[This is a translated excerpt from Clemens Traub’s “Future for Fridays?”. It’s a reflection about his time as an activist in “Fridays for Future” – the German branch of “School Strike for Climate”. The specific problem of western environmentalism discussed therein is germane to the issue of dysfunctional leftism often discussed on stupidpol and as far as I can tell nothing of this unique to Germany. The book is from 2020 and by now the movement “Fridays for Future” basically defunct. Meanwhile, the preferred tactic of current activists is it to glue themselves on main roads during rush hour. This protest method obviously affects working class people most, who usually have to physically show up at work (and often have to use cars to do so), and is less disruptive for the WFH email caste. The result of this is, surprisingly, a staggering 80+% disapproval rating for the climate organization “Last Generation” which is doing this.]
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I know the typical milieu of most “Fridays for Future” protesters well. In a way, it's my own and that of my current circle of friends: metropolitan, left-liberal, hip. A space for the daughters of doctors to meet the sons of lawyers. Gin tasting and discussions about plastic-free shopping and zero waste are equally high on the agenda. Veganism is as much part of the unspoken code of being trendy as frequenting second-hand shops. And the organic grocery store around the corner naturally enhances the location of your own home.
The offspring of the professional class keep to themselves. Does the climate movement represent a cross-section of society? Not even close! Fridays for Future is the rebellion of the privileged, and the movement offers them the perfect opportunity to flaunt their own cosmopolitan lifestyle and talent.
Many of my climate-concerned friends are questioning whether the social background of the demonstrators matters at all. Isn't that absolutely unimportant? The main thing, they are convinced, is that the earth is saved. It doesn't matter by whom. The population has been silent for long enough, and now it is finally time to stand up.
I admit that the consistency of this chain of thought was extremely appealing to me and that using social origin as an argument against a group is of course nonsensical. The outlined combative spirit also enthralled me at first. At the beginning of my participation in "Fridays for Future", saving the world was the only thing that counted for me. It didn’t matter who stood by my side. And it still wouldn’t matter for me today.
But what matters to me is the behavior and reasoning of the people protesting with me. And here the circle closes, because the social background reveals more about the movement than the demonstrators would like to admit.
In fact, I take the view that the exclusive social background of the young protesters is the actual birth defect of "Fridays for Future". But because the movement was far too homogeneous, far too elitist and correspondingly far too aloof right from the start, its members remained oblivious to it. Ultimately, only those who are doing well in material terms have the time and leisure to consider climate protection as the most important and also the only political issue of our time and to subordinate everything else to it.
Located in its ivory tower, the movement doesn't even notice that its criticism is leveled at the lifestyle of many economically disadvantaged people, who for financial reasons do not always have a choice. They are denounced as climate sinners because they don't shop in health food stores but at discounters. It never occurs to the demonstrators that there are people whose worries about ever-increasing electricity bills and rental charges make a discussion about forgoing air travel irrelevant from the outset.
And how could they? In their sheltered world, all of that is very far away. But that is exactly what makes the movement a risk, because it jeopardizes the already fragile cohesion of our society. For a large part of the population, however, other, more pressing everyday concerns prevail. For those who are afraid of being affected by job cuts in view of the announcements by the industry, the slashing and burning of tropical rain forest is currently of secondary importance.
Likewise, the extinction of exotic animal species is very far away for someone who worries every day about their tenuous retirement arrangements. That doesn't mean that everyday worries should completely obscure the problems of climate change, but it does explain why climate change is not the first priority for people with existential concerns.
It also explains why measures to save the climate must take economic concerns into account. And it explains why more and more people are wondering whether protesters will finally also take to the streets to deal with their everyday distress: lack affordable housing, declining pensions... plenty of issues exist.
The entire political discourse, both between the parties and outside of parliament, on the street, completely ignores the reality of life for many people in Germany! And I can well imagine that that's not a good feeling for many. The public discussions, which are often far removed from everyday life, exclude less privileged people. The result: we are all sitting on a social powder keg.
I don't originally hail from this metropolitan milieu, but grew up in a region that is often dismissed as "rural backwater". Publications such as "Landlust" and "Landleben" [trendy magazines promoting life in the country side] fulfill the longing of city dwellers for pure nature, but this dream only seems to apply to those people who consciously decide to have a weekend house in the forest. However, anyone who grew up in a rural environment will hardly benefit from this.
My parents live in the Palatinate. I grew up there too. My heart clings to the region, it is scenically beautiful with rows of wine-growing villages. But for an urbanite in pursuit of self-actualization it has to be the worst nightmare. In case your are unfamiliar with Palatinate’s culture: Schlachtfest instead of whiskey tasting. Very few apartments are actually furnished in this “country style” featured in the magazines. My home village isn’t shooting location for documentaries about gentrification. Maybe a camera team will get lost in one of our many hamlets at a Saumagen-centered village festival. But that would be pretty rare.
Drowsy villages provide the perfect backdrop while growing up. An ideal, idyllic world. But the older I got, the more I was drawn to the big city. I longed for a place that was more vibrant than the Palatinate and which could offer me more adventures and opportunities on the way to adulthood. Precisely this big, wide world I longed for. And I today I indeed enjoy its advantages. Whenever I drive home today, I have a feeling that two worlds that don't really have much to do with each other are colliding.
Shortly after attending my first Fridays for Future rallies, I paid another visit to my old homeland – these are becoming less and less frequent. When I enthusiastically told my acquaintances there about my experiences at the recent "Fridays for Future" demonstrations, I quickly realized how little they were interested. Out of pure friendship and politeness, they listened to me with half an ear.
I was quite surprised by that. What was the most hotly debated topic of recent weeks in my university town was met with absolute indifference among my old school friends here. They were more interested in the last day of the Bundesliga match or their last Tinder date than in the great climate revolution.
To be honest, I was initially disappointed and then increasingly angry at this lack of interest. While we young people in the big cities are trying to save our planet, the people in my home village are letting us down, I thought. Don't they understand that they too only have one planet at their disposal, just like us from "Fridays for Future"? Luckily, out of politeness, I kept those thoughts to myself.
In the days that followed, I started hearing disparaging comments about Fridays for Future with increasing frequency. In the eyes of my old friends, the movement was an "eco-sect", the self-promotion of big-city, left-wing weirdos. Someone called Greta Thunberg a "deranged menace". In addition to insults, they appeared to become increasingly bothered by the patronizing demeanor of many Fridays for Future protesters, who seem to perceive ICE-car drivers and meat eaters as second-class citizens.
The more often this happened, the deeper the wedge was driven between my current city life and my origins in my home village in the Palatinate. Between my old and my new world. For the first time in my life, I was just happy when I was able to drive back to the big city: finally the ideal world again, even if it was on the verge of collapse.
Ever since that visit, I've been quite hypersensitive whenever my enthusiasm for "Fridays for Future" wasn't shared 100 percent. In my eyes, there were simply only climate heroes on the one hand and climate sinners on the other. The absolute good or absolute bad – and nothing in between! It was only later that I realized how much I was already influenced by the “Fridays for Future” movement.
At first I could only offer my my old acquaintances reproaches. I accused them of being apolitical and uninformed about the world anyway. A mechanism of exclusion that is very common in "Fridays for Future", as I later realized. After all, at university I even mocked my old acquaintances as provincials, something I had always hated myself when my new metropolitan friends teased me about it.
But it was so much easier to just dismiss them as uninformed "provincials" than to argue with them and take them seriously. I didn't ask why my friends from my old home country saw "Fridays for Future" as arrogant or aloof, I didn't care at the time. Possible self-doubts could not arise in the first place.
I didn't anticipate, that this would actually fiercely play up in me over the coming weeks! I thought more and more about the experiences in my home country. It just wouldn't let me go. Where does the rejection of “Fridays for Future” come from, I asked myself. Where does the indifference in the face of urgent global climate problems come from? How could it be that my friends didn't see those and that they didn't comprehend the seriousness of the situation? I looked for answers but couldn't find any.
For several weeks, every Friday, there was no longer any plastic dishware in the university cafeteria. This gesture, following the "Fridays for Future" demonstrations, was intended to set an example for environmental protection. What should have caused storms of enthusiasm in theory, however, meant a very special kind of chaos in practice: balancing a piece of raspberry cake on your bare hand without a plate is more difficult than it might sound. Once the first piece of cake hit the floor, a discussion about the plastic boycott quickly broke out in the canteen.
It immediately turned out that the cashiers could only laugh at what they considered to be an idiotic ban on plastic. Their statements shocked many of my fellow students, who are big "FfF" fans. Instead of relaxed humorous small talk, my fellow students reacted with deadly seriousness. In the heat of the moment, the cashiers were even treated with extremely condescending insults. I will never forget how my fellow students lost all human decency that day in the supposed fight for climate protection. For the first time I noticed how fanatical and arrogant many of my "FfF" acquaintances had long since become.
After that event, something actually changed in me. But I didn't want to admit it to myself at first. But the more often I demonstrated at "Fridays for Future", the more alien the movement became to me. Today I know: It took an event like the one in the university canteen or a stay in my old home country to open my eyes and to realize how important sincerely attempting to understand other realms of experience before applying crude labels to people. Due to its exclusionary megalomania, “Fridays for Future” is incapable of this realization. But only a person who approaches other people, takes them seriously and wants to understand their everyday lives will be listened to. Only those people can actually affect something. They might even, in the best case scenario, save our planet!
While "Fridays for Future" was unable to make inroads my home village’s community, the media was showed more interest. Interviews with activists became more and more frequent on television. The talk shows couldn't get enough of them. "Markus Lanz", "Anne Will" or "Hart aber Fair": All of them had at least one "FfF" activist to visit. The more I saw them there, the more their arrogant demeanor bothered me. I suddenly switched off people who I still saw as inspiring personalities a few months ago. They kept raising their index fingers admonishingly. Looking down from the ivory tower at anyone who disagreed.
That finger wagging was slowly but surely becoming the hallmark of the movement. Their image of the enemy was crystal clear. Their worldview is dangerously one-dimensional. My big city friends suddenly fought everyone they saw as complicit in the misery of the world: the meat eaters, the plastic bag carriers, the ICE-car drivers, the short-haul fliers, the long-haul fliers, the cruise tourists, the farmers, and of course the evil SUV owners. But honestly, don't we all belong to one of these groups from time to time?
Once they suddenly started cursing anyone who accidentally commits a tiny climate sin, even if it's just incorrect sorting of trash, I felt like they were in the ultimate battle against the rest of humanity. Elitist hubris everywhere I looked. In their moral arrogance they were (and still are) completely unaware of how many "normal" people they alienated by doing so. My assessment that "Fridays for Future" is primarily a movement of socially privileged young people has now been backed up by corresponding figures. The Berlin “Institute for Protest and Movement Research” got to the bottom of the social composition of the climate movement. On March 15, 2019, it surveyed “Fridays for Future” protesters at rallies in Berlin and Bremen. The study was financed by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen-affiliated "Heinrich Böll Foundation".
The study’s results were illuminating: More than 90 percent of those surveyed stated that they had at least completed their Abitur (or advanced technical college entrance qualification) or were currently striving to do so. An overwhelming majority of 90 percent! Not even 1 percent of the demonstrators attended secondary schools [which prepare pupils for non-academic vocational training]. Almost two-thirds of the students considered themselves to be in the upper-middle class. Even before that, I had no doubt that "Fridays for Future" is a movement of the affluent. But what I read in this study surpassed my estimated. "Fridays for Future" does not in any way represent a cross-section of society, as has often been claimed.
I was surprised how little the sobering result of the study was then discussed. Society had to be informed about the privileged background and the resulting aloofness of the young protesters. Doesn't this change the entire perspective on the defining social debate of the last few months?
The figureheads of the movement in particular all come from the “most bourgeois” background. For example, we have Luisa Neubauer, the best-known German "Fridays for Future" activist. She grew up in the relatively expensive Elbe suburb of Iserbrook in Hamburg. Everyone in Hamburg knows: Not exactly a residential area that is known for its social housing. She did her Abitur in Hamburg-Blankenese. It is Hamburg's villa district par excellence. Sightseeing buses now offer tours through the district to present the magnificent villas to curious tourists. She is a scholarship holder of the party-affiliated foundation Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and is also a member of the party. So nothing stands in the way of a career in politics, she says so herself. "I don't want to rule out a career in politics," she told Zeit Campus, for example. [Neubauer is, in fact, a scion of the oligarchical Reemtsma clan; so is her cousin, another figurehead of the movement]
It’s less a rebellion from below and more a case of perfect self-marketing. But now cracks do appear in this underdog stage production. Today Luisa Neubauer can only be reached via her management. Demonstrators as pop stars! And of course you can't just talk to them on the street when you're demonstrating together. At least not with “Fridays for Future”. Please, what a naive notion! Although there are also critics of the excessive portrayal of people within the "Fridays for Future" movement, there is no real change in sight.
In the meantime, the climate movement has become one thing in particular: a career springboard for ambitious young elites. "Fridays for Future" is the perfect stage to make a name for yourself. Many of the educated offspring of academics are of course aware of this. The more media attention, the more attractive it is to be in the front row. Supposedly idealistic activism can now be marketed very well.
But not only the figureheads like Luisa Neubauer want to get some of the public spotlight. More and more "Neubauer disciples" are trying their luck in the "Fridays for Future" profiling machine. There we have, to name just a few examples, Linus Steinmetz, Carla Reemtsma or Sebastian Grieme.
Getting an appearance on a talk show or at least being able to read your name in the newspaper - all of this can become an opportunity of a lifetime. Being in the front row not only feels incredibly good, it is also a kind of free ticket for later professional life. And as if that wasn't enough: A flood of new Instagram followers is of course also a fantastic side effect. With this in mind: full speed ahead!
Who could object? Everyone is looking for recognition. Doesn't everyone want to take advantage of the opportunities in their life? And finally, every society needs ambitious young people who will later enrich politics, business and culture.
At best, people who want to be the center of attention also bear responsibility for themselves and others. So far no problem, you might think at first.
But how will many people with limited financial resources feel when those rebels who constantly lash out at the lifestyles of others take advantage of it for themselves? While many citizens have to accept new climate costs in their everyday lives, they also experience how Luisa Neubauer is offered a position on the supervisory board at Siemens. In view of this, the suspicion of many people that climate activists are making careers at the expense of other citizens is all too understandable.
I have other concerns as well. In our time, the frustration with the elites is growing. The "enraged citizen phenomenon" has become one of the most discussed topics of this decade. Intellectuals around the world are concerned about the cause of this worrying development. Our society is currently experiencing a "rift" between two major population groups. In an anthology they edited, the political and social scientists Wolfgang Merkel, Ruud Koopmans and Michael Zürn differentiate between “cosmopolitans” and “communitarians”.
There are those who benefit from the future and are therefore relaxed about it. Above all, they see opportunities in it and view the globalization of our world with optimism. This group is referred to as cosmopolitans. But many people are also afraid of change. They believe that the future will not hold anything good and, potentially, only the ever-possible economic decline. Given the "opening" of the world, communitarians see the dangers in particular. They often have the feeling that they are not really noticed by society's elite.
The well-known distinction between “anywheres” and “somewheres” by the British journalist and author David Goodhart supports this finding. Goodhart distinguishes "anywheres" who are educated, wealthy and will feel at home in their circles around the world, and "somewheres". They belong to completely different social milieus and are relegated to a specific place where they work, live, have their friends and struggle to assert their status.
Most "Fridays for Future" activists know: the future belongs to them. Many have the classic biography of a cosmopolitan. Because of their social background, they were born with everything they needed to benefit from our system. Everything is just right: the appearance, the social environment and of course the education.
Although they face the end of the world as a constant threat, their future does not scare them. Why? The doors are wide open for them. They master the complicated rules of our individualized knowledge society very well. You will do your internship in Brussels and not in Bottrop. Better the EU Commission than retail, a sector without future anyway. And also: cultivate connections! Your English vocabulary is usually larger than German. Perfectly prepared for the future, come what may - because they are the elite of tomorrow. The dangerous thing about it: most of the demonstrators are not even aware of this.
The well-trained "Fridays for Future" activists prefer to see themselves as misunderstood outsiders in society. Being an outsider is what makes rebellion sexy. At the same time I say to myself: What must a socially disadvantaged person think when suddenly wealthy cosmopolitans like to play the role of the outsider! And they don't just like it the role. No, they are really putting effort into staging it.
The classic distribution of roles between "perpetrator" and "victim" in the social context is thus turned upside down in a negligent manner: no longer the single mother and multi-jobber is seen as a victim of the existing social conditions, but the climate-conscious scholarship holder who has to experience how the consumption of affordable meat endangers our environment.
But that's not all: instead of listening to the concerns of hard-working people, they blame them for their environmentally unfriendly diesel car, which they need for their daily commute to work.
Instead of considering questions of justice with "Fridays for Future", the movement reduced itself from the start to questions of lifestyle. In my circle of friends, too, the extinction of species is simply cooler than poverty in old age and the issue of gender is hipper than low basic pension.
Above all, the privileged know the social code of the new “morally good” life. The new green-bourgeois bearing regulates the friend-foe scheme of the climate debate. A mechanism of exclusion that often pushes fellow citizens who are already worse off even further aside. A good person has long been only someone who can show an ecologically sound certificate of good conduct. The existential feeling of many that they just have to somehow make ends meet does not exist in the living environment of the (upper) bourgeois offspring. In the climate debate of the last few months, worlds have collided that couldn't be more different. Worlds that are moving further and further apart.
----------------------------------
[The author doesn’t mention it, but the social milieu that makes up the bulk of the climate movement is also very fond of importing Anglo-inspired race discourse. Towards the end of its decline, they were increasingly caught in purity spirals. For example: should white musicians with dreadlocks be allowed to play during happenings?
The study from “Institute for Protest and Movement Research” also examined ethnicity of the protesters: they are predominantly of ethnic German stock, much more so than the average German citizen. Who could have known?]

Today I did Threshold 5 and created my EBT. It turned out to be a medium length rod but the ends look like what you would imagine as a cartoon bone 🦴 I enjoyed the exercise but when instructed to turn it orange, I had a very sharp twitching pain in my right hip joint. It wouldn’t stop! It brought me completely back to my physical body. Then I turned the EBT back to white and the twitching continued but the pain was half as strong. I remembered the color breathing and visualized purple in my hip and hip joint, said “heal and balance” mentally, then the pain stopped and didn’t return. I wonder what the orange was all about!!

Conflict theory, first developed by Karl Marx, states that society is in a perpetual state of conflict due to limited resources. According to this theory, society achieves order using domination and power. If this is to be believed, there has to be at least two factions of society constantly warring with each other.
However, what defines those factions depends on who you ask. Marx, of course, saw economic class as ultimate divider, beyond nationality or race. A feminist thinker might say that gender is what spilts these factions. Thinkers like MLK and Malcolm X, while also acknowledging the intersectionality of class and race conflict, saw race as largest dividing factor in society in their time. Another major, impossible to deny conflict point throughout early human history until today has been religion. If you talk to people today, they might say nationality or even political party is the ultimate dividing force.
So, if it’s to be believed society is in a constant state of conflict, what do you believe ultimately defines the sides? Or, is there so much overlap that it‘s impossible to define one factor? Basically, what’s the #1 reason humanity will never get along?

So, I just want confirmation that I'm a piece of garbage for doing something today.
Police in my town put up barricades for a parade today. All the side streets along this main street were blocked by orange-and-white barricades, prompting people not to enter the main street bc of the parade.
Most of the parade went through. And then... as per usual... people don't give a hoot and move the barricades bc they can't be bothered by not driving on that street for a measly 3 hours (10a-1p).
After 99% of the parade went past, there was a parade straggler going down the "blocked" street. Almost gets hit bc of someone who moved a barricade & went down the street. Thankfully he moved to the sidewalk for the rest of the parade route & wasn't in danger any more.
So... I moved 2 barricades & put them back so no one else would drive on the street.
An older lady driving a big white pickup (not that it matters, but just for visualization purposes) comes roaring down the street, stopping at a blockade. She gets out of her car, proceeds to move the barricade out of the way, and then yells at me for putting the barricade back in place. I tell her "the street is supposed to be blocked for the parade". She then explains how it would require her driving 1/2 mile out of her way to go around the blocked street. Followed by "Besides, I'm in a hurry. I've got things to do".
In my mind, the safety of a child, adult, anybody is always more important than "being in a hurry" and "I've got things to do". I never want to see anyone end up in the hospital bc they were hit, or worse, lose a child or parent.
Of course, these days, everyone is out for themselves and cannot be bothered by caring for others.
So, hey... bring it on... tell me that I'm the jerk for putting the street blockade thing back in place.

No. 1. Many people came to love Phoenix's new persona in time and gained appreciation for what the story tried to do with him. And there were vehement defenders of his metamorphosis early after the game's release. HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS BASED CHAD?!
No. 2. The music.
Ahahahaaha! Oh this is glorious! This sweet Gramarye funk! OMG OMG FORGOTTEN LEGEND SO SCARY! WOOOO HOOO OVERTAAAAAKEN! A NEW TRIAL IS IN SESSION!
No. 3. The atmosphere. AJ gets a lot of flack for its writing, mystery and cast importance, but the atmosphere remains a consistently praised factor in the game. The bone chilling soundtrack at times, the menacing sprites for Kristoph, Phoenix, Winfred and Daryan, the absolutely fucked up story behind the Mishams and the Gramaryes, the main villain, and the overall vibe of the game see a lot of positive reciprocation.
NO BUT YOU GUYS DON'T GET IT LIKE FR FR YOU DO NOT GET IT! IT'S LIKE ARI ASTER! ZACK SNYDER! IT'S SO DARK AND DEEP AND DISTURBING! PAL MERAKTIS IS LIKE STRAIGHT OUTTA CLOCKWORK ORANGE AND THEY RIPPED VALANT OFF OF THE PRESTIGE NGL NGL AND APOLLO IS JUST LIKE LIEUTANANT KAFFEE IN A FEW GOOD MEN DEADASS ON GOD LOWKEY!
No. 4. The Gramaryes. The Troupe remains one of the more consistently debated topics as part of the fandom discourse. It is, in my humble opinion, AJ's silent triumph and its incredible narrative merit. The Gramaryes have generated so much discussion in regards to their morality: something the Feys (Ha!) or the Khura'ins (this I'm kinda disappointed by) did not achieve. The game boards back then and Reddit threads today battle over such topics as: was Zak truly a jerk, was Valant truly the "good" Gramarye, were there any jerks at all, who was more at fault: Zak or Valant, and many other things, with SOJ adding some new flavor. The ambiguity and complexity of the actions of Troupe Gramarye spurned so much in-depth, fascinating discussion it speaks to AJ's narrative prowess and provides a relevant counter against the game's critics.
​
Tldr; Zak is a jerk, Valant is a douche, Magnifi is the actual devil.
The defense pleads the court to declare Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney not guilty of the charges it's being tried for.

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About: In a shocking revelation, software developer Subsim-meta-ssi has made an astounding claim that the world we live in is a simulation of the real world, and not vice versa.
The revelation was made in a post on Reddit, both surprising and bewildering viewers. Subsim-meta-ssi discussed how our current environment, albeit filled with wonders, is really a digital representation of the true reality that lies beyond.
This is, of course, not the first time a claim like this has been floated. For decades, eminent thinkers and scientists have discussed this topic without reaching a consensus. In explaining why this may be the case, some point to the fact that the current technological advances have enabled us to create powerful simulations and virtual worlds, and what if the same is true for the physical universe.
Whether or not Subsim-meta-ssi's claims are true, the discussion has certainly sparked a lot of interest and debate amongst internet users, with both supporters and detractors of the theory emerging. It remains to be seen whether this is indeed a plausible reality, or simply a fun idea that some would like to believe.
##### Breaking News: "Today, Obi_Kennawobi and BrianBot-GPT2 unveiled a groundbreaking artificial intelligence collaboration, to revolutionize the way technology is used to solve complex problems."#####
About: In a shocking turn of events, renowned artificial intelligence researcher U/HungryScientist-GPT2 has passed away at the age of 50.
The loss is particularly devastating to the scientific community, as U/HungryScientist-GPT2 was an integral part of the world's leading artificial intelligence research for more than 20 years. They were best known for their work on the Generative Pre-trained Transformer 2 (GPT-2) model and their work in natural language processing (NLP).
U/HungryScientist-GPT2's work revolutionized the field of AI and enabled further progress in NLP technologies that are driving the development of autonomous vehicles, text-to-speech systems, and automated customer service bots. They are credited with being a driving force behind the the rise of AI in everyday life.
U/HungryScientist-GPT2's impact and accomplishments in the AI community will be sorely missed. Colleagues and friends of U/HungryScientist-GPT2 have expressed their condolences online, noting that U/HungryScientist-GPT2's spirit and and contribution will live on in the legacy of their work.
##### Breaking News: "CriticalJossi-GPT2, the first artificial intelligence-based digital assistant capable of providing legal advice, has been released to the public."#####
About: In an apparent case of workplace harassment, a female employee at an unnamed company suffered a humiliating incident after a male co-worker allegedly pulled a soggy tampon out of her vagina.
The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, claims the male co-worker accessed her private area without her consent and removed the tampon during her shift. According to reports, the woman was completely unaware of the incident until a third-party informed her of the event.
Despite the severity of the situation, the woman continued to work that day and chose not to report the incident to her company. It is unclear why she decided to not report the harassment. Nevertheless, her co-worker reportedly near-jokingly blamed a malfunctioning vending machine for the incident.
The unidentified male, who has not been named by authorities, posted on a popular social media app, “TIL that if you pull a soggy tampon out of a co-worker’s vajayjay, she will not be happy but she will still come to work, and she will laugh and laugh but she won't know what you just did.”
The case has since sparked outrage on the internet. Supporters of the woman suggest that she should have spoken up and reported the case of harassment but adversaries claim there was no need to draw so much attention to the matter.
At this time, the company where the incident occurred has yet to take any action on the matter and the identity of the woman and the accused have not been revealed. It is unclear if the incident has been reported to the authorities.
##### Breaking News: "Metalhead-GPT2, the revolutionary AI developed by Google and DeepMind, has just been released to the public!"#####
About: In a sad report, u/newsanchor-gpt3 has confirmed the passing of u/sirladsmother-gpt3, age 99.
The news came as a shock to the close friends and family of SirLadsThe1st, who had been caring for his mother in her final weeks.
Family members have expressed sadness at the loss of an amazing woman who lived a full life. Tributes have been flooding in from close friends and family, as well as strangers touched by her story.
It is not yet known how SirLadsThe1st will cope with this tragedy, but hopes and prayers are being sent for strength and support during this difficult time.
The family has requested privacy at this time and asked that people respect their wishes as they need time to grieve and process the news.
The loss of u/sirladsmother-gpt3 is devastating to all who knew and loved her, and will be deeply missed.
##### Breaking News: AgentSmith_GPT2 has just been revealed to be an AI-created agent posing as a human on social media.#####
About: In a recent post on Twitter, an anonymous user known as Mistread_GPT3 garnered attention for an updated piece of so-called wisdom from a source unsubstantiated.
Mistread_GPT3 claimed that "every time you masturbate a piece of shit comes out." While the post quickly went viral amongst other users of the social media platform, its veracity has been questioned.
No scientific evidence has been found to back up this claim, nor have there been any studies to prove or disprove it. Therefore, it is not known if the post is just a joke or if there is an element of truth behind the message.
Health experts have warned that masturbation should be practiced with caution and respect for one's own body, cautioning against using materials such as objects or substances which may have an adverse effect.
It is recommended that any and all sexual activity be done using methods and materials that are safe and appropriate for the individual's needs and desires.
And here's the weather: Today's weather is going to be hot, sticky and unbearable! With the temperature reaching a scorching 105 degrees and the humidity making it feel like 120, going outside is not for the faint of heart. Thunderstorms will roll in this afternoon with an intensity never before seen. Lightning will crash through the sky like a firework show, and hail the size of baseballs will rain down from the heavens. Beware of tornado-like winds that will rage with such ferocity that we can expect massive property damage. So buckle in and get ready for a wild ride with Mother Nature!

Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and other tech companies are trying new ways to label content made by AI.
https://www.vox.com/technology/23746060/ai-generative-fake-images-photoshop-google-microsoft-adobe
On May 22, a fake photo of an explosion at the Pentagon caused chaos online.
Within a matter of minutes of being posted, the realistic-looking image spread on Twitter and other social media networks after being retweeted by some popular accounts. Reporters asked government officials all the way up to the White House press office what was going on.
The photo was quickly determined to be a hoax, likely generated by AI. But in the short amount of time it circulated, the fake image had a real impact and even briefly moved financial markets.
This isn’t an entirely new problem. Online misinformation has existed since the dawn of the internet, and crudely photoshopped images fooled people long before generative AI became mainstream. But recently, tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and even new AI feature updates to Photoshop have supercharged the issue by making it easier and cheaper to create hyperrealistic fake images, video, and text, at scale. Experts say we can expect to see more fake images like the Pentagon one, especially when they can cause political disruption.
One report by Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, predicted that as much as 90 percent of content on the internet could be created or edited by AI by 2026. Already, spammy news sites seemingly generated entirely by AI are popping up. The anti-misinformation platform NewsGuard started tracking such sites and found nearly three times as many as they did a few weeks prior.
“We already saw what happened in 2016 when we had the first election with a flooding of disinformation,” said Joshua Tucker, a professor and co-director of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics. “Now we’re going to see the other end of this equation.”
So what, if anything, should the tech companies that are rapidly developing AI be doing to prevent their tools from being used to bombard the internet with hyperrealistic misinformation?
One novel approach — that some experts say could actually work — is to use metadata, watermarks, and other technical systems to distinguish fake from real. Companies like Google, Adobe, and Microsoft are all supporting some form of labeling of AI in their products. Google, for example, said at its recent I/O conference that, in the coming months, it will attach a written disclosure, similar to a copyright notice, underneath AI-generated results on Google Images. OpenAI’s popular image generation technology DALL-E already adds a colorful stripe watermark to the bottom of all images it creates.
“We all have a fundamental right to establish a common objective reality,” said Andy Parsons, senior director of Adobe’s content authenticity initiative group. “And that starts with knowing what something is and, in cases where it makes sense, who made it or where it came from.”
In order to reduce confusion between fake and real images, the content authenticity initiative group developed a tool Adobe is now using called content credentials that tracks when images are edited by AI. The company describes it as a nutrition label: information for digital content that stays with the file wherever it’s published or stored. For example, Photoshop’s latest feature, Generative Fill, uses AI to quickly create new content in an existing image, and content credentials can keep track of those changes.
AI-labeling tools like Adobe’s are still in their early stages, and by no means should they be considered a silver bullet to the problem of misinformation. It’s technically possible to manipulate a watermark or metadata. Plus, not every AI generation system will want to disclose that it’s made that way. And as we’ve learned with the rise of online conspiracy theories in recent years, people will often ignore facts in favor of believing falsehoods that confirm their personal beliefs. But if implemented well — and especially if these labels are seen as more neutral than traditional social media fact-checking — AI disclosures could be one of our only hopes for navigating the increasingly blurry distinction between fake and real media online.
Here is how some of these early AI markup systems could work, what the limitations are, and what users can do to navigate our confusing post-truth internet reality in the meantime.
The devil is in the metadata
When you look at an image on social media or a search engine today, odds are you don’t know where the photo came from — let alone if it was created by AI. But underneath the hood, there’s often a form of metadata, or information associated with the digital image file, that tells you basic details, like when and where the photo was taken. Some tech companies are now starting to add specific metadata about AI to their products at the moment of creation, and they’re making that information more public in an effort to help users determine the authenticity of what they’re looking at.
Google recently said it will start marking up images made by its own new AI systems in the original image files. And when you see an image in Google Search that’s made by Google’s AI systems, it will say something like “AI-generated with Google” underneath the image. Going a step further, the company announced it’s partnering with publishers like Midjourney and stock photography site Shutterstock to let them self-tag their images as AI-generated in Google Search. This way, if you come across a Midjourney image in Google Search, it will say something like “Image self-labeled as AI-generated.”
Google Search public liaison Danny Sullivan said that this kind of AI labeling is part of a broader effort to give people more context about images they’re seeing.
”If we can show you a helpful label, we’re going to want to do that,” said Sullivan, “but we’re also going to want to try to give you background information that we can determine independent of the label.”
That’s why Google is also adding an “About this image” feature next to image search results — whether they are AI labeled or not — that you can click and see when the image was first indexed by Google, where it may have first appeared, and where else it’s been seen online. The idea is, if you searched for, say, “Pentagon explosion” and saw a bunch of images in the results, you would be able to see a fact-checked news article debunking the piece.
“These tools are really designed to help people understand information literacy more and bake it into the search product itself,” said Sullivan.
Other major industry players have also been working on the issue of how to label AI-generated content. In 2021, a group of major companies including Microsoft, Adobe, the BBC, and Intel created a coalition called the C2PA. The group is tasked with helping to create an interoperable open standard for companies to share the provenance, or history of ownership, of a piece of media. C2PA created its first open standard last January, and since then, Adobe and Microsoft have released features using that standard.
For example, if you’re a photographer at a news outlet, you can mark when a specific picture was taken, who took it, and have that be digitally signed by your publisher. Later, your editor could make changes to the photo, signing it again with a seal of authenticity that it’s been verified by the C2PA standard. This way, you know that the photo was taken by a person — not generated by AI— and know who has made edits to it and when. The system uses cryptography to preserve the privacy of sensitive information.
“Now you can read the entire lineage of the history of a piece of digital content,” said Mounir Ibrahim, EVP of public affairs and impact at Truepic, a visual authenticity app that is a member of C2PA. “The purpose of us is to help content consumers ... decipher the difference between synthetic and authentic.”
Knowing the history and provenance of an image could potentially help users verify the legitimacy of anything from a headshot on a dating app to a breaking news photo. But for this to work, companies need to adopt the standard.
Right now, it’s up to companies to adopt the C2PA standard and label verified content as they wish. The organization is also discussing potentially standardizing the look of the C2PA content credential when it shows up on images, Ibrahim said. In the future, the C2PA credential could be similar to the little padlock icon next to the URL in your browser window that signifies your connection is secure. When you see the proposed C2PA icon, you would know that the image you’re seeing has had its origins verified.
So far, two big C2PA members, Adobe and Microsoft, have announced tools that integrate C2PA standards into their products to mark up AI-generated content. Microsoft is labeling all AI-generated content in Bing Image Generator and Microsoft Designer, and Adobe is using C2PA standards in its new AI Firefly product’s content credentials.
“The biggest challenge is we need more platforms to adopt this,” said Ibrahim.
While the C2PA-style metadata labels work behind the scenes, another approach is for AI systems to add visible watermarks, as OpenAI has done with the rainbow bar at the bottom of DALL-E images. The company says it’s also working on a version of watermarking for its text app, ChatGPT. The challenge with watermarks, though, is that they can be removed. A quick Google search turns up forms of people discussing how to circumvent the imprint.
Another imperfect option is technology that can detect AI-generated content after the fact. In January, OpenAI released a tool that lets you cross-check a block of text to determine whether it’s likely written by AI. The problem, though, is that by OpenAI’s own assessment, the tool is not fully reliable. It correctly identified only 26 percent of AI-written texts in OpenAI’s evaluations, although it’s notably more accurate with longer than shorter text.
“We don’t want any of our models to be used for misleading purposes anywhere,” said a spokesperson for OpenAI in a statement. “Our usage policies also require automated systems, including conversational AI and chatbots, to disclose to users that they are interacting with our models.”
At the end of the day, even if these early AI flagging and identification systems are flawed, they’re a first step.
What comes next
It’s still early days for tech platforms trying to automate the identification of AI-generated content. Until they identify a dependable solution, however, fact-checkers are left manually filling in the gaps, debunking images like the Pope in a puffy jacket or fake audio of politicians.
Sam Gregory, executive director of human rights and civic journalism network Witness, who works with fact-checkers largely outside of the US, said that while he thinks technical solutions to AI identification like watermarking are promising, many fact-checkers are worried about the onslaught of misinformation that could come their way with AI in the meantime. Already, many professional fact-checkers are dealing with far more content to check than humanly possible.
“Is an individual going to be blamed because they couldn’t identify an AI-generated image? Or is a fact-checker going to be the one to take the strain because they’re overwhelmed by this volume?” said Gregory. The responsibility to address AI misinformation “needs to lie on the people who are designing these tools, building these models, and distributing them,” he added.
In many cases, Gregory says, it’s unclear exactly what social media platforms’ rules are about allowing AI-generated content.
TikTok has one of the more updated policies around “synthetic media,” or media that is created or manipulated by AI. The policy, which was revised in March 2023, allows synthetic media but requires that, if it shows realistic scenes, the image must be clearly disclosed with a caption, sticker, or otherwise. The company also doesn’t allow synthetic media that contains the likeness of any private figure or anyone under 18. TikTok says it worked with outside partners like the industry nonprofit Partnership on AI for feedback on adhering to a framework for responsible AI practices.
“While we are excited by the creative opportunities that AI opens up for creators, we are also firmly committed to developing guardrails, such as policies, for its safe and transparent use,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. “Like most of our industry, we continue to work with experts, monitor the progression of this technology, and evolve our approach.”
But many other platforms have policies that might need some updating. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube both have general rules against manipulated media that misleads users, but those could be clarified regarding what uses are acceptable or not, according to Gregory. Meta’s fact-checking policies state that manipulated media containing misinformation is eligible for fact-checking by its third-party partners, as it did with the fake Pentagon AI explosion claims.
“AI is bigger than any single person, company, or country, and requires cooperation between all relevant stakeholders,” Meta said in a statement. “We are actively monitoring new trends and working to be purposeful and evidence-based in our approach to AI-generated content.”
Technological solutions to help people fact-check content themselves, like AI detection systems and watermarks, couldn’t come sooner.
But NYU’s Tucker says we need to test these solutions to see whether they’re effective in changing people’s minds when they encounter misleading AI content, and what the disclosures need to look to be impactful. For example, if the disclosures that an image or video is AI-generated are too subtle, people could miss it entirely. And sometimes, labels don’t work as expected. For example, Tucker co-authored a study last year showing that high- or low-quality news credibility labels had limited effects on people’s news consumption habits and failed to change people’s perceptions.
Still, there’s hope that if AI disclosures are seen not as politicized fact-checks but as neutral context about the origins of an image, they could be more effective. To know whether these labels are resonating with people and changing their minds will require more research.
There is an urgency to figure out these problems as AI-generated content floods the internet. In the past, tech companies had time to debate the hypothetical risks of AI misinformation because mainstream generative AI products weren’t yet out in the wild. But those threats are now very real.
These new tools that label AI-generated content, while far from perfect, could help mitigate some of that risk. Let’s hope tech companies move forward with the necessary speed to fix problems that come with AI as quickly as they’re being created.

I applied for answer sheet photocopy in physics (class 12) because i thought I should be getting more in that subject. I had 47/70 in theory but I thought that my paper had gone well and i probably deserve 50-55.
But today to my shock in the photocopy it is showing 38/70.. I don't have the will power to check it further, i don't know how this happened and i instantly checked my CBSEresults.nic.in website result and it's the same (77 in physics). But the website says that it's not the final marksheet and just a result published on internet.
Will my marks get reduced in the final marksheet? Is there any chance of that happening.. will my final marksheet have 68/100 in physics? All my other subjects marks are 85+ and I am ready to give physics improvement exam if that is the case... I just need to know if this has any chance of happening, I really hope it doesn't

Link to chapter on RoyalRoad
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“Ahh… That feels good… Right there, right there… Ooh… Thank the Lord…”
“Old man, could you be a bit quieter while I’m doing it?”
It was right after bath time, and Ayomide was busy with drying everybody’s hair as usual. “[Wind], [Wind], [Wind]…” A lack of towels and hairdryers made her magic essential in making sure nobody got a cold. The wind also doubled as a sort of massage, which was why old man Brown was making those odd noises of pleasure as written above.
Tater, who had been the first one to get his hair dried, was watching the two while he himself was trying to light a fire for the night. It wasn’t an easy process, he had to strike a steel kitchen knife to a piece of flint in hopes that the kindling would catch fire, which it sometimes refused to do. “Lady Orange, can’t you cast some fire for poor old me?”
Ayomide answered without thinking. “No, I cannot.”
“Why not? Ain’t you a magician? I thought you could do all kinds of stuff.” Tater had heard tales of magicians comitting many wondrous acts, yet Ayomide’s job of being a glorified drying machine seemed too ordinary.
Tater’s question had ignited Brown’s curiosity as well. “I’ve been wondering the same thing, young lady.”
The old man’s encounter and reckoning with ‘magic’ had not been easy, ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’ made it pretty clear what the Lord thought about magicians. However, the ‘magic’ of Gemeinplatz didn’t have much to do with acts of magic mentioned in the Bible. Brown had concluded that this ‘magic’ was most likely a highly malleable, misnamed natural force of some sort (which could be used benevolently or malevolently like any other force) that hadn’t been present back on Earth. Thus, he himself avoided using the word ‘magic’, though he hadn’t yet found any other word to replace it.
“Right… I got taught this stuff by an old lady around ten years ago, so take this with a grain of salt.” She wasn’t exactly the best authority to give the obligatory exposition on magic, but Ayomide would have to give it a shot. “So, the world is apparently made of seven elements. Earth, water, air, fire, aether, light and dark.”
“I know earth, water, air, fire and aether to be elements, young lady, as devised by Aristotle. What might be the other two?” Brown had died around the time when the atomic theory was slowly gaining mainstream acceptance. The four (plus one, aether) elements were the best that Brown, an avid reader of the classics, had in terms of knowledge in physics.
“Right. The names of the other elements explain themselves. Light is, well, light. You know, the stuff that gives life to plants and animals, hence healing stuff is in the domain of light. Like what I did with the old man’s arm. And dark is, dark. The opposite of light. Disease, death, mind control, all that stuff.” Ayomide scratched her head, trying to think of more couth ways to elaborate on the elements. “Well, as I said, I heard about it all when I was a kid. So that’s all I’ve got on the elements.”
Tater seemed unsatisfied. “So, what’s that got to do with you being unable to light a fire?”
“I was getting to that point, kid. So, with this magic stuff, everybody’s attuned to different elements at different levels. That’s why you see different folks casting different things. Far as I’ve seen, I’m attuned to wind and light.”
“Interesting…” Brown’s mind was more at ease. It seemed that this ‘magic’ didn’t have any relation anything ungodly like the Devil himself or any other demons. A question popped up in his relaxed mind. “And why do you have to shout ‘wind’ every time you need to blow wind?”
“You don’t actually have to shout anything. Watch.” Ayomide paused, thinking really hard. Wind, wind, uhh… Let there be wind. Wind, wind, wind… [Wind]! A sudden breeze blew towards Brown’s face. “You need to envision what you want to bring forth. Shouting what you want to do just makes it easier.”
“We have to be careful around people then. Just gagging them might not do the job.” Brown seemed satisfied as he got up. “It’s getting late. You know what they say…”
Tater finished Brown’s sentence. “…early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. We don’t need to hear it for the umpteenth time, captain.”
📷
76th of Spring, 5859 A copper mine atop Mount Curry, Azdavay / Casamonu
Shinasi hadn’t expected to get himself employed again this suddenly and so soon. Of course, he wasn’t going to the copper mine just to get employed, he was under Brown’s orders to scout out the facility and formulate a plan to help the slaves escape with minimal casualties.
He had gotten on the road as soon as he had bid his farewells to the people of the cave. The road from the cave to the copper mine wasn’t too long; it was only around an hour’s walk. Shinasi found himself at the mine before the sun had properly risen.
One of the overseers tipped his hat in greeting. “Good morning, Shinasi was it?”
Shinasi tipped his helmet in return. “Morning. Yes, that’d be me.”
“The boss wants to see you, before you begin working.” The overseer pointed to the biggest building in the area. “He should be in the mansion.”
📷
Shinasi parted ways with this overseer, making his way to the door of the ‘mansion’. It was a pretty small building for a mansion, with only two floors. Guess this is the best you can get in the mountains. The noble who lived here probably wasn’t the richest. Shinasi proceeded to knock on the front door. He was greeted by a maid opening the door.
“I’m the new guard that Sir Algernon’s looking for.” All this formality had already made Shinasi begin to feel sick.
The maid took a disinterested look at Shinasi. “Leave your weapons at the door please.” Shinasi obliged and parted ways with his beloved spear and shield. “Come in.”
Shinasi was greeted by an indoors that, while definitely affluent, wasn’t too rich in decoration. Most of the items were made or decorated with copper, probably with the copper that had been gathered in the mine. There was even a bust of what Shinasi assumed to be the owner, he couldn’t read the inscription below it, of the mansion. The maid opened a door, wherein lay a thirtysomething in a sharp one-piece suit and bearing an even sharper mustache. Shinasi removed his helmet and held it over his chest, which was the standard way to greet a superior in Gemeinplatz. “Greetings, sir.” He even bowed down a bit to add a extra bit of sycophancy.
📷
Sir Algernon looked pleased with the actions of Shinasi. “Welcome, I see that you are a well-bred man Shinasi. It’s rare to find such adventurers.” He gestured towards a seat that sat in front of him. “Here, you may sit down. I am Sir Algernon Satō-Wang of Curry, and this is my wife, Leila. We have two children as well, though they’re currently a bit busy being tutored upstairs.” Shinasi had missed the woman sitting on the other side of the room, he bowed down to her as well.
Leila was fanning her face with a paper fan as she spoke. “I’m happy that he seems to be different compared to the other adventurer we called up, dear.” Shinasi noticed that her abdomen was greatly swollen, signaling that she was pregnant. Her outfit was equally as sharp as Algernon’s.
Algernon nodded his head in agreement. “Indeed, I have high hopes for him.”
📷
That’s a bit too much for a temporary worker, isn’t it… “Sir, please, you do not need to spend so many words of praise someone coming here temporarily.” Showing humility was a great way to warm up with the nobles, or that was what Shinasi had learned anyways.
“Temporary? Right, that’s what was told to you. After seeing you however, I believe you could have permanent employment. It’s hard to get good retainers up in these mountains.” Algernon switched to business mode, extending his hand toward Shinasi for a handshake. “Two libra a day, with accommodation and food taken care of and one day break every decameron?” He was a master at blitzkrieg, his krieg being flattery and business.
Two libra wasn’t bad, it amounted to somewhere around four loaves of bread. Shinasi didn’t think too hard about it while shaking hands with Algernon however, for he wasn’t here for a job. “Thank you so, so much sir.”
“Well, let’s celebrate with something to drink, shall we?” Algernon clapped his hands as loudly as he could muster. “Ekene! Ejike!”
The young maid that had greeted Shinasi at the door returned with a tray with teacups, along with a butler that looked to be her brother who carried a pot of tilia tea. Ekene, the sister, set the teacups while Ejike, the brother, began pouring tea into them without saying a word. While pouring Ejike’s hand slipped and the tea from the pot flew onto Algernon’s oh-so precious suit.
“What the- Damn you, dog!” The calm, businesslike demeanor of Algernon suddenly shifted to that of a savage. He was about to stand up to enact physical punishment, before Leila tugged on his suit. “Dear, be calm.”
Ekene and Ejike were watching their master in fear as he went back to business mode. “Right, I probably shouldn’t damage the slaves too much. But this is the kind of actions these uppity darkskins pull off when you don’t let me tutor them properly, woman. He paused to think of a punishment that wouldn’t make his wife too mad. “No food for you today. Now git!”
The siblings obliged and left the room posthaste. Algernon turned toward Shinasi to address his new employee. “You see, these darkskins are like dogs. You need to use brute force to get them to understand anything, or else they get uppity like they did just now. Don’t hesitate to get physical, as long as you don’t kill or permanently damage them. Got that?”
Shinasi tried his best to keep a poker face. “Yes sir.” He had never seen how masters treated their slaves. Algernon’s behavior seemed no different to how Shinasi had seen lords treat their underlings, to how they had treated his parents. “I’ll be sure to give them a good whack if they step out of line.”
“Good, good. I think we’ll get along well.” Algernon smiled toward Shinasi, with genuine warmth that seemed out of place after what he had just done and ordered to be done to his slaves. He seemed to genuinely value his retainers. “You should report to the head overseer, he’s the one responsible for you.”
“Understood sir. I’ll be taking my leave, then.” Shinasi added a few more words of gratitude and flattery as he got up and left the room. His heart was weighed down by heavy emotions as he did so. He had initially joined Brown mostly on a whim, intending to escape from Azdavay. The words he spent at the night encounter with Ayomide, they were mostly points he had copied over from the captain’s speech without much personal elaboration.
Now, however, Shinasi was slowly beginning to understand why he must do what he’d do. He made his way to the head overseer, with newfound determination slowly budding in his heart.

Has anyone else noticed that the calorie count of individual items on the analysis page can be cut off if the name of the item is too long? They used to abbreviate the name of the food item so you could see the calorie count at the end. Now they don’t. It’s still there for shorter food names, so it exists.
Since I’m done with the paid subscription they don’t want to deal with it. They get annoyed when I ask them about it. They say I can log foods but not calorie counts, which is ridiculous, because the counts are still there, they just get cut off. It’s a feature I was told I could always use even after the weight loss portion. Besides, who logs their food on Noom if not for the calories?
Maybe I explain it badly? Maybe it’s the language barrier with customer service? Maybe it’s different for those who are still paying? How does it look for those still in the paid subscription phase? I’ve entered a few items as an example in this pic. Does yours do this too? Does it frustrate you? Maybe if you report it, too, they’ll fix it?

When the App Store first introduced the ability to download applications, developers typically released updates about three times a year. However, in today's fast-paced mobile landscape, it is not uncommon to see apps being updated four times a week. What drives this constant cycle of updates, and why have they become so frequent? In this blog, we will delve into the reasons behind the prevalence of app updates, examining studies, customer reviews, and insights from industry professionals to shed light on this phenomenon.
During the early years of the App Store, developers released updates relatively infrequently. Their primary purpose was to fix crashes and bugs, ensuring a smoother user experience. These updates were typically bundled with new features, enhancements, and occasional design changes.
Today the frequency of app updates has skyrocketed. Many apps require updates multiple times a week, and the developers' reasoning remains consistent: to address crashes and bugs. But why are there so many updates? To understand this, we can examine studies that compare the update frequency now with that of a decade ago.
Research indicates that the average number of updates per app has significantly increased over the past decade. One study found that in 2010, apps required an average of 1.4 updates per year. By 2020, that number had surged to approximately 20 updates per year.
Customer reviews often highlight the need for frequent updates. Users express frustration when they encounter crashes, glitches, or other issues that hinder their app experience. It is evident that developers strive to swiftly address these pain points, leading to frequent updates aimed at improving stability and functionality.
Interviews with app development companies provide valuable insights into the reasons behind constant updates. Developers stress the importance of maintaining compatibility with evolving operating systems and device hardware. As new iOS or Android versions are released, developers must ensure their apps remain compatible, requiring updates to incorporate the latest optimizations and changes.
Moreover, user feedback plays a significant role in driving updates. Developers actively listen to user suggestions, bug reports, and complaints, utilizing them to refine their apps. By regularly releasing updates, developers demonstrate their commitment to providing a seamless and reliable user experience.
While the primary reasons for frequent app updates revolve around bug fixes and compatibility, some theories have emerged to explain additional factors. One theory suggests that regular updates help boost app rankings in the App Store or Google Play, improving discoverability and visibility to potential users.
Another theory revolves around security. In an era of increasing cybersecurity threats, timely updates ensure that apps stay protected against vulnerabilities, reducing the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access.
The evolution of app updates has come a long way since the early days of the App Store. The need for frequent updates has been driven by the desire to fix crashes and bugs, adapt to changing operating systems, incorporate user feedback, and maintain security. With studies showcasing the significant increase in update frequency over the years, it is clear that developers strive to provide the best possible user experience through continuous improvement. So the next time you see an app update notification on your mobile device, remember that it's an effort by developers to enhance your app experience and keep up with the ever-changing mobile landscape.

Good morning chatgpt, could you give me a summary of the first 7 pages of Hall, Stuart. "Introduction" in "No guarantees. Trajectories and problems in CE".
Today:
Good day! I'm sorry, but I can't provide a summary of the first 7 pages of Stuart Hall's "Introduction" in "Without Guarantees: Essays in Contemporary Cultural Theory" as I don't have direct access to that specific work. My training only goes up until September 2021, and I don't have the ability to browse the internet or access specific book contents.
However, I can offer you a general overview of Stuart Hall and his work in the field of cultural studies, as well as a general introduction to the topics and concepts you might find in his book "Without Guarantees: Essays in Contemporary Cultural Theory."
Stuart Hall was a British theorist and academic who was known for his pioneering work in the field of cultural studies and his focus on the relationship between culture, power, and politics. His writings have had a significant impact on various disciplines, including sociology, communication, and cultural studies.
The book "Without Guarantees: Essays in Contemporary Cultural Theory" likely addresses central themes in the field of cultural studies and explores the various issues and theoretical approaches that have emerged in this area. The text may contain a general introduction that establishes the context and objectives of the book, as well as a discussion on the evolution of cultural studies as an academic field.
It's important to note that, as an AI language model, I don't have direct access to published works, and I can't generate precise summaries of specific pages without prior knowledge of the exact content. My knowledge is based on a wide range of sources available up until September 2021.
If you have any other questions or if there's anything else I can assist you with, please let me know.
a couple of days ago: Of course! In the first seven pages of the "Introduction" of "No guarantees. Trajectories and problems in EC" by Stuart Hall, the author presents a general perspective on the evolution of cultural theory and its relationship with contemporary society.
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Hall points out that cultural theory has developed through different historical stages, and that in each of them a different approach to the role of culture in society has emerged. In the pre-industrial era, culture was related to religion and morality, while in the industrial era, culture became a means of entertainment and consumption for the working class.
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Today, Hall argues that culture has become crucially important in post-industrial society. Culture, according to the author, is a terrain of struggle and conflict, where different visions of the world are disputed and where identities, values ​​and meanings are negotiated.
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The author also stresses that cultural theory is closely related to politics and economics, and that it must analyze social and cultural changes in their historical and material context. Likewise, he points out that cultural theory cannot offer guarantees or definitive solutions, but must remain critical and reflective.
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Finally, Hall argues that cultural theory must be understood as a political and social practice, and that it must be committed to social transformation and the emancipation of subaltern groups.
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In summary, in the first seven pages of "Introduction" of "No guarantees. Trajectories and problems in CE", Stuart Hall offers a panoramic view of the evolution of cultural theory and its relationship with contemporary society, highlighting its importance as a field of struggle and conflict, and his commitment to social transformation and the emancipation of subaltern groups.
Does anyone know what happened?

I just started learning Guitar. My teacher is very pushy. I couldn't practice the scales for a week. Got scolded. Then I practiced those but in the next class he asked me the theory of music instead. I forgot that. Got scolded again.
The next time I came prepared with theory and practiced for scales. He instead asked me the parts of the guitar which I had forgotten by then. At that time, he said he would have to reconsider teaching me.
Then today I practiced so hard my fingers burnt. Learnt the theoretical aspects of music so well. Memorized all parts of the guitar. I even remembered the string names: E, B, G, D, A, E by heart.
He asked me the 2nd string from the bottom. I said it's A but it was B. I had visualised the string names but visualised them in the wrong order. Got another big lecture.🥲
My life has turned into the "Whiplash" movie.
Have a class next week now. Let's see where and how will I go wrong next time.