#2 apr 21

[mikeywayarchive]

Instagram story by kristincolby

[Aug 2, 2023]

[shimomcdragon]

oc doodles

[egg2k16]

"Mystery Train" came out on Mar 14, 2011, n it was about Finn's 13th birthday, so I'm just gonna lazily use that date as his birthdate

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Podcasting “Capitalists Hate Capitalism”

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

This week on my podcast, I read "Capitalists Hate Capitalism," my latest column for Locus Magazine:

https://locusmag.com/2024/03/cory-doctorow-capitalists-hate-capitalism/

What do I mean by "capitalists hate capitalism?" It all comes down to the difference between "profits" and "rents." A capitalist takes capital (money, or the things you can buy with it) and combines it with employees' labor, and generates profits (the capitalist's share) and wages (the workers' share).

Rents, meanwhile, come from owning an asset that capitalists need to generate profits. For example, a landlord who rents a storefront to a coffee shop extracts rent from the capitalist who owns the coffee shop. Meanwhile, the capitalist who owns the cafe extracts profits from the baristas' labor.

Capitalists' founding philosophers like Adam Smith hated rents. Worse: rents were the most important source of income at the time of capitalism's founding. Feudal lords owned great swathes of land, and there were armies of serfs who were bound to that land – it was illegal for them to leave it. The serfs owed rent to lords, and so they worked the land in order grow crops and raise livestock that they handed over the to lord as rent for the land they weren't allowed to leave.

Capitalists, meanwhile, wanted to turn that land into grazing territory for sheep as a source of wool for the "dark, Satanic mills" of the industrial revolution. They wanted the serfs to be kicked off their land so that they would become "free labor" that could be hired to work in those factories.

For the founders of capitalism, a "free market" wasn't free from regulation, it was free from rents, and "free labor" came from workers who were free to leave the estates where they were born – but also free to starve unless they took a job with the capitalists.

For capitalism's philosophers, free markets and free labor weren't just a source of profits, they were also a source of virtue. Capitalists – unlike lords – had to worry about competition from one another. They had to make better goods at lower prices, lest their customers take their business elsewhere; and they had to offer higher pay and better conditions, lest their "free labor" take a job elsewhere.

This means that capitalists are haunted by the fear of losing everything, and that fear acts as a goad, driving them to find ways to make everything better for everyone: better, cheaper products that benefit shoppers; and better-paid, safer jobs that benefit workers. For Smith, capitalism is alchemy, a philosopher's stone that transforms the base metal of greed into the gold of public spiritedness.

By contrast, rentiers are insulated from competition. Their workers are bound to the land, and must toil to pay the rent no matter whether they are treated well or abused. The rent rolls in reliably, without the lord having to invest in new, better ways to bring in the harvest. It's a good life (for the lord).

Think of that coffee-shop again: if a better cafe opens across the street, the owner can lose it all, as their customers and workers switch allegiance. But for the landlord, the failure of his capitalist tenant is a feature, not a bug. Once the cafe goes bust, the landlord gets a newly vacant storefront on the same block as the hot new coffee shop that can be rented out at even higher rates to another capitalist who tries his luck.

The industrial revolution wasn't just the triumph of automation over craft processes, nor the triumph of factory owners over weavers. It was also the triumph of profits over rents. The transformation of hereditary estates worked by serfs into part of the supply chain for textile mills was attended by – and contributed to – the political ascendancy of capitalists over rentiers.

Now, obviously, capitalism didn't end rents – just as feudalism didn't require the total absence of profits. Under feudalism, capitalists still extracted profits from capital and labor; and under capitalism, rentiers still extracted rents from assets that capitalists and workers paid them to use.

The difference comes in the way that conflicts between profits and rents were resolved. Feudalism is a system where rents triumph over profits, and capitalism is a system where profits triumph over rents.

It's conflict that tells you what really matters. You love your family, but they drive you crazy. If you side with your family over your friends – even when your friends might be right and your family's probably wrong – then you value your family more than your friends. That doesn't mean you don't value your friends – it means that you value them less than your family.

Conflict is a reliable way to know whether or not you're a leftist. As Steven Brust says, the way to distinguish a leftist is to ask "What's more important, human rights, or property rights?" If you answer "Property rights are human right," you're not a leftist. Leftists don't necessarily oppose all property rights – they just think they're less important than human rights.

Think of conflicts between property rights and human rights: the grocer who deliberately renders leftover food inedible before putting it in the dumpster to ensure that hungry people can't eat it, or the landlord who keeps an apartment empty while a homeless person freezes to death on its doorstep. You don't have to say "No one can own food or a home" to say, "in these cases, property rights are interfering with human rights, so they should be overridden." For leftists property rights can be a means to human rights (like revolutionary land reformers who give peasants title to the lands they work), but where property rights interfere with human rights, they are set aside.

In his 2023 book Technofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis claims that capitalism has given way to a new feudalism – that capitalism was a transitional phase between feudalism…and feudalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Varoufakis's point isn't that capitalists have gone extinct. Rather, it's that today, conflicts between capital and assets – between rents and profits – reliably end with a victory of rent over profit.

Think of Amazon: the "everything store" appears to be a vast bazaar, a flea-market whose stalls are all operated by independent capitalists who decide what to sell, how to price it, and then compete to tempt shoppers. In reality, though, the whole system is owned by a single feudalist, who extracts 51% from every dollar those merchants take in, and decides who can sell, and what they can sell, and at what price, and whether anyone can even see it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Or consider the patent trolls of the Eastern District of Texas. These "companies" are invisible and produce nothing. They consist solely of a serviced mailbox in a dusty, uninhabited office-building, and an overbroad patent (say, a patent on "tapping on a screen with your finger") issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office. These companies extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Apple, Google, Samsung for violating these patents. In other words, the government steps in and takes vast profits generated through productive activity by companies that make phones, and turns that money over as rent paid to unproductive companies whose sole "product" is lawsuits. It's the triumph of rent over profit.

Capitalists hate capitalism. All capitalists would rather extract rents than profits, because rents are insulated from competition. The merchants who sell on Jeff Bezos's Amazon (or open a cafe in a landlord's storefront, or license a foolish smartphone patent) bear all the risk. The landlords – of Amazon, the storefront, or the patent – get paid whether or not that risk pays off.

This is why Google, Apple and Samsung also have vast digital estates that they rent out to capitalists – everything from app stores to patent portfolios. They would much rather be in the business of renting things out to capitalists than competing with capitalists.

Hence that famous Adam Smith quote: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." This is literally what Google and Meta do:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

And it's what Apple and Google do:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/27/23934961/google-antitrust-trial-defaults-search-deal-26-3-billion

Why compete with one another when you can collude, like feudal lords with adjacent estates who trust one another to return any serf they catch trying to sneak away in the dead of night?

Because of course, it's not just "free markets" that have been captured by rents ("Competition is for losers" -P. Thiel) – it's also "free labor." For years, the largest tech and entertainment companies in America illegally colluded on a "no poach" agreement not to hire one-anothers' employees:

https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/03/apple-google-other-silicon-valley-tech-giants-ordered-to-pay-415m-in-no-poaching-suit/

These companies were bitter competitors – as were these sectors. Even as Big Content was lobbying for farcical copyright law expansions and vowing to capture Big Tech, all these companies on both sides were able to set aside their differences and collude to bind their free workers to their estates and end the "wasteful competition" to secure their labor.

Of course, this is even more pronounced at the bottom of the labor market, where noncompete "agreements" are the norm. The median American worker bound by a noncompete is a fast-food worker whose employer can wield the power of the state to prevent that worker from leaving behind the Wendy's cash-register to make $0.25/hour more at the McDonald's fry trap across the street:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#neofeudal

Employers defend this as necessary to secure their investment in training their workers and to ensure the integrity of their trade secrets. But why should their investments be protected? Capitalism is about risk, and the fear that accompanies risk – fear that drives capitalists to innovate, which creates the public benefit that is the moral justification for capitalism.

Capitalists hate capitalism. They don't want free labor – they want labor bound to the land. Capitalists benefit from free labor: if you have a better company, you can tempt away the best workers and cause your inferior rival to fail. But feudalists benefit from un-free labor, from tricks like "bondage fees" that force workers to pay in order to quit their jobs:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/21/bondage-fees/#doorman-building

Companies like Petsmart use "training repayment agreement provisions" (TRAPs) to keep low-waged workers from leaving for better employers. Petsmart says it costs $5,500 to train a pet-groomer, and if that worker is fired, laid off, or quits less than two years, they have to pay that amount to Petsmart:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Now, Petsmart is full of shit here. The "four-week training course" Petsmart claims is worth $5,500 actually only lasts for three weeks. What's more, the "training" consists of sweeping the floor and doing other low-level chores for three weeks, without pay.

But even if Petsmart were to give $5,500 worth of training to every pet-groomer, this would still be bullshit. Why should the worker bear the risk of Petsmart making a bad investment in their training? Under capitalism, risks justify rewards. Petsmart's argument for charging $50 to groom your dog and paying the groomer $15 for the job is that they took $35 worth of risk. But some of that risk is being borne by the worker – they're the ones footing the bill for the training.

For Petsmart – as for all feudalists – a worker (with all the attendant risks) can be turned into an asset, something that isn't subject to competition. Petsmart doesn't have to retain workers through superior pay and conditions – they can use the state's contract-enforcement mechanism instead.

Capitalists hate capitalism, but they love feudalism. Sure, they dress this up by claiming that governmental de-risking spurs investment: "Who would pay to train a pet-groomer if that worker could walk out the next day and shave dogs for some competing shop?"

But this is obvious nonsense. Think of Silicon Valley: high tech is the most "IP-intensive" of all industries, the sector that has had to compete most fiercely for skilled labor. And yet, Silicon Valley is in California, where noncompetes are illegal. Every single successful Silicon Valley company has thrived in an environment in which their skilled workers can walk out the door at any time and take a job with a rival company.

There's no indication that the risk of free labor prevents investment. Think of AI, the biggest investment bubble in human history. All the major AI companies are in jurisdictions where noncompetes are illegal. Anthropic – OpenAI's most serious competitor – was founded by a sister/brother team who quit senior roles at OpenAI and founded a direct competitor. No one can claim with a straight face that OpenAI is now unable to raise capital on favorable terms.

What's more, when OpenAI founder Sam Altman was forced out by his board, Microsoft offered to hire him – and 700 other OpenAI personnel – to found an OpenAI competitor. When Altman returned to the company, Microsoft invested more money in OpenAI, despite their intimate understanding that anyone could hire away the company's founder and all of its top technical staff at any time.

The idea that the departure of the Burger King trade secrets locked up in its workers' heads constitute more of a risk to the ability to operate a hamburger restaurant than the departure of the entire technical staff of OpenAI is obvious nonsense. Noncompetes aren't a way to make it possible to run a business – they're a way to make it easy to run a business, by eliminating competition and pushing the risk onto employees.

Because capitalists hate capitalism. And who can blame them? Who wouldn't prefer a life with less risk to one where you have to constantly look over your shoulder for competitors who've found a way to make a superior offer to your customers and workers?

This is why businesses are so excited about securing "IP" – that is, a government-backed right to control your workers, customers, competitors or critics:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

The argument for every IP right expansion is the same: "Who would invest in creating something new without the assurance that some­one else wouldn’t copy and improve on it and put them out of business?"

That was the argument raised five years ago, during the (mercifully brief) mania for genre writers seeking trademarks on common tropes. There was the romance writer who got a trademark on the word "cocky" in book titles:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/16/17566276/cockygate-amazon-kindle-unlimited-algorithm-self-published-romance-novel-cabal

And the fantasy writer who wanted a trademark on "dragon slayer" in fantasy novel titles:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/06/14/son-of-cocky-a-writer-is-trying-to-trademark-dragon-slayer-for-fantasy-novels/

Who subsequently sought a trademark on any book cover featuring a person holding a weapon:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/07/19/trademark-troll-who-claims-to-own-dragon-slayer-now-wants-exclusive-rights-to-book-covers-where-someone-is-holding-a-weapon/

For these would-be rentiers, the logic was the same: "Why would I write a book about a dragon-slayer if I could lose readers to someone else who writes a book about dragon-slayers?"

In these cases, the USPTO denied or rescinded its trademarks. Profits triumphed over rents. But increasingly, rents are triumphing over profits, and rent-extraction is celebrated as "smart business," while profits are for suckers, only slightly preferable to "wages" (the worst way to get paid under both capitalism and feudalism).

That's what's behind all the talk about "passive income" – that's just a euphemism for "rent." It's what Douglas Rushkoff is referring to in Survival of the Richest when he talks about the wealthy wanting to "go meta":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Don't drive a cab – go meta and buy a medallion. Don't buy a medallion, go meta and found Uber. Don't found Uber, go meta and invest in Uber. Don't invest in Uber, go meta and buy options on Uber stock. Don't buy Uber stock options, go meta and buy derivatives of options on Uber stock.

"Going meta" means distancing yourself from capitalism – from income derived from profits, from competition, from risk – and cozying up to feudalism.

Capitalists have always hated capitalism. The owners of the dark Satanic mills wanted peasants turned off the land and converted into "free labor" – but they also kidnapped Napoleonic war-orphans and indentured them to ten-year terms of service, which was all you could get out of a child's body before it was ruined for further work:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/26/enochs-hammer/#thats-fronkonsteen

When Varoufakis says we've entered a new feudal age, he doesn't mean that we've abolished capitalism. He means that – for the first time in centuries – when rents go to war against profits – the rents almost always emerge victorious.

Here's the podcast episode:

https://craphound.com/news/2024/04/14/capitalists-hate-capitalism/

Here's a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive; they'll host your stuff for free, forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_465/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_465_-_Capitalists_Hate_Capitalism.mp3

And here's the RSS feed for my podcast:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

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/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

[ali-s4cc]

ADIDAS | outfit MAR 2024 - infant (patreon)

New Mesh

Top, Bottom & Hat

HQ Texture

26 Swatches

All LODS

Top - LOD 0: 12,947 | LOD 1: 11,465 | LOD 2: 5,935 | LOD 3: 2,429

Bottom - LOD 0: 12,003 | LOD 1: 8,998 | LOD 2: 5,214 | LOD 3: 2,207

Hat      - LOD 0: 3,082 | LOD 1: 2,701 | LOD 2: 1,214 | LOD 3: 735

Feel Free to Recolour - Please do not include mesh

please do not re-upload or claim as your own

download (Early Access)

public release 21.APR.2024 

[camilicy]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 151,387 notes - Jan 16 2023

2. 68,067 notes - May 14 2023

3. 25,346 notes - Oct 4 2023

4. 20,804 notes - Mar 27 2023

5. 17,567 notes - Dec 21 2023

6. 12,870 notes - Apr 29 2023

7. 11,856 notes - Mar 19 2023

8. 11,396 notes - Jul 17 2023

9. 8,443 notes - Sep 11 2023

10. 7,744 notes - Jan 16 2023

thank you to everyone for a wonderful year full of art, thank you for the ongoing support i luv u all MWAH <3 

[multitrackdrifting]

Horizon might have the worst release dates in gaming history.

Horizon Zero Dawn (28 Feb '17)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (3 Mar '17, won GOTY)

Horizon Forbidden West (18 Feb '22)

Elden Ring (25 Feb '22, won GOTY)

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (19 Apr '23)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kindom (12 May '23, Action/Adventure GOTY)

Horizon Forbidden West [PC] (21 Mar '24)

Dragon's Dogma 2 (22 Mar '24)

With this knowledge we can conclude that Half-Life 3 & Elden Ring's DLC will be announced in the near future to continue the time-honored tradition of Aloy being overshadowed by titans (and I'm saying this as a fan of the series)

[itblackggirl]

Dicas para ajudar você a criar um s/p ou s/o do zero! / Tips to help you create an s/p or s/o from scratch! ♡

pt-br - eng!

"Oh, i love this view! Which view? Your eyes!"

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

Olá a todos!!

Vou dividir essa thread nas seguintes partes:

1‐ Físico.

2- Mental.

3- Relacionamento.

4– Hobbies.

5 - Dicas extras.

s/p: specific person ( "cr" )

s/o: significant other ( dr )

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

1 - FÍSICO..

Eu acho que uma das partes mais "complicadas" de fazer um s/o / s/p do zero e pensar no seu físico! Isso inclui, aparência, porte físico, altura e etc. Minha dica para isso é: Use personagens de desenhos ou livros!!! Sério, isso ajuda tanto no físico quanto no mental e no relacionamento de vocês (próximo tópico).

Eu por exemplo, usei o Príncipe Naveen como base principal para criar meu s/p! Eu não tinha uma fc 100% igual a ele mas tem um ator que no momento que eu vi, já sabia que era o meu s/p e desde desse dia eu uso ele de fc única do meu s/p.

A parte de porte físico e altura vai de pessoa para pessoa! Meu sp é jogador de basquete profissional, por isso que eu coloquei que ele é alto e tem um porte atlético! Mas você pode mudar e pôr do jeito que quiser, não existem limitações para isso! 😉

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

2 - MENTAL..

Chegamos no tópico que para mim, é muito importante!! A parte mental, é de grande importância que você pense bastante em como você quer seu parceiro, não adianta dizer "Ele/a/u é obcecado/a/e por mim e me ama muito!!" Você tem que especificar! Depois que aparece um doido stalker, vem dizer que a culpa é minha!!!

Agora é sério, criem pessoas saudáveis, compreensivas, calmas, pacientes, de preferência que tenham maturidade o suficiente para estar em relacionamento! Alguém mentalmente estável!! Dependência emocional não é bonito, viu? Nada de por que ele/a/u "não vive sem mim", tenham consciência!!

Eu, por exemplo, fiquei bastante tempo nessa parte porque coisas que eu achava "saudáveis" na verdade eram bem problemáticas, recomendo vocês fazerem uma profunda auto investigação antes de criarem seus amores!! Uma relação para funcionar, precisa de duas pessoas 100% mentalmente saudáveis! ☝🏻☝🏻

Outra coisa importante, idade!! Escolham uma idade de boa para vocês se conhecem, onde você já tenha mentalidade e maturidade para estar em um relacionamento, eu como exemplo, vou conhecer o meu sp quando eu tiver 19 e ele 21, porque eu sei que lá eu estarei 100% bem para estar em um relacionamento e ele também.

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

3 - RELACIONAMENTO...

Agora vem a parte bonita, como vai ser o relacionamento de vocês??? Como é a dinâmica??? Quem é mais o que??? Tudo isso é importante na hora de produzir essa parte!! Dica: usem casais de desenhos, filmes, séries, livros ou até mesmo músicas (eu fiz e recomendo!!) Eles são os melhores modelos que vocês podem usar se não tiverem em mente como querem o relacionamento de vocês! (Usem casais e músicas com relações saudáveis, pelo amor!)

Minha dinâmica com meu sp é Tiana e Naveen, um pouco de Lara Jean e Peter Kavinsky, Love Maze do BTS, Serendipity do Jimin, Trivia: Love do Namjoon, BTBT do B.I e entre outras!! Nossa relação é algo leve e calmo, algumas vezes é agitada mas não é algo cansativo, eu sempre quis algo calmo então estou satisfeita com a nossa dinâmica!! :(

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

4 - Hobbies...

Essa parte é tranquila, se tiver seguido minhas dicas, a personalidade dele já deixa claro os hobbies, você pode colocar que ele/a/u tem os mesmos hobbies que o seu ou diferentes! Vou deixar alguns exemplos aqui:

– Esporte (natação, futebol, tênis...)

– Leitura.

– Jogos digitais.

– Fazer algo artesanal.

– Karaoke (meu hobbie com meu sp ♡)

– Pintura e desenho.

– Culinária.

– Jardinagem.

E entre outros! Fica tudo a sua escolha!! 😉

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

5 - Dicas Extras..

– Situação financeira e emprego são coisas para serem colocadas e pensadas!

– Relação entre a família de vocês, se aprovam o relacionamento ou se eles gostam de vocês!

– Relação entre os amigos é SUPER IMPORTANTE! Seus amigos gostam dele/a/u ??? Gostam em que nível?? Se ele curtir alguma foto de alguém do deu grupo, eles vão ficar tirando print e mandando no grupo de vocês para dizer que seu s/p ou s/o não presta?? 🤔 (específico, eu sei! Mas pense em tudo!) 

– Higiene pessoal é de EXTREMA IMPORTÂNCIA!! Você pode pensar que não é necessário, mas anjo kkk é sim. Você não quer ficar perto e nem se relacionar com alguém que não sabe ter higiene básica, não é?

– A fidelidade do seu s/p é importante sim!! Construa alguém com bom caráter e que nunca iria fazer coisas assim.

– Respeite as decisões de ambos quando o assunto for construir uma família!! Apenas mude se tiver certeza disso!

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

English Version!

Tips to help you create an s/p or s/o from scratch! ♡

"Oh, I love this view! Which view? Your eyes!"

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

Hello everyone!!

I'm going to divide this thread into the following parts:

1- Physical.

2- Mental.

3- Relationship.

4- Hobbies.

5 - Extra tips.

s/p: specific person ( "cr" )

s/o: significant other ( dr )

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

1 - PHYSICAL..

I think one of the most "complicated" parts of making a s/o / s/p from scratch is thinking about their physical appearance! This includes appearance, physical build, height, etc. My tip for this is: Use characters from cartoons or books!!! Seriously, this helps both physically and mentally and in your relationship (next topic).

For example, I used Prince Naveen as the main basis to create my s/p! I didn't have a 100% identical FC to him, but there's an actor who, the moment I saw him, I knew he was my s/p and since that day I've used him as my s/p's only FC.

The physical build and height part varies from person to person! My sp is a professional basketball player, that's why I said he's tall and has an athletic build! But you can change it and put it however you want, there are no limits to that! 😉

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

2 - MENTAL..

We have reached the topic that is very important to me!! The mental part is very important for you to think carefully about how you want your partner. There is no point in saying "He/she is obsessed with me and loves me very much!!" You have to be specific! After a crazy stalker appears, he/she comes to say that it is my fault!!!

Now seriously, raise healthy, understanding, calm, patient people, preferably those who are mature enough to be in a relationship! Someone who is mentally stable!! Emotional dependence is not nice, you know? There is no reason why he/she "can't live without me", be aware!!

I, for example, spent a lot of time on this part because things that I thought were "healthy" were actually quite problematic. I recommend that you do a deep self-investigation before creating your loves!! For a relationship to work, it needs two people who are 100% mentally healthy! ☝🏻☝🏻

Another important thing, age!! Choose a good age for you to meet each other, where you already have the mentality and maturity to be in a relationship. For example, I'm going to meet my partner when I'm 19 and he's 21, because I know that by then I'll be 100% ready to be in a relationship and so will he.

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆─────────────⊹˚₊

3 - RELATIONSHIP…

Now comes the good part, what will your relationship be like??? What is the dynamic like??? Who is more what??? All of this is important when producing this part!! Tip: use couples from cartoons, movies, series, books or even songs (I did it and I recommend it!!). They are the best models you can use if you don't have in mind how you want your relationship to be! (Use couples and songs with healthy relationships, for the love of God!)

My dynamic with my partner is Tiana and Naveen, a bit of Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky, BTS's Love Maze, Jimin's Serendipity, Namjoon's Trivia: Love, B.I's BTBT and many others!! Our relationship is something light and calm, sometimes it is hectic but it is not tiring, I always wanted something calm so I am satisfied with our dynamic!! :(

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

4 - Hobbies…

This part is easy, if you followed my tips, his/her personality already makes his/her hobbies clear, you can say that he/she has the same hobbies as you or different ones! I'll give you some examples here:

– Sports (swimming, soccer, tennis…)

– Reading.

– Digital games.

– Doing something crafty.

– Karaoke (my hobby with my s/p ♡)

– Painting and drawing.

– Cooking.

– Gardening.

And so on! It's all up to you!! 😉

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

5 - Extra Tips..

– Sexuality and gender of the person are parts to be thought about too, don't ignore who YOU ​​ARE for someone!

– Financial situation and employment are things to be considered and thought about!

– Relationship between your family, if they approve of the relationship or if they like you!

– Relationship between friends is SUPER IMPORTANT! Do your friends like him/her??? Do they like him/her to what extent?? If he likes a photo of someone in your group, will they take a screenshot and send it to your group to say that your s/o or s/o is no good?? 🤔 (specific, I know! But think about everything!)

– Personal hygiene is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!! You may think it's not necessary, but angel, lol, it is. You don't want to be around or have a relationship with someone who doesn't know how to maintain basic hygiene, do you?

– Your s/o's loyalty is important!! Build someone with good character and who would never do things like that.

– Respect both of your decisions when it comes to building a family!! Only change if you're sure about it!

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

We've reached the end of the thread! I hope you enjoyed it, if you have any questions or suggestions, please send them to me, sorry if there are any errors in the translation! Until next time, kisses!!

Chegamos ao fim da thread! Eu espero que tenham gostado, qualquer dúvida ou sugestão, podem me mandar, perdão se houver algum erro de tradução! Até a próxima, beijinhos!!

₊˚⊹───────────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆────────────⊹˚₊

[lazarusemma]

Nov 6 - Cas is

Nov 11 - He’s

Nov 18 - Sam says Mia says journaling helps. Sure.

Nov 19 - Should’ve been me.

Nov 20 - Sam, if you’re reading this thing, I’ll kick your ass.

Nov 21 - Spaghetti for dinner. Cas still dead. Journaling still stupid.

Nov 24 - I should’ve said

Nov 25 - Should’ve told him.

Nov 26, Thanksgiving - Not a whole lot of thanks around here. Thanks for dying in front of me, man. Thanks for saying all that. Thanks for disappearing again before I

Nov 30 - C not back.

Dec 5 - 1 month. C gone. J quiet. S annoying.

Dec 6 - Least Sam’s alive.

Dec 8 - [drawing of Castiel, half sketched]

Dec 10 - Not much of a friggin’ artist huh.

Dec 26 - No miracle.

Dec 31 - Gonna be another year without 

2021

Jan 1, New Year’s - Midnight alone. You should be here. You should

Jan 2 - I should’ve

Jan 5 - 2 months

Feb 5 - 3 months since I should’ve fucking kissed you.

Feb 28 - If this was a leap year man I bet you’d be back tomorrow you always did shit like that surprised the hell out of me.

Mar 1 - So it goes.

Mar 2 - S thought the library here had Vonnegut. Didn’t.

Mar 5 - 4 months Went to get a library card in town.

Mar 11 - “And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”

Mar 30 - Sam might have a hunt for us. Don’t know if

Mar 31 - Turned it down. Passed it to Jody’s crew.

Apr 1, April Fool’s - Real funny C. Joke's over. Come back already.

Apr 9 - There’s things I can’t say things I’ve never been good at saying but you gotta know

Apr 29 - He didn’t know he didn’t know he didn’t know he didn’t

May 5 - You died not knowing, you asshole. 6 months and you’re not back so I can’t tell you.

May 6 - You missed Star Wars day, you know.

May 7 - Didn’t even Han you. Well I didn't know did I.

May 8 - Did I?

May 9 - Maybe I

May 26 - “How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”

June 5 - 7

July 5 - 8

Aug 5 - 9

Aug 6 - What if you don’t

Aug 10 - You missed my birthday. S’s too. J’s.

Aug 11 - If you can hear me

Aug 12 - What would he even

Sept 5 - Nearly crashed the car today. S had to drive. Banged up my head leaning on the window in the backseat like a kid. 10

Sept 6 - Researching.

Sept 7 - Ain’t fair you missed a whole year. Gonna have a lot of catch up to play when

Sept 8 - …when we get you back.

Sept 18 - Been 12 years. You believe that, Cas? Since I came back. Since you brought me back. Guess I hoped today would be the magic bullet to getting you back. Like you’d tip your head at me and say Hello Dean. And I’d tell you how I raised you from perdition. Whatever. Just a day I guess. Universe doesn’t care it’s our anniversary

Sept 19 - Still gonna say it though. When it works.

Oct 5 - 11. It’s gonna work

Oct 31, Halloween - Never got to put you in a dumb matching costume. Next year though.

Nov 4 - Can’t sleep. Sam says time is powerful magic or some shit like that. Says an anniversary can have echoes. So we’re trying it tomorrow. God, this better work. Cas, you hear me? We’re coming for you. I’ve been praying all year and I’m hearing nothing back. I’ll tell you tomorrow. Gonna get this stuck mouth of mine to make good. It’s just the words, even on paper, they don’t—Tomorrow though, tomorrow I’m telling you everything. Promise.

Nov 5 - Today.

Nov 6 - !!! 🙂🙂🙂🙂

^ heh. check out this dork

[matan4il]

On this Yom Ha'Zikaron Le'Chalalei Ma'rachot Yisrael (Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims), I figured it's important to remember that Israeli victims did not exist solely on Oct 7. We have lost loved ones before and since. Here's a list with just one random victim to represent each year. Please scroll down the list to see how far back it goes.

(part 1/5, all parts in the reblogs)

2024: On Jan 7, we lost 19 years old Shai Garmai

2023: On Oct 7, we lost 28 years old Osama abu Madiam

2022: On Nov 23, we lost 18 years old Tiran Faro

2021: On May 12, we lost 5 years old Ido Avigal

2020: On Aug 26, we lost 39 years old Shai Ochayon

2019: On May 5, we lost 49 years old Zaid al-Chamamda

2018: On Dec 12, we lost Amiad Israel Yish Ran, who was murdered in his mother's womb

2017: On Nov 22, we lost 21 years old Hodaya Nechama Assoulin

2016: On Oct 25, we lost 14 years old Rami Namer abu Amar

2015: On Feb 17, we lost 4 years old Adelle Biton

2014: On Oct 22, we lost 2.5 months old Chaya Zissel Brown

2013: On Dec 24, we lost 22 years old Salech al-Din abu al-Atayef

2012: On Jul 18, we lost 28 years old Yitzchak Idan Kolangi

2011: On Apr 17, we lost 16 years old Daniel Aryeh Viplich

2010: On Feb 26, we lost 52 years old Netta Blatt Sorek

2009: On Apr 2, we lost 13 years old Shlomo Nativ

2008: On Mar 6, we lost 26 years old Doron Trunach Mahareta

2007: On Jun 17, we lost 85 years old Meir Cohen

2006: On Aug 10, we lost 4 years old Fatchi Assdi

2005: On Jul 12, we lost 16 years old Nofar Horvitz

2004: On Sep 29, we lost 2 years old Dorit Massarat Binsan

2003: On Sep 9, we lost 20 years old Naava Appelbom

2002: On Nov 10, we lost 4 years old Noam Levi Ochayon

2001: On Dec 12, we lost 42 years old Ester Avraham

2000: On Nov 21, we lost 19 years old Itamar Yefet

1999: On Jun 24, we lost 34 years old Tony Eliyahu Zanna

1998: On Dec 2, we lost 41 years old Osama Moussa abu Aisha

1997: On Mar 13, we lost 13 years old Natali Alkalai

1996: On Feb 25, we lost 57 years old Yitzchak Elbaz

1995: On Jul 24, we lost 60 years old Zehava Oren

As Tumblr limits a post to 30 images... part 1/5 - the next parts will be posted in the reblogs momentarily. Please check out the full list.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[alphynix]

There are no salamanders living in the Caribbean today, but one tiny fossil shows that this wasn't always the case.

Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae was discovered in a chunk of amber from the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. The exact age of this type of amber is uncertain, but it most likely dates to the early-to-mid Miocene, about 20-15 million years ago.

The only known specimen is a hatchling, just under 2cm long (0.8"). It's unclear what its full adult size could have been, but based on its modern relatives it may have grown to anywhere between 4.5cm and 20cm long (~2-8").

Its strongly webbed hands and feet suggest it was very closely related to modern tropical climbing salamanders – but Palaeoplethodon had a unique webbing arrangement, with its feet relatively elongated and its hands fully fused into small rounded pads.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Iturralde-Vinent, M. A., and R. D. MacPhee. "Remarks on the age of Dominican amber." Palaeoentomology 2.3 (2019): 236–240. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.2.3.7

Poinar Jr, G., and Wake, David B. "Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae gen. n., sp. n.(Amphibia: Caudata), a fossil salamander from the Caribbean." Palaeodiversity 8 (2015): 21-29. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1f381770

Wikipedia contributors. “Bolitoglossa” Wikipedia, 18 Apr. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolitoglossa

Wikipedia contributors. “Palaeoplethodon.” Wikipedia, 20 Nov. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeoplethodon

Wikipedia contributors. “Salamander.” Wikipedia, 7 June 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander

[henrykathman]

The Miraculous Horror of Stop Motion

From the same artform that brought you Coraline and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, comes three stories that evoke the existential fear of art.

Original Music by Molly Noise

Bibliography below

Atrocity Guide. “The Animators Who’ve Spent 40 Years on a Single Film.” YouTube, 9 Oct. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=73hip3pz0Xs&pp=ygUMdGhlIG92ZXJjb2F0. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Brubaker, Charles. “The Japanese Studios of Rankin/Bass.” Cartoon Research, Jerry Beck, 14 Apr. 2014, cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-japanese-studios-of-rankinbass/.

Bute, Paris. “Introduction to “a Rankin/Bass Retrospective from a New Perspective.”” Citizen Jane, Stephens College, 19 Nov. 2021, www.citizenjane.org/home/cwwicd2ucb2fvs64kgfaocfykjhaum. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Crome, Althea. “Coraline.” Althea Crome | Micro Knitter, 2012, www.altheacrome.com/coraline. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Harold Halibut. Directed by Onat Hekimoğlu, Slow Bros., 16 Apr. 2024.

Hekimoglu, Onat, and Gabriel Schmitz. “Unite Berlin 2018 - Harold Halibut and Making a Stop Motion Game.” Unity, YouTube, 6 Aug. 2018, youtu.be/9usssSQc0wQ. Accessed 6 May 2023.

Jon "Sikamikanico" Clarke. “The Making of Harold Halibut.” XboxEra, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2024, youtu.be/WMyxM9t3o7A. Accessed 19 June 2024.

LAIKA Studios. “Sweater and Gloves: Knitting Coraline by Hand.” YouTube, 11 July 2017, youtu.be/zUvkfcGR-7U. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Mad God Productions. “Phil Tippett’s “Mad God.”” Kickstarter, 17 May 2012, www.kickstarter.com/projects/madgod/phil-tippetts-mad-god/posts.

Olson, Mathew. “Report: Michel Ancel Accused of Abusive, Disruptive Practices on beyond Good & Evil 2.” VG247, 25 Sept. 2020, www.vg247.com/report-michel-ancel-accused-of-abusive-disruptive-practices-on-beyond-good-evil-2. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Ono, Kosei. “Tadahito Mochinaga: The Japanese Animator Who Lived in Two Worlds.” Animation World Network, AWN, Inc, 1 Dec. 1999, www.awn.com/animationworld/tadahito-mochinaga-japanese-animator-who-lived-two-worlds.

Orland, Kyle. “Claptrap Voice Actor Accuses Gearbox CEO of Assault, Underpayment.” Ars Technica, 7 May 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/claptrap-voice-actor-accuses-gearbox-ceo-of-assault-underpayment/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Pilling, Jayne. A Reader In Animation Studies. Indiana University Press, 1998. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/book/40033.

Prehistoric Beast. Directed by Phil Tippett, Tippett Studios, 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo

Randles, Jonathan. “VFX Studio with Star Wars, Jurassic Park Credits Goes Bankrupt.” Bloomberg Law, 1 May 2024, news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/vfx-studio-with-star-wars-jurassic-park-credits-goes-bankrupt. Accessed 19 June 2024.

Shanley, Patrick. “Gearbox Software CEO Accused of Contempt in Latest Filing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Aug. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/gearbox-software-ceo-accused-contempt-latest-filing-1235064/. Accessed 19 June 2024.

The Making of “Jurassic Park.” Directed by John Schultz, Amblin Entertainment, 1995. https://youtu.be/8r01mk6F_Pk

The Making of Mad God. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2021. https://youtu.be/sfUOHh0xmwc

The Tale of the Fox. Directed by Irene Starewicz and Ladislas Starevich, UFA GmbH, 10 Apr. 1941. https://youtu.be/Us_Pn6Q1dBQ

Wikipedia contributors. "List of films with longest production time." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 12 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of media notable for being in development hell." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "List of Rankin/Bass Productions films." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 9 Jun. 2024. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wikipedia contributors. "Tadahito Mochinaga." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Nov. 2023. Web. 19 Jun. 2024.

Wilson, Josh. “Phil Tippett: 24 Frames per Second < the Fabulist Words & Art.” The Fabulist Words & Art, 5 Nov. 2021, fabulistmagazine.com/24-frames-per-second-the-phil-tippett-interview/.

Worse than the Demon. Directed by Maya Tippett, Shudder, 2013. https://youtu.be/ghKqvDNRe4c

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How to shatter the class solidarity of the ruling class

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me WEDNESDAY (Apr 11) at UCLA, then Chicago (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Audre Lorde counsels us that "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," while MLK said "the law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me." Somewhere between replacing the system and using the system lies a pragmatic – if easily derailed – course.

Lorde is telling us that a rotten system can't be redeemed by using its own chosen reform mechanisms. King's telling us that unless we live, we can't fight – so anything within the system that makes it easier for your comrades to fight on can hasten the end of the system.

Take the problems of journalism. One old model of journalism funding involved wealthy newspaper families profiting handsomely by selling local appliance store owners the right to reach the townspeople who wanted to read sports-scores. These families expressed their patrician love of their town by peeling off some of those profits to pay reporters to sit through municipal council meetings or even travel overseas and get shot at.

In retrospect, this wasn't ever going to be a stable arrangement. It relied on both the inconstant generosity of newspaper barons and the absence of a superior way to show washing-machine ads to people who might want to buy washing machines. Neither of these were good long-term bets. Not only were newspaper barons easily distracted from their sense of patrician duty (especially when their own power was called into question), but there were lots of better ways to connect buyers and sellers lurking in potentia.

All of this was grossly exacerbated by tech monopolies. Tech barons aren't smarter or more evil than newspaper barons, but they have better tools, and so now they take 51 cents out of every ad dollar and 30 cents out of ever subscriber dollar and they refuse to deliver the news to users who explicitly requested it, unless the news company pays them a bribe to "boost" their posts:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

The news is important, and people sign up to make, digest, and discuss the news for many non-economic reasons, which means that the news continues to struggle along, despite all the economic impediments and the vulture capitalists and tech monopolists who fight one another for which one will get to take the biggest bite out of the press. We've got outstanding nonprofit news outlets like Propublica, journalist-owned outlets like 404 Media, and crowdfunded reporters like Molly White (and winner-take-all outlets like the New York Times).

But as Hamilton Nolan points out, "that pot of money…is only large enough to produce a small fraction of the journalism that was being produced in past generations":

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/what-will-replace-advertising-revenue

For Nolan, "public funding of journalism is the only way to fix this…If we accept that journalism is not just a business or a form of entertainment but a public good, then funding it with public money makes perfect sense":

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/public-funding-of-journalism-is-the

Having grown up in Canada – under the CBC – and then lived for a quarter of my life in the UK – under the BBC – I am very enthusiastic about Nolan's solution. There are obvious problems with publicly funded journalism, like the politicization of news coverage:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jan/24/panel-approving-richard-sharp-as-bbc-chair-included-tory-party-donor

And the transformation of the funding into a cheap political football:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-defund-cbc-change-law-1.6810434

But the worst version of those problems is still better than the best version of the private-equity-funded model of news production.

But Nolan notes the emergence of a new form of hedge fund news, one that is awfully promising, and also terribly fraught: Hunterbrook Media, an investigative news outlet owned by short-sellers who pay journalists to research and publish damning reports on companies they hold a short position on:

https://hntrbrk.com/

For those of you who are blissfully distant from the machinations of the financial markets, "short selling" is a wager that a company's stock price will go down. A gambler who takes a short position on a company's stock can make a lot of money if the company stumbles or fails altogether (but if the company does well, the short can suffer literally unlimited losses).

Shorts have historically paid analysts to dig into companies and uncover the sins hidden on their balance-sheets, but as Matt Levine points out, journalists work for a fraction of the price of analysts and are at least as good at uncovering dirt as MBAs are:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-04-02/a-hedge-fund-that-s-also-a-newspaper

What's more, shorts who discover dirt on a company still need to convince journalists to publicize their findings and trigger the sell-off that makes their short position pay off. Shorts who own a muckraking journalistic operation can skip this step: they are the journalists.

There's a way in which this is sheer genius. Well-funded shorts who don't care about the news per se can still be motivated into funding freely available, high-quality investigative journalism about corporate malfeasance (notoriously, one of the least attractive forms of journalism for advertisers). They can pay journalists top dollar – even bid against each other for the most talented journalists – and supply them with all the tools they need to ply their trade. A short won't ever try the kind of bullshit the owners of Vice pulled, paying themselves millions while their journalists lose access to Lexisnexis or the PACER database:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/#when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-give-a-solitary-single-fuck

The shorts whose journalists are best equipped stand to make the most money. What's not to like?

Well, the issue here is whether the ruling class's sense of solidarity is stronger than its greed. The wealthy have historically oscillated between real solidarity (think of the ultrawealthy lobbying to support bipartisan votes for tax cuts and bailouts) and "war of all against all" (as when wealthy colonizers dragged their countries into WWI after the supply of countries to steal ran out).

After all, the reason companies engage in the scams that shorts reveal is that they are profitable. "Behind every great fortune is a great crime," and that's just great. You don't win the game when you get into heaven, you win it when you get into the Forbes Rich List.

Take monopolies: investors like the upside of backing an upstart company that gobbles up some staid industry's margins – Amazon vs publishing, say, or Uber vs taxis. But while there's a lot of upside in that move, there's also a lot of risk: most companies that set out to "disrupt" an industry sink, taking their investors' capital down with them.

Contrast that with monopolies: backing a company that merges with its rivals and buys every small company that might someday grow large is a sure thing. Shriven of "wasteful competition," a company can lower quality, raise prices, capture its regulators, screw its workers and suppliers and laugh all the way to Davos. A big enough company can ignore the complaints of those workers, customers and regulators. They're not just too big to fail. They're not just too big to jail. They're too big to care:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Would-be monopolists are stuck in a high-stakes Prisoner's Dilemma. If they cooperate, they can screw over everyone else and get unimaginably rich. But if one party defects, they can raid the monopolist's margins, short its stock, and snitch to its regulators.

It's true that there's a clear incentive for hedge-fund managers to fund investigative journalism into other hedge-fund managers' portfolio companies. But it would be even more profitable for both of those hedgies to join forces and collude to screw the rest of us over. So long as they mistrust each other, we might see some benefit from that adversarial relationship. But the point of the 0.1% is that there aren't very many of them. The Aspen Institute can rent a hall that will hold an appreciable fraction of that crowd. They buy their private jets and bespoke suits and powdered rhino horn from the same exclusive sellers. Their kids go to the same elite schools. They know each other, and they have every opportunity to get drunk together at a charity ball or a society wedding and cook up a plan to join forces.

This is the problem at the core of "mechanism design" grounded in "rational self-interest." If you try to create a system where people do the right thing because they're selfish assholes, you normalize being a selfish asshole. Eventually, the selfish assholes form a cozy little League of Selfish Assholes and turn on the rest of us.

Appeals to morality don't work on unethical people, but appeals to immorality crowds out ethics. Take the ancient split between "free software" (software that is designed to maximize the freedom of the people who use it) and "open source software" (identical to free software, but promoted as a better way to make robust code through transparency and peer review).

Over the years, open source – an appeal to your own selfish need for better code – triumphed over free software, and its appeal to the ethics of a world of "software freedom." But it turns out that while the difference between "open" and "free" was once mere semantics, it's fully possible to decouple the two. Today, we have lots of "open source": you can see the code that Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook uses, and even contribute your labor to it for free. But you can't actually decide how the software you write works, because it all takes a loop through Google, Microsoft, Apple or Facebook's servers, and only those trillion-dollar tech monopolists have the software freedom to determine how those servers work:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/04/which-side-are-you-on/#tivoization-and-beyond

That's ruling class solidarity. The Big Tech firms have hidden a myriad of sins beneath their bafflegab and balance-sheets. These (as yet) undiscovered scams constitute a "bezzle," which JK Galbraith defined as "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."

The purpose of Hunterbrook is to discover and destroy bezzles, hastening the moment of realization that the wealth we all feel in a world of seemingly orderly technology is really an illusion. Hunterbrook certainly has its pick of bezzles to choose from, because we are living in a Golden Age of the Bezzle.

Which is why I titled my new novel The Bezzle. It's a tale of high-tech finance scams, starring my two-fisted forensic accountant Marty Hench, and in this volume, Hench is called upon to unwind a predatory prison-tech scam that victimizes the most vulnerable people in America – our army of prisoners – and their families:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

The scheme I fictionalize in The Bezzle is very real. Prison-tech monopolists like Securus and Viapath bribe prison officials to abolish calls, in-person visits, mail and parcels, then they supply prisoners with "free" tablets where they pay hugely inflated rates to receive mail, speak to their families, and access ebooks, distance education and other electronic media:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch

But a group of activists have cornered these high-tech predators, run them to ground and driven them to the brink of extinction, and they've done it using "the master's tools" – with appeals to regulators and the finance sector itself.

Writing for The Appeal, Dana Floberg and Morgan Duckett describe the campaign they waged with Worth Rises to bankrupt the prison-tech sector:

https://theappeal.org/securus-bankruptcy-prison-telecom-industry/

Here's the headline figure: Securus is $1.8 billion in debt, and it has eight months to find a financier or it will go bust. What's more, all the creditors it might reasonably approach have rejected its overtures, and its bonds have been downrated to junk status. It's a dead duck.

Even better is how this happened. Securus's debt problems started with its acquisition, a leveraged buyout by Platinum Equity, who borrowed heavily against the firm and then looted it with bogus "management fees" that meant that the debt continued to grow, despite Securus's $700m in annual revenue from America's prisoners. Platinum was just the last in a long line of PE companies that loaded up Securus with debt and merged it with its competitors, who were also mortgaged to make profits for other private equity funds.

For years, Securus and Platinum were able to service their debt and roll it over when it came due. But after Worth Rises got NYC to pass a law making jail calls free, creditors started to back away from Securus. It's one thing for Securus to charge $18 for a local call from a prison when it's splitting the money with the city jail system. But when that $18 needs to be paid by the city, they're going to demand much lower prices. To make things worse for Securus, prison reformers got similar laws passed in San Francisco and in Connecticut.

Securus tried to outrun its problems by gobbling up one of its major rivals, Icsolutions, but Worth Rises and its coalition convinced regulators at the FCC to block the merger. Securus abandoned the deal:

https://worthrises.org/blogpost/securusmerger

Then, Worth Rises targeted Platinum Equity, going after the pension funds and other investors whose capital Platinum used to keep Securus going. The massive negative press campaign led to eight-figure disinvestments:

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-05/la-fi-tom-gores-securus-prison-phone-mass-incarceration

Now, Securus's debt became "distressed," trading at $0.47 on the dollar. A brief, covid-fueled reprieve gave Securus a temporary lifeline, as prisoners' families were barred from in-person visits and had to pay Securus's rates to talk to their incarcerated loved ones. But after lockdown, Securus's troubles picked up right where they left off.

They targeted Platinum's founder, Tom Gores, who papered over his bloody fortune by styling himself as a philanthropist and sports-team owner. After a campaign by Worth Rises and Color of Change, Gores was kicked off the Los Angeles County Museum of Art board. When Gores tried to flip Securus to a SPAC – the same scam Trump pulled with Truth Social – the negative publicity about Securus's unsound morals and financials killed the deal:

https://twitter.com/WorthRises/status/1578034977828384769

Meanwhile, more states and cities are making prisoners' communications free, further worsening Securus's finances:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

Congress passed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, giving the FCC the power to regulate the price of federal prisoners' communications. Securus's debt prices tumbled further:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1541

Securus's debts were coming due: it owes $1.3b in 2024, and hundreds of millions more in 2025. Platinum has promised a $400m cash infusion, but that didn't sway S&P Global, a bond-rating agency that re-rated Securus's bonds as "CCC" (compare with "AAA"). Moody's concurred. Now, Securus is stuck selling junk-bonds:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1541

The company's creditors have given Securus an eight-month runway to find a new lender before they force it into bankruptcy. The company's debt is trading at $0.08 on the dollar.

Securus's major competitor is Viapath (prison tech is a duopoly). Viapath is also debt-burdened and desperate, thanks to a parallel campaign by Worth Rises, and has tried all of Securus's tricks, and failed:

https://pestakeholder.org/news/american-securities-fails-to-sell-prison-telecom-company-viapath/

Viapath's debts are due next year, and if Securus tanks, no one in their right mind will give Viapath a dime. They're the walking dead.

Worth Rise's brilliant guerrilla warfare against prison-tech and its private equity backers are a master class in using the master's tools to dismantle the master's house. The finance sector isn't a friend of justice or working people, but sometimes it can be used tactically against financialization itself. To paraphrase MLK, "finance can't make a corporation love you, but it can stop a corporation from destroying you."

Yes, the ruling class finds solidarity at the most unexpected moments, and yes, it's easy for appeals to greed to institutionalize greediness. But whether it's funding unbezzling journalism through short selling, or freeing prisons by brandishing their cooked balance-sheets in the faces of bond-rating agencies, there's a lot of good we can do on the way to dismantling the system.

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/2024/04/08/money-talks/#bullshit-walks

Image: KMJ (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boerse_01_KMJ.jpg

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

[2-years-of-kp]

Happy two years of KinnPorsche The Series and welcome to this year's anniversary event!

In celebration of the show and us as a fandom, this event will host prompts and a rewatch, so we can enjoy the show once more, and to encourage creativity and new creations for its second anniversary. Starting from April 9th, the event will run across 28 days; dedicating two days to each episode and one prompt pair as listed below.

Any and all creations are welcome! You don't have to follow the prompts, they are just here to give you some inspiration if you'd like.

Make sure to use the tag #kpanniversary2024 on any anniversary-related posts so we can reblog them to this blog and feel free to add your writing to the Kinnporsche Two Year Anniversary collection on AO3 as well!

Got any questions? Feel free to send an ask!

REWATCH SCHEDULE

Apr 9-10: Episode 1

Apr 11-12: Episode 2

Apr 13-14: Episode 3

Apr 15-16: Episode 4

Apr 17-18: Episode 5

Apr 19-20: Episode 6

Apr 21-22: Episode 7

Apr 23-24: Episode 8

Apr 25-26: Episode 9

Apr 27-28: Episode 10

Apr 29-30: Episode 11

May 1-2: Episode 12

May 3-4: Episode 13

May 5-6: Episode 14

PROMPTS

List 1: Your Favourites

Ep 1 - Apr 9-10: Favourite Main Character

Ep 2 - Apr 11-12: Favourite Supporting Character

Ep 3 - Apr 13-14: Favourite Episode

Ep 4 - Apr 15-16: Favourite Location/Set

Ep 5 - Apr 17-18: Underrated Character

Ep 6 - Apr 19-20: Favourite Romantic Relationship

Ep 7 - Apr 21-22: Favourite Platonic/Familial Relationship

Ep 8 - Apr 23-24: Favourite Scene

Ep 9 - Apr 25-26: Favourite Outfit

Ep 10 - Apr 27-28: Underrated Ship

Ep 11 - Apr 29-30: Favourite Family

Ep 12 - May 1-2: Favourite Parallel

Ep 13 - May 3-4: Underrated Quote

Ep 14 - May 5-6: Your Choice!

List 2: Your Interpretation

Ep 1 - Apr 9-10: Fate

Ep 2 - Apr 11-12: Misfit

Ep 3 - Apr 13-14: Heroes

Ep 4 - Apr 15-16: Tension

Ep 5 - Apr 17-18: Regret

Ep 6 - Apr 19-20: Comfort

Ep 7 - Apr 21-22: Heist

Ep 8 - Apr 23-24: Haunting

Ep 9 - Apr 25-26: Trust

Ep 10 - Apr 27-28: Manipulate

Ep 11 - Apr 29-30: Villains

Ep 12 - May 1-2: Identity

Ep 13 - May 3-4: Secrets

Ep 14 - May 5-6: Legacy

RULES AND GUIDELINES

Any kind of creations (fics, drabbles, fanart, edits, gifs, videos, etc.) are welcome!

Use the tag #kpanniversary2024 so your creation can be reblogged to this blog.

Be respectful of other people; this event is no space for negativity.

Mature and NSFW content is welcome, but must be tagged properly - both on Tumblr and on AO3.

Feel free to skip days, only participate for one day, etc. however you like!

You can participate in the prompts, the rewatch or both - it is up to you!

Late submissions are allowed.

One prompt or a combination of both prompts can be used, and all prompts are open to personal interpretation.

Multiple creations per prompt/prompt pair are welcome!

You do not have to follow the prompts, any creations during the course of the event are welcome.

Since this event is meant to celebrate the show itself, no actor content or behind the scenes content will be reblogged.

DISCLAIMER

This event has drawn inspiration from the previous year's anniversary event, as well as Kinnporsche Week in 2022.

Happy creating!

[history-of-fashion]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 4 545 notes - Apr 16 2023

2. 3 762 notes - Mar 15 2023

3. 3 654 notes - Jan 3 2023

4. 2 675 notes - Jan 1 2023

5. 2 029 notes - Jan 12 2023

6. 1 828 notes - Nov 27 2023

7. 1 705 notes - Mar 29 2023

8. 1 675 notes - Jan 5 2023

9. 1 626 notes - Jan 21 2023

10. 1 315 notes - Feb 8 2023

Created by TumblrTop10

[asklepius2]

I don't like how the birthdays from stardew valley are set up in the real world. Like most of December is in the fall according to the solstice but Sebastian's birthday is winter 10 and we've decided it's December 10th.

Nah, let's give all the characters accurate birthdays in accordance with the seasons.

I'll set it up 2 ways:

1. Taking the earliest dates of each solstice and equinox that defines the seasons and dividing that by 28 (number of days in a stardew valley season) then multiplied that number by the NPC's bday (I'll explain the math later)

2. Taking the average amount of days in-between each IRL season and dividing that by 28

Earliest dates are as follows:

Spring March 19

Summer June 20

Autumn September 21

Winter December 20

The length of each season in this method is

91 days for spring

93 days for summer

90 days for fall

90 days for winter

The average days in between is 91.5 days.

Dividing by 28 we get

3.25 Spring

3.32142857 Summer

3.2142857 Autumn / Winter

3.267857142857143 Average

These numbers are the difference between our real world dates and stardew valley dates

Our season are about 90 days long, their's are 28 days so

1 day for stardew players is about 3 days for us.

Now that we have these numbers let's find out how each day correlates to each villager.

It will be in order of earliest birthday to latest and will follow this format

NPC-Season-ingame Bday-Bday(method 1)-Bday(method 2)

Kent- Spring 4- Apr 1

Lewis- Spring 7- Apr 10

Vincent- Spring 10- Apr 20

Haley- Spring 14- May 3

Pam- Spring 18- May 16

Shane- Spring 20- May 23

Pierre- Spring 26- Jun 11

Emily- Spring 27- Jun 14- Jun 15

Jas- Summer 4- Jul 3

Gus- Summer 8- Jul 16

Maru- Summer 10- Jul 23- Jul 22

Alex- Summer 13- Aug 2- Aug 1

Sam- Summer 17- Aug 15- Aug 14

Demetrius- Summer 19- Aug 22- Aug 21

Dwarf- Summer 22- Sep 1-Aug 30

Willy- Summer 24- Sep 7- Sep 6

Leo- Summer 26- Sep 14- Sep 12

Penny- Autumn 2- Sep 27

Elliott- Autumn 5- Oct 7

Jodi- Autumn 11- Oct 26

Abigail- Autumn 13- Nov 1- Nov 2

Sandy- Autumn 15- Nov 8- Nov 9

Marnie- Autumn 18- Nov 17- Nov 18

Robin- Autumn 21- Nov 27- Nov 28

George- Autumn 24- Dec 7- Dec 8

Krobus- Winter 1- Dec 23

Linus- Winter 3- Dec 29

Caroline- Winter 7- Jan 11

Sebastian- Winter 10- Jan 21

Harvey- Winter 14- Feb 2- Feb 3

Wizard- Winter 17- Feb 12- Feb 13

Evelyn- Winter 20- Feb 22- Feb 23

Leah- Winter 23- Mar 3- Mar 5

Clint- Winter 26- Mar 13- Mar 14

If there is only one date on the NPC that means both dates are the same

I'd like to thank @cloverbug83 for helping with the math.

TL:DR The dates in stardew valley are incorrect and I updated them according to IRL seasons.