#ads for things that are not actually consumer products. illegal.

[izzyspussy]

the fact that they made it illegal to make ads louder than programs on tv in 2010 but haven't updated it to apply the same regulation to streaming. who do i have to call.

[leidensygdom]

Fighting AI and learning how to speak with your wallet

So, if you're a creative of any kind, chances are that you've been directly affected by the development of AI. If you aren't a creative but engage with art in any way, you may also be plenty aware of the harm caused by AI. And right now, it's more important than ever that you learn how to fight against it.

The situation is this: After a few years of stagnation on relevant stuff to invest to, AI came out. Techbros, people with far too much money trying to find the big next thing to invest in, cryptobros, all these people, flocked to it immediately. A lot of people are putting money in what they think to be the next breakthrough- And AI is, at its core, all about the money. You will get ads shoved in your fave about "invest in AI now!" in every place. You will get ads telling you to try subscription services for AI related stuff. Companies are trying to gauge how much they can depend on AI in order to fire their creatives. AI is opening the gates towards the biggest data laundering scheme there's been in ages. It is also used in order to justify taking all your personal information- Bypassing existing laws.

Many of them are currently bleeding investors' money though. Let it be through servers, through trying to buy the rights to scrape content from social media (incredibly illegal, btw), amidst many other things. A lot of the tech giants have also been investing in AI-related infrastructures (Microsoft, for example), and are desperate to justify these expenses. They're going over their budgets, they're ignoring their emissions plans (because it's very toxic to the environment), and they're trying to make ends meet to justify why they're using it. Surely, it will be worth it.

Now, here's where you can act: Speak with your wallet. They're going through a delicate moment (despite how much they try to pretend they aren't), and it's now your moment to act. A company used AI in any manner? Don't buy their products. Speak against them in social media. Make noise. It doesn't matter how small or how big. A videogame used AI voices? Don't buy the game. Try to get a refund if you did. Social media is scraping content for AI? Don't buy ads, don't buy their stupid blue checks, put adblock on, don't give them a cent. A film generated their poster with AI? Don't watch it. Don't engage with it. Your favourite creator has made AI music for their YT channel? Unsub, bring it up in social media, tell them directly WHY you aren't supporting. Your favourite browser is now integrating AI in your searches? Change browsers.

Let them know that the costs they cut through the use of AI don't justify how many customers they'd lose. Wizards of the Coast has been repeatedly trying to see how away they can get with the use of AI- It's only through consumer boycotting and massive social media noise that they've been forced to go back and hire actual artists to do that work.

The thing with AI- It doesn't benefit the consumer in any way. It's capitalism at its prime: Cut costs, no matter how much it impacts quality, no matter how inhumane it is, no matter how much it pollutes. AI searches are directly feeding you misinformation. ChatGPT is using your input to feed itself. Find a Discord server to talk with others about writing. Try starting art yourself, find other artists, join a community. If you can't, use the money you may be saving from boycotting AI shills to support a fellow creative- They need your help more than ever.

We're in a bit of a nebulous moment. Laws against AI are probably around the corner: A lot of AI companies are completely aware that they're going to crash if they're legally obliged to disclose the content they used to train their machines, because THEY KNOW it is stolen. Copyright is inherent to human created art: You don't need to even register it anywhere for it to be copyrighted. The moment YOU created it, YOU have the copyright to it. They can't just scrape social media because Meta or Twitter or whatever made a deal with OpenAI and others, because these companies DON'T own your work, they DON'T get to bypass your copyright.

And to make sure these laws get passed, it's important to keep the fight against AI. AI isn't offering you anything of use. It's just for the benefit of companies. Let it be known it isn't useful, and that people's work and livelihoods are far more important than letting tech giants save a few cents. Instead, they're trying to gauge how MUCH they can get away with. They know it goes against European GDPR laws, but they're going to try to strech what these mean and steal as much data up until clear ruling comes out.

The wonder about boycotts is that they don't even need you to do anything. In fact, it's about not doing some stuff. You don't need money to boycott- Just to be aware about where you put it. Changing habits is hard- People can't stop eating at Chick-fil-a no matter how much they use the money against the LGBTQ collective, but people NEED to learn how to do it. Now it's the perfect time to cancel a subscription, find an alternate plan to watching that one film and maybe joining a creative community yourself.

[phoenixyfriend]

International Taxes

Ko-Fi prompt from Ethan:

All I know about tariffs is that they're special taxes for international trade but people talk about them all the time. Please help explain

So we are going to talk about three things here:

Tariffs

VAT

Customs/Duties

I'll be using the US for most of my examples, because that's what I know best... and also because it's a very convenient example for the way VAT works on an international level.

Tariffs

You are correct that tariffs are special taxes for international trade. These are essentially fees that are applied to products being shipped in and out of a country in order to promote domestic product or impact a foreign one.

A common example is US steel. The United States has a fairly robust steel industry, and the government promotes that industry domestically by applying tariffs to imports. Back in 2018, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% on aluminum (something that the WTO said was illegal, but that's not relevant right now). The steel tariff had previously been a range of 8-30%, implemented by Bush in 2002. Prior to that, the steel tariff had generally been under 1%.

In applying that tariff, the federal government prioritized domestic purchasing. If domestic product is nominally $90 for one unit, and foreign product is $80, then it is cheaper and more appealing to buy from a foreign producer. With a 25% tariff, the foreign product is now functionally $100 per unit, making it more appealing to buy domestically. While the actual cost of the tax is born by the producing country, in the case of import tariffs, the result is the raising of costs when selling internationally.

Tariffs are also applied to specific countries. Once again using a Trump example, a $50 billion tariff was applied against China in 2018. This had negative impacts on the economy, as it led to worries of a trade war; China did retaliate by applying tariffs directly to specific products from the US, including wine and pork.

High tariffs theoretically lead to an increase in domestic trade, but they also lead to higher rates of smuggling. They are also a form protectionist policy, which was at its height in the 19th century for the US.

VAT - Value Added Tax

If you look up VAT, you get a lot of explanations that talk about how it is a tax that is levied against the consumer on the basis of the cumulative value of the product, and generally things are confusingly worded, so I'll save you some time:

It's sales tax.

If you are American like me, that's all it is. It's a different name for sales tax.

You get something for $8 at the store, but the final cost is $8.42? Those 42 cents are the VAT.

What does that have to do with international trade? Isn't that a domestic thing?

Well, yes and no. We'll start by comparing the US to most European countries.

See, the US has a different application of VAT than a lot of other places. In the US, sales tax is added at the very end of a purchase for the vast majority of places. This is because there is no federal sales tax. Instead, taxes are set by the state, county, and city governments. Take a look at this map of New York, and you'll see how much sales tax varies by just a few miles.

Given how much a pricing can vary from one town to the next, large corporations generate a greater profit by listing prices in their pre-tax form, and then adding that tax at the end. The consumer knows that there will be a higher price at the counter than is listed, because the standard in the US is to not include that tax. So your Arizona Iced Tea will be a $1 in Portland and $1 in Queens County, matching that promise on the can... but you'll still be paying $1 in Portland and $1.09 in Queens, because only one of those areas has sales tax, despite both being in the same country.

This works out for the retailer, because the consumer does not blame them for raising prices across county lines, if there is a sales tax hike. The thought of "it's cheaper ten miles down the road, I'll get to it later," followed by never getting to it and thus never making a purchase, is rarer, because the listed price is still the same. It also means having to print or design fewer price tags; imagine having to manually change every price in a supermarket magazine! Every coupon needs to have its price changed by a few cents, to account for tax!

...or you can just print the same magazine with the same prices and write "plus tax" after the listed cost.

All this to say, Americans are used to adding sales tax at the end, and knowing that the price they see is not the price they'll pay.

Other countries Do Not Do This.

I mean, some do. But we're talking about the ones that don't, which includes the entirety of the EU, India, some of Japan, and the country I actually have extensive experience with: Serbia.

I am currently in Serbia, which means I'm in a country with a sales tax/VAT that is higher than I'm used to (20% on most goods, 8% on essentials). In every store I've been to, the tax is included in the listed price. If it says 87 rsd on a carton of milk, I will be paying 87 rsd at checkout. The baseline price is 80 rsd, and then there's the 8% tax, and the final price is 86.4, which gets rounded up to the 87 that is listed on the tag.

If you aren't accustomed to thinking about VAT like in the US, online shopping can be... a trial.

If I purchase something from, say, Canada, and have it mailed to the US, I am given the sales tax as part of the purchasing process. It will format the receipt as the product plus sales tax. This is familiar to me.

To someone from the EU who does not purchase internationally (specifically from the US, Canada, or other countries that don't include sales tax in the sticker price), this tax can often come as a surprise.

And, finally, in some cases... the will be paid at the very end, at the point of pickup, along with customs. I recently purchased something from an English creator that was manufactured in Germany and then shipped to Serbia. I anticipated that I had paid the VAT for Serbia when purchasing the product. It was instead added at the point of purchase, as Serbia is neither in the EU nor in a trade agreement with the relevant countries that would allow for me to pay the VAT online, I had to pay the 20% in addition to customs when picking up the package from the postal office.

Despite not being a tariff or customs/duty payment, VAT can have a direct impact on international purchasing.

Customs/Duties

Customs and duties are taxes applied to products based on those product characteristics.

There is overlap with tariffs. As a consumer, you are... not going to be very affected by the difference between customs and tariffs.

Customs are like VAT, in that they are paid by the consumer rather than by the manufacturer.

You can think of tariffs as a fee that a manufacturer pays to sell something internationally (though that cost is often passed on to the consumer), and customs as a fee paid by a consumer to receive that good.

Hope this helps!

(And if anyone here is more familiar with the subject than I am, please feel free to add on or correct me! I'm generally pretty good about international policy, but I'm not an expert, and this subject can be a complicated one.)

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

[starberry-cupcake]

Some thoughts about media consumption, fanwork and fandom issues that came about while pondering the Welcome Home situation.

I want to think out loud about how wild and complicated this situation seems to have gotten due to the way in which online fandom has normalized media-consuming practices, to the point in which it's become automatic and homogenizes art and media, regardless of where it comes from.

Fanwork hasn't only become an expected part of fandom activity, fans these days know how to monetize content before learning about intellectual property or developing any nuance on the origins of art, perceived in a depersonalized way as just "content".

In the past decade, it became customary on tumblr for Fandom Elders and Not So Elders to receive hate whenever they pointed out that, for example, adding self-profiting links on fics in AO3 is not allowed for legal reasons.

There was a very famous tumblr take that went as far as to suggest that fic writers "couldn't charge for and successfully sell" their fics because "writing is dismissed" in fandom, in comparison to fan art. This take didn't acknowledge that both forms of profit are actually illegal (added note: public domain in some countries still is legally bound to a tax payment), or that fanfic was historically more attacked by mainstream authors, which reinforced the culture of copyright understanding, or that fan art tends to be more easily separated from canon due to visual likeness differences, etc.

The general perception became that profiting from fanwork is "a safe thing to do" even if, in reality, profiting from copyrighted material without the legal authorization of the copyright holder is a decision fans should make knowingly of the legal consequences it carries for themselves and the fanwork community and platforms.

There was a fandom push and pull with this reality because of moral grounds and a popular perception of unequal footing between the fan part and the canon part.

It was perceived, in general, that fan content comes from an independent creator and canon comes from a Company or a Professional Author with Company Backing (publisher, studio, etc.) who wouldn't miss the few coins an indie artist can take from a piece of art.

This idea was reinforced by the fact that there were times in which big corporations shut down fan projects (even non profit ones) to later copy those projects themselves and profit from the idea. It happened with Lionsgate in the Hunger Games days, it happened with Disney and Etsy sellers, it happened in many places with many things.

The idea that, even if illegal, the practice of profiting from copyrighted material from corporations or certain authors could be seen as justified grew to a point of normalization.

So, the era in which the fanfiction battle that established the concept of non profit as a condition for allowing fan content to exist, had ended. It gave way to an increasingly normalized perception of it being allowed.

This also happened at the time in which online monetization of content became more accessible.

Sites like ko-fi or patreon could be used to pay for content creators "in general" rather than tying them to the profit of sales of specific content that contained copyrighted material. These loopholes allowed creators to successfully profit through fan content that was otherwise illegal to be monetized.

The problematic repercussions of this normalization, like I said, was that people learned to monetize before they learned what they could monetize. Or what they should.

Around 2018 there was a situation in which some rpdr queens got into arguments with fan artists who were selling their fan art as unauthorized merch.

These artists were doing what they were accustomed to do in the past years in fandom, do art of media they enjoyed and sell it online.

They didn't stop to think that they were actually selling products of indie artists whose primary source of income after performing is merch, nor did they think about the fact that drag performers are real people and not blorbos from shows. They didn't think that they were reproducing the likeness of a person (as curated as a drag persona can be) and selling it, feeling a sense of entitlement to the art that carried said likeness.

Normalization of media consumption in which you produce work and then sell it was so ingrained that the source didn't matter anymore. A mainstream Big Company like Disney was seen in the same way that an indie drag performer who asked fanwork creators not to profit from their identity.

Media is exchangeable and fanwork is created in the same way for anything, no matter what it is. Everything is a blorbo we feel automatically entitled to the moment it hits our orbit.

And I say this as a person who has been in fandom for ages and who values fanwork immensely. This doesn't come from a place of judgement, it comes from a place of care and of questioning the space around me.

In any case, cue 2023 sudden sensation Welcome Home.

It isn't just that Welcome Home is an independently created piece of transmedia, run by one single individual. It's also that said piece of media is, as of the moment of this situation, mostly developed via artwork.

Contrary to drag performers, webseries or podcasts, which can also be independently produced and become subject of massive fandoms, Welcome Home's source material is, at the beginning stage, mostly non-contextualized artwork and breadcrumbs of lore.

So, it skyrocketing to fandom fame and getting massive crowds of people from different walks of fandom life (the kids from the lost media reddits, the creepypasta youtubers, the fnaf kids, the tumblr puppet lovers, the puzzle enthusiasts, etc., etc.) while being a meta media piece (a transmedia piece about a made-up lost media piece) blurred the lines of source and fandom like nothing I've ever seen before.

How do you establish which art is canon when there are fan artists posting fan content that looks exactly like the real thing? And when you, as an indie creator, use the same platforms to showcase your work as they do to share their fan art?

How do you establish canon products (like puppets or dioramas) if you can't show yet the ones you made and fans are posting theirs already in the same platforms?

How can you put boundaries on what is or isn't part of the puzzle when overnight you have millions of people hungrily looking through your professional portfolio for clues that aren't meant to be there? Making you part of the puzzle because they single-handedly decided that your passion project is an ARG?

How do you stop the people who are profiting from cosplaying your characters for personal donations, selling fan art of your work in merch or using your characters and universe for commissions?

People who are, again, posting their photos and art and links on the same social medias you do and using for their monetization the same platforms as you do?

How do you set yourself apart from people impersonating you in social media, sometimes even unknowingly, because they're using your artwork for their profiles without permission or clarification?

How do you establish your ownership and identity without compromising personal information that you weren't thinking of sharing at all?

How do you keep your canon clear of outside influence if people are posting fanfics and roleplays faster than you are meant to tell your story? In the same platforms you use for work and enjoyment?

You know how, in Disney Parks, adults aren't allowed to cosplay out of special ticketed events because they want to avoid little kids from confusing a random person with a character performer, who is trained to accommodate and be accessible to little kids? Because they're responsible for how kids are treated in the parks by their employees and character performers?

Imagine fan art that is so much like the canon art, which didn't even get time to be set into clear boundaries and context yet, depicting things you didn't intend to depict for the audience you're aiming for, in a way in which it looks exactly like yours, posted in platforms that you use for your work.

How can you establish the boundaries of what is or isn't your canon content or your responsibility? If you're just one person? And this thing exploded overnight?

The normalization of fan content practices and, in tow, of profit from it, went faster than the story could be told.

Even outside of the very serious issue of people profiting from the work of an indie creator, from characters they've worked on for years and were excited to share with the world, there's also the fact that this exploded so much and so fast and with something in such an early stage of development that it's insane to think of how you can even start to draw lines of what is and isn't your work, as a singular person trying to put your idea out there.

Not just for the sake of storytelling, the sake of your art, the sake of your integrity as an author and the sake of your creative process, but also as the one responsible for the thing itself with a clear idea of what you're presenting and to whom.

It's overwhelming just to think about it.

I don't have answers, and even if I have opinions, I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do or how to behave, you're all responsible for your own actions. Objective information is out there, each fandom platform has its own rules and regulations, fandom has its sources of legal advice, and there are official guidelines from the WH author that are clear as to what they would like you not to do (1, 2, 3). Each piece of media is different, each person's way of interacting with it is different, I'm not your mom, there's the info, do whatever you want.

All I have is mad respect to an author whose work I'm enjoying immensely, my best wishes as someone who wants to be a storyteller, and my support.

Still, I just had to stop and think in some length about this because it's A LOT. It's wild. It's a situation I've personally never seen before in this extent.

And it's disorienting how fast we got here and where we're going. So I needed a space to think out loud to the void.

[cyberphuck]

alright, let's see.

-adverts cannot lie about the product they are advertising [?] MAYBE. We'd need some guidelines as to what "lying" in this context means. "Come and play this game" = you click and what you see is indeed a game (and then we'll need a separate set of guidelines as to what a "game" is in this context), regardless of what the ad showed. Is that a lie? "Come and play this game," the ad shows a lady barfing on a knight and then crushing him between her thighs, but underneath is a legible message that reads "not actual gameplay" or "gameplay differs from ad images." Both of those sets of guidelines would take a lot of lawyers, a lot of back-and-forth arguing and a lot of time.

-adverts cannot trick you into clicking them (eg. false X's to close the ad) [O] YES. Design a Standard Exit Icon, i.e., a specific shape, color and size, and require Marketing to use that icon only, and that the icon MUST close the ad as soon as it is pressed.

-adverts cannot pretend to be the app you are currently playing and say "you need to update the app!" [O] YES. If it's an ad, it has to state-- legibly-- that it is an ad and not part of gameplay or typical usage of the app.

-adverts cannot, under any circumstance, have strobing lights [O] YES. Set a standard of "ad cannot feature shifting of high-contrasting colors at faster than X FPS," as well as "shifting of high-contrast colors between x and X FPS cannot comprise more than xx% of the adspace."

-adverts cannot bully or belittle the viewer (genuinely why is this one a thing ads do) [X] NO. How would you even achieve that. What does "bully" or "belittle" mean in a universal sense that could be flexible enough to allow ads to exist at all, while also not being so flexible that it's useless? (I'm not saying that ads that tell you you suck should exist, just that trying to pass laws or guidelines limiting that kind of language would never work.) Workaround: Allow users to "opt out" of ads that contain voice over or onscreen text of any kind except for mandatory messages regarding the ad's content (as outlined above). Ads displayed on children's apps, children's media, or anything meant for kids should have this feature as default.

-advertising gambling should be illegal [X] NO. Definition of "gambling" is too broad and too easy to loophole

-advertising addictive products should be illegal [X] NO. Definition of "addictive" is too nebulous, especially when referring to non consumables (and also consumables-- caffeine is addictive. Sugar is addictive. I can't advertise Pepsi?). You could become addicted to playing Solitaire. Again, not saying that predatory apps full of microtransactions are good, just that this would never fly.

-no hate speech of any kind [X] NO. Definition of "hate speech" is too broad and can change too quickly. WORKAROUND: as above, the option to turn off text in ads.

-no attempting to convert the viewer to any religion [X] NO. Again, definition of "convert" is either too narrow to do any good or too broad to do any good. Same with "religion." Can't have Castlevania games? Can't have characters named Chris or Josh or Larry?

-ADVERTS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FORCE OPEN THE APP STORE ON ANY DEVICE [O] YES. No trouble there. But bear in mind that even for issues that you can write guidelines for, a lot of the ads you take issue with are for apps that were developed by, and have servers in, countries outside the US. You can make a law that says No Depiction of Giant Lady Barfing On People, but you can't make non-US citizens animating that giant lady follow the law. Could you make a law that only applies to ads for games intended for download and use inside the US? Sure. Could you enforce that law? Fuck no. Even if you got the law to pass somehow and it was written well enough to absolutely apply to certain ads, the foreign developers can just ignore it, making a new ad every time the old one gets reported and turning the app store into a huge, unending game of whack-a-mole. And finally: when it comes to a contest between improving people's quality of life, and a Huge Corporation Making Money (Apple or Google getting a little nibble of every microtransaction), the Money will win, every single time. Corps have shown again and again and again and again that they will not create or follow safety and/or quality assurance policies unless they're forced to by the courts (and they'll fight it kicking and screaming like a toddler being carried surfboard-style out of the family gathering). The fact of the matter is that in our current political climate (coughSCOTUScough), the courts no longer have the power or the will to do that. Don't. Forget. To Vote.

there needs to be so much more legislation when it comes to advertising, especially mobile adverts which are 99% lies and often predatory.

[nickgerlich]

Search Is The Word

The vast majority of my students have many things in common, and I don’t mean their youth. They have known a world in which the internet reigned supreme ever since they were born. They probably don’t remember life without smartphones. Shopping online is a no-brainer, while shopping in stores can be a chore.

And search engines are just a click or tap away.

The first search engine in the modern era, meaning 1994 when the World Wide Web was unleashed for public use, was Yahoo. The site sent out crawlers to scan what was then a pretty small internet, and users could find things if they knew how to frame a search query.

Yahoo was followed by Lycos, AskJeeves, and a rudimentary search tool created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin called BackRub. If you don’t recognize those two names, you should, because two years later, in 1998, they released Google. And the world has not been the same ever since.

While there were numerous other search engines that entered the market in the late-90s, it was Google that went on to rule the roost and become a verb. It is the go-to website for whenever we need to find out something, to the extent that the Department of Justice recently ruled the company had an illegal monopoly on search. But that’s a topic for another class.

Being able to search online sure beats the old card catalog system that libraries had when I was growing up. Imagine having to write a research paper and you had to know the Dewey Decimal System before you could even begin. It was a very different kind of hell.

But times are changing. Evolution is inevitable and unstoppable, a force not only of nature but also technology. While “traditional” search—and I use that word in quotes because it seems odd to use it for something less than 30 years old—is still dominant, other forms of search are emerging.

And, as when many new technologies arrive, these new ways are being adopted by younger people. GenZ in particular is ushering in a new generation of search, which includes these relatively new options: social search, AI platforms, and e-commerce sites.

While I cannot claim to be among the GenZ cohort, I can speak from experience. Although I Google among the best, and consider it the Swiss Army knife of my modern existence, I increasingly use Instagram and Facebook to find companies. I have used chatbots, which rely heavily on AI. And, not to be left out, I lean heavily on Amazon and Expedia.

Whaaaat?

Since Amazon is the world’s ultimate store, I figure if I strike out in a search there, then the product simply does not exist. That may not always be true, especially since there are some brands—notably Nike—not available there. Some of their third-party vendors may sell them—or knock-offs—but Amazon and Nike cut ties back in 2020.

And then there’s Expedia, the travel booking site for lodging, flights, and rental cars. I seldom if ever actually book anything through them. Instead, I use it to quickly find out which lodging properties are available in a particular city. Like Amazon, it is a pretty safe bet that most hotels and motels will show up in an Expedia search. Once I find out what is available, I then go to my brand-specific apps, which is usually Hilton, but not always.

So what does this mean? Plenty. It means that marketers must understand exactly how people search, and who is most likely to use the various methods. Failure to do so could leave you wondering why all that money you have been paying to Google isn’t yielding the results you wanted.

This helps explain how and why Google became the advertising giant it is, by selling top search query result rankings, but also at sites like Amazon and Expedia. It behooves marketers to pay Amazon, who realized ad revenues of $46.9 billion in 2023, to show up first. The same goes for hotels listed on Expedia. Organic search results are nice, but paid placements are better.

Since GenZ is such a huge consumer of sites like Instagram and TikTok, it also makes sense to have a significant presence there with ads and standard posts. Having to flip outside of an environment is inconvenient. If search can be done within an app where you already spend a lot of time, then all the better.

I suspect that in another 30 or 40 years, people will be reminiscing about how in the good old days, they had to use a clunky search tool like Google, because it had come to dominate the scene and left other search engines, like Bing, Duck Duck Go, Yahoo, and others, scrambling to pick up leftover crumbs.

With AI now all the rage, it also behooves sites like Google to embrace the technology in an effort to make search engines more fruitful. We started seeing the results of these efforts even before Chat GPT was released in November 2022. Have you noticed the predictive spelling and query completion appearing on your screen? You can thank AI.

We’ve come a long way since the Stone Age, which basically ended around 1994. Some people still cling to it. And there will be those who cling to the methods that came after 1994, but before the modern era. To each their own. But the marching orders for marketers remain the same: understand your target audience, and you will increase the chances of your success.

Sure beats having to flip through a card catalog.

Dr “Search Me” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[molsons112000]

So the boyfriend, who was threatening suicide and the girlfriend who was his ex. Girlfriend kept on telling him to commit suicide... If you know somebody is susceptible to suggestions and you do that suggestion, it is like poisoning them..... And any form of poisoning is called premeditated, attempted murder or murder...

If the person dies, you would be guilty of premeditated murder, which is the highest classification of murder and can get you the death penalty in many places.Feb 4, 2022

https://www.quora.com › Is-it-illeg...

Is it illegal to poison your own food with the intent to punish ... - Quora

Intentionally poisoning someone is a felony offense under Penal Code 347(a)(1). It states that a person is guilty if they intentionally mix a harmful substance or poison with food, drink, medicine, or water, knowing or should have known that someone would consume it. The sentence depends on the circumstances of the case, but can include:

General act of poisoning: Two, four, or five years in state prison

Anyone dies or is seriously injured: Three years added to the sentence

Eisner Gorin LLP

Poisoning Food, Medicine, or Water Supply | Penal Code 347 PC

Mar 29, 2023

shouselaw.com

Penal Code § 347 PC - Poisoning Food, Drink, Medicine or Water

Willfully Poisoning. Penal Code 347(a)(1) states that a person is guilty of a felony if he: “Willfully” mixes any poison or harmful substance with any food, drink, medicine, pharmaceutical product, or public water supply; and, Knows, or should have known, that a person would take or consume the poisoned substance. 1.

Some examples of PC 347 offenses include:

Pouring cyanide into well water

Mixing bleach into food and serving it to someone

Defenses for PC 347 offenses include:

Your actions were not malicious

Your actions were not willful

You had no intent to injure or annoy the person

In some cases, poisoning can also be considered first-degree murder.

So this is the difference from somebody being mentally ill. And the voices are actually inside their head. And you're not saying it to them, but when you're saying it to them than it is premeditate it, and that means you can be charged with attempted murder, even if nothing happens to them. You can be charged with attempted murder... If you know they're susceptible to suggestion and you do these things, then each time you do, it is account of premeditated, attempted murder....

Roy had seen numerous mental health professionals and had been prescribed psychiatric medication. After a bench trial, presiding judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter, concluding that she wanted Roy dead and that her words coerced him to kill himself.

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › D...

Death of Conrad Roy - Wikipedia

People

people.com

Michelle Carter: The 'Texting-Suicide' Case Five ...

Aug 3, 2022 ��� Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for encouraging the suicide of her then-boyfriend Conrad Roy III in 2014.

Los Angeles Times

www.latimes.com

Woman who encouraged boyfriend to kill himself via text ...

Aug 3, 2017 — Michelle Carter was convicted in June by a judge who said her final instruction to Conrad Roy III caused his death.

CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com › news

Michelle Carter, who urged her boyfriend to kill himself in texts, is ...

Jan 23, 2020 — Michelle Carter, the 23-year-old convicted of manslaughter for encouraging her boyfriend to commit suicide, was released from

So once you're in to know as God said, and you do the negative action. There is no coming out of hell. You will burn in eternal damnation.... So there is no surviving it, you will be condemned and you will be tortured for eternity.....

[clovecigarettesonline01]

How To Buy Clove Cigarette Online

When you consume clove cigarettes, you will experience a new flavor and aroma that you won’t get in conventional cigarettes. No wonder many cigarette fans have put clove cigarette or kretek on their list of favorite cigarettes. djarum black cloves

Sadly, this exotic Indonesian cigarette has been banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2009. Any commercial production, selling, and importing activity of clove cigarettes are illegal in the United States.

Fortunately, you can still enjoy a stick of kretek by purchasing it on the internet. But, the question is how to buy clove cigarettes online?

Why Clove Cigarettes Are Banned?

First thing first, let’s answer why clove cigarettes are deemed illegal in the United States. So, the FDA has banned the selling, manufacturing, and importing of clove cigarettes and other flavored tobacco, except for menthol-flavored cigarettes.

The decision to ban clove cigarettes is due to their dangerous tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide level. Despite using clove as one of the main ingredients, tobacco is still used in the making of clove cigarettes or kretek.

The amount of tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide in a clove cigarette is actually higher than in regular western cigarettes.

Furthermore, clove cigarettes have a sweeter and more aromatic flavor than conventional cigarettes. Therefore, many young people under 18 years old smoke kretek as their first step into the cigarette world.

To protect the future generation, clove cigarettes are banned by the FDA, since they serve as a gate for youngsters to start smoking and it is seen as more dangerous than conventional cigarettes in the United States.

Fortunately, the law doesn’t ban personal consumption and purchase outside of the United States, so you can still purchase clove cigarettes online.

What Makes Clove Cigarette Enticing?

Some of you will wonder why clove cigarettes always have a special spot in the heart of cigarette lovers. The answer is due to its exquisite and exotic taste!

Kretek has a more flavorful taste and aromatic scent than conventional clove cigarettes. Moreover, it has a complex and sweeter taste to it.

In a clove cigarette, you can find a blend of 20-40 percent crushed clove or clove oil and 60-80 percent tobacco. Sometimes, other spices can be added to the blend, such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and cumin.

Furthermore, each brand will have its special sauce that they will add in a blend. This special sauce is unique to each brand. The special sauce consists of various herb, spice, and fruit extracts that will boost the clove cigarette’s flavor profile.

The clove cigarette sweetness can come from the special sauce itself or sweetener, such as saccharine, that is laced on the cigarette’s wrapping paper. All of these components make clove cigarettes have a very complex flavor compared to regular cigarettes.

Basically, there are two types of clove cigarettes that you can find in online stores:

1. Hand-rolled Clove Cigarette

Hand-rolled clove cigarette is the type of kretek where the wrapping process is done manually by skilled laborers. Some companies still provide hand-rolled clove cigarettes, such as Djarum.

2. Machine-rolled Clove Cigarette

Machine-rolled kretek is the most common type of clove cigarette since most kretek in the online store are manufactured by machines that can easily produce clove cigarettes in a large amount within a shorter period.

Where Can I Buy Clove Cigarette Online?

Many online stores sell clove cigarettes online, but not all of them can provide you with high-quality and authentic clove cigarettes.

If you are trying to find the best online store on the internet to buy clove cigarettes online? You can directly visit Clove Cigarettes Online and search for the kretek brand that you want to try. Simply click on the ‘product’ section on the upper tab to check the clove cigarette brands.

Confused with the abundant selection of clove cigarettes in the store? You can simply click on the ‘best seller’ section to know what kind of clove cigarettes are popular among kretek lovers.

If you want to try the newest collection, just click on the ‘new arrival cigarettes’ to examine the new flavors or types of clove cigarettes available in the store. You can also expand your knowledge about kretek and cigarettes in general in the ‘blog’ section.

Is There Any Alternative for Clove Cigarette?

Clove cigarettes and other flavored cigarettes are banned by the FDA, but other tobacco products, such as flavored cigars, flavored tobacco pipes, and menthol cigarettes are still allowed.

To accommodate clove cigarette enthusiasts’ needs, Djarum has produced clove flavored cigar that has a similar flavor profile as their iconic clove cigarette product. The product, Djarum Black Cigar, has clove in it with a sweeter taste than their Djarum Black clove cigarette.

Djarum Black Cigar utilizes homogenized tobacco leaf to wrap the blend and it contains 1.8 milligrams of nicotine and 32 milligrams of tar. The size of Djarum Black Cigar is bigger than Djarum Black clove cigarette.

To suit everyone’s preferences, Djarum provides an unfiltered and filtered version of the clove-flavored cigar. You can also find several types of Djarum Black Cigar, such as Djarum Black Cigar Sapphire, Djarum Black Cigar Silver, and Djarum Black Cigar Emerald.

Take the Fun and Easy Path!

To enjoy the real experience, it’s best to just buy clove cigarettes online. You can always search for a clove cigarette brand that matches your preference on Clove Cigarettes Online!

Besides providing you with a complete selection of clove cigarette brands, Clove Cigarettes Online also offers you superb and authentic yet affordable clove cigarettes

You don’t have to be worried when buying clove cigarettes online on Clove Cigarettes Online since the online store has been selling kretek since 2009. The store also provides DHL delivery service, excluding California state, for a faster delivery time.

For More Info: buy Sampoerna Cigarettes online

[wittyno]

It’s not, You see an ad you but a thing. We’ve evolved past that.

I want to talk specifically about influencers.

It’s this person you’ve built a para-social relationship with, is now getting paid to recommend you a product. They are leveraging your emotional connection to them to get you to buy something that they are paid money to promote.

It’s “if you use my code bestie I make money”

Which is why when I buy something one of these people I follow recommends me I always do independent research. Because their endorsement is very much paid for.

It’s also why I think it falls on influencers to throughly vet their ads. I don’t mind taking sponsors because people got to eat but do some googling. I lost all respect I had for Phil DeFranco when he defended Better Help because they gave him a shit ton of money and he was one of their prime influencers when the scandal went down. Even now if I see a better help sponsorship I usually stop consuming that creator’s content. Not because the content is bad but because I don’t feel comfortable being advertised to by someone who very much chose money over their audience.

A creators audience should be more important to them than a sponsorship deal. Not because of any para social reasons but 1) your audience is very much the thing that makes you your money. 2) they are your customers not the brand. 3) the second they smell a scam (see that fake lashes scandal) you break the trust you have with your audience. Meaning less engagement and less likely to buy anything else you recommended them paid or not.

Better help isn’t the only shit sponsorship which is why I encourage you to do your own research. Adam and Eve has unsafe sex toys. Noom is a diet. Raycons are cheap. Meal kit companies treat workers like shit. VPNs don’t protect your data in the way you think they do. Raid shadow legends has a really addictive game play loop. Draft kings is just gambling. Function of beauty is just repackaged normal shampoo with your name on it. Loot crates are over priced whole sale items. Blue light glasses do little just look away from your screen for 20 seconds. Etc etc

I’m not saying you can never buy any of this stuff. Hell I have bought some of this stuff but you should understand what the product actually does. Not just what your favorite creator said about it.

Remember because of FCC rules ads have to be disclosed to be ads. But there are influencers who for whatever reason don’t disclose ads. That is illegal.

You are not immune to ads. Ads are not becoming ineffective due to oversaturation or savvy young people or whatever. Billions of dollars are poured into market research and analytics every year, corporations would know if ads were a waste of money way way before a tiktok comment section and stop spending money on them

By believing yourself to be "too smart" to be affected by advertising you're only making yourself far less mindful of and more susceptible to it. The ads you're exposed to poison your mind - be aware of that so you can combat it, and try to be exposed to as few as possible

[loudllamapoetry]

5 Killer Quora Answers on hhc tincture

The Best Guide To Premixed Hhc Distillate

Table of ContentsTop Guidelines Of How Binoid Does Hhc Right4 Simple Techniques For Comparing Hhc Distillate To Hhcp DistillateGet This Report about What Is Hhc And How Does It Compare To Thc?More About What Is Hhc?Some Of Premixed Hhc Distillate

Quick Hyperlinks Adhering to bush results of delta 8 THC as a legal option to the even more measured accessibility of delta 9 THC, the marijuana sector has actually found various other less-known cannabinoids to contend in the varied cannabis marketplace. One of the most up-to-date and also very most appealing is hexahydrocannabinol, often minimized to HHC.

HHC is actually a slight cannabinoid; it takes place normally in cannabis, but in amounts too small to create removal cost-effective (hhc thc for sale). Given that business creation of HHC is actually only receiving off the ground, it is actually still not largely known. The majority of cannabinoids may be changed to various other cannabinoids by affecting the chemistry of the particles.

HHC has one primary legal conveniences over delta 8 as well as delta 10: it isn't contacted THC (9s-hhc). HHC was actually uncovered in the 1940s through drug store Roger Adams. He created HHC through adding hydrogen to the THC molecule and changing its own physical homes. The process, named hydrogenation, is actually very first explained in a 1947 patent file.

Go simple on all of them because, as TR Residence point out, "you * are going to * experience it". The Professional HHC cartridges are actually full of one m, L of oil that includes 900 milligrams of HHC. Select from 11 well-liked stress along with choices in indica, sativa, and hybrid. Craftsmen pushcarts are actually 3rd party laboratory assessed and also consist of a few of the purest HHC on the market (hhc strength).

However, HHC could possibly still be actually banned by private conditions. This is actually very likely if HHC comes to be prominent good enough that it threatens sales in the legal marijuana market, as we have actually found take place along with delta 8 THC. Apparently, just one U.S. supplier makes HHC and also gives it wholesale. We aren't certain that holds true, but it is actually a simple fact that very few companies are making it.

The Facts About Buy 99% Hhc Distillate - Lab Tested Uncovered

It is its very own group, and also an one-of-a-kind high that you should discover (hhc illegal). HHC has actually rapidly come to be one of the best in-demand cannabinoids in the hemp plant, which is actually mentioning something as there are actually lots of cannabinoids that are ordering our interest on today's market. It's crystal clear that HHC continually fulfills its own customers, and also if you are actually seeking the downright ideal HHC possible, Binoid is the apparent option.

Make an effort these items making use of the code HIGHTIMES25 for 25% off your purchase along with swift and also totally free shipping coming from Binoid. It do without stating that certainly not all HHC items are made every bit as - hhc cbd brothers. As the cannabinoid grows sought after, thus do the occasions of low-reputation firms discharging poor products to take advantage of on its own popularity.

Binoid's 3rd party lab documents are actually very easy to locate on their site, offering consumers the guarantee that they require. Courtesy of Binoid In such a very competitive field, image is actually every thing. To actually stand apart, a business should go above and also past to keep consumers entirely contented. That is actually where Binoid really does well (hhc concentrate).

With over 35,000 complete five celebrity reviews, and over 1,000 five star testimonials for HHC itself, Binoid is actually one of the very most counted on brand names in the Hemp space. pure hhc distillate. When it concerns crafting a high-grade item, one of the absolute most ignored parts is the elements that are integrated along with the HHC distillate.

We love that Binoid tries to deliver merely vegetarian products, and also makes their substance listings as effortless to find as possible to ensure consumers may understand that they are actually receiving absolutely nothing but top-tier solutions without using chemical ingredients discovered in many hemp products on today's market. Providers need to regularly target to provide as much clarity as achievable regarding just how their items are actually made, from "seed to sale. is hhc safe to use." This indicates that they should supply clients with info that begins with how they resource their hemp material, all the way to just how it's packaged.

All About Get The Best Hhc Distillate Wholesale Or Bulk From Eagle

Politeness of Binoid Binoid's HHC items can be found in an assortment of choices, consisting of various delivery methods, durabilities, pressures, and also more. Permit's take an appearance at the numerous HHC products that they offer, every one of which have actually become winners one of any individual that finds the phenomenal homes of this rare cannabinoid - hhc cannabis.

Finest of all, you'll be actually capable to impediment top-shelf HHC vapes and also items at exceptional costs utilizing the code HIGHTIMES25 for 25% off while being actually managed to prompt delivery in order that you can easily acquire acquainted along with this remarkable cannabinoid in no time at all flat - does hhc show up on drug test.

August 13, 2022 Over one hundred cannabinoids exist, and also the HHCP as well as HHC are simply 2 of all of them. Because it is relevant to THC, these are actually the best popular organic and unique cannabinoids found in 1940. Even though HHCP and HHC are actually found in percentages in cannabis, yet they are actually the plant's natural parts (hexahydrocannabinol).

Hexahydrocannabinol, however, bestrides free throw line between naturally occurring in hemp vegetations as well as being integrated by tweaking THC. For those curious, here is your possibility to discover additional regarding HHCP. They made use of contemporary chemistry to integrate CBD in the very early stages of HHCP manufacturing. That a result, its oils are actually created using the exact same hydrogenation procedure as margarine is actually used vegetable oils.

An agitator like platinum eagle or palladium may be used to incorporate hydrogen to the molecular design of THC given that the quantity in it is actually thus little. buy thc-p distillate. Through this, hydrogen substitutes the material's dual connections, creating the body much more immune to oxidation. The adjustment ensures that the HHCP is going to continue to be secure and, because of this, will definitely certainly not degrade or even shed its own efficiency.

The 15-Second Trick For What Is Hhc? Hydrogenated Cannabinoids & Apocalypse

An active as well as an inactive combination of HHCP molecules is actually traditional when making the lab extract. Energetic and also less active cannabinoid receptors are the pair of principal styles discovered in the body. Therefore, it is actually hard to figure out the HHCP extract's real effectiveness due to the HHCP material's active vs. hhc legality. passive molecule ratio.

As an outcome, the commercial manufacture of HHC distillate through hydrogenation ended up being possible. Recognized for its strength to UV rays as well as heat, HHC THC is actually considered the very most stable sort of THC. fresh brothers delivery. A little bit of more shelf-life than THC, as an end result Hydrogenation, the approach utilized to harden vegetable oil in to marg., is actually utilized to generate HHC.

Meanwhile, THC is saturated along with hydrogen atoms in the presence of higher tension and also a catalyst since the volume of HHC in all-natural hemp is actually insufficient. hcc thc. THC's binding alikeness is actually increased, and also the molecular construct is more stable due to this alteration. Since HHC is actually thus hard, it carries out not tooth decay or drop its own effectiveness and also is highly resistant to uv radiation and heat.

By generating a profile on this site, you verify that you are 21 years aged or older. Your personal information will definitely be actually used to promote your expertise throughout this web site, to deal with access to your account, and also for other objectives defined in our personal privacy plan. hhc effects vs delta 8.

In addition to its long shelf-life, yet another crucial marketing aspect created by HHC users is that a regular 12-panel drug examination won't find it. This is actually eye-catching to many individuals given that various other THC options, like delta 8 as well as delta 10 THC, will certainly appear on urine or blood tests for THC if eaten in enough amounts.

What Is Hhc? Everything You Need To Know - Joy Organics for Dummies

This isn't confirmed, so usage HHC at your very own danger if you'll require to take these examinations. The principal concern is actually that HHC is so brand-new, there isn't a typical screening method for it but implying that also the business that do assess their items are actually unlikely to provide exact outcomes.

[kuramirocket]

For centuries, the Indigenous cultures of present-day Mexico manufactured a brilliant red colorant called "prickly pear blood."

Nocheztli was the name the Mexica (Aztecs) gave this red colorant in their language Nahuatl. That is because in Nahuatl, the cacti were called nopalli and nochpalli, and their fruits were called nochtlí. Thus nocheztlí means blood (eztli) of the cactus (nochtlí,) or "prickly pear blood."

The colorant was actually made, however, from a parasitic insect of the prickly pear cactus, rather than the red prickly pear itself. The vivid carmine red color obtained from this insect evoked the image of blood and the juice of the red fruit.

The insect from which the dye is obtained is popularly called cochineal grana. Its scientific name is Dactylopius coccus . In Nahuatl it was called nocheztli which means "nopal blood" and in Mixtec ndukun which means "blood insect".

Both the insect and the colorant are known as cochineal.

Each pre-Hispanic indigenous culture had a different name for the insect. This ethnolinguistic element indicates the knowledge and early use of coloring by different ethnic groups before the arrival of the Spanish.  

The colorant made from the cochineal insect was an astonishingly vivid red. Red was an important color for Mesoamerican cultures as it signified blood, and therefore life.

Indigenous peoples had many uses for it including as a medicine, a cosmetic, a dye for textiles, and a paint for hand-drawn manuscripts.

Mesoamerican manuscripts are important because they give insight into the people represented on them, as well as aspects of their culture. These colorful manuscripts also shed light on the expertise of the Indigenous craftspeople that made them.

The Library of Congress has three significant 16th-century Mesoamerican manuscripts that were all painted with carmine red: the Huexotzinco Codex, the Oztoticpac Lands Map, and the Codex Quetzalecatzin.

But what do we know about cochineal?

Cultivation of Cochineal

Cochineal was primarily cultivated by individuals from cactus plots found on their lands. The production of cochineal was time-consuming and involved several steps.

First the cacti were planted and allowed to grow for up to three years in order to host the insects. After the cacti reached the appropriate size, the Indigenous farmer attached nests containing female insects to the cacti. For 90 to 120 days cochineal insects were allowed to infest the host cacti. After this period of infestation, harvesting involved removing the insects from the cacti by hand with the aid of a pointed stick or a brush. Harvesting domesticated cochineal occurred two or three times per year.

Interestingly, only female insects were harvested because the component responsible for the red dye is solely carried by wingless females. The female of this species, whose life cycle is three months, is the one that contains carminic acid, a substance that is synthesized as a dye. The insect uses this substance as a defense mechanism against predators such as ants. For its part, the male does not require this defense since its vital cycle is brief, it is reduced to a week in which it fulfills the reproductive function and then dies.   

A glimpse into cochineal cultivation is provided by the French botanist Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry De Menonville who published an account of his travels in 1777 to Oaxaca to obtain, albeit illegally, the insect for France.

"On arriving at Galiatitlan, I saw a garden full of nopals, and had no doubt I should there find the precious insect I was so desirous to examine. I therefore leapt from my horse, under pretense of altering my stirrup leathers, entered the grounds of the Indian proprietor, began a conversation with him, and enquired to what use he put those plants? He answered, “to cultivate la grana.” I seemed astonished, and begged to see the cochineal; but my surprise was real when he brought it to me, for instead of the red insect I expected, there appeared one covered with a white powder. I was tormented with the doubts I entertained, and to resolve them bethought me of crushing one on white paper; and what was the result? It yielded the truly royal purple hue.”

Grana is the Spanish term for cochineal that translates as "grain," possibly because the dried cochineal insect look like grains or seeds.

What then do we know about how the brilliant carmine colorant was made from the cochineal insect?

Cochineal Colorant Preparation

Sixteenth-century sources provide eyewitness accounts of the production of Indigenous Mexican artist materials. One of the most important sources is the Florentine Codex, or The General History of the Things of New Spain, compiled by Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagún. Twelve books describe the culture and peoples of central Mexico, with detailed descriptions in Spanish and Nahuatl, as well as illustrations of artists materials like cochineal.

After harvesting, the insects were then prepared for processing into a colorant. The first part of the process involved killing the cochineal insects. This was accomplished by drying in the sun, heating in ovens or on hot plates, boiling, or steaming. Regardless of the method employed, the end result of this process was dried insects.

To make a red dye or paint, the dried silver cochineal "grains" are ground into a powder that is then boiled in water. Since the cochineal is an organic colorant, its coloring agent carminic acid must be stabilized with the addition of a mordant, a metallic salt. Powdered alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) was a mordant commonly used by Mesoamerican craftspeople.

Cochineal is sensitive to changes in pH, and as such, its color can vary. Cochineal colorants can range from orange when an acid, like vinegar, is added to the recipe to purple when a base, like ammonia, is added.

The primary uses for cochineal were as a dye for textiles and as a paint. To make a paint, the cochineal insects were soaked in water, ground into a paste with alum, and formed into tablets that were allowed dry.

Tablets of cochineal paint, as well as other paints and artist materials, were made available to artisans in markets throughout Mexico. It is likely that Indigenous scribes painted the red areas on manuscripts with cochineal tablets obtained from these markets.

A large variety of items were sold in Mesoamerican markets including food, raw materials, and artist pigments. The largest market was in Tlatelolco, a neighborhood in present-day Mexico City. Descriptions of the Tlatelolco market were published by Spanish conquistadors Hernán Cortés and Bernal Díaz  who were astounded by its large size and the variety of items sold there.

Markets remain an important cultural tradition in Mexico to this day.

Mesoamerican Manuscripts at the Library of Congress

The Codex Quetzalecatzin resides in the Geography and Map Division. Created circa 1593, it is a genealogy map showing the ancestral lands of Lord-11 Quetzalecatzin and his descendants, the de Leon family, between the years 1480 and 1593. It is also known as the Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec because the de Leon holdings ranged from Ecatepec (near Mexico City) to the north, to Huitziltepec in Oaxaca to the south, with southern Puebla in between.

An Indigenous scribe, or scribes, likely created the codex because it is drawn in a mostly Indigenous artistic style with pictographs that convey information relating to space and time, and toponyms (place-glyphs) relating to specific locations.

Codex Quetzalecatzin

Brilliant carmine red was liberally painted all over the Codex Quetzalecatzin.

The color red is prominently used on the garments of the Indigenous elites. A rich red decorates the borders of the noble women's blouses and skirts and the cloaks of the noble men. Not surprisingly, Lord-11 Quetzalecatzin has the most splendid garments of all with his richly patterned red cloak and headdress.

It is not surprising that red paint appears on the codex in many areas, since Puebla and Oaxaca were primary regions of cochineal cultivation during the 16th century. As nopal cacti are prominent features on the codex, it is possible that the de Leon estate produced cochineal.

The Oztoticpac Lands Map, also part of the Geography and Map Division collections, was created around 1540. It concerns the litigation of the estate of the Texcoco lords after one of their members, Don Carlos Ometochtli, was executed for idolatry. Texcoco, a neighbor to Mexico City, was a partner to the Mexica (Aztecs.) The map depicts the Palace of Oztoticpac, land plots of villagers.

Oztoticpac Lands Map

Color was sparsely used on the map, and has faded over the years. Purplish-red lines and Indigenous counting numerals (bars and dots) were used to denote the borders and size of lands owned by the Texcoco nobility.

The Huexotzinco Codex is part of the Harkness Collection in the Manuscript Division. It is one of the earliest Mesoamerican manuscripts from the early colonial era of Mexico. As such, it is a thoroughly Indigenous manuscript as its story is told through pictographs showing the types of tribute items and the Indigenous counting systems. 

The Huexotzinco Codex was created in 1531 for the legal case that conquistador Hernán Cortés brought against three members of the first Spanish colonial government in Mexico. The case accused the three government officials of stealing from Cortés by demanding excessive tribute from the people of Huexotzinco when he was in Spain. After the Spanish invasion, Cortés considered the land, natural resources, and the people of Huexotzinco to be his property because the Huexotzincas allied themselves with him during the war against the Mexica. Included in the court proceedings are eight Indigenous paintings submitted as evidence that depict the tribute handed over to the officials.

The eight paintings were produced by Indigenous scribes with Indigenous materials. While seven of the paintings are painted with red, vivid carmine red features prominently on two of them.

Huexotzinco, in the Mexican state of Puebla, was a major producer of cochineal in the 16th century.

Huexotzinco Codex

Painting III shows twenty cotton cloths, each richly decorated with an Indigenous calendrical pictograph (Rabbit, Reed, or Flower) representing the count of years or days. A brilliant red background offsets the pictographs. Notably red was used as the background on all of the twenty cloths and was also the most-used colorant.

Colorful, ornamented clothing of cotton and rabbit fur were reserved for the elites of Mesoamerican societies. Thus the carmine red textiles prominently featured on two codex paintings provide insight into the Huexotzinco community as well as the artisans working there.

The three Library of Congress Mesoamerican manuscripts (the Codex Quetzalecatzin, the Oztoticpac Lands Map, and the Huexotzinco Codex) have a shared history. They were created during the first century of the newly formed Spanish colony of Mexico.

Another shared aspect found on all three manuscripts is the use of carmine red paint to illuminate features that were important and specific to the people depicted on them, and to the scribes who painted them.

While visually the reds on the three Library of Congress manuscripts appear to be cochineal, to date material analysis has only confirmed the red on the Huextzinco Codex paintings to be cochineal. Hopefully future scientific analysis will also identify the reds of the Codex Quetzlecatzin and the Oztoticpac Lands Map.

While Spain profited from the production and export of cochineal, credit must be given to the Indigenous Mesoamerican peoples who developed this stunning red, this "prickly pear blood," and gave it to the world.

Once discovered by Spaniards, cochineal became one of the most valuable commodities in Europe. In 1758 alone, Oaxaca exported more than 1.5 million Spanish pounds of it for various uses, including the dying of fabrics for red uniforms worn by British soldiers. It was the most exported from New Spain during the 16th century, after gold and silver.

For centuries Europe sought an intense red that would last over time in textiles such as wool and silk. They had not found a dye with these characteristics until the discovery of cochineal. It was so prized, Spain kept secret that it came from a bug instead of a plant.

The Italian dyers of the 16th century, based in Venice and Florence, were the main buyers of dyes.

Later, in later centuries, this changed and it was the French, the Dutch and later the English who bought the scarlet, both in formal and informal trade through smuggling. 

Apart from the textile industry, which is where it had its most widespread use, famous painters such as Rubens, Velázquez and El Greco, among others, also used pigments based on the cochineal grana to add unique colors in their works.

Museum conservation and restoration laboratories in different parts of the world have confirmed the presence of the dye bug in many important works.  

The cochineal cochineal from New Spain produced a "boom" in European markets , says Huémac Escalona. It was the second good that generated the most profits for the people involved in its trade, both Spanish and Indian. 

The Spanish crown retained the monopoly of this product throughout the colonial period; For this, it kept the secret of its nature and production, preventing the live insect from leaving New Spain. When the Spanish referred to the large cochineal they always used terms that referred to agriculture, so that competitors from other nations believed that it was a vegetable product, a fruit of a plant or a seed.  

Today it can also be found as a natural food coloring. 

Production of dye in Oaxaca 

In the 16th century and the first part of the 17th century, the most intense production of cochineal was located in the Tlaxcala and Puebla areas. Oaxaca was the cradle of domestication of the large cochineal; it also produced in those years but not so intensely. It was not until the second half of the seventeenth century when its production increased, until it produced 99 percent of the scarlet that was exported to the entire world in the eighteenth century. 

The relationship between indigenous producers and Spanish merchants around the grana was not without tensions and conflicts, despite this, the wealth it generated allowed that relationship to last over time. 

The historian recalls that the indigenous communities accepted to produce the cochineal because it allowed them to have their own social organization and allowed them to have money for their festivals and to pay taxes. Although these were impositions of the colonial regime, these burdens were assumed in such a way as to allow them to have an organizational structure according to their traditions. 

The rearing of the insect was an economic activity in which the whole family participated and could be combined with other tasks. The production and trade of grana articulated the economy of various regions of Oaxaca. There were towns that specialized in grana, others combined its production with the manufacture of blankets or the cultivation of corn and wheat. While others were dedicated to making the various containers where the dye was transported.  

Most of the indigenous peoples, for their part, became producers of the dye because it meant a more or less secure way of obtaining resources to cover their community expenses and cover tax burdens. This was not exempt from the enrichment of sectors of its population. However, it was not the norm but rather the exception.  

Grana connected the economy of societies so different and so far away : Indigenous peoples from the Oaxacan regions with European, African and Asian societies. For the Oaxacan indigenous people, the scarlet was the product that gave them benefits but also caused them discomfort. The constant international demand for dye led to the adaptation of their collective life, governed by a set of beliefs and traditions of their own, to an intense production system.

 The traces of the scarlet in Oaxaca are everywhere: in civil and religious public buildings, in merchants' houses, in textiles, in its archaeological remains, in pre-Hispanic and colonial documents, painted with pigments made from the cochineal or where its production and trade were registered. It shows the importance that the precious dyeing insect known as grana cochineal had for the history of Oaxaca and Mexico. 

A red color, really Mexican? 

In recent years, there has been a debate about the American zone of origin of the dye . A group of scholars assured that the cochineal was domesticated in South America, in the Andean area, due to the discovery of textiles dyed with this dye in various archaeological sites and whose dating dates back to the first centuries after Christ.  

Other specialists affirmed that it was in Mesoamerica, specifically in Oaxaca, where the first domestication of the insect was carried out together with the nopal. It is believed that it passed from Mesoamerica to Central America and from there to South America through the cabotage trade. 

Recently, a scientific study was carried out that analyzed the mitochondrial DNA of the cochineal cochineal samples from Oaxaca and Peru. The results showed that the genetic variety from Oaxaca is older and more diverse. This confirms that the domesticated dyeing insect is native to the Mesoamerican region corresponding to the current state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. 

Sources: (×) (×) (×)

[littleapocalypsekitten]

Well, this is completely stupid. I mean, okay, okay, I can see *some kind* of argument for why, presumably, given farms would have to take the evil measures to "produce a cheap product at a profit," but the stuff about taking regulations regarding animals potentially carrying disease? Whut? If you have mass numbers of animals killed before slated slaughter-time because of an outbreak of avian flu or something, that's going to counter the profits. That's like...I guess these people just want more animals to die. Or something. I honestly think that there are some people who just feel powerful when they are needlessly hurting others and it's an addiction. Oh, and I don't think for a hot minute that making the crueler practices federal law is going to keep prices down for the average consumer. Corporations will always, ALWAYS find excuses and ways to artificially drive up prices. As for horses in particular... I remember seeing an episode of Food Theory on that, because, I, too, wondered why horse meat is actually illegal in the U.S.A. I was convinced that it wasn't just a cultural thing like how we will not eat cats and dogs, because horses were a historically eaten animal. (I've seen a vintage ad from the 1960s about oleomargarine made from horse fat). It turns out, in modern times, horses in the United States are all used for different things - they're pets, sports, farm work horses sometimes, race horses and adjacent breeders and as such, they are subject to medical care such as anti-inflammatories that stay in their systems and are dangerous for human consumption. It's for this reason why they are no longer used for pet food and why even countries that do eat horse meat have a ban on U.S. horses and horse meat (because if you raise them for meat, you have to raise them differently). So, that part of the act peaked my interest not just for the "horses are pretty and we do not eat them" reasons but for the "Hey! Republicans! It's a FOOD SAFETY issue!" I'm not going all PETA here. I'm the daughter of a butcher and grew up rural. I've met some of the things I've eaten. I'm just saying, wow, some things just really don't make sense.

When you can't confine your cruelty to your fellow humans... 🙄😒

[booksbabybooks]

The Old Guard comic and killing what you love

I see so much excitement on here about the Old Guard comic coming out in April, that I kind of feel like a buzzkill bringing this up and I'm sure I'll get hate for this but: some of you at least are going to have to buy the damn thing.

Because we all know what's going to happen. Days after it comes out, the whole book will be scanned and online. Blogs will share the whole thing page by page. You'll know where you can download an illegal PDF. And most of this will be done from no more malicious reasons than love and enthusiasm. And in doing so, you pretty much guarantee that there won't be another comic after it.

There's a real culture online - especially on Tumblr - of feeling that all creative products should be free, and that by making them freely available you are doing an uncritical good, and sticking it to the system while you are at it.

Some of this comes from reasons it's hard not to have sympathy with: a screw you to the system, a 'fuck it, Disney can afford it', or genuine poverty / lack of access to a legal version of it.

Less attractively - not to be your salty aunt here, but it's true - it stems from an entitlement, a belief that you should be able to consume any art you want, free, immediately and without ads. (And often with no sense of irony or awareness: the same people who will RAGE against people liking but not reblogging fan art are happy to share a link where you can download books for free.)

But artists need to eat. They need to pay rent. And in almost every creative industry, the vast majority of people do not earn enough to live off. I don't have the exact figures to hand (you can get them from the BPI / Society of Authors websites if you are intetested) but something like 90% of musicians earned less than £200 from streaming last year. A similar percentage of authors earned less than £1000. This likely includes some of your favourites. Some people you view as successful. Some people that, if you took a moment, you'd be heartbroken were harmed by your actions.

(I work in the creative industries and I can tell you: they don't make many people rich. I have friends who are best-selling authors who survive on teaching gigs. And while it is about the money, it's not just about the money: I've seen comics artists deeply upset because a day after a book landed someone has uploaded the last five pages onto their blog as a "tribute".)

So pirating isn't a victimless crime, however easy it is it to pretend otherwise. (Also, it's not without risk: 'but I love them, your honour,' isn't actually a viable legal defence for copyright infringement).

But it also sends a message to the companies (including those who, yes, probably do deserve to be robbed) that IT'S NOT WORTH PUBLISHING THIS ART.

No publisher ever thought, it got a load of hype even though sales tanked, so let's publish another one. No film studio thought, ticket sales suck but illegal downloads were high so it's a win.

And it's especially important if the art you want to consume challenges the existing narrative of what sells. The companies that create these things - that pay the artists and writers and filmmakers - will continue to believe that nobody wants a queer superhero / Black romantic lead / disabled central character until the bottom line proves otherwise.

(Not to also point out that if you don't believe creatives should be paid, you encourage a system where only rich people get to make art, or at least get to decide who makes art).

So: if you possibly can, buy the damn book.

Club together with your mates to buy it.

If you can, double what your money does by buying from a comics store or indie bookshop.

If you are broke, order it from your library - most libraries stock graphic novels now and also offer digital lending. Remember, authors get paid for every loan out.

I'm sure there are some people for whom these are impossible options - this being Tumblr, I'm sure many people are already frothing to tell me how privileged my viewpoint is. And it's not like I don't know comics are expensive, or that not everyone has a local library.

But a lot of you do. So it's to those people I'm saying:

You want more of these books to come out? You have to support them.

EDIT: While I am here saying pay for your art I would remind people that my 2020 Kindness project is giving away my stitches to good homes for free so if anyone wants these Joe and Nicky stitches they are still available. HMU. (UK only due to postage, sorry)

[bipirate]

No offense but how much of a bootlicker do you have to be to defend the production team for adding unnecessary heterosexual romance to a canon gay character just because?

Sure all those people harassing the production team might be straight women but the production team itself isn't some lgbt rights proponents. They just wanted to cash on the popularity of an already popular series without offending the original fans and at the same time have something for the larger cishet audience. They are literally fucking profiting from all this. I have literally ZERO sympathy for them.

I find it funny that you wouldn't say a word against CQL production team or their writing choices but appear to be very critical of MDZS and it's author despite the fact the latter is actually blocked in China for almost 2 years now after a censorship crackdown. Is being blind to reality and defending a censored version that is government and corporate backed more important to you?

Your concern over censorship and lgbt rights is so fake LOL when all you do is consume censored media without any critical thoughts to it.

BOOTLICKERJHSDFJK GSDGHDFGG

bitch im not talking about the chinese government or the higher up broadcasting/production companies as a WHOLE what are you on aboutttt

i’m talking about the individual people on the cql team...... the script writers, the directors, the actors etc etc. 

where have i said that lgbt censorship is a good thing. it’s horrible and awful and my heart goes out to all the lgbt people in countries where being lgbt is illegal and dangerous.  

the reason i’m critical of mdzs is because it’s a fetishistic fantasy of a gay relationship that glorifies abuse and rape... it’s harmful to actual real life gay communities. how is my concern for lgbt rights fake when all i’m doing is speaking out about this 

[super-famicom-star-inactive]

Friday Special #3

November 13th, 2020

Welcome to today’s Friday Special!

For this week, we’ll be digging into some history of a country, a company, and how a little game called Tetris changed the international gaming landscape.

Okay so imagine this

The year is 1984.

In America, Van Halen had released their iconic album 1984 to the masses. Apple Macintosh introduced their first personal computer. The XXIII Olympiad is held in Los Angeles, California. The space shuttle Discovery makes its maiden voyage into space.

In Japan, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind hits theatres and would put Hayao Miyazaki into the spotlight, encouraging him and others to create Studio Ghibli the following year. NHK, the national broadcasting network, tests out a new type of satellite called the BS-2a. The Sony Discman is one of the hottest electronics to own as Compact Discs (CDs) had started to gain popularity.

What about the Soviet Union?

Besides a collision of Soviet submarine K-314 and the USS Kitty Hawk as well as the country famously boycotting the Summer Olympics that year, not much. 

Wait, what about Tetris?

Buckle up.

So the insanely popular puzzle game Tetris had its simple start in the USSR and was created by Russian programmer Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov. It was conceptualized and created during Pajitnov’s time as a speech recognition researcher at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Pajitnov designed Tetris and similar puzzle games like it because he wanted computers to make people happy and believed that "games allow people to get to know each other better and act as revealers of things you might not normally notice, such as their way of thinking."

Tetris first saw life on the Electronika 60, a Soviet computer at the time and also a rare commodity even then, and was released on June 6, 1984. It was the result of Pajitnov trying to recall a favorite childhood game and it used the shapes of tetrominoes (geometric shapes that are connected orthogonally [at the edges, not corners] and fit like a jigsaw puzzle, Tetris calls them tetriminoes). The first version of Tetris had no score system or levels but it was popular amongst his colleagues for its addictive gameplay.

The game became so popular that Pajitnov enlisted the help of Vadim Gerasimov, a 16-year-old high school student with a knack for computer skills, to adapt the game to the IBM Personal Computer (released in 1981) and they were successfully able to do so, with Pajitnov adding color and a soundboard for the second version.

Although the Academy disliked the success that the game was getting, Pajitnov had a dream of exporting the game to the world. He got help from Victor Brjabrin to help with the publication of Tetris, where the first international copy of Tetris wound up with the Hungarian company Novotrade in 1986. The game would then be distributed all over Hungary and even reached Poland. It was in that same year and place that Robert Stein, international software salesman for the firm Andromeda Software (based in London, England) would be exposed to the popular puzzle game and he was so impressed by it that he faxed the co-creators directly for the license rights. 

Here’s one thing to keep in mind, even a deal made over fax communication in the Western world is a legally-binding contract.

This is where things get hairy

Tetris would see its major American introduction in Las Vegas at the 1987 Consumer Electronics Show. After that and several negotiations, Stein gave the firm Mirrorsoft the European rights and the American rights to Spectrum Holobyte. With the rights in their grasp, Mirrorsoft released their version on the IBM PC in 1987 and Spectrum Holobyte version released in January of 1988. As a result, Tetris became an international phenomenon and became highly successful in both North America and Europe. The game itself was later ported to Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC.

Despite the good fortune however, Stein was left with an issue. See, he sold the license of the game without actually owning it. After some more negotiating, this time with the central organization for importing/exporting of the Soviet Union Elorg (Elektronorgtechnica), the deal was made that Tetris would be made available for all current and future computer systems.

So where is Tengen in all of this?

In 1988, Tengen, a subsidiary of Atari Games, received the Japanese rights from Mirrorsoft. Tengen then sold the arcade rights to SEGA and the console version to BPS (Bullet-Proof Software). BPS would go on to create a version of Tetris for the Nintendo Famicom System (The NES in North America) in 1989. 

Tengen the subsidiary was founded in December of 1987 and was Atari Games’ response of needing a firm to oversee the console gaming side of the company. The only licensed games that were released under Tengen were R.B.I. Baseball, Pac-Man, and Gauntlet.

Yeah, the famous Tengen version of Tetris was actually unlicensed. 

Under Tengen, Tetris went under the name Tetris: The Soviet Mind Game in May of 1989, although the arcade machine clones would read 1988. 

So at this point, at least a dozen of different companies held rights to the Tetris game, with Stein in particular holding exclusive home computer rights. Nintendo would be ready to go with their introduction of the Gameboy in 1989. 

AAAAAnd here’s where the problems arise.

When Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer and entrepreneur for Nintendo, was trying to obtain handheld console rights, he was unsuccessfully able to get in contact with Atari before trying to contact Stein. While relations were good at first, Rogers started getting suspicious that Stein had a breach of contract and traveled to the Soviet Union not only to investigate, but to contact the Elorg itself about handheld console rights. 

What he ended up doing was getting involved in a meeting that contained Stein and Mirrorsoft manager Kevin Maxwell over rights with the Elorg president Nikolai Belikov present. When Belikov was shown a Tetris cartridge by Rogers, he was surprised as he believed that Tetris was only licensed for home computers. Had not Rogers defended that the rights were sold to Nintendo through Atari Games thanks to Stein, and Rogers being on good terms with Pajitnov, Nintendo would have been sued into oblivion for illegal publication of the game. 

During the discussions, Belikov offered to null and void Stein’s rights to the game and instead offered Nintendo full rights to their home consoles and handheld consoles. Thanks to Rogers, Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln, both Nintendo executives, signed off on the contract and Stein was left in the dust, losing all the console rights lost due to failing to read about the clause that defined the computer as “a machine with a screen and a keyboard” and not a console.

With this, Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist to Atari Games, demanding that they stop making the NES version of Tetris. However, Mirrorsoft was on Atari’s side, insisting that they still had rights. Nintendo didn’t give in on its stance however, and things got so out of hand that even the Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev had to get involved on Mirrorsoft’s behalf. 

Talk about pressure.

What then ensued was the legendary lawsuit between Atari Games and Nintendo, with Atari Games claiming that since the Nintendo Famicom (Nintendo Family Computer is its full name) had “computer” in the name and that it featured an extension input that can allow the console to be converted into a computer, thus it could not claim the rights as stated in the Elorg contract, since it was a classified as a computer. 

(While the Famicom does have a third-party extension on the bottom right side of the console, that was usually there for third-party controllers at the time. Down below is the extension input in question.)

Pajitnov testifed on Nintendo’s behalf, saying that the contract only affected computers and nothing else, and Belikov, also on the side of Nintendo, argued the same stance. 

Ultimately, the case was ruled in Nintendo’s favor as it was discovered that Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte never received explicit authorization for marketing on consoles. As a result, Atari Games withdrew the NES version of Tetris from the market by the hundreds of thousands.

So what about Pajitnov? Did he ever get any money out of this?

Nope.

See, because of the laws in place regarding ownership of property in the Soviet Union at the time, Pajitnov could neither patent or make money off of his product and he never received any of the royalties for Tetris, hence the existence of so many clones. Despite this, he remained optimistic, quoted saying “The fact that so many people enjoy my game is enough for me."

Don’t worry, the story does have a happy ending though.

Over the years since Tetris’ worldwide introduction, Pajitnov was routinely invited by journalists and publishers to speak and give interviews, giving him a reputation in the West. After being introduced to America for the first time in 1990 after receiving an invite to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by Spectrum Holobyte, he began to study American culture by traveling to different cities of the United States. It was reported that he spoke of his travels often to his colleagues back in the Soviet Union. He was very proud of the game’s success and even called it “an electronic ambassador of benevolence.”

He and Vladimir Pokhilko, a friend of his, later emigrated to the West Coast of the United States in 1991 where Pajitnov settled in Seattle, Washington. He finally regained the rights to Tetris in 1996, exactly a decade as agreed by the Academy when the deal was made regarding rights, and in that same year, founded The Tetris Company to manage all rights after all other contracts had expired. It was then that he finally started making royalties for Tetris and also founded Tetris Holding after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Tetris Holding is responsible for taking unlicensed Tetris clones off of the market.

Recently in 2005, EA purchased Jamdat, a mobile game company that Rogers founded in 2001 to manage the Tetris license. They then held a 15-year license for all mobile phone releases until April of 2020.

So there you have it, one of the most famous lawsuits in history about one of the most famous video games in history.