#ben gomes

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The specific process by which Google enshittified its search

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Saturday, I wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[cllightning81]

Baby Russell [GR63]

Summary : You finally allowed your brother and his girlfriend to babysit your newborn baby so you could enjoy the race with your secret boyfriend.

Pairing/s: George Russell x Gasly!Reader, Pierre Gasly x Sister!reader, Francisca 'Kika' Gomes x Gasly!Reader (platonic), Lewis Hamilton x Gasly!Reader (platonic/briefly)

Word Count: 1k

Masterlist

George Russell Masterlist

Pierre Gasly Masterlist

Coming Soon

Tag List

Pierre had been begging for you to let him and Francisa take your baby girl for the day so that you can enjoy the race without having to worry about a newborn baby. So with George finally convincing you that it would be okay and that she’d only be a couple of minutes away with your family, you eventually gave in. 

Except today was now the day. The Silverstone Grand Prix. Having never revealed your relationship with George, there was a large fear of how the world would see the relationship and family. 

Having handed over Robyn in the hotel to Pierre and Kika, you were now walking into the paddock an hour later than Pierre. There were cameras in your face from the moment you scanned your paddock pass. 

“Did you know Pierre cheated?” One journalist shouted 

“How do you feel about being an auntie?” Another one called

“How do you feel that Pierre cheated and gave you a niece?” A third shouted 

You frowned, walking into the Alpine garage to escape the cameras without causing any more rumours for that moment in time. Glancing at your phone, you were greeted with the many new news articles claiming that Pierre had cheated and had a child. 

Walking over to Pierre, you stole your daughter from his arms with a smile 

“Uncle P is a cheater, hmm. What do you think of that, Robyn?” You joked as Pierre gave you a hug 

“Please tell me that you weren’t swarmed. You’re not meant to be in my garage today” He warned 

“Well I had to hide, not sure I agree with you cheating” You joked, and he rolled his eyes, calling Ben over who happily agreed to walk to the Mercedes garage with you. Handing Robyn back to Pierre, you kissed her head as Pierre pushed you away. 

Ben took you behind all of the garages to get to the Mercedes garage without being spotted by fans, cameras, or just anyone else looking for some gossip. Saying goodbye to Ben, you texted George, letting him know you were at the back, not just wanting to walk in. 

George’s smile was soon in front of you as he opened the back door to the Mercedes garage. You smiled back, giving him a hug now that he was finally in front of yourself 

“Why are you hiding?” He asked, looking about as one arm rested around your shoulders due to the height difference.

“Well everyone now thinks Pierre cheated and I got swarmed on my way in by cameras and press and fans so I ducked into the Alpine garage because I didn’t want the cameras following me into your garage” George let out a laugh at that. 

“Let’s get you inside and set up for the race. You’re not allowed to message Kika or worry about Robyn. Okay?” He sent you a look that made you know that he was serious. You nodded, looking down as he led you into the garage and into the VIP area where he gave you a set of headphones and sat you down. 

“I’ll be back in a second” George smiled, jogging out of the VIP area, and you nodded, taking in how different the Mercedes garage was to the Alpine garage. 

“You’re in the wrong garage” Lewis joked as he walked past 

“It feels wrong, but I’m. What’s the word? Erm. Bannie? Vietata?” You asked 

“Banned” He smiled, and you nodded��

“Yes. Banned from Alpine. Kika has Robyn” You finished, and he nodded 

“I better get to see her later” You nodded with a smile 

“I need to get ready, but I’ll see you later” You nodded, waving him off as Geroge came back, handing you a can of red bull

“Hide that from Toto. I need to go but I’ll see you after the race. Love you” You smiled, giving him a kiss before hugging him

“Je vous aime” You smiled, sitting back down as he walked into his side of the garage.

 After the race and media duties, Geroge crouched down on the floor next to where you had gone for a nap because you were bored of waiting for the media to finish their interrogations. 

“Hey” George smiled gently, pushing a strand of hair behind your ear

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep” You whispered as you sat up. George shrugged 

“It’s okay. You didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. I think we’re both quite tired” He smiled, pressing his lips against yours quickly. George led you to his drivers room, where you sat on his massage table as he got changed. 

“So I was thinking while watching the podium” He started 

“That’s never good” You joked, and he rolled his eyes 

“Let’s go public. Let’s go get Robyn and walk out of here together. Stop the rumours about your brother being a cheater, and it then means that we can go out together with Robyn” You nodded 

“Yeah okay” You shrugged as his eyes widened 

“Seriously? You’re agreeing to this?” He asked as he crossed the room 

“I want nothing more than to be able to finally leave the house with you and Robyn” You smiled as he leaned down and pressed his lips to your own. 

And so that’s what you did. You walked into the Alpine garage, finding Robyn sleeping with Kika as you stopped next to her with a smile. 

“Look Robyn maman is here” She smiled gently, giving her to you. 

“Thank you so much for looking after her” You smiled as Pierre handed you the bag with all her stuff. 

Pierre and Kika both shrugged together as they looked at each other, then back to you and over your shoulder to George, who was standing outside. 

“Finally doing it?” Pierre asked with a smile, and you nodded 

“Yeah. It’s about time” You smiled, and he nodded 

“Fier de toi” (proud of you). Giving him a hug, you walked over to George, who wrapped his arm around your shoulder and leaned down to kiss Robyn’s head 

“Look at her all curled up” He gushed, and you smiled, walking out the paddock with him, not even worrying about the cameras because all that mattered was your family.

yourusername just posted

yourusername Robyn Emeline Russell.

tagged : Georgerussell63

Liked By : Georgerussell63, pierregasly, francisca.cgomes, landonorris and 734,231 others

Comments are limited

maxverstappen1 : Congratulations liked by yourusername

georgerussell63 : Our precious baby girl. I love you both so much ↳ yourusername : Je vous aime

pierregasly : I'm so proud of you and everything you have done ↳ yourusername : Je vous aime Pierre

alex_albon : I still don't get how this was kept a secret. The whole thing? ↳ landonorris : thought we were always meant to tell each other secrets. 2019 rookies and all that

Tag List

@lozzamen3

@barcelonaloverf1life

@hiireadstuff

@evie-119

@ahgase99

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@jasons-little-princess

@tellybearryyyy

@zabwlky1999

@callsignwidow

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@lwstuff

[vague-humanoid]

This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it.

The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering, Search and Ads on Google properties, had called a “code yellow” for search revenue due to, and I quote, “steady weakness in the daily numbers” and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind.

@quasi-normalcy @britomartis

[slyscoutess]

adding onto your last post, the wags of f1 drivers are problematic and should be blocked too

Alexandra Saint Mleux: (Charles Leclerc gf). Is a racist and classist. She is friends with public Zionists. Has done other things aswell.

Francisca (Kika) Gomes: (Pierre gasly gf) is best friends with a racist magui corcierco (below)

Magui Corciero: (rumoured with lando Norris) has said the n word. Is racist. Defends her wife beating father. And has done black face and cultural appropriation

Kelly Piquet: (max verstappen gf) is extremely problematic. She defended her father many times after he was racist towards Lewis Hamilton. I can’t type up everything but you should all look up what shes done

Marilou Bélanger: (lance stroll gf) is a very public Zionist.

all of their girlfriends are present on the block list, all of their public accounts have access links on the block list, including Magui, who whether Lando's girlfriend or not, has a huge platform and is now involved in the world of formula 1, magui will be found in the mention, while the real wags are found listed below the name of their respective boyfriends.

and yes, I know all the rumors and all the proof of cancellation on top of the wags, like Alexandra who liked racist posts when she was 15, even if I never found the proof, it's something that one takes a back seat to, while Kelly Piquet is a person who in Brazil is known as a “Bolsonarista”, conservative people, the vast majority of whom are racist and elitist, just like her father and brother, both Nelson Piquet and Nelson Piquet Jr. have been extremely problematic since the time of Ayrton Senna, both using the late driver's name to raise awareness in the media, just as they now use Lewis's, always with extremely homophobic and racist comments, it's no surprise where Kelly comes from with her mentality, not for the Brazilians.

Meanwhile, Marilou, as well as Lance's sister and brother-in-law, are extremely Zionist, that's not me speaking, it's a page that boasts Zionists, including placing the president of Argentina and Ben Shapiro on the same level as her, and in the same of these images, we see that Lance Stroll alone is already marked and Aston Martin is involved with Zionism as a whole.

[didiribeiro]

"A segunda amanheceu e começa tudo outra vez...Que ao invés de reclamar possamos agradecer pelo dia, pela vida, pela saúde, pelo emprego e por tantos outros bens que Deus nos concede diariamente. Que a partir de hoje eu comece meu dia AGRADECENDO! Porque gratidão também se aprende."

________Kelly Gomes

[macwantspeace]

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

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

[reinato]

Devocional Jovem AMADOS - Cândido Gomes

AMORES PROIBIDOS

Não amem o mundo nem o que nele há. Se alguém ama o mundo, o amor do Pai não está nele. 1ª João 2:15

Amor é um das principais palavras no ideário cristão. A Bíblia contém diversas orientações sobre como os seguidores de Cristo devem amar uns aos outros. Devemos amar até mesmo nossos inimigos. Mas o texto de hoje traz um mandamento que diz claramente o que não devemos amar.

Pode parecer estranho ler que não devemos amar o mundo, uma vez que o mesmo João em seu evangelho escreveu que “Deus amou o mundo de tal maneira” (João 3:16, ACF). No entanto, é importante lembrar que, no Novo Testamento, a palavra mundo pode ter vários significados. Em alguns textos, mundo quer dizer Universo. Em outros, o termo se refere ao planeta Terra. No caso de João 3:16, mundo é sinônimo de humanidade. Mas, em 1ª João 2:15, a palavra simboliza um conjunto de valores, crenças, costumes e hábitos que são contrários a Deus. E por que não devemos amar esse tipo de mundo? Entre outras coisas, porque ele nos afasta de Deus.

O apóstolo identifica, então, três elementos presentes no mundo que causam separação entre nós e Deus. São eles: a cobiça da carne, a cobiça dos olhos e a ostentação dos bens. O primeiro deles se refere a impulsos e desejos que vêm de dentro de nós e que, se não forem dirigidos pelo Espírito Santo, podem facilmente nos levar ao erro. Por exemplo: ter fome não é pecado. Mas, se a nossa relação com a comida não for equilibrada, pode dar origem à glutonaria. Isso sim é pecado. O segundo elemento tem que ver com tentações que vêm de fora de nós. São as coisas que o coração deseja como se fossem essenciais para nossa felicidade. O terceiro se relaciona com a arrogância humana. É a tendência de confiar nas posses, desconsiderando o poder de Deus e as necessidades dos outros.

Não amar o mundo significa não escolher o mundo nem as coisas que há no mundo. Significa consagrar a Deus nossos desejos naturais e permitir que eles sejam guiados dentro dos limites da revelação bíblica. Não amar o mundo é fazer um pacto com os olhos para eles não desejarem nada que não seja permitido e abençoado pelo Eterno.

Decida hoje amar a Deus sobre todas as coisas, e que o seu amor a Ele defina todas as outras relações de sua vida.

[goalhofer]

2024 Chicago Cubs Players By Nationality

American: 22 (Yency Almonte, Cody Bellinger, Ben Brown, Michael Busch, Garrett Cooper, Yan Gomes, Ian Happ, Kyle Hendricks, Nicholas Hoerner, Caleb Kilian, Mark Leiter; Jr., Luke Little, Nick Madrigal, Miles Mastrobuoni, Julian Merryweather, Todd Smyly; Jr., Justin Steele, James Swanson, Jameson Taillon, Mike Tauchman, Jordan Wicks & Patrick Wisdom) Dominican: 2 (Christopher Morel & Héctor Neris) Japanese: 2 (Suzuki Seiya & Imanaga Shōta) Venezuelan: 2 (Adbert Alzolay & Daniel Palencia) Mexican: 1 (Javier Assad) Panamanian: 1 (Miguel Amaya)

[infinitybreak]

The four of them were tasked with saving the world. What happened next almost split the continent in half, a second time. Archeologist rogue Hugo du Fontaine (Ben Hamlin), Paladin Captain Petros (Matty Trumbo-Gomes), sea elf wizard Darius Ahlemnath (Andrew Eakle) and halfling chef fighter Finley Murphy (Johnny Rinaldo) make up the cast of Legends of Laia, with Dungeon Master Nik Boylan. A Monstrous Campaign awaits you on Legends of Laia.

[sexy-footballer-dreams]

Players summary

All posts of a specific player. The players listed here are ordered alphabetically and only players are listed that have appeared on this blog.

A

• 🔗 Abdelhamid Sabiri 🇲🇦

• 🔗 Achraf Hakimi 🇲🇦

• 🔗 Allan Saint-Maximin 🇫🇷

• 🔗 Alphonso Davies 🇨🇦

• 🔗 Amine Adli 🇫🇷

• 🔗 Amine Harit 🇲🇦

• 🔗 André Trinidade 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Andrey Santos 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Ansu Fati 🇪🇸

• 🔗 Antonee Robinson 🇺🇸

• 🔗 Antonio Rüdiger 🇩🇪

• 🔗 Ashley Young 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Aurélien Tchouaméni 🇫🇷

B

• 🔗 Ben Godfrey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Breel Embolo 🇨🇭

• 🔗 Bruno Guimaraes 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Bukayo Saka 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

C

• 🔗 Christian Kouamé 🇨🇮

• 🔗 Christopher Scott 🇩🇪

• 🔗 Cody Gakpo 🇳🇱

D

• 🔗 David Alaba 🇦🇹

• 🔗 David Neres 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Dayot Upamecano 🇫🇷

• 🔗 Denzel Dumfries 🇳🇱

• 🔗 Duván Zapata 🇨🇴

E

• 🔗 Eduardo Camavinga 🇫🇷

• 🔗 #Ellis Harrison 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

• 🔗 Ezri Konsa 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

F

• 🔗 Francis Amuzu 🇧🇪

G

• 🔗 Gabriel Jesus 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Gabriel Martinelli 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Gavin Bazunu 🇮🇪

• 🔗 Geisson Perea 🇨🇴

• 🔗 Geoffrey Kondogbia 🇨🇫

H

• 🔗 Hee-Chan Hwang 🇰🇷

• 🔗 Hueng-min Son 🇰🇷

I

• 🔗 Ibrahima Konaté 🇫🇷

• 🔗 Irfan Fandi Ahmad 🇸🇬

J

• 🔗 Jacob Ramsey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Jeffrey Schlupp 🇬🇭

• 🔗 Jeremy Doku 🇧🇪

• 🔗 Jesse Lingard 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Joao Gomes 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Joe Gomez 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Jonathan David 🇨🇦

• 🔗 Joshua Zirkzee 🇳🇱

• 🔗 Jude Bellingham 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Jules Koundé 🇫🇷

• 🔗 Julian Alvarez 🇦🇷

• 🔗 Jurriën Timber 🇳🇱

• 🔗 Justin Kluivert 🇳🇱

K

• 🔗 Keshi Anderson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Kingsley Coman 🇫🇷

• 🔗 Kylian Mbappé 🇫🇷

L

• 🔗 Lautaro Martinez 🇦🇷

• 🔗 Leon Bailey 🇯🇲

• 🔗 Leroy Sané 🇩🇪

• 🔗 Lisandro Martinez 🇦🇷

• 🔗 Lyle Foster 🇿🇦

M

• 🔗 Manuel Akanji 🇨🇭

• 🔗 Manuel Benson 🇧🇪

• 🔗 Marcus Rashford 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Mario Lemina 🇬🇦

• 🔗 Matheus Pereira 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Michy Batshuayi 🇧🇪

N

• 🔗 Nathan Aké 🇳🇱

O

• 🔗 Odion Ighalo 🇳🇬

• 🔗 Ollie Watkins 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

P

• 🔗 Paulinho 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Pedri 🇪🇸

• 🔗 Pervis Estupiñán 🇪🇨

Q

• 🔗 Quincy Promes 🇳🇱

R

• 🔗 Raheem Sterling 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Reece James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Renato Sanches 🇵🇹

• 🔗 Rico Lewis 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Rodri 🇪🇸

• 🔗 Rodrygo Goes 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Romain Saiss 🇲🇦

• 🔗 Romelu Lukaku 🇧🇪

• 🔗 Romeo Lavia 🇧🇪

• 🔗 Ronald Araujo 🇺🇾

• 🔗 Ryan Gravenberch 🇳🇱

S

• 🔗 Salomon Kalou 🇨🇮

• 🔗 Samuel Da Granada 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Steven Bergwijn 🇳🇱

T

• 🔗 Tajon Buchanan 🇨🇦

• 🔗 Tammy Abraham 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Thiago Silva 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Trent Alexander-Arnold 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

• 🔗 Tyrone Mings 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

V

• 🔗 Vincent Kompany 🇧🇪

• 🔗 Vinicius Jr 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Virgil Van Dijk 🇳🇱

• 🔗 Vitinho 🇧🇷

• 🔗 Vitor Jacaré 🇧🇷

W

• 🔗 Weston McKennie 🇺🇸

• 🔗 Wilfried Bony 🇨🇮

• 🔗 Wilfried Zaha 🇨🇮

X

• 🔗 Xavi Simons 🇳🇱

Y

• 🔗 Yeboah Amankwah 🇬🇭

[fridaythe13ththeseries]

Hate on Your Dial

Episode Recap #59: Hate on Your Dial Original Airdate: November 18, 1989

Starring: Louise Robey as Micki Foster Steve Monarque as Johnny Ventura (as Steven Monarque) Chris Wiggins as Jack Marshak

Guest cast: Michael Rhoades as Ray Pierce Vlasta Vrana as Sheriff Robert A. Silverman as Archie Pierce (as Robert Silverman) Melanie Miller as Margaret Pierce Martin Doyle as Steve Pierce Henry Czerny as Joe Nelson Richard Mills as Elliot Marc Gomes as Henry Emmett Gene Mack as Ben Wilten Jackie Richardson as Frances Jan Taylor Hendricks as Waitress / Edna (as Jan Waterhouse) Jamie Near as Young Archie

Written by Nancy Ann Miller Directed by Allan Eastman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is night time and we are at a modest home. Mr. Sandman on the radio. Two men in a garage cleaning an old car. They are brothers, Ray and Archie. Ray appears to be older and have special needs. His brother teases him. Their old mother comes into the garage with coffee. She doesn't like them reminiscing and leaves. Archie reads the date (May 17, 1954) on the photo, and Ray says it was "Black Monday" when "white folks got in trouble" and their daddy had "no choice."

Just then a little boy named Elliot shows up, admiring the car. Archie is happy to see him, but racist Ray reacts badly, knocking the fundraising candy out of the boy's hands. He pulls a screwdriver on Elliot, then shoves him, causing his engine parts to scatter. Ray gets even madder and pulls a shotgun off the wall, to frighten Elliot, who runs off. Ray says he'll get him another time.

Cut to credits.

Curious Goods, and a woman has brought a box of old items to the store for an appraisal. Johnny doesn't know what to offer, but they settle on $25 for the box. She leaves as Archie enters. He is browsing for a gift for his brother. Johnny takes a car radio out of the box he just bought and Archie identifies it as from a '54 Chevy. He says him and Ray have their daddy's '54 Chevy and Ray is always working on it. He wants to buy the radio, but he doesn't think he can afford it. Johnny gives him a good deal on it.

Next we are back in the garage, and Ray is finishing installing the radio his brother gifted him, saying it will now be just like when their daddy had it. But Archie says their father never drove it much, he went away cause he killed a man. Ray says the man was a "colored sharecropper" and thinks a black lawyer who got some mystery witness was the reason their dad got executed. Archie tells Ray he doesn't like how racist he is, especially to his friend Elliot. Ray says Archie may be slow, but he doesn't have to be stupid. He pulls out a photo album of their father in full KKK gear, and crosses they had burned. Ray obviously idolizes this time in history and his father's role in it.

At the store, Johnny is cleaning when Micki comes in. She says Jack's flight has been delayed a couple of hours. Johnny tells her about the car radio he bought and then quickly sold. Micki, already anticipating the answer, asks if he checked the manifest first. As she checks she finds a '54 Chevy radio listed. Johnny can't believe it and Micki seems to cut him some slack, but then Jack arrives home. From the looks on their faces, he knows it's bad news. Johnny says what he did, and Jack is frustrated at him. But Johnny remembers the car wash logo on Archie's shirt. Johnny and Micki head out, but Johnny stops to apologize again to Jack, who is clearly ticked off.

Next, we see Elliot playing alone at a basketball court. Ray pulls up in the old Chevy, clearly drinking as well. He gets out with his bottle, taunting Elliot, who doesn't trust him. Ray pulls a gun and shoots the hoop, then at Elliot's feet. Ray continues his racist rant, scaring Elliot as he waves his gun, shooting. Elliot is panicked and falls as Ray shoots again, this time hitting the kid. Ray touches him, gets blood on his hand and at the sound of police sirens, takes off.

Driving away, he is nervous and goes to turn on the car radio, getting Elliot's blood on the dials. This activates the curse, and the radio glows, then it envelops the car in a blinding light. Suddenly, Ray and the Chevy are in black and white, having traveled back in time. The radio says it is night in Mississippi as Ray cruises the streets, surprised. He stops the car and checks a newspaper, happy to realize where and when he is.

He goes in to a diner. He asks about his parents, and as the waitress gives directions, the place falls silent as a black man enters. He just wants to buy a loaf of bread, but the racist waitress refuses, telling him to go. He makes the mistake of grabbing her arm, and a man stands up, calling him "boy". He confronts the man, continuing the racist bull, even slapping the man. Fed up, the black man picks up the other and slams him in to a table, but the other man present gang up on him. Ray, who is loving all of this, hits the man himself until the sheriff arrives and pulls him off. He tells the black man to go, and merely chastises the group, Ray included. Another man introduces himself to Ray and buy him a shake.

Jack is still researching the radio when Micki and Johnny come back. They found where Archie works, but he won't be back until Monday. They also learned his name and that he has a brother, which further irritates Jack. Johnny tells him to rip his head off, but Jack is still snippy. Micki is shocked, Johnny says he look for it himself, but Jack calls out. He says he isn't angry with Johnny, just their situation, and that they done the same thing he did. Johnny says it all just keeps on happening.

Back to the past and Ray and his new friend are walking. Ray loves how "pure" the place feels and warns the other man things will change, going into yet another racist rant. He takes Ray to a meeting of men at a house. These men are already mad about the Supreme Court decision and think "their" colored people aren't unhappy and know their place. Ray realizes the man is his father when his wife comes in and recognizes his mother, pregnant with himself. Archie is there too, a young boy. Ray is introduced to his father and told what happened in the diner. He's invited along on their mission that night.

In the present, Johnny and Micki arrive and see Archie with his mother. Johnny says he wants to buy back the radio, but Archie says it's already in the car, and their mom says he's out driving and sometimes isn't back for days. They leave their card with Archie and leave, but decide to wait outside for Ray to return.

In the past, the men are in full KKK robes and burning a cross and an effigy of a judge to protest the end of segregation. They head off to teach the black man a lesson. Ray realizes what is about to happen is what got his father executed and tries to warn the men. But they say they'll kill the lawyer, too. Ray says they have to make sure they kill the woman who was a witness, too. The men agree, too amped up to understand what Ray's saying.

Later, they are dragging the black man, Ben Wilten, to a barn, his hands tied up and hooked up so they can beat him and lash him with a whip, just for touching the waitress. His hands get loose and he is able to hit the mask off, revealing the face of one man, and he is beaten more for that. He collapses and is whipped again.

Jack arrives at Micki and Johnny's stakeout with some food. He says he found some clippings Lewis had from 1954, and is thinking time travel.

Back in '54, the men are all hyped up from their attack, Ray included. He thinks maybe he changed things in his father's favor. They all drive off. As Ray drives, he notices Elliot's blood still on the radio. He wipes it off and him and the car are transported back to the present. Micki and the guys see his happen. Ray is pissed, pulling into his garage. Jack thinks Ray just came from the past.

Inside, Ray tells Archie to be quiet and asks his mother where his father is, hoping he changed things. But she says Mississippi hung him. Jack eavesdrops while Micki and Johnny attempt to slip into the garage. Ray says there was no witness back then, but he can't understand why their daddy didn't survive. Ray looks in the old album to see what the lawyer from back then looked like, so he can try again to change the past. Archie tries to talk to his brother, but Ray heads outside.

Micki sees Ray coming and her and Johnny hide. Archie keeps trying to get his brother's attention, but Ray ignores him and heads into the garage, saying he needs to kill another of his little black friends, shoving Archie, who realizes his brother killed Elliot. He grabs a hammer, but Ray takes it. Johnny and Micki try to get in as Ray beats his brother with the hammer. Johnny and Jack try to stop Ray as Micki goes to Archie. Ray jumps in the Chevy and wipes his brother's blood on the radio. It begins to glow and is transported back to Mississippi in 1954, this time with Ray, Johnny and Jack. Ray speeds off, leaving them in the road.

Ray goes to his parent's house, trying to warn his father to get out of town. His mother and Archie are their, and she listens as Ray tells them about the judge and what's going to happen. As Ray continues to try and get through to his father, Archie starts repeating over and over "Daddy killed a Negro." Ray tells his father this all going to ruin him unless they get the clan together to kill the lawyer. The man agrees and Ray goes to find the lawyer. Archie continues ranting and his father hits him hard, his mother too late to help.

Jack and Johnny are shocked to be in 1954, but Jack thinks Ray wants to change his father's fate. They see a commotion at the courthouse, townsfolk angry about the lawyer here to get justice for the murder of the sharecropper, Ben Wilton. The sheriff arrives to break things up. The lawyer, Henry Emmet, and he wants the sheriff to arrest the clan. But the sheriff wants him to have some witness or there is no case, but then goes on to threaten this supposed witness. Things break up, Johnny is shocked by this, but Jack says the present isn't much better.

Jack goes to speak to the lawyer, but the man and his friends are understandably wary. Jack tries to warn them about the men in town, and that his life is in jeopardy. But Emmet thinks Jack's warnings are really veiled threats. Jack is speechless.

In the present, Micki is telling the cops as much as she is able about Ray's disappearance after killing Archie. She tries to comfort the mother, who says she knew something like this would happen.

In the past, we see the mother comforting a hurt Archie. Ray arrives looking for his father, but she says he's at work. He is happy to have found the lawyer, but she isn't happy. She doesn't seem to carry the racism like her husband, and Ray. He asks what's up with Archie and she says his daddy hits him, and one day it will be too much.

Jack finds Johnny, who says he'll need a screwdriver to get the radio out. Jack says no, it is their only way home. They need to stop Ray before heading back. Johnny has the album from the car, and Jack recognizes some of the men from town. He takes off.

Later, after having shown the sheriff the album and identifying the man who killed Ben, Jack is surprised the sheriff doesn't head right off to arrest him. Jack then sees the clan dragging the lawyer into a car and goes to help, but is tossed into the car, too. The clan speed off.

In a field, with another cross on fire, the men in robes arrive and drag Jack and Emmet out. The grand dragon tells the others they also have a spy in their midst, who has been lying to them about helping. Johnny slips out of the trunk of Ray's Chevy. The spy is identified as Ray, who the man thinks is their to turn them in to the FBI. Ray is tied up as he protests.

Johnny hotwires the Chevy, turns it on and drives toward the group, causing them to scatter. He jumps out and shoots off the shotgun, and Jack tells Emmet they need to get in the car. Johnny again shoots the gun, stopping one of the men so they can drive off. The clan decides to deal with things here first, and tie up Ray and his friend from the diner, thinking they are traitors. They light the men on fire as Ray begs his daddy for help. As Ray burns, his father realizes the witness must be his wife.

After dropping Emmet off, Johnny and Jack drive the Chevy to where they arrived in the past. Johnny wipes the blood off the radio. The car glows and they go back to the present, appearing in front of Micki and the mother of Archie and Ray, who realizes both her sons are gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My thoughts:

Heavy, to say the least. I wrote a huge summary because it felt wrong to leave off details here. But I hated writing so much of Ray's racist nonsense. Just felt so skeevy doing it. I can't fathom how a person could think that way about other people.

But Jack is right. Johnny calls the past bad, Jack says the present isn't much better, and here we are another 30 something years even from that and there are still monsters among us.

The time travel radio is cool, but the usage is so dark. Poor Elliot. Kid did literally nothing wrong, and Ray hated him. Sad, to say the least.

And Archie, too. I'm actually surprised his mother let Ray stay with them, when we find out she was the one who told about her husband in the past. I guess she ended up relying on Ray, but I'm surprised she didn't snap before then.

Weird how Ray's prophetic information was just laughed at by the clan. I would think the other men would have thought he was insane. And how shocked was the sheriff by the album when Jack brought it in. And who was taking the photos at those clan burnings?

I like how Micki was easy to cut Johnny some slack about the radio. Her and Ryan sold a ton of antiques when they first got to the store. But it made sense that Jack would be ticked off, at least at first. Johnny learned a lesson here, for sure.

Near the end, when the father had the thought of his wife being the witness, I thought we were going to see that the future had changed, but it apparently went no where. Odd to include that, then.

Dark episode. But kudos for the show in taking it on.

Next week: Night Prey

[dear-indies]

Hi!! I wanted to ask for an fc recommendation? I suck with faceclaims and I wanna make Lewis Tan and Gemma Chan siblings but I' also wanted'm also looking for some Chinese or half Chinese fc that could be their younger sibling. Thank and have a nice day/week <3

Siblings for Gemma, she's Hongkonger / Chinese:

Julia Chan (1983) Hongkonger / Scottish, possibly other - half-sibling!

Celina Jade (1985) Hongkonger / English, Irish, German, French - half-sibling!

Zhang Nan (1986) Chinese - half-sibling!

Ben Levin (1987) Chinese / White - half-sibling!

Melissa O'Neil (1988) Hongkonger / Irish - half-sibling!

Song Yi (1989) Chinese - half-sibling!

Ming Xi (1989) Chinese - half-sibling!

Sam Tsui (1989) Hongkonger / English, German - is gay - half-sibling!

Poppy Liu (1990) Chinese - is non-binary and uses she/they - half-sibling!

Phillipa Soo (1990) Chinese / English, Irish and Scottish - half-sibling!

Natasha Liu Bordizzo (1994) Chinese / Italian - half-sibling!

Jessie Mei Li (1995) Hongkonger / English - is a gender non-conforming woman who uses she/they - half-sibling!

Leah Lewis (1996) Chinese - half-sibling!

Wang Zhuo Cheng (1996) Chinese - half-sibling!

Leo Sheng (1996) Chinese - is trans - half-sibling!

Zhang Ling He (1997) Chinese - half-sibling!

Siblings for Lewis who is Chinese Singaporean / British:

Jessica Gomes (1985) Chinese Singaporean / Portuguese.

Jessica Henwick (1992) Chinese Singaporean / English.

Ming Bridges (1992) Chinese Singaporean / White.

Aimee Cheng-Bradshaw (1995) Chinese Singaporean / English.

half-sibling suggestions here!

Hope you have a great fay too anon!

[darkthingshappen]

Commissioned gift from @for-the-love-of-angst

@for-the-love-of-angst

We had a Secret Santa in July gift exchange and they wrote me this absolutely amazing piece. And then I was shocked to get this lovely piece of art they commissioned for me as well. I feel doubly blessed. I mean look at him. The artist absolutely nailed my boy Ben. I will definitely be looking up more if I.B. Gomes’s art. That’s for sure. So very very impressed.

They definitely didn’t need to do this because their story was already amazing. But I’m so very glad they did. 🫶🏻🫶🏻

[pacosemnoticias]

ASAE doa mais de 1.800 peças de calçado e vestuário a instituições em Coimbra

A Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (ASAE) doou mais de 1.800 peças de calçado e vestuário a diferentes instituições em Coimbra, nomeadamente de estudantes.

Os produtos doados, resultantes de apreensões realizadas por este organismo, foram destinados às instituições Casa de Angola em Coimbra, Associação de Estudantes Timorenses, Organização dos Estudantes da Guiné-Bissau em Coimbra e Implementar uma Nova Atitude Social (IUNA), na data em que se celebra o Dia Internacional dos Migrantes.

O vice-reitor da Universidade de Coimbra (UC) para as Relações Externas e Alumni, João Nuno Calvão da Silva, classificou a ação como um “gesto de solidariedade, nesta época natalícia, que a ASAE teve para com estudantes carenciados das comunidades de estudantes internacionais”.

Ao longo da cerimónia de entrega dos bens, João Nuno Calvão da Silva afirmou que “as necessidades sociais vão aumentando e o Estado não pode acudir a todas elas”

“E compete-nos a nós, entrelaçando esforços com outros Estados, também, ir acudindo. Faz parte do ADN da Universidade de Coimbra esta responsabilidade social”, sustentou.

Já o inspetor-geral da ASAE, Luís Filipe Lourenço, realçou que esta ação não só beneficia “quem necessite efetivamente deste tipo de bens”, como também passa por uma questão de sustentabilidade.

Com a doação, a ASAE não precisará destruir os produtos e prejudicar o meio ambiente para o efeito, assim como não terá de ter “uma capacidade diferenciada de encontrar soluções e recursos para o fazer”.

Luís Filipe Lourenço explicou ainda, em declarações aos jornalistas, que, para os bens poderem ser doadas, é necessário haver a aprovação da marca e a autorização de um juiz.

As peças terão de ser agora descaracterizadas, de forma a retirar ou ocultar as marcas identificativas.

“É uma vontade da administração e neste caso da ASAE que estes momentos continuem a acontecer, e continuem a acontecer para pessoas que são responsáveis para utilização deste tipo de produtos”, afirmou.

O estudante da Faculdade de Direito da UC e presidente da Organização dos Estudantes da Guiné-Bissau em Coimbra, Samuel Alfredo Gomes, afirmou aos jornalistas que irão receber mais de 400 peças, incluindo roupas e sapatos.

“O nosso departamento de integração vai proceder ao reencaminhamento destes materiais para estudantes com mais necessidades”, adiantou.

[gazetadoleste]

Sem filhos, Agnaldo Rayol deixa apenas um herdeiro; saiba quem

Agnaldo Rayol morreu no dia 04 de novembro e não deixou filhos. A questão acabou despertando a curiosidade dos fãs, que querem saber para quem irá os bens do cantor.  Agnaldo Rayol morreu após sofrer uma queda em casa (Imagem: Reprodução / Instagram) De acordo com a revista Caras, o advogado Kevin de Sousa, especialista em Direito de Família e Sucessõesm explicou que Maria Gomes, esposa do…

[tjeromebaker]

Elon Owns Trump | What Does The World's Richest Man (Elon Musk) Need From #DonaldTrump? | #Trump Is The #TrojanHorse For #ElonMusk's TakeOver of The United States Government | Elon Musk Is A #Threat To #Democracy

The Tesla and X mogul has long dreamed of redesigning the world in his own extreme image. Trump may be his Trojan horse.

Elon Musk Is A Threat To Democracy The Tesla and X mogul has long dreamed of redesigning the world in his own extreme image. Trump may be his Trojan horse. Source: The Atlantic By Franklin Foer https://iwillvote.com | Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic. Sources: Spencer Platt / Getty; Apu Gomes / Getty. In Elon Musk’s vision of human history, Donald Trump is the singularity. If Musk can…