#which means that the sponsors have paid $$$$$$ for exclusive naming rights

[rickybaby]

The company name is indeed Racing Bulls

[st-just]

A Setting: The City of Sethennai

Because I’ve spent long enough tinkering on this that I might as well share it with a population of more than a half-dozen potential players. Also it could almost certainly use an editing pass, and I don’t want to lose it all next time my computer dies.

So, a collection of densely packed plot hooks in the shape of a city

City History

The City of Sethennai is quite possibly the oldest city in the world, or at least the oldest still inhabited. When the first Dwarfs and Goliaths fled the Titans for the coast, they found ziggurats already rising from the water and tunnels dug beneath their feet, ruined by some already ancient cataclysm. Supported by fertile soil and full waters, they built their own city over it, and welcomed their own gods to it, a center of resistance to the Titanomarchy that became an empire in its own right.

Centuries passed and power drifted inland, to the mountain palaces of the Titans’ Giant heirs and the divinely appointed heroes who sometimes overthrew them. The City was rich, but peaceful, its soldiers only raised when one princess or another took it as a capital during a civil war. Such was the case when the first ships appeared from the East.

The adventurers from the League of Free Cities had been spurred across the sea by visions of fortune and glory, overwhelming the defenders with armies of goblin slaves and the ability to evoke demons far beyond what they could deal with. Their leader Sethennai proclaimed himself Emperor and renamed the city in his honour, taking it as his capital. After his assassination some years later the ‘empire’ fell into an anarchy it has never quite recovered from, but the name has stuck, and for the two hundred years since wonders and riches have flowed across the eastern ocean while mercenaries and adventurers have poured west in ever greater numbers.

The city’s ruler for the last fifteen years has been Prince Cael, an adventurer universally believed to be supported by the League’s political rivals back East. If so, they got what they paid for – experts and financiers have been imported and sponsored, and trade opened to anyone capable of paying the reasonable import duties.

Until two years ago, he had been the picture of brutal decadence, rousing himself from luxurious hedonism only to brutally deal with any threats to his power. Recently though, he changed – sponsoring vast expeditions into the ancient palaces of the interior and the ruins buried on the city’s outskirts, and installing a self-proclaimed Hierophant whose heresies had earned her a death warrant back East in the city’s grandest temples (violently banishing the cults which had held them since the Conquest in the process).

One week ago, at exactly noon, the sun vanished from the sky for one minute, and the entire city was filled with a deafening scream. Since then, the Prince’s grand palace has been sealed tight, with ingeniously horrifying magical defences ensuring that anyone who tries to force a door or window isn’t around to try again. Everything’s very rapidly falling apart, and the city’s traditional power brokers are reacting like so many rabid weasels in too small a cage.

It is, then, a perfect opportunity for people with the will to seize it.

Districts

The Palantine

If Sethennai is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, the vast palace complex which crowns its central hill is probably likewise the oldest building still in use. Its foundation is burrowed deep into the hill on which it stands, to the point that some delvers and historians have theorized that it was once a truly massive pyramid now mostly buried by the ages. Rising out of it are two great peaks - impressive ziggurats in their own right - of obvious dwarven make, fashioned to house their ancient Ancestors-Kings and gods in suitable splendor, and since renovated and built over to house the city’s rulers and most favored priesthoods. Surrounding them are a dozen smaller peaks, each the estate of one of the city’s foremost patrician families, teeming with retainers and servants. The land around them is pristine and perfectly manicured, full of wondrous botanical gardens and menageries for the amusement of Sethennai’s greatest citizens.

Location of Interest: The Throne 

A palace built on the ruins of a palace built on the ruins of a palace. The grand ziggurat which the city’s rulers have called home since time immemorial is built into and sits at the peak of its highest hill, the highest point in the sky for dozens of miles in every direction. Its labyrinthine apartments, kitchens, vaults, galleries and corridors house the Prince and his family, dozens of favorites and notables, and hundreds of guards, servants, retainers and entertainers. 

Or, well, housed. 

One week ago, the sun vanished from the sky, and a scream echoed through the city. Since then, the palace complex has proven impenetrable. Every door and window is closed, and attempts to open them by force have fared...poorly. In a ‘never going to walk again’ sort of way. Scrying and other means of magical surveillance so far attempted have simply failed. No one has tried to escape, and no noises have been heard - the whole complex is simply silent. 

Of course, that means that all its secrets and riches are there for the taking. Or that’s the growing consensus - at least three separate groups have camped out near various gates and major entrances, each preparing their own scheme to break in and seize everything within. There’s no fighting between them. Yet. 

Faction of Note: The Hierophant 

    Yri Cenred is many things. A self-proclaimed ‘experimental theologian’. One of shockingly few mortal humans to piss off the Illyrin clergy enough to be specifically declared Anathema. A member of the Commonwealth’s very exclusive list of ‘Enemies of Reason’. Empirically immune to thunderbolts from cloudless skies and most other signs of divine disfavor. Easily one of the most powerful mages in the city. And, for most of the last two years, its High Priestess and Hierophant. 

    No one knows quite how her first meeting with Prince Cael went, and whether she was responsible for her change in personality or if he sought her out because of it. All anyone knows is that shortly after she arrived in the city a few days ahead of Imperial Witch-Hunters looking for her head on a pike, Cael forcibly expelled the Khasali cults which had occupied the Palantine’s grand temples since the Conquest, and installed her in their place with the newly minted title of Hierophant for the city. Since then she and her growing coterie of acolytes (bright-eyed, motivated and young, though you can flip a coin as to whether their hands are stained with ink or blood) have been extremely busy, though no one can say exactly what with. Certainly they haven’t held any public rituals or services. Despite the costs - both political and monetary - in protecting and sponsoring her, Cael never seemed to question whether it was worthwhile. 

    The general opinion on the streets is that she’s probably to blame for anything and everything worth complaining about. The only real divide is between those who think she bewitched the Prince and turned him into her puppet, those who think she’s the one who killed him, and the moderates who think the correct answer is probably ‘both’.

Foundrytown

The New World is absolutely full of exotic reagents, fuel sources, and materials to craft and invent with. It is also absolutely full of people who will pay in your currency of choice for finished goods, armor, weaponry, and whatever nasty alchemical tricks you can keep from blowing up in their face until they want them to. Foundrytown is the sprawling mass of smokestacks, workshops, factories and markets that has spilled to the north of Sethennai’s walls, exploiting both opportunities to the fullest while limiting the chance that some idiot will burn half the city down (again). Robber barons, militant workers, loose fraternities of tinkerers and half-trainer artificers, and the occasional rogue clockwork or alchemical monstrosity all jostle for space and control of the beating heart of Sethennai’s economy. 

Faction of Note: The Grand Bazaar 

    Official Imperial theology accords true dragons a place of honour - the Princes of the Earth, entrusted by Heaven with containing the fury of the elements within themselves so as to render the world peaceful enough for cultivation by the younger races - and forbids very few things to wyrms willing to play the part. (Principally, do not become undead, a god in your own right, or an archdemon of the elements. Though some justification can usually be found for how any sufficiently problematic dragon is actually doing one of those). 

    And Tyramara the Magnificent, the Fire of the Deeps has not technically done any of those things. Still, the ancient wyrm has little interest in allowing the wasting disease which has crippled her continue to spread, and her solution is unorthodox enough that she thought it prudent to abandon her palace-lair in Imir and relocate to the New World, six treasure galleons worth of her hoard in tow. 

    One of the city’s wealthiest residents from the moment she landed, she has bought a plaza in Foundrytown and offered her sponsorship to nearly every tinker and engineer who cares to set up shop there, provided they help sustain and improve the mechanical and hydraulic prosthetics that supplement and replace her dying organs. She has promised a full half of her hoard to any who can permanently deal with her condition, a fortune men have killed for in the past, and certainly will again. 

Faction of Note: The Hellworks 

They’re not officially called the Hellworks - there are, in fact, absolutely no devils involved. Still, between the billowing clouds of soot and steam pouring from their chimneys at all hours of the day, the severe architecture, and the bound spirits who keep the looms running at all hours of the day and eagerly take any opportunity to leave anyone who gets too close crippled or maimed to vent their anger - well, the name stuck. 

One of the most obvious consequences of Prince Cael’s turn towards the esoteric these last years, the ' ‘Royal Sethennai Weaver’s Trust” is the brainchild and absolute domain of the Lady Binder Katerine sol Dalme sol Telrin ir’Paimon. An Illyrin magister with heterodox opinions on the proper uses of magic, popular opinion is divided on whether it’s more accurate to say Cael invited her to reside in the city, or just offered her asylum before her elders had a chance to properly condemn her. 

Regardless, after six months of operation she - and her half-dozen strictly bound and extremely unhappy ifrit, and several hundred eminently replaceable more mundane workers - are already well on their way to supplying all the clothing and textiles Sethennai’s teeming masses require single-handedly, produced at a scale and speed far beyond what any traditional artisans guild could hope to compete with. 

Crossroads

Dominating the Old City - synonymous with it, really - that the district is called the ‘Crossroads’ is often considered something of a cruel joke by new arrivals. The ‘Labyrinth’ is usually offered instead. Ancient stone tenements and storehouses are basic facts of geography, surviving through conquest and fire, and over and around and through them are generations of newer building - mansions of imported oak and marble, shantytowns of cannibalized carts and derelict ships built on rooftops, and nondescript inns and stores conveniently built on top of trap doors and tunnels leading to much more exciting locales. Natives of a neighborhood who know all the secret passages and blind alleys can quickly get to anywhere they like. New arrivals are strongly advised to pay well for a reliable guide. 

Faction of Note: The Dreamers 

    There’s something under the harbor. There always has been. There probably always will be. Most people can go their whole lives without noticing it, but a certain few find living in the Old City a haunting experience, their nights spent dreaming of drowned palaces and impossible angles, their days spent lost in alleys and markets that have never existed. Inevitably, they come out of a daze and find themselves perched on the waters edge, staring into the filthy, polluted depths with an intense sense of longing. 

    Called the Dreamers, they’re an eclectic and informal fraternity, living in makeshift houseboats or the cheapest tenements that press against the water. Quite a few simply sleep on the streets. They’re something like a religion, and something like a guild - the most personable and talkative are merchants, selling the fish that others catch, the strange relics and minor treasures that their divers retrieve from the harbor, and the often beautiful - if always uncanny - art they produce. They take care of each other and, though no one has ever seen a dreamer raise a hand in anger, every attempt by syndicates or rival cults to extort or expel them has ended with their opponents going mad, screaming and clawing at their flesh in the middle of the night, or found poised in some elaborate and improbable suicide. After the third time, everyone more or less got the idea. 

    No one knows who leads them - if anyone does. Insofar as they have a public face, Zoe Alvane is it - a street urchin who ‘found the sea’ before she had hit puberty, for the last few years she has been the one who spends seemingly every hour of the day ensuring her ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ have food and shelter, and looking after the other beggars and poor in the neighborhood while she can as well. She’s also the one outsiders deal with when they come looking to buy information - it’s a disquieting fact of life in Sethennai that the Dreamers’ know almost everything there is to know about almost everyone. They are generally content to be left alone, and Zoe is very sympathetic and willing to offer personal advice and play the part of fortune teller to anyone desperate and willing to trade or do a favor - but it’s generally agreed that trying to force information from them is a bad idea. 

Faction of Note: Ironfang Mercenary Company 

    When Prince Cael seized the throne, he didn’t do so single handedly. He needed trained, disciplined soldiers to seize the Palantine and coastal forts, ensure no one escaped the palace, and keep order on the streets while the messy business of extinguishing the previous dynasty was carried out. For all this and more, he relied on the professional expertise of the Ironfang Company. 

    Formed around a core of hardened hobgoblin veterans of various border wars and colonial filibusters in the Free Cities, the Company has for the last fifteen years been the Prince’s favorite tool for securing his interests, keeping order, and bloodily making examples of any threats to his rule. For their trouble, they’ve grown fat and happy - a steady paycheck and yearly bonuses have left every officer with a townhouse, and most common soldiers with coin for families and apartments for them to live in. 

    Despite the lack of real combat - and the need to take on locals as new recruits, as more and more soldiers retire or die over the years - Captain Azaersi is a leathery old warehouse who has never let her troops grow soft. Even week the grand parade ground in Crossroads echoes with screaming drill sergeants and the crack of muskets, and it’s an open secret that the Prince paid to import stocks of grenades and munitions from Quepta for her arsenal. No one knows quite how she plans to deal with the sudden disappearance of her patron and employer, but for the moment the Ironfang seem content to keep order in the corner of Crossroads around the arsenal and parade ground that they call home. 

The Ruins

The ruins are not, legally, part of Sethanni, and absolutely no one with anything resembling sense would ever actually choose to live there. No one actually knows where the eponymous ruins come from - or at least, no one can agree which section is from where. Shantytowns of the most despised and desperate and built on top of their predecessors, which are built on top of battered and broken pre-Conquest ziggurats and homes, which are built on top of - well, some of it is just a natural cave system, and no one is sure about the rest. Or ever found just how deep it goes. Aside from the casualties of the Prince’s attempts to map it, the Ruins are inhabited exclusively by those that would be strung up or burned alive if they tried to live anywhere else, or those sufficiently dedicated to their greed or ambition that they’re absolutely certain they alone can unlock the secrets and find whatever wonders are buried beneath all the traps and monsters. Not great company, either way. 

Faction of Note: The Weavers’ Masquerade 

    Sethennai never really followed its ‘sister cities’ in the League in religion, with a sort of tolerant anarchy of different gods and sects almost always predominating over the gleefully blasphemously sublime demon-cults that the conquerors originally brought with them. But the small cultists that did exist at least enjoyed a luxurious, privileged irrelevance, with sanctums in the city’s grand temple. That finally changed when Cael seized the temples for his new Hierophant - and every relic and sacred text in them, as bloodily as necessary. Which with demon worshippers meant a massacre - letting one escape and beseech their patron for aid in crafting some horrible vengeance being generally agreed to be a terrible idea. 

    Not that that actually worked, of course. One acolyte managed to escape - no one’s quite sure how, but then, probably best not to ask unless you’ve got a particularly strong stomach. Well, that’s one of her stories, anyway - she goes by Maia Dayal, Beloved of the Architect, Wearer of Ten Thousand Faces, and sometimes she prefers to say she’s a recently arrived priestess from Celmy, or a street urchin who found enlightenment entirely on her own. As might be expected by the self-proclaimed title, she also changes her face (and build, age, species…) about as often as everyone else bathes. 

    While she has shown no interest in actually taking bloody revenge on the Prince, Dayal has done plenty to earn the price on her head. The Masquerade that has grown around her is a carnival of wonders and horrors, where all manner of temptations are offered to the truly desperate, debauched and vile. Skinweavers and facetakers always need raw material, and secrets and deaths can both be easily bought for the right price - though in keeping with their patron, the Masquerade is hardly a safe or stable place to do business, and offending the wrong cultist can easily lead to a shift from ‘visitor’ to ‘canvas for artistic expression’. 

Faction of Note: The Keendream Expedition

    Over the last two centuries, the actual facts about the pre-Conquest city has (with few exceptions) been buried under the weight of legends, rumors and (when necessary) several tons of rock. Despite this (or because of it) whenever things get bad (...worse) for the original population of goliaths and dwarves who can trace their lineage back to that time, stories about some hidden savior or buried relic that will free them spread like wildfire. This is just such a time. 

Ilidak Keendream Kathu-Viano is an explorer from a family with some grounds for its claim of being pre-conquest nobility. For the last year he has worked on commission for the Prince, leading a large and incredibly well-armed expedition into the ruins across the water from the Old City, digging into them in search of..something. No one who knows the goal has been willing to talk, but certainly it has involved hiring every historian and scholar with anything like knowledge of the city before it was Sethennai (not to mention half the charlatans and rumor mongers who might know something). 

Once news of the Prince’s disappearance reached Kathu-Viano, work shifted from its previous sedate pace to something much more determined. Certain paranoid minds have said it’s almost like he was waiting for this. Other, moderately less paranoid ones have pointed out it’s a bit odd that the government-sponsored expedition is so short on patricians and city notables and so high on mercenaries form the interior and goliath clans with far more reason to listen to Kathu-Viano than the Prince, should some conflict break out. 

The Stacks

Museums, exhibitions, satellite campuses, mystical archives, storehouses of eldritch knowledge, and one actual wizard tower - if the faint taste of ozone in the air doesn’t warn you what you’re getting in for leaving the city’s eastern gates, then the architecture certainly will. Wedged between variously reputable bookstores and inquisitives, different formalized and longstanding campuses are dedicated to the arts of conjuration, enchantment, sparkcraft, and practical cosmology. Competition for new discoveries and to fully unlock ancient secrets are good natured and nonviolent - at least, that’s all you can get out of anyone left standing once the smoke clears. 

Faction of Note: The Bookhounds 

    The Bookhounds aren’t any sort of formal organization - and at least half of them would roll their eyes at the name - but rather a loose network of gutter mages, disreputable academics, private inquisitives and researchers for hire, and people with a little talent or cash to burn and far too much curiosity for their own good. They act as a sort of volunteer police force in the Stacks, passing each other clues and leads and doing each other favors to track down stolen (or escaped) relics and curses, stop idiots from unleashing anything really dramatic, and generally help people and save the day. Not to mention accumulate really impressive bags of tricks and rare books themselves in the process. 

    While they don’t have anything like a real leader, the group’s beating heart is Nikos Roth, an Esheri academic who arrived in the city as a fresh-faced student on a three month expedition a decade back and who never intends to leave. Running a small, incredibly ramshackle-looking secondhand book store wedged between two tenements, he nonetheless has one of the more impressive collections of occult lore in the city, and is more than happy to trade for more of it, or connect anyone in need with a specialist who can help them. As more than one would-be thief has discovered, he’s also a fairly talented mage, and for all that being entirely self-taught has left him with some obvious holes in his training, it’s also left him with some tricks that basically no one comes prepared to counter. 

Redgate

Once, Redgate Prison stood alone, a fearsome warning of the Prince’s power to anyone looking south from the city center. Eighty-some years of steady urban sprawl later, most of its inmates would probably just need a running start from the prison walls to land back home. Filled mostly with those whose dreams of a new world fell flat, but with too little cash or too many enemies to get home, the slums of Redgate are a natural habitat for street gangs, drug peddlers, flesh traders, and everyone else looking to take advantage of the desperate and vulnerable. The prison itself - and its infamous and heavily armed wardens - has stumbled into being the center of law writ large, dealing out summary justice for criminals that are (correctly) assumed to be beneath the Prince’s notice. 

Faction of Note: Regate Prison 

    Sitting on a steep hill across the water from the Old City, Redgate prison was at one point a fortress, but for generations has been put to use housing the city’s worst, most dangerous, and most profitable criminals. Given the sprawling, crime-ridden slums that now surround it, its wardens also work as a sort of brutal police force, keeping the pretence of order on the street and preserving the Prince’s Peace. Usually. 

    The problems with discipline start at the top, really. The Prison’s infamously brutal First Warden is also its oldest and most dangerous prisoner. Before the Conquest, Vrocdruk was one of the city’s lesser gods, enthroned in one of the Palantine’s grand temples. When Sethennai - the man - defeated him, he chose to pull his demons away before they could tear the god into so much bloody aether. Instead he was crippled, lessened, and bound to a new home in the fortress and a new purpose; defending the city and its rulers. Later, less skillful, princes altered the binding, making him responsible for most crime and punishment and hoping that his sacred nature would make the native dwarves and goliaths more obedient. 

    Vrocdruk is still crippled, still bound to the prison, still forced to obey the orders of the city’s acclaimed ruler, and still extremely unhappy about it. He takes any excuse to work out his unhappiness on criminals or troublemakers with the incredible bad luck to catch his direct attention. His wardens largely follow his example, often acting less like agents of justice and more like a particularly well armed gang - to the point of semi-officially collecting fees for ‘security’ from nearby businesses, supplementing the cash extorted from prisoners and their families for both necessities and luxuries while incarcerated.

Sootcliff

Trailing south of Foundrytown, on and under the steep slope beneath the city’s western walls, the densely packed tenements of Sootcliff are certainly stained grey enough to earn the name. Existing primarily as a source of blood and sweat to feed into the ever-hungry foundries and assembly lines to the north, The buildings are cheap, massive, and constructed at the lowest possible cost, with all the consequences you would expect from that. With easy access to weapons and alchemical supplies from Foundrytown and (literally) beneath the notice of the Old City, Sootcliff is famous as the home of militant bands, revolutionary conspiracies, disgraced artificers, and generally anyone who has a dream for a new world and a plan that will require a lot of explosions to get there. 

Faction of Note: The Painted Doctors

    Less a single organization and more an extraordinarily loose confederation of - often feuding - crimelords, the Painted Doctors are a fraternity of (largely half- or self-) taught alchemists who have over the last year grown to be the dominant criminal guild in Sootcliff. The name sometimes refers to the incredibly distinctive tattoos each ‘Doctor’ has covering much of their body, universally agreed to be somehow enchanted or cursed. Otherwise it refers to the incredibly alien and vibrant skin tones that their test subjects and muscle develop after repeatedly ingesting their ‘miraculous’ potions and tonics. 

    While possessing remarkably little actual magical talent among them, the Doctors have perfected the recipes for several extremely useful potions - several incredibly addictive drugs, a half dozen forms of acids and grenades, and a dizzying variety of enhancing tonics to improve themselves and distribute to their thugs - and have managed to keep both the recipes and their sources for the necessary reagents entirely secret. This has left them in the enviable position of being able to promise anyone signing on with them that they’ll be able to more or less become a regenerating ogre for an hour whenever they need to fight, while their opposition has had to settle with advising their men to stock up on fire and acid. 

    The leading light of the Doctors is one ‘Dr’ Fadre - almost certainly not his real name - an alchemical savant whose ‘miracle cures’ are bought and resold across the city. A flashy and well dressed sort whose patronage has turned several of Sootcliff’s most prominent dens of vice into something close to palaces for those who can afford it, he’s said to be far less interested in the nuts and bolts of running a criminal empire than enjoying its fruits and indulging his passion for the Sciences. It doesn’t hurt his reputation that he doesn’t look a day over thirty, and has for as long as anyone has known him. 

Chance

Facing Oldport from across the river’s mouth, the docks of Chance are significantly new, cheaper, and altogether more ramshackle. Not really a part of any conscious design, Chance grew organically as the city sprawled beyond its original walls, essentially smuggling docks so successful it was easier to legitimize and start taxing them than it was to hang everyone involved. They now provide the city with a constant infusion of nerdowells and fortune seekers, and the district around them takes great pride in fleecing new arrivals of every penny to their name by the end of their first night on land. Hostels and boarding houses are usually safe, traditional vice dealers less so, and anyone selling treasure maps or magical amulets not at all. Still, they’re probably more harmless than the various mercenary recruiters and ‘exiled princes’ promising to give new arrivals exactly the thrill and fortune they came searching for. 

Faction of Note: The Red Ocean Trading Company

    What is now the Red Ocean Trading Company has gone through several dramatic changes over it’s eighty years of existence. First a privateer fleet hired by the Free City of Celmy during the First Armada War. Then eventually growing strong enough to seize several islands as an independent pirate state, before being crushed by the Esheri Navy during the Second Armada War. It’s remnants learned a bit of humility from that, and it is now seemingly content with its existence as either (depending on who you ask) a obscenely profitable shipping firm, or one of the most widespread criminal syndicates in the world. 

The Company’s significant interests in Sethennai - nearly half the docks in Chance, guides and guards for anyone heading into the Interior, and fingers in quite a few less legitimate pies as well - are ably represented by Captain Arun Prem, a(n in)famous adventurer and scoundrel in his own right, apparently enjoying his semi-retirement behind a desk by getting outrageously drunk with his favorite mercenaries and criminals every night and swapping incredible (and implausible) old war stories. 

There’s plenty of rumors, of course - that he’s here in de facto exile after angering the Company’s mysterious senior leadership. That he’s a thousand-year-old vampire and is the Company’s mysterious senior leadership. That he ate a kraken’s heart, and is immortal as long as he doesn’t lose sight of the water. That he’s biding his time to prepare an army before heading inland to carve a new kingdom for himself. That he’s only in the city for as long as it takes to carry out some truly spectacular heist. That he killed Prince Cael in a secret duel and trapped his soul in the pocketwatch he wears at all times. And so on. Of course, other rumours say that he started all of those himself to preserve his mystique as he grows fat in his old age.

Oldport

Facing out to the harbour but safely ensconced within the city walls, Oldpot is, as the name implies, one of the oldest ports in the new world - and certainly one of the busiest. Fully loaded merchant ships arrive daily, their cargoes emptied and replaced with the plunder of the New World almost overnight so they can return home on the next turn of the wind. Beyond the grand ports themselves, this district is home to all the most respectable shipping companies, merchant banks, hotels, and townhouses and apartments, as well as all the official consulates and embassies that Sethennai plays host to. 

Faction of Note: First Bank of Sethennai

    Despite only being as old as Prince Cael’s reign, the Bank already feels like an eternal and irreplaceable part of Sethennai. This isn’t something people are necessarily happy about, but its leadership had done a truly amazing job at keeping dissent to grumbling and resentment of the inevitable, and not actual resistance. They’re good at that sort of thing, even when they used Prince Cael’s (and, thus, the City’s) massive debts to his foreign benefactors as justification for taking control of the city’s tariffs and tolls, and began rigorously enforcing them, possibly for the first time ever. 

    Combined with a legal monopoly on the ability to mint coins, this has of course made the Bank incredibly wealthy. But not to the degree that might be assumed - the riches collected are to a large degree shipped back east to foreign creditors. Of the remaining, quite a bit is invested with as much an eye for politics as strict profit. 

    Executive Director Salman Ticaret, like most of his staff, is a Sethennai native who sought education in the Commonwealth (like most, he took a new name on gaining citizenship). Along with modern accounting and investing techniques, he came home with a firm grasp of political economy - and so for the last decade and a half has been more than happy to offer favorable rates to well positioned patrician and merchant houses, in exchange for their own favors and consideration in turn. The result is that the bank’s marble halls and adamant vaults house information as much as money. And Ticaret is perfectly willing to invest both, if the opportunity is promising enough. 

Foreign Interests

The League of Free Cities

The League of Free Cities is not so much a single power as a collection of fiercely independent deomcratic city-states held together by the intertwined private empires of their leading citizens, deep and interdependent trading relationships, and a common religion that the rest of the world calls demon-worship - they view this as deeply offensive. Also they’ve been doing it for hundreds of years and they’re not all dead yet, so clearly everyone else is just doing demonology wrong. Politics are a mess of knives in the dark and openly bribing the voting populace with feasts and spectacles, with glory and riches to anyone who can hold the mob’s favor for long. 

Demonic evocation - and the arts learned as a result of it, like fleshweaving, orienomarchy , breaking reality down into elemental chaos and shaping it to your whims, and so on - are in the rest of the world generally met with very thorough execution, making the freethinkers of the League the world’s bleeding edge in magical innovation. The entire culture of the League is also nearly custom-made to produce bold idiots willing to do what it takes to get rich or die trying, and the various Free City’s Adventurers Guilds are (in)famous the world over. 

Until recently, the Free Cities considered Sethennai, if not one of them, then at least a younger sibling or benevolent dependency. Prince Cael’s coup has been taken as something of a wound, and the merchant interests who have lost out as he opened trade have made sure that in the decades since his name has become synonymous with bloody-handed tyranny. The first broadsheets celebrating his death will sell out in moments, and the acclaimed merchant adventurer Vyas Asraya, said to be en route to the city, is said to be very optimistic about future trading opportunities. 

Holy Illyric Empire

Technically speaking a vast and sprawling feudal state unified only in the person of the Sovereign (Empress of Illyrin, Queen of Belthaya, Defender of the Hierophant of Imir, Grand Duchess of Abhari, etc, and so on, and so forth), the Empire dominates the better part of two continents, and in terms of size and prestige is unquestionably the foremost state on the globe. It is also a bureaucrat’s nightmare, its aristocracy distracted from their internal feuds only when they need to defend their ancestral rights from central overreach. 

Ancient controls and long established relationships make Imperial binders the most fearsome conjurers and thaumaturges in the known world, a process not at all hurt by the wholesale incorporation of any powerful spirits or terrestrial god who will sign on the dotted line into the official pantheon. Illyrin Paladins are also easily the most storied heavy cavalry the world has ever seen, and Abharic necromancers are generally held to be the heirs (or direct pupils) of the inventors of the craft. 

Illyric interests have prospered under Prince Cael’s reign, but the last years have seen Sethennai become a haven for heretical priests and radical binders, something Ambassador Konrad Reingard has been rumored to be increasingly frustrated with, though no one heard a word from his Oldport estate since the chaos began.

The Sublime Esheri Commonwealth

A thoroughly modern and enlightened state, the Commonwealth is history’s gift to the cartographer, an empire with firmly delineated borders and clear, rationally determined administrative divisions. Governed by a Janissary Corps educated and conditioned from childhood to put principle above self interest and the good of the Commonwealth above friends or (nonexistent) family, the Esheri control far less land than the Illyrin Empire, but has been able to fight it to a standstill and even force it to abandon certain far flung dependencies over a series of wars across the last century. 

Beyond a ruthlessly efficient system for taxation and conscription, the Commonwealth’s military might is credited to two sources - on the one hand, its marines are the finest and most disciplined line infantry anyone is likely to ever see, experts in the use of gas and artillery and famously cool under fire. One the other, their heavy automata are an answer to any conjured devil or bound beast, enlightened clockwork providing enough force to cleave through scales and enchanted plate without missing a beat. But the Janissaries are as happy as their enemies to admit that they prefer unfair fights - though they credit their infamous spy network to the fruits of their scientific studies of society and history, while their enemies instead blame the corrupting effects of gold, blackmail, and a complete indifference to the morals of those they work with. 

While the Commonwealth does have an embassy in the city, it mostly exists as an appendage of the First Sethennai Bank, the private institution responsible for printing and guarding the solvency of the city’s currency, its entire upper rung staffed by experts trained in the Commonwealth and generally considered Prince Cael’s way of paying back their support for his coup. More recently, it has been rumored that the Secretariat has taken an interest in the struggles in the interior. Coincidentally, an ‘Academic’ has been seen floating around various less than reputable bars in Chance, ostensibly as part of a project to record the city’s myths and folklore. 

The Warlord States

For the last two hundred years, the interior has been an evershifting patchwork of successor kingdoms, native revolts, monstrous empires, released horrors, and stranger things besides, the unending tide of weapons and adventurers ensuring that no single player was ever able to secure dominance (and the various rulers of Sethennai have certainly played their part in keeping things that way). At the moment the foremost powers are a giantblooded kingdom led by a messaniac priest-king claiming to be the reincarnation of a Titan, a personal union enforced at sword point between a Khasli pirate queen and a goliath ‘emperor’, a red dragon who has claimed an old giant palace and forced the dwarves living in the mountains around it to provide tribute and worship, and several dozen more minor principalities. It should go without saying that war is the natural state of being, and soldiers are sucked up like ships in a whirlpool.

Adventurers are the lifeblood of Sethennai, and they don’t only flow one way. A constant stream of veterans - either enriched or embittered - skulk, limp or run back once they’ve had their fill of the wonders of the new world, usually missing something important or carrying something priceless - sometimes both. The courts and inner circles of every powerful warlord are composed exclusively of this sort of hard, tricky and generally insufferable type of rogue, and they’re often the only agents trusted enough to be dispatched on delicate missions. The line between warlord and criminal kingpin or pirate magnate is also extremely thin - sometimes nonexistent - as smuggling, sabotage and assassinations are simply basic tools of statecraft in the ruthless arena of the interior. More than once, an ambitious Prince of Sethennai has attempted to recreate their ancestor’s short lived empire, only to be found butchered in their bed but the agents of one warlord or another.

The Warlord States view Sethennai as a vital artery for supplies and funding, and for manpower to refill their armies with disposable bodies for their constant border wars. On a grander scale, those with ambition view it as either a crown jewel and future capital, or a bleeding ulcer on the land which needs to be razed to its foundations. In either case, few are interested in a strong, stable government for it. Regardless of their opinions, sending emissaries and embassies to the city is the first (and often only) diplomatic initiative of every new warlord state - though in truth their role is often closer to mercenary recruiter and fundraiser.

[phantomato]

Uber

Nottmort (Tom Riddle/Nott Sr.), Modern Muggle AU, ~2k words

Thanks to @yletylyf for kicking around this idea! Tom drives an Uber in the Bay Area. Thoros & co need a ride.

—

Abraxas and Orion are bickering over luggage in the background when your Uber pulls up. Black, of course, so it’s a Mercedes that will smell a little too much like leather cleaner when you get in, but none of you have ever ridden in an UberX or, god forbid, an Uber Pool, and you’re not about to start.

Your colleagues—never forget, you are not friends, no matter how much time you spend with them—slide into the back seat before you can even begin to help load bags into the trunk. You’re left alone with the driver, and though he offers to help, you haven’t let yourself sink that low as to make this man pile all of your shit in his car while you sit around and watch. And anyway, it feels like the polite thing to do. More than Abraxas or Orion, you’ve been raised to be polite.

So you fold yourself into the front passenger seat, too kind to push the seat all the way back and give yourself the leg room you need even if Orion, behind you, is just 5’8 to your 6’3, and smile at the driver as he confirms your destination.

He’s pretty. You’ve been in a lot of Ubers and you’ve never seen a driver this pretty. Is that classist?, you wonder to yourself, remembering something you read in Vox the other day. Probably. Nevertheless, you’re taken by the curve of his mouth, the sweep of his dark hair, and you throw a smirk over your shoulder at Abraxas who you know must have also noticed.

“Traffic to SFO will be busy,” he says regretfully, and you roll your eyes. Orion refuses to take the early morning flights, unwilling to wake at 3 AM, and you’re always stuck with these long, miserable Uber rides down from the city to the airport. “And Terminal 2—right in the middle of it. There’s construction around those doors, if you haven’t been there—”

“We know,” Orion butts in rudely, shutting up your driver for the few minutes it takes to get out of your neighborhood.

You use those few minutes to swipe through your phone. Email—nothing important. Messages—you clear the notifications. Your Instagram is alight with people reposting the same infographic about voting rights and you make a mental note to kick some money to that non-profit that’s been all over Twitter lately. You close out apps and end up back at Uber, watching your car’s laggy progress through the San Francisco streets. Your driver’s name is Tom, the app informs you. It’s a nice name.

You clear the side streets and Tom offers amenities. “If you want any water, there are bottles in the cooler between the seats,” he calls back to Abraxas and Orion, “and mints in the cup holder. You can adjust the air conditioning if you like, and there’s a charging cable attached to the back of my seat if you need it. Would you like to choose any music?”

“No,” Abraxas says, and whether he means the music or the entire spiel doesn’t really matter, given his withering tone. You look back at him, trying to convey ‘Be nice’ with just your eyebrows, but Abraxas is fussing with his hair and ignoring you.

Tom’s one of the chipper ones, it turns out, because he takes the rejection in stride and shifts to the dreaded personal conversation. “What do you all do for a living?”

“Ah, we invest in companies, mostly start-ups,” you say, trying to avoid—

“Venture capitalists!” Tom guesses, and he’s right but you hate the term and its connotations. So what if you are all white men whose family money has bankrolled tech speculation? It’s what anyone with half a brain would do. You donate, you read the liberal news—at least, you think that’s true for all of you, though Orion was friends with that Republican mayoral candidate and Abraxas’ father sponsors that conservative think-tank and…

Ah, fuck. “Yeah, pretty much,” you agree, hating yourself.

Behind you, Orion digs his AirPods out of his pocket. You hear the snap of the magnetic lid as he closes himself off to the world. Abraxas is slouching, the hem of his third-favorite cashmere cardigan catching on the seat behind him, and you realize that you’re alone in this conversation.

Well, fuck it. If those two pricks are going to make you call the Uber, deal with the reimbursement paperwork, and sit in the front seat, you’re going to talk to the driver and make this car conversation as painful as possible for them.

As if reading your thoughts, Tom does the one thing that guarantees a terrible ride: he pitches his app idea.

“You know, I’m also a software developer,” he says, which is at least more promising than when someone isn’t, “and if I had the kind of funding that companies like yours provide, I would absolutely make this app.” He proceeds to describe something completely inane, the type of exclusive, niche social networking app that hasn’t had legs since before the Trump presidency and you would be content to let him drone on, to let Abraxas keep melting into his own seat and to let Orion channel his anger through a knee driven into the back of yours, but—

But for all that Tom’s idea is stupid, he has the energy of the best pitches you see. His energy is infectious. His eyes light up, he gestures with one hand, and when he stops to take a drink (one of those water bottles with a built-in straw, which you associate with joggers and your lamest employees but which does very different things to you when it’s Tom’s mouth wrapped around the top) you’re transfixed by the wet sheen over his chapped lips.

And so, yes, maybe it’s mostly lust, and maybe this is a sign that you need to download Grindr again, even if only to jerk off to the dick pics you’ll get, but you start to actually talk to him.

“There’s no future in niche social networks,” you say, halting Tom in his tracks. “There will always be new ones, don’t misunderstand me, but the broader landscape is saturated by the top names, and they’ll buy out their competitors if they need to. Perhaps you can topple Tumblr, but that’s not a path to profit. If you want to impact the social market, you need to pinpoint the novel interaction model that you want to offer and make yourself buyable.”

“Buyable,” Tom repeats, like he’s never been interrupted before. He probably hasn’t. The first rule of Ubering around the Bay Area or the Valley is to never engage the app pitches, and Orion has started kicking your seat for your transgression.

“Yes,” you enunciate. “You want to be bought out and brought in at a high level. The giant that eats you may or may not use your idea, but you’ll make a comfortable sum as a consolation prize.” You’ve helped companies through this before. You’re flying out to New York this week in part because one of your investments is considering purchase offers and you want to strategize in-person. The founder is dallying, sending emails about independence and integrity, and Orion will bully him into selling while you and Abraxas negotiate the best terms for the contract.

You can feel Tom’s eyes on you. Abraxas might be calling “Thoros…” from the back seat, and Orion might be attempting to annihilate you with his gaze alone, but you’re smiling at that handsome face behind the wheel and hoping for an accident on the 101.

Unfortunately, you make it through San Bruno without running into more than the usual level of traffic, and Tom’s pulling up to your terminal much sooner than you would like. Abraxas and Orion jump out of the car with uncharacteristic speed when it stops, Orion even moving to stand by the trunk in readiness to take his bags. You delay.

“Do you have a business card?” you ask, when it’s clear Tom’s waiting on you.

He fumbles to pull a wallet from his jeans. You can’t quite get a view of his ass as he does, but that doesn’t stop you from looking.

His card is bent at the corner, printed cheaply, and probably from his last job. You’re pretty sure that company doesn’t exist anymore. Tom taps the phone number. “I can be reached here,” he says smoothly, but his professionalism cracks when he adds, “by call or by… text.”

You know what sort of texts you’d like to receive from him.

Pulling out your own card case, you hand him your card. “Text me,” you say, your voice just this side of appropriate, “any time.”

Tom visibly swallows and jumps out of the car. You take your time getting up, and if your cashmere sweater—Margaret Howell, not that Elder Statesman piece of shit Abraxas is wearing—ends up in the footwell of Tom’s passenger seat, well, you’ll be back in SF next week, won’t you?

“Thanks for the ride, Tom,” you tell him as you take the handle of your luggage, letting your fingers brush his. “I enjoyed our conversation.”

“Yeah,” he nods, and you don’t care that Abraxas is snorting behind you, he’s been judging you this whole trip and he lost out on a hot guy’s number as a result. “It was…”

“Thoros,” you interrupt him before he can ramble and psych himself out. “My name is Thoros, and I really would like to hear from you.”

Tom looks at you then, and you see him pull together the same sureness that drew you into his initial pitch. “I’ll text you about the app.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” you say, meaning it.

—

Bonus:

“You know,” Abraxas drawls as you sit in the United club lounge, gesturing lazily with his overpriced airport Fiji water, “if you tip him too much it’s like you’re paying him for sex.”

Orion looks up from his phone then, removing one earbud for the first time since he put them in. “I’ve paid more for sex with less attractive men.”

“Welcome back,” you say, “I didn’t realize you had paid any attention.”

“Someone would need to not have eyes in order to miss how hot that Uber driver was,” he bites back, returning to his phone.

“Well, I’m tipping him extra anyway,” you announce, confirming Tom’s five-star rating. Should you write a review? Is that too much?

Abraxas, with a grumble, declares, “I’m telling Alecto not to approve this expense.”

—

Bonus bonus:

Your phone buzzes at the end of dinner, the celebratory affair to close the sale which someone had insisted must be at Lilia, even though Abraxas doesn’t eat carbs and you would have preferred to grab a slice at Scarr’s rather than haul out to Williamsburg, anyway.

It’s Tom. Of course it’s Tom—you’ve been texting all week, and between a few late-night flirtations and one very bald statement of interest, you’ve got a date set for when you’re back home. You’re going to Mensho Tokyo, since he lives in the Tenderloin and you live… vaguely around the Tenderloin, at least, you tell people you live there when you want to seem cooler, and Tom is the type of guy that makes you excited to stand in line for hours to get seats. You’re already thinking about whether you might put your arm around him while you’re waiting, and you unlock your phone to see what he’s saying now.

It’s a picture message.

A picture of Tom, wearing your Howell sweater and no pants and oh god oh fuck—

“Was that Uber driver’s dick?” Abraxas whispers, next to you, and you curse your luck. “Remind me to call the next Uber, Jesus Christ.”

[pabsterthelobster]

A rant surrounding a YouTube commenter

I need to vent a little bit right now.

On YouTube, one of the content creators I like to watch is Phil Cho, who is the artist of a DC fan-verse type thing called Earth-27, which I've made a post about before. His content on YouTube is the same as on his Instagram or DeviantArt, that being character portraits he was commissioned to make for other people.

Because YouTube is a glorified cesspit, you'll always find a variety of people in the comments section. For Phil, there are people who complement him on his work, which are always nice to see, but there are also people who just ask him, or even just tell him, to draw another character. The thing is, yeah, Phil doesn't just draw these portraits for free. He's a professional artist, meaning he needs to be PAID to draw a character, whether or not it's for Earth-27 at all.

I among a number of other fans of his work have taken it upon ourselves to check said videos of his, check the comments, and respond to any questions that may show up in the comments. But every now and then, I see someone that grinds my gears something fierce.

There's this one guy in the comments named Abimanyu Jatmiko, who shows up in the comments asking for Phil to make a video themed around certain characters or teams in each video. He is extremely annoying as, whenever I comment on one of his comments, he never says anything. He just waits until the next video to tell Phil again. I honestly hate commenters like that, who say something once and then never respond when you ask them something.

The thing that really sets me off about this guy is that about half a year ago, on Phil's "Salvation Syndicate" he spammed one of his requests, a video starring four characters (Eradicator Superman, Commander Steel, Citizen Steel, and Cyclone) 69 TIMES.

On THREE SEPARATE ACCOUNTS.

Abimanyu Jatmiko, Adyuta Jatmiko, and Dio Erka. And you can tell these three are the same guy, because they all say the exact same FUCKING thing.

My God, man. With that amount of comments, one would mistake him for a bot.

But he's not. Because in one of Phil's more recent videos, don't remember which one, Abi made another comment, requesting a video from Phil. Surprisingly enough, Phil actually responded to it. And then so did he. I've commented on his own comments a few time beforehand, but the fact that he only responded to the owner of the channel proved to me, that he's not only a real person, but he's a massive kissass.

You'd also think he's generally uninformed, just some random guy that knows nothing about Earth-27, but no. His recent comments have been surrounding a four-man team named Murder4Hire, which consists of Bane, Deathstroke, KGBeast, and Deadshot. A team which is exclusive to Earth-27's lore, which was created with Phil's own primary input, and which is not at all present in DC Comics.

Meaning that he is knowledgeable of Earth-27's lore, or at least that which pertains to Phil's own handiwork.

He's also made comments where he apologizes to Phil for certain problems he's caused. Since the only problem he's caused was spam the comments section with his demands multiple times in multiple videos, something that he has continued to do even after apologizing, I'd say he's not sorry at all.

He's just an obnoxious, clout-chasing kissass who wants Phil to be his personal video slave, demanding that Phil make videos as if he were the one who sponsored each of the character portraits seen in them.

[elitex007]

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[gamestreamingsetup]

Guide To Twitch Streaming

Who wants to sit and watch people play video games all day? Millions of people, it turns out. Live-streaming website Twitch is one of the biggest things in games, with 15 million daily viewers who come to watch the wealth of professional tournaments, gaming talk shows and casual solo sessions that the site's 2-million-plus broadcasters offer.

Twitch's biggest streamers are a new breed of Internet celebrity, with legions of dedicated fans who tune in daily to watch them dominate Fortnite matches or hilariously scream their way through horror games. Many of these personalities have a litany of sponsors and hundreds of thousands of social media followers — two traits more typical of a pro athlete than someone who plays video games for a living.

But while only a lucky few make it to the NBA or the NFL, anyone with a decent gaming PC or modern game console can be a Twitch streamer. If you want to take a shot at Twitch stardom, here's everything you need to know about how to become a Twitch streamer, from basic hardware requirements to tips from the pros on keeping viewers happy.

What You Need to Become a Twitch Streamer A Good Computer

Although there are a few exceptions I'll outline below, you'll likely be doing most of your streaming from a gaming laptop or gaming desktop PC. As far as specs go, Twitch recommends having at least an Intel Core i5-4670 processor (or its AMD equivalent), 8GB of RAM and Windows 7 or newer. (Don't worry; you can stream from a Mac, too.)

If you're streaming PC games, you'll need a graphics card strong enough to support whatever you're playing and, ideally, one that supports DirectX 10 and up. The faster your Internet connection, the better — you should probably aim to have an upload speed of at least 3MB per second, which should be attainable on most home Internet connections or even via mobile.

While we recommend streaming from a desktop if possible, going live from a laptop is totally doable with the right specs. If you want to go the mobile route, be sure to check out our guide to streaming to Twitch from a laptop.

One PC or two?

While Twitch's core system requirements are pretty forgiving, streaming and playing graphically intense games at the same time can put quite the load on your computer. Some popular streamers remedy this by using two PCs at once — one for gaming, and another for broadcasting. If that sounds too complicated, you can check out desktops such as CyberPower's Pro Streamer, which houses two complete PCs in a single body.

Fortunately, thanks to to recent strides made by Nvidia, creating a high-quality stream from a single PC is becoming more feasible. If you own a gaming desktop or laptop with one of Nvidia's new RTX graphics cards, you'll be able to take advantage of Nvidia's dedicated hardware encoder that's built into each card. This essentially relieves your CPU of having to do too much of the heavy lifting.

Open Broadcaster Software, which we'll touch on below, is optimized for the new Nvidia cards, meaning that it's quite easy to get a smooth single-PC stream going so long as you've got OBS as well as a system with an RTX 2060, 2070, 2080 or 2080 GPU.

A Twitch account

You can visit Twitch.tv to join for free, and you should probably add a custom avatar, banner and description so that viewers can learn a little bit about you. If you want to make sure that all of your broadcasts are temporarily archived for later viewing, you can head to Settings > Channel & Videos > Archive Broadcasts.

Streaming Software

The most essential part of any streamer's tool kit, broadcasting software lets you show your gameplay to the world. The two most commonly used streaming programs are Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), which is completely free, and XSplit, which has a highly intuitive interface but requires a paid subscription in order to use its key features.

Regardless of your choice of software, setting up your stream consists of the same general steps: picking your sources (such as your computer monitor, gameplay feed or webcam), laying out how they'll all appear for the viewer, and finally, syncing up your Twitch account and going live.

Microphone and Camera

While you can technically get by with a gaming headset, you'll want a dedicated microphone so that your viewers can hear you clearly. The $129 Blue Yeti is our favorite USB mic thanks to its crisp audio quality and adjustable pickup modes. If you're on a tight budget, consider the $36 Samson Go Mic; for something more portable, check out the $99 Blue Yeti Nano. For more on microphones, be sure to also check out our podcasting guide.

If you don't already have a webcam and want to show your face, the $49 Logitech HD Pro C920 is our top overall pick thanks to its sharp 1080p capture quality and wide field of view. The $99 Logitech C922 offers the same quality but with automatic background removal, which allows you to superimpose yourself onto your game without the need for a green screen. There's also the $99 Razer Kiyo, which is similarly sharp and offers a built-in ring light for illuminating your face.

Streaming from Consoles

If you're wondering how to become a Twitch streamer without any fancy PC hardware, both the Xbox One and PS4 let you stream directly from your console, without any extra devices or software. On Xbox One, you'll just need the free Twitch app; on PS4, you can go live right from the system's Share menu. Folks on Xbox can also stream directly to Microsoft's Mixer platform, which is just as easy to set up. While you won't get to customize your stream the way you would from your PC, console streaming is still a great way to get your feet wet.

If you want to stream from your Nintendo Switch or any other console (or just want more control over your broadcast), you'll need a capture card that records your console gameplay to your PC.

The most popular capture card option out there is the $129 Elgato Game Capture HD, which seamlessly records 1080p video from Xbox One/360, PS4/PS3, Wii U and just about any other system with an HDMI output. It also has a Component adapter, in case you want to stream from one of your dusty retro consoles. If you want smoother, 60-frame-per-second streams, you can step up to the $151 Elgato HD60.

Twitch is home to a growing stable of bona fide gaming celebrities who make their living broadcasting — but not just because they play the latest games or have a fancy stream setup. The top Twitch streamers are true entertainers; some are known for their incredible Call of Duty headshots, while others are famous for blowing through entire Zelda games in 20 minutes. But more than that, they're just great personalities.

"[Our top streamers] are humble, friendly, highly interactive and treat the people in their chat as if they are the stars of the show," said Chase (yep, just Chase), Twitch’s director of public relations.

If you're looking to get into the finer points of growing an audience, popular Hearthstone player Jeffrey "Trump" Shih's "Streaming 101" video is an excellent place to start. Shih neatly breaks down the core components of streaming into an acronym he calls OPTICS (Opportunity, Presence, Technology, Interaction, Consistency and Skill), noting that focusing on any number of these factors could help you make a name for yourself.

Grow big enough on Twitch, and you just might be offered a partnership, which allows you to get a cut of broadcast revenue and offer your viewers exclusive perks in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. No matter what level of Twitch stardom you're shooting for, here are tips from some of the streamers who do it best.

Find Your Niche / Games You Enjoy Playing

How do you stand out among Twitch's 2 million streamers? For Burke Black, all it took was a pirate hat and lots of patience. After two years of steady streaming, Black is now a partnered broadcaster with more than 23,000 followers that tune in to catch his late-night, swashbuckling-themed antics.

Fire up any of Black's broadcasts, and you'll see him in full brown-and-beige pirate garb, complete with a skull-and-crossbones bandana and an epic beard to match. The 36-year-old is the farthest thing from imposing, though, as he giggles and cheers his way through anything from Grand Theft Auto V to Pirates! (naturally) while enthusiastically chatting with his viewers.

"I consider it a show, not just some dude streaming games," Black said. "People come in because they like the atmosphere … [it's a] nice friendly environment where they can come and have a good time with some cheesy pirate stuff going on."

Becoming a pirate isn't the only way to stand out on Twitch. Perhaps you're exceptionally skilled at the world's most obscure platformer, or you have a really cute dog you can put in front of the camera while you blast through Counter-Strike matches. Find your specialty, and run with it.

Be Consistent

Consistency is crucial — just as people tune in to their favorite TV shows at the same time every night, they should know exactly when you'll be live on Twitch. Whether you broadcast in the afternoon or the wee hours of the morning, stick to your schedule, and make sure it's prominently displayed across both your Twitch page and social media sites.

"You will never get the same viewers if you stream at random times when you are just starting out," said That's Cat, a 26-year-old streamer that specializes in survival games and has almost 30,000 followers.

Make Some Friends

Sonja "OMGitsfirefoxx" Reid is one of Twitch's biggest stars, with more than 631,000 followers and her own merchandise store. While much of her success can be attributed to her unfiltered sense of humor and constant interaction with her viewers, one of her biggest breaks came from working with others.

"We started a daily Minecraft stream, with the idea of just playing some Minecraft with friends and hanging out," said Reid of "Mianite," a series in which she and other popular Twitch stars broadcast their daily hijinks in the popular crafting game. "It blew up, and turned into a huge series, which is going into its third season."

That's Cat also made a name for herself by playing with other broadcasters. In fact, the streamer had 500 Twitch followers before she even went live on her own channel, simply because she made plenty of friends beforehand.

"I ended up having over 80 viewers [on] my first stream, because of my presence in the community prior to streaming," said Cat, who got offered a partnership after just three months of broadcasting.

Be Very Interactive w/ Your Audience

What sets Twitch streams apart from other forms of entertainment is that the audience is almost always a key part of the experience. All Twitch broadcasts are accompanied by a chat room, which allows streamers to interact directly with the people who support them. The more you make your viewers feel like they're sitting on the couch with you while you play, the better chance you have at building a loyal following.

Reid affectionately refers to her fans as her "foxx family." Even with hundreds of thousands of followers, she makes sure to keep things personal.

"I get to know a lot of my [viewers], and remember what's going on in their lives and chat with them about it in stream," she said. "Having a community that really feels like a family is really important to me."

Audience interaction is a top priority for Black, who has a monitor dedicated solely to viewing his Twitch chat. Black also does frequent giveaways, which, according to the streamer, helps encourage fans to come back every night.

That's Cat's following has grown so loyal that she can count on having viewers no matter how obscure the game she's playing.

"I literally played Barbie's Dream house and still had my entire community cheering me on," she said.

Don't Stress About Your Gear (At First)

Just because your favorite streamer has a super-sharp webcam and a fancy green screen and streams from two high-end PCs at once doesn't mean you have to — at least at first. Twitch's system requirements are quite lenient, which means you should focus on growing an audience before you spend thousands turning your bedroom into an all-out studio.

MORE: The Best Gaming Keyboard You Can Buy

"I started streaming on an old HP laptop that overheated to the point of burning my hand, and an old foldout chair from Walmart," said Reid, who's been able to upgrade to a decidedly better setup as her channel grew.

Be Patient, and Have Fun!

As with any type of success, "making it" on Twitch takes lots of patience and hard work.

"If you're doing [this] just to make money, you'll usually fizzle out in the first three or so months," Black said. "For the first six months, it was just awful because I didn't know what I was doing. Try not to get discouraged, because everyone's been that way."

Black's patience is now paying off; the streamer is closing in on 24,000 followers, and his Twitter feed is full of pictures of loyal fans wearing T-shirts with his name on them. Black, who currently works in photography, is considering becoming a full-time streamer once he hits 500 paid subscribers.

Reid stressed the importance of relishing every viewer, no matter how few there are in the beginning.

"Even if you have three viewers, or 30 or 300, there are people that are choosing to hang out and watch you," Reid noted.

In the end, it's important to remember that we're all still playing video games. Whether it's a hobby or something you hope to make into a career, streaming should be fun — the more you enjoy yourself, the more everyone watching you probably will, too.

[sugarycloud]

Three years and four seconds, carolly rpf

For the GC

Holidays felt like another world. A world without judgement or prying eyes. No one to tell you to not eat a second helping of cake or have that fifth glass of wine. Or get back with your ex. Again. Caroline could never really tell herself why she kept taking him back. They were all such feeble excuses outside of sponsored holidays and islands of love. She loved him so she kept taking him back. It was like they were magnets, she’d look up and she’d be attached to him, without even meaning to be.

But now they were back, and for her, straight back into the public eye. With just a tan and some doubts to show for their holiday. She was glad to see Ruby and be back in her home but also glad to be having a break, even if it was only for a few hours.

This is a world of certainty, Gemma glamming her up, Nathan to whisk her away and a glam party awaiting. She could do all this in her sleep. She waves Andrew and Ruby off, promising to text about the after party and gets into her waiting taxi with Nathan, her dress crinkling beneath her.

-----

She had known he would be there of course. She always knew. The last time had been the worst, they had been so close and said nothing to each other and it was much less easy to pretend that everything was ok. But since then… well there’d been the letter, and the tweets and a couple of text messages. Nothing major, but there fluttering, a small butterfly of fleeting hope.

There was a vast difference between texts and seeing him though. She could see close her eyes and recall it vividly. The long slog of X Factor, made bearable by their rendezvouses. The entire thing had been so intense, the hatred and the media, and the love for him that felt like it shone from her skin. For her, it had felt as obvious as if she was wearing a sign saying ‘I’m in love with Olly Murs, oh and bye the way, we’re fucking all the time. Like all the time.’

She had still never known sex or love like it. He was undeniably the love of her life, she had marriage and babies so clear in her future. The way he held her, trailed his hands down her soft skin, elicited such pleasure in her. The whispered conversations, that were never about the future, but about now, how it was both so awful and so glorious. The ensuing arguments had the word presumption thrown around a lot.

It had started with him kissing those girls and he had blamed alcohol and letting off steam and that they were never exclusive. Which to his defence, was true. But they had kept on, after their holidays, they kept drifting back together. To each other’s houses, often in the small hours or the break of dawn, needing some relief, an itch to scratch, an orgasm or three to be had.

They filmed Saturday Night Takeaway and had driven back to his after. And then they had THE argument. The one that broke everything into smithereens, beyond repair. She wanted a husband, babies, someone by her side. He didn’t want that, he didn’t want the press intrusion their relationship would bring if it was anything beyond friends with benefits. She didn’t doubt that he loved her, but she didn’t think he loved her in the same way. He didn’t love her enough not to care about any of that. Not enough to save her heart from breaking so hard that it felt difficult to breathe. She hadn’t slept with anyone for such a long time after.

When Cosmo asked her to write letters to the loves of her life she couldn’t not include him. And of course it was veiled in truth rather than the entire ugly thing. She hadn’t expected the text, she had written him a letter because it felt too dishonest not to.

‘Hey you… Caz. I’m hoping your number is the same. Your letter to me in Cosmo made me cry. I miss you more than you probably realise. Love Ols X’

When Andrew had seen the text he had flipped and they had broken up the very same day. He had never liked Olly, or the love Caroline harboured for him. But of course, they had ended up back together, again, eventually.

It had taken her a while to reply to the text, what did she say? ‘Still ridiculously in love with you, hated all those times I’ve seen you and had to act like you didn’t exist. My heart hammered in my chest every second you were close by. Hope you’re well’

It had as well, she hated events where he was there. She loved having a glimpse of him as much as she hated to admit it, but it was so terribly awkward to avoid him. Her body was so aware of his presence, attuned to him from all the times he had touched her and the love she held for him. She was a flustered schoolgirl in his proximity, no matter how much she chided herself for it.

And now there he was. On a red carpet and she didn’t think she had to ignore him anymore. She had eventually texted him back, nothing but a string of kisses and life catch ups had followed. She ached to go up to him, to touch him, to hold his hand, to kiss him. Her anger after so long had dissipated down to a shimmer rather than a burning forest fire.

He was being interviewing by the abhorrent Dan Wottoon and sensing her gaze, he looked up and beamed at her. It was a punch of a stomach, sending her back to their weekends in bed, morning light dancing across his naked torso as she stared at him and thought ‘I love you, I love you, I really fucking love you’. He would wake up and smile at her and they’d be in lost in bliss before she could even say good morning.

He beckons her with his eyes and her feet walk her over to him without her conscious thought. It has been such a long time. She says so, leaning on him and feeling his apprehension as she does so. After they had finished with the red carpet, he hooks her elbow and pulls her to the bar, ordering her a vodka orange and himself a vodka pineapple. She can’t help but smile at how Olly he is being.

‘So how have you been?’ he stares right into her eyes as he asks this and she wants to climb right into his lap and answer

She takes a big gulp of her drink

‘I’ve been ok, just back from holiday’

‘You and your holidays, were you with…?’

He can’t even say his name

‘Yes, I was. We had stuff to work out’

‘Hmmm?’

‘Just…’ she trails off, tears surging up in her that she cannot explain at all.

She doesn’t want this. She doesn’t want to be sitting here with Olly talking about how her and Andrew can’t seem to make it work. If her and Olly hadn’t fought back then none of this would have happened at all. They’d have been sitting here exhausted, worrying about their babies at home.

Caroline jumps out of her chair and saunters off, biting her lip, willing herself not to cry here, not in a room packed to the gills with press and media.

She has no idea where the bathrooms are and just as Olly catches up to her and grasps her elbow, an announcement on the the tannoy informs them the ceremony is about to start.

‘Later Caz’ he whispers in her ear, running his hand down her bare arm and making her shiver ‘we need to talk. Don’t leave without talking to me, promise?’

She just nods as he kisses her head and leaves her.

She has never known an awards ceremony to take so long, Nathan keeps asking if she is ok and she reassures him that she is, that she’s in a post holiday daze. And then her phone buzzes.

‘Wuts happn wth 2night? Xxx’

‘Fuck’

She had forgotten. How could she have forgotten? She had said she would smuggle Andrew into the afterparty. They were going to get drunk and then have birthday sex. The thought of having sex with Andrew tonight wasn’t a welcome one.

Her phone buzzes again

‘On my way, c u soon’

‘Fuck’

‘What?’ Nathan enquiries ‘what’s wrong?’

‘Andrew, he’s on his way’

‘Is he not meant to be?’

‘Yes… I mean, I just’ she looks over to Olly’s table ‘I forgot, I completely forgot’

Nathan follows her gaze. He hadn’t been there for the whole Olly saga but he knew of it, in vague detail.

‘It has been over 2 years Carrie, you are allowed to want to talk to him’

‘Hmmm’ Caroline says

‘And kiss him and fuck him into oblivion’ she thinks

But how does she stop this? How does she talk to Olly like she wants to with Andrew there? In that moment her reasons to stay with Andrew seem to drift further and further away.

She opens a text message

‘Andrew, I’m really sorry, I know we were going to give things another try but I can’t do this. Love just isn’t enough. I’m going to stay somewhere else tonight, please be gone by morning’ she pauses and gives it some thought ‘please leave Ruby, I paid for her after all’ she pauses again as the last song plays and the lights go up.

She spies Olly moving her way and closes Whatsapp, the message sitting there unsent.

The afterparty is around the corner and as everyone exits the Tate Modern, it looks like a conga line of celebrities heading there.

Olly catches up to her in the melee, Nathan walking ahead and she feels her breath leave her

‘Seriously we need to talk’

‘I know we do Ols, I know but-‘ before she can say anything else, she sees Andrew, all dressed up, and his eyes don’t go to her but to Olly

She steps out of the line to him, Olly following

‘What the fuck are you doing with him?’

‘Andrew, please-‘

‘Is she not allowed to talk to me now?’ Olly snaps

‘Ols, no’ Caroline grabs his arm and pulls him back as he rears towards Andrew

‘Oh back to Ols is it Caz?’

‘I called her Caz first!’ Olly shouts like a schoolboy in the yard

Andrew laughs, a menace underrunning it

‘Well there’s a lot of things you did before me mate but you’re not doing them now’

‘I’m not your mate’

Caroline fails to catch Olly’s arm this time and before she knows what is happening, the two men are facing off, slinging insults that Caroline can barely keep up with.

‘Caz, come on, we’re going in’ Andrew says as he backs away from Olly and grabs her arm

‘Not yet’ Caroline jerks her arm back but Andrew takes it again

‘She said no’ Olly snarls and pushes Andrew away

Andrew pushes back and the two swing at each other, Andrew getting Olly in a headlock as they pirouette along the pavement, their shoes skidding beneath them as Caroline stares aghast.  

‘You’re such a dick’ Olly spits, slightly strangled

‘Bet mine is bigger than yours’

‘Actually’ Caroline says to no one but herself ‘no it isn’t’

The two wrench apart, breathing heavily and with fire in his eyes, Olly punches Andrew right in the face

‘Oh fuck, ok’ Caroline teeters over in her high heels, pulling Olly away, as Andrew lies on the ground bleeding

‘Eh Andrew, I was just about to send you a text’ she grapples with her bag and she extracts her phone, opening Whatsapp and sending the still blinking message ‘there you go, I sent it. I’m breaking up with you. For real this time’ she leans over and pulls his keys from his suit pocket, taking off the ones to her house. She makes a mental note to message Jo to go relieve Ruby for her.

‘I’ll send your stuff to your Mum’s. Ok bye’ she drops the remaining keys on his chest, his words angry and muffled through his bleeding nose, stemmed by his suit sleeve.

‘Come on Ols’ she grabs his arm and pulls him away ‘we can talk now’

-----

He drives them back to his and it is achingly familiar as his car crunches up the drive. She could open the door, kick off her shoes and head right to the kitchen, popping the kettle on and waiting for Olly to come up behind her and kiss her neck.

But it is late and it isn’t 2015 anymore.

Olly walks to the kitchen anyway and she follows him, kicking off her shoes as she does so.

‘Cuppa?’ he smiles before he digs around in the freezer and plonks a bag of peas on his hand

‘No I’m ok’ she swings herself up on the island, him leaning back against the opposite counter

‘I need to know something Olly. I need to know if you still don’t want this. Because I want to sleep with you, I am aching to but I can’t if I’m just going to get my heart broken again’

Olly looks at her ardently

‘Letting you go is the biggest regret of my life Caz. I thought I couldn’t live that life but it’s been so hard to live without you. I was so scared, so stupid’

‘So?’

‘So’ Olly says, putting the peas down ‘I want you, I want this. I want marriage and babies and forever. I can’t lose you again’

‘Ols-‘

‘Caz, what?’

‘Are you not just saying this because it’s what I want to hear?’

She is scared, she had wanted this all along but it feels too good to be true. Reality feels like a drive alone to pick Andrew up and take him back again as she thought of Olly and all she could have. Actually having Olly hadn’t been reality in a long time, didn’t feel like it ever would be again.

‘I would sell this place tomorrow and come and live with you and that dog and put a ring on it and knock you up within the week. I would. You wouldn’t even have to ask. I would do whatever you want Caz, I want a life with you, I love you’

‘I-‘ Caroline falters, staring at him, at her dreams made corporeal, hardly daring to believe it

‘An I love you too would be great around now Caz’ he laughs nervously

‘I’ Caroline coughs, breathing in bravery ‘I love you too, I’m in love with you, I haven’t stopped since X Factor’

‘That’s all I need’

He walks to her, his hand on her face, the other on the back of her neck and her body reacts, her arms going around his neck, a dance they know so well.

They kiss, sinking into each other, into oblivion and serenity and an ache being answered and it feels like home.

‘I can’t carry you upstairs with this hand darling so you’re going to have to walk’

Caroline slides off her the counter and takes Olly’s uninjured hand in her own, leading him upstairs.

Besides some new sheets, it looks exactly the same, like 3 years haven’t passed at all

‘I’m so glad you still have this mattress’ she sinks back into it, remembering how unbelievably comfortable it was

‘Could never wake you up when you slept over’

‘Yes you could, you remember how’ she cocks her eyebrow at him and after sending sequins flying, her dress and the rest of their clothes are on the floor

‘My hand is a bit useless now though’ he says holding it up

‘Yes Ols but you’ve still got your mouth’

Olly winks at her before leaning back in for a kiss. His prone hand rests at her side as he kisses her neck and her breasts, down her stomach

Caroline had almost forgotten how good it was, how good he is and as he reaches in between her legs, she lets out a loud gasp. Of pleasure, of relief, of finally.

She must have shoved it all in a box because it feels criminal to not remember how incredible this is. She could recall the detail, every detail and yet somehow the memory does not hold up to this.

‘My god, I’ve missed your moans. You make me hard just from screaming’ he laughs as she lays his head on her stomach, her head still in the clouds, dazed and fuzzy

‘Come here’ she holds her hand out to him and he lies on top of her and kisses her

‘I have missed you Ols, so much’ she lets out a squeak of pleasure as his hand reaches between her legs

‘Caz, you have no idea’ he kisses her softly and moves gently into her

She clings onto him and him to her, as if they move too much they’ll have to let the other go

‘Oh god’ Caroline cries as she holds onto him, none of it feeling real

She never wants to let him go and after as they lie in each other’s arms, the love and ache burst open the dam and she weeps, sobbing into his chest

He holds her gently, kissing her lips and her forehead and cheeks and the top of her head

‘I’m so sorry Caz’ he whispers ‘I’m so sorry’

‘I’m just being silly’ she hiccoughs

‘You’re not. I hurt you, he hurt you, you’re allowed to cry. I am so sorry, so sorry I ever hurt you like that’

‘It’s just’ Caroline takes a breath and kisses him, tasting salt ‘I was so angry at you. So angry and so hurt and I thought I was never going to get over it. And it’s like these last three years I’ve put a band aid on top of a bullet hole and thought it would do. But you’ve just gone and ripped it off. I’m not angry at you anymore Ols. But this’ she gestures to their entangled selves ‘it’s like going back in time three years. And I think I’m just crying that we’ve even managed to get back here’

‘I’m sorry it took three years’

‘Yeah me too, Ols’

‘You can hold that against me forever if you want, that I was too much of a coward to agree to a life back then’

‘A life is a long time’

‘I know it is Caz and I can’t wait to spend it with you’

‘No running away this time?’

‘Never. I promise’

‘I believe you’ she kisses him, curling into him, her emotions ebbing away and making way for exhaustion ‘I love you Ols’

‘I love you Caz, I’ll see you in the morning’

---

He wakes early and extracting himself from under her, he goes to the kitchen and sticks the kettle on.

By the time he has returned with two steaming mugs of coffee, she is sitting up in bed, the sheet pulled up to her shoulders, her hair a mess atop her head. It feels so familiar, like seeing the past and future all at once.

‘Look’ she nods to the telly where she has live paused them ‘we’re on for a full four seconds’

‘God knows people will die over that’ Olly laughs as he climbs into bed and hands her her coffee

‘Yeah they will’ she says, blowing on her drink ‘they’d die about this even more’

‘And about Andrew bleeding on a pavement’

‘Well I think we can all be grateful for that’ she smiles

How funny it was to see themselves on telly again, back where it had all began, fate waiting, ever patient and finally, finally come to be.

[starstuffandalotofcoffee]

The Please Use Your Brain Master list

You cannot argue both that public schools are teaching us to be good little factory workers because of capitalism and also complain that they’re not preparing us for real jobs that don’t require college. Also: vocational schools exist.

Relatedly, do you think school exists just to prepare you for the working world or if it’s supposed to teach you to think? Because if the latter, stop blaming your lack of practical skills on the fact that you had to learn about mitochondria or trigonometry. Math and science teach you critical thinking and the humanities teach you context and empathy and maybe if you stopped whining for 30 seconds you’d be able to put these together and be a halfway decent excuse for a person. And maybe if you had paid attention in a standard public school Algebra 2 class you wouldn’t ask for mutually exclusive possibilities, Karen.

Speaking of, do you want schools to teach you how to do your taxes or what? Please keep in mind that the tax code is a mutable law, and taxes differ state-to-state. Also free tax prep programs are pretty good unless you have a complicated income or assets, and are available online. Free basic assistance is available at many libraries. If you do have a lot going on, you can pay someone money to help you do your taxes.

Yes you need to pay someone to help you do your taxes. It is their job. Do you believe in a living wage or not.

“Artists should get paid enough to live.” - good point

“Manhattan real estate prices are ridiculous, especially in midtown!” - true

“Broadway shows are too expensive.” - ...do you listen to yourself even

“I wish it were socially acceptable to” - I have yet to see one of these that describes something socially inacceptable. I have personally: taken a martial arts intro class for adults, gone to the movies alone, gone to a restaurant platonically with one friend, worn a costume not on Halloween in public. The vast majority of people will not give a fuck. Most of the rest won’t say or do anything. You can’t control if people judge you. If they actively harass you that’s a problem but if you just worry about silent judgement, guess what, they’d judge you if you didn’t do these things too. I’m judging you right now for having never left the fucking house apparently.

Pretending all women/PoC/LGBTQ+ people/etc have been irrevocably erased from history- typically this is complicated but ultimately not true and not helpful (and even harmful). It is undeniable that most mainstream public education in the U.S. is deeply flawed (hey look! Valid criticism of the educational system). However, there are books with this information! That are at libraries! For free! Also the internet exists! You know what is erasure? Denying the hard work many LGBTQ+ and/or ethnic minority researchers put in to writing tons of books about their histories!

Similarly, before saying “YOU KNOW WHY” or “Why is no one talking about this” you need to check the following.

Is the source valid? Because sometimes no one’s talking about it because it’s an outright scam.

Are people really not talking about it or are they just not talking about it on Tumblr because the last time I saw this I immediately found a NYMag profile and an NPR interview, both from within the past 5 years, by searching the person’s name.

On that note let’s talk journalism! It’s important, it’s dangerous (especially in this climate) and it is a job that people should get paid for. Unlike, say, healthcare, you really, really, really don’t want journalism to be state-sponsored. Share a subscription with a couple friends if you have to. Go to the library.

Oh and journalism typically has standards both of veracity (which means that you won’t hear about something that is pure hearsay no matter how nicely it fits your worldview) and style (which means that they don’t give names in headlines unless the person is well-known) The name is in the article, which you would know if you read the article.

I keep seeing that post saying that if libraries were proposed under capitalism they’d never come to be and honestly whether it’s true or not I doubt half of you would notice because you’ve only ever set foot in them to reread Harry Potter.

In conclusion: learn to use a search engine. Learn to do basic research (which my public school did in fact teach). Remember that a necessary part of paying people for their work means you don’t get the things they create for free. Read a book. A nonfiction one. Go outside. Read the article. Apologize to your mother. Consider whether your statements are constantly in direct conflict thus destroying all of your points. Make an effort to actually learn things instead of expecting Tumblr to shovel it into your brain.

[prosperlawaustralia]

Why Your Business Needs an Intellectual Property Agreement

In Australia, it is important for any business that wants to create, develop, licence or sell intellectual property to ensure that they have an intellectual property agreement in place. An intellectual property can make or break a business deal.

With one, your business has a right to deal with the intellectual property in the way the agreement describes. But without one, your business might face some unintended and devastating consequences.

In this article, we’re going to look at why your business needs an intellectual property agreement. To answer this question, you’ll hear from an experienced Australian business lawyer and learn:

1.     Why is intellectual property important for businesses?

2.     What is the purpose of an intellectual property agreement?

3.     How can businesses use an intellectual property agreement to maximise the benefit to their business?

If you want to learn more about intellectual property, check out our Ultimate Guide to Intellectual Property Law in Australia.

Author: Farrah Motley, an Australian intellectual property lawyer.

Why is intellectual property important for businesses?

We can’t understate just how important intellectual property is to every kind of business. Whether you operate an eCommerce site, clothing store, software company or a professional consultancy business, intellectual property is a big part of what you do.

Many business owners underestimate the value of intellectual property and because of this, overlook those important legal ‘must haves’, like an intellectual property agreement.

If we take the business examples above, here are some of the kinds of intellectual property that those business may create or use:

eCommerce site: the website, including the text and the website layout (copyright), the business’s logo (trade mark) and the products that are being sold (which may be subject to design rights, copyright, trade marks, patents, circuit layout rights or all of them)

Clothing store: the clothing (which may be subject to design rights), the business’s logo (trade mark) and the clothing catalogue (copyright)

Software company: the software source code (copyright) and the business’s logo (trade mark)

Professional consulting firm: the deliverables produced by the consulting firm (copyright, trade marks, patents, circuit layout rights or all of them) and the business’s logo (trade mark)

Intellectual property is worth money

Put very simply, intellectual property is an asset that is worth money. And for every Australian business (and indeed, any business anywhere in the world), money is either the central focus or an intended bi-product of the business.

You can read this article here about the financial value of a brand, but needless to say – it’s significant. Businesses should regard their intellectual property just like any tangible asset, such as real estate.

Still not sold on the financial value of intellectual property? Well, let’s take branding as an example (this is comprised of trade marks and other types of intellectual property which make up the branding of a business). In 2021, brands such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft are worth billions of dollars.

If any one of those companies changed their name, the way they do business and the other countless number of factors that make up their brand, their value would decrease significantly.

Intellectual property differentiates your business from others

To be competitive, you have to demonstrate to customers why your business is different to your competitors. You do this through intellectual property.

Intellectual property can be valued

In Australia, the value of intellectual property for innovative businesses can be greater than a business’s physical assets. There are strict rules in Australia for valuing intellectual property and this guide gives a brief overview on the valuation of intellectual property in Australia.

Intellectual property can create leverage

Have you ever experienced being on the wrong side of the table in a commercial negotiation? If you need to negotiate a commercial deal and don’t have leverage, your business can face an uphill struggle to get the best deal. Intellectual property can step in and help solve the problem of leverage.

Leverage means that your business has something the other party wants or needs, and you can use that thing to make sure that you get what you want in exchange.

For example, if cash flow is important to your business and you need short payment terms, ensure that your client doesn’t get any intellectual property rights in whatever your business is supplying unless and until they have paid you in full. Without the legal right to use your services, products or deliverables, your client doesn’t get what they want unless and until they have give you what you want; timely payment.

Intellectual property rights can promote innovation

Innovation is the cornerstone of modern business. If your business doesn’t innovate, it can quickly find itself struggling to compete. By having an exclusive (no one else but you can use it) right to use whatever it is that your business creates, you have an incentive to create it in the first place.

Exclusive legal rights give your business the ability to recoup its investment and commercialise (make money!) from its inventions.

Intellectual property rights can promote goodwill

Let’s shut the door on you selling or licensing your business’s intellectual property and take a look at the importance of intellectual property from the perspective of the user of someone else’s intellectual property.

To demonstrate how intellectual property can promote goodwill, let’s take a look at sponsorship rights. Sponsorships are a particularly important part of professional sports. The sponsor pays money to the individual sportsperson or sports team, and in exchange they are acknowledged in some way.

This acknowledgement can be through the player wearing the sponsor’s clothing, the sponsor’s trade mark being displayed on the pitch or on the stadium screen or being displayed on a racing car (you name it!).

Sponsorships are generally quite expensive because the sponsor can leverage the reputation and goodwill of the sportsperson, team or the sport in general, to promote their own brand. Sponsorships are highly valuable because of the association that is drawn between the sponsor and the other party.

Sponsorship agreements are costly because of the intellectual property rights that are exchanged. One or both parties gets to promote themselves through the use of intellectual property licences and other rights and draw on the other party’s reputation in order to promote their own.

What is the purpose of an intellectual property agreement?

We’ve looked at how intellectual property is beneficial for businesses, but what about an intellectual property agreement; what’s the point?

The transfer of ownership or rights in intellectual property should be set out in writing. If you don’t have anything in writing and instead you are trying to rely on a conversation – good luck!

The ‘he said’ ‘she said’ scenario is all too familiar to lawyers and presents a challenge for businesses and their legal advisors. Trying to enforce or defend rights based on a conversation alone can lead to higher legal costs and may ultimately lead to a failure to discharge the evidentiary burden of proof on the balance of probabilities.

If you don’t have a right to use, licence or transfer intellectual property rights, then you are instead infringing someone else’s intellectual property rights and the consequences can be severe.

An intellectual property agreement can overcome these issues by:

Clearly describing what each party can and cannot do

Recording the agreement reached at a point in time where there was low conflict

Producing something that can be referred to and relied upon later

How can businesses use an intellectual property agreement to maximise the benefit to their business?

Options

If you’re not sure whether:

you want to continue to give someone the right to use your business’s intellectual property; or

you want to continue to use someone’s else intellectual property,

beyond the term of the intellectual property agreement or the end date, you can negotiate an option. An option gives either you or the other party or both parties (depending on who wants to benefit) a choice to extend the intellectual property agreement for a further period.

An option period adds some additional flexibility into an intellectual property agreement because you (or the other party) don’t have to make such long-term business decisions. Instead, you can commit to a shorter time period, which enables you to evaluate and monitor your business decision, and later decide whether it is worthwhile extending that agreement.

Reciprocal rights

Intellectual property agreements can be drafted so that both parties have the right to use one another’s intellectual property. By granting reciprocal rights, an intellectual property agreement can cement the relationship between the parties to the agreement. Reciprocal intellectual property rights can be particularly beneficial where the parties create or use complimentary goods or services and there is something to gain from conveying a strong business relationship.

Both parties can take the benefit of reciprocal rights to use each other’s intellectual property to springboard the success of their own goods and/or services.

Exclusivity clauses

We have written extensively on exclusivity agreements, but you can also embed an exclusivity clause into an intellectual property agreement. If it is particularly valuable to your business that:

the other party does not allow anyone else (or will allow, but in limited circumstances or in different industries) to use their intellectual property rights; or

you want to ensure that the only relevant intellectual property rights the other party uses are yours,

an exclusivity clause can achieve this outcome.

But exclusivity clauses are generally quid-pro-quo – you don’t get something for nothing – and because of this, it’s important to ensure that you have a lawyer draft your exclusivity clause (and – for that matter – your intellectual property agreement!).

Royalties

If the nature of the intellectual property that your business has created is that it is able to be sold over-and-over again (such as a book or other publication), you might want to consider whether your business would benefit from a royalty arrangement.

Royalties can benefit both the buyer and the seller in the following ways:

If the buyer of the intellectual property doesn’t have sufficient capital to pay the seller up front or isn’t certain whether the innovation is going to be successful, they could offer to pay the seller royalties (in addition to or in substitution for a fixed upfront payment);

If the seller expects that the innovation is going to be highly successful or wants to otherwise financially invest in their own creation, they can request to be paid royalties by the buyer.

Transfer-ability

Most people want to grow their business and some want to eventually sell their business. When a business is bought, it’s stock (if it has any), liabilities, goodwill and other assets is valued and the total amount becomes the purchase price.

If you don’t have the right to transfer the intellectual property rights you have paid for (or, for instance, you need the consent of the seller to undergo a change in control and thereby assign your intellectual property rights), the value of that intellectual property agreement may be discounted from the business’s sale price. This can be a significant reduction to the amount of money you would otherwise have received in your pocket.

By ensuring you have the right to transfer, assign or even sub-licence the intellectual property rights, and recording this in an intellectual property agreement, can help to protect your business.

Liens

Intellectual property should be treated like any other asset. If the buyer doesn’t pay the seller for the rights, the seller should be entitled to exercise what’s called a ‘lien’ over that intellectual property.

By ensuring that you have the right to use the intellectual property as collateral to satisfy the debt owed to you, you have a much better chance of recovering debts.

Farrah Motley | Legal Principal

PROSPER LAW - A Commercial Law Firm for Businesses

M: 0422 721 121

E: farrah@prosperlaw.com.au

W: www.prosperlaw.com.au

A: Suite No. 99, Level 54, 111 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland Australia 4000

[stepphase]

Make easy money with very little effort your monthly income

Can you imagine being able to complete your monthly income with easy money? A small amount that is added month after month to your salary without having to do practically anything. Well, this is not a dream, it is a reality. I'm going to explain how to get it, as well as the scams you should avoid.

All that glitters is not gold if you want to earn quick and easy money

Surely on some occasion you have come across a website, a blog, or a comment in a forum from someone who promises you that you can earn thousands of euros a month without doing practically anything .

I have also seen them and I have thought the same as you, "this cannot be true . " But unfortunately, there are people who are going through a bad time and need to believe that this is true, which makes them potential victims for scammers.

There are hundreds of examples of scams online that want to make you believe that you are going to make money. If you fall into them, hopefully you will only lose some time , but it is quite possible that you will also end up losing money .

Here are three examples:

Remote jobs that don't exist

The modus operandi is almost always the same. You find a job offer that allows you to earn money from home, usually a very interesting amount. You do not need any type of training or experience and they practically do not explain what the position consists of.

What they do tell you is that in order to access the job, it is necessary that you pay an amount for management expenses, training, etc. If you take the hook and pay, you will never hear from that supposed company or job again.

The binary options scam

The binary options are an investment system tightly regulated and legal. But there are always scam artists willing to take advantage of the ignorance and situations of need for others.

This investment system is somewhat complex and is not suitable for people without knowledge. But they sell it to you as if it were the easiest thing in the world. And urge you to seize the opportunity and earn a lot of money.

You put your money for that supposed investment and it goes directly into the pocket of the scammer who, logically, is not going to make the investment that he has promised you .

Receive easy money in your checking account

There is a scam in which someone contacts you by email and asks you to use your checking account as a platform to make money from one country to another. All this accompanied by a more or less credible story about why you need to move the money. And the reasons why you need an intermediary.

Of course, in exchange for doing nothing and putting your checking account, it offers you to keep a percentage of each transaction . And here comes the scam. In the best of cases, they access your account and keep your money.

Do you want to know what happens in the worst case? That they use your account to move money, they don't pay you anything for it and you also become an accessory to a possible money laundering crime.

Beware of rare emails to earn money! They can be scams.

I could go on and on, but I think with these examples you get the idea. In the end, What all scams have in common is that they offer you to earn a lot of money quickly. Plus without doing practically anything.

Now, this does not mean that you cannot earn quick and easy money online and even offline. What happens is that you have to have a head. Money does not fall from the sky . There are formulas with which you can effortlessly get a little extra, but they are not usually large quantities.

Before going on to see how to earn easy money, admit me some advice so that you do not end up being the victim of a scam: if something is too good to be true, it is a lie .

Earn easy money in your spare time

Do you have a computer or mobile with an Internet connection? Do you have a little free time? Well then you already have everything you need to complete your income with a few more euros.

Paid surveys

They are precisely what their name indicates. Through any of the platforms that I will tell you about later, you receive surveys prepared by brands that seek to obtain information from consumers . You spend a few minutes filling them in and in return you receive a small payment.

Some of the ones that work best are Toluna, Lifepoints, and i-Say. Let's see them in a little more detail.

Toluna

Toluna is one of the most famous survey websites and accepts users from both Spain and abroad. It has a simple, pleasant, and intuitive interface, and it will not take you more than 20 minutes to answer each survey.

You accumulate points that are later transformed into money, And that you can collect by bank transfer, through PayPal, or by gift vouchers. In addition, it has a referral system with which you earn money for each person you invite to participate.

You earn points for completing surveys, but also for other activities such as visiting certain websites, completing registrations, making purchases or voting for sponsored content.

Lifepoints

Although it is a relatively new platform, Lifepoints is actually the sum of the experience of two classic survey panels, GlogalTestMarket and MySurvey.

Once you register they send you surveys to your email. The points you earn depend on the time you have to dedicate to them. Some last only 10 minutes, but others can exceed 30.

The points you get can be exchanged directly for gifts, but also for a check to spend on Amazon or for a balance that you will collect through PayPal (you can request payment from 600 points, which is € 5).

i-Say

The i-Say platform is managed by Ipsos, a market research company that has been active since 1975. In this case, it is aimed exclusively at the Spanish public.

You can register for free in just a few minutes. And once you have filled out your profile you start receiving surveys.

For each completed questionnaire you receive points that you can later exchange for Amazon checks or gift certificates for other stores. Typically, you receive between one and two surveys per week.

In addition, it has a referral system with which you can increase your earnings by adding points for each of your friends who join the platform.

Mysterious client

Companies need to know if the attention they are giving to customers in their establishments is really good, and for this they usually resort to the figure of the mystery or ghost customer.

This is someone who pretends to be an ordinary customer , but who is actually in charge of examining important aspects such as the treatment that the shop assistants give to the public, if the store is tidy, if it is accessible, etc.

Both on online job search platforms (Infojobs and similar) and on specific websites such as clienteindiscreto.com or International Service Check you can find offers to work as a mystery client.

You just have to spend a few hours and then present a report telling your experience . In case you have to buy something in the investigated establishment, the company will pay you for it.

It is a simple and even fun activity that I have done myself. 

The mystery shopper is not here to buy, but to watch.

Monetize your social media

You don't have to be a famous influencer with thousands of followers. If you have a medium-sized account (over 1,000 followers) you can earn some income by posting sponsored content.

On platforms such as Publisuites, SocialPubli or Coobis you can find advertisers who will pay you a few euros to put a tweet or a message on Facebook talking about them. Logically, the more followers you have, the more money you can earn.

Make easy money with your skills

Sure there are a lot of things that you are good at. We all have some (or several) skills that make us stand out a little bit.

Maybe you speak several languages, or you take beautiful photos, or you are good at math. Well, thanks to the Internet you can take advantage of these skills.

Somewhere in the world, there is someone right now who needs those special abilities that you have and is willing to pay for them.

You can create your own website or blog and offer your professional services as a translator, editor, photographer, etc. But if you don't want to complicate your life so much, you can go directly to platforms that will help you find clients.

Image banks

All the content that is uploaded to the Internet is usually accompanied by images. Those of us, like me, who have a website, are always in constant search of royalty-free photos that we can use legally and have quality.

What I do is go to repositories or image repositories, but these files need to be constantly renewed. Well, if you are good at photos, you can upload them to these platforms and charge each time someone downloads one of your images to use it .

Here are some examples:

Pixabay

Pexels

Unplash

Picography

MiniJobs

Minijobs are a trend in the digital world. There are specialized platforms where you can offer others your online or offline services : create a website, write a text, make a logo, walk and take care of dogs, etc.

There are a lot of variety of professional markets. Among the most prominent I cannot fail to mention Upwork, Freelancer and Toptal . If you handle English well, you can try the well-known Fiverr .

How to make easy money with what you have

The alternatives that I just showed you in the previous section can help you earn a few extra euros, although they could also help you find a new way to earn a living, since you can professionalize your skills.

But if you are happy with your job and you don't want to have to work on anything else to earn money, a very good option is to take advantage of what you have.

Sell ​​what you don't use

If the crisis has had something good, it is that now we are more aware of our resources. And we are no longer afraid of buying second-hand things. According to this article in elPeriódico, buying and selling second-hand also helps us to achieve a more sustainable world.

Thanks to pages like Milanuncios or apps like Wallapop, it will be very easy for you to sell all those things that you do not use: books, clothes, tools, etc.

Not only do you get extra money, but you also take advantage of it and put your house in order. Having less things will help you see life with more perspective and escape the consumerism that may be causing you to spend more.

Do you have used books? Sell ​​them and you'll make yourself some extra money.

Rent your house

If you have a second home that you hardly use, or you are going to spend a season away, you can consider renting your house, either for long periods of time or through vacation rental platforms such as AirBnb.

Another way to get money with your house without having to go live somewhere else is to rent a room that you have free . You can get an average of € 200 to € 300 or even more, it depends on where you live.

Here you can check what you could get .

Advertising in your car

If you own a car there are several ways you can earn money with it. The simplest is to rent it as an advertising space . Companies such as Impacto Dual or Serbecar are specialized in these services.

All you need is that your car is in good condition. It should be live in an urban area and travel several kilometers every day. For the rest, you do not have to worry about anything, just to charge the amount agreed for advertising.

Rent a car

If you have a car but don't use it every day, you can also earn money with it. The platforms car rental particular are a very interesting novelty. They take care of everything, including insurance.

In this Mapfre article, you can answer your questions about how this system works, whether you want to rent your car or if you want to rent a vehicle from a private individual.

There are many specialized platforms in this sector. You can have a look at SocialCar or Drivy .

Monetize a website

If at any time you have created a web page or a blog, you can also get money from it. And If you do not use it, you can directly consider selling it.

If it is an active website with traffic, you can get extra income. Moreover, if you include advertising through Google AdWords, sell advertising space on your site, links, or sponsored articles.

Getting money with your website will involve a little more effort on your part. Since you must work on it so that it is positioned and attractive to potential advertisers.

Conclusions

You've seen it, there are many ways to earn easy money. Forget the false promises to earn thousands of extra euros and focus on more realistic options. With a little effort, or using the things you already have, you can end the month with a few extra euros in your pocket. Surely they are not bad for you. Follow these keys that I have given you and I am sure that the end of the month no longer seems so terrible.

Photos: Pixabay

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[orbemnews]

Why thousands of Brazilian politicians changed their race last year Interviews with several Brazilian candidates revealed a range of reasons for race changes — some said they or campaign officials had simply made a mistake while filling their candidacy form, some said their family background gave them a claim to multiple racial groups, and some said they had recently started to feel a sense of belonging in a new racial category. Brazilian politicians do “have some latitude to fluctuate on how they present themselves” in order to connect with supporters, Andrew Janusz, a political scientist at the University of Florida who has studied the race changes of candidates extensively, told CNN. Nevertheless, “individuals don’t have total freedom of choice, so if someone is really fair-skinned, they might not be able to say that they are Black, for example,” he said. Official demographic categories in Brazil have traditionally focused on what demographers call marca — each individual’s external appearance — rather than family origins, unlike the US. The most common racial change for politicians last year was from White to Black or Brown, a shift made by more than 17,300 candidates. But vast numbers of candidates also moved in the opposite direction: About 14,500 switched from Black or Brown to White — the second-most common change. Adriana Collares, who ran for city council in Porto Alegre, told CNN that her racial declaration changed only because her previous party had mistakenly described her as White in 2016, against her wishes. “I never considered myself White, but there was no name for what I was,” she says. “I never felt like I had the right to call myself Black. I was always recognized as ‘tanned,’ as ‘mulatta,’ as anything but Black. Then came this term, ‘Pardo,’ and I found my place in the world.” “Pardo” translates literally to “Brown,” but can also mean mixed-race. Though not commonly used colloquially among Brazilians, it has been used by national statistics agency IBGE, including in the census, as an official category since the 1950s, and is currently the largest group in Brazil. Since the 2016 election, Collares left her old party and moved to a new one. In the 2020 election, she again requested to be described as Brown. This time, the party respected her choice. In contrast, Adriana Guimarães, who ran for city council in Manaus, switched her racial declaration in the opposite direction. She told CNN that she selected Brown in 2016 after being ideologically conditioned by the left. “In Brazil, we have a mixture of races. In my case, I also have that mixture, of Black, White, and Indigenous. But under Lula and Dilma, there was a push for Brazilians to identify as Brown,” she said, referring to campaigns sponsored by the administrations of former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff that described Brazil as a mixed-race nation. After an economic crisis and a corruption scandal hit the country in the early 2010s, Guimarães, like many other Brazilians, began to embrace a more conservative view of the world. She was also reacting to what she perceived as government overreach in the private sphere. “I started participating in conservative movements,” she says. “I started researching conservatism, reading about Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, and I ended up noticing that I’m conservative.” She also noticed her racial identity in a new way. “My race change happened due to my new political ideology,” says Guimarães, now a supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro. In 2020, she declared herself White. “I could say that I’m Parda because my grandmother was Black. But my color is White. My color is not Parda. I’m not a ‘neutral burned Yellow.’ I believe that saying that I’m Parda is like saying that I’m neutral. But I have my position, I have my strength, I’m not neutral. It’s the same thing with that neutral gender. It’s like being undecided,” she said. Picking an identity Brazil’s official racial categories have evolved over time, and some contemporary efforts to change them are part of a broader push to rectify inequalities rooted in the country’s history. Slavery lasted longer in Brazil than in other places in the West, and involved more people than in other countries in the Americas — of the 10.7 million slaves who arrived alive on the continent, about 5.8 million were brought to Brazil, compared to about 305,000 taken to the United States, according to the Slave Voyages database. “Violence has characterized Brazilian history since the earliest days of colonization, marked as they were by the institution of slavery,” write Heloisa Starling and Lilia Schwarcz in their history “Brazil: A Biography” Even after slavery ended, “its legacy casts a long shadow.” To this day, the country continues to suffer from steep social and racial inequality. While the nation shows “cultural inclusion” — exemplified in diverse participation in popular traditions like samba, football, and capoeira — they warn that “social exclusion” still means that “the poor, and above all Black people, are the most harshly treated by the justice system, have the shortest life span, the least access to higher education, and to highly qualified jobs.” That exclusion can be seen in politics too. According to the national statistics agency, Black and Brown people are the majority in Brazil, but in 2018 made up only about 40% of candidates for Congress. The disparity increased even more after the election — only about 25% of successful candidates were Black or Brown, according to the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies, an independent research institute. Brazilian legislators elected in 2018 were overwhelmingly White. In the early 2000s, then-president da Silva created a government agency to promote racial equality, and in the early 2010s, his successor Rousseff approved ambitious affirmative action programs to address lingering racial inequality, including the 2012 law that reserves spots for poor, Black and Brown, and Indigenous students in federal universities and federal technical high schools, and the 2014 law that reserves 20% of public service jobs for Black and Brown applicants. These initiatives became rarer under the right-wing administration of later president Michel Temer and the current far-right administration of Bolsonaro. So progressive politicians have sought to advance social equality by pushing judges to interpret existing legislation, including the constitution, which repudiates racism. Putting money behind representation in politics In 2018, a group of female senators and deputies asked Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court to rule on whether male and female candidates should receive funding and advertising proportionally. Judge Rosa Weber, who ruled in their favor, wrote in her decision that the Superior Electoral Court “had been trying to encourage female participation in politics,” but existing measures had not done enough. When it comes to funding and advertising, she wrote, proportionality mattered — meaning that if a party has 30% of female candidates, those women should get 30% of the party’s total allocated funds and 30% of its airtime. The new rule was approved in time for the 2018 federal election. Two years later, the same court received a similar inquiry from Benedita da Silva, a deputy in Congress and an iconic Black politician in Brazil, who asked the court if there should be a minimum quota for Black and Brown candidates within parties, and the same proportional mechanism for their funding and airtime. The court denied the quota, but approved the proportionality. These rules could make a significant difference in driving funds to some candidates from underrepresented groups and even increase their chances of being elected, says Luciana Ramos, a professor of law at Fundação Getúlio Vargas who has tracked the application and impact of the two new parity rules. Tracking how political parties manage their electoral decisions is relevant in Brazil because most party activities and electoral campaigns are publicly funded. In 2020, Brazilian political parties received a total of R$3 billion ($540 million) from national coffers. Politicians also get free airtime on television and radio. Last year, that was at least 1h30 per day distributed among parties for about 30 days before the election, according to figures published by the Electoral Justice. In part because of the new racial equality rule, in part because of Black Lives Matter protests in Brazil and around the world, and in part because of growing awareness of racial inequality issues, more attention has been paid to the declarations of candidates in 2020 than in previous cycles. Some politicians are clearly sensitive to the scrutiny. Kelps Lima, who ran for mayor of Natal and declared himself as White in 2016 and Black in 2020, answered a broad question about his race change with a vigorous denial that it had anything to do with funding. “I declare to be Black since always and I NEVER USED QUOTAS in any moment of my life,” he wrote to CNN. “In 2016, the party made a MISTAKE and declared me as WHITE.” Lima added that he didn’t use campaign funds reserved for Black and Brown candidates and said that he had declared to be Black in two previous elections. A small portion of politicians who changed race in 2020 had made consistent declarations until that year: CNN’s analysis identified about 360 candidates who declared themselves White for two or three elections, between 2014 and 2018, then changed their race to Black or Brown as the new racial equality rule came into force in 2020. “I owed this to my origins,” said Marcio Souza, a candidate for city council in Porto Alegre who identified as White in two previous elections before changing to Black. “I’m absolutely a result of miscegenation,” he wrote in an email to CNN. “My mother was White, green eyes, Portuguese and Spanish, and my father was dark brown, dark brown eyes, Portuguese and Black.” He says he made the change as a conscious statement of solidarity. “For a long time, I have been thinking about this subject,” he wrote. “Due to the occurrences of racial crimes, I decided to adopt, in a positive manner, one of the elements of my racial composition, following my consciousness.” “From that decision, I didn’t receive financial benefits,” he added. “I’m at peace and I believe to be contributing to the fight against racism.” Another candidate, Vanderlan Cardoso, who ran for mayor of Goiânia, declared himself White for three consecutive elections, before selecting Brown in 2020. He gave a partial explanation for the race change during his electoral campaign last year, telling Goiás newspaper Popular that different people filled his candidacy forms. “In 2018, whoever filled it considered that I’m White,” he said. “Whoever did it now, instead, thinks that I’m Brown.” He also said during the campaign that he didn’t plan to use funds reserved for Black and Brown candidates. Cardoso did not answer requests for comment from CNN that mentioned his 2014 and 2016 racial declarations. He lost the election and returned to his job in Brasília as a senator representing the state of Goiás. But the electoral data shows that tens of other candidates who made the same move from White to Black or Brown ended up winning their races, including mayors of state capitals. Verifying racial claims Could Brazil’s racial fluidity end up weakening affirmative action rules designed to bolster under-represented groups, when those rules depend on stable racial categories to work? “Most everyone will say that racial inequality is a major issue in Brazil, and that things need to be done to ameliorate equality,” says Janusz, the political scientist who studies the race changes. “But to do that, you have to identify some boundaries, some procedures to identify beneficiaries.” In other affirmative action systems in Brazil, commissions exist to check if people are telling the truth. When Collares, the city council candidate from Porto Alegre, made use of the affirmative action programs approved under Lula and Dilma and took advantage of a racial quota to get her current job as a civil servant, she had to go through an interview with a commission that checked if she was really Brown. “I believe they wanted to know if I had experienced life as a non-White person,” she says. “I had to do an interview. I had to bring family photographs, childhood photographs. They asked about my family life, the culture inside our house, family habits. I spoke a bit about my life. I thought it was kind of surreal, but fine.” But political parties are not required to verify candidates’ racial declarations, and multiple parties that spoke to CNN said they were unaware that their politicians had changed race. Both PT, the left-wing party of former presidents Lula and Dilma, and PSDB, the right-wing party of former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, said that they had not recorded race changes among their candidates, even though the electoral data reveals thousands of changes in each party. Some parties benefitted candidates who had recently switched races. A list of Black and Brown candidates who received more funds due to the new rule sent to CNN by PSDB included one politician who had run for office as White in 2018 and as Brown in 2020. The party did not answer a question about that specific candidate. Gabriela Cruz, the leader of the Black wing of the PSDB party, told CNN she believed there might have been fraud in the 2020 election. “I observed cases in which the self-declared person was White,” she said, but added that making any further claims was complicated. “I don’t have enough evidence to say if it was only to access funds or if it was a question of racial awareness.” Cruz thinks parties should be required to check candidates’ physical traits against their racial declarations, “with the support of the Black wing of the party.” Though she respects people’s self-identification, she argues that physical traits matter. “Racism in Brazil is practiced through social constructions that exclude people by function of their physical characteristics, like skin color, facial features, and hair texture,” she says. “That is what places people in their racial group, and not their genetic composition.” Ramos, the law professor studying the funding rules, says that there could have been instances of deceit in 2020, but noted that fraud could also take other forms. “A party leader could direct campaign resources to a Black candidate and order her to transfer those resources to a White candidate, for instance,” she said. The Superior Electoral Court told CNN that it has not received any reports of fraud from the 2020 vote so far, in part because parties are still making their campaign budgets public. It said that potential punishments would include forcing a candidate to return the funds used in the campaign and, in more serious cases, removing them from office. Brazil is changing Representation matters more and more as Brazil itself changes. Population data from the national statistics agency shows that the share of Brazilians declaring to be Black and Brown increased during the 2010s, and that now represent about 56% of the entire population. Meanwhile, the share of Brazilians declaring to be White fell — they now make up 43%. Only recently have Brazilians had the option to declare their own racial identity — historically, census interviewers assigned their subjects a racial category. But Brazil’s political arena is failing to reflect the country’s diversity, despite the new equality rules approved in 2018 and 2020. Ramos, the law professor, points to a preliminary tally by 72 Horas, a watchdog group, that shows that, based on the budgets that have been made public so far, parties failed to distribute support proportionally, either by race or gender. Parties gave only 42% of their available campaign funds to Black and Brown candidates in 2020, according to 72 Horas, even though they were 50% of all candidates, according to the statistics released by the Electoral Justice. And parties gave only 30% of their funds to female candidates, even though they were 33% of all candidates. Since both women and Black and Brown people are the majority in Brazil, the figures above suggest that they were underrepresented within parties in relation to their true size in the population, and that their campaigns were underfunded in relation to their size within parties. Closing the gap between genders and races is important if Brazil wants to create better policies for specific groups, says Collares, the city council candidate from Porto Alegre. She believes that when a politician belongs to a certain group, their work is informed by the life experience of being a member of that group. “If you don’t experience it in your life, if you don’t feel it on your skin, it’s difficult to understand, it’s difficult to prioritize,” she says. “A man thinking policies for women is different from a woman thinking policies for women.” “We need to try to reach this parity, this representation,” she adds. “The majority of our people are Black and Brown, and we don’t see that.” Source link Orbem News #Brazilian #changed #Politicians #Race #thousands #Year

[vymicitsu1972]

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[debofskylaw]

How to File a Winning ERISA Claim

What is ERISA?

ERISA is an acronym for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a law passed by Congress in 1974 aimed at protecting the rights of employees who participate in their employers’ benefit plans and their dependents.  ERISA applies to a host of employee benefits – pensions, 401k and 403b plans, disability, health, and life benefits, along with severance and other benefits administered by employers.  

ERISA applies to the private sector and does not encompass state, federal, or municipal employers, although it may apply to government employee benefit claims if the benefits are provided by a labor organization.  Another significant exemption is “church plans,” which are benefits sponsored by religious organizations.

What is an ERISA Claim?

Any claim for benefits brought under a private sector or union sponsored employee benefit program is an ERISA claim.

How Can I Determine My Rights to Bring an ERISA Claim?

Federal law requires that employers provide employees with a summary plan description that provides information about claims and how to go about submitting a claim for benefits, along with deadlines for submitting claims.

How Do I File an ERISA Claim?

Different types of claims have different claim procedures.  Human resources personnel should be able to explain the process.  Here are some specifics as to different types of claims:

Retirement – Depending on the nature of the claim (i.e., pension or 401k), the employee needs to complete a set of forms specifying how and to whom benefits are to be paid. The election is usually irrevocable, so the employee should understand and make sure they are making the correct election, which may require assistance from a financial advisor.  If the employee is married, any election other than a joint and survivor annuity, such as choosing a lump sum distribution of retirement funds, requires spousal consent.

Disability – There are three parts to a disability claim – the employee statement, the employer statement, and the attending physician statement.  The employee describes their impairment and lists their treating doctors on the employee statement, the employer lists dates of employment, salary and job duties on its statement, and the attending physician needs to certify disability.  Employees should not start the disability application process without being sure they have support from their treating doctor.

Health Benefits– Most health benefit claims are routine and are submitted directly by the doctor or hospital.  However, claims that require pre-approval or claims involving highly expensive services such as newly developed drugs or certain medical devices, and many types of behavioral health treatment may require a letter of medical necessity from the treating doctor before approval.  Claimants should make sure that their physicians are ready and willing to back up their claims.  With certain pharmaceuticals and medical devices, the manufacturer may be able to provide resources.

Life Insurance/Accidental Death Insurance – In most instances, all that is necessary to complete an application for benefits is proof of beneficiary designation, a copy of the official death certificate, and completion of a form listing name, address, and other demographic information from the claimant.  However, if an autopsy was performed, it can be useful to have a copy of the report available prior to submitting a claim.  Or in accidental situations where there was law enforcement involvement, such as a fatal car accident, it would be advisable to obtain a copy of the police report.

What Happens After the Claim is Submitted

The claim will be reviewed by the insurance company or designated benefits personnel.  Depending on the nature of the claim, there are deadlines imposed by the U.S. Department of Labor for rendering a claim decision.  Delays may occur if the insurer or benefit administrator needs to gather additional evidence such as medical records, police reports, and medical examiner/coroner evidence

What Happens if the Claim is Denied?

If a claim denial is issued, claimants are usually obligated to submit an appeal with the benefit plan administrator as a precondition to challenging the denial in court.  Many types of claims have very short time deadlines for appeals such as health insurance claims classified as “urgent,” i.e., where the patient’s life is in jeopardy or the patient is in severe pain.  Appeal deadlines in such matters can be as short as three days

ERISA claim appeals can be very complex.  The U.S. Department of Labor has issued a comprehensive set of regulations addressing ERISA claims and appeals.  ERISA appeals are a legal procedure and often require an attorney’s assistance to navigate through the complex ERISA appeal process.  An experienced and knowledgeable attorney will know how to handle the appeal by gathering the necessary additional evidence that may be required and to present a winning argument to overturn an unjustified denial.   Another reason to get an attorney involved early in the appeal process is that if the appeal is unsuccessful, a court may not consider new evidence, so the failure to get an attorney involved until after an appeal is denied could prove to be fatal to recovering benefits later.

Deadlines for appeals are critical. Submitting an appeal even one day late could result in a loss of benefits that cannot later be challenged in court.

Once the appeal is submitted, the claim decision can generally take up to 90 days.  For disability claims, if the insurer or benefit administrator obtains evidence during the appeal that is adverse to the claimant, that evidence must be shared and the claimant given an opportunity to comment before the appeal decision is rendered.

What if the Appeal is Denied?

If the appeal is denied, the next step is to bring a lawsuit.  Because ERISA is a federal law, most ERISA benefit cases are heard in federal court, although state courts also have jurisdiction if both sides agree to keep the case there.  Court rulings have determined that jury trials are not available in ERISA cases; and other procedures differ in ERISA cases from other types of litigation.  For example, most courts put limits on “discovery” in ERISA cases, meaning that depositions and other types of information gathering that typically takes place in civil lawsuits is curtailed.  

As mentioned above, there may also not be an opportunity to submit new or additional evidence in court.  Once the appeal is completed, most court render a verdict based exclusively on the record assembled during the course of the claim and ensuing appeal.  

ERISA litigation may take months to years depending on the judge and how quickly the case progresses.  While some cases are decided following bench trials, in most circumstances, the cases are decided by a court reviewing the claim record and addressing arguments presented by each side without the court hearing witness testimony.

In ERISA litigation, it is possible in some instances to convince a court that the denial was mistaken but the claimant still loses.  This occurs where the court applies a judicial standard of review known as the abuse of discretion or arbitrary and capricious standard.  If that paradigm applies, and its application depends on language contained in the policy that signals the insurance company had “discretion” to decide the matter, the denial decision is presumed correct and will be overturned only if it is found “unreasonable,” a daunting standard for claimants to meet.  That is why it is so important for claimants to make sure they are represented by experienced and knowledgeable counsel who have handled similar cases and know how to present the most favorable arguments.  If the litigation is successful, the court may, but does not necessarily have to, award attorneys’ fees to the claimant in addition to accrued benefits.  Fees are not recoverable, though, at the claim appeal stage.

ERISA claims are often very complex and difficult.  Finding an experienced and knowledgeable ERISA claim lawyer early in the claim process is often the ticket to success.

[voltagefangirl19]

KBTBB Fic- The disappearance of the bluebird

A bit of long fic that I had in mind for almost a few years, (like I even have Soryu version on paper :v) ever since I read this, so you can say is a fic based on a fic, hope you like it, likes, reblogs and coments are deeply appreciated ^^

Ota drunkenly walked towards his stuff, the last months had been nothing but drunken hook ups and one night stands, he put his clothes on and start to leave the room, when he arrived at his suit he went to the shower immediately, it had been 10 years since __________ had gone missing, he didn’t know what had happened to her, and not even with Soryu’s and Eisuke’s resources he could find her, the only thing he had left of her was her engagement ring and her good bye note.

He made himself a coffee, with only the feeling of how much he missed her as inspiration, he sat on the sofa and knock a package down, it was something he received almost a month ago and he hadn’t opened it, since the only name written in it was ‘The Raven’, it looked suspicious. Finally, with a bit of a hangover creeping onto him, the curiosity was stronger and he ripped the paper that was covering a little wooden box that he proceeded to open, when he did it though, he went speechless; inside there was an oil painting of her, __________, rip almost at the middle and at the bottom, Ota whispered her name as his trembling hands grab the little canvas, her hair was shorter than the last time he saw her but besides that, it was a pretty perfect portrait, after he took it out of the box he noticed a piece of paper that was made to look ancient, it had a riddle on it: The bluebird that once was in a cage Flew away in the dark, leaving her master behind Even though she knew she wouldn’t survive, she tried She left her master a surprise, one that he has to guess to find It was her! The riddle was about her! His runaway bluebird! Ota turn the paper around and there was another inscription Clue: Where the bluebird was tamed, the next truth will stay Why he hadn’t seen this before?! From the paper he deduce that there was another part of the portrait, he had to find it! It may have another clue about her! But first things first, he had to focus, he put the portrait aside with delicacy and start analysing the box, it seemed made by request, or even handmade, so it didn’t have any recognizable trademark, same thing with the canvas and the paper, nothing stood up for identification, he then decided to use the ‘b’ plan: asking the other bidders for information.

For his misfortune only Baba was in the lounge, the thief was quite surprised to see him there, usually at that time of the night Ota was sneaking out from some woman’s apartment. “Ota! What a surprise, did a girl dumped you or something?” “That’s usually you, but now I’m here for important reasons.” He said as he showed him the paper, the portrait he would keep it to himself Baba read it and frown “This is about ________ right?” Ota moved his head in an affirmative way “when did you get this?” “A month ago or so, I don’t really remember, the one in the lobby told me that the hotel messenger leave it to me, I didn’t consider it important so I didn’t open it until today” “Who send it?” “Someone by the nickname ‘The Raven’, know anyone with that name?” “Doesn’t ring a bell, was there something else in the package?” “A painting, I already checked it though, it doesn’t have any traceable marks” Baba thought for a minute “So the next clue must be where she fell in love with you, that is what ‘tamed’ means since you ‘catched’ her in the auction, you must remember where she learned to love you” Those words brought a memory to Ota: the first time they made love. They weren’t together yet at the time, but it was then when she started to be sweeter to him, to open to him. This person, the raven, he couldn’t possibly know that right? such a precious memory she wouldn’t tell it that easily, right? He called the friend he was renting his ex-studio, she was another artist who he dated for a little while until he discovered that she was using him as a cover to avoid the media from knowing that she actually had a girlfriend, they remained as close friends after that.  “Rina!” “Ota… you know what time is it?” She sounded as if she was sleeping, which was probably the case “Sorry, I need to know, did any package arrived for me at the studio in the last month or so?” “Yeah I think so, now that you mention it, a guy paid me to keep a box that was directed to you in the studio and not to tell you about” Ota didn’t know whether to feel relieved or anxious “I’m coming to get it, are you there?” “Yeah but… can’t it be tomorrow? It’s late” “I know sorry, but it’s really important to me, please” Rina agreed to wait for him and Ota practically flew to the studio

The blonde and tall girl glared at him as she gave him the wooden box, “Thank you Rina, one last thing, do you know anyone by the name of ‘The Raven’?” “The artist? I thought you knew him, since you got a paint from him” she said while pointing at the sender in the cover “The Raven is one of the most famous artists in the Mystery Birds group, his style is to send riddles that has relation with the painting, well I say is a he, nobody knows though, why do you ask?” “No reason, just curious, thanks and sorry to keep you awake” Ota had a hard time trying to sound normal “Yeah you owe me a big one Kisaki” With that, he drove back to the hotel, when he arrived at the lounge, the other bidders were already there, Baba filled them in. Kisaki opened the box, finding another part of the ripped canvas, this time the portrait was of him, he was laughing next to __________, but the bottom part was still missing, the painting style was the same as the first one with the difference that this one had the signature on it, it was a little crow, a ‘raven’, Ota started to read the second riddle to the bidders: While the bluebird rested in a new nest, other one took her in care She felt scared and alone, but with her master, she couldn’t return The egg she had, hatched before time The little bird was a little gray, but still she loved it anyway. Ota frown, why did she couldn’t come back to him? Was she trapped? Was she kidnapped instead of runaway? He turned the paper and silently read the other inscription Clue: the last park where koro was walked, the bird awaits with the truth to tell, in the big tree inside, the last part hides The renamed artist Ota Kisaki felt a cold sweat running down his spine, this person even knew something so personal as the nickname he gave to her, so either they were someone she knew closely or they were the one keeping her captive, could he see her again if he went to that park? Would she be there? “Oh no.” Baba said in a low voice, almost for himself “Yeah I think so too” Mamoru agreed with an anxious look “What?” Ota demanded to know “Don’t you realize Ota?” Baba asked with concern “What?” “Birds are born from eggs.” Soryu said with a stone like expression, although he was slightly frowning “Yes so?” Honestly, he was still bewildered by the discovery that The Raven might be involved with __________’s disappearing that apart from that, nothing else made sense “The bluebird layed an egg that hatched, your bluebird had a little bird” Baba explained “What… are you…” Ota was feeling dizzy, he hadn’t been eating that well, the day before and that night he had barely a sandwich, plus the alcohol, and don’t even mention the last couple of weeks where he had barely any sleep “It means she was pregnant and had the baby before time” Eisuke finished, he was growing impatient. The news fell into Ota as cold water, his mind was trying to process everything at once, having new information of _________ after ten years of looking for her, her image in the portrait, The Raven, the personal details that he knew and now… a son. The artist blacked out.

The sunlight woke him up, he heard Luke’s voice telling someone that he was awake, next second he saw Baba “The others brought me here?” “More like tossed you here, how you are feeling?” “My head hurts” “It’s no surprise” Luke intervened “your body is weak, and you had an intense adrenaline rush, so when your body started calming down, your tiredness brought you down” the english doctor gave him a bottle of pills “those are vitamins, if you are not going to eat, at least take one whenever you feel bad” he said and left the suit, as he had more things to do “So Baba… you know anything about a group called ‘the mysterious birds?” He asked once they were alone “Once I had a ‘client’ who was crazy about them so I did a little research, supposedly is a group of exclusive artists who don’t want to be recognized by the media but only by their talents, they are sponsored by a lot of rich and wealthy people, why?” “Rina told me that this Raven, is one of the most famous inside this circle, so I wanted to know…” “If that is the case I don’t think we could get information about him, there are hackers all around the world protecting these people, because they are so talented they are called ‘the best artists in the world’ I don’t think that even Hikaru could enter their servers” Ota got deep in thought, how is that he didn’t know any of that? Then it hit him, he wasn’t that involved in the art world anymore, he only did requests, but without his bluebird, he didn’t have any motivation, until now. Ota stood up, determined to go to that park immediately, but Baba stopped him “Wait a second, you need to eat, if you have another shock like that I won’t bring you all the way back here” Ota thought about it, he did feel weak, besides, it would give him time to prepare for the truth, to see his Bluebird, so he reluctantly agreed.

They arrived at the park at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, Ota went straight to the center of it, where he remembered that was an old tree where he spent his last walk with her before he got to work insanely for a week before she disappeared. “Hey Ota, you look really happy today!” -her sweet voice echoed in his ears through his memories “Yep, I was chosen to make a really important painting in one week, it is a very valuable opportunity so yeah” he answered proudly, he wanted her to look at him with admiration and he apparently made it, since she looked so happy “Oh I have something to tell you too, but I’ll tell you after, so for now it’s a surprise.” She said winking her eye, he hugged her and spun her around a few times, he loved her, he really did. He walked around the tree slowly looking for anything odd, while he was doing that he realized that the park was emptier than 10 years ago, finally, stuck inside a little scratch in the tree bark, he found a tiny piece of paper, he took it and read it quietly, feeling how his heart ached with every word. The bluebird fight until she couldn’t stand, Making her caretaker silently cry ‘Where was her master? Why was she all alone?’ The little gray bird cried all on its own The bluebird smile, all the way to the end Not once she called her master, She didn’t want to cause concern At last, the bluebird is dead Taking the little gray’s happiness away Ota re-read the sentence all over again, she couldn’t be.. that… that wasn’t true right? he didn’t hear Baba calling him until the thief himself shook him “What is it? Are you alright?” The older asked, Kisaki hadn’t realized that he started to cry, both men turn around when they heard a set of footprints in the dry grass, they saw a tall guy with dark clothes and sunglasses, his hair was black and a little messy “Are you the raven?” Baba asked, the question seemed to awoke Ota, who started to feel a blind rage towards that name, if it was true that she was dead, it was The Raven’s fault wasn’t it? He did an inhuman effort to not kill the guy, but only because he wanted answers. “No… I’m just the messenger.” the man said with a soft but firm voice “You can only meet The Raven if you are allowed to” he took off his glasses and look straight to the artist “You took long enough to come here Ota Kisaki” “Where is the raven? Where is __________?!” He asked with despair “You must have read the riddle by now, did you misunderstood?” The guy asked with a frown forming between his eyebrows, Ota moved his head in denial “__________ is dead” “What?” Baba’s voice sounded so far “WHERE IS THE RAVEN?!” Ota practically roared with fury, what kind of sick prank was this? How could she be dead? Why did she ever left him in the first place? He needed answers now or he would go insane “If you want to know The Raven so badly, then here I am” a soft, feminine, even childish voice sounded behind the man at the same time a little girl with blond hair and dark blue dress that they hadn’t seen before stepped forward “I am The Raven” “That’s not possible, you are a little girl, you can’t be one of the most talented artists in the world” Baba stated, and while Ota agreed with that, he was more fixated in the kid’s eyes, it was her, those were ____________’s eyes “She is a genius, one that you can see only a few decades” while the other two were arguing, the girl looked Ota right in the eye, she knew that he knew “It’s impossible” Baba still couldn’t believe it “she must be like…” “Ten years?” Ota made a wild guess, his anger was long gone “I’m turning ten in a few months” she said not taking her sight from Ota, Baba looked at them back and forth between Kisaki and the kid and then he realize the resemblance, the girl walked to Ota and gave him the last part of the canvas, it was her, hugging a little brown puppy while laughing, Ota looked at her with wide open eyes  “Mom said you liked dogs, I’m more a cat person though, I thought you would like this” for the first time in the last five minutes she sounded like a real child, in that moment Ota broke, he kneeled and hugged the kid “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” he cried and apologized, he didn’t really know what he was asking sorry for, but it was the only word he could mutter “It’s okay, you couldn’t have possibly known, mom made sure of that, she wanted to free you from this” “This?…” what did ___________ wanted to free him from? Paternity? That was just… “Her death” the kid said when she saw Ota’s doubtful look “she knew she was dying, she never lied to me about it, and tried to made every moment count, she truly was the best mother I could have wish” the kid look that she could start crying at any moment, and it was the first time she really looked like a 10-year-old girl, Ota let her go so he could talk to her, then the man, who the artist had forgotten until now, put his hand on the head of the kid “I haven’t introduced you yet, Ota Kisaki, this is your daughter, Natsuko, she has her mother’s surname because it was her will, to not burden you with all this” “And just who are you?” Baba asked taking a step forward “I’m Yue Suichiro, ___________’s childhood friend, she asked me to help her when she found out about her disease” “Disease? What disease?” Ota asked with suspicious “She had leukemia” Natsuko answered while remembering the stories about her father and the reason why she left ‘I didn’t want to make your dad sad, but I just couldn’t give you up, I just love you too much my little Natsu’ is what her mother told her, a wave of nostalgia and sadness wash her over, she did an awful effort not to cry “She passed away a year ago, she didn’t want me to bother you, but I couldn’t help it, I needed to know what kind of person you were, I wanted to know if you deserved her” ‘She is too mature, oh god what did she had to go through? She and her mother alone… how much did they suffer?’ Baba’s head was full of those thoughts “Natsuko, I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you two, but please, would you come with me and give me a chance?” “I want to know you if that is okay with you” “Of course.” Ota said, his voice full of emotion “So… do you like my work?” Natsuko, The Raven, asked her father in a very shy and polite way He curved his lips, remembering the portrait of his bluebird “Perfect, almost like a photo” and for the first time in years, Baba saw the artist smile genuinely, he could, because despite having lost his beloved forever, he still had a part of her, he still had someone to look out for, he still had a tiny part of inspiration in that little girl with his hair and her eyes, he only knew her for less than ten minutes and yet he loved her and so he promised he would take care of her, his little gray bird, his little raven.

[muhamedshafaan]

Social Platform Ads

Google Ads

What is Google Ads ?

Google Ads aka Google Adwords  is Google's advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their clickable ads to appear in Google's search results. since advertisers have to pay for these clicks ,this is how google makes money from search.

How does Adwords bidding work ?

The actual position of your ad is determined by your ad rank (Maximum Bid times Quality Score). The highest ad rank gets the 1st ad position. Your actual CPC will be determined by the ad rank of the next highest ad below you divided by your Quality Score. The only exception of this rule is when you are the only bidder or the lowest bid in the Google Ads auction; then you pay your maximum bid per click! AdWords bidding heavily penalizes advertisers who bid with low quality scores. Conversely, those with high Quality Scores get higher ad ranks and lower CPC.

What is Google Quality Score?

This is a metric Google uses to determine how relevant and useful your ad is to the user, based primarily on your ad's CTR, keyword relevance, and the quality of your landing page. The higher your Quality Score, the better: high Quality Score keywords will save you money and earn you better ad rankings.

What are Google Ads keywords?

Keywords in Google Ads are the words and phrases that advertisers bid on, in hopes that their advertisements will appear on the search engine results page (SERP) when people are searching for those products or services. For example, if you sell shoes online, you might bid on keywords like "Nike sneakers" and "penny loafers." Keyword research is the process of using tools and data to determine which keywords are most likely to drive relevant traffic to your ads and your site.

 Facebook Ads

We already know that the figures of Facebook Monthly active users and the time they devote to the largest social media platform is staggering high. Undoubtedly, this is the most popular social media platform, and businesses find it lucrative to reach out to their prospects and customers. Facebook advertising is a ‘paid social’ which directs users to find businesses as per their searches and interest in products they hunt online.

How Do Facebook Ads Work?

Facebook ads now come in several varieties. You can promote your Page, posts on your Page, actions users took, or your website itself. Despite Facebook’s increasing focus on native ads and keeping traffic on its site, you can still be successful sending users to your website.

Facebook ads are targeted to users based on their location, demographic, and profile information. Many of these options are only available on Facebook. After creating an ad, you set a budget and bid for each click or thousand impressions that your ad will receive.

How to Target Facebook Ads

The #1 mistake most marketers make with Facebook ads is not targeting them correctly.

Facebook’s ad targeting options are unparalleled. On Facebook, you can target users by:

Location

Age

Gender

Interests

Connections

Relationship Status

Languages

Education

Workplaces

Each option can be useful, depending on your audience. Most marketers should focus on location, age, gender, and interests.

Bidding on Facebook Ads

Like on any ad network, strategic bidding can mean the difference between profit and a failed test.

After you create your ad, Facebook will provide a suggested bid range. When you’re just starting out, set your bid near the low end of this range.

Your CTR will quickly start to dictate the price you’ll need to pay for traffic. If your CTR is high, your suggested bids will decrease. If your CTR is low, you’ll need to bid more for each click. Optimize your ads and targets to continually increase your CTR.

In addition to click volume, your bid will also dictate how much of your target audience you’re able to reach. Facebook provides a great chart for every campaign showing the size of your target audience and how much of that audience you’ve reached. Increasing your bid will help your ad reach more of your target audience. If your ad is performing well but you’re reaching less than 75% of your target audience, you can increase your bid to get more clicks.

If your audience penetration is high, increasing your budget will increase your ad’s frequency: how many times a targeted user will see it.

Landing Pages

Getting a click is only the beginning. You still need the visitor to convert. Make sure to send him to a targeted, high-converting landing page. You know his age, gender, and interests, so show him a page that will solve his problems.

The landing page should also contain the registration form or email submit box that you’ll track as a conversion. Focus the landing page on this action, not the later sale. If you want visitors to sign up for your newsletter, show them the benefits or offer a free gift for their email.

How to Track Performance

To properly track the performance of your Facebook campaigns, you’ll need to use an analytics program like Google Analytics, or your own back end system. Tag your links using Google’s URL builder or your own tracking tags.

LinkedIn Ads

What are LinkedIn Ads ?

LinkedIn Ads can be highly effective both for reaching a professional target audience or for B2B campaigns. LinkedIn, as you may already know, is the quintessential and professional social network on a global scale. With this said, make sure to dedicate a part of your budget towards advertising on LinkedIn!

Though LinkedIn doesn’t have nearly as many users as Facebook has, profiles found on LinkedIn are exclusively those of professionals; profiles like these are almost impossible to identify in the same capacity on other social media platforms.

As time goes on, it becomes more and more challenging to stand out as a business without the aid of LinkedIn Ads. LinkedIn Ads, as the name implies, are paid advertisements shared on LinkedIn. There are three main types of LinkedIn ads available that can be adapted to any company objective or goal. In order to have success with LinkedIn Ads, it’s necessary to have your goals well defined.

Furthermore, it behooves each company to analyze whether or not LinkedIn Ads are actually the right medium for achieving their goals. To squeeze the most out of the best, professional social media platform in the world is not easy but, if you strategize well, it can yield incredible results.

Advantages for Advertising with LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn and LinkedIn Ads have unique traits which make them different from the other social networks. If you advertise with LinkedIn Ads, these traits act as an added advantage for your company.

Business opportunities. LinkedIn Ads can help you reach both professionals and/or people within the same sector who are a part of their company’s decision-making process. It’s a wonderful opportunity to connect with a well-defined and specified target audience.

Connect with professionals and leaders within your field. It’s not always easy to promote campaigns towards those within the same field. However, with LinkedIn Ads, the process is simplified!

Give and receive recommendations from your 'Connections'. LinkedIn also offers the option of exchanging recommendations and opinions between ‘Connections’ (i.e. contacts). This is a surefire way of improving both your reputation and that of others.

Opinions, discussions and forums. There are tons of specialized groups on LinkedIn focused on what truly interests people within a given target market. You too can join these groups! As a part of these communities, you can learn about the most recent innovations within your sector, positioning yourself to be an up-to-date and informed person within your area of expertise.

Find the perfect people. LinkedIn Ads are perfect for reaching clients, contacting providers and for recruiting new ‘talent’ for your company.

Promotion of your products and/or services. LinkedIn Ads make it easy for you to showcase your products/services to a sector clearly defined as your target market.

Track profile visits. LinkedIn Ads will often generate visits and direct contacts via your profile. Thanks to LinkedIn’s integrated statistics software, these actions are easily trackable.

Networking and traffic. Networking is LinkedIn’s greatest strength. Furthermore, if you decide to share quality content with your connections, you can also direct quality traffic towards your website and/or blog.

Job listings. Even though job listings can be found on other websites as well, on LinkedIn you can review the profiles of those who match specific qualities who are already using the network as digital supplement to their résumé. This being said, it would be hard not to find the right candidates on LinkedIn.

Professionals who offer diverse expertise. LinkedIn is full of people with varying expertise within your sector. You can learn from them as well as use them as reference for implementing new ideas and for improving your own company.

Connect with other social medias or with your blog. LinkedIn can also be used as an added source of connection. It can easily integrate into your website and can greatly complement it as well. At the same time, it can serve to help as an extra aid in generating content on other social networks.

Promotion of courses, seminars and conferences. If you’re going to host a specific training course, LinkedIn is the best place to recruit people and/or those interested in attending.

3 Types of LinkedIn Ad Campaigns

Sponsored content. These are ads which promote content. Using special links, they can be posted on LinkedIn, your blog, your website or on any other platform. The goal here is to increase brand awareness; we want to get people talking about you/your business and to be contacted/followed by people interested in the sector.

Sponsored InMail. These Ads can be used to send personalized messages to a specified audience by way of LinkedIn Messaging. This service is very useful for offering specialized content that could result in leads and, through the presentation of your company’s products/services, conversions.

Text Ads. If you're familiar with Google Ads, or you’ve created an ad on another social network before, then you already know how LinkedIn Ads work: They center on creating an attractive text ad that helps to lead members of your target market to your website, to a product landing page or to any other pertinent webpage designed to help you get leads and/or make conversions.

 Twitter Ads

What are Twitter Ads ?

Types of Twitter Advertising Campaigns

Twitter is a worldwide social network where any business could find their target audience. For this reason, there are different kinds of campaigns you should be aware of. At any rate, and before deciding on anything, we recommend you clearly identify and analyze your business goals. Then, you will be able to increase your ROI (return on investment) by the end of the campaign.

Followers: if you wish to be seen more on Twitter and increase your number of followers, this is the type of campaign you’ll want to use.

Clicks to your website/for making conversions: if you plan to use Twitter as a means to generate more visits to your website, or perhaps increase your number of conversions, this campaign is the one for you.

Interactions: this campaign is Twitter’s biggest weapon if your plan is to increase brand awareness and make some noise online.

Downloading/Use of Apps: if you have an App you want users to either know about or use more, this campaign is your best bet.

Lead Generation Cards: these cards allow you to get leads on Twitter so that, later, you can create targeted promotional campaigns. Additionally, this type of campaign could suffice as a means to obtain users’ emails; they will not have leave the platform in order to give you their info.

Video Playback: this campaign is ideal for launching video content on Twitter and also holds the most potential for going viral.

Personalized: this is the most ‘frequent’ type of campaign Twitter Ads offers. It’s perfect for advanced users or for businesses that want to combine the better parts of various options.

Advantages for Using Twitter Ads

Immediacy: Twitter is the ‘microblogging’ social network and is primarily characterized by its shortness. On Twitter, the “here and now” is what’s important. In this sense, the obtained results (assuming everything is well-planned) come quickly.

Effective Business Goals: thanks to the different types of campaigns offered by Twitter Ads, (in addition to its massive network of users), it’s quite easy to put together attainable business goals with the help of Twitter Ads. As an added bonus, you can also measure the progress/statistics of your ads.

User integration: even though advertised tweets are tagged with the word “Promoted”, (which is clearly visible amongst ‘organic tweets’), they are seamlessly integrated within a user’s timeline and offer the same reactionary options as non-promoted tweets (e.g. RT, like, etc.)

Multi-display and mobile version: Twitter allows for a perfect viewing experience regardless of the screen size/type; it's also perfectly optimized for cell phones. This is extremely relevant today and it will be even more so in the future since, every day, there are more and more people using their phones instead of their computers.  

Better CTR: various studies have concluded that Twitter Ads have a better CTR maintained over time. Compared to the rest of the social media networks, Twitter Ads seem to be more effective in this field. This could be due to the fact that there are less companies taking advantage of Twitter than there are with other social networks (which are already quite saturated).

Good practices for increasing ROI with Twitter Ads

1. The ‘now’ of social media. What’s important with Twitter is the here and now. If you take advantage of this immediacy and include, for example, mentions of current happenings on your feed, offers that ‘only last for a few more hours’ or breaking news, the ROI of your Twitter Ads will increase. 2. Power in numbers. Although "twenty" and "20" are exactly the same thing, visually speaking, the number itself has more power (even more so if you’re referencing a discount or a percentage of a discount). The recommendation is to always use this option; consequently, it also means using less characters than writing out the full word. Needless to say, carefully choosing each character on Twitter is of the upmost importance. 3. Newness makes magic on Twitter. If something is new, there’s a much bigger chance of it doing extremely well if you're using Twitter Ads. Therefore, make sure to keep your audience in the loop when you talk about something new and exciting! 4. Chance triumphs in micro-blogging. Practically everyone likes to try their luck to win the lottery/raffles; furthermore, on Twitter, these types of publications are also well received. So, if your business goals fit this type of campaign, don’t hesitate to it to better your ROI! 5. Questions and/or polls: another helpful Twitter tool is in relation to interaction and generating engagement. Any type of general question/poll which requires a response on the user’s part can help to achieve both your business’s objective(s) and to increase your overall brand awareness. 6. A picture is worth more than a thousand words with Twitter Cards: Twitter allows you to integrate more formats than just text with the help Twitter Cards. With Twitter Cards, you can include any kind of necessary information in order to improve engagement or increase the ROI of your Ad. Tweets that have extended formats get 52% more RTs and 313% more interaction.

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