#custom drone solutions

[dronesurfusa]

Dronesurf

Website: https://www.dronesurf.com/

Address: 

East Coast HQ: 130 13th Ave, Indialantic, Florida 32903, United States

West Coast HQ: 1315 W 149th St, Gardena, California, 90247, United States

Dronesurf, based in Florida and California, specializes in high-quality drone aerial cinematography. They offer a range of services including drone rentals, stock footage, and custom projects. Their portfolio showcases diverse applications of drone technology in cinematography, highlighting their expertise in this field. Dronesurf is your go-to solution for professional aerial footage, delivering innovative perspectives for various projects.

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[i4technolab]

In today’s fast-paced world of logistics innovation and evolution have become the driving forces behind success. As we step into 2024, the logistics sector will undergo extensive disruptions, fueled by game-changing innovations that promise to revolutionize supply chain management as we know it.

At iFour, we take immense pride in our expertise in the logistics industry, and we are excited to share with you the trends that are currently transforming this dynamic sector in Australia. As a leading custom Logistics software development company, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities facing businesses in the Australian market.

Here are the key trends that are reshaping the logistics landscape and how our solutions can help your company stay ahead of the curve.

[leftistcrap]

I think the issue of light pollution really shows just how poorly our current system is built to handle environmental issues. We know light pollution has negative effects on humans and animals. We know how to address it. And because light doesn't stick around like other pollutants, there's nothing to clean up, no lasting damage to address. All we have to do is simply stop producing so much excess light at night and the problem is immediately ameliorated. But because it would cost money to switch over to better lighting systems, because it would make it harder for businesses to advertise their presence to customers at night if they couldn't just blast light everywhere and light up billboards (or even worse, light up drone swarms in the sky), and because there is no direct monetary profit to be gained from this endeavor, it's basically worthless to those in charge.

So it's no wonder so little has been done to address something like climate change, even though the stakes are so much greater and the effects are so much longer lasting. Since nobody wants to bear the monetary burden required to address the issue, all we get are bandaids and half-measures rather than actual solutions. If we want to make actual progress, we need an approach that ignores any question of profitability, and that can't happen under capitalism.

[starshower1215]

AOT Veterans: Modern AU HCs

Hange would learn a lot about engineering and building stuff. They'd have the messiest garage full of tools for metal fabrication, welding, woodworking. They'd also have the oldest car to have ever existed, a comically unreliable one in fact, and perhaps one that they'd bought cheap and fixed up themself.

The oldest car and then a motorcycle they share with Mike. The motorcycle is probably old, too, though.

Erwin would work as a private investigator. He has the intelligence and intuition for such things, and I think he would truly enjoy the challenges of analyzing clues and fitting pieces of information together. He'd be able to utilize his ability to be one step ahead very thoroughly.

Hange probably went to university or is in university, studying something crazy cool like astrobiology. I think they would love astrobiology, actually, considering the incredible number of layers of science you'd need to learn to major in something so complicated.

Erwin loves to sit down with Hange and listen to them drone on and on about what they're learning. He is probably the only one who does, but he just loves the idea that they aren't alone on Earth, that life could be out there somewhere even if we don't see or know it yet. They love theorizing about aliens, wondering late at night if they have eyes or if they have senses that humans don't, if they can detect dark matter or not. The two of them can stay up the whole night like this.

In all universes, Levi works in a cafe. He likely didn't attend school, or didn't pay attention much because his family was in debt due to his mother's medical bills. He had bigger problems, but he does enjoy his life in a cafe.

Nanaba works as a hairdresser. She just really loves the feeling when she brings out an entirely new side of a person, or encourages them be more like themselves. She finds it to be a very caring job, and she loves when her customers leave the shop satisfied with a fresh new style.

She struggles with money a little bit because she gave up wealth in favor of pursuing something she likes.

Nanaba definitely does not accept help when it comes to finances, though, no matter how much her friends offer it to her. She's stubborn, and everyone knows it. So some days, Mike will invite her out to eat with him to spare her the trouble of dinner. It's a win-win, too, because he likes her a lot.

Levi only takes taxis. He doesn't like to drive or bike or take the bus, especially not the bus due to its unclean environment. He also carries sprayable hand sanitizer around, along with a tube of Lysol wipes. He offers Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer for free at his cafe because he always appreciates when they have such things available in public. They just sit on the counter, ready for usage.

Hange is always studying at Levi's cafe on the weekends. Sometimes they drag Nanaba along to sit there with them. Levi gives Nanaba a free muffin purely out of bias, then makes Hange pay for whatever they want to eat.

But he secretly gives them a discount.

Maybe Mike works as a health coach. Not sure where this one came from, but he has the motivation and the attitude for it. He's the therapy friend of the group, but with less emphasis on emotion and more emphasis on finding the solutions.

Mike always wears athletic clothes.

The five of them have a five-way dinner date type of thing, where they meet up at the end of every week, at one of their houses usually, to cook together, eat food, play music and games, watch movies, and just unwind and have a fun time. A lot of weeks, they'll make a party out of it. The five of them will invite the others: Nifa, Moblit, Petra, Oluo, Eld, Gelgar, and other obscure characters.

It is here that Levi, Petra, and Nanaba often don their matching sweatpants (there's another post about this)

The veterans may also get drunk, depending on who it is. It's a given for Gelgar, but Levi has shown preferences for tea.

Usually, they all sleep on the floor together, or split the house into the bedrooms and the sofas. Erwin and Mike are big, so they hog beds all to themselves. The rest of them make do; Nanaba and Eld make pillow forts on the carpet and camp there while Hange sprawls out to the side, and Levi and Petra stuff themselves into the crevices because they're small.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Yesterday, a suicide drone crashed in the Golan Heights. The IDF estimates that it was launched from Syria (though earlier, there was an Iranian funded militia in Iraq that claimed responsibility for firing at a target in the Golan Heights). the alarm didn't go off, and it wasn't intercepted, which is a reminder that no warning and defence system, not even the best one, is impenetrable. There was then a wave of sirens going off through Israel's north, likely because of debris from the interception, falling on different commeunities.

Today, another attack drone was intercepted over Israel's north. Over the area where my paternal grandparents lived, when they were still with us. Thankfully, there are no known injuries, but on top of that, there were no less than five more warnings of a drone crossing into Israel. If there will be no diplomatic solution for the situation in the north, meaning if the world doesn't intervene and FINALLY implement UN resolution 1701, which says that Hezbollah will not operate next to the Israeli border, or anywhere south of the Litani river, then things will get worse. One Israeli Aramean expert I was listening to, was talking about how much ammunition, and how many weapons, Hezbollah has aimed at Israel. Let's put it this way, they make Hamas look like kids.

Three more soldiers were killed in Gaza yesterday. We get news like this every single day now. Usually we get the names once or twice a day (morning and evening), depending on how many have died. You see people tense up around the time when the news is about to drop. I wanted to share with you that Israeli civilians have starting doing something so often, that it's almost like a new custom. When people learn about where a funeral will be held, they stand by the sides of the road with Israeli flags, to escrot the fallen soldier on his or her last journey, even when they didn't know the soldier at all.

I wrote a whole post about why Oct 7, despite all of the differences, and the fact that there is no comparison, bears similarities for Jewish people to the Holocaust. I was reminded of that post again today. I saw a vid with Holocaust survivor and famous Israeli actress, Lea Koenig. Knowing of her history, when I heard the start of her testimony, I was sure I was listening to her recounting her experiences during the Hoolocaust. It turns out that no, she's reading a testimony from Oct 7. The fact that some of these testimonies are indistinguishable should explain why the massacre, shocking as it is all on its own, is also deeply triggering for Jews. Here's the vid:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by כאן חדשות (@kan_news)

Australia says it will look into whether an Australian citizen who was killed in an Israeli counter strike in Lebanon yesterday, was a Hezbollah terrorist, as the organization claims. If he was, then fighting for a terrorist organization (as Hezbollah is defined in Australia) is a criminal offense under Australian law.

The IDF has destroyed a whole network of terror tunnels underneath the Rantisi hospital in Gaza. It says the length of the tunnels is several kilometers. Reminder: it's a war crime to build a terror tunnel underneath a hospital. It is NOT a war crime, to act against the terror tunnel used to attack a country's innocent civilians, even if it is built underneath a hospital.

This is 19 years old Agam Berger.

On Oct 7, she was kidnapped to Gaza. Her family identified her in a vid posted by Hamas, as she was being led away, handcuffed, and with blood stains on her pyjama pants (left side of the pic). Her father said that as released hostages talked about sexual abuse, Agam's family are terrified for her. He also wanted people to know that she was a gifted violinist, and used to volunteer with people who have special needs. So, in accordance with his wishes, here is Agam playing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah on violin:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[no487]

post-dawntrail dashboard simulator

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🐈‍⬛ black-cat-number-one Follow

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65,294 notes

🏍️ dirty-solution-nine-confessions Follow

Confession #9,523

zoraal ja was actually sexy when he wasn't threatening our lives and putting us in danger, only if he were still alive 💔

🐓 valigarmanda-kin Follow

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105 notes

🐇 perpetual-kicks Follow

Hello, Alexandrians! I am a friend to all, and a worshiper of our Matron - Nophica. I would love to invite you to experience our cultures and customs here at Gridania in the Black Shroud! We are humble farmers interested in your agricultural technology, especially in a post-Allagan age. It will be an official event at the Amphitheatre approved of by the Elder Seedseer herself!

Please come over, I'd love to see you here!

💎 fat-goldsmith-ass Follow

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🐉 i-drink-dragon-blood Follow

I have a question for Alexandrians: What do you think our Ishgardian customs of marrying dragons and fucking them?

🌟limit-breaker Follow

guys........ please......... this isn't a good first impression, we have 2 ease em into dragon-fucking......

45,293 notes

[mariacallous]

Shortly before noon on Aug. 19, 2023, a Russian cruise missile sliced past the golden onion domes and squat apartment blocks of the Chernihiv skyline in northern Ukraine. The Iskander-K missile slammed into its target: the city’s drama theater, which was hosting a meeting of drone manufacturers at the time of the attack. More than 140 people were injured and seven killed. The youngest, 6-year-old Sofia Golynska, had been playing in a nearby park.

Fragments of the missile recovered by the Ukrainian armed forces and analyzed by Ukrainian researchers found numerous components made by U.S. manufacturers in the missile’s onboard navigation system, which enabled it to reach its target with devastating precision. In December, Ukraine’s state anti-corruption agency released an online database of the thousands of foreign-made components recovered from Russian weapons so far.

Russia’s struggle to produce the advanced semiconductors, electrical components, and machine tools needed to fuel its defense industrial base predates the current war and has left it reliant on imports even amid its estrangement from the West. So when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, major manufacturing countries from North America, Europe, and East Asia swiftly imposed export controls on a broad swath of items deemed critical for the Russian arms industry.

Russia quickly became the world’s most sanctioned country: Some 16,000 people and companies were subject to a patchwork of international sanctions and export control orders imposed by a coalition of 39 countries. Export restrictions were painted with such a broad brush that sunglasses, contact lenses, and false teeth were also swept up in the prohibitions. Even items manufactured overseas by foreign companies are prohibited from being sold to Russia if they are made with U.S. tools or software, under a regulation known as the foreign direct product rule.

But as the war reaches its two-year anniversary, export controls have failed to stem the flow of advanced electronics and machinery making their way into Russia as new and convoluted supply chains have been forged through third countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, which are not party to the export control efforts. An investigation by Nikkei Asia found a tenfold increase in the export of semiconductors from China and Hong Kong to Russia in the immediate aftermath of the war—the majority of them from U.S. manufacturers.

“Life finds a way,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, quoting the movie Jurassic Park. The official spoke on background to discuss Russia’s evasion of export controls.

Some of the weapons and components analyzed by investigators were likely stockpiled before the war. But widely available Russian trade data reveals a brisk business in imports. More than $1 billion worth of advanced semiconductors from U.S. and European manufacturers made their way into the country last year, according to classified Russian customs service data obtained by Bloomberg. A recent report by the Kyiv School of Economics found that imports of components considered critical for the battlefield had dipped by just 10 percent during the first 10 months of 2023, compared with prewar levels.

This has created a Kafkaesque scenario, the report notes, in which the Ukrainian army is doing battle with Western weapons against a Russian arsenal that also runs on Western components.

It is an obvious problem, well documented by numerous think tank and media reports, but one without an easy solution. Tracking illicit trade in items such as semiconductors is an exponentially greater challenge than monitoring shipments of conventional weapons. Around 1 trillion chips are produced every year. Found in credit cards, toasters, tanks, missile systems, and much, much more, they power the global economy as well as the Russian military. Cutting Russia out of the global supply chain for semiconductors is easier said than done.

“Both Russia and China, and basically all militaries, are using a large number of consumer electronic components in their systems,” said Chris Miller, the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. “All of the world’s militaries rely on the same supply chain, which is the supply chain that primarily services consumer electronics.”

Export controls were once neatly tailored to keep specific items, such as nuclear technology, out of the hands of rogue states and terrorist groups. But as Washington vies for technological supremacy with Beijing while also seeking to contain Russia and Iran, it has increasingly used these trade restrictions to advance broader U.S. strategic objectives. For instance, the Biden administration has placed wide-ranging prohibitions on the export of advanced chips to China.

“At no point in history have export controls been more central to our collective security than right now,” Matthew Axelrod, the assistant secretary for export enforcement at the U.S. Commerce Department, said in a speech last September. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has described export controls as “a new strategic asset in the U.S. and allied toolkit.”

Russia’s ability to defy these restrictions doesn’t just have implications for the war in Ukraine. It also raises significant questions about the challenge ahead vis-à-vis China.

“The technological question becomes a key part of this story and whether or not we can restrict it from our adversaries,” said James Byrne, the director of open-source intelligence and analysis at the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank.

In the Russian city of Izhevsk, home to the factory that manufactures Kalashnikov rifles, shopping malls are being converted into drone factories amid a surge in defense spending that has helped the country’s economy weather its Western estrangement. Arms manufacturers have been urged to work around the clock to feed the Russian war machine, while defense is set to account for one-third of the state budget this year.

“We have developed a concept to convert shopping centers—which, before the start of the SMO [special military operation], sold mainly the products of Western brands—to factories for assembly lines of types of domestic drones,” Alexander Zakharov, the chief designer of the Zala Aero drone company, said at a closed event in August 2022, according to the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. “Special military operation” is what the Russian government calls its war on Ukraine. Zala Aero is a subsidiary of the Kalashnikov Concern that, along with Zakharov, was sanctioned by the United States last November.

Defense companies have bought at least three shopping malls in Izhevsk to be repurposed for the manufacture of drones, according to local media, including Lancet attack drones, which the British defense ministry described as one of the most effective new weapons that Russia introduced to the battlefield last year. Lancets, which cost about $35,000 to produce, wreaked havoc during Ukraine’s offensive last year and have been captured on video striking valuable Ukrainian tanks and parked MiG fighter jets.

Like a lot of Russia’s weapons systems, Lancets are filled with Western components. An analysis of images of the drones published in December by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security found that they contained several parts from U.S., Swiss, and Czech manufacturers, including image processing and analytical components that play a pivotal role in enabling the drones to reach their targets on the battlefield.

“The recurring appearance of these Western products in Russian drone systems shows a keen dependence on them for key capabilities in the drone systems,” the report notes. Lancets are not the only drones found to contain Western components. Almost all of the electronic components in the Iranian Shahed-136 drones, which Russia is now manufacturing with Iranian help to use in Ukraine, are of Western origin, a separate analysis published in November concluded.

Early in the war, the Royal United Services Institute analyzed 27 Russian military systems, including cruise missiles, electronic warfare complexes, and communications systems, and found that they contained at least 450 foreign-made components, revealing Russia’s dependence on imports.

One of the principal ways that Russia has evaded Western export controls has been through transshipment via third countries such as Turkey, the UAE, and neighboring states once part of the Soviet Union. Bloomberg reported last November that amid mounting Western pressure, the UAE had agreed to restrict the export of sensitive goods to Russia and that Turkey was considering a similar move. Kazakh officials announced a ban on the export of certain battlefield goods to Russia in October.

Suspected transshipment is often revealed by striking changes in trade patterns before and after the invasion. The Maldives, an island chain in the Indian Ocean that has no domestic semiconductor industry, shipped almost $54 million worth of U.S.-made semiconductors to Russia in the year after the invasion of Ukraine, Nikkei Asia reported last July.

Semiconductor supply chains often span several countries, with chips designed in one country and manufactured in another before being sold to a series of downstream distributors around the world. That makes it difficult for companies to know the ultimate end user of their products. This may seem odd—until you realize that this is the case for many everyday products that are sold around the world. “When Coca-Cola sells Coca-Cola, it doesn’t know where every bottle goes, and they don’t have systems to track where every bottle goes,” said Kevin Wolf, a former assistant secretary for export administration at the U.S. Commerce Department.

While a coalition of 39 countries, including the world’s major manufacturers of advanced electronics, imposed export restrictions on Russia, much of the rest of the world continues to trade freely with Moscow. Components manufactured in coalition countries will often begin their journey to Moscow’s weapons factories through a series of entirely legal transactions before ending up with a final distributor that takes them across the border into Russia. “It starts off as licit trade and ends up as illicit trade,” said a second senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The further items move down the supply chain, the less insight governments and companies have into their ultimate destination, although sudden changes in behavior of importers can offer a red flag. In his speech last September, Axelrod, the assistant secretary, used the example of a beauty salon that suddenly starts to import electronic components.

But the Grand Canyon of loopholes is China, which has stood by Moscow since the invasion. In the first days of the war, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo warned that Washington could shut down Chinese companies that ignored semiconductor export controls placed on Russia. Last October, 42 Chinese companies were added to export control lists—severely undercutting their ability to do business with U.S. companies—for supplying Russian defense manufacturers with U.S. chips.

But as the Biden administration carefully calibrates its China policy in a bid to keep a lid on escalating tensions, it has held off from taking Beijing to task. “I think the biggest issue is that we—the West—have been unwilling to put pressure on China that would get China to start enforcing some of these rules itself,” said Miller, the author of Chip Wars.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said: “Due to the restrictions imposed by the United States and key allies and partners, Russia has been left with no choice but to spend more, lower its ambitions for high-tech weaponry, build alliances with other international pariah states, and develop nefarious trade networks to covertly obtain the technologies it needs.

“We are deeply concerned regarding [Chinese] support for Russia’s defense industrial base. BIS has acted to add over 100 [China]-based entities to the Entity List for supporting Russia’s military industrial base and related activities.”

Export controls have typically focused on keeping specific U.S.-made goods out of the hands of adversaries, while economic and financial sanctions have served broader foreign-policy objectives of isolating rogue states and cauterizing the financing of terrorist groups and drug cartels. The use of sanctions as a national security tool grew in wake of the 9/11 attacks; in the intervening decades, companies, government agencies, and financial institutions have built up a wealth of experience in sanctions compliance. By contrast, the use of export controls for strategic ends is relatively novel, and compliance expertise is still in its infancy.

“It used to be that people like me could keep export controls and sanctions in one person’s head. The level of complexity for each area of law is so intense. I don’t know anyone who is truly an export control and sanctions expert,” Wolf said.

Export controls, experts say, are at best speed bumps designed to make it harder for Russia’s defense industrial base to procure Western components. They create “extra friction and pressure on the Russian economy,” said Daniel Fried, who as the State Department coordinator for sanctions policy helped craft U.S. sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia is now paying 80 percent more to import semiconductors than it did before the war, according to forthcoming research by Miller, and the components it is able to acquire are often of dubious quality.

But although it may be more cumbersome and expensive, it’s a cost that Moscow has been willing to bear in its war on Ukraine.

Western components—and lots of them—will continue to be found in the weapons Russia uses on Ukraine’s battlefields for the duration of the war. “This problem is as old as export controls are,” said Jasper Helder, an expert on export controls and sanctions with the law firm Akin Gump. But there are ways to further plug the gaps.

Steeper penalties could incentivize U.S. companies to take a more proactive role in ensuring their products don’t wind up in the hands of the Russian military, said Elina Ribakova, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “At the moment, they’re not truly motivated,” she said.

Companies that run afoul of sanctions and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. federal law that prohibits the payment of bribes, have been fined billions of dollars. Settlements of export control violations are often an order of magnitude smaller, according to recently published research.

In a speech last month, Axelrod said the United States would begin issuing steeper penalties for export control violations. “Build one case against one of the companies extremely well, put out a multibillion-dollar fine negotiation, and watch everybody else fall in line,” Ribakova said.

And then there’s the question of resources. BIS has an annual budget of just $200 million. “That’s like the cost of a few fighter jets. Come on,” said Raimondo, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum last December.

The agency’s core budget for export control has, adjusted for inflation, remained flat since 2010, while its workload has surged. Between 2014 and 2022, the volume of U.S. exports subject to licensing scrutiny increased by 126 percent, according to an agency spokesperson. A 2022 study of export control enforcement by the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended a budget increase of $45 million annually, describing it as “one of the best opportunities available anywhere in U.S. national security.”

When it comes to enforcement, the bureau has about 150 officers across the country who work with law enforcement and conduct outreach to companies. The Commerce Department has also established a task force with the Justice Department to keep advanced technologies out of the hands of Russia, China, and Iran. “The U.S. has the most robust export enforcement on the planet,” Wolf said.

But compared with other law enforcement and national security agencies, the bureau’s budgets have not kept pace with its expanding mission. The Department of Homeland Security has more investigators in the city of Tampa, Florida, than BIS does across the entire country, Axelrod noted in his January speech.

On the other side, you have Russia, which is extremely motivated to acquire the critical technologies it needs to continue to prosecute its war. The Kremlin has tasked its intelligence agencies with finding ways around sanctions and export controls, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said in a speech last year. “We are not talking about a profit-seeking firm looking for efficiencies,” the second senior U.S. intelligence official said. “There will be supply if there is sufficient demand.”

[soon-palestine]

Workers said Project Nimbus is the kind of lucrative contract that neglects ethical guardrails that outspoken members of Google’s workforce have demanded in recent years. “I am very worried that Google has no scruples if they’re going to work with the Israeli government,” said Joshua Marxen, a Google Cloud software engineer who helped to organize the protest. “Google has given us no reason to trust them.” The Tuesday protest represents continuing tension between Google’s workforce and its senior management over how the company’s technology is used. In recent years Google workers have objected to military contracts, challenging Google’s work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its role in a defense program building artificial intelligence tools used to refine drone strikes. Workers have alleged that the company has cracked down on information-sharing, siloed controversial projects and enforced a workplace culture that increasingly punishes them for speaking out.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Tuesday protest and workers’ concerns over Project Nimbus. The Israeli Finance Ministry announced its contract with Google and Amazon in April 2021 as a project “intended to provide the government, the defense establishment and others with an all-encompassing cloud solution.” Google has largely refused to release details of the contract, the specific capabilities Israel will receive, or how they will be used. In July 2022, the Intercept reported that training documents for Israeli government personnel indicate Google is providing software that the company claims can recognize people, gauge emotional states from facial expressions and track objects in video footage. Google Cloud spokesperson Atle Erlingsson told Wired in September 2022 that the company proudly supports Israel’s government and said critics had misrepresented Project Nimbus. “Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads,” he told Wired. Erlingsson, however, acknowledged that the contract will provide Israel’s military access to Google technology. Former Google worker Ariel Koren, who has long been publicly critical of Project Nimbus, said “it adds insult to injury for Palestinian activists and Palestinians generally” that Google Cloud’s profitability milestone coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Nakba — which refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians following creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

In March 2022, The Times reported allegations by Koren — at the time a product marketing manager at Google for Education — that Google had retaliated against her for criticizing the contract, issuing a directive that she move to São Paulo, Brazil, within 17 business days or lose her job. Google told The Times that it investigated the incident and found no evidence of retaliation. When Koren resigned from Google in August 2022 she published a memo explaining reasons for her departure, writing that “Google systematically silences Palestinian, Jewish, Arab and Muslim voices concerned about Google’s complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights.” Koren said Google’s apathy makes her and others believe more vigorous protest actions are justified. “This is a concrete disruption that is sending a clear message to Google: We won’t allow for business as usual, so long as you continue to profit off of a nefarious contract that expands Israeli apartheid.” Mohammad Khatami, a YouTube software engineer based in New York, participated in a small protest of Project Nimbus at a July Amazon Web Services conference in Manhattan. Khatami said major layoffs at Google announced in January pushed him to get more involved in the Alphabet Workers Union, which provides resources to Khatami and other union members in an anti-military working group — though the union has not taken a formal stance on Project Nimbus. “Greed and corporate interests were being put ahead of workers and I think the layoffs just illustrated that for me very clearly,” Khatami said.

[messinwitheddie]

Spittle what’s it like being a tallest? How did you look when you were younger?(you know before you got a lol beefy and stuff?😅)

Spittle "*grunt!* Being tallest is a sweeeeet gig, *grunt!* if you can be encoded with the title.*grunt!* It's a little overwhelming *grunt!*at *grunt!*first. *grunt!*A lot of pressure. I had big boots to fill when I was measured...

It zapped at first. A lot to learn. I was me, but I had to be a MUCH better me that I didn't know and I had to do it fast. I had to give up huge parts of myself to play the role, or I thought I had to at the time. You learn to work you-time into your schedule.

It was tricky. I dominate instantly, but I don't learn fast. Now that I'm more experienced, I understand why those two things aren't the same and only one will make being the tallest easier. I have a tighter grip on stuff now, y'know? Life hack; learn to trust your fellow drone to fix things themselves. Yeah, I'm THE drone, but I'm not THE drone.

Being a tallest means dealing with problems. How the sputch am I supposed to know how to fix 90% of them? I'm TALL! Not too many problems for me unless you count needing to have EVERYTHING you own custom fitted. After a while, I learn to listen and one of my drones will come up with something or droves of them will huddle up and come up with some stuff. They throw suggestions at me and I pick a solution with gut instinct-- by that I mean I run the ideas by my advisor, my personal frylord, my personal trainer here and my coordinator-- aaand, my high generals if the problem is armada related and they haven't irritated me too much. They work closer with the labor-drones so they can decide what would work best for everyone.

To let you in on not much of secret, I'm a very lazy tallest. Just a pretty face slapped on a perfectly sculpted flesh vessel to spew orders out of. But hey, the system is working.

Younger me...Before I was tallest?? I will respectfully not show images of me in my cadet and elite training days. It's not that I looked much different. I'm just not proud of the drone I was then. I was always on the tall, beefier side, even as a smeet. Obviously, I wasn't quite this tall or chiseled, but I was still impressive physically. Even as a smeet, I was tall and intimidating.

I was kind of spooch chute though. Can't remember too much about my smeetery years. I'm sure I was a rotten little brat. If it wasn't for my height I might have been held back in holo-visor lessons for another 5 years before graduating to basic cadet training on Ir's surface. A few the of shorter smeets I used to pick on got growth spurts during basic training and taught me a lesson in the holo battle simulations.

They forced me to learn the difference between being tough, looking tough and acting tough. Good lesson to learn before you're measured tallest."

[documenting-apartheid]

Visualizing Palestine: The HERMES 900 is a lethal drone manufactured by Elbit systems and first deployed during Israel's 2014 attack on the besieged Gaza strip. Elbit supplies 85% of the drones used by the Israeli military for drone strikes and surveillance, resulting in grave human rights violations against Palestinians.

36,090 PALESTINIANS KILLED during Israel's genocide in Gaza as of May 28, 2024. The Israeli military used drones for 90% of the targeted killings in Gaza in October and November 2023.

11.5% RISE IN REVENUE (year over year) reported by Elbit systems for the first quarter of 2024, 6 months into the genocide in Gaza.

TESTED ON PALESTINIANS "The fact that our systems are in operational use in Israel helps us because customers prefer to get mature solutions."-Elbit Systems CEO Bezhalel Machlis, May 2024

Elbit systems is Israel's largest weapons company.

Sources & Data

[serial-designation-vee]

@serial-designation-jey

From above, two pods boomed as they ripped the upper stratosphere of Copper-9. Light from the rockets, making the clouds glow hot blue and electrifying the unstable atmosphere. As the pods split the cloud cover in their descent, lightning flickered and cracked, striking one of the pods. The surge in power fried the automatic navigation systems, and the craft hurtled off course towards Camp 98.7. Crashing down, it left a trail of destruction and fire in its wake, setting the forest ablaze and leaving a gouge in the ground that ran for several hundred yards before the craft eventually came to a halt. The pod was unlike anything they had ever seen, complex ivory plating with intricate gold designs weaving throughout, the exposed areas revealing an almost muscular conglomeration of black wires that pulsed blue light towards the center of the craft. Upon the side were several logos, of which one V would recognize as her own parent company logo of JCJenson. The others involved were Faro Automated Solutions Inc, Far Zenith Corp, and Miriam Technologies.... As the two dissasembly drones would draw close, the pod let off a shrill tone and an automated warning. "WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! PROXIMITY SENSORS ACTIVE, SHIP IS STABILIZING, DO NOT APPROACH THE STASIS POD UNTIL INSTRUCTED OR RISK MALFUNCTION. PLEASE ENJOY OUR MESSAGE TO THE VALUED CUSTOMER ABOUT YOUR NEW GALAXTIC PAL WHILE YOU WAIT- Uh, is this thing on? This is testing log number uhhh... I've lost count... of project Gemini modelSD: B1-7A PIN: #LK-101, "Beta" or just B, I dont care... Okay... The pod is cooling down right now, but once it's stable, it should scan the environment and inhabitants around it so it can best modify itself to the environment and fit in, I know it might be odd but it will try to copy someone it sees but dont worry, there is a customization setting in the pod if you wish to change her appearance, not that ot will matter uh... Look, this is our last shot. What with earth gone and everything. I've installed various subfunction protocols into two sister drones. The other should be nearby. This one posseses: Minerva, Hephestus, Apollo, and Hades. The robot will tell you what those do, but uhm... She's designed to learn and adapt just as her sister unit A7-04 is, but specifically, she's much more attuned to it. Her sister unit is designed for combat and initial defense of this ones operations of study, terraforming and revitalizing. Make no mistake, though. B isn't defenseless. She is equipped with a highly advanced natite repair and re assimilation device and can construct weapons on her arms of which she knows two by default, but can learn more. The Specter Gauntlet High Energy plasma multitool cannon and the Specter Reaver blade arm. If there was any error during transport, I'd expect something to function incorrectly, and I can't help you. If the unit is severely damaged, return it to the pod for nanitic revitalization procedures to initiate a full system reboot and restore... I think that's it... good luck."

V watched the pod with a calculating gaze, one of her hands turned into a long blade and held out in front of J. They took in the words spoken to her, and their eyes narrowed. She didn't care what this was, they just didn't want it near J.

She remained at the ready, protective urge pulling at her every wire.

[generation1point5]

You are a violent and irrepressible miracle. The vacuum of cosmos and the stars burning in it are afraid of you. Given enough time you would wipe us all out and replace us with nothing -- just by accident.

Armored Core 6 marks a triumphant return of a venerable series that has until now taken a backseat to FromSoftware's Souls games, which has overtaken all its prior IPs as their defining work. Armored Core 6 itself is a culmination of many things, and draws from more than just its direct predecessors; gameplay-wise, it inherits much of the lessons learned from the Souls series as well; after Miyazaki laid the foundations, the primary director for the game was left in the hands of Yamamura, who designed the gameplay for Sekiro.

FromSoftware retains a remarkable ability to provide challenging gameplay that evolves over a series while maintaining key elements that retain a sense of continuity across the IP. Armored Core has taken many forms over its many years, but its cornerstone feature is expansive customization of one's mech build. This has been maintained and expanded upon in Armored Core 6, whose level design and enemy variety encourages exploration and experimentation with different types of builds. It is not simply about tailoring an optimal loadout for the mission; given time and familiarity over one's personal approach and developing skills, the mech builds in Armored Core 6 are about utilizing the strengths of one's playstyle as much as it applying its nuances in a variety of situations.

The novel solution that FromSoftware conceived to address accessibility for players new to the series while maintaining its trademark difficulty is the ability for player to modify their build mid-mission if they die, a feature that was not present in any prior title. This allows players to experiment and alter their mech to fit better a particular situation, but S-ranking missions require a mastery of the game mechanics such that your mech build must remain unaltered throughout the whole mission. The skill ceiling is high, but the climb to that point is not a sheer wall; you learn to build the stairs as you go on.

The defining feature for Armored Core 6's combat cycle is the introduction of a stagger bar, reminiscent of Sekiro's posture system. Unlike Sekiro, however, there is no scripted death blow upon stagger; it is simply a brief window of time where all types of damage dealt are greatly amplified. In addition, the time-to-kill for Armored Core 6 is significantly shorter than in any prior title; this is mitigated in part by the introduction of repair kits, which can only be refilled by resupply drones (also a new feature). There is a sense of both scarcity and efficiency in Armored Core 6; one's build must be able to either tank the damage they receive and brute-force their way through with sheer firepower, or find the finesse to deal damage while remaining mobile enough to avoid taking hits in turn. Veterans of the series that want to S-Rank missions are expected to complete it with minimal use of repair kits and foregoing the resupply, using only the ammo they start out with.

The principal mechanisms for conveying the values of capitalism have been evident as a trademark of the series from the very beginning; every mission's "score" is a direct correlation to one's income, with deductions for both repairs and ammo consumption taken into account. To get a higher score and maximize income, efficiency becomes the gold standard. As a mercenary, the player engages in violence for profit, to become a well-oiled war machine that maximizes destruction at minimal cost. If there was ever a visual metaphor for the military industrial complex, it is the Armored Core.

Armored Core 6 takes these trademark concepts and gameplay features and runs with them in ways both reminiscent of prior titles and also in new directions. It takes the space travel setting of the first two games, the late-stage capitalist exploitation of 4 and For Answer, the individualism of 5 and Verdict Day, and the undercurrent of artificial intelligence seen in Armored Core 3. It synthesizes these elements to create a new story, a sophisticated sci-fi narrative where corporate, colonial forces stumble upon a substance set to revolutionize human society, whereupon a lone mercenary alters the fate of an entire species.

Spoilers for the story of Armored Core 6 below.

The game is set on the fictional planet Rubicon 3, in a distant star system colonized by humanity. There, they discover the substance they dub "Coral," which after initial study is discovered to possess revolutionary applications in the fields of energy and telecommunications.

Like much of FromSoft's Soulsborne series, the player and protagonist of the series is lowly regarded, a mercenary pilot and recipient of older generation cybernetic augmentation to transfuse Coral within human beings to help operate giant walking machines called Armored Cores. This augmentation also results in a myriad of side effects, including suppressed emotional capacity and coral burn-in affecting the brain. The player's character doesn't seem to take particularly well to their augmentation: in the story trailer released for the game, the scientist operating on the player character describes them as "functional," and tells your handler not to expect much more than that. The player works under an overseer named Walter, who promises the player character a reason to live. The player begins their journey at rock bottom, and they have to fight their way up through a plethora of competing powers.

The humanity of the player's character is almost never recognized; the identity of the player is left both ambitious and ultimately irrelevant. For all intents and purposes, your sole official identification is Augmented Human C4-621; Walter refers to you by the pronoun "it" and "621," an object and a number. To those familiar with Walter's repute, you are seen as nothing more than his hound. Even your callsign on Rubicon 3 is not your own, but scavenged from the wreck of another: Raven. The businesses operating on Rubicon see you as one of many freelance mercs that can be hired as additional muscle to be used and thrown away at their disposal, most notably shown with the Arquebus Corporation. To Balam Industries, you are Gun 13, an auxiliary to supplement their frontlines. Should you choose to work with the Rubicon Liberation Front, you are known among their number as a war buddy.

The plethora of names, callsigns and terms speaks less to the identity of the player and more to how they are seen and treated by the varied cast of characters in Armored Core 6. It is almost as if the player is a mirror by which the characters in the game can be perceived: how they see others, how they see themselves. What is revealed is more sophisticated than a simple story about greedy executives, ruthless killers, and cynical opportunists, though these are all present in abundant measure. The picture that FromSoftware paints is supremely human; a story of motivations both admirable and self-interested, employing noble and ignoble means alike to often ambiguous and troubling results. The heroes have clear flaws and the villains retain points of sympathy.

These points of nuance, however, fit within a rather clear-cut setting. When the Coral is discovered to be volatile, the Fires of Ibis set Rubicon 3 ablaze, annihilating most life on the planet and igniting the entire star system. In the wake of that disaster, the Planetary Closure Administration was formed to maintain strict oversight over the ruins of the planet. Their control is upheld through a complex system of heavily armed closure satellites and a war fleet possessing advanced military technology. When Coral is rediscovered on the planet, however, the PCA must contend with a rapidly growing corporate presence that begins to conduct surveys and harvesting efforts in a second gold rush. All the companies must abide by the PCA's watchful presence, and at first they dare not intrude upon sealed-off sections of the planet guarded by the local PCA garrison, the Subject Guard. Instead, they fight among both themselves and the surviving natives who resist their incursion in the form of the Rubicon Liberation Front.

Where there is Coral, there is blood.

The imperial and colonial undertones of Armored Core 6 are obvious. A largely blind and unwieldy imperial power neglects the needs of the local inhabitants being exploited by the forces of capital. It is in this environment through which the player character enters the scene, slipping past the PCA’s orbital defenses to land on Rubicon 3 and assume a false identity to begin operations on the planet.

At first, Handler Walter ostensibly acts as the typical mercenary handler. He sees the opportunity to profit from the ongoing conflict on Rubicon 3 to claim a Coral vein and strike it rich, and thereby offering the means for the player character to undo their augmentation and buy a fresh start in life. The player thus perpetuates the system of exploitation and violence at the behest of capitalist forces to obtain the means for their own welfare.

The early jobs introduce the competing companies and their subsidiaries as they try to get a leg up on the others and also dismantle the resistance of the Rubicon Liberation Front. This chaotic pattern continues mostly uninterrupted until Walter gives the player a personal mission to attack a Coral monitoring station operated by the PCA. In the unexpected Coral surge that follows, the player makes contact with a Rubiconian within the Coral, Ayre. This marks a turning point within the story, whereupon the player begins to express greater agency, and becomes more aware of the unfolding plot around them.

The local release of Coral and its movement across the planet's surface serves as a guiding beacon to a much greater gathering of Coral in another part of Rubicon 3, which soon attracts the interests of all the major powers. Following this lead, the player interacts with RaD, led by Cinder Carla, to secure the means of crossing the ocean where the Coral begins to coalesce. Afterwards, the player becomes the vanguard for the corporations to expand their surveying efforts, with the Rubicon Liberation Front following close behind. In light of these developments, the PCA moves to unilaterally shut down all further incursion by deploying its warfleet to enforce order. All the other factions in response turn their weapons and resources against the PCA, while also searching for an edge over their competitors so that they emerge from the conflict on top of everone else.

In the end, the PCA is driven off-planet and Arquebus Corporation gains a decisive advantage, seizing a wealth of abandoned PCA technology and quickly leveraging their newfound firepower against their opponents, resulting in Balam's own withdrawal and the elimination of the Rubicon Liberation Force as an effective resistance. Arquebus's near-total control is cemented after they exploit the player's efforts to explore Watchpoint Alpha and discover the Remnants of Institute City, where the Coral has coalesced and gathered. Arquebus neutralizes the player's Armored Core and begins their efforts to expand a colossal Coral siphoning planet into outer space, allowing for seamless extraction and widespread distribution.

Through the last efforts of Walter and prior collaborations with Carla, the player breaks free from imprisonment within Arquebus, and raises the colony ship Xylem from its resting place on Rubicon to use as a last-ditch effort to stop Arquebus, and its ill-fated plans. At this point, the player learns of Walter and Carla's true identities as members of Overseer, the inheritors of the Rubicon Research Institute's troubled legacy who look to address its failures surrounding the research, exploitation, and mishandling of Coral.

The complex tragedy of the story approaches its apex at this point; over time, the player learns that Coral is not merely a substance that can be exploited for energy or telecommunications; it is a biological life form, capable of interaction and sentient communication with human thought. Its existence as an intelligent species can be directly correlated to human perception, ethics, and values. As the Rubicon Research Institute discovered, Coral's is self-propagating, and the rate of its growth increases exponentially in proportion to its environment; in a vacuum, the potential for Coral's expansion approaches infinity. Fearing this outbreak and its ramifications for their own species, the scientists of Rubicon III enacted an emergency contingency plan and burned the Coral; the Fires of Ibis that consumed the planet and the entire star system. Some of the Coral survived, however, and began to reproduce.

This discovery, however, was not made by the corporations. The PCA had been aware of the Coral's survival and the Rubicon Research Institute's experimentation, but intended to keep this information under wraps. Despite their efforts, however, the rediscovery of Coral was nevertheless leaked by a hacktivist collective, called Branch, that infiltrated the PCA's planetary defenses and transmitted this information to the public. Among their number was the original bearer of the callsign that you steal upon arrival to the planet, Raven. This same Raven challenges you midway through the game in a test of skill to determine whether you possess the means to realize your own ambitions, as all previous bearers of the callsign had before them. It is a title passed on from one mercenary to the next.

Self-determination as a theme has always been prevalent in FromSoft games and a recurring motif in the Armored Core franchise. The idea of the Armored Core and its customizability is not merely an expression of efficiency in applications of violence, but also an expression of personality, and indeed identity. At its apex, you become the force with which all others must contend, or be brought low by the force of your will made manifest in the war machine you pilot. Almost every single-player campaign in the series has explored this concept, both in the context of complex sociopolitical structures of capitalism and in the context of more classic sci-fi settings of life governed by advanced artificial intelligence.

Armored Core VI features both; besides the influence of corporations, there are two major artificial intelligences that govern two of the most powerful entities in the game. The first is the PCA, which is governed by an artificial intelligence that evaluates and responds to threats endangering the closure of Rubicon 3. The second ALLMIND, a mercenary support system the player slowly discovers to be the main driving force behind the unfolding events of the game. The artificial intelligence of the PCA represents order, stability, and stagnation as they try (and fail) to uphold the status quo of Rubicon. ALLMIND by contrast is an accelerationist, hoping to drive and guide the evolution of humanity through the release of Coral, to achieve the very thing that the Rubicon Research Institute and Overseer seek to prevent. To this end, ALLMIND manipulates and engineers much of the situation that the players find themselves in, to the point where their choices can sometimes feel devoid of real meaning. Yet at the end of the game, even the machinations of artificial intelligence that govern much of humanity's circumstances also bow to the triumph of human will.

Each of the game's endings has the player stand alone as the sole force by which change is achieved, each a commentary on the nature of humanity and the efforts of its constituents to alter that nature.

If the player chooses to pursue a path as Walter's hound, the player prevents the Coral collapse by repeating the Fires of Ibis, but on an even larger scale, annihilating both the Coral and the remaining human life on Rubicon 3. If the player chooses instead to trust Ayre in finding an alternative within their current means, they betray Overseer and rally the remnants of native resistance on Rubicon 3 to throw off the influence of the PCA, the corporations, and Overseer, an effort that brings an uncertain future and plunges the planet into chaos. The third is to attract the attention of ALLMIND, and participate in its plans to unleash the Coral so that the synthesis between it and humanity may propel both species into a new age. Each come with their own merits and points of concern.

To burn the Coral constitutes both a genocide and a xenocide; it is an act of regression far greater than the attempts by the PCA to maintain the status quo, an outright rejection of everything that had been accomplished by the Rubicon Research Institute, the corporations that followed, and the technology that enabled humanity to make contact with an alien species. In the end, the PCA and the corporations, seeing nothing that remains, make a joint statement to leave Rubicon as a dead planet forever, and to forever after halt all further research into Coral. On its face it is a horrific path, and yet it is not entirely reprehensible in light of the other two endings.

The betrayal of Overseer and the corporations both for the sake of a future for both humanity and the Coral puts the priorities of the inhabitants of Rubicon 3 front and center. Though difficult, the good intention of this path is the purest of the three. Yet the future of this path is the most uncertain; the corporations and the PCA still vie for control of the planet, and in the face of a greatly diminished Rubicon Liberation Front, the prospects for a road to freedom through revolution is a distant and bloody prospect. Moreover, much of the systems of exploitation of both the Coral and humans trapped under the forces of capital remain intact. Brutal augmentation procedures that require the harvest of Coral and inhumane surgery on patients is required for contact between species to be possible, to say nothing the other ways in which the forces of capital exploit both peoples. Rubicon 3 stands alone against an interstellar capitalist power structure with near-limitless manpower and resources to reassert dominance over a single planet.

Then we come to ALLMIND's plan, to more perfectly synthesize the union of the two species and accelerate the evolution of both. To pursue this path is to go where many others had turned away; it flies directly in the face of what Overseer sought to prevent, what the leader of the Rubicon Liberation Front turned away from, and represents a complete overthrow of the capitalist system that the corporations profit from. This final path positions you to betray just about everyone, including ALLMIND itself when it judges you a threat to the plan. Upon release, Coral and humanity are indeed united, two peoples made into one, synthesized into a new existence with the Armored Core as it's vessel...and its combat modes activated. The future of the two peoples is not a peaceful one; if anything, its potential for widespread violence and imperial applications of power had just been magnified to a truly intergalactic level.

The other interesting twist to the game's themes is how it almost separates itself from its original anticapitalistic sentiments; though dominant, the greatest expressions of capital and monetary power never achieve what they desire at any of the routes' ends. The pursuit of profit always ended up falling away to more compelling motivations in each of the three endings. It shows that capitalism, at the end, is a temporary and in fact fading thing. There are deeper forces and urges at work within the human soul that find its way out, and indeed surpass greed. But is that force ultimately for good? Perhaps not when it is expressed through mercenary violence, even if that mercenary violence is in pursuit of that greater cause.

On its face, one might label these three ends the bad, the good, and the true ending respectively. Yet each ending seems to me to compliment the others by providing alternate perspectives that complicate the moral analysis of the whole. If the future of a united existence between Coral and humanity translates into an unprecedented application of military power by an ascendant species, then Overseer's extreme measures to prevent that union is not as heartless as one might think. The incrementalism of attempting to liberate Rubicon 3 and avoiding direct synthesis does nothing to address the root causes and systems that have created the crisis over the planet and its people to begin with, and leaves the success of the whole endeavor in doubt.

True to much of FromSoft's motifs across its games, there is a paradoxical existentialism to its messaging that I admire, a tremendous, almost disproportionate level of nuanced commentary on human nature and the human condition that is not only applied to the mech genre, but also deconstructs some of its most well-known tropes and puts them into insightful applications that elevates a niche genre of gaming into high art.

If I were to sum up FromSoft's sentiment with Armored Core VI, it is that the triumph of human will can alter cycles of human behavior but never truly break them, at least not when that human will is expressed through force, the Armored Core. By your own choices in mech build and taking missions from certain clients and the developing circumstances around them, by destroying all obstacles in their path, the player holds the fates of countless people, two whole species, in their grasp. This grasp is yet limited to preservation and destruction; it may change the form, but not the substance. Even in the ending when the substance of the two peoples are changed, it takes on the form of a mercenary pilot in control of a war machine: the greatest expression of the worst developments of human history.

What Ayre fears becomes true: she and the player are doomed to spark conflict wherever they go.

As much as Armored Core VI emphasizes player choice, player agency, and player power and achievement, it is always through the lens of violence, and thereby expresses the limits and conditions by which progress can be achieved through such methods. It is a subtle but moving encapsulation of human endeavors and history, and the existential limits by which ideas of progress and growth can be pursued. I could write whole essays on individual characters, corporate entities, and the etymology of the part names alone, but for now I wanted to simply explore at a high level the incredible depth and creative genius of Armored Core VI. It is FromSoft at their best, and Fires of Rubicon winning best action game is, in my opinion, well-deserved. For what it has accomplished through gameplay, narrative, and artistic vision, I believe it deserves much more.

[spookysaladchaos]

Global top 13 companies accounted for 66% of Total Frozen Spring Roll market(qyresearch, 2021)

The table below details the Discrete Manufacturing ERP revenue and market share of major players, from 2016 to 2021. The data for 2021 is an estimate, based on the historical figures and the data we interviewed this year.

Major players in the market are identified through secondary research and their market revenues are determined through primary and secondary research. Secondary research includes the research of the annual financial reports of the top companies; while primary research includes extensive interviews of key opinion leaders and industry experts such as experienced front-line staffs, directors, CEOs and marketing executives. The percentage splits, market shares, growth rates and breakdowns of the product markets are determined through secondary sources and verified through the primary sources.

According to the new market research report “Global Discrete Manufacturing ERP Market Report 2023-2029”, published by QYResearch, the global Discrete Manufacturing ERP market size is projected to reach USD 9.78 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 10.6% during the forecast period.

Figure.   Global Frozen Spring Roll Market Size (US$ Mn), 2018-2029

Figure.   Global Frozen Spring Roll Top 13 Players Ranking and Market Share（Based on data of 2021, Continually updated）

The global key manufacturers of Discrete Manufacturing ERP include Visibility, Global Shop Solutions, SYSPRO, ECi Software Solutions, abas Software AG, IFS AB, QAD Inc, Infor, abas Software AG, ECi Software Solutions, etc. In 2021, the global top five players had a share approximately 66.0% in terms of revenue.

About QYResearch

QYResearch founded in California, USA in 2007.It is a leading global market research and consulting company. With over 16 years’ experience and professional research team in various cities over the world QY Research focuses on management consulting, database and seminar services, IPO consulting, industry chain research and customized research to help our clients in providing non-linear revenue model and make them successful. We are globally recognized for our expansive portfolio of services, good corporate citizenship, and our strong commitment to sustainability. Up to now, we have cooperated with more than 60,000 clients across five continents. Let’s work closely with you and build a bold and better future.

QYResearch is a world-renowned large-scale consulting company. The industry covers various high-tech industry chain market segments, spanning the semiconductor industry chain (semiconductor equipment and parts, semiconductor materials, ICs, Foundry, packaging and testing, discrete devices, sensors, optoelectronic devices), photovoltaic industry chain (equipment, cells, modules, auxiliary material brackets, inverters, power station terminals), new energy automobile industry chain (batteries and materials, auto parts, batteries, motors, electronic control, automotive semiconductors, etc.), communication industry chain (communication system equipment, terminal equipment, electronic components, RF front-end, optical modules, 4G/5G/6G, broadband, IoT, digital economy, AI), advanced materials industry Chain (metal materials, polymer materials, ceramic materials, nano materials, etc.), machinery manufacturing industry chain (CNC machine tools, construction machinery, electrical machinery, 3C automation, industrial robots, lasers, industrial control, drones), food, beverages and pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, agriculture, etc.

[usafphantom2]

BOEING: F-15EX fighters for Poland

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/07/2023 - 12:10 in Military

Boeing is presenting the F-15EX fighter to Poland as a potential U.S. Department of Defense's potential foreign military sales (FMS) program.

The announcement was made at the MSPO International Defense Industry Annual Exhibition, where Boeing highlights advanced defense systems, capabilities and services.

“Poland's interest in the F-15EX confirms its dedication to the preparation and effectiveness of its military forces,” said Tim Flood, senior director of Global Business Development for Europe and the Americas. “The F-15EX offers superior interoperability, support and accessibility, along with a robust industrial plan that would support Poland's goal of developing independent defense capabilities.”

Boeing has made significant investments in the F-15EX, making it the most capable multifunctional fighter in production today. The aircraft offers greater survival capacity and capacity with:

fly-by-wire flight controls,

a new electronic warfare system,

a FULL GLASS digital cockpit,

the latest mission systems and software capabilities,

as well as the ability to carry advanced hypersonic weapons.

“The F-15EX is the most advanced fighter in the world, with unparalleled capacity, lethality and survivability and is the right choice to strengthen Poland's safety needs,” said Rob Novotny, director of Business Development of Boeing's F-15 program. “Through improved interoperability with U.S. and NATO forces, technological growth capacity and an economic operational life of more than 20,000 hours, Poland can expect the F-15EX to win in existing and future threat environments.”

The F-15EX is in production with two aircraft delivered to the U.S. Air Force. Indonesia recently became the 8º country to select the F-15 and will become the first export customer of the last EX variant when the sale is finalized.

Boeing has been present in Poland for more than 30 years. Based in Warsaw, Boeing Digital Solutions & Analytics operations in Gda? sk and parts and distribution services in Rzeszow, Boeing employs more than 1,000 people in Poland and is currently establishing a strong engineering capacity in all three locations. In addition to its growing presence in the country, Boeing is an important partner of the Polish aviation industry and has strong relations with local communities, industry, airlines, the Polish government and the Polish Armed Forces.

Tags: Military AviationboeingF-15EXPAF - Polish Air Force / Polish Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

There are only four more days left in my Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

#20yrsago Your customers don’t want DRM, part MMMCCXI https://www.wired.com/2004/01/stores-nix-disposable-flicks/

#20yrsago Jason Schultz on American Blind versus Google https://lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/

#20yrsago BugMeNot: circumvent annoying registration https://bugmenot.com

#20yrsago Hundreds of BBCers protest director’s resignation http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3442825.stm

#20yrsago Marxist fairy tales https://web.archive.org/web/20040420002251/http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/Audiopage.html

#15yrsago Bruce Sterling on our global psychosis, ca. 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090201010959/http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2009/01/2009_will_be_a_year_of_panic.php

#15yrsago Digital Britain report proposes to save Britain’s future by destroying the Internet https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/digital-britain-leaving-consumers-out-of-the-picture/

#15yrsago UK fingerprints foreign six-year-old children at the border https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jan/29/eu-idcards

#10yrsago Not just Environment and Health: Canadian government attacks libraries from 12 ministries https://web.archive.org/web/20140303074337/www.desmog.ca/2014/01/27/loss-librarians-devastating-science-and-knowledge-canada

#10yrsago Republican Congressman threatens to kill reporter after State of the Union https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2014/01/29/1273288/-GOP-Congressman-Threatens-to-Kill-Report-After-SOTU

#10yrsago Network Solutions not sure if it will opt random customers into $1,850 “domain protection” plan https://www.techdirt.com/2014/01/28/network-solutions-tries-to-auto-enroll-users-into-its-1850year-domain-protection-plan/

#10yrsago Writers Guild of America tells US government that copyright shouldn’t trump free expression https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-writers-warn-against-draconian-anti-piracy-measures-140127/

#10yrsago Top lawyer finds GCHQ spying is illegal & UK spies who help US drone strike may be accessories to murder https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/gchq-mass-surveillance-spying-law-lawyer

#10yrsago Extorted out of a one-character Twitter ID by a hacker who seized control of Godaddy domains https://medium.com/@N/how-i-lost-my-50-000-twitter-username-24eb09e026dd

#5yrsago Undercover who targeted Citizen Lab over Israeli cyber-arms dealer is an ex-Israeli spook linked to black ops firm used by Harvey Weinstein https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/28/world/black-cube-nso-citizen-lab-intelligence.html

#5yrsago Major vulnerability in 5G means that anyone with $500 worth of gear can spy on a wide area’s mobile activity https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/5g-protocol-may-still-be-vulnerable-imsi-catchers

#5yrsago Citing terms of service and “bad actors,” Facebook locks out tools that catalog ads and ad targeting https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-blocks-ad-transparency-tools

#5yrsago A 70% tax on income over $10m is designed to correct inequality, not raise revenue https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/28/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-70-percent-tax-rich-isnt-about-revenue-its-about

#5yrsago Words, but not deeds: the Democrats as climate-deniers https://jacobin.com/2019/01/climate-change-2020-democrats-green-new-deal

#5yrsago The EU’s plan for algorithmic copyright filters is looking more and more unlikely https://memex.craphound.com/2019/01/29/the-eus-plan-for-algorithmic-copyright-filters-is-looking-more-and-more-unlikely/

#1yrago “Conversational” AI Is Really Bad At Conversations https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/29/conversational-ai-is-really-bad-at-conversations/

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28 - TOMORROW!) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

[cubeghost]

While Palestine Action US is targeting Elbit systems to protest the ongoing genocide in Palestine, Elbit’s tools of occupation are also being deployed in the US. As Antony Loewenstein documents in his book, The Palestine Laboratory, Israeli defense contractors test their wares on Palestinians and then export their tools of surveillance and warfare around the world. Loewenstein highlights the connection between so-called border security in the US and the oppression of Palestinians, writing, “Israeli technology was sold as the solution to unwanted populations at the US–Mexico border where the Israeli company Elbit was a major player in repelling migrants.” In her book Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, Harsha Walia describes how US Customs Enforcement officials impose the violence of bordering on Tohono O’odham lands, along the US Southern border. Walia wrote, “US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has contracted Israel’s largest private arms company, Elbit Systems, to construct ten surveillance towers, making Tohono O’odham one of the most militarized communities in the US.”  In 2017, members of the Tohono O’odham Hemajkam Rights Network (TOHRN), went to Palestine on a visit organized by the Palestinian group Stop the Wall. TOHRN member Amy Jaun told Antony Loewenstein that it was a relief to talk “with people who understand our fears … who are dealing with militarization and technology.” In 2022, after years of resistance from Tohono O’odham organizers, the construction of the contested surveillance towers was completed. As Will Parrish reported in The Intercept in 2019, each tower is outfitted with thermal sensors, high-definition cameras with night vision, and ground-sweeping radar. As Parrish noted, “The system will store an archive with the ability to rewind and track individuals’ movements across time — an ability known as ‘wide-area persistent surveillance.’” The  Tohono O’odham’s struggle against the construction of Elbit’s towers is just one example of how the company is exporting Israel’s tools of bordering and occupation. In The Palestine Laboratory, Loewenstein describes an event at the Paris Air Show in 2009, where Elbit screened drone footage for “an elite audience of global buyers.” The footage showcased the assassination of a Palestinian. A subsequent investigation by Andrew Feinstein, a global expert on the arms industry, who observed the sales video pitch in Paris, revealed that innocent Palestinians, including women and children, were killed during the drone attack that Elbit showcased at the Paris Air Show. Feinstein told Loewenstein, “This was my introduction to the Israeli arms industry and the way it markets itself. No other arms-producing country would dare show actual footage like that.” As evidenced by the construction of surveillance towers in Tohono O’odham lands, Elbit’s work extends beyond the bounds of war, but the lines between war-making, surveillance and what governments call “security” are murky, at best. When tools of war and subjugation are tested on a captive population, and marketed on the basis of how effectively those people are killed, how do we expect those tools to be deployed globally?