#but wikipedia also has no trust

[yibo-best]

down jacket brand YAYA published the height and weight of Yibo (i remind, he became their world ad representative) ⤵

1.82 m 120 斤 (60 kg)

🥺🥺🥺🥺

[plant-ago]

I want to live in a world where the legacy of Robert Reich, US Labor Secretary under the Clinton administration influential liberal thinker, is overshadowed by that of his son, Sam Reich Dropout, who went into comedy and created the only good streaming platform

[thecommunityoftrustworthysinks]

mentioned this in my last post under the cut but you have no idea how much it irked me as a physicist to read about how gege consulted a FUCKING ENGINEER about limitless. an engineer. an ENGINGEERRRRRR. i just. not even a mathematician? engineers don't work with theoretical physics. engineers hardly even work with nonreal math! you're out here designing a guy whose powers involve imaginary mass and divergent series and you DON'T even go to like the two fields that actually work with those things on a semi regular basis...an engineer.......what's he telling you....how to build a bridge?????????????

[empxrical]

speaking of theories, kh4 could do SO much more with the whole metanarrative unreality thing that would be far more entertaining than "mystery man summons kingdom hearts. again" like COME ONNNN IT HAS TO BE MORE THAN THAT. IT HAS TO. THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH ME IM RIGHT ACTUALLY

[mathmusicreading]

Xiè Lián: My surname is Xiè, my first name is Lián. Huā Chéng: You can call me your third husband. Xiè Lián: What happened to my first two husbands?!

I learned Huā Chéng was having Xiè Lián call him "husband" from Ty the Canasian on Kictor's YouTube, I found this when I was trying to corroborate the linguistics, and I indulged and bought the official Seven Seas Entertainment (translator and editor are on Tumblr!) English translations of the books so here's further confirmation from Volume 1:

ETA:

I made this post private because I was unhappy with it (misspelling/misformatting Wúmíng, knowing I wouldn't have good reach for larger and less biased sample size even if I could have tagged better for the fandoms and characters if Tumblr organized by more than the first five tags), but I'm making it public again since it finished and so did the similar poll that fun-mxtx-polls was kind enough to make for me.

Not to bias towards the first option, just to explain it, the first option and why I wanted this poll come from the naming pattern trivia for MXTX's love interests/male leads/gongs, which I think you can best read on Huā Chéng's page on the Heaven Official's Blessing/Tiān Guān Cì Fú wikia. I'm just using that as my citation given:

I'm not sure if MXTX has discussed this meta in-joke somewhere and if so, where.

The SSE Glossary: Terminology note (all volumes of all three MXTX novels) only explains the second and third gongs, and implies MXTX is doing this purposefully. Lán Wàngjī's wikia page explains only the three published gongs, and implies this started from fandom phenomena creating a proto-stage pattern (if you subscribe to "one is chance, two is coincidence, three is a pattern"). Huā Chéng's page linked above is the odd man out and so probably incorrect about Lán-èr-gē vs. Lán-èr-gēge, but it goes above and beyond by explaining the fourth gong, and it uses the most neutral language regarding this trivia.

I think citation is unnecessary for "gē" (哥 | 哥) meaning "big brother" and in certain contexts having the connotation or meaning of "eldest brother" (admittedly my unverified inference), "èr" (二 | 二) meaning "two", and "sān" (三 | 三) meaning "three".

I actually like so much because I like to think if it could use more wordplay and less literalism. Please forgive me for being a poor reader not remembering exactly, not buying the TGCF raws yet, not being able to buy the SVSSS and MDZS raws, and only being able to find old fan translations/interpretations of MXTX's fourth novel preview, but let me explain:

I believe Luò Bīnghé isn't being called "Luò Bīnghé-gē" (or rather "Bīng-gē" since I think? it's more usual to use the suffix with the single/first character of a person's given name, not with their full name, especially when the full name is three (or more? some of my reading has mentioned two-character last names but I didn't find if culture was strict about then making the given name be only one character) characters) for the usual reasons to address someone with "gē", but actually the PIDW!Luò Bīnghé is being called Luò Bīnggē (or "Bīng-gē") because he's more aggressive than canon/SVSSS!Luò Bīnggē who when being differentiated gets called Luò Bīngmèi (or "Bīng-mèi"), and I love that "very fitting reasoning for the naming, not strictly literal and not so bound to literal".

Then with Lán Wàngjī, I see the opportunity that his nickname could have used the natural naming of "erhua is used as a diminutive suffix", and the "er" would have been homophonous with "èr" (二 | 二) for "two" for him being the second gong, and homophonous to the potential "proper address for him as the second Lán son/brother".

In the most literal sense, you'll notice that the gongs so far have had their nicknames be using "(big) brother" and Huā Chéng's uses láng (郎 | 郎) "son" (his stated meaning, although it can also mean "man" and "husband" and the latter is how we can interpret he wanted it to be when coming from Xiè Lián). There's nothing wrong with that and the numbers are perfectly probable, and would still be so as they grow, but also they could feel more like "contrived" coincidence, which is part of my wanting to get away from literalism a little bit, not just my loving clever wordplay. With Huā Chéng, I don't have a homophone I can use for punning like with Lán Wàngjī, or really the "cultural language use where literal suffixes/honorifics get used figuratively for XYZ purposes", but I can make it fit with character interpretation. To me, Sān Láng doesn't have to be "Third Son" because "he has two older brothers" and in fact we aren't sure that he was telling the truth about that—instead, I think Huā Chéng could be being clever with not just getting Xiè Lián to call him (Third/surname "Three") Husband but in saying his name is "Third Man" because this is the third alias he gives Xiè Lián. (Some additional feels this gives me: It's like he's saying he's the same person Xiè Lián met before, that they shared all of that experience and it mattered, that he's the final form of that person wanting to be with Xiè Lián, that he's like a fairy-tale character with many names and forms and a true name and form and all along there was a trick or thread to follow in knowing and identifying him.) It just works out so perfectly because of the third way he introduces himself to Xiè Lián matching him being the third gong, and also the fairy-tale significant number of "three".

Finally, with the fourth gong, I've looked at Suika's TGCF Afterword translation, a NovelUpdates MDZS spoilers forum post by K.san crossposted to the Grim Reapers Have No Days Off spoilers forum by alexfilia, a reply to this post in r/tianguancifu by u/chenmochou, and also this post in r/tianguancifu by u/Loud_Daikon6167 which cites a TikTok I can't see either because of TikTok's thing about opening to a random page/the homepage or I assume the TikTok being removed or locked. Given the first NovelUpdates post maybe having more of a direct translation compared to the first Reddit post, it's still not definitive to me whether this is "actually more of a fandom thing, with MXTX acknowledging and participating in it enough to help make it possible" or it's "MXTX doing this on purpose with her name choices and character traits, whether she meant to have the pattern from the start or later, and yes could have been influenced by fandom" because I think "Other: 四少" is probably about the male lead(s) compared to it following "Protagonist: the uke's name is not determined yet" so it doesn't seem like the fandom came up with a nickname out of whole cloth. "Four young masters" is perfectly probable and could be equally reasonable, and "four ikemen" could even follow in reasonability; in fact it could be more likely and realistic since this is a modern setting, which would have different use of "young master" to me, and because we believe the gong to be the regular human and the shou to be the grim reaper. But for the wordplay, I would have liked it if the gong were the grim reaper and the "four theme naming" came from the famous "sì" (四 | 四) meaning "four" is homophonous with "sǐ" (死 | 死) meaning "die/death" and the latter being used in the Chinese for "grim reaper"/"death god".

[abyssalpriest]

the amount of shit that just adds up when you do actual spirit work

[writingwithcolor]

Naming International POC Characters: Do Your Research.

This post is part of a double feature for the same ask. First check out Mod Colette's answer to OP's original question at: A Careful Balance: Portraying a Black Character's Relationship with their Hair. Below are notes on character naming from Mod Rina.

~ ~ ~

@writingraccoon said:

My character is black in a dungeons and dragons-like fantasy world. His name is Kazuki Haile (pronounced hay-lee), and his mother is this world's equivalent of Japanese, which is where his first name is from, while his father is this world's equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. He looks much more like his father, and has hair type 4a. [...]

Hold on a sec.

Haile (pronounced hay-lee), [...] [H]is father is this world’s equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. 

OP, where did you get this name? Behindthename.com, perhaps?

Note how it says, “Submitted names are contributed by users of this website. Check marks indicate the level to which a name has been verified.” Do you see any check marks, OP? 

What language is this, by the way? If we only count official languages, Ethiopia has 5: Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, & Tigrinya. If we count everything native to that region? Over 90 languages. And I haven't even mentioned the dormant/extinct ones. Do you know which language this name comes from? Have you determined Kazuki’s father’s ethnic group, religion, and language(s)? Do you know just how ethnically diverse Ethiopia is? 

~ ~ ~

To All Looking for Character Names on the Internet:

Skip the name aggregators and baby name lists. They often do not cite their sources, even if they’re pulling from credible ones, and often copy each other. 

If you still wish to use a name website, find a second source that isn’t a name website. 

Find at least one real life individual, living or dead, who has this given name or surname. Try Wikipedia’s lists of notable individuals under "List of [ethnicity] people." You can even try searching Facebook! Pay attention to when these people were born for chronological accuracy/believability. 

Make sure you know the language the name comes from, and the ethnicity/culture/religion it’s associated with. 

Make sure you understand the naming practices of that culture—how many names, where they come from, name order, and other conventions. 

Make sure you have the correct pronunciation of the name. Don’t always trust Wikipedia or American pronunciation guides on Youtube. Try to find a native speaker or language lesson source, or review the phonology & orthography and parse out the string one phoneme at a time. 

Suggestions for web sources:

Wikipedia! Look for: “List of [language] [masculine/feminine] given names,” “List of most common [language] family names,” “List of most common surnames in [continent],” and "List of [ethnicity] people."  

Census data! Harder to find due to language barriers & what governments make public, but these can really nail period accuracy. This may sound obvious, but look at the year of the character's birth, not the year your story takes place. 

Forums and Reddit. No really. Multicultural couples and expats will often ask around for what to name their children. There’s also r/namenerds, where so many folks have shared names in their language that they now have “International Name Threads.” These are all great first-hand sources for name connotations—what’s trendy vs. old-fashioned, preppy vs. nerdy, or classic vs. overused vs. obscure. 

~ ~ ~

Luckily for OP, I got very curious and did some research. More on Ethiopian & Eritrean naming, plus mixed/intercultural naming and my recommendations for this character, under the cut. It's really interesting, I promise!

Ethiopian and Eritrean Naming Practices

Haile (IPA: /həjlə/ roughly “hy-luh.” Both a & e are /ə/, a central “uh” sound) is a phrase meaning “power of” in Ge’ez, sometimes known as Classical Ethiopic, which is an extinct/dormant Semitic language that is now used as a liturgical language in Ethiopian churches (think of how Latin & Sanskrit are used today). So it's a religious name, and was likely popularized by the regnal name of the last emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie (“Power of the Trinity”). Ironically, for these reasons it is about as nationalistically “Ethiopian” as a name can get.

Haile is one of the most common “surnames” ever in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Why was that in quotes? Because Ethiopians and Eritreans don’t have surnames. Historically, when they needed to distinguish themselves from others with the same given name, they affixed their father’s given name, and then sometimes their grandfather’s. In modern Ethiopia and Eritrea, their given name is followed by a parent’s (usually father’s) name. First-generation diaspora abroad may solidify this name into a legal “surname” which is then consistently passed down to subsequent generations.

Intercultural Marriages and Naming

This means that Kazuki’s parents will have to figure out if there will be a “surname” going forward, and who it applies to. Your easiest and most likely option is that Kazuki’s dad would have chosen to make his second name (Kazuki’s grandpa’s name) the legal “surname.” The mom would have taken this name upon marriage, and Kazuki would inherit it also. Either moving abroad or the circumstances of the intercultural marriage would have motivated this. Thus “Haile” would be grandpa’s name, and Kazuki wouldn’t be taking his “surname” from his dad. This prevents the mom & Kazuki from having different “surnames.” But you will have to understand and explain where the names came from and the decisions dad made to get there. Otherwise, this will ring culturally hollow and indicate a lack of research.

Typically intercultural parents try to

come up with a first name that is pronounceable in both languages,

go with a name that is the dominant language of where they live, or

compromise and pick one parent’s language, depending on the circumstances.

Option 1 and possibly 3 requires figuring out which language is the father’s first language. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned national ubiquity of Haile, you will have to start from scratch here and figure out his ethnic group, religion (most are Ethiopian Orthodox and some Sunni Muslim), and language(s). 

But then again, writing these characters knowledgeably and respectfully also requires figuring out that information anyway.

~ ~ ~

Names and naming practices are so, so diverse. Do research into the culture and language before picking a name, and never go with only one source.

~ Mod Rina

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

The ADL is not a trusted source. Not on antisemitism. And not Palestine or Israel. An independent audit of the ADL’s antisemitism data, as well as the editors of Wikipedia, all agree.

The ADL mislabels antisemitism in service of the Israeli government’s hate campaign against Palestinians. It distorts its own data and manipulates its findings. In doing so, the ADL has caused incalculable harm to Palestinians and those who defend Palestinian rights. It has also chosen to minimize the terrifying growth of organized white supremacy, and ignored white nationalism’s increased threat to Jewish people. The ADL’s distorted data makes Jews less safe. We all deserve better.

On the same day that news broke that Wikipedia’s editors had declared the ADL unreliable on issues related to Palestine and Israel — and likely antisemitism as well — Jewish Currents published an investigation into the ADL’s data, pointing out that “serious statistical analysis [should be] done by an organization not beholden to Israel advocacy.”

The Jewish Currents’ audit of the ADL’s own data proves that, once the ADL’s anti-Palestinian and pro-Israeli government bias was removed, white nationalists are the driving force behind all forms of antisemitism. The audit also showed that the ADL’s reporting may “significantly undercount right-wing antisemitic incidents.” In short, the ADL’s attempts to smear the movement for Palestinian freedom not only provided cover for the real source of antisemitism (white supremacy), but actually minimized the “stunning growth of organized white nationalism.” None of this makes anyone safe.

On the same day, in a near unanimous vote, Wikipedia editors declared the ADL to be “generally unreliable” on Palestine and Israel, adding it to a list of sources of propaganda or misinformation that includes the National Inquirer and Newsmax. Wikipedia editors also said that “the ADL should not be cited for factual information on antisemitism as well because it acts primarily as a pro-Israel organization and tends to label legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitism.”

[chaos-has-theories]

I'm so glad you asked! Or not, because I just spent an hour digging through google.

I found nothing. Which is funny, because a year or so ago, when I did this whole search for the first time, I did.

This whole article doesn't exist anymore. Extant links now lead to "Lipofuscin". Neither that not "beta carotene" talks about cattle at all.

*dons conspiracy cap*

...look, it only halfway matters anyway. It's "calf-eyed" because Gideon's eyes are Alecto's eyes, and Alecto's eyes are John's eyes - because Alecto is John's eye, like Hathor is Ra's, and Hathor is a cow goddess. Ta-dah.

I’m losing my mind over mercymorn calling gideon-in-harrow (who she thinks is alecto-in-harrow) a “great big calf-eyed fuck up.” what does that mean??? when she says it she still hasn’t put together that alecto and john swapped eyes. given what we know from nona about cows, what is the significance of john’s yellow eyes being described as calf-like? is mercy referring to the color (unlikely, calf eyes aren’t yellow, unless you’re talking about eyeshine, see below) or to some other quality?

so then you have to wonder: were those actually john’s original eyes or are they some kind of side effect of resurrection? if john had those eyes before the resurrection then at least some of the lyctors would have already known that alecto had his eyes. so he must have had different eyes pre-resurrection. and then the yellow eyes could have something to do with murdering all those cows. right? am I crazy? someone help

[hotvintagepoll]

FINAL POLL OF ROUND 4

Propaganda

Gregory Peck (Spellbound, To Kill a Mockingbird, Roman Holiday)—i mean, just look at him. his performance in to kill a mockingbird is probably responsible for millions of people being into dilfs. aside from being absurdly gorgeous, he was also a genuinely good person and a political activist throughout his life! (you know a guy is great when he was listed as a personal enemy of richard nixon.)

Paul Robeson (Showboat, The Emperor Jones)—this man's life was fucking wild [link to his Wikipedia]

This is round 4 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man. Gentle reminder from admin that the propaganda cuts off at 1970, so anything made after that point will not be included.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Gregory Peck propaganda:

“With  Peck, it's a kindliness and inward strength whose appeal is universal. If you were to put into words the feeling he gave you, you'd say something like this: "That's a guy to trust. That's a guy you could talk to if you needed to talk to someone. He could touch a raw spot without hurting it too much. You could take courage from him" -modern screen august 1946

"Another thing about Peck. He sees you, if you know what I mean. To most of them, you're the unit man or the hairdresser or the little fellow who comes around with cokes. Beyond that they don't look. Greg's aware of you as an individual. Not that he starts asking about your ulcers. You just know he sees humans as humans first — not as cogs in a machine." -a girl who worked at the studio when asked about him

“Handsome face, beautiful eyes, amazing voice- what else do you need?”

"Tall, whip-lean, ruggedly handsome, he has a magnetic voice guaranteed to send shivers up and down feminine spines.” -modern screen may 1944

“His lanky 6' 2 1/2" frame, lithe 170 pounds, unruly brown hair and thoughtful brown eyes”

“She mentioned his large frame, his great shoulders and swinging stride. She praised his deep, dark eyes, and his prominent cheek bones. She described his strong jaw line, and his shock of dark hair, one lock always trying to fall forward over his forehead.” -a fan describing gregory peck to her father after seeing him on the big screen for the first time

Paul Robeson propaganda:

[keypaa]

Astrology Observations No.5 🧛🏻‍♀️💋🖤👻

(+ a bit creepy stuff)

I use the whole sign system

Uranus opposition Ascendant & strangers talking to you all of a sudden in unexpected ways and places

Mars in 8th house get attacked by spirits often (sleep paralysis, seeing shadows, feeling presences) in many places you go to

!Sensitive topic¡

Astroid Medusa (149) in strong aspects (usually squares) with the north node/southnode + pluto indicate r*pe. I saw it in two of my friends chart. The north node can be seen as destiny. Even if you don't have this aspect and still went through this i love you you are never alone ❣︎

Scorpio ascendants attract a whole bunch of creeps trust your gut and keep it safe people always pay attention to what you are doing you just need to look closer

Lilith in the 10th house and females being annoyed of their presence in the work place. Usually also attract a whole bunch of jealousy in school, uni or at work. Michele Avil that was murdered by her best friend because of jealousy had this placement

Moon in Scorpio hate not having control they know how to (atleast try) to get someone to do something. Positive note good investigators who would make great psychologists, detectives and so on

So well if you have a bunch of 1st house, 8th house or 12th house placements in planets like venus, mars, moon or lilith you are more prone to attract stalkers atleast once in your life KEEP IT SAFE and I mean it¡! And by stalkers I also mean people who do a whole bunch of research on you and your life or keep following you obsessively on social media.

Don't leak unnecessary information about you and try to not go to quite places alone where no one could find you if something would happen.

Lilith in leo are feared by females loved by men

Venus in 10th house don't tell anyone about your love life trust me even tho people always find things to say and spread rumors about. You will publicly be known for what is happening in your love life.

Moon in aries need to be feared, if introverted it takes long to see their anger but most aries moons show ther anger explosively nevertheless they cool down rather quickly, loyal to their loved ones tho

Don't fuxk with leo venus friends they take care of them like a lion mother, dedicated

Venus in capricorn always have enemys

Masculines with libra placements always fall for people who don't love them the same way/or for absolutely toxic & crazzzy people

Lilith in the 22nd degree are necrophilists. Just look at Richard Ramirez chart, he loved s*x with the dead.

According to Ian Altosaar the 22nd degree is about murder and I combined this information with liliths nature, hidden desire. 👻Ps: Most necrophilists are men not always but almost all the time https://ijop.net/index.php/mlu/article/download/734/688/1339 or on Wikipedia (not so reliable source but says that about 92% are men)

Virgo placements get underratedly sexualised a whole lot. The biggest p*rn star right now has virgo placements. Also virgo liliths can be se*ualised

Pisces moons had a time of their life where they cried a lot or still are very emotional (nothing bad). Other than that they can be dangerously manipulative if they want to and feel every slight difference in someones behavior

Aquarius ascendants and loving colorful clothing

Juno (3) in aries and rooting for ambitious people that behave masculine in a loving manner (romantically)

Juno (3) in aquarius want a partner that sticks out from the masses

Mercury in sagittarius have a special voice

Pholus (astroid) shows you what transformed you the most in your life:

1st hous/Aries: You yourself/sports caused a transformation in your life

2st house/Taurus: Your financial situation changed you

3rd house/Gemini: The area where you live in (hood) affected you, or off topic your car/drivers license

4rd house/Cancer: Your home life, emotions or femininity

5th house/Leo: Creative skills of yours or recognition transformed you

6th house/Virgo: Routine or your health/hygiene plays/played a crucial role in your life

7th house/Libra: Your love life/ or glow up affected your life view

8th house/Scorpio: Deaths, paranormal stuff, operations, accidents and your sexuality transformed your way of dealing with life

9th house/ Saggitarius: Other cultures, traveling and your ancestors trigger something in you

10th house/Capricorn: Your work, work environment and accomplishments changed you

11th house/Aquarius: Humanitarian topics, technology and friends started your transformation journey

12th house/Pisces: Religion, spirituality & plastic surgerys may have affected your journey of developing your sense of self

Luvvv muah

3:18 PM

555

© 2024 the content is subject to the copyright and responsibility of the author

[itsnotso]

Art nouveau inspired Crowley The Snake of Eden

Click the image for better quality

Symbolism breakdown and closeups under the cut (buckle up 'cause there's a lot of symbolism. You have been warned)

This whole piece took me over 18 hours to finish (closer to 19 if my calculations are correct, and this is without including the planing/thumbnails) so I hope you'll enjoy 😊

Symbolism:

Snake - Crowleys serpent form/the snake of Eden

Stars and moon- Crowley is (or at least was) the Starmaker, so I wanted to include some astronomy related imagery

The constellation on the dark side of the moon is Serpens Caput - Snakes Head (I know this is not how the moon works, and it's not possible to see the stars through it, but this is my artistic interpretation, because I wanted to include stars. I also know this is not exacly how this constellation looks, but it's close enough)

The frame around the moon doubles as the clock face, because of Crowleys time manipulation powers and his association with time in general

The yellow/golden rays emiting from the clock make it look like the sun during eclipse

Crowleys hair has a gradient making it look like fire (a reference to his fall to hell)

Flower symbolism (from left to right):

Monstera plant - I used it because it's one of the plants Crowley has, but also the name Monstera sounds very similar to the word monster (plus it looks nice)

Ambrosia - love is reciprocated

Purple hyacinth - grief, regret and sorrow

Pansy - thoughtfulness, affection, friendship, "think of me"; can also symbolise sorrow and regret (and in the context of Good Omens, there's also THE Southern Pansy)

Tulips in general - deep, perfect love, consuming love

Yellow tulips - cheerfulness, hope, desperate/hopeless love (also we all know Aziraphale thinks that yellow is pretty 💛)

Bellflower - unwavering love, a constant heart

Daisy in general - loyal love

Blue daisy - long term layalty and trust

Forget-me-not - true/faithful love, affectionate remembrance, don't forget me

Amaranth in general - immortality

Globe amaranth - immortal love

Snake plant - I used it because Crowley is a snake, and it looks cool

Lilly of the valley - returning happiness

I know it was a lot so thanks everyone who took the time to read all of my rambling. I really like adding stuff like this to my illustrations, so that they have more of a meaning and thought behind them 😅

Usually I also put the WIP photos alongside the finished piece, but this post is already long enough. I might add some of it later in the reblog

Again, thanks for reading and I wish you all a great day/night 💙

Sources:

Wikipedia article about plant symbolism

Article about flowers symbolizing regret

About tulip symbolism

[literallymechanical]

Alessandro Volta's Electric Eels

Okay so, it turns out that your cell phone battery is a basically a homunculus of an electric fish. 

These are the same thing. Let me explain.

@fishteriously, a paleoichthyologist, told me that Alessandro Volta invented the electric battery after studying electric eels and rays.  This sounded like a fun science factoid!  I wanted to know more!  I saw the claim repeated on any number of pop science articles from the last century or so, but none that quoted from primary sources.

The voltaic pile is one of the most important inventions, ever, of all time.  Before Volta, electricity could be stored in Leyden jar capacitors, which would discharge in a single, brief burst. Volta's pile was the first method of producing a continuous electric current, which launched the modern era of electricity as we know it. His explanation for how it worked was incorrect, but it was still a massive breakthrough.

Batteries use the same principle to this day, just with different materials (e.g. cobalt oxide, graphite, and lithium salts rather than silver, zinc, and brine).

But is it a fish?

This is Volta's first schematic of a battery, or "voltaic pile" – at the time, "battery" referred to a bunch of Leyden jars linked in series, the term wouldn't come to refer to piles until later. "Z" and "A" stand for zinc and silver ("argentum"), with brine-soaked paper disks between. It does look a bit like an eel?

But is it truly?

Surely, if Volta modeled the pile after electric fishes, I’d be able to find a citation!  Wikipedia is usually a good place to start when hunting primary sources, but no luck.  No mention of fish at all.  I trust fishteriously more than wikipedia, however, so I went digging.  Looks like Volta first reported his discovery in a Letter to the Royal Society in 1800.

Found the letter!

Aw beans, it’s in French.  I haven’t studied French since high school.

BUT WAIT. WHAT WAS THAT.

Une commotion électrique? A trembling eel???

Okay so now I NEEDED to read the letter in English. I found an English-language summary published by the Royal Society, but it looks like the only English translation of the full letter was in the appendix of an out-of-print book called “Alessandro Volta and the Electric Battery.”

So I bought a used copy. Let's see what Volta has to say about this:

"To this apparatus ... I have constructed it, in its form to the natural electric organ of the torpedo or electric eel, &c, than to the Leyden flask and electric batteries [battery = linked Leyden flasks], I would wish to give the name of artificial electric organ."

Yes! The voltaic pile was explicitly modeled after electric fishes – torpedo rays and electric eels.  Fishteriously was 100% correct. Volta never even calls it a "pile," it is always "artificial electric organ." A significant portion of the letter is devoted to electric eels and torpedo rays, in fact.

But also, the rest of the letter is bonkers.

He wrote pages on painful experiments with the artificial electric organ – touching it, poking it into his eyes and ears, making other people touch it, generally just shocking the ever loving hell out of himself over and over. He routinely shocks himself so hard that he has to take breaks. And of course, he licks it.

But that's not the best part:

He says that the artificial electric organ can be turned sideways and submerged in liquid...

"...by which means these cylinders would have a pretty good resemblance to the electric eel ... they might be joined together by pliable metallic wires or screw springs, and then covered with a skin terminated by a head and tail properly formed, &c."

There you have it. One of the most important scientific discoveries of all time, and it includes a crafts project for building an authentic electric eel puppet.

In summary, next time you charge your phone, take a moment to thank the soul of the electric fish inside of it.

[lilacstro]

Electional astrology: chart of your social media account

lol let's go with another post. Phew!! this post tested my fingers fr, it took me a long time to tie all of this down.

Electional astrology, also known as event astrology, is a branch found in most traditions of astrology according to which a practitioner decides the most appropriate time for an event based on the astrological auspiciousness of that time(source: Wikipedia)

i seriously don't remember whose post I saw here a few weeks ago regarding this topic, if you tell me, I will immediately credit you for the inspiration behind this post. That post was more than 4 years ago i remember.

Ok so today we will talk about a non serious but making-sense kind of topic yet again. Let's go, the chart of your social media

Hence, you can go on astro seek and look for a favorable planetary alignment in your calendar if you wish to start a new account in a particular niche with whatever knowledge I am sharing with you below. I tested this with my account (I have my exact account time lmao) and other social media platforms:))

✰Chart preparation

This chart can simply be prepared using the time and place and date of when you started your social media, just like how we prepare natal charts. You can use either of astro-seek or astro.com as you please

For some people, I have a tip! if you started your account recently or even a few weeks/months ago on a laptop/computer, go into your search history and search for your account name. Then, find the entry that is earlies and then right click on time that appears and see click inspect, you should be able to see the exact time of your account. I will show how.

press ctrl+H

search for your account name

3. go for the date thats earliest

4. now right click on the date and click inspect

5. you should be able to see the date and time. The full timestamp with the user timezone is displayed inside title field

Now, even if you don't have the exact time, its ABSOLUETELY fine. You can use any nearest time to your memory or maybe, only the date works too, but we would just be able to see your sun and moon sign.

✰INTERPRETING YOUR CHART

cool, now that you have your chart, we will first look at the rising, sun, moon sign. then we will look at your 10th house and other notes will be mentioned below.

⭐combination of sun, rising sign and MC: how your account looks, how you act on your account, your followers engage and stuff like that

⭐moon sign: you main central theme of what your account is about and what your content feels like.

⭐take the sun, rising sign and MC from below, and find common grounds:

1.aries: your account could be come off as opinionated or polarising, people might find your account overwhelming at times or maybe a have an overwhelming feeling about it, however, if you aim to create an account with this motive, maybe a sport/war-related/martian entertainment kinda account, this is pretty cool

2.Taurus: your account might actually look very aesthetically pleasing, if you post to get noticed for your fashion sense or jwellery aesthetic or pintresty-things like that, you will be noticed. you might actually post in a healthy manner and consistently. for some reasons makes me think you should like posting videos on this account maybe? also good for starting music related things aswell. you can post finance related stuff or actually earn through your account people would be willing to trust you w their money

3.Gemini : your account actually can see people commenting a lot, or even sharing their opinions and causing some kind of debate in the comment section lol. Basically if you are looking for people engagement, its very possible here. you might actually like to explain/ teach or talk about things? like tutorials or observation kind of things too.. you might like posting long captions/memes or things like so. edit:twitter has a gemini moon

4.Cancer: sweet and cute kinda account, people might find your account very sweet and welcoming at sorts, so your followers should be that kind of people, you should see sucess if you post heartwarming content like for kids or new moms etc. you might also have a lot of attachment to your account here, and might post a lot of personal thoughts, personal poetry, song covers or things here. you can get very hurt if someone says something upsetting and be super protective of your account. your account should make people super comfortable and make them act on how they feel tbh

[lol edit 4, twitter is a cancer]

5.Leo: YOU CAN NEVER GO WRONG HERE, if your account gets a leo rising, you should see a good public following regardless of the content you post. account engagement and reach should get better with time.

6.Virgo: other people/you yourself might get really critical of your account, paying attention to the smallest details and things like that(GOOGLE IS LITERALLY A SEARCH ENGINE LMAO). You might constantly struggle and go between deleting your account or something too (i can second this one tbh) but on a good note or maybe bad note idk you decide, you will be hyper vigilant of what you post and how do people think of it. But since its a mercury ruled sign, you should expect it to do good on the internet and the web related arena in general.

EDIT3

7.Libra: Another bomber for social media placements, people would love what you show, expect a ton of people to interact with your posts, or at least like them. Beautiful, eye pleasing account aesthetic. You can post things about fashion, jwellery and if you post yourself, these things should come to notice.

LOL EDIT:

8.Scorpio: this fr gives your account so much intensity, now depends on your sun/moon and other planetary placements on how this actually goes cos it can actually make your account seem isolated and off putting kinda, people might get a little skeptical to follow you maybe??? thats why i say, what kind of intensity is important, it may actually be like that your account has no posts at all or even if you do, it somehow doesnt reach the audience so yeahhhh.... it can also be that you guys post a lot of dark/black and white aesthetic things or be into sad poetry or things like that. seen a lot of withcraft/spell and manifestation accounts w this one

9.Sagittarius: You would be so chill w your account, post what you like, say what you like, your real self comes out unapologetically lmao. This is good for people who are very self critical of the things they post, like art accounts or things like that. People should find your account very authentic and representing you as a person so that would be cool, whoever follows you/likes your content, is actually a real fan of your work i must say. your account actually might look very distinctive and unconventional too. it is also very possible you gain following from all over the world, even if small.

EDIT: guess who we have with this placement, upon my research it was December or late November

10.Capricorn: Your account might actually give strict vibes, i mean it could be that you follow certain type of people only, only post certain type of content and dont go beyond it? irdk it seems so to me. It could also be you guys are very careful of who you follow, what you post and who follows you back too. Very protective and secured of your account I must say. Your account might actually look very clean and organised too.

11.Aquarius: this gives me the SUPER TUMBLR vibes lol, quirky, very self expressive, and people would actually find your account. might use multiple colors. welcoming and relatable, to be themselves while interacting with it. You guys might not be afraid to post anything without second thought lol. This is pretty cool placement for making apps and websites and things that has to do with the web in general. Your account should infact see growth with time. People might find it easy to talk on your account???? comment??? or maybe you could receive a lot of dms or things like that. People might even make friends through your account maybe so its cool if you wanna start something sorts of brotherhood, or feminism or support groups. you could be first of a kind to do something too.

EDIT: lol tumblr is aquarius most probably and facebook and yt too

12. Pisces: People might find your account very charming and appealing in some sorts, addictive for some. There is something about your account that could feel very otherworldly, something that offers an escape for people. You could be into posting ethereal arts, pictures and other enchanting stuff, even crystals and spirituality. Some of them may idealize your account take inspirations from you, some of them might find it too good to be true at sorts. You might make people wanting to wait for your posts or something lol

edit 6: pintrest

✰Moon sign

this can determine what you account contents or topics could be or seem like, basically, your niche. Infact, a stellium of planets could give some same effect

⭐Aries: Action, Adventure, Competitive Sports

⭐Taurus: Lifestyle, Home Decor, Culinary, food vlogging, plants, fashion, music, healing sounds, asmr

⭐Gemini: Comedy, Short Films, News, debates, tutorials (even for astrology, spiritual sciences, academical subjects etc), memes, something that instills thoughts and causes some kind of discussion even if its with one self.

⭐Cancer: writing, poetry, history, kids content, new mother/motherly content, feminine things, home decor, emotional management, Personal stories, family moments, relationship advice, emotional well-being etc

⭐Leo: all forms of arts (music/theater/dance etc), Reality TV, Celebrity News, anything that seizes attention, influencers

⭐Virgo: Documentaries, Health, Educational Content, fitness and nutrition, writing, journalism, crafts, pets

⭐Libra: styling, hair & makeup, music, interior design, photography, Romance, Arts, Social Commentary, Fashion, art, relationship advice, social justice, collaborations, jewelery, influencers

⭐Scorpio: Mystery, Thriller, Investigative Journalism, Deep dives, psychological insights, transformation stories, mysteries, taboo topics, the occult, anything witchy

⭐Sagittarius: Travel, Adventure, Philosophy, Arts, honest Reaction/opinion videos, astrology, spirituality, poems, comedy, entertainment, sports, creative things, DIYs

⭐Capricorn: Business, Biographies, Historical Dramas, Career advice, business tips, success stories, structured routines.

⭐Aquarius: Science Fiction, Tech, Social Innovation, Technology trends, futuristic concepts, social innovation, quirky ideas, gadget reviews, coding help, humanitarianism, unconventional things LGBTQIA+, unconventional fashion etc

⭐Pisces: Fantasy, Spirituality, Music, Inspirational quotes, fantasy art, music, spirituality, meditative practices, crystals, healing, astrology

✰Planetary alignments

Having sun in 1st and 10th house is extremely good

Having saturn in public/extroverted houses isnt much cool. If in 10th, it could mean its a slow and steady wins the race but in 1st it can make you super conscious and restrictive of how you post

Similarly, having chiron in extroverted houses may make you insecure, and very hyper aware of the things you post and if they are "matching the rules/aesthetics" or even making you feel insecure about posting in general and making you people conscious. You may even wanna delete it constantly or feel unsatisfied.

Having mars in 1st/10th/extroverted houses could mean you would post a lot

Having Venus or Jupiter in 2nd/10th or even extroverted houses could be a sign you can earn money through your account or people would be willing to give you money

Jupiter in 1st or 10th would expand your public image and give you a balanced-well liked view, you would be well liked

Uranus in public houses could mean you like to post sporadically or unexpected things

Neptune in public houses could actually make you look "too good to be true" and some people might actually get obsessed with your account, but some can find you superficial as well. Also beware about losing your passwords/online fraud/hacking kinda stuff

Similarly, if your mars conjuncts Uranus (esp in a public house) could mean you don't post often but when you do its a lott

Vertex or PoF in extroverted houses is again very lucky, you can expect big opportunities or luck coming in through your account

Moon in public houses could mean people connect to your posts and they are well liked/shared

--⭐-----⭐------⭐------⭐-----⭐-----⭐-----⭐-----⭐-----⭐---

✰EXTRAS:

I would suggest not starting on new moons, as they signify endings.

Dont start when a LOT of planets are in retrograde

If possible, check moon-venus, mercury-venus, moon-mercury aspects

Dont start if Jupiter or Venus are in harsh aspects.

--⭐-----⭐------⭐------⭐-----⭐-----⭐-----⭐-----⭐-----⭐---

paid readings are open<33

support me on ko-fi :)

this for me is the best post I have ever made until on this acc haha, tell me what was the best post you have seen on my account and why, I would love to know

xoxo

[marikbentusi]

I wasn't interested much in the Gwenpool Fortnite collab (fingerless gloves are a cute tweak), but someone asked on Twitter about "evil future Gwenpool" being labelled "Dark Gwenpool" ingame (which is what I've been calling my fan character variant since 2020):

"Dark" is a very common prefix for evil alter egos, so even if people occasionally mistake my comics for official material, I was certain this was a coincidence. But then the person also casually pointed out that she's called "Dark GwenPool" on Wikipedia. Huh?

No sources cited as far as I can tell. One of the original Gwenpool creators even agreed that "Dark Gwenpool" was never official:

I hunted down the Wikipedia changelog where apparently someone injected all the Dark Gwenpool stuff on 8th of April this year (2024). So maybe someone on the Fortnite team checked Google/Wikipedia instead of making up the name from scratch.

I tried to hunt down the wiki editor for questioning only to find out they are banned for being a sockpuppet account. In fact, that user was such a prolific sockpuppeteer that they've got their own Wikipedia page listing all 164 suspected alts. One of them is called "Batrocfrogg", what kind of canonization assist from beyond the grave is this?!

Since that lead went cold, I looked at the sources the wiki edit gave when talking about the character more generally. Aside from the official comics where she isn't called Dark Gwenpool, we've got:

"Peter Parker & Miles Morales: Spider-Men Double Trouble #2" – evil Gwen just has a cosplay background cameo there, no name drop.

Marvel Duel, a niche F2P mobile card game, where she's an antagonist.

The person who first pointed out to me that "Dark Gwenpool" was also on Wikipedia dug around and found a screenshot that evil Gwen is indeed called "Dark Gwenpool" in Marvel Duel:

Obviously I assume the Marvel Duel devs just made that one up without knowing about my comics. Case closed on that lead! But I'm not sure if the Wiki edit was based on this.

Marvel Duel, if we can still trust its wiki page, only released in eight countries. They are mostly in the UTC+8 time zone. The edit was finished on ~22:00 UTC+0, which would be Tuesday 05:00 AM local time if the editor is from one of those countries themselves. Of course, maybe the person played an emulated/jailbroken version (the game does come in English), watched a foreign Let's Play, or is just a super night owl. None of these are stranger than having 146 sockpuppet accounts. But it also doesn't exactly help the edit's credibility like I had hoped.

I also don't know if Marvel Duel included the name variations "Dark GwenPool" and "Dark Gwen" that the Wiki editor used specifically (in the screencap above she's stylized differently). The editor also called her the "evil alternator future version" tho, so maybe they aren't a stickler for details.

----

But yeah the TL;DR is that "Dark GwenPool" is currently the main name for evil Gwen on Wikipedia with no source cited. Marvel Duel calling her that as well was probably just coincidence. Maybe Fortnite also made it up, or they copied it from Wikipedia, or maybe they copied it from Marvel Duel itself.

I thought it was weird and funny enough to share. 164 sockpuppets. WTF.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Big Tech disrupted disruption

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/2024/02/08/permanent-overlords/#republicans-want-to-defund-the-police

Before "disruption" turned into a punchline, it was a genuinely exciting idea. Using technology, we could connect people to one another and allow them to collaborate, share, and cooperate to make great things happen.

It's easy (and valid) to dismiss the "disruption" of Uber, which "disrupted" taxis and transit by losing $31b worth of Saudi royal money in a bid to collapse the world's rival transportation system, while quietly promising its investors that it would someday have pricing power as a monopoly, and would attain profit through price-gouging and wage-theft.

Uber's disruption story was wreathed in bullshit: lies about the "independence" of its drivers, about the imminence of self-driving taxis, about the impact that replacing buses and subways with millions of circling, empty cars would have on traffic congestion. There were and are plenty of problems with traditional taxis and transit, but Uber magnified these problems, under cover of "disrupting" them away.

But there are other feats of high-tech disruption that were and are genuinely transformative – Wikipedia, GNU/Linux, RSS, and more. These disruptive technologies altered the balance of power between powerful institutions and the businesses, communities and individuals they dominated, in ways that have proven both beneficial and durable.

When we speak of commercial disruption today, we usually mean a tech company disrupting a non-tech company. Tinder disrupts singles bars. Netflix disrupts Blockbuster. Airbnb disrupts Marriott.

But the history of "disruption" features far more examples of tech companies disrupting other tech companies: DEC disrupts IBM. Netscape disrupts Microsoft. Google disrupts Yahoo. Nokia disrupts Kodak, sure – but then Apple disrupts Nokia. It's only natural that the businesses most vulnerable to digital disruption are other digital businesses.

And yet…disruption is nowhere to be seen when it comes to the tech sector itself. Five giant companies have been running the show for more than a decade. A couple of these companies (Apple, Microsoft) are Gen-Xers, having been born in the 70s, then there's a couple of Millennials (Amazon, Google), and that one Gen-Z kid (Facebook). Big Tech shows no sign of being disrupted, despite the continuous enshittification of their core products and services. How can this be? Has Big Tech disrupted disruption itself?

That's the contention of "Coopting Disruption," a new paper from two law profs: Mark Lemley (Stanford) and Matthew Wansley (Yeshiva U):

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4713845

The paper opens with a review of the literature on disruption. Big companies have some major advantages: they've got people and infrastructure they can leverage to bring new products to market more cheaply than startups. They've got existing relationships with suppliers, distributors and customers. People trust them.

Diversified, monopolistic companies are also able to capture "involuntary spillovers": when Google spends money on AI for image recognition, it can improve Google Photos, YouTube, Android, Search, Maps and many other products. A startup with just one product can't capitalize on these spillovers in the same way, so it doesn't have the same incentives to spend big on R&D.

Finally, big companies have access to cheap money. They get better credit terms from lenders, they can float bonds, they can tap the public markets, or just spend their own profits on R&D. They can also afford to take a long view, because they're not tied to VCs whose funds turn over every 5-10 years. Big companies get cheap money, play a long game, pay less to innovate and get more out of innovation.

But those advantages are swamped by the disadvantages of incumbency, all the various curses of bigness. Take Arrow's "replacement effect": new companies that compete with incumbents drive down the incumbents' prices and tempt their customers away. But an incumbent that buys a disruptive new company can just shut it down, and whittle down its ideas to "sustaining innovation" (small improvements to existing products), killing "disruptive innovation" (major changes that make the existing products obsolete).

Arrow's Replacement Effect also comes into play before a new product even exists. An incumbent that allows a rival to do R&D that would eventually disrupt its product is at risk; but if the incumbent buys this pre-product, R&D-heavy startup, it can turn the research to sustaining innovation and defund any disruptive innovation.

Arrow asks us to look at the innovation question from the point of view of the company as a whole. Clayton Christensen's "Innovator's Dilemma" looks at the motivations of individual decision-makers in large, successful companies. These individuals don't want to disrupt their own business, because that will render some part of their own company obsolete (perhaps their own division!). They also don't want to radically change their customers' businesses, because those customers would also face negative effects from disruption.

A startup, by contrast, has no existing successful divisions and no giant customers to safeguard. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain from disruption. Where a large company has no way for individual employees to initiate major changes in corporate strategy, a startup has fewer hops between employees and management. What's more, a startup that rewards an employee's good idea with a stock-grant ties that employee's future finances to the outcome of that idea – while a giant corporation's stock bonuses are only incidentally tied to the ideas of any individual worker.

Big companies are where good ideas go to die. If a big company passes on its employees' cool, disruptive ideas, that's the end of the story for that idea. But even if 100 VCs pass on a startup's cool idea and only one VC funds it, the startup still gets to pursue that idea. In startup land, a good idea gets lots of chances – in a big company, it only gets one.

Given how innately disruptable tech companies are, given how hard it is for big companies to innovate, and given how little innovation we've gotten from Big Tech, how is it that the tech giants haven't been disrupted?

The authors propose a four-step program for the would-be Tech Baron hoping to defend their turf from disruption.

First, gather information about startups that might develop disruptive technologies and steer them away from competing with you, by investing in them or partnering with them.

Second, cut off any would-be competitor's supply of resources they need to develop a disruptive product that challenges your own.

Third, convince the government to pass regulations that big, established companies can comply with but that are business-killing challenges for small competitors.

Finally, buy up any company that resists your steering, succeeds despite your resource war, and escapes the compliance moats of regulation that favors incumbents.

Then: kill those companies.

The authors proceed to show that all four tactics are in play today. Big Tech companies operate their own VC funds, which means they get a look at every promising company in the field, even if they don't want to invest in them. Big Tech companies are also awash in money and their "rival" VCs know it, and so financial VCs and Big Tech collude to fund potential disruptors and then sell them to Big Tech companies as "aqui-hires" that see the disruption neutralized.

On resources, the authors focus on data, and how companies like Facebook have explicit policies of only permitting companies they don't see as potential disruptors to access Facebook data. They reproduce internal Facebook strategy memos that divide potential platform users into "existing competitors, possible future competitors, [or] developers that we have alignment with on business models." These categories allow Facebook to decide which companies are capable of developing disruptive products and which ones aren't. For example, Amazon – which doesn't compete with Facebook – is allowed to access FB data to target shoppers. But Messageme, a startup, was cut off from Facebook as soon as management perceived them as a future rival. Ironically – but unsurprisingly – Facebook spins these policies as pro-privacy, not anti-competitive.

These data policies cast a long shadow. They don't just block existing companies from accessing the data they need to pursue disruptive offerings – they also "send a message" to would-be founders and investors, letting them know that if they try to disrupt a tech giant, they will have their market oxygen cut off before they can draw breath. The only way to build a product that challenges Facebook is as Facebook's partner, under Facebook's direction, with Facebook's veto.

Next, regulation. Starting in 2019, Facebook started publishing full-page newspaper ads calling for regulation. Someone ghost-wrote a Washington Post op-ed under Zuckerberg's byline, arguing the case for more tech regulation. Google, Apple, OpenAI other tech giants have all (selectively) lobbied in favor of many regulations. These rules covered a lot of ground, but they all share a characteristic: complying with them requires huge amounts of money – money that giant tech companies can spare, but potential disruptors lack.

Finally, there's predatory acquisitions. Mark Zuckerberg, working without the benefit of a ghost writer (or in-house counsel to review his statements for actionable intent) has repeatedly confessed to buying companies like Instagram to ensure that they never grow to be competitors. As he told one colleague, "I remember your internal post about how Instagram was our threat and not Google+. You were basically right. The thing about startups though is you can often acquire them.”

All the tech giants are acquisition factories. Every successful Google product, almost without exception, is a product they bought from someone else. By contrast, Google's own internal products typically crash and burn, from G+ to Reader to Google Videos. Apple, meanwhile, buys 90 companies per year – Tim Apple brings home a new company for his shareholders more often than you bring home a bag of groceries for your family. All the Big Tech companies' AI offerings are acquisitions, and Apple has bought more AI companies than any of them.

Big Tech claims to be innovating, but it's really just operationalizing. Any company that threatens to disrupt a tech giant is bought, its products stripped of any really innovative features, and the residue is added to existing products as a "sustaining innovation" – a dot-release feature that has all the innovative disruption of rounding the corners on a new mobile phone.

The authors present three case-studies of tech companies using this four-point strategy to forestall disruption in AI, VR and self-driving cars. I'm not excited about any of these three categories, but it's clear that the tech giants are worried about them, and the authors make a devastating case for these disruptions being disrupted by Big Tech.

What do to about it? If we like (some) disruption, and if Big Tech is enshittifying at speed without facing dethroning-by-disruption, how do we get the dynamism and innovation that gave us the best of tech?

The authors make four suggestions.

First, revive the authorities under existing antitrust law to ban executives from Big Tech companies from serving on the boards of startups. More broadly, kill interlocking boards altogether. Remember, these powers already exist in the lawbooks, so accomplishing this goal means a change in enforcement priorities, not a new act of Congress or rulemaking. What's more, interlocking boards between competing companies are illegal per se, meaning there's no expensive, difficult fact-finding needed to demonstrate that two companies are breaking the law by sharing directors.

Next: create a nondiscrimination policy that requires the largest tech companies that share data with some unaffiliated companies to offer data on the same terms to other companies, except when they are direct competitors. They argue that this rule will keep tech giants from choking off disruptive technologies that make them obsolete (rather than competing with them).

On the subject of regulation and compliance moats, they have less concrete advice. They counsel lawmakers to greet tech giants' demands to be regulated with suspicion, to proceed with caution when they do regulate, and to shape regulation so that it doesn't limit market entry, by keeping in mind the disproportionate burdens regulations put on established giants and small new companies. This is all good advice, but it's more a set of principles than any kind of specific practice, test or procedure.

Finally, they call for increased scrutiny of mergers, including mergers between very large companies and small startups. They argue that existing law (Sec 2 of the Sherman Act and Sec 7 of the Clayton Act) both empower enforcers to block these acquisitions. They admit that the case-law on this is poor, but that just means that enforcers need to start making new case-law.

I like all of these suggestions! We're certainly enjoying a more activist set of regulators, who are more interested in Big Tech, than we've seen in generations.

But they are grossly under-resourced even without giving them additional duties. As Matt Stoller points out, "the DOJ's Antitrust Division has fewer people enforcing anti-monopoly laws in a $24 trillion economy than the Smithsonian Museum has security guards."

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/congressional-republicans-to-defund

What's more, Republicans are trying to slash their budgets even further. The American conservative movement has finally located a police force they're eager to defund: the corporate police who defend us all from predatory monopolies.

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

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