#New York Times Digital Subscription

[darkishleaf]

How the New York Times Digital Subscription Tailors to Your Interests?

Welcome to an insightful exploration of how the New York Times digital subscription provides personalized news access that caters to your specific interests. This introduction sets the stage for understanding the tailored and dynamic news experience offered by the New York Times, where readers can delve into a curated selection of articles, features, and multimedia content that align with their preferences and tastes. By emphasizing the platform's ability to deliver a diverse range of news topics, opinions, and insights, this guide aims to shed light on how the New York Times digital subscription empowers readers to stay informed and engaged with the stories that matter most to them. Through its personalized approach to news delivery, the subscription fosters a more immersive and enriching reading experience, ensuring that readers can explore a comprehensive and tailored perspective on the latest happenings in the world.

Curated Content for Diverse Readership: Exploring the Range of Topics Covered by the New York Times

Delve into how the New York Times digital subscription offers curated content for a diverse readership, exploring the wide range of topics covered by the publication. This segment highlights the platform's ability to provide in-depth coverage of global news, politics, business, arts, culture, and more, catering to readers with varying interests and preferences. By showcasing the publication's commitment to delivering comprehensive and well-rounded news coverage, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription serves as a one-stop destination for readers to explore a diverse array of topics and stay informed about the latest developments in various fields.

Customizable News Feeds: Tailoring Your Reading Experience with the New York Times

Explore how the New York Times digital subscription offers customizable news feeds, allowing readers to tailor their reading experience according to their specific interests and preferences. This segment emphasizes the platform's interactive features that enable readers to select and follow specific topics, authors, and sections that resonate with their interests, creating a personalized news feed that delivers relevant and engaging content. By showcasing the publication's commitment to empowering readers with control over their news consumption, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription fosters a more immersive and tailored reading experience, ensuring that readers can stay informed about the subjects that matter most to them.

Insightful Recommendations and Editorials: Engaging with Thought-Provoking Analysis and Opinions

Delve into how the New York Times digital subscription provides insightful recommendations and editorials, offering readers access to thought-provoking analysis and opinions on various current events and topics. This segment highlights the platform's editorial prowess and expertise in providing well-researched and in-depth perspectives on critical issues, allowing readers to engage with diverse viewpoints and form informed opinions. By showcasing the publication's commitment to delivering high-quality and engaging editorials, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription fosters a more comprehensive and enriching reading experience, encouraging readers to explore various viewpoints and engage in meaningful discussions about the pressing issues of the day.

Multimedia Integration for Enhanced Engagement: Exploring Interactive Content and Visual Storytelling

Explore how the New York Times digital subscription integrates multimedia for enhanced engagement, offering readers access to interactive content and visual storytelling that complements traditional news articles. This segment emphasizes the platform's utilization of multimedia elements such as videos, infographics, and interactive graphics to provide a more immersive and engaging reading experience. By showcasing the publication's commitment to delivering dynamic and visually compelling content, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription fosters a more interactive and engaging reading experience, allowing readers to explore complex topics and stories through a combination of informative and visually captivating elements.

Real-Time Updates and Breaking News Coverage: Staying Informed with Timely and Accurate Reporting

Delve into how the New York Times digital subscription provides real-time updates and breaking news coverage, ensuring that readers stay informed with timely and accurate reporting on the latest developments around the world. This segment highlights the platform's dedication to delivering up-to-the-minute news updates and comprehensive coverage of breaking stories, enabling readers to stay ahead of the curve and remain informed about the most recent events and developments. By showcasing the publication's commitment to providing timely and reliable reporting, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription serves as a trusted source of information, empowering readers to stay informed and engaged with the rapidly evolving news landscape.

Comprehensive Analysis and Investigative Reporting: Uncovering In-Depth Insights and Exposés

Explore how the New York Times digital subscription offers comprehensive analysis and investigative reporting, providing readers with in-depth insights and exposés on critical issues and events. This segment emphasizes the platform's dedication to conducting thorough investigations and delivering comprehensive analysis on complex topics, enabling readers to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying issues and implications. By showcasing the publication's commitment to delivering high-quality and well-researched reporting, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription fosters a more comprehensive and informed reading experience, allowing readers to delve into complex topics and issues through in-depth and thought-provoking analysis.

Engaging Community and Opinion Sections: Participating in Constructive Dialogue and Discourse

Delve into how the New York Times digital subscription offers engaging community and opinion sections, encouraging readers to participate in constructive dialogue and discourse on various topics and issues. This segment highlights the platform's dedication to fostering a vibrant and inclusive community that values diverse viewpoints and encourages meaningful discussions on pressing issues. By showcasing the publication's commitment to promoting a culture of open dialogue and constructive discourse, viewers will gain valuable insights into how the New York Times digital subscription fosters a more engaging and interactive reading experience, encouraging readers to share their perspectives and engage in thoughtful conversations with a global community of informed and passionate individuals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the New York Times digital subscription stands as a comprehensive and dynamic platform that tailors to individual interests by offering curated content, customizable news feeds, insightful recommendations and editorials, multimedia integration, real-time updates, comprehensive analysis and investigative reporting, and engaging community and opinion sections. By providing a personalized news experience, the subscription empowers readers to access a diverse range of topics, engage with thought-provoking analysis, and participate in constructive dialogue. The platform's commitment to delivering timely, reliable, and well-rounded news coverage fosters a more immersive and enriching reading experience, ensuring that readers can stay informed and engaged with the stories that matter most to them.

[wsjrenew2]

Unlocking the World of Journalism: Exploring the Benefits of the New York Times Digital Subscription

Embark on a journey of knowledge and information as you delve into the world of journalism with the New York Times digital subscription. With a digital subscription, you gain access to a treasure trove of news articles, features, opinions and in-depth analysis from one of the most respected newspapers in the world.

Know More - https://wsjrenew.com/product/the-new-york-times-5-year-digital-subscription/

[trendynewsnow]

The New York Times Surpasses 11 Million Subscribers Amid Strong Financial Growth

The New York Times Surpasses 11 Million Subscribers The New York Times has reported an impressive addition of approximately 260,000 paid digital subscribers in the third quarter of this year, achieving a significant milestone by surpassing 11 million total subscribers for the first time in its history. This announcement was made by the company on Monday. In terms of financial performance, the…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You should be using an RSS reader

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

No matter how hard we all wish it were otherwise, the sad fact is that there aren't really individual solutions to systemic problems. For example: your personal diligence in recycling will have no meaningful impact on the climate emergency.

I get it. People write to me all the time, they say, "What can I change about my life to fight enshittification, or, at the very least, to reduce the amount of enshittification that I, personally, experience?"

It's frustrating, but my general answer is, "Join a movement. Get involved with a union, with EFF, with the FSF. Tell your Congressional candidate to defend Lina Khan from billionaire Dem donors who want her fired. Do something systemic."

There's very little you can do as a consumer. You're not going to shop your way out of monopoly capitalism. Now that Amazon has destroyed most of the brick-and-mortar and digital stores out of business, boycotting Amazon often just means doing without. The collective action problem of leaving Twitter or Facebook is so insurmountable that you end up stuck there, with a bunch of people you love and rely on, who all love each other, all hate the platform, but can't agree on a day and time to leave or a destination to leave for and so end up stuck there.

I've been experiencing some challenging stuff in my personal life lately and yesterday, I just found myself unable to deal with my usual podcast fare so I tuned into the videos from the very last XOXO, in search of uplifting fare:

https://www.youtube.com/@xoxofest

I found it. Talks by Dan Olson, Cabel Sasser, Ed Yong and many others, especially Molly White:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaeVVAvk-c

Molly's talk was so, so good, but when I got to her call to action, I found myself pulling a bit of a face:

But the platforms do not exist without the people, and there are a lot more of us than there are of them. The platforms have installed themselves in a position of power, but they are also vulnerable…

Are the platforms really that vulnerable? The collective action problem is so hard, the switching costs are so high – maybe the fact that "there's a lot more of us than there are of them" is a bug, not a feature. The more of us there are, the thornier our collective action problem and the higher the switching costs, after all.

And then I had a realization: the conduit through which I experience Molly's excellent work is totally enshittification-proof, and the more I use it, the easier it is for everyone to be less enshittified.

This conduit is anti-lock-in, it works for nearly the whole internet. It is surveillance-resistant, far more accessible than the web or any mobile app interface. It is my secret super-power.

It's RSS.

RSS (one of those ancient internet acronyms with multiple definitions, including, but not limited to, "Really Simple Syndication") is an invisible, automatic way for internet-connected systems to public "feeds." For example, rather than reloading the Wired homepage every day and trying to figure out which stories are new (their layout makes this very hard to do!), you can just sign up for Wired's RSS feed, and use an RSS reader to monitor the site and preview new stories the moment they're published. Wired pushes about 600 words from each article into that feed, stripped of the usual stuff that makes Wired nearly impossible to read: no 20-second delay subscription pop-up, text in a font and size of your choosing. You can follow Wired's feed without any cookies, and Wired gets no information about which of its stories you read. Wired doesn't even get to know that you're monitoring its feed.

I don't mean to pick on Wired here. This goes for every news source I follow – from CNN to the New York Times. But RSS isn't just good for the news! It's good for everything. Your friends' blogs? Every blogging platform emits an RSS feed by default. You can follow every one of them in your reader.

Not just blogs. Do you follow a bunch of substackers or other newsletters? They've all got RSS feeds. You can read those newsletters without ever registering in the analytics of the platforms that host them. The text shows up in black and white (not the sadistic, 8-point, 80% grey-on-white type these things all default to). It is always delivered, without any risk of your email provider misclassifying an update as spam:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/

Did you know that, by default, your email sends information to mailing list platforms about your reading activity? The platform gets to know if you opened the message, and often how far along you've read in it. On top of that, they get all the private information your browser or app leaks about you, including your location. This is unbelievably gross, and you get to bypass all of it, just by reading in RSS.

Are your friends too pithy for a newsletter, preferring to quip on social media? Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get an RSS feed from Insta/FB/Twitter, but all those new ones that have popped up? They all have feeds. You can follow any Mastodon account (which means you can follow any Threads account) via RSS. Same for Bluesky. That also goes for older platforms, like Tumblr and Medium. There's RSS for Hacker News, and there's a sub-feed for the comments on every story. You can get RSS feeds for the Fedex, UPS and USPS parcels you're awaiting, too.

Your local politician's website probably has an RSS feed. Ditto your state and national reps. There's an RSS feed for each federal agency (the FCC has a great blog!).

Your RSS reader lets you put all these feeds into folders if you want. You can even create automatic folders, based on keywords, or even things like "infrequently updated sites" (I follow a bunch of people via RSS who only update a couple times per year – cough, Danny O'Brien, cough – and never miss a post).

Your RSS reader doesn't (necessarily) have an algorithm. By default, you'll get everything as it appears, in reverse-chronological order.

Does that remind you of anything? Right: this is how social media used to work, before it was enshittified. You can single-handedly disenshittify your experience of virtually the entire web, just by switching to RSS, traveling back in time to the days when Facebook and Twitter were more interested in showing you the things you asked to see, rather than the ads and boosted content someone else would pay to cram into your eyeballs.

Now, you sign up to so many feeds that you're feeling overwhelmed and you want an algorithm to prioritize posts – or recommend content. Lots of RSS readers have some kind of algorithm and recommendation system (I use News, which offers both, though I don't use them – I like the glorious higgeldy-piggeldy of the undifferentiated firehose feed).

But you control the algorithm, you control the recommendations. And if a new RSS reader pops up with an algorithm you're dying to try, you can export all the feeds you follow with a single click, which will generate an OPML file. Then, with one click, you can import that OPML file into any other RSS reader in existence and all your feeds will be seamlessly migrated there. You can delete your old account, or you can even use different readers for different purposes.

You can access RSS in a browser or in an app on your phone (most RSS readers have an app), and they'll sync up, so a story you mark to read later on your phone will be waiting for you the next time you load up your reader in a browser tab, and you won't see the same stories twice (unless you want to, in which case you can mark them as unread).

RSS basically works like social media should work. Using RSS is a chance to visit a utopian future in which the platforms have no power, and all power is vested in publishers, who get to decide what to publish, and in readers, who have total control over what they read and how, without leaking any personal information through the simple act of reading.

And here's the best part: every time you use RSS, you bring that world closer into being! The collective action problem that the publishers and friends and politicians and businesses you care about is caused by the fact that everyone they want to reach is on a platform, so if they leave the platform, they'll lose that community. But the more people who use RSS to follow them, the less they'll depend on the platform.

Unlike those largely useless, performative boycotts of widely used platforms, switching to RSS doesn't require that you give anything up. Not only does switching to RSS let you continue to follow all the newsletters, webpages and social media accounts you're following now, it makes doing so better: more private, more accessible, and less enshittified.

Switching to RSS lets you experience just the good parts of the enshitternet, but that experience is delivered in manner that the new, good internet we're all dying for.

My own newsletter is delivered in fulltext via RSS. If you're reading this as a Mastodon or Twitter thread, on Tumblr or on Medium, or via email, you can get it by RSS instead:

https://pluralistic.net/feed/

Don't worry about which RSS reader you start with. It literally doesn't matter. Remember, you can switch readers with two clicks and take all the feeds you've subscribed to with you! If you want a recommendation, I have nothing but praise for Newsblur, which I've been paying $2/month for since 2011 (!):

https://newsblur.com/

Subscribing to feeds is super-easy, too: the links for RSS feeds are invisibly embedded in web-pages. Just paste the URL of a web-page into your RSS reader's "add feed" box and it'll automagically figure out where the feed lives and add it to your subscriptions.

It's still true that the new, good internet will require a movement to overcome the collective action problems and the legal barriers to disenshittifying things. Almost nothing you do as an individual is going to make a difference.

But using RSS will! Using RSS to follow the stuff that matters to you will have an immediate, profoundly beneficial impact on your own digital life – and it will appreciably, irreversibly nudge the whole internet towards a better state.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/#read-receipts-are-you-kidding-me-seriously-fuck-that-noise

[fans4wga]

SAG-AFTRA Strike Update From President & Chief Negotiator

August 9, 2023

'This week marks the fourth week of our TV/Theatrical/Streaming strike.

We are living in a historic hour, as we fight to achieve a seminal contract, the likes of which we haven’t seen in over 60 years. It was 1960 when we last went on strike alongside the WGA and achieved pension and health plans and residuals. Our futures depend on not accepting anything less transformative in this negotiation.

With the advent of subscription and advertising-supported streaming video on demand and AI, once again we must stand strong in solidarity and demand an equitable contract that reflects the value of our work in those new business models and protects our members from digital exploitation.

When we called the strike — authorized by you, our members, with 98% approval — we did so knowing that we had done everything possible to avoid it, including extending negotiations for 12 days, the longest in our union’s history. The AMPTP — the organization that bargains on behalf of the studios, networks and streamers — refused to negotiate with us fairly, and have not contacted us to resume talks.

We find ourselves on the front lines of a global labor movement. We are not alone. There are millions of workers across the nation and around the world fighting similar battles against corporate greed who are standing with us in solidarity. It is clear from your show of force on the picket lines, your social media posts and the many interviews we have seen, that our cause is righteous. Your determination will carry us to victory. 

A key element in our strike strategy is our Interim Agreement, which is being granted to certain vetted and truly independent productions. Along with the many other nonstruck contracts our members can currently work, these agreements give journeymen performers and crew the opportunity to pay their bills and put food on the table by working on these indie projects — projects which are not only agreeing to all the terms in our last offer to the AMPTP, but all the righteous proposals our members deserve that the studios rejected.

Our interim agreements are quite literally the opposite of “waivers.” There are no passes, exceptions or exemptions being given to anyone. Productions must agree to all our terms or that work is struck.

These agreements are also designed to undermine the production slates and timing of the AMPTP companies and ensure that they come back to the table. Until they do, they will not be able to distribute content made under our Interim Agreement without paying our members in those projects higher residuals and revenue share. This approach maintains our strength, solidarity and upper hand with the AMPTP until they yield to our deal.

These interim agreements demonstrate that the terms we proposed to the AMPTP are not “unrealistic.” They are fair. And if these independent productions are able to agree to them, then the billion- and trillion-dollar companies should be able to as well!

From L.A. to New York and all of the locals across the country, we want to thank you for showing your #SAGAFTRAstrong solidarity over the past four weeks! And to the strike captains leading the pickets every day, you are truly rock stars! Be sure to visit sagaftrastrike.org for the latest news, picket lines and events near you. 

Our strike can become the catalyst for a historic culture change in all industries, whereby making money and doing the right thing on behalf of workers are no longer mutually exclusive of each other but go hand in hand, redefining the meaning of success!

#Power2Performers'

[mariacallous]

Whether you're a student, a journalist, or a business professional, knowing how to do high-quality research and writing using trustworthy data and sources, without giving in to the temptation of AI or ChatGPT, is a skill worth developing.

As I detail in my book Writing That Gets Noticed, locating credible databases and sources and accurately vetting information can be the difference between turning a story around quickly or getting stuck with outdated information.

For example, several years ago the editor of Parents.com asked for a hot-take reaction to country singer Carrie Underwood saying that, because she was 35, she had missed her chance at having another baby. Since I had written about getting pregnant in my forties, I knew that as long as I updated my facts and figures, and included supportive and relevant peer-reviewed research, I could pull off this story. And I did.

The story ran later that day, and it led to other assignments. Here are some tips I’ve learned that you should consider mastering before you turn to automated tools like generative AI to handle your writing work for you.

Find Statistics From Primary Sources

Identify experts, peer-reviewed research study authors, and sources who can speak with authority—and ideally, offer easily understood sound bites or statistics on the topic of your work. Great sources include professors at major universities and media spokespeople at associations and organizations.

For example, writer and author William Dameron pinned his recent essay in HuffPost Personal around a statistic from the American Heart Association on how LGBTQ people experience higher rates of heart disease based on discrimination. Although he first found the link in a secondary source (an article in The New York Times), he made sure that he checked the primary source: the original study that the American Heart Association gleaned the statistic from. He verified the information, as should any writer, because anytime a statistic is cited in a secondary source, errors can be introduced.

Dive Into Databases

Jen Malia, author of The Infinity Rainbow Club series of children’s books (whom I recently interviewed on my podcast), recently wrote a piece about dinosaur-bone hunting for Business Insider, which she covers in her book Violet and the Jurassic Land Exhibit.

After a visit to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Malia, whose books are set in Philadelphia, found multiple resources online and on the museum site that gave her the history of the Bone Wars, information on the exhibits she saw, and the scientific names of the dinosaurs she was inspired by. She also used the Library of Congress’ website, which offers digital collections and links to the Library of Congress Newspaper Collection.

Malia is a fan of searching for additional resources and citable documents with Google Scholar. “If I find that a secondary source mentions a newspaper article, I’m going to go to the original newspaper article, instead of just stopping there and quoting,” she says.

Your local public library is a great source of free information, journals, and databases (even ones that generally require a subscription and include embargoed research). For example, your search should include everything from health databases (Sage Journals, Scopus, PubMed) to databases for academic sources and journalism (American Periodical Series Online, Statista, Academic Search Premier) and databases for news, trends, market research, and polls (the Harris Poll, Pew Research Center, Newsbank, ProPublica).

Even if you find a study or paper that you can’t access in one of those databases, consider reaching out to the study’s lead author or researcher. In many cases, they’re happy to discuss their work and may even share the study with you directly and offer to talk about their research.

Get a Good Filtering System

For journalist Paulette Perhach’s article on ADHD in The New York Times, she used Epic Research to see “dual team studies.” That's when two independent teams address the same topic or question, and ideally come to the same conclusions. She recommends locating research and experts via key associations for your topic. She also likes searching via Google Scholar but advises filtering it for studies and research in recent years to avoid using old data. She suggests keeping your links and research organized. “Always be ready to be peer-reviewed yourself,” Perhach says.

When you are looking for information for a story or project, you might be inclined to start with a regular Google search. But keep in mind that the internet is full of false information, and websites that look trustworthy can sometimes turn out to be businesses or companies with a vested interest in you taking their word as objective fact without additional scrutiny. Regardless of your writing project, unreliable or biased sources are a great way to torpedo your work—and any hope of future work.

For Accuracy, Go to the Government

Author Bobbi Rebell researched her book Launching Financial Grownups using the IRS’ website. “I might say that you can contribute a certain amount to a 401K, but it might be outdated because those numbers are always changing, and it’s important to be accurate,” she says. “AI and ChatGPT can be great for idea generation,” says Rebell, “but you have to be careful. If you are using an article someone was quoted in, you don’t know if they were misquoted or quoted out of context.”

If you use AI and ChatGPT for sourcing, you not only risk introducing errors, you risk introducing plagiarism—there is a reason OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is being sued for downloading information from all those books.

Historically, the Loudest Isn’t the Best

Audrey Clare Farley, who writes historical nonfiction, has used a plethora of sites for historical research, including Women Also Know History, which allows searches by expertise or area of study, and JSTOR, a digital library database that offers a number of free downloads a month. She also uses Chronicling America, a project from the Library of Congress which gathers old newspapers to show how a historical event was reported, and Newspapers.com (which you can access via free trial but requires a subscription after seven days).

When it comes to finding experts, Farley cautions against choosing the loudest voices on social media platforms. “They might not necessarily be the most authoritative. I vet them by checking if they have a history of publication on the topic, and/or educational credentials.”

When vetting an expert, look for these red flags:

You can’t find their work published or cited anywhere.

They were published in an obscure journal.

Their research is funded by a company, not a university, or they are the spokesperson for the company they are doing research for. (This makes them a public relations vehicle and not an appropriate source for journalism.)

And finally, the best endings for virtually any writing, whether it’s an essay, a research paper, an academic report, or a piece of investigative journalism, circle back to the beginning of the piece, and show your reader the transformation or the journey the piece has presented in perspective.

As always, your goal should be strong writing supported by research that makes an impact without cutting corners. Only then can you explore tools that might make the job a little easier, for instance by generating subheads or discovering a concept you might be missing—because then you'll have the experience and skills to see whether it's harming or helping your work.

[historyfan9784]

If you ever need to find a first hand account from an old event, the New York Times has a digital archive stretching back in September 18th 1851, and some libraries can give you a free subscription to the times

[focsle]

If it’s not too much—would you mind talking a bit about how you research specific, near-nameless people and what your process is for that kind of thing? It’s such a different task than researching, say, a specific topic in history, and not a skill I’ve really had a chance to develop. I really admire your dedication and thoroughness to your whalemen and want to be able to afford that same level of comprehensiveness, without knowing where exactly to start…..

I’m gonna answer this with many a caveat! So depending on what you’re researching it might be helpful or it might be useless

The first caveat is that I can only answer in a US-centric capacity, and, when I’m getting more granular information, a New York City capacity. But these records exist for municipalities elsewhere too—it’s just the extent and accessibility of which that will vary.

A lot of people slip through the cracks when it comes to official documentation and you might not be able to find them/find much on them. For instance race, class, and gender are going to play a significant role in how someone’s life is recorded, if it’s recorded at all. And there’s a lot of human error in old record keeping that can make someone hard to find. The only reason I was able to find out as much about my friend Mr. Buel as I did, despite him dying at around age 21, was because he came from a middle class background in an urban location and his father was a rather prominent physician at the time, so his lifestyle before he went whaling was captured more clearly across census records and school records.

Whaling history is a rather unique window of time in that it’s wonderfully documented, and a lot of these otherwise forgotten ordinary guys thus have some record of their existence on crew lists. Adding to that, hundreds of whaling journals have been preserved and digitized. Most of them are logs, so they’re impersonal, but there are also a handful of personal diaries which are a rarity and luxury to have. These men would often talk about their friends and families, hometowns, old jobs, etc. And, from a non-research standpoint, it’s always an honor to be able to learn about someone’s emotional world through their own words. As such, my research and how much I’m able to find out about these men is really privileged by the fact that I often have a good amount of baseline info already that I can plug in to find out more. And if I don’t….odds are they were probably a Young Twenty Something in the year they were whaling so I can guesstimate a birth year and usually find them after cross referencing more.

 So, what to cross reference? I’ll talk about it below under the readmore cos it got long.

The easiest place to start is geneology websites. Ancestry.com is the most utilized and has the widest availability of records. You can find the census, marriage certificates, naturalization certificates, passports, death certificates, military documents, ship manifests, baptismal records, wills, and more. It’s also ridiculously expensive. Familysearch is a free alternative with less records, though I haven’t used it myself. You could try Ancestry’s free trial to farm as much as you can (and cancel before) or wait for a bulk sale that they do sometimes (that’s still stupid expensive). But it’s very hard to cancel a subscription (it’s always set to autorenew) without them hitting you with a cancelation fee once they have your card number. I believe you can avoid this by gifting yourself a subscription so they don’t have a credit card to charge and thus it won’t autorenew. It’s ridiculous, but unfortunately one of the better options as far as ease of use, searchability, access, and scope of records. There are also library versions of it that you could access for free if it’s available at a branch near you. It makes me so mad that….the census is paywalled. Fuck em.

With all that said, census records are great places to start if you know someone’s name. Even better if you know more specifics such as approximate birth year, other family members’ names, occupation, location, etc. There are federal censuses (every 10 years), as well as state censuses (records vary by state what survives and how often they were taken, as well as what questions were asked). But they aren’t perfect. Anything prior to 1850 is only going to list the head of household, and other household members are nameless and simply grouped in age and gender brackets. Prior to 1880, you won’t be able to find anyone based on a specific street address because each house was numbered in order of visitation by the enumerator instead. This was a puzzle for me when I was trying to figure out where Buel lived, because his school papers listed a home address, but when I searched it, it was several blocks away from the election district the census said he lived in. So I used fire insurance maps and realized that the house numbers had changed rather dramatically from the 1850s to now. Through those I found his actual home location by matching the address and election district to the map.

Sanborn fire insurance maps are great if you want to know more about a specific part of town in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the actual house numbers in that time. The New York Public Library digitized a number of them, and iirc they have other states too. These maps were highly specific about what each building was made out of, what sort of industries or shops were around it, houses of worship, parks, etc. It won’t tell you anything specific about an individual person, but does add some texture to their life. 

While the census is a good jumping off point, it has a number of issues like those mentioned above, and beyond. The 1870 census was so incorrect the first time around it had to be conducted again. The 1890 census was largely destroyed in a fire and so those records are lost. There is going to be a lot of human error. Enumerators might accidentally skip addresses or people. They’re inevitably also going to mark down incorrect or reductive information about those people. The racial identity of people was particularly misrepresented by enumerators often, as it wasn’t self id but the enumerator passing a judgment within ever changing and limited ‘categories’ that shifted with each census. Ages are going to be variable. Names might be misspelled or a person might change their name (tho I have to plug in here that no one’s names were changed at Ellis Island! It’s a huge myth that is so deeply enduring! Didn’t Happen! Except for one person named Frank Woodhull! Look him up sometime for some Gender Nonconforming History). Also, more than one person can have the same name as someone else living at the same time. That’s just how it is. So that’s where cross referencing is important. Trace the person across records—do you see the same family members, do you see marriage records that could account for changes, do the ages and years make sense, all of that. It’s like putting together a puzzle. Sometimes the puzzle is never completed. Sometimes people just disappear from the record entirely.

For looking for people outside of the census years, city directories can be good for that. Again, a lot of cities had these—New York’s are digitally accessible through the NYPL. These came out every year and basically functioned like a phonebook, usually listing someone’s name, occupation, place of work, and home address (and sometimes limited racial signifiers, if the person was not white). Directories are again, not perfect. They only list people who were ‘gainfully employed’, and it’s very rare to see women in them because of the limited types of work open to women while the directories are in use. But it’s another way of piecing things together. For instance I found the first name and address of my other friend Mr. J.E.Haviland (Jacob), by taking what he mentioned in his journal (the names of brothers, his particular skillsets, and an acquaintance of his who used to work in the same neighborhood as him with specific street names), and ultimately finding a man who matched in the city directory in the years he would be working in that neighborhood. Again, puzzles!

The National Archives also has TONS of documents (I’ve dug through them for seamen’s protection certificates as well as US Consular records to find out about things that may have happened to men abroad), and a lot of them are digitized. The problem is they aren’t often easily searchable so you spend a lot of time staring at rather poor scans and folders containing hundreds of pages of stuff. But if you know more or less what you’re looking for, it’s a possibility. The Library of Congress also has a number of public records available and digitized, as well as searchable newspapers in Chronicling America. And all of that is free. Findagrave, also free, can be helpful in finding cemetery plots as well as other family members who might be buried there that could help in further cross referencing info. And check the municipal archives / libraries in the location you’re researching as well if they’re accessible—they often have public records or could help steer you in the right direction.

Court records can be interesting as well, and can usually be found in state/municipal archives. In the absence of diaries, police court records are one way to hear someone’s voice, just for a little moment. Granted, it’s often their voice in defending themselves, but I’d say police court records are, unfortunately, one of the few ways to hear marginalized perspectives which otherwise don’t have much presence in the government record. Sensationalist newspapers would often publish bits from them. As such they must be taken with a huge grain of salt, but it’s another avenue to find a piece of someone’s life

The last thing I’ll say is the only research subscription thing I pay for currently is Genealogy Bank, on the subject of newspapers. It was also expensive (though I got a bulk sale), but feels worth it to me right now. It’s pretty amazing, and not just for researching people but topics. The searching isn’t always particularly accurate, but it’s a WEALTH of newspapers (more than Newspapers.com I believe), that is searchable and can be narrowed by state, city, and all the specific newspapers published in that city over a couple centuries. You can look up names or keyword search anything else and specify specific days and date ranges. It’s good. Again, not a perfect search system, but it’s better than Chronicling America imo.

Depending on who you’re researching, archive.org is also invaluable. Look at the pages of libraries / museums / other academic institutions there to see what they got. It’s where I find all my whaling diaries.

That’s all I can think of for now! Hope it was helpful! 

[nickgerlich]

Finding Resolve

We’ve all done it. We are all part of this new phenomenon, something that barely existed before this century, and only truly gained momentum in the last decade. The worst part is, most of us have forgotten exactly how much we are involved with it, because it is hard to remember what and how much these phenomena cost.

I am talking about the subscription economy, that magical place where software and streaming services are the product, and our monthly bill is usually on autopay. It ranges from SOAS (Software As A Service) providers like Adobe and Microsoft, to all the music, movies, and more that we stream into our homes, cars, and mobile devices.

And it is eating us alive.How many subscriptions do you have? Let’s start with your vehicle. Do you have satellite radio? That’s one. Do you subscribe to cloud-based software? That can be one or more. What about streaming tunes like Spotify or Apple Music? There you guy. The list is getting longer.

And then there are all the streaming TV choices, which runs from services like YouTube TV to Netflix, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Peacock, Max, Hulu, Disney…I could go on. You may have cut the cable at home, but you tethered yourself in other ways to the extent that the net effect is little different.

Then there’s the gaming community, if that’s your thing. More dinero. Maybe you fell for the premium version of an app, like Accuweather. If you’re a regular Amazon shopper, you no doubt have Prime, which costs $139 a year, plus the vitamins and supplements I receive every month from them. Like listening to books? There’s Audible. Old newspapers? There’s Newspapers.com, one of my favorite sites to do research. Cloud storage? Good Lord, I have several, for my thousands of photos and documents.

So successful has the subscription model been that paywalls have appeared everywhere online, like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly, each of whom have amazing content, a feast for my eyes and brain. Alas, I have drawn the line, because I sense it has long spun out control. And if CNN goes ahead and paywalls its app and site, I guess I won’t be reading them anymore.

Because I, like many people, have subscription fatigue. I simply cannot begin to consume all of this media. Sadly, I cannot remember all of the services to which I subscribe, and if you aren’t there yet, I bet you will be soon enough. The only way to know for sure is to carefully track your credit card statements to look for monthly billing.

That, of course, is the problem, because we willingly provided our billing data so that we do not have to do this every month. As long as that credit card is valid, those providers will keep hitting your card every month. It is only when your card is about to expire that you get a notification. And if you were not careful and instead provided a bank routing and account number, they can keep sticking their hand into your pocket as long as you have that account.

Ironically, there are new subscription management software sites and apps that supposedly make it easy to track and opt-out of all the things, but they are subscription services themselves. That’s like replacing one drug with another. You’re still on the hook.

It all starts so easily, because many of the subscription services are technically just micro payments, only $5 or $10. We see that as pocket change. Other services offer annual payment options, which provide a slight discount for paying in full in advance. But many of the once-cheap micro payments have started to get expensive, like Netflix and Spotify (I am speaking from experience). They are no longer minor indulgences.

Were these tangible products we had to buy in a store, I bet we would all be a lot more careful. The friction of having to be somewhere to even just tap your credit card would probably be enough to cause us to think. But it is simply too easy in the digital world to keep subscribing, because once we get in that loop, there is never any friction.

We are all going to have to muster a lot more resolve to win this fight, as well as start keeping meticulous records. Otherwise, these things develop lives of their own, lives that will continue hitting credit cards even after our own lives are over. I’m pretty sure none of us will be consuming anything at that point, and there’s no use paying for it.

We don’t have to wait for New Years Day to make this resolution.

Dr “I Honestly Can’t Remember All Of Them” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[darkishleaf]

The Future of News Consumption: New York Times Digital Subscription

In an era where information is instant and boundaries are increasingly blurred, the future of news consumption lies in the digital realm. Embracing this paradigm shift, the New York Times has pioneered a groundbreaking approach to delivering news through their digital subscription. The New York Times Digital Subscription offers readers an unparalleled opportunity to access a wealth of high-quality journalism, thought-provoking articles and in-depth investigative reporting with just a few taps on their devices. With a focus on innovation and adapting to the evolving needs of readers, the digital subscription opens up a world of possibilities, providing convenient access to breaking news, personalized content recommendations and interactive features that engage and inform. Join us as we delve into the future of news consumption and explore the transformative power of the New York Times Digital Subscription.

How the New York Times Adapts to Changing News Consumption Habits?

As technology continues to shape the way we consume information, the New York Times has demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and thrive in the digital age. Recognizing the shift in readers' preferences, the renowned publication has made significant strides in providing content that meets the changing needs of its audience. From the introduction of their digital subscription model to the expansion of their online presence, the New York Times has embraced new platforms and formats, ensuring their journalism remains accessible to a global audience. With a focus on mobile applications, social media integration, and responsive web design, the New York Times has effectively reached readers across various devices and platforms. By embracing the digital age, the publication has not only expanded its reach but also enhanced the user experience, offering a seamless transition from traditional print to the online realm.

Exploring the Unlimited Access and Convenience of the New York Times Digital Subscription

One of the significant advantages of the New York Times digital subscription is the unlimited access it provides to a vast array of news and information. Gone are the limitations of physical print, as subscribers can now delve into a treasure trove of articles, opinion pieces, features, and multimedia content at their fingertips. The convenience is unparalleled, enabling readers to access the latest news updates from anywhere in the world, at any time. Whether it's on a smartphone during a morning commute or on a tablet while relaxing at home, the New York Times digital subscription ensures that important stories and compelling journalism are never out of reach. Breaking the boundaries of traditional news consumption, this subscription model revolutionizes the way we engage with current events, providing a comprehensive and accessible platform that keeps readers informed and connected to the world.

How the New York Times Customizes Content to Suit Individual Preferences?

In an era where information overload is a common concern, the New York Times digital subscription offers a personalized news experience tailored to individual preferences. Through innovative algorithms and user data analysis, the publication curates content recommendations that align with readers' interests, ensuring a more relevant and engaging reading experience. By leveraging technology, the New York Times can track user behavior, understand reading habits, and deliver personalized suggestions based on past interactions. Whether it's suggesting articles on specific topics, highlighting related content, or presenting curated newsletters, the personalized news experience enhances reader satisfaction and encourages deeper engagement. Subscribers can explore a diverse range of subjects, discover new perspectives, and stay updated on the issues that matter most to them, all within the convenience of a personalized news feed.

Engaging Readers in a New Era of Journalism with the New York Times Digital Subscription

The New York Times digital subscription goes beyond traditional news consumption by offering interactive features that immerse readers in a new era of journalism. Engaging multimedia elements such as videos, podcasts, infographics, and interactive visuals add depth and context to the stories, allowing readers to explore different dimensions of the news. Interactive features enable readers to actively participate in the storytelling process, providing a more immersive and engaging experience. From interactive maps that bring global events to life to data visualizations that unveil complex patterns and trends, these features foster a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. By integrating interactive elements into their digital content, the New York Times continues to push the boundaries of traditional journalism, presenting news stories in captivating and dynamic ways that resonate with readers in the digital age.

How the New York Times Digital Subscription Helps Filter and Curate News?

In a world inundated with information, navigating the vast sea of news can be a daunting task. The New York Times digital subscription alleviates this challenge by providing tools and features that help readers filter and curate news effectively. With the assistance of advanced search functionalities, readers can quickly find articles on specific topics or explore content from specific time periods. Additionally, the subscription offers curated newsletters that deliver handpicked stories directly to subscribers' inboxes, ensuring they stay informed without being overwhelmed. The New York Times also employs editorial judgment and rigorous fact-checking to separate reliable reporting from misinformation, providing readers with a trusted source of news. By facilitating the navigation of information overload, the digital subscription empowers readers to focus on the stories that matter most to them, enabling them to make sense of the complex news landscape.

Unveiling the In-Depth Investigative Journalism of the New York Times Digital Subscription

The New York Times digital subscription opens the door to a world of in-depth investigative journalism that goes beyond headlines. While breaking news keeps readers informed, the subscription model allows for comprehensive reporting and analysis of complex issues. Investigative journalism takes center stage, delving deep into topics, uncovering hidden truths, and shedding light on critical matters. By investing in long-form journalism and dedicating resources to in-depth reporting, the New York Times produces in-depth articles, feature stories, and investigative pieces that provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the subjects at hand. The digital subscription ensures that these in-depth pieces are accessible to subscribers, allowing them to engage with journalism that goes beyond surface-level coverage. From exposés to detailed profiles, the New York Times digital subscription is a gateway to thought-provoking and impactful reporting.

Unleashing the Potential of the New York Times Digital Subscription in an Ever-Changing World

In an ever-changing world, the New York Times digital subscription holds the power to unleash knowledge and empower individuals. By providing access to a wide range of news and perspectives, the subscription empowers readers to stay informed, make informed decisions and engage with their communities. The New York Times remains committed to upholding journalistic integrity, ensuring that subscribers receive reliable and accurate information. In a time where misinformation spreads rapidly, the digital subscription stands as a beacon of truth, offering trustworthy journalism that readers can rely on. Moreover, the subscription fosters critical thinking and broadens readers' horizons by presenting diverse viewpoints and global perspectives. By embracing the power of knowledge, the New York Times digital subscription plays a vital role in shaping an informed society that can navigate the complexities of our rapidly changing world.

Conclusion

The future of news consumption is undeniably shifting towards digital platforms and the New York Times Digital Subscription is at the forefront of this transformation. By embracing the digital age, breaking boundaries, personalizing the news experience, incorporating interactive features, navigating information overload, offering in-depth investigative journalism and unleashing the power of knowledge, the New York Times has positioned itself as a leading force in the evolving landscape of news consumption. With its commitment to adaptability, innovation and delivering high-quality journalism, the New York Times Digital Subscription continues to redefine how we access and engage with news, ensuring that readers stay informed, empowered and connected in an ever-changing world.

[wsjrenew2]

Access Quality Journalism: What You Need to Know about New York Times Digital Subscription?

In the ever-evolving world of news consumption, the New York Times Digital Subscription stands as a beacon of reliable and insightful journalism. With this subscription, readers gain access to a treasure trove of high-quality news articles, in-depth analysis, and captivating features, all conveniently available at their fingertips. Discover why the New York Times Digital Subscription is a must-have for those seeking accurate and thought-provoking reporting. Know More: https://wsjrenew.com/product/the-new-york-times-5-year-digital-subscription/

[carmenthabaddie]

Intentional with my time 💖💖💖

Today I wore a yellow long dress with flowers. I bought it few years ago from Rainbows. I love that store as a plus size woman. It can be hit and miss but you can’t beat affordable prices.

2024 I am being intentional with my time. The truth is time waits for no one. I learned this hard way in my 20s. I wish I knew what I know at 31. But that’s behind me. I must make peace with dropping the ball during my 20s. I had no real feminine hypergamy examples around me.

I actually started my level up glow up femininity hypergamy journey at 25. But was still naïve, immature, and didn’t know what I know. I wasn’t serious at 25 late 20s like I’m serious at 31 early 30s. It’s like I’m playing catch up. But it’s better to play catch up than to never start this level up glow up journey.

I also didn’t have this spiritual ability. I am so thankful I have strong spiritual ability where spirit and beautiful black communicate through me. It’s on my list to get medium reading to see which spirits and black ancestors channel through me. So glad I took out birth control and spiritual ability developed.

It’s my time to shine. My January gym sessions scheduled in my digital planner. And this pre booking beauty appointments. And my grandma is in New York while she is gone my step dad spoils me with takeout and I’m not giving it up. So I will look at restaurants menu and calories and pick in the middle food choices and enjoy my step dad spoiling me at my favorite restaurants and me not pay. Because that’s what men are for. He like my only example of a man financially providing for house and being a leader and provider.

I’m blessed to have him as good example and father figure. And giving me the option to be a stay at home daughter and working being option not requirement and my money being mine and no major bills where I can save money and follow my dreams and have hobbies. I am shopping addict. First step is acknowledging your bad habit and creating a plan and correcting bad habit and replacing it with good habit. And being realistic and not cold turkey. It’s small but I saved $100 on Cashapp savings. And refuse to touch it like I normally do.

Hard pill to swallow I learned bad money habits from my caretaker parent my adopted mom my grandma she goes through money and nothing to show for and pass on to love ones. Thankfully she has life insurance. She been on medicaid , ebt and public housing and have a lack poverty  mindset and it’s all I saw.

So at im acknowledging my bad money management skills habits. Save today and wait for tomorrows pleasure. I felt so good saving $100 and what it can grow. I created a budget in note section of iPhone. And I pay my bills with gratitude ���. I’m thankful I have money period and more money is coming. Spirit and black ancestors sending me a financial blessing cause I bless black women in need and I currently don’t have much.

But at end of day you can’t tell me I’m not abundant. I know I’m abundant and I’m a money magnet and money grows on trees for me. I have a good relationship with money now. I can’t wait for my sp David match my importance of financial security for us and our 3 future kids. Pass on good money management with my future 3 kids.

I need spend less on mindlessly spending. And pay my two credit cards off and Affirm bill and student loans. I’m thankful my debt is small than others. Spend less on subscriptions and groceries and makeup and wigs.

I’m use the clothes I have now till I’m doing better financially and same for wigs, shoes, makeup, and skincare. Let step dad help me afford beauty treatments to keep my appearance up.

Yesterday I had like consultation coaching session with Destiny the confident hoe. And told her all my movement and how I’m off social media and intentionally using social media for good, fame and money. I can log out and it not control me. Seeing therapist tomorrow. And law of assumption coach I believe on Sunday. I have invested time and money on my level up and glow up and it’s worth it and making shit manifest faster.

So many making ideas and affirming for money so I can invest in businesses and side hustles and free money. 2024 I’m focused, putting action, faith in myself, spirit and beautiful black ancestors. Step dad treating me to Asian Habachi. Today I posted content and need edit productivity vlog for YouTube. Thank you for those who read and share my blog post. Affirming for hella followers. Until next time be well.

[denimbex1986]

'From Sherlock’s Moriarty to His Dark Materials’ Colonel John Parry; Hamlet to the one-man adaptation of Vanya, Andrew Scott has been a longtime beloved actor of the stage and screen. And now the Dubliner will be taking on another iconic role as he steps into the shoes of Tom Ripley for the upcoming limited series, Ripley. The series, which is based on Patricia Highsmith’s bestselling novels, is set in 1960s New York — and follows Tom Ripley, a grifter who is hired by a wealthy man to go to Italy and try to talk his vagabond son into coming home.

But as Ripley takes the job, he falls headfirst into a life of deceit, fraud and murder.

The cast includes Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn, Eliot Sumner, Maurizio Lombardi, Margherita Buy, John Malkovich, Kenneth Lonergan and Ann Cusack.

All eight episodes — which were directed and written by Steven Zaillian — will land on the streaming service on April 4.

The Dubliner told Empire about taking on the role — and the importance of putting “your own stamp” on the character.

He said, “you have to be respectful, but not too reverent, because otherwise there’s no point in doing this.

“You’ve got to put your own stamp on it. Some people will like this version, and some people will like other versions, and that’s okay. What you have to do is understand why this character remains so fascinating for people.”

The Dubliner made his debut on the big screen when he was 17 years old, when he starred in 1995’s Korea opposite Donal Donnelly.

In 1998, he played Edumnd Tyrone in Karel Reisz’s production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Gate Theatre — and was nominated for Best Actor In A Supporting Role at the Irish Times Theatre Award for his role in the show.

Scott had roles in Saving Private Ryan, Nora and the adaptation of Henry James’ The American — and in 2000, he made his stage debut in London with Dublin Carol.

He also appeared in Longitude opposite Michael Gambon, the miniseries Band of Brothers and Dead Bodies.

In 2005, he won his first Olivier Award for his role in the stage show A Girl in a Car with a Man — and made his debut on Broadway the next year, opposite Bill Nighy and Julianne Moore in The Vertical Hour.

Scott starred in the one-man show Sea Wall in 2008 and the next year — and on the screen, he had roles in Little While Lie, Foyle’s War and Lennon Naked, which saw him play Paul McCartney.

And in 2010, he took on the role of Moriarty in the BBC One series Sherlock, which also starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman.

Scott was nominated for a number of awards for his portrayal of the super sleuth’s nemesis, winning the Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2012 BAFTAS and Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Television at the 2013 IFTAS.

And in 2013, the actor opened up about the “extraordinary” reaction to the series.

He told The Independent, “Sherlock has changed all our careers, and I’m really pleased about that. It gives you the benefit of the doubt because executives like to see recognisable faces.

“It was overwhelming to be on a TV show that is quite so popular. That took me totally by surprise. People had an instant affection for it from the first episode. The reaction was extraordinary.”

He followed that up with a number of roles on the big and small screen over the next few years, including The Scapegoat, The Stag, The Town and Dates.

In 2014, Scott played Gethin Roberts in the film Pride, for which he was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2015 IFTAS and won the Best Supporting Actor award at the 2014 British Independent Film Awards.

The same year, he starred in Locke and Jimmy’s Hall. In 2015, he had a role in the 007 film Spectre — and the next year, he had roles in Alice Through The Looking Glass, Denial, This Beautiful Fantastic and Handsome Devil.

In 2017, he played Hamlet on the stage — and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The stage show was filmed and broadcast the following year.

Scott starred opposite Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson and Florence Pugh in 2018’s King Lear — and that summer, it was announced he would be joining the cast of Fleabag.

He captured hearts around the world for his portrayal of The Priest, and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2020.

During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this year, he opened up about being cast in the show — and stepping away from some of the more villainous roles.

He said, “when I was in my 20s, I had a little baby face and I felt like I had this kind of darkness inside me. And I was like ,‘why can’t I get a part as a villain?’

“And then that happened — and then there were loads of villains happening, and I was like, ‘why can’t people see the real me?’

“Phoebe and I had done a play together in London that nobody saw, and she came a knocking — and that’s where the Priest came from.”

The same year, he played Lieutenant Leslie in 1917 and had roles in Black Mirror — which he got an IFTA and Emmy nomination for — and Modern Love.

Scott also took on the role of Colonel John Parry in the BBC’S His Dark Materials, an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s trilogy of the same name. The series ran from 2019 until 2022, and Scott was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Drama) at the 2021 IFTAS.

On the stage, the actor played Garry Essendine in the revival of Noël Coward’s Present Laughter — and won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. The following year, he played Patrick in The Three Kings.

In 2021, he played Lord Merlin in the three-part adaptation of The Pursuit of Love and Terje Rødlarsen in the film Oslo. The next year, Scott played Lord Rollo in the Lena Dunham-directed comedy Catherine Called Birdy.

Last year, he starred in an adaptation of Vanya which saw him play all of the characters in the show.

He also starred opposite Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers, which saw him nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes.'

[impossibleobservationkryptonite]

Library Rules:

To quote Davy Jones "well they're more guidelines than rules".

What I've learned in time (thus far) working as a librarian and what you can do as a patron.

If you want the TLDR: you can just read the bolded stuff if you want! :)

I swear to god you're allowed to do everything in a library normally if you don't have a library card. The only thing you're not allowed to do is take items home with you. So what can you do instead? Read it here. Watch the movie here (most of the time the people who work here will let you have a guest pass for the cop, and then don't ask you what you're doing with your time on the computer.) (unless you're watching porn. Don't watch porn on a public computer because we will kick you out for the day minimally.)

Come to a Program! Again you do not need a library card to come to our programs. They're chill, they're Gucci. We have so much fun stuff for you to do here. And it's FREE. (To the one person who might see this and be like "BUT MY TAXES!" yeah, your taxes paid for this, why aren't you utilizing the library? Why don't you have your library card? Why aren't you coming to my sick sick writing programs, or my awesome D&D programs?)

Children say odd shit. I had one kid tell me as he was sprinting to a computer, while holding a guest pass to be able to log onto the computer, "I'm gonna shove this up your bootyhole!". He said that verbatim, and honestly respect kid. but also like, hey, I'm just helping you get on the computer, relax. Also if you're going to be working consistently with kids/teens (like me), they're hilarious and are usually much more understanding than the adults.

Every library is different when it comes to creating a program. We have to normally plan months in advance to be able to do something. At the library I'm at we're planning for programs three months ahead while currently running our November Programs.

You can ask questions that you think are stupid. They're not. I promise they're not. I have had people ask me if they can have a sticker while looking at the sign that says "free stickers!!!! HERE!!" Most of the time we'll probably want to research your question and get stoked (or at least I will) by being able to research about whatever you're interested in. (Please ask us what we like to learn about in our free time.)

Sometimes, the book is checked out, because someone got to it before you. Them's the breaks man, we can't go to the person who check it out, and ask them to check it back in so we can check it out to you. However, we can put you on the list to be able to read it next. WITH YOUR LIBRARY CARD. Please get a library card. Can you tell how super chill I am about getting a library card?

Fun Fact! A lot of libraries will let you have temporary library cards. For example you can get a New York Public Library digital card (a temporary one) for 2-3 weeksish before having to go in and getting a physical card. So use it for the couple of weeks! Listen to an audio book!

Another one! I have so many. I'm sorry. You do not need an Audible subscription to be able to read eBooks or listen to Audiobooks on your phone. Use Libby! Just input your library card on the app, and use it like a regular library card. You have to wait until it's your turn (like physical copies of library materials), and then you have the 2-3 weeks to be able to listen to your stuff or read your eBook! And if your library does Hoopla, it's basically the exact same as Libby, however it's only 8 items rather than however many you can check out at once on a library card. Hoopla is a bit more convoluted than that, but if you want to know more just ask!

That's all I got right now. Sorry for the long post. :')

[yovelknell]

article in full below the cut (it’s ridiculously short)

We’re finally reckoning with our expensive subscription habits.

For two straight quarters, cancellations have outpaced new subscriptions for digital memberships, food-of-the-month clubs and a host of other purchases, according to personal finance app Rocket Money. Streaming services have been particularly impacted, with cancellations for Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max and others up 49% in 2022 from the previous year, according to subscriber-measurement firm Antenna.

“People are taking stock of their subscriptions and trying not to make the same mistakes they made in 2022 given that budgets are getting a lot tighter,” said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma.

The decision to cancel had been building up for some time, financial analysts said. Even though inflation cooled last month to its lowest level in nearly two years, budgets continue to be squeezed by higher prices.

About a third of respondents to a December Credit Karma survey said their biggest financial mistake last year was paying for services they never used. Americans were also paying about $133 more than the $86 they thought they were paying for subscriptions each month, according to a 2022 survey from market research firm C+R Research.

Retiree John Ritzinger, 72 years old, said canceling subscriptions he never used would spare him needing to penny pinch at the grocery store.

First to go was the satellite radio in two cars he never drove, saving him $45 a month. Next, the MotorTrend magazines that lived in an unread stack on the coffee table and a $1,000 annual, dining-only membership to his local Dayton, Ohio, country club in favor of ordinary restaurants. Stopping the $750-a-year pest control service was more of a debate with his wife.

“But if we get a bad enough infestation I figure we just burn the house down anyway,” he joked.

He’s putting off his call with the cable company to deactivate the land line he always ignores and downgrade his package until he’s socked away enough patience for an hourslong customer service call.

Taking on subscription overload

A new proposal from the Federal Trade Commission could make it simpler to break up with your subscriptions. The consumer watchdog wants to require merchants to make it as easy for customers to cancel as it is to sign up, often with just a single click.

Apps that help people take stock of their recurring payments such as Rocket Money and ScribeUp aren’t worried a new FTC rule will cut into their user base.

Over the past year about 70,000 people have downloaded ScribeUp, a new service that provides a credit card number to use only for recurring payments.

Chief commercial officer Erica Chiang said she wanted to give people a way to automatically opt-in, rather than out, of renewals after having to jump through hoops to cancel subscriptions as a consumer. The card will automatically cancel subscriptions on a user’s behalf if she doesn’t actively choose to continue.

At one point, Ms. Chiang said she had to travel from Los Angeles to New York to end a monthly gym membership after learning she could only cancel in-person at the gym where she signed up.

When Dylan Kenney conducted an audit of his spending after too many months in a row of wondering where his paycheck was going and hoping to save up for a house, he realized he was somehow paying for two separate Amazon Prime accounts.

Though he’s not trying to recoup the money he lost, he did save $270 a month by combining streaming services with his partner and canceling his weekly HelloFresh meal box, which he said had him paying $150 a month more for groceries than going to the store himself.

“I wasn’t really thinking of all the minor charges coming out of my account every month,” said the 27-year-old, who works for an aviation consulting firm in Arlington, Va.

One ScribeUp user, 46-year-old LaKisha Mosley, paid for a subscription to health club aggregator ClassPass for over four years without realizing it, adding up to over $5,000.

“I can count on one hand the amount of times I actually logged in,” she said.

Ms. Mosley said she wasn’t able to get the money back, and that she expected ClassPass to let her know when her subscription was coming up for renewal, which never happened. She’s heartened, however, to see more companies starting to send alerts before a charge comes up.

“When members sign up for ClassPass, they are notified that their memberships automatically renew on the same day each month,” a company spokeswoman said, adding that ClassPass sends reminders when members haven’t used their accounts to book classes.

Companies rethink subscriptions

Some companies are shifting their business model to meet changing consumer feelings about subscriptions.

Among them is Bark, which was founded in 2011 as a monthly box of dog treats and toys and has since expanded to sell a la carte. The company recently laid off 12% of its staff and said it would invest more in non-subscription products.

“These are always difficult decisions, however, we believe that it was the right direction for the business, and it better aligns our cost structure with the current economic environment and allows us to better focus on our highest priorities, which are profitability and growing our consumables business,” Chief Executive Matt Meeker said in an emailed statement to The Wall Street Journal

HelloFresh said on its most recent earnings call that it expects its number of active customers to decline in the first half of 2023, after dropping to 7.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 from 8 million in the third quarter.

Evanston, Ill., restaurant Soul & Smoke launched a meat of the month box in 2020, but recently made the decision to discontinue the offering amid waning interest.

“It made more sense to get rid of it and focus on the other things we were doing,” said co-owner Heather Bublick, pointing to a new bricks-and-mortar location and live events.

[darkmaga-returns]

On the ninth-grade boy and a married father of two who were driven to suicide by artificial intelligence and the laws of Arthur C. Clarke.

Pedro L. Gonzalez

Oct 31, 2024

Detail of the Odysseus and the Sirens mosaic from Dougga (Tunisia) depicting Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. Photo Credit: Bardo National Museum.

Note: Thanks so much to everyone who bought a subscription in the last month. It means a lot. If you haven’t yet, please consider picking one up. I plan on running another sale before the year’s end. Substack is also offering complimentary one-month gift subscriptions to eligible free subscribers. These are redeemable in the app and are fully paid for by the company. So now would be a good time to download it if you don’t have it.

Get more from Pedro L. Gonzalez in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Sewell Setzer’s parents noticed a change in him.

The boy not yet fifteen quietly retreated inward, losing interest in all the things he once loved, isolating himself from the world. At school he’d get into trouble as his grades deteriorated. Mom and stepdad sent him to a therapist, who diagnosed him with anxiety and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. But the sessions didn’t help. Sewell hid away in his room for hours at a time, concerned only with one solitary thing: his phone.

Then one day Sewell shot himself in the head with his stepfather’s .45 caliber handgun.An exchange between Sewell and the chatbot just before he shot himself. Photo Credit: Florida District Court / Daily Mail.

Only later did his parents discover that Sewell had been living in a fantasy world, sequestered there with the help of Character.AI, an app that allows users to interact with bots designed to mimic human speech and emotions. These characters can be whatever you wish them to be.

Sewell had secretly assumed the persona of “Daenero” in this realm of digital dreams and fell in love with a virtual creation named Daenerys Targaryen, who was constructed to intimidate the Game of Thrones character. In the final message of their final exchange, she wrote: “come home to me.” Sewell, who said he longed to be united with “Dany” in death, set down his phone and picked up the weapon he used to end his life.

Now, Megan Garcia, Sewell’s mother, is suing Character.AI. She blames the company for her son’s death. “I feel like it’s a big experiment, and my kid was just collateral damage,” she told The New York Times.

I don’t think artificial intelligence will threaten us in the way Skynet threatens the world in the Terminator universe that sprang from the mind of James Cameron. We will not bear witness to a nuclear end of days followed by a procession of burning red eyes buried within grinning chrome skulls atop endoskeletons glinting in the ashen moonlight. At least not any time soon. For now, we are confronted with a more mundane and pernicious threat that preys upon our desire for companionship. It hijacks what makes us human and turns that against us.