#a curtain raiser

[butchgrantcurly]

did a quick sheet of my ocs for a story ive lost motivation on. trying to see if nailing down their designs would get me back into it (it sorta has?? idk)

does anyone want to hear about four teenagers putting on a play with ghosts

[yu-gi-oh-tcg-smash-or-pass]

Card text: Gains 1100 ATK if you control no other monsters. Once per turn: You can send 1 "Abyss Script" Spell from your Deck to the GY; add 1 face-up "Abyss Actor" Pendulum Monster from your Extra Deck to your hand.

Pendulum effect: If you control no monsters: You can Special Summon this card from your Pendulum Zone. You can only use this effect of "Abyss Actor - Curtain Raiser" once per Duel.

[marwahstudios]

Curtain Raiser for International Summit on Standards in Media and Entertainment Industry

New Delhi: Leading international figures came together at the prelude event for the much-anticipated International Summit on Standards in Media and Entertainment Industry, masterminded by Dr. Sandeep Marwah, a prominent figure in the media and entertainment world. The event was hosted by the International Chamber of Media and Entertainment Industry (ICMEI) and the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industries (PHDCCI), in a bid to define and promote the highest standards in the global media and entertainment sector.

Representatives from several nations including H.E. Mateja Vodeb Ghosh Ambassador of Slovenia, Charge d’ Affaires Thabang Linus Kholumo High Commission of Kingdom of Lesotho, Deputy Head of the Mission Lazar Vukadinovic Embassy of Serbia, Cultural Counsellor Alfredo Caldera Embassy of Venezuela, and Trade Counsellor Bui Trung Thuong, Embassy of Vietnam took to the stage to share insights into the standards upheld in their respective countries.

The discussion, led by Sandeep Marwah – also National Chairman of Media & Entertainment Committee at Bureau of Indian Standards, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India – focused on the immense scope of the Indian Media and Entertainment Industry and its potential to set benchmarks globally.

Shivam Soni, Secretary of the Media & Entertainment Committee of BIS, played a key role in the discourse, adding to the array of perspectives from around the world. The exchange proved to be enlightening, with active participation from audience members, who voiced their experiences and expressed their unique needs within the industry. The dialogue fostered a cross-pollination of ideas and a shared understanding of global media standards.

Shalini Sharma, Assistant Secretary-General of PHDCCI, effectively steered the event, which saw participation from various walks of life, reinforcing the universality and inclusivity of media and entertainment standards.

The curtain-raiser event is set to pave the way for the main Summit, where world leaders in the media and entertainment industry will convene to discuss and implement a harmonized approach to global standards, aiming to elevate the quality and credibility of content produced worldwide.

The event was supported by the AAFT School of Advertising and PR Events, further reinforcing the commitment to uphold, spread, and apply these standards in media and entertainment education.

This international initiative is a testament to the importance of unified standards in the media and entertainment industry and the vital role they play in ensuring integrity, quality, and diversity of content on a global scale.

[semisgroupie]

I’VE BEEN A GOOD GIRL, SANTA

roronoa zoro x fem. reader

wc: 3.6k

warnings: college au!, oral sex (f!receiving), unprotected sex, creampie, standing sex (zoro is super strong), alcohol consumption, manhandling, biting, size difference (slightly), wingman vivi in effect, edging, denied orgasms, clit kisser zoro

synopsis: it’s a christmas fund raiser and you desperately need to get laid, so it’s a win-win situation

a/n: happy holidays everyone!!!

You sigh and look at Vivi as she drags you to the entrance of the biggest fraternity at Grand Line University, Alpha Di Alpha. “Do we really have to go to this?” You groan loudly and Vivi stops in her tracks then faces you.

“Yes, you have been cooped up for the past three weeks because of finals and you need to get out. And you need to get laid, I’m tired of almost tripping over your vibrator when I go into your room to grab something.” Your eyes widen at her words and you lift a hand to lightly hit her arm, making her laugh. “I always keep things out of the way! And besides the point, I don’t need to get laid. I’m doing just fine by myself.” Now it’s Vivi’s turn to sigh and she lifts her hands to place them on your shoulders, “you’re gonna get laid. When was the last time you had a good orgasm from something that wasn’t rechargeable?”

You consider her words for a moment then look at her before mumbling, “it was last winter with that French guy after our sorority’s charity event.” She nods and pulls you close, wrapping her arms around you as she continues walking to the entrance of the fraternity. “Exactly! A whole year, that’s sad and as your best friend I can’t have you suffer anymore. And maybe the next guy you hook up with could cook up an amazing breakfast like that French guy did. I still have wet dreams about that waffle stuffed with nutella and strawberries.” You roll your eyes and nod. “But this event is a little demeaning, don’t you think? We’re gawking at these guys and bidding on them like they’re merchandise.” She raises an eyebrow and looks at you, “I think of this as payback for all women. Now we get to treat guys the same way they treat us. Plus you don’t have to bid on anyone but if you do, you do get a date and you can get laid. And you won’t be spending any of your own money, you get to use my dad’s money and it’s for a great cause. It’s a win-win-win-win situation!”

You open your mouth to reply but the loud Christmas music blasting from the fraternity house drowns you out as you both walk inside. Two guys in Santa suits hand you both auction bid cards and Vivi lets you go for a moment to grab some drinks then comes back to hand you one. She smiles and leans in close, “loosen up! This is supposed to be fun!” You reluctantly take the drink from her and bring the red solo cup to your lips to take a sip before she grabs your hand again. “It’s starting soon and we should grab good seats!”

You glance around, looking at some of your fellow sorority sisters and faces of people you’ve probably had a class or two with but you can’t really put a name to the face. You sit with Vivi in the middle of the second row, you have a perfect view of the stage set up and you look around as the lights start dimming and the music volume lowers. You set your bid card on your lap and rest back against your chair, nursing your drink because you’re sure that if you get up, your seat will be taken when you get back.

The velvet curtain opens and you see a familiar face, Usopp. He’s been in a few of your classes and you’ve hung out with him a couple of times. He’s dressed in a Santa costume and he clutches the microphone in one hand as he walks to the front of the stage. “Hello everyone! Thank you for joining us tonight for the wonderful, Alpha Di Alpha charity event! All of the proceeds and donations tonight will be sent directly to the local pediatric hospital to help fund whatever needs help! So thank you in advance and who’s ready to bid on some of my frat brothers!” Cheers and screams erupt from the crowd and Vivi has to nudge you to participate along, which you barely do — you just clap your hand against your thigh and fake a smile.

“Our first bachelor of the night is one of my closest friends, a man of many words, but most importantly, a lover of meat. Luffy!” The velvet curtains open again and you see Luffy walk out, almost tripping over his feet as he does so. Once he reaches the front of the stage the bidding starts, you see multiple cards fly up and you take another sip of your drink. You just want to go back home and bury yourself in your bed but for Vivi’s sake, you’ll stay.

You watch multiple guys walk the stage and you’re almost tempted to bid on one, Ace. You’ve known him since freshman year and he’s definitely gotten a lot more muscular. His Santa suit is open to reveal his toned, freckled chest and your eyes drift down to his neatly trimmed happy trail as he lowers his Santa pants slightly, earning himself more bids. But for some unknown reason you don’t grab your bid card, you just watch the chaos ensue. But he ends up raising close to $1200 just by himself.

“Now, my last sexy Santa is a man of few words, he trains all day, he likes bottles of booze and if he could spend the rest of his life sleeping, he would! If you’re the highest bidder you’ll be able to find the answer to one of the most important questions; does his carpet match the drapes? Let me hear it for Zoro!” The name is familiar but your eyes widen when the velvet curtains open again and you see the green-haired man walk out. You’ve seen him plenty of times in the campus gym, he always maxes out the machines and you have to get his help to unload the heavy weights he packed on. All he’s wearing is red velvet Santa pants and black suspenders that stretch along his toned chest. Your eyes trace over the scars on his body before you look at his face. You lick your dry lips and your hand instinctively reaches for the bid card.

“Since I’ve saved the best for last, let’s start with a good bid. Who’s got $250?” Your hand shoots up and Vivi looks over at you with a wide smile on her face. “Okay, 300?” Another hand shoots up and the price just keeps going up. You never spoke about a limit with Vivi but her father is a politician with more money than he could handle so you basically had free range. “Okay, okay, this might be the most offered tonight. Who’s got $2500?” Your hand shoots up again and you glance over at the person you’ve been bidding against all night, “do I hear $2550?” Usopp looks around as no other hand goes up, “going once…twice…alright! Congratulations to the lucky lady! And thank you for being our highest bidder, your money is going to a great cause. That is all for tonight, thank you and stay behind for the party! Alpha Di Alpha will never disappoint and will always throw a kickass party!” The music starts up again and Vivi wraps her arms around you.

“You did it! And Zoro is hot! He looks like he could flip you all over the place and just manhandle you.” She giggles and heat spreads across your cheeks as you think about it. He handles 100 lb weight plates like nothing so you could just imagine how he’d be with you. “I’m gonna grab another drink, I’ll be back.” She loosens her arms around you and you walk over to the bar to mix something up. You glance down at the concoction and take a big swig from your cup, groaning as it burns your throat.

“Easy there, I’m a huge drinker but I wouldn’t mix half of the shit you just mixed together.” A gravelly voice comes from behind you and you turn to see Zoro. Your eyes widen as you look at him and you swallow thickly. He raises an eyebrow and chuckles as he moves past you to make himself a drink. “Dump that garbage out, if you want something strong then I can mix it for you.” He grabs a second cup and starts making a drink for you and himself. You stand there, dumbfounded and watch as his muscles flex and tense with each subtle movement. “Are you just gonna gawk at me or will you finally say something, Miss Moneybags?” The nickname takes you out of your trance and heat rises to your cheeks as you meet his eyes, “Miss Moneybags?”

He laughs and finishes up the drinks, handing you a cup, “yeah, I don’t really know your name and you just dropped two grand for a date with me. Not many college students have that kind of money.” You nod and take a sip of the drink he made, which is more tolerable than what you threw together earlier, “my friend’s dad is a politician so it’s technically his money that she’s letting me use and my name is Y/N.” He nods and takes a sip of his drink, “so, what made you bid on me? I’m sure it’s not my muscles that captivated you..” For extra emphasis he flexes his pectorals and chuckles.

“Well, I don’t really know why. I’ve seen you at the gym plenty of times and something just made me raise the card. Plus I really hate losing so I wasn’t going to get outbidded by anyone.” You bring the cup to your lips again and glance over as Vivi makes her way over to you. You watch her with wide eyes as she tips her head to Zoro and mouths: ‘he looks like his dick is huge, good luck!’ Zoro turns to see where your gaze is focused on and raises an eyebrow just as Vivi is about to make another comment about him and Vivi grabs a beer bottle then nods at the both of you before leaving. He turns back to you and looks at you, “your friend?”

You nod and smile at him, “yeah, she brought me here,” you look at his chest before meeting his eyes, “she thinks that being here and bidding on someone is a way for me to end my year long dry streak.” His eyes widen and a smirk grows on his face, “fuck, a whole year? No wonder why you eye me the way you do here and at the campus gym. You’re practically a nun.” He laughs and you down the rest of your drink before tossing the cup in the garbage so you can walk away and save yourself from anymore embarrassment. Just as you take your first step, his hand reaches out to grip your wrist. “Hey, I’m sorry, that was a bad joke. How about we just forget about this conversation and dance? Then we’ll see what goes on from there.” He strokes the skin of your wrist with his thumb and you think for a moment before nodding, “yeah, let’s dance.”

The music pounds in your ears as you sway your hips to the music, Zoro stands close to you but doesn’t press himself against you, not wanting to make you feel uncomfortable. As more sensual music plays and as the alcohol you drank earlier settles more into your system, you feel a bit more confident. You glance back at him and throw him a flirty smile, “come on, I want to feel you against me.” He bites his lip and reaches out to grip your hips and pulls you back against him, leaning down to whisper, “keep swaying those hips against me and you’ll really feel me against you soon.” You whimper as he squeezes your hips tighter and you press your ass against his crotch as you move to the beat of the music. As the next song comes on, you can feel him harden against your ass. The velvet of his pants does nothing to hide how big and thick he is.

He leans down again and nips at your earlobe, “feel how hard you made me? Think you can take it after a year of not getting fucked?” You nod and bite your lip as you move a hand back to stroke him over his pants, he groans in your ear and you turn around to properly face him so you can give him your answer, “why don’t we go somewhere private and find out?” He groans and grips your hand that is stroking his bulge and leads you up the stairs, he drags you along and halfway up the stairs he stops and lifts you up. He throws you over his shoulder and lifts a hand to smack your ass as he goes up the rest of the stairs. “You walk too damn slow.” He mumbles as he walks down one of the hallways and walks into this room, shutting the door behind him and locking it for extra measure. He sets you down on the ground then pins you to his door as he leans in to kiss you. His lips move against yours hungrily and his hands move along your body roughly.

He groans against your lips as his hands grope your breasts through your top, his thumbs flicking along your nipples through the material. You whimper against his lips and you move the suspenders down his shoulders before dragging your nails lightly along his chest, feeling his muscles flex underneath your fingers. He breaks the kiss and presses his forehead against yours as he hooks his fingers along the neckline of your top. “I hope this isn’t your favorite.” He mumbles before you hear the loud sound of fabric ripping. He pulls the now-scraps of your top off your shoulders and lets it hit the ground before he pulls the cups of your bra down to expose your chest to him. He gropes your right breast with one hand while his mouth explores your left. He’s rough with his movements but it makes you wetter by the second. His fingers tweak at your nipple while he bites your other one then drags his tongue along it to soothe the dull ache.

You writhe against the door and he moves his hand down to your skirt, roughly tugging at it as he pulls it down your legs. Once you’re left in nothing but your panties, he presses his lips against yours then pulls back slightly as his hands move to the backs of your thighs, “jump.” You wrap your arms around his neck then jump as he commands, he presses you against the door firmly as he ruts his hard on against the growing damp spot on your panties. He moves one hand from you to pull his cock out then pulls your panties to the side. He bites his lip as he drags the leaking tip of his cock through your folds to collect your juices then pushes into you. Your back arches off the door as he grips your ass tightly, sinking you down to take more of his cock. The stretch sends a delicious burn through your body and it leaves you craving more.

He soon bottoms out, his cock throbbing inside of you while you clench around him. He leans in and licks up the column of your throat before groaning against your skin, “fuck, tell me I can move. I can’t take this much longer.” He drags his teeth along the sensitive skin before lightly biting down, “please Zoro, fuck me.” He uses his grip on your ass to lift you up slightly as he starts moving his hips, he starts off slow before picking up the pace. Your nails dig into his tanned shoulders as his cock hits your sweet spot with perfect precision. His mouth goes back to your neck, licking and biting the skin as he continues to pound into you. All the sensations are working together to bring you closer to the edge, it’s almost embarrassing how fast the coil in your belly tightens.

“Z-Zoro, you’re gonna make me cum. Fuck.”

Just as the words leave your lips, he stops thrusting into you and lifts you higher to pull out. “What the fuck?! Why would you stop?” Your eyes widen as you look at him and your pussy clenches around nothing as a smirk graces his lips. “Where’s the fun if you cum so quickly? We’ve got the whole night ahead of us and we should use the time efficiently.” He moves you from the door and carries you to his bed, he lays you down then spreads your legs as he lays down between them. He uses one hand to keep your panties to the side and he leans in to lightly blow on your sensitive cunt. You whimper and buck your hips as your clit twitches. “Zoro…cmon.” You whine as he continues to blow on your cunt and he chuckles as he keeps his focus on your drooling cunt.

“Oh, I’m just so mean aren’t I? Just teasing you when you need me so badly.” He coos as he talks to your pussy and his tone makes you clench around nothing. “Don’t worry, I’ll make the ache go away. I promise.” He coos again before he leans in to press a kiss to your clit, he lifts his eyes to look at you as he sticks his tongue out and licks from your entrance to your clit. “So fucking sweet.” He groans before he dives in, his tongue dipping into your pussy to get more of your juices before he wraps his lips around your clit. He sucks harshly, making your back arch off the bed then he moves his other hand to push two fingers inside of you. He curls his fingers inside to massage your g-spot as he sucks on your clit harder, making your thighs shake before you try to close them around his head. With the hand he’s using to hold your panties to the side, he lets go for a moment to pinch your thigh, using the gesture as a warning to keep your legs spread.

He switches his tongue and fingers, pressing his thumb to your clit as he dips his tongue in and out of your hole. “Ah fuck Zoro, that feels so good.” You moan and he lifts his head from your pussy, “I know.” With that he goes back to your pussy, dipping his tongue in and out faster as he rubs your clit faster. Your moans get louder and you writhe more, the coil from earlier tightening again. But just before you can tip over the edge, he pulls away. You ball your fists and whine again, narrowing your eyes at him.

“I’m getting really tired of this, Zoro.” You mumble as he kisses up your body and then presses his lips against yours in a chaste kiss. “I’m just making this experience memorable for you, dear. It’s been a year since you last fucked someone so you shouldn’t complain so much.” He pulls off his pants completely then grips your legs, pulling you closer to him. He spits on his hand and smears it along his cock before he lines it up with your entrance, “you’ll cum this time, I promise. Then when we go on our proper date, I’ll make you cum so much you’ll forget your name.”

Before you can open your mouth to respond, he pushes himself into you, throwing his head back as you clench around him tightly. “Fuck, you feel even better after being edged,” he bites his bottom lip as he grips your hips tightly, lifting them slightly as he starts thrusting. He watches how your tits bounce with each snap of his hips and his heavy balls hit the curve of your ass at a rhythmic pace. A neatly trimmed patch of green hair brushes against your clit and you lift one of your hands to grip his wrist, digging your nails as he thrusts faster. With your hips raised like this, the tip of his cock nudges against your cervix making you moan louder.

“Zoro, ah fuck don’t stop.” He watches as your face contorts in pleasure, your pussy grips him tighter each time he reels his hips back. His fingers dig into your hips harder, bound to leave imprints once he’s done. He leans in and wraps his lips around one of your nipples, licking and biting the sensitive bud as he ruts into you like an animal. He pulls off with a wet pop and moves one of his hands to rub your engorged clit, groaning as you clench around him even tighter.

“Let go for me, I know you’re right there, just let go.” He growls out and the coil in the pit of your stomach finally snaps. You cry out his name as you cum, your eyes rolling back as he continues to thrust into you. “Cum inside, please Zoro.” You moan out and it doesn’t take long for him to follow through with your command. Thick ropes of his cum fill you and he pants as he grinds against you. He slowly pulls out of you and watches how some of his cum leaks out of you, he groans at the sight and his cock twitches but he decides that you’ve had enough and lays down beside you.

“You’re staying the night, maybe we could sneak a round two in the morning. I have to make up for all the orgasms you could’ve had during your year long dry spell and I won’t go through edging you again. Even though you look fucking adorable when you get denied an orgasm.” He chuckles as he pulls you close and presses his lips against yours in a chaste kiss. “Get some rest, you’ll need it.”

taglist: @interstellar-inn @pixelcafe-network

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Tech monopolists use their market power to invade your privacy

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!

It's easy to greet the FTC's new report on social media privacy, which concludes that tech giants have terrible privacy practices with a resounding "duh," but that would be a grave mistake.

Much to the disappointment of autocrats and would-be autocrats, administrative agencies like the FTC can't just make rules up. In order to enact policies, regulators have to do their homework: for example, they can do "market studies," which go beyond anything you'd get out of an MBA or Master of Public Policy program, thanks to the agency's legal authority to force companies to reveal their confidential business information.

Market studies are fabulous in their own right. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has a fantastic research group called the Digital Markets Unit that has published some of the most fascinating deep dives into how parts of the tech industry actually function, 400+ page bangers that pierce the Shield of Boringness that tech firms use to hide their operations. I recommend their ad-tech study:

https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/online-platforms-and-digital-advertising-market-study

In and of themselves, good market studies are powerful things. They expose workings. They inform debate. When they're undertaken by wealthy, powerful countries, they provide enforcement roadmaps for smaller, poorer nations who are being tormented in the same way, by the same companies, that the regulator studied.

But market studies are really just curtain-raisers. After a regulator establishes the facts about a market, they can intervene. They can propose new regulations, and they can impose "conduct remedies" (punishments that restrict corporate behavior) on companies that are cheating.

Now, the stolen, corrupt, illegitimate, extremist, bullshit Supreme Court just made regulation a lot harder. In a case called Loper Bright, SCOTUS killed the longstanding principle of "Chevron deference," which basically meant that when an agency said it had built a factual case to support a regulation, courts should assume they're not lying:

https://jacobin.com/2024/07/scotus-decisions-chevron-immunity-loper

The death of Chevron Deference means that many important regulations – past, present and future – are going to get dragged in front of a judge, most likely one of those Texas MAGA mouth-breathers in the Fifth Circuit, to be neutered or killed. But even so, regulators still have options – they can still impose conduct remedies, which are unaffected by the sabotage of Chevron Deference.

Pre-Loper, post-Loper, and today, the careful, thorough investigation of the facts of how markets operate is the prelude to doing things about how those markets operate. Facts matter. They matter even if there's a change in government, because once the facts are in the public domain, other governments can use them as the basis for action.

Which is why, when the FTC uses its powers to compel disclosures from the largest tech companies in the world, and then assesses those disclosures and concludes that these companies engage in "vast surveillance," in ways that the users don't realize and that these companies "fail to adequately protect users, that matters.

What's more, the Commission concludes that "data abuses can fuel market dominance, and market dominance can, in turn, further enable data abuses and practices that harm consumers." In other words: tech monopolists spy on us in order to achieve and maintain their monopolies, and then they spy on us some more, and that hurts us.

So if you're wondering what kind of action this report is teeing up, I think we can safely say that the FTC believes that there's evidence that the unregulated, rampant practices of the commercial surveillance industry are illegal. First, because commercial surveillance harms us as "consumers." "Consumer welfare" is the one rubric for enforcement that the right-wing economists who hijacked antitrust law in the Reagan era left intact, and here we have the Commission giving us evidence that surveillance hurts us, and that it comes about as a result of monopoly, and that the more companies spy, the stronger their monopolies become.

But the Commission also tees up another kind of enforcement: Section 5, the long (long!) neglected power of the agency to punish companies for "unfair and deceptive methods of competition," a very broad power indeed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

In the study, the Commission shows – pretty convincingly! – that the commercial surveillance sector routinely tricks people who have no idea how their data is being used. Most people don't understand, for example, that the platforms use all kinds of inducements to get web publishers to embed tracking pixels, fonts, analytics beacons, etc that send user-data back to the Big Tech databases, where it's merged with data from your direct interactions with the company. Likewise, most people don't understand the shadowy data-broker industry, which sells Big Tech gigantic amounts of data harvested by your credit card company, by Bluetooth and wifi monitoring devices on streets and in stores, and by your car. Data-brokers buy this data from anyone who claims to have it, including people who are probably lying, like Nissan, who claims that it has records of the smells inside drivers' cars, as well as those drivers' sex-lives:

https://nypost.com/2023/09/06/nissan-kia-collect-data-about-drivers-sexual-activity/

Or Cox Communications, which claims that it is secretly recording and transcribing the conversations we have in range of the mics on our speakers, phones, and other IoT devices:

https://www.404media.co/heres-the-pitch-deck-for-active-listening-ad-targeting/

(If there's a kernel of truth to Cox's bullshit, my guess it's that they've convinced some of the sleazier "smart TV" companies to secretly turn on their mics, then inflated this into a marketdroid's wet-dream of "we have logged every word uttered by Americans and can use it to target ads.)

Notwithstanding the rampant fraud inside the data brokerage industry, there's no question that some of the data they offer for sale is real, that it's intimate and sensitive, and that the people it's harvested from never consented to its collection. How do you opt out of public facial recognition cameras? "Just don't have a face" isn't a realistic opt-out policy.

And if the public is being deceived about the collection of this data, they're even more in the dark about the way it's used – merged with on-platform usage data and data from apps and the web, then analyzed for the purposes of drawing "inferences" about you and your traits.

What's more, the companies have chaotic, bullshit internal processes for handling your data, which also rise to the level of "deceptive and unfair" conduct. For example, if you send these companies a deletion request for your data, they'll tell you they deleted the data, but actually, they keep it, after "de-identifying" it.

De-identification is a highly theoretical way of sanitizing data by removing the "personally identifiers" from it. In practice, most de-identified data can be quickly re-identified, and nearly all de-identified data can eventually be re-identified:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies

Breaches, re-identification, and weaponization are extraordinarily hard to prevent. In general, we should operate on the assumption that any data that's collected will probably leak, and any data that's retained will almost certainly leak someday. To have even a hope of preventing this, companies have to treat data with enormous care, maintaining detailed logs and conducting regular audits. But the Commission found that the biggest tech companies are extraordinarily sloppy, to the point where "they often could not even identify all the data points they collected or all of the third parties they shared that data with."

This has serious implications for consumer privacy, obviously, but there's also a big national security dimension. Given the recent panic at the prospect that the Chinese government is using Tiktok to spy on Americans, it's pretty amazing that American commercial surveillance has escaped serious Congressional scrutiny.

After all, it would be a simple matter to use the tech platforms targeting systems to identify and push ads (including ads linking to malicious sites) to Congressional staffers ("under-40s with Political Science college degrees within one mile of Congress") or, say, NORAD personnel ("Air Force enlistees within one mile of Cheyenne Mountain").

Those targeting parameters should be enough to worry Congress, but there's a whole universe of potential characteristics that can be selected, hence the Commission's conclusion that "profound threats to users can occur when targeting occurs based on sensitive categories."

The FTC's findings about the dangers of all this data are timely, given the current wrangle over another antitrust case. In August, a federal court found that Google is a monopolist in search, and that the company used its data lakes to secure and maintain its monopoly.

This kicked off widespread demands for the court to order Google to share its data with competitors in order to erase that competitive advantage. Holy moly is this a bad idea – as the FTC study shows, the data that Google stole from us all is incredibly toxic. Arguing that we can fix the Google problem by sharing that data far and wide is like proposing that we can "solve" the fact that only some countries have nuclear warheads by "democratizing" access to planet-busting bombs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

To address the competitive advantage Google achieved by engaging in the reckless, harmful conduct detailed in this FTC report, we should delete all that data. Sure, that may seem inconceivable, but come on, surely the right amount of toxic, nonconsensually harvested data on the public that should be retained by corporations is zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/19/just-stop-putting-that-up-your-ass/#harm-reduction

Some people argue that we don't need to share out the data that Google never should have been allowed to collect – it's enough to share out the "inferences" that Google drew from that data, and from other data its other tentacles (Youtube, Android, etc) shoved into its gaping maw, as well as the oceans of data-broker slurry it stirred into the mix.

But as the report finds, the most unethical, least consensual data was "personal information that these systems infer, that was purchased from third parties, or that was derived from users�� and non-users’ activities off of the platform." We gotta delete that, too. Especially that.

A major focus of the report is the way that the platforms handled children's data. Platforms have special obligations when it comes to kids' data, because while Congress has failed to act on consumer privacy, they did bestir themselves to enact a children's privacy law. In 2000, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which puts strict limits on the collection, retention and processing of data on kids under 13.

Now, there are two ways to think about COPPA. One view is, "if you're not certain that everyone in your data-set is over 13, you shouldn't be collecting or processing their data at all." Another is, "In order to ensure that everyone whose data you're collecting and processing is over 13, you should collect a gigantic amount of data on all of them, including the under-13s, in order to be sure that not collecting under-13s' data." That second approach would be ironically self-defeating, obviously, though it's one that's gaining traction around the world and in state legislatures, as "age verification" laws find legislative support.

The platforms, meanwhile, found a third, even stupider approach: rather than collecting nothing because they can't verify ages, or collecting everything to verify ages, they collect everything, but make you click a box that says, "I'm over 13":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/09/how-to-make-a-child-safe-tiktok/

It will not surprise you to learn that many children under 13 have figured out that they can click the "I'm over 13" box and go on their merry way. It won't surprise you, but apparently, it will surprise the hell out of the platforms, who claimed that they had zero underage users on the basis that everyone has to click the "I'm over 13" box to get an account on the service.

By failing to pass comprehensive privacy legislation for 36 years (and counting), Congress delegated privacy protection to self-regulation by the companies themselves. They've been marking their own homework, and now, thanks to the FTC's power to compel disclosures, we can say for certain that the platforms cheat.

No surprise that the FTC's top recommendation is for Congress to pass a new privacy law. But they've got other, eminently sensible recommendations, like requiring the companies to do a better job of protecting their users' data: collect less, store less, delete it after use, stop combining data from their various lines of business, and stop sharing data with third parties.

Remember, the FTC has broad powers to order "conduct remedies" like this, and these are largely unaffected by the Supreme Court's "Chevron deference" decision in Loper-Bright.

The FTC says that privacy policies should be "clear, simple, and easily understood," and says that ad-targeting should be severely restricted. They want clearer consent for data inferences (including AI), and that companies should monitor their own processes with regular, stringent audits.

They also have recommendations for competition regulators – remember, the Biden administration has a "whole of government" antitrust approach that asks every agency to use its power to break up corporate concentration:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

They say that competition enforcers factor in the privacy implications of proposed mergers, and think about how promoting privacy could also promote competition (in other words, if Google's stolen data helped it secure a monopoly, then making them delete that data will weaken their market power).

I understand the reflex to greet a report like this with cheap cynicism, but that's a mistake. There's a difference between "everybody knows" that tech is screwing us on privacy, and "a federal agency has concluded" that this is true. These market studies make a difference – if you doubt it, consider for a moment that Cigna is suing the FTC for releasing a landmark market study showing how its Express Scripts division has used its monopoly power to jack up the price of prescription drugs:

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/express-scripts-files-suit-against-ftc-demands-retraction-report-pbm-industry

Big business is shit-scared of this kind of research by federal agencies – if they think this threatens their power, why shouldn't we take them at their word?

This report is a milestone, and – as with the UK Competition and Markets Authority reports – it's a banger. Even after Loper-Bright, this report can form the factual foundation for muscular conduct remedies that will limit what the largest tech companies can do.

But without privacy law, the data brokerages that feed the tech giants will be largely unaffected. True, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is doing some good work at the margins here:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

But we need to do more than curb the worst excesses of the largest data-brokers. We need to kill this sector, and to do that, Congress has to act:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this month!

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/2024/09/20/water-also-wet/#marking-their-own-homework

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[coimbrabertone]

Motorsports is Back for 2025

Last weekend we saw the unofficial start of the 2025 racing season with the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Rally Monte Carlo running simultaneously, two of the typical curtain raisers for motorsports.

Now, there is also the Dakar Rally, which took place earlier in January, and I keep meaning to look into it, but it just hasn't happened. First of all because it's just so hard to watch in the US, secondly because even if it were easier to watch, the time difference puts it super early in the morning, and thirdly...it's in Saudi Arabia.

I know that the whole Western Sahara situation - as well as instability in Mauritania - makes the historic Paris-Dakar route difficult, and the South American experiment didn't really work out either, but Saudi Arabia? It's just icky to me.

I hate it that sports are bending over backwards for one of the most repressive regimes in history.

Anyway, let's not get bogged down in that, because with the start of the WRC and IMSA seasons, motorsports is back.

The Monte Carly Rally started first, with a Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule. For those who don't know, the Monte Carlo Rally takes place on mountain roads in the French Alps just north of Monaco, with tarmac surfaces frequently covered in ice and sometimes even snow. Taking place this early in the year, many of the stages - which vary from 14 km in length all the way up to 27 - also take place at night, making the rally even more difficult.

So, it started with WRC legend Sebastien Ogier building an early lead, however, an early slip put him into the wall in a hairpin, handing the lead first to reigning champion Thierry Neuville in the Hyundai, and then Ogier's Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans.

Neuville ran into problems of his own on Friday, while Ogier's crew repaired the damage on his Toyota, meaning that Sebastien was back in the lead come the end of the second day. Hyundai, meanwhile, was in the odd position where Adrien Fourmaux, their youngest driver freshly signed on from Ford, was their highest placed car.

In fact, with Ogier in the lead and Fourmaux moving up to second, it was briefly a French 1-2 in the rally that takes place on French soil.

Saturday saw Elfyn Evans move back into second, while Ott Tanak in the third Hyundai surged forward, winning the final three stages of the day to surge back into contentions.

Under current WRC points, the bulk points are award at the end of Saturday, so Ogier got 25, Elfyn 17, Fourmaux 15, returning full-time Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera got 12 in fourth, Tanak moved up to fifth place with 10 points, and Neuville received 8 points for sixth.

Tanak's charge came to an end on Sunday when he ran into issues and he'd score no regular day points that morning, while Elfyn would win the day, taking 5 points ahead of Rovanpera on 4, Ogier took 3 points as he coasted to win, Fourmaux took 2 points, and Neuville snatched the final Sunday regular point.

That brought us onto the Power Stage, one final high-speed run to the finish with another five points on the line.

Here, Ogier went for maximum points again, snatching the 5 points, ahead of Elfyn on 4, Fourmaux on 3, Rovanpera on 2, and Tanak who salvaged a point from his otherwise terrible Sunday.

So, Sebastien Ogier wins a record-extending 10th Monte Carlo Rally - clearing fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb who sits on 8 wins - Elfyn Evans makes for a Toyota 1-2, and Hyundai's new signing is surprisingly leading the pack in 3rd. Rovanpera finishes 4th despite being out of practice after skipping last year's Monty, ahead of Tanak and Neuville who both had issues. Josh McErlean in seventh was the only other Rally1 finisher, continuing Ford's somewhat token efforts in WRC as of late.

As these final Sunday stages were happening, however, another race was underway in North America.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona, the second biggest endurance race in the world and the traditional curtain raiser for North American motorsports. I've talked about this before, but it's a regular coming together of motorsports, with the IMSA regulars joined by WEC and ELMS crews, Indycar drivers, Trans Am drivers, ex-Formula One drivers, and even a few NASCAR drivers like Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, and Austin Cindric.

Here's a fun game I've played with some friends lately - look at the entry list for a big race like this and find the most obscure name you recognize.

I saw Benjamin Pederson in the #52 LMP2 - he drove for AJ Foyt Racing for one season in 2023.

Eddie Cheever III is another. Son of Eddie Cheever who drove in F1 in the 80s, CART in the 90s, and IRL in the 00s, Eddie III was born in Rome and races under an Italian license. He's a Ferrari GT driver these days and appears at the Rolex 24 fairly regularly - this time around he was in the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.

Speaking of Triarsi, they're another one, because they're the old Ferrari of Central Florida team from Ferrari Challenge North America. They've gone big and adopted a bigger sounding name, but it is still essentially Ferrari Orlando running a pair of IMSA cars, and I think that's cool.

Anyway, enough trivia of who was in the race, let's talk about the race itself.

It was a fairly clean race by Daytona standards - up until the very end anyway - with relatively few LMP2 cautions, not too many cars stranded on track, and no rain to disrupt things. That being said, the racing kept it interesting, as the #24 initially built a big lead before a bizarre pitstop where Dries Vanthoor parked in his pitstall at a sharp angle, making his crew have to awkwardly scramble to get the pitstop done. This moved the Porsches into the lead, but the Acuras and a resurgent BMW did their best to keep the show interesting.

The #24 BMW was probably the fastest car all day and worked its way back into contention, however, they got a little too impatient in traffic and a little too free with the chrome horn, meaning they developed a tyre rub that dropped them a lap down an hour from the finish. The BMW would pass the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac to move into fourth place, the first car one lap down, but it couldn't overcome more than that.

Thus, it turned into a battle between the #6 Porsche which led, the #7 Porsche which was in second, and the #60 Acura which came alive right at the end of the race.

The #7 was under pressure from the #60 with IMSA all-star Tom Blomqvist on a charge for Meyer Shank Racing. This left Felipe Nasr in the #7 with little choice but to go side-by-side with his teammate Matt Campbell in the #6 to take the lead.

It was the right call too, because Felipe Nasr was able to break away and win the race, while Matt Campbell got caught and passed by Blomqvist, denying Penske Porsche a 1-2 finish.

It was a similar story in the GTD classes, where in GTD Pro, it was a heated battle between the Pratt & Miller Corvettes, the Paul Miller (no relation) Racing BMW, and the Multimatic Ford Mustang. Earlier in the race there was a big controversy where the lapped #48 Paul Miller BMW helped out their teammates in the #1 car by holding up the #4 Corvette, which turned ugly when they made contact and Corvette picked up some big damage on the rear end.

To which, Tommy Milner won the adoration of the internet by raising his middle finger out the window and flipping off the BMW while going full speed through the Daytona International Speedway's trioval.

God bless America.

The #4 Corvette got a tape job and got back into contention with Nico Varrone behind the wheel, as it and the teammate #3 Corvette started battling with the #1 BMW and the #65 Mustang.

The Corvette and BMW start touching on the oval and through the bus stop, so finally, Nico Varrone has enough of it and wrecks the #1 BMW in turn one while the #3 Corvette turns beneath the both of them. Varrone gets a penalty and the #4 drops out of contention, but the #3 Corvette moves into second place.

Unfortunately, the #65 Mustang took the opportunity to disappear into the distance.

Unlucky for Corvette, but we got the #65 Mustang in first, the #3 Corvette second, and the #64 Mustang in third - making for an American car 1-2-3 in GTD Pro.

As for GTD Am, it was more beating and banging as the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin barged the #13 AWA Corvette out of the way in turn one, however, the AWA Corvette managed to recover and retake the position. They even went three wide into the bus stop chicane at one point as the AWA Corvette and the #27 Aston battled for so long that the #120 Porsche entered the picture. The AWA Corvette held off the competition and won the class.

#13...unlucky for some, but not AWA.

So, Porsche wins in GTP, Mustang in GTD Pro, and the AWA Corvette in GTD.

As for the one remaining class in the form of LMP2, that honor went to the #8 Tower Motorsports car, driven by John Farano, Job van Uilert, Sebastian Alvarez...and Sebastien Bourdais.

Bourdais and Ogier both got wins this weekend.

A good weekend for French dudes named Sebastien, huh?

[c7-shiina]

●curtain raiser

M3(273×160mm)

2023

[mrsreinhart]

AS mention 🕺

[benwalkerupdates]

19 April 2007 - Ben in an interview for broadway.com with Katie Riegel. Read the original HERE

Age: "Can I plead the fifth?"

Currently: Making his Broadway debut in Inherit the Wind as Bertram Cates, the dramatized version of schoolteacher John Scopes, who was put on trial in 1925 for teaching evolution in the notorious "monkey trial."

Hometown: Cartersville, Georgia.

Training Days: As a teen, Walker attended the famed Interlochen summer arts camp in Michigan to test whether his hankering for acting was just a phase. "I thought, 'If I can handle this, I must really like it,'" he says. "I got bitten by the bug there, and that was that." He then attended Juilliard's prestigious acting program, an experience that elicits a burst of adjectives from the playful actor: "Fantastic. Hard. Beyond hard. Challenging. Some of the best teachers and directors and writers in the world are there," he says pausing reflectively. "And then me," he cracks. "I don't know how I got in."

Nose No Bounds: While in his final year at Juilliard, Walker landed his first film, playing the 19-year-old version of Liam Neeson's title character in Kinsey. "I was so over-stimulated that I don't really remember much of it," he says of the film shoot. "I had no idea what I was doing. They had a prosthetic nose glued to my face, and here I was running around with my pants down on a movie set. I was petrified. It was truly wild." Following post-grad roles in a few indie flicks and The Notorious Bettie Page, Walker landed the part of Harlon Block, one of the six famous Iwo Jima flag-raisers in Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers, and shipped out to Iceland to film. "It was more work than you'd imagine," he says. "Not that I thought it was going to be playtime. But the physical rigor of it was intense: enduring cold and simple things like that, as opposed to…my character's motivation," he says with a grin.

Spring-time: While honing his on-screen skills, Walker also chalked up some nice theater roles, including a well-reviewed turn last summer as Mercutio in eyeliner and a dress, no less in Williamstown's production of Romeo and Juliet. "Mercutio's the only part to play in that show," he declares. "Sword fight, shout, die…sleep 'till curtain call!" He's also the unlikely source for a trivia tidbit for Spring Awakening buffs: Walker starred as Melchior in the 2005 Lincoln Center workshop of the popular Duncan Sheik/Steven Sater tuner. So is he disappointed that he didn't get to see the show to its Broadway bow? "No," he says simply. "I mean, I couldn't. Look at me. I'm six feet tall! And as much as I want to bare my ass to the Broadway fan base…no. I think it works so well now. I saw it, and [Jonathan Groff] can take it! You got it, bud. It's that good."

Find Me Funny: "Yeah, I tell dirty jokes," Walker says with a wink when asked about his surprising side gig as a stand-up comedian. "The first two years of Juilliard, they don't allow you to perform for the public, and that was bothersome," he explains. "So I started doing open mics. It was a little late-night thing I could do and not tell anybody about. I don't think any teachers are going to show up at Gladys' Comedy Hole! But it's kind of grown into this beast." Showing off a hoodie emblazoned with the logo of his group, "Find the Funny," he says, "We have some of the best young stand-ups in the city doing our [bi-monthly] show. I don't know that I'm a comic, but it's a challenge. That's the great thing about being an actor: You can be anything. 'Could I be on trial? I dunno. Let's do the show tonight!'"

Learning from Legends: "I'm livin' the dream," Walker says, shifting tone to discuss making his Broadway debut in Inherit the Wind. "I heard Doug Hughes was directing it. When I was in school I was watching these theatrical events take place—Doubt, Frozen—and Doug's name was always attached. He and the fates smiled on me with this." How about his legendary co-stars, Brian Dennehy and Christopher Plummer? "Who?" he says playfully. "Their track records are more than impressive, and their skill and craft are unprecedented, but at the same time, they're genuine, kind men who love telling a story with a group of people. Period." Sharing scenes with Plummer, who plays Henry Drummond, the lawyer defending Walker's character for teaching evolution, has taught him tons. "Regardless of the amount of experience he's had, he's continually trying to rediscover himself as an actor," Walker says. "Every night, you'd better be on your game, because it's going to be different. And that's impressive, given the amount of experience he's bringing to this—that he's still doing it every day; that he's still playful. [My character] is lucky to have a lawyer like Drummond…and I'm lucky to have an actor like Christopher Plummer to sit next to."

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 16

42 BC – Tiberius, Roman emperor, born (d.37 AD); second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in CE 14 until his own death in 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced his father and was remarried to Octavian Augustus in 39 BC. Tiberius would later marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder (from an earlier marriage) and even later be adopted by Augustus and by this act he became a Julian. The subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the next forty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Tiberius was the predecessor to Caligula and he was certainly the appropriate curtain-raiser. His sexual excesses were widely known, especially when he "retired" to Capri, governing Rome via correspondence, and becoming the patron saint of that future gay mecca. Suetonius reported that Tiberius trained young boys, whom he called his "minnows," to stay between his legs while he was swimming so they could lick and nibble him until he came. Suetonius reports that Tiberius can be credited with the "daisy chain" or spintriae - a conga line of people joined front and back in sexual congress.

1502 – Sandro Botticelli (c.1445- 1510) is accused of sodomy but the charges were dropped. The summary of the charge reads: "Botticelli keeps a boy." Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de Medici. Botticelli’s posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

1942 – Barton Lidice Beneš, born in Hackensack, New Jersey (d.2012), was an artist who lived and worked in New York City. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York and Beaux-Arts, Avignon, France.

His father, the son of Czech immigrants gave him his middle name in memory of Lidice, the Czech town destroyed by the Nazis that year. He grew up in Queens with Czech-born grandparents, who instilled in him a dedication to the Roman Catholic traditions of reliquaries and memorials to the dead.

Barton Beneš' art incorporated shadow boxes filled with bits and pieces that revealed the myths and ironies of life. The fragments in Beneš' work often involved famous people and events, from a piece of Elizabeth Taylor's shoe to a crumb from the wedding cake of the Prince of Wales. His travelling exhibition series about AIDS, "Lethal Weapons," was the focus of an independent documentary film released in 1997. "Lethal Weapons" consisted of 30 vessels such as a water pistol, an atomizer, and hollow darts, all filled with the artist's or other people's HIV-infected blood.

Another work, "Brenda," was a wall relief carpeted with red AIDS-awareness ribbons and slathered with a coat of gray paste made from the cremated remains of a woman who had died of AIDS. "I absolutely hate those [AIDS] ribbons," he said, contending that wearing them did nothing more than assuage people's consciences.

Although galleries and museums refused to show this work, they were displayed without incident at the North Dakota Museum of Art in 1993. Beneš did not forget the courage and commitment to art of this prairie institution. When he died he left instructions to be cremated and have his remains placed in a pillowcase on his bed. The bed was the central part Beneš last completed and most personal work, his 850-square-foot home in Greenwich Village containing thousands of objects including masks and religious relics and the mementoes and remains of his loved ones. This enormous piece with its thousands of contents will be moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota, where they will be exhibited in a replica of the apartment

Among the museums that have acquired his works are the Chicago Art Institute, the National Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Australia, and most importantly the North Dakota Museum of Art.

Scott Wittman (L) with Marc Shaiman

1955 – Born: Lyricist and director Scott Wittman, who, with composer Marc Shaiman, his partner in life and collaborator in theater, film, and television projects, has a long list of credits in the entertainment industry. Their work on the musical version of John Waters' Hairspray earned Tony and Grammy awards in 2003.

Both Shaiman and Wittman grew up in the vicinity of New York City, the former in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and the latter in Nyack, New York. Both were fascinated with musical theater from an early age and dreamed of careers on Broadway. Shaiman played piano with local community theater groups from the time that he was twelve, and Wittman apprenticed in summer stock in his hometown. Such was their love for the stage that they both cut high school classes to travel into New York for matinees.

Wittman attended Emerson College in Boston but left after two years to pursue a career as a writer and director in musical theater in New York. In the city's East Village he crossed paths with Shaiman, who had quit high school at sixteen to join the New York musical scene. Wittman was directing a show at a club in Greenwich Village when Shaiman came in and started playing the piano. Wittman promptly hired him. They subsequently fell in love and have been a couple since 1979.

The two soon began collaborating professionally, writing songs that Shaiman describes as "full of anarchy and joy."

Since 1997 Shaiman and Wittman have contributed and directed music for the Academy Awards presentation show. At the same time Wittman, who humorously calls himself "a great diva wrangler," has directed concerts. In addition to working with Bette Midler, he has had a long association with Patti LuPone and has worked with Christine Ebersole, Raquel Welch, Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries), and Lypsinka among many others.

Shaiman and Wittman's greatest triumph thus far is Hairspray, an adaptation of the 1988 John Waters movie for the musical stage. Shaiman and Wittman wrote the music, and Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan the book for the play.

The show dominated the 2003 Tony Awards, winning eight, including best musical and best score. At the end of their acceptance speeches Shaiman declared to Wittman, "I love you, and I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you." The couple then embraced and shared a long and tender kiss. News outlets around the world took note of this affecting moment.

1964 – Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions. He was, until November 2012, chairman of ASOS.com. He is the chairman of Silvergate Media, which purchased two of the media rights previously held by Chorion Ltd, where Alli was former chairman. He is a Labour life peer and is described as one of only a few openly gay Muslim politicians in the world.

In British political terms he is considered Asian, though both of his parents are from the Caribbean. His mother, a nurse, is from Trinidad, and his estranged father, a mechanic, is from British Guiana (now Guyana). His mother was Hindu and his father Muslim; he has two brothers, one of each faith. He was named one of the 20 most important Asians in British media in 2005. At the same time, he maintains ties with his Caribbean roots, both with other British-Guyanese politicians such as Valerie Amos and Trevor Phillips, and with President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Alli joined the Labour Party at the persuasion of his neighbour Emily Thornberry, to whom he remains close. He is also close to Anji Hunter, Director of Government Relations in Tony Blair's first government. Prime Minister Blair used him for years as a means to help him reach out to a younger generation (aka "yoof culture"), and as such he is considered one of "Tony's Cronies". He was made a life peer as Baron Alli, of Norbury in the London Borough of Croydon, on 18 July 1998 at the age of 34, becoming the youngest and the first openly gay peer in Parliament. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords. The BBC summarised his appointment as "the antithesis of the stereotypical 'establishment' peer – young, Asian and from the world of media and entertainment".

Alli has used his political position to argue for gay rights. He spearheaded the campaign to repeal Section 28. He advocated lowering the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16, equal to heterosexuals; this eventually became law as the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000. It was during a heated exchange with conservative opponents, led by Baroness Young, that he informed his fellow peers that he was gay. In April 1999, he said in a speech, "I have never been confused about my sexuality. I have been confused about the way I am treated as a result of it. The only confusion lies in the prejudice shown, some of it tonight [i.e. in the House], and much of it enshrined in the law."

In 2009, he spearheaded an effort to repeal clauses in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 which prohibited religious institutions from conducting the ceremonies on their premises. This campaign culminated in a bipartisan amendment, which became part of the Equality Act 2010.

2007 – Breakfast With Scot - In 2006, straight Canadian actor Tom Cavanagh began filming Breakfast with Scot, in which he plays a gay retired hockey player who becomes an adoptive father to a young boy. The film, released on this day in 2007, drew attention as the first gay-themed film ever to win approval from a major league sports franchise to use its real name and logo; Cavanagh's character formerly played for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

[fanofspooky]

The Twilight Zone S4E5

Mute

“What you're witnessing is the curtain-raiser to a most extraordinary play; to wit, the signing of a pact, the commencement of a project. The play itself will be performed almost entirely offstage. The final scenes are to be enacted a decade hence and with a different cast. The main character of these final scenes is Ilse, the daughter of Professor and Mrs. Nielsen, age two. At the moment she lies sleeping in her crib, unaware of the singular drama in which she is to be involved. Ten years from this moment, Isle Nielsen is to know the desolating terror of living simultaneously in the world - and in The Twilight Zone.”

[consanguinitatum]

For One Night Only: David at the RSC Fringe Festival (oh, and one other thing he probably didn't do...)

For today's post in "obscure things David Tennant did way back when," we'll need to travel back in time to the late 1990s. It was a busy time for David. By May 1997, he'd just wrapped up his first Royal Shakespeare Company repertory season (in which he simultaneously played Touchstone in As You Like It, Jack Lane in The Herbal Bed, and Alexander Hamilton in The General From America). This set of three plays had begun their runs in Stratford in early- to mid 1996; they then transferred over to London's Barbican Theatre, where they had ended their runs by mid-1997.

Programmes for The Herbal Bed, As You Like It, and The General From America

Next on David's theatre agenda was the role of Mickey in Hurlyburly (a play I've talked about before) which ran at the Queen's Theatre in London from August to November 1997. He then performed a one-off staged reading of Derek Jarman's Blue at the Chelsea Arts Theare on 16 November 1997 (which, by the way, is another little-known DT performance I want to explore!)

That was it for 1997, theatre-wise.

Then, beginning in March of 1998 - as I've explored previously - he began his run as Moon and Brindsley Miller in The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy. This double bill ran first at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Surrey and then in London, first at the Richmond Theatre and then at the Comedy Theatre. That play finally wrapped in August 1998.

But a month before wrapping The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy, David had popped over to Stratford to do something interesting, something that's the focus of this thread. It was called For One Night Only, and - as it says on the tin - it was, indeed, for one night only!

First, though? A little history!

Around 1990, the RSC began to hold an annual summer festival called the Royal Shakespeare Company Fringe Festival. Intended as a showcase for RSC talent, it included a mix of events: short plays, devised pieces, stand-up comedy, concerts, etc., as well as new works making their Stratford debut. The festival lasted two weeks and saw actors, directors, stage managers, musicians and staff all taking part in more than 25 events. All the events were either on Sundays, or timed around RSC productions, so audiences could go see fringe shows after seeing the actors perform in their usual RSC roles.

Most of the events for 1998's festival took place in a specially adapted 100-seat rehearsal room at the RSC's 'alternative' theatre, The Other Place. But not all of them. Their opening night event - on Sunday, 19 July - was to take place at the Swan Theatre.

That opening night event? For One Night Only!

Starring Desmond Barrit, Emma Handy, and Amanda Harris as well as David, the launch event cost £4-£12 and began at 7:30 pm. It was called a "curtain raiser" as well as "aptly-named."

And just what was it about? Well, um....I know it was organized and compiled by its star, Desmond Barrit...and that it was supposed to take its audience on a journey through the theatre. These articles say so.

But that's about all I know. I wish I had more details.

I am, however, supremely lucky to own a piece of ephemera about this one night only event.

Here's the front and back of my For One Night Only flyer, and as I'm sure you'll notice, it promises "an evening of theatrical prose and poetry...and a little gossip!"

Great. Could you tell us a bit more, thanks?

While researching For One Night Only, I came across something else of interest, which I thought for a moment David might have been involved in - an event staged nine days before For One Night Only. But after researching this event in more detail, I don't think he was involved, after all. Such a shame, really. He would've been perfect!

On Friday, 10 July 1998, at 1 pm in the afternoon, some Royal Shakespeare Company members got together to do a fund raiser and preview of the upcoming Fringe in the forecourt of the Other Place. Called a Sonnetathon, this three-hour event featured various RSC members reading all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets!

Now a Sonnetathon would've been right up David's alley, am I right? He'd have loved it! But I'm about 99% certain he wasn't there - and here's why. That Friday night at 7:30 pm, David was onstage in The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy at the Comedy Theatre in London, that's why!

But here's why I say 99%. It's not impossible to imagine he got up early that Friday (after doing a show the night before) and took the train in to Stratford to do the Sonnetathon - wrapped it up by 4pm, then hopped on another train back to London in time to make the 7:30 curtain up for The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy.

But you have to admit, it seems unlikely.

But The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy wasn't showing on Sunday, 19 July 1998, so David was able to get to Stratford and go onstage as part of 'For One Night Only' to open the Fringe...and then get back to London in time to go onstage once more the following night.

So now you know what I know about For One Night Only.

Of course I'll keep looking for more!

[brooklynisher]

Did you know? Only 10.5 of SPG’s 110 original songs have titles that aren’t in the lyrics!

(Considering the times they sang the entire title, not just part of them. Also I’m not counting the dialogue from the Globe of Yesterday’s Tomorrow or the little labels like “(Reprise)” or “(From …)” or anything like that)

Point distribution below the cut

Overture 1

Latum Alterum (Ya Ya Ya) 0.5 (It’s like 2 different titles for one song and they sing one of the titles but not the other so I just split the point in half)

Prelude to a dream 1

The Ballad of Lily 1

Steam Man Band (Reprise) 1

Blind Minstrel Ballad 1

Curtain-Raiser 1

Heist Ho! 1

The Red Queen 1

The Ballad of Delilah Morreo 1

Rav to the Rescue 1

[ifreakingloveroyals]

16 May 2013 | Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall poses for a photograph inside the poultry tent as she tours the Devon County Show in Exeter, England. One of the region's biggest county shows, it is often seen as a curtain raiser for the whole showing season. As well being a agricultural livestock and produce showcase, it is also used as a barometer for the health of the whole agricultural industry in general. (c) Matt Cardy/Getty Images

[mariacallous]

In a coordinated attack across Lebanon and parts of Syria, hundreds of pagers used by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah simultaneously exploded on Tuesday, killing more than a dozen people and injuring thousands of others. No group has claimed responsibility, but the overwhelmingly likely culprit is Israel. Israel’s multifront war has broadened, including not only Hamas in Gaza but also Iran and its Axis of Resistance, a collection of proxy groups that includes Hezbollah.

Many are wondering why now. Is there a broader significance to the timing of the attack? Israel has said preventing Hezbollah attacks is among its war goals, despite warnings from the United States against a wider operation that could lead to all-out regional war. The pager attack could very well be the opening salvo to a prolonged Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon—or it could just be the latest clandestine operation in the long-running shadow war between Israel and Iran’s proxies. It is also possible that the Israelis triggered the operation because there was a time limit on how long it could continue undiscovered.

For Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, the attack may go a long way toward polishing a reputation badly tarnished by failures around Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The pager operation itself seems out of a spy novel. There are myriad hypotheses circulating about how Mossad could have pulled off an attack this large and this dramatic. We don’t yet know whether bombs were implanted at the manufacturing stage or whether the supply chain was compromised at another phase in the process.

Hezbollah relied on antiquated means of communications such as pagers, possibly believing they were beyond the reach of Israel’s cyberwarriors. Following the Oct. 7 attack, Hezbollah personnel largely sought to eschew the use of cellphones, with the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, urging fighters to instead use alternative methods of communication.

Some have speculated that malware injected into the devices could have caused the batteries to overheat and then, ultimately, the devices to explode. However, the attack was organized; it was done so with meticulous planning and attention to detail. Apart from the immediate impact of the attack, the capabilities demonstrated will render Hezbollah increasingly paranoid and uncertain of exactly what Mossad might pull off next.

Hezbollah will likely follow this attack with a comprehensive overhaul of its internal security apparatus, reviewing where the gaps in its operational security exist and attempting to shore up the tradecraft of its members. There could even be an internal purge for moles, a hunt that could lead to bloodletting within Hezbollah—an added bonus for Israel’s spooks.

One of the drivers behind the pager attack, as with the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, is that Mossad is determined to refurbish its brand. Before the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli intelligence enjoyed a reputation as omnipotent, its legendary exploits retold in blockbuster spy movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich and the hit Netflix series Fauda. Israel’s targeted assassination campaign has so far killed Hamas deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut in January and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut in late July, in addition to Haniyeh shortly after.

In addition to brand management for Mossad, Israel’s covert operations have a more practical effect. Hezbollah command and control has likely been wrecked, causing the group substantial communications issues in the near term. Moreover, Tuesday’s attack injured hundreds of Hezbollah fighters, some of whom will undoubtedly be maimed, missing fingers, hands, or suffering other injuries that will put them on the sidelines, at least temporarily.

The Houthis in Yemen, militia groups in Iraq and Syria, and other Iranian proxies will now begin taking greater precautions. This could change the way these groups communicate with one another, which, in turn, could directly affect coordination and hamper their ability to launch attacks of their own. The impact will be felt far beyond Lebanon, with other illicit groups worldwide—terrorists, criminals, and hackers—questioning the safety of their personal communication devices.

Nasrallah claims that Hezbollah does not want total war with Israel and has implied that his group remains engaged militarily on behalf of its Palestinian brethren in Gaza. Yet, even when multiple stakeholders claim that they want to avert war, it can still happen, as it did with Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006, a war that brought massive devastation to Lebanon and ended in somewhat of a stalemate. One could argue that it was a strategic defeat for Israel, since Hezbollah has only grown exponentially more powerful since the end of that war.

Eighteen years after that 34-day conflict, Hezbollah is an entirely different organization, with more advanced weaponry, more men under arms, and greater political legitimacy not just in Lebanon but throughout parts of the Islamic world. As Seth G. Jones and Daniel Byman correctly pointed out recently, war with Hezbollah would be Israel’s biggest challenge in decades. Nevertheless, that’s exactly where things could be headed.

Hezbollah will feel compelled to respond to the pager attack, humiliated by the success of the operation and thirsty for revenge. Israel’s new war aim of moving its displaced population back to the north near the border with Lebanon, nearly 60,000 people in total, will require pushing Hezbollah’s forces away from the border and back toward a manageable buffer zone. Even if Hezbollah claims to want to avoid war, any number of miscommunications could propel both sides toward conflict as the tit-for-tat exchanges continue and each side seeks to position its forces to gain a first-mover advantage.

As the Israelis know well, Hezbollah is not Hamas. Hezbollah is more akin to a conventional military, and its arsenal contains upwards of 150,000 rockets and precision-guided munitions. Hezbollah is, without question, among the most complete, well-trained, and resourced nonstate actors in global politics. Its fighters are battle-hardened from combat deployments to Syria, where they worked alongside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and experimented with new, high-tech weaponry.

The pager attack is likely to have serious implications for Lebanon, the conflict between Israel and Iran’s proxies, and for the Middle East as a whole. Roughly three weeks out from the grim anniversary of Oct. 7, the region remains on a knife’s edge. Hard-line elements on all sides may see it in their interest to escalate, while ongoing diplomatic efforts prove too little, too late.