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[mostlysignssomeportents]

It’s been twenty years since my Microsoft DRM talk

On THURSDAY (June 20) I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. On FRIDAY (June 21) I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On SATURDAY (June 22) I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

This week on my podcast,This week on my podcast, I read my June 17, 2004 Microsoft Research speech about DRM, a talk that went viral two decades ago, and reassess its legacy:

https://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt

It's been 20 years (and one day) since I gave that talk. It wasn't my first talk like that, but at the time, it was the most successful talk I'd ever given. I was still learning how to deliver a talk at the time, tinkering with different prose and delivery styles (to my eye, there's a lot of Bruce Sterling in that one, something that's still true today).

I learned to give talks by attending sf conventions and watching keynotes and panel presentations and taking mental notes. I was especially impressed with the oratory style of Harlan Ellison, whom I heard speak on numerous occasions, and by Judith Merril, who was a wonderful mentor to me and many other writers:

https://locusmag.com/2021/09/cory-doctorow-breaking-in/

I was also influenced by the speakers I'd heard at the many political rallies I'd attended and helped organize; from the speakers at the annual Labour Day parade to the anti-nuclear proliferation and pro-abortion rights marches I was very involved with. I also have vivid memories of the speeches that Helen Caldicott gave in Toronto when I was growing up, where I volunteered as an usher:

https://www.helencaldicott.com/

When I helped found a dotcom startup in the late 1990s, my partners and I decided that I'd do the onstage talking; we paid for a couple hours of speaker training from an expensive consultant in San Francisco. The only thing I remember from that session was the advice to look into the audience as much as possible, rather than reading from notes with my head down. Good advice, but kinda obvious.

The impetus for that training was my onstage presentation at the first O'Reilly P2P conference in 2001. I don't quite remember what I said there, but I remember that it made an impression on Tim O'Reilly, which meant a lot to me then (and now):

https://www.oreilly.com/pub/pr/844

I don't remember who invited me to give the talk at Microsoft Research that day, but I think it was probably Marc Smith, who was researching social media at the time by data-mining Usenet archives to understand social graphs. I think I timed the gig so that I could kill three birds with one stone: in addition to that talk, I attended (and maybe spoke at?) that year's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference, and attended an early preview of the soon-to-launch Sci Fi Museum (now the Museum of Pop Culture). I got to meet Nichelle Nichols (and promptly embarrassed myself by getting tongue-tied and telling her how much I loved the vocals she did on her recording of the Star Wars theme, something I'm still hot around the ears over, though she was a pro and gently corrected me, "I think you mean Star *Trek"):

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4IiJUQSsxNw&list=OLAK5uy_lHUn58fbpceC3PrK2Xu9smBNBjR_-mAHQ

But the start of that trip was the talk at Microsoft Research; I'd been on the Microsoft campus before. That startup I did? Microsoft tried to buy us, which prompted our asshole VCs to cram the founders and steal our equity, which created so much acrimony that the Microsoft deal fell through. I was pretty bitter at the time, but in retrospect, I really dodged a bullet – for one thing, the deal involved my going to work for Microsoft as a DRM evangelist. I mean, talk about the road not taken!

This was my first time back at Microsoft as an EFF employee. There was some pre-show meet-and-greet-type stuff, and then I was shown into a packed conference room where I gave my talk and had a lively (and generally friendly) Q&A. MSR was – and is – the woolier side of Microsoft, where all kinds of interesting people did all kinds of great research.

Indeed, almost every Microsoft employee I've ever met was a good and talented person doing the best work they could. The fact that Microsoft produces such a consistent stream of garbage products and crooked business practices is an important testament to the way that a rotten organization can be so much less than the sum of its parts.

I'm a fully paid up subscriber to Ronald Coase's "Theory of the Firm" (not so much his other views):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm

Coase says the reason institutions exist is to enable people to work together with lowered "coordination costs." In other words, if you and I are going to knit a sweater together, we're going to need to figure out how to make sure that we're not both making the left sleeve. Creating an institution – the Mafia, the Catholic Church, Microsoft, a company, a co-op, a committee that puts on a regional science fiction con – is all about minimizing those costs.

As Yochai Benkler pointed out in 2002, the coolest and most transformative thing about the internet is that it let us do more complex collective work with smaller and less structured institutions:

https://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.PDF

That was the initial prompt for my novel Walkaway, which asked, "What if we could build luxury hotels and even space programs with the kind of (relatively) lightweight institutional overheads associated with Wikipedia and the Linux kernel?"

https://crookedtimber.org/2017/05/10/coases-spectre/

So the structure of institutions is really important. At the same time, I'm skeptical of the idea that there are "good companies" and "bad companies." Small businesses, family businesses, and other firms that aren't exposed to the finance sector can reflect their leaders' personalities, but it's a huge mistake to ascribe personalities to the companies themselves.

That's how you get foolish ideas like "Apple is a good company because they embrace paid service and Google is a bad company because they make money from surveillance." Apple will spy on you, too, if they can:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Disney and Fox weren't Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers making goo-goo eyes at each other across the table at MPA meetings. They were two giant public companies, and any differences between them were irrelevancies and marketing myths:

https://locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-doctorow-tech-monopolies-and-the-insufficient-necessity-of-interoperability/

I think senior management's personalities do matter (see, for example, the destruction of Boeing after it was colonized by sociopaths from McDonnell Douglas), but the influence of those personalities is much less important than the constraints that competition and regulation impose on companies. In other words, an asshole can run a company that delivers good products at fair prices under ethical conditions – provided that failing to do so will cost more in lost business and fines than they stand to make by cheating:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

Microsoft is a company founded and run by colossal assholes. Bill Gates is a monster and he surrounded himself with monsters, and they hired monsters to fill out the courts of their corporate palaces:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/14/patch-tuesday/#fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again

To the extent that good things come out of Microsoft – some of its games products, the odd piece of hardware, important papers from MSR – it's in spite of the leadership; it's the result of constraints imposed by competition and regulation – and that's why Microsoft pursued such an aggressive program of extinguishing its competitors and capturing its regulators.

In retrospect, I think one of my goals in that talk was to convince those people doing good work for a rotten institution to go elsewhere and do other things. Certainly, that's one of the goals I pursue in the talks I give today. At the time, some of Microsoft's highest-profile technologists were publicly resigning over the company's war on free/open source software, so it wasn't an unrealistic goal:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030214215639/http://synthesist.net/writing/onleavingms.html

What I did not expect what that publishing the talk on my site and blogging it on Boing Boing would spark a wave of public interest that would get its message in front of several orders of magnitude more people than I spoke to at Microsoft that day. Partly, that was because I released the talk into the public domain, using the brand-new Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration (which was later replaced with the CC0 mark, due to legal issues withBu its drafting):

https://web.archive.org/web/20100223035835/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Some mix of the content of the speech, the spirit of the moment, and the novelty of that wide open license sparked a ton of interest. Jason Kottke recorded an audio version that Andy Baio hosted:

https://kottke.org/04/06/cory-drm-talk

My brutalist ASCII transcript was quickly converted to beautiful HTML by Matt Haughey and Anil Dash:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040622235333/http://www.dashes.com/anil/stuff/doctorow-drm-ms.html

For people who needed a hardcopy, there was Patrick Berry's printer-friendly stylesheet:

https://patandkat.com/pat/weblog/mirror/cory-drm/doctorow-drm-ms.html

Multiple people recorded (and sold!) audio versions, and then there were all the fan translations, into Danish, French, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (both EU and Brazilian), Spanish and Swedish. I stayed in touch with some of those translators, and they helped me translate the position papers I wrote for UN WIPO meetings. Those papers were so effective that ratfuckers from the copyright lobby started to steal them and hide them in the UN toilets (!):

https://web.archive.org/web/20041119132831/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/002117.php

Re-reading the speech for my podcast on Sunday, I expected to be struck by the anachronisms in it, and there were a few of those to be sure. But far more clear was the common thread running from this talk to other talks I gave that took on a significant life of their own, like my 2011 "War On General Purpose Computing" talk for CCC:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

And my work on Adversarial Interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

And my most recent work, on enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/

In other words, I've been saying the same thing – in different ways – for more than 20 years. That could be depressing, but I actually found it uplifting. Two decades ago, I was radicalized by a fear that the internet would be seized by corporations and governments and transformed into a system of surveillance and control. I found my way into a job at EFF, where I worked with colleagues across multiple disciplines – coders, lawyers and activists – to fight this force.

At the time, this was a fringe cause. Most of the traditional activists I'd come up with in the feminist, antiwar, antiracist, environmental and labour movement viewed digital rights as a distraction and dismissed its partisans as sad, self-obsessed nerds who mistook fights over the management of Star Trek message boards for civil rights struggles:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell

I thought I was right then, and I think history has borne me out. The point of waging these fights – both in the wide public sphere and within political movements – is to get people activated before it's too late. Every day that goes by is a day when the internet becomes more inhospitable to political organizing for a better world – more surveillant, more controlling. I believed then – and believe today – that the internet isn't more important that the other fights I waged as a young activist, but I think that the internet is fundamental to those fights.

Saving the planet, smashing patriarchy, overthrowing tyranny and freeing labor are all fights that will be coordinated – Coase style – on the internet. Without a free, fair and open internet, those fights are infinitely harder to win.

The project of getting people to understand, care about, and fight for digital rights is a marathon, not a sprint. When I joined EFF, it was already 12 years old. There were six people in the org then (I was the seventh). Today, there's more than a hundred of us, and we're stretched so thin! The 30+ year old idea that internet policy will intersect with every part of every fight has been utterly vindicated.

Back in 2004, I asked Microsoft why they were willing to fight the US government to the death over antitrust enforcement, but were such wimps when confronted with the entertainment industry's demands for DRM. 20 years later, I think I know the answer: Microsoft understood that DRM would let them usurp the relationship between creative workers, entertainment industry companies, and audiences. Their perfect instincts for seeking out and capitalizing on opportunities to seize monopoly power drove them to make deliberately defective products, in the belief that their market power would let them cram those products down our throats:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/01/27/protect-your-investment-buy-open/

Here's a link to the podcast episode:

https://craphound.com/news/2024/06/16/my-2004-microsoft-drm-talk/

And here's direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive; they'll host your stuff for free forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_470/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_470_-_My_2004_Microsoft_DRM_Talk.mp3

And here's the RSS feed for my podcast:

https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

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/2024/06/18/greetings-fellow-pirates/#arrrrrrrrrr

[sixstringphonic]

‘The Godfather of A.I.’ Leaves Google and Warns of Danger Ahead

(Reported by Cade Metz, The New York Times)

Geoffrey Hinton was an artificial intelligence pioneer. In 2012, Dr. Hinton and two of his graduate students at the University of Toronto created technology that became the intellectual foundation for the A.I. systems that the tech industry’s biggest companies believe is a key to their future.

On Monday, however, he officially joined a growing chorus of critics who say those companies are racing toward danger with their aggressive campaign to create products based on generative artificial intelligence, the technology that powers popular chatbots like ChatGPT.

Dr. Hinton said he has quit his job at Google, where he has worked for more than a decade and became one of the most respected voices in the field, so he can freely speak out about the risks of A.I. A part of him, he said, now regrets his life’s work.

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Dr. Hinton said during a lengthy interview last week in the dining room of his home in Toronto, a short walk from where he and his students made their breakthrough.

Dr. Hinton’s journey from A.I. groundbreaker to doomsayer marks a remarkable moment for the technology industry at perhaps its most important inflection point in decades. Industry leaders believe the new A.I. systems could be as important as the introduction of the web browser in the early 1990s and could lead to breakthroughs in areas ranging from drug research to education.

But gnawing at many industry insiders is a fear that they are releasing something dangerous into the wild. Generative A.I. can already be a tool for misinformation. Soon, it could be a risk to jobs. Somewhere down the line, tech’s biggest worriers say, it could be a risk to humanity.

“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Dr. Hinton said.

After the San Francisco start-up OpenAI released a new version of ChatGPT in March, more than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of new systems because A.I. technologies pose “profound risks to society and humanity.”

Several days later, 19 current and former leaders of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a 40-year-old academic society, released their own letter warning of the risks of A.I. That group included Eric Horvitz, chief scientific officer at Microsoft, which has deployed OpenAI’s technology across a wide range of products, including its Bing search engine.

Dr. Hinton, often called “the Godfather of A.I.,” did not sign either of those letters and said he did not want to publicly criticize Google or other companies until he had quit his job. He notified the company last month that he was resigning, and on Thursday, he talked by phone with Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. He declined to publicly discuss the details of his conversation with Mr. Pichai.

Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean, said in a statement: “We remain committed to a responsible approach to A.I. We’re continually learning to understand emerging risks while also innovating boldly.”

Dr. Hinton, a 75-year-old British expatriate, is a lifelong academic whose career was driven by his personal convictions about the development and use of A.I. In 1972, as a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Hinton embraced an idea called a neural network. A neural network is a mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data. At the time, few researchers believed in the idea. But it became his life’s work.

In the 1980s, Dr. Hinton was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, but left the university for Canada because he said he was reluctant to take Pentagon funding. At the time, most A.I. research in the United States was funded by the Defense Department. Dr. Hinton is deeply opposed to the use of artificial intelligence on the battlefield — what he calls “robot soldiers.”

As companies improve their A.I. systems, he believes, they become increasingly dangerous. “Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now,” he said of A.I. technology. “Take the difference and propagate it forwards. That’s scary.”

Until last year, he said, Google acted as a “proper steward” for the technology, careful not to release something that might cause harm. But now that Microsoft has augmented its Bing search engine with a chatbot — challenging Google’s core business — Google is racing to deploy the same kind of technology. The tech giants are locked in a competition that might be impossible to stop, Dr. Hinton said.

His immediate concern is that the internet will be flooded with false photos, videos and text, and the average person will “not be able to know what is true anymore.”

He is also worried that A.I. technologies will in time upend the job market. Today, chatbots like ChatGPT tend to complement human workers, but they could replace paralegals, personal assistants, translators and others who handle rote tasks. “It takes away the drudge work,” he said. “It might take away more than that.”

But that may be impossible, he said. Unlike with nuclear weapons, he said, there is no way of knowing whether companies or countries are working on the technology in secret. The best hope is for the world’s leading scientists to collaborate on ways of controlling the technology. “I don’t think they should scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it,” he said.

Dr. Hinton said that when people used to ask him how he could work on technology that was potentially dangerous, he would paraphrase Robert Oppenheimer, who led the U.S. effort to build the atomic bomb: “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it.”

He does not say that anymore.

(Reported by Cade Metz, The New York Times)

[covid-safer-hotties]

As COVID Surges, the High Price of Viral Denial - Published Sept 3, 2024

COVID is surging once again and, if you live in British Columbia, you probably already know someone sick with fever, chills and a sore throat.

As of mid-August, about one in every 19 British Columbians were enduring an infection, with or without symptoms.

Although the media routinely dismisses all COVID infections as an inconsequential nuisance, that’s not what the science says. The virus remains deadlier than the flu and repeated infections can radically change your health.

An important new Nature study, for example, has now proven that the spike protein of the virus can bind with a blood protein, fibrin, setting off a chain of blood clots resulting in chronic inflammation and brain damage. Fibrin can actually form a mesh impeding blood flow in arteries to multiple organs in the body.

The Tyee is supported by readers like you Join us and grow independent media in Canada Repeated studies show in the bluntest terms that the initial acute infection is only the tip of the iceberg. Even a mild bout of COVID can leave a legacy of blood clots, heart failure, diabetes, decreased brain function (see sidebar), long COVID (now affecting 400 million people worldwide) and immune damage that increasingly makes people more vulnerable to a plethora of infectious diseases and possibly cancers.

These problems can erupt three years after an infection and are especially prevalent in patients who’ve been hospitalized by COVID.

Which is why the U.S. immunologist and COVID specialist Dr. David Putrino emphasizes, “There is no such thing as a SARS-CoV-2 infection that does NOT have prolonged consequences.”

And yet the estimated daily level of infection in Canada now hovers around the highest points reached during the Omicron variant’s peaks in January 2022 and October 2023.

That’s the finding of University of Toronto infectious disease expert Tara Moriarty, whose team bases the latest COVID-19 Hazard Index on a combination of wastewater data and modelling. In a discursive and highly valuable X posting Moriarty adds “there’s not a fresh vaccine in sight.” In fact, they are weeks away.

That means about one million infections are occurring every week and that this “severe” level of infection translates like clockwork into more than 1,000 deaths per week from COVID-19 in Canada based on five-week average trends. Ultimately these infections will result in more cases of long COVID in both younger and older populations.

There is more bad news: on an annual basis COVID infections still account for 20 times more deaths than influenza.

The data is not complete but this death toll likely made COVID the second or leading cause of death in the country last month.

According to Moriarty’s data, the number of COVID deaths per infection remain highest in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan because they have older populations often compromised by serious medical conditions. They are also served by shrinking health resources.

Alberta, whose population is Canada’s youngest on average, claims the lowest infection fatality rate yet has already reported more than 700 COVID deaths this year. B.C. ranks somewhere in the middle.

These grim trends mirror COVID’s permutations south of the border. In the United States COVID infections hospitalized nearly five out of 100,000 Americans during the week of Aug. 4 to 10.

Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, one of North America’s leading COVID researchers, notes that, “This crucial, yet lagging indicator hasn’t been this high since February 2024.” In addition, spotty U.S. data indicates that COVID has hospitalized twice as many people than the flu since October last year.

Rocking the system

Meanwhile Canada’s hospital emergency rooms, many already stretched before the pandemic, continue to open and close with troubling frequency across the country due to chronic staff shortages and sick workers.

With little surge capacity, the continued presence of highly infectious COVID variants continues to leave many health-care systems in shambles year after year.

According to Moriaty’s data, Canadian hospitals are now spending about $37 million dollars a day on COVID hospitalizations, which averaged more than 1,500 people a day two weeks ago.

Here’s some more damning math: “On average, since the beginning of Omicron, people needing hospitalization for COVID-19 account for 14 per cent of hospital bed capacity (seven per cent if you admit only half of people needing hospitalization).”

The resulting bed shortage has created a circular crisis, says Moriarity. “A constant annual seven-per-cent increase in hospital beds required for COVID-19, in a very low surge capacity environment with a serious health-care workforce labour shortage, can have profound upstream and downstream effects on health care and health.”

The evidence is everywhere. Five Interior B.C. emergency rooms closed over the long weekend. In the last week five rural hospitals temporarily closed in Alberta, including facilities in Swan Hills, Fairview and Rocky Mountain House. In Ontario some rural citizens refer to ER closures as an “epidemic.”

Dr. Alan Drummond, a Quebec rural physician, adds that the disruption of “emergency medicine delivery in Canada continues unabated as our political leaders fail to recognize and declare the obvious crisis that it is. They do nothing, they pray for divine intervention, they obfuscate, they lie through their teeth.”

‘A recipe for forever burn’

The subject of how to respond to a slow burn pandemic remains taboo because most public health officials have already declared the emergency over. They’ve also stopped collecting critical data. COVID-19 deaths in Canada are not reported in a readily publicly accessible fashion. And most of the media pretends that an immune-destabilizing virus that can harm the functioning of your organs including your brain has little more import than a benign cold.

As a consequence, authorities can’t now turn around and admit to the breadth of their mistake, let alone acknowledge the growing disorder in public health. Nor do they dare collect critical data documenting the scale of their errors including the relentless march of long COVID.

Meanwhile the virus continues to out-evolve our response and vaccines. Two months ago, when new COVID cases exceeded 100,000 a day in Japan, the research scientist Hiroshi Yasuda imagined the following discussion in a hospital.

Nurse: COVID hospitalizations are increasing again. Doctor: I know. N: Are we fighting an endless, losing battle against SARS-CoV-2? D: No, you are wrong. N: Oh, you have different ideas, doctor? D: We are not even fighting. N: [Nods in agreement.]

Richard Corsi, the noted Texas indoor environmental engineer and creator of the Corsi-Rosenthal box, has summed up this predicament as a profound public health failure. “The general response to COVID-19 remains reactionary over precautionary. Wait until the fire gets hot and starts to burn rather than taking very simple steps to not fuel the fire in the first place. This is a recipe for forever non-containment, forever burn.”

He then points out: “The solution’s been with us since day one of the pandemic. We’ve [generalized] just lacked the will, determination and grace to make it end. Reduce inhalation dose of virus-laden respiratory aerosol particles. It’ll never end if we continue to run in the opposite direction, folks.”

The problem with running in the opposite direction, however, is that we increase the chances of landing in the arms of another COVID infection. And the reasons for avoiding such viral encounters just grow stronger by the sheer weight of evidence.

Why infection prevention still matters

Nobody sane really wants to play Russian roulette, but that’s how we should view every COVID infection. Although most people will get away with just an unpleasant biological disruption of daily life, others will take a bullet to their heart, brain, gut or immune system for reasons not fully understood.

No COVID infection is completely benign because each infection plays a role in deregulating the immune system. Even a mild infection, as one recent study noted, can increase “autoantibodies associated with rheumatic autoimmune diseases and diabetes in most individuals, regardless of vaccination status prior to infection.”

According to an increasing number of researchers, immune deregulation triggered by COVID probably plays a significant role in the dramatic global upticks in infectious diseases. The suspects include RSV, a variety of herpes viruses, whooping cough (now burning up the charts in Canada and England), scarlet fever, dengue fever, fungal infections and tuberculosis. Forty-four countries have now reported a 10-fold increase in the incidence of at least one of 13 infectious diseases compared to trends prior to the pandemic.

Although vaccine hesitancy, climate change and permissive travel have also played a role in this microbial wave, researchers strongly suspect that COVID’s disruption of the immune system has made it harder for many people to fight other infections.

Putrino, a COVID specialist at New York’s Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, recently explained the situation this way. “For the longest time we’ve told people that if you get an illness and you recover, it just makes you stronger. What we’re seeing over and over again is that’s not the case with COVID. Every time you get a COVID infection, your immune system seems to suffer.

“It’s kind of like a boxer, every fight takes a little bit more out of them. And they’re not getting stronger with every fight, they’re not getting stronger with every hit that they take. Every single time there’s an increased chance that something bad is going to happen to the immune system and I think that this influx of illness that we’re seeing is related to that.”

Another significant risk posed by playing Russian roulette with COVID infections is that each one could result in long COVID, which has sidelined 400 million people around the world at a cost of a trillion dollars. Some manifestations of long COVID include heart disease, diabetes, myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome, and a raft of autoimmune diseases that may last a lifetime.

The risk increases with the severity of acute infection but the majority of long COVID sufferers have had a mild infection. The more times one is infected, the likelier the next infection will trigger a bout of long COVID. “Cumulatively, two infections yield a higher risk of long COVID than one infection and three infections yield a higher risk than two infections, explain researchers published in the journal Nature.

Here, then, is where we’ve arrived. We’ve entered a vicious cycle where more infections generate more COVID variants. The new variants have become more immune evasive. At the same time society has generally abandoned masks, testing and basic public health messages.

We could slow and suppress the cycle by facing the challenge squarely. For example, by cleaning dirty air the way we once tackled the disease-ridden spectre of cholera-infested water.

But public health officials are afraid to talk about clean air let alone the obvious: avoiding infection.

Beating back COVID requires hard work, communal wisdom and clear policies that markedly reduce the level of infection in society.

To date we have chosen viral denial, dirty air and a triumphant reign for long COVID. [Tyee]

[half-developed-frontal-lobe]

I had a thought after reading some occasionally blizzard and reddit posts, and it's not surprise that people are struggling on the legendary/expert Liberation mission on PvE. Specifically the solo queuers, I don't know how you guys do it, but I commend you. Which only got me thinking.

See, we all knew that Overwatch PvE was partially built around that skill tree they showed us in the trailers. Now that that's scrapped, there really isn't any room for error for tougher levels. At least not for solo players. That one mission at the station in Toronto, I get it's incredibly hard on legendary, but completely impossible on solo queue.

Without some type of large elimination, you can't really get anywhere playing alone, and the bots...are just...bots. You get Mei walled at the worst moments, your Sojourn and Tracer fly off the map, and your tank doesn't stay on point for the objective (I'm lookin' at you, Zarya bot). The only role that's not entirely broken for bots is support. Besides a personal gripe about using ultimates at the wrong times, that's practically it.

Sometimes I like to go back just for the nostalgia, but even I can't tolerate a team of literal bots.

My point being, if they ever decide to do PvE again, that which I have my reasonable doubts, you might want to find a friend group whose willing to dish out the money to pay for the missions and willing to pick it up again whenever you're in the need to grind out some interactions and lore data.

Otherwise, you'll end up trying to do it alone, and failing at the first fight on the tougher levels.

You're gonna struggle with the lack of power initially promised with the mission's design.

[sataniccapitalist]

#thewaronyou

Another winter of death is now unfolding in the United States and across the Northern Hemisphere as the JN.1 variant of the coronavirus continues to surge globally. Wastewater data from the United States released Tuesday indicate that upwards of 2 million people are now being infected with COVID-19 each day, amid the second-biggest wave of mass infection since the pandemic began, eclipsed only by the initial wave of the Omicron variant during the winter of 2021-22.

There are now reports on social media of hospitals being slammed with COVID patients across the US, Canada and Europe. At a growing number of hospitals, waiting rooms are overflowing, emergency rooms and ICUs are at or near capacity, and ambulances are being turned away or forced to wait for hours to drop off their patients.

According to official figures, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Charlotte, North Carolina are now at their highest levels of the entire pandemic. In Toronto, Dr. Michael Howlett, president of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, told City News, “I’ve worked in emergency departments since 1987, and it’s by far the worst it’s ever been. It’s not even close.” He added, “We’ve got people dying in waiting rooms because we don’t have a place to put them. People being resuscitated on an ambulance stretcher or a floor.”

Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, told the Today Show website: “The current strain right now seems to be packing a meaner punch than the prior strains. Some features of the current circulating strain probably (make it) a little bit more virulent and pathogenic, making people sicker than prior (variants).”

Indeed, two recent studies indicate that JN.1 more efficiently infects cells in the lower lung, a trait that existed in pre-Omicron strains which were considered more deadly. One study from researchers in Germany and France noted that BA.2.86, the variant nicknamed “Pirola” from which JN.1 evolved, “has regained a trait characteristic of early SARS-CoV-2 lineages: robust lung cell entry. The variant might constitute an elevated health threat as compared to previous Omicron sublineages.”https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/1MGIQxPf0Ig?rel=0An appeal from David North: Donate to the WSWS todayWatch the video message from WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North.DONATE TODAY

The toll on human life from the ongoing wave of mass infection is enormous. It is estimated that one-third of the American population, or over 100 million human beings, will contract COVID-19 during just the current wave. This will likely result in tens of thousands of deaths, many of which will not be properly logged due to the dismantling of COVID-19 testing and data reporting systems in the US. When The Economist last updated its tracker of excess deaths on November 18—before the JN.1 wave began—the cumulative death toll stood at 27.4 million, and nearly 5,000 people were continuing to die each day worldwide.

The current wave will also induce further mass suffering from Long COVID, which has been well known since 2020 to cause a multitude of lingering and often debilitating effects. Just last week, a pre-print study was published in Nature Portfolio showing that COVID-19 infection can cause brain damage akin to aging 20 years. The consequences are mental deficits that induce depression, reduced ability to handle intense emotions, lowered attention span, and impaired ability to retain information.

Other research indicates that the virus can attack the heart, the immune system, digestion and essentially every other critical bodily function. The initial symptoms of COVID-19 might resemble those of the flu, but the reality is that the virus can affect nearly every organ in the body and can do so for years after the initial infection. While vaccination slightly reduces the risks of Long COVID, the full impact of the virus will be felt for generations.

The latest winter wave of infections and hospitalizations takes place just eight months after the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Biden administration ended their COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declarations without any scientific justification. This initiated the wholesale scrapping of all official response to the pandemic, giving the virus free rein to infect the entire global population ad infinitum.

A virtual blackout of any mention of the coronavirus in the corporate media accompanied the swan song of official reporting. From then on, if illnesses at hospitals or among public figures were referenced at all, it was always with the euphemism “respiratory illness.” The words COVID, coronavirus and pandemic have been all but blacklisted, and the facts about the dangers of the disease have been actively suppressed.

Summarizing the cumulative results of this global assault on public health, the WSWS International Editorial Board wrote in its New Year 2024 statement:

All facts and data surrounding the present state of the pandemic are concealed from the global population, which has instead been subjected to unending lies, gaslighting and propaganda, now shrouded in a veil of silence. There is a systematic cover-up of the real gravity of the crisis, enforced by the government, the corporations, the media and the trade union bureaucracies. Official policy has devolved into simply ignoring, denying and falsifying the reality of the pandemic, no matter what the consequences, as millions are sickened and thousands die globally every day.

In response to the latest wastewater data, there have only been a handful of news articles, most of which have sought to downplay the severity of the current wave and largely ignored the deepening crisis in hospitals.

The official blackout has given rise to an extraordinary contradiction in social life. The reality of mass infection means that everyone knows a friend, neighbor, family member or coworker who is currently or was recently sick, or even hospitalized or killed, by COVID-19. Yet the unrelenting pressure to dismiss the danger of the pandemic means that shopping centers, supermarkets, workplaces and even doctor’s offices and hospitals are full of people not taking the basic and simple precaution of masking to protect themselves. Every visit outside one’s home carries the risk of being infected, with unknown long-term consequences.

As the pandemic enters its fifth year, it is critical to draw the lessons of this world historical experience. The past four years have demonstrated unequivocally that capitalist governments are both unwilling and incapable of fighting this disease. Their primary concern has always been to ensure the unabated accumulation of profits by corporations, no matter the cost in human lives and health.

The real solution to the coronavirus is not to ignore it, but to develop a campaign of elimination and eradication of the virus worldwide. To do so requires the implementation of mask mandates, mass testing and contact tracing, as well as the installation of updated ventilation systems and the safe deployment of Far-UVC technology to halt the spread of the virus. The resources for this global public health program must be expropriated from the banks and financial institutions, which are responsible for the mass suffering wrought by the pandemic.

All of these measures cut directly across the profit motive and the real disease of society: capitalism. As such, the struggle against the coronavirus is not primarily medical or scientific, but political and social. The international working class must be educated on the real dangers of the pandemic and mobilized to simultaneously stop the spread of the disease and put an end to the underlying social order that propagates mass death. This must be developed as a revolutionary struggle to establish world socialism.

[eyeslikewatercoolers]

If Found, Please Burn- Chapter 2

Chapter 2- In which Jasmine returns to LA, Daya doesn't know how to shut up, and Kerri goes into protective-sister mode.

Read on ao3

Dear Daya,

Lemon invited me to stay with her in Toronto for a few weeks, and I’m going to take her offer. 

She’s the only person who knows how I feel about you (besides Kerri’s mom, but I’m pretty sure Sasha knows everything), and she thinks I just need space from you and everything that reminds me of you. I’ve had this stupid crush on you for over two years and I’ve tried everything else to get over it. I’m tired of being in love with someone that I’m supposed to hate. 

So when I get back to LA, I have to be over you. I don’t have a choice anymore for myself. Even Sasha’s told me that I deserve someone that’s going to treat me better than you do. You’re never going to stop hating me, I realized this a long time ago. 

I know you are never going to see these letters, but this is the last one I’m writing to you. I need to let these stupid letters go, I only started writing them to try to get over you. And it’s only making things worse. So hopefully when I get back, fighting with you won’t hurt as bad. 

Never writing to you again, 

-Jasmine

Daya finished reading the picture of the letter on her phone. It was the only one she had fully read so far from what she’d found in the box. She might as well read the one that had the latest date, and then move back to the others once she had the chance. 

“Are you almost ready to go?” Willow popped her head into Jasmine’s room as Daya played with Aveyah using a laser pointer she found at the bottom of the box. Daya continued to join her friend at Jasmine’s apartment every other day for the last two weeks to help occupy the cats (and not to look for more letters, not that she even found them).

“Yeah, what time are we coming back tomorrow?” Daya stood as she slipped her phone back into her back pocket and tossed the laser pointer into the box. 

Willow shook her head as they started to turn out the lights and to the front door of the apartment “We’re not coming back. Jasmine’s flying back in tomorrow.”

Daya wondered if it had been three weeks already, as dealing with the letters made time seemingly fly by. “Oh, that sucks. I mean, for playing with the cats.” Daya made a quick save, catching her slip-up as Willow shut the door behind them and locked it.

“I doubt you’ll go, but we’re hanging out at Kerri’s the day after Jasmine comes back,” Willow explained as the two watched down the building’s hallway towards the elevators. “Camden and Angie will be there, and I think Bosco’s coming too if that gives you any incentive.” 

The thought of seeing Jasmine again made Daya feel a mix of unfamiliar emotions towards her nemesis. Apprehensive? Nervous? A little curious? 

“No, I wanna go. Not for Jasmine, but we haven’t all hung out since we were at the beach house.” she pointed out. 

Willow shrugged, seemingly not noticing the pause in Daya’s response. “Cool, just try to keep your bickering to a minimum, please?” 

“No problem, I’ll keep reminding her that I kept her cats entertained for three weeks while she was gone.”

“It’s been quiet in the group chat until Jasmine landed last night.”  Bosco pointed out as she and Daya walked up the stairs to Kerri’s apartment. Daya carried a brown paper bag from the liquor store down the road as Kerri asked them to pick drinks up earlier that day. 

“I don’t think she wanted to pay the international data fees,” Daya responded, switching the bag to her other hand.

“Can you blame her? Dance teachers get paid shit when they work with kids.” 

“Is that why you moved to doing choreography?”  Daya asked as she found the door and knocked loudly.

“That, and I realized working with people’s kids wasn’t worth the pay anyways.” 

They both heard Kerri’s voice from the other side of the door stand out from the music “Could someone get the door?” A few moments later, the door opened to reveal Jasmine on the other side, stepping to the side to let Bosco and Daya inside. 

Jasmine’s usual dirty blonde hair was now a dyed copper color. If Daya hadn’t found the letters a couple of weeks before, she wouldn’t have thought twice about the change. But she knew that a girl dying her hair was a classic post-breakup move, realizing Jasmine must have pulled all the stops to get over her crush.

“Nice new hair, Jas,” Daya said as she placed the bag on the coffee table next to a prepared ice bucket. As soon as she said it, Daya realized that she complimented Jasmine. It wasn’t bickering, so she was off to a good start with her so far.

Jasmine had a look of slight surprise and gently held a piece in her hand, “Oh, thanks, Daya. Lemon got bored and said that she accidentally picked up the wrong box months ago and used it on me.” she explained with more background information than Daya asked for. 

Somehow, Daya didn’t hate hearing Jasmine’s rambling for once.

“Well, it looks good on you,” Bosco added as she helped Daya unload the beers and hard sodas into the bucket. 

“Thanks for bringing the drinks, Willow and I didn’t have a chance to get them earlier,” Kerri said as she walked in with bowls of various snacks to put on the table. Willow followed close behind from where they emerged from the kitchen. 

“Yeah, the edibles we had this morning hit us almost too hard.” Willow laughed as she sat across from where Camden and Anergia were sitting close together on the two-person bean bag chair Keeri dragged out from the bedroom. 

The rest of the group found other places to sit in the living room as they all helped themselves to different snacks and drinks, settling into various side conversations. 

“Did your cats miss you? I’m guessing they were all over you when you got home.” Camden asked Jasmine before taking a sip from her drink. Kerri excused herself into the kitchen, quickly saying that her mom was calling her.

“They were all over me. But I can’t find one of Theo’s favorite toys for some reason.” Jasmine thoughtfully said. 

“Have you checked behind the dresser?” Daya said but realized what was actually in that area in Jasmine’s bedroom and not supposed to know about. 

Luckily Jasmine had a good poker face, “Why the dresser?” she asked Daya, seemingly challenging her recommendation.

Daya had to think of something to say quickly. “Oh, I found another toy back there when I was playing with the cats when I went over with Willow.” 

“Just one toy?” Jasmine asked, crossing her arms. 

“Yeah, just one toy was back there, that's it.” Daya calmly said, looking for any change in Jasmine’s expression. 

Thankfully, Kerri returned to interrupt the awkward tension, “Hey Jas? My mom was wondering if you could babysit this weekend. Both she and Mama are flying to a destination wedding this weekend but they can’t find anyone to watch Delia.” she said as she settled back in her seat. 

“Yeah I can, but they’ll be gone all weekend?” Jasmine asked. 

“They are, I’d help you out but Willow and I are going to that music festival this weekend.” Kerri pointed out and looked at Camden and Angeria. “What about you two?”

Angie shook her head “I have family coming in this weekend, and most of them haven’t met Cam yet.” She gave a sympathetic smile to Jasmine, 

“Otherwise, we would help you if it weren’t for that.” Camden pointed out. 

Jasmine pursed her lips, thinking of other people who might be available to help her. “Maybe I could ask-”

“I can help you.” Daya blurted out before thinking, and everyone in the room looked at her in complete shock. 

Kerri broke the shocked silence amongst the group, pointing between Daya and Jasmine as she spoke.

“You? Want to help Jasmine? With babysitting?” she asked, confusion rising in her voice.

Daya nodded, “Yeah, why not? I’m free this weekend anyways.” 

“I think hell just froze over,” Bosco mumbled as she took a sip of beer. 

Kerri shook off her confused state, “Well, my parents and Delia all like you, so I guess it’s up to Jasmine then.” She looked over at her best friend, who had been silent since Daya offered her help.

“I’ll take the help if you’re not joking about this,” Jasmine said, still slightly surprised. “I guess I’ll text you the address and when to come over this weekend.” Jasmine sounded like she was trying to keep her voice even, but still held back some apprehension. 

After a couple of hours, everyone was winding down from the small get-together. Jasmine left with Camden and Angie since they were her ride home. Daya and Bosco chose to stay behind afterward and help Kerri and Willow clean up. 

As Daya was putting the rest of the empty bottles in the trash and working on taking the bag out of the can, Kerri suddenly approached her, and she was blocking the doorway. Kerri stared her down with a piercing gaze and her arms crossed. 

Kerri continued to quietly stare at her until Daya spoke up “Can I help you?” she asked with slight confusion. 

“What’s with you suddenly acting nice to Jasmine?” she questioned, continuing the stare-down. Kerri kept her voice low so as not to catch the attention of the others in the apartment.

Daya straightened her posture, “What do you mean?” trying to keep her voice calm.

“You didn’t start any fights with her, you offered to babysit with her, and hell, you even complimented her!” Kerri explained. “Why are you acting differently around her tonight?” Kerri tilted her head slightly. 

Daya cleared her throat before answering. “I just thought you guys didn’t want to hear us bicker all night.” 

“Oh really? So you don’t have any other reason to suddenly be nice to her?” 

Daya shook her head, “No, just turning over a new leaf with her. If we want to call each other friends, we might as well at least try to get along.” she explained, and luckily the other woman seemed to accept that answer. 

“I just don’t want to see my sister get hurt. That’s all I’m worried about.” Kerri sighed and turned around, allowing Daya to exit again. 

“Don’t worry, your little sister is going to be in good hands this weekend,” Daya said as she tied the garbage bag shut, and Kerri spun around with her dyed blonde hair flowing behind her.

“I wasn’t talking about Delia, by the way.” 

[lady-of-imladris]

Results of the "Where would you hide a Silmaril" post!!!

Hello everyone, sorry this took a while. But here are the results of this post. PLEASE READ THE UNHINGED RANDOM ONES. I will put them [HERE] in a separate post, as well as at the bottom of this post.

There will be charts for nice data representation (I used pie charts because I was taught NOT to use them and... fuck the rules)

We had a hot total of 127 people who either commented or reblogged with their opinion in the tags. Thank you to everyone who participated!!

Here are the numbers

31: give it to them

1 draw a sad face on it

1 in exchange for marriage proposal

2 in exchange for money

1 “I’m not dying for Feanor’s kidney stone”

1 in exchange for protection

11: body of water

5: people who accused me of having a silmaril

9: eat

after 23 hours

eaten by dog

6: volcano

7: NSFW edition

my ass

“up my… no I shouldn’t say it… the ocean”

“… either they wouldn’t look there or I’d have a good time while they’re looking

“I can’t bring myself to say it”

“In my pussy. Those gayboys wouldnt have the guts to retrieve it. Thank god Celegorm isnt in the picture”

“In my pussy. Sorry but 2 fine af war criminals in my house??! sorry not sorry daddy”

“I’d rather not say what my first thought was”

4: nope, not touching that

And now for the unhinged answers:

Here are the numbers:

54 unhinged answers:

5: Higher entity

“Give it to melkor because good luck getting it from that guy”

Ulmo

Tom Bombadil

Bilbo [Yes he counts as a higher entity]

Yavanna

3: Mess

Brother’s room

Wardrobe of the boys’ room (underneath lego)

Deepest darkest part of the woodshed

5: object permanence (it will disappear on its own)

parents’ basement between tomato sauce and baked beans

“I’d probably just lose it anyway”

“Wherever my left sock is”

“One of my “safe places”. It magically disappears within 24 hours”

“My special powers would kick in and it would never be found”

4: Proximity (hide it where they least suspect it. Close to them.)

Reverse pickpocket one of them

Maedhros’ underwear drawer

Near a Feanorian house

Under their own floorboards

2: cast it into the void

11: Urban

Hospital storage room

Toronto union station (a literal maze due to construction)

Go to a carnical and replace one of the lightbulbs with it

Gravel mine

Archives of a museum

“School or McDonalds, neither of these places feel like they exist on the mortal plane”

Bell tower

2: Ball pit

The trash

A random train station

Flush it down the toilet

4: Angband or Valinor

Bury it underneath the roots of the two tees

give it to Cirdan so he ships it off to valinor

3: Wear it

2: Wear it as a necklace

“Wear it and pspsp the Feanorians, dying in the process of trying to pet them”

RANDOM

Rig my house with cameras, assemble all light sources and plug them in, hide the silmaril inside a lamp, withdraw to a friend's place and watch them wander through my house like confused moths. Optional popcorn #noldor enrichment

Bury it in the garden with the potatoes. Good luck with the geese

Hide it in the middle of millions of other shiny rocks and run. Probably after drwaing a smiley on it

Feed it to a chicken and throw the chicken into the depths of khazad dum

Drive into a random direction and chuck it into a landfill

gollum-style underground, wrap it in a dozen bags and dump it into a deep but narrow crevice

Panic, try to eat it, spit it out, panic, dig a hole, throw myself into hole, panic, climb out, wait for them, throw it in their face while panicking

My pocket

Inside a washing machine, they would never look there

Wheel well of my heelies

Behind an army of therapists with a burning commitment to family gruop therapy. Either we'll scare them off or make some progress

Hand it to a little kid on the street

Inside a water mellon and say I gave it to a friend

British museum, god knows they'll never give it back-.

Box of tampons under the sink

inside a large rubber duck

Give it to deadpool

Buy a wedding dress and wait

Bring it to the shire. Even the Feanorians can't come after hobbits without looking like total dicks to a level even they aren't okay with

[h2ofiretoronto]

Specialized Fire Extinguishers for High-Risk Industries: Detailed Analysis

The demand for specialized Toronto fire extinguishers is high in high-risk industries, such as the manufacture of chemicals, the production of oil and gas, and the aerospace industry. Materials processed or used in these industries are of a nature that makes them prone to very dangerous fires, which require special methods of suppression, quite different from usual ones. As a professional embedded within these sectors, it becomes very important to understand subtle protections afforded by specialized extinguishers custom-built to meet such sophisticated challenges head-on. This article will discuss various types of extinguishers specifically engineered for high-risk applications, explaining how they work and the important role they play in protection against industry-specific hazards.

Understanding High-Risk Industry Needs

The Unique Fire Hazards Assessment

Flammable chemicals and high-temperature processes form a volatile risk landscape for many high-risk industries. Ordinary Toronto fire extinguishers won't have a chance here. Therefore, proper identification of the types of fire that might go out of control and what sort of firefighting equipment will be required to fight them efficiently is needed.

Compliance with Regulations

Navigating compliance with rigorous industry standards and fire safety regulations is not a formality; rather, it's an integral operational safety and integrity factor. Specialized fire extinguishers, tailored to meet such demanding standards, ensure compliance and guarantee peace of mind with their maximum preparedness.

Specialized Fire Extinguishers Catalog

CO2 Fire Extinguishers

Perfect for areas where electrical fires could become a problem or equipment damage needs to be avoided, CO2 extinguishers eliminate a fire without leaving a residue behind and effectively displace oxygen. The result is that they are in high demand for places such as electrical control rooms and data centres.

Dry Chemical Fire Extinguishers

These extinguishers stand out due to their versatility and effectiveness along a spectrum of fire types, including those involving flammable liquids and electrical equipment. For industries requiring rapid fire suppression to hinder escalation, dry chemical extinguishers provide an immediate response solution.

Foam Fire Extinguishers

These are used on fires involving flammable liquids and work by smothering the fire and creating a foam barrier between the fuel and the air. This extinguisher is crucial in chemical processing facilities and in areas where petroleum products are handled.

Wet Chemical Fire Extinguishers

Wet chemical extinguishers are specially formulated for grease fires typical in kitchens and food processing plants. They effectively manage fires involving cooking oils and fats by delivering high-temperature, focused fire suppression.

Clean Agent Fire Extinguishers

Clean agent extinguishers have been specially used to protect museums and archives from high-value items, as well as the aerospace sector, where conventional firefighting residuals can be damaging.

Implemented Strategies in Fire Safety Measures

Maintenance and Inspection Programs

Specialized Toronto fire extinguishers should be maintained in operationally ready status through intensive maintenance and frequent inspection. This would involve not only visual inspections but also training personnel regarding the proper operational techniques.

Inculcated Fire Safety in all aspects

Effective fire safety strategies must integrate special fire extinguishers within a holistic fire response strategy, which should be implemented in combination with enhanced fire detection systems, explicit evacuation procedures, and comprehensive employee education and training for a unified response in times of fire.

Continuous Training and Simulation Exercises

Regular fire drill exercises and training are important, especially in high-risk industries. Such programs ensure that every team member has acquired competence in handling specialized fire extinguishing equipment, which is paramount in reducing response time and any potential damage resulting from a fire breakout.

Conclusion

The investment in specialized extinguishers is not for compliance; it is part of an overall strategy to help professionals stay safe in a demanding field. Meet specific fire safety demands of your industry by properly extinguishing technologies and enhancing protection while strengthening the safety culture in its entirety. Safeguard your assets but, above all, protect lives within high-stake environments with state-of-the-art and tailored fire suppression solutions possible for your operation.

[nvestiv]

From Struggles to Success: Challenges in Early-Stage Startups

Starting a new business can be exhilarating, but it’s also full of challenges that can make or break a startup. For entrepreneurs embarking on this journey, understanding the typical obstacles faced during the early stages startups can help navigate the tumultuous landscape of building a successful company. Below are some of the key challenges faced by early-stage startups and strategies to overcome them:

1. Limited Funding

Challenge: Lack of sufficient capital is one of the most significant challenges for startups. Funding is required to develop products, hire talent, market services, and manage operations.

Solution: Startups often rely on bootstrapping, angel investors, or venture capital (VC) to secure initial funding. Applying for grants, entering startup competitions, and crowdfunding are other options. Maintaining a lean business model and focusing on generating revenue early on can help extend financial runway.

2. Market Validation

Challenge: Many startups struggle with validating their idea or product in the market. Founders may build products they believe in but don’t always address a genuine market need.

Solution: Conduct thorough market research, validate the product through small-scale testing (Minimum Viable Product or MVP), and gather feedback from early users to refine the offering. Understanding customer pain points is key to creating a product that truly solves problems.

3. Talent Acquisition

Challenge: Early-stage startups often lack the resources to attract top talent. Startups may face difficulty finding employees who are willing to take the risk of working for a new venture without guaranteed stability.

Solution: Emphasize the vision of the startup and the potential for growth. Offer equity, flexibility, and a strong company culture that appeals to people passionate about innovation. Networking in startup communities can also help in finding like-minded individuals.

4. Competition

Challenge: Competing against well-established businesses or fellow startups can be daunting. Startups must often carve out a niche in a crowded marketplace.

Solution: Differentiation is crucial. Focus on a unique value proposition that sets the company apart. Build a strong brand identity and foster close relationships with early customers to create loyalty and advocacy.

5. Scaling Operations

Challenge: Once a product gains traction, scaling the business can be complex. Operational inefficiencies, lack of systems, and growing pains can hinder expansion.

Solution: Develop scalable processes early on. Invest in automation tools and a robust infrastructure that supports growth. Ensure that customer service, supply chain management, and internal operations can handle increasing demand.

6. Managing Cash Flow

Challenge: Cash flow issues are one of the primary reasons startups fail. Even if the business is profitable, improper cash flow management can lead to failure.

Solution: Implement strong financial management practices. Keep track of cash flow, delay unnecessary expenses, and ensure that accounts receivable are collected on time. Building a financial buffer to deal with slow periods is crucial.

7. Product Development Delays

Challenge: Early-stage startups often face delays in product development, whether due to technical challenges, resource limitations, or scope creep.

Solution: Prioritize the core features that solve the primary problem for your customers and launch an MVP quickly. Use agile development methodologies to iteratively improve the product based on user feedback.

8. Marketing and Customer Acquisition

Challenge: Gaining initial traction and acquiring customers is a challenge due to limited budgets and brand recognition.

Solution: Focus on cost-effective marketing strategies like social media, content marketing, and partnerships. Leverage the power of word-of-mouth, early adopters, and online communities. Having a clear marketing plan and tracking results can optimize marketing efforts.

9. Time Management

Challenge: Founders often wear multiple hats, leading to exhaustion and inefficient use of time. Balancing between product development, fundraising, marketing, and operations can be overwhelming.

Solution: Prioritize tasks that bring the highest value to the business. Delegate or outsource non-core activities when possible. Effective time management techniques, such as time blocking or the Pomodoro technique, can also help founders stay productive.

10. Legal and Regulatory Hurdles

Challenge: Startups often face legal challenges such as choosing the right business structure, protecting intellectual property, and navigating regulatory compliance.

Solution: Seek legal advice early on and ensure that all documentation (e.g., contracts, patents, trademarks) is in place. Staying informed about relevant regulations within your industry and location is crucial.

11. Maintaining Morale and Mental Health

Challenge: The high pressure and uncertainty involved in building a startup can take a toll on founders and their teams. Burnout is a common risk in the startup world.

Solution: Focus on work-life balance and mental well-being. Building a support system, taking breaks, and celebrating small victories can help maintain morale. Creating a company culture that values well-being can also positively impact team dynamics.

12. Pivoting

Challenge: Sometimes, the original business idea may not work out as planned, forcing startups to pivot to new markets, products, or strategies.

Solution: Flexibility is key. Stay open to feedback and willing to adapt. Successful startups often pivot based on market demands and user insights while keeping their long-term vision intact.

Final Thoughts

While early-stage startups face numerous challenges, these obstacles can be overcome with the right strategies and mindset. Perseverance, adaptability, and resourcefulness are the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs. Learning from failure, iterating on ideas, and staying focused on solving real customer problems can transform struggles into success stories.

[sharas-bae]

health-wise, it's a very good thing that my trip to toronto is a month away. i've got strength and stamina to try and rebuild, and it won't happen quickly.

but now that it feels like recovery is in sight, i'm realizing that i'm starting to actually feel properly impatient. it's been a little over 3 months since we met and i want to finally hang out in the same room for more than a few hours. i really want to get some important as-yet-unattainable data to decide whether we want to continue making this emotional investment. (i do feel like the more time passes, the more likely it feels that "yes" will be the answer, but who knows. it still feels like a big question mark when it's all happening on discord video and phone calls)

also i really would like to bang it out, frankly. like even if the trip ends up being the conclusion of this saga, some sex would not go amiss.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

This Friday (September 8) at 10hPT/17hUK, I'm livestreaming "How To Dismantle the Internet" with Intelligence Squared.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

#15yrsago Heinlein’s fan-mail solution https://kk.org/ct2/heinleins-fan-mail-solution/

#15yrsago Content: my first-ever collection of essays https://memex.craphound.com/2008/09/08/content-my-first-ever-collection-of-essays/

#15yrsago PGP and others team up to renovate Bletchley Park https://www.zdnet.com/article/bletchley-park-campaign-makes-appeal-to-us/

#15yrsago George RR Martin’s “The Armageddon Rag”: Sex, death, blood and rock-n-roll https://www.tor.com/2008/09/08/armageddonrag/

#15yrsago My Mother Wears Combat Boots — kick-ass punk-parenting book https://memex.craphound.com/2008/09/08/my-mother-wears-combat-boots-kick-ass-punk-parenting-book/

#10yrsago NSA secretly broke smartphone security https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/privacy-scandal-nsa-can-spy-on-smart-phone-data-a-920971.html

#10yrsago NSA leaks as a demographic phenomena https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2013/09/the_spooks_need_new.html

#10yrsago Firsthand account of NSA sabotage of Internet security standards https://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg12325.html

#10yrsago All of India’s public safety standards now online for free https://law.resource.org/pub/in/manifest.in.html

#5yrsago UC Santa Cruz asks professors to rent their spare rooms to students who couldn’t get housing guarantees https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/uc-santa-cruz-wants-staff-to-rent-rooms-to-students-due-to-lack-of-housing/

#5yrsago Paper Haunted Mansion music box https://haunteddimensions.blogspot.com/2018/09/haunted-dimensions-music-box.html

#1yrago The horrifying tale of a blockchain-based virtual sweatshop https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/08/torment-nexus/#irl

#1yrago Every billionaire is a factory for producing policy failures https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/08/torment-nexus/#barre-seid

[todays-just-a-daydream]

oasis ticket day is off to a great start. tried to join the waiting room at 11:30 and ticketmaster blocked me for suspected bot activity. for real? i haven't even started yet. and hi not a bot actual fan of 25 years here with all the albums and 100+ oasis songs running through my head like a jukebox at all times. i'm as far from a bot as you can get.

for anyone else who gets stuck on this, the quickest answer is to change IP addresses. since it happened on my home IP, my best option was to switch to mobile data on my phone. i knew this and yet still wasted time googling cause i forgot. which is how i joined the queue at "53292 people ahead of you". for the labor day date at metlife mind you, not even trying the sunday one after how many were on presales yesterday. saving the screenshot for prosperity sake cause it’s true FML:

so now i get to watch on my phone as the number ticks down 52000 51000 50000 49000 48000 47000 46000 45000 knowing actual bots from scalpers are scooping up all the tickets in my price range to hoard. so by the time i get there it's all inflated "premium" and "fan package" tickets? not my idea of fun.

god this is an insane process how do you people do this on the regular?

44000 43000 42000 41000 40000

feeling in real time how this can play at the mind and get people to fork over their life savings by the time they make it through. i have my ceiling price you fools i'm not paying a penny more and nothing you can throw me will make me.

39000 38000 37000 36000

beating the psychological warfare by thinking of all the sleep i've lost over this dumb reunion with oasis songs in my head like..

when they said i should feed my head that to me was just a day in bed

35000 34000 33000 32000

sing my soul to sleep and take me back to bed

31000 30000 29000

stay in bed and sleep all day as long as it's sunday

28000 27000 26000

and time as it stands won't be held in my hands or living inside of my skin

25000 24000 23000

you know that i've gotta say time's slipping away and what will it hold for me

22000 21000 20000

i hope you don't regret today for the rest of your lives

19000 18000 17000

you can't give me the dreams that were mine anyway

16000 15000 14000

all we know is that we don't know how it's gonna be

13000 12000 11000

day by day there's a man in a suit who's gonna make you pay for the thoughts that you think and the words they won't let you say

10000 9000 8000

12:36 PM Today's Oasis ticket sale has now finished for September 1 at Metlife Stadium in New Jersey.

7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000

12:48 PM Almost your turn!

12:49 PM wait i'm in! maybe it was lying i still see some <$200 tickets available

12:49 PM tab crashes

12:51 PM no tickets available. map shows it's sold out

CURSE YOU AQUASCUM!!!!

i'm gonna start a revolution from my bed cause you said the brains i had went to my head

here's your revolution: ticketmaster is a fuckin' monopoly. biden's doj is suing them on antitrust violations like the US govt should have done 30 years ago.

they don't own your music! the music belongs to all of us! don't give them your money! buy records! support local music! she yells as the authorities pull her away.

yeah it's good yes it's good it's good to be free

*joins toronto queue*

[jaichaudhary]

single family homes for sale in Calgary" as requested.

Introduction: A Booming Calgary Real Estate Market

The Calgary real estate market has seen a significant surge in demand, particularly in the single-family homes category. Driven by several factors including economic recovery, migration patterns, and changing buyer preferences post-pandemic, this sector is leading the way in Calgary’s housing market.

Homebuyers, investors, and even first-time home purchasers are witnessing Calgary’s market undergo notable changes, with single family homes for sale in Calgary becoming a focal point. This update will examine the current trends, reasons behind the rise in demand, and what buyers and sellers can expect in the near future.

Calgary’s Economic Landscape: Fueling the Housing Demand

The overall economic recovery in Calgary plays a crucial role in the demand for real estate. As oil prices stabilize and other industries in the region grow, more people are flocking to the city for job opportunities, increasing the demand for housing, particularly single family homes for sale in Calgary.

Recent data from the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) reveals that the city’s economic outlook has strengthened buyer confidence. This trend is particularly evident in the rise of single-family home sales, which have reached new heights compared to previous years.

Demographic Shifts and Migration Patterns

Another significant factor contributing to the growth in the Calgary housing market is the demographic shift. Calgary has long been a magnet for migrants from across Canada and internationally, attracted by employment opportunities and the quality of life.

Recent reports show that younger families and professionals are choosing Calgary over other major cities like Vancouver and Toronto due to its affordability and livability. This influx is driving up the demand for single family homes for sale in Calgary, as these new residents prefer the suburban lifestyle that many of these homes offer.

Post-Pandemic Shifts in Housing Preferences

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped how people perceive their homes. Lockdowns, remote work, and the desire for more space have caused a shift in what buyers are looking for. With more people working from home, there’s been a noticeable trend toward moving away from condos and smaller apartments to larger properties.

This has made single family homes for sale in Calgary incredibly appealing, as they offer more space, backyards, and room for home offices — features that are increasingly valued in the post-pandemic world. The desire for privacy and personal space has also led to increased demand for properties in suburban neighborhoods, contributing to the rise in single-family home sales.

Price Trends: What Buyers and Sellers Need to Know

One of the most critical aspects of the Calgary real estate market is pricing. The rise in demand for single family homes for sale in Calgary has naturally resulted in upward pressure on home prices.

In 2023, the median price for a single-family home in Calgary increased by about 12% compared to the previous year. While prices are rising, Calgary remains more affordable than many other major Canadian cities, making it a competitive market for buyers.

For sellers, this is an ideal time to capitalize on the current demand. The combination of low inventory and high buyer interest has created a seller’s market in Calgary, meaning homes are selling quickly, often above the asking price.

Neighborhoods on the Rise: Where to Look for Single Family Homes

Several Calgary neighborhoods have emerged as hotspots for buyers seeking single family homes for sale in Calgary. Understanding these areas can help buyers and investors make more informed decisions. Let’s explore some of the most in-demand neighborhoods:

Aspen Woods: Known for its luxury homes and family-friendly atmosphere, Aspen Woods is a desirable area for those looking for larger properties.

Mahogany: With its lakefront views and newer developments, Mahogany is attracting buyers who want modern amenities and plenty of outdoor space.

Altadore: This trendy neighborhood appeals to younger families and professionals with its vibrant community and proximity to the city center.

Each of these neighborhoods offers unique advantages, from proximity to schools and parks to convenient transportation links, making them prime areas for single family homes for sale in Calgary.

Supply Constraints and Housing Inventory Issues

While demand for single family homes for sale in Calgary continues to rise, the city is facing a supply constraint. Inventory levels remain lower than average, and new home constructions haven’t kept pace with the heightened demand.

This has led to an increase in bidding wars and reduced options for buyers, especially for those looking for affordable homes. The limited supply is contributing to the upward price trends, as buyers are forced to compete for fewer available properties.

The ongoing labor shortages in the construction sector, coupled with supply chain disruptions, have delayed many new housing projects, further exacerbating the supply-demand imbalance. These factors are critical in understanding the current market dynamics in Calgary.

Government Policies and Real Estate Regulations

Government intervention, both on the federal and provincial levels, has also played a role in shaping the Calgary real estate market. Policies that promote homeownership and favorable mortgage regulations have helped fuel the demand for single family homes for sale in Calgary.

However, rising interest rates pose a challenge for both buyers and sellers. As the Bank of Canada continues to adjust rates in response to inflation, mortgage affordability becomes a key concern for prospective buyers. Although rates remain relatively low, any further increases could cool down the market in the near future.

Investor Activity: A Hotbed for Real Estate Investment

Calgary’s real estate market is not just appealing to families and first-time buyers but also to investors. With the demand for single family homes for sale in Calgary rising, many investors see potential in rental properties and long-term appreciation.

The rental market in Calgary is competitive, with vacancy rates remaining low. Investors are capitalizing on this by purchasing single-family homes to rent out, knowing that the steady influx of new residents ensures a stable rental income.

Moreover, Calgary’s relatively low property prices (compared to Toronto or Vancouver) make it an attractive option for real estate investment, with significant potential for long-term capital gains.

Challenges and Risks in the Current Market

While the market for single family homes for sale in Calgary is currently booming, it is not without its challenges. Rising interest rates, inflation, and potential government interventions could slow the market’s growth.

There’s also the possibility of a housing correction, where prices may stabilize or decrease slightly if demand cools down or if economic conditions worsen. For buyers, the risk of overpaying in a highly competitive market is real, and for sellers, holding out for too long could mean missing the peak of the market.

Looking Ahead: Forecast for the Calgary Real Estate Market

The future of Calgary’s real estate market looks promising, especially for single family homes for sale in Calgary. Economists and real estate experts predict that the demand for these homes will continue to grow, particularly as more people migrate to Calgary for its affordable housing and strong job market.

However, much of this growth depends on factors like interest rates, housing inventory, and broader economic conditions. If supply constraints ease and mortgage rates remain favorable, the market is likely to remain competitive for the foreseeable future.

Conclusion: A Market on the Rise

In summary, the Calgary real estate market, especially for single family homes for sale in Calgary, is experiencing a period of significant growth. The combination of economic recovery, demographic changes, and shifting buyer preferences has created a seller’s market with rising prices and high demand.

For buyers, now may be the time to act, as prices are expected to continue rising, while sellers can take advantage of the current demand. Investors, too, can benefit from Calgary’s strong rental market and long-term growth potential.

As we look ahead, the Calgary real estate market remains one to watch, particularly for those interested in single family homes for sale in Calgary. Whether you’re buying, selling, or investing, staying informed on the latest trends and market conditions is key to making smart real estate decisions.

[cooltron-fans]

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