’t going anywhere, he and Iskandar became part time instructors, and Michael continued to burn off his superabundance of energy in their training hall.
Notably though… despite being what amounted to a ‘star pupil’ to some of the most dangerous people I’d ever met, he still lost.
And yes, I said ‘lost’. He placed second, which means he didn’t actually ‘win’. I have to analyze my own mindset here before relaying the events… my thinking is very ‘Dlamisan’. In my culture, on my homeworld, your only real value is in excellence at your field, your identity is tied to your triumphs and the degree to which knowing you is helpful, dictates your wider influence on others, which means you have ‘currency’ when it comes to asking for or doing favors for others.
To be the expert on humans, the one to rise to the heights of my people’s renown would not only ensure my immortality in our histories, but also would have provided me with broad access to creature comforts and quality of life unrivaled by those mired in mediocrity. To put it another way, if you have to be an apple in a barrel, do you want to be at the top, or at the bottom?
To be the second best at anything was to be ‘lesser’ than someone else.
Or so that had been my thinking… not that many years ago, really. It’s hard to believe, but even having left that behind, it still lingered in the back of my head as some great misfortune that he wasn’t the ‘very top’ and the best of all the others.
Now that my thinking and my inherent bias is out of the way… I turn to his arrival.
I was coming up the stairs to get coffee when Michael burst through the door shouting, “Mom! Dad! I won second place!”
Here is the first distinction. He considered ‘second’ to be a victory. He was thrilled, running into the house and waving a silver trophy around, it was shaped like a closed fist pointed skyward, nice work, really.
“They haven’t gotten back yet!” I shouted from the kitchen as Byron and Boatswain entered after him.
As I worked the old fashioned coffee maker, he followed my voice. “I won second! I won second!” He shouted again as if I hadn’t heard him the first time.
Human young are very loud, especially, I’ve noticed, their young males.
And the happier they are, the louder they tend to be. He rushed into the kitchen and I just barely had time to set my favorite coffee mug down on the countertop before he barrelled into me and squeezed me in a hug. Affection in young humans is heavily focused on interpersonal contact, even more so than that between more mature adults. They actively seek out that contact often, as it helps their brains form more neural connections and improves their overall cognitive function.
Some humans have said, ‘Love makes you stupid’ and…admittedly I’ve seen people make some bizarre decisions over affection. But the general truth is that this ‘love’ emotion in humans actually assists the development of their emotional intelligence that makes them function far more effectively in a social environment.
It doesn’t mean they’ll be better at learning calculus, but it does mean that they’ll be better able to understand how to ask for or offer help when they need assistance in learning it. In short, it’s the foundation of their social reasoning skills.
I returned his gesture and said, “Excellent work!” He squeezed again, he was getting bigger, faster, growing at an impressive rate and was rapidly building the muscle that would one day make him a particularly capable and, with training, dangerous adult human male.
I had to restrain myself from saying, ‘Maybe next time you’ll win first.’
And that was hard to do. This is what people coming to Earth and settling here struggle most with… as human ‘therapists’ began trying to help…albeit somewhat clumsily given the differences in our species, we did encounter one common thing.
Breaking patterns of thought, refraining from saying what was once second nature, is very difficult.
Instead I said, “You did great.” I then looked past him to see Byron and Boatswain walk into the house, it was very different from the old days, when they would have swept the grounds first… but with so many dead that might have once been a threat… they’d earned something closer to a familial existence.
“That he did.” Boatswain agreed, “He’d have taken first too, if not for a bit of bad luck.”
“Meh, it’s not a matter of whether you win or lose, it’s what you learn from either.” Byron offered his pragmatic advice and sat at the table, “Coffee?” He asked.
“Coming up.” I said, and when Boatswain gave me a look, I got two more cups out. “Next time I’ll win first… but second is a good start!” Michael emphasized with determination in his voice.
My conclusion from this, and from my other observations, is that a focus on opportunity and a praise for progress, together with supportive interpersonal contact and a sense of safety and security at home, is the leading indicator of future confidence and success in growing humans.
In short, in my own view, right then…
I was watching a boy prepare to one day become a very great man, and one whom I would take great pride in.
“Can I try some coffee too?” Michael asked, and I furrowed my brow, he was a little young for it but… “I’ll pour some milk, and add a little coffee to it, let’s just start with that, and you can tell me how it all went.” I suggested, and got out another cup to share at the table, which he promptly sat down at, an unspoken agreement to tell me absolutely everything I missed.

“It was a war that should have never, ever started."
The Post Millennial Jun 2, 2023 3 Minute Read
During a Fox News town hall with host Sean Hannity on Thursday evening former President Donald Trump and top GOP presidential contender for 2024 said he could stop the war between Russia and Ukraine “in 24 hours” and would bring inflation down, which he referred to as a killer of empires.
Trump was asked about high inflation, medicare, social security, and the quality of life for seniors.
"Inflation is a killer of countries," Trump said, noting that empires have been routinely taken down throughout history by this scourge. "We could head up very much higher," he said of current inflation rates, and said that he would bring energy costs down as well as interest rates. "Right now our country is a total mess," he said, and said that he would also rebuild the military.
During a commercial break, the crowd went wild with chants of "USA!"
After stating he could turn the country around “in six months,” discussing the Biden family’s shady business dealing and a variety of other topics, Trump told the crowd, “I don't want that war to continue and I'll stop that war, mark my words, I'll stop that war in 24 hours.” The pledge was received with thunderous applause.
Hannity asked how Trump would accomplish that, to which the former president replied, “I know both. And frankly, Zelensky was very good because… he was part of the phone call… he could have gone and grandstanded and said, ‘Well, I felt threatened. I felt threatened.’ He didn't.”
“I get along with him, I get along with Putin It's, it would've been much easier to stop it before it started. Putin would've never done this, would've been much easier.”
“Right now, it's a mess. Now they're hitting Kiev and they're hitting all sorts of things that weren't supposed to be hit. The country is being decimated.”
Trump continued, “By the way, the deaths are far more than they report. You know, when they say ‘nine apartment houses got knocked down and two people got hurt.’ No, no. Hundreds of people died. The numbers are much different than what you're being told.”
Trump then laid out his plan, “I will get them into a room and they will, and I know an exact way.”
“Number one, you tell one, ‘You're not gonna get anything unless you make a deal.’”
‘You tell the other one, ‘They're gonna get a lot. Unless you make a deal’ and you just sit 'em and you put 'em in and you have to make the determination. And within, I'm telling you, within 24 hours, that whole thing will be settled. It'll be settled.”
“You need the power of the Oval Office. You do. You can't just walk in and say, ‘oh, I'm gonna settle the deal.’ You need the power of the presidency.”
“It was a war that should have never, ever started. It's a horrible war. It's a vicious, vicious (war). I saw it today where missiles are going into cities, in this case, Kyiv, and you see the schoolchildren going to school and missiles are following them. The whole thing is horrible. I will have that settled in 24 hours.”
Trump then went after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and said, “When I hear the DeSanctimonious come and say, ‘we need eight years.’ Again, if he needs eight years, don't vote for him.”
“This country will be hopping in six months and a lot of it's gonna do with energy, and it'll be hopping in six months and less than six months, but it'll be, it'll be back.”
Full town hall available here: https://youtu.be/vLMGRJRnZyE

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RAYUS Radiology	X-Ray Technologist	Boca Raton
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Hey guys, here are some recent job openings in fl. Feel free to comment here or send me a private message if you have any questions, I'm at the community's disposal! If you encounter any problems with any of these job openings please let me know that I will modify the table accordingly. Thanks!

I'm disabled. All my diagnoses are "invisible" & I can't stop masking even with friends. I can't mentally survive going back to the squalor of subsisting on nothingbut SSI (which couldbe cut off at anymoment). I forced myself back into the workforce a few yrs ago out of sheer force of will & angry desperation, and no matter what I do I can'tget ahead financiallyto the point where I don'thave to be in constant fear & lack anymore .
Been pushing myself past my limits for so long I can't sustain it anymore. But I can't handle losing everything I've worked so hard for--my jobs as a respected musician & private piano teacher. Only 3 students but I'm so good with my teaching philosophy & things that they obviously love me a lot, they're always going on and on how I'm their favorite teacher & how much they wish their other teachers were like me, etc. I can't handle disappointing them & losing that sense of fulfillment.
I have exhausted all help resources within my knowledge & access. I always fall through the cracks of the meager US social safety nets. I'm 30 yrs old, have thousands in debt frombeing scammed, no transportation access, minimal healthcare access bc all the hospitals in my area are monopolized by a single corporation that has consistently failed to help me. My family doesn't like me anymore since I've deconstructedmy religious conservative Christian upbringing. They don't even know I'm bi. Can't tell them. But that's the least of my worries
Housing crisis. Exploitation. Isolation. Ableism. Dealing with the local Social Security office & such has traumatized me so badly I'm considering figuring out how to get a gun, travel there, & shoot myself so they can be traumatized as much as they've hurt me.
Struggled with SI my whole life, more psychiatric inpatient than I can count. But there's nothing more they can do. They can't fix these systemic issues harming me. They won't pay my bills. I can't survive constantly seeing how much easier the folks around me have it while having to pretend that I'm not jealous & not suffering because that makes THEM uncomfortable.
And if they try to 302 me back into that hellhole, I'm considering suicude by cop. There is no way out for me even if I do die bc I can't stand hurting people i love.

The deportation from UK numbers have reached an all-time high, sparking concerns and questions about who is being affected and why. With so many individuals facing the possibility of being forced to leave their homes and loved ones behind, it's important to understand the reasons behind this surge in deportations. In this blog post, we'll dive into the details of what's causing these record-breaking numbers and explore how you can help those who are impacted by them. Whether you're a concerned citizen or an immigration solicitor looking for ways to assist your clients, read on to learn more about this pressing issue.
The UK's Deportation Numbers Reach Record Highs
In recent years, the UK has seen a significant increase in deportation numbers. According to reports from the Home Office, the total number of individuals deported from the country reached an all-time high in 2020. This statistic has sparked concerns and debates about who is being affected by these deportations and why.
One group that's been heavily impacted by this surge in deportations are undocumented immigrants who have lived in the UK for years but don't have legal status. These individuals often face harsh consequences such as detention centers and forced removals, leaving many families torn apart.
Another factor contributing to these record-high deportation numbers is stricter immigration policies implemented by the government. In recent years, there has been a push towards tougher regulations on immigration which can result in more individuals being denied entry or facing deportation.
It's clear that there are many complex factors at play when it comes to understanding why deportation numbers are reaching record highs in the UK. While some argue that tighter regulations are necessary to protect national security and resources, others believe that greater compassion must be shown towards those who may have fled their home countries due to war or persecution.
Who is Affected by These Deportations?
The record high numbers of deportations in the UK have affected a significant number of individuals and families residing in the country. Among those affected are refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants, and people with criminal records.
Refugees who have fled their home countries due to war or persecution may face deportation if their status is not recognized by the UK government. Asylum seekers who are awaiting a decision on their application for protection may also be at risk of deportation.
Undocumented immigrants who have overstayed their visas or entered the country illegally are among those most vulnerable to deportation. The fear of being deported can lead them to live in constant anxiety and uncertainty.
People with criminal records, including minor offenses such as traffic violations, can also face UK deportation . This has caused many families to be separated from loved ones who have lived in the country for years but are now facing removal due to past convictions.
These deportations affect both individuals and entire communities. It's important that we understand the diverse experiences of those affected by these policies and work towards finding solutions that prioritize human rights and dignity for all.
The Reasons for the Record High Numbers
The UK's record high deportation numbers are not without reason. One of the main reasons is due to the stricter immigration policies implemented by the government in recent years.
Many individuals who have been living in the UK for several years, some even with families and children born in the country, are being deported on grounds of overstaying their visas or having criminal records.
In addition to this, Brexit has also played a role in increasing deportation numbers. Non-UK citizens who do not meet new post-Brexit immigration requirements are at risk of being deported.
Furthermore, COVID-19 travel restrictions have made it difficult for those whose visas have expired to leave the country voluntarily. As a result, they face deportation as an enforced measure by authorities.
While there may be various reasons for these record-high deportation numbers in the UK, it is crucial that we understand their impact and work towards finding solutions that prioritize human rights and compassionate treatment of all individuals affected by these issues.
The Consequences of Deportation
The consequences of deportation can be severe and far-reaching. For individuals who are deported, they may face challenges in finding employment, obtaining housing, and accessing healthcare in their country of origin. They may also be separated from family members and loved ones who remain in the UK.
For families left behind, deportation can have a devastating impact. Children may be forced to grow up without one or both parents, leading to emotional distress and long-term trauma. In some cases, spouses may also be separated from each other for years at a time.
Deportation can also have economic impacts on both the individual being deported and the surrounding community. Individuals who are deported may lose their jobs or businesses that they have built over several years. The communities where these individuals live will also experience a loss of productivity if many people are being deported at once.
Moreover, there is often significant stigma attached to deportation which can lead to social isolation and discrimination against those affected by it. This can further exacerbate feelings of loneliness and depression among those who have been forcibly removed from their homes.
The consequences of deportation go far beyond just removing an individual from one country to another; it affects entire families as well as local economies and communities too.
How to Help Those Who Are Affected
If you know someone who is facing deportation or has been recently deported, it can be difficult to know how best to support them during this challenging time. Here are some ways you can help:
Firstly, educate yourself on the immigration policies in the UK and what rights those facing deportation have. This will allow you to provide accurate information and guidance as needed.
Secondly, offer emotional support by being present and listening without judgment. Facing deportation can be an incredibly stressful experience for individuals and their families.
Thirdly, connect them with resources such as legal aid clinics or community organizations that specialize in supporting immigrants.
Consider advocating for policy changes at a local level by contacting your elected representatives and expressing your concerns about current immigration policies.
Remember that every individual's situation is unique, so it's important to approach each case with sensitivity and respect while offering practical assistance where possible.
Conclusion
The UK's record high deportation numbers are a cause for concern. Families and individuals who have built their lives in the country now face the prospect of being forcibly removed. It is important to note that not all deportations are justified, and it is crucial to seek legal advice from experienced immigration solicitors if you or someone you know is facing deportation.
The reasons behind these deportations vary; however, it is undeniable that they have had severe consequences on those affected. With many losing their jobs, homes, and loved ones, it is vital to show compassion towards them during this difficult time.
As a society, we must strive towards finding more humane solutions for dealing with immigration issues rather than resorting to mass deportations. The government could consider providing more support for immigrants and increasing funding for organisations that work towards helping them integrate into society.
We need to remember that migrants are human beings too – people who may be fleeing war-torn countries or seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families. Therefore, as a nation known for its tolerance and acceptance of diversity, we should do our best to provide help wherever possible instead of turning our backs on those in need.

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My colleague Robby Brod covered the Pa. Election Law Advisory board the other day and wrote up this story on their discussion. Part of that was should PA implement voter ID and how would PA do that?
TLDR: Board members were unable to reach an agreement on whether to recommend a voter ID mandate and agreed to table the issue until their next meeting.
During a meeting Wednesday, board members couldn’t decide whether to recommend a photo ID mandate at the polls.
Patrick Christmas, chief policy officer with government watchdog group the Committee of Seventy, said he could support the requirement if the recommendations acknowledged widespread voter fraud is not a problem – and if no voters were disenfranchised.
“The majority of Pennsylvanians think this is common sense that you should show something on Election Day. That list of photo and non-photo options should be very robust,” he said. “If someone shows up on Tuesday and they happen to not have one of the approved photo and non-photo options… they’d be able to sign an affidavit and use the voting system as they usually would.”
Board member Christina Iacono agreed that any mandate should still allow voters without IDs to cast ballots along with a signed affidavit.
She said this would not compromise election security.
“If someone signs an affidavit and they commit voter fraud, they are committing a felony,” she said. “If you really want to see if this is a problem, this is the best way to do this. You will then have a record of the voters that are committing said felony.”
Critics of the affidavit idea, including Republican House Rep. Russ Diamond, of Lebanon County, argue those voters should fill out provisional ballots, which are set aside by poll workers and counted after they verify the voters’ identities.
“The reason we have provisional voting is because there may be a question about whether the voter is actually eligible to vote, and we want to review that separately,” he said. “But if you’re that one voter who swore a false affidavit, your vote is already in the pile of anonymous votes that have been counted. And if that vote is counted in a race – and we’ve seen this in Pennsylvania – which is decided by one vote, now you’ve spoiled the whole bunch.”
Patrick Christmas re-emphasized the importance of making sure every eligible vote counts.
“I’ll just offer the flip side of that point, Russ,” he said. “One person who’s disenfranchised, who should not have been because they’re a legitimate voter, that impacts the election too – that contaminates the whole bunch… the points that I’m arguing are to absolutely minimize, to doggone near zero, the chance that we disenfranchise anybody.”
Iacono said an increase in provisional ballots would overburden election offices – and create more room for human error.
“I’m a fan of the affidavits because they do that in other states that have voter ID and it allows for a quicker result process,” she said. “You don’t have as many provisional ballots in the precinct, if this is an issue.”
Randall Wenger, manager of Rapho Township and former chief clerk for the Lancaster County Board of Elections, said provisional ballots are “a pain in the butt.”
https://www.witf.org/2023/06/01/should-pa-require-voter-id-research-agency-divided-on-best-ways-to-implement-it/

I (26f) grew up in a very controlling environment. It was so bad that I wasn't able to have friends, and on most days I struggle to stand up for myself. I had a choice on pretty much nothing and it was almost bordering on abusive.
I think the best way to explain it is by just giving some examples of what happened.

1. My mother would read and monitor all my messages until I was 24. There were times when she would even call me while I was at class to get mad at me over something that one of my friends said on chat. She would yell at me because a friend would tell me a secret of theirs (usually involving their intimate life) that she disapproved of.

When I was in a very controlling and abusive romantic relationship, I would try to find comfort by talking to my best friend. She would intercept our messages and would call me in the middle of class saying that she was going to reply to him telling him that everything was OK (she genuinely did not know my boyfriend was abusive and controlling).
When I got into a very traumatic event that she knew about, I wasn't able to talk to my best friend about it and seek comfort because she already told him her version of events through my account, and I couldn't tell him twice.

1. She would post pictures of me without my consent on my personal page, with captions that I myself would have never thought of or dreamed of writing. Think the most boomer level shit like "they said I'm SOOOOO tall!" (Who the fuck says that?!) . Whenever I confronted her and asked her to stop, she would say I'm suffocating her and being ungrateful. She knew I wanted to be a star, and she said I could never be a star because of how I was reacting to her posting pictures of me that I did not like (they were unflattering and very grainy). It got to the point where I was being made fun of at school because of such bad photos and bad captions, but she did not stop.
   
2. When I was in elementary school, we were asked to write a report on any country of our choice. I was heavy into Egyptian culture at the time, and I was excited to write a report on Egypt. She refused to let me do it and demanded I write it on France. I tried to stand up for myself by doing it on Egypt anyway, but she made a report on France and made me turn it in. She even talked to the teachers after to be sure I gave the France report and not the Egypt report. When I was asked to write an on the spot essay a few weeks later, I made it on Egypt, not France. She got mad at me for that.
   
3. She insisted that I stay within campus grounds at all times when I was in college. She would call me at random times to be sure I was not going elsewhere, and demand video call. Sometimes, she'd call in class. Several times, she called during exams. She would then get mad at me for not picking it up and making her call security. When I told her I was having exams, she would get mad at me for getting mad at her because she did not know (even if I told her???).
   
4. If I wasn't picking up calls, she would call campus security to look for me and would not stop until they found me. There have been lots of situations where security got involved and bothered, but really I was just sleeping or taking an exam.
   
5. I wasn't allowed to be in study sessions. I took a very difficult course in college, and so I needed help. Sometimes my classmates would hold study groups in preparation for midterms or finals. These groups would last past 12 MN, since classes sometimes end at 6 pm or even 8 pm.lIf she found out I was in this group and not in my dorm, she would call me, yell at me, and get security involved until I was back in my dorm, the exam be damned. Her reason for never letting me go out was because I took a difficult course and needed to focus, but she didn't let me get the help I needed for that course either.
   
6. I had to give up the sport I loved to be a dancer. I had a sport I was taking up behind her back. Without going into too much detail, she considered it too masculine. But I was good at it. I was so good that they wanted to train me to enter the National Team and compete internationally. She pulled me out of the team and made me join a dance group I hated. I eventually got a leadership role in that group, and managed to get us a public performance. On the first public performance, I was starting to accept being a dancer. I was starting to feel happy in that field. While I was on cloud 9 on success, she pulled me aside and told me to quit the group because she was unhappy with the performance.
   
7. Let's talk about that leadership role. For once, I though I had some control and power in a group. I tried hard to be a good leader. However, she would take control of the social media accounts and post things without my consent on to the social media accounts of the group. Other members were upset (rightfully so), and when I asked her to stop, she would say that the other members were terrible, didn't know what they were doing, and too young to know any better. She was older so what she was doing was right.
   
8. You may ask where my father is in all of this. Whenever my mom and I would fight, I would raise my voice on purpose so my dad in the next room would hear me. I wanted him to save me. He never came. I thought it was because he was hard of hearing, but he admitted years later that he knew what was happening, but wanted me to face my own battles. I was a child. How do you expect an 8 year old to stand up to her mother?
   

However, he would get involved if I got disrespectful. He wanted me to face my own battles, but when I stood up for myself, he would punish me.
That's just some of the things they put me through. Because of all that, I wasn't able to get forward very successfully in life. I barely got my degree. I wasn't allowed to socialize, so I had very few friends and lots of social anxiety. I wasn't able to get a good paying job, so I can't afford a place of my own unlike my friends. I'm mentally and socially behind my peers.
When I was 25, I had a major breakdown that made them start getting more lax on me. I threatened to kill myself if they didn't change their ways. My mom relinquished control of my social media and started letting me go out whenever I want to. They actually started changing so we can fix our relationship.
Despite that, it still hurts. I get flashbacks of what I went through from the most random shit. Last night, I saw a video of the dance I used to do and had another breakdown.
My mom thinks I should let go of the past because she's changed. I explained that even if she's changed, it still hurts. She says that I'm making much ado about nothing because the past can't be changed, but she's trying to make it up to me. She also reminds me that she did so much to take care of me as a baby, including having to pull my own shit out because I couldn't poop normally. I'm being ungrateful for remembering only the bad times and not the good times.
I've always felt that my best friend, who was the only person to comfort me whenever everything was happening, was the only one I had on my side. She reminds me that she, as my mother, is really the only person on my side because she's the only one who stayed this long and sacrificed so much for me.
Am I the asshole for still holding her sins against her?

Danielle West? Kate Snyder? Jess Grondin? all confused and suspicious as f. Jess has her fingers in everything, but the other two dont even seem to exist. I genuinely wonder if theyre alive.
Im just curious who's been pooling resources into bearcats theyll never use, for smiling black kid photo ops, and pavlovian conditioning with "candy in a cop vehicle" of sorts, and curious as to why one cannot identify any of the >120 officers by name or number when the info should be publically available.
Someone should keep an eye out on Jess honestly, and where she, or what her money does. She seems to always be the one talking when Portland sh*ts a brick, like the recent effort at discussing the food truck debacle in PPH paper, as if shes trying to justify it, like how somehow PPH did manage to last year even with wild % of people NOT in support of hamstringing local established businesses.
Thats kind of the goal though, in someones confusion: "get rich people here" = "more money for Portland". Its a classic attempt to believe in trickle-down economies, but its just a circle jerk of like 10 real-estate owning business majors who eat at each others high-end restaurants in buildings they own, while also being a major cause of Portlands bleeding of money, and hiding behind the liberal aesthetics of propping up a token foreign chef for the zeitgeists palate.
That or its one of those situations where we attract magazine-reading weirdos (rich bored people or dentists) with the "best place to live" bs year in and out that likely has a marketing cost associated with it at my tax expense.
So we get more and more insufferable flatlanders thinking they found their dream summer home/airbnb, or those same people, but who are also adult children, trying to understand a city, or society still, coming from God-knows-where Montana Bougie Ranch or some nonsense. Its so transparent that their privilege screeched away food trucks from the hill; theyre lost so far in their entitlement and detached living.
Im willing to bet one of them also writes that hideously out-of-touch new Munjoy magazine that is basically porn for them, or wine-mom types what with that "how to throw a dinner party" tome-deaf article (yeah- homeless crisis here- hello?). But sure, just keep being super coastal and un-melanated, like REALLY make it your identity eh?
NotHinG tO sEe HeRe Im jUsT kEePinG bEeS iN a CiTy WiThOuT tElLiNg My NeIGhBoRs! --Anyone in Portland now basically, just put a kombucha in their hands.
Anyway, I digress, and this city isnt liberal or democrat.
Im so sick of seeing forever-in-construction-condo rural workers and bougie elites and hill residents or construction CEOs taking all of portlands money, and moving it to the country, or a socially elite bubble that will invest it elsewhere (cops or landowners or construction oligopolies [cough cough Shaw Bros]) while SOMEONE is overspending on militarized police when you have homeless people dying on the streets in a wave that surpasses at least 40 years of relatively NOT HAVING THAT SH*T AND THE CULTURAL CONFUSION AND INFIGHTING IT CAUSES WHEN THE PROBPEM STARTS IN LOCAL POLITICIANS OR LACK THEREOF IN LIEU OF OLIGOPOLIES AND POLICE STATES.
Oh well, like in the colosseum of old, the landed gentry will watch and cheer as the riot geared up LARPers harass black people trying to protest, as opposed to say, escorting nazis around town to help them commit an assault and hate crime on city hall steps that they got away with because Maine is notoriously violent (being so rural at large, and never reporting anuthing, as police documentation is all but absent in this state historically and now, just ask Jess Grondin 😉) but youd never know since someone keeps paying for magazine awards.

Article: Here
The Senate voted to approve a bill that raises the debt ceiling for two more years, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk just days before the US potentially runs out of money to pay its bills.
The final count was 63-36. There were 17 Republicans opposed and four Democrats who voted against it. The House approved the legislation 314-117 Wednesday night.
The Congressional approval takes the full faith and credit of the US off the negotiating table through the next presidential election and gives the markets an extended breather on an issue that regularly threatens economic chaos.
The concessions needed to get the deal done proved to be unpopular with certain members on both sides of the aisle, complicating efforts to squeeze legislation through Congress before a default on US debt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that default could happen as early as Monday.
The centerpiece of the pact negotiated by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a cap on federal spending. It holds spending flat for 2024 and imposes new limits for 2025 without touching Social Security, Medicare, or the military. In exchange, the nation’s borrowing limit is boosted until January 2025.
The legislation also increases work requirements to qualify for food assistance, an incentive for people to find jobs. That measure proved unpopular with progressive Democrats.
Some House Republicans wanted the spending cuts to be deeper, as proposed in a separate piece of legislation passed by GOP lawmakers in April. Senate Republicans had a different concern: that the legislation didn’t adequately fund the military.
The bill does have a 3% increase in defense spending for fiscal year 2024 and a 1% increase in 2025, but Republican Sen. Susan Collins said the 1% rise actually amounted to a decrease when accounting for the pace of inflation.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had to navigate around those concerns as well as votes on a series of 11 amendments, including one from Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine opposing a natural gas pipeline project from West Virginia through his home state.
If any of those amendments had passed, the bill would have gone back to the House.
White House staff also called senators individually on Thursday. Its legislative affairs team made contact with every single Senate Democratic office about the vote.
"We can’t send anything back to the House," Schumer told reporters Thursday. "That would risk default, plain and simple." The chamber voted down all 11 amendments before passing the bill and moving it onto Biden's desk.
Later, once he was assured that the bill would receive enough votes, Schumer said: "America can breathe a sigh of relief, because we are avoiding default."

If it weren’t for a killer urban legend, Tina and I would celebrate Valentine’s Day on the 14th
Honestly, I was enjoying a bit of human company after several hours of driving alone, four years ago. Correction. I was trying to enjoy human company. I couldn't identify what was out of sync about Ernestburgh and its inhabitants so I wrote it off to me being picky. I am picky. That's why I was looking this far away from home for the location of my much needed warehouse. I wasn't about to spend the money demanded for run down buildings in my hometown. My odometer assured me I was 114 miles from home. In Ernestburgh. Which isn't in my GPS or on any online map I called up.
Cindy the gas station cashier dropped the cash into my hand and wished me a happy day. Then, haltingly, as if going off script and unsure about doing so, she asked, "What brought you here?"
"Good question," I said, jamming the change into my jacket's inside pocket, "I'm in the market for a warehouse, around 1,000 square feet. Anything like that in town?"
"Let the young lady be on her way," a deep voice boomed behind me. My stomach jumped, although I think I remained calm on the outside as I turned around. A tall, muscular man was nodding at Cindy and me. "Don't mind her, Miss, sometimes we forget our manners here, being we all know each other. You know how that is." He chuckled, although his eyes never smiled. To me, he looked smug. I didn't appreciate that.
"Where are my manners?" I laughed, sticking my hand out to start a handshake. "I'm Lydia from the next town over. And you are?"
He stared at my hand for several seconds before taking it in a quick handshake. "Name's Hopper, Miss Lydia, good to meet you. My wife Cora tells me I need to socialize more and work less, but, you know how it is, I'm sure." He released my hand.
He sounded like he looked, smug. Part of me wanted to egg him on. But I took a breath before speaking and told him I was looking for a motel room for the night. His demeanor softened. "The Deu Lake Inn just reopened after renovations. Go right from our parking lot, left at the second stop sign. Ask for Room Number 103. It overlooks the Lake. Hope you're an early riser. Sunrise over the Lake is unforgettable this time of year!"
Ernestburgh didn't have street lights so the stop signs were a little hard to see but I managed to find the dirt road that ended at Deu Lake Inn's parking lot. That clicked for me. If I landed MoonDoor's warehouse here, the Inn and the entire old school vibe of Ernestburgh would be an easy sell to increase tourism. Especially to boomers.
Annie McIntosh greeted me at the front desk and offered me 10 % off on my stay, which I gratefully accepted. Annie called in Enzio Morton to take my 'overnight bag' to my room and make sure the air conditioning was working. I said I wasn't worried, since it was February 9 and I would rather the room was heated. Annie's response was the a/c was just installed and it being such new technology, staff needed to make sure it worked. I chuckled a little then noticed she probably wasn't joking so I stopped, rather awkwardly.
Annie busied herself with paperwork and actively avoided talking to me after that. Knowing that someone named Enzio had to accompany me to my room, I checked out the only photo on the wall. It was a black and white photo of a man who looked eerily familiar. He wore an odd white bucket hat with the brim pushed away from his face. He had dark hair with full, choppy bangs, eyebrows raised over large eyes opened wide, a nondescript nose and mouth open as if he was either talking or gawking.
It hit me: That was Bob Denver, when he was Gilligan from Gilligan's Island, a 1960s sitcom.
A document attached to the photo frame was titled "Official History and Lore of Our Founding Father". It explained 'Captain' Johnny Ernest spent his entire life in Ernestburgh. His parents raised him on their local farm, before the town existed. Deu Lake Inn was built over his family's farm property. He was orphaned at the age of 11 and lived alone for the rest of his life. He spent 25 years building the earliest homes, post office and stage coach station for what became known as Ernestburgh. Since his death, he returns every year to eat the living being he names. The town would not and could not exist without him, according to the document.
What the hell.
"Miss Annie," I asked, unwilling to be taken in by a local prank, "is that all there is to this story?"
Annie lifted her head, smiling widely. "Yes," she said brightly, "that's our Founding Father, Captain Ernest. Once a year he returns, eats whatever living being he names, then he returns to his beloved lake until the next February 10th."
'Eats whatever living being he names.' I felt fear without knowing its origin, something I don't often experience. I turned to face the Inn's entrance so I could avoid both Annie and Captain Ernest. Enzio appeared soon after. He got me to Room 103, confirmed the a/c was good, and I was left on my own for the night.
I opened the sports bag of spare essentials I always left in my vehicle. It stems from having to be prepared to run for my life when I was younger. Some habits are hard to break. It allowed me to change into a t shirt for that night. I grabbed the remote and jumped into bed.
Covers up to my neck, horror movie marathon playing quietly in the background, I was ready to relax. That's when I remembered my odometer. Part of my being picky is me recording my mileage at the end of every journey. My odometer registered exactly 114 miles from home to Ernestbugh. Based on memory, I'd travelled mostly westbound from home. And online maps clearly showed a large, well-known city 40 miles west of my place. Seems likely I would have noticed that city, had it been in my way during my travels.
Also, traveling no more than 50 miles per hour, my trip should have taken two and a half hours, three tops if I slowed down, got stuck in traffic jams or stopped a lot. That wasn't how my drive went at all. I left home at 10 a.m. and drove non-stop until I arrived at Ernestburgh nine hours later, just before 7 p.m.
Once again, what the hell.
I called up my dashcam footage and fast forwarded through the day's journey. There was scenery I recognized, close to home, then about five hours of static, then scenery that I recalled driving into Ernestburgh. The first time I watched it, I didn't believe it. Had to be a technical glitch. The third time I watched it, my muscles tightened for fight or flight. As much as I wanted to leave immediately, I realized I'd do better to wait until morning. I set my phone alarm for 6:45 a.m. and plugged in my phone to recharge, then spent a long time staring at the ceiling.
My alarm rang a bit too early for my liking and I didn't remember setting the ring tone to 'growls and groans'. The time on my phone was 5:45 a.m. so it wasn't my alarm. For a second I attributed the noise to the horror movie marathon I'd selected for the room's TV. Nope. TV must have shut itself off while I was asleep.
I heard it again. A growl, thunderous and a bit muffled, coming from the back of the Inn where my window faced. Expecting an incoming thunderstorm, I opened the curtains a bit and stared for a second or two at a huge bubble sitting on the lake. A face smiled at me from inside the bubble. A face. In a bubble. On a lake. Smiling at me. So much wrong.
After the fastest shower ever, I shoved all my gear into my sports bag and threw on my coat. I ran to the back of the Inn with all my gear and my phone (charge cord still attached, alarm shut off) at the ready. The beach, such as it was, was about a two minute jog from the back of the Inn and extended for quite a bit before meeting the water. There was a large bubble sitting on the water's surface, a significant distance from the shore. This was the same bubble I'd seen out the window. It kept getting larger, as did the face in it.
I was trying to focus my phone's camera when I heard someone speaking behind me. Annie, the front desk clerk, asked if I was ready to check out.
"Um, Annie, do you see that?" I said as gently as I could, pointing at the bubble. As soon as I looked at it, I couldn't look away. Annie didn't answer my question but she did keep talking. She said check out prior to 11:25 a.m. was fine but I had to pay now. I asked her how much and she didn't answer, which prompted me to look directly at her.
The growling started again. Of course it was much louder than I'd heard in my room. Annie frowned but stood firm, hand out, palm up. I looked back at the lake and the bubble had moved much closer to shore, almost touching dry land. It was huge, and the face now had a full body with arms and legs. Still smiling, it pointed at me with its left arm.
My blood ran cold. I heard Annie's voice but couldn't understand the words. The bubble drew ever closer. The growls were so loud, I clamped my hands over my ears but still couldn't stop staring at the face. It seemed so familiar.
Annie might have stopped talking, I don't know. All I could hear with my hands on my ears was muffled growling. I knew she was still there because she had grabbed my right arm with both hands and pulled fiercely. Even so, I kept staring at the bubble that had stopped rolling when it made land.
The growling continued.
Annie tugged until my right hand fell away from my ear. She screamed it wasn't her time as she released my arm. At that time I didn't know if she stayed or left because I was still watching the bubble.
A crack formed, splitting the bubble in half vertically. Within a blink or two, the bubble split open and the growling changed to a low, gravelly human voice. "Annie! Annie McIntosh!" the being said. Its finger no longer pointed at me, but to my right. I felt compelled to glance beside me and sure enough, there was Annie. Her hands were balled up into fists, pushing on her temples. She was crying and shaking, and I felt genuine terror just looking at her.
"Annie McIntosh, it is your time!" the being announced as it took two steps towards her. I'm ashamed to say I felt a brief moment of relief that the being wasn't aiming at me before I realized it appeared to be hellbent on getting Annie. She was now screaming wordlessly, seemingly unable or unwilling to run.
In that moment, two things occurred to me. The being was an exact replica of the black and white photo of the town's founding father. And if the urban legend was correct, 'Captain' Johnny Ernest can only eat one person per year. He names that person before eating them. Since he'd already named Annie, I figured I was safe at least for that year, and tried to distract him. Maybe Annie could escape and live another year.
I screamed at him, "Captain, you're dead, you don't need to eat anymore!" It was the best I could think of at the time. I put my hands on Annie's left arm and tried to drag her away with me. No luck, she felt like she was cemented to the spot.
Meanwhile, Captain Ernest continued to take huge steps towards us. I'm used to living with and around weird things, but this went beyond weird. Gilligan wanted to eat someone and he seemed focused on Annie.
Something in me broke. I screamed I was sorry to Annie and took off at a full run. I didn't stop running until I got to the back of the Inn. Maybe it was guilt, maybe it was morbid curiosity, but I had to take one last look back.
Captain Ernest was still at least two of his steps away from her when he grabbed her.
She was still screaming when he dropped her into his mouth.
I folded two ten dollar bills under the phone on the Inn's front desk then jumped into my car and peeled out. When I got to Ernestburgh's main street I turned left. A right turn would have taken me back to Ernestburgh and that was a huge nope for me. As soon as I saw something resembling a freeway, I took the eastbound route and didn't stop until I was home.
The trip home took two hours and added 114 miles to the odometer. My dashcam worked just fine that whole time. The previous day's footage came up as 'corrupted' when I tried to access it. I spent the next four days in bed, waiting for Tina to return from her mother’s.
Tina's mother recovered quickly and Tina came home on day five. She asked me to retrace my steps with her in the car. No matter what we did, we couldn't find Ernestburgh. I searched for obituary notices about Annie McIntosh until Tina said I might be reaching unhealthy levels of 'need to know' when, in fact, I don't need to know. And she was right.
But every February 9th and 10th since then, she and I spend those days together, at home, without guests. We stay in bed, watch our fav horror movies and eat whatever we want. It's our customized version of Valentine's Day.
Author's note: Find me at LG Writes, Odd Directions and Write_Right

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Okay this is weird. So, this story is a long time ago, like 6-7 years ago, but its also in the future for us…
German has a specific tense for this, but English has no tense for this…
So, I guess welcome to the close past of the far far future?
Previous First Next
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
The bus bumped and jostled over the lumpy dirt road.
Inside bodies swayed and juggled back and forth, ramming into walls and steadying themselves against the antiquated seats before them. The bus was old, older than a large portion of dirt, old enough to have rubber tires, shitty suspension, and foam back seats, nothing like the sleek magno buses they used these days.
Clearly their program wasn't important enough to acquire a real transport vehicle.
Their ride from the airport had been nerve wracking to say the least, and only some of it had come from the imminent threat that the bus would disintegrate into its component parts, most of the rest of it had come from the slow building of nervous energy felt by all the young teens as they waited to begin their first day at training.
There were forty of them in all, though less than half of that was predicted to make it through the training and actually become pilots from the program at Trans Space Combative Aviation Academy. Of course, the Academy didn't have its own location, as new as it was and untested as it was, the burgeoning UNSC wasn't likely to spend a ton of funds on a group of untested children. So, they had been shipped onto Del Rio, Texas where the air force flight academy was located, and had been allocated space, some instructors, and a few classrooms to get started.
Adam had found the other recruits from the program nervously waiting outside with their duffel bags and clothing. None of them were over the age of fifteen, and they consisted almost equally of boys and girls.
Adam was displeased to find himself the shortest among the boys, and about mid pack among the girls, a good portion of them probably weighing a good ten pounds more than he did, though none of them were out of shape.
He tried to ignore that, doing his best to make friends with the other nervous recruits, determined not to be the loser this time. Just as long as he didn't show his weirdness to them straight off, maybe he was going to be fine.
It seemed to be working, at least until the bus pulled up, and the group of them stared on with shock and disappointment at the monstrosity before them.
A centuries old bus.
They sort of hoped it wasn't for them, but the ACU clad, army man stepping out of the door and onto the pavement dashed their hopes.
And soon they were on their way, jostling down the highway, eventually cutting through manned security gates, patrolled by armed guards, and finally onto the backroad that was taken around the airfield. Adam had his face pressed up against the window, watching as a set of jets took off, leaving trails of white behind them in the great blue sky above.
The implant in his arm buzzed, and he looked down to see a text from his mother asking if they had landed yet.
He had to apologize for forgetting and assured her that he was, indeed, landed and on his way.
The further they went onto the base, the more people they could see, large muscular men and women running in formation, wearing the same light grey T-shirts tucked into blue canvas shorts.
Voices roared past them as the men chanted in time with their cadence.
Low lying buildings pulled up on the horizon in front of them, crouched together in stumpy lines. Yelled commands wafted through open windows as more recruits rolled past kicking up dirt clouds as they went.
Adam grew nervous upon seeing them, big and adult.
He glanced down at himself and his baggy T-shirt, and jeans held up only by a belt, the cuffs folded up over his shoes.
They belonged to his brothers, but were still too big for him.
The bus rolled to a stop just then, jostling him forward so his face nearly rammed into the seat in front of him. A dust cloud billowed up around them obscuring his vision for a moment. At the front of the bus, the driver reached out and cranked the handle to the door, manually forcing it open.
"Wow, this thing is a real piece of shit."
Someone muttered, while boots thudded onto the stairs, and the entire bus went quiet as a man stepped onto the front of the bus. He was tall, and serious faced with thick eyebrows and what appeared to be a shaved head, though it was mostly covered by a wide brimmed dumbass hat in dark, clashing seriously with his patterned ACUs.
They all waited on the edge of their seats.
Adam shrunk down into his expecting to get yelled at.
That's what all the old army movies told him was going to happen.
Instead, however, the man smiled.
Adam didn't buy it for one second.
"Welcome recruits to the first TSCA Academy class of 4013. I am Master Sergeant Kimball, and I will be one of your MTI (military training instructor) during this program. If you need to address me at any time during this course, you will call me Sir or Master Sergeant Kimball. Now I understand that you may all be tired from your flight. We have recruits here from all across the world coming in right now, so hopefully, today will be easy and relaxing."
Adam eyed the group around him, watching as the others began to relax.
Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all?
Perhaps because they were kids, they had been given some leeway during the training process?
I mean, were they really going to yell at a group of kids barely out of their teenage years?
Surely, they wouldn’t…
"Alright everyone, Unload!"
There was a collective shuffling around the bus as the group of them took to their feet and began slowly shuffling towards the exit. Adam pulled his bag over his back, nearly tipping over backwards as the weight pulled his small frame off balance. Someone put a hand on his shoulder,
”Whoa."
He glanced over and thanked the girl who had helped him, hurrying off the bus and down the stairs into the hot as hell Texas heat.
Stepping off the bus he found Master Sergeant Kimball standing next to two other MTIs, who were smiling at them, though their smiles seemed more wolfish than reassuring.
My what big teeth you have, he thought idly to himself, stepping to the side so the others could walk through.
One boy came trudging down the steps last, lugging an absolutely massive suitcase as a few of the others flopped to the ground, resting against their bags, eyes closed, basking like lizards in the sun.
Sgt. Kimball stepped forward towards the last young man.
"Here let me help you."
The boy seemed rather grateful, handing his bag down to the MTI, taking some weight off his shoulders.
That was until Sgt. Kimball grabbed the zipper, opened the bag and dumped the entire contents of the suitcase into the dirt. He then got right up in the boy's face and shouted.
"NOW WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK DO YOU NEED A BAG LIKE THAT FOR!? CHRIST SON, I COULD USE IT TO SMUGGLE YOUR CORPSE OUT WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU."
The entire group jolted with surprise, all of them bolting upwards.
Even Adam was startled, and he had been expecting it. The poor kid was scrambling around in the dirt trying to collect his things,
"GET YOUR ASS OFF THE GROUND YOU SORRY PIECE OF SHIT."
The two other MTIs bore down on them, their charming smiles revealed for what they really were.
Wolf in sheep's clothing, snarling ravening beasts.
More bags were dumped on the ground, turned over, emptied until the contents mingled with the dust on the ground. The female MTI leaped over, ripping Adam's bag off the ground and tossing its contents into the dust. She reached down, picked up a book and chucked it at him, hitting him in the chest as he stumbled back.
"YOU THINK YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TIME FOR READING!?”
She moved on to the next student.
One of the recruits had burst into tears, and the MTI's descended like vultures. One of them grabbed a water bottle from the ground and shoved it at the crying student.
"BETTER GET STARTED ON CRYING ME A RIVER!"
Adam was scrambling to pick up his stuff and shove it back in his bag.
"GET ON YOUR FEET!"
He bolted upright to find Sgt. Kimball in his face, or more looking down on him. His face was red and as he screamed, little droplets of spit flew from his tongue. He gave Adam one long look over.
"GOOD LORD BOY, I'VE TAKEN SHITS MORE SUBSTANTIAL THAN YOU!"
"GO ON CLEAN UP THIS SHIT, IT'S FILTHY! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING!? THEN GET YOUR ASSES DOWN TO INTAKE."
He scrambled to put his things in his bag, the MTI's shouting at him the entire time. He nearly tripped over himself multiple times, falling flat on his face in the dirt much to the amusement of the MTIs.
"LEAVE YOUR SHIT HERE!"
He tripped and wobbled, running after the others as they ran towards the building that had been pointed out to them by the screaming MTIs. A few of the other recruits were crying, but Adam, well he had sort of expected it, and honestly, he would have been disappointed if they hadn't. In fact, he found himself grinning from ear to ear as he walked into the equipment room behind a line of other recruits.
The equipment officer turned around from his desk to glare at them. He was a heavy-set man in his late forties with biceps as big around as tree trunks.
He looked them over with a frown before jabbing his finger at Adam.
"You there, smiley. Small or extra small?”
He blushed,
"Errr... Extra... Small?”
"At least he's honest."
The man grouted, turning around to rifle through his equipment, coming back with two pairs of everything in stock. He stacked it on the counter in front of him.
"Two PT uniforms, Two ACUs, two shirts, sweatpants, jacket, gloves, hat, and…"
He pulled up a set of tan combat boots then glanced him up and down.
"What is your shoe size?"
"Er..."
More blushing,
"Six."
The man grunted, ducked back behind the counter,
"We only carry eight plus in men’s, but a seven in women's should work."
He tried not to wilt at the reminder of how small he was.
The man turned away again and motioned him off. He clambered to pick up everything he needed and wobbled away, juggling the boots the pants and the jacket with some difficulty, dropping a glove on the floor and nearly dropping everything else when he went to pick it up.
Walking outside he was met by another MTI, who yelled at him to get his ass to the barracks to change and put all his shit away. He hurried to do as he was told, running and nearly dropping everything again as he made his way through the doors into a large room, lined along either side with beds, a single trunk at the base.
He ran to one of the beds at the far end, opened the crate and placed his things inside, struggling to pull on one of the PT uniforms as the others ran into the room to do the same, throwing their things in the lockers at the base of the beds, as the MTIs continued to scream at them.
It was only as he was running out of the room that he noticed the horrible terrible thing.
Oh no…
Please no…
The extra small pants...
They…
They were too big.
He tried looking for a drawstring to make them tighter, but they were canvas with an elastic waist, and they did not go any tighter. He turned in his spot, trying to figure out what to do, but as soon as he slowed down, another MTI was screaming at him to get back onto the field and line up.
So, he chickened out, holding onto his pants for dear life, as he raced back to the training ground.
Upon making it there he helped the other students line up into evenly spaced rows, thinking that the MTIs might be impressed with them if they were to do that.
They did their best to stand like they were supposed to, though all of the instruction they had ever gotten was from old war movies, and they were all doing it horribly wrong, a fact for which the MTIs noticed and yelled at them for with great glee as soon as they noticed. Of course, they were eventually whipped into shape, standing in line in straight rows, heels together hands at sides, shoulders back.
He could feel his pants slipping, though he was too embarrassed to say anything.
Sgt Kimball stepped out in front of them, hands behind his back.
"What did I say!? Didn't I say we were going to have a fun relaxing day!? Are you having fun!?"
He was right in one of the recruits face, now bellowing almost at the top of his lungs. He moved onto the next student.
"Aren’t you relaxed!?”
Adam didn't think the kid looked particularly relaxed. In fact, he looked so tense, that if he squeezed any harder his spine was going to go shooting out of his ass.
"Well!?”
There was silence on the grounds.
"WELL!?”
Adam scrambled his brain not entirely sure what to do before squeaking out.
"Yes sir."
The MTI leaned in.
"Why don't you try and communicate in normal ranges of human hearing, son. I am not a bat!"
He looked back up at the rest of the group.
"WELL!?"
"YES SIR."
"That's better."
He turned to stalk away from Adam, pacing up and down the line.
"I will be straight with you when I say that today IS going to be fun and relaxing compared to what you will be going through in the next few years. If you manage to make it into this program, I promise you we will destroy your social life, you will have time for nothing other than this program and sleeping, if I decide to allow you to sleep, that is."
Adam was grinning.
Unfortunately, that caught the Sgt's eye.
"THE FUCK ARE YOU SMILING AT!?”
He waited.
Adam just stood there.
"ANSWER THE QUESTION GODDAMMIT!"
"Yes sir, sorry sir! I thought it was a rhetorical question."
"HEAVENS ABOVE HAVE MERCY ON MY SOUL. I SAID ANSWER THE QUESTION!"
His mouth opened then closed,
"Er..."
"THE HELL KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT!"
"Um."
"Sweet Jehova did you come out this stupid or is it a family tradition, a side hobby?"
"I'm sorry sir, I forgot the question."
He lowered his head with an exaggerated sigh rubbing his temples,
"Forgot the question. FORGOT THE QUESTION!? I'VE MET GOLDFISH WITH BETTER MEMORIES THAN YOU! I SAID WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SMILING!?"
He blushed,
"Oh... Um."
"HURRY UP!!!”
"BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE FOR YOU TO RUIN, SIR."
That seemed to take the man back, and he simply sat there, staring at Adam with a bemused expression.
*"If you were any more pathetic, smiley, I might just cry for you. Honest to god, if you get any more pathetic, I will cry real tears for your shame." *
He turned away.
"Now everyone get on the ground and give me FIFTY."
At least everyone seemed to know what that meant, though pathetically enough his arms were wobbling at twenty.
"JUMPING JUPITER RECRUIT, I DIDN'T EXPECT YOU TO MAKE ME CRY IN THE FIRST HALF HOUR. MY COUSIN COULD DO MORE PUSH-UPS THAN YOU AND HE'S GOT NO ARMS!"
The Sergeant seemed to have a lot of disabled relatives.
A blind granny, an armless cousin, a nephew with a pole up his ass from a tragic fishing accident.
By the time they were done, Adam was quite nearly ready to throw up.
"ALRIGHT FIFTY BURPIES GO,GO GO."
Oh no, anything but that!
He paused, but was almost immediately screamed at to get his ass in gear. He knew what was coming before it happened, but he couldn't stop it.
So he accepted his fate…
So long self worth!
As he jumped down into his first plank and then back up, he could feel the waist on his pants slipping, at first just a little, but then, as his feet left the ground there, they went right down around his ankles.
At first, he thought he was at least lucky to be in the back row, but then scrambling to pick his pants back up, he realized none of that was going to matter.
Sgt. Kimball was staring at him, cheek twitching.
He himself was blushing excessively.
He was quiet for a very long time before.
"CONTROL YOURSELF RECRUIT, THE LAST THING I NEED TO SEE IS YOUR CHICKEN LEG FLAT ASS KIDDIE JUNK ON MY TRAINING FIELD. Fuck, as small as you are I'll probably be indited for CP. Now go get some new fucking pants before you blind us all for a second time. And, since it seems you've never seen leg day, I want you to cluck like a chicken all the way there. Let everyone know the pantsless chicken boy is coming!”
He did as he was told, rose red the entire time and beat red on his way back, seeing as, they had given him the smallest size available in mens, so instead he had been given a pair of woman's shorts, which, due to the cut, tended to ride up in very uncomfortable places of his anatomy.
It was a very good thing he was used to embarrassment.
Or this was going to be a very long couple of years…
Hell even with being used to embarrassment this would probably be some interesting years..
[…]
Commander Adam Vir blinked and put a hand to his head, boots throwing up little puffs of dust in the Texas heat.
"You ok Commander?"
He sniffed at the air and took in a deep breath, hands on hips.
"Ah, the memories!"
”What are you remembering Sir?”
”Good times… good times…”
And with these words he stepped out of the hovercar, mumbling to himself.
”I wonder what’s up with Sgt. Kimball, is he still training new recruits? Maybe I’ll see him again…”
Previous First Next
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

2-May-2023

• Stability AI releases StableVicuna, the AI World’s First Open Source RLHF LLM Chatbot (https://stability.ai/blog/stablevicuna-open-source-rlhf-chatbot)
• Introducing Lamini, the LLM Engine for Rapidly Customizing Models (https://lamini.ai/blog/introducing-lamini)
• Machine Learning Compilation (https://mlc.ai/index.html)
• The State of Serverless GPUs (https://www.inferless.com/serverless-gpu-market)
• A brief history of LLaMA models (https://agi-sphere.com/llama-models/)
• Study Finds ChatGPT Outperforms Physicians in High-Quality, Empathetic Answers to Patient Questions (https://today.ucsd.edu/story/study-finds-chatgpt-outperforms-physicians-in-high-quality-empathetic-answers-to-patient-questions)
• AI / ML / LLM / Transformer Models Timeline and List (https://ai.v-gar.de/ml/transformetimeline/)
• Speed Is All You Need: On-Device Acceleration of Large Diffusion Models via GPU-Aware Optimizations (https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.11267)
• Italy lifts ban on ChatGPT after data privacy improvements (https://www.dw.com/en/ai-italy-lifts-ban-on-chatgpt-after-data-privacy-improvements/a-65469742)
• We aren't close to creating a rapidly self-improving AI (https://jacobbuckman.substack.com/p/we-arent-close-to-creating-a-rapidly)
• Lawmakers propose banning AI from singlehandedly launching nuclear weapons (https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/28/23702992/ai-nuclear-weapon-launch-ban-bill-markey-lieu-beyer-buck)
• AI News, Explained by GPT-4 (https://www.emergentmind.com/)
• The self-supervised learning cookbook (https://ai.facebook.com/blog/self-supervised-learning-practical-guide/)
• A Photographer Tried to Get His Photos Removed from an AI Dataset. He Got an Invoice Instead. (https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkapb7/a-photographer-tried-to-get-his-photos-removed-from-an-ai-dataset-he-got-an-invoice-instead)
• Develop, optimize and deploy AI models natively on everyone's devices (https://github.com/mlc-ai/mlc-llm)

​
3-May-2023

• WangChanGLM — The Multilingual Instruction-Following Model (https://medium.com/airesearch-in-th/wangchanglm-the-thai-turned-multilingual-instruction-following-model-7aa9a0f51f5f)
• Inflection AI launches pi chatbot (https://heypi.com/talk)
• Mojo — a new programming language for all AI developers (https://www.modular.com/mojo)
• Understanding Large Language Models (https://magazine.sebastianraschka.com/p/understanding-large-language-models)
• Avoiding hallucinations in LLM-powered Applications (https://vectara.com/avoiding-hallucinations-in-llm-powered-applications/)
• Samsung bans use of A.I. like ChatGPT for employees after misuse of the chatbot (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/02/samsung-bans-use-of-ai-like-chatgpt-for-staff-after-misuse-of-chatbot.html)
• Job cuts may intensify as IBM plans to use AI to replace 30% of back office jobs (https://www.computerworld.com/article/3694874/job-cuts-may-intensify-as-ibm-plans-to-use-ai-to-replace-30-of-back-office-jobs.html)
• Chatbot ‘journalists’ found running almost 50 AI-generated content farms (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/02/chatbot-journalists-found-running-almost-50-ai-generated-content-farms)
• Jsonformer: Generate structured output from LLMs (https://github.com/1rgs/jsonformer)

​
4-May-2023

• HuggingChat Python API (https://www.kdnuggets.com/2023/05/huggingchat-python-api-alternative.html)
• Mojo may be the biggest programming language advance in decades (https://www.fast.ai/posts/2023-05-03-mojo-launch.html)
• OpenLLaMA: An Open Reproduction of LLaMA (https://github.com/openlm-research/open\_llama)
• Replit's new Code LLM: Open Source, 77% smaller than Codex, trained in 1 week (https://www.latent.space/p/reza-shabani#details)
• SparseGPT: Massive Language Models Can Be Accurately Pruned in One-Shot (https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00774)
• Poisoning Language Models During Instruction Tuning (https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.00944)
• Chatbot Arena: Benchmarking LLMs in the Wild with Elo Ratings (https://lmsys.org/blog/2023-05-03-arena/)
• Evaluate and compare LLM outputs (https://github.com/typpo/promptfoo)
• AI vs. Hollywood: Writers battle “plagiarism machines” in union talks (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/ai-vs-hollywood-writers-battle-plagiarism-machines-in-union-talks/)
• AI-generated beer commercial contains joyful monstrosities, goes viral (https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/05/ai-generated-beer-commercial-contains-joyful-monstrosities-goes-viral/)
• Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL now supports pgvector for simplified ML model integration (https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2023/05/amazon-rds-postgresql-pgvector-ml-model-integration/)

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5-May-2023

• Microsoft is dropping a big set of updates to Bing Chat today (Bing Chat Plugins, Multimodal answers, Persistent chat + chat history, No more waitlist to use) (https://twitter.com/nonmayorpete/status/1654018106543554561)
• Distilling Step-by-Step! Outperforming Larger Language Models with Less Training Data and Smaller Model Sizes (https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.02301)
• Google tells staff it plans to limit publishing AI research to 'compete and keep knowledge in house' as its rivalry with Microsoft's OpenAI heats up (https://www.businessinsider.com/google-publishing-less-confidential-ai-research-to-compete-with-openai-2023-4)
• Inflection AI, Startup From Ex-DeepMind Leaders, Launches Pi — A Chattier Chatbot (https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/05/02/inflection-ai-ex-deepmind-launches-pi-chatbot/)
• Amazon plans to rework Alexa in the age of ChatGPT (https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/4/23710938/amazon-alexa-ai-chatbot-llm-teaching-model)
• BigCode Project Releases StarCoder: A 15B Code LLM (https://twitter.com/BigCodeProject/status/1654174941976068119)
• Google "We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI" (https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-we-have-no-moat-and-neither)
• Re-implementing LangChain in 100 lines of code (https://blog.scottlogic.com/2023/05/04/langchain-mini.html)
• WizardLM: Empowering Large Pre-Trained Language Models to Follow Complex Instructions (https://github.com/nlpxucan/WizardLM/tree/main)

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8-May-2023

• MPT-7B: A New Standard for Open-Source, Commercially Usable LLMs (https://www.mosaicml.com/blog/mpt-7b)
• Releasing 3B and 7B RedPajama-INCITE family of models including base, instruction-tuned & chat models (https://www.together.xyz/blog/redpajama-models-v1)
• OpenAI changed its plans and won’t train on customer data, Sam Altman says (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/05/sam-altman-openai-wont-tap-into-customer-apis.html)
• OpenAI vs Open Source LLM Comparison for Document Q&A (https://georgesung.github.io/ai/llm-qa-eval-wikipedia/)
• VardaGPT is a memory-enhanced GPT-2 model powered by Hugging Face Transformers and FAISS (https://github.com/ixaxaaVardaGPT)
• MaMMUT: A simple vision-encoder text-decoder architecture for multimodal tasks (https://ai.googleblog.com/2023/05/mammut-simple-vision-encoder-text.html)
• Practical-Data-Science-Blog (https://github.com/youssefHosni/Practical-Data-Science-Blog)
• Unlimiformer: Long-Range Transformers with Unlimited Length Input (https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01625)
• VardaGPT is a memory-enhanced GPT-2 model powered by Hugging Face Transformers and FAISS (https://github.com/ixaxaaVardaGPT)
• Deep Reinforcement Learning library focused on improving development by introducing RLOps - MLOps for reinforcement learning (https://github.com/AgileRL/AgileRL)

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9-May-2023

• Introducing Slack GPT, the future of AI in Slack (https://slack.com/intl/en-in/blog/news/introducing-slack-gpt)
• Fixing Hallucination with Knowledge Bases (https://www.pinecone.io/learn/langchain-retrieval-augmentation/)
• Using Images in Your Prompts - The /Blend Feature (https://mjtipsandtricks.substack.com/p/using-images-in-your-prompts-the)
• Running Large Language Models Natively on Mobile and Laptops (https://www.infoq.com/news/2023/05/mlc-llm-mobile-laptops/)
• ChatGPT Code Interpreter (https://twitter.com/skirano/status/1653085442047369217)
• Open-source PaLM models trained at 8k context length (https://www.reddit.com/MachineLearning/comments/13bxu2g/p\_opensource\_palm\_models\_trained\_at\_8k\_context/)
• Google launches demo site for Visual Blocks & Announces Colab Integration (https://www.reddit.com/MachineLearning/comments/13ccho0/d\_google\_launches\_demo\_site\_for\_visual\_blocks/)
• It looks like GPT-4-32k is rolling out (https://community.openai.com/t/it-looks-like-gpt-4-32k-is-rolling-out/194615)
• Reflected Diffusion Models (https://aaronlou.com/blog/2023/reflected-diffusion/)
• DEF CON to set thousands of hackers loose on LLMs (https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/06/ai\_hacking\_defcon/)
• AI’s Ostensible Emergent Abilities Are a Mirage (https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ais-ostensible-emergent-abilities-are-mirage)
• Alphabet to unveil A.I. updates at Google I/O, showing off creative writing and coding capabilities (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/08/google-io-to-feature-ai-updates-showing-off-palm-2-llm.html)
• Efficiently Applying LLMs to Transform Semi-Structured Data (https://www.infoq.com/news/2023/05/data-transformation-using-llms/)
• RasaGPT: headless LLM chatbot platform built on top of Rasa and Langchain (https://github.com/paulpierre/RasaGPT)

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10-May-2023

• Meta open-sources multisensory AI model that combines six types of data (https://ai.facebook.com/blog/imagebind-six-modalities-binding-ai/)
• Machine Learning Containers are Bloated and Vulnerable (https://deep.ai/publication/machine-learning-containers-are-bloated-and-vulnerable)
• Study: AI can predict pancreatic cancer three years ahead of human doctors (https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/09/ai\_pancreatic\_cance)
• Language models can explain neurons in language models (https://openai.com/research/language-models-can-explain-neurons-in-language-models)
• Amazon Is Being Flooded With Books Entirely Written by AI (https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-flooded-books-written-by-ai)
• Google's AI chatbot Bard now available for Workspace accounts (https://www.techlusive.in/apps/googles-ai-chatbot-bard-now-available-for-workspace-accounts-1375948/)
• Constitutional AI: RLHF On Steroids (https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/constitutional-ai-rlhf-on-steroids)
• Run inference for Large Language Models on CPU, with Rust (https://github.com/rustformers/llm)
• llm-jeopardy (https://github.com/aigoopy/llm-jeopardy)

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11-May-2023

• Google Bard is now open to over 180 countries, more connected with apps & extensions (https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/artificial-intelligence/google-bard-gets-new-updates-at-google-io-2023-8602245/)
• LMFlow Benchmark: An Automatic Evaluation Framework for Open-Source LLMs (https://www.reddit.com/MachineLearning/comments/13d2vos/r\_lmflow\_benchmark\_an\_automatic\_evaluation/)
• Huggingface Transformers Agent (https://huggingface.co/docs/transformers/transformers\_agents)
• StabGPT: A Tool-Equipped LLM Designed for Improving Social Outcomes (http://sigtbd.csail.mit.edu/pubs/2023/sigtbd23-paper1.pdf)
• A Large Language Model for Healthcare NHS-LLM and OpenGPT (https://aiforhealthcare.substack.com/p/a-large-language-model-for-healthcare)
• Google Chrome Upgrades Web AI Intelligence (https://www.analyticsinsight.net/google-chrome-upgrades-web-ai-intelligence/)
• Google I/O 2023: Making AI more helpful for everyone (https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-io-2023-keynote-sundar-pichai)
• Google launches PaLM 2, its next-gen large language model (https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/10/google-launches-palm-2-its-next-gen-large-language-model/)
• Google will label fake images created with its A.I. (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/10/google-will-label-fake-images-created-with-its-ai-.html)
• AI Test Kitchen is a place where people can experience and give feedback on some of Google’s latest AI technologies. (https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/)
• Principle-Driven Self-Alignment of Language Models from Scratch with Minimal Human Supervision (https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03047)
• Your next Wendy’s drive-thru order may be taken by an A.I. chatbot that understands a ‘milkshake’ is actually a ‘frosty’ in the chain’s lingo (https://fortune.com/2023/05/09/wendys-ai-powered-chatbot-drive-thru-orders/)
• IBM Unveils the Watsonx Platform to Power Next-Generation Foundation Models for Business (https://newsroom.ibm.com/2023-05-09-IBM-Unveils-the-Watsonx-Platform-to-Power-Next-Generation-Foundation-Models-for-Business)

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12-May-2023

• Claude’s expanded context window from 9K to 100K tokens, corresponding to around 75,000 words (https://www.anthropic.com/index/100k-context-windows)
• DeepMind cofounder warns governments seriously need to find solutions for people who lose their jobs to A.I. (https://fortune.com/2023/05/10/artificial-intelligence-deepmind-co-founder-mustafa-suleyman-ubi-governments-seriously-need-to-find-solution-for-people-that-lose-their-jobs/)
• Gandalf – Game to make an LLM reveal a secret password (https://gandalf.lakera.ai/)
• Google needs to stop throwing good money after Bard (https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/10/23710839/google-bard-ai-competition-bing-openai-chatgpt-io)
• Delimiters won’t save you from prompt injection (https://simonwillison.net/2023/May/11/delimiters-wont-save-you/)
• Stability AI releases Stable Animation SDK, a powerful text-to-animation tool for developers (https://stability.ai/blog/stable-animation-sdk)

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15-May-2023

• Web browsing and Plugins are now rolling out in beta (https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes#h\_9894d7b0a4)
• Why Conscious AI Is a Bad, Bad Idea (https://nautil.us/why-conscious-ai-is-a-bad-bad-idea-302937/)
• Google Launches AI Supercomputer Powered by Nvidia H100 GPUs (https://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-a3-supercomputer-h100-googleio)
• Open source codebase powering the HuggingChat app (https://github.com/huggingface/chat-ui)
• Reverse engineered google bard's system prompt (https://twitter.com/bladestatus/1656920476533551104)
• Chatbots Don’t Know What Stuff Isn’t (https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-like-chatgpt-are-no-good-at-not-20230512/)
• The Vault: A new multilingual dataset for advancing code understanding and generation (https://www.reddit.com/MachineLearning/comments/13fftd7/r\_introducing\_the\_vault\_a\_new\_multilingual/)
• Language Models of Code are Few-Shot Commonsense Learners (https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.07128)
• Bot or Human? Detecting ChatGPT Imposters with A Single Question (https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06424)
• Training code of the open-source high-performance Llama model, including the full process from pre-training to RLHF (https://github.com/s-JoL/Open-Llama)
• Forefront Chat: Access GPT-4 Completely For Free (https://blog.unlimitedgpt.co/2023/05/forefront-chat-access-gpt4-completely-for-free.html)
• The Dual LLM pattern for building AI assistants that can resist prompt injection (https://simonwillison.net/2023/Ap25/dual-llm-pattern/)
• Run LLama 13B with a 6GB graphics card (https://gist.github.com/rain-1/8cc12b4b334052a21af8029aa9c4fafc)
• GitHub Copilot Chat leaked prompt (https://twitter.com/marvinvonhagen/status/1657060506371346432)