#Connected car market size

[automotivetransportationresearch]

How Big Will the Connected Car Market Be by 2030?

The Connected Car Market Size is projected to reach $26.4 billion by 2030, driven by increasing demand for advanced in-car connectivity solutions and the growing adoption of smart vehicles. This rapid market growth is fueled by advancements in telematics, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, and infotainment systems. As consumers demand more seamless and integrated driving experiences,…

[medicaldevicesindustrynews]

Connected Car Market Will Touch USD 245,739 Million by 2030

As per a report by P&S Intelligence, the connected car market was USD 64,061 million in 2022, and it will propel at an 18.30% CAGR, to touch USD 245,739 million, by 2030. The growth in the industry is mainly credited to the mounting adoption of IoT in the automotive sector, growing requirements for high-end luxury cars, increasing concerns over vehicular safety & security, and rising preference…

[marketsndata]

[researchrealmblog]

Connected Cars are Becoming Popular in the U.S.

Technology is evolving with every passing day in the contemporary world, and that is the reason why, this age is termed as the age of technology.

When we talk of development, the U.S. is right up there at the pinnacle. The technology of connected cars is making its presence felt allover the world, and the U.S. is also not an exception to that. This blog will help you take a dive into the world of connected cars, and will also give an answer to the question of, why the demand for connected cars is on a high in the country.

Understanding, what is a Connected Car

Talking of a connected car, it is a vehicle fortified with internet access, letting it to share data with devices outside as well as inside of the car. This internet connection is achieved with the help of mobile data networks, enabling a numerous service that can be accessed remotely through smartphones or other devices.

For transmitting and receiving info, it should have a stable internet connection. This capability is at the heart of the functioning of a connected car, enabling various innovative features that transforming the interaction with vehicles.

Working of a Connected Car

The tech becoming the base of a connected car is an embedded system or, a tethered system, or both.

Embedded System

In this setup, there is a pre-installed chipset and antenna in the car, which makes it internet-ready. This system lets the car to download updates, send remotely accessible data, and connect with further devices through the built-in Wi-Fi.

Tethered System

This depends on the smartphone to offer internet connectivity to the car. While not as cohesive as the embedded system, this approach allows connectivity that augments vehicle functionality.

Irrespective of the system, connected cars can generate and access telematics data, provide remote vehicle functions, and integrate with the rising ecosystem of smart devices, such as EVs. This improved connectivity is altering not just the driving style, but interaction of the vehicles with the outside world.

The Question of Cost

It is true that a connected car is somewhat expensive than a normal car, but when we consider the advantages, which are there with a connected car. The investment is totally worth it.

From improved road safety and wireless data communication, the advantages are many. With more players stepping into the market, the collaborative efforts and tech innovations have all the materials to bring the price of the connected cars down in the U.S. And with the lowering of the prices of the connected cars, they will become more and more popular in the U.S.

Coming to a Concrete Conclusion

With all the tech-upgrades happening, there are real-world applications of connected car tech. Apps that let drivers to control cars remotely, EVs communicating with chargers for automatic payment processing are making their presence felt in the country.

Connected cars are much more than, just a thought for the future; they are the reality of today. And, there is still a lot of potential in this realm, which is left unexplored.

[mariespen]

Stress Relief ˚𓂃⊹ ִֶָ

modern!anaikan skywalker x fem!reader summary: after studying relentlessly for her upcoming exam, anikan realizes she needs a little more help. warnings: 18+!! swearing, oral (f!receiving), explicit sexual content

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The glow of your computer lit up the living room of your small apartment. Your fingers were stiff from altering between writing and typing and you had a headache but deemed it a waste of time to get water. You sat on the floor below the couch, resting your back on the cushions whenever you needed to distract yourself from your cramping legs. Your biggest exam was two days away and you felt like the least prepared girl to ever take the course. Dried tears pulled at your cheeks as you got another failing grade on the practice quiz. Life felt utterly helpless.

Of course, right as you were considering permanently dropping out of college and living your life broke, your boyfriend, Anaikan, strolled out of your shared bedroom to grab whatever interested him in the small pantry. Your head was stuck in your arms as you tried not to sob again while face down on the old coffee table. He walked past the living room and noticed you, sighing knowingly when he say the sprawl of note sheets.

“Baby..” He whispered softly, changing his path to comfort you.

He kneeled down, cautiously backing the coffee table away from you so he could hook his big arms around you and pick you up, holding your tense body to his as he sat you both down on the sinking couch cushions.

“What’s wrong, love?” He asked, bringing a hand to your cheek as he wiped your tears when they spilled out of your eyes.

“This exam.. I just..” You huffed, voice shaky as you continued, “M’gonna fail it.” You admitted defeat, letting your head fall back into his chest as you curled up into a little ball on his lap.

“S’okay baby.” He mumbled, holding you close to him and kissing the top of your head.

You sat in silence for a while as Anaikan waited for you to calm down. He knew how frustrated you got and he needed to get you to relax. He rubbed your back as you slouched into him, quiet breaths filling the room. Anaikan brought your chin up with his thumb, kissing you gently on the lips.

“Let’s go for a drive, hm?” He asked, brushing hair from your face.

“No ani.. I gotta-“ You started, trying to shift off of his lap to go back to studying.

“C’mon baby, let’s go.” He cut you off, deciding for the both of you as he held you closer, kissing you again before helping you off of his lap. 

You were utterly relieved, smoothing your comfy skirt as he got up. He smiled at you and leaned down, closing your computer and making his way to the front door. You both slid on shoes and he grabbed his keys, twirling them on his finger after he opened the door for you. He watched you go, closing the door and locking it behind him as he followed you. You held his hand, trying to hold on as his hand sized up yours.

Eventually you made it to the car and he started it while you waited for your phone to connect to the bluetooth. You sighed when your favorite song started playing and he smiled at you, resting his hand on your thigh and rubbing your skin with his thumb as he drove off. You relaxed into the setting, feeling your worries become more and more distant each time he smiled and glanced at your face when you sang the lyrics aloud. You’d never get over how in love with him you were.

After around half an hour of driving around in the rain with music playing loudly enough in the background he pulled into one of your favorite spots. You smiled at him knowingly, unbuckling your seatbelt as he walked out of the car to open the door for you. 

“M’lady..” He said with a smile when you giggled.

He offered his hand and you took it, entering the small local market. You quickly let go, however, when you walked excitedly to the row of refrigerators. He waited for you patiently as you grabbed your favorite drink. When you grabbed it, he walked over and decidedly grabbed one for himself too, walking behind you over to the checkstand. You stood impatiently next to him as he paid, walking out hand in hand.

“Had to take care of my girl, yeah?” He mumbled, smiling when you reached up to kiss his cheek as you walked out of the store. 

After a while of driving while you playing mindlessly with his fingers, he parked again, this time in a small secluded lot. The view was beautiful, the lot was overlooking the bright, rainy city. The song changed and he kissed your cheek over the center console.

“Thank you, Ani.” You muttered under your breath with a giggle as he kissed you.

“Anything for my girl.” He said, his hands just above your hips.

You turned to him and kissed him, one of your hands on his cheek and the other in his messy hair. You felt his smile on your lips as you raked through his hair. You let yourself relax and slump into him more and more while his hands moved to the base of your hips.

“Ani..” You said breathlessly when you pulled away, your thumb tracing his cheekbone.

“I wanna take care of you, sweetheart.” He panted out, kissing the air out of you again, “will you let me?” He asked, his hand moving to your inner thigh.

“Yes please..” You nodded breathlessly and he smiled before kissing you again and pulling away quickly to help the two of you into the back seat.

He was on you again, sucking the skin of your neck as you whimpered when he sucked on your favorite spot.

“Ani..” You whimpered, your mind slowly becoming blank as one of his hands massaged your inner thigh, working its way up to your core, and the other cupped your cheek.

You raked and hand through his hair as he lifted your legs so that you sat sideways on the seat. He kissed down your neck, hands beginning to fiddle with your shirt before looking up for your approval. You gave him a desperate nod and he smirked, taking off your top and unhooking your bra, leaving hickeys on your perky tits.

“So perfect for me baby..” He panted out, sucking on one of your nipples as he rolled the other in between two fingers.

You squirmed below him, already sinfully wet from the hickeys he left. He chuckled at your needy state before kissing down to the hem of your skirt, his big hands slowly pulling it down your legs as he kissed the hem of your panties. He looked down, eyes widening in surprise as he realized just how wet you were for him.

“Fuck.. this all for me?” He asked, laughing to himself as you nodded and squirmed your hips to try and find any friction.

“Stay still love..” He said, kissing your inner thighs and letting his thumb put pressure on your puffy clit.

After what felt like an eternity, he pulled your panties off and left a soft kiss to your clit, licking a stripe down to your entrance. You let out a high moan, bucking your hips until he held them down with both hands. 

“A-ani.. ani please..” You panted and he continued to suck your clit like a man starved.

He added a finger, looking up at you with hooded eyes as you arched your back, moaning his name loudly. Your hand found his hair within seconds, pulling at the dark brown strands. He let out a low groan, causing vibrations to course through your pussy. Your legs shook and he noticed, taking one arm off of your hips to hold your hand.

“C-close ani.. s’good.. please!” You moaned, squirming around and throwing your head back.

He went harder, applying more and more pressure until you finally came, your thighs locking around his hand as he worked you through your orgasm, licking your clean. You moaned his name, your voice wobbly and high as you came, pulling his hair harder than before. You shook with overstimulation as he continued his work on your pussy until you had to gently push him away. He smiled, coming up to kiss you deeply so that you tasted yourself on his tongue.

“S’good for me baby..” He whispered, sitting beside you and picking you up onto his lap, letting you lay on his chest, mind hazy as you came down from your high.

He watched your legs fall open again and you squirmed whining at the cold air on your spent pussy. He gently adjusted you so your back was resting on his chest and he pulled your legs open again as you moaned out for him.

“You got one more sweetheart.. know you do.” He said breathlessly as his middle finger came down to your pussy and drenched itself in your arousal.

He spread it out over your swollen clit and you whined in overstimulation as he massaged your clit slowly.

“Ani.. c’can’t..” You whined, the overstimulation slowly turning into pleasure as he pressed into your clit.

“Yes you can..” He replied, kissing your neck before dipping a finger in your entrance.

He let the heel of his hand grind up into your clit as he slipped another finger into you and thrusted as you cried out on his lap. Your legs shook much quicker and he whispered soft praises into your ear.

“C’mon love… been so good. Let go for me.”

Your eyes rolled back into your head as you threw your head back onto his shoulder and clenched your thighs around his arm. He coaxed you through your high, reluctantly removing his hand as you panted out, tears of overstimulation drying on your cheeks.

“So good for me sweetheart.. so perfect.” He praised, licking you off of his hand before picking you up, sloppily putting your skirt back on and carrying you up to the passengers seat again before he sat in the driver's seat. 

Your head rolled back on the seat as the post-orgasm exhaustion hit you. You fell asleep for the rest of the drive as he massaged your leg lovingly while he drove you back to your house.

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[writing-until-i-drop]

Wildflowers For A Hangman Ch. 13

Summary:

Daisy, a career novelist, moves in with her college best friend Phoenix who has been permanently assigned to Top Gun with Dagger Squad. She finds herself instantly connected with a cocky pilot who's soft only for her and Jake can't help but want to know everything about her. When the past comes knocking at both of their doors, will they stand together or fall apart?

Or: The Dagger Squad can't cook and Jake falls in love with a woman who makes a mean lasagna while they work their personal trauma.

Jake "Hangman" Seresin x writer!femOC | 18+ (eventually) minors dni. Fluff, smut (eventual), idiots in love, past trauma.

A/N: Daisy and Jake get ready to leave for their Thanksgiving trip but things don't go as planned.

AO3 Link

Previous Chapter

October had been a blur of soccer games, conference calls with my agent and publisher planning a book tour for the new year, and lots of time spent apologizing to Harvey. He was mad at me still but he understood why I had kept him in the dark, at least enough to invite me to spend Christmas with him.

Jake had been swinging between calm and absolutely wired when it came to making the Thanksgiving trip to Texas for Thanksgiving. One moment he was telling me how excited he was and how much his family was going to love me, the next he was wringing his hands, silently staring into the distance. He was doing the same thing now, standing in the line for TSA.

“Baby,” I tugged him forward in line by his hand, “What’s bothering you?” He shrugged, pulling off his boots. “Don’t give me that.”

“Just thinking, Wildflower.” I rolled my eyes, double checking that my pockets were empty before pushing my bin forward. “I just want this to go well and I’m nervous.” 

“It’s going to be fine, pretty boy. Don’t forget to take off your hat,” I flicked the rim of the cowboy hat he rarely wore. “But I know that’s not all, you’re being way too frowny for that to be it.” He sighed but didn’t respond, staying silent as we processed through the body scanner and pulled our shoes back on. Jake’s silence was tugging at my heart strings, a million possibilities more ludicrous than the last running through my mind. The thoughts slowed when he wrapped his arm over my shoulder, pulling me into his side, but didn’t fade completely.

“My mama’s going to pick us up from the airport and then we’re going to get lunch with my sisters.” I hummed, knowing the plan already. We had gone over it twice in the car alone. “Are you upset with me?” 

“I’m not upset with you, I’m worried because you’re being weird and not telling me why.” Jake kissed the top of my head, guiding us off to the side of the main walkway. Jake’s eyes were soft but his jaw was tight, relaxing and tensing repeatedly as he stared me down. I waited patiently, fiddling with the button on my suitcase’s handle.

“I’ve never brought someone home before,” He confessed and it all made sense. I cupped his face, swiping my thumb over the stubble that had appeared in the last two days.

“Happy to be your first, Hangman,” Jake pulled me closer by the waist, a goofy grin on his face.

“That’s the same thing you said to me the night we met.” Back when I thought Jake was just some cocky pilot flirting with me for fun. I had never been happier to be wrong in my life. “I thought you were the prettiest girl in the bar.” 

“I didn’t even want to go that night,” Jake chuckled at my confession. “And I about died of embarrassment when you introduced yourself by kissing my head.” He leaned down, giving me a sweet kiss that made my heart flutter.

“‘I’m glad you came that night,” 

“‘Me too.” 

Jake and I made our way to the gate, stopping at the overpriced market for a share-size bag of M&Ms that I didn’t plan on sharing and caffeine for Jake, who despite having to be up early every day for work, was decidedly not a morning person.

“I love you,” Jake nuzzled his face into my neck, kissing it softly. My cheeks burned red, catching the scandalized glance of an older couple across from us. “And I can’t wait for you to meet my family.” 

“People are looking at us, pretty boy,” I tried to push him away gently but he wrapped an arm around me, keeping me as close as possible despite the arm rest between us. He breathed in deeply, keeping his face concealed in my hair as people shot us poorly concealed looks.

“Don’t care, Wildflower. Unless it makes you uncomfortable?” 

“A little,” Jake gave my neck one last kiss before pulling back. “But I love you too.” His phone rang and when he looked at the caller ID, his face fell.

“Lt. Seresin,” I couldn’t hear the conversation over the noise of the airport but the look on Jake’s face was enough to make my stomach twist with anxiety. “Rear Admiral, I understand the situation but I’m on approved leave for-” He ground his teeth, obviously being cut off by someone. “Yes, sir,” He hung up. Jake buried his face in his hands, grunting in frustration. I rubbed circles onto his back,

“What’s wrong, Jake?” 

“The team’s being called in for an emergency, I have to go.” My heart dropped, hearing how broken his voice was. “Fuck, I hate this.” 

“It’s okay, baby,” I kissed his hair, still rubbing his back. “Let’s get out of here, I’ll figure out the bags later.” I stood, shouldering my bag, “Come on, Jake. We’ll call your mama in the car and arrange something for when you get back.” 

“No,” He said firmly, standing. I raised a brow, confused. Jake lifted my bag from my shoulder, depositing in the chair he had just been sitting in.

“Jake?” He shook his head, running a hand down his face. “What are you doing?” 

“I want you to meet my family and they’re so excited to meet you, I don’t want my job to ruin this.” He wanted me to meet his family without him? Was he insane? “Take a deep breath, baby. You look like you’re going to pass out.” I inhaled deeply, trying to school my face into one that looked slightly less terrified. 

“I’m not meeting your family without you.”

“Please, Daisy?” He pulled me in for a sweet kiss, “Do it for me?” I groaned, resting my head on his chest. Jake hugged me tight, swaying us from side to side. This was a big deal for both of us. I had never met someone’s parents and he had never brought a girl home before, it was something new to both of us. Something big and scary but something that had to be done, especially if I was going to marry him some day. 

I smiled, thinking about Jake in his dress whites, the rest of the Daggers standing in uniform beside him, except for Natasha who was by my side like always. I didn’t have many people who could stand on my side of the aisle but that didn’t ruin the image.

“I’ll do it.” 

X

When Jacob had sent me a text to explain the change of plans, I nearly dropped my phone in surprise. That was not the plan. It was not the plan at all. We were all over the moon to finally meet Daisy but there was so much more we needed to discuss, all of which had to be done in person and Jake getting pulled away on a last minute mission complicated things. 

“What are we going to do?” My husband, Franklin, asked. “We’ve got to tell him.” I shook my head, wringing my hands.

“We do but right now we’re in the same pickle we’ve been in for the last six months. We’ll tell him when he gets back, whether it’s over the phone or in person.” Franklin kissed my forehead, passing the truck keys to me.

“Go pick up our future daughter-in-law, Honey Bunny,” Franklin was having a good day, standing tall, his hands steady for the most part. It pained me to see him so thin, his flannel hanging off of him in a way it hadn’t in years. “We’ll figure out how to handle this later.” 

“We’re meeting the girls for lunch but I left some soup for you in the fridge if you get hungry,” Franklin hummed in acknowledgement but I had a feeling the soup would still be there when I got home. “I love you,” 

“I love you too.” 

The airport was busy as always but I managed to find a parking spot in front of arrivals. I hopped out of the truck, grabbing the bouquet of daisies Caroline had insisted on picking up from the store the night before. I glanced at the last photo of Daisy that Jacob had sent to the family group chat. She was a pretty, little thing with red hair that always seemed to be tied up in a messy knot, holding up a casserole with a bright smile, Jacob's friends gathered around her. It was easy to see how much everyone loved her and how much she enjoyed being surrounded by them. It was comforting, knowing that my baby boy had found someone who brought so much light to his life. 

The red hair was easy to spot amongst the crowd, I waved her down.

“Daisy, honey! Over here,” The young woman’s head perked up. She smiled nervously when she saw me, making her way through the droves of people. “Oh my goodness, what a cutie pie you are!” I gushed, bringing her into a tight hug. She patted my back softly, not quite relaxing into the embrace. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person. Jacob’s told us all about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, ma’am.” I pulled back, a big smile on my face. 

“You can just call me mama, sweetheart.” There was a flash of sadness over her features and it hit me that Jacob had mentioned that Daisy’s parents were both dead. I quickly changed the subject, “It’s a shame Jacob couldn’t make it but this means we don’t have to sneak away to the kitchen for me to show you his baby pictures.” 

“Oh I can’t wait,” Daisy giggled, “Jake was also worried about you telling me embarrassing childhood stories.” She finally seemed relaxed, taking the bouquet with a small thank you.

“I’ve got plenty of those to share, I’ll even send you home with the recording of his 3rd grade talent show.” 

“Please, please, please tell me it was a magic act,” Daisy laughed, helping me load her bags into the truck bed.

“Even better, he sang Should've Been A Cowboy.”

Taglist: @theforevermorereject @beltzboys2015-blog @writingrose @sinners-98-world @nerdgirljen @candlejuice @a-court-of-roscoe-and-baby @football1921 @katiemcrae @emma8895eb @itsdesiree86 Want to be added to this list? Just ask!

Next Chapter

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1958 Pontiac Bonneville

Although the Bonneville nameplate is famous, most Pontiac aficionados connect it with those late 1960s and early 70s full-size sedans. However, they introduced the Bonneville in 1958 as a separate model. In fact, this was the car that started the whole performance image for Pontiac. In those days, Simon “Bunkie” Knudsen was the head of the Pontiac Motor Division. He wanted more excitement for the brand, so he took a Star Chief model and gave it a full makeover. He improved the design and added a gorgeous rear end that mimicked a rocket engine. Also, he included the most powerful engine Pontiac had to offer.

1958 Pontiac Bonneville

The 1958 Bonneville was available only as a two-door hardtop or convertible, emphasizing its performance appeal. Under the hood was a 370 CID V8 engine that produced 255 HP in its base form. For more power, there was a Tri-Power option with 300 HP, as well as a top-of-the-line fuel-injected version with 310 HP. With this engine, the 1958 Bonneville was one of the most powerful GM cars of the day. Thanks to its performance and beautiful design, the 1958 Bonneville paced the Indianapolis 500 race. The Bonneville had moderate success on the market. In fact, Pontiac managed to sell over 12,000 copies. Today, knowledgeable car enthusiasts appreciate this car, but the general automotive public doesn’t know about it. But the performance reputation of the early Bonneville was a prerequisite to the GTO and other future muscle models.

[nether-before]

I'm gonna be real, I was never huge on your portrayal of Callie before, but after reading that post that explained your headcanons, something clicked and now I'm FEELING it. Up until now I guess I thought you were just drawing her like that just because and thought it didn't fit the character, but after reading the reasoning behind it... omg, flipped like a switch, you're actually a genius.

Like, I LOVE headcanons about the idols that acknowledge how much the industry and being in it sucks moderately to severely for almost everyone in it irl... ESPECIALLY for the Squid Sisters, because they were teenagers when they started being idols, as opposed to Off The Hook and Deep Cut being in their twenties at their debuts. They also, to me, seem to be the most "by the books" idols the game has seen, at least in Splat 1. Pearl and Marina seem to be self-made, and Pearl had the wealth and connections to get the band rolling without signing any contracts. Deep Cut was also wealthy from the start, and thus likely has more power over themselves since they won't lose everything if they go out of style or fail to be 100% optimally marketable. The Squid Sisters, though? Farm girls found by a talent scout. They DEFINITELY belonged to an agency and signed some things they didn't fully understand. Thus, potential for angst, criticism of a shitty industry, something something capitalism...

Also also, I am a fucking SUCKER for the "weight gain as an outward signifier of mental/emotional healing" trope. Makes me go gaga EVERY time. I was saved by antidepressants after a lifetime of being The Skinny Kid, which doesn't seem to be that uncommon an experience on this website, so I connect to this sort of thing a great deal. Thin character who's been through some shit finally finds themselves in a better life, and as a result puts on weight? Already great. If, additionally, they struggle with it at first but eventually realize, accept and internalize that they're healthier in this state than they were while skinny but in a state of constant anguish? EXCELLENT. A+. Just like me fr.

And so, to cap off this wall of text, can I just end by saying that I'm pretty basic with my Squid Sisters hcs, ok? Yours do not align with mine, but I'm not the kind of person who gets upset about that. To the contrary; I LOVE conflicting hcs. I love when fandom is a conversation, not a consensus. I love when different people see the same character in different ways. And your take is one I don't see ANYWHERE else. I respect the hell out of you for boldly going your own way. I ALSO respect how you were not shy and went all-in on a rarely depicted but very real female body type that's mostly relegated to OCs. Your Callie isn't just chubby or curvy, and she isn't even just fat, she's really fat. She's an absolute unit. She has muscle under that fat, bulky and strong muscle like she pumps iron on the daily. She's got wide shoulders and thick fingers and a chest like a barrel and a huge belly. She's built like a brick shithouse. AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN GIVE HER BIG BOOBS, THEY'RE STILL SMALL.

You NEVER see this in fandom unless we're drawing orcs or dwarves, and hell even then it remains rare, despite women like this existing in real life. You portray a broad-framed, strongfat farm girl with a small chest, and you portray her as not only beautiful, not only a social butterfly, but as an absolute girly-girl fashionista glitter diva material girl supreme. What few instances of truly boulder-suplexing women we get are typically relegated to barbarians or aggressive tanky fighters, and they're almost always butch.

YOU say you can bench press a steer and make cars sag when you sit in them, but still be 100% femme. YOU say a girl can be an arm wrestling champ at the local biker bar AND gossip with her besties at the mall while holding 5 pink shopping bags. YOU say girliness, glitter and the colour pink have no size limit, that a woman can own a wide variety of dumbells and lipstick colours alike, that physical strength and being pretty are NOT mutually exclusive.

I've flipped like a dime on this, OP. Thank you for being so unashamedly original and positive in your portrayal of Callie.

HELL YEAH!! This was great to read, and I'm happy to see she kind of resonated with you with the whole "weight gain as emotional healing" thing. Love when art impacts people! Thanks for this.

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

seeking urbanism / housing advocacy advice (because you're the only person i follow who both posts about it and does it): my city (primarily a college town, population < 100k) is holding a community discussion about ways to increase affordable housing, including inclusionary zoning and other zoning reforms. what kinds of policy ideas / comments are best to bring to this as A Member Of The Public? does inclusionary zoning work like it's supposed to? are there other specific zoning reforms that work well? i know getting rid of parking minimums is a big one, but i don't know if that's achievable here yet.

MY TIME HAS COME.

First of all, if the forum is about 'affordable housing', then you may need to start with drawing the connection between affordability and increasing housing supply. There are a lot of tangents you can go down in a discussion of affordable housing, but the crucial point to get across is that increasing housing supply on its own makes housing costs go down. Investor speculation in real estate, e.g., happens because supply is constrained and those are the conditions where real estate values reliably go up, creating profit. It is a symptom, not a cause. See also: landlords in Austin, TX melting down on Twitter because they're increasing supply so fast there that they're having to lower rents. Video recently studied and shown to be 3x more effective for changing people's minds about supply-side housing than other interventions.

INCLUSIONARY ZONING. a.k.a. mandating that for any development with more than X units, Y% of those units must be 'affordable' units reserved for families earning Z% area median income. In a perfect world, all housing would be mixed-income housing. In practice, the effectiveness of IZ depends almost entirely on what you set Y% at. About five years ago, our local DSA passed a referendum increasing Y% from 10% to 25%. This change has basically stalled all housing development that this applies to because the projects just don't pencil. You need subsidy to build affordable housing, you have to cobble that subsidy together from a lot of different funding sources, and all these sources have different requirements on how their funding can be used. Your problems become twofold: (1) Most subsidies for affordable housing want you to build something that's more like 80-100% affordable, so a 25%-affordable development won't get funding. (2) The subsidy available for affordable housing is finite, so even if your 25%-affordable development were able to get subsidy, that necessarily is taking subsidy away from somewhere else. The same number of affordable units will be built, IZ just ends up trying to dictate how those units are distributed. It mainly ends up kneecapping market-rate housing construction, which, again, adding market-rate housing puts downward pressure on housing prices.

Our prior level of 10% IZ seemed to work ok..? but I would caution strongly against relying on IZ if you are supply constrained, which, I can't imagine you're not. A buzzy new strategy for mixed-income housing creation is "social housing" -- AOC wrote about it in the NYT last week, here's a talk about it that I admittedly haven't watched yet. This is what's getting traction here as DSA is tentatively walking back support for their very aggressive IZ policy that has not created the affordable housing they wanted it to.

If you have parking minimums, KILL THAT SHIT. We were successful in advocating for our table of parking minimums to be turned into parking maximums. Add/increase bike parking minimums, bike theft is a HUGE deterrent from biking here, so having a safe place to store your bike at home is critical if you want anyone to start leaving behind their cars. You also probably want to look at dimensional standards: increase heights, reduce setbacks, increase lot coverage maximums, reduce lot size minimums, if you're anything like our city then you probably have even more and weirder constraints you'll want to relax so new buildings can be bigger and hold more units. You probably have just straight up caps on number of units per lot -- kill single-family zoning, get at least 4 units or something per lot allowed! Lot area per dwelling unit is a particularly terrible constraint, basically creating a minimum amount of land you have to own in order to be able to have a home. Horrible! Kill it!

My personal preferred urban form is the perimeter block enabled by single-stair apartment buildings that's common throughout Europe and basically anywhere outside of the US and Canada. This will take reforms at multiple levels before it becomes possible even here, but Seattle-based architect Michael Eliason (@holz_bau on Twitter) has stair-pilled me on this form so powerfully, and https://secondegress.ca/ makes the extremely compelling (Canada-centric) case for allowing single-stair apartment buildings, which for us means changing building code at the state level. #goals, though.

I have had a lot of practice recently writing and organizing public comment to advocate for this stuff so I would be happy to talk messaging/strategy at any point, I could go on and on about this subject! I'm so thrilled that you're asking about this though, it's so important to get involved and show up at these kinds of meetings, because the people who reliably show up to these things are the retiree busybodies with nothing but free time to oppose every type of change imaginable and are the ones who got us into this situation in the first place.

[automotivetransportationresearch]

Connected Car Market Size & Share: Set to Surge to $26.4 Billion by 2030

The global connected car market size is projected to grow from USD 12.4 billion in 2024 to USD 26.4 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 13.3% during the forecast period. The introduction of several laws requiring safety features like e-call, navigation, collision warning systems, etc., is anticipated to increase the uptake of connected car services worldwide. The rising sales of high-end and luxury…

[medicaldevicesindustrynews]

Connected Car Market To Reach USD 245,739 Million by 2030

The size of the connected car market was USD 64,061 million in 2022, and it will advance at a CAGR of 18.30% in the years to come, to reach USD 245,739 million by 2030, as stated by a market research company, P&S Intelligence. Driver assistance service dominated the industry. This has a lot to do with the large-scale incorporation of cutting-edge driver assistance systems in automobiles,…

[im-a-king-baby]

I love the laura bonus ficlet! Do you maybe can write about her thoughts of when she found out that it was Wilhelm who was there with Simon in Bjärstad?

Thank you for loving Laura! (The previous Laura ficlet is here to give context)

Also for the reblogs, this is a bonus ficlet from my longer YR fic Everybody Loves You Now!

This picks up from slightly later in the conversation in the car between Simon and Laura.

Laura considers her next question for all of thirty seconds before going with her gut. “Is ‘Fuck this Motherfucker’ about Candace?”

Simme laughs. She made Simme laugh! There's a little buzz of pride in her stomach. “Is that what people think? You guys know I didn’t write it, right?”

“I know, but you said you always try to have a concept in mind when you sing, to make the songs about something.”

He gives a little nod, acknowledging her point. “True. I guess it’s about Candace a lot.” He shrugs. “But one time it was definitely about this stretch of highway we’d been on the night before that was so full of potholes -”

“Atlanta to Nashville,” she says, instinctively, like this is some Simme trivia game and not just her knowing a weird number of facts about his actual life. “Sorry. I just… I saw the video.”

She glances sideways at him again. He looks amused rather than mad, and he hasn’t refused to answer any of her questions yet so she kind of has to. “Can I ask… Who do you think about when you sing the love songs?”

“Wilhelm.”

There’s no hesitation to it. No equivocations, no questioning. Just the name, said so softly that it takes her a moment to connect it to the reality of Crown Prince Wilhelm who gives speeches on Year with the Royal Family and gets photographed in suits hugging babies and opening hospitals.

It’s a weird crossing of streams, realising The Crown Prince is a person and there are people he dated in high school who say his name like it’s something precious they want to keep hold of.

But like, that was four years ago. And Simme hasn’t even been back to Sweden since. “Still?” she finds herself asking.

“Yeah.” He’s looking out the window, at the shadows of trees in the darkness. “He’s the only… there’s never been anyone else.”

There have been four years of constant wall to wall news coverage of Simme with this popstar or that actor or this reality TV star. Simme laughing off his high school relationship with the Prince of Sweden like it was nothing at all. “I thought… I mean we all heard about Alfonso…”

He laughs something bitter lingering at the edges to it. “I thought it was a marketing stunt, he thought it was true love. We didn’t last.”

“But you and Wilhelm are still…”

“No,” he says. “We’re not.” His fingers drum against the door handle. “Can you pull over? Just for a minute. I need to do something.”

*

She’s at that point where she’s basically awake but is refusing to admit it, nestled down into the covers trying to avoid opening her eyes, half thinking that if she does everything that happened last night is going to turn out to be a wild dream and she’ll be back in Gothenburg about to wake up and drive to Stockholm to meet Stan and see the show.

Then there’s a gentle knock on the door and an unmistakable voice says, “Hey? Can I come in?” and Laura opens her eyes to a closet-sized bedroom with posters of horses on the walls.

She’d found a nightshirt to sleep in that falls all the way down to her knees, so she’s decent enough to sit up and say, “Okay?”

Simme steps into the room. He’s changed into a purple hoodie, but otherwise he looks much the same. Like he hasn’t slept or showered since he dug out a silk pillowcase from the depths of the linen cupboard. His eyes catch on the horse posters, lingering a moment too long before he looks down at her. “There’s lunch. If you’re hungry.”

She wants to ask ‘are you okay?’ but his eyes keep darting back to the walls, his hands are twitching and he had to pull over multiple times so he could snort a powder that she’s really hoping was not cocaine so she’s not sure she’s ready for the answer.

Also now he’s mentioned food, she’s realising she’s starving. “Sure.”

He nods, takes a step back so she can stand up and then leads her back down the tiny hallway, past family photos that she resists the urge to stop and peer at, and into the kitchen where there are two strangers setting the table and one of them is Crown Prince Wilhelm.

She lets out a noise that might be a yelp, starts a, “You’re-” but thankfully cuts herself off before she can say something completely idiotic like ‘you’re here’ or ‘you’re the prince’ or ‘you’re taller than you look on TV.’

It turns out there is a difference between knowing there is something going on between Simme and the Prince and actually seeing said prince in the flesh wearing Simme’s white hoodie instead of a neatly pressed suit and setting out plates on the kitchen table.

Only the hoodie was oversize on Simme but clearly fits Prince Wilhelm just fine so that’s… a thing.

“Hello,” she says, trying to get back to normal only this isn’t normal because he’s a prince so like. “I mean, your majesty.”

Prince Wilhelm smiles. Up close, it’s the same kind of smile Simme keeps giving her, the one he seems able to paste over whatever he’s really feeling in the moment. “Your majesty is my mother,” he says. “Call me Wilhelm.”

Which of course just reminds her of being in the car the night before, the way Simme’s voice softened on Wilhelm’s name. And Simme had said they weren’t still… but Wilhelm is here, in this middle-of-nowhere town. Not Simme’s team, not Candace, just Wilhelm.

A good half of the internet would pay a large fortune for a glimpse of what she's seeing now. The way Wilhelm's eyes track Simme's progress through the room, the way Simme's whole body seems angled towards the Prince even when they're not interacting at all.

"Have you told anyone you're here?" Wilhelm's bodyguard asks her.

She hasn't. And as Wilhelm and Simon both reach for a plate at the same time and flinch back a moment before their fingers brush, she knows she never will.

[daisyjaimes]

Why Custom Vinyl Stickers Are Perfect for Small Business Marketing

In the competitive world of small business marketing, finding cost-effective and impactful ways to promote your brand is crucial. Custom vinyl stickers offer a versatile, affordable, and eye-catching solution that can boost brand visibility and leave a lasting impression on customers. Whether you're launching a new product, promoting your services, or simply trying to increase brand recognition, custom vinyl stickers can be a powerful tool for small businesses.

In this article, we'll explore why custom vinyl stickers are the perfect marketing tool for small businesses and how you can use them to enhance your brand presence.

1. Cost-Effective Marketing Tool

One of the biggest advantages of custom vinyl stickers is their affordability. As a small business, your marketing budget may be limited, and you need a solution that provides maximum impact at minimal cost. Compared to other forms of advertising, custom vinyl stickers are inexpensive to produce, especially when ordered in bulk.

With a relatively low upfront cost, custom vinyl stickers allow small businesses to get creative and experiment with different designs, messages, and formats without breaking the bank. This makes them an ideal choice for businesses looking to stretch their marketing dollars.

2. Highly Customizable and Versatile

Custom vinyl stickers can be designed in virtually any shape, size, and color, making them an incredibly versatile marketing tool. Whether you want a simple logo sticker or a more elaborate design that reflects your brand's personality, the possibilities are endless.

Ways to Customize Vinyl Stickers:

Logos and Branding: Create stickers featuring your brand’s logo, tagline, or core message to reinforce brand recognition.

Product Labels: Use stickers as part of your product packaging to highlight key information, promotional offers, or special features.

Seasonal or Themed Designs: Change up your sticker designs for holidays, events, or product launches, keeping your marketing fresh and engaging.

The flexibility in design allows small businesses to experiment with different marketing strategies, ensuring their brand stands out in a crowded market.

3. Easy to Distribute and Share

One of the reasons custom vinyl stickers are so effective is their ease of distribution. Unlike flyers or brochures that often get discarded, people tend to keep and use stickers, especially when they are visually appealing or offer something unique. By distributing custom vinyl stickers at events, in product packaging, or as part of giveaways, you can increase your brand’s visibility in places you may not have thought possible.

Distribution Ideas:

Include Stickers in Product Packaging: Surprise your customers with a free sticker in their package. It adds value to their purchase and creates a positive, memorable experience.

Giveaways at Events: Trade shows, local festivals, or pop-up markets are perfect venues to hand out stickers, helping you spread your brand message.

Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with other businesses to cross-promote. Include your stickers in their packaging, and vice versa, to reach new audiences.

When customers place your stickers on personal items like laptops, water bottles, or cars, your brand essentially becomes mobile, increasing its reach organically.

4. Builds Strong Brand Identity

Custom vinyl stickers are a great way to build and reinforce your brand identity. Since they are often seen as fun and collectible, they provide an opportunity to express your brand's personality in creative ways. Whether your business is quirky, professional, eco-friendly, or innovative, your sticker design can reflect that and help form a stronger connection with your target audience.

Brand Identity Elements in Stickers:

Consistent Branding: Use your brand colors, fonts, and logo to ensure your stickers align with the rest of your marketing materials.

Creative Messaging: Add a fun tagline or message that aligns with your brand's tone to engage your audience in a memorable way.

Unique Design: Create stickers that people want to keep and display, enhancing brand loyalty as customers associate your brand with positive, creative experiences.

Over time, consistent and recognizable sticker designs can help build brand loyalty, making your business stand out from the competition.

5. Durable and Long-Lasting

Unlike paper-based marketing materials, custom vinyl stickers are highly durable and designed to last for years. Vinyl stickers are waterproof, weather-resistant, and resistant to fading, making them perfect for both indoor and outdoor use. Whether they are stuck on a car bumper, storefront window, or personal item, vinyl stickers stay intact and retain their vibrant colors for a long time.

This durability ensures that your brand message stays visible over an extended period, providing you with long-lasting marketing exposure.

6. Encourages Customer Engagement and Loyalty

Custom vinyl stickers are more than just promotional tools—they can foster a sense of connection between your brand and your customers. Offering customers a free sticker can make them feel like they are part of a community. People often display stickers on their personal belongings as a way to express their interests or affiliations, and when they display your sticker, they’re promoting your brand for free.

How to Encourage Engagement:

Social Media Campaigns: Encourage customers to share photos of how they use your stickers on social media. Create a branded hashtag and feature their posts on your accounts to foster engagement.

Loyalty Programs: Include stickers as part of your loyalty or referral program. Customers who receive something extra like a custom sticker are more likely to return for future purchases.

Limited-Edition Stickers: Create exclusive or limited-edition stickers that motivate customers to engage with your brand by making a purchase or participating in an event.

By making your customers feel connected and appreciated, you increase the likelihood of repeat business and brand advocacy.

7. Environmentally Friendly Options

Many consumers today are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the products they use. Fortunately, custom vinyl stickers can be made with eco-friendly materials, such as biodegradable vinyl or water-based inks. Choosing sustainable sticker options aligns your brand with eco-conscious values and appeals to environmentally aware customers.

Eco-Friendly Sticker Solutions:

Biodegradable Vinyl: Choose stickers made from eco-friendly materials that break down naturally over time.

Recyclable Stickers: Offer stickers that can be recycled, further reducing environmental impact.

Sustainable Packaging: Use eco-friendly packaging for your sticker shipments, showing a commitment to sustainability across your entire brand.

Promoting your business with eco-friendly vinyl stickers demonstrates your dedication to responsible business practices, which can help attract a more conscientious customer base.

Conclusion

Custom vinyl stickers offer small businesses a powerful, affordable, and versatile marketing tool that can elevate brand identity, engage customers, and increase visibility. From product packaging to giveaways, stickers are a simple yet highly effective way to leave a lasting impression on your audience. With the ability to customize designs, distribute them widely, and align them with your brand’s message, custom vinyl stickers can become an integral part of your small business marketing strategy.

[nfr-reviews]

NFR Reviews #5: Nanook of the North

Released 1922 / Inducted 1989

Watch film here

Director Robert Flaherty first came into contact with the Canadian Inuit through a series of prospecting expeditions funded by Sir William Mackenzie to size up the area’s potential for building railroads and mineral mines. His first attempt at a film on the Inuit ended in the negative burning up and him disregarding the surviving copy as bad and boring. The solution was to make a single composite character to illustrate an entire way of life that existed in the arctic landscapes east of the Hudson Bay. The original attempt failed due to lack of focus. Focusing on one person, or even one family, gives a feature-length film a consistent throughline for audiences to follow and connect to. However, constructing a character to represent a whole ethnic group runs the risk of the director’s biases getting in the way of responsible documentary filmmaking. 

The harsh conditions in which Nanook lives are almost as much a character as the people. The opening shot is of ice floes bobbing in water, and the final scene is a three-way edit between wind blowing over stark white plains, the family sleeping in an igloo, and snow-encrusted dogs guarding outside. According to the images on film, the lives of Nanook and his family are dominated by hard work to attain the basic needs of food and shelter. Several scenes are dedicated to hunting walrus, fish, seal, and fox; one sequence is the building of an igloo. Revillon Freres, a trading company who’d been active in the fur business since the 19th century, sponsored this movie! After the film, Nanook’s image was used in marketing to sell products disparate as rental cars, phonographs, and refrigerators. One Stillwell Auto Delivery car ad drew a comparison dividing him from the audience: ��he can’t step into an auto and enjoy the wonderful scenery and boulevards of our Southland. But you can!’’ Allakariallak (Nanook’s real name) died two years after the film was released. Initial reports indicated starvation as the cause of death, but it was later revealed as tuberculosis, possibly brought by foreigners such as Flaherty.

The details of the hunt are where Flaherty starts veering off from truth. The Inuit had incorporated modern technology like rifles and boat motors into their lives by 1922, but the film’s version exclusively shows traditional methods of harpoons, spears, and paddles. In filming the walrus hunt scene, hunters begged Flaherty to use a rifle to help them, but he refused and kept the camera rolling until they killed the animal using older tools. This pattern bleeds into the non-hunting scenes. Film Nanook is amazed by a gramophone and bites into a record, while the real person already knew what it was. The outfits are outdated as well. The Inuit are portrayed as museum pieces frozen in time and unaffected by other cultures around them. Flaherty believed white men had pushed Inuit culture to near extinction, but didn’t put any examples of that in the movie in an attempt to save a vanishing culture he admired. He claimed to avoid the subject matter of the fur trade in order to have Revillon Freres as sponsor without an egregious conflict of interest. However, fur traders do appear in one scene to give Nanook’s child castor oil and show him the gramophone. 

Shaomik Inukpuk, manager of the town where the movie was filmed, found value in the sequences as education for both younger generations of the community and outsiders who knew nothing about the Inuit. It shows how things have changed in the last century, especially regarding the more nomadic lifestyles and colder climates of the past. Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, while creating a soundtrack for the film, had mixed feelings: embarrassment and frustration with dated stereotypes, but also pride in seeing her ancestors’ resilience. In my opinion, showing traditional hunting methods isn’t an issue on its own, but showing both ways of hunting or even adding the full context in intertitles would’ve given audiences a more truthful portrayal. 

Its major innovations in documentary filmmaking also put the film into an uncanny valley by today’s standards: not intended to be a fictional film but too staged and manipulated to be a documentary, even down to the main character's name being changed. Possible reasons for the change from Allakariallak to Nanook included "nanuq" meaning “bear” and fitting a heroic hunter, a tribute to the practice of the Inuit nicknaming white people, or simply to make the title more marketable to white moviegoers. Much of nonfiction filmmaking’s earliest years consisted of pointing the camera at people or places and interfering as little as possible. Nanook evolved from the travelogue, a type of actuality showing foreign locations for audiences to vicariously experience without spending money on a vacation. While possibly not the first feature-length documentary, it proved the format could be a box-office hit. 

Flaherty included elements of fiction filmmaking into his documentary: a structured piece with a main character and side characters. There’s also the symbolism of one character representing a variety of Inuit with whom Flaherty interacted instead of being a single person. The “plot” is a mix of daily life and the conflict of survival in a desolate environment. Director bias was probably inevitable on some level. Even deciding what to film and what to edit into a movie creates a layer of it. The Nanook character had several different influences shaping what he’d be in the final film. The Inuit participants often watched footage and provided suggestions, but the film was also impacted by Flaherty’s own opinions and the pressure to create something widely marketable to non-Inuit audiences. Flaherty defended the inaccuracies by claiming “one often has to distort a thing in order to capture its true spirit.” However, the distortions form a pattern to portray the subjects as simplistic and unaware of technological change. In 1922, other parts of the world didn’t know much about the Inuit. While the film acted as an awareness-raiser, its lack of context and staged images had more power over audiences and spread misconceptions. Alternative and varied portrayals, especially ones that gave the Inuit more creative control, were harder to access in mainstream media. Nanook of the North popularized a then-unique structure for nonfiction moviemaking that blended in elements of fictional film to give viewers one focus character to get invested in. However, it was also necessary for the medium to innovate past this to avoid making the same mistakes. 

Sources

https://www.documentary.org/feature/100-year-stain-nanook-north

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/42-nanook-of-the-north

https://www.catalystplanet.com/travel-and-social-action-stories/the-first-documentary-or-an-utter-falsehood-nanook-of-the-north

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nanook_of_the_North

https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/inukjuak-celebrates-nanook-of-the-norths-100th-anniversary/

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/staffpages/uploads/enl333/Marcus_2006a.pdf

https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/767ccb7a-5093-4619-b2c5-41962dad8be7/content

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+story+of+Revillon+Freres.-a0468851961

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/inuk-throat-singer-tanya-tagaq-on-reclaiming-nanook-of-the-north-1.2508581