#like i do think it’s meant to somewhat transfer over to the holders but not 100% the way fandom seems to expect | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

itsmoonphobic · 4 years ago

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✞︎𝕯𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝕻𝖎𝖓𝖐

"𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔,𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆,𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅."

𝐎𝐫��𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚/𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐛𝐲 @chandelier-s-notebook :) 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭!𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬! 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡,𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐭.

❗TW:𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 | 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘀 & 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 | 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 Long text below☟︎︎ "𝔗𝔥𝔞𝔱'𝔰 𝔥𝔦𝔪!𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔭𝔦𝔫𝔨 𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔯 𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔞𝔟𝔬𝔲𝔱!"

"𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔪𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔷 𝔠𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔗𝔢𝔠𝔥𝔫𝔬𝔟𝔩𝔞𝔡𝔢?"

"ℑ 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔡 𝔭𝔢𝔬𝔭𝔩𝔢 𝔯𝔢𝔣𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔬 𝔥𝔦𝔪 𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 '𝔅𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔡 𝔤𝔬𝔡' 𝔞 𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶 𝔡𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔰 𝔪𝔞𝔫."

"This is your fault you know?You made him this way Calvin." "So I created a monster huh?Let's see how far he comes."

He was known as ruthless.

He was described as somebody relentless and triumphant. A bloody minded killer with a grand sense of pride.

Wholesale and ambitious.A monster that leaves behind a trace of deep,red crimson liquid everywhere it goes.

Rascal and unattainable,he was confident.Powerful and dominant,somebody who seemed to have no trouble intimidating others around him.

The Blood god.He didn't even remember when people started calling him that.But that name had always belonged to him,didn't it?

He was a god afterall wasn't he? He had always been one. That title belonged to him in the first place,he was chosen to be the holder of that name.It was destined for him.

"Phil!Phil!Can you tell us the story again,please?" A boy with pale blue eyes questioned his older brother in curiosity and high expectancy for a satisfying answer.The older man,who seemed to be getting ready for sleep himself,tiredly ruffled his pale blond hair.He was about to blow out the lantern placed next to the excited twins comfortably positioned in their shared bed.He smiled gently in a amused manner at the childish behavior coming from his younger siblings,they were eight afterall what else was he supposed to expect from them?Phil carefully put aside the lit up,metal object he just picked up,and gingerly shuffled on the beige,slightly dirty looking sheets until he found a comfy position.His olive eyes were droopy and half lidded as he struggled to keep himself awake for long enough to finish telling the story,cringing slightly at the thought of falling asleep in the middle of his storytelling.

"Again you two?I told you this story so many times before, shouldn't you be bored of it?" Phil asked with interest.His green eyes meeting shocked sapphire ones and confused ocean ones.The older twin,Tubbo,hugged his bee plushie closer to his chest,looking as if he was thinking of the right words ro say.Tommy on the other hand blurted out: "How could we ever get bored of Techno?!He's the most amazing person ever!When I grow up I wanna be just like him,right Tubbo?" The younger boy side glanced his twin,intensely waiting for his response.Tubbo nodded,his hazel locks falling over his glistening eyes: "Yeah,what he said!" He clutched the soft,black and yellow stuffie in his hands tighter,now moving on to hysterically nodding his head, wildly messing up his brown hair in the process.

Phil chuckled,shaking his head in faux disappointment. "You two are such a hand full!" He exclaimed,lovingly pinching both of their noses.The two young boys whined in annoyance and discomfort at the gesture they received. Phil changed his sitting position once more tonight and finally settled on crossing his legs.Tommy and Tubbo exchanged a happy glance between eachother,unable to contain their excitement.The two brothers,that looked and acted nothing alike,dragged the warm blankets closer to their necks,wanting nothing more than pure comfort.

"Once upon a time..."

There once was a boy who lived away in the far lands,you could call his home the outskirts of Bladestrom,the kingdom he and his rather large family resided in.They didn't have much,not that they necessarily required big wealth and power.He and his family owned a potato farm. He loved tagging along with his dad,helping him out wherever and whenever he could in the out stretching and seemingly neverending green fields.The dirt,sweat and unbearable heats got his adrenaline flowing,he loved the feeling of a cool,summer breeze gliding over his sticky and bruised skin.He loved all the scratches littering his pale fingers,the prickling in his fingertips coming from the big amount of harvesting.The way he collapsed onto his bed after an exhausting day of hard work,his mom's homemade pumpkin soup always returned back the strenght and stamina he spent outside on the fields.He felt happy,most kids his age would hate the idea of helping out their parents,when they could instead be playing carelessly with their friends.He felt free,like he could run for hours and never run low on his energy.Like he could get away with everything he did and nobody would be able to catch up to him.He felt alive,like he had a purpose.Yes,maybe potato farming didn't seem like a highly spectacular or interesting purpose in ones life but for this certain boy it was the most greatest opportunity he ever received.

On the days he wasn't at school he would be outside from daybreak to nightfall,nonstop digging around in the wet soil of the yet to be farmed crops.Doing this for most of his life made him pretty much imune to the fear or disgust of such things like insects or mice.He saw many creatures,some smaller and weaker others bigger and tougher,boars had to be his favorite out of all the critters he cought sight of.Not only did the farming calm him down and bring him happiness in his somewhat dull life,but it distracted him. Distracted him from the horrible days he has to spend at school.A place where you are meant to be respectful towards eachother and take care of one another,and not a place where you get blamed for inconsequential actions. Actions he never did and never would think of doing.He got framed for things he never did,behavior he never showed. The farm boy got punished for many different things,he was told many times that he is a problem.He was told that he was in the wrong,he was told that he wouldn't amount to a productive member of society.

He was told that he is dangerous,somebody people could never love,becouse his soul seeks blood.

The boy never knew what gruesome crime he commited for people to throw those types of phrases at him.He didn't understand many of the meanings behind messages he received from both his teachers and fellow students.Thus he began to pile up the questions in his head,questions if all of those venomous words directed at him were true?

With all of that reinforcement,was it really a surprise when that's what he became? Somebody dangerous? A problem?

Every four months,the young boy would travel along with his father to the port,so they got the opportunity to sell and distribute their potatoes.He loved traveling to the town center,there were many harbors and coasts,shores and beaches lining the outer city walls.The seagulls were usually pretty annoying and loud during the time his father an he arrived at port,considering the fact that this wasn't his first time on the port he managed to block out the pesky noises with time and experience.Though he had to recall the time when he threw a rock at one of the white ravens and his dad scolded him for doing so.He didn't like birds that much,they seemed to provoke him every time he payed attention to them.With their weightless feathers and their noisy chirping.He envied them in a way.They could just fly away whenever they felt like it,start a new life,a new beginning in places he will never be able to explore. Dragons on the other hand,fascinated him.Sure the similarities between them and the feathery nuisances were countless but the flying reptiles were far more interesting. Instead of having the feeling that the beasts provoke him, he feels as if they follow him and keep him under control. He always loved watching them soar high up behind the clouds,somewhere they could be themselves,be free.

The boy would gladly help his father load the stock from their carts onto the ships.Some of the sacks were more heavier so his father needed to lend him a hand so that they would be able to transfer all of them before the deadline.Port wasn't a long trip.It's only half an afternoon's trip from their farm with the horses.There are rarely moments where the two family members get stuck in some sort of clumsy situation,such as an accident.But they always stayed the weekend,the boy couldn't really complain about that,it only reminded him that he is able to spend more time by the docks which made him smile.To give the horses a reprise and give his father a chance to catch up with his old friends.He didn't mind their company, most of his dad's mates brought him caramel candy,which was his absolute favorite type of snack.Plus,easily got invested into their conversations.One of his dad's friends, Noah,owned a fencing club just a little to the south outside of the capital city.The boy would always perk his slightly unnatural pointy ears up in interest and curiosity when they brought up the mysterious club he only keeps hearing stories about.

On one such trip,the father and son duo finally payed a visit to the local fecing club.The small boy couldn't hide his nervousness and excitement from his father,his foot was constantly tapping in impatience.His eyes were darting all over the place,as if he was expecting the building to be located behind every possible corner they passed by.His father himself,couldn't contain the love filled smile that started to creep up onto his lips.The club was a nice place. The red-eyed boy could immediately point out that he is going to feel good here,it's as if he decided his safe space. There were many sorts of weapons,the majority of them being swords with different forged blades.From wood to diamond,there was no material or ore that went unused. His was allowed to explore the setting by himself,the sudden,unexpected confidence boost he felt running through his blood must have been caused by the club's atmosphere and vibes.He came across many faces,some greeted him kindly while others payed him no mind and continued with their training,completely unbothered by the pink haired boy's presence walking around them.

He stopped infront of one particular door.It was an old spruce door with old,rusty iron handles.The room wasn't closed,he could pick up the sound of metal clashing against metal,probably a practice fight.He could identify two very unlike voices,one was smoother and more cocky, while the other one came across as more timid and sly.The farm boy peeked his head through the small crack that was left open,his bright pink hair instantly making itself visible. His blood red eyes watched the scene intensely,just like he predicted from the noises and sounds it was indeed a fight. Two boys,about five or six years older then him were both trying to get the upper hand,their silver blades dancing with eachother in destructive harmony.One of them had a large cut across his left cheek,probably a stupid mistake,if he had the right strategies and methods something like a cut that could make you go blind shouldn't happen.The farm boy eyed the other boy,without the wound,closely.

He fought in a way he had never seen before.He made it looks so simple and easy,yet so professionally complicated. He came across too confident for his own good,but at the same time he managed to cover that confidence up with sheer knowledge and intelligence.A smirk that screemed victory ghosted his lips,his nose ever so slightly scrunching up when his fighting partner came close to gracing his tanned skin.In a split second,which almost went unseen by the pink haired boy,the dark skinned boy had his opponent on the ground,sharp and shimmering blade carefully poking his tender flesh around his chin.Red eyes widened in awe and shock,when did he manage to-?

"How long were you watchin' kid?" The pink haired boy tensed up,it was the familiar voice of the curly haired boy that he was just observing with amazement.He didn't even lay his eyes on the farm boy but still cought him in the rather uncomfortable act,he wouldn't like it himself if people just creepily watched from a distance in a corner. He slowly emerged behind the wooden door and shyly made eye contact with the defeated boy on the floor.

"Go on,speak up.Don't think I didn't catch your sneaky glances." The winner held out his hand towards his fallen friend,retrieving his sharp sword away from his face.The farm boy didn't say anything,watching as the loser happily accepted the stretched out hand and pulled himself up.He dusted of his pants from the impact they made with the dust covered ground,the grey particles flowing through the air.

"Don't like to talk much huh?" The dark eyed boy figured, sternly locking his eyes with deep red ones.Almost taken a back by the dangerous crimson orbs the dark skinned boy felt a chill run up his spine when he caught a glimpse of something terrifying swimming in the eyes that were the color of pure blood.The small,pink haired boy didn't know about his scary aura,the experienced boy could clearly tell. But there was something unsettling in the eyes of the innocent boy standing infront of him,something unsettling. Pushing aside the unnerving thought he hoped that the strange boy didn't notice his confused appearance.

Finally,the pink haired boy spoke up:"I'm sorry,I didn't mean to interrupt anything,or make you feel uncomfortable." The way his voice laced itself with hidden,deadly poison was another thing the dark eyed boy noticed.The statement on it's own didn't come across as anything threatening,but there was something horrifying lurking inside it.This little boy,who looked to be around the age of nine,couldn't possibly do these actions on purpose,he probably had no clue that people around him see him like this.

"It's fine kid,don't worry about it.Just get going,the exit is back down the hall." The older boy wanted him gone,the dangerous aura of the pink haired boy strated to grow and he felt like it was suffocating him with how intense it was. The younger individual nodded,he was about to step away and make his way back to his dad and call it a day but he changed his mind mid walk and turned around one more time:"One more thing-",he began "you're really good with a sword that big!" A wide grin grew on his chapped lips.

"What's your name kid?" The swordfighter in training asked. The farm boy answered him calmy: My name is Techno, what's yours?" The older boy,for a moment ignoring the highly questionable presence,huffed quietly:"The name's Calvin,nice to meet ya' kid." Techno's grin spread out,his dimples crawling out. "Nice to meet you too Calvin!"

[Part 2 coming out next week Friday,25th of September]

;)

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helshades · 6 years ago

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Hello, I've been reading you on Mélenchon these days and would be interested in your opinion on his treatment of the bonnets rouges movement. I find some appeal in his political views but am detered by his unequal interpretation of social movements. I credit it to his somewhat jacobin/nationalist upbringing, and would like to have your thoughts on what his legitimate or not to him. Thank you, have a good day.

Hi! Quite a good question, as I don’t think too many journalists have taken the time to scrutinise the similarities and differences between the ‘Red Caps’ of yesteryear and the current ‘Yellow Vests’, even after Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, during a ‘Questions to the Government’ panel at the Assembly, drew that parallel to promise that his government would not be intimidated by the protests—at that time, the movement was only three days old:

‘Let us remember the Red Caps. Confronted with social difficulty that collided directly with their engagements [during the presidential campaign], the previous government [P.M. Jean-Marc Ayrault’s] chose to step back. Our goal is entirely different: we would keep the line that we proposed during the presidential and legislative elections.’

—20 November 2018.

Here, I have to make a long-ish pause to explain to whomever is reading this outside of us both and doesn’t know who the ‘Red Caps’ were, well, who the ‘Red Caps’ were, precisely.

So, back to 2013, in the north-west of France, in the Brittany region. On 18th June, a collective of thirty local company leaders call Bretons and the French for action against a special tax that is scheduled to be applied to all heavy goods vehicles circulating on some state-financed and locally financed roads in the country starting from 1st October, colloquially known as ‘HVG eco-tax’.

The thirty company leaders, who are gathered at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Pontivy, are asking for the eco-tax to be suppressed, for (employers’) taxes in general to diminish, and for ‘administrative constraints’ (for employers) to be reduced. Amongst them are notably: Jakez Bernard, president of certification label ‘Produced in Britanny’, Alain Glon, former food-processing industry honcho, now president of a regionalist think-tank, Olivier Bordais, who manages a local supermarket, Jean-Pierre Le Mat, president of a big employers union (C.G.P.M.E., aimed at small & smallish business owners), Jacques Jaouen, president of the Brittany Chamber of Agriculture.

Soon they are joined by two big union federations: the National Federation of Farmers Unions, Finistère (one of Britanny’s départements) branch (the F.D.S.E.A. is pretty right-oriented) and the Force Ouvrière (‘Workers Force’, a big Trotskyist union) union branches for the big slaughterhouses Doux (chicken) and Gad (pork). This changes everything, as it allows for a massive, noisy joint demonstration on 2nd August—during which the protesters infamously destroy a drive-through unit meant to detect eco-tax-ready lorries installed in Guiclan.

It doesn’t change much. Months pass. And then, in early October, the Rennes Commercial Court declares that the Gad Inc. slaughterhouse in Lampaul, in Finistère, which works pork meat, must be shut down, whereas others in the same group may remain active; Gad employs 900 people in Lampaul, but their branch has been hit hard by European concurrence. As a matter of fact, while production is being transferred from Lampaul to Josselin, a hundred of interim employees arrive from Romania, paid less than 600€ per month; fixed-term contracts at Josselin are no longer being renewed as a new European directive is about to pass on posted workers. On 21st October, 350 ex-employees from Lampaul invades the Josselin abattoir: according to police reports, 400 Josselin employees exit the factory to fight them.

This all happens during a three-week movement organised by agricultural syndicates on 14th, 21st and 28th October, the protesters aiming at another eco-tax drive-through unit in Pont-de-Buis. They are farmer unionists and the ‘Committee for Convergence of Breton Interests’ (C.C.I.B.), which was created in Pontivy on 18th June as an interprofessional organisation uniting business representatives and academics, aiming to make propositions concerning economy and employment in the region.

On Saturday 28th October, several hundreds of protesters destroy the unit at the Pont-de-Buis motorway toll. The rather heated crowd wear red caps inspired by the 1675 ‘révolte des bonnets rouges’, which under Louis XIV’s reign protested an increase in taxes, and which took place in the west of France but was fiercest in Lower Brittany. That same day the Pont-de-Buis unit is destroyed, F.D.S.E.A. Finistère president Thierry Merret calls the protesters to gather at a regional meet-up on 2nd November in Quimper, capital of the Finistère département.

There were two big demonstrations in November: the one in Quimper, and the one that took place on 30th November in Carhaix-Plouguer (former county town of Breton Cornwall). The latter was organised by left-wing collective ‘Live, Decide & Work in Brittany’, created by Carhaix mayor Christian Troadec, Thierry Merret, worker & union representative for Force Ouvrière at Gad, and Corinne Nicole, union representative for the General Confederation of Labour at big chicken abattoir Tilly-Sabco in Guerlesquin (a family business which provided lot of work in town but got hit hard by international concurrence). In Quimper, the demonstration gathered up to 15,000–30,000; in Carhaix, around 17,000–40,000 (numbers vary because unions and the police have had trouble agreeing on them, traditionally). The collective comes up with a ‘charter’ for the good bonnet rouge, in reaction to the worrisome, extreme-right additions to the Quimper crowd.

The eco-tax was imagined in 2007 during a ‘Grenelle’ for environment, and unanimously voted in 2009, which had already ired many business owners in Brittany, over a thousand of whom had manifested on motorways; united in a ‘Collective of Breton Actors of Economy’, representatives for the National Federation of Agricultural Holders’ Union(F.N.S.E.A.), the National Federation of Road Transport (F.N.T.R.), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry… as well as ‘le Médef’, the largest employer federation in France, to which adheres the richest business leaders in the country, very powerful, and not very friendly to labour rights in general. The collective obtained a 50% tax allowance on the eco-tax from the government.

By taxing 800,000 heavy goods vehicles that circulate on the free portion of French motorways, the government aims to collect public transport and railway freight, amongst other things—since they won’t tax the rich. Except since 2012, too many businesses have gone bankrupt in Brittany. Liquidations follow ‘restructuring plans’ and hundreds are getting fired. The eco-tax would mean a drastic rise in the prices of goods.

By spring 2013, all has been made ready for the system to start on the first day of 2014: 200 units equipped with cameras have been installed, a lucrative contract has been concluded with Ecomouv’, a private company charged with the task to collect the tax, which it is already doing on Italian and Austrian motorways. The French government hopes to collect one billion euros per year with the eco-tax.

On 16th October, after two days of heated protests, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault launches meetings to ‘dialogue’ with the population for a ‘Pact on the Future of Brittany’, announces financial measures and a special aide for the food-processing business. All along November, the revolt is reaching the rest of the country, where dozens of road blocks are organised, speed cameras are destroyed, as well as a few other eco-tax drive-through frames. The Prime Minister arrives in Brittany on 13th December to sign his Pact for Brittany—two billion euros.

There still are 140 units left almost intact in French tolls, since, as the Minister for Transports remarked, once the electronic equipment removed, regular check-ups to make sure they won’t crumble cost much less than actually taking them to pieces. This is what is left of the ‘eco-tax’. As for the Red Caps, well, they evolved into a bunch of collectives, some of which still exist to this day to promote various operations, including demonstrations, that concern Brittany. They never forget the gwenn-ha-du, the ‘Black & White’, the flag of Brittany… Yes, Brittany has a flag. Brittany has a language. Brittany thinks it’s Wales, which is a little silly considering Breton is a Brittonic language like Cornish, not a Gaelic one, like Welsh. Anyhow, Breizh dreams of independence. One day, it will throw bombs at the government, when it has discovered how to make them from cow dung. (I actually, genuinely love Bretons. They’re utterly fruitcake, but they protest like nobody’s business.)

All of this to provide some cultural context to what I am about to translate. So, this is Jean-Luc Mélenchon fulminating back in 2013, before his current La France Insoumise movement was created, when he was co-president of its predecessor the Front de Gauche, a coalition of radical left parties: socialists, and communists who shared anti-capitalistic, anti-liberal, Euro-sceptic views. The FdG was created in 2009 as alliance between the French Communist Party and Parti de Gauche, which Jean-Luc Mélenchon co-founded with people who, like him, quit François Mitterrand’s Parti Socialiste which was veering more and more towards (neo-)liberalism. The alliance aimed to ‘constitute a left-wing front engaged for another Europe, social and democratic, against the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and other current European treaties.’

Yes, it wasone tasteless farce, that bonnet rouge affair. For sure, the eco-tax reallywasn’t the panacea of any good ecological politics! It’s actually, mostly, alure, as it’s not really targeting the motives behind massive livestock transportationvia road transport. It will always be more profitable to transport 45,000 pigsa year on European roads in appalling conditions rather than kill them here,for as long as Europe will allow for dumping social to take place, which forinstance permits to take advantage of profit with German abattoirs. Thegovernment doesn’t give a damn about this. Anyhow, it doesn’t care for anythingthat can be planned ahead, because of ideology and of self-delusion both. See.The eco-tax was supposed to encourage road transport to convert to fluvialtransport and railway freight. Yes, except no plan for freight development wasset in motion to regulate the ever-increasing flow of lorries on the roads.Quite the opposite, I’d say. The government is at the disposal of the EuropeanCommission, very slavishly indeed, and the Commission was very demanding onthat point. In exchange for two years delay at best, so as to reach theobjectives of deficit reduction, the Commission demanded that the liberalisationof the network increase. The liberal reform, consequently, was presented duringthe Ministers’ Council on 16th October. As for fluvial transport,one of the very first measures of the Ayrault government was to abandon the Seine-Nordcanal project. In other words, it was half-assed, as always with thisgovernment.

This takesnothing from the fact that the government’s climb-down on this point is a giftto the bosses. Under the guise of defending employment, it is in fact the freedomto go on producing further and further away from wherever the goods are to beconsumed that is being protected. Bruno Gentil, president of federation FranceNature Environnement, said something very right about this: ‘This isdeplorable, there’s no political courage here. A measure that was voted by theleft as well as the right is called into question as soon as a bunch of peoplebreak some public equipment. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will solve breeders’problems… Environment has become the scapegoat for economic issues. We are gettingthe financing of the energy turnaround very wrong’.Indeed, afew hundreds of bosses and militants from the FNSEA farmers’ union manifestingsome violence were enough for the Ayrault government to back down. Those whoordinarily have no complacency for a worker’s teensiest egg throw weren’tremotely scandalised to see FNSEA and MEDEF throw stones at the CRS. We’restill awaiting the ground-shattering swagger of the immense Manuel Valls, kingof the braggarts! Sure, even when he’s from the right, a Breton boss is atougher customer than a Roma kid on a school bus! The anti-poor warfare isill-equipped to force those who are used to be obeyed to respect public order.

The wholeaffair was a farce through and through. All the while they’re firing workers indroves in Brittany, the bosses have found a dream opportunity to pose as defendersof employment. That might have impressed a couple answering machines inmainstream media. But over there, it’s a whole other story! Employees’ unions wereno dupes. CGT, Sud and FSU in Brittany released a joint statement to distance themselvesfrom the event. In it they denounce ‘the hijacking of the authentic discontentof a large part of the population to political ends, which questions theingenuousness and the independence of the employees who get enlisted in a fightthat isn’t theirs.’ For these unions, ‘the torturers are leading the manoeuvreand they are using their victims as shield and battering ram at once. They wouldemployees to forget that they have always supported the neoliberal politicsthat caused the current crisis, and that their ‘Breton agricultural model’today is an economic, social and environmental failure. The manipulations rundeep, as the old lords are now wearing the red cap against the people.’ It can’tbe said better.

The statementaims right. Particularly where the denunciation of productivism is concerned.It calls employees for refusing to participate in the demonstration organisedin Quimper on 2nd November around the bosses, productivist farmers and someBreton regionalists from the extreme right. The employees will demonstrate withtheir own demands!What arelief! That call to a separate protest sheds some light on a really confusesituation. The alliance of some farmers with the same large-scale foodretailing that chokes them continuously, for example, never ceases to surprise.Politically, it’s even worse. The right, which had proposed the eco-tax in thefirst place, is now demanding that it be suppressed. The PS, which also votedits implementation, now decides to suspend it… As for Le Pen, she’s calling todemonstrate with the red caps! Maybe she didn’t see the colour?

— 1st November 2013.

I don’t particularly want to be known on Tumblr as the Mélenchon defence committee but… well, he had a point. A couple, actually.

The chief particularity of the Yellow Vests movement is that even if it was started as a protest against a significant rise in gas prices and one could draw a parallel in theory between this and the anti-eco-tax movement, its basis was always popular, and focused not on production and profit, but standard living conditions for poor and impoverished people.

I don’t like the term ‘legitimate’ very much, me. Every protest is legitimate, inasmuch as demonstrating is (yet) a constitutional right. The legality of things is not what should concern us, and evidently, not what concerned Jean-Luc Mélenchon back in 2013. If there is one illegitimate element here, it would be the current government: elected with only 10% of the electorate, the most hated president in the history of the Fifth Republic is ending armed forces every week to mutilate tens of thousands who are still supported, according to the least favourable estimates, by over 60% of the population—and who still show up for the next protest, week after week.

Speaking of things I’m not too comfy with, there’s also the terms ‘jacobin’ and ‘nationalist’. I suspect you are Canadian, as you seem to conflate the two (?) and the nationalist-versus-federalist opposition is, I believe, uniquely Canadian. Over here, when talking about jacobin things, one is usually referring to a radical approach to politics, unless one would be referring to the historic opposition between the Jacobins, who ended up supporting deeper financial and political reforms, and the Girondins, mostly wealthy bourgeois, who were more moderate, and remained so throughout the revolutionary period—they won, in the end. The People didn’t—although both branches initially were a part of the Jacobin Club and in favour of constitutional monarchy.

Where nationalism goes… Well, Marine Le Pen is a nationalist. Us leftists are souverainistes, my dear. Quite frankly, I don’t get how you can support democracy without defending a nation’s right to govern itself. Only, if we can call this nationalism in the case of colonised countries aiming to free themselves from imperialism, and in the case of certain regions that promote autonomy within a given State, this is not what is at stake here. More often than not, ‘nationalism’ refers to an ideology, and it is synonymous to chauvinism, with considerably less amusing undertones. Again: it is not nationalist to favour, for instance, local employment, when displacing foreign populations leads to systematic exploitation of their work force. Environmentally, it is also much more responsible to prevent goods from being carried across great distances. And, last but not least… supranational institutions are designed to remove as much power as possible from the populations that could unite and reject locally what was decided globally. Getting democracy, literally, on a smaller scale is about gaining back control; it can’t be decided remotely. If we call this ‘nationalism’, not only do we lose our way to denounce actual xenophobia, but we lose sight of other types of opposition as well. Europe is not a country, and the way the European Union is designed, it is essentially a bank, and it aims to make entire countries its debtors… So, yes, yay for souverainism!

#pavé césar !#answers #nonnies #jean-luc mélenchon #bonnets rouges #gilets jaunes #france #french politics

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skvaderarts · 4 years ago

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Apocrypha Chapter Eight: Unoccupancy

Masterlist can be found Here! Thanks!

Chapter Eight: Unoccupancy

Note: Logging onto A03 and seeing so many comments in my inbox brought me such joy. Thank you all so much for reaching out every week and talking about the story with me. It's always the highlight of my week, especially since my job still isn't really open again yet. Having something fun to look forward to every week is great. Truly. Thank you!

(-~-)

It seemed as though the very air held its breath as they approached, a gentle but damp breeze shifting the leaves in the trees that lined the street as a coating of misty rain drenched the outside of the buildings. Trails formed by droplets of water ran down the windows of every building on the block, staining the glass and trickling down onto their attached ledges before finally plummeting towards the pavement below. Decades old yet well maintained gutters helped transfer any water that dared make its way onto the roofs of the homes to its proper place in the city's storm drains. This was the historic district of town and everything from the ornate metal benches that dotted the block, to the vintage street lights and tree planters reflected that. Every row house was slightly different from the next and it was somewhat impressive how well kept the area was, not to mention how quiet it was considering its proximity to downtown.

And that was the matter that brought them to the front steps of the building standing before them. It was a three story Edwardian townhouse clad in dark grey brick with white stone trim around the windows. Due to it's placement on the very end of the block, it was almost twice the size of each of the nearby homes, since it wrapped around the block and faced the corner on both sides. The outside of the spacious home was just as well kept as the rest on the block, aside from the now empty planter boxes on each the windows that had more than likely once housed purple flowers if their remnants were anything to go by. They were small and white, seemingly metal and held by ornate holders made from black iron. Black stone stairs with grey tops and a black metal rail that matched the window boxes tied the building together beautifully. The thick green leaves that snaked around the house in healthy vines draped down over the ornate dark purple front door, lending the house an age that it's condition didn't show. All and all, a stately and sizable dwelling.

V looked up at the imposing but beautiful structure, totally awestruck by it. While every building on this street shared a similar monochrome color pallet, this was the only one with a colored door or matching dark purple dragon scale shingles. There were little things about it that made it stand out in his mind, and he couldn't help but appreciate the aesthetic. To say that it didn't appeal to his darker sensibilities would be a lie. he considered this for a moment before noticing that Magnolia has started to make her way up the flared stone steps, the window wells on either side forming a sort moat to the front entrance that made the stairs seem even more grand. It was like crossing a bridge, and he was somewhat surprised that a house this tall possessed a basement at all. Was there an attic as well?

"Well, this is it, Dear," Magnolia said as she inserted a key into the lock," Sorry for the mess. No one has lived here in a very long time."

As he crossed the threshold and stepped into the house, V did an internal double take at the sight that unfolded before him. They were standing in a foyer with tall arched doorways on either side of them. A rounded spiral stairway curved up to the second story gracefully, belying an abundance of space just out of sight. A balcony looked down from above them, but nothing else could be seen from where he currently stood. The room was large for a townhouse, but not oversized. As they stepped in the room to the left, the two of them were greeted by a large corner bay window on the far side of the room that sat in the middle of where the street corner would be from outside. The fireplace to the left of the bay window seemed as though it had not been used in a considerable time, much like Magnolia had indicated when they'd arrived moments ago. A few pieces of furniture sat in scattered parts of the room covered by cloth tarps in an attempt to keep out the elements. Besides that, he couldn't glean much more about their condition without uncovering them.

Magnolia walked over to the window and pulled open the tall curtains that adorned the walls. The ceiling height in the room had to be close to fifteen feet, and that coupled with the position of the window made for a blinding amount of natural light despite the rainy conditions outside. Medium grey wall paint was paired with a white trim that somehow made the room seem even larger than it already was. V could only guess how large the rest of the residence was. The young summoner was rapidly coming to the conclusion that magnolia might be secretly wealthy.

"I'd offer you a place to sit, by my siblings took all the best furniture when my parents passed away," She gestured to the room around her, somewhat downtrodden as her normally chipper voice took on a slightly somber tint," I want to show you something in the back of the house. Care to follow me this way?

V followed after he with a diligent nod, still taking in his surroundings. Her parents had lived here then? What had they done when they were alive to amass the kind of wealth required to possess such a stately property? The two cut through the kitchen that sat in the back of the house. There were no appliances, but everything else was still intact. At most, the room seemed to just need a good dusting and maybe a new coat of paint due to its apparent age.

When they reached the far side of the kitchen, they entered what had probably been some sort of combination mudroom and laundry room before going through a door that led to the outside of the townhouse. V hadn't considered the possibility of a yard while touring the residence with her. He'd been too preoccupied with the rest of the house. While it wasn't huge, the remnants of what had once been a garden grew up the far wall next to another door. This one, unlike the front door, was black and wan't arched despite sharing a similar design overall.

"That's the garage I parked in when we arrived. We walked around the front," She stated, noticing that his attention had been drawn there," My little sister and I used to spend hours out here as teenagers. She doesn't come around anymore. Too busy with family affairs to bother actually interacting with her family. I hardly recognize the lass anymore."

V couldn't help but notice that she seemed more sad about that little revelation that she did upset. Had that happened a long time ago? Or had she just lost the motivation to be upset about it anymore? He wasn't going to ask her either way. It wasn't his place to bring up something like that. If she wanted him to know more, she'd tell him. That much he knew from personal experience with his own inner thoughts and struggles.

"... I'm sorry to hear about your parents, Magnolia." V said quietly. The last thing he intended to do was be impolite," You grew up here?"

A somber smile crossed her face as she shook her head. "No, we only lived here together for about two years. Maybe even a little less. I inherited the place after they passed away. They were asleep when the lodge they were staying at during a vacation caught fire," She fell silent for a moment, seemingly needing a second to collect herself before continuing," My two younger sisters and I went to stay with an aunt shortly after, so no one has set foot in this place for at least a decade. This entire block had just been built around the time you were born, I suspect. It's a pity, but no one in our family wants to live here. We lack an emotional attachment to the place. Everything that meant something to us we took out a lifetime ago. If I let my youngest sister have her way, she'd probably have it torn down or something just so she didn't have to think about it."

For a moment, V recalled the furniture that had been covered up and left to sit in the main room. While the concept of a family home was something foreign to him, he understood the concept and was more than capable of comprehending how someone might become emotionally attached or detached to a building. Still, it was a strange thing to him to imagine holding contempt towards a house that nothing bad had happened in. He assumed that her reasons were her own and decided to leave it at that for the time being. There were other matters to attend to. "What motivated you to bring me here if you haven't been here in so long?"

Magnolia's eyes brightened slightly as a small smile spread across her face. She looked out across the yard in silent contemplation for a moment before returning her attention to him, folding her arms around herself in an attempt to keep the warmth inside of her peacoat. "... I met your father shortly before they passed away. We were both young and I was focused on my studies, but watching my sisters terrorize him was always such a hoot! In his own way, I think he liked being here. Vergil never said as much, but he kept coming over until we stopped living here. And although they didn't interact with him much since they were rarely here, I think my parents saw him as the son they never had." She paused for a second, thinking of how she wanted to phrase what she said next," I thought that perhaps if this place wasn't meant to stay in my family, that it was only right that it become a part of yours."

V gave her a curious look, not quite comprehending what she was trying to tell him. Had she offered to sell it to Vergil since he'd known her parents? Why had she brought him here to tell him about it other than to show him around? Did she assume that he and Vergil were going to be living together at some point in the future?

"That's very kind, but I don't think I quite follow you." V said almost sheepishly. He suddenly had an irrational fear of upsetting her in her deceased parents home that he hadn't possessed before she'd tried to explain her intentions to him." What are you trying to tell me?"

Magnolia laughed slightly, seeming to pick up on his discomfort. "Sorry V, I'll be a little more straight forward this time. Were you considering moving in the near future? I feel that I may have not been entirely forthcoming as to my motivations," She shifted slightly, seeming to share his trepidations but not for the same reasons," I think that we could both use a fresh start. To know that my parents legacy of philanthropy lived on through gifting this property to you would bring me… release. That is the best way I can put it into words, dear. All I'm asking is that you consider it. It's been paid off for years, so you'd only have to worry about taxes, and they aren't much. Estate tax and all that. A truly broken system, really."

V paled at her words, suddenly feeling the blood rush to his face. Had she really just offered him this place? He was positive at no one had ever tried to give him a gift this expensive or personal in his entire life. It was unheard of and he was struck silent trying to comprehend the proper reaction and response to it. Sensing his distress, Griffon materialized and fluttered around the small outdoor space, coming to a stop on his shoulder. He shook his head, failing the urge to repress his snickering.

"Sorry, but I think you broke his brain a little. If I'm being honest, It's not really that hard to do. Nice to meet cha!" The mouthy bird made himself comfortable as V's brain tried to unlock itself.

"Ah, an avian familiar then," Magnolia said, unfolding her arms and nodding to herself," How lovely! I like your style. Might I pet you, little one? I simply adore your coloration!"

Griffon fluffed himself, ducking his head down and pulling his wings up. He wasn't expecting to be doted over. "Watch the feathers, and your fine," Griffon said, trying to hide is mild embarrassment by tucking his head under his wing," You could learn a thing or two from her, V. You know, show your appreciation a little more from time to time."

V shot his feathered companion an unappreciative look, his brow furrowing. "Perhaps Shadow is hungry. Why don't we check?"

The vibrant blue bird fluttered away with a squawk, landing on a half wall near the garage. Shadow surged forward, scampering after her feathered companion. She intended to capitalize on the open space and privacy that the yard afforded her. Magnolia glanced over at the demonic panther, seemingly impressed. "That's quite a powerful demon to have in your repertoire. They are not normally so obedient. I heard you used to have three different familiars?"

The young summoner nodded, his thoughts now less foggy than they had been. Having a moment to process her generosity had been beneficial to him. "That's correct. I currently have two now, however." He took a moment to think about the proper way to express what he wanted to say before speaking,"... I will have to take some time to think about your offer, Magnolia. I hope I don't seem ungrateful."

She shook her head. "I wouldn't expect you to give me an answer right away. This is a lot to take in, dear. Please don't feel forced to say yes just because I asked. Get back to me when you're ready," She said with a warm smile as she headed over towards the inside door," That being said, I should show you the rest of the house. Nico is probably wondering where we disappeared to right about now. But I'm guessing that you're going to want to see what's left of the library before we leave."

V craned his head to one side as he followed after her, his familiars following after him as he headed inside. "... Did you say there was a library?"

(-~-)

Quarantine has officially ruined my sleeping patterns. One day I wake up at 5 am and the next at 8 pm. Sometimes (like today) I wake up at 10 am and decide I can stand to get a few more minutes of sleep and wake up AT MIDNIGHT. And that is why my uploads are so wishy washy in terms of upload time. Sorry about that. I hope you all enjoyed this little intermission chapter. Next week is the start of the "beach arc" so get ready for that! It's gonna be super fun!

#Apocrypha #V'sApocrypha #Dmc #DMCV #DMC5 #Post DMC5 #Post DMCV #Post Devil May Cry 5 #Post Devil May Cry V #V #Vitale #V DMC #Magnolia #Vergil and Magnolia #Magnolia Ludwick #Vitale Sparda #V Sparda

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evanvanness · 4 years ago

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Annotations for the latest Week in Eth News

I tweeted this week:

Feels like an accurate reflection of the broader week in the Ethereum ecosystem. Just take a look at the most clicked:

“Yield farming” is the idea of figuring out how to leverage up to get the most yield, where part of the yield is usually a native token for the platform/protocol. (Please do so very cautiously...if you get leveraged up, you’re juicing returns but taking large risk of losses).

With Compound, this meant various “trades,” which changed through the week. First people were lending (and resupplying) Tether, because that had the highest rates. Then the trade switched to BAT because some whale figured out (the advantages of scale!) that it wouldn’t be hard to drive BAT rates up even higher than Tether (USDT) and all the sudden an insane amount of BAT moved to Compound. I kid you not: at the moment there is about $250m USD worth of BAT in Compound - though only 6% of supply as it gets circulated through a few times

Leveraged up? Be careful! If BAT price doubles, how many people would get liquidated?

Hint: it’s those of you who are over 50% on the borrow limit you can see from your account page on the Compound UI. Looking at exchanges, the order books are rather thin - how much would it cost a liquidator to drive all the BAT price up 2x compared to how much it could make liquidating? Or what if Brave announces a big partnership? Crypto is an adversarial environment (ahem, look at all those YouTubers with huge followings trying to sell you on the latest pump of some worthless token)

These order books are thinner than normal because....so much BAT got sucked into Compound from the exchange’s order books. So the price is now easier to push higher.

Meanwhile, Balancer started its “liquidity mining” (same thing as yield farming) before Compound, but just released its token today. And now it’s trading at $15 last I looked, or 1.5 billion USD fully diluted market cap.

Signs of a bull market? Feels like it to me.

These aren’t the only liquidity mining opportunities - and you’ll see a bunch more people do it now that this is what is bringing in users.

Back to Compound, it got listed on Coinbase Pro today and the price actually fell, as all the people who had “farmed” it got liquid, plus presumably some others as well. However, it eventually held (at time of writing) at about $280. (that’s a 2.8b USD fully diluted valuation). It had been at $380 and looking at the orderbook when it opened, it appeared that the first trade (for a tiny amount) happened at $440. We’ll see what happens when Coinbase opens it to retail.

The DeFi narrative is strong. Seems clear that there is some demand for folks wanting to own a bit of what might be the next big financial platforms.

-------

The final thing I always call out in my intro is high-level things I suggest Eth holders might read:

Matter Labs’ ZK Sync rollup is live – tiny transaction fees, withdrawals to Eth mainnet in 15 mins, 300 transactions per second (with 2000 tps coming)

Reddit announces scaling competition to move Reddit’s community points to mainnet

It seems the mysterious and massive transaction fees were from a hacked korean ponzi called GoodCycle. Various miners have handled differently: Ethermine (already paid out). Sparkpool (said it would pay out but then victim identified, unclear to me if yet resolved). f2pool (said they’d return to new address)

ETH disrupting SWIFT: why fintech VCs are missing DeFi

As always, reverse order:

Looking at ETH as a distruptor for SWIFT is a pretty interesting lens. I’ve always rolled my eyes a little at “fintech” because it seems like playing fast with regulations and then if you get a certain scale hiring lawyers and lobbyists to hopefully make your issues go away. This article argues that the real innovation is further down in the financial “stack” - Ethereum taking the place of antiquated SWIFT.

Personally I don’t think the massive mistake/hack transaction fees are a big deal, but it seems to be something that the crypto clickbait jumps on. It’s not a danger to any normal user. Just check the transaction fee before sending.

Reddit wants to put its Community Points on Eth mainnet, likely through a rollup or sidechain. Very neat - it does feel like their deadline is just a little ambitious for rollups which might make them use a sidechain, which would be a bit of a shame if they can get better trust assumptions from a rollup by waiting an extra month or two.

And speaking of rollups, ZkSync is live. Fast, cheap transfers with the data onchain and the execution offchain. Woot!

Eth1

Trinity v0.1.0-alpha.36 (Python client) – BeamSync improvements, metrics tracking (influxDB/Grafana), partial eth/65 support

Updated Eth on ARM images. Geth fast syncs a full node in 40 hours on 8GB Raspberry Pi4

Miners began bumping up the gas limit (12m now), which sparked some polemics about the tradeoff between state growth versus user fees. Higher gas limit resulted in safelow gas fees in the teens for the first time in weeks.

Speaking of yield farming ruling the week, the gas prices are back to 30 gwei despite the fact that that throughput went up 20%. My strong suspicion is that this has a lot to do with yield farming.

For the record, the max transactions per second of Ethereum right now is about 44 transactions per second. It’s an easy calc to do (12m divided by 13.1 block time divided by 21000 gas per simple eth transfer).

Of course that doesn’t include rollups, who put their data onchain to the point where they are arguably layer 1.5.

Personally I think we should make this gas limit increase “temporary” when gas prices go back down.

Eth2

Prysmatic (Go) client update – stable Onyx testnet, 80% validators community run, RAM usage optimizations

Nimbus (Nim) client update – up to spec, 10-50x processing speedup, splitting node and validator clients

SigmaPrime’s update on their Eth2 fuzzer – found some Prysmatic bugs, fuzzing Lodestar (Javascript client), Lighthouse ENR crate bug, dockerizing the fuzzer so the community can run it

Jonny Rhea’s Packetology posts (one and two) on identifying validators

Attack nets – a testnet specifically for attacks

When Sigma Prime’s fuzzer is dockerized, does “are you fuzzing any eth2 clients” become the cool new question that Eth folks ask each other, instead of “are you running any testnets?”

There’s not much more to say otherwise. This is the final slog to getting the eth2 chain launched. The final tinkering, the testnets, thinking about validator privacy and cost of attack, an attack net for white hats.

Layer2

Matter Labs’ ZK Sync rollup is live – tiny transaction fees, withdrawals to Eth mainnet in 15 mins, 300 transactions per second (with 2000 tps coming)

Minimally viable rollback in Validium/Volition

The flipside to high gas prices is layer2. It’s hard to get people to excited about layer2 when you can get onchain transactions done in a couple minutes at 1 gwei. At 30 gwei, people get more excited about layer2, and stuff is working.

Network effects are real: layer2 also becomes much better to use the more people who are using it. So there is a silver lining to higher gas prices, because it provides the incentive to push people to superior alternatives. Obviously a really fast and cheap ETH/token transfer rollup is increasingly more valuable the more people are using it.

Crypto

a GKR inside a snark to speed up SNARK proving 200x

Attacking the Diogenes setup ceremony for Eth2’s VDF

Isogenies VDFs: delay encryption

Kate polynomial commitments explainer from Dankrad Feist

Reputable List Curation from Decentralized Voting Crites, Maller, Meiklejohn and Mercer paper for construction of private TCR voting

Debut of the “crypto” section. It seemed like it was getting lost in the general.

Placement (compared to other sections) was rather random. Categorization can be somewhat arbitrary, that’s something the newsletter will hopefully constantly evolve.

This newsletter is made possible thanks to Matcha by 0x!

0x is excited to sponsor Week in Ethereum News and invite readers to try out our new DEX!

Stuff for developers

Waffle v3 with ethers v5 support

WalletConnect v1 release, now with mobile linking

ethers-rs, a port of ethers to Rust

Solidity v0.6.10. error codes and bugfix for externally calling a function that returns variables with calldata location.

Inheritance in Solidity v0.6

Sorting without comparison in Solidity

Create dynamic NFTs using oracles

Deploying with libraries on Remix IDE

Wyre’s WalletPasses allow push notifications for dapps

Bunch of neat stuff in here. I’ve said it before, ethers is increasingly the thing that people use, even while most of the eth tutorials are still using web3js.

Code security

OpenZeppelin found a bug that affected 61 Argent wallets

Bancor bug: public method allowed anyone to drain user balances. Amusingly, the white hat draining got frontrun

DeFiSaver exchange vulnerability. They white hat drained it and also got frontrun.

Database of audit reports

Check out this newsletter’s weekly job listings below the general section

A special security section to break up the “stuff for devs” since it was a little big.

The whole “white hat drainers” get frontrun theme was...well, I used the word amusing in the newsletter, but I don’t think that’s quite the right word.

Ecosystem

Reddit announces scaling competition to move Reddit’s community points to mainnet

By default, Geth will no longer accept transaction fees over 1 eth

3box on demystifying the many facets of digital identity

The death (and web3 rebirth?) of privacy

Ethereum Foundation invests in Unicef’s CryptoFund startups

Unicef’s press release didn’t mention the Ethereum Foundation (and barely mentioned Ethereum! strange) but in fact EF did provide the capital. Very strange that Unicef barely mentioned Ethereum.

And yes, I still love a good privacy essay. I’m not a privacy nut, but I do think people should have the right to at least know when our every online action action is being surveiled.

Enterprise

WEF, IADB and Colombian government project to reduce corruption in procurement

EY launches crypto tax reporting app

EY continues to push things for enterprise, and dealing with taxes is presumably just one more hurdle that they’re knocking down. Of course many enterprises also still refuse to own crypto (even on a centralized exchange), so I remain curious as to whether

the anti-corruption procurement project in Colombia suffers a similar problem: to be actually used, the Colombian government requires secret bids. So they either have to change the law to try it, or they have to integrate...something like EY’s Nightfall

DAOs and Standards

EIP2733: Transaction package

Anonymous voting using MACI and BrightID

Arguably the anonymous voting using MACI could’ve been in the crypto section, but it felt slightly more applicable here.

Application layer

$COMP was distributed and liquidity mining (“yield farming”) blew up. Compound passed Maker for #1 on DeFiPulse, and $COMP has had a fully diluted market cap over $3.5 billion

Uniswap v2 passes v1 in liquidity

Streamr’s data unions framework is live for anyone to create their own

5m KNC burned milestone

Yield farming on steroids from Synthetix, Ren, and Curve

A yield farming for normies (and the risks!) tweetstorms from Tony Sheng

this artwork is always on sale, v2 with 100% per year tax instead of 5%

My weekly what fraction of applayer section is DeFi: 5/7.

I was somewhat surprised Uniswap v2 took over this quickly. I suppose that’s a data point for “the power of frontends.”

Tokens/Business/Regulation

ETH disrupting SWIFT: why fintech VCs are missing DeFi

Nick Tomaino on the economics of Eth2

Personal token vote on Alex Masmej’s life decisons

Liechtenstein company tokenizes 1.1m USD collectable Ferrari

Opyn: hedging with calls

It does seem like the economics of Eth2 are still vastly underrated by “crypto” at large. In my view that largely reflects the skepticism that Eth2 ever launches, as Silicon Valley went very skeptical on ETH 2 years ago when they pivoted away from FFG.

New tokens from protocols valued in the billions and tokenized Ferraris. It’s starting to feel like the true beginnings of a bull market.

No general section this week; I was surprised as you, but lately the general section had been dominated by cryptography and that got its own section.

That’s it for the annotations!

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https://twitter.com/evan_van_ness/status/1275551414350237702

Job Listings

Synthetix: Deep Solidity engineer, 2+ years exp & US/EU friendly timezone

Chainlink: Product Manager for Blockchain Integrations and Lead Test Engineer

0x is hiring full-stack, back-end, front-end engineers + 1 data scientist

Celer Network: Android developer

Trail of Bits is looking for masters of low-level security. Apply here.

Want your job listing here? $250 per line (~75 character limit including spaces), payable in ETH/DAI/USDC to evan.ethereum.eth. Questions? thecryptonewspodcast -at-gmail

Housekeeping

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Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-june-21-2020/

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):

June 24 – EIP1559 call

June 25 – Eth2 call

June 26 – Core devs call

June 29 – Swarm first public event

July 3 – Gitcoin matching grants ends (here’s my grant)

July 6-Aug 6 – HackFS Filecoin/IPFS and Ethereum hackathon

July 20 – Fork the World MetaCartel hackathon

Aug 2 – ENS grace period begins to end

Oct 2-Oct 30 – EthOnline hackathon

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kitsuneflamegoddess · 7 years ago

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Natahri tried again to tug at the base of the chains on her feet, in a hopeless attempt to break them but unsurprisingly to no avail. She was too weak, she hadn’t eaten in at least a week and was just barely getting enough water to survive though not all of it was clean.Her bloody, beaten, horribly thin and malnourished body was barely surviving, there places on her body where you could see her bones. A raspy yelp escaped from her as a bump in the road rocked her cage and caused her to fall into the bars. “OI, QUIET IN THERE YOU MONGREL! WE’RE CROSSING THE BORDER, AND IF YOU GIVE US AWAY I’LL MAKE SURE YOU CAN NEVER SPEAK AGAIN!” A gruff booming voice sounded. “THEN AGAIN, I MAY DO IT ANYWAY. CUSTOMERS WOULD LOVE SOMETHING THAT CAN’T YELL OR REFUSE!“ The same voice let out a heartily evil laugh, and was joined by another one, just more of a higher pitch cackle. Natahri shuddered at the voices words, she didn’t even want to think of the horrors the voice was talking about. The chains that bound her from ever limb rattled slightly as she buried her head into her knees and curled her nine bloodied tails around her in an effort to stay warm, since clothes were somewhat of a luxury to her right now and her captors refused to give her any, unless they were showing her off to monsters aka “potential buyers”. Her ears swiveled relentlessly, listening for any sign of possible rescue, or freedom…for some hope. But yet again none came, even as they crossed the border since yet again money won over decency. Over the next few days Natahri caught sleep where she could, and was even fed a little bit, but she knew it wasn’t because her holders had suddenly actually grown a heart and conscience, it was a much darker reason.

Once they had reached their destination her holders removed the large tarp that had covered her cage, which revealed the beautiful night sky. But as much as she wanted to enjoy it, Natahri knew it’s splendor wouldn’t be known to her for very long. As if on cue her holders transferred her to a more mobile set of chains, and put something over her head so she couldn’t see. “Alright fox face, lets go.” She wanted to reply in some way, but was too weak to do so, and also knew it would bring....unwanted consequences. Her ears twitched rapidly under whatever was over her head, mostly in discomfort, but also because there were new sounds to her. Finally ,after hearing the unfortunately familiar sound of a cage door opening and closing, her holders removed whatever was on her head. What she saw made her wish they hadn’t. Some of it she was used to, given her own capture, but the rest was....horrific. There were rows and rows of cages, almost every one of em held a person. There were humans, some humanoid species she’d never seen, and of course some of her kind as well. But that wasn’t what horrified her. What truly horrified her was that among all the adults, and adolescents, were children. Some were too big for their cages, others were huddled in a corner of their cages, many were naked and crying, almost all were malnourished, and none of them deserved to be here. “HA, look at her face. It’s almost like she wants to be blindfolded again.” Her high voiced captor jested to the other before they left. Natahri slumped down in the cage and began to weep silently. Her own suffering was horrible, but she would gladly endure worse if it meant those children would go free. “Hey miss? How are you doing that?” A tiny voice piped in. It broke Natahri out of her crying for a bit, at least long enough to ask. “What...do you mean, young one?” A tiny hand points out. “That, in your hands. How are you doing that? It’s warmth is nice.” Natahri looked at her hands in shock to see a tiny flame in each of her hands. She brought them close to her chest and reveled in their warmth, she hadn’t felt it in so long. It had been too long since she had been able to use her powers, she had just been too weak. “Hey everyone, I have an idea.” She exclaimed as she brought her hands down. “Put anything flammable, anything that you know can burn, and throw it in the middle of the room.” The others did just as she said, and managed to gather a respectable pile. Natahri then closed her eyes, and focused. After a few minutes the pile burst into a flame the size of the pile. “It’s not much, but it’s at least something to make things a little easier.” A small smile appeared on her face when she saw the reactions of the others. She slumped back against the foremost part of the cage and closed her eyes. Al tear escaped her eye before she succumbed to sleep, as a tiny voice said “Thank you miss”

Natahri grunted as she was rudely awakened the next morning by her holders with a merciless kick to her back. “Wake up furbag, it’s time to see if your worth anything.” A deep voice grumbled. Natahri slowly got up and looked around. Everyone else had been taken out of their cages, but they were still bound by a line of chain on their feet, and with a clank, so was she. They were taken to what could only be described as a cleaning station, and that was putting it lightly. There the men and boys were lightly cleaned, and if they were old enough shaven, and given a rag of a shirt that was just long enough to conceal their private parts. The women and young girls weren’t so, in lack of a better term, lucky. The handlers pretty much did the same as they did with the males for the females, just with less humanity, and no clothing. Natahri herself was cleaned and had her armpits and private area shaven. Their handlers had their way with them just short of raping them as they were cleaned. Natahri unfortunately knew that again this wasn’t because of decency, but for the sake of keeping a ‘pure product’. She bowed her head as she couldn’t bare to look at what they were doing to the children. If she could she would do anything to set them free, even if it meant her own end or continuing suffering. After they were done being prepared, the slavers led them to the back of a sort of stage. As they approached Natahri could here hundreds of voices on the other side, though to her none of em sounded human, they all sounded like monsters. The deep voiced slaver stayed behind to make sure no escape attempts were attempted, as the high voiced one went up onto a pedestal and addressed the gathering of monstrous scum. “All right, quiet down everyone, quiet....There we go. Now, the rules of this auction are simple. You don’t leave until we say, no fighting, prices vary on each item, and last but certainly not least, all sales are final. Do I make myself clear?” A murmur of agreement came from the crowd of heartless fiends. “All right then, let us begin with this little number.” The high voiced slaver boomed as the gruff one ushered one of the young girls to the stage. Natahri lowered her head in a futile attempt to block out the horror that was unfolding, but she couldn’t see, she heard. Children were being sold to monsters that didn’t care in the slightest if they were another of their kind, and they were being described as mere tools, or even worse, things of pleasure. Eventually it was her turn to face the gauntlet of monsters to see which pocket she belonged to. “Now this one, this one is a rare marvel that we happened to catch on our way here. No, you are not seeing things...” The high voice slaver boomed as Natahri stopped in the center of the stage of horror. She stood straight and narrow, not because she wanted to, but she had no other choice. Her eyes darted across the crowd, examining the monsters before her. Many looked to be rich, some looked to be more modest, though they were monsters all the same. “...and would you look at those breasts, I can tell it’s putting some of you noblewomen to shame. Those tails are also exquisite, I’m sure the fur is high quality. Imagine it gently caressing your body with it’s soft warmth.” Natahri wanted to badly murder the high voiced slaver. Their fur was her kinds most sacred possession, and wasn’t an object to be sold on market. She closes her ears to potentially block out the rest of the slaver’s voice, let alone it’s speech about her ‘values’. “Alright this one starts at....one-thousand five hundred geld.” With that, the bidding for who owned her life began.

#Open Rp #Darker version

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purrincesskittens · 7 years ago

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Miraculous Ladybug: Adventures Of Lupine Alpha and Corvus. Chapter 2

Summery: A new girl has started at Adrien’s school. One whose elder brother is just as rich and famous as his father. Adrien gets to know the girl more as his father works with her brother on a new project and finds she is a lot like him. As Chat Noir he continues to work along side Ladybug to keep Paris safe when a new Miraculous Holder appears along with a new enemy. Just who is Lupine Alpha? As their knowledge changes and expands more and more information about the Miraculouses comes to light. As do more miraculous holders.

(Note: I do allow reblogging of this on tumblr alone )

“Accalia!” Jennifer shouts frustrated chasing the tiny floating wolf Kwami around her room at the hotel. She was running late for school and her kwami had chosen to make off with her tie. “Come on Accalia I need my tie so I can finish getting dressed and get to school. I’m late.” She pleads with the russet colored wolf. “You’re always late. Besides you should really dress down. Everyone at school was wearing regular clothes not a uniform you don’t need to blend in to a crowd there by wearing the something as everyone else. Just wear your normal clothes for once.” The wolf retorts in hollow sounding voice stretching out the ends of her sentences with a howl like sound.

The girl eyed her Kwami for a moment before suddenly pouncing on her grabbing her out of the air. “Hah got yah.” She exclaims landing with a thud giving a yelp and releasing the wolf when she nipped her finger. “You’re all rumpled now and your skirt is torn you might as well wear jeans and a t-shirt.” Accalia proclaims happily flying back up out of reach tearing into the tie with sharp tiny teeth.

The girl grumbled pulling off her shirt and pulling on a brown t-shirt with a pack of wolves howling on the front. She pulled on a pair of regular old blue jeans and fastened a belt around her hips hopping on one foot to get her shoes on. “You don’t think this shirt is to tight across my chest do you?” She asks self conscious about exactly how big she was all over. Tall and curvy with a good size chest and hips she often drew boys’ eyes no matter what she wore.

“It’s a man’s shirt, Tala. It’s loose that’s why you bought it. Now come on I want some fruit before we go especially if you can find me some wolfberries.” Accalia points out using her special little term of endearment for her holder that meant stalking wolf. “Accalia I doubt I’ll find any Goji here in Paris.” The girl mutters with a sigh grabbing her bag and her kwami and dashing out of her room her brother sitting in the living room with head phones on working on a new design on his computer. She grabbed the lunch she had prepared last night after her roam of Paris’s rooftops hoping to meet it’s defenders to no avail.

She gave him a quick peck on the cheek in goodbye as dashed out the door letting it slam shut behind her. She stole an entire plateful of fresh fruit off a bell boy dumping it into her bag grabbing a banana for herself shouting for him to bill it to her brother. She and her kwami munched on the fruit as she dashed down the streets of Paris taking a short cut through a park and climbing the fence to book it through the doors of the school just as the bell rang.

She spotted Adrien making his way to class with his group of friends and shouted a quick greeting to him and Marinette tossing some of her loot of fruit to them as she loped past on her way to her own class. They just waved back kind of confused by the randomness of her fruit gift and entered their classroom. She flung herself into her seat just as the teacher walked in.

She settled herself in spreading her personal mess of notebooks and supplies out before her eating the last of her bunch of grapes. Her teacher was beginning the class and starting off by talking about keeping their spaces clean and being on time this seemingly directed at Jennifer herself. She smiled serenely up at the teacher meeting their eyes with her own showing she wasn’t going to back down.

The teacher continued to lecture on how being seniors meant they were supposed to act as role models for the younger students in the school which meant good behavior and cleanliness. Jennifer continued to hold the teachers gaze placing her completed homework out in front of her all of it completely finished and typed up neatly. At this the teacher sighed and gave up on their lecture allowing the girl to win their silent battle for dominance so long as she didn’t disturb the other students and did her work.

She was listening politely to the teacher as they got the lesson started. She heard whispers behind her but ignored them. That was until she felt something hit her in the back of the head. Turning slightly the group of guys in the two rows behind her tossed some more paper at her one even leaning far enough forward to tug at hair which she yanked away from them gathering up her long layered dirty blonde hair to pull back into a ponytail.

It was happening again. Similar instances had taken place many times before. She hated it. This is what made school so uncomfortable. She didn’t like hearing the whispers and laughs behind her it made her extremely conscious of other peoples attention being focused on her. She really hated school actually but her brother insisted that if she refused to stay coped up in the house then she had to go to school.

She didn’t like people all that much which was why she ran when out in public to escape from them as fast as she could. She liked only a few people and rarely socialized outside of her pack, her close group of friends. She was different. She knew that. She was treated differently because of her differences. She had been bullied many times before. Bullied so badly she needed something to distract her from the pain of it.

She had transfered schools when she first started back in Japan because of being bullied she didn’t fit in. She was learning slowly to deal with being bullied for her differences it didn’t hurt any less but she now could somewhat fight back against it. That’s why she fought for dominance in the classroom so she could get away with certain things that the teachers would ordinarily look down on. They mainly left her alone uncomfortable with how someone younger then them could be so dominant. Very few tried to exert their dominance over her as the teacher of the class.

She was an alpha. She had to be. Her friends were like her. They didn’t fit in exactly either which made them subject to bullying and no one would stand up for them if she didn’t do it. She fought for them protected them and cared for them. She lead them and they followed her lead do as she did caring for one another and protecting those weaker then them. She had earned their loyalty over time and had become the alpha of their pack.

She still hated being surrounded by people it made her draw into herself turning into a submissive scared pup which she had always been since that accident. She had the scars of her past to remind her of why she was different. She had had a few friends and been almost normal when she lived with her Aunt and Uncle but that had changed after she had been kidnapped.

She had been freed but that was what marked her life changing. He wanted to keep her safe. To give her everything she ever wanted but to him keeping her safe meant locking her up keeping her hidden away safe from all harm. She hadn’t wanted to go with him at first but he had threatened to use force threatened to sue for custody of her so she left.

She resented him for the longest time and had felt like he resented her like he blamed her for what had happened; she couldn’t take that pain. When she finally was allowed freedom even if just a bit that feeling didn’t disappear it increased with the new bullying she had experienced. She had fallen down a dark path during that time and would still have been down it if it hadn’t been for Accalia who saved her and taught her to show others they couldn’t keep pushing her around. Accalia was the one who drew her out of her moments of panic who reassured her and kept her from going back down that path.

When the bell for lunch finally rang she vaulted from her seat and lopped out the door her eyes squeezed shut as she heard the echoing ring of laughter behind her. It was because of that that she didn’t see the person in front of her running them down. She tripped falling on top of the person before jumping to her feet stammering out an apology and offering them a hand only to have it get slapped away. She had run over none other then the Queen Bee herself Chloe Bourgeois and from the look on her face Chloe wasn’t about to let this slide.

“You stupid cow!” Chloe screams infuriated as Sabrina rushed to help her to her feet. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention.” The girls murmurs meekly clutching her bag and stepping away from Chloe. “My father will hear of this!Whoever you are!"She screeches angrily. "I’m so sorry. I really am. I’m new here. My name is Jennifer. Jennifer James and I just transferred here yesterday.” The girls answers submissively fighting to keep the flap on her bag closed as she felt the thumps of Accalia fighting to get free and tear into Chloe sensing her pup wasn’t going to be dominant with this she-wolf unless she was forced.

Jennifer couldn’t help but look down at Chloe since she was taller not just because she was older but because she was tall. Tall and curvy with long legs that allowed her to move quickly. Chloe assessed the older girl with a sneer not liking how naturally pretty the girl was nor how curvy she was. Boys liked curves. Everyone knew that and this girl had plenty of them.

“Well I hope you haven’t gotten comfortable because once daddy hears of this you’ll be out of here.” She laughs haughtily. “I really am truly sorry for knocking you over like that I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going. I’m only here temporarily you see. My brother is here on business so I have to attend school here while he works. I just arrived here from Japan the other day.” Jeniifer explains trying to calm Chloe down and failing.

“You don’t look Asian at all and if you where you would be wearing a school uniform like they do in all the animes and mangas. So nice try with that little lie.” Chloe says with a laugh. “Umm I’m only half. Here this is my school I.D.” She dug in her pocket and handed over her wallet with her I.D. in it. Chloe looked it over scrunching up her nose as she did.

“I was wearing my uniform yesterday but decided to dress down for today. My brother insisted I look my best for picture day and had me wear makeup. Kei doesn’t normally care much about how I dress as long as I look decent. I was in a rush to leave the hotel this morning so I didn’t do much with my appearance. ” Jennifer explains trying to be patient with the younger girl despite feeling edgy as a crowd gathered to watch. “We are staying in a hotel nearby during our stay and it took me a while to get down the stairs from the top floor I don’t particularly like elevators so I took the stairs and ran the couple blocks to school.”

Chloe stared at the I.D. for a while as it sunk in who this girl was having realized right away she wasn’t from her class and not having recognized her from the school but she did recognize the first name of one of her daddy’s most important guests staying at the hotel. A man who hacked the computer servers to upgrade his room himself to the best suite available so his sister could have a deep tub to relax in and a room all to herself.

A room that Chloe had begged her daddy to keep open so she could bribe Jagged Stone into coming back so she could brag to everyone about having him stay in her hotel once more. A plan that had failed miserably as the room was now taken and Jagged had declined to come visit busy recording his new album. Meaning Chloe had nothing to hold over this girl or her classmates.

Spying two familiar faces in the crowd that had gathered to watch she grabbed her wallet from Chloe and pushed past her calling out a greeting. “Adrien! Marinette! Want to eat lunch together?” She calls happily waving her lunch box in the air. She quickly was surrounded in their group of four as introductions were made to her and to Alya and Nino. “Call me J.J. its a nick name my Uncle Richard used to call me.”

The group of now five made their way to sit down and eat lunch together ditching their bags in a pile behind them so no one noticed when a little furry head poked out of one and scrambled over to Marinette’s purse with a berry in paw before sliding into the purse alongside the small red kwami munching on a cookie who occupied the purse. Faint whispers coming from the bag were missed as the group settled in and the new girl got interrogated by Alya.

J.J. was quickly becoming friends with Alya and Nino telling them various stories about her time in London and Tokyo both places she lived and visited often especially London as she missed her old home flying back almost every other month for a visit in her brothers private jet. Her stories fascinated them but her personality and her desire to just be normal again was what really drew them to her. She had a way of making herself seem smaller and not so special that made them think of her as any ordinary girl making them even forget she was older.

She was just finishing telling them the tale of how she had borrowed her brothers plane in the middle of the night and convinced a student pilot to fly her to London just so she could go to sleep in her old bed in her old room and listen to Big Ben sound in the morning and about her brother’s reaction not to mention the reaction of her Aunt and Uncle when screams and panic ensued from the streets outside as a giant akuma moved past. Quickly causing panic within the school.

“Whoa.” J.J. yelps as a student rushes past her nearly knocking her over. “Everyone calm down!” Marinette shouted getting to her feet only to be ignored. “Calm down you are safe so long as you stay indoors and don’t draw attention to yourselves!” Again she was ignored as more and more people panicked. “They aren’t listening to you.” J.J. murmurs eyeing the crowd worriedly. She knew what could happen in a panicked crowd. “We need to get out of here.” She says turning to her new friends.“I’m so not missing this!” Alya exclaims and grabs her bag and heads out the door after the akuma with Nino hot on her heels to try and drag his almost girlfriend far enough back from the expected incoming fight so that she wouldn’t get hurt. Causing J.J. to gape at her in shock.

“Uhhh I gotta go.” Marinette says grabbing her bag and rushing off. “Yeah me too.” Adrien agrees dashing off with his own bag. J.J. stood up and shouted as loud as she could finally growing tired of all the screaming. “Everyone stop screaming and get inside somewhere safe and stay there you’ll be fine as long as you stop drawing attention to yourself.” She shouts demonstrating this by grabbing some of the nearest picnickers and shoving them into the nearest rooms. Many stopped their screaming and did as she said dashing to the safety of any room with a door. A few were still screaming while others ran around in circles in a blind panic.

She turned her attention back to where he friends had been watching with open mouth surprise as Alya was in fact chasing the akuma down the street with Nino hot on her tail. “She’s crazy!” She exclaims her mouth open as she watched Alya chase after the giant Akuma. She couldn’t believe Alya was actually doing something so stupid and crazy as that. What was she thinking?!

She was startled out of her stun by the feel of sharp tiny teeth clamping down on her earlobe and by Ladybug swing past with Chat Noir vaulting by with his staff shortly after.. “Worry about that later Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to need your help this akuma is strong. ” Accalia growls releasing her ear. J.J. darted into the only empty room she could find. The boy’s bathroom. “But this isn’t my city and they don’t know me at all.” She argues worried about just barging into a fight between Paris’s protectors and the akuma.

“Don’t worry I’ve talked to their kwami’s and they are interested in finding out more about western miraculous holders. Besides Ladybug and Chat Noir will need Lupine Alpha’s help. So stop standing around arguing already and transform.” She growls head butting the girl arms crossed over her fluffy chest her fluffy tail swishing angrily. “Your right they do need my help.” The girls mutters freeing her hair from its pony tail so it hung down her back in it’s multitude of layers.

“Paws on!” She cries taping her bronze disk miraculous her kwami getting sucked into it. Using two fingers she painted a pointy edged brown mask over her closed eyes with red and black streaks around the edges. Her eyes opening as a form fitting russet colored suit covered her body. Her eyes no longer green but pure gold and no whites at all with round black pupils. She had on fur trimmed moccasins on her feet and fur trimmed gloves covered her talon tipped hands. Russet colored fur with streaks of red, black and gray in it covered her chest and circled around her neck forming a ruff. Wolf ears sprang from the top of her head and a leather whip circled her waist covering the trim of fur that marked where the top of her suit ended and the bottom began a fluffy wolf tail extending from the vee in the back. Her dirty blonde hair flowed around her shoulders and back in wild looking layers.

She gave a loud howl and lopped out of the bathroom and out onto the street unfurling her whip and using its ability to extend to any length she desired to fling herself after the akuma flying right past a filming Alya and a stunned Nino. Chat and Ladybug were trying to keep the akuma distracted it looked like making her job easier. She cracked her whip on the ground loudly drawing its attention to her.

The akuma shrank in size back down tot he size of a normal man. A man with tribal lines painted all over him in a loincloth only and black hair spiked into a mohawk on top of his head that ended in a braid in the back. A medallion hung around his neck. His dark eyes met hers and he whispered something softly. “Song of the wolf.” With that he threw back his head and howled sounding like an entire pack of wolves instead of just one.

She gave a snarl throwing back her own head and howling herself her voice rising higher and higher then his and holding notes for longer singing an actual song of a wolf. After a moment the man stopped panting for breath unable to continue howling for as long as she could. She lowered her head cracking her whip again before her. “Listen up buddy my name is Lupine Alpha and you are no match for me.” She growls baring her sharp teeth at him in a snarl dashing forward towards the akuma as well as two stunned miraculous holders.

#miraculous: tales of ladybug & cat noir #fanfic #oc #new miraculous holder #marinette cheng #adrien agreste #plagg #tikki #wolf kwami #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #chloé

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expatsecuador · 4 years ago

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3 Ways to Get a Driver’s Licence in Ecuador (2020 Guide)

Unfortunately, getting a driver’s licence in Ecuador isn’t as easy as just turning up to the issuing authority and transferring your existing licence. But, the process isn’t terribly painful either - once you know how...

I’ve covered the 3 main pathways most expats use to obtain their Ecuadorian driver’s licence below. There is also an Appendix at the end that includes useful law extracts and downloads.

Disclaimer: This is NOT legal advice. The laws in Ecuador at relatively elastic, so you may have a different experience. If you think this is complicated or have special circumstances, then I would suggest hiring a facilitator to help you through the process.

Before we dive into the 3 licence options, ask yourself:

Do you actually need an Ecuadorian driver’s licence?

You may be able to save yourself the hassle of getting a drivers licence.

Visitor visa

If you’re on a visitors visa, then your existing drivers licence is valid to drive or rent a car, so you’re all set without an Ecuadorian licence.

Temporary and permanent residents

As a holder of an Ecuadorian temporary or permanent residency visa, you can legally drive in Ecuador for 6 months upon entry. As it’s 6 months upon entry, my interpretation of this is that it resets every time you enter Ecuador.

Leave Ecuador every 6 months -> No licence required

So, if your lifestyle has you leaving the country every 6 months, I don’t see any legal requirement for you to get an Ecuadorian licence.

I’ve looked through the transport laws and I can’t see anything that obliges a temporary or permanent resident to get their licence within a certain time period within the granting of their visa.

This covers my personal situation. Which meant for a long time I just kept putting off getting a local licence. I really couldn’t see the benefit of it.

I finally decided to get a licence simply because I thought it was time. More to do with belonging to my adopted homeland and building community than anything else.

The only real practical benefit for me is having easier conversations with traffic cops that decide to play around a little in an effort to extract some extra cash for themselves.

Stay in Ecuador 6 months at a time -> Licence required

If you plan on staying inside Ecuador for more than 6 months at a time, then yes, you’ll need to get your licence in order to legally drive.

So, now you’ve worked out if you need a licence, let’s dive into the 3 different options.

Option 1: Transfer Your Foreign Licence (Canje)

This is the easiest option in that it allows you to bypass the practical driving components.

But, it’s also the option that requires more planning because you need an apostilled copy of your foreign driving record - which takes time and money. And, then you need that translated and notarized by an authorized Ecuadorian entity.

The process for transferring an existing foreign licence to an Ecuadorian is:

a) Driving record

Order an official driving record from your home country. Cost varies by country.

b) Apostille

Have the driving record apostilled in your home country. Cost varies by country

c) Translate & notarize

Translate and notarize the apostilled driving record into Spanish by your closest Ecuadorian Embassy or an official translator (and notary) in Ecuador.

d) Evidence of education

This isn’t listed as an official requirement in the official ANT documentation. But each of the driving schools we spoke to required some type of proof that you’ve passed high school (up to the 10th grade).

You can argue that it seems a little ridiculous that you’d be granted a licence in your home country if you didn’t have some level of education.

But remember, this rule applies to every foreigner applying for a licence, so they are trying to protecting themselves from an influx of drivers from countries that perhaps don’t have an education requirement.

You can satisfy this education requirement by providing:

Cedula indicating level of education; or

Apostilled diploma

Cedula

In an ideal world, your level of education would be indicated on the back of your cedula. Driving schools generally accept Basica level or above.

Unfortunately, a common practice is for expats to be issued their first cedula with the Incicial level of education. Be very careful if this is you because Inicial is not sufficient to transfer your licence. You will be denied.

This happened to me. Even though I applied for the Professional Visa that requires a university level degree, my initial cedula still said Inicial.

My visa facilitator explained that it was done this way to expedite the issuing of the cedula. Waiting for SENESCYT to authorize my university degree would take a while. So, I could either have my cedula that day, or wait weeks/months for SENESCYT to authorize my degree and then have the proper education level printed on my cedula.

I opted to have the cedula that day. It turned out to be a good choice because it took around 6 months and many emails between my university, SENESCYT, my facilitator and myself to finally have my degree recognized with SENESCYT.

Apostilled diploma

If you don’t have a cedula with the required level of education, you’ll need a diploma from your home country that has also been apostilled. The higher the better. But anything 10th grade or above should work.

You may also need to have this diploma translated into Spanish and notarized. You may already have this if you included it in your visa application.

e) Blood card

You need a certificate showing your blood type. Many get this from the Red Cross for around $5.

f) Psychosensometric examination at driving school

You’ll need to contact an authorized driving school (list here) to complete this at a cost of around $20. This test covers reflexes, dexterity, vision and hearing. Most people don’t have a problem passing it.

Take evidence of your education and driving record with you as the driving school will need this.

g) Get payment slip from ANT & book test

Once you’ve got all of your documents, including original:

ID (cedula)

Blood type certificate

Driver's license from home country

Evidence of education

Driving record certificate from home country (translated, apostilled & notorized)

Psychosensometric examination certificate

Color passport photos x 2

Then you can head on down to your closest ANT to obtain a payment slip and book an appointment for the multiple-choice test. Remember, you’ll likely need a few days to study for the test.

You can also generate the payment slip and appointment online, but you may have to wait longer for the appointment. Applying for this licence via the transfer option seems to be somewhat fast-tracked. But, this only happens if you apply in person (not online).

h) Pay $142 at a bank

Take the payment slip generated at ANT to a bank so you can pay the $142. There’s probably banks within walking distance. Read our guide on transferring money into Ecuador if you’re unfamiliar with getting this.

i) Take the multiple-choice test (study required)

At your test appointment you’ll need to undertake a multiple-choice test. You’ll need to answer at least 16 out of 20 correctly in order to pass.

The 20 questions are taken from a pool of more than 300 questions. We’ve included the multiple-choice questions below for you to download and study. When ready, you can complete practice tests at the ANT site.

Once you pass the test, you’ll be issued with your licence. Yay! This generally happens on the same day.

If you fail, you can book another appointment for 8 days. Go and study! If you fail a second time you can try again in 2 months. But, fail a 3rd time and they’ll make you start the process all over again. The psychosensometric exam certificate is only valid for 60 days.

The full list of documents for this type of licence (Canje) can be found on the official website and in the Appendix below.

Option 1 - Transfer: Pros and Cons

Pros

Avoids driving tests

Cons

Need driving certificate from home country.

Conclusion:

Transferring is the best solution for those wanting the least amount of time at a driving school. But, the additional burden of the driving certificate from your home country requires a lot of organization.

Option 2: Driving School - Driving Test Only

This is the best option if you don’t want the hassle of getting your driving record certificate, and then having it apostilled, translated and notarized.

I chose this option precisely because I didn’t want to have to deal with this. I was already in Ecuador too, so sending this via DHL adds to the total cost.

The process for obtaining your licence through this option:

a) Evidence of education

Either a cedula indicating Basica or above, or an apostilled diploma for year 10 or higher. See above section for full details.

b) Blood card

You need a certificate showing your blood type. Many get this from the Red Cross for around $5.

c) Driving test

Find an authorized driving school that will evaluate your ability to drive and provide you with a certificate. Some driving schools to start with are ANETA, Practi-Car & A Conducir (Cuenca)

Take originals of your evidence of education, blood type and ID to the school.

Practical driving exam

This is a fairly straight forward driving exam lasting 20-30 minutes. The driving school will take you in their car and provide instructions on what you need to. It’s likely the car will be manual, so I’d definitely check with the driving school if you only know how to drive an automatic.

Psychosensometric exam

This is the same as detailed above and includes reflexes, dexterity, vision and hearing. The combined cost of the practical driving and psychosensometric exams is around $47.

Once you’ve passed the two exams, the driving school will send the certificate within 2-3 days.

Once you have your certificate, the rest of the process is very similar to the transfer option.

d) Get payment slip from ANT & book test

Once you’ve got all of your documents, including original:

ID (cedula)

Blood type certificate

Driver's license from home country

Evidence of education

Practical driving & psychosensometric exams certificate

Color passport photos x 2

Then you can head on down to your closest ANT to obtain a payment slip and book an appointment for the multiple-choice test. Remember, you’ll likely need a few days to study for the test.

Apply for Driver’s License For the First Time (Type B)

At ANT, you’re going to want to apply for the ‘Tipo B Primera Vez’ (Type B First Time).

The full official requirements are included in the Appendix below.

e) Pay $68 at a bank

Take the payment slip generated at ANT to a bank so you can pay the $68 (it’s cheaper than the transfer licence).

f) Take the multiple-choice test (study required)

Exactly the same testing process as detailed above. The only difference is that if you fail the test just once, then you will not be able to take it again. You’ll need to go to driving school.

Actually, if you fail any test throughout this process - driving, psychosensometric or multiple-choice, then you’ll need to go to driving school. This is the biggest downside of this approach. There are no second chances. So, make sure you’re comfortable driving with a stick and have studied the multiple-choice exam well.

If you pass, you’ll be issued with your brand new Ecuadorian licence. Congratulations.

Option 2 - Driving Test Only: Pros and Cons

Pros

Cheapest option if pass all tests

Less paperwork than Transfer

No extensive driving school required

Cons

No second chances at any test. Fail and go to driving school.

Conclusion:

This is the quickest and cheapest option if you're already in Ecuador. But, make sure you study for the multiple-choice test as there's no second chances.

Option 3: Driving School - Full Course

This is generally the least preferred option because it requires a significant time commitment. The courses offered by each driving school vary a little, but you can expect something along the lines of:

Theory: 10 hours

Practice: 15 hours

Mechanics: 5 hours

Psychology: 2 hours

First aid: 2 hours

Some schools also offer flexible arrangements to complete the course full time, part time or even weekends.

The courses include the psychosensometric exam and certificate of approval.

The cost will be around $170.

The full process for obtaining your licence through a driving school:

a) Evidence of education

Either a cedula indicating Basica or above or an apostilled diploma for year 10 (or higher). See above section for full details.

b) Blood card

You need a certificate showing your blood type. Many get this from the Red Cross for around $5.

c) Driving school

Register with your driving school of choice. You should be able to make an initial enquiry online, but always best to phone them to confirm beforehand.

Take your Cedula, evidence of education, blood type certificate and a passport photo with you to the driving school.

Complete the full course (34 hours!) to obtain your certificate of approval and psychosensometric exam. Note, it can take 3-4 weeks for schools to send these documents to you.

d) Get payment slip from ANT & book test

Once you’ve got all of your documents, including original:

ID (cedula)

Blood type certificate

Evidence of education

Practical driving & psychosensometric exams certificate

Color passport photos x 2

Then you can head on down to your closest ANT to obtain a payment slip and book an appointment for the multiple-choice test. Remember, you’ll likely need a few days to study for the test.

Apply for Driver’s License For the First Time (Type B)

At ANT, you’re going to want to apply for the ‘Tipo B Primera Vez’ (Type B First Time).

The full official requirements are included in the Appendix below.

e) Pay $68 at a bank

Take the payment slip generated at ANT to a bank so you can pay the $68 (it’s cheaper than the transfer licence).

f) Take the multiple-choice test (study required)

Exactly the same testing process as detailed above.

If you fail, you can book another appointment for 8 days. If you fail a second time you can try again in 2 months. But, fail a 3rd time and they nay make you start the process all over again. The psychosensometric exam certificate is only valid for 60 days.

Option 3 - Driving School: Pros and Cons

Pros

Learn local driving rules and customs

It’s what the locals do. Make some Ecuadorian friends

More than one chance to pass multiple-choice test

Less paperwork than transfer option

Cons

34 hour time commitment

More expensive than driving test only option

Conclusion:

If you have the time and open to new experiences, the driving school option might be best for you.

FAQs

Can I just buy a licence instead?

Facepalm. No. Don’t do this. Morality issues aside, you can lose your licence and get fined. Or worse, have your permanent residency visa declined when it comes time to apply.

How old do I need to be?

From the age of 18 you can apply for a licence. I’ve seen you can also apply for a ‘minor adult permit’ from the age of 16, but the driving school may require a significant guarantee.

Appendix

Ecuadorian Licence Exam Questions

The multiple-choice exam consists of 20 questions randomly pulled from the database of over 300 questions. You need to answer 16/20 correctly to pass.

The full list of questions can be downloaded here or accessed from the official ANT website. Note, the answers to each question are highlighted.

Once you’ve reviewed the questions a couple of times, I strongly recommend taking some online practice exams.

Good luck!

Traffic Laws

Article 137

Article 137 says that:a) Tourist Visa: You can use your foreign licence for as long as your Ecuadorian visa is valid. Up to 6 months.

b) Residents: Migrants (ie temporary and permanent residents) can use your foreign licence for up to 6 months upon entry to Ecuador.

Print the below extract and keep in your car with you in case you need to argue your point with a police officer that is after a little ‘lunch money’.

Reglamento a Ley de Transporte Terrestre Transito y Seguridad Vial

Art. 137.- Los extranjeros que ingresen al país con visa de turista, o al amparo de cualquier visa de no inmigrante, podrán conducir con las licencias emitidas en sus países de origen, durante todo el plazo de estadía que su condición migratoria se lo permita, pero en ningún caso por más de seis meses contados desde su ingreso al país.

Los extranjeros que ingresen al país con visa de inmigrante, podrán también conducir con las licencias emitidas en sus países de origen, hasta por un plazo máximo de seis meses contados desde la fecha en que hubieren ingresado al país.

--- English translation ---

Regulations of the Land Transport, Traffic and Road Safety Act

Art. 137.- Foreigners who enter the country with a tourist visa, or under any non-immigrant visa, may drive with the licenses issued in their countries of origin, during the entire period of stay that their immigration status allows, but in no case for more than six months from their entry to the country.

Foreigners who enter the country with an immigrant visa may also drive with licences issued in their countries of origin, for a maximum period of six months from the date they entered the country.

Download the full traffic regulations from ANT here or directly here.

Authorized traffic schools

The full list of schools authorized to conduct driver training for cars (type b) can be found at the official ANT website - or download directly here.

You’ll need to contact one of these to complete the required tests like Psychosensometric, practical driving test, or arrange a driving course.

ANT Licence Requirements

1. Transfer your foreign licence

The list of requirements for transferring a licence from your home country to an Ecuadorian one.

Canje licencia de conducir extranjera por ecuatoriana

Canje de licencia de conducir extrajera por la ecuatoriana para ecuatorianos y extranjeros con visa superior a los 180 días

Requisitos:

Original del documento de identificación.

Original del certificado o carné de tipo sanguíneo emitido por la Cruz Roja Ecuatoriana.

Original de la licencia de conductor profesional o no profesional del país de origen vigente.

Original del examen psicosensométrico, realizado en una de las Escuelas de Capacitación autorizadas por la ANT. Recuerda que el certificado tiene una vigencia de 60 días.

Original del certificado de la licencia de conducir extrajera vigente, emitido por una de las siguientes instituciones:

Misiones Diplomáticas de los países de origen en el Ecuador, en español.

Misiones Diplomáticas que no se encuentren en Ecuador, en español.

Entidades de Tránsito del país de origen, el mismo que en caso de no estar en español deberá ser apostillado o consularizado, y la traducción del mismo deberá ser autenticada por un Notario, Cónsul o Juez de lo Civil en el Ecuador.

Entidades de Tránsito del país de origen, debidamente apostillada en el caso de ser emitida en español.

Procedimiento:

Cancelar el valor del trámite directamente en el banco.

Solicitar turno en Atención al Usuario de la ANT.

Validación de documentos y pagos.

Actualización de datos.

Evaluación teórica en español.

Entrega de la licencia

Certificado del movimiento migratorio.

Costo:

USD: 142,00

*El documento original extranjero no será retenido.

*La licencia será emitida por el plazo de vigencia de la visa o tiempo por el cual se ha otorgado el carné de refugiado.

*En caso de tener carné de refugiado, cancelar el valor del trámite en la cuenta corriente #7347243, del Banco del Pacífico.

*En caso de tener cédula de ciudadanía, la vigencia de la licencia será de acuerdo a este documento.

--- English translation ---

Exchange of a foreign driver's license for the Ecuadorian for Ecuadorians and foreigners with a visa greater than 180 days

Requirements:

Original identification document.

Original of the blood type certificate or card issued by the Ecuadorian Red Cross.

Original professional or non-professional driver's license from the country of origin in force.

Original of the psychosensometric examination, carried out in one of the Training Schools authorized by the ANT. Remember that the certificate is valid for 60 days.

Original of the valid foreign driver's license certificate, issued by one of the following institutions:

Diplomatic Missions of the countries of origin in Ecuador, in Spanish.

Diplomatic Missions not found in Ecuador, in Spanish.

Transit Entities of the country of origin, the same that in case of not being in Spanish must be apostilled or consularized, and the translation of the same must be authenticated by a Notary, Consul or Civil Judge in Ecuador.

Transit Entities of the country of origin, duly apostilled in the case of being issued in Spanish.

Process:

Cancel the value of the procedure directly at the bank.

Request an appointment at the ANT User Service.

Validation of documents and payments.

Data update.

Theoretical evaluation in Spanish.

Delivery of the license

Certificate of the migratory movement.

Cost:

USD: 142.00

* The foreign original document will not be retained.

* The license will be issued for the period of validity of the visa or time for which the refugee card has been granted.

* In case of having a refugee card, cancel the value of the procedure in the current account # 7347243, of the Banco del Pacífico.

* In case of having a citizenship card, the validity of the license will be according to this document.

View directly on ANT website

2. Apply for a licence for the 1st time

The list of requirements when applying for a licence for your 1st time (not a transfer).

Licencias de conducir tipo B por primera vez

Requisitos:

Certificado de conductor NO profesional tipo B, emitido por una Escuela de Capacitación para Conductores no profesionales autorizadas por la ANT.

Original del acta de grado del curso.

Original del permiso de aprendizaje.

Original del resultado del examen psicosensométrico, vigente y aprobado.

Original de la cédula de identidad y/o ciudadanía.

Original del certificado o carné de tipo sanguíneo extendido por la Cruz Roja Ecuatoriana.

Original del comprobante de pago.

* Única y exclusivamente se podrá emitir licencias por primera vez en la misma provincia donde el usuario realizó su curso de capacitación.

Procedimiento:

Genera una orden de pago Aquí.

Paga el valor del trámite con la orden de pago (Conoce los Puntos de Pago autorizados).

Una vez realizado el pago, obtén un turno para la emisión de licencia (Aquí).

Acercarse a la Agencia que consta en tu turno, 15 minutos antes de la hora asignada.

Espera que llamen a tu turno y entrega los documentos que constan en los requisitos, adjuntando el comprobante de pago original.

Realiza la evaluación teórica. Puedes revisar el Banco de Preguntas y Simulador de Examen.

Recepción y validación de la documentación y pagos realizados.

Espera la entrega de tu licencia.

Costo:

USD 68,00

*En caso de ser persona natural extranjero deberá presentar el Certificado de haber culminado la educación básica, el mismo que deberá ser apostillado, traducido al español y notarizado.

Consideraciones:

En caso de no realizar el curso de conducción se deberá presentar el certificado de aprobación de evaluaciones: psicosensométrica y práctica emitido por las Escuelas de Conducción no profesionales autorizadas por la ANT.

Haber aprobado la educación general básica, verificando a través de información que conste en la cédula de ciudadanía o mediante certificado de haber aprobado la educación básica general o título de bachiller.

El examen psicosensométrico tendrá una duración de 60 días calendario desde la fecha de emisión de la Escuela de Conducción autorizada por la ANT. Este exámen se debe efectuar en la misma escuela donde el usuario realizó el curso.

Cancelar el valor de las multas e infracciones pendientes, caso contrario no podrá realizar el trámite.

Las licencias de conducir para conductores profesionales y no profesionales sin excepción tendrán una vigencia de cinco años, contados a partir de la fecha de su expedición.

--- English translation ---

Type B driver's licenses for the first time

Requirements:

Certificate of NON-professional driver type B, issued by a Training School for non-professional drivers authorized by the ANT.

Original of the degree certificate of the course.

Original of the learning permit.

Original of the result of the psychosensometric examination, current and approved.

Original identity and / or citizenship card.

Original of the blood type certificate or card issued by the Ecuadorian Red Cross.

Original proof of payment.

* Only and exclusively licenses may be issued for the first time in the same province where the user completed his training course.

Process:

Generate a payment order here.

Pay the value of the procedure with the payment order (Know the authorized Payment Points).

Once the payment is made, get a turn for the license issue (Here).

Approach the Agency that is on your shift, 15 minutes before the assigned time.

Wait for them to call your turn and deliver the documents that appear in the requirements, attaching the original proof of payment.

Perform the theoretical evaluation. You can check the Question Bank and Exam Simulator.

Receipt and validation of documentation and payments made.

Wait for the delivery of your license.

Cost:

USD 68.00

* In the case of being a foreign natural person, you must present the Certificate of having completed basic education, which must be apostilled, translated into Spanish and notarized.

Considerations:

In case of not taking the driving course, the evaluation approval certificate must be presented: psychosensometric and practice issued by the non-professional Driving Schools authorized by the ANT.

Have passed basic general education, verifying through information on the citizenship card or by means of a certificate of having passed general basic education or a bachelor's degree.

The psychosensometric examination will last 60 calendar days from the date of issuance of the Driving School authorized by the ANT. This exam must be done at the same school where the user took the course.

Cancel the value of pending fines and infractions, otherwise you will not be able to carry out the procedure.

The driver's licenses for professional and non-professional drivers without exception will be valid for five years, counted from the date of issue.

View directly on ANT website

from Expats Ecuador https://expatsecuador.com/drivers-licence/

0 notes

hub-pub-bub · 5 years ago

Link

‘Protecting European Creativity’

Today (February 20), as confirmed to us from the Council of the European Union’s session by attorney Dr. Jessica Sänger, a vote has gone in favor of the copyright directive that has emerged from trilogue.

As was announced from Strasbourg a week ago (February 13), the “trilogue” process in the European legislative deliberations produced what media messaging from the European Commission called “a breakthrough to modernize copyright rules”—the latest stage in the European Union copyright directive effort.

Although still requiring confirmation by the European Parliament on February 26, this result of the long-running negotiations—part of the Digital Single Market framework—was hailed by vice-president Andrus Ansip as “modern copyright rules for the whole of [the] EU” and by Mariya Gabriel, commissioner for digital economy and society, as legislation to “strengthen the cultural and creative sectors, and bring added value to the European citizens.”

As the EC is laying out the plan, its features include—quoting here from the commission’s statement—the following highlights.

“Tangible benefits to all creative sectors, specifically creators and actors in the audio-visual and musical sectors, by reinforcing their position vis-à-vis platforms to have more control over the use of their content uploaded by users on these platforms and be remunerated for it.

“The principle of an appropriate and proportionate remuneration for authors and performers will be laid down for the first time in European copyright law.

“Authors and performers will enjoy access to transparent information on how their works and performances are exploited by their counterparts (publishers and producers). This will make it easier for them to negotiate future contracts and to receive a fairer share of the generated revenues.

“If publishers or producers fail to exploit the rights that authors and performers have transferred to them, authors and performers will be allowed to revoke their rights.

“European press publishers will enjoy a new right, which aims to facilitate the way they negotiate how their content is re-used on online platforms. It will give journalists the right to receive a greater share of the revenues generated by the online uses of press publications. This right will not affect citizens and individual users, who will continue to enjoy and share news hyperlinks as they do today.”

You can read more from the Commission’s offices in the form of a Q&A here and a fact sheet here.

Special care is being taken by the commission to call attention to the agreement as one that “reinforces the position of European authors and performers in the digital environment” while also “reinforcing the interests of citizens and Internet users.”

As we have done in the past, we’ve turned once more to Dr. Sänger, legal counsel and director of European and international affairs for the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s Publishers and Booksellers Association.

Sänger has been closely engaged in the developments leading to this new stage of the process and has been helpful in illuminating for Publishing Perspectives’ readership how the process and its implications have been developing.

We begin here by asking Sänger to parse for us what are the most important accomplishments at this stage, as she and her German and European colleagues see it. Her references, by the way, to “CJEU,” for those outside the Union, are to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

‘On the Whole, an Acceptable Compromise’

Jessica Sänger: The draft directive is very ambitious in the sense that it covers quite a broad range of different important policy areas.

We have been particularly concerned with the proposed exceptions to copyright for illustration for teaching, preservation, and TDM [text and data mining], but also with the proposals regarding what libraries or archives can do with works in their collections which are out of commerce. All these areas have been the subject of intense negotiations, and the results achieved are in no way ideal, but we view them on the whole as an acceptable compromise.

The most important element of the directive from the point of view of (not only) German publishers is Article 12, which aims to permit member states to decide that publishers may once again receive compensation alongside authors when works are used under exceptions or lent out by libraries. The hope is that this piece of legislation would repair the damage done by the HP/Reprobel decision of CJEU, which had such far-reaching consequences in Germany.

Perhaps the main accomplishment of the negotiators for the council and the European Parliament is that they have found a compromise at all, given how contentious certain issues are, especially the “value gap” provision and the press publishers’ right. This took tremendous dedication on the part of the rapporteur MEP Axel Voss as well as the consecutive Council Presidencies of Austria and Romania.

Publishing Perspectives: Are there points that your team had hoped to have in the new formulation that are not included, after all?

Jessica Sänger: Since all the provisions I mentioned are compromises, of course we are not 100-percent happy.

We would have appreciated more safeguards around the exceptions and still believe that a solution for works which are out of commerce could have been found without resorting to an exception, as the example of the German legislation on the subject shows.

Concerns remain around which impact the new TDM provisions will have in practice.

In some areas, including Article 12, convoluted wording of recitals does more to confuse the reader than to clarify the aim of the provision in question. But this is due to the changes made to accommodate as many interests as possible.

Perhaps the best compromises are those that leave every side somewhat unhappy.

Publishing Perspectives: Some are saying that this is very close to the last time we visited the process, in the late summer. Is that the case? Or are there important and substantive steps in place here since the last actions?

Jessica Sänger: On September 12th, the European Parliament voted upon its position, based on the work of the five committees which had discussed the commission’s draft and each voted on its own suggested amendments. The council had already adopted its approach in May.

September’s vote meant that the phase we call “trilogue” was able to begin, where the co-legislators council and parliament negotiate for a common text with the support of the commission which supplied the initial draft.

We are now at the stage where the trilogue negotiations have been successfully concluded, after many sessions and moments of suspense as to whether the process would fail at the 11th hour. If the directive is to be adopted before the end of this parliament’s legislature, things will have to move very quickly now.

Publishing Perspectives: As we know, the approval here from trilogue will need approval by the council and by parliament ultimately. Is it your understanding that those approvals are likely?

Jessica Sänger: [UPDATE AT 8:56 a.m. ET, 1:56 p.m GMT:] I am delighted that today, the council (COREPER I) voted in favor of the directive.

This was the final council vote on the subject. Some member states were adamantly opposed, like Italy, which changed its position after the Salvini government took office. It’s important that the majority achieved for the final negotiating mandate on February 8th now also support the final result.

Germany and France had hammered out a compromise ahead of that vote, and even though not everyone in the German government is happy with the result, withdrawing support now would have been a serious affront.

All now depends on the European Parliament, and a lot of question marks remain. There will be a decision in the legal affairs committee next Tuesday (February 26), and then the final adoption would take place in plenary, in March.

Given the strong majority the directive received in September, and given that many of the concerns of the opponents were addressed during trilogue, the chances for an even stronger endorsement ought to be good.

Under normal circumstances, I would be highly confident that the MEPs who voted in favor in September wouldn’t suddenly change their minds. But we are currently faced with a massive wave of campaigning around the “value gap” provision widely known as Article 13, and MEPs are already shifting into campaign mode for the upcoming elections, so they are sensitive to public opinion.

Therefore, I still see a danger that the directive is not adopted before the end of the Parliament’s legislature in April.

Publishing Perspectives: Who—or which entities in business or government—will not like this agreement, and can we know the countervailing points they had made?

Jessica Sänger: Many different points were made by different stakeholders on each of the numerous subject areas of the directive.

Let me focus on the one that is getting the greatest attention, Article 13. The strongest resistance is coming from Big Tech companies. They don’t like the idea that they might need to enter into licensing contracts with rights holders and pay for the uses taking place on platforms such as YouTube. They don’t want to share the advertising revenues they generate with those who invest in the content which makes their platforms so attractive.

MEPs visiting Silicon Valley were told bluntly that US companies would seek to prevent the adoption of Article 13 in Europe. Think of the massive campaign launched by YouTube to frighten its users or other astro-turf activities. It’s shocking to see how much dis-information was spread in order to make teenagers believe that Article 13 would spell the “end of the Internet as we know it” and enable massive censorship. But it’s also clear that extremists and populists from various parts of the political spectrum are strongly opposed to the directive. The example of the Italian government is only one case in point.

Publishing Perspectives: And what else should be said at this point about this long and important process? What is most critical for the wider publishing world beyond Europe to understand about the steps taken through this legislative process you’ve worked so hard on?

Jessica Sänger: Copyright is under attack from many quarters these days. If this directive can establish that protecting European creativity is important enough for European legislators to take on Big Tech and resist the tremendous pressure that they are being subjected to, they are doing this based on their conviction that creative individuals and their commercial partners deserve protection and that their contribution is essential to cultural diversity.

The directive is not perfect, but it is a very important step in the right direction. We cannot achieve this without working closely alongside authors, translators, illustrators, and other creators, so our relationship with them remains the basis for what we do, both within the industry, and in our advocacy work.

More on the EU’s Digital Single Market legislative efforts is here, and on copyright in general is here.

#germany #eu #copyright

0 notes

opalmothnightingale · 7 years ago

Text

Blog Ideas: A Blog for My Child, And A Blog of Blog/Post Ideas, Or, Maybe

9- 18- 17 -

More blog ideas:

A blog for my daughter, for the future her, and all the many things I would like to share with her. Like a book, except, again, one to be gradually pieced into an order, rearranged and second, third, as many drafts as needed to get it the way I’d like it to be. For her, for me, for anyone, because the things I’d like to share with her are.. Anything, possibly everything I need for myself, she might need one day too, so it’s again this whole thing about, wishing to heal people, or share with them, love them, and stuff... But it’s also the truth that it’s for me too... It’s so I can heal myself, so I can see, hey, you know? I also do deserve it. I deserve it, and part of why I deserve healing and joy and whatever I need to be well,.. Is because if I can heal and stay well or get better enough then I can be all I need and want for my daughter, be a better mom, a mom who healed her illnesses enough... So that she doesn’t ever break down for her daughter, or for her sister, or for her soul family, and the people spirit tells her to heal,..

Even knowing that the people spirit tells me to heal might serve as a kind of “stand in”, holding the energy... Just, like you know, till I have the real thing, then I have this still... And it will be the stepping stone, to help me to align to the thing I will have one day.. Real people I can heal, who want to be healed by me.. Or healing myself instead of anyone else, but first I need the motivation of healing others, because.. I feel more motivated to help others rather than me sometimes, but the things that help them, theoretically could help them anyway, if spirit guides me right, and does not lead me on.. Well, those things could heal and help me.. And others. So,... Maybe I’m not really ready to heal others but I can still love myself and heal and help myself.

And the astral lovers and mirror people might also be place holders, in the same manner... Maybe I’m not really meant to love them in a lasting or a compatible way, but to love them, or even just someone in spirit who resembles them somewhat.. Well, you know? That keeps my hope and love alive till I can love someone else with a passionate delight, either myself and everyone, or else, someone specific, as a lover. Life and time will tell.

Ok, and another possible blog: A blog for blog ideas? A blog for post ideas? Or both of those? Maybe... Maybe a separate blog to write it here and there? Because I am not sure... It feels kind of list-y... I’m not a great list lover, sometimes, even though I am other times, but I’m afraid if I made a blog that was list-focused, I would lose the motivation... So instead I can sneak it in by writing it here, first in this fluffed out, full of possibilities and variety blog, then transfer those ideas to the linear list-y type blog thing, so I can look at it in an organized manner. Hm, maybe?

So I thought, all these “questions to the universe”, .. Well, I can follow up on them, maybe as posts, if they seem to be worth it to write about. And I can write out the answers I get, via signs, divination, etc, or just ideas that come to me (which often I think, that is the prayer answered, just ideas and resources and such and suggestions from others, instead of a more explicit “This is your answer” kind of weirdness or magical obviousness of it all.. Spirit wants us to lay back, go with the flow, use our own minds and imagination and creativity and hold on loosely to it all, including signs and whether things are signs or not, often, I think.. Or, for me at least, it seems,.. It’s reached the point where spirit’s saying, good you’re obsessed with signs and guidance and open and listening, but don’t get stuck, let those possible signs flow, like water through your fingers. Let them go unless they feel so alive and vivid and right that you really want to seize them or if you’re just desperately bored and down and nothing else is filling the hole in your sad slumbering heart and soul and tiredness of soul deep exhaustion and burn out, blah whatever who cares, what matters, what’s real or right, .. In other words, which often have been taking me over, and could be called depressive/depression states.. Of a spiritual flavor quite often).

#blogs to make #blog for my child #post ideas #blog ideas #questions to the universe #creative order #organizing my blogging #creative overflow #motivation #organizing goals #organizing tools #order in disorder

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rosiesruminating · 7 years ago

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presenting the case for Deliveroo.

Inspired by the Winsdor fleet of ‘Roo’s who are doing an incredible job and also by my own travel/volunteer blog last summer which I became obsessed with writing, I decided to weigh in my two cents on working for Deliveroo and the positive effects it has had since I joined in the spring. They have come under fire continulously in the media since their inception in 2013 due to their ambiguous employment rules classing riders as self-employed whilst lots of aspects of the job, such as giving us uniform, reflect usual employment.

I joined Deliveroo after spotting a female rider (!!) in Portsmouth with the recognisably bulky backpack on, plus a friend in our circle also worked for them manning the phones. With council work dwindling, I needed something to fill the gap. I promptly filled in my details, received an immediate phonecall then rather swiftly had my onboarding.

I excitedly called my boyfriend returning from my somewhat blasé onboarding and he was just as enthusiastic for me, saying he wished he could do such a physical job. How encouraging; indeed, his equally sporty friends unprompted also commented how cool a job it is from a fitness side. Admittedly though, the exercise didn’t really cross my mind that much, I suppose not knowing how busy the area is and exactly where I’d be covering.

It took a little while to find my feet, but once I did I started to relax more and enjoy it; getting chatty and bantering with staff and customers, feeling pleased and confident in my newfound local knowledge and not only managing but conquering hills which never even crossed my mind to attempt, let alone regularly ride. That being said, I never once had music on whilst delivering; great whilst waiting around with no one to chat to or a dog to fuss over, but I summised I’d find it too distracting, especially when needing all the awareness on roads.

My routine would go; shower, eat, put my gear on and gather everything I need together (gloves, layers, tactical snacks..) then not actually leave until 7 mins before shift, which is Google Maps estimate of my time to town. I believe I did this intentionally to give myself the exrra intensity of having to pick up the pace to make it to the zone in time, although I was also often running late for one reason or another. It felt great to make it either on time or with a few to spare when under time pressure.

I soon found it second nature clutching my phone in one hand whilst riding to sign in and out of the zone and recheck routes (and also play Pokémon) - we are given a bike frame phone holder but my bike frame is not one width so it easily slides around. I made do with pockets and the currently very fashionable bum bag/fanny pack.

I always had one story or another to tell from shift, the highs and lows; £5 to £11 tips from affluent areas, having accidents, a guy assuming his delivery person would also be a guy and awkwardly pulling his tshirt over his boxers at the door, working out my great distances covered with handy apps. All and sundry were there and I was loving every minute.

Similarly to Nepal last year, I amazed myself just how quicky I managed to deal with the job’ challenges; not quitting elevated hills in my area and keeping up with the busy pace on Friday and Saturday nights. This especially surprised me as I hadn’t properly cycled for years, especially for such a duration. I did, however, undertake my own “training” of sorts during the time between my onboarding and official start day which undoutedly helped. Infact, there are still some climbs in my area which I unfortunately? never got the opportunity to cover on the job which I’m determined to take on in my own time.

Not long before my #rootirement I heard through chatting to a fellow rider [at the Thai place who often take forever to process orders] that I haven't infact always been the only girl on the books; one joined in December when Deliveroo was freshly established in my area. She lasted a week. Unashamed, I smugly felt even more pleased with my 5 months roo-ing.

Deliveroo has upped my fitness, strength, endurance (mental and physical). It has certainly played, I imagine, a major part in enabling me to get into my dream job with wagamama, a company I’ve wanted to work for since being a student. It has meant I have an excuse for snacking on some of my favourite things (fig rolls, Snickers) which I never normally eat. Especially rounding off a hard shift with hot chocolate (it's great for muscle recovery, folks). It's given me a greater understanding of gears etc which I can transfer over when I pick up learning to drive again It's given me a greater appreciation for cyclists, both amateur and pro as well as sportsmen/sportswomen in general My knowledge on cycling and kit has gradually been building - I even use a stand-in 'chamois cream' before every shift now and now know going commando with padded shorts is a thing I love having an arsenal of crazy/funny/bizarre stories to tell I actually relish telling (ahem the right kind of person) what I do It got me using the sh!t out of my bike; otherwise it would have perpetually and very sadly languished in my garage as it did in first few years of me owning it Knowing the gender divide in cycling, let alone sports, I felt proud as a female rider and aimed to smash that kind of job' stereotype.

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Yes, there is a lack of security. Yes, you don’t earn very large sums especially with declining tips. However, I’m going to close on a comment made by my boyfriend' equally sweet "Mom" whom said doing Deliveroo is a happy job. I don't think she's too far wrong there.

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Fun videos from YouTubers I’d like to spotlight:

Craig regularly does videos on the politics and various aspects of the job as well as interesting POV stuff

Adam is obviously a keen cyclist pre-Rooing and does some cool shift videos

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