#this is—AGAIN—an issue where you should be calling your congressmen and protesting instead of making nasty posts at each other

[evilwizard]

I do want to say, my views on AI “art” have changed somewhat. It was wrong of me to claim that it’s not wrong to use it in shitposts… there definitely is some degree of something problematic there.

Personally I feel like it’s one of those problems that’s best solved via lawmaking—specifically, AI generations shouldn’t be copywrite-able, and AI companies should be fined for art theft and “plagiarism”… even though it’s not directly plagiarism in the current legal sense. We definitely need ethical philosophers and lawmakers to spend some time defining exactly what is going on here.

But for civilians, using AI art is bad in the same nebulous sense that buying clothes from H&M or ordering stuff on Amazon is bad… it’s a very spread out, far away kind of badness, which makes it hard to quantify. And there’s no denying that in certain contexts, when applied in certain ways (with actual editing and artistic skill), AI can be a really interesting tool for artists and writers. Which again runs into the copywrite-ability thing. How much distance must be placed between the artist and the AI-generated inspiration in order to allow the artist to say “this work is fully mine?”

I can’t claim to know the answers to these issues. But I will say two things:

Ignoring AI shit isn’t going to make it go away. Our tumblr philosophy is wildly unpopular in the real world and most other places on the internet, and those who do start using AI are unfortunately gonna have a big leg up on those who don’t, especially as it gets better and better at avoiding human detection.

Treating AI as a fundamental, ontological evil is going to prevent us from having these deep conversations which are necessary for us—as a part of society—to figure out the ways to censure AI that are actually helpful to artists. We need strong unions making permanent deals now, we need laws in place that regulate AI use and the replacement of humans, and we need to get this technology out of the hands of huge megacorporations who want nothing more than to profit off our suffering.

I’ve seen the research. I knew AI was going to big years ago, and right now I know that it’s just going to get bigger. Nearly every job is in danger. We need to interact with this issue—sooner rather than later—or we risk losing all of our futures. And unfortunately, just as with many other things under capitalism, for the time being I think we have to allow some concessions. The issue is not 100% black or white. Certainly a dark, stormy grey of some sort.

But please don’t attack middle-aged cat-owners playing around with AI filters. Start a dialogue about the spectrum of morality present in every use of AI—from the good (recognizing cancer cells years in advance, finding awesome new metamaterials) to the bad (megacorporations replacing workers and stealing from artists) to the kinda ambiguous (shitposts, app filter that makes your dog look like a 16th century British royal for some reason).

And if you disagree with me, please don’t be hateful about it. I fully recognize that my current views might be wrong. I’m not a paragon of moral philosophy or anything. I’m just doing my best to live my life in a way that improves the world instead of detracting from it. That’s all any of us can do, in my opinion.

#the wizcourse #<- new tag for my pretentious preachy rants #this is—AGAIN—an issue where you should be calling your congressmen and protesting instead of making nasty posts at each other

[shirayuki-wisteria]

She’s Her Own Knight in Shining Armor

Zenyuki Week, Day Three: Damsel in Defence

Title: She’s Her Own Knight in Shining Armor

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing in this fan-fiction except my horrible grammar and writing skills. All the characters or cities mentioned in this fan-fiction belong to Akiduki Sorata unless said otherwise. Any references to real people or places are purely coincidental.

Synopsis: After successfully finding the cure to the mysterious disease, finding its source, and purifying its source for public use, the King of Clarines—Izana—assigns Shirayuki to be the head of the interstate mission to sell purified Olin Maris as jewellery and the like. As such, she is requested to appear in front of the Royal Council to importune her case. What will happen when Shirayuki gets scrutinised and she’s not taken seriously? Will Zen defend her, or will she rise and protect herself?

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Shirayuki took a deep breath in and out, trying to calm her nerves as she waited patiently to be called upon to go into the Royal Council’s room. Strictly speaking, its legal name wasn’t the Royal Council—that was a dubbed axiom that caught on when Clarines’ citizens realised that Izana and Zen both attended the sessions and placed in their input from time to time. Its real name was the Ambassadorial Council for Civilisation, but few took the time to call it so. With both royals being exemptions, the Royal Council was comprised of noblemen and aristocrats alike. They all come together to solve a diplomatic matter that could affect Clarines’ entire kingdom.

The red-haired herbalist was currently waiting to state her case to them for the public marketing of Olin Maris—a beautiful, glowing crystal that was initially assumed to be lethal, but she and her team worked together to find a treatment that could decontaminate the mineral for decorative use. Because she helped, she was specifically chosen by the King of Clarines, Izana, to be the envoy for Lilias.

She jumped slightly when the door—to the room where the Royal Council assembled—was opened by their representative. “Shirayuki-san? Your presence is required at the front of the Royal Council.”

She took one more breath in before lifting herself up from one of the numerous waiting room chairs, her steps towards the open door feeling unusually heavy and unsure. After walking inside, she took her place at the top of an elevated platform. Her heart started beating more rapidly than before, and her stomach felt like it was flipped inside out.

“Shirayuki Machiavelli, you stand before us as the appointed ambassador for Lilias, is that truthful?” A rigid nobleman asked aloofly, one hand holding papers and the other behind his back.

She nodded diffidently. “Y-Yes, that is correct. I was specifically asked to do so by the king.”

“The king?” He asked, an eyebrow up in suspicion.

Izana—getting up from his seat next to Zen—faced the nobleman. “This is true. After seeing her impeccable ability at Lilias, I gathered that she would be the superlative match for being the ambassador for the Olin Maris case.”

The representative gave a reverent nod in response. “Very well. The consultation will now commence.”

Everyone, sans herself, took their seat and pushed their chair in, their undivided attention focussed at her. She felt sweat begin to form thinly on her forehead with every piercing, searching gaze, trying to gauge who she was.

“Shirayuki-san, you are here today to bring forth the issue on Olin Maris. What are your views on this topic?”

The young herbalist clasped her hands together, resisting the urge to grasp the hem of her dress. “Though the mineral in question was originally thought to be poisonous and fatal upon touch, my team and I in Lilias found a special treatment that affectively removes the poison and makes it safe to hold. It is with this data that I believe Olin Maris should be distributed for marketing.”

“Would you mind telling the court how this plant makes this poison and what you’ve done to combat it?”

She nodded. “Olin Maris is a plant known to withstand the winter cold. One of the ways we believe it does this is by shedding its own light to provide enough heat to protect itself from the cold. When it creates its seed, it would also be creating its own glowing heat sustenance. This makes it look like a flower that glows naturally, thus why it was dubbed the “Flower of the Night,” but there’s a catch; after doing this, it will continue to store the glowing heat sustenance until the seed germinates, where the glow becomes enhanced ten-fold, resulting in poison beginning to brew. Once it completes that process, the sustenance will start to mix into what we refer to as the poison.

“Our research was based on the wish that we be able to take the poison out of an Olin Maris mineral, but still have it glow as much as it did with the poison intact. We’ve tried doing this by altering its seeds through heating, but they became dimmer in comparison. Through an experiment, we found out that Olin Maris increases its glow due to the temperature around it. In other words, to make its glow brighter without poison, we’d need to keep it in constant contact with a heat source, but also let it have minimum contact with cold air. A resolution we found for this was letting a Heat Glitter Heat Crystal solidify halfway, then cover the seed in a predetermined liquefied mixture, and finally put it in to let it crystalize, thus allowing us to separate the stone and the seed even when it’s been inside a heat stone. We then let the flower bloom safely inside of it.”

“I see,” The nobleman said after a moment of consideration.

When he sat down, another one took his place. “Can you show us the stone in question?”

The young redhead nodded once again before reaching into her coat and pulling out a poison-less Olin Maris. She held it up the shimmering mineral for everyone to see.

A few assemblymen let out gasps of awe, some questioning the validity of the stone. “Is that really poison-less?” She distinctly heard one grumble under his breath, just audible enough for her to hear.

She ignored them as she went on, “This is the result of the research we’ve done.”

After the council finally settled down to a few hushed murmurs, one noblewoman stood up to address her. “Exactly how is this manufactured?”

“As of now, it’s only been manmade,” She admitted solemnly. “It doesn’t take that long to make, however. We have a few already in the process of being made at the Lilias Dispensary as we speak, and if we get enough qualified people willing to decontaminate the Flower of the Night, we’d be able to do it.”

The noblewoman opened her mouth to speak once more, but the hushed murmurs now became much louder; so loud that the representative had to call several times for the room to be quiet before they finally listened to him.

“We’ll take a brief intermission,” He finally announced with a tinge of annoyance, “seeing as we’re too restless to actually listen.”

Though many people protested, in the end, everyone was ushered out to cool their heads for a bit. She wanted to try and catch Zen before he left, but she lost him in the crowd easily. She resigned to go to the Great Hall. Normally, she’d go to her usual hideout in one of the numerous Dovecotes inside Wistal Castle, but she decided to stray away and decided to go there instead. After all, she didn’t know when the representative would call them back into the council room.

Since her stomach was too jittery for her to consume any food, she decided a light beverage would help. “One glass of mead, please?”

The server nodded. “One moment, please.”

She took her seat nearby as she waited for her drink. Coincidently, one of the aristocrats from the Royal Council also decided to come to the Great Hall to wind down. “Oh, well, if it isn’t the red-haired urchin!”

Shirayuki pretended not to hear him, but that didn’t stop him in the least. “Can you believe that the king appointed her to be the representative of Lilias?”

Another unfamiliar voice—who she assumed was one of his noble friends—joined in. “Really? How come?”

“I’m not sure, but what a laughingstock that made Olin Maris! Appointing someone like her—who has distinctive features—would make anyone question the validity of Olin Maris as a potential market good. Seems to me she was only meant to be a poster girl for the mineral.”

She felt her fingers tap impatiently as she waited further for her drink. “Actually, that might be it! I doubt that the mineral in question was rendered poison-less! Perhaps they’re merely covering up that fact and make patrons buy a lethal fixture! I dare say that the red-haired bumpkin was made the poster girl purely to deviate us from the truth. I’ll have my fellow congressmen know about this!”

That was all she could bear. Suddenly, in a move so swift the nobleman jumped back in alert, she turned furiously towards him before narrowing her eyes in annoyance. “Excuse me, dear sir, but I simply must stop you there. You can say what you please about my character or facial features, but I will not stay silent as I hear you chastise the very stone my dedicated friends and I have worked so hard to make. Olin Maris really was decontaminated solely for the purpose of public use, so please correct your earlier statement. If you would like to go tell your fellow congressmen, go straight ahead; I won’t stop you. We’ll see what’s truthful when I show them the true magnificence of the vibrant flower dubbed, “The Flower of the Night.””

The nobleman, who merely moments before was accusing she and her friends of nothing short of treachery, now stood speechless with his jaw open. He hadn’t thought she’d actually say something in return to him, much less with such a voice of authority. “S-Sorry, ma’am… I understand that was an erroneous allegation…”

Her eyes, which were a dark green—as green as a venomous snake’s—that bore a gaping hole into him only a moment beforehand now grew softer. “It’s quite all right; I can understand why you’d think that. I’d probably think the very same thing if I were you; I don’t exactly look the part that an ambassador should. Even so, I will try with all my might to make sure Olin Maris is efficaciously distributed for marketing. I owe at least that to all my friends who persevered through sleepless nights to ultimately form this.”

When she twisted back about to be seated appropriately on her bench, she let out a gasp of surprise. “Z-Zen?!”

Zen was unfortunately veered off his course by the mass of people trying to exit the council room. He finally broke loose from the frenzy of people, letting out an annoyed sigh as he checked his surroundings, gradually beginning to remember where he was. The Great Hall should be around the corner, if my memory serves me well…

Upon twisting the door open, he realised that the usual vacant area was now presently a busy place. His eyes quickly itemised a certain red-haired interest of his. He felt his chest steadily begin to untighten. She’s here!

His feet moved of their own accord towards her, but abruptly stopped a foot or so away when he noticed how tense she quickly became. He didn’t have time to ponder why before a nearby nobleman sneered at her. “Can you believe that the king appointed her to be the representative of Lilias?”

. “Really? How come?”

“I’m not sure, but what a laughingstock that made Olin Maris! Appointing someone like her—who has distinctive features—would make anyone question the validity of Olin Maris as a potential market good. Seems to me she was only meant to be a poster girl for the mineral,” The nobleman droned on.

Zen heard the aristocrat continue, but through his rage, he couldn’t listen enough to comprehend it. How could he so blatantly scrutinise Shirayuki like that?! What did she do to him to deserve such detestation directed towards her?!

He narrowed his eyes at him, fists clenched at his sides, as he opened his mouth to say something curt in response but was suddenly cut off by the young redhead as she twisted around to face the accuser. As he took in every word she held true, he gradually loosened his grip on his fists. Shirayuki doesn’t need me to fight her battles, He unexpectedly realised. She can defend her views deferentially without stooping to her opponent’s level, making her a great debater.

She can do things on her own. I have to accept that.

“Z-Zen?!” He heard her stutter, her face suddenly turning red. “Y-You’re here?!”

He gave her a slight smile. “Yo, Shirayuki. I just found my way here shortly before that noble started talking. Forgive me for eavesdropping, but I did restrain myself from defending you. It took a lot of willpower to do that, too.”

Shirayuki smiled back at him. “I see.”

The Second Prince narrowed his eyes at the nobleman. “Have you learned your lesson?”

“Y-Yes, Your Royal Highness!” The nobleman stammered, his eyes widened in fear.

He let out a low sigh. “Then you may go. Remember this the next time you decide to wrongly judge someone.”

The nobleman nodded before hurriedly leaving, his friend following soon after him. Shirayuki followed Zen to a secluded, vacant room and took a seat next to him on a tattered couch.

She came clean with her insecurities about her being the ambassador, and Zen consoled her.

“You’re doing great so far,” He complimented her. “You did really well presenting your case clearly. I doubt there’d be anyone who wouldn’t want to vote in your favour.”

She gave him a sweet smile, all her worries now gone. “Thank you so much!”

He reflected her smile back at her. “It was nothing.”

She slowly shook her head. “No, I didn’t mean just for soothing me; I meant for trusting me, too.”

“Huh?”

“You trusted me enough to fight my own battle, and for that, I am grateful,” She said warmly.

She let out a soft gasp as Zen pulled her in for a hug. “You deserve to be treated rightfully, but only you can decide how someone treats you. From now on, I’ll restrain myself just a bit to allow you some freedom in your choices. That’s the least I can do for you.”

She closed her eyes as she threw her arms around him to hug him back. “Thank you!”

#Zenyukiweek17 #Day 3 #Damsel in Defence #Zenyuki #AnS #akagami no shirayukihime #prompts #fanfictions

[goldeagleprice]

Viewpoint: Leave some profit for the little guy

The Delaware Statehood quarter, part of the program recommended to the House Banking Committee by the author. (Image courtesy www.usacoinbook.com)

By Harvey Stack

I just saw the April 3 edition of Numismatic News and read with great excitement the question you asked: “Coin Surcharges or No Surcharges?”

The question was asked many times before. We both remember the series of commemorative coins issued from 1982 to 1999, each of which had large premiums attached to them. The Mint publicized each issue and promoted them as GREAT HISTORICAL items of limited issue and drew in buyers all hoping to have an asset that would grow in time, for themselves or members of their families whom they may leave them to.

By 1995, the premiums absorbed all the gains that people had invested in, and many of the new issues resulted in dropping in price to half their original cost on the numismatic market.

Having a retail shop, we experienced such dismay when one came in to sell these and we as dealers were accused of grossly underpaying for these coins.

Many just dumped them to the dealers and took large losses. The hobby lost those who might have gone into other series and developed more meaningful collections.

This was the reason I led a group to testify before the House Banking Committee in 1995 to protest the high profits charged by the Mint and the resulting losses sustained by those who bought these earlier.

I was asked by the chairman of the Committee, “Mr. Stack, how would you suggest we remedy this matter?”

I explained that the Mint was pricing coins far above what the market should bear and was earning profits that contributed to the lack of interest, and just stopped buying these basically overpriced coins. No viable second market developed to keep the values high and maintain interest in buying these issues.

I suggested that the way to try to gather respect back from the market and give the buyers a chance at obtaining new issues would be to issue them and sell them at face value. This way, one could start from the change in their pockets and develop an interest in collecting once again.

I proposed that we consider issuing a commemorative issue of quarters, honoring each state as to the date they entered the Union, and it should be called the Statehood Commemorative quarter series.

Of course, I said, the way to do this was to provide these at face value. There was a great acceptance of the idea by all the Congressmen who were present. In 1999, the new series was born.

To the public, it was something new, and they started to save the series as they were issued, many started with those they found in their daily change. (So popular was the series that the Mint tried to profit by the idea and proclaimed to the press that they were responsible for making as many as 175 million new collectors.)

I might add here that if they only made 1 percent of the 175 million, we would have hundreds of thousands of members in the American Numismatic Association, rather than a mere 25,000, and we would need a stadium-sized hall for each and every convention and show each year.

The Mint wanted to show that they listened to Congress and were now helping revive the hobby. To me, I feel that they were guilty, for they never thought of “Statistics do not lie, but liars use statistics.”

But the Mint never gives up trying to show a profit. During the commemorative series, they issued special sets, proof coins and the like, and that was where they would show a profit. They are not supposed to be a profit-making organization, but with all the special issues that they have concurrent with commemorative quarter series, first the Statehood quarter and then the America the Beautiful series, they had the plan to continue profiteering.

Just recently, the issues of the commemorative America the Beautiful series was offered for sale by the Mint direct to the public. They ask $18.50 a roll, and I believed that all the quarter commemorative issues were to be released from the banks and the Mint at face value ($10 a roll).

Nobody I know has called them directly on this, but I believe any profit they make should have been returned to the buyers of these rolls.

I also commend you for the story on the last pages of the Columbian half dollars of 1892 and 1893.

The Mint struck close to 1 million in 1892 and over a 1-1/2 million in 1893. And they sold them for 50 cents over face, or $1 per coin. As you related, this promotion was far in excess of what a collector wanted to pay in 1892-3. The residue was no doubt put into change, and hence so many are around today.

I know from speaking to old-timers years back that when they encounter these at the $1 premium, they rejected most, and those that were still in their desk drawers or piggy banks were spent for 50 cents. They had a 50-cent loss on each one bought during the period in which these were struck and attempted to be sold. 50 cents was a lot of money, and the thought of the loss discouraged many from continuing to think of collecting.

Today it is exactly as the market was at the turn of the century; a premium was not called for to acquire coins at close to or at face value.

According to the information I saw in our Mint’s annual reports, numismatic items have yielded some $3 billion to $5 billion (after all expenses are covered), and that to me is the reason that we, the coin industry, has not grown but has instead diminished in recent years.

This “Viewpoint” was written by longtime coin dealer Harvey Stack, a co-founder of Stack’s Bowers.

To have your opinion considered for Viewpoint, write to David C. Harper, Editor, Numismatic News, 5225 Joerns Dr., Stevens Point, WI 54481. Send email to [email protected].

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• The Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000 is your guide to images, prices and information on coinage of the 1900s.

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