#Resource Monopoly

[fuzzysharkprincess]

Resources and Power: The Global History of Resource Monopoly and Inequality - Medieval Africa (Gold, Salt, and Trade Routes) 2024-10/20

Resources and Power: The Global History of Resource Monopoly and Inequality - Medieval Africa (Gold, Salt, and Trade Routes) 2024-10/20

Resources and Power: The Global History of Resource Monopoly and Inequality – Medieval Africa (Gold, Salt, and Trade Routes) 1. Summary Overview In medieval Africa, empires like Mali and Ghana used gold and salt to build vast networks of power and wealth, controlling key trade routes across the Sahara. This resource monopoly not only empowered these kingdoms but also entrenched inequality,…

[syneester]

btw I decided to recreate Monopoly Mountain on the There Are Friends Nearby SMP

The build itself is as accurate as I could get (except for the sand on the tower. i replaced it by smooth sandstone cuz i could not be bothered sobs) ALONG WITH THE INTERIOR!!

ignore the poppy

it was a pain to try to find a reference for Every. Single. Block. Placed. In there. but it was so worth it

+ have some bonus screenshots i took

[mcytegg]

I LOVE YOU 4C 4CVIT, hes gonna grind ancient cities after he runs out of building materials bc he wants a monopoly on resources ^-^

[guardbo]

Watching 3rd life for the first time is scar the descendent of an American politician

[bogkeep]

complaining about gender clinic again

mid-may: coincidentally finds out that the gender clinic offers [resource] they never informed me or nearly anyone else about, gets help from one of the nurses to order [resource] except she's going to send me more info over email first :)

(late july: my GP can also order [resource] for me and does so, it's different than the one i ordered through gender clinic because i wasn't sure if gender clinic was going to send me the [resource i ordered] or not. GP order goes through immediately)

early august, back from travelling: well i haven't received any emails nor word about [resource] so i'll shoot them a message

mid-august: well i haven't received any replies to my message so i'll call them even though their call times are a scarce two hours every weekday. i'm told they'll call me back over the week

this monday: over a week has passed and i received no call. i will call them again! the lady on the phone says i should contact the regional centre because that's where they send [resource orders] :) and if i don't want to do that i should call [different number that has call times only twice a week]

today: "hello special gender clinic number i really want a follow up about this thing one of your nurses promised but i have been completely unable to get a single word about despite contacting you multiple times"

"oh no!! i see you sent us a message weeks ago and nobody answered it! this isn't supposed to happen!"

"one would think"

(and then she actually emailed me!!!!! yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS TIME IT BETTER GO THROUGH I SWEAR TO GOD.)

[moomoocowmaid]

I love ancient Mesopotamia Monopoly (Catan)!!!

[musical-chick-13]

Another funny D&D story: I mentioned like...months ago, in a session, that my character didn't trust the NPC serving as a travel liaison to our party. I had pretty much forgotten it a while back, mainly because we hadn't been interacting with him and had a host of immediate, much more pressing problems to solve. Today's session ended with my character overhearing him trying to set up a pact with an evil god being. vindication.gif

[thatscarletflycatcher]

*looks at the notes on this post*

You were right, OP, people were not ready for this conversation.

Edit: reasons why I hardly ever talk economics/politics/ethics on this website.

I don’t think you’re ready to have an adult conversation about politics until you’re able to admit that there are things you love and enjoy that would not and should not exist in a just world. $8 billion dollar budget movies every other month don’t exist in a just world. New 900 GB AAA video games every year don’t exist in a just world. Next day delivery doesn’t exist in a just world. 80 different soda brands don’t exist in a just world. 

All of those things come from exploitation on some level, and if you wouldn’t trade those for a world where everyone can eat and have a home no matter who they are or what they do, I don’t know what to tell you. 

Edit: I made this comment a few days ago, but since it’s been buried in the 40k notes this post got since then, I’ll repeat it here. I agree that delivery of  medications and other vital supplies are essential! The “Next day delivery” I’m talking about is shit like Amazon that relies on incredibly awful national supply chains. If I had known this post was going to get this much attention, I would have been more explicit. 

[toxicsugar]

[handleerz]

[tedrakitty]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/12/1198558372/doj-google-monopoly-antitrust-trial-search-engine#:~:text=After%20the%20Justice%20Department%20filed,trial%20kicking%20off%20on%20Tuesday.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/why-is-us-suing-google-antitrust-violations-2023-09-11/

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

https://www.tumblr.com/thesoulofthebeautiful/731274818307178496/note-the-suit-is-specifically-about-google-having

DON'T LET THIS GO OUT OF CIRCULATION. ADD MORE ONTO IT. QUEUE IT. DON'T LET THIS SITE FUCKING FORGET. THIS TRIAL COULD HAVE MASSIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE WHOLE INTERNET.

EDIT:

Originally I linked an MSN article. I was unaware they're not a trustworthy source, but many lovely people in the notes pointed it out and pointed out that the article I linked had issues, linking much better sources.

Here's an excellent addition to the post by @/thesoulofthebeautiful:

Also, I saw a lot of people freaking out in the notes like "Oh shit, is Google gonna get completely taken down????" No. It won't. Google's a trillion dollar company, this won't completely destroy it. What it'll hopefully do is keep them from having Google be the default engine EVERYWHERE. If Google loses, that is a good thing. This WILL shake up the internet, but it won't be the end.

Cool? Cool. Here's a Destiel meme:

IF YOU REPOST THIS MEME, LINK THE SOURCES

[agentromanoffsir]

neocities guide - why you should build your own html website

do you miss the charm of the 90s/00s web where sites had actual personality instead of the same minimalistic theme? are you feeling drained by social media and the constant corporate monopoly of your data and time? do you want to be excited about the internet again? try neocities!!

what is neocities?

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. in their own words: "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

why should I make my own website?

web3 has been overtaken by capitalism & conformity. websites that once were meant to be fun online social spaces now exist solely to steal your data and sell you things. it sucks!! building a personal site is a great way to express yourself and take control of your online experience.

what would I even put on a website?

the best part about making your own site is that you can do literally whatever the hell you want! focus on a specific subject or make it a wild collection of all your interests. share your art! make a shrine for one of your interests! post a picture of every bird you see when you step outside! make a collection of your favorite blinkies! the world is your oyster !! here are some cool example sites to inspire you: recently updated neocities sites | it can be fun to just look through these and browse people's content! space bar | local interstellar dive bar creature feature | halloween & monsters big gulp supreme peanutbuttaz | personal site dragodiluna linwood | personal site patho grove | personal site

getting started: neocities/html guide

sound interesting? here are some guides to help you get started, especially if you aren't familiar with html/css sadgrl.online webmastery | a fantastic resource for getting started with html & web revival. also has a layout builder that you can use to start with in case starting from scratch is too intimidating web design in 4 minutes | good for learning coding basics w3schools | html tutorials templaterr | demo & html for basic web elements eggramen test pages | css page templates to get started with sadgrl background tiles | bg tiles rivendell background tiles | more free bg tiles

fun stuff to add to your site

want your site to be cool? here's some fun stuff that i've found blinkies-cafe | fantastic blinkie maker! (run by @transbro & @graphics-cafe) gificities | internet archive of 90s/00s web gifs internet bumper stickers | web bumper stickers momg | gif gallery 99 gif shop | 3d gifs 123 guestbook | add a guestbook for people to leave messages cbox | add a live chat box moon phases | track the phases of the moon gifypet | a little clickable page pet adopt a shroom | mushroom page pet tamaNOTchi | virtual pet crossword puzzle | daily crossword imood | track your mood neko | cute cat that chases your mouse pollcode | custom poll maker website hit counter | track how many visitors you have

web revival manifestos & communities

also, there's actually a pretty cool community of people out there who want to bring joy back to the web! melonland project | web project/community celebrating individual & joyful online experiences. Also has an online forum melonland intro to web revival | what is web revival? melonking manifesto | status cafe | share your current status nightfall city | online community onio.cafe | leave a message and enjoy the ambiance sadgrl internet manifesto | yesterweb internet manifesto | sadly defunct, still a great resource reclaiming online social spaces | great manifesto on cultivating your online experience

in conclusion

i want everyone to make a neocities site because it's fun af and i love seeing everyone's weird personal sites that they made outside of the control of capitalism :) say hi to me on neocities

EDIT: part 2!!

[twcfaces]

honestly telltale harvey's idea about redistributing the wayne estate is dope i just think his ... uh. priorities. are wrong. because they're two-face's priorities. but. eat the rich, am i right?

[le-fils-de-lhomme]

Neocolonialism is alive and well in Africa. The issues of governments starting in debt and opportunistic countries jumping in and offering loans continues. It's also the same countries they're just different governments/economic systems.

[lastoneout]

Unity is fucking up so bad rn that I saw several indie devs on twitter saying they did the math and it would literally be cheaper for them to hire a small team to port their games out of Unity rather than pay the install fee. Like if Unity had a monopoly they could MAYBE get away with this bcs there wouldn't be any other options, but I can think of at least three different game engines off the top of my head rn(and it's entirely possible for a studio with the right resources to just make their own) so the CEO has literally, in ONE day, made it easier and cheaper for everyone to just stop using his product than to pay the fees they're asking for. This dude is speedrunning destroying his company. He saw Elon Musk nuke twitter and went "hold my beer". Fucking incredible. I'd almost think it was on purpose if it wasn't so goddamn stupid.

[feminist-space]

"A funny thing happened on the way to the enshittocene: Google – which astonished the world when it reinvented search, blowing Altavista and Yahoo out of the water with a search tool that seemed magic – suddenly turned into a pile of shit.

Google's search results are terrible. The top of the page is dominated by spam, scams, and ads. A surprising number of those ads are scams. Sometimes, these are high-stakes scams played out by well-resourced adversaries who stand to make a fortune by tricking Google[...]

Google operates one of the world's most consequential security system – The Algorithm (TM) – in total secrecy. We're not allowed to know how Google's ranking system works, what its criteria are, or even when it changes: "If we told you that, the spammers would win."

Well, they kept it a secret, and the spammers won anyway.

...

Some of the biggest, most powerful, most trusted publications in the world have a side-hustle in quietly producing SEO-friendly "10 Best ___________ of 2024" lists: Rolling Stone, Forbes, US News and Report, CNN, New York Magazine, CNN, CNET, Tom's Guide, and more.

Google literally has one job: to detect this kind of thing and crush it. The deal we made with Google was, "You monopolize search and use your monopoly rents to ensure that we never, ever try another search engine. In return, you will somehow distinguish between low-effort, useless nonsense and good information. You promised us that if you got to be the unelected, permanent overlord of all information access, you would 'organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.'"

They broke the deal." -Cory Doctorow

Read the whole article: https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task