#Why choose digital marketing

[dhivyaakumar]

Become a Digital Marketing Pro: Learn the Basics NOW!

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing refers to the marketing of products and services of a company or business through digital channels such as search engines, websites, email, social media, mobile apps, etc. It involves the use of electronic devices and the internet. Digital marketing is often referred to as online marketing, internet marketing or web marketing.

Digital marketing mainly comprises Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). We can say that it can be divided into three parts SEO, SMO, and SEM. However, Email Marketing and Affiliate Marketing have also become important components of digital marketing over the past few years. So, in digital marketing, we mainly deal with the following components:

SEO

SMO

SEM

Email Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

Why choose Digital Marketing?

Non-Digital Marketing, which is the traditional means of marketing, includes the usage of physical means of marketing. These are generally in the form of physical prints such as posters, flyers, newspaper advertisements, and billboards. Even at the first glance, it is quite apparent why almost every business is choosing to get into Digital Marketing.

The primary and the most fundamental reasoning for this is the amount of reach that is possible with it. There are smart devices everywhere, from televisions, laptops, computers, and tablets to smartphones. Even cars have smart systems enabled in them where you can access the Internet. All of these facilities present a blank canvas for advertising your brand.

How does Digital Marketing work?

There are two ways in which Digital Marketing is implemented by brands and businesses:

B2C (Business to Customer)

B2B (Business to Business)

B2C (Business to Customer):

When a brand or a company has to sell a product or service to individual customers. In fact, 95 percent of the time, the ads and marketing that you see online are examples of B2C campaigns, e.g., an ad for a candy bar, a promotional video for a safety razor, or a movie trailer. All of these marketing efforts are targeting individual consumers and not organizations.

B2B (Business to Business):

B2B is conducted for very specific products. You wouldn’t generally see B2B products being advertised on platforms with traffic from the everyday crowd. These marketing campaigns are low profile, professional, and in most cases, marketed directly (or pitched) to the client. This client can be a small business or a corporate giant. We can take heavy-duty cooking machinery used in big fast-food restaurants as an example. What would be the point of running a TV ad for an industry-level chimney? None. This sort of marketing is done through B2B-specialized salesmen who use custom-made marketing material, PowerPoint presentations, and word of mouth to pitch their product.

Not surprisingly, billions of marketing dollars spent on traditional channels is already starting to shift to digital marketing campaigns and this will continue to increase as the Web matures.

[expanding-our-channel-lineup]

Why RVR School of Photography is Your Gateway to a Thriving Photography Career

Introduction: Photography as a Career There is a huge market gap and in this gap the art of photography career has come up from being just a hobby to a fully fledged profession. Apart from media and advertisements, photography career  now have a significant opportunity in fashion and social media also. At the RVR school of photography, we focus on the development of such skills and taking enthusiastic photographers as our students, we convert them into professionals. Our students have already worked with TCS, Wipro, Times amongst others. This speaks volumes of our training and the changing perception of the employers towards our students.

1. The Growing Demand for Professional Photographers

It became quite apparent that there is an increased need for photographers not only for social functions or individual projects but rather for the e-commerce, media and fashion industries. As marketing experts seek to impress customers with great product photography, storytelling, and other visual elements, skilled photographers are in high demand. Demand for photographers has exploded virtually with the advent of the digital age. At the RVR school of photography, we take the students through the necessary training, which will encourage  them to built their photography career with all the needs to succeed as photographers in the current market situation.

2. Why Choose RVR School of Photography?

At RVR, we don’t only teach photography; we build photography career. This is what makes us unique:

Comprehensive Curriculum: In our courses, we start with the basics of photography and proceed to advanced editing, lighting, and image processing.

Industry Trained Faculty: Our teachers have more than just teaching as they have been active photographers themselves and know what it means to be in the profession.

Practice: Theory is not enough for us. The program has lots of practical sessions for the learners to further their skills and techniques.

Career Counselling and Job Placement: RVR pays particular attention to all students. Many of our students have received jobs in the companies that qualified them.

3. Courses Offered at RVR School of Photography

Our programs target all  photographers to buit there photography career  at all levels. That’s new photographers who want to acquire basic skills and professional ones who wish to perfect their skills.

 Beginner Photography Course: Photography course for beginners covers the fundamentals how to hold and use a camera, basic light, composition, and how to take pictures. This is an appropriate course for everyone who has never taken a photograph; hence, this course provides a good base.

Advanced Photography Course: In our Advanced Course, some students are equipped with more advanced skills in low-light techniques, portrait photography, and image retouching so that they will be able to manage more difficult work and high quality tools.

Specialized Photography Courses: We have organized specialized courses, such as Fashion Photography, Landscape Photography, and Wedding Photography that let the students develop much interest in the specific field of their choice.

Editing and Post-Production: Our courses on editing and post-production concentrate on industry-recognized tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and other similar programs. In this digital age, editing techniques are indispensable in content creation, and our students are well trained in those techniques.

RVR School: Paving the Way to Photography Excellence and Shaping the Future of Creative TalentBy Simran

4. Photography Career: Gain Real-World Experience and Build a Stunning Portfolio

In the same mindset, it is quite safe to say that a photographer’s portfolio is their visual CV, one of the most vital components needed to utilize their expertise and up to clients and or employers. At RVR School of Photography, we believe having an impressive portfolio is of utmost importance especially when starting a career as a photographer. 

Students of RVR have opportunities to participate in real product photoshoots, fashion editorials, etc, which are supervised by the instructors. These projects not only sharpen their practical skills but also prepare students to work in the real world where they have to please people, and complete the tasks given to them on time.

Such projects are led by instructors who are experienced practitioners in the industry and have mentored the students themselves through projects. They help the students with their feedback and how to use techniques that will help the students create an artistic identity that is uniquely theirs.

Also we encourage active learning through portfolios and conduct regular practice in fine al placement where students are given constructive feedback on their work. Feedback always highlights where the student is strong and where the student has room for growth so that the end product is always balance and professional.

5. RVR School of Photography Alumni Success Stories

Our students have to achieve great milestones by getting jobs in well-known companies such as TCS, WIPRO, TIMES, et cetera. These milestones achieved by some of our students bring glory to our school and prove that the training we provide has immense value in the field.

Some of our alumni who have been successful are:

Ravi Sharma: Worked with times as a corporate photographer and covered events of the high management.

Sneha Kapoor: Worked in the TCS marketing team and was involved in the creation of visuals for the campaigns.

Arjun Mehta: Worked as a fashion photographer in Wipro showcasing their apparel lines in the most appealing way.

These stories inspire our students and demonstrate the quality of training they receive at RVR.

6. Photography Career Skills You’ll Master at RVR School of Photography

The skills our students achieve go beyond the basics:

Mastering Composition: Composing a frame that tells a story with a thousand visual elements.

Lighting Techniques: Using natural and artificial lighting for accentuation and photography.

Editing Mastery: Students’ skills with tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Light room, and others.

Client Management: How to handle clients and their expectations and how to put them to fruition.

7. photography Career Paths After Completing a Photography Course

A degree from RVR School of Photography helps in getting various types of jobs:

Corporate Photographer: Photograph brand images, teams, events.

Fashion Photographer: Work with Brands, models, and designers.

Freelance Photographer: Own Photography business.

Media Photographer: Creative visual images for stories for newspapers, magazines.

With our guidance, students can tailor their skills to the path that suits them best.

8. How RVR School of Photography Supports Your photography Career

We don’t stop with the coursework only, it doesn’t end there. We help them to bulit their photography career:

Placements: With a reach over leading employers like TCS, Wipro and Times. We place students at the best jobs available. TCS, Wipro and Times

Networking Events: We provide events to the students where they meet potential employers and industry leaders (Photography).

Career Counseling: Counseling for photography career selection, for portfolio development, for interview skills etc.

9. Why Photography is a Lucrative Career Choice

Modern-day photography has reached unbelievable heights and most people have accepted it as an industry that encompasses numerous photography career opportunities. Photography career is self-employment, creativity and self actualization all in one package.

Consistently Develops:There is no industry today that does not have specialization in photography career. Companies reach out to professional photographers in other sectors such as marketing, advertising, content creation and social media. The same expertise is requested for events such as weddings, business meetings or product launches. It creates a continuous search for new talented professionals in detail work and creative design.

Different photography Career Opportunities:Several professional paths are available even when one has selected the field of phototgraphy. People of all skills and preferences: travel, fashion, wildlife, food, event and much more can all find their field in photography. Freelancers have freedom to select jobs, individuals focusing on photography career in occupations have a fixed salary and constant work.

Financial Stability and Growth:Would you consider photography career as an art or a business? For any professional photographer, it’s both. On the one hand, established photographers can offer a large range of services as well as find themselves to have long-term relationships with their clients. For instance, wedding photographers have good returns in each event during the busy season. On the other hand, commercial photographers working for top companies can receive good commissions on their projects as well.

Freelance Freedom:If you are one of those people that does not like having a boss, freelancing enables you to live a different lifestyle. A photographer who works on a one-off basis gets to select what project to work on, when to work, and how to sell themselves. This path of employment also means you can work with brands from a different country which means other markets always exist.

10. How to Apply to RVR School of Photography

Do you want to begin your photography career? The application to RVR is straightforward and needs no additional stress:

Look at our Site:  RVR SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Select the Desired Course: Review the courses we offer and select the course you want.

Utilize the Application to Apply: Complete the provided form with the required information.

Meet Our Team For An Interview: Here we evaluate your interest in pursuing photography career and your vision.

Our admissions team is here to help you through each step.

Conclusion: Start Your Photography Career with RVR School of Photography

Photography is not simply a play of light and chemistry, but rather a story, an imagination, and a moment that strikes the heart of many. A photography career is endless since it can either be an exploration of artistic vision or a stable and rewarding profession. RVR School of Photography offers world-class training that combines sound theoretical knowledge with practical experience to make sure our students are industry-ready from day one.

Our professional mentorship builds students’ technical abilities and the assurance that they can succeed in a competitive marketplace. We help them create a solid portfolio, which is the foundation of every successful Registrant photographer, and we prepare them for different photography career paths from freelancing to working with renowned companies.

Whether you aspire to be a fashion photographer, specialize in stunning landscapes, or focus on corporate and media photography, RVR School of Photography is the best starting point. Our graduates speak volumes about the quality of education we offer, as many have attained outstanding milestones in their photography career.

Keep your passion for photography as a hobby, or let it change your life. RVR School of Photography provides tailored mentoring, world-class infrastructure, and an energetic learning environment to help you make creative dreams a successful photography career.

So what are you waiting for? Take action today, and allow us to guide you in unlocking your potential and creating an enjoyable career in photography. Become a student at RVR School of Photography, and see your passion become a successful professio

[prepmagic11]

Top Digital Marketing Interview Questions and Answers - Prep Magic

Welcome to the ultimate guide for mastering your digital marketing interview! In today's competitive landscape, acing your interview is crucial to landing your dream job in the digital marketing world. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your career, this comprehensive resource will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to tackle even the toughest interview questions.

Why Digital Marketing Interview Questions Matter:

Before getting into the top questions & answers, let's first understand why digital marketing interview questions are so important. In today’s world of digital marketing, employers are seeking candidates who not only possess technical skills but also demonstrate strategic thinking, creativity, and adaptability. By preparing for common interview questions, you not only showcase your expertise but also demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning and growth in the field.

1. Assessment of Knowledge and Skills: Digital marketing interview questions serve as a means for employers to assess your understanding of fundamental concepts, tools, and techniques within the digital marketing landscape. By asking targeted questions, interviewers can gauge your proficiency in areas such as SEO, SEM, content marketing, social media marketing, analytics, and more.

2. Demonstration of Problem-Solving Abilities: Many digital marketing interview questions are designed to test your problem-solving skills and critical thinking abilities. Employers want to see how you approach challenges, analyze data, identify opportunities, and propose effective solutions. Through your responses, you can showcase your ability to think strategically and adapt to changing circumstances in the dynamic world of digital marketing.

3. Evaluation of Communication Skills: Effective communication is essential in digital marketing roles, whether it's conveying ideas to team members, presenting strategies to clients, or crafting compelling content for target audiences. Interview questions provide an opportunity for you to articulate your thoughts clearly, concisely, and confidently, demonstrating your ability to communicate complex concepts in a manner that is easy to understand.

4. Assessment of Cultural Fit: In addition to evaluating your technical skills, interview questions also help employers assess your cultural fit within their organization. By asking about your past experiences, achievements, and work habits, interviewers can determine whether your values, goals, and personality align with the company culture and team dynamics.

5. Opportunity for Self-Reflection and Improvement: Preparing for digital marketing interview questions requires self-reflection and introspection. As you review common interview questions and formulate your responses, you'll gain a deeper understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. This process of self-assessment not only enhances your interview performance but also facilitates personal and professional growth over time.

Conclusion:

Digital marketing interview questions matter because they serve as a comprehensive assessment tool for employers, evaluating your knowledge, skills, problem-solving abilities, communication proficiency, and cultural fit within their organization.

For learners, understanding the significance of interview questions provides motivation to prepare thoroughly, refine their skills, and confidently navigate the interview process to achieve their career goals in the field of digital marketing.

In conclusion, mastering your digital marketing interview requires a combination of technical expertise, strategic thinking, creativity, and adaptability.

Remember, preparation is key to success, so start practising your answers to these top digital marketing interview questions today!

With these insights, you're well on your way to acing your digital marketing interview and taking your career to new heights. Good luck!

[keywordriser1]

Best SEO and Internet Marketing Company in Jaipur – KeywordRiser

When it comes to navigating the dynamic digital landscape, having the right partner by your side can make all the difference. In the heart of Rajasthan, Jaipur, KeywordRiser stands out as the best digital marketing agency to help you rise above the competition. Let's explore how KeywordRiser is redefining the digital marketing landscape in Jaipur and beyond.

Why KeywordRiser Is the Top SEO Company in Jaipur

KeywordRiser takes pride in being the premier SEO company in Jaipur. Our team of experts understands the intricacies of search engine optimization. We employ proven strategies that guarantee visibility, higher rankings, and more organic traffic for your website. From keyword research to on-page and off-page optimization, we leave no stone unturned in boosting your online presence.

Internet Marketing Expertise You Can Trust

As an internet marketing company in Jaipur, KeywordRiser excels in creating tailored digital marketing strategies. Our in-depth market analysis helps us identify the best platforms for your brand. From social media marketing to pay-per-click advertising, we optimize your online campaigns to reach your target audience effectively.

Why Choose KeywordRiser as Your Digital Marketing Agency in Jaipur, Rajasthan

Our digital marketing agency in Jaipur, Rajasthan, has a track record of delivering measurable results for our clients. We craft compelling content that resonates with your audience, build high-converting websites, and manage your online reputation with precision.

Catering to Kishangarh and Beyond

Not only are we the top digital marketing company in Jaipur, but we also extend our services to Kishangarh. We understand that businesses need tailored solutions, and our strategies are designed to suit the unique demands of Kishangarh's market.

Comprehensive Digital Marketing Services in Jaipur

KeywordRiser offers a wide array of digital marketing services in Jaipur. From SEO to content marketing, email campaigns to web design, we have your every online marketing need covered under one roof. Our experts ensure that your digital journey is seamless and fruitful.

The Best SEO Company in Rajasthan

Our reputation as the best SEO company in Rajasthan is a testament to our commitment to excellence. KeywordRiser continually evolves to stay ahead of digital marketing trends, ensuring your business enjoys top rankings and increased online visibility.

In conclusion, when you partner with KeywordRiser, you're not just choosing a digital marketing agency in Jaipur, but a trusted ally in your journey to digital success. Let's work together to make your brand a household name in the digital world.

To get started with the top SEO and internet marketing company in Jaipur, reach out to KeywordRiser today and watch your online presence soar. Your success is our priority!

Contact us on 

info@keywordriser.in

8306009392

9950372060

https://www.linkedin.com/company/keywordriser/

[xdimension1]

Why Digital Marketing Is Important?

A wide variety of methods and approaches are used in digital marketing for firms to advertise their services and products on the internet.

Search engines like Google, social networking platforms, email marketing, content material advertising, and influencer partnerships are just a few examples of these channels.

Due to the large number of users on the internet nowadays, it is now simpler for business owners to connect with their target market online.

Expertise and Specialization

Brands resort to digital advertising and marketing organisations for a variety of reasons, including the knowledge and expertise they provide.

The people who work for digital marketing companies are experts in several aspects of online marketing, including SEO, Google Ads advertising, social media management, content writing, and more.

These professionals make sure that your brand's online strategies remain effective and competitive by staying up to date with the most recent trends, algorithm changes, and accepted practises in their respective fields.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The specific process by which Google enshittified its search

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

All digital businesses have the technical capacity to enshittify: the ability to change the underlying functions of the business from moment to moment and user to user, allowing for the rapid transfer of value between business customers, end users and shareholders:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

Which raises an important question: why do companies enshittify at a specific moment, after refraining from enshittifying before? After all, a company always has the potential to benefit by treating its business customers and end users worse, by giving them a worse deal. If you charge more for your product and pay your suppliers less, that leaves more money on the table for your investors.

Of course, it's not that simple. While cheating, price-gouging, and degrading your product can produce gains, these tactics also threaten losses. You might lose customers to a rival, or get punished by a regulator, or face mass resignations from your employees who really believe in your product.

Companies choose not to enshittify their products…until they choose to do so. One theory to explain this is that companies are engaged in a process of continuous assessment, gathering data about their competitive risks, their regulators' mettle, their employees' boldness. When these assessments indicate that the conditions are favorable to enshittification, the CEO walks over to the big "enshittification" lever on the wall and yanks it all the way to MAX.

Some companies have certainly done this – and paid the price. Think of Myspace or Yahoo: companies that made themselves worse by reducing quality and gouging on price (be it measured in dollars or attention – that is, ads) before sinking into obscure senescence. These companies made a bet that they could get richer while getting worse, and they were wrong, and they lost out.

But this model doesn't explain the Great Enshittening, in which all the tech companies are enshittifying at the same time. Maybe all these companies are subscribing to the same business newsletter (or, more likely, buying advice from the same management consultancy) (cough McKinsey cough) that is a kind of industry-wide starter pistol for enshittification.

I think it's something else. I think the main job of a CEO is to show up for work every morning and yank on the enshittification lever as hard as you can, in hopes that you can eke out some incremental gains in your company's cost-basis and/or income by shifting value away from your suppliers and customers to yourself.

We get good digital services when the enshittification lever doesn't budge – when it is constrained: by competition, by regulation, by interoperable mods and hacks that undo enshittification (like alternative clients and ad-blockers) and by workers who have bargaining power thanks to a tight labor market or a powerful union:

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

When Google ordered its staff to build a secret Chinese search engine that would censor search results and rat out dissidents to the Chinese secret police, googlers revolted and refused, and the project died:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)

When Google tried to win a US government contract to build AI for drones used to target and murder civilians far from the battlefield, googlers revolted and refused, and the project died:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/technology/google-pentagon-project-maven.html

What's happened since – what's behind all the tech companies enshittifying all at once – is that tech worker power has been smashed, especially at Google, where 12,000 workers were fired just months after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years. Likewise, competition has receded from tech bosses' worries, thanks to lax antitrust enforcement that saw most credible competitors merged into behemoths, or neutralized with predatory pricing schemes. Lax enforcement of other policies – privacy, labor and consumer protection – loosened up the enshittification lever even more. And the expansion of IP rights, which criminalize most kinds of reverse engineering and aftermarket modification, means that interoperability no longer applies friction to the enshittification lever.

Now that every tech boss has an enshittification lever that moves very freely, they can show up for work, yank the enshittification lever, and it goes all the way to MAX. When googlers protested the company's complicity in the genocide in Gaza, Google didn't kill the project – it mass-fired the workers:

https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/statement-from-google-workers-with-the-no-tech-for-apartheid-campaign-on-googles-indiscriminate-28ba4c9b7ce8

Enshittification is a macroeconomic phenomenon, determined by the regulatory environment for competition, privacy, labor, consumer protection and IP. But enshittification is also a microeconomic phenomenon, the result of innumerable boardroom and product-planning fights within companies in which would-be enshittifiers try to do things that make the company's products and services shittier wrestle with rivals who want to keep things as they are, or make them better, whether out of principle or fear of the consequences.

Those microeconomic wrestling-matches are where we find enshittification's heroes and villains – the people who fight for the user or stand up for a fair deal, versus the people who want to cheat and wreck to make things better for the company and win bonuses and promotions for themselves:

https://locusmag.com/2023/11/commentary-by-cory-doctorow-dont-be-evil/

These microeconomic struggles are usually obscure, because companies are secretive institutions and our glimpses into their deliberations are normally limited to the odd leaked memo, whistleblower tell-all, or spectacular worker revolt. But when a company gets dragged into court, a new window opens into the company's internal operations. That's especially true when the plaintiff is the US government.

Which brings me back to Google, the poster-child for enshittification, a company that revolutionized the internet a quarter of a century ago with a search-engine that was so good that it felt like magic, which has decayed so badly and so rapidly that whole sections of the internet are disappearing from view for the 90% of users who rely on the search engine as their gateway to the internet.

Google is being sued by the DOJ's Antitrust Division, and that means we are getting a very deep look into the company, as its internal emails and memos come to light:

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

Google is a tech company, and tech companies have literary cultures – they run on email and other forms of written communication, even for casual speech, which is more likely to take place in a chat program than at a water-cooler. This means that tech companies have giant databases full of confessions to every crime they've ever committed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Large pieces of Google's database-of-crimes are now on display – so much, in fact, that it's hard for anyone to parse through it all and understand what it means. But some people are trying, and coming up with gold. One of those successful prospectors is Ed Zitron, who has produced a staggering account of the precise moment at which Google search tipped over into enshittification, which names the executives at the very heart of the rot:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

Zitron tells the story of a boardroom struggle over search quality, in which Ben Gomes – a long-tenured googler who helped define the company during its best years – lost a fight with Prabhakar Raghavan, a computer scientist turned manager whose tactic for increasing the number of search queries (and thus the number of ads the company could show to searchers) was to decrease the quality of search. That way, searchers would have to spend more time on Google before they found what they were looking for.

Zitron contrasts the background of these two figures. Gomes, the hero, worked at Google for 19 years, solving fantastically hard technical scaling problems and eventually becoming the company's "search czar." Raghavan, the villain, "failed upwards" through his career, including a stint as Yahoo's head of search from 2005-12, a presiding over the collapse of Yahoo's search business. Under Raghavan's leadership, Yahoo's search market-share fell from 30.4% to 14%, and in the end, Yahoo jettisoned its search altogether and replaced it with Bing.

For Zitron, the memos show how Raghavan engineered the ouster of Gomes, with help from the company CEO, the ex-McKinseyite Sundar Pichai. It was a triumph for enshittification, a deliberate decision to make the product worse in order to make it more profitable, under the (correct) belief that the company's exclusivity deals to provide search everywhere from Iphones and Samsungs to Mozilla would mean that the business would face no consequences for doing so.

It a picture of a company that isn't just too big to fail – it's (as FTC Chair Lina Khan put it on The Daily Show) too big to care:

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

Zitron's done excellent sleuthing through the court exhibits here, and his writeup is incandescently brilliant. But there's one point I quibble with him on. Zitron writes that "It’s because the people running the tech industry are no longer those that built it."

I think that gets it backwards. I think that there were always enshittifiers in the C-suites of these companies. When Page and Brin brought in the war criminal Eric Schmidt to run the company, he surely started every day with a ritual, ferocious tug at that enshittification lever. The difference wasn't who was in the C-suite – the difference was how freely the lever moved.

On Saturday, I wrote:

The platforms used to treat us well and now treat us badly. That's not because they were setting a patient trap, luring us in with good treatment in the expectation of locking us in and turning on us. Tech bosses do not have the executive function to lie in wait for years and years.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/22/kargo-kult-kaptialism/#dont-buy-it

Someone on Hacker News called that "silly," adding that "tech bosses do in fact have the executive function to lie in wait for years and years. That's literally the business model of most startups":

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40114339

That's not quite right, though. The business-model of the startup is to yank on the enshittification lever every day. Tech bosses don't lie in wait for the perfect moment to claw away all the value from their employees, users, business customers, and suppliers – they're always trying to get that value. It's only when they become too big to care that they succeed. That's the definition of being too big to care.

In antitrust circles, they sometimes say that "the process is the punishment." No matter what happens to the DOJ's case against Google, its internal workers have been made visible to the public. The secrecy surrounding the Google trial when it was underway meant that a lot of this stuff flew under the radar when it first appeared. But as Zitron's work shows, there is plenty of treasure to be found in that trove of documents that is now permanently in the public domain.

When future scholars study the enshittocene, they will look to accounts like Zitron's to mark the turning points from the old, good internet to the enshitternet. Let's hope those future scholars have a new, good internet on which to publish their findings.

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/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

[stealingyourbones]

Hi! So I’m doing a little research project and I wanted to ask you since I consider you a big voice in the dpxdc fandom what originally drew you to the dpxdc crossover? What aspects of it do you love, don’t love? What has been your experience in the fandom? Please let me know, thank you!!

!! Bet!

I was originally drawn to dpxdc because I saw a few fics while searching for Batfamily fics on ao3. My brain is a tad muddy why I went to tumblr.

While scrolling on tumblr I saw that folks had easy ~300 notes for posting things and I was bored one day and decided I’d take a swing at things and essentially tap into the fanfic market (sue me I was currently in a marketing class and that’s how my brain was wired at the time). I knew an ok amount about DC and wanted to write about DC characters that weren’t in crossover fanfics I’ve seen. That’s why I was drawn to the fandom, I watched Danny Phantom as a teenager and was really into DC and the nostalgia plus my current hyperfixation lead to my first post about Danny meeting John Constantine. It made 500 notes within two days and so I thought I’d continue with my writing and after repeated positive reception, here I am now.

My experience in the fandom has been nothing but warm and welcoming. When I started I was near instantly getting reception and acknowledgement (again, right place right time and right ideas). The only negative reception I’ve ever gotten is DC or DP folks who got mad about tagging (THEY ARE RIGHT TAG YOUR SHIT PROPERLY). People in this fandom are unique because it’s an incredibly versatile fandom with so many characters to pick and choose from that (after a point) requires canon material to understand but it isn’t necessary. This has cultivated an incredibly diverse group of folks with different varying levels of knowledge on canon and fanon that has created the perfect breeding ground for incredibly varying AUs and Headcanons.

Aspects of the fandom I love is definitely the creativity and community. Since my platform is built as a idea haven for folks to create new ideas and to slowly increase the amount of DC characters in fanfics commonly seen in DPXDC, my main interactions are with people bouncing ideas back and forth. I build the foundation and scaffolding and the community finishes the building. The insane creativity in the fandom is incredible, the willingness to learn and fanart is gorgeous, and the people are so so nice and from that community there are folks I have made lifelong friends with.

Dislikes are very personally charged, I must clarify they aren’t a “hate” but just a general dislike. These are probably gonna be long because I feel I have to back myself up on these claims. Since the fandom is a mainly fanon focused community the lack of characters that aren’t in mainline comics don’t get spotlight. Characters like Animal Man in particular I feel would be an absolutely incredible addition to the DPxDC hero roster but since he’s a C list superhero (he’s literally in a team called The Forgotten Heroes) and it’s a lot to ask people to read comics when there’s such a financial and motivational barrier in the way for most. The general fact that comics are an expensive hobby to have or most can’t afford the digital DC Infinite comic subscription or don’t know where to start reading is a huge roadblock for fandom creativity that isn’t a fault of their own and it’s a bummer.

Another is the echoness of fanon, some mainstay AU’s I feel create walls that block creativity. Ghost King AUs are great but a non OP Danny or just regular superhero Danny could be another route that leads to more in depth character writing as OP AUs can cause the character in question to gain a more 2D personality as all weakness is removed leaving them just an unstoppable being with no flaws.

Another dislike is just how relationship focused the fandom is. I acknowledge that this is partly my fault as for a long time my thought process for prompts was “lets take two characters and then write a scenario that could be ship worthy” and the amount of adoption prompts I’ve written but I feel like the writing could thrive if the main relationships weren’t always romantic, paternal, or brotherly. Mentor, friend, cousin, mentee, kismesis, friendly rivalry, and other relationships of the sort being the focus could open up new and interesting stories that aren’t commonly seen in the fandom and I feel we all could benefit from it.

[lilly-chou-chou]

GYARU GUIDE,

MID-PLUS SIZE EDITION:-

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Welcome to yet another post!! Today I'd like to focus on plus size gyaru because let's be real every size deserves to dress the way they want and even Japan's iconic gyaru brands sadly didn't cater to them and the only thing plus size gyaru could buy from these brands were accessories, shoes and scarfs, but they deserve more!

In this post I will be talking about a lot of things from skinny ideal type gyarus to obviously mid-plus size gals, how gyaru has become a toxic fashion culture, the whole ethical and sustainable debate and of course where you can source your clothes from and many more.

Context page:-

Introduction

Background

The Harsh Truth (privilege, living in a bubble, etc)

Problems, are they really tho? (Ethical, overconsumption, fast fashion etc)

Resources (where to buy)

Outro

I have been war with my body for a really long time and it took me so many years to finally love what I saw on the mirror and I have been fluctuating my weight for a long time so I can definitely assure you guys that I can understand and see all perspectives.

Every time I see any posts or something mid size and plus size are always excluded but not anymore, I have few guides and even sites and such to help you girlies and even few criticism and opinions <3

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Background:-

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As we all know the whole purpose of gyaru was and still is to rebel against the norms of societal pressure, especially for Japanese women where topic such as freedom soeech and general personal choices are very considered to be very dire but with the rise of Gyaru and having global celebrity sensation like Namie Amuro and kaoru watanabe popularizing the gyaru concept really helped the youth of Japan express themselves lot freely.

Economic and fashion market saw this as an opportunity and so soon household names that defined gyaru fashion started to erupt like D.I.A, MA*RS, JSG (Japanese super girl), ALBA ROSA, Liz Lisa etc and malls like Shibuya 109 and magazines like ahega, egg etc became the household name for these brands but sadly amidst the uproar and the rise of Gyaru fashion one thing that companies and even magazines to even this day the digital footprint of Gyaru always excludes MID-PLUS size people.

Some of y'all might say "but almost everyone is Japan are really slim so why should they cater to others?" Well the truth is plus size people do exist in Japan but finding that demographic in google is really difficult but when I spent my years in Japan, yea, they do exist and there are good number of them.

It also doesn't help tue fact that even in general there isn't much famous MID-PLUS size models or popular people in Japan the only celebrity who managed to push the way through the harsh and diabolical Japanese entertainment industry is obviously Naomi Watanabe she has been the pioneer for size inclusiveness for many years and it absolutely admirable how she manages to survive such harsh industry where even dating is considered taboo, although I would like to put 2 more honorable mentions to this and they are Dulmi who is Sri Lankan and Japanese model and Miu Tomita (actress) they aren't gyaru by any means but they are definitely tue closest representation of plus size media in Japan and you guys can already make out how few mid-plus size people actually make it a success in Japanese entertainment industry especially if you're a woman.

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The Harsh Truth:-

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I will say few things that will definitely cause a lot of rage but it must be said. We shouldn't live in this rose tinted glass and be real and connect with the reality. Doing any sort of fashion it doesn't even matter gyaru or even Japanese fashion in general but either way when you choose to dress a certain style only and focus on your craft that is called privilege. I don't think people I'm general realize how lucky they are to be able to spend 300$ on a singular iconic bow hair accessory from ma*rs that went on sale on eBay or Zenmarket.

I also don't think people realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to go to thrift stores buy what you like then go to fabric store get your things and tweak your own clothes like that also I don't think people realise how much of a privilege it is that sometimes when other gals try to do something different they shame them and thus it's one of the reason why gyaru is almost dead fashion culture, the toxicity and whole plethora of "oh I know better than you, you are stupid for acting and asking such easy questions" and etc is why new gals are so afraid to ask seasoned gals some advice.

We all started somewhere some early and some late, gals in it's peak were known to be one of the most kindest people and total girls girls to ever exist, their "loud" behavior was just them being unapologetic and having fun, where is this energy now? Especially gaijin gals, most foreginer gyarus know that main reason of gyaru's existence was to refute Japan's traditionalist views and letting women be who they wanna be yet they forget the most basic thing and often shame a lot of gals for not sourcing clothes the "correct way" and even if some gals make mistakes can we all please be kind to each other about it? I have joined and seen multiple YouTube videos, reels, tik toks, even reddit, tumblr, X and even Instagram of new gals and plus size gals literally getting scared and saying "I just keep my mouth shut and google and do my own research because my past experiences of asking were very negative"

Okay, to old gals can we please be welcoming to new gals and not scrutinize them like this? And this doesn't end at just new gals but we have to keep in mind that every single of us have different body types, not all of people can have the privilege to buy of brands because of financial issues or sizing problems so can we as a community please for the love of this fashion culture stop saying such jaded things like "you don't even own one gyaru brands? You aren't real gyaru" and this doesn't just apply to clothes but accessories produced by those brands as well.

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Problems, but they really tho? :-

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over here we take a little philosophical route to be honest, we need to understand and empathize with all sides. I will say something which will case a lot of controversy but it must be said, as someone who has been gyaru follower and started dressing up gyaru quiet early in life and even experienced gyaru in Japan and who practically lived inside Shibuya 109 I can tell you that whole gyaru culture lives off of overconsumption and this is the truth, from well known and very famous subcultures like agejo Or himekaji to very less known and rare subcultures like mode and bohemian everything is and extension of overconsumption like it Or not even if you diy some clothes or such majority of it like hair extensions, brands, makeup to iconic gyaru nail designs everything is a part of overconsumption and you are a willing participant of it, shit! I know I am because I for one can't make my own extensions or wigs ffs and even if I were to make my own nails I'd still have to go out to buy necessary tools for it.

On this topic I'd also like to say another controversial thing and that is we shouldn't really judge people for shopping from fast fashion and here is why because some might have financial issues or live around were there isn't really second hand clothing stores or they are mid-plus size. There might be a debate and I might definitely get comments like "but oh I am big size, poor and live in remote area yet I don't indulge in fast fashion" and that's okay, that is your opinion and you are entitled to it but don't judge without knowing the reason why.

Sure, you might even think "no you are being stupid" but I'd like just for you guys to maybe look into this thing called perspective and maybe get off of your privileged view and look into other perspectives. Being ethical in this era is very difficult with us being the victims of capitalism from the phones we use to even down right food we consume, be it from supermarket or even organic farm. There are many questions to he asked like were our Vegetables grown ethically? Were the pesticides made with ethical ingredients? Did the farmer source the seeds ethically or not? The truth is we can't always be 100% ethical but we can try about best to reduce when we can.

Above reasons are also why I'm always sympathetic towards gals who happen to shop on fast fashion. You and I are blessed and privileged enough to mindlessly spend $$$ on Vivienne Westwood or Sandy Liang but others aren't due to financial issues and just because they are financially unstable doesn't even they can't dream, they also have 100% right to dream and partake in their hobbies and likes. I'll also always have sympathy for gals because finding big sizes in thrift stores can also be a hassle.

In conclusion what I'm trying to say is as bad at it seems not everything is 100% ethical one of the few examples of this is himejaki and tsuyome winter wear usually they wear fur and to be honest vintage real fur is WAY more ethical and environmentally friendly because that fur has been passed down from generation to generation from first manufacturers to family heirloom or given to thrift and someone thrifted it and now using it than faux that we get these days because they aren't ethical AT ALL!!

On the side note thrifting these days also is very difficult due to it being the next new "it" thing and store owners are literally racking up the prices because Veronica from lower East Side, New York wants to buy it and then sell it for 500 or more $$$ in Depop to profit off of literally pre worn and second hand clothes!

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Resources:-

(where, when, how?)

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The most awaited part of the post is here, so let's begin!! These are some of the few ways that I source my clothes, this applies to not only gyaru clothes but other types of fashion as well like grunge, emo, coquette etc etc. Mind you that gyaru is almost dying fashion community and finding clothes that cater to mid to plus size is difficult but I tried my best and here are few lists that I found by searching and have experience from having buying from these stores.

Instagram stores: there isn't one specific stores that I can recommend because for this you really need to search and look at every single post to see if it fits substyle you're following or not but there are some of the pages that do international shipping. y2xvintage (London Based) , velvethrift (Mexico based) , pepxicola.thrift (Ho Chi Minh based) , pixz_style (Peru based), weirdwearx (Philippines based), gimmeclothingy2k (Thailand based) I must say that not every one of these stores sell only gyaru but I have seen one or few pieces that fit gyaru style and it is difficult to find plus size sizes because they are second hand clothes and they buy in wholesale regardless of size but once you see a plus size clothes they're good and worth money.

Online stores: these are some of the online stores that you guys can visit. Honey wardrobe, punyus Naomi Watanabe's brand (not gyaru by all means but they do have good collection for kogal inspired skirts and few pieces that can go well for rokku gyaru), ank rouge (good selection for hime and himekaji although dresses aren't plus size friendly their poncho and oversized clothes collection is really good) , Dreamvs, Yumetenbo, Tokyo otaku mode (you can search Galaxxxy which is brand for Haady gyaru), Zenmarket and taobao (3rd party shopping) and I will get hate for this but Amazon yea they do have cute accessories like leg warmers and iconic light brown cardigans for kogal and those buckles shoes for kogal, hime and himekaji

Physical store: well for physical store there is only one which is Shibuya 109 and that too if you go to Japan. Sorry there isn't any physical stores in present era that cater to gyaru, although throughout years stores in Shibuya 109 has changed so much and in the recent years the latest I know is this year when I had gone to Japan again and there on the either 4th or top floor i forgot but there is this store called spinns and next to that store is this Gothic and emo store and both spinns and gothic/emo store sell pretty good street style but few belts and accessories can totally work for Tsuyome they have belts for plus size too and few belts even have bedazzled words that lowkey resemble the bling bling visual of iconic D.I.A belts, but i think spinns does have an international site with worldwide shipping as well so check them out.

Other ways: obviously is tweaking here and there and making your clothes, for people who don't know how to the most easiest trick is to find the clothes you wanna change and start small like for example agejo is my favorite subculture so i go ham on animal print or any cute print bows and buy lots of bead string decors from online (Amazon and Instagram wholesale stores) and stick them to my heels, denim skirts and my tops.

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Outro

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So sorry for the delay I kept editing, adding and removing but I think so far what I have done is good enough, for now it's this much, hope to meet you guys in my next post. Bye pretty gals!! <3 💃🏻💕

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[siflshonen]

The Greatest Robot on Earth: Astro Boy and Pluto Part II

Part I is here. This side-by-side continues in part III here, or you can read the whole thing on Ao3.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

“The Greatest Robot on Earth” and Pluto

The best place to start in comparing these series is their summaries. This summary for “The Greatest Robot on Earth” comes from the 2002 Dark Horse release: 

“In the novel-length "The Greatest Robot on Earth," a wealthy sultan creates a giant robot to become the ruler of all other robots on Earth. But in order for that to happen, he must defeat the seven most powerful robots in the world, including Astro Boy, who must have his horsepower raised from 100,000 to 1,000,000 to face the challenge! And his sister, Uran, also flies in to lend a helping hand!”

Well, besides the fact that Uran doesn’t actually fly, I suppose that’s true enough. Gotta love marketing copy.

And here is Viz’s summary for Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, vol. 1: 

“In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated...except for one very conspicuous clue - the bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage complete with makeshift horns placed by the victims' heads. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case - and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets.”

An ideal world, eh? Well, I’m all about subverting surface appearances, so I like it. Anyway, right off the bat, we can tell that these two series aren’t the same genre, aren’t using the same principal characters, and aren’t concerned with the same stakes. They seem to only have one thing in common: the word “robot”.

The following pages for “The Greatest Robot on Earth” are from the Dark Horse Omnibus. In most cases, I have used pages from Viz’s Pluto: UrasawaXTezuka, but there are a few pages from the fan scans. Why? Because I own the physical manga, didn’t want to pay for all the volumes again in a digital version, and realized that the images in the fan scans were cleaner and bigger than most of the ones I could get from cracking the spine of my books and mooshing them on the scanner.

Pluto at Its Most Faithful

Mont Blanc died first in “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and in Pluto he fares no differently. Of course, in true dramatic Urasawa fashion, Pluto chooses to begin with the fiery discovery of Mont Blanc’s head tucked within his killer’s calling card to establish the mystery and suspense of this work rather than start with a quaint lumberjacking-scene-turned-robot-fight like the original.

Urasawa and Nagasaki’s choice to include human victims in Pluto also immediately raises the stakes in a way that “The Greatest Robot on Earth” never did or would. It also immediately changes the type of exploration within the world that the series would do, given that the robots of the extended Astro Boy universe are believed to follow Asimov’s Laws.

Greece’s Hercules, spelled Heracles in Pluto’s English translation, is a straightforward warrior-type in “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and he sasses the crap out of Epsilon when he shows up to speak with him just as he does in Pluto. He then gets trounced by Pluto after a drawn-out fight. 

In Pluto, Hercules still fits the original warrior archetype, but with the addition of his very own character arc! His rivalry and friendship with Brando is new and refreshing, and his blooming respect for Epsilon pairs nicely with his own discovery of his humanity and personal beliefs as it relates to combat, war, and victory.

They called him the god of victory, after all, not necessarily bloodshed. He may have lost his fight with Pluto, but he went down believing he won and with a newfound appreciation for life and the bravery it requires to not fight. His manager Al Haft(a) is an easter egg character.

In real life, Greece participated in the Gulf War, but disagreed with the 2003 Iraq War and did not participate. Meanwhile, Australia participated with the goal of growing closer to the USA. In Pluto, these stances were swapped in their representative robots.

Personally, I think Epsilon (sometimes called Photar in the Astro Boy anime adaptation dubs) is the most surprising figure in these page comparisons if only because he didn’t actually change that much between works. Instead, it is Wassily who exploded onto the Pluto scene with his very own expanded story and Bora trauma. Yes, the disembodied hands scene is in both.

Pluto’s Epsilon looks just like Monster’s Johan, which is funny—Urasawa seems to use Tezuka’s Star System method across his works. In English, Johan and Epsilon are voiced by the same guy, too.

Speaking of, Bora is native to “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and he is still a bomb. In “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, his creator takes the time to tell the sultan that he created him just to beat Pluto and, by extension, the sultan. In Pluto, Bora’s existence and purpose is to exact vengeance on a broader scale.

Uran’s changes between series are actually really straightforward. In the postscript of the physical Pluto manga’s volume 6, essayist and critic Gorot Yamada laments the fact that Urasawa avoided the “ero-kawaii” of Uran confronting Pluto in nothing but Atom’s briefs and calls it a “minor weakness” since it is representative of Urasawa’s relatively gentler hand in showing “cruelty or eroticism” when compared to Tezuka.

I can’t begin to tell you how funny I think this criticism is, although I do believe that Urasawa does have, overall, gentler sensibilities than Tezuka. But still. I don’t think we’re missing much by keeping Uran in her clothes. She’s still a snot, she’s still a braggart, she’s still good-hearted, and she still makes her big brother look like a square and a stick-in-the-mud. Writing precocious little girls and sweet stories of unlikely bonding moments are a few of Urasawa’s specialties, so I don’t find it surprising that he took the Uran by the hair-horns and maximized her existing character traits.

Spiritually, she feels consistent to me, though her basic actions are decidedly different: Pluto’s Uran doesn’t fight or try to fight Pluto, doesn’t want Atom to fight Pluto at any point, doesn’t ever hate Pluto, and has empathy-based powers (separate from that, she may just be smarter and more emotionally intelligent than the original Uran). 

However, the sequences in the park and the underpasses where she befriends Pluto strongly resemble Uran’s near-naked adventures in the streets of “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and that’s fun.

Abullah is where things get spicy, and that’s mostly because the only real change to his character was the addition of his human backstory and discovery of hatred. In Pluto, he is Tenma and Abullah’s science project who believes he is a human scientist (which he isn’t), but he’s actually also got a split personality! That’s a lot. There’s just so much going on with that. But still, where Pluto’s twist falls on the scale of wild twist bullshittery lessens considerably once you know how this character is portrayed in the original, I feel.

In “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, Abullah is a robot butler disguised as a scientist disguised as another scientist. Not to pooh-pooh the original’s Scooby-Doo antics, but, by comparison, Pluto’s reveal is actually quite nice, logical, and thematically consistent. It also gives Tenma a chance to look cool and not just pathetic.

Professor Ochanomizu is the best character. Don’t argue with me. In Astro Boy, he has a big heart and a big temper to match, and he gets knocked around more than Wile E. Coyote in a Looney Tunes segment. He spends most of “The Greatest Robot on Earth” being kidnapped and hanging out with the sultan, but Pluto spreads the wealth by letting the other roboticists be the damsel in distress throughout the plot.

In Pluto, he’s mostly characterized by doing kindly old man shit (do you recognize that robot dog and how it definitely influenced Ochanomizu’s design for Bobby?), but it is absolutely the kind of stuff the original Hiroshi Ochanomizu would do. He gets treated with more on-screen respect in Pluto than in Astro Boy, but only because he isn’t as cartoony. The animation team made damn sure to have the physics of his stomach work not like those of an innocent-at-heart anime girl’s titties when he’s enthusiastically running to the next big important thing, and that’s exactly the right spirit for a creator to have towards this character. A+ job, M2.

Also, in the manga only, Ochanomizu is the facilitator for the single most entertaining referential gag in all of Urasawa’s works: the police dog car diagram. This was cut in the anime.

In the postscript of Pluto: UrasawaXTezuka volume 5, manga critic and lecturer Tomohiko Murakami observes that “Urasawa’s depictions of Professor Tenma and Professor Ochanomizu almost appear to be [his] perspective on two different aspects of Osamu Tezuka’s character.” I don’t necessarily disagree, especially given the commentary Tezuka gave regarding Atom’s status as a “monster”, but I think that Ochanomizu and Tenma also more generally represent the “dark” and “light” side of progress and science. This is likely what Tezuka intended for them, too, back when he was writing the series.

But Tenma is just a hot mess. For the duration of “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, he was more or less emotionally stable up until the “death” of Atom (and guess what? He totally enabled Atom’s increase in strength to 1,000,000, despite Ochanomizu constantly advising Atom not to do), though his general moodiness and instability is a defining character trait for much of the series. He gets better over time, but make no mistake: he is an eccentric, reclusive, and vain disaster man.

In Pluto, Urasawa lets Tenma’s disaster qualities shine alongside his signature ego, moodiness, cynicism, and destructive tendencies. This man self-sabotages like it’s his job. He also flings his creations around willy-nilly and never thinks about the consequences, and that’s why he has a hand in a significant number of the most harmful and destructive events in the extended Astro Boy universe somehow, including in Pluto.

Tenma’s rejection of Atom at the dinner table in Pluto is way classier than his breakdowns in the original Astro Boy manga, but I liked the gravitas of the scene and the over-the-top vibe of the fancy dinner in the sunset. Tenma’s portrayals throughout different series run the gamut from “frenetic cartoon maniac” to “vanilla un-stellar dad” to “Phantom of the Opera”, and this is a nice lean towards the latter end of the scale.

His constant contest over ownership of Atom/influence over Atom with the Ministry of Science (and specifically one Hiroshi Ochanomizu) extends beyond “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, though, and I think elements of their more direct conflicts are very present throughout Pluto. I love an old man fight, and it seems Urasawa does, too.

But goddamn is it satisfying to see Ochanomizu tell Tenma to shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Apparently, their dynamic is so popular that it inspired a completely new series set in the alternate universe where they not only go to college together, but are best friends. If you want something fluffier than Pluto where the old men aren’t old, go read Atom: The Beginning, I guess.

And, like, sure. This is all great. But sans the extended old man drama, many of these side-by-sides have been pretty faithful to “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and that is NOT what Makoto Tezka asked for.

Pluto as a Remix of Astro Boy

North No. 2, called Monar in “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, is generally the same robot as in his original portrayal, but instead of just going to fight Pluto, he stars alongside new character Paul Duncan in a brand new story about pianos and music and being blind and growing past trauma to accept others into the heart. Tezuka’s Kuroo Hazama (Black Jack) was even there in Paul Duncan’s memories. It had everything: crying old people and kids, medical drama, orphan trauma, mama trauma, prostitution implications, castles, the emptiness of fame and fortune, singing, an android dreaming of more than just electric sheep, long monologues, and an emotional goodbye where one character stares longingly (even if he can’t actually see anything) at the other knowing they shall never return.

I’ll just say it: Turkey’s Brando is a total red shirt in “The Greatest Robot on Earth”. Meanwhile, Urasawa gave him a family, a love of Turkish drinking culture, a friendship and rivalry with Hercules, and a penchant to dabble in illogical forces like luck, and a classic tearjerker death. Urasawa gave him the world. 

In the anime, Brando is among my favorites. Y’all can swoon over your twink Epsilon or whatever, but it’s Brando over randos for me!

Chochi Chochi Ababa transformed into Saddam Hussein—er, Pluto’s King Darius XIV. One is a cartoon villain who provides an opportunity to learn a basic moral lesson, and the other is a motherfucking war criminal. I think that's a sufficiently mature new twist on an old concept.

Of all the characters present in Pluto, Atom himself is likely the one that gave Urasawa and Nagasaki the most grief, if only because he is the one and only Astro Boy, hero of justice, and if his portrayal wasn’t popular, they’d probably be sent to manga hell forever.

For me personally, one of the most gratifying details regarding his portrayal is how quickly he will lie while maintaining the lie that robots can’t and don’t lie. This line of thinking, as well as the implication that Atom follows Asimov’s Laws more because he wants to, not because he has to follow his programming, is something that became more and more apparent the longer the original Astro Boy ran even if none of the other characters directly said anything about it. Speaking as a fan, I also think it’s nice that Urasawa makes the most of upholding Atom’s observed personality traits throughout adaptations. That he made Atom a deeply curative flavor of an insect kid is a grounded, but nice touch.

(It may also be worth noting that Osamu Tezuka had a known fascination with insects. The “Mushi” in Mushi Productions means “insect”. I don’t know how intentional that was, but it seems Pluto’s Atom may have been intended as a chip off the ol’ Tezuka block whether he was his “monster” or not.)

But as lovely and detailed as Urasawa’s embellishments on these characters is, this is still not what Makoto Tezka asked of him. So far, these characters are strikingly similar to the existing “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, and apparently, if Tezka’s interview in the postscript of Pluto: UrasawaXTezuka volume 2 is to be believed, he told Urasawa multiple times to keep revising until he made it his own! It seems Atom really became Urasawa’s monster, too!

[dualdeixis]

[Image description: Digital drawings of two original characters in black and white. The Ferrier wears a black, wide-brimmed hat; a shirt with puffy sleeves and an embroidered collar, cuffs, and hem; a vest with geometric patterns; a black, sleeveless overcoat with two lighter stripes near the hem; loose pants; and black sandals. They appear to have short, messy black hair, and their hat casts a shadow over their eyes.

The Sacrifice's clothes are almost entirely white and intricately embroidered. They wear a loose, long-sleeved shirt; a cropped and wide-collared vest which is buttoned together; dimije (voluminous pants which are gathered at the ankle); a cap with coins sewn into the sides; a very long veil which ends in tassels and is pinned to the cap; a necklace of coins; a belt of large metallic roundels; and black shoes. They have long, curly black hair and several moles on their face.

In the first drawing, the Ferrier stands while wringing their hands with an extremely flat expression. The Sacrifice stands behind them and carries a bag, looking off to the side with a small smile.

Next is a comic featuring the two of them, with all of the speech bubbles being cut out from Discord screenshots. There are full descriptions of all of the pages under the cut. End image description.]

first drawing based on this painting of a peasant and nun going to the market by amedeo preziosi; comic based on a convo between me and @wildcatfourteen that reads uncannily like our ocs LOL. happy birthday my friend <33

[Image description: Page one. The Ferrier has a small smirk as they point to an image which reads, "some of y'all would melt down in this situation. ONE HAS GOT TO GO: THE EYE, THE FORMLESS, THE ECSTATIC, THE SUN, THE WOUND, THE EGG." The Sacrifice replies with a carefree smile, "how can you choose ?? are they not all as g_d ordained ??" The next panel shows that the two are sitting on opposite sides of a rowboat, which is stopped at the bank of a river going through a forest. The Sacrifice says, "i mean i guess if youre talking like which motifs i personally like to use in my hymns … i dont do much with the egg so that one" The Ferrier frowns and says, "I don't know if I can forgive u for saying that. Egg… U GET RID OF EGG?" The Sacrifice: "WHICH ONE WOULD U GET RID OF??" The Ferrier: "The ecstatic"

Page two. The Sacrifice stares in astonished silence for a moment, and then says with a cartoony vein popping from their cheek, "I think ur saying that on purpose to piss me off. to get back at me for saying ehg. Why do u hold such hate in your heart" The Ferrier closes their eyes and says nonchalantly, "I'm sorry it's not out of hate." They look off to the side and mutter, "Except u started this with ur egg slander" The Sacrifice glares at them with dismay and says, "THE HATE IN YOUR HEART IS OVERTAKING YOU" The Ferrier glares back, smiling through gritted teeth, and replies, "LOOK IN THR MIRROR"

Page three. The Ferrier pinches the bridge of their nose and says, "I can't believe this is what's causing an argument" The Sacrifice puts their hands on their hips and snaps, "I WASNT EVEN SLANDERING EGGS? IM JUST SAYING PERSONALLY IF YOU FORCED ME? I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST EGGS I EAT THEM ALL THE TIME" The Ferrier: "ITS NOT ABOUT EATINF THEM EVEN THO THEY ARE DELICIOUS AND VERSATILE." They roll their eyes and add, "Sorry for wanting to shatter my shell and be birthed anew" The Sacrifice clasps their hands together with a smile, their eyes hidden by their speech bubble, and says, "see thats the thing for me there is no rebirth only resurrection . its not dying and being birthed anew its about dying and then undying . coming back from death with none of the catharsis of newness just being forced to hold on to the old and what you once were ." The Ferrier pulls their hat down over their eyes and argues, "You say that and yet that is the whole point there is never any real birth of newness but just the illusion of it and the necessity to keep that illusion bc there is no coming back anew but taking whatever dead pieces u have and reconstructing some choppy form of a fresh creature"

Page four. The two sit in silence for a moment. Then the Ferrier says matter-of-factly, "Just like how ecstatic state is fake" The Sacrifice glares at them and says, "how DARE you say ecstatic state is fake ." The background turns black as the Ferrier's eyes go wide, gazing dramatically down at the viewer. They thunder, "ITS TEMPORARY" The Sacrifice, also on a black background, holds their palms up with an ecstatic grin. One of their eyes is teary and a bright halo flashes around their head. They answer, "AS ARE ALL THINGS."

Page five. The Ferrier, looking irritated with a cartoony vein popping from their temple, says, "fine. Fine whatever." They turn away with gritted teeth. "I'm gonna go in my egg shell and not come out EVER !!!!" The Sacrifice smiles with a thumbs up and says, "ok you do that im gonna be out here achieving union with the Beloved 👍" The Ferrier turns as far away from the Sacrifice as they can and crosses their arms. "U go do that. Hmph!" The Sacrifice does the same. "HMPH -_-" A school of black fish swims through the river. A line at the bottom of the panel reads, "THEY STAYED LIKE THIS FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS." End image description.]

[blazehedgehog]

Do you agree with Gaming Journalists and what do you think of gaming journalism in general?

What does this even mean, dude.

"Do you agree with gaming journalists"? On what?

Do I agree with Shacknews that Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 10/10, and with Digital Spy that it's also a 7/10? Do I agree with Let's Clear Up Those Halo Battle Royale Rumors?

Like, I've gotten some bait on this blog before, but this is 2/10 stuff, man. This is some hot 2014 garbage. Like no matter what I say, you're gonna go all

"Very interesting. Then do you care to explain why..." No thanks.

My real answer: Something I learned during my time at TSSZ and being around a few people who were deeper into "the biz" than I is that everybody needs journalism more than they realize. Corporations are pushing for consumers to become their personal cheerleaders more than ever before, which makes criticism and the journalistic exposing of information seem villainous.

After all: Xbox is my friend now, so how dare you attack the Xbox. Behavior that used to be reserved for the most dedicated fanboys is now the expected room temperature. I've talked about "The Cult of Naughty Dog" before, and that's the same thing. If a corporation can get you to be parasocial with them, then they have won, and being parasocial with a corporation means shunning real investigative journalism that would otherwise undo them. Journalists and critics used to be marketing tools, but by undoing the press pipeline and talking directly to fans, journalists and critics are painted as untrustworthy for being wildcards that don't always toe the company line.

And there has been more than a decade of people with a "I choose to be stupid and ignorant on purpose" outlook, which just makes that more frustrating. We've all seen screencaps where some brainless rando tries to explain something to a person who is an expert in that field. The rando thinks they're flexing their brain, but in some cases they are arguing with the person who literally wrote the book on their topic of conversation. Some people don't want to know anything but still pretend like they know everything, when there are real people out there doing real work to uncover real truths.

Misinformation is the real problem. It should not surprise anyone that there are people out there deliberately eroding the foundation of journalistic integrity, because the less people trust journalism, the easier it is to get away with lying. The easier it is to lie, the easier it is to control the mainstream, the easier it is to scam people out of their money, so on and so forth.

And misinformation is more than just "this one news article is fake." There are long running campaigns to install people into news organizations themselves to publish false information for all manner of different goals, but it's all the same: nobody trusts anyone and it's making everyone dumber.

That's when we get crypto currency. And NFTs. And now people claiming that generative AI will save humanity. Grift after grift after grift where the people at the top of the snake oil food chain make off with billions of dollars while the rest of the world is left scratching their heads.

The law isn't going to catch them. If they do, it'll take years. Look at how long it took for Sam Bankman-Fried to get caught -- he operated for almost half an entire decade. The amount of damage somebody can get away with in five years is significant.

We need journalism. Real journalism. Good journalism. Watchdogs that keep an eye on things and blow the whistle when it goes bad. Somebody to enforce accountability that isn't a cop.

Where do you find that? That's the hardest question. I'm lucky enough that I know people I trust because they are long time friends, or friends of friends, and thus they've been properly vetted in my circle as The Real Deal. But there are a lot of outlets out there who claim to champion "truth" and "intelligence" in a way to prey upon insecurity. I mean, c'mon, Trump's social media platform is called "Truth Social" and is basically the furthest thing from the truth you will ever get from anyone, ever.

The more obsessively they try to convince you they're telling the truth, the less likely it is they actually are. Which in itself could be an attack meant to undo the foundations of trust in people who actually know what they're talking about. By casting doubt on the very concept of truth itself, they can lie with increasingly greater efficiency.

Any advice I give feels like it is incredibly circumstantial. Which is the point, and is why we're in the state we're in.

Here's a good pdf by The News Literacy Project that's probably a good place to start. The general gist is "you'll have to do a lot of fact checking for yourself" but that's unfortunately where we're at these days.

But by and large I would say life is a lot harder for real journalists right now than I think some of their critics have ever thought about. There are people out there trying to do actual good work and being a bubble-brained moron about it just makes everything harder for everyone.

[emilygreen2994]

Effortless Cooking Unleashed: Discover the Midea Dual Air Fryer

In the world of modern kitchen appliances, the Midea Dual Air Fryer stands out as a revolutionary product designed to make cooking easier and healthier. But what exactly sets this air fryer apart from the rest? Let's dive deep into its features, benefits, and why it might be the perfect addition to your kitchen.

What is the Midea Dual Air Fryer?

The Midea Dual Air Fryer is a state-of-the-art kitchen appliance that uses rapid air technology to cook food quickly and evenly. Unlike traditional frying methods, it requires little to no oil, making it a healthier option for those who love fried foods but are conscious about their health.

Key Features of the Midea Dual Air Fryer

Dual Baskets: The Midea Dual Air Fryer comes with two separate baskets, allowing you to cook two different dishes simultaneously without any flavor crossover.

Multiple Cooking Functions: This air fryer is not just for frying. It offers a variety of cooking functions, including baking, roasting, and grilling, making it a versatile addition to any kitchen.

Smart Connectivity: With built-in Wi-Fi, you can control the air fryer remotely using your smartphone. This feature is perfect for busy individuals who want to start cooking while on their way home.

Pre-set Recipes: The Midea Dual Air Fryer comes with pre-set recipes that make cooking a breeze. Simply select the recipe, and the air fryer will adjust the temperature and cooking time accordingly.

Benefits of Using the Midea Dual Air Fryer

Why should you consider adding the Midea Dual Air Fryer to your kitchen? Here are some compelling reasons:

Healthier Cooking: Since it requires little to no oil, the Midea Dual Air Fryer helps reduce the fat content in your meals, making them healthier.

Time-Saving: The dual basket feature allows you to cook two dishes at once, saving you time and effort.

Convenience: With smart connectivity and pre-set recipes, cooking has never been easier. You can start cooking with just a few taps on your smartphone.

Versatility: Whether you want to fry, bake, roast, or grill, the Midea Dual Air Fryer has you covered.

How to Use the Midea Dual Air Fryer

Using the Midea Dual Air Fryer is straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Preheat the Air Fryer: Preheat the air fryer by selecting the preheat function. This ensures that your food cooks evenly.

Prepare Your Ingredients: While the air fryer is preheating, prepare your ingredients. You can marinate your meat, chop your vegetables, or season your fries.

Place Ingredients in the Baskets: Place your ingredients in the dual baskets. Make sure not to overcrowd them to ensure even cooking.

Select the Cooking Function: Choose the appropriate cooking function based on what you’re cooking. You can select from frying, baking, roasting, or grilling.

Monitor the Cooking Process: You can monitor the cooking process through the air fryer’s display or via the smartphone app.

Serve and Enjoy: Once the cooking is done, carefully remove the baskets, serve your delicious meal, and enjoy!

Customer Reviews

"The Midea Dual Air Fryer has completely transformed my cooking experience. I love the dual basket feature, which allows me to cook a main dish and a side dish at the same time. The smart connectivity is a game-changer, making it so convenient to start cooking even when I'm not in the kitchen." - Jane Doe

"I was skeptical about air fryers, but the Midea Dual Air Fryer exceeded my expectations. It's incredibly versatile and easy to use. Plus, my meals are much healthier now since I don't need to use as much oil." - John Smith

Comparison with Other Air Fryers

How does the Midea Dual Air Fryer compare to other air fryers on the market? Here are some key points:

Dual Baskets: Unlike many other air fryers that come with a single basket, the Midea Dual Air Fryer offers dual baskets for simultaneous cooking.

Smart Connectivity: While some air fryers offer basic digital controls, the Midea Dual Air Fryer takes it a step further with smart connectivity, allowing remote control via a smartphone app.

Versatility: The Midea Dual Air Fryer’s multiple cooking functions make it more versatile compared to other air fryers that may only offer basic frying capabilities.

Where to Buy the Midea Dual Air Fryer

Interested in purchasing the Midea Dual Air Fryer? You can find it on Amazon. With its impressive features and benefits, it’s a worthwhile investment for any kitchen.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Midea Dual Air Fryer is a versatile, convenient, and healthier cooking solution that stands out in the market. Whether you’re a busy professional or a home cook looking to simplify your cooking process, this air fryer is designed to meet your needs. With its dual baskets, multiple cooking functions, and smart connectivity, the Midea Dual Air Fryer is a game-changer in the kitchen.

For more information and to make a purchase, visit the product page on Amazon.

Additional Resources

If you're interested in other innovative kitchen appliances, you might want to check out the Toshiba Small Rice Cooker. It offers a range of cooking functions and features designed for convenience and versatility.

[maddiviner]

Reading Journals!? Why You Really Should!!

I'm writing this to promote the concept of reading journals in general for occultists! 

It often seems like, while a lot of us read a ton, we don't engage enough with what we read. It's very important to think critically about the information we consume.

Keeping records of it can be helpful for that. While not everyone's going to vibe with it, I do recommend giving it a try for most witches, diviners, wizards, etc... you might like it. Keeping a reading journal? It has some advantages IMHO.

I found it works very well for keeping track of my reading goals. It also helped me engage more with what I was reading. I think this produced an altogether more interesting experience when reading fiction, too.

I learned more when reading nonfiction, and it helped prep reviews for this very website, too. It's kind of hard recently, because of health issues, but I want to keep a daily reading habit as best I can. I might change up my journaling format, though, which I'll discuss towards the end of this article.

To begin, you need a journal. Any blank notebook will work. A lot of people swear by dot grid journals. I use those for most other things. For my reading journal, I bought a pre-printed one called Kunitsa, and there are others on the market, too.

Beyond that, you only need a pen. I use a lot of highlighters and other color in my reading journal, to make tracking things more fun. Next, you're going to want to include a table of contents for your reading journal if possible. In fact, I recommend doing that for all journals, but that's another story entirely. If you pick a pre-printed reading journal like mine, choose one with such a feature.

If you're a DIYer, leave a few blank pages at the beginning of your notebook for the table of contents. Usually four or five pages will do for a table of contents, depending on the size of the journal itself. Including a table of contents can also help get past those first-page jitters if it's a blank book.

A reading journal can include an inventory of your library. My own library is digital because I have to cross the Atlantic on a frequent basis. Those with physical books might find it useful to catalogue everything, particularly favorites.

This could even include where it's stashed. Given that I could easily print a list of mine, my journal doesn't have this, but yours could. You could also organize your library based on the criteria of your choice. I do this digitally, and it can be great to be able to pull out a list of (for example) all the Tarot books I own, favorites, etc..

Keep track of your reading goals! This is the big one, of course. I try to read at least thirty minutes per day, and I log each day I meet that goal. A reading journal can include a simple daily reading tracker like mine, or variations on that.

Some people might track how many pages they've read, or even chapters, for example. You can, of course, include your To Be Read list, adding to it and crossing out as needed.

Keep track of books, authors and topics. You'll want to include a page or two for each book you read, with meaningful quotations and your own thoughts. Some people get quite elaborate with this, including diagrams, images, and such.

I stick to quoting the parts I found important, then adding my own notes. If you buy a reading journal, choose one formatted for both fiction and nonfiction. These little "spreads" on each book help a ton if you want to prepare reviews later on, or just to keep track of what you’ve read for the future.

The reading journal I've been using has a section for borrowed books. Since all my books are Kindle, and I don't typically borrow books, I repurposed this for my review schedule. You can create your own spread for that kind of thing if you're doing a DIY approach, which would be even better.

Because I didn't see a use for the first two pages of the notebook, I turned them into a little pocket using washi tape. I figure that if necessary, I can include extra trackers/etc on my own paper in the pocket. I haven't done that yet, but I probably will in the new year. Currently, the pocket only contains some unused stickers.

You could, of course, get much more complicated with a reading journal! It's all up to you. I plan to use a similar setup next time around, but doing it myself in a (larger) dot grid notebook. The preprinted version of a reading journal worked well to get me started. Now that I've got the basics figured out, I want to customize things more.

All and all, I know most occultists love journaling. At least, many of us do. But why don't more of us journal about what we read? Dedicating a notebook just for a reading journal worked great for me, and might work for you, too.

I'd look into different options (preprinted, blank notebooks, digital) before getting started. Don't be afraid to mess up, like with any new notebook. It can become a way of looking deeper into what you're reading, though.

[mariacallous]

The outgoing Biden administration threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Russia’s energy sector on Friday with a sweeping slate of sanctions meant to curtail Moscow’s still-resilient energy earnings and potentially weaken its war-making power in a critical year for Ukraine’s survival.

The measures announced Friday do all and more that the Biden administration had shied away from since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022: going after the production, distribution, sales, and financing of Russian oil and gas, long the mainstay of Moscow’s war chest and still the most vulnerable part of its creaky economy.

The moves include sanctions on two Russian oil majors, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as more than 180 shadow fleet tankers, natural gas producers, energy traders, and oil field service providers. 

“Russia is now in the penalty box,” said a senior administration official who spoke on background under conditions set by the White House. 

Senior administration officials expect that the new measures will cost Russia billions of dollars a month in foregone energy revenues—no small achievement when the Kremlin banks on the order of about $20 billion a month by fueling the world at war. The idea is that Russia is going to now have to seriously choose not between guns and butter but between oil tankers and military tanks.

“Today’s actions build on recent steps that reinforce an economic trajectory along which Russia will face hard choices,” U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh said in a statement. Singh described the measures as the “most significant sanctions yet” on Russia’s energy sector. 

The question of why the White House decided to make these moves now is both easy to answer and surprising. For years, President Joe Biden has avoided taking the necessary and hard steps to fully go after Russia’s cash cow because that would have meant higher oil prices (and gas prices) and higher inflation for Americans. That was a particular concern during the 2022 midterm elections and especially in the recently concluded presidential contest. That is not a concern for the Biden White House now.

Officially, the White House says it is unleashing the kraken now because oil markets are relaxed and the costs will be bearable. Indeed, benchmark global crude prices have been languishing in the $70 per barrel range, which gives the administration and the United States plenty of room to run before worrying about triple digits.

Unofficially, the Biden White House is packing boxes, and this slate of sanctions is a way to kneecap Russia before handing off control to the incoming Trump administration. Given the ambivalence shown by President-elect Donald Trump and many of his officials to continue U.S. support for Ukraine, aggressive action now to further constrain Russia’s war chest gives Ukraine one last lifeline that might have not materialized otherwise. Given the stakes for Ukraine, Europe, and ultimately for the United States, buying time in 2025 makes sense.

But Friday’s measures aren’t a restraint on the incoming administration or a Parthian shot but quite the opposite.

“I view it as a gift to the Trump administration—Biden is doing the dirty work, giving the next administration more leverage to get [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to the table,” said Edward Fishman, a former senior U.S. sanctions official now at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. “The Russian economy is already bad, so this gives the incoming administration a lot more leverage over Russia without starting on the wrong foot.”

Even those countries that might be expected to bristle at restrictions on Russian oil trade—China, India, and Turkey have outdone themselves by snapping up cheap Russian crude oil and oil products during the war—have little to fear from the latest U.S. moves. Reuters reported this week that a major Chinese port had already moved to ban U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers. India has even less to fear because the more untouchable Russia’s oil exports become, the cheaper they potentially are.

“Traders love this: ‘You guys are toxic. I need a bigger discount.’ Anybody who understands oil trading understands that India has been one of our best assets in constraining Russian oil revenue, because they can demand big discounts,” said Craig Kennedy, an expert on Russia’s energy sector at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. “India’s constantly been looking for pretexts for deeper discounts, and here we have it.”

The nitty gritty of the latest U.S. measures is where things get interesting. They go soup-to-nuts on all aspects of the Russian energy trade, which even three years into war brings in about $665 million a day to Putin’s coffers. The good news is that before the war, that was closer to $1 billion a day. The bad news is that for the last two years, sanctions have hardly budged those Russian revenues. What the latest sanctions target is everything. Much of the attention is on the designation of 183 Russian tankers, since the whole point of Russia’s sanctions-skirting exercise for the last two years has hinged on a shadow fleet of oil tankers that are entirely outside the remit of Western whipsticks. 

Russia can’t trade energy much these days except by sea, so tankers are ground zero in this fight.

“Sanctioning 183 vessels will be a huge hit to Russia’s seaborne crude oil exports—it will be really huge,” said Petras Katinas of the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), where he tabulates Russian fossil fuel earnings. 

Utilizing the dominance of the dollar, Biden administration officials now expect that ports and insurance companies will balk at doing business with the tankers, fearful that they may too find themselves in the crosshairs of secondary sanctions, which could cut off access to U.S. financial institutions. The preemptive ban by China’s Shandong Port Group this week spoke volumes.

Russia’s shadow fleet includes both officially Russian-flagged vessels that have fled Western insurers and a greater host of aged ships bought on the sly to ferry illicit goods. Together, that fleet carries more than 80 percent of Russia’s seaborne oil exports, according to CREA. U.S. sanctions, as have been levied piecemeal in the past, have kept those ships idling, cutting their oil transport by more than 90 percent. With the new steps, that could be a billion dollars monthly gone right there, if not more.

But the ultimate goal of curtailing what effectively amounts to between one-third and one-half of the active Russian shadow fleet is not to chase those ships from the sea entirely or to remove those barrels of Russian oil from the market. Rather, it is to herd those illicit vessels back into the confines of the Western-led, -insured, and -regulated maritime market, which includes a price cap on Russian oil that, at $60 a barrel, remains lower than what some rogue traders can still get.

“This is a long overdue step in terms of making the oil price cap binding,” Fishman said. Russia can either forgo shipping oil (and lose money) or ship oil through regulated tankers (and lose money). “This is an attempt to put real teeth into the price cap,” he said.

Depending on whom you talk to, each and every bit of the latest sanctions package is especially powerful. For Fishman, it is the United States going after two of Russia’s five major oil producers with straight-up sanctions that could potentially remove up to 2 million barrels a day of oil from global markets.

“We have not ever seen blocking sanctions on a Russian oil company directly. This is more than we ever did since 2014,” when Russia first invaded Ukraine, he added.

For Kennedy, it’s the future of Russia’s tired oil fields: The restrictions on oil field services companies mean that the Kremlin will be hard-pressed to squeeze more oil out of old fields that require world-class expertise to manage geriatric reservoirs, aided even during the war and sanctions years by Western firms such as SLB.

“Maybe not tomorrow, but they’ll lose access to the capabilities, and that will make it riskier and costlier to maintain current production levels,” Kennedy said.

And there are additional restrictions on Russian liquefied natural gas exports, which have been a life vest for the Russian gas industry and one rare growth area, especially in exports to Europe. The U.S. State Department went after a couple of minor Russian LNG projects and continued pressure on a marquee Arctic LNG project, all of which will make Russian tanked gas less appealing and U.S. natural gas exports even more so. That is likely music to Trump’s ears.

Senior administration officials fully expect that Russia will try to evade the new sanctions. Following the 2022 invasion, Russia became the most sanctioned country in the world, with more than 16,000 people and companies subject to a patchwork of international sanctions and export control orders intended to deprive it of the resources and technology to fuel its defense industrial base. 

These measures have forced Moscow to seek out new and cumbersome routes to sell its energy and acquire advanced technology. This has come at a steep cost but does not appear to have persuaded Putin to climb down from his maximalist aims of subjugating Ukraine. 

The senior administration official compared U.S. sanctions to sand being poured into the gears of the Russian war machine. 

The ultimate point of the belated sanctions, like the belated arms deliveries or the belated lifting of targeting restrictions, is to make it harder for Putin to continue waging a war on Ukraine that has cost him hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of men. 

“For every tanker they have to buy, that’s fewer tanks they can buy for their war of choice in Ukraine,” a second senior administration official said ahead of the announcement.

Russia remains nonplussed by the latest moves, as one does with a currency measured in wheelbarrows and interest rates in double digits. 

“Some manage to leave a mark on history, while others only manage to leave a mark,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in response to Biden’s new sanctions.

[graceojuola]

How STON.fi and Dune Analytics Are Changing the Game for TON Blockchain Users

If you’ve ever tried navigating the world of cryptocurrency, you’ll know that it can feel like wandering through a huge city without a map. It’s exciting, but also a little confusing. Now, imagine having a powerful tool that helps you see everything clearly. That’s what the partnership between STON.fi and Dune Analytics does for the TON blockchain. Whether you’re a gamer, trader, or just curious about the crypto world, this integration is here to make things easier, more transparent, and more fun.

Why Gaming in Web3 Matters More Than Ever

Let’s talk about gaming for a second. Imagine you’re playing a game where you can earn rewards—let’s say, special items or tokens that are only valuable inside the game. In the past, these rewards were just digital items, locked within the game. You couldn’t do anything with them outside of the game world. It’s like getting a gift card that can only be used at one store.

Now, with Web3 gaming, everything changes. These items are linked to blockchain technology, making them real assets that can be traded, sold, or even used across different games. It’s like owning a gift card that works at every store in the mall.

STON.fi is at the heart of this shift. As a decentralized exchange (DEX), it allows players, developers, and traders to interact seamlessly. If you’re collecting in-game tokens or rare items, STON.fi enables you to trade or use them in real life. It’s not just about playing games; it’s about turning that time into something more valuable. Imagine getting paid for your achievements—not in game points, but real crypto that you can trade or use as you like.

Why Transparency is the Key to Making Smart Decisions

Think about the last time you made a big purchase. Maybe you bought a new phone or a laptop. Did you check the reviews, look up specs, or read up on the brand’s reputation? Probably. That’s because you wanted to make sure your money was well spent. In the world of crypto, making informed decisions is just as important, if not more. You need to know where your tokens are going, how transactions are being made, and whether the platform you’re using is trustworthy.

That’s where Dune Analytics comes in. By integrating with STON.fi, Dune gives you the ability to see exactly how the platform is performing in real-time. From transaction patterns to token movements, all the important data is available for you to explore.

For example, if you’re looking to invest or trade, Dune lets you track trends, see which tokens are being used the most, and get a better sense of how the market is shifting. It’s like having a financial advisor who helps you see the bigger picture.

What Makes STON.fi the Best Option for TON Users

Imagine you’re at a store looking to buy something important. Would you choose a place that only has a small selection, or one that offers a wide range of items, has good prices, and is easy to navigate? For most of us, the choice is obvious.

STON.fi is that better store. It’s the #1 decentralized exchange (DEX) on the TON blockchain because it offers a huge variety of tokens, fast transactions, and a smooth user experience. The platform is designed to integrate with TON wallets, meaning you can trade any TON-based token easily and securely.

It’s not just about buying and selling. STON.fi has a massive impact on the TON ecosystem, with high liquidity, meaning your trades happen quickly and without issues. Whether you're a developer or a trader, STON.fi gives you everything you need in one place.

What Does This Partnership Mean for You

Think about trying to build something without the right tools. You can’t do it alone, and you can’t just rely on guesswork. You need to see how things are working and adjust accordingly. This is exactly why the integration of Dune Analytics with STON.fi is so powerful.

For traders, it’s about making smarter decisions with all the data available to you.

For gamers, it means understanding how in-game tokens are moving, which can give you an edge in the game economy.

For developers, the partnership provides insights into how users are interacting with your project, which helps you build better products.

With this level of transparency, you’re not just guessing. You can see how everything works in real-time and make decisions based on facts, not assumptions.

Explore Dune on Stonfi

What’s Next:The Future of Web3 is Clearer Than Ever

The Dune Analytics and STON.fi partnership is paving the way for a more transparent, accessible, and rewarding Web3 experience. Whether you're gaming, trading, or building the next big project, this integration makes the process simpler and more reliable.

Imagine a world where you can earn rewards from gaming, trade them seamlessly, and know exactly how your investments are performing. That's the future of Web3, and it’s happening now. With the right tools at your fingertips, you can dive deeper into the world of blockchain and make the most out of every opportunity.

So, whether you’re new to crypto or an experienced trader, don’t just watch from the sidelines. Explore the data, engage with the community, and take full advantage of what STON.fi and Dune Analytics have to offer. The future of decentralized finance and gaming is here—and it’s all within your reach.

[ineffablymischievousscamp]

Michael Sheen - Master Storyteller

In today's digital world, celebrity interviews are in abundance - especially when you consider newer mediums like podcasts that have skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade. You can find panels from conventions, access talk shows from other countries, read magazine articles from across the pond. There are so many one-dimensional, disconnected, or just plain boring celebrity guests in this oversaturated market. Michael Sheen is NEVER one of those guests.

Storytelling is an underappreciated skill. In this realm, it becomes obvious that Michael has harnessed this skill exceptionally well. As a master storyteller and world-builder, he captivates with the effortless ease of a raconteur, transforming an ordinary interview question into immersive journeys that leave you utterly enraptured.

You can't help but be drawn in by his passion. It's not just in the words he chooses or the exact experience he is relaying, but the ebb and flow of his narrative voice - a voice that exudes warmth and conviction, vulnerability and authenticity, humor and hope.

Like an artist crafting an epic, he makes it so that you feel like an active participant in the tale - present in the narrative being woven - instead of just a listener. Each story feels like a memory being created in the moment with you, rather than just a mere recounting of events.

I absolutely love when he takes a seemingly simplistic interview question that one would assume would result in a stale, depthless answer, and somehow delivers a story so engaging that you are now on an unexpected adventure alongside him. It doesn't matter the topic - he is just that magical and skilled. Michael must be a dream for interviewers. In a lot of ways, the man practically interviews himself. His tangents are so entertaining, refreshing, and enriching - delivering delicious opportunities to dive deeper into his narratives should the interviewer find themselves brave enough.

Outside of his masterful storytelling, Michael truly just seems like a wonderful human to have a conversation with. He is insanely charming, marvelously chaotic, unabashedly honest, perpetually curious, intensely thought-provoking, and deeply caring.

Do yourself a favor and listen to some Michael Sheen content this week. You might laugh until you hurt. You might sob uncontrollably. You might find yourself impassioned over a new topic. You might leave with a fresh perspective. You might find your faith in humanity restored. You will not regret it.

In closing, we all know that age-old ice breaker question - If you could have a dinner party with any 5 famous people (dead or alive), who would they be and why? Well if it isn't obvious yet, one of my answers would unequivocally be Michael Sheen. He'd be riveting in his own right, but can you imagine the stories he'd draw out of the other guests too?

Bonus Content:

For all of those that made it to the end of my TedTalk... enjoy this instant serotonin boost brought to you by Sheenie's Smile!

And yes, at my dinner party I'd 100% tell him "You've had such a profound effect on my life!"