#profit structure

[awaywithworms]

Over 50,000 Pages of Documents Reveal Private Security Methods Against Standing Rock Protesters

Over 50,000 pages of internal documents reveal methods of surveillance used at Standing Rock, coordination with the National Sheriff’s Association, and profit model of Tigerswan itself.

[bengaly]

Experimenting with different visual cues to show that a character is not quite fluent in a language yet. Commentary and extras below the cut. (the other language is kalaallisut, a real language spoken in greenland, albeit machine translated and probs not 100% accurate)

1. Blurred bits

I feel like this one isn't very visually pleasing, but it speaks to me more regarding how learning a language feels. You don't quite make out what the words are, and slowly pick up bits from what is being said. This also adds room for uncertainty on the character's POV, the speech bubble wouldn't be theirs, but what you read off it would be their thoughts regarding whats being said. The blur also helps keeping things incomprehensible even if you speak the other language being spoken.

2. Bits in multiple languages

This one adds room for out of the speech bubble commentary. It doesn't make misunderstandings as easy as with the blurred speech, and with an agglutinative language like kalaallisut it might end up being confusing to organise or break the sentence's syntax. It looks cleaner than the blurred bits though, and it still makes the other language incomprehensible (if you dont speak kalaallisut, that is). Colour coding would help indicate whats being understood by the main character and what isnt, and the texts would slowly be fully red across the chapters.

3. Faded colour to indicate not understanding

This makes the reader able to understand everything, and relies on the reader memorising that faded = not understood by the character. Other than that, colour coding would indicate a change of languages.

I like the reader only understanding what the character can understand and I like the types that leave kalaallisut still visible. Though option 3 might be cleaner and easier to manange.

4. Faded colour + blur

This is something I thought after posting it earlier on patreon. Blurring the parts the main character wouldn't understand can be a way for the brain to quickly skip through the missed text, in hopes that at least the first reading will match what the character is understanding.

Also, for the enjoyment of my 4 greenlandic followers, heres the machine translated kalaallisut version I used for 1 & 2. I had to use a double way translation tool and an annotation tool to be sure the words were somewhat related to what I wanted them to be. I can't really fact check it though, so I hope that whichever way the translator messed up is at least worth a chuckle.

If you'd like to see more of this kinda stuff, please consider supporting me on patreon

[guiltyidealist]

It should be a criminal offense if an insurance company is responsible for a delay in a policyholder's necessary health care.

Withholding prescribed treatments, even for just a day, can be anywhere from inconvenient to catastrophic for the victim. Medical providers may not withhold necessary treatment from any patient on any grounds, as it is their duty to provide it-- it should be justly illegal for any "middle man" to interfere with a medical provider's legal and ethical obligation to treat a patient.

Severity of the charge and its legal consequences should depend upon the scope of the offense (length of delay) and its consequences to the victim (impact on the person).

The testimonies of the victim, the pharmacy, and the medical provider who prescribed the treatment should be key considerations for the determination. Additional important testimony should come from the victim's other medical providers, housemates, family, educators/mentors, colleagues/coworkers, or employers.

The charge should become criminal record for the company. The company (perhaps the agent's office) should be fined per day delayed.

Some taxation can be applied; just to pay off the folks who do the filing, advocacy, testimony, processing. A hefty majority of the fine should be compensation owed to the victim.

If delays became a criminal charge on companies' records, then companies would have a strong motive to terminate agents who aren't performing with punctuality. It would become their best financial interest to invest only in timely agents who would, in turn, gain a best interest to invest only in timely subordinates.

I posit that insurance delays would wane significantly, resulting in more timely delivery of treatments to policyholders, and many people's qualities of life would improve drastically for it.

[etchif]

Okay but genuinely. Why is Cats so severely hated on. I get the 2019 movie is largely what brought it back into the public conscience and thus strongly shaped the current generation's view of the show but there has to be more than that, people were hating on it even before the film came out. It almost feels like Cats (or god forbid LIKING Cats) is treated as somewhat of a musical theatre taboo. The One Show no one likes and you're not allowed to like because everyone will look at you funny, even folks who don't normally care much about musical theatre. Come on guys they're just kitty cats

Yadda yadda nice opinion did a youtuber give it to you try forming your own opinions on things without parroting other people's etc etc

[soundshypnotic]

I am delighted to meet another who has used hypnosis for the sake of cheating at Nintendo games. I will typically have a suggestion that when I announce "Crash!" my partner will be compelled to veer off the track.

What methods do you use?

Oh, it's fun to use pleasure triggers I find in these instances. Once the opponent is properly softened up from their own aroused state (not always necessary by any means but a grand thing to playfully rub in their face), it's easy to start just using hypnotic pattern and narrating to them what comes next. A fun one is to make the power ups into different effects, so if they have the power up they have a delicious dilemma if they want to actually use it. If they still need a little correction, it's always great to make them getting hit by items separate effects. I find the randomness to keep the playful tone and mood I want. While I'm not really competitive by nature in games, this is a delightful place to abuse one's power.

[turbo-virgins]

maybe it’s just me, but the corporate environment’s expectation that everyone must be working to move up/get promoted at all times is absolutely exhausting. every performance review you get asked about what you’re doing to grow a new skillset or what role you want to move into next and it feels like there’s this unspoken rule that you’re not allowed to say “actually I’m happy with my current roles and responsibilities, can I just be left alone please?” it’s a constant demand of more more more. if you’re good at one thing, they’ll put five new things on your plate that you have to frantically juggle and then the juggling. never. ends.

[larkthorne]

wow a post vaccine baby is no joke! Haha I'm in danger dot gif.....

[imunbreakabledude]

i am not anti-media-piracy, in fact i support it heartily on the media preservation level, and i have mixed but partially positive feelings about it on the individual choice/saving money level...

but the way some people talk about piracy like it's a heroic thing to do - not in the preservation sense, but in the 'fuck companies!!! if i can get something for free and screw them over, I'm fighting capitalism!' sense - oh some people sound like real goobers with those arguments.

[mending-up-your-fences]

Once again: Brandi Carlile is one of the most influential people in the music industry right now, and if you haven’t realized it, you’re not paying attention.

[twoticky]

it's wild to me that some "leftists" on here can't imagine the possibility of a society that doesn't play on people's most selfish and cruel impulses in order to operate

[doppelnatur]

I'm wondering, thinking about quotas. This is something I've honestly always felt quite conflicted about. I think we need quotas. Desperately. We need support programs to get disadvantaged people into the jobs and positions they want and we honestly desperately need them in but that they but have a way harder time getting into. But I'm just unsure whether a quota is the best way? Especially since they're often so specific and do not address the reasons why and how people end up disadvantaged. The Greens party has a women's quota of 50%. Nice. But do they have a quota for people who, as the statistics say it, have a migratory background? Because in our city that would be 40% and I just don't think they do. What about trans men, inter people who are legally men and legally diverse people or those with no legal gender. Are they included in the women's quota? Do they have to out themselves to get access to benefits compensating their disadvantagement? What about disabled people who not only do not have a quota but who might need accommodations to do their jobs, or can only work part time? Is there are quota for people without college education, or are we still seeing that as a needed qualification instead of an institutional barrier. How is the party working to make politics safer for marginalized people who will experience way more and way more personal media harassment, as well as threats and physical attacks? And how are they communicating this to the people they are trying to reach who feel worried and hesitant!

Isn't a quota just treating one symptom of the problem and then you only get the most privileged people of the particular group that you created the quota for?

There's a quota in medicine for inclusion of disabled people. But people still get told that they can't study medicine cause the uni cannot accommodate them. So do we just have the quota to look good? I know I sound like I'm just saying let's change the system fundamentally and not do the small steps like quotas but that's not what I want. What I want is for individual people to receive whatever help they need to get into whatever job they want. If the uni cannot accommodate one person, move the classes into a building that can, give them more semesters time to finish, organize a driver. I don't care. And don't make them jump through hoops for it. Make it easy. Make it easier for degrees from other countries to count here. If someone who studied medicine/electronics etc 20 years ago here is still qualified to do their job with a few extra trainings, the same should be true for anyone else whose education was according to different standards than our current ones in this country. Idk. I don't have the solution but I'm frustrated u know.

[larkthorne]

wow a post vaccine baby is no joke! Haha I'm in danger dot gif.....

[tankgotstuckinthecircusgate]

Sometimes i wonder why Eddie and Lauretta could find Carlo attractive. Like he's not the most handsome man, he's arrogant and self-centered, with some oddities, occasional paranoia (but given the last scene with him in canon - he can be relatively charismatic?). but i've long been of the opinion that it's all about his energy??? assertiveness? ambitions?? i mean judging by the records about him Carlo really tried to make the most of this life??? Connections with journalists and politicians, the planetarium, charity, he had a company in Ohio, he found new ways to earn money ( was the first to go international in fact 😭)

He also seems to have generally used material patronage as a way to gain loyalty?? I'm saying this because of the Mickey the Crab story, it's written that he used to be in the Vinci family, but moved to Falcone's because Carlo paid more and got him out of the army (+he gave Eddie a brothel in gratitude for his loyalty; +in ch10 Carlo emphasizes that he will pay Vito and Joe well if they successfully take out Clemente)

anyway. just an old thought

Upd. And funny how it's the absolute contrast with Clemente, who uses intimidation and cruelty to his men. Now I'm wondering how Carlo came to this way of connecting with people (=materialistic)

[solitypo]

a note on things that impact my own personal theories on Human Nature:

i was raised fairly isolated. out in the middle of the woods, parents with few or no friends, and none of us really *did* much of anything a lot of the time. at least, not anything that would put us or keep us in touch with the cultural motions around us. for example, watched a very limited amount of TV, and what us kids watched was largely reruns of cartoons that had been running since my parents were kids, like tom and jerry.

this meaning that i had little contact with the things normal people were doing until i got online around age 11, and even then there were plenty of things i missed without even knowing i had missed them. never went to common chain restaurants (or popular non-chain ones in my area), never watched popular movies, didn't go to disneyland or skiing or hawaii or any of those other places people travel in childhood and remember (lower tax bracket than many of my school peers lol), etc etc etc. i wouldn't argue i was sheltered, because my parents had never intended or conspired to keep any of these things away from me, and didn't mind when i occasionally came across them on my own, but they never sought them out on my behalf, because it wasn't particularly important to them. so, not sheltered, just out of touch.

it didn't socially kneecap me to not know about these things, but it made it difficult. common experiences like this are the loose ties people can yoke themselves together with to buy time in the process of building a more enduring closeness, and i had common experiences with almost no one outside my nuclear family. we couldn't talk about shows we both liked or games we played or a restaurant our parents had taken us to or books we had read.

all this time, what i see over and over and over again, is that people love to share these things with me. not just explain it to me, but include me and watch my reaction to having one of their favorite experiences for the first time, especially in adulthood when we all began to have the agency and means to make things happen on our own. when i hadn't read The Hunger Games, a girl i rarely spoke to spent the entire bus ride home telling me about it, watching for my reaction to every story beat (the way humans have been telling each other stories verbally the entire time there have been humans). my then-girlfriend's mother immediately turned into the olive garden parking lot when i said i had never been, even though it had been a long day and she was tired. my friends along the years have bought video games specifically to play them with me, given me copies of their favorite books to read, gone with me to their favorite restaurants, recounted in detail the shows and stories they loved as children. just the other day one of my friends who seems to have seen every movie on the planet was grilling me about more of them i haven't seen and he suddenly comes up with one that he "HAS to show" me.

people often really do love to share, within their capability to do so.

[ilgalantuomo]

All of this said, remember that economic metrics (including price of goods at market) often are bundles (aggregates) of all economics activity that fits certain criteria. So, in other words, a change in one area will affect a portion or sector of the economy. But also, it affects the whole (even if slight). And this is on multiple levels economically, due to multiple companies all trying to operate and dominate over each other in all industries. This is further amplified by tiered types of products (economy, value sized, premium, luxury, quick service vs fine dining, etc.)

Example: food prices have risen generally. Like @weshallbekind said, certain foods increase some don't. Gas and certain new cars have higher prices, some haven't. Of course something like gas, however, is an everyday good, as are many food items. These essential items having increased prices is a component of inflation (as are interest rates, unemployment, speculation booms, currency changes, etc. different rant though). Again, aggregates, so potentially many factors. But aggregates don't reflect capitalism's main goal. Instead these aggregates are used as tools to accomplish said goal.

Keep in mind, however, that this is why capitalism like ours inherently doesn't work. It seeks to minimize costs (see also: not paying for enough workers, vertical integration, flip flopping between self check out and cashiers, moving/outsourcing, and raising prices [despite having massive economies of scale and the ability to negotiate]) for the benefit of profit. Not progress and profit, not progress, not satisfying the customers needs and wants; profit.

What does this mean then? It means profit over everything, while also creating desires in you (via marketing) to buy things you don't really need (mostly) or into which you invest your personality, time, or data. But mostly your money. Now, of course, everyone needs food, shelter, miscellaneous tools and safeguards, etc. Now those things are regulated to some degree, but nonetheless goods sold and marketed to you to profit.

Therefore, anything to make profit and make you buy it regularly could at least be attempted. Pay undocumented citizens pennies on the dollar so you don't have to give them benefits, minimum wage, or rights, check. Purposefully not include the charger and cable needed to use the phone, check. Use surge pricing to maximize profit and stress the existing infrastructure (human or otherwise), check. Overcharge you for literally the same exact product by calling it something fancy and putting their label on it, check.

And sure, of course costs increase. Of course paying people more means higher costs, especially if "times are tough". You know what takes more priority, usually, though? Executive compensation ratios, cash reserves, market dominance, mergers and acquisitions, vertical integration, lobbying, tax benefits.

Once again, let me remind you: metrics are aggregates, statistics, and computations based on demand, supply, input costs, interest rates, taxes, preferences, laws, availability of resources, currency exchange rates, speculation booms, etc. All these metrics and their formulas, however, are used (by corporations) to find their way to massive profits. By using these metrics in manipulating the market and their business practices, they're working to profit; they're striving for greater capital than the next company. Always.

[antics-of-a-spiteful-stickbug]

Bro I have to write and record an argumentative speech, write a literary analysis, get started on a short story with a pre-determined theme, write a reflection of the previously mentioned tasks and what knowledge and experience I got from them, as well as start planning for my oral examination which I apparently have to choose a subject for??? and make a powerpoint for???? Why did they not give me more details about the *final, most important examination in my course*?????

All in FOUR DAYS

The only redeeming qualities of these tasks is that I get to choose the movie I write my argumentative speech about (I'm supposed to argue for why it should be movie of the year, aka just infodump about why it's awesome), and that the only requirement I've been given for the short story is that it has to be about "the unknown" in one way or another

But none of that matters because they didn't tell me anything about needing to write a text for the final oral examination???? Or that I need to have a powerpoint???????? What do you mean "What subject have you chosen for your oral examination?"?????? I WASN'T TOLD THERE WOULD BE WRITING INVOLVED

MY ORAL EXAM FOR THE ENGLISH COURSE REQUIRED NO WRITING OR POWERPOINT PRESENTATION, MAYBE YOU SHOULD BRIEF YOUR STUDENTS ON WHAT THE FINAL ASSIGNMENT WILL EVEN BE BEFORE YOU THROW THEM INTO THE COURSE???

Smh I hate private-owned education-based companies

Like bro maybe put some money into an actually comprehensible website, teachers that don't hate their students, and classrooms that actually have heating instead of buying that new car that just entered the market, just a thought

I am very angry about this entire system, this company is ass and it's no wonder they're closing later this year (something I found out ***after*** applying for and accepting two courses and showing up for the voluntary in-person introduction.)