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mostlysignssomeportents · 14 days ago

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Brother makes a demon-haunted printer

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in RICHMOND TOMORROW (Mar 5) and in AUSTIN> on Mar 10. More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.

You guys, I don't want to bum you out or anything, but I think there's a good chance than some self-described capitalists aren't really into capitalism.

Sorry.

Take incentives: Charlie Munger, capitalism's quippiest pitchman, famously said, "Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome." And here's some mindblowing horseshoe theory for ya: Munger agrees with the noted Communist agitator Adam Smith, whose anti-rentier, pro-government-regulation jeremiad "The Wealth of Nations" contains this notorious passage:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.

Incentives matter – if you design a system that permits abuse, you should expect abuse. Now, I'm not 100% on board with this: every one of us has ways to undetectably cheat the system and enrich ourselves, but most of the time, most of us play by the rules.

But it's different for corporations: the myth of "shareholder supremacy" has reached pandemic levels among the artificial lifeforms we call corporate persons, and it's impossible to rise through the corporate ranks without repeating and believing the catechism that there is a law that requires executives to lie, cheat and steal if it results in an extra dollar for the investors, in the name of "fiduciary duty":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/18/falsifiability/#figleaves-not-rubrics

And this attitude has leaked out into politics and everyday life, so that many of our neighbors have been brainwashed into thinking that a successful cheat is a success in life, that pulling a fast one "makes you smart":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

In a world dominated by a belief in the moral virtue and legal necessity of ripping off anyone you can get away with cheating, then, sure, any system that permits cheating is a system in which cheating will occur.

This shouldn't be controversial, but if so, how are we to explain the whole concept of the Internet of Things? Installing networked computers into our appliances, office equipment, vehicles and homes is an invitation of mischief: the software in those computers can be remotely altered after you purchase them, taking away the features you paid for and then selling them back to you.

Now, an advocate for market-based solutions has a ready-made response to this: if a company downgrades a device you own, this merely invites another company to step in with a disenshittifying plug-in that makes things better. If the company that made your garage-door opener pushes an over-the-air update that blocks you from using an ad-free, well-designed app and forces you to use an enshittified app that forces you to look at ads before you can open the garage, well, that's an opportunity for a rival company to sell you a better software update for your garage-door opener, one that restores the lost functionality:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

I'm no hayekpilled market truefan, but I'm pretty sure that would work.

However.

The problem is that since 1998, that kind of reverse-engineering has been a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans bypassing "an effective access control"

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

There's a pretty obvious incentive at play when companies have the ability to unilaterally alter how their products work after you buy them and you are legally prohibited to change how the product works after you buy them. This is the first lesson of the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

I've been banging this drum for decades now – like when I got into a public (friendly) spat with the editor of Wired magazine over their reviews of DRM-based media devices. I argued that it was irresponsible to review a device that could be unilaterally downgraded by the manufacturer at any time, without – at a minimum – noting that the feature you're buying the gadget for might disappear without warning after you've shelled out your hard-earned money:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/painful-burning-dribble/#law-of-intended-consequences

Of course, companies that get a reputation for these kinds of shenanigans might lose market share to better competitors. Sure, if the company that made your phone or your thermostat or your insulin pump reached into it across the internet and made it worse, you're shit out of luck when it comes to that device. But you can buy your next device from a better company, right?

Well, sure – in a competitive market, that's a plausible theory of "market discipline." Companies that fear losing business to rivals might behave themselves better.

In theory.

But in practice, the world's "advanced economies" have spent the past 40 years running an uncontrolled experiment in what happens if you don't enforce competition law, and instead allow companies to buy all their competitors. The result is across-the-board industrial oligopolies, cartels, duopolies and monopolies in nearly every category of good and service:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Now, even a duopoly has some competition. If you don't like Coke, there's always Pepsi. But again, in practice, companies in concentrated industries find it easy to "tacitly collude" to adopt one another's worst habits – the differences between the outrageous payment processing charged by Apple's App Store and the junk fees charged by Google Play are about as meaningful as the differences between Coke and Pepsi.

Which brings me to printers.

I know.

Ugh.

Printers are the worst and HP is the worst of the worst. For years, HP has been abusing its market dominance – and its customers' wallets – by inflating the price of ink and rolling out countermeasures to prevent you from refilling your old cartridges or buying third-party ink. Worse, HP have mastered the Darth Vader MBA, bushing updates to its printers that sneakily downgrade them after you've bought them and taken them home.

Here's a sneaky trick HP came up with: they send a "security update" to your printer. After you click "OK," a little progress bar zips across the screen and the printer reboots itself, and then…nothing. The printer declares itself to be "up to date" and works exactly like it did before you installed the update. But inside the printer, a countdown timer has kicked off, and then, months later, the "security update" activates itself, like a software Manchurian Candidate.

Because that "security update" protects the security of HP, against HP customers. It is designed to detect and reject the very latest third-party ink cartridges, which means that if you've just bought a year's worth of ink at Costco, you might wake up the next day and discover that your printer will no longer accept them – because of an update you ran six months before.

Why does HP put such a long fuse on its logic bomb? For the same reason that viruses like covid evolve to be contagious before you show symptoms. If the update immediately broke compatibility with third party ink, word would spread, and some HP customers would turn off their printers' wifi before the "security update" could be applied to them.

By asymptomatically incubating the infection over a long, patient timescale, HP maximizes the spread of the contagion, guaranteeing a global pandemic of enshittiification:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

HP has done this – and worse – over and over, and every time I write about it, people pop up to recommend their Brother printers as the enshittification-free alternative. I own a Brother, an HL3170-CDW laser printer that's basically indestructible, cheerfully accepts third-party toner, and costs almost nothing to run.

But I still don't connect it to my wifi. The idea that Brother is a better company than HP – that is possesses some intrinsic antienshittificatory virtue – has always struck me as a foolish belief. Brother has means, motive and opportunity to push over-the-air downgrades to block third-party ink as HP.

Which is exactly what they've done.

Yesterday, Louis Rossman, hero of the Right to Repair movement, revealed that Brother had just pushed a mandatory over-the-air update that locks out third-party ink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpHX_9fHNqE

Rossman has a thorough technical breakdown of the heist, but it boils down to this. Brother is just as shit as HP. Look from the men to the pigs and the pigs to the men all you want – you will never spot the difference. Take the Pepsi Challenge – bet you won't be able to guess which is which:

https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Brother_ink_lockout_%26_quality_sabotage

This was the absolutely predictable outcome of the regulatory incentives our corporate overlords created, the enormous, far-reaching power we handed to these corporations. With that great power came no responsibility:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#franklinite

Filling our devices with computers that run programs that can be changed in secret, that we're not allowed to inspect or alter? It's a recipe for a demon-haunted world, where the devices we entrust with our livelihood, our privacy and our wellbeing are possessed by hellions who escape from the digital Tartarus and are unleashed upon humanity.

Demons have possessed the Internet of Things. It's in Teslas:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

and in every other car, too:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

Our devices – phones, pacemakers, appliances and home security systems – are designed to prevent us to find out what they're doing. That means that when malicious software infects them, then – by design – these devices prevent us from knowing about it or doing anything about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/18/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/05/printers-devil/#show-me-the-incentives-i-will-show-you-the-outcome

#pluralistic #brother #printers #ink #ink-stained wretches #ink wars #demon-haunted world #drm #dmca #dmca 1201 #anticirumvention #incentives matter #ulysses pacts #enshittification #darth vader mba

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thelibraryghost · 11 months ago

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A Young Person's Guide to 18th-Century Western Fashion

unabridged version at blogspot

General info Cox, Abby. "I Wore 18th-Century Clothing *Every Day for 5 YEARS & This Is What I Learned (Corsets Aren't Bad!)." YouTube. May 10, 2020. Cullen, Oriole. “Eighteenth-Century European Dress.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Glasscock, Jessica. "Eighteenth-Century Silhouette and Support." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Accessories Banner, Bernadette. "Women's Pockets Weren't Always a Complete Disgrace | A Brief History: England, 15th c - 21st c." YouTube. April 10, 2021. Colonial Williamsburg. "#TradesTuesday: Men's Accessories." YouTube. June 13, 2021. Murden, Sarah. "The Georgian era fashion for straw hats." All Things Georgian. December 6, 2018. Cosmetics & hygiene Cox, Abby. "I Followed an 18th-Century Moisturizer & Sunscreen Recipe & it kinda worked??." YouTube. February 21, 2021. Cox, Abby. "We tried making *5* different 250 year old rouge (blush) recipes || [real] regencycore makeup." YouTube. August 29, 2021. JYF Museums. "Hygiene in the 18th Century | From the Farm to the Army." YouTube. August 21, 2021. Décor Heckscher, Morrison H. “American Rococo.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. Munger, Jeffrey. “French Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. Formal wear SnappyDragon. "This dressing gown changed fashion forever : the feminist history of going out in loungewear." YouTube. April 15, 2022. Stowell, Lauren. "The Many Types of 18th Century Gowns." American Duchess. March 15, 2013. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Cottagecore Style Is Much Older Than You Think." YouTube. June 30, 2021. Hair care Cox, Abby. "I made 250-year-old Hair Products Using Original Recipes (and animal fat...)." YouTube. November 7, 2021. Cox, Abby. "I tried a 300-year-old hair care routine for a year & this is what I learned (it's awesome!)." YouTube. January 23, 2022. Cox, Abby. "What's the Deal with 18th Century Wigs? (and why Bridgerton really messed this up)." YouTube. June 1, 2023. Laundry Cox, Abby. "Making 300 Year Old SLIME for Laundry Day." YouTube. June 15, 2023. Townsends. "Historical Laundry Part 2: No Washing Machine, No Dryer, Hit It With A Stick?" YouTube. June 3, 2019. Outer- & working-wear JYF Museum. "Getting Dressed | Clothing for an 18th Century Middling Woman." YouTube. March 18, 2021. Major, Joanne. "The practicalities of wearing riding habits, and riding ‘en cavalier’." All Things Georgian. March 12, 2019. Rudolph, Nicole. "What did Pirates ACTUALLY Wear? Fashion at Sea in the 18th c & Our Flag Means Death Costumes." YouTube. May 8, 2022. Shoes Chin, Cynthia E. "Martha Washington's Shoes." George Washington's Mount Vernon. No date. Murden, Sarah. "18th-century shoes." All Things Georgian. December 15, 2015. Rudolph, Nicole. "Real 18th century Shoes? Historical Shoemaker Examines an Antique." YouTube. December 13, 2020. Textiles Cox, Abby. "18th Century Printed Cotton Do's & Don't's." American Duchess. December 23, 2019. Stowell, Lauren. "Fabrics for the 18th Century and Beyond." American Duchess. June 14, 2021. Townsends. "Oil Cloth - Waterproof Coverings for Your Campsite." YouTube. July 30, 2018. Undergarments Major, Joanne. "Quilted Petticoats: worn by all women and useful in more ways than one." All Things Georgian. November 20, 2018. Rudolph, Nicole. "Making 18th century Stays for the Ideal Body Shape : Historical Undergarments." YouTube. August 12, 2023. SnappyDragon. "RUMP ROAST : Ranking historical fashion's wildest fake butt pads." YouTube. October 27, 2023. Townsends. "Sewing Histories' Most Popular Garment - The Fabric Of History - Townsends." YouTube. September 3, 2022.

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askagamedev · 22 days ago

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Re: evangelist players vs. engaged players vs. those who fall off - does that not ever fall into the problem of trying to appeal to players who have no interest in sticking around and then alienating the evangelist/engaged players who loved the game for what it was? Too often I see studios try to broaden who their games appeal to, or try to capture the people who were never going to stick around in the first place, and utterly sacrifice their actual evangelists/engaged players and are left with no one who is happy with the end result.

I understand studios/the money behind the studios want to make the most possible money but we are now left with a market of video games where too many of them are all aiming to appeal to as many people as possible and thus appeal to no one. We're left with homogenous slop and for what? So many of these drop and flop, and when so many IPs and studios are forced to cater to this, the dedicated playerbase is left unhappy and alienated and they go elsewhere. Then the investors act shocked and scandalized that the studio didn't meet their "target goals" that were set to completely unrealistic standards.

You're conflating several issues.

First - evangelists are not known for good game design sense or business sense. They're known for their deep faith and love for the object of their beliefs, so much so that it drives them to preach. They tend to speculate based on their own feelings and projecting those values onto the player base at large, rather than gathering data and drawing conclusions from that. Trusting their judgement on decisions in fields they are not skilled in based on their feelings rather than collected data is unwise.

Second - all games are sinking ships. The rate at which they sink depends on a few key elements: the marketing spend to attract new and lapsed players, and a steady stream of new content to keep the new, returning, and current players. But every game is sinking because their players grow and change over time. Some finish school and get jobs, some start families, some quit to play other games, some drift apart from their friend groups and stop playing. Every game's days are numbered. This is why publishers keep pushing new ones - they need to stay afloat, and all of their current breadwinners are all sinking at various rates of decay. This means that publishers are always on the lookout for a new big winner to keep things going.

Third - We know that not all games will be successful. This has always been the case. Some of us are old enough to remember the term "shovelware" as a good example of this. The current lifestyle game status quo is a lot more sustainable than the old days, where a bad launch meant immediate layoffs and studio closures were much more commonplace.

The big takeaway here is that big failures are terrible for everybody involved, but a single big success can sustain a company for a long, long time - much longer than in the old days. Small successes don't earn as much or last as long as big ones, which is why publishers are betting big. As Charlie Munger said, "Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome". The current situation incentivizes long-term lifestyle games, which is why we keep building them.

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#the business of video games

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mydaddywiki · 10 months ago

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Ralph Friedgen

Physique: Heavyset Build

Ralph Harry Friedgen (born April 4, 1947-) is a former American football coach. He was most recently the special assistant coach for Rutgers in 2015 after serving as their offensive coordinator in the 2014 season. He was the head coach at the University of Maryland, College Park from 2000 to 2010. Friedgen was previously an offensive coordinator at Maryland, Georgia Tech, and in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers.

Affectionately known as “The Fridge” because, well he's a big daddy with chubby fingers, cute face, chubby cheeks, big belly, big thighs and calves. But wow… the filthy things I would do to this man. What? You know I love the big ones.

A native of Harrison, N.Y., Friedgen has been married since 1973 with three daughters.

Head Coaching Record Overall 75–50 Bowls 5–2

Accomplishments and Honors Championships: 1 ACC (2001) Awards: Broyles Award (1999), AFCA COY (2001), Associated Press COY (2001), Eddie Robinson COY (2001), George Munger Award (2001), Home Depot COY (2001), Sporting News COY (2001), Walter Camp COY (2001), Woody Hayes Trophy (2001), Bobby Dodd COY (2001), 2× ACC Coach of the Year (2001, 2010)

#mydaddywiki sports figures #football coach #Ralph Friedgen

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trans-corvo · 10 months ago

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Youtube Video Essayists part 2

I made one of these lists years ago, so if you're wondering why big names like hbomberguy and Kat Blaque aren't here, that's why.

Science and Tech

Miniminuteman - Archaeologist and science educator whose content focuses on archaeological mysteries and debunking pseduoarcheaology. Videos average about 20 minutes to an hour and a half.

Adam Something - Most of his videos focus on urbanism and transport (it's more interesting than it sounds, I promise), but he also occasionally covers politics and culture. His bread and butter is tearing apart impractical billionaire passion projects (hyperloop, the cybertruck, Munger Hall). Big fan of trains. Average video playtime is 10 to 20 minutes.

Petal Palmer - A pre-med student and cancer patient who covers true stories of medical oddities and malpractice. Some of my favourites are on the Tylenol murders, the woman who froze alive (and survived unscathed), and fraudulent cancer awareness orgs. Videos run from 10 minutes to an hour and a half.

Politics and Culture

Caelan Conrad - Their channel mainly covers gay and trans rights, with a focus on debunking right-wing narratives and commentators. Videos average 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

Fundie Fridays - Started as a channel where Jen did her makeup and talked about various figures and sects of Christian fundamentalism, has since grown to include her husband and to cover politics. Very respectful in her tone, and very funny. I'd recommend their videos on the Miracle Mineral Solution (bleach), Eugene Scott, Duck Dynasty, and Gwen Shamblin Lara. Their early videos are only around 10 to 20 minutes, but these days they run as long as an hour and a half.

Khadija Mbowe - Honestly, her channel could fit under any of these categories. Her content varies wildly, but is always engaging and thought provoking. I'd recommend her videos on meritocracy in health and weightloss, Poor Things and engaging with 'problematic' material, and Barbie and white feminism. Videos average 20 to 40 minutes

F.D Signifier - Very well researched and presented commentary on politics, media, and black manhood. I'd recommend his videos on Eminem and white rappers, what makes men desirable, white men and edge lord movies, and how black athletes are exploited. Videos average 40 minutes to an hour and a half.

Foreign Man in a Foreign Land - Commentary on race and Caribbean culture. I'd recommend his videos on racism in gaming, tourism as the new slavery, and Elizabeth II and english colonialism. Videos average 20 minutes to an hour.

Arts and Entertainment

Broey Deschanel - Channel focuses on film and film criticism. I'd highly recommend her videos on the problems with method acting, feeling cynical about Barbie, and the 'death' of cinema. Videos average about 20 to 50 minutes and have a high production value.

Jane Mulcahy - Film and tv analysis, with a focus on media aimed towards female audiences. Lighthearted but thoughtful. I'd recommend her videos on the Red White and Royal Blue movie, Lifetime 'Daddy' movies, and the 'psycho biddy' genre. Videos average 20 minutes to an hour.

Verily Bitchie - Examining movies and tv through a queer and feminist lense, along with occasional videos on culture on politics. I'd recommend her feminist critique of Doctor Who, a look at bisexual representation on TV, and her video on trial by tiktok. Videos average 10 minutes to an hour and a half.

Coldcrashpictures - Pretty standard long-form film analysis. I'd recommend his videos on the current state of Hollywood, Freaks (1932) and old school horror, the 2020 dumpster fire watchlist, and cinematic masculinity. Videos average 20 minutes to an hour.

Internet Culture

WURLD - Commentary on internet trends and culture. More lighthearted and off the cuff in her presentation. Best videos include Is Booktok Ruining Reading?, the obsession with reusable cups, and hustle culture is a nightmare. Videos run from 15 to 45 minutes.

Gabi Bell - A lot of variation in her content, ranging from internet culture, to (bad) movies, to (bad) tv. I'd recommend her videos on tiktok drama and fake verification. Videos average 10 to 50 minutes.

Tiffany Ferg - Content focused on internet analysis. I'd recommend her videos on concert culture, learned helplessness and tech illiteracy, and 'body trends' and plastic surgery. Videos average from 20 to 40 minutes.

Salem Tovar - Nuanced commentary on internet culture. I'd recommend her videos on gen Z's aesthetic obsession, millennial parenting problems, and filming strangers in public. Videos average from 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

Ro Ramdin - Probably the funniest person on this list, I can't recommend her enough. Videos are thoughtful well edited. I'd recommend her videos on Hogwarts Legacy and financially supporting JK Rowling, the NFT island, the metaverse, and XQC. Videos average 20 to 40 minutes.

Also, misc. video essays: 2010s Pop Feminism: A Painful Look Back, We Need to Talk about TikTok's Obsession with Face Reading and its Dark History, Transphobia: The Far Right and Liberalism, You're Wrong about Modern Art, Who is Killing Cinema? - A Murder Mystery, Transition Regret & the Fascism of Endings, I Debunked Every "Body Language Expert" on Youtube, These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us, How Conservatives Created (and Cancelled) Gender.

#video essays #basically my background noise when I'm drawing

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photomatt · 1 year ago

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Just learned the news that Charlie Munger passed. I feel so lucky he shared so much of his wisdom in writing and talks. His work and the work of those he influenced has been really consequential for my development, and I will continue to return to them. RIP.

#charlie munger #rip

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aussie-wbb · 5 months ago

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oops an anon asked for my WNBL expectations for this season, and I accidentally posted it too early, deleted it, and then found out that deletes the ask

Adelaide - basically have the same roster, hopefully they'll have a healthy Steph Talbot for the whole season. they've also got Isobel Borlase coming off of her first Olympics. Prediction: middle 3

Bendigo - kinda stacked tbh, they gained Sami and Marianna Tolo, so with Kelsey Griffin and Kelly Wilson they have a ton of experience. Success will depend on how quickly they learn to play together, and fitness levels. Prediction: top 2

Canberra - somewhat new roster? they've kept Jade and Nicole Munger, but Nyadiew, Chantel Horvat and Charli Collier are all new. they've got the third #1 WNBA draft pick (after LJ and Jackie Young) in Collier. Prediction: middle 3

Geelong - the newest kids on the block! Jaz Shelley leads the team in her first season since college, and is joined by Keely Froling from Sydney and Gemma Potter from Canberra. Brand new roster, not expecting a lot. Prediction: bottom 3

Perth - looking for revenge after losing last season's championship. Retained a lot of their main roster, added Ally Wilson, lost Aari McDonald. Anneli Maley, Ally Wilson and Amy Atwell are also all coming off of their first Olympics. Prediction: top 2.

Southside - reigning champs, but have a new head coach and have lost some key pieces (LJ, Cedes, Leilani, Nyadiew), but they also gained Alice Kunek. Prediction: middle 3

Sydney - last minute lost a couple of key players (Lauren Nicholson is pregnant, Jacy Sheldon won't be coming over). Still got Cayla, Mikaela and Shaneice, but the rest of the team is pretty new. Prediction: bottom 3

Townsville - basically lost everyone but Courtney Woods? But also gained Lauren Mansfield, Alex Fowler, Alicia Froling. Mostly new roster, not expecting much. Prediction: bottom 3

Sooo basically the tiers are:

top 2 - bendigo, perth

middle 3 - adelaide, canberra, southside

bottom 3 - geelong, sydney, townsville

#wnbl

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rppr-podcast · 2 months ago

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Scheduling Snafu: Galvanized Square Steel and Dahir Insaat

Have you heard of galvanized square steel, the Munger dorms or Dahir Insaat? Bridget, Caleb, Fae, and I explore weird architectural stories and videos on the Internet. This is a preview of Scheduling Snafu, a new series on the RPPR Patreon, where the RPPR cast discusses weird stuff we find on the Internet. This episode has been mirrored on Youtube so you can watch it and see what we saw during…

#bridget #caleb #Comedy #fae #memes #patreon #ross #scheduling snafu #video

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jose-rossetti · 6 months ago

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IL NUOVO ORDINE MONDIALE PASSA ANCHE DA RUSSIA E CINA - 1 Minute News

youtube

Non credo che nessuno che abbia aperto gli occhi possa credere che Russia e Cina siamo in contrapposizione al nuovo ordine mondiale,ma probabilmente certi valori che abbiamo ereditato di cui siamo fieri non hanno mai dichiarato di volerli eliminare e dimenticare, saremo come siamo sempre stati schiavi ho mucche da mungere ma per sperare a qualcosa che un giorno uno di noi possa esserci in prima fila tra le persone che decideranno come rinnizziare la società umana la vedo più probabile dove non ci sono esclusivamente dei Yes Man.

#Youtube

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frank-olivier · 1 year ago

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Mexico Unexplained

Pachita: Psychic Surgeon, Medium & Mystic (November 2017)

youtube

Ida Cuéllar

The story of Dr. Jacobo Grinberg, a researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, who sought to combine his interest in shamanism and telepathy with a more rigorous scientific understanding. His sudden disappearance in 1994 and the following police investigation forms the basis of this documentary study.

El secreto del doctor Grinberg (2020)

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Jeffrey Mishlove (New Thinking Allowed)

Alex Gomez-Marin, PhD, expresses his admiration and respect for the wide-ranging career of anthropologist/neurologist, Jacobo Grinberg, who mysteriously disappeared in 1994.

Alex Gomez-Marin: The Brain and the Universe - The Jacobo Grinberg Story (January 2024)

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Concrete Blonde - Bajo La Lune Mexicana

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Sean Munger

In 1998, several women associated with "Tensegrity," the belief system of 1970s New Age guru, cult leader and literary hoaxer Carlos Castaneda, vanished upon Castaneda's death. All but one of their cases remain unsolved. What happened to these women, and why did they follow Castaneda in the first place?

Sean Munger: What happend to the "Witches" of Carlos Castaneda? (July 2018)

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Jimmy Akin (Mysterious World)

In the late 1960s, Carlos Castaneda claimed to reveal the drug-fueled, mystical teachings of a Native American sorcerer, launching the New Age movement. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli explore who Castaneda was and what he taught and the truth behind the mysteries surrounding him.

Jimmy Akin: Carlos Castaneda - Godfather of the New Age (Death Cult?) (December 2020)

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Concrete Blonde - Jonestown

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Guru Viking

In this interview I am joined by Nyei Murez, personal student and scribe of best-selling author and nagual sorcerer Carlos Castaneda. We discuss who Castaneda was, and Nyei gives a detailed history of his lineage up to the present day. We find out how Nyei first met Castaneda, and explore her intensive course of study and training under his personal guidance. We learn about Castaneda’s writing process, including stories of Nyei’s close collaboration with him on several best selling books. Nyei also talks on the nature of power, and shares insights into the current geo-political situation.

Nyei Murez: Scribe of Carlos Castaneda (May 2020)

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In this interview I am once again joined by Nyei Murez, personal student and writing collaborator of best-selling author and nagual sorcerer Carlos Castaneda. In this discussion, we learn about the art of dreaming in the tradition of the nagual. Nyei talks about the various different stages and training approaches to the art of dreaming, including how to become lucid - waking up in the dream and even to changing the dream environment. We discuss how to identify beings from other realms, so called ‘dream scouts’, and how to meet and communicate with other people, living or dead, while asleep. Nyei also discusses how to use the dream state to manifest favourable circumstances in the waking world, and how to defend against psychic or energetic attack from other skilled dreamers.

Nyei Murez: The Art of Dreaming (June 2020)

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Thursday, March 7, 2024

#neuroscience #anthropology #shamanism #esp #psychical research #new age cult #presentation #documentary #interview #music #Youtube

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wellesleyunderground · 2 years ago

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Wellesley’s Inaccessibility Fails All Students, Not just Disabled Ones

Anon Wellesley ‘24

With reunion providing a space for current students to voice concerns to alums, accessibility continues to come up as an issue time and time again. As a collective letter to alums noted, Wellesley’s campus is inaccessible regardless of disability. From laundry only being accessible through narrow staircases (thank you, Claflin Hall, for the increased knee strain that provided) to consistent elevator breaks (such as an elevator in the Science Center remaining stuck in an open position on the ground floor for several days in December 2022), the physical environment is not ideal.

The good news is that, technically, the campus is becoming more physically accessible as buildings are updated. Through the capital projects update from Fall 2022 (accessible only through a Wellesley login), Severance Hall should become ADA-compliant after the summer, and (some of, based on the “LR only” note) Tower will be ADA-compliant in 2024. However, the update doesn’t indicate some dorms, such as Claflin, Munger, Beebe, and Shafer as becoming ADA-compliant. While, hopefully, these would mean these buildings are already compliant (although the Claflin laundry and the Quint’s tiny elevators make me doubt it), the lack of information is concerning.

In this update, they say “Extensive deferred maintenance on the Wellesley campus is a long-standing problem.” This results in massive, expensive repairs needing to be done that take buildings out of commission for extended periods of time, which could have been avoided with general maintenance when needed. When I discussed this with some faculty, though, I was told that maintenance gets deferred, in part, because of the intensive changes that would need to be made for ADA-compliance, such as Clapp’s shelves needing to be replaced so that they are at least 36 inches apart (2010 ADA 403.5.1), even though 42 inches would be better. Founders is (allegedly) also an example of this deferred maintenance, where braille can be found worn down to the point of illegibility.

Of course, ADA-compliance doesn’t technically work this way, and buildings are intended to be compliance even if no other alterations or additions are made, but there is a lot of language around allowances being made if the accessibility-oriented alterations aren’t readily achievable, which is a rather subjective definition. At least, that’s what I and some other students I know thought. Upon further research, however, the real loophole comes with the safe harbor of the 2010 ADA Standards, which lets buildings that meet the 1991 ADA Standards avoid updating their compliance … provided the safe-harbor-applicable elements haven’t been updated. With this, the College can continue being ADA-compliant without much work, as long they don’t modify the parts of the building that aren’t compliant with the 2010 standards. I haven’t the legal knowledge nor the mental capacity to read through the entirety of both the 1991 and 2010 standards for Title III to fully note which precise complaints I’ve heard would fall under this safe harbor (which is on an element-by-element basis, adding to the complications for a layperson), but this aligns what I’ve heard from faculty. A common cycle I’ve heard about is Accessibility and Disability Resources (ADR) receiving accessibility concerns and being told it’s a maintenance problem, only for maintenance to be told or tell students that it’s an ADR problem, continually giving one of the smallest offices (alongside the LGBTQ+ and sustainability offices, interestingly enough) the short end of the stick.

Even when already in place, accessibility features mean nothing when they are not consistently functional. For example, the lift in Tower West that provides access to the dining hall from the entrance near the Grey Lady was unusable for several days, first with the door broken then entirely removed.

Tower, in general, is centered around the Great Hall, which, while pretty, is blatantly inaccessible. I have spoken to RAs and students who have mentioned that student organizations would refuse to have events there due to the inaccessible entrance, directly impacting Res Life’s ability to foster community in Tower. Part of the problem with the Great Hall is the runner, which extends to the stairs on both entrances, which I was told administration didn’t want to obstruct because it was a gift to the College.

Even new(er) buildings such as the Science Center are inaccessible, from the accessible entrance on the far side near the dumpsters that requires a walk uphill either on the street or on a poorly paved path to the several occasions I was stuck on a floor of the building, forced to miss class because the elevators were broken. I remember mentioning this to a professor, who told me that it felt like a way of continually beating down students. Even when functional, Sci has an elevator problem — I remember having to wait up to 15 minutes alongside groups of up to 30 other people for an elevator on multiple occasions.

And all of this — over 700 words — is just regarding physical accessibility without any additional context. Swaths of community life has been made inaccessible for scores of students with the decreased COVID-19 guidelines, which were often framed as being due to a lack of positive cases. This framing, however, ignored the fact that they shut down one of the testing centers, leaving College Club (which is so far from the rest of campus that I had to stop going despite wanting to be tested) open three days a week, primarily during class periods; it was no wonder that testing went down, and positive cases lowered as a result despite the many students I saw who were sick and instead had to resort to the free (but expired) rapid tests the bookstore gave out or having other students source rapids, if they were the kind to care about COVID-19. These changes being reversed caught non-coronavirus concerns in the crossfire as well, such as the active prohibiting/discouragement of Zoom classes, which was highly beneficial for students that couldn’t always physically attend class.

ADR was told they were unable to give students COVID-19 accommodations, and that they could not require masks at their events because they are part of administration. This, while a notable point, is only one of many issues with the office. ADR is chronically underfunded, currently running on a single director and an administrative assistant who works for both ADR and PLTC. These two faculty members are supplemented by an array of Student Access Advocates (SAAs), who have become semi-inactive with the resignation of the former assistant director, who left after about a year. The SAAs do what they can, but a lack of funding and structural power prevents action. There’s often a feeling of both resignation and anger when it comes to ADR, a feeling that it should not be the way it is and must improve, but also that the office will never change. However, ADR can change with better transparency, funding, and staffing, alongside the willingness to actually listen to and give more power to the SAAs and to work with other students such as SAW and Active Minds.

Wellesley College is structurally flawed when it comes to accessibility in almost every area. Students should not be forced on medical leave due to normal mental health issues. Several students I know have said that the Stone Center is largely ineffective at best and harmful at worst. At least one of my classes required I enroll in Willow, a depression prevention project by the Wellesley Centers for Women, which to me was bleak. I have several disabilities, both physically and neurologically/mentally, and was told by my major advisor that Wellesley is not necessarily able to accommodate my needs as it stands currently. I know of several students who had to transfer or drop out because of their disabilities.

All of this, paired with the constantly increasing cost of attending, makes it hard to justify Wellesley. The community is often amazing, although I and many others have experienced ableism from our peers, but the administration is hard to push through. When you are not just disabled but queer and/or trans, or a person of color, or FGLI, or any combination of the above, it is increasingly more difficult to feel that you have a place at Wellesley or that you are even welcome. This is why disabled voices need to be centered and amplified, and alums need to make their voices heard. Many of us (current students) know that alums often do not get to see the state of the College, especially when the College is technically ADA compliant, but we are here, ready to talk about it to anyone who will listen to provide better circumstances to current and future students.

#wellesley underground #disability accommodations #wellesley

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