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nancyaid · 27 days

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The Significance Of Obtaining A Certificate Iii In Light Vehicle Automotive Mechanical Technology

The automotive industry plays a vital role in keeping our fast-paced society moving. From personal cars to commercial fleets, automobiles are indispensable daily. Skilled automotive mechanics are in high demand to ensure these vehicles function smoothly. One effective route to gaining the necessary skills and knowledge in this field is obtaining a Certificate III in Automotive Mechanical Technology Light Vehicle.

What Is A Certificate Iii In Automotive Mechanical Technology Light Vehicle?

A Certificate III in Automotive Mechanical Technology Light Vehicle is a nationally recognised qualification that prepares individuals to work as automotive mechanics specialising in light vehicles. This certification covers various topics, including diagnosing and repairing mechanical and electrical faults, conducting routine maintenance, and providing excellent customer service.

Benefits Of Obtaining A Certificate Iii In Automotive Mechanical Technology Light Vehicle

Enhanced Employability:

Employers seek individuals with up-to-date skills in the constantly evolving automotive industry. By obtaining a Certificate III, individuals demonstrate their commitment to professional development and improve their chances of securing employment in this competitive field.

Comprehensive Skill Set:

A Certificate III in Automotive Mechanical Technology, Light Vehicle curriculum, covers various topics, ensuring graduates are well-prepared professionals. From engine systems and transmissions to steering and suspension, students gain a comprehensive understanding of the multiple components and systems found in light vehicles. This knowledge enables them to diagnose and repair faults efficiently.

Industry Recognition:

A Certificate III is a nationally recognised qualification providing graduates with industry recognition. This recognition enhances their professional credibility and opens doors to career opportunities within the automotive industry.

Practical Experience:

Obtaining a Certificate involves a combination of theoretical learning and practical training. Students apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios, working on actual light vehicles under the guidance of experienced instructors. This hands-on experience prepares them for the challenges they may face in their future careers.

Pathway To Further Education:

A Certificate III is a solid foundation for individuals looking to advance their careers in the automotive industry. This qualification provides a pathway to higher-level qualifications, such as a Certificate IV or a Diploma in Automotive Technology. These advanced certifications can lead to managerial positions or entrepreneurship opportunities in the automotive sector.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a Certificate III is a valuable qualification for aspiring automotive mechanics specialising in light vehicles. This certification enhances employability and equips graduates with a comprehensive skill set and industry recognition. The practical experience gained during the course prepares them for the challenges of the automotive industry while providing a pathway to further education. By obtaining this certification, individuals can embark on a rewarding career in the automotive field and contribute to keeping society on the move.

#Certificate III Automotive Mechanical Technology Light Vehicle #education #automotive courses #automotive

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maharishimarkandesh · 1 month

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Entrepreneurial Options for graduates of Mechanical Engineering

Recently, a shocking number of engineering graduates have opted to pursue the road to entrepreneurship. Rather than laboring as employees in different companies, they are always thinking up fresh concepts for starting and running their own businesses. A survey found that people with engineering backgrounds launch around one-third of all businesses annually. To succeed as an entrepreneur, an engineer must, however, also graduate from the top engineering schools like Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed To Be University). So, let us find out the top business prospects for graduates of b.tech mechanical engineering.

Construction Industry

If you are choosing to start your own company, you might seriously think about investing in or establishing your construction company. Given that real estate is currently one of the industries with the fastest rate of growth, the explanation is rather clear. Given the strong need for various types of structures, such as medical facilities, dining establishments, commercial and private buildings, lodging facilities and fast food joints, entertainment hubs, educational institutions, colleges, and recreational areas, there is a wide choice available to you.

Store for Spare Parts

Being a skilled and certified engineer, you should be able to identify the best replacement parts. You might open a spare parts store in your neighborhood to serve those who need to replace broken goods.

E-book writer

Engineers are experts in mechanics, electricity, and infrastructure. They can certainly develop textbooks or e-books in any engineering subject in which they specialize in this way. E-books are currently preferred over traditional textbooks. Since the internet is becoming the primary information source, several web sources can be used to gather ideas and themes for an e-book. If you want your e-book to be widely read, you should first establish a serious online interaction with other people. You should be able to do this using several social media networks.

Independent Engineer and Designer

Being a freelance online engineer designer is another fantastic online business concept for engineers. Benefits from this kind of business include flexible work schedules. These engineers can find employment at discounted prices on several websites, such as Upwork, Freelancer, and others. It primarily entails solving engineering puzzles and producing goods for clients worldwide.

Services for Maintenance and Repair

Both the business and private sectors should engage in this. Engineering expertise entails resolving current problems, suggesting more fixes or replacements, and recommending modifications to current protocols and systems. Maintenance and repair involve not just fixing current problems but also foreseeing potential problems in the future and suggesting ways to avoid them.

Conclusion

These are only a handful of the company concepts that have previously been proposed and are being developed as you read this blog. The discipline of mechanical engineering is vast, and the majority of engineers working in it possess an entrepreneurial mindset. Given their vast potential, individuals can launch their own firm and create jobs for people rather than waiting to be hired by organizations.

#b.tech mechanical engineering #b tech electronics & communication engineering #b sc medical course #b sc medical laboratory technology course details

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jcmarchi · 2 months

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Preparing MIT’s campus for cardiac emergencies

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/preparing-mits-campus-for-cardiac-emergencies/

Preparing MIT’s campus for cardiac emergencies

MIT has launched an initiative to install an automated external defibrillator (AED) in every building on MIT’s campus, including leased spaces and satellite locations. The effort will continue over the course of the upcoming year and is supported through funds from MIT’s central budget.

“Rapid access to an AED is a critical step in the survival of cardiac arrest victims,” says Suzanne Blake, director of MIT Emergency Management, which is spearheading the project. “We’re excited about the opportunity to implement this program at MIT and improve our lifesaving capabilities on campus.”

AEDs work by sending an electric charge to the heart of a person experiencing a cardiac emergency in order to restore their normal heart rhythm. But an AED is only effective if it is in close proximity to the cardiac emergency. While AEDs are not an uncommon sight around MIT — many buildings have them — their availability has been dependent on a department’s purchasing one through its own budget. With this new program, the funding is being provided centrally and the devices are being supplied to units free of charge.

“It was important for the Institute to make this investment to ensure that these devices are widely available to members of our community,” says Glen Shor, executive vice president and treasurer. “Suzanne and her team were critical to making this happen, and they will continue to oversee the program as a whole, including the procurement, administration, and maintenance of AEDs on our campus.”

Not only will the program install AEDs in buildings that weren’t previously equipped with them, it will also replace existing ones. For Senior Emergency Management Specialist David Barber, equipping every MIT building with an AED has long been a professional goal — and it’s one that derives from a personal experience.

“About 11 years ago. I became infinitely more interested in AEDs because I had a cardiac event on campus, and an AED saved my life,” Barber says. “I’m very lucky.” It’s a story he’s not shy about sharing with others. In fact, he often recounts his experience during CPR classes he teaches to underscore how use of the device, in combination with CPR, can be lifesaving.

Barber also enjoys describing how this particular type of AED made its way to MIT’s campus — or rather, made its return. “Being passionate about AEDs, I’m always on the lookout for the latest, greatest thing,” he says. Several years ago, MIT mechanical engineering students Rory Beyer ’17 and Moseley Andrews ’17 contacted Barber to find out if his office could provide them with used AEDs for a class 2.009 (Product Engineering Process) project. After graduating from MIT, the students continued to build upon the idea, and Barber heard from them again — this time to share information about their company, Avive, which they co-founded with a third partner, Sameer Jafri.

The energy-efficient Avive devices have built-in maintenance tracking. They also provide users with step-by-step instructions on a touch-screen display — a helpful feature for those without experience operating an AED and those who might find the prospect of doing so intimidating.

For Barber, the success of the new program has been incredibly rewarding. “It’s a triple win: One in every building, new technology, and departments don’t have to pay for them anymore. That the idea was born in an MIT classroom makes it even better.”

While training is not required to use an AED, MIT Emergency Management encourages all MIT community members to take first aid, CPR, and AED training to become more informed about how to respond to cardiac and other emergencies. MIT is a “HeartSafe Campus,” a certification granted by the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation. Contact [email protected] with any questions about the AED program.

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nerdpoe · 8 months

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There's an up-and-coming Tech Giant, called Fenton Works, and Batman is determined to prove that the company is a front for a villain.

Danny, after his parents turned from Ghost hunting to being the first official Ghost Anthropologists, decided to repurpose some of their weapons.

And, well, there was a contest being run by Wayne Enterprises; whoever can design a robot that will help the environment got prize money and a grant.

Danny, in all his mechanical engineering prowess, was bored. So he designed a thing. Repurposed the Fenton Guns into a cute robotic tortoise that would clean the beach.

It spiraled from there, and now Fenton Works is the leading name in green technology that's cleaning up the Earth bit by bit. Sea Dragon robots that clean oil and trash from the ocean; beach tortoises that clean the sand and beach and deposit their hoard of trash into designated receptacles that Danny uses as material to make more robots; Cryptid "stalker" robots with long legs that delicately patrol forests to perform "fuel management" and clear out the underbrush to help manage wildfires; moving gargoyle robots that sit on top of skyscrapers to help clean the air with huge sail-like wings, etc.

Basically, Danny pulls a Doctor Elisabet Sobeck, but with less world ending and more actually helping. (Not that the world ending was Elisabet's fault, of course, but different franchise)

And due to the number of times aliens try to attack and rogues send their own robots to attack people, naturally Danny installed self-defense protocols, along with one single golden rule written into the very OS of every single robot; Save Humans Whatever the Cost.

Problem is, Batman has never seen robots like this not be used for evil purposes, and he knows that their power source (a closely guarded Fenton Works secret) is some sort of liquid that glows green.

He really only knows of one liquid that glows green.

So he's determined to find everything he can about Fenton Works, because there's no way that Daniel Fenton isn't actually a villain in the making.

Danny's just thrilled for the chance to work with Wayne Enterprises.

#dpxdc #dcxdp #dp x dc #dc x dp #story prompt #phanfic #i just really like robot animals okay #sam and tucker are danny's suger babies #sam because she doesn't want to use her parent's money #tucker because he will GLADLY accept a rich person's money being thrown at him #danny cuz he loves his husband and wife and wants them to never want anything

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sageuniversitybpl · 10 months

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Looking for top Mechanical Engineering Colleges in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh? SAGE University Bhopal (SUB), School of Engineering and Technology offers B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering (ME) program. Mechanical Engineering is a 4 years undergraduate program involving study of machine, their designs and functioning.

#b.tech mechanical engineering #mechanical engineering course #ME degree #btech ME college #sage school of engineering and technology #mechanical engineering colleges in Bhopal #best university in mp

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skillaustraliame · 11 months

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Kickstart Your Career in Automotive Mechanics: Certificate III in Light Vehicle Mechanical Technology

If you're passionate about automobiles and want to excel in the field of automotive mechanics, Skills Australia Institute offers the perfect opportunity. Enroll in their renowned Certificate III in Light Vehicle Mechanical Technology program and study in Perth, a vibrant city known for its educational excellence. This comprehensive program equips you with the essential skills and knowledge needed to diagnose, service, and repair light vehicles. With a strong emphasis on practical training and industry-relevant curriculum, Skills Australia Institute ensures that you graduate job-ready. Don't miss out on the chance to kickstart your automotive career. Choose Certificate III in Light Vehicle Mechanical Technology at Skills Australia Institute and embark on a fulfilling journey in the automotive industry.

#Certificate III in Light Vehicle Mechanical Technology #auto mechanic certificate #automotive courses

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lgcderabassi · 1 year

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𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠?

𝐋𝐆𝐂 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐦𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠.

This program will equip students with the necessary tools and knowledge to become a successful technology professional.Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity.

Apply now and jumpstart your journey to success!

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑃𝑙𝑠 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑡𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑙 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒𝑠.𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖,𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡 𝑀𝑜ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑖, 𝑁𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑎𝑟ℎ

.𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑙 099151 58000

𝑤𝑤𝑤.𝑙𝑔𝑐𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖.𝑜𝑟𝑔

#computerengineering #engineering #polytechnic courses #Mechanical Engineering #technology #diploma courses

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mars-institute · 1 year

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Get started on your path to success with one of the Mars Institute’s TAFE courses. Get skilled at your local Melbourne TAFE.

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mystudycounselor · 1 year

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Do you know about the most demanding career in Australia?

Does innovation and technology excite you? We have an amazing career option for you. Get yourself engaged in a well paying career. Enhance your creativity by pursuing automotive courses in Australia. You will gain more practical knowledge to work according to industry standards.

Reach us out for more details.

#Automotive Courses #Automotive Courses in Australia #Automotive Mechanic Courses #Automotive technology courses

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nelkcats · 1 year

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The Crime Lord does not stop flirting with me!

When Danny ran away from home and ended up in Gotham he wasn't quite sure what to do, adrenaline was coursing through his veins and all he wanted was a place to be safe.

That's when Crime Alley lit up like a Christmas tree and Danny knew it could be his new home, something about Crime Alley was drawing him in. It wasn't long before he decided to get a job to lay low. Of course, the latter was a bust because Red Hood noticed him almost instantly.

Contrary to his expectations, the Crime Lord took an interest in him but said nothing. He simply asked him to repair his motorcycle like a normal customer in his new job. Danny did and well, he couldn't help but repair some damaged systems and add some modifications. He hoped he wasn't stepping out of line, he just couldn't help himself, it was second nature to repair damaged things.

He thought Red Hood would be angry about it but the man seemed delighted (or as delighted as he could look with the mask), he looked at Danny and asked him what else he could do. Nervously, he told him that he was somewhat good with technology and before he knew it he had been hired by a gang (more or less, they were just asking for some custom orders).

So, technically he established as the mechanic and supplier to the Hood gang, and more specifically to the Crime Lord himself. He gave Hood some upgrades and became his supplier of (mostly harmless) weapons and upgrades. This attracted the attention of most of the gangs that were against the Crime Lord and Batman himself.

Jason, noticing how nervous the guy was assured him that he would protect him and no one was going to hurt him as long as he was around, it was obvious he wasn't from Gotham. For some reason, his new employee blushed every time he said those words.

Danny didn't know if Red Hood understood what he was doing (That was totally a flirt for protection spirits!), every day it was getting harder and harder not to respond to him. His ghost side kept screaming that he got a good match!

Which was technically true, considering that Red Hood had promised him protection and let him stay in his haunt (it became obvious that Crime Alley was his haunt after a few days in Gotham but strangely it accepted him)

Jason continued to promise Danny that he would be safe (poor boy always looked nervous) and Danny wondered how many days he could take the blatant flirting.

#dpxdc #Danny is new in Gotham #he stays in Crime Alley #Jason's haunt was calling him #At first Jason was suspicious about him #but the guy was nice #And an amazing mechanic #Jason loves his new updates #he checked for all the bugs of course #but after confirming it was harmless he returned to him #and asked what else he could do #Danny “I lived between mad scientists” Fenton could do a lot of things #dp x dc #dc x dp #dead on main #Jason hired him after hearing that he could create weapons #even though Danny told him he only made stun weapons #Jason knows he should be suspicious #but something inside of him (similar to the pits) just believes in Danny #Saying “I will protect you” It's flirting if you tell it to a protective ghost #Danny is not sure if he will survive his boss casual flirting #Jason doesn't know what he's doing #but he thinks the boy is cute #deadonmain

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 months

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Three AI insights for hard-charging, future-oriented smartypantses

MERE HOURS REMAIN for the Kickstarter for the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There’s also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

Living in the age of AI hype makes demands on all of us to come up with smartypants prognostications about how AI is about to change everything forever, and wow, it's pretty amazing, huh?

AI pitchmen don't make it easy. They like to pile on the cognitive dissonance and demand that we all somehow resolve it. This is a thing cult leaders do, too – tell blatant and obvious lies to their followers. When a cult follower repeats the lie to others, they are demonstrating their loyalty, both to the leader and to themselves.

Over and over, the claims of AI pitchmen turn out to be blatant lies. This has been the case since at least the age of the Mechanical Turk, the 18th chess-playing automaton that was actually just a chess player crammed into the base of an elaborate puppet that was exhibited as an autonomous, intelligent robot.

The most prominent Mechanical Turk huckster is Elon Musk, who habitually, blatantly and repeatedly lies about AI. He's been promising "full self driving" Telsas in "one to two years" for more than a decade. Periodically, he'll "demonstrate" a car that's in full-self driving mode – which then turns out to be canned, recorded demo:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/

Musk even trotted an autonomous, humanoid robot on-stage at an investor presentation, failing to mention that this mechanical marvel was just a person in a robot suit:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/elon-musk-tesla-robot-optimus-ai

Now, Musk has announced that his junk-science neural interface company, Neuralink, has made the leap to implanting neural interface chips in a human brain. As Joan Westenberg writes, the press have repeated this claim as presumptively true, despite its wild implausibility:

https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/elon-musk-lies

Neuralink, after all, is a company notorious for mutilating primates in pursuit of showy, meaningless demos:

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/

I'm perfectly willing to believe that Musk would risk someone else's life to help him with this nonsense, because he doesn't see other people as real and deserving of compassion or empathy. But he's also profoundly lazy and is accustomed to a world that unquestioningly swallows his most outlandish pronouncements, so Occam's Razor dictates that the most likely explanation here is that he just made it up.

The odds that there's a human being beta-testing Musk's neural interface with the only brain they will ever have aren't zero. But I give it the same odds as the Raelians' claim to have cloned a human being:

https://edition.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/03/cf.opinion.rael/

The human-in-a-robot-suit gambit is everywhere in AI hype. Cruise, GM's disgraced "robot taxi" company, had 1.5 remote operators for every one of the cars on the road. They used AI to replace a single, low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged, specialized technicians. Truly, it was a marvel.

Globalization is key to maintaining the guy-in-a-robot-suit phenomenon. Globalization gives AI pitchmen access to millions of low-waged workers who can pretend to be software programs, allowing us to pretend to have transcended the capitalism's exploitation trap. This is also a very old pattern – just a couple decades after the Mechanical Turk toured Europe, Thomas Jefferson returned from the continent with the dumbwaiter. Jefferson refined and installed these marvels, announcing to his dinner guests that they allowed him to replace his "servants" (that is, his slaves). Dumbwaiters don't replace slaves, of course – they just keep them out of sight:

https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/behind-the-dumbwaiter/

So much AI turns out to be low-waged people in a call center in the Global South pretending to be robots that Indian techies have a joke about it: "AI stands for 'absent Indian'":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

A reader wrote to me this week. They're a multi-decade veteran of Amazon who had a fascinating tale about the launch of Amazon Go, the "fully automated" Amazon retail outlets that let you wander around, pick up goods and walk out again, while AI-enabled cameras totted up the goods in your basket and charged your card for them.

According to this reader, the AI cameras didn't work any better than Tesla's full-self driving mode, and had to be backstopped by a minimum of three camera operators in an Indian call center, "so that there could be a quorum system for deciding on a customer's activity – three autopilots good, two autopilots bad."

Amazon got a ton of press from the launch of the Amazon Go stores. A lot of it was very favorable, of course: Mister Market is insatiably horny for firing human beings and replacing them with robots, so any announcement that you've got a human-replacing robot is a surefire way to make Line Go Up. But there was also plenty of critical press about this – pieces that took Amazon to task for replacing human beings with robots.

What was missing from the criticism? Articles that said that Amazon was probably lying about its robots, that it had replaced low-waged clerks in the USA with even-lower-waged camera-jockeys in India.

Which is a shame, because that criticism would have hit Amazon where it hurts, right there in the ole Line Go Up. Amazon's stock price boost off the back of the Amazon Go announcements represented the market's bet that Amazon would evert out of cyberspace and fill all of our physical retail corridors with monopolistic robot stores, moated with IP that prevented other retailers from similarly slashing their wage bills. That unbridgeable moat would guarantee Amazon generations of monopoly rents, which it would share with any shareholders who piled into the stock at that moment.

See the difference? Criticize Amazon for its devastatingly effective automation and you help Amazon sell stock to suckers, which makes Amazon executives richer. Criticize Amazon for lying about its automation, and you clobber the personal net worth of the executives who spun up this lie, because their portfolios are full of Amazon stock:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Amazon Go didn't go. The hundreds of Amazon Go stores we were promised never materialized. There's an embarrassing rump of 25 of these things still around, which will doubtless be quietly shuttered in the years to come. But Amazon Go wasn't a failure. It allowed its architects to pocket massive capital gains on the way to building generational wealth and establishing a new permanent aristocracy of habitual bullshitters dressed up as high-tech wizards.

"Wizard" is the right word for it. The high-tech sector pretends to be science fiction, but it's usually fantasy. For a generation, America's largest tech firms peddled the dream of imminently establishing colonies on distant worlds or even traveling to other solar systems, something that is still so far in our future that it might well never come to pass:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

During the Space Age, we got the same kind of performative bullshit. On The Well David Gans mentioned hearing a promo on SiriusXM for a radio show with "the first AI co-host." To this, Craig L Maudlin replied, "Reminds me of fins on automobiles."

Yup, that's exactly it. An AI radio co-host is to artificial intelligence as a Cadillac Eldorado Biaritz tail-fin is to interstellar rocketry.

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

#pluralistic #elon musk #neuralink #potemkin ai #neural interface beta-tester #full self driving #mechanical turks #ai #amazon #amazon go #clm #joan westenberg

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cy-cyborg · 10 months

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Tips for wring amputees: its ok if your amputee can't repair their own prosthetics

There's a trope in fiction for amputees to always be these mechanical geniuses who can make and repair their own prosthetics, endlessly tinkering away and improving them. This isn't a particularly trope, and i dont think its harmful or anything, but in reality, prosthetics are REALLY, REALLY complicated, and a lot of amputees cant do their own repairs. And thats ok. Like, prosthetic creation and repair is way, way harder than I think people expect. Well outside the skillset of your standard mechanic, handy man or craftsperson.

People who make and repair prosthetics are called prosthetists. To become a prosthetist, most countries around the world today require you to have completed a bachelor's degree in specifically in prosthetics and orthotics, which covers not only how to make a prosthetics (and orthodics) but a great deal of medical knowledge, physics, how different forces impact "non-standard" bodies, the additional biological wear-and-tear that comes with being an amputee and so much more. This will qualify you to do the job of fitting/making the prosthetic socket (the part that attaches to your body) and putting premade components together to make a functioning device. On top of this, many prosthetists are also expected to have artistic skills, sewing skills, good physical strength and dexterity, IT skills, and more recently, knowledge of 3D modelling and printing.

You want to make all the high-tech components the prosthetists put together to make the full prosthetic? The requirements for that vary country to country, but most will require at least some level study in the field of engineering and/or medicine, on top of what was already required for the prosthetics course.

The reason for all this is because even "basic" prosthetics are extremely finicky, and messing up one thing will have a domino effect on the rest of the body, especially in more complicated prosthetics. It can also result in people getting severally injured if anything is even slightly off. many leg amputees for example end up with spinal issues due to extremely minor issues with their prosthetic that weren't caught until years later, and by then the damage had been done.

Some amputees do learn to do basic repairs. This is most common in places like the US, where a visit to the prosthetist can cost hundred to thousands of dollars (depending on your insurance), but it's also quite common in rural parts of countries like Australia, where cost isn't an issue but access is due to vast distances between major cities. I was personally in this category; as a kid, my nearest prosthetist was 6 hours away. My prosthetist was able to teach my dad, who later taught me, how to do some of the simple repairs, but we still needed to go in every few weeks for the more complex stuff (Kids prosthetic need more adjusting than adults because they're still growing. Also I was rough on my prosthetics and broke them a lot lol).

But even after being taught how to do repairs and having my prosthetics for 20+ years, I only ever did these sorts of repairs to my below-knee prosthetic. I will not do any repairs of any kind to my above knee leg, which is much more technologically complex. Every time I tried, I made it worse to the point where the leg was unusable. I just leave those repairs to the guy who went to university to learn how to do it, and sometimes even he needs to send it off to someone with even more specialist knowledge when it's really badly messed up lol. Last time that happened Australia post lost the package. Not really relevant to this post, I just find the idea of it being sent to the wrong place by accident hilarious, it was one of my more realistic legs too so someone probably had a heart attack when they opened that package lmao.

Anyway, back on track lol.

This isn't even touching on the fact that on some more advanced prosthetics, many features are actually locked behind a security barrier only prosthetists can access. My prosthetic knee has an app on my phone I can pair it to, that allows me to change certain settings and swap between certain modes for different activities that tell the leg to change its behaviour depending on what I'm doing (e.g. a mode for running, a mode for cycling etc). but most of the more in-depth settings I can't access, only my prosthetist can, and he can only gain access to those settings with a security key given to him by the manufacturing company that requires him to provide proof of his credentials to receive it. I don't really agree with this btw, something about being locked out of my own leg's settings makes me feel a bit of an ick, but it's set up like this because people used to be able to access these settings and they would mess with things to the point their leg was virtually unusable. Because altering one setting had a domino effect on all the others, and a lot of folks weren't really paying attention to what they were messing with, all their prosthetists could do was factory reset the whole leg, which causes some issues too. Prosthetic arms are often similarly complex, as I understand it and have similar security barriers in place for more advanced arms. I don't know for sure though, so take that with a grain of salt.

All this to say these are incredibly delicate, finicky and complex pieces of equipment. There's nothing wrong with having a techy amputee character who can do their own repairs, but in reality, that is pretty rare, and its ok to have your character need to see a prosthetist or someone more knowledgeable than them. It's a part of the amputee experience I don't see reflected very often in media. In fact, the only examples I can think of in fiction (meaning not stories based on real people) where this is reflected are Full metal alchemist.

technically I think Subnautica Below Zero also mentions prosthetists are a thing in that world, but its a very "blink and you'll miss it" kind of thing...in fact I did miss it until my last playthrough lol.

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txttletale · 4 months

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Can you elaborate on what you think would be the minimal needed changes to fix what you see as an issue in Civ? Civ has done fairly large shifts in some mechanics before, and "civ like" is still an interesting game space that can scratch certain itches

yeah i mean as i said, the baked-in racism arises from a certain set of core assumptions that i think lock it into that position, which are that civ is a

1) symmetrical

2) 4X

game about

3) 'real world civilizations' (deeply loaded terms ofc but that's how civ envisions them)

4) trying to 'win the game'

5) with a global

6) and transhistorical

scope

so, in its role as a symmetrical (1) game with victory conditions (4), civ as a text has to take positions on what constitutes a 'successful civilization'. as a (2) 4X game this definition also has to include some variation on the profoundly loaded eponymous Xs, 'explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate'. furthermore, as a (1) symmetrical game with a global, transhistorical (5, 6) scope, it has to necessarily create a model of what 'a civilization' looks like and apply it to every 'civilization' it wants to include, at all points in their history.

this all kind of naturally leads into civ being a game in which the colonial european imperialist powers are the default 'civilizations' and all other cultures are basically just like them -- a game where technology progresses linearly and innovations are made in the order they were in european imperial history -- a game where all cultures fundamentally work in the same way and hold similar values, a game where all religions are based on christianity (i mean, just look at civ vi's system, where every religion has a 'prophet', 'apostles', 'missionaries' and 'inquisitors'), a game where not only do cultures have teleological overarching 'goals' but where these goals are shared and these goals are fundamentally based on imperialist visions of 'victory'.

to drill into some specific examples: you can't play a game of civilization without founding cities. you will constantly be founding cities. when you're playing as 'the mongols' or 'the cree' or 'scythia', this makes no sense! these were peoples who historically had rich culture, science, arts, and certainly a notable military history, but were (to varying degrees, at varying times in their history, i don't mean to create a new and similarly heterogenous absolutist category here) nomadic!

similarly, to advance in civilization you must invent 'the wheel'. 'the wheel' is necessary to many later innovations, while of course the andean peoples represented by the playable 'inca' never made significant use of the wheel because the lack of suitable pack animals and environmental factors meant that it did not, in fact, prove a suitable tool for transporting large quantities of heavy goods. for an even more glaring example, a lot of early military technology is locked behind 'horses', which is pretty absurd considering that several of the game's playable civilizations, in the real world, developed plenty of military technology despite living on a continent without any horses!

so having established what i mean by 'the issue', which is that the game's core assumptions lock it into imposing a eurocentric, imperialist vision of 'civilization' onto cultures where it doesn't make sense, here's a few different jenga blocks you could pull out to resolve it:

SID MEIER'S EUROPE

the pillar you knock out here is #5. keep the game engine and core assumptions just as founded on eurocentric imperialist societies as they are now, and just make it about european empires doing imperialism. now, i think we can immediately spot some problems in there -- how are we going to represent the rest of the world? after all, this kind of just creates a situation where, either as NPC factions or as outright exclusions, all other cultures in the world are deprived of any meaningful agency in "history". this one just kind of gives you a new problem and also from a gameplay standpoint results in a game that just Has Less Stuff On It. i think this is a bad one

SID MEIER'S ELYSIUM

now here's one you can get if you knock out pillar #3. keep the same assumptions and gameplay and transhistorical global narrative scale, but remove the 'real-world' aspects. you can get real silly with it and add fantasy stuff to it, or you can be a relatively grounded 'our-world-but-to-the-left' situation. now to some extent this already matches a lot of the features already in civ games: after all, unless you specifically load in a 'true start location earth' map, you're usually playing on a strange parallel world with semiplausible but wholly original continents! now, you also need to get some fucking Nerds and Geeks working at your company to build out your fictional world, or you'll just end having pointlessly pallette swapped a bunch of factions that are now just Schmance, Schmina, and the Schoman Schempire, and not really have avoided the issue. but if you do that, and invent a deep and rich fictional history to riff on, then you could create something really cool and incorporate alt-tech or fantasy or retrofuturistic elements or all sorts of cool shit.

the downside of this is that it makes your game less accessible and appealing to a lot of people. a big part of (at least the initial) appeal of civilization is pointing at the screen and saying 'hey i recognize that thing!'. it is instantly more accessible to someone who isn't super invested in strategy or fantasy dork shit to say to them 'you can be BRAZIL and nuke FRANCE while at war with CHINA and allied to BABYLON'.

more importantly than that, i think some parts of the historical theming (because let's be honest, it is ultimately theming, i don't think civ is interested in 'history' in any serious way) serve a pretty load-bearing role in the game's information economy. it's a pretty tall order to ask a player to remember the unique abilities of dozens of factions and unique wonders, and the historical background makes it a lot easier. e.g., it is a lot easier for a player looking at wonders to remember 'the pyramids need to be built on desert' or 'broadway will help me make more culture' than it would be for them to remember the requirements/effects of 'under-eusapia' or the 'wompty dompty dom center'. i think this is one of the number one things that, if subtracted, would meaningfully create something that is no longer 'sid meier's civilization'.

SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI

now if you cut out #3 and #5 and #6 on the other hand... sid meier's alpha centauri is not technically an entry in the civilization franchise, but i think most people correctly consider it one. it has similar 4X gameplay to the series, and its (very bad) spiritual successor beyond earth was an official entry. instead of 'civilizations', the playable factions are splinters from a colony ship that fell into civil war as soon as it landed, each one representing a distinct ideology. now, y'know, this doesn't mean it's free from Some Problems (the portrayal of the Human Hive in particular is some of the worst apects of 90s orientalism all piled together) but i think they're problems it's not at all locked into by its design!

SID MEIER'S THERMOPILAE

by cutting out #5 and #6 -- making a civ game about a particular time and place in history you could achieve something much more richly detailed in mecahnics while also being able to handwave a lot more homogeny into it. giving the same basic mechanics to, say, every greek city-state in the peloponnesian war is far less ideologically loaded than giving them to every 'historical civilization' someone who watched a few history channel documentaries once can think of. it also lets you get really into the weeds and introduce era-and-place-specific mechanics.

the scale needs to be smaller conceptually but it doesn't really have to be smaller in terms of gameplay -- just make maps and tech trees and building more granular, less large-scale and more local and parochial and specific. this also gives you the advantage of being able to do the opposite of the last two options and really lean hard into the historical theming.

if this sounds like a good idea to you, then good news -- old world does something pretty similar, and it's pretty good! worth checking out.

SID MEIER'S LOVE AND PEACE ON PLANET EARTH

what if we take an axe to #2 and #4? instead of putting all these civilizations into a zero-sum game of violent expansion, make it possible for several civilization to win, for victory goals to not inherently involve 'defeating' or 'beating' other factions. now, that doesn't mean that the game should be a confictless city-builder -- after all, if you've decided to be super niceys and just try and make your society a pleasant place to live, that doesn't mean that the guy next to you isn't going to be going down the militarist-expansionist path. hell, even if all you want to do is provide for your citizens, a finite map with finite resources is going to drive you into conflict of some kind with your neighbours in the long run.

to make this work you'd have to add a bunch of new metrics -- 'quality of life', for example, as a more granular and contextual version of the 'happiness' mechanics a few games have had, or 'equality', game metrics that you could pursue to try to build an egalitarian, economically and socially just society where everyone is provided for. after all, why shouldn't that be a goal to strive for just as much as going to mars or being elected super world president or whatever?

SID MEIER'S DIVERSE HISTORICAL CONTEXTS

ultimately, all cards on the table, if i was made god-empress of The Next Civ Game, this is the option i'd go for: jettison #1 as much as practically possible, introduce as much asymmetry into the game as you can. some civilizations keep the established settler-city model -- others are nomadic, building their units in movable 'camps' -- maybe the 'colonial' civilizations, your USA and Brazil and so on, can be like the alien factions from the alpha centauri DLC, only showing as NPCs at the appropriate point in the timeline when other civs are colonizing other continents, or putting you into an accelerated-forward version of the game if you choose to play as one.

you could combine this with a more interesting version of humankind's civ-choosing system, where you lock certain civilization choices behind specific gameplay events. this would let you do crazy shit with the balancing -- imagine an ostrogothic kindgom civ with crazy strong abilities and units that you could only choose to play as if your capital is overrun by barbarians, or a hungarian civ that requires you to have started as a nomadic civ and invaded somewhere, or a soviet union civ that requires you to lose a revolution, or a usamerican civ that requires you to split off all cities on a foreign continent from your original civ -- you could add so much variety and so many new and bizarre strategies into the game with this!

as for the universal aspects of tech and the narratives of linear progression contained within, there are lots of approaches that already solve this! stuff like stellaris' semi-random branching tech paths, or endless space 2's circular tech web, could allow civilizations to take tech paths that make sense for them, rather than imposing one single model of 'technological progress' on the wole world.

obviously there's limits to this, right -- civilization isn't going to be a detailed historical materialism simulator any time soon. but i think abandoning the idea that every faction has to play fundamentally the same and introducing some severe asymmetry as well as choices that you can make after starting the game would work wonders to wash out some of the racist and colonialist assumptions built into the game's foundation, while also (imo) creating a more fun and interesting game.

#ask

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reiding-writing · 21 days

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AHHHHH UNSUB READERRRR such an elite concept, could I maybe request soccer calling her post transfer just to talk to her?? of maybe the team catching wind that he's been in contact with her after the case??

THE PHONE CALLS

spencer & gn!unsub!reader || 0.9k || bloodied roses event!!

WARNINGS: just morgan prying and getting absolutely nowhere with it

a/n — ik it was just a typo but calling spencer ‘soccer’ had me laughing for like five minutes thanks for making my day 😭🙏

main masterlist!! ⋆｡°✩ unsub!reader masterlist!!

Spencer had spent a lot of time on his phone recently.

An abnormally long amount of time for somebody who’s sworn off technology in favour of the more ‘traditional’ methods of doing things.

5PM. On the dot. Every single Wednesday. Rain or shine, office or case, Spencer Reid was talking to somebody over the phone.

There were a few theories floating around.

A hidden partner? Almost immediately shot down with how rigorously timed the calls were.

His mom? She had just as much of a hatred of phones as he did, and everyone knew he sent her letters every day anyway.

A doctor maybe? A therapist? A librarian from somewhere in rural Russia that had the singular print of some random piece of literature that Spencer was trying to get his hands on?

It was honestly anyone’s guess.

The fact that he was being oddly secretive about it wasn’t helping anything either.

It was like he was scared of the team finding out. What was there to be ‘scared’ of? They we’re practically family, he surely knew that they wouldn’t judge him for whatever it was, so why was he keeping everything under lock and key?

Hotch told people that they should just leave it, that he’s entitled to his privacy and doesn’t have to tell anyone anything that he doesn’t want to. But that doesn’t exactly fair too well when you’re talking to a group of people who analyse human behaviour for a living. And Hotch wasn’t even following his own advice.

And Hotch wasn’t even following his own advice.

“That’s good, that’s great news,”

Spencer wasn’t exactly quiet either.

He’d practically barricaded himself in the break room to be able to take the call privately, but his voice was still easily heard through the glass, and it wasn’t exactly helping to dim the over-active curiosity of his teammates.

“You know what I mean, it’s progress, it shows that they’re trusting you,”

His pacing also left something to be desired, rhythmic and almost mechanical like it was a way for Spencer to blow off whatever nervous tension had built up during the course of the phone call.

“Alright, yeah, I’ll speak to you next week okay?” A small pause. “Okay, bye,”

Most of the team scrambled to make themselves look busy as Spencer pocket his phone and emerged from behind his self-imposed glass wall, but there was always one who didn’t know how to follow a crowd.

“Alright, you’ve kept your secrets long enough, who is it genius?” Morgan’s voice wasn’t accusatory as it was curious, and he gestures outwards for Spencer’s answer. One that doesn’t come.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I talk to a lot of different people,” He re-takes his seat as his desk with a small shrug, lips awkwardly pressed into a line.

“You take the same phone call every single week at the same exact time, that’s not ‘a lot’ of people pretty boy, it’s one,” Morgan leans forward in his chair, elbows on the table. “So, who is it? A girlfriend?”

“No—” Spencer shakes his head almost too quickly.

“A boyfriend?”

“No it’s not—” Spencer sighs exaggeratedly. “It’s nothing like that, it’s just an acquaintance,”

“An acquaintance you talk to every single week no matter what, even when we’re in the middle of a case,”

“I like having a fit schedule,”

Morgan shakes his head with a laugh. “Nothing about this job is ‘scheduled’ Reid, you’re telling me you only keep a schedule when it comes to this specific acquaintance of yours?” His raises his eyebrow unbelievingly, but Spencer doesn’t back down from his stance.

“They have a much stricter schedule than I do, we talk when they’re available,”

Morgan gives a small breathy laugh and a slow, almost mocking nod. “Right, sure,”

“I’m telling you the truth, I don’t know what else you want,” Spencer shrugs again, this time with a small air of exasperation.

He wasn’t technically lying. You did have a strict schedule at the facility you’d been moved to, and you used the one phone call you had a week so that you could speak to him. He wouldn’t want you to waste it by him not picking up. That wouldn’t be fair.

“Whatever you say pretty boy,” Morgan fiddles with the pen in his hand before pointing it across the bullpen in Spencer’s direction. “But rest assured, I will find out who you’re talking to, even if it means having Garcia hack into your phone records,”

Spencer hopes for both of your sakes that Morgan doesn’t find out who he’s talking to.

Although the threat of Garcia didn’t really hold any value, not that Morgan knew that. All they would find was a psychiatric institute, and for all he could’ve been speaking to absolutely anyone there, patient or staff.

So for the time being, your weekly talks remained something kept held close to his chest, something that would hopefully stay that way indefinitely.

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid #criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds fluff #bloodied roses 🥀

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