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Monday, June 23, 2025
(2025-06-23) Markets Wobble Junes Finance Headlines
Here's a comprehensive synthesis of the finance news from the provided summaries, written in a journalistic style:
Global Markets on Edge as Iran-Israel Conflict Escalates, Threatening Oil Prices
Global financial markets are bracing for significant volatility as the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran casts a long shadow over the global economy. The core concern centers on the potential for a sharp rise in oil prices, which could trigger a global recession. This threat stems from a chain of events following an attack on Iranian nuclear sites by Israel, which has now drawn the United States into the fray.
The situation has deteriorated rapidly. On Friday, a barrel of Brent crude was already trading around $77, having risen by over 10% since mid-June when initial tensions flared. This increase, however, is merely a precursor of what could be in store. Iran's parliament has voted to shut down the vital Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping channel through which a significant portion of the world's oil passes. This move, enacted in response to a US attack on Iran, has sent shockwaves through the financial markets. Analysts warn that the combined impact of restricted oil supply and geopolitical instability could drive prices even higher when markets open, possibly pushing them to levels not seen in years. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reported that US attacks have "devastated Iran’s nuclear program", further escalating the conflict.
The implications of this conflict extend far beyond the immediate surge in oil prices. The potential for a global recession looms large. Higher energy costs would inevitably impact consumer spending, business investment, and overall economic growth. Investors are likely to seek safe-haven assets, such as gold and the U.S. dollar, leading to further shifts in the financial landscape. The situation is made even more uncertain by the actions of former President Donald Trump, who initiated the US attacks.
Share Market Fraud Underscores Ongoing Risks for Investors
Beyond the geopolitical turmoil, other financial news highlights the ongoing risks and vulnerabilities within the market. In a case that serves as a cautionary tale for investors, two individuals from Andhra Pradesh have been booked for allegedly defrauding the managing director of a company out of approximately Rs 4 crore. The accused lured the MD into investing in the share market, promising lucrative returns. The FIR was registered on Saturday at Bavdhan police station, with the accused now facing charges under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The press release from Sunday indicates that the fraudulent activities began as early as January 2023.
This case is a stark reminder of the importance of due diligence and vigilance in the investment world. While the allure of quick profits can be enticing, investors must carefully research investment opportunities, verify the credentials of financial advisors, and be wary of any promises that seem too good to be true. This case underscores the need for a robust regulatory framework and effective enforcement to protect investors from fraud and malfeasance.
Stablecoin Evangelist: Katie Haun's Vision for Digital Dollars
Amidst the turmoil of traditional markets and the risks of fraud, the evolution of digital currencies continues to garner attention. One of the key figures in this space is Katie Haun, a staunch advocate for stablecoins. She is seen as a leading voice in the ongoing debate surrounding the future of finance.
Haun's perspective focuses on the potential of stablecoins to revolutionize the digital landscape. As she argued in a 2018 debate with Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, stablecoins offer a compelling solution to the volatility that has plagued cryptocurrencies. While critics, like Krugman, focus on the wild price swings of assets like Bitcoin, Haun emphasizes how stablecoins, which are pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar, can provide the benefits of blockchain technology without the risk of dramatic price fluctuations. These digital tokens are designed to maintain a stable value, making them attractive for everyday transactions, global payments, and potentially, for hedging against the impact of volatility, as currently felt in the market. This perspective is particularly relevant in times of geopolitical instability, when traditional markets are prone to rapid shifts. Haun's focus on stablecoins reflects a broader trend in the financial industry, as the search continues for digital assets that offer stability and reliability in an ever-changing world.
Looking Ahead: Navigating Uncertainty and Protecting Investments
The current financial landscape is characterized by considerable uncertainty. The escalating conflict in the Middle East poses a significant threat to global economic stability, with potential implications for oil prices, inflation, and overall growth. Investors must remain vigilant, monitor market developments closely, and adjust their strategies accordingly. At the same time, they should be aware of the persistent risks of fraud and other malfeasance in the financial markets. The focus should remain on long-term investment goals, while making informed decisions based on thorough research and due diligence. The innovative potential of digital currencies, particularly stablecoins, offers a potential pathway to navigate future uncertainty in the financial landscape, but it requires a proactive approach to understanding and managing risk.
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This Week's Top E-commerce News Stories 💥 June 23rd, 2025
Hi r/Shopify - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter, which I've published weekly since 2021.
I was invited by the Mods of this subreddit to share my weekly e-commerce news recaps (ie: shorter versions of my full editions) to r/Shopify. Although my news recaps aren't strictly about Shopify (some weeks Shopify is covered more than others), I hope they bring value to your business no matter what platform you're on.
Let's dive into this week's top stories...
STAT OF THE WEEK: In the 18 months after ChatGPT was released, speakers used words like “meticulous,” “delve,” “realm,” and “adept” up to 51% more frequently than in the three years prior, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, who analyzed 280k YouTube videos from academic channels. The study found that words like “prowess” and “tapestry,” which are favored by ChatGPT, are creeping into our vocabulary, while words like “bolster,” “unearth,” and “nuance” have declined in use. They forgot about “robust” — my personal dead giveaway that ChatGPT was involved!
PayPal introduced Storefront Ads, a new ad format that turns open-web display ads into fully functional storefronts with built-in checkout via PayPal and Venmo. The ads, which feature prominent “Buy with PayPal” or “Buy with Venmo” buttons, let consumers purchase products without ever leaving the page they’re on, aiming to reduce friction and boost conversions. The new ad format is powered by the PayPal transaction graph, which the company describes as a “repository of real, cross-merchant purchase signals that drive relevant advertising,” containing over 430M consumer and merchant accounts spanning across 200 markets. Storefront Ads are expected to debut this summer in the U.S. as IAB-standard units and then evolve into brand carousels and sponsored listings.
Reddit, in celebration of its 20th birthday, is introducing new features for brands. 1) Reddit Insights are an AI social listening tool that provides insights to help marketers plan campaigns and validate ideas. Effectively this feature is, “Here's a summary of what Redditors think about your brand.” 2) Conversation Summary Add-ons dynamically integrates positive content from Reddit users directly below an advertiser's creative. This feature surfaces posts and comments from Reddit's archives that talk about the brand in a positive light, which means anything good you ever said about a brand can effectively become an ad.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is taking heat for a memo he wrote highlighting the company's AI achievements and noting that the use of AI will ultimately reduce its workforce. Workers in Amazon's corporate offices tore into Jassy's messages across internal Slack channels, with some calling for a shift in the company's mindset, while warning of the risks of relying too much on AI. At the same time, per the Financial Post, Amazon is ordering thousands of U.S. employees via one-on-one meetings to relocate to Seattle, Arlington, and Washington DC, which in some cases would require them to move across the country. One employee said their manager informed the team to either begin their relocation process within 60 days or submit their resignation, with no severance offered. So Amazon wants me to relocate for a job that I'm actively being told will soon be replaced by AI? That'll be a no from me, dawg.
On June 18, the U.S. Senate passed the bipartisan GENIUS Act to establish a federal regulatory framework for USD‑pegged stablecoins, marking a major milestone for crypto regulation. The act requires issuers of stablecoins to back each coin with safe assets at a 1:1 ratio, publish monthly reserve disclosures, and comply with anti-money laundering rules. Issuers with over $50B in market cap must also provide annual audited financial statements. Banks, crypto firms, and tech companies are quick to make moves including Coinbase rolling outs its stablecoin acceptance platform, JPMorgan Chase, Fiserv, and JD-com launching stablecoins, with Amazon, Walmart, Expedia, and major airlines potentially to follow.
Klarna is entering the mobile market with an unlimited phone plan, beginning in the US and soon followed by a launch in the UK, Germany, and other countries. The mobile plan will offer uncapped, unlimited 5G data, talk, and text for $40/month, with coverage on the AT&T network. Premium and international plans are expected to roll out later this year. That's cool I guess, but does it come with a Gold Phone? Klarna says that its research shows that half of Americans believe “switching phone plans is too difficult” — so it's promoting how effortless it is to transfer their number and activate their new plan within the Klarna app. However frankly, you could say the same of most MVNO-powered mobile networks, which are mostly all app-based solutions.
A new lawsuit against Costco could have major implications for all omnichannel retailers if victorious, raising the question, “Can I charge more online than in-store?” A California woman is suing Costco for advertising “free shipping” on their website, but actually baking the cost of shipping into their product price. Sounds normal so far, right? However Costco sold the couch for $250 more online with “free shipping” than the couch actually costs in their stores. The suit claims that Costco’s online pricing model violates state and federal consumer protection laws, breaches contracts and warranties, and misleads customers through false advertising.
WhatsApp is introducing new features to its Updates tab, which is home to both Channels and Status, including: 1) Channel Subscriptions – users can now support channels with paid subscriptions to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee. 2) Promoted Channels – admins can now boost their Channel's visibility in the directory with paid placement. 3) Ads in Status – brands can now purchase advertisements in Status updates, similar to how ads appear within Facebook and Instagram Stories. It's great timing, because just this morning I woke up and thought to my self, “My WhatsApp could sure use some ads!”
Amazon is expanding its Prime Day sales event to four days for the first time this year because “members have told us they just need more time to shop the deals.” Amazon originally launched Prime Day as a on-day event in 2015, before turning it into a two-day event in 2017, which it's run as since. The sales event is scheduled for July 8th thru 11th. (I say — why stop at 4 days? Why not a month? Temu made their Prime Day year round…) Amazon is also heavily pushing its new AI shopping tools during the event such as Rufus, which delivers personalized deal recommendations, Interests, which create custom prompts for customers based on their previous purchases, and Shopping Guides, which make it easy to research product categories.
Other retailers also announced their competing summer sales events including TikTok Shop's Deals For You Days (July 7-19), Walmart Deals Summer Sales Event (July 8-13), Target Circle Week (July 6-12), and Best Buy's Black Friday in July (July 7-13). Happy shopping!
Salesforce is raising prices for several of its products by an average of 6% on August 1st, justifying the price “update” by the platform's increased AI capabilities that few want and less use. (Why is every “increase” in price called an “update”?) Salesforce also made generally available new SKUs of Agentforce, its platform for building and rolling out AI agents, which are replacing similar named Einstein products, it's old and now disfavored branding for all of the company's AI tech.
Meta introduced new generative AI tools at Cannes Lions aimed at advertisers and agencies, enhancing branding, video production, and customer engagement. Highlights include new Advantage+ features that let advertisers integrate logos, colors, fonts for brand consistency, upgraded video generation from static images, and AI-powered business assistants integrated into ad formats like Instagram Stories and Reels. Meta also unveiled tests for creative sticker CTAs that integrate company slogans and virtual try-on features using generative AI, pushing deeper into personalization and creative automation.
Amazon is exploring ways to collaborate with third-party AI shopping agents while simultaneously developing its own tools to reduce reliance on those same services. As external agents like OpenAI’s Operator gain traction, Amazon is considering building a system that allows such agents to speak with its platform, providing real-time data like inventory and shipping details — similar to what OpenAI has done with eBay and Instacart. At the same time, Amazon is tightening legal policies around agent access and pushing its own AI tools like Rufus and Buy for Me to keep users on-site and protect its $56B advertising business. My guess is that Amazon will forge deals with third-party AI platforms that allow access to their platform, but limit availability to all features in order to give its own AI tools a competitive edge.
President Trump officially issued his third executive order delaying enforcement of the law that bans TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance sells a controlling stake of the app to American-owned companies. Trump told reporters that China was holding up the sale and that ultimately it required President Xi's approval. Ars Technica reporter Ashley Belanger says the extension suggests that “China may have an upper hand in TikTok negotiations, and perhaps TikTok is losing its sheen as a US bargaining chip in Trump's bigger trade war.” TikTok has now had over a year to divest.
TikTok refuted Rep. Brad Sherman's claim that its owners were buying $300M in TRUMP memecoins to bribe President Trump into extending its deadline to divest or face a ban in the U.S. The allegations potentially stem from a press release by GD Culture Group, a Nasdaq-listed AI company that has nothing to do with TikTok or its parent company ByteDance (that we know of), which announced that it would commit $300M of its corporate funds into investing in both TRUMP memecoins and Bitcoin. TikTok called the allegation “patently false and irresponsible.”
Amazon is implementing a new standalone policy on June 30, 2025, strengthening its existing ban on selling stolen goods in response to new government regulations. While the policy doesn’t change Amazon’s enforcement approach, it formalizes sellers’ obligations to verify the legitimacy of their supply chains, sparking renewed debate over the legality of retail and online arbitrage on Amazon, as well as calls for the platform to crack down on fraudulent buyer behavior and listing hijackers.
The Chinese government is seeking to centralize the process of identity checks with a new virtual ID that will allow users to sign in across various social media apps and websites — kind of like a state-run “Sign in with Google.” The rules for the new system were released in late May and will be implemented in July. Critics of the new system argue that a centralized system like this will make it much easier for the government to wipe out a user's presence across multiple platforms at once. The Chinese government defends the virtual ID as a “bullet-proof vest for personal information,” claiming that the system can greatly reduce the risk of personal data leaks. For now the virtual ID is strictly voluntary, but the government is strongly encouraging various industries and sectors to integrate with it.
eBay is testing a feature that gives buyers 30 minutes after payment to cancel or update their orders, including address or payment details. While potentially helpful for buyers, sellers are raising concerns about delays in order notifications that could lead to overselling, especially for one-of-a-kind or cross-listed items. eBay has not confirmed full rollout details, and sellers are calling for added protections if the change becomes permanent.
Two nonprofit tech watchdogs have released The OpenAI Files, a 50+ page interactive report highlighting concerns about OpenAI’s governance, leadership, and potential conflicts of interest. Led by Tyler Johnston of the Midas Project and in collaboration with the Tech Oversight Project, the report compiles legal filings, disclosures, and media reports to map OpenAI’s corporate evolution and financial entanglements. It also outlines CEO Sam Altman’s extensive investment ties to companies doing business with OpenAI. The report is available at OpenAIFiles-org.
TikTok Shop is looking to enter Japan as soon as this month, a market which has been dominated by Amazon Japan and Rakuten up until now. The app currently has over 33M monthly users in the country, with an average screen time of 96 minutes per day, according to the Japan External Trade Organization. In preparation of TikTok Shop's launch, many agencies are launching services that specialize in assisting merchants on the platform. I can only imagine the taglines: “Experts in TikTok Shop optimization since June 2025.”
Speaking of TikTok… the company is rolling out new generative AI tools under its Symphony suite, including Image to Video and Text to Video, to help brands rapidly produce short-form content, and Showcase Products, which introduces digital avatars that can hold goods, model clothing, and show off an app on a phone screen. Several of the tools will be directly accessible within Adobe Express and WPP Open.
Temu entered into a cloud-hosting deal with Oracle to localize its U.S. user data as it faces lawsuits and political scrutiny over potential ties to China’s government — a similar playbook that the U.S. is using against TikTok. Can Temu get an extension too, Trump? Critics argue that data storage agreements like this do little to dispel fears of Chinese government access. Hours before Temu confirmed the Oracle agreement, Nebraska filed a lawsuit accusing the company of using malware to siphon off users’ personal data, which Attorney General Mike Hilgers claims might end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
Sam's Club started delivering its Member's Mark 16-inch pizzas, salads, bakery items and other products after an overwhelming amount of requests from users. The pepperoni pizza costs $8.98, which is substantially less than the cost of most pizzas that size from franchise or local pizzerias. The company is offering pizza delivery as a means to introduce customers to its broader delivery services. CFO Todd Sears explained that oftentimes pizza is the first time customers have ever ordered a delivery through Sam's Club.
Facebook announced that all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels no matter their length or orientation as a means to streamline its video offering. Up until now, users have been able to share both video posts and reels, but now the company is renaming its “Video” tab to the “Reels” tab, and users won't have to choose between the two formats. Instagram took a similar move with new video posts under 15 minutes back in 2022.
Last week I reported that Meta is forming an AI Superintelligence Team with Mark Zuckerberg personally overseeing recruitment, offering compensation packages and signing bonuses reaching tens of millions of dollars. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on an interview podcast that “none of our best people” had taken Meta's offers, but Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth later revealed that OpenAI had been countering their crazy offers. Bosworth also told CNBC that the market rate he's seeing for AI talent has been “unprecedented.” It was also reported by CNBC that Meta recently tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, the AI startup launched by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, but when Sutskever refused the offer, Mark Zuckerberg moved to recruit the company's CEO and co-founder Daniel Gross instead, now planning to hire Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to beef up the company's AI team.
Last week Value Added Resource reported that Etsy was cracking down on 3D and laser printed items via updates to its creativity standards. This week they surfaced even more unannounced changes including a major overhaul of Etsy's Services policies, which now allow certain tailoring, repair, and modification offerings that previously had been prohibited. Several new digital services have also been added to the list of allowed services such as logo/brand design, music/audio production, video editing, and illustration work sold as digital files. Is Etsy becoming Fiverr? Didn't they already fail at trying to become Amazon? My only guess is that Etsy is looking to open the door for these digital services to be product add-ons as opposed to standalone services, but they didn't specify. For example, I've ordered custom onesies off of Etsy for my friends' babies and submitted the design myself, however, I could see a “Custom Design” option as an upsell being a new thing — which encompasses the graphic design and illustration addition to the digital services.
Good news for French perverts… Pornhub is accessible in France again, following a suspension of the country's controversial age verification law which went into effect earlier this month, requiring that porn sites install a third-party technical system to verify users' ages. On June 16th, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended the law until it's deemed legal under EU law, which says that a country can't regulate a company based in another EU state unless a specific notification process is followed. So while France might have forgotten to dot a few i's and cross some t's in the paperwork, it's expected that the law will soon go into effect, and Pornhub will have to choose to abide by it or end service in the country again.
Is France and the rest of the EU becoming too strict with their digital laws? That's what Germany’s e-commerce association Bevh said when urging the EU to reassess its Digital services Act, which it claims unfairly targets large online marketplaces with stricter rules meant for social media platforms. Bevh argues that platforms like Amazon and Zalando face excessive regulation compared to physical retailers, despite already being governed by extensive consumer protection and product safety laws. The group voiced its concerns before the European Court of Justice, warning that current VLOP requirements could stifle innovation and disadvantage ecommerce across Europe.
Amazon UK is under investigation by the UK's grocery industry watchdog over allegations that the company is failing to pay its suppliers on time. The Groceries Code Adjudicator, which is responsible for regulating the relationships between the UK's 14 largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers, said it had “reasonable grounds” to suspect that Amazon had breached a part of the groceries supply code of practice, which mandates that there should not be delays in payments made to suppliers. GCA is calling on suppliers to send in evidence by August 8th.
The BBC is threatening legal action against Perplexity AI to protect its content from being scraped without permission after gathering evidence that Perplexity's model was trained using its content. The publication sent a letter to CEO Aravind Srinivas threatening an injunction against the company unless it stops scraping all BBC content and deletes any copies of material it holds unless it provides “a proposal for financial compensation.” Perplexity told the FT that the BBC’s claims were “manipulative and opportunistic” and that it had a “fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law”.
Intel is planning to outsource a substantial portion of its marketing work to Accenture, a global consulting firm, with AI to play a central role in the transition. The move is expected to result in significant layoffs within its marketing division, with most affected employees expected to learn if they still have a job by July 11th. Intel is also reportedly preparing to lay off up to 20% of its Intel Foundry workforce in July, affecting more than 10,000 employees and marking one of its largest job cuts in history. Intel's workforce has steadily declined from nearly 125,000 employees in 2023 to less than 109,000 by the end of 2024, and counting.
eBay's VP of Design, Aaron Carámbula, is leaving the company after 2.5 years to rejoin Meta, where he previously served various roles for more than a decade prior to working at eBay. Carámbula says he looks forward to “supporting the next evolution of Facebook.” eBay has not yet announced a replacement.
Kroger announced plans to close approximately 60 underperforming stores over the next 18 months as part of its effort to streamline operations and improve efficiency. At the same time, the company is ramping up its e-commerce efforts, creating a dedicated digital business unit and reporting 15% growth in online sales for Q1 2025. Leadership emphasized on a recent earnings call that the closures will not impact full-year guidance, as savings will be reinvested into enhancing customer experience and accelerating digital growth, likely fueled by its need to compete with Amazon's grocery efforts.
X is suing to block New York’s Stop Hiding Hate Act, which entered into effect last week, claiming it violates the First Amendment and is a “carbon-copy” of a similar California law already struck down in court. The law requires social media platforms to disclose how they moderate hate speech, which X argues is a veiled attempt at censorship and just another attempt by the government to “eliminate” certain speech it didn’t like. New York lawmakers behind the bill say platforms like X have become “cesspools of hate” and accuse Musk of using free speech as a shield against accountability.
Santa Monica launched a citywide e-procurement platform powered by Glass’ G-Commerce software to consolidate departmental purchasing into a centralized system. Since initial testing began in May 2024, the platform has been adopted by over 10 departments and is expected to handle $3M annually in transactions, primarily through government-issued credit cards. City officials say the new system improves compliance, transparency, and efficiency, and offers real-time tracking, automated approvals, and vendor analytics across mobile and desktop devices.
A TikTok influencer with over 2.6M followers named Le Van Hai was arrested for his involvement in selling over 800,000 counterfeit food and cosmetics products on his TikTok channel over the past two years. Investigators found that items were not as they were advertised to be, such as a syrup touted as a remedy for stimulating children's appetites actually having less than 70% of vitamins that were advertised on the labels. His TikTok account has now been suspended and a police investigation is seeking to learn the full extent of the operation.
A crypto user lost $6.5M after purchasing a tampered cold wallet via Douyin, China’s TikTok equivalent, which had its private key compromised before shipping. Blockchain firm SlowMist reported the wallet appeared factory sealed but was drained just hours after funds were transferred. The case mirrors past scams involving counterfeit wallets and highlights the risks of buying cold wallets from unofficial sources. So this is why the Winklevoss Twins store their private keys on paper?
LeBron James humorously teased retirement in a new “What's Next?” commercial for Amazon's upcoming Prime Day. James reportedly collaborated closely with Amazon ion creating the 60-second spot, from brainstorming comedic bits to picking Phil Collins' song “In the Air Tonight” as the music. The growing relationship between James and Amazon is leading to speculation that he could eventually join Prime Video's upcoming coverage of the NBA.
🏆 This week's most ridiculous story… A 26-year-old crypto TikTok influencer was kidnapped on his way home last week and beaten by his captors who demanded €50k in cryptocurrency. However it turns out, he barely had any crypto! The kidnappers must've felt sorry for him and his low account balance because they let him go without payment. Turns out anyone can be a crypto influencer — no cryptocurrency required.
Plus 11 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Wix acquiring Base44, a six-month-old AI platform that lets users build functional software using natural language in a chat-based interface, for $80M in cash, which Wix called a milestone in the company's mission to expand AI-driven creation tools.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.
Sunday, June 22, 2025
TITLE: What I’m Posed to Do, Not Beat Off to this Caramel Thickee with Big Naturals that Are Straight Up Poking Out, Affix My Tongue to Her Asshole Immediately and in Perpetuity (AKA: Loading) (Pt.1/4?)
Introduction by Dr. Charles V. Irrinquist
The following story is a tableau, told in the science fiction genre, of an alternate reality, in which the government has passed and enacted a law to attempt to deal with human vulnerability to the deceptions of deepfakes and other AI-generated imagery. The law states that, if all of the persons depicted in an AI-generated image or video (called “Aimages,” for shorthand) “hang” that Aimage in their own, respective Encrypted Accounts, then what is depicted in the Aimage is considered to be legally “real” (i.e.: to have “actually” happened or to “actually” be happening), and society at large has accepted this. Society and law do recognize that the depicted events “really” happened, but not in our world, rather “real” in whatever virtual reality world the Aimage was created with.
Developed by various, major techcorps, in conjunction with US government departments identified as “Interested Parties,” Encrypted Accounts (EA) serve as “digital safes,” where users (i.e.: citizens) store important and sensitive information, such as social security numbers, digital birth certificates, bank records, digital family pictures, Aimages, etc. They are similar to social media profiles but are specifically designed to be nonpublic. These accounts are said to be unhackable and are insured. Each United States citizen is entitled to their own EA; it is just a matter of signing up, a process which they have made so simple it would be foolish not to set one up. The vast majority of citizens of the ensuing story’s world have set up their EAs.
One of the features of EAs is the “Gallery,” which, just as the name suggests, looks like a digital art gallery, with white walls that have spaces to “hang” images/videos/Aimages (users are able to customize the look of their Gallery). When an Aimage is hung, an ovular icon appears on the white wall below it, called an Indicator, which turns a bright green when each of the subjects portrayed in the Aimage have also hung the same Aimage in their EA, indicating not only the Aimage’s legally “real” status but also the implication that each participant is wanting to (continue to) participate with the others performing whatever activity is being portrayed in the Aimage.
Further, the government imposes a tax on these hung Aimages, which then naturally governs the amount of Aimages that are (and stay) hung. Not only does this limitation have the effect of maintaining the integrity of the “real” legal designation, but it helps to deal with the incredible amount of power required to keep these Aimages hung in the EAs (said to be several levels higher than what is required for mining Bitcoin, and even Titgroin), and also to curb the use of resources required to tax assess Aimages by the Department of Auditing.
We will look at how these policies were developed, and what such a world, in which humans and AI robots live together, may look like. The main narrative revolves around the generation of an Aimage involving our protagonist known only to us as Narrator and his escort neighbor, Caramel.
However, a word to the reader: though portrayed in narrative form, as mentioned above, these scenes may be most appropriately considered as tableaus–-these are not works of criticism or satire but rather intended to evoke an impression or feeling about whatever-it-is that is being presented. As such, base language is used in order to most efficiently attempt to express that whatever-it-is.
This baseness is reflected in the logic of the story’s world. For example, the childish insult of calling someone or something “gay,” whether in the homophobic or just generally derisive sense, is in the story’s world not so much an insult but something holding serious rhetorical heft. In the story’s world, the term has been largely stripped of the nastiness it carries in our culture, instead denoting a general (unspecified) negative quality (and that which has been evaluated as such). Despite this “stripped” meaning in the story’s world, it is intentionally understood that (hopefully) the hypothetical reader would be reading it in this world’s “unstripped” context.
Another word (and perhaps warning) to the reader: this piece contains graphic sexual content. Sexual-drive motivates much of the action in the story, but in the story’s world this isn’t just perverts running amok. In our real-life world, sexual motivation is primarily related to pathos, whereas in the story’s world, it is primarily the story world’s ethos. The characters are speaking through these base, sexual acts and language; it may be useful to think of the characters’ actions as metaphors for the whatever-it-is mentioned above.
Conceptually, what connects this baseness to the AI concerns mentioned above? It may revolve around the notion of the “real;” due to the tax constraints imposed to have an Aimage considered “real,” it is likely the only type of Aimages people would be willing to keep hung in their EAs would be those portraying enactments of great devotion, and at least in the story, these are of a religious or sexual nature. The motivations behind belief/faith and sexual impulses may be described as “base.” If, as represented in the story, the religious/sexual is “real” and also “base,” it may be deduced that the “base” is “real.”
The story begins with a seemingly unrelated prelude, revolving around a real-life incident about Swedish twin sisters who came to national attention in the United Kingdom in May 2008 after an apparent episode of folie a deux (“shared psychosis”), when the twins ran across the M6 motorway, as captured by a small television crew.
The main focus of this opening sequence is on an unnamed police officer’s experience on the scene, who is woken from a daydream and unsuccessfully restrains one of the twin sisters from running into traffic. Shortly thereafter he experiences an odd, phantom force physically pulling him by his testicles toward the accident site (the writer seems to be making a reference to pairs: the character’s “balls;’ the seemingly random paragraph noting embedded baseball references; the Swedish twins (possibly a reference to the Minnesota Twins baseball team–particularly because of the history of Swedish and Scandinavian immigration to that area)).
Let us begin the story.
Prelude
Ursula Eriksson, a Swedish tourist, ran into traffic on the M6 freeway in Britain, right into the side of a Mercedes Actros 2546 lorry. This was caught on not just CCTV but also the cameras for the television show, Motorway Cops, an English analogue to the American programme, Cops.
Ursula received aid and survived; the interest here though is in the lorry. Its cargo wall had imprinted on it the 32ndth-inch outline of what would be a crazed Swedish woman’s face. This indent, too indistinct and unformed for friends or family to identify, didn’t miss Admiral Group’s Herman Waylight, an expert on lorry damage and claim spoilage assessment, and seemingly a giver-of-deal.
Yet one Motorway Cop possessed bold claims.
Taken out from the clouds by Meechum Peenis and Craig Morjaggs’s sudden verbal commands to “get back!”, and sensing only the pitches of fellow officers in need of backup, he shook out of his daydream and instinctively moved toward attendance for support; he flew by all the other officers without thinking like a wave and just moments before her accident, he found himself here standing 2 to 1.65 meters closer to Ursula than the next nearest chaperone: he had just assigned himself the task of restraining what would surely prove to be a wriggling villain.
During the physical struggle, he erred in judgment, yanking only a sandal out from the exchange and in so doing he freed her foot to spring her toward her journey through the overground railroad. In the sign of impact (the “strike zone” as it is called in the auto insurance field), he recognized her and now could not shake Ursula in the outline. “Fielding Urs-,” as he would later call it (he would see his balding—out, out, and out it goes—increase in pace starting around then basically), would make its presence here known to him (at least in, what he called, its “four sack,” or most developed, form).***
Bill Stoneham, our man here, shares a name with an obscure American painter, who produced a work called, The Hands Resist Him (1972), notable for being known as being considered one of the most haunted paintings in the world. In Bill’s pocket was a sterling, whose ridges rubbed gently against a grocery receipt for glassware, cereal, pork, and liter bottles of mineral water, the latter of which stood in for the hose water, packaged in gallon jugs, he wished was commercially available. Stoneham noticed an odd pressure in his groin.
“Get your hands out of your pocket,” Veronica passed by, doing her job, and he needed to do his job, and everything was occupied, and he stood there, his head, full of blood. Veronica knelt to attend to Sabina, Ursula’s twin sister, and who had in fact charged the freeway right before Ursula, and fortunately for Sabina, despite some nasty bruising and contusions, her round trip left her with no truly serious physical ailments. These Swedish sisters, as troubled as they seemed to be, were not insignificantly resilient, and he thought he felt compelled to write home to tell someone about these extraordinary women.
Veronica squatting near Sabina sent his hand from his coin, zippering briefly with his other hand on the front of his pants then abruptly finding home at his sides as if shocked. Now erect and mobile, Stoneham surveyed the scene and sought the spot to most appropriately unload his assistance.
Stoneham meant to see it for years, and now he was thinking about it. Tomorrow he wasn’t working, so maybe tomorrow was the time to do it, at least not now with this scene, the one sister Sabina had run into traffic again, but this time she made it across to the median. She’s standing basically still facing back toward the police officers halted temporarily by their efforts that seem to be retarding the vehicular flow impeding their own path to her, and her hand reposed upon the median, her other hand idly policing her leg that thigh from my angle probably not actually touching and it dangles thanks to the gravity and all things considered calm breathing, she’s still screaming and I have to consider what is going on. Bragging about an unaffectedness, I stopped considering what I saw as being inaccurately described as a “drone,” it was clearly more shrill in bursts.
That novel pressure in his groin area was growing. It was a particular sensation he hadn’t felt before, and because of all of the foregoing excitement with the Eriksson twins, he hadn’t had time to pinpoint exactly where this force was primarily honing in on. It was not in his penis, it was not in his taint, and, then, as soon as he thought, “gonads,” as if gripped, Stoneham is being led somewhere by his fucking nuts: “My fucking nuts….where are we going?” Being pulled along by his bag by some invisible apparition as if on one of those flat escalators at the airport, and despite being relatively agnostic to ball play, he felt this erogenous pressure was beginning to cause reflexive and unintentionally disrespectful thoughts about his friend’s sister’s weight serving as an appropriate test case for the load-bearing capacity of his face as a pedestal or a swing.
(If this is a cute chick ghost guiding his sack along, even if a little more forceful than ideal, I feel like you can’t be that pissed if you are him, especially if this ghastly handler is a thick one or athletic-looking or an art-style chick or whatever it is that bewitches you.)
It became clear it was pulling him toward the lorry’s indent. Earlier in the night, shortly after the accident, he thought about putting his face in that receptacle he felt was customized by and through his dereliction and a place he ultimately could not inhabit. In consolation, he laid the back of his head there, with his eyes closed he thought he was indicating a hopefully sufficient sense of guilt. Whether or not in response to this display, the ghost slammed him, balls-first, against the damaged lorry with such force that one of his testicles was crushed. In response to the sound of the crash against the lorry and Stoneham’s subsequent moans, Officer Peenis ran over to the site of the noise, where Stoneham indicated the location and nature of his gonadal injury. It was at this time that Peenis had conceived of the nickname, “Monad,” for Stoneham, but he wouldn’t start referring to him by that name to his face until he returned to work after recovery from his injuries (Coincidentally, Officer Morjaggs had devised a nickname for Stoneham, “Sackless,” earlier that same night, after Stoneham’s losing effort against Ursula—Morjaggs, like Peenis, respectfully waited until Stoneham returned to work from recovery before he started exclusively referring to him by the nickname).
What Stoneham had meant to see for years was Robert Smithson’s 1974 landmark piece, “Yo-yo,” a land art piece which sits only 72 miles from the site of the accident, on the shore of Moreton Bay on Moreton Beach in Merseyside, Borough of Wirrel, and, though smearing in an ongoing game of chicken with the bay’s adjusting water levels*, it’s still visible enough to attract a fair amount of tourists who have been made aware that it is a work by a notable artist and is on the beach and doesn’t cost anything extra to view. Smithson, strongly opposed to the elitism he saw in the contemporary artworld, felt that everyone should be able to experience art and, in a sophisticated move, after a brief, uncontentious meeting with the local planning board, clarified that legal authority prohibited any current or future would-be impresario from charging to see the piece.
*This “smearing” may be seen as an example, or indication, of the “natural process of retainment,” a key concept to Smithson’s theory of “‘true art’” (the idea of correspondence between the processes of animate and inanimate matter)--it describes a “resistance against ‘phenomenal pressure’**” (Smithson, 65). As an example, the subject artwork mentioned above, “Yo-yo,” “plays” an endless game of chicken with the tides of the bay; the artwork and water are not “playing” in the sense humans do, however if we continue this analogical strategy, we may see additional layers. Tides are almost wholly influenced by the movements and positionings of the moon. In classical mythology, the moon is typically associated with the feminine, and in contemporary times, the moon is commonly associated with “mooning,” the act of showing one’s butt. Given these connections, “bay’s tides” is not so far verbally from “bey’s (or babe’s) tits”. We may then see this “game of chicken” as a sort of ritual of endurance of undulating tits-and-ass for which the subject must not break.
**Regarding the phrase “phenomenal pressure”: in the first published edition of Smithson’s essay he does not designate any quotation marks, writing “phenomenal pressure;” but the adjective, ‘phenomenal,’ (and I think he’s right) may suggest an extraordinary or exceptional “pressure;” in contrast to what he intended to indicate simply as occurrent; in subsequent editions he would put “phenomenal” in quotes, but this he thought seemed to have an opposite effect: the “pressure,” being ‘“phenomenal,”’ (e.g.: “‘phenomenal’ pressure” (Smithson 173, ed. 3-6)), suggested that he may have been suggesting that the pressure was actually ineffective or at least not as effective as advertised. He eventually landed on putting both words in quotations.
***Taken out from the clouds (baseball reference (bb): sounds like “...take me out to the crowd” from Take Me Out to the Ballgame (TMOTTBG)) by Meechum Peenis and Craig Morjaggs’s (bb: sounds like “Buy me some peanuts or Crackerjacks” (TMOTTBG)) sudden verbal commands to “get back!” (bb: in the story, the “get back” suggests the place the narrator is being presented with is danger to him; in TMOTTBG “I don’t care if I ever get back” refers to a place that the narrator of that song loves and never wants to leave), and sensing only the pitches (bb) of fellow officers in need of backup (bb?), he shook out of his daydream and instinctively moved toward attendance (bb); he flew by all (bb: flyball) the other officers without thinking like a wave (bb), and just moments before her accident, he found himself here standing 2 to 1.65 meters (is there a popular baseball close distance that I could change this to?) closer to her than the next nearest chaperone: he had just assigned himself the task of restraining what would surely prove to be a wriggling villain (bb: sounds like “Wrigleyvillaige” (where the Windy City Clubs play)).
During the physical struggle, he erred in judgment (bb: Aaron Judge), yanking (bb: Yankees) only a sandal out (bb: Sandlot) from the exchange (bb?) and in so doing he freed her foot (bb: free foot for a pitcher) to spring toward her journey through the overground railroad (bb: spring training (the training part is for the railroad which is a train)). In the sign of impact (the “strike zone” (bb) as it is called in the auto insurance field (bb: many baseball stadiums are named after (car) insurance companies)), he recognized her and now could not shake Ursula in the outline (bb: this is the line that influenced me to make a bunch of baseball references,“Ursula in the outline” reminded me of “Angels in the Outfield”) “Fielding Urs-,” (bb: either “field dingers” or “feel dingers”) as he would later call it (he would see his balding—out, out, and out it goes (bb: he would see his ball ding, ‘out out and out it goes’)—increase (bb: in grease, like a pitcher greasing the ball) in pace starting around then basically (bb: base like bases), would make its presence here known to him (at least in, what he called, its “four sack,” (bb: four base) or most developed, form).
1.)
The building’s water butt, though more than half-full from the generous morning rain (and with scattered showers forecasted for the afternoon), is still now playing host, attending to the dripping stragglers still remaining and now slipping intermittently from the eave flashing and recently unclogged gutter. About a third or a fifth or so of those drops are landing on the ground well outside the container, and honestly the closest ones of those maybe tag the outside of its bottom exposed wooden panels with what is essentially humidity that no one would even give a shit about if you didn’t point it out.
An audible crash inside influenced him to investigate what may have caused the crash by going inside toward where he thought where the crash may have originated, and it led him to the lobby where he saw Caramel with one side of a huge box of what he assumes is a widescreen in her hands and her dad with the other end of the box resting near his feet. He walked over to see if he could help, but they were already back on their journey carrying it up the stairs, thankfully her dad leading and she manning the back.
He noticed some pieces of styrofoam that must have escaped from the downed box corner and knelt to pick them up. He could hear her faint grunts of struggle on the stairs and so he was there asking if he could help as he put his hands on her end of the box, and her hands slipped from it with a tandem cutoff, “it’s O(K)–”. She walked up the stairs behind him and her dad, and on her floor he swung out to make room so she could lead us to her room, he couldn’t see her ahead behind her dad defending the bow.
We got to her room and set down the widescreen box and her dad received some chirps and he said I had to “help her out with the TV I’ve got to take care of this” and he left not in a rush but she shut the door behind him and then she said she’d help me once she changed into something more comfortable, and while she went to her room I removed the thin and wide unit from the packaging and lifted it first on the dresser below where her current-and-soon-to-be-previous monitor was hanging, leaning it against the wall, and then unscrewed the old monitor from the mount but realized the new monitor was in the way, so I tightened the old monitor back in slightly and set the new monitor on the ground and then unscrewed the old monitor carefully from the mount and carried it not very far, setting it on the ground near the couch. I picked the new monitor back up to fit it in the same mount, where one side snapped in place and turned the monitor on, the other side didn’t snap in and the monitor said, “Almost,” so I jostled it a bit before hearing, “What a success,” and the full blue screen menu lit up even though I didn’t hear the other side snap in but I guess it must have.
“Thank you!” Caramel said smiling toward me from her room with a hug in a wifebeater and dolphin shorts. “Want a drink?” she asked, I did watch her turn and walk toward the cabinet and bend over to pull the bottles out, I knew her cameras were seeing me do it and she knew I knew she knew. I asked for a glass of the Scotch that I always ask for that she deliberately forgot to grab and had to bend over again to pull out and I watched her do it. She knew I knew it was a sales pitch and her phone buzzed against a hard surface from her room and she let it buzz a few more times because she caught me looking at her butt one time and also one time she invited me over before I knew she told me she overheard me and a neighbor’s drunken evaluations of the female tenants’ looks while we were outside smoking cigs.
She came back from her room without her phone and grabbed a bottle of champagne from her refrigerator and started pouring a couple glasses, she asked, “What’s good?” I turned toward the screen to investigate the stock of apps and as soon as I saw some potential options, the menu suddenly changed with a “Welcome, Caramel,” and I could now identify, even through this more innovative design interface, a more familiar set of choices from which we usually select.
I was, I’d say, a regular patron of hers (both in real life and online), and there was no denying this dynamic. I forgot to check my pockets earlier because I just recently decided that I should keep my crypto invested instead of using it for payment, I reached in my right front pocket where I felt a receipt and some bullshit dust that I wasn’t looking for and checked my right ass pocket and then she giggled as I felt the rolled cash in my left.
But even knowing I am always willing to exchange, she walked a little closer and planted as if to clarify, exaggerating her lordosis and employing a slightly pigeon-toed stance, and I thought this was the appropriate moment to explain my idea and I told her the way she was standing made me think this was the appropriate moment to explain my idea (Narrator’s idea is to create a generative AI video of Caramel standing naked with him kneeling behind her with his tongue affixed to her asshole in perpetuity; he claims there is some poetic value in creating an AI-generated video of this), with the intention to keep her in that stance as I set the cash on the dresser beneath the widescreen and to give her body time to remember all its parts’ positions here (though the lordosis did end up being exactly what we wanted, we realized during production that the pigeon-toes were too suggestive of a vulnerability that would be more useful for a certain type of pornography but was ultimately not appropriate for our project (we also experimented with her in a wider, sturdy stance, with her ass pushed out in a more exaggerated, presenting manner, but we thought this posture seemed to indicate an active desire on her part to have her ass eaten—again, more suitable for pornography—-my constant boner during these tests attested to this, and we decided it would be necessary for me to keep clothes on for the shoot so I could “invisalign” (i.e: tucking my boner in my waistband for the purposes of making it not as visibly apparent))).
She agreed to it but was concerned she would lose a regular. I was honest with her and told her that I would probably beat off to it for a while but after breaking it in, the more poetic aspects will be able to sing more freely, and stroking your shit while eating the real thing could never be replaced.
The History of the Development of the Law that Allowed Aimages to Be Considered Legally Real
Generative media software, like Aimage Generator 3, uses machine learning, especially deep learning, to create or manipulate audio, images, video, and text in ways that simulate or fabricate reality. These systems rely heavily on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), transformers, or diffusion models to synthesize media that appears convincingly real. The ease of production and corresponding prevalence of Aimages, such as deepfakes, digital doubles, and text-to-image/video, have long been cultural discussion points. This material’s capacity for deception is part and parcel of its appeal and has certainly exacerbated our cynical attitude toward what we see and read online, where everything is by default considered to be fake and often deceitful, unless proven otherwise.
Interestingly, this has not led to general apathy but to an increased sensitivity toward issues of trust and betrayal. and there is no better example of this than the fallout from the Ida Leak, an infamous data breach from multi-platform accounts of the massively popular content streamer, Ida Gnoe, that indicated that the vast majority of material she had been releasing (for “dozens of months,” it was reported) on her Fansly account had been, in fact, AI-generated.
Prior to the leak, Ida Gnoe (Christian name: Wifida Vergobagidov) was a hugely beloved figure online: she held the record for most received cum tributes of all time (and while undisclosed to the public, the NSA had performed several significant studies on online masturbation patterns, which revealed Ida as the subject having motivated not only the single highest number of ejaculations over the course of their multi-year set of studies but also the causer of the largest collective amount of jizz produced by volume attributed to a single individual during that same period—-while it seems like these categories should typically beget analogous results, this has not shown to bear out in the recent decades: the tributed-to subjects that are most commonly associated with higher-T’d men did note being not unimpressed with the collective weight of tribute produced during this period but did raise concerns about the declining jack numbers. One of the hottest tributed-to subjects and also her extremely hot friend and also her friend’s sister and also her own sister that are both honestly really hot and both have big or actually really big tits, and actually looking at this data right here, it actually appears that also all of her sister’s really hot friends that are also pawgs and also have tits, and, if I am reading this correctly, it looks like it actually says here that the entire Milk Brigade have declared that they are not impressed by the low jack numbers among high-T’s, and that the categories that indicate the overall and unique number of vaginas that high-T’s have entered during that time don’t even matter or impress them, and that guys that jack off and are low-t are actually cool and they would want to be their girlfriends.
The Ida Leak prompted Liberal-Humanist congressman, Michael “Greasy” Greventreziou, to take action on deepfakes, and in a bi-partisan effort, working with Traditionalist Party congresswoman, Hot Whitetrash, they developed what would eventually become the Aimage/EA bill. Prior to their research, they both had thought that any Aimage should be required to embed a disclosure on screen if a piece of visual media is, in fact, AI-generated. Through their preliminary testing, using a mixture of Whitetrash’s authentic, pre-Congress OnlyFans and personal videos, and also Aimages of Whitetrash performing similar acts, and then affixing the AI disclosure to a random selection of these videos, they did determine the disclosure significantly affects the jackability of these videos.
More importantly, however, they thought the labelling requirement might be a form of tacit encouragement for further production of fake erotic material (they thought about how the introduction of the Parental Advisory sticker on musical albums in the 1990’s actually encouraged intrigue for and sales of the labelled albums). Even if the AI disclosure label did not encourage further production of fake material, it didn’t dissuade the production nor consider the ethical concerns of Aimage production. As a Liberal-Humanist, Greasy wanted to masturbate to people, not robots.
(Greasy had previously introduced a bill to outlaw the practice of tit-fakery—when Congressman Jugg Larger brought up Pamela Anderson as a counter to Greasy’s suggestion that fake tits have never made a positive impact on society and that nice ass fake tits simply don’t exist, Greasy thought this was dirty politics. He admitted that he could see if someone would choose to categorize Home Improvement Pamela Anderson or Baywatch Pam Anderson as having nice ass fake tits, but these examples are extremely rare. In a fairly sophisticated rhetorical move, he asked Congressman Larger to identify a single other nice-ass-fake-tits-haver that Greasy had actively chosen as a subject to masturbate to and where actual jizz had been produced in the last 2 years. Congressman Larger couldn’t come up with a single example).
One of our boys was actually talking with God:
“God, why did you make thick cheeks so nice? Could you make them a little less nice? It would be nice to not have to think about them all the time.”
“That is a fucking gay ass suggestion,” said God. “You are gay.”
He said, “No, I am saying they are *too* nice.”
And God said, “Your mom is too nice, She is sucking my shit way too good right now, And straight up I am going to blow a God-style load in her goddamn mouth once you stop yapping.”
He replied, “You are gay.”
It wasn’t until one fateful night that Greasy had a change of heart about Aimages. He and Whitetrash’s research sessions typically had been conducted in the same hotel room, where they could verify each other’s reactions to the videos, but this session was occuring remotely over Zoom and so they were using the Genital Sensor System (an early version of the GSS that the Tax Assessors would use (this will be explored later in the text). Regarding the Genital Sensor System, males wrap a thin strap sensor around the thickest part of their flacid penis; female auditors insert a short, thin cylindrical sensor into their vagina—the sensors measure the hardness/wettness of its users.
To get a baseline reading of the G-Sensors in response to Aimages, protocol instructed they view something they both know not to have happened in real life, so they generated an Aimage of a threesome with both of them and Whitetrash’s political rival, Social-Communist congresswoman, Vanessa Garcia-Flores, who had spent a large part of her first term fighting against allegations of being young, big-titted, and hot, just as Whitetrash had the previous year, and despite having diametrically opposite political views, for which both passionately advocated, Whitetrash begrudgingly admitted that Garcia-Flores likely, like herself, was possessed with a “really wet, tight pussy,” and when Greasy asked how she knew, Whitetrash said, “because women can sense these things.”
While they observed the threesome Aimage, Greasy’s sensor did register what would have been some of the highest levels of hardness he would have registered throughout the entire research process had they been using the arousal readers from the start of their studies. It wasn’t just the content of the Aimage that aroused him (though, given how close AiWhitetrash’s wet, tight pussy, for example, resembles Whitetrash’s real-life wet, tight pussy, it didn’t seem like a stretch that Garcia-Flores’ real-life pussy was as wet and tight as AiGarcia-Flores’ appeared to be).
Greasy gets particularly aroused by seeing the indicator on the GSS reader showing that Whitetrash is aroused (this is coupled with seeing her face on Zoom that reads the same but also can’t he see her playing with her pussy which he suspects she’s doing —this inspires what would eventually be the Aimage/EA bill).
Greasy, Whitetrash, and Garcia-Flores do end up having a threesome in real-life and Greasy thinks the generation of the Aimage threesome probably (“must have”) played a role in making it happen; this makes him believe that Aimages and the humanist perspective are not antithetical (i.e.: by generating Aimages, it “concretizes” or “snatches” events from the realm of infinite-potential-events; these events are put in the catalog of activities that can be decided to be enacted in real-life).
AiRitual
Narrator is looking at the Gallery in his EA and sees the playing thumbnail of the Nar/Caramel Aimage and the green Indicator lit below it. He starts masturbating as he makes the Aimage full screen. Narrator notes that he knows that he noted how convincingly realistic the Aimage was the first time he watched it, how it looks exactly like the reference footage, but AiNarrator and AiCaramel have been performing this ritual for much longer than practically possible for Narrator and Caramel to have performed (even if Narrator (and/or Caramel) wanted to try—sleep, eating, jobs, and other obligations would be factors that would make it virtually impossible to enact in real-life)). The slight movements of the AI subjects, the slightest changes in posture, are like the Narrator and Caramel in the reference footage, but the Aimage continues to generate novel slight movements.
He thought about the young woman he’d met, Sofia, who he had met for coffee, where he explained the concept more fully to her and she was at first enthusiastic to work on it but kind of cooled on it it seemed, and his sense was that she wasn’t that into the idea itself, just wanted to work with a real artist, but she moved away, and he thought it was an amazing, conceptual piece. He would have done it in a second.
“What? No, that’s a lie. I was totally into the idea. And I told him that. We even developed the concept, like some really cool shit. It wasn’t until I mentioned I was getting into tarot that I could tell he started getting turned off, which I’ve had other men also show a similar disdain toward it because they see it in the same category as astrology (which I mostly don’t think is real). I would have done it, on the spot. I didn’t see him after those times we met in the coffee shop (especially the last one), and then I moved to Venice, and the art scene is crazy here. I am wondering what it would have been like if he and I followed through with the idea. I was young at the time, but I thought he really figured it out.
Passkey-based secret encryption for a mind mapping app
I've been building a mind mapping app for the past few years, and today I implemented this new "node" type for secrets which uses a passkey to encrypt it's content; having the passkey stored in 1password makes this a breeze.
I know I could just place the secrets in 1password in the first place, but I feel some types of secrets are better placed there along the context of the board.
Would like to know if you guys have any concerns or suggestions on what I can improve.
The secrets node is not yet live, but the app is in case you want to know what it is about:
It's built with Node.js + Vite.js + React.js and a custom framework I built a few years ago.
Thanks
Red Trading Table Talk with Cathie Wood | This Investment Could 15x in 5 Years!
https://youtu.be/ZznpMh0DegE
SHORT-TERM TRADING
TOP 8 CRYPTOCURRENCIES FOR SHORT TERM GAINS IN 2025
Short-term crypto trading is not for the faint of heart—but for those who know how to spot trends, manage risk, and act quickly, it can be incredibly rewarding. Timing and coin selection are everything. With the right setup, you could turn rapid price swings into solid profits. So, which coins should you be watching right now?
Let’s break down how to pick short-term trades and then dive into nine promising crypto assets worth considering.
What Makes a Good Short-Term Crypto Trade?
Trading crypto over the short term means you’re in and out fast—sometimes within hours, days, or at most, a few weeks. The key is to find coins that move a lot, have active buyers and sellers, and offer clear signals for when to enter and exit.
Here’s what to look for:
VOLATILITY: Price swings are your friend. Coins that move sharply up or down give traders more chances to profit. High volatility is especially useful for day trading and scalping strategies.
SUPPORT & RESISTANCE: These are price levels where a coin tends to bounce (support) or stall (resistance). They help you make smart decisions about when to buy, take profits, or set stop-losses.
LIQUIDITY: You want coins that trade heavily. If a coin has enough volume, you can jump in or out of positions without affecting the price too much—crucial for short-term plays.
8 Short-Term Crypto Picks to Watch Right Now
Here’s a diverse list of cryptocurrencies that are making waves in the market. Whether you’re into meme tokens, DeFi platforms, or infrastructure coins, there’s something here for every type of short-term trader.
- Avalanche (AVAX)
Avalanche is known for speed, low fees, and scalability. It processes thousands of transactions per second and keeps drawing in developers. As activity on its network increases, so does the demand for AVAX. For short-term traders, this means regular opportunities tied to project launches and protocol upgrades.
- Polygon (POL)
Polygon improves Ethereum’s scalability and supports a wide range of dApps and DeFi projects. Its token, POL, is gaining momentum with technical indicators suggesting potential upside. Market sentiment is currently bullish, making this token a candidate for short-term appreciation.
- FLOKI
Originally a joke inspired by Elon Musk’s dog, FLOKI has evolved into a serious player. With DeFi tools, NFT support, and its own crypto education platform, FLOKI is pushing beyond its meme coin label. It’s a risky bet, but one that can pay off during hype cycles driven by influencers or campaigns.
- Pepe Coin (PEPE)
PEPE is another meme token, based on the infamous internet frog. It has no clear utility but thrives on speculation. Analysts believe it could rally up to 30% soon, supported by rising sentiment and increased visibility. If you’re chasing hype-driven short-term trades, PEPE is one to watch—just beware of sharp reversals.
- Worldcoin (WLD)
Launched by OpenAI’s co-founder Sam Altman, Worldcoin is a bold project aiming to create a global identity system via biometric data. Although the long-term vision is ambitious, its early days offer plenty of price action. As the public and tech giants react to its rollout, WLD’s value may swing dramatically.
- Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink connects smart contracts to real-world data, making it essential to many blockchain projects. It’s widely traded and highly liquid, making it ideal for short-term traders. LINK tends to spike on partnership news or tech upgrades, so keep an eye on announcements from big players.
- Jupiter (JUP)
Jupiter is a rising star in the Solana DeFi space. It’s used for aggregating liquidity and powering token swaps, making it central to Solana’s ecosystem growth. As Solana continues gaining traction, Jupiter’s relevance (and demand for JUP) increases. Expect quick moves, especially during DeFi activity surges.
- SushiSwap (SUSHI)
SushiSwap is a decentralized exchange that supports token swaps, yield farming, and liquidity pools. It’s one of the most active DeFi platforms out there, with regular upgrades and a strong community. These ingredients make SUSHI highly responsive to trends, offering great setups for short-term traders—especially in bullish DeFi markets.
Bonus Mention: Hyperliquid
Hyperliquid is drawing attention with its zero-gas fees and native Layer 1 blockchain. Although not on the main list, it’s worth noting as a wildcard. Like many breakout projects, its price may surge fast and correct just as quickly. Short-term traders could benefit from its growing exposure—just watch for signs of exhaustion.
Final Thoughts: Play Smart, Stay Informed
The crypto space changes at lightning speed. A coin that looks like a solid trade today could tank tomorrow. That’s why successful short-term traders are always learning, watching the news, and adjusting strategies in real time.
Before entering any trade, ask yourself:
Is the coin liquid enough?
Does it move often and fast?
Are there upcoming events or hype that could drive the price?
Have you set clear support/resistance zones and stop-losses?
And remember, you don’t have to pick just one type of coin. Diversify. You might go with:
BLUE-CHIPS like Bitcoin or Ripple for stability.
MEMES like DOGE or PEPE for explosive moves.
UTILITY-DRIVEN coins like Chainlink or Avalanche for news-based trades.
Your Move: What Will You Trade?
With so many options and tools available, short-term trading in crypto can be both fun and profitable—if you play it smart. Keep researching, keep watching the market, and never risk more than you can afford to lose.
👉 Which of these coins are you trading or watching closely? Share your thoughts in the comments! FOLLOW @Phinjr Later am dropping a researched post for LONG TERM CRYPTOCURRENCIES FOR LONG -TERM GAINS.
Let me know if you'd like this adapted into a social media thread, YouTube script, newsletter format, or visual post.
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