#tech efficiency

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The cod-Marxism of personalized pricing

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

The social function of the economics profession is to explain, over and over again, that your boss is actually right and that you don't really want the things you want, and you're secretly happy to be abused by the system. If that wasn't true, why would your "choose" commercial surveillance, abusive workplaces and other depredations?

In other words, economics is the "look what you made me do" stick that capitalism uses to beat us with. We wouldn't spy on you, rip you off or steal your wages if you didn't choose to use the internet, shop with monopolists, or work for a shitty giant company. The technical name for this ideology is "public choice theory":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Of all the terrible things that economists say we all secretly love, one of the worst is "price discrimination." This is the idea that different customers get charged different amounts based on the merchant's estimation of their ability to pay. Economists insist that this is "efficient" and makes us all better off. After all, the marginal cost of filling the last empty seat on the plane is negligible, so why not sell that seat for peanuts to a flier who doesn't mind the uncertainty of knowing whether they'll get a seat at all? That way, the airline gets extra profits, and they split those profits with their customers by lowering prices for everyone. What's not to like?

Plenty, as it turns out. With only four giant airlines who've carved up the country so they rarely compete on most routes, why would an airline use their extra profits to lower prices, rather than, say, increasing their dividends and executive bonuses?

For decades, the airline industry was the standard-bearer for price discrimination. It was basically impossible to know how much a plane ticket would cost before booking it. But even so, airlines were stuck with comparatively crude heuristics to adjust their prices, like raising the price of a ticket that didn't include a Saturday stay, on the assumption that this was a business flyer whose employer was footing the bill:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/07/drip-drip-drip/#drip-off

With digitization and mass commercial surveillance, we've gone from pricing based on context (e.g. are you buying your ticket well in advance, or at the last minute?) to pricing based on spying. Digital back-ends allow vendors to ingest massive troves of commercial surveillance data from the unregulated data-broker industry to calculate how desperate you are, and how much money you have. Then, digital front-ends – like websites and apps – allow vendors to adjust prices in realtime based on that data, repricing goods for every buyer.

As digital front-ends move into the real world (say, with digital e-ink shelf-tags in grocery stores), vendors can use surveillance data to reprice goods for ever-larger groups of customers and types of merchandise. Grocers with e-ink shelf tags reprice their goods thousands of times, every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/26/glitchbread/#electronic-shelf-tags

Here's where an economist will tell you that actually, your boss is right. Many groceries are perishable, after all, and e-ink shelf tags allow grocers to reprice their goods every minute or two, so yesterday's lettuce can be discounted every fifteen minutes through the day. Some customers will happily accept a lettuce that's a little gross and liztruss if it means a discount. Those customers get a discount, the lettuce isn't thrown out at the end of the day, and everyone wins, right?

Well, sure, if. If the grocer isn't part of a heavily consolidated industry where competition is a distant memory and where grocers routinely collude to fix prices. If the grocer doesn't have to worry about competitors, why would they use e-ink tags to lower prices, rather than to gouge on prices when demand surges, or based on time of day (e.g. making frozen pizzas 10% more expensive from 6-8PM)?

And unfortunately, groceries are one of the most consolidated sectors in the modern world. What's more, grocers keep getting busted for colluding to fix prices and rip off shoppers:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-bread-price-settlement-1.7274820

Surveillance pricing is especially pernicious when it comes to apps, which allow vendors to reprice goods based not just on commercially available data, but also on data collected by your pocket distraction rectangle, which you carry everywhere, do everything with, and make privy to all your secrets. Worse, since apps are a closed platform, app makers can invoke IP law to criminalize anyone who reverse-engineers them to figure out how they're ripping you off. Removing the encryption from an app is a potential felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500k fine (an app is just a web-page skinned in enough IP to make it a crime to install a privacy blocker on it):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/15/private-law/#thirty-percent-vig

Large vendors love to sell you shit via their apps. With an app, a merchant can undetectably change its prices every few seconds, based on its estimation of your desperation. Uber pioneered this when they tweaked the app to raise the price of a taxi journey for customers whose batteries were almost dead. Today, everyone's getting in on the act. McDonald's has invested in a company called Plexure that pitches merchants on the use case of raising the cost of your normal breakfast burrito by a dollar on the day you get paid:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

Surveillance pricing isn't just a matter of ripping off customers, it's also a way to rip off workers. Gig work platforms use surveillance pricing to titrate their wage offers based on data they buy from data brokers and scoop up with their apps. Veena Dubal calls this "algorithmic wage discrimination":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Take nurses: increasingly, American hospitals are firing their waged nurses and replacing them with gig nurses who are booked in via an app. There's plenty of ways that these apps abuse nurses, but the most ghastly is in how they price nurses' wages. These apps buy nurses' financial data from data-brokers so they can offer lower wages to nurses with lots of credit card debt, on the grounds that crushing debt makes nurses desperate enough to accept a lower wage:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/18/loose-flapping-ends/#luigi-has-a-point

This week, the excellent Lately podcast has an episode on price discrimination, in which cohost Vass Bednar valiantly tries to give economists their due by presenting the strongest possible case for charging different prices to different customers:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-the-end-of-the-fixed-price/

Bednar really tries, but – as she later agrees – this just isn't a very good argument. In fact, the only way charging different prices to different customers – or offering different wages to different workers – makes sense is if you're living in a socialist utopia.

After all, a core tenet of Marxism is "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." In a just society, people who need more get more, and people who have less, pay less:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_needs

Price discrimination, then, is a Bizarro-world flavor of cod-Marxism. Rather than having a democratically accountable state that sets wages and prices based on need and ability, price discrimination gives this authority to large firms with pricing power, no regulatory constraints, and unlimited access to surveillance data. You couldn't ask for a neater example of the maxim that "What matters isn't what technology does. What matters is who it does it for; and who it does it to."

Neoclassical economists say that all of this can be taken care of by the self-correcting nature of markets. Just give consumers and workers "perfect information" about all the offers being made for their labor or their business, and things will sort themselves out. In the idealized models of perfectly spherical cows of uniform density moving about on a frictionless surface, this does work out very well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/03/all-models-are-wrong/#some-are-useful

But while large companies can buy the most intimate information imaginable about your life and finances, IP law lets them capture the state and use it to shut down any attempts you make to discover how they operate. When an app called Para offered Doordash workers the ability to preview the total wage offered for a job before they accepted it, Doordash threatened them with eye-watering legal penalties, then threw dozens of full-time engineers at them, changing the app several times per day to shut out Para:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#boss-app

And when an Austrian hacker called Mario Zechner built a tool to scrape online grocery store prices – discovering clear evidence of price-fixing conspiracies in the process – he was attacked by the grocery cartel for violating their "IP rights":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

This is Wilhoit's Law in action:

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_M._Wilhoit#Wilhoit's_law

Of course, there wouldn't be any surveillance pricing without surveillance. When it comes to consumer privacy, America is a no-man's land. The last time Congress passed a new consumer privacy law was in 1988, when they enacted the Video Privacy Protection Act, which bans video-store clerks from revealing which VHS cassettes you take home. Congress has not addressed a single consumer privacy threat since Die Hard was still playing in theaters.

Corporate bullies adore a regulatory vacuum. The sleazy data-broker industry that has festered and thrived in the absence of a modern federal consumer privacy law is absolutely shameless. For example, every time an app shows you an ad, your location is revealed to dozens of data-brokers who pretend to be bidding for the right to show you an ad. They store these location data-points and combine them with other data about you, which they sell to anyone with a credit card, including stalkers, corporate spies, foreign governments, and anyone hoping to reprice their offerings on the basis of your desperation:

https://www.404media.co/candy-crush-tinder-myfitnesspal-see-the-thousands-of-apps-hijacked-to-spy-on-your-location/

Under Biden, the outgoing FTC did incredible work to fill this gap, using its authority under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (which outlaws "unfair and deceptive" practices) to plug some of the worst gaps in consumer privacy law:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy

And Biden's CFPB promulgated a rule that basically bans data brokers:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

But now the burden of enforcing these rules falls to Trump's FTC, whose new chairman has vowed to end the former FTC's "war on business." What America desperately needs is a new privacy law, one that has a private right of action (so that individuals and activist groups can sue without waiting for a public enforcer to take up their causes) and no "pre-emption" (so that states can pass even stronger privacy laws):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/federal-preemption-state-privacy-law-hurts-everyone

How will we get that law? Through a coalition. After all, surveillance pricing is just one of the many horrors that Americans have to put up with thanks to America's privacy law gap. The "privacy first" theory goes like this: if you're worried about social media's impact on teens, or women, or old people, you should start by demanding a privacy law. If you're worried about deepfake porn, you should start by demanding a privacy law. If you're worried about algorithmic discrimination in hiring, lending, or housing, you should start by demanding a privacy law. If you're worried about surveillance pricing, you should start by demanding a privacy law. Privacy law won't entirely solve all these problems, but none of them would be nearly as bad if Congress would just get off its ass and catch up with the privacy threats of the 21st century. What's more, the coalition of everyone who's worried about all the harms that arise from commercial surveillance is so large and powerful that we can get Congress to act:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

Economists, meanwhile, will line up to say that this is all unnecessary. After all, you "sold" your privacy when you clicked "I agree" or walked under a sign warning you that facial recognition was in use in this store. The market has figured out what you value privacy at, and it turns out, that value is nothing. Any kind of privacy law is just a paternalistic incursion on your "freedom to contract" and decide to sell your personal information. It is "market distorting."

In other words, your boss is right.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/11/socialism-for-the-wealthy/#rugged-individualism-for-the-poor

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

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

--

Ser Amantio di Nicolao (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Safeway_supermarket_interior,_Fairfax_County,_Virginia.jpg

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

[cubbihue]

So.... why'd Peri get assigned Dev as his first godchild?

Jorgen’s usually not the one in charge of assigning godchildren. There’s an entire department that weighs and classifies potentail Godkids to the right Fairy. Although it’s on strike at the moment.

So Jorgen has to do it by hand, until the union negotiations are resolved. Turns out trying to use paperclips is very hard. Itty bitty paperclips. Big muscular biceps. Not a good combo.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

Peri's Assignment: [Previous] > [Next]

[itz-pandora]

Thinking about Shadow and Metadow and Metamyadow

[wahroh]

Technological fact.

[frostycatblr-fandom-files]

Tech ❤️

"Hello, my name is ____ and I'm a proud member of the 'I Miss "Brown Eyes" Club'."

Art taglist: @the-hexfiles @your-slutty-gf @msmeredithrose @lonely-day3636 @dukeoftheblackstar

[Clone Helmet Collection III]

[deva-arts]

Has Vincent ever truly broken down and admitted to having real feelings? Every facade's gotta crack at some point.

Vincent likes to pretend he's uncaring and unempathetic (especially regarding Sera,) but he's surprisingly protective of others, regardless of who they are.

...

...In his own way, of course.

Teehee so I wrote something about this um I never post any written oc stuff so enjoy

Sunlight wafts through the curtains where the couple lay peacefully atop the bed. Nathaniel was finally home from a long shift at the medbay, and Seraphina had decided to take a break from tuning her weapons to stay with him for the day. Birdsong filled the room, and they savored the soft, sleepy embrace they were in; life pried them apart far too much to be wasteful with quiet moments.

Nathaniel pulls her a bit closer, then freezes, mental gears whirring. Seraphina noted the pause right away.

She pries her eyes open to squint at him. “What’s wrong.”

He still has the face on- the face that says he is trying to understand something absurd yet concerning. “I-…” As if trying to prove himself wrong, he feels for her ribs again over her shirt, following the curve as his hands enveloped her torso. Oddly enough, he even motioned to count each one, only to halt in yet another worried pause, lips pressed into a thin line.

Seraphina quietly observed him, raising an eyebrow. “…Hugs exist, Nathaniel. No need to reinvent the wheel with whatever this is."

Nathaniel stops, nonplussed, then he breaks into laughter, forgetting his previous alarm. Success. "Hah... Ahah.. No, it isn’t that…” His face falls back into a placid smile, and he pulls his hands away to sit up beside her.

Blast it all.

“It’s just that… Something is-“ He makes a vague motion with his hands. “-Different with your bone structure, but I wouldn’t be able to tell just what without proper scans.”

She blinked, sitting up to meet his expression. Were they really going to talk about this now? “Ah. Well that was kind of obvious, wasn’t it? I wouldn’t be able to function if I were a normal human with wings slapped on me.” …Was that wrong? Did he have some odd hope dashed regarding her skeleton of all things? Was he weirdly fascinated about skeletons???

He gave her a concerned, humorless grin. “I know that… But… Ser…”

Seriously? He was weirdly fascinated about skeletons?

Seraphina was unimpressed. “I fail to see how this is important at the moment, Nathaniel.” And right when they got some quality time...

Nathaniel didn’t respond. He looked away, his expression unreadable while he softly wrung his hands in thought. …She never liked when he got quiet like this. It always tugged her heart wrong.

Well, whatever it was, it was certainly worrying him to this point. Might as well hear him out. Sera gave his shoulder a light squeeze in an effort to be consolatory. This usually helped, right?

“… I was being... Harsh. What’s wrong, Liebe?”

Nathaniel hugs an arm around her shoulders, keeping her close by. So it’s a hug that works in this situation. Duly noted. She hugs him back, sweeping a wing over his shoulders.

He hums. “I…I don’t think I could practice on you and your brother with the same confidence as before.” He pauses. “All this time, I’ve been working under the assumption that you were just atypicals... But… No common atypicals have genetic variations that run that deep. They usually follow similar ‘rules’, so to speak.”

He drops his gaze to look at her. “I don't know how I've missed this, but I found something entirely different with a cursory check. Which means that I was operating on you with no clue about your bodily composition. All this time.” …Oh. Nathaniel remains ever pensive, even a little guilty.

…That...

"It also means that you've got a more heavily manipulated variation. At least enough to alter things to this point while still retaining humanoid anatomy." 

“…I see.” She says, hugging him a little tighter. His face softened a bit, which Seraphina took as a win as she considered his words. This was certainly a cause for concern... But… She also knew Nathaniel had a tendency to bear his responsibilities on himself rather harshly. He was probably beating himself up about it even now.

"You couldn't have known, Nathaniel." She says, trying to keep her tone easy.

He exhales. "That's the point."

Sera rests her cheek against his shoulder. “…Well. Even then. We’re alive, aren’t we?” Something told her this wasn’t the best way to lift his spirits. And she was right- he frowned in record time.

“You’re alive, until the next time you two inevitably get yourselves hurt, that is.” Nathaniel muttered. “What would I do then? Improvise if I encountered a new organ? use my imagination?”

“I doubt it’s to the point that I have new-“

“You doubt, but you don’t know.” He looks at her again. "And I don’t either.”

Her face sours at that. Yet another odious thing prying them away from some rest. First it was Sonia's armor, then Amon's training, then the time they all got the flu...

“��Can we please take a few scans in my office?” Nathaniel asks, ever gentle.

"...You won't let up about this, will you?" She digs her fingers into his shirt in an attempt to coax him to stay and relax. He tragically doesn't cede to the gesture.

"It's kind of important, Ser. We can cuddle later."

Seraphina huffed and kicked away the covers, vaulting off the bed. “Never a dull moment…”

Nathaniel merrily followed suit. “Let's be honest, who’d want a dull life, anyhow?”

---

“You aren’t doing shit to her.” Vincent sneered.

Nathaniel sipped some of his tea. Wow. So much for asking him for reference. He decided to waste his breath a little more. “For the nth time Vincent, I’m trying to see how her anatomy works, and that info would be really useful so I-“

Vincent loudly interrupted him. “So you can what, you lanky fuck? see how different you are? Find excuses to— to break her down? Gut her like a fish?”

Sera walked into the room in some light sportswear. "Vincent, what are you talking about-“

“NO.” He snaps at her, then turns back to Nathaniel. "Fuck you, Sasquatch. You. Aren’t. Doing. Shit. To. Her. I’ll make sure of that. I'll kill you. I swear I will.” Nathaniel kept watching on as he continued the insults. Hum. Sasquatch was a pretty genius remark in hindsight.

Seraphina rolls her eyes. “While I appreciate your sudden and unneeded sense of protection, I’ll remind you that Nathaniel is my partner.” She said. “I don’t need your approval. Stop harassing him.”

Vincent rolled his eyes. “You don’t know— You don’t know this. You say it’s okay but then they—” Seraphina interrupts him."There is no they, Vincent. There’s only one person here that will be doing this, and you’ve known Nathaniel for years-“

“I knew them for my whole life.” Vincent balled his fists until his knuckles popped. “My whole life. They only got worse, their ‘questions' became worse, and they never stopped, even though they knew me. There was always a reason to… To…!” He looks down, making a strangling gesture with his snarled hands, eyes filled with emotions she's never seen him express. He snaps his sights back to Nathaniel, ever hateful. "To RUIN ME."

“So don’t blame me for seeing this as another obvious excuse. That’s what they all say- that— that they need answers, and then they wreck you.” Vincent’s usual rasp of a voice almost seemed shaky for a moment. 

Nathaniel sets his mug down. "I'm not doing any of those things, Vincent."

"YET."

This was new. It was odd to see any sort of empathy displayed by Vincent, especially towards her of all people. Sera didn’t know what to say. Where were his complaints about her? the out of pocket comments? the impromptu call to something she’s inferior for?

…Why did it almost seem like he cared?

---

“It should’ve been you." He says between bloodied coughs as she pulled off the last wire relays. He had no more energy to keep fighting, nor stimulants to keep him moving. He sucks in another ragged breath to speak, eyes brimming with pure hatred. "All this time… You got to have everything. Everything, when you should’ve been hacked apart with me. You should've been in hell with me. I wish you were. Then they would have realized you’re nothing special, 02. Nothing worth missing. You’ve always just been a cheap replacement.” 

---

...Right.

Seraphina scowled. There was no way in hell that this cockroach was going to act chummy with her of all things. That bridge was burned the day they met.

“Look, you—“ Sera started to respond, but was met with Nathaniel’s “cut it out” face. Bother. She crossed her arms and let him handle the rhetoric.

“Alright Vincent, are you really convinced that I’ll hurt your sister somehow?” Nathaniel asked, crossing his arms with an odd, almost knowing glint in his eyes. So he did have a plan... But what was it?

“…There’s always an opportunity. ” He said lowly. If looks could kill...

“Fine, how about you stay in the room, then? You’d be able to see firsthand that it’s nothing to worry about.” Nathaniel gave him a bright smile. It was almost enough to make her forget what he just offered. Seraphina glared at him. “What.”

Vincent eyed him, judging him under criteria she couldn’t guess if she tried. “Alright, Sasquatch.”

WHAT.

"If you do something funny I’m destroying your clinic. Then you.”

Nathaniel didn’t hesitate to reply. “Sounds good.”

Sera gripped her crossed arms while Vincent took a seat on the opposite side of the room. Nathaniel grinned at her, shooting her a goofy two-eyed wink.

“Relax, Ser. It’s only some scans, your privacy won’t be violated if he’s there. I'm also making sure my clinic doesn’t get destroyed.” She hated how casual he sounded about this.

“I’m starting to hate your improvisations.” She grumbled.

“You forget that he lives with us.”

—

Vincent was… Nonplussed, after everything was wrapped up. It was like being shocked— no, wrong word— surprised, but in a good way- he didn’t have the term for that feeling yet.

His idiot knockoff was perfectly fine. Sober. Painless. Not even the slightest bit uncomfortable. Possibly a little awkward since he was there, but he had to be there, otherwise-

…

Otherwise…

…Really, what would that beanpole have done?

Vincent really didn’t know what he was so upset about. He did know Nathaniel for a long while, but... He also didn’t know what separated their coats from his. He wouldn’t risk it either way. Ever since the first day he looked into Sasquatch’s eyes, he knew there was something fucked up underneath.

...It didn't sit right with him.

Hell, he didn’t even have a word for a check this boring. Nice words? Gentle handling? No shoving into scanner machines? no electrocution? No VAST tech? Not even the slightest threat or restraint? As Nathaniel promised, she was okay and unmoved as ever, staring at him with the sort of look that said “I told you so.” What she would never know is that he had no grounds to believe him before this. He’s never seen tests like these before.

It was eventually finished in around three hours time. Nathaniel had made a catalogue of important scans, cross-referencing whatever he found with some basic physical inspection that culminated in checking her range of motion, doing a modest external examination, and being overall professional. Vincent thought that being professional meant being extra good at heartlessness, like knowing how to keep working for hours to the tune of agonized screams. Or making deep, precise cuts to a writhing, tabled subject.

...

His chest aches.

...No. Everything does.

Vincent was certain that Nate was going to pull out earplugs at some point and was ready to wring his neck like a towel.

...

But he didn't.

He didn't do any of those things.

It was there that Vincent realized another thing. If this was all Sasquatch needed to piece together what was going on inside of her, then why did they do so many procedures to him under the pretense of doing the same? He expected force, vivisection, grueling trials, and humiliation. He expected to see suffering, gritted teeth, and uncaring faces. But none of that was supposed to happen. Only a light exam with happy words, full consent, and a sunlit room.

Vincent felt something overwhelming for a moment- the sort of emotion he would’ve immediately attributed to harrowing jealousy. Envy so destructive, so fierce that it eats him from within. But no, now he finally found the word for it. The word he never understood how to convey, since he felt it all the time and no one would listen.

Vincent felt hurt; unbelievably so.

Was he just dealt a shit hand at every turn in life? Why couldn’t he have nice things? Why was everything so fucked for him from day one?

Why could no one care?

He realized at that moment, that everything he was forced to learn was a mere casualty.

And now... He is left with... Nothing.

—

Seraphina stepped out of the scanner’s range and walked up to him. “See, Vincent? There was nothing you needed to break into histrionics about. I’m fi-“ “Shut up.” He cut her off and shoved a data-port into Nathaniel’s hand. “You’ll find a better use for this.”

Nathaniel briefly looked it over. “What is-“

“You two proved me wrong. Good. I’m out, now.”

Before Nathaniel could even call for him, Vincent was already out of the circular window and speeding between the clouds. A trail of mist was left in his wake until his silhouette was too far to be seen.

Seraphina took the port from Nathan’s hands and observed; on it was a familiar logo- Venus Inc.

The organization that had apparently made them both. Whose existence Vincent loathed acknowledging, even in passing. The ones that nearly got ahold of her too, had she not been taken into hero work.

“Nathaniel.”

Nathan looked back at her, still looking out the window. “Yes?”

“Your insistence on him being there… You knew there was substance to his fear, didn’t you?”

“…More than you would think.” There was something grim about the look in his eyes. She already knew it meant nothing good.

Sera held his gaze for a moment, then pocketed the port herself. She would have to look into this later. But for now…

She rubbed Nathaniel’s back a little, offering a small smile. “Tell me what you learned from these scans of yours.”

The wave of darkness lightened up a little, and he smiled back. “Well… It’s… I can’t say I know everything yet, but for one your arterial mapping is entirely different.”

Oh.

Oh no. She legitimately could not care less.

He was bursting at the seams to speak about it though. His eyes were twinkling about the wondrous joys of… Anatomical function…?

…Perhaps it would benefit from a tactical perspective…

“Arteries? Do tell.”

"See, when we were still getting to know each other, I patched you up under the assumption that you were an atypical or something of that nature-“ He starts, activating the hologram projector in the ceiling.

“Yes, you’ve said that.” She says, eyeing some of the scan results that come out.

...Hm. Maybe it was a little interesting.

Nathaniel smiles at something, and starts to gesture towards some of the stills. “But in truth-"

[ivygorgon]

An open letter to the U.S. Congress

Stop Elon Musk from stealing our personal information!

6,399 so far! Help us get to 10,000 signers!

I am writing to urge you to stop Elon Musk from stealing our personal information.

It appears Musk has hacked into millions of Americans’ personal information and now has access to their taxes, Social Security, student debt and financial aid filings. Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency was not created by Congress—it is operating with zero transparency and in clear violation of federal law.

This violation of our privacy is causing American families across the country to fear for our privacy, safety and dignity. If this goes unchecked, Musk could steal our private data to help in making cuts to vital government programs that our families depend on—and to make it easier to cut taxes for himself and other billionaires.

We must have guardrails to stop this unlawful invasion of privacy.

Congress and the Trump administration must stop Elon Musk from stealing Americans' tax and other private data.

▶ Created on February 10 by Jess Craven · 6,398 signers in the past 7 days

📱 Text SIGN PUTWGR to 50409

🤯 Text FOLLOW JESSCRAVEN101 to 50409

[connormccafferyhater]

guys what do we think abt georgia to the sky 😜

[shannonsketches]

This interview confirmed

The point of the wilds era games is showcasing mechanics, the 'core' of both games was to build and walk around

There will be no DLC

There will not be another direct sequel

The ultrahand will not continue in future games

The timeline is intentionally unclear to make the game accessible for new fans and the development process (tl;dr All Zelda games are intentionally AUs to a degree)

The producer and director both deny intentional references to prior games in the story, but then say that these similarities represent the soul of the series and the overall myth of The Legend of Zelda (pick a lane)?

The timeline doesn't matter, outside of specific sets of games it's irrelevant on purpose. Whatever you think about the timeline is correct. Continuity is not the point. Maintaining the form while creating something new is the point.

Fujibayashi really only cares about mechanics and Aunoma is totally cool with that

[laney-rockin]

GUYS HEAR ME OUT:

SPIRK SECRET AGENT AU.

Kirk is an agent for the Federation/Starfleet and he's suave, he's confident and he's the most efficient agent they've had in the past fifty years.

Then he has to work with Spock, a Vulcan intelligence officer known for his logic and his willingness to go off script that is nearly unbefitting for a Vulcan.

The two of them are chasing a organization that's hellbent on destroying everything the federation is and the two of them chase the group through space and time while falling in love.

I think it's a banger idea ngl.

[thepinkofgoth]

I started watching Double Down (Niel Breen) and had to stop 10 minutes in because I was losing my shit he's literally a metal gear solid character and not even a good one

[iamthepulta]

Making my own post because now capitalism is just revolving in my brain and I want to respond, but I've intruded more than enough. ^^"

I do think capitalism can be solved, and history actually gives me hope because it shows the fundamental need of society. Humans aren't inherently greedy or cruel. The greed and the cruelty are symptoms of a long-standing human need to make things better than they were before: to live comfortably, and without fear.

Capitalism is merely the current expression of this need that we live in.

Solving the need is absolutely possible by establishing a baseline standard of living and resource allotment. And that's comparable to an amount of 'work' that we deem acceptable in our daily lives. Because if you think about it, making coffee every morning with a Keurig gets you a similar product to making coffee every morning with a hand grinder and cold press: one just takes more resources and time than the other.

However, this needs to be flexible because humans are individuals with different needs, and the premise is also questionable because who's setting this baseline anyway?

I personally think it has more to do with government setting a cap on resource imports. (I think it should be stronger than tariffs, personally. Just a hard cap for the year.)

You can't really control demand. That's what most socialists do, and it always fails because humans fundamentally want to make their lives easier. But you can control resource management. If the government says we can only import 20 tons of cotton this year, and we produce 80 tons of cotton, so companies get 100 tons of cotton to do whatever with, and that's it. If we want more cotton, we have to axe some other import.

It 1) makes management visual. 2) gives citizens a personal reason to be invested in their government. 3) will not allocate resources fairly, but will show the true value of a product for the region it's in and prioritize local resources [i.e. if your country does not produce garnets, garnets will be more expensive than gold]. 4) increases jobs since there's far less incentive to outsource work, overall decreasing inequality. 5) encourages a circular economy.

In which case, I suppose I'm for some form of socialist autarky and I think that would solve a decent number of capitalist problems. Companies could no longer overrun workers and there's individual choice behind jobs, work, and some form of style of living.

It IS bad in like- fifty million other ways though. You can't just go from a country used to living in a capitalist society to imposing tariffs and screaming about autarky. Natural resources WILL be destroyed on your own soil and the biggest nation will have the highest quality of living. Imports have to be on a factor of population growth and this might only be possible with nations for a declining population rate. If at all. You also have to add a judicial angle for the people who will inevitably try to take over that system. And, most of all, you have to commit to not going to fucking war over state expansion for resources. Looking at you, Russia.

So I suppose we COULD solve capitalism, at the expense of a whole lot of other problems that are equally meh-to-bad.

Governments are fundamentally resource management machines though, and it's really stupid to pretend they aren't. With resource management, comes capping the fuck out of companies (specialists) that abuse the system (monopolies/oligarchies). When a government doesn't do that (whatever the method), it's failed its purpose as a government and also needs to be put down (revolution).

[selfiesforalgernon]

So humiliating, I was gonna play UFO 50 all night, while optimizing a route for Night Manor, I got a deathless run and took notes, then spent... THE REST OF THE NIGHT writing this route which I then posted on the subreddit 😓 so I might as well post it here too lol UFO 50 is so amazing even fucking TALKING about it can eat up your time like nothing, now it's almost 2 AM

Beware spoilers for Night Manor, the horror game in UFO 50:

Night Manor route optimization (for fun)

What a good game first of all, so IMO Night Manor is a very easy cherry and they should've made the cherry a deathless run.. that being said after I cherried it I noticed a lot of bait in the game vs what you need to at least kill the guy (after killing him make all the noise you want, play the piano, listen to the jukebox, flush the toilets and watch tv the world is yours) here's some things I found when I rebooted and messed around till I got a deathless run, for any who maybe want to go deathless but have trouble (infodump incoming):

Aside from the initial trigger in the kitchen (you have to do this, you can't sneak past and you can only do some of bed and bathroom before this) I counted 3 mandatory noise triggers you need to do to get to the point where you can erase him, unfortunately he may still find you, idk if it's just rng or there's something that says "get the player after x minutes" with some good luck and quick play you only need to worry about the noise triggers

These are: crowbar on cabinet to get egg, music box to get 3d glasses (highly important don't forget this little item it gives you directions for the maze), and crowbar on mirror in second bathroom (very tense area, very quick solution if you know what you're doing)

Avoid clock, piano, jukebox, all tvs and toilets, anything that could creak just to be safe, garage door and car, in fact outside of the items you get there, garage is all bait, 2 noise triggers and for what? A bad ending that's unrelated to the rest of the game

Now a tip on the baddie himself, I recommend you hide at least twice, more if you get bad rng and he won't leave you alone, but I found out if you attack him with a weapon like knife or basic hook, then immediately leave the area, he immediately de-aggros, you get a message and can go right back to the room you were in and he's gone, this works at least twice but if you keep doing this eventually he swats it away and instakills you (that's why you should throw in a hide or two at the beginning the earlier the better so you can reset if you get unlucky) in the cramped bathroom this is very useful, and to give you a better chance because of needing the right inventory item you can run to another room first, get the right inventory screen for say, knife, wait for him to pop up, stab, then run. Also try to make sure you don't run into a room with a hiding spot as this will trigger the hiding instead of an instant de-aggro.

Now, your goal is going to be loaded crossbow% lol meaning you need crossbow, bolt, and because bolt is in the hedgemaze sadly, all 4 gems and directions (idk if you can manually go through the maze if you know the way, I find it easier and faster to just tank the music box aggro for the glasses) I recommend (if you won't get confused and forget to go back and comb through rooms) leaving all items alone that don't help with these conditions, it helps with inventory management, keeping an eye on your knife at all times for a quick stick and run (e.g shovel just gets car keys, leave it) you still need shed it's very useful, the first time you go to garage too it's also useful grab all items (duct tape, oil can, gas can, crowbar, flashlight) (if you don't know where batteries are it's bedroom near entrance, I was thorough writing this but in general it assumes you've played before)

Ruby is basically free, gas and matches in fireplace gas is in garage matches right on mantle

Emerald also pretty free but you need shed so hook (room near start) duct tape (garage) and pool cue (upstairs lounge room with beaten looking door) to grab corpse in pool, that gives copper key which unlocks shed, I BELIEVE sack in shed gives bronze key which you need for crossbow in attic, iirc hacksaw is greenhouse box so grab shears and chop up the greenhouse box (I could be mixing up bronze key and hacksaw but either way you should have both), stab sack in shed with knife, grab shears and if you were bold enough to already smash the cabinet in dining room with the crowbar for egg (one noise trigger done), the vice is there to crack it, popping it shouldn't be a noise trigger I checked, and that gives gold key which is massive, it unlocks master bedroom from the lounge room where you found pool cue, you need it for 2 gems so yes at some point, you are gonna have to smash and grab in the dining room with the crowbar, you can do this very early on so you might as well try to hide this one out.. FINALLY hacksaw gets the ring off the mummy hand in bathroom which is used outside of house on fountain statue to give emerald

Topaz and diamond are where you're ringing the dinner bell left and right, topaz is in body bag so that's hacksaw and balcony, which is accessed through master bedroom, unlocked by gold key from egg, see? Still easier than diamond

Diamond is in safe behind painting in master bedroom HOWEVER you need safe code, which is in the secret-looking bathroom connected to the master bedroom, a door goes from bedroom to office, a gold book on bookshelf in office opens the way to the bathroom from there.. Now a couple words here, it's cramped and frankly pretty tense, this is the pivotal moment of a deathless run, if you hid a couple times first and haven't stabbed him too much, before anything, hit the bottom arrow to unlock the bathroom door to the hallway, then what I like to do is smash the window, he spawns, don't try to read code just gtfo, then you have a brief moment in the next room, make sure knife is on your inventory screen, he'll pop up again, don't miss lol grab it and stab him then run again, to any room.. if he didn't bat it away you should be in the clear, you can go back to bathroom and read the code then enter it in master bedroom on the safe behind painting for diamond

Now directions, I usually do this pretty early but playroom I think has doll in rightmost corner, stab with knife, gives music box key, go to kid's room, use on music box, get ready for him to pop up, either stab or hide, do the opposite of whatever you did for the egg cabinet just so you're not spamming him with attacks lol, remember it's very easy to stab if you run to another room first to buy time to find your knife, then wait then stab then run again to clear him.. either way music box gives glasses, use on scribbles on wall (one of the kid's rooms I always mix them up)

If you still haven't grabbed crossbow go to attic (upstairs to the right, looks like stairs) use bronze key on chest for crossbow (it should be in sack in shed you cut it open with knife let me know if I mixed that up)

So, with gems, directions and crossbow, get your ass to the lion statues outside, order is obvious but left to right: emerald, ruby, topaz, diamond, enter gate, use directions in hedge maze, takes you to the statue with crossbow bolt, grab and load into crossbow, keep it on your inventory screen, ring the dinner bell (use a tv, toilet, etc hell you can even play the jukebox for him) he shows up, pop him with the crossbow, personally that's when I went and grabbed coins from couch and played the song, sit back relax, play out the rest of the game, content in the fact that the rest of it is free, just splash that ugly lil bro in the basement with fungicide whenever you're ready to finish the run

*A fun fact, though I recommend hiding early, you can totally grab the hook before triggering the guy, and use the hook to stab him then run outside, that's how I learned about the insta-clear

(Now for self-deprecation, I know I'm not the first or only one who figured this route out, I just haven't seen any posts on it, and this is what I really love doing with these types of games, so let the kid have it ok? How'd I do?)

[onlinemarketingcash4ublogspotcom]

"The Rise of Virtual Influencers, Gary Vaynerchuk's Take"

In this thought-provoking episode, we explore the future of influencer marketing and the rise of AI influencers. Our discussion delves into how AI is set to revolutionize the industry, rendering traditional human influencers obsolete. Discover how businesses and individuals must adapt to this impending transformation and the profound impact it will have on the market. Don't miss out on this eye-opening conversation!

https://www.onlinemarketingcash4u.blogspot.com

Chapters:

(00:00) I think the influencer industry is going to get massively affected by AI

(00:39) It sounds like companies need to adjust too

[radioregine]

after those lawyers got in trouble for using chat gpt 'as a more detailed search engine' you'd think more people would take pause