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Website: https://www.block136.org/
Address: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Block136 is a Canadian social networking platform with community-based integration, Marketplace, e-commerce, updated blogs and forums, exclusive groups, and general discussion board.
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Bridging Borders: A Small Business Guide to Sponsoring Green Cards
by David H. Nachman, Esq., Ludka Zimovcak, Esq., Snehal Batra, Esq. and Samantha Chasworth, Esq.
Introduction
Finding qualified employees is often a challenge for many small businesses, especially in highly specialized fields. One potential solution is to hire foreign workers looking for green card sponsorship. However, many small business owners are under the impression that they can't sponsor employees for a green card. In this blog post, we aim to debunk this misconception by explaining the process of sponsoring an employee for a green card.
Understanding the Sponsorship Process
The process of green card sponsorship is simpler than most people think. The first step involves obtaining certification from the Department of Labor that confirms your need to hire foreign employees. This begins by filing a prevailing wage determination with the Department of Labor, which specifies the prevailing wage for the role. This process can take a few months.
Following this, you begin the recruitment process. This involves advertising the role in various channels, including newspapers and online platforms, ensuring a fair recruitment process and preventing any potential unlawful activities. After the recruitment process concludes, you wait for 30 days and then file the online application, also known as the PERM labor certification.
Once approved, the Department of Labor issues a certification allowing you to proceed to the next step, the immigrant petition (Form I-140), within six months. This form collects information about your company, financials, the position, and the background of the employee.
Choosing the Right Category for Your Employee
The category under which you file the immigrant petition depends on your company's requirements for the position offered. For instance, requiring advanced degrees or considerable experience can be sponsored under the EB-2 category. Conversely, non-skilled, skilled positions and professionals can be sponsored under the EB-3 category.
The Importance of Proving the Ability to Pay Wages
An essential step for small businesses in this process is proving their capability to pay the proposed wages. This can be demonstrated through your tax returns, annual reports, audited financial statements, and U.S. federal corporate tax returns.
For H-1B employees, you can provide evidence that you are currently paying them. If you're not paying the salary for the green card, you must prove that you can cover the difference between their present salary and the future proposed salary.
Challenges for Sole Proprietors
Sole proprietors face additional challenges in this process. They need to present evidence of their lease and business expenses, along with profit and loss statements to verify the business's income.
Conclusion
Contrary to common belief, even small businesses like restaurants, construction companies, and real estate firms can successfully sponsor an employee's green card. Success hinges on understanding the labor certification process, demonstrating financial capacity, and collaborating with an experienced immigration attorney. By doing so, you can attract the right talent and contribute to the growth and prosperity of your small business.
http://www.visaserve.com
#immigration#h-1b#green card#visa#perm#h-1b visa#uscis#india#usa#us#canadavisa#marriage cases#visaapproval#immigration services uscis#tn canada#canadian#daca dream act green card immigration forum#npz law group#NPZ#ludka zimovcak#snehal batra#michael phulwani
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I've been out of the Lily loop for a few years so I'm sorry if this is old news but 1. WHAT DO YOU MEAN "was caught searching for images on a real CP distribution forum"?! 2. if that's true, why is the only thing anyone complains about her make-believe writing and not her seeking out *CSEM of actual children? why is the focus on ponies when she's a danger to actual, existing human beings? and finally 3. WHY HAS NO ONE CALLED THE POLICE?!
(*I don't use 'porn' to refer to CSEM because that implies the child consented and kids cannot, in fact, consent to sex. Child sexual exploitative material = an accurate view of it. But you do you.)
Because the proof consists of a single forum post under the name EbaraTara asking for images that "look like (OP)'s younger sister".
I tried calling the Canadian cybertip line a couple of years ago when I found her e621 account full of content that's illegal in Canada, but they weren't interested in listening or letting me send them anything.
The evidence isn't straightforward enough to convince some people online ("Weeeell we don't know it was Lily, it could just be a troll using one of her known usernames"), let alone law enforcement. I know in my heart of hearts it's her. But unfortunately personal conviction doesn't count as legal evidence.
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Maryland’s top utility regulator was watching the news one February morning when a headline blindsided him: Two suspects with neo-Nazi ties had been charged with plotting to take down Baltimore’s power grid.
Jason Stanek, the then-chair of the state’s Public Service Commission, said Maryland regulators were “caught flat-footed,” not hearing a word from law enforcement before the news broke — or in the months afterward. Federal prosecutors have alleged the defendants were driven by “racially motivated hatred” to try to cut power to hundreds of thousands of people in the state’s largest city, which has a predominantly Black population.
The FBI declined to comment on its communications with the Maryland commission. But Stanek’s experience is not uncommon.
A POLITICO analysis of federal data and interviews with a dozen security, extremism and electricity experts revealed that despite a record surge in attacks on the grid nationwide, communication gaps between law enforcement and state and federal regulators have left many officials largely in the dark about the extent of the threat. They have also hampered efforts to safeguard the power network.
Adding to the difficulties, no single agency keeps a complete record of all such incidents. But the attacks they know about have regulators and other power experts alarmed:
— Utilities reported 60 incidents they characterized as physical threats or attacks on major grid infrastructure, in addition to two cyberattacks, during the first three months of 2023 alone, according to mandatory disclosures they filed with the Department of Energy. That’s more than double the number from the same period last year. DOE has not yet released data past March.
— Nine of this year’s attacks led to power disruptions, the DOE records indicate.
— The U.S. is on pace to meet or exceed last year’s record of 164 major cyber and physical attacks.
— And additional analyses imply that the true number of incidents for both 2022 and 2023 is probably even higher. POLITICO’s analysis found several incidents that utilities had reported to homeland security officials but did not show up in DOE data.
According to a report on grid security compiled by a power industry cyber clearinghouse, obtained by POLITICO, a total of 1,665 security incidents involving the U.S. and Canadian power grids occurred last year. That count included 60 incidents that led to outages, 71% more than in 2021.
While that report does not break down how many of those incidents occurred in which country, the U.S. has a significantly larger grid, serving 145 million homes and businesses, with nearly seven times Canada’s power-generating capacity.
Law enforcement officials have blamed much of the rise in grid assaults on white nationalist and far-right extremists, who they say are using online forums to spread tactical advice on how to shut down the power supply.
Concerns about the attacks have continued in recent months, with incidents including a June indictment of an Idaho man accused of shooting two hydroelectric stations in the state.
But law enforcement officers investigating alleged plots against the grid don’t necessarily alert the Energy Department or other regulatory bodies.
“We have no idea” how many attacks on the grid are occurring, said Jon Wellinghoff, a former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the U.S. electric grid. “It looks like they’re escalating if you look at the data. But if you don’t have enough data, you can’t discern patterns and proactively work to stop these things from happening.”
Wellinghoff was FERC’s chair when an unknown sniper attacked a Pacific Gas and Electric substation in San Jose, Calif., in 2013 — an incident regulators have described as a “wake-up call” on the electricity supply’s vulnerability to sabotage.
Last year’s record number of physical and cyber disruptions to the U.S. power system included several incidents that captured public attention, such as a December shooting attack against two North Carolina substations that left 45,000 people without power for four days. The state’s medical examiner has blamed the attack for the death of an 87-year-old woman who died after her oxygen machine failed, ruling it a homicide. Nobody has been charged.
“There is no doubt there’s been an uptick over the last three years in the amount of incidents and also the severity of the incidents,” said Manny Cancel, senior vice president at the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the nonprofit body in charge of setting reliability standards for the bulk power system. He is also CEO of its Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which gathers and analyzes data from power companies.
Cancel said NERC has “seen two pretty substantial increases” in incidents coinciding with the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.
Grid attacks that led to power outages increased 71% from 2021 to 2022, totaling 55 incidents in 2022, according to a NERC briefing to utilities that POLITICO obtained. That increase was primarily due to a rise in gunfire assaults against critical infrastructure.
The largest outage reported from a physical attack early this year — which occurred in March in Clark County, Nev. — affected more than 11,000 people, according to DOE data.
But the state Public Utilities Commission was not aware of any outage due to an attack occurring that day, spokesperson Peter Kostes told POLITICO by email. That’s even though state regulations require utilities to contact the commission within four hours of a significant outage.
The state’s largest utility, NV Energy, said in a statement that it had reported the incident to local law enforcement “as soon as we learned about this incident ... so we can continue to increase our resilience against ongoing threats to the energy industry.” A spokesperson for the utility did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether it had informed the commission.
Federal regulations also require utilities to report cyber or physical attacks to DOE, including physical attacks that cause “major interruptions or impacts” to operations.
They must also tell the department about disruptions from weather or other causes that meet certain criteria, such as those that cut off service to more than 50,000 customers for at least an hour, an uncontrolled loss of more than 200 megawatts of power, or a utility voluntarily shutting more than 100 megawatts, according to an Energy Department spokesperson. The spokesperson provided the information on the condition that they not be identified by name.
The Energy Department’s records don’t include at least seven reported physical assaults last year and this year that the Department of Homeland Security and the affected utilities said caused substantive economic damage or cut off power to thousands of customers. POLITICO found these incidents by cross-checking the department’s data against warnings issued by DHS and the FBI’s Office of the Private Sector.
DOE said the incidents may not meet its reporting thresholds.
Several of the incidents missing from DOE’s data involved clear physical attacks, based on other agencies’ descriptions. But the utilities involved said they did not report the incidents to the department because the attacks did not affect the kind of major equipment that could lead to widespread, regional power failures.
One of the incidents not found in DOE’s records cut off power to about 12,000 people for roughly two hours in Maysville, N.C., after a shooting damaged a substation in November, according to a DHS report. The FBI’s investigation into the incident is ongoing, according to the intelligence agency.
The utility affected by the incident, Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative, reported the incident to NERC’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, but didn’t report the attack to DOE because it was a “distribution-level” incident, said Melissa Glenn, a spokesperson for the utility. That means the outages caused by the damage would have been limited to local power customers and not lead to the wider blackouts federal regulators are most concerned with.
In another case unreported to the Energy Department, a substation owned by the East River Electric Cooperative serving the Keystone oil pipeline in South Dakota was attacked by gunfire late at night in July 2022, according to DHS. The incident caused more than $1 million in damage and forced the pipeline to reduce operations while repairs were underway.
East River co-op spokesperson Chris Studer said the utility reported the incident to local law enforcement, which brought in the FBI. East River also reported the incident to NERC and its E-ISAC, along with regional grid agencies, but said it did not report it to DOE because the attack did not affect the bulk power system.
Brian Harrell, a former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at DHS, said in an email that utilities have too many competing agencies to report to, and suggested reporting be streamlined to NERC’s E-ISAC.
“This lack of consistency, by no fault of the utility, suggests that the numbers may not paint a complete picture,” he said.
Grid experts said these data gaps clearly indicate a lack of understanding about which agencies utilities need to report to and when.
Utilities may be using a “loophole” based on definitions of what constitutes “critical infrastructure,” said Jonathon Monken, a grid security expert with the consulting firm Converge Strategies. He was previously senior director of system resilience and strategic coordination for the PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest power market.
There are “lots of ways” to work around DOE requirements, Monken added, but as he reads the regulation, utilities are required to report any operational disruptions caused by a physical attack.
“[I]t appears the information you collected shows that companies are still missing the boat when it comes to mandatory reporting,” he said. “Not good.”
One former FERC official who was granted anonymity to speak about a sensitive security issue said the commission also received no alerts from law enforcement officials about the planned and actual attacks that took place last year. That omission hinders agencies’ ability to respond to these kinds of events, the person said.
A spokesperson for FERC declined to comment on the commission’s communications with law enforcement.
But Cancel defended government agencies’ response to these incidents, and said federal investigators may have had specific intelligence reasons for keeping FERC and state utility agencies out of the loop.
“I’m not a lawyer or a law enforcement professional, but you had an active criminal investigation going on,” he said. “I don’t think they wanted to sort of blow the horn on that and compromise the integrity of the investigation.”
An FBI spokesperson offered no direct response to these criticisms in an email, but said the agency “views cybersecurity as a team sport.” The person commented on the condition that the remark be attributed to the bureau.
The FBI urged utility executives last month to attend security training hosted by intelligence agents in order to ensure they are up to speed on the threats posed by bad actors.
“We can’t do it without you,” Matthew Fodor, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said during an all-day FERC technical conference on Aug. 10. “The challenges that we have — and DOE can probably speak to this better than anybody — is limited resources.”
People attacking the electricity supply have thousands of potential targets, including power substations and smaller but critical pieces of utility infrastructure. The smaller pieces often go unprotected because federal standards do not require utilities to secure them.
Nearly half of the 4,493 attacks from 2020 to 2022 targeted substations, according to the NERC briefing from February, making them the most frequent targets for perpetrators over that period.
Details on how to carry out these kinds of attacks are available from extremist messaging boards and other online content, researchers and federal security officials say. These include maps of critical entry points to the grid, along with advice that extremists have gleaned from incidents like the assault in North Carolina.
Stanek, the Maryland electricity regulator, said he was “disappointed with the level of coordination and communication” that federal and state law enforcement displayed in handling the alleged plot in Baltimore. No trial date has been announced for the case, which is in U.S. District Court in Maryland.
Maryland’s Public Service Commission is in charge of ensuring that the state’s power system keeps the lights on. Regulators need to be kept informed of threats to the system so they can coordinate with other agencies in case an attack succeeds, Stanek said.
At the same time, he quipped, maybe he was better off in the dark after all.
“There’s a lot of colorful details in [the FBI report],” Stanek said. He paused, thinking. “And honestly, as a regulator, had I received these details in advance and shared the information with trusted sources within state government, I would have had sleepless nights.”
“So perhaps the feds did a favor by only sharing this information after everything was all said and done,” he added.
#us politics#news#politico#2023#alt right#domestic terrorists#neo nazis#fbi#power grids#power outages#Department of Energy#canada#white nationalists#Federal Energy Regulatory Commission#US electric grid#North American Electric Reliability Corp.#Department of Homeland Security#Office of the Private Sector#counterterrorism#cybersecurity#utility infrastructure#maryland
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This day in history
The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this week!
#20yrago GPL court challenge in English https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/old-docs/OIIFB_GPL2_20040903.pdf
#15yrsago How the UK gov’t spun 136 survey respondants into 7m infringers https://web.archive.org/web/20090906090950/http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/351331/how-uk-government-spun-136-people-into-7m-illegal-file-sharers
#15yrsago Canadian Copyright Consultation shows Canadians overwhelmingly support moderate, fair copyright https://web.archive.org/web/20090905160714/https://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4355/125/
#15yrsago Special Pleading, the dirty rhetorical trick used to disqualify all open publishing successes https://web.archive.org/web/20090908002625/http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/09/cory-doctorow-special-pleading.html
#15yrsago British musicians — Paul McCartney, Elton John et al — speak out against disconnecting accused infringers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/sep/03/youtube-prs-deal-file-sharing
#15yrsago Damien Hirst installation owner charges teen art-rival with theft of £500,000 for removing box of pencils from installation https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/damien-hirst-in-vicious-feud-with-teenage-artist-over-a-box-of-pencils-1781463.html
#10yrsago California’s incipient dustbowl: photos of a drought https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/09/dramatic-photos-of-californias-historic-drought/100804/
#10yrsago W3C hosting a “Web We Want Magna Carta” drafting session at Internet Governance Forum https://www.w3.org/blog/2014/crowdsourcing-a-magna-carta-for-the-web-at-the-internet-governance-forum/
#10yrsago Net Neutrality video: don’t flush our rights away! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNM8Z1lm9bM
#10yrsago More than 99% of FCC commenters support Net Neutrality https://sunlightfoundation.com/2014/09/02/what-can-we-learn-from-800000-public-comments-on-the-fccs-net-neutrality-plan/
#10yrsago Canadian PM steals site of memorial for political rival’s father https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-architect-says-government-stealing-site-for-communism-memorial
#5yrsago Why don’t more Chinese people oppose the Chinese government? https://web.archive.org/web/20190907072743/https://supchina.com/2019/07/22/why-do-chinese-people-like-their-government/
#5yrsago Critical essays (including mine) discuss Toronto’s plan to let Google build a surveillance-based “smart city” along its waterfront https://torontolife.com/city/a-smart-city-should-serve-its-users-not-mine-their-data/
#5yrsago Interview with Kim Kelly, Teen Vogue’s labor reporter https://therealnews.com/why-does-teen-vogue-need-a-labor-column
#5yrsago After unsuccessful legislative reform, German radicals defy the law to dumpster-dive at grocery stores https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-examines-legality-of-dumpster-diving-a-1284079.html
#5yrsago Beijing promises “no mercy” for the “backstage masterminds” of the Hong Kong uprising https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3025578/beijing-calls-all-hong-kong-institutions-fight-violent
#5yrsago Dell Magazines have changed the Campbell Award to the Astounding Award, removing the name of fascist John W Campbell https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/04/dell-magazines-have-changed-the-campbell-award-to-the-astounding-award-removing-the-name-of-fascist-john-w-campbell/
#5yrsago They told us DRM would give us more for less, but they lied https://locusmag.com/2019/09/cory-doctorow-drm-broke-its-promise/
#5yrsago Hong Kong protests level up in countermeasures, tactics, art and deadly seriousness https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/04/hong-kong-protests-level-up-in-countermeasures-tactics-art-and-deadly-seriousness/
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ICJP Legal Working Group for Canadian Accountability (ICJP LWGCA) has written a notice of intention to seek prosecution of Canadian government officials, for aiding and abetting war crimes in Gaza.
Prime Minister Trudeau is one of four Canadian politicians who have been issued with the notice.
Toronto, 16 November 2023 – The ICJP’s Legal Working Group for Canadian Accountability (ICJP LWGCA) has issued a notice to the Government of Canada of its intention to prosecute Canadian officials for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s perpetration of war crimes.
The notice was issued to leading members of the Liberal government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly, Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau, and Minister of Justice (Attorney General) Arif Virani.
The notice included a stark warning that Canadian government officials could be individually liable and face before the International Criminal Court if there is evidence they have aided and abetted Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity (a violation of Article 25(3)(c) and (d) of the Rome Statute).
The initiative has been supported by numerous leading domestic and international organizations dedicated human rights, international law, peace and foreign policy.
To date over 11,000 people in Gaza have been killed by Israel’s military. Israel’s alleged international crimes include the withholding of humanitarian aide and safe passage, indiscriminately bombing civilians, and ethnic cleansing through a campaign of forced displacement of 1.5 million people. All of this has occurred while Israel has issued ominous statements indicative of a significant risk of genocide.
Despite this, the Canadian government has continued to pledge its steadfast support for Israel. It has also refused to halt arms exports, refused to take action to prevent the illegal recruitment of Canadian volunteers to assist Israel’s military, and refused to stop millions of dollars from being unlawfully sent by some Canadian organizations with charitable status to benefit Israel’s military.
ICJP LWGCA calls on the Government of Canada to end its complicity in war crimes by calling for a ceasefire, canceling all arms exports permits to Israel, prosecute those recruiting Canadian volunteers for Israel’s armed forces, and prevent Canadian charities from using donations to benefit Israel’s armed forces.
ICJP LWGCA continues to gather evidence in relation to the conduct of Canadian officials and intends to pursue all appropriate courses of action to ensure that those responsible for aiding and abetting war crimes are held accountable before the International Criminal Court and in other appropriate legal forums.
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RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), Early April 2024
Welcome to my coverage of all the important Etsy and other ecommerce news that microbusinesses need to know! It's been a few weeks since my last update, so there is a fair amount to report.
Want to get the news more often and in a more timely fashion? Please sign up to support my Patreon site, where among other features, I will soon be starting periodical live chats on important topics. (I promise there will be one the day Etsy announces a fee increase)
TOP NEWS & ARTICLES
Etsy has made changes to how processing times and estimated delivery dates work; I covered everything you need to know in this post.
Etsy seems to be sending more Messages to the spam folder, so you may miss a real message. After reading that thread, I checked, and there was one from another seller needing help from just 5 hours ago. Etsy did say engineers are looking into it.
UPS has won the USPS air cargo contract, currently held by FedEx. It kicks in at the end of September. “As of May 31, 2023, FedEx counted the USPS as the largest customer of its Express unit.”
ETSY NEWS
Etsy is rolling out a new seller pricing tool, and it is just as useless as the old version. I posted some early thoughts (with screenshots).
Some shop owners are struggling to cancel Etsy coupons, while others are not having the same problem. Support says the company is aware of the issue.
If you still can't access most of the Etsy forum after the changes on Tuesday March 26, post in this Technical Issues thread so that your account can be fixed.
Periodically, some shops suddenly stop getting deposits. If your shop has recently had a security warning, you may want to check to see if your bank account is still verified with Etsy.
Looks like Etsy has an issue with misrepresenting how many items are left for each listing on the app; I wrote about it here.
Canadians getting harassed by Etsy to sign up for TurboTax should know that the company has told a seller that it doesn’t import Etsy data into your tax return for you; that is only available for Americans. [If you can’t import your info from your various platforms, my suggestion is use a free online program to file instead; I’ve used Wealthsimple for several years with no issues filing small business taxes; the T-2125 is part of the program.]
Etsy’s activist investor seems to think that the marketplace can “…add more buyers and increase the amount of money they spend on the platform”. But “monetization opportunities” were also mentioned.
Etsy is yet again called out for allowing AI-generated porn on the site. “Several of the available listings also appear to violate existing trademarks — TheStreet identified listings that sell NSFW (not safe for work) AI-generated, suggestive images that appear to mimic Rapunzel from Disney's "Tangled," Princess Jasmine from Disney's "Aladdin" and She-Hulk from Marvel's "She-Hulk."
Etsy has been talking a lot about "image quality" lately, but doesn't really define the term anywhere. While I agree with those that say it is more than image size - Etsy would not have humans curating images to train its AI if "quality" could simply be measured by pixels - note that Google Shopping Ads describe image quality as size. “The resolution of your product images determines its quality. Google considers images with more than 1024 pixels as high-resolution images.”
Apparently Etsy CEO Josh Silverman likes to make “unorthodox, downright risky career decisions” that often involve a ton of responsibility. [Link to podcast in article; I haven’t listened to it]
ECOMMERCE NEWS (minus social media)
General
Patreon’s live chats are now accessible on the web (instead of just the app). A creator can assign moderators, and have chats for different categories of members.
Canadians: beware that new tax rules requiring digital platform operators to report their users’ income to the Canada Revenue Agency are expected for 2025. These laws would make Canada similar to the United States and the United Kingdom, among others.
Amazon
Amazon is struggling to verify the VAT status of many UK sellers, and the fact the company holds all funds until the process is complete means many sellers are without income.
eBay
eBay is offering 3 free “express payouts” to select US sellers by email only, available until June 30th. Money is paid to seller debit cards and can take a half hour or more to receive. (The usual cost is 1.5%.)
If you use eBay For Charity, you may want to check to see if the charity is getting paid, as some apparently are not.
If you advertise on eBay, or just list inconsistently, you may be interested in the marketing trends calendar for 2024. It shows you when certain types of searches peak.
Michaels Makerplace
The landing page for Makerplace sellers doesn’t provide a lot of hard details; some of the actual policies appear once you begin to sign up. Here’s how they define handmade:
Thanks to Bluesky user Brushfeather for the info.
Shopify
Shopify is putting more effort into large businesses these days, despite its core offerings targeting small and medium-sized businesses for years. [soft paywall; Business Insider] The company “...has made a concerted effort over the last 18 months to introduce more software solutions to win over larger merchants. It has enhanced Shopify Plus, a higher-tier subscription with more features, and launched Hydrogen, a more custom framework geared toward retailers with more complex needs...Shopify introduced Commerce Components, an offering that allows merchants to integrate parts of Shopify's software into their existing tech stack. Mattel was its first retail partner for that product, and Everlane has since adopted Shop Pay as a stand-alone component.”
CEO Tobi Lutke recently received almost $200 million CAD in Shopify stock options, “one of the largest compensation packages in Canadian history.” As company founder, he now has around $8 billion worth of Shopify stock.
CIRRO Fulfillment now integrates with Shopify.
Squarespace
Squarespace is rolling out Squarespace Payments to sellers in the United States, and they expect to add more countries later this year. Fees are in line with other payment processors.
All Other Marketplaces
Mercari is following Depop and is ending seller transaction fees while adding a buyer fee. There is now a seller earnings withdrawal fee of $2, however, plus the pricing only applies to items listed after the announcement on March 27th, and sellers now have to accept returns for any reason, within 72 hours of receipt. I suppose this fee might work for buyers if many are also sellers on Mercari or elsewhere, and are buying stock. If you see a good deal you know you can flip with a good margin, you might not mind paying a buyers fee on top of the listing price. The only other way I can see being willing to pay a buyers fee is if you are so enamoured with the platform and its culture that it is worth paying more for. Or maybe I am just out of touch… The Mercari CEO basically calls out Etsy for raising seller fees too much [soft paywall; Modern Retail]: “I’m not going to mention them by name, but you have marketplaces that have a lot of makers, a lot of people that create things, and the fees around selling on those platforms have just been going up a lot very aggressively”. [my emphasis] Mercari wants fees to remain competitive while attracting better inventory. Another article on Mercari’s announcement mentions Etsy by name when discussing seller fees.
Mercari might want to consult lawyers the next time the site makes changes, though, as many sellers were furious that their existing balances were now subject to withdrawal fees without any warning, leading some to file complaints with the FTC. That led the company to announce that “On March 27, 2024, Mercari announced that it would begin charging a $2 fee(s) (“ACH Charge”) for all ACH direct deposit requests. Effective immediately through April 3, 2024 at 11:59 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (“Waiver Period”), Mercari will waive the ACH Charge for ACH direct deposit requests made prior to the end of the Waiver Period for all eligible account holders.” Those who already incurred withdrawal charges will get refunds.
And because apparently you can never have enough Mercari news, they’ve introduced a listing importer for eBay and Depop. It uses AI.
AliExpress will now do livestream shopping events in the UK.
Payment Processing
PayPal users in the US will soon have only 30 days after delivery to file a significantly not described claim in most cases. Items not delivered by 180 days will still have the full 180 days.
Shipping
UPS is planning on closing about 200 facilities in the United States, and hopes to save money by instead using more automated hubs. Having fewer employees and consolidating locations is expected to save the company around $3 billion by the end of 2028.
FedEx is continuing to combine its Express and Ground pickups and deliveries, both to save money and to make pickups easier on customers.
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By Alexander Panetta
CBC
June 7, 2023
The Canadian government has confirmed its participation in a first-of-its kind international meeting on unidentified flying objects hosted at United States military headquarters.
The gathering at the Pentagon late last month comes amid a burst of activity in Washington and eye-popping news reports related to so-called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
It featured a U.S.-led briefing to visitors from nations of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
The Canadian Department of National Defence told CBC News in an email that Canada attended the meeting, led by a Royal Canadian Air Force representative.
"The details of the meeting remain classified," DND said in an email. "It can be characterized as the sharing of information on the subject of UAP and no further details can be shared at this time."
The meeting featured a presentation by Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick — the veteran scientist in the U.S. national-defence establishment who leads the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a new entity created in 2022 to lead UAP-related activities for the U.S. military.
Kirkpatrick publicly revealed the Five Eyes gathering last week while speaking at a public conference hosted by NASA.
"I have just held our first Five Eyes forum on this subject," Kirkpatrick said.
He explained the goal of meeting allies: to co-ordinate more closely with friendly nations in pooling information on UAP sightings.
The creation of his office is part of a surge in activity following a 2017 report in The New York Times on bizarre sightings kept secret by the U.S. military.
In the wake of that report, Kirkpatrick's office was created, the U.S. government now produces an annual report on UAP sightings and Congress created a system for government whistleblowers to report sightings.
Now two of the journalists who wrote that watershed 2017 report have taken one giant leap forward — and reported extraordinary new allegations.
This week they described jaw-dropping new claims from a decorated former combat officer who served as the U.S. Department of Defense's representative to a UAP task force from 2019 to 2021.
Jaw-dropping new claims
David Grusch was quoted in their print report, and in a later televised interview, saying the United States has in its possession aircraft of non-human origin.
And not just one aircraft, he says — but many.
He says the discoveries are numerous, involving everything from wreckage up to intact vehicles, and he says these items have been collected for decades — by the U.S. government, by allies and by defence contractors.
He says this information is being illegally withheld from members of Congress and he's alerted them as well as the inspector general for the American intelligence community.
NASA UFO panel says stigma, lack of data are problems when studying 'unidentified aerial phenomena'
Authors who reported on his allegations for the science site The Debrief quoted other U.S. officials vouching for Grusch's credibility, including Jonathan Grey, an officer in the intelligence community with a top-secret clearance.
"The non-human intelligence phenomenon is real. We are not alone.… Retrievals of this kind are not limited to the United States. This is a global phenomenon, and yet a global solution continues to elude us," Grey says in the report.
This, to be clear, is not the official United States government line.
There is no credible evidence to date of extraterrestrial activity, non-earthly technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics, Kirkpatrick said in recent testimony before the United States Senate.
Additionally, the latest annual UAP report did not cite any evidence of extraterrestrial technology.
It said that of 366 recorded sightings, 163 wound up being balloons or balloon-like entities, 26 were categorized as unmanned aerial vehicles and six were aerospace clutter.
However, it said 171 sightings remain unexplained.
The U.S. military disputes Grusch's suggestion that it holds evidence of alien aircraft.
In an email to CBC News, Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough said, "AARO has not discovered any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."
She said AARO is committed to following the data and its investigation wherever it leads.
Watch video clip.
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Make Waves this Holiday Season: Boat Placards & Coast Guard Vessel Registry Tips
The holiday season isn’t just for family gatherings and festive lights; it’s also a prime time for boat enthusiasts to hit the water and revel in the cooler breezes and serene seascapes. At Vessel Placards, we’re here to ensure your boating adventures are memorable and compliant with the Coast Guard vessel registry requirements. Our wide range of boat placards is designed to meet your needs, blending both functionality and style.
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Planning for Future Adventures Looking beyond the holiday season, consider the upcoming boat festivals and shows. A well-placed, eye-catching placard can turn your boat into a centerpiece, attracting attention and admiration from fellow enthusiasts.
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Boat Placards: Style & Compliance for Your Boating Adventures Incorporating stylish and compliant vessel placards into your holiday boating plans is more than just a legal requirement; it’s an opportunity to showcase your personality and passion for the water. Explore our selection of metal placards and more accesories at Vessel Placards and set sail into a season full of adventure and celebration.
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Thursday, October 17, 2024
Canadian doctors who provide euthanasia struggle with the ethics of killing vulnerable patients (AP) A homeless man refusing long-term care, a woman with severe obesity, an injured worker given meager government assistance, and grieving new widows. All of them requested to be killed under Canada’s euthanasia system, and each sparked private debate among doctors and nurses struggling with the ethics of one of the world’s most permissive laws on the practice, according to an Associated Press investigation. As Canada pushes to expand euthanasia and more countries move to legalize it, health care workers here are grappling with requests from people whose pain might be alleviated by money, adequate housing or social connections. And internal data obtained exclusively by AP from Canada’s most populous province suggest a significant number of people euthanized when they are in unmanageable pain but not about to die live in Ontario’s poorest and most deprived areas. On private forums, doctors and nurses have expressed deep discomfort with ending the lives of vulnerable people whose deaths were avoidable, according to messages provided to AP by a participant on condition of anonymity due to their confidentiality.
Global Public Debt to Hit $100 Trillion by End of 2024, IMF Says (Bloomberg) Global public debt is set to reach $100 trillion, or 93% of global gross domestic product, by the end of this year, driven by the US and China, according to new analysis by the International Monetary Fund. In its latest Fiscal Monitor—an overview of global public finance developments—the IMF said it expects debt to approach 100% of GDP by 2030, and it warns that governments will need to make tough decisions to stabilize borrowing. Debt is tipped to increase in the US, Brazil, France, Italy, South Africa and UK, according to the IMF report, which urges governments to rein in debt.
Worldwide Efforts to Reverse the Baby Shortage Are Falling Flat (WSJ) Imagine if having children came with more than $150,000 in cheap loans, a subsidized minivan and a lifetime exemption from income taxes. Would people have more kids? The answer, it seems, is no. These are among the benefits—along with cheap child care, extra vacation and free fertility treatments—that have been doled out to parents in different parts of Europe, a region at the forefront of the worldwide baby shortage. Europe’s overall population shrank during the pandemic and is on track to contract by about 40 million by 2050, according to United Nations statistics. Birthrates have been falling across the developed world since the 1960s. But the decline hit Europe harder and faster than demographers expected—a foreshadowing of the sudden drop in the U.S. fertility rate in recent years.
Americans’ Trust in Media Remains Low (Gallup) Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media—such as newspapers, television and radio—first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year. For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence. Gallup first asked this question in 1972 and has measured it in most years since 1997. In three readings in the 1970s, trust ranged from 68% to 72%. The news media is the least trusted group among 10 U.S. civic and political institutions involved in the democratic process. The legislative branch of the federal government, consisting of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, is rated about as poorly as the media, with 34% trusting it.
In the heartland of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, violence rages (AP) Cellphone chats have become death sentences in the continuing, bloody factional war inside Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. Cartel gunmen stop youths on the street or in their cars and demand their phones. If they find a contact who’s a member of a rival faction, a chat with a wrong word or a photo with the wrong person, the phone owner is dead. Then, they’ll go after everyone on that person’s contact list, forming a potential chain of kidnapping, torture and death. That has left residents of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, afraid to even leave home at night, much less visit towns a few miles away where many have weekend retreats. “You can’t go five minutes out of the city, ... not even in daylight,” said Ismael Bojórquez, a veteran journalist in Culiacan. “Why? Because the narcos have set up roadblocks and they stop you and search through your cellphone.” And it’s not just your own chats: If a person is traveling in a car with others, one bad contact or chat can get the whole group kidnapped.
Hereditary nobles have sat in Britain’s Parliament for centuries. Their time may be up (AP) Like his ancestors for centuries, the Earl of Devon serves in Parliament, helping to make the laws of the land. But not for much longer. British lawmakers voted Tuesday to approve in principle a bill to strip hereditary aristocrats of the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords after more than 700 years. The Labour Party government says the decision will complete a long-stalled reform of Parliament’s upper chamber and remove an “outdated and indefensible” relic of the past. Constitution Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds noted that Britain is one of only two countries—the other is Lesotho—with a hereditary element to its parliament.
Scale of Chinese Spying Overwhelms Western Governments (WSJ) Beijing is conducting espionage activities on what Western governments say is an unprecedented scale, mobilizing security agencies, private companies and Chinese civilians in its quest to undermine rival states and bolster the country’s economy. Rarely does a week go by without a warning from a Western intelligence agency about the threat that China presents. Last month alone, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said a Chinese state-linked firm hacked 260,000 internet-connected devices, including cameras and routers, in the U.S., Britain, France, Romania and elsewhere. A Congressional probe said Chinese cargo cranes used at U.S. seaports had embedded technology that could allow Beijing to secretly control them. The U.S. government alleged that a former top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was a Chinese agent. U.S. officials last week launched an effort to understand the consequences of the latest Chinese hack, which compromised systems the federal government uses for court-authorized network wiretapping requests. Western spy agencies, unable to contain Beijing’s activity, are raising the alarm publicly, urging businesses and individuals to be on alert in their interactions with China. Beijing has previously denied allegations of espionage targeting Western countries while portraying China as a frequent target of foreign hacking and intelligence-gathering operations.
‘Stunning’ hidden tomb found at Petra site featured in ‘Indiana Jones’ (Washington Post) About 2,000 years ago, the powerful ancient kingdom of the Nabataeans hand-carved a city into the sandstone cliffs of Petra, Jordan. At its center: an imposing, 12-column structure that has since become known as the Treasury. Since then, archaeologists have attempted to understand what the structure was used for, with some speculating that it was a mausoleum built as the final resting place of an important ruler of this era. Now, a team of researchers has made what they called a “stunning” discovery: a chamber buried underneath the Treasury, also known as al-Khazneh, that contains the remains of 12 people and other items they say could finally reveal the structure’s secrets and shed some light on the origins of Petra. One of the items found was a ceramic vessel that “looked nearly identical to the Holy Grail” depicted in Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” which filmed at the Treasury.
Israel restarts bombing of Beirut (BBC) Israeli strikes in the Lebanese city of Nabatieh have killed at least five people, including the city's mayor, a local source has told the BBC's Riam Dalati. The strikes came after Israel attacked Beirut for the first time in five days, and after Israeli media and the Lebanese prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the US had urged Israel to stop targeting the Lebanese capital. Beirut is fast filling up with refugees from other parts of Lebanon fleeing Israel's attacks on Hezbollah. Many are living on the streets of a city itself in the grip of war. To make room, the Lebanese government postponed the start of the school year and designated 1,000 schools as shelters. In southern Lebanon, the UN has refused demands by Israel to move its peacekeeping soldiers out of the way of its forces. A Unifil spokesperson accused the Israeli military of “deliberately” firing on its positions and 40 of the nations that contribute troops to Unifil said last week that they “strongly condemn recent attacks” on the peacekeepers. For many in the current Israeli administration, the bottom line is that the United Nations and its organisations have been inherently and structurally anti-Israel.
Lebanon’s Hospitals Buckle Amid Israel’s Offensive Against Hezbollah (NYT) It was 12:54 a.m., and Elie Hachem had not slept in days when the chief nurse at his Beirut hospital called him in a panic. The Israeli military had announced that it would begin striking “Hezbollah facilities” in the area, and had ordered the hospital to evacuate. Dozens of staff members and patients were still inside, among them premature babies hooked up to incubators, Mr. Hachem said. “We only had 20 minutes,” he said, describing the events this month at St. Therese Hospital, where he is the director, on the outskirts of Beirut. “Maybe less.” The airstrike landed just 80 yards from the hospital and caused heavy damage, collapsing ceilings and flooding parts of the health facility, though no one was harmed, Mr. Hachem said. The next day, fearing their luck would run out, Mr. Hachem ordered the Christian hospital shut down. “The staff are traumatized,” he said. St. Therese is one of at least nine hospitals in Lebanon that are now shuttered or only partly functional, according to the World Health Organization.
U.S. Warns Israel of Military Aid Cut if Gazans Don’t Get More Supplies (NYT) The United States has warned Israel to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies into the war-devastated Gaza Strip within the next 30 days or risk losing military aid, American officials said Tuesday. The warning came in a letter signed by the American secretaries of defense and state that was sent on Sunday to Israel’s defense minister and its minister of strategic affairs. It was confirmed on Tuesday by a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller. Mr. Miller said the amount of aid entering Gaza in September was the lowest it had been at any time since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that set off the Israeli invasion.
Fuel tanker explodes in Nigeria, killing 147 people (Reuters) A fuel tanker crashed and exploded in Jigawa state in northern Nigeria late on Tuesday after the driver lost control of the vehicle, leaving 147 people dead and wounding others, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. The incident occurred in Majia town in the Taura local government area, about 530 kilometers (329.33 miles) north of the capital Abuja. The casualties were local residents who had gathered to collect fuel from the tanker after it crashed. Many roads in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, are poorly maintained and riven with potholes, causing accidents that claim dozens of lives every year.
Years of war in Congo have created a dire mental health crisis (AP) For Nelly Shukuru, there was no way out. The fighting that forced her from her home, the squalid conditions in the displacement camp in eastern Congo, the hunger, all felt inescapable. The 51-year-old planned to hang herself. She said a neighbor stopped her just in time. “In my mind, the suffering was permanent,” said the mother of six, seated in a health clinic. “The people who have died are better off than I am.” Years of conflict in eastern Congo have created a dire mental health crisis. Aid groups say the number of people seeking care has spiked as fighting intensifies. Some of the worst affected struggle to survive in cramped, violent displacement sites that aren’t conducive to recovery. More than 100 armed groups have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda. The fighting has displaced millions. “All around us there is war, and the number of people facing difficulty is increasing daily,” said Innocent Ntamuheza, a psychologist with Action Against Hunger.
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Joint Communique on the 2024 U.S.–Canada Cross Border Crime Forum
Canadian and U.S. officials deepen strong and collaborative partnership on issues of mutual concern, including law enforcement information sharing, malign foreign interference, combating gun and drug trafficking, and online and hate crimes OIPOL & OIJUST Operating in USA / Communication by the Homeland Security, July 12, 2024. Cooperation and edition Oipol & Oijust. July 13, 2024.- The United…
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'Don't care,' says pro-suicide website linked to Kenneth Law of Canada's Online Harms Act
The operators of a pro-suicide website forum linked to dozens of deaths around the world said they have nothing but disdain for attempts by Canadian lawmakers to introduce new safety standards to protect children. Source: CP24 'Don't care,' says pro-suicide website linked to Kenneth Law of Canada's Online Harms Act
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"GENERAL ORMOND "OBJECTS."" Toronto Globe. October 11, 1933. Page 4. --- Why the Canadian Superintendent of Penitentiaries is attending the American Prison Congress at Atlantic City is not clear. Evidently this Congress is a forum for discussion of prison and reformatory methods, where delegates endeavor to impart and receive helpful ideas. The scope of the speeches is not limited by stone walls and iron gates, and the speakers are not intimidated by sentry outlooks. This manifestly is no place for an official who thinks his word is law το all those around him and who understands only the rule of might and fear. That Brig-Gen. Ormond carried his notion of "system" to Atlantic City is indicated by his reaction to the first reference made to Canadian penitentiary administration. "I object to that statement" apparently was his idea of a suitable reply. He could have said the statement was untrue, if he wished; might even have called the speaker a liar. This would not have been the fact, but it would have put the subject first instead of the General. With him the all-important thing seemed to be that he objected, and when the Canadian Superintendent of Penitentiaries objects that ends it.
The Congress had been listening to a paper by Superintendent Gill of the State Prison Colony of Norfolk, Mass., explaining that certain citizens are permitted to take the part of "big brother" to a prisoner at times and are given considerable latitude. Evidently something is being done to show the Inmates of that institution the error of their ways and lead them to a new outlook. This is so contrary to methods in Canada that General Ormond might have interposed an "I object" in behalf of the Dominion. However, the objection came when Executive Secretary Kidman of the Prisoners' Aid and Welfare Association of Montreal observed that this "big brother" plan was being tried successfully in England as well as Massachusetts, in contrast with Canada, where penitentiaries had been closed down tight since the riots. Mr. Kidman affirmed that visits by his association had been suspended since the end of April, notwithstanding the Superintendent's objection.
The incident serves to bring out the fact that there are organizations in Canada seeking to do something for prison inmates if officialdom did not "object." Besides the Montreal association is the Canadian Prisoners' Welfare Association, whose annual re-port for 1932 pointed out that "the Canadian Prisoners' Welfare Association is an organization with a Dominion charter, advocating penal reform, amelioration of conditions in certain respects in the system and administration of justice, and the establishment in all large centres where there are prisons, Dominion or Provincial, of a local society to look after individual welfare work in the criminal courts, in the prisons, and on behalf of those discharged therefrom." Shortly after the riots of last year, this association, in conjunction with the Montreal body, drew up a petition on penitentiary administration and presented it personally to the Minister of Justice. Among the amelioration and reforms suggested were: Visiting advisory committees, facilities for visits by accredited social workers, some sort of progressive regime for prisoners serving long terms, and separate institutions for young men between 16 and 25 years. Following this the Canadian Association and the Social Service Council of Canada drew up manifestoes and sent them to members of Parliament. Little more than perfunctory replies resulted. When the superficial "reforms" were instituted these associations were not consulted. "The com- mittee is convinced," says the report, "that the time is ripe and the urgency evident for the reference of this whole issue of crime and its prevention to a Royal Commission."
Mr. Kidman is Honorary Secretary of the Canadian Association and Executive Secretary of the Montreal organization. Right Rev. J. C. Farthing and Rev. Dr. Herman Abramowitz are Honorary Patrons of the former and Bishop Farthing is Honorary President of the latter. There is no corresponding organization in Ontario to concern itself with Kingston Penitentiary, the nearest approach to it being the Citizens' Service Association, of which Brig. Gen. Draper is President and which aims at assisting prisoners on their release. The outstanding point is that these organizations have not the sympathy of officialdom, that the "I object" principle stands when attempts are made to improve the condition of prisoners. So officialdom objected to continuance of visits by the Montreal organization and the Superintendent objected when the accredited representative at the American Congress disclosed the bald truth. It remains to be seen whether the "I object" will hold good in the face of the attempt of the United States Government to learn why "Two Gun" John O'Brien was thrown into solitary confinement and kept there for two years, although his court sentence did not call for this treatment.
And there remains to be given an explanation why a penitentiary Superintendent who knows no law but his own should spend time at the public expense-attending a convention where prison reform and humanitarianism seem to be receiving consideration.
#editorial#atlantic city#american prison congress#superintendent of penitentiaries#dominion penitentiaries#penal reform#convict revolt#prisoners' aid#prisoners' welfare association#d. m. ormond#john kidman#montreal#prison administration#anti-penal reform#syndey lass & two gun o'brien case#solitary confinement#great depression in canada#crime and punishment in canada#history of crime and punishment in canada
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Exploring the Psychedelic Frontier: Buying Psilocybe Mushrooms Online
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in psychedelics for their therapeutic potential and mind-expanding properties. Among these substances, psilocybin-containing mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, have garnered significant attention for their reported ability to induce profound spiritual experiences and therapeutic benefits. As attitudes towards psychedelics shift and research continues to uncover their potential, an increasing number of individuals are turning to the internet to explore and procure these fascinating fungi. In this article, we delve into the world of buying Psilocybe mushrooms online, exploring the opportunities, risks, and considerations associated with this emerging trend.
The Rise of Psychedelic Renaissance
The resurgence of interest in psychedelics can be attributed to various factors, including shifting societal attitudes towards mental health, advancements in psychedelic research, and a growing disillusionment with traditional pharmaceutical approaches to treating mental health disorders. Research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, including psilocybin, has shown promising results in the treatment of conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction.
Navigating the Digital Marketplace
The internet has transformed the landscape of psychedelic culture, providing a platform for information-sharing, community-building, and, controversially, the buying and selling of psychedelic substances. A simple search for "buy psilocybe mushrooms online" yields a plethora of results, ranging from online marketplaces and forums to dedicated websites offering a variety of psychedelic products.
Considerations Before Purchasing
While the idea of purchasing Psilocybe mushrooms online may seem appealing to some, it is essential to approach the process with caution and consideration. Here are some key factors to keep in mind:
Legality: The legality of purchasing Psilocybe mushrooms varies greatly depending on your location. While some countries and states have decriminalized or legalized the use of psychedelics, others maintain strict laws prohibiting their sale and possession. It is crucial to familiarize yourself with the laws and regulations in your area before attempting to purchase psychedelic substances online.
Quality and Safety: When purchasing Psilocybe mushrooms online, it can be challenging to verify the quality and safety of the product. Unlike purchasing from a reputable dispensary or supplier, buying from an online source carries inherent risks, including the possibility of receiving contaminated or mislabeled products. It is essential to research the vendor thoroughly, read reviews, and exercise caution when making a purchase.
Personal Responsibility: Psychedelic experiences can be profound and potentially life-changing, but they also carry risks, particularly for those with underlying mental health conditions or a predisposition to psychosis. It is crucial to approach psychedelic use with respect, mindfulness, and a willingness to engage in harm reduction practices. Additionally, it is advisable to have a trusted friend or sitter present during the experience and to start with a low dose to gauge individual sensitivity.
Conclusion
The internet has opened up new avenues for exploring and accessing psychedelic substances, including Psilocybe mushrooms. While buying mushrooms online may offer convenience and accessibility, it is essential to approach the process with caution, mindfulness, and a thorough understanding of the legal and safety considerations involved. By exercising responsible purchasing practices and prioritizing harm reduction, individuals can navigate the digital marketplace for psychedelics safely and responsibly, unlocking the transformative potential of these fascinating fungi.
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Canadian Immigration Services in Brampton
Canadian Immigration Services in Brampton, you can find various resources and services related to Canadian immigration. While there might not be a specific entity named "Canadian Immigration Services" in Brampton, there are several organizations, government agencies, and professionals who can assist with immigration-related matters:
Immigration Consultants and Lawyers: There are numerous immigration consultants and lawyers in Brampton who specialize in Canadian immigration law. They can provide guidance, assistance with applications, and representation if needed.
Settlement Agencies: Settlement agencies in Brampton offer services to newcomers, including information sessions, workshops, language classes, and assistance with various aspects of settling in Canada, including immigration processes.
Community Centers: Community centers often provide resources and support for newcomers, including information on immigration services, workshops, and referral to relevant agencies.
Libraries: Brampton libraries may have resources and information available on Canadian immigration, including books, pamphlets, and access to computers for online research.
Employment Centers: Some employment centers offer services related to immigration, especially for skilled workers seeking employment in Canada.
Online Resources: The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website provides comprehensive information on Canadian immigration programs, application processes, and forms. Additionally, there are many online forums and communities where immigrants share experiences and advice.
Swift immigration service is crucial to verify the credibility and qualifications of the individuals or organizations offering services. Always choose licensed immigration consultants or lawyers, and be cautious of fraudulent or unlicensed practitioners.
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Attorney Maurice Tomlinson (born April 9, 1971) is one of the most well-known gay rights activists in the world. He is an attorney-at-law, law lecturer, journalist, and HIV/AIDS and LGBTI activist in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
He was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica to George Cornel Tomlinson and Carmen Victoria Campbell Tomlinson. He has two brothers. His education includes studies at The University of the West Indies, Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, University of Turin Law School in Italy, and Mona School of Business. Friends provided the catalyst for his interest in social justice. He worked as a flight attendant for Air Jamaica. In this period, he became aware that AIDS affected everyone and could impact anybody. Studying law exposed him to the idea of human rights and the possibility of changing discriminatory laws and practices.
He became the legal advisor of marginalized groups for the well-known, respected, international advocacy organization, AIDS-Free World. One area of his advocacy education is the link between Jamaica’s anti-gay laws and the spread of HIV. AIDS-Free World works in partnership with Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays, Representatives of Jamaicans for Justice, Families Against State Terrorism, and other human rights allies.
He collected victim reports as part of a legal challenge against his nation. The new Jamaican Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms does not allow domestic challenges, his team engaged in an unprecedented legal challenge to Jamaica’s anti-sodomy laws.
He held the post of lecturer of law at the University of Technology, Utech, Jamaica. He introduced the concept of sexual diversity in his course, Discrimination Law. He married Canadian Tom Decker (2011). He received death threats. He completed his last semester of teaching, commuting from Canada to Jamaica for three days each week. He turned down the school’s offer to renew his contract and began living in exile in Toronto where he continues his work with AIDS-Free World and lectures law at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
He received the inaugural David Kato Vision and Voice Award. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence
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