#Business dissolution process

[ifindtaxpro]

⏰📉 Timing is everything! Discover the right moment to dissolve your business with our strategic guide. Navigate the process smoothly and pave the way for new opportunities! #BusinessClosure #EntrepreneurTips

[read-marx-and-lenin]

There is no magic "abolish the state" button, which is why I'm an anarchist, as "when the state has socialismed enough it will just magically poof away in a cloud of smoke" is the leninist position.

That is not the Leninist position, the Leninist position is and always has been that the state cannot disappear until the material conditions for its disappearance are achieved. The withering away of the state, first outlined by Engels, is not a magic process but one that proceeds from the abolition of class and the dissolution of the bourgeoisie.

How are you going to get rid of the bourgeoisie without a state? Are you going to simply ask them nicely to leave you alone? If you are organized and if your organization is suppressing the bourgeoisie as a class, then you have created a state, you have created an authoritarian imposition on the free organization of some section of the people. If you are not doing any of this, then the bourgeoisie who you have left unmolested will invariably come to dominate you once more.

Anarchists have always played word games to get around these simple facts. There are the practical anarchists who will admit to some amount of authority, but always with the caveat that theirs is *just* authority, *necessary* authority, and that is is the *unjust* authority that they condemn. Just authority is not the State, because the State is unjust, and so if they see an authority as just then it cannot be the State. Fair enough, you can call things by whatever names you like, but if you put these ideas in practice you basically end up with Leninism. You want to create dual power? You want to abolish the bourgeois state and replace it with a democratic organ of the working class? Well so did Lenin, and now you know why the Mensheviks accused him of anarchism.

Then there are the quite impractical capital-A Anarchists, who are adamant that anarchy means anarchy and that even voluntary hierarchy and submission to democratic authority is impermissible. Whether pacifistic or militaristic, they are generally unremarkable and ineffective at their goals because they eschew most effective forms of organization as ideologically impure. Even the most advanced anarchists, the CNT in Spain and the Maknovists in Russia, were plagued by economic confusion and disorganization. Their lack of discipline led to their downfall.

If you want to read more, here are some pertinent links:

[susieandhobbes]

Its been a common fanfic trope but I'm truly so shook that Carmy offering Sydney an actual stake in the Bear is like...actually happening.

1.) It's INSANE. He's known her for...6 months?? Syd worked there for three-ish months which ended in her storming out during one of the biggest shit shows the Beef has ever seen and then telling him to shove his apology up his ass, and 2 hours later he was like "hey want to build the restaurant me and my dead brother dreamed about with me?"🥺. And then three months and change after that he's saying "hey, want to OWN part of the restauraunt me and my dead brother dreamed about with me?"🥺🥺 BANANAS. In the real world, absolutely nobody would expect him to do this! RICHIE doesn't have ownership in the Beef/Bear and he's Cousin. Sydney is essentially an outsider to a family owned business and Carmy said "i entrust all of this to you". CRAZY BEHAVIOR!

2) It's Hilarious. Carmy is so terrified of Sydney leaving he said "fuck it, I'm baby trapping her". History shows that she can and will leave him and highkey he can't trust himself to not fuck it up because despite his table promises he has already phenomenally fucked it up with her so now he's trying to contractually bind her to him for life. Because this isn't a decision that ensures she'll stick around for the next 3-5 fiscal years as a prized employee, that's a lifelong commitment baby. you are co-owning a business and any dissolution of that is a lengthy and potentially contentious process.

3) Local man who needed to take a workplace survey to see if his girl that's a friend was his girlfriend gives away part of his inheritance from his beloved and deceased brother to his ~platonic coworker~ without blinking.

[fatehbaz]

What it meant to "do geology" in Hutton's time was to apply lessons of textual hermeneutics usually reserved for scripture [...] to the landscape. Geology was itself textual. Rocks were marks made by invisible processes that could be deciphered. Doing geology was a kind of reading, then, which existed in a dialectical relationship with writing. In The Theory of the Earth from 1788, Hutton wrote a new history of the earth as a [...] system [...]. Only a few kilometers away from Hutton’s unconformity [the geological site at Isle of Arran in Scotland that inspired his writing], [...] stands the remains of the Shell bitumen refinery [closed since 1986] as it sinks into the Atlantic Ocean. [...] As Hutton thought, being in a place is a hermeneutic practice. [...] [T]he Shell refinery at Ardrossan is a ruin of that machine, one whose great material derangements have defined the world since Hutton. [...]

The Shell Transport and Trading Company [now the well-known global oil company] was created in the Netherlands East Indies in 1897. The company’s first oil wells and refineries were in east Borneo [...]. The oil was taken by puncturing wells into subterranean deposits of a Bornean or Sumatran landscape, and then transported into an ever-expanding global network of oil depots at ports [...] at Singapore, then Chennai, and through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. [...] The oil in these networks were Bornean and Sumatran landscapes on the move. Combustion engines burnt those landscapes. Machinery was lubricated by them. They illuminated the night as candlelight. [...] The Dutch East Indies was the new land of untapped promise in that multi-polar world of capitalist competition. British and Dutch colonial prospectors scoured the forests, rivers, and coasts of Borneo [...]. Marcus Samuel, the British founder of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, as his biographer [...] put it, was “mesmerized by oil, and by the vision of commanding oil all along the line from production to distribution, from the bowels of the earth to the laps of the Orient.” [...]

---

Shell emerged from a Victorian era fascination with shells.

In the 1830s, Marcus Samuel Sr. created a seashell import business in Houndsditch, London. The shells were used for decorating the covers of curio boxes. Sometimes, the boxes also contained miniature sculptures, also made from shells, of food and foliage, hybridizing oceanic and terrestrial life forms. Wealthy shell enthusiasts would sometimes apply shells to grottos attached to their houses. As British merchant vessels expanded into east Asia after the dissolution of the East India Company’s monopoly on trade in 1833, and the establishment of ports at Singapore and Hong Kong in 1824 and 1842, the import of exotic shells expanded.

Seashells from east Asia represented the oceanic expanse of British imperialism and a way to bring distant places near, not only the horizontal networks of the empire but also its oceanic depths.

---

The fashion for shells was also about telling new histories. The presence of shells, the pecten, or scallop, was a familiar bivalve icon in cultures on the northern edge of the Mediterranean. Aphrodite, for example, was said to have emerged from a scallop shell. Minerva was associated with scallops. Niches in public buildings and fountains in the Roman empire often contained scallop motifs. St. James, the patron saint of Spain, was represented by a scallop shell [...]. The pecten motif circulated throughout medieval European coats of arms, even in Britain. In 1898, when the Gallery of Palaeontology, Comparative Anatomy, and Anthropology was opened in Paris’s Museum of Natural History - only two years after the first test well was drilled in Borneo at the Black Spot - the building’s architect, Ferdinand Dutert, ornamented the entrance with pecten shell reliefs. In effect, Dutert designed the building so that one entered through scallop shells and into the galleries where George Cuvier’s vision of the evolution of life forms was displayed [...]. But it was also a symbol for the transition between an aquatic form of life and terrestrial animals. Perhaps it is apposite that the scallop is structured by a hinge which allows its two valves to rotate. [...] Pectens also thrive in the between space of shallow coastal waters that connects land with the depths of the ocean. [...] They flourish in architectural imagery, in the mind, and as the logo of one of the largest ever fossil fuel companies. [...]

---

In the 1890s, Marcus Samuel Jr. transitioned from his father’s business selling imported seashells to petroleum.

When he adopted the name Shell Transport and Trading Company in 1897, Samuel would likely have known that the natural history of bivalves was entwined with the natural history of fossil fuels. Bivalves underwent an impressive period of diversification in the Carboniferous period, a period that was first named by William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822 to identify coal bearing strata. In other words, the same period in earth’s history that produced the Black Spot that Samuel’s engineers were seeking to extract from Dayak land was also the period that produced the pecten shells that he named his company after. Even the black fossilized leaves that miners regularly encountered in coal seams sometimes contained fossilized bivalve shells.

The Shell logo was a materialized cosmology, or [...] a cosmogram.

Cosmograms are objects that attempt to represent the order of the cosmos; they are snapshots of what is. The pecten’s effectiveness as a cosmogram was its pivot, to hinge, between spaces and times: it brought the deep history of the earth into the present; the Black Spot with Mediterranean imaginaries of the bivalve; the subterranean space of liquid oil with the surface. The history of the earth was made legible as an energetic, even a pyrotechnical force. The pecten represented fire, illumination, and certainly, power. [...] If coal required tunnelling, smashing, and breaking the ground, petroleum was piped liquid that streamed through a drilled hole. [...] In 1899, Samuel presented a paper to the Society of Arts in which he outlined his vision of “liquid fuel.” [...] Ardrossan is a ruin of that fantasy of a free flowing fossil fuel world. [...] At Ardrossan, that liquid cosmology is disintegrating.

---

All text above by: Adam Bobbette. "Shells and Shell". e-flux Architecture (Accumulation series). November 2023. At: e-flux dot com slash architecture/accumulation/553455/shells-and-shell/ [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticisms purposes.]

[kinglivv]

One Bed

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart x Reader

Summary: Being Kate Stewart’s personal protection was a job full of challenges - aliens, monsters, the supernatural. But none as big as finding yourself in a hotel with her… and only one bed.

Warnings: Implied PTSD

A/N: Realised I’ve never done this trope so rectified that immediately! Also, first time writing for Kate - what do you think?

You couldn’t believe it.

It was classic. You couldn’t write it. One bed, one room, you and Katherine fucking Lethbridge-Stewart.

It was a work trip. Travelling out to Belarus to look at some potential satellite launch sites. UNIT was still regrouping after it’s recent Brexit dissolution, and your commander was desperate to begin scraping back that hard power. Seemingly pointless trips like these had become the norm in the absence of anything existential such as the Flux.

The trip had been last minute. You knew you were going to share a room with Kate - a product of budget cuts and a HQ concerned that as her protection detail in a hostile country, the room next door wasn’t close enough. The hotel however, had apparently royally screwed up by giving you a double instead of a twin.

“Right,” Kate said in a matter of fact tone. You both stand in the doorway, suitcases in hand, clutching yours like a rubber ring on a sinking ship. It feels like a dangerous threshold between sensibility - your job, your boss, your professional relationship - and something else unwritten.

“There’s obviously been a mix up,” she states.

“Yeah,” you clear your throat, “I’ll go down to reception, get it sorted?”

She looks at you. Her hand clasps and unclasps her suitcase handle.

“You could… But I mean, it’s fine. Right?” She says, “It’s the middle of the night, we’ve just been travelling 12 hours. If you’re not bothered, I’m not.”

You take a breath. She had a point. It wasn’t a big deal - two grown adults just sharing a bed on a business trip.

“Alright ma’am,” you agree, “it’s only one night either way.”

“Great,” she musters, and powers on into the room.

It is alright, you tell yourself. It was just Kate. Your boss. It wasn’t like you weren’t used to being glued to her side. That was what you were paid for - her personal protection. You were one of her “strays” as the office called it. One of her impulsive job offers. You’d been a mere police officer in the right place at the right time, when in the middle of an alien incursion, you’d knocked her out the way of a deadly bullet, almost getting hit in the process. She’d quickly made it her business to know everything of use about you; did you go to the gym a lot? How many languages did you speak? Were you satisfied with your job?

Upon finding you had the reflexes of a cat and couldn’t stand the police, you were hired.

You’d been by her side ever since. Everyday in the office, the occasional night shift, the odd weekend at her house in the country. It was fairly mundane work, lurking in the shadows and watching her every step, but you’d quickly learned that there wasn’t much downside to being paid to stare at Kate Stewart all day.

Back in the present, you find that co-existing with her in such close quarters is fairly uneventful. She takes a couple calls, does her emails. She showers and changes into checkered pyjamas. She asks after your dog and you ask after her kids. You go over the car’s planned route for tomorrow and at 11 o’clock it’s lights out. You curl up as close to the edge of the bed as you can get and try to ignore the smell of her fruity shampoo.

You wake to the sound of a muffled groan.

It’s pitch dark and hot. At first you jump, forgetting that you’re in a shared bed and you feel like duvet shift slightly. Then again - a groan. Followed by mumbles - scared mumbles.

You sit up to look at Kate. She’s a dark silhouette, but you can make out her tossing against the sheets. She’s having a nightmare, you realise.

Roll over, a part of you thinks. Spare her the embarrassment. But it’s difficult to listen to. Your heart twinges for her as her brow furrows in anxiety over imagined monsters.

You were her protection - it was your job to protect her.

“Commander,” you whisper gently, reaching out for her shoulder, and then more firmly, “Commander!”

Brown eyes snap open as she’s wrenched out of her nightmare and back into reality. She all but jumps away from you, narrowly avoiding falling out of the bed.

“You were having a nightmare,” you pull your hand away as she frantically wipes away tears and catches her breath.

“Sorry,” she mumbles.

“It’s okay,” you respond softly, “I get them too. More often than I’d like to admit.”

“I - um. Sorry,” she repeats, shifting to prop herself up against the pillows, and it’s only then that you realise how close you are and how wildly inappropriate this is, “I woke you didn’t I?”

“It’s alright,” you say firmly, “Can I… ask what it was? I don’t know - sometimes it helps me when I get them. To talk.”

“Oh,” she says dismissively, “just… you know. Sutekh stuff. The usual really.”

Your face falls. You felt a lot of guilt about that day. Seeing your death approaching and being able to do nothing about it. Watching her crumble to dust seconds before you did. You had failed her in that moment.

“Kate-“ you try to say but it chokes in your throat slightly. “I never apologised for that day.”

She frowns at you through the dark. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t do my job properly that day,” you state, as if it’s obvious. “I should have been quicker. Done something. You died - as your assigned protection I literally can’t have cocked it up any moreso.”

“Cocked it up?” She repeats with a sort of sad myrth. “Darling, a god of death appeared in our office. The bloody Doctor couldn’t prevent it and you certainly couldn’t have done anything. You died seconds later, I seem to recall learning.”

You blink back tears and look away, picking the duvet pooled around your waist. She’d called you darling. You’d called her Kate. Uncharted territory.

“Have you been blaming yourself for my death all this time?” She asks quietly. Her hand reaches out, cups the side of your face, forcing you to make eye contact with her. Her touch is electric.

You nod silently against her palm.

“Darling,” she whispers again, and God you could die happy hearing her say that. “It’s not your fault,” she murmers. She’s closer now, leaning in, “it’s not your fault.” She whispers against your lips and then you’re kissing her.

It’s soft and cautious, and your mind goes black for a minute as you try to process the fact that all your fantasies are coming true at once. She breaks the kiss - perhaps to mentally list through all of the protocols and policies she’s currently breaking, perhaps just to catch her breath - and you stare at her dumbly, mouth open like a fish and tears drying quickly.

“Sorry,” she rambles hurriedly, “that was unprofessional. Was that alright? I can’t bear the thought of you carrying that guilt when -“

You lean in again and this time the desire hits you like a wave, taking everything within you to keep it at bay. There’s a sigh and her hand sneaks into your hair, the other fighting off the duvet tangled around her legs to get as close to you as possible. You slip a hand under the hem of her pyjama shirt to find hot, smooth skins and you moan into her mouth.

The noise seems to bring you back to yourself and the tension in the room snaps, reality flooding back in. The kiss breaks and she stares at you for a moment with a sort of wonder in her eyes.

“Wanted to do that for a while,” you confess before she can say anything.

“Me too,” is all she manages. She leans in again, but you muster every resolve within you and pull away after a few seconds. She pouts.

“You have to be up at 6am tomorrow,” you point out.

“I’ll sleep in the car,” she quips back.

“Someone has to drive that car,” you retort.

She laughs and it’s a nice sound, much better than her whines of fear as she shook in the grip of her nightmare, only minutes earlier.

“I never get to tell you how much I appreciate you,” she says, shifting to lie back down and pulling you down with her. Her golden hair splays around her head like a halo, and fingers thread through yours. “You make this job a damn lot easier for me, you know that? Not just the safety stuff, but just… you.”

You know what she means. You pull her into you and she sleeps sounder than she has in months.

[amateurasstrologer]

BY NECESSITY #1 SATURN IN PISCES

Hi babies, what’s up? You thought I forgot about you? 

Well, you’re right, I did. But I’m back, bitches - at least for today - to remind you that astrology is still the shit. So, before I ghost again, let’s talk. This week it’s a Saturn in Pisces special. 

Now, before you’re like, “Are you kidding? This bitch comes back after how long to talk about some random ass placement that doesn’t even apply to me? Ugh.” Just take a breath. Saturn is in Pisces. Right now. In the sky. So even if you’re not getting extra fucked like all the people having their Saturn Return, you’re still experiencing the energy and all the shit I’m about to say still applies to you. 

Alright. First, let’s talk Saturn. Saturn is all about form. It’s foundations, it’s structure, it’s hard, it’s the shit you stand on that you forget you’re standing on (until a transit happens and forces you to look down in ice cold terror). It’s important to remember that Saturn deals with all foundations - which foundation (physical, mental, etc.) depends on which sign you’re working with. When Pisces gets involved, you’re dealing with your psychological, emotional foundation.

Next, Pisces. Pisces is about all dissolution. Pisces is last in line for a reason. All the shit you absorbed during your little life cycle - collective beliefs and ideals, definitions of success, definitions of failure, the shit your parents believed, the shit their parents believed, etc. - someone needs to dissolve all that loud biz (cue Pisces) so you can get back in touch with the real true you (cue Aries). Pisces is on that transcendental shit - it’s here to elevate you, it’s fucking your foundations up in a beautifully painful liquidation process, as in we’re closing everything has got to go this business is over forever goodbye we’re done. 

When you put these two together and you get a fucking shit show. Hardening and dissolving? Opposites. Pisces is like “yes I’m here to love you forget you ever had a structure all of this is meaningless it’s time blend in the timeless space of forgiveness we’ll feel it all and understand the origin of life the mystery of life heart eyes” and Saturn is like “Look at your life! Build something! Be accountable! These are your limits - learn them! Wake up! You dropped your spine! Go pick it up! But also good luck bending over to pick it up because you don’t have a spine! Ha!” 

It doesn’t take eyes to see that Saturn is not comfy in Pisces. And it’s true, Pisces and Saturn do bring very different shit to the party. But relationships are raw materials, babies, it’s what you make with them that matters.

Saturn and Pisces, together, create an opportunity for you to give your psychological, emotional foundation a fucking upgrade. Pisces helps you dissolve the fake ass bull shit persona you’ve been passing off as a self, and Saturn helps you reform into a person who, you know, you’re actually happy to be - a person with a psychological foundation based on inner-truth, not on societal/cultural/ancestral rules and regulations. Bitch, you’re a treasure! You’re a beautiful unique person, not a robot! If you wanted to be all copy paste should have reincarnated as a keyboard smh. Wake up.

Saturn in Pisces is a call to transform yourself on a spiritual level. The deepest level. (Deeper than you Scorpio sorry.) This isn’t some find a new job, find a new hobby bull shit. This is deep unconscious reconditioning. This is scary, triggering shit. You thought Pisces was out here just blending in the gooey goodness of love? Please. Think about what dissolution actually means. You want to be psychologically free? You want to scrub your karma? Get in touch with your essence? Lol. Girl. Get ready. This transformation process is a gnarly, confusing, and, most importantly, it takes time (thanks, Saturn). Just can’t rush it. 

Alright, before you get too scared to continue, let me say it one more time for the people in the back: When Saturn is in Pisces, the unconscious, emotional (Pisces) foundation (Saturn) of your life stops being hidden. Material that was collecting dust (and power) in your unconscious (Pisces) is suddenly visible (Saturn). Surprise, bitch! Time to take a look.

Okay. Now, what happens when you’re confronted with your very own subconscious (Pisces) scaffolding (Saturn)? Well, two options: 

(1) You lose perspective and collapse the transformation process before it has time to do its thing, dissolving your sense of self (Pisces) and hardening around rigid beliefs (Saturn) to bring yourself back to a superficial sense of safety, making your life temporarily more stable and comfy but ten million times harder to confront your psychological foundation at the next opportunity.

(2) You stay focused on the big picture and face your fears, dissolving the toxic beliefs you were unconsciously building your life on (Pisces) and reforming your identity (Saturn) into something real and true, making your life temporarily more lonely and difficult but ten million times easier to relate to yourself and others forever and ever amen.

“Uh wtf who would pick option one?” You, me, anyone allowing themselves to actually feel the crippling existential dread of having to face the unknown (Pisces) or anyone who can’t bear the thought of looking critically at their inherited beliefs (Saturn). It’s not an opportunity for the faint of heart. Or for anyone who doesn’t have, at the very least, one friend. And not some moralizing “forgiveness heals all wounds hang in there” type of friend - I’m talking some real ass, truth staring ass, love you anyways bitch.

So, why did I return from the underworld to tell you this shit now? Because Saturn is only halfway through it’s uncomfortable stay on the Pisces commune. Listen - if you’re starting to feel crazy, like (1) “I swear some shit must be up I just cannot catch a break from feeling like living shit” and (2) “why does the same shit continue to happen to me over and over again like fuck I thought I got over this shit in 1933” it’s because (1) you’re being called to transform and transformation is an active process time to stop being dragged around use you legs and (2) part of this particular transformation process is acknowledging that you did not leave any shit in 1933 and you’ve actually been dragging that ugly shit around in your unconscious and it’s secretly been controlling every decision you’ve made since then. Sorry.

“Ugh, can I just close my eyes and open them when this whack ass transit is over?” Sure. They’re your eyes, babe. But, just between you and me, why would you want to do that? This is a wonderfully unique time to face the truth (Saturn) and give yourself compassion and grace (Pisces), so that you can, oh, I don’t know, turn this car around before you and your unconscious Thelma and Louise yourselves. For a limited time only - the lights are on! There is no better time to look at this shit. The cosmic support is here. Right now. Let these lunar lovelies carry you through. 

The key to navigating this transit successfully (and consciously), is to pay attention to what you’re dissolving, and what you’re hardening around. Be suspicious about the shit you take for granted emotionally - investigate that foundation - ask yourself: Where did this shit even come from? Is this the psychological foundation I want to perpetuate? Don’t keep trying to wrap yourself back up in that shed skin, babies, it’s not a good look. Embrace the rawness.

The energies are active, the pressure is there, but if you open yourself to working with the energy of the times instead of just closing your eyes and hoping for the best, you can completely transform your life over the next 12 months. No joke. No exaggeration.

Until we meet again, bitches, happy charting.

XO BULLSHIT FREE ASTROLOGY 

[scotianostra]

On February 3rd 1700, a fire broke out on the north side of Cowgate in Edinburgh's Old Town.

From there the flames spread and burnt down the close and its close surroundings, including the merchant’s Exchange building, where the Three Sister bar now is.

The fire extended rapidly up hill to involve the tall tenements on the south and east sides of Parliament Square. One, fifteen storeys high, the tallest building in Edinburgh, was reduced to a heap of ashes and ‘made a prodigious blaze"

The buildings were densely occupied and about three or four hundred families lost their homes, including many notables such as the President of Parliament, the President of the Court of Session and other Lords, lawyers, clerks and poorer families. Several lives were lost and a great number seriously injured.

Offices of businesses were destroyed including the recently opened Bank of Scotland – the only bank in Scotland at that time. Mercifully the Parliament Hall and St Giles escaped major damage. The Advocates, who lost their library in the fire, were given space in the Laigh Hall below Parliament House.

Although it escaped major damage the fire allowed the council to rebuild the Parliament “in a uniform style of architecture” regulating the buildings appearance to prevent fire. The rest of the close was given a grand entry and the courtyard was rebuilt uniformly with a continuous arcade along the front.

Cassells Old & New wrote this short account bout the Parliament building:

This magnificent hall and the buildings connected with it had a narrow escape in the “Great Fire” of 1700. It broke out in Lord Crossrig’s lodging, at Mr. John Buchan’s, near the meal-market, on a night in February; and Duncan Forbes of Culloden asserts in a letter to his brother the colonel, that he never beheld a more vehement fire; that 400 families were burned out, and that from the Cowgate upwards to the High Street scarcely one stone was left upon another.

A broadsheet entitled Fire! Fire! stated that the fire had been started by someone throwing a bottle of whisky into an open hearth.. The fire engines were of little or no use, water being scarce and the old closes so narrow that they could not gain access. As mentoned in Cassells. Duncan Forbes wrote to his brother that it was the greatest fire he ever saw ‘notwithstanding I saw London burne’, It reads;

All the pryde of Edenr. is sunk; from the Cowgate to the High Street all is burnt, and hardly one stone left upon another…the Parliament House very hardly escapt; all Registers confounded; Clerks Chambers, and processes, in such confusion, that the Lords and Officers of State are just now mett at Rosse’s Taverne, in order to adjourneing the Sessione by reason of the disorder…twenty thousand hands flitting ther trash they know not wher…These babells, of ten and fourteen story high, are down to the Ground, and their fall’s very terrible….This Epitome of dissolution I send you, without saying any more, but that the Lord is angry with us, and I see no intercessor.

Of course the clergy couldn't let this go without blaming someone, preaching sermons in which they attributed the fire to God’s punishment for the wickedness of the populace. The Town Council also took to preaching and on 4th December 1702 introduced an ‘Act anent suppressing Immoralities,’ which contained the following:-

…considering the great growth of immoralities within the City and Suburbs, and the fearful rebukes of God, by a dreadful Fire in Parliament Close….which happened about midnight upon 3rd February 1700….also, remembering the terrible Fire….on the north side of the Lawn market….28 October 1701 with several lives lost. Likewise reflecting upon other Tokens of God’s wrath lately come upon us… We…being moved with the zeal of God….do in the Lord’s strength resolve to be more watchful over our hearts and ways than formerly; And each of us in our several capacities, to reprove vice with due zeal and prudence as we shall have occasion…. under penalty of Twenty Merks Scots.

The height of the new tenements was restricted to eleven storeys rather than the fifteen storeys of their predecessors but even so Tobias Smollett writing in 1770 observed that ‘I cannot view it without horror; that is, the dreadful situation of all the families above, in case the common stair-case should be rendered impassable by a fire in the lower stories’.

The council's supposed "fireproofing" of the Parliament meant little as 124 years later a large section of the High Street went up in flames in "The Great Fire"

[ckerouac]

What I Read: July

Back with another busy month of books. Sitting in waiting rooms and poolside really adds up.

Fiction

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

4.5/5 || It sucked me in, devoured it in two pool afternoons.

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position. Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath.

The Rom-commers by Katherine Center

4.24/5 || I really enjoyed this story, but the narrator definitely has a distinct style that you’ll either vibe with or it’ll drive you up a wall. I wanted to snatch all the ‘what? WHAT?’ type repeated questions from the author and put them on a high shelf out of her reach. But the story was really fun.

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god! But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script—it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will convince him that love stories matter—even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it.

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

4/5 || Unsettling and great. Apparently Argentinian horror is something I’m loving this year.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition." Now, eating human meat--"special meat"--is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he's given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost--and what might still be saved.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

4/5 || A classic of the genre for a reason. Carré can do in 200 pages what takes other authors twice as long.

In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse--a desk job--Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service--with himself as the bait. In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.

Husband Material by Alexis Hall

3/5 || I loved the first book, and this one was… fine. Completely lacking in the charm of the first book for me. I was so disappointed.

In Boyfriend Material, Luc and Oliver met, pretended to fall in love, fell in love for real, dealt with heartbreak and disappointment and family and friends…and somehow figured out a way to make it work. Now it seems like everyone around them is getting married, and Luc’s feeling the social pressure to propose. But it’ll take more than four weddings, a funeral, and a bowl full of special curry to get these two from I don’t know what I’m doing to I do. Good thing Oliver is such perfect Husband Material.

Funny Story by Emily Henry

3/5 || I think I need to accept that I find the plots of Henry’s books more interesting than her execution of said plots.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it… right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra. Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. But it’s all just for show because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex… right?

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

3/5 || Norse magic was interesting, main character acted dumber than a box of rocks on too many occasions. Not opposed to reading the second book, but I’ll be surprised if I remember read book 1 when it comes out.

Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back. Freya's dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region's jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess's blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.

Big In Sweden by Sally Franson

2.5/5 || You know those fanfics that have a great set up but you quickly realize is written by someone who feels compelled to overexplain everything to prove they have the correct opinions and are aware of how ‘problematic’ everything is? Yeah.

Paulie Johansson has never put much stock in the idea of family: she has her long-term boyfriend Declan and beloved best friend Jemma, and that's more than enough for her. Yet one night on a lark, she lets Jemma convince her to audition for Sverige och Mig, a show on Swedish television where Swedish-Americans compete to win the ultimate prize: a reunion with their Swedish relatives. Much to her shock, her drunken submission video wins her a spot on the show, and against Declan's advice Paulie decides to go for it. Grappling with long-held notions of family, friendship, and love--not to mention her feelings for the distractingly handsome Swedish cameraman who's been assigned to follow her around--Paulie starts to reconsider her past and rethink what she wants for the future.

Nonfiction

King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild

5/5 || You think you know how bad the Belgian destruction of the Congo was. Yeah, it’s even worse. Once I picked this up, I couldn’t put it down.

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust.

The Far Land: 200 Years of Murder, Mania, and Mutiny in the South Pacific by Brandon Presser

3.25/5 || Very readable as a travelogue, but takes a lot of liberties in the history presented as fact that can’t be known for certain.

Told through vivid historical and personal narrative, The Far Land goes beyond the infamous mutiny on the Bounty, offering an unprecedented glimpse at life on the fringes of civilization, and how, perhaps, it's not so different from our own. In 2018, Brandon Presser rode the freighter to live among its present-day families; two clans bound by circumstance and secrets. While on the island, he pieced together Pitcairn's full story: an operatic saga that holds all who have visited in its mortal clutch--even the author.

[mariacallous]

Bulgaria edged closer to a seventh general election in just three years on Monday, when the reformist alliance of pro-EU parties We Continue the Change WCC and Democratic Bulgaria DB received – and immediately returned – the government-forming mandate to President Rumen Radev.

Since 2021, Bulgaria has witnessed the decline and comeback of the long-ruling centre-right GERB party, he birth of several new entities opposed to GERB and increased friction between pro-EU parties and the generally pro-Kremlin President Radev.

“We won’t change our model and upfront priorities – to build a welcoming environment for business and investors, so we can increase income, reduce inequality, and have the means to secure a better level of quality of education and healthcare“, said former PM Nikolai Denkov of We Continue the Change, who was in office until the dissolution of the latest short-lived coalition. 

WCC/DB received a government-forming mandate after the last election winner, GERB, was unable to muster a majority in parliament despite initial ambitions to do so following June 8 elections won by GERB and its allies in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, MRF. 

However, MRF, a party relying mainly on ethnic Turkish votes, entered a leadership crisis after its co-leader, the oligarch Delyan Peevski, pressed the party to support a GERB-led government, which party founder Ahmed Dogan opposed.

MRF’s parliamentary group split into two camps by July 11. The battle between Peevski and Dogan has seen party members taking opposing sides in the media, and opens up questions about whether the MRF will stay by GERB’s side in the long run. 

The mandate then went to WCC/DB, which could not capitalize on the moment. Last week, party leaders promoted the idea of delaying the handing of the mandate for two months, during which time parliament would approve various reforms and amendments backed by WCC/DB. But this plan did not gain hold and now the party is returning the mandate. 

What’s next: eyes on the President

Under constitutional rules, the President should now give the final government-forming mandate to a party of his own choice. Traditionally, Radev has chosen the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party for this usually doomed task. But in April 2023, amid another election phase, he chose the nationalist There’s Such a People, which at the time promoted the idea of turning Bulgaria into a presidential republic. 

The President’s other option is another right-wing pro-Russian party: Revival, now the country’s main far-right force. 

Parliamentary newcomer Greatness, which leans towards nationalist, pro-Russian, Eurosceptic and conspiratorial ideas, has meanwhile practically dissolved: like the MRF, it has entered into a leadership crisis and is likely to fade.

With every phase of the process it looks likelier that election-weary Bulgarians will again head to the polls in the autumn, with the parties increasingly isolated from each other.

GERB leader and former PM Boyko Borissov on Saturday said all efforts must be made to end the stalemate with the next elections. “We don’t have time for any more experiments,” he said.

[sophie-st-2002]

Roundtable 3: All That Jazz (1979) directed by Bob Fosse

Question 1: What are the social aspects within the film’s narrative that align with the film’s songs?

The narrative of “All That Jazz” explores the dark side of entertainment. In the opening number, “On Broadway”, the audience is introduced to the allure of show business while being shown the grueling audition process.

The upbeat R&B song, performed by George Benson and popularized by The Drifters in 1963, complements the energized dancers and fast moving tryout. The lyrics of the song express longing and escapism, with the narrator dreaming of making it big on Broadway. However, beneath the glittering lights and promising opportunities lies a darker reality. The director, Joe Gideon, uses his artistic prowess and influence over the production to lead casting decisions based on who he wants to sleep with rather than talent.

He begins a sexual relationship with one of the dancers he chooses from the sequence, Veronica, and in a future scene he essentially breaks her down to tears in order to get the performance he wants out of her. To bring it back to “On Broadway”, the tension between the glamorous facade and the seedy underbelly of show business reflects another tension in the film which is a broader dichotomy in the entertainment world, where personal ambition often beats out artistic and personal integrity.

The scene between Veronica and Joe.

Another social aspect explored within the film’s narrative through song is the cyclical nature of life and art in “Everything Old is New Again”. The song was originally by Peter Allen in his 1974 album “Continental American”. As Joe grapples with his morality and attempts to reinvent himself creatively, the song serves as an important reminder of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, suggesting that trends and fashions often repeat over time. During the 1970s a large number of traditional values were being challenged and individuals sought to redefine themselves in the ever-changing and evolving world. Joe is able to find comfort and define himself with the comfort of the cyclical nature of art and life.

Question 2: How do the historiographies of previously recorded songs inform audience relationships with the musical’s narrative and performers?

The use of previously recorded songs in “All That Jazz” seeks to add layers of meaning to a specific audience familiar with their original contexts, an audience of Broadway and the style of bygone eras. For example, “Some of These Days”, a song associated with vaudeville performer Sophie Tucker, is used in a scene where Joe faces his mortality. Audiences familiar with Tucker’s career may interpret the song as a nod to the past, invoking a sense of nostalgia and paying homage to the rich history of stage productions and entertainment that predate Joe Gideon’s era which is inspired by Bob Fosse’s life.

Sophie Tucker

Similarly, “Bye Bye Love” originally by The Everly Brothers is used in a scene where Joe grapples with the dissolution of his relationships. The lyrics of the song become more significant in this context, reflecting Joe’s sense of loss and longing.

Question 3: What musical genre/style drives the film’s score, and how does the genre/style (re)define the film as a musical?

The music of “All That Jazz” encompasses a wide range of musical genres and styles including, jazz, pop, classic R&B, and traditional Broadway music. The eclectic mix reflect the diverse taste and influences of its director, Bob Fosse. By mixing the different genres, the film defies categorization and helps to redefine the musical genre. 

Bob Fosse in a situation similar to one we see Joe in many times during the film.

Unlike some jukebox musicals which adhere to a singular style or formula the film embraces experimentation and innovation. The film uses non-linear storytelling, surreal imagery, and unconventional musical numbers to challenge audience expectations. It doesn't feel like what one might think of as a musical, it feels more like a prolonged fever dream of a performance.

The Angel of Death that Joe converses with and performs for throughout the film in surreal scenes.

[damnesdelamer]

The other day on the picket line, I saw a former lecturer of mine, and we got talking. We talked about institutional antisemitism, government corruption, the degradation of trade union power, misused funds, deportation of immigrants, and a view he has that Britain has become increasingly polarised in recent years.

He, a staunch liberal ruefully engaged in industrial action, was on the same page as me when it came to identifying years of Tory power and privatisation as one of - if not the - most significant causes of these problems. However, he seemed to view it all as springing up from nothing, essentially denying that it has been an ongoing trend at least since the Thatcher years.

I asserted that everyone knows that the dissolution of Britain’s public services, such as the NHS, was an ongoing project of privatisation, to which he replied - and I quote - ‘Everyone who reads the Guardian knows, maybe, but not everyone else.’ Such a weird form of elitism and classism, but alas all too common. He seemed a bit confused about whether the far right were more out in the open today than they were once upon a time though. For, on the other hand, he claimed, Thatcher would never have attempted to deport immigrants to Rwanda en masse (I assured him she would have loved to, if she hadn’t been busy destroying Welsh and Irish and working class and queer lives).

So are the far right more open and emboldened now than in his rose-tinted 1980s youth, or more obfuscated from the view of the vulgar masses? Perhaps his liberal psyche is simply unwilling to look at its own reflection in the mirror.

‘We can’t just say “these people are evil” and re-allocate funds into the NHS, that’s not the solution’, he said.

‘Well that is a solution actually’, I replied. It may not be a perfect solution to every associated problem, I continued, but it definitely solves the problem we were discussing: the privatisation and degradation of public services such as the NHS. I also pointed out that I’m not sure we need to explicitly declare these people, the Tories let’s say, are evil in order to bring about practical change. They are of course evil, but at a certain point it’s just optics.

‘None of us understands economics well enough to know whether that money is really available...’ he lamented. This threw me; I am by no means an economist, but it is really not a complicated point to recognise that the Tories are both pocketing the money for which they sell off our public services, and that public funds are nevertheless squandered on initiatives that are inhumane and which even the staunchest liberal recognises as harmful. Things like military arms and refugee deportations and collapsing political parties and royal family paedophile defence maintenance. None of us voted for any of these; we didn’t even vote our last four Prime Ministers into their initial terms. But that money does exist, and it is our due, not theirs.

In truth, I am not entirely clear on why he claimed redistributing funding wasn’t a solution, but I believe he was suggesting that it would be undemocratic to make such a massive change. Nevermind the fact that the situation we’re in, and have been for over a decade, if not my entire life, is fundamentally undemocratic. As long as I’ve drawn breath, the ruling classes have been selling off and pocketing our public services at every opportunity, and that includes the New Labour of Blair, not just the Tories.

The more we talked, his vague, non-committal opposition to the forcible seizure of state apparatus to serve the people to whom it is due (and for whom it was established in the years after WWII), and his wet assertion that these things ought to follow some imagined due process, it all pushed me to call him out. We were both comrades on the picket line that day, so I wasn’t as confrontational as I may have been otherwise. All I said initially was ‘well that’s a very liberal view, isn’t it.’

‘Well, I’m a liberal, what can I do?’ he said.

‘Push further to the left!’ said I, finally losing patience. That’s all any of us can do. Push. Push each other; push ourselves; push the movement. And keep on pushing.

[thekiryufamily]

My Post-Big Swell Party Groupings and Headcanon Roleplay and Relationships (Because it's an RPG)

Spoilers for Infinite Wealth. RUN! Also another rambling roleplay post by a crazy person who has time on his hands after work ✌🏾.

I don't know about y'all but I have a serious problem.....like I have to organize the characters in the Kiryu/Ichiban Party a certain way that would realistically make sense for me and making little stories for it......I'm just being unoriginal about it.

Kiryu Party (Team Underworld)

Kiryu, Seonhee, Zhao and Joongi return to Yokohama to calm the Japanese Criminal Underworld after the fall of Bleach Japan. Setting up for the actual 2nd dissolution which would see the current Yakuza Clans and Families to update with the times with a smoother transition to more legal work in order to avoid being pursued and prosecuted by law enforcement after the Seiryu Clan/Bleach Japan incident. Kiryu aligns himself with the Geomijul as the Kiryu Party protects Yokohama during a period of relative peace.

Seonhee and Joongi help a recovering Kiryu train in a way where he can resemble his former strength even though he still needs a Party to assist him in battles as he struggles with his physical health after surviving a year after his initial cancer diagnosis. Seonhee and Joongi continue to evolve the Geomijul into more legal fronts in order to fund the organization while keeping Yokohama safe from outsiders. Seonhee becomes overly protective of Kiryu and the two grow closer together while Joongi tries to navigate his personal life as it grows more complicated after a meeting with a shop owner. Zhao expands his restaurant business and allows former Liumang men to join him while also making sure that the Liumang stay loyal to the Geomijul Alliance.

Kasuga Party (Team Overworld)

Ichiban, Saeko, Nanba and Adachi return to Honolulu to assist Palekana with the aftermath of 2nd Dissolution and the fall of Bleach Japan. They help the Yakuza who actually want a second chance at live through the assistance of Lani, Akane and Palekana. Those that can't go back to Japan would end up joining the Yamai Syndicate which is now under Yamai's closest associates leadership. All the while the original party help make peace in Hawaii's criminal underworld after Bryce's arrest.

Ichiban and Saeko repair their relationship and things are going smoothly for them. Ichiban gains a work authorization card to work through Palekana as he assists them with rehabilitating Ex-Seiryu Clan Yakuza who are left in Hawaii through community service and job searching in conjunction with Hello Work so they can go back to civilian life both in America and Japan. Saeko continues to being co-owner and Mama of Club Silky Queen and accompanied The Party during her time off in order to help assist the boys as they help Palekana. Nanba gains a work authorization card to become Palekana's head nurse and falls in love with a Hawaiian Hula Dancer. Adachi restarts his security company and it grows big enough to have an American Branch, helping recruit Ex-Yakuza and Retired or former Cops into his ranks.

Akiyama Party

Akiyama and Chitose join forces as Fujinomiya Group partners up with Sky Finance in a joint charity effort. However things go sideways as they get involved with Hawaii's criminal underworld as it grows more chaotic in the aftermath of Bryce's sentencing. Tomizawa is forced along the ride because he is Chitose's unofficial chauffeur (He gets paid and she spoils him).

Dojima Party

Daigo, Majima and Saejima step out of the shadows and into Hawaii's Criminal Underworld as a promise to Kiryu with helping Ichiban with the mess that was the 2nd Dissolution. The three spend their time helping Ex-Yakuza members who want to step away from the life of crime and assisting both civilians and Ex-Yakuza with issues that's plaguing the criminal underworld and civilian Overworld for a price. Becoming mercenary/heroes for hire in the process as they put their skills to use in a world full of gray.

[geometricalien]

Realistically, people can lose feelings toward someone who had hurt them greatly. No more rekindles, not even a spark.

This wouldn't happen to my fav ship Akafuri, but I love angst and I would like to put them in that situation.

Seijuurou and Kouki broke up last year due to reasons (Seijuurou was under succession process stress and Kouki was depressed). Seijuurou tried to take him back, but Kouki was still under clinical depression and the only reason he accepted the offer was because Koutarou (Kouki's bro) has a startup company and their main client was a subsidiary of Akashi Corporation.

It's the last thing Kouki could do for his brother whose business plans were paused for choosing Seijuurou last year.

Seijuurou tries everything to make Kouki smile while staying in their old apartment where they stayed as a happy couple, but all he could do is to watch Kouki eat himself away in the apartment, scared of him and wary of him. In these instances, Seijuurou would remember how Kouki made his life colorful, but he drained all those colors away.

Kouki's love is simply gone, his dreams unreached, his youth unrealized, and his life meaningless.

What had Seijuurou done to turn such cheerful being this way?

Can he wake up Kouki's soul again? Even not his love for him. He just wants Kouki happy again, even not for him.

hell yeah!! put them in situations!!

This is an interesting idea, especially with japan's attitude towards mental health and at the core of this premise is that yes Seijuurou distancing himself from Kouki when he was under succession scrutiny surely didn't help Kouki's depression- it is not the actual cause.

From the way you've described this, I can't help but think that in this Kouki has untreated, undiagnosed, clinical depression. Which will be a life long battle for Kouki, not a quick fix, tada!! you're all better! thing. It comes in waves and it ebbs, coasts, rushes, drowns- and Seijuurou needs to realize that. Kouki needs to confront that.

Seijuurou is a perfectionist with (although he would describe it as an entirely truthful and whole view) a very specific view that if things are not the way he wants them to be then he can make them the way he wants. And while some things definitely do work like that, another person's mental health isn't one of them. Especially if he trusts, loves, and respects that person. His character development arch would be centered around accepting this fact - which for a control freak like him it would be fairly difficult - and doing what he can to support Kouki be it holding him in the night, giving him space, offering to pay for any medical support like therapy or medicine, and even if it calls for it- walking out of his life.

It must be difficult for Kouki to be back in their old apartment and feel the ghost of who he was, of his hopes and dreams, and not recognize himself anymore. The memories of bad lonely nights, his insecurities bubbling up when Seijuurou wouldn't come home because he was "working late" and although Kouki 100% trusts him and knows that Seijuurou wouldn't cheat or anything those intrusive thoughts are so fucking loud. (Codependent Kouki lets goooooo :'( ) And unless Kouki got that mental health help and therapy, he won't be able to stand being back in the same environment, stuck in the same thought loops, and feeling awful about himself. And even if he does get help or therapy, he might still need to break off from Seijuurou to start fresh and actually have a safe place from the person who all of this is connected to...

And like you said, if their full and final dissolution is what will make Kouki finally able to make progress with his mental health and create better coping mechanisms/habits, Seijuurou would pack his bags for him.

I am banking on a ten year later reunion when Kouki has better control over his mental health and they can rekindle the spark that never truly died

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Orphaned neurological implants

The startup world’s dirty not-so-secret is that most startups fail. Startups are risky ventures and their investors know it, so they cast a wide net, placing lots of bets on lots of startups and folding the ones that don’t show promise, which sucks for the company employees, but also for the users who depend on the company’s products.

You know what this is like: you sink a bunch of time into familiarizing yourself with a new product, you spend money on accessories for it, you lock your data into it, you integrate it into your life, and then, one morning — poof! All gone.

Now, there are ways that startups could mitigate this risk for their customers: they could publish their source code under a free/open license so that it could be maintained by third parties, they could refuse to patent their technology, or dedicate their patents to an open patent pool, etc.

All of this might tempt more people to try their product or service, because the customers for digital products are increasingly savvy, having learned hard lessons when the tools they previously depended were orphaned by startups whose investors pulled the plug.

But very few startups do this, because their investors won’t let them. That brings me to the other dirty not-so-secret of the startup world: when a startup fails, investors try to make back some of their losses by selling the company’s assets to any buyer, no matter how sleazy.

A startup’s physical assets are typically minimal: used ergonomic chairs and laptops don’t exactly hold their value, and there’s not much of a market for t-shirts and stickers advertising dead businesses.

Wily investors are more interested in intangible assets: user data and patents, which are sold off to the highest bidder. That bidder is almost certainly a bottom-feeding scumbag, because the best way to maximize the value of user data is to abuse it, and the best way to maximize a failed business patent is to use it for patent trolling.

If you let your investors talk you into patenting your cool idea, there’s a minuscule chance that the patent will be the core of a profitable business — and a much larger chance that it end up in a troll’s portfolio. Real businesses make things that people want. Patent trolls are parasites, “businesses” whose only products are legal threats and lawsuits, which they use to bleed out real businesses.

The looming threat of dissolution gives rise to a third startup dirty secret: faced with a choice of growth or sustainability, companies choose growth. There’s no point in investing in sustainability — good information security, robust systems, good HR — if it costs you the runway you need to achieve liftoff.

Your excellent processes won’t help you when your investors shut you down, so a “lean” startup has only the minimum viable resiliency and robustness. If you do manage to attain liftoff — or get sold to a Big Tech firm — then you can fix all that stuff.

And if the far more likely outcome — failure — comes to pass, then all the liabilities you’ve created with your indifferent security and resiliency will be someone else’s problem. Limited liability, baby!

Combine these three dirty secrets and it’s hard to understand why anyone would use a startup’s product, knowing that it will collect as much data as it can, secure it only indifferently, and sell that data on to sleazy data-brokers. Meanwhile, the product you buy and rely upon will probably become a radioactive wasteland of closed source and patent trolling, with so much technology and policy debt that no one can afford to take responsibility for it.

Think of Cloudpets, a viral toy sensation whose manufacturer, Spiral Toys, had a successful IPO — and then immediately started hemorrhaging money and shedding employees. Cloudpets were plush toys that you connected to your home wifi; they had built-in mics that kids could activate to record a voice-memo, which was transmitted to their parents’ phones by means of an app, and parents could send messages back via the toys’ speakers.

But Spiral Toys never bothered to secure those voice memos or the system for making new ones. The entire database of all recordings by kids and parents sat on an unencrypted, publicly accessible server for years. It was so indifferently monitored that no one noticed that hackers had downloaded the database multiple times, leaving behind threats to dump it unless they were paid ransoms.

By the time this came to light, Spiral Toys’ share price was down more than 99% and no one was answering any of its email addresses or phones. The data — 2.2 million intimate, personal communications between small children and their parents — just hung out there, free for the taking:

https://www.troyhunt.com/data-from-connected-cloudpets-teddy-bears-leaked-and-ransomed-exposing-kids-voice-messages/

Data leakage is irreversible. Those 2,200,000 voice memos are now immortal, child-ghosts that will haunt the internet forever — after the parents are dead, after the kids are dead.

Data breaches are permanent. Filling a startup’s sandcastle with your important data is a high-risk bet that the company will attain liftoff before it breaches.

It’s not just your data that goes away when a startup folds — it’s also the money you invest in its hardware and systems, as well as the cost of replacing devices that get bricked when a company goes bust. That’s bad enough when it’s a home security device:

https://gizmodo.com/spectrum-kills-home-security-business-refuses-refunds-1840931761

But what about when the device is inside your body?

Earlier this year, many people with Argus optical implants — which allow blind people to see — lost their vision when the manufacturer, Second Sight, went bust:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

Nano Precision Medical, the company’s new owners, aren’t interested in maintaining the implants, so that’s the end of the road for everyone with one of Argus’s “bionic” eyes. The $150,000 per eye that those people paid is gone, and they have failing hardware permanently wired into their nervous systems.

Having a bricked eye implant doesn’t just rob you of your sight — many Argus users experience crippling vertigo and other side effects of nonfunctional implants. The company has promised to “do our best to provide virtual support” to people whose Argus implants fail — but no more parts and no more patches.

Second Sight wasn’t the first neural implant vendor to abandon its customers, nor was it the last. Last week, Liam Drew told the stories of other neural abandonware in “Abandoned: the human cost of neurotechnology failure” in Nature:

https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-03810-5/index.html

Among that abandonware: ATI’s neural implant for reducing cluster headaches, Nuvectra’s spinal-cord stimulator for chronic pain, Freehand’s paralysis bypass for hands and arms, and others. People with these implants are left in a precarious limbo, reliant on reverse-engineering and a dwindling supply of parts for maintenance.

Drew asked his expert subjects what is to be done about this. The least plausible answer is to let the market work its magic: “long-term support on the commercial side would be a competitive advantage.” In other words, wait for companies to realize that promising a durable product will attract customers, so that the other companies go out of business.

A better answer: standardization. “If components were common across devices, one manufacturer might be able to step in and offer spares when another goes under.” 86% of surgeons who implant neurostimulators back this approach.

But the best answer comes from Hunter Peckham, co-developer of Freehand and a Case Western biomedical engineer: open hardware. “Peckham plans to make the design specifications and supporting documentation of new implantable technologies developed by his team freely available. ‘Then people can just cut and paste.’”

This isn’t just the best answer, it’s the only one. There’s no ethical case for permanently attaching computers to people’s nervous systems without giving them the absolute, irrevocable right to nominate who maintains those computers and how.

This is the case that Christian Dameff, Jeff Tully and I made at our Defcon panel this year: “Why Patients Should Hack Medtech.” Patients know things about their care and their needs that no one else can ever fully appreciate; they are the best people to have the final say over med-tech decisions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i1BF5YGS0w

This is the principle that animates Colorado’s HB22–1031, the “Consumer Right To Repair Powered Wheelchairs Act,” landmark Right to Repair legislation that was signed into law last year:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

Opponents of this proposal will say that it will discourage investment in “innovation” in neurological implants. They may well be right: the kinds of private investors who hedge their bets on high-risk ventures by minimizing security and resilience and exploiting patents and user-data might well be scared off of investment by a requirement to make the technology open.

It may be that showboating billionaire dilettantes will be unwilling to continue to pour money into neural implant companies if they are required to put the lives of the people who use their products ahead of their own profits.

It may be that the only humane, sustainable way to develop neural implants is to publicly fund that research and development, with the condition that the work products be standard, open, and replicable.

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

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

[Image ID: The staring eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Centered in it is a medieval anatomical engraving of the human nervous system, limned in a blue halo.]

[a-tohmic]

Social Media Is Not Self-Expression

by Rob Horning, 2014

1. Subjectivation is not a flowering of autonomy and freedom; it's the end product of procedures that train an individual in compliance and docility. One accepts structuring codes in exchange for an internal psychic coherence. Becoming yourself is not a growth process but a surrender of possibilities that we learn to regard as egregious, unbecoming. "Being yourself" is inherently limiting. It is liberatory only in the sense of freeing one temporarily from existential doubts. (Not a small thing!) So the social order is protected not by preventing "self-expression" and identity formation but encouraging it as a way of forcing people to limit and discipline themselves — to take responsibility for building and cleaning their own cage. Thus, the dissemination of social-media platforms becomes a flexible tool for social control. The more that individuals express through these codified, networked, formatted means to construct a "personal brand" identity, the more they self-assimilate, adopting the incentive structures of capitalist social order as their own. (The machinations of Big Data make this more obvious. The more data you supply, the more the algorithms can determine your reality.) Expunge the seriality built into these platforms, embrace a more radical form of difference.

2. In an essay about PJ Harvey's 4-Track Demos, Michael Barthel writes:

While she was able to hole up in a seaside restaurant and produce a masterpiece, I need constant feedback and encouragement in order not to end up curled in some dark corner of my house, eating potato chips and refreshing my Tumblr feed in the hope that someone will have “liked” my Photoshopped picture of Kanye West in a balloon chair.

He's being a bit facetious, but this is basically what I'm trying to get at above: the difference between an inner-directed process of discovery and a kind of outer-directed pseudo-creativity that in its pursuit of attention gets overwhelmed by desperation. I'm trading in a very dubious kind of dichotomizing here, I know — artists make a lot of great work for no greater purpose than attention-seeking, and the idea that anything is truly "inner-directed" may be a ideological illusion, given how we all develop interiority in relation to a social world that precedes us and enables us to survive. But what I am trying to emphasize here is how production in social media is often sold to users of these platforms as self-expressive creativity, as self-discovery, as an elaboration of the self even, but it is really a narrowing of the self to the reductive, defensive aim of getting recognition, reassurance of one's own existence, that one belongs. That kind of "creativity" may crowd out the more antisocial kind that may entail reclusion, social disappearance, indifference to reputation and social capital, to being someone in particular in a network. Self-invention in social media that is perpetually in search of "feedback" is really just the production of communication, which gives value not to the self but to the network that gets to carry more data (and store it, and sell it).

Actual "self-invention" — if we are measuring it in range of expressivity — appears more like self-dissolution. We're born into social life and shaped by it; self-discovery may thus entail a destruction of social bonds, not a sounding of them.

Barthel lauds the "demos, experiments, collaborative public works, jokes, notes, reading lists, sketches, appreciations, outbursts of pique" that are "absolutely vital to continuing the business of creation." But the degree that these are all affixed to a personal brand when serially broadcast on social media depletes their vitality. If PJ Harvey released the demos as she made them to a Myspace page, would there ever have been a finished Rid of Me? Would the end product merely have been PJ Harvey, as the fecund musician?

Social media structure creative effort (e.g., Barthel's list above) ideologically as "self-creating," but they often end up as anxiety-inducing, exposing the self's ad hoc incompleteness while structuring the demand for a fawning audience to complete us, validate every effort, as a natural expectation. Validation is nice, but as a goal for creative effort, it is somewhat limited. The quest for validation must inevitably restrict itself to the tools of attracting attention: the blunt instruments of novelty and prurience  ("Kanye West in a balloon chair"). The self one tries to express tends to be new, exciting, confessional, sexy, etc., because it plays as an advertisement. Identity is a series of ads for a product that doesn't exist.

The process can't quell anxiety; this kind of self-expression can only intensify it, focus it onto a few social-media posts that await judgment, narrow it to the latest instances of sharing. Social media's quantifying metrics aggravate the problem, making expression into a series of discrete items to be counted, ranked. It serves as the infrastructure for a feedback loop that orients expression toward the anxiety of what the numbers will be and accelerates it, as we try to better those numbers, and thereby demonstrate that the self-monitoring is teaching us something about how to become more "relevant."

The alternative would seem to be a sort of deep focus in isolation, in which one accepts the incompleteness that comes from being apart from an audience, that comes from not seeking final judgment on what one is doing and letting it remain ambiguous, open-ended, of the present moment and not assimilated to an archive of identity. To put that tritely: The best way to be yourself is to not be anybody in particular but to just be.

3. So is the solution to get off the Internet? If social media structure social behavior this way, just don't use them, right? Problem solved. Paul Miller's 2013 account at the Verge of his year without Internet use suggests it's not so simple. Miller went searching for "meaning" offline, fearing that Internet use was reducing his attention span and preoccupying him with trivia. It turns out that, after a momentary shock of having his habits disrupted, Miller fell back into the same feelings of ambient discontent, only spiked with a more intense feeling of loneliness. It's hard to escape the idea of a "connected world" all around you, and there is no denying that being online metes out "connectedness" in measured, addictive doses. But those doses contain real sociality, and they are reshaping society collectively. Whether or not you use social media personally, your social being is affected by that reshaping. You don't get to leave all of society's preoccupations behind.

Facebook is possibly more in the foreground for those who don't use it than for those who have accepted it as social infrastructure. You have to expend more effort not knowing a meme than letting it pass through you. Social relations are not one-way; you can't dictate how they are on the basis of personal preference. As Miller puts it, describing his too-broad, too pointed defiance of the social norms around him, "I fell out of sync with the flow of life." Pretending you can avoid these social aspects of life because they are supposedly external, artificial, inauthentic, and unreal, is to have a very impoverished idea of reality, of authenticity, of unique selfhood.

The inescapable reciprocity of social relations comes into much sharper relief when you stop using social media, which thrive on the basis of the control over reciprocity they try to provide. They give a crypto-dashboard to social life, making it seem like a personal consumption experience, but that is always an illusion, always scattered by the anxiety of waiting, watching for responses, and by the whiplash alternation between omnipotence and vulnerability.

Miller's fable ends up offering the lesson that the digital and the physical are actually interpenetrated, and all the personal problems he recognizes in himself aren't a matter of technologically mediated social reality but are basically his fault. This seems too neat of a moral to this story. Nothing is better for protecting the status quo than convincing people that their problems are their own and are entirely their personal responsibility. This is basically how neoliberalism works: "personal responsibility" is elevated over the possibility of collective action, a reiteration of requirement to "express oneself" as an isolated self, free of social determination, free for "whatever."

What is odd is that the connectivity of the internet exacerbates that sort of neoliberal ideology rather than mitigating it. Connectivity atomizes rather than collectivizes. But that is because most people's experience of the internet is mediated by capitalist entities, or rather, for the sake of simplicity, by capitalism itself. You can go offline, but that doesn't remove you from the alienating properties of life in capitalist society. So the same "personal problems" the Internet supposedly made you experience still exist for you if you go offline, because you are still in a capitalist society. Capitalist imperatives are still shaping your subjectivity, structuring your time and your experience of curiosity, leisure, work, life. The internet is not the problem; capitalism is the problem.

Social media offer a single profile for our singular identity, but our consciousness comprises multiple forms of identity simultaneously: We are at once a unique bundle of sense impressions and memories, and a social individual imbued with a collectively constructed sense of value and possibility. Things like Facebook give the impression that these different, contestable and often contradictory identities (and their different contexts) can be conveniently flattened out, with users suddenly having more control and autonomy in their piloting through everyday life. That is not only what for-profit companies like Facebook want, but it is also what will feel natural to subjects already accustomed to capitalist values of convenience, capitalist imperatives for efficiency, and so on.

So Miller is right to note that "the internet isn't an individual pursuit, it's something we do with each other. The internet is where people are." That's part of why simply abandoning it won't enhance our sense of freedom or selfhood. But because we "do" the internet with each other as capitalist subjects, we use it to intensify the social relations familiar from capitalism, with all the asymmetries and exploitation that comes with it. We "do" it as isolated nodes, letting social-media services further suppress our sense of collectivity and possibility. The work of being online doesn't simply fatten profits for Facebook; it also reproduces the condition that make Facebook necessary. As Lazzarato puts it, immaterial "labour produces not only commodities, but first and foremost the capital relationship."

4. Exodus won't yield freedom. The problem is not that the online self is “inauthentic” and the offline self is real; it’s that the self derived from the data processing of our digital traces doesn’t correspond with our active efforts to shape an offline/online hybrid identity for our genuine social ties. What seems necessary instead is a way to augment our sense of "transindividuality," in which social being doesn't come at the expense of individuality. This might be a way out of the trap of capitalist subjectivity, and the compulsive need to keep serially producing in a condition of anxiety to seem to manifest and discover the self as some transcendent thing at once unfettered by and validated through social mediation. Instead of using social media to master the social component of our own identity, we must use them to better balance the multitudes within.

[dreamanduality]

Saturn in Pisces: A Gothic Atmosphere

Forewarning: When talking about Saturn, it is rather hard for me not to be biased. Daddy Saturn has quite the hold on my life, so it always takes me a lot of time to find the right words.

When it comes to time, we don't have a choice. However, I will say that this year will be different from the last.

Maybe a breath of fresh air? I'm curious to know which glass castles will fall and which fantastical worlds will be built from the shards of Saturn in Pisces. While it may seem odd to pair fantasy and Saturn, my mind immediately goes to the dissolution and post-Soviet Union era, the rise of fascism, the Moonies, protests in Palestine, The Hobbit, freedom fights, and Magick Knight Rayearth — all things that have inspired me in one way or another. These events and much more happened in modern history during Saturn in Pisces. Although Saturn is not typically associated with revolution, there is much to consider within this binding giant when rules and ideals in universal ethics are involved. Is there a Prometheus theme in Mary Shelley's "A Modern Prometheus," or "Frankenstein"? It's quite possible. AI is being highlighted through conversation and public interaction, as well as the development of androids. While the conversations about AI in astrology are more encompassed within Pluto in Aquarius, I think that both of these placements are necessary.

"Frankenstein" was written during the summer of 1816, when Saturn was in the last decan of Aquarius, and published in 1818 with Saturn in Pisces.

Beyond myth and creation stories; Prometheus is a fascinating inner satellite or moon of Saturn. It orbits very close to the planet's F ring, which is one of the most striking and intricate features of Saturn's ring system. Prometheus has a unique and dynamic relationship with this ring, as it interacts with its particles and even 'steals' resources from it. The process by which it does this is called 'shepherding,' because Prometheus acts as a shepherd of the ring, carving out gaps and channels in its structure. In fact, scientists believe that Prometheus is responsible for some of the most intricate patterns and structures in the F ring. Despite its small size, Prometheus plays a crucial role in shaping the environment around it and helping us better understand the complex dynamics of Saturn's rings.

Frankenstein & Prometheus in myth, are both individuals driven by curiosity and a great desire to bend the rules of reality--to create life.

Saturn in Pisces is the Gothic Atmosphere, melancholic and lonely. Not quite dystopian though in the cases of the works of Phillip K Dick or Dune we can see this. Making the energy itself complicated, and seemingly eerie--its icy fog.

Allowing yourself to be human is necessary. Self-limiting behavior results from rejecting others from your vulnerable spaces. This is where you need to establish boundaries and face your fears. Continually rejecting others in this space can cause you to lose touch with your emotions and make you more prone to losing control, which is not what you want.

Saturn wrapped up the business of the last several years, having spent time in two Saturn-ruled signs. Saturn feels gentler in Pisces than in its previous places of rulership. The last few years have been isolating and alienating. Global restrictions have quelled our ideals of the world, our climate, and humanity. Saturn in Capricorn says no, but can take in all that disappointment and grief to make something beautiful. Saturn in Aquarius takes all the parts from disappointment and creates a monster that only Pisces can love.

We have learned that happiness comes with less. It was a redefinition and refinement of our values that brought us to this realization.

Saturn put pressure on Jupiter in their home sign before moving into Aries, which caused feelings of nihilism and a loss of faith in expansion. Perhaps you felt this too? We may not fully understand this part of the story until Saturn moves out of Pisces. Neptune's influence can add confusion to w Saturn brings, making the structure more unstable. Saturn is known as the superior malefic, tearing down what is not structurally sound and revealing what should be. This process challenges our convictions and requires us to let go of things that have passed their expiration date.

With Jupiter in Taurus now they can see each other. Meaning Jupiter can check in on Saturn while they are residing in their home and gives the allowance of resources and softens Saturn's cold tendencies.

If you are currently experiencing your Saturn return, your world will be deconstructed, or collapsing over the next few years. While the period of Saturn's return is often considered to be the hard part, the years that follow are actually where the real challenge begins. This is when maturity sets in. If you were learning about the world during the Bush administration, as Saturn in Pisces was, you may be disillusioned and eager to generate change in multiple areas, as you can see the roots of the problem. We understand that you care, and I predict that your Saturn return will teach you how to express this and why you have to as a generational point.

This is the time when you become an adult in some ways. Through the lens of Saturn, the maturity of adulthood begins, and you start moving halfway into the sun phase of your life around age 32. Seeing lived experience requires reflection to be understood.

How will this impact you personally? Saturn is the way of structure itself, let yourself dare to dream what this looks like for you through the theme of your house of Pisces.

And remember, Saturn rewards hard work.

InJoy

-K