#unemployment is not going great to be frank!

[rexroads]

was tagged by @juliens-bakery and @littloblivious

last song listened to: when I was first tagged, it was howdoIlook by the pillow queens...rn it's undercover martyn by two door cinema club lol

currently watching: Yellowjackets! It's fun but idk why there's been so much, I guess hype over it. I don't know if I find the storyline juggling particularly satisfying in the second season.

currently reading: IN THEORY I am reading the tommyknockers by stephen king and the grip of it by jac jemc. In practice I'm just sort of . not

currently obsessed with: my cats the studio is closed so I'm like, sliding towards being a 14 year old again and watching monster factory and wanting to play pokemon. also clangen . it's not even very good??

tagging, ah, @nevertrustablueberry and @toxicanaconda , unless you don't want to lmao

[takaraphoenix]

This is going to be a deeply personal post that I want to share because I hope it can also be somewhat inspirational and motivational for others.

I started a new job a month ago and I deeply love it. I mean, genuinely love it. Love the place, the people, the work. I'm happy going to work and I find joy in what I do and time passes startlingly fast at work because I'm enjoying it. Plus, I make good enough money (sure, it could always be more, but it's already more than my last job which is great).

I honestly didn't think that was a thing. Growing up, I always thought that work is that thing you force yourself through for the sake of money. The requirement. I thought it was crazy when people claimed they liked their work. But damn, I love my work.

When I finished high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Fourteen years ago. And it's been a longwided and bumpy journey, but it brought me to a place where I'm happy and where I can see myself working for the next thirty years.

Not knowing where you want to go, or how you could get there, is incredibly, overwhelmingly frustrating. But sometimes, you just have to keep going and figure it out along the way.

(The more long-winded journey under the cut.)

I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school, partially because my school never really prepared us for what comes after.

Our local university is large, and it intimidated me beyond belief when I was eighteen, there was just no way I could go there.

But there was a small, private art school around where I lived and everyone always kept saying turn your passion into your profession, right? So sure, why not. Let's go to art school.

Four years later, I had a Bachelor's degree in art and had also fully lost my passion for drawing. It had become a chore. So I knew that... that wouldn't work out for me. I needed to find something different.

I've always admired the teachers who could inspire others and make you feel welcome in their classes and I was pretty good at teaching others, so I figured, maybe I could become a teacher?

I first signed up for English and Philosophy (with the goal of teaching ethics). I made friends in the first semester in both classes, but I had to switch out of English after one semester - mostly because the teachers were actually insane. They prided themselves in failing at least 10% of first semesters and made the beginning unnecessarily hard and no... fun. I think learning should be fun.

So I switched from English to German and, ultimately, after five years, got my Bachelor's degree in German philology and Philosophy. During the high-time of Covid. My last two semesters were exclusively spent in remote zoom classes.

The thought of becoming a teacher - of being in a room with thirty students for ninety minutes, before class ends and the next thirty students file in for the next ninety minutes, in an endless circle of hell - absolutely terrified me. Heck, the thought of going back to classes to get my Master's degree to actually become a teacher was already mortifying.

So, once again, I stood there, without a plan, but with a useless BA.

I didn't know what I wanted to do, to be quite frank. I was running out of motivation to find something new, because it started to feel like I was truly just failing one thing after the other. I was 29 and had absolutely nothing to show but two Bachelor's degrees.

I became a temp, after a year of unemployment, working in an office in an insurance company. And I liked it alright. The work more or less, but the feeling. Oh, the feeling of working in a small team in an office absolutely delighted me!

I lost that job at the end of last year and went back to being unemployed for half a year. Until a friend of mine, who was working at our alma mater as a secretary, told me about how happy she was working for our university and how she had also started there because she had no prior work experience and none of the required qualifications. She also told me that our university has its own job hunting website and that they never put their job listings onto foreign sites.

I went looking the same day, applied to a job that I got a job interview for but that didn't entirely fit for me. A week later, I applied to another one - and it fit like a glove. I got a job interview before the application phase even ended, I was invited to spend a day observing the work and was supposed to give a yes/no on whether I want to move forward with the process the next day, which I did. All I expected in return was a thank you and to be told when I might hear back to them after they saw other applicants. Instead, I got the job that very day.

During every single step, I felt like I was failing. After my first Bachelor, that seemed useless. After giving up on getting my Master and having yet another useless Bachelor. When I lost the temp job.

But every single step in my journey was... necessary, to get me to where I am right now.

Because I wasn't ready for our big university when I was 18, I needed the small, private university that eased me into college life to have the courage to apply to our city's big university.

And the friend who told me about the job website? I met her in my one semester of English. Yes, even years later, even though we were only together in one class during that first semester, we are still friends. And if I hadn't attempted my second degree - if I hadn't started out with and failed out of English - I wouldn't have met her.

If I hadn't gone to this university, I wouldn't have been eager or able to find a job there.

And if I hadn't had the temp job, I wouldn't have discovered my passion for office work.

Who knows, maybe there is an alternate life where I get on the "right" track when I'm eighteen and end up happy too, but for the life I have now, things worked out well and they only did because of every single thing I had failed or changed out of.

Sometimes, you do need the failures to learn from them, to draw something from them that will help you find your way later.

[beguines]

As was to be expected, the massive layoffs and record unemployment levels after the onset of the Depression dampened most worker militancy and union organizing efforts. Such was not the case, however, in the coal industry. As Dubofsky and Van Tine note, coal miners did not accept "their misery in silence or apathy . . . The years 1930, 1931, and especially 1932 saw mass violent strikes scar the coalfields". These strikes were for the most part led by Communists and independent radicals.

Theodore Draper describes the Communist Party (CP) activity in detail. Its organizational base was the National Miners' Union (NMU), whose September 9–​ 10, 1928, founding convention was attended by 675 delegates. John Watt of Illinois was elected president; William Boyce, a Black miner, was elected vice president; while CP coal miners' leader, Pat Toohey, was named secretary-​treasurer. In 1929 and 1930, there were numerous spontaneous strikes, in which participants sometimes called in the NMU after they were out. In 1931, there were four large strikes in different coal regions. In March, twenty thousand Pennsylvania anthracite miners struck under the leadership of non-Communist oppositionists. In July, twenty thousand West Virginia miners in the Kanawha Valley, led by Frank Keeney, a Lewis opponent supported by the left-​wing Musteites, went out on a prolonged strike. From May to June, four thousand miners in western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and northern West Virginia struck under NMU leadership. These strikes spread quickly because the miners were in "such an explosive mood." According to Draper, thousands joined the NMU, many of whom also joined the Communist Party. In the Pittsburgh area, the Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company signed contracts with the UMWA to avoid the CP.

The most dramatic 1931 strike took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, where thousands of miners worked in a state of peonage and company-​sponsored terror. When ten thousand Kentucky coal miners struck, the UMWA sent in Philip Murray to organize. The violence became so great that the union abandoned the area. In one gun battle at Ewarts, three deputies and a miner were killed, and thirty-​four miners were indicted for murder. In July, the NMU finally moved in, while the CP's International Labor Defense (ILD) took up the defense of the indicted miners. Draper, hardly sympathetic to the Communists, claims that "the circumstances in Harlan were so adverse that whatever the Communists did there seems somewhat incredible".

Draper also notes the extraordinary commitment of the CP to racial egalitarianism. He describes the white Harlan miners as fundamentalists, highly individualist, and racist. With less than 14% of Kentucky miners being Black (Draper claims only a few percent in Harlan County were African-​American), racial solidarity was hardly the strategic issue that it was in Alabama or West Virginia. Thus, when the issue arose about whether Black miners should eat at the same soup kitchens and tables as white miners, there was quite a bit of resistance from white strikers. "On this point, however, the Communists were adamant. After six or seven hours of discussion, they succeeded in convincing the miners that all of them, irrespective of color, should eat in the same kitchen". "It is fair to say that only the Communists in that period, in the heat of battle, would have taken such a firm stand on this issue". Although the strikers were badly defeated, the Communists did manage to gain worldwide publicity for the Harlan miners' plight, mobilizing leading intellectuals, including Theodore Dreiser and John Dos Passos, to go to Kentucky to conduct hearings. This case helped focus attention on the plight and repression faced by southern workers, especially in the coal mines.

Michael Goldfield, The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s

[doublegoblin]

OC vs A Cockroach

Lol! I saw this come across my dash before and it got a chuckle out of me, now I get to hopefully give a chuckle back.

Thank you to the wonderful @forthesanityofstorytellers for the tag

I tag: @asterhaze @gummybugg @garthcelyn @moonluringfrost @mysticstarlightduck and really anyone else who'd like in!

Rules: rate your ocs on how well they’d fare against a cockroach

So I'll not be doing the employees from Rituals and Red Tape for this go around, instead, it'll be The Board!(At least a handful of them) Because I think that'll be funny to think about. Mind you, The Board are extradimensional beings close to if not entirely gods.

Dave: 0/10 this mf'er would be so dead set on having this bug obey him he'd work himself into a tizzy. It is a quiet tizzy but one nonetheless. He'd get so fed up he would rush summon Alex to his pocket dimension to personally take care of the "offending creature". At which point they(Alex) would sigh and pick the roach up and carry it away from Dave. He would consider this a 10/10 but the man outsourced his labor.

Frank: 6/10 This new thing would be of great interest to Frank. I like it is the same roach from before and has now found it's way into Archives somehow. Perhaps Alex dropped it off? Either way, the enigmatic Frank would study this thing for a time, watching how it moves, what it eats. In fact he might become so interested with it that he would confine it to an ornate terrarium of some variety. Locked away from anyone but himself to view and ponder. Though when he would go to describe this new creature to anyone he would find more resistance than usual to get his point across thus going to the roach, and shoving (literally) it into the face of the dreamer he was communing with. At which point, the roach scurries away.

The Keeper: 2/10 Same roach. They would be quite intrigued like Frank was but more so in an attempt to understand how a thing like this could survive as it does. They would whip up some new kind of creature to combat it. It would lose for some reason, to which Keeper transports the creation to somewhere else (much to the quiet bemoaning of the wildlife employee who has to go now deal with it). More and more blood trials are conducted, the roach coming out on top each time SOMEHOW. When Keeper tries to alter the roach in some way, it skitters away once more. For a moment Keeper is upset, but soon they go back to crafting less focused creations.

Hivemaster: 9/10 She would try and pull this same (poor) roach into her collective, another mind for the hive. It doesn't really work because...I mean come on it's a roach. So she crushes the thing under one of her many legs and skitters away herself. The roach is then able to patch itself up and go about it's business.

HR: -5/10 He is terrified of it. Not only does HE run away but he manages to stumble into Frank's domain and gets the living tar beat out of him (they are siblings have while HR is more on the slippery fake kind end, Frank is ready to throw hands at the drop of the hat).

Unemployment: 11/10 There is nothing left of the roach. The roach is no longer even on this same plane of existence. Information of the roach or even what a roach is, vanishes from the public's minds. There are no such thing as roaches. Never have been.

What a fun tag game!

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Monday, July 31, 2023

Note: Pee Wee Herman dies. 70. Cancer. Thinking back on his movie, "Pee Wee's Great Adventure"...that became a cult classic.

Bus to the East Side (have to see Dr. N, the "other" eye doc). On Third Ave groups of young Blacks, hustling weed. Sampling it. Bringing their stuff to upscale neighborhoods.

My visit to Dr. N a success. I tell him I am almost retired. Tell him I'm contemplating being a greeter at Walmart. He's a music enthusiast and amateur trumpet player. We talk about the "Real Book"...an essential for finding all the good jazz tunes. He says his two loves are music and eye surgery (!). (It is the latter that pays the bills. Frank Zappa is said to have said "Jazz is the music of unemployment.")

On leaving, my eyes having been dialated I suffer from the sun glare,I have a rough time...proceed carefully. At last home. And happy to be. In time my eyes are back to normal.

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Trump indicted in Jan 6 case. Jack Smith makes his pronoucement. Georgia and hush money and E. Jean Carroll, etc. will have to wait. Trump is supposed to show up on Thursday. He's a chicken; I can't imagine his showing up. This story takes over the news. Is hashed and rehashed. Trump, on his "site"...Truth Social (you have to love this name), says it's like Nazi Germany. His new lawyer rants about freedom of speech. ("If they can do this to an ex-president they can do it anyone," etc.) Trumpers are up in arms. Republicans, for the most part, are remaining silent. (Not Chris Christie. He's piling on.)

It is reported that thus far this year DJT has spent twenty million dollars on legal fees. Going through the donations that gullible followers have submitted.

As they say: Watch this space.

[fearsomeandwretched]

I really wish most democrats would stop pretending Everything is Fine :) The Economy is Great :) Look at Unemployment Numbers :) like nobody fucking cares to be quite frank. Most ppl don't like the direction our government is going in and are panicked about inflation and the upcoming recession. Not to mention Congress and scotus have basically pissed away ANY credibility they had in the last decade so most people have no faith or trust in 2/3rds of our government. Like this all needs to be addressed and often. Pretending like everything is fine while most Americans think things are falling apart and increasingly are having a hard time paying for basic necessities is NOT a good election strategy

[mariacallous]

Voters on Navajo, Apache, and Hopi reservations helped swing Arizona for the Democrats in 2020. In response, the Republican governor and state legislature have curtailed ballot access for an already marginalized constituency.

To vote in the 2020 Presidential election, Frank Young rode a horse to the polls in Kayenta, Arizona. He was fifty-eight years old, and it was the first time he’d ever cast a ballot. Young is a citizen of the Navajo Nation, the country’s most populous Native American tribe, with nearly four hundred thousand members. About forty per cent of them live on a reservation that spans more than twenty-seven thousand square miles, an area larger than West Virginia. When we met, not far from his home in Rough Rock, a small Native community tucked under the mesa where his livestock grazes, he was wearing cowboy boots and a wide-brimmed black hat that sat low over a broad face weathered from years tending his animals. Two years ago, when his daughter convinced him that another Trump Presidency would be disastrous for Native Americans, Young decided that the best way to “protect the sacred” was to travel into battle the way his ancestors had. “We used to use horses to fight our enemies,” he said. “So my idea was, We’re gonna beat red. And we’d do it on horseback, and the horses will carry our culture and our democratic tradition and that will help us get it back.” Forty other riders joined him on an eight-mile ceremonial ride to vote at the local chapter house, the seat of the tribal government, which doubles as a polling site.

There are close to five million Native Americans of voting age in the United States, but only sixty-six per cent of them are registered to vote. Young said that he previously chose not to participate in American elections because the state and federal governments—he called them “colonizers”—had oppressed his people for centuries, extracting their timber, minerals, and ore, and leaving them to languish on land stripped of its value. “I just felt that our votes didn’t matter,” he told me.

It was an explanation that I heard a lot as I made my way across Arizona’s Navajo, Apache, and Hopi reservations, where human habitation is sparse, and flat-topped mountains preside over scrubby grass valleys. Native Americans have the highest rate of poverty in the nation—around twenty-seven per cent. As the pandemic took hold, the rate of unemployment soared to nearly twenty-nine per cent, reaching rates not seen in this country since the Great Depression. What this looks like on the ground is stunning: whole communities that live in substandard housing and, in 2022, lack electricity and running water. A former state legislator from the region said, “If you were told that there’s a Third World country in the middle of Arizona, you would not believe it. Yet people here still have to haul water, they have to use kerosene lanterns, and they have to use outhouses.”

Vida Begay, a Navajo woman from Indian Wells, Arizona, explained that people there had to strap two-hundred-gallon plastic water tanks—each of which can cost upward of two hundred dollars—to the back of their vehicles, filling them every few days, even in the depths of winter, when they have the tendency to freeze and crack open. On an Apache reservation, in Whiteriver, Lydia Dosela told me that there are members of her community who, because they can’t afford transportation, hitchhike to the town of Pinetop-Lakeside, twenty-five miles away, to work. “If it’s a choice between paying for gas and feeding their family, they are going to feed their family,” she said. As we toured her village, where stray dogs roam in packs, we passed the remains of a community center that had burned down after its copper wires were stripped by vandals. Dosela pointed to a small, windowless, unheated shed, the prefabricated kind that is meant to store tools and other equipment, and said that five people had been living in it.

Both Begay and Dosela are organizers with Northeast Arizona Native Democrats, hired to educate their communities about elections, garner support for Democratic candidates, and encourage voting. It is challenging work. Poverty and geography have combined to create structural barriers that thwart voting on sovereign Native lands. Poor people in the United States vote less than those with higher incomes, generally, but the remoteness of many communities and a general lack of reliable transportation make voting even more difficult for many Native Americans. In Navajo County, for example, which covers ten thousand square miles, there are only seventeen ballot drop boxes and twelve early-voting sites. Because local election offices are underfunded, the hours that those sites are open are often limited. The million-and-a-half acre Hopi Reservation has just three places where people can vote in person on Election Day. Early voting by mail helps Native voters, but post-office boxes can cost money that people may not have, and, in communities where there are not enough boxes to go around, residents sometimes have no choice but to get their mail delivered to towns that are hours away. There are only eleven post offices and sixteen additional sites that provide postal services across the entire Navajo reservation in Arizona. By contrast, West Virginia has seven hundred and twenty-five.

“Most of the time, when you have a post-office box, it makes voting a lot easier,” Allison Neswood, an attorney at the Native American Rights Fund, told me. “But, for Native communities, that’s not necessarily the case. The ones that are more rural, more remote, are farther from post offices, and the same obstacles to picking up the mail—Are the roads passable? Does my family have a vehicle that I can use?—also create barriers to voting.” (The majority of roads in Navajo Nation are unpaved and, in some parts of the reservation, only one in ten people owns a car. ) For tribal members who do not speak or read English and need language assistance, voting in person is the only option. But, for those who live in, for example, Teec Nos Pos, which is ninety-five miles from the nearest polling location, or for members of the Kaibab Paiute tribe, who have to travel two hundred and eighty-five miles to an early-voting site, voting in person may not be an option.

This year, Frank Young will once again ride his horse to the polls. His daughter, Allie, meanwhile, who is a program manager at the social-justice nonprofit, Harness, is sponsoring rides to register and to vote in other parts of Arizona, as well as in rural Black and Latino neighborhoods in Texas and Georgia. In her own community, Allie Young said, the show of civic engagement is meant to highlight a long history of voter suppression that continues to stymie Native Americans’ access to the ballot box. “The spirit of the horse represents strength and healing,” she said. “When we put our trust in the horse, it takes us where we need to go.”

Neither the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibits both the state and federal governments from denying (male) citizens the right to vote based on race, nor the Snyder Act of 1924, which explicitly granted citizenship to Native Americans, enfranchised them in Arizona, because the Constitution left it up to the states to decide who could vote. That right wasn’t fully extended to Indigenous people residing in Arizona until 1948. Even then, state-sanctioned literacy tests continued to block many Native Americans from registering, until the practice was struck down by a Supreme Court decision in 1970, five years after the Voting Rights Act abolished such tests nationwide. At a campaign rally I attended in Cameron, a place known for its abandoned uranium mines and high rates of cancer, Theresa Hatathlie, a Navajo woman running for State Senate, told the crowd, “For a long time, my mother and my father were not allowed to vote. So when they were finally given that right, whether it was the primary, or the general, or a special election, no matter the distance, whether it was raining, snowing, hailing, they went to vote. They reminded us that our people, our ancestors, encountered all this hardship and all these challenges just to vote.”

In 2020, Native Americans, who comprise six per cent of the Arizona population, voted in numbers never before seen and are largely credited with turning the state blue. According to the Associated Press, voters on the Navajo and Hopi reservations cast seventeen thousand more votes in 2020 than they had four years earlier, a majority of them for Biden, who won the state by about ten and a half thousand votes. With Trump promising to reopen the uranium mines, seizing sacred lands, and threatening to renege on the 1868 treaty that allowed Navajos to return to their ancestral homeland, the prospect of a Republican victory was existential. Jordan Harvill, the national program director for Advance Native Political Leadership, an Indigenous-led nonprofit that works to increase Native American political representation, told me, “After years of chronic underinvestment and voter suppression in Native communities, Native voters proved to be a decisive voting bloc in 2020.”

Rather than trying to appeal to Native voters, the Republican legislature and governor are, instead, actively working against them. The 2021 Supreme Court decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, a case that originated in Arizona, essentially neutered the section of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits states from passing laws that result “in a denial or abridgement” of the right to vote “on account of race or color.” In an opinion written by Samuel Alito, the Court’s conservative majority ruled that a law passed by the Arizona legislature, which made it illegal for a person to return the ballot of a friend or neighbor to a drop box or polling location, and disqualified voters who cast ballots in the wrong location, did not violate the Voting Rights Act. In an amicus brief, lawyers for the Navajo Nation pointed out, “Arizona’s ballot collection law criminalizes ways in which Navajos historically participated in early voting by mail. Due to the remoteness of the Nation and lack of transportation, it is not uncommon for Navajos to ask their neighbors or clan members to deliver their mail.” The 2022 election will be the first time ballot collection will be outlawed. There is little doubt that it will suppress the Native vote.

The law’s prohibition against out-of-precinct voting is also likely to undercut Native representation. Indian reservations tend to lack street addresses—by one count, fifty thousand properties do not have a fixed address—so when people there register to vote they have to draw a map of where they live in order to be assigned to the correct precinct. But, in practice, this often leads to voters being placed in the wrong precinct or not getting a precinct assignment at all. Although they may be able to cast a provisional ballot, Arizona rejects provisional ballots more frequently than any other state, and a substantial number of those rejected ballots are from Indigenous communities. And though the state now allows voters to identify their domicile with a code from Google that uses latitude and longitude to create a shareable digital address, numerous challenges, starting with Internet access and poor cell service, make this difficult to implement on reservations. Casey Lee, a thirty-three-year-old Navajo chef, started registering voters in and around Kayenta after the pandemic forced him to shutter his food truck; he told me that he now spends much of his time finding Google codes for his neighbors.

Since the Brnovich decision, the legislature has continued to pass more laws that target Native Americans and other people of color, who tend to vote for Democrats. Voters now must “cure” ballots when there is a mismatch between the signature on file and the signature on the ballot by 7 P.M. on Election Day—previously, they had seven days to do so—a hurdle that is likely to be too high for most people living on reservations. Another law bans local election offices from receiving funding from outside organizations, despite chronic underfunding of those offices, especially on reservations. Two additional laws make it easier for registered voters to be removed from the voter-registration database. “The colonization of our people is not over,” the former state legislator told me. “And one of the most glaring forms is attacking our voting rights. It is the easiest way to take the power away from Indigenous communities. And so it continues to happen.”

Redistricting has also hit Native communities hard. Districts that were created to empower Native Americans have now been sliced and diced to mute Native voices. District 2, for instance, now encompasses sixty per cent of Arizona’s landmass, including fourteen of the state’s twenty-two tribes. It is the most Native voting district in the state. But the newly drawn map adds a large Republican county, diluting the Native vote and giving the advantage to white Republicans. This new map is a direct legacy of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby v. Holder, which effectively eliminated the provision of the Voting Rights Act that required the Justice Department to review changes to voting rules in states with a history of racial and ethnic discrimination before they could be adopted—what is known as “preclearance”—in order to insure that those changes would not harm minority voters. Without preclearance, states are now free to discriminate at will.

It was the twelfth day of early voting when I arrived in Dilkon, a town of fewer than two thousand people in the southwestern corner of the Navajo reservation. I followed a “Vote Here Today” sign to the town’s chapter house, an unassuming, dun-colored building on a dusty side road. The radio station KTNN, “the Voice of the Navajo Nation,” had set up in a parking lot a few hundred feet away, and was broadcasting a mix of country songs, tribal music, and exhortations to vote. Women crowded into a makeshift kitchen inside a horse trailer, preparing pozole, a pork-and-hominy stew. People arrived in fits and starts, most dropping off ballots before sitting down at folding tables to eat. Cindy Honani, an organizer from Mission for Arizona, a group funded by the Democratic Party, told me that it was the first time they had served hot food at a campaign event. The organizers hoped that both the stew and the presence of the radio station would draw a hundred people by day’s end. It was unseasonably cold—it snowed that morning—and people ate in a hurry and left. The mood was serious, not festive.

On the other side of the road was a neat row of compact houses. Begay told me that each one might have fifteen people living in it. That was the reason that COVID tore through the Navajo Nation, she said. (In May, 2020, there were more COVID cases per capita on the reservation than anywhere in the country.) “If one person got COVID, there was no place for them to isolate, so it went through the houses here like wildfire.” Masks are still required on the reservation, and, as I drove along Indian Route 15, it was not unusual to see hand-painted signs reminding people to wear them.

Missa Foy, the chair of the Navajo County Democrats, told me that, during the 2020 election, the pandemic had curtailed door-knocking and other traditional get-out-the-vote activities. “We had been on the ground since 2019, doing year-round deep canvassing, and when the pandemic hit we were not going to go out there and tell anyone to vote because it was just not the right thing to do,” she said. “So we came together as a team and said, ‘Let’s see who needs help. Let’s see what we can do.’ ” The group began connecting people with needed services, including meal boxes and P.P.E. “This wasn’t a branded effort,” Foy said. “We weren’t saying, ‘The Democratic Party is calling to save you.’ We just did it as community service.”

This effort was being run almost entirely by women. Later on, Foy and her colleagues decided to try to replicate it for voting, training community matriarchs on the ins and outs of voter registration and early voting, introducing them to candidates, and familiarizing them with the ten propositions that are on the midterm ballots. There are now a hundred and sixty-four matriarchs who have pledged to get their extended families to the polls. One of them, Lorraine Coin, a sixty-five-year-old Hopi woman I visited in Second Mesa, told me, “Women are the fire keepers of the house. When the kids come home from school, who is the first person they want to see? The mom, of course. And when the mom or grandmother or auntie talks, they are going to listen.”

Not long before I left Arizona, I drove around the town of Pinon with Suzy Etsitty, a medical-transportation driver who has worked to elect Democrats since 2014. Before that, she said, she “didn’t know crap about politics.” Now she regularly debates her Republican relatives, most of whom live off the reservation, about abortion, immigration, and inflation. And she can persuade her neighbors to register and vote because their lives depend on it. “I tell them that their social security is at stake,” she said. “That their rights are at stake. That we get funding from the government for our schools and our hospitals and for things like food stamps.”

Pinon is a dusty outpost of just over a thousand residents. As we drove, Etsitty, who lives out of town in a house built by her grandfather decades earlier, with her infirm mother and teen-age nieces, pointed out the public-school dormitory where she boarded until third grade. A housing development for the school’s teachers, many of whom have come to this isolated high desert from the Philippines, stood between the high school and a horse paddock. A sign welcoming visitors warned against social gatherings and listed other COVID prohibitions. Not far from the sole grocery store for nearly fifty miles, she showed me the post office where her midterm ballot was waiting for her, and the drop box where she would deposit it. “If Republicans get their way, they are going to do away with our voting rights,” she said. “That’s what really scares me.” ♦

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Warren William (born Warren William Krech; December 2, 1894 – September 24, 1948) was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, immensely popular during the early 1930s; he was later nicknamed the "King of Pre-Code". He was the first actor to play Perry Mason.

Warren William Krech's family originated in Bad Tennstedt, Thuringia, Germany. His grandfather, Ernst Wilhelm Krech (born 1819), fled Germany in 1848 during the Revolution, going first to France and later emigrating to the United States. He wed Mathilde Grow in 1851, and had six children. Freeman E. Krech, Warren's father, was born in 1856. Around the age of 25, Freeman moved to Aitkin, a small town in Minnesota, where he bought a newspaper, The Aitkin Age, in 1885. He married Frances Potter, daughter of a merchant, September 18, 1890. Their son Warren was born December 2, 1894.

Warren William's interest in acting began in 1903, when an opera house was built in Aitkin. He was also an avid and lifelong amateur inventor, a pursuit that may have contributed to his death.[2] After high school, William auditioned for, and was enrolled in, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York City in October 1915.

As his senior year at AADA was coming to an end, the United States had entered the First World War, and William enlisted in the United States Army. He was assigned from base to base, in charge of training new men at various locations, and in 1918 was assigned to Fort Dix near New York City, in New Jersey. While in New York, he met his future wife, Helen Barbara Nelson, who was 17 years older than he was. In October 1918 he left for France, to enter the war. William left the army in early 1919, after which he began working on his acting career. In 1923, he and Helen were married.

William, who appeared in his first Broadway play in 1920, soon made a name for himself in New York, and appeared in more than 20 plays on Broadway between 1920 and 1931. During this period he also appeared in two silent films, The Town That Forgot God (1922) and Plunder (1923).

He moved from New York City to Hollywood in 1931. The Village Voice called him "The King of Pre-Code". He began as a contract player at Warner Bros. and quickly became a star during what is now known as the 'Pre-Code' period. He developed a reputation for portraying ruthless, amoral businessmen (Under 18, Skyscraper Souls, The Match King, Employees' Entrance), crafty lawyers (The Mouthpiece, Perry Mason), and outright charlatans (The Mind Reader). These roles were considered controversial, yet they were highly satisfying. This was the harshest period of the Great Depression, characterized by massive business failures and oppressive unemployment. Movie audiences jeered at the businessmen, who were often portrayed as predators.

William did play some sympathetic roles, including Dave the Dude in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day, and a loving father and husband cuckolded by Ann Dvorak's character in Three on a Match (1932). He was a young songwriter's comically pompous older brother in Golddiggers of 1933. William was Julius Caesar in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra (1934; starring Claudette Colbert in the title role), and with Colbert again the same year as her character's love interest in Imitation of Life (1934). He played the swashbuckling musketeer d'Artagnan in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), directed by James Whale.

The studios capitalized on William's popularity by placing him in multiple "series" films, particularly as detectives and crime-solvers. William was the first to portray Erle Stanley Gardner's fictional defense attorney Perry Mason on the big screen and starred in four Perry Mason mysteries. He played Raffles-like reformed jewel thief The Lone Wolf in nine films, beginning with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939), and appeared as Detective Philo Vance in two of the series films,The Dragon Murder Case (1934) and the comedic The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939). He also starred as Sam Spade (renamed Ted Shane) in Satan Met a Lady (1936), the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon.

Other roles included Mae West's manager in Go West, Young Man (1936), a jealous district attorney in another James Whale film, Wives Under Suspicion (1938), copper-magnate Jesse Lewisohn in 1940's Lillian Russell, the evil Jefferson Carteret in Arizona (also 1940), and sympathetic Dr. Lloyd in The Wolf Man (1941). In 1945, he played Brett Curtis in cult director Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 modern-day version of Hamlet, called Strange Illusion.

In what would be his last film, he played Laroche-Mathieu in The Private Affairs of Bel Ami in 1947.

On radio, William starred in the transcribed series Strange Wills, which featured "stories behind strange wills that run the gamut of human emotion."

Although on-screen William was an actor audiences loved to hate, off-screen William was a private man, and he and his wife, Helen, kept out of the limelight. Warren and Helen remained a couple throughout his entire adult life. He was often described as having been shy in real life. Co-star Joan Blondell once said, "[He... was an old man – even when he was a young man.

Warren William died on September 24, 1948, from multiple myeloma, at age 53. His wife died a few months later. He was recognized for his contribution to motion pictures with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960.

[lynaguhar]

PERFORMANCE TASK #1

THEORIES ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP

We've already seen how entrepreneurship growth is influenced by a variety of factors. For this goal, various theories or models have been developed. Numerous philosophers have proposed various entrepreneurship development theories or entrepreneurial class development models. And these are some of the entrepreneurship theories we'd like to discuss.

1. Kaldor's Technological Theory

In the postwar era, Nicholas Kaldor was a Cambridge economist. Modern technology, according to Kaldor's Technological Theory, is a necessary component of production. As a result, the existence of technology is critical. Economic development would be slow and growth unlikely without current technology. Entrepreneurs are also expected to keep up with new technology and discover methods to incorporate it into their business.

As a result, efficient application of contemporary technology will increase the efficiency of goods and service production. In this notion, Nicholas Kaldor states that entrepreneurs must stay current with modern technology and discover methods to use it to their businesses. In the manufacturing process, modern technology is a critical component. Economic progress would be slow without modern technology, but growth is now projected. The proper implementation of current technology will increase the efficiency of products and service production.

In the video below, you can see how technology is enabling entrepreneurship and how it affects corporate operations. Business technology has allowed companies to expand their global reach. Also mentioned in the film is how innovation fosters business, and since technology facilitates this, we can conclude that business requires technology to thrive.

2. Alfred Marshall Theory

Alfred Marshall was one of the foremost vital economists of his time. In 1885 he became academician of economics at the University of Cambridge, where he remained until his retirement in 1908. His book, Principles of economics (1890), was the dominant economic textbook in European country for many years. It brings the concepts of provide and demand, utility, and costs of production into a coherent whole. Marshall is taken into consideration joined of the founders of neoclassical economics. Though' he took economics to a further mathematically rigorous level, he did not want arithmetic to overshadow economics so build economics unsuitable to the commoner.

To make economic science dynamic instead of static, Marshall used the tools of mechanics, as well as the construct of optimization. With these tools he, like neoclassic economists United Nations agency have followed in his footsteps, took as givens technology, market establishments, and people’s preferences. However Marshall wasn't glad along with his approach. He once wrote that “the Mecca of the economic expert lies in economic biology instead of in economic dynamics.” In different words, Marshall was contestation that the economy is an organic process during which technology, market establishments, and people’s preferences evolve in conjunction with people’s behavior. 

The video supports Marshall Theory by wanting us perceive however markets go with changes in offer or demand over time and brings the concepts of offer and demand, utility, and prices of production into a coherent whole.

3.  Risk and Uncertainty bearing theory

The risk and uncertainty bearing theory was established by Frank Hyneman Knight. In this theory, uncertainty and risk are the main and important factor in the production of goods and services in a business. An entrepreneur should anticipate possible random events to happen while shouldering the risk at the same time. If an entrepreneur should take on the risk, he/she will be rewarded with high profits. His theory determined that uncertainty in a business creates profit and the more uncertainty taken on, the more profit can be acquired. It states that risk-taking is an important dimension that differentiates entrepreneurs from ordinary workers.

 Entrepreneurs are a factor/agent of the production process that connects the producers and consumers. A true entrepreneur should take risks to expand and upgrade his/her business. This theory views entrepreneurs as bearers of uncertainty. It greatly emphasizes on the entrepreneur’s ability to make decisions under uncertainty. If entrepreneurs are willing to take on great uncertainty, they would achieve windfall profits when they succeed. 

The video below supports this theory because it shows the uncertainty of these business at first but these CEOs were risk-takers and strived to make their company’s success. This relates to the theory because the video showed the risks and uncertainties that the CEOs were facing. And the theory states that that uncertainty in a business creates profit and the more uncertainty taken on, the more profit can be acquired, which the CEOs have experienced. 

4.  Keynesian Theory

The Keynesian Theory is a macroscopic economic theory that examines total expenditure and its implications for production, employment, and inflation, and it distinguishes between economic conduct and market-based individual motivations. The Keynesian Theory focused on economic changes in the short run and was developed to explain the Great Depression. The Keynesian Theory is intended to provide a theoretical basis for government full-employment policies. 

Keynesian economics represents that the government should raise consumption to enhance growth. Consumer preferences, according to Keynesians, are the major driving factor in an economy. As a result, the idea advocates for budgetary expansion. Its primary instruments are national infrastructure expenditures, unemployment assistance, and education. One disadvantage of overdoing Keynesian programs is that it raises inflation.

The video presented supports the theory has said that it examines the implications for production, employment, and inflation. It shows how Brock spent his sums of money boosting aggregated demands, and started inflation, and Brock also mentioned that in the long run, we are all dead; that is why the Keynesian Theory focuses on economic changes only in the short run. The video supports the Keynesian Theory as it explains and has an example of the concept.

5.  Innovation Theory

The innovation theory was made by Joseph Schumpeter. He believed that innovation is the only key to an economic growth. According to Joseph Schumpeter, There are five primary roles to introduce innovation in any forms. These are the following; New product, New product method, New market, New supplier, and lastly New industry structure.

We all know that people now a days are engage into technologies. The video we have chosen is made by professor Wolter. This video helps us to create new products or new innovations they want to have an idea towards whom they should market the product.

Also this discuss the stages of innovative marketing and how it affects the market. Professor Wolter also includes that for every product being innovated there is a chance that some product will make a lot of money and the other ones will not. So when you adopt with this theory you must be aware of the majority of your products feedback. It will be so effective if you know who to target, know how to manage price, and had the confidence to promote your innovated product.

[12itcp1a-group5-entrep-pt1]

ENTREPRENEURSHIP PERFORMANCE TASK #1

An Educational/Informative Blog

12 ITCP 1A PROVIDENCE - GROUP 5

In this blog, we will discuss our chosen five (5) theories on entrepreneurship. These chosen five theories are further explained and are supported with videos

Without further ado, Here are our five theories on entrepreneurship.

1. Innovation Theory

Written by:

Remigoso, Marc Antoine T.

An economic theory during the 1930s, Joseph Schumpeter an Austrian economist established a theory called “Innovation Theory” where it states that innovation plays a big role in economic development. According to the video “Schumpeter Theory on Innovation” on YouTube posted by StudyVids, Schumpeter's Innovation Theory puts great emphasis on the significance of innovation in organizations, the primary element of economic change which results to creative destruction the concept which Schumpeter is focused on.

The creative destruction states that in order to generate profit, businesses should constantly innovate. Organizations are looking for ways to make the products satisfactory to consumers. Entrepreneurs must strive to become more innovative such as creating fresh and unique products to stay on top or maintain their market position. Thus, entrepreneurs must be competitive and are always trying to innovate in order not to go out of business.

In addition, Schumpeter also defined the meaning of innovation. To him innovation is the production of new products and the different aspect of obtaining and providing raw resources and mass production. Another is that, in attempt to maintain costs inside the enterprise so that greater profits are attainable, innovative manufacturing methods is applied. In conclusion, Entrepreneurs contribute a vital part; they propel economic development, growth, and creative destruction in the creation and marketing of innovative products.

 2. Keynesian Theory

Written by:

Piner, Blake Russ

Napisa, Marianne Joy Y.

Another economic theory called the “Keynesian Theory” by John Maynard Keynes states that economy can fail if consumers and investors spend too little. In the video, “Keynesian Economics Concepts Explained with No Math!” on Youtube posted by Korczyk’s Class simplifies Keynes’ idea. As aggregate demand increases, so does the economy. Where in such aggregate demand can be measured as the amount of expenditure by families, organizations, etc.

It all started with the Great Depression where a lot of people were unemployed. According to the video, the American unemployment rate skyrocketed between 20-25% in 1933. Keynes proposed that the government should put people back to work like having new projects such as buildings roads, new infrastructures, etc., that would lead to full employment. By generating more jobs, you are putting more money into people’s hands.

This is the driving force of the demand because people have the ability to spend money on goods and services. Through this action, money would be circulating in the economy, thus maintaining economic growth. In summary, Keynesian’s Theory greatly emphasizes the relationship between the government and the economic development. Government has the curial role in maintaining economic growth by spending money to minimize or recover from the effect of extreme economic hardships.

3. Weber’s Sociological Theory

Written by:

Pescadero, Dee Jay R.

Purisima, John Louie N.

Max Weber’s Sociological Theory states that entrepreneurship is greatly influenced by social variables or factors. These social factors are religion, ethics or morals, traditions, education level and many more. Based on the video “Theories on Entrepreneurship” on YouTube posted by Ch-10 Applied Sc, Allied Physical and Chemical sc introduced a theory which was also proposed by Max Weber, the Theory of Religious Belief which can be seen at 4:22 of the video.

According to the Theory of Religious Belief, religious beliefs are one of the main factors that affect entrepreneurialism. The video also discussed the theory’s important elements. Spirit of Capitalism a strict discipline, which is main factor that drives the entrepreneur to be motivated to start a new business by the ability to make money and the attitude towards getting money.

A second factor is the Adventurous Spirit, an unrestrained energy of desire which also influences entrepreneur’s attitude towards his/her goal to make profit. In conclusion, social factors, religious beliefs and its variables the Spirit of Capitalism and the Adventurous Spirit greatly influences entrepreneurs which also aids them in continuing their entrepreneurial activities.  

4. Risk and Uncertainty-bearing Theory

Written by:

Ramirez, Sheldan Brix B.

In Risk and Uncertainty-bearing Theory by Frank Hyneman Knight an American Economist he stated that the main function of an entrepreneur is to bear risk. Production entails a variety of hazards as well as other unexpected costs. In the video, “Entreprenurial Uncertainty and Risk” on YouTube posted by Oleksiy Osiyevskyy, He explains Frank Hyneman Knight’s Theory in more depth.

It is said that risk and the rate of profit is different from industry to industry. Profit is the reward for taking risk. Based on the video, uncertainty has been categorized into two types which are the insurable risks and non-insurable risk. Insurable risk is the risk whose statistical probability can always be computed like the risk of fire, theft and accident are known as insurable risks. These kinds of risks can be insured and can be reduced

Non-insurable or uncertainty risk refers to a risk that is neither certain nor predicted and cannot be avoided. Its statistical probability also cannot be computed. Uncertainty risk emerges as a result of the overall economy, innovations, unhealthy competition among business enterprises, changes in government policies, and so on. Overall, no one will take risks only if there is a reward to look forward to. The primary motivation for taking a risk is profit and that the only way to gain profit is by taking risks.

5. Kizner’s Learning Alertness Theory

Written by:

Ocampo, Ann R.

Pasague, Van Yanni D.

Kizner's Learning Alertness Theory was discovered by Israel Kizner a British-American economist and associated with the Austrian School Of Economics. Kizner's theory of entrepreneurship is alertness that through this it can make entrepreneurs more productive and alert in changing and spreading different strategies and knowledge of their own. Also this theory gives opportunities to the entrepreneurs to exploit the ignorance of the customers about their products.

Based on the video “Israel Kizner’s Theory of Entreprenuership – Austrian Economics with Steve Horwitz” on Youtube posted by Libertarianism.org. Steve Horwitz described how Israel Kirzner's contributed to the devolopment of austrian economics in a variety ways throughout the 1960s. He also stated that Kizner is referring to our abilities to see things that others have missed, such as grasping and being alert to opportunities, and successful entrepreneurship bringing market actors' expectations into greater coordination by using resources in ways that better satisfy wants.

To sum up, I believe that Kirzner is very conservative. His approach doesn’t talk about the entrepreneurs to create new products. Even though, new products will become more valuable and catches the interest of different consumers. He doesn’t want to break away the routine of the flow of the market’s supply and demand by introducing new products but to view his arbitrage theory of profit.

Submitted By: Group 5 12 ITCP 1A PROVIDENCE

Submitted To: Ms. Steffi Jane Tadlas

Group 5 Members:

Napisa, Marianne Joy Y. -Leader/ Reviewer/ Keynesian Theory

Ocampo, Ann R. - Kizner’s Learning Alertness Theory

Pasague, Yan Vanni D.  - Kizner’s Learning Alertness Theory

Pescadero, Dee Jay R. - Weber’s Sociological Theory

Piner, Blake Russ C. - Keynesian Theory

Purisima, John Louie N. -  Weber’s Sociological Theory

Ramirez, Sheldan Brix B. - Risk and Uncertainty-bearing Theory

Remigoso, Marc Antoine T. - Innovation Theory

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/17/2020: SPOOKIES

What do we watch, when we watch movies? This question was sparked by my SOV experience with the very different, and differently interesting BLOODY MUSCLE BODYBUILDER FROM HELL and HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5. Within the Shot On Video category, one can find inventive homemade features that are driven entirely by blood, sweat, and the creators' feeling of personal satisfaction. The results are sometimes fascinating, in their total alienation from the conventions and techniques of mainstream filmmaking, and after all, one rarely sees anything whose primary motivation is passion, here in the late stages of capitalism. But, all this talk about what goes on behind the camera points to a discrepancy in how we consume different kinds of production. The typical mode of consumption is internal to the movie: What happens in it? Do you relate to the characters? Are you able to suspend your disbelief, to experience the story on a vicarious level? One hardly needs to come up with examples of films that invite this style of viewing. Alternatively, we can experience the movie as a record of a time and place in which real people defied conventions and sometimes broke laws in order to produce a work of art. SOV production is usually viewed through this lens, where the primary interest is not the illusory content, but the filmmakers' sheer determination to create. We find some overlap in movies like EVIL DEAD, which simultaneously presents a terrifying narrative, and evidence of what a truly driven team can create without the aid of a studio, or any real money to speak of. See also, Larry Cohen's New York City-based horror films, in which a compelling drama with great acting can exist side by side with phony but beautiful effects, and exciting stories of stolen footage that would be dangerous or impossible to attempt today. I'm thinking about these different modes of consumption now because I just watched SPOOKIES, a legitimately cursed-seeming film whose harrowing production history has superseded whatever people think about what it shows on the screen. The lovingly composed blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome includes a feature-length documentary that attempts to explain the making of the film--which is accompanied by its own feature length commentary track by documentarists Michael Gingold and Glen Baisley. The very existence of this artifact suggests a lot about the nature of this movie, in and of itself. The truth behind its existence is as funny as it is tragic.

I'm not going to do a whole breakdown of the tortured origins of SPOOKIES, which is much better told by the aforementioned documentary. To summarize: Once upon a time in the mid 1980s, filmmakers Brendan Faulkner, Thomas Doran and Frank Farel conspired to make a fun, flamboyant rubber monsterpiece called TWISTED SOULS. It was wild, ridiculous, and transparently fake-looking, but it was loved by its hard-working creators; as a viewer, that soulful sense of joy can rescue many a "bad" movie from its various foibles. Then, inevitably, sleazoid producer Michael Lee stepped in--a man who thought you could cut random frames out of the middle of scenes to improve a movie's pace--and ruined it with extreme prejudice. Carefully crafted special effects sequences were cut, relatively functional scenes were re-edited into oblivion, and the seeds of hatred were sown between the filmmakers and the producer. Ultimately, everyone who once cared for TWISTED SOULS was forced to abandon ship, and first time director Eugenie Joseph stepped in to help mutilate the picture beyond all recognition. Thus SPOOKIES was born, a mangled, unloved mutation that would curse many of its original parents to unemployability. For the audience, it is intriguingly insane, often insulting, and hard to tear your eyes off of--but in spite of whatever actually wound up on the screen, it's impossible to forget its horrifying origin story as it unspools.

As far as what's on the screen goes: A group of "friends", including a middle-aged businessman and his wife, a vinyl-clad punk rock bully and his moll, two new wave-y in-betweeners, and...a guy with a hand puppet are somehow all leaving the same party, and all ready to break into a vacant funeral home for their afterparty. Well, this happens after a 13 year old runaway inexplicably wanders in to a "birthday party" in there, that looks like it was thrown for him by Pennywise, and he has the nerve to act surprised when he is attacked by a severed head and a piratey-looking cat-man who straight up purrs and meows throughout the picture. Anyway, separately of that, which is unrelated to anything, the island of misfit friends finds a nearly unrecognizable "ouija board" in the old dark house. Actually this thing is kind of fun-looking, having been made by one of the fun-havers on the production before the day that fun died, and I wonder if anyone has considered trying to make a real board game out of it...but I digress. Naturally, the board unleashes evil forces, including a zombie uprising in the cemetery outside, a plague of Ghoulie-like ankle-biters, an evil asian spider-lady (accompanied by kyoto flutes), muck-men that fart prodigiously until they melt in a puddle of wine (?), and uh...I know I'm forgetting stuff. One of the reasons I'm forgetting is because of this whole side story about a tuxedo-wearing vampire in the basement (or somewhere?) who has entrapped a beautiful young bride by cursing her with immortality. That part is a little confusing, not only because it doesn't intersect with the rest of the movie, but because sometimes it seems contemporary--as the bride struggles to survive the zombie plague--and sometimes it seems like a flashback, as our heroes find what looks like the mummified corpse of the dracula guy, complete with his signet ring. So, I don't know what to tell you really. Those are just some of the things that happen in the movie.

Some people like this a lot, and have supported its ascendance to cult status, which is a huge relief when you know what everyone went through to make this movie, only to have it ripped away from them and used against them. I found SPOOKIES a little hard to take, for all the reasons that the cast and crew express in the documentary. It holds a certain amount of visual fascination, whatever you think of it; something of its original creativity remains evident in the movie's colorful, exaggerated look, and its steady parade of unconvincing but inventive creature effects. But then, you have to deal with the farting muck-men. What was once a scene of terror starring REGULAR muck-men, that sounded incredibly laborious to pull off, became a scene of confusing "comedy" when producer Michael Lee insisted that the creatures be accompanied by a barrage of scatalogical noises. Apparently this was Lee's dream come true, as a guy who insisted everyone pull his finger all the time, and who once tried to call the movie "BOWEL ERUPTOR". But, of all the deformations SPOOKIES endured, the fart sounds dealt a mortal injury to the filmmakers' feelings, and even without knowing that, it's hard to enjoy yourself while that's happening.

Actually, all the farts forced me to ask myself: Is this...a comedy? Like for real, as its main thing? As the movie slogged on, I had to decide that it wasn't, but I was distracted by the notion for around 40 minutes. I was only released from this nagging suspicion when the bride makes her long marathon run through throngs of slavering zombies who swarm her, grope her, and tear off her clothes, before she narrowly escapes to an even worse fate. The lengthy scene is strangely gripping, and sleazy for a movie that sometimes feels like low rent children's entertainment. Part of the sequence’s success lies in its simplicity; it is unburdened by the convoluted complications of the rest of the movie, whose esoteric parts never fall together, so it seems to take on a sustained, intensifying focus. The action itself is unnerving, as the delicate and frankly gorgeous Maria Pechuka is molested and stripped nearly-bare by her undead bachelors, running from one drooling mob to another as the horde nearly engulfs her time and again. Actually, it feels a lot like a certain genre of SOV production in which, for the right price, any old creepy nerd can pay a small crew-for-hire to tape a version of his private fantasy, whether it's women being consumed by slime, or women being consumed by quicksand, or...generally, women being consumed by something. I wish I could describe this form of production in more specific or official terms, because I genuinely think it's wonderful that people do this. Anyway, Pechuka's interminable zombie run feels a little like that, and a little like a grim italian gutmuncher, and a little like an actual nightmare. Perhaps it only stands out against its dubious surroundings, but I kind of love it--and I'm happy to love it, because apparently the late Ms. Pechuka truly loved making SPOOKIES, and wanted other people to love it, too.

Which brings me to the uncomfortable place where I land with this movie. On the one hand...I think it's bad. It's so incoherent, and so insists on its impoverished form of comedy, that it's hard to be as charmed by it as I am by plenty of FX-heavy, no-budget oddities. Perhaps the lingering odor of misery drowns out the sweet joy that the crew once felt in the early days of creation--which is still evident, somehow, in its zany special effects, created by the likes of Gabe Bartalos and other folks whose work you definitely already know and love. But I feel ambivalent, about all of this. On the one hand, I can be a snob, and shit on people for failing to make a movie that meets conventional standards of success. On the other hand, I can be a DIFFERENT kind of snob--a more voyeuristic or even sadistic one--and celebrate the painful failures that produced a movie that is most interesting for its tormented history and its amusing ineptitude. I'm not really sure where I would prefer to settle with SPOOKIES, and movies like it. (As if anything is really "like" SPOOKIES) With all that said, I was left with one soothing thought by castmember Anthony Valbiro in the documentary. At some point, he tells us how ROSEMARY'S BABY is his personal cinematic comfort food; he can put it on at night, after an exhausting day, and drift to sleep, enveloped in its warm, glowing aura. He then says that he hopes there are people out there for whom his movie serves that same purpose, that some of us can have our "milk and cookies moment" with SPOOKIES. Honestly, I choke up just thinking about that.

[ungenuinehappiness]

Theories on Entrepreneurship

An Austrian-American economist and social theorist Joseph Schumpeter was born in Triesch, Moravia (that is now known the Czech Republic), and studied at Vienna University. In 1907, he began practicing law. After winning the recognition as an economic theorist, he taught economics for various periods at the universities of Vienna, Gernowitz (that is now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), Graz, and Bonn after 1909. After visiting the United States as an exchange professor at Columbia University in 1913 and at Harvard University in 1927 to 1931, he received a permanent faculty appointment at Harvard in 1932. Schumpeter achieved recognition for his theories about the vital importance of the entrepreneur in business, highlighting the entrepreneur's role in stimulating investment and innovation, thereby causing "creative destruction."  When innovation makes old ideas and technologies obsolete, this is where Creative Destruction occurs. His known books are The Theory of Economic Development (in 1911), Business Cycles (in 1939), Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (in 1942), and The History of Economic Analysis (in 1954).

https://vimeo.com/75421736

To begin with, it has mentioned that Schumpeter started with a reasonably representation of the Dynamic Model. It is an abstract simplified model of an economy as being in a circular flow. And if an economy is in an equilibrium in a circular flow, all of these flows are in a steady state. For him, the fundamental phenomenon that underlies economic growth is the disruption of the circular flow, and that occurs through innovation. He describes this phenomenon as a source of new combinations of existing resources. He explained the categories: the production of new goods and services; the creation of new methods of production; new production techniques; discovery/exploitations of new markets; finding new sources of raw materials; and the new industrial methods of organizations. This interruption that Schumpeter described results in an economic growth. Hence, this is done through the activities of the entrepreneurs. He defined the that entrepreneurs plays a crucial role in this process. They are the “disruptive innovator”. It was said that he also agreed to the argument of Karl Marx, a German economist, about the importance of the dynamics of innovation; the importance of the history and the culture in influencing diversity; how development happens; and the economic consequences of change.

  https://youtu.be/ZT2kICLatT8

Innovation results in economic change. We all know in this new era, a lot of innovation and changes has already been done but in this theory, the less successful you are in innovation you may go out of  business because its somehow the driving force. In this era of changes, in economic development, it’s a perfectly competitive economy just pure competitions, as what he defines innovation. First is New production method is to make new products and to introduce new products and gain much sales. Second is New market is to look for other alternative to get out of the cycle of competitions. Third is the New supplier it has the new approach for sourcing and people supplying raw materials and negotiating discounts. Lastly, the New industry structure it wants a new product and structure that can be different from others and it will cause abnormal profits than the usually normal. In conclusion, this video completely shows what Joseph Schumpeter means about innovation this video support every factor and development an entrepreneur must know it deals this clearly state the main idea and goal of the theory and how it can affect the social skill and mindset of an entrepreneur.

For more information, you can just visit: https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/economic-development/schumpeters-theory-economic-development/schumpeters-theory-of-economic-development-economics/30174

John Maynard Keynes is a famous and one of the most renowned British economist because of  his published works but he his best known for his Keynesian theories. The main objective of his theories is to aid for government increased expenses and lower demand of taxes and ascend the global economy out from the great depression. As Keynes famous line “ in the long run we are all dead” and it was misinterpreted as a YOLO quotes about seizing the moment but he was referring to the inflation and the quantity theory of money,  in a different view of classical economics to Keynesian economics, Keynesian believe that consumers demand is the primary driving force in an economy in his academic perspective demand creates supply and that supply creates demand. Though there is a debate of  wether it worth spending to stimulate the economy and how much do they spend but the main goal here about Keynesian policies like every policies have a trade of that being said that the Keynesian policies of increase in government during financial crisis remarkably reduce the depth and length of the Great Depression.

https://youtu.be/hPkh8kOldU4

The great depression change everything all of a sudden its 25% unemployment that one in four losing a job.

What really drives a capitalist economy?

People have money and that people is spending that money in the economy people spend money in services and grow that’s what allow business to grow to the economy.

John Maynard Keynes proposed during the great depression that the government should spend more money in peoples hands, driving up demand. His ideas is now often called demand-side economics  and through government action, recessions can be minimized while maintaining steady economic growth. In this video the clear overview and explanation about John Maynard Keynes and his Keynesian theory is shown and well discuss it explains more about how the great recession started and how it ended, the unemployment of the people and the fact of a low economy is being said in the video and it supported the Keynesian theory.

Alfred Marshall a well known and one of the most influential English economist after publishing the principles of  economics in 1890. His books contains a scientific explanation of  notion such as supply, demand and marginal utility. The principles of economics has four factors of production  (land, labor, capital, and organization). Land deals with natural resources, everything has its natural resources but some mad an enhancement and developed it to something better and greater . Labor deals with mental and physical skills it takes physical efforts and services to labor something. Capital deals with the machineries and tools to produce good quality product and lastly is the organization it coordinates all the elements.

https://youtu.be/oTd0nQeW05U

As we all know The Principles of  Economics is equal to fundamentals of truth in which economics is established. It can be categorized under, how people makes opinion  as for the fact that some people trades something to get another and its all on what you give to get it. Second is on how people interact,  trading can make a better off  and lastly, how the economy as a whole, a nation that can produce goods and services demand its wealth and that’s where it meets the peoples marginal utility its all in the consumers satisfaction and most best outcome of it is the inflation and unemployment is in the short run. Therefore this video supports the theory of Alfred Marshall for it discuss on point matter about the improvement of the economy and the clear and precise over view of the principles of economics.

Frank Hyneman Knight (born November 7, 1885, White Oak township, McLean county, Illinois, U.S., died  on April 15, 1972, Chicago, Illinois), was an American economist who spent most of his work times at the University of Chicago, an became one of the founders of the Chicago School. Knight made his reputation with the book which was based on his Ph.D. dissertation, Risk, Uncertainty and Profit In it, Knight set out to elaborate why competitions would not necessarily eliminate profits. The book was published in 1921, is one of his most important contributions to economics. In that book, he makes an important difference between uninsurable and insurable risks. According to Knight, profit that is earned by the entrepreneur who makes decisions in an uncertain environment, is the entrepreneur’s reward for bearing uninsurable risk.

https://youtu.be/3-Rk9OpYyKY

To start the following theories, one should know how to distinguish risk from uncertainty. On this video, the speaker explained how Frank H. Knight establishes the way how risk differentiates from uncertainty. “Risk as the ‘known unknows’, things that exist and can be measured. Uncertainties, however, are the ‘unknown unknowns’, things that do not exist yet and can not be measured.”

Risk Bearing Theory

It suggested that it depends on the risk-taking behavior of the entrepreneur that he/she gather his/her profit. How the entrepreneur efficiently manage the risks is the main determiner of the amount of profit he/she gains, not on the amount of risk borne by him/her.

More information on: https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/theories-of-profit/top-7-theories-of-profit-with-criticisms/21072

https://youtu.be/vAzj_CBgSPk

Uncertainty Theory

The speaker stated that according to Frank Knight, uncertainty is the paid reward to the entrepreneur, not for bearing the risk but for undertaking the uncertainty. He argues that risks are purely physical in nature and therefore, they can be seen in advance and can be protected against. Such risks are taken cover by the insurance. But there are uncertainties in every business that can not be covered by measured insurance. The speaker aforesaid a list 4 examples of risks enlisted by Knight. Starting off with the risk due to the Competitors. Any business worth has the risk expected to the increase in number of competitors. The changes in vital firms, marketing, strategies, improvement in the quality and management, decrease in the cost of production, and many more. Then the risk caused by the Trade Cycle. Most of the business firms suffer the loss due to the decrease in the demand for good and services during the recession and depression. Followed by the risk rooted by the changes in policy of the government. Any firm may suffer loss because of the government may change its policy related to investment, export, taxes, and many more. And lastly, The risk due to the Technological changes. Technology advances with flight of time. If any firm failed to adjust to the change of this aspect, they may suffer deficiency. Thus, the term risk is applied to those dangers which can be seen in advance and which can be insured against. But the term uncertainty is applied to those dangers which is can not be foreseen and can not guarantee accomplishment. It is for the those uncertainties that the entrepreneur is rewarded with profit. Concluding on Profit is the reward for uncertainty bearing.

Israel Meir Kirzner (born on February 13, 1930) is a British-born American economist. Kirzner was born in London and by way of South Africa, he reached United States. After studying at the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1947 to 1948 and with the University of London External Programme in 1950 to 1951, he received his B.A. summa cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1954, and an MBA in 1955 and a Ph.D. on 1957 from New York University, where he studied under Ludwig von Mises. Kirzner's research on entrepreneurship economics is widely recognized. His book, the Competition and Entrepreneurship reviews as a western cultural theory for its model of development that preoccupied it, which neglects the significant role of entrepreneurship in economic diversity. Kirzner's work integrating entrepreneurial action into neoclassical economics has been more widely accepted than any other Austrian idea of the early twenty-first century.

https://youtu.be/Bu-i1q8LVvA

The speaker said what Kirzner stated in his theory that what causes knowledge to grow and spread is our alertness to opportunities that permit us to “grasp pure profit”. He is referring to the ability to see ways of doing things that others have overlooked. Entrepreneurship, for him, is about seeing possibilities not given by data. Rather than optimizing based on a given framework, it is the act of seeing new means-end relationships. An ability to notice the world that you thought it was, turns out to be the opposite. In the market, these moments of entrepreneurship  amounted the discovery of knowledge that otherwise not exist. Entrepreneurship is a moment of discovery. It is important to comprehend and understand for Kirzner that discovery is not the same as search, it is not looking for something that we know is out there, but the moment of genuine surprise realizing that we did not know what it was we didn’t know. Get it? “Discovery is a moment of realization of knowing what is not known. These are the moment of entrepreneurship. If this is successful, it also brings the expectations of market actors into greater coordination by using resources in ways to better satisfy wants.” He also emphasized that entrepreneurship and competition are the two sides of coin. As long as people are free to envision alternative uses of resources and act on that vision, markets are competitive. What they mean by competition, he argued, is not the perfectly competitive market of mainstream economics, where people react passively to given prices and cost curves or where there is a large number of small firms. But instead, competition refers to the process by which people constantly engage their entrepreneurial alertness to see the world in new and better ways. Viewing competition as discovery procedure is more helpful for understanding the world.

[nonbinaryhatboxghost]

A few years ago, before I came back to LA, I watched a movie called Frank with a friend visiting from out of town.

That movie is about a mediocre musician who joins an eccentric but talented band, and over the course of the movie, begins to corrupt their creativity so that they can become commercially successful. (that’s an oversimplification but the general point)

The movie ends with the mediocre musician reuniting the band with each other, and leaving them so they can be their naturally creative selves.

My friend observed that the ultimate point of the movie was that sometimes the best thing you can do for everyone is leave. (I’m paraphrasing and he may actually see this, so please correct me if I’m inaccurately representing your thoughts, dude)

I have been without steady income for the last couple of months because I still haven’t found work and the EDD still hasn’t sent me any unemployment benefits. I’ve had a lot of time to myself to observe and think over my limited experiences with the entertainment industry.

And I’ve realized that I don’t think I want to be part of it anymore. Even if I did, I have also realized that I just don’t have anything interesting or unique to do or say in this field.

I spent the last month or so working on a review of the Snyder cut, and after I finally posted it, I didn’t feel any sort of satisfaction. All I had done was write yet another rant (with a great deal of assistance from a couple friends) about a goddamn superhero movie. I looked back at other rants and reviews I’d written and... those kinds of movies, franchise movies, were all I’d ever really written about. And none of those reviews were particularly good or interesting.

I’ve done film set work in the past, and I hated it. I’ve written scripts for school and worked on some others with friends. And I just don’t have the Thing, or whatever you want to call it. The drive, the talent, the voice, whatever. I don’t have it. I am surrounded by friends out here that have it, and I admire them very much. But I don’t think that I have anything meaningful to contribute other than support.

I don’t know what this means for me now. I know I have to find work/income somewhere, but apart from that... I don’t have a clue what I am going to do with myself.

But I think it’s time that I stop pretending I belong in the entertainment world. I keep thinking back to my development internship where I was told by my very nice boss to “get out of this business as fast as you can,” and between that and all of the multiple horrible things I’ve become aware of over the last couple years regarding this industry, I have no interest in it anymore.

I’m not saying that I plan to leave LA anytime soon, and my love for films and TV hasn’t gone anywhere. I just don’t think that I am someone who makes or works on them.

I need to grow up a bit and figure out something to do that makes me happy. And, more importantly, I need to find something that will keep a roof over my head.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Pluralistic: 16 Mar 2020 (Trump wants a US-only vaccine, Covid at Home, tips for laid-off techies, Tiktok's secret moderation guidelines, Corona Bar Mitzvah, Shmoocon 2020 videos)

Today's links

Covid At Home: A guide for isolation, illness and recovery

Trump wants a US-only vaccine: Reality has a well-known globalist/collectivist bias.

Folding@Home to beat covid: 23 distcomp projects to give your CPU to.

Italian hospitals fix their ventilators with 3D printed parts: Fablabs to the rescue.

How to prepare for coming layoffs: A guide for techies junior, senior and prickly.

Leaked Tiktok moderation guidelines are a censoring mess: No poors or ugly people welcome.

Canceled Bar Mitzvah is still a mitzvah: Today I am a mensch.

Shmoocon 2020 videos online: Hours of entertainment and infosec funnies.

This day in history:

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Covid At Home (permalink)

Dutch hacker and XS4ALL cofounder Rop Gonggrijp and artist Vera Wilde have produced Covid At Home, an open-access guide to staying healthy, treating illness, and general pandemic preparedness.

https://covid-at-home.info/ It's an excellent, sober, accessible guide, produced with help from medical professionals.

They're seeking help to translate it into other languages as well. German edition coming next.

Trump wants a US-only vaccine (permalink)

The Trump administration has offered "large sums" to a German manufacturer for US-only access to a potential covid-19 vaccine

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/15/trump-offers-large-sums-for-exclusive-access-to-coronavirus-vaccine

According to Die Welt, Curevac has made progress on the vaccine, and the Trump admin is seeking access "but for the US only."

The company's recently departed CEO, Daniel Menichella, is a US citizen who recently visited the White House.

The Trump administration's failure to understand our shared collective microbial destiny is emblematic. Trump epitomizes the neoliberal sociopathy of "enlightened self-interest" and "meritocracy" and the belief that "there is no such thing as society." It's a pathology as dangerous as any virus, and could yet kill us all. Immunizing America against coronavirus only works if

The vaccine is perfect (they never are) and

The US blocks all entry into the country by unvaccinated people (which it cannot do).

Instead of figuring out how to orient 100% of US capacity to producing enough vaccine to eliminate the virus worldwide, Trump is engaged in isolationist, superstitious fantasies.

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1238180609899429889

Within hours, Curvac had told Trump to go fuck himself and announced that any vaccine they produce will be available worldwide.

https://twitter.com/SWRAktuellBW/status/1239225432739844097

Folding@Home to beat covid (permalink)

Since the year 2000 (!), Folding@Home has been harnessing the power of idle personal computers to do scientific work on protein folding, using donated cycles to improve science. Now they're running 23 (!!) projects to help improve our scientific understanding of covid-19.

"We're simulating the dynamics of COVID-19 proteins to hunt for new therapeutic opportunities."

They've already used this to locate sites in the Ebola protein that can be targeted by therapeutics.

https://foldingathome.org/2020/03/15/coronavirus-what-were-doing-and-how-you-can-help-in-simple-terms/

Download your Folding@Home client here (Mac/Win/Lin)

https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/

Then choose your simulation from here. Be prepared to wait for your computer to be given work – they're overwhelmed with cycles at the moment.

https://apps.foldingathome.org/psummary

Italian hospitals fix their ventilators with 3D printed parts (permalink)

A Brescia hospital urgenty needed valves for their ventilators. A journalist contacted the local Fablab, who contacted a local 3D printing expert who came to the hospital, redesigned the part, and printed a replacement on the spot.

https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/covid-19-3d-printed-valve-for-reanimation-device/

Within a day, 10 patients were breathing with respirators incorporating 3D printed parts.

How to prepare for coming layoffs (permalink)

It's not outlandish to prepare for a recession (and hence layoffs) as a result of Covid-19. And while techies have a robust labor-market relative to other sectors, tech-workers are not immune from mass layoffs when their employers contract sharply or shut down altogether.

Jacob Kaplan-Moss has been here before and has some tips for techies to prepare for unemployment. He points out that the highest layoff risk comes to juniors (unprotected and easy to jettison), seniors (highest paid), and prickly people (politically easier to lay off) and underperformers (obvs).

https://jacobian.org/2020/mar/13/layoffs-are-coming/

How do you prep for layoffs? First, try to have 1 year's savings in the bank (advice from the 2000 dotcom crash). You probably can't do this, but start saving now. Cancel all nonessential expenses.

Next, update your resume. When layoffs start cascading, being ready to start applying for jobs can give you a head-start over your competition.

Kaplan-Moss suggests setting aside an hour every quarter to update your CV – this is good advice generally, as you never know when someone will ask for your resume (periodically I have to produce one for a visa or a grant, for example).

Practice interviews, using online resources, like this one:

https://eng-hiring.18f.gov/

In addition, contact your "professional network" and start feeling them out;Tb and brush up on your tech skills.

Leaked Tiktok moderation guidelines are a censoring mess (permalink)

There's a lot going on in The Intercept's deep dive into two leaked set of moderation guidelines from Bytedance, parent company of Tiktok, ably reported (as ever) by Sam Biddle.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/tiktok-app-moderators-users-discrimination/

First is a confirmaton of Tiktok's policy of telling moderators to downrank videos from unattractive, fat, old or poor people, and signs of poverty. Homes need to have "no obvious slummy charactor" (sic), without a "crack on the wall" or "old and disreputable decorations."

The reasoning is clear "This kind of environment is not that suitable for new users for being less fancy and appealing" (overweight, poor, old or unattractive users lower the tone). Tiktok spox Josh Gartner said these were to prevent bullying, (but they don't mention bullying).

The leaks are pretty frank about their ableism and lookism, banning "low quality" traits including "abnormal body shape," "ugly facial looks," dwarfism, "obvious beer belly," "too many wrinkles," and "eye disorders."

They also ban "slums, rural fields" and "dilapidated housing."

The flipside of this is that Tiktok mods secretly contacting influencers to clue them in on secret moderation criteria that might get them downranked or banned, creating a group of insiders who are protected from the arbitrary, shadow regulation regime other Tiktokers never see.

That shadow regime is documented in a second set of leaks, which details the subjects and views that can get you kicked, suspended or downranked from the platform. Anything that embarrasses or upsets China is obviously out, like Falun Gong or Tiananmen.

Beyond that, livestreams of encounters with cops, videos that criticize the military, or criticism Tiktok itself are all lifetime bannable offenses – while racism and hate speech get you a one-month suspension.

Also revealed: Tiktok has a bunch of fake accounts maintained by its own staff, who gank influencer videos from Instagram that look classy and fun, as a way of shifting the content mix on the platform.

But even as these accounts were focusing on tags like "#BeachGirl," actual Tiktok users who posted pictures of themselves in swimwear faced temporary or permanent bans.

(You can get a permanent ban for wearing a garment that reveals "outline of female nipples").

There's also a "voice vulgarity" category of guidelines, including bans for "Singing or playing music pornography contents, sexual cues, etc," or "discussing the topic of sexual reproduction." You can also get banned for flipping the bird – but only if you do it more than twice.

Tiktok's appeal is that they use secret sauce to elevate accounts with few followers and share them with millions of viewers. The legend is that this is a way to rocket the humble but meretricious to fame, but the leaks reveal that no olds, fats, or poors need apply.

Canceled Bar Mitzvah is still a mitzvah (permalink)

A heartwarming story of "Covered Dish" behavior in the time of coronavirus! "Friends canceled their son's Bar Mitzvah this weekend but decided to keep the contract with their caterer, a tiny Hmong-owned business. They delivered the food to friends in quarantine & sent pans home with others."

https://twitter.com/mrotzie/status/1239249970458484736

(Image: Eli, CC BY)

Shmoocon 2020 videos online (permalink)

It's been years since I last attended a Shmoocon, but holy moly, is it ever a great annual infosec con. They've just put the 2020 videos online, which affords you plenty of viewing for your lockdown pleasure.

You might have already heard about Samantha Mosely's presentation about how she and her teen friends defeat Instagram's privacy invasions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTCBEimhXMM

Here's some gnarly stuff: securing satellites and space-base comms, presented by three researchers styling themselves Yakko, Wakko and Dot (swoon!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR_H9_pnyDc

Feed your inner technothriller writer with this one, on "anti-forensics" ("the practice of modifying or removing data so that others cannot find it later during an investigation").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSmsiSvvAQs

How NGOs – and you at home – can use "open source intelligence" to help support human rights and survivors of human rights abuses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRzGiR4DS7w

A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure guide to surviving ransomware attacks, using data gleaned from real attacks and recoveries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkNFUQrg_GA

Analyzing the effects of 200 data-breaches on public companies' share prices (shareholder capitalism won't save us from overcollection, overretention and bad security).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdxiwpACwYc

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Apple steals iTunes customers' paid-for rights to stream https://web.archive.org/web/20050405225837/http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21866

#15yrago My talk from ETECH: All Complex Ecosystems Have Parasites https://craphound.com/complexecosystems.txt

#15yrsago ETECH Notes: Folksonomy, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mess (Schachter, Wales, Shirky and Butterfield) https://craphound.com/etech2005-folksonomy.txt

#15yrsago ETECH Notes: Feral Robotics and Some Other Quacking, Shaking, Bubbling Robots (Natalie Jeremijenko) https://craphound.com/etech05-feral.txt

#10yrsago Downloadable 3D cover for MAKERS is now also an article of commerce https://www.shapeways.com/product/Z55YYHW5P/cory-doctorow-makers-cover-3d-print

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: Geoff MacDougall (https://twitter.com/taliesan), Bleeping Computer (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com), Javier Candiera (https://twitter.com/candeira), Four Short Links (https://www.oreilly.com/feed/four-short-links), Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/).

Currently writing: I've just finished rewrites on a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I've also just completed "Baby Twitter," a piece of design fiction also set in The Lost Cause's prehistory, for a British think-tank. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel next.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last month, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs"; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/03/13/when-sysadmins-ruled-the-earth-2/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583

[globrights]

iasip s2 rated by macdennis content

Charlie Gets: Mac and Dennis decide to pretend to be handicapped by going around the mall in wheelchairs, but after you see their stupid squabbles and fights over who gets to have polio and you see them brawl it out in the middle of a shopping mall, plus that scene where Mac just sighs and puts his head in his hand and his other hand on Dennis... you realize the whole thing is just a very elaborate Intricate Ritual. A very horrible one, for sure, but still. Dennis drunkenly whines to Mac about his dead stuffed elephant and it prompts Mac to want to go to a strip club despite previously being perfectly happy to get drunk with Dennis alone in the bar. Mac ordering Dennis to drive them to the strip club and Dennis talking about how he’s gonna buy both Mac and himself lap dances at the strip club is indicative of how Dennis has been sugar daddying Mac for years yet he’s also a little gay baby who does whatever Mac tells him to. At this point in their relationship. rcg please bring this back. 9/10

The Gang Goes Jihad: “You’re an idiot.” “You’re an idiot.” Mac and Dennis are both big stupid and they have no rights. 8/10

Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare: Mac gets mad at Dennis and Dee when they go on unemployment. At the end when Frank calls his kids crackheads, Mac gives Dennis a somewhat comforting tap on the shoulder. 5/10

Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom: Mac has sex with Dennis’ mom. There are a lot of layers to this, but many suggest that Mac really just wants to bang Dennis. They get into a brawl on the grass. Lots of touching. 8.5/10

Hundred Dollar Baby: “Oh yeah, you’re like, the second toughest guy I know.” I refuse to discuss this episode. Mostly because I don’t know what the hell is going on. What was happening here? Mac and Dennis are trying to fuck Charlie, they’re trying to fuck each other, they’re wearing matching outfits, they’re going to street fights together? They seem to be very turned on by the prospect of inflicting pain on Charlie maybe? I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. 9/10

The Gang Gives Back: Mac and Dennis are that couple that will fight like cats and dogs and then five seconds later say shit like this: “Great, Dennis and I will coach a team,” and then sweetly fist bump and then be so confused when they get split up... 8.5/10

The Gang Exploits a Miracle: Not much going on here :( But Mac does look mildly concerned when Dennis asks Cricket if his face looks fat, although at the end when Dennis passes out Mac is the one to suggest that Cricket teabag Dennis. 2/10

The Gang Runs For Office: Mac nominating Dennis to be their election candidate and complimenting Dennis’ “Kennedy Hair” which makes Dennis get this shy look as he touches his hair... wow... 8/10

Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody’s Asses: Wearing matching shirts? Rainbow necklaces? Leaning in so close to talk to each other? 9.5/10

Dennis and Dee Get a New Dad: Some scattered bickering and insults thrown around here and there. 3/10

[onthecue]

Alone/Together: On love, dreams, and life

Alone/Together officially hit the cinemas last February 13 and quite a lot of people were intrigued by the movie – including me. The movie’s teaser made the audience feel like it’s something worth watching. A lot of people even created theories, which made me, and perhaps others too, eager to watch it. But to be honest the official trailer kind of ruined everyone’s curiosity as they somehow gave away the plot and refuted all the theories created. I still gave this movie a chance despite of it all and I’m glad I did. 

So what are my takeaways? [Warning! Spoilers ahead.]

1. It’s okay to feel lost in your 20′s.

Christine (Liza Soberano) was once so hopeful about her dreams. With a Magna Cum Laude standing, she dreamt of changing the world. She was so sure of what she wanted to become in life. Five years later, it dawned on her that her dreams weren’t really that simple and easy to achieve. 

“Hindi ko alam anong nangyari,” Christine uttered. While she was sitting on the same spot where she used to dream, a lot has changed about her and she felt like a complete failure.

The movie didn’t sugarcoat anything about this reality – the curse of "adulting.” That even the smartest students, the overachievers, and the goal-getters will get lost while navigating through adulthood. All of a sudden, you won’t have it all figured out anymore. You will make choices that can make or break your future. You slowly lose sight of who you are and what you want to be. And that’s okay.

Because somehow, you will be led to where you’re truly meant to be, despite the number of detours that you experience in life. I believe that you will end up doing what you truly want to do and where you will be happy – especially if you will be brave enough to chase after your dreams. Just never lose sight of your principles, your goals, and ambitions. Take it one step at a time.

2. College grades don’t necessarily equate to success.

Raf (Enrique) is an average student in the movie. He had mediocre grades. He was delayed for graduation and he was struggling to finish his degree. Contrary to Tin (Liza) who is a straight A student who graduated on time with Latin honors.

Right after college, Raf became a successful doctor while Tin struggled to keep her career in tact, due to the decisions she made. She became part of a huge scam which ruined her credentials. The movie showed that grades don’t really define who you are and they aren’t the ticket to success. 

3. Serve the country.

“Pera ng gobyerno ang ginastos sa pag-aaral mo tapos dayuhan makikinabang sayo? Que horror!” 

These words were one of the highlights of the movie for me. It strucked me. Christine’s professor and mentor exclaimed this strong statement to her. In her defense, she just wanted to gather experience and knowledge so she can come back and apply everything back here at home – in her own country. But her professor said that a lot of people have said that, but they never came back because of the money and comfort that foreign countries offered.

It’s quite hard to love our country, to be frank especially with the rising inflation rate, EJKs, low minimum wage, unemployment rate, and all the toxicity that I read daily all because of politics. I was once that fresh graduate who opted to work abroad because I knew that I would have a higher salary and give my parents a better retirement, without thinking that I would use my skills for the benefit of another country. 

Alone/Together somehow encouraged its viewers to serve the Philippines. With Raf's choice to serve the barrios as a doctor. It made me realize the importance of staying in the country and serving fellow Filipinos despite the struggles in succeeding in our country. I guess it will be a battle between patriotism and greed.

The movie made me love and appreciate our country – its history, art, culture and everything else in between.

4. That one great love comes once in a lifetime.

It comes only once and while we’re at it, be sure to make everything worthwhile so we won’t have regrets. 

When that one great love doesn’t stay with you, accept the fact that perhaps it happened for a reason. Sometimes, we tend to be fixated on that “great memory” and we forget why we didn’t work out with the person. Know when to let go – especially when you are currently in a relationship. STOP CHASING AROUND YOUR EX.

Perhaps that’s my least favorite part about the movie. When Tin and Raf sneaked around behind their partners’ backs. But it still taught me a lesson regarding the things that I shouldn’t tolerate. We shouldn’t normalize acts like these because other people’s feelings are at stake too. 

5. Communication is the key.

When you are in a relationship, learn to communicate properly. Your partners aren’t mind readers. Also they are called “PARTNERS” for a reason. Even if it seems like your problems are too much to take, learn to share it with your significant other. Never feel like you’re a burden. You should work together – may it be in your highs or lows. 

6. Be true to what you want. Stop forcing things that don’t make you happy.

Life is short. Chase after your what-ifs, especially if it’s related to your life goals. It’s never too late to make those dreams come true, no matter how crazy they may seem. Do not waste seconds of your life in people or situations where you feel unhappy. Matuto kang maging malaya at magpalaya. 

If there’s one thing I learned in life, you have to be true to what you want and your actions will follow through towards achieving that goal. Somehow, the universe will make away and help you reach your dream – only if you truly, genuine desire it.

Overall, Alone/Together was a huge success. Not everyone loved the movie but I guess it’s because they didn’t watch it with an open mind. Some parts of the movie weren’t that appealing to me too, but I chose to look at it as a chance to learn.

I think it’s a good movie that’s not all about the “happily ever after” that local cheesy films used to offer. It taught me a lot about life, going after what your heart truly desires, and never giving up on people who matter to you. 

The movie is realistic. It showed us that in life, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. Nothing is ever absolute. Even if you had your life all mapped out and planned out, circumstances that are uncertain may take a toll on us. We may fail through life, have countless detours, and lose ourselves in the process. But rather than dwelling on the failures, we must rise above and focus on what we can do. Life may be difficult. But wherever you are, let it teach you something. Be kind to yourself on the journey and the process of becoming.