#10/06/2015

[sugdensdingle]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Utah’s getting some of America’s best broadband

TOMORROW (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

Residents of 21 cities in Utah have access to some of the fastest, most competitively priced broadband in the country, at speeds up to 10gb/s and prices as low as $75/month. It's uncapped, and the connections are symmetrical: perfect for uploading and downloading. And it's all thanks to the government.

This broadband service is, of course, delivered via fiber optic cable. Of course it is. Fiber is vastly superior to all other forms of broadband delivery, including satellites, but also cable and DSL. Fiber caps out at 100tb/s, while cable caps out at 50gb/s – that is, fiber is 1,000 times faster:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/why-fiber-vastly-superior-cable-and-5g

Despite the obvious superiority of fiber, America has been very slow to adopt it. Our monopolistic carriers act as though pulling fiber to our homes is an impossible challenge. All those wires that currently go to your house, from power-lines to copper phone-lines, are relics of a mysterious, fallen civilization and its long-lost arts. Apparently we could no more get a new wire to your house than we could build the pyramids using only hand-tools.

In a sense, the people who say we can't pull wires anymore are right: these are relics of a lost civilization. Specifically, electrification and later, universal telephone service was accomplished through massive federal grants under the New Deal – grants that were typically made to either local governments or non-profit co-operatives who got everyone in town connected to these essential modern utilities.

Today – thanks to decades of neoliberalism and its dogmatic insistence that governments can't do anything and shouldn't try, lest they break the fragile equilibrium of the market – we have lost much of the public capacity that our grandparents took for granted. But in the isolated pockets where this capacity lives on, amazing things happen.

Since 2015, residents of Jackson County, KY – one of the poorest counties in America – have enjoyed some of the country's fastest, cheapest, most reliable broadband. The desperately poor Appalachian county is home to a rural telephone co-op, which grew out of its rural electrification co-op, and it used a combination of federal grants and local capacity to bring fiber to every home in the county, traversing dangerous mountain passes with a mule named "Ole Bub" to reach the most remote homes. The result was an immediately economic uplift for the community, and in the longer term, the county had reliable and effective broadband during the covid lockdowns:

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-one-traffic-light-town-with-some-of-the-fastest-internet-in-the-us

Contrast this with places where the private sector has the only say over who gets broadband, at what speed, and at what price. America is full of broadband deserts – deserts that strand our poorest people. Even in the hearts of our largest densest cities, whole neighborhoods can't get any broadband. You won't be surprised to learn that these are the neighborhoods that were historically redlined, and that the people who live in them are Black and brown, and also live with some of the highest levels of pollution and its attendant sicknesses:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/10/flicc/#digital-divide

These places are not set up for success under the best of circumstances, and during the lockdowns, they suffered terribly. You think your kid found it hard to go to Zoom school? Imagine what life was like for kids who attended remote learning while sitting on the baking tarmac in a Taco Bell parking lot, using its free wifi:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/02/elem-s02.html

ISPs loathe competition. They divide up the country into exclusive territories like the Pope dividing up the "new world" and do not trouble one another by trying to sell to customers outside of "their" turf. When Frontier – one of the worst of America's terrible ISPs – went bankrupt, we got to see their books, and we learned two important facts:

The company booked one million customers who had no alternative as an asset, because they would pay more for slower broadband, and Frontier could save a fortune by skipping maintenance, and charging these customers for broadband even through multi-day outages; and

Frontier knew that it could make a billion dollars in profit over a decade by investing in fiber build-out, but it chose not to, because stock analysts will downrank any carrier that made capital investments that took more than five years to mature. Because Frontier's execs were paid primarily in stock, they chose to strand their customers with aging copper connections and to leave a billion dollars sitting on the table, so that their personal net worth didn't suffer a temporary downturn:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/frontiers-bankruptcy-reveals-cynical-choice-deny-profitable-fiber-millions

ISPs maintain the weirdest position: that a) only the private sector can deliver broadband effectively, but b) to do so, they'll need massive, unsupervised, no-strings-attached government handouts. For years, America went along with this improbable scheme, which is why Trump's FCC chairman Ajit Pai gave the carriers $45 billion in public funds to string slow, 19th-century-style copper lines across rural America:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/27/all-broadband-politics-are-local/

Now, this is obviously untrue, and people keep figuring out that publicly provisioned broadband is the only way for America to get the same standard of broadband connectivity that our cousins in other high-income nations enjoy. In order to thwart the public's will, the cable and telco lobbyists joined ALEC, the far-right, corporatist lobbying shop, and drafted "model legislation" banning cities and counties from providing broadband, even in places the carriers chose not to serve:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/19/culture-war-bullshit-stole-your-broadband/

Red states across America adopted these rules, and legislators sold this to their base by saying that this was just "keeping the government out of their internet" (even as every carrier relied on an exclusive, government-granted territorial charter, often with massive government subsidies).

ALEC didn't target red states exclusively because they had pliable, bribable conservative lawmakers. Red states trend rural, and rural places are the most likely sites for public fiber. Partly, that's because low-density areas are harder to make a business case for, but also because these are also the places that got electricity and telephone through New Deal co-ops, which are often still in place.

Just about the only places in America where people like their internet service are the 450+ small towns where the local government provides fiber. These places vote solidly Republican, and it was their beloved conservative lawmakers whom ALEC targeted to enact laws banning their equally beloved fiber – keep voting for Christmas, turkeys, and see where it gets you:

https://communitynets.org/content/community-network-map

But spare a little sympathy for the conservative movement here. The fact that reality has a pronounced leftist bias must be really frustrating for the ideological project of insisting that anything the market can't provide is literally impossible.

Which brings me back to Utah, a red state with a Republican governor and legislature, and a national leader in passing unconstitutional, unhinged, unworkable legislation as part of an elaborate culture war kabuki:

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/24/1165975112/utah-passes-an-age-verification-law-for-anyone-using-social-media

For more than two decades, a coalition of 21 cities in Utah have been building out municipal fiber. The consortium calls itself UTOPIA: "Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency":

https://www.utopiafiber.com/faqs/

UTOPIA pursues a hybrid model: they run "open access" fiber and then let anyone offer service over it. This can deliver the best of both worlds: publicly provisioned, blazing-fast fiber to your home, but with service provided by your choice of competing carriers. That means that if Moms for Liberty captures you local government, you're not captive to their ideas about what sites your ISP should block.

As Karl Bode writes for Techdirt, Utahns in UTOPIA regions have their choice of 18 carriers, and competition has driven down prices and increased speeds. Want uncapped 1gb fiber? That's $75/month. Want 10gb fiber? That's $150:

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/05/15/utah-locals-are-getting-cheap-10-gbps-fiber-thanks-to-local-governments/

UTOPIA's path to glory wasn't an easy one. The dismal telco monopolists Qwest and Lumen sued to put them out of business, delaying the rollout by years:

https://www.deseret.com/2005/7/22/19903471/utopia-responds-to-qwest-lawsuit/

UTOPIA has been profitable and self-sustaining for over 15 years and shows no sign of slowing. But 17 states still ban any attempt at this.

Keeping up such an obviously bad policy requires a steady stream of distractions and lies. The "government broadband doesn't work" lie has worn thin, so we've gotten a string of new lies about wireless service, insisting that fiber is obviated by point-to-point microwave relays, or 5g, or satellite service.

There's plenty of places where these services make sense. You're not going to be able to use fiber in a moving car, so yeah, you're going to want 5g (and those 5g towers are going to need to be connected to each other with fiber). Microwave relay service can fill the gap until fiber can be brought in, and it's great for temporary sites (especially in places where it doesn't rain, because rain, clouds, leaves and other obstructions are deadly for microwave relays). Satellite can make sense for an RV or a boat or remote scientific station.

But wireless services are orders of magnitude slower than fiber. With satellite service, you share your bandwidth with an entire region or even a state. If there's only a couple of users in your satellite's footprint, you might get great service, but when your carrier adds a thousand more customers, your connection is sliced into a thousand pieces.

That's also true for everyone sharing your fiber trunk, but the difference is that your fiber trunk supports speeds that are tens of thousands of times faster than the maximum speeds we can put through freespace electromagnetic spectrum. If we need more fiber capacity, we can just fish a new strand of fiber through the conduit. And while you can increase the capacity of wireless by increasing your power and bandwidth, at a certain point you start pump so much EM into the air that birds start falling out of the sky.

Every wireless device in a region shares the same electromagnetic spectrum, and we are only issued one such spectrum per universe. Each strand of fiber, by contrast, has its own little pocket universe, containing a subset of that spectrum.

Despite all its disadvantages, satellite broadband has one distinct advantage, at least from an investor's perspective: it can be monopolized. Just as we only have one electromagnetic spectrum, we also only have one sky, and the satellite density needed to sustain a colorably fast broadband speed pushes the limit of that shared sky:

https://spacenews.com/starlink-vs-the-astronomers/

Private investors love monopoly telecoms providers, because, like pre-bankruptcy Frontier, they are too big to care. Back in 2021, Altice – the fourth-largest cable operator in America – announced that it was slashing its broadband speeds, to be "in line with other ISPs":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/27/immortan-altice/#broadband-is-a-human-right

In other words: "We've figured out that our competitors are so much worse than we are that we are deliberately degrading our service because we know you will still pay us the same for less."

This is why corporate shills and pro-monopolists prefer satellite to municipal fiber. Sure, it's orders of magnitude slower than fiber. Sure, it costs subscribers far more. Sure, it's less reliable. But boy oh boy is it profitable.

The thing is, reality has a pronounced leftist bias. No amount of market magic will conjure up new electromagnetic spectra that will allow satellite to attain parity with fiber. Physics hates Starlink.

Yeah, I'm talking about Starlink. Of course I am. Elon Musk basically claims that his business genius can triumph over physics itself.

That's not the only vast, impersonal, implacable force that Musk claims he can best with his incredible reality-distortion field. Musk also claims that he can somehow add so many cars to the road that he will end traffic – in other words, he will best geometry too:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

Geometry hates Tesla, and physics hates Starlink. Reality has a leftist bias. The future is fiber, and public transit. These are both vastly preferable, more efficient, safer, more reliable and more plausible than satellite and private vehicles. Their only disadvantage is that they fail to give an easily gulled, thin-skinned compulsive liar more power over billions of people. That's a disadvantage I can live with.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/16/symmetrical-10gb-for-119/#utopia

Image: 4028mdk09 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rote_LED_Fiberglasleuchte.JPG

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[calderacitylovers]

Zutara SlowBurn FanFiction: Personal Favs, part I

·        I AM STILL HERE by owedbetter Published: 2017-10-09 | 77K words | 7 Chapters

After the Last Agni Kai K heals Z with the help of bloodbending. Very sweet.

 ·        THE SUMMIT by AJLenoire

Chronicles post-war years, as Gaang and other characters gather for annual summits to keep peace and build relationships between the Four Nations. Katara yearns for a bigger purpose than the Avatar’s companion and slowly grows into a shrewd diplomat. Very sweet slow burn ZK story. Has mature scenes.

 ·        CLOTHE ME IN SEASONS, DRESS ME IN SNOW by sadladybug Published: 2015-01-05 | 62K words | 7 Chapters

Follows old Zuko as he reflects on his life and what would have been if he kept Katara closer. Absolutely beautiful, but also a devastatingly heart-breaking story about loss and pain.

 ·        SILENT DECLARATIONS by Megara Pike (Megara_Pike) Published: 2021-01-20 | 2,6K words

A short story based on animation by Hayley Wong. Z finds K asleep in her study and carries her to bed. Very sweet, gentle story.

 ·        COVERED IN YOU by evergreenonthehorizon Published: 2021-04-02 | 55K words | 14 Chapters

Eight years after the war Z convinces K to take on a role of a Southern Water Tribe ambassador in the Caldera city. Both are completely clueless about each other’s feelings. Features political talks, big gestures, and a ball. Very cute, sweet slow-burn story. Has mature scenes.

 ·        TEN STRIDES IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION by evergreenonthehorizon Published: 2021-04-03 | 29K Words | 12 Chapters

A collection of short stories filling in the gaps between some of the events of ATLAS3 and up to the Last Agni Kai. Features accidental cuddling, embracing in the rain, sharing a bed for warmth, post-Ember Island Theater discussions, being discovered, waiting to be kissed, Suki & Katara being good friends, battle plans, Zuko & Sokka getting drunk, slow burn & angst. Very sweet.

 ·        THE SWAY OF THE SUN by TheBlackBriarSparrow Published: Published: 2019-10-14 | 102K Words | 27 Chapters

Two years post-war Gaang reunites in Caldera city for a secret party in honor of the overworked Fire Lord’s birthday. Rebels attack the palace setting a thrilling consequence of events in motion. Adventures, investigations, and fights ensue. Z & K work together and enlist old friends to help find missing people. Beautiful slow-burn story with an exciting plot.

·        A WARM EMBRACE by ewinkie Published: 2020-10-06 | 19K Words | 7 Chapters

An ATLAS3 rewrite from Southern Riders to the Last Agni Kai. Katara and Zuko have to hide in a cave following their encounter with Yon Rha. Comforting turns to cuddling, which turns to waking up on Appa's tail in each other's arms. Katara is shocked at how comfortable she is. Zuko is shocked that Katara doesn't hate him for it. Features sharing a bed, being discovered, slowburn, and lots of teenage silliness.

 ·        FOLLOWING BLUE by Boogum Published: 2018-11-07 | 39K Words | 10 Chapters

ATLA S2 rewrite. After Katara falls from Appa’s saddle during a pursuit, the Blue Spirit becomes her reluctant companion and helps her reunite with her friends. Ba Sing Se scenes are completely rewritten, and Z ends up joining the Gaang much earlier. Thrilling beginning, sweet middle, average ending.

 ·        ANOTHER WORD FOR ALCHEMY by FanPanda13 Published: 2014-08-19 | 108K words | 24 Chapters

Five years post-war Aang summons old friends for a summit and invites them on a trip to investigate mysterious locations where he experiences loss of bending. Features Gaang setting Z & K up, travelling on Appa like in the olden days, lots of sparring, royal courting, magnificent navy ships & war ballons. Thrilling story with fun banter between old friends. Slowburn, mature content.

 ·        CONSUME ME WITH FIRE, FLOOD ME WITH DESIRE by Dacamia Published: 2020-08-14 | 86K words | 24 Chapters

Steamy ATLAS2 and ATLA S3 rewrite. Z & K accidentally meetup on their way to Ba Sing Se and decide to travel together. Features aged-up characters, lots of intimate scenes, staying in a beautiful cave, helping villagers, betrayal in Ba Sing Se, reunion, forgiveness, etc. Explicit mature content.

 ·        ROOTS AND WINGS by zukoscomet Published: 2020-08-14 | 250K words | 25 Chapters

A series of short stories of Z & K as they grow closer, confess their love for one another and start a family.

 ·        THOSE WHO FAVOR FIRE by hiwasseelane Published: 2021-05-02 |29K Words | 13 Chapters

An ATLAS3 rewrite. Sweet, teen-appopriate.

Here’s a link to Part II of my personal favs.

Here’s a link to Wholesome Zutara Short Stories.

[la-femme-au-collier-vert]

From The Library of Anne Rice (Part 1)

A list of books owned by Anne Rice including annotation information taken from auction listings at Bonham's, October 2024. Will continue in Part 2.

Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (abridged edition).New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1963. She writes on the flyleaf in June of 2012: "When I bought this book I don't know. I know I read it or a copy of it in the 1980s when writing The Vampire Lestat. It is essential to me." On the jacket spine she has added "Sacred!"

Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. 1981. Marked on the cover, "Gift to Stan from Anne 1985 / Save Always, AR," and internally reads in Stan's handwriting: "A gift to me from Anne because I've never read it."

Gaskell, Elizabeth. Tales of Mystery & the Macabre. Wordsworth edition, 2007. bears Rice's ownership signature to title page ("Anne Rice / May 29, 2012 / The Desert") and is tabbed and annotated throughout. 

Gaskell, Elizabeth. North and South. Penguin Books, 2000. bears her ownership signature on the title page.

Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls. New York: Charles Scribner's Son, 1940. Original beige cloth stamped cover and spine, in facsimile dust jacket. First edition with the Scribner's "A" on the copyright page. With Post-it note to front pastedown indicating that the book was a gift "From Becket and Christina / Christmas / 2012."

King, B. B. & David Ritz. Blues All Around Me: The Autobiography of B.B. King. New York: Avon Books, 1996. First edition, inscribed to "To Anne / All the best to you / B.B. King / 10-18-96." 

Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables. Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1976. Anne Rice ownership signature dated February 7, 2015, Palm Desert. Annotated on front pastedown; "It's immediately a pleasure, and making me want to write."

 Montgomery, L.M. Emily's Quest. Oxford City Press, 2009. Anne Rice ownership signature dated February 21, 2015; annotated and tabbed.

Montgomery, L.M. Emily Climbs. Sourcebooks, 2014. Anne Rice ownership signature dated February 12, 2015.

Montgomery, L.M. Emily of New Moon. Ameron House, c.2015. Anne Rice ownership signature dated February 6, 2015, inscribed: "Reading the paperback and loving it so much I had to have a hardcover." 

Montgomery, L.M. The Blue Castle. Sourcebooks, 2011. Anne Rice ownership signature dated May 12, 2015 to title page.

Puzo, Mario. The Godfather. New York: Putnam, 1969. Book club edition. On May 26 and 27, 2013, she writes, "Badly need this, Studying in detail" and on page 74 she writes, "Note how easily it flows." She has great praise for the nimbleness of the novel's p.o.v. and is often asking herself "how can I learn from this?" On p 225 she writes, "This is a most impressive piece of work and is masterly. Again I marvel at vocabulary, tone, and placement—organization of the book. I fight OCD as I write, I've come to see that, and this helps me to see what this novel accomplishes. Presenting the Don as a 'great' man, a 'genius,' without apology is a conscious approach that is so powerful."

Puzo, Mario. The Godfather. Another copy, later edition, lacking jacket. With Anne Rice's ownership signature.

Puzo, Mario. The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions. London; William Heinneman, 1972.

Puzo, Mario. The Fortunate Pilgrim. New York: Random House, 1997. Anne Rice ownership signature. 

Wallace, Lew. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1908. Anne Rice re-read this copy of Ben-Hur in 2006, a used copy she picked up somewhere, leaving detailed marginalia throughout and summing up her thoughts on the first flyleaf: "12-12-06: This is an amazing achievement: a Judeo-Christian novel. Jewish history and honor are here! And a woman tells this history to her son! How did we get away from this to The Robe ... 12-15-06: I've spent over two days reading & studying this wonderful book. It does seem unique—and it covers an amazing amt of material including a physical description of Our Lord, the crucifixion, etc. It is not anti-semitic. It presents Jews as exotic, 'oriental.' It has a primitive quality ... why is the prose so difficult? so 'dated'? Compare to Dickens." Rice's notes in the margin often compare the novel to (presumably the 1959 version of) the film, finding the novel superior in every way, and commenting more than once on its structural similarities to Dickens: "the whole spectacle and the co-incidence" (p 166).

Cleland, John. 1709-1789. Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. New York: Penguin Books, 1985. Annotated and with ownership signature to the title page: "Anne Rice / January 2014 / Palm Desert." Rice underscores Cleland's descriptions of bodies and physical acts, and in particular, wonders about the novel's p.o.v.: on p 108 she writes in the margin, "Is this a man's view? A gay man? An author who is male and female?"

Clinton, Bill. Born 1946. My Life. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2004. Jacket spine with label "From the library of Anne Rice" laid down to tail. First edition, inscribed on the title page, "To Anne—After doing this book, I admire you even more—Bill Clinton." with: a note on the Office of William J. Clinton letterhead: "2/17 —Huma—For author ANNE RICE.—Thanks, Sally." When Clinton published his memoir in 2024, Rice was one of the VIPs to receive a presentation copy, in which he expresses his admiration for her work after having written a book of his own.

Bellman, Henry. 1882-1945. Kings Row. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1943. Annotated and with ownership signature to front free endpaper: "Anne Rice / June 27, 2013 / Palm Desert." Rice has carefully read and annotated this copy, complementing the writing (particularly when Bellamann writes about Father Donovan) and adds a long note on the rear pastedown: "Pages & pages of this book are about the mind—about how the mind learns, expands, grows, experiences." Sometimes her comments are in conversation with the text, as when, on p 153, she underlines the town of Auvergne and writes "Auvergne, what a coincidence! As I plan a trip there and write about Lestat!"

Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield.  New York: Penguin Classics, 2014. With ownership signature of Anne Rice dated June 11, 2018, tabbed and annotated throughout. On the preliminary leaf of Copperfield, Rice writes, "Again with my beloved David, and my beloved Dickens. I have just read Claire Tomalink 'The Invisible Woman' and her later bio of Dickens. I'm writing my new novel in my head."

Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Penguin Classics, 2008. Signed and dated June 15, 2018, tabbed and annotated throughout.

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnen. South Moon Under. New York, London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933 (undated later facsimile edition).

Mitchell, Margaret, Gone With the Wind. New York: [Simon and Schuster], 2011. Rice reread this copy in March of 2015, tabbing dozens of pages and commenting in the margins.

Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2007. The first date on this copy of War and Peace is June 30, 2010, and Rice writes: "The Desert / Being reborn in Tolstoy, studying at his feet—Searching for the Christ who is bigger than religion." In a different ink, Rice adds at the top of the same page, "Revisiting 7-16-17—Having seen much of the new BBC series with Lily James as Natasha." Rice has tabbed the pages throughout this volume and made extensive notes on character development and theme. On the rear flyleaf, she adds, "'Life is everything...' p 10064— use for L" as well as "The guiltlessness of suffering (do we make ourselves suffer to be guiltless)?"

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karinina. Translated by Rosamund Bartlett. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Signed and annotated February 19, 2015. Heavily tabbed, especially in the center part of the novel, and noted on the front flyleaf: "Reading chunks of the story of Levin & Kitty / So beautiful and smooth—"

[myreia]

Sketches of Times Lost

ao3 | tumblr tag | my writing

short stories include spoilers from a realm reborn to endwalker. all stories are set in aureia malathar's canon. [❤] = fave entry/fic that I am proud of [g] = general (all audiences), [t] = teen (some language, more difficult themes), [m] = mature (implied sex, sensuality, strong language, and/or violence), [e] = explicit (mature themes, explicit sex scenes)

Week I

— 01. Steer | [G] Ryne x Gaia | 943 words — 02. Horizon | [G] Alisaie x Tesleen | 2298 words [❤] — 03. Tempest | [M] Sadu x Y'shtola | 1489 words — 04. Reticent | [G] Minfilia x Aureia | 964 words — 05. Stamp | [T] Fordola x Aureia | 1945 words [❤] — 06. Halcyon | [E] Igeyorhm x Iphigeneia (Azem) | 5424 words — 07. Morsel | [G] Alisaie x Tesleen | 967 words

Week II

— 08. Collapse [FREE DAY] | [T] Thancred POV | 1561 words — 09. Lend an Ear | [T] Aymeric x Aureia | 1617 words — 10. Stable | [T] Sidurgu x Aureia, Rielle | 2086 words [❤] — 11. Surrogate | [E] Thancred x Hilda | 2306 words [❤] — 12. Quarry | [G] Thancred & Ryne | 1408 words [❤] — 13. Butte | [T] Aureia & Avi'li | 820 words — 14. Telling | [T] Aymeric & Artoirel | 1600 words

Week III

— 15. Replacement [FREE DAY] | [G] Emet-Selch POV | 973 words — 16. Third-rate | [G] Lyse & Fordola | 1864 words [❤] — 17. Sally | [T] Rielle POV | 2200 words [❤] — 18. Hackneyed | [G] Thancred x Aureia | 1868 words — 19. Taken | [G] Thancred x Aureia | 1219 words — 20. Duel | [G] Alisaie & Aureia | 2189 words — 21. Shade | [M] Sidurgu x Aureia | 2015 words [❤]

Week IV

— 22. Threshold [FREE DAY] | [M] Aymeric x Aureia | 1273 words [❤] — 23. On Cloud Nine | [E] Aymeric x Aureia | 2504 words — 24. Bar | [E] Fordola x Aureia | 1522 words [❤] — 25. Perpetuity | [T] Hythlodaeus & Iphigeneia (Azem) | 1589 words — 26. Zip | [G] Thancred POV | 1294 words — 27. Memory | [T] Meteion & Aureia | 2135 words [❤] — 28. Deleterious | [G] Venat & Iphigeneia (Azem) | 1409 words — 29. Evaporate | [E] Thancred x Aureia | 2010 words — 30. Two Heads Are Better Than One | [M] Sidurgu x Aureia | 2795 words

[themaveriqueagenda]

it's trans+ history week, so i finally have an opportunity to make a detailed post about maverique history.

so here it is:

a detailed timeline of maverique history.

31/05/2014 — @queerascat coined maverique as "a non-binary gender characterized by an unconventional and unothodox internal sense of self and the interrelationship between that sense of self and society"

15/06/2014 — queerascat reworded the definition as: "a non-binary gender characterized by autonomy and inner conviction regarding a sense of gender which is unorthodox, unconventional and entirely independent of conventional concepts of gender". they created the maverique flag on the same day.

18/06/2014 — tearun suggested maver as an equivalent to man/woman and rique as an equivalent for boy/girl, the latter was never heard of again due to it sounding like "reek"

19/06/2014 — someone suggested mav as an equivalent to boy/girl, @whatdoesenbymean suggested Mv (pronounced "mav") as a title

21/06/2014 — after some confusion, queerascat reworded the definition one last time as "a gender characterized by autonomy and inner conviction regarding a sense of self that is entirely independent of male/masculinity, female/femininity or anything which derives from the two while still being neither without gender nor of a neutral gender"

22/06/2014 — the @maveriques blog was created

24/06/2014 — maveriques posted a CMYK analogy to explain maverique

28/06/2014 — maveriques posted a list of proposed maverique terms

29/06/2014 — someone suggested Mv (pronounced "miv") as a title

06/07/2014 — queerascat uploaded a video about their label change and the term maverique in their youtube channel

12/03/2015 — maveriques clearly defined maverique as not an umbrella term

11/10/2015 — queerascat posted a gender tag video from a maverique perspective on their youtube channel

13/10/2015 — someone suggested maveriquine as an equivalent for masculine/feminine

~2015/16 — there was discourse on aliagender and aporagender being racist, and that maverique was a good term to use instead because it was coined by a Black person, queerascat pushed back against this

31/07/2016 — maverine was suggested as an equivalent to masculine/feminine

18/11/2016 — @moonstruck-melts suggested the earth and sun symbols for maverique, and @feekins suggested pluto as a symbol

03/02/2017 — @the-christian-closet suggested the comet symbol for maverique, mistaking it for an alternative sun symbol

05/02/2017 — maveriques posted a poll asking how people feel about the sun as a maverique symbol

12/02/2017 — maveriques posted the results, with most maveriques liking it but having reservations

24/02/2017 — courage-archive-deactivated2018 / sneer posted the symbol with the two extending arms

17/07/2017 — veriquinity was suggested as an equivalent to masculine/feminine

~2021: the maverique subreddit was created

06/01/2022 — renée yoxon went on the fifty shades of gender podcast to talk about being maverique, trans, nonbinary and genderqueer

06/2022 — reddit user ChaoticStrange suggested a maverique visibility day on 31/05 and others agreed

16/01/2023 — renée yoxon briefly spoke about being maverique on the gender reveal podcast

18/06/2023 — @themaveriqueagenda on tumblr was born

20/08/2023 — themaveriqueagenda on instagram was born

[houpss]

(🧊)–Past relationships with Lily

🧊–return to masterlist ¡! ✥

–Lily hasn't had many relationships, but she is quite experienced with both girls and guys! She had many affairs, but little true love.

🧊–MINATOZAKI SANA¡! ✥

—Lily's first serious addiction, literally her first love, they started dating in 2013, when Lily was still in SM ENTERTAINMENT and God, she was only 14, and Sana was 17. Their relationship lasted three years, Lily grew up with Sana, she so grateful! they are very good and close friends now. They broke up because they both grew out of this relationship, but they are on excellent terms!

Familiar with:03/07/2013 (Were in a relationship from 06/16/2013-10/23/2016)

Relationship with Sana now: Very close friends, they are seen together at awards and any shows, they record TikTok videos together and broadcast!

🧊– CHOI SEUNGCHEOL¡! ✥

–They met on the set of an advertisement, then Seungcheol himself came up to meet Lily, they were very nice to each other! they talked for a very long time before starting a relationship, it was so comfortable and good. Seungcheol always supported Lily, when SKZ debuted, he tried to help with promotion. Lily is very grateful to him. We broke up due to misunderstandings and several major quarrels.

Familiar with:12/29/2016 (In a relationship from 07/27/2017-12/14/2018)

Relationship with Seungcheol now: Now they don’t communicate, but at awards or events they quietly glance at each other, which only they notice and know. Lily does not want to restore their communication, because she thinks that she does not need it.

🧊–KIM NAMJOON¡! ✥

–He took Lily when she was sick, it was a healing relationship for her, not that she loved deeply, but she definitely did! They were introduced by Tenshi back in 2015, but their relationship began only at the end of 2019. It was a very calm relationship, where Namjoon held the main position. They broke up due to difficulties in the perception of both sides.

Familiar with: spring 2015 (In a relationships from 12/30/2019-12/24/2020)

Relationship with Namjoon now: They communicate! perhaps not so often, but it’s very good that when Lily and Tenshi eat together, Jungkook and Namjoon will definitely join them. Quite easy and good communication. When Tenshi and Lily went to see off BTS to the army, Lily and Namjoon said goodbye very warmly.

[hauntinghyrule]

Preserving Four Swords art from Akira Himekawa's Twitter

Here's what I've managed to salvage so far. Anyone know of anything I might be missing?

2012-06-01 and 2015-10-06:

Original caption (left):

下描き整理中に発見。四剣のヴィオ＆シャドウだよ＊色付けしようと思ってそのままになってるイラストのラフです(^^)bこれから色塗って完成させてみようかな。

Original caption (right):

トライフォース三銃士を横から眺めるヴィオ君とそんな奴らイイから俺と遊ぼーぜ的なシャドウ君( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

—

2016-10-29, 2016-11-16 and 2020-07-28:

Interesting thing here: I'm mostly focused on preserving art that's on Twitter but not in the manga itself. This art, despite being a preview for the colored pages of the Legendary Edition, does not appear to be in the English version. I have not been able to find out if the Japanese version or any other edition has more color pages.

—

2018-11-02 and 2018-11-05:

Technically not new art, I just wanted to show you pictures of Akira Himekawa signing autographs under a huge poster of the inside cover.

There was also merch from the event - again technically not new art, but... familiar art in a new format?

—

2019-12-16:

I'm starting to run out of space for images, and this one is ambiguous, but... this looks like Blue, doesn't it?

—

2020-04-13:

Original captions:

オレ様だって洗ってるぜ #二次元でも手洗いうがい #手洗いうがい

ボクらだってやってるよ ❣️ #二次元でも手洗いうがい  #手洗いうがい

ボクらはしばらく合体できないね  (わかる人にはわかるハズ😊)  #二次元でも手洗いうがい  #SocialDistance #SocialDistancing

[boosqoowoo]

the full timeline of burning sun (and goo hara)

2015 - 2017 crimes committed pre-burning sun

13 december 2015: seungri throws a birthday party for himself in shanghai with his friends and investors. here, he requests for girls that "give it good" for his investors (bbc)

______________________________________________________________

2016 jung joon young (jjy)'s molka (secret recording) crime

january 2016 - jjy, choi jung hoon (cjh) went to a ski resort with 2 others. at 7.39pm, kim sent a video to seungri (who wasnt present) about sexually assaulting a victim at the resort (bbc) *note: seungri was in japan for the big bang made concert tour from jan 9 - jan 11

february 2016 - jjy's ex gf filed a police report about him secretly recording a sexual video of her

15 march 2016 - jjy, cjh, park and kim assaulted a victim in daegu (bbc)

16 march 2016 - jjy had a fan meeting, one day after assaulting a victim

22 august 2016 - police requested that the private forensics company write a report to the police that "jjy's phone is unable to be restored and there are no data recovered"** 23 september 2016 - exclusive article released by reporter park hyo sil about the crime. for the next 3 years, park hyo sil will be a victim of a public witch hunt, having 2 miscarriages from the stress

06 october 2016 - jjy was cleared on all crimes. public opinion was in favor of him.

**today, we know that the private forensic company had secretly recovered all the files from his phone, and kept in 3 USBs. it contains data from 2015 - 2016. in 2019, a female from the company dropped of the 3 USBs at an attorney's office, who later contacted reporter kang kyung yoon. this will be the break of the burning sun case in 2019

______________________________________________________________

9 december 2017 - seungri rented an entire resort for his birthday party in palawan, philippines. here, he invited investors that would help him in his opening of the burning sun club. (bbc)

23 february 2018 - burning sun opened

2018 goo hara's assault from her boyfriend

10 september 2018 - goo hara has lunch with her manager and a male colleague for an upcoming schedule, without informing her boyfriend, choi jeong beom (cjb). cjb was known to be very jealous and overprotective of goo hara meeting other men, even if it is totally platonic and for business

13 september 2018 - choi jeong beom assaults goo hara 12.30am: cjb enters goo hara's home, drunk, and assaults goo hara 1.26am: cjb emails dispatch to provide them with "goo hara tip" 1.39am: cjb's friend helps to move cjb's luggage out of goo hara's house 2.04am: cjb sends goo hara their sex tape 2.21am: goo hara kneels to cjb in front of her elevator 2.22am: goo hara follows cjb down to his car 2.23am: cjb sends goo hara a second video of their sex tape, while loading his luggage into his car 3.30am: cjb called the police and was dispatched 4.21am: cjb emails dispatch a 2nd time about this "goo hara tip"

______________________________________________________________

the rise and fall of burning sun

24 november 2018 - club-goer kim sang kyo was allegedly physically assaulted by burning sun staff members when he was trying to save a victim

28 january 2019 - news reports about the assault at burning sun are released

26 february 2019 - reporter kang kyung yoon releases the kakao chat messages between the perpetrators

14/15 march 2019 - goo hara privately contacts reporter kang kyung yoon, telling her that she wants to help with the investigation since she is a victim of revenge porn. goo hara calls choi jung hoon (cjh), who were close friends since their trainee days. she persuaded cjh to tell the reporter who the police officer that was covering up their tracks were. the police officer was revealed by cjh to be yoon kyu keun, who had worked in the president's residence. (bbc)

16 march 2019 - articles about police officer yoon kyu keun are released, less than 48 hours after goo hara called cjh

14 october 2019 - f(x)'s sulli, goo hara's close friend, commits suicide 24 november 2019 - goo hara commits suicide

14 january 2020 - someone steals goo hara’s safe in her house

jung joon young: 5 years of prison choi jung hoon: 2 years of prison seungri: 18 months of prison

______________________________________________________________

others related to this case

people that were part of the group chats and admitted to watching the videos illegally filmed, but had not actively sexually assault anyone

beast/highlight yong jun hyung

cnblue lee jong hyun

soloist roy kim

soloist eddy kim

hyuna and yong junhyung relationship

2009 - 2010: 4minute hyuna and goo hara became close friends while filming invincible youth 2011 - march 2013: yong junhyung and goo hara's relationship may 2016 - november 2022: pentagon edawn/dawn/kim hyojong and hyuna's relationship january 2024 onwards - yong junhyung and hyuna dating and getting married

[lol-jackles]

Idle curiousity: Is it negotiations that determine who gets a picture featured where in convention promotions? Because in Burbank, for example, Mark Sheppard has been in much more SPN and I've met him frequently at cons. He was frequently featured in the show's promotions. Yet I see that JDM is in the banner in a more prominent spot than everyone, plus Mark is not given a picture at all. To SPN outsiders, JDM might be more widely known (based on imdb stats) but Mark also brings multi franchises.

My experience is the promotional pictures are entirely up to the convention owners/organizers based on what they think will bring them money.

Remember the Jensen & Misha banner debacle for the upcoming Chicago con in 2015? Let me remind you....

05/15/2015 - Jared breaks down and goes social media dark. Six weeks later....

06/29/2015 - Misha and Creation Entertainment registers Stands LLC .

08/16/2015 - Jensen and Misha “wins” TCA for best chemistry and tweet their first and only boat ride.

10/16/2015 - Creation Entertainment advertises the upcoming Chicago con with Jensen and Misha and the AKF tagline in their main banner.  Fandom’s outrage forced them to take down the Jensen/Misha banner three days later and replaced it with a Jared/Jensen banner.

02/11/2016 - Jensen and Misha launch the YANA campaign with series of videos filmed on SPN set and lines written by SPN writers.

Conclusion: YANA was a bust and memory holed.

[blackpink-jane]

ㅤㅤㅤ°ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ𖤐 ִֶָ 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐄 𓂃 profile 🧷

( moodboard cred: @lorlita )

。　　　　✧　everything is figureoutable !　⁺　 　 。

— BIRTH NAME ੭ go minri

— CHANGED NAME ੭ hwang jane ❪ since. '06 ❫

— CHINESE NAME ੭ zhao shengyue

— JAPANESE NAME ੭ hayashi yukicho

— NICKNAMES ੭ yue ❪ c-friends ❫, chocho ❪ dad, j-friends, jisoo ❫, honey ❪ jennie ❫, honey unnie ❪ rosè, lisa ❫, twinie ❪ chungha ❫

— hangul ੭ 고민리 → 황제인

— hanzi ੭ 趙勝岳

— kanji ੭ 林幸蝶

— NAME MEANINGS ੭ jane, God is gracious _ shengyue, rising moon _ yukicho, snowy morning

— BIRTHDAY ੭ 9th February, 1996

— ZODIAC SIGN ੭ aquarius

— CHINESE ZODIAC SIGN ੭ rat

— HEIGHT ੭ 170 cm ❪ 5'6" ❫

— WEIGHT ੭ 65 kg ❪ 143 lbs ❫

— BLOOD TYPE ੭ O

— GENDER ੭ female ❪ she/her ❫

— SEXUALITY ੭ bisexual

— RELATIONSHIP STATUS ੭ taken ❪ since. 2020 ❫

ㅤㅤㅤ🎀 | 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 ⊱ 🐈‍⬛

— MBTI ੭ entj / entp

— TRAITS ੭ independent, diplomatic, open-minded, energetic, impatient, ambitious, outgoing, confident, competitive, passionate, creative

— LIKES ੭ hugs, animals, waffles, makeup, dancing, martial arts, yoga, jogging, reading, playing video games, formula one, rugby, cars

— DISLIKES ੭ bananas, bright lights, spring season, insensitive people, snorers, knitting

— HOBBIES ੭ reading, baking, drawing, playing video games, go-karting, pottery, painting, jogging, annoying her twin brother eli, stealing her brothers clothes

ㅤㅤㅤ ❄ | 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐑 ⊱ 🌬

— COMPANY ੭ YG Entertainment ❪ 2012 - present ❫, Valor Entertainment ❪ 2024 ❫

— ACTIVE SINCE ੭ 2015

— TRAINEE PERIOD ੭ 2012 ‐ 2016 ❪ 3 yrs & 4 mths ❫

— GROUP ੭ BLACKPINK ❪ 블랙핑크 ❫

— DEBUT ੭ 2016

— STAGE NAME ੭ JANE ❪ 제인 ❫

— REPRESENTATIVE EMOJI ੭ 🦁

— INSTAGRAM ੭ diaryofjane ❪ personal ❫ ; valorent.official ❪ business ❫

— TWITTER ੭ diaryofjane ❪ personal ❫ ; valorent.official ❪ business ❫

— TIKTOK ੭ diaryofjane ❪ personal ❫ ; valorent.official ❪ business ❫

— YOUTUBE ੭ Valor Entertainment

— WEVERSE ੭ diaryofjane_

— SOLO DEBUT ੭ 2021

— ACTING DEBUT ੭ 2015

— APPEARANCES ੭ high society (jang yoonha, 2015), fight for my way (choi aera, 2017), what's wrong with secretary kim ? (kim miso, 2018), my name (yoon jiwoo, 2021), the kings affection (crown prince lee hwi, 2021), shang-chi and the legend of the 10 rings (xu xialing, 2021), the 355 (lin misheng, 2022), sweet home (lee eunyu, 2020-2023), a good day to be a dog (han haena, 2023), upgraded (ana, 2024)

— CHOREOGRAPHED FOR ੭ blackpink, treasure, taeyang, enhypen, aespa, le sserafim, boynextdoor, txt, ive, monsta x, joohoney, taylor swift, stray kids, seventeen

— PRODUCED FOR ੭ blackpink, txt, treasure, nct, aespa, selena gomez, niall horan, superm, ive, one direction, jeon somi, itzy, le sserafim

ㅤㅤㅤ 🌺 | 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘 ⊱ 🍃

— MOTHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang luhua ❪ 황루화 ❫

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao luhua ❪ 趙露華 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi natsumi ❪ 林なつみ ❫

੭ Birthday ; 28th June, 1974

੭ Occupation ; café owner

੭ Residence ; london, england

੭ Relationship Status ; married ❪ since. 1994 ❫

੭ Children ; 3

— FATHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang wijeong ❪ 황위정 ❫

੭ English Name ; kenny hwang

੭ Birthday ; 17th September, 1974

੭ Occupation ; head engineer for McLaren F1 Team

੭ Residence ; london, england

੭ Relationship Status ; married ❪ since. 1994 ❫

੭ Children ; 3

— BROTHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang jin ❪ 황진 ❫

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao mingtao ❪ 趙明濤 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi kurotori ❪ 林黒鳥 ❫

੭ Birthday ; 9th February, 1996

੭ Occupation ; idol

੭ Residence ; seoul, south korea

੭ Relationship Status ; unknown

੭ Children ; 1

— BROTHER (adoptive) :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang junho ❪ 황준호 ❫

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao haoyu ❪ 趙浩宇 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi isagi ❪ 林いさぎ ❫

੭ Birthday ; 9th February, 1996

੭ Occupation ; idol

੭ Residence ; seoul, south korea

੭ Relationship Status ; taken ❪ since. 2023 ❫

੭ Children ; 0

— NEICE :

੭ Birth Name ; hwang cheonsa ❪ 황천사 ❫

੭ English Name ; angel hwang

੭ Chinese Name ; zhao shuijing ❪ 趙水晶 ❫

੭ Japanese Name ; hayashi hanami ❪ 林花見 ❫

੭ Birthday ; 10th October, 2021

੭ Occupation ; school ❪ private ❫

੭ Residence ; seoul, south korea

ㅤㅤㅤ🥀 | 𝐅𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐒 ⊱ 💋

𝐢. she is the tallest member of blackpink.

𝐢𝐢. jane refers to herself as a triplet, as both her adoptive brothers share the same birthday as her, and so they were raised as being referred to as triplets ! ( junho and jin are fraternal twins).

𝐢𝐢𝐢. she is the most extroverted in the group, and often finds great joy in embarrassing her fellow members in the public eye.

𝐢𝐯. miss girl is severely allergic to tomatoes – and she genuinely despises them, names them her greatest (and only) weakness in this world.

𝐯. jane has 2 cats named mochi and rari; she really wants her third pet to be a dog, and she plans to get one soon.

𝐯𝐢. a coffee enthusiast and cocktail connoisseur – like, she's actually quite skilled in mixology.

𝐯𝐢𝐢. she absolutely adores musicals, and cannot sit through a movie that is more than 2 hours long, her short attention span just does not allow it.

𝐯𝐢𝐢𝐢. within formula one the teams he's always supported since falling in love with the sport at 10, is mclaren – and in terms of her favourite rugby team, it's the all blacks, new zealand's national rugby team.

𝐢𝐱. jane is legally blind and cannot see a single recognizable object without her glasses or contacts – my girl lives in a world of shapes.

𝐱. her biggest scandal in her career was being in a rumored fist-fight with seventeen's the8.

[wrestlingarsenal]

How great to see Gargano and Ciampa back together as Tag Team partners. They won the straps on the July 5th 2024 episode of Smackdown.

I wrote about Gargano's bromance with Ciampa many times on my Wordpress blog, delving into their matches against the Young Bucks (12/11/2015), TMDK (06/03/2016), The Revival (11/19/2016), and The Dominators (05/10/2017.)

I also wrote about their epic breakup on NXT Takeover on 05/20/2017 and their sexy grudge matches on 04/07/2018 and 08/08/2018. I just love these guys -- I loved seeing them hurt each other and now I love seeing them back together winning gold. A triumphant love story for the ages!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The long bezzle

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

When it comes to the modern world of enshittified, terrible businesses, no addition to your vocabulary is more essential than "bezzle," JK Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/#unter

The bezzle is contained by two forces.

First, Stein's Law: "Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop."

Second, Keynes's: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

On the one hand, extremely badly run businesses that strip all the value out of the firm, making things progressively worse for its suppliers, workers and customers will eventually fail (Stein's Law).

On the other hand, as the private equity sector has repeatedly demonstrated, there are all kinds of accounting tricks, subsidies and frauds that can animate a decaying, zombie firm long after its best-before date (Keynes's irrational markets):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

One company that has done an admirable job of balancing on a knife edge between Stein and Keynes is Verizon, a monopoly telecoms firm that has proven that a business can remain large, its products relied upon by millions, its stock actively traded and its market cap buoyant, despite manifest, repeated incompetence and waste on an unimaginable scale.

This week, Verizon shut down Bluejeans, an also-ran videoconferencing service the company bought for $400 million in 2020 as a panic-buy to keep up with Zoom. As they lit that $400 mil on fire, Verizon praised its own vision, calling Bluejeans "an award-winning product that connects our customers around the world, but we have made this decision due to the changing market landscape":

https://9to5google.com/2023/08/08/verizon-bluejeans-shutting-down/

Writing for Techdirt, Karl Bode runs down a partial list of all the unbelievably terrible business decisions Verizon has made without losing investor confidence or going under, in a kind of tribute to Keynes's maxim:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/10/verizon-fails-again-shutters-attempted-zoom-alternative-bluejeans-after-paying-400-million-for-it/

Remember Go90, the "dud" streaming service launched in 2015 and shuttered in 2018? You probably don't, and neither (apparently) do Verizon's shareholders, who lost $1.2 billion on this folly:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/07/02/verizons-sad-attempt-to-woo-millennials-falls-flat-face/

Then there was Verizon's bid to rescue Redbox with a new joint-venture streaming service, Redbox Instant, launched 2012, killed in 2014, $450,000,000 later:

https://variety.com/2014/digital/news/verizon-redbox-to-pull-plug-on-video-streaming-service-1201321484/

Then there was Sugarstring, a tech "news" website where journalists were prohibited from saying nice things about Net Neutrality or surveillance – born 2014, died 2014:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/2/7324063/verizon-kills-off-sugarstring

An app store, started in 2010, killed in 2012:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3605618/verizon-apps-store-closing-january-2013

Vcast, 2005-2012, yet another failed streaming service (pray that someday you find someone who loves you as much as Verizon's C-suite loves doomed streaming services):

https://venturebeat.com/media/verizon-vcast-shutting-down/

And the granddaddy of them all, Oath, Verizon's 2017, $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo/AOL, whose name refers to the fact that the company's mismanagement provoked involuntary, protracted swearing from all who witnessed the $4.6 billion write-down the company took a year later:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/12/12/if-youre-surprised-verizons-aol-yahoo-face-plant-you-dont-know-verizon/

Verizon isn't just bad at being a phone company that does non-phone-company things – it's incredibly bad at being a phone company, too. As Bode points out, Verizon's only real competency is in capturing its regulators at the FCC:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/05/02/new-verizon-video-blatantly-lies-about-whats-happening-to-net-neutrality/

And sucking up massive public subsidies from rubes in the state houses of New York:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/14/new-york-city-sues-verizon-fiber-optic-bait-switch/

New Jersey:

https://www.techdirt.com/2014/04/25/verizon-knows-youre-sucker-takes-taxpayer-subsidies-broadband-doesnt-deliver-lobbies-to-drop-requirements/

and Pennsylvania:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/06/15/verizon-gets-wrist-slap-years-neglecting-broadband-networks-new-jersey-pennsylvania/

Despite all this, and vast unfunded liabilities – like remediating the population-destroying lead in their cables – they remain solvent:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/verizon-sued-by-investors-over-lead-cables-environmental-statements-2023-08-02/

Verizon has remained irrational longer than any short seller could remain solvent.

Short-sellers – who bet against companies and get paid when their stock prices go down – get a bad rap: billionaire shorts were the villains of the Gamestop squeeze, accused of running negative PR campaigns against beloved businesses to drive them under and pay their bets off:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/meme-stocks/#stockstonks

But shorts can do the lord's work. Writing for Bloomberg, Kathy Burton tells the story of Nate Anderson, whose Hindenburg Research has cost some of the world's wealthiest people over $99 billion by publishing investigative reports on their balance-sheet shell-games just this year:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-06/how-much-did-hindenburg-make-from-shorting-adani-dorsey-icahn

Anderson started off trying to earn a living as a SEC whistleblower, identifying financial shenanigans and collecting the bounties on offer, but that didn't pan out. So he turned his forensic research skills to preparing mediagenic, viral reports on the scams underpinning the financial boasts of giant companies…after taking a short position in them.

This year, Anderson's targets have included Carl Icahn, whose company lost $17b in market cap after Anderson accused it of overvaluing its assets. He went after the world's fourth-richest man, Gautam Adani, accusing him of "accounting fraud and stock manipulation," wiping out 34% of his net worth. He took on Jack Dorsey, whose payment processor Square renamed itself Block and went all in on the cryptocurrency bezzle, lopping 16% off its share price.

Burton points out that Anderson's upside for these massive bloodletting was comparatively modest. A perfectly timed exit from the $17b Icahn report would have netted $56m. What's more, Anderson faces legal threats and worse – one short seller was attacked by a man wearing brass-knuckles, an attack attributed to her short activism.

Shorts are lauded as one of capitalism's self-correcting mechanisms, and Hindenberg certainly has taken some big, successful swings at some of the great bezzles of our time. But as Verizon shows, shorts alone can't discipline a market where profits and investor confidence are totally decoupled from competence or providing a decent product or service.

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

[max-praise-archive]

Q: Let's talk about this season just as a whole, because some of the records that Max and the team have broken this year are insane. 10 wins in a row for for Max this season. 14 wins in a row for the team. You've won 26 of the last 28 races. That is just utter domination. I saw that you put up a Instagram post that said, I've never seen anything closer to perfection than what Max Verstappen has achieved this year. Tell me about that perfection that Max has achieved. Calum Nicholas: It seems to be his nature that he will just chase every last bit. He will leave nothing on the table. It's great to have. It puts the pressure on us to make sure that we deliver, which is great. The nature of the people in the garage: we thrive on that pressure. It's what drives us. We want to be the best every single week. Watching what Max has done, week in, week out and having the sort of knowledge that as long as we do our job and the car is reliable and it does what he needs it to do, I know he's gonna deliver. It's just one of those things. You go into a race weekend and it's nice because... I've always said this, it doesn't matter where you are in the pit lane. It doesn't matter what garage you are in, you are doing the same hours. Everybody's working such long hours, Saturday or Sunday can be 16 hour days easily. So it's nice to know that you've got everything in place, that you've put yourself in the best position to get a result from that work. Q: And what's Max like to work with? Million dollar question. I'm sure you get asked it a lot. But what's he like? Calum Nicholas: I've always thought this is odd to me that people can't see sometimes how brilliant he is. For me, when he's in the garage, when he's not in a race car, he's one of us. And he really is. He engages with us, just as you want any of your other colleagues to engage with you. He's kind. He cares about the people around him. And it's brilliant, and I like the fact that he can get into the car and close his lid and then he should be ruthless. You're a sports person. We're here to win. He's here to win. And I think it's great that he's able to switch between the both. And he really does. Q: You've worked with quite a few drivers in your time. You've been at Red Bull since 2015. So you've worked with a few other drivers. What attributes does Max have? You've worked with Ricardo, you've worked Kyvat, you've worked with Gasly, Albon. What are their traits, what what do they all share? And maybe what are the differences between between some of them? Calum Nicholas: Where I think Max is probably different to most of the others is that Max over the years has managed to encompass so many of the great attributes of the drivers that we've seen before. Max, when he arrived in F1, it was clear that he had this raw, unbridled talent, this raw speed. Over the years, he's just grown and grown and he's added everything to his arsenal. His race management, his way of seeing the holistic picture, his determination. All of these things are what's put him in the position that he's in now. It's a way that he's been able to encompass so many things that so many great drivers have had, and bring them all together to make them work. When you see an athlete in their prime, in their absolute prime, you look at them and you say that's a package that right now no one can beat. That's what it is. When you're an athlete in that position, it's your job to try and stretch that out for as long as you can, and stay in that zone. That little window of perfection. That's what Max is able to do right now. He's just able to just extract everything from himself. It's amazing to see up close. It really is. Q: I'm jealous that you get to see behind the scenes. Obviously we only see the stuff on the on the television, but I'm sure a lot goes on behind the scenes that we don't see and it must be amazing. To be up close.

Sky Sports F1 Podcast (7:06 - 10:45) October 12, 2023 Archive Link | Original Link

[black-arcana]

NIGHTWISH Announces 'Yesterwynde' Album, 'Perfume Of The Timeless' Single

Symphonic metal veterans NIGHTWISH will release their new album, "Yesterwynde", on September 20, 2024 via Nuclear Blast. It marks the band's tenth studio album, following on from the release of "Human. :II: Nature." in 2020.

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen states: "'Yesterwynde' is a fantastical voyage through time, memory, and the better angels of human nature.

"Three years in the making, we're thrilled beyond words to soon share our tenth album with the world!"

The album's first single, "Perfume Of The Timeless" will arrive on May 21.

"Yesterwynde" track listing:

01. Yesterwynde 02. An Ocean Of Strange Islands 03. The Antikythera Mechanism 04. The Day Of... 05. Perfume Of The Timeless 06. Sway 07. The Children Of 'Ata 08. Something Whispered Follow Me 09. Spider Silk 10. Hiraeth 11. The Weave 12. Lanternlight

In January, NIGHTWISH drummer Kai Hahto spoke about the band's upcoming follow-up to 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." album in an interview with Laureline Tilkin of Tuonela Magazine. He said: "At least it's not gonna be the same as 'Human. :II: Nature.', so… Probably, let's say that we go back to more heavy, heavier things on the new album, but also there's a lot of, again, new winds to blow, so to speak. So, different new elements. But, of course, it's still NIGHTWISH, but, of course, we brought back the big symphony orchestra again to the new upcoming tenth album. Yeah, it's gonna be exciting. And quite challenging music to play as well."

Asked if he is "in a way happy" that he doesn't have to play the new NIGHTWISH songs live right now, in light of the fact that the band is taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future, Kai said: "No, no, no. Totally opposite. I would love to go and play it live. But hopefully the time will come when we go back, charging the batteries first. Of course, it's nice to be home with the kids and wife and dogs, but still, of course, I've always been a player, so I also like to play for the people. But I believe I'm not gonna be bored. So I have a lot of things in the back of my head. Even NIGHTWISH is now taking a break. So, I'm not gonna be bored."

Earlier in January, Hahto told Chaoszine that "it looks like" NIGHTWISH won't play any shows in the next two or three years.

In April 2023, NIGHTWISH surprised fans by announcing that the band was not going to be playing any live shows for the foreseeable future and would be not be touring in support of the group's next studio album.

NIGHTWISH's statement read as follows: "As the 'Human :ll: Nature - World Tour' is drawing to a close, we feel now is the time to tell you of our plans for the next phase in our journey.

"After the planned shows for June 2023 we will be 'hanging up our spurs' for an indeterminate time, as far as live concert performances go, and won't be touring the next album.

"The reasons for this decision are personal, but, we all agree, vital to the wellbeing and future of the band. Be assured that we still love working together, and this decision has nothing to do with Floor's pregnancy or our other individual projects.

"However, an album of 12 new songs will see bright daylight in 2024, as will 3 music videos! The band is positively hyped beyond words over this new upcoming musical adventure."

In December 2022, Holopainen said NIGHTWISH's upcoming follow-up to "Human. :II: Nature." will be the third part of a trilogy that began with 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. He told Metal Hammer: "I immediately knew after getting that album ['Endless Forms Most Beautiful'] done that, 'Okay, we have to do more songs about this, because there's so much more to explore and tell the world. We're not done with this.' And the same thing happened after 'Human. :II: Nature.'; we're still not done. So let's do one more. At least one more.

"In a way, [the next album] is the third part of a trilogy, which started with 'Endless Forms…' and then 'Human. :II: Nature.' There are some major surprises there again, but it feels like a natural continuation to 'Human. :II: Nature.'"

According to Tuomas, NIGHTWISH's next LP will cover previously uncharted ground while continuing in the more cinematic style that has characterized some of the band's recent efforts.

In September 2022, Tuomas was asked if NIGHTWISH's upcoming LP will once again be an exploration of evolutionary science, as was the case with the previous two releases. Tuomas said: "Yes and no. It sails on the same waters, but there's some new surprises there as well."

In August 2022, Tuomas told Rock Sverige that he spent "about a year" working on the music and lyrics for the next NIGHTWISH album.

Asked if he got any kind of inspiration from the pandemic, Tuomas said: "Yeah, lyrically there's a couple of things that reflects the pandemic, but not in the way you would expect."

"Human. :II: Nature." was released in April 2020. The follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" was a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters, on CD 2.

In August 2022, NIGHTWISH announced the addition of Jukka Koskinen (WINTERSUN) as an official member of the band. Koskinen, who made his live debut with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 at the band's two interactive experiences, had spent the previous year touring with NIGHTWISH as a session musician.

In November 2022, singer Floor Jansen revealed that she was "cancer free" after recently undergoing surgery to have a tumor removed following a breast cancer diagnosis.

This past October, Floor and SABATON drummer Hannes Van Dahl welcomed their second child, a daughter named Lucy. Jansen and Van Dahl already have a seven-year-old daughter named Freja, who was born on March 15, 2017.

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe (courtesy of Nuclear Blast)

[silicacid]

No evidence of inflated mortality reporting from the Gaza Ministry of Health

Benjamin Q Huynh, Elizabeth T Chin, Paul B Spiegel

Published: December 06, 2023

Mortality reporting is a crucial indicator of the severity of a conflict setting, but it can also be inflated or under-reported for political purposes. Amidst the ongoing conflict in Gaza, some political parties have indicated scepticism about the reporting of fatalities by the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH).

The Gaza MoH has historically reported accurate mortality data, with discrepancies between MoH reporting and independent United Nations analyses ranging from 1·5% to 3·8% in previous conflicts. A comparison between the Gaza MoH and Israeli Foreign Ministry mortality figures for the 2014 war yielded an 8·0% discrepancy.2 Public scepticism of the current reports by the Gaza MoH might undermine the efforts to reduce civilian harm and provide life-saving assistance. Using publicly available information, we compared the Gaza MoH's mortality reports with a separate source of mortality reporting and found no evidence of inflated rates. We conducted a temporal analysis of cumulative-reported mortality within Gaza for deaths of Gazans as reported by the MoH and reported staff member deaths from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), from Oct 7 to Nov 10, 2023. These two data sources used independent methods of mortality verification, enabling assessment of reporting consistency.

We observed similar daily trends, indicating temporal consistency in response to bombing events until a spike of UNRWA staff deaths occurred on Oct 26, 2023, when 14 UNRWA staff members were killed, of whom 13 died in their homes due to bombings. Subsequent attacks raised the UNRWA death rate while MoH hospital services diminished until MoH communications and mortality reporting collapsed on Nov 10, 2023. During this period, mortality might have been under-reported by the Gaza MoH due to decreased capacity. Cumulative reported deaths were 101 UNRWA staff members and 11,078 Gazans over 35 days. By comparison, an average of 4884 registered deaths occurred per year in 2015–19 in Gaza.

Cumulative reported mortality rates (Oct 7–Nov 10, 2023)

Data are calculated by separate death reports from the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH; red line) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA; blue line).

If MoH mortality figures were substantially inflated, the MoH mortality rates would be expected to be higher than the UNRWA mortality rates. Instead, the MoH mortality rates are lower than the rates reported for UNRWA staff (5.3 deaths per 1000 vs 7.8 deaths per 1000, as of Nov 10, 2023). Hypothetically, if MoH mortality data were inflated from, for example, an underlying value of 2–4 deaths per 1000, it would imply that UNRWA staff mortality risk is 2.0–3.9 times higher than that of the public. This scenario is unlikely as many UNRWA staff deaths occurred at home or in areas with high civilian populations, such as in schools or shelters.

Mortality reporting is difficult to conduct in ongoing conflicts. Initial news reports might be imprecise, and subsequent verified reports might undercount deaths that are not recorded by hospitals or morgues, such as persons buried under rubble. However, difficulties obtaining accurate mortality figures should not be interpreted as intentionally misreported data. Although valid mortality counts are important, the situation in Gaza is severe, with high levels of civilian harm and extremely restricted access to aid. Efforts to dispute mortality reporting should not distract from the humanitarian imperative to save civilian lives by ensuring appropriate medical supplies, food, water, and fuel are provided immediately.