#Microeconomics project help

[econhelpdesk]

How Economists Detect and Measure Collusion in Oligopolistic Markets

Introduction: What is Collusive Oligopoly?

A collusive oligopoly implies a market in which several firms of significant power cooperate to fix prices, output, and market share without competing. This cooperation may take the form of cartels or agreements that are not legally binding, with the ultimate aim of maximizing joint profits. By limiting competition, firms can easily set higher prices, limit their production, and act like monopolists.

Collusion in an oligopolistic market is beneficial because firms realize the benefits of symbiotic relationships as opposed to competition. For example, in a non-collusive market structure, the firm competes intensely to capture market share by significantly reducing price. Such behavior can be inimical to the interest of all companies because it eventually minimizes profitability. However, by agreeing tacitly, the oligopolists can fix prices, avert destructive competition, and provide certainty in the market. One example of this type of cartel includes OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) where member countries work in harmony to provide policy directives for production to control oil prices.

The primary purpose for why such situations exist is due to the strong interdependence of firms in an oligopoly. Pricing and output decisions taken by each of the firms affect the overall market condition. While in perfect competition each firm makes its decisions independently, the oligopolistic firms are highly strategic. Due to the risk of competitive retaliation, the group is likely to shift towards collusion for mutual interests. Although collusive behavior generates greater profits, it also has major economic as well as legal implications. Most governments have banned collusion as it is anti-competitive and detrimental to consumers in terms of limiting competition, innovation, and inflating prices.

Microeconomics students understand the fact that there is a lot of learning involved behind the fundamental notions of an oligopoly and collusion. Exam questions and assignments based on oligopoly are generally tricky. Availing microeconomics assignment help can get a fresh and broader view and enhance the perspective of students because it brings different innovative insights in comprehending these markets, specifically in the analysis of real-world case studies.

How Economists can identify and quantify collusive behavior in the Oligopolistic Markets

It may not be easy to identify collusion among firms particularly in an oligopolistic market since such firms will undertake elaborate measures towards concealing their collaborative conduct. Let us explore how collusion can be detected and measured by economists both theoretically and empirically.

1. Price Analysis

Pricing patterns is the first factor of attention for economists in the process of studying the market. In a competitive market, prices readily change with supply and demand. However, in a collusive market customers may experience that products and service prices do not change frequently or do not rise independently of other firms in the same market. Synchronized price increases, or price rigidity, can show evidence of collusion.

For instance, when economists undertook a survey on major airlines, they found out that most of the airlines had adopted a pattern of hiking fuel surcharges in unison without any justification for change in fuel prices.

This behavior led to the commencement of a large-scale investigation into British Airways and Virgin Atlantic and the companies were subsequently fined.

Another useful approach is to analyze the dispersion of prices across the firms in the industry. In competitive markets the degree of price dispersion is significantly greater than in other markets due to varying cost structures and strategies. However, in collusive markets, firms tend to set equivalent prices as they do not wish to be outcompeted by fellow firms.

2. Market Share Stability

Another element that interests economists is the market position of firms where the market share of each firm is closely monitored. In a highly competitive market, market shares are constantly changing due to developmental efforts carried out by firms such as innovation, efficiency enhancement, or the adoption of low-price strategies. But in a collusive oligopoly, market share may not change in significant terms as firms mutually collaborate to minimize competition.

For instance, a cartel of manufacturers of trucks in Europe, the major players in the industry collaborated to maintain a stable market share and conspired to raise prices for more than a decade.

Such behavior triggered one of the biggest antitrust fines ever in the EU history.

3. Production capacity and its utilization

Another technique whereby economists are able to establish a collusion is by evaluating the levels of production and the capacity utilization of firms. In a collusive market, firms may restrict themselves from producing a larger quantity to maintain a high price. This may result in production capacities being under-utilized in a bid to ensure that they do not supply excess goods in the market thereby reducing the price.

For instance, the cement industry has time and again been under accusation of colluding in several countries, where firms were determined to be collaborating over supply decisions in a manner that would ultimately provide them with better market prices to make huge profits from.

4. Bid-rigging and Auction Data

In markets where several firms bid for contracts through auction or tender, the economists can observe bid patterns as an indication of cartel behavior. Firms are found to manipulate the bidding process, for instance, bid rigging, where firms decide beforehand who amongst them will win by deliberately submitting higher bids, allowing one firm to win at a higher price as compared to a competitive auction. This practice was especially noted in the construction sector among various firms in the UK colluding on tender prices for public contracts.

 By studying auction data, economists can try looking for signs or patterns of rotation among winning bidders. Bid prices that are very close indicate that firms are in fact agreeing to share contracts or bids instead of competing for them.

5. Game Theory and Behavioral Analysis

Game theory is crucial in the analysis of the strategic actions of firms operating in an oligopolistic market. The prisoner’s dilemma is one of the game-theory models that economists use in expectation of understanding how various firms would operate under different competitive or collusive situations. In collusion, firms face a dilemma: They can either coordinate with other firms, and agree to fix high prices that are good for all or it can cheat by lowering prices and grabbing a bigger share of the market.

If firms prefer to cooperate in the future, then there could be a sign of tacit collusion. By modeling the behavior of firms and analyzing these simulated results with actual data, economists can deduce if firms are colluding even in the absence of explicit evidence.

Because of such practical applications and usefulness, students are usually taught the complexities of game theory, which makes them ready to solve real problems. Choosing our professional microeconomics assignment helps is the best strategy to cope with this challenging topic with easy-to-understand assignment solutions and case examples.

6. Econometric Analysis

Apart from theoretical models, econometric tests can also be used to detect collusion. This is where market data concerning price, quantity, and cost are analyzed statistically to reveal collusion-like behavior. For example, one can use regression analysis and see if price changes are correlated among firms, which indicate collusion rather than competition.

Structural break tests can also be employed to detect changes in market behavior enough to signal the beginning or end of collusion. However, if, after a time period of stable prices, one of the firms cuts its price and the others copy this move, there is a possibility that a cartel has ceased to exist.

Economic Ramifications of cartelization

Collusion has significant economic consequences both for the market and consumer equally. With an artificial increase in product prices, collusive firms transfer wealth from consumers to producers, or, more correctly, devalue consumer welfare. Such a deviation from the efficient allocation of resources gives rise to deadweight loss, in which output is less than it would have been in competitive circumstances.

Since then, in the 1990s, various global companies colluded to fix the price of lysine, a very important animal feed additive. The livestock farmer paid the increased prices, which he later passed on to the consumers in the form of increased meat prices. Several hundreds of millions of dollars were eventually fined against these companies.

Collusion can also stifle innovation and competition. When firms agree not to compete with one another on prices or market shares, they have no real reasons to invest in innovations that would keep them competitive, work towards greater efficiencies, or produce better products for consumers.

Expert Microeconomics Assignment Help for Collusive Oligopoly and More

With our Microeconomics Assignment Help service, we provide all sorts support to scholars working on assignments, dissertations, or case studies under the ambit of collusive oligopoly and other similarly advanced concepts in economics. Their expertise covers both microeconomic theory and its real-world market applications, furnishing the student community with excellent solutions grounded on empirical data, credible examples, and rigorous economic analyses.

Our experts introduce students to the new strategies firms adopt in oligopolistic markets to come together, suppress competition and maximize their profits. They explain complex concepts, such as price-fixing, market sharing, prisoner's dilemma with hot examples, as exemplified by the OPEC cartel or historical price-fixing cases in airlines or pharmaceuticals.

By offering different perspectives such as using game theory to detect collusion, price analysis, or finding evidence on bid-rigging, our expert enhances the understanding of theoretical frameworks as well as practical implication. The current economic trends are also incorporated, which allows students to relate their assignments to the current regulatory landscape and antitrust policies, thereby making it more relevant and impactful.

Besides collusive oligopoly, we assist the students with other complex microeconomics topics such as:

• Game Theory: Analyzing strategic interactions among firms.

Market Structures: Comparing perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly.

• Price Discrimination: Examining how firms charge different prices to different consumers.

• Cost-Benefit Analysis: Economic decision-making in terms of effectiveness and related welfare of society.

• Externalities and Public Goods: Understanding market failures and government interventions.

Conclusion

Tools and techniques for detecting collusion in oligopolistic markets include price analysis, game theory, and econometric models. The consequences of collusion are severe on the economy and ultimately affect consumers with higher prices and reduced competition. Students studying microeconomics will find this more important because it gives an insight into how markets can be manipulated and also why antitrust regulations are in place.

For studying such intricate topics as collusion, students may opt for our microeconomics assignment help service to study practical examples, case studies, and advanced theoretical models for a better understanding of this critical economic issue.

Suggested Literature

• Andreu Mas-Colell's "Microeconomic Theory": Rather an exhaustive textbook on oligopoly theory, game theory, and collusion in all detail.

• "Industrial Organization: Contemporary Theory and Practice" by Lynne Pepall, Dan Richards, and George Norman: Excellent resource for dynamics of markets with oligopoly.

• The Antitrust Revolution" By John E. Kwoka Jr. and Lawrence J. White Experience using real-world case studies on antitrust enforcement and collision detection.

[orchidyoonkook]

To What We Were Before, And All The Things After | JJK | Ch. 8

Title: Photo Shoots and Blasphemous Discoveries

Pairing: Prince!College Student!JK x Fine Arts Major!(F)!Reader

Series Rating//Genre: (M) | College AU, Mild Royalty AU, Smut, Angst, Fluff, S2F2L, Indiffernce to lovers, sloooowwww ass burn

Summary: You're just there to help JK with his final project, so why are you being doused in water, facepaint and smoke? Art. Art is why.

Warnings: T, language, fluff, angst, honestly this one's kinda wholesome and fun, some photogrpahy jargin in there, but nothing a quick google search can't fix if you really need to <3, it's mostly surface level jargin. Also the smoke machine works cuz JK has great ventilation due to the massive windows being open, so don't worry bout that XD, some light and fun name calling, some world building. Ask if you need clarification on anything. That's all I think!

Word Count: 11,684

Release Date: September 1, 2024. 4:30PM

A/N 1: Surprise! Happy JK Day.

Series: Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven

PJK [7:36pm]: Saturday afternoon. my place. 11am.  PJK [7:36pm]: bring an extra set of clothes, something warm. Sweats if you have them. PJK [7:37pm]: also, Im gunna need your shirt size

The first three weeks of November have flown by and dragged on at the same time.

The weather’s getting colder. You need a thick jacket if you want to be anywhere outside, and all leaves have fallen from the trees, leaving pines the only ones left with their winter coats on. Hot chocolate from greenhouse cafe has become part of your life’s blood so you don’t freeze, and gloves with pocket warmers inside them are once again a part of your everyday. 

But November skies have returned. And you frequently set up camp on the drying grass beside the greenhouse, dressing your canvas with oil paint to their likeness as it’s the only paint that doesn’t dry the second it’s out of the tube in the cold, static air.

Jungkook told you earlier in the week the shoot would most likely be this weekend, and that he just had a few final strings to pull together before being able to confirm. So with that in mind, you intentionally tried to finish all your work before this weekend, knowing the shoot will take a while to complete.

He mentioned it may leak over into Sunday depending on how much you get done on the first day, which is fine with you considering you usually spend Sunday evenings at his place anyway. You’d consider it an extended edition of your regularly scheduled broadcast.

And speaking of regularly scheduled, you haven’t missed a single movie night since Nel left. Granted, it’s only been three weeks, but even missing the two you did because of Nel had made an impact. 

You’d gotten so used to them, having that time to destress and unwind before the week starts. A nice little routine that helps reset you both mentally and physically.

Suddenly not having that was…a weird feeling you try not to remember. 

And you are more than happy to never miss another one ever again.

You aren’t sure what Jungkook tells Adaline he’s doing during movie night, but she’s never interrupted you, not even once. And it’s something you are increasingly grateful for, because she is one of the things you destress from as your unspoken rivalry always amps up the closer to exam season you get.

It’s Thursday evening, and you’re in your room finishing up a Microeconomics 3 assignment while piano music plays on a speaker in the corner. You use it to help you focus, and it’s working its magic as you’re finishing your work in record time. 

Music has always helped you work better, and you credit it largely with how you’ve been able to keep up with everything in your schooling.

Yuri’s in her room, doing homework as well you assume. Or maybe texting Tai—the dreamy, big dicked Ilcalos island Count—you swear she’s only put her phone down for sleep and showering, as she’s constantly checking to see if he’s messaged her. And you hope it turns out well for them, Yuri deserves someone who treats her well. Especially after the whole Jungkook debacle—which you’re not allowed to bring up—and then the poor rebound you aren’t allowed to talk about either. You’re just happy she’s finally found someone worth her time.

Picking up your phone, you shoot Jungkook a text back.

You [7:40pm]: okay! saturday at 11 sounds good. I’ll bring sweats and warm socks

You message him your shirt size too, curious as to what he’ll use it for, but you’re sure you’ll find out in due time. You always do.

Subject to many of his homework assignments, you’ve been posed and lit and adjusted every which way. 

Jungkook is incredibly professional when you’re with him as a model. Light touches to correct posing, always with a ‘may I’ before he does, and he fills the room with kind words, good vibes, and fun music so you never feel awkward. 

At first you were really iffy on the whole idea when he first asked in September, because it would be the prince of your nation photographing little ol’ you. You weren’t anything special—yet—and you’re still never one for being in the spotlight, or for being on camera. At all. But if it was just for homework, and you were helping out a friend…you figured why not? 

It helped that all of your worries immediately faded when you saw the results of that first shoot.

An email from a very non-princely email address found its way into your inbox. The subject was the date of the shoot, and the only message inside being:

 thanks. Hope you like them. 

Let’s do it again sometime.

-J

When you opened the attachments you made a quick dive to catch the phone that fell from your hands in shock. 

You looked…beautiful. Like you never had in pictures before. Not in school, or at graduation, not even in the ones you took of yourself. 

You didn’t know you were capable of looking like that. 

Like how he saw you. Captured you. 

And you’ll never admit you’ve held your chin a little higher with every shoot since.

They make you feel powerful, attractive. More confident, and sure of yourself, as if you were always meant to be in front of a camera. Like you’d been in front of one since before you could walk.

They do that for you.

He…does that for you—with his pictures, of course.

Jungkook is very talented. Very skilled with his camera, and you find yourself looking forward to the concepts he comes up with every time. Trusting him and whatever his vision is wholeheartedly. 

Though a small, immature piece of you is also pleased he still wants you to model, and not Adaline. That he finds you easier to work with over her.

Your competitive streak never fails to come out, even with the smallest, secretive things.

Take that Adaline.

You gladly help him out with his homework, and he does the same for you. 

If you ever need a male reference or a profile study. Anatomy practice, features practice, likeness practice. Anything and almost everything, all you have to do is ask, and he sits still or places whatever you need in front of you while you sketch.

Hands, however, have always been a personal favourite of yours.

They’re one of those things that can be drawn a hundred different ways and never look the same. Always a new position you can put them in. Consistently able to shake things up. And one set is never like the others—like eyes. There’s little differences in all of them and that’s where their magic lies.

You do these studies at the greenhouse, it has the best light to shadow ratio. When you ask him for one, he’ll switch to working with one hand, while the other does whatever you tell it. Normally either placed on your table or if there isn’t enough room, which nine times out of ten there isn’t because of all your supplies, you stick your foot on the lower metal frame of his table and he rests his arm, wrist or palm on your up bent knee. 

Due to this, you’ve unintentionally come to find out that his hands are very strong, very calloused, and very, very warm…

Also! Aside from hand studies, you love loose figure studies because they’re great warm up sketches. And what Jungkook doesn't know is that you have dozens of warm up sketches of him. Doesn’t know you sneak pictures here and there when you can, hiding them in a hidden album on your phone entitled ‘hmwk screenshots.’ And he definitely doesn’t know that when he’s sitting at the cafe, nose deep in assignments, you doodle his features or his outfit in real time.

A nose here, a jacket there. A muscular forearm covered in tattoos also tends to find its way onto your page every so often.

He’s got a good physique. And the ridges make for excellent anatomy practice. So does the intricate line work of tattoos, and fabric rippling. Especially in drastic lighting. Consistency is key in maintaining and improving your work and it’s not like any of these sketches will ever see the light of day anyways. 

They’re just, well…practice. 

A sigh escapes you, and you refocus on finishing your microecon work. You still have two more assignments to get done before Saturday at eleven.

“And why are you working with some random girl when I’m available, again?” Adaline asks. She’s currently sitting on Jungkook's couch in your spot. He’s setting up tomorrow's materials against the big white wall by the floor length windows that showcase his balcony.

It’s why he chose to live here instead of in the dorms or on campus. His place isn’t enormous, like most people would think, it has enough room for everything a regular student needs: bedroom, kitchen, workspace, living room, bathroom, even a guest room. But the one thing he keeps different is the big white wall where a dining room would normally be. 

Jungkook’s place has high ceilings, 10 feet tall, which is higher than the average but not excessive. And the wall that connects his kitchen to the balcony is a perfect mock studio. He can even keep all his equipment there; lights, gels, backgrounds, tubs full of props, camera cases, lenses, and more all stored in neat shelving against another wall. 

“Because students volunteered for extra credit, and she’s who was assigned to me,” a small lie, one he was sure that Adaline wouldn’t dig into too deeply. 

“Why didn’t you tell me I could volunteer?”

“Because you didn’t need the extra credit?”

She pouts, and goes back to her phone.

Adaline also doesn’t know it’s you he’s photographing and that is one hundred percent intentionally planned by him. 

He could sense something between you two after you made that one comment after fall break. He notices now how you stiffen slightly every time he mentions Adaline, and the one time he mentioned you in passing to test the waters, Adaline changed the conversion topic almost immediately. A look of annoyance, or maybe even insecurity in her eyes.

So he’s been lucky that Adaline has never wanted to see any of his schoolwork prior to or after the singular shoot he did with her. 

Lucky she hasn’t seen your face fill up his screen constantly. 

And extremely lucky that she doesn’t know about the hidden folder buried deep in his desktop labeled ‘eqpmt rcpts’ filled with dozens of candid shots of you.

To be fair, you don’t know about them either. They’re random, shots taken every now and then where he thought you looked happy, focused, or just existing. True candids of the most candid person he knew.

It started that day with his first assignment from Professor Hirmer. He’d taken those quick pictures of you painting, and then simply never stopped. 

He has pictures of you in the courtyard, walking and talking to Yuri, you smiling. He has some he took on his phone when you’re over for movie night, invested in the film or talking to him. And a bunch of you painting at the greenhouse. It’s hard to take secret candids when he’s right beside you, but he manages seeing as you haven't caught him yet.

He even has a few of you and Nel, love clearly written on your face in every single one of them.

Whenever he spots you before you spot him, and he has his camera on him, he takes a couple. 

They’ve amassed into a healthy sum, but he thinks of it as a harmless habit as no one will ever know. And it’s not like he’s following you around to take them or using them for anything nefarious. 

He just likes taking your picture. Capturing your spirit, your candor. 

Your realness. 

You are wholly yourself, always, no holding back, all of the time. 

And to him, it feels like coming up for a breath of fresh air.

“Hey!” you say as you let yourself into Jungkook’s apartment. You’d knocked but no one answered and it was currently 10:56am on Saturday, so you knew he was here. Plus, his door was unlocked.

“Jungkook?” you call. 

No answer.

You take your shoes off after closing the door and locking it. He should really keep his door locked. 

Very quickly become best friends with the couch, you toss your backpack of warm clothes on the floor while you wait for him to make an appearance. 

There’s shoot equipment everywhere; lights in the corner, some with soft boxes on them, gels laid out on the coffee table, and what you’ve come to learn is a lens case sits on the couch beside you in Jungkook's usual spot. 

Jungkook has also somehow managed to find some small trees in blue ceramic pots and what you’re pretty sure is a smoke machine. 

But the most peculiar thing is what looks to be a kiddie pool up against the wall with a folded tarp at its base. 

Well that's…interesting…

You hear a door open somewhere in the apartment and running water. 

“Jungkook? That you?”

“Hey! Yep. Just give me a sec, I’m almost done.”

The water sounds cease and Jungkook makes his grand entrance as he turns the corner holding a large watering can. Your eyebrow raises.

“For the trees?” you ask.

“What?” 

You point to the watering can currently making his veins pop. 

He laughs, “Oh! No. This is for later. You’ll see,” and walks to the other side of the room by the pool. 

“Aren’t we mysterious today,” you say, following him with your eyes. He’s in ripped black jeans that accentuate the muscle definition of his thighs, and a matching baggy shirt. When his back is turned you snap a quick picture. The fabric folds on his baggy shirts are some of your favourite mindless things to cool down sketch.

“Nah, just focused. We have a lot to get through today.”  He sets down the watering can and you can see the moment the switch flips from friend to photographer. “The guest room is ready for you. There’s a clothing rack inside with each look labeled. There’s also makeup and face paint, if you could bring out the make up after you're done changing, that would be great. We’re gonna start with ‘Bright and Bold’, okay?” 

You usually use the spare room as a change room when you have to switch clothes for a shoot. But they were always from your own closet. He’d tell you the concept he was going for and you’d bring a few options to choose from.

Makeup you were used to, though. Jungkook loves abusing your artistic abilities for his shoots in the way you decorate your face or body, saying they make his works a level up from the rest of his classmates. 

They also usually make for some of the coolest pictures you have of yourself.

This is the first time he’s ever bought clothing, though.

You shouldn’t be as surprised as you are, this being his final assignment for an important class, and him being as serious as he is about his work and the final product. But you can't help it, you’re excited to see everything he’s chosen for the shoot. 

For you.

For the shoot.

“Yep, sounds good. Be out in a few,” you reply. He nods in acknowledgement before moving to set something up and you don’t stick around to find out, grabbing your bag and heading towards the door lined hall. 

The guest room is modest and clean. White sheets and gray comforter with, surprisingly, two throw pillows to spruce it up. The walls are white too, but you’re pretty sure that’s because Jungkook’s not allowed to paint the apartment per his landlord's wishes—a thought that still makes you laugh.

He could buy any place he wanted, but chose to rent. ‘To get the real university experience,’ he explained when you asked him the first time you went over.

Black furniture accents the room. A comfortable looking leather chair sits in the corner by a glass door that leads to the balcony. It has a small table beside it. There’s a dresser with a mirror in the other corner and of course, in the center of the room, is the bed. It’s a nice room. However, the newest edition is what’s keeping your eye.

Four shirts hang from the rack at the foot of the bed. The first is vibrant and colourful, the second a light neutral short sleeved V neck, third is strapless and skin coloured, and the last is made from thin black fabric you assume will be skin tight by the looks of it. 

As promised, they’re all labeled with a sticker. 

You throw your bag on the bed and grab the colourful one first. Its sticker says ‘bright and bold,’ and you put it on after removing the shirt you came in, then zip it up. The material feels heavy, durable and expensive. You check the tag on the inside seam and see it’s from Ilkaya, one of the biggest and most expensive fashion designers on this side of the realm. 

Your eyes bug out of your head, and you try not to breathe too hard for fear of ruining it. Your routine of thrifting all your clothes makes you pretty damn sure you can’t even imagine how much this cost. 

It feels good though, comfortable, not itchy. Really freaking expensive.

You look at yourself in the mirror, and you have to admit you look amazing. It fits perfectly in all the right places, compliments your skin tone, and even brings out your eyes. Begrudgingly, you admit to yourself that maybe there’s some sense in what the price tag could be. But it would still be a ridiculous sum for a jacket.

With one last look in the mirror, you grab the palettes, brushes and other tools off the dresser, and leave your designated dressing room for the day in favour of returning to the living room. 

Jungkook’s got music going from your shared playlist. Insisting on making one after your second shoot together, when he decided you both agreed to the arrangement becoming a regular thing. It’s a good mix of both of your musical tastes, even though you guys figured out quickly that you liked pretty similar stuff anyway. 

“What do you think? Does it work?” You ask as you turn the corner. 

Jungkook fiddles with this camera before looking and pausing for a moment to take you in. You hope you look okay, but the weird look he has on his face makes you backtrack a bit. 

“Is this not the one you wanted? It had the label on it. But I can go back and double che- ”

“You look amazing,” is all he says, and your worry slides off you instantly. He smiles wide, the one you’ve come to recognize as genuine. 

“Thanks. But the colour’s doing most of the work for me,” you say, smiling back shyly.

He has a white background set up, and two differently coloured gel’d lights sit on opposite one another, a third, smaller floor light faces the background. A backlight, he’d call it. 

Bright and Bold indeed, though there is the matter of-

“What do you want me to do for my make up?”

“Actually,” he sets down his camera gently on a table, “Is it okay if I do it? I want it to be a little more on the amateur side and I don’t think your years of refined talent would let you get the exact look I want.” 

That’s new. But you're here to stand and look however he wants you too, so you allow him with a nod. 

“Sure, where do you want me to sit?”

“Here’s fine,” he says as he pulls a stool that was off to one side close to one of the windows. “As long as you don’t mind holding the make up. I don’t have a table to set them down on.  Should’ve thought of that, sorry.” 

You can tell he’s mentally scolding himself for forgetting something.

“No no, it’s fine,” you say, taking your seat, “I don’t mind, really.” 

Placing the balls of your feet on the bar that holds the chair legs together, you make your lap even enough to set the palettes out, and use a hand to hold all the brushes. 

Jungkook laughs, noticing your feet as you sit, “Cute socks.”

They’re light blue with a fox face on them, and little ears stick up from the elastic around the ankle. 

“Thanks,” you laugh too, they’re your favourite pair. “I call them my fox socks. They’re lucky.”

“Let’s hope so. Wish me luck fox socks,” he calls to your toes, and you wiggle them in response.

He picks a brush and chooses a colour. “Close your eyes and let me know if I’m pressing too hard. If it isn’t obvious, I’ve never done this before.”

You close your eyes and whisper, “Will do.”

It's a uniquely intimate experience having your makeup done. Willingly letting someone get up close and personal with you, allowing them to see every potential scar, blemish and pore in the name of beauty and for the sake of creativity. 

In this case, it’s also a little questionable considering where you feel the brush putting down colour: cheeks, lids, temple, nose. However, you’re simply a pawn in a well thought out plan, so you sit and wait for him to finish.

“Annnd done,” he says, making a final swipe with the brush on your cheek. “You look great! I didn’t hurt you, right?” he asks, showing you the makeup in a palettes mirror. Your face looks like it’s been attacked by a rainbow in the best way. You smile, taking the mirror from him and looking at all the little details. 

For a first timer, Jungkook did a really good job. 

“Nope, I’m good. How do you want me?”

Jungkook leads you to the backdrop, placing you in front. 

“One second,” he says, grabbing a remote and clicking a button to lower the black out curtains on the windows, and then another that turns off the apartment lights. He also clicks on all the lights he’s set up and you’re quickly illuminated by a bright red and purple as well as the back light.

“I’m good to pose?” he asks. 

“Yep.” 

You love that he always asks first. It makes you feel safe and considered, consenting to every touch prior to its occurrence. 

Jungkook instructs the first pose to have your hands on the sides of your face, making slight adjustments so that you don’t cover any of the makeup. And for the first time, his touches leave little sparks where they land. 

You’re sure it’s just because of the lights or that the shirt is thick and makes you warm. 

Or maybe you’re just nervous and need to get the first photo jitters out of your system.

Soon enough, the camera’s pointing at you and you smile the brightest you can. He’s given you the prompt of ‘you’re so excited and happy you can’t hold it in,’ and you work with it the best you can, taking the first few with the pose he gave before being given full reign. 

It’s a decent way into the first shoot when Jungkook says, “Hmm…we’re not quite there yet, I need a bit more,” and follows up with, “How about ‘you’ve just been commissioned by the Modern Art Museum to have the leading showcase for next year’.” 

You smile the biggest you think you ever have at the thought. Because that’s the dream, that is the biggest goal you could achieve. An entire gallery of your work as the primary exhibition in the Western Shores Modern Art Museum? You couldn’t go any higher. It’s every artist's dream.

“There you go! That’s it!” The camera’s capturing quickly as you imagine what it would be like to have your own showcase at the WS-MAM. Incredible is the first word that comes to mind, your work in the biggest museum on the continent? You can’t even imagine, but you want to. 

One day, you promise yourself. You’ll do it one day.

“Okay,” Jungkook says, breaking your daydream, “Let me switch out the gels for new colours and go again. These are great so far though, you're doing amazing.” 

You hold your hand out for a high five and he smacks it. “Go team!” you say, and he laughs.

An hour and a half, a makeup fix and three lighting changes later, the first shoot finishes. You collapse on the couch and rub the muscles on your thighs. 

Jungkook plops down beside you, nose deep in the pictures he’s just taken, double checking everythings good.

“This is a fantastic start, I hope we can keep it up all day and finish before tomorrow.”

“Me too,” you say, and you mean it. Shoots with him are always fun, but inevitably tiring. “I’m gonna to grab a water, want one?” 

“Yes please,” he replies without looking up.

In the kitchen, you open the fridge to grab the two bottles and notice a box, stamped with a coffee mug that has a greenhouse inside of it, on top. The greenhouse cafe’s logo. 

“Can I ask what’s inside the cafe box?” you ask as you sit back on the couch and pass him a bottle.

“Ah, caught red handed,” he says, setting his camera on the table and taking a swig. “I may have asked Vivan earlier this week to make sure there was an overstock of tarts so I could grab them for you as a thank you for today.”

...Oh

That’s so sweet. He’s never gotten you a thank you gift before, especially not in the form of the most delicious pastry to ever exist. Maybe you should get him something for all the times he’s helped you with homework? A solstice gift maybe?

There’s heat forming in your chest and you really hope it’s not the beginning stages of heartburn. Maybe Jungkook has antacids. 

“You didn’t have to do that, I’m happy to help.”

“So you don’t want them then?” his shit eating grin making a glorious comeback because he knows what your answer’s going to be.

“No! I want them. I most definitely want them.”

He chuckles and puts his water down.

“Okay Donatello, glad you accept. Let's move on to the next set up. There’s makeup remover and cotton pads in the room, and some moisturizer too if you need it.”

The next shoot is called ‘Regality,’ and it has you in the strapless shirt. You find out it’s quite a low cut when you put it on. There’s enough to cover you, but there’s definitely a lot of your chest showing. However, under the shirt on the hanger is a scarf to cover yourself with, which you think is very considerate.

“Makeup?” you ask as you come out again, scarf covering you.

“Neutral, but strong. Kind of like how my mother does,” the background is still white, but you have a hunch that it will remain white in this picture, unlike the last one. “This one is going to be black and white, so try to emphasize your natural beauty.”

You ignore that he essentially just said you're beautiful, surely he’s just being kind and professional. Making sure his model feels good about herself. 

Right?

Right.

You put on a coat of mascara and go light on the shadow so it won't be too dramatic on film. You also use a shade of lipstick that adds just a tint to your lips and a blush that makes your eyes pop.

Jungkook has you sit on the stool from earlier and faces your body three quarters of the way towards the camera, but keeps your head turned in profile. 

“Oh! Almost forgot, one second,” Jungkook jogs to his room, coming back with a palm sized velvet box. “I had my mother send these over for this shoot. She has better taste than me, so I let her pick them out.”

Your stomach plummets to the floor when he opens the box. 

Inside are two dangling diamond earrings, and quite possibly the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen.

And now you’re terrified. 

“Jungkook, I can't wear those. They look like they’re worth more than my house, my car and my tuition combined.”

He takes one out and places it in your hand for you to put in, it’s the length of your index finger. And all you can think about is the potential houses you’re holding as you look at it. 

It’s a semi-rectangular earring, encrusted with four columns of diamonds that cascade down, each column longer than the previous. Like a sparkling waterfall you can attach to your ear.

“Don’t worry about it, mum said she never wears them anyway because they’re part of a set that the necklace was lost to years ago. Please,” his face is nothing but reassurance and small smiles, “You’re giving them a chance to live again.”

You couldn't say no to those eyes even if you wanted to.

So you reply, almost breathless and still against your better judgment, “Okay.”

Placing them in one after the other, they have a significant, understandable weight to them. You take a couple deep breaths so you don't freak out, and then you return to your previously designated pose, profile set, body facing the camera.

“Can I adjust?” Jungkook asks, after taking a step back and getting a wider view. 

You nod gently, still terrified of the earrings.

He makes sure the earring is visible and untangled first, before a finger gently comes beneath your chin, and lifts it a bit higher. 

The feeling they leave behind is all you can think about as you stare at your place on the wall, Jungkook snapping away. Not even the soft light illuminating your profile is enough to make you blink.

This shoot goes by quickly, and you’re relieved to get the earrings back safely inside their box.

“It’s like 2:45, wanna break for a late lunch?” Jungkook asks. 

“Please, I’m starved,” you say, returning from the guest room after tossing on the sweater you brought. “What's on the menu?”

“Well, we have two options,” he says, looking very faux serious, “1. We order out from wherever you want and awkwardly wait for it to arrive because the next shoot is not one we can’t prep for, then eat, then shoot.  Or 2. I make use of the ingredients I bought to make Bulgogi Kimchi Fried Rice and you get lunch and a show.”

You're shocked. 

Jungkook…cooks? Oh this you absolutely must see.

“Hmm….” you say, pretending to really mull it over in the same ‘serious’ tone, “I’m thinking I’ll have to go with option two, Chef. But I’ll lend a hand where I can, no use in standing around doing nothing.”

“Every chef needs a sous.”

With both of you on task, lunch is getting made quickly. Jungkook has all the ingredients to make ‘my buddy’s famous family recipe,’ a man who you assume is a chef back at the palace. The island countertop is currently covered in them; onion, kimchi, marinated bulgogi, gochujang, cooked rice, eggs and more. 

You’re surprised at how skilled Jungkook is in the kitchen. He’s cutting the ingredients like he’s been doing it his whole life and working the pan over the stove like the proper technique has been drilled into him since birth. 

Thirty minutes pass, and after both of you shed a tear at the cut onions and evenly split the remaining tasks, you’re sitting on the couch about to take your first bite. It smells delicious. Your mouth is watering and you can’t wait to dig in, stomach painfully empty by this point.

Finally taking that first bite, you nearly die of euphoria.

“Ouhmahgaud,” you say, mouth half full. Jungkooks on the other side of the couch, trying not to cough out his own food from laughing at your reaction. His eyes are nearly shut with how wide he’s smiling.

“Good?” he asks after swallowing his food first, like a civilized person.

You’re vigorously nodding as you swallow your own helping in hopes you’re understood.

“You’re giving me this recipe. I need it. I don’t think I will survive if this is the only time I ever get to eat it.” Your bowl is almost half gone already. Thank god there’s leftovers, you will be having more.

Plus, you want to make it for your mom when you go home, she’ll love it. 

“I’ll text it to you later, don’t worry.”

You’re very sure the look on your face conveys the gratitude you feel and the rest of the meal passes in a very comfortable and satisfied silence. 

Twenty-ish minutes later, after letting your seconds settle for a couple minutes, Jungkook gets back to business. 

“Next look is the most adventurous, it uses the facepaint. Are you okay with contacts?”

“I think so, never tried them before though. Just give me a few before we start so I don’t explode when I stand up.”

“All good,” he says, before quirking a lip and adding, “I really don’t feel like explaining why there’s kimchi and bits of you all over my walls to either of our parents, so take all the time you need.”

You laugh, firstly at the visual, then at the idea of Jungkook meeting your mother. That would be something you needed on record, paper and film.

After a minute, you get up, the guest room making your acquaintance once more. 

“This one is called Enigmatic,” Jungkook calls.

“Got it!”

You take longer than normal to change, maybe eating before putting on the skin tight shirt wasn’t a great idea. But at least it was stretchy. 

It has long sleeves, a high neck, and is a very dark midnight black. There’s a matching black scarf for this one too, and a safety pin attached to the corner.

“Okay, what's the plan for this one? I hear facepaint is involved,” you say, back for round three, scarf in hand.

The background of the set is black now, a close match to your shirt. Jungkook is by the smoke machine, currently set up on the stool and plugged into a nearby outlet. 

You hold up the scarf, questioningly.

“That’s to go over your head after the paint, but let’s see if you can do contacts first, they’re in the washroom. Need help?”

“No, I'm good.”

You don’t succeed at first, but after a couple attempts you look in the mirror and see purple eyes staring back at you. You love them.

“I look like a badass,” you say, returning. The smoke machine’s been turned on and it’s created a completely different atmosphere. At your reemergence, Jungkook shuts it off and comes close to give you a look. You freeze a little at the eye contact, his browns meeting your currently violets for a prolonged moment.

“They look better than I’d hoped, this is going to be great.” 

He reaches under the gels on the table for a piece of paper. It’s a makeup model face with the look he wants drawn on. “Are you able to do something like this?”

The diagram shows the cheeks, bottom half of the nose and down all the way to the neck as black, and the eyes and up as white, bleeding down into the black like smoke. You’re going to need eyeshadow for that part. If you did that with the face paint it would just become a gray mess.

“Yep, but it’s going to take some time to get it right.”

“That’s okay, I’ll use it to get the smoke machine properly set up.”

You use one of the palette mirrors and start with the white, covering the top of your face and making a good base layer for the eyeshadow. Then fill the bottom of your face and neck with the black. Carefully, so as to not make gray, you use a large brush to cover both sides with their respective eyeshadow shades, before blending them together like the reference. Your skin starts to feel like it’s on fire by the time you're satisfied and you check your phone for the time when you finally finish. 

4:37pm. 

Not bad. You put the scarf over your head and cover your ears with it, using the safety pin to hold it in place. 

“Done.”

Jungkook takes one look at you and lights up. 

“Have I ever mentioned how talented you are, and that you make my schoolwork so much more fun? Because I feel like I should again even if I already have.” Your cheeks heat, glad he’s excited you’re able to help. “How did you manage to make it look even better?”

“I do vaguely remember mentioning something about a deal with a semi-suspicious genie,” you joke. And both of you break out in giggle fits after a second, recalling the conversation from forever ago. 

Running through the same steps of lighting, posing, and adjustments, Jungkook then flips on the smoke machine and lets it fill the room heavily before starting to take pictures. 

You’re sitting on a small box this time, so that you’re slightly lower than the camera. Jungkook tells you to keep your hands at your sides and look up, just above the rim of the camera lens. It creates a very interesting look, and you're excited to see the results. 

He has you do a couple more poses before allowing you to do your own thing once more, trying to think of what would look mysterious and enigmatic.

You try to let the music inspire you. This is a look you’ve never done before, so you’re finding it a bit difficult to get into it despite Jungkook's helpful prompts and suggestions. But you flow a bit better with it as time goes on and you become more comfortable.

An idea pops up out of nowhere and you have him do a close up from the middle of your chin to the middle of your forehead. You stare straight into the lens to really showcase the purple contacts and makeup.

“This’s the one for sure,” he says, taking a few more. “Great idea, why didn’t I think of a close up in the first place?” You know he's talking to himself at this point. 

It’s close to 6:15pm when Jungkook decides he has enough pictures for this look. You don’t mind the longer shoot seeing as you set aside the day for this, and you can’t wait to see how these ones turn out in particular.  

You’re halfway through getting the face paint off, a mountain of gray stained cotton pads beside you, when Jungkook turns the music down.

“Let’s do a light, early dinner and then shoot the last one?” he asks. “I kept this one at the end because it’s going to create the most mess and it’ll be nice to have dinner out of the way for when I have to clean up.”

“More mess than this?” you point to the cotton pad mountain.

“Much more.”

“Light, early dinner it is,” you confirm, not wanting to have to wait till late to eat. “But can we order out so I have time to get the rest of this off?”

“Sure, what’ll it be?”

Clean faced, moisturized and ramyeon filled, you and Jungkook are preparing for the last shoot. Or well, lightly arguing.

“Water?”

“Mhm.”

“On me?”

“Yep.”

“From that thing,” you point to the contraption he calls a c-stand that will be holding the very full, very large watering can over your head for an extended amount of time, “And into there?” you point again to the kitty pool on top of the tarp that’s underneath the watering can c-stand. 

“That is the plan,” he looks amused at your slight distress.

“Are you nuts? What if it falls on me? How do I know it won’t unhinge and I’ll have a nicely cracked open skull to explain to my mother on Solstice break?”

“It won’t fall and you know it won't because you trust me and trust I wouldn’t put you in unnecessary danger. But if it does, tell your mom I say hi and sorry.”

You scoff at him, unbelievable. “So you admit there’s a bit of danger!”

Jungkook sighs, and looks to the ceiling. “Yes, YN. There is a touch of danger. But that’s only if, somehow, the c-stand I have triple safety checked, duct taped twice, and quadruple secured with four fifteen pound sandbags, decides that you deserve a watering can to the head.”

You side eye his tone. This wasn’t an unrealistic worry. But you do trust him. And trust he would never intentionally put you in any danger.

The trees are set up near the backdrop that looks like a row of brick houses. The shot is supposed to be ‘The Calm after Before the Storm,’ where you look relieved and happy in an ‘outside’ setting while ‘rain’ falls over you, also in black and white.

“Fine, but if I hear one peep from that thing,” c-stand staring down the tip of your finger once more, “I’m tuck and rolling and taking you out while I do it.”

“Very fair!” he says relieved, and goes to set up the stand with the watering can. 

You’d changed into the neutral V neck after dinner, and he’s asked for no makeup. So all you have to do now is stand and pose while trying not to die from foreign objects falling from the sky while you get wet.

Easy, right?

Wrong.

It is incredibly difficult, and you’re glad he made this one last because you’re at best; slightly miserable. Only the promise of a hot shower, hot chocolate with whip cream and marshmallows and your pick of whatever you watch afterward is keeping you going.

You started this one just shy of 8pm after waiting 45 minutes for the food. And it’s nearing 9:30 now. Jungkook has had to refill the watering can four times, dump the kiddie pool twice,  and you swear if you don’t finish within the next twenty minutes, you’re going to collapse from shivering.

To be fair, he does fill the watering can with warm water, but it only stays warm for so long before freezing water is pouring on you for the millionth time tonight. 

“I have one last idea, and by the way, I’m never doing this concept again so don’t worry about that, but also… don’t shut down the idea immediately okay?” Jungkook says. 

The watering can is almost empty again and you’re relieved that your time is almost up. That in itself should make for a good picture. He snaps it.

But his tone makes you a little wary, “Okay… what is it?”

“Pretend I’m Nel and you’re seeing me for the first time in six months, like you do at the end of April.”

Well, you didn’t have that down on your photo shoot prompt bingo card. 

Are you okay with the idea? You aren’t sure, but aren’t not sure either.

“I mean, I’ll try. Maybe you could give vocal cues to try and help? But don’t make it weird.”

“I won’t, promise,” Jungkook pauses for a second before adding, “Does he call you baby?”

You nod, and you distantly hear and ‘okay’ as you slowly allow yourself to get into that headspace.

You start, and the camera starts going.

You’re in the airport, waiting for Nel, ‘smoosh’ paper in hand. The gate opens, and through all the other passengers you see him, see that he’s in one piece, see that he’s safe. 

Your face illuminates with relief at that so much so that you don’t even notice the water that starts running down your face. 

You hear a ‘hi baby’ and in your head, it’s coming from Nel’s mouth as he nears you. You smile impossibly wider at the thought of seeing him, feeling him. Having him here with you. 

You look happy to see me, ‘Nel’ says.

“I am,” you reply. 

There’s repetitive clicking in the distance, but you ignore it. It’s probably just a flight attendant's heels on the floor.

“I missed you.”

There’s a long moment of silence before Nel speaks again.

I missed you too, baby.

You’re shivering hard now, lost in thought, unaware of reality. 

YN, Nel calls.

“Yes, love?”

“YN.”

“Babe, what is it?”

“YN, hey,” you're being shaken gently.

“Hmm? What?” you slowly arrive back to the present. Strong hands grip your shoulders. They feel nice. Solid. Deliciously warm. 

A very concerned looking Jungkook comes into focus, camera dangling around his neck and reaching for you.

Oh.

He’s the one holding your shoulders, trying to get you to come back to reality.

“There she is, welcome back,” he lets go and grabs a blanket from somewhere and wraps it around you. “We got the shot, go take a shower and warm up okay?”

“Okay,” you say, still a little dazed, but present enough to function.

You step out of the pool, holding on to the hand Jungkook offers to balance—Warm. Solid. Strong—and head straight for the bathroom, making a pit stop in the guest room to grab your bag with fresh clothes. 

The hot water cements your place back in reality, letting it warm you up and cleanse you of the day. 

You have no idea what just happened with that whole Nel thing, but it was a new feeling and a new headspace and you really aren’t in the mood to analyze or acknowledge, so it’s shoved onto a top shelf in the back of your mind for a later date.  

Once you're able to return to the directory of your mind, you don’t know how long you’ve been in the shower. But you know you’re clean, no longer cold, and in the mood for hot chocolate, so you step out and dry yourself with the towels Jungkook laid out for you on the toilet seat.

They’re soft. So soft in fact you consider only for a second shoving one in your now less full bag to take home with you. However, you do rather enjoy your friendship with the prince, so you think better of it upon second thought. 

Dressing in your sweats, you exit, tossing the towels in the hamper and your bag of the clothes you arrived in back into the spare room.

“Better?” Jungkook asks as you sit down in your spot on the couch for the last time tonight, wrapping up in the blanket he left for you. He’s in the kitchen but heard you coming.

“Much, thanks,” you sniff, “Is that hot chocolate I smell?”

Jungkook returns from the kitchen, two mugs in hand. “With extra whip cream and marshmallows, as ordered.”

You carefully take it from him, giving your thanks and happily slurping away the second it’s in your grasp. 

“Alright Caravaggio, what are we watching?” he asks, sitting down on his side, sipping away on his own. 

Sometime between you leaving for the shower and coming back out Jungkook changed into his own comfy attire, and tidied up the studio space as the pool and tarp are nowhere to be seen.

“I’ve thought really hard about this, all of however long I was in the shower,” Jungkook mutters something about 35 minutes; you ignore him, “And have settled on ‘A Miser Brothers Solstice’.”

He whines just a little when he says, “But it’s November.”

“So?”

“So, Solstice isn’t until the third week of December,” he’s saying this like his point is the most obvious thing in the world. 

It’s not.

“Your point?”

“That it’s November, and you want to watch a Solstice movie.”

You’re mockingly outraged.

“Who made you town grinch? I didn’t realize we had a holiday hater in our midst.” 

You loved the holidays, all the big ones, and the small ones, but Solstice was special. 

“I’m not a grinch, I’m just not there yet, mentally.”

“Then get ready to dive in head first, because you said I could pick the movie for risking my life for you and I pick ‘A Miser Brothers Solstice’.”

Jungkook doesn’t argue further, but he does roll his eyes as he puts on your movie with a small smile hidden behind his drink.

It’s sometime during the first act, you’re lying back against your corner of the couch, feet up and under the blanket when you ask, “What are your solstice break plans?” 

Jungkook takes a moment to part from the TV, very invested for someone who was so against it half an hour ago. “I have a lot of ‘princely duties’ to do for Solstice, like standing and looking thoughtful while my dad gives his annual Solstice speech,” you snort. “Then there’s the palace dinner, the parade through the capital, and the live televised event,” he says in a tv announcer's voice, “Where my family and I light the Solstice Star. And then there’s the new year and that in itself has another long list of things I have to do. Besides things like that though? Not much, and then it’s back here.”

Right.

You often forget who he is. 

That behind those kind eyes, and small smiles, behind the greenhouse study dates, and movie nights, and photoshoots, Jungkook has an enormous responsibility constantly looming over his head, counting down the days until he finishes his schooling. One that’s just waiting to drop onto his shoulders forever. 

You often forget that Jungkook is the Prince, first in line to the biggest throne in the realm. That you spend your time with not only Jeon Jungkook, friend and photography student, but also, His Royal Highness, Prince Jeon Jungkook, Heir Apparent and Future King of The Western Shores.

He just makes it so damn easy to forget.

You only asked because you thought maybe he had plans with friends or family, completely forgetting about all of the things the royal family does during the holiday season to celebrate with the nation, their people, and now you feel like an ass for even bringing it up.

But there’s something in his answer, or lack thereof, that snags your attention. 

“What about celebrating with your family and friends in private?”

“No time,” Jungkook’s stare goes distant as he brings his knees up and puts his arms around them, resting his chin. “Friends are always busy with palace preparations and dad’s not really the sentimental type. We celebrated when I was younger; big family breakfast, presents, tree decorating, whole thing. But after I turned about 13 or so, it started dwindling pretty quickly. Now it’s just me and my mom exchanging a gift with each other at midnight under the palace tree.” 

You don’t think you’ve ever heard something so heartbreaking yet beautiful in your life. 

“Your mum sounds wonderful, I’m really happy you two get that time together.” 

He looks at you, and you can tell by the look in his eyes he loves that time with her more than anything else. 

Solstice is supposed to be the time you spend with your family, blood or chosen. The time where you all gather to cook and bake, and exchange thoughtful gifts with the ones you love. The time where you truly cherish one another and count yourself lucky for all that you have. 

Solstice is your favourite time of the year.

To not spend it like that just seems…wrong. Horribly, painfully, awfully wrong.

“What about you?” he asks.

You don’t want to make him feel bad, so you tone down your answer, taking away the meat and giving the bones.

“My mum and I cut down our own tree and decorate it with the ornaments we’ve collected over the years,” you have them from every place you’ve ever visited, and your mum kept all the ones you ever made as a kid. You even get a new one every solstice to take a picture for and label with the year.  

“Then we bake solstice cookies until our hands cramp and survive off only them until solstice dinner; a turkey, honey glazed carrots, mashed potatoes with gravy, essentially if it waters your mouth, it’s there,” he chuckles at that. “We do gifts for each other too, opening them on solstice morning before making hot drinks and reading in the breakfast nook until the sun sets or till we get hungry, whichever comes first.”

Jungkook's eyes glow, radiating warmth, a lazy smile on his face as he listens to you. 

“That sounds really nice, YN.”

“It is,” you reply, looking him in those radiant eyes as you do. He looks… happy. Happy for you, that you get to have something like this that’s so special. It breaks your heart a little…maybe you can help.

“You wanna make some solstice cookies with me before break?”

His look of happy shifts to one of slight panic.

“What?” you question, and comically ask, “Have you never made solstice cookies before?”

He hesitates before answering a very quiet, “Uh…N-no.”

Your shock must be incredibly evident in the way he almost flinches at your reaction.

So you try your best to keep your voice level when you ask, “What do you mean, no?”

“I mean no. I’ve never made solstice cookies.”

That’s it. You can’t hold back any more, you’ve never heard anything so blasphemous in all your life.

“You’ve never what?  How is that even possible?”

He shrinks into himself a little more.

“The palace pastry chef always makes them because that’s kind of his job,” you stare at him in disbelief. “Is this really that big a deal?”

You swear there’s cog’s and smoke flying out of your ears. Solstice cookies are a religion in your household. You know dozens of recipes by heart, always finding a new one each year to try and up your game. You cannot imagine a solstice without making them. Wait no, actually you can, but it would be because you’re dead.

You held back in your answer earlier, for his sake, but you and your mom’s hands cramp up because you make enough cookies to give a box to everyone in the neighborhood. It’s one of your favourite traditions, and your neighbours even look forward to it every year, going so far as sending you both recipes to try out.

“Big dea—you’ve never fucking mad—not even when you were little? No one brought you to the kitchen and let you help? Aren't all your friends back home the pastry chefs' kids or something?” You don’t mean to sound harsh, but your tone is a little more passionate than you were intending. 

But Jungkook knows you, knows you occasionally get that passionate about things, and takes your outburst in stride. 

“Yeah, one of them is, but we don't sit around the oven and make cookies all break long. And his dad is always too busy to teach us even if we wanted to.”

You decide something. Right then and there.

“This year you are.”

“What?”

“Mark your last Saturday off because I'm going to show up here, ingredients-a-plenty and teach you how to make solstice cookies. I have a million recipes up here,” you tap your head with a finger, “But I'll choose the easiest ones. And I’ll come over early so we can spend the day making all of them. I can’t in good conscience leave for the break knowing you’ve never made them.”

He sighs. “Do I have any say in the matter?”

“Absolutely not.”

Jungkook stares at you and you can’t figure out what he’s thinking. You’re worried he’s going to say no anyway. To say you’re crazy and that they’re just cookies and that he has more important things he has to do on his Saturday before leaving for home.

But he doesn’t. And you should’ve known he wouldn’t, not after all the time you’ve spent together. 

You know better. Know him better.

“Alright Picasso. Sounds like a plan. I’m looking forward to it,” he decides, and goes back to watching the movie. 

It’s the first time he’s ever repeated a nickname.

“Wait! The wind guy wants to replace who?!” Jungkook shouts. 

You laugh at his confusion, and rewind the movie.

Jungkook wakes up sore.

His back is killing him, which makes sense since he’s half lying on the couch, half on the ground. 

The TV’s silently playing some slideshow of movie recommendations based on recent watches. 

He checks his phone, reaching for it on the coffee tale. 

14% battery. 

4:07am. 

Shit, he fell asleep. 

After the solstice movie he wanted to watch its predecessor. You had no qualms and so on it went, but he doesn’t remember much after the brothers started fighting.

Hearing soft, even breathing next to him he turns to see you, hunched over in your spot asleep, no doubt in the process of ruining your own back.

He should go to bed.

You should go to bed. 

But you’ve never stayed the night.

What should he do? Should he wake you? 

But you look so peaceful. And it’s nearing exams. You barely sleep when it’s exams season. 

Instead, Jungkook goes to check the guest room, but it’s a mess with yesterday's comings and goings. Make-up and clothes and hangers strewn everywhere.

Quietly, making a decision he hopes you won’t kill him for in the morning, he pads back to your sleeping form. 

It’s for your back, he tells himself. No other reason.

Deja vu sets in as he scoops you up from the couch, blanket and all. Just like last time, you gain enough consciousness to know to wrap your arms around his neck, but not enough to wake up. Your head rests on his shoulder and he selfishly savours the feeling as he walks down the short hallway to his room.  

Jungkook sets you down gently on one side of the bed, and your arms release, slumber undisturbed as he tucks you in.

He goes back to the living room to retrieve your phones. Yours is still at 56%, and he places it on the table beside you when he returns.

Climbing into his side of the bed, he’s careful not to touch you.

Though he wants to. 

Desperately. 

His sleep deprived brain is too slow to block out the thoughts that start to race. Thoughts of how he wants to turn around and pull you into his chest, slide an arm around your waist, and kiss you goodnight. How he wants to wake up in the same position, you still in his arms. 

But he’s also awake enough to know that will never happen. That you’re with Nel, and happy with him. That he’s drawn that nice, big line.

He’s awake enough to know you being in his bed is a fluke, unintentional.

A one time thing.

Plugging his phone into its charger, he sets it down on his own bedside table and pulls the covers up, falling back asleep.

His back facing you. 

An exhale wakes you.

Warm and cozy, you take a deep breath and roll to your left side, stretching on the way over. The scents of clean linen and something familiar find you. It’s comforting, that smell, but you can’t place it.

Another exhale, but this time you feel it as well as hear it.

You open your eyes to see a sleeping Jungkook face not a foot from your own and you jolt in shock, falling off the bed in the process. 

You look up from your new seat on the floor, ignoring the pain in your side from landing, and peer over the covers to check on Jungkook, who, miraculously, hasn’t woken up from your tumble. 

Relieved, your mind focuses on more pressing questions like ‘how did you get here?’ And ‘why were you in his bed?’ 

The last thing you remember was being halfway through the prequel to A Miser Brothers Solstice on the couch, watching Jungkook more than the movie because of how invested he’d become in the story. 

But you aren’t on the couch now. You were in his bed. 

The bed of the Prince of the Western Shores. 

The Prince who has a girlfriend, and you, who has a very long term, very serious boyfriend.

You hear a vibration, and following the sound, you find your phone on the bedside table. 

You quickly grab it quickly and go to the living room as quietly as you can manage. 

There’s a large number of unread texts. 

SlurryYuri [11:08pm]: hey, just checking in. You didn’t get home when you said you’d try for SlurryYuri [11:31pm]: Helloooooooo? YN? You there? SlurryYuri [12:14am]: it’s getting late YN, when are you coming home? Are you on your way?

Missed Calls: (3)

SlurryYuri [2:43am]: it’s been hours, so you better be dead or have crashed in the school somewhere. Either way I’m kicking your ass when you get home

Missed Calls: (2)

(Recent)

SlurryYuri [9:36am]: you’re still not home?? YN seriously, where are you SlurryYuri [10:23am]: If you don’t message me back in an hour I’m calling the police and filing a missing persons

Shit. 

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. You crashed hard, the shoot must have taken more out of you than you thought, so you never texted Yuri you were going to crash in a sleep pod at school like you’d planned too. 

You make quick work of messaging her back, glad she unintentionally gave you just the excuse you needed. 

YN [10:25am]: ohmygod I’m soooooo sorry, it was the school one. I fell asleep in the school. I’m sorry for worrying you. I’ll be home soon, promise. I’m just going to grab breakfast first. Again im sorry

SlurryYuri [10:27am]: thank the gods youre okay!! Don’t ever do that to me again YN! I don’t wanna be the one who has to break news to your mom!! She’s too nice.  SlurryYuri [10:27am]: and take your time getting back if your rushing for me, I’m not at the dorm SlurryYuri [10:27am]: Tai showed up yesterday out of the blue and took me dancing. We’re out getting brunch right now, and he has plans for the rest of the day SlurryYuri [10:28am]: Im just glad you’re not dead in a ditch somewhere

YN [10:29am]: me too, and okay I will. Thanks for checking up on me and making sure im safe, youre my favourite

SlurryYuri [10:30am]: damn right I am, see you tn <3

YN [10:30am]: see you <3

You exhale deeply, that was fucking close. 

Your stomach rumbles and it reminds you that you actually need to get breakfast. 

What could you have? You could order in again, but that means a wait time and you are hungry now. You could raid Jungkook's pantry, or see if he has any fruit, but then you think that’s a gross invasion of privacy when it’s not movie night and you haven’t asked if it’s okay. 

Wait.

The egg tarts!

You dash to the fridge, the marvellous sight of a greenhouse inside a coffee mug comes into view. Stuffing one down before you even get the box from the fridge, you exit the kitchen, sit down on the couch, setting the box on the coffee table. Once opened in front of you, you realize there is a healthy amount of tarts inside. 

How many did Jungkook ask for?

Speaking of, a bed-headed, yawning Jungkook makes his morning debut, still in last night's clothes.

“Hey,” he says groggily, walking over and stealing a tart.

“Hey!” you say back, not nearly as friendly. 

“Overnight tax, Picasso. Room isn’t free.” He chuckles at your faux outrage, popping half the tart in his mouth as he walks to the kitchen and grabs something from the fridge. Returning, you see it’s a morning protein shake. 

Gross. 

“So is that name the one you’re sticking to now?” you ask, picking up another tart. At this rate they won’t last until lunch.

“Yeah, that okay with you? It’s your name in my phone after all.”

“It is?” You didn’t know that.

“Yeah, has been since the start.” 

You’re quickly learning that sleepy morning Jungkook is very different from morning post work-out Jungkook, friend Jungkook and photographer Jungkook. His voice is deeper, he’s a lot more relaxed, and maybe even harmlessly borderline flirty, like he’s not all there yet. Softer. 

“Picasso’s just fine. A compliment really.”

“Oh? And what am I in your’s then? Hopefully something just as nice?”

You tell him like it is.

“PJK.”

“PJK?” he asks, incredulous.

“Yeah? It’s obscure enough to not be recognizable if someone were to see it, but enough for me to know who it is.”

“Nah, you need something better, PJK is boring.”

“It’s your initials.”

“And boring,” he’s really not letting up on this. 

“Well...what would you save yourself as?”

He mulls it over for a minute before deflating. “Okay, fair point, but I seriously want a new one. Something that can rival Picasso.”

“Do you have any nicknames? Something not completely obvious?”

For a morning person, Jungkook sure is taking his time. Maybe he was only a morning person before 8am, and then if he got up anytime after that he became a normal person who despised mornings like everyone else.

“Uhh…Vivian calls me JK, but that’s essentially the same thing as PJK. My buddies back home sometimes call me Kook, but I don’t think that works either. My mum has one for me that I will not disclose to anyone so long as I am breathing. So I guess not.”

A lightbulb dings over your head. “What about your security? Don’t they have special code names for you when they detail you? Like bear or eagle?” 

“Yeah, but it’s not nearly as badass as either of those.”

“Fess up,” you say. Now you have to know.

“Hare.”

“Hare?” Now it’s your turn to be incredulous. “Like a rabbit?”

“Yep.”

An idea pops into your head and an evil grin spreads across your face, one you know is already setting worry into Jungkook’s still awakening brain as you change his name.

“I don’t like that look,” he confirms. “What’d you change it to?”

You flip your phone around and hold it up to him.

“Bunny?” he says incredulously once again.

“Yes.”

“I give you Picasso, one of the greatest painters of all time, and you think giving me bunny is anywhere near on par with that?”

Teasing him is far too fun, especially when he makes it this easy for you.

“Oh absolutely. In fact, I think it’s the best name I could possibly set it as.”

Jungkook disagrees, vehemently. “No, change it back. PJK is fine.”

“Too late. You dug your grave, now lie in it.”

Jungkook brings a hand to his face, pinching the crease between his brows and takes a very long, deep breath, exhaling just as dramatically. 

You take that as your victory. But you’re sorely mistaken.

He launches at you, reaching for your phone and you scream, reaching your arm to keep it away from him. You have a fox socked foot on his chest to try and keep him back. His right arm is holding him up near your hip on the couches edge and he’s reaching with his left as far as he can without breaking his sternum on your heel. 

“Give it!”

“Never!”

You try to bring up your other foot to push him away, but Jungkook is strong, and forces both it and the one on his chest down with the arm that was supporting him, temporarily keeping himself up with his left hand on the back of the couch. 

With your legs out of the way he can almost reach his phone. But in his distracted state, misses the couch when he goes to put his supporting arm down again, and flips onto the ground, taking you with him. You scream, but his arms wrap around you as he makes sure to take the brunt of the impact, landing on his back, you safely secured to his chest. 

There’s a moment of pure stunned silence, you resting your forhead on his chest while you process, him not letting go of your waist as he gets a breath into his winded self, before you’re both laughing as you take in what happened.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Yeah, you?”

He takes a second to respond. “I’m great.” 

You push to sit up, and he releases you from his hold, but that was a mistake. Because now you’re sitting on his lap. 

It takes an entire three seconds of you staring at him and him staring right back before you jump and scramble off him as fast as you can. 

“Sorry.” you say in unison, you standing and him from the ground. It’s a painfully awkward 8 seconds before you break, cackling at the whole situation, and he joins in with you again. 

Jungkook brushes off his pants as he gets up too. “Got any plans before tonight,” he asks, business as usual.

“Nope, cleared my schedule in case this went long, I’ve got the whole day.”

You swear his smile grows two sizes.

“Well in that case,” he looks to the TV, then back to you, “Wanna start movie night early?”

An entire day to relax and chill out before the hell that is exams season takes your every free second? 

Yes please.

“Solstice movie marathon?” you propose slyly, near devious.

“I’ll get the popcorn,” he confirms, already halfway to the kitchen.

You spend the day like that, on the couch watching movie after movie, both pretending the little incident never even happened. 

But you make sure to go home after movie night this time. 

Chapter Nine: TBR

A/N 2: This chapter kicked my ass but it's here and I couldn't be more thrilled. I really like how it's ended so I hope you guys do too.

A/N 3: As always, Thank you for reading, loves. Xoxo - Yoon <3

<- Back

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[0x7b]

Omegle has been shut down.

Posting here for posterity. Retrieved directly from omegle.com on Nov 8 2023

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” — Douglas Adams

Dear strangers,

From the moment I discovered the Internet at a young age, it has been a magical place to me. Growing up in a small town, relatively isolated from the larger world, it was a revelation how much more there was to discover – how many interesting people and ideas the world had to offer.

As a young teenager, I couldn’t just waltz onto a college campus and tell a student: “Let’s debate moral philosophy!” I couldn’t walk up to a professor and say: “Tell me something interesting about microeconomics!” But online, I was able to meet those people, and have those conversations. I was also an avid Wikipedia editor; I contributed to open source software projects; and I often helped answer computer programming questions posed by people many years older than me.

In short, the Internet opened the door to a much larger, more diverse, and more vibrant world than I would have otherwise been able to experience; and enabled me to be an active participant in, and contributor to, that world. All of this helped me to learn, and to grow into a more well-rounded person.

Moreover, as a survivor of childhood rape, I was acutely aware that any time I interacted with someone in the physical world, I was risking my physical body. The Internet gave me a refuge from that fear. I was under no illusion that only good people used the Internet; but I knew that, if I said “no” to someone online, they couldn’t physically reach through the screen and hold a weapon to my head, or worse. I saw the miles of copper wires and fiber-optic cables between me and other people as a kind of shield – one that empowered me to be less isolated than my trauma and fear would have otherwise allowed.

I launched Omegle when I was 18 years old, and still living with my parents. It was meant to build on the things I loved about the Internet, while introducing a form of social spontaneity that I felt didn’t exist elsewhere. If the Internet is a manifestation of the “global village”, Omegle was meant to be a way of strolling down a street in that village, striking up conversations with the people you ran into along the way.

The premise was rather straightforward: when you used Omegle, it would randomly place you in a chat with someone else. These chats could be as long or as short as you chose. If you didn’t want to talk to a particular person, for whatever reason, you could simply end the chat and – if desired – move onto another chat with someone else. It was the idea of “meeting new people” distilled down to almost its platonic ideal.

Building on what I saw as the intrinsic safety benefits of the Internet, users were anonymous to each other by default. This made chats more self-contained, and made it less likely that a malicious person would be able to track someone else down off-site after their chat ended.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I launched Omegle. Would anyone even care about some Web site that an 18 year old kid made in his bedroom in his parents’ house in Vermont, with no marketing budget? But it became popular almost instantly after launch, and grew organically from there, reaching millions of daily users. I believe this had something to do with meeting new people being a basic human need, and with Omegle being among the best ways to fulfill that need. As the saying goes: “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.”

Over the years, people have used Omegle to explore foreign cultures; to get advice about their lives from impartial third parties; and to help alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation. I’ve even heard stories of soulmates meeting on Omegle, and getting married. Those are only some of the highlights.

Unfortunately, there are also lowlights. Virtually every tool can be used for good or for evil, and that is especially true of communication tools, due to their innate flexibility. The telephone can be used to wish your grandmother “happy birthday”, but it can also be used to call in a bomb threat. There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.

I believe in a responsibility to be a “good Samaritan”, and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse. That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators. Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I’m proud of what we accomplished.

Omegle’s moderation even had a positive impact beyond the site. Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong. There are “people” rotting behind bars right now thanks in part to evidence that Omegle proactively collected against them, and tipped the authorities off to.

All that said, the fight against crime isn’t one that can ever truly be won. It’s a never-ending battle that must be fought and re-fought every day; and even if you do the very best job it is possible for you to do, you may make a sizable dent, but you won’t “win” in any absolute sense of that word. That’s heartbreaking, but it’s also a basic lesson of criminology, and one that I think the vast majority of people understand on some level. Even superheroes, the fictional characters that our culture imbues with special powers as a form of wish fulfillment in the fight against crime, don’t succeed at eliminating crime altogether.

In recent years, it seems like the whole world has become more ornery. Maybe that has something to do with the pandemic, or with political disagreements. Whatever the reason, people have become faster to attack, and slower to recognize each other’s shared humanity. One aspect of this has been a constant barrage of attacks on communication services, Omegle included, based on the behavior of a malicious subset of users.

To an extent, it is reasonable to question the policies and practices of any place where crime has occurred. I have always welcomed constructive feedback; and indeed, Omegle implemented a number of improvements based on such feedback over the years. However, the recent attacks have felt anything but constructive. The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service. Sometimes they say so, explicitly and avowedly; other times, it can be inferred from their act of setting standards that are not humanly achievable. Either way, the net result is the same.

Omegle is the direct target of these attacks, but their ultimate victim is you: all of you out there who have used, or would have used, Omegle to improve your lives, and the lives of others. When they say Omegle shouldn’t exist, they are really saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to use it; that you shouldn’t be allowed to meet random new people online. That idea is anathema to the ideals I cherish – specifically, to the bedrock principle of a free society that, when restrictions are imposed to prevent crime, the burden of those restrictions must not be targeted at innocent victims or potential victims of crime.

Consider the idea that society ought to force women to dress modestly in order to prevent rape. One counter-argument is that rapists don’t really target women based on their clothing; but a more powerful counter-argument is that, irrespective of what rapists do, women’s rights should remain intact. If society robs women of their rights to bodily autonomy and self-expression based on the actions of rapists – even if it does so with the best intentions in the world – then society is practically doing the work of rapists for them.

Fear can be a valuable tool, guiding us away from danger. However, fear can also be a mental cage that keeps us from all of the things that make life worth living. Individuals and families must be allowed to strike the right balance for themselves, based on their own unique circumstances and needs. A world of mandatory fear is a world ruled by fear – a dark place indeed.

I’ve done my best to weather the attacks, with the interests of Omegle’s users – and the broader principle – in mind. If something as simple as meeting random new people is forbidden, what’s next? That is far and away removed from anything that could be considered a reasonable compromise of the principle I outlined. Analogies are a limited tool, but a physical-world analogy might be shutting down Central Park because crime occurs there – or perhaps more provocatively, destroying the universe because it contains evil. A healthy, free society cannot endure when we are collectively afraid of each other to this extent.

Unfortunately, what is right doesn’t always prevail. As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much. Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s.

The battle for Omegle has been lost, but the war against the Internet rages on. Virtually every online communication service has been subject to the same kinds of attack as Omegle; and while some of them are much larger companies with much greater resources, they all have their breaking point somewhere. I worry that, unless the tide turns soon, the Internet I fell in love with may cease to exist, and in its place, we will have something closer to a souped-up version of TV – focused largely on passive consumption, with much less opportunity for active participation and genuine human connection. If that sounds like a bad idea to you, please consider donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that fights for your rights online.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who used Omegle for positive purposes, and to everyone who contributed to the site’s success in any way. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep fighting for you.

Sincerely, Leif K-Brooks Founder, Omegle.com LLC

[tinstol]

From the Omegle Website:

““Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” — C.S. Lewis

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” — Douglas Adams

Dear strangers,

From the moment I discovered the Internet at a young age, it has been a magical place to me. Growing up in a small town, relatively isolated from the larger world, it was a revelation how much more there was to discover – how many interesting people and ideas the world had to offer.

As a young teenager, I couldn’t just waltz onto a college campus and tell a student: “Let’s debate moral philosophy!” I couldn’t walk up to a professor and say: “Tell me something interesting about microeconomics!” But online, I was able to meet those people, and have those conversations. I was also an avid Wikipedia editor; I contributed to open source software projects; and I often helped answer computer programming questions posed by people many years older than me.

In short, the Internet opened the door to a much larger, more diverse, and more vibrant world than I would have otherwise been able to experience; and enabled me to be an active participant in, and contributor to, that world. All of this helped me to learn, and to grow into a more well-rounded person.

Moreover, as a survivor of childhood rape, I was acutely aware that any time I interacted with someone in the physical world, I was risking my physical body. The Internet gave me a refuge from that fear. I was under no illusion that only good people used the Internet; but I knew that, if I said “no” to someone online, they couldn’t physically reach through the screen and hold a weapon to my head, or worse. I saw the miles of copper wires and fiber-optic cables between me and other people as a kind of shield – one that empowered me to be less isolated than my trauma and fear would have otherwise allowed.

I launched Omegle when I was 18 years old, and still living with my parents. It was meant to build on the things I loved about the Internet, while introducing a form of social spontaneity that I felt didn’t exist elsewhere. If the Internet is a manifestation of the “global village”, Omegle was meant to be a way of strolling down a street in that village, striking up conversations with the people you ran into along the way.

The premise was rather straightforward: when you used Omegle, it would randomly place you in a chat with someone else. These chats could be as long or as short as you chose. If you didn’t want to talk to a particular person, for whatever reason, you could simply end the chat and – if desired – move onto another chat with someone else. It was the idea of “meeting new people” distilled down to almost its platonic ideal.

Building on what I saw as the intrinsic safety benefits of the Internet, users were anonymous to each other by default. This made chats more self-contained, and made it less likely that a malicious person would be able to track someone else down off-site after their chat ended.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I launched Omegle. Would anyone even care about some Web site that an 18 year old kid made in his bedroom in his parents’ house in Vermont, with no marketing budget? But it became popular almost instantly after launch, and grew organically from there, reaching millions of daily users. I believe this had something to do with meeting new people being a basic human need, and with Omegle being among the best ways to fulfill that need. As the saying goes: “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.”

Over the years, people have used Omegle to explore foreign cultures; to get advice about their lives from impartial third parties; and to help alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation. I’ve even heard stories of soulmates meeting on Omegle, and getting married. Those are only some of the highlights.

Unfortunately, there are also lowlights. Virtually every tool can be used for good or for evil, and that is especially true of communication tools, due to their innate flexibility. The telephone can be used to wish your grandmother “happy birthday”, but it can also be used to call in a bomb threat. There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.

I believe in a responsibility to be a “good Samaritan”, and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse. That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators. Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I’m proud of what we accomplished.

Omegle’s moderation even had a positive impact beyond the site. Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong. There are “people” rotting behind bars right now thanks in part to evidence that Omegle proactively collected against them, and tipped the authorities off to.

All that said, the fight against crime isn’t one that can ever truly be won. It’s a never-ending battle that must be fought and re-fought every day; and even if you do the very best job it is possible for you to do, you may make a sizable dent, but you won’t “win” in any absolute sense of that word. That’s heartbreaking, but it’s also a basic lesson of criminology, and one that I think the vast majority of people understand on some level. Even superheroes, the fictional characters that our culture imbues with special powers as a form of wish fulfillment in the fight against crime, don’t succeed at eliminating crime altogether.

In recent years, it seems like the whole world has become more ornery. Maybe that has something to do with the pandemic, or with political disagreements. Whatever the reason, people have become faster to attack, and slower to recognize each other’s shared humanity. One aspect of this has been a constant barrage of attacks on communication services, Omegle included, based on the behavior of a malicious subset of users.

To an extent, it is reasonable to question the policies and practices of any place where crime has occurred. I have always welcomed constructive feedback; and indeed, Omegle implemented a number of improvements based on such feedback over the years. However, the recent attacks have felt anything but constructive. The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service. Sometimes they say so, explicitly and avowedly; other times, it can be inferred from their act of setting standards that are not humanly achievable. Either way, the net result is the same.

Omegle is the direct target of these attacks, but their ultimate victim is you: all of you out there who have used, or would have used, Omegle to improve your lives, and the lives of others. When they say Omegle shouldn’t exist, they are really saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to use it; that you shouldn’t be allowed to meet random new people online. That idea is anathema to the ideals I cherish – specifically, to the bedrock principle of a free society that, when restrictions are imposed to prevent crime, the burden of those restrictions must not be targeted at innocent victims or potential victims of crime.

Consider the idea that society ought to force women to dress modestly in order to prevent rape. One counter-argument is that rapists don’t really target women based on their clothing; but a more powerful counter-argument is that, irrespective of what rapists do, women’s rights should remain intact. If society robs women of their rights to bodily autonomy and self-expression based on the actions of rapists – even if it does so with the best intentions in the world – then society is practically doing the work of rapists for them.

Fear can be a valuable tool, guiding us away from danger. However, fear can also be a mental cage that keeps us from all of the things that make life worth living. Individuals and families must be allowed to strike the right balance for themselves, based on their own unique circumstances and needs. A world of mandatory fear is a world ruled by fear – a dark place indeed.

I’ve done my best to weather the attacks, with the interests of Omegle’s users – and the broader principle – in mind. If something as simple as meeting random new people is forbidden, what’s next? That is far and away removed from anything that could be considered a reasonable compromise of the principle I outlined. Analogies are a limited tool, but a physical-world analogy might be shutting down Central Park because crime occurs there – or perhaps more provocatively, destroying the universe because it contains evil. A healthy, free society cannot endure when we are collectively afraid of each other to this extent.

Unfortunately, what is right doesn’t always prevail. As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much. Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s.

The battle for Omegle has been lost, but the war against the Internet rages on. Virtually every online communication service has been subject to the same kinds of attack as Omegle; and while some of them are much larger companies with much greater resources, they all have their breaking point somewhere. I worry that, unless the tide turns soon, the Internet I fell in love with may cease to exist, and in its place, we will have something closer to a souped-up version of TV – focused largely on passive consumption, with much less opportunity for active participation and genuine human connection. If that sounds like a bad idea to you, please consider donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that fights for your rights online.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who used Omegle for positive purposes, and to everyone who contributed to the site’s success in any way. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep fighting for you.

Sincerely,

Leif K-Brooks

Founder, Omegle.com LLC”

[khaleesiofalicante]

DANIIIII

HIII

*rant alert* please skip if you want to 😭

So I recently joined college and suddenly all my professors want me to write research papers and make projects? It's so annoying and they literally didn't give us any guidelines, they told us to find a topic on our own and I don't know why I'm coming up so blank. I have never done anything like this in high-school and I'm just so confused. I don't know what to do man, I have been trying to research and read about how I should go about it but nah

For context, if you could maybe help in some way-

1. Subject-Microeconomics

Basically I have to choose anything that is happening around me and relate it to things like demand, supply consumer and producer behaviour.

For example- why is popcorn so highly priced in movie halls? (Can't take this one obv) but something like this that happens to us all the time but we don't realise it

2. Subject- Quantitative techniques

I basically have to perform 5 types of statistical data analysis on any topic. It's my first time doing something like this and I really impress them but I just feel so useless.

*rant closed*

Even if u didn't read this, I just wanted to say that sometimes u feel like my personal diary ❤️

Hey bb,

I've seen this issue with SO MANY college kids and that's because our secondary education system (like high school) absolutely does fuck all to teach kids about writing essays and creating projects and doing research. We're just used to memorizing text and filling in blanks and answering MCQs.

Sigh. Anyhoo, other than my qualms with the education system, let's see how we can help you.

So, what you're being asked to do (if i am not wrong) is to come up with a hypothesis. If you are expected to run a statistical test, then you need a hypothesis and variables.

A hypothesis is something like (if i sell my popcorn in a movie hall, i will have more sales). Then you test this hypothesis by running experiments (for eg you can sell popcorn in a few different places including the theatre and see where you made the most sales). But you need to make sure your data collection is consistent (for eg, you need to sell the same type of popcorn, sell it on the same day and time (Saturday 4 pm etc).

3. I was using the popcorn thingy as an example obviously. If your topic is about microeconomics, try to pick an easy topic you can work on since this is new to you. For eg: people are more likely to buy a product that has celebrity endorsement or why are hygiene products for women mostly in pink?

I think a good place to start is to speak with your lecturers and get some clarification. Trust me, this is so much better than assuming what they want and doing the wrong thing.

Perhaps as a first step, you can write down things you are unclear about regarding the assignment?

For example, i am not sure if you are expected to work with primary data (do your experiments and get your own data) or use secondary data (google something and write a report on it).

For example, for the popcorn thing, do you need to run some experiments (sounds like a lot of work but i am not sure how else you can run statistical tests without access to data) or just do a lit review on the topic and write an essay.

If you have an assignment brief or something, read it thoroughly. You can also ask some people in your class how they understood the assignment to see if they understood it the same or differently.

Good luck with it!

[oshacompliantmagicalgirl]

"Dear strangers,

From the moment I discovered the Internet at a young age, it has been a magical place to me. Growing up in a small town, relatively isolated from the larger world, it was a revelation how much more there was to discover – how many interesting people and ideas the world had to offer.

As a young teenager, I couldn’t just waltz onto a college campus and tell a student: “Let’s debate moral philosophy!” I couldn’t walk up to a professor and say: “Tell me something interesting about microeconomics!” But online, I was able to meet those people, and have those conversations. I was also an avid Wikipedia editor; I contributed to open source software projects; and I often helped answer computer programming questions posed by people many years older than me.

In short, the Internet opened the door to a much larger, more diverse, and more vibrant world than I would have otherwise been able to experience; and enabled me to be an active participant in, and contributor to, that world. All of this helped me to learn, and to grow into a more well-rounded person.

Moreover, as a survivor of childhood rape, I was acutely aware that any time I interacted with someone in the physical world, I was risking my physical body. The Internet gave me a refuge from that fear. I was under no illusion that only good people used the Internet; but I knew that, if I said “no” to someone online, they couldn’t physically reach through the screen and hold a weapon to my head, or worse. I saw the miles of copper wires and fiber-optic cables between me and other people as a kind of shield – one that empowered me to be less isolated than my trauma and fear would have otherwise allowed.

I launched Omegle when I was 18 years old, and still living with my parents. It was meant to build on the things I loved about the Internet, while introducing a form of social spontaneity that I felt didn’t exist elsewhere. If the Internet is a manifestation of the “global village”, Omegle was meant to be a way of strolling down a street in that village, striking up conversations with the people you ran into along the way.

The premise was rather straightforward: when you used Omegle, it would randomly place you in a chat with someone else. These chats could be as long or as short as you chose. If you didn’t want to talk to a particular person, for whatever reason, you could simply end the chat and – if desired – move onto another chat with someone else. It was the idea of “meeting new people” distilled down to almost its platonic ideal.

Building on what I saw as the intrinsic safety benefits of the Internet, users were anonymous to each other by default. This made chats more self-contained, and made it less likely that a malicious person would be able to track someone else down off-site after their chat ended.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I launched Omegle. Would anyone even care about some Web site that an 18 year old kid made in his bedroom in his parents’ house in Vermont, with no marketing budget? But it became popular almost instantly after launch, and grew organically from there, reaching millions of daily users. I believe this had something to do with meeting new people being a basic human need, and with Omegle being among the best ways to fulfill that need. As the saying goes: “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.”

Over the years, people have used Omegle to explore foreign cultures; to get advice about their lives from impartial third parties; and to help alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation. I’ve even heard stories of soulmates meeting on Omegle, and getting married. Those are only some of the highlights.

Unfortunately, there are also lowlights. Virtually every tool can be used for good or for evil, and that is especially true of communication tools, due to their innate flexibility. The telephone can be used to wish your grandmother “happy birthday”, but it can also be used to call in a bomb threat. There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.

I believe in a responsibility to be a “good Samaritan”, and to implement reasonable measures to fight crime and other misuse. That is exactly what Omegle did. In addition to the basic safety feature of anonymity, there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators. Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I’m proud of what we accomplished.

Omegle’s moderation even had a positive impact beyond the site. Omegle worked with law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to help put evildoers in prison where they belong. There are “people” rotting behind bars right now thanks in part to evidence that Omegle proactively collected against them, and tipped the authorities off to.

All that said, the fight against crime isn’t one that can ever truly be won. It’s a never-ending battle that must be fought and re-fought every day; and even if you do the very best job it is possible for you to do, you may make a sizable dent, but you won’t “win” in any absolute sense of that word. That’s heartbreaking, but it’s also a basic lesson of criminology, and one that I think the vast majority of people understand on some level. Even superheroes, the fictional characters that our culture imbues with special powers as a form of wish fulfillment in the fight against crime, don’t succeed at eliminating crime altogether.

In recent years, it seems like the whole world has become more ornery. Maybe that has something to do with the pandemic, or with political disagreements. Whatever the reason, people have become faster to attack, and slower to recognize each other’s shared humanity. One aspect of this has been a constant barrage of attacks on communication services, Omegle included, based on the behavior of a malicious subset of users.

To an extent, it is reasonable to question the policies and practices of any place where crime has occurred. I have always welcomed constructive feedback; and indeed, Omegle implemented a number of improvements based on such feedback over the years. However, the recent attacks have felt anything but constructive. The only way to please these people is to stop offering the service. Sometimes they say so, explicitly and avowedly; other times, it can be inferred from their act of setting standards that are not humanly achievable. Either way, the net result is the same.

Omegle is the direct target of these attacks, but their ultimate victim is you: all of you out there who have used, or would have used, Omegle to improve your lives, and the lives of others. When they say Omegle shouldn’t exist, they are really saying that you shouldn’t be allowed to use it; that you shouldn’t be allowed to meet random new people online. That idea is anathema to the ideals I cherish – specifically, to the bedrock principle of a free society that, when restrictions are imposed to prevent crime, the burden of those restrictions must not be targeted at innocent victims or potential victims of crime.

Consider the idea that society ought to force women to dress modestly in order to prevent rape. One counter-argument is that rapists don’t really target women based on their clothing; but a more powerful counter-argument is that, irrespective of what rapists do, women’s rights should remain intact. If society robs women of their rights to bodily autonomy and self-expression based on the actions of rapists – even if it does so with the best intentions in the world – then society is practically doing the work of rapists for them.

Fear can be a valuable tool, guiding us away from danger. However, fear can also be a mental cage that keeps us from all of the things that make life worth living. Individuals and families must be allowed to strike the right balance for themselves, based on their own unique circumstances and needs. A world of mandatory fear is a world ruled by fear – a dark place indeed.

I’ve done my best to weather the attacks, with the interests of Omegle’s users – and the broader principle – in mind. If something as simple as meeting random new people is forbidden, what’s next? That is far and away removed from anything that could be considered a reasonable compromise of the principle I outlined. Analogies are a limited tool, but a physical-world analogy might be shutting down Central Park because crime occurs there – or perhaps more provocatively, destroying the universe because it contains evil. A healthy, free society cannot endure when we are collectively afraid of each other to this extent.

Unfortunately, what is right doesn’t always prevail. As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much. Operating Omegle is no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically. Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s.

The battle for Omegle has been lost, but the war against the Internet rages on. Virtually every online communication service has been subject to the same kinds of attack as Omegle; and while some of them are much larger companies with much greater resources, they all have their breaking point somewhere. I worry that, unless the tide turns soon, the Internet I fell in love with may cease to exist, and in its place, we will have something closer to a souped-up version of TV – focused largely on passive consumption, with much less opportunity for active participation and genuine human connection. If that sounds like a bad idea to you, please consider donating to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that fights for your rights online.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who used Omegle for positive purposes, and to everyone who contributed to the site’s success in any way. I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep fighting for you.

Sincerely,

Leif K-Brooks

Founder, Omegle.com LLC"

[schoolofeconomicsblog]

What to Look for in an MSc Economics College

Choosing the right MSc Economics college is a big decision that can shape your career and open up new opportunities in the field of economics. With so many MSc economics colleges in India, it's important to know what factors truly matter when making your choice. Here are some key aspects to consider that can help you make an informed decision.

Course Curriculum and Structure

The course curriculum is the backbone of any academic programme. An ideal MSc Economics programme should cover a balance of theoretical concepts and practical applications. Look for colleges that offer a curriculum encompassing key areas like microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, and economic policy analysis. 

Some MSc Economics colleges in India and other places also offer specialisations in fields like financial economics, development economics, and environmental economics, which can be beneficial if you have a specific area of interest.

Faculty and Teaching Quality

The quality of teaching staff can make a huge difference in how well you grasp complex economic concepts. Top economics colleges in India and other places often boast experienced faculty with strong academic backgrounds, research expertise, and industry exposure. Look into the faculty profiles to see if they have published research in reputable journals, worked on industry projects, or held positions in advisory bodies.

Research Opportunities and Resources

If you have an interest in research, check if the MSc Economics college provides resources and support for research activities. Top economics colleges in India and other places usually have dedicated research centres, well-equipped libraries, and access to economic databases that support student research. Research opportunities can add significant value to your degree and can be especially helpful if you’re considering pursuing a PhD or a career in academia.

Industry Connections and Placement Support

Practical exposure is just as important as academic knowledge. Colleges with strong industry connections can offer internships, guest lectures, and networking opportunities with professionals in the field. Look for MSc economics colleges in India and other places that maintain good relationships with economic research institutes, financial organisations, and consulting firms.

Placement support is another essential factor to consider. Good MSc Economics colleges usually have a placement cell that helps students secure internships and full-time positions. Reviewing the college’s placement statistics, average salaries, and the companies that recruit from the campus can give you an idea of the career prospects you can expect after graduation.

Campus Environment and Peer Network

A positive campus environment can make your learning experience much more enjoyable. Look for a college that encourages collaborative learning, where students from diverse backgrounds come together to share ideas. Top economic colleges in India and other places often have a vibrant academic community, with clubs, events, and seminars that allow you to engage in discussions beyond the classroom.

Conclusion

Finding the right MSc Economics college requires a balance of academic quality, faculty expertise, research opportunities, industry connections, and a supportive learning environment. With numerous MSc economics colleges in India and other places, taking these factors into account can help you choose a programme that aligns with your career aspirations. By considering what each college has to offer, you can make an informed decision and set yourself on the path to a rewarding career in economics.

[minadevivarma]

 KSET Economics Syllabus: Comprehensive Guide for Aspiring Educators 

KSET for economics tests candidates over a wide range of economic principles and theories compared to those called for by most teaching and academic positions. A proper understanding of the KSET Economics syllabus will help candidates target their preparation properly, including fundamental and advanced topics in economics. Below is the detailed breakdown of syllabus to help you in preparing better. 

Microeconomics and Macroeconomics 

The KSET Economics syllabus starts with the foundation of both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Under the Microeconomics head, you are supposed to study consumer behavior, utility analysis, demand and supply theories, market structures-perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly-and price determination. He needs to know the concepts of elasticity and indifference curves and various production functions like Cobb-Douglas production function. 

The topics under the syllabus of Macroeconomics are about national income accounting, Keynesian theory, classical and new classical models, and also modern growth theories. Important topics are GDP, inflation, monetary and fiscal policy, unemployment, and economic fluctuations. All these principles help in analyzing economic performance as well as large-scale issues in the economy. 

Public Economics 

The Public Economics area looks at the role of the government in the economy. It covers public goods, tax principles, budget deficits and beyond, public expenditure, and social welfare policies. Some knowledge of the underpinnings of revenue, public debt, and market interventions by the government, like subsidies and taxes are added elements that should be cleared up with this syllabus. 

International Economics 

The International Economics component encompasses discussions of trade theories and policies, exchange rates, balance of payments, and international economic institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. The examiners would expect the candidate to be conversant with such theories as comparative advantage, Heckscher-Ohlin, and trade barriers in classical and modern trade theories. This aspect also covers foreign exchange markets and the effects of a change in currency on international transactions. 

Development Economics and Growth 

Development Economics involves economic development and issues related to growth in developing countries. These include theories of development, poverty, inequality, population growth, and rural-urban migration. Also, often studied key models are Rostow's Stages of Growth, Lewis's Dual Sector Model, and others. The candidates should also be aware of strategies for reducing poverty, goals of sustainable development, and impacts of education, health, and technology on the economy. 

Indian Economy 

Indian Economy examines the nation's process of economic planning, industrial policy, agricultural policy, and financial sector reforms. It discusses issues surrounding the Five-Year Plans, liberalization and globalization reforms implemented in 1991, current trends in the Indian economy, and its ongoing problems. The students would be required to explain some problems like unemployment, inflation, poverty, and the state's welfare and economic growth policies. 

Money and Banking 

Money and Banking develops the theme of nature and function of money, role of the central bank, and the monetary system. The syllabus includes money supply, interest rates, inflation, and banking reforms. Important in this area is understanding RBI policies, the structure of India's financial system, and problems related to monetary policy. 

Environmental Economics 

This section deals with resource conservation, pollution control, and sustainable development. It discusses topics including environmental policies; cost-benefit analysis in environmental projects, renewable resources, and the economic impact of climate change. They are expected to understand how economics helps manage environmental challenges and promote sustainability. 

Mathematical Economics and Econometrics 

Mathematical economics relates to mathematical concepts used to solve economic problems. These concepts involve calculus and linear algebra. Within this context, part of the syllabus involves optimizing techniques as well as economic modeling. Applicants must be able to work with equations, derivatives, and elasticities. 

Many knowledge areas are required in the application of statistics to economics. Hence, questions on regression analysis, hypothesis testing, and the use of probability distributions form another important category. 

Another important area that one needs to know about econometric models is how to apply these models in analyzing economic data or forecasting economic trends. 

Statistics for Economics 

This paper covers statistical techniques as well as data collection, sampling methods, and probability theory. Important topics in this cover central tendencies, correlation, regression, and index numbers. Critical statistical analysis is important to be used in economics as it helps candidates interpret data and make informed economic decisions. 

Preparation Tips for KSET Economics 

A student must master all sections in detail, and there should be emphasis on key theories, models, and real-world application. Using previous year's question papers can also be helpful to aid in practice, as this exposes the candidate to the format of the exam and frequently asked topics. Regular attempts, especially of complex topics such as Econometrics and Mathematical Economics, will help one understand it. 

Conclusion 

The KSET Economics syllabus brings along an array of topics, and hence, candidates must approach each section systematically. With appropriate and consistent preparation and a good understanding of the syllabus, candidates can really brighten up their prospects in the KSET exam. Economics touches upon every dimension of society and its decision-making. Mastery of these topics will not only help excel in the KSET exam but also lay a foundation for an academic and research future. 

[rupalic]

The Role of Agrochemicals in Feeding a Growing Global Population

Agrochemicals are chemical products used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and protect crops from pests, diseases, and weeds. They include fertilizers, pesticides (such as herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides), plant growth regulators, adjuvants, and others. The primary goal of agrochemicals is to improve the productivity and quality of crops.

Agrochemicals Market Growth Drivers

Increasing Food Demand: With a growing global population, there is a rising demand for food production, driving the need for agrochemicals to enhance crop yield.

Technological Advancements: Innovations in agrochemical formulations and delivery methods, such as controlled-release fertilizers and bio-based pesticides, are contributing to market growth.

Government Support: Many governments worldwide support agricultural practices and provide subsidies for agrochemical use to ensure food security.

Rising Awareness of Crop Protection: Increased awareness of the benefits of using pesticides and fertilizers to protect crops from diseases and pests.

Agrochemicals Market Analysis

The agrochemicals market has been growing steadily due to the rising demand for food, population growth, and the need for higher agricultural productivity. The agrochemicals market has been influenced by some of the macroeconomic and microeconomic factors occurring in some of the key countries around the globe. This would prove potential enough to drive the market significantly in terms of value sales during the forecast period. The agrochemicals market size is estimated to be valued at USD 235.2 billion in 2023. It is projected to reach USD 282.2 billion by 2028, recording a CAGR of 3.7% during the forecast period. With the rise in demand and preference for organic food products, agrochemical manufacturers have been strategizing to develop organic farm-friendly natural plant growth promoters. These products are supervised and certified by regulatory bodies, such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the European Food Safety Authority, among others, in respective regions.

How do the principles of the 4Rs (right source, right rate, right time, right place) enhance the integration of agrochemicals in precision farming?

Various precision agriculture tools help farmers assess and manage the nutrient requirements of their crops. These tools include the 4Rs principle—right source, right rate, right time, and right place—along with soil sensors, variable rate prescriptions, yield maps, decision support software, soil mapping, multispectral imaging, auto-guidance systems, and leaf color charts. Precision farming also integrates data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and sensor systems to accurately determine the specific amounts of fertilizer and water needed by crops at any given moment. Autonomous vehicles are then used to apply these nutrients in precise quantities and locations.

Know about the assumptions considered for the study

While applying fertilizers is essential for enhancing soil productivity, excessive use can severely harm soil health. To address this, researchers at Imperial College London developed a predictive testing kit in 2022. This kit enables farmers to measure current levels of ammonia and nitrate in the soil and predict future levels based on climatic conditions. This innovation allows for more customized and efficient fertilizer application, tailored to the specific needs of each soil type and crop.

Global Quest for Higher Crop Yields Accelerates Agrochemicals Market Expansion

Ongoing advancements in agricultural technology have transformed farming practices. As agricultural commodities are increasingly exported and imported across diverse regions, particularly in developing areas, new harmful organisms have emerged, heightening the demand for innovative active ingredients to protect crops. The globalization of the agrochemical industry has a significant impact on the crop protection markets in Asia. With the highest population growth rate, rising food production needs, and robust economic development, there is a growing demand for various agrochemicals, including herbicides and pesticides.

Cereals & Grains Hold a Significant Agrochemicals Market Share

The consumption of cereals and grains is essential to meet the dietary needs of an expanding global population. To keep up with this increasing demand, it is necessary to boost the yield of cereals and grains. The use of agrochemicals plays a significant role in achieving this by enhancing crop productivity. According to FAO reports, global cereal utilization is expected to rise in 2023/24 compared to previous years, with higher global cereal stocks projected by 2024. This indicates a stable supply of cereals to satisfy demand. The rising demand for cereals underscores the need to improve agricultural productivity, which may drive increased use of agrochemicals to maximize yields and meet global food requirements.

Innovative Breakthroughs: What’s New in the Global Agrochemicals Market?

In August 2023, Bayer AG invested USD 231.3 million in the construction and development of a new R&D facility at its Monheim site. This was the largest single financial investment in crop protection made in Germany within the past forty years. The R&D facility was meant to accommodate some 200 employees. Bayer was well on the way to developing the next generation of safe and sustainable crop protection products, with a number of advanced safety measures, including early safety screens and artificial intelligence.

In April 2024, UPL announced the completion of the acquisition of Corteva Agriscience's global Mancozeb fungicide business ex-China, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Switzerland, and the countries in the EU. Mancozeb is a highly effective fungicide used for preventing plant diseases across various crops and was part of the acquired business.

ADAMA announced the launch of Avastel, Maganic, Maxentis, and Forapro fungicides in April 2024. This expansion broadened ADAMA's product portfolio.

Agrochemicals Industry Trends

Bio-based Agrochemicals: There is a growing trend towards organic farming and sustainable agricultural practices, leading to increased demand for bio-based agrochemicals.

Precision Agriculture: The adoption of precision farming techniques is boosting the demand for efficient and targeted agrochemical application.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM): IPM strategies are gaining popularity as they combine biological, mechanical, and chemical methods to control pests, reducing the excessive use of chemical pesticides.

Digital Agriculture: The use of digital tools and platforms for monitoring and managing crops and agrochemical usage is an emerging trend.

South America's Agrochemical Market Set to Reach USD 73.2 Billion: The Role of Brazil and Argentina

Growth in South America is largely driven by Brazil and Argentina, two of the world's leading agricultural producers, whose expansion is expected to surpass the regional average. Both countries are major soybean producers, making significant contributions to global oilseed production. Favorable trade policies in South America have further supported the growth of oilseeds. According to FAOSTAT's 2022 report, Brazil ranks among the top four largest agricultural producers due to its vast land and labor resources, with Argentina following closely. The region's growth is also fueled by increased adoption of agrochemicals and advancements in farming techniques, supported by global agrochemical companies establishing robust distribution networks in Brazil and Argentina.

Obtain precise market intelligence that delivers exceptional value for your investment

[tuftsuep]

Gideon Emmanuel: UEP Thesis Award Nominee, 2023

A Form of Government Capable of Accomplishing the Agenda of the Hour: The policy paradigms and organizational dynamics of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

This thesis builds on an extensive review of the literature around public support of economic innovation. The author creates their own framework for assessing how a public agency can pursue this mission, and then applies it to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. Through extensive interviews, the author establishes a history of the origins and evolution of MassCEC that is a contribution to the field.

Abstract

Can the state attempt to steer the economy towards democratically determined goals, and how might progressive policy makers build a government capable of enacting such a program? To explore these questions, this research project applies a novel framework for exploring the complexity of a microeconomic policy agency to a case study of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, an agency founded in 2008 to help develop Massachusetts's clean energy economy. The primary goal of the research was to describe a microeconomic policy agency's articulation and delivery of an economic agenda. The secondary goal was to see if conceptual typologies from the literature could reveal opportunities for the agency. The analysis revealed significant opportunities for the agency to increase its impact, better deliver its core tasks, and more clearly tell its story by clarifying its purposes and reorganizing itself.

[roots07123]

Breast Implants Market Comprehensive Statistics, Growth Rate, and Future Trends 2035

The new market research report titled ‘Breast Implants Market’, published by Roots Analysis offers a comprehensive study of the Breast Implants Market, while estimating the overall market size and the size and share of the key regional segments of the global market over historical period, as well as the projected timeline of 2023-2035.

The global breast implants market size is estimated to grow from $19.2 billion in 2023 to $ 58.2 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 9.6% over the forecast period 2023-2035. The anticipated market growth is accredited to the significant surge in demand across the regional and global markets for the products and services offered by the Breast Implants Market. The latest study provides readers with a granular analysis of the major developmental elements of the global market, potential business avenues, and the overall market dynamics. The report has been specially curated to offer a deep understanding of the competitive terrain of the global market, highlighting the leading market rivals, their market positions, product portfolios, gross revenue shares, profit margins, pricing analysis, sales network & distribution channels, and financial standing.

Type of Gender

Females

Males

Type of End User

Hospitals

Clincs / Med Spas and Dermatology / Cosmetology Centers

Other End Users

Type of Distribution Channel

Direct Distribution

Indirect Distribution

Key Geographical Regions

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

Latin America

MENA

Key players

Allergan Aesthetics

BioPlus

Collplant

GC Aesthetics

Mentor

Polytech

Sientra

Symatese

The latest research report specializes in the in-depth analysis of the macroeconomic and microeconomic factors affecting the Breast Implants Market development. The report also concentrates on the regulatory framework that is shaping the future of the global market. New and existing pricing structures, emerging application areas, and upcoming investment opportunities have also been detailed in the report. The report further studies the projected growth factors that are expected to influence the market dynamics over the forecast timeframe.

The study is inclusive of a comprehensive analysis of the commonly used marketing and promotional strategies adopted by the key market players. Taking into account the existing market development factors, historical events, and recent market trends, the study presents a balanced opinion on the future scenario of the Breast Implants Market. It thus supports its opinion by discussing the key corporate strategies, such as mergers & acquisitions, takeovers, joint ventures, and strategic alliances, used by the market players to strengthen their global footprint.

Research Methodology

Our analysts have performed an accurate examination of the various aspects of the global market leveraging avant-garde primary and secondary sources of data collection. The report has gathered the necessary data and information from several reliable sources. Additionally, the report offers many strategic recommendations for companies involved in this ever-growing business sector to help them attain a competitive edge in the Breast Implants Market.

Thank you for reading our report. Kindly get in touch with us to know more about the report or to receive a customized copy of it. Our team will ensure the report is tailored according to your needs. 

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About Roots Analysis

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Can you provide an overview of the MBA curriculum?

1. Core Subjects

In the first year, students usually focus on core subjects that cover essential business concepts. These include(IIBS):

Marketing Management: Principles of marketing, consumer behavior, product management, digital marketing, etc.

Financial Management: Financial analysis, corporate finance, investment management, and financial planning.

Human Resource Management: Recruitment, employee relations, performance management, and organizational behavior.

Operations Management: Supply chain management, quality management, production planning, and logistics.

Quantitative Techniques: Data analysis, business statistics, and decision-making models.

Economics for Managers: Microeconomics, macroeconomics, and their application to business.

Organizational Behavior: Team dynamics, leadership, motivation, and workplace culture.

Business Law & Ethics: Legal environment, ethical issues in business, and corporate governance.

Management Information Systems: Understanding information systems, IT for business, and database management.

Entrepreneurship Development: Basics of starting and managing new ventures, innovation, and business planning.

2. Specialization Subjects

In the second year, students choose their area(s) of specialization. IIBS typically offers various specializations, including:

Marketing: Advanced topics like brand management, advertising, sales promotion, and international marketing.

Finance: Subjects like corporate finance, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, and investment banking.

Human Resources: Areas such as training and development, compensation management, industrial relations, and HR analytics.

Information Technology: Covering IT strategy, e-business, data mining, and IT project management.

International Business: International trade, global marketing, cross-cultural management, and foreign exchange.

Operations: Advanced topics in supply chain optimization, service operations, project management, and operations strategy.

Business Analytics: Big data analytics, predictive modeling, business intelligence, and data visualization.

3. Elective Courses

Students can also select elective courses in their areas of interest to gain broader insights. Electives may include:

Digital Marketing

Investment Analysis & Portfolio Management

Consumer Behavior

Leadership & Team Building

Strategic HRM

Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Data Analysis & Interpretation

4. Practical Learning

Internships: IIBS encourages students to complete internships with companies to gain hands-on experience in their fields.

Live Projects: Many MBA programs include live industry projects, where students work with organizations to solve real-world business problems.

Workshops & Seminars: These provide opportunities to learn from industry experts and gain insights into current business trends and practices.

Case Studies: The curriculum often includes case studies to help students analyze real-life business scenarios and develop problem-solving skills.

5. Capstone Project

The program typically culminates in a capstone project where students apply what they’ve learned throughout the program to a comprehensive business project. This may involve developing a business plan, conducting market research, or solving a specific organizational problem.

6. Soft Skills Development

Courses on communication skills, leadership, teamwork, and public speaking are integrated into the program to prepare students for managerial roles.

Students often participate in group activities, presentations, and workshops to develop these skills.

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MBA PROGRAMS

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the replication of human intellect in computers that have been designed to emulate human cognitive processes through learning, thinking, and problem-solving. Large-scale data analysis, pattern recognition, decision-making, and machine learning are all capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

AI types:

    AI in general: This alludes to a more sophisticated AI that is capable of carrying out any cerebral work that a human can. Since general AI has not yet been established, it is still theoretical.

    A kind of artificial intelligence called machine learning (ML) allows computers to recognize patterns in data, learn from them, and make judgments with little help from humans.

A graduate-level program called the Master of Business Administration (MBA) equips students with enhanced knowledge and abilities in business and management. For people hoping to hold administrative and leadership positions across a range of sectors, this is one of the most sought-after degrees. A typical MBA program offers possibilities for specialization in several business disciplines in addition to covering a wide variety of topics.

Essential Elements of an MBA Curriculum:

    Fundamental Curriculum:

Finance: Gaining knowledge about corporate finance, investment techniques, and financial management.

Marketing: Acquiring knowledge about market research, branding, and customer behavior.

Supply chains, logistics, and production processes are all managed by operations managers.

Accounting includes cost control, financial reporting, and auditing.

Economics: The study of macro- and microeconomics in relation to business choices.

Strategy: Creating long-term plans and competing strategies.

Organizational behavior is the study of how people act both individually and in groups inside an organization.

Leadership and Ethics: emphasizing corporate social responsibility, moral decision-making, and leadership philosophies.

    Elective Courses and Specializations: Students can select electives to focus on a variety of topics, including technology management, international business, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and human resources.

    Capstone Projects and Internships: A capstone project or internship is a requirement of many MBA programs. It allows students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world business problems, frequently working in collaboration with businesses.

    Opportunities for Networking: MBA schools offer a wealth of opportunities for networking with instructors, alumni, peers, and business professionals. These connections can be helpful for advancing one's career.

    Case studies are a popular teaching technique in MBA programs where students examine actual business situations and brainstorm possible fixes.

Development of Soft Skills: Communication, negotiation, leadership, and teamwork are prioritized.

MBA Program Types:

    Full-Time MBA: Usually a one to two-year program intended for individuals able to devote themselves to studying full-time. People who are just starting out in their jobs or who want to make a big professional move frequently pursue it.

    Part-Time MBA: Designed for professionals in the workforce who wish to continue their education while they work. Weekends and nights are common times for classes to be offered.

    The Executive MBA program is designed for seasoned professionals (often with over a decade of experience) who aspire to progress into higher-level leadership positions. High-level strategic management is the main emphasis of the usually part-time programs.

 Online MBA: Provides students with the option to finish their degree at their own pace. For people who need to balance, it is perfect.

The Global MBA program focuses on worldwide business and may provide study abroad options or collaborations with multinational organizations.

PROGRAMS

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Marketing

Human Resources

Finance

Entrepreneurship

Logistics

Executive Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA)

Marketing

Human Resources

Finance

Entrepreneurship,

Logistics

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MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

A graduate-level program called the Master of Business Administration (MBA) equips students with enhanced knowledge and abilities in business and management. For people hoping to hold administrative and leadership positions across a range of sectors, this is one of the most sought-after degrees. A typical MBA program offers possibilities for specialization in several business disciplines in addition to covering a wide variety of topics.

Essential Elements of an MBA Curriculum:Fundamental Curriculum:

Finance: Gaining knowledge about corporate finance, investment techniques, and financial management. Marketing: Acquiring knowledge about market research, branding, and customer behavior. Supply chains, logistics, and production processes are all managed by operations managers. Accounting includes cost control, financial reporting, and auditing. Economics: The study of macro- and microeconomics in relation to business choices. Strategy: Creating long-term plans and competing strategies. Organizational behavior is the study of how people act both individually and in groups inside an organization. Leadership and Ethics: emphasizing corporate social responsibility, moral decision-making, and leadership philosophies.Elective Courses and Specializations: Students can select electives to focus on a variety of topics, including technology management, international business, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and human resources. Capstone Projects and Internships: A capstone project or internship is a requirement of many MBA programs. It allows students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world business problems, frequently working in collaboration with businesses. Opportunities for Networking: MBA schools offer a wealth of opportunities for networking with instructors, alumni, peers, and business professionals. These connections can be helpful for advancing one's career. Case studies are a popular teaching technique in MBA programs where students examine actual business situations and brainstorm possible fixes.

Development of Soft Skills: Communication, negotiation, leadership, and teamwork are prioritized.

MBA Program Types:Full-Time MBA: Usually a one to two-year program intended for individuals able to devote themselves to studying full-time. People who are just starting out in their jobs or who want to make a big professional move frequently pursue it. Part-Time MBA: Designed for professionals in the workforce who wish to continue their education while they work. Weekends and nights are common times for classes to be offered. The Executive MBA program is designed for seasoned professionals (often with over a decade of experience) who aspire to progress into higher-level leadership positions. High-level strategic management is the main emphasis of the usually part-time programs.

Online MBA: Provides students with the option to finish their degree at their own pace. For people who need to balance, it is perfect. The Global MBA program focuses on worldwide business and may provide study abroad options or collaborations with multinational organizations. PROGRAMS Master of Business Administration (MBA) • Marketing • Human Resources • Finance • Entrepreneurship • Logistics Executive Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA) • Marketing • Human Resources • Finance • Entrepreneurship, • Logistics

BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) BBA - Bachelor of Business Administration BBA - Logistics In collaboration with Skill Sector Council Of India BBA - Retail Operations In collaboration with Skill Sector Council Of India BBA - Tourism & Hospitality In collaboration with Skill Sector Council Of India BBA - Digital Marketing In collaboration with Upgrad BBA - Business Analytics In collaboration with Upgrad BBA - FinTech In collaboration with Datagami BBA - International Business Accelerated Program (Finance/Business Analytics) @Umass Lowell,USA Doctoral Ph.D. - Management

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A graduate-level program called the Master of Business Administration (MBA) equips students with enhanced knowledge and abilities in business and management. For people hoping to hold administrative and leadership positions across a range of sectors, this is one of the most sought-after degrees. A typical MBA program offers possibilities for specialization in several business disciplines in addition to covering a wide variety of topics. Essential Elements of an MBA Curriculum:Fundamental Curriculum:

Finance: Gaining knowledge about corporate finance, investment techniques, and financial management. Marketing: Acquiring knowledge about market research, branding, and customer behavior. Supply chains, logistics, and production processes are all managed by operations managers. Accounting includes cost control, financial reporting, and auditing. Economics: The study of macro- and microeconomics in relation to business choices. Strategy: Creating long-term plans and competing strategies. Organizational behavior is the study of how people act both individually and in groups inside an organization. Leadership and Ethics: emphasizing corporate social responsibility, moral decision-making, and leadership philosophies.Elective Courses and Specializations: Students can select electives to focus on a variety of topics, including technology management, international business, finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and human resources. Capstone Projects and Internships: A capstone project or internship is a requirement of many MBA programs. It allows students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world business problems, frequently working in collaboration with businesses. Opportunities for Networking: MBA schools offer a wealth of opportunities for networking with instructors, alumni, peers, and business professionals. These connections can be helpful for advancing one's career. Case studies are a popular teaching technique in MBA programs where students examine actual business situations and brainstorm possible fixes.

Development of Soft Skills: Communication, negotiation, leadership, and teamwork are prioritized.

MBA Program Types:Full-Time MBA: Usually a one to two-year program intended for individuals able to devote themselves to studying full-time. People who are just starting out in their jobs or who want to make a big professional move frequently pursue it. Part-Time MBA: Designed for professionals in the workforce who wish to continue their education while they work. Weekends and nights are common times for classes to be offered. The Executive MBA program is designed for seasoned professionals (often with over a decade of experience) who aspire to progress into higher-level leadership positions. High-level strategic management is the main emphasis of the usually part-time programs.

Online MBA: Provides students with the option to finish their degree at their own pace. For people who need to balance, it is perfect. The Global MBA program focuses on worldwide business and may provide study abroad options or collaborations with multinational organizations.

PROGRAMS Master of Business Administration (MBA) Marketing Human Resources Finance Entrepreneurship Logistics Executive Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA) Marketing Human Resources Finance Entrepreneurship, Logistics

BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) BBA - Bachelor of Business Administration BBA - Logistics In collaboration with Skill Sector Council Of India BBA - Retail Operations In collaboration with Skill Sector Council Of India BBA - Tourism & Hospitality In collaboration with Skill Sector Council Of India BBA - Digital Marketing In collaboration with Upgrad BBA - Business Analytics In collaboration with Upgrad BBA - FinTech In collaboration with Datagami BBA - International Business Accelerated Program (Finance/Business Analytics) @Umass Lowell,USA Doctoral Ph.D. - Management

Overview Through a partnership with one of the world’s biggest tech companies, SR University’s cutting-edge programs have been designed with a blend of pragmatic and theoretical concepts that build a firm foundation for students in the core areas of Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence. The programs provide students with tools to identify problems that are best solved by means of a computer. Students learn how to design and implement effective, economical and creative solutions for the same. SR University ensures that the graduates are equipped with knowledge on design, development, deployment and management of both software and hardware in computer systems.

Microsoft’s partnership with SRU provides industry aligned B.Tech programs that equip students with industry relevant skill sets. Content and curriculum developed to enable project-based and experiential learning Students will be skilled in future technology requirements that drive campus recruitment Near-Real time awareness on the market’s latest technology trends and practices Digital labs that accelerate research and provide near-Industry experience to students Hackathons organized by Microsoft and its partners to find talent among students State-of-the-art learning paths and industry recognized certifications Equipped with the right collaborations, infrastructure, curriculum and training, SRU is a learning center known for intelligent technologies and innovation. Vision To accelerate the pace of transformation and advancement of the regional innovation ecosystem through academic excellence, industry relevance, and social responsibility. Mission Produce technically competent, industry–ready and socially conscious leaders.. Engage in path- breaking research and disseminate the outcomes Promote interdisciplinary learning. Collaborate with industry, Government , and non-profit organizations for the benefit of the community